Section 11:  Early Bar Members & Residents

I had an object in view in coming out here by the first of November. On the first Monday of that month the first court was to be held and it was my business to be there to be admitted to the bar. We had no court house, jail or church to hold it in. Christian Myers and Charles Evans had been elected Associate Judges at the October election. The new county was made a part of the Twenty-Eight Judicial District. Alexander M. Calmont President Judge, all the leading lawyers from the surrounding counties would be there. The house and store being built by Alexander Reynolds was up and roofed and partly weather boarded, but the front was still open, and a large carpenter bench was standing in what is now Captain Alexander's parlor. That apartment was secured in which to hold the court and the carpenters' bench turned around against the east wall. Three or four trestles were arranged in front of the bench and boards laid across for seats for the bar. Three large chairs were mounted on the stand for the judges. The judges elect had to be sworn in but there were no officers sworn in to qualify the court. That was the starting point, and till the court was in running order, the entire machinery of the county was at a standstill and could not start. But this difficulty had been foreseen and Governor Porter had sent out to Jacques W. Johnston a "Dedimus Potertortem" to swear in the judges and start the machine in motion. Jacques was no little elevated at the idea of being made the receptacle of this amount of royal prerogative in the hands of a subject and talked a great deal about the importance of this sacred trust. The people had elected Dr. Goe Prothonotary and James Hassan Sheriff. Uncle Jacob Zeigler, then Prothonotary of Butler County, was brought over to teach the new officers how to put on their official robes and to see the court inaugurated with becoming dignity. The old court crier of Venango County, Mr. Morrison, came down to help on the show and pick up the initiation fees of the lawyers.

Early on Monday morning the town began to fill up. The Fanklin, Butler and Armstrong County lawyers had generally come in the Sunday evening before. It was a pleasant, sunshiny November day, which was fortunate as we had no means of heating the room. I believe more people came in to see the court than come now, although there was not a case on the list either civil or criminal. The judges got Johnston into a room at the Western and were sworn in before going to court. By ten o'clock the judges got up on the bench, and at the intimation of Judge M. Calmont old Mr. Morrison opened the court. The seats in front of the judges by that time were pretty well filled with applicants for admission.

Zeigler was a good officer with a fine, manly voice, and after reading the commissions of the judge, commenced swearing in first the Prothonotary and Sheriff whose bonds had been approved, then the constables and justices of the peace. Then the certificates of the younger lawyers were examined by the court and the whole batch were told to stand up and be sworn, and all were on their feet and sworn in. There were twenty-six lawyers admitted on that occasion. I don't know that I could give all their names now from recollection, but I suppose there is a list of them yet on file in the Prothonotary's office.

By dinner time nearly all the preliminary work was done. As I sat on one of the back seats and looked over the crowd of lawyers, a few past middle life with reputations established and in successful practice in their own counties, with others younger all the way down to greenhorns like myself, without practice, reputation or property, I thought my chance of success not very brilliant and in trying to avoid competition I found myself in a position to face the best attorneys in the western part of the State, and more resident lawyers than I would probably have found in older counties.

Though the Court met in the afternoon, there was little to do. Most of the old lawyers failed to put in afternoon appearances, but were seen walking around or sitting at the Hotels talking or telling stories. Several were upstairs playing uchre or other games.

Jonathan Frampton and James Craig had the contract for building the jail -- had by this time the walls pretty well up and were rushing it to have ready for the February Court. The whole upper story was left in one apartment to hold courts in till a court house was built. They had a little store house on the diamond right opposite the steps of the present court house on the south side of the street. Soon after that the Prothonotary's office was moved in there, and occupied all or a part of the store room.

Dr. Goe had been a practicing physician and was, I think, a local Methodist preacher -- at least he preached sometimes very good sermons, but he was not familiar with the manner of keeping the county dockets. At that time the Dr. held all the offices and needed a competent clerk. David H. Foster had been in the Prothonotary's office in Kittanning and was employed to open the books, and as clerk to write in the office. Before he came to Clarion he had been reading law. He had a wife and some children. He soon was admitted and practiced as well as played Prothonotary and it gave him a nice chance of catching business. Every man who came into the office to inquire about business could find a lawyer who understood the office and could give advice. I don't know that he ever took much advantage of his position, but it was talked about among the other members of the bar. At any rate, he was another resident lawyer.

