USA > Connecticut > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 7
USA > Rhode Island > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 7
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The great secret of his eminent success is doubtless most clearly revealed in his private diary, the entries in which show how he regarded his official responsi- bilities. In 1842 he wrote: "I do much need wisdom to guide me in affairs so important to my fellow men. I would desire with Solomon: 'Give to thy servant an understanding heart to judge this people, that I may discern between good and bad; I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or to come in.' I know I need aid from above, to keep mc from all the temptations arising from friendship or from prejudice. I think I may say that I have conscientiously avoided all such inducements, and kept in view the great day of account, when the judges of the earth are to be weighed in the balance of eternal justice, when the secrets of all hearts will be manifest." In May, 1847, he thought proper to resign his situation, after " having been upon the bench for eighteen years without having failed for a single day," except for a short time on one occasion, to discharge his duties on the bench on account of ill-health. He had the enviable consciousness of having discharged all duty with diligence, impartiality, and according to his best ability. "That mistakes intervened there can be no doubt; but," he adds, "I think I can say I endeavorcd to keep a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man." Simple, truthful, just, persistent, and drawing constant supplies of strength from an Infinite source, Judge Williams was one of the grandest incarnations of legal justice that a land so prolific in great men has cver presented to the admiration and emulation of mankind.
Although prc-eminently a righteous judge, he did not refuse to serve his city and country in other capacities wherein he could be useful. In the technical sense
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of the word he was not a politieian. His pastor, who knew and appreciated him thoroughly, said : " As a eitizen, a civilian, a statesman, a patriot, he was firm and decided in his views and sentiments; adhering inflexibly to what he believed to be true and right ; but he was no partisan, no wily politician or bigoted opposer of all who differed from him in opinion. "He was a member of the Legislature of Con- neeticut in the years 1815, 1816, 1819, 1825, 1827, and 1829, and was a Representative in Congress from 1817 to 1819. He brought to all these positions the qualities both of mind and heart, which made him an able and faithful legislator, as well as a safe and competent adviser."
It is with comparative infrequency that distinguished members of the beneh and bar are noted for intelligent, consistent, benefieent godliness. Some of the most con- spieuous, like Judge Hubbard of Massachusetts, Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, Judge Bissell, and Roger M. Sherman of Connecticut, have left fragrant memories behind them, and eharmed while they blessed the world in publie life. Judge Williams was a notable illustration of genuine Christianity in high social and legal position. He made a public profession of religion, and united with the Church after a season of powerful revival in 1834. Theneeforward his church life was in harmony with his established eharaeter. " His religion was more of prineiple than of emotion; more of a steady, set purpose to do what was right, and pleasing to God and useful to his fellow men than of mere impulse and feeling." Prior to his publie avowal of discipleship to Christ, "he prayed in his family, and asked a blessing upon his table. He was scrupulously exact in the observance of the Sabbath, attending punctually the services of the sanctuary, and reading religious books in the intervals of public worship. He abhorred that which was evil, and loved that which was good." Calvinistic in theologieal belief, he passively waited for the graec of salvation, until in 1834, under the preaching of the Rev. Dr. Taylor, he was induecd actively to accept it. His piety was the expansion of a life-long habitude : "a child's piety, sweet, graceful, uneonscious, full of tenderness, and believing earnestness, such as children only feel."
In 1836, two years after his union with the Church, he was elected one of its deaeons, and subsequently performed the duties of his office with propriety, dignity, and conscientious fidelity ; to the honor of religion and the prosperity of his Church. His ministries of kindness, of counsel and charity in private, were many and fre- quent. The poor long remembered him as a kind and generous benefactor. The last service he ever performed in the church was to assist in bearing the symbols of the Saviour's love to his fellow-worshippers. He entered the Church of God to become a laborious and efficient co-worker with its members. " For more than a quarter of a century he was from Sabbath to Sabbath at the head of his Bible-
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class, thoroughly prepared by previous study to impart to its members the rich treas- ures of God's word and of his own well-storcd mind." "Like his noble compeer, Mr. Frelinghuysen, who esteemed his position as a Bible-class teacher to be far above that of a Senator in Congress, so Chief Justice Williams tenaciously held and ably filled his position as teacher to the very last, barred by no statute of limita- tion on account of his age, as he was retired from the bench, nor deterred by any increasing infirmities as years bore him nearer to his final rest."
