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

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576

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

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While absent in Europe in 1853 he was nominated by the Whigs for Governor of the State, and was elected by a narrow majority. The next year he was defeated by the "Know-Nothings," and returned to the calling for which he was most fitted.

Whether his success was greater as an advocate or as an instructor in the law, may be open to question. In the year 1856 he became Bussey professor of law in the Dane Law School at Cambridge, and for twenty years lectured before successive classes of students with ever-increasing reputation, and adding to the ranks of his devoted admirers every disciple who had the opportunity to listen to the kindly counsel which he mingled with his instruction. It was said of him that " Few professors have enjoyed in so full a meas- ure the confidence and affection of the students of that renowned seat of learning. Noue have been more fortunate in the effort to inspire the young men of the bar with lofty ideas and pure purposes. It was not his power as a lecturer upon legal topics, though respectable, by which he exerted the greatest influ- ence on the mind and future course of the student, hut his private conversations and advice based on long experience . . . and an earnest, unaffected in- terest in the welfare and prospects of every young man to whom he stood in the relation of instructor and adviser." During his professorship he published a treatise on the "American Law of Real Property," which has passed through several editions, and is the text-book of students and the reliable reference of the practitioner to-day. Both this work and his vol- ume on "Easements," are marked by the most careful investigation of authorities and the presentation in the fullest manner of every phase of the subject. In the effort to cover the whole ground, the writer some- times becomes prolix, but whatever of force is lost in repetitions is compensated by the addition of prece-

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

dents and citations. In 1876 he resigned his profes- sor's chair, but even then did not give up his ambition to be useful. As a Representative in the General Court during the last year of his life, he was actively at work in the chairmanship of the judiciary committee, and as senior member of the House ex- hibited the same fresh interest in public matters as when one of its youngest members he represented Princeton, half a century before. In 1877 he died with mental powers in full activity, and the affection- ate eulogies which were pronounced by his fellows in every relationship of his busy life testified to the deep impression which his genial manners and uni- versal sympathy had made upon the hearts of all who knew him.

When Judge Nathaniel Paine retired from his long and honerable service of thirty-five years iu the Pro- bate Court he was succeeded by IRA M. BARTON, a counsellor practicing in Oxford. In that town he was born in 1796. During a portion of his course at Brown University he was a room-mate of Horace Mann, whose friendship he enjoyed in their subse- quent careers. After graduating in 1819, he studied law with Sumner Bastow, iu Oxford, with Levi Lin- coln, and at the Harvard Law School, then recently established. He was one of the first three to graduate from that institution. In 1822 he opened his office in his native town, and there continued practice for fourteen years. As an adviser he was careful and con- scientions, desirous rather of avoiding danger for his clicut than of risking his interests by over-boldness. As an advocate he attained considerable success. Not a brilliant orator, his efforts were characterized by an earnest endeavor to perform his duty to the fullest extent, and his well-known integrity secured to him always respectful consideration by courts and juries. From 1836 to 1844 he presided with impartiality in the Probate Court, and by his kindly sympathy maintained the traditions of that tribunal as the guardian and protector of the helpless and the afflicted. Upon his resignation he formed a partner- ship with the late Peter C. Bacon, to which Mr. Barton's son was admitted later, and for several years the business of the firm was of extensive proportions, and its name familiar beyond the limits of the county. In 1849 his feeble health compelled his retirement from active practice, but did not prevent his acting as counsel in chambers during many years. In this, perhaps the most agreeable branch of legal practice to one of non-combative instinct, he found his judg- ment sought and relied upon by a large circle of clients. He took his fair share of the responsibility in matters of public interest. For three years he represented Oxford in the Legislature, and was Sena- tor in 1832 and 1834. In the latter year he was appointed one of the commissioners to revise the statutes of the State, and bring iuto shape, available for use, the mass of public legislation which had grown to be an almost chaotic tangle of repeals and

amendments. The plan of this first revision has been substantially adhered to in subsequent codifications. His addresses on several occasions gave proof of tastes for historical investigation, which were not, however, developed to a considerable extent. He lived until 1867.

