USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and its centennial celebration, Volume I > Part 37
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The behaviour of the principals on the ground was perfectly calm and undaunted and this unfortunate transaction was conducted in conformity to the arrangements which had been previously made, and to the strictest rules of honor.
Bates was very popular, and so much feeling was manifested against Wilkins that he left the State and remained for a year with his brother, Charles Wilkins, at Lexington, Ky. Stewart, the survivor, went to Philadelphia, where he held for years an honorable post in the Custom House.
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In 1842 Judge Wilkins was again elected to the House of Representatives in Congress. After the explosion of the great gun on board the Princeton in February, 1844, which killed two members of the Cabinet, President Tyler appointed Mr. Wilkins Secretary of War, which office he held until March, 1845. In 1855 he was elected to the State Senate from Allegheny County for one term. He was twice married, his second wife being a Dallas of the famous Pennsylvania family of that name. In politics Judge Wilkins was a Democrat, but during the Civil War was an ardent supporter of the Federal Government. He died in the eighty-seventh year of his age, June 23, 1865, at his residence in Homewood.
Hon. Charles Shaler was born in Connecticut in 1788, and was educated at Yale College. His father having been ap- pointed one of the commissioners to lay off the Western Reserve tract in Ohio, purchased a large amount of land in that State near Ravenna, where is a village called from him, Shalersville. In looking after these interests Charles Shaler was led to reside for a time in Ravenna, and was admitted to the bar there in 1809. In 1813 he became a member of the Pittsburg bar. From 1818 to 1821 he was recorder of the Mayor's court of Pittsburg. On the resignation of Judge Wil- kins he was appointed his successor, his commission dating June 5, 1824, and he sat in Beaver until the formation of the Seventeenth District by the Act of April 1, 1831. He continued president judge of the old district three years longer, resigning May 4, 1835. He was afterwards (May 6, 1841) appointed asso- ciate judge of the District Court of Allegheny County, from which position he resigned May 20, 1844. In 1853 he was ap- pointed by President Pierce United States District Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. A son of Judge Shaler, Col. James R. Shaler, is superintendent of the Panama Railroad Company at Colon, Panama; and Major Charles Shaler of the United States Army, now stationed at Watervliet Arsenal, Troy, N. Y., is also a son. Three daughters of Judge Shaler, Augusta, Eleanore, and Elizabeth, died of the yellow fever at Colon, in 1903, on April 24th, May 4th, and May Ioth respectively, each succumbing after a brief illness.
Judge Shaler was one who worthily sustained the traditions
John Bredin. President Judge, 1831-1851.
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of judicial honor, and his abilities were recognized by the pro- fession as of a high order. He retired from active practice at the age of seventy-five, having become blind, and died at New- ark, N. J., March 5, 1869, in the eighty-first year of his age. Shaler township, Allegheny County, was named from him.
Hon. John Bredin of Butler, Pa., was appointed by Governor George Wolf president judge of the new (Seventeenth) District in 1831; and he was commissioned during good behavior. By the amended Constitution of 1838, his term of office was reduced from good behavior to ten years, and his term made to expire on the 27th of February, 1842. He was re-appointed by Gover- nor David R. Porter in 1842, and his term would have expired, under the amendment of the Constitution of 1851, on the first Monday of December, 1852. He died suddenly on the 21st of May, 1851.
Meetings of the bars of the Seventeenth District were held on the occasion of Judge Bredin's death, and minutes of respect adopted, with eloquent eulogies of his life and character. Such a meeting was held at Beaver, May 24, 1851. Hon. John Carothers was chosen chairman, and Thomas Cunningham, Esq., secretary. A committee of five, consisting of William B. Clarke, Daniel Agnew, John Allison, B. B. Chamberlin, and Richard P. Roberts, Esqs., reported a series of resolutions appropriate to the occasion, in part as follows :
Resolved, That in this afflictive dispensation of Divine Providence, the bench, the bar and the people of this district have to deplore the loss of a distinguished judge of great judicial experience, of talents of a high order, of extensive legal learning and unbending integrity.
Resolved, That Judge Bredin, whose loss we so deeply deplore, possessed in an eminent degree the entire confidence of all classes and parties of the people, not only in this district, but throughout the State; all respected him for those sterling qualities which he possessed, which did honor to the State and gave dignity to the bench.
