USA > Pennsylvania > The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume I > Part 6
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Capt. Joseph G. Vale, admitted first to Dauphin county bar and to this bar in April, 1871. Served as captain in the Civil war.
Thomas E. Vale, born January 16, 1866; graduated from Dickinson college in class of 1887; read law with his father, Joseph G. Vale; admitted in September, 1891. Was elected district attorney in November, 1901, which office he now fills.
J. E. Walters, born April 26, 1869; edu- cated at Shippensburg state normal, class of 1891; read law in office of Stuart & Stuart. Admitted in September, 1896.
Col. Edward B. Watts, born at Carlisle, September 13, 1851; was graduated from Trinity college, Hartford, Conn., in 1873; read law with John Hays, Esq., and admitted August, 1875.
Hon. J. Marion Weakley, born in Cumber- land county in 1839; read law with William
H. Miller, Esq .; admitted April, 1861. Was assistant secretary of the commonwealth, 1874; member of State Senate in 1871-72.
John W. Wetzel, born at Carlisle, April 20, 1850; graduated from Dickinson college in 1874; read law with Charles E. Maglaughlin, Esq., and was admitted in April, 1874. Was district attorney in 1883.
Richard W. Woods, born March 21, 1862; read law with John Hays, Esq., and was ad- mitted in 1888.
At Boiling Springs, there is :
Charles W. Webbert, graduated from Dickinson School of Law in 1892, and ad- mitted September of same year.
In Mechanicsburg, there are:
Hon. William Penn Lloyd, born September 21, 1837; read law under William M. Pen- rose, Esq., and admitted in April, 1865. Was elected to State Senate.
H. H. Mercer, admitted April, 1883, hav- ing been previously admitted to the bar of Union county, Pennsylvania.
John L. Shelley, born December 25, 1846; graduated from Dickinson college, 1871; read law with Hon. W. F. Sadler, Esq., and admitted August, 1875.
Hon. James L. Young, admitted Septem- ber, 1891. Ex-member of State Legislature. Henry M. Zug, admitted in 1879.
Miss Ida G. Kast, first and only lady ad- mitted to the Cumberland county bar, read law with Hon. Wm. Penn Lloyd; admitted in 1896.
J. S. Omwake is located in Shippensburg. He was admitted to the bar in 1896.
Quinn T. Mickey, of Shippensburg, son of Robert and Elizabeth (Mccullough) Mickey, was born at Oakville, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, April 7, 1866. Mr. Mickey first attended the public schools, then the normal school at Shippensburg, and gradu- ated from the Lafayette college at Easton in the class of 1890. After his graduation he went to Carlisle, where he entered as a stu- dent of the law in the office of A. Brady
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CUMBERLAND COUNTY
Sharpe, Esq. Later he studied in the office of Hon. R. M. Henderson, also of Carlisle, and finally graduated from the Dickinson Law School in the class of 1893. He imine- diately began practicing the law, which he continued in Carlisle for two years, remov- ing to Shippensburg in 1895. Mr. Mickey is a Republican in politics. He was elected chief burgess of Shippensburg in 1900, where he now carries on a thriving general practice of the law.
In Newville, there are:
Hon. Robert McCachran, born October 6, 1835; graduated from Lafayette college in 1854; read law with Hon. Frederick Watts; admitted August, 1858. Member of State Legislature, 1878-80.
Thomas McCachran, admitted in 1889.
W. H. McCrea, admitted in same year.
In Shiremans town, there is :
S. S. Rupp, admitted in 1892. In New Cumberland, there are:
Alfred J. Feight, admitted in 1898.
Jacob H. Reiff, admitted in 1895.
