USA > Pennsylvania > Warren County > History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 38
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practice his profession until he died, in 1885. The life and history of Colonel Curtis was so identified with the history of Warren county, for more than thirty years, as to justify a somewhat prolonged obituary notice.
" Benjamin Bartholomew came to Warren from Jefferson county in the spring of 1835, with a family, having already had some years' practice. He soon acquired a fair practice. His education and abilities were such as to secure to him permanently a very respectable position at the bar, had his habits been such as to inspire public confidence. Unfortunately they were not, and the natural result followed. He was a zealous Whig politician and a good stumper. He was elected to the Legislature in 1846, and in the following year left Warren and moved to Pottsville, Schuylkill county.
" Josiah Hall was the first law student in the county of Warren ; prosecuted his studies in the office of Abner Hazeltine, the only resident lawyer here in those days, and was admitted in September, 1823. The sparseness of the pop- ulation and their poverty made the practice of the law far from remunerative even for two lawyers. Most of the good paying business was done by foreign lawyers from 1820 to '29. With all their economy, Haseltine and Hall both failed of financial success. In 1825 the former moved to Jamestown, and soon after the latter embarked in the lumber business, which he found much more to both his taste and profit. Still he kept his place in the profession until about 1834, when he devoted himself entirely to lumbering and politics. He was that year appointed one of the associate judges of the county, which office he resigned in the fall of 1835, upon his election to the Legislature. He was at this time the leader of the Democratic party in the county, but lost caste with it by voting for the charter, or recharter, of the United States Bank, in consideration of getting $- of the bonus or bribe it paid for its charter, in the shape of appropriations for roads and bridges in the county. Anti- bankism was the Jacksonian shibboleth in those days. Hall never resumed the practice, for which he had but little of either taste or talent. The balance of his life was spent in the ups and downs of the lumber and oil business, alter- nately rich and poor, interspersed with several heavy and perplexing lawsuits.
" John N. Miles was a native of Warren county ; received a collegiate educa- tion, studied law with Johnson & Brown, and was admitted to practice in the summer of 1844. He soon formed a copartnership with C. B. Curtis, which continued as Curtis & Miles until his death in 1855. He died young, unmar- ried, and without having fully developed his capacity as a lawyer, or indicating the position he would have attained in the profession had his life been spared. His prospects were fair, his acquirements and natural ability were good, and his personal qualities such as to render him a general favorite in the com- munity.
" In the early judicial history of the county were certain gentlemen of the bar never residents thercin, who for a number of years participated largely in
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the practice, whose names are still familiar to many of the older citizens. Among these, John Galbraith will be remembered as one of those admitted to this bar at the first court ever held in the county, in November, 1819. He resided in Franklin, but continued to attend the courts here regularly until his removal to Erie, about the year 1840, and occasionally afterwards, until his election as the president judge of this district in 1851. As a practitioner he was laborious and painstaking, not eloquent, but logical and convincing, fair and courteous, honest and sympathetic, persistent and apt to take his lost cases to the Supreme Court. His infinite good nature prevented his ever giving offense, and every one that knew him liked him. After being three or four times elected to Congress he was at last elected judge of the sixth judicial dis- trict, in which he presided from 1851 to the time of his decease, in June, 1860. Neither at the bar nor on the bench was a dishonest or dishonorable act ever attributed to the Hon. John Galbraith.
"John J. Pearson was admitted to the bar of Warren county in December, 1822. He was then a fair-complexioned, light-haired stripling, just of age ; resided in Franklin, and had been about two years a lawyer. He was well read, professionally ambitious, a ready and rapid speaker, and indefatigably industrious. These elements of character brought him rapidly to the front ranks of the profession. He soon became, and for many years was, the lead- ing practitioner of this, as he was of Venango, county. About the year 1830 he moved from Franklin to Mercer, but continued his long horseback rides to the courts of this county periodically up to 1840, and occasionally thereafter. He was a model practitioner. Well posted in the law, possessed of a quick perception, a ready and discriminating mind and great resources, he was a most formidable antagonist to any opponent. He was first appointed, and afterwards three times elected, president judge in Dauphin and Lebanon coun- ties, equally distinguished for his professional ability, his social virtues, and his untarnished integrity.
