USA > New York > Columbia County > History of Columbia County, New York. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 28
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very sudden. In the prime of life, without previous sick- ness, he was stricken down by an apoplectic attack, and died in his bed-chamber while a court-room thronged with suitors and counsel awaited his coming.
A friend who had known him from boyhood intimately, himself a distinguished member of the New York bar, and who followed him a little more than a year thereafter, wrote the following :
" Ile has fallen instantly, and unwarned, in fullness of his vigor and his ripe manhood, with harness on, his reeord well made np, unbowed by sickness or disease, unbroken in mind or body, honored by his profession, lamented by his peers, loved by his friends, respected by all."
EDWARD PITKIN COWLES,
the eldest son of the Rev. Pitkin and Fanny Smith Cowles, graduated at Yale College in 1836, and shortly after began the study of law in the office of the late Hon. Ambrose L. Jordan, at Hudson, N. Y.
In January, 1840, he was admitted to the bar, and began to practice, his brother, David S. Cowles, joining him as law partner soon after. For the thirteen succeed- ing years he continued at this place, devoting himself zealously to the study and practice of his profession, taking also an active part in the political affairs of the county and State. He soon became known as one of the strong men of Columbia county, at a bar which is and has been justly famous, and here laid the foundation of that which led to honor and preferment.
In 1852 he married Sarah, daughter of Justus Boies, of Northampton, Mass. (by whom he had four children, all of whom survive him), and the following year removed to the city of New York. Early in 1855 he was appointed, by the governor, justice of the Supreme Court of this State, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Judge Edwards, and at the close of his term was again appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Morris. Over the second appointment a contest arose, the point being made that an election should have been held to fill the office. This con- test Judge Cowles met in such a high-minded, dignified manner as to obtain for him the esteem and admiration of the whole community, and the warm friendship of his an- tagonist.
On his retirement from the bench he was occupied for several years almost exelusively in hearing and deciding causes referred to him by the courts, and during the whole latter part of his life did a large counsel business. During the course of his practice, Hon. John M. Barbour, after- wards chief-justice of the New York Superior Court, was at one time associated with bim.
He was an earnest and ardent patriot, and throughout the War of the Rebellion made his influence felt in favor of the northern cause. In December, 1864, he delivered a memorable speech before the Chamber of Commerce of New York city, on the occasion of the testimonial to Admiral Farragut, and his predictions, which then seemed remark- able, in regard to what might be the event of the conduet of Great Britain towards the United States, were verified not ten years after at Geneva. In speaking upon that sub- ject he used these words : "Sir, it is perhaps not for us now
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
to seek to penetrate the veil which conecals the future from onr view. But it may be permitted ns to believe that some time hereafter, when this Rebellion shall have been sup- pressed, as in time it will be, and when its suppression shall have been followed by the restoration of the Union in all its integrity, as under the blessing of God it is our unalterable purpose it shall be, our cousins upon the opposite side of the Atlantie may then be invited by onr government to a friendly conference over the devastations of our eommeree eansed by these illustrations of their duties as a neutral power during our grapple with a gigantic Rebellion."
His patriotie feelings, and determination that the Rebel- lien should be put down at whatever cost, had been inten- sified by the loss of his dearly-loved and gallant brother,
of the pleasure the two experieneed at meeting again, of hopes and plans for the future, of the sadness of parting, and of the return home. Then a space for many days, with finally an attempt to write again, followed by a blank which was never attempted to be filled, and which is more eloquent than words.
Judge Cowles continued to practice in New York city until his death, which oeeurred in his 59th year, Dee. 2, 1874, at Chicago, on his return from a trip to California. At the meeting of the next general term of the Supreme Court in the first district, a warm tribute was paid to his memory by the bench and bar; the court adjourned, and ordered a record to be made upon its minutes in eom- memoration of him.
