USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 77
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HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR.
tol, N. H., August 17, 1802, and graduated at Dartmouth in 1821. He married, Feb- ruary 18, 1829, Caroline, daughter of Waldo Peirce, of Frankfort, Me. After leaving college he studied law in Portland in the office of Stephen Longfellow, and was ad- mitted to the bar of Cumberland county in 1825. On the Fourth of July of the year of his admission, at the age of twenty-three, he delivered an oration by appointment of the municipal authorities of Portland. In the latter part of the same year, having been appointed on the recommendation of Mr. Webster agent of the " Ten Proprietors' Tract" in Eastern Maine, owned by David Sears, William Prescott and Israel Thorndike, of Boston, he established his residence in Frankfort, Me., where he at- tained a high rank in his profession, and died August 18, 1885. He has been repre- sented, by one who knew him well, as " An extensive reader, a fine writer, an able and eloquent speaker, a wise and sagacious counsellor and an accomplished gentle- man." Israel Webster Kelly, a brother of Albert Livingston, and referred to else- where in this Register as Webster Kelly, the name by which he was commonly known, was a graduate of Dartmouth in 1824, and after a course of successful prac- tice in Frankfort and Belfast, Me., became May 19, 1851, a member of the Suffolk bar. He married Lucilla S. Peirce, and died in Henniker, N. H., July 3, 1855. Edward Albert Kelly, son of Albert Livingston Kelly and the subject of this sketelı, received his early education at the Military School of Lieutenant Whitney in Ells- worth, Me., at Foxcroft Academy, Me., and at North Yarmouth Classical Academy. He entered Bowdoin College in 1846 at the age of fifteen years, and remained there until the middle of his junior year. In 1851 he entered as a law student the office of George Frederick Farley, of Groton, Mass., and was admitted to the Suffolk county bar in 1853. He was associated with Mr. Farley as partner until the death of Mr. Farley in 1855, and continued to practice in Groton until 1861, when he removed his residence and office to Boston. At the Suffolk bar he secured while in practice a high position, and the important cases entrusted to his care manifest the confidence reposed in his ability and skill. Before he was admitted to the bar he appeared in court at Worcester as counsel for Pliny H. Babbitt, a deputy sheriff of Worcester county, who had been indicted as accessory before the fact to a burglary in Barre. John H. Clifford. attorney-general, appeared for the Commonwealth, and in his address to the jury complimented the argument of his young brother. In 1866 he appeared for Charles Robinson, ex-governor of Kansas, in an action of contract brought by Joseph Lyman, of Boston, treasurer of the Kansas Land Trust, on several promissory notes, amounting in all to $15,000, and trial by jury being waived, the case was argued in the Supreme Court at the November term in the above year. Sidney Bartlett and Caleb William Loring ap- peared for the plaintiff, but Mr. Kelly obtained a decision in his favor. His argu- ment in this case was highly commended by the bench and bar. In 1873 Mr. Kelly was counsel for the Massachusetts National Bank in an action of contract brought by Nathan Matthews to recover $25,000 on a forged certificate of stock of the Boston and Albany Railroad, but a still later case of special interest in which he appeared as counsel was that of the Commonwealth against the Lancaster Savings Bank argued before the Supreme Court. By a decree of the court in December, 1876, the bank was placed in the hands of receivers, and in the following May a tax was levied on the bank under the law authorizing a tax on Savings Banks. Mr. Kelly was the
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attorney of the bank and advised that the tax was illegal. Attorney-General Train advised that it was legal and the suit was brought. The case was argued before the court at Taunton in October, 1877, and an opinion of the court was given in January, 1848, sustaining the claim of Mr. Kelly that the tax was illegal. The substance of the decision was that the tax on Savings Banks is a tax upon the privilege of trans- acting business, consequently it follows that if, at the time the tax is to be assessed and is declared to accrue, the bank has for the purpose of transacting its business practically ceased to exist, then no tax is to be exacted. Mr. Kelly's practice, which was a general one, continued unabated until about ten years ago, when he abandoned it for the care of his own private affairs and of those which others had placed confid- ingly in his hands. Since he left the profession he has found time to indulge those literary tastes which he early acquired, and has been a frequent contributor to maga- zines and newspapers. These