USA > New York > Orange County > Goshen > A few biographical sketches of Goshen people and a few reminiscences of doings in Goshen > Part 2
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Tuthill of East Division, which shows the more normal side of Mr. Wilkin's character. Tuthill when a boy had been taken by his father to court to see and to learn as farmers then some- times did as part of a boy's education. They were seated in the front row of the public benches, between which and the railing of the bar there was an open space. Mr. Wilkin came out from the bar and walked back and forth with his hands behind his back apparently in deep thought and noticing no one. As he did so he leaned forward, without a sign of recognition, and said to a large, elderly man next him, "I can lick any Quaker ever lived," and passed on again in his walk. This conduct he said much surprised him and he did not understand it until later he learned that his neighbor was a Quaker and one of Mr. Wilkin's friends and clients.
It must be admitted that Mr. Wilkin was rather careless of his appearance as to clothing. It is told that some lady who came to Goshen after several years absence seeing him passing exclaimed "There goes Sam Wilkin, shabby, but always genteel." A good story which he sometimes told on himself is to the same effect. He usually kept his horse at the stables of a public house. On one occasion, while waiting in the public room of Cheevy's hotel to have his horse harnessed and brought around to him, a substantial looking old farmer came in and when
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in the act of taking some tobacco from his box, Mr. Wilkin, supposing he was recognized and as an implied compliment and after the fashion of the day, said, "I will thank you for a chew too, Sir." The man snapped his box shut, saying, "I never treat men who hang around hotels." The joke was too good for Mr. Wilkin to resent so he left the bumptious old party to find out his mistake by himself. He lacked the faculty, usually possessed by successful politicians, of quickly recognizing acquaintances, and his efforts by adroit questioning to make a person, who had spoken to him with the manner of an acquain- tance, disclose himself, often afforded consider- able amusement to his listening friends who understood the situation. In his intercourse with people he had a very pleasant manner and, as we would now regard it, a good deal of old fashioned courtly mannerisms. But at times, from ill health or being otherwise out of sorts, he would settle down within himself, even on public occasions, pulling the collar of his cloak up about his head, apparently taking no heed to passing events, until something was said or done that aroused him when he would throw off the cloak and springing up become very much alive and full of fiery eloquence.
A great grief and sad disappointment came to Mr. Wilkin, late in life, in the death of his son Alexander, who was killed in the battle of
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Tupelo, Miss., in the Civil war, July 14th, 1864, in his forty-fifth year. Altho greatly handi- capped by his size, being only five feet and an inch high, he had by his courage, his indomitable will, natural ability and integrity made for himself a foremost place in the North west in Civil life and in Military circles. His father believed that had his life been spared he would have become one of the leading and dis- tinguished men of his day. At his death he held the rank of Captain in the regular army and of Colonel in the Volunteers and it is known that his promotion to Brigadier General, in which capacity he had been acting, had been determined but not issued. His name appears at the head of one of the lists of killed on the battle monu- ment at West Point.
Mr. Wilkin was a man extremely simple in his tastes, manners and habits of life and was an earnest member of the Presbyterian church in which he served many years as a Ruling Elder.
Of the three men we are considering, Gov. Wilkin had the greatest natural ability, and was the most powerful advocate and orator; his father, the General, had the greater genius for affairs and as a leader of men; and his son the judge had the greater power of application and was the most profound jurist; and all had a wonderful faculty of making, despite certain oddities and habits which sometimes were quite exasperating,
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or perhaps because of them, a most loyal body of friends and admirers. I suppose that faculty was genius.
WESTCOTT WILKIN, son of Samuel Jones Wilkin and Sarah Gale Westcott, was born January 4th, 1824, (probably in the house which belonged to his father on the east side of Main street,) in the village of Goshen; and there he spent his boyhood days and received his early education. Later, after a brief experience with private tutors, he was sent to the Grammar School of Columbia College. From this school he entered Princeton College, where his father and grandfather had been before him. and graduated in the class of 1843, as he himself said, "without high honors but with a very re- spectable standing in his class." Soon after, he commenced the study of the law in the office of his father and the late Joseph W. Gott, who were then associated in practice, where he spent three years and then finished with a course in the Yale law school. He was admitted as an Attorney at Law, May 14th, 1847, and later as Counsellor.
