History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including, Part 16

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868-
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co.
Number of Pages: 1323

USA > Pennsylvania > Venango County > History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including > Part 16

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Jesse Moore, the second judge of the district, presided at the first court ever held in Venango county. He was a native of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, and while practicing law at Sunbury was appointed president. judge of the sixth judicial district, his commission bearing date April 5, 1803. Venango county, organized in 1805, was a part of this district. Immediately after his appointment, Judge Moore removed to Meadville and assumed the duties of his position, which he held without interruption until his death, December 21, 1824, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. He is said to have been well educated, a diligent student, and good lawyer, dis- creet, upright, and impartial in his judicial opinions and decisions. He sustained with becoming grace the honor and dignity of his profession and is said to have made an imposing appearance while presiding over the courts. The late Willliam S. Garvin of Mercer, gives the following description of the personal appearance of Judge Moore:

"The writer of this, who as a little boy occasionally dropped into the court house along between 1812 and 1820, was indelibly impressed with the grand dignity of the president judge. He was a heavy, solemn looking man, and retained the dress of the old style gentleman-small clothes, shoe buckles, knee buckles, bald headed, but hair long behind and done up in a queue, and head and hair and collar of the black coat covered with a white powder sprinkled thereon. He has since seen the supreme court of the United States in session; their black gowns and comparative quietness. enforced certainly give to it a very dignified aspect, but still there was lack- ing the grand old powdered head and queue that gave Judge Moore the ad- vantage in imposing dignity."

The immediate successor of Judge Moore was Henry Shippen, who came to the bench in 1825. He was born in Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania, December 28, 1788, graduated from Dickinson College in 1808, and read law in the office of Judge Hopkins of Lancaster. In due time he was.

158

HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

admitted to the bar and soon won a conspicuous place among the successful jurists of his part of the state. During the war of 1812 he was captain of a company from Lancaster which numbered as one of its privates James Buchanan, subsequently president of the United States. After his service .

in the war closed he diligently prosecuted his profession at Lancaster, where he built up a large and lucrative practice. He finally removed to Hunting- don county, from which place he was appointed president judge of the judi- cial district embracing the counties of Venango, Crawford, Erie, and Mercer. He presided over the courts of this district until his death, March 2, 1839. Judge Shippen is reputed to have been a man of good mind and strong common sense. While on the bench he displayed those legal qualities which distinguish the able lawyer and thorough jurist, his charges and decisions being characterized with dignity and uprightness. In the dis- charge of his judicial functions he frequently displayed a quickness of tem- per, but was uniformly courteous in his treatment of attorneys and litigants.

The next in order of succession was Nathaniel B. Eldred, of Warren, Pennsylvania, who presided over the courts of Venango county from 1839 until 1843, at which time he resigned the judgeship to accept the position of naval appraiser at Philadelphia. Previous to his appointment to the bench he had served in the state legislature and was a politician of considerable influence in his native county. Subsequently he became judge of the Dau- phin and Lebanon district. Judge Eldred received his professional training in Wayne county. He is remembered as a man of keen intellect, a finished scholar, an able lawyer, a painstaking and impartial public servant. In his intercourse with members of the bar he was free but courteous, and although a witty and brilliant conversationalist and a capital story teller, he endeav- ored at all times to maintain the dignity of his position. His written opin- ions and charges to juries were models of legal composition, and as a lawyer his versatile talents and thorough reading made him successful in all branches of the profession. In his personal appearance Judge Eldred was of medium height, possessing a strong, well knit figure, and at the time of his appoint- ment to this district was in the prime of his physical and mental powers.