He was an early and firm friend of the temperance cause, a co-operator with its advocates, and was among the first to visit the reforming and the reformed inebriates during . the Washingtonian movement, and to encourage them in their resurrection to life and usefulness. An exceedingly benevolent man, he gave judiciously and gener- ously in private, and always bore his part in founding and sustaining the humane, the benevolent and cducational institutions of Hartford. But his charities took a much wider range than that of civic or State locality. He was for a long time Vice-President of the American Board. of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and at the time of his decease was President of the American Tract Society of New York. His sympathies were wholly with the heart, mind, and mission of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. "I thank God," said he, in 1842, "that He has put it into my power to do so much, and hope it may be productive of good, especially that which was intended to spread the light of truth among the heathen. I cannot now go among them myself, but I can enable some efficient man to do so, while I am sitting at home surrounded with so many comforts." He always gave to general and special objects on principle, and kept a strict account of his charities and ordinary family expenses, in parallel columns. The former shows an excess of fifty per cent over the latter during the last nine years of his life. He frequently assisted young men by donations, or loans, or both, to a promising start in life. In domestic mis- sions and in theological schools he seemed to be almost equally interested, believing that the influence of all the good young men of the West was wanted "to counteract infidelity, indifference, and ignorance, which ordinarily accompany our newer settle- ments ; while at the East we need men of great learning to meet the more insidious attacks of the scientific doubter."
His last sickness was brief, his mind perfectly clear, and his acute sufferings comparatively slight. "I am wonderfully favored," he gratefully remarked. "I trust solely in the atonement and justifying righteousness of Jesus Christ." Not only his pastor, but other friends, deemed that, "taken all in all, he was the most perfect Christian man" they had ever known.
Judge Williams was twice marricd. First in 1812, January 7th, to Delia, daugh- ter of Oliver Ellsworth, of Windsor, Conn., who was Chief Justice of the Supreme
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Court of the United States, and one of the most distinguished of American states- men and lawyers. Mrs. Williams died June 25th, 1840; and on November Ist, 1842, Judge Williams was married to Martha M. Coit of Boston, daughter of Elisha Coit of New York City. Neither union was fruitful of children, but his house was often vocal with the merriment of little ones, in whose society he found exquisite pleasure. When his friend, Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, heard of his death, she responded to the informant in lines of singular beauty and pathos, and concluded with the sentences :
"'Twere impiety To let the harp of praise in silence lie, We who beheld so beautiful a life Complete its perfect circle. Praise to Him Who gave him power in Christ's dear name to pass Unharm'd the dangerous citadel of time;
Unsullied, o'er its countless snares to rise
From earthly care, to rest-from war, to peace- From chance and change, to everlasting bliss. Give praise to God."
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RANGER, MILES T., of Canaan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. Born in New Marlborough, Berkshire County, Mass., August 12th, 1817. His father, James L. Granger, was a native of the same State, and followed the occupations of farmer and mechanic. His mother, née Abigail Tobey, was a native of Canaan, Conn. His early education was received in the excellent district school of the neighborhood, and was succeeded by fifteen months' instruction in the once-famous seminary at Amenia, Dutchess County, New York.
