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 20
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SILAS BETTON.
Son of James and Elizabeth (Dickey) Betton ; born, Windham, August 26, 1767 ; Dartmouth College, 1787 ; practiced, Salem ; died there, January 22, 1822.
Mr. Betton prepared himself for college under the tuition of the Rev. Simon Williams of Windham, served his legal apprentice- ship in the office of Samuel Dana of Amherst, and settled as an attorney in Salem about the year 1790. He was the first lawyer in the place, and there was no friendly feeling, but a jealous suspicion among the common people in regard to members of his profession. When they came to know him, however, their prejudices thawed before his genial qualities, and he became well liked. His townsmen chose him to represent them in the state legislature in 1797 and the two following years, and again in 1810 and 1811. He was honored with a seat in the New Hamp- shire Senate in 1801, 1802, and 1803; and with two elections to the Congress of the United States, serving from 1803 to 1807. In 1813, when Josiah Butler was removed from the office of sheriff of Rockingham County, Mr. Betton was appointed in his place, and filled the office five years.
As a legislator he was attentive to his duties and true to his
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constituents, not a speechmaker, but quite capable of taking his share in the transaction of public business. His courage and stalwart vigor are said to have stood him in good stead in Wash- ington, as there were fire-eating politicians in those times who used to threaten to use the argument of physical force upon their Northern opponents, and some of the latter felt safer to have a muscular friend like Betton for a companion in their walks abroad.
He was respectable as a lawyer, not a trier of causes, nor a mere money-seeker. In his dealings he was liberal, and is said to have lent a helping hand to the needy, and to have had the respect of all his neighbors. He was a contributor to the newspaper press, and possessed a plain and easy style of composition. Robert Dinsmoor, the "Rustic Bard," as he was termed, was his friend and warm admirer. In the volume of the latter's metrical pro- ductions, published in 1828, are several letters of Mr. Betton, and frequent mention of his name in terms of honest praise.
Mr. Betton's wife was Mary, eldest daughter of Matthew Thornton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He left seven children, two of whom became lawyers.
THORNTON BETTON.
Son of Silas and Mary (Thornton) Betton ; born, Salem, April 3, 1800 ; Dartmouth College, 1820 ; admitted, 1823 ; practiced, Salem and Derry ; died, Derry, September 16, 1841.
Upon his graduation from Dartmouth College, Mr. Betton entered the office of James Thom of Derry as a student, and after his three years' novitiate, set up practice in Salem, his na- tive town. He continued there six years, in the last three of which he represented the town in the state legislature; and then removed to Derry.
He had the reputation of being a lawyer of ability, and was employed in some cases of importance. He had little of the open, outspoken manner of his father, but was rather reserved, and kept his own counsel. Perhaps from this circumstance he got the name of being something of a schemer, and men were cautious in their dealings with him. He was, however, a stirring man, and had a considerable business.
He married, in 1832, Mary E. B. H., daughter of Captain Caleb H. Hopkins of Portsmouth, and left three sons.
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ELIJAH BINGHAM.
Son of James and Mary (Willey) Bingham ; born, Lempster, February 24, 1800 ; admitted, 1825 ; practiced, Lempster and Alstead ; died, Cleveland, Ohio, July 10, 1881.
Mr. Bingham had some experience as a teacher before entering Dartmouth College, which he did from Appleton Academy, at New Ipswich, in 1818. Finding that he was not getting the full benefit of his collegiate instruction by reason of an imperfection in his hearing, he quitted his class in March, 1819, and the next year was admitted into the office of his brother, James H. Bing- ham, as a student at law. He completed his studies in 1825, and in October of that year made an excursion to Cleveland, Ohio. On his way he stopped at Buffalo, New York, on the very impor- tant occasion when the Erie Canal was opened amid great rejoic- ings, connecting the waters of the Great Lakes with those of the Hudson River.
Mr. Bingham was so much pleased with Cleveland that he made arrangements after reaching home to return thither and enter into the practice of the law. But the death of a brother at Lempster demanded his services at that place to settle the estate, and resulted in his opening a law office and receiving the appoint- ment of postmaster at Lempster. He remained there but about a year, and then became his brother's successor in Alstead. He continued there until 1835, when he carried out his long-deferred plan of establishing himself in Cleveland, Ohio. His journey thither was accomplished by private carriage, by stage-coach, and canal, and occupied no fewer than nine days.
He engaged in the flour-milling business in Cleveland, which proving successful, he became the owner of real estate, and im- proved it in agriculture, horticulture, and in the cultivation of the vine for the purpose of wine manufacture.
