USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 33
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He developed a taste, also, which is not common among the young, for historical and antiquarian studies. The past of his
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native town he investigated with special interest, and ransacked records, interrogated the old inhabitants, and gathered from all sourees a large mass of historical information in reference to it. His purpose was to prepare and publish a history of Exeter, and it is unfortunate that he did not live to complete it. His labors in this direction, however, were not wasted. His father used the materials which he collected, for the foundation of the excellent bi-centennial address which he delivered in 1838; and the same memoranda have been of very great service to the present writer.
Mr. Smith did enough in the law to show that he was capable of attaining eminence. But he never realized the need of exertion, and never settled down to steady, hard work. He was generous and careless in regard to money. and in other ways was unbusi- nesslike, and caused anxiety to his friends. But he was always loved and esteemed ; his foibles were regarded as venial, and a splendid future appeared to be before him.
At this point his career was interrupted by failing health. In the spring of 1828 he had a severe attack of lung fever, which left him with a cough and other indications of pulmonary feeble- ness. Ile never recovered from it. The next season he did not rally, and he then determined to try the effect of a milder climate. He passed the winter of 1829-30 in Mississippi, among friends living there. But the hoped for relief never came. He died March 29, 1830, unmarried.
Another of Exeter's brilliant young lawyers was Oliver W. B. Peabody, son of Judge Oliver Peabody, born July 9, 1799. He graduated from Harvard College in 1816, and from the Harvard Law School six years later, having been a teacher in the interim a part of the time. He was a diligent student, a thorough scholar and a well read lawyer, and his native abilities were of the first order. The highest expectations were naturally formed of his success in his profession. But he was formed for the pursuits of literature, and not for the contests of the forum. His commence- ment part at college was a poem. After he was admitted to the bar he was the editor of an Exeter newspaper, The Rockingham Gazette. He wrote and delivered numerous addresses and poems on public occasions, one of which, a poem on the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of New Hampshire, was specially admired. The last eight years of Mr. l'eabody's professional life, he was annually elected to the Legislature, where he made his mark as an accomplished scholar and law-maker. In 1830 he
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removed to Boston, Massachusetts, not with the design of prose- cuting his profession, so much as to find a wider field for the occupation of his pen. He assisted his brother-in-law, Alexander H. Everett, in conducting The North American Review, and for some time had the editorial charge of The Boston Daily Advertiser. In 1835 he was chosen a representative from Boston in the General Court, and received the next year the appointment of Register of Probate. He held the office six years, during which he found time for much literary work. Jefferson College, in Louisiana, then offered him the chair of English Literature. He accepted it for a short time, hoping that his health, which was delicate, might be benefited by a change to a milder climate. In this he was disappointed, and returned to the North and began the study of divinity with an eye to the Unitarian pulpit. He read with his brother William, who was a settled clergyman in Spring- field, Massachusetts.
In 1845 he' was installed over a society in Burlington, Vermont, where he spent the short residue of his life in the enjoyment of the love and honor of all who knew him. He died there July 5, 1848.
John Sullivan belonged to a family of lawyers. His father and grandfather were such, his brother and two of his own sons, to say nothing of his granduncle, also, and several of his descendants. They had some inherited qualities which fitted them for the profession, especially the power of addressing juries in a pecu- liarly persuasive and effective manner. The oratory of John Sullivan so much resembled that of his father, that Ichabod Bart- lett, who knew them both well, said that if he heard the voice of the former where he could not see him, he should think it was the father come back again.
John Sullivan was educated in the Phillips Academy in Exeter, and read law with his father. He never lived elsewhere than in his native town. He was admitted to the bar about 1825, and soon had to measure himself with the promising young lawyers at that time living in the town. He was able and high spirited, and the competition did him good. In 1828 he was commissioned solicitor of the county, and thus gained an opportunity to show his capacity in the department of criminal law, which was always to his liking. The stately march of the precedents pleased his ear, and his habits of accuracy were gratified by the strict techni- calities. Moreover, his forte was the marshalling of evidence and presenting it to the jury in its most telling form.
