The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume I, Part 18

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr., bro. & co.
Number of Pages: 1102

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commonwealth. This place he filled for a number of years, and in 1836 he removed to Pittsburgh, where he achieved a still greater eminence in his profession, and further men- tion of him will doubtless be made in the part of this work which relates to Allegheny county.

John F. Beaver .- The story of the life and professional services of John F. Beaver is well told in an article which appeared about the time of his death, which was written by a fellow member of this bar, now dead, and we depend on it largely concerning this notable man. He died in Newton Falls, Ohio, on June 12, 1877. Sixty years have passed away since he left Greensburg, yet his name and fame are still fresh in the rec- ollection of the older people of the county. His genial character and his exuberant flow of animal spirits rendered him conspicuous in every company, so much so, indeed, that it was difficult to forget him.

He was born near Stoystown, in Somerset county, his maternal grandfather, Daniel M. Stov, having given his name to the village. His father, Henry Beaver, removed some years afterwards to Grapeville, and here John F. Beaver continued to live until 1844, when he removed to Ohio. His physical or- ganization was remarkable, and he excelled in all athletic sports which required strength and precision of muscular action .. He was a large heavy man. With a rifle he was un- erring and, like Natty Bumppo, nothing but the center-"piercing the bull's eye"- would satisfy him.

Hearing upon one occasion of a match to shoot for a bear in a remote part of the county, he dropped in and was solicited to take a stake to make up the match which. he could not decline. No one, of course, knew Beaver, who was apparently without a gun, but a boy was standing near with a ponderous, rather rusty looking rifle, and Beaver suggested that he might borrow this from the boy. The affair then commenced

WESTMORELAND COUNTY

and when Beaver's turn eame some one kindly volunteered to show him how to hold his weapon and so on. He was very un- steady, his rifle shaking, but somehow the nail was driven. This was rare sport and the luek of the lawyer was marvelous. But each round was followed by the same result. Finally he won the bear and then a ehain was seen hanging from the pocket of the boy who had brought the rusty gun. This was Beaver's son, who had come prepared to take the bear home. To finish up the affair he then diselosed his identity and gave a good dinner to the whole party, and, of eourse, made them ever afterwards his friends.

At about the age of twenty-one he eut himself with an ax and was eonfined to bed for some weeks. At that time he was illit- erate, barely able to read, but seeing a copy of Smith's Laws, whieli had belonged to his Grandfather Stoy when a justiee of the peace in Somerset county, he determined to read them, dry as they were. This he did, and with so mueh zeal and vigor that by the time his wound was healed he was regarded as quite a lawyer in the community, At all events this reading gave him a taste for the law, and with this purpose in view he plaeed himself under the direction of Alexander W. Foster, Esq., and read law with him. Foster thought he saw in this rugged young Hereu- les something better than musele, and he en- eouraged him to persevere.

He read law for five years, boarding all the time in Grapeville, four miles from Greensburg, walking in and out every day. He was admitted to the bar in February, 1833, and soon gained a large praetiee. He was an Anti-Mason in polities and after- wards a Whig, and then belonged to the Free Soil party. He ran for Congress in 1840 as a Whig and was defeated by Hon. A. G. Marehand, who will be mentioned here- after. The well-known late editor of the Argus, John M. Laird, Esq., was, during this

campaign, chairman of the Democratic county committee. On the day of a large convention in Greensburg he and Beaver stopped at the same hotel. Mr. Laird was on a committee to frame resolutions against the election of Beaver.

Mr. Laird had a very large head; so had Beaver, and when Mr. Laird went to dinner he mistook his hat and put his resolutions in Beaver's hat. Immediately after din- ner Beaver discovered the mistake and tak- ing his hat with Mr. Laird's resolutions went over to the courthouse and presented them in open eourt. These resolutions de- nouneed him (Beaver) as a seamp and un- worthy of any respectable eitizen's support. Judge White was on the bench. No one relished a joke more than he, but he gravely decided that he had no jurisdiction in the matter. The resolutions were returned to Mr. Laird. Such was the good humor and fun of the old men of the bar more than sixty years ago.

Beaver, however, had a great deal of pro- fessional business, not only in this, but in Allegheny eounty. In 1842 he sold his of- fiee and furniture to Edgar Cowan, then a young member of the bar. Ilis sueeess at the bar in the Supreme Court was very marked, he being a great favorite with the judges on aeeount of his fair and eandid bearing toward them, as well as because of his ability and native wit.

