USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 20
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while in command of a party sent out from the fort where he was stationed to protect the settlers from hostile Indians, a bullet-wound in the ehest, which ultimately proved fatal ; and he died in 1872, at the age of twenty-four.
William G. Barrows, the subject of this sketch, shortly after his mother's death was adopted by his maternal unele, Rev. Joseph P. Fessenden (Bowdoin College, 1818), at that time a Congregational minister in Kennebunkport, and afterward from 1829 for nearly thirty years in South Bridgeton, exerting a wide and useful influence throughout the west- ern part of the State for the promotion of education, temperanee, and the antislavery cause, in which he was a prominent pioneer. Under his instruction his adopted son was mostly fitted for college, attending for brief periods in 1834-35-36, the aeademies in Frye- burg and Wolfborough, New Hampshire. Out of the scanty salary of a country clergyman Mr. Fessenden assisted him through Bowdoin College, where he graduated in 1839, and in his professional studies, which were pursued (with intervals of sehool-teaching in Compton, New Hampshire, and Norridgewoek, Maine, to get the necessary funds) through the years 1840 and 1841, and the first half of 1842, in the offices of Messrs. Willis & Fessenden, John - S. Tenney, afterwards Chief Justice, and Fessenden & Deblois. He was admitted to the bar on examination in Somerset County in June, 1842, and in July of the same year opened an office in Brunswick, where he has sinee made his home. Business eoming slowly at first, gradually inereased, and he was taking a respectable stand in his profession, when in Sep- tember, 1856, he was elected Judge of Probate for Cumberland County ; was re-elected in 1860, and held that office until Mareh, 1863, when he was appointed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, by Governor Coburn ; reappointed in 1870, and again in 1877, upon the expiration of his previous terms. Near the elose of his third term, he declared his intention not to be a candidate for reappointment. His associates on the Beneh and many members of the bar in different parts of the State expressed their regret at this deter- mination, to which, however, he persistently adhered. His judicial opinions, to the number of more than four hundred, are found in volumes 50-76 of the Maine Reports. His responses to the resolutions of the bar on the death of his predecessors, Judges Shepley and Howard, and his associate, Judge Dickerson, are given in the appendiees to the 66th, 67th, and 68th volumes.
He had charge of the editorial department of the Brunswiek Telegraph during the first two years of its existence, in 1853 and 1854, though his name did not appear as its editor. He has for many years eherished a taste for historical and antiquarian research, and has been long a member of the Maine Historical Society, and for some years its Viee- President. He presided in that capacity at the meeting of the Society called to celebrate the seventy-fifth birthday of the poet Longfellow, and his opening address appears in full in the Memorial Volume issued by the Society.
He married, February 22, 1854, Huldah, daughter of Wm. D. Whitmore, formerly of
Ma Whistlingus -
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Bath, whom he found in the family of her aunt, the wife of the late General John C. Humphreys of Brunswick. She was a devout member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. To the careful religious training of his own childhood and youth in the family of his uncle, and the wisc and thoughtful influence, loving sympathy, and cordial co-operation of this excellent woman in early manhood, he has always mainly attributed whatever success he has had in life. She was, however, during the greater part of their married life a suffering invalid, and died, deeply lamented by a large circle of friends, May 18, 1867.
In July, 1872, he married his cousin, Mary P. Fessenden, second daughter of Thomas Fessenden, Esq. (Dartmouth College, 1812), for many years an eminent lawyer in the city of New York.
Fortunate in his relations, both by blood and marriage, his way has been smoothed all along through life by kind friends, who have made it, though not exempt from labor and care, upon the whole exceptionally pleasant hitherto.
In 1879 he received from his Alma Mater the honorary degree of LL.D.
