The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume II, Part 83

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

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THE BAR.

Sinee the organization of the county about one hundred and fifty attorneys have been admitted to practice in its several eourts. The following list is as complete as ean be inade. It is possible that there are some omis- sions, but the writer has been unable to learn of any names that are not ineluded. Only the names of members, native or resi- dent at the times of their admissions, are herewith given. Asterisks indieate those in present practice at the Somerset eounty bar.

Abraham Morrison, admitted Deeember, 1795; Joseph Viekroy, admitted Deeember, 1795; Jacob Nagle, admitted Deeember, 1795; Samuel Riddle, admitted Deeember, 1795; Samuel Selby, admitted Deeember, 1795: Joseph Weigley, admitted September 27, 1796; John Clark (of York, Pa.), ad- mitted September, 1800; Roger Perry, ad- mitted September, 1800; Andrew Dunlop,

admitted May, 1801; Samuel Duncan (of Bedford, Pa.), admitted November, 1801; John Smith (of Suffield, Conn.), admitted February, 1802; Otho Shrader, admitted Sep- tember 5, 1803; Josiah Espy (of Bedford, Pa.), admitted September 5, 1803; James Carson (of Bedford, Pa.), admitted Septem- ber, 10, 1804; William A. Thompson (of Huntingdon, Pa.), admitted September 10. 1804; William Ward (of Hunting- don, Pa.), admitted February 11, 1805; John Probst, admitted February 12, 1805; John Tod (of Bedford, Pa.), admitted May 9, 1805; James M. Riddle, admitted Au- gust 25, 1806; Samuel W. Leeper, admitted February 23, 1807; Andrew Henderson, ad- mitted August 29, 1808; John B. Alexander, admitted May 30, 1810; Richard William Lane, admitted May 30, 1810; Walter For- ward (Pittsburgh, Pa.), admitted August 27, 1810; John Kennedy (of Bedford, Pa.), ad- mitted August 27, 1810; Robert Findley, ad- mitted August 27, 1810; Charles B. Ross, ad- mitted February 26, 1811; George Ross, ad- mitted May 27, 1811; Charles B. Seeley, ad- mitted, date unknown; John A. T. Kilgore, admitted February 27, 1815; Alexander B. Fleming, admitted May 26, 1817; Chauneey Forward, admitted May 26, 1817; Thomas Irvine, admitted November 30, 1818; Dryden Forward, admitted February 28, 1820; Thomas S. Smith, admitted February 26, 1821; Horatio N. Weigley, admitted May 27, 1822; Charles Ogle, admitted May 28, 1822; Samuel G. Bailey, admitted August 27, 1822; Stewart Steel, admitted August 29, 1825; John H. Williams (of Greensburg, Pa.), ad- mitted Deeember 5, 1825; James Todd (of Uniontown, Pa.), admitted December 6, 1825; William H. Postlewaite, admitted De- eember 26, 1826; Jeremiah S. Blaek, admit- ted Deeember 2, 1830: John Meyers, admit- ted August 31, 1831: Darwin Phelps, adınit- ted September 2, 1831: Moses Hampton, ad- mitted, date unknown; Joseph Williams, ad- mitted, date unknown; Joshua F. Cox, ad-

