USA > Pennsylvania > The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume I > Part 71
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far-sighted and wise provision of the same act was for the selection of three persons to act as trustees, who were authorized to take and receive moneys, grants of land, pledges, bonds, levies and other properties that might come to them; to invest and manage the same and use one-half of the net pro- ceeds for the establishment of a fund for the support of a public school in the county and the other half to build a court house, jail and other county buildings. The courts for Centre county were held at Bellefonte till 1807, during which year that county be- came a part of the middle district of the Su- preme court then formed, and Sunbury was fixed as the place for holding courts. Be- sides the regular courts held in the county and district, there were also provided for and held special courts of common pleas, the necessity for such courts having arisen in cases where, because of some personal in- terest in the issues involved, the presiding judges were regarded as unfitted to sit at the trials. Such special courts were held by the president judge of some neighboring county at first by the one residing nearest the county where such cases were pending, but later by any authorized president judge in the state. These courts, regulated by leg- islative enactments, were subject to changes from time to time, and in 1818 they were for a time done away with in Centre and Clearfield counties, but three years later it was made the duty of the president judge of the Ninth district to hold special courts in that as well as in Mifflin and Huntingdon counties, and the president judge of the Fourth district rendered like services in the
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county of Bradford. At a still later date Centre county was brought within the regn- lations of the legislative enactment of 1834, which reorganized the courts throughout the state.
Under this act the Fourth judicial district was made up of Mifflin, Jefferson, Hunting- don, Clearfield and Centre counties, and so continued till an act of the legislature, passed in March, 1842, changed it to com- prise the connties of Clearfield, Centre and Clinton, and it was made the duty of the governor of the state to appoint for each district a president judge, and in each coun- ty two associate judges, their terms of of- fice to be during their good behavior. This last provision was changed under the consti- tntional amendment of 1838, when the terms of the judges were limited, those of the Su- preme court to fifteen years, of common pleas courts to ten years, and of associate judges to five years. This power of appoint- ing the judges remained in the governor till 1850, when the legislative act making the judicial office elective was enacted.
Besides the courts named, circuit courts also were held during the years prior to the general judiciary act of 1834, but they were the subject of numerous legislative enact- ments and changes, and during that year were abolished and their records turned over to the respective counties whence they had been taken.
Centre county's first common pleas court was held in the house of James Dunlop, in Bellefonte, in November, 1800, before James Potter and John Barber, before whom, to- gether with Adam Harper and Robert Boggs, the next common pleas court also was held in 1801, and also before whom the first quarter session in Centre county was held in January, 1801.
James Riddle presided at the first court held in Centre county for the trial of eases in April, 1801, he being president judge of the Fourth judicial district when the county
was organized, and also before him and his associates during the same month was held a court of oyer and terminer and a court of quarter sessions.
Thomas Cooper followed Judge Riddle as president judge of the district and came to the bench of Centre county in November 1804, and served till 1806. Jonathan Walker, who succeeded Judge Riddle, presided over the courts of the Fourth district, comprising Huntingdon, Mifflin, Bedford and Centre counties, till April, 1818. Judge Walker was an eminent lawyer and distinguished jurist. A resident of Bellefonte, he began his professional work about the year 1790. He took his place on the bench as president judge in March, 1806, nnder appointment of Governor MeKean, and served in that capacity a little more than twelve years.
Hon. Charles Huston, his successor, who was eonmissioned in July, 1818, began his practice in Lycoming county in 1795. He presided over the courts of the district eight years, and was noted as a jurist of marked ability, sound learning and ripe scholarship. He left the district beneh in 1826 to take his place on the Supreme bench of the state, where he served with distinction till 1845, when his commission expired. Beginning when a young lawyer he made a special study of original land titles in Pennsylva- nia, and his exhaustive treatise on that sub- jeet, completed in 1849 when he was past seventy-five years of age, is a lasting monn- ment to his masterful mind, scholarly re- search and legal acumen. His death oc- eurred soon after the completion of this work.
