History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 11

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 11

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

JOHN K. TARBOX was born in that part of Methuen which is now Lawrence May 6, 1838. His parents, of Huguenot extraction, were poor, and at the age of eight years he was left an orphan under the guardian- ship of Rev. Bailey Loring, of North Andover. He was educated in the public schools of Methuen and Lawrence and the Franklin Academy of North Ando- ver, and while still a youth, entered as clerk the drug- store of Henry M. Whitney, of Lawrence. In 1857, at theage of nineteen, he became a student in thelaw- office of Colonel Benjamin F. Watson, of Lawrence, whose attention had been attracted by his exhibition of mental activity and who advised him to prepare himself for the profession of law. In 1860 he wasad- mitted to the bar and also to a partnership with Col- onel Watson, and at a later day was a partner of Ed- gar J. Sherman, the present attorney-general of the commonwealth. During a part of the war he was a paymaster's clerk, and on the 28th of August, 1863, was mustered out of the service as lieutenant of Com- pany B, Fourth Massachusetts Regiment.

After leaving the service he became the political editor of the Lawrence American, and in 1864 was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. In

xlvi

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

1868, '70, '71, he was a Representative from Law- rence, in 1873 Senator and in 1873-74 mayor of that city. In 1870,'72, '76,'78, he was an unsuccessful can- didate of the Democratic party for Congress, but in 1874 was chosen and sat in the Forty-fourth Con- gress. In 1879 he presided at the Democratic State Convention, and, in 1883, while city solicitor of Law- rence, was appointed by Governor Butler insurance commissioner. He was reappointed by Governor Robinson in 1886, and won a deserved reputation, not only for the faithful and thorough performance of the duties of that office, but also for his exhaustive labors in the revision and codification of the insurance laws of the State, in obedience to a resolve of the General Court. He died in Boston, May 28th, 1887.

NATHAN W. HARMON was born in New Ashford, January 16, 1813. His early life was spent on a farm with the educational advantages of the common schools. He fitted for college at Lenox and graduated at Wil- liams in 1836. In 1839 he was admitted to the bar in Berkshire County, and his name is on the list of ad- missions to the Essex bar in 1842. After practising law a few years in Berkshire County, a part of the time as partner of George N. Briggs, afterward Gov- ernor of the Commonwealth, he removed to Lawrence and made that place ever afterward his residence. In 1857 he was a member of the House of Representa- tives, and at a later time a member of the State Senate. In 1876 he was appointed Judge of the Police Court of Lawrence and held office until January of the pre- sent year (1887), when, on account of enfeebled health, he resigned. He died September 16th, 1887, leaving two daughters, Harriet and Cornelia, and one son, Rollin E. Harmon, Judge of the Police Court of Lynn.

HON. JAMES HENRY DUNCAN was born in Hav- erhill, Mass., December 5, 1793. On the paternal side he was of Scotch-Irish descent. His great-grandfather, George Duncan, was one of the colony that came from Londonderry, Ireland, and settled in Londonderry, N. H., 1719. His grandfather, James, came to Hav- erhill about 1740, where he established himself as a merchant. He died in 1818, aged ninety-two years. He had ten children, the sixth of whom was James, who married Rebecca White, and died January 5, 1822, aged sixty-two years. He left two children- Samuel White, who died October 21, 1824, and James Henry, of this sketch.

On the maternal side the family of Mr. Duncan covers the entire history of Haverhill, a period of more than two centuries, and on the paternal side the three generations cover more than half of this period.

Mr. Duncan early evinced a fondness for books, and at the age of eleven years he was sent to Phillips' Academy at Exeter, N. H., then the leading classical school in the country. Here he was brought into the companionship of Edward Everett, Jared A. Sparks, Buckminster, John G. Palfrey and John A. Dix. The stimulating influence of such companions, aided by his own quick faculties, rapidly developed him ;

and at the age of fourteen he entered Harvard Col- lege. He was gradnated in dne course, in the class of 1812, with Dr. John Homans, Judge Sprague, Bishop Wainwright, Henry Ware, Franklin Dexter, Charles G. Loring and others. In college Mr. Duncan held a high rank, especially in the classics, the careful study of which was strongly apparent in the smooth, rounded, Latinized style that marked his conversa- tion and public speech.

