Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 165

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

HON. WILLIAM H. WARING.

hook, Columbia County, he entered Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1852. After graduation, he passed a year and a half traveling in Europe, studied law with the "Quaker frmn " of lawyers, Wetmore & Browne, was admitted to the Bar in 1855, from which time he has continued the practice of his pro- fession in New York City. While at Kinderhook young Waring formed the acquaintance of his grandfather's old friend and political associate, Martin Van Buren, and it being the year that the distinguished ex-President was the candidate of the Free Soil party for the Presidency, he, at an early age, espoused the Free Soil cause, and on the organization of the Republican party abjured the political faith of his fathers, and has always from that time been a steadfast Republican. While in Europe he for a time became the traveling companion of his former " guide, philosopher and friend," the ex-President above named. As a lawyer, Mr. Waring, although a ready debater and an orator of considerable reputation, has always preferred the more quiet and lucrative practice of the office, though he has not un- frequently appeared in the courts in important cases.

He has always taken an active interest in the welfare and prosperity of Brooklyn, but, though frequently tendered, declined to accept office until 1877, when he was unanimously tendered the Republican nomination of representative in the Legislature from the then Fifth District, comprising ths Seventh and Four- teenth Wards. The convention which nominated him had previously balloted over ninety times and failed to agree upon a candidate, when Mr. Waring's name was suggested and unani- mously accepted on the first ballot. This was without his knowledge of his candidacy, and unaccompanied by the pipe- laying and log-rolling which usually obtained on similar occa- sions. Elected in the autumn of that year, he served in the Legis- lature on the important committees of the affairs of cities, in- surance and charitable and religious societies. He introduced and was instrumental in the passage of the well-known two- thirds assessinent law, whereby local improvements, upon which the city had run mnad and nearly bankrupted its treasury, were checked. He also introduced and procured the passage of the bill to repeal the so-called Queens County Railroad Charter, by which the beautiful Lafayette avenue was to be given over to

the rapacity of speculators, and rescued the avenue from inva- sion by railroads through a fraudulently organized corporation. It was mainly through his efforts that the "job " was defeated to impose a burden of upwards of $500,000 upon the city by the imposition upon the county at large of the assessment for the improvement of the Ocean Parkway Boulevard. The Legisla- ture of 1878 was noted for the great number of bad bills which were introduced, especially those relating to Brooklyn, and Mr. Waring contributed in a large measure towards their defeat; among others, a bill to transfer the management of Greenwood Cemetery from its then and present board of trustees, and to establish a new system of government for that "city of the dead"; a bill, introduced at the instance of John Kelly, to with- hold further appropriations from New York for the building of the great bridge; a bill to extend the streets of the city, at the discretion of the Common Council, to the water front, thereby destroying the water front for its present commercial purposes; n bill to change the entire policy of the Episcopal Church, of which he is an active member, and has been for many years a warden and vestryman; and numerous bills to impose upon the city large assessments for local improvements, and for the legal- ization of fraudulent contracts. Upon the reapportionment of the Assembly Districts, Mr. Waring's ward-the seventh-was thrown into the Eleventh Assembly District, comprising, besides the Seventh, the Twenty-first, Twenty-third and Twenty- fourth Wards. He was again unanimously nominated to rep- resent this district in the Legislature of 1881, and elected by nearly 1,800 majority. Early in the session he took a stand against corporate aggressions. In the struggle against the con- solidation of the telegraph companies he was conspicuous, and was on the side of the people on the Railroad Commission bill. He advocated free tolls on the canals; introduced a comprehen- sive bill for the legalization of primary elections and the punisli- ment of fraud at those elections, the main features of which were subsequently incorporated into the so-called Chapin law; as a member of the Committee on General Laws, he contributed largely to the enactment of important legislation coming from that committee. As a member of the Committee on the Re- vision of our Tax Laws, he rendered important service to the

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metropolis and the business interests of this community by his opposition to the taxation of broker's sales, to the taxation of the earnings of the poor in the savings banks, and was the earnest champion of the rights of the beneficiaries in the mutual benefit societies. As a legislator, Mr. Waring was regarded as one of the most industrious and conscientious workers of the Assembly, and he brought to the consideration of every subject the habits of a mind trained by his profession and a life of thoughtful study, which qualified him to take a prominent part in the discussion of all important questions brought before that body.

