From Courts and Lawyers of Pennsylvania: A History, 1623-1923, Volume III, Illustrated, by Frank M. Eastman. New York:The American Historical Society, Inc., 1922.

Transcribed for this site by Lyn Magill-Hoch. We are grateful for her assistance.


Page 628

Ambrose Burnside Reid was born on February 3, 1857, at Clarion. He was educated in the public and parochial schools and at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. He was admitted to the bar of Clarion county on February 23, 1878, and practiced in Clarion until 1890, afterwards at Fair Haven, Washington, for the period of one year, and then removed to Pittsburgh, where he was admitted to the Allegheny county bar on December 9, 1899. He was elected a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny county in 1911, succeeding Judge Kennedy, and is still serving in that capacity (1921).

Page 630

An associate judge of the Separate Orphans' Court of the County of Allegheny was provided .for by the Act of May 5, 1881, P. L. 12, and James Watson Over was appointed to the position thus created. He was born on April 11, 1843, m Clarion county, and was educated in the public schools and at the Kittanning Academy. In 1860 he was appointed deputy recorder and register of wills of Venango county. He served during the Civil War as a private in the 15th Regiment Pennsylvania Cavalry. After his discharge from service he returned to Franklin and resumed his position in the recorder's office. He studied law at Franklin and afterwards at Pittsburgh, and was admitted to the Allegheny county bar on March 7, 1868. On the passage of the act creating the position of an associate judge of the Orphans' Court of Allegheny county, he was appointed in June, 1881, and elected to succeed himself in the fall of that year, and reelected in 1891, 1901 and 1911. He became president judge of the Orphans' Court on the death of Judge Hawkins in May, 1913, and served in that capacity until his death, in 1919.

Pages 696-699

Eighteenth Judicial District --The Eighteenth Judicial District was established by the Act of April 8, 1833, P. L. 315, and then consisted of the counties of Potter, McKean, Warren and Jefferson. By the Act of May 21, 1840, P. L. 497, Warren county was transferred to the Sixth Judicial District, and Clarion county was added to the Eighteenth Judicial District in its place. Elk county was added on its creation by the Act of April 18, 1843, P. L. 312, and Forest county by the Act of April 11, 1848, P. L. (1851) 744.

By the Act of April 5, 1849, P. L. 367, the Eighteenth Judicial District consisted of the counties of Clarion, Venango, Elk and Forest -- McKean and Potter counties being transferred to the Thirteenth Judicial District. Venango county was taken from the Sixth Judicial District. Mercer county was added by the Act of April 9, 1853, P. L. 355.

By the Act of April 9, 1874, P. L. 54, Clarion and Jefferson counties constituted the Eighteenth Judicial District, Venango county becoming the Twenty-eighth Judicial District, and Forest and Elk counties being transferred to the Thirty-seventh Judicial District. By the Act of July 18, 1901, P. L. 669, Clarion county became the only county in the Eighteenth Judicial District, and Jefferson county became the Fifty-fourth Judicial District.

The writer has been unable to ascertain who was president judge of the eighteenth district from its establishment in 1833 until 1835. Nathaniel B. Eldred was appointed president judge in the latter year and served until 1839, when he was commissioned president judge of the Sixth Judicial District, in connection with which he is elsewhere mentioned.

Judge Eldred was succeeded by Alexander McCalmont, who was born in Mifflin county on October 23, 1785. His parents removed to Franklin in 1803. He taught school, and was admitted to the bar about 1828. He served as county commissioner, treasurer, recorder, sheriff and justice of the peace of Venango county, and was appointed president judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District on May 3, 1839, serving until 1849. He is said to have been somewhat eccentric, but to have commanded respect by his learning and ability. He died at Franklin on August 10, 1857.

The successor of Judge McCalmont was Joseph Buffington, afterwards president judge of the Tenth Judicial District, in connection with which he is elsewhere mentioned. Judge Buffington was appointed president judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District in 1849, and served until the office became elective in 1851, when he was defeated for election by John Calvin Knox.

The successor of Judge Buffington was John Calvin Knox, afterwards an associate judge of the Supreme Court, in connection with which tribunal he is elsewhere mentioned. He served as president judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District from November 11, 1851, until May 24, 1853, when he was appointed to the Supreme Bench.

Judge Knox was succeeded by John Swaze McCalmont, the eldest son of Alexander McCalmont, who had preceded him on the bench of the Eighteenth Judicial District. He entered Allegheny College at fifteen years of age, and was afterwards appointed a cadet in West Point, from which he graduated in 1842, and served in the army until July 1, 1843. He studied law with his father, and was admitted to practice in November, 1844. He was appointed deputy attorney general for Clarion, McKean and Elk counties in 1845, and served as a member of the State House of Representatives in 1849 and 1850, serving the last year as speaker. He was elected president judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District in 1853, and served until 1861, when he resigned his seat to take command of the 10th Pennsylvania Reserves, which position he held until May, 1862, when he was honorably discharged. He then resumed practice at Franklin, and so continued until appointed Commissioner of Customs in the Treasury Department in 1885, from which office he resigned. He died at Washington, D. C., on December 2, 1906.

