BIO:  Judge S. R. RUSSELL, Gettysburg, Adams County, PA

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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Pages 368-369

JUDGE S. R. RUSSELL, retired lawyer, Gettysburg, is a native of that place, born 
June 21, 1801, in the house in which he now resides and of which he is owner.  
His parents, Alexander and Mary (McPherson) Russell, were of Irish descent.  The 
former was a student in Princeton College on the breaking out of the Revolution, 
in which he enlisted and participated in a number of battles, and was promoted 
to the post of captain.  He served for many years as a magistrate, having been 
appointed by the king for life or during good behavior.  After the office was 
made an elective one, the captain persisted in holding it, which he succeeded in 
doing for thirty years.  He reared nine children, two of whom are now living-our 
subject and Mrs. Maria Wilson, widow of Robert Wilson, a soldier in the war of 
1812, whose death occurred in 1821.  Mrs. Wilson was born February 28, 1797, and 
is now among the few surviving pensioners of that war.  Lewis, the third son, 
was born July 30, 1803, and for many years was a banker in Lewistown, Penn.  Our 
subject, the second son, was reared in Gettysburg, and read law at Bedford, 
under the instruction of his elder brother, James W. (who was subsequently a 
member of Congress from that district), and was admitted to the bar in 1823.  He 
was engaged in practice at Gettysburg until 1851, when he was appointed judge, a 
position he held for five years.  Judge Russell, though retired from active 
business, serves as president of the Gettysburg Fire Insurance Company.  He is 
identified with the Presbyterian Church.