USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > The courts of justice, bench & bar of Washington County, Pennsylvania > Part 17
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The early records of the courts of Westmoreland County were kept by Arthur St. Clair (afterward so prominent as General St. Clair), whose several commissions as prothono- tary of the Court of Common Pleas, clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions, and clerk of the Orphans' Court, are dated February 27, 1773, in the 13th year of his Majesty George III., and purport to have been granted by "Richard Penn, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania and Counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex on the Delaware." This was before the
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Revolution occurring but three years later, when a new order of things was soon established.
Pitt and Springhill townships of Bedford County were maintained as townships of old Westmoreland. So far as lands in what was afterward Washington County were con- cerned, Springhill township embraced substantially the ter- ritory that lies south of the national turnpike, extending thence to the Pennsylvania line. And it may be noted that the first judicial proceeding to lay out a public highway over lands lying west of the mountains, still in Westmore- land County, was a proceeding to lay out a road from a point about two miles below the mouth of Ten Mile Creek, eastward to the "Forks of Dunlap's path and Gen- eral Braddock's road on the top of Laurel Hill;" and this was of course for the benefit of the then inhabitants west of the Monongahela.
The Henry Taylor before mentioned was a member of the first grand jury called in Westmoreland County, summoned at the second term beginning on July 6, 1773. This gentleman was not the only citizen from our region who got into trouble in the courts of Westmoreland, for in the Quarter Sessions of October term, 1779, Dorsey Pentecost was indicted with others for forcible entry and detainer, but Mr. Pentecost was even then an active politician, perhaps, for the indictment was finally quashed.
Of course the number of the people within the present limits of Washington County was then largely increased, and, with settled homes and agricultural improvements, they had much to do in the early courts of Westmoreland County-too much, indeed, for any detail here. Suffice it now to say:
That the American Revolution began by the Declaration
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of Independence of July 4, 1776, and lasted for five long years. What part, if any, had our people in the armies that actually fought in the field in that struggle? The War of the Rebellion of forty years ago has left veterans and the bereaved families of soldiers of that war still to be found in every little community or town or village or borough in our present county ; but until of late years it was not remembered gener- ally that, notwithstanding the necessity of home protection to the families of our pioneers against Indian incursions and depredations coming from the west and north, two whole regiments and certain smaller organizations went into the Re- volutionary War and actually fought on the battle-fields of the East, and many of those soldiers were from what afterward became Washington County. In recalling the trials aud sufferings of our own pioneers, those during the Indian raids and War of the Revolution, both, must be remembered.
Yet, all the same, when the Revolution was about to be ended, our people were ready for a new county, and on March 28, 1781, that new county came, and pre-empting the honored name of Washington, "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," had itself so baptized. It em- braced all the territory west of the Monongahela and south of the Ohio, and extended to the western boundary of the state, still not actually run on the ground, thus including all of Greene County, and that part of Allegheny and Beaver counties south of the Monongahela and Ohio rivers as well.
Before referring to the courts and court-houses of our young county, now so matured in years and character, let me merely note one of the most interesting subjects within the scope of our early history, to wit, the Boundary Controversy. Philadelphia may enlarge upon the glories and interesting
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incidents of her early days; her old roads, and ways, and harbors; her Meschianzas; her Girards, her Franklins, and her other old worthies; and she may point with pride to all her old families, leaving such large estates, and very many of them so well tied up and protected by trusts as to make it almost impossible that they should ever leave the blood of the first getters; and Pittsburg, now a great city, born of a small borough thirteen years the junior of the borough of Washington, may and has as much right to be proud of her early history; the fullness of her early local incidents; her Fort Duquesne, her Block-house of 1764, her Fort Pitt, her Grant's Hill, her Forbes Route, her Braddock's Defeat, and so on and so on, and the greatness of her early glory and of her true liberality and charity in later days will never be for- gotten by any of us; and though every part of the entire Com- monwealth has its interesting local history, yet Washington County must share in interest with its adjoining neighbors alone in two most notable historical events, the Boundary Con- troversy and the Whiskey Insurrection.
Glancing only at the Boundary Controversy, for its com- plete history would fill a volume, suffice it to say that for a period beginning really in 1748, the territory now of Pennsyl- vania west of the Alleghany Mountains was claimed by Vir- ginia as well as by Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was a proprietary province, and its proprietors, the Penns, could do what they pleased with their own, unless their acts were after- ward set aside by the king in council. Virginia, being a royal colony, was subject to the control of the king in coun- cil, in doing, as well as what she might have done. This difference had its effect in the controversy. At its worst, there was the kingdom of Great Britain through Virginia
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on the one side, and the province of Pennsylvania alone on the other.
