AREA HISTORY:  Hon. Valentine Trout, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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HON. VALENTINE TROUT – Page 738

Hon. Valentine Trout, of Chanceford, was elected associate judge of York County, in 
October, 1873.  The bench then, the last bench in York County in which there were 
any associates, consisted of Hon. Robert J. Fisher, president judge; Hon. Valentine 
Trout, associate judge.

By the constitution of 1873, the office of associate judge, not learned in the law, 
was abolished in counties forming separate districts.  The bench still retained its 
two-fold character for a time, as the constitution provided that all associate 
judges in office at its adoption should serve out their full terms.  Judge Moore’s 
term expired in 1875; Judge Trout’s in 1878.

December 3, 1878, a large number of the personal friends of Judge Trout assembled at 
the Lafayette House, in York, to participate in a supper tendered him on his 
retirement from the bench, and as the last of the line of illustrious lay judges.  
He was presented with a pair of gold spectacles and a silk hat.  The Daily of the 4th 
said:  “Hon. Valentine Trout, whose term of office expired on Monday, leaves the 
bench with a character untainted and unblemished, and bears with him in his 
retirement the respect and approval of all parties and of the bar.”  Judge Trout was 
born in 1817.