The career, thus happily begun, was followed by the study of the law,-first in the office of Hon. John Varnum at Haverhill, and afterwards with his cousin, Leverett Saltonstall, at Salem. In 1815 he was ad- mitted to the Essex bar, and entered upon practice at Haverhill. For several years Mr. Duncan gave his entire time to his profession ; but the death of his father, January 5, 1822, left him in the charge of a considerable estate, which gradually withdrew him from its duties, though he did not wholly relinquish practice until 1849, when he took his seat in Congress. It has been thought by many a misfortune for his own reputation, that the cares of property interfered with the ardent practice of his profession. His ready and sympathetic eloquence, his thorough honesty and comprehensive judgment gave promise of a brilliant future. But probably his life was more widely useful than if he had remained an advocate. As a lawyer he was devoid of trickery, and he instinctively repu- diated those indirect methods often employed in the profession. Though richly gifted as an advocate, he had a constitutional aversion to litigation, and thus was oftener engaged in settling cases than in disputing them. We copy here from the resolutions of the Es- sex bar, passed after his death :

" Resolred, That we desire to express and put on record our respect for the memory and character of the Honorable James H. Duncao, whose recent denth was so sincerely and deeply lamented in the particular com- munity where he was boro and lived, as well as by the public at Inrge. Mr. Duncan entered on the practice of the law in the courts of this county, more than fifty years ngo, after a thorough preparation, ac- cording to the usages of the day, partly in the office of the late Lev- erett Saltoostall, so distinguished here in his generation, and his kins man and friend. He pursued his profession here for many years, with marked fidelity nnd success, always trusted and respected by his breth- reo, until, having served his State hooornbly and usefully in both branches of the Legislature, he was called by the general voice of his fellow citizens into the public councils of the country, now more than twenty years ago, since which time he has withdrawn himself wholly ,from the practice of the profession, nnd nttendance on the courts. Of late years he has been koown as a lawyer, to much the largest por- tion now in practice nt this bar, only by the 'tradition of the elders,' among whom, as well as in the courts, he had obtained and always held a 'good report.'"

Mr. Duncan lived what might be called a public life ; yet it was through a certain evident fitness that led him to be called to its duties, rather than from his own seeking. A short time previous to his admission to the bar, he was elected major in the Haverhill Light Infantry ; and, passing through the various grades of militia service, he rose to the rank of colo- nel, by which title he was afterwards commonly ad- dressed. He was early a trustee of the Essex County

Eng by A. H. Frtonie

James It Duncan

THE BENCH AND BAR.

xlvii

Agricultural Society, and from 1836 to 1838 its presi- dent.

On the formation of the National Republican party, popularly known as the Whig party, in 1827, he was elected to the State Legislature, and in the three suc- ceeding years to the Senate, when he declined re-elec- tion. In 1837-38, he was again found in the House; and in the two following years, he was a member of the Council. In 1857 he was again elected to the Legislature. On the passage of the State Insolvent Law, in 1838, he was appointed one of the Commis- sioners in Insolvency ; and on the passage of the United States Bankrupt Law, in 1841, he was made Commissioner in Bankruptcy, holding the office until the law was repealed. In 1839 he was elected a dele- gate to the convention at Harrisburg that nominated General Harrison for the Presidency. In 1848 he was chosen to represent his district, then the largest man- ufacturing district in the United States, in the na- tional Congress ; and was re-elected in 1850.

Of his Congressional career Hon. Amos Tuck, of Exeter, at the time United States Senator from New Hampshire, thus speaks:

" He entered Congress at the first session of General Taylor's adminis- tration, when the problems in politics and government, which grew out of the Mexican War and the acquisition of California and New Mexico, infused such intensity of feeling into the public mind. The old Whig party, with which Mr. Duncan had long been honorably connected, was becoming more anti-slavery ; while the Democratic party was gradually giving way to the entire leadership of Southern men, and becoming hopelessly involved in the sin, shame and want of statesmanship, in- volved in the advocacy and support of slavery extension. Mr. Duncan had relations of friendship with the old leaders of the Whig party, and was welcomed into their fellowship at Washington on his arrival at that city. But his moral perceptions had been cultivated beyond what waa common among the devotees of either of the old parties, and he knew and felt the force of the moral questions which were discussed through- out the country upon the relation of the government to slavery. At- tached to his party, and attached to his honored frienda, he yet could not be blind or deaf or insensible to the claims for justice of the humble who could not even speak for themselves. He remembered those in bonds, as bound with them, and, at the expense of personal comfort, voted, I believe, from first to last, during his Congressional term of four years, under all the circumstances of an excited period of our his- tory, on the slavery question in all ita phases, only as his best friends could now wish he had voted, after all the light siace shed upon the sub- ject. That he so signally and uniformly acted on the side of wisdom and right, while so many of his associates were misled by excitement, or failed for other reasons to see and maintain what it is now apparent they ought to have supported, I attribute in a great degree to hia elevated moral character, to his cultivated sense of right, to his determination never to violate the dictates of an enlightened conscience. He was not a frequent debater in the House of Representatives ; but when he did speak, he commanded more than common attention. He was one whom to know was to love, who made many friends and no enemies, and who left Congress possessing universal esteem."

