Jeremiah S. Black
Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
One of Pennsylvania's most noted jurists and lawyers, was born here Jan. 10, 1810. State Supreme Court Justice, 1851-57; U.S. Attorney-General, 1857-60. Later life spent at York as a famous lawyer. Died Aug. 19, 1883.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Jeremiah S. Black was born in this Stonycreek Township neighborhood in 1810 and rose to become one of Pennsylvania's most respected legal minds. He sat on the state Supreme Court from 1851 to 1857 and then served as United States Attorney General from 1857 to 1860, standing at the center of national affairs on the eve of the Civil War. He spent his later years practicing law at York, where his courtroom reputation only grew until his death in 1883.
Why it matters
Black's career reflects how the rural Pennsylvania hills produced national statesmen, and how questions of law and constitutional principle shaped the country through its most divided decades.
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