History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 8

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

USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > History of Litchfield county, Connecticut > Part 8

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Mr. Smith established his home in Stamford in 1854, where he has ever since resided. He had a law-office in New York, and practiced in the courts of that State and in the Supreme and Circuit Courts of the United States till 1872, when he retired from the profession. He has, to some extent, of late years occupied him- self in submitting his views to the public on topics which he deemed important, sometimes in pamphlets, but more generally through the newspaper press. He has taken much interest in the temperance cause, and his articles on thut subject furnish very strong argu- ments in favor of the entire suppression of the traffic. Various other matters of much public interest have also received his attention.

Mr. Smith was married, June 2, 1832, to Miss Maria Cook, daughter of Roger Cook, Esq., of Litchfield. She died April 24, 1819. He was again married, Nov. 7, 1850, to Miss Mary Ann Dickinson, who still sur- vives.

lle now (1881), at the age of ninety years, enjoys comfortable health and has a good share of mental activity.

CHARLES F. SEDGWICK, of Sharon, was born in Cornwall, Conn., Sept. 1, 1795. Hle prepared for col- lege with Rev. Truman Marsh, of Litchfield, and Rev. A. R. Robbins, of Norfolk, principally with the latter. Hle entered Williams College in 1809, and graduated in 1813. After graduation he taught about three years and fitted several young men for college. He studied law with Gen. Elisha Sterling, of Salisbury, and Cyrus Swan, Esq., of Sharon, and

HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

in March, 1820, was admitted to the bar. He married a daughter of Mr. Swan in 1821. He has been much in public life, and has ever been faithful to the trusts imposed. Ife was a member of the House of Repre- sentatives in the Legislature in 1830 and 1831, and of the Senate in 1832; was appointed brigadier-general of militia in 1829 and major-general in 1831 ; was ap- pointed State's attorney in 1856, and held that office by reappointment for eighteen years. Soon after he retired from office, and has since been a citizen of Sharon.

Gen. Sedgwick has a decided taste for literary pursuits, and has added many highly interesting and valuable works to the historic literature of this sec- tion, among which may be mentioned "Sedgwick's History of Sharon," two editions, an excellent work, sketches of members of the Litchfield bar, various historical addresses, etc. Gen. Sedgwick has taken an active interest in historical matters, and to him more than any other person is due the preservation of the history of the bar of Litchfield County .- ( EDITOR.)

ORIGEN STORRS SEYMOUR was born at Litchfield, Conn., Feb. 9, 1804; has always resided in his na- tive village and within a few rods of the place of his birth. After graduation he commenced the study of law. His own eyes were too weak to allow him to read for himself; his friend and classmate, Treat, therefore read aloud to him. He was admitted to the bar September, 1826, and at once commenced the practice of the law. He devoted himself without in- terruption to his professional duties for the space of twenty-five years ; during that time, however, he sev- eral times represented his town in the General As- sembly, and in 1850 served as Speaker of the House.

In 1851 he was elected a member of the United States Congress, and then for four years was occupied in public political life. He was elected as a Union Democrat, pledged to the earnest support of the com- promise measures then recently adopted on the subject of slavery. He strenuously opposed the well-known Kansas and Nebraska bills as being a violation of those compromises.

On his retirement from Congress he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court, and held that laborious office eight years, from 1855 to 1863, that being the term for which he was elected. He then resumed the practice of law in copartnership with his son, Edward W. Seymour, and continued in a full practice till 1870. He was then chosen judge of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, which office he held until he became seventy years of age, having been chief justice during Iris last year of service. The con- stitution of the State limits the term of judicial life to the age of seventy. Since his retirement from judi- cial life he has declined to appear as an advocate at court. He, however, spends some of his time in office business and as arbitrator and referee.

Mr. Seymour was married, Oct. 5, 1830, to Lucy M. Woodruff, daughter of Hon. Morris Woodruff, by

whom he had four children,-Edward Woodruff, set- tled at Litchfield in the legal profession ; Storrs Ozias, clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church, set- tled in Litchfield, Conn .; Maria (deceased) ; Morris Woodruff, settled in the legal profession at Bridge- port, Conn., present State senator.

