USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of the state of Pennsylvania with a compendium of history. A record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume II > Part 5
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maxim of the law that it was better for ninety-nine guilty men to escape than that one innocent person suffer.
In 1866 the counties of Venango and Mercer, which had thereto- fore been included within the eighteenth judicial district of Pennsyl- vania were merged into a new district, and a judge, learned in the law. to preside in the courts thereof, was to be elected. There were several applicants for that office in the dominant party, but no one of them commanded the confidence of the entire membership of that party, and it was, perhaps, but natural that they should look to the minority party for the candidate upon whom to unite, since they might hope to secure his nomination by that party and thereby its support. Be that as it may, however, they had no difficulty in agreeing upon Mr. Trunkey as their candidate, and he was elected to the office of presiding judge of the twenty-eighth judicial district of Pennsylvania before he had reached middle life. The business of the courts of Venango county had increased enormously during two or three years preceding his elevation to the bench. The discovery of oil, then recent, had brought into the county a vast influx of people similar to the population of other new mining districts, and many controversies had arisen out of grants of mining rights, involving difficult problems and the application of legal principles to conditions with which the courts had not been familiar. The most of the cases remained untried and others were rapidly coming to the court, while a statute of 1806 provided: "It shall be the particular duty of the judges of the supreme court and the judges of the courts of common pleas to see that all actions in their respective courts shall be reached and have a fair opportunity of a trial at least within a year after they shall have been commenced."
Such were conditions which confronted the young judge when he came upon the bench. To obey the statute literally would require
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more hours of judicial labor each day for years to come than had probably ever been performed by any judge, but having undertaken the work Judge Trunkey addressed himself to it quietly and patiently. opening the courts at eight o'clock in the morning and sitting until six in the evening, with a recess of an hour at noon and often holding night sessions. The amount of work performed by him at this time was prodigious. The records show that during the first year on the bench he tried in Venango county one hundred and twenty indict- ments in the courts of quarter sessions and Over and Terminer and one hundred and thirty-six jury cases in the common pleas, and that he heard and decided two hundred and forty-four causes at argument court, besides doing a vast amount of work at chambers, and keeping the business of the populous and important county of Mercer well in hand. His scrupulous care for the proprieties of his position bore its legitimate fruits. No snitor, it is asserted by the lawyers of full prac- tice in his courts, was ever known by them to complain that he was not fully and fairly heard, or that his canse was not tried solely upon the evidence publicly delivered when Judge Trunkey was on the bench. Such was the confidence of the bar and of the people both in his dis- position and his ability to mete out exact justice between litigant parties that but few writs of error were taken to his judgment, and such was the correctness of his rulings in the main that, notwithstanding the great number of novel and difficult questions which grew out of the mining industries of his district in the earlier years of his service therein, but eight of his judgments were reversed during the eleven years of that service.
In the meantime, however, the term for which he had been elected was drawing to a close, but such was the confidence of the better class of voters of all parties in Judge Trunkey that he was elected for an-
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other term of ten years. He had but entered upon his second term when a vacancy in the supreme court was caused by the death of the elder Justice Williams of that court, and after much controversy and per- suasion Judge Trunkcy consented to the presentation of his name to the Democratic state convention for the nomination for the office of justice of the supreme court, was nominated and was elected for the term of twenty-one years. When he took his place in the supreme court of Pennsylvania as one of the justices thereof he carried with him the same conscientious devotion to duty that characterized him as the president judge of the several courts of the twenty-eighth judicial district. Until disabled by the malady aggravated if not caused by over- work and which ended his life, he was habitually in his place when the court was in session and always attentive to the arguments of counsel, whether interesting or insipid, and whether delivered by the humblest of the profession or by the most gifted or otherwise eminent. Indeed, he seems to have understood. not improbably from his own experience at the bar, that an interested manner on the part of the judges is helpful to young lawyers in their forensic efforts, and even to the experienced. when suffering under embarrassments which will at times come to them as unaccountably as panics to soldiers in battle. He has been seen to lean forward and look and listen with an apparently intense interest in what was being said when the lawyer addressing the court seemed to be on the point of breaking down. Whether such de- meanor was a deliberate effort to encourage or the spontaneous mani- festation of sympathy, the result would ordinarily be the same. the speaker's embarrassment would be alleviated and his gratitude would Le quenched only with his life.
