Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 36

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

USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892 > Part 36

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Emery O. was born near the head of Lake Maranacook, then known as Chandler's pond. Like most Maine farmer boys, he was nurtured in a good home, with plenty of work and the limited advantages of the district school. In his case these were supplemented with a term or two at Kents Hill and a few terms at Monmouth Academy. With a natural bent for legal pursuits he entered the law office of Timothy O. Howe, of Readfield, where he spent many months in the same rooms, pouring over the same volumes, from which Mr. Howe had acquired the rare equipment that carried him so far and so high. In 1843, at the age of twenty-four, he was admitted to the bar and went from the office of his noted preceptor to Hallowell, where he had the great good fortune to spend the opening year of his practice with that consummate master of his profession, Henry W. Paine, now of Boston. The next year he returned to his native town and opened an office. The fact that his old preceptor made him his partner the year following is significant. The firm of Howe & Bean continued until 1848, when Mr. Howe removed to the West.

For the next twenty-eight years Judge Bean remained in the same office alone, working hard, with a constantly growing practice and reputation. In the meantime his son, Fred Emery Beane, had grown to manhood, had adopted his father's profession, had been admitted to the bar, and in 1876 father and son became partners, opening an office in Readfield, which was occupied by the firm until the fall of 1878. Fred Emery then opened an office in Hallowell, where he still resides, and of which city he has served as mayor. In 1878 the firm of Bean & Beane opened an office in Hallowell, and, in 1890, one in Gardiner, and now prosecute their legal business in the three places, the senior partner remaining in Readfield. The court records show the name of Emery O. Bean and the firm name of Bean & Beane, to have been entered in a greater number of cases than any other attorneys now living in Kennebec county. Here closes the record of the forty- ninth year of Judge Bean's legal career.

He married Elizabeth Hunton, daughter of Colonel John O. Craig, of Readfield, October 8, 1844. She was born in Readfield, April 18, 1818, and died January 22, 1892. Large-brained and large-hearted, cordial, cultured, devoted to her family, her friends, and to all human duties, Mrs. Bean was a most womanly woman, whose departure was

Emery &Bear

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everybody's loss. Nelson Shepard Bean, the older of their two chil- dren, now a resident of Malden, Mass., with business in Boston, was born July 18, 1845. Fred Emery Beane, the younger son, was born May 14, 1853.

In politics Judge Bean was first a whig, and was by that party elected to the state legislature in 1851. Again in 1856 he served his fellow citizens-this time as state senator-and in 1879 Governor Gar- celon appointed him one of the trustees of the Maine State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, in which capacity he served for the term of seven years. In 1880 he was elected judge of the pro- bate and insolvency court of Kennebec county, by a plurality of 600, holding the office four years. Viewed from any standpoint this was a remarkable event for a democrat to receive such a public approval in a county with from 2,000 to 3,000 republican majority. No appeal from Judge Bean's decisions in probate matters was ever sustained by the supreme court of probate, and only one in insolvency proceed- ings. He is a leading member of the Universalist church of Read- field, in which faith his father was also a staunch and life-long believer.

Judge Bean's characteristics as a lawyer have been a cool, dispas- sionate judgment, plain common sense, devotion and diligent loyalty to his client, and thorough hard work for the mastery of the matter in hand. In all the kindly relations of acquaintance, neighbor and friend, the genial and manly elements that constitute the truest bond of human intercourse are conspicuous ingredients in his character.

Alexander Belcher came from Northfield, Mass., and practiced law in Winthrop from 1807 till his death in 1854.

Samuel Page Benson, son of Dr. Peleg Benson, of Winthrop, graduated at Bowdoin College in 1825. He and his brother, Gustavus, studied law in China with Abisha Benson, their uncle. Samuel P. opened an office in his native town in 1829, and became prominent in the political field. He was secretary of state in 1838 and 1841; and in 1853 and 1855 represented the Kennebec district in congress.

R. W. Black was born in Waldo county in 1840. The study of law, which he early began, was interrupted by his entering the army; but at the close of the war he resumed his studies with Sewall Lancas- ter, and was admitted in 1866. His business relations with Mr. Lan- caster continued until the latter's death.

Henry F. Blanchard was born at Rumford, Me., April 26, 1838. He studied law with McCunn & Moncrief, New York city, and afterward with W. W. Bolster, then of Dixfield, now of Auburn, Me. He was admitted to the bar of Oxford county in 1859, and was in the practice of his profession at Rumford Point at the outbreak of the rebellion. After the war, in which he served, he located at Augusta, and since

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

1874 has been a member of the firm of Weeks & Blanchard in that city.

