History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 5

Author: Hazlett, Charles A
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 1390

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Timothy Farrar practiced law in Portsmouth from 1814 to 1822, and from 1834 to 1836. He was admitted to practice in the Circuit Court of the United States, October term, 1817, and subsequently removed to Exeter.

Charles B. Goodrich. This eminent lawyer was born at Hanover, N. H., in 1812. He was graduated at Dartmouth College, and after a course of study, it is believed, in his native town, he was admitted to the bar. Coming to Portsmouth in 1826, he continued in practice for ten years, winning high reputation in his profession. His talents found a wider field of action at

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY

Boston, whither he removed, and where he at once took rank as a leader. Till his death, in the summer of 1878, Mr. Goodrich had few equals at the Suffolk bar in all that constitutes a learned and skilled practitioner His duties called him not infrequently to Washington, where he was regarded as one of the ablest members of the bar from New England. In 1853 he published "The Science of Government as Exhibited in the Institutions of the United States of America,"-a course of lectures delivered at the Lowell Institute in Boston. In private life Mr. Goodrich was genial and warm-hearted. He married, March 1I, 1827, Miss Harriet N. Shattuck, of Portsmouth, who survived him.

Levi Woodbury was the son of the Hon. Peter Woodbury, and born at Francistown, on the 22d of December, 1789. He was of the oldest Massa- chusetts stock, being descended from John Woodbury, who emigrated from Somersetshire in England in the year 1624, and was one of the original settlers of Beverly, Mass. Peter Woodbury removed from Beverly to Fran- cistown in 1773. His son Levi entered Dartmouth College in October, 1805. After his graduation with honor in 1809, in September of that year he began the study of law at Litchfield, Conn., pursuing it at Boston, Exeter, and Francistown, and in September, 1812, commenced practice in his native village. He soon attained a high rank at the bar, with an extensive business. His first public service was upon his election as clerk of the Senate of New Hampshire in June, 1816. In December of the same year he received the appointment of judge of the Supreme Court of the State, and in the discharge of the duties of this position were seen the inherent force of his abilities, aided by his constant and never-ceasing habits of application.

In June, 1819, he married Elizabeth W. Clapp, of Portland, Me., and removing to Portsmouth soon after, except when absent on public duties resided in that city. In March, 1823, he was chosen governor of New Hampshire, and re-elected in 1824.

In 1825 he was chosen one of the representatives from Portsmouth in the Legislature, and elected speaker upon the assembling of the House of Representatives. This was his first seat in any deliberative assembly; but his knowledge of parliamentary law, aided by his dignity and urbanity of manner, served to enable him to fill the office in a commendable manner.

At the same session he was elected a senator in the Congress of the United States. His senatorial term was completed in March, 1831, and in that month he was chosen state senator from his district, but before the Legislature assembled he was, in May, 1831, appointed secretary of the navy, and resigned the senatorship in June 4th of that year, and served till June 30, 1834. in the secretaryship.

In July, 1834, Governor Woodbury was appointed secretary of the treasury, and served until the election of General Harrison to the presidency. He was again elected a senator in Congress for the term of six years, com- mencing March 4, 1841. He served until November, 1845. During that year President Polk had tendered Governor Woodbury the embassy to the Court of St. James, but the appointment, for domestic reasons, was declined.

Upon the death of Mr. Justice Story, Mr. Woodbury was commissioned an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and after

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ROCKINGHAM COUNTY COURTHOUSE, PORTSMOUTH

POSTOFFICE, PORTSMOUTH, N. H.

ELKS' HOME, PORTSMOUTH; BUILT 1818

PORTSMOUTH HIGH SCHOOL

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subsequently entering upon the duties of this high office continued therein until his death, which occurred September 4, 1851.

Judge Woodbury, in the various public positions he was so constantly called to fill, showed himself abundantly capable for the discharge of their duties. As a legislator he was painstaking and industrious, as a judge studious and indefatigable in his labors, and as a cabinet minister compre- hensive and yet exact in his knowledge of details. His life was one of uninter- rupted work, and his death at the age of sixty-one deprived the country of an upright judge and an eminent public, man. Of his children, his only son, Charles Levi Woodbury, was a prominent lawyer in practice in Boston. One daughter was the wife of Hon. Montgomery Blair, who was postmaster- general under President Lincoln, and another was the wife of Capt. Gustavus V. Fox, formerly of the United States navy, who rendered to the country such signal service by his practical knowledge as assistant secretary during the late war.

