USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 37
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But now comes a dark page in its history. At about 2 o'clock P. M., on February Ist, 1868, a fire broke out, and in a few hours there was nothing left
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of all these vast buildings but smouldering ruins. The fire first showed itself in the middle building, out of which dark volumes of smoke and flame were pouring. There was no water to oppose it except from a few pumps on the premises. Neighbors gathered quickly, and saved a great amount of house- hold furniture. The Guest House alone remained. There was an insurance of $20,000, but one building alone had cost more than twice that amount. The friends of the institution came to its aid with liberal donations. Part of the grounds was sold, and in a few weeks they were ready to begin the construction of a new building on the site of the former one. It was of Gothic design, with irregular outline. Its front to the east was 74 feet by 40 feet deep, the left wing, extending northwest, 174 by 44; the right wing to the south was 100 feet by 50 feet. The chapel was connected with the front building and ran parallel with the left wing. It was of Gothic architecture, 74 by 34 feet. The work began in April, 1868. In September, 1869, the academy building was ready to accommodate pupils. The chapel was completed in 1870, and the new structures have a beauty of architecture and a symmetry about them which could not have been attained under the original process of construction. The purpose of the academy is to impart a solid English education, together with a knowledge of the languages and fine arts, and to fit the students for useful places in social life.
St. Xavier's, the Abbey and the College buildings are all erected on a gentle elevation. The fertile valleys of the Loyalhanna lie before them, while in the distance is the Chestnut Ridge, thickly covered with its primeval forests. Near the buildings are spacious lawns, beds of flowers, blooming shrubbery, vines, ferns, and hundreds of ornamental trees.
CHAPTER XXIII
The Early Bench and Bar. 1773-1790.
The leading features in the lives of some of the judges and more eminent lawyers from 1773 to 1850 have been partially preserved by the reminiscences of Mr. James Johnston, late of "Kingston House," and by the writings of Mr. George Dallas Albert, late of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. To these authorities and to newspaper files generally the writer has had access, and has drawn material from them freely, which he has treated as authentic.
Westmoreland county was erected during the proprietary government of the Penns and under the reign of the English law, though the latter was some- what modified by the constitution of 1776. The act of May 22, 1722, authorized the appointment of a "competent number of justices of the peace" for each county, and any three of them had power to hold the ordinary quarter sessions court and common pleas court. The act of September 9, 1759, provided that "five persons of the best discretion, capacity, judgment and integrity" should be commissioned for the common pleas and orphans' court, any three of whom were empowered to act. All were appointed for life on good behavior. By the constitution of 1776 the term was limited to seven years, but the constitu- tion of 1790 restored the former tenure. The act of 1722 also provided for the appointment of a supreme court of three judges (afterwards increased to four), before whom the proceedings of the county court could be reviewed. This supreme court had further jurisdiction over all capital cases, and for this pur- pose they were compelled to sit in each county twice a year. Treason, murder, manslaughter, robbery, horse stealing, arson, burglary, witchcraft, etc., were all punishable by death.
On February 27, the day following the passage of the act creating West- moreland county, William Crawford, among others, was appointed a justice of the new county. The place of holding court was fixed at Hannastown and on April 6, 1773, the first court of the county was convened with Judge William Crawford on the bench. The first business transacted was to divide the county into townships. Then a grand jury was called, with John Carnahan as fore- man. This court was held in the log house of Robert Hanna, as were practi- cally all of the courts of the county for the next thirteen years.
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
The judges who sat on the bench during this period of Westmoreland's his- tory were not learned in the law. They were men of high standing in the com- munity, but were generally little more than justices of the peace. This was the case all over the province at that time, and yet a writer of no less distinction than Henry Cabot Lodge, in his "History of the English Colonies in America," page 232, speaks of the judicial system of Pennsylvania as "far above the co- lonial standard both as to the bench and the bar."