Thomas Bond was graduated from Harvard in 1801, studied law with Samuel S. Wilde at Hallowell, and was received by him into partnership at the time he was admitted to practice. Their connec- tion in business continued until 1815, when Mr. Wilde was appointed to the supreme bench. Mr. Bond died suddenly in 1827.

George K. Boutelle, son of Dr. Nathaniel R., and grandson of Timothy Boutelle (page 308), was born in Waterville in 1857, gradu- ated from Harvard University in 1878 and from Harvard Law School in 1882. He read law with E. F. Webb and was admitted to the bar in 1888, in which year he opened his present office in Waterville. He is secretary for Maine of the Harvard Law School Association, and in 1891 was elected a director of the Ticonic National Bank, with which his father and grandfather had been for so long a period connected. In October, 1891, he married May Wheelock, granddaughter of Judge Seth May.

Thomas Bowman, of Augusta, son of Jonathan Bowman, was born in May, 1774, graduated at Harvard in 1794, read law with Judge Bridge, and was admitted to the bar in 1797. He married Sally How- ard and lived and died in Fort Western.

JAMES WARE BRADBURY, LL.D.,* was born at Parsonsfield, July 10, 1802. He is the son of Dr. James Bradbury, a successful practitioner in Parsonsfield for more than forty years, and of his wife, Ann, daugh- ter of Samuel Moulton, of Newbury, Mass. He is a lineal descendant in the seventh generation from Thomas Bradbury, who came from Essex county, England, in the first half of the seventeenth century, as the agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, proprietor of the territory now comprising the state of Maine.

James W. Bradbury attended the common schools of Parsonsfield, the academies at Saco, Limerick and Effingham, and finished his preparatory course under the tutorship of Preceptor Nason, at Gor- ham. In the autumn of 1822 he entered Bowdoin College one year in advance, and graduated with the famous, class of 1825, among his classmates being Nathaniel Hawthorne, John S. C. Abbott, Henry W. Longfellow and George B. Cheever. Mr. Bradbury and two others are the sole survivors of the class.

Soon after graduating Mr. Bradbury came to the Kennebec and became preceptor of Hallowell Academy, which position he retained for one year, when he resigned to commence the study of law, read- ing first with Rufus McIntire, of Parsonsfield, and then with Ethan and John Shepley, of Saco. Having completed the necessary course of study, and while waiting for admission to the bar, he opened a school in Effingham, N. H., for the training of teachers; it being * By the Editor.

بريجو

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among the first, if not the very first attempt at a normal school in New England.

He was admitted to the bar in 1830 and located at Augusta. In connection with his legal practice he became for one year editor of the Maine Patriot, a democratic paper then published in the town. In 1833 he formed a law partnership with Horatio Bridge. His subse- quent law partners were Lot M. Morrill, J. M. Meserve and Richard D. Rice, Mr. Bradbury in each case being the senior partner.

In 1835 Governor Dunlap appointed him attorney for Kennebec county, a trust which he faithfully discharged for four years. He has always been a democrat, and in 1846 was elected to the United States senate for the term of six years, from March 4, 1847. He was placed upon the committees on printing, claims, and the judiciary. In his duties upon the latter his legal knowledge soon gave him promi- nence, and he was continued upon it to the end of his term. He ad- vocated the compromise measures offered in the senate by Mr. Clay July 24, 1850, and in 1852 he made the leading argument in favor of the French Spoliation bill.

He was the originator of the movement which led to the establish- ment of the court of claims, and introduced and advocated the meas- ure to indemnify Maine and Massachusetts for land conveyed to set- tlers under the treaty of Washington. He also secured the passage of a bill for the payment to the state of Maine of interest on money advanced for expenses incurred in the eastern boundary troubles, and it was through his efforts that the first appropriation was made for improving the navigation of the Kennebec river.

At the expiration of his term he resumed the practice of the law at Augusta. He is a railway director, a bank director, the head of the board of management of Bowdoin College, and a member of the standing committee of the Maine Historical Society. He has been a resident of the state for three generations and of Kennebec county for two. He has outlived all his contemporaries and early business associates, and is still in the enjoyment of fairly good health. He has long been a communicant of the Congregational church. He married, November 25, 1834, Eliza Ann, daughter of Captain Thomas West- brook and Abigail (Page) Smith, of Augesta. The father of Mrs. Bradbury came from Dover, N. H., to Augusta in 1805, and was a suc- cessful merchant. He was related to the Westbrooks, Waldrons and other noted New Hampshire families, and remotely to Mr. Bradbury, through Elizabeth Bradbury, daughter of Thomas, the immigrant. Mrs. Bradbury was a woman of great energy of character and of remark- able executive ability. She died very suddenly, January 29, 1879, greatly mourned, and by none more sincerely than by the poor, to whom she had been a true friend and benefactor. Of their four sons, all of whom grew to manhood, only one remains, and he, with a

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

granddaughter, constitutes the sum total of Mr. Bradbury's descend- ants.

