Armstrong County PA Archives Biographies.....Buffington, Hon. Joseph November 27, 1803 - February 3, 1872
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Patricia Bastik noemail@none.com May 20, 2025, 9:39 am

Source: History of Armstrong County, Chicago: Waterman, Watkins and Co. 1883.
Author: Robert Walter Smith, Esq.

  ...Joseph Buffington, for many years judge of the "old 
tenth" district, and whose life was intimately connected 
with the history of Armstrong county, was born in the town 
of West Chester, county of Chester, on the 27th of November, 
1803, and died at Kittanning on the 3rd of February, 1872.  
The ancestors of Judge Buffington were Quakers or Friends, 
who left England several years before Wm. Penn, and in 1677, 
five years before the arrival of Penn, we find one of them, 
Richard Buffington, among the list of "tydables" at Upland, 
which same Richard was the father of the first-born child of 
English descent in the Province of Pennsylvania.  From 
Hazard's Annals, page 468, as well as from the Pennsylvania 
Gazette from June 28 to July 5, 1739, we learn that, "on the 
30th of May past, the children, grandchildren and 
great-grandchildren of Richard Buffington, Sr., to the 
number of 115, met together at his home in Chester county, 
as also his 9 sons and daughters-in-law, and 12 
great-grandchildren-in-law.  The old man is from Great Marle 
upon the Thames, in Buckinghamshire, in Old England, aged 
about 85, and is still hearty, active and of perfect memory. 
 His eldest son, now in the 60th year of his age, was the 
first-born son of English descent in this Province.

  The second son, Thomas, was born about 1680, and died in 
December, 1739.  He was married to Ruth Cope, and among 
other children left a son William, who was first married to 
Lena Ferree, as appears in Rupp's History of Lancaster 
county, page 112, and afterward to a second wife, Alice, 
whose maiden name is unknown. By this second wife there was 
born in 1726 a son Jonathan, who died October 18, 1801.  
This Jonathan Buffington was the grandfather of Judge 
Buffington.  He owned and operated a gristmill which is 
still standing at North Brook, near the site of the battle 
of the Brandywine.  At the time of that battle (September, 
1777), his mill was taken possession of by the British 
troops, and the non-combatant Friend compelled to furnish 
food for the British.

  Jonathan Buffington was married to Ann (born 1729, died 
June 16, 1811), daughter of Edward and Ann Clayton.  Their 
third child, Ephraim Buffington, was born March 23, 1767, 
and died December 30, 1832.  Ephraim Buffington was married 
to Rebecca Francis, March 4, 1790, at the old Swedes church, 
Wilmington, Delaware.  He kept a hotel at West Chester, at a 
tavern stand known as the "White Hall," a venerable 
hostelry, and well known throughout that region for many 
years.  It was here that Judge Buffington was born and lived 
until his tenth year, when his father, in hopes of bettering 
his fortunes in the then West, left Chester county, came 
over the mountains and settled at Pine creek, about five 
miles above Pittsburgh, on the Allegheny river.  When about 
18 years of age he entered the Western University at 
Pittsburgh, then under the charge of Dr. Bruce, at which 
place he also enjoyed the instructions of the venerable Dr. 
Joseph Stockton.  After finishing a liberal course of 
studies he went to Butler, Pennsylvania, and for some time 
prior to studying law, edited a weekly newspaper called the 
Butler Repository, and in company with Samuel A. Purviance, 
afterward a well-known member of the Allegheny county bar 
and attorney-general of the commonwealth, he engaged in 
keeping a small grocery store.  Soon afterward he entered, 
as a student of law, the office of Gen. William Ayers, at 
that time one of the celebrated lawyers of Western 
Pennsylvania, under whose careful training he laid a 
thorough foundation for his chosen life work.  Durnig his 
student life he married Miss Catharine Mechling, a daughter 
of Hon. Jacob Mechling, of Butler county, a prominent 
politician of that region, and for many years a member of 
the house of representatives and the senate of Pennsylvania. 
 Mrs. Buffington survived her husband, dying September 11, 
1873.  They left no children, their only child, Mary, having 
died in infancy.

