History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 105

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 1112

USA > New York > Chemung County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 105
USA > New York > Schuyler County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 105
USA > New York > Tioga County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 105
USA > New York > Tompkins County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 105

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

AMONG the prominent agencies which give shape and order in the carly development of the civil and social con- dition of society, the pulpit, press, and bar are perhaps the most potential in moulding the institutions of a new com- munity : and where these are early planted, the school, academy, and college are not long in assuming their legiti- mate position, and the maintenance of these institutions secures at the start a social and moral foundation, upon which we may safely rest the superstructure of the county, the State, and nation. It was fortunate in the early his- tory of Tompkins County that most of these agencies had become established and taken healthy root before the county assumed its independent organization as a civil division of the State.

The establishment of courts and judicial tribunals, where

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

society is protected in all its civil rights under the sanetion of law, and wrongs find ready redress in an enlightened and prompt administration of justice, is the first necessity of every civilized community, and without which the pow- ers and forees of society in its changeable developments, even under the teachings of the pulpit, the direction of the press, and culture of the schools, are exposed to peril and disaster from the turbulence of passion and conflicts of in- terest : and hence the best and surest security that even the press, the school, or pulpit can find for the peaceful performance of their highest functions is when protected by and intrenehed behind the bulwarks of law administered by a pure, independent, and uncorrupted judiciary.

At the organization of Tompkins County, in 1817, and the appointment of courts therein, were found already a number of legal gentlemen established in their profession at Ithaea, who had obtained recognized distinetion as prac- titioners in the highest courts of the State. Among the more prominent and leading members of the profession, from 1812 to 1840, may be named-

David Woodcock, Ben Johnson, Charles Humphrey, Andrew D. W. Bruyn, Amasa Dana, F. G. Stanley, Samuel Crittenden, Jr., William Lynn, D. B. Stockholm, Caleb B. Drake, Samuel Love, Stephen Mack, E. G. Pelton, Arthur S. Johnson, Augustus Sherill, J. Newton Perkins, and others who were prominent members of the bar at the or- ganization of the county. Later on their places have been supplied by a roll of attorneys and counselors, among whom we may name as their successors-

Benjamin G. Ferris, Henry S. Walbridge, Levi Hubbell, Alfred Wells, William H. L. Bogart, Moses R. Wright, William R. Humphrey, Stephen B. Cushing, Samuel B. Bates, Charles G. Day, George D. Beers, O. G. Howard, John A. Williams, Douglass Boardman, F. M. Finch, Milo Goodrich, Harvey A. Dowe, Mareus Lyon, Samuel D. Hal- liday, Merritt King, and others, younger members of the profession, many of whom are now taking prominent posi- tions as the older bar becomes decimated by death or retire- ment from practice, perpetuating a bar for legal ability not behind any county of the State. Under the old constitution of the State the circuits were presided over by such eminent jurists as Van Ness, Spencer, Nelson, and Monell, and to successfully practice before them developed ripe and schol- arly lawyers, clear and sound reasoners ; and the practice, as then eondueted, necessitated a familiar acquaintance with the principles of law and the philosophy and science of judicial proecdure.

The titles to much of the military allotments of the State were in many cases involved in doubt, and the elcaring up of land titles and ejeetment proceedings, with the chancery and equity practice, at all times furnished a wide field for loeal litigation, and gave a large practice to the early prae- titioners at the Tompkins County bar, who were often called to measure swords with John A. Collier, Joshua A. Spen- cer, Mark Sibley, Wm. H. Seward, Elisha Williams, and other leading counsel of the State bar in legal arguments at Tompkins circuits ; and the most eminent of them all did not often retire from these forensic contests without receiv- ing as well as giving blows.

When fully aroused in an important trial, BEN JOHNSON

was regarded by the most astute advocates as the peer of the ablest counsel of the State; with unswerving de- votion to his profession, never yielding to the solicitations of his friends to accept politieal office, he lived and died with his harness on, at the head of the Tompkins County bar; while, standing on his professional level, shoulder to shoulder with him were Humphrey, Woodeock, and Dana, each of whom have left the record of their abilities on the reported cases argued in the courts of last resort of the State.