" James Thompson, having practiced some years in Venango county, entered the profession in Warren county in the spring of 1830. He soon made his mark, and entered largely into the practice of the county. This he kept up, except when absent as a member of the Legislature, until the year 1839, when he was appointed judge of the District Court, created that year for the sixth judicial district, when he removed to Erie and never resumed practice here. In 1857 he was promoted to a seat on the Supreme Bench of the State, the duties of which he discharged, with eminent ability and to the great satisfac- tion of the profession, for fifteen years. His retentive memory and sound judgment supplied the want of a collegiate education, and made him a safe and successful judge."
The attorneys now in active practice in the county are about thirty in num - ber. All have been requested to contribute data concerning themselves as
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
members of the bar. A majority have responded, and of these, not otherwise mentioned at length in other pages, we append the following remarks :
Samuel T. Neill was born at Neillsburg, Venango (now Forest) county, on the 16th of July, 1841, and was graduated from Jefferson College in August, 1865. He studied law one year with J. A. Neill, of Warren, and the rest of his term with Lewis C. Cassidy, of Philadelphia, after which, on the 2d of June, 1868, he was admitted to practice. In 1863 he was a high private in the rear rank of the Pennsylvania militia. From December, 1868, to January, 1883, he resided in Titusville, Pa. Besides a gratifying amount of practice in his profession, he has successfully engaged more or less in the oil business, the period of his greatest activity in this business being in 1868 and 1869. He did not begin to confine his energies to his professional duties, indeed, until 1870.
Caleb C. Thompson was born in Pine Grove on the 28th day of May, 1846. He was educated in the common schools of his native town, in the Normal School of Edinboro, Pa., at the Jamestown Union School and at the Col- legiate Institute at the same place. He studied law with Brown & Stone, of Warren, and was admitted to practice in the courts of Warren county on the 3d of May, 1870. From that time to 1881 he resided at Tidioute, and at the last-named date came to Warren. He served one term as burgess of Tidioute borough from February, 1878, three years as district attorney of Warren county from November, 1878, school director for Warren borough for three years from February, 1885, and burgess of Warren borough for one year from February, 1885. He is eminently a self-made man. During the time that he at- tended school and followed the study of law before admission, he taught school winters and labored on farms summers to obtain the money necessary to defray his expenses.
James O. Parmlee was born in Warren, Pa., on the 10th of July, 1845, and received his education at Allegheny College, in Meadville, Pa. His law studies as a clerk were pursued in the office of Hon. S. P. Johnson, of War- ren, his present partner, and he was admitted to practice on the 23d of Sep- tember, 1871. Mr. Parmlee served nine months in the last war in Company G, Two Hundred and Eleventh Regiment, and as captain of Company I, Sixteenth Regiment, N. G. P'a. (from November 5, 1878, to July 30, 1885). On the latter date he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the last-named regiment, a position which he still holds. He is also United States commis- sioner, having received the appointment on the 27th of May, 1880. He is now a resident of Warren, though in former years he has lived in Erie, P'a.
C. H. Noyes entered this life at Marshall, Mich., on the 28th of July, 1849. His educational advantages were limited, and he never attended other than the union school of his native town, nor that after he had reached his twelfth year. He began the study of law in the office of Hon. William D. Brown,
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of Warren, and afterward continued his researches in the office of Hon. Junius R. Clark. His admission to the bar is dated December 12, 1871. Mr. Noyes was elected burgess of Warren borough in February, 1877, and served one year. In 1886 he was appointed a member of the State Geological Survey Commission, a position which he still fills. Since his admission he has closely confined himself to his practice, not permitting his attention to be distracted from his chosen profession by any Circean avocation whatever. He is now the second partner in the prominent firm of Wetmore, Noyes & Hinckley.
Wilton M. Lindsey was born in the township of Pine Grove, this county, June 8, 1841. His literary studies were completed in the academy at Ran- dolph, Cattaraugus county, N. Y., and the State Normal School at Edinboro, Pa. He studied law in the office of Hon. S. P. Johnson, of Warren, and was admitted on the 4th of March, 1872. He enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and Forty-fifth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, in the last war (August 13, 1862), served until January 27, 1863, when he was discharged on sur- geon's certificate of disability. On the Ist of October, 1865, he was appointed county superintendent of common schools for Warren county ; was elected to the same office on the 4th of June, 1866, and was re-elected exactly three years later. On the Ist of December 1871, he resigned this office. In 1877 and 1878 he represented his native county in the State Legislature.