ALFRED DWIGHT FOSTER should be included in these sketches as one of a line of lawyers who have been ornaments of this bar. His father and grandfather have received notice as judges of our courts, and bis son attained the same title with even greater distinc- tion. Mr. Foster was boru in 1800, in Brookfield, the residence of his ancestors. After graduating from Harvard, in 1819, he studied with Mr. Burnside, and was admitted to the bar in 1822. After only two years attention to practice, he withdrew from business, and lived a life of quiet and useful leisure until his death, in 1852. He served in one or two public capaci- ties after his removal to Worcester, in 1828, and acquired aud retained the entire respect of the com- munity.

Que of Judge Washburn's most intimate friends through a score of years, until death severed the tics, was THOMAS KINNICUTT. Born in Rhode Island in 1800, the same year with Mr. Washburn, he graduated with high honors from Brown University in 1822. His law studies were pursued in the school at Litch- field, in the offices of Francis Baylie, of Taunton, and of Governor Davis. In 1825 he was admitted and began business in Worcester. His physical powers were never of the strongest, and his gentle nature shunned the contests of the court-room and the politi- cal arena. He did, however, serve several terms in both: hranebes of the State Legislature, and was twice chosen Speaker of the House. He found his true sphere on the bench of the Probate Court, where he succeeded Judge Thomas in 1848, and presided until a short time before his death, ten years later. His winning presence, gentle manners and affectionate disposition endeared him greatly to all with whom he came in contact. With several of the financial insti- tutions of the city he was connected, and his sagacious judgment in their conduct was constantly approved. His was one of those characters which, courting no publicity, by its sweetness and purity helps to brighten the aspect of a world sometimes too busy to even notice the shadows which overspread it.

ISAAC DAVIS1 was born in Northborough, an agri- cultural town in the eastern part of this county, June 2, 1799. His ancestors, for seven generations, had been inhabitants of Massachusetts, and possessed marked family traits; conspicuous among them were rugged honesty, energy, independence of character, industry and public spirit.

His earliest progenitor in New England was Dolor Davis, the precise time of whose arrival on these' shores is not known, but he is believed to have been

1 By J. Evarts Greene.

Osame Davis

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one of the earlier settlers in the Plymouth colony. He is known to have dwelt in Cambridge in 1634, to have married Margery Willard, sister of Major Simon Willard, formerly of Kent, England, and a distin- guished soldier in the Indian wars of this colony, and to have died in Barnstable, in the Plymouth colony, in 1673.

Samuel, the younger of Dolor Davis' two sons, mar- ried Mary Meads. Simon, the youngest of Samuel's five sons, was born August 9, 1683, and attained the age of eighty years. Of his sons, the oldest-bearing the same name-was born in 1713, married Hannah Gates, lived in the town of Holden and was the father of eleven children. Isaac, the ninth of these, was born February 27, 1749, married Anna Brigham and lived in Northborough. Phineas, the eldest of his eleven children, was born September 12, 1772, married Martha Eager, October 12, 1793, and, like his father and grandfather, was blessed with a family of eleven children.

Isaac, the subject of this sketch, was the fourth of this numerous progeny. In his boyhood the industry of the inland towns of Massachusetts was almost wholly confined to farming, with some few primitive manufactures. Even Boston, the metropolis of New England, and the seat of a large foreign commerce, had scarcely one-fourth as many inhabitants as Wor- cester has now. Hampshire County, with its rich farming lands, was by far the most populous county in the State, Worcester and Essex approaching it most nearly. Mr. Davis' father was a tanner and enrrier, an upright and respected citizen. In his household the homely virtues of piety, industry and frugality were cultivated and flourished. The educa- tion of the children, begun and continued at home by the example and conversation of their parents, the reading of a few but good books, and the early study of the Bible, was pursued in the district school. The time not so employed was given to the tasks of the shop and the farm.

