Twentieth century history of Altoona and Blair County, Pennsylvania, and representative citizens, Part 15

Author: Sell, Jesse C 1872-
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Publishing
Number of Pages: 1036

USA > Pennsylvania > Blair County > Altoona > Twentieth century history of Altoona and Blair County, Pennsylvania, and representative citizens > Part 15

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Mr. Alexander was the district attorney who preceded him. He was long known as the senior partner in the law firm of Alexander & Herr. Within the last year he removed to Lancaster.

Thomas McCamant became the auditor gen- eral of the state in 1888 and now resides in Harrisburg.

Edmund Shaw, a prominent member of the bar, and a union soldier in the late war, was a member of the legislature for the terms of 1885 and 1887.

Mr. G. H. Spang removed to this county from Bedford in 1883. He was elected to the legislature from that county in 1875 and 1877.

J. D. Hicks came to the bar in 1873, after the close of the war, in which he served as a

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union soldier. He was district attorney from 1880 till 1886. In the fall of 1892 he was elected a member of congress from this con- gressional district, and re-elected in 1894.

J. K. Patterson was elected to the legisla- ture in 1894.

W. S. Hammond is the present district at- torney, having just entered upon his second term.

The other older and prominent members of the bar are: Andrew J. Riley, one of the so- licitors of the Pennsylvania railroad com- pany; Thomas H. Greevy, N. P. Mervine, J. S. Leisenring, E. H. Flick, W. L. Woodcock, W. I. Woodcock, A. A. Stevens, A. V. Dively, W. L. Hicks and W. L. Pascoe.

I could with pleasure name other bright and rising members of the bar, but time will not permit and besides I will be pardoned for grouping here a few only of those who are best known by their long and active profes- sional services and residence in the county.

The present prothonotary is Jesse L. Hart- man, an urbane and efficient officer. Two deputy prothonotaries are worthy of special notice.

Stephen Africa came here in 1850 and re- mained till about 1870. He was a most com- petent officer, understanding fully the intricate methods and details of the office. His prepara- tion for the quarterly terms embraced, among other things, the making of a dozen or two quill pens, which his skill alone could accom- plish. These were laid out for the judges, counsel and jurors. A steel pen was not yet in favor though now extremes have met in the stylus of the ancient and the steel of the modern.

The other deputy referred to is Mr. Cor- nelius D. Bowers. He came here from Phila- delphia, and is fifty-eight years old. He has been a printer by profession and was an hon- orably discharged and wounded soldier in the Eighty-fourth regiment of this state. He has spent twenty-eight years of his life in the re- corder's and prothonotary's office. He is fa- miliar with all the duties of his present posi- tion, and by his courtesy and faithfulness he

has won the confidence of the court and the bar and the respect of the public.

Mr. Jones Rollins, now deceased, was for nineteen years crier of the court and libra- rian. He was a most intelligent and oblig- ing officer. and gentleman.

The present recorder and register of wills is Mr. William H. Irwin. The sheriff is G. T. Bell with his deputies I. N. Eby and W. A. Smith. The county commissioners are James Funk, M. H. Fagley and John Hurd. The county treasurer is John T. Akers.

Thus I have endeavored to recall some of the persons and incidents of the past. The retrospect is a changeful one. The faces and voices which make up one period, gradually pass to give way to another; and those ev- erchanging series like a relentless fate, de- stroy the familiar past, and replace it with the new and strange present.

But it must be so. This bar will grow with the county's growth. Increasing pros- perity will be accompanied by increasing population, and the public business will be manifested in the courts.

The younger members of the bar today will impose upon themselves the industry and zeal of those who have preceded them. As there have been lustrous names in the past, there shall be more in the future. If to any extent the bar of the past has sought to maintain the highest grade of learning and integrity; so the future bar should jeal- ously refuse to lower that standard. The entrance way to its privileges and powers is controlled by the membership, and when the unworthy or the ignorant seek to set their feet within those precincts-which are traditionally sacred to those only who have education, mind and learning, with high pro- fessional pride and honor-both court and bar will interpose their steadfast prohibi- tion.

The perpetuation of a bar which is meas- ured by such a standard will not only add to its own high character and adornment, but will win the confidence of the great pub- lic, who intrust freely to honest and capable

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lawyers that vast variety of intricate ques- tions which constantly arise to affect their lives, their liberty and their property.