In his early life Mr. Bingham was an intimate associate of Jonas Chickering, afterwards the well-known piano manufacturer. He watched the progress of the latter with much interest, and purchased the first instrument he made, June 23, 1823, for the lady who afterwards became Mr. Bingham's wife. The same piano, after being used nearly seventy years, was recently bought by Mr. Chickering's son, as a memento of his father.
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Mr. Bingham married Thankful C., daughter of Major Samuel C. Hutchinson of Alstead, October 25, 1827. They lived to- gether long enough to celebrate their golden wedding. Of their seven children, two survived their father.
JAMES HERVEY BINGHAM.
Son of James and Lima (Hibbard) Bingham ; born, Lempster, April 11, 1781 ; Dartmouth College, 1801; admitted 1804; practiced, Alstead and Claremont ; died, Washington, District of Columbia, March 31, 1859.
Mr. Bingham was a classmate of Daniel Webster at Phillips Exeter Academy and Dartmouth College; read law in the office of Benjamin West at Charlestown, and commenced practice at Alstead. He remained in that place twenty-two years, and was chosen representative to the General Court four years, and a state senator three. He left Alstead for Claremont to assume the post of cashier in the newly incorporated bank in that town, at the urgent desire of George B. Upham, the president and chief stockholder of the bank. After fifteen years of faithful service Mr. Bingham resigned the office of cashier, and removed four years afterwards to Cleveland, Ohio, the home of his brother Elijah.
In 1840 Mr. Bingham, having become reduced in circumstances by reason of unfortunate investments, received a clerkship in the Department of the Interior at Washington, through the influence of Daniel Webster, and occupied it during the remainder of his life. The early friendship between these gentlemen was never forgotten by either. The correspondence between them has been published, and is creditable to the memory of both.
Mr. Bingham's first wife was Mary, daughter of Samuel Stevens of Charlestown. She died in 1818, and he married Charlotte M., daughter of William A. Kent of Concord. He left no chil- dren.
WILLIAM NOYES BLAIR.
Son of Joseph C. and Dolly (Noyes) Blair ; born, Campton, June 23, 1834; practiced, Campton and Laconia ; died, Campton, May 18, 1872.
Mr. Blair was educated at the academies in Plymouth and New Hampton, and read law with Napoleon B. Bryant of Plymouth,
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and Tolman Willey of Boston, Massachusetts. In that city he was admitted to the bar in 1857, and immediately returned to Campton to commence practice. A year later he transferred his office to Laconia. He was superintending school committee of Laconia in 1859 ; solicitor of Belknap County from 1861, two terms, until 1871 ; and state senator in 1870.
He is described by a friend as possessing an active, strong, and clear mind, well read in his profession, full of zeal, and ambitious of advancement ; interested in all matters of public concern, sincere, and honorable. He was a good advocate, and conducted with success important prosecutions, while county solicitor. In a good number of litigated causes his services were retained, and he was regarded as one of the rising men of his time.
He married, August 5, 1862, Josephine V. Ranlett of Laconia, and left two daughters.
DANIEL BLAISDELL
Son of Hon. Elijah and Mary (Fogg) Blaisdell ; born, Pittsfield, August 26, 1806 ; Dartmouth College, 1827 ; admitted, 1830 ; practiced, Haverhill, Leb- anon, and Hanover ; died, Hanover, August 24, 1875.
Mr. Blaisdell prepared himself for college mainly at Kimball Union Academy in Plainfield, under the tuition of Rev. Israel Newell. He studied law in the office of Joseph Bell at Haver- hill. Two months after becoming an attorney he commenced practice as partner of John Nelson in Haverhill, and there con- tinued for something over a year, when he removed to Lebanon. He stayed but little longer there, and then settled for life in Hanover.
In 1835 he received the appointment of treasurer of Dartmouth College, and held it till his death, a period of forty years, which is believed to be the longest term of service of any officer of that institution. He was a representative from Hanover in the legis- latures of 1839, 1840, 1841, 1865, and 1866, and a senator in 1863 and 1864. He was also a presidential elector in 1860. In the year last mentioned he was chiefly instrumental in establish- ing the Dartmouth Savings Bank in Hanover; and in 1864 in organizing the Dartmouth National Bank ; and became the presi- dent of both.
