USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Our county and its people : A history of Hampden County, Massachusetts. Volume 1 > Part 26
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In 1826 George Bliss, of the old Hampden bar, prepared a list of lawyers of the mother county from 1786 to 1826 ; and inas- much as the list contains the names of many lawyers who were prominent in the annals of the Hampden bar in later years, the same is reproduced here as a valuable historical roster.
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"A list of the attorneys and counsellors, either admitted to the bar in the county of Hampshire or practicing in that county from 1786 ot 1826: Elihu Lyman, Moses Bliss, Simeon Strong, Theodore Sedgwick, Caleb Strong, Justin Ely, John Phelps, Sam- uel Fowler, William Billings, John Chester Williams, Abner Mor- gan, Edward Walker, John Chandler Williams, Alexander Wol- cott, Samuel Lyman, Pliny Mirrick, Samuel Hinckeley, John Hooker, Ephraim Williams, John Barrett, Samuel Mather, George Bliss, Joseph Lyman, John Taylor, William Coleman, Jonathan E. Porter, Simeon Strong, William Ely, John Phelps, Eli P. Ashmun, Jonathan Levitt, Elijah Paine, Stephen Pynchon, John Ingersoll, Solomon Stoddard, William M. Bliss, Richard E. Newcomb, Jonathan Grout, Hezekiah W. Strong, Charles P. Phelps, Samuel Lathrop, Elijah Bates, Solomon Vose, Jonathan Dwight, jr., Jothan Cushman, Benjamin Parsons, Edward Eup- ham, Jonathan Woodbridge, Joseph Proctor, Samuel Dickinson, Phineas Ashmun, Joseph Bridgman, Sylvester Maxwell, William Billings, Elijah H. Mills, Pliny Arms, Elijah Alvord, Samuel C. Allen, Theodore Strong, Edmund Dwight, Oliver B. Morris, Henry Barnard, Giles E. Kellogg, Charles Shepard, John Nevers, James M. Cooley, Solomon Strong, Alvin Coe, Noah D. Mattoon, Isaac C. Bates, Jonathan H. Lyman, John M. Gannett, Lewis Strong, Alanson Knox, Asahel Wright, Mark Doolittle, Samuel Orne, Hooker Leavitt, Samuel Howe, Phineas Blair, Samuel Cut- ting, Isaac M. Barber, Laban Marcy, Israel Billings, Deodatus Dutton, Apollos Cushman, Rodolphus Dickinson, Edward Bliss, Daniel Shearer, Calvin Pepper, William Blair, George H. Hen- shaw, James Stebbins, William Ward, George Grennell, David Willard, Horace W. Taft, John Drury, Franklin Ripley, Thomas Power, Augustus Collins, Dyer Bancroft, Warren A. Field, Pat- rick Boise, John Mills, John Hooker, jr., William Knight, John Howard, Benjamin Day, Joshua N. Upham, George Bliss, jr., Justice Willard, Charles F. Bates, Solomon Lathrop, William Bowdoin, Hophni Judd, Ithamar Conkey, Norman Smith, James Fowler, Elisha Hubbard, Eli B. Hamilton, Daniel Wells, Samuel Wells, Alfred Stearns, Caleb Rice, Jonathan A. Saxton, Freder- ick A. Packard, Lucius Boltwood, Jonathan Eastman, Waldo
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Flint, Charles E. Forbes, Cyrus Joy, David Brigham, Aaron Arms, Joseph P. Allen, Benjamin Brainard, Jonathan Hartwell, David A. Gregg, Epaphres Clark, Benjamin Mills, Timothy C. Cooley, John B. Cooley, Asa Olmstead, Horace Smith, Joshua Levitt, Mason Shaw, Elisha Mack, John H. Ashmun, Samuel F. Lyman, Justin W. Clark, Horatio Byington, Emory Washburn, Horatio G. Newcomb, William B. Calhoun, Josiah Hooker, Will- iam Bliss, Erasmus Norcross, Daniel N. Deury, Myron Lawrence, James W. Crooks, Richard E. Morris, Dan Parrish, Homer Bart- lett, Osmyn Baker, Elijah Williams, Francis B. Stebbins, Norman T. Leonard, Reuben A. Chapman, George Ashmun, Henry Chap- man, Stephen Emory, Edward Dickinson, Andrew A. Locke."
