USA > New York > Putnam County > History of Putnam County, New York : with biographical sketches of its prominent men > Part 22
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which the student will derive his first knowledge of the princi- ples of law, and what Blackstone was to England, Chancellor Kent has been to America.
During the remainder of his life Chancellor Kent resided in New York and died there at his residence, No. 20 Union Square, on the evening of December 12th, 1847, having reached his 85th year. His mortal remains were laid to rest in the cemetery at Fishkill, Dutchess county, by the grave of his only son.
A full account of his family will be found in the sketch of the descendants of Rev. Elisha Kent, in another portion of this work. It is no injustice to the dead, nor disparagement to the living, to say that James Kent was the most prominent man born within the limits of Putnam county, and of his great- ness and fame the county and his native town may well be proud.
HENRY BIRD LEE was born in Greene county, about the year 1781. He practiced law in Patterson, but for how many years, we have been unable to learn. He was elected to the Assembly in 1815, and at the general election held in April, 1816, he was elected to Congress. He died September 16th, 1816. He was unmarried.
RALSAMAN C. AUSTIN practiced law at Carmel from about the time of the organization of the county in 1812 until about 1817 when he removed to Peekskill, where he continued in practice for some years, and afterward became a clerk in one of the departments of the government at Washington, where he remained until his death, in 1843. He married a Miss Margaret Diven, of Peekskill, by whom he had three daughters. He was surrogate of Putnam county from April 2d, 1813, to Feb- ruary 28th, 1815.
GEORGE W. NIVEN practiced law at Carmel from 1812 to 1815, a part of the time in partnership with Walker Todd. He removed to Poughkeepsie and from there to New York. The date of his death has not been ascertained. He married a daughter of Robert Johnston of Carmel.
FREDERIC STONE, son of Darius and Anna (Hill) Stone, was born in Guilford, Conn., March 21st, 1785. He received his education at the old academy in Patterson, N. Y., under the Rev. Mr. MacNeece, a distinguished classical scholar and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. After he had been fitted to enter the sophomore class in Yale College his health became
7. How
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impaired and the idea of a college education was reluctantly abandoned.
He began the study of the law with Harvy Swift of Beekman, completed his legal studies in the office of General Brush of Poughkeepsie, and was admitted to the Bar in 1812. April 16th, 1816, he was appointed Master in Chancery by Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins. In October, 1820, he married Margaret E. Howland, daughter of William Howland and niece of Dr. Howland of Patterson. February 27th, 1821, he was appointed by De Witt Clinton, district attorney of Putnam county, and continued in that office until February 25th, 1829, when he was appointed by Martin Van Buren, then governor of New York, by whom he was examined when admitted to the Bar, first judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Putnam county. His connection with the bench was terminated voluntarily April 27th, 1833, in order to return to the practice of his pro- fession. He was again appointed district attorney in 1837, this time by Governor William L. Marcy, and held the office for the ensning ten years. It was during this time that Denny was convicted of murder and hanged in the Court House yard at Carmel, being the only criminal ever executed in Putnam county.
In 1842 Judge Stone was a candidate for State Senator, but was defeated in the convention by one vote, Abraham Bockee of Dutchess county, receiving the nomination. In 1843 he re- ceived the regular democratic nomination for the Assembly but was defeated by an independent candidate from the western part of the county.
In November, 1850, he was elected district attorney and held the office for the next three years, being succeeded by Charles Ga Nun. Judge Stone continued in the active practice of his profession up to the time of his death, which occurred in Pat- terson, December 2d, 1857. His widow survived him nearly a quarter of a century, and his three daughters, Mary A. Stone, Jane C. Stone and Frances E. Barnum, widow of the late Le Ray Barnum, are still living on the old homestead in Patterson.
Perhaps at the time of his death no man in the county was more generally known to the people than he. He had been a member of the Bar since the formation of the county and from that time to the time of his death had been in active legal prac- tice. The difficult and responsible duties appertaining to the
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offices of county judge and district attorney were satisfactorily discharged. Many important criminal trials were successfully conducted by him.
As a lawyer Judge Stone was sound, faithful and honest. No client, we think, ever had occasion to complain of his want of vigilance or perseverance. He was the contemporary of Todd, Hine, Cowles, Swift, Cleveland and Nelson, and always believed that these distinguished men were superior to the generation that succeeded them.
