USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. III > Part 10
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took a deep interest in the Homoeopathic Hospital of Pittsburgh, with which he was closely identified for many years. He was also very highly respected by other schools of medicine.
In all that concerned the welfare of Pitts- burgh, Dr. Fulton's interest was deep and sincere and wherever substantial aid would further public progress, it was freely given. Widely but unostentatiously charitable, no good work done in the name of philanthropy or religion appealed to him in vain. In politics he was a Republican, and as a vigi- lant and attentive observer of men and measures, holding sound opinions and lib- eral views, his ideas carried weight among those with whom lie discussed public prob- lems. He affiliated with the Masonic fra- ternity, belonged to numerous clubs and as- sociations and was, from 1879 to the close of his life, a ruling elder in the East Liberty Presbyterian Church. He was also a direc- tor of the Western Theological Seminary. Not long before his death Dr. Fulton suc- ceeded to the office of president of the El- ders Ridge Alumni Association.
A highly intellectual man, of quick per- ceptions and sharp discriminations, Dr. Ful- ton looked the scholar. His high forehead bore the stamp of intense thought and his keen eyes-the eyes of a close observer -- shot through his spectacles glances the searching quality of which was tempered with the glint of humor. His patrician fea- tures were accentuated by closely-cropped moustache and beard and his whole aspect indicated alike the theorist and the ex- ecutant. He was a man of noble impulses and remarkable force of character.
Dr. Fulton married, December 22, 1864, Jennie B., daughter of James and Ruth Ann Nichols, of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and his home life was one of rare beauty and serenity. Mrs. Fulton is one of those rare women who combine with perfect woman- liness and domesticity an unerring judg- ment, traits of the greatest value to her hus- band, to whom she was not alone a charm-
ing companion but a trusted confidante. She was in all respects a truly ideal helpmate to Dr. Fulton, a man to whom the ties of home and family were sacred-the objects of his constant and most loyal devotion. Mrs. Fulton has been a potent factor in Pitts- burgh society and is very active in church and charitable work.
On June 23, 1907, Dr. Fulton died, "full of years and of honors." As the oldest and most widely known physician of the East End, he was deeply and sincerely mourned by all classes of the community. Honor- able in every relation of life and of the highest professional reputation, he was a true Christian gentleman. He was pre- eminently the "Beloved Physician," and in ministering to the needs of the body he never missed an opportunity to minister to the needs of the soul, never forgetting his duty to his divine Master, and all classes of people have testified to his genuine good- ness and loveliness of character. Dr. Ful- ton was very deeply interested in the cause of foreign missions and gave largely of his means to its support.
To comparatively few men has it been given to serve their day and generation as Dr. Henry W. Fulton was privileged to do. In his early manhood he defended on the battle field the integrity of the Union, and his later years were devoted to the advance- ment of science and the relief of suffering humanity. Soldier-scholar-physician- these few words contain both his record and his eulogy.
DODD, Lee Wilson,
Author, Playwright.
The name of Dod or Dodd is of frequent occurrence in American history from colo- nial times down to the present. Many per- sons of this name have rendered distin- guished services to the nation, state or colony, at different times during our his- tory. As early as 1644, Daniel Dod was at Branford, Connecticut ; he had a wife
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Mary, whom he married about 1646, and had children, all baptized at New Haven, June 1, 1651, namely: 1. Mary Dod. 2. Hannah Dod. 3. David Dod, born 1649- 50. 4. Ebenezer Dod, born December II, 1651. 5. A daughter, born March 29, 1653, died soon. 6. Stephen Dod, born February 16, 1655. 7. Samuel Dod, born May 2, 1657. His wife died May 26, 1657, and he died in January, 1666, at Branford, Connec- ticut. All of the sons except Stephen Dod removed to Newark, New Jersey, in 1667 and the following years, where they settled and received grants of land. It seems prob- able that at the death of Daniel Dod, his two eldest children, Mary and Hannah, or Anna, were both married; Mary, married Aaron Blatchley, and she, together with her brothers, Daniel, Ebenezer and Samuel, came to Newark and settled there. Anna, or Hannah, is supposed to have married a Fowler, of Guilford, Connecticut, and to have kept her younger brother Stephen with her, so thus were the children separated.
