USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > The courts of justice, bench & bar of Washington County, Pennsylvania > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
Sampson Smith King, February.
studied law with John Simonson, who was also from New Jersey. He settled at Steubenville, Ohio, where he practiced until 1811, when he returned to Washington. Turning his attention to theology, he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Ohio in 1816. A short time before his death, at Nashville, Tennessee, on January 12, 1832, the College of New Jersey, Princeton, con- ferred upon him the degree of D. D. That degree meant something in those days.
5 On page 97, Appearance Docket of the Circuit Court for Wash- ington County, is the record of the "Declaration of Intention," on November 7, 1801, before the Hon. Jasper Yeates and Hon. Thomas Smith, judges of the said court, of John Keady, " formerly of the Kingdom of Ireland," to become a citizen of the United States, and then the following entry:
" At same Court, before the Judges above mentioned, on the petition of James Mountain, a Native of Ireland, but now of Washington, Pennsylvania, setting forth : That the Petitioner, at a Supreme Court sitting at Nisi Prins at Washington, aforesaid, on the fourteenth day of May, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight, did Declare his Intention to become a Citizen of the United States, in conformity to an Act of Congress entitled An Act to Establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and to repeal the Act heretofore passed on that subject; That the Petitioner has resided within the United States five years at least, and within the State of Pennsylvania one year at least, and that he wishes to become a Citizen of the United States. He there- fore prays that on his complying with the requisites prescribed by law, he may be permitted to become a Citizen of the United States.
" James Mountain, the foregoing Petitioner, being duly sworn according to law, declareth and saith that the facts contained in the foregoing Petition are true.
"Sworn in open Court, Nov'r 7th, 1801.
" James Mountain, the foregoing Petitioner, being duly Sworn according to law, on his oath further declareth that he doth abso- lutely and intirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, or sovereignty whatsoever, and
270
COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCH, AND BAR.
Isaac Meason, Jr., August. 1803.
Jonathan Redick, November.
1805.
Elias E. Ellmaker, February. John Purviance, Jr., February.
Hill Runyan, February. Joseph Douglass, August. John Porter, August.
1806.
George Paull, May. James Taylor, September.
particularly to George the Third, King of Great Britain and Ireland, whose subject he heretofore was, and that he will support the Constitution of the United States.
"Sworn in open Court, Nov'r 7th 1801.
"Joseph Pentecost, Esquire, of the Town of Washington, being duly sworn according to law, on his Oath declareth that he hath been well acquainted with James Mountain, the foregoing Petitioner, for the space of five years now last past and upwards, during all which time the said James Mountain hath to this deponent's knowledge behaved as a man of Good Moral Character, attached to the Constitution of the United States, and well dis- posed to the Good Order and Happiness of the same.
"Sworn in open Court, Nov'r 7th 1801.
"Exit Abstract to Secr'y of State of the United States, 27th Nov'r 1801, per post."
A like record follows of the naturalization on the same day of Robert Hamilton, a native of Ireland, but then of Washington, vouched for by Ilugh Wilson, of Washington.
Mr. Mountain forty years ago was still talked about among the older lawyers in the presence of the younger, as a most bril- liant man, distinguished for his wit and humor and eloquence, a typical Irishman. No one can now be found who can verify in detail the many incidents of his life that were once recalled. "How soon are we all forgot!" It appears from an advertisement in the "Western Telegraph " of June, 1796, that he was then teaching in the Canonsburg Academy, and was possessed of very high classical attainments. After his admission here he went to Pitts- burg to practice, and there died.
271
THE ROLL OF ATTORNEYS.
1807. Thomas McGiffin,1 February.
John Marshel,2 October. John McDonald, December.
1 Thomas McGiffin was the son of Nathaniel McGiffin, a Scotch-Irishman who came to America before the Revolution; he was a soldier in the Pennsylvania line, in the battle of Brandy- wine and at Trenton, suffered at Valley Forge, and settled on Ten Mile Creek about 1781 or 1782.
