USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a history, Volume I > Part 27
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On the 2nd of April, 1923, Judge Swartz retired from his active duties as president judge by reason of physical disability under the Retirement Act of 12th June, 1919, in the presence of a full Bar and many laymen. After suitable remarks by Neville D. Tyson, Montgomery Evans and others, Judge Swartz feelingly thanked the members of the Bar for the many kindnesses extended to him in his long judicial career and the pleasant relations which always existed between the Bench and Bar of this county. Although retired on account of failing sight and hearing, he nevertheless holds himself in readiness as the Act requires, to advise with his successor and colleagues, and to perform such duties as may be imposed upon him as special master, referee, auditor or examiner, in such ways as he may be reasonably able to do.
Judge Frederick A. Muhlenberg, the first president judge of the Mont- gomery county courts, was the second son of the great Lutheran divine, Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, of Trappe, the founder of that great family in this country. He was educated for the ministry at the famous University at Halle, Germany. He had charge of a New York church when the British entered that city, and left it to take part in the Revolu- tion as an ardent patriot. He had served in the Colonial Legislature, sat in the Continental Congress, and had been a member of the Executive Council when, in 1784, he was appointed a justice of the peace for Phil- adelphia county, residing in Montgomery county when it was created in 1784, and then was appointed, presumably by the other justices, presi- dent judge of the new county. The same year he was commissioned
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recorder of deeds and register of wills, and served as such until 1789. He was president of the State Convention which in 1787 ratified the Consti- tution of the United States; and a congressman from 1789 to 1797 and speaker of the House in the First and the Third Congresses. He was twice defeated for Governor on the Federal ticket. He held the office of Receiver-General of the Pennsylvania Land Office at his death in 1802, aged 52 years.
Judge William Tilghman was a Philadelphian, born in 1756, August 12th. He studied law in the office of Benjamin Chew, Esq., a noted Phil- adelphia lawyer. During the Revolution he was in Maryland, where his family hailed from. In 1790 he returned to Philadelphia, and "hung out his law shingle." He served on the United States Circuit Court Bench. Judge Coxe's resignation as president judge in 1805 created a vacancy on the Montgomery county bench, which was filled by the appoint- ment of the great lawyer, Tilghman. But his great legal and classical learning called this LL. D. to a higher place during the following year- to the chief justice's seat upon the State Supreme Court Bench, which he adorned until his death, April 30, 1827. He was truly a great lawyer, and a great judge.
Judge Bird Wilson was born at Carlisle, in 1777, where his father was a prominent lawyer. The son was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and admitted to the Philadelphia Bar in 1797. He took a position of trust in the office of the Commissioner in Bankruptcy, and in 1806 was appointed to succeed William Tilghman as president judge of the 7th Judicial District, comprising the counties of Bucks, Montgom- ery, Chester and Delaware. He came to reside at Norristown. He edited an edition of the "Abridgement of the Law," in seven volumes. In October, 1817, John H. Craige, a dissipated blacksmith, of respectable family connections, was convicted before him for fatally shooting Edward Hunter, Esq., at Media, while standing in his stable, who had written the father's will disinheriting young Craige. Out of kindness of heart he was unwilling to sentence Craige, preferring to resign the judgeship. His successor, John Ross, sentenced the convict, who was hanged at Chester, June 6, 1818. Judge Wilson reversed the course taken by Judge Muhlenberg, from the ministry to the law, by going from the law to the ministry. After being admitted a deacon in 1819, he shortly thereafter became for two years the rector of St. John's Epis- copal Church at Norristown, which, while he was judge, he had helped to build and had served as a warden. Afterwards he was secretary of the House of Bishops, and Professor of Systematic Divinity in the General Theological Seminary at New York. He died, at Philadel- phia, in 1859, aged 83 years. He was a man of talent, learning, and remarkable mildness of manner and amiability of character, united with inflexible firmness and decision. During the eleven years he occupied the Bench, he was reversed but once.
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Judge John Ross was born in Bucks county, studied law with his cousin, Thomas Ross, at West Chester, and practiced his profession at Easton, in Northampton county. He served in Congress. Governor Findley appointed him president judge of the courts of the 7th Judicial District, comprising Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Bucks coun- ties, in 1718. In 1721 Chester and Delaware counties were taken out of the 7th Judicial District. Judge Ross ceased to act in Chester and Dela- ware, continuing, however, on the Bench of Montgomery and Bucks until 1830, when, because of his eminent ability, Governor Wolf pro- moted him to a seat on the State Supreme Court Bench, which he occu- pied until his death in January, 1834. He was the father of Thomas Ross, an eminent lawyer of Doylestown, Bucks county, and the grand- father of the late Judge Henry P. Ross.
