Sullivan-Bradford County PA Archives Biographies.....DUNHAM, Edwin Murray 1844 - ************************************************ 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 April 29, 2007, 11:41 pm Author: Thomas J. Ingham (1899) HON. EDWIN MURRAY DUNHAM. - In the last half of the present century the lawyer has been a pre-eminent factor in all affairs of private concern and national importance. He has been depended upon to conserve the best and permanent interests of the whole people and is a recognized power in all the avenues of life. He stands as the protector of the rights and liberties of his fellow men and is the representative of a profession whose followers, if they would gain honor, fame and success, must be men of merit and ability. Such a one is Judge Dunham, who now occupies the bench of the forty-fourth judicial district of Pennsylvania, winning high commendation by his fair and impartial administration of justice. The Judge was born at Windham, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, August 31, 1844, a son of John L. and Laura M. (Cheney) Dunham, both of whom were descended from good old New England stock. (The latter belongs to the well-known Vermont family of that name.) Our subject's paternal grandparents were John and Drusilla (Brainard) Dunham, natives of Connecticut and early pioneers of Bradford county, this state. In their family were three children, namely: Cynthia, John L. and Matilda. John L. Dunham was also a native of Windham, born September 11, 1811, and received a very meager education in the district log school-house. He followed his father's vocation, becoming a tiller of the soil. On the 1st of January, 1857, he removed to Laporte, Sullivan county, where he was engaged in the lumber business, and while attempting to start a jam of logs on the river he was drowned August 31, 1861. In 1836 he married Miss Laura M., a daughter of Abel Cheney, of Bradford county, and she long survived her husband, departing this life February 26, 1894. The Judge is the youngest of their three children. Henry R., born April 22, 1838, died at Laporte, September 7, 1877. He was an attorney-at-law, a lieutenant in the Civil war and for a time a farmer in Kansas. Benjamin M., born February 14, 1840, was also one of the boys in blue of the Civil war, a member of Company K, One Hundred and Forty-first Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and was killed at the battle of Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863. Judge Dunham acquired his early education in the public schools of Windham and Laporte, and later enjoyed the advantage of four years in a private school conducted at the latter place by Rev. Hallock Armstrong. He then spent a few years in teaching school in Bradford and Sullivan counties, Pennsylvania, and in Orange county, New York. In the meantime he registered as a law student in the office of Judge Ingham at Laporte and pursued his legal studies during the vacations, and at such times as his duties permitted while engaged as a teacher. In 1866 he was admitted to the bar of Sullivan county at the May term of court, and at that time entered into partnership with Judge Ingham, remaining with him until elected district attorney in 1870. Since his admission to the bar he has been continuously and actively engaged in the practice of his profession and has for many years been one of the most prominent and distinguished attorneys of the county. He has been engaged on one side or the other of every important case tried in the county, and he has been remarkably successful in his chosen profession. On the 19th of June, 1872, Judge Dunham was united in marriage with Miss Hannah M. Crocker, daughter of Daniel Crocker, of Deposit, New York, and to them were born four children: Ellen L., an invalid residing at home; and Charles, Benjamin and Edwin M., all of whom died in infancy. The wife and mother departed this life February 9, 1895, at the age of forty-seven years, five months and fourteen days. Judge Dunham is an ardent supporter of the Republican party, and has often publicly advocated his principles. On various occasions he has been called upon to stand as a candidate of his party, and has several times filled elective offices in a county which is more than two-thirds Democratic. He has served as burgess, school director and member of the city council, and was one of the first jury commissioners of the county. He was elected district attorney in 1870 and to the legislature in 1878. In 1882, and again in 1886, he was the choice of his county for congress but failed of nomination in the district conference in the latter year, lacking but one vote of being the successful candidate. His election in the fall of 1894 as president judge in a district that is Democratic by a large majority was entirely due to his high reputation as a man of the strictest integrity, with a high sense of honor and a past career marked by a consistent course of justice to all and malice toward none. On these principles the Judge was elected and his course since has borne out all that his most sanguine friends expected of him. He possesses a mind practically free from bias, and he brings to his duties a most thorough knowledge of the law and of human nature, a comprehensive mind, and calm and deliberate judgment. His sentences are models of judicial fairness, and he is a type of the law that respects and protects, not condemns, humanity. In his career he has met with success financially as well as professionally, and is a stockholder and director in the Dushore bank and also in the Lake Mokoma Land Company. During the Civil war he was a member of the Union League, and socially he now belongs to Evergreen Lodge, F. & A. M., of Monroeton, the Chapter at Towanda, and Laporte Lodge, No. 923, I. O. O. F. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of Sullivan County Pennsylvania by Thomas J. Ingham Compendium of Biography The Lewis Publishing Company Chicago: 1899 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/ File size: 6.3 Kb