The district schools of those days laid a substantial foundation for the building of a serviceable and comely edifice of mental attainment and culture, but they did not carry the acquisition of knowledge very far. A boy of an inquiring and eager mind soon learned what they had to teach. The course of school studies having been early completed, Isaac Davis went to work in his father's shop, and might probably have adopted his trade, but for an injury which dis- abled him for a time from bodily labor. While re- covering from this hurt, conscious of mental powers to which the mechanical occupation of his father would not give full scope, even if he should ever be sound enough in body to resume it, his ambition, stimulated, doubtless, by the example of his uncle, John Davis, then beginning the practice of law, in which, as in politics and statesmanship, he made an illustrious reputation, the young man resolved to pre- pare himself for professional life. The obstacles in

his way would now be thought great, but they were not greater than those which the young men of that day who entered the professions were accustomed to sur- mount, and Mr. Davis' energy and perseverance were amply adequate to the task which he proposed for himself. His parents, burdened with the support of a large family of young children, could give him little assistance, and he depended largely on his own exertions for support and the cost of his educa- tion.

He began his preparation for college at Leicester, and completed it at Lancaster Academy, and entered Brown University in 1818, where he was graduated with credit in 1822. Giving lessons in penmanship and teaching school in winter were among the means by which he paid his way through college. After his graduation he accepted the office of tutor in the uni- versity, at the salary of four hundred dollars, and at the same time began the study of law in the office of General Carpenter, then one of the leaders of the Rhode Island bar. After a few months' trial of this divided employment he resolved to give his whole time to the law, and, removing to Worcester, entered as a student theoffice of Lincoln & Davis. The busi- ness of the office was large and varied, and gave the student excellent opportunities for learning the prac- tical details of professional work in all its branches. While pursuing his studies Mr. Davis earned some- thing toward his support by employing the time which a young man, less patient of continuous labor and less eager for independence, might have given- and perhaps wisely-to recreation, in copying deeds in the office of the register.

Soon after he entered the office Mr. Lincoln, the senior partner, was chosen Lientenant-Governor, and the year after was appointed a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. This appointment and the distin- guished political honors, which soon followed, re- moved him permanently from practice, and upon Mr. Davis' admission to the bar, in 1825, hie proposed to his uncle, then conducting the business alone, to be- come his partner, receiving as his share of the income one-third of the profits of the business in the Court of Common Pleas. This offer was declined, and the uncle advised his nephew to begin practice in one of the smaller towns of the county, where the competi- tion would be less active, with the purpose of remov- ing to Worcester when he had established a business and reputation. But the young lawyer had no liking for a timid policy. He preferred to face the greatest difficulties at once and had no distrust of his ability to surmount them. He therefore opened an office in Worcester, and it was not long before his talents were discovered and employed by clients in such numbers as amply to justify his confidence in himself.

The Worcester bar at that time was very strong. It is doubtful whether in any county in the United States was there then a group of lawyers more remarkable for native ability, legal attainments and

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

skill in advocacy than those strenuously competing for the professional business of this little town of six or eight thousand inhabitants. Francis Blake, then near the close of his brilliant professional life, who was said by Governor Lincoln to he the most eloquent man he had ever heard at this bar; Pliny Merrick, Emory Washburn, Charles Allen, John Davis, Ira M. Barton, each one of whom would have stood in the front rank of lawyers anywhere, were in the prime of life and in the full tide of their professional activity. Into this distinguished company Mr. Davis came as a com- petitor for the prizes and honors of the profession, alert, intrepid, confident, as eager for work as for honor, of exhaustless tenacity and endurance. His office dockets show that, within three years of his ad- mission to the bar, he had been employed in more than two thousand cases. Long before the end of that period his uncle had changed his mind about the partnership, and had offered the successful young lawyer much better terms than he had refused to con- cede a year before. But Mr. Davis was not then willing to be second in the management of his profes- sional business, even to a man so eminent as his uncle, John Davis, then was.

