History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 40

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700

USA > Massachusetts > History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I > Part 40

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Among the numerous practitioners who have been residents of Franklin County may be mentioned PLINY ARMS, JONA- THAN A. SAXTON, AARON ARMS, and ELIJAH WILLIAMS, of Deerfield ; ELIJAH PAINE, of Ashfield; SYLVESTER MAX- WELL and JOSEPH P. ALLEN, of Charlemont ; JOHN DRURY and ISAAC BARBER, of Coleraine ; JONATHAN HARTWELL, of Montague; STEPHEN EMERY, of Orange; WILLIAM BIL- LINGS, of Conway ; HORACE W. TAFT and HENRY BARNARD, of Sunderland ; and BENJAMIN BRAINARD, of Gill. These mostly practiced during the first period of the history of Franklin County, or from 1811 to the building of the second court-house, in 1848.

IlON. DAVID AIKEN, son of Phineas Aiken, a farmer of Bedford, N. Il., was born in that town June 7, 1804. lle graduated at Dartmouth College in 1830, studied law with Wells & Alvord, of Greenfield, and commenced practice in that place in 1834, where he has since continued with the ex- ception of three years, from 1856 to 1859, during which period he was judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Massachusetts. He was a member of the State Senate in 1873-74. Judge Aiken has had numerous law-partners, among them Ilenry Chapman, George Grinnell, Davis & Allen, Chester C. Conant, Colonel W. S. B. Hopkins, and Charles E. Forbes, the latter of Northampton. Since 1844 he has stood at the head of the Franklin Bar. He married, in 1844, Miss Lydia W. Root, of Greenfield, who died in 1846, leaving no chil- dren. In 1848 he married Miss Mary Elizabeth Adams, of Amherst, Mass. He has three sons and two daughters. John Adams, his eldest son, is in practice with him in Greenfield. William F. is teller in the Franklin County National Bank, and Edward E. is fitting for college at Easthampton, Mass.

HON. ALMON BRAINARD was born in Randolph, Orange Co., V.t., abont 1803. He graduated at Hamilton College, N. Y., in 1826, and subsequently attended the military school of Captain Alden Partridge, at Middletown, Conn., for a year. Ile studied law with Hon. George Grinnell, of Green- field, and was admitted to practice in 1829. From 1842 until 1856 he held the offices of register of deeds and county treas- urer, and was for many years secretary of the Franklin County Mutual Fire Insurance Company. He was a mem- ber of the State Senate in 1856, and at his death had held the othce of trial-justice for over fourteen years. He was a man of sterling integrity and of remarkable capacity, and the amount of labor performed during a period of about forty- five years in various capacities was very great. His practice was extensive and lucrative, and at one time he had amassed a very comfortable fortune. He married, in 1848, Margaret E. Langstroth, who died in 1876, leaving two sons. Mr. Brain- ard died in Greenfield, Jan. 19, 1878, of discase of the heart, aged about seventy-five years.

GEORGE T. DAVIS is a native of Barnstable Co., Mass., born Jan. 12, 1810, and a graduate of Harvard University in 1829. He studied law at Cambridge and with the firm of Wells & Alvord, of Greenfield, and was admitted to the Bar in 1832. Mr. Davis practiced his profession for many years in Greenfield, and was one of the foremost lawyers of his time. Ile was a member of both branches of the Legislature, once in the House and twice in the Senate, and also represented the old Connecticut River district in Congress. He subsequently removed to Portland, Maine.

Mr. Griswold says of him : " In many respects he was the most striking figure in the second period. He was a keen, discriminating, able lawyer ; a most charming conversation- alist and speaker ; the brightest of men, bristling with wit, fun, and raillery ; most skillful in the examination of witnesses, and extracting amusement from the dryest case. He did more than all others, at law and nisi prins terms, to incorporate into the cold and rigid logie and routine of courts and trials some- thing of the cheerful, jolly, softer, better side of human na- ture ; and if he did not win verdicts from the hands, he drove

dyspepsia from the bodies, of the judges, jurors, and lawyers by the frequent convulsions of laughter which followed his inimitable wit and repartee." Mr. Davis died in Portland, June 17, 1877, and was buried in the Greenfield cemetery.

WENDELL T. DAVIS, younger brother of the preceding, was born in Sandwich, Barnstable Co., Mass., April 12, 1818. He graduated at llarvard University in 1838; studied law at Cambridge and was admitted to the Bar in 1841, in which year he entered into a law-partnership in Greenfield with his brother, George T. Davis, and Charles T. Devens, Jr.,* which continued for seven years. He was largely interested in real estate in and around Greenfield, laid out and opened Davis Street, and added much to the growth and beauty of the village.