Judge McCalmont was succeeded by Glenni W. Schofield, of Warren, who was appointed in September, 1861, and served until the end of that year. He afterwards served as Register of the Treasury, and died an associate judge of the United States Court of Claims. The writer remembers him as the handsomest old gentleman whom he ever knew.

Judge Schofield was succeeded by James Campbell, who was born in Kishacoquillas Valley, Mifflin county, on July 25, 1813. He graduated at Jefferson College in the class of 1837, read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1840, and removed to Clarion in the same year. He was elected president judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District in the fall of 1861 as an independent candidate. He went upon the bench when the oil business was at its full tide in Venango county, and was required to pass upon many new and novel questions. He served until January, 1872, when he was succeeded by William P. Jenks.

Judge Jenks was admitted to the bar in 1845, when he was a resident of Punxsutawney. He removed to Brookville in 1843 or 1844, and soon became one of the leading lawyers. He was a member of the legislature during the session of 1867-68. He was elected president judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District in 1871, and served until 1882, when he resumed practice. He was for ten years associate counsel, with his brother, George A. Jenks, for the estate of John DuBois. He died April 25, 1902.

Judge Jenks was succeeded by James B. Knox, who was born at Knoxville, Tioga county, on November 4, 1831. He was liberally educated, and read law with his brother, John Calvin Knox, afterwards an associate judge of the Supreme Court. He was admitted to the bar and removed to Clarion in 1853, where he commenced an active practice. He served during the War of the Rebellion, emerging with the rank of colonel. He was elected to the president judgeship of the Eighteenth Judicial District in the fall of 1881, and served in that capacity until his death on December 2, 1884.

He was succeeded by William L. Corbett, who was born on February 12, 1826, in Clarion township. He attended the Clarion Academy until about his eighteenth year, when he was registered as a law student in the office of D. W. Foster, of Clarion, and was admitted to the bar on February 2, 1847, before he was of full age. He served as deputy attorney general for Clarion county for about two years. He was elected to the State Senate in 1876, where he served two terms. On the death of Judge Knox he was appointed president judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District, and served the remainder of that year.

He was succeeded by Theophilus Stratton Wilson, who was born at Strattanville in 1837, was educated at Allegheny College, registered as a law student in 1857, and admitted to practice in 1861. He immediately established himself at Clarion, and in 1872 formed a partnership with George A. Jenks, of Brookville. He was elected president judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District in 1885, taking his seat on the bench in January, 1886. He served until July, 1891, when, while holding court in Indiana county for Judge White, he was suddenly taken ill and died on July 6, 1891.

Judge Wilson was succeeded by E. Heath Clark, who was born at Brookville on July 22, 1829, attended the public schools of his town, and afterwards the Saltsburg Academy and the New Bethlehem Academy. He read law with Judge William P. Jenks and George A. Jenks, and after his admission to the bar formed a partnership with them. He was elected president judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District in November, 1891, and served until January, 1902.

The successor of Judge Clark was Harry R. Wilson, who was born on September 3, 1864, at Clarion. He graduated at Lafayette College in 1884, was admitted to practice on November 8, 1886, and soon acquired an extensive practice. He served until January, 1912, when he was succeeded by William A. Hindman, who died July 15, 1913, and was himself succeeded by Theodore L. Wilson, who served until succeeded in turn by the present incumbent, G. G. Sloan.

Judge Sloan was born in the southern portion of Clarion county, Pennsylvania. He received his legal education in the Law School of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was admitted to the bar of Clarion county in 1882. He was elected district attorney for Clarion county in 1887 for two successive terms, and had been in active practice until the fall of 1913, when he was elected president judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the Eighteenth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, and has served continuously since that date.

Page 772

Fifty-fourth Judicial District. -- The Fifty-fourth Judicial District was established by the Act of June 12, 1895, P. L. 190, and consists of the county of Jefferson, which was taken from the Eighteenth Judicial District.

The first president judge of the Fifty-fourth Judicial District was John W. Reed, of Brookville, who studied law in the office of James Campbell, of Clarion, and was admitted to practice in Clarion county on August 23, 1875. He began practice at Brookville in partnership with A. C. White, under the firm name of White & Reed, but returned to Clarion in 1877, and became a partner in the firm of Wilson, Jenks & Reed. He afterwards removed to Grand Forks, North Dakota, but returned to Clarion in 1884, where he practiced until his appointment to the bench. On the creation of the Fifty-fourth Judicial District in 1895 he was appointed president judge thereof, and in the fall of that year he was elected to succeed himself, and reelected in 1905, serving until January, 1916.

Judge Reed was succeeded by the present incumbent, Charles Corbett.