USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Groton > Groton historical series. A collection of papers relating to the history of the town of Groton, Massachusetts, Vol III > Part 24
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established a large and lucrative practice. Ilis natural talents, aided by a sterling character and close habits of industry, gave him a prominent place at the bar.
When the separation of the District of Maine from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was a subject of public dis- cussion, Mr. Shepley advocated the change and was chosen from Saco, on that issue, a member of the House of Repre- sentatives, which met on May 26, 1819. In three weeks from the beginning of the session he had the satisfaction to see the object of his wishes and labors carried by a large ma- jority. At this time his former townsman, Timothy Bigelow, was Speaker of the House, and his old friend, Luther Law- rence, was a member ; and they helped him in his efforts, so far as lay in their power. In February, 1821, he was appointed United States Attorney for the District Court of the new State, which office he held for twelve years. In 1833 he was chosen to the United States Senate, where he was a strong supporter of President Jackson's administration. At this period his former school-fellow and classmate, Amos Ken- dall, was in the President's Cabinet. Mr. Shepley remained in the Senate until September 23, 1836, when he was given a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of Maine; and soon afterward he took up his abode in Portland. On October 20, 1848, he was appointed to the position of Chief Justice, which he continued to hold until the autumn of 1855, -a term of seven years, which is the limit allowed by the State Constitution.
Judge Shepley retired from the bench with his ermine un- sullied, and ended a long life with a spotless reputation. His judicial career is best shown in the twenty-seven volumes (XIV .- XL., inclusive) of the Maine Reports, where his de- cisions are found. They all are drawn up with that clearness and terseness which make them models of exact expression. On April 1, 1856, he was appointed the Commissioner to re- vise the public laws of Maine; and this was his last official service.
In 1842 Waterville College, now Colby University, con- ferred upon him the degree of LL.D., and in 1845 his Alma
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Mater gave him the same honorary distinction. It is worthy of note that ten members of his class at Dartmouth ( namely, Andrews, Cutter, Danforth, Gardner, Kendall, Lewis, Parker, Rockwood, and Woodbury, besides himself ) were either na- tives of Groton or at some time residents of the town. He was an Overseer of Bowdoin College from the year 1821 to 1829, and a Trustee of the college from 1829 to 1866, making a continuous term of service of forty-five years.
On June 10, 1816, Judge Shepley was married to Anne, daughter of George and Anne ( Harback ) Foster, of Hanover, New Hampshire; and they had a family of five sons, among whom was the late George Foster Shepley, a General during the War of the Rebellion, and afterward a Justice of the Circuit Court of the First Circuit of the United States. Judge Ether Shepley died in Portland, on January 15, 1877.
The Sheple homestead, where Ether and John Shepley were born, stood on the east side of Chicopee Row, nearly opposite to Noah Torrey's house, as given on Mr. Butler's Map of Groton, published in the year 1832. "Sheeplees Hill," mentioned in the town-records February 28, 1670, was un- doubtedly so called from the first settler of the name. It is a knoll in the neighborhood of Naumox.
JOHN SHEPLEY was the eldest child of John and Mary (Gibson | Therlow) Sheple, and born at Groton, on October 16, 1787. John Sheple, who lived at Wenham, was the an- cestor of the Groton family ; and John, the lawyer, was a lineal descendant through five generations, each bearing the same given name. The first settler and all his family, ex- cept a son John, were massacred by the Indians on July 27, 1694. The son was kept in captivity for three years and a half, and afterward came back to his native town, where he held many offices of trust and responsibility, both civil and ecclesiastical. John, whose name stands at the head of this paragraph, pursued his preparatory studies at Groton Acad- emy, under the instruction of Mr. Butler, and, in the summer of 1804, entered Harvard College, where he remained nearly four years. His name appears in four successive annual cata-
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logues, and is always spelled Sheple. Unfortunately during the Senior year a disturbance broke out in his class, which resulted in the expulsion of a certain number, and he was among them. Immediately afterward he began the study of his profession in the office of the Honorable Luther Law- rence, of Groton, and was admitted to the Middlesex bar in September, 1810. He established himself in practice first at Rutland, Worcester County, where he lived for a year or so, and then removed to Fitchburg, at that time a town of less than sixteen hundred inhabitants. While a resident of Fitchburg he was chosen to fill various important offices, which he did with credit to himself and with satisfaction to his constituents. He was elected on October 16, 1820, a member of the Convention for altering the Constitution of Massachusetts, which met on November 15, 1820; and he also served as a member of the State Senate during the ses- sion of 1821, and of the House of Representatives during the session of 1825. At the end of the year 1825 he removed to Saco, Maine, where he formed a law-partnership with his younger brother Ether. He was a reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court, found in the nineteen volumes of Maine Reports (XIII .- XXXI.) published between the years 1836 and 1849.
