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 4
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I. George Butler Griffin, born at New York September 8, 1840.
2. Ellen Anne Griffin, born at New York September 19, 1842, living (1889), unmarried.
3. Caroline Lydia Griffin, her twin sister, died December 7, 1844.
4. Charles DeForest Griffin, born at New York September 17, 1844; died at Clifton Springs, N. Y., July 8, 1863, unmarried.
All these were born at 74 Leonard street, New York city.
1. George Butler Griffin graduated at Columbia College 1857 ; became a civil engineer ; in 1857-8 went in the United States ex- pedition for a ship-canal survey at the south end of the Isthmus of Darien, under the late Captain T. A. M. Craven, U. S. N. In 1858-59 was assistant engineer on the Tehuantepec railway sur- veys. After his father's death he studied law at Yale Law School and the University of Albany ; was admitted at May (13th) term of the Supreme Court of New York, at Albany, 1861 ; married, No-
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GEORGE GRIFFIN.
vember 26, 1861, Sara (born March 11, 1841) daughter of Judge James Edwards and Susan (Tabor) Edwards, of Albany ; practiced at Davenport, Iowa; returned to Albany. Had two children- Llewellyn Edwards Griffin, born at Davenport, September 5, IS62, and Edmund Dorr Griffin, born at Albany, in 1864. Her health failing, he removed to St. Paul, Minn. She died there March 19, 1866, and the youngest child soon afterwards. Llew- ellyn E. had died in Albany in 1864. He remained in Minnesota a year, hunting and fishing ; had not practiced law since leaving Davenport. In 1865-6 became chief of field-work of the United States survey of the Illinois river for a ship canal. In 1867 he went to the republic of Colombia, South America; became chief of engineers (lieutenant colonel) in their service; resigned, and in 1869 became chief engineer of Buenaventura and Cali rail- road, and soon after chief engineer of state of Antioquia; re- signed in 1874 and made a visit to the United States ; returned to Colombia and became a planter at Palmira, in the Cauca val- ley ; took part in a revolution in 1876, and was exiled and his property seized ; went to San Francisco January 27, 1877, and be- came an assistant to Mr. H. H. Bancroft in the preparation of his- torical works for the press. In ISSo he visited Europe. In the autumn of that year he accompanied the late Mr. J. B. Eads to Mexico as his chief of staff, and aided in obtaining the concession for the Tehuantepec ship-railway. In 1881 he located the Atlan- tic and Pacific railway across the Mojave desert, in California. In 1882 he was admitted to the bar of California at Los Angeles,where he now resides. He gives hisexclusive attention to land titles. Oc- tober 26, 1870, he married, at Buga, United States of Colombia (by proxy), Eva Guadalupe, born at Palmira, in that republic, De- cember 12, 1850, third daughter of Manuel Maria Garcia de la Plaza, doctor of civil law, and Maria Engracia Gil de Tejada, his wife. His children are :
I. Eva Rosa, born at Medellin, state of Antioquia, United States of Colombia, June 19, 1872.
2. Pastora Engracia, born at same place, May 29, 1874.
3. Helena Maria, born at Palmira, state of Cauca, United States of Colombia, May 19, 1876. .
4. Georgina Lydia, born at San Francisco, California, April 23, 1878.
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THOMAS DYER.
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5. Francisca Julia, born at San Francisco, California, April 30, ISSO; died at Los Angeles, Cal., November 26, 1881.
6. Jasper, born at Los Angeles, Cal., June 26, 1883.
7. Clementina Ruth, born at Los Angeles, Cal., September 7, 1886.
8. Carolina Alma DeForest, born at Los Angeles, Cal., Feb- ruary 25, 1889.
THOMAS DYER.