William Henry Young Hackett .- One of the last survivors of a school of lawyers who were at the bar when Jeremiah Mason and Daniel Webster appeared of counsel in important causes was William Henry Young Hackett, who, at the ripe age of seventy-eight, died at Portsmouth, August 9, 1878, after a continuous practice of more than fifty-two years in duration. Mr. Hackett was born at Gilmanton, N. H., September 24, 1800. His ancestor was Capt. William Hackett, of Salisbury, Mass. After receiving an educa- tion at Gilmanton Academy, Mr. Hackett studied law in his native town and at Sanbornton Square. In April, 1822, he came to Portsmouth, and entered the office of Ichabod Bartlett. He was admitted to the bar in January, 1826, and soon acquired a good practice, which he steadily main- tained up to the time of his decease. He tried many cases to the jury, was retained of counsel by corporations, and later in life was largely employed in the management of trust estates. He had an instinctive knowledge of how to apply legal principles, and a knowledge, too, of human nature. As a counselor, though he warmly espoused the cause of his client, he was prudent and inclined to discourage litigation. He had an excellent memory. and knew what had been decided in the New Hampshire courts and in those of the New England States generally; but he is not to be termed a learned lawyer. He favored the extension of equity practice in New Hamp- shire, and he lived long enough to see some of his views in this regard adopted. In 1859 he declined a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Judicial Court.

Portsmouth sent him repeatedly to the Legislature, where he rendered important service as chairman of the judiciary and on other committees. In 1861 he was chosen president of the Senate, of which body he had been assistant clerk in 1824 and clerk in 1828. He was eminently successful in the management of a bank. As early as 1827 he was made director of the Piscataqua Bank. When the Piscataqua Exchange Bank was organized in 1845 he became president, and held that office till 1863, when the bank became the First National Bank of Portsmouth, the presidency of which he assumed and held till his death. He was also president of the Piscataqua Savings-Bank, as well as a director in railroad and other corporations.

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY

Mr. Hackett had some literary accomplishments, and excelled in writing brief biographies. A memoir of Andrew Halliburton, and a sketch of Charles W. Brewster, author of "Rambles about Portsmouth" (the latter being prefixed to the second series of that work), are from his pen. . All his life long Mr .. Hackett was public-spirited and devoted to the interests of the town. His name has thus been identified with the history of Portsmouth for more than half a century. A memoir of Mr. Hackett (written by his son Frank W.) was privately printed in 1879, and a copy sent to various libraries in New England.

Albert Ruyter Hatch was born in Greenland on the 10th day of October, 1817. He entered Bowdoin College when quite young, and graduated in 1837. The late Governor John A. Andrew, of Massachusetts, was one of his classmates.

He immediately came to Portsmouth, and pursued the study of law with the late Ichabod Bartlett, who was then known all over the state as a great lawyer. Here Mr. Hatch, under the direct oversight of Colonel Bartlett, saw a great deal of practice and hard work, and here he laid the foundation of those habits of industry and close attention to his chosen profession which for the past quarter of a century have made him one of the foremost lawyers of our state and a model practitioner.

In 1841 he was admitted to the bar, and was soon in active practice.

In 1847 and 1848 he was a member of the House of Representatives from Portsmouth, then a town, and in 1848 was appointed solicitor for the county of Rockingham, and also clerk of the United States Court for New Hampshire.

Mr. Hatch was in no sense a politician. He was a democrat from principle, and could never yield his convictions of duty for the sake of policy or of temporary advantage. He preferred to be right rather than hold office. Had the democratic party been in power in this state he would have been a governor and a senator, but though his party was unable to bestow upon him the honors he deserved, it never ceased to respect and esteem him, and his advice and counsel were always heeded.

In 1864 he was a candidate for presidential elector, and in 1868 he was a member of the Democratic National Convention.