Hon. Thomas Burnside followed Judge lInston as president judge of the district and served there until transferred to the district comprising Montgomery and Bueks counties in 1841. As in 1826 he succeeded Judge Hus- ton on the district beneh, so in 1845 he again took the place vaeated by him in the Su- preme court of the state, where he rendered
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lasting service. He died at Germantown in 1851. He had been prominent as a lawyer from 1804, state senator in 1811, congress- man in 1816, and in 1826 was appointed president judge of the Fourth judicial dis- triet.
Judge A. H. Wilson relates this incident as characteristic of Judge Burnside : was concerned at the bar for an Irishman who had been, with others, charged and tried for riot. To my utter surprise, he was called up with the others for sentence. When I remonstrated-'why, the evidence shows clearly, Your Honor, that my client was on the other side of the river when the riot took place.' 'It don't matter,' said Judge Burnside, 'if he could have gotten over, he would have been in it.' "
When Judge Burnside went to the Su- preme court the place vacated by him on the district bench was filled by appointment of George W. Woodward, and when the gen- eral judicial act of 1850, making the office of judge elective became operative, he was the first to be elected to the office of presi- dent judge in the Fourth district.
Hon. James Addams Beaver was born at Millerstown, Perry county, Pa., October 21, 1837. More than five generations of his family have lived in the Keystone state, the original ancestor, Peter Beaver, having come from the Palatinate to Pennsylvania in 1741, and settled in Chester county. In every important epoch since the immigra- tion of Peter Beaver, members of this fam- ily have been prominent factors and have contributed much to the history of the Key- stone state. In the Revolutionary war, as well as in the later struggle that marked the progress of cultivation and civilization, their names appear upon the pages of his- tory. After the colonies had gained their liberty, George Beaver, a grandson of the Huguenot immigrant, who was a veteran of the Revolutionary war, settled in Franklin county, while Jacob Beaver, one of his
grandsons, and the father of the subject of this sketch, many years later established his home in Millerstown, Perry county.
James A. Beaver spent his early boyhood in the home of his maternal grandfather, his father having died when he was but three years of age; and, after having taken a course in the schools of his immediate neighborhood, he later attended the Pine Grove academy in Centre county, Pennsyl- vania, where he was prepared for Jefferson college (now Washington and Jefferson col- lege), from which he graduated in 1856. Im- mediately thereafter he took up his residence in Bellefonte, Pa., and in September of the year of his graduation he commenced the study of law in the office of H. N. McAllis- ter, Esq., being admitted to the bar of Cen- tre county in January, 1859.
While engaged in the study of law, he be- gan to manifest a fondness for military life, and became the second lieutenant in the military organization of some renown known as the "Bellefonte Fencibles," of which An- drew G. Curtin, the famous war governor of Pennsylvania, was then captain. A few years later, when the news reached him that Fort Sumter had been fired upon, he was given the commission by his former captain as first lieutenant in Company H, Second regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and on the 21st of April, 1861, he turned his back upon his professional labors and with Pat- terson's column entered the active service of his country in the Shenandoah valley. He was quickly promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Forty-fifth regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, which position he resigned on the 4th of September, 1862, to become col- onel of the One Hundred and Forty-eighth regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, known in the history of the Rebellion as the "Cen- tre County Regiment." On account of dis- tinguished service he was brevetted briga- dier-general, United States Volunteers, in August, 1864; and having received serious
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wounds in battle in the engagement at Chan- cellorsville, at Spottsylvania and Cold Har- bor, and having lost his right leg at the ill- fated affair at Ream's Station, August, 1864, he was, on Deeember 22, 1864, mustered out of the service "on account of wounds re- ceived in battle." . His latest connection with the military affairs of his state was as brigadier-general and major-general and in the National Guard of Pennsylvania from 1872 to 1887, during which time he deserves mueh eredit for bringing the National Guard to a high state of efficiency.
