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Isaac Myer, S. N. Pettis, Laurie J. Blakeley, Sept., 1869; Henry Souther, William D. Brown, G. M. Osgoodby, Dec., 1869; B. S. McAllister, L. D. Wetmore, May, 1870; G. S. Berry, A. B. Kelly (student), July, 1870; James Boggs, G. W. Allen, Daniel D. Fassett, W. P. Mercelliott, Sept., 1870; M. C. Beebe, Feb., 1871; DeWitt C. McCoy, James B. Knox, May, 1871; George F. Chester, July, 1871; Theo. S. Wilson, Sept., 1871; E. H. Clark, Dec., 1871; A. S. Moore, Manly Crosby, May, 1872; R. G. Lamberton, George F. Davenport, H. E. Brown, George T. Latimer (student), Dec., 1872; John P. Parks, Feb., 1873; H. A. Miller, Charles H. Noyes, May, 1873; A. B. Richmond, David Sterritt, James H. Bowman, R. Mackwood, Dec., 1873; C. O. Bowman, Harry White, L. S. Morton, May, 1874; William H. James, A. W. Covell, Sept., 1874; J. B. Agnew, J. A. Stranahan, E. L. Davis, Dec., 1874; Charles Corbett, Feb., 1875; S. P. Brigham, -; Henry McSweeny, May, 1876; S. A. Craig, Thomas A. Morrison, P. M. Clark (student), Dec., 1876; Samuel Grumbine, James Q. Sweeny (student), Sept., 1877; William A. Hindman, James A. Beaver, Feb., 1878; William Schnur, W. W. Wilbur, May, 1878; T. J. Van Giesen, Samuel Miner, Dec., 1878; D. J. Ball, Sept., 1879; S. W. Calvin, Dec., 1879; W. M. Lindsay, Feb., 1880; Joshua Douglass, Mark J. Heywang, May, 1880; J. D. James, M. A. K. Weidner, Joseph Buffington, L. R. Freeman, T. F. Ritchey, Sept., 1880; B. W. Lacy, Oct., 1880; F. P. Ray, May, 1881; George A. Rathbun, June, 1881; John B. McKissock, May, 1882; A. S. Davenport, Sept., 1882; A. C. Bowers, Feb., 1883; W. G. Trunkey, H. N. Snyder, May, 1883; George A. Sturgeon, P. M. Clark, Sept., 1883; George W. Higgins, Dec., 1883; R. Ď. Campbell, May, 1884; H. W. Fisher, June, 1885; C. W. Benedict, M. C. Benedict, Sept., 1885; C. M. Shawkey, Feb., 1888; W. H. Ross, Sept., 1888; W. E. Rice, Dec., 1888; M. F. Elliott, George F. Roberts, F. J. Moffatt, John S. Ferguson, May, 1889.

C. McKay Agnew, son of J. B. Agnew, was admitted to practice in the several courts of Forest county at the February term of 1890, on motion of S. D. Irwin, president of the board of examiners. Mr. Agnew passed a very

creditable examination.

In November, 1884, the Forest Bar Association was organized with S D. Irwin, president, and P. M. Clark, secretary. E. L. Davis, J. B. Agnew, M. W. Tate, T. F. Ritchey, Samuel Calvin, T. J. Van Giesen, and the officers named were then the resident attorneys of the county.

Many important civil suits have been begun before the Forest county courts, such as the suits in re title to oil territory, and some heavy criminal cases tried here. Matthew Turner was murdered by William Barnhart, in Howe township, in September, 1871. He was tried at the December term of court, before Judge Wetmore, adjudged insane, and sent to the asylum, to be held there during his insanity, at the expense of Forest county. He enter tained a hatred against red-haired men and women, and even after imprison ment tried to kill a red-haired guard. Turner served in the Civil war, under another name. ....J. A. Mexly was shot and killed by Ed. S. Walton, outside Reyner's store, at Marionville, February 9, 1886. He was tried for this crime in May of that year, and sentenced by Judge Brown to $200 fine, the costs of prosecution, and two years and four months' solitary confinement in the penitentiary, at labor. M. W. Tate, J. B. Agnew, Richmond and District Attorney Clark represented the State; E. L. Davis and Osmer defending the prisoner. .... Mrs. Jane Gilfinnan and Mrs. Jemima Everhart were murdered in sight of Lickingville, in March, 1886, but fortunately the deed was not perpetrated within the boundaries of this county.

In November, 1884, the curtain dropped on the last scene of the celebrated

Ford and Lacy case. The case was completely closed, deeds delivered, papers exchanged by the contending parties, and the money paid. After over five years of war, during which over $50,000 of the $250,000 at stake were spent in litigation, a treaty of peace was consummated. The case has an interesting history, which is dotted with many points peculiar in their nature. The case first came into prominence in the middle of May, 1883, when Judge Brown of Forest county, who had appointed S. V. Davis receiver, made an order, which virtually placed the management of the estate in dispute in the hands of Samuel Lewis, the receiver appointed by the Allegheny county court. On June 8, 1883, Judge Brown reversed that order, and thus brought the two county courts into conflict. The fact that both receivers had full sway over the vast amount of property involved resulted in bringing them in contact with each other and complicating matters very much.