In the "good old turnpike days" Beaver and Judge Tod, afterwards the war gov- ernor of Ohio, arranged to drive to Colum- bus to attend a Whig convention. As they were starting the judge said, "Beaver, you pay the toll on the trip and I will pay for the liquor." This suited Beaver, and as two or three "taverns" were passed, the judge promptly fulfilled his part of the eon- traet. Finally they came to a toll-gate, whereupon Beaver, drawing himself up, ad- dressed the gate-keeper very seriously, say- ing, "Why, madam, do you eharge minis-

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ters on their way to divine services ?" "No, indeed," said the woman, and in this way they avoided several gate charges. The next morning the judge said, "Now, Beaver, 1 will pay the toll to-day and you pay for the liquor." Beaver readily consented, but when they came to the next gate, just as the judge was assuming his sober, ministerial look and about to address the gate-keeper, Beaver, who was driving, jerked the lines, scized the whip and with an oath said to tlic shying horse, "Stand still or I will cut the heart out of you." The judge mildly asked how much the toll was and paid it.

In Ohio he was elected to the State Sen- ate as soon as he had resided there long enough to be qualified, and attracted atten- tion and consideration by his immense size, his dress and his singular intellectual abil- ity. The Senate was a tie without him and he was looked for with great anxiety when that body met. He drove all the way from Mahoning county to Columbus, as there were no railroads in those days. His wagon broke down when he was twelve miles dis- tant from the state capital. He completed the journey on foot and reached the Senate just as they were about to take an important vote. He was a stranger, of immense build, covered with mud, and as he strode into the chamber he was greeted with cheers and "his boots" became famous in song and story for years afterwards. He was a leader in politics for some time, and at one time came within one or two votes of being nominated for governor of Ohio. All his life he was a student and enlarged year by year the boundaries of his knowledge in every direction. His memory was astonish- ing, extending even to the minutest details. He was without vanity or pride or conceit, and if his clothes had been indestructible he would have worn the same suit all his life. Mr. Cowan, once having in various ways got his measure, procured for him a new suit of fashionable clothes, including a pair of pol-

ished boots and a "stovepipe" hat. There was some coaxing necessary to get him to don the rig, but once on and in the street, the town turned out and gave him an ova- tion. He was a unique character, a great lawyer and a thoroughly representative man of his day.

Justice Richard Coulter was in all proba- bility the most cloquent member of the Westmoreland county bar in the nineteenth century. He was the son of Eli and Pris- cilla (Small) Coulter, and was of Scotch- Irish descent. He was born in Westmore- land county in what is now Versailles town- ship, Allegheny county, Pa., in March, 1788. In 1793 his family moved to Greensburg. He was educated at Jefferson college, but did not remain for graduation. He read law in the office of his brother-in-law, John Ly- on, of Uniontown, Fayette county, and was admitted to practice in that county Novem- ber 19, 1810. On February 18, 1811, on motion of John B. Alexander, he was ad- mitted to the Westmoreland county bar. Soon after his admission he entered the field of politics, induced to do so doubtless by his friends, because of his natural talent as a public speaker. It was the age of or- atory both in legislative halls and at the bar, and a young man of forceful powers of pub- lic speech was naturally pushed into polit- ical life.

He began at the bottom, being elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1816 and was returned in 1817, 1818, 1819 and 1820. He was nominated in 1826 as an independent candidate for Congress against James Clark. the Democratic nominee, and was elected. In 1828 he was re-elected without opposi- tion, and was also elected in 1830 and 1832, latterly as the regular Democratic nominee, the parties having been reorganized since he first entered congressional life. He went to Congress as the leader of his party in his county, and because of his forensic talents and pronounced ability, very soon gained an

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enviable standing in that body. The great question in Congress then was the rc-charter of the U. S. bank. Andrew Jackson was president and brought all the power of his administration to bear to defeat its re- charter. Coulter had the courage to op- pose the president and to support the United States bank. This position lost him many friends in his district who were stanch adherents of "Old Hickory." In 1834, therefore, John Klingensmith, a plain man of German descent, was nominated for Con- gress. He was regarded as a strong man in

his distriet. Many of the voters were of German extraetion, and a man of their dia- lect and nationality, particularly if they imagined him to, in some degree, resemble their idea of President Jaekson, as was the ease with Klingensinith, would receive al- most their solid vote. Coulter was the op- posing candidate, and it was hoped that by his eloquenee and personal popularity he eould overeome this united opposition. But, though he made a gallant fight, he was de- feated by Klingensmith. A leading news- paper at this time lamented his defcat in the following language:

"Poor Pennsylvania ! She is the Boeotia of the Union ; where else eould sueh a man as Richard Coulter have been defeated by sueh an unknown and illiterate person as his an- tagonist ?"