James Cable, son of Thomas Cable, was born in Pine Grove township on the 11th of March, 1848, and was educated at Randolph, N. Y., and at the Union School and Collegiate Institute at Jamestown, N. Y. He then studied law in the office of Dinsmoor & Reeves, and was admitted to the bar on the 20th of January, 1876. Although he now limits his avocations to his chosen profession, he occupied a portion of his time for the first three years of his practice in the service of the several most prominent insurance companies in this part of the country. He resided at Pine Grove until 1874, since which time he has been a resident of Warren.
Perry D. Clark was born on the 7th of June, 1851, in Ellery township, Chautauqua county, N. Y., and obtained a good education at Forestville, in the county of his birth, and at Cornell University. He studied law in the office of S. D. Halladay, at Ithaca, N. Y., and, before coming to Pennsylvania to live, was admitted to practice in the highest courts of that State. After coming to Warren from Ithaca he continued the study of law in the office of Brown & Stone for eight months, and was admitted to practice in the courts of this county on the 2d of September, 1878.
Homer J. Muse was born on the 26th day of November, 1855, at Browns- ville (now Sandy Lake), Mercer county, Pa., and received his education at the New Lebanon Academy, New Lebanon, Pa. His preparatory law studies were pursued in the offices of Hon. Samuel C. T. Dodd and Hon. J. W. Lee, of Franklin, Pa. He was admitted to the bar of Venango county on the 21st
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of April, 1879, and at Warren June 6, 1882. On the 3d of March, 1884, by reason of the illness of the district attorney of Warren county, he was ap- pointed by the court assistant district attorney for one term of court. Since attaining years of maturity he has resided successively at New Lebanon, Franklin, and Coleville, Pa., besides Warren, his present place of residence. From June, 1879, to April, 1882, he practiced at the bar of Mckean county ; was admitted to practice in the courts of Warren county in June, 1882, and in September following took up his residence in his adopted county.
George H. Higgins was born in Sparta township, Crawford county, Pa., and acquired his literary education in the common schools of his native place and in the High School in Watertown, N. Y. Preparatory to his career at the bar he studied law in the office of S T. Allen, and was admitted to practice in Warren county on the 6th of July, 1880. On the 9th of May, 1884, he was appointed by the court district attorney, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William Swanson, and in the following November was elected for a term of three years. His term therefore continues until November, 1887.
Watson D. Hinckley was born on the 17th day of March, 1854, in Fre- donia, Chautauqua county, N. Y., and in the academic department of the State Normal School at that place prepared for college. He completed his scho- lastic training in the University of Michigan. He studied law with Nelson B. Smiley, and was admitted to practice in Warren county on the 12th day of July, 1882. At first he resided at Bradford, but for several years has lived in Warren. In February, 1880, he was elected one of the aldermen of Bradford city for a term of five years, but on the Ist of July, 1882, he resigned this office. He is the youngest member of the firm of Wetmore, Noyes & Hinckley.
John W. Dunkle was born on the 9th of November, 1856, at West Free- dom, Clarion county, Pa. He attended the public schools of Perry township, Clarion county, until 1874, and then passed two years in the State Normal School at Edinboro, Pa., after which he took a thorough course in the law school at Ann Arbor, Mich., from which he was graduated in the spring of 1881. During the summer and fall of 1881 he read law in the office of Brown & Stone, and was admitted to practice in Warren county on the Ist of May, 1882. Since then he has resided at North Clarendon, in this county. He was elected burgess of Clarendon borough in February, 1883, and served his full term. From the spring of 1882 for three years he was notary public.
George N. Frazine was born on the 25th of August, 1860, at Sugar Grove, in this county. He attended a full course in the State Normal School of Fredonia, N. Y., from which he was graduated in the class of 1879. In 1884 he was graduated from Yale College with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, cum laude, an honor reserved for those alone who make an exceptionally brill- iant record in that institution. He then removed to Warren, and after a course of study in the offices of Brown & Ball and Brown & Stone, was ad-
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mitted to practice in the courts of Warren county on the 3d of September, 1883. He is the senior member of the firm of Frazine & Wiggins.
