USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > The courts of justice, bench & bar of Washington County, Pennsylvania > Part 5
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After Judge Addison's death, his widow, Jean, and such . of his six sons and four daughters as survived him, came back to Washington for the education of the children in our schools and college, even then of a superior character, and they resided upon the lot adjoining on the west that of the late C. M. Reed, Sr., on the north side of East Maiden Street, east of College. Of the sons, John and James, and perhaps another, died be-
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fore the Judge, and Francis, born February 7, 1807, died in infancy. Alexander, a brilliant young man, graduated from Washington College in 1815, studied law with Hon. T. McK. T. McKennan, and was admitted to the Washington bar in December, 1820, the year of his mother's death, and on Feb- ruary 28, 1822, he died from injuries received from a falling chimney in the burning of his preceptor's law office, a two- story structure adjoining the family residence of Mr. McKen- nan, on the south side of East Maiden Street, not far from Main; William, born December 28, 1801, graduated from Wash- ington College in 1818, studied medicine in Paris, France, practiced at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and died on March 26, 1862, leaving a number of children. Of the four daughters, Elizabeth married Dr. Peter Mowry, and was the mother of four sons, none of whom survived her death in 1871; Mary married Samuel Hughes Fitzhugh, and left one son who settled at Rochester, New York; Jane (or Jean) married first Alex- ander Johnston, second Benjamin Darlington, by whom she left three children: Benjamin, once postmaster at Pittsburg; Eliza A., who never married, residing at No. 233 South Neg- ley Avenue, Pittsburg, and Anne, who died in 1855.
THE CIRCUIT COURT.
By early statutes of Pennsylvania (see 1 Sm. L. 131, and note), especially the act of May 20, 1767 (1 Sm. L. 274), the judges of the Supreme Court were "enjoined to go the cir- cuit" twice in each year to hold courts of nisi prius at such times as they should appoint; and provision was made for de- fraying their expenses when on the circuit, and for their pass- ing all ferries, with their attendants, free of toll. This act was followed, after the Revolution, by the act of September 25, 1786 (2 Sm. L. 391), which gave to the Supreme Court original jurisdiction in certain causes in the county of Phila- delphia; and by the act of March 27, 1789 (2 Sm. L. 483), courts of nisi prius for the county of Philadelphia were estab- lished. Then by the act of March 20, 1799 (5 Carey & B.
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THE CIRCUIT COURT.
394, and see note to 1 Sm. L. 147), during the time of Judge Addison as president judge, a court styled the Circuit Court was required to be held by the justices of the Supreme Court, one or more of them, in each of the counties of the state, ex- cept the county of Philadelphia, the terms to be held in March and December in each year (see Chambers v. Carson, 2 Whart. 369). This court had power to issue remedial writs gener- ally, with certain exceptions, and writs of error and appeals lay from its judgments and decrees to the Supreme Court. While this act was in force, for it was repealed prior to 1810, the justices of the Supreme Court, one or more of them, sat as a Circuit Court at Washington, and the dockets and records of its proceedings are to be found in our prothonotary's office.
In this court was heard the celebrated case of Rev. Thomas Ledley Birch against Rev. John McMillan. The case was first brought in the Court of Common Pleas, at No. 41 Novem- ber term, 1802, but was transferred to the Circuit Court at No. 8 September term, 1803, and on October 24, 1804, was tried at Washington, before Justices Yeates and Smith, of the Supreme Court of the state. On the trial, James Mountain, of Pittsburg, and Joseph Pentecost and Cunningham Semple, of Washington, were concerned for the plaintiff, and the defend- ant was represented by Parker Campbell and James Allison, of Washington, and James Ross and Alexander Addison, of Pittsburg, the latter again at the bar.
The reverend plaintiff sought to recover damages for an alleged slanderous charge said to have been made by the reverend defendant, in open meeting of the Presbytery of Ohio, in the jurisdiction of the court, that the reverend plain- tiff was a "liar, a drunkard, and a preacher of the devil." The record of this case as tried in the court below, testimony and all, is before the writer. The testimony would not be un- interesting, as indicating fully some of the "habits" of the good people of that early day.
The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of three hundred dollars damages and six cents costs. The case
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was taken to the Supreme Court on a writ of error, and was argued in that court on September 8, 1806, when the judg- ment of the Circuit Court was reversed, Tilghman, C. J., de- livering the opinion, on the ground that the alleged slander- ous words when spoken in a duly authorized hearing before the presbytery, were privileged and not actionable, unless spoken with actual malice toward the plaintiff. The case is reported as McMillan v. Birch, 1 Binn. 178, and is a leading authority upon the principle of privileged communications in actions for libel and slander.