Resolved, that Judge Bredin, as a man, was truly patriotic in all his views and feelings; a fast, firm friend of the institutions of our country; and in the high judicial position which he so long and so honorably held gave evidence not only of legal learning and abilities of a high order, but of strict, stern and determined purpose in the discharge of all his official duties. Whilst doing equal justice to all, he was kind, courteous and gentlemanly in all his various relations with the bench, the bar and the people of the district.
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The next occupant of the bench of Beaver County was one who came to fill a large place in the legal life of the county and State and Nation. At the time of the Centennial Celebration of the erection of Beaver County, he was still living in the county- seat at the advanced age of ninety-one years past, and abun- dantly possessing all
That which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends.
His eminent public services demand that somewhat full biographical notice should be given to him in our present chronicle.
The Hon. Daniel Agnew, LL.D., ex-Chief Justice of Pennsyl- vania, was born at Trenton, N. J., January 5, 1809. When between four and five years of age he was brought by his parents to Butler County, Pa., and thence, after a brief stay, to Pitts- burg, where he grew to manhood. In 1818 he became a pupil in the academy of Joseph Stockton, and, on its organization, of the Western University, Pittsburg, and graduated in July, 1825. In October following he began the study of law under Messrs. Henry Baldwin and W. W. Fetterman, prominent Pittsburg lawyers. He was admitted to the bar in April, 1829, when scarcely more than twenty years of age. Discouraged with his professional prospects there, he left Pittsburg and came to Beaver, in August, 1829, intending to return; but his success in obtaining a good practice, and his marriage in 1831 to Miss Elizabeth Moore, daughter of General Robert Moore, determined him to remain. His first entry into public life was in 1836, when he was elected to the Constitutional Convention, which in 1837-38 sat in Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Notwithstanding his increasing practice he took an active part in the following years in the political affairs of the county, and of the country at large, and on July 11, 1851, was appointed by Governor Johnston president judge of the Seventeenth Judicial District of Pennsyl- vania, then composed of Beaver, Butler, Mercer, and Lawrence counties, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Bredin. In the following October he was elected to the same office for the full term of ten years, and was re-elected in 1861.
During the dark days of the Rebellion Judge Agnew was so pronounced a Unionist, and brought so much legal learning and
3
Daniel Agnew.
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ability to the defense of the Government, especially distinguish- ing himself in his address on "The National Constitution in its Adaptation to a State of War or Insurrection," delivered at New Castle, and repeated by special request of the Legislature at Harrisburg, that he was nominated by the Republicans in 1863 for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and in October of that year was elected as the successor of Chief Justice Lowrie.
In the Supreme Court Judge Agnew was almost immediately called upon to render opinions in cases of the utmost import- ance to the Government-on the draft question, on the de facto standing of the Confederacy, on the "greenbacks," the right of deserters to vote, etc.,-and in these war questions, his opinions bear the stamp of profound learning and statesmanship. Judge Agnew became Chief Justice in 1873, holding the position until the end of the term, January, 1879. His active work, however, closed with the end of the Pittsburg term, November, 1878, and the bar of Allegheny County, wishing to give expression to their cordial feeling, tendered him, on the 26th of November, 1878, a complimentary banquet at the Monongahela House. It was a notable occasion, and there was then paid to him the following high tribute :
A judge profound and learned in the law; just and upright in its administration,-fearing not the face of man,-he has discharged the grave and important duties of his high office with rare and conscientious industry and fidelity. An earnest and steadfast friend and defender of the rights of the people, he retires with hands "clear and uncorrupt" in act and intention.
After this, at threescore years and ten, he retired to his home in Beaver. He refused further law practice, except in two notable cases: one was that of Allegheny County in the great rail- road riots of 1877, the other that of Kelly vs. the City of Pitts- burg. His leisure was now devoted to literary studies, and to the publication of some of his gathered stores of knowledge, legal and other. In 1887 was published his Settlement and Land Titles of Northwestern Pennsylvania. He still found time, however, to take part in whatever concerned the public good, making many public addresses on civic, patriotic, and reform questions. He was especially active and influential in the temperance move- ment. Judge Agnew was twice honored with the degrees of LL.D., first by Washington College and then Dickinson. It is
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an interesting fact, and one not generally known, that Judge Agnew was highly endowed with mechanical genius, and that to him is due the honor of inventing the air-brake, now so import- ant to the railway world. Considerations of propriety connected with his judicial position alone prevented his contesting in the courts Mr. Westinghouse's right to the patent on this useful and lucrative invention.
