USA > Pennsylvania > Tioga County > History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations, portraits and sketches of prominent families and individuals > Part 17
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THE BAR OF TIOGA COUNTY
John C. Horton was born at Spring Mills, Allegany common school at Lawrenceville, Pa., and by Rev. Sid- county, New York, April Ist 1843. He was educated at ney Mills as private tutor, and at the Mansfield State Spring Mills Academy in his native county, Lewisville normal school, graduating at the latter institution in the class of 1871. He taught school several terms; studied law with Hon. Mortimer F. Elliott and John Bosard at Wellsboro, and was admitted to the bar of Tioga county at the August term of 1873. He was admitted to practice in Bradford county in 1878, and in the supreme court of the State in May 1881 at Harrisburg, Pa. He has been Academy, Potter county, Pa., and Union Academy, Tioga county, Pa. He read law one year with George W. Ryon at Lawrenceville, finished his studies with Hon. Charles H. Seymour at Tioga, and was admitted to practice at the Tioga county bar at the August term in 1868; to the supreme court of Pennsylvania in 1873. the United States district and circuit court for the the secretary of the Farmers' Agricultural Society of western district of Pennsylvania in 1875, the Bradford Tioga County since 1878. Mr. Mather is a young lawyer county bar in 1877, and to the Westmoreland county bar of promise; has been engaged in a number of very promi- nent suits, and is fast winning his way to honor and fame. He resides at Wellsboro and has a fine office. in 1879. He was notary public from 1870 to 1876, and several years clerk of the borough of Blossburg. He has been engaged in several important civil and criminal George W. Merrick, a son of Israel Merrick jr., an early settler at Wellsboro, was born there March 27th cases. His office and residence are in Blossburg.
Samuel E. Kirkendall was born on Oak Hill, in the 1838. He was attending school when the civil war broke town of Barton, Tioga county, N. Y., about six miles out. In the spring of 1861 he enlisted as a private in Company H of the 6th regiment of the Pennsylvania reserve corps, and served with it in the battle of Drains- field and the second Bull Run battle. In 1862 he was honorably discharged on account of ill health. Before he had fairly recovered he recruited a company for the first battalion Pennsylvania volunteers, six months men; was chosen captain of the same, and went to the front and participated in the battle of Gettysburg. At the ex- piration of the six months he recruited a company for the three years service, which became Company A of the 178th regiment Pennsylvania volunteers. He was subse- quently commissioned major and joined the army at Cold Harbor. He was in command of the regiment in the desperate action of June 18th 1864 in the assault upon Fort Hell, and received a gunshot wound in his right knee, rendering amputation of the leg necessary. This wound disabled him from further active military duty, and the brave, impetuous and patriotic officer re- tired from the service. He returned home, studied law, and was admitted to practice at the several courts of Tioga and adjoining counties. He held the office of postmaster many years, and resigned in May last, when he became the independent Republican candidate for the office of secretary of internal affairs of Pennsylvania. Major Merrick is a gentleman of strong and decided con- victions, which he expresses freely when called upon or when the occasion requires it. He is a close and logical reasoner, a good advocate and public speaker, and ranks high among his brethren of the bar of Tioga county and wherever his business calls him. He resides at Wells- boro, has a fine office, and is held ir high respect by his fellow citizens. from the village of Waverly, March 29th 1834. When he was eight years old he removed to Tioga county, Pa., with his father's family, who settled in the township of Lawrence, about two miles east of the borough of Law- renceville. He attended the common schools during the winter months, and worked at farming and in the lumber woods in summer, until he was sixteen years old; then went to a private school in Lawrenceville for about a year, and was finally transferred to the Lawrenceville Academy, which he attended about two years, under the instruction of Rev. Sidney Mills, Rev. T. B. Barker and Prof. W. L. Merris, who were successively principals of that institution. When only 19 years of age he received a certificate authorizing him to teach in the common schools of the county, and he taught in the winter and attended school in the summer until the spring of 1857 He then commenced the study of law with Kasson Parkhurst of Lawrenceville, in whose office he remained two years, and was admitted to the bar of this county in 1859. Mr. Kirkendall did not immediately enter upon the practice of the law, but, moving to Millerton in the fall of 1860, continued to teach for 13 years and was re- garded as one of the first educators of the county. In 1873 he abandoned teaching altogether, and has since devoted himself to his law practice exclusively. Soon after that date he was admitted to practice at the Brad. ford county bar, as many of his clients came from that county. Politically Mr. Kirkendall has always been a Democrat, and he has been honored by his party by being twice nominated for the office of dis- trict attorney and twice for representative; but, as he lived in the " banner Republican county of the State," these honors ended with the nomination and the sup- port of the party at the polls. Mr. Kirkendall is now in active practice, located at Millerton, in the extreme northeastern portion of Tioga county and about 11 miles from Elmira. He is a genial and affable gentleman, a ripe scholar and a good lawyer; and in physique is one of the finest looking members of the bar.