He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and as such was one of the lay delegates for the Diocese of Connecticut in the Triennial General Conventions of 1865, '68, '71, '74, '77, and '80. Re- ceived the degree of LL.D. from Yale in 1873.

GEORGE C. WOODRUFF, descended from Matthew Woodruff, one of the earliest settlers of Connecticut, and from Nathaniel Woodruff, one of the first settlers of Litchfield, is the eldest son of the late Gen. Morris Woodruff, of said town, and was born in Litchfield, Dec. 1, 1805. He graduated at Yale College in 1825, studied at the Litchfield Law School, and came to the bar in 1827. For more than half a century he has been in the successful practice of his profession in his- native town, where he has ever been intrusted with positions of honor and responsibility, besides repre- senting his district in the Thirty-seventh Congress. In 1845 he published a history of his town. In 1829 he married Henrietta S. Seymour, daughter of the late Ozias Seymour, and sister of ex-Chief Justice Origen S. Seymour, by whom he has one child living, -George M. Woodruff, of Litchfield.

JOHN HENRY HUBBARD was born in Salisbury, Conn., in 1804. His childhood and youth was spent on his father's farm, with only those advan- tages for education which the district school af- forded. Of these he made such diligent use that at the early age of fifteen he was found qualified to be a teacher. Shortly after this he entered the office of the Hon. Elisha Sterling, of Salisbury, then a very prominent lawyer, as a law student. While a student he supported himself by teaching school winters.

In addition to his studies in the law, before he reached his majority he had acquired a very good knowledge of Latin, and had read many standard books with great care, such as " Rollin's Ancient His- tory," "Plutarch's Lives," "The Spectator," and others. He also attained some proficiency in mathe- matics. In these studies as well as in law he was guided and encouraged by the sound advice of Mr. Sterling. In later life he extended his reading into works of fiction, and somewhat into the realm of poetry ; of Wordsworth and Burns he was especially fond, reading and rereading their poems with the keenest interest.

At the April term of the County Court in Litchfield County, 1826, and before his twenty-second birthday, he was admitted to the bar, and immediately estab- lished himself in practice at the village of Lakeville, in his native town, where he continued to reside for nearly thirty years. At that time Samuel Church, afterwards chief justice of the State, was living iu Salisbury, and was in full practice at the bar, as was

Organis Seymour.

Go & Woodruff

BENCH AND BAR.

Philander Wheeler, a man of high ability. Leman Church and Judge Burrill were in Canaan; Ansel Sterling, Cyrus Swan, and Charles F. Sedgwick were in Sharon ; George Wheaton was at Cornwall, all of them men of eminence and lawyers of great skill. Surrounded by such opponents and competitors, young Hubbard found no time for idleness. He was spurred to his best. But whatever he may have Jacked, he did not lack industry. Genuine mettle was in him, and before he left Lakeville he had liter- ally conquered for himself a place among the very foremost lawyers in the State, and had secured a very handsome estate.

As a practitioner he was painstaking to the last de- grec. He spared no effort. He was always intensely in earnest, believing thoroughly in his client and his eanse. As a student of the law he practiced all his life upon the maxim, which he said was given him by Gen. Sterling, " to know a few books well." He had studied "Swift's Digest," "Starke's Evidence," and "Chitty's Pleadings," till he knew them by heart. He knew the "Connecticut Reports" so familiarly that there was no case and hardly a dictum that he could not recall. Other books were to him books for reference and not for study in the sense that they were. He was wont to say that everything could be found in our own reports ; if not expressly decided, the principle was there which would control.

In 1847, and again in 1849, Mr. Hubbard was chosen State senator from the Seventeenth District. The latter year he gained considerable celebrity for a very able and vigorous opposition to the scheme for bridging the Connecticut River at Middletown. He defeated the project for a time, but lived to see it ae- complished more than twenty years later. The same year, 1849, he was appointed State's attorney for Liteh- field County, which office he held for four years. In 1855, Mr. Hubbard removed to Litchfield, where he resided till his death.

