Berks Barrister Winter 2018 - 18

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A Bar President Who Was
Respected But Not Loved

F

By Donald F. Smith, Jr., Esquire

our members of the
Berks County Bar
Association have
enjoyed the distinct honor
of serving as president
of the Pennsylvania Bar
Association.
I have written Barrister
articles on Judge Gustav
Endlich, who led the PBA
from 1909 to 1910,1 and
on Cyrus G. Derr, who
served as its head from 1916
to 1917.2 The Berks Barrister's Spring 2011 issue featured the
memorial service remarks for the Honorable Thomas M. Golden,
who was PBA president from 2003 to 2004.
The only other Berks attorney to serve
in the position was Christian H. Ruhl, who
assumed the PBA presidency in 1925. At the
time, he was also serving as the president of
the Berks County Bar Association. A review
of Judge Calvin Smith's Berks County Bench
and Bar - A Commentary gives the impression
that C. H. Ruhl was a highly respected, but
not necessarily an endeared, member of the
Bar.
He was born in Carlisle on August 7,
1853. While a student at Dickinson College,
he studied law in the offices of a Carlisle
attorney. So, shortly after graduating from
college in 1874, Mr. Ruhl was admitted to the
Cumberland County Bar on August 24, 1874,
meaning he had just turned 21 years of age.3
Not long thereafter, he decided that he
needed to practice law in a larger county;
whereupon, C. H. Ruhl selected Berks
County, being admitted on April 15, 1875.
"He gradually secured an increasing practice
by his careful attention to business."4 When
James N. Ermentrout became judge of the Court of Common
Pleas on January 1, 1886, Ruhl formed a partnership with the
Judge's brother, Daniel.
Ermentrout & Ruhl "continued in a very active and successful
practice until the decease of Mr. Ermentrout in 1899...Their
business embraced an extensive practice in all the local courts, and
the prosecution of numerous cases."5
Another biography refers to Mr. Ruhl as "a lawyer of ability,
possessing high oratorical and literary powers, which win the
sympathies of the audience, although his address is more of a
18 | Berks Barrister

logical than an emotional nature." 6 His was a mellow style that
"did not lessen its effectiveness."7
Following Mr. Ruhl's death, the Reading Eagle noted that
he had attained "a wide reputation for his handling of civil and
criminal court cases. Mild-eyed, and with a whimsical smile that
often duped witnesses into believing they had deceived the lawyer,
Mr. Ruhl was an adroit cross-examiner. His addresses became
noted orations."8
From 1898 to 1905, Mr. Ruhl was the Berks Referee in
Bankruptcy, the first to hold the position after it was created. He
also came to serve as counsel or director for a number of financial
institutions in Berks County. In fact, he was one of the organizers
of the Berks County Trust Company in 1900 and served for some
time thereafter as its president.
In 1878 he had married Elizabeth K. Runkle, the daughter
of a successful Reading manufacturer. The
two became active members of the First
Presbyterian Church, and together they were
instrumental in the establishment of the
Homeopathic Hospital in 1888 (predecessor
to Community General Hospital) as well as
the Young Women's Christian Association
in 1898. It was noted that they "co-operated
heartily" in this work.9 One wonders, in the
late 19th century, if that was not in fact a
unique husband-wife partnership.
Thirty members of the Berks County Bar
Association, meeting on December 5, 1921,
elected C. H. Ruhl as their president. It had
been 33 years since the Association had been
organized, and Mr. Ruhl was only its third
president. There were no term limits; that was
to change.
Less than four years later, in June 1925, at
the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Bar
Association, Mr. Ruhl was nominated for its
presidency by Judge Harry D. Schaeffer of
Berks County. In making the nomination,
Judge Schaeffer related that Mr. Ruhl is
"celebrating his fiftieth anniversary as a member of the Bar of
Pennsylvania; and I am very happy to say that these fifty years
have been crowded with a service and fidelity to the law, and
the best interests of our community, that have won for him the
admiration and respect of his brethren at the Bar and the people
of the State."10
Judge Schaeffer then described him as "a skillful and able
lawyer" and "a wise and forceful advocate." He concluded: "I
wish to say that it would be a gracious thing to cap his fifty years
of service at the Bar by selecting him for this position." 11
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Berks Barrister Winter 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Berks Barrister Winter 2018
