My Genealogy Hound

HON. EDWARD W. BIDDLE, late President Judge of Cumberland county, Pa., a son of Edward M. and Juliana (Watts) Biddle, was born in Carlisle May 3, 1852, and has resided there all his life. Sketches of the Biddle and Watts families, both of which have furnished to the world distinguished men, are given elsewhere in this volume.

After passing through the public schools to the high school, the subject of this sketch entered Dickinson College and was graduated from that institution with high standing in June, 1870, the youngest member of his class. After spending several months in civil engineering he commenced the study of law in the office of his cousin,. William M. Penrose, Esq., and was admitted to the Bar in April, 1873. From that time he gave his attention almost exclusively to his chosen profession and pursued a wide range of legal studies. In 1877 and again in 1883 he was unanimously nominated by the Republican county convention for the office of district attorney and on both occasions ran far ahead of his ticket, but was not elected in either instance.

These political episodes did not in any way interfere with his professional work, and for many years prior to his election to the judgeship he had charge of some of the most important cases and largest interests in Cumberland county. In 1885 he was selected as one of the assignees for the benefit of creditors of P. A. Ahl and D. V. Ahl, individually and trading as P. A. Ahl & Bro., who had valuable landed possessions in several States and whose affairs were much involved. In the capacity of assignee and as attorney for the three estates he was instrumental in carrying to a successful termination the most intricate equity litigation ever conducted in Cumberland county, as well as an important equity suit in Hagerstown, Md. His minute attention to details and the thorough grasp of the law which he displayed in the above and other cases brought to his office an extensive miscellaneous practice. In the fall of 1894 he was elected to the position of President Judge of Cumberland county, and on the first Monday of the following January entered on the duties of a ten years judicial term. In December, 1903, having other lines of work in view, he announced in the newspapers his intention of retiring from the Bench at the expiration of his term of office and declined under any circumstances to be a candidate for re-election. He was an active member of the law reform committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association from the organization of that body in 1895 until 1904.

On Feb. 2, 1882, he married Gertrude D., a daughter of J. Herman and Mary J. (Kirk) Bosler, of Carlisle, to which union two children have been born: Herman Bosler, born April 14, 1883, and Edward Macfunn, born May 29, 1886. In the latter part of 1899 he and Mrs. Biddle were appointed on the Board of Pennsylvania Commissioners to the Paris Exposition, and in pursuance of their appointment officially visited the Exposition in the following summer, accompanied by their two boys, and then made a tour of Europe. Since 1898 Judge Biddle has been a trustee of Dickinson College and a member of its executive and investment committees. He has frequently written and spoken on historical subjects, and his published address in 1902 on Three Signers of the Declaration of Independence who were Members of the Cumberland County Bar attracted a good deal of attention.