USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > The bench and bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1709-1909 : biographical sketches of members, history and catalogue of the Litchfield Law School, historical notes > Part 17
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MICHAEL BION CASE.
One of the most important cases of our Courts, considering it in all of its features, was the case of Michael Bion from the town of North Canaan.
In 1871 Lyman Dunning's store at East Canaan in the town of North Canaan was burglarized, and a woodchopper named Michael Bion was arrested and convicted of the crime and sentenced to two years in State Prison. He behaved himself well, receiving the due credit therefor and was discharged at the expiration of his sentence with no great love for Mr. Dunning.
In 1874 a bag containing gun powder was placed near the house of the next neighbor of Mr. Dunning occupied by the congregation- al minister and was exploded in the night time setting the house on fire, but doing no great damage. The two houses looked alike and it was supposed that the intention was to place the powder at Mr. Dunning's house. Bion was charged with this deed and arrested and after a hard fought trial convicted and sentenced to ten years in State Prison mainly by the active agency of, Mr. Dunning which did not increase Bion's affection and he made threats of violence against Mr. Dunning. Upon his discharge from prison he was induced to return to France his native country. About five years after this he was discovered working under an assumed name in the vicinity of Pine Plains only a few miles distant from East Canaan. Mr. Dunning fearing further injury from him got out a
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sureties of the peace complaint, obtained a warrant and when he found him in Connecticut had him arrested and brought before a justice who placed him under bonds in the sum of five thousand dollars. Bion could not furnish such bond and on the 19th day of November 1889 was lodged in Litchfield jail. He employed at- torneys who instituted habeas corpus proceedings to release him and by various stages the matter came before the Supreme Court of Errors at the May Term 1890 and the report of the case occupies twenty pages of the 59th volume of the Connecticut Reports. The Court found no error in the judgment complained of and Bion still remained in the Litchfield jail. Afterwards an arrangement was made by the French Consul by which Bion was released and re- turned to France.
THE BORJESSON MURDER TRIAL.
Only one sentence of death passed by this Court during the Century was carried into effect and this was upon Andrew Bor- jesson a native of Sweden who was residing in New Milford. On the first of August 1890 in the night season Borjesson went to the house of Homer Buckingham and climbing on the roof of the ell part of the house entered the room of a Swedish girl named Emma Anderson, a servant of Mr. Buckingham's and murdered her.
Mr. Buckingham hearing the noise in the room, went out of his house and saw Borjesson upon the roof of the house from which he jumped and ran off into the woods, and going to the girls room found her lying upon the floor in a pool of blood, her neck cut from ear to ear on the back side with other wounds upon her body. The murderer was arrested and bound over to the Superior Court and a true bill was found against him on the 9th of October 1890. He was tried before the Superior Court in December and a verdict of guilty found against him December 31st 1890, and sentenced to be hung January 29th, 1892. Ilis counsel made most strenuous efforts for his reprieve getting depositions from relatives in Sweden con- cerning his sanity. All efforts failed. It was a cool deliberate murder and there was no public sympathy or extenuating circum- stances. The sentence was duly carried into effect in the jail vard at Litchfield. The scenes connected with the execution outside of the jail enclosure, were of a disgraceful character but everything connected with it officially were solemn, orderly and proper. The citizens of the village were exasperated and shocked and made such an appeal to the public sense of propriety that the Legislature en- acted the law that all future executions of the death penalty should be had within the State Prison.
GOSHEN TAX CASE.
In 1894, June Term, a very interesting case was tried at Win- sted being an appeal from the decision of the Board of Relief of
T
CHARLES J. PORTER.
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Town of Goshen, about abatement of Taxes. The amount involved was trifling, but the principle was important enough for a two weeks contest with a very large number of witnesses and several attorneys. A local bard reports the trial as follows :
GOSHENIA.
A famous tax-case once was tried. By the staid old land of Goshen : One Fessenden Ives was taxed too high. At least, that was his notion.
He said his land was cold and wet. And hard-hacks covered the ground. The once fertile soil was sterile and cold And yellow charlicks abound.