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mitted October 16, 1832; Alexander II. Mil- ler, admitted December 2, 1835; W. Pear- son, admitted December 2, 1835; Samuel Gaither, admitted January 31, 1838; Fran- eis M. Kimmell, admitted March 19, 1839; Simon Gebhart, admitted Mareh 19, 1839; John R. Edie, admitted April 28, 1840; Isaae Hugus, admitted April 28, 1840; Samuel S. Austin, admitted, date unknown; Daniel Weyand, admitted July 19, 1841; Charles H. Heyer, admitted April 26, 1842; Ross For- ward, admitted January 31, 1843; Andrew J. Ogle, admitted April 25, 1843; Joseph J. Stutzman, admitted September 6, 1843; Ed- ward Scull, admitted August 31, 1846; Amos Steek (of Westmoreland county), admitted September 18, 1846; Robert L. Stewart, ad- mitted February 10, 1847 ; Joseph F. Loy, ad- mitted August 31, 1847; John D. Roddy, ad- mitted August 31, 1847; Hezekiah P. Hite, admitted August 31, 1847; Henry F. Sehell, admitted August 31, 1847 ; * William J. Baer, admitted May 7, 1849; Cyrus L. Pershing, admitted November 12, 1850; James H. Ogle. admitted August 27, 1850; * Alexander H. Coffroth, admitted February 3, 1851; Thomas F. Brooke, admitted February 4, 1851; James W. Blaek, admitted February 4, 1851; James W. Logan, admitted November 10, 1851; *William H. Koontz, admitted November 10, 1851; Henry B. Woods (of Adams eounty, Pennsylvania), admitted June 13, 1852; George W. Benford, admitted Mareh 25, 1853; Alexander Stutzman, admitted Mareh 25, 1853; Cyrus Meyers, admitted February 6, 1854; Robert R. Roddy, admitted April 24, 1854; James O'Connor, admitted April 24, 1854; A. J. Colborn, admitted February 5, 1855; Benjamin F. Meyers, admitted No- vember 12, 1855; Lewis Liehty, admitted No- vember 16, 1855; Cyrus Elder, admitted June 13, 1856; * Herman L. Baer, admitted June 13, 1856; Benjamin F. Stutzman, admitted June 13, 1856 ; Henry G. Baer, admitted June 13, 1856 ; O. II. Gaither, admitted September 15, 1857 ; William A. Ogle, admitted Septem-

ber 15, 1857; * John O. Kimmel, admitted September 15, 1857; * Valentine Hay, admit- ted April 26, 1858; George Lobingier, ad- mitted November 18, 1859; Elias Cunning- ham, admitted May 15, 1860; * John II. Uhl, admitted March 12, 1861; A. Thomson An- keny, admitted March 12, 1861; Chauneey F. Błaek, admitted April 23, 1861; George F. Baer, admitted April 26, 1864; Charles A. Gaither, admitted April 26, 1864; James C. Postlethwaite, admitted February 5, 1867; Thomas J. Grier, admitted May 9, 1867; *Franeis J. Kooser, admitted September 18, 1867; Henry Blaek, admitted November 23, 1868; James B. Gaither, admitted February 16, 1869; Israel F. Raudebaugh, admitted May 5, 1871; Paul II. Gaither, admitted No- vember 26, 1872; * William HI. Ruppel, ad- mitted November 26, 1872; * John G. Ogle, admitted February 20, 1873; * James L. Pugh, admitted May 4, 1874; * Louis C. Col- born, admitted May 7, 1874; * John R. Seott, admitted April 4, 1876; A. Bruee Coffroth, admitted April 4, 1876; Edward B. Seull, ad- mitted July 12, 1877; Harry S. Endsley, ad- mitted August 7, 1878; Samuel U. Trent, ad- mitted November 11, 1878; * George R. Scull, admitted August 29, 1879; Edgar II. Baer, admitted August 29, 1879; N. I. Potter, ad- mitted April 26, 1880; Robert F. Patterson, admitted August 28, 1880; * Milton J. Pritts, admitted August 23, 1881; Dennis Meyers, admitted November 14, 1881; Parker Y. Kim- mel, admitted April 25, 1882; * Frederiek W. Bieseeker, admitted August 28; 1882; James B. O'Connor, admitted June 8, 1883; Jaeob J. Miller, admitted August 30, 1883; Francis J. O'Connor, admitted June 10, 1884; * John Calvin Lowry, admitted August 4, 1885: A. J. Colborn, Jr., admitted December 15, 1885 ; * Aaron C. Holbert, admitted May 16, 1887; Philip J. Vonada, admitted May 16, 1887; *Harvey M. Berkley, admitted May 29, 1889; *John Albert Berkey, admitted September 28, 1889; * John E. Gastieger, admitted Sep- tember 28, 1889; Edmund E. Kiernan, admit-

