USA > Pennsylvania > Northumberland County > History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania > Part 24
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On the 16th of July, 1803, he was commissioned deputy attorney general for Northumberland county, and took the oath of office on the following 22d of August. Less than three years later, a change in the boundaries of the district having resulted in the transfer of Judge Rush to Philadelphia, he was elevated to the bench, and presided at Sunbury for the first time at April sessions, 1806. Although ultra-democratic in his views and thoroughly in sympathy with the institutions of this country, he had been accustomed to the severe formality of the English courts, and, unfortunately for himself,
*Vide Priestley's " Memoirs," quoted in the history of Northumberland in this work.
+Thomas Cooper was naturalized as an American citizen before Judge Rush at Sunbury in No- bember, 1795, when he stated under oath that he had resided in the United States two years and in the State of Pennsylvania one year. Vide Appearanee docket of Northumberland county, No. 84 November sessions, 1795, and No. 1 July sessions, 1818.
#Annals of Luzerne County, p. 248.
§Linn's Annals of Buffalo Valley, p. 324.
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attempted to introduce and enforce regulations of which the public senti- ment of that day did not approve. Doubtless there were ample grounds for a movement in the direction of better order in the court room. Judge Rush is represented as a man of mild disposition, naturally disposed to regard dis- orderly conduct as the result of ignorance rather than the expression of willful contumacy; moreover he suffered from an affection which, on one occasion, prevented him from occupying the bench for some months, and afterward affected his hearing, so that he was not cognizant of much of the disorder that may have occurred in the court room. Judge Cooper inaugurated his administration by requiring a better observance of order during the sessions of the court, and a more prompt performance of duty on the part of its serv- ants. In this he encountered opposition which it was not the part of a man of his temperament to allay; the feeling thus engendered found expression in a number of memorials to the legislature, charging him with official mis- conduct and praying for an investigation. Ten memorials of this character were presented in the House of Representatives on the 21st of February, 1811, by Samuel Satterlee, the member from Lycoming, and a score or more by the members from Northumberland and Luzerne within the following month. They were referred to a committee of nine members, among whom were Messrs. Satterlee, of Lycoming; Irwin, of Northumberland, and Gibson, of Cumberland, afterward chief justice of the State. E. Greenough, of Sun- bury, appeared as counsel for the petitioners, and Thomas Duncan, of Carlisle, afterward a justice of the Supreme court, represented Judge Cooper. Thir- teen days were required in taking testimony; a large number of witnesses were examined, among whom were many leading citizens and prominent attor- neys for the Commonwealth; Judge Cooper's three associates in Northumber- land county-Montgomery, Macpherson, and Wilson-appeared in his behalf, and uniformly testified to his efficiency and impartiality. The committee sub- mitted the following report on the 23d of March, 1811 :-
Fully impressed with the importance of the duty assigned them, they have dili- gently attended to the evidence adduced in support of the accusations and in vindica- tion of the accused, keeping at once in view the propriety of affording no countenance to unfounded suggestions and the solemn obligation of the legislature as the constitu- tional guardian of the rights and liberties of the people to repel every invasion of those rights; keeping in view the necessity of protecting those who faithfully discharge the trust confided to them in the exercise of just and legal authority, and of defending the citizens from those approaches toward arbitrary power which the official situation of president judge of a court of justice affords such facility in making, your committee have deduced from the evidence the following conclusions, to wit :--
First .- That he fined and imprisoned John Hannah for wearing his hat in the court house of Northumberland county-the said Hannah then standing outside of the bar and jury box and making no disturbance-and this without any inquiry into Hannah's conscientious objections.
Second .- That he fined and imprisoned three respectable citizens, viz .: William Hartman, Matthias Heller, aud John Brown, hastily, arbitrarily, without any inquiry, and without sufficient cause.
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Third .- That he fined John Dreisbach unjustly and arbitrarily.
Fourth .- That he fined Nehemiah Hutton, hastily, without sufficient cause or hearing.
Fifth .- That he arbitrarily and precipitately fined and imprisoned Stephen Hollis- ter for a mere whisper, and in an insulting and overbearing manner refused to hear his defense.
Sixth .- That he improperly exercised the powers of a justice of the peace under the law respecting roads and bridges, and fined Anderson Dana, a supervisor of the highways, fifteen dollars in an arbitrary and passionate manner, after which he ordered the fine to be deposited in the hands of a third person, with orders to restore the same on certain conditions.
