USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > History of Detroit and Wayne County and early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present, Vol. II > Part 20
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SAMUEL T. DOUGLASS, one of the oldest living members of the Detroit Bar, was born at Wallingford, Rutland County, Vermont, February 28, 1814, and his ancestors were among the early settlers of New England. While he was a child his parents removed to the village of Fredonia, ( hau- tauqua County, New York, where he received an academic education and studied law in the office of James Mullett, for many years a judge of the Su- preme Court of New York. In the year 1832 Mr. Douglass went to Saratoga and continued his law studies under the preceptorship of the distinguished Esek Cowen.
. Five years later he removed to Detroit, where he was admitted to the bar and soon after began to prac- tice at Ann Arbor. In 1838 he returned to Detroit and became a member of the firm of Bates, Walker & Douglass, his partners being Asher B. Bates and
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Henry N. Walker. Mr. Bates retired about 1840 and the firm became Douglass & Walker, so con- tinuing until 1845, when James V. Campbell, who had been a student in the office, was admitted to partnership, the style of the firm being Walker, Douglass & Campbell. In 1845 Mr. Douglass be- came State Reporter, and two volumes of reports bear his name. In 1851 he was elected Judge of the Circuit Court of the Third Circuit, and during his term served not only as Circuit Judge, but as one of the judges of the Supreme Court, which was com- posed of the judges of the several circuit courts. He took his seat as Judge of the Supreme Court on January 1, 1852, and served until 1857, when a change in the political control of the State caused his retirement, and he resumed his profession. As a lawyer he has been almost uniformly successful, and has been connected with many of the most important cases in the State ; he is especially strong in analysis and argument, and is often retained in equity cases. He is an excellent judge of human nature and when he gave more attention to jury trials had great influence over a jury, due rather to his thorough mastery of his case, and his candor, sincerity and earnestness, than to the graces or arts of oratory. As an adviser, he is calm, thorough and conscientious, and when he has thoroughly mastered a case and decides upon the course of procedure, it is quite safe to look for favorable results. His written opinions upon law points are models of clearness and completeness ; he con- structs carefully and evidently with laborious and painstaking care.
He was one of the earliest members of the Board of Education, serving in 1843 and '44, and also in 1858 and '59, and has always taken special interest in the advancement of the school system. During his last term on the School Board, the litigation with the county was instituted which resulted in the obtaining, by the city, of a large amount of money which had accrued from fines and penalties, and which had previously gone into the county treasury and been diverted to other purposes than those contemplated by law. The money belonged of right to the district library funds, and the result of the litigation, in which Mr. Douglass took an active part, secured a large amount of money for the Pub- lic Library of Detroit. Aside from the offices already named, the only public positions he has held were those of City Attorney for a few months in 1842 and President of the Young Men's Society in 1843.
His political allegiance has always been given to the Democratic party, though always with frank avowal of his dissent from what he deemed its errors ; and he can hardly be said to have been an active politician. His duties as a judge and his
extended legal practice, prevented his entering for any length of time, into the arena of active political life.
He has always been a student and interested not only in legal lore, but in the wide range of subjects interesting to all persons of culture. His tastes have especially led him to the study of natural science and this fact in part, doubtless, originated in his early and intimate acquaintance with his relative, Dr. Douglass Houghton, with whom he made some exploring tours in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan when it was almost entirely unsettled. His delight in nature and in the infinite opportunity that occa- sional retirement affords for reflection and rest, has been abundantly satisfied in the management of a farm on Grosse Isle, which he has owned for over a quarter of a century and upon which much of his time has been spent.
Socially, he is frank, courteous and agreeable. He is independent in thought and speech, an inter- esting companion and a true-hearted friend ; these qualities, with sterling integrity and mental vigor and ability that are universally conceded, are en- dowments that justify the estcem in which he is held.
He was married in 1856 to Elizabeth Campbell, sister of Judge James V. Campbell. They have three children. Their names are Mary C., the wife of Dr. Fred. P. Anderson, of Grosse Isle ; Benja- min Douglass, a civil engineer now in charge of the bridges of the Michigan Central Railroad and its connections, and Elizabeth C., now the wife of Louis P. Hall, of Ann Arbor.