IRGIN, WILLIAM WIRT, Associate Justice Supreme Judicial Court of' Maine, was born in Rumford, Maine, September 18, 1823. His paternal ancestor and great-grandfather, Ebenezer Virgin, came from England to Salisbury, Massachusetts, in 1722, and upon payment of twenty shillings was, by vote of the Committee of the General Court, admitted as a proprietor of Pennacook, now Concord, New Hampshire. He was among the early settlers of this place. The ninth and youngest child of his son Ebenezer was Peter C. Virgin, who was the father of our subject. He was born at Concord, New Hampshire, July 25, 1783 ; removed to Rumford, Maine, in 1806, and there married Sally, daughter of Francis Keyes, who was one of the pioneer settlers of that town. Peter C. Virgin spent two years at Harvard College, became a practising lawyer in Rumford, where he followed his profession for some sixty years. He was at one time the attorney for the county, and also served as a member of the General Court. In politics he was an ardent supporter of the old Federal- ist Party. He lived to a ripe old age, dying in 1872.
The preliminary education of William Wirt Virgin was obtained in the academies of North Bridegton and Bethel, Maine, from which he entered Bowdoin College where he was graduated in 1844. Deciding to follow the legal profession, he pursued his studies in the office of his father, was admitted to the bar in 1847, and locating in Norway, Maine, was actively engaged in his profession in that place until his removal to Portland in 1871.
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During his residence in Norway he was for three years the attorney for the county, and in 1865-6 a member of the State Senate, and served as president of that body in the last-named year. This office he resigned to accept an appointment as reporter of decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court, and was thus engaged until December, 1872, at which time he was appointed to a judgeship of this court. The Supreme Court of Maine has been favored with the services of many able men as reporters of its decisions, and it is simply justice to Judge Virgin to state that he proved himself, while in that position, a worthy successor to the many gifted predecessors who occupied this office. His statements of the various cases, and the intelligent exposition in the marginal notes of the points decided, marked him as one eminently fitted for the judgeship to which he was subsequently appointed .*
During the Rebellion he took an active part toward the support of the Government. In 1862 he raised from Oxford and Androscoggin counties five companies from each, which constituted the Twenty-third Regiment of Maine Infantry, of which he was chosen colonel. Their term of service, which was for nine months, was passed about the defences of Washington, and the discipline maintained by them reflected great credit both upon the rank and file as well as their officers.
Judge Virgin was married on September 18, 1851, to Sarah, daughter of Horatio G. 'Cole of Norway, Maine. The issue of this union has been a son, Harry R., born August 25, 1854, graduated at Tufts College in 1878, read law with Butler & Libby at Portland, and was admitted to the bar in 1882.
ANFORTH, CHARLES, of Gardiner, Judge of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. Born in Norridgewock, Somerset County, Maine, August I, 1815. His father, Israel Danforth, a farmer and saddler by occupation, was a native of Washington, New Hampshire, and settled in Maine about 1805. His mother's maiden name was Sally Wait. She was a native of Groton, Massachusetts, and removed to Maine about the same time as her husband.
Young Danforth's earlier school education was imparted in the district and private institutions of Norridgewock, and was supplemented by a course of instruction in the academies at Farmington and Bloomfield. After leaving the academy he began the study of law in the office of John S. Tenney, who was then in practice at Norridgewock, and
* By an act of the Legislature the number of judges on the Supreme Bench was reduced from eight to seven. This act caused Judge Virgin's term of office to expire December 25, 1879. Subsequently this act was repealed, and the original number of judges restored. The bar of the State, irrespective of politics, petitioned Governor Davis for the reappointment of Judge Virgin; which was made -the period of his absence from the bench being about three months.
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who was subsequently Judge of the Supreme Judicial Court for twenty-one years-in the last seven of which he enjoyed the dignity of being the Chief Justice of the State of Maine. Mr. Danforth was admitted to the bar, in the summer term of 1838, at Nor- ridgewock, and commenced practice at Gorham in September of the same year. There he remained until October, 1841. In November he removed to Gardiner, and opened an office in company with Noah Woods, under the firm name of Danforth & Woods. This association lasted until 1854, when Mr. Woods retired from legal practice. Mr. Danforth continued professional pursuits alone until January, 1864, his cases being such as were argued and decided in the State courts.
While resident in Gorham, Mr. Danforth officiated as Secretary of the Maine Mutual Fire Insurance Company, but resigned his office not long before his removal to Gardiner. Soon after his settlement in the latter place he was chosen by the School Board of the town to fill a vacancy in the Superintendent Committee. In 1843 he was elected to the same office by the citizens of the town, and held it until the spring of 1845, when he was elected to the Board of Selectmen and Assessors, and made one of the Overseers of the poor. In these relations he continued until 1849. Then the city of Gardiner was organ- ized, and he was elected to membership in the Common Council, of which he acted as president for three or four successive years.
