The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume II, Part 73

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr., bro. & co.
Number of Pages: 1180

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in the attacks on Forts Fisher and Wil- mington, and served on blockade duty until Deeember, 1865, when lic resigned his . com- mission in the navy and began the study of law in the office of John C. Bullitt. He also entered the law department of the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, receiving the degree of LL. B. in 1868, after which he entered upon the active practice of his profession. Prior to that time he had joined the First Regiment National Guards of Pennsylvania, and was appointed successively captain, assistant quartermaster, major and assistant adjutant general, resigning in 1878 because of in- ereasing professional duties.

During the existence of the bankrupt law of 1868 Mr. Huey is said to have had the largest bankruptcy business of all the prac- titioners in the United States Courts of the distriet, and Judge Cadwalader, upon more than one oeeasion when pressed with busi- ness, ealled upon Mr. Huey to sit with him and pass upon pending cases.

In 1872 he was admitted to the Supreme Court of the state, and in 1880, upon motion of General Benjamin F. Butler, was admit- ted to practice in the United States Supreme Court. His practice was constant and va- ried in all the courts, but it was in success- fully conducting cases with special reference to corporation law that he stood pre-emi- nent.

Mr. Huey never sought politieal office be- yond being a delegate to city and state eon- ventions, preferring rather to influence the actions of others. As secretary of the Union League he was enabled to do this, and to lead political thought by means of its an- nual reports and other publications, which he wrote while officiating in that capacity. When he resigned the secretaryship the di- rectors of the League unanimously voted him the gold medal of the organization as an expression of their appreciation of his serv- ices.

In 1886 the judges of the Courts of Com-

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mon Pleas unanimously appointed him a member of the board of education from the Twenty-seventh section. The following year he was elected president of the board, and continuously served in that position up to the time of his death. IIe was a member and counsel of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and member of Post 1, Grand Army of the Republie. He was also an active member of the National Bar association, and served on the boards of direction of the Spring Garden Insurance company, City Trust, Safe Deposit and Sure- ty company and Edison Electrie Light eom- pany. He was a member of the Masonie fra- ternity. His life was an active, energetie and successful one and his systematie atten- tion to all his duties enabled him to faith- fully perform the obligations laid upon him.

Mr. Huey was married June 4, 1868, to Miss Mary E. Abrams, of the Puritan Hunt family of Coneord, Mass. They had seven children, five of whom-Arthur Baird, Mrs. Walter Moses, Samuel Culbertson, Maleolm Sidney and Mary Dorothy, together with Mrs. Huey-survive.

Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell was born in New York City on May 4, 1801, and died there suddenly on July 15, 1852. He was the second son of Walter and Anne (Law) Hub- bell, and was of New England lineage. His maternal great-grandfather, Jonathan Law, was one of the governors of Connectieut under the colonial system, and his grand- father, the Hon. Richard Law, of New Lon- don, Conn., was a lawyer of eminenee, chief justiee and a member of the Continental Congress. In the year 1819 Mr. Hubbell was graduated from Union college with the de- gree of A. B. under the presideney of the venerable Dr. Eliphalet Natt. IIe read law with Charles Chauneey of Philadelphia, whose confidenee and esteein he ever re- tained. In November, 1836, he married Miss Anna Gibbon Johnson of Salem, N. J., daugh- ter of Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson, whose

ancestors were the earliest settlers of that part of New Jersey. A man of distinguished ability and the first writer of the "History of Salem, N. J."

From the time of Mr. Hubbell's admission to the bar everything around him gave way to his profession and his serupulous eare and conseientious attention would not delegate to another what he might do himself. The legal eharacteristic of his mind was a miero- scopie power of analysis and a metaphysical cast of thought which detected the most deli- cate distinctions. These intellectual traits gave him that commanding power which he always held as a counselor and advocate. The result of his great labors will be found where those of a great lawyer only are to be found -in the Reports of the State of Pennsyl- vania. Mr. Hubbell was a Presbyterian from convietion, and for this reason and his great legal abilities, he was selected to be assoei- ated with William C. Preston of South Caro- lina, and John Sergeant and Joseph Inger- soll of Philadelphia, to sustain the rights of the Presbyterian church against those who were endeavoring to assail its apolostie and divinely instituted government and its pecu- liar and essential doctrines. When Mr. Hub- bell died, at the premature age of fifty-two, his friend and adviser, Hon. William Rawle, said: "He was a vietim to his noble con- scientiousness and a martyr to his faithful- ness."

