History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 94

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200

USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 94
USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 94

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Alcott was elected judge of the Supreme Court on October 26, 1781, and his letter of resig- nation was dated January 28, 1782, and was laid

BENCH AND BAR.

by Governor Chittenden before the General As- sembly at Bennington, on the 11th of February following, with numerous other papers relating to the eastern and western unions.

December 25, 1784, he was appointed chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas. In this position he served a little over six years, when, on the 25th of January, 1790, he was elevated to the position of associate justice of the Superior Court. This office he continued to hold till the 28th of March, 1795, when he was given the chief justiceship, which he held till June, 1801, when he was elected to represent the State as a Senator in Congress. He was elected, not for a full term, but to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Hou. Samuel Livermore, of Holderness. The time for which he was elected expired in March, 1805. After this he retired to private life, in which he continued till the 22d of February, 1815, when he died at the age of seventy-nine years, greatly lamented by the public at large and a very extensive circle of personal friends, leaving a sha- dow on the home whose enjoyments were always greatly heightened by his presence.

HON. BENJAMIN WEST .-- At the time of the organization of Cheshire County, in 1771, it con- tained two lawyers, both subsequently distinguished in their profession. One was Simeon Alcott, of Charlestown, the other Daniel Jones, of Hinsdale. Mr. Olcott had been in practice some five or six years, and Mr. Jones nearly the same time. They were both educated men, and probably about the same age, as Mr. Jones graduated at Harvard College in 1759, and Mr. Olcott at Yale College in 1761. Mr. Jones was the first chief justice of the Common Pleas appointed after the organiza- tion of the county, and became a person of exten- sive influence. Three other members of the profession also settled very soon in the county,- John Sprague and Elijah Williams, at Keene, and Benjamin West, at Charlestown. After a brief residence at Keene, Mr. Sprague removed to Lancaster, in Massachusetts, where he became an eminent lawyer and civilian. Mr. Williams, who

settled in Keene in 1771, in consequence of his taking sides with England in the Revolutionary War, was also soon obliged to leave. He died in Deerfield, Mass., his native town, in 1784, and was buried by the side of his ancestors.

Benjamin West was the son of Rev. Thomas West, of Rochester, Mass., and was born on the 8th of April, 1746. He graduated at Harvard College in 1768. He studied law in the office of Abel Willard, at Lancaster, Mass., and commenced practice in Charlestown, N. H., in 1773. He took high rank in the profession, and was one of Charles- town's most esteemed citizens. He was member of Congress, and held other official positions. He died July 27, 1817.

FREDERICK AUGUSTUS SUMNER, son of Benja- min and Prudence (Hubbard) Sumner, of Clare- mont, was born in 1770. He fitted for college and entered at Dartmouth in 1789, but after re- maining at that institution a part of the course, took up his connection with it and entered at Harvard College, where he graduated in 1793. On graduating, he decided on pursuing the legal profession, and immediately commenced the study of law in the office of Hon Benjamin West, of Charlestown, and was a fellow-student, as he had been in his collegiate course, with Hon. John C. Chamberlain. On being admitted to practice in the courts of the State, in 1796, he opened his office in Charlestown, where the remainder of his life was spent.

He held various town offices and also was post- master at Charlestown. He died August 13, 1834. GEORGE OLCOTT, second son of Hon. Simeon and Mrs. Tryphena (Terry) Olcott, was born No- vember 22, 1785. His early education was care- fully conducted, the most assiduous attention having been paid, on the part of his parents, not only to the discipline of his intellect, but to the for- mation and cultivation of his habits and manners. He was fitted for entering Yale College a little before he was sixteen years of age, and graduated at that institution the autumn before he was twenty. On leaving college he commenced im-

HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

mediately the study of the law, and was admitted to the practice of the profession in the usual time, in which practice he successfully continued till 1824, when, on the charter of the Connecticut River Bank, he was elected its first cashier, which office he continued to hold till his death, February 4,1864.

Mr. Olcott had no ambition for public office, but always preferred, where duty would allow, to remain in a private station. He was still frequently hon- ored by his fellow-citizens, as the following rec- ord of the offices to which he was elected will show : He was chosen moderator in the years 1842, '43, '44 ; town clerk in 1819, '20, "21, '22 and '24; one of the selectmen in 1819, '20, '21 and '22, and town treasurer from 1837 till the time of his decease, which was, in all, twenty-six years. Though frequently urged, he would never consent to become a candidate for the Legislature, nor for any office that would take him away for any considerable time from his duties in connection with the bank.

