USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 64
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CHARLES F. DUNIIAM Was admitted to the Suffolk bar in June, 1858.
WILLIAM EVERETT, son of Edward and Charlotte Gray (Brooks) Everett, was born in Watertown, Mass., October 10, 1839, and graduated at Harvard in 1859 and at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, in 1863. He graduated at the Harvard Law School in 1865 and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in April, 1867. He was tutor and assistant professor of Latin at Harvard from 1870 to 1877, and in 1878 became master of Adams Academy at Quincy, Mass., and still occupies that position. Having a license to preach from the Boston Ministers' Association, he occasionally occupies the pulpit of Unitarian churches, and is one of the most learned men in the denomi- nation. Few men in Massachusetts are as thoroughly educated and few are so well equipped for extemporaneous speech on subjects relating to either scientific, literary, political or scientific questions. It is doubtful whether any inquiry on these questions would not draw from him an immediate and satisfactory response. For some years he has been interested in political movements and during the last three presidential campaigns he has advocated civil service and tariff reforms and the election of Grover Cleveland as their best exponent. In 1890 and 1892, though living in Quincy, lie was the Democratic candidate for Congress in the Seventh Congressional District against Henry Cabot Lodge, and now in April, 1893, has been chosen to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr. Lodge, who has been recently chosen United States
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senator. He is the author of " On the Cam," " Changing Base," " Double Play," " Hesione, or Europe Unchained," and " School Sermons."
MINOT TIRRELL, jr., was admitted to the Essex bar in 1863, and was a member of the Suffolk bar in 1866.
JOHN H. SHEPPARD, son of John Sheppard, an English merchant, and Sarah (Collier) Sheppard, was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England, March 17. 1789. When four years of age he came with his parents to America, and after remaining for a time in Philadelphia, his parents removed to Hallowell, Me. He received his early education at the Hallowell Academy under the instruction of Samuel Moody. He entered Harvard in 1804, but left college in his junior year and studied law with Samuel Sumner Wilde, afterwards judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, who was then in practice in Hallowell. He was admitted to the Maine bar in August, 1810, and began practice in Wiscasset. In 1817 he was appointed register of probate of Lincoln county while Jeremiah Bailey was serving as judge of probate, and re- mained in office until April 1, 1834. In 1842 he removed to Boston, where he was admitted to the Suffolk bar, and opened an office. In 1861 he was chosen librarian of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and held that office until his death, which occurred June 25, 1873. He received the degree of Master of Arts from Bowdoin College in 1820, and was a member of the Board of Overseers of that college from 1831 to 1852. He married first, May 13, 1819, Helen, daughter of Abiel Wood, and second, November 13, 1846, Mrs. O. B. Foster, daughter of Ezra Willmarth, of Georgetown, Mass.
JAMES B. ROBB came to Boston from Maryland and was admitted to the Suffolk bar April 17, 1843. He was for a number of years clerk of the United States District Court in Boston. He has been dead some years.
MELVIN O. ADAMS is the son of Joseph and Dolly (Whitney) Adams, and was born in Ashburnham, Mass., November 7, 1850. He attended the public schools of his native town and Appleton Academy in New Ipswich, N. H., and graduated at Dart- mouth College in 1871. After leaving college he taught school in Fitchburg, Mass., for a time, and while in that town studied law in the office of Amasa Norcross. In 1874 he came to Boston and attended lectures at the Boston University Law School, from which institution he graduated in 1875. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1875, and was soon after appointed assistant of Oliver Stevens, district attorney, continning in that position until 1886. The familiarity he acquired while in that office with the methods of the government in dealing with persons charged with offences against criminal laws gave him a position at the bar which it would have been difficult to otherwise obtain. To his reputation as a criminal lawyer thus at- tained is undoubtedly due his engagement as associate counsel in the defence of Miss Borden, of Fall River, indicted for the murder of her father and step-mother, who is now awaiting her trial. After resigning his position as assistant district attorney he became associated in business with Augustus Russ, and continued with him until the death of Mr. Russ in the summer of 1892. He is a Republican in politics, and in 1890 was a member of the staff of Governor Brockett, with the rank of colonel. He is now in active practice, following the paths of his profession with a fidelity and zeal which give promise of a brilliant career. He married Mary Colony at Fitchburg in 1875, and lives in Boston.
