People
WILLIAM PITT GIFFORD
After the war between the States, 1861-1865, in which Martin Van Buren Gifford served as a captain of a company of the 83rd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, he returned to his native Erie county, remaining there until 1870, when he moved to the State of Colorado, where he became a member of the colony which founded Greeley, a prosperous farming community. In 1880 he returned to Erie county, and from 1886 to 1889 was sheriff of that county. He married Mary Amelia Allison, and during their Colorado residence their son William Pitt Gifford was born. But six years later Erie became the family home and the lad there became the man and the prosperous lawyer, his admission to the bar occurring in December, 1899. The years have brought him professional honor and public position, and he is rated one of the strong men of the Erie bar.
William Pitt Gifford was born in Greeley, Colorado, October 5, 1874, and received his education in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he completed public school course with graduation from high school. He secured his college education at Leland Stanford Jr. University, Palo Alto, California, there receiving degree Bachelor of Arts. He studied law under the preceptorship of S. A. Davenport, of Erie, Pennsylvania, and in December, 1899, was admitted to the Erie county bar. He began practice in Erie, in 1890, and has been admitted to all courts of the district, State and Federal, to the Superior and Supreme courts of Pennsylvania, and to the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1910 he formed a partnership with Frank Gunnison, Henry E. Fish and A. O. Chapin, they practicing as Gunnison, Fish, Gifford & Chapin. Mr. Gifford is a member of the Pennsylvania State Bar and the Erie County Bar associations, and a man generally liked and highly esteemed.
A Republican in politics he was the nominee of his party for district attorney for Erie county in 1906, and through a reelection in 1909 served continuously for six years, 1906-1912. He has been chairman of the Republican County Committee at different times and a delegate to State conventions. He is a trustee of Central Presbyterian Church of Erie, and a member of the Masonic order, affiliated with Lodge, Chapter, Commandery, Shrine and Consistory, holding the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and his college fraternities are Phi Beta Kappa, Delta Upsilon and Phi Delta Phi (Law). His clubs are the Erie, University, Shriners, and Kahkwa, all of Erie, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Gifford married, at Erie, February 15, 1900, Harriet Mae Stanton, daughter of John W. and Jennie (Hoagland) Stanton. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gifford: Gladys Grace, born January 25, 1901; Jean Winifred, born November 1, 1906; and John Stanton, born December 12, 1912.
Source: Transcription from the book, Courts and Lawyers of Pennsylvania, A History, 1623-1923, by Frank M. Eastman, published in 1922; located on the website, Hathitrust Digital Library (http://www.hathitrust.org), accessed 29 April 2026.