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 33
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JOSEPH FARRAR.
Son of Humphrey and Lucy (Farrar) Farrar ; born, Lincoln, Massachusetts, February 24, 1775 ; Dartmouth College, 1794; admitted, 1797; practiced, Wolfeborough ; died, New York City, February 7, 1851.
Mr. Farrar read law with Mr. Paine of Windsor, Vermont, and practiced in Chelsea, Vermont. There he was chosen clerk of the town, but owing to intemperate habits and other irregu- larities was dismissed from the bar in 1805. He then came to New Hampshire, and for a number of years found employment as a teacher in Wolfeborough and in Wakefield. Subsequently, about the year 1812, he resumed the practice of the law in Wolfe- borough. It ought to be mentioned to his credit, that he had the self-control to reform his habits, and became a temperate man.
He was a genial companion and a fluent talker, and being gifted with a taste and capacity for music, was the chorister of the church in the place of his residence.
Mr. Farrar married Mehitabel Dana, who died a few months before him. Soon afterwards he went to visit his sons, one in New York and the other in Ohio, but his own death occurred at the residence of the former.
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TIMOTHY FARRAR.
Son of Timothy and Anna (Bancroft) Farrar ; born, New Ipswich, March 17, 1788 ; Dartmouth College, 1807 ; practiced, New Ipswich, Portsmouth, and Hanover ; died, Boston, Massachusetts, October 27, 1874.
Mr. Farrar studied his profession in the office of Daniel Web- ster in Portsmouth, and was admitted as an attorney in Rocking- ham County in 1810. Beginning practice in New Ipswich, after a stay of only three years he returned to Portsmouth on the invi- tation of Mr. Webster to become his partner. He continued in Portsmouth until 1822, when he changed his residence to Hano- ver, and in addition to his law practice, became secretary, treas- urer, and librarian of Dartmouth College.
In 1824 he was appointed to the bench of the Court of Com- mon Pleas, and retained his seat till the court was abolished on a change in the judiciary system of the State in 1833. In 1836 he took the office of cashier of the Exeter Bank in Exeter. Upon the expiration of its charter in 1844, he removed to Boston, Mas- sachusetts, where the remainder of his life was passed, partly in professional, and partly in literary and historical work.
He was by no means " forth-putting " in his profession, and perhaps in early life failed to impress men with a sense of his real knowledge and capacity. In 1819 he edited a report of the Dartmouth College case, which perhaps was the immediate cause of his removal to Hanover. His conduct on the bench increased his estimation with the bar and the community. So keen a critic as Moody Kent wrote highly of his legal learning and of his charges to the jury, as being logical and presenting clearly the points in issue.
In later life he prepared papers for publication which gained him much esteem as a publicist and constitutional lawyer. The most important of these was a "Manual of the Constitution," issued in a volume of over five hundred pages, in 1867, written during and just after the great Rebellion, in refutation of certain theories of men who were half sympathizers with it.
Judge Farrar was married, in 1817, to Sarah, daughter of Wil- liam Adams of Portsmouth.
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WILLIAM FARRAR.
Son of Humphrey and Lucy (Farrar) Farrar ; born, Hanover, September 13, 1780 ; Dartmouth College, 1801 ; admitted, 1804 (?) ; practiced, Colebrook and Lancaster ; died, Lancaster, March 3, 1850.
Mr. Farrar acquired his legal training with Aaron Hutchinson of Lebanon, and as early as 1806 proceeded to Colebrook, and became the first settled lawyer in that town. He is described as diffident, but well-educated and of good habits. His practice in Colebrook was moderate, and he exchanged that place for Lancas- ter in 1811. There he was made solicitor of Coos County two years from 1812; register of Deeds, 1812 to 1816 ; again solicitor from 1816 to 1826; and clerk of the Court of Common Pleas from 1837 to 1839. He was also employed as Justice of the Peace more extensively, perhaps, than any other in the commis- sion in his county.
As a lawyer he was careful and painstaking. His practice was mainly a collecting one. He was a man of great probity and uni- versally respected ; agreeable and pleasant in manner, a deacon of the church, and the leader of its choir.
He married, in 1812, Margaret, daughter of Gaius Kibbe of Minehead, Vermont. After her death in 1822, he married Try- phena Burgin.
JAMES BOUTELLE FASSETT.
Son of Hiram and Cynthia (Adams) Fassett ; born, Enosburg, Vermont, March 4, 1833 ; admitted, 1864 ; practiced, Nashua ; died there, February 3, 1889.
