Hon. James Veech and Maria Ewing
Husband Hon. James Veech 1 2 3 4
Born: 18 Sep 1808 - near New Salem, Fayette Co, PA 1 2 3 Christened: Died: 11 Dec 1879 - near Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA 3 Buried:
Father: David Veech, Esq. (1781-1866) 5 Mother: Elizabeth [Unk] ( - ) 3
Marriage:
Wife Maria Ewing 6 7 8
Born: 22 Aug 1811 - Fayette Co, PA 6 Christened: Died: Aft 1882 Buried:
Father: William Porter Ewing (1769-1827) 7 9 10 11 12 Mother: Nancy Conwell (1774- ) 7 10 13 14
Children
1 M David Henry Veech 15
Born: 1837 15 Christened: Died: 2 May 1874 15 Buried:Spouse: Louisa Cass Ashman (1838- ) 15 Marr: 1 May 1862 15
2 F [Unk] Veech
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: [Unk] Blaine ( - ) 16
3 F [Unk] Veech
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Rev. Oxtoby ( - ) 16
4 F [Unk] Veech
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
5 F [Unk] Veech
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
6 F Ellen Wallace Veech 17
Born: 31 Dec 1845 17 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: John Hankins Wallace (1822- ) 4 18 Marr: 3 May 1893 17
General Notes: Husband - Hon. James Veech
Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA
His grandfather was one of three brothers who emigrated from Ireland, two of the brothers settled in western states.
He was one of the most widely-known and able lawyers of Fayette County or of western Pennsylvania. He was a native of Fayette County, born near New Salem, Sept. 18, 1808. After graduating with the highest honors at Jefferson College he came to Uniontown, and became a law-student in the office of Judge Todd. He was admitted to the bar in October, 1831, and commenced practice in the Fayette County courts, where by unswerving integrity and close application to the business of his profession he soon took rank among the leading practitioners of that day. A just tribute to the admirable qualities of Judge Veech, together with a brief sketch of some of the leading events of his life, is found in the record of the proceedings of a meeting of members of the Pittsburgh bar, convened upon the occasion of his death, which occurred Dec. 10, 1879. From that record is taken the following, viz.:
"The departing year takes with it James Veech, whose three-score years and ten are now closed, years of labor, honor, and professional excellence. Before he is committed to that narrow house appointed for all living men let us pause and estimate his worth and character, and make an enduring record of the virtues that adorned his long life and gave him that high place in the profession and the State to which his ripe learning and unvarying integrity entitled him.
"In stature, mental and physical, nature had marked him as one born to brave the battle of life with unflagging courage and tireless industry, and to secure a triumph not more honorable to himself than useful in good deeds, to his fellow-men. He graduated at Jefferson College, being the youngest member of his class, and acquired an education which in subsequent years he greatly improved, keeping up his study of the classics during his professional labors and becoming familiar with the standard Greek and Latin authors. There were with him at college many who have risen to places of honor and usefulness, and, like him, added to its long roll of distinguished men.
"After leaving college he went to Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and in 1829 began reading law under the direction of the late Judge Todd, who was then one of the prominent lawyers of the western part of the State. In October, 1831, he was admitted to the bar, and began a career which has shed lustre on his name and his profession. There were then in full practice Andrew Stewart, John M. Austin, John Dawson, of Fayette County, now all gone. Thomas M. T. McKennan and Thomas McGuffie appeared among its members at times,-men whose reputations are yet fresh in the recollection of many persons now living. Surrounded by such men, and inspired by their influence, Mr. Veech became an ardent student in the true meaning of the term, and read and loved the common law, because it laid open to his view the foundations of those great principles upon which the most sacred rights of persons and property rest.
"After some years of constant and continued application to his professional duties, he was appointed deputy district attorney of Allegheny County by James Todd, the attorney-general, and removed to Pittsburgh. In this new sphere he faithfully and creditably discharged all its duties, and by his learning and honorable deportment advanced still higher his professional reputation. He resided in Pittsburgh for several years, but was compelled by failing health to remove to Uniontown. There he remained until 1862, becoming the leader of the bar, enjoying the fruits of a lucrative practice, and rising to a degree of excellence in his profession which the ambition of any man might prompt him to attain. He prepared his cases with great care, and tried them with a degree of power which few men possess.