HON. HENRY HUBBARD was born May 3, 1784, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1803. He studied law in the office of Hon. Jeremiah Mason, at Portsmouth, and commenced the prac- tice of law at Charlestown. From the time of his establishing himself in the town he took an effi- cient part in all its affairs, and was soon honored by his townsmen by election to important offices. In 1810 he was chosen moderator, which office he held, in all, sixteen times. He was first seleetman in the years 1819-20 and '28, in which last year he was also moderator and town clerk. He repre- sented the town in the Legislature in 1812, '13, '14, '15, '19, '20, "23, 24, '25, '26 and '27,-eleven times in all. June 16, 1825, he was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives, in place of Hon. Levi Woodbury, who had been elected to a seat in the United States Senate. He was also chosen to the same office in the years 1826 and 1827. In 1823 he was appointed solicitor for Cheshire County, in which capacity, exhibiting rare qualities as an advocate, he served the term of five years. On the incorporation of Sullivan

County he was appointed judge of Probate, the duties of which office he continued to discharge till 1829, when he was chosen a representative to Congress.

In 1834 he was elected to the Senate, where, for the period of six years, he had the implicit confidence of the administration and the Demo- cratic party. In 1842 and 1843 he was elected Governor of New Hampshire. With this office his political career closed, although, at every sue- cessive election, no one in the State rendered more efficient service to the Democratic cause.

Soon after leaving the gubernatorial chair he was appointed sub-treasurer at Boston, to which city he for a time removed. He died June 5, 1857.

CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN JAMES GILCHRIST Was born in Medford, Mass., February 16, 1809. His father, James Gilchrist, was a master of a vessel, and is yet well remembered by many as a man of powerful frame, vigorous understanding and great energy of character. He early acquired a competence, and removed, while his son was yet a child of tender years, to the beautiful village of Charlestown, in New Hampshire, where he bought a farm and occupied himself in rural pursuits for the remainder of his life, which was brought to a close in the prime of his manhood from the effects of an accident. Here the boyhood of Judge Gil- christ was mainly passed, and here he pursued, under the guidance of the Rev. Dr. Crosby, a por- tion of the studies preparatory to a collegiate course. He entered Harvard College in the au- tumn of 1824.

After leaving college he commenced the study of law at Charlestown, under the guidance of the late William Briggs, an eccentric but very well- read lawyer, who possessed a much larger and bet- ter collection of law-books than country practi- tioners usually accumulate. Of these books-in that quiet village, in which there was so little to disturb or distract the mind of the student- Judge Gilchrist made most excellent use, and, by a wide range of elementary reading, laid the foun- dations of his ample stores of legal learning.

BENCH AND BAR.

From the office of Mr. Briggs he went to the Law School in Cambridge, where he was known as a most diligent student, ranging over the whole do- main of the common law, and letting none of his opportunities pass by unimproved. Upon his admis- sion to the bar, he formed a connection in business with the late Governor Hubbard, whose daughter he afterwards married, thus finding himself at once in good employment and escaping the disci- pline of that dreary period between the expecting of clients and the coming of them. The next few years were passed in the diligent and successful practice of the law. He took some part in the politics of his State and was for more than one year a member of the Legislature (1836-37) ; but he always made the politician subservient to the lawyer, and his aspirations were professional and not political. When, therefore, in 1840, at the early age of thirty-one, he was appointed one of the as- sociated justices of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, it was with the general and hearty ap- proval of the bar and the public. He was a very young man for such a post,-a year younger than Judge Story was when he was made a judge, and also a year younger than Mr. Justice Buller when he was elevated to the King's Bench, at an age which startled all the venerable proprieties of Westminster Hall.

When, in 1848, the place of chief justice was made vacant by the resignation of Judge Parker, Judge Gilchrist had proved himself to be a man of such high judicial excellence, and to be pos- sessed of such a principle of intellectual growth and progress, that the eyes of all were at once turned towards him as to one in natural succession to the dignity ; and his appointment gave general satis- faction and equal assurance. In this high place he remained until the Court of Claims was created by Congress, when he was placed at the head of this tribunal by President Pierce, who was his warm personal friend, who had often appeared be- fore him at the bar, and thus knew at first hand, and of his own knowledge, how eminently quali- fied he was for the responsible and laborious duties which were to be devolved upon him.