The son Thomas was born January 1, 1784; educated at Canonsburg Academy; studied law with Mr. Parker Campbell, and was admitted as above. The same year he went to Vincennes, Indiana, where he began practice, and soon after removed to and remained a short time at St. Louis. In 1809, having returned to Washington, he continued in active practice here all his life.
During his professional life he was at the same time much engaged in outside business enterprises, among others, with Mr. Parker Campbell and Hon. Thomas H. Baird, in the building of a large portion of the National Road through Washington County. He was also deeply interested in politics; was personally intimate with Henry Clay and William H. Crawford, as well as with many others of the leading men of that day; represented the county in the legislature of 1836. He died February 5, 1841, in his house on West Maiden Street, now occupied by the family of Mr. John Baird. There is no known portrait of him.
Mr. McGiffin left children: Maria, married Thomas Boyd, Fayette County; Nathaniel, Mount Vernon, Knox County, Ohio; Julia, now deceased, married Rev. William Hamilton; Margaret, married Rev. C. McIlvaine, Peoria, Illinois; Thomas, admitted to the bar of Washington County in February, 1841, never prac- ticed, and died near Fairfield, Iowa; George Wallace, graduated at Washington College in 1841, studied law, but never practiced, died in 1858; Colonel Norton McGiffin, born January 23, 1824, graduated at Washington College in 1841, studied law a while afterward, but went to the Mexican War; returning, he was sheriff of Washington County, 1858-1861. In the War of the Rebellion he served as captain of Company E, Twelfth Pennsylvania Vol- unteers, three months' service, the first company that left the county; afterward as lieutenant-colonel of the Eighty-fifth Penn- sylvania Volunteers, in the three years' service; he represented
272
COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCH, AND BAR.
1808.
William Wilkins, March.
John Tarr, October.
Thomas H. Baird,' July.
John Shannon, October.
Charles Wilkins, July. John White, October.
Morgan Neville, December.
the county in the House of Representatives from 1880 to 1882, and in the spring of 1882 removed with his family to Ida Grove, Ida County, Iowa; having returned, he now lives on East Maiden Street, Washington.
One of the sons of Colonel Norton McGiffin was Mr. James Q. McGiffin, who was born in Amwell township on September 21, 1856; was a student at Washington College till a Sophomore; studied law with Mr. John W. Donnan, and was admitted to the Washington bar in June, 1882. He was the solicitor for the county from January, 1897, until his death on February 4, 1899. See his portrait. Another son was Philo Norton McGiffin, born at Washington, Pennsylvania, on December 13, 1860; studied at Washington College; graduated at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, and for active duty he entered the naval service of China, and was commander of the Chinese battle-ship Chen Yuen, in the war between China and Japan, and in the great naval engagement of the Yalu, on Sep- tember 17, 1894, he was so seriously wounded that he never recovered his strength, dying from the effects of his wounds on February 11, 1897. Other sons are Thomas, now in Honolulu, and Nathaniel, a Presbyterian minister at North East, Pennsyl- vania. A daughter, Sallie, is the widow of Mr. George W. Hen- shaw, deceased, and resides with her father.
2 John Marshel was the son of Colonel James Marshel, the county lieutenant in the early years of the county's history, and is well remembered as the cashier of the old Franklin Bank of Washington. He never engaged in the practice of the profession.
1 This was the Hon. Thomas H. Baird who succeeded Hon. Samuel Roberts as president judge. See portrait. For a sketch of his life, see ante, p. 51.
273
THE ROLL OF ATTORNEYS.
1810.
Richard Carr Lane, July. John H. Chapline, July.
Jesse Edgington, October.
Joseph Weigley, October. David Redick, December.
Thomas Irwin, December.
1811.
Philip Doddridge,1 July. Andrew Buchanan,2 July.
1812. William Baird,3 June. Joseph P. Beckett, December. Walter Forward, December.
1 This was the celebrated Wellsburg lawyer who practiced much in our courts. He was the son of John Doddridge, who settled near Middletown in 1773. A brother of Philip was Dr. Joseph Doddridge, author of "Notes on the Early Settlements, etc.," written in 1824. Philip died a member of Congress, at Washington, D. C., on November 19, 1832.