All of the judges and justices of the province were appointed by the presi- dent of the supreme executive council under the act of May 22, 1722, with the above modifications. Their powers were very similar to those of the present common pleas and orphans' court judges. They were not only the highest judicial officers of the county, but were men of distinction in social life. Their houses, it is true, were the ordinary log houses, with perhaps a few supplemen- tary articles of furniture, but there was undoubtedly a higher standard of so- ciability and a finer polish among them than among the pioneers generally. There was a vestige of the old world manners about them.
The distinction between the title "justice" and "judge" seems to have been that when they sat on the bench of the county court they were called "judges," and otherwise they were known as "justices." All were commissioned as justices.
Very early in the Pennsylvania province it became the custom to distinguish one of the justices as president judge, and this honor fell first to William Craw- ford when he was present, but the records sometimes show instances in which Lochry, Gist, Hanna, Foreman, Jack and Moore were named as president or "precedent" judges. When they met to hold court, if the regular president was not present, they selected one of their number to preside in his absence, but he did not hold the office of president by legislative authority prior to the act of January 28, 1777. This act has the following :
"The president and council shall appoint one of the justices in each county to preside in the respective courts, and in his absence the justices who shall attend the court shall choose one of themselves president for the time being.""
Crawford was a man who, even in his younger years, stood very high among the pioneers of both Pennsylvania and Virginia. He came west on the Braddock road shortly after the memorable defeat and took up land in 1767 near Connellsville, where he resided. He is described as a gentleman of the old school. He was personally visited by Washington before the latter was appointed commander of the American armies ( 1775). He served under Washington in the Braddock campaign, and is mentioned in many places in Washington's letters. He was born in Virginia in 1733. In order to fully understand his surroundings and his retirement from the Westmoreland bench the reader should acquaint himself with the causes of "Dunmore's War," which perplexed our courts a great deal during this period. It arose from a 21
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dispute as to the boundary line between Virginia and Pennsylvania, and has been treated of at length in this volume.
In this matter Judge Crawford sided with Lord Dunmore and took the oath of allegiance to Virginia in 1775. He was at once removed from office by the president of the supreme executive council, and the order removing him recognized him as the presiding justice. But his memory has not suffered in history because of his leaning towards Virginia. When the war of the Revolu- tion came he raised a regiment in western Virginia and Westmoreland county, was made its colonel, and with it did great service in the Continental army. Toward the close of the war he was sent to guard the frontier against Indian incursions. To this end he built Fort Crawford, on the Allegheny river, near the present town of Arnold. In 1782 he was appointed to command an expedi- tion against the Indians on the Sandusky. It is known as Crawford's expedi- tion, and is the basis of one of the most heart-rending chapters of border his- tory. His army was outnumbered, and he himself was captured by the In- dians under the leadership of the notorious Simon Girty. After much torture he was tied hand and foot, and, amid fiendish yells of joy, the Indians, thinking they were avenging the red men who had fallen before his command, put the bold and intrepid frontiersman to a most cruel death by burning him at the stake. Thus died the first of Westmoreland's provincial judges. He will ever be remembered as an honest and upright judge, a true patriot, and a brave soldier.
Judge Crawford, being retired from the bench prior to the passage of the act (1777) authorizing the appointment of a president judge, therefore the judicial distinction by legislative authority came first in reality to John Moore. At the commencement of the colonial rebellion he was engaged in clearing out and cultivating a farm of four hundred and fifty acres, on the Crabtree Run, a branch of the Loyalhanna, two miles southeast of New Alex- andria. A comfortable stone dwelling, still in pretty good condition, marked the place of his residence, and indicated a man in advance of the rude civiliza- tion of that day. His wife was a daughter of Isaac Parr, of New Jersey. They had one child when the Revolution opened. These, together with several colored servants, constituted his household. He was at that time about thirty- seven years of age.
