USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > The courts of justice, bench & bar of Washington County, Pennsylvania > Part 6
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COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCH, AND BAR.
At the August term, 1864, he was upon the bench at Washington, but before coming thither had been ill with what was thought to be a slight attack of bilious fever. At Pros- perity, on his way home after the end of the term, he became too ill to proceed, and there remained over night, but recov- ered so as to reach his residence, about six miles beyond Waynesburg, the next day. He was not considered to be seriously ill until on Thursday, September 1, 1864, and late the night of that day he died.
Judge Lindsey, on June 27, 1855, married Sarah, daughter of Dr. Arthur Inghram, of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, and sister of Hon. James Inghram, a later president judge of the Fourteenth District. Judge Lindsey's brother, W. C. Lind- sey, a member of the Greene County bar, was captain of Com- pany A, Eighteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, in the War of the Rebellion, and was killed in a street of Hagerstown, Mary- land, while leading a charge against Lee's retreating army, three days after the battle of Gettysburg. A still younger brother, R. H. Lindsey, is a practicing member of the Fayette County bar. His widow, three sons, and one daughter sur- vived Judge Lindsey, the widow still living in Waynesburg. The sons, Arthur Inghram, William Walter, and John How- ard Lindsey, all reside at Las Animas, Bent County, Colorado; his daughter Annie is the wife of Robert W. Munnell, and resides at Waynesburg.
After the death of Judge Lindsey, Governor Curtin, the war governor of Pennsylvania, on November 9, 1864, issued a commission to Mr. James Watson, of the Washington County bar, to hold the office of president judge of the district until the next general election, in 1865. This commission was a surprise to Mr. Watson, as neither he nor his friends had asked for it, and it was declined, although with gratitude for the unsought honor. For sketch of Mr. Watson, see Roll of Attorneys, 1831, post.
FRAG
JOHN KENNEDY EWING, PRESIDENT JUDGE, 1864-1865. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from steel-plate print furnished by Hon. N. Ewing, son.]
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HON. JOHN K. EWING.
HON. JOHN K. EWING.
There was still a vacancy in the office of president judge, whereupon, on November 19, 1864, John Kennedy Ewing, the only son of Hon. Nathaniel Ewing by his first wife, the daugh- ter of Mr. Justice Kennedy of the Supreme Court, was ap- pointed and commissioned by Governor Curtin to fill the office until the next general election, in 1865, and accepted and served. His associates for his short term of office were James G. Hart and Thomas McCarrell, Esquires.
Hon. John Kennedy Ewing, on May 4, 1847, married Ellen L., daughter of Alpheus and Eliza Willson, and sister of Hon. Alpheus E. Willson, afterward president judge of the Fourteenth District, consisting of Fayette and Greene, until the latter county was made a separate district in 1893. Judge Ewing still survives, but Mrs. Ewing died in January, 1884, the mother of eight children, of whom there were Hon. Na- thaniel Ewing, president judge of the Fourteenth District from 1887 to 1898, and Hon. Samuel E. Ewing, president judge of the same district, by appointment, from November 22, 1899, to January 1, 1900. The other children were Eliza W., who became the wife of Hon. S. L. Mestrezat, of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and is now dead, having left one child, Ray- mond W., who died in infancy; Mary V., wife of Mr. J. M. B. Reis; John K., Jr .; Belle K., wife of Mr. B. B. Howell; and Ellen and Jane, who died in infancy.
At the general election on October 10, 1865, Hon. John K. Ewing and Hon. S. A. Gilmore were opposing candidates for the office for the succeeding term of ten years, the latter being successful, his next term, the third for which he was commissioned, to begin on the first Monday of December, 1865. But after that date the first term of the courts for Washington County was in February, 1866, before which time, however, the act of assembly of January 25, 1866 (P. L. 1) was passed, by which Washington County was taken out of
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COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCH, AND BAR.
the old Fourteenth District, created in 1818, and with Beaver County made into a new district called the Twenty-seventh; and the governor was required to "appoint and commission a gentleman of integrity, learned in the law, to be president judge of said district, who shall hold his office until the first Monday of December next," and at the next general election a president judge was to be elected and commissioned under the then constitution and laws of the state.
HON. B. B. CHAMBERLIN.
For the new Twenty-seventh Judicial District, thus composed of the counties of Beaver and Washington, Governor Curtin, on February 3, 1866, appointed and commissioned B. B. Cham- berlin, of the Beaver County bar, as president judge, to hold office until the first Monday of the following December, by which time an elected judge should be chosen. He presided at the May and August terms, 1866.
