History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 6

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 6

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OLIVER PRESCOTT is now the oldest lawyer prac- ticing law in New Bedford. He was born in Mid- dlesex County, Nov. 25, 1806, was educated at Har- vard College, and, after teaching at the Friends' Academy in New Bedford, and studying law in the law school at Cambridge, in the office of Lemuel Wil- liams, Esq., of New Bedford, was admitted to the bar at the June term in 1832. He was appointed judge of probate in 1835, and held that office until the court was abolished in 1858. He was in 1846 appointed judge of the police court of New Bedford, and held that office until 1858, when he resigned.

He has always been a careful, wise, and discreet ad- viser, and has had more experience in probate matters than any other lawyer in this county. He has always had the confidence and regard of his brethren at the bar, and is now held in much esteem by all classes of the citizens of New Bedford and adjoining towns.

HON. GEORGE MARSTON .- When in the winter of 1868-69 the members of the New Bedford bar stood around the open grave of Joshua C. Stone, paying the last tribute of respect to one who from the first rank in the profession had just passed away in the fullness of his great powers, the thought must have passed through the minds of many, "Who will fill his place ?" The older members of the bar had then all either passed away, retired from active practice, or gone upon the bench, and while others were dis- tinguished in other branches of the profession the mantle of leadership in the courts had fallen upon

Seo. Maister

Ficolet. Brigham

BENCH AND BAR.

Stone and Stetson. To this high position made va- cant by the death of Mr. Stone the name of no heir- apparent appeared upon the roll of the New Bedford bar, which at this time was very limited in number, and it was evident that Mr. Stone's successor must be found elsewhere. The reputation which George Mars- ton, of Barnstable, then district attorney for the South- ern District, had already achieved throughout South- ern Massachusetts determined the selection, and on Feb. 1, 1869, Mr. Marston removed to New Bedford and took the vacant chair.

Born at Barnstable, Oct. 15, 1821, he was educated at the common schools of his native town, and com- pleted his professional education at the Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the bar at the September term, 1845. But no adequate conception of his op- portunities in the preparation for his professional ca- reer would be gained without remembering that he had the good fortune to sit at the feet of Nynphas Marston, his uncle, whose influence, inspired by the respect and affection and confidence in which he was held by the people of his county, was said to be so great that a Barnstable County jury could not give a verdict against Nynphas Marston, and it was un- doubtedly from this source that the nephew acquired those characteristics which, on a wide field, enabled him to repeat his uncle's experience. While a resi- dent of Barnstable he was, from March, 1853, to De- cember, 1854, register of probate, and judge of probate from 1854 to July 1, 1858. For nearly twenty years (January, 1860-79) he held the office of district at- torney for the Southern District with such marked ability and conscientious devotion to its delicate and responsible duties that when, on his promotion to the office of attorney-general, he resigned this office to which he had been seven times elected, the bar of Bristol united in a public testimonial of their appre- ciation of his public worth and distinguished services. Entering on the discharge of his duties as attorney- general of the commonwealth, January, 1879, he was three times re-elected, and having in the fall of 1882 declined a renomination, he closed, in January, 1883, a service of a quarter of a century as a prosecu- ting officer with a record of unsullied integrity, great ability, and the affectionate regard of all classes of people rarely equaled. But it is not only as a public officer that he is known and respected. For the last fifteen years scarcely a cause of the first magnitude has been tried on the civil side of the court in which Mr. Marston has not been engaged, and in which his arguments to the jury have been masterpieces of fo- rensic ability. Nor has his work been confined en- tirely to the strict line of his profession. As presi- dent of the Nantucket and Cape Cod Steamboat Company, director of the Old Colony Railroad Com- pany, the Citizens' National Bank of New Bedford, and the Quincy Mutual Fire Insurance Company, he has displayed business abilities of a high order.

And so the members of the New Bedford bar feel 2

that the question which was in their minds on that beautiful winter's day in January, 1869, has been fully answered, and that with untiring energy and pre-eminent ability, with marvelous resources and quickness in their use, with the keenest conception of the true relation of facts to each other, with an un- limited fertility of expression and effective and per- suasive diction, all united with an impressive phy- sique, and with all these great powers held in place and controlled by a fullness of heart which has won the affection, and a character of perfect integrity which has commanded the respect, of all, George Marston has worthily and completely continued the succession of the leaders of the bar of Southern Mas- sachusetts.