Thus, of the twenty-seven years which elapsed between his admission to the bar and his lamented death, eighteen were passed in the discharge of judicial duties.

His learning was ample, various and service- able. In depth and extent of legal lore many of his judicial contemporaries may have equaled him, and a few may have excelled him. He had no professional pedantry, no vanity of legal anti- quarianism, no taste for the obsolete curiosities of black-letter learning. But he had a sufficient knowledge of the history, principles and spirit of the common law to view every subject that arose from a proper point of view and in its just re- lations to kindred and collateral branches ; and his patience of labor enabled him to investigate every question that required research, thoroughly and completely. He had in a high degree that fine legal perception which distinguishes the living principle from the accidental and temporary forms through which it has been manifested. Hav- ing early taken a wide survey of the whole field of legal learning, and made an outline map of the region, it was a matter of course that his after-ac- quired knowledge should naturally and easily have fallen into place, been duly classified and ar- ranged, and kept within easy reach and ready for use.

He was a man of warm affections, social sym- pathies and genial tastes. He had the usual com- pensation that accompanies a life of hard and tran- quil work, in the freshness of feeling maintained by him to the last. There was never a younger heart buried in the grave of a man of forty-nine. The natural pleasures which spring upon the lap of the common earth never lost their relish to him. He needed not the sting of strong excitements to rouse and animate him. His temperament was quiet, but not torpid ; his mind was always active and his sympathies always ready.

EDMUND L. CUSHING was born in Lunenburg, Mass., in 1807. He entered Harvard University in the fall of 1823, at which institution he also re- ceived his degree in due course in the fall of 1827. He was admitted to the bar in 1834, and in the

HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

spring of 1840, on the retirement of the late Chief Justice Gilchrist from practice, on account of his appointment as one of the justices of the Superior Court, he established himself in his profession at Charlestown.

Mr. Cushing was successful in practice and gained such a respectable standing at the bar that, in the spring of 1855, he was appointed one of the justices of the Circuit Court, which office he ac- cepted, but had held it only about four months when the court was abolished. Subsequently, how- ever, he was tendered an appointment in the new Court of Common Pleas, which, from considerations unnecessary to mention, he felt it his duty to de- eline. From that time until his appointment as chief justice he continued in the diligent and un- remitting practice of his profession, having only taken time enough from it to hold the office of representative in the Legislature for the years 1850, 1852, 1853.

In the summer of 1874, when the courts were remodeled, he received the appointment to the chief justiceship of the Superior Court

HON. CALEB ELLIS was born at Walpole, Mass., in 1767 ; graduated at Harvard College in 1793 ; read law in the office of Hon. Joshua Thomas, of Plymouth, Mass. ; settled in Claremont about 1800. In 1804 he was chosen a member of Con- gress from New Hampshire, and was re-elected in 1806. In 1809 and 1810 he was a member of the Executive Council. In 1811 he was elected State Senator; in 1812 he was elector of President and Vice-President, and in 1813 he was appointed one of the judges of the Supreme Judicial Court of New Hampshire, which office he held until his death, May 9, 1816. In February, 1816, he married Nancy, daughter of Hon. Robert Means, of Amherst, N. H. He built the house near the south end of Broad Street, which was purchased by Colonel J. S. Walker in 1860, by whom it was greatly improved to conform to the requirements of the times, making it one of the handsomest resi- dences in town.

At his death Judge Ellis left a will, in which he bequeathed " five thousand dollars to the Congre-

gational Society of Claremont, for constituting a fund, the interest of which shall be annually ap- propriated to the support of the Christian minis- try." Rev. Stephen Farley, minister of the Con- gregational Church, delivered a sermon on the occasion of the funeral of Judge Ellis, taking for a text Proverbs x. 7: " The memory of the just is blessed." In the course of this eloquent, and some- what remarkable sermon, the preacher said, --

" Although he has left the world, his memory con- tinues in it, and will long survive his decease. His memory is blessed. If there be any justice in the present and succeeding generations, the name of the man whose remains are now before us will be held in most cordial, grateful and honorary remembrance.

