Galbraith, William Ayers

WILLIAM AYRES GALBRAITH, son of Judge John Galbraith and Amy (Ayres) Galbraith, was born in Franklin, Venango Co., Penn., May 9, 1823, and came to Erie with his parents in 1837. He was educated at Allegheny College, Meadville, and at the academy in Erie, and studied law with his father, being admitted to the bar May 9, 1844, on his twenty-first birthday. In September of the same year, he entered Dane Law School of Harvard University, of which Profs. Joseph Story and Simon Greenleaf were the instructors, from which he graduated in 1845. Returning home, he immediately commenced the practice of law in company with his brother-in-law, Wm. S. Lane, opening an office in what is now the Beatty Building. On the 25th of May, 1846, he was married to Miss Fanny, daughter of Capt. Wm. Davenport, of Erie. The same year he was appointed Deputy Attorney General for Erie Co. (an office equivalent to the present one of District Attorney) by Judge Kane, then Attorney General of the State, and continued until 1850, under John M. Reed and Benjamin Champneys. His practice grew so large that his health failed, and about 1856, under the advice of his physician to engage in outdoor occupation, he took an interest with Gen. Herman Haupt and other Philadelphia parties in the Hoosac Tunnel, the building of which required his absence for a good share of two years in the State of Mass. Returning in 1858, he was appointed attorney for the Sunbury & Erie R.R., and quickly re-entered upon a large practice. From the beginning he took an active part in politics. He was a Delegate to the Democratic State Convention in 1846, and of numerous others. He was a Delegate in the Democratic National Conventions at Charleston in 1860, and at Chicago in 1864. In 1861, he was nominated as a Union candidate for State Senator against M.B. Lowry, the regular Republican nominee, and was only defeated by about 100 votes in Erie Co., which had given 3,700 Republican votes the year previous. In 1876 he was elected President Judge of Erie Co., as a people’s nominee, though the Republican candidate for President had some 2,600 majority. He was Director of the railroad to the Ohio Line, a Director of the Sunbury & Erie R.R. Co., and active in pushing forward that enterprise, and aided largely in establishing the car works, the car wheel works, and the Burdett Organ Factory. Judge Galbraith and wife have been blessed with four children, one of whom died in infancy; the surviving are Fanny (married to Dr. Arnold P. Gilmore, son of the late Judge Gilmore, of the Washington, Penn., District, who resides in Chicago), John W. and Davenport.