The tribute of affection and respect which the poet Whittier paid to him after his decease makes honor- able mention of him as a man in public life and in his social relations. "His Congressional career was a highly honorable one, marked by his characteristic soundness of judgment and conscientious faithful- ness to a high ideal of duty. In private life as in public, he was habitually courteous and gentlemanly. For many years the leading man in his section, he

held his place without ostentation, and achieved great- ness by not making himself great."

Not the least of Mr. Duncan's public services were his labors in behalf of the Union during the Civil War. He was active with voice and pen in strength- ening the hands of the government. He cheerfully acted as the medium of communication between the soldiers in the field and their families at home. They sent to him their well-earned money, which he per- sonally distributed, gladdening often many a humble home by his presence as the harbinger of good tid- ings and comfort.

These statements indicate how constantly Mr. Dun- can was in public life. Meanwhile, he was serving in other large public interests not of a political nature ; while in town matters his services were con- stantly demanded. For fifty years, scarcely an im- portant item of municipal business was transacted except under his advice or leadership. If a matter needed to be brought before the General Court he was delegated to do it. He took the leading part in the erection of two town halls, making, at the dedi- cation of both, historical addresses. In this connec- tion Hon. Alfred Kittredge says,-" He took great interest in the affairs of the town, and frequently ad- dressed his fellow-citizens upon subjects of importance. He was listened to with great interest, and usually carried a majority with him. In all discussions he was in a marked degree gentlemanly, both in his manner of presenting subjects and in his treatment of those who differed from him, stating his own views forcibly, and giving others due credit for their own. He had a remarkably clear utterance, and a rich ringing voice that gave him great power over an andience. When in the Legislature, Samuel Allen, I think, gave him the cognomen of the ‘silver- tongned member ' from Haverhill.

This sketch would be incomplete if it overlooked Mr. Duncan's relation to the great religious and benevolent movements of his time. He took the most lively interest in the cause of education, and in the great missionary organizations of his own and other Christian denominations. He was a member of the Board of Fellows of Brown University from 1835 till his death. In 1861 the Board conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. It is not too much to say that his name and influence were a tower of strength in the councils of the corporation. It is thus that Barnas Sears, then president of the University, speaks of him as he appeared at its annual meetings, or in the larger gatherings of the representatives of the Missionary Union,-"Long will men remember the impressions made on these and similar occasions by this Christian gentleman and scholar, with his finely-cut features and symmetrical form, his graceful and animated delivery, his chaste, beautiful, and musical language, his pertinent, clear and convincing arguments, his unflinching fidelity, and spotless integrity. So blend- ed in him were these various attributes of body and

xlviii

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

mind that we can think of them only in their union, and it would seem that a mind of delicate mould had formed for itself a bodily organ suited to its own purposes. In him we see how much Christianity can do for truc culture, and how beautiful an orna- ment culture is to Christianity."

Mr. Duncan during his whole life worshipped with the First Baptist Church in Haverhill, though he did not become a member of the church until the age of forty. His ancestors on both sides were among its founders. Thus a Baptist by birth and education he afterwards added to the principles thus inculcated the full conviction of his mature years. However attached to his own communion he was not in the narrow sense of the term a denominationalist. By nature he was catholic and took the broad and liberal side on all church questions. Every good canse had in him a friend. He wrought zealously with all true lovers of God and man. The cause of home and for- eign missions, of popular education and the dissemi- nation of a sound literature enlisted his earnest advocacy. Indeed, he was quick in his response to all good objects by which humanity could be elevated and God honored.

