Hon. Samuel Anderson Purviance and Caroline Lowrie

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Husband Hon. Samuel Anderson Purviance ^{1 2}

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           Born: 10 Jan 1808 or 1809 - Butler, Butler Co, PA 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 14 Feb 1882 - Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA 4
         Buried: 

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         Father: Col. John N. Purviance, Esq. (1781-1820) 5 6 7 8
         Mother: Annalana Anderson (1780-1858) 9 10

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       Marriage: 

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Wife Caroline Lowrie ²

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           Born: 
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           Died: Dec 1891 11
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Children

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1 M Mansfield Purviance ²

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2 F Mary Purviance ²

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3 F Etta Purviance ²

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General Notes: Husband - Hon. Samuel Anderson Purviance

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He was the second son and child and when his father died at a young age, upon him and his brother devolved the responsibilities of maintaining and raising the large family which their father’s death had left wholly unprovided for. His early days were spent in carrying the surveyor’s chain, and in clerking in the offices of the Prothonotary, Sheriff and Commissioners of Butler County, and in such other similar employment as choice or opportunity offered to him. In this manner, he earned his living, meanwhile educating himself as best he could, and diligently pursued his studies as a law student in the office of Gen. William Ayres, of Butler, then one of the ablest lawyers in Western Pennsylvania. In 1828, before he had attained his legal majority, he was admitted to the bar and entered at once upon the active practice of his chosen profession, and continued in that practice until 1876—a period of nearly half a century—when he retired to private life. Soon after his admission to the bar, he was appointed by the Attorney General of the State Prosecuting Attorney for Warren County, PA. He remained in Warren about two years, discharging the duties of his office. He returned to Butler and resumed the practice of his profession in Butler County, and continued to maintain a leading place at the bar, until 1859, when he removed to Pittsburgh, where he continued in successful practice until his retirement, in 1876. [HBC 1883, 54]

At that time there was great confusion in the land titles of Western Pennsylvania, and the business of the bar consisted mainly in trying ejectments and settling the conflicting titles of the adverse claimants. In this field, Mr. Purviance was perfectly at home, and was retained in almost every leading case. As he was one of the old-time attorneys who rode the circuit of the different counties, his reputation as a land lawyer rapidly spread through all the adjoining counties, and in Armstrong, Clarion and Jefferson especially he has a large practice.
Meanwhile, Mr. Purviance took an active part in politics. He was a Whig during the whole period of the existence of that party, one of its most earnest and unflinching supporters. He was a member of the National Convention of 1844, which nominated Henry Clay for the Presidency. He was one of the founders of the Republican organization, and was a member of the Republican National Convention of 1856, which nominated John C. Fremont for the Presidency. Mr. Purviance was also a delegate from Pennsylania at large to the Chicago Convention of 1860, which nominated Abraham Lincoln, and of the Baltimore Convention of 1864, which renominated him, as well as of the Chicago Convention of 1868, which nominated Gen. Grant. During the administration of President Lincoln, he enjoyed, to a remarkable degree for one not in an official position, the friendship and confidence of Mr. Lincoln and his Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton.
Mr. Purviance was a member of the National Executive Committee of the Republican party from 1864 to 1868. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1837 and 1838, ex-Chief Justices Woodward and Agnew and himself being the youngest members of that convention, and his colleague from Butler County being his old legal preceptor, Gen. William Ayres. He was a member of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, sessions of 1838-39, a member of the House of Representatives of the United States in the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses, Attorney General of Pennsylvania in 1861, and a member of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1872-73. As a member of the first Constitutional Convention, he was a champion of reform, especially pressing for an elective judiciary. He was in Congress in the troublous times preceding the rebellion, and earnestly and eloquently battled for freedom against the encroachments of the slave power in Kansas. Other public trusts were pressed upon Mr. Purviance, but he declined. President Lincoln tendered him an important diplomatic appointment, but he had no desire to go abroad.

1 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 50, 54.

2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 489.

3 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 54.

4 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 55.

5 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 50.

6 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (R. C. Brown & Co. Publishers, 1895), Pg 151, 738.

7 James A. McKee, 20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1909), Pg 243.

8 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 488.

9 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 50, 57.

10 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 1458.

11 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (R. C. Brown & Co. Publishers, 1895), Pg 152.