On September 20, 1815, Mr. Shepley was married to Abi- gail Fellows, daughter of Nathaniel Fellows and Hannah (Adams) Cunningham, of Lunenburg; and they had a family of one son and two danghters. Mr. Shepley died at Saco, Maine, on February 9, 1857 ; and his widow at the same place on December 1, 1866.
EPHRAIM SHERMAN, Jr., was a son of Ephraim and Ruth (Patch) Sherman, and born at East Sudbury, now Wayland, on May 24, 1795. He graduated at Harvard College in the Class of 1819, and, on September 4, 1819, was appointed Preceptor of Groton Academy, where he remained for two years. After leaving Groton Mr. Sherman went South and studied law in the office of the Honorable Henry A. Bullard, of Natchitoches, Louisiana, where he died of yellow fever, unmarried, on July 10, 1822.
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FRANK BAINBRIDGE SPALTER is a son of John Hamilton and Martha Ann (Hildreth) Spalter, and was born at Groton, on September 3, 1845. On October 26, 1853, his father's family removed to Keene, New Hampshire, where the son studied law in the office of Wheeler (Wm. P.) and Faulkner (Francis A.). Beginning on September 11, 1869, he at- tended one term at the Harvard Law School, and on June 8, 1870, was admitted to the New Hampshire bar at Newport. From February 1, 1870, to October 15 of the same year he was in the office of Henry J. Stevens, Esq., No. 19 Court Street, Boston ; and in January, 1871, he removed to Win- chendon, where he entered the office of Giles H. Whitney, Esq., and on November 13, 1871, was admitted to the Wor- cester County bar, at Fitchburg. During the next year he formed a partnership with Mr. Whitney, which continued for ten years and was then dissolved. On December 27, 1882, he was appointed a Trial Justice, an office which he still holds.
On January 1, 1881, Mr. Spalter was married to Alice Josephine, daughter of Sabin and Ilattie (Stearns) Kelton, of Warwick, and a native of Worcester; and they have one child, Mabel Josephine Spalter, born on July 3, 1884.
CHARLES WARREN STONE is the eldest child of Warren Fay and Mary ( Williams) Stone, and was born at Groton, on June 29, 1843. He fitted for college at Lawrence Academy, and graduated at Williams College in the Class of 1863, which he entered at the beginning of the Sophomore year. Soon afterward he became Principal of the Union School at War- ren, Pennsylvania, a position he resigned in 1865 in order to accept the superintendency of schools in Warren County. In the autumn of the same year he was chosen Principal of the Academy at Erie, and in 1866 began to study law in the office of Judge Lansing D. Wetmore at Warren. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1867, and during the next year formed a partnership with Judge Rasselas Brown. He has served several terms as a member of the Warren School Board and of the Borough Council. He was also chosen a member of
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the House of Representatives in 1870 and 1871, and of the State Senate in 1876 from the Forty-eighth District, where he served during the sessions of 1877 and 1878. In Novem- ber, 1878, he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of the Com- monwealth for the term ending January 16, 1883, and on January 18, 1887, was appointed by Governor Beaver as Secre- tary of the State, a position which he resigned on November 30, 1890, in order to accept a seat in Congress. He was chosen as a Republican from the Twenty-seventh Pennsylva- .nia District, by an overwhelming majority, on November 4, 1890, to fill a vacancy in the Fifty-first Congress, caused by the death of the Honorable Lewis Findlay Watson, and also at the same time chosen a member of the Fifty-second Congress.
On January 30, 1868, Mr. Stone was married at Meadville, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca (Barnett) Morehead, of Erie; and they have six children.
GEORGE FISHER STONE is the youngest child of Warren Fay and Mary (Williams) Stone, and was born at Groton, on December 25, 1850. After attending school at Lawrence Academy, he studied law in the office of George Stevens, Esq., of Lowell, and was admitted to the Middlesex bar in February, 1874. He practised his profession for four years at Hudson, and in 1878 removed to Bradford, Pennsylvania, where four years later he became Superintendent of Public Schools, a position which he heldl for five years. He left Bradford in 1888, and passed the next three years, for the most part, in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, and in North Caro- lina. In the spring of 1891 he removed to Olympia, Wash- ington, where he resumed the practice of law, and is now living.
