USA > Maine > Waldo County > Belfast > History of the city of Belfast in the state of Maine v.I, 1770-1875 > Part 36
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2 The Hon. Isaac Parker, afterwards Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massa- chusetts, who went to Castine to reside in 1789, was the first lawyer in this section of the State. Job Nelson followed him, in the same town, four years afterwards. William Wetmore and Isaac Story succeeded in 1797. During the previous year, Thomas S. Sparhawk opened an office at Bucksport, Oliver Leonard at Orrington, and John Hath- away at Camden. These were the only lawyers previous to 1800.
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appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Sessions by Governor Lin- eoln, although they were of different political sentiments. This office he held with much credit to himself, and satisfaction to the people, until 1831, when that court was abolished. For four years afterwards, he was chairman of the board of County Commissioners which succeeded it.
Besides his thorough and practical knowledge of the varied branches of the law, Mr. Field was well instructed in good letters. He sustained a highly respectable rank, while in college, as a correct scholar ; and the fondness for the classics, especially of Virgil, which he imbibed at his Alma Mater, he continued to cherish through life.
Although his opinions in matters of law were deemed correet and of high authority, yet he seldom appeared as an advocate. When he found it necessary or expedient, however, to address a jury, he spoke with ingenuity and effect, leaving in the dark no point in his cause which required light. But it was in the capacity of a magistrate, a referee, or a commissioner, that his services were most sought. No man entered on the investigation of the rights of parties freer from passion or prejudice, and certainly no one ever exercised a sounder judgment. Hence his decisions were uniformly correct and satisfactory. Enmity and ill-will were strangers to his breast ; and, as he entertained no unfriendly feel- ings towards others, he had no enemies in return.
Mr. Field married Abigail, daughter of Benjamin Davis, of Billeriea, Mass., Oct. 23, 1807. He retired from active practice in 1834,1 and passed the remainder of his life in agricultural pur- suits. His death occurred March 13, 1843, at the age of sixty- eight. Few men in our community have died more respected and esteemed. Four of the six sons who survived him - viz., Bohan P. and Benjamin F., of Belfast, and Rev. George W. Field, D.D., and Dr. Edward M. Field, of Bangor -are still living.
WILLIAM CROSBY was the second member of the profession who opened an office here, having established himself in business on the third day of January, 1802. His earliest American ancestor was Simon Crosby, of Cambridge, Mass., who immigrated from
1 The office which Mr. Field occupied was a square wooden building, which stood upon the ground now covered by store No. 56 Main Street, now occupied by S. Sleeper & Son. About 1850, it received the addition of a second story, and was demolished during the great fire of 1864, to arrest the progress of the flames. No portrait of Mr. Field exists.
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England in 1635, and whose son Simon moved to Billerica, Mass., where the subject of this notice was born, June 3, 1770. Billerica is a few miles from Lexington; and in an interesting autobio- graphy which Judge Crosby wrote in 1840, for his grandchildren, he says : " One of my earliest recollections is that of the Lexing- ton battle, in 1775. I distinctly remember the clatter of horses' hoofs in full race, in the night before the battle, by my father's house, and the outcry, 'Turn out, turn ont! the Regulars are coming !'" " His father was a farmer in moderate circumstances, and the son was destined to the same occupation ; but, at the age of seven, an event occurred, which changed the course of his future life. While playing about a cider-mill in operation, his right arm was caught in the machinery, and so crushed as to crip- ple it for life. This disqualified him for manual labor, and he was always obliged to write, even, with his left hand. So seemingly sad and disheartening an accident was full of precious results. The necessary resort was an education, for which he soon began to prepare. But he had to struggle with poverty and adverse cir- cumstances." 1 At the age of seventeen, he began to teach school, and three years afterwards entered Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1794. He was admitted to the bar in Middlesex County in 1798, and immediately opened an office in his native town, where he remained three years. Attracted by the advan- tages which a new country always presents, in the summer of 1801 he made a tour of exploration into Maine, and, after visiting Bangor and other towns in this section, selected Belfast as the most desirable situation for a young lawyer. The following Jan- nary, he removed here permanently and opened his office,2 at once entering upon an extensive practice.3 The position of County Attorney was soon conferred upon him, which he held until 1811, when he received the appointment of Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the third eastern circuit, comprising the
1 State Signal, April 15, 1852; Willis's Law and Lawyers, p. 316.
2 "My office," says the autobiography, "was erected in the midst of large hemlock logs and stumps." It was the same building, without the hasement, which stood nearly opposite Phoenix Row, and which, in 1867, gave place to the brick store built by Arnold Harris. It was occupied for the custom-house from 1831 to 1838, and in 1840 as "Democratie Heud-quarters."