In 1873 his extensive law practice, which had steadily increased, required all his attention, and he resigned his position as clerk of the United States Court, having held it for twenty-five years. He then began to devote him- self wholly to his profession, to which he was so firmly attached, but his friends urged him to accept again an election to the Legislature, and against his own judgment he was induced to yield to them, and that year he was a member of the House, and being again a member in 1874 he was elected speaker, which position he filled under very trying circumstances to the general acceptance of all. He was again a member in 1875 and also in 1876. At the same time he was a member of the Board of Aldermen and of the High School Committee of this city, and taking a deep interest in city and school affairs he was scarcely ever absent from their meetings. He was a hard worker everywhere he was placed. The various Masonic bodies of which he was a member also received a share of his time and

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attention, and he soon found himself overwhelmed under the accumulating burdens imposed upon him.

He was an active member of all the Masonic bodies, and to show the esteem in which he was held among them it is only necessary to say that he was elected and served as commander of DeWitt Clinton Commandery of Knights Templar for twenty-five successive years.

He was a director of the Portsmouth and Dover Railroad, the Ports- mouth Bridge Company, and the Athenaeum, and was held in great esteem by his associate directors. He was a vestryman and prominent member of the Episcopal Church of this city, and one of the trustees of the new Christ's Church, in the erection of which he was greatly interested, and to which he gave much time.

In public life no man ever accused him of fraud, wrong, or dishonor. As a lawyer he was learned, ready, fortified at every point, quick to perceive and quick to apply, and of incomparable industry. He was ever true to his client, and no man employed him who did not receive the benefit of every faculty that he possessed as well as having every point in his case presented in the best shape.

As a scholar he was superior, and his knowledge of books and the best literature was remarkable. He had a large miscellaneous library of the choicest works, and his studious habits and retentive memory had made him familiar with its contents.

In social life he was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. Digni- fied in his bearing, he may have appeared to those who did not know him well cold and indifferent, but to those who really knew him he was a delight- ful companion, a man to whom one could not fail to be attached, and from whom one always parted with reluctance. He had many friends, and those who could call him a friend had no need to go farther to find the truest friend that ever drew breath. He died March 5, 1882.

Samuel Cushman was born in Hebron, Me., July 21, 1783. His father was Job Cushman, a descendant from Robert Cushman, who joined the Plymouth colony in 1612. After an academic education, he studied law under the tuition of John Holmes, of Alford, Me., and was admitted to the York County bar in 1807, and began practice of the law in Maine, where he was a postmaster during Madison's administration. In May, 1812, Mr. Cushman was married to Maria J., daughter of John Salter, of Ports- mouth, and in 1816 he removed to that place, where he resided up to the time of his death, May 22, 1851. He filled numerous municipal positions in Portsmouth between the year 1824 and the time of his death. He was for five years county treasurer, and for two years a member of the Executive Council. He was a member of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses from New Hampshire, in the years 1835 to 1839, was postmaster under the Van Buren administration, and navy agent from 1845 to 1849. In March, 1850, he was appointed police justice of the City of Portsmouth. being the first magistrate under the new city charter. This office he held up to the date of his death. Mr. Cushman was at one time associated in the practice of the law with the late Charles B. Goodrich. He was con- scientious in his profession. He discouraged litigation, and oftentimes filled

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY

the position of pacificator rather than that of advocate. He was noted for his urbanity of manner, his kindness of heart, and his undeviating integrity.

The foregoing are sketches of lawyers who have been prominent in profession or political position. There were many of them of . perhaps less celebrity as lawyers, but of whom we can only make mention; of them were R. Cutts Shannon, clerk of the Federal Courts from May 1, 1804, to 1814; Leverett Hubbard, at one time judge, who died in 1793; Samuel Hale, Oliver Whipple, who at one time lived in Maine; George Pierce, who died after a short practice; John Hale; Henry S. Langdon, afterwards a bank cashier; George W. Prescott, clerk of the United States Courts from 1814 to March, 1817, and who died in 1817; Isaac Lyman, who also prac- ticed in York; John P. Lord, in practice from 1809 to 1819; Thomas L. Elwyn, who practiced but little from 1813 to 1816; James Smith, Jr., who lived in Portsmouth and Newington, and was more or less in practice from 1820 to 1869; Hampden Cutts, who removed to Hanland, Vt .; Ichabod Bartlett Claggett, son of William Claggett, who graduated at Dartmouth College, read law with Ichabod Bartlett, and died March 12, 1861; Horace Webster, son of Hon. Samuel Webster, of Barnstead, who graduated at Dartmouth College, read law with Albert R. Hatch, and died August 7, 1867, and John Scribner Jenness, son of Richard Jenness, who graduated at Harvard College, was a student in the office of Ichabod Bartlett, practiced a few years in Portsmouth, removed to New York, and died in Portsmouth, August 10, 1879; John Hatch, S. W. Emery, and John W. Kelly.

