USA > Maine > Waldo County > Belfast > History of the city of Belfast in the state of Maine v.I, 1770-1875 > Part 35
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eight by thirty-five feet. The outside walls are built of brick, and the interior of granite. There are eleven cells. In its con- struction, the most approved plans which then existed were con- sulted. A fence was built around the jail in 1869.
The first settlers of Belfast were not a litigious people, and their names seldom appear on the judicial records, either civil or criminal. In fact, crime was scarcely known among them. No justice of the peace 1 was required until 1789, when James Patter- son was appointed, having been recommended for the position by a vote of the town. The same year, it was voted " to Buy a Law Book, in case the Court do not send one." In 1802, when an Act of the Legislature required every town to maintain stocks,2 unless the inhabitants otherwise determined, Belfast voted not to build any. As the town increased, however, efficient means for repress- ing disorder and "preventing unlawful and injurious acts and practices " were required, and in 1827 a code of by-laws was passed. This continued in force until 1835. In 1843, another and more stringent code was adopted, which remained until the city government consolidated them into a general ordinance. Under the city charter, the police system has been excellent, and the laws are faithfully enforced.
There is no instance of the trial of any person for a capital offence alleged to have been committed in Belfast. But four trials for murder have ever taken place in the county. The first was that of Samuel Jewell and John J. Jewell, his son, both of Monroe, who were indicted for shooting John N. Cousins in that town, on the 26th of April, 1851. Cousins owned a farm which the Jewells had long occupied, and, while attempting to eject them by virtue of a writ of possession, was fired upon from their house and instantly killed. The parties surrendered to the officer, and were conveyed to jail. Their trial took place at the follow- ing July term of the Supreme Court, before Chief Justice Shepley, and Associate Justices Wells and Howard. Henry Tallman of Bath, Attorney-General, and William H. Codman of Camden; County Attorney, represented the State; and Messrs. Nehemiah
1 For a list of justices of the peace from Belfast to the year 1874, see Appendix. At a town meeting held in 1775, Deacon John Tuft "was chosen for a justice by hand vote." It does not appear that he was appointed.
2 Stocks were instruments of punishment constructed of wood, with holes through which the feet and sometimes the hands of offenders were passed, and thus their per- sons confined. Since the adoption of our State Constitution, which prohibits the inflic- tion of "cruel or unusual punishments," the stocks have not been employed.
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Abbott and Lewis W. Howes, of Belfast, appeared for the pris- oners. On the morning of the fourth day of the trial, a verdict of not guilty, by reason of insanity, was returned for Samuel Jewell .! His son was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to the State prison for seven years. 2
The next case of this nature was that of Tyler Thayer, of Frankfort, now Winterport, who was charged with killing Joseph T. Leson, in that town, on the 4th of July, 1854. His trial for murder during the following October resulted in his conviction for a simple assanlt, and in his imprisonment for a few months in jail.
In May, 1856, Joseph J. Brown, of Islesborough, was tried for murdering his wife, under the most atrocious circumstances. He committed the act by cutting her throat with a sheath-knife, in the presence of their little daughter, who was wounded in the hand while endeavoring to aid her mother. Brown was under the influence of liquor at the time. At the trial which took place before Judge May, the plea of hereditary insanity was ingeniously raised by Andrew T. Palmer, who was counsel for the prisoner. George Evans conducted the case on behalf of the State, and made an argument of great eloquence. The murderer was convicted and sentenced to be hung. He soon after committed suicide in the State prison.ª
1 Samuel Jewell was over eighty years old. There was some "method in bis mad- ness." He endeavored to excite public sympathy in his behalf by asserting that he had served under Washington. The Attorney-General quite effectually destroyed the effect of this statement, by showing that he could have been only a child during the Revolution. But he forgot that in 1798 Washington commanded an army which was raised in consequence of a threatened war with France. Jewell was a soldier in that army. He is said to have remarked to the deputy who had him in charge that the At- torney-General seemed ignorant of the history of his own country!