LINCOLN FLAGG BRIGHAM was born in Cambridge (Port), Mass., on Oct. 4, 1819, and was the youngest of six children, whose parents were Lincoln Brigham, son of Elijah and Ruth (Taylor) Brigham, of South- boro', Mass., and Lucy (Forbes) Brigham, daughter of Elisha and Hannah (Flagg) Forbes, of Westboro', Mass. Lincoln Brigham, father of the subject of this sketch, was a descendant of the sixth generation from " Thomas Brigham, who, aged thirty-two years, embarked at London for New England April 18, 1635, in the ship 'Susan and Ellyn,' Edward Payne, master," and was a " townsman" of Cambridge, Mass., where he died in 1853, leaving three sons, who upon the second marriage of their mother settled in Marl- boro', Mass., and are supposed to have been the pro- genitors of all persons in the United States bearing the name of Brigham.

Lincoln F. Brigham, when partially fitted for col- lege, entered the counting-room of Samuel Austin, Jr., a distinguished merchant of Boston, engaged in trade with Calcutta, and after remaining in this em- ployment between two and three years, abandoncd his commercial education and prepared for college under the private tuition of Rev. David Peabody, the husband of his eldest sister, and afterwards Professor of Belles-Lettres and Rhetoric in Dartmouth College ; entered in 1838, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1842. He immediately upon leaving col- lege entered the Dane Law School of Harvard Uni- versity, and there remained until January, 1844, when he entered as a student of law the office of Clif- ford (John H.) & Colby (Harrison G. O.) at New Bedford, and there studied law until he was admitted to the bar in Court of Common Pleas, Bristol County, at New Bedford, June term, 1845. H. G. O. Colby having a month previously been appointed a justice of the Court of Common Pleas, Mr. Clifford, on July 1, 1845, received Mr. Brigham into a partnership with him in the practice of law, which continued until Mr. Clifford became Governor of Massachusetts in 1853, when he appointed Mr. Brigham to the office of district attorney of the Southern District of Massa- chusetts, comprising the counties of Bristol, Barn- stable, Nantucket, and Duke's.

HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

On Oct. 20, 1847, Lincoln F. Brigham married Eliza Endicott Swain, only daughter of Thomas Swain, of New Bedford, and son of Thaddeus and Ruth (Hus- sey) Swain, both natives of Nantucket, and Sylvia (Perry) Swain, of New Bedford, daughter of Dr. Samuel and Sylvia (Clapp) Perry, and their children are four sons.

Mr. Brigham held the office of district attorney of the Southern District, under his original appointment, until 1856, when, that office becoming elective, he was elected to and continued in it until he was appointed in 1859 by Governor N. P. Banks, upon the estab- lishment of the Superior Court, to be one of its asso- ciate justices, and served in that office until on Jan. 28, 1869, upon the promotion of Seth Ames, chief justice of the Superior Court to the Supreme Judicial Court, Governor William Chaffin appointed Judge Brigham to the chief justiceship of the Superior Court, and he is now in that office. Judge Brigham resided in New Bedford from 1844 to 1860, in Boston from 1860 to 1866, and from 1866 to this time in Salem, Essex Co., Mass. Judge Brigham has never held or been a candidate for any political office.

Judge Brigham's career has been one of constant success ; whether at the bar pleading for his client, or as public prosecutor enforcing the criminal laws of the commonwealth, or upon the bench holding with absolute impartiality the scales of justice, he has won the unqualified approval of all with whom he has been associated. But, better even than this, his per- fect mental and moral integrity, born of a conscience which palliates no deviation from the highest and most exacting standard of duty, has won for his pro- fessional and judicial life the respect and admiration of every class of men ; while his courtesy and be- nignity, beaming from a face of wonderful attractive- ness, have made Lowell's lines as true of him as they were of Agassiz, that

" Where'er he met a stranger, There he left a friend."