Gentlemen of the present bar-animated by such ennobling aims, what shall be said of us and those who follow us fifty years from to-day?

DEATH OF JUDGE BELL.

Judge Martin Bell died January 2, 1910. His term of office would not have expired until 1914. He was a lineal descendant of Edward Bell, the founder of Bellwood, this county, and an early iron manufacturer in the Juniata valley. He was born in Antis township September 30, 1849, being in his sixty-first year at the time of his death. He was reared in Blair county and Allegheny city and received his education at Bucknell university, at Lewisburg, from which insti- tution he graduated in 1869. After gradua- tion he read law with Samuel S. Blair, of Hollidaysburg. His fellow student was George B. Orlady, now a judge of the state superior court. Judge Bell was admitted to the bar in 1873. He pursued the practice of law for twenty years before he was ele- vated to the judgeship.

He was elected district attorney in 1886 and served so acceptably and with such effi- ciency that he was re-elected for a second term. In those days the criminal court cal- endar was a jumble with no system as to which case was first, second or last. Liti- gants and witnesses came to court on Mon- day morning, and were compelled to re- main until their cases were called, possibly four or five days later. District Attorney Bell brought order out of this chaos by in- augurating a daily calendar, or trial list, thereby working a great saving of the pub- lic money, as well as the time of the court's attendants.

At the November election of 1893 he was elected president judge. He was peculiarly fitted for the responsible position. He was familiar with all the intricacies of the law, was a keen observer, possessed of a remark-

able and almost infallible memory, was pa- tient under perplexities, knew by intuition how to blend mercy with justice to uphold the dignity of the law and yet not unduly punish the offender. He was re-elected for a second term and had four years yet to serve when the summons came to quit the activities of earth.

On the 12th of January Governor Edwin S. Stuart appointed as his successor Thomas J. Baldridge. Under this appointment he will serve until January 1, 1912. His com- mission was received on the 13th of January and he immediately went before Register and Recorder Claude Jones, at the court house, and took the oath of office.

The appointment of T. J. Baldrige to the president judgeship by Governor Stuart met with general approval, as shown by the fol- lowing in the editorial columns of the Al- toona Evening Gazette and the Morning Tribune, the leading newspapers of the county :

JUDGE BALDRIGE.

(From the Altoona Evening Gazette.)

The appointment of Thomas J. Baldrige, Esq., to the position of president judge of the several courts of Blair county will meet with general approval. As Governor Stuart told the delegations that waited upon him on Tuesday, he had a difficult task before him, inasmuch as all the aspirants for the position were eminently worthy, and he will be given credit with doing his best to meet with the expectations of the people of the county. Those who failed were well quali- fied and had either one of them been ap- pointed he would have received the same trib- utes that are now being paid Mr. Baldrige.

The new judge comes to the exalted po- sition in the prime and vigor of his young boyhood, but he is not too young. In him are found all the requirements of the posi- tion. The son of one of the ablest lawyers our county has produced, he grew to man- hood in a legal atmosphere. He had the advantages of a thorough general and legal

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education and the untimely death of his father threw him upon his own resources every one who has come in contact with him immediately upon his admission to the bar. That he made the most of his opportunities will attest, and he stands today the peer of any of his professional brethren of equal ex- perience at the bar.

Judge Baldrige also goes on the bench with the prestige of an honored name. His character is clean and unsullied and his rep- utation without a blemish. He has never been a partisan and he has no entangling al- liances which will in the slightest degree prevent him from giving a fair, honest and impartial administration of justice in Blair county. He has the entire confidence of his professional brethren, the capacity for the hard work that now confronts him and the natural ability and legal learning necessary for the position.

The Gazette joins in the general chorus of congratulations that are being showered upon the new judge, and we bespeak for him the earnest co-operation of the defeated aspirants and their friends. That there can- not but be a feeling of disappointment on their part is but natural, but it is the fate of politics, that all cannot succeed. Let all work together in the cause of justice and let the highest expectations of the governor be realized.

THE PEOPLE'S JUDGE. (From the Altoona Tribune.)

