USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > Commemorative biographical encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania : containing sketches of prominent and representative citizens and many of the early Scotch-Irish and German settlers. Pt. 1 > Part 72
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The Dauphin County Bar Association met in the court room at four o'clock on Satur- day afternoon, April 4, 1885. H. Murray Graydon, Esq., was called to the chair and J. M. Lamberton chosen secretary. A com- mittee of five, consisting of Messrs. J. M. Wiestling, Francis Jordan, W. B. Lamber- ton, F. M. Ott and George Kunkel, was ap- pointed to draft resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the meeting relative to the death: of Robert L. Muench, late a member of the association. The following is their report, which was unanimously adopted :
The members of the Dauphin County Bar, convened to testify to the affectionate regard which they ever cherished for their departed friend and brother, Robert L. Muench, Esq .. to give fitting expression to their sincere sorrow for his death, and to pay a just and friendly tribute to his memory, do resolve:
First. That by his death the Bar has lost. a member whose devotion to his profession and long experience in its active practice had won for him a prominence and reputa- tion as a lawyer, distinguished for his in- dustrious and painstaking preparation of his cases, fidelity to his elients in counsel and in trial, and conscientious regard for the responsibilities involved.
Second. That in all our intercourse with him, both in the practice of our profession and in social life, we always found him to be true to his honor, faithful to his friend- ships, and mindful of all the obligations and courtesies of both relations. His genial na- ture and cheerful disposition, exhibited in genuine humor and witty repartee, made his companionship and conversation ever agreeable and attractive.
Third. That in the world of literature Mr. Muench was proficient, and for his general
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knowledge of choice standard authors we justly render our tribute to his memory.
Fourth. As a native and life-long eitizen of this community he was esteemed for his integrity, generosity, honesty of purpose and general good qualities.
Fifth. While lamenting his death we yet recognize it as the dispensation of an All- wise Providenee, who cannot err, and is too beneficent to infliet but for good; and to his wise deeree we submissively and reveren- tially bow, accepting the death of our late associate as another evidence of man's mor- tality and life's uneertainty. It is to all of us a solemn admonition to be always ready for that supreme summons, which, with awful certainty, will call us all from time into eternity.
Sixth. That to the sorrowing household of our deceased brother-bereft by this their great affliction of a loving husband and father -- to his distressed widow and chil- dren, we extend our most profound and sin- eere sympathy and regard. With unques- tioning confidence we commend them to him who is the husband to the widow, the father to the fatherless.
Seventh. That this Bar will attend the funeral in a body, and that a copy of these resolutions be presented to his family, and that the court be requested to order that these proecedings be entered at length upon the proceedings of the court.
Hon. A. J. Herr addressed the meeting as follows :
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Bar: Robert L. Mueneh was my friend and as such I mourn his death. I come to bury him, not to praise him. For the garland of friendship which we lay on his grave should have no artificial flower in it. Time shall not wither its freshness nor steal away its perfume so long as memory shall hold within its golden eells the impress of his de- votion and attachment to his friends. As a friend rather than as a lawyer let him be remembered ; for the friend whose adoption has been tried should be grappled to your soul with hooks of steel. And if there was one trait in his character more pronounced than another, it was his steady, sturdy, ro- bust friendship. When he professed it you might be sure that its roots entwined them- selves about the very fibres of his heart and, like the oak fixed in its native soil, no storm of detraction eould overthrow it. Let that be his epitaph, for it outsounds the elarion
voice of fame! With him the laws of friend- ship were great, austere, eternal, of one web with the laws of nature and of morals. His friendship was a solemn league and cove- nant against time and want and slander and perseeution. It was a bond which death could not destroy, only sanctify, while his instinets taught him that the man who was worthy of that title was erowned above bis fellows and bore the signet seal of uncom- mon royalty. This nature was intense, not being but strong, liking and dis- liking with no negative foree, but with the energy of his own positive char- acter. Bold, blunt and brave when he thought he was right, he was so open and straightforward that from the neces- sity of his moral constitution he hated hypocrisy and seorned sham, never fawning upon power or eringing before wealth, be- eause the hinges of his kuees were not oily enough to bend in syeophaney. There was no difficulty in discovering on which side of the question he was, for he would pro- elaim himself without stopping to count the .eost or waiting to see whether his views were popular. What he felt