Patricius Harvey Casey (1844-1913)

Portrait from the Boston Sunday Post, January 27, 1907. 

    Following on the heels of Judge Loranus E. Hitchcock, another odd named Bay State jurist receives a write-up...Patricius Harvey Casey of Suffolk County! So far the only political figure named "Patricius" that I've managed to locate, Casey was for many years a leading legal light in Holyoke and Lee, Massachusetts, operating a law practice in both those cities. An unsuccessful candidate for state representative and state senator, Casey was later appointed as Judge for the Police Court at Lee, serving a total of eighteen years on the bench.

   A native of Ireland, Patricius Harvey Casey was born in County Sligo on March 22, 1844, a son of Patricius and Elizabeth O'Gara Casey. The Casey family immigrated to the United States when their son was two years old and would settle in Massachusetts. Casey attended school in Massachusetts and in 1863 was left fatherless due to his father being killed in battle at Chancellorsville. In January 1864 Patricius Casey enlisted in Co. I, 31st Massachusetts Infantry, and served with that unit until March 3, 1864. The Boston Sunday Post denotes that Casey was "severely wounded" during his brief military service, but fails to mention at what battle his injuries occurred.

  Patricius Casey married in Lee on October 26, 1867, to Joanna Reardon (also from Ireland), with whom he had one son, Austin, born in 1873. In 1870 Casey and his wife removed to Holyoke, Massachusetts, and during his residency there was named as a state police deputy constable for Hampden County, an office he'd continue to hold until 1875. In the mid-1870s he decided to pursue a career as a lawyer and began reading law in the offices of Judge Henry W. Bishop, and was admitted to the bar at Springfield in 1877.

  After establishing his law office in Holyoke Patricius Casey formed a partnership with Robert Dwight, which extended about five years. During this period Casey made his first foray into politics, serving as clerk for the Holyoke Common Council. In 1876 he  was nominated for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, but was ultimately defeated due to the "active efforts of the antiprohibitionists."

   Following the dissolution of his partnership with Robert Dwight, Patricius Casey moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, but resided there only a short while. He would remove back to Lee in the mid-1880s where he continued his practice and in 1886 was again a candidate for high office, this time campaigning for a seat in the Massachusetts Senate. Casey would go on to lose that election to incumbent Republican Henry M. Phillips but achieved a measure of consolation two years later when he was appointed as a special justice for the Police Court at Lee.

  In 1891 Casey advanced to full justice of the Lee Police Court and served on the bench until retiring in September 1909. Widowed three years prior to his leaving the bench, Casey remarried in 1907 to Louise Hoskins (1852-1924), whom he had met after giving a memorial address in honor of President McKinley. Shortly after their wedding, the couple traveled to southern California, and following an extended trip through that area permanently resettled in San Diego. Patricius H. Casey died in that city on September 29, 1913, and was later interred at the Mt. Hope Cemetery in San Diego.

From the Lowell Sun, September 17, 1909.