Columbia-Bradford County PA Archives Biographies.....ELWELL, William 1808 - 1895 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com July 1, 2005, 12:52 pm Author: Biographical Publishing Co. HON. WILLIAM ELWELL, deceased. The annals of the bench and bar of Pennsylvania record no worthier, nobler life than that of the gentleman named above. For twenty-six consecutive years he was president judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, being the representative of no political party, but of the people, and during that time he meted out justice with strict and impartial hand, showing mercy to the oppressed and handling the oppressor with severity. None could cope with him intellectually and his record as judge will bear the closest scrutiny, as in every case but one, in which his decision was appealed to a higher court, the supreme judges respected his learned reasoning and accordingly sustained his rulings. His home was at Bloomsburg, Columbia County, Pa., for many years prior to his death, but he enjoyed a state-wide reputation. Judge Elwell was a son of Daniel and Nancy (Prentice) Elwell, and was born at Athens, Bradford County, Pa., October 9, 1808. He was a descendant of a prominent old family of Staffordshire, England. The first of the family to come to America was Robert Elwell, who, it is thought, came over in 1633 in the ship "Griffin" with Gov. Haynes and Rev. Thomas Hooker. Robert located at Salem, Mass., prior to 1635, but later purchased land and settled at Eastern Point, Mass., where he resided at his death in 1683, owning considerable property in that section. Jabez Elwell, great-grandfather of our subject, was a soldier of the Revolutionary War, serving in the Dutchess County Militia under Col. Henry Ludenton. His son, John Elwell, grandfather of our subject, was also an active participant in the struggle of our forefathers for freedom; he was among the brave men who, in answer to the "Lexington Alarm," marched from Connecticut towns to the relief of the city of Boston in April, 1775. Daniel Elwell, our subject's father, married Nancy Prentice, a daughter of Dr. Amos Prentice, who traced her lineage back through nine generations to Capt. Thomas Prentice, the time being about 1620. He lived at Newton Center, Mass., and was formerly a soldier in the Army of Cromwell. His death resulted at the age of ninety-one years as a result of injuries sustained by a fall from his horse while going to church. Dr. Amos Prentice was a soldier of the Revolution and when the city of New London, Conn., was destroyed by fire he was forced to flee for his life. He removed to Milltown, Pa., and there resided until his demise, being buried in the cemetery at Sayre, Pa. Daniel Elwell and his wife were the parents of six children, William, the subject of this sketch, being the second born. William Elwell's early career was spent in the town of his nativity, where he received a good English education in the Athens Academy, attending that institution until he was nineteen years of age, when we find him acting in the capacity of assistant to Chief-Engineer Randall in running exploring lines on both sides of the Susquehanna River, the object of their efforts being to locate a canal southward from the New York State line. Upon leaving the engineering corps he engaged as a school teacher for a period of three years and then entered upon the study of law in the office of Horace Williston. Possessing all of the qualifications essential to a successful practitioner of the legal profession, he made rapid advancement and was admitted to the bar in February, 1833. During the succeeding sixteen years he was engaged in practice with his legal preceptor in the northern counties of the state until Mr. Williston was appointed president judge of the Thirteenth Judicial District. He was a Democrat in politics and in 1842 and 1843 was elected to represent his district in the State Legislature. During his first term at Harrisburg he was honored with the chairmanship of the judiciary committee, which was composed of such men of distinction as Judges Sharswood, Gamble, Barrett, Hendrick B. Wright, and Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, and his reputation is made brilliant by comparison with these men of recognized ability. As chairman of this committee, he prepared and reported the bill providing for the abolishment of imprisonment for debt, which custom is now universally recognized as one of the cruelest ever supported by the law. This bill stands to-day as originally reported by him. During the term of 1843 he served faithfully as chairman of the committee of ways and means. In 1844 he declined the proffered nomination for member of Congress, as the practice of law possessed greater attractions for him than the field of politics. Nevertheless, in 1866, he yielded to the demands of his party with great reluctance, and consented to be a candidate for a seat in Congress, and in the election he polled a vote far in excess of the remainder of his party ticket, but failed to overcome the Republican majority. As a lawyer Judge Elwell was without a peer, and that his practice grew to vast proportions is evidenced by the Supreme Court reports, in which are recorded more than one hundred cases which he argued. In 1862 his career on the bench began, when he was elected