History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 30

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co.
Number of Pages: 1124

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The Inferior Court of Common Pleas was the court for the disposition and settlement of all ordinary controversies. It continued in existence under the name first given it, and the Court of Common Pleas, from 1771 until 1859, except for five years, from 1820 to 1825, when it was discontinued. In 1859 it was abolished and its business transferred to the Supreme Judicial Court. It was again revived in 1874, and after two years' existence its business was handed over to the Supreme Court.

The Court of General Sessions of the Peace had for its judges all the justices in commission of the county. It had a limited jurisdiction in criminal complaints and was accompanied by a grand and petit jury. It had the entire control of the financial affairs of the county. The number of justices com- posing the court depended on the number in commission, sometimes more, sometimes less, and the law did not require the justice to reside in the county for which he was commissioned, and it was a matter of choice with the justices as to how many should sit at any particular term. It was a cumbersome and unwieldly institution, and in 1794 its functions were given to the Court of Common Pleas ; some of the judges of the last court, called side judges, attending to financial and special committees formed to lay out highways. In

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

1855 a board of county commissioners was created to act with the court in conducting the financial matters of the county and in laying out highways. By the organization of this board the services of side judges were dispensed with.

The sessions doeket, now a branch of the business of the general term of the Supreme Court, but formerly of the Common Pleas, is all that now remains of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace, and treats only of entries for the laying out of highways.

Probate Court. - This has jurisdiction of the probate of wills, of granting administrations, and of all matters and things of probate jurisdiction relating to the sale, settlement, and final distribution of the estates of deceased persons. It has original jurisdiction in relation to the adoption of children, assignments of dower and homesteads in estate of deceased persons, in the appointment and removal of guardians of minors, insane persons, spendthrifts, together with other powers unnecessary to mention. It has been also a court of insolvency for some years.

The Trial Terms for the County of Carroll are held at Ossipee on the third Tuesday of each April and October.

The Probate Court is held at Conway on the first Tuesday of January, May, and September; at West Ossipee on first Tuesday of February, June, and October ; at Ossipee Corner on first Tuesday of March, July, and November ; at Wolfboro Junction on first Tuesday of April, August, and December.

COURT-HOUSE. - In 1839 the northern part of Strafford county had attained such importance and had so much business in the courts that the county delegation of that year decided to build a court-house in that section and hold regular terms of court there. This action occurred on Saturday, and the delegation adjourned to meet for further consideration of the subject on Monday afternoon at four o'clock. Ossipee was represented in this delegation by a keen, far-seeing man of great executive ability, Asa Beacham, who at once saw that the town who could present the most liberal offer on Monday would be the one most likely to secure the location. Immediately he started for Ossipee (a long ride by private conveyance), and as the county delegation was going up the steps to meet on Monday, joined them. The question of the location came up, and Mr Beacham handed to the chairman a subscription list of $850 secured by him during his brief visit home. This was to be applied toward the building of the court-house if it was located in Ossipee. No other town had any proposition to make, and Mr Beacham succeeded in getting the location. The building was at once built, in season for the April, 1840, term of Strafford county court of common pleas which was held there. Carroll county was created in that year, and had a court-house already provided upon its organization. Thus did Ossipee become the county-seat through the energy of Mr Beacham and the publie spirit of Judge Quarles and other citizens.

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The court-house is sixty-four by forty feet in size, and two stories high, sur- mounted by a belfry of appropriate height containing a bell. A brick wing twelve feet square and two stories in height was built in 1856, making two fire- proof rooms for the preservation of records, etc. At the same time the house was raised and remodeled. In 1887 a similar wing was built on the other side of the house. The building now contains a court-room forty-five by forty feet, offices for the registers of deeds and probate, clerk of the court, county clerk, and county commissioners, and four capacious and safe depositories of county and other documents.

COUNTY FARM, HOUSE, AND JAIL. - In 1869 the county commissioners on behalf of the county purchased two farms containing two hundred and fifty acres of land in Ossipee for a county farm. The farms were about one mile from Ossipee station in a fine, commanding situation, of excellent soil, and the commissioners could not have equaled the advantages here presented in any other part of the county. The citizens of Ossipee contributed about one thousand of the five thousand five hundred dollars purchase money.