In politics Judge Stone was a democrat. His political course was always regular and straightforward. He died a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. It was his fortune to move calmly and quietly through life and his record is clean and pure.
WALKER TODD was born in New Milford, Conn., about the year 1790. He graduated at Yale College in 1810 and com- menced the practice of the law at Carmel in 1813, in partner- ship with George W. Niven until Mr. Niven removed from the county in 1815. Mr. Todd held the office of district attorney from June, 1818, to February, 1821. He held the office of sur- rogate from March, 1819, to February, 1821, and from January, 1833, to September 30th, 1839. He was appointed an inspector of the State prison at Sing Sing in 1832 and held the office until 1840. In November, 1827, he was elected to the Senate of this State for the term of four years, and served for the full term. In November, 1836, he was the regular democratic candidate for Congress in the district comprised of Westchester and Putnam counties, but was defeated by Gouverneur Kemble who ran as a stump candidate. Mr. Todd continued the practice of the law at Carmel until near the time of his death, when he received a stroke of paralysis which terminated his active career. He died in August, 1840. He married Sarah Ann Smith, by whom he had a large family of children.
JEREMIAH HINE, son of Charles Hine, was born in the town of Southeast, Jannary 26th, 1795. He graduated at Yale College in the class of 1815, and at once commenced the study of the law. In 1820 he commenced practice at Carmel and in the latter part of that year formed a partnership with Henry B. Cowles, which continued until Mr. Cowles removed to the city of New York in 1834. Mr. Hine continued in practice at Carmel until his death, which occurred August 24th, 1838. He held the office
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of surrogate of Putnam county from March 28th, 1822, to Jan- uary 31st, 1833. He was district attorney from September 8th, 1829, to the time of his death. He married Miss Zillah Cole, by whom he had one son, who died in infancy.
HENRY B. COWLES, son of Elias and Lydia (Adams) Cowles, was born in Litchfield, Conn., March 18th, 1798. His maternal grandfather, Andrew Adams, was a member of the Continental Congress in 1778, and was chief justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut from 1793 to the time of his death.
The parents of Mr. Cowles removed to Rhinebeck, Dutchess county, N. Y., about the year 1804. Mr. Cowles graduated at Union College in 1816, and while in college was elected a mem- ber of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He studied law under Judge Reeves of Litchfield, and after practicing for a few months at Beekman, in Dutchess county, removed to Carmel in 1820, where he formed a partnership with Jeremiah Hine under the firm name of Cowles & Hine, and continued in practice there until the year 1834, when he opened an office in New York city where he continued in the active practice of his profession until 1860. From that time he undertook no new cases and about the year 1865 retired from law practice entirely. In 1870 he removed to Farmington, Conn., where he continued to reside until his death which occurred in New York while on a tempo- rary visit, May 17th, 1873.
While residing in Putnam county Mr. Cowles was for three consecutive years elected to the Assembly, serving in the ses- sions of 1826, 1827 and 1828. While in the Legislature he took an active and efficient part in the settlement of the Astor claim, securing the passage of the several acts under which the State of New York assumed the payment to John Jacob Astor of $450,000 in satisfaction of his claim as purchaser, to the lands in Putnam county belonging to the heirs of Roger Morris, which were confiscated by the State, and to which titles had been given by the State through deeds executed by commissioners of for- feiture. In the celebrated suits brought to establish Mr. Astor's claim, Mr. Cowles was one of the counsel on the part of the State. In 1828 Mr. Cowles was elected to Congress from the District composed of Westchester and Putnam counties. He was never married.
ELIJAH YERKS, son of William Yerks, was born in Mount Pleasant, Westchester county, about the year 1806. After being
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admitted to the Bar, he commenced practice in Carmel in 1839, and remained in practice there until 1851, when he removed to Tarrytown, where he continued in practice until his death whichi occurred in 1864. In 1847 he was the regular democratic candidate for county judge of Putnam county. He was never married.
HOWARD HART WHITE, son of Ebenezer B. White, was born in Danbury, Connecticut, in 1810. He entered Yale College but did not graduate. He attended the Yale Law School dur- ing the years 1829 and 1830, and studied law in New York city in the office of Charles O'Connor. After his admission to the Bar he practiced law for several years, occupying the same office with Henry B. Cowles, through whose advice he came to Carmel, where he opened a law office in September, 1839. He was appointed surrogate of Putnam county September 30th, 1839, and held the office until April 2d, 1840, when failing health compelled him to resign. He died in Danbury, April 4th, 1840, of consumption. He married Emma Hart, of Troy, N. Y., by whom he had two children, both of whom died before arriving at maturity.