Thomas Dyer, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., in 1802, was a descendant of Thomas Dyer, a native of Wey- mouth, Massachusetts, who settled in Windham, Conn., about 1715. He married Lydia, a daughter of John Backus, gathered a good estate, was a deputy to the general assembly in several sessions, and major of a Windham county regiment. His only son, Eliphalet Dyer, grandfather of the subject of our sketch, born in Windham, September 14, 1721, was sent to Yale College and graduated in 1740, studied law and began practice in his native town. On May 9, 1745, he married Huldah Bowen, a daughter of Colonel Jabez Bowen, of Provi- dence, R. I. He was chosen deputy to the general assembly in 1747, and again in 1752, but his real entry to public life was through his connection with the project of establishing a Con- necticut colony in the valley of the Susquehanna. Mr. Dyer was an active and influential promoter of this enterprise; an orig- inal member of the Susquehanna Company, formed in 1753, one of the committee to purchase the Indian title to the land selected for the proposed colony at Wyoming, and one of the company's agents to petition the general assembly in 1755 for permission to settle on these lands, which were then believed to be within the chartered limits of Connecticut. The operations of the Sus- quehanna Company were interrupted by the war with France. In 1755 Mr. Dyer was appointed lieutenant colonel of one of the regiments sent by Connecticut to assist in the reduction of Crown Point, and in 1758 he was made colonel of a regiment in
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the expedition against Canada. In 1759 and 1760 he was a mem- ber of the general assembly, and in 1762 was elected an Assist- ant (or member of the Upper House), and was continued in that office by annual reelection until 1784. In 1763 Colonel Dyer went to England as the agent of the Susquehanna Company to solicit from the crown a confirmation of their title to the tract pur- chased of the Indians at Wyoming, and permission to settle a colony there. The application was resisted by Pennsylvania and was still pending when war broke out between Great Britain and her American colonies. In 1765 he was appointed one (the first named) of the delegates from Connecticut to the "Stamp Act Congress" at New York -- "the first great step toward Independ- ence." Through the ten years' struggle against the exactions of Great Britain to the actual outbreak of the revolution, Colonel Dyer never wavered in his devotion to the popular cause. When the Connecticut Committee of Correspondence met at New London, July 13, 1774, authorized by the general assembly to appoint delegates to the congress at Philadelphia, their first choice fell upon Colonel Dyer, and he unhesitatingly accepted the appointment. He was present at the opening of the con- gress, September 5, and was a member of the committee on the rights of the colonies, appointed on September 7. He was reelected to the congress of 1775, and to each succeeding con- gress till 1783, except those of 1776 and 1779. In the spring of 1775 he was named one of the "Council of Safety," to assist the governor in the management of all public affairs when the general assembly was not in session, and the journals of this body show that he was continually employed in arduous duties and in the discharge of important trusts. He had been appointed a judge of the superior court in 1766, and retained his seat on the bench until 1793, becoming chief judge in 1789. In 1787 Yale College conferred on him the honorary degree of doctor of laws. He appeared as one of the agents for Connec- ticut before the court of commissioners appointed by con- gress to finally determine the controversy with Pennsylvania respecting the Susquehanna lands, at the hearing at Trenton, in November, 1782. After his resignation of the office of chief judge he retired from public life. He died at Windham May 13,
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THOMAS DYER.
1807, aged 86 years. Yale gave him the degree of D. D. in 1777. John Adams said of him: "Dyer is long winded and roundabout, obscure and cloudy, very talkative and very tedious, yet an hon- est, worthy man ; means and judges well." Major Thomas Dyer, an officer of the revolutionary war, was the son of Eliphalet Dyer, · who was the father of Thomas Dyer, of the Luzerne bar, who was born at Windham, Conn., in 1771, and died at Wilkes-Barre Sep- tember 21, 1861. He was appointed a justice of the peace in 1806, and held the office over forty-five years. He was one of the trustees of the Wilkes-Barre Academy from 1807 to 1838, and for seven years was its president. In ISII he was treasurer of the county of Luzerne. He first visited this valley in 1797, remaining only a short time, but again he returned and located himself permanently in Wilkes-Barre in 1800. At that time he was nearly twenty years of age, and commenced his active duties in this place by taking charge of the academy, pursuing the study of the law at the same time. Familiarly known among lawyers as the chief justice, he was often, from his great experi- ence, consulted by his brother justices and even by judges on the bench, for his practice under and construction of the act of ISIO and its supplements. There were in those days no Binn's or Mc- Kinney's justice to appeal to, and the ipse dixit of Squire Dyer upon such questions was regarded as safe and reliable authority. His duties as a justice prevented his giving much attention to the practice of the law, yet he was a sound and thoroughly read law- yer. Abstruse questions in legal science delighted him much, and no one could give him greater pleasure than the suggestion of questio vexata or a disputed point which would require investiga- tion and search in the books. Fearne, on Contingent Remainders, was more interesting to him than the newest novel or the light production of some celebrated writer is to an ordinary reader. He had no taste for works of mere imagination, and as to fiction, we doubt if he ever thought of it, except in connection with the legal inventions and forms connected with common recoveries or feigned issues. He was rather a terror to the young law student under examination who, with forwardness or want of becoming modesty, threw down the gauntlet for his opposition ; but to modest and diffident worth, which showed an honest inquiry
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JOHN EVANS.