"His manner before a jury was not engaging, nor his voice pleasant, but the strength and directness of his logic and the cogent earnestness with which he made his pleas covered all such defects. His strong common sense and good judgment carried his case, if it could be won, and Fayette County juries attested his abilities by not often going against him. His arguments in the Supreme Court were clear, well digested, and forcibly presented.
"He trusted to decided cases, and was not inclined to leave the well-worn ways of the law, or distrust the security of those principles upon which are based its most sacred rights. He looked upon a reformer as a trifler with long settled questions, battering down, without the ability to erect, a portion of the temple of justice itself.
"In 1862 he returned to Pittsburgh, and again commenced to practice, and continued an arduous and able following of his profession until 1872. His success at the bar was rapid, and his business of a character that required great care and constant labor. He took rank as an able, reliable, and formidable lawyer, and found his reward in the confidence bestowed by a large circle of leading business men in the management of their important cases. As a counselor, he was cautious and safe, and he so thoroughly studied the facts upon which an opinion was to be given that he reached his conclusions slowly, but with a degree of mature thought that made them valuable. Although pressed with business, he found leisure, however, to indulge a taste he acquired early in life for studying the history of the first settlement of this country around us. No man in Western Pennsylvania has more patiently and accurately collected the names of the hardy pioneers who came to the western slope of the Alleghenies, and with rifle and axe penetrated the dense forests that then lay along the Monongahela and its tributaries. Every spot memorable in the French and Indian war was known to him. He collected many valuable manuscripts of men like Albert Gallatin on subjects of State and national importance, gathered information from all quarters of historical value, and intended to publish them, but the work was never done.
"His contributions in pamphlet form on many subjects of local interest were read with great interest, and will be useful to the historian who may seek to place in durable shape what occurred at an early day in the settlement of Western Pennsylvania.
"In 1872 he retired from practice after a life spent in exacting labor, to find relief from the cares of professional duties in the happiness of a home to which he was deeply attached. In it he enjoyed the companionship of his friends, to whom he was warmly attached, and dispensed his hospitality with a genial nature, which made intercourse with him both pleasant and instructive. Up to the very hour of his death his mental faculties were unimpaired, and his spirits full of almost the fervor of his youth. He died at his home on the Ohio below Pittsburgh, surrounded by all that was dear to him on earth."
General Notes: Wife - Maria Ewing
She was deceased before 1893. [CBRWC, 121] She was still living, residing at Emsworth, PA, in 1893. [CBRWC, 44]
1 —, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia, PA: Galaxy Publishing Company, 1874), Pg 634.
2 Franklin Ellis, History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 144.
3 —, Nelson's Biographical Dictionary and Historical Reference Book of Fayette County, Pennsylvania (Uniontown, PA: S. B. Nelson, Publisher, 1900), Pg 520.
4 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 44.
5 Franklin Ellis, History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 331, 540.
6 Franklin Ellis, History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 651.
7 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 556.
8 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 121.
9 Franklin Ellis, History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 142, 651.
10 John M. Gresham, Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Fayette County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: John M. Gresham & Co., 1889), Pg 168.
11 Wm. H. Egle, Historical Register: Notes and Queries, Historical and Genealogical (Harrisburg, PA: Lane S. Hart, Publisher, 1884), Pg 148.
12 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 44, 121.
13 Franklin Ellis, History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 634, 651.
14 Leander James McCormick, McCormick Family Record and Biography (Chicago, IL: Publisher Unknown, 1896), Pg 140.
15 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897), Pg 7.
16 —, Nelson's Biographical Dictionary and Historical Reference Book of Fayette County, Pennsylvania (Uniontown, PA: S. B. Nelson, Publisher, 1900), Pg 521.
17 John H. Wallace, Genealogy of the Wallace Family (New York: Self-published, 1902), Pg 25.
18
John H. Wallace, Genealogy of the Wallace Family (New York: Self-published, 1902), Pg 14.
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