In 1870 the house was erected substantially as it is at present. The main part is sixty by thirty-four feet in size, with practically three stories; the L part seventy by thirty-six feet, three stories high; the woodshed sixty by twenty feet, two stories high, the upper one fitted up as a ward for insane inmates. The work was well done and the house well planned for its purpose.

One of the finest barns in the northern part of the state was built on this farm in 1874 at a cost of six thousand dollars. It was one hundred and twenty feet long, forty-five wide, with a cellar costing one thousand dollars. This was burned December 15, 1884, by an Indian boy of eleven years, who having obtained a match set fire to the hay in front of the cattle to see them jump. The barn was consumed with twenty cattle and other property amounting to three thousand dollars. Another barn was built in 1885. This was one hundred feet long and forty-five feet wide, and cost three thousand two hundred dollars.

In 1871 a jail thirty-six by fourteen feet in size, with four double cells, was built as an annex to the county house. The superintendent is the jailer.

Fifty acres have been added to the farm since the original purchase. The institution has accommodations for eighty persons ; the average number of inmates for the last years has been sixty. There has been a great increase in the number of insane in recent years ; there are now twenty cases among the inmates, ten of them incurable.

The superintendents have been Thomas Nute, one year: Sias M. Giles, three years (died in office) ; Jacob Manson, three years ; Porter Philbrick, three years ; W. A. Sherburne, three years ; Jacob Manson from 1884.

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

CHAPTER XXII. COURTS, LAWYERS, AND NOTABLE TRIALS.

BY HION. DAVID H. IIILL.

The night of oblivion so quickly throws into obscurity the fame and merits, the talents and worth, and especially the individual characteristics of lawyers, - most of whom possess some marked peculiarity worthy of remembrance, -that I think every one must be pleased with this design. - Colonel Thomas J. Whipple.

S CARCELY a half-century has passed since the political creation of Carroll county ; yet in that brief space, so short in the great sweep of ages, so vast in the history of two generations, much has transpired that should not be forgotten, and many men of marked personality have been notable actors on the scene, whose memory should be preserved for the generations to come. Their molding fingers have shaped the institutions of the state; their wisdom is impressed upon its legal lore ; and their penetrating voices have been heard above the uproar of an exciting age. When a later generation shall take the places of those now living, or recently dead, and gather " ripe clusters of wisdom from their experience," they will have gone to mingle with things mysterious and eternal, like birds of passage, the stridor of whose great wings breaks for a moment the sky's deep silence ; then pass to the unseen, unknown, and unheard " in realms beyond our sphere." In some degree it is hoped the purpose of these brief sketches may be accomplished by preserving, as truthfully as may be, some pictures of these stern, material men, whose names were, or even now are, household words on the lips of many.

By an act of the legislature of 1839, the court of common pleas was to be held at Ossipee, annually, on the third Tuesday of April, in and for the county of Strafford, but it was provided that " no grand jury should ever attend, or be drawn or summoned to attend, the term of said court already established." At the April term of this court, in 1840, the eminent jurist, John James Gilchrist, was the presiding judge ; Thomas Drake, of Effingham, and Nathaniel Rogers, of Wolfeborough, were side judges ; Francis R. Chase was clerk, and Jonathan Wedgewood, of Effingham, high sheriff. On those cases so entered, or perhaps transferred from the old Strafford docket, appear the names of forty-seven lawyers, among whom were men very eminent in after years. Three at least became judges of the highest court in the state : three became United States senators ; one became minister to the court of Spain; one a justice of the United States Supreme Court ; and one a President of the United States.

Of those who have passed their active lives in the county we shall speak more fully than of those who were born here but who made their reputations in

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other states and counties ; and we hope so to present them that they may for a moment step from the halls of their mysterious silence that the world may look once more on them in their manliness, their dignity, their severe and cold austerity, and their geniality.