His success was remarkable, and the labor which his constantly growing practice required was beyond the capacity of most men. As his fortunes improved his interests and cares extended beyond the lines of his profession. He had an intelligent concern for the growth and welfare of the town, and everything which promised to advance its prosperity or its intel- lectual, moral or religious improvement engaged his attention and received the advantage of his helpful counsel, powerful advocacy and financial support. His surplus earnings were sagaciously invested in real estate and in the shares of many industrial and finan- cial corporations. His mind had that happy mixture of enterprise and prudence which led him to avoid, as if by instinct, thongh really by acute intelligence, wide knowledge of business and swift compntation of the elements of success or failure, nndertakings which, though plausible, lacked substantial merit, and to support by his capital and credit others in which, while many prudent men deemed them hazardons, his shrewd insight discovered the germs of sure and productive growth.

His services as trustee and director of moneyed and manufacturing corporations were highly valued. He was for many years president of the Quinsigamond Bank, of the State Mutual Life Insurance Company and of the Merchants' and Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company, a director of the Providence and Worcester Railroad Company, and a large stockholder in other railroads, in the Washburn Iron Company and in many other industrial enterprises. His good fortune gave, and his helpful spirit prompted him to improve, frequent opportunities of aiding at a critical moment men of enterprise and merit, whose business, gener- ally sound, was straitened or threatened with dis-

aster by temporary causes. If his judgment approved the risk, his assistance had no bounds except the limit. of his own resources. His confidence in the men whom he trusted or in the reasonableness of their hopes was rarely, if ever, misplaced. There are many prosperous men and valuable industries in Worcester to-day that, but for his liberality, guided by a cool and accurate judgment, would have been wrecked by dis- aster in their beginnings. Mr. Davis did not in such cases make hard conditions, or regard his advances of money or credit as speculations from which, in the event of success, he had the right to exact extraordi- nary profits in consideration of unusual risks. He counted with confidence upon success and expected no greater returns than from other prudent invest- ments. lle had, however, the further reward, most gratifying to a man of his public spirit, of the con- sciousness of having given help when it was needed, deserved and efficacious; having promoted the well- being of the community and gained the esteem of his fellow-townsmen.

Mr. Davis, in early manhood, adopted the political principles of the Democratic party. If his conduct had been guided by motives of personal advancement only or chiefly, this would have been an unwise step, for that party has been pretty constantly out of power in the State, and especially in the city and county. Ilis party connection, however, did not prevent Mr. Davis' election to several positions of political import- ance. He was twice elected to the State Senate, in 1843 and 1854; once to the House of Representatives, in 1852; to the Governor's Council in 1851; to the State Constitutional Convention of 1853 and three times to the mayoralty of Worcester, in 1856, 1858 and 1861. The Democratic party three times made him its candidate for the office of Governor. He was a member of the State Board of Education from 1852 to 1860; was twice appointed a member of the Board of Visitors of the West Point Military Academy and in 1855 was chairman of the board. President Pierce offered him the appointment of Assistant Treasurer of the United States, but he declined the offer.

Mr. Davis was always sincerely religious. Theo- logically and ecclesiastically he adhered to the doc- trines and discipline of the Baptist Church. He was president, for several years, of the State Convention of the denomination, and of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, and gave liberally to the charitable, religious and educational operations of this sect. llis benefactions to the Worcester Academy were especially liberal. He was president of its board of trustees for forty years, and was also a trustee and a Fellow of Brown University. He was for many years a member of the Council of the American Anti- quarian Society.

Mr. Davis will long be remembered among those who were most influential in making Worcester what it is. As a lawyer, while pre-eminence in learning or eloquence is not claimed for him, he was remarkably

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successful in advocacy, and stood in the front rank, in the extent of his business and the deserved confi- dence of his clients, among the lawyers of his day. He was a great force in the community. His vigorous expression of positive opinions, his wise counsels, his judicious investments and benefactions, made him one of those who give impetns and direction to the activi- ties of town or city, church, State and institutions of learning.

The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by Columbia College, Washington, D. C., and by Brown University.

In 1829 he married Mary H. Estabrook, daughter of Joseph Estabrook, of Royalston, Mass. She died in 1875. They had ten children,-four sons and six daughters,-all of whom, with the exception of one son who died in infancy, lived to be married.

Mr. Davis died at his home in Worcester, April 1, 1883, at the age of eighty-three years and ten months.

