History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 5

Author: J.W. Lewis & Company (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1532

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" At a very early period Mr. Benedict was a mem- ber of the Legislature. But the political majority of the voters in Woodbury, becoming about this time

JAMES GOULD.

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and for long afterwards decidedly Democratic, proved an effectual bar to his political promotion, as far as depended upon that town, but by the vote of the State at large he was elected in 1813 one of the twelve as- sistants (as they were then styled who composed the upper house of the Assembly), and was re-elected the two following years; but in the year 1818 an entire political revolution took place in Connecticut, and Mr. Benedict shared the fate of almost every one who held any post of dignity or profit depending upon public suffrage at large in the State. He was subse- quently many years later elected once more to the lower house. He was also for several years judge of probate for the district of Woodbury, an appointment then depending upon the Legislature. Mr. Benedict was twice married, but left no living issue. He died in June or July, 1831, at the age of sixty, or in his sixtieth year.

"In private life Mr. Benedict was entirely unas- suming, and a very pleasing companion to all who could relish purity of moral character and conduct, · which his whole life was an eminent example; his feelings were peculiarly sensitive and delicate; a loose or profane expression never escaped his lips ; and in- deed so fastidious was he in respect to the former that it used to be a matter of amusement with his less scrupulous associates in jocose conversation te tease his feminine delicacy upon such subjects. Though when alone and unoccupied he had a propensity to indulge in somewhat gloomy reflections, yet he was not averse to participate in facetious conversation when due delicacy was observed. He had a profound respect for religion, and was in all respects a good, a very good, man.

" Mr. Benedict was of somewhat less than middling size, of a medium complexion, but his eyes and hair rather dark.

"HON. JABEZ W. HUNTINGTON, son of the late Gen. Zachariah Huntington, of Norwich, and grandson of the IIon. Jabez Huntington, of that place, the as- sistant and associate of the first Governor Trumbull, was born in Norwich in the year 1787 or 1788. Ile received his early training and instruction in his na- tive town, which after-times evinced to be accurate and good. He became a member of Yale College in September, 1802, and graduated in September, 1806, with the reputation of a good scholar. Soon after his graduation he became a teacher in an academic school under the government of its founder, Esquire Morris, of Litchfield South Farms, as then called, now the town of Morris, named after the founder of said school. After about a year thus employed, Mr. Hun- tington entered Judge Reeve's law-school, in which he continued a diligent student until admitted to the bar in Litchfield County, of which ho soon showed himself to be a worthy member, and in due time a distinguished one, he having commenced the practice of his profession in Litchfield, and there continued it until its final termination by an otlice conferred upon

him incompatible with its further pursuit. In prac- tice his whole aim and ambition was to become an advocate, and had no desire to obtain any share of collecting business, though in many hands not less lucrative, and, as he was always ready to aid the less ambitious of speaking, he early acquired a very con- siderable share of the portion of practice of which he was ambitious, and which was improving to him. His forte as an advocate was in detecting error in declarations and other parts of pleadings, and in a lucid manner of pointing them out. Upon the whole, he was an advocate clear and accurate, rather than peculiar for the gracefulness of manner or refinement of diction, though his manner was by no means dis- gusting, aud his language entirely free from any ap- proach to vulgarity. His manners were pleasing and popular, and he repeatedly represented Litchfield in the General Assembly, and distinguished himself there. He was elected to the Twenty-first Congress, and re-elected to the Twenty-second and Twenty- third Congresses, and near the expiration of the last of his congressional career he was chosen a judge of the Superior Court, and held that office until 1840, when, being chosen a senator of the United States, he re- signed the judgeship and accepted the latter appoint- ment, and continued to hold it by virtue of a second appointment until his death, in 1847, in all which stations he performed the duties thereof with honor to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the public. His moral character was irreproachable ; a professor of religion and an observer of its precepts, Late in life he was married, but it is believed left no issue. Soon after election to Congress he removed to his na- tive town, and died there.