. His first political office was that of chief burgess of Bellefonte in 1865, and from that day to the present he has served his party with distinguished ability and unswerving loyalty. In 1881 hic received the Republi- can eaueus nomination for United States senator, but failed of clection because of in- ternal dissensions in his party, to which he was in nowise a party. In 1882 he received the unanimous nomination of his party for governor of Pennsylvania, but owing to a continuance of party troubles an indepen- dent Republiean ticket was placed in the field and his opponent, the Democratie ean- didate, Robert E. Pattison, was elected. In 1886 he was renominated and was elected by a handsome majority. As governor of the state his administration stands out as clear and full of vigor and aggressiveness as that of any of his predecessors, and tlie affairs of the commonwealth, under his leadership, were faithfully administered and the inter- ests of all the people carefully guarded. Upon his retirement from the office of ehief executive of the commonwealth, he returned to his own town, Bellefonte, and resumed the practice of his profession in connection with the gentlemen with whom he had been associated prior to his election as governor. He took his old place in the community and, when called by his townsmen to represent one of the wards of the borough of Belle- fonte in the town council, he assumed the
duties of the position and gave to their dis- charge the same care and attention which had characterized his administration of the affairs of the commonwealth.
When the superior court of Pennsylvania was organized, under and by authority of the act of 1895, he was appointed one of its judges and served under this commission unr- til the first Monday in January, 1896, having in the meantime been elected to succeed himself for the full term of ten years, which will expire in 1906.
General Beaver's experienee in publie af- fairs, his splendid culture and unquestioned ability as a public speaker have made him widely known over the entire commonwealth and beyond the boundaries of his own state. and in the campaigns of 1880, 1884 and 1888 he was heard from the political rostrum in inany of the New England states and through part of the middle West.
It is needless to say that this brave and courageous general, vigorous and distin- guished governor and eminent jurist has, by his lifework, added mueh luster to the his- tory of his native state and the eounty of his adoption, and few men have received greater acknowledgment of his usefulness and high standing as a citizen, and seldom has the state been so devotedly served.
Hon. Thomas T. Hale, who was appointed president judge in 1851, to serve out an unex- pired term, presided over the several eourts till the expiration of his commission, the first of the following December. Judge Hale, born in 1810, spent his boyhood on a farm. receiving sueh edueation as was afforded by the district schools. Studied law with Mr. Elias W. Hale, of Lewistown, where, in 1832, he was admitted to the bar of Mifflin county. He had a genius for hard work, was a careful and close student and rose rapidly to a leading place in his profession. being noted as a most skilful and suecess- ful trial lawyer. He was a convincing speaker, famous as a campaign orator, and
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took an active part in the affairs of the Whig party. He became a Republican when that party eame into existence, in 1856, and a few years later was elected to Congress, where he served three terms, being elected the third time on an independent ticket. In Congress he served on the committee on claims, of which, during his last term. he was chairman. Resuming his practice at Belle- fonte at the close of the Thirty-eighth Con- gress in 1865, he was suddenly stricken while engaged in the trial of a case, and died on April 6 of that year.
Hon. Alexander Jordan, who succeeded Judge Hale as president judge of the Fourth district, discharged the duties of his high of- fice with great fidelity, and during his brief service attained a wide popularity. He was pre-eminently a man of affairs, and in 1856 gave up his professional work and devoted himself to other lines of business that had crowded in upon him. He was chiefly in- strumental in building the Tyrone & Clear- field railroad, the purpose of which was to develop his extensive tracts of coal lands in Cambria, Centre and Clearfield counties, and from 1856 to 1870 served as its presi- dent. Though his time of service as presi- dent judge in the Fourth district was short, he served in that capacity many years in a neighboring district.
Hon. James Burnside, who came to the of- fice as president judge in 1853. by appoint- ment of Governor Bigler, was afterwards elected by the people of the distriet, and served with distinction till his aceidental death, which oceurred in 1856. A native of Centre county, he was born in 1809. Gradu- ated from Dickinson college at the age of nineteen, then studied law under the direc- tion of his father, the Hon. Thomas Burnside, at Bellefonte. Except a short time spent in Dauphin county soon after his admission to the bar,. he spent his professional life at Bellefonte.
