USA > New Hampshire > The bench and bar of New Hampshire : including biographical notices of deceased judges of the highest court, and lawyers of the province and state, and a list of names of those now living > Part 19
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He was a most thoroughbred lawyer. His learning was not diffuse and miscellaneous, but deep and very exact. He was con- stitutionally averse to anything like display of his legal attain- ments. His powers and resources appeared greatest when their manifestation was accidental, and partly involuntary, as when some question arose and was discussed incidentally in the course .of a trial. On such occasions Mr. Bell exhibited far greater ability than in the discussion of legal questions formally set down for argument. His keen analysis of facts, his ready command of the most exact legal phraseology, his thorough mastery of legal principles, and his prompt recollection of cases and authorities gave him great advantage where time was not allowed for the plodding preparation which some men require.
It may be added that Mr. Bell was always ready with his cases whenever they came up in their order, " whether the judge called the docket forwards or backwards." He had a full appreciation
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of his own abilities and position, and this he manifested by a rather imperious manner, and by high charges for his professional services.1 In dealing with witnesses on the stand, and in address- ing juries, his voice was so loud that it could be heard far outside the court-room. It is said that he was naturally diffident about speaking in public, and found that raising his voice gave him confidence. However this was, his manner and stentorian tones probably impaired his influence with the jury, and he was most successful in his arguments before the judges.
After he had acquired wealth and standing sufficient, he ap- parently formed a desire for political honors. He had been appointed solicitor for the county of Grafton in 1814, had repre- sented Haverhill in the legislature in 1821, 1828, 1829, and 1830, and had been the candidate of his party for Congress in 1835; but his party was in the minority in the State, and the doors of political advancement were closed to him there. This is said to be one of the motives which led him to remove his home to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1842.
There he entered at once into a lucrative practice, chiefly as chamber counsel, and was elected to the state legislature twice as representative, and two years in the Senate, of which he was chosen the president. But neither nature nor his training had adapted him to a political position. His business sagacity enabled him nearly to double his fortune, after his departure to Boston, and he might well rest content with his high reputation as a lawyer and a man, and the abundant fruits of his labors.
In his intercourse with others Mr. Bell was rather reserved, and had the reputation of being somewhat proud and exclusive. But to his intimates he unbent, and was social and most agreeable. For some years before his death he suffered with occasional attacks of heart disease, one of which occurred while he was traveling in Scotland with his brother-in-law, Rufus Choate. They had driven to the entrance of Holyrood Castle, when Mr. Bell declined to
1 In an important cause which he tried in Strafford County, during the later years of his residence in New Hampshire, his fee was two hundred dollars, which in later times would not be considered very large for a leading lawyer retained to go into a distant county. But then, and to his close-fisted client, it seemed enormous, and in speaking of it to a friend he said, " I have always believed in the doctrine of universal salvation ; but now I think if there is not a hell, there ought to be one !" But it could not be justly charged that Mr. Bell was dishonorable, or that he took undue advantage of his clients.
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enter the building, but did not allow his companion to know the cause of his refusal. Like the Spartan youth, he bore his suffer- ing in silence. He was too proud and self-contained to parade his infirmity before the eyes of another.
Dartmouth College gave Mr. Bell the degree of LL. D. in 1837.
He married Catharine, daughter of Mills Olcott of Hanover, September 6, 1821, and had two sons and three daughters. His son, Joseph Mills Bell, became a lawyer.
LOUIS BELL.
Son of Hon. Samuel and Lucy (Smith) Bell ; born, Chester, March 8, 1837 ; admitted, 1857 ; practiced, Farmington ; died, Wilmington, North Carolina, January 15, 1865.
The great civil war of 1861 proved that our modern age abounded in examples of heroism of the highest type. At the call of patriotism a very myriad of young, ardent Americans abandoned ease, safety, and plenty to encounter hardship, disease, and the perils of the battlefield. Among that number the sub- ject of this notice was conspicuous.
Educated at the academies of Derry and Gilford, and at Brown University (where, however, for some reason not to his discredit, he appears not to have taken his degree), Louis Bell was fitted by nature and by taste to be a soldier, and was disappointed in not being able to fit himself for the military profession by a course at West Point. By his reading he made himself thoroughly ac- quainted with military subjects, and thus unconsciously qualified himself for the duties which were in store for him in the future. His favorite studies besides were chemistry and the natural sciences.