After the election of 1881 it became apparent to intelligent ob- servers of the trend of political events that the Democratic party was
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destined to come into power once more in Pennsylvania and in the country at large. It was believed by many that if Judge Trunkey could be induced to accept the nomination by the Democratic party as its candidate for governor in 1882 his election would be assured, and that. being elected governor in so important a state, theretofore strongly Republican, his nomination for the presidency two years later would follow. In this belief a private meeting of a number of leading Demo- crats was held in the city of Pittsburg with a view to bringing his name before the public. The project was presented to him, but he terminated the interview by saying: "I am very sure that I have no presidential bee in my bonnet and I hope that no friend of mine will try to put one there or say anything further on the subject."
The friends who had hoped to gain his consent to their scheme knew him too well to pursue the subject further, but not so the people at large, who still persisted, but he as steadily refused.
A man so devoted to the work in which he had been engaged con- tinnously during sixteen years, that the highest office in the gift of the American people had no temptation for him, was not likely to spare himself. The duties of his office were sufficiently exacting and onerous when he assumed them, and they were continually becoming more so as the population of the state increased, but at the close of each year nothing was left undone. There was, however, a limit to his power of endurance, and that limit was reached before the mid-summer of 1887. Four months before that period he had been in constant pain while performing his full share of the work of the court. At the be- ginning of the summer vacation he yiekled to the entreaties of friends and to the advice of his physician and went abroad. for the double purpose of obtaining rest and securing the services of an eminent specialist in the treatment of the malady from which he was suffering.
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But it was too late. He had drawn too largely upon his vital ener- gies and his system failed to rebound. He died in the city of London, on the 244th of June, 1888, and his remains were brought home by his wife, who was at his bedside at the time of his death.
Ilis death caused profound sorrow wherever known. A great throng of people came from far and near to attend his funeral and filled the First Presbyterian church of Franklin, where he had served many years as a ruling elder, and packed the approaches to it. . 1 marked feature of the tributes which were paid to his memory was the evidence they gave of the affection for the man. The bar of Venango county placed upon the records of the court of that county a memorial. and its concluding words were : "As a citizen, as a neighbor, as a friend, he shone pre-eminently, in spite of that difference which rendered it impossible for him to give articulate revelation of his esoteric char- acter. His life was pure. his conversation was pure, his heart must have been pure. He allowed his public station to excuse him from no private duty. He was found in the house of mourning and at the bedside of the suffering, in the houses of the lowly as well as in the parlors of his friends, and in innumerable inarticulate ways approved himself a Christian gentleman. In common with all our fellow citi- zens we mourn his untimely end, and affectionately and reverently lay upon his tomb our tribute to his memory."
At the first meeting of the supreme court after his death George Shiras, later one of the supreme court justices of the United States. in moving an adjournment in respect for his memory, suggested "an immediate meeting of the bar, at which shall be appointed a committee to prepare and present at a subsequent meeting suitable resolutions commemorative of the excellent qualities of our departed friend." The chief justice granting the motion said at the close of the resolutions :
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"As a conclusion, then, of this short and imperfect history of our be- loved brother's life, we may be permitted to say that whilst we lament the great and irreparable loss which we have sustained by his death, and whilst we are filled with sorrow when we reflect that he will meet with us no more on earth, nevertheless we may derive some consolation from the assurance that, to him, the change is all the better: that he fell asleep in the full conviction of the divine resurrection and of that immortality which God has provided for all who are loyal to Him."