BENJAMIN BAILEY, son of Benjamin Bailey, was born in Carmel in 1813. He was admitted to the Bar in 1842 and im- mediately thereafter commenced the practice of the law in Carmel, where he remained until the year 1853, when he opened an office in New York city. He continued in practice in New York until 1855, when he resumed his practice in Carmel and remained in practice there until within a few years of his death, which occurred July 13th, 1872.
Mr. Bailey represented Putnam county in the Assembly in the years 1845, 1846 and 1856. In 1848 he was the candidate of the Barnburner wing of the democratic party for representa- tive in Congress in the district composed of Dutchess and Putnam counties.
As a lawyer he was often called to the defense in criminal cases. The most noted case in which he was engaged was that of George Denny, who was tried for the murder of Abraham Wanzer, in 1843. Denny was tried twice, the jury failing to agree upon the first trial, but upon the second he was found guilty and afterward executed. Mr. Bailey tried the case for the defendant upon both occasions and was indefatigable in his efforts to save him.
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Mr. Bailey married Calista Wilson and left two sons surviv- ing him. The eldest, Elbert T., resides at Mount Kisco, and has been president of the village. The youngest, William F., is a lawyer residing at Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
JOHN GRIFFEN MILLER, son of Abraham and Elizabeth (Griffen) Miller, was born at Yorktown, Westchester county, New York, December 23d, 1814. While engaged in school teaching he commenced the study of the law, at first with Ben- jamin Bailey and afterward at Somers with Lee & Briggs, and was admitted to practice in 1846. In the spring of 1847 he moved with his family to Carmel where he opened a law office and continued in the active practice of his profession until near the time of his death which occurred March 31st, 1885.
He twice held the office of district attorney, the first time by appointment of the governor to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Charles Ga Nun, being appointed April 10th, 1850, and holding the office until January 1st, 1851; and the second time by election in November, 1853, for the term of three years. He was appointed assessor of internal revenue for the 10th District of New York, comprising the counties of Westchester, Putnam and Rockland, by President Grant, on the 15th of April, 1869, and held the office for several years.
Mr. Miller was twice married. His first wife, Phebe P., daughter of Isaac and Patience Carpenter, to whom he was married September 20th, 1837, died May 8th, 1856. By her he had seven children, of whom three sons and a daughter survive him. His eldest son, William I., formerly deputy county clerk of Putnam county, died at the age of thirty-three. His second son, Henry F., is a dental surgeon residing in Carmel. His third son, Abram J., is a lawyer and present district attorney of Put- nam county, residing in Brewster. His fourth son, Alonzo B., is a dental surgeon residing in New York city. His daughter, Phebe P., is the wife of James A. Foshay, the present school commissioner of Putnam county.
Mr. Miller's second wife, Emily A. Cutts, of Kittery, Maine, to whom he was married September 25th, 1860, and by whom he has one daughter, Anna C., survives him.
CHARLES GA NUN, son of Edward Ga Nun, was born in North Salem in 1817. He prepared for college at the North Salem and Peekskill Academies, and graduated at Williams College in 1839. He studied law in the office of Ambrose L.
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Jordan and was admitted to practice in 1842. In the fall of that year he opened a law office at Carmel and remained in practice there until 1858, when he removed to New York city, where he continued in law practice until his death which oc- curred in November, 1862. From the year 1848 Peter M. Jordan, late of Hudson, was associated with him. Mr. Ga Nun's attain- ments as a lawyer were so well recognized that his office was a favorite school for law students, and many young men received their legal education under his guidance.
Mr. Ga Nun was elected district attorney in 1847, but resigned the office in 1850. He was the candidate of the Hunker wing of the democratic party for representative in Congress in 1848, and in 1855, was a candidate for justice of the Supreme Court for the Second Judicial District. Mr. Ga Nun was never married.
