USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Families of the Wyoming Valley: biographical, genealogical and historical. Sketches of the bench and bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, vol. III > Part 21
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1878, supra. In obedience to this decision, Judges Harding, Handley, and Stanton opened the courts of Lackawanna county, October 24, 1878. Judge Bentley no longer assumed to hold the office. Judge Stanton resigned, February 25, 1879, and on March 4, 1879, Alfred Hand was appointed and commissioned to fill the vacancy. By a supplement to the above act, with relation to the division of counties, it was provided that in case the new county contained forty thousand inhabitants, the governor should, by proclamation, declare it to be a separate judicial district. The president judge of the old county was thereupon directed to elect to which district he would be assigned, and the other law judge or judges were to be assigned to the other district. If more than one additional law judge, the oldest in commission should be commissioned president judge of the new district and the other as additional law judge. Under this act Judge Hard- ing, March 25, 1879, elected to remain in the old district of Luzerne, and Judges Handley and Hand were assigned to the new district-the forty-fifth. . The former was commissioned president judge thereof, March 27, 1879, and the latter addi- tional law judge. From that time on Judge Harding ceased to act in Lackawanna county, and the other two judges ceased to act in Luzerne.
In June of the same year another act was passed providing for the election of a judge in a new district created as above. It contains the proviso "that this act shall not take effect in case the president judge of the old county shall have selected to be assigned to and reside in the new district, and in case any other person shall have been commissioned president judge for such district, the judge elected by virtue of this act shall be commis- sioned an additional law judge." Under this act, at the general election in 1879, Judge Hand was elected in Lackawanna county as additional law judge of the forty-fifth district, and as such was commissioned for the term of ten years from the first Monday of January, 1880. It was claimed that the right of Luzerne to elect an additional law judge under the acts of 1867 and 1874 (supra) was not affected by the preceding legislation, and at the fall elec- tion of 1879 Charles E. Rice was elected additional law judge of Luzerne, composing the eleventh district, and as such was com-
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missioned, December 4, 1879, for the term of ten years from the first Monday of January following. The resignation of Judge Harding took effect December 31, 1879. Judge Rice went into office under his commission as additional law judge January 4, 1880. On the day following, by reason of his holding the oldest commission, he was commissioned as president judge for the term of ten years from the first Monday of January, 1880. The vacancy thus existing was filled by Governor Hoyt, by appoint- ing and commissioning Stanley Woodward additional law judge, vice Rice, who had become president judge by operation of law. The date of Judge Woodward's commission was January 9, 1880. At the general election following Judge Woodward was elected, and December 2, 1880, was commissioned additional law judge for the term of ten years from the first Monday of January, 1881.
SEPARATE ORPHANS' COURT .- The constitution of 1874 pro- vided that in counties containing one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants the legislature shall, and in other counties may, estab- lish separate Orphans' Court, to consist of one or more judges learned in the law. By the same section separate registers' court was abolished, and the jurisdiction conferred upon the Orphans' Court. Under this constitutional mandate, the separate Orphans' Court of Luzerne was established by act of May 19, 1874, with one judge, to be elected and commissioned for the same term and in the same manner as judges of the Common Pleas. At the general election following Daniel L. Rhone was elected and was subsequently commissioned judge of the Orphans' Court for the term of ten years from the first Monday of January, 1875. Under the act of May 24, 1878, he is now styled and commis- sioned president judge of said court. Judge Rhone was included in the application for mandamus above referred to, but as to him it was refused, for the reason that under the act of 1878, supra, there could be no separate Orphans' Court in the new county of Lackawanna, the jurisdiction being vested in the judge of the Common Pleas.
Hon. D. L. Rhone was reelected a judge of the Orphans' Court in 1884, and was commissioned December 17, 1884, for a further term of ten years from the first Monday of January, 1885.