On December 25, 1872 (his birthday), Mr. Stone was mar- ried to Emma Cecilia Branch, daughter of the Reverend Jere- miah Knight and Sarah ( Hamer) Aldrich, of Groton.
RUFUS BARRETT STONE is the second son of Warren Fay and Mary (Williams) Stone, and was born at Groton, on November 244, 1847. He pursued his preparatory studies at
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Lawrence Academy and took a partial course of one year at Williams College. In the annual catalogue of that institution for 1867-1868, published in the autumn of 1867, his name appears in the Junior Class ; but owing to a domestic bereave- ment, he was compelled to sever his connection with the college. In the year 1869 he entered the United States Internal Revenue service as chief clerk of the Assessor of the Third District of Mississippi; and later, as Assistant Asses- sor and Deputy Collector of the same District, he passed through the varied experiences incident to the performance of duties connected with such an office, during the days of Southern reconstruction. While so engaged, he began the study of law, and in 1872 was admitted to the bar at Her- nando, De Soto County, Mississippi. Having resigned from the United States service, he entered upon the practice of his profession at OkoĊona, in partnership with Francis Sweeney Pate, Esq., a native of that State and a former District At- torney for the county. In the ensuing year Mr. Stone held the appointment of United States Commissioner for the Northern District of Mississippi. In 1873 he was appointed Chancellor of the Seventeenth Chancery District, composed of four counties, and six months later was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate. Of his decisions only one has been reversed, although several were mooted in the news- papers and published at length, especially one relating to Confederate money as a contract consideration, and another relating to the Statute of Limitations as affected by the Civil War. During his residence in Mississippi he warmly es- poused the cause of the Republican party, and was actively interested in the question of reconstruction, which rendered him unpopular with the lawless element of the opposition. Hle was abused in many ways and repeatedly assaulted, and often his life was in danger. In 1876 he resigned the Chan- cellorship and removed to Bradford, Pennsylvania, where he became prominent in the affairs of the city and county. In 1882 he received a unanimous Republican nomination for Mayor, but was defeated through the intervention of an inde- pendent candidate. Mr. Stone's sympathies are broad, and
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in many ways and on many occasions his public services have been conspicuous. He is still actively engaged in profes- sional work, though his business relations are by no means confined to legal practice.
On April 18, 1872, Mr. Stone was married to Margaret Sarah, daughter of the Reverend Burr and Cornelia Cadmus (Keen ) Baldwin, of Newark, New Jersey, and a native of Ashfield in this State.
RICHARD SULLIVAN was the third son of Governor James and Hetty (Odiorne) Sullivan, and born at Groton, on July 17, 1779. He pursued his preparatory studies at the Boston Latin School, and graduated at Harvard College in the Class of 1798, of which he was one of the most distinguished members. After leaving college, he studied law in the office of his father at Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in July, 1801; but he did not long follow the profession, as he had an ample competence of worldly goods. In early life he took much interest in political matters, and on April 3, 1815, and the two following years, was chosen, from Suffolk County, a member of the State Senate; on October 16, 1820, chosen, from Brookline, a delegate to the Convention for altering the Constitution of Massachusetts, which met on November 15 of that year ; and a member of the Executive Council during 1820 and 1821. In 1823 he was the candidate of the Federal party for Lientenant-Governor of the State, the Honorable Harrison Gray Otis being the candidate for Gover- nor ; but the ticket was defeated. In 1821 he was elected a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, and held that office until the Board was re-organized by an Act of the Legislature in 1852. He was public-spirited and philan- thropic ; and the records of several of the most important public institutions in Boston and its neighborhood, founded during the first thirty years of the present century, bear ample testimony to his services in their behalf. The plan of the Massachusetts General Hospital was first started at a meeting in his house; and among those who helped to establish it, the labors of few were more earnest or efficient than were his
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own. He died in Cambridge, on December 11, 1861, aged 82 years.
On May 22, 1804, Mr. Sullivan was married to Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Sever) Russell, of Boston ; and the issue of the marriage was four sons and four daughters.
