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 36
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Mr. Ferris, it will be observed, is at this writing but thirty- five years of age, and has been twelve years a practitioner at the bar. The general tendency of attorneys is to the county scat of the county, where they hang out their shingles. The assumption is natural that where the courts are, there the most legal business is to be done, but it is equally true that where the courts are there are always the greatest number of lawyers to do it. Mr. Ferris has resisted the temptation to settle down within sight of the court house, and has remained in Pittston, which, being the place of his nativity, and, as a consequence, the home of his closest friends, who know him better than he could be known elsewhere, has given him a very extensive and quite lucrative practice. It is not flattery to speak of him as one of the rcally good young lawyers of the county. He comes of good stock, as already shown ; he has fine natural abilities ; his alma mater gave him every advantage; he has industry and persistence ; and out of these conditions and qualities he has reared a pro- fessional reputation that brings him numerous clients, whose interests are always intelligently and conscientiously served.
EBEN GREENOUGH SCOTT.
William and Anna (Boice) Scott, of Litchfield, Hartford county, Conn., had thirteen children. Gardner, the cldest, who was born September 10, 1767, settled near Geneseo, N. Y. George, one
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of his sons, born in 1784, came to Pennsylvania when a young man and settled in Towanda. He was commissioned an associ- ciate judge of Bradford county in 1812, and held the position until 1818; as prothonotary in 1818; as clerk of the courts of Quarter Sessions, Oyer and Terminer, and of the Orphans' Court in 1824, and held these last positions until 1830. He was the clerk of the commissioners from 1815 to 1819, and was county treas- urer in 1823 and 1824. He was the publisher for a time, also, of the Bradford Settler, and was prominent in the politics of the county for many years. He married a Miss Strope, of Wysox, a daughter of Henry Strope and a granddaughter of Sebastian Strope, and was the father of H. Lawrence Scott, at one time United States collector of internal revenue, and from 185 1 to 1854 register of wills, recorder of deeds, and clerk of the Orphans' Court of Bradford county, Pa. One of his daughters married Burton Kingsbury, and another General H. J. Madill. Sebas- tian Strope was one of the first settlers of Wysox, Bradford county, Pa., he having located there in 1776 in connection with his brother Isaac, his father-in-law, Isaac Van Valken- burg, and Hermanas Van Valkenburg. These settlers came from near Claverack, Columbia county, N. Y. He died in Wysox in 1805, aged seventy years. His neighbors bore testi- mony to his worth and integrity as a man and citizen. He was in the colonial army and engaged at the battle of Wyoming, and escaped from the fearful massacre by hiding in a patch of thistles which had grown up in an old stock yard. He was a fearful and silent spectator of the butchery of Lieutenant Shoe- maker by the tory Windecker after he had promised his unfor- tunate victim quarter. His wife was captured by the Indians May 19, 1778, and remained in captivity nearly three years. The mother of Mrs. Scott was Catharine, daughter of Rudolph Fox. He was the first permanent white settler of Bradford county. In the month of March, 1777, while in search of his cattle, he was seized and taken a captive to Quebec, where he was kept for nine months, during all of which time his family were ignorant of his fate. Luther Scott, another son, was born in 1788 and resided in Wilkes-Barre for awhile with his brother David. He received a lieutenant's commission in the United States army in
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1812. During the war of 1812-14 he distinguished himself by his activity, courage, and fidelity, for which he received honora- ble mention. After the war, being then a captain of artillery, he accompanied Commodore Decatur on the expedition to Algiers. During the Creek war he was stationed at different points in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. His duties were arduous and perplexing, and in the faithful discharge of them his health be- came impaired. He died at New Orleans, April 8, 1819. He was the author of a work on artillery practice. David Scott, the eighth child of William Scott, was born at Blandford, Mass., April 3, 1782. When about eighteen years of age David left home and went to reside with his brother, Gardner Scott, at Gen- eseo, N. Y. There he remained three or four years, and then went to reside with his brother George, at Towanda. He there engaged in school teaching, his school being in Towanda town- ship. While residing in Towanda he had a long and severe attack of fever, and his life was saved, after he had got so low that he could not speak above a whisper, by his nurse allowing him to drink freely of water, against the positive directions of the at- tending physician. In December, 1806, he located in Wilkes- Barre and became a student of law under Thomas Graham, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county in 1798. Mr. Graham was a member of the board of trustees of the Wilkes- Barre academy from 1807 to 1814. He died April 26, 1814. During the next two years David Scott read law, taught school, and engaged in other industrial pursuits. He was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county January 3, 1809. On January 16, 1809, he was appointed and commissioned by Governor Snyder prothonotary of the court of Common Pleas, and clerk of the Orphans' Court, Quarter Sessions, and Oyer and Terminer. These offices he held until the year 1816. He was commissioned a notary public February 24, 1810. In 1816 he was elected a representative to congress from the Luzerne district, but before the time for taking his seat arrived Governor Snyder tendered him the commission of president judge of the judicial district composed of the counties of Dauphin, Schuylkill, and Lebanon. He was commissioned on December 21, 1816, and soon thereaf- ter removed with his family to Harrisburg. He served as presi-
