USA > Pennsylvania > Tioga County > History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations, portraits and sketches of prominent families and individuals > Part 16
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IMONDACUR
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THE BAR OF TIOGA COUNTY.
and Henry Allen upon the life and distinguished char- Minnesota. He has never devoted Mis tinte exclusively to the law, although he has enjoyed a fair practice; he
acter of Mr. Garretson.
He was a man of sterling integrity, decided opinions has been engaged in the mercantile business and in farm- and positive convictions. No one was at a loss to know ing. He resides at Mansfeld, and is a good business man and lawyer.
where he stood upon any public policy or political issue. Open, frank and courteous, he held the good opinion of the members of the legal fraternity and the people of the county.
Henry Allen was born at East Smithfield, Bradford county, Pa., August roth 1823, and was educated at the high school at Smithfield. He studied law with Judge Bullock, of Smithfield, and was admitted to the bar of Bradford county in September 1854. In March 1860 he was admitted to practice in the supreme court of the He was district attorney of Tioga county from December 1859 to December 1862; was a law clerk in the office of
John C. Knox was born at Knoxville, on the Cowan- esque River, and was a son of one of the earliest set- tlers of the Cowanesque Valley. He studied law with Judge Purple of Lawrenceville, who afterward became State, and in 1870 in the United States district court. a distinguished jurist in the State of Illinois, and with the late William Garretson of Tioga. While engaged in this study he was married to a daughter of Judge internal revenue at Washington from September ist 1864 Ira Kilbourn of Lawrenceville, and soon after his ad- to October 1865, and resigned on account of ill health;
mission to the bar removed to Wellsboro and imme- has been a notary public since 1869. Mr. Allen is a zealous and painstaking attorney, looking carefully after the interest of his clients, and a lawyer of in- domitable courage and perseverence. He resides at Mansfield. ยท diately became one of the leading practitioners. In 1845 he was elected a member of the State Legislature, and re-elected the next year, serving with marked distinction. About the time his term in the Legislature expired he was appointed by Governor Francis R. Shunk judge of John N. Bache, son of William Bache sen., was born March 8th 1820-in the old log house which was used for the holding of the first courts in Tioga county, and which stood on the southwest side of the public square in Wellsboro. He commenced the study of law in the office of his brother-in-law, Hon. Robert G. White, in 1841, and completed the usual legal course in the Yale one of the western circuits of the State. He served ac- ceptably, being distinguished for his ready and correct decisions and the dispatch of business; and before his term expired he was nominated hy the Democrats and elected to a seat upon the bench of the supreme court of the State. The monotony of the supreme court was not agreeable to him and he resigned before the expiration law school in New Haven, Conn., where he was admitted ernor Curtin attorney general of the commonwealth, and at the expiration of the term was appointed judge advo- cate in the army of the United States; this position he held to the close of the war. He then commenced the practice of the law in Philadelphia, and took rank with the foremost practitioners of that city. In the midst of a successful and busy practice he was stricken with paralysis of the brain and compelled to retire from the bar. For several years he lingered in a helpless condi- tion, and about two years since died and was buried in Wellsboro. Judge Knox was in the zenith of his useful- terms, and who chiefly conducted the trials. AAmong ness when he was stricken, and no man in the broad limits of the commonwealth had brighter or more bril- liant prospects. He was an honor to the profession and to the county that gave him birth.