JOHN M. STEARNS.

THE centennial celebration of the town of Reading, Vt., in 1872, elicited the following facts from Mr. Stearns:

" My ancestors were plain New England farmers from the time of their first emigration from Nottinghamshire, England, to Massachusetts Bay, in 1630. Isaac Stearns, with Charles Stearns, his nephew, were among the first settlers of Watertown, Mass. They and their descendants figured largely in the annals of Watertown, while their representatives are now found in nearly every State in the Union. Charles Stearns died at Watertown about 1695; his son, Shubael Stearns, settled at Lynn. Shubael had a son, Samuel, born 1683, and a grandson, Thomas, born in 1717, who was my great-grandfather, and who settled in Lynn. My grandfather was born in 1749, and died in 1777, leaving two sons-Daniel, aged five, and my father, Paul, aged three. These two settled in Reading, Vt., in 1796, and became farmers. My father had a good education, and served his town many years in those capacities which required a good penman and ready arithmetician. In 1802, he married Lucy Kneeland, my mother. Of her family I know little. Her brother, Abner Kneeland, acquired some notoriety from starting the infidel newspaper, the Boston Investigator, also for inventing an orthog- raphy that dispensed with all silent letters." The following particulars in Mr. Stearns' history are gleaned from the general catalogue of the Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden, N. II .: "John Milton Stearns, A.M., was born at Reading, Vt., December 10, 1810 ; was at Kimball Academy from 1829 to 1832 ; studied theology; was ordained in June, 1838; was teacher and acting pastor at various places from 1832 to 1838; editor of the Green Mountain Emporium, at Montpelier, Vt., 1838 to 1840; Middlebury, Vt., Free Press, 1840; Democratic Plowman, 1842 to 1843; Farmer and Mechanic, New York City, 1847 to 1848; has practiced law since 1849; received the honorary degree of A. M. from Rutgers College, N. J., 1855."

In 1844, he came to Williamsburgh, we might say as an adven- turer, having achieved no marked success in his previous undertakings, save the hard economies and discipline which his experience had imposed. With a wife and two children, a few dollars in hand, and a respectable debt of $300 owing in the country ; without acquaintances, without employment, without professional or business reputation, he determined to begin the world here as he found it; to await no opportunity, to despise no employment because it appeared servile, and to beg no man's patronage as a favor, but because of the advantage to be derived by the employer. So he started at once to utilize his knowledge of printing and book-selling, as a walking broker through the business streets of New York, having arranged with stationers, printers and book-binders to execute his orders at a small profit to himself. He sold Harpers' cheap publica- tions, also their heavier works on orders. He sometimes sold clocks; but he says he never sold to a man who did not become his enemy for life, for the clocks would not go. So that branch of trade was presently dropped. Besides being diligent in business, he sought to exemplify another motto, "Always be cheerful in business." In these pursuits, he was careful not to make known his affiliation with the clergy, lest he should be thought appealing to the charities of his customers, rather than

standing on his merits as a business man, and giving value for value received-a laudable pride, which is sadly lacking in some of the brethren of the cloth. He realized six or seven hundred dollars a year in trade, which supported his family, and in thrce years paid off his debts. About 1846, he commenced the study of law, as time and opportunities permitted; obtaining a certi - ficate of clerkship from a local lawyer, on which Hallct, the old County Clerk of New York, made an allowance of two and a half years for classical studies, and filed the papers in his office. Under the Constitution of 1847, which admitted any reputable citizen to practice law upon passing an examination by the Court, he was examined by the judges in open Court at General Term, held in the City Hall, Brooklyn, and admitted Marclı 8th, 1849, to practice in all the courts in the State, being then in the 39th year of his age. It was the second year of his practice before his profession paid his expenses, but subsequently it became substantial and successful. He is still, after thirty four and a half years, in the active duties of his profession. He carried his Christian principles into the practice of the law, thereby gaining a "good name," which is better than " great riches." Although he has not amassed a large fortune, he stands high in his profession-a Nestor of the Bar, secure in the confi- dence and esteem of his fellow-citizens, and holding many important positions of trust.

