History of Cayuga County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 45

Author: Storke, Elliot G., 1811-1879. cn
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 762

USA > New York > Cayuga County > History of Cayuga County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 45

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The increase of population, the rapid introduc- tion of machinery and the use of railroads has so multiplied surgical cases, that, at first view, surgery would appear a very lucrative field. Yet

Dr. Briggs has never made it so. It has been with him an invariable rule to answer all such calls, from all ranks and conditions ; and he is prover- bially inattentive to collections, so that his life in that direction has been a busy rather than a profitable one. He has nevertheless made for himself and his profession a useful and highly honorable record, which is largely due to his great industry and the devotion to his work of his time and talents. This he owes largely to his early training in the lessons of industry and self- reliance, which included also many necessary self-denials. In youth "he paddled his own canoe" successfully over rough waters, and in manhood, that experience has enabled him to manage successfully a larger craft on the broader sea of life. .

BENJAMIN F. HALL.

Judge BENJAMIN F. HALL, now one of the old- est inhabitants of Auburn, came from Whitehall, in the county of Washington, in this State, to Auburn, a young man of one and twenty, three years advanced in a course of law studies, in the autumn of 1835, and, except when away in the performance of official duties, has resided there ever since. He belongs to the seventh genera- tion in the male line of descent, from Francis Hall, one of the English founders of the colony of New Haven, and one of the original framers and signers of the famous covenant in Newman's barn in 1639, and one of the founders of the town of Fairfield, on the Sound, in 1640. His ances- tors, therefore, were Connecticut people, with Connecticut residences, traditions, principles, habits and manners. They were enterprising, intrepid and hardy, and the most of them were thrifty and well-to-do in the places where they lived.

During the French war and the Revolutionary war, their families were conspicuously and hon- orably represented in the field, and nearly all the while from 1640 to the commencement of the present century, in the councils of the colony and that State. They were also well represented in the professions of divinity, medicine and law. In the genealogical tables of the descendants of the pioneer settlers of the State of Connecticut bearing the surname of Hall, the male descend- ants of the pioneer Francis are mentioned as be- longing to "the Fairfield line."

The immediate male ancestor of the Judge, Asbury Hall, like the rest of the descendants of Francis, was born in Fairfield county, Connecti- cut, but he removed out of that State into the Lake Champlain region, then so called, in 1808. In the year 1812, Asbury Hall married Nancy Foster, a daughter of Dan Foster, a lineal descendant of the pioneer Fosters of Wind-

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ham county, Connecticut, so that his conju- gal relations were essentially a perpetuation of Connecticut relations with all their train of tra- ditions, ideas, principles, habits and manners. The same year he enlisted in an artillery com- pany raised to resist the then threatened British invasion of the State from Canada-an invasion subsequently attempted and defeated by our army and navy at Plattsburgh. Asbury lived to the ripe old age of eighty-seven, and died in the town of Aurelius, in this County, on the 13th of Feb- ruary, 1879, highly respected by all who knew him. His ashes repose beside those of his wife, who died several years before, near the Logan monument on Fort Hill.

According to the data derived from his family records, his eldest son, Benjamin Franklin, now generally known by the title of Judge, was born in the town of Whitehall, in the county of Wash- ington, on the 23d day of July, 1814. From the time he was large enough to wield a hoe and guide a plow until he was one and twenty, he worked during the planting and cropping months for his father upon his father's farm, and spent the rest of the time in attending or teaching school and in studying law with the Hon. John H. Parker. With the aid of the late Salem Town, then prin- cipal of Granville Academy, and the late Allen Fisk, then principal of the Auburn Academy, he was enabled to master the arts and sciences, usually denominated classics, sufficiently to be voluntarily recommended by those distinguished linguists and by every learned professor in the college at Geneva, for the honorary degree of Master of Arts ; and a year or two after he came to Auburn to reside, he received that degree from the trustees and faculty of that institution. That circumstance rewarded him for his industry, perseverance and fortitude in " climbing the hill of science alone," outside of college walls, by ad- mitting him to fellowship with the alumni as their peer. Upon the invitation of the alumni of Ho- bart, he attended the next commencement and delivered an address upon the political and ju- dicial economy of the Hebrew commonwealth, which pleased and surprised the trustees and fac- ulty so greatly that the late Rt. Rev. Bishop De- Lancey, then the president of the trustees, com- plimented him at its close with the remark that, " instead of the degree of Master of Arts, the trustees and faculty ought to have made him a Doctor of Laws."

