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The pages included are reproductions of those in the early ledger, "Registration for Students at Law and Admission to the Bar," maintained until mid-1995 in the Clearfield County Courthouse's Prothonotary's Office and now housed at the Clearfield County Historical Society because of its obvious importance to the history of this county.

The first registration was made in the year 1866, and the last registration was |completed in 1971. It is assumed that this method of registering students at law was discontinued after the use of "Miscellaneous Dockets" became a normal procedure of making registrations of attorneys' credentials. It may also be noted that there
may have been times during our county's history when a prothonotary may not have maintained this early register or did not list attorneys who read under the sponsorship of lawyers outside this county's boundaries.

No court was held in Clearfield County until 1822. The first Clearfield County cases after the county's formation in 1804 were heard in Centre County. The first twelve judges hearing cases in this county starting in October 1822 and onward to November 1883 are not in this register. They were, in chronological order: Charles Huston, Thomas Bumside, George W. Woodward, Robert G. White, John C. Knox, James T. Hale, James Burnside, James Gamble, Samuel Linn, Joseph Benson McEnally (the first to be a resident of Clearfield County), Charles A. Mayer, and John Holden Orvis (the first to be elected rather than appointed). David Luther Krebs, who is in this register, followed Orvis to the bench, and this was the first term in which Clearfield County was a district unto itself rather than one of several counties.

The above information appears in Lewis Cass Aldrich's History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. Aldrich also lists twenty-seven attorneys who practiced in Clearfield County by 1887 whose names do not appear in the register. They are: Lewis Smith, Joseph Martin, William Christie, James B. Marr, Daniel G. Fenton, Elmer S. Dundy, Lewis Krans, Isaac G. Gordon, and a Mr. Heath.

Also, Joseph S. Frantz, J. Biddle Gordon, Israel Test, William Miller McCullough, Robert Wallace, James Hepburn, James Peterkin, Frederick O'Leary Buck, and Robert J. Wallace.  Also, Samuel M. Green, Walter Barrett, Joseph W. Parker, Cyrus Gordon, John Lever Cuttle, Harry Frank Wallace, Oscar Mitchell, Truman Ames, and Allison 0. Smith.

Roland D. Swoope, Jr., of the Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, published in 1911, brings the bench up to the latter date by adding Cyrus Gordon who followed David L. Krebs and Allison 0. Smith who succeeded Judge Gordon in 1894 and was still serving in 1911. Twenty-eight who were practicing law in 1887 were still practicing in Swoope's 1911 list. All more recent attorneys in Swoope's book are included in this register.

No complete history of Clearfield County has been published since 1911. This represents a time-span of eighty-four years. Bringing up to date those in this register who started practice after 1911, in addition to the other many unlisted attorneys, who have and are serving this county would be a worthy task, beneficial to preserving the history of the bench and bar.

It is appropriate to note that more details and biographical information about some of the attorneys in the "Register" and others listed in this "Introduction" are available in the books previously mentioned as well as the Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, published by J. H. Beers and Co. in 1898.

Our gratitude goes out to the Clearfield County officials who made it possible for the Clearfield County Historical Society to obtain this register and other vital items for use by the public.

                                        204 pages, Paperback  Measures 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"