Samuel Dod, the youngest child of Daniel and Mary, was left motherless at three weeks old, and fatherless at nine years old. He came to Newark, New Jersey, with his elder brothers and sister Mary Dod-Blatch- ley in 1667 or 1668, and at a town meeting held February 13, 1678-79, he then being about twenty-two years old, was admitted as a planter. He was assigned a home lot at the northwest end of the town plot, next to his brother Daniel's lot, on Watsesson, or Watsessing Plain. Samuel Dod had these lands confirmed to him by patent from the proprietors, as we learn from the "Bell in Chancery." In January, 1701-02, he was chosen constable of the town, and his will, dated February 3, 1712-13, proved in 1714, is the earliest will of Dod on record in New Jersey. He died aged about fifty-seven years, and his will names his wife Martha, together with two sons and five daughters, namely: Samuel Dod, Jonathan Dod, Mary Dod, Martha Dod, Rebecca Dod,
Susanna Dod, Hannah Dod, all minors at the time of their father's death.
Levi L. Dodd, a descendant, lived at Franklin, Venango county, Pennsylvania, early in the nineteenth century. He married Julia Parker, who had issue six sons and two daughters-Parker, Thomas Anderson, John H., Levi Axtell, Samuel Calvin Tate, and Cyrus, Amelia and Sarah.
Levi Axtell Dodd was born at Franklin, Pennsylvania. He was an officer in the Civil War, 1861-1865. He was appointed captain of the 169th Pennsylvania Infantry, November 16, 1862 ; honorably mustered out of service, July 25, 1863; appointed lieu- tenant-colonel of the 211th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, September 16, 1864; colonel, April 4, 1865; brevetted brigadier- general of volunteers, April 2, 1865, for gallantry and meritorious service in the assault upon the enemy's works in front of Petersburg, Virginia, and August 4, 1865, was honorably discharged.
Samuel Calvin Tate Dodd, son of Levi L. and Julia (Parker) Dodd, was born February 20, 1836, at Franklin, Venango county, Pennsylvania. He was educated in the local schools of his native town, and attended Jefferson College at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1857. From 1857 to 1859 he studied law at Franklin, Pennsylvania, and was admit- ted to the Pennsylvania bar during the latter year. He practiced law at Franklin from 1859 to 1881 ; then became general solicitor for the Standard Oil Company on January I, 1881 ; organized the Standard Oil Trust in 1882, and continued as attorney for the company until his death. He was a mem- ber of the Constitutional Convention of 1872-73 for Pennsylvania ; was elected as a delegate-at-large from Franklin, Venango county, Pennsylvania, and was an active member in securing a number of amend- ments to that constitution. He was a Dem- ocrat of the anti-Bryan wing on the "Free- Silver Issue" of 1896 and 1900. He was
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the author of "Uses and Abuses of Combi- nations," a pamphlet published in 1888; likewise of a "History of the Standard Oil Company," issued in 1888; also an article on "Trusts," published in the "New York Tribune" in 1890. He wrote "Ten Years of Standard Oil Trust," published in "The Forum," May, 1893; "Aggregated Capital," a pamphlet issued in 1893, and "The Pres- ent Legal Status of Trusts," which ap- peared in the October number, 1893, of the "Harvard Law Review." He died in 1907, in Pinehurst, North Carolina. He married (first) Mary E. Geer, July 12, 1862, at Waterford, Pennsylvania, and married (second) Melvina Eliza Smith, March 8, 1877, at Cambridge, Pennsylvania. She was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, died in 1906, and had issue, among others, a son, of whom more hereafter.
Lee Wilson Dodd, son of Samuel Calvin Tate and Melvina Eliza (Smith) Dodd, was born July 11, 1879, at Franklin, Venango county, Pennsylvania. The family moved to New York City shortly after his birth. He attended private schools in New York City, where he prepared for college, enter- ing the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, from which he graduated as B. S. in the class of 1899. Afterward he studied law at the New York Law School, and graduated therefrom as LL. B. in 1902. He was admitted to the New York bar the same year, and began practice with his father in New York, and continued in law practice about five years, when he gave up the profession for a more congenial career as author and playwright. The first play that he wrote was called "The Return of Eve," produced in 1908 by the Shuberts in New York. He is the author of another play called "Speed," staged 1911 in New York with considerable success. He has written many short stories for magazines, and miscellaneous verses, and in 1906 published a book of poems, "A Modern Alchemist."