DIVIE BETHUNE DUFFIELD was born in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, August 29, 1821, and is the son of Rev. George Duffield, D. D., and Isabella Graham (Bethune) Duffield. As a child he was a remarkably apt scholar. Entering the preparatory department of Dickinson College, at his native place in his early youth, at the age of twelve, he was prepared to enter the Freshman class of the collegiate department. The rules of the College forbade the admission of students less than fourteen years of age, and without doubt to his subsequent advantage he was compelled to curb his ambition. After the removal of his parents to Philadelphia, in 1835, he studied in that city and entered Yale College with the class of 1840. Unforeseen family circumstances compelled him to leave without then completing his college course ; but he afterwards received the degree of A. B. from Yale. From the first, he manifested a taste for the study of both ancient and modern languages, polite literature and English composition in prose and verse, the gratification of which has formed the relaxation and unfailing pleasure of his life. His
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familiarity with Hebrew, Greek, and Latin has increased with every year, and in French and Ger- man he is proficient. In 1839 he came to Detroit, his father, the year previous, having been settled as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. Soon after his removal here he became a student in the law office of Bates & Talbot, both of the firm being leading members of the Detroit bar. His experi- ence as a law student gave him renewed longings for Yale and a profession, and in 1841 he entered the law department of the Yale Law School, and graduated after taking the courses of both classes, and before he had attained his majority. The greater portion of the same year he spent in the Union Theological School of New York, when, his health failing, he returned to Detroit, and in the fall of 1843 was admitted as a member of the bar of Detroit.
In the spring of 1844 he formed a law partner- ship with George V. N. Lothrop, afterwards Minis- ter of the United States to Russia. This connection continued until 1856. After the dissolution of the partnership, Mr. Duffield continued alone in his pro- fession until after the war, when his youngest brother, Henry M. Duffield, became his legal partner, and this relationship continued for ten years. The firm for several years past has been composed of himself and son, Bethune Duffield, under the firm name of Duffield & Duffield.
Mr. Duffield is a habitual worker, and his career has been constantly marked by industry, ability and success. In 1847 he was elected City Attorney, and for many years he was a Commissioner of the United States Court, these being the only offices he has ever held in the line of his profession. For a score of years or more he has been the Secretary of the Detroit bar, an office which, with his own high standing, has long made him a leading and one of the most widely known lawyers of the city. In 1847 he was elected a member of the Board of Education of Detroit, and his services were almost continuous in that body until 1860, and during sev- eral of these years he was President of the Board. During this period he recast the whole course of study in all the departments and grades, providing for the regular progression of the pupils, and the chief features of his plan are still in force. He was especially active in securing the establishment of the High School, and so thoroughly was he identi- fied with its origin that he is frequently referred to as the "Father of the High School." As Presi- dent of the Board he took a leading part in the successful effort to compel the city to pay over to the Library Commission the moneys received from fines collected in the city criminal courts. The favor- able result of this litigation made possible the excellent public library of which Detroit is justly
proud. After his temporary retirement from the Board, in 1855, in consequence of a contemplated trip to Europe, the Board of Education, in token of appreciation of his services in behalf of educa- tional interests, named the then new Union school building on Clinton street the "Duffield Union School."
In addition to the labors incident to a large pro- fessional practice, he has found opportunity to lend a helping hand in nearly all matters affecting the moral, mental and religious interests of the com- munity. From his early manhood he has been an active member and is officially connected with the First Presbyterian Church, of which his father was so long pastor, and has ever been actively interested in Sunday-school work, and particularly in mission schools, of which he was one of the earliest advo- cates.