was the right of the matter that he would maintain and contend for, and his word, when given, was as saered as his oath. He wore his heart upon his sleeve and with the simplieity of a child he would let you read his inmost thoughts with no wish even to disguise them. These rare and sterling traits of character won for him and retained for him through life many true friends, and now, as we pay the last tribute of respect and esteem to him, is there one here who cannot bear testimony, tender and affectionate testimony, that he was greatly loved as a staunch friend, a good eitizen and an honest man? In his pro- fessional eareer he never aspired to be a leader. He was modest in the judgment he passed upon himself and never overrated his own aequirements. No unseemly vanity prevented him from seeking advice or so- lieiting counsel, and when doubt and per- plexity eneumbered his way he would not hesitate to dismiss the natural pride of in- telleet and lay under contribution the larger knowledge of some of his fellow-mem- bers, for he was always sensitively anxious to leave nothing undone to protect, defend and secure the rights of his clients. He was a laborious worker in gathering his facts and always eame to the trial of the cause with a thorough mastery of its history. In
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the presentation of his views he was plain, logical, exact, with no rhetorical embellish- ment or ornamentation of language, aiming to convince the reason of the jury rather than to excite their imagination. If he was not a brilliant orator, he was an earnest ad- vocate at least, and kept faithful watch and word of his client's interests. He possessed a fine literary taste and a discriminating appreciation of art. While he was more or less familiar with the ancient classics, Eng- lish literature had special charms for him and he took peculiar delight in wandering through its rich and varied domain, gather- ing here and there apt quotations and beau- tiful thoughts from Shakespeare, Dryden, Milton and other worthies with which he would adorn his conversation in the inti- mate intercourse of his friends and com- panions. But the finger of God touched him and he sleeps in that quiet haven to which we are all drifting-drifting like autumn leaves on the bosom of a flood. Before man his days are as grass. As a flower of the field, as he flourisheth; the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the placo thereof shall know it no more! Never again will his voice resound within these walls. Never again will his well-known form pass in and out among us, tall, stately and dignified. He is gone! and silenee comes to give us praise! What does it all mean ? What do our eager struggles, our petty rivalries, our little jealousies, our hon- orable ambition or our lawful contests for fame or wealth or distinetion-what do all these end in? Silence-darkness-six feet of mother earth and that is all. Yes! that is all, unless one be wise and learn the lesson, each for himself, that this earth is but a nursery from which we may be trans- planted to a garden where immorality shal! fill up and round out every faculty of the soul so as to be in perfect and everlasting harmony with the Divine will.
At the same meeting Mr. F. K. Boas spoke as follows: "I have known our friend and brother, Robert L. Muench, from his childhood until hisdeath yesterday. I was his near neighbor for upwards of twenty years. We were close friends. I rejoice in the permission given me in saying that he was an affectionate son, husband and father, and in all the elements that make a gentle- man the peer of either of us. In the pro- fession I found him courteous and kind. While true as steel to the interests of his
client, he ever regarded the rights of others. He has gone with the great majority to the untried realities of another and I trust a better world, leaving the priceless legacy of a blameless life and untarnished reputation to those who were near and dear to him."
H. Murray Graydon, Esq., followed Mr. Boas with an impressive and touching ad- dress, after which the meeting adjourned.
SNODGRASS, ROBERT, attorney-at-law, Har- risburg, was born in East Hanover township, Dauphin county, Pa., October 12, 1836. Ile is a son of Benjamin and Ann Snodgrass. His grandfather was Rev. James Snodgrass, who was pastor of the old Hanover church for many years. In 1843 Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Snodgrass removed to Shippens- burg, Cumberland county, Pa. Robert re- ceived his primary education there, and was prepared for college at Milnwood Academy, Shade Gap, Huntingdon county, Pa. Ile entered Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., in September, 1854, was admitted to the sopho- more class, and was graduated with honor in the class of 1857.
Mr. Snodgrass taught in private families in Maryland and Virginia for two years. In the spring of 1859 he removed to Moorefield, Va., now West Virginia. In the fall of 1860 he was appointed deputy clerk of the county court of Hardy county, which position he filled until the spring of 1862. In the mean- time he read law under the direction of J. W. F. Allen, then judge of the Circuit Court of Hardy county. In consequence of the war of the Rebellion he found it impossible for him to remain in the South. He came to Harrisburg in April, 1862, and immedi- ately entered as student at law with J. W. Simonton, now judge. Ile was admitted to the bar of Dauphin county, May 5, 1863, and has since been continuously in active practice.
