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 63
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His first wife, married May 31, 1819, was Sally, daughter of James Smith of Cavendish, Vermont, and bore him two sons, one of whom became a lawyer. His second wife, married in February, 1844, was Mary A. Tappan, daughter of Rev. Jacob Abbot of Windham.
LYMAN BRADSTREET WALKER.
Son of Abram and Jemima (Lovell) Walker ; born, Brookfield, Massachu- setts, 1785 ; admitted, 1811 ; practiced, Meredith, Gilford, and Concord ; died, Gilford, June 22, 1857.
Having duly studied the law with Gordon Newell of Pittsford, Vermont, and with his brother, Phinehas Walker of Plymouth, the subject of this notice, in October, 1811, settled as an attorney in Gilford. In 1819 he was made solicitor for Strafford County, and was kept in the office for fifteen years. In 1828 and 1829 he represented Gilford in the state legislature. In 1843 he was appointed attorney-general of the State, and served out his five years' term, meanwhile making his home in Concord.
He was gifted with popular talents and good powers of mind, and had a ready knack of turning what he disliked into ridicule. He was not malicious, however. His easy temperament indis- posed him to hard work, and inclined him to indolence and self- indulgence. But when he had a purpose to serve he was untiring. Having lost his house and valuable buildings by fire, on which the insurance had expired a few days before, he claimed that an application he had seasonably made for renewal of insurance equally entitled him to indemnification. The directors of the mutual company, however, refused to take his view. Whereupon he resolved to oust them from their office, and by untiring labor
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succeeded, at the next annual meeting of the insurance company, in procuring a majority of votes for a new board of directors, who acceded to his claim and made good his loss.
In his palmy days he had a large law business, and managed it well. He tried his causes effectively and entertainingly. In later life he did not attend with equal care to his affairs, his habits deteriorated, and he lost caste. He was witty and always amusing. In a public address he described the fate of incompe- tent office-holders, thus : " When vermin have infested the body politic, the Ides of March never fail to comb them from the polit- ical head."
In his youth he was connected with the Federal anti-war party. Years afterwards, when he had changed his political affiliation, Governor Pierce refused to appoint him sheriff, on the ground that he had formerly been a "blue-light Hartford Convention Federalist." This Walker thought an indication that the gov- ernor was getting into his dotage. On the following Fourth of July the governor presided at a public dinner, and, according to the programme, called on Walker for a sentiment. The latter was thought to have squared accounts by giving the following: "May the indiscretions of youth and the follies of old age be alike for- given and forgotten."
While he was attorney-general, the counsel for a convicted prisoner produced to the court an affidavit in mitigation of pun- ishment, to this effect : " I certify that I have known the prisoner many years, and that I never heard anything to the disadvantage of his character." "I suppose he never did, your Honor," re- sponded Walker, "for I am informed that the deponent is so deaf that he cannot hear a small arm !"
His wife was Mary Hammond, daughter of Hugh Henry of Chester, Vermont. His only daughter became the wife of Wil- liam L. Avery, a legal practitioner.
PHINEHAS WALKER.
Born, Brookfield, Massachusetts, September 27, 1768 ; Brown University, 1790 ; admitted, 1794 ; practiced, Plymouth ; died, Newport, Maine, c. 1842.
Mr. Walker was admitted an attorney of the Court of Common Pleas in Grafton County, settled in Plymouth, and practiced there nearly forty years. Although he did not try causes in court to
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any great extent, he must have had a pretty large practice, as his entries in 1807 were among the most numerous of those of all the practitioners in the Court of Common Pleas. It is said that he made pretensions to the character of a man of literature and learn- ing, and perhaps with some reason; but, apparently, he was lack- ing in perception of the fitness of things. In 1823 he was com- missioned Judge of Probate for Grafton County, and assumed no small amount of dignity thereon. The wags of the bar used to say that he meant to make his the greatest court in the land ; and that he would hear arguments on constitutional questions for a week, while a poor widow would be waiting to settle her accounts and he could find no time to attend to her. It is certain that his administration of the office was unsatisfactory, and he was dis- placed from it in 1831.
In 1832 he removed from the State to Newport, Penobscot County, Maine, and resumed the practice of the law for three or four years, when he relinquished his business to his son.
His wife was Mary Weld, and he had a son, William L. Walker, an attorney in Maine.
ANDREW WALLACE.
Son of Deacon John and Polly (Bradford) Wallace ; born, Amherst, now Milford, March 28, 1783 ; practiced, Mont Vernon, Hancock, and Amherst ; died, Amherst, September 23, 1856.