For want of time I cannot explain here how the controversy began, and upon what it was based. But it is enough to state that it so proceeded that from February 21, 1775, one year before the Revolution, until August 28, 1780, all the territory west of say the Kiskiminetas River in Westmoreland County, including Westmoreland, Fayette, Washington, and what is now in Allegheny and Greene counties, was subject to two dis- tinet governmental and judicial jurisdictions, one of Virginia and the other of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania had her courts, court officials, sheriffs, subordinate magistrates, and con- stables, and so had Virginia. No serious riots accompanied with bloodshed occurred, however, but there was always a danger thereof, and the business of the courts to a large extent related to arrests and imprisonments made by the officials of one jurisdiction of the officials of the other. Many of the men then prominent in public affairs were adherents of the Vir- ginia jurisdiction, for a time at least. Among such was Colonel John Canon, the founder of Canonsburg, and Colonel William Crawford, the friend of Washington. Both sat, as judges of the Virginia court held for the District of West Augusta, at Fort Dunmore, Pittsburg. Other Virginia courts were held for that district near Washington, as I believe on the farm late of William Gabby. And another for Yohogania County, after the District of West Augusta was divided, was held at a county-seat on the Heath farm, near West Elizabeth, on the west side of the Monongahela River.
An agreement for the determination and running of the western boundary of Pennsylvania was finally arrived at by commissioners from Pennsylvania and Virginia, meeting at Baltimore on August 31, 1779. That agreement, after long
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delay and negotiations, was finally ratified by Virginia on June 23, 1780, with some conditions, and on September 23, 1780, a month before the Virginia courts ceased to exercise jurisdiction in what is now Washington County, Pennsylvania finally accepted the conditions imposed, and ratified the agree- ment. On June 3, 1781, a temporary western boundary of the state was run, and the permanent line where it is to-day was finally marked, and was reported to Philadelphia, the seat of the government, on April 7, 1784.
Thus for over twenty years, or from the beginning of Dun- more's Indian war, in 1774, until the final defeat of the western Indians in 1795, were the pioneers of Washington County, our forbears, in a constant condition of danger and unrest, not only from Indian raids and bloody and depredating incursions, but from depletion of protection in the drafts upon its manly strength in the War of the Revolution, as well as in the controversies among themselves arising out of the jeal- ousies, and at least supposed invasions of private rights, pro- duced by the controversy concerning our western boundary.
Well, not long after the erection of the county, to wit, on March 28, 1781, were its courts of justice organized. The judges of the courts, under the then system of judicial organi- zation, were the justices of the peace throughout the county, the first named in the general commission being made the president of the court. I hold in my hand a commission issued by the Supreme Executive Council, Joseph Reed, presi- dent, dated August 24, 1781, sealed with the great seal of the state of Pennsylvania, bearing upon its obverse side the plow with field; below the field the three sheaves of wheat, and above the ship of state; and on the reverse side a freeman standing upon the back and neck of the British lion, his right
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DEDICATORY ADDRESS, MR. BOYD CRUMRINE.
hand extending a drawn sword, and his left holding aloft the Cap of Liberty, the whole surrounded by the legend: "Both Can't Survive."
This commission was directed to Henry Taylor, William Scott, John Craig, John White, Daniel Leet, John Marshall, John Douglass, Benjamin Parkinson, John Reed, Matthew McConnell, Samuel Johnston, and Samuel Meason, Esquires, of the county of Washington, assigning them, or any three or more of them, to hold the courts of Oyer and Terminer, of Quarter Sessions of the Peace, the courts of Common Pleas, and the Orphans' Courts, for Washington County. By virtue of his being named first in said commission, Henry Taylor thus became the first president judge of Washington County, and he is represented upon the bench to-day by his great- grandson, Hon. J. F. Taylor, the associate of Hon. J. A. McIlvaine, the president judge.
The following is a list of the presiding judges from the beginning of our judicial history :
Henry Taylor, from August 24, 1781.
Dorsey Pentecost, from October 31, 1783. Henry Taylor, again, from September 30, 1788. Alexander Addison, from August 22, 1791. Samuel Roberts, from June 2, 1803. Thomas H. Baird, from October 19, 1818. Nathaniel Ewing, from February 15, 1838. Samuel A. Gilmore, from February 28, 1848. James Lindsey, from November 20, 1861. J. Kennedy Ewing, from November 19, 1864. B. B. Chamberlain, from February 3, 1866. A. W. Acheson, from November 15, 1866. George S. Hart, from December 11, 1876.
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J. A. McIlvaine, from December 14, 1886. J. F. Taylor, A. L. J., from June 24, 1895.
-Fifteen in number in one hundred and twenty years.
But courts could not be held in the new county of Wash- ington without places in which to hold them, and for offices for the care and preservation of their records. And section 10 of the act of March 28, 1781, creating the county, had pro- vided that it should "be lawful for James Edgar, Hugh Scott, Van Swearingen, Daniel Leet, and John Armstrong, or any three of them, to take up or purchase, and to take assurance to them and their heirs, of a piece of land situate in some convenient place in said county, and thereupon to erect and build a court-house and prison sufficient to accommodate the public service of the said county."