Robert Snodgrass was United States com- missioner from January, 1867, to November, 1870; prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, for the Middle district, from November, 1870, to January, 1882; and deputy attorney general from that date to May, ISS7. Since that time he has been en- gaged exclusively in the practice of law.
Mr. Snodgrass was made president of the Board of Trade of Harrisburg in February, 1893. He is one of the organizers, and the president of the Hickok Manufacturing Com- pany, and has served as attorney of the cor-
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poration. He is a member of the Masonic order. In politics he is a Republican. He is president of the board of trustees of the Pine Street Presbyterian church.
- STRANAHAN, JAMES A., attorney-at-law, was born in Philadelphia, March 7, 1839. He is a son of Andrew and Eliza (Holliday) Stranahan, both natives of county Down, Ireland, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. They came to America about 1820 and remained in Philadelphia until 1851, when they re- moved to Mercer county, where they made their home. They were engaged in agricul- tural pursuits, and were honored residents of the county. The father died in 1869, aged eighty years; the mother still lives, at the advanced age of ninety-six years, resid- ing in Mercer county. They were married in Philadelphia, and to them were born four children, three sons and a daughter. The daughter died in infancy. The sons are: Andrew, James A. and Robert. An- drew and Robert still live on the old home- stead in Mercer county. James A. received his primary education in the public schools of Philadelphia. When twelve years old he removed with his parents to Mercer county, where he completed his education in the township common schools, Mercer Union School and Westminster College, at New Wilmington, Pa., and was graduated at the latter institution. He began the study of law with Hon. John Trunkey, late justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the Mercer county bar in 1864, where he practiced until 1891, when he was appointed deputy attorney general by Governor Pattison, and filled this office for four years with much credit to himself and the entire State. While acting as dep- uty attorney general that department, from 1891 to 1895, was engaged in the settlement of complicated legal questions arising under the revenue laws of the Commonwealth, and he had to contend with the leading lawyers of the State, who were counsel for the cor- porations. Since his retirement from active practice at the Dauphin county bar he has been consulted in many prominent cases. The most noted was the mandamus proceed- ings against the secretary of the Common- wealth to test the constitutionality of the act of Assembly of 1895, as applied to the ques- tion of limited voting-whether a voter could be restricted to voting for six judges when seven were to be elected to the Supe-
rior Court. Although the decision was ad- verse to him in the court below he carried the case to the Supreme Court and had the decision of the lower court reversed, and thus established the principal of limited voting under the Constitution in Pennsyl- vania. From 1851 to 1864 he was engaged in work on his father's farm, attending school in the winter months. In 1864 he enlisted as a private in company HI, Sceond battalion, six months' Pennsylvania volun- teers, and was mustered in as second lieu- tenant, and occupied the position of post ad- jutant at Cumberland, Md., during his term of service under Maj. Herman Kretz, now superintendent of the mint at Philadelphia, who was provost marshal at Cumberland at that time. He was mustered out at the ex- piration of his term of service, and finally discharged at Pittsburgh, Pa. He returned to Mercer and resumed the study of law. He was elected to the Legislature in 1873, and represented Mercer county one term. He was chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee in 1894. In political views he is a Democrat, and an active and influential worker in the party. Mr. Strana- han has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Mary E. Robinson, to whom he was married in Mercer county May 14, 1865. She was a daughter of Rev. William M. Robinson, pastor of the Second Presbyterian church of Mercer, and Eliza (Robinson) Rob- inson. To them was born one child, Charles, who died in infancy. Mrs. Stranaban died March 31, 1868. In his second marriage, which took place at Hartstown, Crawford county, Pa., February 25, 1874, he was united to Miss Elizabeth Ewing, daughter of Benoni and Mary Ewing, a native of Crawford county, Pa. They have one child, Mary E., born May 6, 1876. Mr. Stranahan, wife and daughter are members of the Second Pres- byterian church of Mercer. Mr. Stranahan conducts a general law practice in Harris- burg and enjoys a large, growing and lucra- tive business.
