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 26
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JOHN P. LOVERIDGE. This name appears on the Connecticut Reg- ister of 1842 as an attorney at New Milford.
ROMEO LOWERY, born in Farmington in 1793, graduated at Yale in 1818, studied at the Litchfield Law School and was admitted to this Bar in 1820. He settled in Southington and was a highly re- spected member of the Hartford County Bar and a Judge of the County Court. He died in 1856.
BENEDICT E. LYONS was born in Thomaston, June 13, 1883. Graduated from Yale College in 1905 and from the Law School in 1908, and was admitted to this Bar in 1908. Located at Hartford. Represents Thomaston in the General Assembly of 1909.
DARIUS LYMAN was a son of Col. David Lyman, born in Goshen July 19, 1789. Was admitted to this Bar in 1812 and removed to Ravenna, Ohio. He died at the residence of his son-in-law, W. S. C. Otis, Esq., of Cleveland, Ohio December 13, 1865.
DAVID LYMAN was admitted to this Bar in 1841, and after a practice of five years he relinquished the profession and entered the Ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
SAMUEL LYMAN was a son of Ensign Moses Lyman, born in Goshen January 25, 1749. He graduated from Yale College and studied Theology and afterwards studied law and was admitted to this Bar in 1773. He commenced practice at Hartford with flatter- ing prospects of success, but relinquished that for a military ap- pointment and removed to Massachusetts. Here he became a Judge of the Circuit Court of that State and was a member of the first Congress convened under the Constitution of the United States. He died at the age of 55 years.
WILBUR G. MANCHESTER was born in Winchester in 1860. Grad- uated at the Yale Law School and was admitted to the Bar in 1896. resides and practices in Winsted, and has been active in Grange and Prohibition circles.
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THEODORE M. MALTBIE, born in New York in 1842, admitted to this Bar in 1863 from Norfolk where he practiced a short time and then removed to Hartford where he now resides.
CYRUS MAARSIT, practiced law in Kent in 1761 and was after- wards a Minister of the Gospel of that place.
FRANK W. MARSII, born in New Milford in 1855, graduated at Yale College in 1879, admitted to the New Haven Bar in 1882, re- moved to New Milford where he now resides.
SAMUEL MAARSHI, born in Litchfield in 1765, graduated from Yale College in 1786, admitted to this Bar in 1788 and removed to Nor- folk, Va.
GEORGE A. MARVIN was born in Norfolk in 1870, graduated front the Yale Law School in 1901 and was admitted to this Bar. He resides and practices in North Canaan.
REYNOLD MARVIN was born in Lyme, Conn., and graduated at Yale College in 1748. He located in Litchfield on the formation of the New County, and was the first lawyer in that town. He was appointed King's Attorney in 1764, which office he held eight years. After this period he does not appear to have been active in legal matters. He died at Litchfield in 1802.
NICHOLAS MASTERS, born in 1758, graduated from Yale College in 1779, admitted to this Bar in 1780, resided in New Milford, where he died in 1795.
CHARLES S. MASTERS, admitted to this Bar in 1812 from New Milford.
PETER J. MCDERMOTT was born in Torrington, and graduated from Yale Law School in 1905 and was admitted to this Bar.
JAMES H. MCMAHON, born at New Milford, June 24, 1839 ; son of John and Sophia Wells McMahon. He received an acedemic education, but did not enter College. He studied law at the Albany Law School and was admitted to the Litchfield County Bar in No- vember, 1863. Judge McMahon was a well-known lawyer in West- ern Connecticut, and for many years was engaged on one side or the other in most of the important cases in that section. He was elected Judge of Probate for the District of New Milford in August. 1864, and held his first term of probate, August 30th, of that year. He continued in office until the first Monday in January. 1897. In 1873 and 1875. he was a member of the General Assembly. He died at New Milford, August 9, 1906. His funeral was very largely attended by lawyers from Litchfield, Fairfield and New Haven Counties, in all of whose courts he had been an active practioner, and also by the members of the Odd Fellows, and the Masonic bodies of which he had been a member.