Ilis barn was like sweet charity That covereth a multitude of sin :- The outside was neat and fair to the eye. But old rotten timbers within.
lle's assessed too high, the rest too low. And there's a plot to take his gokdl. 'Tis wrong to do so after years of toil. Thus to rob him when he's old.
The town appeared by Huntington and Warner, By Webster. Welch and Judd, While Ives employed Hubbard, Hickox and Burrell To shed his opponent's blood.
The air was fragrant with sweet breath of June. Outside were the birds and bees :- The Judge's desk was strewed with flowers. Hardhacks, charlick and cheese.
The stenographer dreams of hardhack on toast. Of ivy, rocks, alders and birch. As the lawyers try to win their case The other side trying to smirch.
The case dragged on its weary length, Watched by Goshen ladies fair. While poor old Kilbourn. the portly clerk. Sat fast asleep in his chair.
For ten long days they fussed and fumed. With witnesses goaded to tears. While the costs were doubtless large enough, To pay the taxes a hundred years.
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LITCHFIELD COUNTY BENCH AND BAR
EDWARD A. NELLIS.
THE MANNERING CASE.
Edwin Mannering a resident of Roxbury died on February 19, 1803, the result of taking a dose of Epsom Salts for medicinal pur- poses in which as afterwards discovered was a quantity of strich- nine. The coroner made a very full investigation which resulted in the arrest of Mrs. Mannering for the crime of poisoning her hus- band. It was admitted that strichnine had been kept in the house for the purpose of poisoning foxes, and it was shown that she had purchased strichnine from a neighboring druggist a short time before his death. She was bound over for trial to the Superior Court and a true bill was found against her by the Grand Jury. The trial occurred at Litchfield in November 1893, lasting six days and resulted in her acquittal.
It was perhaps the most sensational trial ever held in this Court. The prisoner was led into Court leaning upon the arms of two friends and one or two physicians were constantly near to ad- minister stimulants which was occasionally necessary. Several ladies of the village of Litchfield interested themselves in her trial by attending Court every day arrayed in all the sombre blackness of morning habiliments. It seemed like a stage play rather than a cold blooded matter of fact trial. Her attorney left no art or artifice untouched to arouse the sympathies of the Court and jury. A distinguished jurist remarked that it was the most artistic trial he ever witnessed.
LEONARD J. NICKERSON.
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HISTORICAL NOTES
NORMAN BROOKS, WILL CASE.
Norman Brooks a farmer living in Winchester died on the 28th of July 1895. aged 78 years. He left a widow but no children and had a small amount of property. After his death a will was offered for probate which was made on the 15th of January 1895 in the office of Warner & Landon at Salisbury. From the probate of this will his widow appealed to the Superior Court. Upon the trial of the case in the Superior Court the claim was made that the will in question was not made by Norman Brooks but by some one per- sonating him and that the disposition of his property given in this will was entirely different from repeated declarations he had made and also that there was a previous will which corresponded with these declarations. The contestants had his body exhumed and the witnesses to the will were present to identify or not identify the person. It was also claimed that one E. M. Clossey whose wife was a relative of the deceased and with himself were the principal beneficiaries of the disputed will was largely instrumental in the production of this will. That he went with Mr. Brooks who was quite an infirm man on one of the coldest days in January to Salis- bury to get the will made although he was not actually present at its execution. The case came to trial before the Superior Court and a jury at Winchester at the April Term 1896, and after a protraced trial the jury found that there was undue influence exerted upon the testator in making a part of said will to wit, that part which gave the residue of the estate to said Clossey and also of that clause which gave him power to sell all the real estate and that said paragraph was null and void but confirming and establishing the rest of the will. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court of Errors at the October Term 1896. Upon a motion for a new trial for a verdict against evidence.
In the record of the case the evidence is printed in full, occupy- ing 269 pages.
After a full hearing before the Supreme Court the motion for a new trial was denied.
HAYES MURDER TRIAL ..