2 Andrew Buchanan was the father of Mr. J. A. J. Buchanan, now of the Waynesburg bar.
3 William Baird, son of Dr. Absalom Baird, was born on July 24, 1789; graduated at Washington College in 1808, in the first class graduating at that institution, which contained four members, to wit: Alexander A. Anderson of the Mifflin County bar; William Baird; Dr. Alexander Blair, Surgeon in the United States Army, 1810-1812; and Rev. Michael Law, a Presbyterian minister and a missionary to India.
Mr. Baird studied law with his brother, Hon. Thomas H. Baird, president judge, and was admitted to the Washington bar on June 18, 1812; was deputy attorney-general 1816-1823; trustee of Washington College, and died at Washington, Pennsyl- vania, on October 11, 1834. His wife was Nancy, daughter of Dr. John Mitchell, to whom he was married on April 1, 1822. On his death he left to survive him: Susan, died unmarried; General Absalom Baird, United States Regular Army, in the War of the Rebellion with General Sherman on his March to the Sea, but now retired and residing at Washington, Dis- trict of Columbia; William Baird, admitted to the Washington
274
COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCH, AND BAR.
1813.
John C. Wright, March.
David Jennings, June.
Thomas Morgan, March.
Thomas Cunningham, June.
1814. T. McK. T. McKennan,1 October. H. H. Brackenridge, October. Samuel Lyon, October.
bar in 1849, now in the War Department at Washington, District of Columbia; Jane, now widow of Hon. J. J. Jacobs, ex-governor of West Virginia, residing at Wheeling, West Virginia; Catharine, married William Jacobs, of Kentucky; and Maria, died unmarried. See portrait of William Baird. For sketch of Hon. Thomas H. Baird, see ante, p. 51.
1 Rev. William McKennan, of Scotch lineage, emigrated from the north of Ireland; married Miss Wilson, Winchester, Virginia; was long pastor of White Clay Creek congregation, Delaware, and for a part of the time he was also in charge of the First Presbyterian Church of Wilmington, dying in 1809, at the age of ninety-four.
His son, William McKennan, was born in Delaware in 1758; in June, 1776, he entered the "Flying Camp " regiment as second lieutenant; on April 5, 1777, was commissioned first lieutenant in a Delaware regiment of foot, and served during the Revo- lutionary War, participating in the service which compelled the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown; aud being mustered out as captain, served afterward as colonel of militia. He married Elizabeth Thompson, whose father, John Thompson, married Dorothea, only sister of Governor Thomas Mckean. In 1797 Colonel William McKennan removed to Charlestown, now Wells- burg, West Virginia; and upon the election of Thomas Mckean as governor, he removed to Washington County, and on Janu- ary 11, 1803, was appointed prothonotary and clerk, serving to the end of Governor Mckean's term. He died January 14, 1810, from the effects of a wound received in the battle of Germantown October 4, 1777. His wife survived him till 1839. Their chil- dren were William, John Thompson, Thomas McKean Thomp- son, David, James Wilson, and Anne.
Thomas McK. T. McKennan (see portrait) was born in New
275
THE ROLL OF ATTORNEYS.
1815.
J. Philpot C. Sampson, June. Henry Baldwin, June.
1816.
Nathaniel Ewing,1 June. Samuel Stokely, September.
1817.
James L. Bowman, January. Alexander Caldwell, June.
Charles Shaler, March. John M. Goodenow, June. John S. Brady,2 June.
