History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 32

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1340

USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections > Part 32

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David Craft

315

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

BURR RIDGEWAY. - One of the most interesting characters of early times, was of Quaker descent, and was born in the town of Spring- field, N. J., April 17, 1780 ; lived to the advanced age of ninety-six. When he was eleven years old, his father removed to Philadelphia, and was accidentally killed soon thereafter, leaving young Burr at that ten- der age without a father's care to shape his future destiny in life's un- trodden path. In 1803 he came to Wysox, to take charge of John Hollenback's store and house of entertainment. In the following year he was appointed postmaster for Wysox, then the only postoffice between Wyalusing and Sheshequin. He purchased what is known as the "Piollet farm," but sold it in 1808, and purchased on Wysox creek, where he, in company with one of his brothers, built a saw and grist mill. Not meeting with the success which he had anticipated, and having had ill-luck in making his first shipment, he was compelled to abandon the enterprise, and returned to Philadelphia for a year or two. Having earned a small capital, he again returned to the county, and in the fall of 1812 came to Towanda to clerk for William Means. He at first took up his residence in a log house, owned by Harry Spalding, standing on the gulf where the Episcopal Church now is. Subse- quently he built a house on the lot now occupied by Patton's block, and lived there.

In March, 1813, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace by Gov. Simon Snyder, for the district comprising the townships Towanda, Burlington and Wysox ; and at the October election in 1813, he was elected County Commissioner on the Democratic Ticket over Col. Joseph Kingsbury, the Federal candidate, the vote being respectively 365 and 257. Thomas Simpson wishing to sell the Bradford Gazette, Mr. Ridgeway purchased it of him, and began its publication with the first issue in 1815. At this time there was not a mail route in the county on the west side of the river, and but one on the east side, the mail being brought once a week each from the north and south. When Mr. Ridgeway began publishing the Gazette, the people were very obliging, and one seemed to vie with another in distributing the papers. Mr. Ridgeway circulated a petition and forwarded it to the Postmaster-General, praying that a mail route be established for the accommodation of the people of the western part of the county. Proposals were issued for two lines, for a term of two years, which were to pass through several of the townships, the mail to be carried on horseback. Mr. Ridgeway became the contractor upon both lines. He continued the publication of the Gazette for over three years, when a difficulty arose between C. F. Welles and Samuel Mckean, which ended in a lawsuit that was very injurious to the paper. As a result he sold the press and material. and moved to Wysox, where he turned his attention to agriculture He was appointed prothonotary and register and recorder of the county. At the close of his term he purchased a farm on the south branch of the Towanda creek and went there to live in 1822. He, however, again returned to Towanda, continued as a justice of the peace, and for a short time engaged in the mercantile business. In 1846, he went to Franklin to reside, and there remained until the time of his death, August 19, 1876.

316

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Besides the offices enumerated, Mr. Ridgeway filled many other places of honor and trust, and his capacity and integrity were always appreciated by his fellow-citizens. He was prominent in the Masonic Fraternity, and was one of the first members in the county. His life was useful, his name popular, and his memory cherished by many.

E. O'MARA GOODRICH .- Among the sons of Bradford county who have risen to influence and reputation must be mentioned the name of E. O'Meara Goodrich.

He was born in Columbia township June 23, 1824, the eldest son of Elisha S. and Achsah Goodrich. When about twelve years of age his parents removed to Towanda. His father was the founder of the Bradford Reporter, and while yet a youth, in 1843, O'Meara became associated with him in its management. In 1846 he became sole pro- prietor and editor, and continued until death its inspiring and con- trolling spirit. He was a born printer and editor, and had a fine eye for typographical effect. His paper was always tasteful and attractive ; but, in addition to this, he possessed the qualities of an able and success- ful editor. Endowed with quick perception and sound sense, he mas- tered every subject that came within his view and review. His temper was cool and controlled. His judgment was remarkable, and his self- control in respect of speech was equally remarkable .. He could speak his mind calmly and fully, and stop; hence, his editorials were always intelligent and weighty, and commanded the respect, not only of his party, but of his political opponents as well.

His entire political course, both personal and editorial, was marked by a high sense of honor. He always treated his opponents with respect, and never had recourse to abuse or misrepresentation. He was always in favor of an open, fair course, in politics, and stood ready to give straightforward and honorable battle for his principles and opinions. Such a course could only have one result; his paper became a recognized power in the county. Men waited to hear what the Reporter had to say about men and measures. And they never had to wait long, or failed to understand what the Reporter's editor meant.