Seventh .- That he sentenced a boy between fourteen and seventeen years of age to one year's imprisonment for horse stealing, and afterward added two years to the term of his imprisonment without any evidence, on the suggestion and pretense of teaching the boy a trade.
Eighth .- Your committee also report, that it appears that prior to the 17th of November, 1807, he entered into an agreement with the then prothonotary and other officers of the court of common pleas of Northumberland county and with George Langs to purchase at sheriff's sale a tract of land called Limestone Lick, the property of Josiah Galbraith, levied upon by an execution issued out of the said court; and that the said tract was accordingly purchased on the day last mentioned by the said George Langs for their joint benefit, part of which tract is now held by the said Thomas Cooper under that sale. This conduct your committee do not assert to be a violation of any positive statute; but they do consider, that if the president of a court be suffered to make himself interested in a matter depending before him, he must either deprive the public of those services which he is bound to render, or adjudicate in his own cause, and the danger to the pure and impartial administration of justice is immediate and alarming.
Your committee from the premises are of opinion, that the official conduct of the said president judge has been arbitrary, unjust, and precipitate, contrary to sound pol- ity, and dangerous to the pure administration of justice. They therefore submit the following resolution :-
Resolved, That a committee be appointed to draft an address to the Governor for the removal of Thomas Cooper, Esquire, from the office of president judge of the courts in the Eighth judicial district of Pennsylvania.
The Judge and his counsel appeared before the House during the consid eration of the report, March 26, 1811; on the following day the question was put to a vote, when the resolution accompanying the report was carried by a majority of fifty-three in a total vote of ninety-three. The four mem- bers from Northumberland: John Murray, Jared Irwin, Frederick Evans, and Leonard Rupert, with John Forster and Samuel Satterlee of Lycoming, voted in the affirmative; Thomas Graham and Benjamin Dorrance, from Luzerne, the remaining county in the district, voted in the negative. An address to the Governer was reported on the same day (March 27, 1811); it states that the Judge had "in several instances arbitrarily, precipitately, and unjustly fined and imprisoned individuals for causes trivial and insufficient, without affording them an opportunity of being heard, and has committed many other acts of official misconduct and abuse of authority." The following significant utterance reflects the judgment of the legislature upon the whole
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matter: "Although charity forbids us to declare that the acts aforesaid have been committed from motives or intention willfully corrupt and criminal, yet, such has been his official conduct as to destroy public confidence in his decis- ions, and by which his usefulness is (if not totally) very much diminished in the district in which he presides, and affords sufficient cause of his removal."
On the 28th of March, 1811, the address to the Governor was transmitted to the Senate for concurrence. Cooper wrote a letter to the Speaker, strongly protesting against its consideration. He took the ground that the offenses charged were either "capable of being explained or justified, where the facts are admitted, or of being contradicted by testimony where the facts are denied." Such charges might, he averred, furnish ground for impeachment under the constitution, but not for removal by address, being of a class "per- fectly distinguishable from those reasonable causes of removal contemplated by the constitution which are not impeachable because they imply no mis- conduct." It does not appear that any action whatever was taken on this letter, and on the 30th of March, 1811, the Speaker signed the address. It was at once presented to the Governor, who, on the 2d of April, 1811, informed the Senate that he had issued a supersedeas deposing the Judge from his office. He subsequently wrote a pamphlet in vindication of his cause, but no copy has come to the knowledge of the writer; the defense made before the legislative committee is given in Linn's Annals of Buffalo Valley, pp. 393-396.
It does not appear that Mr. Cooper continued to reside in Northumber- land county any length of time after this. Within a brief period he accepted the professorship of chemistry in Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania; in 1816 was elected to a similar position in the University of Pennsylvania and took up his residence at Philadelphia, of which Binns speaks at some length in his "Recollections." His next position was that of professor of chemistry in the College of South Carolina, at Columbia, of which institution he became president. After his retirement he collated and revised the stat- ute laws of the State under the auspices of the legislature; he was also the author of a translation of Justinian's "Institutes." His talents and the im- portant position he occupied commanded considerable influence at the South, and he is generally credited with having originated and encouraged some of the political dogmas which entered into the doctrine of secession. His death occurred in May, 1840.
