USA > Pennsylvania > The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume I > Part 21
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But all these rare intellectual powers were marred by ill health, he being an invalid al- most from the time he came to the bar. In 1891 he was suddenly afflicted with softening of the brain, from which he died in a few months.
John C. Robinson was born in Hempfield township on December 17, 1859, and was the son of Jacob R. and Catharine (Stouffer) Robinson. He was graduated from the Cal-
ifornia state normal school in the class of 1882. He read law with Lueien W. Doty, afterwards Judge Doty, and was admitted to the bar December 17, 1887. He was an active Republican, a man of more than ordinary ability and energy, and, more than all this, was a man of honesty and integrity. He did not live long, but fell a victim to consump- tion and died in October, 1898.
Harrison Perry Laird was the youngest son of Rev. Frances and Mary Moore Laird, and was of Seotch-Irish descent. He was a descendant, moreover, of Hon. John Moore, who is referred to elsewhere in these sketches as an carly president judge. Mr. Laird was born in Franklin township, this county, in 1814. From his youth he was a cripple, and this, doubtless, by preventing him from engaging in many athletic pursuits, made him essentially a student, which qual- ity he kept throughout his long life. He was graduated from Jefferson college and for a time taught sehool in Madison academy, Kentucky, after which he took a course in the Transylvania university ; still later he re- turned to Pennsylvania and read law with Hon. Charles Sehaler, in Pittsburgh. Shortly after his admission to the bar he moved to Greensburg, where he practiced law the rest of his life.
He was little given to politics, but was a member of the Legislature in 1848, 1849 and 1850, and a member of the state Senate of Pennsylvania from 1880 to 1884, represent- ing Westmoreland eounty. As chairman of the bank committee he drafted the Banking Law of 1850, some parts of which have been preserved in the present National Bank act . of the United States.
Mr. Laird was, as we have stated, not a politician, but strictly a lawyer. No one would think of giving him second place at the bar after Cowan and Foster, who were eminent in a degree beyond what might be expected from a country county. He was, moreover, a deeply learned seholar, convers-
J. P. Laura.
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ant with the English and German languages, and with Hebrew, Greek and Latin. He was a friend and suitable companion of the most learned college men of his day, and contrib- uted more or less to the literature of south- western Pennsylvania.
In the trial of a case he was most persist- ent, and in the preparation of his cases and of all legal documents he was extremely, painstaking.
Hle was never married, and in his latter years became something of a eynic. A few illustrations of this may not be out of place. He had a marked contempt for the medical profession. A few years before his death a woman, a neighbor of his, was taken vio- lently ill and called in a physician, contrary to Mr. baird's advice. Mr. Laird, in speak- ing of the matter the next morning, said: "She was taken suddenly ill and called a physician, who gave her medicine late last night, and in one hour she was dead." "Asa in his disease sought not to the Lord but to the physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers."
In describing the eminent Judge Trunkey to the writer he spoke of him as a large man with a deep voice and strong constitution, ravenous appetite, cte. "Indeed," said he, "Judge Trunkey is very much such a man as our present candidate for judge, except that Judge Trunkey is a good lawyer."
Mr. Laird was a member of and attended the German Reformed church regularly. One morning as he was leaving church he was ae- costed by the minister who asked him, rather pointedly, "How did you like my discourse this morning, senator ?" Quick as thought the caustic wit replied, "It was a most excel- lent text, sir, a most exeellent one in- deed."
In his later years he had a partner who paid considerable attention to polities, and was consequently visited frequently by pol- itieians. One morning a place hunter en- tered the office and said hurriedly, "Is Mr.
-- in the office, Senator?" The old gen- tleman sized him up at once, and looking hurriedly to each corner of the office and then under the desk and table, he said, "I do not see him anywhere."
The students of Franklin and Marshall college, of which Mr. Laird was a trustee, wrote him some years ago asking for a sub- scription to equip and support their football team, Mr. Laird being a man of large estate. Ile replied to their letter as follows :
"Gentlemen :
"Your letter solieiting a contribution to the Athletic Association of Franklin and Marshall College is received.
"There ean be no objection to students playing ball for an hour at noon, but to make a business of athletics is detrimental, not only to the students, but to the institution that permits it.