2 He was afterwards pardoned, by reason of ill-health.
8 Although no murder is known to have ever taken place in Belfast, yet two persons from here - viz., Thomas J. Wansley and John C. R. Palmer, Jr. - were connected with crimes of the highest magnitude which have taken place elsewhere. The former, whose execution for piracy took place in New York, April 22, 1830, sailed from this port in the previous June, as cook of brig " Arthur Donnell," Captain Sweetser, bound for St. Thomas. The custom-house records describe him as "aged twenty-two, mulatto com- plexion, woolly hair." 1 Palmer's evidence secured the detection and conviction of the assassins of Captain White, of Salem, Mass., who was murdered in 1830. " A more extraordinary case never occurred in this country " than was presented by this murder, "nor is it equalled in strange interest by any trial in the French Causes Celebres or the English State Trials." Palmer, who was a young man of dissolute habits, had been the associate of the murderers and the confidant of their plans, in which, however, he refused'
1 Republican Journal, Dec. 15, 1830.
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On the 10th of November, 1873, the trial, of John T. Gordon of Thorndike, for the murder of his brother's wife, Emma A. Gordon, commenced before Chief Justice Appleton. As the ca- pacity of the court-house was inadequate for the large number of spectators, an adjournment took place to Hayford Hall, which had been fitted up for the occasion. The crime was committed early in the morning of June 16, 1873, at the old Gordon homestead, in Thorndike. Almon M. Gordon, brother of the accused, and his wife and infant daughter, were found murdered in one bed. His little son, aged six years, who occupied a crib in the same room, had been fearfully wounded, and the house set on fire. The bodies were much mangled, apparently by an axe, which was found on the premises. A coroner's jury rendered a verdict that the crimes were committed by John T. Gordon, who boarded with his brother. The alleged motive was revenge for fancied wrongs. A young woman, to whom the prisoner had been paying his ad- dresses, had received anonymous letters traducing his character, the authorship of which the latter imputed to his sister-in-law. He also considered himself injured by a transfer of the home- stead to his brother, by their father, to his own exclusion.
The trial occupied eight days. Harris M. Plaisted of Bangor, Attorney-General, and William H. Fogler, County Attorney, rep- resented the State; and William H. Mclellan and George E. Wallace, of Belfast, were in defence. Benjamin F. Blackstone, of Belfast, was foreman of the jury. After being out an hour, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. The prisoner was sentenced to death by Judge Dickerson, on the twentieth day of January, 1874. His execution took place in
to participate. After the murder, he addressed a threatening letter to one of their number, demanding the immediate loan of a large sum of money. This letter, which was signed " Charles Grant, Jr., Prospect, Me.," fell into the hands of the committee of vigilance who had been appointed by the people of Salem to ferret out the offenders. A remote suspicion attached to the person for whom it was intended. The committee despatched an officer to Prospect, now Searsport, and deposited a decoy letter in the post-office, which was then kept in the corner brick store, so long occupied by Andrew Leach. When Palmer called, he was arrested and carried to Salem. He readily unfolded the whole mystery, and the parties accused hy him were through his testimony found guilty and executed. Daniel Webster appeared for the government at the trial, and passages from his eloquent argument are familiar to every school-boy.1 Several per- sons from Belfast attended as witnesses relative to the character of Palmer, 2 among them James W. Webster and John F. H. Angier.
1 Webster's Works, VI. 40.
" Palmer afterwards published a small book, entitled " Explanation," giving an account of his connection with the crime.
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Thomaston, on the 25th of June, 1875. He had previously at- tempted suicide by stabbing, and was carried to the scaffold in an unconscious state.
With the exception of a few cases of incendiarism, which will be referred to in another chapter, Belfast has been singularly exempt from the commission of flagrant offences. Want of space prevents an allusion to more than a few of the most prominent ones.
In 1829, considerable excitement was caused by the robbery of the post-office. A young man named William Butler proved to be the thief. It appeared that he had gained access by false keys, opened the mail-bags, and abstracted several valuable letters. He was examined before Rufus B. Allyn, Esq., and committed for trial.
