History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 32

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

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GEORGE Y. SAWYER was born in Wakefield in 1805, commeneed the practice of law at Laconia, and removed to Nashua in 1834. He soon attained a high professional standing and an extensive practice, and, when a member of the legislature, had great influence in shaping its action. In 1855 he was appointed judge of the court of common pleas, and afterwards of the supreme judicial court. He died in 1882. He was unquestionably a very able man, and both as lawyer and advocate his rank was very high. He addressed a court or jury with great force and eloquence. George Ramsdell, of Nashua, regarded him as one of the best special pleaders in the state.

HON. JOSHUA GILMAN HALL was born in Wakefield about 1826. He was

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educated at Wakefield and Gilmanton academies and at Dartmouth, where he was graduated in 1851. He then traveled somewhat in the southern states, and on his return commenced the study of law in Dover with Daniel M. Christie, the educator, probably, of more eminent lawyers than any other man in New Hampshire. Mr Hall practised his profession a few years in Wakefield, then went to Dover, where he entered into a partnership with Hon. Samuel M. Wheeler. This law firm was a very strong one. From about 1858 and for ten years thereafter Wheeler & Hall were the immediate rivals of Mr Christie, then in the maturity of his vast legal powers, and it is credit enough to say that they won their full share of verdicts in their contests with that professional giant. This firm soon after dissolved, and Mr Hall has continued in practice in Dover since, with the exception of the years from 1879 to 1883, while he was a member of the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses.

Mr Hall has from time to time held other positions of much importance. He was for nearly ten years solicitor of Strafford county ; for two years mayor of Dover; two years state senator; United States district-attorney for the district court of New Hampshire ; in addition to many offices of trust in banking and other institutions, and special appointments from the supreme court in railroad matters and business of a similar nature. He is and has been for many years a very strong lawyer. Frank Hobbs, when in the fulness of his powers, was accustomed to say that Joshua G. Hall was his strongest opponent, and added : "To begin with the beginning, Joshua is an excellent lawyer and his learning is thorough ; and a yet stronger element is that he rarely errs in judgment ; and in addition to all, his personal and professional honesty so commend them- selves both to the court and to juries that his statements are generally accepted as gospel."

JOHN PAUL, formerly of Wakefield, was admitted to the bar. He has been a teacher at West Lebanon and other places. He has a farm in Sullivan county, where he resides.

AMASA C. PAUL, of Wakefield, received the degree of LL.B. at Columbia university in 1882, and is now in Minneapolis, Minn.

CHARLES CHESLEY was born in Wakefield, April 12, 1827. He was grad- uated at Bowdoin College in 1852. He was engaged in teaching for two or three years after leaving college. He studied law with Hon. John Hickman, of West Chester, Pa, and Messrs Woodman & Doe, of Dover, and was admitted to the bar in Carroll county in November, 1856, and commenced the practice of law at Wakefield in January, 1857. He was county solicitor in 1861, 1862, and 1863; was connected with the board of enrollment for the first congres- sional district of New Hampshire from June, 1863, to June, 1865. He was employed in the law branch of the office of the commissioner of internal revenue at Washington, D. C., from June, 1865, until July, 1872, and in the office of the United States attorney-general on business before the United

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States court of claims from July, 1872, to October, 1872, and was solicitor of internal revenue from October, 1872, until July, 1888. In November, 1859, Mr Chesley married Mrs Sarah E. Twitchell, a native of Wakefield, whose maiden name was Swasey. Mrs Chesley died at Washington, D. C., August 20, 1888. John H. Chesley, Mr Chesley's only child, is engaged in mercantile pursuits in Washington, where Mr Chesley is at present remaining.

Mr Chesley is descended from one of the distinguished families of the county, and has been very successful in business, being one of the most ready and efficient men in public life in clerical matters and in all those qualities that make an officer that can be relied on. His active life has been almost entirely passed in public service. He is one of those men whom his native town and county highly appreciate.

FRANK HOBBS, a lawyer of commanding ability, practised mostly in Carroll and Strafford counties from about 1866 to 1877. He was a son of Josiah Hobbs, a lawyer of marked distinction at Wakefield. He was grad- uated from Dartmouth College about 1862 and read law with the eminent Daniel M. Christie, of Dover, who could number among his students Chief Justice Perley, John P. Hale, Chief Justice Doe, ex-congressman Joshua G. Hall, ex-judge Jeremiah Smith, and many others equally distinguished. Mr Hobbs married Emma Josephine, daughter of Mr Christie.