42
TIIE BENCIL AND BAR OF PENNSYLVANIA
BERKS COUNTY
BY FREDERICK W. NICOLLS
In the middle of the eighteenth century the village of Reading, now a city of some hundred thousand inhabitants, was a little settlement of three hundred and seventy- eight souls living in one hundred and thirty dwellings, built along the banks of the Schuylkill and nestling among the foothills of the Blue Mountains, in a valley the quiet charm and picturesqueness of whose scenery has always made it attractive to newcomers and has kept its residents desirous of spend- their lives and ending their days within its precincts. The devastations of Louis the Fourteenth in the Palatinate drove from that region to the shores of the unknown world across the Atlantic a large number of Ger- mans, whose natural conservatism and love of their native land would have kept them at their old abodes and agricultural vocations, had not those homes been destroyed and those vocations been literally snatched away by the fire and sword sweeping over them at the command of an ambitious and un- scrupulous monarch. These mnen composed the substratum of the population which peopled what subsequently became Berks county, and it is said that the reason they settled in this vicinity was on account of its similarity in soil and scenery to that dear land beyond the sea which they had reluct- antly abandoned. There was also in the county a sprinkling of Swedes, and a some- what greater number of Welsh, who gave their names to a few townships. The Eng- lish, though far less numerous than the Ger- mans, also moved up the river into the vicin- ity of Reading, and were from the first
rather the dominant race, though the fact that most of them were Friends and during the Revolution generally of Tory tendency, made them for a period of lesser consequence in the history of the county. But while the population of Reading was so insignificant, that of the county in which that town was to become the county seat aggregated about seven thousand. On more than one occasion previous to their successful attempt, the scattered inhabitants of the region had peti- tioned the Colonial Legislature without avail to create a new county. At length, in 1752, a final petition was presented setting forth their grievances, among the principal of which were the distance of the inhabitants from the courts and the difficulty and ex- pense occasioned them by the most trivial law suits. The petition in part read as fol- lows. "That they were inhabitants of Read- ing-town upon the Schuylkill. That they had settled in the said town expecting that it would be a great place of trade and busi- ness, and had put themselves to vast expense in building and removing thither with their families. They humbly beg
leave further to represent that they are settled at a very great distance from the place of judicature, many of them not less than one hundred miles, which is a real hard- ship upon those who are so unhappy as to be sued for debts, their charges in long jour- neys, and sometimes in severe weather, with the officers' fees, amounting to near as much, if not more than the debts; that the hard- ships .on jurymen, constables, etc., in being obliged to attend when required, is also very
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great . it is very easy for rogues and others to escape justice by cross- ing the Schuylkill, which has already been their practice for some years." It seems that the above representations were what finally induced the Legislature to grant the prayer of the petitioners, and by Act of March 11, 1752, the new county of Berks was erected out of parts of Philadelphia, Lan- caster, and Chester. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was extended to the new county-county courts were established to sit in May, August, November, and Febru- ary, and Anthony Lee, Francis Parvin, Wil- liam Maugridge, William Bird and Joseph Millard (all of whom then were or after- wards became justices) were empowered to purchase a piece of land in some convenient place in Reading, in trust for the inhabi- tants of the county, and to erect thereon a court-house and prison, "sufficient to accom- modate the public service of the said county, and for the ease and conveniency of the in- habitants."
It would be not only impossible, but also highly uninteresting, to limit this article to a bare biography of every judge and law- ver who appeared in the courts of the county, and the attempt to put any sort of literary style or color into a production of this kind would be absolutely futile. Instead, there- fore, of dealing in short biographies of every- body, I will devote myself at somewhat greater length to a less number of names, picking out as much as possible those law- yers who have been regarded as representa- tive men, and, of course, those who were such necessarily by exercising the judicial function. In addition, I shall endeavor to discuss in passing some of the most impor- tant cases that have arisen in the county and to show some of the customs and practices prevalent among the legal fraternity. At the end, I shall append a complete list of all the lawyers who have practiced here, as a reference for their acquaintances or for the
historian and antiquary, and as a gratifica- tion to those of us who think :
" "Tis pleasure sure to see one's name in print,
A book's a book, although there's nothing in't !"
The first officials who presided over the courts of the newly-erected county were really more in the nature of justices of the peace than of full-fledged judges. Under the Act of May 22, 1722, the Provincial Gov- . ernor commissioned a competent number of persons to be justices of the county courts during good behavior, and, no exact num- ber being specified, there were more some years than others. The authority of these men was divided and their powers seem to have been about equal. There were seven appointed originally at the creation of Berks county, though this number rose as high as nine in some years and fell as low as four in others. The Act of 1722 contin- ued in force until 1776, when the Constitu- tion of that year went into effect; but this seems to have made no material change in the old system, for the justices still went on varying in number from year to year.
The following is the list of these judges from 1752 to 1790:
Conrad Weiser. William Reeser.
Francis Parvin. Jonathan Potts.
Anthony Lee. Baltzer Gehr.
Jonas Seely. Thomas Dunlap.
Henry Harvey.
Daniel Levan.
William Bird.
Valentine Eckert.
William Mangridge.
Moses Starr.
ยท John Ludwig. Peter Spyker.
James Boone. Joseph Millard.
Jacob Levan. Benjamin Lightfoot.
James Reed.
George Webb.
Sebastian Zimmerman. Thomas Rutter.