Ebenezer Bradish, a graduate of Harvard, came to Hallowell and began practice in 1795 or 1796. About 1800 he removed to the West.

Newell W. Brainerd read law with E. F. Webb, was admitted to the bar in 1886, and in that year began practice in Fairfield, opening, a few months later, an office in Clinton also, where he continued in practice until November, 1890, when he removed to Skowhegan, and the following month assumed the duties of clerk of courts.

Judge James Bridge, of Augusta, eldest son of Edmund Bridge, was born in 1765, graduated at Harvard in 1787, studied law with Judge Parsons, established himself at Augusta in 1790, and was made the first judge of probate of Kennebec county. He resigned this office in 1804. In 1820 he was appointed one of the joint commission- ers of Massachusetts and Maine "to adjust the personal concerns of the two states." He died in 1834.

Horatio Bridge, third son of Judge Bridge, was born in 1806. He graduated from Bowdoin in 1825, studied law, and began practice in Augusta, but soon removed to Skowhegan, where he practiced a while, and then resumed practice in Augusta.

Edmund T. Bridge, eldest son of Judge Bridge, was born in 1799. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1818, studied law at Augusta, with Judge Fuller, and became his law partner. He was an active democratic politician; edited the Maine Patriot and The Age for a num- ber of years, and was the most influential promoter of the enterprise of building the Kennebec dam, by which he at first made, and after- ward lost, a fortune. He was a writer of ability, and possessed rare business talents. He died in 1854.

Nathan Bridge was born in 1775, studied law with his brother, James, in Augusta, was admitted to the bar in 1798, and settled in Gardiner, being the first lawyer there. He died in 1827.

Simon S. Brown, son of Luke and Polly (Gilman) Brown, was born in Clinton July 6, 1833. He fitted for college under Dr. J. H. Hanson, at Waterville Academy, and entered Waterville College in 1854, from which institution he was graduated in 1858, among the first in his class. He was admitted to the bar in 1859, and began practice at Fairfield in 1864. He removed to Waterville in 1881; was elected member of governor's council in 1879, and served as member of the board of education for several years, both in Fairfield and Waterville. At the organization of the city of Waterville, in 1888, he was elected a member of the board of aldermen, of which board he has been chairman continuously to the present time. He has an extensive practice, embracing nearly all the counties of the state. He was a member of the democratic national nominating conventions in 1880 and in 1884; and has been for seven years a member of the democratic

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state committee, and for four years its chairman. He was elected representative in 1892.

Daniel Campbell, a graduate of Dartmouth in the class of 1801, practiced in Readfield, 1808-1818, and then came to Winthrop. In 1824 he abandoned his profession, and entered the Congregational ministry.

John A. Chandler, born May 19, 1792, a son of General John Chand- ler [see page 770], was a lawyer, and in 1832 became clerk of the courts. He died at Norridgewock in 1842.

James Loring Child, born at Augusta, May 31, 1792, attended the Hallowell Academy; commenced the study of law with Whitwell & Fuller, and finished with Bridge & Williams. He was admitted to the bar in 1812, and practiced in Winslow, in partnership with Thomas Rice until 1816. From 1818 to 1822 he practiced at Augusta, in which city he resided for thirty years prior to his death, in 1862.

Winfield S. Choate, born in Lincoln county in 1850, studied law with Artemas Libbey, was admitted to the bar in March, 1872, gradu- ated at Harvard Law School in June, 1872, and was in practice at Au- gusta until January, 1889, when he began service in his present posi- tion as clerk of the courts for this county. He was several terms city solicitor of Augusta, and August 5, 1889, became lieutenant colonel of the First Regiment, Maine State Militia.

Fred W. Clair, born November 26, 1866, at Old Town, Me., was educated in the schools of his native town and Oakland, and gradu- ated from Coburn Classical Institute in 1886. He read law in the office of S. S. Brown, and was admitted in 1891. In April of that year he opened an office in Waterville. He has been city clerk since March, 1891, and became city solicitor in 1892.