"You cannot co-ordinate beef and brains ; the one man in Rome whom the great Caesar most feared, Cassius, had a lean and hungry look.
"Yours very truly, "H. P. Laird."
When on his death bed, a former pastor asked him if there was anything he eould do for him or anything which he wanted. His la- conie reply was : "You can do nothing for me ; all I desire is a speedy entrance into rest."
Mr. Laird died October 16, 1897, possessed of a large estate, and in his will he remem- bered his nephews and nieees, his church, the poor widows of Greensburg and lastly he manifested his affection for his profession by a legacy to the Westmoreland Law Associa- tion, of which he had been president since its organization.
Jacob Turney was a grandson of Jacob Turney and the son of Jacob Turney, Jr., and Margaret Singer Turney, and was born in Greensburg on February 18, 1825. He re- ceived his education in the common schools in Greensburg. During his early years he
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learned the printer's trade, and after engag- ing in that business a short time he entered the register's office of Westmoreland county, and while so engaged read law with Hon. A. G. Marehand. Mr. Marchand died before Mr. Turney had completed his studies and he finished his law reading under Henry C. Marehand, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1849. In 1850 he was elected district attorney of Westmoreland county, being the first district attorney elected under the new law. He was also elected in 1853 and served until January 1, 1857.
During his incumbency of this office the Pennsylvania railroad was in process of con- struction in this county, and this gave rise to a great amount of criminal business for that age. Murder trials were frequent and Mr. Turney attained great prominence as a law- yer in their prosecution. It was he who prosecuted Ward and Gibson in 1854, who were charged with the murder of Lucinda Seehrist. He was also the prosecutor in the case of the Commonwealth vs. Hugh Corri- gan (185), which was so important a case that Edgar Cowan was called into it and the result was a conviction of murder in the first degree. This was by far the most remark- able murder case that took place in the his- tory of Westmoreland county in the latter half of the last century.
In 1856 Mr. Turney was a presidential eleetor and cast his vote for James Buchanan for president. In 1857 he was nominated by aeclamation for the office of state senator, and he filled the position, as he did all others to which he was called, with signal ability. In the Senate lie was a friend and companion of Samuel J. Randall and of other men who afterwards became noted in Pennsylvania and national history. In 1859, at the close of his term, he was elected president of the Senate, a distinction which only the most prominent senators achieve. In 1874 he was a candidate in the Twenty-first Congression- al district, composed of the counties of West-
moreland, Fayette and Greene, for Congress and was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress and again to the Forty-fifth Congress. Mr. Turney while in Congress served upon very important committees. After leaving Con- gress he resumed the practice of his profes- sion in Greensburg and was again rewarded with much success. He has left it on record, however, that he regarded it as a great error for a professional man even to temporarily abandon his practice for the blandishments of political honor.
It is probably not possible for any one man to excel in all of the mental attainments which contribute to make a great lawyer. Mr. Turney, whilst he had his full share of all of them, in one particular was most noted, and that was in his use of the English language. He had an inexhaustible fund of splendid English, which flowed from him as though from a never failing fountain. This per- haps came to him by nature, but more likely was the fruit of his being very widely read in standard literature, he being an omnivor- ous reader all his life. Unfortunately he did not live to fill out the full measure of his life, but died, aged sixty-six years, on Oc- tober 4, 1891.
George Dallas Albert was born in Youngs- town, Westmoreland county, Pa., in 1846, and Tras admitted to the bar in 1869. He had a su- perior intellect and was perhaps the most lit- erary member of the bar in his day. He was always a polite, retiring gentleman of the old school, if one born so late as he can justly so be called. He was rarely ever engaged in the trial of cases, and had no taste what- ever for business done in open eourt except such as related to the preparation of papers. His strong point was the amicable adjust- ment of difficulties which arose between busi- ness men. In the settlement of eases, the harmonizing of discordant elements. and in the happy faculty of making friends, he cer- tainly had no superiors. His mind naturally led him into historical researches, and we be-
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lieve that, aside from his work at the bar, he has done more to unearth and perpetuate the history of Western Pennsylvania, and particularly of Westmoreland county, than any other man living or dead. The writer is free to say that without the researehes which Mr. Albert made years ago many of these pages could not be written. He was the au- thor of Volume I of "Frontier Forts of Penn- sylvania," and of the historieal part of the "History of Westmoreland County."
