Benjamin F. McAtee

Portrait and Biographical Record

P. 520

Typed by: Lisa Rutt Murphy 

     Benjamin F. McAtee, a prominent attorney of South Bethlehem, has been very successful and has established a large practice in this place.  He is a hard-working attorney and is carefully read in the principles of law.  His birth occurred December 28, 1843, in Washington County, Md.  His father, Thomas W. McAtee, was born in the same county, and the early history of the family relates that in the first settlement of Maryland were two families of the name, one of the Roman Catholic faith, and the other Protestants, and of the latter our subject is a descendant.  Thomas W. was born in 1812 and died in 1889, in Ogle County, Ill., where he resided for the twenty-five years immediately preceding his death.  He lived retired from active business and was a prominent man of that locality.  His wife, Mary, was the daughter of John Brinham, who was a native of Beaver Creek, Washington County, coming from an old Maryland family.

     B. F. McAtee was educated at the Clear Spring Academy, and when eighteen years of age commenced to teach school.  Afterward he entered the service, becoming a member of Company K, First Maryland Potomac Home Brigade, Maryland Volunteers, and was mustered into the army at Frederick City, Md., shortly after becoming Second Lieutenant.  Hs regiment was active throughout the various Shenandoah Valley campaigns, and was organized under an act of Congress for the protection of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, in order to keep open free communication and transportation of Government stores.  Our subject resigned from the service, and was mustered out in December, 1864, when he went to Washington Court House, Ohio, in order to study law, being admitted to the Fayette County Bar May 15, 1871.

     In 1872 Mr. McAtee married Aelia Young Shelly, whose father, Joel Shelly, was then a prominent practicing physician of Berks County, Pa.  The Shelly family are descendants of one of the early pioneers of that name, for it is known that in May, 1725, Jacob Shelly was a land-owner in Milford, Bucks County, this state, and in 1749 one Abraham Shelly was the petitioner for a road.  Joel Y. Shelly was a public-spirited citizen and at the head of every movement of the advancement of his neighborhood.  He had eleven children, five of whom are now deceased.

     In the spring of 1892 Mr. McAtee located in South Bethlehem, where he engaged in practice and has succeeded in becoming favorably known in the professional circles of the state.  Devoting much of his attention and leisure time to further study, Mr. McAtee brings to bear upon every case his knowledge of the decisions and rulings of noted judges, believing that no matter what natural ability a man possesses, he cannot be too well versed in a general knowledge pertaining to the profession.  He still retains many of his old clients and still visits the courts of Luzerne County.  In politics he supports the Democratic party, and is a man who is greatly interested in the welfare of his fellow-men.