History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 24

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780

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HON. WILLIAM WILLIS was born in Haverhill, Mass., Aug. 31, 1794, and was the second child of Benjamin and Mary (Mckinstry ) Willis, who removed to Portland with their family in 1803. William was fitted for college at the Phillips Exeter Academy, and graduated at Harvard in 1813. Ile studied law in Boston, whither the family had removed after a short sojourn from Portland, and was ad- mitted to the Suffolk bar in 1817, in which year he opened a law office in Boston. Mr. Willis being invited by Prentice Mellen, became a law-partner with him, in which relation he continued till the admission of Maine as a State in 1820, and the appointment of Mr. Mellen to the office of chief justice of the Supreme Court. Hle then practiced by him- self till 1835, when he became a partner with Hon. Wil-

CUMBERLAND BENCH AND BAR.

liam Pitt Fessenden, with whom he practiced continuously for a period of twenty years.

On the Ist of September, 1823, he married Julia, daugh- ter of Hon. Ezekiel Whitman, by whom he had nine ehil- dreu. The parents survived them all, the mother dying April 2, 1872.

Mr. Willis was a well-read, able lawyer, and by his ster- ling integrity, purity and elevation of character, and by his habits of exactness and accuracy as a counsel and convey- ancer, sustained a high reputation. Ile continued busy in his profession till near the close of his life, although a large share of his time and attention were devoted to his- torical and literary pursuits. It is chiefly by his great and arduous labors in this direction that he will be known and appreciated by future generations. We have thought it most appropriate to give this portion of Mr. Willis' life in the chapter on authors, where a catalogue of his works will be found .*

JUDGE ASHUR WARE was a graduate of Harvard Col- lege, and was admitted to practice in Suffolk County in 1816; the next year he came to Portland and was admitted to the Cumberland bar. Here he found, besides the elders whose names have appeared in the foregoing pages, a class of young meu, destined to uphold the high character of the bar and to adorn the profession. Among these were Eben- ezer Everett, of Brunswick ; Joseph Adams, of Gorham ; William Barrows, of North Yarmouth, whose early death was greatly lamented ; Thomas A. Deblois, Bellamy Storer, afterwards judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio; and John Anderson, whose successful career at the bar and in polities will be briefly noticed hereafter.

Mr. Ware's principal object in coming to Portland was to take editorial charge of the Eastern Argus, which he immediately did, giving a new character to the paper. He warmly advocated the policy of separation from Massachu- setts, and upon the admission of the State into the Union was rewarded by the office of Secretary of State, which he held till the election of Judge Parris as Governor, when he was appointed his successor on the bench of the United States Court for the district of Maine in 1822. When he entered upon his duties the admiralty law in this State was in a crude and imperfect condition. There were no settled rules established in regard to it, and no published decisions. He went to work at once to investigate its principles, and to establish a code of procedure based upon the laws and usages of commercial enterprise from the carliest time. His numerous decisions on all branches of this obscure and difficult seienee gave it a permanent form, and placed him among the most eminent jurists of this or any age.

The first volume containing the decisions of Judge Ware, from 1822, was published in 1849, in an oetavo volume of four hundred and forty-three pages. Others were published from time to time in the Law Reporter and other periodicals.

Besides, he was a most indefatigable student of general literature, and constantly employed his pen in able and pro- found discussions of legal and other topies. He prepared several articles for Bouvier's new Dictionary, among them a treatise on " Admiralty Jurisdiction," " The Duty of

Masters of Vessels," " Privileged Debts," etc. Ile pre- pared also an elaborate treatise on " The Limitations of the Government of the United States under its Constitutional Powers." In his writings and addresses his classical knowl- edge was beautifully displayed without pedantry, and in a rich and forcible style which shows at once his deep vein of thought and his fine command of language.

Judge Ware married Sarah Morgridge, and had one son and two daughters. The son, Joseph Ware, graduated at Bowdoin College in 1851 ; became a lawyer, and practiced in Portland till his death.

Judge Ware resigned his position on the bench in the spring of 1866, having nobly discharged the duties of judge of the United States Court for the district of Maine for a period of forty-four years.

GEORGE FOSTER SHEPLEY. late judge of the Circuit Court of the United States, was the second son of the dis- tinguished Chief Justice, Ether Shepley, and Anna ( Foster) Shepley. lle was born in Saco, Me., on the 1st of Janu- ary, 1819, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1837, at the early age of eighteen.