He read law with Edmund L. Cushing of Charlestown, and opened an office in Farmington in 1857, when he was scarcely twenty-one years of age. He entered his profession with a will, as he did everything.
In two years he was appointed police justice of the town, and in two years more solicitor of Strafford County. It was character- istic of his military tastes that he also held the commission of major on the brigade staff of the state militia. He gave promise of attaining high distinction as a lawyer, but circumstances opened a different career before him.
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The first call for volunteers to suppress the great rebellion, in 1861, found Louis Bell ready. He tendered his services to the gov- ernor of the State, and was commissioned captain of the first com- pany in the First Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers. After serving out the three months' term for which the regiment was raised, he was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Fourth, a three years' regiment, and with it was in a short time ordered to Beaufort, South Carolina. There it came under the command of General T. W. Sherman, who on becoming acquainted with Lieutenant-Colonel Bell appointed him his inspector-general and chief of staff. In the spring of 1862 he was promoted to be colonel of the Fourth New Hampshire Regiment, and continued in command of it in South Carolina and Florida for the next two years.
In April, 1864, he was ordered to Virginia, and put in com- mand of a brigade of five regiments in the Army of the James. With it he participated in the engagements at Drewry's Bluff, at Cold Harbor, and others of less importance, always conducting himself with courage, skill, and credit. His brigade formed a part of both the expeditions against Fort Fisher. He was deeply mortified at the inglorious termination of the first one, and hailed with alacrity the orders for the second, though it was evident that the work was then not to be taken, except by a desperate expen- diture of life. He led his command to the assault of the rebel stronghold with his customary coolness, and had just congratu- lated an officer by his side on the admirable behavior of his men, when a rifle-ball from the enemy's lines pierced his breast and inflicted a ghastly wound. He was taken by tender hands to the rear, and though he was well aware that his hurt was mortal, he would not allow himself to be removed from the scene until he saw the colors of his own regiment floating proudly over the captured fort. A few hours later his gallant spirit took its flight from earth. President Lincoln recognized his value by conferring upon him the brevet rank of brigadier-general, dated on the day when Fort Fisher fell.
He was united in marriage, June 8, 1859, to Mary A. P., daughter of Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Bouton of Concord. She sur- vived him but a few months, leaving a son and a daughter.
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SAMUEL NEWELL BELL.
Son of Hon. Samuel D. and Mary H. (Healey) Bell ; born, Chester, March 25, 1829 ; Dartmouth College, 1847 ; practiced, Manchester ; died, North Woodstock, February 8, 1889.
The father of Samuel N. Bell, his grandfather, and his great- grandfather, Samuel Dana, were all of them jurists of note.
The subject of this sketch was prepared for college at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Upon attaining his degree of A. B. he naturally turned to the law for his profes- sion, and studied in the office of William C. Clarke of Man- chester, which place was then and ever after his home. He was engaged in active practice there for above a quarter of a century. His naturally quick parts, and his habits of application, gave him an almost immediate start in his profession. He was a quiet man and made little ado about his business, and had small in- clination for publicity or show. But his opinions, formed after careful study and reflection, were deemed of the highest authority. On two occasions he was tendered the office of chief justice of the highest state court, but declined to accept it. He had little ambition for exalted station, and preferred to keep the control of his time for his private business, and for the scientific studies in which he delighted. Though little of a politician he was induced to accept a nomination for Congress, and sat in the national House two terms, 1871-73 and 1875-77. But he was too inde- pendent to be a strict partisan.
He possessed remarkable business sagacity and tact. One of his first transactions of importance was the purchase of a valuable block of stores and offices in Manchester. He found it could be bought on favorable terms for cash. The purchase-money (or the most of it) he obtained from savings banks, on long loan, on the security of a mortgage of the building. The stores and offices were so well rented that they not only paid the interest on the money borrowed, but a handsome annual percentage of the prin- cipal, so that in no long period the building " paid for itself," and became the unincumbered property of the purchaser.
