USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Families of the Wyoming Valley: biographical, genealogical and historical. Sketches of the bench and bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, vol. I > Part 3
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EBENEZER WARREN STURDEVANT.
were slaves till the age of twenty-eight years. The Legislature unquestionably had the power to have repealed the laws of 1780, ' for the same power which took off the burden might impose it again at pleasure.' In the constitution of 1790 (art. iii., sec. I), nearly the same language is used as in the old constitution. The language of the present constitution is, 'in elections by the citi- zens, every freeman of the age of twenty-one,' etc. Now, sir, had the framers of the present constitution intended to have embraced in the word 'citizen,' or ' freeman,' the negro population, would they not have used some language that would have placed that intention beyond doubt? A strong circumstance that of itself would have much weight in my mind is, that the constitution of the United States had been adopted prior to the meeting of the delegates to forin the constitution of 1790, and out of the thirteen States who had adopted that constitution eight of them were slave holding States. In this constitution the words ' citizen,' ' freemen,' and 'people,' are used as in the present constitution of Pennsyl- vania, and most surely could not have then been supposed to include either slaves or free negroes. · Slavery existed in this Commonwealth when the constitution of 1790 went into operation, and for years after; and the negro, at that time, was regarded as inferior to the white, and it was deemed neither sound policy for the State, nor in accordance with the letter and spirit of the constitution of the United States, to confer upon him any political rights. . . No man, sir, on this floor feels more sympathy for this unfortunate race than I do. No man regrets more than I do the existence of slavery in this country. Yet, sir, I am not disposed to interfere with the institutions of slavery in any of our sister States. I am no abolitionist. I believe the American people will have to answer hereafter for the sin of hav- ing introduced slavery among them; but, at the same time, I do not believe that the doctrines or measures pursued by the aboli- tionists will have the least tendency to expiate that sin. On the contrary, sir, the course being pursued by that class of men will only tend to degrade the negro, to rivet still closer his chains, and finally, by exciting sectional prejudices, may subvert the liberties of our happy country. In this Commonwealth, sir, I would give to the negro all those rights which he now enjoys. I would place him as nearly on an equality with the white as the condition of his race would warrant. I would secure to him those civil and religious privileges peculiar to our institutions, but never, sir, would I concede to him that political, that conven- tional right, which was purchased with the blood and treasures of our ancestors-the right of voting and being voted for. When- ever you confer on them the right of voting, you, at the same
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EBENEZER WARREN STURDEVANT.
moment, concede to them the right of being elected to the high- est office in your State-a condition of things that no patriot can desire to see. I am satisfied that it is not the desire of the black to enjoy the right of suffrage. They, sir, would have been silent on this subject, but that they have been goaded on by the mis- taken zeal of deluded philanthropists. . . I call upon delegates on this floor to pause before they yield a right to the negro. which, by an attempt to elevate him, will degrade us; which will violate a sacred pledge given by this State to her sister States at the adoption of the constitution of the United States, and which, while it is a triumph and a sanction given to the anti-American doctrines of the abolitionists, may result finally in the overthrow of the Union."
Colonel Sturdevant was ably seconded in the convention by such men as Charles J. Ingersoll, George W. Woodward, Andrew Bedford, M. D., Robert Fleming, Almon H. Read, George M. Keim, Samuel A. Purviance, James Pollock, Wm. M. Meredith, Tobias Sellers, John Houpt, John A. Gamble, James Clarke, and many other noted and distinguished men, and the amendment finally prevailed by a vote of 77 for and 45 against it.
In 1840 Colonel Sturdevant was the Whig candidate for Con- gress, and, although running largely ahead of his ticket, was defeated by Hon. Benjamin A. Bidlack, subsequently Charge d'Affaires at Bogota, New Granada. In 1842 Colonel Sturdevant was elected Brigadier General of the brigade comprising the northeastern counties of Pennsylvania, and subsequently pro- moted to the office of Major General of the division to which his brigade was attached. He held the two offices consecutively during a period of seventeen years, and is now known as the oldest Major General in the State.
