The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume I, Part 42

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

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In 1849 Mr. Buckalew married Miss Per- melia Wadsworth, who survives him, and by whom he was the father of a son, now de- ceased, and a daughter, the wife of Levi E. Waller, Esq. Mr. Buckalew died in Blooms- burg, May 19, 1899.

John G. Montgomery belonged to the large and influential family of that name which settled on Mahoning creek on the north bank of Susquehanna river, where the borough of Danville now stands, in about 1774. After having been admitted to the bar he opened an office in that place, and was prosecutor of the pleas for Columbia county for several years. He was a large and handsome gen- tleman, of great ability and sound learning. In 1855 he was elected a member of the Legislature of the state, where he greatly distinguished himself, and in 1856 was elected a member of the Thirty-fifth Con- gress. He attended the inauguration cere- monies attendant on Mr. Buchanan assum- ing the office of president, and was stricken with the mysterious National Hotel disease, and died at his home in Danville, Pa., April 24, 1857, aged fifty-two years. In point of actual ability, of sound legal learning and of eloquence of speech, he was second to no

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a. Senator for the district composed of the connties of Northumberland Montour, Co- lumbia and Stiivan. In 1872 he was the nominee of the Democratic party for the office of governor of the state but was not elected. At the same clection Colonel Freeze was chosen a member of the convention to reform the constitution of the state, and upon the defeat of Mr. Buckalew for gov- ernor. promptly tendered to him the seat do which he had been chosen in the convention. Accordingly, on the third day of the sitting of the convention, Colonel Freeze offered his resignation to that body, and on the ne .. t day, November 15th, Mr. Buckalew was selected to fill the vacancy and served dur- ing the sitting. In the same fall of 1872. Mr. Buckalew published a work on "Propor- tional Representation," which was edited by Colonel Freeze, and issued by John Cam - bell & Son, Philadelphia.

In March, 1876, at the Democratic conven- tion, at Lancaster. Pa., Mr. Buckalew was, by acclamation, nominated to head ti. Democratic electoral ticket of the state at the ensuing presidential election.

During his term in the Senate of the United States, Mr. Buckalew, in addition to his ordinary legislative duties, on the lot of March, 1864, submitted to the Sonate a "Minority Report on the Repeal of the Fugi- tive Slave Acts," Mr. Sumner submitting the report of the majority, On the 20th of February, 1865, he submitted an elaborate report on the subject of lighting, heating and ventilating the halls of Congress. On the 21st of February, 1865, he delivered his celebrated speech on "Representation in Congress." On the 15th of January. 1867, he addressed the Senate "On the Executi e power to make removals from office"; : n July 11th "On Reconstruction"; and on the same day on "Cumulative Voting"; on Jan- uary 29th, 1868, on the subject of "Recon- struction"; on the 26th of March, on "The McArdle Case :- Jurisdiction of the Supreme

Court"; on the 3rd of March, 1869, he sub mitted a . "Report on Representative He form", and on the close of the proceedinin. an "Opinion on the Impeachment of An drew Johnson. "

After the adjournment of the Constit. tional convention Mr. Buckalew pra ticed law in Bloomsburg and engaged n leisure times in the preparation of a won on the Constitution of Pennsylvania. Th book, published in 1883, shows more th bent of Mr. Buckalew's mind and his ability as a constitutional lawyer than any other of his works. It is regarded and quoted as au- thority on all questions discussed therein, and is exhaustive in its reference to judicial decisions and the construction of legal terins and phrases contained in that instrument.

In 1849 Mr. Buckalew married Miss Per- melia Wadsworth, who survives him, and by whom he was the father of a son, now do- peased, and a danghter. the wife of Levi E. Waller, Esq. Mr. Bnekalew died in Blooms- burg, May 19, 1899.

John G. Montgomery belonged to the large and influential family of that name which settled on Mahoning creek on the north bank of Susquehanna river, where the borongh of Danville now stands, in abont 1774. After having been admitted to the bar he opened. an office in that place, and was prosecutor of the pleas for Columbia county for several years. He was a large and handsome gen- tleman, of great ability and sound learning. In 1855 he was elected a member of the Legislature of the state, where he greatly distinguished himself, and in 1856 was elected a member of the Thirty-fifth Con- gress. He attended the inauguration cere- monies attendant on Mr. Buchanan assim- ing the office of president, and was stricken with the mysterious National Hotel disease. and died at his home in Danville, Pa .. April 24. 1857. aged fifty-two years. In point of actual ability, of sound legal learning and. of wioquence of speech, he was second to no

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man at the bar, and his death was a positive loss to the public in the great career just opening before him. Mr. Montgomery mar- ried a daughter of John Cooper, Esq., by whom he had one son and several daughters.

