USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume III > Part 16
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service on the bench surpassed him in a thorough knowledge of the law, or in the soundness of his judicial decisions.
Judge Wootten's memory, like that of Macaulay's or Lord Alger's, is said to have been truly wonderful, a single hearing or reading of a fact fixing it indelibly in his memory. In 1833 he married Mary, the daughter of Judge Peter Robinson. by whom he had one son, Alfred P. R. Wootten. For thirty years he was a trustee of the Georgetown Academy; for sixteen a director of the Farmer's Bank in that town, and long a ves- tryman and senior warden of the Protestant Episcopal Church. On March 1, 1887, he died of pneumonia originating in a cold contracted on the cars.
The bar at a meeting held at Dover, passed appropriate resolutions declarative of the great loss his death entailed upon the profession, and the State at large; upon which occa- sion Chief Justice Comegys said: " I had the honor of sitting with him for eleven years, and in that time I never beheld in him the slightest disposition to avoid any performance of duty, nor weakness of purpose to do exact justice." The Chief Justice also referred to Judge Wootten's accurate knowledge of the law, and to his phenomenal recollection of the decisions of the Delaware courts and the details of judicial practice.
The State officials and members of the Bar attended his funeral at Georgetown in large numbers, a special train from Wilmington being chartered for that purpose. His remains were placed beside those of his wife in the cemetery of Saint George's Chapel in Indian River Hundred.
JOHN H. PAYNTER.
John Henry Paynter, though born in New York City, February 23, 1838, while his father was temporarily engaged there in the grain commission business, came of very old Delaware stock, his ancestors having been among the earliest settlers in the State and prominently identified with its politi- cal history. His father Samuel R. Paynter, the son of Gov- ernor Samuel Paynter, was a successful merchant in Sussex
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John S. Saunter
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County, and his mother was Sallie A., daughter of Caleb Ross, Esq., and a sister of Governor William H. Ross. In 1842, his parents removed to Laurel, and two years later to Drawbridge, Sussex County, where his father was extensively engaged in merchanting in grain, wood and bark, and in ship-building.
After receiving an early training in the schools of Laurel, Milton and Georgetown, he finished his preparatory studies at Newark Academy, and in 1854 entered Delaware College, where he received at the hands of the faculty the honor of class monitor, a distinction conferred only for superior scholar- ship in entrance examinations. At the close of his freshman year he entered the Sophomore Class of Union College at Schenectady, New York, of which Dr. Eliphalet Nott was then president. Graduating in 1858, he immediately entered him- self as a law student at Georgetown, under the Hon. Edward Wootten, one of the Associate Judges of the State, and was duly admitted in the year 1861. He was at once appointed Deputy Attorney-General by the Hon. Alfred R. Wootten, then Attorney-General for Delaware, and for the ensuing three years, until the death of the Attorney-General, was occupied with the duties of prosecuting officer for the entire State.
Becoming thus widely and favorably known, and having espoused the principles of the Democratic party, as had his ancestors before him, he was in great demand as a speaker at the hustings in the warm political combats that marked the period of the close of the sixties, and in 1866 he was elected State Senator, being probably the youngest member ever chosen to the Delaware Senate. His experience as a lawyer and as a politician coupled with his forensic talents, gave him prominence in the Senate in 1867 and 1869, and made him a very useful member of that body both in general debate and in the sessions of the Finance Committee at that time con- sidering important financial legislation. In 1869 while yet a Senator, the reputation gained in that office caused him to be appointed Attorney-General for the State by Governor Sauls- bury, but a question having been raised as to his eligibility to
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that office under a recent statute increasing, it was claimed, the salary, he resigned the position after only three weeks' tenure thereof, not caring, he declared, to hold any office con- cerning which there was even the least question.
In the campaign of 1870 he took a prominent part both upon the stump and as chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee of Sussex County, and won for his party a sweeping victory. In January, 1871, he was appointed Secretary of State by Governor Ponder, and held the position four years till the end of the Governor's term, his administra- tion of its affairs giving wide satisfaction. During this period, in conjunction with Hon. James L. Wolcott, he was employed by the Legislature in drafting the tax laws of the State, which, in the main, still serve the purposes of revenue for the State.