MCCARRELL, SAMUEL J. M., attorney-at- law, was born in Buffalo township. Wash- ington county, Pa. When a lad he attended the common schools during the winter months. and worked on a farm in summer time. When old enough he went to the neighboring town of Claysville, to check in his uncle's store. While thus engaged. he prepared himself for a course in college, and
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in 1860 entered Washington College, from which institution he was graduated in 1864 as first honor man of his class. The follow- ing nine months he taught school as as- sistant principal of Linsley Institute, at Wheeling, W. Va. Being an ambitious young man, he spent his spare hours read- ing law with a Mr. McKennan, of Wheeling. In August, of 1865, Mr. McCarrell moved to Harrisburg, where he completed his study of law with Hon. David Fleming. He was admitted to practice at the Dauphin county bar in November, 1866, and shortly there- after entered into partnership with his pre- ceptor under the firm name of Fleming & McCarrell. At the death of Mr. Fleming, the vast practice was continued by Mr. Me- Carrell, who to-day enjoys the lucrative re- sults of his earnest labors. As a politician he ranks high, having served the Republi- can party in various ways. For two terms, between the years 1881-1887, le ably dis- charged the onerous duties of district attor- ney for Dauphin county. In 1888 he was elected and served as a delegate to the Re- publican National Convention which nomi- nated Benjamin Harrison for President of the United States. Mr. McCarrell was nomi- nated by acclamation for State senator in 1892, and was elected by an unusually large majority. During his entire term he has figured on most of the important eom- mittees, and all of his speeches have been accorded the deference due to the utterances of a gentleman of highest attainments and renown.
---. YOUNG, JOHN WESLEY, lawyer, son of Josiah Carothers and Mary (Kinter) Young, was born October 11, 1846, at Rockville, Dauphin county, Pa. He was educated in the public schools of Harrisburg, read law in the office of David Fleming, and was ad- mitted to the Dauphin county bar January 21, 1868. From 1871 to 1874 he was elerk to the county commissioners, and from 1877 to 1883 solicitor of the county of Dauphin. He was chosen as a member of the board of school control in 1876; was president of that body from 1877 to 1882 continuously, and in 1886 was elected secretary of the same. He was a member of Robert Burns Lodge, No. 64, F. & A. M., of Harrisburg, in which he was past master, and also a member of Lodge No. 68, 1. O. O. F. He was married, No- vember 1, 1871, to Miss Carrie M. Peters, daughter of Benjamin S. Peters, of Harris-
burg. Their children were: Clara P. and B. Frank. In politics Mr. Young was a Repub- lican, and attended the Zion Lutheran church, in which he was formerly a deacon.
HARGEST, THOMAS S., attorney-at-law, was born in Baltimore county, Md., November 24, 1846, son of William E. and Rachel (Taylor) Hargest, both natives of Maryland, and of English ancestry. His boyhood days were spent in Baltimore eity and Bal- timore county, where he received but an ordinary common school education. His attendance at school stopped at the age of fourteen years, when he was removed with his parents to Wilmington, Del. From thence forward he was put to work in the market gardens of his father, raising and preparing vegetables for the market. In the winter of 1861-62 he was brought with his parents to Harrisburg, and continued at work in the truek patches on one of the farms now embraced in the castern portion of the eity, and on part of which his resi- denee now stands. In the autumn of 1863, after the retreat of General Milroy from Winchester, Va., and the raid of the rebel army into Pennsylvania, when but seven- teen years old, having obtained military transportation for thirty-two men, which he mustered for the purpose, he took them to Washington, and entered the army as a wagon master. At Charleston, W. Va., he was transportation elerk in the depot quar- termaster's office. The fall and winter of 1864 found him at Martinsburg, W. Va., as an assistant brigade wagon master, furnish- ing supplies to Sheridan's army, then occu- pying the Shenandoah Valley, as far up as Strasburg, from the military depot at Mar- tinsburg. After the end of open hostilities, he was discharged from the service at Ste- phenson's Station, Frederick county, Va. He then went to Winchester, Va., and there be- gan the study of the law, the rudiments of classies and general literature, investing all his savings and earnings in books. He had no preceptor. On August 6, 1867, after a personal examination before two of the circuit court judges, the venerable Richard Parker, who presided at the trial of John Brown and his compatriots and sentenced them to be hung for their misguided treason against the State in attempting the forcible emancipation of the slaves, and Judge John T. Harris, who afterwards, for several terms, represented the Virginia Valley of the Shon-
Thos . Hargest
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andoah in Congress, he began the practice of his profession at Winchester, Va.