Judge Agnew has added luster to the bench of Beaver County and of Pennsylvania. His labors are but partially recorded in the long list of his opinions contained in the forty-four volumes of the State Reports, commencing with 9th Wright and ending with 7th Norris. An eminent lawyer has said of him:
In his opinions, if compiled in compact form, the lawyer and student would have a formidable compilation of the law upon almost every con- ceivable topic,-every branch, division and specialty of the science having received scrutinizing analysis and wise determination. Seeking the truth with conscientious industry, no cause was too small to merit his thorough investigation, none too large for the comprehensive grasp of his powers.
For over sixty years Judge Agnew lived in a frame house located directly opposite the court-house in Beaver, in which he died, March 9, 1902, in his ninety-fourth year. His wife died in 1888, aged seventy-nine years. He is survived by two sons and two daughters, namely, Attorneys Frank H. Agnew and Robert M. Agnew, and Mrs. Amanda Brown, wife of Rev. Walter Brown; and Sarah H. Hice, wife of ex-Judge Henry Hice.
Hon. Lawrence L. McGuffin of New Castle, Pa., was ap- pointed, on the resignation of Daniel Agnew, to take his place on the Supreme Bench, by Governor Andrew G. Curtin, to fill the vacancy until the next annual election. He was elected in 1864 and sat in Beaver two years, or until 1866, when Beaver County was cut off from the Seventeenth District. His term as president judge of that district would have expired in December, 1874, but was prolonged by the new Constitution of 1873 to the first Monday of January, 1875. He failed of re-election in the contest for judgeship in 1874, and returned to his practice at the bar. Mr. McGuffin had been admitted to the bar in 1839, and had practised in New Castle for ten years before Lawrence County was formed (1849). He was one of the most zealous promoters of the new-county project, the carrying out of which made his home, New Castle, the county-seat.
L. L. McGuffin. President Judge, 1863-1866.
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Judge McGuffin was a student of John J. Pearson of Mercer, afterwards a distinguished judge of the Dauphin County dis- trict. Before taking up the study of law he had been a cabinet maker. He was a leader at the bar, and on his elevation to the bench worthily filled his office as judge. Long before the end of his judicial term his health began to decline. He died in New Castle, Pa., August 23, 1880.
Hon. Brown B. Chamberlin was appointed and commissioned by Governor Curtin on February 3, 1866, as president judge of the new Twenty-seventh Judicial District, composed of the counties of Beaver and Washington. He was to hold office until the first Monday of the following December, by which time an elected judge should be chosen. At the general election of October, 1866, he was defeated for the office by Alexander W. Acheson of the Washington bar.
Judge Chamberlin was born in Frelighsburg, Missisquoi County, Canada East (now Quebec), May 22, 1810. His parents, Dr. John B. Chamberlin and Mercy Chamberlin, were natives of Richmond, Berkshire County, Mass. In 1812, at the outbreak of the war with England, the family returned to the United States, settling at Auburn, N. Y. The son was educated at academies at Lewiston and Buffalo; began the study of law with an uncle, Hon. Bates Cooke, the Controller of the State of New York during Governor Seward's administration, and H. S. Stone, and completed his course in the office of Hon. Millard Fillmore at Buffalo, 1833-34, being there admitted to the bar in 1834. About 1836 he came to Bridgewater. He became a member of the bar of Beaver County June 5, 1837, and was given charge of the real estate interests of Mr. Fillmore in Beaver County. Later he removed to New Brighton, where through his influence with Fillmore, then President of the United States, the first post-office in New Brighton was established, Mr. Cham- berlin being made the first postmaster.
Mr. Chamberlin edited several newspapers in Fallston and New Brighton during the years 1830 to 1840, and from 1853 to 1855 represented Beaver County in the Legislature, where dur- ing his last year he was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. After his brief service on the bench, Judge Chamberlin re- sumed his practice at the Beaver County bar, and continued it
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until about 1887, when he retired and lived quietly in New Brighton for several years. He died on March 23, 1891, at eighty-one years of age. Judge Chamberlin was never married. Politically he was a Republican, though in the contest for judgeship referred to above he had been placed on the Demo- cratic ticket. In religious faith he was early in life a Presby- terian, but later became an Episcopalian. He had a brother, Darwin, a druggist, at St. Clair, Michigan.
