USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume I > Part 5
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Many important cases have been decided by Judge Mitchell during his terms in the higher and lower courts. In the Court of Common Pleas these included the celebrated Philadelphia Li- brary Case, in which was first given the construction of the new constitution regarding the exemption of public institutions from taxation. His decision won high encomiums. The other cases in which his decisions were handed down have made his name notable in the annals of jurisprudence. Beside his judicial labor, Judge Mitchell has contributed largely to the literature of the
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law. From 1862 to 1887 he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Ameri- can Law Register, the oldest and most widely circulated law jour- nal in the United States. He was also one of the founders of the " Weekly Notes of Cases," in 1874, and continued to be the chief reporter for his Court down to 1889. He also revised and edited many important legal manuals, and outside of the law contributed nearly two thousand quotations to the great Oxford Dictionary, being largely examples from the early American law reports. He is also one of the Commission now engaged in printing the statutes at large of Pennsylvania from the foundation of the col- ony to the year 1800.
Judge Mitchell has taken much interest in historical studies, and he is President of the Council of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He is also interested in art as connected with his- torical matters, and has probably the finest collection of engraved portraits in America. In fact, this eminent Pennsylvanian has shown almost as much interest in matters outside of the Bar as many who have won recognition in those fields alone; notwith- standing which, his chief interest, practically his life work, has been law. Judge Mitchell has never been married. He is of a genial disposition, however, and when he can spare time from his arduous duties, he thoroughly enjoys communion with those friends who hold interests somewhat similar to his own. There is probably no man in Pennsylvania who is endowed with a more progressive spirit than this jurist, whose record is one of the brightest pages in the Commonwealth's legal history.
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JOHN DEAN.
OHN DEAN was born at Williamsburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania, February 15, 1835. He is a son of Matthew and Anna (Patterson) Dean, both of Scotch-Irish extraction. His ancestors came to America about 1764 and finally settled in Huntingdon County, upon the early history of which the name of Dean is stamped. Elizabeth Dean, great-grandmother of John Dean, was massacred with three of her children by Delaware Indians, her husband, Matthew Dean, escaping with five children, one of whom was John Dean, grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He had a son, Matthew, born in 1808, who married Anna Patterson, daughter of John Patterson, of Huntingdon County. They reared a family of eight sons and three daughters, one of the sons being the subject of this biography. He received his education in the common schools of his section and at the Wil- liamsburg Academy, Blair County, and also spent some time at Washington College, Pennsylvania. He taught school at Williams- burg and Hollidayburg, and read law with James M. Bell and D. H. Hoffens, of Hollidaysburg, being admitted to the Bar there in 1855. In May, 1857, he was elected Superintendent of the Public Schools of Blair County, resigning, in 1859, to form a law part- nership with Congressman Samuel S. Blair. In 1864 he withdrew and practiced alone for three years, until, in October, 1867, he was appointed District Attorney to fill a vacancy. The year following he was elected to the office for a term of three years, during which he manifested remarkable zeal and legal ability, making such an impression upon the public mind at the expiration of his term that, in 1871, he was nominated and elected by the Republicans
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as President Judge of the Twenty-fourth Judicial District, com- prised of Huntingdon, Blair and Cambria counties. At the end of his term he was the unanimous choice of the three counties for re-election, and, in spite of the small majority enjoyed by his party, he was elected for another term of ten years without oppo- sition even from the Democracy. His two terms were remarkable for the great volume and importance of the legal business transacted.
In 1891 Judge Dean was again the nominee of the Republican party, being endorsed by the Democratic organization, and again elected for ten years. Blair County had always been regarded as the headquarters of the temperance element, and Judge Dean's administration of the license laws did not meet with the approval of that class, as he granted such licenses as he thought proper, the result being that the temperance party nominated a candidate from another county. The ensuing contest was very bitter, every man who had been convicted or sentenced by Judge Dean, every plaintiff who had lost his suit, and, in fact, all the personal and legal enemies of this remarkable jurist voting against him. Not- withstanding, he was re-elected by a large majority. In 1892 Judge Silas M. Clark, of Indiana County, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, died, and, in recognition of his eminent ability, Judge Dean was nominated by the Republican party in the State Convention, at Harrisburg, in April, 1892, and was elected over his Democratic competitor by a majority of 64,291.