A life-long, intimate friend of Judge Trunkey, who was with hini in London during his last illness and at the time of his death, wrote: "The Judge knew the summons had come for him to appear at the great Assize where all of his acts and deeds would be reviewed by the great Judge of the Universe. He received that summons with the same clear. calin. brave, conscientious spirit that was so characteristic of him while reviewing the acts of his fellow man. He was fully prepared to appear in the highest and last court and trust his case with his Heavenly Father. Ilis only solicitude was for the dear ones he left behind. Fhis last prayer was a most touching plea to his God that He would shield and protect them. Death came to him like a sweet mes- senger of sleep, and one of the noblest spirits I have ever known en- tered into its final rest. As I look upon his mortal remains here in London, far from his home and kindred, excepting his faithful and devoted wife. I feel that 1 have lost the truest and best friend I ever had."
In recognition of his merits Lafayette College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws some years before his death. Ile was a director in Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1853 Judge Trunkey married Agnes, daughter of Hon. William S. Garvin, of Mercer, Penn- sylvania, who at one time represented his district in Congress. Three
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children were born to them, of whom but one, William G., lived to matinity, and he, after giving promise of a useful and honorable career, followed his father to the grave. Of his six brothers and sisters, but one. Mrs. Morford. of Kinsman, Ohio, survived him, and but a single grandson of his father remains to perpetuate the name.
JOHN WILLIAM MOORE.
Upon the solid and enduring basis of honesty and industry J. W. Moore built the superstructure of his fame and fortune and secured the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens. Unostentatious and always avoiding undue publicity, yet he was one of the prominent characters that will ever remain in the foreground of American coke history, and will never be forgotten as a potent factor of the unexampled material development of western Pennsylvania, which has made that section the "Workshop of the New World" and the wonder of two hemispheres.
John William Moore was born AApril 16, 1837, in Rostraver town- ship. Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and was a son of Ebenezer and Nancy B. ( Hurst) Moore. Hlis cis-Atlantic paternal ancestry is traced back to his grandfather, Robert Moore, who in early life ( 1780) removed from Cecil county, Maryland, and settled in Rostraver township. Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. He was married in 1780, before leaving Maryland, to Miss Jare Power, a sister of Rev. James Power, D. D., who was the first Presbyterian to settle and preach in the "Western Wilds." Dr. Power came from eastern Pennsylvania and preached in Fayette and Westmoreland counties in 1774. Robert Moore erected a large two-story log house into which he moved and where he lived during his life. He was one of that sturdy class of men who settled in the region of Dunlap's creek, Rehoboth and Round Hill churches. They
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were decidedly Presbyterian and formed the nucleus for those churches which have stood so long and whose old members have left the impress of their lives upon the generations to follow them.
Ebenezer Moore, the youngest of Robert Moore's six children, was born August 3. 1793, and was the last of the family to mirry, on account of remaining at home to care for his aged and feeble mother. In 1846 he removed to the old Blackstone farm in Tyrone township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania. His wife had an inherited interest in the farm, and he bought the interests of the other heirs and added to the farm by purchase one hundred and fifty acres of adjoining land. These two farms were heavily underlaid with coal, and it was here that the coke interests were started which have since been developed by his two younger sons, J. W. and P. H. Moore. Ebenezer Moore was six feet in height and weighed one hundred and ninety pounds. Ile had a strong frame and a large, well shaped head. He kept his face smoothly shaven, was always genteel and respectable in appearance, and was a fine-looking man. Better than this, he was a man of sterling integrity, was strictly honest, fair in his transactions, and was a man of great kindness of heart, while his tenderness of feeling was one of his distinguished char- acteristics. His attachments to his home and family were very strong. and he loved them with the greatest devotion. As a business man, he at times appeared rigid, though always just, and seldom made mistakes. He was modest, unassuming, possessed a high regard for men, and was a member of the Presbyterian church, in which he was twice chosen elder. He did not accept, however, on account of his lack of self-confi- dence. yet he had mental power that with more self-assurance would have given him a high position in the church. Withal he loved to converse on Christian topics, and at his home ministers of the gospel were often found, who were always welcome, and he loved their society. In politics
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he was a Democrat, and was positive in his faith. He was an intelligent render and took a deep interest in the passing events of his time. Hc conversed with great earnestness upon the political as well as upon religious issues of his day. In 1844 he represented Westmoreland county in the legislature, and it is an interesting fact that he received all the votes except five that were cast in his own township.