In the various phases of temperance reform he has been especially prominent. He was the first President of the Red Ribbon Society, which in 1877 had 8,000 members in Detroit. He is in sym- pathy with all efforts that restrict or regulate the traffic, and has especially championed the so-called Tax Law of Michigan, which is believed by many of the best and purest of citizens to be one of the most effective of instrumentalities in the diminishing of the traffic and curtailing its power for evil. Believing thus, he in 1887 opposed the prohibi- tory amendment to the Constitution of the State in numerous public addresses, and his opposition did much to secure the defeat of the measure. All citizens who are acquainted with him know that he was thoroughly conscientious in his views, and that he has always been zealously foremost in advocating and urging the adoption of all measures which could be clearly shown would conserve the greatest good of individuals or the State; and it is doubtful if any citizen on any question has acted more con- scientiously than did Mr. Duffield in this campaign.
He rendered valuable aid at the time of the organization of the Harper Hospital, perfected its incorporation, and for several years was its Secre- tary. He was also an active member of the Young Men's Society, and its President in 1850.
In politics he was a Whig from the time he cast his first vote until the organization of the Republi- can party in 1856, when he became, and has since remained, an active and leading member of that party. He has persistently declined to become a candidate for office, save the purely local ones already mentioned, but has upon the stump and rostrum, in every important political campaign since he became a voter, earnestly and eloquently advo- cated his party candidates, freely giving his time and service to the work.
During the war he was especially active in sup-
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port of the Government and the cause of the Union. As a speaker and writer, he constantly sought to uphold the Federal cause, and did much to encourage enlistments and inspirit both soldiers and citizens in the great struggle for the Union and the Constitution.
Mr. Duffield's literary accomplishments have made him widely known. Naturally gifted with fine literary taste and discrimination, his education and home influences tended to its development. While quite a youth he was a contributor to the Knickerbocker Magazine, published by Willis Gay- lord Clark, and has since written occasionally for other periodicals, in prose and verse, and as early as 1860 was classed among the prominent poets of the West. Not a few of his fugitive pieces have been published in various Eastern publications, but not always has he received the proper credit. Though often solicited he has as repeatedly refused to publish his collected poems, and those which have seen the light have been such as he believed timely and calculated for some distinctive end. Of the latter class may be mentioned, his historical poem, "The Battle of Lake Erie," delivered upon the occasion of the laying of the corner stone of the Perry monument at Put-in-Bay, a poem at the opening of the Law School building in Ann Arbor, and his "National Centennial Poem," delivered at the celebration in Detroit, on July 4, 1876, each of which were highly commended as having per- manent value. In quite a different vein is his "De Art Medendi," prepared for the fourteenth annual commencement of the Detroit Medical College, a poem combining wit, humor, feeling and reverence, and described as suggesting the nonchalant after- dinner verse of Dr. Holmes. His various poems delivered before the bar of Detroit are of similar character, and are pleasantly remembered by his professional brethren. For many years he has been privileged with the friendship of Premier Gladstone-a distant relative of his mother-and the acquaintance has been cemented by occasional cor- respondence. This fact easily accounts for his poem of "America to Gladstone," a warm tribute from an ardent admirer.
With his professional brethren Mr. Duffield has always stood in the front rank, as well for legal attainments as for industry and fidelity, and that high professional courtesy which is characteristic of the true legal gentleman. In his professional labor he is prompt, clear and incisive, and a constant worker, his literary labor being merely as a pastime. He comes to conclusions only after mature deliber- ation, is positive in his convictions, and bold and independent in defending them. When he espouses any cause it is done earnestly and without regard to personal results, and no citizen is more implicitly
trusted or stands higher in the estimation of his fellows than he. His private and professional life is without blemish, and in all respects he is a true, high-minded, Christian gentleman.
He was married in 1854 to Mary Strong Buell, daughter of Eben N. Buell, of Rochester, New York, and his family consists of two sons, George Duffield, already prominent as a member of the medical profession, and Bethune Duffield, his part- ner and associate in business.
