John Duncan Mahon

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Husband John Duncan Mahon ¹

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            AKA: John Duncan Mahan 2
           Born: 5 Nov 1796 - Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA
     Christened: 
           Died: 3 Jul 1861
         Buried: 

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         Father: Rev. Samuel Mahon (      -      ) 1
         Mother: Anne Duncan (      -      ) 1

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Wife

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - John Duncan Mahon

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In 1810, at the age of fourteen, he entered Dickinson Cellege, and graduated with honor in 1814. He immediately began the study of the law under the instruction of his uncle, Thomas Duncan, and was in due time admitted to the Cumberland County Bar. in 1833 he removed to Pittsburgh, and became a prominent member of the Bar of that city, where he resided until his death.
The following beautiful eulogy on the character of Mr. Mahon, is from the pen of Judge McClure, of Pittsburgh:
"John D. Mahon was raised and educated at Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pa. He graduated with honor at Dickinson College. He studied law with Thomas Duncan, at Carlisle. David Watts and Thomas Duncan were then in the zenith of their fame; they were giants in intellect; they were leviathans in the law, and both men of magnificent literary acquisitions\emdash they were retained in all great cases within the circuit of their practice, and always on opposite sides. At the very time that Mr. Mahon was admitted to practice, his preceptor, Mr. Duncan, was elevated to the Supreme Bench, which he adorned as long as he lived. He transferred his whole business to his then youthful student, John D. Mahon. The responsibility was immense, he did not shrink from it--he met it, and his eminent success vindicated the highest hopes of his warmest friends. His very first step was into the front rank of his profession. Mr. Mahon has told me more than once, he has told me witnin the last year, that his self-possession and success were, in part at least, owing to the magnaniimity and kindness of his veteran opponent, Mr. Watts, of whom he always spoke with admiration and feeling.
Mr. Mahon was one of those rare men whom nature sometimes, but very rarely, frames in the prodigality of her gifts. What others learned by study and painful investigation, seemed to flash upon him clear as the blaze of day. His preceptions were intuitive, quick as thought, and seemed almost to exempt him from the drudgery of books. He was intended by nature for an orator. Who of these good Judges but know this well. His power of persuasion were exceedingly great, and in addressing the passions, the sympathies, or the peculiarities of the dispositions of men, he never made mistakes. His every gesture was graceful, his style of eloquence was the proper word in the proper place for the occasion and his voice was music. He never made a tedious speech in his life; but how often the court, the jury, and the Bar felt regret, almost disappointment, that his voice of melody had ceased so soon; the time he occupied was not too short, it only seemed so. In social intercourse his cheerfulness, good temper, and brilliant conversational powers amounted to fascination.
I have known Mr. Mahon since I was seven years of age, and I here bear witness that I never heard him speak ill of any man. His wit was bright and playful as sheet lightning\emdash it never took a personal direction, it never blasted any man or anything. With his mode and manner of trying cases we are all familiar, but it is worthy of especial mention, that, when the poor and needy were on trial, he either at the suggestion of the Court, or from the generous impulses of his nature, most cheerfully undertook their defence, and these defences were always conducted with as much ability and zeal as he would have bestowed, or could have given to the case, had a large compensation been the reward of his exertions. There are lofty and pure luxuries in his life which money cannot purchase, and to him the defence of those who had no helper, was always a high and positive enjoyment."
In the Autumn of 1828, at the mouth of Sherman's creek, Mr. Mahon, aided by his manager, John Agnew, of severe parental memory, commenced a project, the wisdom of which has since been proved, and its success, although in other hands, became a matter of history. He gave to it the name of his brother-in-law, and perhaps Duncannon is now one of the most famous places on the banks of the Susquehanna. Mr. Mahon was naturally an orator. With pleasing address and great suavity and dignity of manner. His voice was musical, either in song or speech, and of great compass. A gentleman relates how, while at one of Dempster's concerts in Musical Fund Hall, Philadelphia, listening to the ballad "My Boy Tammie," he heard the voice of a gentleman by his side saying "John D. Mahon could beat that all hollow."
Fame, at best, is but a postponed oblivion, while, as it has been often said, the reputation of a lawyer is necessarily evanescent. This is particularly true of the advocate, and it is this thought, which caused Rufus Choate to say, with melancholy foreboding, " After all! there is no immortality but a book." The jurist may descend to posterity in his opinions, for the press has given an immortality to his thoughts; but the spontaneous eloquence, the speaking countenance, the words born for the occasion which so move us by their power, melt us with their pathos, or carry our thoughts away upon the wings of the rapid and quick coming fancies which they express\emdash which touch our lips with laughter and our eyes with tears, and which seem to open up all the hidden springs of our emotions, these soon grow dim and leave no lasting impression upon our memory.

1 —, Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 157.

2 —, History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warners, Beers & Co., 1886), Pg 156.