Before the establishment of the State Reform School, in 1853, crimes committed by juvenile offenders were more frequent. In the spring of 1846, a combination of boys was broken up; and the details of crimes of magnitude, perpetrated and plotted by them, startled the whole community. Two cases of incendiarism and two of burglary were confessed. A plan for robbing a large dry- goods store was being matured at the time the gang were arrested. The ringleaders were condignly punished.1
On Sunday evening, Feb. 7, 1847, a murderous attack was made upon Major Timothy Chase, as he was passing at the head of Main Street. He was knocked down, probably with a slung- shot, and received severe injuries, the bones of his nose and cheek being broken. His hat - in which were two warrants against parties for violating the liquor law - was carried off. It was supposed that the prominent aid he had rendered, as a police officer in liquor prosecutions, induced the assault. A reward was offered by the Selectmen for the detection of the assailants, but they were never discovered.2
At the close of the July term of the Supreme Court in 1851, after the jury had been dismissed, and but few persons were in the court-room, a man named Benjamin Nickerson, of Waldo, en- tered into the bench, and approached Chief Justice Shepley, with an open knife. In the attempt to secure him, he was knocked
1 Republican Journal.
2 State Signal. The affair created great interest. James Beckett was arrested npon suspicion of committing the assault, and tried at the next term of the Supreme Court. The jury disagreed, there being nine for acquittal. He was afterwards dis- charged.
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down by the sheriff, whom he slightly wounded in the hand. He proved to be insane. The judge maintained the utmost com- posure, not forgetting his dignity in the midst of so unusual a demonstration.
In 1851, the celebrated " Maine Law," or act authorizing the seizure and destruction of intoxicating liquors intended for unlaw- ful sale, was passed. The first resistance against its enforcement occurred at Frankfort, now Winterport, on the fourth day of December, 1851, and was attended with quite serious conse- quences. A quantity of liquors having arrived at that port by the steamer "Boston," the friends of temperance procured a war- rant for their detention. Miles Staples, of Swanville, a deputy sheriff, and one of his aids, while attempting to execute the pro- cess, were violently assaulted by the crew of the boat. A general mêlée ensued, which resulted in the defeat of the officer, who, with an assistant, received severe wounds. A few hours after the transaction, the steamer proceeded to Belfast. On arriving, she was boarded by Sheriff William Rust,1 who secured the liquors, and arrested all the parties implicated in the attack. An intense excitement prevailed, which was magnified by an unfounded re- port of the death of Staples from his injuries. On the 6th of December, Captain Thomas B. Sanford, master of the boat, Loomis Taylor, the agent, McNalley, the mate, and others, were examined at the court-house, before Justices J. G. Dickerson and Alfred W. Johnson, in the presence of a large crowd. Sanford was discharged. The others were bound over to the District Court, before which they were subsequently convicted of a con- spiracy to prevent by force the execution of the warrant, and fined. The liquors were destroyed.2
On the evening of the 25th of March, 1856, an attempt was made by one Sewall Patterson to murder a Mrs. Green, at the house of her father,8 Peter Gilson, with whom she resided. Improper relations had existed between the parties, both of whom
1 The coolness and determination exhibited by Mr. Rust on this occasion received deserved commendation. Although threatened with his life, he vindicated the suprem- acy of the law, and brought the offenders to control. Mr. Rust was a soldier in the War of 1812. He died Oct. 28, 1869, aged seventy-three.
2 30 Maine Reports, 210. Rufus K. Page, and others, owners of the "Boston," after- wards brought an action against the sheriff for her detention. The defendant prevailed on the ground that he did not hold the hoat beyond a necessary time for executing legal process.
8 This was on the shore, below Bridge Street, near the old Distillery Wharf.
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were married. Jealousy, occasioned by the woman's determina- tion to discontinue these relations, induced Patterson to commit the act, and with a pocket-knife he inflicted what he intended as a mortal wound. After nearly severing his own jugular, the two undertook to die together, according to the approved formulas of modern romance. Both fluctuated between life and death for a week, but ultimately recovered. The assassin was afterwards convicted of an assault with intent to kill, and was sentenced to a term of eight years in the State prison. Before being conveyed thither, he escaped from jail by knocking down the keeper, but was retaken. He was subsequently pardoned, but what reason existed for clemency in his behalf never satisfactorily appeared.