In 1898 he was afflieted with a cancer and soon sueeumbed to the ravages of the dread disease. He died in October and was buried near Latrobe.
John M. Peoples was born in West Fair- field, Westmoreland eounty, in 1849, was the son of William and Margaret Moorhead Peo- ples. Attending eollege at Wooster, Ohio, he was graduated in 1875. He then entered the Albany Law school and was graduated there in 1877 and eame to Greensburg to read law with Mr. D. S. Atkinson. He was admitted to the bar in 1878. During his law reading and for some years after he was ad- mitted to the bar he served as eourt stenog- rapher under both Judge Logan and Judge Hunter. Later he formed a partnership with D. S. Atkinson, and after that gave his entire time to his profession. In this he was indeed very successful. No elient ever suf- fered from want of attention on his part. He was not an advocate, but could talk very well to a court and to a jury when necessary. Hle was for many years one of the owners of the Tribune-Iferald, a leading paper of the county.
He was married in 1887 to Miss Rebecca Doty, a sister of Judge Doty, and soon took up his residenee in an apparently typieal Southern home of colonial style east of Greensburg, built in the early years of last eentury by Gen. William Jaek. He did not live to fill out the span of life aeeorded to man by the Psalmist, but died in July, 1901.
Jacob R. Spiegel was born near Stuttgart,
Germany, in 1847. After having graduated from a college in Ohio he became a teacher and principal of the Greensburg schools, after which he was elected county superin- tendent of the schools of Westmoreland county, and was re-elected, filling the posi- tion from 1878 until 1884. After retiring from this offiee he engaged in business for some time and afterwards read law and was admitted to the bar, and immediately began to praetiee.
He was energetie and industrious in his professional life, and as he had a large ae- quaintanee throughout the county, he soon assisted in gathering for the firm, Spiegel & McGeary, a large elientage. Conneeted as he had been with the schools and the sehool system of Pennsylvania, he always took an aetive part in educational matters, and in this line he aecomplished a great deal of good. In 1900 he was the candidate of his party for representative in Congress from this distriet, but the distriet being over- whehningly Republiean, he was not eleeted.
Early in the year of 1902 he was taken siek, and though he struggled manfully and bore up resolutely under his affliction, he was unable to reeover and died on January 3, 1903.
THE BENCH AND BAR OF THE PRES- ENT.
Judge Lucien W. Doty is by birth a native of Juniata county, Pennsylvania, having been born in Mifflintown. He was a son of Edwin S. Doty, who was a lawyer of great prominence in his day, and gave his son, and indeed all of his children, a superior educa- tion.
The subject of this sketeh was graduated from Lafayette college, after which he read law with his father in Juniata eounty, and there began to practice. He came to West- moreland eounty in 1881 and engaged in the general praetiee of the law. He was a eare-
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ful, painstaking lawyer, able as well before a jury or the court as he was in the more laborious duties of an office lawyer. So rap- idly did the young man come to the front that in eight years after arriving in West- moreland county an entire stranger, he sought the office of judgeship and won the nomination over several able opponents, all of whom were men of well-known ability and lifelong citizens of Westmoreland county.
In the fall of 1889 he was elected by a large majority and went on the bench on the first Monday of January, 1890. He found the task before him not by any means an inviting one, for, owing to the bad health of his predecessor, the courts were so far be- hind in the trial of cases that the necessary delay almost amounted to a denial of justice to litigants. He was able, however, to form- ulate'and introduce many new rules which, in a great measure, systematized and im- proved the legal business of the county. By much labor and by his acknowledged expc- dition, he disposed of hundreds of cases each year for the following six years. It will be remembered too that during this time he was the only judge of all the courts of Westmore- land county, with a population verging onto 150,000, whereas we have now three judges to perform the same labors with certainly much less than a corresponding increase in the court business. His ability to dispatch business was a potent feature in the contest in 1899, when he was a candidate for re- election. Although the county was then strongly Republican, he was elected by a majority of 172 over his opponent.