Mr. Fassett qualified himself to be a teacher of a higher grade, and was employed as such in several towns in this State. His professional studies were carried on with Minot and Mugridge of Concord and with Charles R. Morrison of Manchester, and he chose Nashua as his future home, going there immediately after his admission.
His experience as an instructor led to his being placed upon the board of education, on which he served five terms. In 1876 he was appointed Judge of the Police Court, and so continued to the end of his life. He was repeatedly chosen moderator of his ward, and in 1889 was a delegate to the constitutional conven-
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tion, which closed its labors only about three weeks before his decease.
Judge Fassett was a man of genial temperament, and espe- cially fond of athletic sports. As a lawyer his standing was good, and his practice successful.
He married Ellen M., daughter of Hon. Hiram T. Morrill, who with six children survived him.
FRANCIS AUGUSTUS FAULKNER.
Son of Francis and Eliza (Stearns) Faulkner ; born, Keene, February 12, 1825 ; Harvard College, 1846 ; admitted, 1849 ; practiced, Keene ; died there, May 22, 1879.
Mr. Faulkner was prepared for college at the Phillips Exeter Academy, and studied law in the office of Phineas Henderson of Keene and at the Harvard Law School. When admitted to prac- tice he formed a partnership with William P. Wheeler, which subsisted until the death of the latter. He then continued in practice alone until a few months before his decease. It was truly said of him that his life was an almost unexampled record of work and achievement. The practice of Wheeler and Faulk- ner was a very large one in two counties, at least, and the junior partner did his full proportion of the work, and, after Mr. Wheeler's death, had the entire burden of the business to sustain, as none of the clients of the office were disposed to transfer their cases to another.
Mr. Faulkner was not the man to slight his work, and labored faithfully and conscientiously to conduct every client's cause to the best practicable conclusion. He was admirably and exception- ally adapted and equipped for his calling. "To a finely organ- ized brain he united robust health and an ardent love for his pro- fession, which enabled him to accomplish an amount of work that excited the wonder and admiration of his associates." His tech- nical knowledge was thorough and ready ; he had sound sense and discriminating judgment in the application of it, and his equanimity was never disturbed. His manners were courteous, his integrity and honor were above suspicion. He was thoroughly unpretending ; he never sought position, but many places of trust came to him, a few of which he accepted. He was solicitor of Cheshire County from 1856 to 1862, and then commissioner of
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the board of enrollment during the remainder of the war ; he rep- resented Keene in the legislature for several terms, and in the constitutional convention of 1876; and he was president of the Cheshire Provident Institution during the later years of his life.
He was deeply interested in political affairs, and no man in his section wielded more influence. He was one of the main pillars in the religious society to which he belonged. He was a citizen of liberality and public spirit, and a friend to whom one could intrust his property or his reputation.
He married, in 1849, Caroline, daughter of Hon. Phineas Hen- derson, and left three sons, one a lawyer.
WILLIAM EMERSON FAULKNER.
Son of Francis Faulkner ; born, Acton, Massachusetts, October 22, 1776 ; Harvard College, 1797 ; practiced, Claremont and Newport ; died, Brookfield, Massachusetts, October 1, 1804.
The share of this gentleman's brief tenure of life which was passed in New Hampshire was small. He studied his profession with his brother-in-law, Jabez Upham of Brookfield, Massachu- setts, and settled as a lawyer in Claremont in 1801. After a stay there of four or five months he changed his residence to Newport ; continued there a short time, and returned to Brookfield, where he became a partner of Mr. Upham.
He married a sister of Mr. Upham.
FRED R. FELCH.
Son of Horace C. and Helen H. W. Felch ; born, Bradford, July 15, 1860 ; admitted, 1883 ; practiced, Derry and Manchester ; died, Manchester, De- cember 22, 1891.
Mr. Felch was educated in the high schools of Bradford and Warner, and became a law student of Mason W. Tappan in the former town. He began to practice in Derry in May, 1884. A part of the time he had also an office in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1888 he was the candidate of his party for solicitor of Rock- ingham County, but failed of an election. In the spring of 1891 he was engaged as the general attorney of the Granite State Provident Association, and removed to Manchester. He was an enterprising lawyer, and an active politician.
In December, 1884, he married Jennie L., the adopted daughter of J. K. Lund. They had one child.
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JEREMIAH FELLOWES.
Son of Ephraim and Betsy (Tucke) Fellowes ; born, Exeter, May 1, 1791 ; Bowdoin College, 1810; practiced, Exeter ; died, Concord, September 5, 1865.