Early in his practice Mr Hobbs flashed into distinction like a meteor in the starry midnight. Colonel Thomas J. Whipple, who knew him well, spoke of him as " the first lawyer in New Hampshire of his years." His strong quality as a lawyer was his ready discernment of distinction in legal principles, and his discussions of intricate points arising in the progress of a trial were listened to by the court with profound interest and by the bar with frequent astonish- ment. He was an aggressive and bold practitioner, and gave great promise at the age of thirty-six years to be one of the shining lights of the profession ; but a mental malady fell on him, from which he will probably never recover. We might speak of him as Whittier spoke of his friend, J. O. Rockwell, as

One whom the winds visited roughly And the passer-by smote down in wantonness.

CHARLES W. SANBORN, son of Hon. John W. Sanborn, was born in Wake- field, December 19, 1849. He prepared for college at Phillips Exeter academy, and was graduated at Dartmouth College in the class of 1872. He read law with Luther D. Sawyer, George William Burleigh, and finished his legal studies with Chief Justice Doe. He was admitted to the bar about 1879. He married Addie E. Smith, December, 1872, and died January 17, 1886. His career was brief, and not many young men could look into the future with brighter hopes of success than Mr Sanborn, whose natural endowments and extensive culture

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were equaled by few. But just as broader fields were opening before him, at a season when he might have soared into the free world of action, he passed away while his young ambition was but partly realized.

EDWARD A. PAUL, of Wakefield, was admitted to the bar while the suc- cessful founder and principal of the high school in Washington, D. C., where he met an untimely death by accident-a horse colliding with the bicycle he was riding - April 2, 1888, at thirty-two, much lamented. He married, June, 1887, Sarah H. Woodman, the great-granddaughter of Parson Hidden, of Tamworth.

ARTHUR L. FOOTE was born at Lewiston, Maine, December 25, 1863, and was educated at the Great Falls high school, where he graduated in 1883; he then commenced the study of law with George E. Beacham and William G. Pierce, and was admitted to the bar at Concord, March, 1887. He thereupon entered into partnership with George E. Beacham at Wolfboro Junction, and they are engaged in the business of insurance as well as law. Mr Foote is a young lawyer of good general learning, a man who attends diligently to his professional duties, has rare conversational powers, and is growing in reputa- tion with his increasing years. It is not so easy to predict the future as to record the past, and in speaking of rising young men like Mr Foote we cannot speak as we can of the man whose record is made and the sum total of whose life is complete. But so far as human judgment can be made from facts already historic, we are justified in predicting for Mr Foote a future of high and worthy achievement.

In the autumn of 1864 ex-Governor Emory Washburn, then one of the law professors at Harvard, said to the students : "Many young men fail to become leading lawyers from causes of which they are unaware. Some from inexcusa- ble neglect of their business; some get too much involved in politics; some neglect their profession for other business, while others are so ill-mannered or dishonest that few clients can be found who are willing to employ them, and they fail as lawyers and never understand the reason why." He then added : "But an instance of a well-read, diligent, honest, courteous young lawyer, who has fairly good ability, failing to become a successful lawyer is exceedingly rare." This remark, coming from a man of keen observation and extensive experience, is worthy of being remembered.

JOSIAH DEARBORN was born in Effingham, September 25, 1790, and died March 31, 1873. He fitted for college at Fryeburg academy. He studied law with Samuel Cushman, of Parsonsfield, Maine, and William Sawyer, of Wakefield, and commenced practice in Effingham in 1819, and had quite an extensive practice. He had a very thorough knowledge of the common law, prepared his cases with great care, and had withal that quality which is so absolutely requisite in all professions, excellent judgment. In addition to this he was cool and self-possessed in difficult cases, and kept his temper under admirable control, and his clients could rely on his best powers in the

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management of their business. He was one of that circle of venerable men whom in 1860 we used to look upon in the Carroll county bar, and whose heads, white with the wisdom of age, seemed like the fathers whose mantles were so soon to fall on the present generation. Such men were Josiah Dear- born, Joel Eastman, Ira A. Bean, Zachariah Batchelder, Obed Hall, and Luther D. Sawyer, all passed now into the courts eternal.

