USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 41
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 41
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 41
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Adjoining the Thomas grant was the land of Edward Winslow, granted to him December 4, 1637. Both together comprised 2,700 acres. It was evidently the intention of Mr. Webster to purchase both of these original tracts, from various owners to whom they had been conveyed. There are numerous deeds in record at the Plymouth County Registry which denote his progressive purchases, the sum total being about 1,200 acres, for which his payments in the aggregate were $34,644. Captain and Mrs. Thomas were reluctant to part with their land and domicile, but Mr. Webster purchased their possessions with the understanding that they should continue on the place and treat it as their own as long as they lived.
One of their sons, Ray Thomas, became Mr. Webster's confidential secretary. The elder son, Charles Henry Thomas, of Duxbury, repre- sented him in most of his business transactions in Marshfield and vicinity.
Immediately in front of the Webster mansion in Marshfield stood two elm trees, which were taken from a remote part of his estate by Mr. Webster and replanted with his own hands, in the presence of his son, Fletcher. After completing the work he turned to his son and said: "My son, protect these trees after I am gone; let them ever remind you of Julia and Edward." He was speaking to his only surviving child about two others who had died. The elm trees were their living monuments.
When the house was remodelled, after its purchase from Captain Thomas, Mr. Webster's daughter Julia designed that part which con- tained the library.
The Webster family burial ground was set apart adjoining the burial ground of the Winslow family, abutting his estate. It is upon the sum- mit of a hill, from which may be seen the ocean and the wide stretch
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of marshes from which the town derives its name; the site of the first church erected in the town, and a far view in every direction. Not long before his death, Mr. Webster visited the Webster lot with Charles Lanman, his secretary, and pointing to the tomb, which he had fash- ioned, said impressively : "This will be my home; and here three mon- uments will soon be erected-one for the mother of my children, one each for Julia and Edward, and there will be plenty of room in front for the little ones that must follow them."
The monuments are simple columns, with granite bases and marble shafts, containing the following inscriptions :
GRACE WEBSTER, Wife of Daniel Webster: Born January 16, 1781; Died January 21, 1828. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
JULIA WEBSTER, Wife of Samuel Appleton Appleton: Born January 16, 1818; Died April 18, 1848. Let me go, for the day breaketh.
MAJOR EDWARD WEBSTER: Born July 28, 1820; Died at San Angel, in Mexico, In the military service of his country, January 23, 1848. A dearly beloved son and brother.
During his last illness Mr. Webster dictated an epitaph to be en- graved upon his monument and his desire was carried out, the epitaph reading :
Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. Philosophical argument, especially that drawn from the Vastness of the Universe, in Comparison with the apparent Insignificance of this Globe, has some- times shaken my Reason for the Faith which is in me; but my Heart has always assured and reassured me that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a Divine Reality. The Sermon on the Mount cannot be a merely human Production. This Belief enters into the very Depth of my Conscience. The whole History of Man Proves it.
DANIEL WEBSTER.
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Mr. Webster found much pleasure and relaxation in trout fishing and was well acquainted with the brooks frequented by the wily trout throughout Plymouth County and Cape Cod, doubtless elsewhere. One day, in a speech at Syracuse, New York, he introduced the following passage : "It has so happened that all the public services I have rendered to the world, in my day and generation, have been connected with the general government. I think I ought to make an exception. I was ten days a member of the Massachusetts Legislature (laughter), and I turned my thoughts to the search of some good object in which I could be useful in that position ; and after much reflection, I introduced a bill, which, with the general consent of both houses of the Massachusetts Legislature, passed into a law, and is now a law of the State, which enacts that no man in the State shall catch trout in any other manner than in the old way, with an ordinary hook and line. With that excep- tion, I never was connected for an hour with any state government in my life."
Mr. Webster enjoyed hunting and fishing but was by no means an expert sportsman. His great love of nature and outdoor life was back of his excursions with rod and gun and sometimes the game might roam in his vicinity unharmed, or even unheard, if something in the bright sunlight or the wonderful colorings had turned his thoughts to lines of poetry or oratory. The Plymouth woods were a delight to him and he often went hunting in them with Isaac L. Hedge, Thomas Hedge, George Churchill, "Uncle Branch," Daniel Fuller, of Kingston, known as the "hermit," or Uncle Harvey Ransom of Kingston. All of these men and many others told interesting stories of their hunting and fishing trips with the great statesman.