He married Marion Roberts Canby,
daughter of Edward T. and Ella A. (Sei- del) Canby, January II, 1907, at Wilming- ton, Delaware. She was born November 23, 1882, at Wilmington, Delaware, and is descended from old Quaker and Pennsyl- vania Dutch ancestry.
Mr. Dodd does not affiliate with any par- ticular church, and is an Independent in politics. He is a member of the Yale and the Lambs clubs of New York City, and of the Elizabethan Club of New Haven, Con- necticut.
WATSON, Richard,
Lawyer, Judge, Banker.
The memory of Judge Richard Watson, is cherished in his home county of Bucks as a great-hearted, public-spirited man, un- spoiled by place or power. He came of a family that had been associated with the affairs of Bucks county almost from its founding.
Thomas Watson, the great-great-great- grandfather of Judge Watson, was born and reared near the border line between Eng- land and Scotland, at High Moor, County Cumberland. He was a son of John and Elizabeth Watson, who were among the earliest converts of George Fox, and be- longed to the great middle class of English commoners. Here Thomas Watson mar- ried, at Cockermouth Friends Meeting, June 14, 1696, Elinor Pearson, of County Westmoreland, and a few years later migrated to Pennsylvania, bringing a certifi- cate from the Friends at Pardsay Crag still in possession of the family of Judge Wat- son. They settled in 1701 in Bristol town- ship, Bucks county, but in 1704 Thomas Watson purchased 400 acres of land in Buckingham, three miles southeast of the present site of Doylestown, being then, to quote the language of a deed of about the same date, "back in the woods." This tract with later additions aggregating practically 1,000 acres was the home of the family for several generations. Thomas Watson be-
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came at once one of the factors in building up Penn's colony in the wilderness. He had received a liberal education for his time, in England, and possessed of some knowledge of surgery and medicine, he undertook to minister to suffering humanity in the wild- erness, and eventually practiced medicine to a considerable extent with marked success, until succeeded by his son whom he edu- cated for that purpose. He was one of the justices of the county court, and several years a member of the Colonial Assembly. His eldest son Thomas was the father of "Jolin Watson, Surveyor," the eccentric genius, widely known in his profession, whose last official service was in assisting Mason and Dixon in locating the line be- tween the provinces of Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Dr. John Watson, second son of Thomas and Elinor (Pearson) Watson, received such medical education as the times afforded, and succeeded his father as a practicing physician. He inherited a por- tion of the Buckingham homestead and acquired a large tract adjoining. A house erected by him in 1721, and devised with a large tract of land to his son Thomas, was long a local landmark, and was torn down the present year. Dr. Watson en- joyed an equal prominence with his father in public affairs. He married (first) Ann Beale, and (second) Sarah Brown. His three children- Joseph, Elizabeth and Thomas, were by his first wife. Of these Elizabeth became the wife of John Fell, of the well-known Bucks county family of that name, and among her children was Anne, who became the wife of Joseph Chapman, and the grandmother of Judge Henry Chapman, one of Judge Watson's predecessors on the bench. Thomas, the youngest son, married Sarah Woolston, and two of his sons were prominent business men of Philadelphia.
Joseph Watson, eldest son of Dr. John and Ann (Beale) Watson, was likewise educated as a physician, and succeeded to
his father's practice. He was several years a member of the Colonial Assembly, county commissioner, 1752-54, and 1763-65; and filled other important positions of trust, prior to the Revolution. He was one of the original members of the County Committee of Safety in 1774-75, but when it became apparent that actual war would result, being a Friend, he retired from active associations with the committee, but the patriot cause had his real sympathy and support within the limits of his conscience. He died in 1796. He married Alice Mitchell, in 1745.
John Watson, only son of Joseph and Alice (Mitchell) Watson, was born August 12, 1746, and died October 23, 1817. He married Mary Hampton, of Wrightstown, in 1772, and their son, John Watson, born August 25, 1774, was the father of Judge Richard Watson. He was a surveyor and scrivener, and his notes and draughts of surveys cover a large part of central Bucks county. He lived for many years at Holi- cong, Buckingham township, removing to Doylestown in 1854, and dying there in 1864. He was a man of scholarly tastes and attainments, and of unusual intellectual ability. He was twice married, (first) in 1795, to Euphemia Ingham, daughter of Jonathan and Anna Ingham, a sister of Hon. Samuel D. Ingham, the eminent legis- lator, congressman and cabinet officer ; and (second) in 1824, Martha Duncan. By the first marriage he had nine children, and by the second two-Martha, who became the wife of George Hart, an eminent Bucks county attorney; and Richard, of whom further.