ATKINSON

John Kelly .- Atkinson's only lawyer was John Kelly. He was a native of the neighboring town of Plaistow, the son of Deacon Simeon Kelly, and was born July 22, 1796. He was educated at Atkinson and Exeter academies. and at Amherst College, where he graduated in 1825. He began the prac- tice of the law in Plaistow in 1829. In 1832 he took the charge of the Atkinson Academy, and retained it till 1838; thence he removed to Derry, and was principal of the Adams Female Academy for nearly four years. In 1841 he removed to Chester, and resumed the practice of his profession until 1845, when he returned to Atkinson, and there resided until his death, in January, 1877.

Mr. Kelly was a lawyer of good capacity, but had none of the enthusiasm for his profession that would have led him into the contests of the courts. He preferred teaching, and was a good deal employed, especially in later life, as a land surveyor, in which he greatly excelled. He was a genial man, fond of social intercourse, and possessed a fund of entertaining anec- dotes. He was also passionately fond of music, and entered into the spirit of it with his whole soul. Honest and upright in all his dealings, he deserved and won the sincere respect and trust of the community.

CHESTER

John Porter, a graduate of Dartmouth College in the class of 1787, practiced law in Chester from 1790 to 1793, and then removed to Canada.

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Arthur Livermore was the second lawyer of Chester. He was the son of Judge Samuel Livermore, and was born in Londonderry about the year 1766, came to Chester about 1793, and remained there not far from five years. He was a representative from Chester in the General Court in 1794 and 1795. and was appointed solicitor for the County of Rockingham in 1796. In the latter part of 1798 he was made a justice of the Superior Court, and about that time removed to Holderness, to which place his subsequent history belongs. He held other important offices, civil and judicial, and died July 1, 1853, at the age of eighty-seven.

Judge Livermore's mental endowments were of a high order, and must have been so regarded by his contemporaries to have placed him in the positions of trust and responsibility in which a large share of his active life was spent. And this is the more apparent from the fact that his manners were not of a popular character, and he took little pains to ingratiate himself with the people. He was a man of keen wit and quick temper, but he was honest, and endeavored to discharge his official duties acceptably. He belonged to a family which long took a distinguished part in public affairs in the state.

Daniel French was born in Epping, February 22, 1769, a son of Gould French, a farmer there. He received his education at Phillips' Exeter Academy, and after studying law with Hon. W. K. Atkinson commenced practice at Deerfield, but after two years removed to Chester, as successor to Arthur Livermore on his appointment to the bench. In June, 1808, he was appointed solicitor of the county, and in February, 1812, was com- missioned attorney-general of the state, which office he resigned in 1815. He held the office of postmaster thirty-two years, from 1807 to 1839. In addition to his legal pursuits he took considerable interest in agriculture.

Mr. French was a man of talents and ample professional learning, and manifested no small share of skill and tact in the management of his busi- ness. He was faithful to the interest of his clients, even to the extent, as was the fashion of his time, of being sometimes pretty sharp to his adver- saries. He was the father of a large and most respectable family of children. Amos Kent was born at Kent's Island, in Newbury, Mass., in October, 1774. He was fitted for college in part under the celebrated Master Moody, of Byfield Academy, and graduated at Harvard College in 1795. He read law with Hon. William Gordon, and was admitted to the bar in 1798. The next year he opened an office in Chester, where he continued to reside until his death in 1834.