Nicholas Harmony. Jacob Morgan.
Mark Bird. James Diemer.
Daniel Brodhead.
John Patton.
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THE BENCHI AND BAR OF PENNSYLVANIA
George Douglass.
John Otto.
Henry Christ.
Matthias Reichert.
Charles Shoemaker.
Nicholas Hunter.
Paul Groscup.
Egedius Meyer.
John Eckert.
John Christ.
Jacob Weaver.
Conrad Weiser .- Though many of these justices were of considerable local celebrity, their prominence is not of that nature which would claim particular mention in the lim- ited space of this article. Conrad Weiser, however, was a character who has made a deep impression not only upon local, but even to some extent upon state history. His father was one of those Germans who fled from the Palatinate to escape the famine and devastation that followed the wake of the armies of Louis the Fourteenth, and who, after a brief sojourn in England, grate- fully accepted the bounty of Queen Anne in the gift of certain lands in New York. These homeless wanderers fixed their abode at a place called Schoharie in that state, where Conrad's father soon became the chief figure in the settlement. At the age of seventeen young Weiser went to live among the Maqua Indians and continued with them almost a year, during which time he acquired a com- plete mastery of the Indian tongue and an intimate familiarity with their character and habits, which in the future made him the natural ambassador between the provincial government and their savage neighbors. On account of some difficulties with the power- ful and rather tyrannical landed proprietors of New York, the Weisers and their German associates resumed their weary pilgrimage and at length set foot in Tulpehocken, Berks county, which seems to have been the prom- ised land after their long wanderings in the desert. Here Conrad Weiser lived and died -here, near the present town of Womels- dorf, he is buried in the plat of ground sur- rounding his old house, part of which still remains standing as a relic of colonial times.
Conrad Weiser soon became the niost prom- inent man in his little community. He was active in the proceedings which resulted in the erection of the county, was a justice of the peace and afterwards president judge, took a principal part in all local public af- fairs, had a widely known store on the prin- cipal street corner of Reading, and at the time of his death owned large tracts of land in the county. He was also a colonel in the colonial army during the French and Indian war, and, though scemingly not engaged in any important battles, he manifested de- cided discretion and ability in the manage- ment of the forts and minor military cam- paigns under his control, while his letters during this period are interesting and of con- siderable historical value. It was as an in- terpreter and Indian agent, however, that Conrad Weiser made his impression upon the history of the state. His capacity and integ- rity seem to have been recognized both by the government and by the Indians, and his intimate acquaintance with the life of the red men as well as with that of the whites, inspired both sides with complete confidence. He was soon called into the provincial coun- cils to give advice and do active service in Indian affairs, and continued in this posi- tion for upwards of thirty years, until he became superintendent of the Indian Bureau. During this time, in addition to various mis- sions in Pennsylvania, he was frequently sent to New York, as well as to Ohio and Virginia, and was called into consultation and persuaded to perform important duties of the same kind by the governors of these neighboring colonies. His influence among the Indians was simply wonderful, and it is another instance of the fact that the colonist who treated them with kindness and consid- eration and who made some effort to under- stand the peculiarities of their savage nature, could do far more with them, and that, too, with the expenditure of less blood and money, than those whose only principle was
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BERKS COUNTY
to erush them with the iron hand. There is a legend that Conrad Weiser married an In- dian and that this allianee was the cause of his unusual power over the red men. This story may have originated in the fact that his wife Eve is never known to have had any surname, and hence was regarded as a Christianized Indian. His biographer, C. Z. Weizer, scouts this tale, and explains it by stating that his wife was a German redenp- tioner, whose family reeords had been lost. There is a tendeney among loeal admirers to regard Conrad Weiser as a sort of John Smith or John Winthrop, whose national serviees have never been appreciated, be- cause the histories have been written by descendants of the Virginians or New Eng- landers. His biographer plaees him upon the pinnacle of fame, though, being a min- ister himself, Mr. Weiser finds it very diffi- cult to forgive Conrad's lapse from Luther- anism into a Seventh Day Baptism, which eaused him to lead "revivals" and to burn the Heidelberg Catechism with publie cere- miony; nor ean this gentleman entirely ap- prove of the cireumstanee that his hero died possessed of much land, which he is said to have acquired from the Indians, and disered- its the following story which he admits has been "perpetuated down to the day that now is." The Chief Shekallamy eame to Conrad and informed him of a glorious dream. "I dreamed," said the chief, "that Tarachawagon (Weiser) presented me with a rifle." Conrad, of course, gave the Indian a rifle, suspecting, perhaps, the authentieity of this dream, but keeping the circumstanee in mind. A few days later Weiser toid Shekallamy that he, too, had had a dream. "I dreamed," said he, "that Shekallamy presented me with the large and beautiful island nestled in the waters of the Susque- hannah." Not to be undone, the chief at once presented Conrad with his favorite is- land, but added, "Taraehawagon, let us never dream again!" In my own opinion,
Conrad Weiser, though worthy of a high position as a local, and, to a less extent, as a state, figure, has not made that impression upon national affairs which would entitle him to a place among the great names in our country's history ; and I ean make this state- ment without prejudiee, because myself one of his lineal deseendants. I have devoted this mueh space to a deseription of him, be- canse he is one of the few among the early judges of whom we have full and authentic records, and beeanse, though a leading, he was also a representative citizen, and thus shows of what stuff the early judiciary was composed.