Among the important opinions delivered by Justice Dean since his elevation to the Supreme Bench are the case of Brook, et. al., vs. the City of Philadelphia, when he held that the city had power to assume the entire expense of the municipal improvement con- tingent on the creation of a loan of six million dollars for the purpose of ridding the city of railroad crossings on twenty-four streets, all tracks of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad; that in the case of the Commonwealth, ex. rel., Henry C. McCormick, Attorney-General, vs. Frank Reeder, Appellant, when he decided that the provision of the act establishing the Superior Court "that no elector may vote either then or at any subsequent election for more than six candidates on one ballot, for the said office" was
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unconstitutional, which insured the minority, the Democratic party of Pennsylvania, continued representation on the Superior Court Bench. Justice Dean gave many other notable opinions which had considerable effect on matters of great importance to the Common- wealth and which have become a part of legal lore of the State as well as of its political history. Politically speaking, Justice Dean is a staunch Republican, and during the twenty-one years that he was on the Bench of the Twenty-fourth Judicial District, he dictated and absolutely controlled the policy of his party without an apparent effort, and, in a measure, also moulded the sentiment and controlled the Democratic party.
Justice Dean figures prominently in Pennsylvania as a pro- moter of business interests as well as in a legal capacity. In the midst of the panic of 1883 he organized the Crescent and Clearfield County and New York Short Route Railroad for the purpose of developing about sixty-five hundred acres of valuable coal and timber lands in Cambria, Blair and Clearfield counties. The road was completed in 1886 and he organized the Crescent and Clearfield Coal and Coke Company, in June, 1887, with a capital of one mil- lion dollars, becoming its President. He built what is now known as the mining town of Frugality, constructing one hundred and fifty dwelling houses, a modern hotel and other buildings and institutions, including a Catholic and a Presbyterian church, built almost exclusively through his generosity. For ten years, up until the Ist day of May, 1897, he employed continuously five hundred men, paying out annually in wages upwards of two hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars, and it is an undisputed fact that Frugality stands to-day as a monument to his judgment and enter- prise. When he was a candidate for the Supreme Court not a single vote of this community was cast against him.
In 1857 Judge Dean married Miss Rebecca Caldwell, daughter of Judge Caldwell, of Hollidaysburg. She died in 1874, and, in November, 1876, he married Miss Margaret Bell, daughter of Mar- tin Bell; they have four children, Eliza, Anna, Claribel and Mar- garet. Justice Dean has a beautiful home in Hollidaysburg and gives not a little attention to the management of his farms.
D. NEWLIN FELL.
ENNSYLVANIA'S Court of last resort, the highest tribunal in the State, has ever deserved its repu- tation, for no Bench in the Commonwealth has rejoiced in the uniform possession of judges of higher personal character or more conspicuous
talents. It has always been regarded, and rightly so, as the goal of the ambitions of the legal fraternity, and a mark of the greatest honor to those whose integrity and acumen have led to their election to seats thereon. The many intricate questions that have received satisfactory solution at the hands of the pres- ent occupants of the Bench of the Supreme Court of Penn- sylvania prove that the Judges of to-day are in every way the worthy successors of the many eminent jurists who have pre- ceded them. Of this distinguished tribunal is Judge D. Newlin Fell, a recital of the story of whose life is his highest commen- dation.