The next murderous assault which we have to record was committed upon one Bridget McCabe, an Irish woman, who died from the effects of wounds given by persons unknown, during a disturbance at the house of her husband, Brian McCabe, on the 4th of January, 1861. A coroner's inquest failed to discover the guilty party.
A daring and successful burglary was perpetrated during the night of Sept. 24, 1862, upon the jewelry store of Calvin Hervey on High Street. The safe was opened by means of false keys, and goods valued at over $2,000 were abstracted. No clew pointed to the burglar or the property for two months, when a young man who had offered to sell watches at an inadequate price was arrested in New York, and confessed that he stole them at Bel- fast. His name was Nathan S. Winslow, and he formerly resided here a short time. Having been brought from New York by a requisition from the Governor of this State, he confessed the crime. As he was a minor and as all the stolen property was recovered, the court permitted him to go at large, upon condition of enlisting in the army.1
When Waldo County was established, the Court of Common Pleas constituted the principal tribunal for transacting judicial business. Most of the civil actions were originally commenced before it. This court was abolished in 1839, the last term here being held by Judge Perham, in March. With it terminated his tenure of judicial office. The Bar passed a series of complimentary resolutions on the occasion, to which the judge eloquently responded. A new court, called the District Court, was substituted
1 Progressive Age.
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with similar jurisdiction. Anson G. Chandler, of Calais, the judge for the eastern district, held the first session in this county, Sept. 24, 1839. A law term of the Supreme Court continued to be held annually, with three judges, until 1852, when enlarged powers were given to that court,1 and the District Court was abolished. Under the new arrangement, Waldo County belonged to the middle district. The following year it was transferred to the eastern district, and all questions of law or equity arising at nisi prius have since been heard at Bangor. With the exception of a single year when the January term was abolished, terms have been held here for the transaction of civil and criminal business in January, April (for a few years in May), and in October.
Regulations establishing a rate of fees were adopted by the lawyers of Waldo County, in March, 1829. This tariff published in the newspapers induced quite an animated discussion through the columns of the "Maine Farmer," which was then printed here.2 Another rate of fees with increased amounts was established in 1864.
Up to 1843, no person could be admitted to practise in any courts without passing an examination before a committee ap- pointed by the Supreme Court. The Legislature of that year repealed all existing laws upon the subject, and permitted any person who produced a certificate of good moral character to appear in court upon an equality with those who had devoted long and laborious lives to the duties of their profession. A few years' experience of this absurd enactment resulted in repeated efforts for its abrogation, which were not successful, however, until 1859. As the law now stands, a candidate for admission to. the bar is ineligible until he submits himself to a thorough examination by a committee of three or more persons selected by the Supreme Court, and receives a certificate that he possesses the requisite legal attainments therefor. The present examining committee, appointed in 1874, are Joseph Williamson, William H. Fogler, and William H. Mclellan. The duties received from attorneys are applied to the purchase of books for the Law Library.
The commercial revulsions of 1837, followed by an almost universal business stagnation, caused the passage of a general' bankrupt law by Congress, early in the administration of Tyler.
1 A sworn stenographer (J. D. Pulsifer, of Auburn) was first employed at the Supreme Court in Waldo County, at the April term, 1868.
2 Maine Farmer, Dec. 29, 1829.
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The Act went into operation on the 1st of February, 1842, and was repealed on the 3d of March, 1843. Of about thirty-five hundred persons in Maine who took advantage of its provisions, only thirty- seven were from Belfast. Alfred Johnson and Solyman Heath were commissioners under the law.