Mr. Wallace is said to have received a private education, and to have entered Dartmouth College, but he did not graduate. Upon attaining the age of twenty-one years he decided upon the profession of the law, and studied with Nathaniel Shattuck of Amherst and with Daniel Abbot of Dunstable. He began prac- tice in 1813 at Mont Vernon, which he represented in the legisla- ture three years later ; removed to Hancock about 1817, and was chosen representative there in 1822, 1823, and 1824, but resigned the trust in the latter year, upon receiving the appointment of clerk of the courts in Hillsborough County, and removed his resi- dence the same year to Amherst, the county seat. The duties of clerk he performed for fifteen years, and in that time was town clerk of Amherst from 1832 to 1836 inclusive. After he ceased to be clerk he resumed practice in Amherst, and was chosen repre- sentative from that town to the General Court in 1840 and 1841,
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and delegate to the convention to revise the state Constitution in 1850.
The estimates that are put on the professional and personal merits of Mr. Wallace are uniformly favorable. He is described as a correct business man, a good lawyer, of excellent character and highly esteemed by all. He had literary taste and skill also. Some of his compositions in verse are to be found in " The Poets of New Hampshire."
In December, 1820, he married Hepzibah Cummings of New Ipswich. Of their six children, only one outlived him.
ELISHA FULLER WALLACE.
Son of Hon. James and Betsey (Kimball) Wallace ; born, Amherst, March 30, 1792 ; Dartmouth College, 1811 ; practiced, Amherst ; died, Syracuse, New York, 1870.
After quitting college this gentleman was a private tutor in Virginia, and afterwards studied his profession with David Cum- mins and Leverett Saltonstall in Salem, Massachusetts. He settled in 1815 in Marblehead in that commonwealth, and in 1820 returned to Amherst. There he remained five years, the last two of which he acted as clerk of the Court of Sessions for Hills- borough County. In 1825 he emigrated to Syracuse, New York. In 1861 the appointment of United States consul to Cuba was conferred upon him.
He married Lydia Wheelwright of Boston, Massachusetts, in November, 1820.
BENJAMIN WARD.
Son of Ithamar and Anna (Powers) Ward ; born, Phillipston, Massachu- setts, January 25, 1793 ; practiced, Rindge ; died there, February 26, 1828.
This gentleman was a grandson of General Artemas Ward of the Revolution. He entered Harvard College, but was prevented from finishing the course by the failure of his health. He read law with an uncle in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, and came to Rindge to practice in 1822. He is described as a man of talents and an accomplished scholar, of much private and professional worth. Had he possessed physical strength commensurate with his ability and attainments, it is thought that he might have car-
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ried off the highest honors of the law. But his early death cut short his promising career.
Linda, daughter of Captain Joel Raymond of Rindge, was his wife and the mother of his only child, a daughter.
CHARLES COTESWORTH WEBSTER ..
Son of Caleb and Hannah Cook (Cremer) Webster ; born, Salem, Massa- chusetts, November 27, 1810 ; Dartmouth College, 1830; admitted, 1833 ; practiced, Fitzwilliam, Chesterfield, and Keene ; died, Keene, September 7, 1884.
Mr. Webster was fitted for college at the academy in Bradford and the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He studied his profession in Salem, Massachusetts, and at the Har- vard Law School in 1831, and was admitted to the bar in Che- shire County.
His first essay in practice was at Fitzwilliam, where he was from 1833 to 1839. Removing then to Chesterfield, he remained there till January, 1846, when he took up his final residence in Keene. His natural powers were above the average, and with the experience of more than half a century of practice he was not only well up in the knowledge of his profession, but his retentive memory was filled with reminiscences of the men and occurrences of other days, which he related with pungency and enjoyment.
His wife was Lavernie, daughter of Joseph Clark of Chester- field. They were married October 22, 1833, and had six children. Only three survived him, of whom one is a lawyer in Keene.
DANIEL WEBSTER, LL. D.
Son of Hon. Ebenezer and Abigail (Eastman) Webster ; born, Salisbury, January 18, 1782 ; Dartmouth College, 1801 ; admitted, 1805 ; practiced, Boscawen and Portsmouth ; died, Marshfield, Massachusetts, October 24, 1852.