In February 1901. John T. Hayes, a young man of Winsted, shot and killed Winnifred F. Cooke, a young lady he had fallen in love with, because she would not elope with him and marry against the wishes of her father. The tragedy occurred at the Gilbert Home in Winsted on the HIth of February, where the lady was employed as a teacher. He, after shooting her shot himself three times in his head-but failed to kill himself-and was held for trial in the Superior Court. The trial came on at Litchfield at the October Term, before Judge Elmer and lasted four weeks, when the Jury returned a virdict of, on the 8th of November of guilty of
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murder in the second degree, and he was sentenced to imprison- ment for life. The defense was insanity from hereditary causes and four expert physicians were present all through the trial, and testified from a supposed state of facts-which it took nearly two hours to read. Two of them pronounced him not responsible and the other two thought him responsible, for which important evi- dence the state allowed nearly two thousand dollars, while the jury paid no attention to them at all, but on their first ballot stood eight for first degree and three for the second degree and one blank. After twelve hours confinement in the jury room they all agreed to bring in a verdict of murder in the second degree, which the court accepted. It was the most expensive trial on our cost book. The total expenses being a little over seven thousand dollars.
HADDOCK CASE.
One of the most important cases regarding the property rights of husband and wife, and also one that has made great confusion in the divorce laws of the country, was decided in the United States Supreme Court, April 12, 1906, and can be found in Vol. 201 of said Reports beginning at page 562. This case had its inception in this Superior Court. December 1881, and is known by the legal pro- fession as the case of Haddock vs. Haddock.
The facts are briefly as follows: The Haddocks were married in 1868 in New York, where both parties then resided. The very day of the ceremony they separated, and never lived together. In 1881 Mr. Haddock having resided in Connecticut for three years, obtained a divorce from his wife Harriet Haddock, at the December term. on the ground of desertion. The service of the writ was by publication in the Litchfield Enquirer and a copy sent by mail to the defendant at Tarrytown, N. Y. where it was supposed she re- sided. This divorce was granted December 6, 1881, and the decree was signed by Hitchcock, Judge. At that time the plaintiff was poor but he afterwards acquired considerable property, and also married another wife by whom he had children. In 1894 the first wife brought suit against him in New York for a divorce from bed and board and for alimony. Constructive service was made of this process and she obtained a decree. As there was no per- sonal service the judgment for alimony was ineffectual. In 1899 she brought another suit against him, and obtained personal service on him, and was allowed a decree for alimony for $780. a year. The defendant in this last suit plead for one of his answers the Connecticut divorce in 1881, but the New York courts disallowed it. Haddock appealed to the United States Supreme Court on the ground that the decree denied full faith and credit to the judgment of the Connecticut courts, but the Supreme Court upheld the actions of the New York courts and sustained the judgment, five judges in the affirmative and four dissenting. The discussion and ex- planation of this seemingly inconsistent decision require thirty pages of fine print in the Report.
HENRY J. ALLEN.
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HISTORICAL, NOTES
1
RICHARD T. HIGGINS.
COUNTY CORONER.
Previous to 1883 all sudden deaths that occurred in the county were reported to the Clerk's office only by the returnes of a jury of inquest. A very great many of such deaths were never reported. and those that were, showed some remarkable verdicts.
In 1883 the Legislature enacted a law for the proper return and preservation of these untimely deaths. Each county was to have a coroner who should be appointed by the Judges of the Superior Court at their annual meeting, and who should hold office three years, and until another was appointed in their place. The county coroner had power to appoint an able and discreet person learned in medical science to be medical examiner in each town in the county. The medical examiner was to examine the cause and manner of each sudden death and make his report thereon to the county coroner who was to keep a record of such deaths. The medical examiner's reports were to be placed on file with the clerk of the Superior Court.
The first County Coroner in Litchfield County was Col. Jacob Hardenburgh of Canaan, who held the office until his decease on April 4. 1892. Richard T. Higgins of Winchester was appointed to succeed him, and has held the office from that time until the present.
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FRANK W. ETHERIDGE.
IIEALTH OFFICERS.