By the Constitution of 1790 and the Act of 1791 the state was divided into various eir- euits, eaeh composed of from three to six counties, and one president judge and from three to four associate judges were to be appointed by the governor for each distriet. From this time Berks was ineluded with vari- ous other eounties in forming certain judi- eial circuits, until the year 1849, when the eounty was formed into a separate district. In 1810 the associate judges were limited to two in number, in 1869, the office of Addi- tional Law Judge was ereated for the county, and in 1883 that of Orphans' Court Judge. The list of judges from 1791 to the present time is as follows:
PRESIDENT JUDGES.
Jacob Rush, 1791-1805; John Spayd, 1806- 09; Robert Porter, 1810-32; Garrick Mallery, 1833-35; John Banks, 1836-46; J. Pringle Jones, 1847-48, 1851-61; David F. Gordon, 1849-51; Warren J. Woodward, 1861-74; Jeremiah Hagenman, 1875-90; James N. Er- mentrout, 1890-1905.
ADDITIONAL LAW JUDGES.
Henry Van Reed, 1869-75; Jeremiah Hag- enman, 1869-74; Augustus S. Sassaman, 1876-85; James N. Ermentrout, 1886-90; Gustav A. Endlich, 1890-1910.
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THE BENCH AND BAR OF PENNSYLVANIA
ASSOCIATE JUDGES.
James Diemer, 1791-1819; George Ege, 1791-1818; Matthias Reichert, 1791-97; Jos- eph Heister, 1791-94; Nicholas Lutz, 1795- 1806; Benjamin Morris, 1798-1809; Gabriel Hiester, 1819-23; Charles Shoemaker, 1820- 22; William Witman, 1823-28; Jacob Schnei- der, 1824-29; Matthias S. Richards, 1829-45; William Darling, 1830-38; William Addams, 1839-42; Jolin Stauffer, 1843-51; William High, 1846-50; Samuel Bell, 1851; Daniel Young, 1851-56; William Heidenreich, 1851- 56; David Shall, 1856-66; George D. Stitzel, 1856-66; Charles Kessler, 1866-71; David Kutz, 1866-70; IIenry Rhoads, 1870-71; George W. Bruckman, 1871-76; Daniel Bus- kirk, 1871-76.
ORPHANS' COURT JUDGES.
Hiram H. Schwartz, 1883-90; H. Willis Bland. 1891-1913.
Jacob Rush, the first president judge of the judicial district of which Berks formed a part, was a member of the distinguished family of that name, his brother being Ben- jamin Rush, the famous physician and artist. He was born near Philadelphia in the year 1746, and graduated from Princeton at the early age of nineteen years. After presiding over the Berks circuit for some years, he was appointed president judge of the judicial dis- triet of which Philadelphia formed a part and held that position until his death. David Paul Brown has said of him: "He was a man of great ability, and great firmness and decision of character. He was also an elo- quent man. Perhaps there are few specimens of judicial eloquence more impressive than those which he delivered during his occupa- tion of the bench his up- rightness of conduct and unquestionable abilities always secured to him the respect and confidence, if not the attachment, of his associates, the members of the bar, and the entire community. He was one of the gentle- men of the old school, plain in his attire,
unobtrusive in his deportment, but while observant of his duties towards others never forgetful of the respect to which he was just- ly entitled." Being more identified with the history of the Philadelphia bench, I shall leave him to be discussed under that head.