Mr. Fellowes was received into Phillips Exeter Academy in 1803, at the age of twelve. In college he is said to have culti- vated literature more than science, and was known as the poet of his class. After passing the usual time in George Sullivan's office as a student, he became an attorney at law in Exeter in 1813. It is presumed that he gave more attention to the muses than to his profession, and in 1824 he put forth a volume of verse, entitled " Reminiscences, Moral Poems, and Translations."
While he was still a young man his mental powers gave way, and he at length became the inmate of a retreat for the insane, and passed there the remainder of his overclouded life.
NATHAN BUCKMAN FELTON.
Son of Benjamin Felton ; born, Pelham, now Prescott, Massachusetts, No- vember 12, 1798 ; Middlebury College, 1821 ; admitted, 1824 ; practiced, Haverhill ; died, Haverhill, December 22, 1876.
Mr. Felton fitted himself at the Chester Academy in Vermont, in a year and a half after he began the study of the classics, to enter the junior class in Middlebury College. He read law with Charles W. Field at Newfane, Vermont, and was admitted there. Opening his office in Lebanon, he lived there until 1834; and then removed to Haverhill, upon being appointed clerk of the Superior Court for Grafton County. That office he occupied until 1848. In 1852 he was appointed register of Probate, and performed the duties about four years. He was chosen to various town offices in Haverhill, and twice represented the town in the state legislature, in 1842 and in 1853.
After Mr. Felton gave up the clerkship, he acquired an exten- sive practice. His standing at the bar was excellent, as a "care- ful, painstaking, and learned lawyer," or, as another expressed it, " a very keen, critical lawyer, who prepared his cases well, and argued them well, - one of the best lawyers at the bar." He did not so much excel as a jury advocate as in discussing law points,
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which he did in a peculiar way, "by snatches - as keen as razors." In his knowledge of the practice of the courts he had no superior in the State, and was consulted as an authority by the judges themselves. He was a man of great general information, not copious of speech, but what he said was always well con- sidered and to the point. A quaint humor often gave his words peculiar pungency, and riveted them in the memory of his hear- ers. His perfect uprightness was proverbial. He had a kind heart, and showed much practical benevolence towards those who needed help.
His wife was Ann M. Reding, a sister of Hon. John R. Reding of Portsmouth. They had no children.
WILLIAM GOODELL FIELD.
Son of William and Jerusha (Goodell) Field ; born, Connecticut (?), c. 1788; Brown University, 1808 ; practiced, Walpole ; died, Louisville, Kentucky, March 19, 1853.
This gentleman was in practice in Walpole as early as 1812, and in 1814 became a counselor of the Superior Court in Cheshire County. His law practice is said not to have been extensive. He was a school teacher in Walpole in 1821 and 1822; one of the superintending school committee from 1821 to 1824, inclusive, and in 1827 and 1828; representative in the legislature, 1826 to 1829, inclusive ; town clerk in 1826, 1827, and 1828, and mod- erator in 1829. In the year last mentioned he emigrated to Day- ton, Ohio, where he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court, and afterwards settled in Louisville, Kentucky.
He married Eliza Stone at Walpole, July 22, 1816. They had three daughters and a son born in Walpole. Mrs. Field died in Dayton, soon after their arrival there. Later, Mr. Field was again married.
JOHN LANGDON FITCH.
Son of Hon. Lyman and Rhoda (Crocker) Fitch ; born, Thetford, Vermont, January 26, 1820 ; practiced, Manchester ; died there, December 10, 1860.
Mr. Fitch received his education at the academy in Thetford, Vermont, and studied law with his brother-in-law, George W. Morrison, in Manchester. On being admitted to the bar, about
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1845, he became a partner of Mr. Morrison, and continued such during the remainder of his life. He is credited with good abilities, but is said to have been of an aggressive temperament, and to have lacked cultivation. He accomplished a good deal of the business of the office, but his habits were not such as to con- duce to long life.
He was elected president of the common council of Manchester in 1850.
He married Elizabeth Rogers of Bradford, Vermont, and left two daughters.
CHARLES FLANDERS.
Son of Nehemiah and Sarah (French) Flanders ; born, Newburyport, Mas- sachusetts, February 11, 1788 ; Harvard College, 1808 ; practiced, Plainfield and Manchester ; died, Plainfield, April 15, 1860.