Mr. Goodrich was originally a Democrat, but drifted into the Free Soil movement in 1848. It was not, however, until 1855, that he parted with the party of his early devotion. In union with such Democrats as David Wilmot and Ulysses Mercur, he publicly protested against the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and in 1855 was a delegate to the convention at Pittsburgh which organized the Republican party. Henceforth he never swerved in his devotion to that party. All his time and talents were given cheerfully for its success, and no man had more to do with making Bradford county a Republican stronghold than he. In 1860 Mr. Goodrich was nominated and elected prothonotary, and at the close of the term was unanimously re-nominated and triumph- antly re-elected. In 1868 he was appointed, by President Grant, surveyor of customs for the port of Philadelphia, and was twice re-appointed. Had he lived a month longer he would have held the office for twelve years. This fact sufficiently proves his thorough efficiency and fidelity. As a citizen Mr. Goodrich was held in the highest respect by the people of

317

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Towanda. He was public-spirited and generous; ready to advocate every public interest, and to encourage every needy and suffering neighbor. The poor always found in him a friend, and all religious interests and social movements a stanch supporter. His friendships were warm and lasting ; the large concourse which followed him to the tomb attested the respect and attachment felt for him by all his towns- folk. On the seventeenth of July, 1845, Mr. Goodrich was united in marriage with Miss Susanna O'Hara, of Binghamton, N. Y., who for thirty-six years earnestly co-operated with him in extending his power and influence, and in making his home a center of cheerful hospitality and social enjoyment. She still survives, with two daughters, Mrs. Annie G. Santee, of Hazelton, Pa., and Mrs. Angie G. Kattell, of Binghamton, N. Y. Mr. Goodrich died at the house of the latter after a brief illness, January 28, 1881.

CHAPTER XVII. ATTORNEYS.

THE FIRST IN THE COUNTY-STORY OF A. C. STEWART-LIST, WITH TIME OF COMING-LIST OF PRESENT ATTORNEYS-ETC.

W ITH the civil organization of the county came the first attorney, Alpheus C. Stewart, who remained in Towanda a few years, and then was overtaken by Greeley's advice to "go West, young man." About 1815 Mr. Stewart folded his tent in Bradford and turned his face toward the wild and distant West, and finally located in Belleville, Ill., the county seat of St. Clair county, situated about fourteen miles, a little south of east, from St. Louis. Here the young lawyer soon found clients and friends, and here he in a few years came to a tragic end, one that forms an episode in the early history of that section of country. In the society of young men of the place there was one who had, from some trivial cause, a misunderstanding with Mr. Stewart. The other young men, loving their fun, urged on the difficulty, and finally, with Stewart's knowledge, a duel was arranged, but all except the challenger knew that the guns were to be loaded only with powder and wadding. But when on the ground, the young man, suspecting something, slipped a bullet in his gun and, at the word, shot Stewart dead. He fled the country, but was finally overhauled, returned, tried, convicted and hanged-the first legal execution in Illi- nois, and therefore memorable in the State's history. A. C. Stewart was a bright young man and was a most unfortunate victim of those miserable idiots that think it funny to play practical jokes.

Simon Kinney was the second lawyer to locate in the county, and he also went to Illinois and located in what is now Bureau county, in that State. He was a personal friend of Daniel Webster, and Sage

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

of Marshfield once visited Kinney and purchased a farm near the latter's. Col. H. L. Kinney, a son of Simon, went to Illinois, and commenced a career as lively and brilliant as a romance. He con- tracted to build the canal from Chicago to Joliet; and built several " boom " towns, opened free hotels on a vast scale, made a great fortune, spent it with prodigal extravagance, and disappeared. Short- ly appeared in the " Lone Star" State when it was a separate empire, made other fortunes, spent them, and for his day and time was a verit- table golden Count of Monte Cristo; finally, after going through much exciting experiences in the late war, to the Confederate cause, he then went to Mexico, headed an insurrection, and in a port sally, was fairly riddled with bullets by the assailants. If true of any one surely it was of this man, " life's fitful fever is o'er."

C. F. Welles came here as a lawyer, or became a lawyer, in 1813; he was the first prothonotary of the county, and one of the leading and most influential citizens. A brief sketch of this distinguished man may be found in the chapter "Athens."