Governor Stuart has justified the expecta- tions of the majority of the people of this county in the selection of a successor to the late Judge Martin Bell. He likewise heeded that the necessities of the case demanded a the suggestion of the members of the bar speedy appointment. The courts will now resume their regular sittings and there is every reason to believe the future will wit- ness a very great improvement over the re- cent past. The action of the governor has been foreshadowed from the beginning. The republican organization of the county. was

earnestly for Mr. Baldrige and had the ac- tive aid of many good people who have not taken any very active part in politics. It was the general conviction of the unpreju- diced citizenship of the county that the cir- cumstances required the appointment of a man like Mr. Baldrige. The matter was urgently presented to the governor, who was by no means unfamiliar with recent conditions. The result was the appointment of Mr. Baldrige. He will serve until Janu- ary 1, 1912. A judge for the full term will be elected in November, 1911. No doubt the incumbent will be nominated and elected.

From the biographical sketch of Judge Baldrige which appears in another part of this number of the Tribune, it will be per- ceived that he is in the prime of life. He has been an active and studious member of the bar for over fourteen years, during which time he has acquired a large practice. He comes of a good family. His father, who died young, was one of the most eminent members of the bar and a gentleman with- out stain or reproach. His personal record since his childhood has been such as one might reasonably expect from the son of such a father. He has no entangling alli- ances of any sort and never had. Under the circumstances the governor could scarcely have made a more fortunate appointment, although, as the Tribune suggested a day or two ago, there is no lack of admirable ju- dicial timber among the members of the Blair county bar. Some were for other as- pirants, as was their right, but we think a very large majority are pleased with the action of the governor and will wish his ap- pointee the largest possible success.

The Tribune has known the new judge more or less intimately all his life. It ad- mires him as it admired his father and his grandfather before him. It feels that a young man with such a clean record as this young man possesses, a lawyer with the legal lore he has gathered, will give the county a judicial administration of which

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every reputable citizen may well be proud. It congratulates him upon the honor that has come to him thus early in life. It be- lieves that honor well deserved and predicts that he will give the people of this county a conservative and efficient enforcement of the laws. It believes that judicial adminis- tration in Blair county is about to enter upon a new and a more dignified era.

OUR JUDGES.

Of the six judges who have presided over the courts of Blair county since its creation, nearly sixty-four years ago, two were demo- crats, one was a whig and three republicans. Judge Black was a democrat of the Jack- sonian type and, as the Tribune remarked the other day, was able to render the coun- try substantial service at a later and crisal day when a member of President Buchan- an's cabinet. Judge Taylor served as dis- trict attorney before his elevation to the bench. He never aspired to any other office and was a republican during the closing years of his life. Judge Landis was an hon- ored member of the convention which framed the present constitution before he became judge. "Judge Dean went from the district attorney's office to the bench and later, as our readers know, was elected an associate justice of the supreme court. Judge Bell likewise served as district attor- ney previous to his elevation to the bench. Judge Baldrige never held any other office and has all the possibilities of the future be- fore him.

Judge Taylor made his reputation while serving as district attorney of Huntingdon county. A peculiarly atrocious crime gave him his opportunity. Several members of one family were murdered from the father and mother down to the youngest child. A man named Robert McConaghy, married to one of the daughters of the family, we believe, was arrested on suspicion of having committed the crime. District Attorney Taylor wove so convincing a web of cir- cumstantial evidence around the suspected man that the jury found him guilty of mur-

der in the first degree. The speech of the district attorney was long regarded as one of the most powerful arraignments of a criminal ever made in a court of justice, tracing as it did the course of the murderer from the inception of his crime until its con- summation. Joseph Shannon, who spent the closing years of his life in this county, was sheriff of Huntingdon county and had charge of the execution. The murderer protested his innocence to the last. The drop fell and the rope broke. Then he told the whole story of his bloody deed, the nar- rative showing how truly District Attorney Taylor had conceived the actual facts.

In 1871 the voters of the judicial district, at that time composed of Blair, Cambria and Huntingdon, were called upon to choose between Judge Taylor, running as an independent candidate, John Dean, the republican nominee, and Thaddeus Banks, the democratic candidate. The battle of the ballots resulted in the. triumph of John Dean. The ability he displayed on the lo- cal bench was so marked, and his learning and sound legal knowledge were so widely recognized, that he was made one of the justices of the supreme court of Pennsyl- vania soon after he entered upon his third term as the judge of this county. Governor Pattison, appointed the Hon. Aug. S. Landis as his successor, and he in turn was succeeded by Hon. Martin Bell, who has just passed away. It is too soon to undertake to write dispassionately of those who have been among us until a little time ago. That must be left for another generation. But it is now generally recog- nized that the county has great reason to be proud of the record made by her earlier judges. When the future historian comes to sum up results let us hope that he will be able to assign to every one of them a de- servedly high place in the history of the commonwealth.