Having chosen the legal profession, he entered the law school at Cambridge, where he had the privilege of the in- struetion of Judge Story and Professor Greenleaf. How faithfully and well he improved that privilege is shown by the high rank as a lawyer he quickly won and ever main- tained.

When only twenty years old he was admitted to practice, and commenced business at Bangor as a partner of the late Joshua W. Hathaway, who was soon after made an associ- ate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

About 1844 he removed to Portland and formed a busi- ness connection with Hon. Joseph Howard. In 1848, Mr. Howard was appointed a justice of the bighest court in Maine, and Mr. Shepley assumed the responsibility of a large and important business, with the confident assurance of all who had observed him, that young as he was, he was equal to the work he undertook. Hle associated with him John W. Dana, Esq., now deceased, and was recognized as in the foremost rank of the bar, which numbered among its active members Gen. Samuel Fessenden Thomas Amory Deblois, William Pitt Fessenden, R. 11. L. Codman, Ed- ward Fox, and other distinguished counselors.

In 1853 he was made United States District Attorney for Maine, by President Pierce, and held the position till June, 1861, having been re-appointed in 1857 by President Buchanan. While occupying that office, though called upon to conduct many important and difficult causes for the government, he retained the large private practice of former years, and constantly added to his professional reputation.

Though entertaining strong political convictions in sym- pathy with the Democratic party, up to 1861 he did not to any great extent participate in political affairs. But he was too prominent a person to be permitted to abstain wholly from the excitement of party conflicts, and in 1850 was elected State Senator. Ile occasionally addressed con- ventions and took part in political discussions, never failing to add to his reputation and influence. In 1860 he was a delegate-at-large to the National Democratic Convention at Charleston, and attended its adjourned session at Baltimore.

# Mr. Willis was a member of the State Senate in 1855.

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

The Maine delegation was divided five to three, five for Mr. Douglas and three for Mr. Guthrie. Among the latter was Judge Shepley. He took a prominent part in the con- vention, and the speech which he made in response to the call for the State of Maine became famous. In the cam- paign which followed he supported Mr. Douglas.

Upon the election of President Lincoln he was not found among those who sympathized with, or apologized for, the attempt to break up the Union. He was true to his con- victions, and on Sept. 27, 1861, accepted a commission as colonel of the 12th Maine Volunteers, a regiment raised to form part of the New England division of Gen. Benj. F. Butler. He left Portland with his command Nov. 24, 1861, for Lowell, Mass., where he remained till Jan. 1, 1862; on the 12th of February, 1862, he arrived at Ship Island, and on the 22d of the same month, by General Order No. 2, of Department of the Gulf, was placed in command of the 3d Brigade, consisting of the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th Maine, the 30th Massachusetts Regiments, the Ist Maine Battery, and Magee's cavalry.

On the occupation of New Orleans he was made military commandant of that city. In this arduous and responsible place, he so administered affairs as to win the respeet and affections of the conquered and embittered inhabitants, and to secure the confidence and approval of those above him. His duties were both civil and military, and in both he manifested prudence, energy, and ability, which were re- peatedly commended, and on the 3d day of June, 1862, were honorably recognized by his appointment by President Lincoln, upon the recommendation of the Secretary of War, as Military Governor of the State of Louisiana, " with full powers, including the power to establish all necessary offices and tribunals and suspend the writ of habeas corpus." July 20th he was appointed brigadier-general to rank from July 18, 1862. As Military Governor of Louisiana he fully sustained the high reputation he had established as commandant of the city.

Upon the inauguration of a civil Governor, he was, at his own request, relieved by the President, and ordered to re- port again to the adjutant-general of the army for service in the field. When he left New Orleans, leading and influ- ential citizens testified their appreciation of his administra- tion by an address commencing as follows :

"We, citizens of New Orleans, avail ourselves of the opportunity afforded us by the close of your official career among us, to give ex- pression to the seotiments of regard and esteem with which your character and conduct have inspired us. For nearly two years you have performed the delicate and arduous duties of Military Governor of Louisiana in a manner beyond all praise, winning in your official capacity the respect of the whole community, and by your social vir- tues converting all who have enjoyed the pleasure of your acquaint- ance joto warm personal friends."