Hon. David Newlin Fell was born on No- vember 4, 1840, in Buckingham, Bucks eoun- ty, Pa., and was educated under the diree- tion of his father, who was a distinguished teacher and superintendent of publie sehools and was for fifty years actively connected with educational institutions of the state. David N. Fell entered the State Normal school with the class of 1862, and in the August following his graduation he entered the army, was commissioned lieutenant of Company E of the One Hundred and Twenty- seeond Regiment Pennsylvania volunteers,

Godinama B. Hubbell

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PHILADELPHIA COUNTY

and with his Regiment took part in the bat- tles of Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and many less important en- gagements.

Having chosen the law for his profession, he became a student in the office of his broth- er, William W. Fell, in Philadelphia, and on March 16, 1866, was admitted to practice. His public services and legal ability soon be- eame of foremost rank and were crowncd with rceognition when on May 3, 1877, only ten years after his admission he was ap- pointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas No. 2 of Philadelphia. At the ensuing elec- tion the choice was ratificd by the people at the polls. He was re-elected to succeed himself in 1887, and on both occasions re- eeived the nomination by both political par- tics. In 1893 Judge Fell was elected to the high and honorable position of justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Pennsylvania.

Hon. William W. Porter was born on May 5, 1856. He came of one of the best-known families of Pennsylvania, being the son of the late Judge William A. Porter and a grandson of David Rittenhouse Porter, twice governor of Pennsylvania, and great-grand- son of General Andrew Porter, who was a member of General Washington's staff dur- ing the struggle for independence. His fath- er was one of the most distinguished jurists of his day, filling sueeessfully the offices of district attorney and eity solicitor of Phila- delphia and Supreme court justice of the state of Pennsylvania and judge of the Court of Alabama Claims at Washington. His grandunele, Judge Madison Porter of East- on, was a member of President Buchanan's eabinet. His unele, General Horace Porter, was ambassador to France. William was graduated from the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1875 with the degree of Master of Arts. Upon completing his course he entered the law offices of his father and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1877. He devoted him- self to corporation law and to the law

relating to estates. He was appointed to a place on the Superior Court bench on Sep- tember 14, 1897, by Governor Hastings as the successor of Judge Willard and which of- fice he is now (1903) filling.

Hon. James Tyndale Mitchell was born in Belleville, Ill., November 9, 1834. The fam- ily had moved from western Virginia in 1823 after the failure to abolish slavery in that state, in which movement the Rev. Edward Mitehell, the judge's great-grandfather, was prominently identificd.

At the age of seven James T. Mitchell was sent to Philadelphia to be educated under the eare of his maternal grandmother, and was placed in the school of Dr. Samuel Joncs, brother of Judge Joel Jones, mayor of Phila- delphia. IIe was subsequently sent to the Central High school, where he graduated at the head of his elass in 1852. He then entered Harvard college, graduating with high rank in 1855. Upon his return to Philadelphia le studied law in the office of George Biddle, also attending the lectures at the law school of the University of Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the bar November 10, 1857, and in 1859 was made assistant city solicitor under the late Charles R. Lex, serving until 1862. Upon the expiration of his term he resumed the general practice. In 1868 he was counsel in the famous contested election eases. In 1871 he was elected to the District Court to succeed George M. Stroud and upon the reorganization of the courts under the present constitution he was transferred to the Court of Common Pleas No. 2, to which office he was unanimously re-elected in 1881.

In May, 1888, Judge Mitehell received the nomination of the Republican state conven- tion for justice of the Supreme Court, and was cleeted and took his place on the beneh January 7, 1889.

