USA > Pennsylvania > Cambria County > History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 14
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Judge Young arrived in Philadelphia about 1779, and en- tered the office of a Mr. Duponcean, and subsequently that of Judge Wilson as a student of the law, until he was admitted to the Philadelphia bar January 8, 1786. He came to Greens- burg in 1789, and very successfully began the practice of his profession. In 1786 he married Maria Barclay, of Philadelphia ; they were the parents of three sons and five daughters. His second marriage was with Statira Barclay, a cousin of his deceased wife, by whom he had a son and a daughter.
In 1792 and 1793 he served a short period in the military service for western Pennsylvania. Governor Mckean appoint- ed him judge of the Tenth Judicial District, which included Cambria county, March 1, 1806, and he served therein for thirty- one years, until he resigned at the age of sixty-nine. He was ยท engaged in the famous contention between the secular and the regular clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, for the land upon which the monastery is located at Beatty's Station. His oppos- ing counsellor was H. H. Brackenridge, Esq., the father of Judge Brackenridge, of our supreme court. He had been edu- cated for the ministry, and in this' contention he could read with accuracy and to the satisfaction of the court the bulls of the Popes and the decrees of Councils, which were written in Latin.
Between him and John B. Alexander, Esq., a member of his bar, a difficulty arose which resulted in the latter presenting ar- ticles of impeachment. This came to naught, as his character for integrity and excellence was firmly established. His court- eous treatment of Mr. Alexander after he had failed to degrade him, disclosed this. Judge Young was a follower of Emanuel Swedenborg.
Judge Young was about six feet in height, of delicate mould, and of a dignified bearing, stooping slightly in his walk. He usually dressed in plain black, with the conventional swallow- tailed coat and ruffled shirt, and worse his hair in a queue. His forehead was high and smooth; his face well formed, and his
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nose long and straight. He owned slaves at one time, but gave them their freedom and sufficient money to start them on their own account. When he retired, the bar entertained him at a banquet, when he closed his remarks thus :
"I conclude with the best wishes for all my fellow-creat- ures, independent of external distinction. We are all the chil- dren of one common Father, who causes the sun of His love and the rays of His wisdom to shine upon all."
Judge White, of Indiana, was the second common pleas judge for Cambria county, which was a part of the Tenth Ju- dicial District composed of Armstrong, Cambria, Indiana, Som- erset and Westmoreland counties. Westmoreland then had a two weeks' term of court, the others having only one. Gov- ernor Joseph Ritner made the appointment for life, and gave him a commission dated December 13, 1836. He studied law with William Rawle, an eminent lawyer of Philadelphia, and began practice in Indiana in 1821, when he was abont twenty- one years old. He presided over our courts with dignity and ability for ten years. At the time of his appointment president judges were commissioned for life or during good behavior, but the constitution of 1838 changed it to a period of ten years.
The appointment of his successor caused more contention, discussion and turmoil in reference to our judges than any act or thing which had theretofore occurred. Francis Rawn Shunk was the Democratic Governor. and was disposed to reappoint Judge White, especially so as the friends of the latter had pre- sented a petition containing the names of about twenty thousand of his constituents, irrespective of party politics, requesting it. But the political managers took a hand and said it would never do to appoint a Whig. Judge Jeremiah S. Black strongly recommended Shunk to make the appointment, and when he took his departure he believed he would do so, but on the same day a Democratic congressman on his way to Washington called on the governor and objected to it which prevented the appoint- ment being made.
Judge White's term expired February 27, 1847, and on that day Governor Shunk sent in the name of Jeremiah M. Bur- rell, of Greensburg, to the senate for confirmation. William F. Johnston, a Whig senator from the Cambria district, then re- siding at Kittanning, was the speaker of the senate, and whose party controlled the senate by one vote. Judge Burrell's ap- pointment was promptly rejected. On March 15, 1847, the
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governor nominated Samuel A. Gilmore for the succession and renewed his recommendation for the senate to confirm it, but it was also promptly refused, by a vote of fourteen to twelve. The governor made the third trial, and named Wilson MeCand- less of Pittsburg as JJudge White's successor, and again re- quested the senate to approve it, which was also declined by a tie vote of thirteen to thirteen. The senate adjourned, and there was no president judge for the Tenth Judicial District.
