USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 40
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Schon & Haben.
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BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER.
STEPHEN MERRILL ALLEN Was born in Burton, now Albany, N. f., April 15, 1819. At four years of age he removed to Tamworth, N. H., at eight to Dover, N. II., and at twelve to Corinna, Me. At seventeen he came to Boston and attended the Boston Latin School. At the age of fifty he removed to Duxbury, and is now again a resi- dent of Boston. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar December 9, 1850, but never practiced. He married first, April 15, 1841, Ann Maria, daughter of William Grid- ley, and second, Ann Maria, daughter of Eli Jones, of Woburn. Horace G. Allen, a recent candidate for mayor of Boston, nominated by the Republicans, is his son.
FREDERICK ALLEN, son of Jonathan, was born in Chilmark, Mass., December 22, 1780, and studied law with Homes Allen, of Barnstable, and in Pembroke with Kil- born Whitman, and in Boston with Benjamin Whitman, and after admission to the Suffolk bar in 1803 removed to Waldoboro, Me., and in 1809 to Gardiner, Me. He married Hannah Bowen, daughter of Oliver and Abigail (Gardner) Whipple.
JOHN HOOKER ASHMUN, son of Eli P. Ashmun, was born in Blandford, Me., July 3, 1800, and graduated at Harvard in 1818. In 1828 Nathan Dane, who in founding the law school at Cambridge had reserved to himself appointments to its professorships, appointed Joseph Story Dane professor of law and Mr. Ashmun Royall professor of law, and he took up his residence in Cambridge. He had previously been associated with Judge Howe and Elijah J. Mills in establishing and conducting a law school in Northampton. It is thought by the writer that after coming to Cambridge he had an office in Boston. He died in Cambridge April 1, 1833.
ELI PORTER ASHMUN Was admitted to the Suffolk bar before 1801. He received the degree of LL.D. from Harvard in 1809, and was United States Senator from 1816 to 1818. He died in 1819.
EDWIN WRIGHT, son of Jesse and Philura (Fuller) Wright, was born in North Coventry, Conn., March 7, 1821. He is descended from the Wright family of Kel- veden Hall at Wrightsbridge, Essex, England, which flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His father, educated for a physician, was during the larger part of his life an inland trader, and his mother was the daughter of a respectable artisan. At four years of age he removed to Lebanon, Conn., and in his youth was left for long periods of time in the sole charge of his father's store and accounts. In the discharge of the duties imposed on him he exhibited a mature and discriminating judgment. He was educated in his youth at the public schools, and while pursuing his studies he was for two seasons the assistant of the State surveyor for New London county, not only helping in the practical work of the survey, but making duplicate and often the sole calculations and plans. His later education was received at Bacon Academy in Colchester, Conn., and there he fitted for Yale College, where he gradu- ated in 1844 with the valedictory, the highest honor of the class. After leaving col- lege he was temporarily employed as assistant principal in the Boston English School and afterwards was appointed principal of the Medford High School, whence he was promoted to the position of grammar master in one of the Boston public schools. In these positions his methods of instruction, though somewhat at variance from the ordinary formulas, were highly effective in their results and received the most emphatic commendation. Having absolved the pecuniary obligations incurred dur- ing the period of his education, he entered the Harvard Law School and after a sea-
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HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR.
son of study in that institution entered as a student the office of Benjamin F. Brooks, in Boston, where he soon had charge of the preparation of contracts and other legal documents and all matters connected with the titles and transfer of real estate. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in January, 1850, and a year later began practice on his own account. Though securing rapidly a general practice of considerable volume he gradually became more especially a real estate lawyer and as such acquired an eminence in his profession. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Rep- resentatives from East Boston in 1857 and 1867, and for several years was a member of the Boston School Board. He has delivered several courses of lectures on com- mercial law and has been several years by appointment a lecturer on medical juris- prudence in the medical department of the Boston University, as well as a lecturer through several seasons before the whole school. On the 9th of July, 1861, he was appointed a justice of the Boston Police Court to succeed George D. Wells, and served until the court was abolished in 1866. The business of this court was large and onerous, consisting of the disposition annually of 15,000 criminal and 3,000 civil cases, the inspection of prisons, the pardoning of criminals confined for non-payment of fines and the jurisdiction of insane cases, and owing to the age of Mr. Wright's associates, much more than his share of labor fell on his hands. The accuracy of his judgments while on the bench is attested by the fact that no decision of the court during the term of his service was ever overruled or abridged. On his retirement from the bench, Mr. Wright resumed practice with a gratifying accumulation of busi- ness for many years. His recreation has been found in the study of the various questions of the day, social, religious and ethical, and in their solution to apply the principles of law. On these questions he has written and lectured and always to the cdification of his readers and hearers. He is a prominent Mason, having received the highest grade recognized by the fraternity in the United States. He married, Oc- tober 29, 1850, Helen M., daughter of Paul Curtis, of Boston, and his residence is in Boston.
