Photo from the Pa. House of Representatives Wilton Lindsey represented Warren County in the state House of Representatives as well as the county’s president judge.

Several years ago, I came across the list of the men and women from Warren County who have represented the county in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

It was a longer list than I thought it would be.

Most served for just a term or two.

Some went on to have very interesting careers.

So I’ll be sprinkling profiles of some of those people into this space as time allows.

Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Lindsey, who investigated railroad riots while serving in the state House, died in 1915 and is buried at Oakland Cemetery.

And Wilton Monroe Lindsey is up first.

The 19th century offered opportunities for a man to shape his destiny to a far greater degree than our current day.

“Born in Pine Grove Township in 1841, he entered Randolph Academy in Randolph, NY, realizing full well that he had a hard task to accomplish; he was obliged to pay his own tuition,” according to information from the Warren County Historical Society. “He worked on his father’s farm during the summer, and performed other odd jobs which would bring him money, and thereby secure enough to pay his way through college the following year.”

After attending the Randolph Academy, he enrolled at the Northwest State Normal School, which we now call PennWest Edinboro.

“Prior to completing his course, he enlisted in the 145th Pennsylvania Regiment serving from 1862-1863,” according to the WCHS. “In the fall of 1863 he entered the State Normal School at Edinboro and then in 1865 took a post as superintendent of schools in Warren County.

Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton According to a 1920s newspaper item, Lindsey and his family lived at 308 Market St., now the home of the Warren County Chamber of Business & Industry.

“He had always displayed a fondness for the legal profession, and while serving as superintendent, began the study of law.”

He was admitted to the bar in 1872 and served in the state House in 1877 and 1878.

During that first year, he was appointed as the chair of the Committee to Investigate the Railroad Riots.

According to information from the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission, the railroad industry had become “big business” by 1877.

“In the post-Civil War era, many types of businesses, including railroads, consolidated, creating large, impersonal corporations,” that source explained.

Ultimately, that would lead to the formation of robber barons and make household names of the likes of Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie and Morgan.

“Typical of industrial managers of the time, many leaders of the railroads operated autocratically, emphasized profits, and gave little consideration to their employees.” That included changes that would reduce the number of conductors and brakemen needed in addition to wage cuts.

When the violence in the railroad industry spread to Pittsburgh in mid-July 1877, civic authorities were unable to deal effectively with it, especially when laborers in other industries joined the work stoppage and created a movement for a general strike. As the strike developed into riots, workers, their wives and children, and other sympathizers destroyed Pennsylvania Railroad facilities including locomotives, rolling stock, roundhouses, repair shops, and even the Union Station at Grant and Liberty Streets. Damage to the city was estimated at ten million dollars. At least twenty-five people were killed and many more were injured.

After two decades in private practice, Lindsey was selected president judge of the Warren County Court of Common Pleas. It was a gubernatorial appointment to fill the term of Judge Noyes, who had died in office.

Outside of a hiatus while he was a judge, Lindsey had served on boards including the Warren Trust Company and the Warren Savings Bank.

According to a Warren Tribune note in 1929, Lindsey and his family lived at 308 Market St., what is now the headquarters of the Warren County Chamber of Business & Industry.

Lindsey died in 1915 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. He’s buried at Oakland Cemetery.

He died in 1915 while in Baltimore but is buried at Oakland Cemetery.

“Residents of the town that has been his home since early manhood, and the entire community will miss him deeply, but to this bank, to its officers, its directors and its employees, who have been so long and so closely associated with him, will his loss be especially keenly felt,” a resolution from the Warren Savings Bank published in the May 13, 1915 Warren Mail stated.

“Judge Lindsey was an able and successful lawyer, and a careful sympathetic and capable judge, considerate of the rights and courteous in treatment of the members of the bar, and just in his administration of the law.

“He was interested in many business enterprises the success of which has been largely due to his good judgment, broad experience and ability to apply legal principles to business problems, and for many years this bank has had the benefit of his talents.

“He was a manly, lovable man.”

Praise from the Warren Trust Company was similar.

“He was a man of sterling worth, integrity and ability, who will be missed in all circles of society, in Warren, his home and native town…,” the resolution said, also citing his service with the Historical Society and Warren Library Association.

“As a man he was positive and of strong convictions, very sympathetic, courteous and kindly to all with whom he came in contact, seeking always to ascertain the other person’s views and reach the right conclusion after a careful and thoughtful analysis of the subject.”

According to findagrave, he and his first wife, Emma, had three children – Edward, Henry and Lucien.

Edward continued his father’s social and educational leap, studying at the Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and New York Law School. From there he attended Dartmouth, an Ivy League institution.

He followed in his father’s footsteps in the law, as well, being admitted to the bar in 1895 and serving as president judge for two years from 1920-1922.