USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 42
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It was a very imposing demonstration, and even at this day it would not be easy to surpass it, especially upon such short notice. It was almost two miles in length. After parading the city the people gathered in a great mass meeting in front of Brown's Hotel, where a patriotic address was delivered by Hon. John P. Vincent. Then the "Star Sisters" sang the "Star Spangled Banner." In passing it is only proper to state that the Star sisters were Misses Juvenelia and Celestia Tinker, concert singers, and the former became known to recent Erie citizens as Mrs. Juvia C. Hull, who was a teacher of music for a time.
The celebration was not over with the parade. Indeed it was only well begun. The evening witnessed a most gorgeous and impress- ive illumination. In those days lighting by electricity was not even dreamed of. Gas was a luxury, kerosene oil new and expensive, and the principle dependence was the tallow candle, "sixes" or "eights," ac- cording to the length of the poor people's purse. But whether gas, oil or tallow dip. there was illumination and everyone lighted up-that is to say, every patriotic citizen in Erie, whether on the main streets or on the obscure thoroughfares. There were a few, it has been said, who did not and had cause to regret it-the spirit of the times was not of a character that would overlook such an evidence of disinterestedness in what was going on.
From the corner of State street and North Park Row, the heart of the city then. the scene was imposing. Someone had carried out a plan by which the steeple of the First Presbyterian church was illuminated to
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the top, while numerous transparencies containing portraits of Grant and Lincoln and patriotic sentiments were displayed.
At the same time all the bells in the city were rung; the cannon in front of the market house boomed forth its salutes, and twenty loco- motives in the round house at Holland street, steamed up for the pur- pose, contributed to the din with their whistles all blowing in concert. Mehl's band played from the balcony of Brown's Hotel, and there was a torchlight procession and fireworks.
To top off the celebration a huge pile of combustibles was placed in the centre of State street and North Park row and ignited, forming a tremendous bonfire. Again the bells rang, the cannon boomed, the peo- ple cheered, songs were sung and midnight came before the exercises began to lag.
It was the sudden reaction from the long period of care and anxiety, of doubt and fear scarcely tempered by hope, of grief and sorrow and of constant toil. The people were delirious with joy, and some of them- perhaps many of them-hysterical in their rejoicing. There was a mar- velous state of unanimity in the minds of the populace, however, else such a celebration in so brief a period for preparation could not have been accomplished. The joy of that event almost repaid the years of anxiety that had preceded-that is to those who had been workers at home. To those who went out it was different. Many slept under the turf of some Virginia or Georgia battle field. They yielded up their lives to make such a rejoicing possible.
In the summer time the Erie soldier boys returned. They came not all at once. Some of the regiments did not come as an organization, be- cause, toward the end of the war, what with recruiting and transfers, most of the company organizations lost the distinction they had when they went out, of being from particular sections. In some instances the soldiers straggled in in small groups, so that the dates of the arrival home of the Erie regiments could not all be recorded. But the circumstances only tended to lengthen out the welcome. By the end of the summer all the survivors had returned, and the soldier boys in the period of business activity that then prevailed quickly resumed the occupations of peace, and the hardships of their campaigning existed in memory, the subjects of many a tale as they gathered around the evening lamp or companied with their comrades of the war.
Nor were they and their services to their country forgotten. Erie was a trifle tardy in providing a permanent manifestation of appreciation of the services rendered by the brave soldier boys. But these services were not lost to mind. It was not until the beginning of the decade of the seventies that a movement was organized to provide a suitable monti- ment for the soldiers and sailors of Erie county who had lost their lives in the Civil War. It proved a somewhat difficult undertaking. It would
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undoubtedly have been more easily accomplished if it had been entered upon earlier. But the business was taken in hand by a committee of ladies possessed of admirable tact, of tireless energy and unswerving zeal. They were Mrs. Isaac Moorhead, Miss Sarah Reed and Miss Helen Ball. Their labors were unremitting. By solicitation, by public appeal and by various expedients the citizens were interested. Isaac Moorhead, Esq., a talented writer, did much through the columns of the newspapers for the good of the cause.
