Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA Tri-Counties Genealogy & History 1883 Tioga County PA History

There are but few persons living within the limits of Tioga County whose persons recollections reach back to the time when Hon. John Bannister Gibson and his associates, Hon. Samuel W. Morris and Hon. Ira Kilbourn, held the first term of court, January 11^th 1813, in the log house of Samuel Smith Jr. at Wellsboro. The prothonotary was John Norris; sheriff, Alpheus Cheeney; commissioners - Eddy Howland, Timothy Ives and Nathan Niles.

The country was then new, in every sense of the expression, with few public roads and no regular mode of public conveyance. But Judge Gibson was peculiarly fitted for the task assigned him. He possessed a knowledge of frontier life, coupled with learning and judicial ability exceeded by none within the broad limits of the commonwealth, and his presence was calculated to inspire confidence and give dignity to the proceedings, whether they were held in a rudely constructed log house on the frontier or within the more stately hall in the center of refinement and culture. He was a native of Spring Township, Perry County, Pa., and a son of Colonel George Gibson of the Revolutionary War, who fell at the time of St. Clair's defeat in 1791. In the "old Gibson mansion" is the room in which he was born as also his brother George Gibson, commissary of the United States Army, Hon. John Bigler, governor of California from 1852 to 1855 (who died at Sacramento, Cal., August 27^th 1872), and Hon. William Bigler, governor of Pennsylvania from 1852 to 1855 (who recently died in Clearfield County, Pa.

John B. Gibson graduated at Dickinson College in the year 1800, and immediately thereafter commenced the study of the law under Thomas Duncan. He was sent to the Legislature from his native county, Cumberland (now Perry), for the years 1810 and 1811, and acquitted himself with honor, giving his support to Governor Snyder and President Madison. In 1812 he was appointed by Governor Snyder circuit judge, and a year later visited Tioga County and held the first court as above stated. In 1818 he went upon the supreme bench. He died May 3^rd 1853, in the 73^rd year of his age, and was buried at Carlisle. We cannot better give the reader an idea of the high ability and distinguished services of Judge Gibson than by quoting extracts from a eulogium qualified to speak of the many accomplishments and the purity and uprightness of this most eminent jurist. Chief Justice Black said:

"It is unnecessary to say that every surviving member of the court is deeply grieved by the death of Chief Justice Gibson. In the course of nature it was not to be expected that he could live much longer, for he had attained a ripe old age. But the blow, though not sudden, was nevertheless a severe one. The intimate relations, personal and official, which we all bore to him would have been sufficient to account for some emotion, even if he had been an ordinary man. But he was the Nestor of the bench, whose wisdom inspired the public mind with confidence in our decisions. By this bereavement the court has lost what no time can repair, for we shall never look upon his like again. We regarded him more as a father than a brother." None of us ever saw a supreme court until he was in it; and to some of us his character as a great judge was familiar even in childhood. The earliest knowledge of the law we had was derived in part from his luminous expositions of it. He was a judge of the common please before the youngest of us was born, and was a member of this court long before the oldest was admitted to the bar. He sat here with twenty-six different associates, of whom eighteen preceded him to the grave. For nearly a quarter of a century he was chief justice, and when he was nominally superseded by another as the head of the court his great learning, venerable character and overshadowing reputation still made him the only chief whom the hearts of the people would know. During the long period of his judicial labors he discussed and decided innumerable questions. His opinions are found in no less than seventy volumes of the regular reports, from 2 Sargent and Rawle to 7 Harris. At the time of his death he had been longer in office than any contemporary judge in the world, and in some points of character he had not his equal on the earth. Such vigor, clearness and precision of thought were never before united with the same felicity of diction. Brougham has sketched Lord Stowell justly enough as the greatest judicial writer that England could boast of, for force and beauty of style. He selects a sentence, and calls on the reader to admire the remarkable elegance of its structure. I believe Judge Gibson never wrote an opinion in his life from which a passage might not be taken stronger as well as more graceful in its turn of expression that this which is selected with so much care by a most zealous friend from all of Lord Stowell's. His written language was a transcript of his mind. I have the world the very form and pressure of his thoughts. It was accurate, because he knew the exact boundaries of the principles he discussed. His mental vision took in the whole outline and all the details of the case, and with a bold and steady hand he painted what he saw. His style was rich, but he never turned out of his way for figures of speech. He never sacrificed sense to sound or preferred ornament to substance. He said neither more nor less than just the thing he ought. He had one power of a great poet, that of expressing a thought in language which could never be paraphrased. When a legal principle passed through his hands he sent it forth clothed in a dress which fitted it so exactly that nobody ever presumed to give it any other. The dignity, richness and purity of his written opinions was by no means his highest title to admiration. The movements of his mind were as strong as they were graceful. His periods not only pleased the ear, but sunk into the mind. He never wearied the reader, but he always exhausted the subject. An opinion of his was an unbroken chain of logic from beginning to end. He was inflexibly honest. The judicial ermine was an unspotted when he laid it aside for the habiliments of the grave as it was when he first assumed it. Next after his wonderful intellectual endowments the benevolence of his heart was the most marked feature of his character. His was a most genial spirit, affectionate and kind to his friends and magnanimous to his enemies. Benefits received by him were engraved on his memory as on a table of brass; injuries were written in the sand. He never let the sun go down on his wrath. His accomplishments were very extraordinary. He was born a musician, and the natural talent was highly cultivated. He was a connoisseur in painting and sculpture. The whole round of English literature was familiar to him. He was at home among the ancient classics. He had a perfectly clear conception of all the great truths of natural science. He had studied medicine in his youth, and understood it well. His mind absorbed all kinds of knowledge with scarcely an effort. Abroad he has for many years been thought the great glory of his native State. Doubtless the whole commonwealth will mourn his death; we all have good reason to do so. The profession of the law has lost the ablest of its teachers, this court the brightest of its ornaments, and the people a steadfast defender of their rights, so far as they were capable of being protected by judicial authority. For myself I know no form of words to express my deep sense of the loss we have suffered."

The associates upon the bench with Judge Gibson, as we have stated, were Hon. Samuel W. Morris and Hon. Ira Kilbourn. Of Mr. Morris we speak in our history of Wellsboro. Judge Kilbourn was a resident of Lawrenceville, and one of the most active business men of that locality, being engaged chiefly in lumbering. He was a gentleman of extensive reading, an upright citizen and a just judge.

In our further remarks upon the bench we shall only refer to those judges who have presided in this district that were residents of Tioga County, viz., Hon. Robert G. White, Hon. Henry W. Williams and Hon. Stephen F. Wilson.

Robert Gray White was born on an island in the Susquehanna River in Northumberland County, Pa., in January 1807. His father died when Robert was quite young, and his mother married again and subsequently removed to a point in Lycoming County on the West Branch, between Jersey Shore and Lock Haven. Here were passed his early years. He entered Jefferson College, Washington County, at a comparatively early age, and graduated with honors. He read law with Judge Parsons of Jersey Shore, at Pittsburgh, and with Judge Shippen at Meadville, Pa. His preparatory studies completed he came to Wellsboro in 1829, when he was in the 23^rd year of his age, and immediately commenced the practice of the law. He soon took a leading position at the bar, and was a member of the constitutional convention of 1838, and treasurer of Tioga County in 1842-43. He was for a time extensively engaged in lumbering in Delmar, Shippen and Pine Creek, owning mills and valuable tracts of timbered lands. In 1851 he was elected president judge of this judicial district, and he was reelected in 1861 and served until the close of 1871, thus holding the office twenty years, winning the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens, the members of the bar of the district, and all with whom he came in contact. For several years before the close of his official term the work of the district had materially increased, and as he was in quite feeble health an additional law judge was elected, pursuant to an act of the Legislature; Hon. Henry W. Williams, of Wellsboro, occupying that position from May 1865, and thus relieving Judge White from the accumulating business of this fast developing district. He retired from the bench at the close of the year 1871, and at his fine home, a few rods north of the present Parkhurst House in Wellsboro, he spent the closing years of his life in the midst of his family. His wife was the daughter of William Bachesen. Judge White died September 6^th 1875, in the 68^th year of his age. The court was in session at the time in Wellsboro, and his death was formally announced by Judge Williams, whereupon on motion the court adjourned. After the adjournment a meeting of the bar was organized to take action in relation to his death. Judge Williams was called to the chair, and Hon. M. F. Elliott was appointed secretary. On motion of F. E. Smith a committee of five was appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the great loss the bar and the country had sustained in the death of Judge White. In presenting the preamble and resolutions the chairman, Mr. Smith, made some very feeling and appropriate remarks upon the character of the deceased, and among other resolutions reported the following:

"Resolved, That in Judge White we recognize what has been appropriately said to be 'the noblest work of God - an honest man. Honorable and hightoned in all his thoughts and actions, as such he adorned the profession of his choice; upright and impartial as a judge, the judicial ermine was never soiled by his wearing it. Courteous, kind and liberal as a citizen and a parent, the world was made the better by his living in it."