When the writer of these sketches was admitted to the practice of law in 1865, in April, the very day that the funeral observances in honor of AAbraham Lincoln were taking place, the members of the ('arroll bar were nearly all aged men. Among them were Samuel Emerson, Ira Bean, Obed Ilall, Joel Eastman, Josiah Dearborn, Zachariah Batchelder, Luther D. Sawyer, Sanborn B. Carter, and Edwin Pease - all gone "into the Silent land," their eyes forever closed on the great lights of the material universe.

FAMOUS LAWYERS. - In addition to the resident lawyers who constantly practised in the county, it can hardly be amiss to speak of those in other coun- ties who have occasionally practised in this county court. The elegant and genial and courtly Franklin Pierce; the massive Christie, who was the worthy rival of the professional giants of New England : the melodious and persuasive James Bell ; John P. Ilale, whose marvelous tact was ever present, and who, when occasion demanded, could " soar to the gates of light"; Nathan Clifford, a ponderous volume of learning ; and many others of equal distinction whose names should be written in this book. We scarcely dare speak of them, for with many we had little or no personal acquaintance, and only knew them by tradi- tion and their recorded contributions to the legal lore of the state. Nor must we omit the attorneys-general of the state who, by virtue of their office, have been partly ours. Distinguished among these were Lyman B. Walker, John Sullivan, the two Clarks, William C. and Lewis W., Mason W. Tappan, and the present official, Daniel Barnard. These men form a legal constellation to which we ever turn with reverence and gratitude.

But there is still another class without a review of whom this work would be incomplete : those lawyers, now living or but recently deceased, from other counties who have shared with us the labors and responsibilities of the bar. Among these we would name Colonel Thomas J. Whipple, one of the most brilliant men in the state, and, in force of originality, the most wonderful man we ever saw ; Samuel M. Wheeler, of whom Jeremiah Smith said "no man so well understood the human nature of the average juror"; George W. Stevens, a man of apparently sluggish temperament, but who, when his lifeblood was stirred, assumed tremendous proportions ; Ellery A. Hibbard, who worked like the forces of gravitation, calmly and dispassionately, but always effectively ; William J. Copeland, a master in the art of cross-examination : Joseph H. Worcester and Charles B. Gafney, representatives of one of the strongest law firms in the state ; James A. Edgerly, Thomas J. Smith, and many others.

SAMUEL EMERSON, son of John Emerson, was born February 4, 1792. IIe was educated at Atkinson academy, and was graduated from Dartmouth in

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

1814. He read law with Kent & Chester, practised in Sandwich about two years, and afterwards removed to Moultonborough, where he passed the remainder of his life and married Mary Moulton, daughter of a merchant there. Mr Emerson was county solicitor for some years, and state senator from district No. 6 in 1859. He was a brother of Rev. John Emerson, once a missionary to the Sandwich Islands.

As a lawyer, Mr Emerson was in the front rank in Carroll county. He made Moultonborough the common centre where legal advice was given for Moultonborough, Sandwich, Tuftonborough, Centre Harbor, and some other towns, and as a counselor he took high rank. He also prepared his cases with great diligence and was especially acute as a special pleader. He did not excel as an advocate. He believed so fully in his client and his interests that he presumed that the jury would have equal faith in them. Estimating Mr Emerson as a whole, he may justly be accorded a high place among lawyers in the county, and even in the state. His practice was very large up to 1860.

JAMES OTIS FREEMAN was born at Coventry, Conn., September 22, 1772, and died at Sandwich, March 30, 1815. He was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1797, and practised law in Sandwich and Moultonborough. Next to Joseph Tilton he was probably the earliest of the Carroll county lawyers. Seventy-four years have passed since his death, and the generation with whom he lived has gone from the earth, hence it is not easy to learn very fully of his personal and professional character. Only tradition has preserved the generally accepted fact that he was a man of great professional brilliance, who, under more favorable circumstances, might have been a great leader in his profession.

SAMUEL PEABODY was born in 1775, and was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1803. Daniel and Ezekiel Webster were in college during a part of his course. He commenced the practice of law in Sandwich at what is now generally called the Lower Corner about 1807. He subsequently moved to Tamworth and afterwards to Massachusetts. He died in 1859. He was a lawyer of good attainments, and many tributes from the press of New Hamp- shire and Massachusetts gave utterance to the high estimation in which he was held. Of his sons, one is a distinguished physician in San Francisco.