On the morning of the first of April, 1852, as he was being driven by Seth Peterson to join Isaac and Thomas Hedge for a day in the Plymouth woods, the linch pin of his carriage broke while descending the hill near Smelt Brook in Kingston. Mr. Webster was thrown to the ground and taken into the house of Captain Melzar Whitten. Later in the day he was taken home. He never recovered from the effects of the fall, and his health gradually failed until his death, October 24 in that year.
There are two items in the last will and testament of Daniel Webster which show something of his character:
Item. My servant William Johnson is a free man. I bought his freedom not long ago for six hundred dollars. No demand is to be made upon him for any portion of this sum, but so long as is agreeable, I hope he will remain with the family.
Item. Monicha McCarty, Sarah Smith and Ann Bean, colored persons, now, also, and for a long time in my service, are all free. They are very well deserving, and whoever comes after me must be kind to them.
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This will was written by himself, seated before his fireplace on the 19th of October. After affixing his signature, he folded his hands to- gether and said impressively: "I thank God for strength to perform a sensible act," after which he engaged in audible prayer, closing with the Lord's prayer.
Monicha McCarty was the family cook, born and raised as the slave of Judge Chanch of Washington. Mr. Webster purchased her freedom for six hundred dollars with the understanding that she was to work it out, but the indebtedness was never again mentioned and he paid her wages. It is said at his death she had saved, from her wages and gifts from the family and guests, nearly $2,000.
In June, 1852, the United States Agricultural Society, headed by its founder-president, the Honorable Marshall P. Wilder, called at the Webster farm, in Marshfield, to pay their respects. Mr. Wilder ad- dressed Mr. Webster as the "Farmer of Marshfield." In reply he said :
You do me no more than justice when you call me "Farmer of Marshfield." My father was a farmer and I am a farmer. To you farmers of the West and South, the soil of Marshfield may look barren and unfruitful. Sometimes the breezes of the broad Atlantic fan you; sometimes, indeed, unkindly suns smite you, but I love its quiet shades, and there I shall love to commune with you upon the ennobling pursuit in which we are so happily engaged.
When some thirty years ago, I was at Marshfield, some of my kind neighbors made a call to inquire the state of a matter involving a bit of law, but I told them, "I have come to reside among you as a farmer, and here I talk neither politics nor law."
On the day in Kingston that he was thrown from his carriage, his head cut and his right arm and hand which he had put out to check the force of the fall, badly injured, he was taken into the home of Melzar Whitten at Rocky Nook. After the wound on his forehead had been dressed, Mrs. Whitten entered the chamber, somewhat embarrassed in her anxiety. This was noticed by Mr. Webster who set her at ease by saying: "Madam, how diversified is the lot of humanity in this world! A certain man, passing from Jerusalem to Jerico, fell among thieves, and was ill-treated. A man passing from Marshfield to Plym- outh, fell among a very hospitable set of people, and was taken care of."
It is said that Mr. Webster prepared a part of his famous address on Bunker Hill while trout fishing along the Plymouth County streams, and that it was a couple of lusty trout which first heard, as they were being transferred to his fishing basket: "Venerable men! You have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives that you might behold this joyous day."
War Governor of Massachusetts-Of the Plymouth County lawyers whose practice in the courts has been confined to the last one hundred years, one of the earliest was John Albion Andrew, governor of Mas-
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sachusetts during the entire period of the Civil War, a resident of Hing- ham, in which town his body lies buried. Governor Andrew entered the law office of Henry H. Fuller in Boston in 1837, and for twenty years practiced his profession, becoming deeply interested in the anti- slavery agitation. In 1854 he defended the parties arrested for the rescue of Anthony Burns. In 1859 he presided at the meeting in Tremont Temple for the relief of the suffering family of John Brown, declaring that whether Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry was right or wrong, "John Brown himself is right." An indication of his convictions was ex- pressed in one of his speeches in which he said: "I know not what record of sin awaits me in the other world, but this I know, that I never despised a man because he was poor, because he was ignorant or because he was black."