8 Colonel Erastus Foote, a distinguished lawyer, who settled in Camden, writes to Judge Crosby, in 1803, that he is astonished to hear of his entering a hundred actions before Esquire Nesmith at a single sitting. "Will you and Field," he asks, " sell a little of this philosopher's stone?"
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counties of Hancock, Penobscot, and Washington. His associates were Martin Kinsley, of Hampden, and James Campbell, of Har- rington. This office he held until 1822, when a reorganization of the judiciary, consequent npon the erection of Maine into a sepa- rate State, took place. While acting as Judge, he was twice made the recipient of popular favor, being chosen an elector of Presi- dent and Vice-President in 1812, and three years afterwards returned to the Senate of Massachusetts. He gave his vote for De Witt Clinton, the unsuccessful competitor of James Madison for the Presidency. Always a Federalist from principle, he had no taste or inclination for political distinction, and uniformly de- -
clined participating in the political contests of the day.
Upon retiring from the bench, Judge Croshy resumed practice at the bar, which he continued until 1831, when, at the age of sixty, the period which he had long fixed for withdrawing from professional labor, he gave up business, in the midst of his power and usefulness, " because," remarks the writer- of an obituary notice which appeared soon after his decease, "he was satisfied with his acquisitions, and was willing to leave an open road to wealth and fame to his junior competitors." " The remainder of his days was passed in the society of his books, of which he was a constant reader ; in the preparation of papers on various topics ; and in agricultural and horticultural pursuits, of which he was passionately fond. In this manner glided on the last twenty-two years of his life." He died of paralysis, March 31, 1852, aged eighty-one years and nine months. His widow, whose maiden name was Sally Davis, of Billerica, and to whom he was married in 1804, still survives him at the advanced age of ninety-one.
"Possessing a mind of great clearness and comprehension, Judge Crosby was a ripe scholar," says the writer already quoted, " loving philosophical as well as legal investigations, and pursuing his researches into almost every department of scientific knowl- edge. . . . But his distinguishing characteristic was his eminence in his profession. As a sound, practical lawyer, he filled the largest space in the community, and will longest be remembered as the safe counsellor, the able adviser, and the eloquent advocate. His clear, logical mind readily comprehended the most compli- cated questions. He at once seized upon and analyzed the strong points of his case, enforcing his views and positions upon the minds of a jury with that clearness of illustration and that force
1 Hiram O. Alden, Esq.
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of reasoning which, without the wearisomeness of redundancy or the weakness of repetition, were always effective, and often irresistible.
"Upon the bench, as at the bar, Judge Crosby maintained his reputation as an able lawyer. His judicial career, although com- paratively short, was nevertheless characterized by great ability, uprightness, and impartiality. His charges to juries are said to have been models, clear, concise, and to the point; without a use- less word or unnecessary expression, and with just enough of the material facts, and such only to illustrate and explain the law of .the case.
" As a companion, Judge Crosby was cordial and communicative ; as a neighbor, kind, social, and accommodating ; and, as a citizen, just and humane. As a benefactor, he occupied a high position, taking the lead in most of the charitable, educational, and religious enterprises of the day."
The next lawyer in order of time was JOHN WILSON, who estab- lished himself here in April, 1803. His father, Robert Wilson, came from Ireland when a child, and settled in Lexington, Mass., afterwards removing to Peterboro', N. H., where the subject of this sketch was born, Jan. 10, 1777. After graduating at Harvard College, in the class of 1799, he entered the office of his older brother, James Wilson, a distinguished lawyer in Peterboro', and was admitted to the bar in 1802. At this period, Maine, then a district of Massachusetts, had begun to excite the attention of en- terprising men for its adaptedness to the business of ship-build- ing, and foreign and domestic commerce, as well as for those agricultural productions that are common to the New England States.
