Biography

11/08/1838 - 12/13/1902

Judge Edwin Albright (D11) Lehigh and Northampton Counties, 1872-1874; (D16) Lehigh and Carbon Counties, 1875-1876; 1872-1876

Early Life: 

Judge Edwin Albright, born November 8, 1838, Upper Milford, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; son of Michael H. and Maria Schaeffer Albright; public school, education; teacher, Krupp's Berg, near Passer, Bucks County; read law with Congressman Samuel Bridges; University of Pennsylvania Law; admitted, bar, 1862; elected, District Attorney of Lehigh County, 1865-1869; married, Rebecca Young Albright, 1866, two children, Doctor Roderick E. Albright, Mrs. Bertha Sieger; elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1871-1876; elected Judge, Lehigh County Courts, 1878-1902; died, December 13, 1902, unexpectedly sudden, resulting from an attack of pneumonia, complicated with heart trouble, interment, Fairview Cemetery, Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

Professional titles; business ownership; board memberships; local government; club memberships:

Member, Saint John's Evangelical Lutheran Church; Barger Lodge, No. 222, Free and Accepted Masons; Allentown Lodge, No. 90, Knights of Pythias; Lehigh Saengerbund, Lehigh County Agricultural Society; Livingstone Club.

Pennsylvania Politics:

Elected, District Attorney of Lehigh County, 1865-1869.  

Elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 11^th district, Lehigh and Northampton Counties, 1872-1874;16^th district, Lehigh and Carbon Counties, 18753-1876; 1871-1876; member, Senate Judiciary Committee, Constitutional Convention, 1874 overseeing enactment of the convention’s provisions; member subcommittee to draft a civil code for the State; member, Federal Relations, Judicial General, Mines and Mining Committees; Democratic nominee, President Senate, 1876.  

Elected, Judge, Lehigh County Courts, 1878-1902; served twenty-four of the thirty years of his three terms. The first native-born Lehigh Countian to be elected to the position he occupied.

Legacy:

Judge Albright took great pride in his Pennsylvania-German ancestry, member, Pennsylvania-German Society at its organization and was immediately elected, in 1891, one of its two vice-presidents.

Cited:   

Smull’s Legislative Hand Book, (1875) Smull, J.A., Members of the Senate of Pennsylvania, pages 601 and 606-608.