after knowledge, the kindness of his heart opened with great satisfaction the gathered stores of his own acquirements. The polemic or theologian too who in the days of his prime rashly attacked him on doctrinal or disputed questions found him a ready combatant, an able disputant, and one from whom in such 'a contest he would not often escape unscathed. Bred in the school of the Puritans, he was ever a reader of the book of books -the Holy Bible ; familiar with every part of it, its moral lessons and its holy truths were always weapons of his argument. Some- times when citizens came to consult him on questions of man's law of perhaps doubtful morality, he did not hesitate to answer by another significant question-" What says the law of God ?" Mr. Dyer had no children. He married late in life the widow of the late Silas Jackson of this city, who preceded him into the land of spirits about twelve years. He departed from among us full of years, and has left behind him the name of an honest, worthy, and excellent citizen.
JOHN EVANS.
John Evans was admitted to the Luzerne county, Pa, bar as early as 1804. He resided here and probably practiced his pro- fession until about 1816. He purchased, May 3, ISIO, of James Thompson, "two certain quarries or beds of stone coal" in Pitts- ton township, under one hundred and twenty-six acres of land, for the sum of eight hundred dollars. This shows that he was far ahead of his day in estimating the value of coal. We have been unable to ascertain anything of his family.
By the act of February 24, 1806, entitled "An Act to alter the judiciary system of the Commonwealth," the state was re- districted and several new districts were created. Among these was the eighth, composed of the counties of Luzerne, Lycoming and Northumberland. The governor was directed to appoint
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THOMAS COOPER.
a president in each of the new districts created by the act. Section 15 of the same act provided "That if a vacancy shall hereafter happen in any county at present organized, by the death, resignation or removal of any associate judge or otherwise, the governor shall not supply the same unless the number of associ- ates shall be thereby reduced to less than two, in which case, or in any case of any county hereafter organized, he shall commis- sion so many as will complete that number in each county and no more." The first court held in Luzerne after the passage of the foregoing act was April term, 1806, and was presided over by Thomas Cooper as president judge.
THOMAS COOPER.
Thomas Cooper was admitted to the Luzerne county, Pa., bar in 1796, and appointed president judge of the eighth judicial district March 1, 1806. He was born in London, England, October 22, 1759. He was early sent to Oxford, where he thoroughly studied the classics, though the bent of his mind was toward the natural sciences. While studying law he ex- tended his researches into anatomy and medicine. He was admitted to the bar and travelled a circuit for a few years; but entering into the political agitations of the period, he was sent, in company with Mr. Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, by the democratic clubs of England to the affiliated clubs in France. In this latter country he took part with the Girondists, but per- ceiving their inevitable downfall, escaped to England. For this journey he and his friend Mr. Watt were called to account by Mr. Burke in the house of commons, which led to a violent pamphlet from Mr. Cooper. His publisher, proposing to put it in a cheaper form for general circulation, received a note from Sir John Scott, attorney general, informing liim that, although there was no exception to be taken to his pamphlet when in the hands of the upper class, yet the government would not allow it to appear in a shape to insure its circulation among the people. While in France he had learned the secret of making chlorine
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THOMAS COOPER.