Gaylord Church, who succeeded Judge Eldred, was a native of Oswego, New York, born August 11, 1811. He removed with his parents to Mercer county, Pennsylvania, in 1816, received his educational training in the Mer- cer Academy, and read law in the office of John J. Pearson, of Mercer, whose sister he afterward married. He was admitted to the bar in 1834, and the same year removed to Meadville, Crawford county, where his rec- ognized ability soon won him a very lucrative business. In 1837 he was appointed deputy attorney general for Crawford county, and in 1840 was elected to the legislature, in which he served two consecutive terms. In . 1843 he was appointed president judge of the sixth judicial district and served as such until 1849, when the district was changed, and Venango be-

Sincerely yours John Trunkey

161

THE BENCH AND BAR.

came a part of the eighteenth district. Judge Church possessed a well balanced judicial mind, was thoroughly versed in the law, and while not as popular with members of the bar as some of his successors, was nevertheless a dignified and efficient judge. After the expiration of his official term he practiced in the courts of Crawford, Venango, and other counties. He stu- diously applied himself to the prosecution of his profession until October 22, 1858, when he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the supreme bench of the commonwealth, which he occupied only a short time. He died in Mead- ville September 29, 1869, leaving a wife and seven children, the eldest of whom, Pearson Church, was elected president judge of the thirtieth judi- cial district in 1877, and served on the bench ten years.

Alexander McCalmont, one of the pioneer lawyers of Franklin, was born in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, October 23, 1785, and was a son of John and Elizabeth (Conard) McCalmont, early settlers of Sugar Creek township, where they removed from Centre county, in 1803. Soon after the family came to Venango county Alexander engaged in teaching school and conducted one of the first schools in Franklin, whither he had removed. He afterward became a prominent merchant and iron manufacturer, and also took an active interest in public affairs. In 1811 he was elected sheriff, in 1814 commissioner, and in 1818 prothonotary, and served as deputy sur- veyor from 1812 to 1817. In the meantime he began the study of law in the office of David Irvine, and was admitted to the bar about 1820. He was then engaged in active practice until 1839, when he was appointed president judge of the eighteenth judicial district and served on the bench ten years. Judge McCalmont's district did not include Venango county until shortly before the expiration of his term, when this county was taken from the sixth and thrown into the eighteenth district.

As an official, lawyer, and business man, Judge McCalmont became well and favorably known throughout the counties of northwestern Pennsylvania and possessed the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. Begin- ing the practice of the legal profession in middle life, he made amends for the loss of earlier opportunities by close study and application, and in time came to be recognized as one of the substantial lawyers of the Venango bar. As a judge he displayed those legal qualities which made him popular alike with attorneys and litigants, and against the honor and integrity of his judi- cial record no word of suspicion has ever been uttered. He was a Demo- crat, and as such took an active interest in local and general political move- ments. Though of Presbyterian lineage, about 1820 he identified himself with the Methodist Episcopal church, in which communion he continued un- til his death, on the 10th day of August, 1857.

Judge McCalmont was twice married, first to Margaret Broadfoot, daughter of John Broadfoot, a pioneer of Franklin. She died in 1817, leaving no children. The following year he was united in marriage with

162

HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

Eliza Hart Connely, daughter of Judge William Connely, who moved from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, to the vicinity of Titusville in 1803, and three years afterward located in Franklin. Mrs. McCalmont was born in Belle- fonte, Pennsylvania, in the year 1801, became a resident of Franklin in 1806, and departed this life in November, 1874. Of the four children born to Judge and Mrs. McCalmont, namely: William, John S., Alfred B., and Elizabeth, who married Edwin C. Wilson, but one is now living, John S., of Washington city.

Joseph Buffington came to the bench in 1849, and served until 1851, when under the constitution the office became elective. He was a native of Armstrong county, and prepared himself for the legal profession under the instruction of General William Ayres, of Butler. As an attorney and jurist Judge Buffington early took rank with his associates, and as a judge he compared well, both in natural and professional abilities, with his predeces- sors of the bench. Socially he was a man of pleasant and affable manners,' well liked by all with whom he came in contact, and politically was an earnest supporter of the old Whig party. Always zealous and conscientious in the discharge of his professional duties, his earnestness at times was such as to subject him to criticism by members of the bar, who charged that in sustaining or overruling objections be appeared to argue their cases. He reached conclusions rapidly, could give a much better verbal than written charge or opinion, and excelled in that department of the law pertaining to civil practice. Judge Buffington was a member of congress for two terms, and also served as judge of the tenth judicial district.