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He gave in his will the sum of $1,200 to the Litchfield County Bar Association, to be divided between each of the Law Libraries at the Litchfield, Winsted and New Milford Court houses. His picture may be found on page 136.
WILLIAM H. MCMORRIS was admitted to the Litchfield Bar in 1904. Ile removed to Pennsylvania.
WALTER S. MERRILL. born in New Hartford in 1829, admitted to this Bar in 1852 and located in Southington, where he resided until his death, January 10, 1901.
PAUL E. MEAND was born in Westbrook, Maine, October 27, 1878. but came when quite young to Falls Village, Conn. Studying at Exeter and at Brown's University, he entered the Yale Law School, from which he graduated in 1904, and was admitted to this Bar.
CHESTERFIELD C. MIDDLEBROOKS was Sheriff of Litchfield County from 1903 to 1907. He was born in Sharon, Conn., July 24, 1860. In 1880 he went to Winsted and en- tered the employ of the Gilbert Clock Company, where he contin- ned for fourteen years. He was for several years at the head of the police force in Winsted, and was a constable of the Town of Winches- ter, in which offices he showed great executive ability. In 1894 he was appointed deputy sheriff under Sheriff Henry J. Allen. and in 1903 was elected sheriff by a good ma- jority. At the expiration of his office in 1907 he was appointed by the Judges of the State, one of the Jury Commissioners for Litchfield County.
EDWARD S. MERWIN, admitted to the Bar in 1870 from New Mil- ford.
T. DWIGHT MERWIN, born in New Milford. Graduated from Yale College in 1877. After a short practice in New Milford, he removed to New York City, where he is now in practice.
MICHAEL F. MILL,s, born in Norfolk in 1786, admitted to this Bar in 1801. He located in Norfolk, dying there in 1857. (See Sedgwick's Address.)
ROGER MILLS was admitted to this Bar in 1798 from Norfolk and settled in New Hartford about 1800.
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ROGER H. MILLS was a son of Roger Mills and was admitted to this Bar in 1836 and located at New Hartford. Was Secretary of State in 1849-1850, after which he removed to Beloit, Wis., where he died, November 11, 1880, aged 67.
JOSEPH MILLER, a graduate of Williams College, studied at the Litchfield Law School and was admitted to this Bar in 1802. He located at Winchester, was a member of the Constitutional Con- vention in 1818. In 1835 he removed to Richland, Mich. He was a member of the Michigan Constitutional Convention and also U. S. Attorney for the District of Michigan.
MATTHEW MINER, JR., born in Woodbury in 1781, graduated from Yale College in 1801 and was admitted to this Bar in 1804. Practiced in Woodbury, which town he represented in the General Assembly in 1830-1832, and was also Senator of his district in 1837. Died at Woodbury. December 11. 1839.
GILBERT S. MINOR, a native of Cornwall, admitted to the Bar in 1848. He removed to Alexandria, Va., where he died about 1880. (The compiler of this work pursued his law reading while in the U. S. service in the Civil War, from books borrowed from this gentleman's library.)
PHINEAS MINER, born in Winchester 1777, studied at Litchfield Law School, admitted to this Bar in 1797. began practice in his native town, but removed to Litchfield in 1816, was representative in Congress in 1832. Died at Litchfield. September 16, 1839. (See Boardman's Sketches.)
JOHN G. MITCHELL, practiced in Salisbury. (See Warner's Reminiscences. )
HENRY A. MITCHELL. The Connecticut Register says, he was a lawyer in Plymouth in 1832. He removed to Bristol. Was States Attorney for Hartford County, 1836 to 1838. Was editor of the Hartford Times.
JOHN G. MIX, admitted to this Bar in 1815 from Woodbury.
HENRY S. MORRILL, born in New Hampshire in 1840, graduated at Wesleyan College in 1866, was admitted to this Bar in 1870, and for a few years thereafter he was engaged as a teacher, but finally removed to Waterbury, where he was a Judge of the City Court. He died in Waterbury, July 12. 1884.