In 1893 the Legislature enacted a law for the appointment of a County Health Officer, who was to be an attorney-at-law and be appointed by the judges of the Superior Court, and hold office for four years. The statute prescribes that he shall cause the execution of the laws relating to public health and the prevention and abate- ment of nuisances dangerous to public health, and of laws relating to the registration of vital statistics, and co-operate with, and super- vise the doings of town, city and borough health officers, and boards of health within his county. He is clothed with all the powers of a grand juror and prosecuting officer for the prosecution of violations of laws relating to such matters.
The appointee was Walter S. Judd, of Litchfield. The sec- ond was William F. Hurlbut of Winchester, in 1894, and the third was the present incumbent. Frank W. Etheridge, who has held the office since 1896.
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ARTHUR D. WARNER.
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HISTORICAL, NOTES
MARCUS HI. HOLCOMB.
ATTORNEY GENERAL.
In 1897 the Legislature of Connecticut enacted a law for the election of an Attorney General. In November 1906 Marcus H. Holcomb a member of this bar, but residing in Southington and practicing law both in that town and in Hartford was elected to that office.
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LITCHFIELD COUNTY BENCH AND BAR
THE FIRST LAW REPORTS.
Judge Church in his address mentions the fact that the first Law Reports in this country were published at Litchfield soon after the establishment of the Law School, by Ephraim Kirby, Esq. who was then a prominent and successful attorney at Litchfield.
A manuscript copy of part of these reports has been preserved by some of his descendants, and has been placed in the room of the Historical Society at Litchfield, by whose courtesy I have been able to reproduce in this work the first page of the "Symsbury" case.
I am also enabled to give a picture of this eminent man from a photograph of a painting presented to St. Paul's Lodge, F and A. M. of Litchfield, by Col. E. K. Russell U. S. A .. a grandson of Col. Kirby.
I also republish the preface to the Reports, together with a short memoir of its author and a list of the books composing his Law Library.
PREFACE.
The uncertainty and contradiction attending the judicial de- cisions in this state, have long been subjects of complaint .- The source of this complaint is easily discovered .- When our ancestors emigrated here, they brought with them the notions of jurisprudence which prevailed in the country from whence they came .- The riches, luxury, and extensive commerce of that country, contrasted with the equal distribution of property, simplicity of manners, and agricultur- al habits and employments of this, rendered a deviation from the English laws, in many instances, highly necessary. This was ob- served-and the intricate and prolix practice of the English courts was rejected, and a mode of practice more simple, and better ac- commodated to an easy and speedy administration of justice, adopt- ed .- Our Courts were still in a state of embarrasment, sensible that the common law of England. "though a highly improved system," was not fully applicable to onr situation : but no provision being made to preserve and publish proper histories of their adjudica- tions, every attempt of the Judges, to run the line of distinction, be- iween what was applicable and what not, proved abortive: For the principles of their decisions were soon forgot, or misunderstood, or erroneously reported from memory .- Hence arose a confusion in the determination of our courts ;- the rules of property became un- certain, and litigation proportionably increased.
In this situation, some legislative exertion was found necessary : and in the year 1785 an act passed, requiring the Judges of the Superior Court, to render written reasons for their decisions, in cases where the pleadings closed in an issue at law .- This was a great advance toward improvement; still it left the business of reformation but half performed :- For the arguments of the Judges,
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REPRODUCTION OF KIRBY'S MANUSCRIPT.
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HISTORICAL NOTES
without a history of the whole case, would not always be intelligible : and they would become known to but few persons ; and being written on loose papers, were exposed to be mislaid, and soon sink into total oblivion .- Besides, very many important matters are determined on motions of various kinds, where no written reasons are rendered, and so are liable to be forever lost.