His first appearance in public life was as a delegate from the county of Westmoreland to the convention which met at Philadelphia, July 15, 1776, to form a costitution and frame a government for the state of Pennsylvania. A committee of conference, of eminent citizens of the state, met at Carpenter's Hall, in Philadelphia, June 15, 1776, to make arrangements for calling a conven- tion to form a constitution and frame of government upon the separation of the colonies from England. The people were invoked by the committee of con- ference "to choose such persons only to act for them in the ensuing convention as are distinguished for wisdom, integrity, and a firm attachment to the liberties of this province." In pursuance of this recommendation, delegates were chosen
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July 5, 1776, and the eight delegates to the convention elected for Westmoreland county were John Moore, Edward Cook, James Perry, James Barr, James Smith, John Carmichael, John McClellan, and Christopher Lobingier. In the convention John Moore was placed on the committee to draw up a declaration or bill of rights, and also on the committee to report a plan or constitution of government. The convention selected "a Council of Safety to exercise the whole of the executive powers of government, so far as relates to the military defense and safety of the province," which consisted of David Rittenhouse, John Moore, Owen Biddle, James Cannon, Joseph Blewor, Frederick Kuhl, Col. John Bull, Timothy Matlack, Samuel Morris, B. Bartholomew, Thomas Wharton, Henry
JUDGE MOORE'S HOUSE.
Kepples, John Weitzel, John Hubly, Henry Wyncoop, George Gray, John Bay- ard, Francis Gurney, Joseph Donaldson, and William Lyon.
September 30th John Moore returned to Westmoreland. During the time he was in session with the Council of Safety he procured for the defense of Westmoreland county about four hundred pounds sterling, half a ton of rifle powder, one ton of lead, and four thousand flints. In 1777 he was commis- sioned a justice of the peace, and about the same time was appointed surveyor of public lands in Westmoreland county. In 1779 he was commissioned one of the judges of the several courts of Westmoreland county, and in 1785 ap- pointed president judge of the same county. No appointment was made for Westmoreland county until October 24th of that year (Col. Rec. vol. xiv, p.
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516). His commission bore date on the day following, and is recorded in the register's office, in Book A, p. 544. He was succeeded in the fall of 1791 by the Hon. Alexander Addison. After Judge Moore retired from the bench he was elected for two terms to the state senate from the senatorial district of Alle- gheny and Westmoreland.
He was born in Lancaster county. His father, William Moore, died when he was but a boy ; and afterwards his mother, Jeannette Moore, and her son, in company with her brothers, Charles Wilson, Esq., and John Wilson, removed to the district of Westmoreland county. What his opportunities for an education were are not known. He wrote a good hand, and in language and orthography his composition indicated a man of strong, vigorous, and clear intellect. After his mother had removed to Westmoreland county, she was again married, to James Guthrie, of Greensburg, by whom she had several children, one of whom, James, was afterwards sheriff of Westmoreland county. John B. Guthrie, once mayor of Pittsburgh, was a descendant.
John Moore had four daughters and two sons. One of his sons was after- wards county surveyor. The other died in Kentucky, while engaged as princi- pal civil engineer in the location of a rail- road. His daughters, who were all women of fine personal appearance and intelligence, were respectively married to Major John Kirkpatrick, a merchant of Greensburg; John M. Snowden, editor of the Farmers' Register, in Greensburg, afterwards editor of the Pittsburgh Mercury, and later in life mayor of Pittsburgh, one of the asso- ciate judges of Allegheny county, and at one time the nominee of the Democratic ANOTHER VIEW OF JUDGE MOORE'S HOUSE. party for congress in the Allegheny dis- trict ; another was married to the Rev. Francis Laird, D. D., and the last to James McJunkin, a prominent farmer. All these women lived until they were over eighty years old, in the enjoyment of perfect health and sound constitutions, and were, throughout a long life, worthy examples of the highest standard of female propriety.
In personal appearance John Moore was a man full six feet high, very straight and erect ; had large brown eyes, brown hair, and nose rather aquiline. A gentleman who met him in his own house for the first time in 1798 has left the following description of his appearance and the impression he made on his mind at first sight and afterwards: "A tall gentleman, of erect and manly form, whose intelligent countenance and strikingly expressive eye indicated a man of more than ordinary ability. He was then about sixty years old, and the rough buffeting of a frontier life had left a slight shade of sternness over a countenance at all times dignified. He was extremely correct in his habits, unbending in his course, stern in his commands, but remarkable for his affec-
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tion to his children ; and although generally mild was notwithstanding pos- sessed of a great deal of temper, being deeply sensitive, and having a high sense of honor."