At the close of his last term in Congress, in 1835, he resumed the praetiee of the law in Greensburg, which had been somewhat negleeted during the year he was in political life. He was then forty-seven years old, and for eleven years was engaged exelusive- ly in his profession. The bar was not, by any means, a weak one in his day. John B. Alexander, the elder Foster and Beaver were men who could give any bar a high standing. Coulter easily took rank with these men. Alexander perhaps exeelled him in his knowledge of the law, and Foster was doubtless greater than he in the manage-

ment of a ease, but in his address before a jury he easily surpassed either of them.

Mr. Cowan was then a young man, but in his latter years he said he regarded Coulter as the most eloquent and impressive jury lawyer who ever practiecd at the Westmore- land bar. His praetice during these years was one of the largest, if not the largest, at the bar, and if the reader imagines that he was an advocate alone he is sadly in error. He was the best educated man of his day at the bar, and in his knowledge of the law he was exeelled only by the elder Foster and Alexander, and this is not by any means a diseredit to Coulter.

In 1846 a vaeaney occurred on the su- preme bench of the state, oeeasioned by the death of Justice John Kennedy. The gov- ernor was urged by a petition to appoint Riehard Coulter to the position, the West- moreland bar signing the petition without regard to party. He was aeeordingly ap- pointed justiee of the supreme court of Pennsylvania by Governor Franeis R. Shunk, and took his seat September 16 of that year. By virtue of this appointment, he filled the office until the organie law was so ehanged in 1850 that all positions on the beneh were vaeated and thereafter were to be filled by popular eleetion. The first election under the new law was in the fall of 1851. The Deinoeratic nominees were John Bannister Gibson, Jeremiah S. Blaek, Ellis Lewis, Walter H. Lowrie and James Campbell. Richard Coulter and four others were nom- inated by the Whigs. In the Democratic convention in 1851 Coulter received sup- port and the nomination by the Whig party was tendered him without solieitation. At the fall eleetion all of the Whig candidates were defeated exeept Coulter, he defeating James Campbell by several thousand votes. Campbell shortly afterwards beeame attor- ney general of Pennsylvania, and later post- master general under Franklin Pieree. Under a constitutional provision lots were

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drawn for length of term. Justice Black drew the short term of three years, and thereby became chief justice of Pennsyl- vania. Lewis drew the six, Gibson the nine, Lowrie the twelve and Coulter the fifteen year term.

Justiee Coulter very early distinguished himself on the beneh by an elaborate opin- ion in the case of Hummell vs. Brown (6th Bar, p. 86), in which he, with peculiar eru- dition, outlined the legislative power of the state in the coereion and control of corporations. When this opinion was de- livered, in 1847, it was regarded by lawyers as one of the ablest and most eloquent opin- ions ever delivered from the supreme beneh.

He did not live long to fill the office to which he had been chosen, but died in Greensburg April 20, 1852, his death being announced from the supreme bench on May 11 following.

Justiee Coulter was the only member of the Westmoreland bar who ever reached the supreme beneh. As a lawyer he took high rank on the beneh and his deeisions are yet valued and quoted by the profession. No inan eould take first place on a bench that was adorned by John Bannister Gibson, but Coulter was undoubtedly entitled to rank high after Gibson, and in one respeet, viz. : as a scholar outside of the law, he was su- perior to Gibson or any other man on the beneh.

His addresses in Congress and elsewhere were not only eloquent, but charming in lit- erary style and grace. His poetie temper- ament lent a richness and beauty to his speech, while his logie and marshaling of facts made his arguments almost irresistible. Though fifty years have passed away since his death, his fame as an orator still lives.

He was never married, but lived most of his life with his widowed mother and a maiden sister.