Pursuant to this act, the trustees named contracted for a court-house and prison location with David Hoge, who had acquired the legal title to the Catfish Camp and Grand Cairo warrants of survey issued to the Hunters, and had laid out a town originally called Bassettown upon them, plotted on Octo- ber 13, 1781, under the name of Washington, with a lot two hundred and forty feet square, marked " A, for a Court House and Prison."
But things did not move smoothly in those days any more than they do now, and before the contract referred to had been confirmed, there was an interference with the project of giving the public buildings to Washington.
David Hoge had his home in the Cumberland Valley, in what is now Cumberland County, and thence he wrote the following letter to a member of the Supreme Executive Council at Philadelphia, the original of which is before me:
G
HALLAM
WASHINGTON, PA., IN 1901, FROM THE SOUTH. (Wade Avenue on the extreme east; Tylerdale on the far west.) [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph by Hallam in 1901.]
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DEDICATORY ADDRESS, MR. BOYD CRUMRINE.
"CUMBERLAND COUNTY, November 1, 1781.
" DR SR
I beg leave to lay before you a matter that Concerns my- self as well as the publick, presuaded that you, ever Zealous for the publick good, will not miss taking Notice of the first attempt by an Individual in your Body, to defeat the good Designs of men Intrusted by government. You no Doubt remember that Trustees were Directed to take assurance of a piece of ground to erect a Court-house, &c., on, for the County of Washington. They agreed on a spot in a Tract of Mine, and wrote me frequently & pressing to come out and lay out a Town; which I paying Respect to the Convenience of the people, Comply, with giving ground for the public buildings gratis, the Town giving Universal Satisfaction. But has since been told, that a Gentleman who will Shortly appear as one of your body, had Used his Schemes to have the Court- house and a Town on his own Land about Eight miles Dis- tant from the place Where the Trustees agreed on, and Likewise that he Would Use his influence to prevent the Council from giving their Approbation to What the Trustees has done.
Your prudent Attention if such thing should be attempted would oblige and be gratefully acknowledged by
" Dr Sir "your Most obdt sert
"DAVID HOGE." "GENL. POTTER."
Was this "gentleman," who "had used his schemes to have the court-house and a town on his own land," other than our acquaintance Colonel John Canon? and his town, desired to become the county-seat, was it not our sister town of Canonsburg? At all events, the court-house and prison
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came to Washington, and in our Deed Book B, vol. 1, page 39, is recorded a deed from David Hoge to Hugh Scott, Van Swearingen, Daniel Leet, and John Armstrong, dated October 18, 1781, conveying in fee-simple the lot on which this build- ing stands, two hundred and forty feet square, in trust for the public buildings of the county, and this in consideration of the grantor's good will to the people, and the sum of five shillings.
We now have a place on which to establish buildings for the holding of courts, and the safe-keeping of the unruly.
The first court-house and prison erected on the public grounds was completed, cost unknown, in July, 1787, the courts in the mean time being held in the house of Charles Dodd, a tenant under David Hoge of the lot on the corner of Main Street and Strawberry Alley, now occupied by the Strean building ; and a log stable on the rear of that lot was used as a prison. This first court-house was burned in the winter of 1790-91, and then for a time the courts were held tem- porarily at the house of James Wilson, on one of the opposite corners of Beau Street.
The second court-house, with jail, etc., was begun at once, and completed in 1794, at a cost of perhaps $15,000; and this court-house, subsequently much repaired and enlarged, served the purposes of the public business until 1839, although in 1824 a new or second jail had been erected.
On July 18, 1839, proposals were received for the erection "of new public buildings for the accommodation of the court and offices of the county, and for the safe-keeping of the records," etc., and these buildings were completed in the fall of 1842, at a total cost for this the third court-house building
1.1
CENTRAL CANONSBURG, 1901; UP "SHEEP HILL." [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph by Mr. Blaine Ewing.]
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DEDICATORY ADDRESS, MR. BOYD CRUMRINE.
of $24,958, and of a sheriff's house, of $4,448. A third jail was erected to completion in the spring of 1868, and the court- house somewhat enlarged in the rear, at a total cost, including improvements to the sheriff's house, of $52,000. This third court-house and third jail constructed upon our public grounds were the buildings torn down and carted away in May, 1898, when the present magnificent structures were begun in the place of them, now delivered over to the people of Washington County of to-day, whose money built them, and for whose business they are intended, the fourth in a period of one hundred and twenty years.