General Sturdevant was in the active practice of his profession successfully up to 1857. In 1840 he removed to his present , residence, then just completed, on the Firwood farm. Since his retirement from an active practice, he has been chiefly engaged in the management of his real estate interests, but formerly he was identified with many of the most important enterprises of the State and section, acting as director of one of the branches of the Reading Railroad, for which he procured a charter, and taking an active part in securing legislation authorizing the construction of the North Branch Canal. He has been for thirty years a
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EBENEZER WARREN STURDEVANT.
manager of the Wilkes-Barre Bridge Company, and was a direc- tor of the old Wyoming Bank. For the years 1835-6-7-8 he was President of the Wilkes-Barre Borough Council, having for his colleagues Henry Pettebone, W. S. Ross, Hendrick B. Wright, B. A. Bidlack, Edmund Taylor, A. C. Laning, W. H. Alexander, Hugh Fell, and Anning O. Chahoon. At present he is a director of the First National Bank of Wilkes-Barre, and for years has been a member of the City Council, chairman of the Committee on Law and Ordinances, and is now President of that body.
During a long term of years, General Sturdevant has been-in some manner connected with most of the important business enterprises looking to the development and improvement of the various interests of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys. His connection with the now gigantic iron interest of the Lackawanna in the days of its infancy is peculiarly interesting. In 1839 he was requested by the President of the Bank of North America, Philadelphia, as the agent and attorney of the bank, to visit a body of the land owned by the bank in the old township of Providence (now city of Scranton), with a view to looking after iron ore reported to have been discovered on one of the bank's tracts by a well known hunter of that vicinity. On a pleasant morning he set out in a buggy, carrying with him a saddle, a pair of saddle bags, and a hatchet, in preparation for a journey through the woods, if it should be necessary. Passing through the local- ity of Scranton, then called Slocum Hollow, where then stood the old red Slocum house, the old forge on Roaring brook, and two miles beyond the residence of Elisha Hitchcock, he found the man he sought, to whom he agreed to pay $50 in consideration of his showing him the ore, provided that a test should prove it to be valuable. After unharnessing his horse, which he accoutred in saddle and saddle bags, the General mounted and followed the . old hunter (who carried his rifle, with an eye to the possibility that they might arouse a deer or a bear from their mid-day nap) about five miles over a foot path pretty well obstructed by fallen trees to Stafford Meadow brook, near which, in a small ravine, on a tract in the warrantee name of Daniel Van Campen, and owned by the Bank of North America, they found outcroppings of iron ore on both sides of the gully. Taking as much of the
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EBENEZER WARREN STURDEVANT.
ore as the General could carry in his saddle bags, the two returned to the hunter's house, and hastily harnessing the horse, the Gen- eral drove back to Wilkes-Barre by moonlight. The next day the ore was securely boxed and sent to the President of the bank by stage. Soon General Sturdevant received a letter from the President enclosing a statement of the very favorable analysis of the ore by Professor Booth. The General paid the promised $50 to his friend, the hunter, and the Scrantons a little later bought the Daniel Van Campen tract, with other lands adjoining, and took initial steps leading to the wonderful development of the interests of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, and through them of the thriving, energetic, and rapidly growing city o Scranton.
General Sturdevant up to 1842 had been an active and earnest member of the Whig party, but becoming dissatisfied with the Whig leaders during the administration of President Tyler, con- cluded to leave the party. General Sturdevant, as stated by him in the Constitutional Convention, was no abolitionist. He was also opposed to a national bank, which the Whig leaders of that day attempted to foist upon the people, and also to the tariff bill of that period. Since that time the General has been an ardent Democrat, and quite prominent in the affairs of his party. Though often tendered the candidacy for high political honors, he has never willingly consented, preferring the comforts of pri- vate life to the highest office in the country.
For many years General Sturdevant has been a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. For more than thirty years he was a vestryman of St. Stephen's Church, Wilkes Barre. He was a liberal contributor toward the establishment of St. Clement's parish, in which Firwood is located, and the erection of its house of worship, and since the organization of the parish he has been senior warden of that church.
General Sturdevant was married May Ist, 1832, to Martha Dwight Denison, of Wilkes-Barre, daughter of Austin Denison, of New Haven, Conn., and Martha Denison, nee Dwight, and a niece of President Dwight of Yale College. On her mother's side she was of the seventh generation of descendants of Colonel Timothy Dwight, grandson of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass ..
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EBENEZER WARREN STURDEVANT.
the common ancestor, it is believed, of all who legitimately bear his family name on this continent. She was a lady of very supe- rior education and fine accomplishments, as honest a christian woman as ever lived, proud of the Dwight name, and cherishing through life every incident in the history of the family, with which she was thoroughly acquainted. She died October 20th, 1842. Only one child, Mary Elizabeth Sturdevant, who was born April 10th, 1833, and died June 18th, 1835, was born of this marriage.