Judge Richard Watson was born in Buck- ingham township, Bucks county, February 3, 1823. He was educated principally at the Friends' School at Buckingham, in its time a famous institution of learning, hav- ing numbered among its students many who rose to high rank in official and profes- sional life, including at least two chief jus- tices of the Supreme Court. His father's scholarly tastes and his interest in his
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youngest son were, however, a prime factor in forming the tastes of the young student. Choosing the legal profession, he began his preparation therefor at home, and in 1844 entered the office of Charles E. Du Bois, Esq., at Doylestown, as a student-at-law, and was admitted to the Bucks county bar April 29, 1846. He was always a deep, thorough and careful student, aiming always toward a profound knowledge of the prin- ciples and application of the law rather than to oratory and the tricks of the profession, by which in his day, much too often, a ver- dict was obtained. Familiar from his earliest youth with title deeds and other legal papers in his father's office, he natur- ally had a bent towards the practice of law relating to real estate and the settlement of estates. He seldom took any interest in criminal cases, and sought to be rather a counsellor than an advocate. He was never an office seeker, and devoted his energies entirely to the practice of his chosen pro- fession. As a Republican he accepted the empty honor of a nomination for district attorney when the opposing party was so strongly in the majority that there was no possibility of election. On the breaking out of the Civil War, though a consistent mem- ber of the Society of Friends, he did not, like his Revolutionary ancestors, permit a single tenet of his faith to prevent him from offering his services to his country when her trying time of need came. In 1862, when the Emergency Troops were called for, he enlisted as a private in a company of which his brother-in-law, George Hart, was cap- tain, and served the term of his enlistment at Hagerstown, Maryland. He again en- listed on the call of 1863, but while in camp at Harrisburg with his company he was seriously wounded in the thigh by the sup- posed accidental discharge of a musket. He was brought home and was confined to his bed for eleven weeks by the wound. The bullet continued to annoy him at times, and nine years afterwards was removed by a painful operation.
On January 18, 1873, Richard Watson was appointed Additional Law Judge for the Seventh Judicial District, comprising the counties of Bucks and Montgomery, to succeed Hon. Stokes L. Roberts, who had resigned. At the general election in Octo- ber of the same year he was elected to the position for the full term of ten years, and the new State Constitution adopted in 1874 making Bucks county a separate judicial district, he became President Judge thereof. As a judge he acquired the reputation of strict uprightness, and of an earnest pains- taking effort always to see exact justice done to all. His written opinions were models of scholarship, and exhaustive in their conclusions. By invitation of his colleagues on the bench of the State, he at different times held court in at least a dozen of the counties, where his administration of justice was highly appreciated. He was universally considered an able judge, and of his decisions that were reviewed by the higher tribunals very few indeed were re- versed, and many are still quoted as prece- dents. His manner on the bench was always courteous yet dignified ; merciful and con- siderate, yet just and firm. Judge Watson was a candidate for reelection in 1883 as the unanimous choice of his party, but was defeated by the Hon. Harman Yerkes by a strictly party vote. He resumed the prac- tice of law on his retirement from the bench, but chose rather to interest himself in such cases as appealed to his sense of justice. He was one of the chief promoters of the Bucks County Trust Company in 1886, and was chosen its first president, filling that position with eminent ability until his death. Judge Watson always took an active inter- est in all that pertained to the advantage of his town and county, and his genial, kindly companionship and association in local affairs are a pleasant memory to many of his surviving townsmen. He was a member of Doylestown Lodge, No. 245, Free and Accepted Masons, and also an enthusiastic and earnest Odd Fellow. He united himself
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with Aquetong Lodge, No. 193, I. O. O. F., of Doylestown, July 8, 1846, and continued an active member until his death, serving as its secretary for upward of a decade, as its representative in the Grand Lodge for near a quarter of a century, and in 1867 was elected grand master of the Grand Lodge, serving his term with especial distinction. He died suddenly, July 15, 1892.