The Legislature during the session of 1871, appointed him to digest and codify the tangled and oftentimes contradictory mass of statutes, amendments and repeals which had accumu- lated, a veritable moles indigesta, since the last revision in 1852; and though much of his time was of necessity occupied with the responsible duties of his office of Secretary of State, and with the demands of his own private and legal business, nevertheless, he finished the laborious task of reducing this statutory chaos to a consistent and harmonious system, by the opening of the Legislature of 1873. After his work had been examined and approved by a joint committee of both Houses, it was ordered incorporated in, and published with the exist- ing Code under the title of the " Revised Code of 1852 as Amended etc., 1874." June 4, 1872, Mr. Paynter married Sallie Custis Wright, the daughter of Col. Gardiner H. Wright, a prominent citizen of Georgetown. His wife died four years thereafter, leaving one son, Rowland G. Paynter, now a practicing physician at Georgetown. Judge Paynter was prominently urged for Congress in 1878, and received a heavy vote in the convention, and again in 1882 as nominee for Governor. In June, 1885, he married Hannah E.,
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daughter of Governor Stockley of Sussex County. He was appointed, in 1885, a second time to the Attorney-Generalship of the State, which office he had resigned in 1869, and held the appointment for about two years, during which period he conducted on behalf of the State several noted prosecutions, among others State vs. Becker, State vs. Davis, and State vs. Falley.
He resigned the office of Attorney-General March 25, 1887, to accept that of Associate Justice, offered to him by Governor Biggs upon the death of Judge Wootten, and in his new sta- tion soon gained the entire confidence of his associates and the Bar by the soundness of his legal judgments and his courteous demeanor on the woolsack.
Judge Paynter added to his other manifold labors, official and professional, that of editing and publishing from 1881 to 1887 the "Delaware Democrat," in whose columns his edi- torials came to be known for their strong and correct pre- sentation of the principles of Democracy joined to a candid, honest statement of the facts involved.
For ten years, from 1862 to 1872, he was a member of the Democratic County Central Committee, and its chairman for four years ; a member of the Democratic County Convention in 1870 and 1880, and three times a delegate to the Demo- cratic State Convention, in that of 1872 being made chairman, and elected a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of the same year, wherein he used his utmost resources to pre- vent the ruinous blunder of the nomination of Horace Greeley.
After a service of three years on the bench he died at Georgetown, June 25, 1890.
WILLIAM G. WHITELY.
William G. Whitely, the son of Henry and Catherine Whitely, was born near Newark, Delaware, August 7, 1819. He was educated at Delaware and Princeton Colleges, gradu- ating from the latter institution in 1838. He at once began to study law under James A. Bayard, and was admitted to the
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Bar in the year 1841. After a decade's successful pursuit of his profession in the City of Wilmington, he was appointed Prothonotary and removed to New Castle, then the county seat. He was a successful candidate for congressional honors on the Democratic ticket in 1856, and again for a second term until 1861, when he resumed the practice of the law, returning to Wilmington, where he afterwards resided.
In 1873 he was honored with an election to the Mayoralty of the city, and gave great satisfaction to the citizens by his efficient and honorable service. He was appointed a member of the commission that arbitrated the Delaware and New Jersey boundary-line dispute. Judge Whitely was an earnest Democrat, active in politics and a leader of his party in this State. He was much inclined to local historical investigation, and probably more familiar with the annals of his city and State than any other person. His account of Delaware's soldiers in the war of the Revolution, shows careful research and exhibits not a few pleasing graces of style. Indeed it is matter for regret that he was not permitted to edit and publish the large mass of valuable historical notes and data accumu- lated in the pursuit of his favorite studies.