He used his influence as a delegate to the Republican convention at Chicago in 1860 for the nomination of Abraham Lincoln and the follow- ing year was elected governor of Massachusetts. At the beginning of the Civil War, when the Massachusetts troops were killed in Baltimore, he sent a telegram to the mayor of that city: "I pray you, let the bodies of our Massachusetts soldiers, dead in Baltimore, be laid out, preserved in ice, and tenderly sent forward by express to me."
John A. Andrew will always be remembered as the great war gov- ernor, his patriotic work far outshining the record of his work as a lawyer, although he was one of Plymouth County's shining legal lights.
Another Hingham lawyer of eminence whose services outside of his profession made him great was John D. Long, who served as governor of Massachusetts, as Congressman and, during the Spanish War, as Secretary of the Navy. John Davis Long first saw the light of day at Buckfield, Maine, October 27, 1838. His parents were, however, of Mas- sachusetts stock, and, after fitting at Hebron Academy, he entered Harvard College at the age of fourteen. He taught school in Middlesex County, took a course at the Harvard Law School and practiced in his native town, also in Boston.
East Bridgewater is one of the Plymouth County towns which has furnished some notable lawyers. Among the early ones of the last hundred years was William Latham. He was especially active as a trustee and in the settlement of estates. Aside from his legal practice he gave much time and study to Old Colony history and antiquarian research. He possessed remarkable knowledge of genealogical history of this section. He collected the data and had printed a record of the ancient burying-grounds of this vicinity. He was a member of the Mas- sachusetts Historical Society, also of the New England Historico- Genealogical Society. The valuable historical material which he col- lected was voluminous, and his collection of ancient and modern musical
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publications would be the delight of many. He was a member of the Old Stoughton Musical Society, the oldest singing society in the United States. It has been said of him: "A greater portion of his life was spent in an effort to rescue from oblivion the few facts now left to us of the ancient settlers of the Old Colony." Mr. Latham passed away November 6, 1883, at the age of eighty years.
One of those who read law in the office of Ebenezer Gay of Hing- ham was Jacob Hersey Loud, also of that town, who was born February 5, 1802, graduated from Derby Academy in Hingham and Brown Univer- sity, and was ready to receive the instruction of Mr. Gay shortly after his university training. He was admitted to the Plymouth County bar in August, 1825, and took up law practice in the shire town. He suc- ceeded Beza Hayward as register of probate in 1830 and held that office until 1852. He served as State treasurer three years. He was pres- ident of the Old Colony Bank and its successor, the Old Colony National Bank, for eleven years, and was also president of the Plymouth Savings Bank the last few years of his life.
Mr. Loud was a member of the first board of directors of the Old Colony Railroad Company, from 1845 to 1850. In 1868 he was again chosen a director and remained on the board till his death. He served as representative to the General Court, also as senator. From 1865 to 1871 he was again State treasurer and receiver general. He was actuary of the New England Trust Company from the time of its or- ganization in 1871 till 1879. He died at the age of eighty-eight years, February 2, 1880.
Hon. William H. Wood, son of Judge Wilkes Wood, already referred to as judge of probate, was a native of Middleboro, educated at Pierce Academy in that town and at Brown University. The date of his birth was October 24, 1811. For a year he was principal of the Coffin Academy at Nantucket and then entered the Harvard Law School, and studied under Judge Story and Horace Mann. For a time he practiced in Boston but from 1840 until his death, March 30, 1883, his law office was in Middleboro. More concerning his career has already been given in connection with his incumbency of the office of register of probate.
"Father of the New Navy"-On the tenth of November, 1823, in East Bridgewater, was born Benjamin Winslow Harris, a gentleman of the old school, well remembered by many people of Plymouth County and beyond, for his geniality, integrity and sterling qualities. He is remem- bered as the "father of the new navy," as a distinguished Congressman, for many years judge of probate, and for many important law cases in which he had a part. He was father of Judge Robert O. Harris, a distinguished son, who died in 1925.
