History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 15

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 15

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" In the ordinary run of cases there were men by no means his equals in power, who would appear as well as he. I always thought and I think now that Mr. Farley never realized the extent of his powers. Whatever the occasion required, he was always equal to and answered the demand. Bnt I do not believe that supreme time ever came to him which called for the full measure of the great powers with which he was gifted.

" As I have said, he enjoyed the classics and the best English literature.

" Besides, he was interested in all new discoveries and new phases of thought. He kept well abreast with all advances made in his time, and no man could dis- cuss questions outside of his profession better than he, when he met one capable of maintaining his part in the discussion. With a somewhat brusque and rough manner he had great warmth of feeling, and when he was a friend, was one always to be relied upon.

"Upon the whole, Mr. Farley impressed me as being one of the strongest and most remarkable men I have ever met with. But his case shows how very little there is in the life of the greatest lawyer that survives him long. Mr. Farley conducted trials and made ar- guments that showed he possessed more logic, more reasoning power, more mind, than is shown in many of the books that live for centuries or than was ever shown by many of the statesmen whose names have gone into history ; yet notwithstanding this, his repu-

BENCH AND BAR.

tation is now not much more than a tradition, only personally known to and cherished by a few, who linger upon the stage. It is only another instance, added to the long list, that the life of the lawyer, however great may be his powers, is written on noth- ing more enduring than sand or water."

Although Mr. Farley tried causes all over the Com- monwealth and in New Hampshire, it was with the courts of Old Middlesex, where he won so many forensic victories, that his fame as a jurist must be most intimately associated as long as the gradually but surely failing memory of tradition shall hold it as , its own.

There he was easily and always the leader of its bar, which was distinguished by many strong and eminent lawyers. In one notable cause tried there against the Vermont & Massachusetts Railroad, in which the late Judge B. R. Curtis was retained and acted as counsel for the company and Mr. Farley for the plaintiff, he most conspicuously exhibited his ready sagacity and tact. Some very handsome plans had been intro- duced as evidence in the case hy Judge Curtis. Mr. Farley, in his argument to the jury, discarded these beautiful pictures and borrowing from one of the jury a piece of chalk. which every Middlesex farmer car- ried in his pocket, he proceeded to chalk out a dia- gram of the place of the accident upon the floor in full view of the jury, and so ingeniously employed it in his argument that, to use the expression of the late Rev. Thomas Whittemore, the president of the rail- way company : "Mr. Farley chalked us out of the case." Mr. Whittemore was so much impressed with the powers of Mr. Farley as manifested in that case, that he at once gave him a general retainer as counsel for his road.

Mr. Farley always had a peculiar habit of stating his cases to persons whom he met while the trial was going on, and whom he knew as possessing sound common sense, evidently with a view of seeing how the case struck them and of eliciting from them some thought or suggestion which he might use when he came to address the twelve men of sound "common sense " who were hearing and to pass upon the case.

It was his custom, when consulted hy clients in his office, to hear their statements patiently, and, after care. fully questioning them as to all the facts, to give them his opinion without consulting the reports or the books. After his client had left he would say to the students in the office, who had been attentive listeners to the interview: "Perhaps you had better look into the reports and see if the Supreme Court and I agree."

It was his distinguishing babit to so exhaustively examine and consider his opponent's case that when he came to state their side of the case he surprised them by disclosing much stronger points than they had discovered, but only to their embarrassment and defeat by his convincing and triumphant replies

thereto. Judge Appleton, in his letter concerning Mr. Farley, from which quotations have been made, further says, in speaking of his home, where he was always a welcome guest :

" His wife was one of the saints that occasionally . appear to bless her family and friends. Few men ever had a happier home than it was his forcune to enjoy. In his family he was genial and hospitable-delight- ful in conversation, a good talker-which in those days was estimated a high compliment. An amusing and true anecdote is told of Mr. Farley as a conversation- ist. Owing to some failure of the train from Boston to connect with the train at Groton Junction, as it was then called, but now Ayer, for Grotou Centre, where Mr. Farley resided, he concluded, as it was a pleasant day, to walk from the Junction to his home, a distance of about four miles. He had for his com- panion in the walk the late Rev. Mr. Richards, formerly pastor of the Central Church, a highly cultivated and able man, whose acquaintance he made by chance at the Junction. Mr. Farley, in speaking of the walk and of Mr. Richards afterwards to the Rev. Mr. Bulkley, of Groton, Mr. Farley's own minister, and whose pulpit Mr. Richards came to fill on ex- change with Mr. Bulkley said : 'That Mr. Richards is a most delightful man. I met him accidentally at the Junction and made his acquaintance and we walked up to Groton.' Mr. Bulkley enjoyed this praise of his friend Richards very much, as he re- called what Mr. Richards said of Mr. Farley. He had told Mr. Bulkley, ' that he met Mr. Farley and had a highly enjoyable walk with him from the Junction. That he was astonished and charmed with Mr. Farley's wonderful conversational powers, for he talked all the way from the Junction to the Centre, while he was a delighted listener.' This is but another illustration of the well-known fact that a good talker likes a good listener."