HENRY M. DUFFIELD was born in Detroit, May 15, 1842. His father, Rev. George Duffield, D. D., was born at Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1794. He came to Detroit in 1838, and until his death, in 1868, was the honored and influential pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. Shortly after his arrival he was appointed Regent of the State University, and no man did more to shape and promote that now widely-known institution of learning. The father of Rev. George Duffield was at one time a prominent merchant of Philadelphia, and for nine years Comptroller-Gen- eral of Pennsylvania. His grandfather was the celebrated Rev. George Duffield, who in conjunction with Bishop White served as Chaplain of the first Congress of the United States, and subsequently of the Continental Army. A reward of £50 was offered by the British for his head. His fame as a preacher and fearless and eloquent advocate of liberty is well known to all students of American history. Isabella Graham (Bethune) Duffield, the mother of Henry M. Duffield, was born October 22, 1799, and died in Detroit, November 3, 1871. She was a daughter of D. Bethune, a prominent mer- chant of New York city, and a grand-daughter of the widely known Isabella Graham, whose memory is fragrant in the churches of Scotland and America. Her brother, George W. Bethune, was the dis- tinguished orator and lecturer of New York.
Henry M. Duffield received his earlier education in the public schools of Detroit, graduating from the " Old Capital " school in 1858. After one year's instruction in the Michigan University, in 1859 he entered the junior class of Williams College, Massa- chusetts, then under the management of Mark Hopkins. He graduated in 1861, and enlisted as a private in the Ninth Regiment Michigan Infantry in August of the same year, being the first student from Williams College to join the Union army. A short time after enlistment he was made Adjutant of the regiment. While acting in this capacity he, with his regiment, in July, 1862, participated in the bloody fight with the forces of the rebel General N. B. Forrest, at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and during the engagement was by the side of his brother, General W. W. Duffield, when the latter was twice
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wounded, and as then supposed mortally. So severe and close was the contest that it was impossible to carry his brother from the field until the repulse of the enemy. In this battle Colonel Duffield was taken prisoner, but was exchanged in September of the same year. After his release he was detailed as Assistant Adjutant-General of all the United States forces in Kentucky. He was afterwards appointed Assistant Adjutant -General of the Twenty-third Brigade, Army of the Cumberland. In the cam- paign from Nashville to Chattanooga in 1863, he was attached to the headquarters of General Geo. H. Thomas and was present at all the important battles of the campaign, including Stone River and Chickamauga. At Chattanooga, on October 23, 1863, during the siege of that town by the rebel forces under General Braxton Bragg, he was pro- moted to Post Adjutant. As Post Adjutant of Chattanooga he issued, by order of General John G. Parkhurst, commander of the post, the orders for the Chattanooga United States cemetery, giving particular directions as to its purpose and plan of management. The general plan was subsequently adopted by General Thomas, and from it grew the system of national cemeteries which are at once a testimonial to the heroic devotion of the gallant soldiers buried therein, and to the gratitude of their countryman.
When Major-General George H. Thomas assumed command of the Department of the Cumberland, Mr. Duffield was appointed on his staff as Assistant Provost Marshal General of the department, in which capacity he served until the end of his term of service. During the memorable campaign of General Thomas from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Colonel Duffield was detailed as Acting Provost Marshal General vice General J. A. Parkhurst, dis- abled, and participated in nearly all the hard fought battles of this gallant Union commander, including Resaca, Missionary Ridge, Peach Tree Creek, and Jonesboro, a campaign which resulted in the final capture of Atlanta. During the battle of Chicka- mauga, which was one of the most severe engage- ments in which he took part, he was wounded. His term of service ended at Atlanta, and he was mustered out October 14, 1864.
Returning to Detroit in November, 1864, he began the study of law in the office of D. Bethune Duffield, and in the following April was admitted to practice. Soon afterwards he formed a partner- ship with his brother, D. Bethune Duffield, which continued until 1876, since which date Colonel Duffield has had no associate partner. His position as a lawyer is a desirable one, and as counsel in many important cases he has achieved notable triumphs, both in the highest court in the State and in the Supreme Court of the United States. He
was attorney for the Board of Education of Detroit from 1866 to 1871, and it was at his suggestion and under his conduct, that the Board brought suit against the city and county to recover the fines col- lected in the municipal courts for the benefit of the library fund. The case was strongly defended by William Gray, Theodore Romeyn and other emi- nent lawyers. The Circuit Court decided against the claims of the Board, but upon appeal to the Supreme Court this decision was reversed, and a judgment entered for the Board. As the fruits of this litigation upwards of $27,000 for back fines was collected, and the right of the Board of Education to all future fines was fully established. This decision had much to do in preparing the way for the larger usefulness of the public library.