Mr. Blaisdell was noticeable for his pleasing address and gen-
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tlemanly manners. At the same time he was a keen business man, and looked well after the main chance. Industrious and zealous as a lawyer, and well versed in professional learning, he gained and preserved, in a remarkable degree, the esteem and confidence of the people among whom his life was passed.
He was married, May 30, 1832, to Charlotte Osgood of Haver- hill. They had two children, a son and a daughter.
ELIJAH BLAISDELL.
Son of Hon. Daniel and Sally (Springer) Blaisdell ; born, Canaan, October 30, 1782 ; admitted, 1812 ; practiced, Canaan and Lebanon ; died, Lebanon, October 10, 1856.
Mr. Blaisdell was bred to the occupation of a shoemaker. At the age of twenty-seven, while working at his trade in Pittsfield, and having the responsibility of a wife and three children, he de- termined to become a lawyer. He studied in the office of a prac- titioner in Montpelier, Vermont. Being admitted there, he cast about for a while in search of a promising location, and at length settled in Canaan. Thomas H. Pettingill was already established there, and a second lawyer seemed to be a desideratum. Mr. Blaisdell remained twenty-one years in Canaan, and was often chosen to fill town offices, and in 1827 and 1828 was elected representative to the legislature. In 1829, when a great political change in New Hampshire occurred, Mr. Blaisdell transferred his allegiance from the Federal to the Jackson party, the immediate occasion of which was said to be an interview which he enjoyed with " Old Hickory," about the time of his inauguration.
In 1833 he moved to Lebanon, and about the same time was commissioned " side " judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Grafton. This office he resigned in 1834, and was appointed in the succeeding year solicitor for the same county, and reappointed five years after. He was also the colonel of a regiment of militia.
Though Mr. Blaisdell appears to have found difficulty in ob- taining entrance to the bar of this State, he is represented to have possessed a sufficiency of professional knowledge; and there is no question that he was a man of a decided character. In the "justice hearings," which were apt to be occasions of sharp encounters of words, at least, in his time, he was fully capable
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of holding his own, as he appears to have been, in fact, in every position that he occupied.
Judge Blaisdell was married, first, in 1803, to Mary Fogg of Hampton. She bore him eleven children. His second wife was Mrs. Mary Kingsbury of Plainfield. One of his sons was a lawyer.
NICHOLAS BLAISDELL.
Son of Robinson and Mary (Churchill) Blaisdell ; born, Madison, March 29, 1832 ; practiced, Madison ; died, Jacksonville, Florida, December 19, 1885.
Mr. Blaisdell obtained his education at the academy in Parsons- field, Maine, and at the seminary in North Scituate, Rhode Island, where he completed his preparation for college. He then engaged in teaching school, two years in New Jersey, and after- wards several terms in Massachusetts. He entered the Harvard Law School in 1859, and after taking his degree of LL. B. in 1861, went into the office of Paine and Herrick in Boston, Massa- chusetts, and was there admitted. He remained in Boston until 1869, and then practiced two years in New York. In 1871 he returned to Madison, but never engaged much in the practice of the law afterwards.
He is represented as of fair legal attainments and ability, and a good scholar; a man of strict integrity, who entered with much zeal into whatever he undertook. He was many years superin- tendent of schools in Madison.
His wife was Martha C. Hood of Somerville, Massachusetts. They were married February 21, 1867, and had one child, a daughter.
ROBERT TIBBETTS BLAZO.
Son of Daniel and Abigail (Chapman) Blazo ; born, Parsonsfield, Maine, August 11, 1797 ; admitted, 1830 ; practiced, Moultonborough and Sandwich ; died, Parsonsfield, Maine, May 26, 1890.
Mr. Blazo, who lived to be the oldest of the lawyers admitted to the bar of Strafford County, prepared himself for college at the academy in Wolfeborough, and studied his profession with Samuel Emerson and Aaron B. Hoyt of Sandwich. He practiced four years at Moultonborough and five at Sandwich,
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and then returned to his native town in Maine to pass the re- mainder of his life. As a business lawyer he was esteemed to have excellent qualifications, but he had little ambition to appear in the higher courts. He was successful in the management of his affairs, and became one of the wealthiest men in his town. He took great interest in the cultivation of his lands, and retired from practice a few years before his decease.
He married Mary, daughter of James O. Freeman of Moulton- borough, and had four children, two sons and two daughters.
JONATHAN BLISS.
Son of Jonathan and Martha (Martin) Bliss ; born, Randolph, Vermont, .July 15, 1799 ; Dartmouth College, 1824 ; admitted, 1828 ; practiced, Plym- routh and Haverhill ; died, Cleveland, Ohio, July 27, 1879.