from common salt, and he now became a bleacher and calico printer in Manchester, but his business was unsuccessful. He came to America in 1795, whither his friend Priestley had already emigrated, and established himself at Northumberland, Pa., as a lawyer. But the politics of this country was also attractive to him, and uniting with the democrats, he opposed with vivacity the administration of John Adams. For a violent attack on Adams in a Pennsylvania newspaper in 1799 he was tried for a libel under the sedition act of 1800, and sentenced to six months' imprison- ment and a fine of $400. The democratic party coming into power, he transacted in 1806 the business of a land commissioner on the part of the state with such energy as to triumph over dif- ficulties with the Connecticut claimants in this county which had broken down two previous commissioners ; but, being appointed to the office of judge of this judicial district, was exceedingly stern and severe ; became obnoxious to the members of his own party, and was removed on the following, among other charges of arbitrary conduct : The first charge against him was fining persons and immuring them in prison for whispering in court. Cooper's reply was : " One Hollister, a constable, was merely given in custody of the sheriff one hour, until the disposal of a case, and then fined two dollars." This was in Wilkes-Barre in 1807. The next week Mr. Hollister published a communication in the Federalist in which he denounced Judge Cooper as an English tyrant, and called on the people to unite against him to secure his removal and the appointment of an American judge. The third charge against him was: "After sentencing a felon, calling him from prison and pronouncing a second sentence, increasing the penalty." This referred to the case of young Gough, a horse thief, convicted at Wilkes-Barre. The court sen- tenced him to twelve months, he having plead guilty. The next morning Judges Hollenback and Fell informed Judge Cooper they had understood he was an old offender. "I gave it as my opinion," says Judge Cooper, "that during the sessions the judg- ments were in the power of the court and subject to revisal. He was re-sentenced to three years." The committee to investigate the charges met March 7, 1811. John B. Gibson, subsequently Judge Gibson, was one of the committee. After the examination
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of many witnesses the committee reported that the judge's "con- duct had been arbitrary, unjust and precipitate," and in favor of an address to the governor for his removal. More than two-thirds of the legislature voted for his removal, and he was accordingly superseded by the governor on April 2, 1811. Judge Wilson, of Northumberland county, said that "the court was very disor- derly before Judge Cooper's time. I have seen Judge Rush leave the bench. It is now very orderly." The late George W. Woodward used to relate that when Judge Burnside held his first court in Clearfield county the people crowded in among the lawyers and in front of the bench. An indictment was brought in against one Pennington. The judge called out, "Is Penning- ton in court ?" A stalwart man standing in front of the crowd said : "Jedge, you better call out the whole damn grist of the Penningtons." The judge put on a severe look and commenced a lecture to the man for disturbing the court. After he proceeded for awhile the man said : "Hush up, jedge, you are making a damned sight more disturbance than I did." Subsequently Judge Cooper successively occupied the chair of chemistry in Dickinson Col- lege, in the University of Pennsylvania, and in Columbia College, South Carolina, of which last institution he became president in 1820, and in which he discharged also the duties of professor of chemistry and of political economy. On his retirement in 1834, the revision of the statutes of the state was confided to him, and he died in the performance of this duty, May 11, 1840, at Colum- bia, S. C. Mr. Cooper was alike eminent for the versatility of his talent and the extent of his knowledge. He published, in 1794, in London, a volume of "Information Concerning America ;" in 1800, a collection of "Political Essays," reprinted from a Penn- sylvania newspaper ; in 1812, in Philadelphia, a translation of the "Institutes of Justinian ;" in 1819, a work on "Medical Jurispru- dence ;" in 1812-14, two of the five volumes entitled the "Empo- rium of Arts and Sciences," which were published in Philadel- phia ; and in 1826, at Charleston, South Carolina, his academic " Lectures on the Elements of Political Economy." He was a vigorous pamphleteer in various political contests, and an admi- rable conversationalist. In philosophy he was a materialist, and in religion a Unitarian.
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WASHINGTON LEE.
WASHINGTON LEE.
Washington Lee, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., April 25, 1806, was born in Harrisburg, Pa., June 18, 1786. His father, Andrew Lee, captain of dragoons in the army of the revolution, and one of the band celebrated in Penn- sylvania history as the " Paxtang Boys," had served his country with some distinction under General Sullivan, and had even been permitted to see the interior of one of the British prison hulks in New York harbor, famous then, as now, as "floating hells." The captain survived the horrors which were fatal to so many of his comrades, and being finally exchanged, hastened home to Paxtang, Pa., to recruit his shattered health. Before the close of the year, however, Cornwallis had surrendered. Great Brit- ain saw the futility of her efforts to retain these colonies and finally, September 3, 1783, signed with her late rebellious sub- jects a definitive treaty of peace. With this conclusion Captain Lee found his occupation gone, and taking unto himself a wife in the person of Mrs. Priscilla Stewart (nee Espy), the widow of James Stewart, he moved to Harrisburg, purchased a well known inn there, and prepared to entertain the travelling public. In this house was born Washington Lee and his brother James S. Lee. James S. in after years moved to Hanover township, in this county. Washington Lee, after attending school at Harris- burg, entered the law office of George Fisher, a prominent prac- . titioner of that place, and on March 3, 1806, was duly admitted to practice law in the courts of Dauphin county. He had deter- mined, however, that a military career would be more to his tastes, and he early sought the influence of his friends to aid him in gaining a position in the army. A staunch friend of his father, Hlon. John Joseph Henry, was then presiding on the bench of Dauphin county, and from him he readily secured a commenda- tory letter to Henry Dearborn, the secretary of war. By the same influence he also enlisted Hon. Andrew Gregg, United States senator from Pennsylvania, in his service, and May 3, 1808, he rejoiced in the receipt of his commission as second lieutenant in the army of the United States, and a letter from the war de-
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WASHINGTON LEE.