The public welfare was being seriously affected for the lack of a presiding judge. Governor Shunk assumed the respon- sibility and appointed his first choice-J. M. Burrell-to fill the vacancy pro hac vice, with his commission bearing date of March 27, 1847. On Monday, May 24, 1847, Judge Burrell as- sumed the duties of his office, and presided over the courts in Greensburg, and in regular order in the other courts of the district.
The complications heretofore had been political but now confusion was supreme, and had shifted to the people, who in- quired if the appointment was valid, or whether they had any courts. Edgar Cowan, the eminent lawyer of Greensburg, doubted its constitutionality, and brought an action of quo warranto to test the validity of the appointment, which was decided by the supreme court on a technical objection raised by Judge Burrell, sustaining him, which is reported in 7 Pa., 34. The technical objection produced more complications and con- fusion than had theretofore existed. The Democratic politi- cians were alarmed, and the Whigs were complacent, but they believed the duty rested on them to relieve the situation. While the General Assembly was in session in the winter of 1847-48, Senator Johnston was still the speaker of the senate. During the session he casually met a young man named John C. Knox, of Wellsboro, Tioga county, who was on his way to the west to locate and begin the practice of law. His brilliancy cap- tured the speaker, who advised him that if he could get Gov- ernor Shunk to appoint him president judge of the Tenth Ju- dicial District that he would undertake to have the appoint- ment confirmed by the senate, which he had no doubt could be procured. Within a few days the appointment of John Calvin Knox came to the senate from Governor Shunk, when it was promptly confirmed. His commission was dated April 11, 1848, when Judge Burrell resigned, and he served until Judge Taylor succeeded him on the first Monday of December, 1851.
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Judge MeCandless, who served many years on the bench, always referred to or spoke of Judge White as "My illustrious predecessor." Chief Justice Black frequently said that "Judge White was the ablest and most satisfactory common pleas judge I ever tried a case before." The refusal of Governor Shunk to reappoint Judge White and its results did more than any other thing to take the appointment of president judges from the chief executive and make it an elective office, which was done by the Act of April 15, 1851, P. L., 648.
Judge Jeremiah Murry Burrell was born near Murrys- ville, in Westmoreland county, his mother being a daughter of General Murry, one of the founders of Murrysville. He com- . pleted his education at Jefferson College, then located at Canons- burg. He was a student of the law in the office of Judge Rich- ard Coulter, who was subsequently an associate justice of the supreme court, and was admitted to practice law July 14, 1835.
He had an inclination for politics, and purchasing the "Greensburg Argus" about 1839, he made it a political organ which gained a national reputation of sufficient force to meet the approval of the opponents of Horace Greeley's anti-slavery ideas, and other public interests. In 1844 he was an efficient speaker and writer for Colonel Polk, the Democratie candidate for the presidency. In a contest for the leadership of the Gen- eral Assembly with Thomas Burnside, Jr., a son of Judge Burn- side, and a son-in-law of Simon Cameron, he succeeded. He was then recognized as an able partisan and a most eminent orator. Notwithstanding his eminent abilities and integrity, the manner of his appointment rankled in his bosom as well as that of the party which appointed him, and after serving less than a year he resigned the position of president judge of our district.
Judge John Calvin Knox served acceptably as president judge of the courts of Cambria county from April 11, 1848, until April 4, 1849, when he was succeeded by Judge Taylor. Judge Knox was a stranger in the Tenth District, which is the prinicipal reason for his appointment and confirmation. In addition to the manner in which Senator Johnston suggested his name, there is another side incident connected with his ju- dicial service which is of some value and has never been pub- lished, which now may be properly done, as age mellows many things into virtues.
Armstrong county was a part of the Tenth District, and
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the late Jolin S. Rhey, of Ebensburg, was then a young lawyer residing in Kittaming, who had been appointed deputy attor- ney general to prosecute criminal actions in the district. While residing in that county he was elected to the General Assembly, where by that eminent body he was chosen speaker of the house in 1852. When Judge Knox made his first visit to Kittanning he met Mr. Rhey, and with due modesty and candor said he feared to assume the duties which the office of president judge im- posed as his practice of the law was limited. He had never tried a case and felt that he was not equipped for the distinguished position. Mr. Rhey appreciated the condition of public affairs in the district, and with his short acquaintance looked with favor on helping the young judge, and thus counselled him: "Never mind; go on the bench and made no excuses; do the best you can and we will help you. Do not talk about it." He did as he was advised, and performed his duties very well for the brief period he was in the district.