Hon. James Gamble, who was appointed to
serve the unexpired term of Judge Burnside. presided over the courts of the district till the election of his successor in 1859, and was afterwards elected president judge of a neighboring district.
Hon. Samuel Linn, who succeeded to the office in 1859, was born at Bellefonte in 1820, and was a son of Rev. James Linn, D. D., for fifty years pastor of the Presbyterian church of that plaee. As a boy he had a predileetion for mechanical pur- suits and developed unusual ability in that line, and as a civil engineer. He turned his attention to the study of law about the time of attaining his majority, and in 1843 was admitted to the bar at Bellefonte, where he at onee began practice. Later he was a eo-partner with James T. Hale, with whom he had studied, and still later with Mr. W. P. Wilson. Judge Linn was known for his sound learning and clear eoneeption of the law. He attained a wide reputation as the author of "Linn's Analytical Index." He presided over the courts of Centre. Clear- field and Clinton counties from 1859 till 1868, when failing health compelled him to resign. He afterwards resumed his profes- sion and carried on an active practice until his death.
Hon. Austin O. Furst succeeded Judge Hoy to the bench of Centre county in Jan- uary, 1885, the latter having failed of elec- tion in November, 1884. Among the distin- guished lawyers of the state there was per- haps none at that time more deserving of this mark of confidence and esteem than the jurist whom the people of the Forty-ninth judicial district, then composed of Centre and Huntingdon counties, elevated to the bench.
Judge Furst was strikingly possessed of that mental vigor and tireless application which so aptly becomes the groundwork of a life of usefulness and distinction, and when he applied himself to the study of the law he very easily mastered its intricacies
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A. O. Furt
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and established for himself a reputation for legal acumen that made him the natural can- didate for judicial honors. Prior to his can- didacy in the fall of 1884 he was prominent in the politics of his party and was heard frequently by the people of eentral Penn- sylvania in support of the principles of his people. Being but fifty years of age when lie was elected he was in the full strength of his mentality, and took np the trying duties of his position with great earnestness. With a conscience sensitive, yet firm, and with a disposition tender and sympathetic, he was at all times considerate of the interests of all parties whose rights were submitted to his arbitrament, and he measured up to all the requirements and demands of the ex- alted public station to which he was ehosen.
He was born near Salona in the year 1834, in the portion of Centre county from which Clinton county was subsequently formed. His preparatory education was acquired in the publie schools of his vicinity and the academy at Salona, and later he entered Diekinson seminary, at Williamsport, from which in- stitution he graduated in 1854 at the head of his elass. His desire for a more liberal edu- cation led him to seek admission to Diekin- son college, at Carlisle, but illness compelled him to relinquish his studies and he returned home. With a strong and over-ruling in- clination for the law he later entered the law office of his brother, Cline G. Furst, at Lock Haven, Pa., and in 1860 was admitted to the bar of Clinton county. The following year he removed to Bellefonte, and was ad- mitted to the courts of Centre county on January 28, 1861, and has since that time resided in the county in which most of his life-work has been performed.
llis identifieation with the Presbyterian church, serving continuously as an elder since 1863, is a fitting testimonial of the religious interest planted in his heart by his parents, John and Barbara Furst, who were of that sturdy and courageous stoek settled early in
the history of central Pennsylvania, and who planted the standard for high and eorreet moral living, not only within their own household, but in the community in which they lived.
Since his admission to the bar his life has been largely devoted to an exhaustive study of the theory and practice of law and equity, and he has served his jealous mistress as faithfully as any member of the bar who were cotemporaries of his. The pronounced mental characteristies of the man were an analytical mind, a remarkably retentive memory, so that he came to his legal eon- clusions with a degree of correetness that gave him an enviable record before all the judges of the appellate courts of the eom- monwealth. His striet sobriety has enabled him to retain the vigor and energy of a very mneh younger man, and he is still the worthiest foe that ean be met at the counsel table. His large and varied knowledge of language and literature, and his broad re- search in historical lore make him a most forceful advocate before a jury, and his career since the conclusion of the term of ten years upon the bench, has been filled with the work of the busy lawyer, and has taken him into many of the courts of the state, where his exeeptional ability has served a very large clientage. He las ar- gued with consummate skill new and hitherto unsettled legal propositions in all of the courts of the United States, and espe- cially within the domain of equity and ejeet- ment law he easily stands among the fore- most members of his profession.
