USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 40
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
and in 1836 he removed to Pittsburgh, where he achieved a still greater emi- nence in his profession.
The story of the life and professional services of John F. Beaver is well told in an article which appeared about the time of his death, which was writ- ten by a fellow member of this bar, now dead, and we depend on it largely con- cerning this notable man. He died in Newton Falls, Ohio, on June 12, 1877. Sixty-two years have passed away since he left Greensburg, yet his name and fame are still fresh in the recollection of the older people of the county. His genial character and his exuberant flow of animal spirits rendered him conspic- nous in every company, so much so, indeed, that it was difficult to forget him.
He was born near Stoystown, in Somerset county, his maternal grandfather, Daniel M. Stoy, having given his name to the village. His father, Henry Beaver, removed some years afterwards to Grapeville, and here John F. Beaver continued to live until 1844, when he removed to Ohio. His physical organiza- tion was remarkable, and he excelled in all athletic sports which required strength and precision of muscular action. He was a large heavy man. With a rifle he was unerring and, like Natty Bumpo, nothing but the center-"pierc- ing the bull's eye"-would satisfy him.
Hearing upon one occasion of a match to shoot for a bear in a remote part of the county, he dropped in and was solicited to take a stake to make up the match, which he'could not decline. No one, of course, knew Beaver, who was apparently without a gun, but a boy was standing near with a ponderous, rather rusty looking rifle, and Beaver suggested that he might borrow this from the boy. The affair then commenced and when Beaver's turn came some one kindly volunteered to show him how to hold his weapon and so on. He was very unsteady, his rifle shaking, but somehow the nail was driven. This was rare sport and the luck of the lawyer was marvelous. But each round was fol- lowed by the same result. Finally he won the bear and then a chain was seen hanging from the pocket of the boy who had brought the rusty gun. This was Beaver's son, who had come prepared to take the bear home. To finish up the affair he then disclosed his identity and gave a good dinner to the whole party, and, of course, made them ever afterwards his friends.
At about the age of twenty-one he cut himself with an ax and was confined to bed for some weeks. At that time he was illiterate, barely able to read, but seeing a copy of Smith's Laws, which had belonged to his Grandfather Story when a justice of the peace in Somerset county, he determined to read them, dry as they were. This he did, and with so much zeal and vigor that by the time his wound was healed he was regarded as quite a lawyer in the com- munity. At all events this reading gave him a taste for the law, and with this purpose in view he placed himself under the direction of Alexander W. Foster, Esq., and read law with him. Foster thought he saw in this rugged young Hercules something better than muscle, and he encouraged him to persevere.
He read law for five years, boarding all the time in Grapeville, four miles from Greensburg, walking in and out every day. He was admitted to the bar
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
in February, 1833, and soon gained a large practice. He was an Anti-Mason in politics and afterwards a Whig, and then belonged to the Free-Soil party. He ran for congress in 1840 as a Whig and was defeated by Hon. A. G. Marchand, who will be mentioned hereafter. The well-known late editor of the Argus, John M. Laird, Esq., was, during this campaign, chairman of the Democratic county committee. On the day of a large convention in Greensburg he and Beaver stopped at the same hotel. Mr. Laird was on a committee to frame resolutions against the election of Beaver.
Mr. Laird had a very large head, so had Beaver ; and when Mr. Laird went to dinner he mistook his hat and put his resolutions in Beaver's hat. Imme- diately after dinner Beaver discovered the mistake and taking his hat with Mr. Laird's resolutions went over to the courthouse and presented them in open court. These resolutions denounced him (Beaver) as a scamp and unworthy of any respectable citizen's support. Judge White was on the bench. No one relished a joke more than he, but he gravely decided that he had no jurisdic- tion in the matter. The resolutions were returned to Mr. Laird. Such was the good humor and fun of the old men of the bar more than sixty years ago.
Beaver, however, had a great deal of professional business, not only in this, but in Allegheny county. In 1842 he sold his office and furniture to Edgar Cowan, then a young member of the bar. His success at the bar in the supreme court was very marked, he being a great favorite with the judges on account of his fair and candid bearing toward them, as well as because of his ability and native wit.