Henry Jefferson Mccarthy, A. M., asso- ciate judge of the Court of Common Pleas No. 3 of Philadelphia county and formerly associate justiee of the Superior Court of

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Pennsylvania, was born at Philadelphia on October 11, 1845. He was the eldest son of Hon. John McCarthy, prominent politically as commissioner of highways of the city of . Philadelphia and as a member of the legisla- ture of Pennsylvania and commercially as president of the Citizens Passenger Railway company of Philadelphia. Henry was edu- eated in the publie schools of his native eity. To a bright, amiable disposition with a love of study, he united a spirit of fun and a fondness for innocent misehief, and these qualities made him a favorite alike with in- structors and schoolmates. He graduated from the Central High school, delivering the valedietory address, on February 13, 1863. The same year he registered as a student at law in the office of Hon. William A. Porter, ex-associate justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, an acknowledged leader of the Philadelphia bar. Here he devoted himself to the study of the principles of law and to acquiring a knowledge of practice with such suceess that upon his admission to the bar, on November 17, 1866, his preceptor invited him to remain as assistant and for nine years thereafter he continued this connection, tak- ing active part as junior counsel in some of the most important litigation ever decided in the forums of this commonwealth. In 1875 he formed a partnership for the practice of the law with William Nelson West, after- ward city solicitor of the eity of Philadel- phia. This partnership was dissolved by the death of Mr. West in 1891, after which a new partnership was entered into with Mil- ton C. Work and Alexander M. De Haven, who had received their legal training with the former firm.

On the creation of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania in 1895, Henry J. MeCarthy, on June 25 of that year, was appointed an associate justice of the new court by his ex- celleney Governor Hastings, in fulfilment of that provision of the act of assembly requir- ing that one of the justices should be a mem-

ber of the minority party. His associates on the beneh committed to him the im- portant duty of formulating the rules of court for the regulation of procedure before the newly formed tribunal, of which task he acquitted himself to their entire satisfaction. He sat during the brief term for which he had been appointed, displaying marked abil- ity as a judge and gaining the confidence and respeet of the community and the bar and the esteem and affeetion of his associates upon the bench. He was not nominated for election, his political convictions, although of the highest and purest type of Democracy not finding favor in the eyes of the men who then controlled the nominating convention of that party.

Although Judge MeCarthy accepted his retirement with perfeet equanimity, it was the source of mueh disappointment in the community and his subsequent selection by Governor Hastings, on November 25, 1898, to fill the unexpired term left vacant by the resignation of James Gay Gordon, associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas No. 3 of Philadelphia county, gave widespread sat- isfaction to men of all politieal ereeds. Dur- ing this term Judge MeCarthy, under trying circumstances, displayed in a marked degree the qualities of a just, strong and upright judicial character and towards its close he received the unanimous nomination of the conventions of both political parties and was elected in November, 1899, to sueeeed him- self for the full term of ten years. Justly regarding despatch of business as of primary importanee, he never absented himself from his appointed duties nor spared himself in their discharge, but continued to devote to the business of the court the same eeaseless eare and conscientious regard for detail that distinguished him in his private affairs, and worked early and late with suel untiring en- ergy that he finally expended his strength.

In April, 1903, his physician apprised him that he was suffering from nervous exhaus-

bantRy

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PHILADELPHIA COUNTY

tion, and prescribed a long rest from official labors, but his sense of duty was so strong that he felt impelled to continue the work of the session until its close.

In May, 1903, he presided in the Oyer and Terminer at the trial of Webb, a negro murderer, and was greatly overtaxed by the strains incident to suel an ordeal and to the preparation and delivery of a most careful and elaborate charge. He also called the equity list in June, 1903, being his last offi- eial duty for the term. He sought recupera- tion in the sea air, but after a short sojourn beside the ocean returned to his home, an- ticipating a long and slow recovery. He was not considered to be fatally ill, but, to the surprise of all, suddenly, on the morning of July 21, 1903, "God's finger touched him and he slept."

In person Judge McCarthy was of medium height, delicately framed and of nervous temperament. He possessed a square face with clear, keen, gray eyes, rather deep-set under heavy brows, a prominent nose and a mouth well modeled and proportioned, with thin, firm lips. His countenance was clear and open ; his look grave and somewhat stern in repose, but pleasant and genial when lighted by a smile. His motions were alert, his earriage and bearing easy and dig- nified. Gifted with a strong, elear and eul- tured voice. he became noted not only for his forensic oratory, in clear, foreible and persuasive argument, with impressive and ringing delivery, addressed with equal faeil- ity to the jury box and the bench, but also as a past master of that more subtle art of after dinner speaking, whiel, at will, sways the minds of men to laughter and to tears. His wit was keen and polished; his humor ir- resistible, with a marked individuality; his dietion, often founded upon classic models, flawless; and upon the semi-publie oeeasions when the social clubs, of which he was a member, gave their periodie dinners, the pro- gram was never regarded as complete with-

out Judge MeCarthy could be called upon "to set the table on a roar." He took an active interest in politics, local and national, and was, like his father before him, a con- sistent Jeffersonian Democrat through life, never wavering an instant in his political convictions.

