Northumberland-Philadelphia County PA Archives Biographies.....Oram, 

William H. M. 1842 - living in 1899

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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com June 30, 2005, 12:01 pm



Author: Biographical Publishing Co.



WILLIAM H. M. ORAM, attorney-at-law, of Shamokin, whose recent portrait is

presented on the opposite page, was the first lawyer to practice in Shamokin,

opening his office there when it was a town of but 2,500 population. His

brilliant attainments and his ability as a pleader have placed him in the first

rank of the attorneys not only in Shamokin but in this state. He is recognized

as a fluent and adept pleader, and so carefully and fully does he prepare his

cases that he is admitted to be one of the most formidable men in the profession

in the state. Mr. Oram is a son of John F. and Louisa (Farr) Oram and was born

in Philadelphia, Pa., April 6, 1842.



  The ancestors of our subject on the paternal side were of Scotch stock and on

the maternal side of Irish extraction. His paternal ancestors came to the United

States prior to the War of the Revolution, but on the breaking out of that great

struggle returned to Scotland. The great-grandfather of our subject. Thomas

Cooper Oram, remained in Philadelphia and served during the Revolution in "Mad

Anthony" Wayne's division in the New Jersey line as an officer. He was for some

years a resident near Bristol, Bucks County, Pa., where he had charge of farms

owned by Nicholas Biddle, who was a prominent banker, being president of the

United States Bank, located where the custom house now stands, in Philadelphia,

Pa. Mr. Oram lived many years after the Revolution ended and took part in the

parade and the reception tendered Gen. Lafayette in Philadelphia.



  William Oram, grandfather of the subject of this review, was a native of

Philadelphia, Pa., where he was reared. He was a soldier in the War of 1812 and

died in camp at Richmond, Va. He was a silversmith by trade.



  The father of our subject, John F. Oram, was born in the city of Philadelphia

July 2, 1810, and was reared by his grandfather, Thomas Cooper Oram, in Bucks

County. He engaged in the wholesale shoe business in Philadelphia, which he

followed nearly his entire business career, retiring in 1877. Subsequently he

migrated to Shamokin, Northumberland County. He was a notary public and also an

insurance agent. He passed to his final rest in 1895. Mr. Oram was a man of

positive religious beliefs and for many years an ardent church member, serving

some time as a deacon in the church of which he was a member.



  Our subject's mother was born February 14, 1815, and was a member of the old

Jackson family. She traced her ancestry to those of the Revolutionary period,

who were among the earliest settlers and Quaker stock of Chester County, this

state. Her grandfather fought at Brandywine and one of his brothers was taken

prisoner by the British and sent to England, where he was confined in Portsmouth

Prison until the war ended. Mrs. Gram's father, Joseph Farr, was a tailor by

trade and resided near Kennett Square. To the couple were born three sons and

three daughters, as follows: Josephine, who is the wife of Thomas M. Helm, of

Shamokin; William H. M., the subject of this sketch; James R., who is a resident

of Philadelphia and is head clerk for the John Hancock Ice Company, served in

the Rebellion for a year as a member of the Keystone Battery; John A., now of

Newport News, Va.; Clara, widow of Theodore F. Nields, who is now a public

school teacher in Shamokin; and Frances V., who died in infancy.



  Our subject received his primary education in the public schools of

Philadelphia and graduated from the high school in that city at the age of

twenty years, receiving the degree of B. A., and subsequently the degree of M.

A., from that institution. He then entered the law office of Daniel Dougherty,

the distinguished attorney and remarkably eloquent orator, in the Quaker City,

and studied under his guidance for two years. He pursued his third year of study

of law in the office of John Hanna, also a leading lawyer of that city, at the

same time attending the law department of the University of Pennsylvania, from

which he graduated. He was admitted to the bar April 15, 1865. Mr. Oram

immediately removed to Shamokin, where he opened an office, the first lawyer to

locate in the town. He has since practiced his profession continuously in

Shamokin, a period of thirty-four years. He was admitted to practice in the

United States Court in 1867 and to practice in the Supreme Court of this state

in 1871. An indefatigable student and a hard worker, Mr. Oram soon acquired an

excellent reputation and a lucrative business, being unusually successful from

the beginning of his practice. Gifted rarely with eloquent speech, a keen

analyst of human passions and motives, Mr. Oram powerfully and convincingly

sways jurors in presenting an argument. He is constantly engaged and has a very

large general practice. In March, 1877, our subject was appointed receiver of

the Northumberland County National Bank by John J. Knox, then Comptroller of

Currency of the United States, and he successfully wound up the affairs of the

institution. Since 1871 Mr. Oram has been attorney for the Mineral Railroad &

Mining Company; he has for a number of years acted as attorney for the well-know

firm, J. Langdon & Company, and for seventeen years he was attorney for the

borough of Shamokin.



  In his youth Mr. Oram identified himself with the Republican party and for

years his time and efforts have been devoted to advancing the interests of that

party and defending its principles and measures. He has been prominent in party

councils and as a speaker has a reputation of being one of the most eloquent and

forceful ever heard in campaigns in this state. Several times he has been

honored by his party in being a nominee for office. He was the Republican

candidate for the judgeship in his district in 1891; in 1876 he was a candidate

for senator from his district, but was defeated for nomination by a combination

of the sort which is common in politics; in 1881 he was an aspirant for the

position of president judge, but, by agreement with two other candidates,

withdrew from the contest for nomination; he frequently has served as a delegate

to conventions.



  On March 4, 1866, Mr. Oram was united in marriage to Lavinia E., daughter of

Joseph W. Jones, of Pottsville, Pa. To them seven children were born, as

follows: Katharine, deceased, who was the wife of Charles E. Byers; Frances

Virginia; Lavinia E., the wife of Joseph H. Wheat, who is connected with the

Geological Survey, a bureau of the Department of the Interior at Washington, D.

C; Clara W., who is at home; John R, a student in the University of Michigan,

where he is studying law; and Louisa and William, the youngest son, who both

died in infancy. Our subject adopted a grandson, William, who assumed his

grandfather's name, Oram. The family are members of the Episcopal Church of

Shamokin. Mr. Oram is one of the leading and most active members of the

Pennsylvania State Bar Association and is president of the Northumberland County

Bar Association.



  Mr. Oram is unusually well versed in literary matters, being an eager reader

and a deep thinker. He possesses an uncommonly fine miscellaneous library, which

is one of the largest, if not the largest, private libraries in this section of

the state. He also owns a very extensive and complete law library. Mr. Oram is

thoroughly equipped, owing to his wide range of reading, upon all subjects upon

which full and accurate knowledge is of great value in the successful practice

of his profession. His store of apt and forcible anecdote is inexhaustible and

he is ever ready with quotations from standard .works, which frequently serve

most effectively to powerfully clinch an argument. In his library, after the

labor of his daily office and court work, our subject spends much of his

time-his books, with his charming family, being his most intimate friends.





Additional Comments:

Extracted from:



Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District

Published by 

Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899)



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