SAMUEL Q. DEARBORN is a son of Josiah Dearborn, of Effingham. He was graduated at Dartmouth in the class of 1860, and read law with his father and also with Hon. Daniel M. Christie. On admission to the bar he returned to Effingham, and has since divided his time between general business and the practice of his profession. Mr Dearborn is devoting much energy to the educa- tion of his children, and with apparent good success.

HAYES LOUGEE, formerly of Effingham, practised law for a few years in Moultonborough, is now in Boston, and still has some clients in Carroll county. He read law with Colonel Thomas J. Whipple, and was admitted to the bar in Belknap county. He is a bold practitioner, and wins a fair proportion of verdicts.

JOHN SUMNER RUNNELLS, son of Rev. John and Huldah (Staples) Runnells, was born at Effingham, N. H., July 30, 1846. He fitted for college at New Hampton, and was graduated at Amherst College in 1865. He read law with Samuel M. Wheeler at Dover, and finished his law studies in Iowa. He was American consul in England, and soon after was appointed state reporter of the supreme court of Iowa. He is, and for many years has been, attorney for the Pullman Car company.

As a student at Amherst he was one of the most brilliant of all its distin- guished alumni, and is reported to have ranked first among its many graduates as a Greek scholar. He is a polished, bright, and effective orator, and one of the most talented men that ever emigrated from New England.

ORESTES TOPLIFE, son of Dr Calvin Topliff, of Freedom, died about twenty-five years ago, in early life. He was a lawyer of very considerable promise and was already attaining local eminence at the time of his death. He had natural abilities of such an order that he might have reached a rank quite above the average lawyer.

NICHOLAS G. BLAISDELL was born in Madison, where he died a few years since. He received a good academic education and was graduated from the Harvard Law School. He did but comparatively little in the practice of his profession, devoting nearly the whole of his active life to business in Massachu- setts and New York, passing his last years in Madison.

ELMER SMART, of Rochester, formerly of Freedom, was born about 1860. On completing his academical studies, he was engaged in teaching for a few years. He commenced the study of law with Judge Andrews, of Maine, but completed his law studies with Worcester & Gafney of Rochester, was

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admitted to the bar in 1887, and has already established a very fair practice in Rochester. IIe has held local offices of considerable importance, and with good health, industry, and ambition there seems to be no reason why he may not rise to eminence in his profession.

JOSIAH H. HOBBS,1 son of Dr Daniel S. and Judith G. Hobbs, was born in Madison, December 22, 1834. His father was a man of cultivated taste and excellent medical knowledge and ability ; his mother, of active temperament, keen intuitions, and sagacious common-sense, a valuable resident of the commu- nity, a woman well fitted to discharge the important duties of a mother. The education of Josiah commenced in early years under her instruction, was con- tinued at Parsonsfield (Maine) seminary and Fryeburg academy, where he was fitted for college. He entered Dartmouth in the class of 1856, was duly grad- uated and in due time was made A.M. Ex-Governor Prescott was a member of the same class. In 1857 Mr Hobbs went to Albany, N. Y., entered the office of a prominent lawyer as a student and enrolled himself as a member of the Albany Law School, then in its palmiest days, and was graduated from that institution in 1859, receiving the degree of LL.B. In the same year he commenced practice in Madison, where he has since been located. He was appointed county solicitor in 1864, again in 1869, and held the office ten years. He has been much in town affairs, and bears the reputation among his towns- men of strict honesty and capability in the discharge of important official functions. He has ever been identified with the Republican party and is an energetic worker for its principles. By close attention to business he has done much work which has caused him to stand well among his brethren, and he has been prominently mentioned for positions requiring legal erudition in a more than common degree. Mr Hobbs married, January 3, 1878, Mary E. Erwin, a member of the distinguished Erwin family of western New York. They have one child, Josiah Irving, born June 11, 1880.

URIAH COPP, JR, of Ossipee, was a young man of marked ability thirty years ago, and was frequently engaged as a teacher in local high schools. He was a lawyer, but emigrated to the West in the early days of his practice.

