History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572

USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 3

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ATTORNEYS.

State's Attorney .- Andrew Rowland.

Practicing Attorneys .- Andrew Rowland, Jonathan Sturges, Dudley Baldwin, Joseph Noyes, David Burr, Lewis Burr Sturges, Fairfield; Thomas Fitch, Taylor Sherman, Norwalk; Thaddeus Benedict, Samuel S. Smith, Redding; John Davenport, Stamford; Wil- liam Edmunds, Nehemiah Strong, Newtown; Elisha Whittlesey, Danbury ; William A. Thompson, Green- wich ; Joseph Melker, Robert C. Johnson, Stratford ; Isaac Mills, Huntington; Samuel Burr Sherwood, Weston.

SHERIFF.

Elijah Abel.

DEPUTY SHERIFFS.

David Maltby, Matthew Reed, Zachariah Lyon, Aaron Morehouse, Amos Hoyt, David Beers, Heze- kialı Clark.

JAILERS.

Jesse Benedict, Frederick J. Whiting.

TOWN CLERKS.

Nathan Bulkley, Fairfield; Robert Walker, Strat- ford ; Samuel Grummon, Norwalk ; John Hoyt, Jr., Stamford; Jabez Fitch, Greenwich ; Benjamin Smith, Ridgefield ; Maj. Taylor, Danbury ; Amos Hubbell, New Fairfield; Caleb Baldwin, Newtown; Lemuel Sanford, Redding; Nathan Wheeler, Weston ; Elisha Mills, Huntington ; Ashbel Ruggles, Jr., Brookfield.

The following citizens of Fairfield in 1791 were members of the Connecticut Society for the Promo- tion of Freedom, and for the Relief of Persons un- lawfully holden in Bondage:

In the towns of-

Fairfield .- Rev. Andrew Elliott, Rev. Dr. Dwight, Rev. Hezekialı Ripley, and Andrew Rowland, Esq. Huntington .- Elisha Rexford.

Stratford .- Rev. Step. W. Stebbins.

Greenwich .- Rev. Isaac Lewis.

Ridgefield .- Thomas Keeler, Esq.

New Fairfield .- Rev. Medad Rogers, Dr. James Pot- ter, Col. Neliemiah Beardsley, Daniel Towncr.

Danbury .- Isaac Ives, Esq.

Norwalk :.- Rev. Justus Mitchell.

COURT-IIOUSES AND JAILS.

Fairfield is a shire county, the courts being held alternately at Bridgeport and Danbury. The first courts were held in the town of Fairfield, and the first court-house was erected in 1720. This was destroyed by the British in 1779, and rebuilt in 1794. In 1853 the courts were removed from Fairfield to Bridgeport, and the jail, which was in process of construction in Fairfield at that time, now forms part of St. Paul's Church, Fairfield.

The present court-house in Bridgeport was first oc- cupied in 1855, and is a neat and substantial brown- stone structure, located on a public square which is bounded on three sides by the following streets, State, Broad, and Bank, and on its fourth side by private property. The jail is located on North Avenue, and is a substantial brick building.

The first court-house in Danbury was a small square building, two stories in height, surmounted with a small cupola. The present court-house was erected in 1820 or 1824, and repaired and beautified a few years since. In front of the old court-house stood the whipping-post and stocks. The late Aaron Seeley and Samuel Wildman, deputy-sheriffs, and Levi Starr, constable, were the last who presided at this "engine of torture."

The jail at Danbury is a neat and substantial brick building, located on Main Street.

CHAPTER II.

BENCH AND BAR.

AMONG the prominent agencies which give shape and order in the early development of the civil and social condition of society, the pulpit, press, and bar are perhaps the most potential in moulding the in- stitutions of a new community ; and where these are early planted, the school, academy, and college are not long in assuming their legitimate position, and the maintenance of these institutions secures at the start a social and moral foundation upon which we may safely rest the superstructure of the county, the State, and the nation. The establishment of courts and judicial tribunals, where society is protected in all its civil rights under the sanction of law, and wrong finds a ready redress in an enlightened and prompt administration of justice, is the first necessity of every civilized community, and without which the forces and press of society in its changeable develop- ments, even under the teachings of the pulpit, the direction of the press, and the culture of the schools, are exposed to peril and disaster from the turbulence of passion and conflicts of interest; and hence the best and surest security that even the press, the school, or the pulpit can find for the peaceful per- formance of its highest functions is when protected

BENCH AND BAR.

by and intrenched behind the bulwarks of law, ad- ministered by a pure, independent, and uneorrupted judiciary.

