Thomas Elder (lawyer)

Thomas Elder
Pennsylvania Attorney General
In office December 20, 1820 – December 18, 1823
Preceded by	Thomas Sergeant
Succeeded by	Frederick Smith
Personal details
Born	January 30, 1767 Paxton Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania[1]
Died	April 29, 1853 (aged 86) Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Spouse(s)	Catherine Cox Elizabeth Shippen Jones
Children	1,3 (survived to adulthood)

Thomas Elder (January 30, 1767 – April 29, 1853^[2]) was a Pennsylvania lawyer and Harrisburg businessman. He served one term as state Attorney General.

His residence after 1835 was the former mansion of the Harris family.^[3] It is currently known as the John Harris-Simon Cameron House and is a National Historic Landmark.

Biography and career

Elder was born the son of the Reverend John Elder and his second wife, Mary Simpson.^[4] The senior Elder was born, raised, and educated in Edinburgh. In Paxtang, Pennsylvania, he became known as the "Fighting Pastor", who organized an anti-Indian militia known as the Paxton Boys.

Thomas Elder was educated at the Academy of Philadelphia, and admitted to the Dauphin County bar in 1791. He volunteered to help suppress the Whiskey Rebellion, declining commissions until afterwards, when he was made lieutenant colonel. He practiced law for over forty years. He was active in Harrisburg affairs, notably he was "the prominent and leading spirit" behind organizing the Harrisburg Bridge Company, that built (1814–20) and ran the first Susquehanna-spanning bridge, and was elected (1816) and re-elected by the directors as the company's first president, until he resigned in 1846.^[2][5] He was president of the Harrisburg Bank from 1816 until his death.^[6][7]

Elder served as state Attorney General from 1820–23. Afterwards, he always refused political offices, although he maintained an interest in politics.^[6] William Henry Harrison's "log cabin campaign" was a suggestion of Elder's.^[8]

Elder married Catherine Cox in 1799. A daughter, Mary R., would later marry Amos Ellmaker. Catherine died in 1810. Elder then married Elizabeth Shippen Jones in 1813, she would outlive Elder.^[9]

Notes

1. Eggert 1993, p. 20.
2. Egle 1886, p. 159.
3. Armor 1897, p. 4.
4. Egle 1886, p. 155.
5. Eggert 1993, p. 19.
6. Egle 1886, p. 160.
7. Eggert 1993, pp. 23–25.
8. Elliot 1883, p. 121.
9. Egle 1886, pp. 160–1.

Further reading

• Armor, William Crawford (1897). The John Harris Mansion, 1766-1897. Harrisburg Publishing Company.
• Eggert, Gerald G. (1993). Harrisburg Industrializes: The Coming of Factories to an American Community. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 9780271030708.
• Egle, William Henry (1886). Pennsylvania Genealogies: Scotch-Irish and German. L. S. Hart, printer.
• Elliott, Richard Smith (1883). Notes taken in sixty years. R. P. Studley & Co.