John C. Knox was elected judge of the eighteenth district in October, 1851, and is remembered as an official who had a faculty of disposing of court business with remarkable efficiency and dispatch. He was an excel- lent common pleas judge, arrived at conclusions with but little apparent deliberation, and possessed a quick, discerning intellect, which enabled him to solve readily difficult and technical legal points. He was of fine personal appearance, slightly above the ordinary height, eminently sociable in his nature, and in the discharge of his judicial functions became popular with members of the bar and all who had business to transact in his court. In political matters he achieved considerable prominence, and was elected on the Democratic ticket to the state legislature from Tioga county. In May, 1853, he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the supreme bench caused by the death of Judge Gibson, and the same year was nominated by the Dem- ocratic party and elected as his own successor. He served five years, and then resigned to accept the attorney generalship of Pennsylvania, the duties of which office he discharged until 1861, when he was appointed to a posi- tion in the department of justice at Washington. In the meantime he had withdrawn from the Democratic party, during the slavery agitation growing out of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and became a Republican.

163

THE BENCH AND BAR.

Retiring from official life he resumed the practice of his profession at Phila- delphia, and it was while arguing an important case in the court of that city that he was stricken with a malady which finally impaired his reason and from the effects of which he never recovered. He died in the city of Har- risburg.

John S. McCalmont, second son of Judge Alexander and Eliza Hart (Connely) McCalmont, is a native of Venango county, Pennsylvania, born on the 28th day of April, 1822. He was reared in his native town, in the schools of which he received his early educational training, and subsequently pursued his literary studies for two years in Allegheny College, Meadville. In April, 1838, he entered the United States military academy at West Point, in which he completed the prescribed course, graduating on the 1st day of July, 1842. He was breveted second lieutenant in the Third infantry the same year, and in the following October was promoted second lieutenant in the Eighth regiment. Having a taste for civil pursuits, and tiring of the inactivities of army life in time of peace, after one year's experience he re- signed his commission, and returning to Franklin, devoted himself to the prac- tice of law, which he had studied at intervals during his military life. He was admitted to the Venango bar on the 25th of November, 1844, and after practicing a short time in Franklin went to Clarion where he was actively engaged in the prosecution of his profession until 1856. He served as district attorney in Clarion county from 1845 to 1846, and in 1848 was elected to the legislature and re-elected in the following year, during which term he was speaker of the house.

In 1852 he was the choice of Clarion county for congress, and the same year was chosen presidential elector on the Pierce ticket. In May, 1853, he was appointed by Governor Bigler president judge of the eighteenth judi- cial district, to which he was duly elected by the people for the full term the following autumn. Judge McCalmont discharged the duties of the position in an able and impartial manner, was a dignified and popular official, and but few of his decisions met with reversal at the hands of the supreme court. He continued in the discharge of his official functions until the breaking out of the rebellion, when he tendered his services to Governor Curtin, by whom he was commissioned colonel of the Tenth Reserves, and subsequently resigned the judgeship. Upon the organization of the division, Colonel McCalmont was assigned to the command of the Third brigade, the duties of which he exercised until superseded by General E. O. C. Ord. He commanded his regiment in the bloody battle of Drainesville, fought on the 20th of December, 1861, in which he displayed the qualities of the gallant soldier and skillful commander. Warned by failing health that he would be unable to stand the rugged duties of a protracted military service, Colonel McCalmont resigned his command in May, 1862, and returning to Franklin, resumed the practice of his profession and carried on a successful legal busi-

164

HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

ness until 1885. April 1st of that year he was appointed by President Cleveland commissioner of customs at Washington city, which position he held until March, 1889, when he resigned, although he continued to dis- charge his official duties until June following.