Hon. Joseph B. McEnally, who was the next president judge of the district, was a worthy snecessor of the eminent lawyers and jurists who preceded him. He was admitted to the bar in 1843, and is a resident of Clearfield county, where he still conduets an active practice.
Hon. Charles A. Mayer, following Judge MeEnally, took his place on the district
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bench as president judge in December, 1868, being a resident of Clinton county. A fair- minded and able lawyer, he made a worthy record as an upright, clear headed and just judge.
Hon. John Holden Orvis .- In 1873 the general assembly enacted a law providing for an additional law judge in this district, and Hon. John Holden Orvis, then serving his second term in the Legislature, was ap- pointed to the office by Governor Hartranft. The following year he was elected for a term of ten years. Judge Orvis was pre-emi- nently a self-made man. A native of Tioga county, and was born in 1835, he acquired a fair English education in the common schools, and when but fifteen years old, taught a district school. He also learned the printer's trade and worked at it and taught school for several years, in the meantime at- tending one term at New London academy, and employing his spare time in the study of law under the direction of Mr. N. L. At- wood, of Lock Haven. In 1856 he was ad- mitted to the bar and six years later set- tled at Bellefonte. Ile soon took a leading place in his profession, and by his upright living, force of character and manly virtues, commanded the respect and won the confi- dence of all who came within the range of his influence. He was broad-minded and clear-headed, able to grasp at once the intri- cate points of a case, and as a lawyer and judge, was noted for his retentive memory, quick perception and executive force.
Hon. Adam Hoy, who was appointed presi- dent judge of the district comprising Centre and Huntingdon counties on the resignation of Judge Orvis, in 1883. served till the fol- lowing year ... He was a native of Centre county, born in 1827. and after being grad- nated from Pennsylvania college in 1856, turned his attention to the study of law, and in 1858 was admitted to the Centre county bar. After his appointment as president
judge, he was nominated for election to the same office, but was defeated by Austin O. Furst. His death occurred in 1887 at Belle- fontc.
Among the many distinguished names that have adorned the judicial roll in Centre county appear those of the following asso- ciate judges, to-wit: James Potter, John Barber, Adam Harper, Robert Boggs, Isaac Mckinney, Jacob Kryder, William Smith, John Shafer, John Hasson, Samuel Stro- hecker, William Birchfield, Henry Barnhart. Samuel H. Stover, John S. Proudfoot, John Hosterman, William Allison, Jr., W. W. Love, Henry Doft. John Irwin, John Divens, Samuel Frank, C. A. Faulkner and Thomas F. Riley.
In the circuit courts which existed in the early part of the last century, it was for a time the practice for some one or more mem- bers of the supreme bench to preside, but that service was later rendered by one of them. Among those who presided over this court in Centre county appear the names of Jasper Ycates and Hugh H. Brackenridge, in 1802; Thomas Smith and Hugh H. Brack- enridge, in 1804; Chief Justice William Tilghman, 1806; Thomas Smith, in 1807, and Hugh H. Brackenridge, in 1808.
Many honored names have graced the long membership roll of the Centre county bar; names of men who wrought long and well, and the force and influence of whose lives and example have long survived them. To this class belong Hon. William W. Potter, who was born about 1791, the son of James Potter, a resident of Bellefonte, and for many years associate judge. He was edu- cated at Dickinson college, studied law un- der Judge Charles Huston, and became one of the leaders of his day, both at the bar and in politics. Though in a position to demand position on recognition. he did not care for official honors, at one time refusing to accept. the office of president judge, and again de-
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elining the nomination for Congress. That was in 1832. Three years later he allowed his name to be used and was elected con- gressman from his district, and was re- elected to the same office in 1838. ITis death, in the fall of 1839, at the age of forty-eight years, was mourned as an irreparable pub- lic loss.
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