Castle County, Delaware, March 31, 1794; graduated at Wash- ington College in 1810; married Matilda, daughter of Jacob Bow- man, of Brownsville, in 1815; was deputy attorney-general for Washington County 1815-16; member of the United States House of Representatives from 1831 to 1839, and from May, 1842, to March, 1843; and was for a short time Secretary of the Interior during President Fillmore's administration. He died July 9, 1852. His children were as follows:
(1) Hon. William McKennau, born September 27, 1816; gradu- ated at Washington College in 1833; studied law with his father, and was admitted to the bar in 1837; was deputy attorney-general for the county 1837-1839; a member of the fruitless Peace Con- ference at Washington, District of Columbia, in 1861; and was appointed by President Grant United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit in 1869, which office he held at the time of his death, residing at Washington, on October 27, 1893. See portrait. (2) Jacob Bowman McKennan, of Brownsville, Pennsylvania, born December 28, 1818, died January 3, 1879. (3) Thomas McKen- nan, M. D., born May 21, 1825; graduated at Washington Col- lege in 1842; was long a trustee of Washington and Jefferson College, and of Washington Female Seminary, and died at Wash- ington, Pennsylvania, on August 8, 1895. (4) John T. McKen- nan, druggist, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, died June 29, 1889. (5) Anne McKennan, died unmarried on May 22, 1895.
' President judge 1838-1848. See portrait and sketch, ante, p. 53.
2 John Spear Brady was the son of James Brady of Greens- burg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and was born in 1794.
276
COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCH, AND BAR.
Buried in the St. Clair Cemetery, at Greensburg, is a James Brady, who died May 2, 1829, at the age of 76. This was doubtless the father of our Mr. Brady.
Mr. Brady was sent by his parents to Washington College to be educated, graduating in 1813, in the fifth class ever graduated from that institution. After his graduation he entered as a law student in the office of the distinguished lawyer, Parker Campbell, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1817. Upon his admission he was taken into a partnership by Mr. Campbell, which con- tinued until the death of the latter in 1824, and about that time he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Mr. Campbell and the widow of Mr. William Chambers, who belonged to the distin- guished family of that name at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. She is said to have been a most beautiful and accomplished young woman, but died on the birth of her first child, which also died. Mr. Brady never remarried.
After the death of Mr. Campbell, Mr. Brady continued in the practice alone, having no taste for politics or public office, until some time prior to 1860, when he retired from active practice and became interested extensively in wool-growing, purchasing for that purpose several farms, one in sight of Washington to the east, through which passes "Brady's Tunnel " of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad; one in Greene County, near the Washington County line; and another in Wetzell County, West Virginia. He owned lands in Butler and Indiana counties, also, and at his death at Greensburg on November 11, 1867, of paralysis, he was quite a wealthy man. He was buried beside his wife, in the same lot with Mr. Campbell, in the Washington Cemetery, He left two sisters, Hannah and Jane Welty, of Greensburg, and a brother, Hugh Y. Brady, who died at Greensburg on November 4, 1868, in the eighty-first year of his age.
Mr. Brady's strong characteristic was his genialty and his fond- ness for his friends. In his later years he would note that his happiest days were when his friend United States Marshal Alex- ander Murdoch would summon him to perform jury duty in the United States courts at Erie and Williamsport. His will, dated September 25, 1865, admitted to probate on November 14, 1867, and recorded in Will Book No. 9, page 278, remembered his friends of the Washington bar with many handsome legacies, and, amongst others was a bequest to Mr. Alexander Wilson (1853)
277
THE ROLL OF ATTORNEYS.
1818.
Alexander Brackenridge, March. John Hoge Ewing,' June. William Waugh, June. Walter B. Beebee, December.
Henry M. Campbell, June. James S. Craft, December.
Harmar Denny, December.
1819.
Hiram Heaton, March. William Harvey, March. John Dawson, June. Stephen D. Walker, June.
Asa Andrews, June. Ephraim Roote, September.
Samuel H. Fitzhugh, September,
James Shannon, December.
1820.
Isaiah Winge, September. Alexander Addison,2 December.
John M. Austin, October. John S. Garrett, December.
1821.
Jacob B. Miller, March. James Piper, March.