I'Glamour, & N.Y.

JOHN M. STEARNS.

Speaking of the lawyer's reputation, Mr. Stearns says: "It is often brilliant for to-day, but in a short time it comes to be that with respect to which ' the memory of man runneth not.' The name that has been widely praised may survive for a gene- ration, but the life work has scarcely a skeleton or fossil to preserve, and vanishes when the old briefs of the dead man arc given to the flames, with the remark that they were great achieve- ments for their day."

Notwithstanding his busy professional life, Mr. Stearns has published several volumes, large and small, of his writings. The first was the Wreath of Wild Roses, in 1846; this was followed in 1866 by The Rights of Man the true Basis of Reconstruc- tion; The Puritan as a Character in History, 1876; The Bible in Har- mony with Nature, being a revier of Thomas Paine, James Anthony Froude, and the scientists. He has also written An Appeal for Lay Preaching, and Tom Paine on Trial, and The Infidels in Court, 1880; and has been a frequent contributor

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to the Brooklyn Times and other papers. He has been en- gaged for several years in writing a work on Municipal Law, as developed in the history of the Patriarehs, the Mosaic ritual, the laws and jurisprudence of Rome and the Middle Ages, the Roman traditions of Great Britain, especially of, the Druids, and the Saxon laws down to the days of Magna Charta -to clucidate, in fact, the historical development of law as a science. During his long professional career, he has aceumu- lated a large library, especially rich in aneient law. In 1872, he gave an address at the centennial celebration of the first settlement of his native place, which was. published as a part of the history of the town. In 1867, with his wife and niece, he visited the French Exposition at Paris, traveling through parts of France, England and Scotland. He published a series of letters containing observations and sketches of what he noted in the Old World. This excursion having proved beneficial to his health, then somewhat impaired, he has since traveled through most of the States and Territories of the Union, visiting also Manitoba and the Red River country of the North. He has spent some $15,000 in these travels, but in addition to the varied knowledge so gathered, he believes that his life has been pre- served thereby to the sound old age of seventy-three, with a fair prospect for lengthened days. Mr. Stearns has twice married; first, Emelinc H. Adams, of Bethel, Vt., in September, 1836; second, Mrs. Sarah J. Valentine Vandberg, December 16, 1861. He has two children: Helen J., who married Hon. Homer A. Nelson, of Poughkeepsie, in 1855, who is widely known as a lawyer and politician, having been County Judge of Dutchess County four years; member of Congress, 1861-1862; Secretary of State of New York three years, and State Senator for two years last past. J. Milton Stearns, Jr., has practiced law with marked suecess, as far as his health permitted. He has latterly given special attention to the law of patents.

Mr. Stearns himself has never held any office above that of Notary Public and Commissioner of Deeds. In 1860, he was a candidate for the Assembly, and again in 1861. He had reason to believe that certain great corporations required a "man of straw " for their purposes, rather than a person of independent thought and judginent; hence he was in both ycars defeated. His political preferences of late years have been for the Repub- lican party.

In person, Mr. Stearns is somewhat above the average size, hale and ruddy, hair frosted by seventy-three winters, but his bright blue eye is as keen now as thirty years ago. He is a man'of great force of character, strong in his opinions, and courageous in their defense; at the same time permeated with an aeute sense of humor, altogether a typical New Englander of the best class. His long and varied experience of life has mellowed, not soured, his disposition, so that his comments on men and things, though somewhat sarcastic, are given with a merry twinkle of the eye, that makes them sparkling, but not acid. In these character- istics he resembles Carlyle, without Carlyle's bitterness.