Mr. Flanders was fitted for college under Michael Walsh in his native town, and studied law with Samuel L. Knapp and with Little and Banister of Newburyport. He established himself in his profession at Plainfield, and there remained until 1848 when he removed to Manchester, but resumed his residence in Plainfield about 1855. He was representative of Plainfield in the legisla- tures of 1829, 1830, and 1838, and solicitor of Sullivan County from 1827 to 1837. In 1847 Dartmouth College gave him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
Mr. Flanders was for many years very successful in his profes- sion. In 1823 he and Samuel Morse of Bradford are said to have made each more entries in court than any other lawyer in the county. He is described as industrious and attentive to his clients' interests, of a clear and logical mind, and an honest man. By all accounts he stood well in his profession. His business had somewhat diminished when he left Plainfield, as writ-making, which had, in the earlier part of the century, been a main reliance of country lawyers, had by reason of the change in the methods of business greatly declined.
He married, August 20, 1815, Lucretia Kingsbury of Keene, and had four sons and a daughter. Two of his sons became law- yers. One lived several years in Manchester. The other, Henry Flanders, is known as the author of the "Lives of the Chief Jus- tices " and of some law works.
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WALTER POWERS FLANDERS.
Son of Ezra and Lucy (Harriman) Flanders ; born, Warner, March 29, 1805 ; Dartmouth College, 1831 ; practiced, New London ; died, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 24, 1883.
Mr. Flanders after his graduation was for some time principal of the Lancaster Academy. His law studies he prosecuted with John D. Willard of Troy, New York, and George W. Nesmith of Franklin, and went into practice in New London in 1834. In 1842 and 1843 he was a member of the state legislature, and in 1848, after fourteen years' practice in New Hampshire, he went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and engaged principally in railroad and real-estate business, which he followed up to March, 1881.
He was a man of great energy and force. He had a good deal of business and was strenuous for his clients' interests. He was a capable, strong lawyer, though not learned in the niceties of his profession. Perhaps aware of this, he was cautious and sus- picious ; slow to enter into agreements, lest he should find himself entrapped. He took part in trials to some extent, but the greater part of his business was outside of the court house. He was decided in his opinions, and was an early anti-slavery man.
His wife was Susan E., daughter of Jonathan Greeley of New London. They were married September 23, 1834, and had five children.
WILLIAM W. FLANDERS.
Son of Ezra and Lucy (Harriman) Flanders ; born, Piermont, March 12, 1821 ; admitted, 1850 ; practiced, Wilmot ; died there, August 24, 1891.
This was a younger brother of Walter P. Flanders of New London, and made his home with him while fitting for college at the academy in that place. Being prevented by severe ill- ness from taking a collegiate course, he pursued the study of the law with Mason W. Tappan at Bradford.
He entered into practice in Wilmot in 1850. From that town he went representative to the legislatures of 1855 to 1858 inclu- sive, and served one or more years upon the committee on the judiciary. In 1875 and 1876 he was solicitor of Merrimac County. He was a man of sound understanding, and an honest, diligent, and faithful lawyer. As a legislator he was fair, and
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strove to serve the public interest. He lived to become the oldest practicing lawyer in the county.
He was married, January 30, 1855, to Mary S. Ford of Dan- bury. Their children were a daughter and two sons.
ARTHUR FLETCHER.
Son of Deacon Nathan F. and Nancy (Pillsbury) Fletcher ; born, Bridge- water, October 1, 1811 ; Yale College, 1836 ; admitted, 1840 ; practiced, Con- cord ; died there, February 19, 1885.
Ever after he arrived at the age of nineteen, Concord was the home of Mr. Fletcher. He passed the first half of his college life at Dartmouth, and then migrated to Yale. After some months spent in teaching in New York, he studied with his uncle, Samuel Fletcher of Concord, for the bar, and was duly admitted in Merri- mac County. The next two years he was employed in winding up the affairs of the Concord Bank. The residue of his life was devoted to his profession, till within a few years of his decease. He was appointed special Justice of the Police Court of Concord in 1868, and held the office about eight years.
He was a lawyer in excellent standing, attentive to the interests of his employers, and successful in his management of the affairs of others and in acquiring a competency for himself.
He married Harriet M., sister of Josiah Minot of Concord, August 1, 1848, who, together with their one daughter, outlived him.
CHARLES B. FLETCHER.
Son of Hon. Isaac and Abigail (Stone) Fletcher ; born, Lyndon, Vermont, 1816 ; practiced, Nashua ; died, Lyndon, Vermont, September 12, 1851.
Of quick parts and precocious in learning, young Fletcher is said to have completed his education at the Catholic college in Montreal, Canada, in 1835, and accompanied his father, a mem- ber of Congress, to Washington during most of the time from 1837 to 1841. Thus under his father's guidance he acquired the needful legal knowledge for admission to the bar, together with such information as to matters of legislation and state as such a connection would naturally impart to an inquiring mind.