Benneville Keim Rhodes was a son of John Rhodes, a popular and influential citizen of Danville, and who held the office of high sheriff of the county for three years, from October 22, 1825. Mr. Rhodes was born in 1813 and after engaging in several employ- ments, began the study of the law in the of- fiec of John Cooper, Esq., and was in due time admitted to practice. He followed his profession regularly until the time of his death, but being an ardent Democrat he took part in all political contests and in 1872 was the Democratic candidate for Congress against Dr. Strawbridge, but was not elect -. ed. Mr. Rhodes married Helen, a daughter of Dr. David Petrikin, a distinguished citi- zen of the county, who had represented the district in Congress from 1837 to 1841, and died January 3, 1849. Mr. Rhodes survived his wife, who left no children, and died July 11, 1891.

George A. Frick was born December 26, 1786, and died June 9, 1872. He was, on the paternal side, pure German and on his moth- er's side, pure Dutch. His grandfather, Con- rad Frick, emigrated to this country from Heidelburg in 1732, landed in Philadelphia and settled in Germantown, whence the father of George A. removed to Lancaster, where he was born. Somewhere in the 1790's his father removed to Northumberland Pa. George had no early advantages of edu- cation, but being ambitious, devoted himself to the studying of such elementary books as he could find, and to these studies he gave all the spare time of day and night. Ilis father became recorder of Northumberland county and George became the clerk or as- sistant in his father's office at Sunbury. While thus employed he entered upon the study of law under the preceptorship of

IIngh Bellas, then a prominent lawyer in Sunbury, and was admitted to practice.

On the organization of Columbia county, March 22, 1813, Governor Snyder appointed him prothonotary of the said county, in which office he continued, under several ap- pointments, until 1821. Upon retiring from that position he opened an office in Danville and entered upon a successful and lucrative practice of the law, which he continued un- til 1851, when upon the organization of the Danville bank he was ehosen cashier. Mr. Frick was considered the best real estate lawyer of his time at the bar of Columbia county.

Mr. Frick married Eleanor Hurley, a daughter of Daniel Ilurley of Sunbury, a sis- ter of William Gray Hurley, Esq., late of Bloomsburg. The Hon. Alexander Jordan married a sister of Mrs. Frick. Mr. Frick left a considerable family ; two of his sons were members of the bar and one a physi- cian. The family were members and sup- porters of the Episcopal church.

Edward H. Baldy was a son of Peter Baldy and Sarah Baldy, and was born in Danville, then Columbia county, April 1, 1821. He was a graduate of Princeton col- lege, and became a student at law in the of- fiee of Joshua W. Comly, Esq., and was ad- mitted to the bar on the 18th day of April, 1842. Ile retired from active practice No- vember 1, 1884, and died November 15, 1891 ; leaving to survive him, Mary B., who sur- vived her husband, Peter Grove; Kate G., who survived her husband, Charles Watson, Jr., of Philadelphia, Pa .: William J. Baldy. Sarah B., wife of Dr. J. H. Jennings; Dr. 3. M. Baldy, of Philadelphia, Pa .: Alice M. B. Hartman, wife of Paul Hartman, of Paris. France, and Henrietta E. Baldy. His oldest son, Edward H. Baldy, Jr., was a member of the bar and died in 1876. At the time of his death he was assistant district attorney un- der William B. Man, Esq., at Philadelphia.

Edward H. Baldy was elected president of

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the Danville National Bank, April 18, 1865, succeeding his father, Peter Baldy, who had been president from its organization to the time of his death; and Edward H., the sub- ject of this sketch, was succeeded in the presidency by his son, William J. Baldy, Esq., also a member of the bar-making the singular fact of three generations succeed- ing to the same post, in the same financial institution.

Mr. Baldy was an ideal lawyer-well read, cool, calm, clear-headed, with a positive genius for extracting the truth from an un- willing witness, and for impressing his own views upon a jury. He was generally spoken of as being the best case lawyer at the bar.

Joshua Wright Comly was the son of Charles and Sarah Wright Comly, and was born at Philadelphia, November 16, 1810, and died at the Montour House, Danville, Montour county, Pennsylvania, on Friday, February 13, 1897, and was buried at Mil- ton. Northumberland county. He was a de- scendant of Henry and Joan Comly, who came to Pennsylvania with William Penn. His family was of the Quaker faith, in which he also was reared. In 1820 his father re- moved to Milton, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, where he received such edu- cation as the schools of the town afforded, and from private tutors, and subsequently took a course at Princeton college.

