Husband Judge Christopher Heydrick, LL. D. 1 2 3
Born: 19 May 1830 - Frenchcreek Twp, Venango Co, PA 2 4
Christened:
Died: 9 Oct 1914 5
Buried:
Father: Charles H. Heydrick (1799-1883) 1 2
Mother: Mary Ann Adams (1803-1838) 1 2
Marriage: 20 Jun 1860 3 4 5
• Additional Image: Judge Christopher Heydrick, LL.D.
Wife Frances Helen Irwin 3 5 6 7
Born: 23 Jan 1837 - Franklin, Venango Co, PA 3
Christened:
Died: Aft 1919
Buried:
Father: Judge Richard Irwin (1798-1882) 3 8 9 10
Mother: Hannah White May (Abt 1805-1845) 3 6 7
Children
1 M Carl Irwin Heydrick 11 12
Born: 3 Jun 1863 11
Christened:
Died: May 1907
Buried: - Franklin Cemetery, Franklin, Venango Co, PA
Spouse: Anna Teresa Donaldson (1875-1952) 12
Marr: 19 Dec 1899 12
2 F Harriet Heydrick 11
Born: 24 Feb 1866 11
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
3 M Richard I. Heydrick 11
Born: 24 Feb 1866 11
Christened:
Died: 7 Aug 1866 11
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
4 F Eva D. Heydrick 11
Born: 7 Nov 1867 11
Christened:
Died: 22 Nov 1871 11
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
5 M Frederick Paul Heydrick 11
Born: 23 Oct 1869 11
Christened:
Died: Bef 1919
Buried:
6 F Helen M. Heydrick 11
Born: 30 May 1876 11
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Dr. Alex. McLeod Brown (1868- ) 13
Marr: 1905 14
General Notes: Husband - Judge Christopher Heydrick, LL. D.
Christopher Heydrick was one of the oldest and most prominent members of the bar. He was reared upon the old homestead in that township, was educated in the public schools, at Grand River Institute, Ohio, and at Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the last mentioned institution in 1852. He read law in Kentucky, was there licensed to practice, and was admitted to the Venango bar on the 27th of January, 1854. Mr. Heydrick immediately commenced practice at Franklin, and for the past thirty-six years has practiced extensively in the courts of Venango, Mercer, Crawford, Warren, McKean, Forest, Clarion, and Butler counties, and in the circuit court of the United States for the western district of Pennsylvania, also in the supreme court of the state.
Of late years his practice has consisted largely of land cases. He has been counsel in many of the more important and intricate contests on titles and surveys that have come up in this section of Pennsylvania within his time at the bar. His naturally careful, mathematical, and logical mind is reinforced in this line of his profession by a practical knowledge of land surveying, and of the surveyor's method of doing the work on the ground, which art he learned from his father. His skill and accuracy as a draughtsman is attested by the map of Venango county, issued in 1857, which he compiled, and which, through all the subdivisions of original tracts, still remains the standard map of the county. Mr. Heydrick's style of speaking or writing is dignified, deliberate, logical, clear, and concise, yet with comprehensive fidelity to all necessary details, while his legal papers are models in both style and diction. He is recognized as a safe, conservative, and able lawyer, whose long and successful experience in his profession justly entitles him to rank among the leading attorneys of northwestern Pennsylvania.
As a citizen, Mr. Heydrick took an active interest in many of the local enterprises, such as in procuring the construction of the Franklin branch of the Atlantic and Great Western railroad (later the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio), from Meadville, the Allegheny bridge, the Venango Water Works, and the turnpike to Oil City. Though ardently devoted to his profession, he always gave his time and talents toward inculcating and defending the principles of the Democratic party, and in 1878 he was the Democratic nominee of this judicial district for the president judgeship.
The family were adherents of the Presbyterian church, to which denomination the ancestry belonged. [HVC 1890, 185]
His early days were spent upon a farm, where he acquired the health and strength which enabled him to endure the arduous duties of his subsequent life. When still quite youthful he was sent to the Grand River Institute in Ohio, and from there entered Allegheny College at Meadville, PA, where he was graduated with honor in 1852. After graduation he went to Kentucky and commenced the study of law, and at the end of two years was there admitted to the bar. In a short time he returned to Venango County, and on Jan. 27, 1854, was admitted to the bar in Franklin, where he continued to reside until his death. His father was by profession a surveyor, of pronounced skill and integrity, and for several terms had been county surveyor of Venango County. He was often assisted by his son, who under his instruction acquired great skill in both drafting and field work, and thereby formed those habits of accuracy which he retained throughout his future professional life and which gave him special eminence in land cases. In 1857, in connection with Hon. Richard Irwin, he made a detailed map of Venango County which became and has continued to be the standard map of the county. The close relations of friendship thus formed with Judge Irwin were followed June 20, 1860, by his marriage to Frances Helen Irwin, eldest daughter of the latter.