The following sketch of Judge Bell's life and his sudden death appeared in the Al- toona Tribune January 3, 1910.

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Hon. Martin Bell, the president judge of the Blair county courts, was found lying dead in the bed chamber of his residence, corner of Clarke and Walnut streets, Hol- lidaysburg, yesterday morning, at ten o'clock. The waiting maid went to his room at that hour to hand him the morning newspapers, and was shocked to find the master of the house lying on his side in the bed, with the vital spark of life departed.

The family physician, Dr. H. H. Brother- lin, was of the opinion that the death sum- mons had come about one hour before the discovery. Death was due to an affection of the heart. Judge Bell had been an invalid for three years past. While his body was racked and wasted by disease, his intellect was bright and unimpaired and his mind acute to the end. The members of his fam- ily had no thought of their coming loss and his wife was absent from home, at Indian- apolis, Indiana, whither she had been sum- moned to attend their sick daughter, Mrs. A. C. Hutchinson. Death apparently came to Judge Bell in an easy and painless form, like the snuffing out of a candle. His death was not totally unexpected in the commun- ity. A party of his most intimate friends sat in the rooms of the Hollidaysburg club Saturday night discussing his physical ail- ments, and expressing the fear that the hour of his dissolution was close at hand.

Martin Bell was a lineal descendant of Edward Bell, the founder of Bellwood, this county, and an early iron manufacturer of the Juniata valley. He was a son of the Rev. Dr. A. K. Bell and Mary E. (Allen) Bell and was born in Antis township, Sep- tember 30, 1849, being in his sixty-first year at the time of his death. The founder of the pioneer Bell family of central Pennsylvania was John Bell, who settled in Sinking valley prior to the revolutionary war, during which he was often compelled to flee with his fam- ily to Lowery's fort, to escape massacre by the Indians.

His son, Edward Bell, was born in Sink- ing valley, March 17, 1769, and died April

14, 1852, aged eighty-three years. He was a millwright by trade, and in the first year of the last century he came to the site of Bell- wood, where he built a gristmill, distillery and saw mill, which improvements gave the place the name of Bell's Mills and later, in honor of Mr. Bell, Bellwood. Edward Bell was a remarkably energetic man and in 1830 had come into the ownership of 3,674 acres of land. Two years later he built Elizabeth furnace and Mary Ann forge and in 1836 his son, Martin Bell, at Elizabeth furnace, was the first man in the world to use escaping gas from the tunnel head of a furnace for the production of steam.

Edward Bell married Mary A. Martin, by whom he had nine children, seven sons and two daughters. Mrs. Bell was a daughter of Rev. James Martin, of Scotch-Irish descent, who was the first Presbyterian clergyman to preach in Blair county. Rev. Dr. A. K. Bell was born in Antis township in 1814 and died in 1888, aged seventy-four years. He was an able Baptist preacher, and served sev- eral churches in central Pennsylvania, as well as being pastor for a number of years of one of the largest and leading Baptist churches in Allegheny City. He was an abolitionist and republican in politics, and married Mary E. Allen, a native of Dauphin county, and a member of the Baptist church, who died in Hollidaysburg a score of years ago.

Martin Bell was reared in Blair county and Allegheny City, and received his educa- tion at Lewisburg, Union county, new Buck- nell university, from which institution he graduated in 1869. Throughout his life he treasured in his mind and heart the scenes of his alma mater and he never tired of eulo- gizing the merits and worth of the masters and professors of old Bucknell.

After graduation, he read law with the late Samuel S. Blair, or Hollidaysburg, who stood at the head of the bar of central Penn- sylvania for thirty years. His fellow stu- dent in Mr. Blair's office was George B. Or- lady, of Huntingdon, now a judge of the state superior court. In the year 1873, Mr.

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Bell was admitted to the bar. He first prac- ticed his profession as a partner of his pre- ceptor, Mr. Blair, and then became an inde- pendent practitioner, which course he pur- sued for twenty years before he was ele- vated to the judgeship.