In 1872 a fund of $10,000 had been raised by the ladies. With this amount it was learned a suitable monument could be purchased, and contracts were then made. The most notable sculptor of the time was Martin Milmore. His design of a soldier and sailor of heroic size was accepted, and a casting in bronze was made by the Ames Company of Chicopee, Mass. The pedestal of granite, twelve feet high and eight feet square, was made at Hallowell, Maine. The fund obtained was not sufficient, however, for the erection of the monument, and the city con- tributed $500, to pay for the foundation. It stands in the east front of the West Park, midway between North and South Park Row.
The group represents a soldier and sailor of the period of the Civil War. The left-hand figure, representing the army, is a soldier of the infantry, holding in his right hand the flag of the Union, and in his left a musket en traile ; on the right, representing the navy, stands a sailor with a cutlass in his right hand, the point upon the deck, with his left hand laid upon his right and a foot upon a coil of rope, the position of peace after the conflict is over. On the front of the pedestal, facing east, is the in- scription, "In memory of the soldiers and sailors from Erie county who gave their lives to save the Union." On the panel of the west face of the pedestal, Lincoln's immortal words, from his classical Gettysburg address, "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom ; and the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
It was never dedicated. When it had been finished, in 1872, and dedication was talked of, the treasurer of the committee of ladies was ill, and there was a postponement, and later it was abandoned. There was criticism of all sorts. Erie has always been notable in respect to its partisanship. The monument was no exception. Before the location was definitely agreed upon there was opposition by one faction to placing it in the park, because, it was said, it would be too suggestive of a ceme- tery. On the other hand there were those who advocated placing it in the centre of State street. When it was finished the criticism was that it was not enough for the money that had been spent upon it; and there were some who presumed to find fault with the splendid allegorical group which constitutes the chief feature of the monument. All these criticisms and objections have long since passed, and the people accept the monu-
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ment as a masterpiece of a master sculptor. The verdict today is in favor of the devoted ladies who made the monument possible. But then they were hurt. Their work done, the ladies sensitively shrank from the publicity that would have attended a formal dedication, so that it has had a dedication by the people, without form, who long ago accepted it and have come at length to appreciate the fact that in that beautiful allegorical group Erie possesses something to be prized. If in the future Erie shall decide upon erecting a costlier and more imposing base, and shall locate it in the middle of State street, no finer work of statuary for its embellishment could be desired than Milmore's Army and Navy.
Before the story of the Civil War is closed it would not he improper to introduce the echo of it which came to Erie, and imparted to the city for a time an aspect reminiscent of what had been in the south. This was caused by the quartering in this city of a body of soldiers. It was Co. M, United States Artillery, Captain Mendenhall, and the force was barracked in the Park Hotel. This hospice stood on the corner of South Park Row and Peach street, where the City Hall now stands. It was a brick building two stories in height of modest architectural style and was unoccupied until the soldiers came. The reason for their presence in Erie was that the Government desired to preserve neutrality with the British province of Canada which was in danger of being broken by the Fenians. The Fenian Brotherhood was the name given to an organiza- tion of men who desired to bring about political liberty in Ireland, and the leaders in the United States believed the cause would be helped by making military raids across the border into Canada and promoting up- risings among the Irishmen who lived in Canada. Many of the Fenians were veteran soldiers; there had been not a few Irish brigades in the Union Army, and when the Civil War was over, these, all in sympathy with the cause of Irish liberation had become identified with the Fenian Brotherhood, which was itself a quasi military organization. One June day in 1866, a large body of Fenians assembled secretly in Buffalo, and succeeded in crossing the Niagara River and taking possession of Fort Erie. A force of Canadian volunteers headed by the Queen's Own, a Toronto regiment, marched against them and the opposing forces came together at Limestone Ridge. There was a battle. The Canadians gave way. It was a Fenian victory. But the Michigan had slipped in behind, and the Fenians were in a trap. They could not get back and reinforce- ments could not reach them. So they surrendered at discretion-not to the Canadians, but to Uncle Sam. It ought to have been the end of the foolishness but it was not. There were reasons to believe that other raids were in contemplation. Therefore the presence of Captain Men- denhall's force in Erie.