On June 15, 1883, Samuel Lewis filed a petition asking that an attachment be issued against Davis for contempt. The petitioner stated that his appointment had been sustained by the supreme court, but that by some legal proceedings in Forest county, Davis and several defendants had entered into a collusion to keep him from performing his duties as receiver. An answer was filed by the opposing counsel, but on June 22 Judge Stowe ordered the issue of an attachment against Davis. The question then arose whether, since Forest county had endorsed and complied with the Allegheny county court in appointing Davis, the sheriff or his deputies could not have prevented him from serving the attachment. A strategic movement was then planned. The writ was placed in the hands of Detectives Harrison and Snyder, who after lounging about Warren for a couple of weeks, seized Davis at the depot one evening, and rushed him off on a train. Davis' friends got a writ of habeas corpus from Judge Brown, and started in pursuit on a special train. The news had been telegraphed ahead to Kane, and when the two officers arrived there they were attacked by a mob, and their prisoner taken from them. A deputy from Forest county afterward came to Pittsburgh to arrest the officers for the attempted abduction, but only succeeded in arresting Snyder, Harrison escaping by jumping out of the window of the mayor's office. Snyder was soon after released.

A few months before the final settlement, the parties to the suit, seeing that the litigation would be endless, petitioned the common pleas court of Allegheny county to issue an order allowing a settlement by amicable agreement. The order was allowed, the settlement was made, and, as stated, all was completed. The sum paid by the Lacy party, in consideration of the deeds and papers involved was $75,000.

In September, 1889, was begun the trial of Aquilla Mong and his son "Sic" for complicity in the noted Wagner burglary, which occurred in Tionesta township about three years ago. During the fight that ensued, in which the Wagner boys successfully vanquished the burglars, McClary, one of the attacking parties, was killed. Thomas Haggerty and Sheldon Wilson were tried, convicted and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. These prisoners were brought from the western penitentiary on a writ of habeas corpus to testify against their confederates. The story of the participants of the inception, attempt and failure of this heinous felony was eagerly listened to. So great was the desire to see and hear, that the crowd pressed forward into the bar of the court. According to the evidence of these convicted men, Aquilla Mong, the father, planned the burglary, and the son "Sic" assisted in the actual attempt. It was the latter that held old Mrs. Wagner with a pistol pressed against her head out in the yard during the fracas. The Mongs denied all complicity in

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the matter; declared they had never seen either Haggerty or Wilson in their lives, and set up the defense of an alibi. The jury, however, brought in a verdict of guilty against both defendants. The father was sentenced to eight years' and the son to ten years' imprisonment.

George W. Lacy, of the lumber firm of Lacy Brothers, was shot by a boy named Charles W. Hewitt in October, 1889. The wound proved fatal. Hewitt was tried for the murder of Lacy in December, 1889, found guilty and sentenced by Judge Brown to a ten years' term in the penitentiary. The State was represented by District Attorney Clark; Agnew and Davis, of Tionesta; Ritchey, of Oil City; John W. Reed, of Clarion, and A. B. Richmond, of Meadville. Messrs. Bible and Osmer defended the prisoner.

In

A gang of desperadoes came under the rule of Sheriff Sawyer recently, and more recently, still, escaped from that rule; but his energy caused the return of most of the alleged criminals to Tionesta, there to await trial. Chapter II, and in other parts of this work, references are made to pioneer litigants, pugilists, and others who became familiar with the rules of court in

the old counties.

CHAPTER V.

POLITICAL HISTORY.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE LITTLE ORIGINAL COUNTY OF FOREST-THE JOINT RESOLUTION-JUDICIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE GOVERNMENT UP TO 1856BIRTH OF THE GREATER FOREST COUNTY, 1866-LIST OF REPRESENTATIVES FROM 1800 TO 1866-OFFICERS OF VENANGO COUNTY PRIOR TO 1866-ELECTIONS FROM 1856 TO 1888-PROHIBITORY AND SUFFRAGE AMENDMENTS, JUNE, 1889-REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES SELECTED, JULY, 1889-DEMOCRATIC NOMINATIONS, JULY, 1889-ELECTIONS IN 1889.

Tinfluence of Cyrus Blood and his son-in-law, Col. Hunt.

HE establishment of the little original county of Forest was due to the James L. Gillis and other friends of the "Wild-cat District" worked earnestly for this measure, but the prospects of a bill, asking for the establishment of 200 square miles of wilderness into a county, were very poor, and, for this reason, the friends of the measure determined to carry it by joint resolution. This plan carried, making it the only county, known to the writer, ever established under such a legislative plan. From this period to 1856, the little county was attached to Jefferson for judicial and, it may be said, for administrative purposes, although commissioners, auditors and treasurer existed, as related in other pages. In 1856 this irregular and disagreeable method of local government was changed, and after a hard struggle for autonomy, the little county claimed a complete government. In 1866 the greater Forest county came into existence by the addition of the extreme eastern part of Venango. The representatives of this section from 1800 to 1866, and the names of those connected with it who served as officers of the old county of Venango prior to 1866 are as follows:

In 1800 Samuel Ewalt and Thomas Morton were representatives of this district in the XIth House of the Pennsylvania legislature; Alex. Buchanan,

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