James W. Wiggins, junior member of the firm last above named, was born in Sugar Grove on the 17th of June, 1858, and was educated in the common schools of his native town and in Allegheny College. After a full course of study in the law offices of Johnson, Lindsey & Parmlee, he was admitted to the bar of this county on the 3d of March, 1884, since which time he has car- ried on a successful practice in Warren county, residing at Warren.
William E. Rice was born on the 19th of December, 1860, at Lottsville, in this county, and was educated at the Chamberlain Institute, at Randolph, N. Y., and at Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pa. His preliminary law stud- ies were pursued under the direction of Wetmore, Noyes & Hinckley, of War- ren, after which course, and on the 6th of April, 1885, he was admitted to practice.
J. W. Kinnear, of Tidioute, was born in that village on the 2d day of Au- gust, 1859, and was graduated from Allegheny College in 1882. He began the study of law in the office of Brown & Stone, at Warren, and was admitted to the bar of the county on the 16th of April, 1885.
W. V. N. Yates was born at Columbus, Warren county, on the 1st day of August, 1859. He attended the common schools of his native town and of Corry, and took a course in Allegheny College and in Buchtel College, at Akron, Ohio, from which he was graduated in the class of 1882. The first three years of his course as a law student were passed in the office of Brown & Stone, and the last year with Johnson, Lindsey & Parmlee. On the 28th of June, 1886, he was admitted to practice in the courts of this county. On the IIth of June, 1885, he was appointed by the governor of Pennsylvania to the office of notary public for a term of four years. He has obtained most of the means for his own education by his own efforts, having at one time been teacher in the High School at Corry and at another principal of the schools at Clymer, N. Y. His studies in Allegheny College extended from the fall of 1876 until (excepting one year) the end of the fall term of 1881, when he went to Buchtel College. From the latter institution he received the de- gree Ph.D.
Charles L. Cooper was born in Farmington township, in this county, on the 3d of September, 1860. His preparatory law studies were pursued in the office of Ball & Thompson. He was admitted to the bar on the 5th of Octo- ber, 1886, and has begun the practice of his profession in Warren.
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CHAPTER XXXII.
HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF WARREN.
U [ PON the old French and English colonial maps of this part of America, made, of course, before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, a point on the right bank of the Allegheny River, just below its junction with the Cone- wango, is marked by a word variously written "Kanoagoa," "Canawagy," " Canawago," etc., meaning an Indian village, which it seems was chiefly oc- cupied by the Munsey tribe. It is our belief, however, that this Indian settlement was located from one to two miles below the mouth of the Conewango. When Colonel Brodhead led his troops into this region in 1779 and justly retaliated upon Cornplanter (the leader of the Senecas at the Wyoming and Cherry Val- ley massacres), by destroying his towns and cornfields, he reported that Cana- wago " had been deserted about eighteen months past." Again, in 1785, wlien General William Irvine explored a portion of the Allegheny valley in quest of good lands to be donated to Revolutionary soldiers, he said : “ From Broken- straw to Conewagoo is eight or nine miles, here [at Conewagoo] is a narrow bottom, interspersed with good dry land and meadow ground all the way, and there is a remarkable fine tract at the mouth of the Conewagoo, of a thousand or more acres." Thus a distinction, clear and unmistakable, was made between the Indian town of Conewagoo and the mouth of the Conewango.
Since the year 1795 the same place-at the junction of the Allegheny and Conewango-has, upon the maps of the Commonwealth, been occupied by the word Warren-the town of Warren. The location is picturesquely beautiful at all seasons; hence for nearly a hundred years complimentary terms in its praise have been uttered by stranger and resident alike. Nestling at the south- ern foot of a high, precipitous, and wooded ridge-the former shore of the ancient Allegheny, when it was a mighty stream-its residents are protected almost wholly from the chilly northern and northwestern blasts of winter. The Conewango forms its eastern boundary. In front the waters of the Allegheny flow ceaselessly on, around a bend grand and symmetrical in its proportions. Away beyond the river the hills of l'leasant township, which once formed the southern shore of the old Allegheny, stand out in bold relief, while extended views, up and down the stream, of successive ranges of high hills, fading grad- ually away in the distance in a blue mist, completes a picture of rare loveliness.