Remarks were made by many members of the bar, and a committee was appointed, consisting of George W. Merrick, William A. Stone and M. F. Elliott, to make suitable arrangements for attending the funeral. The funeral occurred on Thursday, September 9^th 1875, from the judge's late residence and was largely attended. Business places in Wellsboro were closed during the solemn obsequies. The beautiful ritual of the Protestant Episcopal Church for the burial of the dead was read by Rev. Dr. Breck, and the body of one long known, respected and honored was laid away in the tomb. Mr. White had made Wellsboro his home when he was in the first bloom of young manhood, when Wellsboro was a small hamlet in northern Pennsylvania. For 22 years he practiced at the bar of Tioga, Potter, Bradford and other counties of the district; had engaged also in active business enterprises, and had for twenty years presided over the courts of the district, endearing himself to all classes by his unswerving justice, - tempering it with mercy, - by his high sense of honor, courteous manners, and all the ennobling traits which elevate mankind; it was no wonder his death was widely and sincerely mourned. His widow survives him, and resides in the R. G. White homestead in Wellsboro, honored and respected.

The court as now constituted consists of Hon. Henry W. Williams, president judge; Hon. Stephen F. Wilson, additional law judge; Hon. George H. Baxter, associate judge; Hon. Harvey Lamkin, associate judge; officers of the court General Robert C. Cox, prothonotary and clerk; George C. Bowen, clerk of the orphans' court; Henry M. Foote, district attorney; Henry J. Landrus, sheriff; Thomas P. Wingate, crier; B.C. Van Horn, janitor.

The associate judges from 1813 to 1882 have been - Samuel W. Morris and Ira Kilbourn, from 1813 to 1830; subsequently John Ryon, Curtis Parkhurst, Jonah Brewster, Simeon Power, Levi J. Nichols, Edwin Dyer, J. C. Charles F. Veile, E. T. Bentley, L. B. Smith, D. McNaughton, John F. Donaldson, M.K. Retan, Peter Van Ness, G. H. Baxter and Harvey Lamkin.

Honorable Henry W. Williams, successor to Hon. Robert G. White, was born in Harford, Susquehanna County, Pa., July 30^th 1830. At Franklin Academy he was fitted for admission to the sophomore class of Amherst College, but was prevented from entering college by a sever illness, which disabled him for study for over two years. When he was in his 22^nd year he commenced the study of law with Hon. E. B. Chase, of Montrose, PA. In May 1852 he came to Wellsboro, when he continued the study of law under the instructions of Hon. John W. Guernsey, and was admitted to the Tioga County bar in January 1854. In March 1855 he was admitted to practice int he supreme court of Pennsylvania, and in 1856 to the United States district and circuit courts.

Mr. Williams immediately upon his admission to the bar took a high rank and won much fame as an advocate, being an eloquent, fluent and logical speaker; and had he continued to practice at the bars of the several courts to which he was admitted, instead of going upon the bench, he would have acquired a national reputation for his oratory and forensic acquirements. He however chose to accept the office of additional law judge, tendered him by Gov. Andrew G. Curtin for the 4^th judicial district, composed of the counties of Tioga, Potter, McKean, Elk and Cameron. This was in March 1865. In the fall of the same year he was elected for a term of ten years from the first of December following. In 1871 he was elected president judge of the same district, and served with distinction for a period of ten years. In 1881 he was unanimously elected for a second term of ten years, from the 1^st of January 1882. He has served seventeen years upon the bench as additional and president judge. In 1874 he was appointed one of the board of seven commissioners to revise the new constitution. In 1877 he was appointed one of the delegates to represent the Presbyterian Church of the United States in the Pan-Presbyterian council at Edinburgh, Scotland. He delivered an address before that body, which is to be found in the printed proceedings of the council. In 1881 he represented Pennsylvania in the international Sunday-school convention at Toronto, Canada, and was chosen one of its vice-presidents. He has been for several years one of the State executive committee of the Sunday-school association and of the Young Men's Christian Association. On the 24^th of June 1882 he delivered an address before the grand lodge of Ancient York Masons at Philadelphia, it being the 105^th anniversary of its establishment. This address is highly spoken of among the fraternity of the State.

Although the duties pertaining to the bench have been laborious, still Judge Williams, as we have seen, has found time to make his impress upon the church, Sunday-school, Christian association and free masonry. While discharging his duties upon the bench he has not neglected those other duties which are incumbent upon all good citizens of a community, State and nation. He holds in an eminent degree the affections and confidence of the people in the 4^th judicial district and of the entire commonwealth.

Stephen Fowler Wilson, youngest of the seven children of George and Jane Wilson, who were natives of Ireland, was born in Columbia Township, Bradford County, Pa., September 4^th 1821. He lived on a farm until 18 years of age, attending district school in the winter season, and subsequently attended Wellsboro Academy and became one of the assistant teachers. He began reading law with Hon. James Lowrey of Wellsboro, in 1842, and was admitted to the Tioga County bar February 20^th 1845. The committee on examination consisted of Hon. Robert G. White (afterward president judge), Hon. John C. Know (subsequently attorney general and judge of the supreme court), and John W. Guernsey, subsequently State senator and a distinguished member of the bar. Mr. Wilson passed his examination very creditably and was admitted, Judge John N. Conygham presiding. He commenced practicing immediately, and subsequently went into a law partnership with Hon. L.P. Williston. After remaining with him several years he formed a co-partnership with Hon. James Lowrey, which existed until Mr. Lowrey removed from the county. Mr. Wilson afterward formed a partnership with Hon. Jerome B. Niles, and continued with him until appointed additional law judge for the 4^th judicial district. In 1862 he was elected to the Senate of Pennsylvania, representing the counties of Tioga, Potter, McKean and Warren. He made a fine record in the Senate and was very popular with his constituents, and in the fall of 1864 was elected to Congress, representing a district composed of the counties of Tioga, Lycoming, Center, Clinton and Potter. He was re-elected, thus serving four years during the most exciting times of the late Rebellion and the period of reconstruction. In 1864 he represented this district in the national Republican convention at Baltimore, which renominated President Lincoln. Mr. Wilson had acted with the Democratic party until 1854, when he joined what has since been known as the Republican party. In the year 1871 he was appointed by Governor John W. Geary additional law judge for the 4^th judicial district, composed of the counties of Tioga, Potter, McKean and Cameron; in 1872 he was elected for the term of ten years, and he has discharged the duties of the office in a highly honorable and creditable manner.

Judge Wilson is peculiarly distinguished for his frankness and cordiality and his social and companionable nature. He is gifted with a rare fund of good humor, which peculiarly marks the descendants of the sons of the Emerald Isle; yet while upon the bench he presides with dignity and decorum. He takes a lively interest in agriculture and everything pertaining to the field, and is the possessor of a fine farm, well stocked. He was president of the Tioga County Agricultural Society in 1875. He is a valuable member of society, genial, social and public spirited. He is unmarried, yet possesses none of those traits which are said to distinguish the "crusty old bachelor." He has many warm personal friends throughout his district, State and nation, and is noted for his benevolent heart and kindly impulses. He resides at Wellsboro, and for many years has made his home at the hotel of Cole Brothers.

George H. Baxter was born in the town of Addison, Steuben County, N.Y., November 9^th 1824. His father and grandfather were natives of Connecticut, and removed from the State into Schoharie County, N.Y., and subsequently into Chenango County early in the present century, the former afterward settling in the town of Addison. For a number of years before his death, which occurred in 1838, the father was a justice of the peace. His widow married again, which left George to his own resources, and he worked in the summer on the farm, and in the winter attended the district school, until he was 21 years of age, when he married Sarah, daughter of James and Mary Campbell, of Nelson, Tioga County, Pa. In 1849 Mr. Baxter removed to Nelson, when his wife died. In 1850 he was married to Clarissa, daughter of Thomas and Betsey Manley, of Canton, Bradford County, Pa., by whom he has five children, one sone and four daughters.

In the fall of 1849 Mr. Baxter entered into partnership with G. W. Phelps in the mercantile business at Nelson. This continued one year, when he sold out and engaged in the grocery and provision trade by himself. He has been engaged in business from time to time ever since; was appointed postmaster at Nelson in 1861, and held the office 19 years, resigning it to accept the office of associate judge in 1880. He is now actively engaged in farming, owning 250 acres adjoining the village of Nelson. Judge Baxter is a gentleman of good sense, and practical business habits, and honors the position he occupies.

Harvey Lamkin was born in the town of Ulysses, Tompkins County, N.Y., November 18^th 1812, and educated in a district school. In 1849 he commenced preaching as a Methodist minister. His first appointment as such in Tioga County, Pa., was in the township of Jackson, in 1851, where he labored tow years, after which he preached several years in Bradford County and in the State of New York. He was then stationed three years at Mansfield, Tioga County, and three years at Blossburg, at which latter place his energy was instrumental in the erection of the church edifice in which the Methodists now worship. From Blossburg he removed to Tioga, where he preached three years; then spent three years very acceptably at Mainsburg, and was reappointed to Tioga, where he remained two years, when, his strength failing, he took a superannuated relation in October 1881. In the autumn of that year he was elected associate judge of Tioga County upon the Republican ticket; he took the oath of office the first Monday in January 1882, and ascended the bench in the seventieth year of his age.

A large number of the members of the Tioga County bar have arisen to places of distinction and honor, not only in Pennsylvania but in other parts of the land. Ellis Lewis, John C. Knox, John W. Ryon, John W. Maynard, Robert G. White, William Garretson, James Lowrey, John W. Guernsey, Stephen Pierce, Clarendon Rathbone, Butler B. Strang, C. H. Seymour, John I. Mitchell, Henry Sherwood, Jerome B. Niles, Nortimer F. Elliott, Henry W. Williams, Stephen F. Wilson, George W. Merrick, William A. Stone and a host of others have added lustre to their names, reflected credit and honor upon their profession, and given the Tioga County bar an enviable reputation in the counties of the "northern tier." The salubrity of the climate, and the absence of the noise, confusion and bustle of populous towns, have enabled the student and practitioner of law among the hills and vales of Tioga to delve deep in the tomes of legal lore, and cultivate a style of expression which peculiarly distinguishes the speeches of the members of the bar of this section of the State for conciseness, order, symmetry and logic, a depth of reasoning and a happy and felicitous construction of sentences, which are not only attractive to the ear, but convincing to the minds of their hearers. It seems hereditary, handed down from the days of Judge John Bannister Gibson to those of Judges Williams and Wilson.

