It is impossible to write a good twentieth-century legal history of Beaver County in only a short chapter. Lack of space prohibits a focus on individual members of the Bar, their skirmishes and battles, their triumphs and disasters. Lack of space also precludes analysis of the Beaver County Bar Association, it's nature, function and status to the general public. It is possible, however, to delineate the major themes that influenced the legal history of the County since 1900. Thus, this chapter has been divided into six parts. The first sketches the biography of each twentieth-century Beaver County judge. The second reviews the physical plant, so to speak, of the Courthouse and the disastrous 1932 fire. The third overviews the amount of and nature of Beaver County legal activity in representative years. The fourth focuses on the history of minority groups in Beaver County legal circles. The fifth analyzes the only two twentieth-century County cases reviewed by the United States Supreme Court. The sixth outlines the history of individuals sentenced to death for crimes committed in Beaver County.
These legal currents shape and influence legal history more than individual lawyers or organizations and best highlight the legal history of Beaver County. The text highlights and notes some areas where more research is urgently needed. Hopefully this work will spur additional research into the legal history of Beaver County.