DAWSON LAW BUILDING

57 E. MAIN STREET

Dawson Building Snapshot:

  • The Dawson Law Building was built in 1832 by the Dawson Family
  • Was built in the Federal style of architecture
  • After a fire destroyed the County Courthouse in 1845, this building temporarily housed County Court sessions until the Courthouse was restored.
  • Since construction, this building has continuously served as attorneys’ offices and is currently owned by Monaghan & Monaghan, LLP.
  • John Dawson, Esq. originally built this building. His nephew, John Littleton Dawson, Esq. also worked here.
  • John Littleton Dawson later served as a US District Court District Attorney for Western PA and then as a  United States Congressman. He was considered the “Father of the Homestead Bill” in 1854.

Dawson Building The Full Story:

Built in 1832 by the Dawson family, the Dawson Law Building has served continuously as lawyers’ offices. When the Fayette County Courthouse was destroyed by fire in 1845, court sessions were moved to this building until the new courthouse was completed. On February 5, 1845 it was written: The special court is sitting in the upper room of John Dawson’s Brick Building.” The building also housed the publishing offices of “Genius of Liberty” which was printed on the second floor.

John Dawson

The history of the Dawson family in Fayette County begins with Nicholas who served with George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He also was part of the Crawford Expedition where he barely escaped capture by Native Americans. He moved to the “Pan Handle” of West Virginia, where his son, John L. Dawson was born on July 13, 1788.

Around 1808 John Dawson moved to Uniontown where he studied law under General Thomas Meason, son of Isaac Meason, iron master of Mt. Braddock. General Meason served with the Continental Army achieving the rank of Brigadier General. When Meason died in 1813 Dawson finished his studies with Judge John Kennedy and was

admitted to the bar in 1814. In 1820 he married Miss Ann Baily by whom he had thirteen children. He retired from the bar after some thirty years’ successful practice but in 1851 he was appointed an associate judge by Governor William F. Johnston, Judge Dawson served until the Constitution was changed, making the associate judges elective. After he retired from the bench his principal business was farming, which he superintended until about 1865, after which time he resided with his children in Uniontown. His sight for several years was so defective that at times it amounted to total blindness. He died in Uniontown on the 16th of January, 1875, at the age of 87. On the 19th, at a meeting of the Fayette County bar, the following was resolved: “That is the death of the Hon. John

Dawson the bar has lost a member whose ability, learning, and integrity adorned the profession; the community an upright and intelligent citizen, who ever executed with fidelity and zeal the many honorable trusts confided to him; the church a friend, who propagated faith by example, and proved it by works; and his family a fond and devoted father, whose practice of the domestic virtues illustrated a character as noble

as it is rare. No tribute to his memory can speak too warmly of the manner in which he discharged the duties of every relation in life. One of Judge Dawson’s sons, John Nicholas, followed his father and studied law. He entered Washington College and graduated in 1861 upon which he joined the Fayette County bar, becoming a prominent member. His business interests included the Union Woolen Mills which he operated until it was destroyed by fire. He then opened a general store in a busy location in Uniontown before being elected Justice of the Peace in 1888. Justice of the Peace Dawson’s son, R.W. Dawson continued the family’s tradition of becoming a lawyer.

The best known of the Dawson family’s attorneys was John Littleton Dawson, nephew of Judge John Dawson. He was born in Uniontown on February 7, 1813 to George and Mary (Kennedy) Dawson. The family moved to Brownsville where John lived until going to school at Washington College (now Washington and Jefferson.) After graduating he read law with his uncle, John Dawson in Uniontown. He was admitted to the Fayette County Bar on September 9, 1835 and rose rapidly to eminence in his profession.

In 1839 Dawson was appointed District Attorney of the District Court of the United States for Western

Judge John Littleton Dawson

Pennsylvania, which position he filled until the year 1849. In 1850 he was elected to Congress for his first term. In Congress Dawson was conspicuous for his advocacy of the Homestead Bill, and his faithful and persistent opposition to the public land swindles that had been carried on so extensively. In fact, John Littleton Dawson would be known as the father of the Homestead Law, which sought to preserve the public domain for the use of actual settlers and furnish homes for all who sought them in the fertile plains and valleys of the Great West.

In 1857 he was offered the position of Governor of the territory of Kansas by President Franklin Pierce but declined the honor. Also in 1857 Dawson was invited to attend the inauguration of James Buchanan. They met at the National Hotel in Washington prior to the inauguration for dinner along with other guests. What happened next is still being debated but for certain, some of the guests died. One newspaper reported the following: “Our readers will recollect that shortly before the inauguration, Mr. Buchanan had returned home from Washington sick. He had stopped at the National Hotel, which was terribly infested with rats, which a boarder attempted to exterminate by giving them arsenic. The rats, after being poisoned, sought water, and got into a large tank from which the house is supplied with drinking and cooking water. Twenty or thirty of the guests, among them Mr. Buchanan, J. Glancy Jones and John L. Dawson, were suddenly and some severely affected from the use of the water thus impregnated. Efforts were made to keep the matter quiet, but if finally leaked out.” Some newspapers had, in fact, reported that Dawson had died.

Rumors began circulating that the poisonings were deliberate, perpetrated by southern sympathizers. No conspiracy was ever proven but all together hundreds of people did become ill and dozens died at the National Hotel in 1857. Today it is believed it was an outbreak of cholera.

Dawson, along with his wife Mary Whirley (Clark) purchased Friendship Hill, home of Albert Gallatin, Secretary Treasurer under Thomas Jefferson. It was a Sunday evening at 9:00 on the 18th of September in 1870 that Dawson died from a fall down the stairs at his home. He was only 57.

About Dawson it was written: “He was a man of great public spirit, and was always foremost in the development of great resources and mineral wealth of the country. He held the position of director of the Pittsburgh; Ft. Wayne and Chicago railroad, and was actively engaged in the development of the great iron interests of the Lake Superior region. His wealth was never hoarded for his own selfish gratification; but made a means of augmenting the general prosperity of the community. To the community at large the news of his unexpected death will carry the profoundest sorrow, for at this crisis of public affairs the public can ill afford to lose the counsels and services of a man, who, by a life of devotion to the country’s welfare, has proven himself so worthy of public trust and confidence.”

Fayette County Historical Society

P.O. Box 193, Uniontown, PA 15401
724.439.4422

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