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dent judge of this district until July 29, 1818, when he was com- missioned by Governor Findlay president judge of the Eleventh judicial district (comprising Luzerne and three other counties) to succeed Judge Burnside. He held his first court at Wilkes-Barre in August, 1818. In 1819 he was elected a member of the board of trustees of the Wilkes-Barre academy, and served in that po- sition until 1838. From May, 1824, until May, 1827, Judge Scott was burgess of the borough of Wilkes-Barre. He was one of the vice presidents of the Luzerne County Bible society in 1819, the year of its organization, and from 1828 to 1830-was its president. From 1827 to 1829 he was president of the Lu- zerne County Temperance society. He was the founder of the Protestant Episcopal church in Wilkes-Barre, and instituted in his office the first Sunday school organized in northeastern Penn- sylvania. During several years he was canal commissioner and president of the board of public works of Pennsylvania, and as canal commissioner he refused to take any salary because he was receiving a salary of sixteen hundred dollars a year as a judge. "To him, George Denison, and Garrick Mallery the people of Luzerne county were more indebted for the North Branch Canal than, probably, to all others combined." In the summer of 1837 Judge Scott had some intention of retiring from the bench- would do so, in fact, if he could have assurance that a person whom he could approve would be appointed his successor. The matter was broached to Governor Ritner by a mutual friend. The governor, after some hesitation, promised to appoint Nathan- iel B. Eldred, then president judge of the Eighteenth judicial district, to the Luzerne district if Judge Scott would resign. This suited the latter, and in March, 1838, he drew up his resig- nation and delivered it to the " mutual friend." Upon its deliv- ery to Governor Ritner, he promised to apppoint Judge Eldred "and no other man." On April 7, however, Judge Scott, Judge Eldred, and the " mutual friend" were astonished by the an- nouncement that Governer Ritner had appointed William Jessup president judge of the Eleventh judicial district. It is well to here remark that Luzerne county never had a purer or abler judge than Judge Jessup. Judge Scott was an eminent example of the invigorating effects and auspicious influences of our repub-
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lican institutions upon the actions and fate of men. To speak with the strictest regard to truth, unmixed with romance or flat- tery, Judge Scott was a self-made man. Unaided by wealth or influential connections, with no other capital than his head and his hands to commence with, he rose from the humbler walks of life to some of the most eminent and respectable public sta- tions, occupying in his advance upwards, many intermediate public positions of varied and important responsibilities, and filling all with that measure of ability and industry which alone make office respectable, and secures to the people the legitimate benefits of a well administered government. In all the private relations of life Judge Scott bore the reputation of stern integ- rity and strict regard to morality and justice. For several of the later years of his life he labored under painful bodily infirmities, the results of the severe application of his earlier years. A par- alytic affection had seated itself upon his system which, in the end, subdued a constitution not naturally very robust. We here ·re-produce a portion of an article upon Judge Scott which was written in 1876 for the LUZERNE LEGAL REGISTER by the late Hendrick Bradley Wright :
" The young lawyer who had hardly made his first brief is elected to congress, and before he takes the oath of office is transferred to the bench! A truly rapid progress. His judg- ment and intellect formed in bold relief the outline of a character which made and left its impression upon the circle in which he moved. With great energy he overcame the obstacles of early life which lay in the path before him, and moved steadily forward to the point of his ambition, and he attained it. In a fair and honorable encounter with the world he reached the summit, the summit of his ambition. He could not be said, as a judge, to be a book lawyer. Perhaps he did not read as much as a judge should read. He had no occasion to do this. as Graham, Wells, Bowman, Denison, Mallery, Conyngham, Collins and others were attendants and practitioners in his courts. " If he were leaning from the rule of an adjudicated case their keen eye would surely bring him to the point. They were all able lawyers, and no one knew it better than he. But, if he did not read, he thought; and when the mind of David Scott was aroused there was a great intellect at work; and seldom did he fail to arrive at a correct conclusion. If he did not in all cases give the correct reason for his opinion, still the result he reached was the law of the case.