That recognition of his ability to develop from ancient scriptures and other ancient records and monuments and analyze the political and judicial economy of the Hebrew Commonwealth was an encouragement by learned men which gave a new bent and direction to his ambition and a new feature and complexion to his subse- quent life. Finding that the fruits of his earliest researches in fields of antiquity attracted the

notice of the ripest of those who enjoyed the ad- vantages of a full course of college instruction, and elicited commendation from such eminent scholars as the late Bishop De Lancey, and being, withal naturally fond of Oriental history and lit- erature, he determined immediately to explore those fields more thoroughly, and if possible to make Orientalism more interesting and instruct- ive to the modern readers, by employing his pen as opportunities . should offer, as a journalist and author. In conformity with that determination he at once engaged to write historical articles for the Auburn Fournal, the Cayuga Patriot, the New York Observer, the New York Mirror and Evening Post, and began to gather from all accessible quar- ters unpublished materials for historical books. He commenced his authorship of books by en- larging his Geneva address upon the political and judicial economy of the Hebrew Commonwealth into a treatise of upwards of 300 pages and having a small edition of the same printed and published by Thomas M. Skinner. When the edition had been sold by Doubleday and Ivison, then the only book-sellers in Auburn, the copy-right was purchased by Professor E. C. Wines of Washing- ton College, Pennsylvania. A year or two after this, Mr. Hall gathered the materials for a fresh but condensed history of the Canadas, and put them in shape for publication in a small octavo for schools, and then for a moderate price sold the Ms. to Derby, Miller & Co., to be inserted by them in Goodrich's Universal History, with Goodrich as nominal author. The credit for the substance of both of these volumes, however, be- longed to the Judge as their real author, and they constitute volumes I and II in a series of four- teen volumes of his principal works on his own shelves and in the Library of the House of Rep- resentatives at Washington. The subjects of the rest of the series respectively, are indicated by their titles. Volume III is entitled " The Land- Owners Manual ;" volume IV, "The Trial of Freeman;" volume V, "The Republican Party;" volume VI to XI inclusive, " Cabinet Decisions" and volumes XII to XIV inclusive "Our Com- mercial Relations with the rest of Mankind." He prepared and published those volumes at in- tervals along for thirty years following 1836 as his other avocations permitted or occasions re- quired, by patient but intense and thorough re- searches, and for the most part over "midnight oil." Those volumes speak for themselves that they contain a vast amount of historical, political and judicial information useful to mankind ; and they stand, and are likely to stand for ages to . to come as a monument more enduring than brass of the intellectual depth and strength, and of the political and judicial learning of their au- thor. He expects to complete the series before he dies with a volume of his own personal obser- vations of men and things.

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CITY OF AUBURN.

He completed his five years of law studies with the late Judge Elijah Miller, and with his suc- cessors in practice, Seward and Beardsley, at the end of the year 1837, and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court and Court of Chancery immediately thereafter. In January, 1838, he be- came the junior partner in the law firm.of Porter & Beardsley, altered to " Porter, Beardsley & Hall," and continued in that business relation down to the end of 1841. He then withdrew from that firm and formed a law partnership with the late John P. Hurlbert, which continued to the end of 1846. From that date down to March, 1861, he practiced alone. He never liked his profession very well, for the principal reason that it involved so much perplexity with the troubles and quarrels of others. He liked to investigate difficult cases, liked to prepare elaborate briefs, and liked to submit delicate and intricate ques- tions of law and equity to the courts ; but he shrank instinctively from vindictive and wrang- ling litigation. That class of law business was uncongenial to his feelings, habits and tastes. But he practiced his profession with fair success for nearly five and twenty years, during all of which he enjoyed the confidence of a large and remunerative clientage, and became as popular and eminent as the average of his peers.

