History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 35

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780

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Under such tuition it is not singular that young Porter was favorably received by Dr. Nott and Professor Alonzo Potter when he entered Union College at the age of six- teen, in September, 1835. IFis collegiate course of two years was one of active preparation for the duties of after- life. Ile received his degree in 1837, and left college with all the honors which any student could win, and with the warmest commendation of Governor Marey, whom he had never known, but who was one of the trustees, and wrote for the Albany Argus a description of the commencement exercises. He had also the cordial regard of Dr. Nott and Professor Potter, which he retained as long as they lived, and which he was at times enabled, not only to acknowledge, but also to reciprocate.

Immediately after his graduation he entered upon his professional studies as a student in the office of Hon. Nicholas B. Doe and Richard B. Kimball, the author of "St. Leger."

He succeeded the latter as a member of the firm, having been in the mean time admitted in the court of common pleas, and being allowed by Judge Willard to practice in the court of oyer and terminer, though not yet admitted as an attorney in the Supreme Court.

The Waterford bar was one of marked brilliancy. He was brought into immediate competition in the lower courts with men like Chesselden Ellis, afterwards a distinguished member of Congress, and the strongest pillar of the Tyler administration ; Joshua Bloore, one of the most graceful and accomplished orators this State has produced ; George W. Kirtland, an equity lawyer, to whom Chancellor Walworth turned a more willing ear than to any other lawyer in the State save only Julius Rhodes ; John Cramer and Nieho- las B. Doe, old lawyers, practically retired from the profes- sion, but whose weight was felt in counsel, and each of whom, more especially Mr. Cramer, often carried doubtful causes by the weight, in the council-chamber, of unerring sense, and an unfailing knowledge of the considerations which would control the views of the presiding judge.

When Mr. Porter came to the bar he was encountered by an array of ability which would have discouraged most young men. He had to encounter Nicholas Hill, second, even then, to no member of the American bar; William A. Beach, a man of singular prestige, power, and eloquence ; Edward F. Bullard, who, in the power of presenting a dif- ficult and complicated canse, and in pressing it through to a favorable issue, was almost, if not quite, unrivaled ; Wil- liam Hay, one of the most brilliant and eloquent lawyers this country has produced ; Judiah Ellsworth, who had in his professional capacity the power of a steam-engine, which no obstruction could resist; and George G. Scott, who, with

no pretensions to oratory, was one of the clearest-headed and ablest men the county of Saratoga has produced, wise in counsel, clear-headed and upright in judgment, and in literary accomplishments and general ability unmeasurably above most of those whose names have come down to us in the legends and traditions of the bar.

On his admission to the bar of the Supreme Court, in May, 1840, Mr. Porter at once took rank among the men who assumed the lead in the courts. From that time until 1848, when he removed to Albany, he was in collision from court to court with men like Wm. A. Beach, William Hay, Judiah Ellsworth, Geo. L. Scott, Augustus Bockes, Deodatus Wright, Nicholas Hill, Samuel Stevens, Marcus T. Reynolds, Ambrose L. Jordan, Henry G. Wheaton, and Daniel Cady. There is not one of the number who have already passed away who was not his life-long friend, and of those who survive it is pleasant to know that, on both sides, the rela- tions of these early competitors for the honors of the bar are those of friends whose bonds of mutual attachment will be unbroken by death ; and each of whom will, as from time to time the occasion arises, render to the others the tribute justly due to them in every publie and professional relation.

All the antagonismus of professional life and political hos- tility have never even touched the personal attachment of those whose lives have been interwoven with those of their competitors at the bar.

We cannot forego, in view of what has already been said, an expression of gratification and pride over the record of the county of Saratoga in the single department of jurisprudence. Ilas the country furnished, for any single county, greater names than those of John W. Taylor, Samuel Young, James Thompson, Michael Hoffman, Deo- datus Wright, Alvah Worder, Judiab Ellsworth, William Hay, Augustus Bockes, Edward F. Bullard, George G. Scott, John Willard, Reuben HI. Walworth, Nicholas Hill, Esek Cowen, John K. Porter, Oran G. Otis, John L. Viele, Chesselden Ellis, Joshua Bloore, and a host of others whom we would be glad to name ?