The towering pines of western New England, rising from rocky soil, and attaining maximum altitude under all apparent disadvantages, are the fitting symbols of numerous youths who, from unpromising surroundings, and amid hardships that would have crushed less hardy spirits, have acquired sturdy and symmetrical develop- ment, and have risen to commanding social and professional eminence. Among these admirable examples, Judge Granger is one of the most unblemished, excellent, . and highly respected. From Amenia he repaired to Middletown, Conn., and there matriculated at the Wesleyan University, from which he was graduated in 1842. In the year following he migrated to Louisiana, and accepted the position of private tutor in the family of a planter. While engaged in teaching, he also began the study of law, and acquired such proficiency therein that in April, 1845, he was admitted to the bar in Wilkinson County, Miss. New England, however, proved to have greater attractions than the sunny South; and, in June of the same year, he returned to Canaan, Conn., entered the office of Leman Church, familiarized himself with the code and practice of Connecticut, and in October, 1845, was admitted to the bar in Litchfield. Thenceforward, until 1847, he was associated in practice with Mr. Church. In the latter year he opened a law office on individual account, and successfully prosecuted professional practice until 1867, when he was elceted to the beneh of the Superior Court. In 1857 Judge Granger served in the lower house of the State Legislature, to which he had been elected on the Democratic ticket. In 1866 he was chosen the State Senator from the Seventeenth Senatorial District, and was again eleeted to the same office in 1867. For a number of years he also officiated as Judge of Probate for the Canaan district, and discharged the responsible duties of that position, as he has uniformly discharged the duties of various minor official trusts, with diligence, ability, and acceptance. The general esteem in which he is held was expressed in his re-election to the justieiary of the Superior Court in 1875 ; and the popular estimate of his eminent fitness for high judicial functions in his election to the bench of the Supreme Court, as the successor of Judge Foster, on November 16th, 1876, for a term of eight years.
Judge Granger was married in 1846 to Caroline S. Ferguson, of Sheffield, Mass.
Dwight Lewis 2
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OOMIS, DWIGHT, of Rockville, Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. Born July 27th, 1821, at Columbia, Tolland County, Conn. His father, Elam Loomis, was a native of the same place, and was occupied in agricultural pursuits ; but in early life had taught school in the South. His mother, née Mary Pinneo, was a native of Hanover, New Hampshire, and": a descendant from French ancestors. On the paternal side, he is lineally descended from Joseph Loomis, who immigrated, in company with a colony from England, to the New World in the year 1638, and settled at Windsor, Conn., in 1639.
The academic education of young Loomis was obtained at Munson and at Amherst, in Massachusetts. After his graduation from those institutions, he became a teacher in Andover, Columbia, Lebanon, and Hebron, Conn., successively. Natural inclination and aptitude then conspired to induce him to enter upon the study of law, which he did in the spring of 1844, in the office of J. H. Brockway, at Ellington, Tolland County. Thence he repaired to the Yale Law School at New Haven, pursued successfully the ordinary curriculum, and completed his prepara- tions for professional practice in 1847. In March of the same year, after his graduation, he was admitted to the bar, and opened an office at Rockville. In the autumn following he contracted a business copartnership with his old preceptor, J. H. Brockway, under the style and title of Brockway & Loomis. The firm pros- pered until 1855, in April of which year it was dissolved.
Politically, Judge Loomis is associated with the Republican party. His public career began in 1851, with his election, on the Whig ticket, to the lower house of the State Legislature, in which he served a single term. Subsequent to the dissolution of partnership with Mr. Brockway, he associated himself in legal practice with B. H. Bill, and maintained the connection until June, 1858. In 1857 he was elected to the State Senate by the Republican party, and served a single term in that body, acting as chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the two houses. In the spring of 1859 he was elected to the National House of Representatives from the First Congressional District, consisting of Hartford and Tolland counties ; and was re-elected in 1861. The epoch was a critical one. The fate of free institutions depended largely on the legislative wisdom of their exponents and public defenders. The emergency demanded the ablest and most disciplined talent the country afforded to prepare measures in harmony with the national welfare, and conducive to success the life-and-death conflict then raging with the rending, destructive forces of slavery and secession. To the beneficent and glorious results attained by long years of lavish expenditure and sanguinary warfare, Judge Loomis powerfully contributed. While in Congress he officiated as member and chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Treasury Department. He was also a member of the Com-
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mittee on Agriculture, and of the very important Committee on Elections. The relations of the rebellious States to the National Union were abnormal and perplex- ing. The suffering, loyal citizens of those communities were entitled to representation in the Congressional councils, and measures were to be devised that should pave the way for the resumption of constitutional and permanent place in the body politic. Much of the work done was necessarily tentative; but it was well done, and suggested methods by which all difficulties were ultimately overcome, and all energies prospectively and partially united in accomplishing the tasks assigned to the National Legislature.