Martin Bell was a staunch republican in politics. He was a familiar figure at the early county conventions of his party and was in the thick of several hard fought political contests as the county chairman. He was elected district attorney of Blair county in 1886 and served so acceptably and with such efficiency that, at the end of his term, he was re-elected for a second term. In those days the criminal court calendar was a jumble, with no head nor tail to the list of cases. Litigants and witnesses came to the court on Monday morning, and were compelled to remain there until their cases were called, possibly four or five days later. District Attorney Bell brought order out of this chaos, by inaugurating a daily calen- dar or trial list, thereby working a great saving of the public moneys and likewise of the time of the court attendants. In the November elections of 1893, Martin Bell was elected president judge, defeating the Hon. Augustus S. Landis, who had been ap- pointed judge by Governor Pattison upon the occasion of the advancement of Judge Dean to the supreme court justiceship.

Many causes celebre were tried during the judicial administration of Judge Bell. The trials of Frank Wilson and James Far- rell for the alleged murder of Henry Bon- necka were the most sensational in char- acter and attracted general attention and in- terest. The jurist revelled in knotty prob- lems and complexities of ejectment litiga- tion. He was chosen the trial judge of an ejectment suit pending in the Centre county courts, the trial of which lasted four weeks, which forms one of the leading cases on that branch of the law in this state. He tried more pure food cases than any other five judges in the commonwealth. He was the first judge to declare the Tustin pure food

law unconstitutional and his decision was upheld by the court of last resort.

In the case of the Citizens' Supply Com- pany, involving the right of an Ohio grocer to solicit orders in this state, his decision, based on the interstate commerce law, went to and was affirmed by the United States supreme court. He possessed a wonderfully retentive memory, and his notes of testi- mony at a trial were largely confined to the names of witnesses, the facts of the case at issue being buried in the storehouse of his memory. He was a firm believer in natural justice, and at all times adapted the harsh letter of the law to the mould of equity. He was most merciful and lenient in the sen- tencing of criminals, and in that work his sensibilities were sometimes far more hurt than were those of the offender sentenced. A man of abundant charity, he dreaded wounding and grieving a friend, and he oft- times delayed his judgments by reason of such dread. He and Judge Robert von Moschzisker of Philadelphia, rendered the joint judgment declaring the judges' salary increase law constitutional.

Judge Bell was a member and officer of the state national guard for fifteen years. He was the captain of company C, Fifth reg- iment, for several years, finally resigning when he went to the bench. Re was with his regiment at Johnstown in the days suc- ceeding the flood, and marched at the head of his company into Homestead after the strike. The judicial campaign was on when he went to Homestead, and his friends ad- vised him that it was a suicidal policy to take any position antagonistic to labor, but Cap- tain Bell saw only his duty as a militiaman.

He was an ardent lover of all athletic sports. He was a member of the Juniata baseball club that flourished in Hollidays- burg thirty years ago and retained his affec- tion for the diamond to the last. He was a mine of information on the subject of base- ball, and could name the personnel of all the clubs in the major leagues. Columbia park loses in him a fast friend.

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He was an organizer of the Allegheny hook and ladder company of Hollidaysburg, and the chief of the fire department of the town for many terms of office.

He was one of the most prominent secret fraternity men of the county. He was a past master of Portage lodge No. 220, Free and Accepted Masons, a companion of Mount Moriah chapter No. 166, Royal Arch Masons, and a Knight Templar of Mountain com- mandery No. 10, of Altoona. He was also identified with the Elks, Moose and Eagles.

In 1877 the deceased was united in mar- riage with Miss Irene Lemon, a daughter of Robert M. Lemon, of Hollidaysburg, and a niece of former Auditor General John A. Lemon, for many years a state senator from this district. He is survived by his wife and six children, viz .: Eliza, wife of A. C. Hutchison, of Indianapolis, Ind. ; Misses Eli- zabeth, Allen and Roberta at home; Adie K., a student at Cornell, N. Y .; Martin, Jr., who is being tutored at Highland Falls, N. Y., preparatory to entering West Point, and Blair, at home.

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Twentieth century history of Altoona and Blair County, Pennsylvania, and representative citizens, Part 15

Author: Sell, Jesse C 1872- Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Publishing Number of Pages: 1036

Author: Sell, Jesse C 1872-
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Publishing
Number of Pages: 1036