the late John S. Rhey, of Ebensburg, was then a young lawyer residing in Kittanning, who had been appointed deputy attorney general to prosecute criminal actions in the district. While residing in that county he was elected to the General Assembly, where by that eminent body he was chosen speaker of the house in 1852. When Judge Knox made his first visit to Kittanning he met Mr. Rhey, and with due modesty and candor said he feared to assume the duties which the office of president judge imposed as his practice of the law was limited. He had never tried a case and felt that he was not equipped for the distinguished position. Mr. Rhey appreciated the condition of public affairs in the district, and with his short acquaintance looked with favor on helping the young judge, and thus counselled him: "Never mind; go on the bench and made no excuses; do the best you can and we will help you. Do not talk about it." He did as he was advised, and performed his duties very well for the brief period he was in the district.

The judicial districts were reapportioned in 1851, and on the same day that Judge Taylor was elected for the Cambria, Blair and Huntingdon courts, Judge Knox was elected in the Venango, Jefferson, Clarion and Forrest district, then the XVIIIth District, defeating Judge Buffington, who had been commissioned by Governor Johnston. Judge Knox served with distinction, and in 1853 Governor Bigler appointed him associate judge of the supreme court to succeed the eminent Chief Justice John Bannister Gibson. He was elected to succeed himself, and served there until January 19, 1858, when he assumed the office of attorney general in the cabinet of Governor William Fisher Packer. At the close of his official term as attorney general he located in Philadelphia, where he practiced his profession until he became afflicted with softening of the brain, and died in the Norristown Hospital.

Judge George Taylor was born at Oxford, Chester county, Pennsylvania, November 20, 1812, and died in Hollidaysburg while holding court November 14, 1871. He was the fourth child of Matthew and Rebecca Anderson-Taylor. He did not attend school after his thirteenth year. He removed to Huntingdon, and became a clerk in the prothonotary's office, while David R. Porter was the the official. In 1834 he entered the office of Andrew P. Wilson as a student of the law, and was admitted to the bar on April 12, 1836. He prosecuted the Flanagans for the Betsy Holder homicide. He formed a partnership with John

G. Miles in the practice of the law. In 1843 he was elected treasurer of Huntingdon county. While treasurer he retired from the firm of Miles & Taylor and began to prepare for the Presbyterian ministry. He mastered the Greek language and could read the Testament in its original tongue. In 1835 he was editor of a Democratic weekly newspaper.

The Act of April 5, 1849, created the XXIVth Judicial District, composed of Blair, Cambria and Huntingdon counties, and he was unanimously recommended for president judge, and in the same month Governor Johnston, the Whig governor, gave him his first commission. He succeeded Judge Knox in Cambria county, and occupied the bench for the first time on July 2, 1849. He was nominated and elected as a Whig in 1851 for a full term of ten years, and was re-elected in 1861. In his twenty-two years' service he never failed to hold the regular terms of court. Judge Taylor was an excellent common pleas judge.

Justice John Dean was born at Williamsburg, Blair county, February 15, 1835, and died in Hollidaysburg, May 29, 1905. He was the son of Matthew Dean, His grandfather was John Dean, and his great-grandfather was Matthew Dean, one of the early settlers in central Pennsylvania.

Judge Dean was educated in the common schools at the Williamsburg Academy and Washington College. He taught school in Williamsburg and Hollidaysburg, when he entered the law office of James M. Bell and D. H. Hofius as a student of the law. He was admitted to practice in 1855. In 1857 he was elected superintendent of the county schools, and in 1859 formed a partnership with Samuel Steel Blair, which continued until '64. In '67 he was appointed district attorney for Blair county to succeed John H. Keatley, and was elected for the next term. In 1871 he was elected president judge of the XXIVth Judicial District consisting of Blair, Cambria and Huntingdon counties. His Democratic opponent was Thaddeus Banks, and George Taylor as an Independent candidate. In 1881 he was unanimously elected for the succeeding term. The apportionment of 1883 made Blair county a separate district, where he completed the second term of service. In 1891, he was again re-elected over H. T. Ames, of Williamsport, an Independent candidate. In 1892 he was nominated by the Republican convention and was elected to the supreme court of his native state, and entered upon his duties on the first Mon

day of January, 1893. He was next to the chief justice in the date of his commission at the time of his death. Judge Dean did not accept a railroad pass during his judicial career. He was regarded as one of the strong judges of the state.

Judge Robert Lipton Johnston, elected as the Democratic nominee to succeed Judge Dean, was the first judge for Cam

bria county when it was made a separate judicial district in 1883, and designated the XLVIIth District. He was born in Franklin township, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, on January 7, 1815; died at Ebensburg, October 28, 1890.

Judge Johnston was educated in private schools. In 1839 he removed from Indiana to Ebensburg, and became a student of the law in the office of Michael Dan Magehan. He was ad

mitted to practice on March 31, 1841. In 1845 he was elected county treasurer on the Whig ticket, and in 1849, he was its candidate for the state senate against Augustus Drum. In 1851 he was elected on the same ticket for prothonotary, clerk of the oyer and terminer, quarter sessions and orphans' courts, and register and recorder, all of which were filled by the same official. In 1854 he was elected the first superintendent of public schools, and served until October, 1855, when he resigned. Thereafter he successfully practiced his profession until he was elected president judge.

In 1854 he left the Whig party on the issues raised by the Know-Nothings, and held aloof for two years before he decided to cast his lot with the Democratic party. He was a DouglasDemocrat in the contest of 1860, and a War Democrat during the strife. In 1864 and in 1866 he was a candidate for congress. He headed the McClellan electoral ticket for president in 1864, when Morton McMichael led it for Lincoln. He was an able lawyer and an upright judge, and died suddenly while president judge.

Augustine Vinton Barker was appointed president judge by Governor Beaver to succeed Judge Johnston, on November 13, 1890. He was born at Lovell, in Oxford county, Maine, June 20, 1849; he was a son of Abraham Andrews and Elizabeth Littell Barker, who removed to Cambria county in 1854.

Judge Barker graduated at Dartmouth College in 1872, with the degree of B. A., and in 1875 he was honored with that of M. A. from the same institution. When he completed his education he entered the office of Judge E. W. Evans, of Chicago, as a student of the law, and later entered the office of Shoemaker & Sechler, in Ebensburg. from which he was admitted to practice at the Cambria bar, on August 4, 1874. He was selected solicitor for the county commissioners in 1881. On November 9, 1891, he was elected president judge for a term of ten years as the Republican nominee, to date from the first Monday of January, 1892. He was an industrious and able lawyer and judge. He was always a student. His decisions were rarely criticised or reversed by the appellate courts. Since his retirement he has successfully practiced his profession at Ebensburg.

In his fourteenth year he enlisted with his father and brother in Captain Daniel O. Evans' Company K, Fourth Pennsylvania Militia, under the command of Colonel Robert Litzinger, in the department commanded by General Nelson A.