Judge Chamberlin was born at Forlighsburg, Canada East, on May 22, 1810. His parents were natives of Rich- mond, Massachusetts, and in 1812 the family returned to the United States, settling at Auburn, New York. The son was educated at academies at Lewiston and at Buffalo, New York; began the study of law with an uncle, Hon. Bates Cooke, the controller of the state of New York during Governor Seward's administration, and completed his course in the office of Mil- lard Fillmore, at Buffalo, where he was admitted to the bar in 1834. About 1836 he came to Bridgewater, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the bar of that county; was given charge of the real estate interests of Mr. Fillmore in and about Bridgewater, and soon afterward removed to New Brighton. Through his influence with Mr. Fillmore, while the latter was president of the United States, a post-office was established at New Brighton for the first time, and Mr. Cham- berlin was made its first postmaster. After his service as president judge of the Fourteenth District, he returned to practice at the Beaver bar, and so continued until the last year
---
BROWN BRAINERD CHAMBERLIN, PRESIDENT JUDGE, 1866. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph loaned by Mr. Henry Hoopes, New Brighton, Pa.]
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HON. A. W. ACHIESON.
or so of his life, which he spent at the Episcopal Home at Wilkinsburg, Allegheny County, where he died on March 23, 1891, at the ripe age of eighty-one. He was never married. He had a brother, Darwin, a druggist, at St. Clair, Michigan. Our half-tone of Judge Chamberlin is from the only known photograph of him.
HON. A. W. ACHESON.
At the general election of October, 1866, the competing candidates were Alexander W. Acheson, of the Washington bar, as the nominee of the Republican party, and Hon. B. B. Cham- berlin, who, though previously a Republican, had been placed on the Democratic ticket. Mr. Acheson was elected, and on November 15, 1866, was commissioned by Governor Curtin, and held his full term of ten years, when he was succeeded by Judge Hart. His associates during his term were, first, James C. Chambers and John Farrer, Esquires; afterward, Dr. Thomas W. Bradley and John Scott, Esquire.
But during the term of Judge Acheson, another somewhat important change was made in the judicial system. On Novem- ber 3, 1873, a new state Constitution was adopted in convention, which, by the terms of the Schedule, went into effect on Jan- uary 1, 1874. Article V. of this Constitution related to the judiciary, and it was provided by Section 5 of that article that each county containing a population of forty thousand should constitute a separate judicial district, and should elect one judge learned in the law, and that the general assembly should provide for additional judges as the business of the districts should require; moreover, it was provided that the office of "associate judges, not learned in the law," should be abolished in counties forming separate districts. There were no other material changes made in the organization of the courts.
The census of 1870 having shown that Washington County had a population of forty-five thousand six hundred and ninety,
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COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCHI, AND BAR.
by the section referred to it was entitled to be made a sepa- rate district. Section 13 of the Schedule required the general assembly at its next session after the adoption of the Constitu- tion to designate the several judicial districts, as provided by this Constitution. Thereupon, by the act of April 9, 1874, P. L. 54, the legislature created forty-three judicial districts, the Twenty-seventh of which was to be composed of the county of Washington; and such is the number and constitution of that district at this day. The time of the beginning of the judicial term, however, has been changed. Instead of the first Monday of December, as of old, by the act of April 30, 1874, P. L. 118, the terms of all the judges learned in the law are to begin on the first Monday of January next succeeding their election.
The terms of Dr. T. W. Bradley and John Scott, Esquires, as associate judges, expired the last day of November, 1876, and the office having been abolished by the Constitution of 1874, these gentlemen were the last to hold those positions in Washington County; the president judge continued upon the bench, but alone, until by the act of June 12, 1895, P. L. 190, an additional law judge was authorized for Washington County.
It is related that of old a member of our bar, who some- times dined too well, came into court at the beginning of a session when there was a lull in business, and, approaching the railing of the bar, cried out : "Oh, one hundred learned Thebans on the bench; one judge and two zeros !" The terms of the observation were scarcely accurate, for, when the judge learned in the law was somewhat young and frisky, as sometimes was the case, the associates, who always looked wise, maintained at least the necessary dignity of the court.
Judge Acheson was the son of David Acheson, who emi- grated from County Armagh, Ireland, in 1788, and came directly to Washington, Pennsylvania, to join his brothers John and Thomas, who had preceded him. The brothers were of Scotch lineage, sons of George Acheson, an elder of
ALEXANDER W. ACHESON, ADMITTED, 1832; DIED, 1890. PRESIDENT JUDGE, 1866-1876. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph with Mrs. J. C. Acheson.]
.