Besides several local offices of inconsiderable importance, he held at various times during the period referred to the following official positions : In the year 1840, he was appointed by the Gov- ernor and Senate, Examiner in Chancery, and discharged the duties of that office during the term of three years. In the year 1844, he rep- resented this County in the State Legislature, and set the ball in motion in that body which re- sulted in the Constitution of 1846. In the year 1850, he was appointed by the President of the United States, Commissioner to rescue from ob- livion and arrange in volumes like the Reports of the Decision of the Courts, the official decisions of the Attorney-Generals of the United States and Federal Cabinets, from the foundation of the government down to that time, and he performed that duty by the preparation of six volumes of them to the satisfaction of the President and Congress. In the year 1852, he served as Mayor of Auburn one year, and signalized his adminis- tration by vetoing all measures involving expendi- tures unauthorized by the charter; by refus- ing to issue the bonds of the corporation to aid in the construction of the Lake Ontario, Auburn and New York Railroad, for the reason that the personal subscriptions to the work were uncol- lectable and otherwise insufficient to construct it; and by a public reception of the patriot-exile, Louis Kossuth, of Hungary. In March, 1861, he was appointed by the President of the United States, Chief-Justice of the then new Territory of Colorado, and specially instructed to go there

speedily, to qualify its other officers, to organize the governmental machinery, inclusive of its courts, to instruct its officers in their duties, and if possible, to restrain the disloyal portion of its primitive inhabitants from aiding the Southern Rebellion. As the territory covered the travel- ed passes in the Cordilleras, which served as chan- nels of overland communication with California, and as it contained a garrison of United States troops under the command of the disloyal Col. Sibley, President Lincoln deemed it a vulnerable region, which needed to be carefully watched and guarded. Judge Hall was at first disinclined to accept a duty so responsible, difficult and peril- ous ; but at the urgent request of Secretary Seward, who would not listen to his excuses, he accepted the appointment and went there over burning bridges and through disloyal towns in Missouri, and through the Indian country beyond to perform the duties. Upon his arrival at Den- ver he found secession flags fluttering from flag- staffs in various parts of that so-called city, and was informed that the secessionists, if not in ma- jority, were so numerous that they controlled the sentiment of the place. It was an exigency which demanded the exercise by the officials of the territory of the coolest courage, and the nicest strategy, in order to obtain possession of the territory without provoking resistance, so as to be afterwards able to suppress by force the treason among the people. But the judge and the territorial governor, who had been a colonel in the Mexican war, and knew the location and stra- tegic value of the passes to be guarded, were equal to the emergency. They put their cool heads together, contrived the way to obtain arms and munitions from Fort Laramie, put some of them into the hands of trusty men, and instituted a viligant watch of the movements of suspected rebels. The secessionists of Denver plotted their treason inside of what was called Blue Lodges, and succeeded, for awhile, in keeping their proceedings secret. But in September, 1861, a Texan named McKee came to Denver with a commission from the rebel General Sib- ley, and commenced the business of recruiting for the rebel service. As the Governor was charged by the organic act with the duty of pre- serving the public peace, he issued an executive warrant on the 29th of September, 1861, to the marshal to arrest him. The marshal took with him a posse of armed men and arrested him and his recruits, to the number of thirty or forty, and put them into a temporary guard-house. That affair produced great excitement, and naturally enough brought on a crisis. The secessionists not then under arrest assembled in their lodges, threatened the governor and marshal and resolved to rescue McKee and his party of recruits by force. But in order to effect the rescue accord- ing to their plan of operation decided upon, they

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needed to have them outside of the place where they were. At length, by the advice of lawyers, they hit upon the expedient of applying to the Judge for a writ of habeas corpus, in order to get them before him in a court room, where they ex- pected to overpower the marshal and his posse and get them away. They employed counsel, presented their petition for the writ to Judge Hall on the 14th of the ensuing October, and expected it to be granted, as a matter of course, as nothing had then been done at Washington to suspend its operation in that territory. But the Judge surprised them with a prompt and well considered decision, based upon the meaning im- puted to that clause in the Constitution by those who framed it, that being in rebellion against the government, they had forfeited the privilege of having it granted to them.