"The Hon. Caleb Ellis was a man distinguished for native vigor and capaciousness of mind. The God of nature formed him capable of high mental attain- ments and great intellectual effort. For strength of intellect, accuracy of discrimination, soundness of judgment and propriety of taste he attained an ex- traordinary eminence. His native superiority of mind was improved by very extensive cultivation. His learning was various, profound and general. . . .

"Concerning his professional character, I shall not attempt a particular delineation. It is sufficient that I say, as an attorney, as a legal counselor, as an advo- eate, as a statesman, and as a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, his worth is generally known, acknowl- edged and admired.

" In private life Mr. Ellis was eminently inoffen- sive, amiable and exemplary. He wronged no one ; he corrupted no one; he defrauded no one; he slighted no one; he injured nonc. His treatment and attention toward persons of different classes were marked with the strictest propriety, justice and liberal generosity. He gave them all satisfaction and en- joyed their cordial esteem. In freedom, not only from all vice, but also from common faults, he attained an eminent distinction. There were no censurable excesses, no despicable deficiencies, no unamiable habits about him. His moral integrity was like tried gold. Many of the most frequent imperfections of human nature were but faintly discovered in his heart and life."

At the opening of the trial term of the Supreme Judicial Court for Grafton County, at Haverhill, in May, 1816, Chief Justice JJeremiah Smith read

BENCH AND BAR.

a sketch of the character of Judge Ellis, in which he said,-

"Since the commencement of the present circuit it has pleased the Almighty Disposer of all events to remove one of the judges of this court by death. If living, he would have filled the place I now occupy. It is believed that this is the first instance of the death of a judge of the Supreme Court, while in office, since the adoption of the present Constitution, and, indeed, since the Revolution. Though the whole number who have served, during this period, has been nearly thirty, and more than half that number have paid the debt of nature, yet they have generally quitted the office before age had made retirement from the active scenes of life necessary.

" Nature endowed Judge Ellis with a mind at once ingenious, discriminating and strong. Without edu- cation he would doubtless have attracted no small share of the esteem and confidence of those within the circle of his acquaintance. But his great modesty would probably have concealed him from public notice. Fortunately, it was otherwise ordained; and he received the best education our country could give. He was graduated at Cambridge in 1793, and left that distinguished university with a high charac- ter for learning, morals and general literature.

" Perhaps no student ever left a lawyer's office with a larger and better stock of law knowledge. He com- menced the practice in this State. Soon after his ad- mission to the bar of the Supreme Court, in the county of Cheshire, I well recollect his argument in a case of some difficulty and importance, and the remark of a gentleman, then at the head of the bar, and who seldom errs in his judgment of men, 'that Mr. Ellis would soon be numbered among the most valuable and respectable members of the profession.'

" When the new judiciary system was formed, in 1813, the best informed of all parties named Mr. Ellis for the office of judge of this court. The merit of the executive of that day, in relation to this appointment, was in concurring with that nomination. Mr. Ellis was an independent and impartial judge. . . .

" His mind was too lofty to enter into any calcula- tions foreign to the merits of the cause in the discharge of his official duties ; neither the merits nor demerits of the parties nor their connections, however numer- ous or powerful, could have any influence with him. I am sensible that this is very high praise,-a praise which could not, in truth, be bestowed on all good

men, nor even on all good judges. But it is praise which Mr. Ellis richly merited."

HON. SAMUEL ASHLEY came to Claremont in 1782. He was in the war of 1745 and 1755. He held several civil offices, and was judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He died in February, 1792.

HON. GEORGE B. UPHAM, son of Captain Phineas Upham, born at Brookfield, Mass. ; gradu- ated at Harvard College in 1789; came to Clare- mont to live about 1799 ; served a number of years in the New Hampshire Legislature, and was Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1809, and again in 1815. He was a representative in Congress from 1801 to 1803. He was considered one of the best lawyers and safest counselors in this part of the State for many years. He was president of the old Claremont Bank, and by his practice and economy accumulated a large fortune for his time. He died February 10, 1848, at the age of seventy-nine years.