In Ohio he was elected to the state senate as soon as he had resided there long enough to be qualified, and attracted attention and consideration by his immense size, his dress and his singular intellectual ability. The senate was a tie without him and he was looked for with great anxiety when that body met. He drove all the way from Mahoning county to Columbus, as there were no railroads in those days. His wagon broke down when he was twelve miles distant from the state capital. He completed the journey on foot and reached the senate just as they were about to take an important vote. He was a stranger, of immense build, covered with mud, and as he strode into the cham- ber he was greeted with cheers, and "his boots" became famous in song and story for years afterwards. He was a leader in politics for some time, and at one time came within one or two votes of being nominated for governor of Ohio. All his life he was a student, and enlarged year by year the boundaries of his knowledge in every direction. His memory was astonishing, extending even to the minutest details. He was without vanity or pride or conceit, and if his clothes had been indestructible he would have worn the same suit all his life. Mr. Cowan, once having in various ways got his measure, procured for him a new suit of fashionable clothes, including a pair of polished boots and a "stovepipe" hat. There was some coaxing necessary to get him to don the rig, but once on and in the street, the town turned out and gave him an ovation.
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
He was a unique character, a great lawyer and a thoroughly representative man of his day.
Justice Richard Coulter was in all probability the most eloquent member of the Westmoreland county bar in the nineteenth century. He was the son of Eli and Priscilla (Small) Coulter, and was of Scotch-Irish descent. He was born in Westmoreland county, in what is now Versailles township, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, in March, 1788. In 1793 his family moved to Greens- burg. He was educated at Jefferson College, but did not remain for gradua- tion. He read law in the office of his brother-in-law, John Lyon, of Union- town, Fayette county, and was admitted to practice in that county November 19, 1810. On February 18, 1811, on motion of John B. Alexander, he was admitted to the Westmoreland county bar. Soon after his admission he entered the field of politics, induced to do so doubtless by his friends, because of his natural talent as a public speaker. It was the age of oratory both in legislative halls and at the bar, and a young man of forceful powers of public speech was naturally pushed out into political life.
He began at the bottom, being elected to the Pennsylvania legislature in 1816 and was returned in 1817, 1818, 1819 and 1820. He was nominated in 1826 as an independent candidate for congress against James Clark, the Dem- ocratic nominee, and was elected. In 1828 he was re-elected without opposi- tion, and was also elected in 1830 and 1832, latterly as the regular Democratic nominee, the parties having been reorganized since he first entered congres- sional life. He went to congress as the leader of his party in his county, and because of his forensic talents and pronounced ability, very soon gained an enviable standing in that body. The great question in congress then was the re-charter of the United States Bank. Andrew Jackson was president and brought all the power of his administration to bear to defeat its re-charter. Coulter had the courage to oppose the president and to support the United States Bank. This position lost him many friends in his district who were stanch adherents of "Old Hickory." In 1834, therefore, John Klingensmith, a plain man of German descent, was nominated for congress. He was re- garded as a strong man in his district. Many of the voters were of German extraction, and a man of their dialect and nationality, particularly if they imagined him to, in some degree, resemble their idea of President Jackson, as was the case with Klingensmith, would receive almost their solid vote. Coulter was the opposing candidate, and it was hoped that by his eloquence and personal popularity he could overcome this united opposition. But, though he made a gallant fight, he was defeated by Klingensmith. A leading news- paper at this time lamented his defeat in the following language :
"Poor Pennsylvania! She is the Boeotia of the Union; where else could such a man as Richard Coulter have been defeated by such an unknown and illiterate person as his antagonist?"
Rfother
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
At the close of his last term in congress, in 1835, he resumed the practice of the law in Greensburg, which had been somewhat neglected during the years- he was in political life. He was then forty-seven years old, and for eleven years was engaged exclusively in his profession. The bar was not, by any means, a weak one in his day. John B. Alexander, the elder Foster and Beaver were men who could give any bar a high standing. Coulter easily took rank with these men. Alexander perhaps excelled him in his knowledge of the law, and Foster was doubtless greater than he in the management of a case, but in his address before a jury he easily surpassed either of them.