Seth Chapman, the next president judge of the courts of Northumberland county, filled that position longer than any other of its incumbents. He was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, January 23, 1771, a descendant of John Chapman, who emigrated from Yorkshire, England, in 1684, and built the first house in Wrightstown township, then the northern limit of the lands purchased by Markham from the Indians. Nothing is known of his educa- tion or legal preparation. He was admitted to the bar of Bucks county in
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1791, and was therefore a lawyer of twenty years' experience at the time of his elevation to the bench. On the 11th of July, 1811, he was commissioned president judge of the Eighth judicial district, then composed of the counties of Northumberland, Luzerne, and Lycoming, and on the 25th of the same month took the affirmation necessary to a due performance of his duties. As the law required a judge to reside within the limits of his district, he re- moved to Northumberland and made that place his residence the remainder of his life. The house he occupied was originally erected by Dr. Joseph Priestley and still stands on North Way, one of the most interesting land- marks of the county.
In temperament Judge Chapman was the antipodes of his predecessor; and, if the authoritative manner of the latter was the source of his unpopu- larity, the individual who succeeded him ought to have been one of the most popular jurists in Pennsylvania. For a time there is reason to believe that he was popular. Cautious and deliberate in speech and action, deferential and courteous in intercourse with his lay associates, and evidently desirous of obtaining the good will of his constituents, he gave attorneys and litigants the widest latitude in the presentation of causes, a policy which coincided well with his disposition and seems to have commanded general approbation at first. Although his abilities were not of the highest order,* his legal qualifications were sufficient for the requirements of the position at that period, and had he adopted a more energetic policy in the discharge of his duties his retirement from the bench might have occurred under circum- stances more creditable to his reputation than the event ultimately proved. A large number of cases awaiting trial accumulated on the dockets of the several counties and increase in population resulted in a corresponding addi- tion to the volume of legal business, notwithstanding which, the Judge became even more dilatory with advancing years, and at length popular discontent culminated in his impeachment by the House of Representatives at the ses- sion of 1826.
The charges specified in the articles of impeachment were, that he had directed Jacob Farrow to be arrested and imprisoned without any complaint against him and without lawful cause, at Sunbury, in August, 1824; that, con- trary to the express provisions of the law, he had reversed a judgment of Chris- tian Miller, a justice of the peace, and set aside an execution issued thereon al- though the required period, twenty days, had expired; that, in a case tried in Northumberland county at June term, 1813, he had filed in writing his opinion and charge to the jury, which differed from that orally delivered; and that he had manifested an undue partiality and favoritism to suitors. In answer to these allegations the respondent replied, that Farrow had made
* Stewart Pearce (Annals of Luzerne county, p. 249) says of him: "He could not be reckoned a talented man, and was a judge of inferior abilities." By a change in the composition of the dis- trlets, Chapman was succeeded on the bench of Luzerne county by John Bannister Gibson in 1813. Possibly his abilities were under-estimated by comparison with those of his distinguished successor.
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an assault upon the prothonotary, which was both breach of the peace and contempt of court, and was accordingly committed; that in the reversal of Justice Miller's decision the defendant was a minor, and hence the judgment was not valid in the first instance; that the written charge and opinion in the case specified harmonized with the notes of his verbal charge; while the charge of impartiality was met with a general denial, and a voluminous ex- planation of the instances cited. The trial before the Senate began on the 7th of February, 1826, the Judge being represented by Samuel Douglas and George Fisher as counsel. Many witnesses were examined, and after eleven days' proceedings the respondent was acquitted, February 18, 1826, on all the articles of impeachment exhibited against him by the House of Repre- sentatives.
He continued upon the bench seven years after this. Unfortunately, his administration was still distinguished by vacillation and delay, and in 1833 petitions from various parts of the district were presented to the Senate, praying for his removal or the appointment of an additional law judge. These were referred to a committee composed of Messrs. Hopkins, of Columbia; Packer, of Northumberland; Petrikin, of Lycoming; Livingston, and Miller. An investigation was instituted, the Judge being represented by James Merrill and Alexander Jordan and the Commonwealth by E. Greenough and James Armstrong. The complaints, in the language of the committee, "may be comprehended in a general allegation of want of sufficient energy and capacity to discharge his duties with reasonable dispatch, promptitude, and accuracy." Regarding the character of the Judge, the report states that "no evidence was given in any manner to impeach his character for integrity, either as a man or judge; but, on the contrary, many witnesses concurred in expressing their opinions that he is an honest man. His character, therefore, in this point of view, appears unexceptionable." Their conclusion, however, was, that "for some years past age and bodily infimities, and as a natural consequence the failure in some degree of his mental powers, have rendered him unable to discharge his official duties with reasonable facility, accuracy, and promptitude." At this stage in the investigation the committee deemed proper to intimate their conclusions to the Judge, which elicited the follow- ing communication :-
Harrisburg, March 11, 1833.