But in other than the strict line of professional life, the bar of Tompkins County have left upon the country the impress of their power in moulding the institutions and developing the prosperity and growth of the country in all the avenues of advancement and progress of the people,- while called to serve them in wider fields of honor and in- flucnee, the bar has furnished the State and nation from its brotherhood named above and noticed in other pages of this work in detail.

DAVID WOODCOCK established himself at Ithaea as early as 1812, while it was yet a part of Seneca County, and at onee took a prominent position at the bar of the State, and traveling the distriet with the Cireuit Courts as a leading advocate, and as a forcible and astute jury lawyer in persuasive power was seldom excelled before a jury by any whom he met at the bar. He represented Seneca County in the State Legislature,-the sessions of 1814 and 1815,-district attorney in 1818, and was elected to the Seventeenth Congress in 1821; he represented the Twentieth Distriet, then composed of the counties of Ca- yuga, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, and Tompkins. At the end of the Seventeenth Congress he retired to his professional practice; called again to serve the people in the Legislature of the State in 1826, where he was a leading member of the House. Declining a re-election in 1827, he was again elected, in 1828, a representative in the Twentieth Congress, and took his seat in the national Legislature, where his abilities were at onee recognized, and he aided with his vote and in debate the establishment of the great Amer- ican system of which it may be said Henry Clay was the father. On returning from Congress he resumed his prae- tice at the bar, and was suddenly stricken down with his armor on. He died at Ithaca in September, 1835, leaving a vacancy not easily filled. Of most kind and genial na- ture, generous and warm-hearted, his influence and ex- ample to the younger members of the bar was always salutary and hopeful. His memory is held green by all who knew him.

CHARLES HUMPHREY, also, at about the same period, took a prominent position, and devoted to the service of the country his great legal abilities and services in establishing and fostering not only loeal improvements, but rendered signal services to the State. A forcible advocate, clear and sharp in attack or repartee in forensic debate, he adorned for a long period the bar of the State; was member of the State Legislature in 1834, re-elected for the session of 1835, and again in 1836, and was elected the presiding officer of the House, serving as Speaker, both the fifty- eighth and fifty-ninth sessions of the Legislature of the State. But his remarkable aptitude for parliamentary pro-

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eedure was not confined to the State; he had years before been honored with a seat in the national Legislature, and represented the Twenty-fifth-District of the State, composed of the counties of Tioga and Tompkins, under the appor- tionment of the constitution of 1821, taking his seat in the Nineteenth Congress Deeember, 1825, and returning March 3, 1827. After a wide practice, he was again prevailed upon to take a seat in the Legislature of the State in 1842. He served some years as Supreme Court clerk at Albany. For many years a great sufferer from a physical and most painful constitutional disease, he re- turned to Ithaca and resumed practice as counsel in im- portant cases in the Supreme Court and before the Court of Appeals. His briefs and arguments were always marked by their clearness of statement, accuraey of citation of au- thorities, and exhaustive research. While supported upon his crutches, owing to a spinal affection, standing before the Supreme Court or Court of Appeals, he always com- manded the striet attention of the court, and won the ad- miration of the distinguished members of the State bar, who listened to his able presentation and arguments; but after long years of most acute suffering, he died at Albany, July 18, 1850, while on professional attendanee before the Supreme Court, regretted by the whole community and the bar of the entire State.

ANDREW D. W. BRUYN, another prominent member of the bar, occupied a leading position as surrogate of the county in 1817 to 1821; and afterwards, under the second constitution, he served as first judge of the county from 1826 to 1837. Elected to represent the Twenty- second District, composed of the counties of Chemung, Cortland, Tioga, and Tompkins, took his seat in the National Congress twenty-fifth session, Sept. 4, 1837, and died at Washington during his term in July, 1838. Judge Bruyn was, like his compeers, distinguished for his solid legal ac- quirements and laborious industry in his professional life ; was marked for the perspicuity of his arguments, and the strictest observance of all those social, public, private, or official duties which combined with his high sense of per- sonal honor to make a rounded character well worthy to be followed as a model by every member of the bar who can remember his sterling integrity and emulate his courteous and dignified bearing; in debate or in the delivery of his judicial opinions sharp and terse, pointed and keen as a Damascus blade, the wounding or defeat of his adversary was so tempered with his magnetism and attraction that his arrow never left a rankling wound to give pain or leave a scar.