In 1866 Richard F. Gaggin was collector of customs at this port, and one day he received a communication from the Secretary of the Treas-
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ury in which there was enclosed a letter from the Secretary of State in: which there was, in turn, a letter from the British minister enclosed. The letter of Mr. Gaggins' chief was to inform him that the Secretary of State had addressed the letter enclosed to the Secretary of the Treas- ury and the Secretary of State's letter informed the Secretary of the Treasury that the letter enclosed had been received from the British minister, and the British minister's note was to the effect that the govern- ment at Ottawa had been informed that a quantity of arms had been sent to Erie and were stored at a place on State street where they were await- ing shipment to Canada. The collector of customs as the ranking repre- sentative of the United States government in Erie was thus up against Fenianism.
What was he to do?
He communicated with Capt. Mendenhall, but the captain was at sea, figuratively speaking. Then the collector did some thinking. Doubt- less there was reason for the statement that the arms were secreted in Erie, and also that they were in a State street place. This was probably true, for the Canadian secret service men were efficient and must have located the contraband goods. But there were many places on State street even in those days and not a few places (stores or warehouses), where arms might be stored. Which of them should he visit, and if he called upon the wrong one in his search might there not be an alarm raised that would defeat his purpose? These were some of the considerations that presented themselves.
Now at that time there was a storehouse directly opposite the Custom House on State street occupied as an auction and commission house by a Mr. Cronin. It would seem to be the last place that should be chosen as a place for the storage of goods contraband of law, and likewise the last place to be suspected. It was, however, the first place that Mr. Gaggin visited, and almost the first objects that met his eye were a number of packing cases rather more than four feet long that had lately been re- ceived.
"Hallo, Cronin; what have you here?" said the collector, kicking the lower box of the pile.
"I don't know," said Cronin. "They were shipped to me on con- signment to await the arrival of the owner."
"Do they contain guns?" was asked.
"I don't know," was Mr. Cronin's reply.
That was before the days of the telephone. It was also before the days of the district telegraph and the messenger boy in the uniform. The best way to convey a message and the surest, was to deliver it one's self.
"I've found your guns," said Mr. Gaggin to Capt. Mendenhall.
"At Cronin's."
"Where?"
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The importance and dignity of the artillery captain at once swelled to the proportion becoming the added responsibility of his office. With all the pomp and circumstance that appertains to the military, Company M, headed by its captain, proceeded to Cronin's stronghold and captured the numerous stand of arms it contained and then as conquering heroes re- turned with them to the barracks where the company was garrisoned.
It was the end of the Fenian excitement in Erie. It was the end like- wise of the same excitement anywhere along the lake frontier.
CHAPTER XXXIII .- THE BENCH AND BAR.
WHEN THE COURT WAS ITINERANT .- THE FIRST OF THE LAWYERS .-- PROMINENT PART IN AFFAIRS BY MEMBERS OF THE BAR.
Although Erie county was in 1800, along with seven others, created separate counties, this county was not at once equipped with the full dig- nity of a county, nor did that distinction come to it until three years later. Even then Erie's bench was of the peripatetic order, as was necessary in those early times. It was so with everything pertaining to the county that was of the professional order, the physicians coming nearest to being an exception but even they were of the order of travelers, the rides of some being almost co-extensive with the county itself. The religious wants were ministered to by missionaries, and the administration of justice was provided for upon the same plan. So it was that the courts traveled about, the judges with their assistants and the lawyers. And it was no sinecure the judges then held. Traveling was not by Pullman car at the time of the erection of the county of Erie. The way through the wilder- ness was by blind trail. Sometimes the judge might proceed on horse- back; more of his journey was on foot; a portion was by canoe. But it was a devious course, threaded through the mazes of the forest from place to place, and a toilsome undertaking as well, and those pioneer judges merit the applause of the people of today for the zeal with which they applied themselves to the duty before them and the fidelity with which they discharged their trusts. Nor are the attorneys who followed the court from place to place, less deserving of praise, themselves officers of the court. Some of these practitioners were learned and ac- complished, with abilities fitting them to fill he highest positions in the state and nation. Their work is done; their career is closed; but some of their names are inscribed in the records of the highest judicatories of the land, and their recorded opinions adorn a number of the reports of courts of the highest resort of the state and nation. Mention made of the names of Henry Baldwin, William Wilkins, the Fosters, the Wallaces. the Farreleys, Walter Forward, Ralph Marlin, Daniel Agnew, John Banks, John J. Pearson, Dudley Marvin, John Galbraith, Fetterman, J. Stuart Riddle, David Derrickson, James Thompson, John H. Walker, Elijah Babbitt and Thomas H. Sill will arouse a train of thought and re- vive memories of a cluster of brilliant men whose names are imperishably
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connected with the administration of justice during the last century, while the scales of justice were held with unswerving fidelity by judges of whom may be mentioned with unalloyed satisfaction the names of Alexander Addison, Jesse Moore, Henry Shippen, Nathaniel B. Eldred, James Thompson, Gayford Church, John Galbraith, and Daniel Agnew, and others, contemporaries of the present generation, who may be introduced later in this chapter.