The judicial districts were reapportioned in 1851, and on the same day that Judge Taylor was elected for the Cambria, Blair and Huntingdon courts, Judge Knox was elected in the Venango, Jefferson, Clarion and Forrest district, then the XVIIIth District, defeating Judge Buffington. who had been com- missioned by Governor Johnston. Judge Knox served with distinction, and in 1853 Governor Bigler appointed him as- sociate judge of the supreme court to succeed the eminent Chief Justice John Bannister Gibson. He was elected to succeed him- self, and served there until January 19, 1858, when he assumed the office of attorney general in the cabinet of Governor Will- iam Fisher Packer. At the close of his official term as attorney general he located in Philadelphia, where he practiced his pro- fession until he became afflicted with softening of the brain, and died in the Norristown Hospital.
Judge George Taylor was born at Oxford, Chester county, Pennsylvania, November 20, 1812, and died in Hollidaysburg while holding court November 14, 1871. He was the fourth child of Matthew and Rebecca Anderson-Taylor. He did not attend school after his thirteenth year. He removed to Huntingdon, and became a clerk in the prothonotary's office, while David R. Porter was the the official. In 1834 he entered the office of An- drew P. Wilson as a student of the law, and was admitted to the bar on April 12, 1836. He prosecuted the Flanagans for the Betsy Holder homicide. He formed a partnership with John
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G. Miles in the practice of the law. In 1843 he was elected treasurer of Huntingdon county. While treasurer he retired from the firm of Miles & Taylor and began to prepare for the Presbyterian ministry. He mastered the Greek language and could read the Testament in its original tongue. In 1835 he was editor of a Democratic weekly newspaper.
The Act of April 5, 1849. created the XXIVth Judicial Dis- triet, composed of Blair, Cambria and Huntingdon counties, and he was unanimously recommended for president judge, and in the same month Governor Johnston, the Whig governor, gave him his first commission. He succeeded Judge Knox in Cambria county, and occupied the bench for the first time on July 2, 1849. He was nominated and elected as a Whig in 1851 for a full term of ten years, and ivas re-elected in 1861. In his twenty-two years' service he never failed to hold the regular terms of court. Judge Taylor was an excellent common pleas judge.
Justice John Dean was born at Williamsburg, Blair county, February 15, 1835, and died in' Hollidaysburg, May 29, 1905. He was the son of Matthew Dean. His grandfather was John Dean, and his great-grandfather was Matthew Dean, one of the early settlers in central Pennsylvania.
Judge Dean was educated in the common schools at the Williamsburg Academy and Washington College. He taught school in Williamsburg and Hollidaysburg, when he entered the law office of James M. Bell and D. H. Hofius as a student of the law. He was admitted to practice in 1855. In 1857 lie was elected superintendent of the county schools, and in 1859 formed a partnership with Samuel Steel Blair, which continued until '64. In '67 he was appointed district attorney for Blair county to succeed John H. Keatley, and was elected for the next term. In 1871 he was elected president judge of the XXIVth Judicial District consisting of Blair, Cambria and Huntingdon counties. His Democratie opponent was Thaddeus Banks, and George Taylor as an Independent candidate. In 1881 he was unanimously elected for the succeeding term. The apportionment of 1883 made Blair county a separate district, where he completed the second term of service. In 1891, he was again re-elected over H. T. Ames, of Williamsport, an Independent candidate. In 1892 he was nominated by the Re- publican convention and was elected to the supreme court of his native state, and entered upon his duties on the first Mon-
George Taylor.
Thomas White.
John Dean.
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day of January, 1893. He was next to the chief justice in the date of his commission at the time of his death. Judge Dean did not accept a railroad pass during his judicial career. He was regarded as one of the strong judges of the state.
Judge Robert Lipton Johnston, elected as the Democratic nominee to succeed Judge Dean, was the first judge for Cam-
R. L. Johnston.
F bria county when it was made a separate judicial district in 1883, and designated the XLVIIth District. He was born in Franklin township, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, on Jan- uary 7, 1815; died at Ebensburg, October 28, 1890.
Judge Johnston was educated in private schools. In 1839 he removed from Indiana to Ebensburg, and became a student of the law in the office of Michael Dan Magehan. He was ad-
-
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mitted to practice on March 31, 1841. In 1845 he was elected county treasurer on the Whig ticket, and in 1849, he was its candidate for the state senate against Augustus Drum. In 1851 he was elected on the same ticket for prothonotary, clerk of the over and terminer, quarter sessions and orphans' courts, and register and recorder, all of which were filled by the same of- ficial. In 1854 he was elected the first superintendent of public schools. and served until October, 1855, when he resigned. There- after he successfully practiced his profession until he was elected president judge.