Judge John Fox was born in Philadelphia, in 1787. After graduating at the University of Pennsylvania, he studied law in the office of Alex- ander James Dallas, the compiler of "Dallas' Reports." He practiced his profession at Bristol, then the county seat of Bucks county, and then at Newton and Doylestown, to which places the county seat had been suc- cessively removed. In 1814 he was appointed Deputy Attorney General of Bucks county. He was a major on General Morrall's staff in the War of 1812. While in court prosecuting criminal cases, he was summoned to arms by his chief, and when the presiding judge refused to permit the young attorney to leave, or to adjourn the court, Fox promptly con- tinued all the criminal cases, mounted his horse, and rode off to join his army, stationed at Philadelphia. He became afterwards major-general of the Seventh Division of the State until 1830. In that year he was appointed for life president judge of the 7th Judicial District, succeed- ing Judge Fox. The Constitution of 1838 legislated him out of his life position, making the office elective. One of his opinions, involving negro suffrage, was instrumental in writing the word "white" in the State Constitution of 1838. So deeply and visibly were his emotions affected while sentencing Luis Amalia Espos y Mina to death for poisoning William Chapman, that the whole audience burst into tears. He died at Doylestown, April 15, 1849. He was an able, kindhearted, yet fearless judge, and an ardent Democrat. He was the father of Gilbert Rodman Fox, Sr., and the grandfather of Gilbert Rodman Fox, Jr., of the Norristown Bar.
Judge Thomas Burnside was a native of Lower Providence town- ship. He was admitted to the Montgomery County Bar, February 13, 1804. Shortly thereafter, however, he located in Center county, Penn- sylvania, and attained a leading practice. He served in the State Senate and also in Congress. In 1818 he was appointed president judge of the IIth Judicial District, composed of the counties of Wayne, Pike and Luzerne. He resigned, and in 1825 became speaker of the State Senate.
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On the death of Judge Fox in 1841, Governor Porter appointed him president judge of the Bucks and Montgomery Judicial District. He resigned January 2, 1845, to accept Governor Porter's appointment to the Supreme Bench. He was upright and accurate in judgment, but was thought "deficient in dignity and courtly demeanor." His opin- ions had the merit of brevity.
Judge David Krause, who succeeded Judge Burnside, was a native of Lebanon county, Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the Bar at Pittsburgh, but practiced his profession in his native town. He was the private secretary of Governor Shulze, editor of the "Pennsylvania Intel- ligencer," deputy attorney general, a State legislator, and editor of the "State Journal," which supported Governor Porter, "the best abused man in the State." At the close of the Governor's term, he, unasked, appointed David Krause to the Bucks and Montgomery County Bench vice Judge Burnside, resigned. Governor Shunk confirmed the appoint- ment and issued his commission. The office of judge having become elective in 1851, when his term expired, he declined a nomination ten- dered him by prominent citizens, because opposed to an elective judi- ciary. Afterwards he was defeated for Congress on the Republican ticket. He is said to have been of medium height and slightly built, but was "a bold and fearless" judge.
Judge Daniel M. Smyser was the first judge elected in Montgomery county under the Act of 1851, which made the judiciary elective instead of appointive by the Governor. He was graduated from the law office of Thaddeus Stevens, at Gettysburg, Adams county, and was admitted to the Bar there in 1831. He became his preceptor's law partner. In 1849 he began to serve a term in the State Legislature as a Whig repre- sentative from Adams county. Governor Johnson tendered him the appointment of attorney-general, but he declined it. He was defeated for Congress. In 1851 there was a bitter contest among the Democrats in the Bucks-Montgomery judicial district between ex-Judge John Fox, nominated by the Bucks county Democrats, and Hon. Joseph Fornance, by the Montgomery county Democrats. The Whigs nominated Daniel M. Smyser, the Adams county lawyer. He was elected for ten years and reelected for ten more, and was succeeded by Judge Chapman, who defeated him at the polls in 1862. Ex-Judge Smyser resumed the practice of the law, and was in active practice at the time of his death, January II, 1873. In 1854 he was a candidate on the Whig ticket for the Supreme Bench, but was defeated. Judge Smyser was a well-trained lawyer, and industrious, writing exhaustive opinions. He had a "judicial learning which adorned the Bench."
