The man whose final resting place we are now observing had such a noteworthy career that we could literally devote our entire tour time to him alone. He filled a large place in the legal life of the county, state and nation, but our schedule today permits only a brief look at his many accomplishments.
The Honorable Daniel Agnew, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, was born at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1809, moving with his family at the age of five to Butler County, Pennsylvania. After a short stay there, the family moved to Pittsburgh, where Daniel spent his childhood.
In 1818, he became a pupil in the Joseph Stockton Academy, following which he attended Western University, now the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1825. He studied law with Henry Baldwin and W. W. Fetterman, prominent Pittsburgh attorneys and, when barely twenty years old, was admitted to the bar.
Daniel Agnew came to Beaver in 1829, intending to return to Pittsburgh in a few years, but was so successful with his local law practice that he decided to remain. There were still many disputes during that period about land ownership in the Beaver area, the validity of grants, contested boundary lines and duplicate titles, and he quickly won fame as a legal authority in such matters. Also helping him make the decision to stay in Beaver was the fact that in 1831 he had married Elizabeth Moore, daughter of General Robert Moore, a leading lawyer and Congressman.
Attorney Agnew entered public life in 1836, when he was elected to attend a Constitutional Convention that sat in Harrisburg and Philadelphia during 1837 and 1838.
Despite his ever-increasing law practice, he took an active part in the following years in the political affairs of the county, state and nation. In 1851, Pennsylvania's Governor Johnston appointed him to fill a vacancy in the office of President Judge of the Judicial District comprising Beaver, Butler, Mercer and Lawrence Counties. Three months later, he was elected to that office for a full term of ten years, being reelected in 1861.
Judge Agnew was an avid Unionist during the Civil War, bringing his vast legal knowledge to the defense of the government. He especially distinguished" himself during that period with an address titled -The National Constitution in its Adaptation to a State of War or Insurrection," delivered at New Castle and repeated by special request before the Pennsylvania Legislature in Harrisburg. He was nominated by the Republicans in 1863 for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, winning election in October of that year.
In assuming his duties as a Justice of the Supreme Court, Judge Agnew was almost immediately called upon to render opinions in cases of great importance to the federal government ... such as the draft question, de facto standing of the Confederacy, the right of deserters to vote, and many others. He became Chief Justice in 1873, serving until the end of his term in 1879.
Following this, at the age of 70, he retired to his home in Beaver, subsequently turning down several entreaties to run for various high political offices and also refusing an appointment as Attorney General of the United States.
He did agree to handle one important case after retirement, which involved law suits arising as a result of the great railroad riots in Pittsburgh in 1877, but most of his time was devoted to publishing some of his accumulated knowledge, legal and otherwise. In 1887, for example, he published a landmark reference work, "Settlement and Land Titles in Northwestern Pennsylvania." He also made many public addresses on civic and patriotic matters, and was awarded honorary law degrees from Washington College and Dickinson College.
A little-known fact about Judge Agnew is that, in addition to his fame as an attorney and judge, he was a mechanical genius and, among other things, is alleged to have invented the railroad air brake. Because of his judicial position, he refused to contest in Court the patent rights of George Westinghouse to this useful and lucrative invention.
Judge Agnew died at his home in Beaver in 1902, at the advanced age of 94.