He was for some years subsequent to 1844 clerk and treas- urer of the Upper Locks and Canal Company, at Turner's Falls,-since the Turner's Falls Company,-and was princi- pally instrumental in the founding of that embryo city. For many years he was clerk and treasurer of the Troy and Green- field Railroad Company, and was Representative at the General Court for two years. He was for a long time one of the trial- justices of the county, and probably heard more cases than any other officer in the county.

In 1863 he formed a partnership with Austin De Wolf, which continued for eleven years, when the firm took in Mr. F. G. Fessenden. In 1875 he was appointed register in bankruptcy, which office he held till his death. From the date of this appointment he wholly retired from active law- practice. He also held the position of selectman of Green- field, was a prominent officer in the State militia, and an hon- ored member of the Masonic order.

Ilis wife died in 1874, leaving two sons and three daugh- ters,-N. Russell Davis, of Wyoming Territory, George T. Davis, lient .- commander U. S. navy ; Carrie W., Mary B., who married Hon. John Conness, of Boston, and Louisa, who married Lieut .- Commander Charles V. Clark, U. S. navy.

Mr. Davis was a man of rare natural abilities, of a pre- eminently social nature, a friend to the needy and distressed, and one who always had an encouraging word for every young man. llis death occurred on the 3d of December, 1876, at the age of fifty-eight years.

COL. W. S. B. HOPKINS practiced law in Greenfield, as a partner of Judge Aiken, from about 1866 to 1872. This was probably the commencement of a very successful career as a practitioner. Ile is a son of the Rev. Erastus Hopkins, of Northampton, and a native of the Connecticut Valley. During his stay in Franklin County he achieved a good reputation as a lawyer, and is now in the successful practice of his profes- sion in the city of Worcester. He is a man of excellent natu- ral talents, cool, imperturbable, and successful as an advocate.

Col. Hopkins saw arduous service during the Rebellion as lieutenant-colonel of the 31st Massachusetts Infantry, and was engaged in the Red River expedition under Banks, at the siege of Port Hudson, and in many minor movements in the Southwest.t

Hox. HENRY L. DAWES, the present distinguished United States Senator from Massachusetts, was for a time a resident of Franklin County, and for some years practiced in its courts. He was born in Cummington, Hampshire Co., Mass.,-which was also the birthplace of William Cullen Bryant,-in 1816, and graduated at Yale College in 1839. After leaving college he came to Greenfield and read law in the office of Wells, Davis & Alvord, and was admitted to the Bar in 1842. He married in Ashfield, Franklin Co., and finally settled in North Ad- ains, Berkshire Co., where he was district attorney for the northwest district of Massachusetts, and this brought him often before the courts in Greenfield. Ile was a member of

* Now attorney-general of the United States,

+ Sve history of 31al Regiment, in this volume.

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the Constitutional Convention of 1853, member of both branches of the Legislature, subsequently member of Con- gress for many years, and is now a United States Senator.

HON. CHARLES MATTOON Was born in Northfield, Franklin Co., June 17, 1816. In early life he emigrated to Muscatine, lowa, where he married and commenced the practice of the law. Subsequently he returned to Massachusetts, and took a prominent part in the local politics of Franklin County. For some years he held a position in the Boston custom-house. In June, 1853, he was appointed register of Probate and In- solvency for Franklin County and removed to Greenfield, where he continued to fulfill the duties of the office until the 13th of May, 1858, when, upon the reorganization of the courts, he was appointed judge; which office he held until his death, which took place on the 12th of August, 1870, at the age of fifty-four years. The fatal malady which carried him off was pulmonary consumption.

For about eleven years he was secretary and active manager of the Franklin County Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and also held various offices in the gift of the town and county. In all the positions occupied by him he ever bore himself as a faithful, capable, and efficient official and a popular and estimable citizen.

HON. CHARLES DEVENS, JR., the present attorney-general of the United States, was for several years a resident of Frank- lin County. He was born in Charlestown, Mass., April 4, 1820; graduated at Harvard in 1838; studied law at the Cambridge law-school and with Hubbard & Watts, of Boston ; was admitted to the Bar in 1841, and opened an office, with Wendell T. Davis for a partner, in Northfield. In 1844 he removed to Greenfield, where he became the law-partner of Geo. T. and Wendell T. Davis. He was State Senator from Franklin County in 1848 and 1849, and United States mar- shal from 1849 to 1858. In 1854 he opened an office in Wor- cester, where he remained until 1861, a portion of the time in partnership with G. F. Hoar. Ile greatly distinguished him- selt in the service during the war of the Rebellion, and left the army with the brevet rank of major-general of volunteers. In 1866 he resumed the practice of law at Worcester; in 1867 was appointed associate justice of the Superior Court. In October, 1873, appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court, and upon the election of President Hayes was appointed attorney-general of the United States.