In May, 1833. Ebenezer Moore married Miss Nancy Blackstone Hurst. daughter of James and Sarah Hurst, of Mt. Pleasant township. Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. They reared a family of six children in the house in which Mr. Moore was born. The old house is still standing. The farm was owned by J. W. Moore, and is now owned by his widow. Mrs. Elizabeth S. Moore, and for one hundred and twenty-three years has been in the possession of the family. Mrs. Moore was a granddaughter of James and Priscilla Blackstone, of Fay- ette county. One of their children died in infancy: Sarah Jane died February 23. 1858, at thirteen years of age; the eldest son, James H., married Miss Amanda Thirkield, of Fayette city, and resides at Monon- gahela city; the second son. Rev. R. B. Moore. D. D., of the Presby- terian church, married Miss Louisa J., youngest daughter of Janies Paul, of Fayette county, but now of Tiffin, Ohio: and the third son is John W.
J. W. Moore reecived his educational training in the common schools of his native township and Elder's Ridge Academy. He after- wards took a full business course at the Iron City Commercial College. from which he was graduated in 1856. He was reared in the simplicity of rural life, yet he manifested an ambition for business at an early age and was successfully engaged in stock-dealing before he had reached his eighteenth birthday. For over twenty years he was a well known and extensive stock-dealer throughout the counties of Westmoreland.
OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLE.INL.L. 615
Fayette and Greene, and met with that remarkable success which so abundantly crowned all his business ventures and undertakings. In 1873 Mr. Moore practically retired from stock-dealing, and engaged in the greatest enterprise of his business life, by an investment in the Con- nellsville coke industry, at that time just attracting public notice. Ile entered into a partnership with James Cochran, Solomon Kiester and James Hurst, for the manufacture of coke at the Summit coke works, situated near Broad Ford, Fayette county, Pennsylvania. After six years he withdrew from this firm, purchased the Redstone coke plant. three miles south of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and engaged in the coke business with his brother, P. II. Moore. In 1881 Colonel J. S. Schoonmaker was admitted as a partner, and four years later J. W. Moore withdrew. At that time the company was running four hundred ovens and employing five hundred men. In 1879 he bought two thou- sand acres of coal land in Mt Pleasant township. this county, where. with his accustomed energy, he soon erected what is known as the Mam- moth Coke Works, and put into operation nearly six hundred ovens. In the spring of 1880 he increased his coke business by the purchase of the Wynn Coke Works, above Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and suc- cessfully operated these plants until the latter part of the summer. On August 23. 1889. he disposed of his entire coke interests to the 11. C. Frick Coke Company for considerably over one million dollars (this has now gone into the United States Steel Corporation). This was by far the largest deal ever made until that time in the coke business. and at its consummation Mr. Moore withdrew from the manufacture of Connellsville coke. He afterwards devoted his time to the man- agement of his large estate. During the year of 189t he purchased some four thousand acres of eight-foot Pittsburg vein of coal in Ros- traver township. Westmoreland county and Washington township. Fay-
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ette county, Pennsylvania. He purchased a large acreage of coat m Indiana county and erected the McCreary Coke Plant at Graceton, beside being largely interested in the Charleroi Plate Glass Works, the devel- opment of the town of Charleroi and the purchase of numerous tracts and pieces of real estate in Westmoreland county. At the time that he parted with his interest in the Connellsville coke region he was the larg- est individual owner in that region, and was engaged in coke manu- facturing on a scale far exceeding anything theretofore attempted by individual enterprises.
On November 22. 1860. J. W. Moore was married to Elizabeth Stouffer, the eldest daughter of M. B. and Charlotta Stouffer, of Con- nellsville, Fayette county, Pennsylvania. To their nion have been born six children : Elmer E., deceased: Albert Braden Moore: Mary Jo- sephine Moore Richardson: Lnella Stouffer, intermarried with Hon. Edward E. Robbins: James Pressley Moore ; and frene Elizabeth Moore.