ALANSEN BORDEN, the present judge of the Third District Court of Bristol, holden at New Bedford, was born in Tiverton, R. I. (now Fall River) in 1823. He studied law in the office of Eliot & Kasson, in New Bedford, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1849. He has been one of the School Committee of New Bedford a number of years, was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, was as- sistant assessor under the internal revenue law in 1864, was judge of the police court, and became judge of the present District Court, which office he now holds. He was mayor of New Bedford in 1877 for one year.

EDWIN LUTHER BARNEY was born in Swansea, in this commonwealth, on the 1st day of April, A.D. 1827. His father was Capt. Edwin Barney, son of the reputed ship-builder, Moses Barney. At a very early age his father died, and his mother was left with

three small children, our subject being the eldest, un- der the age of seven years.

At nine years of age Mr. Barney left his home to get his own livelihood, and from nine to sixteen years of age worked upon a farm for his living, going to school winters, some four months each year. After about sixteen years of age he worked upon a farm and went to academic schools in the fall with the earnings of the same, and in the winters went to school, doing chores for his board, and thus acquired a sufficient education to pass, in the fall of 1846, ad- mission to Brown University. In March, 1849, he came to New Bedford, where he has since resided, and entered the law-office of the late Timothy G. Cof- fin, and in October, 1850, was admitted before the full court to practice law in the courts of Massachusetts. Mr. Barney soon afterwards entered into partnership with Mr. Coffin, and from November, 1850, to Janu- ary, 1853, the firm was Coffin & Barney. Then Mr. Barney at his request withdrew from the firm and commenced the practice of the law alone, and from that date to this time has been engaged in all the various branches of his profession. He is now in the prime of life, with all the vigor of a man of thirty years of age. Democratic in politics.

ROBERT C. PITMAN is a native of New Bedford. He came to the bar in 1847 ; was a partner for a num- ber of years with Thomas D. Eliot, then a leading lawyer in New Bedford. He was a judge of the Police Court of New Bedford for several years ; then he went to the State Senate, where he proved to be a leading man. He was an active temperance worker and legislator, and then he worked his way to the ap- pointment of a judge of the Supreme Court. He has an excellent judicial mind, and is in every way quali- fied for the highest court of the commonwealth. Judge Pitman is a hard student and honest thinker not only in law, but in all questions of interest to humanity.

HON. WILLIAM W. CRAPO, one of the leading members of the Massachusetts bar, was born in Dart- mouth, Bristol Co., May 16, 1830.

He was educated at the public schools in New Bed- ford, prepared for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, and subsequently entered Yale, where he graduated in 1852. Having decided upon the legal profession as his life-work, he commenced the study of the law in the office of the late Governor Clifford at New Bedford, and also attended the Dane Law School at Cambridge. He was admitted to the bar in February, 1855, and commenced practice in New Bed- ford, where he has since resided. In April following his admission to the bar he was appointed city solic- itor, which office he held twelve years.

In 1856, Mr. Crapo entered the political arena, making his first speeches for John C. Fremont, the first candidate of the Republican party for President. In the autumn of the same year he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and the

Win. W. Gza pay

BENCH AND BAR.

following year, 1857, he was solicited to become the candidate of his party for State senator, which prof- fered honor he declined.

Not only did Mr. Crapo soon secure a leading posi- tion at the bar, but he won in an especial manner the confidence of the citizens of New Bedford. All move- ments tending to advance the interests of New Bed- ford have found in him an carnest supporter. He was chairman of the commission on the introduction of water, and from 1865 to 1875 was chairman of the water board.

In all positions where business capacity, good judgment, and executive ability are needed his ser- vices are always in request. As guardian or trustee for the management of estates, his high character and business talent brought to him the tender of more business than he could possibly undertake. In the larger field of business enterprise and the manage- ment of financial affairs, his peculiar endowments and his entire trustworthiness have been fully recog- nized for many years. He has been for twelve years the president of the Mechanics' National Bank of New Bedford, is a trustee in one savings-bank and is solicitor for several others. He is a director in the Potamska Mills and the Wamsutta Mills corpora- tions and other manufactories, and is associated in the management of several railroad corporations. He is a prominent manufacturer of lumber, and has interests in shipping. In his profession he is pre- eminently a business lawyer, being familiar with large commercial transactions in all their bearings. With the insurance business he has been familiar from a boy in his father's office, and was for many years a director in one of the old New Bedford com- panies. He is also president of the Flint and Père Marquette Railroad in Michigan, a part of which was organized and begun through his father's efforts.