Mr. Bliss read law at the school in Northampton, Massachu- setts, with Joseph Bell at Haverhill, and William C. Thompson at Plymouth, and began practice at the latter place in 1828. In four years he changed his residence to Haverhill, and tarried an equal length of time, when he migrated to Gainsville, Alabama. There he carried on the practice of his profession to the end of his active life.
Up to the year 1861 he was extremely successful and prosper- ous. When the madness of secession began to rage in the South, he had acquired property of the value of a hundred thousand dollars. Knowing the peaceable but determined temper of the North as he did, he strove with all his might to dissuade his neighbors from rushing into armed rebellion, but all to no pur- pose. Soon he was summoned to declare himself on one side or the other, and reluctantly decided that he must cast his lot with the section where he dwelt. As an earnest. of his sincerity he raised a military company, and armed and equipped them at an expense of twenty thousand dollars. They went into the Confed- erate army seventy-two strong, but only one sixth of that number ever returned to their homes. Mr. Bliss lost a large proportion of his property by the war.
As the greater part of his legal life was spent in Alabama, it seems proper to seek there for an account of him. In an amus- ing volume called "Flush Times in Alabama and Mississippi," by J. G. Baldwin, we find him described under the name of Jona-
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than Blass, as he was probably known to the uneducated Alabami- ans. He is represented as a distinguished member of the legal fraternity, who had maintained a leading position in the profession many years ; his masculine sense, acuteness, and shrewdness re- lieved and mellowed by fine social habits and an original and genial humor. He had a remarkably keen and quick sense of the ridiculous, and some whims and prejudices. He is also described as an elder of the Presbyterian Church and a man of no small dignity of character. The judgment of one of the inferior officers of the law is thus pronounced upon Mr. Bliss in these words : "Old Blass knows, when it comes to hard law, all the law they is ; but whether he can norate it from the stump, that is the ques- tion ! "
There was no occasion to raise that question, apparently, for a much better judge, living in New England, who knew Mr. Bliss well, averred that he was not only a good lawyer but he could talk !
Mr. Bliss had three wives ; he married, first, Lucretia, daugh- ter of William Leverett of Windsor, Vermont ; second, Mary, daughter of Dr. Samuel Kidder of Charlestown, Massachusetts ; third, Maria Kidder of Medford, Massachusetts. His death oc- curred while he was upon a journey. .
FRANCIS NEWTON BLOOD.
Son of Francis and Margaret (Patterson) Blood ; born, Hillsborough, No- vember 26, 1829 ; practiced, Hillsborough ; died there, 1865.
Mr. Blood's father died while his son was quite young, and the latter grew up in very narrow circumstances, under the charge of his widowed mother. He worked in the factory at Hillsborough till he earned enough money to defray his expenses as a student at the Tubbs Union Academy in Washington. After tarrying there as long as his resources permitted, he went to Lowell, Mas- sachusetts, and by manual labor acquired the means to enable him to begin the study of the law in the office of Samuel H. Ayer of Hillsborough. It was in 1853, probably, that he was admitted as an attorney, and he commenced practice in Hillsborough, in the same office which had been, years before, the scene of Frank- lin Pierce's early legal labors.
The voters of Hillsborough sent him as representative in the
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state legislature four successive years, beginning in 1861. He was an earnest and faithful member, and acted one or two years, at least, upon the judiciary committee. In his legal practice he was thorough, painstaking, and very methodical ; in all his deal- ings he was upright and honorable. His financial management was excellent, and at his death he left an estate of considerable amount, which he had gained in the practice of his profession.
He was married, November 8, 1853, to Ophelia A., daughter of Rev. Joseph Barber of Alstead. They had no children.
WILLIAM BOARDMAN.
Son of William and Martha (Lane) Boardman ; born, Newmarket, July 31, 1779 ; practiced, Farmington ; died, Newmarket, February 4, 1808.
Mr. Boardman was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, entering in 1798, at the age of eighteen. His legal studies he pursued in the office of Ebenezer Smith of Durham; and he entered upon practice in Farmington about 1806. But in the course of one or two years he returned to Newmarket, by reason of the failure of his health, it is supposed, and his early death occurred in that place.
WILLIAM RICE BOARDMAN.
Son of Dr. John H. and Susan R. (Rice) Boardman ; born, Portsmouth, 1848 ; admitted, 1872 ? ; practiced, Portsmouth ; died there, February 24, 1880.