AMASA DANA, next on the roll of the early bar of Tompkins County, whose professional standing gave it promi- nence and honor, may be named as reflecting the lustre of high moral and religious character upon the profession he had chosen to adorn. Having carly acquired prominence as an advocate, he was elected and served in the State Legis- lature in 1828 and 1829, the fifty-first and fifty-second ses- sions, having previously discharged the duties of district attorney for the county 1823 to 1837. Returning to the practice of his profession, he was nominated and elected to represent the Twenty-second Distriet in the Twenty-sixth Congress, from December, 1839, to March 3, 1841 ; recalled

by his district, he was again returned to the Twenty-eighth Congress, and acceptably served the people from Dec. 4, 1843, to the close of the Twenty-eighth Congress, March 3, 1845 ; returning to the more congenial walks of his profession, to which he was profoundly attached, after his two terms of service in Congress, having previously to his election to Congress served as first judge of the county courts from 1837 to 1843. Resuming his practice in 1845, to which he continued to give his attention until he was called to a higher tribunal on the 24th of December, 1867, at the ad- vanced age of seventy-six. Judge Dana not only adorned the profession he had chosen by a life of most faithful performance and observance of every exacting requirement of duty to society, to his home, and to every responsible public trust ; deeply imbued with a high and religious sentiment, he brought to the discharge of his professional, judicial, and Legislative requirement a devout reliance upon the favor of a God in whom he trusted, and illuminated a long and honor- able public career with the Christian firmness and simplicity of character which may be said to furnish the bright chap- ter in the character of the Christian statesman or most ethi- cal and profound jurist. His memory will be long cherished by the church at whose altar he was a devout worshiper, not less than by the bar of which he was so distinguished an ornament.

Other members whose names are given in the above list of the old bar might each constitute a chapter of interest to the general reader, marked by more or less events of publie serviees deserving personal comment and historical recognition, but the space devoted to but one chapter in our history of the bar of Tompkins County admonishes us of the necessity of brevity, lest we encroach upon other de- partments, and occupy space which should be devoted to other professions and influences which contributed to the promotion of the prosperity of the people and the religious, moral, and refined social condition of the county at large.

WILLIAM LYNN, although never aspiring to profes- sional distinction, preferring the retirement and seclusion of his office to the prominence at the bar which his scholarly attainments entitled him to assume, was long eoneeded to be an astute and able lawyer, and, as a critical and polished essayist and writer, unparalleled by any. His numerous public addresses delivered on various occasions were, in their day, widely published and eirculated, and regarded by the most cultivated and refined scholars as models of logical force and elegance of diction, and when delivered from the platform by him in his persuasive and polished elocution he thrilled his hearers with the power of his eloquence, which could not be exeelled by the most gifted orators of the State or nation. He lived to an advanced age, and died at the age of eighty. A most laborious scholar, ripened by a life of study for the pleasure derived from the acquisition of historieal and classical knowledge, with no ambition to dis- play the rieh acquisitions he had gathered. But he will be re- membered by the older members of the county as the orator par excellence of all their great asscuiblies between 1810 and 1845. Many of his fine bursts of impassioned fervor are worthy to be preserved as elassic models of rhetoric. His polished orations were illuminated by the richest poeti- cal fancy, and all aflame with patriotie ardor.

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

Passing on to the more recent members of the bar who have acquired prominence from the above list, we mention in the order of their services.