Judge Richard Watson married, June 28, 1866, Isabella T. McCoy, daughter of Dr. Gilbert Rodman, and Maria (Thomas) Mc- Coy, of Doylestown, and a descendant of Gilbert Rodman. Mrs. Watson and three children survive, viz :- Miriam, wife of Henry A. James, of the Bucks county bar ; George, an official of the Bucks County Trust Company; and Jane; who resides with her mother.
MITCHELL, James Tyndale, Lawyer, Jurist, Author.
Probably no profession so richly rewards its devotees as does the law. Not only in a pecuniary sense is this true, but in honor, fame and exalted position. The highest pinnacle of legal fame in any State is that of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and that is exceeded only by a place in the Su- preme Court of the nation. A lawyer to reach the chief justiceship of a State must not only be exceptionally learned in the law, skillful in its interpretation and application, of judicial strength, disposition and fair- ness, but he must be a man of high char- acter, unquestionable honor, and possess every manly quality, for he must pass the ordeal of the ballot box. In contests for so exalted an office, party ties are loosened and men decide from conviction of the perfect fitness of their candidate. Thus came James Tyndale Mitchell, formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Pennsyl- vania into his high estate. His perfect fit- ness, his learning, character and experience, gaining him the highest commendation of
his fellow citizens publicly expressed at the ballot box.
Judge Mitchell springs from an English ancestor, Edward Mitchell, who came from England, settling in South Carolina in the year 1700. The family later came north- ward, settling in Virginia in its western part where Rev. Edward Mitchell, great-grand- father of Judge Mitchell, was a leader in the anti-slavery movement.
In 1823, after the failure of the attempt to abolish slavery, the Mitchells moved to Belleville, St. Clair county, Illinois. James Mitchell, grandfather of Judge Mitchell, was a prominent Whig, a close friend of Henry Clay, and chief burgess of Belle- ville. His son, Edward P. Mitchell, mar- ried Elizabeth Tyndale, and from this mar- riage sprang James Tyndale Mitchell, who was from 1903 to 1910 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Pennsylva- nia.
He was born in Belleville, Illinois, No- vember 9, 1834, and at the age of seven years was sent to Philadelphia to be edu- cated under the care of his maternal grand- mother. His instruction began in a school taught by Dr. Samuel Jones, brother of Joel Jones, a one-time mayor of Philadel- phia. Later he entered Central High School, whence he was graduated at the head of his class in 1852. He then entered Harvard University, whence he was graduated with honor, class of 1855. This was one of Har- vard's famous classes, and to win honors from such men was no easy task. The class included many whose names are now enrolled high on the roll of fame :- Rev. Phillips Brooks, General Francis C. Bar- low, Professor Alexander Agassiz, Theo- dore Lyman, Professor James K. Hosmer, Robert Treat Paine, Franklin B. Sanborn, and others.
After graduation he returned to Phila- delphia and began the study of law under the preceptorship of George W. Biddle, and also attended lectures at the law school of
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the University of Pennsylvania. On No- vember 10, 1857, he was admitted to the bar of Philadelphia county, began practice in that city, and so impressed his ability upon the bar that in 1859 he was made assistant city solicitor under Charles E. Lex, serving until 1862. In that year his term expired and he resumed private prac- tice. In 1868 he won additional fame as counsel in the celebrated election cases of that year. In 1871 he was elected Judge of the District Court, succeeding George M. Stroud, and from that time until his retire- ment in 1910 was continuously upon the bench. When the present constitution of the State was adopted, he was transferred to the Court of Common Pleas No. 2, and at the election of 1881 he was unanimously elected judge of that court. In May, 1888, he had so impressed his individuality and his fitness upon the people of Pennsylvania that he was nominated by the Republican State Convention for Justice of the Su- preme Court. At the November election he was elected by a large majority, the city of Philadelphia registering their appreciation of an upright judge by giving a majority of thousand votes greater than they gave the presidential ticket. He assumed his place upon the supreme bench, January 7, 1889. He served his full term of twenty-one years, the decisions handed down in that time ren- dering his name famous in the annals of jurisprudence. In 1902 he received the full reward of his great merit by succeeding to the highest judicial office in the State- Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, assum- ing office in 1903. The cases decided and the decisions rendered have been numerous and exceedingly weighty. One of liis first in the Court of Common Pleas was given in the case of the Philadelphia Library, in which for the first time a construction was placed upon the new constitution regarding the exemption of public institutions from taxation. His decision won approval from tl.e legal fraternity for its soundness. The Pennsylvania reports teem with his deci-
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