During the period of his residence in the county of Saratoga there were few causes of great public interest in which Mr. Porter was not engaged, in conjunction with some of those whose names are mentioned above. There are many firesides now, in the county of Saratoga, where the remembrance of those old trials is associated with the legends and traditions of the bar.

The last of the great trials in which he was engaged, before his removal to Albany, was that of the People es. Wilcox, for the murder of Mckinstry. He was associated with Judge Bockes for the defense, and the post-mortem examination of the prisoner at Demarara proved that the defense of insanity which they interposed was well founded.

In 1847 Mr. Porter married the daughter of IIon. Eli M. Todd, of Waterford, and soon after he removed to Albany. She died in 1858, and a son by that marriage now survives, who has taken the profession of his father.

Mr. Porter, on his change of residence, entered into partnership with his old and honored friend, Deodatus Wright, then recorder of Albany, and afterwards judge of the Supreme Court. Judge Wright was one of the ablest

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HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

jury lawyers in the State, a brother-in-law of Marcus T. Reynolds, and as a judge second, in the estimate of Daniel Cady and Nicholas Hill, to none of his predecessors on the bench since the days of James Kent and Ambrose Spencer.

Soon afterwards Mr. Porter entered into partnership with Nicholas Hill, Jr., and Peter Cagger, and this rela- tion continued until the death of Mr. Ilill, on the Ist of May, 1859. The new firm owned the splendid law library of the late Judge Cowen, which had cost him over $25,000, and they added to it nearly as much more.

From that time until the death of Mr. Hill they were employed in more cases of public importance than any other firm in the State, and their relative success was greater than that of any other firm at the American bar.

On the death of Mr. Ilill, Mr. Porter took charge of the cases in the court of appeals, and from that time it was his good fortune to be equally successful.

In December, 1864, a vacancy occurred in the court of appeals through the resignation of Ilenry R. Selden, one of the most accomplished judges who ever presided in that tribunal. At the earnest solicitation of Governor Fenton, and of Judges Noah Davis and Richard P. Marvin, Mr. Porter was induced to accept the position of judge of the court of appeals, and his nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate.

In the succeeding autumn he was re-elected to the posi- tion by an immense majority, far exceeding the party vote, over Martin Grover, his competitor for the position.

Ile left on the record of that tribunal a series of judicial opinions, extending from the 31st to the 37th of New York, by which his friends are content to have his reputation as a jurist judged in after-times by the bench and the bar.

Ile was not forgotten by his alma mater, and in 1867 the degree of doctor of laws was conferred upon Judge Porter by Union College.

In January, 1868, he resigned his position as judge of - the court of appeals, and removed to the city of New York, where he became the head of the firm of Porter, Lowrey, Soren & Stone, and he has continued to this day the head of that firm.

In the intermediate period between his removal from the county of Saratoga and this time, he has been engaged in some of the most important litigations in the country.

He won more than ordinary distinction in his argument before the Senate committee in the Trinity church case.

HIe won high professional honors in the successful de- fense of Horace Greeley, es. De Witt C. Littlejohn, for libel. He succeeded in the great case of the Metropolitan bank on the constitutionality of the legal tender act.

He succeeded also in the Parish will case, where the adverse arguments were made by Messrs. Evarts and Ed- monds, and the arguments of Charles O'Conor and John K. Porter prevailed against all odds.

lle was at once engaged in a variety of important con- troversies, including the Rock Island and Eric and the Western Union and Atlantic and Pacific litigations, and others of a kindred character.

Before a jury he has been one of the ablest advocates this State has produced. In the case of' Speaker Littlejohn 19

against Horace Greeley, a libel suit tried at the Oswego circuit before Judge Bacon, about fifteen years since, he was called in for the defense. Although his address was made first, and it was followed by able adversaries for the plaintiff, with a strong charge from the court against the defendant, yet the jury stood eleven for the defendant.

In the case of Tilton vs. Beecher, he was associated with Wm. M. Evarts for the defense. IIe was also called to St. Louis, and made a successful defense of General Babcock, the private secretary of General Grant.

llis reputation as an advocate and a jurist is so well es- tablished that no more need be said here on that subject.