Hon. Alexander W. Acheson, as stated, was elected in Octo- ber, 1866, and commissioned by Governor Curtin as president judge of the Twenty-seventh District, November 15, 1866. He sat in Beaver until 1874, when by the Act of Assembly of April 9th in that year, Beaver County was made a separate judicial district, the Thirty-sixth. This severed Judge Acheson's con- nection with Beaver County, but he held his full term of ten years in Washington County.
Judge Acheson was of Scotch-Irish descent. His grand- father, George Acheson, was an elder in the Seceders Congrega- tion of Market Hill, County Armagh, Ireland. His father, David, emigrated to America in 1788, and came to Washington, Pa., where he married Mary Wilson, daughter of John Wilson, who settled at Washington in 1789. Alexander W. was the second child of this union, and was born July 15, 1809, in Phila- delphia, where his parents resided for some time after their marriage. Judge Acheson's long and eminently useful life is part of the history of Washington County. He was a son of Washington College, graduating in the class of 1827. His law studies were conducted in Washington under William Baird, Esq., and he was there admitted to the bar in June, 1832. For over fifty years he was identified either as lawyer, deputy attor- ney general (district attorney), or judge with the legal affairs of his county. After his term of service as president judge ex- pired he returned to the bar, and associated with his son, Marcus C. Acheson, and his nephew, James I. Brownson, Jr., he con- tinued in active practice until his death, on July 10, 1890. Ernest F. Acheson, a son, is at present (1904) a representative from Washington County, Pa., in the National Congress.
Hon. Henry Hice was the first president judge of the new Thirty-sixth Judicial District, to which position he was ap-
B. B. Chamberlin. President Judge, 1866-1867.
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pointed and commissioned on the 30th of April, 1874. He was elected for the following term and served to its close on January 1, 1885, when he resumed his practice at the bar of Beaver County. Judge Hice was born in Hopewell township, this county, January 24, 1834. He began the study of law in 1857 with Col. Richard P. Roberts, and was admitted to the bar of his native county in June, 1859. He entered into partnership with his preceptor immediately afterwards, and this relation continued until the death of Colonel Roberts at the battle of Gettysburg. From 1871 to 1877 his home was in Beaver Falls, but in the latter year he returned to Beaver. The judge has for many years been the legal adviser of the Harmony Society and the Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad, and closely connected with many of the most important business enterprises of the county. His practice at the bar both before and after his service on the bench has been large, showing the confidence which the people of this county and other parts of the country have in him as an able and honorable counselor. His son Agnew, a scion worthy of his sire, is now associated with him in the law business, the firm name being Hice & Hice. Judge Hice has been twice married, his first wife being Ruth Ann Ralston, who died in 1872. His second marriage in 1877 was to Mrs. Sarah H. Minis, a daughter of Chief Justice Agnew.
Hon. John J. Wickham was born May 14, 1844, in County Meath, Ireland, and, when he was about five years of age, came with his parents to America, the family settling immediately in Beaver. His early education was in the public schools and the academy at Beaver, and when he was about seventeen years old he learned telegraphy. Entering the United States Military Telegraph Corps he served during the Civil War in various com- mands as a cipher expert, being for some months a prisoner, part of the time in Libby. After the war he continued this work on the staff of Gen .. George H. Thomas. In 1867 he re- signed and, returning to Beaver, commenced the study of law with S. B. Wilson, Esq. After his admission to the bar in 1869, he practised for a short time in Des Moines, Iowa, when he returned and formed a partnership with Mr. Wilson, his precep- tor, which continued until 1875. In 1884 he was nominated for the office of president judge of Beaver County on the
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Republican ticket, and was elected. He was re-elected in 1894, and sat until 1895, when he was appointed one of the judges of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. He was elected to this posi- tion subsequently, and sat until his death on the 18th of June, 1898. In 1874 Judge Wickham was married to Lida J., daugh- ter of Charles D. and Abigail K. Hurlbutt of Beaver. An appreciative estimate of Judge Wickam's character and ability may be read in the Centennial address of Judge Hice (see vol. ii., Centennial Section).
