MERCUR, Ulysses, jurist, born in Towanda, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, 12 August, 1818" died in Walling-ford, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 6 June, 1887. He was a son of Henry and Mary Watts Mercur. During his early life he worked on his father's farm and afterward spent three years in his brother's store as a clerk. He was graduated at Jefferson college in 1841 with the first honors of his class, studied law under Thomas T. McKennan and Edward Overton, was admitted to the Bradford county bar, and soon achieved a high reputation. In 1861 he was a presidential elector on the Lincoln ticket. When David Wilmot was chosen United States senator, he resigned as president judge of the 13th district and Mr. Mercur was appointed as his successor. At the next election he was chosen for ten years, but he resigned in 1865 and was four times successively elected to congress. He was active in the legislation of the war and of the reconstruction period. During the eighth year of his term in the house he was chosen a justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and he resigned from congress, 2 December, 1872. On 1 January, 1883, he became under the constitution chief justice, which post he held at the time of his death. His judicial opinions, in the Pennsylvania state reports, from 1873 till 1887, are distinguished by learning, sound judgment, and clear and forcible language.