MAYOR'S COURTS .- The mayor's court for the city of Carbon-
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dale was established by act of March 15, 1851. Its jurisdiction originally extended over the city of Carbondale, and the town- ships of Carbondale, Fell, Greenfield, and Scott. The latter town- ship was excluded from its jurisdiction by act of April 11, 1853. By act of June 2, 1871, the north district of the township of Blakeley and the borough of Gibsonburg were authorized to vote upon the question of annexation to the jurisdiction of the mayor's court. The mayor's court of Scranton was established by act of April 23, 1866. It's jurisdiction was extended over the townships of Covington, Jefferson, Madison, Spring Brook, and the borough of Dunmore, by act of April 5, 1870. By the orig- inal acts these courts, with certain limitations, had the jurisdic- tion of courts of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions. They were courts of record, and their judgments were reviewable in the Supreme Court. Their judges were the mayors of the respective cities, the aldermen, and a recorder. By express direction of the statutes, the president judge of Luzerne was directed to act as recorder in each of the courts. In December, 1869, quo war- ranto proceedings were begun by the attorney general, in the Supreme Court, against Judge Conyngham, to test his right to act as recorder in the mayor's court of Scranton. July 7, 1870, judgment was entered for the commonwealth, the Supreme Court holding that the legislature in creating a new court within part of the district or county occupied by an old court cannot legis- late upon the bench of the new court the judge of the old court. The judge of the new court must be chosen by the people of his district. After this decision the president and additional law judge of Luzerne ceased to preside in either of the mayors' courts. In pursuance of acts of assembly, recorders of the sev- eral courts were thereafter elected. By section eleven of the schedule to the constitution of 1874, and the act of May 14, 1874, passed to carry the same into effect, both of these courts were abolished, December 1, 1875 ; the jurisdiction of the courts of Common Pleas, etc., of Luzerne was revived, and the records, etc., transferred thereto.
By the amendments to the constitution adopted October 9, 1838, and which went into effect January 1, 1839, the term of the judges of the Supreme Court was made fifteen years, and that of the
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CHARLES MINER STOUT.
president and other law judges of the Common Pleas was made ten years. The judges were to be nominated by the governor, and by and with the consent of the senate appointed and com- missioned by him. The schedule provided that the commissions of the law judges of the Common Pleas "who shall not have held their offices for ten years, adoption of the amendments to the con- stitution, shall expire on February 27 next after the end of ten years from the date of their commissions." Under this provision of the schedule the commission of Judge Jessup expired February 27, 1849. By joint resolution passed 1849 and 1850, it was proposed to amend the second section of the judiciary article so as to make the judges elective. This amendment was adopted by vote of the people on the second Tuesday of October, 1850. The amend- ment provided that "the first election shall take place at the gen- eral election of this commonwealth next after the adoption of this amendment, and the commissions of all the judges who may be then in office shall expire on the first Monday of December following, when the terms of the new judges shall commence." The act of April 15, 1851 (referred to in another place), was passed to carry the amendment into effect, and the first election thereunder was held in the fall of that year.
CHARLES MINER STOUT.
Charles Miner Stout was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., April 7, 1851. He was a brother of Asher Miner , Stout. (See page 1226.) His wife was Lizzie Schropp, of Beth- lehem, Pa. They left no children. During the Mexican war he entered as third corporal in Company I, First Regiment Pennsyl- vania Volunteers. He was subsequented appointed lieutenant in the Eleventh Infantry. Mr. Stout, at the commencement of the late civil war, entered into the service, and died in that service.
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CROMWELL PEARCE.
CROMWELL PEARCE.
Cromwell Pearce was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., April 8, 1851. His ancestors were Protestant soldiers who . entered Ireland from England with the army of Cromwell in 1649. Receiving confiscated lands in part pay for military services, a portion of the family settled near Enniskillen, in the province of Ulster. In 1690 his great-great-grandfather, in company with four brothers, entered the army of William III, and fought shoulder to shoulder with Huguenots and English Blues against King James II at the celebrated battle of the Boyne. Edward Pearce, the great-grandfather of Cromwell Pearce, was born in Enniskillen August 6, 1701, and married Frances Brassington, of Dublin. They had three children born in Ireland, with which little family they sailed for America in May, 1737. Two of the children died of small pox on the voyage. Mr. Pearce arrived in Philadelphia in August, having been thirteen weeks in crossing the ocean. Cromwell Pearce, the surviving child, was born in December, 1732, and was near five years old on his arrival in Pennsylvania. The family remained in Philadelphia until the spring of 1738, when they removed to the neighborhood of St. David's church, in Radnor township, Chester county, Pa. Ed- ward Pearce was by trade both a mason and carpenter. In 1744 he built St. Peter's church, in the Great Valley. On April 15,. 1745, he was chosen its first senior warden. In 1750 he pur- chased the farm in Willistown where, twenty-seven years after- wards, the memorable "Paoli massacre" occurred, and on which the monument now stands. Upon this farm he spent the remain- der of his days, and died there March 6, 1777. He and his wife (who died March 26, 1783) were interred at St. David's church in one grave.