Judge Doty has an acute legal mind, and an ability to grasp with an unerring certain- ty the controlling points of a case. We doubt if there is a judge in Pennsylvania who is able to try, and try thoroughly, more cases in a given length of time than he. Older law- vers than he have sat on the bench in West- moreland county, he being one of the young- est, but no one, we are confident, has ever
given more general satisfaction than Judge Doty.
Judge Alexander D. McConnell was the son of D. K. McConnell and was born in Loyalhanna township, Westmoreland coun- ty, Pa., on March 10, 1850. Very early in his life, Judge McConnell became a school teacher, later he was educated in Washing- ton and Jefferson college, after which he taught school in Westmoreland county and was principal of the Greensburg high school in 1875-76, which position he relinquished to begin the study of the law with James A. Hunter. He was a most efficient and popu- lar high school principal.
He was admitted to the bar in August, 1877. He had no taste for court trials, but very early in his practice showed a great ability for office business, for the preparation of papers and the working out of abstruse legal questions. In 1889 he was the candi- date of the Republican party for judge, hav- ing won the nomination by a large majority over Judge Hunter, who was then on the bench. He was unsuccessful at the fall elec- tion, the county going Democratic that year and the whole ticket being defeated.
In 1895 the Legislature in the general ap- portionment bill, provided for an additional law judge for Westmoreland county. So great was Judge McConnell's reputation by this time as a painstaking, hard-working lawyer, that there were scarcely two opin- ions in the bar as to who should receive the appointment. A petition was presented to Governor Daniel H. Hastings asking for his appointment, which was signed by nearly every member of the bar, without respect to political belief. Governor Hastings ap- pointed him and he assumed the duties of the office in June of that year, and has since shown in the conduct of the business the same industry, integrity and ability which he displayed while a practicing lawyer, to the great satisfaction of the people in general in Westmoreland county.
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WESTMORELAND COUNTY
IIe has all his life been a close student, not only of the law, but literature, science, po- etry and philosophy, and in these branches as well as in his professional attainments, it is safe to say that he has no superior at the bar, In 1902 Westminster college conferred upon him the degree doctor of laws (LL. D.), an honor which we believe has, in the last century, been conferred upon no other mnem- ber of the bar except upon Justice Coulter, Edgar Cowan and H. P. Laird; and those who know Judge McConnell best and can appreci- ate his intellectual attainments, believe be- vond a doubt, that he highly merited the honor. It is, moreover, the accepted opinion among all lawyers conversant with his judicial temperament, his thorough knowl- edge of the law and the principles underly- ing it, that he is well fitted to fill any judicial position in Pennsylvania.
Judge John B. Steel is the eldest son of William Steel "of Hannastown" and Sarah Jane (Brown) Steel, grandson of John Steel and Martha (Walker) Steel and great-grand- son of James Steel and Elizabeth (Donnel- son) Steel. James Steel left his home, near Castle Blaney and Carrick Macross, in Coun- tv Monahan, northern Ireland, after the Steelboy insurrection, about 1772, and set- tled in Westmoreland county, Pa., about the time of the formation of the county. He bought from the Penns the land in the Manor of Sewickley, Mount Pleasant township, which is still in the family, being owned by his descendant, Joseph W. Steel. On March 29, 1778, before Hugh L. Martin, Esq., he took the oath of allegiance required of all foreign-born subjects. He was in the Revo- Intionary war and saw service in the Jerseys, where his two brothers-in-law, Robert and Andrew Donnelson, were killed. He was also a member of the Mount Pleasant Asso- ciators, the company formed for the defense of this western country during the Revoh- tion.
In 1826 John Steel, son of James Steel, 10
purchased the lands once owned by Robert Hanna, on which was located the historic Hannastown.
Sarah Jane (Brown) Steel, the mother of John B. Steel, is a daughter of Thomas Oliver Brown and Nancy (Beattie) Brown, and a granddaughter of David Brown and Mar- garet Oliver Brown (whose mother was Mar- garet Erskine of the house of Erskine, Scot- land), and a great-granddaughter of Mat- thew Brown of County Donegal, Ireland. Nancy Beattie Brown, the maternal grand- mother of John B. Steel, came with her parents from Knockbracken, near Belfast, Ireland, being a danghter of Robert Beattie and Martha (Welsh) Beattie and a grand- daughter of William Beattie of Knock- bracken.