SANBORN B. CARTER was born February 20, 1819, and died July 8, 1881. In the years of his active life he was almost constantly in public positions of trust, the variety of his offices having been as extensive as that of any man perhaps who ever lived in the county. He held the offices of school committee of his town, school commissioner of the county, moderator some fifteen years, town clerk a number of years, representative to the legislature several years, a member of the judiciary committee in 1870, county solicitor five years, regis- ter of probate five years, register of deeds seven years, twice a member of constitutional convention. He read law with Hon. John T. Paine, of Massachusetts, and Hon. Charles Woodman, of Dover. Mr Carter was a

1 By W. A. Fergusson.

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lawyer of good repute ; courteous and agreeable in his manners, he was person- ally popular, and in probate practice he was once regarded as the leading lawyer in the county. He was a Democrat in politics. He was one of five persons who established the Episcopal church in Dover. Mr Carter was badly injured in the terrible railroad collision on the Boston, Concord & Montreal railroad near Weirs in 1852, from which he never fully recovered.

BUEL CLINTON CARTER, a son of Sanborn B. Carter, was born in Ossipee, January 20, 1840. He was graduated from Yale College in 1862, in the class with W. H. H. Murray and Joseph Cook. On his return from college his military life commenced. (See Carroll in the Rebellion.) When Major Carter returned to civil life he commenced the study of law with his father, and after admission to the bar located at Wolfeborough, where he remained ten years and had a successful practice, and also held the office of prosecuting attorney for the county for several terms. In 1879 he became a member of the law firm of Carter & Nason, at Dover; in 1881 he was appointed bank commissioner, and continued in that office until his death at Rollinsford, December 11, 1886. "Major Carter was a sincere friend, an able lawyer, au honest man ; noble and generous in all the acts of a busy and useful life."

COLONEL SAMUEL D. QUARLES, of Ossipee, born January 16, 1833, is one of the marked men of Carroll county. He is a son of Judge Quarles, and was educated at the common and high schools of his native town, at the academy at New Hampton, and had a special course at Michigan University, Ann Arbor. He then entered upon the study of law with Luther D. Sawyer at Ossipee, and was admitted to the bar of Carroll county at Ossipee in October, 1861. He held the office of school commissioner of the county two years, ending August, 1861, but resigned to enter the military service of the country. (See Carroll in the Rebellion.) Colonel Quarles was railroad commissioner of New Hampshire in 1869, 1870, and 1871. As a lawyer Colonel Quarles takes a high position. He is diligent in his examination of the merits of his cases, fortifies weak places with jealous care, and develops his strongholds with much force. He is diligent in his examination of all law questions that can come to bear on the evidence, is not often surprised, and is fertile in resources beyond most men. It is no common thing to see Colonel Quarles apparently laid out and beaten by some adverse ruling of the court, or some apparently unanswerable argument of his opponent, but wait one minute ! the colonel is on his feet again with four times his original strength, supplementing his old doctrine with some new principle that he makes as clear "as if written with a sunbeam," and the chances are that he comes out a wimmer; for, like General Zachary Taylor, he never knows when he is beaten. He is exceed- ingly well versed in the common law and statute law, and almost knows the reported cases by heart.

FRANK WEEKS was born in Wakefield, August 31, 1851. After having

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acquired a good academic education, he commenced the study of law with Colonel Samuel D. Quarles, and was admitted to practice about 1876. He at once entered upon the practice of his profession at Ossipee, where he has since continued, having established a good business, and is growing in reputa- tion. He is a diligent practitioner, a good financier, prompt in pursuance of his business, and is already one of the rising lawyers of the county.

OLIFF CECIL MOULTON, son of Hon. Lewman G. Moulton, born about 1849, died in Ossipee, January, 1875. He received a good education, com- menced the study of law, was graduated from Harvard Law School and admitted to the bar, and shortly after he was appointed by Governor Weston and his council solicitor for Carroll county and devoted himself to the duties of his office and profession. His future seemed bright with promise of high success, and his friends were justly gratified with honors so early won, with higher prospects rising in his future, when suddenly he fell before the relentless hand that " loves a shining mark."

GEORGE BARSTOW FRENCH, son of James French, was born at Tufton- borough, November 27, 1846, and was graduated from Dartmouth College in the class of 1872, and read law with Hon. Bainbridge Wadleigh, of Milford. He is in practice at Nashua, and is a very thorough, able, and successful law- yer, and is recognized in his part of the state as in the front rank of lawyers, and he is constantly adding to his already wide reputation. Mr French was admitted to the Suffolk county bar in May, 1876, and in September of the same year was admitted at Nashua.