John Moore died in 1811, in the seventy-third year of his age, honored and respected by all good men who knew him, and his body was buried at Congruity church. His widow survived him many years. For many years he was an elder in the Presbyterian church at Congruity, and was acting in such capacity when chosen a delegate to the convention which framed the first constitution. By his will he set free the older of his colored servants, and allowed the younger ones to serve an apprenticeship with any of his children they might chose.
Judge Robert Hanna, for whom Hannastown was named, was one of the trustees appointed to locate the public buildings for the new county. The other trustees were Erwin, Cavett, Sloan and Wilson. Hanna was the most powerful of these, for he succeeded in locating the county seat and its buildings on his lands.
He was born in the northern part of Ireland, and on reaching western Penn- sylvania, settled on the Forbes road. He took up lands about midway between Fort Ligonier and Fort Pitt, and on them erected a log house for a residence. There being a good deal of travel on the road, his house was soon leased to a neighbor and converted into a tavern. Near him he rapidly induced other emigrants to settle, and by 1773, when the county was formed, there was quite a colony of houses around Hanna's. It was, moreover, the chief stopping place between Pittsburgh and Ligonier, On the formation of the county Robert Hanna was appointed a justice. The court at Hannastown being held at his house, he was on the bench very regularly, but nevertheless little is known of his work as a judge.
Judge William Jack was born near the town of Strabane, county Tyrone Ireland, in 1751. But little is known of his life prior to his arrival in America. Tradition has it, however, that the family was of Huguenot descent, having been driven from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In 1772 William Jack and his brother Matthew, aged twenty-one and seventeen re- spectively, settled near the present town of Greensburg. William married Margaret, a daughter of Charles Wilson, July 7, 1774, and Matthew married her sister Nancy some years later.
In the preliminary steps taken to form the new county in 1773, in Dun- more's war and the various Indian wars and in the Revolution, William and Matthew Jack both took active parts. William was commissary officer of Col- onel Mackey's regiment, a lieutenant of Captain Samuel Moorhead's independ- ent company, and was commissioned a brigadier-general of militia by Governor Thomas Mifflin on April 19, 1793. In 1784 he was commissioned by John Dickinson, president of the supreme executive council. as one of the county justices, and was therefore ex officio a county judge. Christopher Truby and John Moore were on the bench with him, and his commission ran seven years.
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The court minutes show that he was in more constant exercise of his functions. on the bench at Greensburg than any other judge. John Moore was designated president judge, but frequently in Moore's absence William Jack is noted as presiding. Upon the accession of Judge Addison (1791) Jack became an asso- ciate judge. Up to the close of the century he was on the bench at almost every term of court.
There is in possession of the descendants of General Jack, the children of Mrs. Nancy Jack Wentling, late of Greensburg, a very laudatory letter given to General Jack on the eve of his departure for Europe. The letter indicates that he was a man of many high and noble qualities and is signed by John Moore, president judge ; Christopher Truby, Michael Rugh, judges, and attested by Michael Huffnagle, prothonotary. The letter is dated November 4, 1788. General Jack lived many years after this, dying February 18, 1821.
There were other justices who sat on the bench during this provincial per- iod, but these of whom we have written are fairly representative men of their day, and. we believe, will enable the reader to form a correct estimate of the men who presided over ou: courts during the years between 1773 and 1790.
THE EARLY BAR.
For some years after the formation of the county the Westmoreland bar scarcely had a name as a bar. There were no resident lawyers in Hannastown. Lawyers came from other counties to try cases regularly before judges and jurymen, but sessions of court were short and far between. The first lawyer who was regularly admitted to the bar, so far as the records show, was Francis Dade, who was sworn August 3, 1773. The old records show the names of Espy, Irwin, Smiley, Galbraith, Megraw, Sample, Ross, Scott, Wilson and others.