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HON. A. W. ACHESON.
the Seceders Congregation of Market Hill, County Armagh. Alexander W. was the second child of David Acheson by his first wife, Mary, daughter of John Wilson, who settled at Washington in 1789; was born on July 15, 1809, at Philadel- phia, where his parents resided for a time after their mar- riage; graduated at Washington College in 1827; studied law with Mr. William Baird, brother of Judge Thomas H. Baird, and was admitted to the Washington bar in June, 1832. After a short time passed in the West, he began the practice of his profession at Washington, and with the exception of several terms of service as deputy attorney- general for Washington County, before, by the act of May 3, 1850, P. L. 654, the election of district attorneys by the people was required, and his term as president judge, he never held any public office. At the end of his term as president judge he returned to the bar, and, associated with his son, Mr. Marcus C. Acheson, and his nephew, Mr. James I. Brownson, Jr., he remained in active practice till his death, on July 10, 1890.
The wife of Judge Acheson was Jane, a daughter of Dr. John Wishart, whom he married in 1836; she died before the Judge. The children still living are: Dr. Alexander W. Ache- son, of Dennison, Texas; Marcus C., now of the Pittsburg bar; Martha W., of Washington, Pennsylvania; Hon. E. F., mem- ber of Congress, Washington, Pennsylvania; and Dr. Henry M., also of Washington, Pennsylvania. Three children died before him: Dr. John W., of Washington, Pennsylvania, un- married; David,1 Captain of Company C, One Hundred and
1 The remains of Captain David Acheson were brought home for bur- ial, the ceremonies taking place on Sabbath evening, August 9, 1863. Within hearing of the ceremonies at the family residence, a young member of the bar composed the following, printed in the Washington Reporter of the next issue :
IN MEMORIAM, CAPT. A., Co. C, 140TH P. V. Pro patria pugnante in magnos honores, Pallida Mors venit ; Pater, materque, fratresque sorores, Amici propinqui - O imi dolores ! Mortuum circumstant.
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Fortieth Pennsylvania Volunteers, killed at the Battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863; and Mary, wife of Dr. W. B. Childs, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
HON. GEORGE S. HART.
At the general election in October, 1886, the competitors for the office of president judge were Hon. A. W. Acheson, on the Republican side, and George S. Hart on the Democratic ticket. The latter gentleman was chosen, and being duly commissioned took his seat as president judge on the first Monday of January, 1877, which office he held until succeeded by Hon. J. A. McIlvaine in 1887, still in office.
The paternal grandfather of Judge Hart was from eastern Maryland, settling in Westmoreland County at an early day. His father was John Hart, who was born in Westmoreland County, settled in Pittsburg, and there married a Miss Barr, where on July 29, 1824, Judge Hart was born. On both sides he was of Scotch-Irish descent. In 1833 the family removed to Washington, which afforded an opportunity for Judge Hart to be educated at Washington College, graduating in 1842, with, as some of his classmates, Caleb Baldwin, afterward chief justice of Iowa; J. Kennedy Ewing, son of Hon. Nathaniel Ewing, at one time, as heretofore stated, the president judge of the Fourteenth District, and Rev. Franklin
In vita generosum, in morte gloriosum, Sepulcro te parant : Patriæ vexillo nunc involvere, Gladium fulgentem tibi posuere, Sepulcro apportant !
Flores florescant, Lacrimæ cadant, Triste super sepulturum !
Virtutes clariores, Memoria dulciores, In sempiterne futurum
Sabbath evening, August 9, 1863.
MÆRENS.
GEORGE S. HART,
ADMITTED, 1846; DIED, 1888. . PRESIDENT JUDGE, 1876-1886. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph with surviving sisters.]
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HON. GEORGE S. HART.
Moore, afterward a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, distinguished for his eloquence. In 1867, Rev. Mr. Moore, delivering the class history at the reunion of the Washington College Class of 1842, after twenty-five years, and heard by the writer hereof, described Judge Hart, then at the bar, as having been the Sir Philip Sidney of his class.
After graduation Judge Hart taught a short time in eastern Virginia, in a private family, then studied law with Hon. John L. Gow, and was admitted to the bar of Washing- ton County in August, 1846. At the same term of his admis- sion he was appointed deputy attorney-general, succeeding Hon. A. W. Acheson in that office. After the office became elective he was elected and served a term of three years, beginning in 1850. In May, 1853, he acquired an interest in the Washington Examiner, of which paper he was the princi- pal editor till the close of 1856, from which time he was devoted exclusively to his profession, until he was made presi- dent judge in 1876. It is always noted as a fact in his history that for a period of ten years and two months he was contin- uously a member of the board of school directors for Washing- ton Borough, all that time their secretary -always noted for the reason that, having never married, he had an abundance of time to become interested in the children of other people, and like all good men he was a lover of the little folk. He died at Washington on May 15, 1888.