In the spring of 1864 Mr. Loomis was elected to the justiciary of the Superior Court for a term of eight years; and in 1872 was re-elected to the same office for another term. This he held until the spring of 1875, when, by the unanimous vote of the members of both houses of the Legislature, he was elected Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Errors, which office he still retains.
Judge Loomis was married on the 26th of November, 1848, to Mary E. Bill, who died June Ist, 1864. He was again married, on the 28th of May, 1866, to Jennie E. Kendall, who died March 6th, 1876.
ARPENTER, ELISHA, of Hartford, Judge of the Supreme Court of Con- necticut. Born in Ashford (that part of it which is now Eastford), Windham Co., Conn., January 14th, 1824. His parents, Uriah B. and Marcia (Scarborough) Carpenter, were both natives of the same place. His father died in the month of October, 1872, after having been the head of a family for nearly sixty years ; a fact sufficiently remarkable in itself, but equalled in rarity by the further fact that his death was the first that had occurred in his own indi- vidual family, which consisted of a wife and eight children-all of whom are still living.
The first American ancestor of Judge Carpenter bore the name of William Carpenter, and emigrated to this country in 1642, accompanied by three sons, who settled in Attleboro, Swansey, and Rehoboth, Mass. On both sides the house he is descended from good old English stock. In common with the overwhelm- ing majority of American youth, he began his education in the excellent public schools, and made such progress in the acquisition of knowledge, and in the further
J
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power to impart it to others, that he became fully qualified to act as school teacher himself, at the age of sixteen. This he did for several consecutive years. Higher social aims than those of the worthy rural pedagogue actuated him in the later stages of his educational experience; and, yielding to their power, he also diligently read law. Next he entered, as law student, the office of Jonathan R. Welch, Brooklyn, Conn., and on the completion of his preparatory studies was admitted to the bar in Windham County, in December, 1846. Thenceforward, until 1861, he practised law in the same county.
Mr. Carpenter soon proved himself to be an able, competent, and successful prac- titioner ; but did not permit himself to be so thoroughly engrossed by legal matters as to have little or no time for political affairs. In 1857-8 he was a member of the State Senate, to which he had been elected on the Republican ticket. In the session of 1857 he served as chairman of the Committee on Incorporations, and in that of 1858 as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He also acted as President, pro tempore, of the Senate. From 1854 to 1861 he held the position and discharged the duties of Prosecuting Attorney of Windham County. In the legislative session of 1861 he served as representative of the town of Killingly, in the lower branch of the State Legislature, and officiated as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. His duties as such were of an extremely important character, in view of the fact that the armies of the Union were then coming into repeated and sanguinary con- flict with the adherents of slavery and secession.
Judicial characteristics and aptitudes, added to legal qualifications, dictated Mr. Carpenter's election to the bench of the Superior Court of the State in 1861. To that elevated position he added dignity, while he occupied it with marked ability for four years. In 1865 he was appointed to the justiciary of the Supreme Court, of which body he is still a member. The exacting demands made upon judicial officers preclude much attention to matters not strictly germane to the legal profession. Judge Carpenter, however, has found time to make himself felt as a member of the State Board of Education sinec its organization in 1865, although the pressure of the claims upon him prevents his bestowing all the time upon its plans and operations that he would otherwise give.
Judge Carpenter was married in 1848 to Harriet G. Brown, of Brooklyn, Conn., and a niece of the Rev. Dr. John Brown of Boston. Mrs. Carpenter died in 1874 ; and in 1876 the Judge was again married, to Sophia T. Cowen, granddaughter of the late Judge Cowen of the Supreme Court of New York.