JUDGE CHARLES AUGUSTUS PEABODY, son of Samuel Peabody, was born in Sandwich, July 10, 1814. He became, and still is, a very eminent man. He has won an enviable reputation as judge in the highest courts in New York, and has in addition that strength and dignity of character that always accom- panies an extensive influence. His legal learning has contributed much to the judicial lore of his adopted state, and he is a man of whom Carroll county is justly proud.

IRA A. BEAN was born not far from 1799. He married Eliza, daughter of General Daniel Hoit, of Sandwich, and practised his profession, the law, there for several years. He then removed to Ohio, and continued for many years in

WAFer

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the practice of law, and was also in political life, and was at one time a member of the Ohio senate. About 1856 he returned to Sandwich, pursued his profes- sion and engaged in farming until about 1869 or 1870, when he again went to Ohio, where he suddenly died. Mr Bean was a member of the New Hampshire house of representatives in 1865 and 1867, and on the judiciary committee. He was a ready debater. As a lawyer he held a respectable rank, but his chief strength was as an advocate. He was a clear, sharp, and incisive speaker.

LAWYER EVERETT practised in Sandwich a few years not far from 1816 to 1820. Ile then went to Meredith. He is remembered only by the oldest people, but is regarded as having been a man of much ability. Lawyer Grant was also in Sandwich a short time about 1820.

ROBERT TIBBETS BLAZO was born August 11, 1797. After he attained his majority, he attended academies and fitted for college at Wolfeborough. In 1825 he entered the office of Emerson & Hoyt, studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1830, and pursued his profession four years at Moulton- borough and five years at Sandwich Centre, then removed to Parsonsfield, Maine, where he has continued to practise, and is now (1889) the oldest member of the York county bar. He unites strong business qualities with his legal attainments.

WILLIAM MCGAFFEY WEED,' son of William and Rebecca (Foss) Weed, was born at North Sandwich, July 29, 1814.

Jonas Weed was the first American emigrant, and came in the fleet of 1630, probably in the ship with Sir Richard Saltonstall.

The ancestors of William M. Weed were prominently connected with the early settlement and development of what is now Belknap and Carroll coun- ties. In 1761 the first cart-path was made from Epsom to the Gilmanton line, and among the men who cut it was Orlando Weed. January 10, 1762, he brought his wife to Gilmanton, his being one of the three first families settling there. This was a winter of fearful severity, snow lying nearly six feet on a level. The first birth in Gilmanton was that of his daughter Dorothy, born October 13, 1762.

Mr Weed became the settling agent of the proprietors of Sandwich, as narrated elsewhere, but soon after pitching here he discovered iron ore in Burton, and removed thither, as he was a machinist and saw prospective wealth in developing the mineral resources. He erected a rude smithy and succeeded in producing a coarse steel out of which he made good springs for traps. His first work was to forge an anvil, and then to construct the tools he needed. Tradition says that he also forged anchors which he drew to Ports- mouth over the rough roads on a car made of two poles. He was prominent in all town matters, filled responsible positions, and died in Albany at more than ninety years of age. His sons Henry and Bagley remained in Sandwich.

1 By W. A. Fergusson.

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

McGaffey, an ancient resident of North Sandwich, whose title-deeds are dated in 1786. He was also brother of Eliphalet and Josiah McGaffey, who lived and died in the Whiteface neighborhood, and an uncle of John McGaffey, of Chicago. He removed from Sandwich in early life and became a successful lawyer in Ohio, afterwards in Michigan and Texas.

JOHN MCGAFFEY was born in Sandwich, April 20, 1833, went to Ohio in 1853, married Louisa A., daughter of F. W. Pratt, Esq., April 4, 1855. He read law with Hon. Richard A. Harrison, of London, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1860. He has been journalist and lawyer, and is now practising in Chicago. Of his children two sons and two daughters survive; the sons are practising lawyers in Chicago: the younger, Ernest, is rising in the higher walks of literature. His writings have attracted very considerable attention, but it is yet too early to fix his literary rank. IIe gives evidence of decided originality, and strikes poetic veins worthy "of the great days of old."