Mr. Boardman was educated in the public schools of Ports- mouth and the Phillips Exeter Academy, and studied his profes- sion under John S. H. Frink, in his native place. His practice never grew to be extensive, and was chiefly confined to his office, as he was so lame as to require the aid of crutches.
He was a good lawyer, of fine intellect and sound judgment, a most entertaining companion, with a large fund of information, a keen wit, and a ready appreciation of the ludicrous. His powers of imitation were excellent. As a friend he was steadfast, and it is believed that he never had an enemy.
He never married.
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BENJAMIN BORDMAN.
Son of Colonel Amos and Mary (Lewis) Bordman ; born, South Reading, Massachusetts, February 15, 1798 ; admitted, 1825 ; practiced, Ossipee, Bath, Concord, Sanbornton, etc. ; died, Concord, April 3, 1871.
At the age of twenty years Mr. Bordman was in Concord, en- gaged in teaching. There he remained, pursuing the study of the law in the office of Samuel Fletcher, his brother-in-law, till his admission in 1825. He then went to Ossipee, where he practiced three years ; then to Bath, and there entered into partnership with Ira Goodall. He stayed in Bath but a few months before he sold his interest to Andrew S. Woods, and tried his fortune in Conway. In 1832 he left Conway and returned to Concord, where he remained only a year, and then opened an office in San- bornton. There and at Meredith Bridge and Gilford he passed the succeeding fourteen years. Lawrence, Massachusetts, next became his abode for nearly twenty years, when he went back to Concord until the termination of his life.
Mr. Bordman was evidently not averse to novelty and change, and could hardly have felt much local attachment. He informed Moody Kent, while at Concord in 1833, that he meant to go back to Strafford County, " he could make more money there." In his case, however, it is believed that the old adage about the rolling stone was verified, and that he failed to find an Eldorado in spite of all his removals.
All accounts agree that he was quite well informed in his pro- fession, active, enterprising, and somewhat pushing. This natu- rally brought him sometimes in conflict with others. Wrangling among counsel in justice courts and in similar public contests was much in vogue in the earlier part of the century. A story is told of an encounter between him and Joel Eastman of Conway, in their earlier days, in which the latter, who was the stronger intel- lectnally and physically, deposited his adversary under the table.
Mr. Bordman was ready of speech, and at some period of his life had a very large practice, and tried causes with considerable ability. He was probably not a very unfair specimen of the practitioners of his time.
It is stated in the History of Sanbornton that Mr. Bordman's house at Gilford " was for years the pleasant home of the judges during the sessions of the courts."
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His wife was Ann, daughter of Thomas Stickney of Concord. They had several children.
JONAS BAPSON BOWMAN.
Son of Dr. Zadock Bowman ; born, Gilmanton, c. 1795 ; admitted, 1820 ; practiced, Bedford and Manchester ; died, Bedford, c. 1861.
This gentleman studied his profession first with Jeremiah H. Woodman of Rochester, and afterwards with James Parker of Bedford, whose partner in practice he afterwards became and remained until the death of Mr. Parker in 1822. Mr. Bowman continued practice in Bedford for more than twenty years, and then established his office in Manchester. There for a time John Porter, Jr., was his partner. They did a considerable business, and made many writs.
Mr. Bowman managed and argued causes in court to some ex- tent, and was quite successful as a collecting lawyer. He dealt a good deal in real estate, and had a turn for speculating and money- making. He was reasonably successful, and when he withdrew from practice had accumulated a fair property.
He became known outside of his own vicinity chiefly by a num- ber of suits which he brought against towns in two or more coun- ties for his own benefit, as was believed, though perhaps not in his own name, to recover penalties for failure to keep up guide- boards at the intersection of highways. The statute, in the Re- vision of 1842, rendered a town liable to a penalty of one dollar for each month that it failed to maintain a guide-board at any such intersection, for one year before suit brought, the penalty to inure to the benefit of the person who might sue therefor. In most towns there were scores of instances on by-roads where the law was not complied with, and as Mr. Bowman understood it, those towns were liable to pay twelve dollars for every such instance of neglect. His suits promised, therefore, to bring in many thousands of dollars from the delinquent towns.
Naturally the " fathers " of the towns sued were much alarmed at the prospect of being so severely mulcted, and engaged some of the leading lawyers in their counties to resist the claims. They arranged to "pool " their cases, and held careful consultation to make the strongest defense possible. It was mainly confined to questions of law, for there was no denying the fact that the towns
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