Upon being relieved in Louisiana he was ordered to re- port for duty in the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and was placed in command of the military dis- triet of Eastern Virginia. This district included Fortress Monroe, Newport News, Yorktown, Williamsburg, Norfolk, and Portsmouth, with the line of defense known as Getty's line, the eastern shore of Virginia, and that portion of North Carolina north of Albemarle Sound. He again took the field as chief-of-staff to Maj .- Gen. Weitzel, acting in

that capacity, and for a short time, during the absence of Gen. Weitzel, commanding the 25th Army Corps. He continued with the Army of the James to the end of the campaign, entering Richmond with Gen. Weitzel's com- mand,-which were the first troops to enter that city after its fall,-and was appointed the first Military Governor of that city. At the close of the war he resigned his com- mission, July 1, 1865.

In the early part of his military career he was tendered a nomination for Congress by the Democrats of this district, but deelined in a letter in which he said his highest ambi- tion was to see his country at peace and prosperous again, and to be himself at liberty to return to the practice of his profession.

In November, 1865, he was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of this State, but declined the position.

The events of the war and his own experiences led to a change of his political relations, and he became identified with the Republican party, by whom he was elected Rep- resentative to the State Legislature in 1866, in which he served with marked ability.

Shortly after the close of the session he resumed the practice of law, having formed a copartnership with A. A. Strout, Esq., under the style of " Sliepley & Strout." But he was not long permitted to remain in a private station. When, in 1869, the judicial system of the United States was amended by an aet providing for the appointment of circuit judges, he was, without seeking on his part, selected for the appointment in the first circuit. His commission was issued Dee. 22, 1869, and he at once entered upon the discharge of the laborious and responsible duties of that high judicial office.

In the years of his judicial life he was constantly called upon to sit in difficult and important cases, and, by his knowledge, his acnmen, and his impartiality, fully proved the wisdom of his selection l'or the judgeship. In matters of patent law his work has been especially severe, and those best qualified to estimate how he has performed that work are unanimous in his praise and in according to him the highest rank as a judge in that branch of the law. Nor has he failed in any respect to meet the high anticipations of the public at the time of his appointment, but, rather, he has commanded the confidence and gained the applause of the best and soundest lawyers throughout his circuit and the country.

His mental faculties, originally of high order, were strength- ened and disciplined by constant study. The range of his attainments was wide. His taste in literature and art was cultivated and refined. His eminence was fittingly recog- nized only a few weeks before his death, by the honorary degree of LL.D., conferred on him by his alma mater.

Judge Shepley, as was well known to those intimate with him and enjoying his confidence, was ever a full and strong believer in the Holy Scriptures, but did not until recently publicly unite with any religious society. A little more than a year ago he joined the Episcopal Church and con- nected himself with the St. Luke's Society of Portland. That he was a firm and devout believer in the truths of Christianity there is abundant evidence, and in that faith

CUMBERLAND BENCH AND BAR.

he daily grew stronger, and found increasing joy. His religious life was deep and sincere without ostentation or dogmatism.

By nature he was kindly and considerate to all men. His sympathies were quick and his affection strong and enduring. Only those who have been permitted to see him in his own home, and surrounded by those whom he loved and trusted, can imagine how sweet his disposition was, and how he brought happiness to those around him.

While living in Bangor he married Miss Lucy Hayes, by whom he had four children,-one son and three daughters. She died in 1859. Two of the daughters-Mrs. Selfridge, wife of Commander T. O. Selfridge ( United States Navy), and Mrs. Tiffany, wife of a prominent lawyer of St. Louis -survive their father. In 1872, Judge Shepley married Miss Hclen Merrill, daughter of the late Eliphalet Merrill, who survives him.

The obituary, published in the Press at the time of Judge Shepley's decease, to which we are principally in- debted for the above facts, closes as follows :

" If the fullness of life is to be reckoned by the amount of work well done, we cannot feel that our honored fellow-citizen has been prematurely cut off; but, as we remember how fall of strength he seemed and what capacity for usefulness yet remained to him, and what all men hoped from him, we bow in sorrow at the sudden extin- guishing of his light."

Judge Shepley died on the 20th of July, 1878, in the sixtieth year of his age.

For a more adequate sketch of his life and character than our limited space here permits, we must refer the reader to the eloquent tribute to his memory by distinguished mem- bers of the court and bar on the occasion of' his decease, and the appropriate resolutions then passed. These will be found published with the proceedings of the Circuit Court, in pamphlet form.