articles were marked for their pure English, their clearness of statement and thoroughness of research. He was chosen a trustee of Lawrence Academy in Groton to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. Farley in 1855, is a corresponding member of the Maine Historical Society, and has received an honorary degree of Master of Arts from Bowdoin College. He was an intimate friend of the late Josiah G. Abbott and Peleg W. Chandler, and while the latter was the editor of Every Other Saturday, he contributed ably to its columns. One of his articles in this periodical, containing " Advice to Young Lawyers," should be read by every young man entering the profession. The lesson he seeks to enforce is the necessity of a thorough and exhaustive preparation of a cause for trial and then absolute self-reliance in total disregard of an apparent adverse opinion of the sitting judge. He cites the first appearance in court of Sergeant S. Prentiss as an illustration of the lesson. The incident occurred in Brandon, Mississippi. Prentiss was a slight made, beardless boy, extremely youthful in appearance and a stranger to all in court. When his case was called he promptly responded and stated that his case stood on demurrer to some part of the proceedings, which he desired to argue. The judge with some abruptness told him that he did not wish to hear the argument as he had made up his mind adversely to his side of the case. Mr. Prentiss insisted, however, on the constitutional right of his client to be heard and went on with an argument which astonished both the judge and the bar. The judge was convinced of his error and decided for Mr. Prentiss. Mr. Kelly is not only a fin- ished writer but a fluent and graceful speaker, and is often called on to add to the interest of historic and other occasions. His maternal grandfather, Waldo Peirce, was born in Scituate, Mass., and was a brother of Silas Peirce, the founder of the well-known house of Silas Peirce & Company, of Boston. When, in 1890, the seventy- fifth anniversary of the establishment of that house was celebrated by a banquet at Young's Hotel, Mr. Kelly was one of the invited guests, and contributed sketches of several of the older members of the firm in a speech, which the New England Grocer said was characterized not only by eloquence and a fine polished style of delivery, but also by the fact that it dealt with topics totally different from those taken up by others, and was therefore one of the chief features of the occasion. Mr. Kelly married at Groton, November 15, 1854, Mary, daughter of George Fred- erick and Lucy (Rice) Farley, and has his residence in Boston. Mr. Kelly is a man of independence in the truest sense of that word. He avoids the shackles of
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party, the responsibilities of trusts, any and all entangling alliances liable to inter- fere with independent action. The words of Chapman are to him specially appli- cable :
" Who to himself is law-no law doth need, Offends no law -- and is a King indeed."
Dean Stanley said: " Give me a man, young or old, high or low, on whom we know we can thoroughly depend, who will stand when others fall, the friend faithful and true, the adviser honest and fearless, the adversary just and chivalrous, in such a one there is a fragment of the rock of ages." A discriminating friend who had known Mr. Kelly for thirty years said that when reading these words of the dean he thought at once of him.
LINCOLN ALLEN graduated at Harvard in 1885 and at the Harvard Law School in 1888. After his admission to the bar he established himself in Boston and died at Arlington, Mass., May 16, 1892.
WILLIAM ALEXANDER GASTON, Son of William and Louisa Augusta (Beecher) Gas- ton, was born in that part of Boston which was then Roxbury, May 1, 1859. He at- tended the public schools of Roxbury, the Roxbury Latin School, and a private school, and graduated at Harvard in the class of 1880. He studied law at the Har- vard Law School and in the office of Gaston & Whiting, a firm in which his father was the senior partner, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in September, 1883. In October, 1883, he became a partner in the above firm and has so continued to the present time. The business of the firm is of a general character, with the single limitation that it is confined to civil practice. It is too well known to need any spe- cial description, and a reference to the reports is only necessary to disclose its extent and importance. Mr. Gaston devotes himself almost exclusively to his profession, and aside from his acceptance of the positions of assistant adjutant-general on the staff of Governor Russell, and of director in the Manufacturers' National Bank, there is little evidence of his willingness to be allured from the paths of his profession. He married, April 9, 1892, Mary D., daughter of Hamilton D. and Annie L. Lockwood, of Boston, and has his residence in Boston.