J. W. Moore died February 19, 1893, and is buried in a massive granite mausoleum in the St. Clair cemetery near Greensburg, Penn- sylvania. The bulk of his estate was willed to his wife. Elizabeth Stouffer Moore, who still lives with her unmarried children in the Moore mansion in Greensburg, and in her magnificent winter residence at 1710 New Hampshire avenne, Washington, D. C., where she and her daughters, Mrs. Josephine Moore Richardson and Frene Elizabeth Moore. entertain largely and are prominent figures in our capital's social set. Albert Braden Moore and James Pressley Moore are unmarried, and reside at Greensburg, where they are interested in dealing in horses and the management of their forms and other properties .-
Elizabeth S. Moore, the widow of J. W. Moore, comes from a strong family and is a woman of pre-eminent ability. She was a sister of the wife of Senator William .A. Clark of Montana; she is also a
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OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
sister of the wife of Mr. Gilfrey, clerk of the United States senate. Washington, D. C .. a sister of the wife of Albert Hall, of the depart- ment of the interior. Washington, D. C .. a sister of Mrs. Reed. vi Con- nellsville, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Connell, of Washington, D. C. and of Charles Stouffer. of the department of pensions, Washington, D. C.
J. W. Moore was a man over six feet in height, of fine presence. honorable in his intercourse with his fellowmen, charitable in his judg- ment of others and firm in his conviction of what was right. In al! his business enterprises he was sagacious, prudent, honorable and suc- cessful, and these same qualities have been carried on since his death by his widow, who was his chief legatee. These qualities not only made the estate of J. W. Moore at the time of his death the largest estate that was ever settled here, but the same qualities have still continued this estate as the largest in the county.
HON. LANSING D. WETMORE.
Hon. Lansing D. Wetmore, lawyer and judge, was born in War- ren county, Pennsylvania, on the 18th of October, 1818. His father. also named Lansing, was a native of New England, Last had early moved to Warren, and became a prominent lawyer of that place. His mother. Caroline Ditmars, was descended from Holland Dutch ancestors.
The means of the father enabled Lansing D. Wetmore to obtain a thorough education from the most approved sources of the day. his preliminary instruction being received at the academy of his native town, and after a preparatory course at Washington College. Pennsyl- vania, he matriculated at Union College, New York, from which in- stitution he was graduated with honors in 1841. For a year and a half thereafter he was employed as a teacher in an academy, and then.
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entering the office of Johnson & Brown, of Warren, for the purpose of reading law, he applied himself with such diligence that he was en- abled to pass a most creditable exammation and gained his admission to the bar in the fall of 1845. Immediately commencing the practice of his profession with all his characteristic energy, industry and ability. he soon formed a large and lucrative connection in the county of his birth and those adjoining. To his ever increasing business he devoted his entire attention until his well earned reputation as a jurist caused him to be elevated from the ranks to a position of honor and trust. In the fall of 1870 Judge Wetmore was elected president judge of the sixth judicial district, composed of the counties of Erie, Warren and Elk, and in these courts he continued to preside until 1872. At that date, by a change in the constitution and law. Erie was made a single district, and Judge Wetmore chose the thirty-seventh district, com- posed of the counties of Elk. Warren and Forest. as the scene of his future labors.
Prior to his elevation to the judiciary Judge Wetmore had occu- pied the post of president of the First National Bank of Warren, and was for a time president of the National Lumberman's Association. In politics he is a Republican, and. though not an office-seeker, was clothed for a time with the judicial ermine, as stated above, and has been called upon to take part in the arduous and not less important burdens of local office. His judicial ability has been even better appreciated since the expiration of his term than while he was in office. His decisions were almost always correct, notwithstanding the fact that he was engaged in private business enterprises that would alone have fully taxed the energies of most men. He studied all the questions that came before him for decision with the thoroughness of a student in love with his taste and refused to neglect the minutest duties of his posi-
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