In 1849 Mr. Danforth was nominated by the Whig Party as representative of the city in the State Legislature, and served in the latter body during the sessions of 1850, 1851, and 1852. Naturally he was placed on the Judiciary Committee. He also served in that on the Insane Hospital, and filled the office of chairman. In 1855 he was elected a mem- ber of the Governor's Council for one year, in the chief magistracy of Governor A. P. Morrill. In 1857 he again represented the city of Gardiner in the Legislature, and was a member of the Judiciary Committee. In the fall of 1858 he was chosen to the office of County Attorney ; and in January, 1859, entered upon the discharge of his duties for the term of three years. In 1861 he was almost unanimously re-elected, and continued to serve until his appointment to the bench of the Supreme Judicial Court by Governor Coburn. During his public services as attorney many criminal cases, but none of capital character, were tried. In each and all of them his legal erudition, logical force, and con- clusive reasoning were apparent, and commended him to the chief magisterial authority for elevation to the judicial bench. His first appointment thereto for the term of seven years dates from the 5th of January, 1864. In December, 1870, he was reappointed by Gov- ernor Chamberlain for a second term ; and in December, 1877, for a third term, by Gov- ernor Connor. Should no change of purpose occur, and life and health be spared, Judge Danforth will occupy his familiar position until 1884. Life with him has been of purely professional character, and all the more efficient of good in that it has been so earnestly devoted to the exposition and application of the body of State statutory enactments.
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With the codes of all' the States he is collaterally acquainted, but with that of his own his knowledge is such as to clothe him with the power of unquestionable authority.
Judge Charles Danforth was married on the 11th of January, 1845, to Julia S., daughter of Deacon William W. Dinsmore of Norridgewock. Mrs. Danforth died on the 22d of September, 1880. Two children were the issue of this marriage. Edward, born November, 1845, died in September, 1849. Frederick, born February, 1848, graduated at Dartmouth Scientific School, with the diploma of B.S., in 1870. By profession he is a civil engineer.
S
YMONDS, JOSEPH W., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine, was born in Raymond, Cumberland County, Maine, September 2, 1840. His father, Joseph Symonds, was a native of Denmark, Maine, to which place his father, Nathaniel Symonds, had emigrated toward the close of the last century, coming from Danvers, Massachusetts.
His mother, Isabella, daughter of Samuel Jordan of Raymond, Maine, was a de- scendant of Rev. Robert Jordan, an Episcopal clergyman, who at one time ministered to a congregation on Richmond Island, and attracted considerable notice on account of his controversy with the orthodox clergy of Massachusetts.
The parents of Joseph W. Symonds removed to Portland when he was four years of age, and his preparatory education was acquired at the high-school in that city. He entered Bowdoin College in 1856, and was graduated therefrom in the Class of '60.
Electing to follow the legal profession, he pursued the studies pertaining thereto in the office of Samuel & D. W. Fessenden, and subsequently continued the same with Hon. Edward Fox, the present Judge of the United States District Court for Maine.
Having secured admittance to the bar in Portland in 1864, he commenced the practice of law in that city, and in 1869 associated with himself Charles F. Libby, under the firm name of Symonds & Libby. This connection lasted until the fall of 1872, when Mr. Symonds was appointed to the Superior Bench of the State by Governor Sidney Perham. In October, 1878, he was appointed by Governor Selden Conner to a seat on the Supreme Bench, which position he now holds. His Alma Mater in 1863 conferred the degree of M.A. upon Judge Symonds.
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W HITEHOUSE, WILLIAM PENN, of Augusta, Judge of the Superior Court of Kennebec County, is the son of John Roberts and Hannah Perci- val Whitehouse, and was born in Vassalborough, Maine, April 9, 1842. His first American ancestor, of whom any record is found, was Thomas White- house, who, according to Savage's Genealogical Dictionary of New Eng- land, became a citizen of Dover, New Hampshire, in 1658, married the daughter of Wil- liam Pomfret, early Town Clerk of Dover, and died December 3, 1707. His mother was descended from John Percival of Barnstable, Massachusetts.