The attorneys present at the first court held in Tioga County were Robert McClure, Ethan Baldwin, Henry Wilson and Francis Campbell. The first resident lawyer at the county seat was William Patton. He owned the place where Judge Williams is now erecting a splendid residence. Ellis Lewis came soon after, and in one sense of the term can be called the father of the Tioga County bar. During the 69 years of the organization of this bar there have been hundreds admitted to practice, a large number of whom were not residents of the county. To undertake to search the record of the court for every transient practitioner has been deemed unadvisable, for it would swell this article to a volume.

The present members of the bar residing in the county are:

John W. Adams and Henry Allen, Mansfield; Thomas Allen and John N. Bache, Wellsboro; Clark W. Beach, Elkland; A. S. Brewster, Wellsboro; H. L. Baldwin, Tioga; David Cameron and S. T. Channel, Wellsboro; Frank W. Clark, Mansfield; D. L. Deane, A. L. Ensworth, Mortimer F. Elliott and H. M. Foote, Wellsboro; M. L. Foster, Westfield; John W. Guernsey, Tioga; Jeff Harrison, Wellsboro; Samuel E. Kirkendall, Millerton; Howard F. Marsh, John W. Mather, J. H. Matson, George W. Merrick, John I. Mitchell and Jerome B. Niles, Wellsboro; John Ormerod, Knoxville, Horace B. Packer, Wellsboro; John S. Ryon, Elkland; Clarendon Rathbone, Blossburg; A. Redfield, Lawrenceville; Henry W. Roland, Blossburg; T. C. Sanders, Westfield; C. H. Seymour, Tioga; Henry Sherwood and Walter Sherwood, Wellsboro; F. E. Smith, Tioga; A. Streeter and Butler B. Strang, Westfield; Robert C. Simpson, Wellsboro; L. H. Tuttle, Tioga, L. P. Williston and F. Watrous, Wellsboro; R. T. Wood, Elkland; Ezra B. Young, Wellsboro.

Before proceeding to speak of the present members of the bar we will briefly allude to a few of those early practitioners who did much to give it dignity and establish a high standard for its members. Among these we find the names of Ellis Lewis, James Lowrey, John C. Knox, William Garretson, Josiah Emery, John W. Ryon and others.

Hon. James Lowrey was born in Farmington, Conn., in 1802, and graduated at Yale College in the class of 1824. Soon after his graduation he came to Tioga County, and for a term taught in the academy at Wellsboro, and subsequently at Lawrenceville. He however chose law as his profession; entered upon its duties with Hon. Ellis Lewis at Wellsboro, and was admitted to the bar in 1826. After his admission he became the law partner of Judge Lewis, his preceptor, who afterward became chief justice of the commonwealth. For a period of 39 years Mr. Lowrey practiced at the bar of Tioga County, removing in 1865 to Burlington, N.J. During this long period he won the esteem, confidence and respect of the entire bar and the community in general. He was a gentleman of scholastic attainments, a lover and student of the best literature, and did much to stimulate the intellectual life of Wellsboro. He was very modest and unassuming and not distinguished as an advocate, but wise in counsel, enjoying a very large and lucrative practice. In 1835 he was married to Miss Mary W., daughter of Hon. Samuel W. Morris, a lady of culture and refinement. His home and his office were for years centers of attraction for the student and lover of learning, and several of the present members of the bar owe much to Mr. Lowrey's kind and careful instruction in legal knowledge. It has been truthfully said of him that "his professional career was without a stain, and his private life equally spotless in its purity; and he was distinguished alike for his modesty and his learning, for his gentleness of heart and his clearness of head." He represented Tioga County in the popular branch of the State Legislature for the years 1853-4. He never sought public or political distinction, rather desiring the companionship of his books, pursuing his chosen profession. His close application to business and study undermined his health, and in 1865 he determined to remove from Wellsboro, abandon the practice of law and recuperate his physical strength. He accordingly went to New Jersey and engaged in light farming, which for a time agreed with his shattered constitution, giving him strength and amply leisure for gratifying his taste for reading. He however died suddenly on the 30^th of November 1875, in the 73^rd year of his age, at Burlington, N.J. In his death the bar of Tioga County lost one of its oldest, most useful and most exemplary members. Court was in session at Wellsboro when the news of his death was received, and Judge Williams announced the fact in feeling and appropriate terms. Remarks were also made by Hon. Stephen F. Wilson, who had been a law partner of Mr. Lowrey, and by Messrs. H. N. Williams of Troy, Henry Allen of Mansfield, and J. B. Niles, John I. Mitchell and G. W. Merrick of Wellsboro; and a committee was appointed, of which Hon. H. W. Williams was chairman, to report a suitable preamble and resolutions expressive of the deep grief and great loss of the bar of Tioga County. The court then adjourned.

William Garretson was born in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, October 13^th 1801. He taught school at Alexandria, Virginia, in 1820. In 1821 he removed to Lewisberry, York County, Pa., and remained there until 1825. While at Lewisberry he studied medicine with Doctor Webster Lewis, brother of Chief Justice Ellis Lewis. In 1825 he came to Wellsboro and commenced the study of law with Hon. Ellis Lewis, but removed to Tioga village in 1827. In 1836 he was married to Miss Emily Caulkins of Tioga. The same year he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and was reelected in 1837. While a member of the Legislature, among other speeches, he made a powerful argument in favor of our common free school system. He opened a law office at Tioga immediately after his admission tot he bar, and John C. Knox, afterward judge of the supreme court, read law under his instruction. Mr. Garretson continued to reside at Tioga until 1869, when he received an appointment in the United States law department of internal revenue at Washington, D.C., where he remained, discharging his duties with credit to himself and the department, until his death, which occurred on the 23^rd of December 1872. The officials and clerks of the department adopted a series of resolutions commemorative of his services and public and private character, and presented them, neatly and elegantly engrossed, to his family. On the 27^th of the same month the bar of Tioga County - the court being in session - upon the announcement of his death by Hon. F. E. Smith, took suitable action. The court appointed F. E. Smith, Henry Sherwood and John WS. Guernsey a committee to prepare resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the bench and bar. These were reported, adopted and entered upon the record, with the court proceedings, and remarks made by F. E. Smith, Henry Sherwood, John I. Mitchell and Henry Allen upon the life and distinguished character of Mr. Garretson.

He was a man of sterling integrity, decided opinions and positive convictions. No one was at a loss to know where he stood upon any public policy or political issue. Open, frank and courteous, he held the good opinion of the members of the legal fraternity and the people of the county.

John C. Knox was born at Knoxville, on the Cowanesque River, and was a don of one of the earliest settlers of the Cowanesque Valley. He studied law with Judge Purple of Lawrenceville, who afterward became a distinguished jurist in the State of Illinois, and with the late William Garretson of Tioga. While engaged in this study he was married to a daughter of Judge Ira Kilbourn of Lawrenceville, and soon after his admission to the bar removed to Wellsboro and immediately became one of the leading practitioners. In 1845 he was elected a member of the State Legislature, and reelected the next year, serving with marked distinction. About the time his term in the Legislature expired he was appointed by Governor Francis R. Shunk judge of one of the western circuits of the State. He swerved acceptably, being distinguished for his ready and correct decisions and the dispatch of business; and before his term expired he was nominated by the Democrats and elected to a seat upon the bench of the supreme court was not agreeable to him and he resigned before the expiration of his term. He was soon afterward appointed by Governor Curtin attorney general of the commonwealth, and at the expiration of the term was appointed judge advocate in the army of the United States; this position he held to the close of the war. He then commenced the practice of the law in Philadelphia, and took rank with the foremost practitioners of that city. In the midst of a successful and busy practice he was stricken with paralysis of the brain and compelled to retire from the bar. For several years he lingered in a helpless condition, and about two years since died and was buried in Wellsboro. Judge Knox was in the zenith of his usefulness when he was stricken, and no man in the broad limits of the commonwealth had brighter or more brilliant prospects. He was an honor to the profession and to the county that gave him birth.

John W. Adams was born in Tioga County, Pa., February 8^th 1843. He was educated in the common schools of Rutland Township and the Mansfield Classical Academy, now known as the State Normal School, and by private teachers who were preparing him for entering college. IN vacation he engaged as a clerk in the general mercantile store of Baldwin & Lowell, of Tioga, for a term of three months, but remained with them nearly five years, at the same time pursuing a course of study. Subsequently he read law with Henry Allen, of Mansfield, and was admitted to the Tioga County bar at the November term in 1867. He has also been admitted to practice in the United States district court, the Bradford county courts and the supreme and district courts of Minnesota. He has never devoted his time exclusively to the law, although he has enjoyed a fair practice; he has been engaged in the mercantile business and in farming. He resides at Mansfield, and is a good business man and lawyer.