  In July, 1826, he was admitted to practice in Butler 
county, and in the supreme court on September 10, 1828.  He 
remained at the Butler bar for about a year, but finding 
that the business was largely absorbed by older and more 
experienced practitioners, he determined to seek some new 
field of labor and finally decided upon Armstrong county, to 
which he removed and settled at Kittanning, where he 
continued to reside until his death.  Shortly after his 
coming he purchased from his preceptor, Gen. Ayers, the lots 
on Water street which afterward became his home and on which 
he built the old homestead. Though the first years of his 
professional life were ones of hardship and narrow means, 
yet his industry, integrity and close application soon 
brought him to the front of the bar, and in a few years he 
was in possession of a practice that absorbed his time and 
afforded him a comfortable income.  During the years that 
intervened between his coming to Kittanning and 1843 he was 
closely engaged in the line of his profession.  Patient, 
laborious and attentive, full of zeal and energy for his 
clients' causes, he acquired an extensive practice.  He was 
constantly in attendance upon the courts of Clarion, 
Jefferson, Armstrong and Indiana, and his services were 
often in demand in other counties.  He was connected with 
all the important land trials of these regions, and his 
knowledge of this intricate branch of the law was thorough 
and exhaustive.  To practice successfully in these counties 
indicated no meager abilities as one recalls to mind the 
array of legal talent of those days, among whom may be 
mentioned Thomas Blair, Gov. Wm. F. Johnston, H. N. Lee, 
Darwin Phelps, of Armstrong county; Hon. Samuel A. Gilmore, 
Hon. Charles C. Sulligan, Hon. Samuel A. Purviance, Gen. I. 
N. Purviance, of Butler county; Hon. Thomas White, Daniel 
Stannard, William Banks, of Indiana county; Hon. Henry D. 
Foster, Edgar A. Cowan, of Westmoreland bounty; Hon. James 
Campbell and Thomas Sutton, of Clarion county.

  Upon coming to manhood, Judge Buffington took a strong 
interest in politics. At the inception of the anti-masonic 
party in 1831 or thereabouts he became one of its members 
and served as a delegate to the national convention of that 
body which met at Baltimore in 1832 and nominated William 
Wirt for the presidency. During these and the few succeeding 
years he was several times nominated for the position of 
state senator or member of the house of representatives, but 
without success, his party being largely in the minority.  
In 1840 he became a whig, taking an active part in the 
election of Gen. Harrison and serving as one of the 
presidential electors on the whig ticket.

  In the fall of 1843 he was elected a member of congress as 
the whig candidate in the district composed of the counties 
of Armstrong, Butler, Clearfield and Indiana, his competitor 
being Dr. Lorain, of Clearfield county.  In 1844 he was 
again elected in the same district, his competitor being 
Judge McKennan, of Indiana county.  During his membership of 
the house he voted with the Whigs in all important measures, 
among others voting against the admission of Texas on the 
ground of opposition to the extension of slave territory.

  His fellow townsman and warm personal friend, Hon. W. F. 
Johnston, having been elected governor, he appointed Mr. 
Buffington in 1849 to the position of the president-judge of 
the eighteenth judicial district, composed of Clarion, Elk, 
Jefferson and Venango counties.  This position he held until 
1851, when he was defeated in the judicial election by Hon. 
John C. Knox, the district being largely democratic.

  In 1852 he was nominated by the whig state convention for 
the judgeship of the supreme court.  In the general 
overthrow of the whig party which resulted in the defeat of 
Gen. Scott for the presidency, Judge Buffington was 
defeated, his competitor being the late Chief Justice 
Woodward, of Luzerne county.

  The same year he was appointed, by President Fillmore, 
chief justice of Utah territory, then just organized.  He 
was strongly urged by the president personally to accept, as 
the position was a tryine one and the administration wished 
it to be filled by one in whom it had confidence.  Its great 
distance from civilization and the customs of the country, 
which were so abhorrent to his ideas, led him, however, to 
decline the proffered honor.