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GEORGE BLISS was born in Springfield, Mass., November 16, 1793, and graduated at Yale in 1813. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar and began practice in Monson, where he remained seven years. He then returned to his native town and became associated in business with Jonathan Dwight, jr. He was a representative from Springfield in 1828-29-30 and in 1853, when he was chosen speaker. In 1835 he was a member of the Senate, and on the death of the president of the Senate, Benjamin T. Peckman, he was chosen to fill his place. He was one of the organizers of the railroad from Worcester to Albany, called the Western Railroad, and the writer thinks he was its first president. His resemblance to Dr. George Parkman, who was killed by Professor John W. Webster, was so striking that a very respectable and truthful gentleman by the name of Clary or Cleary, an officer in the Boston Custom House, swore on the witness stand with great positiveness that he saw the doctor at a time and place wholly inconsistent with the theory of the prosecution. It was proved that Mr. Bliss was in Boston on the day mentioned by the witness, and at the time referred to was in that part of the city where Dr. Parkman was supposed by the witness to have been seen. He died at Springfield, April 19, 1873.
JOSEPH A. HARRIS was admitted to the Middlesex bar in July, 1878, and was a member of the Suffolk bar in 1890.
THEODORE C. HURD was admitted to the Middlesex bar in September, 1860, and in 1867 was a member of the Suffolk bar. In 1871 he was chosen elerk of the courts for Middlesex county, and was rechosen in 1876-1881-1886 and 1892.
J. C. KIMBALL was admitted to the Middlesex bar in March, 1857, and in 1870 was a member of the Suffolk bar.
WILLIAM S. KNOX was admitted to the Essex bar in 1866 and in 1883 was a member of the Suffolk bar.
SAMUEL LIVERMORE was born about 1786, and graduated at Harvard in 1804. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1807, and subsequently removed to New Orleans, where he won a high reputation in his profession. He was the author of "A Treatise on the Law of Principal and Agent and of Sales by Auction," published in Boston in 1811, and of " Dissertations on the Questions which arise from the Contrariety of the Positive Laws of Different States and Nations," published in New Orleans in 1828. He died in New Orleans in 1833.
DAVID PERKINS was the son of Jacob Perkins, of Bridgewater, and was born in that town. His father was a member of the firm of Lazell, Perkins & Company for many years, the proprietors and managers of the Bridgewater Iron Works. He studied law and was a member of the Suffolk bar in 1853. In 1855 he was appointed by Gover- nor Gardner register of insolvency. He married a daughter of Hon. John A. Shaw, and has been dead many years.
HORATIO N. PERKINS Was admitted to the Essex bar in September, 1832, and was a member of the Suffolk bar in 1852.
SAMUEL PEMBERTON graduated at Harvard in 1742. In 1775 commissions were issued to new judges of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk county by the majority of the Council in the name of " the Government and People of Massachu- setts Bay in New England." Mr. Pemberton was one of these judges. He died in 1779.
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SAMUEL DEXTER, son of Rev. Samuel Dexter, of Dedham, Mass., was born in that town in 1726, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. He was a member of the Council before the Revolution and for a number of years was a member of the House of Rep- resentatives. During the Revolution he was one of the Supreme Executive Council of the State, and in 1775 was one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas for Suf- folk county appointed by a majority of the Council in the name of "the Government and People of Massachusetts Bay in New England." He bequeathed $5,000 to Har- vard College for the encouragement of biblical criticism, and died in Mendon, Mass., in 1810.
JOHN HILL was one of the judges of the Suffolk Inferior Court of Common Pleas appointed by a majority of the Council in 1775 in the name of the "Government and People of Massachusetts Bay in New England."
THOMAS GILL, who was the court reporter of the Boston Post many years and died twenty years or more ago, was called Counsellor Gill, but he was never admitted to bar and never practiced in the courts.
THOMAS ROWAN, who flourished about the same time as the above mentioned Thomas Gill, was supposed by many to be an attorney. He was an Irishman by birth or extraction, and studied law for a time but was never admitted to the bar. He was largely engaged in the business of naturalization, and his frequent presence · in the courts led to the inference that he was a member of the bar.
JOHN AUGUSTUS was a frequenter of the Municipal and Police Courts but was not a member of the bar. He was born in 1785 and was a shoemaker by trade; but for more than twenty years he devoted himself to the reclamation of offenders, and in cases calling for his sympathy he offered himself as bondsman for the good behavior of the criminal, thus securing his release and almost invariably his reformation. He died in Boston, June 21, 1859.