T. DWIGHIT MORRIS, born in Litchfield in 1817. graduated from Union College in 1838, and was admitted to this Bar in 1839 and located at Bridgeport. Was Colonel of the 14th Connecticut In- fantry in the Civil War. United Statets Consul at Havre, France, 1865 to 1869, Secretary of State, 1876. Died at Bridgeport, Septem- ber 26, 1894.
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NATHAN MORSE, a graduate of Amherst College, practiced in New Hartford in 1876, and removed to Akron, Ohio.
CHARLES E. Moss, born in Litchfield and admitted to the Bar in 1843. Practiced in Waterbury until 1847, when he removed to Iowa. He was engaged in the Mexican War as a Sergeant of the 3rd United States Dragoons, and in the War of the Rebellion as a Lieutenant-Colonel of an Iowa Cavalry Regiment.
WILLIAM P. MULVILLE, born in Norfolk February 23, 1879. Graduated at Yale Law School in 1906, and was admitted to this Bar. Located at New Canaan, Connecticut.
WARREN MUNGER, admitted to this Bar in 1812 from Norfolk.
FRANK B. MUNN, born in West Stockbridge, Mass. November 16, 1860. Graduated from Dartmouth College in 1887, admitted to this Bar in 1891. Resides in New Hartford and practices in that town, and also has an office in Winsted. He is now, and has been a Referee under the United States Bankrupt Law since its passage.
HARRIS B. MUNsox, born in Middlebury in 1812, admitted to this Bar in 1850, finally located at Seymour, where he died, February 2, 1885.
THADDEUS MUNSON, practiced in Canaan in 1809.
FREDERICK E. MYGATT, a native of New Milford, studied at the Yale Law School, admitted to this Bar in 1892. Now practices in New York City.
EDWARD A. NELLIS held the office of Sheriff of Litchfield County front 1895 to 1903. He was born in the State of New York, but in early life came to Winsted, where he has since resided. For many years he carried on a tinware manufacturing and jobbing business. He was a soldier in the Civil War, a member of the 6th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, he was wounded at the siege of Petersburg in 1864 and suffered an amputation of his left foot. (See picture on page 162.)
LEONARD J. NICKERSON of West Cornwall was born in that town October 23, 1857. He graduated from the Alger Academy and studied law with Hon. Arthur D. Warner, being admitted to this Bar in 1879. In 1883 he represented Cornwall in the General As- sembly, and has been very active in town affairs. He has an ex- tensive practice throughout the State. Picture, page 162.
MAJOR A. NICKERSON, a native of Cornwall, admitted to this Bar in 1834. After a brief practice, mostly in Berlin, Connecticut, he removed to New York State and entered the Ministry.
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MAJOR A. NICKERSON, born in Cornwall and admitted to this Bar in 1868. For some years, owing to poor health he did not practice, but about 1888 opened a law office in Plainville. Conn. Died suddenly in his office, April 25, 1891.
MIKKEL NEILSON, a native of Denmark, studied law in Litchfield and was admitted to the Bar in 1881, and removed West.
CHARLES NETTLETON Was born in Washington, Conn. October 2, 1819, and after studying law at Litchfield was admitted to the Bar. He opened an office in Naugatuck and was for a time in New Haven, but not meeting with satisfac- tory clientage he removed to the city of New York and made a specialty of conveyancing and for some years was a pension attor- ney. He was a great col- lector of the session laws of all the different States and it was claimed that he had the largest and fullest library in this line in the country. For the help of the Tilden-Haves Electoral Commission, the Library of Congress moved to Wash- inton all this part of Mr. Nettleton's library. He died in New York May 5. 1892.
THEODORE NORTHI, born in Goshen March 2, 1780. Graduated from Williams College and was admitted to this Bar in 1809. Mem- ber of the Constitutional Convention in 1818. Removed to Elmira N. Y. in 1823. Died April 21, 1842.
JONATHAN T. NORTON was admitted to this Bar in 1847 and practiced a short time in West Cornwall. when he removed to Brooklyn, N. Y.