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For ten years he performed the duties of the solicitorship, and then received the appointment of Judge of Probate. That office he held for the same period of time, and then was commissioned Attorney General of the State, which he continued to be, by suc- cessive appointments, to the close of his life.
Of this important office his administration was worthy of all praise. Diligent, faithful and accurate, he rarely made even the slightest mistake, and his uprightness and honor secured him from any suspicion of wrong or impropriety. He was singularly judicious in dealing with his cases. Instead of becoming by familiarity callous to the feelings and fate of the culprits brought under his official notice, he made broad distinctions between the hardened offenders and the unfortunate victims of folly or impru- dence, and treated the latter in a way creditable to his humanity. More than one offender who had fallen into bad company, but had not become vicious, have had reason to thank Attorney General Sullivan for saving them from the stigma and contamination of a long term of imprisonment, and for the opportunity to retrieve their past errors.
Though by nature of a quick temper, he was courteous in his treatment of all men, unless he had reason to believe that some slight or unfairness was intended. Then his anger blazed up. But in the court-room, where forensic blows were given and taken fairly, he fought ont his battles manfully, and bore no malice. . And when he was cut down by death, November 17, 1862, the unanimous verdict of the profession pronounced him a model attorney general.
Another of the promising young lawyers of Exeter, who was taken away in his early prime, was Samuel T. Gilman, a son of Colonel Nathaniel Gilman, born May 7, 1801 ; died January 23, 1835. He graduated from Harvard College at eighteen, with a high rank for scholarship, and after a year's service as Assistant in the Phillips Exeter Academy, pursued the study of the law under Jeremiah Smith, and began practice in his native village about 1823. His talents were superior, and he had the gift of popularity. He was elected representative to the State Legisla- ture, and appointed to deliver a Fourth of July address in Exeter ; and scarcely a young man of his generation gave promise of a brighter future. But the indications of pulmonary disease made their appearance, and though everything was done to arrest the fatal malady, it was all in vain. Before he reached the age of thirty-four his existence on earth was ended.
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For some five or six years Samuel D. Bell, afterwards Chief Justice of the Superior Court, lived in Exeter. He was invited there from Chester, where he first practised, by Judge Jeremiah Smith, who was pleased with the manner in which Mr. Bell, who was solicitor of the county, conducted the prosecution against the robbers of the old Exeter bank in 1828. The Judge was president of the bank, and offered Mr. Bell the post of cashier, upon the expectation, probably, that he would be able to combine with it a certain amount of the practice of the law. But that was undoubt- edly found not to be feasible, and after holding the office until about 1835, Mr. Bell removed from the town, for the purpose of pursuing his profession elsewhere.
James Bell came to Exeter in 1831, from Gilmanton, where he had originally begun practice, after having graduated from Bowdoin College, and studied his profession with his brother, Samuel D. Bell, and at the Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut. He was thoroughly equipped for the position of a leading lawyer. Modest and unassuming by nature he never lost the perfect command of his powers, and contended for every right of his clients with the most pertinacious. His temper was under perfect control, and he treated all with the respect which their conduct allowed. He was quick in his perceptions, but his logical faculties were never hurried out of their sound, deliberate conclu- sions. His acquired were fully equal to his natural powers. By careful study and reflection he had made himself a master of the learning of his profession. Of the affairs of every day life, agri- culture, business, mechanics and trade, he had a competent knowledge that stood him in good stead in his varied professional engagements. He had thoroughly trained himself for the duties of his calling, and no surprise daunted him ; no exigeney found him unprepared. Added to this he possessed a ready tact, to present always the equitable side of his cause, and had the weight of an upright private character, which never fails to tell, for counsel and client.