He was appointed Associate Judge, March 31, 1884, and served until his death. Judge Whitely possessed fine intel- lectual powers, allied with unusually attractive qualities of the heart which gave him in his lifetime, both politically and socially, a strong hold upon the affections of the people, and made him popular in every relation, whether as politician, lawyer, judge or private citizen. His official course in Con- gress and on the bench won for him general respect. June 13, 1844, he married Nancy P., daughter of Dr. William Elmer of Bridgeton, N. J., who bore him three sons and one daughter. His eldest son, Henry Whitely, has for many years been president of the Mccullough Iron Company, one of Wilmington's largest and most prosperous industries. The other sons have also made an impress in the business world. Judge Whitely died at his home in Wilmington, April 23, 1886, and his remains were interred at Bridgeton, New Jersey.
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JOHN W. HOUSTON.
John Wallace Houston, one of Delaware's best judges, was born at Concord, Sussex County, May 4, 1814. His family is of Scotch origin, and the founders of the American branch came early to America, settling in New York City, where Houston street remains a memorial of their presence. Some of the family settled in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and others went south to Tennessee and Texas, from which last named branch came General Samuel Houston, the unique heroic figure that won the famous fight at San Jacinto whose success crowned Texan independence.
The judge's grandfather was a man of unusual force of char- acter, highly esteemed for his noble and exemplary life. His son John Houston, the father of the judge, was a merchant at Concord, and owned vessels engaged in the coasting trade to Baltimore and elsewhere. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Cornelius Wiltbank who lived on the Broadkiln river on lands received by direct inheritance from Hermanus Wiltbank, one of the first Dutch settlers on the Delaware, and a man of note in his day, sheriff of the Dutch court at Hoornkill, now Lewes, and later one of the justices of the court under the Duke of York, the patent for his broad acres around the Hoornkill antedating the Duke's deed to William Penn for the three lower counties, and also Penn's letters patent from King Charles II, for the province of Pennsylvania.
After attending the schools of his town Judge Houston pre- pared for college at the Newark Academy, and graduated from Yale in 1834. At once after leaving college he entered the office of the Hon. John M. Clayton, then United States Senator for Delaware, and at the height of his fame and power as one of America's foremost statesmen, and three years later was ad- mitted to practice. For two years he had his office at Dover, and then removed to Georgetown where his studious habits and close application to his profession soon brought him both reputation and income. At the early age of twenty-seven he
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was appointed Secretary of State by Governor Cooper and for four years ably administered the duties of that post.
In politics Judge Houston was a Whig and being a fluent speaker, entered the political arena in several campaigns as an advocate of the principles of that party. In 1844 the Whigs sent him to Congress, and for three successive terms he repre- sented Delaware in the House of Representatives, finishing his six years of service before his thirty-sixth year.
While preparing for college a strong interest in the preser- vation of the Union was aroused within him from reading the speeches of Webster and others during the "nullification era," and he then became deeply impressed with the presenti- ment that a rupture between the North and South would follow, and this view was strengthened by his six years' exper- ience in Congress. He narrates the following highly interest- ing incident in the life of his friend, the Hon. John M. Clayton, which occurred as they were riding in a carriage near Dover but a few months before Mr. Clayton's death, in the autumn of 1856. The Senator was in very feeble health and was, moreover, closing his extraordinary national career, overborne with the deepest sorrow at the death of his wife and two sons. With great dejection in his manner Senator Clayton remarked that until the defeat of Senator Thomas Benton from Missouri and his own enforced retirement, he had hoped that they together might be able to avert the horrors of the impending Civil War; but that now he was convinced that this awful calamity must befall his country. Then adding that in his few remaining days he would not live to see it, and dwelling upon the appalling nature of such an event, he said "The country is too large for such a form of government, and a peaceable separation would be better," a view as shortsighted and erroneous as that of Webster when he alluded to the great unsettled west as a " barren, inacces- sible desert."
Judge Houston solemnly replied to Senator Clayton that a peaceful dissolution of the Union was impracticable-impossi-
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ble ; and after declaring his opinion that he would live to see the attempt made to sever the Union, expressed the strong conviction that the movement would be defeated by the un- compromising, invincible devotion of a vast majority of the people of the United States.