Hon. Millard F. Mecklem, a son of Archibald M. and Mar- garet (Thompson) Mecklem, was born in Pittsburg, Pa., Octobe - 15, 1851. Mr. Mecklem obtained his education in the public schools of Darlington and the North Sewickley Academy. He taught for several years in the public schools, and then regis- tered as a law student in the office of Chamberlin & Peirsol of New Brighton. He was admitted to the bar, March 6, 1882, and in the fall of that year located in Rochester, where he has since resided and practised his profession. In 1883 he was elected burgess of Rochester, to which office he was five times re-elected. In 1890 he, was elected district attorney of Beaver County, and served five years and six months. On the eleva- tion of Judge Wickham to the Superior Court in 1895, Mr. Meck- lem was appointed president judge of Beaver County, and served with great acceptance to the bar and the people to the end of the term, when he was succeeded by the present occupant of the bench, Hon. James Sharp Wilson. In 1881 Judge Mecklem was united in marriage to Ella Jackson, a daughter of Robert and Eliza (Thompson) Jackson of North Sewickley township. There are five children of this marriage-Erle H., Norman J., Ella, Margaret, and Millard.
Hon. James Sharp Wilson, the present incumbent of the office of president judge of Beaver County, was born on a farm in Franklin township, November 10, 1862. He received his early education in the public schools, in which he also taught at the age of fifteen, and later entered Geneva College, from which he graduated in the class of 1885. After graduation he entered the office of the Hon. Henry Hice of Beaver, as a stu- dent of the law, teaching at intervals in the academy at Har- mony, Pa., and two terms of night school at New Brighton, and
Alexander W. Acheson. President Judge, 1866-1874.
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was admitted to the bar of Beaver County, June 4, 1888. In 1895 he was nominated by the Republican party for judge, and was elected in the fall of that year, taking his seat the first Mon- day of January following. Judge Wilson was married December 25, 1888, to Sarah I. Hazen, daughter of Nathan and Judith Hazen, of Franklin township, who has borne him four children, John Howard, James Sharp, Hugh Hazen, and Mary Elizabeth.
Under the Constitution of the State of 1776 all justices of the peace for wards, townships, and districts had a right to sit as Judges in the Court of Quarter Sessions, which was then regarded as the principal court. The Constitution of 1790, by Section X., provided that the justices of the peace should be no longer members of the county courts, but that the governor should appoint a competent number "in such convenient districts in each county as are or shall be directed by law."
By Section IV., the State was to be divided by law into cir- cuits or districts, none to include "more than six nor fewer than three" counties. For each district the governor was to appoint a president of the courts "learned in the law," and in each county "not fewer than three nor more than four" associ- ate judges "not learned in the law." By the Act of February 24, 1806, the number of associate judges in each county was re- duced to two, since by Section XV. it was provided
that if a vacancy should 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 associates shall thereby be reduced to less than two, in which case, or in case of any county hereafter organized; he shall commission so many as will complete that number in each county, and no more.
By the Constitution of 1874 the office of associate judge was abolished.
The associate judges were not required to be "learned in the law," but they were usually men of good judgment and ex- perience, and were regarded as representing the people on the judicial bench, and in not a few cases were possessed of sufficient practical legal knowledge to be qualified under ordinary con- ditions to conduct the business of the court in an emergency (see sketch of Milton Lawrence in next chapter, and of Judge Reddick on page 324). They were most useful in assisting to VOL. I .- 21.
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decisions in questions involving landmarks, property lines, the offering of bail, the reliability of men offered as bondsmen, and the like.
The following gentlemen served as associate judges in Beaver County: Abner Lacock, John H. Reddick, Joseph Caldwell, David Drennan, Thomas Henry, Joseph Hemphill, John Nesbit, Benjamin Adams, John Carothers, Joseph Irvin, William Cairns, John Scott, Milton Lawrence, Agnew Duff, and Joseph C. Wilson. The first three named were members of the first court, held in February, 1804. Abner Lacock having resigned, David Drennan of Ohio township, was appointed, and took his seat on the 5th of February, 1805. On the death of Joseph Caldwell, the vacancy was not filled, the law having then, as above stated, limited the number of associate judges to two. John H. Reddick and David Drennan sat together until the early part of 1830, when Judge Reddick died and Thomas Henry was commissioned by Governor Wolf, May 19, 1830. The following year Judge Drennan died, and on the 19th of August that year Joseph Hemphill was commissioned by the governor to take his place.
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