It has already been mentioned that he was ordained to the ministry in early life. The reasons that impelled him to change his profession may be gleaned from the following committee report, which he made to the Congregational Association of New York State, under a resolution in reference to the employing of lay preachers:

" As one who has failed in his early aspirations for usefulness and success in the Christian ministry -first, through his pre- sumed laek of educational preparation for the work, and the influences that dominated churches in that regard; and, again, through the contests for ascendency between old school and new school, old measures and new measures, back of which lay the contest as between justice and right, and apologies for hnman slavery- I confess I bring from this experience an earnest interest in behalf of the humblest servant of Christ, in his efforts, in duty, and his aspiration for aggressive work in the interests of Zion. 1 confess I looked for saintly sympathy fron

the clergy of those times; but found I could only be appre- ciated as a factor on the one side or the other of the great contests that were agitating the land. And when I look back and remember what slight influences, or perhaps unconscious prejudices, and unguarded remarks, shut out the prospects I had cherished, and finally changed the whole course of my life, I am impressed with the duty of treating the modest and humble aspirations of young men with great tenderness and care. The amens responded to the discourse of the humble exhorter have often been the inspiration of hope to his soul, and developed in due time the preacher as a man of God with power.

" But I may be asked why I have not returned to the work? This I have often asked myself, and found my chart of life made up and controlled by inexorable laws. You might as well ask a sea captain in mid ocean why he did not come to land. If the ghosts of human quarrels could be laid by a word and the wav- ing of a wand, we could make an end of toil in the legal pro- fession. But we have no such power.

"I might occasionally have lent a hand in the interest of my cherished early hopes. But I have always believed that church order is essential to permanence of religious influence; and to go from secular duties to the pulpit without the immediate sanction of church authorities would have done violence to a useful popular sentiment, and not have been useful to the cause."

BREWSTER KISSAM.

BREWSTER KISSAM was born in the city of New York on the 16th day of March, 1849, and is now in his thirty-sixth year. He is a son of George Brooks Kissam, who in his lifetime was a well-known lawyer, and law partner of Hon. Dudley Selden, deceased. Brewster Kissam received an ordinary common school education, and at the age of fourteen years went to sea. He fol- lowed this life for about two years, having, during that time, been to China, Japan, the East Indies, California, and other parts of the globe. Upon his return to New York, about the year 1865, he commenced the study of law in the law office of Charles B. Hart, in New York. In April, 1870, being then twenty-one years and one month old, he was admitted to the Bar in that city, and entered immediately upon the active prac- tice of his profession in this State. In October, 1870, a few months following his admission to the Bar, he married a Miss Emma C. Atkinson, of Brooklyn, who is now his wife. The issue of this marriage is one child.

Mr. Kissam is well known as a lawyer, has a large and lucrative practice in the cities of New York and Brooklyn, and has aeted as counsel in many important law cases. As a lawyer, he has the reputation of carrying conviction to the minds of the court and jury, by the sound common sense of his arguments rather than by any attempted flights of oratory.

In politics, Mr. Kissam is an uncompromising Democrat. For a period of five years he represented his ward in the Democratic General Committee of Kings County, and took an netive part in the deliberations and discussions of that body.

He resigned from the committee in the fall of the year 1878. Ile has, during the past ten years, represented his district in numerous city and county conventions, and in several State con- ventions. In the fall of 1877 he was chairman of the Kings County delegation to the Democratic State Convention, held at Albany. Mr. Kissam has always taken an active interest in the politics of the party with which he is identified, and for several years past has taken the stump, each fall, in the interest of his party. Although not a particularly flowery speaker, he is known as a forcible and common sense one.

In the fall of the year 1881, Mr. Kissam was appointed as one of the thirce Commissioners of Charities and Corrections of Kings County for the terin of four years from the 1st January, 1882.

This position he still holds, continuing, at the same time, the practice of his profession.

Brewster Ressam

A.L/7 765

a 0 huillard

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LEGAL BIOGRAPHIES.

The duties and responsibilities devolving upon him as a com- missioner are very great, involving the care, management and control of the Penitentiary, Almshouse, Hospital, Lunatic Asy- lum, Asylum for the Incurable Insane, and their 4,000 inmates. His record as a commissioner is well known to the people of this county. Reforms in this department, previously commenced, have been continued, and other important reforms have been effected during his term of office.

Mr. Kissam is about five feet ten inches in height, weighs 210 pounds, is dark complexioned, and has dark eyes and hair.