We insert the inseription he wrote about 1826, as an epitaph for his mother's tomb-

stone, which loses nothing by being eom- pared with Lord Macaulay's well-known tribute to his mother :

"The tears which sorrow sheds, the flow- ers that affection plants, and the monument gratitude rears over the grave of a beloved parent soon pass away, but the deep memory of maternal kindness, piety and virtue sur- vives over death and time, and will last while the soul itself endures."

Augustus Drum .- The Drum family was a very noted one in this county in the last century. Augustus Drum was a grandson of Simon and a son of Simon Drum, Jr., the latter being well remembered in the early history of Greensburg as its old-time post- master, a position from which he was re- tired with the election of William Henry Harrison in 1840, after almost a lifetime of serviee. Among other prominent men, lie was on the funeral committee of Gen. Arthur St. Clair in 1818.

Three of his sons became prominent. Simon H. Drum was a graduate from West Point in the elass of 1830 and was killed at Garita De Belen, in the Mexican war, Sep- tember 13, 1847. Richard Coulter Drum, his youngest son, was also in the Mexican war, and afterwards, by gradual promotions, reached the position of adjutant general of the United States army. He was the only man in our country's history who filled that position who had not been educated at West Point.

Augustus Drum was the sixth son, born in Greensburg November 26, 1815, and was ed- ucated at Jefferson college. He read law with Alex. W. Foster and was admitted to the bar in May, 1836. He was a man of medium height and build, with brown hair and blue eyes. Not long after his adınis- sion to the bar he was married to Isabel, a daughter of Daniel Stannard, of Indiana, Pa., and for many years, after the prevalent custom of that day, praeticed in both Indi- ana and Westmoreland counties. In Indi-

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ana he was a politieian and leader of the Democratie party, but in Greensburg was mostly renowned as a lawyer and exeelled in his addresses before a jury. He was the same age as Cowan and Burrell, and in his profession advaneed so rapidly that at the age of forty he easily ranked with the first lawyers, of the bar.

Late in the forties he represented his dis- trict in the state Senate of Pennsylvania. In 1852 he was the eandidate of the Demo- cratie party for Congress and was elected after a spirited eontest over a number of opponents. A song was improvised and sung widely by his friends with a stanza for each opponent. The last of each division was:

"He'll be left at home because he can't beat a Drum."

Mr. Drum made himself heard in Con- gress, but unfortunately he introduced an amendment relative to the questions in- volved in the Wilmot Proviso, and this made him many enemies among the rapidly in- creasing abolition element of his distriet, In 1854 he was a candidate for re-election, but the Know Nothing party had already gained great strength, and when they united with the Whigs they aeeomplished his de- feat. John Covode was elected over him and eommeneed his long and notable eareer in Congress.

At the elose of his term in Congress, in 1855, he returned to Greensburg and devoted himself exelusively to the praetiee of the law. In 1857 he built a residenee on South Main street, now owned by the heirs of James C. Clark, but he had seareely eom- pleted it until he was taken ill and died in 1858, in the forty-third year of his age.

John Young Barclay, a nephew and name- sake of Judge John Young, was born in Bed- ford county on November 29, 1798. About 1817 le eame to Greensburg to read law with his unele, and was admitted to the bar

in the November term, 1819. He was a man of large frame, being about six feet high, strongly built and of a fair complexion. Ile devoted himself entirely to the practice of his profession. He rode from one eounty to another in company with the judge and the more prominent lawyers, after the fash- ion of the olden time, and soon aequired a good praetiee in each eounty of the Tenth Judicial distriet. He was a member of the constitutional convention which framed the Pennsylvania constitution of 1838, but fur- ther than this he never sought or obtained offiee.

Ile was a Mason in Anti-Masonie times, a Demoerat and a staneh supporter of An- drew Jaekson; yet, notwithstanding this, he supported Thaddeus Stephens and Governor George Wolf in their heroie efforts to es- tablish the common-school system of Penn- sylvania, a measure with which their names must ever be elosely eonneeted. For this Mr. Barelay was violently opposed, the op- position even threatening to mob him, but nothing daunted, he still advocated the eause of the common sehools and lived to see his ideas triumph.

He was married to Isabella, a daughter of . Alexander Johnston, of "Kingston House," a sister of Governor William F. Johnston. All his life he was fond of athletie sports, outdoor life and horseback riding, and this fondness perhaps led to his early death. In 1841, when he was but forty-three years of age, he was thrown from a horse and re- eeived an injury from which he died the day following, February 18. He left a large family, one of his daughters, Elizabetlı, be- ing married to Gen. James Keenan; his son, Thomas J., beeame eminent in the financial eireles of the county .