WILLIAM SULLIVAN was the second son of Governor James and Hetty (Odiorne) Sullivan, and born at Biddeford, Maine, on November 30, 1774. The father's family lived at Groton during the Revolutionary period, occupying a farm on the Lowell road, half a mile east of the First Parish Meeting-house. The son studied at the Boston Latin School, and also under the Reverend Dr. Phillips Payson, of Chelsea, graduating at Harvard College with the highest honors in the Class of 1792. lle began the study of law at Boston in the office of his father, then the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1795. A man of brilliant tal- ents, he warmly espoused the side of the Federalists, while his father was equally the advocate of the Republicans. This difference of political opinion at one time caused some hard feeling between them, though finally the best of rela- tions existed. He had a large practice, and many of his cases were of much importance. Ile was a ready writer, and his publications on a great variety of subjects were numerous. He was an early member of the Massachusetts Historical Society ; and in 1826 Harvard College conferred upon him the Doctorate of Laws. On May 9, 1804, he was chosen a member of the House of Representatives, and also for eleven subsequent years, though not successive ones, the last time being for 1830 ; and on April 3, 1820, he was chosen a member of the State Senate. On October 16, 1820, he was elected a delegate to the Convention for the purpose of revising the Constitution of Massachusetts, which met on November 15. His younger brother Richard was also a member of the same body, chosen by the town of Brookline.
The following paragraph in Benjamin Homer Hall's " Col- lection of College Words and Customs" (Cambridge, 1856) refers to young Sullivan while in college : --
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Exhibition, 1791. April 20th. This morning Trapier was rusticated and Sullivan suspended to Groton for nine months, for mingling tartar emetic with our commons on ye morning of April 12th (page 181).
During his suspension at Groton Mr. Sullivan was an inmate of the Reverend Dr. Chaplin's family ; and the late venerable Mrs. Rockwood, a daughter of Dr. Chaplin, told me, a short time before her death, that as a little girl she remem- bered him, though then she was too young to know why he was there. She could recollect, however, that i.e was kind to children, and in his manners courteons to all.
On May 19, 1802, Mr. Sullivan was married to Sarah Webb, daughter of Colonel James and Hepzibah (Clarke) Swan ; and they had a family of ten children. Mr. Sullivan died in Boston, on September 3, 1839; and his widow on June 9, 1851.
SAMUEL WOODBURY was the eldest child of William and Hannah (Kelly) Woodbury, and born at Salem, New Hamp- shire, on December 21, 1784. His father served as a soldier in the Revolutionary army, and settled at Acworth, New Hampshire, in 1789. The son graduated at Dartmouth College in the Class of 1811, and, on September 4, 1811, was appointed preceptor of Groton Academy, where he remained for one year. He then entered the office of the Honorable William M. Richardson, and later the office of the Honorable Luther Lawrence, both of Groton, where he read law, and was admitted to the Middlesex bar in June, 1815. He began the practice of his profession in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but soon gave up his calling, and studied divinity under the tuition of the Reverend Francis Brown, D.D., President of Dartmouth College. He was ordained pastor of the Congre- gational Church at North Yarmouth, Maine, on November 5, 1817, but after a settlement of less than two years, owing to ill health, was obliged to resign his charge. He then returned to Groton, where he died of consumption at the home of his wife, on July 6, 1819, to the great grief of a wide circle of friends.
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On July 28, 1818, Mr. Woodbury was married to Mary, daughter of Major Samuel and Susanna ( Parker) Lawrence, of Groton. An only child, Sarah Lawrence Woodbury, was born two months after her father's death ; and she married on March 10, 1841, the late Reverend David Fosdick, and died at Groton on November 25, 1860, leaving a family of children, of whom the Honorable Frederick Fosdick, formerly Mayor of Fitchburg, is the youngest son.