Mr. Duncan remained single till the age of thirty- three, when, June 28, 1826, he married Miss Mary Willis, daughter of Benjamin Willis, Esq., of Boston. Thirteen children were born to them. Three died in early childhood. and three passed away after they had attained to adult years, leaving seven,-two sons and five daughters. His home, of which Mr. Dun- can was pre-eminently the head, was the centre of a liberal culture and of a refined and generous hos- pitality. This hospitality was not the mere recipro- cation of society. His ample mansion was open alike to friends and strangers. If the town, or any religious or secular interest could be served by his hospitality, it was proffered without stint. His house was regarded as the temporary home of public speakers, lecturers, clergymen and all others to whom hospi- tality seemed due. The grace and tact and dignity which Mr. Duncan uniformly exhibited thus in his own home is remembered by multitudes.

Mr. Duncan's last illness was brief, and its fatal termination was a surprise to all. Although he was seventy-five years old he hore no marks of age. A cold which caused no apprehensions at first, suddenly developed into pneumonia, which after only a few days of sickness terminated fatally, February 8, 1869. The announcement of his death passed rapidly through the town, and was received almost with in- credulity. When the surprise passed, a general sorrow and sense of bereavement took possession of all hearts. Many had lost in him a loved and faith- ful friend, and all felt that the town had been be- reaved of its most useful and honored citizen, and that his place would not soon be filled. By the general urgent desire of the community the funeral services were held in the church, instead of the house,

as was first intended, and were attended by a large concourse of people. Though holding no office at the time, such was the appreciation of his services in the past, and such the seuse of the love sustained by his removal, that the town adopted most appropriate resolutions upon the event.

There are other deceased members of the bar of whom sketches would be interesting, if reliable mate- rials could be readily obtained. Some of these will be remembered by present members of the bar, and are as deserving of a place in this record as many who have been especially mentioned. Edward Pulling (H. C.), 1775, John W. Proctor, Jacob Gerrish, Ellis G. Loring, Francis B. Crowninshield, George H. De- vereaux, George Andrews, Hobart Clark, Asa An- drews, Eben Shillaber, John B. Peabody, Wm. How- land, George Foster Flint, Frederick D. Burnham and Jairus Ware Perry are some of those whose sketches have been necessarily omitted.

HON. STEPHEN HENRY PHILLIPS1 was the eldest son of the Hon. Stephen Clarendon Phillips and Jane Appleton (Peele) Phillips, of Salem. His paternal great-grandfather, Deacon Stephen Phillips, a de- scendant of the Rev. George Phillips who reached Salem with Winthrop in 1630, and settled at Water- town, had removed from his ancestral home in that town to Marblehead, where he became a leading citi- zen, taking the Chair as Moderator of the tumultuous town-meeting called to protest against the Boston Port Bill of 1773, and was thenceforth an active pa- triot and a member of the Committee of Correspon- dence and Safety. His grandfather, Stephen Phil- lips, was a well-known citizen and merchant of Mar- blehead. His father's public services as a sturdy supporter of the interests of Salem, as an un- tiring friend of Freedom in Congress and elsewhere and of the Public School System of Massachusetts, will be recounted by others and are freshly remem- bered. Other descendants of the same Puritan an- cestry have won distinction. The same stock produced the founders of academies bearing the name at Exeter and at Andover. It produced the famous Boston pa- triot of the Revolution, William Phillips ; his son, the first mayor of Boston, John Phillips; in the third generation, Wendell Phillips, a son of the latter, our matchless master of English speech ; as well as that much admired divine, the Rev. Phillips Brooks.

The subject of this sketch was born at the family mansion in Charter Street, Salem, uow occupied as a City Hospital, August 16, 1823. His school experi- ence was unique. Before 1830 he had been a pupil at the dame's school of Miss Mehetable Higginson, and from that date on he enjoyed the successive teachings of Henry K. Oliver, with whom Jones Very, David Mack, and Surgeon John L. Fox of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition were assistants, in Salem; of Frederick P. Leverett, at the Old South Chapel in Bos-

1 Robert S. Rantoul.

Eng ª by A. H. Fitchre

xlix

THE BENCH AND BAR.