While the foregoing list purports to be and in fact is a regis- ter of the Hampshire bar for the time indicated, it also represents the strength of the Hampden bar during the same period, for at all times between the years 1786 and 1826 the region now com- prising Hampden county was as well peopled and as fully devel- oped as any portion of the mother county ; and while Springfield was deprived of the honor of being even a half-shire town be- tween 1792 and 1812, it nevertheless was the most important com- mercial center in the Connecticut valley during that brief period.
Hampden county was created by an act of the legislature, passed February 25, 1812, the act to take effect August 1st, fol- lowing. Thus a new and important civil division of the state was brought into existence, and it has grown into one of the most productive and wealthy counties of New England of the present time. It has sent to the legislative halls of the commonwealth and to the congress of the United States its ablest statesmen ; men of character, men of worth, men whose mental qualities have made them famous both in state and national history. And be it said to their enduring memory and honor, that by far the greater number of these worthy representatives have been taken from the ranks of the legal profession.
Although the first session of the court in Springfield was held as early as 1660 more than sixty years passed before a court house was provided, the first having been erected in 1722-3 at the expense of the town of Springfield. The second court house was built in
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1821, and the third, the present Hampden county court house, in 1870-71. The latter was dedicated with formal ceremonies, April 28, 1874, on which occasion William G. Bates delivered an ex- haustive historical address on the judiciary and the bar of the county.
Hampden county as a civil division of Massachusetts is near- ly four score and ten years old, and during that comparatively brief period its record of progress has been remarkable ; but in no branch of life in the region has there been developed greater ability, mental and moral worth and integrity of character, than in the ranks of the legal profession. In the past history of the Hampden bar there has been little to condemn and much to com- mend, and it is doubtful if any county in all this grand common- wealth can furnish a professional record more clear and bright or one less tarnished with unworthy practices.
As an evidence of the regard in which the Hampden bar is held in legal circles in the state we may quote the words of one of the justices of the Superior court residing in the eastern part of Massachusetts, to the effect that during his experience on the bench he found that "cases were tried better and closer in Hamp- den county than in any other county in the state."
The Bench .- At the time of the creation of Hampden county the old Superior court of judicature had passed out of existence and in its place there had been established the Supreme judicial court. The only representative of the county bar who attained to the dignity of the chief justiceship of this court was Reuben At- water Chapman, who was appointed to that high office in 1868 and served until his death in 1873.
Chief Justice Chapman was a native of Hampden county, born in the town of Russell in 1801. In that remote part of the county, where the lands then were new and undeveloped, he had little opportunity to gain an education in the schools, for his parents, like nearly all other settlers, were poor and dependent on their own exertions to provide even the necessaries of domestic life. Notwithstanding this the young man not only did succeed in acquiring knowledge himself, but at the age of seventeen he taught the children of the neighborhood in the district school.
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Chief Justice Reuben Atwater Chapman
Born in Russell, Sept. 20, 1801. Died in Switzerland, June 28, 1873
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Afterward he found employment as clerk in a store, and having joined a debating society in the rural village, his native oratorical and argumentative abilities first found root and began to develop, and he soon became known as one of the most promising young men in the vicinity. When he had saved a little money he began the study of law under the instruction of Gen. Alanson Knox, of Blandford, and during the course of his study period he gained an excellent reputation through his success in justice court trials. In 1825 he was admitted to practice and soon afterward opened an office in Westfield. He removed to Monson in 1827, to Ware in 1829, and in the next year settled in Springfield and became law partner with George Ashmun, the famed legal giant of the old bar. In later years Mr. Chapman was associated with other prominent lawyers, and he continued to grow in professional strength until he became one of the leaders of the bar. But throughout this long period of successful practice he kept up his study of mathematics and even essayed to master the classics. In this, too, he was successful and eventually became proficient in French and German.
In 1860 Mr. Chapman was appointed to a seat on the bench of the Supreme judicial court and in 1868 he became its chief justice, succeeding in office George Tyler Bigelow.
John Wells was justice of the Supreme court of judicature from 1866 until the year of his death, 1875. He was a graduate of Williams college, class of 1838, and its valedictorian, from which we may correctly infer that he was as proficient in his colle- giate studies as he was distinguished in later professional life. If local tradition be true, Judge Wells possessed strong political aspirations, and as his social and mental qualities were propor- tionate with his legal strength, his desires generally were gratified until he reached the goal of his ambition-a seat upon the bench of the highest court in the state.