HON. W. H. H. ALLEN was born in Ver- mont, December 10, 1829; removed to Surry, N. H., when quite. young, and lived there until 1858, when he removed to Newport ; thence to Claremont in 1868, where he still resides. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1855; read law with Wheeler & Faulkner and F. F. Lane, at Keene, and Burke & Wait, at Newport; ad- mitted to the bar at Newport in 1858 ; clerk of courts for Sullivan County from 1858 to 1863; paymaster in the army from 1863 to 1866 ; judge of Probate for Sullivan County from 1867 to 1874. He was in the practice of law at Newport and Claremont from 1866 to August, 1876, when he was appointed associate judge of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, which position he still holds. (For a more extended notice see appendix.)

HON. HOSEA W. PARKER.1-The town of Lemp- ster, among the hills of " Little Sullivan," is one of the most unpretending in the State. Without railway facilities, and destitute of water-power to any considerable extent, the inhabitants depend, in the main, for a livelihood, upon the products of

1 By H. H. Metcalf. Arranged from the Granite Monthly.

HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

a rugged soil, of less than average fertility, from which they gain a comfortable subsistence only by constant industry and the practice of close economy. No man ever accumulated more than a moderate competency in Lempster, and few have suffered from extreme poverty ; while crime is compara- tively unknown within the limits of the town. A more industrious, law-abiding, and, withal, a more intelligent community than the people of this town, cannot be found in New Hampshire. Its

schools have always been the best in the county, and it is a generally conceded fact that it has reared and sent out more teachers and preachers in proportion to its population than any other town in the State, together with a goodly number of lawyers, physicians and journalists. Rev. Alonzo A. Miner, D.D., of Boston, is the most dis- tinguished of the numerous clergymen which Lempster has produced, while the subject of this sketch (a kinsman of Dr. Miner) is the most prom- inent of her sons at the bar and in public life.

Beckwith, a prominent citizen of the town, who died some years since. Hosea W., the youngest son, was twelve years of age when his father died. With his brother he engaged diligently in the work upon the farm, attending the district school during its limited terms, with an occasional term at a select school, until about eighteen years of age, when he determined to enter upon a course of study preparatory to a professional life. After attending Tubbs' Union Academy, at Washington, then under the charge of that famous teacher, Pro- fessor Dyer H. Sanborn, for a few terms, he entered the Green Mountain Liberal Institute, at South Woodstock, Vt., where he completed the full class- ical course. He entered Tufts College in 1855, but did not remain to complete the course in that institution, leaving during the second year to com- mence the study of law, upon which he entered in the office of Hon. Edmund Burke, at Newport, where he completed his legal studies, and was ad- mitted to the Sullivan County bar in 1859, engag- ing, meanwhile, in teaching school in the winter season, as he had also done while gaining his pre- paratory education.

Hosea W. Parker was born in Lempster May 30, 1833. His father, Benjamin Parker, a farmer in moderate circumstances, and one of the numer- ous descendants of Captain Joseph Parker, now He commenced practice in his native town, but removed to Claremont in the fall of 1860, where he has since remained, and has succeeded in estab- lishing an extensive practice. He has had ex- cellent success in the trial of causes, and as a jury lawyer ranks with the first in the State, excelling both in management and as an advocate. He has been admitted to the United States Circuit and District Courts in this State, and in 1873 was ad- mitted to the Supreme Court of the United States, in Washington. scattered over New England, was among the most esteemed citizens of the town, holding many posi- tions of trust and responsibility, and enjoying the confidence and respect of his townsmen regardless of sect or party. He died in 1845, at the age of forty-seven years, leaving a widow and three chil- dren,-two sons and a daughter. The widow, a lady of rare gifts and great intelligence, yet sur- vives at the age of eighty-six years. The eldest son, Hiram Parker, is a successful farmer and leading citizen, residing upon the old homestead Mr. Parker has been a Democrat from youth, and has ever taken a deep interest in political affairs, laboring earnestly for the success of the party to whose principles he is attached. Few men in the State have devoted more time and effort to advance the interests of the Democratic cause, and none have gained more fully the con- fidence and respect of the party. He has served almost constantly for the past twenty-five years as in Lempster. He is a man of sterling character and wide influence, has represented the town in the Legislature, and held various other responsible positions. He ranks among the most enterprising and progressive farmers in the county, and has been for several years a member of the State Board of Agriculture, participating actively in its work. The daughter, Emily L., who also resides in Lempster, is the widow of the late Ransom a member of the Democratic State Committee,

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 94

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1200

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200