Judge Henry Chapman was a native of Newton, Bucks county. His father was "the father of the Bucks county Bar." The son was admitted to that Bar in 1825. He was elected to the State Senate in 1843. In 1847 he was appointed president judge of Chester and Delaware coun-
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ties, and served until the election in 1851, when he declined the nomina- tion. He was sent to Congress in 1856. Four years later he was elected over Judge Smyser to preside over the Bucks and Montgomery county courts. At the end of his full ten-year term, in 1871 he declined a renom- ination and retired to private life. He was succeeded as president judge by Additional Law Judge Henry P. Ross, who had been elected under the Act of 1869, creating that office. Judge Chapman was "a model judge." He is said to have been "sans peur et sans reproche." However, it must be said that he was extremely sensitive as to the sanctity of the judicial office. So pronounced was this sensitiveness that he refused to accept a railroad pass, and would not ride in the private vehicle of a member of his Bar.
Judge Henry P. Ross, a Princeton graduate, was admitted to the Bucks County Bar, on December 16, 1859. He was a student in his father's law office, Thomas Ross. He was elected district attorney, but defeated for Congress. He was deputy escheator general for Bucks county. In 1869 he was elected additional law judge for the 7th, Bucks and Montgomery, Judicial District. He resigned in 1871, and was elected president judge, but died on April 13, 1882, shortly after entering upon his second term. He came near the nomination for Governor in the Dem- ocratic State Convention in 1876. In 1878 he was defeated for the Supreme Court. He presided over four important murder trials, Curley, Pistorius, Whalen and Sutton. As a judge he was able, sound, eloquent, brilliant.
Judge Charles H. Stinson, of sturdy Scotch-Irish descent, was born in Norriton township, in this county, June 28, 1825. His father was a justice of the peace and a member of the Legislature in 1836. The son Charles was graduated from Dickinson College in 1845, then became a law student in his brother's office, George W. Stinson, at Norristown, and after his brother's death finished his legal studies with Lawyer Addi- son May, and was admitted to the local Bar, May 22, 1849. In 1867 he was elected to represent the counties of Montgomery, Chester and Dela- ware, in the State Senate, of which he was the speaker in 1869, and, by reelection, in 1870. He declined the appointment of War Governor Geary as additional law judge of Montgomery and Bucks counties, but in 1882 accepted Governor Hoyt's appointment as president judge of the 38th Judicial District (Bucks and Montgomery counties) to succeed Judge Ross, deceased. At the fall election he was defeated for judge by B. Markley Boyer, Democrat, although running ahead on his ticket. He was an organizer of the First National Bank, and its solicitor ; Montgom- ery county counsel for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company ; and a prom- inent trustee of the Hospital for the Insane for the Southeastern Dis- trict of Pennsylvania, at Norristown. As a hospital trustee he intro- duced the innovation of a female head physician for the female depart- ment of the institution. His brief career upon the Bench was charac-
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terized by great dignity, urbanity, ability, and brevity of legal opinions. In appearance he was tall, handsome, stately. He was the father of C. Henry Stinson, Esq., referee in bankruptcy, and practicing attorney of Norristown.
Judge Benjamin Markley Boyer was a product of the "upper end" of the county, New Hanover township. He was born January 22, 1823, and educated at Lafayette College and the University of Pennsylvania. His legal knowledge he obtained in Judge Reed's office at Carlisle, where he was admitted to the Bar. He practiced law at Norristown. He was deputy attorney-general of this county, a prominent Congressman (1865- 1869), an "emergency man" to repel Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, and a member of the Municipal Commission appointed by Governor Hart- ranft. In 1882 he defeated Judge Stinson, Governor's appointee, for president judge of the Montgomery county courts, to serve for ten years from the first Monday of January, 1883. He died August 16, 1887. He was a forceful and eloquent speaker ; an able, upright, and fearless judge. He was the father of Henry C. Boyer, formerly of the Montgomery County Bar, now of the Philadelphia Bar.
It would be inviduous to refer to the living judges, but one thing should be said. Of all the president judges of Montgomery county, Judge Swartz, on April 2, 1923, closed the longest and most remarkable judicial career. He served upon the Bench nearly thirty-six years, six- teen years longer than the oldest in service of his predecessors. During the last fourteen years of service he was reversed by an appellate court only two times. By none of his predecessors was he surpassed in indus- try, legal learning and soundness of judgment. Judge Ross may have been more brilliant upon the bench, but less sound and mature in judg- ment than Judge Swartz. Judge Swartz tops them all in the best qual- ities of an ideal judge.
Judges Miller and Williams are upholding the best traditions of the Montgomery County Bar.