JUDGE WESTCOTT WILKIN
KIMIEN TTODTONW HOOUL
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In his boyhood days, on a Fourth of July cele- bration in Goshen, he was the orator of the day and delivered his address to his assembled fellow citizens in the Oak Grove on the side of Slate Hill, overlooking what is now the race course, and his brother Charles, two years older, the Declaration of Independence.
He commenced the practice of his profession at Monticello in Sullivan county and after a few years was elected County Judge, which in that county, combined with it the duties of Surrogate. He was renominated for a second term, but, in the election, was defeated, owing to a division in his party by the Know Nothing excitement. A while before, he had failed of a nomination for Congressman, for the district composed of Orange and Sullivan counties, by a close vote. Very probably these defeats greatly influenced him in yielding to the solicitations of his brother Alexander to come to Saint Paul, Minn., which he did in 1856. That year there was a great boom in Saint Paul, but the year following the bottom dropped out of about everything of a business character; so that he, with everybody for company, languished through the succeeding years of trial and financial disaster, when current money seemed to have completely disappeared. Barter was about the only means of carrying on business: so many cords of wood, or bushels of potatoes. for drawing a contract, or deed, the
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wood to be burned, in that mighty cold country, to keep warm, and the potatoes to be dickered off with the butcher or baker, to live.
We hardly realize how primitive conditions were in Saint Paul, and how far away it was from the East, when the Wilkin brothers cast their lot with the few settlers then there. In 1849, when Alexander went there, the population was 840, and the Capitol of the Territory was in the front room of a log hotel. Apparently he went there, primarily, for climatic reasons, because of his broken health from his army service in Mexico, and he may have had army acquaintances at Fort Snelling-he had only re- signed his commission the year before. After being there a few years he was appointed Secretary of the Territory by President Fillmore. The fort was the central point about which the settle- ments began. Saint Paul's, a small Jesuit chapel, just outside the Reservation and below on the Mississippi river, and Saint Anthony's, just above, became the present cities of Saint Paul and Min- neapolis with over a half million population. Then every body and every thing, from the south and east, came up the river in boats. From New York the journey was made partly by rail, some by canal, by stage, by boat on Lake Erie and so on to some point on the Mississippi, requiring, if you were fortunate, about two weeks. So that Westcott may well have hesitated before decid-
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ing to give up his prospects here for what was in sight there.
But, better times soon came after the crisis. Already his fellow members of the bar were discovering his marked judicial fitness, for office papers left by him are largely made up of references, from which probably he got little pay, but it may have led to his selection as a judge. He was elected District Judge in the fall of 1864 on the Democratic ticket "after an exciting, but not acrimonious contest, with a moderate majority."
It is not my purpose closely to follow the Judge in his distinguished career in Saint Paul, . as it is not Orange county local history-unless it be so in a sense, as being reflected-only to do so sufficiently to gratify our interest in an Orange county boy.
After his first election, whatever might be the dominating politics of his district, he was "elect- ed and re-elected by the unanimous suffrage of his fellow citizens, sometimes with his acquies- cence and sometimes against his wishes and protest" for a period of twenty-six years, ending January, 1891. Then again he was renominated by all parties, but, having passed his seventieth year, he positively declined to serve any longer.
During his incumbency the judicial District had increased in population and business to such an extent that, from being the only judge, five
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others had been associated with him from time to time.
On the afternoon of the last day of his holding court he and all of his associates, for the first time, sat together on the bench. The Governor of the state, the Mayor of the city, the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, the Judge of the U. S. District Court, Ex- Gov. Ramsey and two of the Judges of the Min- neapolis District Court were ushered into court, by the Sheriff of the county, where, also, were assembled almost the entire bar of Ramsey county. From the published reports of the many graceful and eulogistic things said of Judge Wilkin that afternoon I will only eull two or three extraets which will serve, in some measure, to show the regard had for him by the distinguished men there assembled, with whom he had been associated intimately for many years.