Mr. Bell was not long in acquiring a wide and valuable practice. He accomplished his work rapidly, and was capable of much continnous application. Before the sessions of the courts he prepared his causes with care and system. There was then no rest for him until the " previous proclamation " at the end of the term. His engagements for several years embraced nearly every contested cause of importance on the dockets of his own county
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and many on those of other counties. After listening to the judge's charge to the jury in one trial, he packed up his papers, and moved across the bar to open the next cause to another jury ; and so on in a great proportion of the cases till the final adjournment of the court.
Such work, though he apparently went through it with ease, was of course wearing, and at length resulted in a disease that insid- iously sapped the foundations of his life. In 1846 he received the offer of the post of Agent of the Lake Manufacturing Company, which would be less confining in its duties, while it was much in the line of his profession. He accepted it and removed from Exeter to Gilford.
In that year he had been elected a member of the Legislature from Exeter. In 1850 he was sent from his new home a delegate to revise the Constitution of the State. In 1853, and the two fol- lowing years, he was the candidate of his party for governor of the State, but his party was in the minority. But then came a change in the political complexion of the State, and in 1855 he was elected by the Legislature a senator of the United States for six years. He took his seat, but he felt that his days were num- bered. The disease that had long lurked in his system increased in violence, and he died at his home in Gilford May 26, 1857.
He left daughters and sons, one of whom followed his father's profession.
John Kelly did not come to live in Exeter until 1831, twenty- three years after he had been admitted to the bar, and when his legal practice was substantially over. He was born in Warner March 6, 1786, the son of the Rev. William Kelly, and received his bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1804. He pur- sued his legal studies in the office of Jeremiah H. Woodman, and began practice in Henniker, but soon removed to Northwood. There he continued to reside and to attend to the business of his profession until his removal to Exeter, with the exception of the year 1814, which he spent in Concord in the editorial charge of The Concord Gazette. From Northwood he was sent in 1826 and 1827 a representative to the State Legislature.
In 1831 Mr. Kelly received the appointment of Register of Probate, which necessitated his residence in Exeter. He held the office till 1842, at which time he was chosen treasurer of the Phillips Exeter Academy, and remained in that post up to the year 1855. In 1833 he became editor of The Exeter News Letter,
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after the departure of its founder, John S. Sleeper. Under his oversight the paper lost none of the valuable features imparted to it by its former conductor, but took on others derived from its new editor. A vein of pleasantry ran through its articles, which entertained the readers, and often enabled the writer to exert a useful influence on subjects where didactics would have repelled.
But it was the historical and antiquarian information which, as has heretofore been stated, Mr. Kelly contributed to the columns of the paper that especially gave it a wider circulation and repute. His Collectanea have been mentioned in a former chapter.
Mr. Kelly was an original member of the New Hampshire His- torical Society, and served as its recording secretary for a number of years. To the valuable historical Collections edited by Farmer and Moore he contributed a carefully prepared series of sketches of the early clergy of New Hampshire. After his removal to Exeter he was again chosen a representative in the Legislature in 1845 ; in 1847 and 1848 a member of the Executive Council ; and in 1850 a delegate to the convention to revise the State Constitu- tion.
He married Susan Hilton " the belle of Northwood," a descend- ant of Edward Hilton, and had several children ; among them one son, John P. P. Kelly, and a daughter, the wife of the late Joseph L. Cilley of Exeter.
Timothy Farrar, a son of a distinguished judge of the same name, a graduate of Dartmouth College, who had practised law in Portsmouth and Hanover, and had been a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for some years, came to Exeter in 1836, to take the office of cashier of the Exeter Bank, which he held till the expiration of its charter in 1844, when he removed to Boston which was ever after his home.
Amos Tuck, a native of Parsonsfield, Maine, in 1810, and a graduate of Dartmouth College in 1835, came to Exeter in 1838 from Hampton where he had been teaching an academy and study- ing law: He entered the office of James Bell and completed his preparatory studies there, so that in December of the same year he was admitted to the bar, and became the partner of Mr. Bell. They remained together eight years, until the senior partner removed to Gilford. Their practice was extensive, and their trials of contested causes were particularly numerous and successful. Mr. Tuck was diligent, sagacious and faithful to the interest of clients, and soon won the reputation of an able and trustworthy lawyer.