Retiring from Congress in 1851, Judge Houston devoted himself four years most assiduously to his profession until he was chosen, May 4, 1855, Associate Justice of the State for the County of Kent, which honorable public station he filled with great distinction to himself and profit to the State for nearly forty years. Many important cases arose during his long in- cumbency, and his decisions thereon have become authorita- tive both in the home forum and throughout the Union. As ex-officio Reporter for the State Courts, he published nine vol- umes of the judicial decisions of Delaware.
His industrious devotion to the business of his high office, and the entire fairness and impartiality with which he adminis- tered its functions, gave great satisfaction alike to the bar and to suitors, and won for him the highest regard of all the peo- ple. Although in the heyday of his political successes, he had exerted a controlling influence, he believed that politics should be altogether excluded from the courts, and the judiciary be kept non-partisan ; and his own interpretations and adjudica- tions of the law, in their candor and manifest impartiality ex- emplify the principles of his belief.
Judge Houston was a great lover of the classics, ancient and modern, and through his diligent studies of the masterpieces of English and American thought, acquired a fine taste for belles-lettres. He was sent as delegate from Delaware to the Peace Conference which met in Washington in 1861, and very shortly after his return therefrom he was called upon to make an address at the opening of the recently completed Mechan- ics Institute in Wilmington. Profoundly convinced that a gigantic and bloody civil war was impending, he naturally made that the subject of his discourse, in which he exhorted every patriot American of whatever party, class or calling, to
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support the Constitution and the Union of the States, and to prove to the world that the Republic possessed all the inher- ent strength and stability of other less liberal and free forms of government. Whereupon, after alluding to the acknowl- edged territorial and other disparities of the two sections, and expressing the fullest confidence that in the providence of God the Union would finally be preserved, he ventured a detailed prediction which, viewed in the light of succeeding events, certainly displayed wonderful judgment and prevision, viz., that the early successes would be upon the part of the South : that the contest would not last longer than about four years ; that President Lincoln would be re-elected ; that one million of men would be needed for the North, and an enormous amount of treasure.
In 1878, by request, the judge read before the Historical Society of Delaware an exhaustive paper on the question of the boundary line between Delaware and the adjacent states. Judge Houston's unusually long and useful public services terminated by his resignation from the bench in 1892. His death oc- curred on April 23, 1895, and his remains were buried in the Presbyterian churchyard at Lewes.
IGNATIUS C. GRUBB.
Ignatius C. Grubb was born April 12, 1841, at Grubb's Landing, Delaware, on the family homestead, known as the "Stockdales," a possession of his father's house since Penn's original conveyance. Mr. Grubb was educated at the Dela- ware Academy under the direction of Col. Hyatt, late presi- dent of the Pennsylvania Military College at Chester, Penn- sylvania, and having thereafter completed a classical course at Yale College, read law under his guardian, Victor DuPont. Esq., a leading lawyer in Wilmington, and was admitted to the Delaware bar in November, 1862.
Through the efforts of Mr. Grubb the vexatious controversy respecting the twelve-mile circle, which at one time threatened to end in an armed conflict between the Delaware and New
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Jersey fishermen, was adjusted when he was Secretary of State under Governor Cochran. Upon his suggestion the whole matter was taken into the Supreme Court of the United States on a bill in equity by the State of New Jersey to have the boundary line settled, and after a lapse of over a quarter of a century, the matter is still pending, though steps have been recently taken by the Legislature of both States looking to an amicable adjustment of the dispute through a joint commission.
Mr. Grubb has been conspicuously honored by his party, and the people of the State in being appointed to various posi- tions of trust and honor under the State government. In 1867 he was elected clerk of the State House of Representa- tives, and in the same year was made Deputy Attorney-General under Attorney-General Paynter. He was elected City Solici- tor for the city of Wilmington in 1871, and Governor Cochran, in recognition of his services in securing for him the guber- natorial nomination in 1874, made him Secretary of State, which office he filled to the end of the Governor's term. Again, in 1879 he was appointed a member of the National Democratic campaign committee, and in 1880 the Cincinnati Convention chose him as the Delaware member of the Demo- cratic National Committee, to which honor he was re-appointed four years later by the Chicago convention.