Matthew Brown, the seventh grand an- cestor of the subject of this sketch, was with the Rev. George Walker, "The Fighting Par- son," at the battle of the Boyne, and the sword used by him in that engagement is still in the possession of the Brown family. The fourth grand ancestor, David Brown, came from near Londonderry, in County Donegal, Ireland, and settled in Franklin county about 1774. He afterwards brought over his father and mother, Matthew Brown and wife, and the other members of the fan- ily. They came across the Atlantic to Phil- adelphia in the same ship with the Revs. Dob- bins and Lynn, two seceder ministers who started one of the first theological schools in Gettysburg, Pa., and afterwards in Ohio.
Matthew Brown is buried in Greencastle, Franklin county, Pa. Two of his sons went to Armstrong county, and his son David eventually settled on the White Thorn creek below New Alexandria, Pa., in 1802, on land now owned by his descendant, John Oliver Brown, and is buried in the Covenanter graveyard at New Alexandria.
When, in 1901, the county had grown to exceed the limit fixed by the law at which it should be entitled to separate orphans'
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court, a bill was passed for that purpose by the Legislature, and John B. Steel was ap- pointed president judge of the new court on April 26 of that year.
Judge Steel was born on his father's farm on February 17, 1861, and attended the pub- lic schools in his youth. In 1885 he was graduated at Geneva college, and then be- gan reading law with James A. Hunter, being admitted to the bar in 1888. In November following his appointment he was elected for the term of ten years. Before he went on the bench Judge Steel had a large clientage, and in addition gave considerable attention to coal business, banking, etc.
Much more might be written of each of the above living judges, but we are very much mistaken if they do not all prefer to be known by their work on the bench, rather than by anything that can be written here.
General Richard Coulter .- Most of the members of the bar and of our people gen- crally of the present day know General Coulter as a successful banker, coal operator and business man, but many years ago he won his laurels in the legal profession. He was born October 1, 1827, being a son of Eli and Rebecca (Alexander) Coulter, and a nephew of Justice Coulter, who has elsewhere been considered. He was educated at Jef- ferson college and admitted to the bar in 1849. Before this he had been in the Mex- ican war as a member of the Westmoreland Guards, Company E, Second Regiment, Penn- sylvania Volunteers, organized in Greens- burg. Shortly before his admission, his uncle had been appointed to a position on the supreme bench and left a large practice. The nephew began business in the office va- cated. took charge of his uncle's affairs and succeeded to a very respectable part of his clientage. For twelve years he devoted his time entirely to the practice of the law, and was successful in all the branches of the pro- fession, being predisposed to corporation business.
In April, 1861, he responded to the call of President Lincoln and in the three months' enlistment became lieutenant colonel of the Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteers. At the expiration of this term, the regiment re- entered the service, Coulter being promoted to colonel, and remained in the field until the close of the war.
He was severely wounded in the battles of Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and Spottsyl- vania. In August, 1864, he was appointed a brigadier general and assumed command accordingly. In his commission, which is signed by Abraham Lincoln, it is set forth that he was brevetted on account of "gal- lant conduct in the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania Courthouse." Another commission is from Andrew Johnston and brevets him to the rank of major general "for gallant conduct in the battles of Five Forks. Va., in an energetic assault of the cnemy in the Ford Road."
After the closc of the war he returned to Greensburg and did not resume the practice of the law, but engaged in general business and the management of his estate. Since 1874 he has been engaged extensively in the coal and banking business, being president of the First National Bank of Greensburg Pa., and at this time few men of the state are more largely interested in corporations than he. He is one of the principal stockholders in the Keystone Coal & Coke company, which is among the largest producers of bituminous coal in the United States.
His knowledge of the law has been a great advantage to him in the formation and man- agement of corporations with which he has been connected, and he has always been re- garded as a high authority on the law relat- ing to that subject. Richard Coulter, Jr .. one of the younger members of the West- moreland bar, is his son.
John Latta was born in Unity township, Westinoreland county. Pa .. on March 2. 1836. He received, in early life, an education at El-
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