The same year Edward Herrick located here. This fact is a part of the permanent records of the county, and we have a township, " Herrick," as well as a village, " Herrickville."

David Scott's name appears on the first county court records, 1813, and the same year appear the names of Garrick Mallory, Robert McClure, John Evans, Ethan Baldwin, Darius Bullock, Charles Catlin. The next year we find but one name added, and so on for several years. A great change in the practice of the law has come with the past seventy-five years. The law and the practice then were literally English, you know. The Common Law of England, as well as certain statute laws, was in force here the same as in England. The qualifi- cation, or rather the slight difference lay in the Legislative enactments of the State.

The law pleadings were purely English, as laid down in Blackstone and Chitty's commentaries and forms. The law of evidence was liter- ally as it came to us in the standard English books on those subjects. The decisions of the English courts were the law here, the same as in Great Britain, except where they were in conflict with our statute laws. An English lawyer, therefore, fifty years ago, had to make but little preparations for the change if he wanted to come to America to practice his profession.

It would be the customs of the profession here, that would, perhaps, bother him more to learn than the differences then existing in the law in the two countries.

The great lawyers they had here in those days, and it is no exag- geration to say that we had many really great men in the profession, were all of the kind that were known as "Circuit Riders." They had to know the law better than their English brothers. They traveled over wide circuits, going with the judge from county to countv on horse-back, and in their saddle bags were their wardrobes and their law libraries. Hence, as they made long trips, sometimes like sailors; only after months returning home for a short rest, when they would resume their trip and go over again the same ground. Two trips a year, as

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

there were two courts a year in each county. The counties were then much larger than now, and often it was many miles' ride to some new county seat.

In law pleading we have parted widely from much of the old English forms, and so abundant and varied are our statutes, and the increase of our courts and the many decisions, that now in this respect it may be called the American system. We retain the old English rules of evidence more nearly literal than anything else of the English law.

The law and the courts, in their broadest meaning, are one of the most marvelous outgrowths of civilization; evolved through the long centuries antedating the morning of authentic history. The vastness of the court machinery itself staggers the mind when it first compre- hends something of it-courts, clerks, officers, lawyers, jurors, criminals on hand, cases dragging through generations, and cases in actual trial running through days, weeks, months and, sometimes, years, and are never completed. Great and magnificent buildings, and the armies of attendants, employes, the written records by rooms full, vaults full, and thousands of busy pens making every day more; the countless libraries, and law schools, and offices and court-rooms are some of the palpable evidences of this institution. Behind and beyond these are the mysteries-the learned technicalities-the Draconian Code, the black-letter and the comparatively modern Coke-upon-Littleton are some of the conjuring that have grown from what must have been a very simple beginning. Indeed, why should not the common mind reel and stagger under the glimpse of realization of the stupendous whole.

Cui bono ? What inherent principle is it in our nature that has rendered all this vast and involved machinery a necessity to our com- mon mankind ? Very much the same it prevails in all organized com- munities or nations. Is the demand for all this an artificial creation ? Appearances would indicate that it was a natural and spontaneous outgrowth, like that of marriage, or war, some form of religion, or the universal ideals of beauty in women or horses. It is singular that some able biologist, like Spencer, has never taken this subject in hand, and at least tried to account for its universal outcropping in every civiliza- tion, and in substantially much the same form in all. The technicalities of the law are a phenomenal curiosity. The most august courts, where are the longest black gowns, the biggest wigs and the stuffiest figurative woolsacks, are often the splendid arenas for the legal gladiatorial contests. The cause celebres are where are decided the contests of the pennant winners among the great attorneys-simply legal tournaments where wealth and fame is in winning, " knocking out," as it were, the attorney on the other side, and where often the poor client ents about as much figure as an ancient almanac. Then, for instance, you look carefully over the Myra Clark Gaines ejectment case-where millions are involved, and generations come and pass away, and the case goes on and on. Or Dickens' fanciful case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce; its last sad scene, where the pale young man drags himself into court, and wearily listens to learned argu- ments that he can not understand, and finally gropes his way out of

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

the court-room and lies down and dies. Another case where it was in court one hundred years, and, the parties all being dead, it was then discovered that what was once a great estate was all gone, and the last penny was a little short of being enough to pay the costs.

" The curiosities of the law " ought to be some day the title of a great book that would reflame the fires of the old maxim, that truth is stranger than fiction.