" PHINEAS MINER, a very respectable and some- what eminent member of the Litchfield County bar, was a native of Winchester, in that county, and there, and in that region, as far as by the writer hereof known, received his entire training and education in all respects. At an early period in life he commenced the practice of law in the place of his birth, in the society of Winsted, as is believed, a place of a great deal of active manufacturing business and furnishing an ample share of employment for gentlemen of the legal profession, of which Mr. Miner soon acquired an ample share, and at no distant period an engrossing one, with which he appeared in court from term to term until he felt warranted in the expectation of drawing after him an engagement in all the disputa- ble cases from that fruitful quarter, when he removed to Litchfield, and was much employed as an advocate for a number of years, and until his health rather prema- turely failed, and he became the victim of great men- tal and bodily suffering, until relieved by death before reaching the ordinary period at which old age begins to make its effects much perceptible in the human frame. As an advocate Mr. Miner wns ardent, impas- sioned, and tuent, but in his apparent great ambition to be eloquent he often made use of figures of speechi

HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

which a more chastened and correct training in youth would have taught him to avoid, and less wounding to an ear of taste, but the fault apparent to all was the extreme prolixity of his arguments, but, these faults notwithstanding, Mr. Miner was a respectable and able advocate.

" Before his removal to Litchfield, Mr. Miner was an early and frequent member of the Legislature from his native town, and after his removal there a member of the State Senate for the Fifteenth District, and was also elected to fill a vacancy in the second session of the Twenty-third Congress.

" Mr. Miner was twice married, but, it is believed, left no issue, but of this the writer is uncertain. He led a strictly moral life, and was justly esteemed a good man.

"LEMAN CHURCH, a late member of the Litchfield County bar, was a native of Salisbury, in this county, a son of an opulent farmer of that town, and in it, it is supposed, he received his education, both scholastic and professional, the latter in the office of his half- brother, Samuel Church, afterwards a judge of the Superior Court, and finally chief justice of the same ; and after his admission to the bar he opened an office in North Canaan, where he resided during the re- mainder of his life. Mr. Church was successful in acquiring at an early period a promising share of pro- fessional business, which steadily increased, until by the middle of professional life he occupied a stand among the leading advocates at the bar; and towards the close of life there was scarce a cause, especially in the higher courts, of considerable im- portance, discussed in which he was not engaged.

"In September, 1833, Mr. Church was appointed by the court State's attorney as successor to his brother Samuel, on the latter's elevation to the bench of the Superior Court, and held that office by annual reap- pointments until September term, 1838, when by a political change in the court he was required to yield the place to another; it is believed, however, that he afterwards for a time reoccupied that place, but not positively recollected.

" As a speaker he was cool, unimpassioned, and in- genious ; he never attempted to affect the passions of those he addressed, and, being destitute of passion himself, was consequently incapable of moving the passions of others ; he never attempted to be eloquent or made use of a merely ornate expression, his object in speaking was effect, and that wholly directed to his cause and not to himself; in the management of a case he was always cool and self-possessed ; no sudden and unexpected turn in the progress of a trial discon- certed him or appeared to be unexpected by him ; no collision at the bar ever appeared to affect his temper in the least. With such a temperament, it is obvious that the legal profession was of all the professions the one for him, and that in which he was calculated to excel.

"Mr. Church was always entirely regardless of per-

sonal appearance and dress; he was very small, meagre, and. ill formed, his features quite ordinary, but all this very indifferent appearance was rescued from inattention by a most remarkably attractive and intelligent eyc.

" Mr. Church was frequently a representative to the Legislature from Canaan, and never failed to make an impression upon that body ; and to his sagacious management is attributable the preservation of the Housatonic Railroad from ruin, as a commissioner thereon appointed by the Legislature, with power, to- gether with his associate in office, Mr. Pond, to sell and consequently to destroy the road, which seemed to be a favorite object with them for a time.

" Mr. Church died in the midst of life as a profes- sional man, July, 1849."

The HON. ANSEL STERLING was born in Lyme, Conn., Feb. 3, 1782, the serenth son of William Ster- ling, a man of position and considerable wealth in that town. His grandfather, Joseph Sterling, born in 1700, was one of the early settlers of Lyme. The name originally was spelt Stirling, as seen in the old cemetery in that place.

On the maternal side Judge Sterling is descended from William Hyde, whose name is on the monument in the old cemetery at Hartford, Conn., as one of the original settlers of 1636, and one of the original pro- prietors of the town of Norwich, Conn.