On the 12th of May, 1847, General Sturdevant married Lucy, daughter of Hon. Chas. Huston, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, who bore him four children,-Charles Huston, Mary Elizabeth, Edward Warren, and Lucy Huston,-and who died, in the fullest confidence of faith and holy hope, May 3d, 1879, at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. J. N. Stone, Jr., in Philadelphia, surrounded by her husband and children, in the six- tieth year of her age. For more than thirty years Mrs. Sturdevant had lived amid an increasing circle of appreciative and loving friends. A devoted wife and mother, a faithful and exemplary church member, a constant worshiper in her parish church, a most efficient teacher in the Sunday-school, and a true friend to all, to whom her friendship was helpful and full of comfort, her loss to the whole community, and especially to the parish of St. Clement's Church, was so great as to seem irreparable. She was born in Bellefonte, Centre county, Pa., and was trained under the pastoral care of Rev. Geo. W. Natt. She left, besides her hus- band and her two sons and two daughters, a countless number of mourning friends, to whom the bereavement of her loss was greater than can be told.
General Sturdevant, still in active business life, and identified with the leading interests of Wilkes-Barre and vicinity, an efficient and prominent member of the City Council, sound in health, and thoroughly alive to the important events of the time, is passing the latter years of his life at Firwood farm, the care of which is his daily occupation and pleasure. His two sons, Charles Huston Sturdevant and Edward Warren Sturdevant, are members of the Luzerne county bar. Hon. John Sturdevant, so long and favor- ably known in Wilkes-Barre, was his brother, and Rev. Byron
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ANDREW TODD MCCLINTOCK.
D. Sturdevant, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was his nephew. Since 1858 the General has been a member of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society.
ANDREW TODD MCCLINTOCK.
Andrew Todd McClintock was born February 2d, 1810, and is consequently now in the seventy-second year of his age. The scene of his birth was in the old town of Northumberland, in the county of that name, in this State. He is of Scotch-Irish extraction; the scion of a stock which has contributed very largely, especially within the last fifty years, to the galaxy of Pennsylvania's eminent public men. His grandfather was James McClintock, who was born in the town of Raphoe, county of Donegal, Ireland, where, also, Andrew's father, Samuel, was ushered into the world. The latter came to this country at the age of eighteen, and was followed, seven years later, by the grandfather. They settled in Northumberland county, where both lived and died; the father at Northumberland, in 1812, aged thirty-six years.
Andrew's mother was Hannah, the daughter of Col. Andrew Todd, of Trappe, Montgomery county, a soldier of the Revolu- tion, and through her our respected fellow-citizen is related to the Porters, the Hamills, and other leading families in Montgom- ery county ..
Mr. McClintock was but two years of age when his father died. His earlier education was received at the public schools of his native county-very primitive affairs at that early date; after which he was sent to Kenyon College, Ohio, of which, at the time, the late Bishop McIlvaine was President. There were in attendance at the college at the same time the late Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War during the war; Judge Frank Hurd, one of Ohio's most distinguished Democrats; and Rufus King, Dean of the Law School of Cincinnati. He remained in
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ANDREW TODD MCCLINTOCK.
this institution three years, devoting himself assiduously to study, and achieving the happiest results.
Upon leaving college he returned to Northumberland, and soon after entered the office of James Hepburn, Esq., a very tal- ented attorney of that day, as a student at law. Here he pursued his studies diligently for about a year, at the expiration of which time he came to Wilkes-Barre, where he completed his law course in the office and under the tuition of the late Hon. George W. Woodward. He passed a highly creditable examination, and was admitted to the bar on August 8th, 1836, upon the recom- mendation of John N. Conyngham, Chester Butler, and Volney L. Maxwell, the examining committee. Immediately afterwards he entered into partnership with his late tutor, and the law firm of Woodward & McClintock continued and prospered until 1838. In 1839 Mr. McClintock was appointed District Attorney of the county by Hon. Ovid F. Johnson, Attorney General of the Commonwealth, who, by the way, was a descendent of Rev. Jacob Johnson, who settled in the Wyoming Valley prior to the Revolution. David R. Porter was at this time the Governor of the State. Mr. McClintock discharged the duties of this, the only political office he ever held in his life, with distinguished ability and perfect conscientiousness for the term of one year, at the expiration of which time, public position having become dis- tasteful to him, he resigned, and resumed his private practice. He has frequently since been solicit to accepted political sta- tions of high trust and emolument, but has persistently refused. When, in 1867, an act of the Legislature gave Luzerne title to an Additional Law Judge, the members of the bar en masse, and very many of our best and most prominent business men, turned instinctively to Andrew T. McClintock as the man of all others in the profession best fitted for the post. He would bring to it a degree of dignity that would insure universal respect, a profound Knowledge of the law, and a fairness and impartiality against which no taint of suspicion had ever for an instant rested. The following correspondence is the best attestation of how generally this conviction was entertained, and how universal was the regret occasioned by Mr. McClintock's final refusal to accept the honor tendered him :
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ANDREW TODD MCCLINTOCK.
