Husband William H. Playford 1 2
Born: 31 Aug 1834 - Brownsville, Fayette Co, PA 2
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Father: Dr. Robert W. Playford (Abt 1799-1867) 2
Mother: Margaret A. Shaw ( - ) 2
Marriage: Oct 1861 3
Wife Ellen C. Krepps 1 3
Born:
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Father: Solomon G. Krepps ( - ) 1 4
Mother:
Children
General Notes: Husband - William H. Playford
He attended the common school of his town, and at about fifteen years of age was sent to Dunlap's Creek Academy for two years, where he made studies preparatory to entering the sophomore class of Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1851. He graduated from that institution with honors in 1854. In the fall of the same year he went South, and took charge of Waterproof Academy, Tensas Parish, Louisianna, for one year, on conclusion of which he returned home, and entered the office of Judge Nathaniel Ewing, of Uniontown, under whose direction he studied law until September, 1857, when he was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of the law. In 1859 he was elected by the Democratic party district attorney of Fayette County for the term of three years, wherein he distinguished himself. Including the war years 1861-62, as it did, the term was an unusually laborious one.
After 1862 he was connected with nearly every important criminal case in Fayette County. His first important case after 1862 was the widely noted one of Henry B. Mallaby, charged with murdering Joseph Epply at a political meeting in Smithfield, in 1863, important on account of the political partisanship evinced in the trial. Mr. Playford aided the Commonwealth.
A remarkable case in which Mr. Playford was engaged for the defense was that of Mary Houseman, charged with the murder of her husband in 1866, Mr. Playford securing her acquittal after a confession in open court by one of her accomplices, Richard Thairwell, who was convicted and hung.
Mr. Playford took an active part in politics, and was elected in 1867 a representative to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania for Fayette County, and re-elected in 1868. In 1872 he was elected to the State Senate for the district composed of Fayette and Greene Counties, and served the period of three years, being placed on the General Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Finance. In 1874 he was commissioned by the Governor of Pennsylvania, in connection with Chief Justice Agnew, Hon. W. A. Wallace, now ex-United States senator, Benjamin Harris Brewster, now Attorney-General of the United States, and others, to consider and propose amendments to the present, then new, constitution of the State. He was a delegate in the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore in 1872, at which Horace Greeley was nominated for President, and opposed his nomination throughout the session as bad policy for the party. He was frequently elected delegate to State Conventions, and was chairman of the Democratic State Convention which met at Lancaster in 1876, and was a candidate for Presidential elector-at--large for the state of Pennsylvania on the Democratic ticket in 1880.