Hence it became obvious to every one, that should histories of important causes be carefully taken and published, in which the whole process should appear, showing the true grounds and princi- ples of the decision, it would in time produce a permanent system of common law .- But the Court being ambulatory through the State, the undertaking would be attended with considerable expence and interruption of other business, without any prospect of private advantage ; therefore, no gentleman of the profession seemed willing to make so great a sacrifice .- I had entered upon this business in a partial manner, for private use ; which came to the knowledge of several gentlemen of distinction .- 1 was urged to pursue it more extensively :- and being persuaded that an attempt of the kind (however imperfect ) might be made in some degree subservient to the great object, I compiled the Volume of Reports which is now presented to the public .- Could any effort of mine induce govern- ment to provide for the prosecution of so necessary a work by a more able hand, my wishes would be gratified, and my labour in accomplishing this, amply repaid.
In these Reports, I have endeavored to throw the matter into as small a compass as was consistent with right understanding of the case :- Therefore, I have not stated the pleading's or arguments further than was necessary to bring up the points relied on, except some few instances which seemed to require a more lengthy detail of argument .- As the work is designed for general use in this state, I have avoided technical terms and phrases as much as pos- sible, that it might be more intelligible to all classes of men .- Some cases are reported which are merely local, and have reference to the peculiar practice of this state; these may appear unimportant to readers in other states ; but they were necessary to the great object of the work.
I am sensible that this production is introduced to the world under sircumstances very unfavorable to its reputation .- But, how- ever different 1 might be, under other circumstances, I feel an honest confidence in this attempt to advance the common interest of my fellow-citizens ;- and that, so obvious are the difficulties which occur in almost every stage of the business, that to detail them in a preface would be offering an insult to the understanding of my readers .- The candid and generous, if they read the Reports, will doubtless find frequent occasion to draw into exercise those ex- cellent virtues : and as to readers of an opposite disposition, I have neither wishes or fears concerning them .- If any one should ex-
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LITCHFIELD COUNTY BENCH AND BAR
perience disagreeable sensations, from the inelegance of this per- formance, let him rest assured he cannot more sincerely regret its faults than I do."
Having persued Mr. Kirby's "Reports of Cases adjudged in the Superior Court, from the year 1785 to 1788," it appears to us that the Cases are truly reported.
RICHARD LAW. ELIPHALET DYER. ROGER SHERMAN. WILLIAM PITKIN. OLIVER ELLSWORTHI.
EPIIRAIM KIRBY.
Ephraim Kirby was born in Litchfield in 1756, as appears by the records of the town. His birth is also claimed to have been in the town of Washington, Conn. on the site of the residence of the late Hon. O. H. Platt. He was a farmer boy, but at the age of nineteen on the arrival of the news of the Battle of Lexington he shouldered his musket and marched with the volunteers from Litch- field to the scene of conflict and was present at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He remained in the field until independance was won, ex- cept when driven from it by severe wounds. He was in nineteen battles and skirmishes, among them Brandywine, Monmouth and Germantown, where he received thirteen wounds, seven of which were saber cuts on the head inflicted by a British soldier at German- town, where Kirby was left for dead upon the field. Mr. Kirby studied law in the office of Reynolds Marvin, Esq., who had been King's Attorney before the war, and who was a prominent member of the bar. In 1787 he received the degree of M. A. from Yale College. After his admission to the bar, he married Ruth Marvin. danghter of his preceptor. Col. Kirby took a prominent part in the political matters of the day, and in 1791 was first elected representa- tive to the Legislature, and was re-elected at thirteen semi-annual elections, and was several years, candidate for the office of governor.
On the election of Jefferson to the Presidency, in 1801. Col. Kirby was appointed supervisor of the national revenue for the State of Connecticut. Upon the acquisition of Louisiana, the Presi- dent appointed him a judge of the then newly organized territory of New Orleans. Having accepted the station, he set out for New Orleans ; but he was not destined to reach that place. Having proceeded as far as Fort Stoddard, in the Mississippi territory, he was taken sick, and died October 20, 1804. aged forty-seven-at a period when a wide career of public usefulness seemed opening upon him. His remains were interred with the honors of war and other demonstrations of respect. Col. Kirby was a man of the highest moral and well as physical courage-devoted in his feelings and aspirations-warm, generous and constant in his attachments-
EPHRAIM KIRBY.
17I
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