At the beginning of the last century, and, indeed, for the first fifty years, the judges were appointed by the governors of the Commonwealth and their service in the earliest years was by appointment on circuit. When Erie first became a county the settlement of this entire region was too sparse to warrant appointments for sessions of court in the several counties, so that for the first three years after the creation of the coun- ties, Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Venango and Warren were provisionally made one county, which was part of the Fifth Judicial district, with Meadville as the seat of justice, and David Clark as judge. This ar- rangement obtained until. 1803, when the Sixth Judicial district was established, including Erie, Crawford, Mercer, Butler and Beaver coun- ties, and courts were directed for each county. Hon. Jesse Moore was appointed judge for the district, holding his first court at Erie on April 5. 1803 (and it was the first court held in Erie county) and he filled the position until his death in 1825.
Meanwhile Beaver and Butler were detached, and later Mercer. On Judge Moore's death in 1825, Hon. Henry Shippen of Huntingdon was appointed president judge and served until his death in 1839. After- wards Venango was added, and so continued until about 1849 and War- ren was added in 1840. In 1870 Crawford was detached and Elk added, the district consisting of Erie, Warren and Elk until the constitution of 1873 made Erie alone the Sixth Judicial district. From 1839 to 1843 Hon. N. B. Eldred, born in Orange county, N. Y., and died in 1867, was president judge. From 1843 to 1851, Hon. Gaylord Church was presi- dent judge. He was born in Oswego in 1811 and died in 1869. Hon. John Galbraith, born in Huntingdon county in 1794, died June 15, 1860, was judge from 1851 to 1860. That year, 1860, after a brief term of Hon. Rasselas Brown of Warren, born in Jefferson county, N. Y., Sep- tember 10, 1812, died August 23, 1895, Hon. S. P. Johnson of Warren was elected in 1860 for ten years, to be in turn succeeded by Hon. Lan- sing D. Wetmore of Warren, born in Warren county in 1818. He was followed by Hon. John P. Vincent, born December 2, 1817, in Waterford, died March 11, 1909, to be succeeded in 1877 by Hon. William A. Gal- braith, born in Franklin in May, 1823, died 1898 and he by Hon. Frank Gunnison in 1887, and he by Hon. Emory A. Walling in 1897, who hav- ing been re-elected in 1906, is now serving his second term. From 1839 to 1845 Hon. James Thompson was district judge, and from 1856 to 1866 Hon. David Derrickson born in Cumberland county in 1798, died
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August 13, 1884, was additional law judge, succeeded in 1866 by Hon. John P. Vincent, who served until 1874, when he became president judge.