The rapid intellectual growth of Daniel Webster was amazing. Passing his youth mostly in a frontier hamlet, with the fewest facilities for instruction, he was able at the age of nineteen to lead his college class, not merely in the recitation-room, but in maturity of thought and in ease and elegance of literary expression. In 1804 his law-tutor, Christopher Gore, dissuaded him from accepting the office of clerk, as unworthy of him; in 1805 he
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entered on the docket of his county twenty-two suits, and tried before the jury two cases, of which he gained one; in 1806 he was pronounced by Jeremiah Smith, on listening to his mere statement of a case, the most remarkable young man he had ever met, was assigned as counsel to defend Burnham for murder, and made an argument against capital punishment fully worthy of his prime. He removed to Portsmouth in 1807, and within a year or two was declared by Jeremiah Mason to be his most formidable opponent before a jury.
He continued to reside in New Hampshire upwards of eleven years after he commenced the practice of his profession, and had in that period acquired the highest standing as a leading coun- selor and advocate at the bar, as a political writer and speaker, and as a member of the national legislature. When he removed in 1816 to Massachusetts, he may be said to have reached the very acme of his powers, as it was within four years of that event that he made his celebrated argument in the Dartmouth College case before the Supreme Court of the United States, his scarcely less able vindication of the Kennistons in the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, took a leading part in the constitutional convention of that commonwealth, and delivered his oration at Plymouth, " which placed him on the list of the world's greatest orators."
It is the opinion of those well able to judge that Mr. Webster's earlier oratorical efforts much exceeded those of his later life in brilliancy and eloquence. After years of appearing before the public, the attraction of novelty ceased to incite him to effort, and some special motive or occasion was needed to spur him up to his best. It is not strange that he was " dull," when called on to speak of trite topics, or to argue every-day questions of insurance or general average. He could not bring his masterly powers to their highest exercise on petty themes. As well expect a scientific horologer to become enthusiastic over the mechanism of a Water- bury watch.
He was eminent alike as a jury advocate, a constitutional law- yer, a statesman, and a patriotic orator. It is unnecessary to par- ticularize to American readers his great achievements in each of these fields, - they are written in the history of the country.
He was a rapid worker, and brought his best powers to bear on his tasks. When they were done he needed recreation. His
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farms at Marshfield and at Franklin were his great sources of refreshment. In one he could commune with the ocean, in the other with the mountains. Each afforded him the sport of the gun and the fishing-rod, in which he delighted. There, too, he loved to feed out nubbins of corn to his great oxen, and declared with a smile that bared his white teeth, that they were " better company than the United States Senate."
Princeton, Dartmouth, and Harvard colleges inscribed his name upon their rolls of Doctors of Law.
He married, June 24, 1808, Grace, daughter of Rev. Elijalı Fletcher of Hopkinton. After her death he married, December 12, 1829, Caroline Bayard, daughter of Herman Le Roy of New York. By his first wife he had five children, of whom the eldest son, Fletcher, studied the law.
EZEKIEL WEBSTER.
Son of Hon. Ebenezer and Abigail (Eastman) Webster ; born, Salisbury, April 11, 1780 ; Dartmouth College, 1804 ; admitted, 1807 ; practiced, Salis- bury ; died, Concord, April 10, 1829.
This, the elder brother of Daniel Webster, obtained much of his preparation for college in the home of Rev. Samuel Wood, who furnished him board and instruction for the moderate compen- sation of one dollar a week. While an undergraduate he taught schools in country towns and in Boston, Massachusetts, at the same time keeping by private study fully abreast of his class- mates in all the college exercises. He read for his profession with James Sullivan of Boston and with Parker Noyes of Salis- bury, and when admitted set up his office in Boscawen, as succes- sor to his brother, Daniel, who removed to Portsmouth.
Ezekiel Webster manifested industry, a remarkably well-bal- anced judgment, and determination to succeed, and he did succeed in acquiring an extensive legal practice and great weight and influence in and out of his profession. At first he had a reluc- tance to address a court or jury, and used to settle or refer to arbitration cases which involved serious contests ; but as his abili- ties became better known he received retainers that compelled him to exhibit his powers of advocacy, in which scarcely a lawyer of the State surpassed him.
He became a leader of the Federal party in New Hampshire, and was a representative in the General Court eleven years
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between 1811 and 1828, and a senator in 1815. A generous and public-spirited citizen, he did much to encourage improved methods of husbandry, and to build up the academy in his town. He was a main pillar of the Congregational church, and a trustee of Dartmouth College ten years. He maintained his acquaint- ance with the ancient languages, and was a great reader, espe- cially of the classical English authors.