Politically Judge McCalmont voted with the Democratic party until 1872, in which year he supported General Grant for the presidency, and in 1876 cast his vote for Hayes and Wheeler. Since 1880 he has acted with the Democracy. Judge McCalmont became a member of the Methodist Epis- copal church in 1856, since which time he has taken an active interest in the local body of that denomination. In 1872 he was chosen lay representative of the Erie conference to the general conference held at Brooklyn, New York. Professionally and socially he is held in high esteem by the citizens of Venango county, and is deservedly classed among her representative men. He is at this time a resident of the national capital, where he is engaged in the duties of his profession. He was married on the 22nd of March, 1848, to Elizabeth P. Stehley, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and has a family of six living children.

Glenni W. Scofield was appointed by Governor Curtin to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge McCalmont, and served until the elec- tion of his successor the following autumn. He is a native of Chautauqua county, New York, and was a resident of Warren, Pennsylvania, at the time of his appointment. Judge Scofield was one of the most popular and able lawyers in the district. He, however, refused the use of his name as a candidate at the election or he might have been his own successor. He was a versatile and ingenious political leader, and was elected to the legis- lature in 1851, and to the state senate in 1857, and subsequently repre- sented his district in congress. He also served in the treasury depart- ment at Washington, where he is now a judge of the court of claims.

James Campbell, of Clarion county, succeeded Judge Scofield, having been elected on the 11th of October, 1861. He is a native of Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, but removed to Clarion, and in due time became one of the leading members of its bar. He read law in Centre county, and soon after locating at Clarion was recognized as a lawyer of ability and strict integrity. His election to the bench was brought about through the dissatis- faction existing in a section of the Republican party with their own nominee, William Stewart of Mercer. As a result there was a demand all over the district for an independent candidate, and Mr. Campbell's high personal character, eminent legal acquirements, and moderation as a politician, com- mended him to a "people's convention," which, without his knowledge, placed him in the field, and the Democrats making no nomination he was elected by a large majority. Judge Campbell's administration realized the most sanguine expectations of his friends.

Politically Judge Campbell is an earnest supporter of the Republican

165

THE BENCH AND BAR.

party. As a lawyer he is endowed with abilities of no common order, pos- sesses a cool, calculating mind, and unerring judgment. As a judge he was more profound than brilliant, and sustained well the dignity and high rep- utation for which the bench in this district has ever been noted. He was popular with members of the bar, commanded the respect of the public, and in his long and successful practice, has earned the reputation of a safe law- yer and reliable counsellor. He came to the bench fortified with a thor- ough knowledge of the profession, is a diligent student of legal literature and history, and in point of natural abilities and scholarly attainments ranks with the most gifted of his predecessors.

In 1866 the legislature created a new district out of Venango and Mercer counties, the twenty-eighth, and Isaac G. Gordon was appointed by the governor to the judgeship. He held the position until the autumn of that year, at which time his successor was duly elected by the people. Judge Gordon was a resident of Brookville, Jefferson county, and a lawyer of acknowledged ability. His judicial career was, in the main, satisfactory, and the soundness of his decisions was seldom questioned. He was a man of positive convictions, strong in his attachments to friends, and was recog- nized by the bar of this county as a judge who aimed to discharge his whole duty. In October, 1873, he was commissioned" a justice of the supreme court, became chief justice July 14, 1887, and retired from the bench in 1888.

John Trunkey, late justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, suc- ceeded Judge Gordon. On the paternal side Judge Trunkey was of French descent, dating back to the Revolution, his ancestor being one of the soldiers who came over with La Fayette to take part in the struggle for freedom. The name was originally "Tronquet." John Trunkey was born October 26, 1828, in Trumbull county, Ohio, very near the Pennsylvania line. His father's farm was partly in Pennsylvania and partly in Ohio. He grew up a quiet, silent young man, not giving himself much to social pleasures, but intent on doing his duty in the home and in the community. Feeling within himself that there was some larger duty for him than cultivating the soil, honorable and dignified though that employment may be, he sought and obtained what preparation was within his reach for professional life.

