History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 214

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818

USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 214

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In March, 1773, a cause was tried wherein Nehe- miah Liscome, of Taunton, sued Jerathmeel Bowers, of Swansey, in a plea of trespass, "that whereas, on the 11th day of March last past, at Taunton, a certain discourse was had between the said Nehemiah and Jerathmeel concerning the election of the person who should be chosen to represent the town of Taunton at the next election," Bowers promised that if Lis- come was elected representative he would give him one hundred gallons of Jamaica rum, and if Lis- come was not elected he was to give Bowers fifty dol- lars. Liscome was elected and demanded the rum of Bowers, who refused to pay, and this suit was brought to recover the same or the value thereof in money. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant.

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Upon the breaking out of the Revolution the colo- nial courts were dissolved, and more than a year elapsed before the courts were reorganized. This want of courts of justice was in some places supplied by the establishment of local tribunals. As an illus- tration, at a town meeting held in Attleborough it was voted to have a Superior and Inferior Court in that town, and four men were chosen to serve as superior judges, and seven as judges of the Inferior Court.

There was a large number of the inhabitants of the American Colonies who did not espouse the popular cause in the war of the Revolution, but adhered to the crown. They were called Loyalists or Tories. Some of these persons remained almost neutral, and looked upon the changing fortunes of their country with the coldness of a stoic, while others took up arms in support of the king, and endeavored by every artifice and stratagem to defeat the plans of the colo- nists. On the 12th day of March, 1776, a large num- ber of these persons with force and arms prevented the court from meeting at the court-house in Taun- ton, and other quarters had to be provided in which to hold the session of the court.

During the Revolutionary war the courts were busy in the examination of persons who were in any way disposed to favor the side of the mother-country. If any one was supposed to be an enemy, he was brought before a Committee of Correspondence and Safety which was in every town.

The committee would send the suspected persons to the Court of Sessions, where they would be ordered to enter into a recognizance in the sum of two hundred pounds, not to join the enemy or render any assist- ance thereto.

In 1777, Jerathmeel Bowers, of whom we have here- tofore spoken, and who was at this time one of the justices of the Court of Sessions, was convicted before the Committee of Correspondence and Safety, " for undervaluing the paper currency of the United States and refusing to take the same, and for saying that he had rather give one thousand dollars than to have any soldiers raised in Swansea. He was ordered to be committed to the gaol and there remain till he was discharged by the order of the State; at the next terin of the Court of Sessions he was ordered to be discharged on his own recognizance.

Col. Bowers was elected a representative from Swansea to the General Court in 1783. The select- men of Rehoboth and sundry inhabitants of Swansea petitioned that he might be excluded from a seat, on the ground that "he had not shown himself friendly in the late struggle with Great Britain," and also that he was disqualified by virtue of a resolve of a former General Court. This petition was referred to a com- mittee of the house which subsequently reported that " by a resolve of the General Court passed April 7, 1777, the said Jerathmeel Bowers was disqualified from holding any post of honor or profit in the com- monwealth, which resolve in the opinion of the com- mittee was still in force, and that Mr. Bowers was therefore disqualified from holding a seat." This re- port was accepted by the House and Bowers quitted his seat accordingly.

In the year 1785, during the Shays rebellion, the courts in this county were again interrupted. A large number of persons armed with clubs and stones assembled at Taunton, intending to prevent the Court | of Common Pleas from doing any business. At this

891

THE COURTS AND BAR OF BRISTOL COUNTY.

time Gen. David Cobb, of Taunton, was one of the justices of the Court of Common Pleas. Gen. Cobb had been an aid to Gen. Washington, and was then major-general of militia of the Old Colony. During the riot Gen. Cobb made his way through an angry mob to the court-house, uttering the memorable words, "I will either sit as a judge or die as a gen- eral." This bold and determined attitude of Gen. Cobb carried dismay and fear to the rioters, they im- diately dispersed, and the court proceeded with its business without further molestation. Gen. Cobb afterwards became the chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Maine.

In the colonial days, and in the earlier days of the republic, Samuel White, Robert Treat Paine, Daniel Leonard, Seth Bradford, Nicholas Tillinghast, Daniel L. Barnes and others, who were residents of the county, with James Otis, Timothy Ruggles and other distinguished lawyers now residents, were members of the Bristol bar and practiced in the courts at Taunton.