In 1884 he was appointed Register of Wills for New Castle County and in 1885 he was commissioned by Governor Stockley, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in the place of Hon. William G. Whitely deceased. The office of Chief Justice was offered him in 1893 by Governor Reynolds, but he declined that honor, retaining his position of Associate Justice till 1897 when all life-tenure judgeships were abolished by the new Constitution. Shortly thereafter, however, Gov- ernor Tunnell appointed him to the new office of Associate Judge of the Superior Court which important trust he is still executing. It does much credit to his honor and fairness that he was for years one of the foremost to protest against the
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unjust course of his own party in refusing to New Castle County an equitable legislative representation, and that, fur- thermore, he was active in bringing about the Constitutional Convention of 1897 which made it possible to correct this grave political injustice.
Besides his labors as a lawyer, jurist and politician, Judge Grubb has always interested himself in various other secular and religious matters, being a member of the Historical Society of Delaware ; Deputy Governor General of the General Society of Colonial Wars; Member of the Council of the American Bar Association ; Member of the Geological Asso- ciation ; a vestryman of Old Swedes Trinity P. E. Church in Wilmington, and a member of the Diocesan Church Club of Delaware. For years the Judge has spent his vacations in foreign travel, in the course of which he has visited every quarter of the globe. He has never married.
CHARLES M. CULLEN.
The first ancestor of the Cullen family in America was George Cullen, great-grandfather of Judge Cullen, of whose history little is known, save that he came from Scotland, and was one of the early settlers in Kent County, Delaware, where he married Sarah Mason. Charles Mason Cullen, their second son, on the twenty-sixth day of January, 1796, married Eliza- beth Harris, the widow of Jonathan Dickerson and the mother of a large family. From her marriage with Mr. Cullen only one child was born, Elisha D. Cullen, born April 23, 1799, at Millsboro, Delaware. Charles M. Cullen, who was a well-to-do farmer, shortly after his son's birth removed to Lewes, Dela- ware, and became a merchant and miller. He was sent to the Legislature, and was a useful and influential citizen. He died in 1828 at the age of sixty-five.
His son Elisha, after being well trained in the schools of his homo town, Lewes, went to Princeton, and graduated there- from. After reading law in the office of Judge Robinson of Georgetown, Delaware, he was admitted to the Bar in 1821,
CHARLES M. CULLEN. 1828-1903.
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and during his life rose to distinction in that profession as a sound and able lawyer, becoming, in fact, one of the leaders of the Sussex County Bar. In 1854 he was sent to Congress by the American party, and participated in the discussions of the great questions of national interest that distinguished that period. His interest in many of these burning issues was very deep and his speeches therecn made a lively impression upon all who heard them. Personally, he was noted for his great modesty and simplicity of character, which traits aug- mented the admiration his talents and learning aroused. He married April 11, 1822, Margaret, daughter of Robert and Naomi West of Lewes. Of their six children, three died in early infancy, and one, Lydia W., in early womanhood.
Charles Mason Cullen, the subject of this memoir, was born in Georgetown, Delaware, June 14, 1828, and received his early education in the schools of his native town. In 1848 he graduated from Yale College, and at once began the study of law under the guidance of his father, with whom, after his admission to the bar in October, 1851, he formed a partner- ship, which lasted until the death of the Senior Cullen. It would be uttering high praise to say of the son, that he worthily maintained the reputation of his father before him. Indeed, his character and ability as a lawyer is proven, not only by his successful professional course, but also by his elevation to the bench which occurred in August, 1889, when he was appointed judge of the Superior Court.
Very few, if any, better read lawyers have practiced at the Delaware bar. He was thoroughly grounded in the principles of law, and this became more apparent after his elevation to the bench where he won the highest regard and respect of the entire bar of the State. As a judge he was prompt, fearless and impartial. As a man he was genial and companionable, most entertaining as a conversationalist.
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