Mr. Bell carried the same careful calculation into all his busi- ness methods. He became the owner of much real estate in and about Manchester, and was largely concerned in many corpora-
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tions, but in none of his ventures did he rely on the opinions of others ; he investigated for himself and backed his own judg- ments. The sequel proved the wisdom of his conduct. He was at the time of his decease president of the Manchester Street Railroad, and vice-president (and practically manager) of the New Hampshire Fire Insurance Company, both which were among the most successful corporations in the State.
Somewhat early in his career Mr. Bell turned his attention to the railroad system of New Hampshire, and as usual was satisfied with no half knowledge. It is doubtful if any man, before or since, has ever made himself so thoroughly acquainted with the history and condition of the several lines as he was. He was president of the Concord and Portsmouth, the Suncook Valley, the Pemi- gewasset Valley, the Profile and Franconia Notch railroads, and was clerk of the Boston, Concord, and Montreal. Of these he may be called the father of the Suncook Valley and the Pemige- wasset Valley railroads, for without his faith and encouragement, and steady and continued impulsion, it is questionable whether they would have been in operation at this day. He was rewarded for his enterprise and foresight and judicious management by the accumulation of a large property.
To his acuteness and business sagacity Mr. Bell joined an untiring industry. He wasted no time. The intervals of his mul- tifarious activities were filled by reading, of a useful sort. He collected a large library, of which a great proportion related to scientific subjects. His habits of thoroughness were visible in his study, as in all else. When a subject engaged his attention, he could not rest till he exhausted it, and if there were books which could enlighten him, he got them without regard to cost.
He was interested especially in the growth and prosperity of the Manchester Atheneum, the foundations of which were due in a great measure to the liberality and foresight of his father. He served as an officer of this institution for many years, and it was largely due to him that its collections became so numerous, and of so great utility to the population of the city.
Mr. Bell enjoyed a wide popularity. But it was not the popu- larity which comes of acquiescence in every one's statements. He was a man of decided convictions, and never hesitated to declare them. It was his very honesty and outspokenness that gave men faith in him. He had a quaint method of expression, and his say-
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ings were widely repeated. Men liked to hear what he thought on the topics of the day. His information and his judgment gave tone to the thoughts of numerous others.
His funeral was attended by the bar of Hillsborough County in a body, and by a great concourse of sorrowing friends. All the banks of Manchester and many of the leading places of business were closed, in testimony of the loss of one of the lead- ing and most respected citizens.
Mr. Bell was never married.
ABEL HERBERT BELLOWS.
Son of Abel and Harriet (Houghton) Bellows ; born, London, England, May 28, 1821 ; Harvard College, 1842 ; admitted, 1845 ; practiced, Concord and Walpole ; died, Boston, Massachusetts, March 23, 1889.
The parents of Mr. Bellows resided in Walpole, and were traveling in Europe at the time of his birth. He was educated at the Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College, studied law with Frederic Vose of Walpole, and was graduated LL. B. from Harvard Law School in 1845. He was then received as a partner in the office of his cousin, Henry A. Bellows, afterwards Chief Justice, at Concord, and lived there fifteen years or more, and then returned to Walpole. He was a representative from Walpole in the legislatures of 1865 and 1866. The last few years of his life he spent in Boston.
He inherited from his father a handsome property, and al- though he entered the practice of his profession, he probably felt quite independent of it. He was public spirited and liberal.
In 1867 he was chiefly instrumental in replacing the old toll bridge over the Connecticut at Walpole by a new free bridge. He distinguished himself also by the vigor and pertinacity with which he followed up the perpetrators of the robbery of the sav- ings bank in Walpole in 1864, by which he was a considerable loser.
The principal offender in that crime was arrested, tried, and after conviction escaped from jail, and was re-arrested and com- mitted to the state prison, from which by the aid of a confederate he again escaped.1 It was in a great degree owing to the zeal
1 The bank robber, whose name was Shinborn, was never retaken. But, several years afterwards, an application was made by telegraph to the gov-
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and acumen of Mr. Bellows that he was brought even thus far to justice.
Mr. Bellows was amiable in disposition, a courteous and refined gentleman, ready to do anything to help a friend, or to forward a public improvement.