The record of the case on p. 154 of the Circuit Court docket shows that after the reversal by the Supreme Court, the Circuit Court, on motion of Mr. Mountain, awarded a venire de novo but on September 27, 1808, when the case was ready for a second trial, it was "discontinued by Plff, on the Defendant's paying all the docket costs, and the Plaintiff's receiving three hundred dollars in full of his Bill, and the at- tendance of his witnesses, under the recommendation of the court per writing filed with the papers." The docket costs taxed on the record (including the costs in the Supreme Court) were $138.69. Then follows this entry: "The above three hundred dollars have been received from the Rev. John McMillan." The next entry is, "I have agreed to give Fifty dollars, part of my costs, to the Rev. John McMillan, which is to be credited on payment of the above costs ; " signed, " Wm. McKennan;" followed by the receipt of William McKennan for $88.69, " balance of those costs ; " and this entry is followed by another interesting entry : "Received, October 9, 1809, of William McKennan, Esq.,' late Prothonotary, the sum of Eight dollars, it being attorney's fees not charged by James Ross, Esq .; " signed, "John McMillan."
It follows from the foregoing that the statement in Rev.
1 This William McKennan, Esq., was the father of Thomas McK. T. Mc- Kennan, who was the father of Hon. William McKennan of our day: See Roll of Attorneys, T. McK. T. McKennan, 1814, post. James Ross, Esq., in remitting his docket fees of $8.00, evidently remembered that he had once taught young theological students in Dr. McMillan's Log Cabin College near Canonsburg: See Roll of Attorneys, James Ross, 1787, post.
SAMUEL ROBERTS, PRESIDENT JUDGE, 1803-1818. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from steel-plate print with Mr. John H. Roberts, Pittsburgh, Pa., a grandson.]
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HON. SAMUEL ROBERTS.
Dr. Smith's History of Old Redstone, 196, to the effect that the decision of the lower court in the foregoing case was reversed by the Supreme Court "and Dr. McMillan was acquitted," was not quite accurate.
As may have been noted, Judge Addison died the next year after McMillan v. Birch was argued in the Supreme Court, and before the case came on for trial the second time. The half-tone portrait we present is from a photograph of a silhouette in the possession of Miss Eliza A. Darlington, the only living grandchild of the Judge.
HON. SAMUEL ROBERTS.
On June 2, 1803, Samuel Roberts was commissioned president judge of the Fifth District, which office he held until succeeded in 1818 by Judge Baird. His associates dur- ing his term were the old associates still surviving, and Rev. Boyd Mercer, commissioned January 1, 1806.
But soon after Judge Robert's term began, by Section XII. of the act of February 24, 1806, 4 Sm. L. 270, another county was added to the Fifth District, which was then composed of Beaver, Allegheny, Washington, Fayette, and Greene. By the same act it was provided, also, that if a vacancy should thereafter happen in any county, by the death, resignation, or removal of any associate judge, or otherwise, the governor should not supply the same unless the number of associates should be thereby reduced to less than two; in which case, or in case of any county thereafter organized, he should commis- sion so many as would complete that number in each county, and no more. It was then that the associate judges of the county were reduced to two in number, which continued until that office was abolished by the constitution of 1874.
Hon. Samuel Roberts was born in Philadelphia, September 8, 1763. His ancestors came to Pennsylvania with the first immigrants, and his grandfather, Owen Roberts, was sheriff of Philadelphia County, 1716-23. He was educated in Phila-
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delphia, studied law with Hon. William Lewis, of that city, and was there admitted to the bar in 1793. The same year, at York, Pennsylvania, he married Miss Harriet Heath. Subse- quently, to practice his profession, he removed to Lancaster, thence to Sunbury; and while at the latter place he was com- missioned by Governor Mckean to succeed Judge Addison, after the latter's removal by his unrighteous impeachment, and the same year he removed to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Upon the change made in the districts by the act of 1818, directly to be noticed, he ceased to sit as judge in Washington County, but continued as the president judge of the old Fifth District, by that act composed of Beaver, Butler, and Alle- gheny counties, until his death at Pittsburg in 1820. While upon the bench, he wrote and published " Robert's Digest of British Statutes in force in Pennsylvania," a work well known to the profession, the last edition of which was edited by Hon. Robert E. Wright and published in 1847.