Samuel White was appointed king's attorney in 1747, and at every term of the court thereafter till his death in 1769. He was an eminent lawyer, and " famed for his accuracy in making writs." He was Speaker of the House of Representatives during the period of the stamp act, and as presiding officer of the House he signed the circular which called to- gether the first Congress that assembled in New York in 1765.

Robert Treat Paine settled in Taunton in 1761, and continued to reside there for nineteen years. He was one of the ablest lawyers of his day, and his practice was probably not exceeded by that of any attorney in the State. In 1770, the prosecution of Capt. Pres- ton and others "for the Boston massacre was con- ducted by him with marked ability, and he won a wide reputation. As a signer of the Declaration of Independence he rendered his name immortal. In 1779 he was a member of the State Constitutional Convention, and one of the committee which pre- pared the draft of the Constitution. In 1780, upon the acceptance of the constitution, he was made the first attorney-general of the State, which office he re- tained for ten years, when he was appointed one of the justices of the Superior Court. He was a mem- ber of the court for fourteen years when he resigned.

Upon the death of Samuel White the court ap- pointed Daniel Leonard king's attorney. Mr. John Adams, his contemporary, has given us a graphic de- scription of Mr. Leonard. Mr. Adams says, "He was a scholar, a lawyer, and an orator, according to the standard of those days. As a member of the House of Representatives, even down to the year 1770, he made the most ardent speeches in that House against Great Britain, and in favor of the colonies. His popularity became alarming. He married a daughter of Mr. Hammock, who had left a portion, i as it was thought in that day. He wore a broad gold

lace around the rim of his hat. He had made his cloak glitter with laces still broader. He had set up his chariot and constantly traveled in it from Taun- ton to Boston. Not another lawyer in the province, of whatever age, reputation, or station, presumed to ride in a coach or chariot."

Robert Treat Paine and Daniel Leonard were col- leagnes as representatives from Taunton, and on one occasion, as they were going to Boston together to at- tend to their legislative duties, when approaching the summer residence of Governor Hutchinson, in Milton, Mr. Leonard remarked to Mr. Paine that he was de- sirous of calling on the Governor, and requested Paine to accompany him. Paine declined the invitation and added, " If you stop I shall proceed to Boston with- out you." And there they parted company. Of what was said and done at this interview between Governor Hutchinson and Mr. Leonard history is silent, but from that hour Mr. Leonard ceased to support the American cause and became a bitter Tory. He commenced a se- ries of articles, which were published in the Massa- chusetts Gazette and Post-Boy. These articles attracted much attention, and were afterwards answered by John Adams.

Mr. Leonard lived in the dwelling-house which ad- joins the court-house on the east. A mob attacked his house, and a musket-ball was fired through the window into a room in which Mr. Leonard was seri- ously ill. He fled to Boston, and in 1776 he accom- panied the British army to Halifax, and was prohib- ited from returning to the State, by the statute of 1778, under the penalty of death. He was appointed by the British government chief justice of the Bermuda Islands, and died in London in 1829, aged eighty-nine years.

Samuel Fales, of Taunton, was the second clerk of the courts ; afterwards he became chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas ; he was subsequently an ex- ecutive councilor of the commonwealth. His eldest son, Nathaniel, succeeded him as clerk of the courts in 1804.

James Sproat, Sr., followed Mr. Fales in the clerk's office. "Mr. Sproat was a man of ready wit. While at the bar Daniel L. Barnes, Esq., was at one time addressing the jury, he had occasion to quote the fol- lowing passage from Scripture, the address of Satan to the Lord, 'Skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life,' adding, in his ignorance of authorities, 'saith our Saviour.' Sproat in an instant was on his feet, and turning to the court said, 'He may be Brother Barnes' Saviour, but he is not mine.'"

James Sproat, Jr., succeeded his venerable father, and performed the duties of clerk of the court till June, 1856, when he resigned, and his brother, Wil- liam A. F. Sproat, was appointed by the court.

Mr. William A. F. Sproat continued as clerk till January, 1857, when the office, by an amendment to the constitution, became elective. John S. Brayton, of Fall River, who was elected at the November elec-

892

HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

tion in 1856 clerk of the Courts, assumed the duties of that office on the first Wednesday of January, 1857. Mr. Brayton was re-elected in the autumn of 1861, and resigned January 5, 1864. He was suc- ceeded by Simeon Borden, Esq., of Fall River, who has held the office by successive elections till the present time, and has proved himself to be an effi- cient, able, and accomplished officer.