The Fairfield County bar has from its beginning numbered among its members able jurists, talented advocates, and safc counselors. Here many have lived, flourished, and died, while others still are upon the stage of action who have been prominent in the advancement of the interests of the county and fig- ured conspicuously in the councils of the State.

ROGER LUDLOW .- First in the galaxy of eminent attorneys who have practiced their profession in Fairfield County stands the name of Roger Ludlow, familiar to every student of the pioneer history of Connecticut. Among the various sketches of this intrepid and talented jurist and pioneer which have from time to time been written, the following, by the Hon. Gideon H. Hollister, is selected as thoroughly de- lineating the meteoric carecr of this impulsive man :

"He was a lawyer of good family, and resided in Dorsetshire, in the southern part of England. Feb. 13, 1630, he was chosen as assistant by the General Court of Massachusetts. In May following he sailed from Plymouth for America in the 'Mary and John,' and entered upon the discharge of his official duties at the first Assistant Court held at Charleston, in Au- gust of the same year; he continued to occupy this place for four years. In 1634 he was chosen Deputy Governor of the province, and hoped to have been raised to the rank of Governor, but was disappointed by the jealousy of the deputies, who appear to have taken offense at some impolitic remarks made by him, probably in relation to the growing strength and to the frequency of elections. To show him how well they could vindicate themselves, and perhaps to recip- rocate his good advice by giving him a practical lesson upon exercising the Christian virtue of humility, they elected John Haynes Governor. Ludlow protested against this appointment in terms of severity. He alleged that the election was void for the reason that the delegates had agreed upon their candidate before they left their respective towns. By way of requital for making such an accusation, which was in all probability true, and as a further proof of the popu- lar power, he was left out of the magistracy for that year. He had not learned the art, so common in our age, of telling the people precisely what he did not believe to be true.

" Discouraged at this decided expression of the pop- ular displeasure, he removed to Connecticut during the summer or fall of the year 1635, and established himself at Windsor. Here he continued under the gentle ministrations of Mr. Wareham, and soon be- came one of the most conspicuous men in the colony.

" In the summer of 1637 he was sent by the General Court as one of the advisors of the Connectieut forces in the second stage of the Pequot war. He was prob- ably the first lawyer who ever came into the eolony, and one of the most gifted who have ever lived in it."

He took an active part in the framing of the con- stitution of 1639, and it was in all probability mainly his work. He was the first Deputy-Governor of the commonwealth, elected April 11, 1639. After his re- moval to Fairfield he still continued to perform im- portant services for the government. In 1646 he was appointed by the General Court to reduce the crude and ill-defined laws to a system, which code was published at Cambridge in 1673. He was also several times a commissioner for the colony in the New England Con- gress. He remained in Fairfield until 1654, when he embarked at New Haven for Virginia, where the remainder of his days were passed .*

SAMUEL B. SHERWOOD was born Nov. 26, 1767. He graduated at Yale College in 1786, was ad- mitted to the bar in or about 1790, and commenced the practice of his profession in Westport. He continued in the active practice of his profession until 1831. He was one of the leading members of the Fairfield bar, and had a large practice. He fre- quently represented the town in the Legislature, and for several years was one of the twelve councilors or upper House of the Legislature, answering to a Senate before the adoption of the Constitution of 1818, and was a member of the Fifteenth Congress of the United States. Probably no man in Connecticut had from 1810 to 1815 greater political influence than Samuel B. Sherwood. From a sound physical consti- tution and uniformn good health Mr. Sherwood had doubtless calculated on long life, but on the 26th of April, 1833, he was prostrated by brain-fever, and died after a single day's suffering, universally re- gretted.

ELIPHALET SWIFT was an early practitioner in Westport. He was born in Windham Co., Con., July 6, 1780. He graduated at Yale College in 1803, and, having been admitted to the bar, commenced the practice of his profession in Westport in 1806, where he continued it until within a year or two of liis de- cease. He died Sept. 21, 1857.

THOMAS BURR OSBORNE was born in Easton, July 8, 1798. He graduated at Yale in 1817, studied law with the late S. P. Staples, and was admitted to the bar in 1820. In the same year he commenced the practice of his profession in Fairfield, where lie re- sided until his death. He was clerk of the Superior and County Courts of Fairfield County in 1826, and held that office until 1839. He was a representative to the General Court in 1836 and 1841, and in 1839 was elected to Congress, and re-elected in 1841. He was State senator in 1844, and the same year was ap- pointed judge of the County Court, which office lie held several years. He removed to New Haven in 1855, and was appointed professor of law in Yale Col- lege, which position he held until 1865, when he re- signed. His reputation as a judge was of the highest, and his qualities of mind and disposition, while they

* See history of the town of Fairfield, elsewhere in this work.

HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

peculiarly fitted him for the bench, also caused him to enjoy its duties far more than the active vocation of the bar.

HENRY DUTTON was born in Watertown, Conn., Feb. 12, 1796. He graduated at Yale College in 1818, and commenced the study of the law with Roger Minott Sherman in Fairfield, at the same time teach- ing in the village academy at that place. He was subsequently tutor in Yale College two years, and in 1823 commenced the practice of law in Newtown. Here he remained until 1837, when he removed to Bridgeport, where he continued in the active practice of his profession. He held various offices ; was State's attorney and representative to the General Court. In 1847 he removed to New Haven, and accepted the chair of Kent professor of law in the Yale Law School. In addition to the duties of the professorship he engaged in the active practice of his profession, and during this time also prepared and published his "Revision of Swift's Digest," and assisted in pre- paring the "Revision and Compilation of the Con- necticut Statutes" in 1849, 1854, and 1866, and in 1854 was chosen Governor of the State by the Legis- lature, the people having failed to make a choice at the preceding election. In 1861 he was chosen a judge of the Supreme Court of Errors and of the Superior Court. He remained on the bench as as- sociate judge of the Supreme Court until he reached the age of seventy years, Feb. 12, 1866. He died in 1869.

ISAAC TOUCEY was born in Newtown, Nov. 5, 1796, and studied law with Asa Chapman. He commenced the practice of his profession in Hartford in 1818, and subsequently held various offices of trust and respon- sibility. He was State's attorney for Hartford County from 1822 to 1835, and in the latter year was elected to Congress, where he served four years. He was elected Governor of the State in 1846, and during the latter year of President Polk's administration filled the office of Attorney-General ; in 1850 was a mem- ber of the State Senate; in 1851 was elected to the United States Senate, and was Secretary of the Navy under Buchanan. Mr. Toucey was offered a seat on the beneh of the Supreme Court of the United States, which he declined. He was one of the ablest law- yers in the State. He died July 30, 1869.

THOMAS BELDEN BUTLER was born at Wethers- field, Aug. 22, 1806. He was prepared for college by his father, and entered Yale Medical School, where he remained two years, then went to Philadelphia, where he continued one year and completed his pro- fessional studies. He commenced the practice of his profession at Norwalk, and continued about eight years, when he abandoned the practice of medicine and com- menced the study of law in the office of the late Judge Bissell, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. He soon after formed a copartnership with Thaddeus Betts, and upon his death entered into partuership with Orris S. Ferry. He was subsequently a partuer

with Josiah M. Carter. He was called to the bench of the Superior Court in 1855, and remained there until his election to the Supreme Court, in 1861. In May, 1870, he was appointed chief judge, which office he held until his resignation, in May, 1873. He was elected to Congress in 1849; was State senator in 1848, 1852, and 1853, and member of the General Assembly in 1832, 1833, 1837, 1843, and 1846. He died June 8, 1873, aged sixty-six.

NELSON L. WHITE was born in Danbury, April 7, 1812. He studied law in the office of the late Reu- ben Booth, and in 1840 was admitted to the bar. He was clerk of the State Senate in 1844 and 1845; judge of Probate in Danbury in 1847, 1848, and 1849. In 1856 he was a delegate to the first Republican National Convention, at Philadelphia. He was State's attorney for Fairfield County from 1868 to 1874. In 1861 he joined the Wooster Guards, at Danbury, but was re- jected on account of his age. He was promptly com- missioned by Governor Buckingham as a field-officer in the Fourth Connecticut Infantry. He was lieu- tenant-colonel, and also served as inspector-general.

In the words of Hon. Gideon H. Hollister, "he loved his profession ardently and always stood up in the defense of the right. He had peculiar power as an advocate, and sometimes spoke with a fervor that made him a dangerous antagonist before a jury.

"Col. White came of an old colonial family, and lived up to its record. He possessed great personal advantages and a peculiar style and manner, but at the same time seemed unconscious of them. The thought of himself found little place in his sympa- thetic and impulsive nature, while the kindliness of his heart yielded only to his sense of justice and his fidelity to truth."

JOSIAH MASON CARTER was born in New Canaan, Jan. 19, 1813, and graduated at Yale College in 1836. He studied law with Hon. Thomas B. Osborne, of Fairfield, and was admitted to the bar in August, 1839. He commenced the practice of law in the city of New York in 1841, and in 1847 removed to Nor- walk and formed a partnership with Hon. Thomas B. Butler, which continued until Mr. Butler's eleva- tion to the bench, in 1855. He was a member of the General Assembly in 1856, 1861, and 1862, and the latter year was Speaker of the House. He was the candidate of the Whig party for lieutenant-governor in 1856. He was appointed State's attorney for Fair- field County in 1862, and held that office until his death. On two different occasions he declined to be a candidate for the judgeship of the Superior Court, as he never allowed politics to interfere with the prac- tice of his profession. He died March 21, 1868.