John I. Mitchell was born in the township of Tioga, Tioga county, Pa., July 28th 1838. He studied in the common schools of his native township and in the Lewis- burg University, Union county, Pa., but did not graduate. He taught school in his native township; served in the war of the Rebellion as lieutenant and captain; studied Jaw with Hon. F. E. Smith, of Tioga, and was admitted to the Bar in 1864. In 1866 he removed to Wellsboro.
John W. Mather was born at Dundee, Yates county, N. Y., November 5th 1847, and was educated in the In 1868 he was elected district attorney for the county,
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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
and served three years. In 1870 he became half owner nership for the practice of law with Hon. Stephen F. of the Wellsboro Agitator, a strong Republican news- Wilson; he continued in that relation until Judge Wilson went upon the bench in 1872. In 1868 he was elected to the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, and re- elected in 1869 without opposition. Tioga county at that time was entitled to only one representative in the popular branch of the Legislature. It was during these sessions that Peter Herdic's new county agitation was at its height. Mr. Niles took an active part in the de- ing the territorial limits of Tioga intact. The act incor- porating the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Rail- way was passed during the session of 1870, Mr. Niles as representative and Butler B. Strang as senator having re- paper, and assisted in editing it for one year. In 1871 he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Represent- atives, taking his seat in that body in January 1872. He remained in the Legislature five years, during which time he served at intervals as chairman of the committee of ways and means and on other very important committees. His knowledge of parliamentary rules and his fluency of speech made him the acknowledged Republican leader feat of the Minnequa scheme, and was in favor of keep- of that body. Without solicitation on his part, shortly after he had finished his legislative career in the Penn- sylvania House of Representatives, he was nominated by a Republican conference of the sixteenth Congressional district for Congress, and was elected. The district was ceived the unanimous vote of their respective districts to composed of the counties of Cameron, Lycoming, Mc- favor this project. In 1872 Mr. Niles was elected a member of the constitutional convention, representing Kean, Potter, Sullivan and Tioga. He was re- elected at the close of his first term, thus serving four years in the the counties of Cameron, Mckean, Tioga and Potter, popular branch of the national legislature. Before his and was the author of the article in the new constitution in reference to the formation of new counties. In 1881 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives and served on the committees of ways and means, the judiciary general and as chairman of the committee on counties and townships. He introduced and secured the passage of an act making taxes a first lien upon real estate. He was appointed a member of the State rev- enue commission. Congressional term had expired he was chosen by the Legislature of Pennsylvania United States senator from this State for six years from the 4th of March 1881. He has thus had ten successive years of experience in the Legislature of his native State and in the councils of the nation. He has just completed his forty-fourth year, and few men of his age have attained such high honors and distinction. He is extremely popular with his con- stituents, particularly in Tioga county and his Congres- Mr. Niles has been admitted to practice in the courts of Tioga, Potter, Cameron, Clinton, Lycoming and Brad- ford counties, and to the supreme court of Pennsylvania and the United States circuit and district courts, and en- joys a very large and lucrative practice. He has for many years been the counsel for the county commissioners, and represents large real estate interests, among them the Dent estate, the Bingham estate and the Pennsylva- nia Joint Land and Lumber Company. He has a large and well fitted office in Wellsboro, with a most valuable sional district, and he has won their esteem irrespective of party, by his close attention to their wants, answering with scrupulous precision every letter or communication addressed to him, either from his political opponents or his party friends. The recent disruption in the Repub- lican party of the State has made him the generalissiino of the independent Republican forces. He maintains a law office in Wellsboro, with David Cameron as law partner. He also resides in that borough. Senator Mitchell is a gentleman of fine presence and courteous manners, and a representative type of the sons of old Tioga.