For eighty-two years all the courts of this county were held in Taunton. The Legislature of 1828 au- thorized the holding of one term of the Supreme Ju- dical Court and two terms of the Court of Common Pleas annually in New Bedford. In June, 1828, the first term of the Court of Common Pleas was held in New Bedford, in what was then the town hall, now the District Court room. The present conrt-house and other county buildings in New Bedford were subsequently erected. The last term of the Court of Common Pleas for Bristol County was holden in New Bedford, the term ending on the 27th day of June, 1859. Regular sessions of that court had been held either at Taunton or New Bedford, with the excep- tion of the interregnum heretofore alluded to, for one hundred and thirteen years. From the time of its organization to the year 1810, the Court of Common Pleas was strictly a County Court, its justices, three in number, being residents of the county. All the jus- tices were present at its sessions and participated in the business of the court. In 1810 the State was divided into circuits, the Southern circuit being com- posed of the counties of Norfolk, Plymouth, Barn- stable, Bristol, Dukes, and Nantucket. In 1821 the courts were again reorganized and the Court of Com- mon Pleas became a State Court, like the Supreme Judicial Court. On the 1st day of July, 1859, the Court of Common Pleas was abolished, and was suc- ceeded by the Superior Court.

The Bristol bar, as we have seen, during the colo- nial era and the earlier days of the republic, had among its members distinguished men, who stamped their characters upon the times in which they lived, and who gave to the bar a reputation for ability, in- telligence, and statesmanship second to none in the commonwealth. The reputation thus early estab- lished has been maintained to this day. During the present century the Bristol bar has furnished to the several courts of the commonwealth judges, who as jurists have become noted for their broad, general knowledge of jurisprudence and for their sound judgment and legal acumen.

Samuel S. Wilde, of Taunton, was an honored member of the Supreme Judicial Court for thirty-five years, the longest term of service of any judge in the State ; and for twenty years there sat by his side Marcus Morton, another member of this bar. These two jurists, with their associates, Shaw and Putman, gave weight and character to the decisions of our Supreme Judicial Court, and its decisions have been adopted as the common law of our country and are

quoted as authority in the courts of Westminster Hall.

Judge Merrick, who was a justice of the Supreme Court for eleven years, commenced the practice of his profession in this county. He first settled in Swansea, and afterwards removed to Taunton.

And now Marcus Morton, the junior of that name, born and bred in this county, fills with distinguished ability the seat upon that bench which has been graced by a Parsons and a Shaw.

John Mason Williams, a native of New Bedford, an honored member of this bar, was upon the bench of the Court of Common Pleas twenty-four years, five years of which he was chief justice. Charles H. Warren, Harrison Gray Otis Colby each have won here enviable reputations, and, having acceptably filled the office of district attorney, were promoted to seats upon the same bench.

The present chief justice of the Supreme Court, Lincoln Flagg Brigham, for six years discharged. with eminent ability the duties of prosecuting officer of this district, and was, upon the organization of the court, appointed one of its associate justices, and in 1869 commissioned chief justice. The late Ezra Wilkinson, of Dedham, upon his admission to the bar, settled in Seekonk, and afterwards removed to Assonet. He subsequently became a resident of Dedham, was for many years district attorney of his district, and when the Superior Court was established he was appointed a judge, and remained on the bench till his death, in 1882.

Chester I. Reed, of Taunton, who was cut off by death in the midst of his usefulness, was taken from the office of attorney-general and placed upon the bench of the Superior Court. One of the present eminent judges of that court is the Hon. Robert Car- ter Pitman, who was in full practice at the Bristol bar when appointed to the bench.

Besides the two attorney-generals of whom we have spoken in another connection, the Bristol bar has furnished that office with one who, by his marked ability and great forensic powers, has given even to the bar of Massachusetts a broader and more enviable reputation, the late Hon. John Henry Clifford, of New Bedford.

George Marston, of New Bedford, was for eighteen years the prosecuting officer of the Southern District, and was then elected attorney-general of the common- wealth. He held that office for four years, and it is sufficient to say he maintained its high reputation for ability, learning, and character.

The office of attorney-general was re-established in 1849, and it is a fact to be named with honest pride that for fifteen of the thirty-four years, which have since elapsed, the attorney-general has been a men- ber of the Bristol bar.