All his life Mr. Hubbard had been a Whig, and subsequent to 1850 he was one of the "Conscience Whigs," sympathizing deeply with the anti-slavery feeling then prevailing all over the North, and so naturally he became a leader in the Republican party from its formation. He took an active part in the campaign of 1860, which resulted in the choice of Mr. Lincoln to the l'resideney. On the breaking out of the Rebellion he sacrificed a large part of his practice. The cause of the Union was to him in the place of a client. He actively engaged in rousing up a war feeling and in enlisting men. Enjoying a generous in- come, he spent money liberally to promote these ob- jeets. He made presents of needful articles to the men who volunteered, or gave them money. Many times he provided for their families, and in all other ways he sought to carry forward the work of defeat- ing secession. He devoted himself to this work for the greater portion of the time during the years 1861 and 1862, rendering especial aid in recruiting the

Thirteenth and the Nineteenth Regiments. The lat- ter regiment (afterwards the Second Heavy Artillery, Connecticut Volunteers) was composed entirely of Litchfield County men.

In the spring of 1863 he was elected a member of Congress from the Fourth Distriet, and was re-elected in 1865. In the Thirty-eighth Congress he served on the committee on patents, and also on committee on post-offices and post-roads. In the Thirty-ninth Con- gress he was continued on the committee on patents and was on committee on roads and canals. He also was placed on several special committees. No man was ever more faithful to publie duties than he. During the entire four years of his service in Congress he never failed to answer ou a call of the House, ex- cept when absent on official duty by its direction, and once when siek. Outside this official labor, Mr. Hub- bard while in Washington found himself under great responsibility in earing for the soldiers from his State. Many Connecticut regiments were in the army of the Potomae, among them the Litehfield County regi- ment. In the terrible battles of the Wilderness hun- dreds of their numbers were killed, and hundreds more were brought wounded to the hospitals around Washington. In the battle of June 1, 1864, more than four hundred men of his own county regiment were killed and wounded. They were his neighbors, his acquaintances, his friends. Many of them had en- .listed at his solicitation. It was an anxious time. Every hour that he could snatch from his publie duty he devoted to the soldiers. There was not a day that he did not visit one or more of the hospitals. He sought out every Connectieut man, sat by their bed- sides, wrote letters for them, procured for those who were themselves unable medicine and delicacies at his own expense. No one appealed to him in vain. Many dying messages he faithfully transmitted to loved ones at home. Ile assisted friends to identify and obtain the bodies of their dead, and in more than one instance he paid from his own pocket for embalm- ing bodies to be sent North. All this was to him a labor of love. He never regretted it. He always declared that he had his abundant reward in the sue- cess of the cause for which these men had fought.

After his return from Congress, Mr. Hubbard en- gaged again in the practice of his profession, and con- tinned in it up to a short time before his death. He died on the 30th day of July, 1872.

MILES T. GRANGER, son of James L. Granger and Abigail Tobey, was born in New Marlborough, Berk- shire Co., Mass., Ang. 12, 1817. Early in life he he- eame dependent upon his own resources for a liveli- hood, having commeneed at the early age of ten years to work in a woolen-mill for twelve and a half cents per day. He remained in this employment about two years and then hired to a farmer in Norfolk, receiving twenty-five eents per day, and continued working as a farm-hand in various localities until 1835, when, concluding that farming was a hard life, and, at the

HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

wages then paid hired men, not a quick way to get rich,-besides his health was failing,-he concluded to try teaching school. He entered the office of Dr. Benjamin Welch, in Norfolk, and began "reading up" for a schoolmaster. In the fall of the same year he passed examination and engaged as a teacher at twelve dollars and fifty cents per month for four months. He continued chiefly in this occupation until 1838, when he was induced to attend the seminary at Amenia, to better qualify him for the work he had chosen-teacher of common school. He remained here one term, and returned to Canaan, helped his uncle do the " harvesting" on the Benedict farm ; worked out in haying during the balance of season, and then concluded to return to Amenia, com- plete two or three branches of study which he had commenced, and at the close of the term find a school for the winter. He fully expected to close his " going to school" at the expiration of this term, but things transpired quite otherwise. Upon his arrival at the seminary the second term, the principal, Davis W. Clark, sent for him to come to his room, and, after paying him some compliments upon his scholarship, etc., advised him to prepare for college. He followed his advice and commenced the studies required at Wesleyan University to enter freshman year. Went over the course during the academic year, and, with what he had done the first term at the seminary, he entered Wesleyan a freshman, in August, 1839, and was allowed to enter the sophomore class in mathe- matics. He was then, and always had been, without any means or money except what he had earned, and his earnings were well-nigh exhausted; but he ob- tained a school in Glastonbury in the winter after entering college (six mouths for twenty dollars per month), kept the school and kept up with his class, except that he fell back at the end of the college year in mathematics. Entered on sophomore year with- out condition in all studies. Kept school that year three months, aud managed to be up with the class at the end of the year. Junior year he asked and ob- tained from the faculty the privilege of taking the junior and senior year together-to do two years' work in one. He undertook it, had double recita- tions every day in most of the studies, kept school three months that winter, was examined in both classes at end of year, passed, and received his diplo- ma as A.B., August, 1842. In August, 1845, received the degree of A.M. In 1843 went to Louisiana; em- ployed as preceptor in family of Francis A. Evans, parislı of West Feliciana; engaged for a year. Read law at same time. In April, 1845, was admitted to the bar in Wilkinson Co., Miss. Came back to Ca- naan, June, 1845. Entered the law office of Leman Church, Esq., as student. In October, 1845, he was admitted to the bar iu Litchfield County. Remained in Mr. Church's office till the spring of 1847, when he opened an office at the old village of "Canaan Four Corners," in Couch's "hat-shop." Here he re-

mained a year, and then went to the Depot, where he remained during his whole practice. In 1849 he was elected judge of probate, and held the office, with exception of two years, till elected judge of Superior Court. Was town clerk and treasurer. In 1857 was elected member of House of Representatives; Gen- eral Assembly of Connecticut in 1866. Elected sen- ator of Seventeenth District in 1867. Re-elected sen- ator, and during this session was elected judge of Su- perior Court for eight years. At expiration of term was re-elected, and in 1876 elected to present position -associate judge of the Supreme Court of Errors; term commenced Nov. 16, 1876. He was married Oct. 22, 1846, to Miss Sarah C. Ferguson, of Sheffield. Judge Granger says, "For the benefit of young men dependent on brain or muscle in the battle of life, it might be stated that I never had but one dollar in my life except what I earned by hard work. My father once gave me a silver dollar,-my whole inheritance and patrimony."

HENRY B. GRAVES was born in Sherman (for-

, merly a part of Litchfield County) ou the 4th day of April, 1823. He received a good common-school ed- ucation, and for a few months pursued more liberal studies in an academy with a view of entering college, but, owing to a sudden death in his father's family of an elder brother, the boy of fourteen was needed upon the farm, where he remained till he was eighteen years of age, when he entered the law-office of James C. Loomis, Esq., of Bridgeport, and after pursuing the study of the law with that gentleman for three years and a half was admitted to the bar, at Litch- field, in April, 1845, and upon the 1st of May, 1845, commenced the practice of his profession at Plymouth, and continued there till October, 1849, when he opened an office in Litchfield, where he has since continned in the active labors of the forum. He represented Litchfield in the General Assembly in 1858, 1866, 1867, 1876, 1877, and in 1879, taking a leading position in the legislation of the State, and drafting many of the laws now to be found in the public statutes. For many years he has been re- garded as one of the prominent attorneys of the county, and has been engaged in a large practice, as the dockets of the courts will attest, and the volumes of the Supreme Court of the State will verify.

As a counselor he has been faithful and true to his clients, deferential to the court, courteous to op- posing counsel, and kind and helpful to his younger brethren.

WILLIAM COTHREN, son of William and Hannah Cooper Cothren, was born at Farmington, Me., Nov. 28, 1819. He prepared for college at the Farmington Academy ; graduated at Bowdoin College (Maine) in 1843; received his second degree in course at the same institution in 1846, and the degree of Master of Arts, ad eundem, from Yale College in 1847. He studied law under the direction of Hon. Robert Goodenough, of Farmington, Me., a member of Con-

M. T. Granger

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F Halyın

yours truly

- WOODBYR.