In 1827 he began the study of the law at Milton in the office of Samuel Hepburn, Esq., and three years later was admitted to the bar of Northumberland county. After a short time he opened an office at Orwigs- burg, Schuylkill county, whence after a few years he removed to Danville, Columbia county, where he remained during his life. Mr. Comly was never married.

Mr. Comly was on several occasions of- fered the judgeship of the Common Pleas of surrounding districts, but uniformly de- clined the honor. In 1851 he was the Whig candidate for judge of the Supreme Court

of the state, but was not elected. He retired from practice in 1882, having been in active professional life a little over fifty years. During these years there are few names which appear oftener than his in the Re- ports, and it would be an interesting study to go through them and name some cases familiar to the Pennsylvania lawyer-nota- bly Hole vs. Rittenhouse, to be found in 19 Pa. 305; 25 Pa. 491, and Judge Black's dis- senting opinion found in 2 Phila., Appen- dix 411; and on down to the Cameron will case, known as Harrison's Appeal, 100 Pa. 458, 1882. In the case of Hess vs. Doty, tried before Judge Anthony, this incident occurred : The case turned on the doctrine of Clow vs. Woods, 5 S. & R., 275, and was tried originally before arbitrators, Hurley for plaintiff, Freeze for defendant, and upon appeal was tried by Hurley and Pleas- ants for the plaintiff, and Freeze and Comly for defendant. Mr. Hurley put in his case with his usual care and caution, and on say- ing to the court, "Plaintiff rests," the judge leaned over the bench and said, "Mr. Hur- ley, you have no case," whereupon Mr. Hur- ley got upon his feet and began an argument with the judge upon the case which grew quite warm. Mr. Freeze, fearing that Mr. Hurley might convince the judge that he had a case, began to fidget on his chair, and was preparing to rise and take a part in the fray, when Mr. Comly, perceiving the mo- tion, laid a heavy hand on his young asso- ciate, and whispered, "My God ! John, never help the judge!" John didn't, and in a few minutes more the judge had Mr. Hurley beaten and out of court. It was never for- gotten; and on the occasion of the last din- ner which Mr. Comly gave to his legal friends, the incident was related by his as- sociate, to the great amusement and ap- plause of the judges and lawyers at the so- .cial board.

Mr. Comly was a man of the highest per- sonal and professional integrity and honor;

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he was a great lawyer, he troubled himself very little with or about briefs, or eases, he went down to first principles and brought thence the law which lay behind the eases, decisions and reports, and his deduetions were as clear as spring water and as fresh. He was a seholar as well as a lawyer, and read with ease the French classics, as well as the Latin and Greek; his library was se- leet as well as extensive, and was gathered for use and not for show. His name is spoken with reverence and his memory will long remain among the juniors as that of the model lawyer, the aeeomplished scholar and the genial gentleman.

Robert Finney Clark was the son of John Clark and Margaret Maxwell, and was born in 1821, September 23d. He received an academic education and graduated from Princeton eollege. He was for several years private tutor to Donald Cameron, son of Gen. Simon Cameron. He read law in the office of Joshua W. Comly, Esq., and was ad- mitted to the bar of Columbia county in 1847. He opened an office in Bloomsburg and soon eommanded a large practice. Ile brought to the practice of his profession a mind, well stored with literature and law and during his professional life stood in the front rank of the bar of his county. Mr. Clark married Miss Martha Hurley Frick, daughter of George A. Frick, Esq., who sur- vived him and by whom he left a large fam- ily. One son, John Moore Clark, read law in the office of John G. Freeze, Esq., and was eleeted district attorney of the county and held that office during the trial of the second set of the notorious "Mollie Maguires." Mr. Clark was a gentleman of most pleasing manners and address, both at the bar and in social life. He was a candidate for Congress on the Demoeratie tieket in 1862, but was not elected. He died in Bloomsburg, Sep- tember 20, 1876.

William Gray Hurley was the son of Dan- iel Hurley and Martha Reed Hurley, of Sun-

bury, Northumberland county, Pennsyl- vania, who were married Mareh 23, 1785. They left a family of eight children, of whom William G., born in Sunbury in 1799, was the youngest. He had few educational ad- vantages, but he made the best use of those which he had and fitted himself largely to undertake the study of the law. IIe beeame a student and was soon after admitted to the bar. He settled in Bloomsburg, in Co- lumbia county, and soon acquired an exten- sive business, which often brought him be- fore the eriminal and eivil juries; but the great bulk of his professional work was in the Orphans' Court and the settlement of estates. In this branch of the law he was well versed, and retained the confidenee of his elients to the very last. Mr. Hurley was an ardent Whig in those early days and was the eandidate of his party for Congress in 1838, but was not eleeted-a candidate for the Senate in 1847 and was not eleeted-and was a candidate for representative in 1854 with equal ill success. Indeed, his eandi- daey was more for the purpose of keeping up an organization than with the expecta- tion of an election. Mr. Hurley was never married. He died in Bloomsburg on Deeem- ber 2, 1869, and was buried in Sunbury, the place of his birth.