Mr. Wilson well understood that, if the capabilities of Maine invited successful operations in the departments mentioned, she must also necessarily offer inducements to ambitious and high- minded professional young men, to constitute themselves a part of her population. With this view of the case, he emigrated from his native State and located himself in this town. Although Mr. Field and Mr. Crosby, who had preceded him, were engaged in respectable practice, Mr. Wilson was, in no degree, appalled in view of competition. On the other hand, be believed that honor- able rivalry was the most effective stimulant to provoke the largest development of learning and talent. Mr. Crosby was generally deemed to be the ahlest advocate and best lawyer then living in
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the large county. of Hancock. But Mr. Wilson had no disinclina- tion to measure intellectual force with him, whenever opportunity should furnish the means so to do. Opportunities for that purpose soon and oftentimes presented themselves. The struggles between these combatants were frequently hard, but always manly. Vic- tory changed sides about as often as the conflict was renewed; but exultation or permanent bitterness of feeling never resulted from success or defeat. The contest between them was honorably closed by the appointment of Mr. Crosby to the office of Chief Justice of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas, and the election of Mr. Wilson to the office of Representative in the United States Congress, a position which he filled two terms, viz., from 1813 to 1815, and from 1817 to 1819. In 1807-8, he erected the house on the hill since known as Wilson's Hill, which was destroyed by fire in April, 1867. He married, in 1807, Hannah, daughter of Andrew Leach, and, after her decease, Miss Mary F. Tinkham, of Wiscasset, who survived him.
Mr. Wilson's ability and worth as an advocate were, at an early period in his practice, known and appreciated in the adjoin- ing county of Washington, where for more than twenty years he argued one side of nearly every action that was tried by a jury.
His memory was so uncommonly retentive that nothing pre- sented in evidence that could have the slightest bearing upon any cause in hand was forgotten or omitted in argument. Indeed, extreme minuteness was sometimes attributed to him as a fault ; but his application of all the facts involved in a case on trial made him a difficult adversary to be encountered.
He displayed wonderful tact and ingenuity in the management of jury trials, in parrying and explaining away testimony of his antagonist, and in moulding that of his own to suit his purpose. Always complaisant and sociable with every one he met, he pos- sessed great personal popularity. In expending his energies for his clients, compensation appeared never to have entered his thoughts ; insomuch that it was often remarked that "he never sued for his debts, nor dunned one who owed him." Thus, his influence with a jury was unbounded.
Although Mr. Wilson was accused by some of being rather slow in his enunciation, and long in his addresses to the jury, yet no man was ever listened to with more gratification, especially by his clients. They literally imbibed every word which fell from his lips, and enjoyed it with the keenest relish. The following
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anecdote may illustrate this pleasant relationship between counsel and client. A friend once asked Mr. W. if he did not himself think his arguments were too long and prolix. His answer was, "Did you ever hear any of my clients complain of the length of my arguments ?"
Governor Crosby gives the following interesting anecdotes concerning Mr. Wilson, selected at random, which, as is well re- marked, illustrate the character and peculiarities of the man more vividly, perhaps, than can be done in any other mode.
He was a man of fine physical organization, of great bodily strength when young, cool and deliberate in all his actions, and of unflinching courage. Soon after he commenced practice, he had occasion in the argument of a cause to comment with more than ordinary severity on the conduct and character of a prominent witness. The witness very indiscreetly, as the result proved, de- termined to have redress by inflicting personal chastisement, and, watching an opportunity when Mr. Wilson was alone in his office, went in and commenced an attack on him. It was but the work of a moment for Mr. W. to seize him by the collar and place him, not very gently, in a horizontal position on the floor : he then very deliberately sat down on him. A brother lawyer who hap- pened to come in at the moment, and saw the condition of the prostrate man, without any apparent sign of life abont him, ex- claimed, " Why, Wilson, the man's dead !" " Yes," replied Wil- son, "yes, I am aware of that, and I am the Coroner's Inquest sitting on the body !"