Mr. Farley's great and sure reliance was upon him- self. He was conscious of his strength, but, as is usual with truly great intellects, made a modest display of it.

In the consideration of questions of law he made his own paths in the practice of his profession and did not seek or walk in the ways furnished by other minds in the published reports. IIe possessed an original creative legal mind. Firmly planted in the principles of the common law, he applied those prin- ciples to the various cases as they arose.

In his gigantic mental laboratory all his results were worked out.

Mr. Farley, at his decease, left as surviving mem- hers of his family-his son, George Frederick Farley, for many years a merchant of Boston, but now de- ceased, and his daughter, Sarah E. Farley, and Mary F. Keely, wife of Edward A. Keely, a member of the Suffolk bar.

In closing this necessarily very inadequate sketch of Mr. Farley, it is but simple justice to his memory to

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

say, upon the testimony furnished therein by the able contemporary jurists who knew him so well, in weigh- ing his character, attainments, fame and success as a jurist and advocate, that he had but few equals at the bar of New England.

GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR, the youngest child of Sam- uel and Sarah Sherman Hoar, was born in Concord August 29, 1826. He studied at the Concord Acad- emy and graduated at Harvard in 1846. After study- ing law at the Dane Law School in Cambridge he settled in Worcester, where he was chosen representa- tive to the State Legislature in 1852, a member of the Senate in 1857 and city solicitor in 1860. He was chosen a member of the Forty-first, Forty-second, Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses, which cov- ered the period from 1869 to 1875, and declined a nomination for the Forty-fifth Congress. He has been in the Senate of the United States since 1877, and his third term, which he is now serving, will ex- pire March 4, 1895. During his service in the lower house of Congress he was one of the managers on the part of the House of Representatives of the Belknap impeachment trial in 1876, and in the same year one of the Electoral Commission. He was an overseer of Harvard College from 1874 to 1880, presided over the Massachusetts State Republican Conventions of 1871, 1877, 1882 and 1885 ; was a delegate to the Re- publican National Conventions of 1876 at Cincinnati and of 1880, 1884 and 1888 at Chicago, presiding over the convention of 1880 ; was regent of the Smitlison- ian Institute in 1880; has been president and is now vice-president of the American Antiquarian Society, trustee of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, trus- tee of Leicester Academy ; is a member of the Massa- chusetts Historical Society, of the American Histor- ical Society and the Historic Genealogical Society and has received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Wil- liam and Mary, Amherst, Yale and Harvard Colleges, and is a member of other organizations too numerous to mention.

EDMUND TROWBRIDGE DANA was the son of Rich- ard H. Dana, the lawyer and poet, and brother of Richard H. Dana, Jr., the author of "Two Years Be- fore the Mast." He was born in Cambridge, August 29, 1818, and graduated at Vermont University in 1839. He read law in the Dane Law School at Cam- bridge and practiced a few years with his brother, when he went to Heidelberg to pursue his studies. He translated and edited works on international and public law and political economy after his return home and also resumed practice with his brother, He died at Cambridge May 18, 1869. The writer knew him well, and believes that no man in the Com- monwealth held out a brighter promise of prominence in the literature of law when his career was abruptly ended by death. He was a man of infinite humor, and his quaint illustrations of passing events are now in the writer's mind as he recalls his friend to memory.

JOHN WILLIAM PITT ABBOTT, son of Jolin Ab-

bott, already mentioned, was born in Hampton, Con- necticut, April 27, 1806, and graduated at Harvard in 1827. He read law at Westford with his father and at the Dane Law School, was admitted to the bar in June, 1830, and settled at Westford, where he suc- ceeded his father as treasurer of the. Westford Acad- emy, and practiced in his profession until his death in 1872. He was a representative to the General Court in 1862, a senator in 1866 and for many years select- mau and town clerk of Westford.