Judge Hart left to survive him three brothers and three sisters: William Hart, now deceased, leaving a widow and children; Alexander Hart, one of the owners and the editor of the Washington Democrat; Mason Hart, house painter; Misses Rebecca Hart and Susan Hart, and Mrs. Francis L. Ryder, widow of Rev. David L. Ryder; the living survivors residing at Washington, Pennsylvania.
Judge Nathaniel Ewing, for almost his entire term, and Judges Gilmore, Lindsey, J. Kennedy Ewing, Chamberlin, Acheson, and Hart, held court in our third court-house here- after considered.
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COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCH, AND BAR.
There has now been given in this chapter, with some bio- graphical notes of our president judges, a brief but carefully prepared sketch of the judicial system of Washington County from 1781, when under the Constitution of 1776 her courts first opened with a large number of justices of the peace, all having the right to sit upon the bench; again, under the Con- stitution of 1790, with a president judge learned in the law, and associate judges not learned in the law, soon reduced to two in number; so continuing, the county with other counties in the old Fifth, then in the Fourteenth, and then in the Twenty-seventh Judicial District under the Constitution of 1838; and finally, as a separate judicial district, as in the beginning, but with a single law judge to administer justice, under the Constitution of 1874, until an additional law judge was afforded us by the act of June 12, 1895, P. L. 190, after more than a century had elapsed from the beginning.
THE THIRD COURT-HOUSE, 1842. TOWN HALL TO LEFT ; SHERIFF'S OFFICE TO RIGHT. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph on a "busy day" in 1882, with the author.]
IV. OUR THIRD COURT-HOUSE.
AT the end of forty-five years of the use of our second court-house and near the beginning of the term of Hon. Nathaniel Ewing as president judge, it was finally determined that it no longer sufficed for the increased business of the county, and a third building was erected, with an official resi- dence for the sheriff.
With this court-house and its related public buildings we of this day are all familiar, but for the information of those who are to walk in our ways in the great future, we furnish a half-tone engraving of the court-house and sheriff's residence as they were when torn down and drawn away by Mr. Hockley, under contract with the commissioners, in 1898, the engraving being made from a photograph taken in 1882. The square- fronted building to the left of the court-house is the old Town Hall building, fifty-six feet on Main Street and extending back one hundred feet, erected of brick with sandstone trimmings in 1869; and in 1897-98, to make room for the new court- house, removed by the borough under contract with Chicago parties, bodily and without a break, to its new location south of Cherry Avenue and nearly opposite the new sheriff's residence, the operation of removal affording interesting enter- tainment to admiring citizens of the borough, for quite a long time.
The contract for the erection of the county buildings at present considered was let in 1839, and they were completed in the fall of 1842, at a cost for the court-house of $24,958, and for the sheriff's residence of $4,448. Details of construc- tion may be found in sufficient fullness, with small discrep- ancies as to actual cost, in Creigh, 139; Crumrine, 467.
An entirely new jail building, including at the south end,
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COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCH, AND BAR.
in the immediate rear of the court-house, an office for the county treasurer, and in the rear of that the large vault men- tioned ante, page 16, and over both a large room for the court library, was begun in 1867 and completed in 1868, at an entire cost of $52,000: Creigh, 140; Crumrine, 467. Many a time have some of us, mortified by an adverse ruling or decision in the court-room, retired for consolation to a view of McFarland's grove and beyond, from one or the other of the west windows of that court library; and shall we ever forget the seriously profound discussions and narrations around the long table standing in the middle of the room ? Mr. Hockley carried it all away with the old court-house!
CONTENTS OF THE CORNER-STONE, 1840.
On the 4th day of July, 1840, the corner-stone of that third court-house was laid, doubtless with more or less cere- mony, but, as all the people were then busy with the "Tippe- canoe and Tyler Too" political campaign of that year, they may have been too forgetful of other matters, to leave for us a record of the event. However, under a stone in the southeast corner of the court-house was placed a small zinc box, five by five by nine inches in size, and sealed up within it were a writ- ten paper and articles intended for those only who at some time might tear that building down. When the spot was reached where the box had lain in quiet for almost sixty years, Mr. John Brady, a son of Freeman Brady, Sr., one of the old con- tractors for the erection of the building, was near at hand, and obtained the box and delivered it to his friend, Dr. Wray Grayson. Both Mr. Brady and Dr. Grayson have since passed beyond, but on July 17, 1901, Mrs. Margaret Grayson, widow of the Doctor, gave the box and its contents to the author of this volume for the Washington County Historical Society, hereafter the owner of them.