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ted December 22, 1891; * Ernest O. Kooser, admitted May 31, 1892; * Albert L. G. Hay, admitted September 26, 1892; * Charles W. Walker, admitted September 29, 1893; * Ru- fus E. Meyers, admitted January 22, 1895; *Charles F. Uhl, Jr., admitted January 22, 1895; * Joseph Levy, admitted May 1, 1900; *George B. Somerville, admitted December 12, 1900; * Virgil R. Saylor, admitted Oeto- ber 19, 1903; * Harvey Frank Yost, admitted October 19, 1903.

There are no minutes showing the admis- sions to the bar at the organization of the court, December Term, 1795. The only in- formation as to who were the attorneys in attendance at that time is contained in the marginal appearanees at the Continuanee Doeket entries. The first name at the first case for the plaintiff is Abraham Morrison. The other appearanees for the term are Smith, Riddle, Nagle, Young, Selby and Cadwallader.

Only two of these were resident members of the bar, viz .: Abraham Morrison and Samuel Selby. Of the others, Thomas (or Robert) Smith, Samuel Riddle, Jacob Nagle and John Cadwallader were members (sev- eral of them resident members) of the Bed- ford County Bar. None of these men from Bedford and Westmoreland Counties ever established a residence at Somerset. They simply appeared here in term times for the trial of their eases.

The bar of Somerset eounty is one justly celebrated for the distinguished ability of many of its members who have not only at- tained eminenee as jurists, but have been conspicuous in matters of state.

Its history is illumined by the names of Jeremiah S. Blaek, Joseph Williams, Charles and A. J. Ogle, Chauncey Forward, Joshua F. Cox, among the dead; and others living who have added to its fame. In giving biographieal sketehes of its members we in- stinctively begin with that of Judge Blaek,

whose illustrious career had its inception in its courts.

Jeremiah Sullivan Black was born in Stonyereek township, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, on January 10, 1810, about seven miles east of Somerset, on the farm now occupied by Mr. Charles Ream. Close by the old Bedford pike, on the south side, a stone wall, crowning an eminenee on the farm, incloses the remains of some of his an- eestors and a few rods down the hill, on the north side of the pike, is a new dwelling house upon the site of his birthplace and his boyhood's home. As early as 1760 his grand- father eame into this eounty, then a wilder- ness, and began the work of elearing a farm and establishing the home in which the eoun- ty's greatest son was to be born. Here dur- ing the period of the Revolutionary war his father, Henry Black, was born. He, too, was a farmer, although he served twenty years upon the bench as associate judge and was a member of Congress at the time of his death, in 1842. Jeremiah S. Blaek was of Scotch-Irish ancestry on one side and of Pennsylvania German and Irish on the other. His early years were spent in vigorous exer- eise, along the banks of the Stonycreek, and upon the hillsides of his native township, giving him for compensation the great physical strength and perfeet health for the labor he afterwards undertook. His father was more inelined to indulge the studious inclinations of the youth than to press him into the harder work of the farm; but it is true, notwithstanding many idle stories to the contrary, that when he was at work he never failed to make a fair, "full land," and to the end of his long life resented, with no little spirit and a great deal of keen wit, the imputation that he ever showed the least aversion to the labors of the farm. His thirst for knowledge and his fondness for books led him from his father's field. He was a tire- less reader and student and forgot nothing