In 1868 he was appointed Common- wealth's attorney for the county of Shen- andoah, in place of Hon. Mark Bird, who, though elected by the people of his county, was incapacitated by the fourteenth amend- ment to the Constitution of the United States. Mr. Hargest made him his deputy, and gave him the fees and emoluments of the office. After the retirement of Judge John T. Harris, under the provisions of the fourteenth amendment, he was appointed, early in 1869, his successor as judge of the Twelfth judicial circuit of Virginia, by the then military governor of the State, the la- mented Gen. E. R. S. Canby, who was lured to a peace conference with the Indians, and treacherously murdered by the notorious Indian chief, Captain Jack. He served as judge of the Twelfth judicial circuit of Virginia, and on the District Court of Ap- peals, until the admission of the State to representation in Congress, when he, with all the other judges of the State, was legis- lated off the bench by the adoption of the new Constitution. He resumed practice at Winchester, remaining there until the death of his father, which occurred in the fall of 1872, when he removed to Harrisburg. In 1876 he was elected city solicitor of the city of Harrisburg, and continued in office by re-election until 1890, when he retired from office and returned to general practice. After leaving office lie was engaged as special counsel for the city in the important litigation with the passenger railway com- panies, which embraced a number of suits in equity, involving the rights of the city over its streets as against the companies. These he mainly conducted to a successful termina- tion, when the city's sovereignty over the streets was yielded. Judge Hargest was married, at Winchester, Va., April 3, 1867, to Virginia Dieffenderfer, a native of Vir- ginia, daughter of William and Harriet Dieffenderfer, both natives of that State, and of German ancestry. To this union were born two children : William M. and Ione Leila, wife of E. L. King, attorney-at- law, of Harrisburg. Mrs. Hargest died at Harrisburg, August 13, 1886. In polities Judge Hargest has always been a consistent Republican. The parents of Judge Ilargest had born to them seven children, but three of whom are now living : Thomas S., John J., residing in the northern part of the city,
and Jefferson S., of Susquehanna township. a short distance above the city, both of whom are agriculturalists.
- McPHERSON, JOHN BAYARD, was born No- vember 5, 1846, at Harrisburg, Pa. He re- ceived his early education at the Harrisburg Academy and in the schools of Sidney, Ohio, where he resided from 1858 to 1862; he en- tered Princeton College in August, 1862, from which institution he graduated in 1866. He studied law with John Hanna Briggs, in Harrisburg, and with Scammon, McCagg & Fuller, in Chicago, and was admitted to the Dauphin county bar in January, 1870: he was elected district attorney in 1874 and served during the years 1875, 1876, 1877. A portion of the time he was in law partner- ship with Hon. Wayne MaeVeagh, and af- terwards with Lyman D. Gilbert. In Feb- ruary, 1882, he was appointed by Governor Hoyt to fill a vacancy in the office of addi- tional law judge of the Twelfth judicial dis- trict, caused by the resignation of Judge Henderson, and the consequent promotion of Judge Simonton to the president judge- ship, and, in November, 1882, he was elected without opposition to the same place. Judge McPherson married, December 30, 1879, Annie Cochran Patterson, daughter of Judge David W. Patterson and Mary Slaymaker, of Lancaster, Pa.
- NEAD. BENJAMIN MATTHIAS, comes of good old Pennsylvania German stock. He is the eldest son of Benjamin Franklin Nead and Ellen Wunderlich Nead, and the grand- son of Matthias Nead, who over half a cen- tury ago was prominently identified with the political and business history of Frank- lin county. The father, Benjamin Franklin Nead, was for upwards of forty years actively engaged in business in the borough of Cham- bersburg, for the major portion of the time being one of the firm of Wunderlich & Nead, which was among the pioneers in the old time forwarding and commission business. Franklin Nead, as he was commonly called, and Daniel K. Wunderlich, the other mem- ber of the firm and an uncle of Benjamin M., were prominent among that little coterie of enterprising and active business men, to whom belong the credit of having built p the little village of Chambersburg from an ordinary country town into the enterprising and thriving borough which it was when the blight of the Civil war fell upon it.
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