Jerome B. Niles was born in the township of Middle- pleasing address, an able advocate, a good counsellor bury, September 25th 1834. He was reared on a farm, and attended the common school until the fall of 1856, when he entered Union Academy at Knoxville, Pa., where he remained a year. He was married July 18th 1858. In the fall of 1858 and of 1859 he taught the dis- trict school at Wellsboro. He did most of his law read- ing at home in Middlebury, finished with Hon. Henry Sherwood, and was admitted to the Tioga county bar at the September term of 1861. Prior to this he had been
and extensive law library, and is one of the leading practi- tioners at the Tioga county bar. He is a gentleman of and a careful and painstaking lawyer. He commenced life poor, and by the force of industry and application to business, either private or public, has won a competence, and enjoys the confidence and respect of the courts in which he practices, of his fellow members of the bar, and of the community in which he resides He is a descend- ant of one of the pioneer settlers of the county and takes a lively interest in its history.
Horace B. Packer was born in Wellsboro, October constable and collector of Middlebury, and two terms a 11th 1851, and was educated at Wellsboro Academy, and school' director. At the session of the Pennsylvania | Alfred University, N. Y. He studied law with Hon. Stephen F. Wilson and Hon. J. B. Niles; was admitted to practice at the bar of Tioga county August 26th 1873, and has since been admitted to various other county
Legislature of 1862 he was message clerk of the House of Representatives. In the spring of 1862 he was ap- pointed mercantile appraiser of Tioga county, and in the fall of the same year was elected district attorney, which courts, the supreme court of the State, and the United office he filled with much credit. In 1864 he was again States district court. Upon the petition of all the mem- message clerk of the House of Representatives at Har- bers of the Tioga county bar he was appointed district risburg. In 1865 he was re-elected district attorney, and attorney in 1875, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the that year removed to Wellsboro, and entered into part- resignation of William A. Stone. He discharged the
AARON NILES
J. S. Siles
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THE BAR OF TIOGA COUNTY
duties of the office one year by appointment, and was to any great extent, Unt be retais hi- standing in elected to the same office for a term of three years, dur- the courts of the county, State md nation He is ing which he performed the business of the office in a the oldest living member of the Tioga county bar, and is manner highly creditable to himself and honorable to now in his 87th year. He resides at Blossburg. the commonwealth. Mr. Packer is a young man of fine Augustus Redfield was born November 6th 1826, in the educational and legal attainments, of exemplary habits town of Cato, Cayuga county, N. Y., and was educated and close application to business, with a fair and in- at Moravia, N. Y. He enlisted in the war of the Rebel- creasing practice, which is surely leading him to the lion and served until its conclusion. He read law with front rank of his profession. His residence and office are in Wellsboro.
Clarendon Rathbone was born at Sutton, Mass., March 23d 1796. He read law in Cayuga and Madison coun- ties, N. Y., and was admitted to practice in the Madison county courts May 9th 1820, and to the supreme court of the State of New York on the 27th of October of the same year, Ambrose Spencer chief justice. He was ad- mitted to the bar of this county at the December term in
Hon. George W. Merrick of Wellsboro, and was admitted to the Tioga county bar August 28th 1871, and subse- quently to the Bradford county bar. He has served two terms as justice of the peace, and is now engaged in the publication of the Lawrenceville Herald.