GENTLEMEN: I have for some time past had au intention to resign my office as soon as I could make such pecuniary arrangements as would be necessary to enable me to do justice to my family; these arrangements can not conveniently be made before October next. I now inform the committee that I have fulfilled that intention, and have deposited my resignation with the Governor, to take effect from the 10th day of October next. This course might have been taken sooner; but it could not be thought of while it was believed any charge of want of integrity could be brought against me.
SETH CHAPMAN.
To the Honorable
The Committee of the Senate.
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The investigation was forthwith suspended, and the Judge retired to pri- vate life. He continued to reside at Northumberland until his death, Decem- ber 4, 1835, and is buried in the cemetery at that place.
Ellis Lewis was commissioned president judge of the counties of North- umberland, Lycoming, Union, and Columbia, which then composed the Eighth judicial district, October 14, 1833, and took the oath of office on the following 4th of November. He was born at Lewisberry, a borough of New- berry township, York county, Pennsylvania, situated near the center of Red- land valley and about ten miles south of Harrisburg. This locality was early settled by Welsh Friends from Chester county, among whom were the Lewis. family, a descendant of which, Major Eli Lewis, founded the borough that bears his name in 1798. He was a man of enterprise and consequence; in 1783 he owned nearly a thousand acres in Redland valley, and in 1791 he estab- lished the first newspaper at the present State capitol, the Harrisburg Adver- tiser. Ellis Lewis was his son, and was born, May 16, 1798. His father died in 1807, and the son seems to have been left with but limited means. He was apprenticed to John Wyeth, publisher of the Oracle of Dauphin and Harrisburg Advertiser (successor to the paper founded by his father), but found his position so unpleasant that he ran away and was advertised by Wyeth, in the usual manner. His further acquisition of the printing trade was pursued at New York and Baltimore; and, having completed his appren- ticeship, he published the Lycoming Gazette at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 1819-20 in partnership with I. K. Torbert. There he read law with Espy Vanhorn, and in September, 1822, was admitted to the bar. Two years later he was admitted at Harrisburg, but the extent of his professional work at that place can not be accurately stated. About this time he held the office of district attorney in Tioga county, residing at Wellsboro. Thence he removed to Towanda, Bradford county, from which he was elected to the legislature in 1832. In this position his ability and talents attracted the attention of Governor Wolf, by whom he was commissioned attorney general of the State, January 29, 1833. In the autumn of the same year he succeeded Judge Chapman as president of the Eighth judicial district, continuing in this office until 1843, when he was appointed to a similar position in the Second dis- trict (Lancaster county). In October, 1851, he was elected judge of the Supreme court of Pennsylvania, and in November, 1854, became chief justice. In 1857 he declined the unanimous nomination of the Democratic party for re-election to the Supreme bench, and retired to private life. He was ap- pointed a member of the commission for the revision of the criminal code of Pennsylvania in the following year. In the interim of his employment as a printer at New York and Baltimore he had studied medicine at Lewisberry, and the knowledge of medical jurisprudence thus derived secured for him the honorary degree of M. D. from the Philadelphia College of Medicine. He also received the degree of LL. D. from Transylvania University, Lexington,
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Kentucky, and Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. He was the author of an " Abridgment of the Criminal Law of the United States," and a frequent contributor to the periodical literature of the day. His death occurred at Philadelphia, March 19, 1871.
Judge Lewis's long judicial career of twenty-four years was begun in the courts of the Eighth district. He came to the bench at an earlier age than any other president judge of Northumberland county; and, while this placed him in sympathy with the younger members of the bar, his character and bearing as a lawyer were such as to command the respect of all. A close student and a profound logician, he was not influenced much by mere oratory; he was quick to detect the introduction of irrelevant testimony, and equally resolute in requiring promptness and brevity on the part of witnesses and attorneys. As a judge his manner was firm, decisive, courteous, and dignified. His temperament was ambitious and aspiring, and this led him to seek the highest measure of success in everything he undertook; but his ability was equal to his ambition, and in every position to which he attained his services were alike honorable to himself and valuable to the public.