On October 17, 1901, he married Lilian E., daughter of Horaec F. Whitman, Esq., a prominent Philadelphian.

His geniality of temperament led to his affiliation with a number of soeicties; he was an advanced Free Mason, having reached the thirty-second degree of the craft; past mas- ter of the oldest Masonic lodge in Pennsyl- vania, Lodge No. 2; past high priest of Sig- net Chapter; representative of those bodies in the Grand Lodge and the Grand Chapter; inember of St. John's Commandery, Knights Templar; of the Incorporated Association of the Alumni of the Central High school; of the Penn Club; of the Five O'clock Club.

Judge McCarthy was well read in all branches of the law, but devoted especial at- tention to the principles and practice in equity, for which he had a predilection. Both in private practice and upon the bench he was careful, exaet and painstaking to an unusual degree, never leaping to a eonelusion but reaching it through a step by step proc- ess that tried each link in the chain of rea- soning and proved it sound before proceed- ing to the next. In consequence, appellate courts have rarely reversed any decision that bears his signature. As a judge he was a patient listener to counsel who kept the thread of the argument, but valued the time of the court too highly to be very tolerant of "weary lawyers with endless tongues" speaking wide of the purpose. His charges, distinctly and impressively delivered, were thorough, direct and impartial, and to many a skien of evidence that seemed hopelessly entangled, his lucid exposition of the law has afforded a chte easily followed to a righteous verdict. Ilis decisions were the

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fruit not alone of legal learning and acumen but of business experience and common sense. To sum up his character as a judge, he was learned, scholarly, just, upright, con- scientious, brave physically and morally, manly, resolute, incorruptible, fearless and

outspoken. His untimely decease is a serious loss to bench and bar and the community at large. The memory of his achievements and the force of his example will linger long among the citizens and lawyers of Philadel- phia.

LUZERNE COUNTY

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LUZERNE COUNTY

BY GEORGE B. KULP

From the first settlement of Wyoming un- til 1773 the inhabitants had no authoritative code of laws or tribunal of justice. The set- tlers were, from the first, viewed by the au- thorities of Pennsylvania as an intruding mob, claiming and in possession of lands to which they had no title. The proprietary government steadily issued its warrants against them and sent her eivil officers, sup- ported by bodies of armed men, to arrest them and drive them away. The settlers did not acknowledge the laws of Pennsylvania and were not themselves recognized by the laws of Connectiteut ; consequently they were without law, and every man, in defending his person and property, trusted to his rifle and to the justice of his eause. To remedy this state of affairs the Susquehanna Land Com- pany formed a code of laws in 1773, to which every male inhabitant of the age of twenty- one and upwards was required to subscribe his name or depart from the settlement.

This compact provided :

First :- For the election of three commit- teemen or directors in each township, who should meet at least once in each month to hear and deeide all disputes and to try petty offences.

Second :- The directors of the several townships were required to meet together four times a year at Wilkesbarre, eonstitut- ing a quarterly meeting for general business purposes and for hearing and deciding ap- peals from the decision of the township di- rectors, except in eases where the titles to land were in question, when the appeals were to be carried to the Susquehanna Company. Breaches of the peace, stealing, drunkenness,

swearing, gaming, idleness and the like came under the jurisdiction of the township di- rectors; but adulterers, burglars and some other offenders were tried by the quarterly meeting, or Supreme Court. For stealing, drunkenness, idleness, etc., the guilty were required to make public confession, and per- haps undergo punishment at the whipping post or in the stocks.

Adultery and burglary were punished by whipping, banishment from the settlement and eonfiseation of all personal and real es- tate. Counterfeiters were sent for trial to the province or jurisdiction whose coin or money had been counterfeited, and murder- ers were conveyed to Connecticut for trial.