HORATIO G. PARKER was a graduate of Dartmouth College in 1844. He studied law at Keene, N. Il., with his father, and with William Curtis Noyes, of New York, and Henry M. Parker, of Boston, and was admitted to the Bar in New York in 1847 and in Massachusetts in the following year. He settled and commenced practice in Greenfield. During his residence here he represented the town one term in the Legis- lature, and also hell the office of judge of Probate. Subse- quently he removed to Boston, where he has an excellent reputation in his profession and enjoys a very large and hiera- tive practice. In 1860 he was employed to assist the commis- sioners in the revision of the statutes of the commonwealth, in which position his services were laborious and valuable.

HION. CHARLES ALLEN, son of Sylvester Allen, a prominent merchant of Greenfield, was born in that town about 1827. lle graduated at Harvard College in 1847, read law with Davis & Devens and at the Cambridge law-school, and was admitted to the Bar in 1850. Soon after his admission he became a member of the firm of Aiken & Davis, at Greenfield, and by attention to his profession and the cultivation of excellent natural abilities soon placed himself in the foremost rank of the profession.

About the year 1860 he removed to Boston and became a member of the Suffolk Bar, and, in a wider field, has won a high reputation and distinguished honors.

Soon after his settlement in Boston he was appointed law- reporter for the Supreme Court of the State, in which position

he continued for several years, serving with unusual ability. His reports cover from ten to fifteen volumes.

In the fall of 1867 he was elected to the honorable and im- portant office of attorney-general of the commonwealth, which position he filled with great acceptance for a period of four years. Since 1871 he has been in the practice of his profes- sion, a portion of the time in partnership with James C. Davis, a son of George T. Davis. Mr. Allen has never married.

JAMES C. DAVIS is a son of George T. Davis, and was born and educated in Greenfield and at Harvard University. He has for many years been a member of the Suffolk Bar, where, though comparatively young in years, he has taken high rank in his profession. His standing and abilities are indicated by his elevation to the position of assistant attorney-general of the State, the duties of which he has discharged with signal ability and in a manner to win the highest respeet and confidence of all.

CHESTER COOK CONANT, judge of Probate for the county of Franklin, was born at Lyme, N. II., Sept. 4, 1831. His father, Col. JJonathan Conant, was a soldier in the war of 1812; his mother was Clarissa Dimick. Ile graduated with honor at Dartmouth College in 1857, and at the Albany, N. Y., law-school in 1859. In the autumn of that year he came to Greenfield, an entire stranger, and entered into partnership with Judge David Aiken.

In 1863 he was elected register of Probate and Insolvency, and subsequently re-elected. On the death of Judge Charles Mattoon, in 1870, he was appointed judge of Probate and Insolvency, which office he now (1879) holds. Besides the duties of his judicial office, he has an extensive law-practice in the Superior and Supreme Judicial Courts.

Hle was one of the three original corporators of the Green- tield Savings-Bank, and has been a trustee and its secretary since its organization. He is also a director in the Franklin County National Bank. He has served in the town school committee for a number of terms, and is a trustee of the Greenfield Library Association, of which he was for ten years the secretary and efficient upbuilder. He married, in 1860, Sarah B., only daughter of Rev. Dr. R. S. Howard, then of Portland, Me., and since president of Norwich University, at Norwich, Vt. He has two children.

SAMUEL O. LAMB, of Greenfield, was admitted to the Bar in 1851 and located in Greenfield, where he has since resided. He has an extensive practice and good standing among his professional brethren, and, but for his extreme modesty, would . have had a more extended notice in this chapter.

ANSEL PHELPS, JR., son of Hon. Ansel Phelps, of Green- field, studied law with Wells, Alvord & Davis; was admitted to the Bar in 1840, and settled in Ware, Hampshire Co., Mass., where he soon built up a reputation and a successful practice. Being offered the post of attorney for the Western Railroad, he left Ware and settled in Springfield. (See Chapter XXVI. of this volume.)

GEORGE W. HORR was born in New Salem, Franklin Co., Mass., of a good family. He was at the Cambridge law-school for two years, and studied with Davis & Allen and with May- nard, Lincoln & Chatfield, of New York City. He wasadmitted to the Bar in 1860, and to the United States Court in 1870. Hle commenced practice in New Salem, but soon removed to Athol, where he has since built up quite an extensive business. He also has a good reputation as a lecturer upon astronomy and other subjects before the public schools and popular assem- blies.