There is one other thing about the study of law that is striking in its features. Perhapsas much or more than any other school, it teaches the importance and authority of precedent. Hence the perhaps gross incongruities you may sometimes meet in the courts in a democracy that have been transplanted from the ancient monarchy. Wigs and gowns are simply comical in this country, where theoretically every voter is a sovereign. The uniform and tin star of a roundsman; the ceremony of kissing the Bible in making oath, about which you will find they are very particular in the older States, but which is now sub- stituted in the West by generally holding up the right hand; the reten- . tion of the grand jury and the necessity of their formal and once hypercritical bill of indictment before you could put a man on trial. The fictitious John Doe vs. Richard Roe are now about obsolete, but at one time, and for centuries, all ejectment snits were in the names of these unfortunates, and above all is the general faith that the older a precedent the better is the law and the more binding its authority. There must be a close relation existing between the science of law and the science of state craft. The lawyer and the statesman are esteemed as one to a large extent.

The American law student when he commences his reading is put to the study of Blackstone exactly as is the student in England. This is the standard book on which all is based, even if Blackstone did believe that there were in ancient times swarms of witches and ghosts, but thought that modern cases needed careful looking into before believing. He writes most eloquently of the "garnered wisdom of the ages," and tells the young student in glowing sentences that in the knowledge of the law, at least, the past was the Golden Age; that here is the Pierian spring where he may drink long and deeply of the health-giving waters.

When you divest yourself of these accumulations that have gathered around the law, and think of it a moment in that mood, you can not but realize that once all this wonderful thing must have lain bundled up in the simple Golden Rule ; if there is either right or wrong, justice or injustice that is not included in this short and simple rule of life, you can not imagine what it is.

Do as you would be done by, is the simple lesson easily understood by the savage or the child. To add to this statutes and laws neither extends its meaning, application, nor simplifies its terms. Simple as this is it must have been the source from whence came all this stream of law-making, law practice, law libraries, courts and officers, as well as the great and powerful profession of the lawyers.

The pioneer lawyer was, like the pioneer farmer, compelled to be a man of far greater resources within himself than his modern brother.

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

The times are drifting away from the ancient technicalities of the law as well as from the ancient severity of the church dogmas. Men have grown more liberal as they have become less and less technical. ' The modern lawyer fits up his office, and there is usually a court library near at hand, and he has long since ceased to ride the circuit. He stays at home with his books and practice, and no longer is every successful attorney presumed to have Chitty's forms committed to memory. He may now write a warrantee deed in fewer words than it once required lines, if not pages.

Again the profession of the law, like that governing skilled mechanics, is divided up into specialties, and this immensely lessens the labors of the preparatory work of learning the profession or trade. We now have our criminal lawyers, chancery lawyers, corporation lawyers, constitutional lawyers, etc .; dividing the necessary prepara- tory work after the manner, for instance, of that of the workmen in a watch factory. This division of labor is peculiarly an American innovation on the old, and while it is destroying the old-fashioned all-around workmen or professional men, it is perhaps bettering the work as well as lessening the time required in serving an apprentice- ship. In Europe a man must yet serve a seven years' apprenticeship to be a licensed watchmaker. In the American watch factories you will find girls working machines and making very perfectly the one piece of the watch to which they confine their entire labor, and two weeks' apprenticeship was all that she required to learn her trade well. In her line she can probably do more in a day than the European seven-year-trained man can do in a week, and do it better. Striking off into specialties is the strong tendencies of modern times, found as distinctly in the learned professions as in the trades. In medicine there is the general practitioner, the surgeon, the eye-and-ear doctor, the corn doctor and the horse doctor, and for nearly every disease a specialist. In theology there is the revivalist, the organizer, the church builder, etc. It is the art of doing one thing, and thereby doing it better than one can many things.

Lawyers now gather in the great cities and work for a salary for large corporations. They seek no other employment than that of the one man or firm who hires them by the year. They simply need to know the law necessary to the business of their employer, and in that respect they are invaluable advisers.

It is these circumstances that have carried us beyond the age when the statutes required every lawyer to have a license before allowed to practice. In fact the law requiring this is a mere fashion- the relic of a past age. It is impossible to imagine how a community or State would suffer if this ancient law should be abolished. The man in search of a lawyer never inquires as to whom it was that signed his license.

The following is a list of attorneys of the past, and the date of their admission as entered of record in Bradford county since 1813 :

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

NAME. ADMITTED.