John Gosse Freeze. The family from whom the subject of this sketeh descended immigrated from the Low Countries and set- tled in New Jersey long before the Revolu- tionary war, and his grandfather, Peter Freeze, was a soldier in the Jersey line throughout that struggle. After the elose of the war he eame to Pennsylvania and set- tled at Tuckahoe, in what is now Northum- berland eounty. His father, James Freeze, was born December 31, 1798. He married Frances, a daughter of John Gosse, in April 1823, of which marriage there were born eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the eldest. John Gosse Freeze was born November 4, 1825, at the mouth of Loyal

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Sock creek, in what is now Lycoming county. He received a common school and academic education, and began teaching school while yet under seventeen years of age. In 1846 he entered the office of Joshua W. Comly in Danville, as a student-at-law, and was ad- mitted to the bar of Columbia county April 19, 1848, on the certificate of William G. Hurley, Edward H. Baldy and Charles R. Buekalew. He opened an office in Blooms- burg and continued in the practice of the law there until the present time, 1902.

In 1854 Mr. Freeze married Miss Marga- ret Hutchison Walker, a daughter of Robert Walker and Sarah Hutchison, being a de- scendant on both sides of the Rt. Rev. George Walker of Londonderry. By his marriage he was the father of five ehildren- Kate, who died in infancy ; Maude, who died at the age of twenty-four years; and Hope, Helen and Boyd, who died in childhood.

In 1863 he was elected register and re- corder of Columbia county, and re-elected in 1866. In 1872 he was elected a member of the convention to revise the constitution of Pennsylvania. but resigned after a brief service in favor of Hon. Charles R. Bucka- lew, who was then elected by the convention in his stead. Mr. Freeze has been a vestry- man and senior warden of St. Paul's parish, Bloomsburg, for many years, and is still re- tained in those offiees. He was for several years a member of the standing committee of the diocese of Central Pennsylvania, and in 1884 was elected chancellor, which posi- tion he still oecupies. He has been for many years a trustee of the State Normal school at Bloomsburg; president of the board of man- agers of the Rosemont cemetery company ; president of the Columbia eounty bar asso- eiation, and member of the Pennsylvania bar association; and was president of the Bloomsburg Banking company.

Colonel Freeze has been an editor and newspaper publisher, is the author of a num- ber of pamphlets on literary, theological

and historical subjects: is the author of a volume entitled, "A Royal Pastoral and Other Poems," and of a "History of Colum- bia County" and editor of a work on "Pro- portional Representation," written by Hon. Charles R. Buckalew. He has been contin- uously in the practice of his profession in Bloomsburg, in Columbia county, and in counties adjoining, since 1848, and is the only surviving member of the senior bar. Not a judge, president or associate, nor other member of the bar, admitted previously to the erection of Montour county in 1850, is now living; and he was personally acquaint- ed with every member of the bar with one exeeption.

During his professional life, Colonel Freeze has been concerned in nearly all the ejectments on original titles tried in his county-Goodman vs. Sanger, Longenberger vs. McReynolds, and others of like nature, and in most of the trials for homicide during the same period, the most notable of these latter being the notorious and sensational "Mollie Maguire" cases. They grew out of the troubles in the anthracite coal regions of Sehuylkill, Northumberland and Columbia counties in 1869, and culminated in the mur- der of Alexander W. Rea, a superintendent and paymaster in Columbia eounty. There were ten men implicated, some of whom es- eaped from the country and were never ar- rested. But in 1869, John Duffy, Thomas Donohue, Michael Prior and Patrick Hester were arrested and indicted. The defendants were represented by John W. Ryon, of Schuylkill; Simon P. Wolverton, of North- umberland: John G. Freeze, of Columbia, and Brockway & Elwell. Duffy, Donohue and Prior were acquitted, and as to Hester a nolle prosequi was taken. In 1877, eight years after the first trials, Hester was again arrested with Peter McHugh and Patrick Tully and were indieted and tried for the same murder. The commonwealth was rep- resented by District Attorney Clark, C. R.