EPHRAIM WILLIAMS was born in Deerfield, Mass., in 1760. He studied law with his uncle, the eminent Judge Sedgwick, of Stockbridge, Mass., where he resided and practiced his pro- fession as a partner with his unele for about twenty years, during which he had an extensive practice and accumulated a handsome competency.

In 1803 he returned to Deerfeld, where he resided until his

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death, in 1835. He was usually, among his intimate friends, called Bob Williams, and the reason is said to have been that the cognomen was an ancient and honorable one in the family. Hle was named for his uncle, Col. Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams College, who fell at Lake George, in August, 1755. One of his sons was Bishop Williams, of Con- necticut.

" While in practice in Berkshire County he had a misun- derstanding with the presiding judge, who charged him with stating what was incorrect and ordered him to sit down.

" Indignant at having his veracity called in question, he re- plied that he would not sit down, but would leave the Bar and never enter it again; which he did, and faithfully kept his promise."

He was the reporter of the first volume of the " Massachu- setts Reports." He was several times a member of both branches of the State Legislature, and was also a member of the Governor's council. Ilis counsel was often sought by men of high legal standing, and it is said that Chief-Justice Parsons used all his influence to persuade him to return to the practice of his profession, but without success.

JAMES R. CURTIS, of Boston, practiced law for some time in Northfield. IIe attended the law-school at Cambridge one year, and subsequently studied in the office of Messrs. Wells & Alvord, of Greenfield. He was a member of the Franklin County Bar about one year, when he removed to Boston, where he became eminent as a member of the Suffolk Bar, and on the Bench of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Previous to the organization of Franklin County, North- field was more of a centre for legal talent than Greenfield, and many prominent men were in practice then, among whom were JOHN BARRETT, JOHN NEVERS, and WILLIAM G. WOODARD. It was a noted place for law-students, and JJohn Barrett's office seems to have turned out a large number of them. Mr. Barrett was a long-continued and successful prac- titioner, and we find his name very often mentioned.

John Nevers became sheriff in 1831, and relinquished prac- tice. Mr. Woodard subsequently removed to lowa, and became one of the supreme judges of that State.

JOHN DRURY, JR., the son of John Drury, a farmer of Athol, Worcester Co., Mass., was born in that town, March 22, 1780. He graduated at Williams College and studied law at Peters- ham and Grafton, in Worcester County, and was admitted to the Bar about 1811.

Ile married, in 1813, Miss Susan Reed, of Peter-ham, and settled in Coleraine Centre, where he continued in the practice of his profession for nearly forty years. He was for many vears postmaster at the Centre, and also justice of the peace. Ile also carried on farming to a considerable extent, and was altogether a prominent man in the community.

He had two sons and four daughters. The sons moved to Troy, Miami Co., Ohio, many years ago, and thither, about 1854, their father followed them, and died in that place, Sept. 19, 1860, in his eighty-first year. His sons were merchants in Ohio, and the youngest enlisted during the Rebellion and died in the service. Two of his daughters are now living in Coleraine.

RUFUS D. CHASE graduated at Dartmouth College in 1845, studied law with E. D. Beach, of Springfield, Mass., and, with Royal Tyler and Asa Keyes, of Brattleboro', Vt., was ad- mitted to the Bar in 1849, and soon after settled in the thriving village of Orange, where he still practices. He sustains a good reputation and has a very satisfactory business.

HAYNES II. CHILSON, now of Northampton, is a native of Buckland, Franklin Co., Mass. He studied law with Hon. Whiting Griswold, in Greenfield, and was admitted to the Bar in 1847. He settled in Northampton, where he married the daughter of Hon. Isaac C. Bates, and has been to the present time in active business. He has held the positions of school committee, postmaster, county commissioner, commissioner of

insolvency, and United States assessor of internal revenue. During his continuance in these various offices he gave up practice at the Bar to a greater or less extent, but of late has again resumed his profession.

GEORGE LEONARD BARTON was the son of Bradford Ben- jamin Barton, a farmer of the town of Gill, in Franklin County, where he was born in the old red homestead-house at " Riverside," Nov. 6, 1845. flis early education was received at the district school and at the Powers Institute, in Ber- nardston, where he studied under Prof. Ward. He subse- quently fitted himself for college at the Exeter, N. II., Acad- emy, and graduated at Harvard University in 1867. In 1870 he received the degree of A. M. from that institution. About. 1868 he visited the West, stopping for some time in Chicago and Omaha, and resided for about two years in Madison, Wis., where he read law in the office of Mr. Carpenter, an eminent attorney. Returning to Massachusetts, he became principal of the high school in Greenfield, continuing his law- studies after school-hours in the office of Col. Ilopkins. Here he continued about two years, when he accepted a position as private tutor in a wealthy family at Framingham, Mass., where he remained about one year, studying law in the mean time. He was admitted to the Bar in 1871, and opened an office at Turner's Falls in January, 1872, where he continued in practice until his death. He was appointed one of the trial- justices of the county in the same year, and soon established himself as an able and industrious professional man and valuable citizen, and his business prospered. He also held the position of notary public, and was one of the trustees of the Crocker Savings-Bank. He had recently erected a fine and tasteful residence on the bluff, overlooking the broad river and in full view of the falls, shrouded in its rolling mist and within agreeable sound of its " thundering waters. "