HOSEA KINGMAN, son of Philip D. and Betsey B. (Washburn) Kingman, was born in Bridgewater, Mass., April 11, 1843. His early education was received at the Bridgewater Academy in Bridgewater and the Appleton Academy in New Ipswich, N. H. He entered Dartmouth College in 1860, but left college in 1862 and enlisted on the 22d of September in that year for nine months' service in Company K, Third Massachusetts Regiment. He went with his regiment to Newberne, N. C., and in December was detailed on signal service and went to Port Royal, S. C., and thence to Folly Island in Charleston Harbor, and was discharged at expiration of service, June 22, 1863. He then returned to Dartmouth and joined his class, making up for absent time and graduating in due order in 1864. He studied law with Williams Latham in Bridgewater and was admitted to the bar in Plymouth in 1866, associating himself at once in business with his instructor, Mr. Latham, under the firm name of Latham & Kingman. Mr. Latham retired in 1871, and since that time Mr. Kingman has practiced alone, constantly strengthening himself in the law, accumulating busi- ness and securing the confidence of the community. In 1874, and for many years after, he was chosen commissioner of insolvency; November 12, 1878, he was ap- pointed special justice of the First District Court of Plymouth county ; in 1886 he was chosen district attorney for the Southeastern District of Massachusetts, which posi-
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BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER.
tion he resigned to assume the duties of a member of the Metropolitan Sewage Commission, under an appointment by the governor, of which commission he is chair- man. He is trustee of the Pilgrim Society, of the Bridgewater Savings Bank and Bridgewater Academy, and in the Masonic fraternity, is charter member of Bridge- water Lodge, No. 1,039 of Knights of Honor, of which he is past dictator. In at- tempting to describe the traits which characterize him as a lawyer, it is perhaps suf- ficient to say that he has all the qualifications essential for a good judge, and it is not too much to say that his future appointment to a seat on the bench will depend chiefly on his willingness to accept it. He married Carrie, daughter of Hezekiah and Deborah (Freeman) Cole, of Carver, Mass., June 21, 1866. He lives in Bridgewater, with an office in that town and one in Boston.
JONATHAN WHITE, son of Jonathan and Abigail (Holbrook) White, was born in East Randolph, Mass., August 22, 1819, and fitted for college at Phillips Academy, An- dover. He graduated at Yale in 1844. He studied law at the Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar Angust 4, 1847. He removed to North Bridge- water, now Brockton, in 1849, and established there a residence and business which he has continued to the present time. He was a representative in 1865, and a mem- ber of the Senate in 1869-1877-1878. He is a man possessing a clear, logical mind, sharp, concise and earnest in its expression, and thoroughly trusted in every position in which he has been called to serve. He married Nancy Mehitabel, daughter of John Adams, of Holbrook, Mass.
ELLIS WESLEY MORTON, son of Ellis J. and Abby S. (Anthony) Morton, was born in North Bridgewater, now Brockton, October 8, 1848. He was educated at the Adel- phian Academy, the North Bridgewater Academy and the Classical High School of Providence, R. I. He graduated at the Harvard Law School in 1861, and was ad- mitted to the Suffolk bar on the 8th of October in that year. Practicing in Boston, he was appointed assistant United States attorney for Massachusetts November 1, 1861, and was admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court in March, 1864. He was a representative and senator from Boston, and died in September, 1874, at what appeared to be the threshold of a brilliant career.
BRADFORD KINGMAN, son of Josiah Washburn and Mary (Packard) Kingman, was born in North Bridgewater, now Brockton, January 5, 1831. During his youth he attended the common schools, the Adelphian Academy and the Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Mass. He studied law with Lyman Mason in Boston and at the Har- vard Law School, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar April 21, 1863, making Boston his place of business and Brookline his place of residence. His taste for literary and historical pursuits led him early away from the paths of law, and in 1866 he published an elaborate history of his native town. He married Susan, daughter of Thomas and Susanna (Bradford) Ellis, of Plympton, Mass., and lives in Brookline.