GIDEON TOMLINSON .- The ancestors of Gideon Tomlinson, late Governor of the State of Connecti- cut, were distinguished for activity, firmness, and in- tegrity. His father, Jabez Huntington Tomliuson, was born in 1760, and dicd Jan. 14, 1849, aged eighty- nine years. He was an officer in the Revolutionary

BENCH AND BAR.

war, and after the war followed the occupation of a practical farmer, residing in Stratford, Conn. He had three sons and three daughters, viz., Gideon, George, Huntington, Hannah, Nancy, and Sally.

Gideon was born at Stratford, in this State, Dee. 31, 1780, educated at Yale College, and graduated there in the year 1802. In June, 1805, he was admitted to the bar in New Haven County, and soon after com- menced the practice of law at Fairfield, in this State (it was then the county-seat), where lie continued to reside until his death. He married Sarah Bradley, daughter of William Bradley, of the parish of Green- field Hill, Dec. 15, 1807. They had one son, Jabez H. Tomlinson, born June 28, 1818, died April 2, 1838, aged twenty years.

Gideon Tomlinson was a representative of the town of Fairfield in the General Assembly at the May ses- sion of 1817, and 'at the October session of the same year, when he was chosen clerk of that body. He was re-elected a member of the General Assembly from the same town at the two sessions of the year 1818. At the session in May he was chosen Speaker of the House, and at the October session in that year he was re-elected to the same office. He was a member of the convention which formed the constitution of this State, and gave to it his cordial approbation and effec- tive support in the convention and before the people. In the year 1818 he was elected one of the represen- tatives of Connecticut in Congress, and took his seat as a member of the House of Representatives of the United States in December, 1819. At the three sue- eessive elections of members of Congress from this State he was re-elected, and continued to serve in the House of Representatives of the United States until March, 1827, when the term expired for which he had been last eleeted. In April, 1827, he was chosen Gov- ernor of this State by the people, and was re-elected to the same distinguished and honorable station in the three succeeding years. Having been eleeted a sen- ator in the Congress of the United States in May, 1830, for six years from the 4th of March, 1831, he re- signed the office of Governor of Connecticut on the second day of March, 1831. At the commencement of Washington College, at Hartford, in the year 1827, the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by them. In December, 1831, he took his seat in the Senate of the United States, and served in that body until the 4th of March, 1837, when his senatorial term expired. After that time he did not resume the prac- tice of law, but retired to his home in Greenfield Hill, Conn., where he died, Oct. 8, 1854, aged seventy-three years, eight months, and nine days.

JUDGE DAVID HILL also lived in Fairfield, and was a leading and influential man in the parish and town, where he held many important offices.

ABRAM BALDWIN was a distinguished lawyer, re- siding in Fairfield, and was United States senator from this State. He assisted in the formation of the Constitution of the United States, and died in office,

March 4, 1807, aged fifty-two years. His tombstone in the cemetery at Greenfield Hill bears the follow- ing inscription : " Abram Baldwin lies buried at Wash- ington. His memory needs no marble. His country is his monument, her Constitution his greatest work."

ROGER MINOTT SHERMAN, son of Rev. Josiah and Martha Sherman, was one of the lights of the Fair- field bar. He was born at Woburn, Mass., May 22, 1773. His father was brother to the Hon. Roger Sherman, of Revolutionary celebrity. In 1789, when only sixteen years of age, he entered the sophomore class in Yale College. After the completion of his academie course he commenced the study of the law with the Hon. Oliver Ellsworth, and subsequently continued it with Judge Reeve at Litchfield, and later with Hon. Simeon Baldwin. He was admitted to the bar in New Haven, and commenced the practice of his profession in Norwalk. In 1807 he transferred his residenee from Norwalk to Fairfield, where he re- mained till his death. In politics Mr. Sherman be- longed to the sehool of Washington, Jay, Hamilton, Ellsworth, and his illustrious uncle, and held many prominent official positions, the last being associate judge of the Supreme Court. His high legal endow- ments raised him to an eminence almost peerless in every department of legal practice. He died Dec. 30, 1844, aged seventy-one years.

TAYLOR SHERMAN, a native of Woodbury, Conn., practieed law in Norwalk prior to 1812, contempo- raneously with Roger Sherman, of whom, however, lie was not a relative. He emigrated to Ohio, and was the grandfather of Gen. W. T. and the present Secretary of the United States Treasury, John Sher- man.