Hugh Henry Brackenridge, noted for his learning, eloquence and wit, after- wards justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, was admitted at Hannas- town, April 2nd, 1781, and for many years practiced a great deal at this bar. Upon his motion David Bradford was admitted in 1782. Bradford came to this county from Maryland, became the head and front of the Whisky Insurrection, and was forced to flee the country. He settled finally in Mississippi, where he became a wealthy planter. These attorneys and some others were the first, and they practiced while the courts were held at Hannastown, and before the removal of the county seat to Greensburg. 'Brackenridge was the most noted of them all, and an extended sketch of him would be in keeping.in these pages were it not that he belonged to the Allegheny county bar.
It must not be supposed that the early courts were of an inferior character because the justices were not learned in the law. It will be remembered that Ebenezer Webster, the father of Daniel Webster, though not a lawyer, sat for many years as a judge of the common pleas court of New Hampshire. The
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justices were selected with great care, and were well suited and equipped to carry on the litigation of the primitive age in which they lived. They brought order out of chaos, and steadily advanced the pioneer standards of jurisprudence until 1790, when the community was intellectually ready for the more exacting principles of the new constitution. After the constitution of 1790 went into force, there were still three judges on the bench, the president judge alone being learned in law, the other two being associate judges. The associate judges re- mained on the bench in Westmoreland county until after the adoption of the constitution of 1873.
Those who sat on the bench in Westmoreland county since the adoption of the constitution in 1790, that is, those who were "learned in the law," as was provided for in that constitution, are as follows :
Alexander Addison, from 1791 to 1803; Samuel Roberts, from 1803 to 1805; John Young, from 1806 to 1836, a period of thirty and a half years, which was longer than that of any other judge on this bench ; Thomas White, of Indiana county, from 1836 to 1847; Jeremiah M. Burrell, from 1847 to 1848, and again, he being a second time on the bench, as in his biography later on will appear, from 1851 to 1855; John C. Knox, from 1848 to 1850; Joseph Buffington, from 1855 to 1871 ; James A. Logan, from 1871 to 1879; James A. Hunter, from 1879 to 1890.
Judges Lucian W. Doty, Alexander D. McConnell and John B. Steel are the present occupants of the bench.
Judge Alexander Addison, like many prominent men of his day, was born in a foreign land-in Ireland, in 1759. He received a thorough education at Edinburgh, and was for many years a clergyman in the Presby- terian church in Scotland. He arrived in Pennsylvania, December 20, 1785, and applied to the old renowned Redstone Presbytery for license to preach in southwestern Pennsylvania. From some unknown cause the examination proved very unsatisfactory, but permission was granted to him to preach, his application having been made from the town of Washington. Not long after this, being perhaps disgruntled because of the difficulty in liis examination, he abandoned the ministry and took up the study of law. He finally settled in Pittsburgh, where he practiced law for many years and with great success.
He was president judge of this district, which included the four western counties which became so notorious in 1795 in the Whisky Insurrection. Dur- ing this period, and for decisions growing out of the Whisky Insurrection, he became very unpopular with the anti-Federalists. There was at that time an associate judge on the bench named Lucas, who though not a lawyer, fre- quently differed from the judge and tried to overrule him. He finally tried to charge the grand jury contrary to the custom, and to set forth views opposite those expressed by Judge Addison. On this Judge Addison stopped him, which was probably what he desired. He applied to the legislature, which tried Judge Addison by impeachment, and removed him from office in January, 1803, on the fiimsiest of charges. "No person can read the report of the trial,"
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says Judge J. W. F. White, "without feeling that it was a legal farce; that gross injustice was done Judge Addison from the beginning to the end, and that the whole proceeding was a disgrace to the state. The trial took place at Lancaster, where the legislature sat. The house and senate refused to give him copies of certain papers, or to give assistance in procuring witnesses from Pitts- burgh for his defense. The speakers of the counsel against him, and the rul- ings of the senate on all questions raised in the progress of the trial, were char- acterized by intense partisan feeling. It was not a judicial trial, but a partisan scheme to turn out a political opponent. It resulted in deposing one of the purest, best and ablest judges that ever sat on the bench in Pennsylvania."
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