Henry Allen was born at East Smithfield, Bradford County, Pa., August 10^th 1823, and was educated at the high school at Smithfield. He studied law with Judge Bullock, of Smithfield, and was admitted to the bar Bradford County in September 1854. In March 1860 he was admitted to practice in the supreme court of the State, and in 1870 in the United States district court. He was district attorney of Tioga County from December 1859 to December 1862; was a law clerk in the office of internal revenue at Washington from September 1^st 1864 to October 1865, and resigned on account of ill health; has been a notary public since 1869. Mr. Allen is a zealous and painstaking attorney, looking carefully after the interest of his clients, and a lawyer of indomitable courage and perseverence. He resides at Mansfield.

John N. Bache, son of William Bache sen., was born March 8^th 1820 - in the old log house which was used for the holding of the first courts in Tioga County, and which stood on the southwest side of the public square in Wellsboro. He commenced the study of law in the office of his brother-in-law, Hon. Robert G. White, in 1841, and completed the usual legal course in the Yale Law School in New Haven, Conn., where he was admitted to practice in the courts of that State. In 1849 he was admitted to the bar of Tioga County. His earliest cases are docketed for December 1844. Mr. Bache has a distinct personal recollection of nearly all the old lawyers who have practiced at the Tioga County bar, going back to the days of Messrs. Patton, Ellis Lewis, Justus Goodwin and others. Subsequent to these James Lowrey and Robert G. White became the two most prominent lawyers of Wellsboro; but, says Mr. Bache, the bar of those early days was chiefly made up of practitioners from other counties, who attended court at the regular terms, and who chiefly conducted the trials. Among them were Horace Williston, of Athens, Bradford County, who subsequently became president judge of the district; A.V. Parsons, of Jersey Shore, Lycoming County; William Elwell, John C. Adams and ---- Baldwin, of Towanda, with an occasional visit from Judge Burnside, of Bellfonte, Center County, previous to his promotion to the bench. Of Judge Burnside it was said that he carried the jackknife presented to the homeliest man in Pennsylvania, and was not likely to find a successor upon whom he could conscientiously bestow it. Mr. Bache says there are few who can recollect the old court room - the bench, the dock, with its square box flanked by a railing on each side; the big oval table between the bench and dock, with a great deep scallop in its end next to the dock, from which the counsel addressed the court and jury; the long narrow boxes, two on each side, occupied by the jury, and the old fireplace and ten-plate stove of our forefathers at the southwest end of the room, such being the court paraphernalia and furniture of those early days.

In the early times Parsons and Williston were generally pitted against each other, and especially so after White and Lowrey became the prominent resident lawyers, the former associating Parsons with him and the latter Williston as a general rule.

In 1849 Mr. Bache was elected register and recorder; he served the usual term of three years, and was subsequently elected justice of the peace, which office he soon resigned. As a lawyer his practice was chiefly confined to land titles and collections. The practice of law before a jury was distasteful to him, and on account of the loss of his hearing he has now retired from active practice and turned his attention to timbered and coal lands and geological explorations, in the latter of which he has met with general practical success. He and his brother William first called the attention of the Fall Brook Coal Company to the lands now known as the Antrim coal fields, the development of which, with the railroad, has added so much wealth and prosperity to the county.

Mr. Bache is an active business man, and his recollections of the older members of the bar are sufficient to fill a volume. He resides at Wellsboro.

Clark W. Beach was born in the town of Dryden, Tompkins County, N. Y., June 29, 1829, and was educated in the common schools, Wellsboro Academy (1846-47), Alfred Academy, Allegheny County, N.Y., and Union Academy at Academy Corners, Tioga County, Pa. He studied law with Hon. Henry Sherwood of Wellsboro, and was admitted to practice at the Tioga and Potter county bars in 1865. He is now located at Elkland.

A. S. Brewster, one of the oldest living members of the Tioga County bar, was born in Bridgewater, Susquehanna County, Pa., April 7^th 1812. He was educated in the common schools and Montrose Academy, and read law with Hon. James Lowrey at Wellsboro while acting as clerk for his father, who was at the time prothonotary and clerk of the several courts and register and recorder of Tioga County. He was admitted to the bar of Tioga County in February 1835, and soon after was appointed district attorney by James Todd, attorney general of Pennsylvania, and served three years. He was elected major of the 1^st battalion 156^th regiment 9^th division Pennsylvania militia, and served seven years. He was appointed prothonotary and clerk of the several courts of Tioga County by Governor Ritner in 1839. And served one year; was appointed transcribing clerk of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania in 1846, 1847, 1848, 1849, 1850 and 1851; was postmaster at Wellsboro during the administration of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan; was elected justice of the peace for the borough of Wellsboro in 1863, 1868, 1873 and 1878, and but once was there a vote cast against him. While Mr. Brewster has never practiced very extensively at the bar, he possesses a rare judicial and legal mind. His knowledge of law is extensive and his counsel safe. As a magistrate his decisions are distinguished for their justice and equity. In every official position which he has been selected to occupy he has discharged his duty with fidelity and honor. He is an honored citizen and a gentleman of the "old school."

S. F. Channell was born in Canton Township, Bradford County, Pa., November 21^st 1848. He received the principal portion of his education in the schools of his native county, and spent two years at Lafayette College, where he pursued an eclectic course previous to his commencement of the study of law. He read law with Hon. Henry Sherwood at Wellsboro, and was admitted to practice in Tioga County in January 1880. He immediately opened an office in Wellsboro, and is a rising lawyer, having been associated with B. B. Strang and others in very important suits. He is an industrious student, devoted to his profession, of fine hysique and personal appearance, and bids fair to soon take a prominent position at the bar. He resides in Wellsboro.

Frank W. Clark, son of Elijah P. Clark, was born in Richmond Township, Tioga County, PA., August 21^st 1839. He lived on a farm and attended only the district school until he was about 17 years of age. Among his teachers were Simon B. Elliott and his father Lauren H. Elliott, and Peter Van Ness, well known gentlemen of the county. Mr. Clark attended Prof. L. R. Burlingame's high school one winter term, and the next year attended a school taught by Victor A. Elliott; also studied at Wellsboro under the instruction of Prof. Burlingame, and subsequently with L. A. Ridgway of Mansfield Classical Seminary, and subsequently gave instructions to a class in the same school in French. He taught winter schools five terms, and commenced reading law at home in 1864, and then read with Hon. Henry Sherwood at Wellsboro. He was admitted to practice after having passed a creditable examination, February 5^th 1866, since which time he has continued in the practice of his profession at Mansfield. Mr. Clark has also been admitted to practice in the supreme court of the State. He has been employed in a number of important civil suits, and was associated with Hon. C. H. Seymour in an ejectment suit for a farm in Sullivan Township, which was tried twice in the Tioga County courts - once before Hon. R. G. White, and once before Judge Williams - and in the supreme court at Philadelphia, when Clark and Seymour were successful. Another important suit in which they were employed was that of Joseph P. Morris vs. The Tioga Railroad Company. This also was an ejectment suit, for different lots of lad in Mansfield borough, and involved a considerable amount, but was finally settled without a trail, in June 1881, Mr. Clark drawing the settlement papers.

Mr. Clark defended a client a few years since in the court of quarter sessions on a charge of malicious mischief, in which the defendant was charged with tearing down a fence and letting a drove of cattle into a wheat field. The tracks of the man who tore down the fence, as proved by the plaintiff, were 12¼ inches in length, and the presumption was that they could not belong to anyone but the defendant, who was distinguished for his large feet. Mr. Clark says his first impression was that his case was lost, and that his client was guilty, as no other man in the whole county had such outrageously large pedals. After the preliminary examination before the justice Mr. Clark quietly and secretly took his client into a shop and privately measured his feet, and found them to actually measure 15½ inches in length and 9 inches across the ball of the foot. Mr. Clark told the defendant to keep perfectly mum, and that when the case came to be tried at the court of quarter sessions they would have some fun, and defendant would be acquitted. On the trial in court, after the prosecution had introduced their evidence, a part of which was showing the tracks to be positively 12¼ inches in length, and proportionately wide, Mr. Clark placed the defendant in a chair, with his feet in another chair in full view of the jury, and then opened the defense, closing it by offering defendant's feet, or defendant feet and all, in evidence as a rebuttal. He then stepped forward and measured his feet before the jury, showing them to be as above mentioned, 15½ inches in length and 9 inches across. This brought down the house and convulsed the court and jury with laughter. The case was won and the defendant acquitted. His name was John Dyke, and he resides in the highlands between Mansfield and Wellsboro. Hon. Mortimer F. Elliott was one of the counsel for the commonwealth or prosecution, and gracefully acknowledged his defeat.

Mr. Clark relates that during his first experience at school teaching he was fearfully discouraged and homesick. He taught in the Sweet district, on the road between Mansfield and Wellsboro, at the "Irn Ore Beds." He started in with 12 scholars, which number increased to 25. When the first Saturday night came he started for home, 7½ miles distant, on a run, peering over the top of every hill to see if he could see his father's house or barns, or the church spires in the village of Mansfield. Once at home, however, he gained courage, and with determination marked on his brow returned to his school Monday morning, and soon became resigned to the situation; but the recollection of the first week's experience has ever been regarded by him with any but feelings of delight.

Mr. Clark has been a trustee of the State normal school, and borough clerk, and the Democratic nominee for district attorney. For the latter office he ran many votes ahead of the Democratic State ticket, but the county was so overwhelmingly Republican that no Democrat, however competent and able, could hope to succeed. He has from time to time been a member of the Democratic county committee. There is a vein of quiet humor running through the character of Mr. Clark, which makes him a very companionable gentleman. Whatever business is intrusted to him is performed with fidelity, and his correct business habits and elegant and legible penmanship make him a favorite which those who desire legal documents drawn. He resides and has his office in Mansfield.