By Ex-Judge Flandreau:
"His earliest impressions were to be truthful, true and just, not for the applause of man or the aggrandisement of self, but for the sake of truth, right and justice; and this imperishable foundation, imbedded in the plastic mind of in- fancy, has been the sole basis of his long and useful life. Never has he been known to swerve the breadth of a hair from the straight and nar- row path of rectitude."
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By Mr. Lusk:
"I can say in truth and candor that, during an active and long practice at the bar, I have never known a judge-not one -who so universally had the good will and respect of the bar, both combined, as has his honor, Judge Wilkin. The young men have always spoken in your praise, Judge Wilkin, because of your great and never failing patience with them; the older and better equipped members of the bar because of the same virtue. . And both and all have respected von because of your ability and integrity, com- bined with keen insight into the true merits of the question under discussion, whether fact or law, for which you have been so long dis- tinguished."
And a few words from Judge Brill, one of his associates on the bench:
"It is well, at the close of a just man's life, to rehearse his good deeds, but it is better to recog- nize his worth while he is still alive, before his car is too dull to hear and his heart too cold to respond. It is fitting, therefore, when the judge who has presided in this court with so much grace and dignity for these many years, sits upon this bench for the last time that we should express to him
'This kindly. earnest man.
Dreading praise, not blame.' * * * our appreciation of his work and character.
"His brethren of the bench desire to emphasize all that has been said of Judge Wilkin upon this occasion by his brethren of the bar. * * * The
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high character and standing of this bar, and the happy relations existing between the bench and bar, may be due to several causes, but to no one cause more than to the presence upon the bench of this district at an early day, and through these formative years, of Judge Westcott Wilkin. His great learning, his simple dignity, the con- scientions impartiality of his mind, his kindness to the new practitioner, his hostility to trickery and sharp practice, have contributed largely to elevate the profession and dignify the court."
Unquestionably his loyalty to the political party of his choice when a young man, the Democratic party, after the breaking up of the Whig party in which he was brought up. pre- cluded any elevation for him to higher judicial, or other positions, He was once nominated for Chief Justice of the state, with no possibility of an election, and was at one time seriously con- sidered as a compromise candidate for United States Senator. His friends of both parties would have been greatly pleased if it had been practicable to have had him occupy the higher positions for which they knew he was well qualified. But, looking back over his life work, it may well be doubted whether it did not stand for more as it was in its unity than it would have had it been divided.
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In the General Catalog of Princeton University it appears that Judge Wilkin had received the high degree of LL. D.
In the year 1884 the Judge was induced by his friends to take a vacation-the first consider- able one he had ever taken from business-and, in company with his friend, Judge Flandreau, made a most interesting trip around the world. Going first to San Francisco, then to Japan, where they traveled about extensively, enjoying facilities and privileges extended by distin- guished citizens and officials of that country. From there they went to China, India, Egypt and quite generally about in Europe.
Absent mindedness seems to have been a family trait. Gov. Wilkin told of an occasion, when he was a boy and went with his father to the village of Florida: as they were leaving Goshen, riding along, he asked his father a question to which he paid no apparent attention. They went on to Florida, transacted their busi- ness and, on their way back, as they passed the place where the question was asked, his father looked up and answered it as though it had just that minute been asked. This incident may ex- plain another about which the judge's friends joked him a good deal. To accommodate a fellow judge he had arranged to hold a court in Stillwater, about thirty miles from Saint Paul. A change of cars had to be made at Stillwater
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junction. The judge left his train at this place and took another which entered the station and soon was deeply absorbed in thinking about some matter. When the train stopped every- body arose to leave and he with the rest. On the platform, to the solicitation of a hackman, he said, "yes, take me to the best hotel." Still in thought, he rode a short distance, when the cab stopped and he got out-in front of his own office in Saint Paul. At the junction he had taken a train for Saint Paul instead of one for Stillwater. The cabby, who knew the judge well, considered his instructions a bit of humor. How the judge managed about that court I never heard.