Mr. Kent was gifted with a fine personal appearance and excellent powers of mind. He is said to have been a good counselor, but was not successful as an advocate. He was much fonder of active, outdoor employments than of the practice of his profession. A born athlete, he was much given to rough, boisterous sports, shooting matches, etc. He had some aptitude for political life, and was chosen to the State Senate in the years 1814 and 1815. But he gave much more time to his farm and to the promotion of agriculture than was good for his law business or profitable to his pocket.

Samuel Bell was the son of Hon. John Bell, of Londonderry, where he was born February 9, 1770. He was employed upon his father's farm until

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY

the age of eighteen, and then commenced his classical studies. Afterwards he attended the academy at New Ipswich, under the tuition of Hon. John Hubbard. From Dartmouth College he received his bachelor's degree in 1793, and then pursued his law studies under the direction of Hon., Samuel Dana, of Amherst, whose daughter he subsequently married. He rose early to distinction in his profession.

In 1796 he began practice in Francestown, and in 1812 he removed to Chester, which afterwards was his home. A large part of his life he passed in public employment. In 1804 he became a representative in the State Legislature, and the two following years was speaker of the House. In 1807 he received the appointment of attorney-general of the state, but the salary attached to the office at that time was so inadequate that he declined it. In 1807 and 1808 he was a member of the State Senate, and both years president of that body. In 1816 he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court, and so continued till 1819, when he resigned the place to accept the office of governor of the state, which he held by successive elections until 1823. So fully were the people satisfied of his ability and integrity that on his fourth election to the gubernatorial chair he received in a vote of nearly twenty-four thousand all but about one thousand of the whole number of ballots cast. While he held the office of governor, Bowdoin College con- ferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws.

Upon quitting the office of governor Mr. Bell was elected to the United States Senate for six years, and upon the expiration of that term re-elected for a like term. Upon leaving his seat in the Senate he retired from public life, and passed his remaining years upon his farm in Chester, where he died December 23, 1850.

Mr. Bell was a man of good natural powers, cultivated with diligence, and accompanied by scrupulous integrity. The long-continued and honorable public positions conferred upon him are the best proof of the confidence reposed by his fellow-citizens in his honesty and capacity. He was a tall, erect, and slender man, of a naturally delicate constitution, which he forti- fied by exercise and temperance. His manners were dignified and impressive. His professional learning was ample, and his judgment in public affairs was regarded as peculiarly sound. It was he to whom Mr. Webster, just before he delivered his celebrated reply to Hayne, applied to know if the sentiments which he proposed to enunciate in that speech were in accord with the views of his party at the North. Senator Bell assured him that they were. "Then, by the blessing of God," replied Mr. Webster, "the country shall know my views of the Constitution before this day is over."

Samuel Dana Bell was the son of Hon. Samuel Bell, and was born Octo- ber 9, 1798. He graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1816, read law in the office of Hon. George Sullivan in Exeter, and commenced practice in 1820. He lived in Chester from 1820 to 1830, and thence removed to Exeter, where he held the office of cashier of the Exeter Bank till 1836, and in 1839 he established himself in the growing town of Manchester, and there remained until his decease, July 31, 1868.

While a resident in Chester he twice represented that town in the General Court, and in 1823 was appointed solicitor for Rockingham County, which

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office he filled until 1828. In 1830 he was appointed one of the commis- sioners to revise the statutes of the state, and afterwards received a similar appointment in 1842, and again in 1867. He was commissioned a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1848, and justice of the Superior Court in 1849. He held the latter position till 1859, when he was elevated to the chief justiceship, which office he resigned in 1864. In 1854 he received from Dartmouth College the degree of Doctor of Laws.

Judge Bell possessed a sound understanding and unwearied patience and industry. He acquired not merely the learning of his profession in a degree rarely surpassed, but he made himself thoroughly conversant with every branch of useful knowledge. It was difficult to broach a subject of prac- tical importance which he had not studied and had not at his tongue's end. It was a common remark of those who met with him that his information was inexhaustible.

He was notably instrumental in promoting education, good order, and good morals in Manchester, which he saw grow up from a village to a large and populous city. He was the professional counsel and adviser of the great companies that built up the place; his recommendations were always heeded by them, and were productive of much advantage.

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History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 5

Author: Hazlett, Charles A Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold Number of Pages: 1390

Author: Hazlett, Charles A
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 1390