GEORGE HENRY TOWLE, son of Henry and Mary Ann (MeCrillis) Towle, was born in Boston, April 9, 1851. He attended the common schools of Boston, the Boston Latin School, and the Wesleyan University in Middleton, Conn. He had already chosen his profession while at the University and there made a beginning of the study of law. He afterwards continued his study in Boston with Baxter E. Perry and Samuel W. Creech, jr., and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in October, 1873. He has been engaged in mining operations in Colorado, and while attending to a general practice he has been largely connected with railroad litigation, chiefly in the South. He is descended from Phillip Towle, who came early to New England and settled in Hamp- ton in 1640, where he married, November 19, 1657, Isabella Astyn, daughter of Fran- cis Aysten and his wife Isabella (Bland) Astyn, who came to Hampton from Col- chester, England. The ancestor, Phillip, born about 1616, died in Hampton, Decem- ber 19, 1696. His descendants are numerous and include among their number Hamil- ton Ela Towle, the distinguished civil engineer who graduated at the Lawrence Scientific School in 1855, and died in London, England, September 2, 1881. Mr. Towle married, October 25, 1875, Sarah Dorset, daughter of William and Mary
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Hamblin, of Wakefield, Mass., a descendant of the Old Colony Hamlin family, to which the late Vice-president Hannibal Hamlin belonged. Different branches of the family adopted different methods of spelling the name. Mr. Towle resists the allurements of public life, and the law is his master, demanding and receiving his undivided service.
MARCUS MORTON, jr., son of Marcus and Charlotte (Hodges) Morton, was born in Taunton, Mass., April 8, 1819. He was a descendant of George Morton, who came to Plymouth in the Ann in 1623 with his wife Julian, daughter of Alexander Carpen- ter, of Wrentham, England, whom he married in Leyden, Holland, in 1612. He graduated at Brown University in 1838 and at the Harvard Law School in 1840. After further study in Boston in the office of Peleg Sprague and William Gray he was admitted to the Suffolk bar July 12, 1841. In 1850 he took up his residence in Andover, and represented that town in the Constitutional Convention of 1853, and in the Legislature of 1858. In both convention and Legislature, he served with his father, who was a member from Taunton. In the House of Representatives he was chairman of the Committee on Elections, and his numerous reports have been recog- nized as authorities. In 1858 he was appointed judge of the Superior Court of Suf- folk county, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Josiah G. Abbott, and remained on the bench until the abolition of that court in 1859. In the organization of the present Superior Court in 1859, he was appointed one of the justices, and con- tinued to serve until April 15, 1869, when he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Judicial Court. On the 16th of January, 1882, he was appointed chief justice of that court to succeed Horace Gray, who had been appointed associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. On the 27th of August, 1890, he resigned, having served as judge in three courts thirty-two years. He married Abby B., daughter of Henry and Amy (Harris) Hoppin at Providence, R. I., October 19, 1843, and died at Andover, February 10, 1891. At a meeting of the Suffolk bar May 19, 1891, resolutions were passed which Attorney-general Pillsbury presented to the Supreme Court in a dis- criminating speech in which he characterized Judge Morton as " strong rather than brilliant, patient, always accessible, of sufficient learning, and of political sagacity amounting almost to genius, rarely exciting admiration, but never arousing appre- hension." Judge Charles Allen said in the course of his response that " as a nisi prius judge he has had few superiors in the history of the Commonwealth; indeed, it seems to me few equals." The Reports from volume 102 to volume 150 contain twelve hundred of his judgments.
JOHN VAN BEAL, son of Eleazer and Mary (Thayer) Beal, was born in Randolph, Mass., July 3, 1842. He is descended from John Beal, who came to Boston from Hingham, England, in the ship Diligent in 1638 and settled in Hingham, Mass. The ancestor married Nazareth, daughter of Edmund and Margaret (Dewey) Hobart, and sister of Rev. Peter Hobart, the first minister of Hingham. He married for a second wife, March 10, 1659, Mrs. Mary, widow of Nicholas Jacob, and died in Hing- ham, April 1, 1688. Israel Beal, a great-grandson of John, was born in Hingham, April 25, 1726, and soon after his birth his father, Thomas, removed to Newton, where he died September 14, 1751. About the time of his father's death, or soon after, Israel removed to Randolph and married Eunice Flagg. Eleazer Beal, one of the children of Israel, was born in Randolph, July 9, 1758. His homestead was sold
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HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR.