Mr. Cowan was then a young man, but in his latter years he said he re- garded Coulter as the most eloquent and impressive jury lawyer who ever practiced at the Westmoreland bar. His practice during these years was one of the largest, if not the largest, at the bar, and if the reader imagines that he- was an advocate alone he is sadly in error. He was the best educated man of his day at the bar, and in his knowledge of the law he was excelled only by the elder Foster and Alexander, and this is not by any means a discredit to Coulter.
In 1846 a vacancy occurred on the supreme bench of the state, occasioned by the death of Justice John Kennedy. The governor was urged by a petition to appoint Richard Coulter to the position, the Westmoreland bar signing the petition without regard to party. He was accordingly appointed justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania by Governor Francis R. Shunk, and took his seat September 16th of that year. By virtue of this appointment, he filled the office until the organic law was so changed in 1850 that all positions on the bench were vacated and thereafter were to be filled by popular election. The first election under the new law was in the fall of 1851. The Democratic nominees were John Bannister Gibson, Jeremiah S. Black, Ellis Lewis, Walter H. Lowrie and James Campbell. Richard Coulter and four others were nomi- nated by the Whigs. In the Democratic convention in 1851 Coulter received support and the nomination by the Whig party was tendered him without solicitation. At the fall election all of the Whig candidates were defeated except Coulter. he defeating James Campbell by several thousand votes. Campbell shortly afterwards became attorney general of Pennsylvania, and later postmaster general under Franklin Pierce. Under a constitutional pro- vision lots were drawn for length of term. Justice Black drew the short term of three years, and thereby became chief justice of Pennsylvania. Lewis drew the six. Gibson the nine, Lowrie the twelve and Coulter the fifteen year term.
Justice Coulter very early distinguished himself on the bench by an elab- orate opinion in the case of Hummell vs Brown (6th Bar, p. 86), in which he, with peculiar erudition, outlined the legislative power of the state in the coer- cion and control of corporations. When this opinion was delivered, in 1847, it was regarded by lawyers as one of the ablest and most eloquent opinions- ever delivered from the supreme bench.
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IIISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
He did not live long to fill the office to which he had been chosen, but died in Greensburg April 20, 1852, his death being announced from the supreme bench on May II following.
Justice Coulter was the only member of the Westmoreland bar who ever reached the supreme bench. As a lawyer he took high rank on the bench, and his decisions are yet valued and quoted by the profession. No man could take first place on a bench that was adorned by John Bannister Gibson, but Coulter was undoubtedly entitled to rank high after Gibson, and in one respect, viz .: as a scholar outside of the law, he was superior to Gibson or any other man on the bench.
His addresses in congress and elsewhere were not only eloquent, but charm- ing in literary style and grace. His poetic temperament lent a richness and beauty to his speech, while his logic and marshaling of facts made his argu- ments almost irresistible. Though over fifty years have passed away since his death, his fame as an orator still lives.
He was never married, but lived most of his life with his widowed mother and a maiden sister.
We insert the inscription he wrote about 1826, as an epitaph for his mother's tombstone, which loses nothing by being compared with Lord Macauley's well-known tribute to his mother :
"The tears which sorrow sheds, the flowers that affection plants, and the monument gratitude rears over the grave of a beloved parent soon pass away, but the deep memory ·of maternal kindness, piety and virtue, survives over death and time, and will last while the soul itself endures."
The Drum family was a very noted one in this county in the last century. Augustus Drum was a grandson of Simon and a son of Simon Drum, Jr., the latter being well remembered in the early history of Greensburg as its old-time postmaster, a position from which he was retired with the election of William Henry Harrison in 1840, after almost a lifetime of service. Among other prominent men, he was on the funeral committee of Gen. Arthur St. Clair in 1818.
Three of his sons became prominent. Simon H. Drum was a graduate from West Point in the class of 1830 and was killed at Garita De Belen, in the Mexican war, September 13, 1847. Richard Coulter Drum, his youngest son, was also in the Mexican war, and afterwards, by gradual promotions, reached the position of adjutant general of the United States army. He was the only man in our country's history who filled that position who had not been edu- cated at West Point.