JAMES H. NORTON, born in Goshen in 1823, admitted to this Bar in 1846 and soon removed to Pennsylvania. Entered the field of journalism and was connected with the New York City daily papers. Resided at Middletown, N. Y. Died in 1894.
WILLIAM H. O'HARA, born in Washington October 15, 1859 and was educated at the "Gunnery"; admitted to this Bar in 1880.
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Practiced in Bridgeport. In 1893-4 was an Alderman in Bridge- port and the latter year president of the Board and Acting Mayor. In 1902 removed his office to New York City.
JAMES L. ORR, born in Hudson, N. Y., studied with Hon. John H. Hubbard, was admitted to the Bar in 1845. He practiced at Sharon and then removed to Michigan. His health failing him he returned to Salisbury, where he died.
SAMUEL D. ORTON, born in Bridgewater. Admitted to the Bar in 1830. Practiced a number of years in New Milford.
EUGENE O'SULLIVAN practices law in Torrington.
CHARLES A. PALMER, born in Goshen in 1859, graduated from Williams College. Admitted to this Bar in 1885. Practiced a few years at Sharon and then removed to Torrington. Now resides in Goshen, and is not in the practice of law.
JOSEPH M. PALMER, born in New Milford in 1788. Was ad- mitted to the Fairfield County Bar, but located at Woodbury, where he practiced until 1816, when he removed to Fredericktown, Md. He was a Judge of one of the higher courts in that State.
SOLOMON M. PALMER Was admitted to the Bar in 1811.
JONATHAN EDWARD PARMALEY, admitted to the Bar in 1790, re- sided and practiced in Bethlehem.
DAVID PARMALEE, a lawyer in Litchfield, 1797. (Connecticut Register. )
COL. AMASA PARKER, born in 1784 in the limits of the present town of Washington. Graduated from Yale College in 1808. At- tended the Litchfield Law School and was admitted to the Bar in 1810. He removed to Delhi, Deleware County, N. Y.
ANSON V. PARSONS, admitted to the Bar in 1826.
DANIEL PARSONS, admitted to the Bar in 1847 from Sharon.
WALTER M. PATTERSON, admitted to the Bar in 1860. practiced a short time in Sharon.
CALVIN PEASE, a lawyer in New Hartford, 1799. (Connecticut Register.)
WILLIAM K. PECK, JR., born in Harwinton and admitted to the Bar in 1847 from Norfolk. He located in Norfolk and removed to Winsted in 1864. He removed from Winsted to Michigan in 1869. and died at Grand Rapids, Mich. in 1870. The following paragraph is from a highly complimentary notice of the stump labors of Wm. K. Peck. Esq. which we find in the Western New Yorker published at Warsaw, November, 1867:
"The series of meetings held in this county by W. K. Peck, Esq., of Connecticut, have been among the most successful and satisfac- tory ever known here. The appointment for the Court House on
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Saturday evening drew together an audience that packed the room full. Mr. Peck is a man of fine presence and genial manners with a remarkably good voice and excellent qualities as a popular speak- er. For perfect candor and fairness, for strong points sharply put, for earnestness and agreeable humor, and to sum it all up-for a good effect in a political speech, Mr. Peck ranks with the best men on the stump. We hope to have him here again."
NATHANIEL, PERRY was a native of Woodbury and was admitted to the Fairfield County Bar in 1816. He began practice in Wood- bury, removing to New Milford in 1823. He died in Kent in 1849, aged 60 years.
GEORGE W. PEET was born in Salisbury in 1828 and after ad- mission to the Bar he practiced in Canaan. The latter part of his life was devoted chiefly to financial operations. He was president of the Iron Bank of Falls Village, etc. He died at North Canaan in 1882.
HUGH F. PETERS, graduated at Yale College in 1849; admitted to the Bar in 1851.