John Spayd .- The second judge of the Berks district was John Spayd. He was born in Dauphin county in 1764, but came to Reading early in life, where he began prac- ticing law and continued to live during the rest of his career. He was at one time a member of the General Assembly, and took an active part in all affairs of the community. . Ile was a man of high education, fine intel- lect, and sound judgment. As a lawyer he had the reputation of being particularly con- scientious both in his relations with clients and in his management of a cause ; he looked rather to the equity than the bare law of a case and never depended upon mere tech- nicalities. He was, therefore, particularly consulted in matters of trust and personal confidence, and his integrity was regarded with complete reliance. It may be curious to note that on his death in 1822 the judges, members of the bar, and borough council- men all wore crape on their left arms for thirty days. During the term of Judge Spayd there occurred one of the most fa- mous trials in the history of the county, one which has made a lasting impression upon the inhabitants even to the present day. Fortunately we have some accounts of the affair, written at the time, which tell the whole story and also give us an insight into . some of the manners and customs of those early days. Susanna Cox was a young girl of some twenty-four years of age, who lived as a servant of one Jacob Gehr, in a house 'still standing in Oley township. On the 14th of February, 1809. in the privacy of her own room and with nobody to aid her through the pains and dangers of travail, she gave birth to a son. Tradition does not tell us who was the father of her child, and, strange
-
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BERKS COUNTY
as it may seem, she seems effectively to have concealed her pregnaney and delivery from all the members of the family. About three days afterwards, her master, while searching among some rubbish in an outbuilding, was startled at beholding the dead body of a newly born infant, frozen stiff and wrapped in an old ecat. On further investigation, the babe's lower jaw was found to be broken, the tongue torn loose and thrust baek, and strangulation eaused by a wad of tow pushed into the throat. The girl ad- mitted that the ehild was hers, but asserted that it had been still-born, and with tears protested her innoeenee of its death. She was eommitted to prison, indieted for mur- der, and tried before Judge Spayd at the April term of eourt. The prosecution was condueted by the deputy attorney general, Samuel D. Franks-there was no distriet at- torney in those days-and the defense by Marks John Biddle, Charles Evans, and Frederiek Smith, three of the ablest lawyers in the county, if not in the state. Her eoun- sel made every effort to save the unfortunate girl. They dwelt upon the want of positive proof, the danger of eonvietion upon merely eireumstantial evidenee, and the strong tes- timony which they had presented of her pre- vious good character. But there could be but one result under the eireumstanees of the ease, and, after deliberating four hours, the jury rendered a verdiet of guilty. In passing sentenee Judge Spayd was deeply moved, and in pronouneing the solemn words, "You must hang by your neek until you are dead," he is said to have repeated the word "dead" three times, his voiee fal- tering more in each utteranee, till he finally broke down completely and finished in eon- vulsive sobs. So affeeted was he by his en- foreed part in the condemnation of this mis- erable girl that in less than three months after her trial he resigned from the beneh and returned to the praetiee of law. An effort was made to obtain a pardon for Su-
sanna from Governor Snyder, but, though personally opposed to eapital punishment, he rightly believed that the ease did not war- rant his interferenee, and reluctantly signed her death warrant. Executions at that time were publie affairs, which people from all directions eame to witness. The "Gal- lows Hill" was situated at the foot of Mount Penn, in what is now the eity park, and here, on June 10, 1809, Susanna Cox ended her earthly existenee. The local newspaper of the day says: "Never did Reading behold so numerous a eolleetion of people. The tav- erns were all erowded the preceding even- ing, and all night wagons loaded with peo- ple from the country were passing through the streets, some coming upwards of seventy miles to see this truly unfortunate girl ter- minating her worldly existenee. The num- ber of speetators on the ground upon the hill exeeeded twenty thousand." An eye- witness thus describes the seene: "I was about thirteen years old, and my brother Jacob, who belonged to the soldiers, put me inside of the ranks, and I sat down on the sod elose to the gallows. The eart was placed immediately under the gallows. When the end of the rope was fastened to the gallows, the under sheriff jumped off, and the hangman, a German and a stranger, drove the horse so as to draw away the eart, and she was left dangling in the air. She was jerking her shoulders yet at the end of about ten minutes, when the hangman took hold of her ankles and gave her a violent jerk, which dislocated her neek." The same aeeount goes on to relate how the hangman, on going down Penn street, was attacked by Andrew MeCoy, the "bully fighter of Read- ing," who "thrashed him with a eowhide until the blood ran down his legs into his shoes." When McCoy let go, the hangman fell over and about fourteen silver half- dollars rolled out of his poeket. Not wish- ing to retain the "price of blood," the by- standers pieked up the money and handed it
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