In truth nature has done much, man but very little, in adding to or perpet- uating the beauties of Warren and its surroundings. The men to whom more credit is due than all others in preserving for all time one natural feature, at least, of which the eye never wearies, were General William Irvine and Colonel Andrew Ellicott, the commissioners appointed by Governor Mifflin to lay out
Robert Miles
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the town. This they accomplished by simply running Water street parallel with and next to the river bank, thus leaving an unobstructed view of river and street for a distance of more than half a mile. Judging from the past, however, residents have but little appreciation of the value and beauty of their inheritance, this magnificent sweep, side by side, of river and avenue. For scores of years-indeed since the first settlement of the town-this bank, rising gradually from fifteen to twenty-five feet above the river's surface-has been a common dumping-ground of all the filth and rubbish which usually finds its way to such places, and each year mother earth, as if ashamed of the desecration, of man's abominable practices, sends up a rank growth of wild grasses, weeds, and briars to cover the forbidding spots.
In the future, doubtless, a transformation will be brought about by driving a row of piles, extending from the outer face of the suspension bridge abut- ment to a point on the bank some eight or ten rods below (thus doing away with the dirty little eddy which, while it may have been of value in the past, is now but a summer's nuisance, a depository along the shore of all the sewage, garbage, and trash which comes within its influence), tearing out the unsightly "lock-up," disposing in some way of the old Tanner building, filling up the yawning chasm of filth there to be found, grading an easy slope from the street level to the water's edge, sodding or seeding the same with blue grass, and thence continuing the work of grading and sodding to the railroad bridge ; finishing by cutting down the telegraph poles, building a sidewalk, planting shade trees, and placing park benches along the way. Few towns in America are afforded such a grand opportunity as this for the construction of a magnifi- cent promenade. And when such an improvement is made it will add more to the beauty of the town, to the pride of its inhabitants, to their health and wealth, than the erection of five hundred buildings.
In a number of the preceding chapters of this work frequent mention of Warren and its site has been made, during the period beginning with the French occupation of this valley and extending down to the date of its survey and settlement by the Americans. Hence, to avoid unnecessary repetition, this sketch of the history of the town of Warren begins with the year 1795. During that year, " in order to facilitate and promote the progress of settle- ments within the Commonwealth, and to afford additional security to the fron- tiers by the establishment of towns," an act was passed by the State Legislature, April 18, providing for laying out towns at Presque Isle, at the mouth of French Creek, at the mouth of Conewango Creek, and at Fort Le Bœuf.
Of the town to be laid out at the mouth of the Conewango, it was ordered that the commissioners to be appointed by the governor "shall survey or cause to be surveyed three hundred acres for town lots, and seven hundred acres of land adjoining thereto for out lots, at the most eligible place within the tract heretofore reserved [in 1789] for public use at the mouth of Conewango Creek ;
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and the lands so surveyed shall be respectively laid out and divided into town lots and out lots, in such manner, and with such streets, lanes, alleys, and res- ervations for public uses, as the said commissioners shall direct; but no town lot shall contain more than one third of an acre, no out lot shall contain more than five acres, nor shall the reservations for public uses exceed in the whole, ten acres ; and the town hereby directed to be laid out, shall be called ' War- ren,' and all the streets, lanes, and alleys thereof, and of the lots thereto adjoin- ing, shall be and remain common highways."
As if still doubtful of the friendship of the Indians occupying this part of the country-owing, probably, to the hostile feeling displayed by Cornplanter and his band during the previous year-the act further provided that the troops stationed, or to be stationed, at Fort Le Bœuf should be used to protect and assist the commissioners, surveyors, and others while engaged in executing the provisions of the act. General William Irvine and Andrew Ellicott were the commissioners appointed to lay out town plots at the four points indicated, and it is believed, though we have seen no evidence of the fact, that their task was completed in 1795. Be that as it may, however, the lots in the new towns of Warren, Erie, Franklin, and Waterford were not offered for sale until August, 1796, when they were cried at auction at Carlisle, Pa.
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