of his term. He was soon afterward appointed by Gov- to practice in the courts of that State. In : 849 he was admitted to the bar of Tioga county. His earliest cases are docketed for December 1844. Mr. Bache has a dis- tinct personal recollection of nearly all the old lawyers who have practiced at the Tioga county bar, going back to the days of Messrs. Patton, Ellis Lewis, Justus Good- win and others. Subsequent to these James Lowrey and Robert G. White became the two most prominent lawyers of Wellsboro; but, says Mr. Bache, the bar of those early days was chiefly made up of practitioners from other counties, who attended court at the regular them were Horace Williston, of Athens, Bradford county, who subsequently became president judge of the district; A. V. Parsons, of Jersey Shore, Lycoming county; Wil- liam Elwell. John C. Adams and Baldwin, of Towanda, with an occasional visit from Judge Burnside, of Bellfonte, Center county, previous to his promotion to the bench. Of Judge Burnside it was said that he car- ried the jaekknife presented to the homeliest man in Pennsylvania, and was not likely to find a successor upon whom he could conscientiously bestow it. Mr. Bache says there are few who can recollect the old court room-the bench, the dock, with its square box flanked by a railing on each side; the big oval table be- tween the bench and dock, with a great deep scallop in its end next to the dock, from which the counsel ad- dressed the court and jury; the long narrow boxes, two on each side, occupied by the jury, and the old fireplace and ten-plate stove of our forefathers at the southwest
John W. Adams was born in Tioga county, Pa., Feb- ruary 8th 1843. He was educated in the common schools of Rutland township and the Mansfield Classical Academy, now known as the State Normal School, and by private teachers who were preparing him for entering college. In vacation he engaged as a clerk in the gen- eral mercantile store of Baldwin & Lowell, of Tioga, for a term of three months, but remained with them nearly five years, at the same time pursuing a course of study. Subsequently he read law with Henry Allen, of Mans- field, and was admitted to the Tioga county bar at the November term in 1867. He has also been admitted to practice in the United States district court, the Bradford county courts and the supreme and district courts of
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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
end of the room, such being the court paraphernalia and furniture of those early days.
In the early times Parsons and Williston were gener- ally pitted against each other, and especially so after White and Lowrey became the prominent resident law- yers, the former associating Parsons with him and the latter Williston as a general rule.
In 1849 Mr. Bache was elected register and recorder; he served the usual term of three years, and was subse- quently elected justice of the peace, which office he soon resigned. As a lawyer his practice was chiefly confined to land titles and collections. The practice of law before a jury was distasteful to him, and on account of the loss of his hearing he has now retired from active practice and turned his attention to timbered and coal lands and geological explorations, in the latter of which he has met with general practical success. He and his brother Wil- liam first called the attention of the Fall Brook Coal Company to the lands now known as the Antrim coal fields, the development of which, with the railroad, has added so much wealth and prosperity to the county.
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Mr. Bache is an active business man, and his recollec - tions of the older members of the bar are sufficient to fill a volume. He resides at Wellsboro.
Clark W. Beach was born in the town of Dryden, Tompkins county, N. Y., June 29th 1829, and was edu- cated in the common schools, Wellsboro Academy (1846- 47), Alfred Academy, Allegany county, N. Y., and Union Academy at Academy Corners, Tioga county, Pa. He studied law with Hon. Henry Sherwood of Wellsboro, and was admitted to practice at the Tioga and Potter county bars in 1865. He is now located at Elkland.
A. S. Brewster, one of the oldest living members of the Tioga county bar, was born in Bridgewater, Susque- hanna county, Pa., April 7th 1812. He was educated in the common schools and Montrose Academy, and read law with Hon. James Lowrey at Wellsboro while acting as clerk for his father, who was at that time prothonotary and clerk of the several courts and register and recorder of Tioga county. He was admitted to the bar of Tioga county in February 1835, and soon after was appointed district attorney by James Todd, attorney general of Pennsylvania, and served three years. He was elected major of the ist battalion 156th regiment 9th division Pennsylvania militia, and served seven years. He was appointed prothonotary and clerk of the several courts of Tioga county by Governor Ritner in 1839, and served one year; was appointed transcribing clerk of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania in 1846, 1847, 1848, 1849, 1850 and 1851; was postmaster at Wellsboro dur- ing the administration of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan; was elected justice of the peace for the borough of Wells- boro in 1863, 1868, 1873 and 1878, and but once was there a vote cast against him. While Mr. Brewster has never practiced very extensively at the bar, he possesses a rare judicial and legal mind. His knowledge of law is extensive and his counsel safe. As a magistrate his de- cisions are distinguished for their justice and equity. In every official position which he has been selected to oc-
cupy he has discharged his duty with fidelity and honor. He is an honored citizen and a gentleman of the "old school."
S. F. Channell was born in Canton township, Bradford county, Pa., November 21st 1848. He received the principal portion of his education in the schools of his native county, and spent two years at Lafayette College, where he pursued an eclectic course previous to his com- mencement of the study of law. He read law with Hon. Henry Sherwood at Wellsboro, and was admitted to prac- tice in Tioga county in January 1880. He immediately opened an office in Wellsboro, and is a rising lawyer, hav- ing been associated with B. B. Strang and others in very important suits. He is an industrious student, devoted to his profession, of fine hysique and personal appearance, and bids fair to soon take a prominent position at the bar. He resides in Wellsboro.