Shortly after the first court, Thomas Sutton from Indiana County came over and settled here, making his home at the Clark house where I had stopped when I first came. Not long after that, I think by the middle of winter, Gen Jolly came -- an old lawyer of some ability, but soon fell into intemperate habits. In the spring a young lawyer from Lancaster called John L. Thompson came here with a wife and child and went into partnership with Alfred Gilmore. I think by the spring of 1841 or soon afterwards we had fourteen resident members of the bar, and the principal business and nearly all the cases were tried by the old lawyers from the adjoining counties. Sutton got a good many collections in Jefferson County through friends in Indiana, and that was the most lucrative part of a young attorney's practice. It seemed to me that nearly all the newcomers had friends or influence to get them into practice but myself. I met quite a number of men through the county that had come from Mifflin County and had known me as a boy, but their patronage did not generally amount to anything, and the prospect through the fall of 1840 and winter of 1841 to me looked anything but rosy; indeed I felt gloomy and dispirited that winter -- the snow hanging on the pine trees and the gloomy woods, the ragged streets and unfinished and unsightly houses. As soon as the snow was off -- mud and dust. There was that winter a thaw in January. I recollect on the night of the 10th of that month there was a thunder shower after dark with quite vivid lightning, though there was cold weather and snow both before and after that.

I felt that if any reasonable chance of improving my prospects offered I would pull up stakes and leave in the spring; but I was away off in the woods. A daily stage passed through from Bellefonte to Franklin and we only heard from the outside world by that channel. I think it was fully three weeks after the Presidential election before we heard that the State had gone for Harrison. The inquiry every night when the stage came in, was "What is the news from 'Potter and McKean'." I had before been taking the "Saturday Courier," a weekly Philadelphia paper, and it was nearly a week after it was published before I received it. I read the stories and news in that and in the little papers published at home. I had a few law books and Davy Hays had a few, and we pored over them. Hays read Dallas reports and I read Troubett and Haleys practice, but had not the reports to read as Judge Burnside had recommended. Still, by reading and talking and practicing a little, I learned so-me law that winter, but it was a gloomy time in my life.

One thing I was determined on -- I would go no more home till I could go as a success or at least with a prospect of making a living.

There was plenty of company in town. The bar itself furnished pretty good society -- mostly social, clever fellows. Sutton I had known very well at College and he and I met very cordially and continued friends till the day of his death. He soon got to like Hays and gradually we swung off and though social with all, became far more intimately associated than with others. Hays was a warmhearted little fellow of good intellect with a streak of the sentimental in his character, fond of singing old hymns on a Sunday afternoon, in which I usually joined him, and they always brought home and Mother to my mind and I frequently felt sad for I knew I had no home but where I was, and my local attachment to the old home was always strong and lasting. Poor Hays -- he had lost his Mother when a child, had not the best influence around him; an impulsive nature, he sometimes in company went off on a spree and he always hated himself for it afterwards, and while in the office with me refused often to go with fellows to drink. I recollect of him being but on one while we were in the office together, and I never lived with a more agreeable, kind-hearted fellow.

Sutton, who was an exemplary member of the Presbyterian Church, liked Hays as well as I did, and we became warm friends and constant companions. Everybody was social, but society had not been formed at that time, though a number of excellent families had settled in town.

Hugh A. Thompson brought his family here a short time after I came. His wife was a refined, high-toned, excellent woman and at that time they had several children. He and John Lyon established themselves in a store in the Alexander Reynolds house. They were also from the town of Indiana. Lyon was from Fayette County and he also had a family.

Before I left home I had at one time been visiting in Center County and met John Newell, a grandson of old Aunt Barron. We were then both boys but he was several years older than I was. At the time I came to Clarion he was a clerk in the wholesale grocery store of Robert Dalzell and Co. of Pittsburg and had charge of a large portion of the business of the firm. I had never seen him but the one time, but we considered ourselves kind of relations -- his Uncle John Barron having married my Cousin Jane Ferguson. He knew of my settling in Clarion and sent me some collections which I made promptly, and he sent me others and got me business from other houses, and through him I soon had established business relations with a number of houses doing business in this county. I was anxious to become a good collector and gave close attention to the claims in my hands and was fast getting into a paying business when the stag law of 1842 was passed that tied up collections for one year. This gave me a back set, but I pressed collections just as fast as the law would permit, and by the end of the year I was doing a paying business and was independent. I never had a better friend than John Newell and I made out of business sent by him some thousands of dollars.