The
Vol. IV.
No. 12.
Green
BOSTON.
Bag.
December, 1892.
MR. JUSTICE SHIRAS. IN his latest appointment to the Supreme Bench of the United States, President Harrison displayed excellent judgment, and exalted to that high position a man emi nently fitted for the place, and one who com mands the respect and esteem of the profes sion throughout the country. George Shiras, Jr., was born on the 26th day of January, 1832, in the city of Pitts burg, within a short distance of the site of old Fort Pitt. He is a descendant from Eng lish Puritan stock. His paternal great-grand father, George Shiras, came from England about the year 1725, and settled in the State of New Jersey, from whence the family re moved to the city of Pittsburg, prior to 1 790. George Shiras, Sr., the father of George Shiras, Jr., was born in the year 1805, in the same house in which George Shiras, Jr., was afterward born; he is still living, at the age of eighty-seven years, and is sound, vigor ous, and active in body, and in full posses sion of his mental faculties. The mother of Justice Shiras was Elizabeth Herron, daugh ter of Rev. Francis Herron, D.D., the tounder of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg, and for fifty years its pastor. Dr. Herron came of the Scotch-Irish Presby terian stock, his wife being Elizabeth Blaine, an aunt of the Hon. James G. Blaine. George Shiras, Jr., received a commonschool education in the city of Pittsburg, and prepared for college at the Ohio Uni versity, from whence he went to Yale, and graduated there in the famous class of '53 with class honors. After graduation Mr. Shiras entered the Yale Law School, and was admitted to the Bar of Pennsylvania in 1856. After a year's 70
practice of the law at Dubuque, Iowa, whither his brother Oliver, now United States Dis trict Judge for the Seventh Circuit, had preceded him, he returned to Pittsburg to pursue his profession. There he formed a law partnership with Hon. Hopewell Hep burn. This partnership continued until 1860, when it was dissolved by the death of Mr. Hepburn. Mr. Shiras rapidly acquired a large prac tice; becoming in a very few years one of the leaders of the Allegheny Bar, — a bar that has been distinguished for the statesmen and jurists which it has given to the country. For a period of twenty-five years, from 1867 to 1892, he was concerned in almost eveiy leading case in the courts of his county, and in the United States Courts for the Western District of Pennsylvania. His position was also prominent as a practitioner in the Su preme Court of Pennsylvania and in that of the United States. While an assiduous student of law and thoroughly familiar with all its branches, he found time to give attention to literary and scientific reading; and his acquirements in these directions caused his classmates at their thirtieth reunion in 1883 to select his name for presentation to the faculty of Yale College for the degree of LL.D., which was conferred upon him at that time; among the members of the class thus honoring him may be mentioned Theodore Bacon, one of the most distinguished members of the New York Bar; Hon. Andrew D. White, LL.D., ex-Pres ident of Cornell University and ex-Minister to Germany; United States Senator Randall Lee Gibson, of Louisiana; Bishop Davies, of Michigan; Stoddard Johnston, of Kentucky;