to the president judgeship of the Twenty-sixth Judicial District, comprising the counties of Columbia, Sullivan and Wyoming. He served his term with credit to himself, his rulings being characterized throughout by the greatest fairness, and in 1872 he was re-elected to fill the same office, the opposing party refusing to place a candidate in the field. In May, 1874, Wyoming and Sullivan counties were created the Forty-fourth Judicial District, and Columbia and Montour counties were designated as the Twenty-sixth Judicial District. Upon his first election Judge Elwell removed to Bloomsburg, which continued to be his home until his demise. In April, 1871, he was chosen as umpire to decide the disputes of the miners and operators of the anthracite coal region, and so impartially did he discharge his duties as such that both parties were satisfied that his decision was a just one. Frequently he was urged to become a candidate for the Supreme bench, and although he refused to allow a canvass to be made, his name was placed before the convention and he received many votes. Likewise, he was often spoken of as a candidate for governor of the Commonwealth, but, deeming it inconsonant with judicial propriety to make a personal canvass, he refused to allow any electioneering to be done in his favor. His second term having expired, the bar of the Twenty-sixth Judicial District met and, sweeping aside all party feelings, unanimously requested him to accept a third term as judge, and Judge Elwell having consented, the political organizations followed the lead of the bar and named him as their choice for the office. To take advantage of trying a case before him, cases were transferred to Columbia County from other districts and it is estimated that up to the time of his resignation he held more special courts than any judge who ever sat upon the bench in that district. He reasoned a case out to its fullest extent and when a party to a suit left his court it was always with the satisfaction of knowing just why the case had been decided against him or in his favor. In placing an interpretation on the statutes and deciding their general purview, he was unexcelled, and his decisions never failed to meet with approval at the hands of the Supreme Court. Many celebrated cases were brought before him for hearing, each involving the right of parties to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Among these were the Williamsport bond case; Fisher vs. the City of Philadelphia; Tryon and Dull vs. Munson; and the celebrated Cameron will case from Union County, in which an elaborate argument was prepared by eminent counsel for the appellant, but the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the lower court, as it did in all of these cases. He also tried the "Mollie Maguire" case, which grew out of the murder of Alexander Rea, and in it decided many important and doubtful questions on the law of homicide, the report of the case constituting a large volume of itself; again he was upheld by the higher court. Numerous cases of equity were brought to a hearing before him and in the exercise of his discretion as to justice and moral rights he proved as competent as in the interpretation of legal rights, for but one decision was reversed. The wonderful record of not a reversal in the cases of his district brought before him in the courts of Oyer and Terminer, Quarter Sessions, and Orphan's Court makes his opinions, which appeared in state reports, weekly notes of cases, and other legal publications, valuable additions to the legal authorities of the state. Judge Elwell, after spending twenty-six years on the bench, began to decline in health as a result of his long and active business life, and in 1888 he lost his hearing. He spent the following winter in Florida but without the relief hoped for, and in July, 1889, six months after his illness began, he tendered his resignation to the governor of the state, this being the only known instance in the state of a judge resigning before the expiration of his term owing to illness, but his extreme honesty and independence would not permit him to draw a salary from the state for duties which he had ceased to perform. He then lived in retirement in Bloomsburg without showing any signs of improvement, finally passing away October 15, 1895, leaving to his children the legacy of a noble life well spent. Few men ever possessed the confidence and esteem of the public to a higher degree, and when intelligence of his death reached publicity there was universal expression of regret, and upon the day of his funeral all places of business were closed as a token of the regard in which the people held him. The funeral services, prior to removing his body to Towanda, Bradford County, Pa., for interment in the family burial-lot, were conducted in St. Paul's Church, and the citizens who turned out to pay a final tribute to a beloved friend filled the church to the doors. The boards of trustees of the Bloomsburg Literary Institute and State Normal School, the town council, and the vestry of St. Paul's Church, all passed resolutions of respect to his memory. Judge Elwell always was regarded as one of the foremost citizens of Bloomsburg and Columbia County. In 1881 he was appointed on the bi-centennial committee by Gov. Hoyt, but his official duties