The Biographical Dictionary of America/Agnew, Daniel

AGNEW, Daniel, jurist, was born in Trenton, N.J., Jan. 5, 1809. At an early age he went with his parents to Pittsburg, Pa., where he obtained his education and entered the legal profession. He became widely and favorably known as a sound lawyer, and at the revision of Pennsylvania's constitution in 1836, he was a member of the convention called for that purpose. In 1851 he became presiding judge of the Seventeenth judicial district, in 1863 supreme judge, and in 1873 chief justice. He received the degree of LL.D. from both Washington and Dickinson colleges. He resigned from his judgeship in 1879, "with the reputation of being one of the ablest jurists that ever sat upon the Pennsylvanian bench." In 1880 he was chosen as first president of the constitutional temperance amendment association of New Jersey. He published "A History of the Region of Pennsylvania North of the Ohio and West of the Allegheny River, etc., etc." (1878); and "Our National Constitution: its Adaptation to a State of War" (1863). He died at Beaver, Pa., March 9, 1902.