WILKES-BARRE, PA., April 8, 1867.
We, the undersigned, members of the Democratic party of Luzerne county, are very desirous that Andrew T. McClintock, Esq., should become the Additional Law Judge of the Eleventh Judicial district. And we urge upon him to accept the position, should it be tendered to him. We have the fullest confidence that he will be the choice of the Democratic party beyond all question, and we shall do all that it may be necessary for us to do to secure his nomination. It is simply unnecessary to speak of Mr. McClintock as a man and as a lawyer. He is known to every one, and he is without reproach, whilst his professional ability is acknowledged with profound respect here and elsewhere.
Stanley Woodward,
Charles L. Lamberton,
Hendrick B. Wright,
Charles Pike,
Geo. B. Kulp,
G. R. Bedford,
C. F. Bowman,
D. L. O'Neill,
A. R. Brundage,
Howard Ellis,
G. B. Nicholson,
Rufus J. Bell,
Gustav Hahn,
D. R. Randall,
E. L. Merriman,
Stephen S. Winchester.
O. F. Nicholson,
D. C. Cooley,
T. H. B. Lewis,
M. Regan,
E. K: Morse,
John Lynch,
D. Rankin,
C. L. Bulkeley.
The following leading lay Democrats and others also signed the above petition :
J. B. Stark,
M. J. Philbin,
.James Johnson,
Charles Erath,
G. W. Kirkendall,
Peter Pursel,
·S. Bristol,
Marx Long,
W. W. Smith,
Walter H. Hibbs,
L. Myers,
Neal McGroarty,
E. Taylor,
J. Reichard, Peter Raeder,
E. Troxell,
G. P. Steele,
A. H. Emley,
Robert Baur,
C. A. Zeigler,
B. F. Pfouts, T. S. Hillard,
James Campbell,
Fred. Mercur,
Charles Dorrance,
S. R. Marshall, James Mullens.
J. E. Vanleer, S. Bowman,
S. H. Puterbaugh,
C. C. Plotz,
J. Pryor Williamson,
G. M. Reynolds, E. B. Collings,
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ANDREW TODD MCCLINTOCK.
WILKES-BARRE, April 10, 1867. A. T. MCCLINTOCK, EsQ.,
Dear Sir: The Legislature of the State has passed an act providing for the election of an Additional Law Judge for the several courts of Luzerne county. The very great magnitude and importance of the interests of our county, to be chiefly pro- tected and administered in our civil and criminal courts, places the question of the judgeship high above the region of partisan politics. We need for the place a judge who shall be learned in the law, of known integrity of character, and high moral courage. Satisfied from a life-long acquaintance with you that you possess the qualifications we seek, we respectfully urge you to permit the use of your name for the office indicated. And we cheerfully pledge you our best efforts, and the use of all proper and legiti- mate means to secure for you the same expression of opinion and desire from the great majority of your fellow-citizens of Luzerne county.
Henry M. Hoyt, W. W. Lathrope,
Alexander Farnham,
Calvin Wadhams,
R. C. Shoemaker,
Garrick M. Harding,
A. H. Winton,
A. M. Bailey,
H. W. Palmer,
E. B. Harvey, H. B. Payne,
V. L. Maxwell,
Jerome G. Miller,
W. W. Ketcham,
C. D. Foster,
W. P. Miner,
D. C. Harrington,
George Loveland.