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Benjamin W. Harris served ten years in Congress and his title of "father of the new navy" was attained owing to his activities in measures for the upbuilding of our present naval system. For eight years he was district attorney for Plymouth County and for twenty years was judge of the Probate Court, retiring on account of ill health. He died February 7, 1907, leaving one son, Judge Robert O. Harris, and two daughters.
He was graduated from the Harvard Law School in June, 1848. He was admitted to the bar in Boston April 12, 1850. He opened a law office in his native town which was maintained, with a branch office a part of the time in Brockton, until his death. His appointment as dis- trict attorney in 1858 was by Governor Nathaniel P. Banks. He served in that capacity for Southeastern Massachusetts until June, 1866, when he was appointed collector of internal revenue for the second congres- sional district. He resigned as district attorney and moved to Dorches- ter. In the fall of 1872 he was nominated for Congress from that district and served four years. As a member of the Committee on Indian affairs, he became very much interested in the Indians' welfare and was a member of the commission that investigated the management of affairs at the Red Cloud Agency in 1875.
He took up whole-heartedly the work which led to abandoning the old wooden ships in the naval service, as he recognized that steel ships were the proper thing for war service. Under the plan suggested by Congressman Harris the wooden vessels were condemned and replaced by those of steel construction.
Judge Harris retired from Congress in 1882 and was succeeded by John D. Long of Hingham, a lifelong friend, who afterward became Secretary of the Navy under President Mckinley.
One of the important criminal trials during the time Judge Harris was district attorney was that of George C. Hersey of Weymouth for the murder of Betsey F. Tirrill, May 3, 1860, at Weymouth. The evidence was largely circumstantial but it was collected with such care and put before the jury so strikingly that the accused was convicted. The death warrant, signed by Governor John A. Andrew, was executed August 8, 1862, in the Dedham Jail and the execution was preceded by a written confession of the deed by Hersey.
Charged With Treason in Rhode Island-Hon. Perez Simmons of Hanover had the distinction of having the first warrant for treason, issued by the old Legislature of Rhode Island against him. This was an offense punishable by imprisonment for life and was occasioned by his having called to order the first Legislature, under the new consti- tution, of which body he had been chosen a member. He left Rhode
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Island to escape arrest and returned to his former home in Hanover, learned that the governor of Massachusetts would surrender him upon requisition from the governor of Rhode Island, so moved on to Maine, a safer haven. He resided in Portland until a change in government in Massachusetts brought about a change of policy. He then again became a Hanover resident and practiced law there forty years.
Mr. Simmons was born in Hanover in January, 1811. He was grad- uated from Brown University in 1833, taught school for a few terms in Plymouth County towns, then returned to Providence and began his law studies. He also acted as newspaper correspondent for several papers, was a reporter on the staff of the "Providence Journal," and drifted into political activities, destined to end his career in Rhode Island, as already stated. A convention was held which formed what was known as a Free Suffrage or People's Constitution. The old charter government would not recognize this convention. The people of Rhode Island gave in their votes for a new constitution by a large majority, but the old government would not recognize the new and it was the act of calling together the Legislature of the new constitution's creation which sent Mr. Simmons back to Hanover, with a temporary sojourn in Maine.
The town of Hanover, after his return home in 1844, honored him with the offices of selectman, assessor and overseer of the poor and re- elected him as long as he would give a portion of his time to the town's welfare. His growing practice made it desirable for him to decline fur- ther town office. At one term of court at Plymouth he was retained in every case, civil and criminal, or one side or the other. He served in the General Court and in the Constitutional Convention of 1853. He served on the recess committee from the General Court which estab- lished the General Statutes of Massachusetts. He was on the committee which brought about the abolition of the Court of Common Pleas and the establishment of the Superior Court. He was prominent in the "Know nothing" movement and was commissioner of insolvency of Plymouth County when that party carried the election.