A word as to the old buildings thus removed: The plain- ness and severe simplicity of the old court-house were not displeasing in outward appearance to many people, who saw it go with reluctance. But the day had come when the accom- modations for two courts, necessarily often in session at the same time, and for the increased business of the public offices, were entirely inadequate; and more than that, there never had been a time when the records of the register's and the re- corder's offices, and of other offices containing the evidence of the titles of the people to their lands and homes, were safe from destruction by fire; for there was not a safely constructed fire-proof vault in the entire building. As to the jail, it was a mistake from the first, to say the least of it.
And now, do we not all feel, in the shelter and inspiration of the inspiring dome over our heads, with these brilliant cor- ridors and ample and elegant court-rooms and offices upstairs and down about us, sufficient in their adaptation to the public business for at least another century to come-do we not all feel that to the two grand juries out of your number who recommended the erection of these buildings, to the judges of
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our courts who approved and ordered accordingly, and to the county commissioners, the architect and contractors and work- men who planned and constructed them - to all of them there is due from us our lasting gratitude ?
These new buildings, constituting our temple for the admin- istration of public justice, speak for themselves as to their beauty and their adaptability for their uses and purposes. But no one of us can look at them and enjoy them through the eyes of others; for the study of them by each of us must be made through his own eyes. A beautiful building is a work of art, the expression in outward visible form and color of a truthful and tender and invisible spirit within the master builder. This court building, the finest ever in the county, and for its purposes the finest perhaps in the entire state, will, it is thought, hereafter be an object-lesson to the young as they grow up and succeed us as the men of the time to come, teach- ing them beauty, harmony, strength, brightness, stability, and permanence, and leading many minds among them to a loftier conception of duty and life.
Fellow-citizens, the people of Washington County:
Have you not again been reminded of what it cost the early settlers upon your lands to bring about the comforts of life and the conditions of things enjoyed by you to-day ? And may you not to-day look upon these noble buildings as a monument erected in memory of the energy and heroism with which our ancestors were inspired to act and endure for our sakes? They have been turned over to you, whose abundance has built them, as your buildings, the expression of your thought, spirit, and determination. And as I now, being duly authorized, declare that from henceforth they shall stand formally and solemnly dedicated to the administration of pub-
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lic justice, may I not put on record, also, a declaration that henceforth our own lives, each and all, shall, with the help of God, stand dedicated and pledged to the truth, the right, and to good order, liberty, and justice to all men ?
PRAYER OF BENEDICTION.
The master of ceremonies then completed the program for the public exercises of the day, by the introduction of Rev. Father John Faughnan,' of the Church of the Immacu- late Conception at Washington, Pennsylvania, who offered the following prayer:
We pray Thee, O Almighty and eternal God, who through Jesus Christ has revealed Thy glory to all nations, look down with favor upon us to-day; pour down Thy graces and bless- ings upon this house which has been built for Thy greater honor and glory, and for the preservation of peace and good order among men.
We pray Thee, O God of might, wisdom and justice, through whom order is rightly ministered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude all those who in fulfillment of their sacred and honored trust will be called upon to administer the laws of this Commonwealth, that their deliberations be conducted in righteousness; that they encourage due respect for virtue and good order, by a faithful and conscientious execution of the laws in justice and mercy, and by restraining vice and immorality.
1 Father Faughnan was born on June 24, 1868, in Bayonne City, Hudson County, New Jersey, of John and Elizabeth (Newton) Faughnan; and was graduated and ordained a Roman Catholic priest at St. Vincent's College, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in 1892.
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We ask, O God, particular grace and help for those who, because of their position in this house, will be obliged to pass judgment upon matters of great moment, that Thou wilt direct and guide them in the ways of honesty and fearlessness in discharge of duty, with favor towards none, but justice to all. May the light of Thy divine wisdom direct their delib- erations and shine forth in all their proceedings, so that in all things they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promo- tion of happiness, and the increase of virtue.
And this we ask, O God and common Father of us all, in all sincerity and humility, relying on Thy infinite goodness and love. Do Thou complete this work, and sanctify and strengthen and fortify it with Thy grace, so that in the time to come the very presence of this building will be a restraint to evil and the cause of joy and happiness to all good citizens. This do and we have builded well. This is our hope and assurance, that the blessing of God the Father, of God the Son, and of God the Holy Ghost may descend upon this house and remain forever.
-For the accommodation of strangers within our gates, the good women connected with the Washington Hospital had provided a midday lunch and an evening dinner, in the audi- ence-room of the old Town Hall, opposite the sheriff's resi- dence and office. This thoughtfulness not only benefited a favored charity, but enabled many in attendance at the day's exercises to remain during the evening for a satisfactory view of the interior of the court-house, illuminated from basement to dome by thousands of incandescent lights; and until a late hour, at various points in the brilliant corridors perform- ing bands of music were stationed, while the court-rooms, the judges' chambers, the public offices, Court Library, Bar Asso- ciation, and Historical Society rooms, and all the other ap- pointments of the edifice, were thrown open to the public and
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