JOHN A. NICHOLS.

JOHN A. NICHOLS is a son of John and Eliza (Camerden) Nichols, and was born at Port Richmond, Staten Island, August 28th, 1831. He was educated at the old Academy in Newark, New Jersey, read law in the office of Norman B. Judd, of Chicago, and was admitted to the Bar in 1855. In 1860, he received the hon- orary degree of A. M. from Kenyon College, at Gambier, Ohio. He was engaged in the practice of his profession in Chicago until 1864, when he removed to Brooklyn and became identified with insurance interests in New York. A year later these interests necessitated his removal to Baltimore, Maryland, where he was manager of an extensive agency and organized an insurance company, still in existence, of which he was for some time pres- ident. He returned to Brooklyn in 1873, residing at No. 437 Clinton avenue, and was again prominently connected with New York insurance interests until 1882, when he resumed the practice of the law, his offices being located at 73 Broadway.

Politically, Mr. Nichols is a Republican. In January, 1880, he was elected president of the Kings County Republican General Committee, and in the following spring he was appointed Commissioner of Quarantine by Governor Cornell, which posi- tion he yet holds. He has long been active and influential both in local and State politics, and has served as a delegate from his district to all Republican State Conventions for some years past. Mr. Nichols' religious affiliations are with the Prot- estant Episcopal Church, and he and his family are communi- cants of the Church of the Messiah, Brooklyn, with which he is officially connected as vestryman. For several years past he has regularly been a delegate to the Diocesan Conventions.

March 19th, 1855, Mr. Nichols was married to a daughter of Francis Bortells, of Palmyra, Wayne County, New York; they have four sons and a daughter. The identification of Mrs. Nichols with the charitable institutions of Brooklyn is well known, and dates back almost to the time when Mr. Nichols first became a resident of the city. It is to the Sheltering Arms Nursery, however, that she devotes most of her time and gen- erosity. Of this institution she is president and a more than liberal supporter.

A. ORVILLE MILLARD.

A. ORVILLE MILLARD is a native of Ulster County, New York, born January 9th, 1809, a son of T. Aitken and Charlotte (Ro- selle) Millard. His parents died when he was a mere child, and he had a hard struggle until he reached young manhood. Ile taught school and was engaged in civil engineering until he was twenty-one years of age, when he came to New York and began to read law in the office of Samuel Sherwood, one of the most distinguished lawyers of that time.

At the time of his arrival in New York, Broadway extended only as far up as Canal street, with farms above, and Brooklyn was a mere country village clustering about Fulton Ferry. He lived in New York during the whole of the memorable year of 1832, during the terrible ravages of the cholera, and also during the period of the abolition riots, in 1834, when he witnessed many scenes of turbulence and excitement which have become historical. It is matter of interest in this connection that

Brooklyn's growth dates from 1833, the year after the cholera season, when New Yorkers sought that locality for country seats remote from the city, and only a few years later the slope only a short distance from the ferry was dotted with villas, with partially cultivated spaces between. The rapid growth of Brooklyn, during the earlier years ot its advancement, Mr. Millard attributes to the fact that the assessors of Kings County exempted personal property from taxation, which afforded an inducement to New York merchants to settle in Brooklyn.

In July, 1833, Mr. Millard was admitted to the Bar, and at once opened an office at No 7 Nassau street. He was engaged in the general practice of his profession until 1849, when he retired from active professional life; but being engaged in real estate practice, he continued the same until the commencement of the Rebellion. He has been a resident of Brooklyn since 1839, and has since taken a deep interest in the growth and pros- perity of the city at large, and especially of Old Bedford, within the confines of which he has so long had his home. He was for several years one of the supervisors of Brooklyn, and was one of the earliest members of the Board of Education, which he assisted materially to organize. He was appointed Master in Chancery by Governor Bouck about 1843, and held the office until the Court of Chancery was abolished. The rapid development of his part of the city is attributable in a great degree to the operations in real estate of Mr. Millard and others, and to him is due the credit of having induced many worthy citizens to take up their residence in that locality.

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Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 165

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : Munsell Number of Pages: 1360

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360