prevented him from taking a very active part in that celebration. In 1868 he was elected trustee of the Bloomsburg Literary Institute and State Normal School, serving as president of that body from 1873 until 1891, and in its darkest days he did much toward guiding it through; it is to-day a flourishing institution and its sound financial standing is largely due to his untiring efforts in its behalf. Religiously he was a devout member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Judge Elwell was twice united in the holy bonds of matrimony, his first union being with Clemana Shaw of Towanda, Pa., by whom he had three children, as follows: William Elwell, Jr., deceased, who went to Plymouth, Wis., in early manhood and engaged in merchandising for a number of years, but subsequently removed to Sheboygan, Wis., where he was clerk of the county courts for several years and finally became superintendent of construction of a railroad from Milwaukee to Sheboygan, and also served as superintendent of the road after its completion; Clemana, the relict of the late P. H. Smith, who was engaged in merchandising and served one term as a state senator of Wisconsin,—she now resides with her family in Plymouth, Wis.; and one child who died in infancy. Mrs. Elwell died and he was again married, September 19, 1844, to Mary Louise Thayer, a daughter of Col. Ebenezer and Martha (Ager) Thayer. Col. Ebenezer Thayer was born in Williamstown, Mass., August 28, 1788, and descended from Ebenezer Thayer, who emigrated from England in the sixteenth century and settled near Boston, Mass., where his son Ebenezer was born. The latter was the progenitor of a family of five children, as follows: Baruch, grandfather of Mrs. Elwell; Daniel, who moved to Shelburne, Vt., and married a daughter of Capt. Clark, who attained distinction in the Revolutionary War; Eli, who also settled in Shelburne, Vt., and married a niece of Gen. Montgomery, who was killed at Quebec during the Revolutionary War; Reuben; and Rachel, who died in early womanhood. Baruch Thayer was born in Mendon, Mass., September 19, 1764, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, being stationed at West Point where he witnessed the execution of the British spy, Maj. Andre. In 1783 he married Mary Bingham who was of Scotch descent and lived at Windham, Conn., and then moved to Williamstown, Mass. In 1804 he removed to Shelburne, Vt., and seven years later to Batavia, N. Y., where he died in January, 1826. Mrs. Mary Bingham Thayer died at Batavia, N. Y., June 14, 1860, at the remarkable age of ninety-eight years. Their union was blessed by thirteen children, one of whom was Col. Ebenezer Thayer, the father of the wife of our subject In December, 1808, Col. Thayer moved to Ithaca, N. Y., and soon after his marriage two years later, he removed to New York City and there enlisted in the service of his country during the War of 1812. He subsequently moved to Watkins, N. Y., where he was engaged in dealing in shoes, and during the administration of Buchanan, 1856 to 1860, he served as postmaster of that village. In 1870 he retired from business and moved to Troy, Pa., but a few years later moved with his family to Bloomsburg, Columbia County, Pa., where he and his wife lived the remainder of their lives. She died at the age of seventy-six years, and he passed away on the 2Oth of August, 1880, aged ninety-four years. While a resident of Ithaca, N. Y., on September 12, 1810, he was joined in hymeneal bonds with Martha Ager, who was of Scotch descent on the paternal side of the family and French on the maternal, and they reared six children, one of whom is the relict of our subject, Mary Louise. She was born in Ithaca, N. Y., January 14, 1824, and now resides in Bloomsburg, Pa. Judge and Mrs. Elwell became the parents of six children, a record of whom follows: E. W. Elwell, freight agent and in charge of the State line and Sullivan Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, born in Towanda, Bradford County, and still resides there, having been in the employ of the Lehigh Valley Railroad for more than thirty years. He married Harriet M., a daughter of William Neal of Blooms-burg, and they had two children: Catharine, who died at the age of eighteen years, and William, who died at the age of sixteen years. George E. Elwell, the second son of Judge Elwell by his second marriage, resides in Bloomsburg, a record of whose life follows. Marie Louise, who was born in Towanda, Pa., in 1853, is the wife of N. U. Funk, Esq., of Bloomsburg, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this Book of Biographies. Martha died in April, 1864, aged five years. Robert died in December, 1863, aged three years. Charles Prentice, whose profession is that of a musician, was born in January, 1868, was educated in the Bloomsburg State Normal School and in the Diocesan School at Reading, Pa. From the latter institution, he entered the New England Conservatory of Music at Boston, and spent four years there. He has proved a talented and accomplished musician, and has established a good reputation as an instructor of instrumental music. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District Published by Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899) This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/ File size: 16.2 Kb