Until sixteen years of age his time was employed on his father's farm in Vassalborough, and attending the district school, and the high-school at China, Maine. In February, 1858, he commenced a course of classical instruction at Waterville Academy, and, by his studious habits and incessant toil in availing himself of all the advantages within his reach, made such rapid progress that he was enabled to enter Waterville College (now Colby Univer- sity) without conditions in September of the same year. He was graduated from that insti- tution with first-class honors in 1863, delivering an English oration at Commencement. He was also one of the two selected to deliver a Master's Oration when he received his second degree (A.M.) in 1866. He was principal of Vassalborough Academy in the fall of 1863, and commenced the study of law in December of that year with Sewall Lancaster, Esq., of Augusta, and continued his legal studies with Hon. Eugene Hale of Ellsworth, now U. S. Senator, until December, 1865, when he was admitted to the bar. He was engaged in practice one year in Gardiner with L. Clay, Esq. In December, 1866, he formed a law- partnership with Hon. George Gifford, now U. S. Consul at La Rochelle, France, and opened an office in Augusta, where he now resides. Endowed with pre-eminent intellectual powers, with unusual keenness and cogency of argument, with a broad comprehensiveness and a strong philosophic bent, he soon won an enviable reputation, and sustained a charac- ter of unblemished integrity. He at once took a prominent and intelligent part in the public life of the city, and in so doing gained the general esteem and approbation of his fellow-citizens. In 1868 he was chosen City Solicitor. While holding this office he attracted special attention by the ability with which he defended the rights of the city in several im- portant suits ; and he never hesitated on proper occasions to express his opinion of every measure he deemed inimical to the public interests. In October, 1869, he was appointed County Attorney, to fill the vacancy made by the death of Francis E. Webb of Winthrop ; and so won the respect of the people by the able, efficient, and impartial manner in which he discharged the duties of his office, that he was subsequently twice elected to that posi- tion, serving more than seven years in all. His magnanimity toward those with whom he was brought into professional collision disarmed passion and conciliated all parties. In 1873 he was chairman of the commission on " The New Insane Hospital," and wrote the
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report, which the State published. In gathering material for this work he gave himself to the investigation of the subject until he obtained a thorough knowledge of it, and with a creditable insight he advocated the adoption of the system which the highest medical au- thorities now heartily indorse. Hc was for several years president, and is now one of the directors, of the Augusta Water Company, a corporation which supplies the city of Augusta with water by an aqueduct from " Johnson's Brook." In 1879 he was appointed chairman of the committee that selected the graceful and artistic design for the Soldiers' Monument at Augusta ; and it was largely through his spirited and persistent advocacy of this design in the public press of the city that its adoption was effected, and the erection of the beautiful structure secured in accordance therewith. In 1875 hc entered heart and soul into the agitation which secured the abolition of the death penalty, and exerted a powerful influ- ence in moulding the opinions of the people on this subject. In 1883 he appeared beforc the Judiciary Committee, and in an eloquent speech pregnant with facts, opposed the res- toration of the death penalty. By act of the Legislature of 1878 a Superior Court, aux- iliary to the Supreme Judicial Court, was established in the county of Kennebec, having unlimited jurisdiction in all civil suits at law except " real actions," and cxclusive original and appellate jurisdiction in all criminal matters in the county, including capital cases. On the 13th of February, 1878, Mr. Whitehouse was appointed by the Governor to the highly responsible and honorable position of judge of this new court. Learned, upright, independent, and impartial ; singularly free from all partisan bias and personal prejudice, possessed of a sensitive and sympathetic nature, as a judge he has securcd the entire con- fidence of the community, and given dignity, respectability, and great popularity to the court over which he presides.