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Buckalew and F. W. Hughes and F. B. Gowen: the defendants by John W. Ryon, S. P. Wolverton, John G. Freeze and Brock- way & Elwell. The trial occupied three weeks, and the prisoners were found guilty. The ease went to the Supreme Court and is reported in 85 Pa. 139; it was heard before the Board of Pardons and a recommendation refused. The case was argued before each one of the three tribunals, for the prisoners by S. P. Wolverton and John G. Freeze. The Paper Book, entirely the work of Mr. Wol- verton, made, with the appendix, a volume of over one thousand pages. Both sets of eases were tried before Elwell, president judge, and the opinion of the Supreme Court was delivered by Hon. Warren J. Wood- ward, his predecessor in the Common Pleas.

Columbia eounty was ereeted out of part of Northumberland, by an Aet of Assembly of March 22, 1813, P L 146, and was to be organized after the first of September fol- lowing. The county was declared to belong to the Eighth judicial distriet, composed of the counties of Northumberland, Union and Lyeoming. By virtue of that designation Hlon. Seth Chapman, who had been appoint- ed to the Northumberland distriet, July 11, 1811, beeame the first president judge of Columbia county, and held his first eourt for the county, at Danville, in January, 1814.

Seth Chapman was the son of Dr. John Chapman, and was born in Wrightstown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, January 23, 1771, and was a lineal descendant of the first settler, Jolın Chapman, of Bucks eounty, who eame from Yorkshire, England, about the year 1684. He was of the Society of Friends. He was admitted to the bar at Nor- ristown in September, 1791. After his ap- pointment to the bench of the Northumber- land distriet, he removed to Northumber- land, where he resided until his death in De- cember. 1835. He resigned his office of judge October 10, 1833. Judge Chapman had an

able and brilliant bar before him, notably Thomas Dunean and Charles Huston, who were afterwards of the Supreme Court; David Watts, of the Common Pleas; Charles Hall, Ebenezer Greenough and Hugh Bellas. He was not, perhaps, the equal of these men, but was nevertheless a sound lawyer and conservative judge. No traditions of his eourt or character have eome down to us.

Hon. Ellis Lewis succeeded Judge Chap- man. He was born May 16, 1798, in Lewis- burg, a town named in honor of his father, Eli Lewis. (See sketch in Lyeoming county.)

Judge Donnel was the son of Henry and . Margaret Donnel and was born March 14, 1801. He succeeded Judge Lewis. (See sketch in Lyeoming county.)

Joseph Biles Anthony was born in the eity of Philadelphia, on the 19th of June, 1795. (See sketeh in Lycoming eounty.)

Hon. James Pollock was then appointed to fill vacaney occasioned by the demise of Judge Anthony. (See sketeh in Union eounty.)

John Nesbitt Conyngham was born in the city of Philadelphia, Deeember 17, 1798, and graduated with high honor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1816. He studied law in the office of Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll, and on his admission to the bar eame to Wilkes- barre in 1820. He married Miss Butler, a granddaughter of Colonel Butler of Revo- lutionary fame. In 1839 he went upon the bench of the district in which he resided. Judge Conyngham came upon the bench of Columbia county under a commission dated 5th November, 1851, and remained there un- til the formation of the Twenty-sixth dis- trict, composed of the counties of Columbia. Sullivan and Lycoming, thereby separating Columbia from his original district. He re- mained on the bench in Inzerne county un- til 1870, when he resigned. In politics he was a firm and consistent Democrat and his voice and influence were always on the side of his eountry.

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Under the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Clax- ton, Judge Conyngham received the rite of confirmation in St. Stephen's church in Wilkesbarre, at the hands of Bishop H. A. Onderdonk, in the year 1841, and during a long life he adorned himself with all the Christian virtues. He was a vestryman in St. Stephen's from Easter, 1821, until his death, a period of almost fifty years. He was eleeted to the diocesan convention for the first time in 1826, and in 1850 he was elected a deputy to the general convention of the -church and re-elected to every subsequent one, except one. In 1862 he was a member of the committee on eanons, with Judge Chambers of Maryland, Murray Hoffman of New York and Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts. In October he was elected president of the American Chureh Mission- ary Society. Judge Conyngham's judgment was sound and eminently conservative. He was not a radieal, cither in law, politics or theology. He was a polished gentleman, a thorough lawyer, an upright judge, an hum- ble Christian. He died at Magnolia, in Mississippi, on Thursday, April 23, 1871, by an accident at a railroad station. The cir- eumstances will no doubt be fully detailed in another place, and will not be added here. Judge Conyngham left a widow and four sons and two daughters.

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The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume I, Part 42

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