Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1888-06-08

who tleQ VlSlleu Our SOuIte. w nhO III
the Senate of Pennsylvania be was
appointed Judge for Dauphin County
and continued as such for thirty
three years, living at Harrisburg.
He was q model Judge. known all OF
the State as such.
The following account of him we
take from the Harrisburg Independent
of May 81:
EX JUDGE PEARSON.
EVENTS AND INCIDENTS OF HIS LIFE.
John j. Pearson, died at l p. m,
today, at the family residence en-
South Frent street, after a long and
painful illness. in the SSth year of his
age. Bevan Pearson, the father OF
the deceased, emigrated from Della
ware to Mercer county. Pa, with bis
family in the year 1905, and settled
on a tract of wild land which he had
previously purchased, cleared a com,
paratively large farm, ard constructed
good buildings. At that time the
subject of this sketch was in the fifth
year of his age. He received reas-
onably good education in the best
schools of that county, in grammar
boarding school for the Latin and
Greek languages. and by private tut
tion became very conversant in the
Latin language and various branches
of science, but never had the advan-
tage of regular collegiate education.
He wrote for a considerable time in
bis fathers Office, and in the month OF
January, 1920, entered on the study
of the law. under the instruction OF
the Hon. John Banks, then q lawyer
of high standing and extensive prac'
tice in Mercer county.
Mr.. Pearson, after studying law
diligently for two and half years,
was admitted to the bar at the Au-
gust term of court in Mercer county in
the year 1922. A few months after
wards be removed to Franklin, Ven
ango county. and entered on the prac-
tice of his profession in the counties
of Crawford, Mercer, Venango, and
Warren, in all of which he practised
regularly, and occasionally in those OF
Erie, Beaver, and Butler, it being the
practice of the lawyers of that day to
travel around large circuits. A con-
siderable portion of the legal business
of Western Pennsylvania then was
the trial of land titles, with which
Mr.. Pearson became very familiar.
In the spring of 1880 he removed
with his family to Mercer, and con-
tinued to reside there and practised
his profession in the same counties
enumerated until the year 1849, when
on the 7th day April of that year, be
was, by and with the advice and con-
sent of the Senate, appointed by Will
liam F. Johnston, Governor of the
State, to the Office of President Judge
of the Twelfth Judicial district, COM
posed of the counties of Dauphin and
Lebanon, and moved with his family
to Harrisburg in the summer OF that
same year, where he has resided ever
since.
The judicial business of Dauphin
county was found at that time to be
greatly in arrears, being back as much
as FIVE or six years. This was partly
owing to the large population, but
mainly to the great amount of State
business; all the pecunilrv claims by
or against the Comm 'nwealth bad
then and now to be tried in the coun-
ty of Dauphin. With great labor and
perseverance the business was IN a
few years so brought up that all cases
desired to he heard could be tried ia a
short and reasonable time The
causes in Lebanon county were gen
orally tried at the second term.
A change having been made in the
Constitution of Pennsylvania, by
which the Judges were made elective,
the President Judges for a period of
ten years, he was, in the autumn Of
1851, elected and commissioned Pres
ident Judge of the same district, and
again elected in the years 1861 and
1871, each time by unanimous vote
of the people and without opposition
The judicial business of this dis
trict was of more than ordinary mag
nitude and Importance. involving a
sit did very many claims of the Com
mon wealth of immense amount and
great constitutional difficulty, involv-
ing momentous questions both under
the Constitution of the United States
and of this State, besides more than
ordinary amount of new and import
ant criminal cases, and those arising
ON the equity side of the court.
His term of Office expiie1 on the
first Monday Of January. 1882, hay
ing declined a reelection, being then
in his 82d year.
During his residence in Mercer he
was twice elected to office-first to
the Congress of the United States for
the years 1885 and 1886, and after.
wards, in the autumn of 1887, to the
Senate Of Pennsylvania. for the same
counties for four years, for three Of
which be acted as Chairman of the
Judiciary Committee, then the most
important and laborious one of The
body; the duties were performed to
the general satisfaction,
In the term of his judicial career
he received from three different cole
ges OF the State the honorable degree
l.. L. ID.
In Judge Pearson's long and lab
orious life be was twice married
first, on the 18th of October. 1927, tc
Ellen, only daughter of Gen. Samuel
Hays, very prominent politician Of
Venango county. She died in Feb
rusry, 1910 Afterwards, on July
IL, 1912, he married Mary Harri
Briggs, only daughter of Joseph anc
Caroline Rriuna grand dan htpr nj