WILLIAM LINCOLN and CHRISTOPHER C. BALDWIN were two kindred spirits whose tastes for letters led them from the dusty purlieus of the law to more con- genial historical studies. The first, born in Worcester in 1801, was of that sturdy stock of which two succes- sive generations have received notice in these pages. While one brother, Levi, was Governor of this Com- monwealth, another brother, Enoch, was Governor of Maine, and another, John, was in the State Sen- ate, William was creditably representing his native town in the House of Representatives,-a record of simultaneous public service perhaps never equaled by the members of one family. The subject of this sketch graduated at Harvard in 1822, and after studies with his brother Enoch, with John Davis and Rejoice Newton, was admitted to the bar in 1825. For some years he was in partnership with Mr. New- ton in practice, but his real interests were in another line of thought. With Mr. Baldwin, who was ad- mitted to practice in the year after himself, he founded the Worcester Magazine, of which mention has more than once been made, and in the editing and writing for that publication each took more de- light than in drawing conveyances or preparing briefs.

In 1836 Mr. Lincoln published his "History of Worcester," a work containing a great amount of val- uable information relative to the early days of this now prosperous city.

Mr. Baldwin was a native of Templeton, born in 1800, and was educated at Leicester Academy and Harvard College. He practiced in Worcester, Barre and Sutton, but was glad to finally abandon the pro- fession when elected librarian of the American Anti- quarian Society in Worcester. Among the books and ancient manuscripts of that learned institution be found his proper sphere of usefulness. He died at thirty-five and his friend Lincoln survived him but eight years. Both were of that modest disposi- tion which loves best the scholar's seclusion, but

which in the glow of friendly intercourse, opens out into kindly humor, and brightens with playful wit the hours of social relaxation.

Mr. Baldwin's successor as librarian of the Anti- quarian Society was also bred a lawyer. SAMUEL F. HAVEN was born in Dedham in 1806 and attended Phillips Academy in Andover and Phillips, Exeter, before entering Harvard, in 1822. After two years there he removed to Amherst, where he graduated in 1826. For a few years after admission to the bar he practiced in Dedham and Lowell, but his life- work, from 1838 until his death, in 1881, was as a historical scholar and archeologist in the service of the society which chose him for its officer.

By the act incorporating the city of Worcester, passed in 1848, a Police Court within and for the city was established, whose jurisdiction was made exclu- sive of that of justices of the peace in criminal mat- ters, and conenrrent with theirs in civil actions. At that time claims for debt or damage which did not exceed one hundred dollars in value were cogniz- able by the justices of the peace. A provision was in force for some years by which a jury of six might be demanded and impaneled to try the issue where the value sought to be recovered exceeded twenty dol- lars. So long as this conrt was in existence it was presided over by WILLIAM NELSON GREEN, a native of Milford, who had studied with Mr. Burnside, and came to the bar in 1827. He was a son of William E. Green, the partner of Edward Bangs and of Ed- ward D. Bangs, heretofore mentioned. As a justice of the peace he had, before the incorporation of the city, had a considerable experience in hearing and deciding criminal charges, so that his appoint- ment to the bench of the new court was the most natural selection. For twenty years he filled the position, until in 1868 the name of the court was, by statnte, altered to Municipal Court, and, with al- most identical powers and jurisdiction, continued under the courtly guidance of Judge Williams. Judge Green died two years later.

When, in 1859, a change of name was effected in the long-familiar Court of Common Pleas, for which was substituted the present "Superior Court," Judge EDWARD MELLEN, then in his fifty-seventh year, and for twelve years accustomed to judicial duties, found himself obliged to return to practice. He was a native of Westborongh, a graduate of Brown in 1823, and had practiced in Middlesex from 1828 until his accession to the bench in 1847. After the abolition of his court, of which he was chief justice at the time, be found his long inexperience in the advocacy of causes had left his weapons rusty, and dulled the force of his attacks. The State had received the benefit of his best years and left him at an advanced age to begin anew as best he might. Surely there is- something of calculating ingratitude in such treat- ment of faithful public servants, which gives credit to the proverbial charge against republics.

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

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1576

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576