Biographical Sketch of Hon. Harman YERKES; Philadelphia Co., PA

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"Philadelphia, A History of the City and its People; A Record of 225 Years"
Publisher:  S. H. Clark; Philadelphia; 1912.     Vol. 3  , page 199
Author, Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer
 
HON. HARMAN YERKES

     While his political association with the minority party prevents Judge 
Harman Yerkes from attaining to the highest judicial honors in the state, his 
ability for such honors is never questioned by those who know aught of him, and 
in the field of law practice, where political opinion is not a bias to hones 
expression, he is accorded marked prominence.  Since 1904 he has practiced 
continuously at the Philadelphia bar and prior to that time frequently sat in 
the courts of this city, where he won the confidence of lawyers and the public 
by a vigorous and prompt administration of the law.

     A native of Warminster township, bucks county, Pennsylvania, he was born 
October 8, 1845, and is a descendant in the fifth generation of Anthony Yerkes, 
the founder of the family in America, who was descended from a French refugee 
and about 1683 sailed from Germany to the new world and became one of the 
pioneer settlers of Germantown, and in 1703 a burgess there.  In the maternal 
line Judge Yerkes comes of French ancestry.  His mother, Mrs. Amy (Hart) Yerkes, 
was a daughter of the Rev. Thomas B. Montayne, a distinguished divine of the 
Baptist church, who in 1800 accepted a pastorate at Southampton, bucks county, 
of which he had charge for thirty years.  He traced his ancestry to Jean 
Montaigne, a French Huguenot, who arrived at New York about 1630 and afterward 
became conspicuous in the colony as a director general and member of the 
executive council.  His maternal grandmother was Ann Edmonds of New York, the 
aunt of Judge John W. Edmunds.

     Although left an orphan at an early age, Judge Yerkes was not deprived of 
the educational opportunities which are so essential as a preparation for the 
responsible duties of life.  He supplemented his early school course in 
Warminster by study in the noted Tennent school at Hartsville and at East 
Hampton, Massachusetts, where he was graduated in 1862.  He made his initial 
step in professional circles as a teacher in his native township, but desire and 
ambition prompted him to take up the study of law, which he pursued at 
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, with Thomas and Henry P. Ross as his preceptors.  
Following his admission to the bar on the 3d of November, 1865, he entered upon 
active practice and without the disheartening experience of a dreary novitiate 
came almost at once into prominence, his ability and comprehensive understanding 
of legal principles enabling him to successfully cope with attorneys of longer 
experience and greater age.  In 1868 he was elected district attorney, entering 
upon his duties in 1869, for a three years' term.  In 1873 he received the 
democratic nomination for state senator and was given the unanimous vote of all 
the election districts of his own county and Northampton.  He took his place in 
the senate as a member of the minority party, nor did his efforts and influence 
lack potency in framing the legislation enacted during the ensuing sessions.  In 
1876 he was reelected from the newly organized district composed of Bucks 
county, serving until 1879, when he declined to become a candidate for a third 
term.  His six years' service was characterized by much that was helpful in the 
way of practical reform and progressive measures which he introduced, securing 
their enactment.  He was a member of the committees on federal relations, 
finance, judiciary and centennial affairs, and was also a member of the state 
board of managers of the Centennial Exposition and took a prominent part in 
furthering the interests of that fair.  In 1877 he was called to the chair of 
the democratic joint legislative caucus to nominate a candidate for United 
States senator and he was the unanimous choice of his party for president of the 
senate.  He represented his county frequently in democratic state conventions 
and for several years was a member of the democratic state committee.  In 1872 
he sat as a delegate in the national democratic convention at Baltimore, where 
he supported Judge Black and opposed the nomination of Horace Greeley.  He 
attended, as a delegate, the national convention at Cincinnati in 1880 and was 
among the stanch advocates of the candidacy of General W. S. Hancock.  The fact 
that he has remained a firm supporter of the minority party, laboring untiringly 
when there was no hope of success, indicates clearly that his position is a 
matter of deep and earnest conviction.

     The judicial record of Judge Yerkes is one which entitles him to rank high 
among the jurists of Pennsylvania.  In 1883 he was elected judge of the seventh 
judicial district and in 1893 was reelected, so that he presided over the court 
of Bucks county at Doylestown for twenty years.  His decisions were models of 
judicial soundness, indicating strong mentality, careful analysis, thorough 
knowledge of the law and an unbiased judgment.  He has to his credit a record 
showing less than a half dozen reversals by the higher courts in a period of 
twenty years' judicial service.

     On his retirement from the bench Judge Yerkes in 1904 opened an office in 
Philadelphia for the practice of law but retains his residence in Doylestown.  
In 1895 he was one of the six democratic nominees for judges of the superior 
court.  He ran far ahead of his ticket and there was evidence of gross 
irregularity and fraud in certain of the election districts of Philadelphia and 
elsewhere, and the election of his successful colleague was openly questioned in 
many quarters of the town.  Judge Yerkes, however, refused to make a contest.  
In 1902 he was the democratic and union republican candidate for member of the 
supreme court of Pennsylvania, and although the previous year the republican 
majority was near three hundred thousand votes upon the returns, he came within 
thirty-two thousand votes of being elected, and it is possible that the actual 
vote received by him was much larger as there was strong indication of 
irregularities at this election as well.  He polled a larger vote in 
Philadelphia than ever cast for a democrat upon the state ticket.  Entering upon 
the practice of law, he has proven himself thoroughly familiar with various 
branches, representing the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad 
Companies as counsel for the New York divisions and other corporate and large 
business interests.  In his private practice he has always prepared his cases 
with great care.  If there is a close legal point involved in the issue it is 
his habit to thoroughly examine every authority within his reach bearing upon 
the question, and this makes him a dangerous adversary.  When he comes to the 
discussion of the most intricate questions before the courts, it is perhaps then 
that his great power as a lawyer shows to the best advantage.  With a thorough 
knowledge of the subjects he discusses and the legal principles applicable to 
them, his addresses before the courts are models of clearness and logic.

     In 1869 Judge Yerkes was united in marriage to Miss Emeline Buckman, a 
daughter of the late Monroe Buckman of Doylestown.  they are still residents of 
that city and Judge Yerkes has ever thrown the weight of his influence on the 
side of substantial progress there and his example has been an influencing 
factor in securing the support of many substantial measures which have greatly 
promoted the interests of the county and also of the state.  He is one of the 
trustees of the State Hospital for the Insane at Norristown, being the author of 
the law creating that institution, is prominent in Masonry and is a member of 
the library committee of the Pennsylvania Masonic Order of Pennsylvania.  He 
belongs to the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, the Bucks County Historical 
Society, which has published a number of historical papers delivered before it 
by him, the Pennsylvania Historical Society, the Pennsylvania German Society, 
the Pennsylvania Scotch-Irish Society, of which he was president in 1909, the 
State Bar Association, the Philadelphia Law Association and the Art Club.  He 
was a former member of the standing committee of the Philadelphia diocese of the 
Episcopal church and he has proceeded far in that wider world of thought and 
knowledge which carries the individual beyond the cares, perplexities and 
worryings of the workaday world.