Adams, J. C. 1824

Ames, Herbert S. 1870

Baldwin, Ethan. 1813

Bullock, Darius 1813

Barton, D. F. 1823

Baird, E. W. 1830

Burnside, James 1832

Barstow, Julius R. 1839

Booth, Henry 1844

Barker, Geo. R. 1849

Brisbane, John. 1852

Ballard, O. P., Jr. 1868

Barker, Sperry 1868

Burrows, T. E 1870

Bentley, Benj. S 1875

Buffington, Edward D. 1880

Catlin, Charles

1813

Case, Benj. T

1817

Collins, O. 1818

Cash, David.

1819

Cook, J. A.

1843

Case, N. P.

1848

Chamberlain, A. 1848

Case, Milton H. 1853

Carnochan, Warner H. 1861

Canfield, Jno. E

1845

Camp, B. O .. 1871

Carmalt, Jas. E. 1877

Cronin, John ..

1885

Cameron, David

1885

Kellum, Charles. 1845

Kinney, Miles. 1853

Kidder, Luther .1853

Keeler, Henry 1862

Kingsbury, John H. 1869

Kirkuff, J. B. 1870

Kirkendall, S. E .1873

1876

Kirby, S. S.

1883

Keeney, J. P.

1879

Kimberly, Geo. W

1880

Lewis, E. 1828

Little, Robert. 1842

Lyman, A. Chauncey 1855

Lewis, E. D 1870

Little, E. H. 1872

Lamb, Chas. E. 1872

1876

Lamberson, W. A.

Lewis, G. Mortimer 1876

Lloyd, Clinton. 1877

Mallory, Garrick 1813

McClure, Robert. 1813

Miner, Josiah K. 1816

Maynard, John W 1833

Maxwell, Volney M. 1833

1843

Frazer, Franklin.

1866

Fassett, D. D

1870

Gray, Hiram 1828

Grow, Galusha A.

1847

Greeno, C. C. 1850

Grim, A. Logan 1863

Goodrich, St. John 1841

NAME. ADMITTED.

Guernsey, Jno. W 1841

Gridley, E. C. 1871

Goff, E. F. 1876

Gillette, W. LaMonte 1881

Herrick, Edward 1813

Hale, James T. 1832

Hulett, Mason 1832

Heaton, J. H. 1840

Holliday, James. 1841

Hazard, E. W 1841

Hakes, Lyman. 1843

Hale, Judson.

1844

Hale, James E .. 1846

1847

Herrick, Edward, Jr 1866

Harris, Jos. R.

1870

Hillis, E. L.

1875

Hale, Benj. F

1881

Hale, Jas. T. 1879

Huston, Chas. T 1879

Ingham, A. . . 1826

Ingalls, Roswell C 1839

Ingham, Thos. J. 1860

Johns, Hiram C. 1870

Jones, Lynds F 1873

1883

Kinney, Simon. 1813

Knox, John C. 1841

Kelley, H. C .. 1842

Kinney, O. H. P. 1844

Dennison, 1835

Dimmock, D., Jr.

1837

Dana, Edmund L

1844

Dewitt, W. R.

1848

Deitrick, A. J. 1851

Durand, S. H 1860

Dewitt, Jacob 1863

Davies, Rees. 1872

Doane, S. O. 1872

DeAngeles, P. C. J 1872

Drake, Frank F. 1874

Dunham, E. M 1875

Davies, John E. 1882

Disbrow, Theo. C. 1881

Evans, John 1813

Elwell, Wm. 1832

Emery, Jacob

1835

Elwell, Edward. 1840

Elliott, Edward T 1861

Espy, John.

1867

Elsbree, L.

1875

Espy, B. M.

1876

Elliott, M. F.

1881

Frazer, Philip.

1837

Frisbie, Mason Z

1851

Mercur. Ulysses

Mitchell, David. 1843

Myer, Hiram W 1845

Marvin, E. C . 1846

Metcalf, Henry 1851

Mills, M. E .. 1851

McCay, Jas. E.

1870

McAlpin, Harvey 1853

Coburn, F. G. 1861

Johnson, F. G.

1815

De Wolf, Lyman E

Kinney, O. D.

Lewis, Geo. W

Hurlburt, Edwin

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

323

NAME. ADMITTED.

Morrow, Paul D 1853

Sample, Hamilton 1837

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 32

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.) Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1340