He always made polities subordinate to the profession he has so adorned. As early as 1838 he took an active part in making political speeches in his native county. In 1844 he attended the Whig convention at Baltimore, when Henry Clay was nominated the last time for the presidency.

At an immense mass-meeting, in which some of the most eminent orators of the nation participated, although not a delegate, and a stranger to the crowd, a few friends present called him out for a speech. It is enough to say that he astonished his friends as well as the mass, and the eloquence he displayed on that occasion at once placed him in the front rank of American orators.

In 1846 he was elected to the State convention to form a new constitution, from Saratoga County, upon the same tieket with James M. Cook. So great was his personal popularity in this county that he received a very large per- eentage of the votes of his political opponents. Since that occasion he has held no office merely politieal, and retired from the highest judicial position in this State to join in the more active duties of his chosen profession.

Although no longer a resident of this county, he has many friends here, who remember him with kindness and admiration.

WILLIAM AUGUSTUS BEACH.

It has come to be said by the people of this nation that among such a list of its most able and distinguished lawyers as one could count upon his finger ends, must already be placed the name of William Augustus Beach.

He was born at Ballston Spa, to which place his father, Miles Beach, had removed from Connecticut, in the year 1786. On the maternal side, his father was related to Judge Smith Thompson, of the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1807 his father married Cynthia, a sister of Judge William L. F. Warren, and a relative of Dr. Warren, of Bunker Hill memory. His father served during the Revolution in a Massachusetts militia company, holding a commission bearing the bold signature of John Hancock. "Zerah Beach, his grandfather, was one of the commissioners of the treaty of Wyoming, and was also in the Continental army, having passed the winter at Valley Forge. Miles Beach removed with his family to Saratoga Springs in the year 1809. His wife-the accomplished and venerable mother of the subject of this sketch-yet survives, being nearly ninety years of age, and enjoys in an eminent de- gree the possession of all her faculties, and looks as young as most people at sixty.

William A., during his boyhood, attended school at the

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HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Saratoga Springs Academy, and later Captain Partridge's military school, at Middletown, Vt. He first studied law in Saratoga, with his uncle, Judge Warren. He was admitted to the bar in August, 1833. His first legal part- nership was with Nicholas Hill, Jr. Subsequently he formed partnerships successively with Sidney J. Cowen, Daniel Shepherd, and Augustus Bockes, his connection with the latter continuing until his removal to Troy. He received the appointment of district attorney in 1843, hold- ing the same until 1847.

In April, 1851, he removed to the city of Troy, where he formed a copartnership with Job Pierson and Levi Smith, under the firm-name of Pierson, Beach & Smith. Mr. Pierson withdrew from the firm in 1853, and it was continued under the firm-name of Beach & Smith until December, 1870. During all this long interval Mr. Beach was actively engaged in his profession. In addition to the large office business of his firm he had an extensive erim- inal business, and was engaged in most of the important litigations of the day, and was constantly brought in con- taet with the most able New York lawyers, and always proved himself the equal of any of them, whenever an im- portant controversy arose. The first thing said by the friends of either side, by way of advice, was, " Employ Beach." He was employed in the noted Albany bridge case, where the question involved was the right to bridge navigable streams emptying into the sca, where the tide ebbed and flowed, under State authority. Mr. Beach had opposed to him in this controversy William II. Seward, then a senator from the State of New York, Nicholas Hill, and John II. Reynolds, of the city of New York, all since dead, and he proved himself equal in argument and learning with these great men. The history of this case is worthy of a remark here. It was heard in the United States cir- cuit court for the northern district of New York, before Hon. Samuel Nelson, then a justice of the United States Supreme Court, and Hon. Nathan K. Hull, district judge of New York, of the northern district of New York. These eminent judges were unable to agree, and made a certificate of disagreement to the United States Supreme Court, where the case was argued,-that court then consisted of but six members,-and the court there was also equally divided. The practice of the court in such case being that the ease would be sent back to the circuit court, with directions that it be dismissed. This was done, leaving as the result, after years of earnest and expensive litigation, no actual decision either of fact or of law.