Frank I'. Clark, son of Elijah P. Clark, was born in Richmond township, Tioga county, Pa., August 21st 1839. He lived on a farm and attended only the district school until he was about 17 years of age. Among his teachers were Simon B. Elliott and his father Lauren H. Elliott, and Peter Van Ness, well known gentlemen of the county. Mr. Clark attended Prof. L. R. Burlingame's [high school one winter term, and the next year attended a school taught by Victor A. Elliott; also studied at Wellsboro under the instruction of Prof. Burlingame, and subsequently with L. A. Ridgway of Mansfield, a thorough linguist, who gave him instructions in French. In 1863 he attended a term at the Mansfield Classical Seminary, and subsequently gave intructions to a class in the same school in French. He taught winter schools five terms, and commenced reading law at home in 1864, and then read with Hon. Henry Sherwood at Wellsboro. He was admitted to practice after having passed a credit- able examination, February 5th 1866, since which time he has continued in the practice of his profession at Mansfield. Mr. Clark has also been admitted to practice in the supreme court of the State. He has been em- ployed in a number of important civil suits, and was associated with Hon. C. H. Seymour in an ejectment suit for a farm in Sullivan township, which was tried twice in the Tioga county courts-once before Hon. R. G. White, and once before Judge Williams-and in the supreme court at Philadelphia, when Clark and Seymour were successful. Another important suit in which they were employed was that of Joseph P. Morris vs. the Tioga Railroad Company. This also was an ejectment suit, for different lots of land in Mansfield borough, and involved a considerable amount, but was finally settled without trial, in June 1881, Mr. Clark drawing the settle- ment papers.
Mr. Clark defended a client a few years since in the court of quarter sessions on a charge of malicious mis- chief, in which the defendant was charged with tearing down a fence and letting a drove of cattle into a wheat field. The tracks of the man who tore down the fence, as proved by the plaintiff, were 1214 inches in length, and the presumption was that they could not belong to
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THE BAR OF TIOGA COUNTY.
any one but the defendant, who was distinguished for his large feet. Mr. Clark says his first impression was that his case was lost, and that his client was guilty, as no other man in the whole county had such outrageously large pedals. After the preliminary examination before the justice Mr. Clark quietly and secretly took his client into a shop and privately measured his feet, and found them to actually measure 1575 inches in length and 9 inches across the ball of the foot. Mr. Clark told the defendant to keep perfectly mum, and that when the case came to be tried at the court of quarter sessions they would have some fun, and defendant would be acquitted. On the trial in court, after the prosecution had introduced their evidence, a part of which was show- ing the tracks to be positively 1214 inches in length, and proportionately wide, Mr. Clark placed the defendant in a chair, with his feet in another chair in full view of the jury, and then opened the defense, closing it by offering defendant's feet, or defendant feet and all, in evidence as a rebuttal. He then stepped forward and measured his feet before the jury, showing them to be as above mentioned, 15/2 inches in length and 9 inches across. This brought down the house and convulsed the court and jury with laughter. The case was won and the de- fendant acquitted. His name was John Dyke, and he resides in the highlands between Mansfield and Wells- boro. Hon. Mortimer F. Elliott was one of the counsel for the commonwealth or prosecution, and gracefully acknowledged his defeat.
