Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 35

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790

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MUNICIPAL COURTS .- In the county of Kennebec are four munic- ipal courts, one in each of the four cities-Hallowell, Gardiner, Augusta and Waterville -- established in the order named. Originally the judgeship of these courts was an elective office, filled by vote of the people, but since 1876 it has been an appointive office, filled by the appointment of the governor and council, the term being four years. The court at Hallowell was established in 1835, with Samuel K. Gil- man as judge, elected February 19th of that year. His successors have been: Benjamin Wales, March 9, 1852; Samuel K. Gilman, Jan- uary 3, 1854; Austin D. Knight, March 15, 1876; Mahlon S. Spear, April 24, 1888, and Eliphalet Rowell, March 29, 1892. Of the Gardi- ner court, the judges have been: George W. Bacheldor, January 14, 1850; William Palmer, May 11, 1852; Edmund A. Chadwick, March 4, 1872; Henry Farrington, July 1, 1881; and James M. Larrabee since July 24, 1885. At Augusta Judge Benjamin A. G. Fuller opened the municipal court May 7, 1850, and has been succeeded by George S. Millikin, February 21, 1854; Samuel Titcomb, October 17, 1857; H. W. True, February 20, 1878; and Albert G. Andrews, since March 16, 1882. The Waterville police court was opened in 1880 by Horace W. Stewart, appointed judge April 21st of that year. On the 29th of March, 1892, his successor, W. C. Philbrook, was appointed.

The jurisdiction and powers of these four courts, as originally con- stituted, were substantially the same, comprising for the most part matters previously cognizable by justices of the peace; but by act of 1891 the municipal court of Waterville was invested with jurisdiction concurrent with the superior court in all civil actions wherein the debt or damages demanded, exclusive of costs, did not exceed one hundred dollars; provided, however, that any action in which the debt or damages demanded exceed twenty dollars may be removed to the superior court on motion of the defendant under certain conditions prescribed in the act. Its jurisdiction in criminal matters was also greatly enlarged.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE KENNEBEC BAR.

BY HON, JAMES W. BRADBURY, LL. D.

M Y acquaintance with the Kennebec Bar commenced sixty-one years ago. In April, 1830, I opened my office in Augusta. The new granite court house had just been completed, and the May term of the law court was held in it by Chief Justice Mellen and his two associate justices, Weston and Parris. This was my first opportunity of seeing any considerable number of the members of the Kennebec bar, or of hearing any of them in the argument of their causes. The Kennebec bar was at that time one of marked ability. Many of the members were eminent in their profession, several achieved national distinction, and all left an honorable record upon which their descendants and surviving friends can look with pleasure and pride. They have all passed away. I do not recall a single one of the whole number, then so active and prominent, now surviving; yet they left a character that is fresh in the memory of all. To name them is to bring the individuality of most of them distinctly to mind. Without an opportunity of refreshing my memory by refer- ence to records, I will undertake to recall them. There were in Waterville, Timothy Boutelle, Samuel Wells and James Stackpole; in Augusta, Reuel Williams, Daniel Williams, Henry W. Fuller, Williams Emmons, John Potter, Richard H. Vose and Frederick A. Fuller, the father of the present chief justice of the United States; in Hallowell, Peleg Sprague, Sylvanus W. Robinson, John Otis, William Clark and Mr. Warren; in Gardiner, Frederick Allen, George Evans, Eben F. Dean and S. S. Warren; in Winslow, Thomas Rice; and in China, Jacob Smith.

Timothy Boutelle, born at Leominster, Mass., November 10, 1777, was a son of Colonel Timothy and Rachel (Lincoln) Boutelle, and a lineal descendant of James Boutelle, who came from England to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1635, and died there in 1651. Timothy graduated from Harvard in 1800, read law with Abijah Bigelow in his native town, and on being admitted to the bar, in 1804, came to Waterville, where he practiced until his death, November 12, 1855. In 1811 he married Helen, daughter of Judge Rogers. Of their large

Y Bouteilles

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THE KENNEBEC BAR.

family, one daughter was the wife of Edwin Noyes, a prominent Waterville lawyer, and one son was well known as Dr. N. R. Boutelle, of Waterville. Timothy Boutelle was presidential elector in 1816, life member of the board of trustees of Waterville College from 1821, and in 1839 received the degree of LL. D. from that institution. He was president of Waterville bank for over twenty years, from its or- ganization in 1814, and was president of the Androscoggin & Ken- nebec Railroad Company the first three years of its existence.