JOHN BIGELOW was born in Malden November 25, 1817, and graduated at Union College in 1835. After his admission to the bar he practiced in New York. City about ten years, mingling literary with profes- sional work. In 1840 he was the literary editor of The Plebeian, and about that time an able contrib- utor to the Democratic Review. In 1848 he was made au inspector of Sing Sing Prison, and in 1850 became a partner of William Cullen Bryant, of the New York Evening Post. In 1856 he published a life of John C. Fremont. in 1861 was appointed consul at Paris, and from 1864 to 1866 resided in that city as Minister of the United States, succeeding William L. Dayton. He is now living in New York.

JOSEPH GREEN COLE, son of Abraham Cole, of Lincoln, was born about 1801 and graduated at Har- vard in 1822, and read law with Governor Lincoln, of Maine, in which State he settled in his profession and died in 1851.

ALBERT HOBART NELSON, son of Dr. John Nelson, of Carlisle, was born in that town March 12, 1812, and graduated at Harvard in 1832, afterwards reading law in the Cambridge Law School. He was appointed chief justice of the Superior Court for the County of Suffolk on the establishment of that court in 1855, and remained on the bench until his resignation in the year of his death. He died in 1858.

ALPHEUS B. ALGER, son of Edwin A. and Amanda (Buswell) Alger, was born in Lowell, October 8, 1854. He attended the public schools of his native town and graduated at Harvard in 1875. He read law in the office of Hon. Josiah G. Abbott, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1877, since which time he has been connected with the law firm of Brown & Alger, of which his father is a member. In Cambridge, where he resides, he has been chairman and secretary of the Democratic City Committee, and in 1884 he was a member of the Board of Aldermen. In 1886 and 1887 he was a member of the State Senate, and for several years preceding the present year he was the secretary of the Democratic State Central Com- mittee.

JOHN HENRY HARDY, son of John and Hannah (Farley) Hardy, was born in Hollis, New Hampshire, February 2, 1847. He received his early education from the public schools of Hollis and the academies of Mt. Vernon and New Ipswich, and graduated at Dartmouth in 1870. After reading law at the Dane Law School and in the office of Hon. Robert M.

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1.2.A. Bruchlett

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Morse, Jr., he was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1872, and began practice in a partnership with Geo. W. Morse, which continued two years. He then as- sociated himself with Samuel J. Elder and Thomas W. Proctor, with whom he continued until he was ap- pointed, in 1885, associate justice of the Boston Muni- cipal Court. At the age of fifteen Judge Hardy was a member of the Fifteenth Regiment of Massachu- setts Volunteers at the siege of Port Hudson, and, though young in years, exhibited a resolution and will worthy of veterans in the service. In 1883 he represented the town of Arlington in the House of Representatives. He married, in Littleton, August 30, 1871, Anna J. Conant, a descendant of Roger Co- nant, and danghter of Levi Conant.

GEORGE ANSON BRUCE, son of Nathaniel and Lucy (Butterfield) Bruce, was born in Mt. Vernon, New Hampshire, November 19, 1839. He was fitted for college at the Appleton Academy, in Mt. Vernon, and graduated at Dartmouth in 1861. In 1862 he was commissioned First Lieutenant of the Thirteenth New Hampshire Regiment, and served as aide, judge advocate, inspector and assistant adjutant-general un- til he was mustered out, July 3, 1865. During his service he received three brevet promotions. He studied Law in Lowell, and was admitted to the Mid- dlesex bar in that city, in October, 1866. During that year he was a member of the New Hampshire Legislature from his native town. He began practice in Boston in 1867, where he lived until 1874, when he removed to Somerville, of which city he was may- or in 1877, 1.880 and 1881. He was a member of the Massachusetts Senate in 1882, 1883 and 1884, and, in 1884, its president. He married in Groton, in 1870, Clara MI., daughter of Joseph F. and Sarah (Long- ley) Hall.

NATHANIEL HOLMES, son of Samuel and Mary (Annan) Holmes, was born in Peterboro', New Hamp- shire, July 2, 1814. He received his early education at the public schools of Peterboro', and at the Chester and New Ipswich and Phillips Academies, and gradu- ated at Harvard in 1837. While in college he taught school in Milford, New Hampshire, in Billerica and Leominster, and in Welds Academy, at Jamaica Plains, near Boston. After graduating he was for a time a private tutor in the family of Hon. John N. Steele, near Vienna, Maryland, and there hegan the study of law. His law studies were completed at the Dane Law School and in the office of Henry H. Ful- ler, and he was admitted to the Suffolk bar in Sep- tember, 1839. He settled in St. Louis, entering into partnership with Thomas B. Hudson, with whom he remained until 1846, when he became associated with his brother, Samuel A. Holmes, with whom he contin- ued until 1853. In 1846 he was circuit attorney for the county of St. Louis, and at later dates a director of the St. Louis Law Association, counselor of the St. Louis Public School Board and of the North Missouri Railroad Company. In 1865 he was made a judge of