Cromwell Pearce, son of Edward Pearce, was the grandfather of Cromwell Pearce. On May 8, 1758, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the battalion of Pennsylvania's regiment of foot, and served under General Forbes, the successor of General Braddock. Among other services in the French and Indian war, the com-
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pany to which he belonged built a fort at Shamokin, now Sun- bury, Pa. On May 6, 1777, he was appointed major in the con- tinental army, and May 20, 1779, colonel of the fifth battalion of Chester county militia. The extent of his services is not known beyond the fact that he went on a tour of duty to Amboy, N. J. On May 1, 1781, he was commissioned major of the second battalion of Chester county militia. He married Margaret, daugh - ter of John and Margaret Boggs, who owned a large tract of land in Willistown. Her parents were members of the Presbyterian church, and several of their sons served as soldiers in the war of the revolution. She died December 28, ISIS, aged seventy-eight years. Cromwell Pearce, after his father's death, became the owner of the farm in Willistown, where he passed the remainder of his days, and died August 4, 1794.
Marmaduke Pearce, son of Cromwell Pearce, and father of Cromwell Pearce, the subject of this sketch, was born at Paoli, Willistown township, Chester county, Pa., August 18, 1776. His opportunities for acquiring a complete education were very lim- ited. He possessed a natural taste for books and study, and by improving himself became qualified to teach a country school. In 1805 he removed to Bellefonte, Pa., where he continued to reside for several years. Having determined to preach the gos- pel, he was in IS11 licensed to preach by Rev. Gideon Draper, presiding elder of the Susquehanna district of the Methodist Episcopal church. As a preacher he had few equals, and his sermons were the embodiment of sound common sense. Reason and logic were the weapons which he employed. His sermons did not generally exceed thirty minutes, but in that period, by reason of his unusual powers of condensation, he would say as much as most men in double that time. He was a master of Eng- lish style, and a most able critic in grammar, logic and rhetoric. He made no display of his learning .. He sought the shade, wish- ing, as he once expressed himself, if he could not be little, to be unknown. He was an immense man physically, about six feet in height, and weighing in ordinary health about three hundred pounds. He died in Berwick, Pa., August 11, 1852. Colonel Cromwell Pearce, of the Sixteenth United States Infantry in the war of 1812, and subsequently sheriff and associate judge of
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Chester county, Pa., was a brother of Rev. Marmaduke Pearce. The mother of Cromwell Pearce, and wife of Rev. Marmaduke Pearce, was Hannah Stewart (nee Jameson). She was a descend- ant of John Jameson, and great-granddaughter of Robert Jame- son and his wife, Agnes Dixon, daughter of Robert Dixon. Robert Jameson and his father-in-law, Robert Dixon, were among the original petitioners to the Connecticut legislature in 1753, asking for the organization of the Connecticut Susquehanna Land Company. The preamble of their petition was as follows : "Whereas, there is a large quantity of land lying upon a river called Susquehanna, and also at a place called Quiwaumuck, and that there is no English inhabitant that lives on said land nor near thereunto, and the same lies about seventy miles west of Dielewey river, and, as we suppose, within the colony of Con- necticut, and there is a number of Indians that live on or near the place or land aforesaid who lay claim to the same, and we, the subscribers, to the number of one hundred persons, who are very desirous to go and inhabit the aforesaid land and at the place aforesaid, provided that we can obtain a quiet or quit claim of the honorable assembly of a tract of land lying at the place aforesaid, and to contain a quantity sixteen miles square, to lie on both sides Susquehanna river, and as the Indians lay claim to the same, we purpose to purchase of them their right, so as to be at peace with them, whereupon we humbly pray that the honorable assembly would grant to us a quit claim of the aforesaid tract." The company was organized and the Indian title extinguished at the treaty of Albany in 1754. John Jameson was the son of Robert Jameson, and his wife was Abagail Alden. (See page 301.) Mrs. Hannah Pearce, the mother of Cromwell Pearce, was born about two months after the death of her father, John Jame- son. She married, in 1799, James Stewart, son of Captain Laza- rus Stewart, who commanded the Hanover company in the battle and massacre of Wyoming, where he fell bravely fighting in the defense of his country. James Stewart died in 1808. In 1819 his widow married Rev. Marmaduke Pearce. She died in Wilkes- Barre October 21, 1859.