The Judge then ordered a grand jury of twen- ty-three men to be summoned and empaneled, and laid the cases before them. That body in- dicted them all for overt acts of treason, and thereby enabled the Governor and the Judge to suppress the rest of the rebellion in Colorado.

Finding that they could not rescue Capt. Mc- Kee and his party the majority of the rest of the secessionists of the territory took warning and fled to Sibley's camp in Texas. The Governor then proceeded with his work of organizing his department ; and the Judge proceeded with the work of organizing his without hindrance or mo- lestation. Judge Hall remained there over three years, established an excellent judiciary, outlived the early prejudice against him on account of his course with the rebels, and resigned on account of the insufficiency of his salary. When it be- came known to the members of the bar that he had resigned and was about to leave them, they prepared an address to him containing the fol- lowing passages, read it to him, and had the clerk record it in the minutes of his court.

" The results of your administration of the law here for nearly four years fully vindicate your policy and judgment. It devolved upon you when you came here to lay the foundations of a future civilization and to erect upon it the edifice of a systematic and enlightened judiciary. That you have succeeded in this to a remarkable ex- tent, the records of this court attest. You leave behind you the evidence of unusual foresight, untiring industry, great legal ability, purity of intention, and of an inflexible purpose to be faith- ful to your trust."

That testimonial was supplemented by another of the same import, by a daily journal called the Denver Commonwealth, as follows :

" Chief Justice Hall carries with him the best wishes of the best portion of this community to his new field of labor. A few of the lawyers and speculators complained some of his early decisions before they understood his judicial policy. But

ever since they comprehended his ideas in re- spect to our lands they have approved it. We think we are warranted in stating that at no pe- riod of his administration here has there been a single voice lifted against his legal ability, pa- tience, patriotism and purity. He has been an industrious, patient, politic, able and upright Judge. By those whose ante-territorial ranche and mining titles have been upheld and confirmed by his decisions as against the rapacity of jump- ers and speculators he will long be regarded as a public benefactor."

It appears from these testimonials that the Judge performed the difficult duties of Chief Jus- tice of that territory to the satisfaction of the lawyers there and all others who were able to appreciate them. There are very few ex-judges in the country who have left behind them a bet- ter record than his.

He left a similar record there in religious mat- ters. He organized an Episcopal church in 1862, in Denver, and with the assistance of a few oth- ers, fitted up a large brick building on the public land in Denver for a church edifice, and had it consecrated by Bishop Talbot. He served as its senior warden as long as he remained there. When he left Denver he resigned his warden- ship in a writing left with the Rev. H. B. Hitch- ins the Rector. Soon after he left, the Rector, other warden and vestrymen met and among others passed the following resolution and had the same published in the Denver papers and Church journals elsewhere :

" Resolved, That, as it was through the untiring exertions of Senior Warden Hall that we came possessed of this edifice in which our praise and prayers are offered to Almighty God, it is with profound regret that we feel obliged to accept his resignation.

" Resolved, That we bear willing and grateful testimony to the salutary influence during his residence here, of his consistent walk and con- versation as a private Christian man, of his in- tegrity and incorruptibility as a Judge, and to the inestimable worth of his exertions to estab- lish and maintain in this Territory, the Apostolic Church of Christ."

After retiring from the Supreme Court Bench of Colorado, he was appointed to the office of Consul General of Valparaiso. But for reasons mostly of a domestic character he declined to ac- cept it. He was then tendered the to him more agreeable position of Superintendent of Com- mercial Statistics in the State Department under Secretary Seward. While holding that position he compiled from documents in the State De- partment volumes XII, XIII and XIV, of his works above referred to, entitled "Our Commer- cial Relations with the rest of Mankind," and as- sisted the Secretary in preparing the famous treaties with Russia and China.