William Clark, a native of Hallowell, practiced law there for many years. His son, William H., admitted in 1840, practiced there also, but went to California in 1849.

Oliver Barrett Clason® (Pell', Charles®, Jonathan®, Jonathan', Jona- than3, Samuel2, Stephen') was born September 28, 1850. He fitted for college at Monmouth Academy, and graduated from Bates in the class of '77. He taught school three years, read law with Judge Henry S. Webster, was admitted in 1881, and has since enjoyed a lucrative prac- tice in Gardiner. He has been in both branches of the city govern- ment; was thirteen years on the school board; is one of the trustees of the State Normal School; president of the board of trustees of Bates College, and while a member of the legislature introduced, in 1889, the free text-book bill, and, in 1891, the Australian ballot, which be- came a law, and by which he is best known. Stephen Clason was married in Stamford, November 11, 1654. [See page 664].

Lorenzo Clay enjoyed a good practice at Gardiner from his admis-

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

sion in 1845. His son, Benjamin B. Clay, admitted in 1878, became his partner.

Samuel Dudley Clay, of Gardiner, admitted in 1863, was a promi- nent practitioner at the Kennebec bar. He died about the year 1889.

Daniel Cony, mentioned in the chapter on Augusta, was appointed judge of probate of Kennebec county in 1804, having previously been a judge of the court of common pleas. He died in 1842, in his ninetieth year.

Leslie Colby Cornish, of Augusta, is the only son of Hon. Colby C. Cornish, of Winslow, and was born in that town October 8, 1854. He was fitted for college at Coburn Classical Institute and graduated from.Colby University in 1875. He was principal of the high school at Peterboro, N. H., in 1876 and 1877, and a member of the state house of representatives from his native town in 1877-8. He com- menced the study of law with Baker & Baker, of Augusta, in August, 1878, and finished his studies at Harvard Law School in 1879-80. In October, 1880, he was admitted to the Kennebec bar and in October, 1882, formed a partnership with his instructors, under the name of Baker, Baker & Cornish. He has been a member of both branches of the city government, a trustee of the Lithgow Library since 1883, of Colby University since 1889, of the Augusta Savings Bank since January, 1892, and is secretary and treasurer of the Maine State Bar Association.

Louis O. Cowan, admitted in 1843, practiced but a short time in Augusta, and then went to Biddeford, where he published the Bidde- ford Journal. He died in 1872.

Nathan Cutler was born in 1775, admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1801, removed to Maine in 1803, and was a member of the state senate in 1828-9.

COUNTY ATTORNEYS .- When Maine was made a state, the act pro- viding for this office made it appointive by the governor and council, the tenure depending upon the pleasure of the executive. Ebenezer T. Warren, of Hallowell, was appointed November 24, 1820; Peleg Sprague, of Hallowell, March 23, 1821 (resigned December 22, 1821); and Henry W. Fuller, of Augusta, March 30, 1822.

In February, 1824, the tenure of office was made four years, though it seems the executive power could find means of creating a vacancy whenever it suited their convenience. Chapter III, of the Laws of 1842, made the office elective, and changed the tenure to three years; and in March, 1880, the term was again shortened to two years. The successive incumbents of this important office have included some of the leading lights of the Kennebec bar. Henry W. Fuller, of Augusta, was reappointed March 16, 1826; Robert Goodenow, January 18, 1828, and February 17, 1832; James W. Bradbury, Augusta, January 17,

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1834; Henry W. Paine, Hallowell, March 27, 1838; George M. Weston, Augusta, January 18, 1839; Henry W. Paine, April 6, 1841; George M. Weston, January 26, 1842; Henry W. Paine, January 2, 1843, and Jan- uary 1, 1846; Richard H. Vose, Augusta, January 1, 1849, and January 1, 1853; Sewall Lancaster, Augusta, January 9, 1856; Charles Dan- forth, Gardiner, January 3, 1859, and January 1, 1862; Lorenzo Clay, Gardiner, January 1, 1865; Samuel C. Harley, Hallowell, January 1, 1868. Mr. Harley died in office, and William P. Whitehouse, of Augusta, was appointed October 12, 1869. F. E. Webb, of Winthrop, was elected that fall, but died before the next January, and Mr. White- house filled the continued vacancy during 1870. He was elected in 1870 for the full term, beginning with January, 1871, and again for the term beginning January, 1874. His successors have been: Ed- mund F. Webb, Waterville, January 1, 1877; Herbert M. Heath, Augusta, January 1, 1880; William T. Haines, Waterville, January 1, 1883, and January 1, 1885; Leroy T. Carleton, Winthrop, January 1, 1887, January 1, 1889, and January 1, 1891.