CHARLES B. GAFNEY, whose parents died while he was yet young, was in early life a resident of Ossipee, and Sanborn B. Carter was his guardian. He attended the high school at Sandwich, then under the care of Daniel G. Beede, and acquired a very good education. The breaking out of the war took him away from his professional studies, but soon after his return he commenced the practice of law in Wolfeborough. He passed several seasons in Washington, D. C., in the employ of Hon. Jacob H. Ela and Hon. Aaron H. Cragin, during their service in Congress between the years 1868 and 1873, and sub- sequently settled down seriously to the legal business as a member of the firm of Worcester & Gafney at Rochester. This firm has become one of the strongest law firms of the state. They are engaged in nearly all the leading cases in Carroll and Strafford counties, and have quite an extensive business in other counties. Mr Worcester has long been regarded as a thorough lawyer, and Mr Gafney, from his large experience and practice, has risen to a leading position as a trial lawyer and is a very strong advocate.

ZARA CUTLER was born about 1785, and came to Conway near 1815, from Lunenburg, Vermont. He married Mary, a daughter of Mary Waldo, the daughter of General Israel Putnam, who, when necessity required, would fight his own imperious countrymen, or successfully defy the mandates of British

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generals, or drag the wild beasts from their lair. Mary Waldo lies buried in the cemetery near Conway Corner, and on her monument is inscribed : " Mary Waldo, daughter of Gen. Israel Putnam. Died November 29, 1825, aged 72 years, 6 months, and 8 days." Mr Cutler probably commenced the practice of law in Conway and there remained during his life. He was a reputable lawyer, a good citizen, interested in the welfare of his town both as to its social and religious progress. As an advocate he was not above the average. Twenty- eight years have passed since his death, and only the older persons remember him, as his contemporaries have long since traveled the silent road. Some of his children still survive.

BENJAMIN BOARDMAN was a lawyer of considerable reputation and marked ability, who came to Conway not far from 1828. He was the rival of Joel Eastman, whom he found a "foeman worthy of his steel," and it is believed that he developed the fighting qualities of Joel to a very great degree. Tradition preserves this: that when there came an antagonistic clash between Eastman and Boardman, the elements were much disturbed and the " portents of war hung on all the arches of the horizon." Boardman was keen and acute, and Joel's indignation " burned like a fiery oven." Mr Board- man later removed from the town.

OBED HALL, of Tamworth, son of Ebenezer L. D. Hall, of Bartlett, practised law many years in Carroll county, and died, aged seventy-eight years, in May, 1873. He read law with Governor Lincoln, of Maine. He held many local offices. He was at one time somewhat engaged in educational matters. He was register of probate some years, state senator from district No. 6, and, after the formation of Carroll county, a leading Democratic politician for many years. He possessed good native ability, and in his earlier days was a good lawyer, and with more diligence and devotion to his pro- fession would have been an abler man.

HON. JOEL EASTMAN was a name in the central and northern portions of New Hampshire that for half a century was the theme of many a story and was heard by many thousands, nine tenths of whom never saw the stern, austere, commanding man by whom that name was borne. Jurors and wit- nesses attending court, who noted and admired his conscious strength before a jury and his original sentences and his terrible arraignment of those whom he regarded as guilty, and listened to his words of burning indignation as he related the story of their crimes or sufferings, would, as they were best able, tell their families or neighbors, sometimes in feeble language and sometimes with vivid likeness, of his remarkable doings and sayings. Hence his name became almost a household word. He was one of those men whose personality ought to be preserved in picture and story.

Joel Eastman was descended from a family of repute both in England and America. He was fifth in descent from Samuel Eastman, Esq .; the line being

forl Entram

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Samuel1, Thomas2, Edward3, Joel+, Joel5. Joel Eastman4, born November 22, 1760, in Kingston, died March 23, 1849. He married Betsey Pettengill, of Sandown; she was born April 23, 1762, and died September 30, 1867, at the advanced age of one hundred and five years, five months, and seven days. She was a woman of remarkable natural endowments, and from her her son Joel inherited his strong vitality. He was born February 22, 1798, in Salisbury, and died in Conway, March 16, 1884, and was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1822, I believe, in the class with Chief Justice Perley and other New Hampshire men who afterwards became greatly distinguished. He was a relative and personal friend of Daniel Webster, whom he resembled. Mr Eastman came to Conway and made his home there in 1826. He married Ruth Gerrish Odell in December, 1833. About 1847 his nephew and name- sake, Joel Eastman Morrill, became a member of his household, and the engraving which accompanies this sketch is his tribute to the memory of his honored uncle.

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History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 32

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