GEORGE FOX TUCKER, son of Charles Russell and Dorcas Fry Tucker, was born in New Bedford, Mass., January 19, 1852. He received his early education at the Friends' Academy in New Bedford and the Friends' School in Providence, R. I., and graduated at Brown University in 1873. He studied law in New Bedford in the office of George Marston and William W. Crapo, and was admitted to the Bristol county bar in New Bedford in 1876 after a further study in the Boston University Law School, from which he graduated with the degree of LL. B. in 1875. He practiced in New Bedford until 1882, when he removed his office to Boston, where he became associated with his former instructor, George Marston, who was then the attorney- general of the Commonwealth. In 1884 he published a volume entitled " A Manual of Wills," designed to indicate the best method of drawing a will so as to avoid the complications and embarrassments which so often lead to litigation. It is a book of Massachusetts law, and is regarded as an authority on the subject of which it treats. Not long after the issue of the Manual, he published a monograph on the " Monroe Doctrine," which presents in a vivid way the origin and development of that treasured American principle. This volume was favorably received and is now an accepted authority. In 1888 he published " A Manual of Business Corporations," a work similar in method and purpose to the " Manual of Wills." In 1889 he brought out jointly with John M. Gould, of the Suffolk bar, " Notes on the United States Revised
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Statutes," one of the most comprehensive of all law publications. This work, the result of years of research and investigation, has had a circulation almost unprec- edented in legal literature. Mr. Tucker is also the author of a novel entitled " A Quaker Home," in which are presented the customs and religious views of the fol- lowers of Fox. The scene is laid in New Bedford, and many of its descriptions and situations are taken from real life. Mr. Tucker has always enjoyed a good practice, and of late years has devoted himself especially to matters pertaining to equity. He was a member of the School Committee of New Bedford in 1881, and a representative of that city in the Legislatures of 1890-91-92, retiring from politics during the latter year to accept the position which he now holds of reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court. His office is in Boston, but he still resides in New Bedford.
FRANK DEWEY ALLEN, the oldest child of Charles Francis and Olive Dewey Allen, was born in Worcester, Mass., August 16, 1850. He received his early education at the public schools and graduated at Yale University in 1873. He was a member while in college of the various class societies, including the famous "Scroll and Key," and pulled an oar in his class crew. After graduation he studied law for about a year in the office of Peter C. Bacon in Worcester and then entered the Boston Uni- versity Law School, from which he graduated with the degree of LL.B. in the sum- mer of 1875. After three years' further study in the office of Hillard, Hyde & Dick- inson in Boston, the last year as the managing clerk of the firm, he was admitted to the Suffolk bar January 8, 1878. The next day after his admission he was married to Lucy, youngest daughter of Trevett M. and Eliza M. Rhodes, of Lynn, Mass., and became a resident of that city. He was a representative from Lynn in the Leg- islatures of 1881 and 1882, serving on the committee on Banks and Banking, the Judiciary Committee and the committee to investigate the charges against Joseph M. Day, judge of probate of Barnstable county. In 1886-87-88 he was a member of the Executive Council, representing the Fifth Councillor District and serving one year with Governor Robinson and two years with Governor Ames. During two years of his councillor service he was clerk of the Committee on Pardons, and was a member of the Council which, under an act of the Legislature, sold the Hoosac Tun- nel to the Fitchburg Railroad. In 1885-86-87 he was a member of the Republican State Committee from the First Essex Senatorial District, and as an ardent Repub- lican worker his voice has been heard on the platform from Berkshire to the Cape. Mr. Allen organized and is president of the Massachusetts Temperance Home, and is a director in the Lynn Gas and Electric Company. He is also a member of the the Baptist Social Union of Boston, and in 1892 was president of the Yale Alumni of Boston and vicinity. On the 2d of April, 1890, he was commissioned by President Harrison United States attorney for the District of Massachusetts. One of his earliest cases was a perjury case in the matter of a pension claim with General But- ler for the defence, and he succeeded in convicting the defendant, and having her sentenced after a long and closely contested trial. The new Customs Administra- tion Act, the Anti-Trust Statute, and various other new matters of congressional legislation have received judicial interpretation during his official term in causes which he has personally conducted. Perhaps the most successful work done by him as prosecuting attorney has been his prosecution of the Maverick National Bank officials, which he entered upon single-handed, investigating and selecting the facts alleged as violations of the law and drafting himself either in whole or in part the