Edwin Plochy
Colonel David Smith Cowles, who was killed while in com- mand of and leading an attacking force upon the enemy's works at Port Hudson, La. In April, 1863, Judge Cowles had visited New Orleans, and while there the two brothers had passed the greater part of the time together, sharing the same tent, and riding ont frequently to reviews and camp inspection. On the 12th he took steamer for New York, and was accompanied to the wharf by his brother. They exchanged signals as the steamer passed slowly down the river in the twilight, the white kepi which Colonel Cowles were being distinguishable in the darkness for some time. It was their last interview. Six weeks later Colonel Cowles died on the field of battle. A pocket-diary contains an account of this trip to New Orleans and back. It speaks
At the bar Judge Cowles was an advocate in the highest sense of that werd, striving only to evolve the truth from the controversy in which he was engaged, remarkable alse for a vigorons and comprehensive grasp and appreciation of the equity of the case. In his practice he was inflexibly honest. His decisions while on the bench were but the offspring of these principles, his sole desire being that right should triumph, and to that end disregarding artificial and technical obstacles.
In publie life he was pure, in private life gentle and kind, -a Christian gentleman. Of him it may be truly said that he left his impress upon the laws and manners of his time, and that for good.
Towards the close of his life, referring to its events by
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
request of an old Yale classmate, he penned the following lines, which fitly express the devout and cheerful sentiments by which he was ever moved : " Profoundly grateful for such an unusual blending of blessings, I may be permitted to truly say, my days have had their brightness, and life its joys."
JOSEPH GILBERT PALEN
was born at Palenville, Greene Co., N. Y., July 25, 1812. His ancestors were from Holland. He was educated at Kinderhook Academy and at Amherst College, and was also at Yale and Harvard. He studied law at Hudson, in the office of Ambrose L. Jordan, whose good opinion he soon won, and with whom he maintained a warm friendship through life. He was admitted to practice in 1838, and immediately formed a law-partnership with Allen Jordan, Esq., doing with him an extensive and successful practice in the city of Hudson for several years. Soon after commencing practice he was appointed a master in chancery. In 1842 he was the candidate of the Whig party in the district composed of Columbia and Greene, for Congress ; and al- though defeated received a vote much larger than that of the party. In 1848 failing health compelled him, much to his own regret and that of his friends, to abandon the practice of the law. He removed to Ancram, and there passed several years in retirement upon his farm. In 1853 he was the Republican candidate for county judge of Co- lumbia county, but was defeated. In 1861, having returned to Hudson to reside, he was appointed postmaster of the city, which position he held until 1869, when he was ap- pointed chief-justice of the Supreme Court of the Territory of New Mexico; and this position he filled up to the time of his death, which occurred at Santa Fé, Dec. 21, 1875.
Judge Palen was a man of strong convictions and positive opinions, and was emphatic and determined in giving ex- pression to them. Attached and faithful to bis friends, he was frankly and strongly opposed to his enemies,-a man of moral as well as physical courage, shrinking from the per- formance of no duty, and not deterred by any danger. He was without the elements of general popularity ; he avoided notoriety, and was averse to all demonstrations in honor of himself. His tastes and mode of life were modest and simple, and his habits studious and reflective. In politics he was a Republican of the radical school.
As a lawyer he was distinguished for his quick appre- hension, his accurate and extensive knowledge, his careful and thorough preparation, and skill and success in the argu- ment of his causes. His mind seemed to be adapted to the investigation and comprehension of legal principles, and to reach correct conclusions almost by intuition. He rarely made a mistake. As a practitioner, in the equity courts particularly, he was regarded by the older and more en- lightened members of the profession as being one of the ablest at the bar. His opinions were always accepted by them with great respect. He was an enlightened judge, just, independent, and conscientious. Prompt in his de- cisions, having in view, in all his adjudications, the promo- tion of truth and justice, he acquired an enviable reputation, and was recognized wherever he was known as an ornament to the judiciary of the country.
JOSEPH D. MONELL.
This distinguished lawyer was born in Claverack in the year 1781, and was the son of Dr. George Monell, a very eminent physician of his day. Ile commenced the study of the law in the office of Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, and afterwards entered the office of Peter Van Schaack. By his early associations, the adaptability of his mind, and his close application to studies, he attained the first rank in his profession.