DAVID NEWLIN FELL was born on the 4th day of November, 1840, in Buckingham, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He belongs to the sixth generation of one of the oldest and most highly hon- ored families in the State, his ancestors having settled in Bucking- ham in 1704. He was educated under the direction of his father, Joseph Fell, who was a distinguished teacher and superintendent of public schools. For fifty years the elder Fell was actively con- nected with the educational institutions of the State, and did much to advance them to the high state of efficiency which they have attained at the present time. It was under such able care that the son was prepared for the higher institutions of learning. He entered the State Normal School with the class of 1862, and, in
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the August following his graduation, his military ardor and patriotic spirit induced him to enter the army for the defence of the Union. He was commissioned a Lieutenant in Company E of the One Hundred and Twenty-second Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, his company being recruited almost exclusively from students in the Normal School. With his regiment he took part in the battles of Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellors- ville, and many less important engagements. Having chosen the law for his profession, he became a student in the office of his brother, William W. Fell, in Philadelphia, and, on March 16, 1866, he was admitted to practice in the courts, and soon began to gather about him a clientage which was a fitting tribute to his worth and ability. Judge Fell always manifested a deep interest in all that concerned the proper administration of public affairs, although never a politician. His steadfastness, professional worth and the reputation which he was rapidly acquiring as a public- spirited citizen led to his election as a member of the City Councils from the Twentieth Ward of Philadelphia, in 1876. In December of the same year he was appointed, by Governor Hartranft, a member of the Municipal Commission which was created by an act of the State Legislature for the purpose of devising a better plan for the government of the cities of the Commonwealth. This commission prepared the charter by which the city of Philadelphia is now governed, and the excellence of the system is in a great measure due to the discernment and clear-sightedness of the subject of this sketch. His public ser- vices and his legal ability were recognized when, on May 3, 1877, he was appointed a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, No. 2, of Philadelphia. At the ensuing election, in November of the same year, the choice was ratified by the people at the polls. So thoroughly did his course on the Bench meet with the approval of the public that he was re-elected to succeed himself in 1887, on both occasions receiving the nomination of both political parties.
In 1893 Judge Fell's judicial career was crowned by his election to the high and honorable post of Justice of the Supreme
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Court of the State of Pennsylvania, which he fills with the same ability and integrity which have characterized his conduct of the affairs of the lower courts. Judge Fell was married in 1870 to Martha Phillips Trego.
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CHARLES E. RICE.
RESIDING JUDGE CHARLES E. RICE, of the Superior Court, has had a career of much useful- ness. He has served in other courts of lesser degree with much honor and has held public office for nearly a quarter of a century.
CHARLES E. RICE was born at Fairfield, Herkimer County, New York, September 15, 1846. Judge Rice's father was Thomas Arnold Rice, a farmer, and his mother was Vienna Carr Rice, whose ancestors emigrated to Herkimer County from New England many years before. He received his education at the Fairfield Academy, a noted institution of learning, and afterwards went to Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, in the class of 1867. After graduating from college he taught school for one year in the Bloomsburg Literary Institute, of Columbia County, Pennsylvania, one of the best known institutions of its kind in that section of the State, and during that period studied law with Col. John G. Freeze. He graduated from the Albany Law School in 1869, and afterwards continued his legal studies under Lyman Hakes, a prominent lawyer of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In the latter city he decided to begin his professional career, and was admitted to practice there in February, 1870. For several years he prac- ticed law with success, in the meantime evidencing a considerable interest in public affairs and particularly in the success of the Republican party, of which he was an earnest and active member.
Judge Rice's first entrance into public life occurred in 1874, when the Republican party selected him as their nominee for the important post of Judge of the Orphans' Court of Luzerne County. He was the candidate against D. L. Rhone, but the latter was
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successful at the polls and the Democracy triumphed in his elec- tion. In 1876 Judge Rice was elected District Attorney of Luzerne County, a post of honor which he filled to the entire satisfaction of all parties during his term. In 1879 he was elected President Judge of the Luzerne County Court, and for ten years he served on the bench in this capacity with such fairness, integrity and ability that in 1889 he was re-elected and served with a similar honorable record until July, 1895, when he was appointed Presi- dent Judge of the Superior Court. He was elected in the fall of the same year, and his term as President Judge of the Superior Bench does not expire until January, 1906.
On the 18th day of December, 1870, Judge Rice was married to Maria Mills Fuller, of Wilkes-Barre, daughter of the late Henry M. Fuller, who was one of the best known men of that section of Pennsylvania. They have two children, Charles E. Rice, Jr., and Philip S. Rice.
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JAMES ADDAMS BEAVER.