After his graduation at Williams, Judge Wells read law with his uncle, Daniel Wells, and afterwards finished his early legal course in Harvard law school. He then became professionally associated with George M. Stearns-the mighty Stearns of Chico- pee-and still later he was law partner with Judge Soule of
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Springfield. He early entered the political field and in 1849-51 and again in 1857, was a member of the lower house of the gen- eral court. In 1858 he was appointed judge of the Court of pro- bate and insolvency. He was a delegate to the national republi- can convention that nominated Mr. Lincoln in 1860, and was a Lincoln elector in 1864. In 1866 he received his greatest political reward in an appointment to the bench of the Supreme judicial court, the appointee of his old-time personal friend, Gov. Alexan- der H. Bullock.
Judge Augustus Lord Soule, justice of the Supreme judicial Court from 1877 to 1881, when he resigned, was third in the suc- cession of Hampden county's contribution to the bench of the highest court. Judge Soule is remembered as one of the most scholarly lawyers of the Hampden bar, and withal, one of the leading corporation lawyers of New England. He also won dis- tinction through his remarkable success in trying patent cases. His indeed was a judicial mind, and all his utterances, both as lawyer and judge, always were logical and sound.
Judge Soule was born in Exeter, N. H., the son of Richard Soule, who for many years was principal of Phillips Exeter acad- emy. In this famous school Judge Soule laid the foundation for his splendid legal education, but he also was a graduate of Har- vard college, class of '46. He was admitted to the bar in Spring- field in 1849 and began his professional career in Chicopee. He soon returned to Springfield, where he was partner, first with Timothy G. Pelton, later with John Wells, and finally with Edward H. Lathrop. Judge Soule died in August, 1887.
Judge Marcus Perrin Knowlton, present justice of the Su- preme judicial court and Hampden's latest representative in that high office, is a native of the county, born in Wilbraham, Feb- ruary 3, 1839, the son of Merrick and Fatima (Perrin) Knowlton. He was educated in the old Monson academy and also in Yale college, where he was graduated. He then began teaching in the union school in Norwalk, Conn., but having determined to enter the law he began a course of study with James G. Allen of Palmer, Later on he was a student in the office of John Wells and Judge Soule in Springfield, and in 1862 he came to the bar.
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From that time until his appointment to the bench he was en- gaged in active and successful practice, and incidentally was a factor in Springfield politics. In 1878 he was a representative from Springfield in the house and in 1880 was in the senate. In 1881 he was appointed a justice of the Superior court, serving in that capacity until 1887, when he was elevated to a seat on the bench of the Supreme judicial court. This position he still holds.
The Court of Common Pleas was established in 1820 and was abolished in 1859. During the period of its history there was appointed to the bench of this court, two representatives of the Hampden county bar.
Judge David Cummins was appointed to the bench in 1828, served until 1844, when he resigned, and died in 1855. Of the personal characteristics and professional life of Judge Cummins, little is now known beyond the meagre record of his judicial ser- vice. He lived on Chestnut street in Springfield and some men- tion is made of him and his dwelling place in Mrs. Warner's history of that noted thoroughfare.
Judge Henry Morris began his judicial career on the bench of the Common Pleas in 1854, four years before the court passed out of existence. On retiring from the bench he resumed law practice but gradually drifted into industrial enterprises and was afterward an important factor in the development of Spring- field's manufacturing resources.
Henry Morris was born in Springfield in 1814, and was the eldest son of Judge Oliver B. Morris. He prepared for college in Monson academy and was graduated at Amherst in 1832. He also was a student in Cambridge law school, and was admitted to practice in 1835. His subsequent professional career was a rec- ord of continuous success, as his knowledge of law was deep and he was generally known as a close student, a safe counsellor, a thoroughly honest lawyer and an upright citizen. Several times he was chairman of the Springfield board of selectmen, and was president of the first common council of that city. In 1854 he was elected to congress by the American party, but before taking a seat in the federal legislature he was appointed to the bench of
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the Common Pleas. He thereupon resigned the congressional office and at once assumed the judicial function. He served four years, and when the court was dissolved he returned to the law, as has been mentioned. Judge Morris died in 1888.
The Superior court of the commonwealth of Massachusetts was established in 1859 by act of the general court, and has con- tinued to the present time. Hampden county has furnished five incumbents of the bench of this court: Justices Henry Vose, appointed in 1859 and died in 1869; Marcus Perrin Knowlton, appointed in 1881 and advanced to the Supreme judicial court in 1887 ; Justin Dewey, appointed from Berkshire county in 1886, removed thence to Springfield, and now deceased; James Robert Dunbar, appointed in 1888, resigned, and now of the Suffolk bar ; and Elisha Burr Maynard, appointed in 1891 and still in office.