PETER M. JORDAN was born at Claverack, Columbia county, New York, October 21st, 1818. He was the eldest son of Dr. Abram Jordan, an eminent physician of that place. He was a member of the class of 1838 of Union College, but did not gradu- ate. He studied law in the office of his uncle, Ambrose L. Jordan, a man of great ability, and afterward attorney general of the State, and was admitted to practice about the year 1842. After practicing his profession for a few years in Hudson he re- moved to Carmel in 1848, where he became associated with Charles Ga Nun, remaining with him at Carmel until 1858, when they established an office in New York city and continued in practice there until the death of Mr. Ga Nun in 1862. After that time Mr. Jordan continued at Hudson until his death which occurred February 1st, 1886. Mr. Jordan was elected district attorney of Putnam county in November, 1856, and held the office until he removed to New York. He married Miss Jane Flaherty who survives him.
WILLIAM A. DEAN, son of Richard Dean, was born in Carmel, January 4th, 1819. He was educated at private schools and at the Peekskill Academy. He studied law with Ward & Lock- wood at Sing Sing, and was admitted to practice in 1845. He commenced practice at Carmel immediately after his admission and remained in practice at that place until the year 1853, when he removed to the city of New York, where he continued to practice until his death which occurred July 12th, 1854. While at Carmel he was twice elected justice of the peace, holding the
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office from April, 1847, until he removed from the county. He was never married.
LEVI H. McCOY was born January 8th, 1822, at Wantage, Sussex county, New Jersey. He studied law at Goshen and at Newburgh with Judge Monell and was admitted to the bar in 1848. He commenced the practice of the law at Cold Spring in 1849, and continued in active practice until his death which occurred suddenly January 29th, 1868. In 1860, he opened an office in New York city, practicing in both places at that time. In 1858, he was elected district attorney of Putnam county, hold- ing the office for the term of three years. December 5th, 1852, he married Angeline Phillips of Cold Spring, by whom he had four sons.
JAMES DYNES LITTLE was born in New York city, May 15th, 1832. In his young days he learned the printer's trade, and in 1849, at the early age of seventeen, he came to Carmel and assumed the editorial and general management of the " Putnam Democrat." In 1852 he was elected a justice of the peace and held the office until January, 1857, when he was appointed an inspector in the New York Custom House. This position he resigned for that of private secretary to Collector Schell. In July, 1861, having resigned his position in New York, he went to the West, and having previously devoted his spare time to the study of the law he was admitted to practice in Missouri, and in partnership with his brother-in-law, Ex- Governor Beebe, opened a law office in Kansas City. But the Civil War destroyed business and the office was soon closed. Mr. Little returned East and in December, 1861, was admitted to the Bar of this State. In April, 1862, he opened a law office in Carmel and continued in active practice to the time of his death. Mr. Little established the "Putnam County Courier" and was its editor during all his residence in the county, rais- ing it to a high state of prosperity.
In 1864 and again in 1867 he was elected district attorney of the county, holding the office for six years.
Mr. Little married. August 28th, 1854, Mary Virginia, daughter of Elder Gilbert Beebe of Middletown, N. Y. Five daugliters and three sons were born to them, of whom all ex- cept the eldest son and youngest daughter, survive.
In the fall of 1877 Mr. Little was prostrated by a severe at-
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tack of pneumonia from which he never fully recovered. He died August 24th, 1883.
CHARLES HENRY SLOSSON, son of Augustus D. Slosson, was born in North Salem, Westchester county, New York, Feb- ruary 28th, 1842. He entered Yale College in the class which graduated in 1863, but after remaining in college two years was obliged to leave on account of ill health. He studied law at White Plains, with Close & Robertson, and was admitted to practice in June, 1865. He immediately commenced practice at Brewster, and remained in practice at that place until Angust, 1867, when he was prostrated with pneumonia, leaving him very weak and ending in quick consumption, of which he died June 22d, 1868. September 6th, 1866, he married Miss Emily Teller, daughter of Dr. Harrison Teller of Brooklyn, by whom he had one son, Harrison Teller Slosson, born in September, 1867, now a student in Columbia College.
SAMUL J. OWEN was born in Putnam Valley in 1843. After being admitted to the Bar, he practiced law at Cold Spring un- til his death, which occurred October 21st, 1877. He was dis- trict attorney for two terms, holding the office for six years, commencing January 1st, 1871. He married Isabella E., daugh- ter of John Rusk, by whom he had several children. He was a member of the 18th Regiment of New York Volunteers, in the suppression of the rebellion.