John McGaffey has traveled extensively in his own country, has been con- nected as editor or correspondent with several of the leading journals of the West. He is very happy in his domestic relations; his wife is a most estimable woman, and his children have attained such positions in society as to be equal to the best expectations of their father. His professional rank is gratifying, commanding the respect of the court and his legal brethren, as well for his legal abilities as for his social qualities.

Lady Blessington once said to N. P. Willis : "Mr Willis, I receive letters very frequently from New England and other parts of America from strangers whose names I have never heard ; most affectionate letters, wherein they refer to some of my own writings in terms of greatest kindness, sometimes compli- menting me in most delicate language and apparently good faith, and they evince a knowledge of literature that astonishes me. What am I to make of this, Mr Willis? Are they sincere, or do they presume upon my vanity?" Mr Willis replied : "They are your sincere admirers, and this you would more easily perceive if you knew that in almost every village of New England, and scattered upon many of its farms, are persons of wonderful taste and culture who are familiar with all the great writers upon both continents, and with the leaders in literary society." Lady Blessington then said : "And do you believe, Mr Willis, that these are the people who write to me? To know this would be most gratifying."

We introduce this conversation (a memory of something read a quarter of a century ago), to say that such as the people above described were the father and mother of John MeGaffey, common people with uncommon taste and culture. Mr MeGaffey is a man of extensive reading and culture, and all that is beautiful, original, tender, stern, or mighty in language is written upon his soul and molds his very being. He is one whom Sandwich would welcome back to look once more upon her native majesty.

WAF .- - w X.

with Hill

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JUDGE DAVID HAMMONDS HILL 1 is a native of Berwick, Maine, where he was born December 12, 1833.

In 1662 some of the sect called Quakers came from England to Dover. Here they met great persecution ; they were invited to Kittery, went thither, established their faith there, and returned to Dover to undergo severer tribula- tions and cruelties than they had experience l before ; but by their faithfulness, endurance, and exemplary walk in life they overcame opposition and built up a goodly people in New Hampshire and in Maine. The ancestors of Judge Hill were of this faith, and possessed the plain, unostentatious, industrious, and sober characteristics of the Friends. His father, Oliver, was a farmer of fair education for his days, whose good judgment and strong common-sense caused him to stand high among his associates. He married Lucinda Hammonds of the somewhat distinguished Maine family of that name. When David was nearly four years old (1837) the family removed to Sandwich in this county and became permanent residents.

David had early aspirations for knowledge, was fitted for college under private teachers and the academy at Wolfeborough, but on account of ill-health did not enter college. In place of this he became a popular teacher in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts for several years. Without at the time intending to become a lawyer, he read law with Samuel M. Wheeler and Joshua G. Hall, of Dover. As he progressed, he was more and more inter- ested in the profession, decided to devote himself to its practice, and supple- mented his studies with the advantages of Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the bar at the April term of court at Ossipee in 1865, opened an office at his home, Centre Sandwich, and has since been in active practice. He has been no noisy or cunning pettifogger seeking to profit in pocket or reputa- tion by the disputes of the people, no stirrer up of strifes, but one who remem- bered that the peacemakers are blessed. He is not a student of commentaries and reports, and delves not in the realm of musty and timeworn statutes, but he quickly seizes upon the strong points of a case, carries them in his mind, takes time for deliberation and reflection, and by an intuitive comprehension of the underlying principles of justice, is able to arrange his case so that it will hang upon a few hinges fastened upon the eternal verities of truth. Thus in his presentation of a ease he is original, strong, and sagacious, and has con- ducted important causes to success. He is regarded as a safe and sensible counselor and a sound lawyer of eminent integrity.

In 1870-71 he was representative to the legislature from Sandwich and served on two important committees: that of the judiciary, and a special committee to investigate the affairs of the Concord and Northern railroads, and from his convictions was forced to submit a minority report on the latter, in opposition to all but two of his colleagues, and to support his report in the

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History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 30

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co. Number of Pages: 1124

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co.
Number of Pages: 1124