Henry Vose, one of the first members of the bench of the Superior court after it was established, was born in Charlestown, May 21, 1817, and was educated in Concord academy and Har- vard college, graduating at the latter institution in 1837. After leaving college he was private tutor in a family in the western part of New York, and still later he studied law in Greenfield with George T. Davis, and also in Springfield with Chapman & Ashmun. He came to the bar in 1841 and practiced in Hampden county until 1859 when he was appointed justice of the Superior court and removed to Boston. In 1857 and 1858 he represented Springfield in the lower house of the general court. For many year Judge Vose was a prominent figure in Springfield legal and political circles and was highly respected throughout the county. He died in Boston, January 17, 1869.
Justin Dewey was one of Berkshire's contributions to the bench of the Superior court, yet from the time of his appoint- ment until his death in 1900 he was a resident of Springfield. He was born in Alford, June 12, 1836, and was a graduate of Williams college. He read law in Great Barrington with In- crease Sumner and was admitted to the Berkshire bar in 1860. He was in the lower house of the legislature in 1862 and again in 1877, and was in the senate in 1879. Yet Judge Dewey never had a taste for politics, preferring to devote his energies to the
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practice of law. He was appointed justice of the Superior court in 1886 and continued in office until his death.
James Robert Dunbar, who was appointed to the bench in 1888, and who, although now retired from judicial office, still re- sides in the eastern part of the state, was born in Pittsfield, December 23, 1847, and graduated at Williams college in 1871. His early legal education was acquired in Harvard law school and in the office of Milton B. Whitney, of Westfield, and he came to the bar in Springfield in 1847. He was active in professional circles and was a successful lawyer; and he also was a somewhat prominent factor in Hampden politics, representing the county in the senate in 1885 and 1886.
Elisha Burr Maynard, present justice of the Superior court, and a lifelong resident of this county, was born in Wilbraham, November 21, 1842, the son of Walter and Hannah (Burr) May- nard. He was educated in the public schools and also in Dart- mouth college, graduating in 1867. He read law with George M. Stearns and Marcus P. Knowlton and came to the bar in 1868. From that time Judge Maynard has been a citizen of Springfield and in many ways has been identified with the best interests and history of the city. In 1879 he was a member of the lower house of the general court, and in 1887 and 1888 was mayor of Spring- field. He was appointed to the bench of the Superior court in 1891 and still is in office.
Having thus referred to the organization of the courts and having recalled something of the lives and character of the magis- trates who have adorned the bench, it is proper that there be made some brief record of the laymen of the profession in Hamp- den county, and particularly the members of the old bar who no longer are living, whose life work is closed. For more than three- quarters of a century the county has been noted for the strength of its bar and among the vast number of practitioners who have honored the profession during that period there have been found some of the brightest legal minds in this commonwealth. A pro- per tribute to the memory of all of them would require a volume, therefore in this brief chapter we must be content with the selec- tion of a few of the more distinguished lawyers, those who at-
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tained a high standing in professional life, or who, having politi- cal ambition gratified at the polls, won fame in the legislative halls both of the state and the nation.
Reminiscences of the Old Bar .- Previous to about the begin- ning of the nineteenth century the practice in the highest court of the state was environed by the justices of that august body with much ceremony and becoming dignity, and the laymen of the law were invested with the title of barrister. In 1768 there were only twenty-five of these in the entire province, and one- John Worthington-had a residence in Springfield. Subse- quently and previous to 1789 these worthy lights of the profes- sion were "called" by the court to be barristers, viz. : Moses Bliss and Jonathan Bliss of Springfield.
In 1812, the year in which Hampden county was created, the "attornies of the Supreme judicial court" in practice in the towns of the county were as follows : Alanson Knox, Blandford ; Abner Morgan, Stephen Pynchon, Brimfield; Asahel Wright, Chester ; John Phelps, Granville; George Bliss, William Ely, Jonathan Dwight, jr., Edmund Dwight, Oliver B. Morris, Samuel Orne, Springfield; John Ingersoll, Elijah Bates, William Blair, Westfield ; Samuel Lathrop, West Springfield. The "attornies" of the Court of common pleas then in practice in the county were James M. Cooley, Granville; Deodatus Dutton, Monson ; James Stebbins, Palmer; Edmund Bliss, Springfield.