the Missouri Supreme Court, and resigned in 1868 to accept the appointment of Royall Professor of Law at the Dane Law School in Cambridge. In 1872 he re- signed his professorship and returned to St. Louis, but in 1883 retired from active practice and took up his residence again in Cambridge.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS BRACKETT was born in Bradford, New Hampshire, June 8, 1842, and is the son of Ambrose S. and Nancy (Brown) Brackett, of that town. He received his early education in the public schools of his native town and at Colby Acad- emy, in New London, in the above-mentioned State, and graduated at Harvard in 1865, in the class with Charles Warren Clifford, Benjamin Mills Pierce and William Rotch. He received the degree of Bachelor of Laws from Harvard in 1868, and in the same year was admitted to the Suffolk bar, at which he has con- tinued' to practice until the present time. In the earlier days of his practice he was associated in busi- ntss with Levi C. Wade two or three years, but since 1880 has pursued his profession in company with Walter H. Roberts, under the name of Brackett & Roberts.

Almost continuously since his admission to the bar Mr. Brackett has been associated actively with poli- tics, and few names have been more widely known than his on the political platforms of the State. He has surrendered-himself to the fortunes of the Repub- lican party, and little else than its dissolution would be likely to weaken his party loyalty. He was a member of the Common Council of Boston in 1873, '74, '75 and '76, and during the last year of his service was president of that body. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from Boston in 1877, '78, '79, '80 and '81, and distinguished his legislative career by his advocacy and champion- ship of the establishment of co-operative banks, in the welfare of which he has maintained a deep interest. In 1889 he had become a resident in Arlington and again became a member of the House of Representa- tives, holding his seat three years, during the last two of which he was Speaker. In 1887, '88 and '89 he was Lieutenant-Governor, during a considerable por- tion of the last year acting as Governor in conse- quence of the continued illness of Governor Oliver Ames. In September, 1888, also, during an earlier illness of the Governor, be was called into service as his substitute, and in that capacity represented the State at the celebration in Columbus of the annivers- ary of the settlement of Ohio, in a manner reflecting honor on the Commonwealth. At the celebration at Plymouth on the 1st of Angust, 1889, he again repre- sented the Governor, and his speech on that occasion stamped him as a master of the art which in his offi- cial capacity he has been so often required to test. In September, 1889, after a somewhat earnest contest, he was placed in nomination for Governor by the Re- publican party and chosen in November following to serve for the year 1890.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Few young men in Massachusetts have had a more successful career in the political arena. During the twenty-two years which have elapsed since his admis- sion to the bar, sixteen, with the present year, have been spent in public office, and his continued ad- vancement seems only to depend on the maintenance of power by the party he has served so long.

Governor Brackett married, June 20, 1878, Angie M., daughter of Abel G. and Eliza A. Peck, of Ar- lington, and makes that town his home.

MONTRESSOR TYLER ALLEN, son of George W. and Mary L. Allen, was born in Woburn, May 20, 1844. He read law at the Boston University Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1879. He married, in 1865, Julia Frances Peasley, and while practicing his profession in Boston makes Woborn his residence.

JOSEPH O. BURDETT was born in Wakefield, Octo- ber 30, 1848. He graduated at Tuft's College in 1867, and read law in the office of John Wilkes Ham- mond, in Cambridge, and was admitted to the Mid- dlesex bar in April, 1873. In 1874 he removed to Hingham, where he married Ella, daughter of John K. Corthell. He has represented his adopted town in the Legislature, and during the last three years has been chairman of the Republican State Central Com- mittee. He has a law-office in Boston, but still re- sides in Hingham.

WILLIAM AMOS BANCROFT was born in Groton, April 26, 1855, and was the son of Charles and Lydia Emeline (Spanlding) Bancroft, of that town. He fitted for college at Phillips Academy, and graduated at Harvard in 1878. He read law at the Dane Law School and in the office of Wm B. Stevens, and was admitted to the bar in 1881. In 1885 he was ap- pointed superintendent of the Cambridge Street Rail- road, and in 1888 was appointed by the West End Street Railway Company its road-master, from which he has retired to resume his profession. Having given his attention soon after leaving college to mili- tary matters, he was made a captain in 1879 of Com- pany B, of the Fifth Massachusetts Regiment, which he had joined as a private during his freshman year in college, and in 1882 was chosen colonel of that Regiment, a position which he still holds. He has been a member of the Common Council of Cambridge, the place of his residence, and has represented that city three years in the Legislature. He married, Jan- uary 18, 1879, Mary, daughter of Joseph Shaw, of Boston.