Cromwell Pearce was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., July 1, 1823, and read law with M. E. Jackson, in Berwick, Pa. He left the
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WILLIAM HENRY BEAUMONT.
practice of the law in 1859, when he became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. He married, November 27, 1861, Sarah H. Taylor, a daughter of David Taylor. Mr. and Mrs. Pearce had one child- Carrie H., now the wife of M. Lincoln, M. D. Mr. Pearce died June 16, 1872. The late Hon. Stewart Pearce, of Wilkes-Barre, was his brother, as is also Rev. John J. Pearce, of the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, who, in 1854, was elected to the congress of the United States.
WILLIAM HENRY BEAUMONT.
William Henry Beaumont was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., April 8, 1851. He was a descendant of William Beaumont, of Carlisle, England, who settled in Saybrook, Conn., about 1648, and was made a freeman in 1652. Isaiah Beaumont, a descendant of William Beaumont, was a soldier of the revolu- tion, fighting with Washington at Trenton and at Princeton. In the latter battle he was severely wounded, and was discharged from the service on a pension. He removed in 1791 to the neighbor- hood of the Wyalusing creek, in Susquehanna county, Pa. The wife of Isaiah Beaumont was Fear Alden. Captain Jonathan Al- den, fourth son of John and Priscilla (Mullins) Alden, had four chil- dren. Andrew, his eldest child, married Lydia Stanford February 4, 1714, and they had eight children. They all resided in Leb- anon, Conn., and there Fear Alden, one of his children, married Isaiah Beaumont. Prince Alden, third child of Andrew and Lydia Alden, married Mary Fitch, of New London, Conn., who bore him ten children. Prince removed to the Wyoming valley in 1772 and settled in Newport township. He subsequently re- moved to Meshoppen, Luzerne (now Wyoming) county, where he died in 1804. (See page 306.)
Andrew Beaumont, son of Isaiah Beaumont, was born in Leb- anon, Conn., in 1791. In 1808 he came to this city, determined to obtain an education, and attended schools for several terms, paying for his tuition by the product of his labor. He was after-
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WILLIAM HENRY BEAUMONT.
wards engaged in teaching, and at the same time completing his studies in his home neighborhood and at the Wilkes-Barre acad- emy (where he subsequently taught), when, having thoroughly mastered a classical course, he entered the office of Garrick Mal- lery, in this city, as a student at law. At the termination of the usual period of study he passed the examination required, but was denied admission to the bar by Judge Scott, the presiding judge, on the ground that he had not read the necessary time .. This was a mere pretext, as Mr. Beaumont thought, and it had the effect of driving the candidate from the profession. In Jan- uary, 1814, he was appointed, under the administration of Presi- dent Madison, collector of revenue, direct taxes and internal duties for the twentieth collection district of Pennsylvania, which included Luzerne county. This office he held until 1816, when he was appointed prothonotary and clerk of the courts of Luzerne county. Mr. Beaumont held these offices until 1819. In 1821 he was elected to the legislature of the state, and reelected in 1822. In 1826 he was appointed postmaster of Wilkes-Barre and held the office until 1832. During the latter year he was a candidate for congress in the district composed of the counties of Luzerne and Columbia. The candidates were Mr. Beaumont, Thomas W. Miner, M. D., whig, and James McClintock, also a democrat, as Mr. Beaumont was. The fight was a bitter one, and the result was not known for a week afterward, and then it was ascertained that Mr. Beaumont was elected by a majority of eighty-eight votes. He was reelected to congress in 1834. During his ser- vice in congress the . celebrated contest of President Jackson against the United States bank occurred, and he took strong grounds with General Jackson as opposed to private institutions supported by the government. His course in this contest was sustained by his constituents by his reelection. He opposed and steadily voted against the bill which distributed the surplus rev- enue among the states. He enjoyed the close confidence and intimacy of Presidents Jackson, Van Buren and Polk, Vice Pres- ident King, General Lewis Cass, and others of his political party. In 1840 he was tendered, by President Van Buren, the appoint- ment of treasurer of the United States mint at Philadelphia, which, however, he declined, believing that he could be of better