There were then no regularly admitted. praetieing lawyers.

In 1774 the Susquehanna purchase, em- braeing what are now the counties of Brad- ford, Luzerne, Lackawanna, Susquehanna and Wyoming, was formed into one town, after the manner of New England, and called Westmoreland. It was attached to the coun- ty of Litchfield and enjoyed all the rights and privileges of a town under the laws of Conneetieut. Having a sufficient population, it was entitled to two representatives in the General Assembly. Zebulon Butler and Na- than Dennison were commissioned justices of the the peace by Governor Trumbull, with power to call and preside at town meetings and to hear and decide certain causes; but high offenees and important civil cases were to be tried before Litchfield county courts.

In 1776 Messrs. Butler and Dennison, who had been chosen to represent Westmoreland in the state assembly, returned from Hart-

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ford, bringing the joyful intelligence that the town had been promoted to the position and dignity of a county. A dispute now arose between Wilkesbarre and Kingston relative to a seat of justice, but the decision being finally made in favor of the former place. The first eourt was held in Fort Wy- oming, on the river bank, about sixty rods below the Wilkesbarre bridge. Among the names of the judges appointed and commis- sioned for Westmoreland by the governor of Connecticut from year to year we find those of Avery, Beaeh, Butler, Dana, Den- ison, Gore and Franklin.

Lieutenant John Jenkins was appointed the state's attorney and Anderson Dana and Amos Bullock were the only professional lawyers known prior to the Indian battle in 1778. In that battle Dana, Bullock and sev- eral persons who had acted as judges were słain.

From 1779 to 1782, when the Trenton de- cree put an end to the jurisdiction of Con- nectieut, the courts were held in Wilkes- barre Fort, erected after the massacre on the site of the old court house on the pub- lie square.

In Mareh, 1781, the court made the fol- lowing regulations :

Whereas, there is no authority in this eounty for the assistance of those who are unable to make proper representation of their own cases before the court : therefore,

Resolved, That until further or otherwise ordered, either plaintiff or defendant may be allowed liberty of counsel to lay their mat- ters and plead them before the court with -. out having admitted or sworn attorneys.

At November court, 1781, "Ordered that a tax of two pence in the pound be levied, to be paid in hard money or in specific arti- cles," grain, ete., to be delivered and re- ceived at the county treasury at rates fixed by the eourt.

At the same term the court ordered that Abigail Haddon be divoreed from Simeon

Hadden, and the said Abigail was declared "single and unmarried."

At the December term, 1782, "Mary Pritchard is found guilty of unnecessarily going from her place of abode on the Lord's day on the 10th of November last." Court, therefore, ordered that she pay a fine of five shillings, lawful money, to the town treas- ury and costs.

At the same term J. H. T. having been found guilty of stealing, the eourt ordered that "he receive ten stripes, well adminis- tered on his naked back."

In 1782 D. G. W. for stealing a deer skin valued at nineteen shillings, and not being able to pay damages or eosts, was assigned by the court to two years serviee to H. M., from whom he stole the skin, and power was given to H. M. to assign or dispose of his serviees for said period "to any of the sub- jeets of the United States."

The punishment of Mary Pritchard has a deep tinge of Connecticut's Blue Laws. The enforcement of the observance of the Sab- bath to sueh a point of nicety appears ridicu- lous to us, but it is possible a future genera- tion may entertain very different views on this subjeet with those prevalent in our day. The increased humanity and civilization of later times have abolished the whipping post and those barbarous punishments which per- manently marked and mutilated the bodies of persons eonvieted of crimes.

Although Westmoreland was nominally in the county of Northumberland after 1772, yet the laws of Pennsylvania were utterly disregarded by the people until 1782. when the judgment of the United States commis- sioners abolished the jurisdiction of Connec- tieut. During the next four years following the Trenton deeree the seat of justice for what had been known as Westmoreland was properly Sunbury. The formation and or- ganization of Luzerne eounty in 1786-87 may · be viewed as the act of the practical mind of Benjamin Franklin, who foresaw in that

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The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume II, Part 73

Author: Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr., bro. & co. Number of Pages: 1180

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr., bro. & co.
Number of Pages: 1180