On the 27th of August, 1872, he married Emma Sanford, daughter of Charles Sanford, Esq., of Jackson, Mich., by whom he had three children, fine, intelligent boys, who are left with a widowed mother to mourn his untimely loss. Ile died of pneumonia on the 19th of February, 1879, in his thirty-fourth year. flis standing in the community was that of a faithful, upright eitizen, a competent and excellent public officer, and a true husband and father.

JUSTIN W. CLARK practiced law in Whately about 1825 to 1827, and afterward in flatfield, where he was the law- partner of Israel Billings. {He was an eminent lawyer, and the firm had great strength and an extensive practice.

IlON. SAMUEL T. FIELD was admitted to the Bar in 1852, and commenced practice at Shelburne Falls, where he has since resided and built up a respectable and successful prac- tice. He is a man of large capacity, and bears an excellent reputation in the profession. He was for three years (from 1874 to 1877) district attorney, and has been a member of the Legislature.

Among the distinguished members of the Bar from abroad who have practiced, and still continue, in the Franklin County courts, are the following, whose names are mentioned by Mr. Griswold in his address, delivered in March, 1873, before the Bar of the county : GEORGE M. STEARNS, of the Hampden Bar ; EDWARD DICKINSON and ITHAMAR F. CONKEY, of Am- herst ; CHARLES DELANO and SAMUEL T. SPAULDING, of Northampton ; CHARLES FIELD and F. F. FAY, of Athol ; PETER C. BACON and P. EMORY ALDRICH, of Worcester ; RICHARD H. DANA, JR., CHARLES R. TRAIN, and B. F. HAL- LETT (deceased), of Boston; and CHARLES DAVENPORT, of Brattleboro', Vt., the latter a native of Franklin Co., Mass.

HON. RUFUS CHOATE also visited the county a number of times during his practice as an attorney, and on each occasion his presence was greeted with a crowded house of both sexes.

For notices of Col. GEORGE D. WELLS and Capt. GEORGE W. BARTLETT, see Rev. Mr. Moors' " Ilistory of Greenfield," and the military chapters in other parts of this work.

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HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

For notice of HON. JOHN WELLS, see Chapter XXVI.

The following is a list of lawyers who have been members of the Franklin County Bar since 1811, with the dates of their admission :

Greenfield .- William Coleman, -; Jonathan Leavitt, about 1789; Richard E. Newcomb, about 1796; Elijah Alvord, about 1802; Elihu Lyman, about 1806; George Grinnell, about 1811; Hooker Leavitt, about 1811; Franklin Ripley, about 1812; David Willard, about 1812; David Brigham, about --; Daniel Wells, about 1813; 1Ivratio G. Newcomb, about 1813; Samuel Wells, ahout 1816; Henry Chapman, in 1826; Almon Brainard, in 1829; James C. Alvord, in 1830; George T. Davis, in 1832; David Aiken, in 1833; Charles Mattoon, in 1839; Daniel W. Alvord, in 1841; Wendell T. Davis, in 1841; Charles Devens, Jr., in 1841; Whiting Griswold, in 1842; Franklin Ripley, Jr., in 1845; James S. Grinnell, in 1846; Horatio G. Parker, in 1847; George D. Wells, in 1849; Charles Allen, in 1850; Samnel O. Lamb, in 1851; Edward F. Raymond, in 1854; W. S. B. Hopkins, in 1858; George W. Bartlett, in 1859; Chester Cook Conant, in 1859; James C. Davis, in 1861; Edward E. Lyman, in 1861; Austin De Wolf, in 1863; Gor- ham D. Williams, in 1868; William II. Gile, in 1869; George 1. Barton, in 1871; John D. Aiken, in 1876; Franklin G. Fessenden, in -; Franeis M. Thompson, in 1876; Henry L. Nelson, in -; Bowdoin S. Parker, in -; Samuel D. Conant, in 1878.

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History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 40

Author: L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts Number of Pages: 700

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700