Neither fear, favor, affection, or the hope of reward ever in- fluenced him to abandon a position which he held to be tenable consistently with truth and justice, nor to withhold an opinion which he felt that duty required him to express. He was once a witness in a cause, when it became important to prove by his testi- mony, and that of others, that the reputation for truth of a ma- terial witness was not good. In reply to the usual question, Mr. Wilson testified that the general reputation of the witness for truth was bad. The emphatic manner in which the word was spoken so irritated the witness that he broke in upon the proceed- ings by saying, " I suppose, Mr. Wilson, you'd swear that I am the worst man that ever was !" " No, doctor," replied Mr. W., de- liberately folding his arms across his breast as was his habit, “ I would not swear to that ; but I am ready to swear that you are the worst man I ever knew or read of."
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He possessed a wonderful degree of self-possession and for- bearance. No instance is remembered in which he exhibited any anger, however much annoyed. About the last time he appeared in the court-house, he was arguing to the judge presiding a ques- tion of law, and, having stated a legal proposition, the counsel on the other side, a young member of the profession, in a rather con- temptuous tone of voice remarked, " Who ever heard of such a principle of law as that !" Mr. Wilson, without moving a muscle, or exhibiting the slightest resentment at the rude interruption, or taking his eye from the judge, proceeded to say, " My brother in- quires who ever heard of such a principle of law as that which I have just stated. The obvious inference from the remark is that he never did ; but your Honor and I heard of it thirty years ago." It is needless to add that the interruption was not repeated.
Daniel Webster was a member of Congress at the same time with Mr. Wilson, and stood deservedly high in his estimation as a lawyer and advocate. " What did you think of Mr. Webster ?" said he one day to a townsman who had just returned from court at Wiscasset, where Mr. Webster had argued an important case. " Well," was the reply, "I liked him very well; but he didn't say any thing more than any lawyer in this place could have said." " Very likely," said Mr. Wilson, " if he had only thought of it." 1
In the early part of the winter of 1823 and 1824, he was ex- posed, without an overcoat, to a severe storm of snow that filled his ears, and so completely enveloped his neck and face as to pro- duce a violent chill followed by fever, which confined him to his house, amid great suffering, through several succeeding months. But a small portion of his accustomed labors was performed by him in the next succeeding summer, though he argued some causes pending in the Supreme Judicial Court in his own and two other counties, with respectable ability.
In September, 1824, while engaged in court at Machias (Wash- ington County), soon after the opening to the jury of an action in which he was senior counsel for plaintiff, he suddenly exhibited evidence of total mental aberration, or obliviousness of the subject in which he was engaged. The trial was stopped, and he retired with a friend to his lodgings, and in a few minutes recovered his consciousness, but not his usual physical or intellectual force. Within three or four days he was able to return to his family and home at Belfast, though in feeble health. But in fact his whole
1 Crosby's Annals.
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system had been shattered, and that a part only of his former strength remained, became, from year to year, painfully obvious to his numerous friends.
His physical system survived the two attacks before men- tioned, slowly lingering and decaying until his death, which oc- curred Aug. 9, 1848, at the age of seventy-one ; but the great and brilliant man had received his mortal wound twenty-four years previously.1 The accompanying portrait of Mr. Wilson is from a miniature taken when he was a young man.
OAKES ANGIER, a younger brother of John Angier, and son of Oakes Angier, who was a distinguished lawyer of Bridgewater, Mass., came here in 1807. He studied law with Hon. Samuel S. Wilde, of Hallowell, and possessed good abilities and a respectable education. During the war of 1812, he entered the army as an officer, and finally settled in North Carolina, where he died.
JOSEPH GREEN COGSWELL, afterwards a distinguished citizen of New York, practised law here for a short time in 1811, and is re- membered by several old citizens. His office was at the corner of Main and Washington Streets. The death of his wife, and a dis- taste for the profession, induced him to abandon it, and to accept a position as tutor at Cambridge. The remainder of his life was devoted to letters. He arranged the plans of the Astor Library, and was its first superintendent. He was born at Ipswich, Mass., Sept. 27, 1786, and died in Cambridge, Nov. 26, 1871. His intel- lectual powers remained unimpaired to the advanced age of eighty-five.2
PHINEAS ASHMUN came here in 1809, as agent for Messrs. Israel Thorndike, David Sears, and William Prescott, who owned large quantities of land in the neighboring towns, which they had derived through General Knox. He was a native of Northamp- ton, Mass. He resigned the agency in 1813, and removed to Washington Plantation, now Brooks, and resided there until his deatlı, May 15, 1852, at the age of eighty-six.