In 1881 Colonel Duffield became City Counselor, serving three years, and during this time repre- sented the city unaided in all its litigation, both in the Supreme Court of the State and of the United States. During this period, among the most import- ant cases argued and won for the city were: The Mutual Gas Light Company vs. Detroit, in which the opposing counsel were Edward W. Dickerson and George Ticknor Curtiss; the City Railway tax cases, defended by F. A .. Baker and George F. Edmunds. Both of these cases were argued in the United States Supreme Court, and involved large amounts of money and important principles of law.
In his private practice Colonel Duffield has been connected with some of the most important cases which have arisen in the legal history of Detroit. He assisted in the argument of the famous Reeder farm cases, and in the Rothschild tobacco fraud case. He succeeded in defeating the claims of the holders of the notorious "Stroh-Hudson-Windsor crooked paper," and as solicitor of record in the Hunt and Oliver litigation, which was pending for seventeen years in the Circuit and Supreme Court of the United States, he obtained a final decision favorable to his clients in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Colonel Duffield possesses naturally those quali- ties of mind indispensable to a high degree of suc- cess in the legal profession. In temperament he is cool and collected, and in the midst of the most exciting and trying ordeals, readily detects the weak and strong points of a case. To this admirable quality he unites a retentive memory, power of close and continued application, and convincing and per- suasive abilities as an advocate. That he has succeeded in gaining a foremost place among his professional brothers in Detroit is but the natural sequence of the best use of these powers.
He is a Republican in political faith, and for more than twenty years has been an active and helpful factor in the efforts of his party in this
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State. He was nominated for Congress by the Republican convention of this district in 1876, against General Alpheus S. Williams, the Demo- cratic nominee, and although defeated in the election ran 1,300 votes ahead of his ticket. The use of his name has also been solicited by his party as candi- date for Circuit Judge, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, as well as for high political posi- tions, but he has uniformly declined.
He has been a member of the Military Board of Michigan since 1874, and from 1880 to 1887 was President of the Board, and takes a warm interest in the State militia. He has also been an active trustee of the Michigan Military Academy for the past ten years; is interested in several business enterprises in Detroit, being a stockholder in the Bell Telephone Company, of Massachusetts, the American Exchange National Bank, the Detroit Bar Library, Detroit, the Rio Grande Live Stock Company, and the Eureka Iron Company.
He is a member of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, and was the orator at the annual meeting of 1887.
He was married December 29, 1863, to Frances Pitts. They have had seven children, Henry M., Jr., born August 9, 1865, at present a student in the class of 1890 in Harvard College; Samuel Pitts, born January 22, 1869, and Divie Bethune, born March 3, 1870, both attending Philip's Academy, Exeter, Massachusetts ; William Beach, born March 2, 1871, died July 10, 1876; Francis, born October 23, 1873; Morse Stewart, born September 29, 1875, and Graham, born November 21, 1881.
EDMUND HALL was born on the 28th of May, 1819, at West Cayuga, New York. His father was of that family of Halls which traces back to Wallingford, Connecticut, and which, in revolution- ary times, was sufficiently divided to furnish a Signer to the Declaration of Independence, while the Sign- er's cousin, who was Mr. Hall's grandfather, was an energetic adherent of the British. His mother's ancestry ran through the Worths and Folgers to the first white couple married on Nantucket.
With his mother, brother, and three sisters Mr. Hall came to Michigan in 1833, their route being by the Erie canal to Buffalo, and from there by schooner to the mouth of the Detroit river, where they landed, settling where Flat Rock now stands. They were pioneers and poor, but energy and hard work made them independent enough to face even the panic of 1837 without flinching. Some time before that crisis, it had been the cherished hope of the mother that her oldest boy should have a college training, and it was in the midst of the hard times that he acquired it. The nearest preparatory school was at Elyria, Ohio, and there he fitted for Oberlin.
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