Appended is a list of the President Judges of the county, with the dates of their service : Frederick A. Muhlenberg, 1784-85 ; James Morris, 1785-89; James Biddle, 1791-97; John D. Coxe, 1797-1805; William Tilghman, 1805-06; Bird Wilson, 1806-18; John Ross, 1818-30; John Fox, 1830-41 ; Thomas Burnside, 1841-45; David Krause, 1845-51 ; Daniel M. Smyser, 1851-62; Henry Chapman, 1862-72; Henry P. Ross, 1872-82; Charles H. Stinson, appointed April 17, 1882, to succeed Judge Ross, deceased ; B. Markley Boyer, 1883-87; Aaron S. Swartz, 1887-1923 ; John Faber Miller, 1923 to date.
On the 15th of April, 1869, an Act of Assembly created the office of additional law judge in the 7th Judicial District, comprising the counties of Bucks and Montgomery. Judge Chapman was at that time the presi- dent and sole judge of the district. Henry P. Ross, a brilliant member of the Bucks County Bar, residing at Doylestown, was appointed to the
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new judgeship by Governor Geary. The Act of 1869 provided that either the president judge or the additional law judge should reside at the county seat of Montgomery county. It fell to the lot of the newly appointed additional law judge to take up his residence in Norristown, which he did. In 1871 Judge Ross became the president judge to suc- ceed Judge Chapman. He elected to continue to sit on the Montgomery County Bench, the additional law judge to occupy the Bucks County Bench. This arrangement continued until 1874, when the two counties became separate and distinct judicial districts-Montgomery, the 38th Judicial District, with Judge Ross as its president and sole judge.
On the 22nd of March, 1887, however, an additional law judge was authorized by Act of Assembly, in the 38th Judicial District. The bill which created the office was presented to Governor Beaver on March Ioth, 1887, but was not returned with the governor's signature within ten days after presentation, wherefore it became a law without the gover- nor's approval. The governor, on the 25th of April, appointed Aaron S. Swartz, then a rising young lawyer, as the county's first incumbent under the new Act, to serve until the first Monday of January, 1888. Less than four months after Judge Swartz's appointment, on the 16th of August, 1887, President Judge Boyer died. At the November elec- tion of that year, Judge Swartz was elected for a term of ten years, and on the 17th of November, 1887, Henry K. Weand was appointed by Gov- ernor Beaver as additional law judge to succeed Judge Swartz, who on the 23rd of December, 1887, was commissioned as president judge for ten years. Judge Weand by election and reëlections served as additional law judge twenty-seven years, until his death, July 30, 1914. By appoint- ment by Governor Tener and election for a full term in 1915, John Faber Miller succeeded Additional Law Judge Weand. The vacancy in this office in 1923 caused by the resignation and retirement of President Judge Swartz and the promotion of Judge Miller to the president judgeship was filled by Governor Pinchot by the appointment of J. Ambler Wil- liams, on April 16th, 1923. On the 19th of April he was sworn in by President Judge Miller in the presence of Judge Swartz, Judge Solly, of the Orphans' Court, a full Bar, and numerous friends, and took his seat upon the Bench.
The following is a list of the Additional Law Judges of the 7th Judi- cial District, Bucks and Montgomery counties, with the dates of their appointment or election : Henry P. Ross, 1869-71 ; Arthur G. Olmstead, 1871-72; S. Stokes Roberts, 1872-73; Richard Watson, 1873-74.
The following is a list of Additional Law Judges of the 38th Judicial District (Montgomery county) with the dates of their appointment or election : Aaron S. Swartz, 1887-87; Henry K. Weand, 1887-1914; John Faber Miller, 1914-23 ; J. Ambler Williams, 1923 to date.
The office of Associate Judge was abolished by the Constitution of 1874, those in office holding over until the expiration of the term for
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which they were elected. The last to serve in this county was Judge Isaac F. Yost, and the following extract of a minute of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery county, November Adjourned Court, 1876, is of interest in this connection :
And now, Friday, November 10, 1876. The Court being about to adjourn without day, and it being the end of the term of Hon. Isaac F. Yost, the last Associate Judge of the Courts of Montgomery County under the Constitution of 1838, Ross, P. J., said that he felt it was due that he should make public acknowledgement of his belief in the perfect integrity, purity and honesty of his retiring associate; that during the entire course of his judicial term, Judge Yost had been animated by a desire to do his duty, and that he carried with him into private life the regard of the Bench, the respect of the Bar, and the confidence of the entire community. More could be said of none of his predecessors and less could not be said of him.