Judge Roberts left eight children, five sons and three daughters. One of the daughters was married to the late Oldham Craig, deceased, for many years teller in the old Bank of Pittsburg, and brother of the well-known Neville B. Craig, deceased. Another daughter died many years ago, and the third resided in Michigan. The five sons, Samuel, Edward J., Henry, Horatio, and Morgan, all have died. Henry practiced medicine at Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Edward J. was a paymaster in the United States army during the War of 1812, then clerk of the United States Circuit Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania till his death, leaving three sons: General Richard Biddle Roberts, who practiced law at Pittsburg and Chicago; Edward J. Roberts, at one time city engineer for Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, and John H. Roberts, now living at No. 4510 Centre Avenue, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and employed at the Pittsburg transfer station of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company; by him an old steel- plate print was furnished for our half-tone portrait of Judge Roberts. This portrait supports somewhat a tradition that
THOMAS H. BAIRD, ADMITTED, 1808 ; DIED, 1866. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph by Hallam of oil painting with Mr. C. McF. Reed, a grandson.]
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HON. THOMAS H. BAIRD.
Judge Roberts was always attended from his hotel to the court-house by the sheriff and all the tipstaves.
HON. THOMAS H. BAIRD.
As already intimated, Washington County had ceased to be embraced in the old Fifth Judicial District; for, by the act of March 23, 1818, 7 Sm. L. 108, after the creation of a new Fifth District, composed of Beaver, Butler, and Allegheny counties, it was provided by Section 3 that after the third Monday of October next the counties of Washington, Fayette, Greene (cut off from Washington in 1796), with Somerset County, should be erected into a new judicial district, to be called the Fourteenth District, and that a person of legal knowledge and integrity should be appointed and commis- sioned by the governor to be president judge. Thereupon, on October 19, 1818, Thomas H. Baird, of Washington, Penn- sylvania, was commissioned as president judge, holding that office until he was succeeded by Judge Ewing in 1838. His associates during his term were Rev. Boyd Mercer and John Hamilton and Thomas Mckeever, Esquires.
The Fourteenth District was of long duration. It was changed by the act of March 29, 1824, P. L. 194, in this, that Somerset was taken to form with Franklin and Bedford the new Sixteenth District, leaving Washington, Fayette, and Greene to constitute the Fourteenth District, unchanged until by the act of January 25, 1866, P. L. 1, the Twenty-seventh District was created, existing to-day, composed of Washington County only.
Hon. Thomas H. Baird was the third son of Dr. Absalom Baird, one of the early and leading physicians as well as a prominent civilian of Washington, Pennsylvania. Dr. Baird's father was John Baird, a Scotchman, who came to America a lieutenant with General Braddock's army, and shared in Brad- dock's defeat on July 9, 1755. He was killed in the battle with the French and Indians on Grant's Hill (in Pittsburg)
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in the defeat of Major Grant and his Highlanders on Septem- ber 14, 1758, as heretofore noted. The Allegheny County Court-House is on the locality of this celebrated battle, although at a much lower grade.
Absalom Baird, educated by the widowed mother, became a surgeon in the Pennsylvania Line in the Revolutionary War, and in 1786 removed with his family to Washington, Pennsyl- vania. He was commissioned a justice of the peace in 1789, and was therefore entitled to sit as one of our judges; was county lieutenant in 1792, sheriff in 1799, and died on October 27, 1805. His children were: John, George, Thomas H. (the Judge), William (the lawyer), Sarah, wife of William Hodge, Maysville, Kentucky, and Susan, wife of Dr. Hugh Campbell of Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
Judge Baird was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, on November 15, 1787; was educated at a classical school in Brooke County, Virginia, in charge of Rev. David Johnston; studied law with Mr. Joseph Pentecost, and was admitted to the bar of Washington County in July, 1808, before he was quite twenty-one, and on October 19, 1818, was appointed and com- missioned president judge. His activity led him into much business outside the law, being interested with Parker Camp- bell and Thomas McGiffin, leading members of the bar in his day, as contractors for the construction of the National Road through Washington County, as well as in a number of manu- facturing enterprises; and about 1830 or 1831 a survey was made for a railroad down the Chartiers Valley from Wash- ington to Pittsburg, almost entirely at his expense, one of the first railroads ever projected in the country.