JOHN THOMPSON PETERS, graduated at Yale College, 1780; ad- mitted to the Bar in 1791. Was Judge of the Superior Court from 1818 to 1834. Died August 28, 1834. Resided at Hartford. (See Sedgwick's "Fifty Years.")
JOEL T. PETTET, admitted to the Bar in 1801 from Sharon. He was a young man of great promise, but died of consumption, Septem- ber 13, 1807, aged 32.
AUGUSTUS PETTIBONE, born in Norfolk February 19, 1766, a son of Col. Giles Pettibone. Attended the Litchfield Law School and was admitted to the Bar in 1790. He settled in Norfolk, was a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1818 and Judge and Chief Judge of the County Court from 1812 to 1831 He died October 4, 1847. ( See Sedgwick's "Fifty Years.")
COL. GILES PETTIBONE, born in Simsbury December 9, 1735. His name appears as an attorney in the early records of the County Court. Resided in Norfolk and died there March 17, 1810.
SAMUEL PETTIBONE. the first King's Attorney of Litchfield County was born in Simsbury July 26, 1798. He began to practice law as early as 1730. He removed to Goshen prior to 1740 and was active in the formation of the County in 1751. Upon the establish- ment of the County Court he was appointed King's, or as we now term it. State Attorney, which office he held several years. He was prominent in the town affairs of early Goshen and represented the town in the General Assembly a number of times. He died in 1787.
SERENO PETTIBONE was a brother of Augustus Pettibone and born in Norfolk November 9th, 1778; graduated at Williams Col-
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lege in 1800, and was admitted to this Bar in 1803. He practiced a few years at Norfolk, and died there, November 16th, 1826, "just in the prime of life, a man of fine ability and promise."
JOHN PIERPONT, 1851.
JOIIN PIERPONT, born in Litchfield April 6, 1785. Graduated at Yale College in 1804. Studied law at the Litchfield Law School and was admitted to this Bar in 1810. He removed to Newbury- port, Mass., where after a short practice of law he became an Uni- tarian Minister. He edited a large number of school books; the old fashioned National Precepter, being perhaps the best known of them. He was also a poet, and his "Stand, the ground's your own iny braves ! " has been the standard for boyhood declamations, dur- ing the last three-quarters of a century. His poem delivered at our Centennial celebration in 1851, has also become classical. In his earlier years he, like many of the Boston celebreties, was not fas- tedious in his dress, and the portrait we publish of him is said by all our old men to be a characteristic one. The second, near the close of this book, looks as he did in later life, when he held a clerical position in one of the Government departments in Washington. He was the ancestor of John Pierpont Morgan, the noted banker and financier. Mr. Pierpont died at Medford, Mass., August 27, 1866.
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CHARLES B. PHELPS was born in Chatham, now Portland, Con- necticut in 1788 and pursued his professional studies under Judge Reeve and Noah B. Benedict. Esq., and was admitted to the Bar in September, 1809. Entered into practice at Woodbury, and there continued the exercise of his profession to the time of his death. December 21, 1858. He was Judge of Probate for nearly thirty years and was an authority on Probate Law. He was a member of the House of Representatives in 1831. 1837, and 1852 in which latter year he was elected its Speaker. In 1843 he was elected to the Sen- ate and was its President pro tem. In 1850 he was elected Judge of the County Court, holding the office three years. In Mr. Coth- ren's history of Woodbury, will be found a lengthy biography of this honest lawyer. Picture, page 94.
RALPH P. PHELPS, attorney in Winchester, 1832. (Connecticut Register. )
E. FRISBIE PHELPS, graduated from Yale Law School, and was admitted to this Bar from Ilarwinton in 1866. He soon removed from the State. Is now in New York City in the insurance business.
ELISHIA PHELPS, born in Simsbury. Graduated from Yale Col- lege in 1800: attended the Litchfield Law School and was admitted to this Bar in 1802. Settled in his native town, where he died in 18.47.
AMOS PIERCE (PEARCE), graduated at Yale. 1783. Died in Woodbury, 1798.
JAMES PIERCE was admitted by the County Court in 1799.