Thomas Johnston Barclay was the eld- est son of John Y. Barelay. He was much more widely known in his latter years as a finaneier than as a member of the bar, though before he became a banker he won

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his spurs in the legal profession. He was born in Greensburg on January 23, 1826, and was educated at Jefferson college. He read law with his uncle, Governor William F. Johnston, and with Henry D. Foster. He was admitted to the bar in August, 1844, in bis nineteenth year and for eight years de- voted himself exclusively to the practice of the law, barring the time spent in the Mex- ican war. In November following his admis- sion he was appointed district attorney by Governor David R. Porter and held this po- sition for some years. He, like his father, was a man six feet three inches high, with a rugged constitution.

When the war with Mexico came he en- listed as second sergeant under Captain, aft- erwards Colonel John W. Johnston, late of "Kingston House," in the Second Pennsyl- vania regiment, and was promoted to the first lieutenancy December 31, 1847. He par- ticipated in the battles of Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, Vera Cruz, the stormning of Mexico, etc. At the close of the war he re- turned to Westmoreland county and re- sumed the practice of the law.

In 1852 he was elected treasurer of West- moreland county for two years, and this practically closed his professional life. In 1854 he began the banking business in Greensburg, and was closely engaged in it for the rest of his life. In this he achieved great success. He is easily entitled to rank as the first financier of his day in the county, and indeed as one of the leading bankers of Western Pennsylvania. He was a man of deep thought, few words and little display or public demonstration. So unerring was his judgment that his advice on all manner of business propositions was sought and fol- lowed more than that of any other man of his day in the county. Even in politics, to which, like his father, he apparently paid but little attention, his counsel was always sought and he was always a potent factor in the Demo- eratic campaigns. In 1854 he was married

to Rebecca, a daughter of Hon. Joseph H. Kuhns. He died suddenly, after a few days' illness, on August 25, 1881. He was the father of Thomas Barclay, of the present bar.

Henry D. Foster .- It is difficult in the nar- row limits of an article of this kind to do jus- tice to the man who attained the eminence of Henry D. Foster. He was born in Mereer county, Pennsylvania, December 19, 1808, and was descended from a Scotch, English and Dutch ancestry. He was a grandson of Rev. William Foster and a son of Samuel B. Foster, who was married to Elizabeth Don- nell, a daughter of Judge Donnell of North- umberland county. Their son, Henry Don- nell Foster, received his early education in Allegheny college, Meadville, Pa., and came to Greensburg in 1826 to study law in the office of Alexander W. Foster, his uncle, who has been herein previously written of.

He pursued his studies under his uncle's instruction and was admitted to practice law in Westmoreland county on August 26, 1829. Before his admission to the bar he was ex- amined by John B. Alexander, R. B. Mc- Cabe and Joseph H. Kuhns. Mr. Foster's ability as a lawyer was recognized even in his youth. He was thoroughly devoted to his profession. Nature gave him eminently a legal mind and this combined with his un- erring judgment on the trial of a suit made him a most formidable opponent. From his early years at the bar he was without taste for criminal business, and when so engaged he invariably took the side of the defense. His power over a jury was considered phe- nomenal, and there were but few who could successfully oppose him. He had all his life an extensive practice and might have died independently wealthy but for his extreme liberality to the needy and to his friends.

Many stories are told concerning this characteristic in the life of Mr. Foster and it may not be out of place to give one or two of them :

One day a political friend, a tailor, went

HENRY D. FOSTER.

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hastily into his office and asked him for the loan of ten dollars. Mr. Foster handed it to him without more than looking at him. A few days afterwards the tailor called and said: "General, I want to pay you the money I owe you." "Why," said the Gen- eral, "you don't owe me anything." "Oh, yes," said he, "I borrowed money from you here one day and I wish to repay it." "Oh, yes," said the General, "I believe you did borrow a hundred dollars from mne." "No," said the tailor, "it was not a hundred, but only ten, and here it is." The General took it and thanked him kindly.

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The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume I, Part 18

Author: Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr., bro. & co. Number of Pages: 1102

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr., bro. & co.
Number of Pages: 1102