Section 34:  Continued Growth

From 1852 till 1861, my partner and I, though not engaged in every suit that was tried in the county, had a pretty large practice.

Few important cases were tried that we were not on one side or the other. During that time I argued a good many cases in the Supreme Court at Pittsburgh. Our term of that court came in October, and I think I was there every year. There is a drawer in my bookcase full of old paper books and a good many in the old bureau drawer. The preparation of these books took a good deal of work. They had to be written out in manuscript and then printed for the judges and Pro. of the Supreme Court. We usually had 25 copies printed and I always tried to keep a copy or two for future reference and in this way they accumulated to a pretty large pile of pamphlets.

During these years I got to attending the courts in Jefferson County. I always had a collecting practice in that county and gradually I was employed in the trial of cases, and I made -- outside of our partnership practice at home -- from five hundred to a thousand dollars a year. There was a natural feeling among the members of the bar in that county to keep out foreign lawyers and I recollect of having some stiff fights in that county with nearly all the bar against me.

The case of Magbin vs. Taylor took nearly a week. I had only Capt. Wise Taylor's son-in-law to assist me and all he could do was to take notes of testimony. Judge White of Indiana, Gordon Bor, The Jenks and Ben Lucas and I think Barkley were for the plaintiff. It was life or bankruptcy for Philip Taylor. He had a grist mill below Magbin on the Red Bank Creek and Magbin sued him for flowing water back on him. The mill was valuable and the revenue derived from it kept Taylor from insolvency. If he had to lower his dam it would destroy it almost and of course we fought it for all that was in it. Judge M. Calmont was on the bench and left the whole question to the jury, and after being out all night they brought in a verdict next morning for the defendant. That was just before the war, and in a few years prices got up and by a few lucky turns Taylor came out with flying colors and died some years after the war one of the wealthy men of Brookville.

Some other closely contested cases got me into quite a practice in that county, and with the members of the bar I contracted a friendship that has lasted ever since.

At this time Judge Gordon was in his prime and he and his brother had a large practice. Judge W. P. Jenks had a large practice. Phineas Jenks and Winston brought a good practice over from Punxsutawney. Gen. Brady and Jesse G. Clark were out of the practice and died. Richard Arthurs was still in the practice and is living now, the sole connecting link of the present and a race of lawyers now passed away.

Thirty or forty years ago I believe the practice was better in Jefferson County than in ours. The grand forests of white pine in Jefferson County have been a source of wealth for many years, and though greatly reduced and forests largely cut off, the lumber industry brings more money in that county today than any other industry.

Punxsutawney, Dubois, Reynoldsville and Brockwayville were all built up by the lumber trade. I also got to practicing some in Forest when the county seat was Manorville. During this time I had bought the old Potter farm. I knew it was poor and out of order when I bought, and I thought I got it pretty cheap, but I soon found that it was quite as bad as it looked. However, I put a new roof on the barn, made new fences and repaired old ones and put a pretty good farmer on it and spent a good deal of time and money on it. Fifty acres on the east side was in woodland and I sold that to Wm. Young for a thousand dollars. There was nothing in it to me and after having it for a number of years, I sold the balance of it so as to come out without loss, but it was about the poorest speculation I ever made in real estate.

During the fall of 1856 I spent a good deal of time on the farm and exposed myself in the wet and cold and got the typhoid fever. In a few days I became a very sick man. Dr. Ross told me the fever had got to run its course and the attack was a severe one. The December court was coming on and I was anxious to be able to attend to my cases at that time, but the doctor told me I could not expect to be well that soon, and when that court came on I was in bed with the chance about even whether I would get well or die.

At this time I had accumulated some property, but it was scattered out and would be of little avail to keep my family if I died, and this annoyed me a good deal and I thought if I got well I would make some provision to support my family till the children would grow up. Dr. Gillitt came down from Franklin to see me a few times, and by skillful treatment and careful nursing I gradually pulled past the danger line and began to mend. My Brother, Robert, and his wife and Sister Rachel Jane came out to see me and my Sister remained a part of the winter.

