BIO:  Judge David WILLS, 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 375-376

JUDGE DAVID WILLS, attorney at law, Gettysburg, is a native of this grand old 
commonwealth, a descendant of Scotch-Irish pioneers of Pennsylvania, from whence 
came many of the illustrious names that adorn American history.  The story of 
the Scotch-Irish in America, though they came here only in sparse numbers, 
compared to other nationalities, is one of the most interesting and edifying of 
the chapters of our nation’s history.  No people have ever before so strongly 
impressed their remote descendants with the distinguished qualities of 
themselves as they have.  Their vigor and strength of character, their fearless 
courage, their strong mental and physical characteristics, their unconquerable 
endurance and tireless activity have been the web and woof of some of the most 
illustrious lives in American song and story.  Judge Wills can trace his family 
history back to 1578, to Carrickfergus, Ireland.  David Wills came to America in 
1730, and settled on a farm.  He reared three sons, of whom James was the 
eldest, who also had three sons, one named James Jack, who was the father of the 
subject of this sketch.  James J. was born in Cumberland County, in 1802, and 
his wife, Ruth Wilson, was a native of Adams County.  She was the only daughter 
of George Wilson, an influential farmer and merchant of Menallen Township, Adams 
County, whose ancestors emigrated from County Tyrone, Ireland, about 1750.  Our 
subject was born in Menallen Township, Adams County, one of two children, David 
and Ruth, the latter of whom is married to William Walhey, a farmer, living near 
Bendersville, this county.  In early life James J. Wills, was a farmer, whose 
intelligent industry brought him great prosperity, and in the latter years of 
his life he retired from the farm and for the benefit of his children took up 
his abode in Gettysburg.  In 1835 the heavy visitation of death came to this 
little household in the demise of Mrs. Wills, and left him with his inconsolable 
grief to travel alone, save the companionship of his orphaned son and daughter, 
that path that leads us all to the silent city, whose gates were opened to him 
in the year 1883.  James J. Wills was long a prominent and influential man in 
the affairs of the county, widely known and respected for his many excellencies 
of head and heart.  In politics he was active and influential in early life as a 
Whig, and then as a Republican.  He filled, with ability and credit, the office 
of county commissioner, and was for many years an acting justice of the peace.  
David was thirteen years old when he left the farm with his father’s family.  He 
was long enough there to lay the foundations of that ripe and solid education 
that has always distinguished the men of excellence in our country.  The active 
boy here gathers lessons that, apparently, he can find nowhere else.  With his 
farm duties he attended the district school.  He was then sent to Pennsylvania 
College, where he graduated in 1831, when he at once pushed out into the wide 
world and fearlessly took up the wager of battle in the struggle of existence.  
He went to Cahaba, Ala., and became principal of the academy at that place, and 
at the end of the scholastic year returned to his native State and entered the 
office of Hon. Thaddeus Stevens as a law student, at Lancaster.  He was admitted 
to practice in 1834, and at once opened his office in Gettysburg, where he has 
since remained.  His success in his chosen profession was marked and brilliant 
from the first, and of all this his previous life as a student, or as principal 
of the academy, had given earnest of abundantly.  He entered the preparatory 
department of the college in 1845, joined the Philomathean Society and was 
awarded the distinguished honor of contest orator.  Young as he was, impressing 
the older boys at school, as he has impressed his fellowmen since, that strength 
of intellect and force of character are commanding qualities.  He has several 
times been burgess of the borough of Gettysburg, and also served as president of 
the town council, and councilman and attorney for the borough of Gettysburg for 
ten years.  He was elected county superintendent of schools of Adams County in 
1854, being the first officer elected to that position under the new law, 
creating and defining that office.  Upon him there devolved the work of 
organizing and systematizing the complex affairs of this position, and the 
results show that the selection was a most fortunate one for the people.  He is 
now, and has been for nearly thirty years, a director and the attorney for the 
Gettysburg National Bank; president of the Baltimore & Cumberland Valley 
Railroad since 1880, and also director and attorney of the Gettysburg, Hanover & 
Baltimore Railroad systems.  In 1874 he was elevated to the high and important 
judicial position of president judge of the Forty-second Judicial District, and 
here, as elsewhere, filled the many and difficult requirements of his exalted 
position ably and well.  He organized and carried to completion the Gettysburg 
National Cemetery, organizing the association, interesting the governors of the 
eighteen States, whose soldiers are buried in the cemetery, and awakening the 
splendid charity and patriotism of the people of the whole country, that has 
resulted not only in these magnificent grounds, monuments, avenues and memorial 
stones of this great national cemetery, but from Judge Wills has come, flowing 
out from his work here, the entire system of battle-field cemeteries of the 
entire country.  The surviving soldiers, especially the descendants of those who 
repose in these beautiful cemeteries, should, as they certainly will, hold the 
name of Judge Wills in ever grateful remembrance.  And when love and affection 
has tenderly laid his form to rest, this splendid cemetery, its beautiful 
gravelly walks, its trees and flowers and lawns, its many gleaming granite 
columns, all will be his fitting and perpetual monument.  (See page 175 -----.) 
June 19, 1856, Judge Wills was married to Jennie S., daughter of Hon. D. M. 
Smyser, of Norristown.  She also is of Scotch-Irish descent.  To this union 
seven children have been born, four of whom are living, as follows:  Mary E., 
wife of John S. Bridges, of Baltimore; Annie M.; Jennie W. and Emma R.  The 
family is attached to the Presbyterian Church, of which Judge Wills has been an 
elder for the past fifteen years, and for the last ten years, Sunday school 
superintendent.  The Judge has been very frequently sent as a delegate to the 
Presbytery of Carlisle, and also as commissioner to the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church of the United States.  In 1880 he was sent by the General 
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States as a delegate to the 
Alliance of the Reformed Churches of the World holding the Presbyterian system, 
which met in the city of Belfast, Ireland, in June, 1884, and took an active 
part in that distinguished body, doing good service on some of its important 
committees.