In 1854 he left the Whig party on the issues raised by the Know-Nothings, and held aloof for two years before he decided to cast his lot with the Democratic party. He was a Douglas- Democrat in the contest of 1860, and a War Democrat during the strife. In 1864 and in 1866 he was a candidate for congress. He headed the MeClellan electoral ticket for president in 1864, when Morton McMichael led it for Lincoln. He was an able lawyer and an upright judge, and died suddenly while president judge.
Augustine Vinton Barker was appointed president judge by Governor Beaver to succeed Judge Jolmston, on November 13, 1890. He was born at Lovell, in Oxford county, Maine, June 20, 1849; he was a son of Abraham Andrews and Elizabeth Lit- tell Barker, who removed to Cambria county in 1854.
Judge Barker graduated at Dartmouth College in 1872, with the degree of B. A., and in 1875 he was honored with that of M. A. from the same institution. When he completed his edu- cation he entered the office of Judge E. W. Evans, of Chicago, as a student of the law, and later entered the office of Shoemaker & Sechler, in Ebensburg. from which he was admitted to practice at the Cambria bar, on August 4, 1874. He was selected solicitor for the county commissioners in 1881. On November 9, 1891, he was elected president judge for a term of ten years as the Republican nominee, to date from the first Monday of January, 1892. He was an industrious and able lawyer and judge. He was always a student. His decisions were rarely criticised or reversed by the appellate courts. Since his retirement he has successfully practiced his profession at Ebensburg.
In his fourteenth year he enlisted with his father and brother in Captain Daniel O. Evans' Company K, Fourth Penn- sylvania Militia, under the command of Colonel Robert Lit- zinger, in the department commanded by General Nelson A.
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Miles during General Lee's Gettysburg invasion. He served from June 15 to August 8, 1863.
Judge Francis Joseph O'Connor was elected in 1901 to suc- ceed Judge Barker. He is a son of James and Elizabeth Croyle O'Connor; born August 11, 1860, on the homestead farm, near Forwardstown, in the county of Somerset, Pennsylvania. He was educated in the public and private schools. He graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, in the class of 1884, with the degree of LL. B. He was admitted to practice law in Somerset county on May 8, 1884, and on November 9, 1886, he removed to Johnstown, when he be- came a member of the Cambria bar.
Prior to his graduation he taught school for a number of terms in his native county. In November, 1889, he was elected district attorney for Cambria county, as the nominee of the Democratic party. and served one term. In 1894 he was chosen city solicitor for the city of Johnstown, and served for three years. In 1896, he was the choice of his party in the county for the nomination for congress, but withdrew his name from the conference in favor of Major R. C. MeNamara. He was the unanimous nominee of his party for president judge of the XLVIIth Judicial District at the November election in 1901, and was elected. He is now serving as the ninth president judge of Cambria county.
THE DISTRICT COURT.
Since 1850 several efforts have been made to have Johns- town created the county capital, or to make a new county to be called Conemaugh. Thus far all attempts have failed. To give the people of the southern part of the county relief in the trans- action of legal affairs, the General Assembly passed the Act of April 13, 1869, creating the district court with the courthouse in Johnstown. The district included the boroughs of Johnstown, Conemaugh, Millville, Cambria, Prospect, Franklin and East Conemangh, and the townships of Yoder, Richland, Taylor and Conemaugh.
In criminal affairs its jurisdiction was limited to cases triable in the court of quarter sessions, and it could not try the higher felonies which are heard in the court of over and term- iner. In civil matters it was limited to claims not to exceed two hundred dollars; however, its jurisdiction was enlarged by the Act of April 4, 1873, so that all criminal prosecutions, ex-
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cepting treason and homicide, and in civil affairs the same power as any court of common pleas were given it.
Judge Taylor and Associate Judges George W. Easly and James Murray constituted the court, but by the Act enlarging the jurisdiction that part was repealed and the judges were to be elected by the electors of the district.