BENCH AND BAR.

gress from his district, and the leader of the bar in his county, and with the late Hon. Charles B. Phelps, of Woodbury. He went to Woodbury in 1844, taught school for a while, continuing his law studies at the same time, and was admitted to the Litchfield County bar October, 1845. He immediately commenced the practice of his profession at Woodbury, and has con- tinued there in the performance of his duties as coun- selor to the present time. He immediately acquired a large practice in the several courts of the western half of Connecticut, and later in the District, Circuit, and Supreme Courts of the United States. For many years he has taken zank among the leading members of the bar of Connecticut. He takes great pride in his profession, and prefers excellence in that to any official station. He has mingled little in the political controversies of his time, preferring to devote his en- ergies to professional and literary pursuits. In the practice of his profession he prefers the investigation and discussion of intricate legal questions to the more strong display of forensic eloquence before a jury, though he holds himself ready for the performance of any dnty of his profession. In short, he has a sincere love of his profession, and believes in no higher honor than that of a wise and upright coun- selor.

A marked feature in the professional career of Mr. Cothren is his faithfulness and untiring devotion to the interests of his clients. No matter how trifling the amount at stake, or how uncertain the prospects of remuneration for his services, he labors just as hard and with the same zeal as though the case in- volved large interests and abundant reward. As a man of unflinching rectitude and integrity, as a carc- ful and sagacious counselor, as n bold and successful advocate, ever contending for the right, he occupies an enviable position.

He has a strongly contemplative mind, and he is never happier than when he can stenl a passing hour to be "alone in nature's fane," in the grand old woods, by the falling waters of the silvery cascade, or in the shaded dell, where he can hold silent com- munion with nature, in all her beauty and grandeur.

Hle has a strong, logical, and practical mind, an exceedingly retentive memory, and great clearness and quickness of apprehension. He seizes a point at once, and states it clearly and precisely. He makes careful preparation, and manages his cases with skill and ability. Difficulties do not discourago him ; obstacles do not embarrass him; they but serve the purpose of making the attainment of his object the more secure. He is endowed with a will of the very highest order. It subjects the innterial to the spirituni in n degree rarely attained. He is the most diligent and Inborions of men, never losing a mo- ment from his occupations.

riors with more affability and kindness. Liberal and honorable in his practice with his professional breth- ren, he scorns all subterfuge, trick, or unfair advan- tage. As a citizen he is public-spirited and generous. His liberality is bounded only by his ability, and he gives freely to every worthy object for which appli- cation is made to him for assistance. His hand has aided every public work or improvement in his com- munity during his time.

On the 3d of September, 1849, he was married, in Woodbury, to Miss Mary J. Stecle, daughter of the late Dr. Samuel Stecle, of the same place. They had one son, who died young. They have now an adopted daughter. He joined the First Congregational Church in Woodbury, July 7, 1850, of which he continues an influential member.

He was elected a county commissioner for Liteb- field County at the May session of the General As- sembly in 1851. He was elected senator of the Six- teenth Senatorial District in 1855. In April, 1856, he was admitted an attorney and counselor of the United States Circuit Court, and on the 8th of March, 1865, he was admitted an attorney and counselor of the Su- preme Court of the United States. He was elected corresponding member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society at Boston, Mass., May 5, 1847 ; a member of the Connecticut Historical Society, Nov. 23, 1852, of which for many years he has been a vice- president ; an honorary member of the Old Colony Historical Society, at Plymouth, Mass., April 24, 1854; a corresponding member of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Jan. 17, 1855; a corresponding member of the Vermont Historical Society, Feb. 3, 1860 ; n cor- responding member of the Maine Historical Society, Sept. 18, 1861 ; an honorary member of the Rutland County Historical Society, Oct. 8, 1868 ; and a mem- ber of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Alpha of Maine, Sept. 20, 1873.

From the twentieth year of his age he has been n frequent contributor, in prose and verse, to the press and the standard magazines of the day. He has steadily pursued this course in his leisure moments as n sort of rest and recreation, his latest literary labor being the preparation of the article on Wood- bury for this volume. No one holds a more ready and facile pen. It has been well said that n lawyer who confines himself exclusively to the study of his profession is n " man of ono book." A dread of being impaled in this category led him, in part, to literary labor.

A short time after his settlement in Woodbury he turned his attention to the collection of the historical data of the town. The result has been the publication of an elaborate history of that town, comprising threo octavo volumes, and containing about two thousand five hundred pages in the whole. The first volume was issued in 1854, and was the pioneer work, as a full history of a town, that had been issued. Many

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History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 8

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