By the February court I was able to be out but did not attempt to do much business. By spring I was well, but I felt the effects of that fever for several years.

After the May court I took a trip west as far as St. Anthony's Falls in Minnesota, was gone perhaps a month, and suppose I was the better for the trip. In a few years the dregs of that disease left me and I regained my usual vigorous health.

At this time we had three children -- Mary and Rob born in March, 1854, and John K. in July, 1856. Rob was a sickly boy till late in the fall after he was born. His mother cured him by the water cure which was quite popular at that time, and he has been pretty healthy ever since.

We had a comfortable home. The house was not large but convenient with a good well at the door. I had it dug some years before by a big Irishman called Dan McFadden. In fact he dug the wells on both my lots, but at the old house his brother, Charley, assisted him. They were both ignorant Irishmen. Dan would get drunk but Charley was one of Father Mathew's men, carried a little medal given to him when he signed the pledge. Charley worked for me a good deal. When he got some money he wanted to send to Ireland and bring in one of his sisters. He told me he was going down to Pittsburgh to get a priest there to send the money to his sister. I asked why he was going there for. He said the priest was from their country and nobody else knew how to send it. I told him I could send it better than the priest and would charge him nothing for it. He regarded this as a piece of presumption, but after reflecting on it a day or two he concluded to let me try as it would save him the expense of a trip to Pittsburgh. In due time the girl got the bill of exchange and came out here and Charley thought I was a wonderful man who could send money to Ireland as well as the priest that was born there. The poor fellow went from here to Pottsville and was killed in a coal mine.

In 1857 I bought of Samuel A. Purviance, Esqr. the one-fourth interest in the Bingham estate for thirteen thousand dollars, in payments. The other three-fourths were owned by Samuel M. Lane, A. N. Neglert and the estate of Hon. John Bredin, a fourth each. All were or had been residents of Butler, Butler County, Pennsylvania. The Bingham lands were in Clarion, Jefferson, Forest and a few tracts in Venango. Nearly all of it had been sold and the bulk of the property was unpaid purchase money on articles of agreement. Being the only owner residing in this county, the partners appointed me their agent and I had charge of the entire estate, collected money, paid taxes, brought ejectments and tried several and made settlements all through the localities where the lands were. I notified purchasers that I would attend courts in the several counties. From this time I attended all the courts in Jefferson and Forest, made collections and distributed the money as often as I received any considerable sum; kept a land book and cash book, and in a few years, by liberal and fair treatment, I secured the confidence of the settlers and though slow pay they were willing to do the best they could.

Some years afterwards James Bredin bought out Neglert and then we two bought out Lane. It is now nearly all paid and deeds made. I think I have collected some eighty-five thousand dollars. When the war came on and legal tender at a heavy discount, money was paid in pretty fast. As it accumulated on my hands, out of my share I bought Government Bonds, some of them at a discount. I also bought the farm over in the valley.

I made a good bit of money out of this purchase, and by attending the courts in the different counties I made some money by the practice outside of my collections. I suppose I made altogether, out of the purchase of the Bingham property, not less than ten thousand dollars and possibly more.

From 1857 to 1860 I thought myself a pretty hard working man, and so much of it was in the trying of cases and attending to business outside of the office that I found it necessary to read a good deal at night. I think less time was given to play and amusement than at any other period of my life.

Previous to this some years, at the end of the year I had fallen into the habit of making an inventory of my property and I notice in these years a comfortable growth in my pile, and I felt in quite easy circumstances.

In the fall or winter of 1858 Hattie was born. We still lived over in the S. T. Moffitt house. It was comfortable and though not large, furnished us a pretty good home. I found, however, that I could build a new house over on my lots at the office without feeling it much. Some years before that I had bought the corner lot next the alley and the three made a nice square of 180 feet, and I thought a good house about thirty feet from the street on the middle lot with the two side lots for trees, shrubbery and yard would be about the right location for a pleasant home. They were all surrounded then by a good close board fence and a nice lot of trees growing thereon.