Mr. Crapo is a scholarly man of great mental grasp, industry, and energy, which have enabled him to master and successfully carry through in all their detail the duties devolved upon him by so many varied interests.

He was elected as a representative to the Forty- fourth Congress to fill a vacancy, and was re-elected to the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, and Forty-seventh Congresses, declining in 1882 to longer be a candi- date. Mr. Crapo early took a prominent position in Congress, and in the Forty-fifth Congress was a mem- ber of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in the Forty-sixth was in the Committee on Banking and Currency.

In the Forty-seventh Congress he was chairman of the same committee, and excited the admiration of the business men of the country by his skillful man- agement of the bill for extending the charters of the national banks, a bill which was successfully carried through under his leadership in spite of all obstacles. In the tariff legislation, through which the tax on the capital and deposits of banks and bankers was re-

moved, Mr. Crapo's familiarity with the subject was of great service, and secured the direct application of the law to the national banks. Other prominent ser- vices might be recalled if the limits of this sketch did not prevent. It is sufficient to say that his value as a legislator was recognized and highly appreciated, not only by his constituents, who knew the man, but by the country.

P. C. Headley, in his "Publie Men of To-Day," in speaking of Mr. Crapo, says, " At the age of fifty Mr. Crapo finds himself well started in political life, in the full maturity of his powers, and possessing what some politician has so neatly termed 'the pecuniary basis.' In person he strongly resembles his father, a man of keenly intellectual physiognomy. The family is of French origin, regarding which there is a ro- mantic tradition. Both father and son have a type of face which is French rather than English. The strong mental as well as physical resemblance of the son to the father is a striking illustration of Galton's doctrine of heredity."

Politically, Mr. Crapo is a Republican, and his po- litical instincts are liberal and progressive. He is an exceptionally able legislator, and one of the most honored citizens of the commonwealth.

The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Yale College in 1882.

Jan. 22, 1857, Mr. Crapo united in marriage with Sarah Ann Davis Tappan, daughter of George and Serena Davis Tappan, and their children are Henry Howland Crapo, born Jan. 31, 1862, now in senior class (1883) at Harvard University, and Stanford Tap- pan Crapo, born June 13, 1865, now in the freshman class (1886) of Yale College.

THOMAS M. STETSON .- Mr. Stetson, son of the late Rev. Caleb Stetson, of Medford, Mass., was born in that town June 15, 1830. He graduated from Har- vard University in 1849, and studied law at the Dane Law School, Cambridge, and in New Bedford. In 1854, immediately upon his admission to the bar, he was invited to join one of the oldest law-offices in the State, established more than half a century ago in New Bedford by the late Hon. Lemuel Williams and Judge Charles Henry Warren. Later the style of the firm was Warren & Eliot (the late Hon. Thomas D.), and in 1854 it was Eliot & Pitman (now Judge Robert C.). Mr. Eliot's absence much of the time in Con- gress created the need of an additional partner, and the firm became Eliot, Pitman & Stetson, continu- ing a few years till the withdrawal of Judge Pitman, when it became Eliot & Stetson, and so remained until the death of Mr. Eliot in 1870. The firm now is Stetson & Greene (Francis B.).

Mr. Stetson at once took high rank at the bar. The law never had occasion to be jealous of him, for she never had a more faithful and devoted lover. Nothing has been allowed to interfere with his legal studies, and as a pure lawyer, in mastery of the law, great principles, in affluence of legal and other learning, in

HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

exhaustive preparation of his cases, and in their clear and lucid presentation to the courts, he has no superior in Southern Massachusetts.

Mr. Stetson was married in 1856 to Caroline Dawes Eliot, eldest daughter of the late Hon. Thomas Dawes Eliot.

ADAM MACKIE is a Scotchman by birth, and in- herits a Scotch constitution. He is now about sixty years of age. He began life a poor boy, rose by his own exertions to become a lawyer, and for some twenty years had a large and lucrative law practice, especially in the admiralty courts. He often ex- hibited considerable skill in the conducting of cases before Judge Sprogen. His social qualities made him acceptable and welcome, and he was always so will- ing to aid another that none can say aught against him. He has not been in the practice for some ten years past, and has lost his health.