JACOB B. HARRIS was born in Winchester, Mass., and settled in Abington, Mass., in the practice of law. Where he studied law and where he was admitted to the bar the writer has not been able to learn. His name is not on the admission roles of either Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, Worcester or Plymouth counties, but he was a mem- ber of the Suffolk bar in 1873. He was a representative from Abington in 1861 and 1862, and was appointed judge of the District Court of the Second Plymouth County District on the establishment of that court in 1874. He was selected by the Supreme
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HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR.
Cohrt to defend Sturtevant, the Halifax murderer, and his efforts in behalf of the criminal elicited the highest praise. He died in January, 1875.
BENJAMIN WHITMAN, Son of Zechariah and Abigail (Kilborn) Whitman, was born in Bridgewater in 1:68, and graduated at Brown University in 1788. He established himself in Hanover Mass., in 1792, and was the first lawyer in that town. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar before going to Hanover, and returned to Boston in 1805. While in Hanover he was postmaster, and at the establishment of the Boston Police Court in 1822 he was appointed chief justice. He was a representative from Boston, and died about 1834.
WILLIAM 1I. WodD, son of Wilkes and Betsey W. (Thompson) Wood, was born in Middleboro', Mass., October 24, 1811, and was descended from Henry Wood, who came to Plymouth from England in 1643, and purchased land in Middleboro' in 1667. Ile was educated at Peirce Academy in Middleboro' and Brown University, gradu- ting in 1834. After leaving college he was for a year the principal of Coffin Academy in Nantucket, and then studied law in his father's office, completing his education in Boston in the office of Horace Mann and at the Harvard Law School. He was ad- mitted to the bar at Plymouth in 1842, and associated himself in business with John S. Eldridge in Boston. Not long after, owing to delicate health, he retired to Middleboro', where he resided and practiced until his death. An original member of the Free Soil party he was chosen to the State Senate in 1848. In 1849 he was de- feated by the Whigs on account of his anti-slavery sentiments, but was rechosen in 1850. In 1853 he was a member of the Constitutional Convention, in 1857 was a rep- resentative, and in 1858 a member of the Executive Council. On the 19th of Septem- ber, 1858, Aaron Hobart, judge of probate for Plymouth county, died, and Mr. Wood was at once appointed as his successor. He remained in office until his death.
BARTHOLOMEW BROWN, Son of John and Guiger (Hutchinson) Brown, was born in Danvers, Mass., September 8, 1772, and graduated at Harvard in 1799. He was ad- mitted to the Suffolk bar before 1807 and established himself in East Bridgewater. He was through life devoted to music, and was at one time president of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society. He was a composer of a large number of pieces of sacred and secular music, and was one of the most popular soloists of the society. The last few years of his life were spent in Boston. Ile married in East Bridgewater, November 26, 1801, Betsey, daughter of General Sylvanus Lazell, of Bridgewater, and died in Boston, April 14, 1814.
SETH MILLER Was born in Middleboro', Mass., January 10, 1801, and graduated at Brown University in 1823. He studied law in Middleboro' with Wilkes Wood and in Boston with Thompson Miller, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in October, 1826. Not long after he established himself in Wareham, and remained there in constant practice during life. He was a trial justice in Wareham many years, a mem- ber of the Constitutional Convention in 1853, and president of the Plymouth County Bar Association from the date of its organization in 1867 until his death. He died at Wareham, unmarried, August 22, 1876.