by him to his son Eleazer, from whom it passed by descent to his grandson Eleazer, the father of the subject of this sketch, who, with his brother George, holds it under their father's will. The last Eleazer, the father of John Van Beal, was born in Ran- dolph, May 5, 1808, and married, May 13, 1853, Mary Stetson, daughter of Micah and Phoebe (Stetson) Thayer, and died April 27, 1891. At the age of eighteen, having then received only such instruction as the common schools could furnish, he deter- mined to secure a liberal education against the wishes of his father, who refused to furnish him with any pecuniary aid in attaining the object of his ambition. He was thus thrown on his own resources, but, far from being discouraged, he applied for admission to the school of that eminent instructor, Jesse Pierce, of Stoughton, the father of Henry L. and Edward L. Pierce, and was received by him as a pupil. At the end of his second school term it became necessary for him to earn in some way the means for further instruction, and walking to Boston he secured a passage to Provincetown by water, and obtained a position as teacher in one of the public schools of Truro. After teaching one season he returned to Mr. Pierce's school, and the next season secured a place as teacher in Provincetown. Until the age of twenty-five he was alternately scholar and teacher, and at that age he began the manufacture of boots and shoes, becoming before 1837 the most extensive manufacturer of those articles in Randolph. At that date he abandoned manufacturing and became a civil engineer, having prepared himself for the business in the office of Mr. Eddy, one of the leading engineers in Boston. As an engineer he became interested in the project of building a branch railroad to Fall River from the Old Colony main line, and largely to his persistent energy the construction of that road was due. He was town clerk and treasurer of Randolph from 1844 to 1854, representative in 1848, and in 1861 the Democratic candidate for Congress in the Third Congressional District. John Van Beal, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the public schools of Randolph and at Phillips Andover Academy. Though fitted for college, ill health prevented him from presenting himself for examination, and until 1871 he was employed as a teacher successively in the Intermediate and Grammar School and High School in his native town. In 1871 he entered as a student the office of Jewell, Gaston & Field in Boston, and after further study of a year in the Harvard Law School, obtained the degree of L.L. B. from that institution in 1872. After leaving the Law School, he re-entered the office of Jewell, Gaston & Field, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar June 10, 1873. He established himself in business in Randolph and confined himself to the local practice of that town until January, 1876, when he began practice in Boston, taking desk room in the office of Jewell, Field & Shepard, where he remained until the death of Mr. Jewell and the appointment of Mr. Field to the bench of the Supreme Court broke up the firm. Their office continued to be occupied by Mr. Shepard, Mr. J. C. Coombs and Mr. Beal until 1891, when he opened an office alone. His practice has been a miscellaneous one in the civil courts, with a somewhat extensive connection with probate affairs, which he has made a specialty. Aside from his pro- fessional life his chief interest has been connected with the Congregational Church in Randolph and its Sabbath-school, for many years serving as clerk of the church, and now holding the position of superintendent of the school. Though belonging to a family which has been associated during four generations not only with his native town but with the homestead which he occupies, he is so far as kindred are concerned almost alone in the world. He has neither father nor mother, nor wife nor child,
Growing bury
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nor uncle nor aunt nor sister, and only a single brother who was born an invalid and both shares his home and receives his care. Both his relations to Randolph and his ability to represent it have been recognized by his appointment as orator at the ap- proaching anniversary of the settlement of the town to be celebrated on the 19th of July in the present year.