Mr. Hyde's great-great-great-granddaughter, Jemi- ma Sill, married Capt. William Stirling, Jan. 3, 1763, the subject of this sketch being their tenth child and seventh son.

Judge Sterling, at the early age of twenty-three, was a practicing lawyer at the bar of Litchfield County, and for forty years there were no interrup- tions to his attending each session of the different courts. He studied his profession with his eldest brother, Hon. Elisha Sterling, of Salisbury, Conn., who was a graduate of the class of 1787 of Yale Col- lege, "a man of a high order of talent."

Judge Sterling settled in Sharon in the year 1808, where he spent his life. Oct. 8, 1804, he married Isabella Canfield, seventh daughter of Hon. Johu Canfield and Dorcas Buell, of Sharon.

Hon. John Canfield was a son of Samuel Canfield, Esq., of New Milford, Conn., a judge of the court of Litchfield County, and deacon of the Congregational Church in that place. Samuel Canfield's wife was Elizabeth Judson, the great-great-granddaughter of William Judson, who came from Yorkshire, England, in 1634.

The Hon. John Canfield was born in New Milford, Conn., 1740; was graduated at Yale College 1762. He was a great-grandson of Mattbew Canfield, an original settler of Norwalk, Conn., a judge and leading man in the colony. Hinman says,-

" As a proof of his standing, I may only mention he was one of the nineteen signers of the petition to King Charles II. for the Charter of the colony, and his name is mentioned in that invaluable grant to Con-

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necticut in 1662. This is ample proof of his exalted standing in the colony, as no gentleman would have been called upon to sign the peti- tion but such men as had sustained a high reputation in England before they came to New England."

John Canfield established himself in his profession in Sharon, 1765, being the first lawyer in the town.

He fitted for the legal profession several gentlemen who afterwards rose to eminence; among them his son-in-law, Ambrose Spencer, chief justice of the State of New York, Hon. John Cotton Smith, and Noah Webster.

"Mr. Canfield enjoyed a most enviable reputation and was held in the highest estimation by his fellow- citizens. He represented the town in the Legislature at ten different sessions." In 1786 he was elected a member of the Continental Congress, bnt died on the 26th of October of the same year. Not living to take his seat in that body, his name is omitted from the honorable roll of those early days.

Mr. Canfield was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, with whom was held many earnest consultations, the "tax on tea" being at one time a subject of special in- terest. His wife, Dorcas Buell, was the only daughter of Solomon Buell, eighth son of John Buell, and grandson of William Buell, who came from England in 1643. Their children, eight in number, were Laura, wife of Ambrose Spencer; Annis, wife of Andrew Adams, Jr., son of Chief Justice Adams, of Litchfield; Eunice, wife of Samuel Rockwell, M.D .; Avis, who died aged thirteen years; Alma, wife of Hon. Elisha Sterling; Almira, wife of Gen. Elisha Bucl ; John Montgomery, married Fanny Harvey ; Isabella, wife of Ansel Sterling.

Judge Sterling was a man of unimpeachable in- tegrity, "of diversified talent. As a lawyer his fo- rensic ability was of a high order, nor was he deficient in legal science. His language flowed rapidly, and at times his appeals to the jury were very effective."

Judge Church, of the Supreme Court, thus writes of him :

" This distinguished gentleman was long an active and prominent member of the bar of Litchfield County, for many sessions an influential member of the General Assembly of tho State of Connecticut, a circuit judge of the County Court, a member of Congress for two sessions, and aa estimable man In all the relatlons of social andl domestic life."

Judge Sterling died Nov. 6, 1853, aged seventy-one. Ilis wife died July 26, 1855, aged seventy-four. Their children, eight in number, are Laura Spencer ; George Augustine, who graduated at West Point, served for n time in the United States army stationed at Fort Gibson, in the then Territory of Arkansas, resigned and entered the ministry of the Episcopal Church. He died at Sharon, Oct. 17, 1869. He married Flora J. Chamberlain. Their children were Mary Isabella, wife of Walter M. Patterson, Esq., who died Feb. 18, 1864; George Ansel, M.D., married Mary l'. Havens.

Ambrose Spencer, second son of AAnsel Sterling, died July 1, 1880. llis wife, Lonisa M. Clarke.