A. L. WEST was for some years in practice with Mr. Mackie, but died some fifteen years ago with con- sumption. He was a pleasant and agreeable man. He was a good lawyer and safe counselor.

LEMUEL TRIPP WILCOX was born in Fairhaven, in the county of Bristol, in August, 1835, was edu- cated at Yale College, and graduated in 1860.

He studied law in the office of Eliot & Stetson, in the city of New Bedford, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1862. He quickly rose in his profession, and was early in good position, and is now a leading law- yer at the bar of this county. His addresses to the jury and the court are always full of fine sentences, clothed in the most polished words. He is now in active practice, and in the very prime of life.

CHARLES W. CLIFFORD, son of John H. and Sarah Parker (Allen) Clifford, was born Aug. 19, 1844, at New Bedford, Mass., where he was fitted for Harvard College at the old "Friends' Academy," then in charge of the late T. Prentiss Allen.

Entering college at the age of seventeen, he soon won the respect and esteem of his instructors, as well as his fellows, and after having borne a prominent part in all the literary and social enterprises of his time, graduated with full honors in July, 1865.

Never, from his earliest years, having had a doubt as to the choice of a profession, he at once began the study of the law, which he pursued under instruction from Hon. E. H. Bennett, of Taunton; Hon. John C. Dodge, of Boston, and at the Harvard Law School, and after being admitted to the bar in New Bedford at the June term, 1868, began practice in the office formerly occupied by his father. Here he practiced alone until February, 1869, when the firm of Marston & Crapo was formed, of which he continued a mem- ber until its dissolution in April, 1878, since when he has been an active partner of the firm of Crapo, Clif- ford & Clifford, one of two firms formed principally from the members of the old firm of Marston & Crapo.

New Bedford, who died April 28, 1872, and on March 15, 1876, he married Wilhelmina H., daughter of the late Governor Crapo, of Michigan, and sister of his partner, Hon. William W. Crapo.

While a member of the firm of Marston & Crapo, he was constantly associated as junior counsel with Hon. George Marston in the trial of important causes, the preparation of which was frequently intrusted to him, and the training and valuable experience de- rived from this association soon bore its fruit in the recognition of a legal ability of a high order, and a maturity of thought and judgment which rendered him a wise and valued counselor, and which led to his appointment as one of the commissioners to re- vise the judiciary system of the commonwealth in 1876, an appointment received by the profession as one eminently fit to be made.

Loyal to the principles of the Republican party, and earnest and energetic in maintaining its integ- rity and influence, he has ever been found in the front rank of its active supporters, and several times as chairman of the Republican City Committee of New Bedford, as delegate to and assistant secretary of the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1880, later as a member of the Republican State Central Committee of Massachusetts, and as manager of the campaign of Hon. William W. Crapo for the gubernatorial nomination in 1882, has shown a readi- ness and ability to do whatever should be required of him as a supporter of Republican principles, and in these various positions has rendered valuable service to his party.

His association with the late Charles L. Wood, his father-in-law and one of the leading merchants of New Bedford, following upon an early inculcation of business habits and methods by his distinguished father, enabled him to obtain a practical education in affairs such as is acquired by few lawyers, and this, coupled with a natural aptitude for business questions, has not only secured for him many clients among the business institutions of New Bedford, but has been the means of his aid and counsel being much sought for in the organization of new enterprises and in the conduct and direction of those already established. He has also charge of many public and private trusts, and his position at the bar and in affairs of business is thoroughly established and secure.

Mr. Clifford's success as a lawyer is due not less to his natural and acquired ability than to the fact that his sphere of life was determined by himself and his parents from the beginning, and it may be truly said that he commenced the study of his profession in his earliest boyhood. To a clear, discriminating, and ca- pacious mind and the results of earnest study under the best teachers he adds an enthusiastic love of the law, most vigorous and efficient action in the under- standing of his causes, scrupulous fidelity to his clients in all emergencies, and a chivalrous sense of

On May 5, 1869, he married Frances Lothrop, daughter of Charles L. and Elizabeth T. Wood, of | professional and personal honor.

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History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 6

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