D. L. Deane, son of E. P. Deane, the county surveyor, was born January 22^nd 1840, in Delmar Township. He was reared on a farm and educated in the common schools of the township and in Union Academy (at or near Knoxville), Wellsboro Academy, and Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, which he attended in the winter of 1865. He read law with Hon. M. F. Elliott of Wellsboro, and was admitted to practice in the spring of 1879.

Before he commenced the study of the law he had distinguished himself on the field as a soldier, and by holding several positions of honor and trust in the county. In June 1863 he enlisted in the 1^st battalion Pennsylvania volunteers, and re-enlisted in August 1864 in the 207^th regiment Pennsylvania volunteers. He participated in the capture of Fort Steadman, March 25^th 1865, and in the assault upon and capture of Petersburg, April 2^nd 1865, in which he lost his left arm by a gun shot wound. He was honorably discharged from service at the general hospital at Chester, Pa., in June 1865, and returned to Tioga County. He held the offices of register of wills, recorder of deeds, and clerk of the orphans' court of Tioga county from the 1^st of December 1866 to the 1^st of January 1876, covering a period of three terms. He has also been assessor, school director, councilman and burgess of Wellsboro. In addition to his knowledge of the law Mr. Deane is a practical surveyor, and served one term as county surveyor. It can be truly said of him that he has been a good soldier, a competent and trustworthy official, and a painstaking attorney, distinguished for his urbanity and courtesy; and, like his distinguished father, whatever he finds to do, he does it well. He resides and has an office in Wellsboro.

Mortimer F. Elliott, eldest son of Colonel N. A. Elliott, was born at Cherry Flats, Tioga County, Pa. He received his education in the common school and at Alfred University, Allegany County, N. Y.; and read law with Hon. Stephen F. Wilson and James Lowrey of Wellsboro. He was admitted to the bar of Tioga county late in the year 1864. At that time there were practicing here such eminent lawyers and advocates as James Lowrey, Josiah Emery, Henry W. Williams, Henry Sherwood, Julius Sherwood, John W. Guernsey, Butler B. Strang, Stephen F. Wilson, Stephen Pierce, F. E. Smith and Pardon Damon, and it would seem likely to have been years before a young lawyer could gain a hearing and a practice among such able and distinguished men. Mr. Elliott, nothing daunted by the array of talent, opened an office, and soon took rank with the older practitioners and found himself among the most favored. His close application to the business intrusted to his care, and his power as an eloquent advocate before a jury, gave him a wide reputation and extensive practice. He had measured minds, so to speak, with the best advocates and shrewdest lawyers, and was never found wanting either in knowledge of the law or in the matter of calling out testimony and presenting it to the court and jury. Such an impression had he made upon the people of the county and of this judicial district that in 1871 he was the Democratic candidate for president judge of the district. Although the Republican majority was very large he reduced it several thousand votes in the district. His opponent was the Hon. Henry W. Williams, a gentleman extremely popular; but Elliott had not only the Democratic votes to rely upon, but many of the Republicans gave him their suffrages. In 1872 the Democrats and Liberal Republicans held a convention at Wellsboro, and there was every prospect that they would unite upon a county ticket. In the distribution of the candidates the Liveral Republicans presented Victor A. Elliott, now judge in Denver, Col., as candidate for representative from this county in the convention elected to revise the constitution. The Democratic portion of the convention, headed by Samuel E. Kirkendall of Millerton and John L. Sexton Jr. of Fall Brook, insisted that Mortimer F. Elliott should be the nominee; that it was essential that a young and progressive Democrat, one who possessed the intelligence, the legal knowledge, and withal the spirit of true democracy and the constitutional reforms needed, should be the man. Mortimer F. Elliott was nominated and elected; took his seat in the convention, and discharged his duty with an eye single to the great reforms brought about by the convention of 1873; and had the proud satisfaction of seeing the constitution ratified by the people by a vote of 253, 560 to 109, 198, gaining a majority of 144,362, a majority unparalleled in the history of any public measure adopted by the people at large in the commonwealth. Mr. Elliott has since persistently refused until recently a tender of any public office. He has industriously confined himself to his profession, rising higher and higher extending his practice wider and wider into contiguous counties, in the supreme court of the State, and the district and supreme courts of the United States. As a lawyer he stands at the head of his profession in the northern tier counties. As an advocate and public speaker he has few equals in the commonwealth, and being in the prime of life, his faculties unimpaired by any of those excesses which frequently beset public men, his future is indeed bright and flattering. At the Democratic State convention of 1882 he was nominated for Congressman at large, much against his will, and even after his name had been withdrawn by his order; the times seemed to demand his acceptance, and he yielded. He is exceedingly popular with the people, not only of his native county but elsewhere in the State. He resides at Wellsboro.

Henry M. Foote of Wellsboro was born in Greene, Chenango County, N.Y., in 1846, and educated in the common schools and Wellsboro Academy. While a student in the academy during the winter of 1864 he enlisted in the 187^th regiment Pennsylvania volunteers at the organization of that regiment, and remained in service until the close of the war. Subsequently he read law in the office of Hon. John I. Mitchell and David Cameron, and was admitted to practice at the Tioga County bar February 1^st 1876. He opened a law office in Wellsboro, and commenced the practice of the profession. He received the Republican nomination by the Crawford County system for district attorney and was elected to that office in 1880, and has discharged his duty with credit and honor. During his term there has been an unusual amount of criminal business, including one indictment for murder, and many minor cases, which he has prosecuted with intelligence and vigor.

Marsena L. Foster was born in the town of Richford, Tioga County, N. Y., December 29^th 1843, and was educated in the common schools of his native town. August 18^th 1862 he enlisted in the United States service, and was honorably discharged July 11^th 1865. He was married in Georgetown, S.C., August 31^st 1865, and studied law subsequently with Hon. Isaac Benson of Coudersport, Potter County. He was admitted to the bar of Potter County March 16^th 1880; in April of the same year to the McKean County bar, and August 29^th 1881 to the Tioga County bar. Mr. Foster has recently located in the county, at Westfield, and no doubt will obtain a fair share of practice.

He came to Tioga County in 1831. In 1833 he commenced the study of law with Hon. James Lowrey of Wellsboro, and was admitted to practice in the several courts of Tioga County in 1835 to the supreme court of the State in 1837, and to the United States court in 1839. In 1840 he was appointed deputy United States marshal, and that year took the census of the entire county of Tioga. In 1849 he was elected to the Senate of Pennsylvania, and in 1864 to the House of Representatives of this State, and reelected in 1865. He continued in active practice of his profession in the counties of Tioga, Potter, McKean, Bradford and Lycoming until the year 1874, when from enfeebled health he ceased practice almost entirely.

During his forty years' practice Mr. Guernsey stood high in the scale of his profession among the many distinguished lawyers of the norther tier, and elsewhere in the State. As a legislator he also took a prominent position. His social position has always been the most pleasant and happy; his wife, who was the daughter of the late Hon. Samuel W. Morris of Wellsboro, brought to his home culture and refinement. Possessed of a competence earned in the pursuit of his profession, he is enjoying the evening of his age in his quiet and beautiful home in the village of Tioga.

John C. Horton was born at Spring Mills, Allegany County, N.Y., April 1^st 1843. He was educated at Spring Mills Academy in his native county, Lewisville Academy, Potter County, Pa., and Union Academy, Tioga County, Pa. He read law one year with George W. Ryon at Lawrenceville, finished his studies with Hon. Charles H. Seymour at Tioga, and was admitted to practice at the Tioga County bar at the August term in 1868; to the supreme court of Pennsylvania in 1873; the United States district and circuit court for the western district of Pennsylvania in 1875, the Bradford County bar in 1877, and to the Westmoreland County bar in 1879. He was notary public from 1870 to 1876, and several years clerk of the borough of Blossburg. He has been engaged in several important civil and criminal cases. His office and residence are in Blossburg.

Samuel E. Kirkendall was born on Oak Hill, in the town of Barton, Tioga county, N.Y., about six miles from the village of Waverly, March 29^th 1834. When he was eight years old he removed to Tioga County, Pa., with his father's family, who settled in the township of Lawrence, about two miles east of the borough of Lawrenceville. He attended the common schools during the winter months, and worked at farming and in the lumber woods in summer, until he was sixteen years old; then went to a private school in Lawrenceville for about a year, and was finally transferred to the Lawrenceville Academy, which he attended about two years, under the instruction of Rev. Sidney Mills, Rev. T. B. Barker and Prof. W. L. Merris, who were successively principals of that institution. When only 19 years of age he received a certificate authorizing him to teach in the common schools of the county, and he taught in the winter and attended school in the summer until the spring of 1857. He then commenced the study of law with Kasson Parkhurst of Lawrenceville, in whose office he remained two years, and was admitted to the bar of this county in 1859. Mr. Kirkendall did not immediately enter upon the practice of the law, but, moving to Millerton in the fall of 1860, continued to teach from 13 years and was regarded as one of the first educators of the county. In 1873 he abandoned teaching altogether, and has since devoted himself to his law practice exclusively. Soon after that date he was admitted to practice at the Bradford County bar, as many of his clients came from that county. Politically Mr. Kirkendall has always been a Democrat, and he has been honored by his party by being twice nominated for the office of district attorney and twice for representative; but, as he lived in the "banner Republican county of the State," these honors ended with the nomination and the support of the party at the polls. Mr. Kirkendall is now in active practice, located at Millerton, in the extreme northeastern portion of Tioga County and about 11 miles from Elmira. He is a genial and affable gentleman, a ripe scholar and a good lawyer; and in physique is one of the finest looking members of the bar.