On the death of his father in 1842 he succeeded to his busi- ness, and continued in Lyndon for a year or two afterwards ; but
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about the year 1844 he removed to Nashua, and while there was a partner in practice of Benjamin M. Farley of Hollis.
He was a fine public speaker and an advocate of promising ability. Of a nervous, impulsive temperament, he united with it much energy, vivacity, and brilliancy of intellect. Unfortunately his popular qualities led him into convivial society, and deviation from habits of temperance ill comported with his delicate consti- tution. About the year 1850 he left Nashua for Boston, Massa- chusetts, where for a short time he was an inmate of the office of his wife's uncle, George F. Farley, and then returned to Lyndon, Vermont. He survived the change but a few months.
He married, in 1843, Lucy, daughter of Benjamin M. Farley of Hollis.
HIRAM ADAMS FLETCHER.
Son of Ebenezer and Peddy (Smith) Fletcher ; born, Springfield, Vermont, December 14, 1806 ; admitted, 1830 ; practiced, Colebrook and Lancaster ; died, Lancaster, January 30, 1879.
The subject of this notice, at the age of seventeen, entered the Kimball Union Academy in Plainfield, and made the best use of his time in study, for about two years, after which he began to fit himself for the law. He read successively with Seth Cushman of Guildhall, Vermont, with John L. Sheafe and Jared W. Williams of Lancaster, and with Henry Hubbard of Charlestown, five years in all, and was admitted to the bar in Sullivan County.
One year he practiced in his native town in Vermont, and then went to Colebrook, remaining there till 1849, and doing business on both sides of the Connecticut, as was usual with the active lawyers of the towns bordering on the river. The work was hard, but it was the kind of practice that brought out a lawyer's re- sources, and Mr. Fletcher never shrank from any needful toil or exposure. Under these circumstances he acquired a professional standing that enabled him, when he removed to Lancaster, in 1849, to take a leading position there. In that place he con- tinued to practice up to within a short time of his death, round- ing out the period of forty-seven years of active professional life.
His business was varied, abundant, and much of it important. He was a careful student of his profession, had a remarkable memory of authorities, and kept up with the latest decisions. In
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meeting the shifting exigencies of trials, he was noted for his readiness and tact. He was once engaged in the defense against a very stale promissory note which had long before become " out- lawed " in New Hampshire, where the maker lived, but was sued in Vermont, where he happened to be long enough to be served with process. When the Court inquired of Mr. Fletcher what was the nature of his defense, he replied, "the age of the note." " But," replied the judge, "you have no plea of the statute of limitations." "No matter," said Mr. Fletcher, "the general issue will answer." The plaintiff produced his note, and proved the execution of it. Mr. Fletcher went to the jury without any further evidence. He took up the instrument, yellow with age and worn with folding, and began his address to the jury by a solemn apostrophe to the note, as a relic of antiquity that had come down from a former generation. Then he argued that the legal presumption attached to all instruments, after a sufficient lapse of time, that they had been duly paid and settled.
The jury, none too favorable to the enforcement of stale claims, acquiesced in his views, and gave him their verdict.
His notions in religious matters were of a somewhat "ad- vanced " school, and he was accustomed to refer to a church which kept up the strictest Calvinistic rigor as "the iron-works."
At a hotel table where the menu was rather meagre, and his hunger proportionately keen, when the waiter inquired what he would have, -" The whole bill of fare," was his reply.
A man of some prominence in a neighboring State, who had repeatedly put himself within reach of the law, and had escaped by the skin of his teeth, was at length indicted on evidence that seemed overwhelming. Just before his trial was to come on, the man died. " A cunning old fellow," said Mr. Fletcher. "I knew he would get out of the scrape somehow ; and he has."
Mr. Fletcher cultivated some tastes outside of his profession. He was fond of books, notably old law books, and antiquities and curiosities. He had a small armory of guns and pistols, and adorned his walls with trophies of the chase.
He married, in 1834, Persis E., daughter of Dr. Benjamin Hunking of Lancaster. Their children were six in number. One of his sons is a lawyer, and one of his daughters married another.
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RICHARD FLETCHER, LL. D.
Son of Hon. Asaph and Sarah (Green) Fletcher ; born, Cavendish, Ver- mont, January 8, 1788 ; Dartmouth College, 1806 ; practiced, Salisbury ; died, Boston, Massachusetts, June 21, 1869.
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