Among other lawyers who resided in Fairfield are mentioned the names of John Banks, Jehu Burr, Thomas B. Wakeman, Daniel Wakeman, Burr Wake- man, Thomas B. Osborn, Thomas Robinson, George B. Kissam, George B. Murrey, E. H. Niehols, J. H. Bradley, Abram Wakeman, Edward B. and Frank C. Sturges.

JUDGE ASA CHAPMAN was a native of Saybrook, Conn., and a lineal descendant of Robert Chapman, of Whitby, Yorkshire, England, who was born in 1616, and came to this country in 1635, taking up his residence the following spring at Saybrook, where lie served many sessions in the colonial legislature, finally dying on the estate he had settled upon, on Oct. 13, 1687, at the age of seventy-one years.

Judge Chapman was born Sept. 2, 1770, fitted for college with Rev. Frederick W. Hotelikiss, and grad- uated at Yale in the class of 1792, and shared the highest honors of his class with the Hon. Roger M. Sherman. After he graduated, he taught for a time in the academy of North Salem, and also at Norwalk, and continued to teach while in the practice of his profession. He studied his profession with the Hon. Tapping Reeve, of Litchfield, and was admitted to the bar in 1795, settled in the practice of the law at

HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

Newtown, and was repeatedly elected the representa- tive of that town to the General Assembly of the State, and in 1817 was elected a member of the Gov- ernor's Council, comprising at that time twelve mem- bers. In 1818 he was elected judge of the Superior Court and Court of Errors, which office he held until his death, in New Haven, on Sept. 25, 1825, leaving a widow, who died in 1850, and three sons, the eldest of whom (Charles Chapman, the well-known lawyer of Hartford) had attained the years of manhood.

Judge Chapman married, at Newtown, Miss Mary Perry, a daughter of Bennet Perry, M.D., by whom he had five children (four sons and one daughter). He possessed a vigorous mind and was prompt in his official duties.

CHARLES CHAPMAN, his eldest son, died in Hart- ford in 1870, at the age of seventy years, and will be re- membered by many of our readers as a lawyer of dis- tinction and one of the most witty and genial men of his time. He studied law with Judge Williams, of Hartford, and subsequently with Judges Reeve and Gould, of Litchfield; was admitted to the bar in 1820. He several times represented the city of Hart- ford in the State Legislature, and represented his dis- trict in the Thirty-second Congress of the United States.

REUBEN BOOTH was born in Newtown, Conn., Nov. 26, 1794. While quite young his parents re- moved to Kent, in this State. He assisted his father at wool-carding until he was about seventeen years of age, when he commenced the preparatory studies for a collegiate course, and in 1813 entered the sophomore class in Yale College. Soon after, his father was drowned in the Housatonic River, and young Booth hastened home, expecting to abandon his collegiate course, as he was unwilling to reduce the slender means of his mother ; but a few friends in Kent gener- ously loaned him the amount requisite to complete his course, and he returned to college. He was gradu- ated at the commencement in 1816, being the last at which President Dwight presided. Upon leaving college he entered the law-office of David S. Board- man, at New Milford, where he remained about a year, and then removed to Danbury and continued his studies with Moses Hatch, Esq. At the same time he was employed as an instructor in the academy at Danbury.

He was admitted to the bar in 1818, and immedi- ately opened an office for the practice of his profes- sion in Danbury. In 1822 he represented the town in the General Assembly, and in the same year was appointed judge of Probate of the district of Danbury. He continued in this office until 1835. He was elected State senator in 1830, and in 1844 and 1845 was lieutenant-governor of the State.

At the time of his death his practice was as large as that of any member of the bar in the county. He was distinguished for his industry ; his cases were al- ways thoroughly prepared, and his knowledge of the

law was accurate. He was at once zealous for his client and courteous to his attorney.

He was well known in this State as a leading and active politician, but his policy was always conserva- tive. During the two years that he was presiding officer of the Senate of this State, the members of that body who were his political opponents felt and acknowledged his liberality of sentiment and conduct. He was always firm in his principles, but when prin- ciples were not concerned he regarded and treated his political opponents as friends. He was a warm and generous-hearted man. Remembering that in early life he was indebted to others for aid, no de- serving young man ever asked in vain for a loan from him which it was in his power to make. He was simple, unostentatious in his manner, and kind and benevolent in his disposition. He loved the young, and they never feared to approach him, as they knew that his sympathies were with them. He died at Danbury, Aug. 14, 1848, after a brief illness of about two days.

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History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1572

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572