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of value. In his youth and to the end of his life his eonversation was constantly illumin- ated with apt quotations from the classies and from the whole field of English litera- ture. While these tastes and these quali- ties unfitted him for duty on the farmn, the time he spent there aroused in him a love for rural sights-for hills and trees, fields and flowers-that never forsook him, and through his whole life he wandered among them, finding health and reereation in yielding to this passion. Intellectual aetiv- ity was but reereation to him; and, beeause he liked nothing else so well, severe mental labor and outdoor physical exercise alter- nated so regularly, and so certainly, that each thoroughly fitted him for the enjoyment of the other. He was a giant, physically and mentally. His features, like his body, were massive and strong. Power and dignity were shown in every line of his faee. Af- fable, genial and eharming in manner and speech, he was always surrounded with eager listeners; but no one approached him without feeling that he was in the presenee of true royalty. The first few sessions of sehool he attended were in the neighborhood of his father's farm, and during this time he made no special promise of his future great- ness. He simply learned his tasks well. Ilis development was not in harmony with his surroundings, and its oddity brought him eontinual vexations. Ile finished his eduea- tion at an academy in Fayette county. There and during eighteen months he spent upon the farm after leaving sehool and before be- ginning the study of law, he translated into English verse nearly all the elassies, and with the aid of his extraordinary memory he was ever after their master. He had some desire to study medieine, but his father ad- vised him to study law, and at the age of eighteen he entered the office of Hon. Chaun- eey Forward in Somerset. He was most fortunate in the selection of his preeeptor. Mr. Forward was then the member of Con-

gress from this district, and the leader of the bar. He was a master of the science of the law, a scholar and an orator of the first order, and, above all, was conspicuous for his moral worth. These qualities Jeremiah S. Black had for his guidance and for emulation, and more than anything else they served to mold his character. Be- fore Mr. Black was of age he was ad- mitted to the bar and appointed depu- ty attorney general, or district attorney, as that office is now ealled. His relations with Mr. Forward brought immediate practice, and he soon exhibited the astonishing power as a lawyer that gave him subsequent emin- enee. At twenty-eight years of age he mar- ried Mary Forward, his preceptor's eldest daughter, who long survived him. For forty- four years she shared his struggles and tri- uinphs and was to him a great and eapable helpmeet. In 1842, when not yet thirty-two years of age, Mr. Black was appointed by Governor Porter president judge of this dis- triet, then composed of Franklin, Bedford, Blair, Fulton and Somerset counties. For a young lawyer he already had acquired an en- viable reputation and from his first term upon the bench he was pronouneed to have been "born a judge." To spotless integrity, a profound knowledge of the law and love for its principles, were united in him dignity, firmness, vigor of thought, perspieuity of ex- pression, all of the highest order. Until De- eember, 1851, he presided over the courts of this district, his home being in Somerset. There being no railroad through his district, he generally traveled on horseback from one eonnty to another. From Somerset county. without railroad or telegraph, and hemmed in by mountains, his fame as a judge spread over the state, and in 1851 he was chosen one of the judges of the Supreme court of Pennsylvania, along with Gibson, Lowrie, Lewis and Coulter, and, having drawn the short term, was commissioned chief justice of Pennsylvania for three years, from the

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first Monday in December, 1851. In 1854 he was re-elected to the Supreme bench, and after having served two of the fifteen years for which he was elected he entered Presi- dent Buchanan's cabinet as attorney gen- eral of the United States. His opinions, to be found in the Pennsylvania State Reports, from Volumes 17 to 27, are models of clearness, force and finish. Except it be Judge Gibson, he has had no equal upon the Supreme bench of Pennsylvania, and so long as there are students of the science of the law and readers of legal literature, Judge Black will be cited as a masterly writer of judicial opinion. When he entered Mr. Bu- chanan's cabinet Judge Black took up his residence in Washington and never after- wards lived in Somerset county, though he retained to the last his love for her people and her hills. When he returned to private life at the close of Buchanan's administra- tion, he was a poor man. The emoluments of office but supported him, and he knew nothing of and was morally incapable of us- ing public trust as a source of profit. This county was yet without railroad facilities, and, as his duties as a lawyer called him fre- quently to Washington and other eastern cities, he chose York, Pennsylvania, as his future home.