JOHN PITCHER was admitted by the County Court in 1816. Lieu- tenant-Governor of New York.
JOHN PIERPONT, born in Litchfield September 10, 1805 ; men- ber of the Law School : admitted to the Bar in 1826. He removed to Vergennes, Vermont. Was Judge of the Supreme Court and held other important offices in that State.
ORVILLE HITCHCOCK PLATT was admitted to this Bar in 1850. He was born in Washington, Conn .. and his early life was that of a hard working farmer boy. Both parents being of good New Eng- land stock, earnest in religion, patriotic, and having the courage of their convictions, he inherited that breadth of mind and strength of character for which he became so prominent. Beginning in the old red school house, and afterward attending the Academy, in which he later on taught, he was still further furnished, by close and per- sistent study at home. Having chosen the law as his profession he entered the office of Gideon Hollister and Fred. Beeman in Litch- field in 1848 and in due time was admitted to this Bar. He began his practice at Towanda, Penn., but in a short time returned to Connecticut and settled at Meriden, where he soon became a prom-
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inent attorney and citizen. In 1855 he was Clerk of the Connecti- cut Senate and in 1857 was Secretary of State. He was repeatedly elected to represent his town in the General Assembly of the State, serving in the Senate in 1861-2, and in the House of Representatives in 1864 and 1869 and was given important positions in the deliber- ations of those bodies. In 1877 he was appointed State Attorney for New Haven County. In 1879 he was chosen United States Senator by the General Assembly, a position which he occupied continuously until his death at his summer residence at Washington, Connecticut, April 21, 1905.
In an address delivered by him to his townsmen just before start- ing for Washington to take his seat in the Senate, he said, "Just now everything is new and seems unreal. I can scarcely appreciate the future; how I shall walk in the new part in which I am set, time will show. I do know that I shall try to do right as I see the right."
He took his seat March 18, 1879, and for more than a quarter of a century gave his best thought and untiring industry to all matters of legislation and gradually won his own place in the front rank.
He served eighteen years on the committee of patents, eight of those years as chairman. He was regarded by all, as the best au- thority on patent law in the Senate. For sixteen years he was a member of the committee on Indian affairs, and no one was more alive than he to the true welfare of the Indians. No man in of- ficial life was ever a more practical and useful friend of these wards of the nation.
For twelve years he was a member of the committee on Territories, six years as chairman, and while such chairman six states were ad- mitted into the Union, viz: North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho and Wyoming.
For ten years and up to the time of his death, he was a mem- ber of the committee on finance. For four years he was chairman of the committee on Cuban Relations, and was the author and father of the noted Platt Amendment-that great bulwark and mainstay of the Cuban Republic against foes, foreign and domestic. In the investigation of this subject he accumulated a large and ex- hanstive library relating to Cuban and Philippine matters, probably the largest in the country, which has been given by his heirs to the State Library at Hartford, Conn.
He was for twelve years a leading member of the Judiciary Committee. and at the time of his death was chairman of that com- mittee. On this great committee, on account of his skill and learn- ing as a lawyer, and his industrious prudence and conservative character, he was one of the most active, useful and safe members, favorable to all reasonable innovations, but strongly set against revolutionary or doubtful schemes or measures. No man in the Republican party was oftener consulted by both Presidents, Mc-
ORVILLE HITCHCOCK PLATT
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Kinley and Roosevelt upon vital questions, not only of party policy, but of material and international importance. The last great service he rendered, was in presiding over the Senate as a Court of Impeachment in the case of Judge Swain. The care, dignity and impartiality with which he performed that difficult task proved him to be a master mind in that eminent body.
Senator Teller of Colorado said of him: "He was a party man with a strong partisan spirit, because he believed his party was best calculated to secure the highest degree of progress and prosperity it was possible for a nation to attain. While he was a partisan and defended the principles of his party with intelligence and vigor, he recognized that there were two political parties in the country, and that there might be wisdom and patriotism in those differing with him. He was a good type of Americanism, and his aspiration for his country was for all parts and all the people within its borders."
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