ton ; of the Rev. Joseph Allen at his boarding-school in Northampton; and of William J. Adams at a private school in Murray Street, New York City. The year 1836 found him at the Select Classical School in Washington, D. C., founded by Salmon P. Chase when a law student in the office of Attorney- General Wirt, and there Charles Levi Woodbury, Alfred Plea- santon, since known as a famous cavalry general, and Mansfield Lovell, the rebel commandant who evacuated New Orleans in face of Farragut, were among his school- mates. The next year he passed in Salem at the school of Rufus T. King, in Chestnut Street, and another year under Master Oliver Carlton, of the Latin Grammar School, brought him a certificate with which, at the exceptional age of fifteen, he entered Harvard in 1838, taking his degree in course, a winter spent in the West Indies in the senior year for the recovery of his health depriving him of the very high rank he had previously held. Here he had for classmates the Rev. Samuel Joliuson, of Salem, the eminent Orien- talist, and a well-known essayist and magazine writer, Frederick Sheldon, of Newport, R. I. On graduating in 1842, he became a member of Harvard Chapter, Alpha, of the Society of the Phi Beta Kappa, and was at a later date a founder, and for its first six years President, of the Harvard Club of San Francisco.

The three years following his graduation,-the last three years of the life of its great patron, Judge Story,-Mr. Phillips spent at the Dane Law School, where Charles Sumner was an occasional lecturer and Simon Greenleaf was Royal Professor. Ex-Presi- dent Rutherford B. Hayes; Chief Justice Peters, of Maine; Chief Justice Morton, of Massachusetts ; Chief Justice Lee, of the Sandwich Islands ; Ex- Chief Justice Foster, of New Hampshire, and Ex- Chief Justice Bradley, of Rhode Island, were among his fellow students. After a further period of study in the office of the Hon. Benjamin R. Curtis, at Boston, he was admitted to practice at the Suffolk bar in April, '1846, and for the years 1847, '48, '49, '50 edited the Boston Law Reporter.

Having removed his office to Salem, Mr. Phillips was appointed by Governor Boutwell, in 1851, District Attorney for the County of Essex, a position which he filled with acceptance and which he resigned in 1854. Advancing rapidly in professional and general esti- mation, and having formed a business connection with James A. Gillis, since for many years City Solic- itor of Salem,-an office which Mr. Phillips himself filled for the years 1856, '57,-he had already achieved a leading position at the Essex bar, when he was elected in the last named year, at the unusual age of thirty-four, Attorney-general of the Commonwealth. This responsible and dignified position he retained by popular election through the three years' admin- istration of Governor Banks, the first Republican ad- ministration in Massachusetts, and at its close, in 1861, was by him appointed Judge-advocate-general of the militia of the State.

Continuing the practice of his profession in Boston and in Salem, with such interruptions as no patriotic citizen could honorably avoid during the five troubled years which followed, and acting, from November, 1863, as chairman first of the City Water Committee, charged with procuring an act for the introduction of a water-supply for Salem, and then of the Water Commission, upon which devolved the duty of con- struction, Mr. Phillips in 1866 accepted overtures from Kamehameha V. for a position as one of the four responsible ministers of his privy council, and temporarily left the United States for Honolulu. Under the Hawaiian constitution, modeled largely on our own, he acted, throughout his residence in Honolulu, as Attorney-general, and for a considerable portion of the time as Minister of Foreign Affairs also. At times he added to these trusts that of Min- ister of Finance, and very generally he was the recog- nized head of the Royal Government in the House of Nobles, King's Cabinet and Privy Council. He was at liberty to practice in the courts of law in causes in which the interests of the State were not involved.

A position as the responsible head of a government like this is not without peculiar difficulties. For rea- sons of their own, England, France and the United States had seen fit to recognize the Sandwich Islands as an independent sovereignty. But with a standing army of seventy men, it was no mean task to keep the peace amongst as many thousands of these tawny, mercurial, Malayo-Polynesian subjects; to suppress the occasional armed outbreaks of religious fanaticism or of jealousy of foreign influence; to maintain at all times the dignity and self-respect of a reiguing house under a form of government, nominally constitutional, in which the elements of strength were wanting, and, while yielding all that could safely be granted to foreign commercial and diplomatic agents and foreign missionaries, to see to it that none of them secured concessions injurious to rival denominations, nation- alities or interests, or to the State. And this was the task which confronted Mr. Phillips during his seven years' residence at Honolulu. He was largely instru- mental in the reciprocity negotiations of 1867-69, in which President Grant took so active an interest as to invite him to a private interview, and while secur- ing to the people of the islands a measure of domes- tic tranquillity and peace which made life and prop- erty as safe there as in any portion of the civilized world, he was able to apply to their foreign affairs the good, old American doctrine of Washington's farewell address,-"Friendly relations with all na- tions ; entangling alliances with none."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 11

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538