On the platform and in the press he has always been eloquent and fervid in upholding right and denouncing wrong, whether in the spheres of social or political life. Being a diligent reader both in English literature and the Latin classics, his style is natural, direct, earnest, polished, and brilliant. Though an enthusiastic lover of books, he also delights in the society of his friends ; and his transparent language, vivid portraiture, spicy anecdotes, combined with a humane, genial, and sunny temperament, make him a charming conver- sationalist. In religious faith he is a zealous Unitarian, and believes in God as a loving Father, in the rectitude of human nature, in the supreme moral lovcliness of Jesus, in the Bible,-not as infallible, but as full of inspiring and consolatory truths,-and in immortality as an eternal progression. In politics he has always been strongly attached to the Repub- lican Party, and an unflinching advocate of its leading measures ; yet he has been rigidly independent, and adhered to his principles with a most tenacious grasp. In all the private relations of life he has been tender and considerate, helpful and affectionate.
June 24, 1869, he married Evelyn Maria Treat, daughter of Colonel Robert Treat of Frankfort, Maine. Three children have been born to them, only one of whom now sur- vives-Robert Treat Whitehouse, born March 27, 1870.
Metropolitan Publis ang &Engraving Co Boston
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R
ICE, RICHARD D., ex-Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. The demise of this able jurist and distinguished son of Maine, which occurred at his residence in Augusta, on the 27th day of May, 1882, at the age of seventy-two years, deserves more than a passing notice.
Richard Drury Rice was born in Union, Maine, April 10, 1810. He was the second son of Hon. Nathan D. Rice of that town. His ancestry is traceable back to Edmund Rice, who came from Berkhamstead, county of Hertford, England, in 1638 or 1639, and settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts. At the age of sixteen years Richard D. was apprenticed to the printing business at Thomaston, Maine, where, and at Exeter, New Hampshire, and also at Boston, he was engaged in that employment. After working several years at his trade he pursued a course of classical studies at the academy in China, Maine, under the tuition of Hon. John B. Pitkin, late of Virginia ; and soon after became for several years joint proprietor and editor of the Maine Free Press, published in Hallowell, Maine. Having graduated at the "Printing Office," and received his diploma from a Mechanics' Association, he removed to Augusta, and read law with Hon. James W. Bradbury, U. S. Senator from Maine. Upon being admitted to the Kennebec bar in 1840, he entered into partnership with that gentleman in the practice of the law. From 1844 to 1848 he was the editor-in-chief of The Age, but its duties were not allowed largely to interfere with the practice of his profession meanwhile. In 1848 he was appointed Judge of the District Court for the Middle District by Governor Dana, and served in that office till 1852, when the court was abolished and its jurisdiction con- ferred upon the Supreme Judicial Court, the number of justices of that court having been increased by adding three more to the bench. Judge Rice had discharged the duties of Judge of the District Court with such signal ability and satisfaction to the bar, that (May II, 1852), he was appointed by Governor Hubbard an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court ; and, on an organic division of that court in 1854, he was appointed one of the " Law and Equity" judges. At the expiration of his term in 1859 he was reappointed by Governor Morrill without opposition. He served till December 1, 1863, when he resigned in order to take the presidency of the Portland and Kennebec Railroad Company, in which enterprise he had become largely interested.
Thoroughly familiar, from his long service as Judge of the District Court, with legal principles and court practice, he entered upon the office of Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court fully equipped for its duties, and consequently took high rank at once as a member of that tribunal. His extensive knowledge of public affairs and of business matters generally was of essential service in the trial of civil causes, involving practical questions in business life, He brought to the aid of a thorough legal and mental
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training a scope and vigor of intellect rarely surpassed. While the character of his mind was constructive rather than analytical or technical, he possessed quick perceptions and acute powers of discrimination, which enabled him to comprehend at a glance the nicest distinctions of the law. Although his discriminations were sharp and accurate, he always took a broad and comprehensive view of every question he was required to examine and determine. His most marked and prominent mental characteristic was his self-reliance and confidence in his own judgment. He was ready to declare his own position, and to lead but never to follow where his mature judgment did not conduct him. But while this characteristic was so prominent, he was always ready and anxious to abandon his own opinions when his associates satisfied him that he was in error.
As a nisi prius judge he was patient and courteous, withholding his own opinion till he heard the whole case. In charging the jury he had great power of grasping and com- bining the leading and prominent parts of the evidence on the one side and the other, and laying bare to the jury the pivot upon which the case should turn so clearly that they could not fail to see it.
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