At that time and for a considerable period afterward the legal business of Venango County was light in amount and of small importance, so that as a young lawyer Mr. Heydrick availed himself of the opportunities thus given to acquire the great stores of legal knowledge which thereafter bore such ripe fruits both to himself and his clients. In 1859 petroleum was first found in merchantable quantities in Venango County, and soon developed into a great industry. His ability and acquirements then met with the appreciation which they deserved from those engaged in the development of the great interests of his own and adjoining counties. His reputation grew rapidly until he attained far to the front among the members of the bar of Pennsylvania. His practice extended not only to many counties in western Pennsylvania but to the courts of other States and of the United States; in particular his name, more than that of any other lawyer of the country, can be found connected with cases of great importance relating to petroleum, and more than any other lawyer he was instrumental in the application and development of the law relating to the many intricate problems connected with the oil business in all its forms. Largely on this account, in 1891, he was appointed by Governor Pattison to fill a vacancy in the Supreme court in which he served with satisfaction to the public for one year, and was then nominated by the party to which he belonged for the full term of twenty-one years; but owing to the great majority of the opposing party was defeated at the ensuing election, and thereupon returned to the active practice of his profession, in which he continued until about a year before his death.
Judge Heydrick was distinguished not only as a lawyer, but also as a man of affairs. He was from time to time engaged in banking, in the manufacture of oil into its various products, and in public utilities such as water and bridge companies. He was a member of the commission to select the site for a hospital for the feeble-minded, and when it was selected became a member of the board of trustees. While it was his lot sometimes to suffer serious reverses, he quickly recovered from them, and his sound judgment was the main reliance of his associates; and in the public positions which he filled he performed the duties imposed upon him with marked fidelity.
A philosopher has declared that law, economics and morals are different applications of moral science, which consists of a body of rules of conduct, derived through experience of our relations to nature and to our fellow beings; and that no national or individual prosperity can endure which is not founded upon these rules. The conduct of Judge Heydrick in his business relations seems to have been governed by these rules; and though he was compelled to meet more than is ordinary the storms of life, although he never attained to those phenomenal heights which opportunity affords to unscrupulous ambition, with an unstained record he closed his life in the well earned sunshine of real prosperity.
In physical appearance Judge Heydrick was stalwart and above the middle height; his eyes were dark and piercing, his countenance denoted firmness, refinement and intellectuality; thus his superiority was manifest even where his record for achievement was unknown.
In disposition he was diffident, reserved and reticent to an extent which gave a tone of austerity to his manner and repelled intimacy by strangers; but after these outward guards were passed, he became a genial companion to his friends. His temper was quick and strong, but usually held under firm control; but when aroused by fraud, falsehood or crime, it was like a mountain torrent, and swept away all obstacles to redress and punishment. His firmness was so pronounced that it sometimes seemed to pass into obstinacy. He was extremely careful in reaching conclusions, but after they were formed his convictions, especially upon political and religious subjects, were so strong that no partisan exigency could impel him to condone an error which he deemed to be material. We can not say that he was free from all the faults and errors which are common to mankind, but we affirm that taken as a whole his life furnishes an example to and reflects honor upon his profession, his family and his country.
Hon. George S. Criswell, president judge of Venango County at the time of Judge Heydrick's death, paid him the following tribute: “It is well and fitting that the Court and Bar should mark the passing and closing of a career so distinguished as was that of Judge Heydrick. The differing talents and characteristics of men ordinarily restrain and preclude attempts at comparisons one with another. It is believed, however, that it may be said of Judge Heydrick, without a suggestion of undue praise in the mind of anyone who knew him, as he was known to the Court and his associates at the bar, that in profound and accurate knowledge of the law, precision of statement and discrimination in the use of language he had, during the active period of his life, no superior and but few if any peers at the bar.
“Avoiding the sensational and not given to courting the applause of the many, he was best known to those who met him intimately and encountered directly the fibre of his character. His was the distinction probably of no other private citizen of the Commonwealth, of suggesting to the State Constitutional Convention of 1873 one of the most important and far-reaching provisions of the instrument prepared by it and adopted by the people of the Commonwealth as their constitution. By the constitution of the United States the several States were forbidden to enact any law impairing the obligation of contracts, and the Supreme Court of the United States had held, in the Dartmouth College and other cases, that a charter granted to a corporation was such a contract and that once granted a State had no right by legislative act to impair it. The convention was desirous of bringing under legislative and administrative control corporations which had theretofore procured charters with unusual powers from the Commonwealth which it was claimed were inimical to the public welfare, and the problem was to bring them under such control without encountering the principle ruled in the Dartmouth College case. While in this dilemma and as yet unable to devise a solution, a member of the convention consulted Judge Heydrick, who suggested a remedy and method which he was requested to put in writing for submission to the proper committees of the convention. This he did in a paper of some length, suggesting a requirement that corporations should be governed and controlled by general laws only and concluding with this language relating to then existing corporations: 'I would forbid all legislation except such as imposed burdens until they should surrender their present charters, and require the common law and statute penalties to which they may be liable to be rigidly enforced until they should be driven to seek shelter under the general laws to be provided.' This paper was submitted to the appropriate committees of the convention and the extent to which it was adopted may be learned by an examination of Section 2, Article XVI, and Section 10 of Article XVII, of constitution as finally adopted and now in force, where, with but little change of language, the remedy suggested was incorporated. That it was effective has been demonstrated by the extent to which such corporations have been compelled by changing conditions and increased business and traffic to accept such provisions of the constitution, thereby placing themselves under the general laws of the Commonwealth and subject to its control. This incident is referred to as illustrating the comprehensive, master mind of our deceased brother, to which might be added many others known to the bar and the Court.
“Being the senior member of our bar and officer of the court, with a membership extending over a period of sixty years, we have been accustomed to venerate and accord to him that respect and esteem which, by reason of his learning and high character as brother and citizen, were his due. We shall miss him, but shall revere his memory as that of one who in life, in an exceptional way, adorned our common citizenship and the profession we love.” [CAB, 424]