NOAH WOODS was a son of Jonas and Eunice (Lakin) Woods, and born at Groton, on September 26, 1811. In the autumn of 1816 his mother died, and the next year he went to Baldwin, Maine, and lived with an uncle William Fitch, whose wife was his father's sister. Here he worked on a farm, and, as he grew older, was much engaged in logging and lumbering in that part of Baldwin which is now Sebago. The first boat which passed through the Cumberland and Oxford Canal, opened in 1830, and leading from Lake Sebago to Portland Harbor, belonged to his uncle; and Noah was employed on board as one of the hands. For two years he was engaged in boating on this canal during the open season, when he saved money enough to pay for some schooling. In the
autumn of 1832 he entered the Academy at North Bridgton, Maine, where he remained for a short time and then taught a district school. He was also a scholar at the Academy again during the years 1834-1836, and in the spring of 1838 began the study of law in the office of Charles Washburn, Esq., of Harrison, and afterward in the office of the Honorable John Searle Tenney, of Norridgewock. In the spring of 1841 he was admitted to the bar of Somerset County, at which time he opened an office at Gardiner. When that town be- came a city in 1850, he was chosen the President of the Common Council and the City Solicitor during the first year of its municipal existence. In March, 1854, he was elected Mayor, and re-elected for the four following years, and again in 1861 and the next two years, making a service of eight years as Chief Magistrate of Gardiner. It is recorded in the " Proceedings at the Re-union of the Alumni of Bridgton
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Academy, held at North Bridgeton, Me., July 12th, 1882." that : --
He was for a long time Superintendent of the public schools of Gardiner, and by bis efficient management raised them to a high standard of excellence (page 44).
In 1862 and 1863 he was a member of the State Senate. In 1863 be removed to Bangor, and carly in 1864 was appointed National Bank Examiner for Maine and New Hampshire ; and for many years he was President and Treasurer of the Euro- pean and North American Railway Company.
On Commencement day at Bowdoin College in 1850, he re- ceived the honorary degree of A.M. from that institution. During the last four years of his life he was a resident of Fitchburg in this State, where he died on June 13, 1891, at the house of a niece, Mrs. Charles F. Baker.
In February, 1844, Mr. Woods was married at Gardiner, first, to Sarah W., daughter of Calvin and Hannah (Blish) Ballard, who died in that town, on May 10, 1845, aged 26 years ; on October 5, 1846, at Hallowell, secondly, to Harriette Elizabeth Blish, daughter of James, who died at Gardiner, on February 4, 1861, aged 43 years ; and on December 26, 1862, at Bangor, thirdly, to Mrs. Frances Ann (Curtis) Blake, daughter of Winslow Hincks and Zerviah Rich (Howes) Curtis, and widow of William Augustine Blake. There were no children by any of these marriages. The last wife died on August 11, 1881.
WILLIAM PRESCOTT WRIGHT is an only son of John and Susanna (Prescott) Wright, and was born at Groton, on March 18, 1832. When he was a year old his parents re- moved to Worcester, where they lived until 1843, and then went to Lowell. In that city he attended the public schools and the High School, and finished his preparatory studies under a private instructor. He graduated at Harvard College in the Class of 1853, and began the study of law in the office of the Honorable Nathan Crosby, of Lowell. He attended the Harvard Law School for two terms in 1855-1856, and was admitted to the Middlesex bar in September, 1856, though he
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never practised his profession. Soon afterward he went to Chicago, where he took up his residence, and became engaged in business as a banker. Of late years, however, owing to ill health, he has retired from the active affairs of life.
On April 7, 1858, Mr. Wright was married at Galesburgh, Illinois, to Lydia Abbie, daughter of John and Abigail ( Hall) Keyser, of Lowell.
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A PARTIAL LIST
THOSE WHO HAVE STUDIED LAW AT GROTON, WITH SKETCHES OF THEIR LIVES.
AMOS ALLEN was a son of Josiah and Sally (Pike) Allen, and born at Lincoln, on February 11, 1780. He graduated at Dartmouth College in the Class of 1808, and studied law in the office of Samuel Dakin, Esq., of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and the Honorable William M. Richardson, of Groton. He was admitted to the Middlesex bar in March, 1813, and began the practice of his profession at Newton, where for many years he was postmaster. He was also postmaster for a long while at Newton Lower Falls. During his early life he was an active politician on the side of the Federal party. His death took place at Newton Lower Falls, on January 23, 1860.
On November 11, 1829, Mr. Allen was married to Martha Shattuck, daughter of Captain Peter and Rebecca (Davis) Parker, of Needham, who died at Newton, on July 17, 1869. She was a native of Boston.
BENJAMIN AMES was a son of Benjamin and Phebe (Chandler) Ames, and born at Andover, on October 30, 1778. He gradu- ated at Harvard College in the Class of 1803, and studied law in the office of the Honorable Samuel Dana, of Groton, in which town an uncle, Nathan Ames, was then living. Ile was ad- mitted to the bar in the year 1806, and at once established himself as an attorney in Bath, Maine, where he became dis- tinguished as a lawyer and politician. He " migrated from the
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