JUDGE EDWARD Fox, the successor of Judge Ware on the bench of the District Court of the United States, and the present incumbent of that responsible office, was born in Portland on the 10th of June, 1815. He graduated at Harvard College in 1834, and at the Harvard Law School in 1837, in which year he commenced practice in Portland. His legal abilities and thorough preparation soon gave him command of a large professional practice, in which he con- tinued without interruption for a period of twenty-five years. In 1862 he was appointed one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the State, a position which he honorably filled, but saw fit to resign in 1863, and returned again to the practice of his profession. In June, 1866, he was ap- pointed as the successor of Judge Ware to the bench of the District Court of the United States, and has held the position ever since, discharging its duties with ability and fidelity.

Judge Fox was married, in 1837, to Lucy Ellen Wins- low, daughter of Nathan Winslow, of Portland. By this marriage he has had one son and one daughter, the former a graduate of Harvard College and Law School, who practiced law in Portland till shortly before his death, which occurred in 1877. His daughter is the wife of Gen. Francis Fessenden.

SAMUEL A. BRADLEY, who had been a famous lawyer

in Oxford County, and a friend and college classmate of Daniel Webster at Dartmouth, came to Portland in 1825, and engaged in speculations outside of his profession, in which he accumulated large property. He died at the house of his brother Robert, in Fryeburg, Sept. 21, 1844, nearly seventy years of age.

JUDGE JOSEPH HOWARD was born in the year 1800 at Brownfield, Oxford Co. At the time of his death he was seventy-seven years of age. His preliminary education was obtained at Fryeburg Academy. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1821, taking a high rank in his class, and im- mediately commenced the study of law in the office of Judge Dana, at Fryeburg. He completed bis studies in the office of Judge Daniel Goodenow, and was admitted to the bar in 1824. He first opened an office in Bridgton, Cumberland Co. Within a year John Burnham, a success- ful lawyer in Limerick, York Co., died suddenly, and Mr. Howard immediately removed there, where he remained in successful practice for twelve or fifteen years. While quite young he received the appointment of county attorney for York County, and very ably performed the duties of that office for about ten years.

In 1837 he removed from Limerick to Portland, and soon after formed a partnership with Henry B. Osgood, his brother-in-law, their wives being the accomplished dangh- ters of' Judge Dana and sisters of the late Governor, John W. Dana. After the decease of Mr. Osgood, he and the late George F. Shepley, Judge of the United States Circuit Court, Formed a partnership which continued till 1848, when the senior partner, Mr. Howard, was appointed a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. Prior to that time he had for several years filled the office of United States Attorney for the District of Maine. When his term of office on the bench of the Supreme Court expired he was in the prime of life, and soon after formed a partnership with Sewall C. Strout, Esq., of Portland, which firm con- tinned several years, when it was dissolved to enable the judge to associate with him in business his son-in-law, Nathan Cleaves, late judge of probate for Cumberland County. Afterwards Henry B. Cleaves, Esq., late solicitor for the city of Portland, was admitted as a member of the firm, which continued till the death of the subject of this notice.

From the Memorial of Judge Howard in the sixty- seventh volume of the Maine Reports, we select a few ex- tracts bearing upon his life and character.

Hon. N. S. Littlefield said,-

" The circumstances of his death were peculiar. On an early day in the month of December last he left his home in this city with the intention of spending the balance of that day with his only brother and family, on the old homestead in Brownfield, and of spending the next day in Fryeburg, where the Oxford County December term of this court (Supreme Judicial) was being held by Judge Virgin. Ar- riving at Brownfield about noou, he went to his brother's home, and after dinner, it being pleasant, he went out alone and went over the farm on which he was born. Failing to return as soon as expected, search was made, and his lifeless body was found not far from the dwelling-house. It was evident that death overlook him while on his return from his excursion. He had in his hand a bunch of evergreen, emblematical of his memory, which will twine around our hearts till they cease to beat. . . .

" As a son, as a brother, as a husband, as a father, as a friend, as n man, and as a gentleman, he was all that could be desired ; he was as

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

near perfer lion as humanity will allow. As a counselor he was in all respects reliable and safe. As a prosecuting officer he was energetic and thorough. As a judge he was patient, affable, untiring, and an earnest seeker after truth. He would rule a point against counsel in so kind and conciliatory a manner that the disappointment would be shorn, to a great extent, of its unpleasantness. llis opinions on questions of law are models of conciseness, not at the expense of per- spienity. He never buried his ideas in words."