Henry W. Roland was born in Delmar township, December 7th 1848, and was reared on a farm. He was educated in the common schools and Wellsboro Academy, and taught school in Delmar and Morris townships three 1821, and to the supreme court of Pennsylvania, middle months. He read law with William A. Stone, then of district, at Sunbury in 1830. He was appointed deputy Wellsboro now United States district attorney for the attorney general July 11th 1826 by Frederic Smith, at- western district of Pennsylvania, located at Pittsburgh), torney general; again appointed by the same February and was admitted to the Tioga county bar at the August 6th 1827, and in February 1828 by Calvin Blythe, at- term in the year 1876. In October following he opened torney general. September 7th 1826 he was admitted to |a law, insurance and general collection office at Bloss- the bar of Tioga county, N. Y., at Elmira; was admitted burg, where he has since resided. He was borough clerk to the Lycoming county bar October 3d 1831, and sub- for the years 1878, 1879 and ISSo, U. S. census marshal sequently to practice in Bradford, Clinton, Potter, in 18So, and is now the efficient clerk of the borough. McKean, Dauphin and Lancaster counties, and in the His business is considerable in the way of conveyancing, Dominion of Canada. He became a member of the drawing contracts, writing insurance policies, and general American Legal Association in 1851. He was commis- collections. Mr. Roland is a gentleman of pleasing man- sioned captain of the Sth company Lawrenceville first ners, and a good counsellor, giving strict attention to the battalion 129th regiment Pennsylvania militia by Gov- business intrusted to his care, which is on the increase. ernor J. Andrew Schultze August 3d 1828.
John WI'. Rien was born at Elkland, Tioga county, Pa., Mr. Rathbone first located at Lawrenceville in the March 4th 1825, and educated at Millville Academy, year 1820. He was then about 24 years of age, full of ambition, and one of the finest young men in personal Orleans county, N. Y., and Wellsboro Academy. He commenced reading law in the office of the Hon. John appearance in the county. When admitted to the bar of C. Knox at Wellsboro; completed his studies with Hon. Tioga county so well had be made his mark, and so James Lowrey at the same place, and was admitted to favorable were the impressions he created among the the Tioga county bar in December 1846. Soon after his members of the bar, that he was five years afterward ap- admission he opened an office at Lawrenceville, and pointed deputy attorney general. Besides attending to rapidly rose in his profession. In 1850 he was elected his duties at the bar he early became interested in pub- by the Democrats district attorney, and discharged the lic improvements looking toward the development of the duties of that office in a highly satisfactory manner. Mr. vast timber and mineral resources of Tioga county, and Ryon was not only an able counsellor, but a powerful assisted materially in bringing about the passage of the advocate. These acquirements soon give him reputation act for the construction of the Chemung Canal in the and his practice extended on the west to Potter and Mckean counties and on the east to Bradford, where he met in legal combat the best lawyers and ablest orators Mr. Ryon was a war Democrat, and did much to en- courage enlistments, stumping the county and inciting the people to patriotism and to arms. The writer of this sketch well remembers one of his patriotic appeals, made at a war meeting held at Fall Brook during the year 1862. He assisted largely in raising Company A of the famous Bucktail regiment. He removed from Tioga county to Schuylkill county in January 1863, and has since resided at Pottsville in that county and has repre- sented the 13th Congressional district in Congress. Al- though the fame of his later years is claimed by Schuyl- State of New York, and the incorporation of the Tioga Navigation Company, which resulted in the building of the railroad from Corning to Blossburg in 1840. of these sections. At the breaking out of the Rebellion In that year be removed to Blossburg, where he was largely interested in coal and other lands. It is impos. sible in a brief sketch like this to enumerate the public services and enterprises with which he has for the past 62 years been identified. His social, legal and business standing has always been good, and his worthy and hon- orable connection with the masonic fraternity, coupled with his gentlemanly demeanor and courteous and affable manner in his social, business or legal tran- sactions, has universally commanded respect. For the past few years he has not practiced his profession
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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
kill county, still the recollection of his ability at the in all the important civil and criminal causes tried in bar of Tioga county and elsewhere in the northern tier is fresh in the memory of the older practitioners here, and no sketch of the bar of this county would be com- plete without the mention of her distinguished son.
James S. Ryon, son of Harris T. Ryon and great- grandson of Hon. John Ryon, was born at Elkland, Tioga county, Pa., in 1847; educated at the Osceola Academy and Mansfield State normal school; studied law with Hon. George W. Merrick of Welisboro, and was admitted to the Tioga county bar in 1877, and commenced the practice of law at Elkland, where he now resides.
T. C. Sanders was born in the town of Clarksville, Allegany county, N. Y., July 5th 1835. His father was a native of Rhode Island, and returned to that State when the subject of this sketch was about 9 years of age. Young Sanders spent about five years in the university at Alfred, Allegany county, N. Y., and graduated from it in 1861. He served the first two years of the late war in the United States army, and located at Westfield, Tioga county, late in the year 1863. He was admitted to the bar of Tioga county February 2nd 1876, and in 1879 went into a law partnership with the Hon. Butler B. Strang at Westfield, in which relation he still continues. He has been admitted to practice in the courts of Potter and McKean counties. Mr. Sanders is a good counsel- lor and a thorough lawyer, preparing his cases with care, and looking carefully into the details of all the legal transactions of the firm of Strang & Sanders.