John W. Mather was born at Dundee, Yates County, N.Y., November 5^th 1847, and was educated in the common school at Lawrenceville, Pa., and by Rev. Sidney Mills as private tutor, and at the Mansfield State normal school, graduating at the latter institution in the class of 1871. He taught school several terms; studied law with Hon. Mortimer F. Elliott and John Bosard at Wellsboro, and was admitted to the bar of Tioga County at the August term of 1873. He was admitted to practice in Bradford County in 1878, and in the supreme court of the State in May 1881 at Harrisburg, Pa. He has been the secretary of the Farmers' Agricultural Society of Tioga County since 1878. Mr. Mather is a young lawyer of promise; has been engaged in a number of very prominent suits, and is fast winning his way to honor and fame. He resides at Wellsboro and has a fine office.

George W. Merrick, a son of Israel Merrick, Jr., an early settler at Wellsboro, was born there March 27^th 1838. He was attending school when the civil war broke out. In the spring of 1861 he enlisted as a private in Company H of the 6^th regiment of the Pennsylvania reserve corps, and served with it in the battle of Drainsfield and the second Bull Run battle. In 1862 he was honorably discharged on account of ill health. Before he had fairly recovered he recruited a company for the first battalion Pennsylvania volunteers, six months men, was chosen captain of the same, and went to the front and participated in the battle of Gettysburg. At the expiration of the six months he recruited a company for the three years service, which became Company A of the 178^th regiment Pennsylvania volunteers. He was subsequently commissioned major and joined the army at Cold Harbor. He was in command of the regiment in the desperate action of June 18^th 1864 in the assault upon Fort Hell, and received amputation of the leg necessary. This wound disabled him from further active military duty, and the brave, impetuous and patriotic officer retired from the service. He returned home, studied law, and was admitted to practice at the several courts of Tioga and adjoining counties. He held the office of postmaster many years, and resigned in May last, when he became the independent Republican candidate for the office of secretary of internal affairs of Pennsylvania. Major Merrick is a gentleman of strong and decided convictions, which he expresses freely when called upon or when the occasion requires it. He is a close and logical reasoner, a good advocate and public speaker, and ranks high among his brethren of the bar of Tioga County and wherever his business calls him. He resides at Wellsboro, has a fine office, and is held in high respect by his fellow citizens.

John I. Mitchell was born in the township of Tioga, Tioga County, Pa., July 28^th 1838. He studied in the common schools of his native township and in the Lewisburg University, Union County, Pa., but did not graduate. He taught school in his native township; served in the war of the Rebellion as lieutenant and captain; studied law with Hon. F. E. Smith, of Tioga, and was admitted to the bar in 1864. In 1866 he removed to Wellsboro. In 1868 he was elected district attorney for the county, and served three years. In 1870 he became half owner of the Wellsboro Agitator, a strong Republican newspaper, and assisted in editing it for one year. In 1871 he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, taking his seat in that body in January 1872. He remained in the Legislature five years, during which time he served at intervals as chairman of the committee of ways and means and on other very important committees. His knowledge of parliamentary rules and his fluency of speech made him the acknowledged Republican leader of that body. Without solicitation on his part, shortly after he had finished his legislative career in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, he was nominated by a Republican conference of the sixteenth Congressional district for Congress, and was elected. The district was composed of the counties of Cameron, Lycoming, McKean, Potter, Sullivan and Tioga. He was reelected at the close of his first term, thus serving four years in the popular branch of the national legislature. Before his Congressional term had expired he was chosen by the Legislature of Pennsylvania United States senator from this State for six years from the 4^th of March 1881. He has thus had ten successive years of experience in the Legislature of his native State and in the councils of the nation. He has just completed his forty-fourth year, and few men of his age have attained such high honors and distinction. He is extremely popular with his constituents, particularly in Tioga County and his Congressional district, and he has won their esteem irrespective of party, by his close attention to their wants, answering with scrupulous precision every letter or communication addressed to him, either from his political opponents or his party friends. The recent disruption in the Republican party of the State has made him the generalissimo of the independent Republican forces. He maintains a law office in Wellsboro, with David Cameron as law partner. He also resides in that borough. Senator Mitchell is a gentleman of fine presence and courteous manners, and a representative type of the sons of old Tioga.

Jerome B. Niles was born in the township of Middlebury, September 25^th 1834. He was reared on a farm, and attended the common school until the fall of 1856, when he entered Union Academy at Knoxville, Pa., where he remained a year. He was married July 18^th 1858. In the fall of 1858 and of 1859 he taught the district school at Wellsboro. He did most of his law reading at home in Middlebury, finished with Hon. Henry Sherwood, and was admitted to the Tioga County bar at the September term of 1861. Prior to this he had been constable and collector of Middlebury, and two terms a school director. At the session of the Pennsylvania Legislature of 1862 he was message clerk of the House of Representatives. In the spring of 1862 je was appointed mercantile appraiser of Tioga County, and in the fall of the same year was elected district attorney, which office he filled with much credit. In 1864 he was again message clerk of the House of Representatives at Harrisburg. In 1865 he was reelected district attorney, and that year removed to Wellsboro, and entered into partnership for the practice of law with Hon. Stephen F. Wilson; he continued in that relation until Judge Wilson went upon the bench in 1872. In 1868 he was elected to the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, and reelected in 1869 without opposition. Tioga County at that time was entitled to only one representative in the popular branch of the Legislature. It was during these sessions that Peter Herdic's new county agitation was ta its height. Mr. Niles took an active part in the defeat of the Minnequa scheme, and was in favor of keeping the territorial limits of Tioga intact. The act incorporating the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railway was passed during the session of 1870, Mr. Niles as representative and Butler B. Strang as senator having received the unanimous vote of their respective districts to favor this project. In 1872 Mr. Niles was elected a member of the constitutional convention, representing the counties of Cameron, McKean, Tioga and Potter, and was the author of the article in the new constitution in reference to the formation of new counties. In 1881 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives and served on the committees of ways and means, the judiciary general and as chairman of the committee on counties and townships. He introduced and secured the passage of an act making taxes a first lien upon real estate. He was appointed a member of the State revenue commission.

Mr. Niles has been admitted to practice in the courts of Tioga, Potter, Cameron, Clinton, Lycoming and Bradford counties, and to the supreme court of Pennsylvania and the United States circuit and district courts, and enjoys a very large and lucrative practice. He has for many years been the counsel for the county commissions, and represents large real estate interests, among them the Dent estate, the Bingham estate and the Pennsylvania Joint Land and Lumber Company. He has a large and well fitted office in Wellsboro, with a most valuable and extensive law library, and is one of the leading practitioners at the Tioga County bar. He is a gentleman of pleasing address, an able advocate, a good counselor and a careful and painstaking lawyer. He commenced life poor, and by the force of industry and application to business, either private or public, has won a competence, and enjoys the confidence and respect of the courts in which he practices, of his fellow members of the bar, and of the community in which he resides. He is a descendant of one of the pioneer settlers of the county and takes a lively interest in its history.

Horace B. Parker was born in Wellsboro, October 11^th 1851, and was educated at Wellsboro Academy, and Alfred University, N.Y. He studied law with Hon. Stephen F. Wilson and Hon. J. B. Niles; was admitted to practice at the bar of Tioga County August 26^th 1873, and has since been admitted to various other county courts, the supreme court of the State, and the United States district court. Upon the petition of all the members of the Tioga County bar he was appointed district attorney in 1875, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of William A. Stone. He discharged the duties of the office one year by appointment, and was elected to the same office for a term of three years, during which he performed the business of the office in a manner highly creditable to himself and honorable to the commonwealth. Mr. Packer is a young man of fine educational and legal attainments, of exemplary habits and close application to business, with a fair and increasing practice, which is surely leading him to the front rank of his profession. His residence and office are in Wellsboro.

Clarendon Rathbone was born at Sutton, Mass., March 23^rd 1796. He read law in Cayuga and Madison counties, N.Y., and was admitted to practice in the Madison County courts May 9^th 1820, and to the supreme court of the State of New York on the 27^th of October of the same year, Ambrose Spencer chief justice. He was admitted to the bar of this county at the December term in 1821, and to the supreme court of Pennsylvania, middle district, at Sunbury in 1830. He was appointed deputy attorney general July 11^th 1826 by Frederic Smith, attorney general; again appointed by the same February 6^th 1827, and in February 1828 by Calvin Blythe, attorney general. September 7^th 1826 he was admitted to the bar of Tioga County, N.Y., at Elmira; was admitted to the Lycoming County bar October 3^rd 1831, and subsequently to practice in Bradford, Clinton, Potter, McKean, Dauphin and Lancaster counties, and in the Dominion of Canada. He became a member of the American Legal Association in 1851. He was commissioned caption of the 8^th company (Lawrenceville) first battalion 129^th regiment Pennsylvania militia by Governor J. Andrew Schultze August 3^rd 1828.