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Though bred a democrat in politics, he early showed his disap- probation of the position of his party upon the slavery question, and was among the earliest, in company with John P. Hale, to take his stand against it. He employed all his energies and in- fluence to strengthen the Free Soil party, which united in 1847 with the Whig party to elect him a representative in the Congress of the United States. He served there six years, with marked ability and credit.
In 1847 he associated himself with the late William W. Stickney in the practice of his profession. Their partnership, which com- manded a large and profitable business, continued about ten years. For two or three years, subsequently, he had for his partner in practice, his son-in-law, Francis O. French, now of New York city.
In 1856 he was a member of the convention in Philadelphia which founded the Republican party, and served upon the commit- tee which reported its platform of principles ; and in 1860 he was a delegate to the Chicago Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. In 1861 he was appointed by the governor of the State to attend what was called the "Peace Con- vention," which attempted in vain to avert the threatened sec- tional conflict. In that body he reported the Declaration of the Northern members, of the concessions they were willing to make for the preservation of peace.
Mr. Tuck was appointed by President Lincoln, with whom he had enjoyed an acquaintance while in Congress, naval officer of the port of Boston, a post of importance and value. This he held by a re-appointment until 1865 when he was removed by President Johnson. He was afterwards for some years employed by the Atlantic and Pacific railroad to take charge of the sales of lands of that corporation, and took up his residence for the time in St. Louis. He was, later, engaged in various enterprises, which carried him much away from Exeter, but gave him agreeable and gainful occupation. Twice also he visited Europe, and travelled there somewhat extensively.
He was always much interested in the cause of education. For nearly thirty years he was a trustee of the Phillips Exeter Acad- emy, and for about ten years of Dartmouth College. When the town of Exeter received the noble donation of William Robinson for the foundation of a female seminary, Mr. Tuck took great interest in the shaping and location of the institution; was the
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author of the constitution adopted by the town, and a trustee, and the first president of the board.
Mr. Tuck's life was an active and honorable one. His public career reflected much credit upon his ability and judgment. IIc had a high ambition, and was endowed with the qualities of a leader of men. His separation from his original party was based on grounds which were as creditable to his sense of right as to his political sagacity. His administration of the several positions of honor or trust that were conferred upon him was able and faithful. He was an astute man of business and accumulated a large estate, but was liberal in contributing to public objects and in private charity.
He was twice married, and had by his first wife, the daughter of David Nudd of Hampton, three children who survived him : Mrs. Frye of Boston, Ellen, wife of Francis O. French, and Edward Tuck, both of New York city.
Henry F. French lived in Exeter about eighteen years, from 1841 to 1859. He was a son of Daniel French, a lawyer in Chester, where he was born in 1813 ; and after an academic educa- tion, studied law with his father and at the Harvard Law School, and was admitted to practice in 1835. He was appointed solicitor of the county in 1838 and retained the office for ten years. In 1848 he received the appointment of bank commissioner which he held for four years. In 1855 he was commissioned a judge of the State Court of Common Pleas, and remained upon that bench until the court was abolished in 1859. These several offices he filled with ability and credit and to the general satisfaction.
Ile removed in 1859 to Massachusetts, where he was assistant district attorney for the county of Suffolk from 1862 to 1865, and then accepted the presidency of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, which he resigned after little more than a year's service, and returned to practice in Boston. In 1876 he was appointed second assistant secretary of the United States Treasury, and re- moved to Washington where he remained in the discharge of his duties until the accession of President Cleveland, when he retired to his farm in Concord, Massachusetts, and died there November 29,1885.