Charles H. Seymour was born in Bath, Steuben county, N. Y., June 21st 1820, and educated in the common schools and academy, and learned the trade of carpenter and joiner. He studied law with John W. Guernsey of Tioga, and was admitted to the bar of this county in 1847 and subsequently to the several county courts in northern Pennsylvania, the supreme court of the State, and the United States circuit and district courts. For many years he was a leading member of the Tioga county bar, and in November 1876 he was elected sena- tor from this (25th) district. While engaged in the dis- charge of his senatorial duties at Harrisburg he con- tracted a malarial disease, which undermined his health and was the indirect cause of his death at his home in Tioga, June 6th 1882. Mr. Seymour was one of the best counsel in the county, and a profound lawyer and advocate. The bar of the county attended his funeral in a body, and passed eulogistic resolutions concerning his character and ability. He had acquired a compe- tence, and left quite a valuable estate.
Henry Sherwood was born in the city of Bridgeport, Conn., October 9th 1815. He was educated in the dis- trict school in Chemung county, N. Y., and in a select school at Havana, N. Y. He studied law with Hon. Robert G. White, at Wellsboro, and was admitted to practice at the Tioga county bar September 7th 1847. He was a gentleman of courteous manners and pleasing address, and an eloquent advocate, and soon took a leading position at the bar in Tioga and other north- ern counties. For the past 25 years he has been engaged
Tioga county, and in this district has practiced law be- fore Judges Williston, White, Williams and Wilson, and at a special court before Judges Anthony, Wilmot and Streator. He has been admitted to practice in all the counties in northern Pennsylvania, the supreme court of the State, the United States district and circuit courts of the State and the United States court at Washington. During the Rebellion he was a war Democrat, aiding in procuring enlistments, and paying from his private purse money for the subsistence of enlisted soldiers on their way to the front; and was elected to Congress as a Democrat from this district in 1870 over Hon. William H. Armstrong, of Lycoming, whose majority in 1868 in the county of Tioga was 3,282. Mr. Sherwood reduced it in 1870 to 1,691. Mr. Armstrong's majority in the district in 1868 was 2,028, and in 1870 Mr. Sherwood overcame this large majority and was elected by 27 votes. Mr. Sherwood's record in Congress was honorable to himself and highly creditable to the constituency that placed him there. He has been a life-long Demo- crat, but he never suffered his political convictions to interfere with his social or business relations or his de- votion to the practice of his profession. He has several times represented this district in Democratic State and national conventions. He has ever taken a lively interest in agriculture, in railroads, and whatever had a tendency to develop the resources of the county and advance the industrial interests of this section of the State. He assisted largely in the organization of the Tioga County Agricultural Society in 1854, being one of its executive officers; in 1859 he was president of the society and engaged Hon. Horace Greeley to deliver the annual address, and introduced Mr. Greeley in a neat speech to the very large assemblage present. He was in- defatigable in his efforts to secure the construction of the Wellsboro and Lawrenceville railroad (now the Corn- ing, Cowanesque and Antrim); was president of the company from the time of its organization until the com- pletion of the road in 1872, and is still a director. He has always been a strong advocate of the building of the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railroad, showing the great benefits which would accrue to the people of Tioga county by stimulating the agricultural and other industrial interests. At the reorganization of the coni- pany in January last he was elected president, and he is doing all in his power to hasten the speedy completion of the road. His boyhood years were spent upon a hill- side farm in the town of Catharine, N. Y., then in Che- mung, now in Schuyler county, where he learned lessons of industry, economy and frugality, which traits, coupled with perseverance and intelligence, have enabled him to secure a competency for his declining years. He has a beautiful home in the northern portion of Wellsboro, and a large and commodious law office on Main street and the public square, with a very extensive and complete law library; and is associated with his only son, Walter, under the firm name of H. Sherwood & Son, in the practice of law. Mr. Sherwood is now in his 67th year,
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