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In a conversation with the writer of this article, while yet on the bench, he said: 'You will sometime be a judge, decide promptly, after understanding the facts of the case, from your first impressions-they are always the best and most reliable- and in this way you will seldom be wrong; such has been my practice ;' and he added further in an undertone, 'you need not always give the reasons upon which you base your judgment.' This, undoubtedly, was his practice. He relied upon his strong mind, and very seldom did it lead him astray. There was em- phasis in his language and manner. In his charges to the jury you could see the big veins raise upon his broad and massive forehead as he moved on with his argument, and his remarkably clear and penetrating eye would of itself attract your attention. His language was plain, uttered in distinct sentences, without regard to rhetoric, but always to the point. He was remarkably fair in the statement of his legal points, and no lawyer had just cause of complaint that the written charge, filed on exceptions, varied from the one that preceded it to the jury. The jury, too, well understood the bent of his mind, though he expressed no opin- ion on the facts. The lawyer who went into court with a good cause succeeded ; but if it were defective in law or fact he got no mercy from the bench. And what better encomium can be passed upon a judge, reserving always strict honor and unbend- ing integrity. Never in the long term that David Scott presided on the Luzerne bench did I hear the imputation that he acted under bias or improper influence. He was a man of strong prejudices as well as strong mind, and the two generally go together ; but no man ever intimated that he was the object of persecution in court, resulting from these prejudices. David Scott was no advocate ; at least not one that would have become eminent in the forum. I have heard him speak at public meet- ings on different subjects, and he failed to make a decided hit. What he said was to the point, and good sense, but the emphatic manner and somewhat discordant style lessened the effect. He was not what the world calls an orator. He dealt too much in facts. His thoughts were electric, and he passed with too much rapidity from one point to another, and did not dress them up in such language as is calculated to please the assembly. He was in his element on the bench, and hence dealt with the dry elements of the law, not only with effect, but with an ardent rel- ish. He liked it. Stare decisis was not always the rule of his actions. His pride of opinion sometimes led him astray from the adjudicated track, though probably not from the true one. I remember well, in listening to the trial of Warder and Tainter in the court of this county, that he refused to admit the doctrine
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that the return of two nihils on a scire facias to foreclose a mort- gage 'restored a dead man to life,' and the probability is that a large majority of the profession to-day are of Judge Scott's opin- ion. But they took a writ of error, and reversed him. Where the reason is to sustain the doctrine that two nihils are equivalent to notice may be a very difficult one to be found. He came down pell-mell on the writer in Hobbs v. Fogg, where we were attempting to make the point that a negro was not a citizen, and the Supreme Court would, undoubtedly, have affirmed the ruling of Judge Scott had not the convention entrusted with the amend- ments to the constitution put the word 'white' in that instru- ment while the court were advising on the question. Few judges in Pennsylvania during the time of David Scott had a reputation for more ability or integrity of purpose. Very few of his causes went up on writ of error from Luzerne. In Wayne and Pike (a part of his district) the decision of David Scott was treated as the law, and probably during his twenty years on the bench not ten cases went up from these two counties. As a criminal judge he was humane in his sentences. Though remarkably fair and decided, and apparently a severe judge against offenders, his judgments were always tempered with mercy. We have known him to change the term of imprisonment which he had written out and before him, and the prisoner on the floor for sentence, when suggestions have come voluntarily from some member of the bar in the prisoner's favor. His heart was filled with gener- ous impulses. But if he had made up his mind, and believed he was right, then no man had more decision. He would not yield. His manner and deportment on the bench to the bar was uni- formly pleasant and forbearing. But ill betide the lawyer who interrupted him in his charge to the jury. Particularly to young men he was remarkably affable. Many are the times when we have heard him supply the wanting word, or give the nod of an encouraging assent, to the young lawyer who was hesitating and doubting whether he was making his point or not. During the latter part of his judicial career his deafness, which had more or less afflicted him for many years, grew upon him, and at times it required a loud voice to make him hear. His position on the bench during the taking of evidence, or hearing the argument of counsel, was with one hand back of his ear, and leaning forward. And his deafness, probably, gave rise to the fact of a somewhat noisy court house for many years after he left the bench, but which, we are glad to see, has been corrected, much to the credit of the court and the convenience of the profession. We should say, in the summary of this article, that the leading prominent traits of character in Judge Scott were firmness and decision,
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large conceptive powers, and a mind peculiarly well balanced. To these add integrity of purpose, and you have a portrait of the man as he was."