He was married, May 27, 1861, to Julia A. Warren of Boston, Massachusetts, and left a daughter and two sons.
ASAHEL HICKS BENNETT.
Son of Nehemiah and Lucy Bennett ; born, Swanzey, 1805 ; admitted, 1830; practiced, Winchester ; died, Davenport, Iowa, July 14, 1880.
Mr. Bennett is said to have come from old Quaker stock. He was educated at the academies in Chesterfield and Hancock, and after teaching school in his native town, studied law under Tim- othy Reed and Benjamin Kimball of Winchester, and Thomas M. Edwards of Keene. He began to practice in Winchester about 1830, and remained there above a quarter of a century, becoming a man of prominence, with a good standing in the community.
In 1850 he was a delegate to the convention to amend the Constitution of the State ; from 1851 to 1854 he was school com- missioner for Cheshire County, and in 1852 and 1853 he was a member of the state Senate. He had also accumulated property, and was a director in the Winchester Bank.
An anecdote is preserved of Mr. Bennett which shows that though the blood of Friends flowed in his veins, he did not lack proper spirit. In an important hearing which he was conducting before a somnolent Judge of Probate, he was annoyed when he came to his argument to find that the Judge, after a hearty dinner, gave unmistakable and audible evidence of being asleep.
ernor and council of the State for his pardon, upon condition that he would make good the stolen property. No attention was paid to the application. Upon surprise being expressed at the escaped prisoner's wish for a pardon, when he was already at large and out of the jurisdiction, a gentleman who knew the ways of criminals, and the manner in which their booty is extorted from them, answered that Shinborn was undoubtedly compelled to pay black- mail to the officers of the city where he lived, by threats of informing against him so as to procure his extradition to this State to serve out the remainder of his sentence. And in reply to the inquiry where Shinborn could possibly get the means to replace the stolen securities, the answer was, " By breaking another bank !"
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Mr. Bennett stopped, his Honor awoke, and Mr. Bennett remon- strated that as his client's interests were at stake, the Judge ought to remain awake and listen to what was said in his behalf. The Judge denied the impeachment, and said that he was only medi- tating with his eyes shut. "I'll be -," retorted Bennett indig- nantly, " if I believe the Court is awake when he snores !" The Court slept no more while the hearing lasted, but the story goes that he " got even " with the counsel by deciding the case against him.
About the year 1856 Mr. Bennett removed with his family to Davenport, Iowa, thenceforward his home. He received the ap- pointment of Judge of the Court for the Fourteenth Judicial Dis- trict in Scott County, Iowa, in 1857. In 1872 he was chosen mayor of the city of Davenport, and was instrumental in intro- ducing a system of water-works and other improvements. It is evident that though transplanted somewhat late in life, he took kindly to his new habitat.
His wife was Abby A. G., daughter of Moses Smith, a lawyer of Lancaster, Massachusetts. They had five sons and four daugh- ters.
JACOB BENTON.
Son of Samuel S. and Esther (Prouty) Benton ; born, Waterford, Vermont, August 19, 1814 ; admitted, 1843 ; practiced, Lancaster ; died there, Septem- ber 29, 1892.
Mr. Benton attended academies in Vermont, and graduated from the seminary in Manchester, in that State. In 1841 he commenced to study law with Heaton and Reed at Montpelier, and in a few months assumed the principalship of the academy at Concord Corner, Vermont, at the same time pursuing his law studies with Henry A. Bellows of Littleton. In 1843 he removed permanently to Lancaster. He entered the law office of Ira Young there, and became his partner. Mr. Benton was devoted to his profession, and relinquished its active duties only with his life.
In 1854 he entered the state legislature as a representative, and was rechosen in each of the two succeeding years. It was an exciting period in the politics of New Hampshire, and the name of General Benton (for he held the position of brigadier-general of militia) became prominent before the voters of his section. In 1867 he was elected representative in Congress. He kept his
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seat two terms, and was an active and useful member. His speech in February, 1868, in arraignment of the policy of Presi- dent Johnson, had a wide circulation, and was considered a power- ful exposition of the views of his party associates.