During the troublesome times of Buchan- an's administration, Judge Black was always a conspicuous figure. He was known to be the president's closest friend and believed to be his chief adviser. He was sought in coun- sel for his learning and his integrity, and in social circles for his brilliant wit and inex- haustible fund of anecdote and information. His most important service was rendered in the last year of Mr. Buchanan's administra- tion. At this time the schemes for the dis- ruption of the union were being concocted, and, in congress and in every department of government, secessionists openly avowed such intentions and purposes. The presi- dent was constantly surrounded with every

possible influence that could sway his judg- ment or control his action in the interest of the secessionists, and at this time he and Judge Black first seriously differed. The President lost judgment in his great alarm and by concession and temporization sought to purchase peace and quiet for the remain- der of his term, without contemplating the burdens he would cast upon his successors. Judge Black, to whom fear was always a stranger, demanded prompt and vigorous en- forcement of the laws, believing this to be the only remedy for threatening disaster. In November of 1860 Mr. Buchanan asked Judge Black for his legal opinion as to the right of states, under the constitution, to secede, and the power of the executive to prevent it to suppress rebellion. That opin- ion may be summarized as follows: "The union is necessarily perpetual. No state can lawfully withdraw or be expelled from it. Thìe federal constitution is as much a part of the constitution of every state as if it had been textually inserted therein. The federal government is sovereign within its own sphere, and acts directly upon the individ- ual citizen of every state. Within these lim- its its coercive power is ample to defend it- self, its laws and its property. It can sup- press insurrection, fight battles, conquer armies, disperse hostile combinations and punish any or all of its enemies. It can meet, repel and subdue all those who rise against it, but it cannot obliterate a single common- wealth from the map of the union or declare indiscriminate war against the inhabitants of a section, confounding the innocent with the guilty."

The President, himself a lawyer, could not dispute the soundness of Judge Black's views, but was dissatisfied with them, as they breathed no spirit of conciliation. In his message to Congress in December of 1860 the President said : "No power has been dele- gated to Congress to coerce into submission a state that is attempting to withdraw or has

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- entirely withdrawn from the confederacy," and, notwithstanding that Judge Black strongly protested against this doctrine and the use of these words, he was for many years charged with being their author. Ile allowed the current of calumny to run on. If others chose to misrepresent him he was content. Conscious that his course was pa- triotic, and within the lines of the consti- tution, he was proudly and stubbornly in- different to public opinion. Only in the last years of his life was justice done him. Then the conclusive proof of his antagonism to secession was made public by others and not at his solicitation. Then it was shown that by threatening to withdraw from the cabinet he foreed President Buchanan into a refusal of the impudent demands of the South Caro- lina commission; that when Secretary of War Floyd proposed to surrender the south- ern ports he firmly denounced the sugges- tion, saying, among other things -"There was never a period in the history of the Eng- lish nation when any minister could propose to give up to an enemy of his government a military post which was capable of being defended, without being brought to the block;" that it was he who wrote the order empowering Major Anderson to remove his command from Fort Moultrie to the stronger Fort Sumter, and that, during all these stormy times, he, Sceretary Stanton and Judge Holt were in perfect accord "upon the duty of the government toward secession- ists, and in perfect harmony as to the rights of the states under the constitution."

Ex-Chief Justice Agnew, in an eulogy de- livered at a meeting of the Pittsburgh bar, August 27, 1883, said of the "painful silence" Judge Black observed, and of the "miseon- struction which he bore with a virtue," that "few men could have suffered so long under the severity of adverse opinion to protect the reputation of an early but severed friend. Happily vindication came before the end, to

brighten the closing hours of an illustrions career."

Before the close of Buchanan's adminis- tration Judge Black was appointed his see- retary of state; and later, because of his emi- nent fitness, he was nominated by the Presi- dent for judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, but his confirmation was de- feated by the withdrawal of the southern senators. At the termination of his cabi- net services he was appointed reporter for the Supreme court, which position he held but a short time-long enough, however, for the publication of two volumes of reports- when, by reason of his great practice in the court, he was compelled to relinquish the reporter's place and devote his time exclu- sively to his practice. Ile then removed to York; and several years afterwards to his beautiful farm, "Broekie," near by.