Judge Pingry of Vermont, while a law student in Salisbury, was overtaken by Mr. Webster in the road one winter day, and was by him invited to ride in his sleigh. He accepted, and as they drove along, Mr. Webster volunteered to give him three pieces of advice : "First, never walk when you can ride ; second, never do anything yourself that you can get another to do for you ; third, never do to-day what you can put off till to-morrow." These precepts, especially the last two, were so totally opposed to Mr. Webster's practice that the young man was shrewd enough to take them "by contraries," as they were meant.
Mr. Webster possessed great bodily strength, which he had once occasion to use to the utmost. He called on a rough fellow one day to collect an execution he held against him. The debtor, with the assistance of another man he had called in, attempted to take the execution from Webster by force. The latter mastered them both, but the effect was the rupture of some large blood-ves- sel. His heart was afterwards affected, and his death was prob- ably occasioned by his great exertion on the occasion. Some time after, he tried a cause in the court in Concord, closing the evidence in the forenoon session. After dinner he took a walk with a companion, and was recalled to the court-room very hastily. He began his argument to the jury and partially completed it in his usual voice and manner. He had just finished the sentence "This, gentlemen, you have in evidence," when he fell to the floor a corpse.
In personal appearance Mr. Webster differed in one respect from his more distinguished brother : his complexion was light ; but he had the same majestic form, penetrating eyes, and the same " princely head " that crowned the figure of the " great expounder."
He was first married, January 13, 1809, to Alice Bridge of Bil- lerica, Massachusetts, who bore him two daughters. His second wife was Achsa, daughter of Samuel Pollard of Dunstable. Her he married August 12, 1825.
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SAMUEL CUMMINGS WEBSTER.
Son of Captain David and Lydia (Cummings) Webster ; born, Plymouth, June 28, 1788 ; Dartmouth College, 1808 ; admitted, 1812 ; practiced, Swan- zey, Plymouth, and Haverhill ; died, Haverhill, July 21, 1835.
Mr. Webster prepared himself with George Woodward of Haverhill for the bar, and opened an office for a short time in Swanzey. In 1816 he returned to his native town, and practiced there for some eighteen years. He is said not to have been spe- cially industrious or ambitious in his profession, though he did a fair business in collections. His inclination led him rather into political life. He was a representative in the legislatures of 1822, 1826, 1827, 1829, 1830, 1832, and 1833. On the resignation of James B. Thornton of the speakership of the House in 1830, Mr. Webster was chosen in his place. In 1831 he was elected a member of the Executive Council, and in 1833 he received the appointment of sheriff of the county of Grafton. The succeeding year he removed to Haverhill, and lived there till his death.
While in Plymouth he is represented to have been on not the best terms with Judge Arthur Livermore. The latter preferred a charge against him for not entering an appeal upon the docket of the court; but upon full investigation the charge was not sustained.
Mr. Webster married, in 1816, Catharine, daughter of Hon. Moore Russell of Plymouth, by whom he had children, who sur- vived him.
WILLIAM GORDON WEBSTER.
Son of Colonel William and Sarah (Gordon) Webster ; born, Plymouth, August 20, 1800 ; Dartmouth College, 1822 ; practiced, Rochester, New Hampton, and Concord ; died, Plymouth, June 14, 1839.
Mr. Webster studied in the office of Samuel Fletcher of Con- cord, and commenced practice in Rochester in 1827. He could have made but a short stay there, for he is found in New Hamp- ton within two or three years afterwards, and removed thence to Concord in 1832. Little is remembered of his life or his work.
He was married, June 8, 1829, to Susan, daughter of Stephen Ambrose of Concord.
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WILLIAM McGAFFEY WEED.
Son of William and Rebecca (Foss) Weed ; born, Sandwich, July 29, 1814 ; admitted, 1874 ; practiced, Sandwich ; died there, March 9, 1892.
Sandwich was the life-long home of Mr. Weed; and his con- nection with the law was more through his service as clerk of the courts than as a practicing attorney, which he became late in life. He was educated at the academies in Gilmanton and New Hampton, and for the first fifteen years of his active life was engaged in trade. In 1848 he began the study of the law with Samuel Emerson of Moultonborough, but did not then complete his course. In the legislative sessions of 1846 and 1847 he was engrossing clerk, and between 1854 and 1877 he was a represen- tative ten years.
He was clerk of the judicial courts eighteen years from 1856, and often chosen moderator, selectman, and agent of his town, of which he was a leading citizen. A delegate to the convention which nominated Fremont for the presidency in 1856, he was a member of the Republican state committee above thirty years.