He was in person tall, well proportioned, erect, with a frank and open countenance. His candor and courage corresponded with his look. His law business was large, his methods were manly and straightforward. In conducting litigation he had no inclination for the technicalities and subtleties which are by some mistakenly deemed the indicia of a great lawyer. He preferred to trust to the intrinsic merits of his case, and to meet his op- ponents in the open field, where no advantage was to be taken, In his forensic addresses he selected the strong points in contro- versy, and handled them with logical power and skill, calling to his aid a good-humored wit, which enlivened his speech and drove home his arguments and illustrations. His native shrewdness and knowledge of men seldom misled him as to what could be successfully attempted, and his never-failing tact enabled him to make the most of the mistakes of his opponent, while exposing himself as little as possible.
Mr. Benton's powerful physique and prudent habits of life preserved his bodily and intellectual powers unimpaired to the last, and he was as capable of business at seventy-eight as in middle age. His death was the result of being thrown from his carriage.
He was married in 1860 to Louisa Dwight, daughter of Gen- eral Neal Dow of Portland, Maine.
JOHN MACDONOUGH BERRY.
Son of John and Marianna (Hogan) Berry ; born, Pittsfield, September 18, 1827; Yale College, 1847 ; admitted, 1850 ; practiced, Alton ; died, Minne- apolis, Minnesota, November 8, 1887.
Mr. Berry prepared himself for college at the academies in Pittsfield, Gilmanton, and Andover, Massachusetts, and studied for his profession with Arthur F. L. Norris of Pittsfield, and Ira Perley of Concord. He settled in practice at Alton in 1850, and lived there two years, the sum of his professional life in this State, during which, however, he gave promise of the eminence that he subsequently attained.
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His first removal was to Janesville, Wisconsin, for two years ; thence to Austin, and afterwards to Faribault, Minnesota, where he practiced eleven years, and until he was elected an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. In that position he was retained by successive elections to the time of his death, when he was the oldest of the associate Justices.
He had been a member of the territorial legislature of Minne- sota in 1856-57, and a senator of the State in 1863 and 1864; and in each of those bodies was chairman of the judiciary commit- tee. He was also a member of the board of Regents of the State University in 1860 and 1861.
Upon his decease a committee of the bar of the State presented to the Court a series of resolutions containing the highest tributes to his natural and acquired qualifications for the judicial station, his ability, learning, sense of justice, independence, and upright- ness, and to his estimable private character.
In 1862 Judge Berry was married to Alice Parker. They had four children, a son and three daughters.
GEORGE ONSLOW BETTON.
Son of Hon. Silas and Mary (Thornton) Betton ; born, Salem, June 8, 1807 ; Dartmouth College, 1835 ; practiced, Epping and Derry ; died, Bos- cawen, June 25, 1864.
Mr. Betton pursued his law studies with his brother, Thornton Betton of Derry, and opened his office for practice in Epping about the year 1838. He remained there three years, and near the time of his brother's death in Derry returned to that town, and continued practice there until 1845, when he abandoned the law.
He afterwards became a clerk in the post-office in Boston, Massachusetts.
He never married.
NINIAN CLARK BETTON.
Son of Samuel and Anna (Ramsay) Betton ; born, New Boston, January 10, 1787 ; Dartmouth College, 1814 ; practiced, Hanover ; died, Boston, Massachusetts, November 19, 1856.
Mr. Betton was left an orphan before he was four years old. At the age of fourteen he was put into a store, but having no
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taste for trade, he succeeded in preparing himself at the Atkinson Academy for a liberal education.
He read law in part in the office of Ezekiel Webster at Bos- cawen, and in part in that of his more distinguished brother, Dan- iel Webster, at Portsmouth, and Boston, Massachusetts. In the latter city he was admitted, and began practice. Not long after- ward, he transferred his residence to Hanover in this State, where he remained two or three years, and then returned to Boston. His professional experience in New Hampshire was too short to gain him any distinctive reputation here; but by the bar in Bos- ton he was esteemed a capable lawyer and an honest man, well read in the learning of the law, and a skillful counselor. He held important positions in the city government and in the legisla- ture of the State.
He married his cousin, Wealthy J., daughter of Silas Betton of Salem, and had three sons, one of whom, George E. Betton, succeeded him in the practice of law in Boston.
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