In December, 1837, Judge Baird resigned his commission as president judge, and removing to Pittsburg was engaged in that city in the active practice of his profession for about twelve years. He then retired to his farm near Monongahela City, where he resided until his death at the residence of his son-in-law, Charles McKnight, in Allegheny City, Pennsyl- vania, on November 22, 1866.
The wife of Judge Baird was Nancy Mccullough, who
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BRANDON
NATHANIEL EWING, PRESIDENT JUDGE, 1838-1848. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph of oil painting, at age of about 47, furnished by Hon. N. Ewing, grandson.]
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HON. NATHANIEL EWING.
survived him many years. His children were: Ellen, wife of Dr. R. R. Reed; Susannah and Jane, who died young; Sarah, wife of George Morgan, grandson of Colonel George Morgan; Mary, wife of Joseph Patterson and mother of T. H. B. Pat- terson of the Pittsburg bar; Absalom, who died young; Har- riet; Eliza Acheson, wife of Robert Patterson, deceased, late of the Presbyterian Banner, and mother of Thomas Patterson of the Pittsburg bar; Thomas H., lately deceased, of the Washington County bar; Susan C., who died a young lady; Margaret, still living at Washington, Pennsylvania; Emma, who died a young lady; and Jane, wife of Charles McKnight, of Allegheny City.
Judges Addison, Roberts, and Baird all held court for their full service, in the old second court-house heretofore described.
HON. NATHANIEL EWING.
There being now a vacancy, and the office of president judge being still filled by appointment, on February 15, 1838, Nathaniel Ewing of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, was commis- sioned by Governor Ritner to succeed Judge Baird, and held that office until succeeded by Judge Gilmore in 1848. During his term his associates were, as one set succeeded another, Rev. Boyd Mercer, Thomas Mckeever, Samuel Hill, John Grayson, and James Gordon, Esquires.
But the people of Pennsylvania, by their delegates in con- vention, on February 22, 1838, P. L. 1840, iii., amended the constitution of 1790, changing our judicial system in many important particulars; the constitution so amended to go into effect on January 1, 1839.
By Article V., Section II., the president judges of the Courts of Common Pleas, and of such other courts of record as were or should be established by law, should hold their offices for the term of ten years, if they should so long behave them- selves well ; and the associate judges should hold their offices for the term of five years, upon a like condition. But for any
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reasonable cause which should not be sufficient ground for impeachment, the governor might remove any of the judges on the address of two-thirds of each branch of the legislature.
No substantial change was made in the organization or jurisdiction of the courts; but by Article VI., Sections I. and III., sheriffs, coroners, prothonotaries, and clerks were made elective by the people; one for each office in the case of the sheriff and the coroner, but as to the others the legislature might provide whether they should be held by one person or separately by two.
By Section VII. of the Schedule the commissions of the judges learned in the law, who should not have held their offices for ten years at the adoption of the amendments, were to expire on the 27th of February next after the end of ten years from the date of their commissions, which provision enabled Judge Ewing, though commissioned before the amended constitution went into effect, to continue in office until February 27, 1848.
Hon. Nathaniel Ewing was a son of William Ewing, and grandson of George Ewing, of Peach Bottom, York County, who, it is said, was a brother of the celebrated Rev. Dr. John Ewing, provost of the University of Pennsylvania at Phila- delphia, and one of the Pennsylvania commissioners in the boundary-line controversy: Ellis's History of Fayette County, 651. William Ewing, his father, came into Fayette County about 1790, as a surveyor, and married Mary, daughter of John Conwell, settling in the Dunlap's Creek neighborhood, near Heistersburg. Nathaniel was born July 18, 1794; educated at Washington College, under the presidency of Dr. Matthew Brown, graduating with the honors of his class in 1812; taught a year in Delaware, and returning studied law with Hon. Thomas McGiffin, and was admitted to the bar of Washington County in June, 1816. The next year he removed to Union- town, Pennsylvania, where he resided until his death in 1874, in the eightieth year of his age.
In 1822 Judge Ewing married Jane, the second daughter of Mr. Justice John Kennedy, of the Supreme Court of Penu-
BRAGOON
SAMUEL A. GILMORE, PRESIDENT JUDGE, 1848-1861. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph with the author.]
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HON. SAMUEL A. GILMORE.
sylvania; she was the mother of Hon. John K. Ewing (in later years also our president judge), and died in 1827. His second wife was the daughter of Rev. David Denny, of Cham- bersburg, Pennsylvania. By this marriage there were two children, a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Mary, who became the wife of Professor J. J. Stephenson, connected with the geological survey of Pennsylvania in 1876. Hon. John H. Ewing, of Washington, Pennsylvania, deceased, remembered by many of us, was a brother of Judge Ewing, surviving him a number of years. The portrait of Judge Ewing given in this volume is from a photograph of an oil-painting said to have been made when he was of the age of forty-seven.