Mr. Boutelle was an acute and discriminating lawyer. In his early practice he refrained from public life. When the question of separa- tion came up, he gave his influence in favor of making Maine an in- dependent state, and after it was accomplished he was the first of the senators from the Kennebec senatorial district. He served six years in the senate and six in the house, and was an influential and im- portant member. In his incursions into public life he did not abandon his profession. As a citizen he took a deep and active interest in everything he deemed calculated to promote the prosperity and im- provement of the beautiful town he had chosen for his residence, and continued this interest unabated up to his death.

Reuel Williams was a man whose strong common sense and great business ability would have enabled him to attain eminence in any community. After a common school and academic education, he read law with Judge Bridge, who was the attorney of the "Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase," and upon his admission to the bar the judge took him into partnership. In a few years the judge, who was an eminent lawyer, retired from the firm to attend to his own large pri- vate estate and left the legal business in the hands of Mr. Williams. As agent and attorney for the proprietors of the unsold part of so large a tract of land, the business of the office was immense. Numer- ous conflicts with settlers, squatters and adverse claimants, and ques- tions of unsettled boundaries were constantly arising.

The questions of law applicable to these cases, all relating to real estate, were so thoroughly examined by Mr. Williams, and became so familiar to him that he, by common consent, was regarded as standing at the head of the bar in that department of the law. His arguments, whether before the jury or court, were concise, plain, strong and calcu- lated to impress. They were an appeal to the reason by a strong mind, without any attempt at oratorical display. His manner was calm and self-possessed. Williams, in public life, attained a reputation that was national. He served with distinction in the house and senate of the state, and in the senate of the United States; was offered a place in his cabinet by President Van Buren, and filled with distinction several important public commissions. As a citizen he stands pre- eminent. He may be regarded in some sense as the founder of the Hospital for the Insane in Augusta. He started the enterprise by a

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donation of $10,000 at a time when that sum was equal to four times the amount now. It was the first public donation of any considerable amount by any of the citizens.

Daniel Williams, his brother, who became a partner in his office business, was a lawyer of good standing, and continued in the law office until he retired from active practice. He was judge of probate for several years, state treasurer, member of the legislature and mayor of Augusta.

Frederick Allen settled in Gardiner in 1808. He was a lawyer who loved and was devoted to his profession, and early rose to a lead- ing position at the bar of this county; his practice extended into Lin- coln, where he first settled, and Somerset counties. He was a close student, and had at command all of the law that was applicable to the case in hand. He did not rely upon the graces of oratory, but ably presented the law and the facts with perspicuity and strength, and with a perseverance in trial after trial that seemed determined never to be beaten. He was sometimes so absorbed in his studies as to be quite absent-minded; and it is said he has been known to rise in the night and go to his office to consult a book upon which his mind had been dwelling.

George Evans, of Gardiner, was a native of Hallowell. He gradu- ated at Bowdoin College in 1815, and at the close of his legal studies with Mr. Allen, settled in Farmingdale. He was a man of signal ability. The country has produced few men who surpassed him in native intellectual power. His mind was of the Websterian order. When he made a great effort it was difficult to see how anything could be added to his side of the question or more forcefully presented. The subject would be exhausted. The speaker would be forgotten in the thought of the argument. Mr. Evans was twelve years in con- gress-six in the house of representatives and six in the senate-and by his marked ability, acquired a national reputation. At the close of his public career he returned to the practice of the profession that his abilities and genius have honored.

Henry W. Paine was born in Winslow in 1810. His father was Lemuel Paine, of Massachusetts, who removed to Winslow and prac- tised law there in partnership with General Ripley, the hero of Lundy's Lane in the war of 1812; and his mother was Jane Warren, a niece of General Joseph Warren, who fell at Bunker Hill. Mr. Paine graduated from Waterville College (now Colby University) in 1830, with the highest honors of his class, and was a tutor in the college for a year. Upon admission to the bar, he commenced practice at Hallowell in 1834, and pursued it there with signal success for twenty years, when he removed to Cambridge, Mass., and opened an office in Boston. He was three years in the legislature and five years county attorney, and before he left the state he was offered a seat on the bench of the

Rewe williams

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THE KENNEBEC BAR.

supreme judicial court, but declined the honor. From 1849 to 1862, he was a member of the board of trustees of Waterville College. In 1851 he was elected a member of the Maine Historical Society, and in 1854 his Alma Mater conferred upon him the degree of doctor of laws. During his successful career at the bar he was often called upon to act as referee.