Mr. Monell always occupied a prominent position in the political affairs of the county, although he would never accept a prominent office. Ile was recorder of the city of Hudson from 1811 to 1813, and from 1815 to 1821; was presidential elector at the first election of President Monroe, in 1816; was district attorney in 1818; was member of the Assembly from this county in 1824; was for two con- seeutive terms elected county clerk,-in 1828 and 1831 ; was three years supervisor of the city, and for many years a commissioner of loans of this county.
He died in the city of Hudson on the 17th of Septem- ber, 1861. At a meeting of members of the Columbia county bar, held at the court-house on the following day, Judge Theodore Miller said, " The decease of Joseph D. Monell is an event which has caused a pang of sorrow to vibrate throughout the whole community. He has for many years occupied a high position as a lawyer and a citizen, and in his death the profession and the circle of his numerous friends have sustained an irreparable loss.
" A native of this county, he has been identified with its early history, and associated in his professional career with the great men who have conferred high honor upon it. He was the compeer of Van Buren, Van Ness, Williams, Spencer, and others, most of whom have long since passed away to their final account, leaving behind them an eu- during fame. Amidst such an array of genius he com- menced his professional life, which was lengthened out to an unusual period. For upwards of half a century Mr. Monell was engaged in a large and lucrative practice, and during that time filled high places of publie trust conferred on him by his fellow-citizens. He filled these offices with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the public.
" It was his own choice that he attained no higher posi- tion. Naturally diffident, he shrank intuitively from the high places of distinction outside his native county, and which I have reason to believe would have been conferred on him if desired, but which he refused to accept when tendered. He appeared to feel that his place of usefulness was in an humbler sphere. With talents and ability to fill the highest offices of honor and trust in the land, he generously declined them, and was content to confine his labors to his own immediate neighborhood. It was for others and not for himself that he toiled. How many are now living who owe their success and elevation to his in- defatigable labors ? How many has he pushed forward to eminence and distinction with a disinterestedness and self- sacrifice rarely witnessed ? The field of his labors was in the more quiet walks of the profession, as he purposely avoided those of a public character, yet they were marked by striking characteristics which have never been sur- passed."
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
KILLIAN MILLER
was descended from Holland ancestry, and was born in the town of Claverack, July 30, 1785. He received his edu- cation at the select academy in Claverack taught by An- drew Mayfield Carshore, an accomplished and successful teacher of that period. He studied law in the office of Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, at Claverack, and was ad- mitted to the bar about the year 1807, soon after which he established himself in business at the village of Johnstown, town of Livingston, in this county. He remained there until the year 1833, when he removed to the city of Hudson, where he died, Jan. 9, 1859.
He, in conjunction with Ambrose L. Jordan and Joseph Lord, represented this county in the Assembly of 1825-26 ; again in 1828-29. He represented the county in the As- sembly with Elisha Williams and Abel S. Peters. Hle was elected county elerk in 1837, and in 1855 was elected to Congress from this district, proving himself an influential and able member during the two years of his term.
Mr. Miller was a man of mark in his day. He was greatly distinguished as a lawyer, and won a solid reputa- tion and a prominent place among the many talented and brilliant men who adorned the bar of Columbia county, and made it celebrated throughout the State.
As a lawyer he was noted for his persevering industry, his tact and discrimination in the trial of his causes, his profound knowledge of men as well as of legal principles, his loyalty to his client, and the great success which, in a long practice in this and adjoining counties, crowned his efforts as an advocate. He was never eloquent, in the ordinary sense of the term, but there was a vigor and earnestness and pungeney in his thought and language, and a quickness and directness in his conceptions and theories, and a stern logic in all his views, which made him a most dangerous antagonist. The mind that would venture in collision with his must be daring as well as able. He had those broad and far-reaching powers of mind which enable the possessor to command the elements of legal philosophy and to create a jurisprudence of his own.