- partment ordering him to report at the rendezvous at Lancaster. In compliance with this order he hastened to his post and im- mediately entered upon the performance of his duties. From this date until that of his retirement from the service, eight years later, his career was one unbroken series of successes. He was commissioned first lieutenant of the fifth regiment of infantry April 1, 1811. He had already served as judge advocate of the southern army, under General Wade Hampton, since February 19, 1810, and continued so to act until appointed assistant adju- tant general, June 24, 1812. On July 23 following, he was com- missioned captain, and March 3, 1813, received his majority. In June of this year he was appointed deputy postmaster general of the United States forces, and he received his commission as lieu- tenant colonel of the eleventh infantry January 1, 1815. On May 3, 1816, Colonel Lee withdrew from the military service, and on June 16, 1817, he married Elizabeth Campbell, the daughter of an episcopal minister, residing in Carlisle, Pa. The young couple immediately removed to Nanticoke, Pa., where Colonel Lee had purchased a farm of about one thousand acres. This land he after- wards sold for one million two hundred thousand dollars. Here in a comfortable mansion erected on the east bank of the Susque- hanna river, at the very foot of the valley of Wyoming, they began, passed and ended a half century of wedded life. In December, 1867, just fifty years from the date of her first ac- quaintance with the old homestead, Mrs. Lee died childless. Her husband, full of years and feeble in health, bore with his loneli- ness until May, 1869, when, at the urgent solicitation of his friends, he removed to Wilkes-Barre. Here two years later, September 10, 1871, ready and willing, he peacefully breathed his last. In person Colonel Lee was tall and of dignified presence. His gentle manners and courtly bearing greatly endeared him to all who possessed his acquaintance. His habits were of the strict- est simplicity. His mind had always been of a studious charac- ter, and in the later years of his life he found refuge from his isolation in his acquaintance with the philosophy and classics of the ancients. He was the impersonation of integrity and recti- tude. He possessed his faculties to the very end, and with the utmost composure saw the approach of that messenger from whose coming old and young alike shrink with dread.
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SETH CHAPMAN.
FRANCIS McSHANE.
Francis McShane, who was admitted to the Philadelphia bar March 1, 1802, was admitted to the Luzerne county bar, Pa., August 8, 1810. He was a native of Philadelphia, where he was born in 1779, and was a son of Barnabas McShane, of Phila- delphia. In ISII he erected a small cut-nail manufactory in Wilkes-Barre, and used anthracite coal in smelting the iron. He conducted a successful business for two or three years, selling nails by wholesale or retail, to suit purchasers. On January 18, 1813, he was appointed a justice of the peace for the townships of Hanover, Newport and Wilkes-Barre. His wife was Frances Bulkeley, daughter of Eliphalet Bulkeley, a native of Colchester, Conn. (For further particulars regarding the Bulkeley family see page 287.) Mr. McShane died in 1815, and his widow subse- quently married Colonel Henry F. Lamb. Mr. McShane left no children. Hon. Robert McShane, who died at Pointe Coupee, La., October 18, 1811, was judge of that parish. He was a brother of Francis McShane, and was born in Philadelphia in 1780. He was admitted to the bar there December 26, 1803.
Judge Cooper was succeeded by Seth Chapman, who took his seat, and first held court in Luzerne at August term, ISII. He continued to preside in the county until 1813. The last term of court at which he presided in Luzerne was April term, 1813.
SETH CHAPMAN.
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Seth Chapman, the third president judge of Luzerne county, Pa., held his first court in Wilkes .Barre at the August term, ISII. His letter of acceptance is as follows :
NEWTOWN, July 16th, ISII.
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