The following have retired from practice or removed from the county:
OWEN TRISTRAM COFFIN, son of Robert Coffin, was born in Washington, Dutchess county, July 17th, 1815. He graduated at Union College in 1837; studied law with Judge Rufus W. Peckham at Albany; was admitted to the Bar in 1840; and com- menced practice at Carmel, remaining there about two years, when he removed to Poughkeepsie. He remained in practice at Poughkeepsie until 1851, when he removed to Peekskill, Westchester county, where he has resided to the present time. In November, 1870, he was elected surrogate of Westchester county and still holds the office. He has been twice married. His first wife was Belinda E. Maison, and his second, Harriette Barlow.
WILLIAM J. BLAKE was born July 22d, 1817, at the Blake homestead, in the eastern part of the town of Montgomery,
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Orange county, New York. He is a son of Hon. Edward and Chloe Belknap Blake, and with his twin brother, David A., is the youngest of a family of eight children. His ancestors were English on his paternal and maternal side. The ancestral line is traceable back to Robert Blake, a member of the Long Parliament, which resisted the usurpation and tyranny of King Charles I. until civil war was the result. He was appointed a general in the Parliamentary army and resigned his seat at the beginning of the struggle with the King in 1642. In 1649, he was transferred from the land to the naval forces, with the title of "General of the Sea." In 1652, he became chief ad- miral. He is regarded by all Englishmen as the "Father of the British Navy." He was born at Bridgewater, Somerset- shire, England: and from that family nest his descendants have winged their way to Scotland, the north of Ireland, Canada and the United States.
In the early part of the eighteenth century, three brothers of the name of Blake, emigrated from England to this country. One settled in Massachusetts, one in Pennsylvania, and one on Long Island, who subsequently removed to Orange county, New York. The latter was the great-grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch. The descendants of these three emigrant brothers are numerous, and may be found in half of the States of the Union.
Mr. Blake's mother was a descendant of the Belknap family, English Puritans who emigated to Massachusetts, a member of which (who was her father) subsequently removed and settled a short distance north of Providence, in Rhode Island.
After attending a common school until he was nearly fifteen years of age, Mr. Blake commenced his academic course at the Montgomery Academy, Orange county, where he remained until April, 1837, when he entered the Sophomore class of Union College at Schenectady, from which he graduated in June, 1839, and in the following September went South, and for one year was a tutor in the family of a naval commander. In September, 1840, he returned home and commenced the study of law in the office of Hon. Charles Borland, of Montgomery. In December, 1843, he was licensed as an attorney of the Su- preme Court at Rochester. His father told him that if he was licensed to "return home, stay till spring, and look around for a place to settle." From Rochester he went to New York to
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visit relatives, and on his return stopped at Cold Spring (but without a thought of settling there) to visit a lady whom his father and mother had brought up from girlhood. Visiting a Justice's Court the next day, in company with a former resi- dent of Newburgh, he was retained to try two causes in succes- sion, won both, and was retained to try five others during the remainder of the week. He concluded that, since there was apparently "a sight of petty litigation" there, he might as well remain there the remainder of the winter and begin the practice of law, instead of going home and doing nothing until spring. He had no office, nor a law book with him, was simply a visitor, and, with the exception of those he called on, a stranger in the place. Even then he had no intention of set- tling there.
He went to New York, bought a few necessary books, returned to Cold Spring, rented an office, and hung out his sign. Before spring came he concluded that he might as well remain there as to seek a location elsewhere. In 1846, Governor Silas Wright appointed him a master and examiner in the Court of Chancery. In 1848, when not engaged in office business or attending courts, he hastily gathered up materials for a "History of Putnam County," which he wrote during leisure hours, and published it in the winter of 1849.
Conscious that his hearing was becoming too much impaired to further prosecute his profession with any hope of profit and success, he closed his office in April, 1850, and made a tour through Minnesota, visiting Stillwater, St. Paul and the Crow Wing Indian Agency, about one hundred miles northwest of St. Paul, where he spent the summer, and returned late in the fall to St. Paul, where he passed the winter. In the spring of 1851, he returned to Orange county. In September, 1852, the late proprietor of the "Putnam County Courier" sent him an invitation to become associate editor of the "Courier." He accepted and came to Carmel in the above named month and year.
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