In the year 1849 he entered the office of Samuel Griffith, of Mercer, and commenced the study of law. Here the same quietness characterized him as in the home. He did not mingle much in society, but gave diligent attention to study, striving to master the principles of law and make himself familiar with the rules of practice. He was admitted to the bar in 1851, and became associated with Mr. Griffith, his preceptor, in practice. But his reading and study continued. He was very careful in the preparation of cases. No matter what the case was, before a justice of the peace or the court of common pleas, whether there was involved the matter of a few dol-

166

HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

lars or thousands, or the liberty and life of his client, every case was most carefully and conscientiously prepared. On the 29th of September, 1853, he was united in marriage to Miss Agnes, daughter of the late William S. Garvin, who was ever the light of his dwelling, and his adviser and com- forter in the days that followed. Three children were born to them while they resided in Mercer, William G. Trunkey, a member of the bar of War- ren county, admitted at Franklin, August 26, 1881, being the only survivor.

In 1866 Mr. Trunkey was elected to the office of president judge of the twenty-eighth judicial district, then composed of the counties of Venango and Mercer. In 1876 he was re-elected to the same office. Venango county, to which he had in the meantime removed, then, and since 1874, constituted the twenty-eighth district. On the common pleas bench Judge Trunkey was most patient and generous, listening to the tedious details of business, hearing the arguments of counsel, giving every possible oppor- tunity to the parties in controversy, and saturating his own mind with the spirit of the case, and striving to deal truly and impartially with all parties involved. At the time of his elevation to the bench business had greatly in- creased in the courts, growing out of the great impetus given trade by the oil discoveries. The number of cases entered on the appearance docket at the August term, 1866, was more than ten times greater than the number entered at the corresponding term in 1889, and the business of the criminal courts was correspondingly larger. The result of this increase of business was the accumulation of cases awaiting trial when the new judge came upon the bench. A Herculean task was before him, for the statute required that all actions should be reached and have a fair opportunity of trial at least within one year after they had been commenced. But the judge girded himself for work, opening the courts at eight o'clock in the morning and sitting until six in the evening, and often holding night sessions. The amount of work performed was therefore prodigious.

With all this press of business there was no undue haste. Every man who had business with the courts felt that he was fully heard and his cause carefully considered. Such was the confidence of the bar and of the people in both his disposition and ability to mete out exact justice, that but few writs of error were taken to his judgments, and such was the correctness of his rulings in the main, that notwithstanding the great number of novel and difficult questions which grew out of the mining industries in the earlier years of his service in the common pleas, but eight of his judgments were reversed during the eleven years that he sat in that court.

In the autumn of 1877 he was elected to the supreme bench of the state, and in December resigned the president judgeship to enter upon the duties of his new position. As a justice of the supreme court, Judge Trunkey manifested the same patient care and industry that had characterized his work in the court below, listening to arguments of counsel, making himself

167

THE BENCH AND BAR.

familiar with the entire case, reading the " paper books," and then care- fully, thoughtfully, and conscientiously preparing the opinions assigned him in good terse English that will be a monument of his judicial acumen in days to come. He did not so much seek rhetorical ornament, or strive to embellish his style by tropes and figures, as to set forth the truth and get at the gist of the matter in hand. He loved justice, truth, and righteousness, and brought them to bear in all his official work. But the last two or three years of his labor on the bench were years of suffering and affliction. An in- sidious disease was sapping the foundations of life and health, and causing the strong man to feel the burden of his daily toil. He worked on, yet never complained, and not a murmur ever escaped his lips. On the bench hear- ing arguments, or in his study preparing opinions, there seemed to be the same close mental application, although physical suffering was wearing out his life's energy. In the month of June, 1887, by the advice of his medical counsel, he went to London to be treated by a medical expert. The time spent in London was a period of great suffering, yet he was patient, resigned, and trustful, feeling that he was in the hands of a kind Providence and that all would be well. But the time came when he felt and knew that the end was near. He did not fear the change and passed quietly out of life on the 24th day of June, 1888.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including, Part 16

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co. Number of Pages: 1323

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868-
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co.
Number of Pages: 1323