N eminent Jurist, an able General, one of the most capable Governors who ever occupied the Execu- tive Chair in the Keystone State, and a Judge on the Bench of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. Such is, in brief, the remarkable record of James A. Beaver, of Bellefonte, Centre County, Pennsylvania, than whom, for more than a third of a century, few men have been more prominently in the public eye, or have received greater acknowl- edgment from the State and nation, which he has so ably and devotedly served.
JAMES ADDAMS BEAVER was born at Millerstown, Perry County, Pennsylvania, on the 21st day of October, 1837. His family is distinctively Pennsylvanian. Soon after William Penn laid the foundations of the Commonwealth the ancestors of General Beaver left their native Alsace to seek fortune on the new continent, and, for more than five generations since, have contributed strong men to the Keystone State. Peter Beaver came from the Palatinate to Pennsylvania in 1741, and settled in Chester County, and George Beaver, the grandson of Peter Beaver, served in the Revolutionary War, and was a member of the famous "Mad Anthony" Wayne's regiment. After the colonies gained their liberty he settled in Franklin County, and married a Miss Kieffer, a sister of one of his comrades. Jacob Beaver, one of his grandsons, took up his residence in Millerstown, Perry County, on the banks of the Juniata. He married Ann Eliza Addams, the daughter of Abraham Addams, of Millerstown, and granddaughter of Isaac Addams, of Lancaster County, who was Captain of the Associators in 1777. It was the latter's father, William Addams, who laid out the village I .- 5.
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of Adamstown, Lancaster County, about 1761. James A. Beaver's father died when the child was but three years of age, and he was brought up by his maternal grandfather. After going through the High School he studied classics, history, algebra and geometry with his stepfather, Rev. S. H. McDonald, who was an excellent scholar. He next took a year's course at Pine Grove Academy, in Centre County, and graduated at Jefferson College, Cannons- burg, Pennsylvania (now Washington and Jefferson College, of Washington, Pennsylvania), in the class of '56, when not yet nine- teen years old. He immediately removed to Bellefonte, where he has since continued to reside, and, in September of the same year, commenced the study of law in the office of H. N. McAllister, being admitted to the Bar of Centre County in January, 1859. While studying law he began to manifest a taste for military life, and was eventually made Second Lieutenant in the Bellefonte Fencibles, of which Andrew G. Curtin, the famous War Governor of Pennsylvania, was then Captain. The War of the Rebellion having broken out, he was given a commission as First Lieutenant in Company H, Second Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, on the 21st day of April, 1861, and was with Patterson's column in the Shenandoah Valley. He was promoted on July 22, 1861, to be Lieutenant-Colonel of the Forty-fifth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, resigning this position on the 4th of September, 1862, to accept the Colonelcy of the One Hundred and Forty-eighth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers. He was brevetted Briga- dier-General, United States Volunteers, in August, 1864, on account of distinguished service, especially at Cold Harbor, while in com- mand of a brigade. On December 22, 1864, General Beaver was mustered out of the service because of wounds received in battle. He was wounded severely at Chancellorsville, slightly at Spott- sylvania and Cold Harbor, dangerously at the first assault on Petersburg, June 16, 1864, and lost his right leg at Ream's Station, Virginia, on the 25th of August of the same year. He was Briga- dier-General and Major-General in the National Guard of Penn- sylvania between 1872 and 1887. and took an active interest in that great organization.
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The first political office ever held by General Beaver was that of Chief Burgess of Bellefonte, in 1865. It was a strong Demo- cratic section in which he lived, and, being himself an outspoken and progressive Republican, he held no other political office at the hands of his immediate constituents, but was Chairman of the Pennsylvania Delegation at the Republican National Convention in 1880. He received the Republican caucus nomination for United States Senator in 1881, after the election of Oliver was found to be impossible, but the same party. differences continued and led finally to the election of Mitchell. In 1882 he was the Republican candidate for Governor in Pennsylvania, but was defeated. In 1886 he was re-nominated and elected by a large majority. His nomi- nation both times was unanimous. In January, 1887, he entered upon the duties of his office as Governor of Pennsylvania, serving until January, 1891. He was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania on the Ist day of July, 1895, and served under this commission until the first Monday in January, 1896, having been, in the meantime, elected by the people to succeed himself for the ten years ending in 1906. General Beaver was one of the three Commissioners for building the State Hospital for the Insane, at Warren, Pennsylvania, on which duty he was engaged from 1873 until 1881.