In the national councils this bar has been ably represented by William Baylies, for many years its acknowledged leader ; by his brother, Francis Baylies,

893

HOMOEOPATHY IN BRISTOL COUNTY AND ITS PRACTITIONERS.

the author of the "History of Plymouth Colony," and who was at one time the United States minister to Brazil ; by Lemuel Williams, of New Bedford, and Henry Williams, of Taunton ; by Laban Wheaton, of Norton; and by Thomas Dawes Eliot, of New Bedford. Mr. Eliot was in Congress thirteen years, and has left his impress upon the legislation of his country.

William Wallace Crapo, also of New Bedford, has just closed a successful career of eight years in Con- gress, and has made for himself a national reputation.

Mr. George T. Davis, recently deceased, and Mr. Kasson, of Iowa, formerly belonged to this bar, and have each been members of Congress, Mr. Kasson from the State of his adoption, and Mr. Davis from one of the districts in this State.

Two chief magistrates of the commonwealth, Gov- ernors Morton and Clifford, as has been previously stated, were members of this bar, and David Cobb, of Taunton, who was Lieutenant-Governor in 1809, was for a time a judge of the Court of Common Pleas.

If we had the space and time we would speak more fully of Professor Theophilus Parsons, who practiced at Taunton ; of Timothy G. Coffin, who obtained the foremost rank in his profession as a nisi prius lawyer ; of that able advocate, Nathaniel Morton ; of the two Hathaways, Elnathan B. and Joseph ; of the two Cushmans, Apollos and Hercules; of the genial Stone, the judge of the Court of Insolvency ; of Charles J. Holmes, A. Bassett ; of Messrs. Battelle, Williams, Lapham, Boomer, Pratt, Bacon, and others, who have sustained the honor and added lustre to the Bristol County bar.

Governor Emory Washburn enunciated an axiom when he said "that a free people, for an impartial administration of justice, and the security of personal rights, depend upon the labors of an honorable, en- lightened, and independent bar." The bar of Bristol County is, to-day, what it has been in the past, hon- orable, enlightened, and independent.

By the statute approved March 19, 1877, the justices of the Superior Court were authorized to adjourn any of the established terms of that court from Taunton and New Bedford to Fall River. The county com- missioners thereupon made arrangements to have the large and eligible hall in the Borden Block, in Fall River, which block had just been erected and fitted up for the accommodation of the Superior Court. This hall and the adjoining rooms are now used for that purpose, and in their appointments and con- venience are not surpassed by any court-house in the commonwealth.

The first session of the Superior Court convened in Fall River was held in the afternoon of the 27th day of June, 1877, the Hon. P. Emory Aldrich presiding. The session of that day was devoted to the dedication of the hall. Addresses were made by several gentle- men of the bar, and were responded to by the pre- siding judge.

We bring this article upon the history of the courts of Bristol County to a conclusion by quoting the closing portion of the historical address delivered on the occasion of the dedication of the hall in Fall River :

" How fitting and proper it is that we should be here and for the purposes of this day. The land upon which this stately edifice stands was once the property of Col. Benjamin Church, the famous war- rior and conqueror of King Philip, and who during the administration of Governor Andros was one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas for this county. As we look out of these windows to-day we can behold the scene of his brilliant exploits, the place where by his strategy and prowess the blow was given which put an end to that bloodiest of bloody wars, and finally resulted in the downfall of a great Indian empire.

" It was here that that Spartan band, under the lead of Col. Joseph Durfee, the son of Hon. Thomas Durfee, who was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, on that ever memorable Sunday morning re- pulsed the British in their cowardly attack upon the then little hamlet. Upon this spot the first blood was shed by the English in this county in the Revo- lutionary war. Once a part of the broad acres of a judge, defended with heroic valor by the son of another judge, the present clerk of the courts and his kinsmen, the worthy children of an honored sire, have erected this edifice, whose halls we this day dedicate to justice and to truth."

CHAPTER LXXI.

HOMEOPATHY IN BRISTOL COUNTY AND ITS PRAC- TITIONERS.1

THE very terms of living fifty years ago were so different from those of the present that comparison between them is impossible, mainly because of the multiplicity of the causes which have led to these changes, each having its due weight and influence. Hence this article can only indicate the rise, progress, and influence of one part of the therapeutic art.