William G. Hawkins, March. Thomas Gibbs Morgan, June.
of such portion of his law library as his executors might select, " in trust as the nucleus of a library for the use of the court and the contributors thereto," which was the beginning of our present court library; with a provision directing his executors to purchase a gold-headed cane, with a suitable inscription, " for each of my friends, John L. Gow, A. W. Acheson, Alexander Wilson, Joseph Henderson, David S. Wilson," members of the bar, and John H. Ewing, of Washington, Pennsylvania, and Sobieski Brady, of Wheeling, West Virginia. The executors of his will were Hon. William McKennan, admitted in 1837, now deceased, and Hon. Alexander Murdoch, admitted in 1843, still living. See portrait of Mr. Brady.
1 A brother of Hon. Nathaniel Ewing, president judge 1838- 1848, ante, p. 53, but never practiced.
2 Son of Alexander Addison, president judge, as to whom, see ante, p. 39.
278
COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCH, AND BAR.
1822.
Samuel Evans, March. Joshua Seney, June. John H. Waugh, November.
1823.
A. S. Mountain, March. Dorsey B. Pentecost,1 July.
Jonathan B. Smith, March.
John C. Campbell, November.
William H. Brown, June. Roswell Marsh, November.
John H. Hopkins, June. James R. Pentecost, 1 November.
Thomas Ustice White, December.
1824.
James C. Simonson, February, James Todd, June.
Richard Biddle, March. George Watson, June.
Thomas L. Rodgers, June. W. W. Fetterman, November.
Charles H. Israel, November.
1825.
William W. King, January. James W. McKennan, June. John Louden Gow,2 January. H. B. Tomlinson, December. Richard Bard.
1 Sons of Joseph Pentecost, 1792.
2 Mr. Gow (see portrait) was born in the town of Hallowell, Maine, September 28, 1797. His father, James, was a Scotsman from Glasgow; his mother, Lucy Gilman, of Puritan stock. His education was mostly obtained in the Hallowell Academy, but at an early age he went to Boston, Massachusetts, thence to Freder- icksburg, Virginia, where he supported himself by teaching while he studied the law and until he was admitted to the Fredericksburg bar. Soon he removed to Washington, District of Columbia, and for several years was an assistant editor of the National Journal, a Whig paper owned by Peter Force. He came to Washington, Pennsyl- vania, in 1824, and the next year was admitted to the bar of this county. Soon afterwards, attention being attracted to his special fitness, he was put in charge of an English department in Wash- ington College, so continuing for several years, when he thence- forward devoted himself almost exclusively to the law. Full of the New England ideas upon the subject of common-school educa-
279
THE ROLL OF ATTORNEYS.
1826.
Alexander Wilson,1 June. Isaac Leet,2 June. Charles Coleman, June.
tion, when the present Pennsylvania system was proposed he became its earnest advocate, and when finally adopted in 1854 he was chosen and served as the first superintendent of common schools for Washington County, and during his whole life his influ- ence was a strong one in the cause of popular education. His prac- tice at the bar continued, however, first in partnership with Mr. King, then with Thomas McGiffin, afterwards with his brother- in-law, Alexander Murdoch; and when he died he had been in the successful practice of his profession for over forty years. On June 12, 1827, he married Mary H., daughter of Alexander Mur- doch, Sr., by whom there were twelve children, ten of whom in 1882 were living useful lives, widely separated from each other. He died August 17, 1866, and was thereafter represented in the profession by his two sons, John L., Jr., now of Seattle, Wash- ington, and George L., now or late of Greenfield, Iowa. Two sons were editors, Alexander M. and James M. Gow. A daughter, Minnie, is the wife of Mr. M. C. Acheson, now of the Pittsburg bar.
1 Mr. Wilson was a son of John and Catharine (Cunningham) Wilson, of Washington, Pennsylvania, who were the parents, also, of John K. Wilson, Esq., the father of Mr. D. S. Wilson, admitted in 1849, and of Marcus Wilson, the father of Mr. Alexander Wilson, who was admitted in 1853. The parents of John Wilson, the father of Alexander Wilson (1826), were Marcus and Martha (Campbell) Wilson, also of Washington, Pennsylvania; and the parents of Catharine C., his mother, were Nicholas and Mary (Henderson) Cunningham.