In appearance Judge Wilkin was slight in figure, five feet seven and a half inches in height, erect in carriage and courteous, but somewhat precise in manners. He had a sharp, grey eve, a clean cut, straight nose, dark, almost black, hair, which he wore long, and a full beard. He never married altho a great friend of and favorite with the ladies. My own idea about the matter is, his pride and somewhat punctilious ideas about social matters and his laxness in caring for personal business affairs made him feel that he could not, at the time of life when people usually marry, support a wife in the manner he thought his wife should live; and nothing could have induced him to marry a woman who had
-
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wealth. Nor did he unite, as a professing mem- ber, with any religious denomination. He was brought up in the Presbyterian church and was a liberal supporter of it and always retained for it "the respect and admiration with which he became imbued in his earlier years," to use his own words.
Altho he was in fair health, at the time he retired, he did not live long afterwards and died May 12th, 1894, in his 75th year, after a long illness resulting from a fall on the ice the New Year's day before, in which his hip bone was broken. Again at meetings of the bar and at his funeral, loving, touching and eloquent words were said by friends of him. The casket with his remains lay in state at the church for two hours before the funeral. His body was brought to Goshen and buried with his kindred in Slate Hill Cemetery.
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Three mistresses of the WILKIN HOUSE, whose united sway covered a period of nearly one hundred years, HANNAH TOWNSEND, wife of James W. Wilkin; SARAH GALE WESTCOTT, wife of Samuel J. Wilkin: and SARAH WESTCOTT WILKIN, wife of Roswell C. Coleman.
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WHY IT WAS SO
Whether it is the new woman with her ad- vanced ideas and enlarged legal rights, or our changed manner of thinking and our broader views concerning her sphere, that have come about with the many other changes, women certainly have come much more prominently into public view in these later days. In the records of colonial families we may learn that a certain man married "Elizabeth Jenkins" and, if her father was a noted man, it may appear, as a sort of perquisite of the man, "who was the daughter of the distinguished" etc., etc., but what manner of person she was we are rarely told. I am satisfied that this was not because of any lack of respect and love on the part of the man, but it was so because it was the man- ner of the times. The wife's part was in the home and her care was of her husband and children. She did not expect public recognition, in fact did not desire it. To have her doings made a matter of public comment was unusual and therefore offended her sense of propriety. But now, I had almost said, alas, we read item after item in the public press about "Mrs. -- or Miss having entertained at Bridge or Whist," etc. But, to be just, we may also read that women are engaged in benevolences, in church works and even in business.
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All this, to discover why it was Gen. Wilkin in writing a "Memorandum of the family," of twelve pages, only said of his wife "James mar- ried a Miss Townsend of this place." I must admit that seems hardly adequate. Surely her grandfather Roger was the equal of his grand- father John, the Welsh raider. Perhaps he thought everybody knew who Miss Townsend was and they probably did then, but the years that have passed have taken that knowledge
with them-almost. It is only fair to him how- ever to state that the paper, while undoubtedly written for the information of those to come after, shows that it was the work of an old man, evidently only a rough draft, intended to be re- written. I hope, in the spirit of the "broader views" concerning women, to give here some idea who and something about what the three women mentioned were; altho from the very lack of those early public records it will be more difficult and the result less satisfactory.
HANNAH TOWNSEND, was born in the village of Goshen, probably at the home of her father Roger Townsend (on the west side of Greenwich Street near what is now the home of William Kniffin), in the year 1766. Her mother was Keziah Gale, a daughter of John Gale, of Goshen. The Gales were of Dutch descent and were leading citizens of Goshen. Their descend-
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ants now about Goshen, so far as I know, are in the female line. Benjamin Gale, the defender of Nellie Carpenter, was her uncle. Roger Townsend, her father, as I have it from the Rev. Charles A. Brewster, his great grand son, "was either a younger son or nephew of the Marquis Townshend, a Field Marshal of England and at one time Lord Lieut. of Ireland. He, my grand- father, would never tell his exact relationship to the Marquis Townsend; he said that when he came to this country he gave up forever every- thing of that kind and became a simple Ameri- can citizen. Roger had been a favorite family name in the family for generations before. The founder of the family was Ludovic, a noble Norman that came to England with William the Conqueror and was rewarded by him with a large grant of land in England."