The present County Attorney, Leroy T. Carleton, of Winthrop, is a grandson of Joseph Carleton, who came from New Hampshire to Byron, Me., prior to 1810, and married. Miss Marston, of Andover, Me. Joseph's son, Thomas, was born in Byron, in April, 1815, and reared in Berlin, now a part of Phillips, Me. He married Hannah, daughter of Esquire William Parker, of French Huguenot extraction. Esquire Parker was a trial justice, and for many years was counsellor of the people, and arbiter of their differences, in all that section of Franklin county. His wife was the daughter of a Freewill Baptist clergyman, Rev. Mr. Wilbur.

Thomas Carleton died in March, 1882. His son, the subject of this sketch, was born in Phillips, February 8, 1848. In the intervals of farm work, for which he received the munificent compensation of twenty dollars a month, he attended the district schools, and there imbibed the desire for a more extended education which, by diligent self-training, he afterward acquired. But the breaking out of the re- bellion diverted for a time the lad's thirst for the knowledge of books, and being then of the mature age of fourteen, he determined to ac- quire a knowledge of the world instead. Stating his age at eighteen -a patriotic falsehood at which his recording angel must have surely winked-he enlisted in the 9th Maine Volunteers, and with his gun and knapsack went to the front. At the expiration of his service with the 9th, he reënlisted as a veteran in the 32d Maine, his service with both regiments comprising three and a half years. He was in thirteen engagements, and was three times wounded-at Cold Har- bor, Fort Wagner and at the Burnside Mine Explosion, where his regiment of 300 was engaged and but 27 came out of the fight. He

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was mustered out at the close of the great struggle as a non-commis- sioned officer.

He then taught school for a time, during which period he fitted for college under Doctor Torsey, at Kents Hill Seminary. He next worked three years in the Bailey oilcloth shops, at the same time reading law with Ezra Kempton at Winthrop. He was admitted to the bar in 1874, at the August term of the supreme judicial court, and opened his office in Winthrop, where he has since resided. He mar- ried Nellie M., daughter of George A. Longfellow [see page 864]. Their only child, George L., born May 7, 1875, was a student at Kents Hill in the collegiate preparatory course, but died May 19, 1892, after a brief illness.

Mr. Carleton was elected county attorney in 1886, and entered upon the duties of the office in January, 1887. By successive reëlec- tions he has held the position to the present time, and in September, 1892, was again elected for the term ending with December, 1894, the longest service ever accorded to an incumbent of this office. He is best known through his administration of this difficult office. The courage, tact and ability he has displayed have won for him the con- tinued support of the people. During the last five years 131 different commitments to jail for violation of the prohibitory law have been made, and $44,265 has been paid the county treasurer in fines and costs, as against fifty commitments and $16,161 in fines and costs, for the same length of time before he was county attorney; and the salary of the office, which was $600 per annum before Mr. Carleton's incumbency, has been increased by the state to $1,000. There is no fiction in figures, no fancy in facts; and his official record speaks for itself.

Evans A. Carleton read law with his brother, Leroy T., in Win- throp, and was admitted to the bar in 1891. His home is now in Helena, Mon.

Charles Danforth, son of Israel and Sally (Wait) Danforth, was born in Norridgewock August 1, 1815. After attending school at the academies in Farmington and Bloomfield, he studied law in the office of John S. Tenney, and was admitted to the bar in 1838. He moved to Gardiner in 1841, opening an office with Noah Woods, under the firm name of Danforth & Woods. In 1854 Mr. Woods retired from legal practice. Mr. Danforth continued alone until 1864, when, on January 5th of that year, he was appointed to the judicial bench. He married Julia S., daughter of Deacon William W. Dinsmore, of Nor- ridgewock, January 11, 1845. Two children were the issue of their marriage: Edwin, born November, 1845, died September, 1849; and Frederick, born 1848.

Ebenezer Furbish Deane, born in 1801 at Minot, Me., graduated

Lewy Madlions.

PRINT, E. BIERSTADT, N. Y.

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THE KENNEBEC BAR.

from Bowdoin College in 1824, and practiced in Gardiner until his death, September 22, 1848.

Franklin M. Drew graduated from Bowdoin College in 1858, was admitted in 1861, removed to Augusta about 1872, where for five years he was pension agent, and then went to Lewiston, and is now judge of probate for Androscoggin county.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 36

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