BIO: Edward W. BIDDLE, Cumberland County, PA
  
  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson
  OCRed by Judy Banja
  
  Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/cumberland/
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  >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
  Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, p. 11-12
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  HON. EDWARD W. BIDDLE, late President Judge of Cumberland county, Pa., a son of
  Edward M. and Juliana (Watts) Biddle, was born in Carlisle May 3, 1852, and has
  resided there all his life. Sketches of the Biddle and Watts families, both of
  which have furnished to the world distinguished men, are given elsewhere in
  this volume.
  
  After passing through the public schools to the high school, the subject of
  this sketch entered Dickinson College and was graduated from that institution
  with high standing in June, 1870, the youngest member of his class. After
  spending several months in civil engineering he commenced the study of law in
  the office of his cousin, William M. Penrose, Esq., and was admitted to the Bar
  in April, 1873. From that time he gave his attention almost exclusively to his
  chosen profession and pursued a wide range of legal studies. In 1877 and again
  in 1883 he was unanimously nominated by the Republican county convention for
  the office of district attorney and on both occasions ran far ahead of his
  ticket, but was not elected in either instance.
  
  These political episodes did not in any way interfere with his professional
  work, and for many years prior to his election to the judgeship he had charge
  of some of the most important cases and largest interests in Cumberland county.
  In 1885 he was selected as one of the assignees for the
  
  12  CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
  
  benefit of creditors of P. A. Ahl and D. V. Ahl, individually and trading as P.
  A. Ahl & Bro., who had valuable landed possessions in several States and whose
  affairs were much involved. In the capacity of assignee and as attorney for the
  three estates he was instrumental in carrying to a successful termination the
  most intricate equity litigation ever conducted in Cumberland county, as well
  as an important equity suit in Hagerstown, Md. His minute attention to details
  and the thorough grasp of the law which he displayed in the above and other
  cases brought to his office an extensive miscellaneous practice. In the fall of
  1894 he was elected to the position of President Judge of Cumberland county, and
  on the first Monday of the following January entered on the duties of a ten
  years' judicial term. In December, 1903, having other lines of work in view, he
  announced in the newspapers his intention of retiring from the Bench at the
  expiration of his term of office and declined under any circumstances to be a
  candidate for re-election. He was an active member of the law reform committee
  of the Pennsylvania Bar Association from the organization of that body in 1895
  until 1904.
  
  On Feb. 2, 1882, he married Gertrude D., a daughter of J. Herman and Mary J.
  (Kirk) Bosler, of Carlisle, to which union two children have been born: Herman
  Bosler, born April 14, 1883, and Edward Macfunn, born May 29, 1886. In the
  latter part of 1899 he and Mrs. Biddle were appointed on the Board of
  Pennsylvania Commissioners to the Paris Exposition, and in pursuance of their
  appointment officially visited the Exposition in the following summer,
  accompanied by their two boys, and then made a tour of Europe. Since 1898 Judge
  Biddle has been a trustee of Dickinson College and a member of its executive and
  investment committees. He has frequently written and spoken on historical
  subjects, and his published address in 1902 on Three Signers of the Declaration
  of Independence who were Members of the Cumberland County Bar attracted a good
  deal of attention.