Mr. Clark relates that during his first experience at school teaching he was fearfully discouraged and home- siek. He taught in the Sweet district, on the road be- tween Mansfield and Wellsboro, at the " Iron Ore Beds." He started in with 12 scholars, which number increased to 25. When the first Saturday night came he started Mortimer F. Elliott, eldest son of Colonel N. A. Elli- for home, 772 miles distant, on a run, peering over the ott, was born at Cherry Flats, Tioga county, Pa. He re- top of every hill to see if he could see his father's house or barns, or the church spires in the village of Mans- field. Once at home, however, he gained courage, and with determination marked on his brow returned to his school Monday morning, and soon became resigned to the situation; but the recollection of the first week's ex- perience has ever been regarded by him with any but feelings of delight. ceived his education in the common school and at Alfred University, Allegany county, N. Y .; and read law with Hon. Stephen F. Wilson and James Lowrey of Wells- boro. He was admitted to the bar of Tioga county late in the year 1864. A. that time there were practicing here such eminent lawyers and advocates as James Low- rey, Josiah Emery, Henry W. Williams, Henry Sherwood, Julius Sherwood, John W. Guernsey, Butler B. Strang. Stephen F. Wilson, Stephen Pierce, F. E. Smith and Pardon Damon, and it would seem likely to have been
Mr. Clark has been a trustee of the State normal school, and borough elerk, and the Democratic nominee for district attorney. For the latter office he ran many, years before a young lawyer could gain a hearing and a votes ahead of the Democratic State ticket, but the county was so overwhelmingly Republican that no Democrat, however competent and able, could hope to succeed. He has from time to time been a member of the Democratic county committee. There is a vein of quiet humor running through the character of Mr. Clark, which makes him a very companionable gentleman. Whatever business is intrusted to him is performed with fidelity, and his correct business habits and elegant and legible penmanship make him a favorite with those who in knowledge of the law or in the matter of calling out desire legal documents drawn. He resides and has his office in Mansfield.
D. L. Deane, son of E. P. Deane, the county surveyor, was born January 22nd 1840, in Delmar township. He was reared on a farm and educated in the common schools of the township and in Union Academy at or near Knowville , Wellsboro Academy, and Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, which he attended in the winter of 1865. He read law with Hon. M. F. El- liott of Wellsboro, and was admitted to practice in the spring of 1879.
Before he commenced the study of the law he had dis- tinguished himself on the field as a soldier, and by hold- ing several positions of honor and trust in the county. In June 1863 he enlisted in the 1st battalion Pennsyl- vania volunteers, and re-enlisted in August 1864 in the 207th regiment Pennsylvania volunteers. He partici- pated in the capture of Fort Steadman, March 25th 1865, and in the assault upon and capture of Petersburg, April 2nd 1865, in which he lost his left arm by a gun- shot wound. He was honorably discharged from service at the general hospital at Chester, Pa., in June 1865, and returned to Tioga county. He held the offices of register of wills, recorder of deeds, and clerk of the orphans' court of Tioga county from the ist of Decem- ber 1866 to the ist of January 1876, covering a period of three terms. He has also been assessor, school director, councilman and burgess of Wellsboro. In ad- dition to his knowledge of the law Mr. Deane is a prac- tical surveyor, and served one term as county surveyor. It can be truly said of him that he has been a good soldier, a competent and trustworthy official, and a painstaking attorney, distinguished for his urbanity and courtesy; and, like his distinguished father, whatever he finds to do, he does it well. He resides and has an of- fiee in Wellsboro.
practice among such able and distinguished men. Mr. Elliott, nothing daunted by the array of talent, opened an office, and soon took rank with the older practitioners and found himself among the most favored. His close application to the business intrusted to his eare, and his power as an eloquent advocate before a jury, gave him a wide reputation and extensive practice. He had meas- ured minds, so to speak, with the best advocates and shrewdest lawyers, and was never found wanting either testimony and presenting it to the court and jury. Such an impression had he made upon the people of the
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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
county and of this judicial district that in 1871 he was the Democratic candidate for president judge of the dis trict. Although the Republican majority was very large he reduced it several thousand votes in the district. His opponent was the Hon. Henry W. Williams, a gentleman extremely popular; but Elliott had not only the Demo- cratic votes to rely upon, but many of the Republicans gave him their suffrages. In 1872 the Democrats and Liberal Republicans held a convention at Wellsboro, and there was every prospect that they would unite upon a county ticket. In the distribution of the candidates the Liberal Republicans presented Victor A. Elliott, now judge in Denver, Col., as candidate for representative from this county in the convention elected to re- vise the constitution. The Democratic portion of the convention, headed by Samuel E. Kirkendall of Miller- ton and John L. Sexton jr. of Fall Brook, insisted that Mortimer F. Elliott should be the nominee; that it was essential that a young and progressive Democrat, one