WILLIAM BAYLIES, Son of Dr. William and Bathsheba (White) Baylies, was born in Dighton, Mass., September 15, 1776, and received his early education in one of the public schools of that town under the instruction of John Barrows, a graduate of Har- vard in 1976. He graduated at Brown University in 1795, and studied law with
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Seth Padelford in Taunton. He was admitted to the bar of Suffolk county before 1807, and established himself in Dighton. He was a representative from 1808 to 1820 and in 1831, and a senator in 1825. In 1812 he was chosen member of Congress and rechosen in 1814, and also in 1830 and 1832. In 1831 he received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard. For many years during the latter part of his professional life he made his home in West Bridgewater, and confined his business to that which sought him there. Since the introduction of railroads clients have more and more sought counsel in Boston, and as a necessary consequence country lawyers have been compelled to open offices in Boston to intercept them. But in the days of. Mr. Bay- lies many of the ablest lawyers in the State had their offices in small towns and smaller hamlets and there lived and flourished and won enviable reputations. In Plymouth county there were Mr. Baylies in West Bridgewater, Ebenezer Gay in Hingham, Kilborn Whitman in Pembroke, Thomas Prince Beal in Kingston, Nahum Mitchell in East Bridgewater, Abraham Holmes in Rochester and Zechariah Eddy in Middleboro', all following the county circuits, but never finding any inducement to leave their native town for wider fields of effort in the cities of the State. The writer of these sketches says of him, in the History of Plymouth County recently published, that "his last appearance in court was in January, 1849, in Alden B. Weston and others against Alfred Sampson and others, when he appeared for defendants. On the question at issue this was a leading case, the decision of which involved extended
interests along the seaboard of the Old Colony. It was an action of trespass, quare clausum fregit, originally brought before a justice of the peace and submitted to the Court of Common Pleas and finally brought by appeal to the Supreme Court on the following agreed statement of facts: It was admitted that the plaintiffs were the proprietors of a tract of upland described in the writ, with the flats adjoining, at Powder Point (so called in Duxbury) bordering on the bay. The defendants, inhab- itants of Duxbury, went in their boat on said flats, and there, at low water, dug five bushels of clans and carried them away in their boat. The place where the clams were dug was between high and low water mark and within one hundred rods of the shore of the plaintiff's upland. If the court shall be of the opinion that the defendants had a right so to dig and carry away said clams, the plaintiffs are to become non- suited, otherwise the case is to be sent to a jury. The court decided that fishing was' a common law right as well fishing for shell-fish, as for those swimming in the water, and unless there was some colonial, provincial or State law, which controlled or limited that right, the inhabitants had a right to go in boats to flats between high and low water mark, and there take shell or other fish. The plaintiffs relied on a law of Massachusetts Colony passed in 1641, giving the owner of uplands the propriety so far as the tide ebbs and flows, when it does not ebb more than one hundred rods ; but the court held that, notwithstanding the union of the Massachusetts and Plymouth Colo- nies in 1692, the absence of any Plymouth Colony law or provincial law after 1692, or State law after the adoption of the constitution, keeps the old common law right alive, and justifies the defendants in their acts." Mr. Baylies died unmarried in Taunton, September 27, 1865, and was buried in Dighton, his native town.
WILKES WOOD, son of Ebenezer and Sally (Bennett) Wood, was born in Middleboro, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar before 1807. native town, and was many years judge of probate. ham, and second Betsey W. Thompson.
He established himself in his He married first Betsey Tink-
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HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR.
WILLIAM JOSIAH FORSAITH, Son of Josiah and Maria (Southworth) Forsaith, was born in Newport, N. H., April 19, 1836, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1857. Ile studied law with Burke & Wait in Newport, and in Boston in the offices of Benja- min F. Hallett and Ranney & Morse, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1860. Ile was appointed special justice of the Boston Municipal Court, January 23, 1872, and promoted to associate March 8, 1882, and is still on the bench. He married Annie Maria Veazie at Bangor, Me., October 31, 1865, and lives in Boston.
GEORGE R. FowLER, son of Asa and Mary C. K. Fowler, was born in Concord, N. II., April 25, 1844, and was educated at the common schools and the High School of that city. He spent a short time at Dartmouth College, and received an honorary degree of Master of Arts from that institution in 1868. He studied law in Concord with his father, at the Harvard Law School and the Albany Law School, receiving the degree of LL. D. from the latter, and was admitted to the bar in Concord in April, 1867, and in Boston October 8, 1869. He was assistant clerk and clerk of the New Hampshire State Senate from 1865 to 1868, has been a member of the Boston city government, and is a special justice of the West Roxbury District Municipal Court. He married Isabel Minot at Concord, N. H., April 24, 1843, and lives in Boston.
STEPHEN AUSTIN FOSTER, Son of Austin T. and Sarah H. Foster, was born in Derby Line, Vt., December 23, 1866, and was educated at the Goddard Seminary and Tufts College, He studied at the Harvard Law School and in Boston in the office of John C. Coombs, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar February 2, 1892. He lives in Boston.
STEPHEN GILMAN, Son of Samuel and Sarah (Goodhue) Gilman, was born in Meredith Village, N. H., September 28, 1819, and graduated at Harvard in 1848. He studied law in New York city, with Man & Parsons, and was admitted to the New York bar November 24, 1871, and to the Suffolk bar in April, 1879. He married first Lucy A. Davis in New York city, March 12, 1870, and second Esther W. Mansfield, of Lynnfield, Mass., August , 1881, and his residence is in Lynnfield.