Hon. Jonas R. Perkins, a native of Braintree, Massachusetts, was a graduate of Brown University and previous to becoming a lawyer was principal of Rochester Academy. As a lawyer he was first associated with Hon. Timothy Coffin, of New Bedford, in whose office he studied. Mr. Perkins became thrilled with the spirit of adventure which found its outlet in going to California as a "Forty-niner." He sailed for the Golden Gate July 10, 1849, and remained in the State of climate and gold until July, 1852, when he returned and opened a law office in North Bridgewater, now Brockton. He became prominent in various lines
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of community life, was captain of the North Bridgewater Dragoons in 1857, selectman in 1864, was trial justice for a number of years, then justice of the First District Court, beginning July 16, 1874, and con- tinuing many years.
The present generation of lawyers easily recall with admiration the qualities possessed by the late Hosea Kingman, for many years the acknowledged leader of the Plymouth County bar. A native of Bridge- water, he made that town his home. He attended Bridgewater Academy, also Appleton Academy at New Ipswich, New Hampshire, and entered Dartmouth College. He left college to enlist in Company K, Third Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, at the outbreak of the Civil War. He accompanied his regiment to Newbern, North Carolina, was detailed on signal service, and went to Port Royal, South Carolina, from there to Folly Island in Charlestown Harbor, and was mustered out in June, 1863. He returned to college and was graduated in 1864.
He studied in the office of William Latham and later entered into partnership with his instructor, the partnership remaining until the retirement of the senior member in 1871. He was a prominent citizen of Bridgewater, officer in several of the town's banking and educational institutions, was special justice of the First District Court of Plymouth County, served as district attorney, commissioner of insolvency, and in various other capacities. His death removed one of the most respected members of the profession in this part of the State.
Eliab Ward was a native of Carver, graduated from Amherst College, studied law in the office of Jacob H. Loud at Plymouth and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1836. He practiced in Middleboro. In the Civil War, through successive promotions, he became a brigadier-general. He served in both houses of the Massachusetts Legislature.
Jacob B. Harris was the lawyer who defended William Everett Sturtevant, convicted of murder of Simeon and Thomas Sturtevant and their housekeeper, Mrs. Mary Buckley, in Halifax, Massachusetts, in 1874. His plea was a masterly effort. The same year the District Court was established and Mr. Harris was appointed justice but failing health compelled him to resign after one month's service. He died early the following year.
The vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Harris was filled by Jesse E. Keith, then the only lawyer residing in Abington, where the court was held. He had been a lawyer about twenty-five years, had held town office, served in the Massachusetts Legislature, had been post- master of Abington. In the Harvard Law School he was a classmate of Benjamin W. Harris, and, like him, was a native of East Bridge- water. In 1883, upon the death of Judge Wood, he was appointed by Governor Benjamin F. Butler, judge of probate and insolvency.
Plym -- 25
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Mr. Keith associated with himself John F. Simmons, a son of Hon. Perez Simmons of Hanover, as a partner. He was a graduate of Phil- lips Exeter Academy and Harvard University, class of 1873. He later became a partner of Harvey H. Pratt.
Hon. Solomon Lincoln, born in Hingham, February 28, 1804, was graduated from Derby Academy and Brown University and studied law in the office of Ebenezer Gay in Hingham. He was admitted to the bar in 1826. As a young man he wrote a "History of Hingham" and was a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines. Among other offices which he held was member of the Massachusetts Legislature, United States Marshal, master in chancery for Plymouth County, bank commissioner, cashier of the Webster Bank in Boston, director of the Hingham Mutual Fire Insurance Company, afterwards its president ; director of the Hingham Cemetery Corporation, trustee of Loring Hall, of Hingham Public Library, of Hingham Agricultural and Horticultural Society. He gave numerous notable orations and addresses, and was author of several publications.
Many of the lawyers of today remember when Hosea Kingman, William Henry Osborne and Judge Charles G. Davis constituted the board of examiners for admission to the Plymouth County bar. Mr. Osborne was a native of Scituate but lived nearly all of his life in East Bridgewater. He was graduated from the State Normal School in Bridgewater and taught school parts of three years, until May, 1861, when he enlisted as a private in Company C, 29th Regiment, Massa- chusetts Volunteers. He had a notable army record, taking part in numerous battles. His regiment was made a part of the famous Irish Brigade under command of General Thomas Francis Meagher, which was at the front nearly every day for several weeks.
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