An innovation upon the long-established authority of justices of the peace was made in 1844, by the passage of the act creating Town Courts. The bill provided for the appointment of one justice in every town, and two where the number of inhabitants exceeded two thousand, if requested by legal vote. Their juris- diction was exclusive in all matters, civil and criminal, so far as cognizable by justices of the peace, and concurrent with the District Court in suits involving from twenty to one hundred dollars, excepting those actions where the title to real estate was put in issue by the pleadings, or where a town was a party. Terms were to be held every month, and a jury might be sum- moned at the request of either party. The bill was submitted for approval to the inhabitants of the different counties. Waldo County, where the project originated, was the only one which adopted it.1 In Belfast, the vote stood one hundred and forty- five nays to twenty-seven yeas. The act went into operation Jan. 22, 1845. Manasseh Sleeperz was appointed justice. At the next annual town meeting, it was voted to have an additional justice ; and the position was bestowed on Andrew T. Palmer. Although shorn of its powers by repeated enactments, the bill continued in force until 1856, when it was repealed.8
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1 " A vote has been recently taken in Maine, respecting the famous Town Court Bill, which was referred to the people. It is a gratifying fact that the bill has been adopted in only one county (Waldo), and that the majority against it throughout the State is very large. As we understand it, the bill is to be in force in Waldo County alone. Some of the ablest lawyers in the State are to be found in that region, and we congratulate them upon the pleasant prospect before them, for as it is an ill wind that blows nobody good, so we esteem a law like the one referred to as money in the pockets of respectable practitioners, wherever it is in operation. All experience shows that business will always find its way to those who are able to do it properly, and however cheaply causes may be botched up by unskilful cobblers, the whole operation only renders new shoes by good workmen more desirable, and also more expensive." Law Reporter, edited by Peleg W. Chandler, Vol. VII. page 446.
2 Mr. Sleeper died June 28, 1848, aged sixty-eight. For several months before his death, David W. Lothrop acted as Recorder of the Court.
8 One argument urged in favor of the Town Court Bill was that trivial cases absorbed the time of the higher tribunals, and the money of the county. At the March term of the District Court in 1842, in an action brought before a magistrate to recover ninety-two cents, and carried up by appeal, the jury, after two days had been occupied, rendered a verdict for the plaintiff. The costs were over three hundred dollars.
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By the city charter, the Police Court has concurrent jurisdic- tion with justices of the peace in all matters civil and criminal under twenty dollars within the county, and original and exclusive jurisdiction in all civil actions in which both parties interested, or in which the party, plaintiff, or trustee, are inhabitants of the city, and in all violations of the by-laws of the city. The judges of this court have been Joseph Williamson, Jr., from 1853 to 1860; Nathaniel Patterson, from 1860 to 1872 and George E. Johnson, the present incumbent, since 1872. The court-room was first in chambers at No. 4 Phoenix Row; from 1854 to 1860, in the office now occupied by the Eastern Express Company; during Judge Patterson's term, in an office connected with his house on Market Street ; and since in the city rooms on Main Street.
An Act of the Legislature, passed in 1860, annulled the general jurisdiction of justices of the peace in civil and criminal actions, and conferred it upon certain magistrates designated as trial jus- tices. Those in Belfast in 1874 thus commissioned were George E. Brackett, Charles Moore, George E. Wallace, and Charles H. Wording.
Under the National Bankrupt Law passed in 1867, about eight hundred citizens of Maine became subject to its provisions up to the close of 1874. Of this number, only seven were from Bel- fast.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LAWYERS.
Lawyers in Belfast from 1801 to 1874, inclusive. - Portraits and Autographs of William Crosby, John Wilson, William G. Crosby, Alfred W. Johnson, and the Author.
E XCEPT on the banks of the Kennebec, there was no regular lawyer in Maine east of that river, until after the Revolu- tion. Up to 1797, only two members of the profession resided in the whole region embraced in the valley of the Penobscot.1 Three years later, the number had increased to but five, none of whom were nearer to Belfast than Castine,2 and none within the present limits of our county.
BOHAN PRENTICE FIELD was the first lawyer who settled in Belfast. He was born in Northfield, Mass., where his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, each named Ebenezer, resided, April 23, 1774, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1795. After pursuing a course of legal studies with Ebenezer Smith, of Durham, N. H., and John Barrett, of Northfield, he commenced practice at North Yarmouth in 1799. Two years afterwards, he joined a party of six or seven from that town who had purchased lands in Belfast, and established himself here as an attorney. The town then contained but six hundred and seventy-four inhabitants. His integrity of character and correct business habits were soon recognized and appreciated, and caused him to be the unsought recipient of frequent tokens of public favor and confidence. For many years he was chairman of the board of selectmen, and repeatedly held other prominent positions in the management of the town. On the organization of Waldo County, Mr. Field was
1 Willis's Law and Lawyers of Maine, p. 208.
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