He was married on the 26th day of December, 1865, to Mary Allison McAllister, daughter of his partner and former preceptor, H. N. McAllister, and Henrietta Ashman Orbison. They have had five children: Nelson McAllister, Gilbert Addams, Hugh McAllister, Thomas and James Addams, of whom Gilbert and Thomas are still living.
Pennsylvania has produced few more effective orators than Judge Beaver. During his political career he has spoken in almost every county in Pennsylvania, and, in behalf of the National Republican Committee, has taken part in the campaigns in Maine, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana and other States; these latter during the campaign which ended in the election of President Harrison, at whose inauguration the Governor was chosen Grand Marshal.
GEORGE B. ORLADY.
HE history of the distinguished Judges who have filled the Bench of Pennsylvania points out the fact that their appointment to this important posi- tion has been the result of their undivided efforts in behalf of the dignity and exact interpretation of the law. No man can well serve two masters, and the Judges of Pennsylvania to-day notably illustrate this fact. One of the brightest members of the Pennsylvania Bench is Judge George Boal Orlady, the subject of this biography who, although he was first educated for the practice of medicine, abandoned that profes- sion for the more exacting, but, to him, more satisfactory and con- genial one of the law.
GEORGE BOAL ORLADY was born in Petersburg, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, on the 22d day of February, 1850. His parentage united the distinct and individual traits of two different strains of early immigration, one branch of the family having been descended from the Dutch, and the other from the Scotch-Irish. His father was Henry Orlady (whose grandfather came to America from Holland), and his mother was Martha Caldwell Boal, the descendant of a well known Scotch-Irish family. Henry Orlady was a physician who had spent the greater part of his life in the service of medicine, and was largely known throughout Hunting- don County for his able professional talents and his worth as a private citizen. George B. Orlady entered the common schools of his native place to go through a course of training, which con- tinued until he was nineteen years of age. After leaving the ele- mentary schools he went to the State Agricultural College, where he remained, until, advancing rapidly along the lines laid out for
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him, he entered Bells Mills Academy. After leaving this academy, Judge Orlady, who had now attained a keen appreciation of the advantages of a thorough education, entered Washington-Jefferson College, from which well known institution he graduated in August, 1869. Up until that time his entire experience had been that of a scholar and student, and no knowledge of the business or professional details of the work-a-day world had reached his appre- ciation, and he became anxious to enter some professional field and win his way to success. He therefore began the study of medicine with his father, Dr. Henry Orlady, and, in September of that year, he became a student of the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. He took a full course, graduating in March, 1871. Thus fortified to do battle with the world and armed with a med- ical diploma, Judge Orlady entered the profession of medicine with an office at Petersburg, and he practiced in that town for a short time. However, while Judge Orlady was fitted by training and skill as a physician to serve others, he was unable to cope with physical ailments himself, and, owing to ill-health, he gave up his medical practice and determined to enter another profession which would perhaps be more suited to his temperament and physical condition. To this end he began the study of law, entering the office of Samuel S. Blair, of Hollidaysburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania. There he remained until he had mastered the technicalities of the statute books and had acquired an inti- mate acquaintance with the details of the law. Fully equipped to the necessary standard for admission to the Bar, he was recognized and admitted to practice in January, 1875. Thereupon he cast his eyes about for an opportune opening and seeing the same, in his judgment, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, he removed there in March of the same year. From that time on Judge George B. Orlady has been an active practitioner, and although he was edu- cated as a physician, he gave up all his interest in medical mat- ters and devoted himself entirely to the law, and thence to the administration of political affairs in his district. Judge Orlady won equal renown and recognition as a public man, being elected to several of the highest offices within the gift of the people.
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