In my "Traditions" of Goshen people, at page 33, I have already told all I have been able to learn of Roger Townsend's life in Goshen, of his noble patriotism and of his death at the battle of Minisink. A letter from him to his wife is still preserved in the family. It is of sufficient interest to copy entire:
r "New York, 9 Novm , 1770. My Dear,
I Expected to set out this Evening with The Rest of the Company, but am now
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Prevented by the Arrival of a Large vessel from London, that has Got on Board a general Assortment of goods, where I Can be supplied With Everything I want they Belong to an English Gentleman one Mr. Hake, which Budd You remember invited me to Trade with about two Years ago. he has Chartered The whole vessel; as I had some acquaintance with him, went to his Lodgings & saw his Invoices. his goods will be Very cheap as he intends for to Return soon. Shall send my Goods up by Nicholse's Sloop in A few days. I had another Inducement to wait; Your Cloak I Could not get made untill next Monday and would not go without it, its
To be made in the Best manner. tell Sarah
I have got Ermin for a Cloak for her & Can Take pattern by yours; you must get Somebody to assist you in Court time-
I sold my Butter at a shilling very Current
& what Ellison had sold so too:
I took two days time in Selling it --- I am my Dear yours Affectionately Roger Townsend"
The letter is addressed "To
r's
M Townsend att
Goshen
and he wrote on the same space
Raise the Price of flaxseed to 5 | & Butter to 11d
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The letter had been sealed and apparently was sent by messenger for it bears no post marks of any kind. It is written in a clear, bold hand and is very legible.
Mr. Brewster also says his mother told him that her mother (IIannah Wilkin) "was con- sidered a very religious woman, was a devoted wife and mother and a woman of strong and vigorous intellect; that she was a great reader and fond of reading and conversing with clergy- men and other competent persons, upon such profound religious and philosophical works as Edwards upon the will. Her health was very delicate for many years and during the winter she was confined almost entirely to her room, but was very fond of receiving and conversing with her relatives and friends. Owing to her feeble health she was unable to accompany her husband while he was at Albany and Washing- ton."
The few letters we have of Mrs. Wilkin show that while she may have been a reader of deep theology she also was a ready and practical writer about household and family matters, and that she was a woman of affairs. This was a matter of importance for the welfare of the family because of the frequent and sometimes protracted absences of her husband from home on legal business and while at Albany and Washington. One of these letters (Jan. 31, 1819)
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to her husband at Washington, whom she ad- dresses as "Dear Sir" and closes with "I must come to a conclusion for want of paper-Hannah Wilkin," confirms the statement of Mrs. Brew- ster about the character of her mother's reading. In it she says "Caroline and I are alone and de- vote our time to reading, she is quite a book worm, I am engaged at present reading Edwards on Original Sin, I have read his treatise on Affections and shall soon commence reading his essay on the freedom of the will, he is the greatest writer I have ever seen on these sub- jects." Well, she may have been somewhat of a "blue stocking" in her reading, but she could write very prettily about family matters and was not above jollying the General a little, for we read in the same letter, in speaking of their son James, "he is very handsome, he looks like his papa very much."
As we have seen she married James W. Wil- kin when she was about twenty-three years old, and was the mother of nine children. The children were named William, Samuel, Sarah, Elizabeth, Townsend, James, Townsend, Caro- line and Frances. William died unmarried at the age of thirty-four. Of Samuel we know. Sarah died early in life unmarried. Elizabeth became Mrs. Case and had several children, all of whom are dead and without descendants. Both Townsends died in infancy. James mar-
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