John Worthington, who was more commonly known in early local history as Colonel Worthington, was a native of Springfield, born 1719. He graduated at Yale in 1740 and began the practice of law in the shire town of Hampshire county in 1744. For about thirty years afterward he was one of the most influential citizens of Springfield and even was looked upon as the leader of the people in his time. When the courts were suspended during the revolution he retired from practice, yet he was afterward a conspicuous figure in public affairs, with decided leanings toward toryism during the war. He was a man of fine personal appear- ance and his manner always was courteous and dignified. His library of law books was the largest and best in the county at the time. Colonel Worthington was in the lower house of the general court in 1748, '62 and '73. He died in 1800.
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Jonathan Bliss, barrister, of Springfield, was for several years an honored member of the legal profession in the county, and while he was a lawyer of understanding he appears not to have been especially active in political affairs. He was educated in Cambridge and read law with Judge Trowbridge. He began practice in Springfield in 1764, but at the outbreak of the revolu- tion he left the country and returned to England. An unauthen- ticated narrative says Mr. Bliss returned to Springfield in 1791 and married a daughter of Colonel Worthington.
George Bliss is to be early and prominently mentioned among the conspicuous figures of the old bar. From the fact that he developed and brought an unusually large number of young men into the ranks of the profession, he became known by the title of "Master George." He was a lawyer of many peculiari- ties, yet withal, was possessed of good sound sense and was a man of broad understanding, professionally and otherwise. He had hoped for an appointment to the Common Pleas bench and being disappointed it is said that he never would consent to practice in that court. Mr. Bliss came to the bar in 1784 and died in 1830, at the age of sixty-five years. He was born in 1765. George Bliss, jr., of the Springfield bar in later years, was a son of "Mas- ter" George Bliss.
Samuel Lathrop, fourth son of Rev. Joseph Lathrop, was born in West Springfield in 1771, and died in 1846. He was a graduate of Yale college in 1792, and soon afterward entered the profession in which he acquired a standing of prominence. He was ten years in the state senate, and president of that body in 1819 and 1820. He was in the lower house of the federal con- gress from 1818 to 1824, and once was a candidate for the gover- norship of Massachusetts. During the latter part of his life Mr. Lathrop engaged chiefly in agricultural pursuits.
Isaac C. Bates is remembered as one of the most scholarly and polished orators of the bar in his time, and had not his tastes led him to devote much attention to agricultural pursuits he un- doubtedly would have stood at the head of his profession in West- ern Massachusetts. However, he seemed naturally to shrink from the bitter legal contest, yet when once thoroughly interested in a
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George Ashmun A leader of the old Hampden bar
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case his latent power became apparent and he stood almost peer- less as an advocate. Mr. Bates was educated in Yale college and was admitted to practice in the Supreme court in 1807. He served several terms in congress, and in 1841-44 was in the United States senate. On the occasion of his death his eulogist was Dan- iel Webster, his friend and colleague.
George Ashmun was for many years a leading member of the Hampden bar, yet his professional career was begun in Hamp- shire county. He was graduated at Yale college in 1823, and was admitted to the bar at Northampton in 1830. In the course of a few years he removed to Springfield and afterward, until his death in 1870, he was one of the most conspicuous figures in Hampden professional and political circles. He spent many years in congress, in the house of representatives, and even when not in public life his love of politics and his admiration of the qualities of leading statesmen, led him to maintain a residence in Washington. When in active practice at the bar Mr. Ashmun ranked with the ablest lawyers in this state. He was well edu- cated, too, for professional life, and in fact came from what might properly be called a legal family. His father was Eli P. Ashmun, one of the pioneers of the bar of Hampshire county, and his brother was Prof. John Hooker Ashmun of Northampton, each being a distinguished lawyer in his time.
Alanson Knox, more frequently known by reason of his con- nection with the state militia as General Knox, came to the bar in 1810, and for many years lived and practiced in Blandford, his native town, and in which his father, Elijah Knox, and also his grandfather, William Knox, were pioneers. General Knox was born in 1785. He is remembered as a good lawyer of the old school, and his military title added to his personal dignity and bearing and gave him an especial standing in society. Judge Chapman, of the Supreme judicial court, acquired his early legal training in General Knox's office. The latter spent the last years of his life in Ohio.
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