Sewall C. Strout, Esq., said,-

" I had the pleasure of his intimate acquaintance for thirty years, wine of which I was his partner in the practice of law. This asso- cintion taught me to revere his character, and to love the man as a father. Few men possess the power of self-control which he habitu- ally exercised. . . . His tastes were pure and elevateil. . . . In his friendships he was tender and unselfish. His charities were numerous. . . . As a judge he worthily maintained the dignity of the bench."

Judge Barrows said,-

" I miss his presence and his cordial greeting, and in their stead I receive the funeral garland which your affectionate respect devotes to decorate his tomb ; and I listen to the tribute yon pay to departed worth, and strive to recognize the fact that in these scenes where he has so long been busy he will appear no more forever."

NATHAN CLIFFORD was born in Rumney, Grafton Co., N. 11., Aug. 18, 1803. ITis ancestors-of a well-known English family-emigrated to this country early in colonial times, and settled in the southern part of New Hampshire. ITis grandfather removed to Rumney, and lived there dur- ing his life. He served as an officer through the Revolu- tionary war, and was in all the important battles from Bunker Ilill to Yorktown. The father of the judge also lived in Rumney until 1820, the time of his death. Nathan was the only son. His father, although a man much esteemed in the community where he lived, was poor, a farmer, and able to do little more than provide a comfort- able subsistence for his family. The mother was a woman of unusual strength and energy of character, and of great singleness and earnestness of purpose and action. The early formative influences to which the boy was subjected were of the purest and healthiest nature, for his was a home, although quite humble, in which the principles of honor and morality were both exemplified and taught. Parental affection had, however, it seems, cherished no further expectations for the future of the son than that he should succeed to his father's place and pursue the life which he had led. But, from an early age, different pur- poses had secretly filled the mind of young Clifford, who, from his youth, was impelled by a wish to acquire such knowledge as might qualify him for some more elevated station in life than the one in which he was born. He re- ceived the rudiments of ordinary education in the common schools of his native town; but the instruction was of course meagre, and the terms comprised only those few months of the year in which farmers could spare their children from the duties and services of home. Such were the sources of the boy's learning until, at the age of four- teen years, he made known to his parents a desire of ob- taining an education more liberal than was within the reach of their means to afford him.

Having overcome their re- sistance to his departure from home, and having obtained their reluctant consent to become a pupil in Haverhill Acad- emy, an institution of considerable standing in those days,

he found means to enter the school, and remained there for three years,-that is, until 1820.

The struggles of his life may properly be said to have begun at the time when, bent upon the pursuit of knowl- edge, this young man first broke away from home and, relying almost exclusively upon his own efforts, entered upon a course of academical study. The expedient adopted by him for obtaining the necessary means of support was the common one of school-teaching in the common schools of the country towns of his native State. The proceeds were small, but they were sufficient. The three years of school life at Haverhill were subject to interruptions from this cause, but unflagging industry made up for the ab- sences and brought rapid progress and high mental disci- pline. Subsequently to this, a year spent at the Literary Institution at New Hampton completed the young man's academical career, and at the expiration of that time, at the age of eighteen years, he entered the office of llon. Josiah Quincy, a leading lawyer of Grafton County, as a student at law. This choice of the profession of law was no acci- dent or sudden decision, but the result of a fixed and settled preference. The years of preparation had been years of close and intense study, and they had borne their fruit in a mind much matured, and in the production of practical views of life. The instructions of the academy had been supple- mented by a considerable stoek of general reading, so that, in spite of many difficulties, Mr. Clifford had well fitted himself for the study of his chosen profession. To this he now devoted himself with what had already become charac- teristic assiduity. At the time of which we are writing, admission to the bar of New Hampshire could only be ob- tained by a candidate, not a college graduate, after a labori- ous preparation of five years; but this, although inter- rupted still by the necessary resort to school-teaching, Mr. Clifford had faithfully accomplished in 1827. He had also unaided, and to a very large extent by himself, pursued the course of classical and other study then prescribed for a New England college. With no little disappointment, he had relinquished the desire to pursue a college course, from the privileges of which, by the circumstances of his life at that time, he considered himself excluded.

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History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 24

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 780

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780