He was well known throughout the State, and was thoroughly identified with the people of his own section. Of popular manners and irreproachable integrity, governed by generous and manly impulses, able and ingenuous, no one who knew Killian Miller in his prime would deny him the possession of any of the qualities which illustrate the learned and honorable lawyer of the old school.
ELIAS W. LEAVENWORTHI.
Elias Warren Leavenworth, son of Dr. David Leaven- worth, was born in Canaan, in this county, Dec. 20, 1803. At the age of sixteen he entered the IIudson Academy, then in charge of Rev. Dr. Parker, and in the following year he entered the sophomore class at Williams College, and, after spending a year there, entered the same class at Yale. In 1824 he was graduated with the degree of Baclı- elor of Arts, and in due time received that of A.M. He commenced the study of law with William Cullen Bryant, at Great Barrington, Mass., and after a short time entered the law school at Litchfield, Conn., where he remained till
1827. In the fall of that year he removed to Syracuse, N. Y., and was soon admitted to practice in the court of common pleas and the Supreme Court of the State. In 1829 he formed a law partnership with the late B. Davis Noxon, which continued till 1850, the firm becoming one of the most prominent in that portion of the State. He was compelled to relinquish practice in the last-named year on account of ill health. From 1838 to 1841 inclusive he held the office of president of the village of Syracuse, and in 1849 was elected as its mayor, it having been incorpo- rated a city in the preceding year. In 1850 he was elected to the Assembly, and during his term was chairman of the committee on salt manufacture. He was named for the office of comptroller by Governor Fish in 1850, but, being ineligible by reason of membership in the Assembly, his name was withdrawn. In 1851 he was tendered the nomi- nation for attorney-general or judge of the court of appeals, but declined these honors. In 1853 he was elected secre- tary of state. In 1856 he was again elected to the As- sembly, and served as chairman of the committee on canals, and a member of that on banks, as well as chairman of the select committee on the equalization of the State tax. In 1859 he was again mayor of Syracuse, and in the same year was defeated as a candidate for the office of secretary of state. In 1860 he was appointed a member of the board of quarantine commissioners, and in 1861 became one of the regents of the university, and was nominated and con- firmed as commissioner on the part of the United States government under the convention with the government of New Granada, and served until the dissolution of the com- mission, in 1862. In 1865 he was made president of the board of commissioners appointed by the governor to locate the State Asylum for the Blind, and the same year a trus- tee of the State Asylum for Idiots, and in 1867 a trustee of Hamilton College. In 1872 he was one of the board of commissioners to amend the State constitution, and in the same year received the honorary degree of LL.D. from IIamilton College.
He was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress on the Re- publican ticket, to represent the district comprising the counties of Onondaga and Cortland, but declined to accept a renomination, though urged to do so.
In his earlier life he interested himself much in military matters, and, being commissioned a lieutenant of artillery in 1832, he passed rapidly through the intervening grades to that of brigadier-general, to which rank he was appointed in 1836, and assigned to the command of the Seventh Brigade of Artillery. He resigned his commission in 1841. He is at present one of the most prominent and distin- guished citizens of the city of Syracuse.
DR. S. OAKLEY VANDERPOEL,
the son of a physician of considerable celebrity, was born at Kinderhook, Feb. 22, 1824. At an early age he completed his preparatory training in the Kinderhook Academy, and entered upon his collegiate course in the University of New York. He returned with its diploma to begin the study of medicine with his father, and after a thorough course he graduated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 1845. In 1847 he went to Paris to pursue his studies, remain-
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ing abroad till 1850; then returned and settled in Albany, where he soon became noted as a physician. In 1857 Governor King appointed him surgeon-general of the State, and three years later he was chosen president of the Albany Connty Medical Society, and re-elected the following year. In 1861 he was again appointed surgeon-general of the State; this time by Governor Morgan. The opening of the War of the Rebellion made this position a most arduous one. The magnitude of the responsibility may be judged from the fact that there were between six and seven hun- dred positions upon the medical staff to be kept filled with capable officers. A still more significant testimony is em- bodied in the statement that at one time the surgeon-general was called upon to make over five hundred appointments in the space of six weeks. His successful administration of this office elicited the official approval of both the secretary of war and the governor of the State, and constitutes an important chapter in the record of the part taken by New York in the great conflict.