JOHN JAMES GILCHRIST was born in Medford Feb. 16, 1809. His father, James Gilchrist, a ship- master, removed while he was quite young to Charles - town, N. H., and carried on the occupation of farm- ing. John, the son, fitted for college with Rev. Dr. Crosby, and graduated at Harvard in 1828, in the class with Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, George Stillman Hillard and Robert Charles Winthrop. He read law in Charlestown, N. H., with William Briggs,

and at the Dane Law School. After admission to the bar he became associated in business with Governor Hubbard, whose daughter, Sarah, he married in 1836. In 1840 he was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court, and in 1848, on the resignation of Judge Parker, was made chief justice. On the estab- . lishment of the Court of Claims at Washington he was placed at its head by President Pierce, and died at Washington April 29, 1858. He published a digest * of New Hampshire reports in 1846, and it has been said of him that " in depth and extent of legal lore many of his judicial contemporaries may have equaled him, but only a few have excelled him."

JAMES G. SWAN, the third son of Samuel and Margaret (Tnfts) Swan, of Medford, was born in that town Jannary 11, 1818. He went to California in its , early golden days, and thence to Washington Terri- tory, where, in 1871, he was made probate judge. He . was afterwards appointed inspector of customs in the district of Puget Sound, and stationed at Neah Bay three years, and, later, at Fort Townsend. Subse- quently lie was appointed United States Commis- sioner of the Third Judicial District of Washington Territory, and in 1875 went to Alaska as United States commissioner, to procure articles of Indian manufac- ture for the Centennial Exposition. In 1857 he pub- lislied a book entitled "The Northwest Coast ; or, Three Years in Washington Territory," and in 1880 gave to the town of Medford a collection of Indian curios for the public library of the town.

THOMAS S. HARLOW was born in Castine, Me., Nov. 15, 1812. In 1824 his family removed to Ban- gor, and in 1831 he came to Boston. He taught the grammar school in Medford, and graduated at Bow- doin in 1836. He read law with Governor Edward Kent, in Bangor, and for a short time edited a news- paper in Dover, Me. He was admitted to the bar in 1839, and spent three years in Paducah, Ky. In 1842 he returned to Massachusetts, and opened an office in Boston. In November, 1843, he married Lucy J. Hall, of Medford, and took up his residence in that town. He has always, during his residence there, been interested in town affairs, and won the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens. He has been a member of the School Committee and of the Board of Trustees of the Public Library, and is at the present time a special justice of the First Eastern Middlesex District Court, having within its jurisdiction the towns of North Reading, Reading, Stoneham, Wake- field, Melrose, Malden, Everett and Medford, and holding its sessions at Malden and Wakefield.

ALFRED BREWSTER ELY, the son of Rev. Dr. Alfred Ely, of Monson, was born in that town Jan. 13, 1817. He fitted for college at the Monson Academy, and graduated at Amherst in 1836. After leaving college he taught the high school in Brattle- horo', Vt., and the Donaldson Academy, at Fayette- ville, N. C., and read law with Chapman & Ash- mun, in Springfield, Mass., where he was admitted

Lastured by

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BENCH AND BAR.

to the har. In 1848 he removed to Boston, where he established himself in the law, making Newton, a part of the time, his place of residence, from which town he was representative to the General Court in 1872. He early became an active " Native American," and introduced into Massachusetts in 1846 the " Order of United Americans," of which for a time he was the president. At one time he edited, and perhaps owned, the Boston Daily Times and the Boston Ledger, and held the offices of State director in the Western Railroad, and commissioner of Back Bay Lands. In 1861 he was quartermaster of the Thirteenth Connecticut Regiment, and aid-de-camp of Brigadier-General Benham. In 1862 he was assistant adjutant-general of the Northern Division of the Department of the South, and was at Hilton Head and Fort Pulaski, and in the battles of Edisto and Stono, and afterwards on the staff of General Morgan. He resigned in 1863. He married, first, Lucy, daughter of Charles J. Cooley, of Norwich, and second, Harriet Elizabeth, daughter of Freeman Allen, of Boston, and died at Newton July 30, 1872.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 15

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034