A verbatim copy of this paper, including the spelling, the original being in the well-known handwriting of " Uncle Joe " Henderson, with a list of the other contents of the box, is here produced:
ROBERT H. KOONTZ, ADMITTED, 1840; DIED, 1863. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph with Mr. Alexander Wilson (1853).]
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CONTENTS OF THE CORNER-STONE, 1840.
CATALOGUE OF THE OFFICERS OF THE GENERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS &C, MADE OUT BY HENRY LANGLEY AND JOSEPH HENDERSON, THE 4TH DAY OF JULY, 1840.
Martin Van Buren, President of the United States. Richard M. Johnson, Vice President. Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury. John Forsyth, Secretary of State. Henry D. Gilpin, Attorney General. John M. Niles, Post Master General.
James K. Paulding, Secretary of the Navy.
Joel R. Poinsett, Secretary of War.
Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the U. States.
Joseph Story, Henry Baldwin, John McLean, Smith Thompson,
Associates.
James M. Wayne, Philip P. Barbour,
John Catron,
John McKinley,
David R. Porter, Governor of Penn'a.
Francis R. Shunk, Scy of the Commonwealth.
Almond H. Reed, State Treasurer. James R. Espy, Auditor General. Jacob Sallade, Surveyor General.
John Klinginsmith, Scy Land Office.
Ovid F. Johnson, Attorney General.
William Hopkins, of Washington County, Speaker of H. R. of Penn'a.
Ebenezer Kingsbury, of Wayne County, Speaker of the Senate.
John B. Gibson, Chief Justice of Penn'a.
Molton C. Rogers, John Kennedy, Thomas Sergeant, Charles Huston,
Associates.
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COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCH, AND BAR.
Nathaniel Ewing, President Judge for the Counties of Washington, Fayette and Greene. Mathew Mckeever,1 Associates for Washington Samuel Hill, Co.
James Buchanan, ) Senators of the United States Daniel Sturgeon, § from Penn'a.
Isaac Leet, Member of Congress from Washington County.
John H. Ewing, State Senator from Washington County.
William Hopkins, - Members of the Legislature
Robert Love,
John Park,
from Washington Co.
John Grayson, Prothonotary of Washington Co. George Morrison, Register.
James B. Ruple, Clerk of the Courts of Quarter Sessions of the Peace, Oyer & Terminer & Orphans' Court.
James Brown, Recorder of Deeds.
Mathew Linn,
Andrew Shearer, Commissioners of Washington County.
James Pollock,
James Palmer, Clerk of Commissioners.
Zachariah Reynolds, County Treasurer.
James Spriggs, Sheriff of Washington Co. John R. Griffith, Coroner.
Directors of the Poor House:
John Horn, John Morgan, John Bower.
County Auditors:
Richard Donaldson, Henry Langley, Dickerson Roberts.
1 This should have been Thomas Mckeever, not Mathew.
THOMAS R. HAZZARD, ADMITTED, 1840; DIED, 1877. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph with Mr. Vernon Hazzard (1901), a grandson.]
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CONTENTS OF THE CORNER STONE, 1840.
Contractors for the Court House: Freeman Brady, { For the Stone and Brick Work. David White, Henry Shearer, for the Carpenter Work. Alexander Ramsey, Cut-stone Work.
See printed catalogues for the Officers and Students of Wash- ington and Jefferson Colleges.
Teachers in the Female Seminary:
Miss Sarah Foster, Principal
Miss Henrietta Post,
Mrs. Abigal Jane Koon,
Assistants. Miss Laura Simon,
Clergymen in the Borough of Washington:
Rev'd Daniel Derusile, Presbyterian.
Rev'd George Holmes, Methodist Episcopal.
Rev'd Thomas Beveridge, Seceder. Rev'd Wm. E. Post, Cumberland Presbyterian.
Physicians in Washington:
Dr. Francis J. LeMoyne,
Dr. Samuel Murdoch,
Dr. John Wishart,
Dr. James Stevens,
Dr. John J. LeMoyne,
Dr. Robert McClure.
Justices of the Peace in Washington: James Blaine, George W. Brice.
Borough Officers:
Robert Officer, Chief Burgess.
John S. Brady, Assistant. Alexander W. Acheson, r Peter Wolfe, John Morrow, Adam Silvey, Oliver Lindsey,
Council.
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COURTS OF JUSTICE, BENCH, AND BAR.
James H. Evans, High Constable. William K. Shannon, Town Clerk.
School Directors of Washington:
Richard B. Chaplin,
John R. Griffith,
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