  In the year 1855, on the resignation of Hon. John Murray 
Burrill, judge of the tenth district, he was appointed to 
that position by Gov. Pollock, with whom he had been a 
fellow-member of congress.  In the fall of 1856 he was 
elected to fill the position to which he had been appointed, 
for a term of ten years.  In this election he had no 
contestant, the opposition declining to nominate.  This 
position he held until 1866, when he was again elected to 
fill the judgeship for another term of ten years.  His 
position during these years was one of hard and constant 
labor, and the growing business of the three counties of 
Armstrong, Indiana and Westmoreland kept his mind and time 
fully occupied.  In 1871 failing health admonished him that 
the judicial labors, already too great for any one man to 
perform, were certainly too severe for one who had passed 
the meridian of life, and had borne the burden and heat of 
the day.  It was indeed hard for him to listen to the 
demands of a feeble frame, but, sustained by the 
consciousness of duty well done, and cheered by united 
voices from without, proclaiming his life-mission to the 
public nobly performed, he left the busy scenes of labor and 
retired to private life after forty-six years' connection 
with the bench and bar of the commonwealth, to the 
thoroughness and industry of which the state reports of 
Pennsylvania bear silent but eloquent testimony. Surrounded 
by friends and every comfort of life the following year 
passed quickly, but as in the case of many an overworked 
professional man, the final summons came without warning.  
On Saturday, February 3, 1872, he was in his usual health, 
and, rising from dinner, he went to an adjoining room, 
across which he commenced walking as was his custom.  His 
wife, coming in a few moments later, found him lying 
peacefully upon the sofa in the sleep of death.  He was 
buried according to the services of the Episcopal church, of 
which he had been an attendant, officer and liberal 
supporter for many years.   He was buried in the cemetery at 
Kittanning, where his resting place has been marked by a 
substantial granite monument, a fitting emblem of the 
completeness of his own life.

  Said one of his life-long friends, Gov. William F. 
Johnston, "To speak of Judge Buffington's career as a lawyer 
would be a history of the judicial contests in this section 
of the state for more than a quarter of a century.  He had a 
large practice in Armstrong, Jefferson, Clarion and Indiana 
counties, the courts of which counties he regularly 
attended.  It was a pleasure to be with him, either as 
assisting or opposing counsel, in any of those counties.  It 
may not be forgotten that in those early times, in the 
judicial history of Middle Western Pennsylvania, the bar 
constituted a kind of peripatetic association, each and all 
contributing his share to the social enjoyments of the 
occasion, and to the instruction of the unlearned in law of 
the obligations that were imposed upon them.  These unions 
at different places created necessarily many happy 
reminiscences.  But, like the schoolmaster of the village, 
'the very spot where once they triumphed is forgot.'"

  Of Judge Buffington as a lawyer we have spoken; as a 
citizen he was public spirited and gave a ready support to 
every undertaking calculated to benefit the community.  In 
common with Gen. Orr, Gov. Johnston and others, he took an 
active part in procuring the building of the Allegheny 
Valley Railroad, and served for some time as one of its 
directors.

  In his younger days he took much pleasure in hunting and 
fishing.  Naturally fond of an outdoor life, he took kindly 
to agricultural pursuits.  From time to time he acquired 
farming lands in the neighborhood of Kittanning, and their 
care and cultivation absorbed most of his leisure time.  Of 
industrious habits, and a hard worker, Judge Buffington 
gradually added to his worldly possessions.  Fond of making 
money, he never cared to it for the purpose of hoarding it, 
but only for the pleasure its expenditure gave himself and 
those around him.

  It was in private life and in the familiar intercourse of 
friends that he is best remembered.  His courtesy to all, 
joined to the natural, courtly dignity of the man, stamped 
him at once in the minds of all with whom he came in contact 
as a gentleman in the truest sense of the word, while his 
well-stored mind and fine conversational powers lent a charm 
to his acquaintance that drew around him a circle of warm 
and intimate friends.  While his words were to the point and 
his language incisive, his naturally kind heart kept him 
from bitterness, and his judgment of others was never harsh 
or prompted by ill will.  Kind, sympathetic and generous, he 
was always ready to listen to and aid those in distress.  He 
never lost sympathy for the young, and there are venerable 
men at the bar today who will tell how the kindness of Judge 
Buffington in the early days of their professional career 
was a real help when they needed friends and encouragement.

  A grateful tribute was paid to his memory at March court, 
1883, by the Hon. James B. Neale, president judge of the 
district, and son of his esteemed neighbor and life-long 
friend, Dr. S. S. Neale.

  Judge Neale had an excellent oil portrait of the judge 
painted, and at that time presented it to the county of 
Armstrong.  It was placed, with appropriate remarks, above 
the judge's bench in the court-room where he had so long 
presided.


This file has been created by a form at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pafiles/

File size: 14.6 Kb