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HIPMAN, NATHANIEL, of Hartford, Judge of the United States District Court for Connecticut. Born in Southbury, New Haven County, Connecticut, August 22d, 1828. His father, Thomas L. Shipman, was a native of the same State, and was an excellent Congregationalist divine. His mother, née Mary T. Deming, was also born in Connecticut.
Judge Shipman received his preliminary education in the academies at Norwich and Plainfield, then matriculated at Yale College in 1844, and graduated with the class of 1848. Choosing to identify himself with the members of the legal profession, he commenced the study of law under the tuition of Thomas B. Osborne, in Fairfield County, and was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1850. Selecting Hartford as the seat of practice, he associated himself with H. K. W. Welch in legal business, under the firm-title of Welch & Shipman, and continued in that relation until the death of his partner in 1870.
In 1857 Judge Shipman served one term in the lower house of the State Legislature, to which he had been elected by the Republican party. From 1858 to 1861 he was the executive secretary of the noble and patriotic Governor Bucking- ham. On May Ist, 1873, his talents and services received fitting recognition in his appointment as Judge of the United States District Court for Connecticut-a position he still retains. The office itself is of national character, and is identified with that peculiar duplex judicial system which differentiates the United States civil polity from that of all other nations. This duplex judicial system corresponds with our duplex political system, under which has been established a national government for national purposes-for duties of common concernment to all the States-and a government by States for objects of purely local interest. In like manner, "by the constitutions and laws of the States the people have created courts adequate to the administration of justice in all matters intrusted to the States. By the national Constitution they have created a Supreme Court of the United States, clothed with power to try originally certain controversies of high political importance, and also, what is of more general interest, to review and correct the decisions of subordinate courts. " By acts of Congress they have created, for the ordinary administration of justice throughout the States in controversies coming within the national jurisdiction, a system of district and circuit courts. The controversies intrusted to the national tribunals-omitting to mention some of rare occurrence-are of three kinds: cases arising under any law. of the United States; cases of admiralty jurisdiction, that is, arising at sea, or immediately connected with maritime matters; and cases between citizens of different States."
" These judges hold United States Circuit and District Courts at designated places, throughout the States, systematic provision having been made for court-rooms,
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clerks, marshals, and records, wholly independent of State legislation or control; so that everywhere individuals concerned in controversies depending on national laws or arising upon matters of maritime origin, or in which citizens of one State are pitted against those of another, may scck justice in a court of the Union, frce, by its creation and surroundings, and by all its precedents and traditions, from any unduc influence or bias arising from differences among the States." Vide Abbott's .Imerican Jurisprudence. The functions of the United States District Court judges -as well as those of the higher courts-demand ripe learning, comprehensive knowledge, catholic spirit, uncommon fairness and impartiality, and an independency of spirit that reveals no affinities in discord with concrete justice. The appointment to such a dignified office implies appreciation of no mean order.
Judge Shipman was married on the 25th of May, 1859, to Mary C. Robinson of Hartford.
ANFORD, EDWARD ISAAC, LL.B., of New Haven, Scnior Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. Born in New Haven, July 4th, 1826. His father, Elihu Sanford, removed thither in childhood from Woodbridge, subsequently entered into the West India trade from New Haven, conducted an extensive business, amassed a considerable fortunc, and died in 1866. His paternal grandfather, Elihu Sanford, was a native of Woodbridge, Conn., and was occupied by agricultural pursuits. Elihu Sanford, his great-grandfather, was also a native of Connecticut. His mother, née Lucinda Howell, was the daughter of Leverett and Lucinda Howell of New Haven.
Primarily educated at private schools in his native city, young Sanford graduated from them to Fairfield Academy, in which he passed four years-from the age of ten to that of fourteen. Thence he repaired to the celebrated Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven, and prepared for matriculation at Yale College. Entering that institution in 1843, he graduated from it with the class of 1847. Electing the profession of law, he next entered the office of Henry White, a prominent con- veyancer in New Haven, prosecuted his studies under the direction of that gentleman, and also received a full course of instruction in the Law Department of Vale University.
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