BIO:  HON. JAMES MARION WEAKLEY, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
   
  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson
  OCRed by Judy Banja

  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
  _____________________________________________________________

  >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
  Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 721-722
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  NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios:
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    HON. JAMES MARION WEAKLEY. Sometime between 1725 and 1730 there came from
  England and settled upon the Yellow Breeches creek, in what is now Dickinson
  township, one James Weakley. He purchased from the proprietaries a tract of
  six hundred acres of land on which he built a house, enclosed by a stockade,
  for the protection of his family and neighbors from the attacks of the
  Indians. He increased his possessions by purchases, and at his death was
  owner of large estates in lands. He died June 6, 1772; his wife Jane, died
  Nov. 30, 1763, and their remains are interred in the Meeting House Springs
  burying ground.
    
    This Weakley progenitor had six sons and five daughters. His tenth child in
  the order of birth was a son named James, who married Rebecca McKinley, by
  whom he had the following children: Jean, Isaac, James, Rebecca, Nancy,
  Nathaniel, William King and Elizabeth. He inherited the tract of land his
  father purchased from the Penns, and lived upon it until his death. He served
  two enlistments during the Revolutionary war, returning with the rank of
  captain. Of his children, William, the youngest son, died in early manhood,
  but all the others lived to an advanced age. Captain James Weakley died in
  1814, at the age of eighty-four years.
    
    James Weakley, second son of Captain James Weakley, born April 16, 1785,
  inherited the name of his ancestors. When more than forty-five years old he
  encountered financial trouble, and the old homestead was sold from him. He
  then married Elizabeth Lockhard, daughter of a farmer in Dickinson township,
  and began anew. Engaging in the manufacture of lumber, by hard work and rigid
  economy he soon began to acquire property. When he retrieved his fortune, he
  purchased a farm in Penn township, to which he removed in 1847, and resided
  there until his death. In 1861, when seventy-six years old, he repurchased
  the old homestead, paying for it a price four times greater than it brought
  when it was sold from him in 1835. He died Aug. 30, 1873; his wife passed
  away June 7, 1854. He was a strong, earnest, indomitable man. James and
  Elizabeth (Lockhard) Weakley had three sons and one daughter, viz.: James
  Marion, W. H. Harrison, Wilson C., and Rebecca.
    
    James M. Weakley, the oldest child and subject of this biographical
  sketch, was born in Dickinson township, April 12, 1839, He received a fair
  academic education, and in 1860 began the study of law with William H.
  Miller, of Carlisle. He was admitted to.
    
    722  CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
    
  the Cumberland county Bar in 1862, and has been in active practice ever since
  in the courts of this and other counties of the State. On Sept. 12, 1865, he
  married Mary F. Sullivan, of Carlisle, who bore him three children: Florence,
  who died in childhood; Mary F., who graduated from the Academy of Visitation,
  Georgetown, D. C., and who died May 15, 1903; and Francis J., a graduate of
  St. John's College, Fordham, New York city, and of the Dickinson School of
  Law, who died Jan. 20, 1904.
    
    For several years Mr. Weakley was interested in journalism. He was for
  eight years editor and part owner of the Carlisle Herald, the Republican
  organ of Cumberland county, and for two years editor of the Carlisle Leader.
  He is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, and a past
  master of St. John's Lodge, F. & A. M. He was several years president of the
  Cumberland Valley Mutual Insurance Company, and has held other positions of
  trust and responsibility. His political career began in 1865, when he was
  elected a member of the Carlisle borough council, in which he served until
  1868. The year following he was appointed by Governor Geary Assistant
  Secretary of the Commonwealth, which important and responsible position he
  filled from 1869 to 1872. In 1871 he was elected State Senator from the
  district composed of Cumberland and Franklin counties, and he was a member of
  the Senate three years, serving on the committees on Corporations, Judiciary
  General and Constitutional Reform. Just prior to his election to the Senate
  he was chosen a member of the school board of Carlisle, and re-elected four
  times, being president of the board the last ten years of his service.
    
    In 1891, Mr. Weakley was elected professor of Pleading in the Dickinson
  Schoolof Law, and the following year was made Professor of Equity. He has
  filled these positions ever since. Since his retirement from politics Mr.
  Weakley has engaged in the practice of law, and has maintained a high
  position in his profession. He has had a varied, honorable and successful
  career.