Mr. Beach was employed by Horatio Seymour, then governor of New York, to defend Colonel North and his officials, who were appointed commissioners to superintend the taking of the votes of soldiers in the field. The United States authorities claimed that their commissioners had been guilty of malfeasance in office, and ordered a military court to try them. This court sat in the city of Washing- ton, D. C., and it was here that Mr. Beach made one of his most able and brilliant efforts. At the close of his argn- ment a rule of the court was taken, and it was unanimous for acquittal, and the prisoners were discharged. The president of the court, a perfect stranger to Mr. Beach, after the acquittal came to Mr. Beach, gave him his hand,

and congratulated him upon his masterly effort, and thanked him for the powerful aid he had rendered the court in arriv- ing at its conclusion.

Ransom H. Gillett, then a resident of Washington, and himself a lawyer of distinguished ability, who was present at this argument, writing to the Albany Argus shortly afterwards, said in substance that he had been for many years a resident in Washington ; that he had known all these great muen,-Webster, Clay, Calhoun, etc.,-heard them both at the bar and in the halls of Congress, and that none of them had excelled Mr. Beach in brilliancy or power.

His defense of General Cole, charged with the murder of Senator Hiscock, at Albany, is another noted professional triumph of Mr. Beach. General Cole met Senator Hiscock at the Stanwix Hall, in Albany, and at sight shot him dead. It was claimed on the part of the defense, and some evi- dence was given in the trial tending in that direction, that Senator Hiseoek had trifled with the affections of the gen- eral's wife while he, the general, was at the front fighting for the cause of his country, and that the general on his return, hearing the facts, meeting the senator by accident, shot him on the spot. Mr. Beach in his argument charac- terized the case as one of "emotional insanity," that although sune a moment before and sane a moment after the shot was fired, yet that when the fatal shot was fired, Cole was insane and wholly irresponsible for the act. The court and jury took this view of the case, and the jury promptly rendered a verdict of acquittal.

These are but a few of the important cases in which he was engaged while living in Troy. In all of his cases he brought a careful preparation, and was always great in his presentation both to court and jury.

The county of Rensselaer looked with pride upon him as one so long its resident and humble advocate. His snc- cess in the great metropolis has been equally marked. His time is wholly taken up with the most important cases known to our courts of justice in the State and nation.

AUGUSTUS BOCKES.

Angustus Boekes was born in the town of Greenfield, Saratoga Co., N. Y., Oct. 1, 1817, where his parents re- sided, and where they had resided for many years. His father's name was Adam Bockes, Jr., his grandfather's name being also Adam Bockes. Ilis father was a farmer, and held various town offices, among others that of justice of the peace and supervisor. He was a man of sterling worth, and died in Greenfield, Sept. 8, 1846, aged seveuty-four years.

Judge Bockes' opportunities for education were confined to the excellent common schools of the town in which he lived, except two terms at Burr Seminary, Manchester, Vt. He taught school for three terms, two terms in Malta, Sara- toga Co., and one in his native town. He commenced the study of the law in the office of that able lawyer Judiah Ellsworth, at Saratoga Springs, in 1838. After a time, he continued his studies in the office of Beach & Cowen, at the same place, and was admitted to practice from their office in 1843. He commeneed the practice of law imme- diately after his admission, in partnership with Stephen P. Nash, now of New York city. Ile soon after formed a part-

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IHISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

nership with W. A. Beach, now of New York city, and continued such partnership at Saratoga Springs until · 1847.

In the practice of the law, Judge Bockes was eminently suceessful. But he was destined to be called to higher fields of labor. He was elected county judge of Saratoga County under the new constitution in June, 1847, and entered upon his official duties July 1, 1847. He was re- elected for a second term at the November election of 1851, and resigned this office in 1854. On the 1st of January, 1855, he was appointed by Governor Clarke a justice of the Supreme Court, for the Fourth Judicial district of the State, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Judge Daniel Cady. At the November election in 1859 he was elected justice of the Supreme Court for the Fourth Judicial district, was re-elected at the November election, 1867, and was again re-elected to the same office at the November election, 1875. At the last two elections he was elected without opposition ; and at the election in 1875 was nominated and supported by both the political parties, an honor conferred upon few judges of the State. He was appointed by Governor Dix to the general term of the Supreme Court, for the Third Judicial department, for the years 1874 and 1875, and was again designated by Gov- ernor Tilden to the same office for the ensuing five years,

and consequently is now associate justice for the general term of the Supreme Court for the Third department, comprising the Third, Fourth, and Sixth Judicial districts of the State.