Mr. Rathbone first located at Lawrenceville in the year 1820. He was then about 24 years of age, full of ambition, and one of the fines young men in personal appearance in the county. When admitted to the bar of Tioga County so well had he made his mark, and so favorable were the impressions he created among the members of the bar, that he was five years afterward appointed deputy attorney general. Besides attending to his duties at the bar he early became interested in public improvements looking toward the development of the vast timber and mineral resources of Tioga County, and assisted materially in bringing about the passage of the act for the construction of the Chemung Canal in the State of New York, and the incorporation of the Tioga Navigation Company, which resulted in the building of the railroad from Corning to Blossburg, where he was largely interested in coal and other lands. It is impossible in a brief sketch like this to enumerate the public services and enterprises with which he has for the past 62 years been identified. His social, legal and business standing has always been good, and his worthy and honorable connection with the masonic fraternity, coupled with his gentlemanly demeanor and courteous and affable manner in his social, business or legal transactions, has universally commanded respect. For the past few years he has not practiced his profession to any great extent, but he retains his standing in the courts of the county, State and nation. He is the oldest living member of the Tioga County bar, and is now in his 87^th year. He resides at Blossburg.

Augustus Redfield was born November 6^th 1826, in the town of Cato, Cayuga County, N.Y., and was educated at Moravia, N.Y. He enlisted in the war of the Rebellion and served until its conclusion. He read law with Hon. George W. Merrick of Wellsboro, and was admitted to the Tioga County bar August 28^th 1871, and subsequently to the Bradford County bar. He has served two terms as justice of the peach, and is now engaged in the publication of the Lawrenceville Herald.

Henry W. Roland was born in Delmar township, December 7^th 1848, and was reared on a farm. He was educated in the common schools and Wellsboro Academy, and taught school in Delmar and Morris townships three months. He read law with William A. Stone, then of Wellsboro (now United States district attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania, located at Pittsburgh), and was admitted to the Tioga County bar at the August term in the year 1876. In October following he opened a law, insurance and general collection office at Blossburg, where he has since resided. He was borough clerk for the years 1878, 1879 and 1880, U.S. census marshal in 1880, and is now the efficient clerk of the borough. His business is considerable in the way of conveyancing, drawing contracts, writing insurance policies, and general collections. Mr. Roland is a gentleman of pleasing manners, and a good counsellor, giving strict attention to the business intrusted to his care, which is on the increase.

John W. Ryon was born at Elkland, Tioga County, Pa., March 4^th 1825, and educated at Millville Academy, Orleans County, N.Y., and Wellsboro Academy. He commenced reading law in the office of the Hon. John C. Knox at Wellsboro; completed his studies with Hon. James Lowrey at the same place, and was admitted to the Tioga County bar in December 1846. Soon after his admission he opened an office at Lawrenceville, and rapidly rose in his profession. In 1850 he was elected by the Democrats district attorney, and discharged the duties of that office in a highly satisfactory manner. Mr. Ryon was not only an able counsellor, but a powerful advocate. These acquirements soon give him reputation and his practice extended on the west to Potter and McKean counties and on the east to Bradford, where he met in legal combat the best lawyers and ablest orators of these sections. At the breaking out of the Rebellion. Mr. Ryon was a war Democrat, and did much to encourage enlistments, stumping the county and inciting the people to patriotism and to arms. The writer of this sketch well remembers one of his patriotic appeals, made at a war meeting held at Fall Brook during the year 1862. He assisted largely in raising Company A of the famous Bucktail regiment. He removed from Tioga County to Schuylkill County in January 1863, and has since resided at Pottsville in that county and has represented the 13^th Congressional district in Congress. Although the fame of his later years is claimed by Schuylkill County, still the recollection of his ability at the bar of Tioga County and elsewhere in the northern tier is fresh in the memory of the older practitioners here, and no sketch of the bar of this county would be complete without the mention of her distinguished son.

James S. Ryon, son of Harris T. Ryon and great-grandson of Hon. John Ryon, was born at Elkland, Tioga County, Pa., in 1847; educated at the Osceola Academy and Mansfield State normal school; studied law with Hon. George W. Merrick of Wellsboro; and was admitted to the Tioga County bar in 1877, and commenced the practice of law at Elkland, where he now resides.

T. C. Sanders was born in the town of Clarksville, Allegany County, N.Y., July 5^th 1835. His father was a native of Rhode Island, and returned to that State when the subject of this sketch was about 9 years of age. Young Sanders spent about five years in the university at Altred, Allegany County, N.Y., and graduated from it in 1861. He served the first two years of the late war in the United States army, and located at Westfield, Tioga County, late in the year 1863. He was admitted to the bar of Tioga County February 2^nd 1876, and in 1879 went into a law partnership with the Hon. Butler B. Strang at Westfield, in which relation he still continues. He has been admitted to practice in the courts of Potter and McKean Counties. Mr. Sanders is good counsellor and a thorough lawyer, preparing his cases with care, and looking carefully into the details of all the legal transactions of the firm of Strang & Sanders.

Charles H. Seymour was born in Bath, Steuben County, N.Y., June 21^st 1820, and educated in the common schools and academy, and learned the trade of carpenter and joiner. He studied law with John W. Guernsey of Tioga, and was admitted to the bar of this county in 1847 and subsequently to the several county courts in northern Pennsylvania, the supreme court of the State, and the United States circuit and district courts. For many years he was a leading member of the Tioga County bar, and in November 1876 he was elected senator from this (25^th) district. While engaged in the discharge of his senatorial duties at Harrisburg he contracted a malarial disease, which undermined his health and was the indirect cause of his death at his home in Tioga, June 6^th 1882. Mr. Seymour was one of the best counsel in the county, and a profound lawyer and advocate. The bar of the county attended his funeral in a body, and passed eulogistic resolutions concerning his character and ability. He hand acquired a competence, and left quite a valuable estate.

Henry Sherwood was born in the city of Bridgeport, Conn., October 9^th 1815. He was educated in the district school in Chemung County, N.Y., and in a select school at Havana, N.Y. He studied law with Hon. Robert G. White, at Wellsboro, and was admitted to practice at the Tioga County bar September 7^th 1847. He was a gentleman of courteous manners and pleasing address, and an eloquent advocate, and soon took a leading position at the bar in Tioga and other northern counties. For the past 25 years he has been engaged in all the important civil and criminal causes tried in Tioga County, and in this district has practiced law before Judges Williston, White, Williams and Wilson, and at a special court before Judges Anthony, Wilmot and Streator. He has been admitted to practice in all the counties in northern Pennsylvania, the supreme court of the State, the United States district and circuit courts of the State and the United States court at Washington. During the Rebellion he was a war Democrat, aiding in procuring enlistments, and paying from his private purse money for the subsistence of enlisted soldiers on their way to the front; and was elected to Congress as a Democrat from this district in 1870 over Hon. William H. Armstrong, of Lycoming, whose majority in 1868 in the county of Tioga was 3,282. Mr. Sherwood reduced it in 1870 to 1,691. Mr. Armstrong's majority in the district in 1868 was 2,028, and in 1870 Mr. Sherwood overcame this large majority and was elected by 27 votes. Mr. Sherwood's record in Congress was honorable to himself and highly creditable to the constituency that placed him there. He has been a life-long Democrat, but he never suffered his political convictions to interfere with his social or business relations or his devotion to the practice of his profession. He has several times represented this district in Democratic State and national conventions. He has ever taken a lively interest in agriculture, in railroads, and whatever had a tendency to develop the resources of the county and advance the industrial interests of this section of the State. He assisted largely in organization of the Tioga County Agricultural Society in 1854, being one of its executive officers; in 1859 he was president of the society and engaged Hon. Horace Greeley to deliver the annual address, and introduced Mr. Greeley in a neat speech to the very large assemblage present. He was indefatigable in his efforts to secure the construction of the Wellsboro and Lawrenceville railroad (now the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim); was president of the company from the time if its organization until the completion of the road in 1872, and is still a director. He has always been a strong advocate of the building of the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railroad, showing the great benefits which would accrue to the people of Tioga County by stimulating the agricultural and other industrial interests. At the reorganization of the company in January last he was elected president, and he is doing all in his power to hasten the speedy completion of the road. His boyhood years were spent upon a hillside farm in the town of Catharine N. Y., then in Chemung, now in Schuyler County, where he learned lessons of industry, economy and frugality, which traits, coupled with perseverance and intelligence, have enabled him to secure a competency for his declining years. He has a beautiful home in the northern portion of Wellsboro, and a large and commodious law office on Main Street and the public square, with a very extensive and complete law library; and is associated with his only son. Walter, under the firm name of H. Sherwood & Son, in the practice of law. Mr. Sherwood is now in his 67^th year, as well preserved as men generally are at 50; distinguished for his temperature habits, legal ability, kindness of heart, vivacity of spirit, and polished address, and his great desire to build up and develop the resources of northern Pennsylvania.

Walter Sherwood, only son of Hon. Henry Sherwood, was born at Knoxville, Tioga County, November 21^st 1843. His parents removed to Wellsboro in January 1846, and he was educated in the common schools of the borough and the Wellsboro academy. He was six months an assistant teacher and one year principal of the high school. He read law with his father; was admitted to the bar of Tioga County at the May term in 1867; entered into partnership with his father in the practice of law in the fall of 1869, and has held the same relationship since. He has frequently represented the Democracy of the county in State conventions, and for a number of years has been the able chairman of the Democratic county committee. He was tendered the chief clerkship in the auditor general's department at Harrisburg by General William P. Schell, but declined the honor preferring to devote himself to the large and lucrative practice of the firm. He has been a councilman several years, and is now burgess of Wellsboro. Mr. Sherwood is a young man of fine ability, and particularly distinguished for the careful and legal manner in which all business intrusted to the firm is conducted. He is methodical in the arrangement and details of the office, a laborious and careful attorney, possessed of executive ability in an eminent degree. He is a good advocate at the bar and wise in counsel. Public spirited, like his father, he takes a lively interest in every project calculated to benefit the community in which he lives, in the management of municipal affairs, the prosperity of the county and the development of its resources. He is one of the directors of the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railroad Company. Among the younger members of the bar he occupies a prominent position.