Fifty years ago civilization, the civilization of merely living, was very different from what it is to-day. A large part of the life was not so completely shut out from the clear air of heaven. Wood was the common fuel, and the generous fireplaces formed ventilators which carried off through their roaring throats every form of impurity, not permitting it to linger long enough to attack the inhabitants. Hence the condi- tions of disease also were entirely different, for there is no more powerful disinfectant known than the oxygen of the atmosphere, when it can reach the

1 By E. U. Jones, M.D., Taunton, Mass.

894

HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

threatening nocua in sufficient quantity. The "filth" which now frightens ns, and which truly seems the home of all disease, which is truly the ally of every known disease-producer, and which we are now fight- ing with all the energy of a known enemy, was not such a disease-canse with them, because of its quick diffusion and minimizing by the very ease with which oxygen got access to it. When, however, the wings of the wind bore the invading epidemic from other lands and other places, the people fell before it, as much from fright, perhaps, as from the disease itself. In the last visitation of cholera, truly fright killed as many as filth. The fright of the people was not so much dread of the disease itself, as a lack of confi- dence in the power to oppose it.

Moreover, if I may use the phrase, there was at this time a great courseness in the science of medicine, from which it was just beginning to emerge. This coarseness was most noticeable in the two branches of diagnosis and therapeutics. In the larger cities, and among those who had facilities of intercourse with other, and especially with foreign, physicians, this coarseness was fast giving away to physiological medieine, diagnosis was becoming far more accurate, diseases which had always been classed as one were being separated, and in proportion as delicacy and accuracy of diagnosis existed, so polypharmacy began to give way to a more scientific therapeutics,-that is to say, an effort was made by which the new obser- vations and facts in physiology should be thrown into a theoretical form, and on that theory a new thera- peutics be constructed. But for a long time the teach- ing remained the same, and the close of the remedial statement of every serious disease remained the same,- " mercury, in some of its forms, is our sheet-anchor in this disease." The light of schools and colleges was being rapidly diffused, but the physicians of a pre- ceding generation, then in active practice, could not see or comprehend this light. A physician of this class, whose death occurred a few years since, was ac- customed to maintain that the only proper treatment for phthisis was copious and repeated venesections.

Under these circumstances homoeopathy was intro- duced to the notice of the profession and the people. Its remedies, so markedly diverse in form and ap- pearance from those in vogue, so minute as almost to claim the power of magic, and withal so effectual as to defy disproof, at onee gave rise to serious questions in the minds of both the profession and the laity. These questions presented themselves as it regards the self-limitation of disease, the needlessness of the huge doses, the actual injuries inflicted by the action of remedies pushed to their pathological results, the value of diet in disease, and the removal of the canses of disease. In proportion as the refinements of phys- iologieal medicine had not reached the mass of the people and the profession, so did the wonderful re- finement of homeopathy strike them the more forei- bly. The sufferers from the coarseness of the one flew

with extreme hope to the subtilty of the other. The long-suffering infant world was the first to experience the benefit of the change, and the limitation put to their diseases and death was the most marked and wonderful. The power of the new therapeutics was shown still more decidedly in the cures of virulent diseases, and cholera, dysentery, the exanthematic and continued fevers, choreas, and all forms of neu- rotic diseases, convulsions, ete., owned its sway. The educated and intelligent classes were among the first to accept the new method, from the positive proofs with which it was accompanied, and they are its best patrons to-day.

It was extremely unfortunate that homeopathy was introduced as a new system of medicine, rather as a new system of therapeuties based upon the eluci- dation of a formerly well-known law, but perhaps the present great advance in the science of medicine could not otherwise have been attained. Perhaps, too, the true position of its guiding law could not have been shown so effectually, and could not have been so great a boon to humanity, nor be adopted so thoroughly as the one great law of therapeutics as it is at the present day, by any other means than by being thrown upon its own resources. The ridi- cule with which it was met, the attempted argument by which it was to be annihilated, and the ostracism meted out to its supporters and its professional ex- ponents accomplished more for its introduction into the true science of medicine than any other methods could possibly have done. Although a portion of the old rancor still holds, expressing itself in the ethical formularies of many societies, yet this article will not be ten years old when all that will have practically passed away, and the science of medicine will have bowed its head to homœopathy in proud acknowledg- ment of the wonderful gain made in therapeutics by its aid.

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History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 214

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1818

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818