He married Mary P. Hay, second daughter of the Hon. William Hay, September 3, 1844. The children of this marriage are William Hay and Mary.

Around the thousand quiet homesteads of Greenfield, cluster a host of tender memories. For a hundred years her sons and daughters, nursed into sturdy manhood and kindly womanhood within the gentle influences of her Christian homes, have been going forth into all lands to fight life's battles bravely, but forever looking tearfully, longingly, back to their old Greenfield homes, where the father and the mother lie buried, and where the happy days of childhood flew all too rapidly away.

But no one among them all has more honored the place of his birth, no one among them all has lived less for himself nor more for others, than the subject of this sketch. And among the many eminent living judges whose presence now graces the bench of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, no one is better qualified to discharge the important duties of his office, and upon no one does the judicial ermine rest in more spotless purity, thau upon the shoulders of Judge Bockes.

HISTORY

OF THE

VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF SARATOGA COUNTY.

VILLAGE OF SARATOGA SPRINGS.

I .- GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.

ON the low foot-hills of the sunny southern slope of the most easterly of the five great mountain ranges of the Adi- rondack wilderness, in the pride of her gorgeous palatial beauty, sits the village of Saratoga Springs,-of the world's most famous watering-places the peerless queen.

A spur of the old Canadian Laurentian mountains crosses the St. Lawrence river, as the reader will remember, at the Thousand islands, and spreading easterly and southerly over the whole of the great wilderness, rises into lofty mountain- peaks in the interior and slopes gradually down to the great water-courses on every side. In the depth of the wilderness this spur of the Laurentides separates into five great chains, all of which run down its southern slope. The most east- erly of the chains is the Palmertown range. This range begins on Lake Champlain near Ticonderoga, and run- ning along both sides of Lake George, crosses the Hudson river above Glen's falls. After crossing the Hudson, this chain of mountains runs down along the border of the towns of Corinth and Moreau, through Wilton and Green- field, and ends under North Broadway in Saratoga Springs. Beyond the Hudson the highest peak of the Palmertown range is old French Mountain, which overlooks the head of Lake George, so full of historic memories. On this side the Hudson the highest peak is Mount MacGreggor, which overlooks the site of the old legendary Indian village called Palmertown, from which the great mountain chain derives its name.

Thus this village of Saratoga Springs, while she sips her mineral waters in the full blaze of fashion's highest splendor, sits at the very foot of the old Laurentian Adirondaeks and breathes to fullness the purest and most invigorating air of the mountains.

Along in the valley which runs through the village the hard Laurentian roeks terminate and the softer rocks of the Trenton limestones and Hudson river slates begin. In the geologic fault or fissure which here oceurs between these two systems of rocks, the mineral springs of Saratoga bubble from the earth's bosom elaborated by the cunning band of nature.

II .- EARLY SETTLEMENT.

There may have been and it is highly probable there were some white men who saw the mineral springs of Sara- toga before Sir William Johnson went there in the summer of 1767. Sir William himself, in a letter quoted in " Moese's Gazetteer," intimates that an Indian chief discovered these springs to a sick French officer in their early wars with the English. Again, it is more than probable that some of the early settlers of Wilton, who were there about 1765, and those near the lake about 1764, being only half a dozen miles away from these springs, often went to these even before Sir William's visit ; but whether they did or not we have no account. It may therefore of a truth be said that of the long line of distinguished men and women and of the vast concourse of summer visitors that for a hundred years have been pressing with eager feet toward these springs to taste their healing waters, Sir William Johnson led the way.

Sir William at the time of his celebrated visit with the Indians to the Iligh Rock spring, of Saratoga, in the month of August, 1767, was living in the height of his baronial power with the Indian princess, Molly Brandt, as his wife and their eight dusky children in his manor house at Mount Johnson, near the Mohawk country. He was then His Britannic Majesty's superintendent-general of In- dian affairs in North America, colonel of the Six Nations, and a major-general in the British service.

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History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 35

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894 Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 780

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780