EMERY REUBEN GIBBS, son of Phineas Stearns and Mary Catherine (Meserve) Gibbs, was born in Byron, Me., October 23, 1862, and was educated at the Coburn Classical Institute in the class of 1884, and at Colby University in the class of 1888. He stud- ied law in Boston in the office of Joseph Willard, and graduated at the Boston Uni- versity Law School in 1891, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar January 20, 1891. He married Jennie Barbour at Yarmouth, Me., January 13, 1892, and lives in Brookline.
LOUIS GIRARDIN, son of Louis and Sophia Girardin, was born in Philadelphia, May 1, 183%, and was educated at the Boston Grammar and High Schools, the academy at Litchfield, Me., and Phillips Exeter Academy. He studied law in Boston in the office of Charles J. Noyes, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar June 8, 1872. He inarried Rachel A. Smith in New York city, April 20, 1862, and lives in Boston.
HERBERT LEE HARDING, son of Samuel Lee and Catherine Bond Harding, was born in Lancaster, Mass., May 10, 1852, and graduated at Harvard in 1874. He studied law at the Harvard Law School, and in Boston in the office of Morse, Stone & Greenough, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in December, 1877. He has been a member of the Boston Common Council. He married Lucy Austin in Charlestown, Mass., October 13, 1886, and lives at Jamaica Plain.
OFhuman/ unit.
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BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER.
JOUN LE GRAND HARVEY, son of John and Susanna Harvey, was born in North Fairfield, O., December 5, 1857, and was educated at the Ohio Wesleyan University and Boston University. He studied law at the Boston University Law School, and in Boston in the office of B. B. Johnson, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in July, 1888. He has been water commissioner in Waltham, where he resides. He married Fanny C. Johnson at Haverhill, October 15, 1889. He has written treatises on "Law as a Factor of Civilization," and on "The Torrens System of Land Transfer."
ALBERT AUGUSTUS GLEASON, son of Zelotes and Sarah Adelaide (Scott) Gleason, was born October 10, 1863, and was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, and Harvard College, graduating from the latter in 1886. He graduated at the Harvard Law School in 1889 and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in June, 1890. He is the author of several historical papers. Residence, Boston.
WILLIAM ALANSON ABBE, was born in Litchfield, Conn., in 1835, and fitted for col- lege at Phillips Academy, Andover. He graduated at Amherst in 1857 and studied law in Boston, being admitted to the Suffolk bar November 1, 1862. Shortly after his admission he went to Colorado in the interest of a mining company, and there became associated with Professor Hill, of Brown University, afterwards United States Senator from Colorado, in the Boston and Colorado Smelting Company. He remained in Colorado ten years, and was at one time mayor of Black Hawk in that State. He finally established himself in New Bedford, where he resided the last ten years of his life, a director in several of the large mills in that city and in Fall River. He died in New Bedford November 25, 1892.
AUGUSTUS OLIVER ALLEN, son of Frederic and Hannah Bowen (Whipple) Allen, was born in Gardiner, Me., December 21, 1826, and graduated at Bowdoin College in 1848. He studied law in the office of his father at Gardiner and was admitted to the Suffolk bar October 14, 1850. He was a representative in 1865 and 1866 from Boston, and later a senator. He married Sarah Ann, daughter of Franklin Haven, of Bos- ton, in 1869, and died in the same year.
CHARLES EDWARD ALLEN, son of Frederick and Hannah Bowen (Whipple) Allen, was born in Gardiner, Me., November 20, 1816, and graduated at Bowdoin College in 1835. He studied law in Gardiner in the office of his father, and in Bangor in the office of Judge Appleton, and was admitted to the bar in Augusta, Me., in 1835, and to the Suffolk bar in 1846. He is unmarried and lives in Boston.
FREDERIC WRIGHT BLISS, son of Cyrus W. and Hannah T. (Munroe) Bliss, was born in Rehoboth, Mass., October 14, 1852, and studied law in Providence, R. I., with James Tillinghast, and graduated at the Boston University Law School in 1881. He was admitted to the bar in New Bedford in June, 1881. He was a representative in 1891 and 1892 and has been chosen for 1893. He lives in Boston.
HENRY J. WELLS was born in Charlestown, Mass., November 16, 1823, and from 1840 to 1848 was engaged in mercantile pursuits. He then went to New Orleans, and in 1849 to California. He found employment in San Francisco first as assistant clerk and afterwards full clerk of the courts, which position he held until 1853. He then studied law and practiced until 1863, when he was appointed judge of the Municipal Court of San Francisco. He was also a member of the Board of Education, police commissioner, president of the Board of Aldermen, and president of the Young
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