The late Chief Justice Woodward, who was admitted to the Luzerne bar August 3, 1830, and practiced before Judge Scott for nearly eight years, described him as " one of the ablest men that ever presided in a Pennsylvania court of justice, stern as the image of justice itself. He was an honest, upright judge-a little overbearing sometimes, and always of' irascible and pugnacious temper." It was often observed of him that if he had been in military life he would, most probably, have been distinguished. The ancestor of Judge Scott was at the battle of Culloden, on Drummossie moor, near Inverness, Scotland, which was fought April 16, 1746. After the defcat of the Scottish troops Judge Scott's ancestor went to the county of Cavan, in Ireland, and subsequently one of his sons emigrated to the Berk- shire hills, in Massachusetts, and the other to Virginia. Gen- cral Winfield S. Scott was a descendant of the Virginia branch, and Judge Scott of the Massachusetts family. These facts were corroborated by a conversation held between General Scott and Judge Scott some years prior to the death of the latter. Judge Scott died at Wilkes-Barre December 29, 1839, and his remains are interred in the Hollenback cemetery of this city. Judge Scott was twice married, the first time September 1, 1811, to Catharine Hancock, daughter of Jonathan Hancock, of Wilkes- Barre. She died November 15, 1832, and on March 1, 1836, he married Mrs. Mary Dorrance, nce Elder, of Lykens Valley, Dau- phin county, Pa. She was the daughter of David. Elder and his- wife, Jane, daughter of Colonel Bertram Galbraith. Mr. Elder was the son of Rev. John Elder, who for fifty-six years was a minister of the gospel at Paxton, Pa. Colonel Galbraith was a grandson of Rev. William Bertram, first pastor of the church at Derry, Pa. The first husband of Mrs. Scott was Henry B. Dor- rance, M. D., a cousin of the late Benjamin Dorrance, of King- ston, Pa. Judge Scott had seven children, all by his first wife, as follows : William Boice Scott; Martha A. Scott, who married Lu- ther Kidder (Rev. Charles Holland Kidder, late rector of St. Clement's P. E. church of Wilkes-Barre, is a son of the late Judge
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Kidder); Marietta Scott, who married Oliver Watson, of Wil- liamsport, Pa. (Mrs. Watson is the only survivor of her father's family); Catharine Scott, who married the late Judge Warren J. Woodward; Elizabeth Scott, who married R. Bethel Claxton, D. D., rector of St. Stephen's P. E. church, Wilkes-Barre, from 1840 to 1848; Ellen Scott, who died unmarried; and George Scott, who was register of wills of Luzerne county in 1859 and 1860, and who was admitted to the Luzerne county bar January 10, 1854, and who died unmarried at Wilkes-Barre September 26, 1861. William Boice Scott, the father of Eben Greenough Scott, the subject of this sketch, was a native of Wilkes-Barre, and died when quite a young man. He married Susan Israel Greenough, daughter of Ebenezer Greenough, a native of Canterbury, N. H. At the beginning of the present century, from 1800 to 1825, there was a very noticeable accession to northern Pennsylvania of many persons of the cultured and higher classes of New England, and among them was Ebenezer Greenough, then in his twenty-second year and a graduate of Harvard college. The force and self-reliance of his character were indicated in some of the circumstances attending his journey. It was performed in the saddle, and he declined accepting from his parents a larger sum than that which would suffice for his traveling expenses, preferring to depend in the future upon his own exertions. He was furnished with several letters of introduction from persons of position and influence. In one written by Rev. Abiel Foster, one of the most prominent of New Hampshire's public men, these words occur: " He is a young gentleman of a respectable family in this town. His moral character is fair and unimpeach- able, his disposition modest and amiable." Referring to the memoranda of his early life it appears that his father was a mer- chant, and was born in IIaverhill, Mass., December 11, 1783. His mother was the daughter of Ebenezer Flagg, of New Hamp- shire, and the family consisted of eight children ; four sons and four daugters. Consonant with the laudable desire of the mother each son received a careful collegiate education, and each in due course acquired considerable wealth and influence. Except when in the academy or college, the youth of Ebenezer was passed with his parents. During the vacation period he taught
