John Oliver Halstead Pitney (April 14, 1860 – October 6, 1928) was an American lawyer from

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

Early life and education

Born in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a Town (New Jersey), town in and the county seat of Morris County, New Jersey, Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.

to Henry Cooper and Sarah Louise (Halsted) Pitney,John James Scannell, William Edgar Sackett, ''Scannell's New Jersey's First Citizens and State Guide'' (1919), p. 365. Pitney was "a member of one of New Jersey's oldest families","John O. H. Pitney Dies", ''Brooklyn Times Union'' (October 7, 1928), p. 57. described by Kim Isaac Eisler as a New Jersey blue-blood. His great-grandfather Henry Cooper Pitney served in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. Pitney's father and his older brother Mahlon Pitney were also lawyers; Mahlon eventually served on the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

. Pitney attended the Morris Academy, and received a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1881 followed by an M.A. from the same institution in 1884."John Pitney dies of heart attack", ''The Daily Record'' (October 6, 1928), p. 1. He was a member of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

. He

read law Reading law was the primary method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship un ...

under his father and gained

admission to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

in New Jersey at the June term of 1884 as an attorney, and three years later as a counselor.

Career

Establishing himself in Newark, he partnered with Frederick H. Heese for the first ten years of his practice. In 1902, he and John R. Hardin founded the law firm of Pitney & Hardin, later Pitney Hardin and Ward, in Newark; his brother Mahlon also worked at the firm for a time, and has sometimes been incorrectly credited as a founder. According to Eisler, the firm's clients included "some of the most notoriously antilabor corporations in the state", and because of its strike-breaking work it was known in the labor movement as "Pluck'em, Hook'em and Sink'em". Pitney was elected to the Board of the United Electric Company of New Jersey in March 1901 and also served at various times as a director of the

Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company The Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company was a life insurance company that was chartered in 1845 and based in Newark in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. The company was headed by Frederick Frelinghuysen (1848–1924). The company ...

and the American Insurance Company and a Trustee of Princeton University. He was described as "an earnest Republican" who refused official positions on grounds of lack of time; beginning in August 1917, he served as Chairman of the District Board for the Second Division of New Jersey under the War Department's administration of the Selective Service Law. Pitney published a book about the history of his family in 1925. The

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

holds a letter to Pitney from

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

, accepting an invitation to attend a celebration of the birth of

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

Personal life and death

On January 16, 1890, Pitney married Roberta A. Ballantine of Newark. They had two children, John B., born in 1892, and Robert H., born in 1907. Pitney died of a heart attack at his home in Newark at the age of 68, following a period of poor health.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitney, John Oliver Halstead 1860 births 1928 deaths Lawyers from Morristown, New Jersey Lawyers from Newark, New Jersey Princeton University alumni