Their children were Louisa M., wife of L. H. Stewart ; Pierre Clarke; George Edward.

Charles Ansel, third son, married Angusta A. Shel- ton. Two children : Charles Frederick, M.D., wife, Mary C. Anthony ; Isabella Canfield, wife of William C. Atwater.

Isabella Dorcas, married Rev. George Ryerson ; one son, George Ansel Sterling Ryerson, M.D.

Thomas Sterling, fourth son, married Louisa T. Winchell, deceased.

Avis Canfield, married Frederick S. Bogue.

Rev. John Canfield, fifth son, was graduated at Trinity College, Connecticut, a clergyman of the Episcopal Church; died at Hartford, Coon., Dec. 10, 1874. He married Caroline Sargent Upson. Their children are Caroline, Isabella, Alice, Clarance Can- field.

For notices of Ephraim Kirby, Uriel Holmes, E. C. Bacon, Francis Bacon, and John Bird, see Litch- field history ; and for John and Judson Canfield, see history of Sharon.

"STEPHEN TITUS HOSMER was a lawyer of eminence in his peculiar way. Ile had no very high standing as an advocate, but, as a lawyer learned in elementary principles, his position was a very good one. A gen- tleman who had heard him told me that his manner was hard and dry and his elocution very defective, but in some branches of legal science he had few superiors. He seemed to delight in exploring an- cient paths in search of legal principles, and in get- ting up old legal tracts and dissertations. In the first volume of Day's Reports there is a note of forty pages of fine print containing an opinion of Lord Camden, of the English Court of Common Pleas, which has hardly a rival in judicial learning or cloquence. MIr. Day informed me that this was presented to him in manuscript by Mr. Hosmer, there being then no printed copy of it on this side of the Atlantic. He was appointed a judge of the old court in 1815, but, being one of the younger judges, it never fell to his lot to preside on the trial of a case until his accession to the chief justiceship. His career on the whole was very successful, both at nisi prius and on the bench of the Supreme Court. His apprehension of the points involved in the case before him was very quick, and the first intimation he gave on incidental matters occurring in the course of the trial was a sure indication of what the result would be, and, although he would take special pains to say to the counsel that he had formed no opinion, the party against whom he leaned knew that his fate was senled. His Inbors in his official duties must have been immense. It fell to his lot to give the opinion of the court in nearly all the cases tried in the Supreme Court for several years after his appointment, and nearly all the ma- terial of the third, fourth, and fifth large volumes of the Connecticut Reports are the result of his study of the cases before the court, and some of them are very learned and labored. His illustrations In the

HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

case of Mitchell rs. Warner, in the second of Connec- ticut Reports, of the extent of the obligations incurred in the covenants of a deed, explained the subject to me when I was young better than anything I had before read on the subject.

" It seemed to be his object to render himself as agreeable as possible to the members of the bar, sometimes employing his leisure moments on the bench in furnishing prescriptions for human ail- ments, such as corns on the toes, and handing them over to such members as stood in need of them. Then he would hand over a formula for making, as he said, the best kind of liquid blacking for our boots. In fact, everything which he had prescribed he always designated as the very best. At one term of the conrt, Phineas Miner, Esq., who had lived a widower for several years, was about being married, which fact was intimated to the judge. While lie. sat waiting on the bench for the preparation of some business, he spoke out suddenly : " Gentlemen, is there a vacant cell in your jail? Won't it be necessary for me to commit Mr. Miner to prevent his doing some rash act?" The laugh was thoroughly turned upon poor Miner, and the whole scene was very enjoyable. He employed all his leisure hours in obtaining all the relaxation which was within his reach. He played on the piano and violin, and sang with great power and effect.

"There was no perceptible waning of his powers, physical or mental, during the time of his service on the court. Ile retired from the bench at the age of seventy years, in February, 1833, and died, after a short illness, in less than two years thereafter."