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His conjugal and domestic relations are unusually happy. Early in the year 1843 he married Abby Farnham, a daughter of the late John I. Hagaman, an eminent architect and builder, then of Auburn, and their union was blessed with a dutiful and amiable family of three sons and seven daughters, at this writing all liv- ing in health and comfort. His sons, named Henry, James and Edward inherited the tastes and talents of their father, and are journalists and authors. The former is well connected with the New York Tribune and the others with a daily paper in Connecticut. Five of the daughters are married, one of whom resides with her hus- band in Western East India. The others are still in school.

In political matters he acted with the old Whig party until it disbanded, and since that time with the Republicans. He framed the platform of the Republican party in this State, and wrote a book to demonstrate that its prin- ciples descended from Jefferson. For more than five and twenty years he was the intimate and trusted friend of William H. Seward, and stood by him and his policy, through good and evil re- port to the end of his illustrious life.

In all local measures and enterprises to increase the business and promote the prosperity of Au- burn, he has been by disposition and habit among the foremost of men of his means. He was never rich, but was generally able to command money enough to help forward such enterprises as he himself originated. Among other things, he origi- nated and helped to start the Gas Light Com- pany, the Water Works, and Fort Hill Ceme- tery, and lastly the monument to Logan. He has left his mark at home and abroad.

JOHN W. HUBBARD.

JOHN W. HUBBARD was born in the town of Onondaga, Onondaga county, N. Y. His pa- rents being farmers, his first work was that of a " farmer boy," and at the early age of seven years proved of great advantage to his father, who, about this time, had been intrigued into signing notes with friends to the amount of several thousand dollars, which soon after necessitated the disposition of his farm, when he removed his family to Syracuse, N. Y. His father, having in early life learned the carpenter and joiner's trade, thought to follow this avocation for the mainte- nance of his family; also the superior advantages of educating his children in the city, where teach- ers and discipline far exceeded those of his own town. Here he prospered, but not long. Not content with doing well, he invested in "patent rights," and soon his financial foundation floated from under him and he was obliged to again use

the " chisel and mallet " and shove the jack plane. But his oldest child, Johnny, as he was familiarly called, a lad of twelve summers, thought, in view of his father's embarrassment, he would try the world, for better or for worse; accordingly he sought, for an experiment, the farm of Mr. Geo. Seely, of DeWitt, in the same county, and hired out to him for five dollars per month, working days and studying nights during the summer season, and in the fall went to live with another farmer where he did chores for board, and attend- ed school at Onondaga Valley Seminary dur- ing the winter.

In the spring he hired out again to Mr. Seely for fifteen dollars per month, and, by studying nights, was able the following winter, after a strict examination by the trustees, to enter the same class that he left in the spring, thereby losing no time. In this way, working summers, studying nights and attending school in the win- ter, he was able at the age of eighteen years to graduate at this seminary. Then he began his life as a farmer in earnest-having worked for Mr. Seely for some six years -was again engaged in the capacity of superintendent of farm and twenty-five acres of nursery, which was no small trust, certainly a great care, and proved too much for the boy, who had worked so hard for the past six years. After seven months in this capacity, he was taken with typhoid fever, which ended his career as a farmer. After a confinement of some eleven weeks he was able to ride out with the family physician who had charge of him ; and one day while out riding, was asked if he would like the study of medicine ? After weigh- ing the matter carefully and taking all things into consideration, he, after a few weeks from that time, repaired to the doctor's office and in- formed him of his decision, and signed a con- tract to attend to the office and study for the space of two years when he was to at- tend lectures at some medical college. At the expiration of this time, becoming tired of study and office work, he removed to Auburn, N. Y., and, with his father, engaged in the fruit trade, in which business he remained for the space of five years, when an opportunity to change his business occurred, and a cöpartnership was formed between David M. Bulkley and John W. Hub- bard, for the purpose of carrying on the under- taking business in Auburn.

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History of Cayuga County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 45

Author: Storke, Elliot G., 1811-1879. cn Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 762

Author: Storke, Elliot G., 1811-1879. cn
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 762