Judge French was a ready, keen and thoroughly equipped lawyer. He had studied his profession diligently, and could bring to the front his knowledge and his best powers at a moment's notice. Ilis habits of business were methodical, and nothing was
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neglected. While he was upon the bench he never left any cases or questions at loose ends ; when the term was over the entire business, so far as he could control it, was done.
He was an agreeable companion, and kept on pleasant terms with all. He was also a man of marked public spirit. In Exeter he was interested in the streets and sidewalks and school-houses, in the laying out of the new cemetery, in the planting of shade trees, and in all that pertained to the improvement and beautify- ing of the place.
The judge was fond of husbandry, and read and wrote much on that subject. As the representative of an Agricultural Associa- tion he visited England to examine the improvements made by the great proprietors there in the cultivation of their lands, and after his return he published a volume on Farm Drainage.
Though the greater part of his active life was passed away from Exeter, he retained many warm friends there who were interested in his welfare and mourned his loss.
John S. Wells passed in Exeter the last fourteen years of his life. He was born in Durham in 1803, and was a grandnephew of General John Sullivan of the Revolution. In his youth he learned the trade of a cabinet-maker, but by his own exertions obtained an education and prepared himself for his profession. His first practice was in Guildhall, Vermont, from which place he removed after about eight years to Lancaster, New Hampshire, where he acquired a large practice, and held the office of county solicitor during two terms. He was also elected to the Legislature from Lancaster three years, the last of which he was chosen Speaker of the House.
He came to Exeter in 1846. The recent departure of James Bell from the county made an excellent opening in the town for a leading lawyer, and his political opinions also helped him to clients. In a very little while his docket became a large one, and his time was fully employed. In 1847 he received the appoint- ment of attorney general, but he probably felt that he could not afford to surrender his private practice for the office. In 1851 he was elected to a seat in the State Senate, and was re-elected the following year. He presided over that body both years. In Jan- uary, 1855, he was appointed by the governor a senator of the United States to fill out the unexpired term of Moses Norris, and held his seat until the succeeding fourth of March. Two years before, he had been a candidate before the Legislature for the same
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honor, but missed it by a few votes. In 1856 and 1857 he was the candidate of his party for governor of the State, but the political revolution of 1854 left him in the minority.
Mr. Wells was highly successful in his profession. He was a keen business man, and believed that the laborer is worthy of his hire.
Though not what would be called particularly studious in his habits, yet he had a considerable library, and consulted it not a little in his business. His legal learning was more than respect- able, and he was capable of a good deal of continuous work. But he was fonder of trials at nisi prius than of any other professional employment, for there his peculiar qualities were at their best. IIe had a fine person, and a winning address. His voice was like that of his kindred Sullivans, sweet and well modulated. He had fluency of speech, and a knowledge of the weaknesses of human nature, which enabled him to address himself to the vulnerable side of the jury with much effect.
His domestic life was a chief source of enjoyment to him. He married carly, and was the father of five children, three of whom ontlived him. He was a fond parent, and felt the deepest interest in the welfare and happiness of his family. He died in Exeter of a lingering disease August 1, 1860.
William W. Stickney removed to Exeter from Newmarket in 1847. He was no stranger, as he had practised law in the county for near twenty years before. He was born in Enfield, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1823, and was admitted an attorney three years afterwards. Before he came to Exeter he had been three years a member of the State Legislature, and was again elected one year from Exeter. In 1849 he was appointed United States attorney for the district of New Hampshire, and served until the coming in of President Pierce. In 1857 he was made judge of probate for the county, and performed the duties of that office with entire acceptance until he reached the constitutional limit of seventy years of age. He was also for many years a director of the Granite State Bank and of the Manchester and Lawrence Railroad, and president of the Exeter Machine Works. Judge Stickney's qualities were rather solid than brilliant. He was a diligent, methodical, careful practitioner, who neglected no business entrusted to him. In the course of his long professional life, he is said to have missed attending but a single term of the courts, and that was by reason of illness. His reputation for
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