In 1867 he was appointed to the chair of General Pathol- ogy and Clinical Medicine in the Albany Medical College, which he held for three years, and then resigned. At about the same time he was appointed a manager of the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, and in February, 1870, was elected president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, the highest recognition in the power of his profes- sional brethren to bestow.
In 1872 he was called by Governor Hoffman to take charge of the quarantine department of the port of New York as health-officer of the port. It is a position of great power and responsibility, but in the discharge of its duties Dr. Vanderpoel has given the highest satisfaction to mer- chants and others connected with the commerce of the city. In January, 1876, he was elected to the chair of Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Albany Medical College,- a position which, with his duties as health-officer, he has since earnestly sustained.
WILLIAM H. TOBEY
was born in the city of Hudson, in this county, on the 1st day of January, in the year 1799. He received an aca- demic and collegiate education, decided upon the profession of the law as his pursuit, studied in the office of Judge James Vanderpoel, and after his admission to the bar prac- ticed for a short time in Rochester and in New Lebanon, but finally settled in Kinderhook, which was his home for nearly half a century. Early in his professional career he formed a partnership with Hon. Aaron Vanderpoel, and in 1843 became associated in business with John H. Rey- nolds, late commissioner of appeals. This lasted until 1851, and in 1856 the law firm of Tobey & Silvester was formed by his partnership with the Hon. Francis Silvester. This continued until his death, which occurred June 16, 1878. In 1837 he was elected a member of Assembly, and from the commencement of the session, on the 2d of January, 1838, till its close, on the 18th day of April in that year, diligently devoted himself to the performance of his legislative duties. In the list of members of that body appear such names as Luther Bradish, John A. King, George W. Patterson, David B. Ogden, and Preston King,
-all well and favorably known in the history of the State of New York. But no man among them was more atten- tive to the interests of his constituents or more influential than William H. Tobey.
In the year 1841 he was appointed by Governor Seward surrogate of this county, and discharged the duties of that office for four years to the perfect satisfaction not only of all snitors in that court, but of the public at large, and in such a manner as to offer a sure protection to the im- portant interests which were constantly submitted for his consideration.
In 1853 the Union Bank of Kinderhook was organized. Mr. Tobey was at once elected its president, and continued in that position till his death. The peculiarly successful career of that institution, the harmony which has pervaded all its management, and the uniformly high credit which it has maintained must be attributed, in no small degree, to the wise counsels and judicious management of its presiding officer. In November, 1861, after an exciting contest, Mr. Tobey was elected senator from the counties of Columbia and Dutchess, by the flattering majority of nine hundred votes.
The judiciary committee was then, as it is now, one of the most important Senate committees, and upon that committee he was placed, in conjunction with Judges Fol- ger and Willard and Mr. Ganson,-men distinguished at the bar, on the bench, and in political life. Questions of the gravest interest not only to the State, but to the nation, were constantly discussed and decided during the whole of his official term. The country was then passing through the crisis of its existence; its very life was at stake; and the means of preserving that life were to be furnished, to a great extent, by the Empire State. No man among his brother senators could be found, in those trying days, more continually at his post of duty, or more earnest in the de- termination to vindicate the authority of the law and sus- tain the government, than the senator from Columbia and Dutchess. He comprehended as fully and clearly as did any one of his compeers all the delicate questions that were daily arising, brought to their consideration and solution all the powers of his vigorous mind, and ripe and mature studies and experience, and never failed to shed light upon any subject which he discussed. Of his career in the Senate it can be truthfully said, in his own words, which he applied to his lamented friend, Judge Willard, " he threw all his influence on the side of the government, the constitution, and the laws, and cheerfully lent his voice and his vote on all occasions to sustain the sovereignty of the Union and to erush out the rebellion."
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