Marsena L. Foster was born in the town of Rich- ford, Tioga county, N. Y., December 29th 1843, and was educated in the common schools of his native town. August 1Sth 1862 he enlisted in the United States service, and was honorably discharged July 11th 1865. He was married in Georgetown, S. C., August 31st 1865, and studied law subsequently with Hon. Isaac Benson of Coudersport, Potter county. He was ad- mitted to the bar of Potter county March 16th 1880; in April of the same year to the Mckean county bar, and August 29th 1881 to the Tioga county bar. Mr. Foster who possessed the intelligence, the legal knowledge, and | has recently located in the county, at Westfield, and no withal the spirit of true democracy and the constitutional doubt will obtain a fair share of practice. reforms needed, should be the man. Mortimer F. Elli- John W. Guernsey, one of the older members of the Tioga county bar, was born in the city of Hudson, N. Y., January 28th 1811. When he was about four months old his father removed to Bridgewater, Susquehanna county, Pa., and settled on a new farm. He died when the subject of this sketch was only about eight years old, leaving a feeble widow and eight children, with no means of support save their own exertion. At nine years of age young Guernsey was thrown entirely upon his own resources. Possessing ambition and an indomitable will he educated himself at the academy at Montrose, and at Richardson's high school at Harford, Susquehanna county. ott was nominated and elected; took his seat in the con- vention, and discharged his duty with an eye single to the great reforms brought about by the convention of 1873; and had the proud satisfaction of seeing the con- stitution ratified by the people by a vote of 253,560 to 109, 198, gaining a majority of 144,362, a majority unpar- alleled in the history of any public measure adopted by the people at large in the commonwealth. Mr. Elliott has since persistently refused until recently a tender of any public office. He has industriously confined himself to his profession, rising higher and higher, extending his practice wider and wider into contiguous counties, in the su- preme court of the State, and the district and supreme He came to Tioga county in 1831. In 1833 he com- menced the study of law with Hon. James Lowrey of Wellsboro, and was admitted to practice in the several courts of Tioga county in 1835, to the supreme court of the State in 1837, and to the United States court in 1839. In 1840 he was appointed deputy United States marshal, and that year took the census of the entire county of Tioga. In 1849 he was elected to the Senate of Pennsylvania, and in 1864 to the House of Represent. atives of this State, and re-elected in 1865. He con- tinued in active practice of his profession in the counties of Tioga, Potter, McKean, Bradford and Lycoming until the year 1874, when from enfeebled health he ceased practice almost entirely. courts of the United States. As a lawyer he stands at the head of his profession in the northern tier counties. As an advocate and public speaker he has few equals in the commonwealth, and being in the prime of life, his faculties unimpaired by any of those excesses which frequently beset public men, his future is indeed bright and flattering. At the Democratic State convention of 1882 he was nominated for Congressman at large, much against his will, and even after his name had been withdrawn by his order; the times seemed to demand his acceptance, and he yielded. He is exceedingly popular with the people, not only of his native county but elsewhere in the State. He resides at Wellsboro.
Henry M. Foote of Wellsboro was born in Greene, Chenango county, N. Y., in 1846, and educated in the common schools and Wellsboro Academy. While a student in the academy during the winter of 1864 he enlisted in the 187th regiment Pennsylvania volunteers at the organization of that regiment, and remained in service until the close of the war. Subsequently he read law in the office of Hon. John I. Mitchell and David Cameron, and was admitted to practice at the Tioga county bar February Ist 1876. He opened a law office in Wellsboro, and commenced the practice
of the profession. He received the Republican nomi- nation by the Crawford county system for district at- torney and was elected to that office in 1880, and has discharged his duty with credit and honor. During his term there has been an unusual amount of criminal business, including one indictment for murder, and many minor cases, which he has prosecuted with intelligence and vigor.
During his forty years' practice Mr. Guernsey stood high in the scale of his profession among the many dis- tinguished lawyers of the northern tier, and elsewhere in the State. As a legislator he also took a prominent position. His social position has always been the most pleasant and happy; his wife, who was the daughter of the late Hon. Samuel W. Morris of Wellsboro, brought to his home culture and refinement. Possessed of a competence earned in the pursuit of his profession, he is enjoying the evening of his age in his quiet and beau- tiful home in the village of Tioga.
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