Augustus Drum was the sixth son, born in Greensburg November 26, 1815, and was educated at Jefferson College. He read law with Alexander W. Foster and was admitted to the bar in May, 1836. He was a man of medium height and build, with brown hair and blue eyes. Not long after his admission
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
to the bar he was married to Isabel, a daughter of Daniel Stannard, of Indiana, Pennsylvania, and for many years, after the prevalent custom of that day, practiced in both Indiana and Westmoreland counties. In Indiana he was a politician and leader of the Democratic party, but in Greensburg was mostly renowned as a lawyer and excelled in his addresses before a jury. He was the same age as Cowan and Burrell, and in his profession advanced so rapidly that at the age of forty he easily ranked with the first lawyers of the bar.
Late in the forties he represented his district in the state senate of Penn- sylvania. In 1852 he was the candidate of the Democratic party for congress and was elected after a spirited contest over a number of opponents. A song was improvised and sung widely by his friends, with a stanza for each oppo- nent. The last of each division was:
"He'll be left at home because he can't beat a Drum."
Mr. Drum made himself heard in congress, but unfortunately he introduced an amendment relative to the questions involved in the Wilmot Proviso, and this made him many enemies among the rapidly increasing Abolition element of his district. In 1854 he was a candidate for re-election, but the Know-Noth- ing party had already gained great strength, and when they united with the Whigs they accomplished his defeat. John Covode was elected over him and commenced his long and notable career in congress.
At the close of his term in congress, in 1855, he returned to Greensburg and devoted himself exclusively to the practice of the law. In 1857 he built a residence on South Main street, now owned by the heirs of James C. Clark, but he had scarcely completed it until he was taken ill and died in 1858, in the forty-third year of his age.
John Young Barclay, a nephew and namesake of Judge John Young, was born in Bedford county on November 29, 1798. About 1817 he came to Greensburg to read law with his uncle, and was admitted to the bar in the November term, 1819. He was a man of large frame, being about six feet high, strongly built and of a fair complexion. He devoted himself entirely to the practice of nis profession. He rode from one county to another in com- pany with the judge and the more prominent lawyers, after the fashion of the olden time, and soon acquired a good practice in each county of the Tenth judicial district. He was a member of the constitutional convention which framed the Pennsylvania constitution of 1838, but further than this he never sought or obtained office. He was a Mason in Anti-Masonic times, a Democrat and a stanch supporter of Andrew Jackson: yet, notwithstanding this, he supported Thaddeus Stevens and Governor George Wolf in their heroic efforts to establish the common-school system of Pennsylvania, a measure with which their names must ever be closely connected. For this Mr. Barclay was violently opposed, the opposition even threatening to mob him, but nothing daunted, he still advocated the cause of the common schools and lived to see his ideas triumph.
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
He was married to Isabella, a daughter of Alexander Johnston, of "Kings- ton House," a sister of Governor William F. Johnston. All his life he was fond of athletic sports, outdoor life and horseback riding, and this fondness perhaps led him to his early death. In 1841, when he was but forty-three years of age, he was thrown from a horse and received an injury from which lie died the day following, February 18. He left a large family, one of his daughters, Elizabeth, being married to Gen. James Keenan ; his son, Thomas J., became eminent in the financial circles of the county.
Thomas Johnston Barclay was the eldest son of John Y. Barclay. He was much more widely known in his latter years as a financier than as a member of the bar, though before he became a banker he won his spurs in the legal profes- sion. He was born in Greensburg on January 23, 1826, and was educated at Jefferson College. He read law with his uncle, Governor William F. john- ston, and with Henry D. Foster. He was admitted to the bar in August, 1844. in his nineteenth year, and for eight years devoted himself exclusively to the practice of the law, barring the time spent in the Mexican war. In November following his admission he was appointed district attorney by Gov- .ernor David R. Porter and held this position for some years. He, like his father, was a man of six feet three inches high, with a rugged constitution.