His fame as a lawyer had long been na- tional, and clients from all parts of the union followed him into the seclusion of his coun- try home. Perhaps no other attorney in the nation has argued so many important cases of public interest during the same length of time as he from the date of his re- tirement from President Buchanan's cabinet up to the time of his death. To the end his life was a busy one. Besides his labor as a lawyer he served as a member of the Pennsylvania state constitutional eon- vention of 1873; and frequently published, on publie questions, essays of such rare power and beauty of finish that his reputa- tion as a writer is as great as his fame as a lawyer, jurist and statesman. With the fees from his praetiee he was enabled to make for himself a magnificent home at "Brockie:" and there, surrounded by everything that could make life happy, in the fullest vigor of his intelleet he died on Angust 19, 1883. There survived him his widow, Mary, and four children, viz .: Rebecea, now Mrs. Hornsby; Chauncey Forward Black, ex-

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lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania and a prominent Demoeratie politician; Henry Blaek, now deceased, and Mary, now Mrs. Clayton.

In early life Judge Blaek aeeepted the faith of the Diseiples of Christ under the ministrations of Alexander Campbell, and through his long life preserved and defend- ed it.

Judge Blaek in his eulogy on Judge Gib- son, said : "But he was of all men the mnost devoted and earnest lover of truth for its own sake. When subsequent reflection eon- vineed him he had been wrong, he took the first opportunity to aeknowledge it. He was oftenest the first to diseover his own mis- takes, as well as the foremost to eorreet them. He was inflexibly honest. The judi- cial ermine was as unspotted when he laid it aside for the habiliments of the grave as when he first assumed it. I do not mean to award him merely that commonplace integ- rity which it is no honor to have, but simply a disgrace to want. He was not only ineor- ruptible, but serupulously, delieately, con- seientiously free from all willful wrong, either in thought, word or deed."

These words, spoken many years ago (and to be found in the Nineteenth Pennsylvania State Reports) have eome to be regarded as a perfeet portrait of Judge Blaek himself; and have been so recognized and quoted by judges and lawyers all over this country.

He was no less known for his learning and ability than for his Christian eharaeter; and one serviee for which he will always be remembered by Christian people is his de- struetive answer to a noted infidel, pub- lished in the North American Review. In Judge Blaek, Somerset eounty will always feel the pride of having raised one of the grandest columns that support and orna- ment Ameriean jurisprudenee and states- manship.

Chauncey Forward was born about 1795 at Old Granby, Conn. About 1800 his fam-

ily moved to Aurora, Portage county, Ohio. His brothers were: Hon. Walter Forward, a leading lawyer of Pittsburgh, minister to Denmark, afterwards secretary of the treas- ury and president judge of the Allegheny county eourts ; Judge Oliver Forward of Buf- falo, N. Y .; Dryden Forward of St. Louis, and Rensselaer Forward of Greensburg, Pa., both attorneys, who died in comparatively early life. The mutual helpfulness of these brothers, continuous and active throughout life, was a large faetor in the suecess of each.

Chauneey Forward entered Jefferson eol- lege, Cannonsburg, Washington county, Pa .; and afterwards studied law with his eldest brother, Walter Forward, at Pittsburgh ; was admitted to the bar in that city; and, im- mediately afterwards, 1817, located at Som- erset, where he began the praetiee of law. He was elected to several terms in both branches of the state legislature ; and served as representative for this distriet in the Nineteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-first Congresses, deelining a renomination and very promising politieal eareer to return to his work and home at Somerset. In 1831 Governor Wolf desiring a reorganiza- tion of the county offiees, appointed him pro- thonotary, register, reeorder, elerk of the Or- phans' eourt and of the Criminal eourts of Somerset county. These positions he filled for five years, until a ehange of administra- tion, when he resumed the practice of law.

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The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume II, Part 83

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