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indictments in the various cases. In this cause, which was the most important as affecting the business interests of the country, which had arisen in the circuit for a quarter of a century, he had well-nigh insurmountable obstacles to overcome, meet- ing discouragement at every step, but in the end secured a verdict. In connection with the verdict secured against Mr. Potter, the president of the bank, the Boston Transcript said: " United States District Attorney Allen is receiving the congrat- ulations of his friends over the verdict in the Potter case. He has certainly shown pluck and perseverance in spite of much discouragement from both the bench and the public. It has been so often said that his case could never get to a jury, or if it did, that there would never be a conviction, that the verdict is certainly a professional vindication to be prized by any lawyer in his position." The Boston Courier said: " The verdict in the Potter case seems to have surprised everybody except District Attorney Allen, who from the outset insisted that not only was Mr. Potter guilty, but that a jury, if it got the chance, would say so. He has had much to contend against, and is to be congratulated upon the plucky fight he has made against such depressing odds. It is a professional triumph of which he may well feel proud." The Saturday Evening Gazette, speaking of the verdict, said "The result of the Potter trial has given general satisfaction. . The prosecuting counsel conducted his case with brilliant ability and withal in a spirit of fairness that was as admirable as it was dignified." The Boston Herald said: " A certain fact had to be estab- lished, and apparently the prosecution succeeded in doing this. . . We believe the mercantile community as a whole will welcome the verdict as a just one." The Bos- ton Post and the Boston Journal spoke in highly complimentary terms of the dis- trict attorney, speaking of the extremely difficult and technical nature of the case, its importance to the community, and the moral effect of the verdict. Mr. Allen has been indefatigable in his attention to the duties of his position, and at the close of the term of Attorney-General Miller he was highly complimented by that official for the faithful discharge of his labors, justifying the splendid support which he had from the bench and bar for the office, which he had so conscientiously and honorably filled. Mr. Allen is still the United States attorney for the Massachusetts District.
SAMUEL TOMPSON was a native of Maine, where he was admitted to the bar and practiced law until 1860, when he came to Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in June of that year. He not long after became a note and money broker, and so continued until his death, which occurred at his residence in Brookline, April 12, 1893.
ISAAC STORY, jr., was admitted to the Suffolk bar in September, 1844, and is now the justice of the Somerville Police Court.
GEORGE WILLIAM TUXBURY was born in Salisbury, now Amesbury, Mass., Novem- ber 8, 1822. His ancestors were of the rigid Puritan type, to which so much of the grit and power of American life is due. He was the son of Daniel and Sally Wood- man Tuxbury, and his mother, who was a native of Candia, N. H., was a cousin of Daniel Webster. He was one of a family of thirteen children, his father having mar- ried three times. The children were brought up on a large farm and were early ac- customed to hard work. The subject of this sketch was sent when quite young to the academy at Strafford, N. H., and from there to Phillips Exeter Academy. He applied himself assiduously to his studies, and in spare hours acting as instructor in
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order that he might lighten the burden which his proposed college career would im- pose on the slender means of his father. In 1841 he entered Dartmouth College, where he stood high as a scholar and where his perseverance, uprightness, and gen- erally high character endeared him to both his teachers and his class. He graduated in 1845 with the honor of being selected as the class orator, and left college with the determination of achieving success in his future life. He first accepted a position to teach in the academy at Ipswich, Mass., where he remained a single year, leaving it for the purpose of devoting himself to the study and practice of law. He entered the office of Hubbard & Watts in Boston, and on the 16th of December, 1848, he was ad- mitted to the Suffolk bar. His success at the bar was soon secured. The persever- ance and ability demonstrated by him in winning a verdict against one of the large capitalists of Boston, much to his surprise, brought that gentlemen to him as a client and made him also the means of further success. From that time Mr. Tuxbury had the management of all his large legal affairs, and at his death was made trustee of his estate. On the 30th of June, 1853, he married Harriet Matilda, daughter of Will- iam Beals, one of the firm of Beals & Green, the late proprietors and publishers of the Boston Post. He was a member of the Boston City Council in 1857 and 1858, and a member of the Boston School Board in 1855-1856 and 1857, and from 1860 to 1865, inclusive. It was largely through his influence that Francis Gardner remained for so long a time headmaster of the Boston Latin School. At about the age of thirty-five the health of Mr. Tuxbury began to decline, and he became afflicted with a nervous deafness which materially interfered with his practice in the courts. He was thus obliged to abandon the trial of causes and confine himself to office business. He was largely engaged in insolvency cases and in the settlement of estates. Among the cases with which he was at various times connected was the noted Burrell case against the city of Boston, which was finally settled after a litigation extending over a period of nearly a quarter of a century. For four years he was the counsel of Gen- eral Burrell, and his argument before the City Committee on Claims first inspired a serious consideration of the claim of his client, which had up to that time been esteemed unfounded and frivolous. He had charge of a number of trusts, and en- gaged in negotiations for real estate for corporations and syndicates, which proved eminently profitable both to his principals and himself. Thwarted as he was by his deafness in his professional ambition, he was not prevented by it from attaining large pecuniary reward from his labors, and from his increasing means his warm heart and liberal hand were ever ready in their sympathy for those less successful in life, and in the bestowment of generous and friendly aid He died in Boston, April 12, 1885, leaving behind him a widow and two daughters.