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service at his home. In 1847 he was tendered the appointment by President Polk of commissioner of public buildings and grounds for the District of Columbia, at that time an office of great re- sponsibilty and requiring great executive ability in the incumbent. He accepted the office and continued therein until his nomi- nation was rejected by the United States senate, through the influence of Senator Benton, of Missouri, who opposed him on personal grounds. During 1849 he suffered from protracted illness, and, when partially recovered, exposed himself endeavor- ing to extinguish a fire in this city, thus sowing the seeds of the disease which finally carried him off. During his illness in the latter year he was again elected to the legislature of the state. During this service he urged the necessity of direct relations be- tween the state and the general government, and through his exertions and speeches the first committee on federal relations was created, of which he was chairman, and he made the first report on that subject ever presented to the Pennsylvania legis- lature. He was one of the organizers of St. Stephen's Episcopal church of this city in IS17, and was one of its first vestrymen. He was one of the founders of the Luzerne Bible Society in 1819, and for a number of years was one of its officers. A contempo- rary, writing of him, says : "With a friend who could appreciate the force and depth of his remarks, the corruscations of wit, fancy, eloquence and pathos, adorned with the wealth which a tenacious memory had extracted from classical and contemporary literature, would pour from his lips apparently unconscious of hours. In figure of speech, ready, trite and apposite compari- sons, we never knew his equal." He was well known for a period of forty years in Pennsylvania as a political writer, and his writings on subjects of political economy would fill volumes. He married, in 1813, Julia A. Colt, second daughter of Arnold Colt. (See page 495.) She survived her husband and died at Wilkes-Barre October 13, 1872. Andrew Beaumont died at the same place September 30, 1853. John Colt Beaumont, his eldest son, became a midship- man in 1838. He died in 1882, a rear admiral in the United States navy. Eugene Beauharnais Beaumont, his youngest son, graduated from West Point May 6, 1861. He is now major of the Fourth United States Cavalry, and lieutenant colonel by brevet.
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WILLIAM HANCOCK.
He also served as an adjutant general during a portion of the late civil war, and was brevetted colonel of volunteers. Andrew Beau- mont's eldest daughter married Samuel P. Collings, father of John B. Collings, of the Lackawanna bar.
William Henry Beaumont, the second son of Andrew Beau- mont, was born in Wilkes-Barre November 27, 1825, and read law with Charles Denison in this city. He served throughout the whole of the Mexican war, and was first sergeant of Company I, First Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. In connection with M. B. Barnum he started, in 1852, The True Democrat, a demo- cratic newspaper. The paper existed for about a year. Mr. Beaumont died in this city June 19, 1874. He was an unmar- ried man.
JOSEPH SLOCUM.
Joseph Slocum was commissioned as an associate judge of Lu- zerne county, Pa., April 28, 1851. (For a sketch of his life see page 339.)
WILLIAM HANCOCK.
William Hancock, who was commissioned an associate judge of Luzerne county, Pa., November 10, 1851, was the son of Jon- athan Hancock, a native of Snow Hill, Maryland, who removed to this city at an early day. His wife was Catharine Young. Mr. Hancock was a hotel keeper in this city for many years, and kept a hotel on the Public Square on lands now occupied by the Luzerne house. William Hancock, son of Jonathan Hancock, was born in Wilkes-Barre December 18, 1799. He was a tanner and currier by trade, and resided the greater part of his life in what is now the borough of Luzerne, in this county. He married, Feb- ruary 13, 1821, Laura Smith, daughter of Obadiah Smith, of
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CHARLES PIKE.
Wethersfield, Connecticut. By her he had six children. She died November 4, 1846. He married a second time, February 15, 1848, Elizabeth Denison, a sister of Hon. Charles Denison, and daughter of Lazarus Denison. (See pages 1087 and 1191.) By her he had three children. She died in May, 1855. William Hancock died at his residence, in Luzerne, Pa., January 7, 1859. James Hancock, of Plains, was a brother of William Hancock. Colonel E. A. Hancock, of Philadelphia, is one of his sons.
MARTIN CANAVAN.
Martin Canavan, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., August 10, 1852, was born in the county Sligo, Ire- land, in 1802. He was the son of John Canavan and his wife Catharine Canavan (nee Rogers). Martin Canavan emigrated to this country in early life and read law with Peter J. Byrne, LL. D., in Carbondale, Pa. He practiced in Scranton and Patterson, N. J. While in Patterson he was surrogate, recorder of deeds and associate judge. He married, in 1844, Catharine Corcoran, a daughter of Loughlin Corcoran and his wife Jane Corcoran (nee Cullen), natives of Kings county, Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Canavan had a family of three children-Mary A. Canavan, Thomas I. Canavan, and Frank P. Canavan.
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