Mr. Wilson was born at Washington, Pennsylvania, on June 5, 1804; graduated at Washington College in 1822; studied law with Mr. William Baird, brother of Hon. Thomas II. Baird, president judge, and was admitted to the bar in 1826, as stated above; prac- ticed at Washington, Pennsylvania, 1826-1829, and at Wheeling, Virginia, from 1830 until his death, unmarried, at Washington, Pennsylvania, on January 2, 1846. See portrait.
2 Isaac Leet was a son of Jonathan and Mary (Moore) Leet, and was born on the farm late of James Farley, near the old
280
COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCH, AND BAR.
1827.
Edward D. Gazzam, March. Samuel McFarland, December. Washington and Pittsburg Turnpike, and about one mile north of Washington, Pennsylvania.
Mary Moore, the mother of Isaac Leet, was a daughter of Dr. Henry Moore, a physician, who came from Ireland and settled and died in South Franklin township, on a farm about three miles south of Washington, now or lately owned by W. W. Moore, a descendant. She was a sister of Daniel Moore, an early merchant of Washington, and later the proprietor of one of the old-time stage-coach lines on the National Road. Jonathan Leet, the father, was a brother of Major Daniel Leet, as to whom, see Mr. D. S. Wilson (1849), post, p. 288.
Major Daniel Leet and Jonathan Leet were sons of Isaac and Rebecca Leet, pioneers, who died in Washington County, and are buried in the old family burial-place on the Israel Weirich farm, about one mile west of Washington. This Isaac Leet was a son of Daniel Leet, who died in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, in 1727; his wife was Susanna, probably a daughter of Marmaduke Horse- man. And Daniel Leet, last named, was a son of Isaac and Elizabeth Leet, who came to New Jersey from Mansfield, England, in 1686.
Mr. Isaac Leet, the subject, was born in 1801; graduated from Washington College in 1822; studied law with Hon. T. McK. T. McKennan, and was admitted to the bar in 1826; married Margaret S. Cooke, daughter of John Cooke (the pioneer) and his wife Miss Swearingen, a daughter of Andrew Swearingen; was county treas- urer from 1826 to 1830; deputy attorney-general from 1830 to 1834; state senator from 1834 to 1838; representative in Congress from 1838 to 1840; and died, after a short illness, on June 10, 1844. A notice of his life and death, with the proccedings of the bar, was published in the Washington Reporter for June 15, 1844. See portrait.
Daniel Leet, a brother of Mr. Leet, was admitted to the Wash- ington bar in 1839; removed to the West, and became a judge at Sedalia, Missouri, dying at Denver, Colorado, about one year ago, at an advanced age.
Mr. Isaac Leet's children were : Edmund, Isaac, Sarah Jane (wife of O. W. Langfit, Wellsburg, West Virginia), John L.,
281
THE ROLL OF ATTORNEYS.
1828. George Selden, June.
1829.
John Glenn, June. Samuel Creigh, December.
Benjamin S. Stewart, June. Ethelbert P. Oliphant, December.
1830.
Samuel Gormly, June. Griffith J. Withey, July. George W. Acheson,1 December.
Francis C. Campbell, June.
1831.
William R. McDonald, June. Joshua B. Howell, June. Nathaniel P. Fetterman, June. Thomas L. Shields, October. James Watson,2 October.
and Mary L. All are now dead except Mary L., who is the wife of Mr. J. B. Wilson, residing at "Locust Hill," now in North Washington. Mr. Wilson is a son of Hugh W., who was a son of Hugh, who was a son of James Wilson, at whose "tavern," on the northwest corner of Main and Beau streets, the courts were held for part of the time after the first court-house was burned in 1791, until the second was builded in 1794.
1 Son of General Thomas Acheson, who was a brother of David Acheson, the father of Alexander W. (1832), George (1843), and Marcus W. (1852).
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.