JOHN WARD PETTENGILL, son of Benjamin and Betsey (Pettengill) Pettengill, was born in Salisbury, N. H., November 12, 1835. He is descended from Richard Pet- tengill, who in the early days of the Massachusetts Colony came to Salem from Staf- fordshire, England, and married Joanna, daughter of Richard Ingersoll. He re- ceived his early education in the public schools and at the Franklin, Salisbury, North- field, and Hopkinton Academies, enjoying the privilege of being a pupil at the North- field Academy of that distinguished instructor Prof. Dyer H. Sanborn. Though fitted to enter the Sophomore class of Dartmouth College in 1854, he was prevented by a severe bronchial trouble from entering that institution. From that time until 1856 he remained at home pursuing the college studies under the direction of his father, and at that date became connected with the editorial department of the In- dependent Democrat in Concord. While in Concord he pursued the study of law in the office of Judge Asa Fowler, and in 1858 entered as a student the office of John Quincy Adams Griffin and Alonzo W. Boardman in Charlestown. In December, 1858, he was admitted to the Middlesex bar and established himself in Charlestown, where he remained practicing alone until the annexation of Charlestown to Boston in 1874. While in Charlestown he was appointed special justice of the Police Court and served in that capacity until the annexation. In the spring of 1874 he removed his office to Boston proper, and in August of that year was appointed justice of the First Eastern Middlesex District Court with jurisdiction in Malden, Wakefield, Reading, North Reading, Melrose, Everett, and Medford. His practice has been a general one both civil and criminal, and during the administration of Charles Russell Train as attorney-general he was counsel in three capital cases, in all of which he secured verdicts of acquittal. In the trial of Orne, indicted for burning a school-house in Charlestown, he was counsel for the defendant, and not until the fourth trial was the government able to sustain the indictment, and then only after two days and a night spent by the jury in consultation. Mr. Pettengill resides in Malden, where he has served as trustee of the Public Library, and alderman of the city. Though in the early days of the Republican party he was interested in politics, and was an effective speaker in support of its candidates, he has for many years devoted himself ex- clusively to his profession, neither accepting nor seeking public office. He married in Watertown, Mass., October 20, 1843, Margaret Maria, daughter of John Richards and Mary (Dalton) Dennett, of Lancaster, England.
WILLIAM HOWARD MITCHELL, only child of Azor and Sarah Jane (Shaw) Mitchell, was born in North Yarmouth, Me., August 14, 1861. He is descended from Experi- ence Mitchell, who came to Plymouth, Mass., in the ship Ann, in 1623, and married about 1628, Jane, daughter of Francis and Esther Cook, of Plymouth. Francis Cook was one of the Mayflower company in 1620, and his wife, Esther, came to Plymouth with Mr. Mitchell in the Ann, bringing three children, Jacob, Jane, and Esther. John, another child, came with his father in the MMayflower. The lot of land on which Experience Mitchell built a house after his marriage, on the easterly side of
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Market street, in Plymouth, is well defined. In 1631 he removed to Dnxbury, and thence late in life to Bridgewater, where he died in 1689, about eighty years of age. Jacob Mitchell, a son of Experience, removed to Dartmouth, Mass., about 1669, and had a son, Jacob, who removed to Kingston, and thence in 1728 to North Yarmouth, Me. Another Jacob, son of the last, had a son Jacob, who was born in North Var- mouth in 1732, and married Jane Loring. John Mitchell, son of the last Jacob, married Elizabeth Gooding, and was the father of Azor Mitchell, who was born May 8, 1828, and married Sarah Jane Shaw. William Howard Mitchell, son of Azor and the subject of this sketch, was reared on his father's farm and attended only country schools until the age of eighteen. In the spring of 1880 he entered the col- lege preparatory class of the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, where he graduated in 1881. He then entered Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., and graduated in 1885 with the highest honors. After leaving the university he took charge of the High School in Spencer, Mass., but resigned that position in December, 1885, and entered as a student the law office of Edwin L. Dyer, recorder of the Municipal Court in Port- land, Me. In October, 1886, he entered the Boston University Law School and com- pleting the regular three years' course in one year, graduated with the degree of LL. B. in June, 1887. In August, 1887, he was admitted to the Suffolk bar and es- tablished himself in business in Denver, Col., in the following September, where he became associated with S. S. Abbott, who, in 1892, as assistant district attorney, was engaged in the prosecution of Dr. T. Thatcher Graves. In April, 1888, he was com- pelled by unfavorable effects of the climate to leave Denver, and he returned to Bos- ton. assuming the position of treasurer and general eastern representative of the Colorado Farm Loan Company, a corporation organized to purchase, sell and make loans upon Denver property. In September, 1891, the company went out of business and Mr. Mitchell devoted himself to the practice of law in a partnership with Raymond R. Gilman, which had been been formed in December, 1890, and is now in active business. In practice he has given much attention to corporation law, and has as- sisted in the organization of several successful enterprises, in which he is either an officer or director. Mr. Mitchell has his residence in Melrose, and is junior deacon of Wyoming Lodge, F. & A. M., a member of the Waverly Chapter Royal Arch Masons, and of Hugh de Payen's Commandery, Knights Templar. He is also sec- retary of the Boston Wesleyan University Alumni Association. He married at Mel- rose, Mass., October 2, 1889, Harriet Louise, only daughter of Frank E. Orcutt, of Melrose, collector of internal revenue for the district of Massachusetts.
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