In addition to the names of the lawyers above given, all of whom are Republicans, the following influential members of the Republican party, among others, signed the petition :
S. D. Lewis,
Joseph Brown,
Charles Parrish, Arnold Bertels,
Lewis C. Paine,
W. C. Gildersleeve,
Thomas F. Atherton,
W. W. Loomis, Douglass Smith, A. J. Davis,. John S. Law.
E. P. Kingsbury,
WILKES-BARRE, April 15, 1867. ·
A. T. MCCLINTOCK, EsQ.,
Dear Sir: At a meeting of the members of the bar of Luzerne county on the 8th inst., the undersigned were appointed a committee to solicit the use of your name for the position of
Andrew Hunlock,
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ANDREW TODD MCCLINTOCK.
Additional Law Judge for our several courts, under the act of Assembly recently passed. We therefore present the question directly to your consideration. The unanimity and urgency on the subject on the part of your brethren of the bar is the most emphatic view we can offer you. It is their clear and spontane- ous desire, and we are authorized to state that no ordinary con- sultation of your private feelings can override a call to serve the public made by so large and responsible body of your fellow- citizens. We need not urge our views of your qualifications for the duties of this office, nor the obvious necessity that the very first order of qualifications should be brought to its duties. Your knowledge of the situation is very full, and we leave the whole matter with you, hoping that a careful and conscientious review of the case will enable us to report your affirmative response to those whom we represent.
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Very respectfully, your obedient servants,
C. L. LAMBERTON, HENRY M. HOYT, V. L. MAXWELL. S. S. WINCHESTER.
WILKES- BARRE, April 24, 1867.
Gentlemen: Your communication of the 15th inst., informing me of the proceedings of a meeting of the bar of Luzerne county, held on the 8th inst., was duly received. I have given careful consideration to the reasons so kindly urged to induce me to permit the use of my name for the position of Additional Law Judge for our several courts, under the act recently passed. I did not suppose that anything could be urged to induce me to hesitate in answering such a suggestion, but your strong appeal, and the appeal made to me from my fellow-citizens, without dis- tinction of party, have forced upon me the consideration of whether my duty should overrule my inclination, and have, I confess, greatly embarrassed me. I would like to oblige my friends, and am deeply sensible of the compliment they have paid me; but if, before receiving such expressions of confidence in my fitness for the position, I distrusted my ability to discharge the duties thereof with acceptance, I certainly am now convinced that I could not fulfill the expectations which it is evident my brethren of the bar and my fellow-citizens entertain of my quali- fications for the office. The standard which, in your kind appre- ciation of my qualifications, you esteem me fitted to fill is so high that I cannot undertake even to try to come up to it. I am averse to public life-the result, probably, of too exclusive
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ANDREW TODD MCCLINTOCK.
attention to the calls of my profession. I greatly prefer the bar to the bench, and cannot bring myself to the point of consenting to the use of my name for the position of judge. Another con- sideration has its influence in bringing me to this conclusion. I have been counsel for many years for interests that embrace a large portion of the business and property of our county. My relations to those interests have been so confidential and inti- mate that I could not, on the bench, feel free to sit in cases where those interests were involved, even though they might arise after my relations as counsel to such interests had ceased, and I could not, therefore, dispose of very much of what must, in the next few years, make up the greater part of the business of our courts.
With every disposition to oblige my friends, and with a deep sense of their kindness in the expression of their partiality to me for the position of Additional Law Judge, I must decline, decid- edly and absolutely, the use of my name for the office. I cannot consent to accept the position.
. Very truly, your friend, ANDREW T. MCCLINTOCK.
To Messrs. C. L. Lamberton, Henry M. Hoyt, V. L. Maxwell, and S. S. Winchester, Committee of the Bar of Luzerne county.
By 1877 it had been ascertained that the new constitution was in many particulars defective. It was generally acknowledged a vast improvement upon the old instrument, but it was not in mortal power to forsee all our possible political wants and con- tingencies, so that brainy, industrious, and careful as was the Constitutional Convention, that body left a number of things undone needed to make the fundamental law as nearly as possi- ble perfect, and did other things so imperfectly that a revision was already imperatively demanded. To make this revision was a delicate and difficult task-one that could not safely be assigned except to the very clearest legal minds in the State. The Legis- lature authorized the appointment of a commission for the pur- pose, and the choosing of its members fell to the lot of Governor John F. Hartranft, who took counsel from the wisest of his friends, and made the following excellent selections: Daniel Agnew, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Benjamin Harris Brewster, perhaps the greatest lawyer at the Philadelphia bar; Samuel E. Dimmick, Attorney General of the Commonwealth;
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