HON. SAMUEL A. GILMORE.
The ten years' term of Judge Ewing having expired by virtue of the limitation referred to, Samuel A. Gilmore, on February 28, 1848, was appointed and commissioned to succeed him as president judge. His associate judges dur- ing the time he presided in the courts of our county were: Isaac Hodgens, William Vankirk, Abraham Wotring, John Freeman, James G. Hart, and Jacob Slagle, Esquires, as one set succeeded another.
But the constitution, as amended in 1838, was afterward the subject of several additional amendments; one of which, affecting the judiciary, was that adopted by the general assemblies of 1849-50, and ratified by the people at the October election of 1850, which wisely or unwisely brought the selection of all the judges of the state directly within the power of the people; for all the judges then became elective: P.L. (1851), 758.
There was no change made in the terms of the president judges and their associates, and it was provided that the first election should take place at the next general election held after the adoption of that amendment, and the com- missions of all the judges then in office should expire on
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the first Monday of December following, when the terms of the new judges then elected should commence.
At the general election held in October, 1851, Judge Gil- more was chosen by the people of the district, commissioned by Governor Bigler on November 6, 1851, and served from the first Monday of December of that year until succeeded by Judge Lindsey in 1861.
Judge Gilmore was the grandson of James Gilmore, who many years ago occupied the farm known as the Strean Farm, a short distance southwest of Washington, Pennsylvania. His father, John Gilmore, studied law at Washington; was admitted to the bar in August, 1801, and removing to Butler, Pennsylvania, married a Miss Purviance at that place, and there practiced his profession. The son, Samuel A. Gilmore, was born at Butler, studied law, and was practicing there and in adjoining counties when first appointed president judge to succeed Judge Ewing in 1848. His first wife was a daughter of Mr. Justice Todd, at one time of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and his second wife was a daughter of Arnold Plumer, Esq., of Venango County. Upon his appointment as president judge of the fourteenth district he removed to Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where he resided until his death on May 15, 1873.
Judge Gilmore left to survive him his wife and six chil- dren. The widow died on October 25, 1892. Eleanor, the eldest child, married Alexander J. Mead, of Kansas City, Missouri, but is now a widow with two children, residing in the old home at Uniontown, Pennsylvania; Arnold Plumer, the eldest son, married, and is a physician living in Chicago; Lyda married A. W. Bliss, and lives also in Uniontown; Henry, unmarried; Pattie married George B. Kaine, and lives in Uniontown also.
JAMES LINDSEY, PRESIDENT JUDGE, 1861-1864. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph with the author.}
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HON. JAMES LINDSEY.
HON. JAMES LINDSEY.
At the general election in 1861, in a contest with Hon. James Veech, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, James Lindsey, of the Waynesburg bar, was the successful candidate, and having been duly commissioned began his term of service as presi- dent judge of the district on the first Monday of December, 1861. His associates during his service, too soon ended by his death, were James G. Hart and Thomas McCarrell, Es- quires.
Judge Lindsey had the blood of the first settlers in his veins. Thomas Hughes, John Swan, and Henry Vanmetre were among the earliest pioneers settling on the waters of Muddy Creek, coming thither from the Shenandoah Valley in 1767-68. Charles Swan, son of John, married Sarah, daugh- ter of Henry Vanmetre, and their daughter Mary, marrying William Collins, was the mother of Anne Collins, who mar- ried John Lindsey, and became the mother of the young judge.
John Lindsey's father was James Lindsey, of Scotch blood, who, coming from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, very early, settled at Jefferson, Greene County, Pennsylvania, and married Mary, a daughter of Thomas Hughes, Jr., who had married a daughter of John Swan, before mentioned. Hughes was Irish, Swan was Scotch, Vanmetre German, and Lindsey Scotch-three nationalities blended into one, the Scotch pre- dominating. John Lindsey, the judge's father, was a student at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, and was once sheriff and twice prothonotary of Greene County.
Judge Lindsey was the eldest of eleven children, six of whom survived him. He was born on November 21, 1827, received his education at Greene Academy, Carmichaels, Greene County, was admitted to the Waynesburg bar May 15, 1849, and elected president judge in October, 1861, when not quite thirty-four years of age.
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