ALFRED JOHNSON, born in Newburyport, Mass., Aug. 13, 1789, was the eldest son of Rev. Alfred Johnson, the second minister of Belfast, and came here to reside in 1805, while a Sophomore in Bowdoin College, where he graduated three years after. His pro- fessional studies were pursued with Hon. William Crosby. On being admitted to the bar in 1811, he opened an office in the build-
1 Reminiscences of Deceased Members of the Bar.
2 American Cyclopedia, V. 19.
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ing at Nesmith's Corner, which his brother Ralph C. occupied as a store. During the War of 1812, he commanded the artillery company, and for several years served as judge advocate in the militia. He was a member of the Convention which, in 1819, framed our State Constitution, and was chosen Representative to the Legislature in 1819 and 1820. The latter position he resigned to accept the office of Judge of Probate for Hancock County. When Waldo County was established, he was appointed to the same position, which he filled until vacated by constitutional limitation in 1840. During a judicial service of twenty years, no appeal was taken from any of his decisions. He was a commis- sioner under the bankrupt law of 1841. From 1838 until his decease, he was one of the trustees of Bowdoin College.
As a lawyer and as a literary man, the opinion of Judge John- son was often sought, and as often cited for its weight and au- thority ; but in matters of business, or on questions of expediency, it was proved to be no less valuable. His social qualities were of the most attractive character ; and his good-humored, frequently brilliant, and always sensible remarks were enjoyed by a large circle of acquaintances. Although engaged for the greater part of his life in the business of a laborious profession, he found time to acquire a familiarity with the best writers of both ancient and modern times. Had his sentiments and opinions been given to the world, they would have constituted important acquisitions to literature. But he had no predilection to authorship. He loved rather to study and to criticise others, and to bring their theories to the test of his own learning. Yet on some occasions he was persuaded to appear as a writer ; and the reader of his productions, in appreciating their quality, cannot but regret that they were not more in quantity. His Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, and his Address on Temperance, afford some evidence of the remarkable activity of his mind and of the universality of his reading. His contemporaries, who survive, still recall his brilliant conversa- tional powers, and his readiness in drawing things new and old from those stores of varied learning which nearly a half century of study had locked within his tenacious memory.
Judge Johnson died March 22, 1852, at the age of sixty-two years. The following resolutions were adopted by the Bar of Waldo County, on the day preceding his funeral : -
" Resolved, That we lament with profoundest regret the demise of Hon. Alfred Johnson, who for nearly forty years was a member
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of this Bar, and for a large portion of the time filled an important judicial office. Although, during the latter portion of his life, he had retired from active practice, the profession will long remem- ber him as a sound and correct lawyer, performing the various duties of his official station with signal ability and to the accept- ance of the public.
" Resolved, That in contemplation of the character of Judge Johnson, in all his various situations, both public and private, as a lawyer, a legislator, and a judge, as a prominent citizen, as a scholar thoroughly versed in classical and general literature, and as a man of social qualities, of genial humor, and of remarkable colloquial powers, we feel that a void has been created in our com- munity which cannot be filled."
During the year 1813, four additional lawyers commenced practice here; viz., Thomas F. Goodhue, Zacchens Porter, James M. Seaman, and William White. The stay of the first-named was brief. He soon became unpopular, and removed to Columbia, in Washington County, where in 1815 he was indicted for forgery, and absconded.
ZACCHEUS PORTER was born at Danvers, Mass., Oct. 25, 1780. His youth was passed in the town of Peterboro', N. H., where his father moved a few years after. Having pursued the study of law for the required term in the office of the Hon. James Wilson, of Keene, he entered into partnership at Belfast, in 1813, with his former fellow-townsman, the Hon. John Wilson, and continued in this connection until his decease, Nov. 9, 1824.
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