The Hon. B. M. Boyer, in behalf of the Bar, responded by saying that the Court had uttered what the bar felt and what the public believed; that in declaring that Judge Yost had been an upright, honest and pure magistrate, he only echoed the general expression of every lawyer and the public; and that he gladly seized this opportunity to speak for him- self and brethren and to assure Judge Yost that he had acquired, main- tained and would take with him the esteem and respect of the bar and people of Montgomery county.
Colonel Theodore W. Bean said: Your Honor has referred with appropriateness to an event which renders the closing proceedings of this court of more than usual public interest. For almost a century the Presi- dent Judges of this judicial district have been aided in the performance of their judicial duties by associates, the last of whom in the person of the Hon. Isaac F. Yost retires with the expiration of the term for which he was elected five years ago, and the office ceases to exist. Changes in the form of organic law, as it applies to the administration of public jus- tice, have been frequent and important in this Commonwealth. In 1784, when this county was established, four justices of the peace were appointed by the Supreme Executive Council to hold the Courts, none of whom were learned in the law. While we do not question the wisdom of the change which makes one more public office less, we sincerely regret to part with an official whose integrity and uniform courtesy and impartiality has won for him the just esteem of his professional asso- ciates and the good people he has served.
Appended is a list of the Associate Judges of Montgomery county, with the dates of their appointment: John Richards, November 1, 1784; James Morris, Sptember 29, 1784; Thomas Craig, September 10, 1784; Henry Scheetz, December 10, 1784; Peter Evans, December 17, 1784; James Morris, July 26, 1785; Michael Croll, January 26, 1786; Christian Weber, November 7, 1786; Peter Evans, December 17, 1786; Charles Baird, February 15, 1787; Jonathan Shoemaker, September 25, 1787; John Jones, November 15, 1787; James Hockley, November 23, 1788; Henry Pawling, January 20, 1789; John Pugh, January 20, 1789; Anthony Crollers, February 7, 1789; Robert Loller, September 25, 1789; Samuel
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Potts, August 17, 1791 ; Robert Loller, August 17, 1791 ; Benjamin Mark- ley, August 17, 1791; Benjamin Rittenhouse, August 17, 1791; John Jones, July 16, 1793; Hiram McNeill, November, 1809; Richard B. Jones, August 30, 1822; Thomas Lowrey, January 8, 1824; Joseph Royer, May 10, 1837 ; Morris Longstreth, March 15, 1841 ; Josiah W. Evans, April 15, 1843; Ephraim Fenton, February 15, 1848; Josiah W. Evans, April 14, 1848; Joseph Hunsicker, April 6, 1849. Elected : Henry Longaker, Novem- ber, 1851 ; Mehelm McGlatheney, May 5, 1855; Nathaniel Jacoby, October 8, 1855; Henry Longaker, October 14, 1856; Nathaniel Jacoby, October 9, 1860; John Dismant, October 8, 1861; Hiram C. Hoover, October 10, 1865; John Dismant, December, 1866; Hiram C. Hoover, December, 1870; Isaac F. Yost, October 10, 1871.
The Orphans' Court-This was established in Pennsylvania by the Act of Assembly of March 29, 1713, to be held by the justices of the Quar- ter Sessions Court of every county. This was changed by the Act of 1759, which made the judges of the Court of Common Pleas the judges of the Orphans' Court. Provision to the same effect was made in the State Constitutions of 1790, 1838 and 1874, and by statute law. This was the law which governed the Orphans' Court of Montgomery county up to 1901. On the 2nd of May, 1901, an Act was approved establishing the Separate Orphans' Court of Montgomery County. It was made "a . court of record, consisting of one judge learned in the law." The Court was to exercise all the jurisdictions and powers vested in, or to be con- ferred upon, the Orphans' Court and Register's Court of the county, with power also by order in the nature of writs of injunction to prevent acts contrary to law or equity, prejudicial to property over which the court has jurisdiction ; and to make all rules necessary to exercise its powers.
A month after the Act of 1901 was approved, to be exact, on June 4, 1901, William F. Solly, a prominent member of the junior bar and for years the efficient chairman of the Republican County Committee, was appointed and commissioned by Governor Stone as president judge of the Orphans' Court of Montgomery county until the first Monday of January, 1902. The court was promptly organized on the 10th of June following, less than a week after the judge's appointment. The cere- mony took place in Court Room No. I. The spacious court room was crowded to the walls by the members of the Bar and the many friends of the new judge and of the new court. After the reading of the Gover- nor's commission by the clerk of the Orphans' Court, Hon. Aaron S. Swartz, president judge of the Court of Common Pleas, administered the oath of office to Judge Solly. Then arose from the midst of the crowded Bar the tall, stately form of Col. James Boyd, the Nestor of the Montgomery County Bar. He said:
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