The July term was approaching when the Union Hall on the northwest corner of Washington and Franklin streets was leased for the new county offices and court house at $800 per annum. Pending the remodeling Colonel Linton's office was Sheriff Blair's headquarters. and Daniel MeLaughlin's office was used as the office of the prothonotary. The lease for the Union Hall had not been executed when the opposition sought to have it set aside in order to lease what was known as Fron- heiser's Hall, on the southeast corner of Railroad and Clinton streets. Of course this caused much trouble, and on May 6, a protest was filed against the latter by James Potts, W. Horace Rose. John F. Barnes, Cyrus Elder, A. Kopelin, Daniel Mc- Laughlin and C. L. Pershing, as not being a fit place for the court, and the Union Hall was finally chosen.
The court was organized Monday, July 5, 1869, by Judge Taylor, and his associates named. Joseph McDonald was deputy prothonotary, and Patrick Markey, court crier. There was much enthusiasm in the opening ceremonies; Judge Potts made the principal address and Judge Taylor responded. The members of the bar who were admitted to practice therein were James Potts, Abraham Kopelin, Cyrus L. Pershing, Daniel MeLaugh- lin. Cyrus Elder, John P. Linton, John F. Barnes, R. L. Johns- ton, John Fenlon, George M. Reade, John S. Rhey, William Kittell, W. H. Sechler, F. A. Shoemaker, W. Horace Rose, John H. Fisher. Jacob Zimmerman, S. B. McCormick, Harry White, Isaac Higus, George F. Baer, now president of the Reading railroad, F. P. Tierney. George W. Oatman, John E. Scanlan, Joseph McDonald, T. W. Dick, James C. Easly, and H. C. Camp- bell of Punxsutawney. The sheriff was John A. Blair, and his deputy, James Null. Captain J. K. Hite was the prothonotary, and F. P. Tierney the district attorney.
The first court continued for three days. But trouble was brewing. In the April term, 1870, the grand jury declared the lock-up on the public square which was used as a county prison, a public nuisance and indicted the following named gentlemen for maintaining it: Burgess. Joseph S. Strayer, and Council-
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men Daniel J. Morrell, J. M. Campbell, James Morley, H. A. Boggs, Richard JJelly, David Hopkins, John P. Linton, Charles Zimmerman, Sr., James King, Airwine Metz, T. R. Kimmell, Jonathan Horner, Alexander Kennedy, James H. Hoover, Joseph Layton, Daniel N. Jones, George W. McGarry and Henry Barnes. Of course they were not called to trial.
A bill was presented in the General Assembly for 1870 auth- orizing the removal of the county offices from Ebensburg to Johnstown, but it was defeated. The project then became a political issue. but non-partisan; it was a test of strength be- tween the people of the south of the county against the north who desired to retain the county capital at Ebensburg. On June 4 a very large meeting to start the campaign was held on what was termed "Court House Square," now the city park. The officers were: President, William Flattery, Esq .; vice- presidents, Hugh Bradley. C. B. Ellis, Thomas Davis, Captain Patrick Graham. R. B. Gageby, Jacob Fronheiser, Jacob Fend, John Thomas, James Robb, George MeLain, David Dibert, Henry Shaffer, John Devlin, Charles O. Luther, Henry Freid- hoff, William Cushon. Morris Lewis, John Smith, A. M. Gregg, Patrick Minahan, Thomas MeKeirnan and Henry Gore, also Daniel Good and Thomas MeCabe, of East Conemaugh, James B. Pyatt and Peter Rubritz of Franklin, James Cooper and John Lamison of Coopersdale, Daniel Burthold and A. A. Par- sons of Taylor township. John Cushon and John P. Shaffer of Conemangh township. David Hamilton and James Burns of Yoder township, George Orris and Christian Weaver of Rich- land township, George Eichensehr and Alexander Murphy of Adams township and Thomas Davis and Henry Adams of Jack- son township. The secretaries were H. D. Woodruff and George T. Swank. An executive committee was appointed to conduct the campaign consisting of Lewis Plitt, William Flattery, B. F. Speedy. H. A. Boggs, Charles B. Ellis, and Charles Unver- zaght. The Tribune and the Democrat made it the leading issue. A convention was held in Johnstown on June 25, with delegates from every ward and township in the new district. The perma- nent organization was Daniel MeLaughlin, president; George MeLain, and Thomas MeCabe, vice-presidents ; and F. M. George and John F. Barnes, secretaries. The resolutions presented by the committee on such were adopted, the vital grievance being : "Whereas, the time has arrived when the varied interests of the people of the County of Cambria demand as an act of exact
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