The list of Erie's associate judges, embracing a number of noted men, is as follows: John Kelso of Erie in 1803 and 1804, was also gen- eral in the war of 1812, state commissioner of sales in 1802, 1803 and 1810, and clerk of the courts 1804 to 1809 and in 1819; Samuel Smith of Millcreek from 1803 to 1805, was also a member of Congress from 1805 to 1808; William Bell of Erie from 1805 to 1814; John Vincent of Waterford from 1805 to 1840; was also first county commissioner of Erie for 1803 and 1804; Wilson Smith of Waterford, 1814 to 1820, was also sheriff of Erie county 1803-1805, a member of Assembly in 1804, 1808 and 1819, Senator from 1809 to 1816 and presidential elector in 1832; John Grubb of Millcreek from 1820 to 1841, was also com- mander of state troops guarding surveyors who laid out Erie in 1795, and county commissioner 1813 to 1815; John Brawley of North East from 1840 to 1850, was also collector of the port of Erie; Myron Hutchinson of Girard from 1841 to 1851 was also justice of the peace and postmaster of Girard; Joseph M. Sterrett of Erie from 1850 to 1856, was also Senator from 1837 to 1841 and postmaster of Erie from 1861 to 1869: James Miles of Girard, from 1851 to 1856, was also director of the Cleveland & Erie Railroad in 1855; Samuel Hutchins of Waterford, from 1856 to 1861, was also a member of the Assembly in 1839 and 1840; John Greer of North East, from 1856 to 1866, was also presidential elector in 1860; William Cross of Springfield, from 1861 to 1866; Hollis King of Corry from 1866 to 1871; William Benson of Waterford, from 1866 to 1876; Allen A. Craig of Erie, from 1871 to 1876, was also sheriff of Erie county from 1861 to 1864 and paymaster in the United States army in 1864 and 1865.
The first mentioned were closely connected with the settlement of the county. The ten last named are associated with its development. Each in his turn helped to give character and authority to the bench, and aided in the considerate dispatch of its business, more especially out- side of the trial and civil cases. The provisions of the constitution of 1873, dispensing with the associate judges, were accepted with grave doubts as to its expediency. There are no survivors of this notable line of judges, and the last who served as such in Erie, Judges Benson and Craig, were admitted as attorneys of the Erie bar on the expiration of their terms in 1876. Their admission was an enduring testimonial of the regard in which both were held by the president judge and the bar with whom each of them had been officially connected.
The judicial duties of the Erie district were enormous from the start. To preside in five counties at the quarterly term of court, together with the intervening special courts, involved much of labor. So observable was the accumulating business with the vast increase of population and
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the augmentation of property with the various court business thus caused, that in 1856 a new law judge was authorized to aid in the responsible duties of the courts of the Sixth district. It was in the discharge of these duties that the abilities and capabilities for work of David Derrick- son, elected in 1856, and of his successor, John P. Vincent, elected in 1866, became so evident, while the labors of S. P. Johnson, elected presi- dent judge in 1860, and of his successor L. D. Wetmore, elected in 1870, were equally laborious, augmented as they were by the important questions growing out of the discovery of oil. All the subtleties they involved were in addition to the settlement of confused titles of the oil regions, which the mineral development made so valuable, and their pos- session so much desired. The duties of their successors, Judge Gal- braith, elected in 1876, Judge Gunnison, elected in 1886, and Judge Wall- ing, elected in 1896, and again in 1906, though restricted to Erie county alone, afforded scope for the industry, ability and executive capability which enabled each in turn to fill his position with so much acceptability.
Judge Wetmore was assigned under the new constitution to the War- ren district and Judge Vincent to Erie. Judge Johnson resumed his prac- tice at the bar, which was continued until his death. Judge Vincent also, upon the expiration of his term, returned to the practice of his profession, in the fulness of his experience furnishing, by his faithful attention to his duties and his industry up almost to the time of his death at more than ninety years, an example worthy of imitation by the younger mem- bers of the bar. Judges Galbraith and Gunnison also returned to the practice of the law, the latter with characteristic industry and success. The people of Erie testified their confidence in Judge Walling when they chose, in 1906, to continue him in office for a second term, a choice which there can be no doubt was quite agreeable to the members of the bar. The late James Sill says of him: "To a quickness of perception and almost instinctive grasp of the strong points of the case, Judge Walling adds a courtesy of manner and respect for the rights of all which makes the practice of law in his court a pleasure. * * Upon the many grave questions covering the conflicting interests of corporations, and the nice points of law now so frequent, especially in the consideration of in- junctions, now so common, Judge Walling has exhibited keen discern- ment, with the satisfaction of having very few of his decisions reversed"
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