In 1863 and 1864 Mr. Paine was nominated by the democratic party as a candidate for the office of governor. With much reluctance he accepted the nomination, and he did not regret the defeat which he expected. Upon the resignation of Chief Justice Bigelow, of Massachusetts, in 1867, the office was offered by Governor Bullock to Mr. Paine, who declined to accept it. For ten years, from 1872, he was lecturer on the law of real property at the law school of the Boston University, and was so thorough a master of his subject that he lectured extemporaneously with great credit to himself and profit to the class. It is an honor to Kennebec that she can count among her native children three so able lawyers as Reuel Williams, George Evans and Henry W. Paine.

George Melville Weston, the third son of Judge Nathan Weston, was born in Augusta in 1816. His mother was Paulina B., daughter of Daniel Cony. He was graduated at Bowdoin College in 1834, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1837, and practiced in Augusta five years. In 1840 he became editor of The Age for four years, when he was succeeded by Richard D. Rice. In 1846 he removed to Bangor, and was for several years in business there, in the meanwhile con- tributing largely to various newspapers. He soon established a reputation as a political writer of great ability. While at Augusta in 1839 he was appointed county attorney. In 1855 he received the ap- pointment of commissioner to prosecute the claims of the state upon the United States for compensation for lands ceded to fulfill national obligations under the Ashburton treaty of 1842. While in Washing- ton as commissioner he became editor of the National Republican, a free soil paper published in that city. He also published a political work on the progress of slavery in the United States. He subsequently turned his attention and pen to financial subjects. He died at Wash- ington February 10, 1887, leaving two children: Paulina C. (Mrs. Robert D. Smith) and Melville M., a lawyer in Boston.

Mr. Sprague was also a man of national reputation. He came to Kennebec county in 1815 and opened an office at Augusta, but soon moved to Hallowell. The style of speaking of the leading members of the bar, as I have said, was a calm and forcible appeal to the judg- ment of the court or jury, without any attempt at oratorical display. Mr. Sprague added to a cultivated mind, well grounded in the princi- ples of the law, a good voice and a graceful presence; and he intro- duced a style of elocution of a more showy and declamatory kind. He

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

argued with eloquence and with a good deal of action and rhetorical display. He was a very pleasing and popular speaker. Everything he said, even to the making of a motion in court, was said with ele- gance and finish. He never forgot himself. When he had closed one of his appeals the natural exclamation would be, " What an eloquent orator!" Mr. Sprague was elected to the United States senate in 1829, where he served with distinction until his resignation in 1835, when he removed to Boston. In 1841 he was appointed judge of the district court of the United States. Notwithstanding his almost total loss of sight, he filled this high office with great ability and accept- ance until his death.

Mr. Wells began the practice of his profession at Waterville in 1825. He subsequently moved to Hallowell, and, after several years' practice there, settled in Portland, and received the appointment of justice of the supreme court of the state. He filled that station with honor, was elected governor in 1855, and, upon the close of his ser- vice in that high office, moved to Boston and continued the practice of his profession in that city to the close of his life. At the bar he showed himself to be an able lawyer and good advocate. He always did justice to his case, and long held a position among the leading lawyers of the state.

Mr. Vose was born in Augusta November 8, 1803, graduated at Bowdoin College in 1822, studied his profeesion in Worcester, prac- ticed law there for a year and then removed to his native city and opened an office there in 1828. He soon made himself prominent as an agreeable speaker and a popular advocate with the jury. His style of speaking was earnest and impassioned, accompanied with a good deal of appropriate action to give his argument effect. With the jury he was a dangerous antagonist, especially when he had the close-draw- ing away the attention of the jury from the material points in a cause by his learned and impassioned appeals. He was county attorney for several years. He was a representative to the legislature for three years, and senator in 1840-1, during which time he was president of that honorable body. But he adhered to his profession, and retained an extensive and valuable business to the close of his life in 1864.