Charles G. Donnel was commissioned president judge of the Eighth dis- trict (then composed of the counties of Northumberland, Lycoming, and Columbia), January 14, 1843, and took the oath of office two days later. He was born, March 14, 1801, at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, son of Henry and Margaret (Gobin) Donnel; his education was obtained at the Northum- berland Academy, then under the principalship of Robert Cooper Grier, subsequently a justice of the United States Supreme court, after which he read law with Ebenezer Greenough, and was admitted to the bar of North- umberland county at April sessions, 1822. He became deputy . attorney general in 1829, serving four years, and in this position, as well as in his general practice as an attorney, gave evidence of legal knowledge and abili- ties of a high order. His judicial incumbency was terminated but little more than a year after his appointment by his death, March 16, 1844. He resided at Sunbury, and his widow is now living in that borough at an advanced age.
Joseph B. Anthony was born at Philadelphia, June 19, 1795, and edu- cated at Princeton, New Jersey. While engaged in teaching in the academy at Milton, he read law with Samuel Hepburn and was admitted to the bar of Northumberland county, November 26, 1817. After spending a year in Ohio he located at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he was admitted to practice in 1818 and resided until his death. He was elected to the State Senate in 1830, and four years later to Congress, to which he was re-elected in 1836 by a large majority. In 1843 he was appointed one of the judges of the court for the adjustment of the Nicholson land claims in Pennsylvania, and in the following year succeeded Judge Donnel as president judge of the Eighth district, performing the judicial functions with general acceptability until his death, January 10, 1851. He was a man of fine mental endow-
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ments, not the least of which was a remarkable mathematical faculty. His perceptive faculties, no less than his reasoning powers, were also of a high order, and enabled him to grasp the difficulties of a complicated question and present it lucidly and succinctly. In social intercourse his conversation was enlivened by brilliant flashes of wit and a profusion of humorous anec- dotes and observations, which made him a general favorite among those with whom he came in contact. These qualities also entered into his professional work as an attorney, and after he became judge a witty or humorous remark from the bench frequently relieved the tedium of the session. His judicial opinions and decisions were generally regarded as sound and impartial.
James Pollock, who probably reached higher political position than any other native of Northumberland county, was the last judge to preside over her courts by appointment of the Governor. He was born at Milton, Sep. tember 11, 1810, son of William and Sarah (Wilson) Pollock, natives of Chester county, Pennsylvania, and of Irish extraction. His education was begun at the common schools of Milton with Joseph B. Anthony as his first teacher, and continued at the academy of the Rev. David Kirkpatrick, where he prepared for the Junior year at Princeton, from which he graduated in 1831 with the highest honors of his class. He then began the study of law under Samuel Hepburn, of Milton, and was admitted to the bar of North- umberland county on the 5th of November, 1833. He opened an office at Milton in April, 1834; two years later he was appointed deputy attorney general for the county, serving in this position until 1839. In 1844 he was elected to Congress from the Thirteenth Pennsylvania district as the Whig candidate; he was twice re-elected, serving in the XXVIIIth Congress on the committee on claims, in the XXIXth on the committee on territories, and in the XXXth as a member of the ways and means committee. On the 23d of June, 1848, he introduced a resolution for the appointment of a committee to report upon the advisability and feasibility of building a trans-continental railway, and, as chairman of the committee so appointed, made the first favorable official report on this subject. On the 16th of January, 1851, within a brief period after the conclusion of his third congressional term, he was commissioned as president judge of the Eighth judicial district (then composed of the counties of Northumberland, Lycoming, Columbia, Sullivan, and Montour), his judicial incumbency expiring, by the terms of his commis- sion, on the 1st of December, 1851, after which he resumed the practice of law. In 1854 he was the candidate of the Whig and "Know-Nothing" parties for Governor, and was elected by a majority of thirty-seven thousand over his principal competitor, William Bigler, the Democratic candidate. He was inducted into office in January, 1855, and served the term of three years; among the measures of importance during his administration were the inaugu- ration of a policy of retenchment in the fiscal affairs of the Commonwealth, the sale of the main line of the public works, the passage of laws designed to
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