"JOHN THOMPSON PETERS was the senior asso- ciate judge of the court, and he held his first circuit in this county. He was a native of Hebron, and a lawyer of respectable standing. His fellow-citizens had often honored him with a seat in the Legislature, and thus he had become tolerably well known in the State. When the United States direct tax was laid, in 1814, he was appointed collector for the First Dis- trict, removed to Hartford, and held that office when he was appointed judge. He had been one of the leaders of the Democratic party from its formation, and as an Episcopalian had opposed the claims of the 'Standing Order' to ecclesiastical priority, and some apprehen- sions were felt lest his well-known views on these subjects might temper his opinions on those questions incidentally involving them. Many fears were en- tertained as to the stability of ecclesiastical funds which existed in almost every Congregational parish, and those who desired to break them down looked to Judge Peters and to his influence with the court to aid them. But those who entertained such hopes were destined to an early disappointment, as their past experience of his administration on such ques- tions showed him to be disposed to stand firmly on the old paths. He used to tell an amusing anecdote relating to his first trial of such a case in one of the

eastern counties of the State, where he was appealed to very strongly to decide that a promise to pay money in aid of such funds was without consideration. But he told the parties that the law on that subject was well settled, and, in his opinion, founded on correct principles, and that if he had the power he had not the disposition to change it. It had been the practice of the Congregational pastor of the village to open the proceedings in court with prayer, but, considering Peters to be a heretic (I nse the judge's own lan- guage), he had never invited Divine favor for him, but after that decision every prayer was charged with invocations of blessings upon ' thy sarvant, the judge.'

" He was very severe in meting ont the punishments of the law to convicted criminals, generally inflicting the severest sentence that the law would allow. One case was tried before him which excited mneh remark and some reprehension. A man had been convicted before Judge Lanman of a State-prison offense;" had been sentenced to four years' imprisonment, and had served a part of a year, when he obtained a new trial. He was tried again, before Judge Peters, and again con- victed. When the time came to pass sentence on the last conviction, his counsel asked for some mitigation on account of the imprisonment already suffered. Said the judge, 'He must settle that account with Judge Lanman. He owes me five years' imprison- ment in State prison,' and such was the sentence. One prisoner who had received a severe sentence at his hands after the expiration of his confinement burned the judge's barn, and he petitioned the Leg- islature of the State to pay for it in 1831, but they declined to make the compensation.

"For a few years the services of Judge Peters on the bench were very acceptable. His decisions were prompt and generally founded on a sensible view of the matter before him, without any affectation of learning or a display of oratory. His entire candor and fairness were never called in question, and the de- cay of his powers, which was very apparent towards the close of his career, was observed by the bar with sor- row and regret. I witnessed an affecting scene con- nected with his experience on the bench which excited a deep feeling of sympathy. He had a favorite son, Hugh Peters, Esq., whom he had educated at Yale College, and in whom all his hopes seemed to centre. This young man, in connection with George D. Pren- tice, the noted editor, had much to do in conducting the New England Weekly Review, a paper just estab- lished in Hartford, and which was the organ of the party which elected William W. Ellsworth, Jabez W. Huntington, and William L. Storrs to Congress. He had acquired a wide reputation as a writer of brilliant promise, and after a while went to Cinein- nati to go into business as a lawyer. On his way across Long Island Sound he wrote a farewell to New England in poetry, which was published with great commendation in most of the newspapers in the country. Soon after his arrival at Cincinnati his

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dead body was found floating in the Ohio, several miles below the city, and circumstances were such as to create the belief in some minds that it was a case of suicide. The intelligence of this sad event was brought to Litchfield while the Court of Errors was in session, in June, 1831. It was first communicated to Judge Williams, who sat next to Judge Peters, and he, with all possible tenderness, informed the latter. The reporter, Mr. Day, in giving the report of the case on trial, closes it by saying, 'Peters, Judge, having received, during the argument of this case, intelligence of the death of his son, Hugh Peters, Esq., of Cincinnati, left the court-house, ' multa gemens casuque animum concussus,' and gave no opinion.' I witnessed the mournful scene, and I well remember the loud and plaintive groans of the afflicted old man as he passed out of the court-room and down the stairway to his lodgings.

" When Chief Justice Hosmer retired from the bench, the Legislature, by a very strong vote, elected Judge Peters' junior, Judge Daggett, chief justice. He felt the slight, but did not retire, and held his place till his death, in August, 1834. A few weeks longer and he would have reached the age of seventy years.

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History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 5

Author: J.W. Lewis & Company (Philadelphia, Pa.) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1532

Author: J.W. Lewis & Company (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1532