Judge Emmons, a son of Rev. Nathaniel Emmons, was born in 1783, studied law with Judge Wilde in Hallowell, commenced practice in Augusta in 1811, and formed a copartnership with Benja- min Whitwell in 1812. He was well read in his profession, and a pru- dent and safe counsellor. He had ample learning and a logical mind, well cultivated. He argued with clearness and point, but not in a manner especially taking with a jury. He was an honorable prac- titioner, held a good rank at the bar, and filled with credit the office of judge of probate from 1841 to 1848.

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I have thus far named particularly only those members of the bar with whom I had come in personal contact in the trial of causes. I would like to speak of the rest, but I can only add that they all left an honorable record like that, for instance, of Hiram Belcher, whose in- tegrity, and candor, and fair mode of arguing his cases to the court or the jury, gave him a high standing and great success in his profes- sional life. He was born in 1790. studied with Wilde & Bond, of Hallowell, and was admitted to the bar in 1812. He died in 1857.

I would like also to say something of the other names that were added to the list of attorneys after I came to Augusta. There were Wyman B. S. Moore, of Waterville, who had one of the most ener- getic minds that, in my long life, I have chanced to meet; and had he stuck to his profession he had the ability to make himself one of the ablest lawyers in New England; Joseph Baker, of Augusta, who at- tained a good standing in the very front rank of his profession; Richard D. Rice, who as printer, merchant, lawyer, judge, president and manager of railroads, succeeded in all. A man of great ability, he had a mind of originality and acted upon his own conclusions. There were also Edwin Noyes, one of the ablest railroad lawyers I have ever met; and Lot M. Morrill, who left the practice of law early to enter upon a distinguished career of public life; but not before he had become one of the most eloquent jury lawyers we have had at the bar.

I have thus briefly presented the honorable record of some of the men now deceased who aimed to raise the standard of the profession, and to secure the confidence and respect of the community. It is an honorable profession. History records the services it has rendered in the establishment of law in the place of force. In all the great con- tests for human liberty its members have stood in the front ranks, and left a character of which the bar may be justly proud. It is a useful profession, essential to the well being of every community and to the protection of life, liberty, and the blessings of civilized society. With- out law civilization is impossible. Brute force would have absolute rule, and the weak would have no defense against the strong. But the law, to accomplish its mission, must be justly administered. To secure this just administration we need not only learned and upright judges, but also an able and honorable bar. The causes of the feeble and the ignorant, as well as of the influential and intelligent, need to be pre- pared and presented, the facts collected and arranged, and the princi- ples of law involved considered and discussed, in order to arrive at a just decision. Here is the field for the bar-to aid the court in ad- ministering justice between man and man, and between the state and those charged with a violation of the laws; in fine, to maintain the authority of law that means to society protection against violence, anarchy and barbarism. It may justly be written that the deceased

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members of the bar referred to have left a fair record. It is for their successors to preserve it untarnished .*

Augustus Alden, of Middleboro, Mass., a graduate of Dartmouth, came to Winthrop from Augusta, but was more at home in religious than in legal work. He removed to Hallowell and died there subse- quent to 1810.

Frederick Allen, born December 22, 1780, at Martha's Vineyard, was the youngest son of Jonathan Allen, who was a graduate of Har- vard in 1757. Mr. Allen began the study of law with his brother, Homer, at Barnstable, Mass., and later with Judge Benjamin Whit- man, of Boston. In 1805 he began the practice of law at Waldoboro, Me., and three years later he came to Gardiner, where he was a prominent lawyer until within a few years of his death, September 28, 1865. His wife was Hannah B., daughter of Colonel Oliver Whip- ple, who was a graduate of Harvard in 1770. Their children were: Frederick, who died when he was about to graduate from Harvard; Charles Edward, of Boston, a graduate of Bowdoin Law School: Han- nah F., who lives in Farmingdale; Margaret (Mrs. Prof. Romeo Elton), deceased; Eleanor (Mrs. Dr. Martin Gay), deceased, and Augustus O., who was a graduate of Bowdoin Law School, and practiced in Boston until his death.