DANIEL NEEDHAM, son of James and Lydia (Breed) Needham, was born in Salem, May 24, 1822, and was educated at the Friends' Boarding School in Providence. In 1842, at the age of twenty, he removed to Groton, where he bought a farm and de- veloped that taste for agriculture which has distinguished him through life. He studied law with David Roberts, of Salem, and Bradford Russell, of Groton, and was admitted to the bar at Lowell in 1848. Well grounded as he was in the law, and possessing as he did all the qualifications for a brilliant professional career, he was irresistibly led into those more congenial paths, where his name and services have been so intimately associated with the agricultural interests of our State and nation.
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The prominence which he has attained in his chosen field makes it proper that as a member of the bar he should have more than a passing notice in this record. While in the practice of law at Groton, he was at one time retained to defend a foreigner indicted for a criminal assault upon a girl near Groton Junction. The trial was at Lowell in the Fall term of 1854, at a time when the " Know-Nothings" were working themselves into power as a Native American party against both the Democrats and Whigs. Colonel Needham secured General B. F. Butler to assist in the defense, and somewhat against the advice of the general, adopted as a line of defense the theory that all the leading government witnesses were members of the new party, and had entered into a conspiracy to deprive the defendant of his liberty and rights. This line of defense was finally acceded to, however, by the general, and by order of court the witnesses were examined separately. Several of the government witnesses were officers in high position in the Know-Nothing party, and when interrogated with re- gard to their membership, positively denied over and over again that they had con- nection with such an organization. A persistent cross-examination broke down the first witness and secured a full account of the ceremony and obligations attending initiation. Other witnesses, at first, made the same persistent denial of membership, but when their attention was called to the ritulastic work of the order as revealed by the first witness, made full acknowledgment, and justified their denial by the state- ment that there was no such party as the " Know-Nothing." The disclosures made at this trial of the secrets of the order were published in all the leading papers of the country, and in defiance of the positive evidence of the girl, a disagreement of the jury was secured, the testimony of the other leading witnesses having been thrown out on the ground of perjury, and the indictment was finally nol prossed. At the time of the trial Colonel Needham was the Democratic candidate for Congress against Chauncey L. Knapp, Know-Nothing, and Tappan Wentworth, Whig. Mr. Knapp, like the majority of the candidates of the new party in Massachusetts, was chosen. Another interesting ease in which Colonel Needham appeared for the defendant, and J. W. P. Abbott and General Butler for the plaintiff, was tried at Lowell, on a prom- issory note, which had been given to a wheelwright, who was building a wagon for a party, and was afraid that the wagon might be attached and sold on execution be- fore completion and delivery. The verbal condition of the note made in the pres- ence of the witness, whose name appeared thereon, was that the note should not be paid until the completion and delivery of the wagon. The completion did not include painting. Subsequent to a formal delivery, the wagon was taken by the builder, at the request of the owner, to be painted, and while painting was attached as the property of the builder, under a writ issued at Colonel Needham's office. The real owner, who was the maker of the note, made no appearance in defense, and the wagon was sold as the property of the builder. The note was subsequently sold to a party who had no knowledge of the transaction, and who brought a suit to recover the amount of the note. The witness to the note was called by General Butler at the trial to testify to the signature, and there the plaintiff's case rested. On cross-ex- amination the verbal condition was brought out and stated by the witness. The plaintiff's council knowing no more of the case allowed it to go to the jury, with the understanding that the painting was a part of the completion, and that as there was no completion, there was no promise to pay the note. A verdict was rendered for the defendant without the jury leaving their seats. Colonel Needham, as a lawyer,
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