Robert C. Simpson was born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, September 27^th 1823, and such education as he received in school was obtained in that county before he was eleven years of age. He is however one of the best informed citizens of the commonwealth. He was for many years agent for the Bingham estate, and for several years past has been one of the trustees, with his office at Wellsboro, and the large amount of business which he had to transact in the several courts of northern Pennsylvania in the matter of titles, conveyances, etc., led to his admission to the bar of Tioga County "ex gratia" in the year 1880. Mr. Simpson is a gentleman of fine literary and social acquirements, distinguished for his courtesy, his honorable and upright life, and his high standing in the masonic fraternity.

Frederic E. Smith was born in Amherst, Hampshire County, Mass., in November 1822.He prepared for college at Marion Collegiate Institute, Marion, N.Y.; entered the sophomore class in Union College, Schenectady, in September 1849, and graduated at the same in July 1844. He was subsequently principal of Wolcott Academy, N.Y., one year, and of the academy at Clyde, N.Y., one year. He commenced reading law with Hon. Chauncey F. Clark of Wolcott, N.Y.; completed his studies with Hon. John W. Guernsey at Tioga, Pa.; was admitted to the bar of Tioga County in 1849, to the supreme court of Pennsylvania in 1852, and the United States courts in 1865. In 1849 he formed a copartnership with Hon. C. H. Seymour in the practice of law, which continued until 1853. In June 1853 Mr. Smith married Miss Stella F. Bigelow, daughter of Hon. Levi Bigelow. In 1856 he was one of the presidential electors nominated on the Fremont ticket. In 1867 he was appointed U.S. register in bankruptcy, which office he shill holds. In June 1879 he became a partner with Horace and S.W. Pomeroy in the banking business at Blossburg, retaining his residence at Tioga. Mr. Smith has been a very successful practitioner both at the bar and at his office. He is a gentleman of rare literary as well as legal attainments, a good counsellor and advocate, and an eloquent public speaker, easy in gesture and choice in rhetoric. He has a beautiful home in Tioga village, and one of the most complete law and literary libraries in the county. In politics he was primarily a Jackson Democrat, latterly a staunch Republican. He is a gentleman of culture, and taste, and ranks high with his compeers at the several bars where he is call to practice.

William A. Stone was born in Delmar township, Tioga County, Pa., April 18^th 1846; was reared on a farm, and attended district school. He enlisted as a private during the Rebellion, and served until honorably discharged. Subsequently he attended the State normal school at Mansfield, and graduated in 1868. He read law with the firm Wilson & Niles (Hon. S. F. Wilson and Hon. J. B. Wiles), and was admitted to the bar of Tioga County at the August term in 1870. In 1872 he was transcribing clerk of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He was elected district attorney of Tioga County in 1874, but resigned at the close of 1876 and removed to Pittsburgh, where he was admitted to practice at the several courts of Allegheny County, the supreme court of the State and the United States circuit and district courts. He took an advanced position at the Allegheny bar, and was soon appointed United States jury commissioner, and subsequently United States district attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania, which office he now holds. Mr. Stone is a gentleman of good legal talent, and an honor to the county that gave him birth. He is a man of generous proportions, being about six feet and a half tall and weighing 260 pounds, which circumstance earned for him the title of "the Giant of Delmar." He however is not a dangerous personage, except when he is prosecuting some culprit for a violation of the law; on the contrary he is a most genial and companionable gentleman. He married a daughter of the late Judge Robert G. White.

Augustus Streeter, lately residing at Westfield, was born December 12^th 1823, at Furmanstown, in the township of Shippen, on Pine Creek, and received the principal portion of his education at Union Academy, in Deerfield township. He commenced reading law July 7^th 1851 with A. J. Monroe in the borough of Knoxville. Butler B. Strang was a student in the same office at that time. Mr. Streeter was admitted to practice at the bars of Tioga and Potter counties in December 1854, and continued in practice until quite recently, when, his health failing, he gave up business. He never meddled with political affairs to any great extent, and never held any official position. His first case in court after his admission was in 1855, when he and Butler B. Strang defended William Champlin, a resident of Westfield, charged with the crime of arson in burning two hay stacks. Champlin was twice tried. At the first trial the jury disagreed, and at the second the defendant was acquitted. Singular to relate, after an active service of 27 years, Mr. Streeter's last case was that of the same man charged with the killing of his son. He was indicted for murder. The prosecution concluded he could not be convicted, and he was discharged without trial. Mr. Streeter was a gentle man of industrious habits, a good counsellor and a fair advocate. Upon his death appropriate action was taken by the members of the bar of Tioga County.

Butler B. Strang was born in Greenwood, Steuben County, N. Y., March 16^th 1829. He is the son of a Methodist minister who was stationed at Lawrenceville in 1838, and who, his health failing, removed in 1840 to Westfield, where our subject has since resided. Mr. Strang read law with A. J. Monroe of Knoxville, and was admitted to the several courts of the district in 1852 and subsequently to the supreme court. In 1856 he was elected district attorney, and served three years with honor and credit. In 1860 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, and was reelected six years successively, making seven years in that body. He was chairman of the judiciary general committee two sessions and of ways and means one session, and was speaker of the House in 1870. He was elected to the Senate in the fall of 1870 and served two terms. During that period he was chairman of the judiciary general committee two sessions, and two sessions chairman of the finance committee, and speaker of the Senate in 1874, being the last regular speaker of the Senate under the old constitution. He was a member of the first committee which visited Washington, in conjunction with the committee of council from Philadelphia, to initiate the Centennial Exhibition and bring it to the attention of Congress. He was chairman of the Legislative centennial committee, appointed to assist in the erection and care of the Pennsylvania buildings, but resigned that position to Senator Horatio Gates Jones of Philadelphia. He was chairman of the commission appointed by Governor Hartranft to devise a code for the government of cities, and made an elaborate report, accompanied by a bill. This was never adopted in full by the Legislature, but many of its provisions have since been enacted into laws, and a committee of prominent citizens has recently been appointed in Philadelphia to recommend the form of government prescribed in that report. Mr. Strang received quite a large vote in the Republican State convention at Lancaster in 1875 for State treasurer, when he did not desire the office or nomination. During his public life on nearly twenty years few men in the commonwealth exerted a greater influence than Butler B. Strang. Possessing a clear mind, and a knowledge of parliamentary usages, and being an able and effective debater, he was the acknowledged Republican leader of the House and Senate of Pennsylvania. Schooled in the adversities of pioneer life he knew the wants of his constituents and the State at large. No man could express his views in a more lucid manner than Mr. Strang. We believe he received the unanimous vote of the district for the Senate in 1870, thus showing his popularity at home. He was a strong and earnest advocate of the construction of the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railroad, and was largely instrumental in the passage of the act for its construction which was vetoed by Governor Geary. He gave dignity, honor and credit to the county of Tioga in the legislative halls, and in other circles wherever he moved.

He was for many years an active member of the Tioga County bar, and was counsel in many important suits; but for the last ten years, owing to ill health, he has rarely appeared at the bar. It is no discourtesy to other distinguished gentleman, living or dead, who have represented Tioga County in the Legislature of the State to say that none have made a brighter or better record than he. He has accumulated a competence and lives in a beautiful and convenient cottage in Westfield borough, on the banks of the Cowanesque, near the spot where 42 years ago, when a lad of 12 years, he commenced the great battle of life. He has well earned the quiet he now enjoys.

Lauren H. Tuttle was born in Tioga, this county, March 29^th 1848, and educated in borough schools of his native village and at Starkey Seminary, Yates County, N. Y., at which latter institution he graduated with honor. He studied with Hon. F. E. Smith and Hon. Charles H. Seymour of Tioga, and was admitted to practice at the Tioga County bar in the year 1874, when he opened an office in Tioga borough. He was elected justice of the peace in 1877, and reelected in 1882. He is in active practice and resides at Tioga.

Robert T. Wood read law with Hon. James Lowrey at Wellsboro, and Hon. John W. Ryon at Lawrenceville; was admitted to the bar of Tioga County at the September term of 1853, and opened an office at Elkland. In August 1861 he was appointed caption of Company L 2^nd Pennsylvania cavalry. In August 1864 he was appointed captain of Company H 207^th Pennsylvania volunteers, and served until the close of the was, and on the 25^th of March 1865 was breveted major by President Lincoln. He was district attorney of the 3^rd district of Dakota Territory two terms of three years each. He returned to Tioga County and edited the Elkland Journal as a Republican newspaper from 1878 to 1880. He is now engaged in active practice of his profession at Elkland. Major Wood was a gallant soldier, and is a shrewd and successful lawyer and an ardent Republican.

E. B. Young was born in Springfield township, Bradford County, Pa., October 24^th 1846. He was educated in the district schools of Bradford County, the Susquehanna Collegiate Institute at Towanda, Pa., and the Mansfield State normal school, where he graduated in June 1868. He read law with Hon. John I. Mitchell, commencing January 11^th 1869, and was admitted to the Tioga County bar April 6^th 1874, and to the United States district and circuit courts in June 1880. He is a young man of fine literary acquirements and legal learning, and is fast making his way to the front in his profession. He has an office and residence in Wellsboro.