A. G. Andrews, judge of the municipal court of Augusta since 1882, was born at Freedom, N. H., in 1841. He studied law in 1865 with Hon. C. R. Ayer, of Cornish, Me., and was admitted to the bar of York county in 1867. He first came to Augusta in 1879 as a member of the legislature, and was subsequently a year with John H. Potter. Judge Andrews spent some fifteen years as a teacher in the common schools and academies.

Charles L. Andrews, a son of George H. Andrews, was born in Monmouth in 1864. He graduated from Coburn Classical Institute in 1881, read law for three years with A. M. Spear at Hallowell, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1885. After one year's clerkship with E. W. Whitehouse, he practiced a while at Winthrop, and is now partner with his brother-in-law, Mayor Spear, of Gardiner.

Joseph E. Badger, son of William S. Badger, of the Maine Farmer, read law with S. & L. Titcomb, was admitted in 1879, and practiced in Augusta until 1883, when he went to Minneapolis, where he re- mained until 1891.

Kenry K. Baker, treasurer of the Hallowell Savings Bank, was born at Skowhegan, in 1806, and received there the foundation of his education. He perfected himself in the art of printing, and at the age of twenty years became the editor of the Hallowell Gazette, and afterward of the Free Press and Advocate. Preferring the profession

* Mr. Bradbury's manuscript ends here; but we are under obligation to him for much that is of interest in several of the following paragraphs .- [ED.

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of law to that of journalism, he read with Judge Samuel Wells, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He served in the legislature three terms, was clerk of the house in 1855, and in the latter year was ap- pointed judge of probate for Kennebec county by Governor Anson P. Morrill, and held the position for nearly twenty-six years.

Joseph Baker was born at Bloomfield, now Skowhegan, June 23, 1812, and died at Augusta, November 29, 1883. After preparing for college, partly at China Academy, he entered Bowdoin at the age of twenty, and graduated in the class of '36. He then came to Augusta as assistant principal in the high school and completed there the study of law with Williams & McCobb, and Vose & Lancaster. After his admission, in August, 1839, he opened an office in Augusta, and nine years later became the law partner of Sewall Lancaster. Aside from the short interval as editor and publisher, noticed at page 241, his life was devoted to the practice of law. He was a member of both branches of the city government, was in the state senate in 1847, and in the house of representatives in 1870. For four years he was city solicitor, and he served also as county attorney. Spaulding, in vol- ume seventy-nine of the Maine Reports, pays a high tribute to Mr. Baker's political and professional character, and says that his profes- sion was his pride, and that he became the leader of the bar of Ken- nebec county.

Orville D. Baker, son of Joseph, was born in Augusta in 1847. He was graduated from Augusta High School in 1864, and from Bowdoin College with the class of '68. He then traveled in Europe, studying language, until November, 1870. He read law with his father and was admitted to the bar in March, 1872. He took the full course at Harvard Law School, graduating there in June, 1872. He served four years as attorney general, being elected in 1885, and reëlected in 1887. He is well known as an orator through his literary and political addresses.

JUDGE EMERY OLIVER BEAN has been an ative and often a promi- nent figure in the legal and judicial forces of Kennebec county and central Maine almost half a century. He comes of pure New Eng- land blood. Joshua Bean, his great-grandfather, in the fourth Ameri- can generation from Scotch ancestry, was born in Brentwood, N. H., in 1741. He married Mary Bean, and came to Hallowell in 1780, and to Readfield in 1784, where he died in 1814. Elisha, the oldest of their fourteen children, was born in Brentwood, September 10, 1764, married Olive Shepard, who was born in Epping, N. H., May 16, 1765. They had nine children. Oliver, their fifth child, was born in Read- field, November 15, 1797. He married Patience Nickerson, of Chat- ham, Mass. She died in February, 1869, and he in June of the same year.

Of their five children, Richard Nickerson Bean, the oldest, died in

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

infancy. The second child, Emery Oliver, was born in Readfield, September 10, 1819, and the third, Nelson Shepard, was born Decem- ber 24, 1824, and died June 12, 1843. The fourth child, Philura Ann (Mrs. Joel Howard, of Presque Isle), was born February 25, 1828, and the youngest, Everline Marilla (Mrs. Stephen W. Caldwell, of Caribou, Me.), was born October 1,1829. Joshua, Elisha and Oliver Bean were all land owners and farmers, and each built and operated early saw, grist or bark mills in Readfield.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 35

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York, Blake Number of Pages: 1790

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790