My Genealogy Hound

HON. JAMES MARION WEAKLEY. Sometime between 1725 and 1730 there came from England and settled upon the Yellow Breeches creek, in what is now Dickinson township, one James Weakley. He purchased from the proprietaries a tract of six hundred acres of land on which he built a house, enclosed by a stockade, for the protection of his family and neighbors from the attacks of the Indians. He increased his possessions by purchases, and at his death was owner of large estates in lands. He died June 6, 1772; his wife Jane, died Nov. 30, 1763, and their remains are interred in the Meeting House Springs burying ground.

This Weakley progenitor had six sons and five daughters. His tenth child in the order of birth was a son named James, who married Rebecca McKinley, by whom he had the following children: Jean, Isaac, James, Rebecca, Nancy, Nathaniel, William King and Elizabeth. He inherited the tract of land his father purchased from the Penns, and lived upon it until his death. He served two enlistments during the Revolutionary war, returning with the rank of captain. Of his children, William, the youngest son, died in early manhood, but all the others lived to an advanced age. Captain James Weakley died in 1814, at the age of eighty-four years.

James Weakley, second son of Captain James Weakley, born April 16, 1785, inherited the name of his ancestors. When more than forty-five years old he encountered financial trouble, and the old homestead was sold from him. He then married Elizabeth Lockhard, daughter of a farmer in Dickinson township, and began anew. Engaging in the manufacture of lumber, by hard work and rigid economy he soon began to acquire property. When he retrieved his fortune, he purchased a farm in Penn township, to which he removed in 1847, and resided there until his death. In 1861, when seventy-six years old, he repurchased the old homestead, paying for it a price four times greater than it brought when it was sold from him in 1835. He died Aug. 30, 1873; his wife passed away June 7, 1854. He was a strong, earnest, indomitable man. James and Elizabeth (Lockhard) Weakley had three sons and one daughter, viz.: James Marion, W. H. Harrison, Wilson C., and Rebecca.

James M. Weakley, the oldest child and subject of this biographical sketch, was born in Dickinson township, April 12, 1839. He received a Fair academic education, and in 1860 began the study of law with William H. Miller, of Carlisle. He was admitted to the Cumberland county Bar in 1862, and has been in active practice ever since in the courts of this and other counties of the State. On Sept. 12, 1865, he married Mary F. Sullivan, of Carlisle, who bore him three children: Florence, who died in childhood; Mary P., who graduated from the Academy of Visitation, Georgetown, D. C., and who died May 15, 1903; and Francis J., a graduate of St. John’s College, Fordham, New York city, and of the Dickinson School of Law, who died Jan. 20, 1904.

For several years Mr. Weakley was interested in journalism. He was for eight years editor and part owner of the Carlisle Herald, the Republican organ of Cumberland county, and for two years editor of the Carlisle Leader. He is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, and a past master of St. John’s Lodge, F. & A. M. He was several years president of the Cumberland Valley Mutual Insurance Company, and has held other positions of trust and responsibility. His political career began in 1865, when he was elected a member of the Carlisle borough council, in which he served until 1868. The year following he was appointed by Governor Geary Assistant Secretary of the Commonwealth, which important and responsible position he filled from 1869 to 1872. In 1871 he was elected State Senator from the district composed of Cumberland and Franklin counties, and he was a member of the Senate three years, serving on the committees on Corporations, Judiciary General and Constitutional Reform. Just prior to his election to the Senate he was chosen a member of the school board of Carlisle, and re-elected four times, being president of the board the last ten years of his service.

In 1891, Mr. Weakley was elected professor of Pleading in the Dickinson School of Law, and the following year was made Professor of Equity, He has filled these positions ever since. Since his retirement from politics Mr. Weakley has engaged in the practice of law, and has maintained a high position in his profession. He has had a varied, honorable and successful career.