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school and applied his earnings to the expense of his own train- ing. At Wilkes-Barre he was tendered the principalship of the academy, which he accepted, continuing to act in this capacity for three years, and discharging its duties with ability and suc- cess. While in Wilkes-Barre he entered upon the study of the law in the office of Ebenezer Bowman (a graduate of Harvard college in the class of 1782, and who was admitted to practice in the Luzerne county courts May 27, 1787) and upon removing to Sunbury in 1807, he finished his legal course of study under the tuition of Charles Hall of that place. On January 19, 1808, he was admitted to the Northumberland county bar, and imme- diately took a high rank in his profession. In 1811 he moved to Danville, Pa., but in 1815 returned to Sunbury, where he there- after resided permanently. He was a federalist in a fervidly dem- ocratic county and state, and, although averse to holding office, was elected a member of the Pennsylvania legislature in 1829 His shrewd and superior intelligence was in constant requisition during the term of his legislative service; also in various other relations, regarding the drafting of important bills and the sup- port of certain provisions calculated to meet the special demands and exigencies of the time. The beneficial influence which he was thus enabled to exercise unostentatiously upon the material interests of the state when in an incipient stage of its develop- ment, cannot be too highly praised or appreciated. As a lawyer he was one of the most successful and distinguished in the state, and his record is free from stain or blemish. With unusual powers, enriched and strengthened by a familiar acquaintance with men and literature; with a thorough knowledge of the de- tails, subtleties, and complications of the law, he possessed a judgment at once clear and impartial, great calmness under the most perplexing circumstances, keen shrewdness, and penetrative mental perceptions that seldom erred. In the latter years of his life his health became much impaired; but the immediate cause of his death was an accident that happened while in his carriage, from which he was thrown with much violence. This event oc- curred December 25, 1847, and wherever he was known occa- sioned great sorrow and regret. His family consisted of seven children, one of whom, an only son, William Israel Greenough, is now an attorney of high repute in Sunbury.
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Eben Greenough Scott was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., June 15, 1836. He was prepared for college at the Episcopal High school, near Alexandria, Va., then under the charge of Rev. E. A. Dalrymple, and also by Rev. Henry L. Jones, at Bridgeport, Conn. He then entered Yale college, from which he graduated in the class of 1858. Mr. Scott read law with his uncle, Wil- liam I. Greenough, at Sunbury, and William M. Meredith, of Philadelphia, and was duly admitted to the bar of Philadelphia in June, 1860. He located at Pottsville, Pa., and subsequently in Sunbury, Pa., and practiced in each place for a number of years, While a resident of Sunbury in 1870, he was the democratic can- didate for congress in the district composed of the counties of Dauphin, Juniata, Northumberland, Snyder, and Union, but was defeated by John B. Packer, republican, by a majority of two thousand three hundred and fifty-four. In 1871 Mr. Scott was the candidate of the democratic party for president judge of the Eighth judicial district, composed of the counties of Montour and Northumberland, and was defeated by W. M. Rockefeller, of Sun- bury, owing to dissensions in the democratic party. On April 26, 1861, during the recent civil war, Mr. Scott joined company C, Eleventh regiment of Pennsylvania militia. He remained in this service about two months, and in June, 1861, received an ap- pointment in the regular army, with the rank of first lieutenant. He served in the army of the Potomac under General Mcclellan, and subsequently was instructor of artillery at Fort Schuyler, New York harbor. He removed to Wilkes-Barre in 1872, and on September 9, 1872, was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, where he has been in continuous practice since. On February 14, 1863, Mr. Scott was married to Elizabeth Woodward, daugh- ter of the late ex-Chief Justice George W. Woodward, of this city. They have had two children, George Woodward Scott, and William Scott, both of whom are now deceased. It is with law- yers as with men in all other professions; some are profound and technical, slow-moving, but sure ; others are vigorous rather than painstaking, courageous and self-reliant rather than careful. The first reach the goal they aim at by degrees, fortifying every stage of their progress, so that their being compelled to turn back is impossible, and gradually, but with the utmost certainty,
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