When the war with Mexico came he enlisted as second sergeant under Captain, afterwards Colonel, John W. Johnston, late of "Kingston House," in the Second Pennsylvania regiment, and was promoted to the first lieutenancy December 31, 1847. He participated in the battles of Molino del Rey, Chapul- tepec, Vera Cruz, the storming of Mexico, etc. At the close of the war he returned to Westmoreland county and resumed the practice of the law.
In 1852 he was elected treasurer of Westmoreland county for two years, and this practically closed his professional life. Iu 1854 he began the banking business in Greensburg, and was closely engaged in it for the rest of his life. In this he achieved great success. He is easily entitled to rank as the first financier of his day in the county, and indeed as one of the leading bankers of Western Pennsylvania. He was a man of deep thought, few words and little ·display or public demonstration. So unerring was his judgment that his ad- vice on all manner of business propositions was sought and followed more than that of any other man of his day in the county. Even in politics, to which, like his father, he apparently paid but little attention, his counsel was always sought and he was always a potent factor in the Democratic campaigns. In 1854 he was married to Rebecca, a daughter of Hon. Joseph H. Kuhns. He died suddenly, after a few days' illness, on August 25, 1881. He was the father of Thomas Barclay, of the present bar.
It is difficult in the narrow limits of an article of this kind to do justice to the man who attained the eminence of Henry D. Foster. He was born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, December 19, 1808, and was descended from a 'Scotch, English and Dutch ancestry. He was a grandson of Rev. William
I. I. War day
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
Foster and a son of Samuel B. Foster, who was married to Elizabeth Donnell, a daughter of Judge Donnell, of Northumberland county. Their son, Henry Donnell Foster, received his early education in Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, and came to Greensburg in 1826 to study law in the office of Alexander W. Foster, his uncle, who has been herein previously written of.
He pursued his studies under his uncle's instruction and was admitted to practice law in Westmoreland county on August 26, 1829. Before his admission to the bar he was examined by John B. Alexander, R. B. McCabe and Joseph H. Kuhns. Mr. Foster's ability as a lawyer was recognized even in his youth. He was thoroughly devoted to his profession. Nature gave him eminently a legal mind, and this combined with his unerring judgment on the trial of a suit made him a most formidable opponent. From his early years at the bar he was without taste for criminal business, and when so engaged he invariably took the side of the defense. His power over a jury was considered phenomenal, and there were but few who could successfully oppose him. He had all his life an extensive practice and might have died independently wealthy but for his extreme liberality to the needy and to his friends.
Many stories are told concerning this characteristic in the life of Mr. Foster, and it may not be out of place to give one or two of them :
One day a political friend, a tailor, went hastily into his office and asked him for the loan of ten dollars. Mr. Foster handed it to him without more than looking at him. A few days afterwards the tailor called and said : "General, I want to pay you the money I owe you." "Why," said the General, "you don't owe me anything." "Oh, yes," said he, "I borrowed money from you here one day and I wish to repay it." "Oh, yes," said the General, "I believe you did borrow a hundred dollars from me." "No," said the tailor. "it was not a hundred, but only ten, and here it is." The General took it and thanked him kindly.
At another time a young member of the bar was burned out by a fire and lost his library. Thinking that assistance would stand him in good stead a number of Greensburg people circulated a subscription paper to purchase him a new library. In the morning two young men called on General Foster and explained to him the nature of their mission, when Mr. Foster very kindly subscribed and paid ten dollars. In the afternoon two other members of the committee, not knowing that the first members had called on the General, visited him. The General said they were doing exactly right and that the young man should be helped, whereupon he subscribed and paid fifteen dollars. Later, when it became known that General Foster had twice subscribed in this way, one of the subscriptions was returned to him.
When Judge Buffington was ready to retire from the bench because his life's work was done, he said that Henry D. Foster was the strongest and consequently the most dangerous man when, on the wrong side of a case, who ever appeared before him. Justice Gibson and Henry D. Foster and Judge
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
Thompson were for many years regarded as three of the strongest men at the Pennsylvania bar, and Justice Gibson himself has been heard to say frequently that he regarded Mr. Foster as the greatest land lawyer in Pennsylvania.
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