He married, in 1850, Eliza N., daughter of Elisha Hanson of Sandwich, and had a son and a daughter.
JOSEPH DOE WEEKS.
Son of Hon. William P. and Mary E. (Doe) Weeks ; born, Canaan, Octo- ber 23, 1837 ; Dartmouth College, 1861 ; admitted, 1864 ; practiced, Canaan ; died there, December 1, 1890.
Mr. Weeks was prepared for college in the academies at Plain- field, at South Berwick, Maine, and in his native town. On his graduation he began his legal studies in the office of Messrs. Wheeler and Hall in Dover, and completed them in the Harvard Law School, and in the office of Isaac N. Blodgett of Canaan. He first made trial of his fortunes in Janesville, Wisconsin, for a year or more ; but in the spring of 1866 returned to his native place. He practiced there successfully some years, confining him- self chiefly to office business and the preparation of causes for trial. His father's death in 1870 threw upon him the management of a considerable estate, which thereafter absorbed much of his atten- tion, and together with his interest in politics, left him compara- tively little time to give to the law.
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He was a representative in the state legislatures of 1869, 1870, and 1881, and a senator in those of 1875 and 1878, as well as a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1876. He occupied a responsible place in each of these bodies, and did his full share in shaping their policy. He was a genial companion, a courteous and able member of the profession, a good citizen, interested in the affairs of his town, a devoted son and brother.
He never married.
WILLIAM PICKERING WEEKS.
Son of Brackett and Sarah (Pickering) Weeks ; born, Greenland, February 22, 1803 ; Dartmouth College, 1826; admitted, 1829; practiced, Canaan ; died there, January 8, 1870.
Mr. Weeks was prepared at Gilmanton Academy to enter col- lege, and studied his profession with William A. Hayes and Christopher N. Cogswell at South Berwick, Maine. Admitted an attorney in the county of York in that State, he opened his office in November, 1829, in Canaan, the place of his life residence after- wards. He was postmaster for some years, and represented the town in the legislatures of 1839, 1840, 1852 and 1854, and as a delegate in the constitutional convention of 1850. He was a member of the state Senate in 1848 and 1849, and president of that body the latter year.
Mr. Weeks was a sagacious and successful lawyer, had a large business, which he managed with skill and prudence, and accumulated a handsome estate. He was a leading citizen in his town and vicinity, of marked character and very decided opinions. In his private intercourse he was genial and social, and liked to tell a good story. He understood human nature well, especially the selfish side of it, such as his professional experience had often presented to him. One day an old mail carrier brought to him for collection a quantity of bills against the government for trans- porting the mails for several preceding years. " Have n't you been paid for this ?" inquired Mr. Weeks in surprise. "No," answered the man, rather hesitatingly. In an instant it darted into the lawyer's mind that there had lately occurred a fire in the Post Office Department in Washington, by which it was said that a great quantity of papers had been destroyed. He looked his man in the eye, and said to him, meaningly, " The vouchers in the
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Post Office Department were not burned, as was at first reported. Shall I collect these bills ?" The other gathered up his papers, and saying, " You need n't do anything about it till I see you again," disappeared, and never returned.
After 1861, when he relinquished legal practice, he lived upon his large farm outside the village of Canaan, and interested him- self in its cultivation, and was especially proud of his nice flocks of sheep.
He married Mary E., daughter of Joseph Doe of Derry, July 28, 1833, and left five children. Two of his sons were members of the bar.
JOHN SULLIVAN WELLS.
Son of Edward and Margery (Hardy) Wells ; born, Durham, October 18, 1803 ; practiced, Lancaster and Exeter ; died, Exeter, August 1, 1860.
Mr. Wells was a grand-nephew of General John Sullivan of the Revolution. In early life he learned the trade of a cabinet- maker. But he was ambitious, and attended the academy at Pembroke for a time, in order to qualify himself to undertake the study of the law. He then entered the office of Daniel C. At- kinson at Sanbornton Bridge, at the same time teaching in the academy there to procure means of support. He finished his legal studies with William Mattocks of Peacham, Vermont, was ad- mitted to the bar in 1828, and established himself in practice in Guildhall, Vermont. He remained there seven years, and then proceeded to Bangor, Maine, for a year ; but not finding the place to his mind, he returned in 1836, and opened his office in Lan- caster. Soon after his settlement there, he was made solicitor of the county of Coos, and acted in that capacity for two terms. He was chosen representative from Lancaster to the state legislature for three consecutive years, beginning in 1839, and in 1841 he was Speaker of the House.
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