HENRY S. WALBRIDGE, having finished his studies in thic office of Ben Johnson, entered his office as his law-partner, and, as might be anticipated, advanced at once into a lucra- tive practice, and for many years held a conspicuous posi- tion at the bar; elected to the State Legislature in 1827, and again in 1846, where he served with credit to his con- stituency and advantage to the State. Resuming his position at the bar, he was elected to the Thirty-second Congress, representing the Twenty-sixth Congressional District of the State from 1851 to 1853. Returning at the close of his term, he was soon after elected to the office of first judge of the county, and devoting to his judicial duties his well- trained and acquired aptitude to the careful methodical and painstaking investigation, he faithfully discharged his judicial functions, from 1859 to 1867, to the benefit of the litigants before him and approved of the entire bar.

Judge Walbridge soon after met with an accidental death by a railroad casualty near the city of New York.

BENJAMIN G. FERRIS, soon after his graduating from college, entered the office of the Hon. David Woodcock ; soon after his admission to the bar assumed an enviable position and advanced rapidly to the front rank of his pro- fession, served several terms in the State Legislature, was for many years district attorney of the county, was ap- pointed in 1853 secretary of Utah Territory by President Fillmore, and after spending a short time in that official position, acquiring a disgust with Mormon institutions, gladly threw up his commission and retired from his duties as secretary of "the saints," returning by way of San Francisco to his home. For a few years after he practiced his profession in the city of New York. Returning to Ithaca, he has applied himself to the duties of an extensive prac- tice, and devoted his leisure to literary pursuits and scien- tific investigations ; a ripe scholar, he has contributed many articles to the magazines of current literature, wielding at times a trenchant though always a polished pen ; a gen- tleman of most exemplary life and scholarly attainments, finds his highest ambition realized in the quietude of his domestic life and the charms of his rural home.

ALFRED WELLS, after reading his profession in the office of Humphrey & Woodcock, took his position at the bar, where his abilities were soon recognized, and he was at an early day called to judicial duty. Elected first judge of Tompkins County in 1847, serving as county judge and surrogate four years, and subsequently representing the Twenty seventh District in the Thirty-sixth Congress from 1859 to 1861. Returning from Congress was appointed assessor of internal revenue, and after a most laborious and ictive professional and official life was called to his higher reward in the meridian of his usefulness.

HON. DOUGLASS BOARDMAN succeeded Judge Wells as first judge and surrogate in 1851, relinquishing a prominent practice-having served as district attorney from 1847-for the more congenial position of a judge. Eminently possessed of a clear, logical, and judicial mind, he brought to the bench an aptitude for the responsible discharge of his judicial duties, having most faithfully discharged the duties of

county judge for four years from 1851 to 1855. Return- ing to the bar, he at once took front rank. After ten years' practice his superior qualifications for a judical po- sition were recognized throughout the Sixth Judicial Dis- trict, and he was elected to the Supreme Court bench in 1865, sneceeding the Hon. William W. Campbell. At the end of his first term of eight years, he was again renomi- nated by a unanimous vote and elected without a compet- itor. So well satisfied was the entire district bar with the manner in which he had discharged his responsible duties, that no candidate was named to contest his re-election, and he was re-elected for another term of fourteen years. Soon thereafter, on the death of the Hon. J. W. Barker, Judge Boardman was appointed to the vacancy thus created on the general term bench for the Sixth District, where he now sits as one of the Supreme Court Justices. In the dis- charge of his new duties he brings to his aid that pains- taking industry and careful analysis of cases which can alone secure a discriminating determination of the shades and distinctions ever occurring in the multifarious ques- tions brought before the bench for final judgment.

Judge Boardman is wearing himself out by the amount of labor he assumes to perform, and his genial nature and kind-heartedness has led him to perform circuit duties to a large extent, in addition to his higher functions as justice of the Sixth District General Term. The misfortune of . Judge Balcom, of the Sixth District, appealing to his gen- crous nature, he has filled his appointments to a large degree, and still has disposed of his full share of causes submitted to the General Term justices. His opinions reported bear evidence of his great research and careful, upright, and conscientious discharge of his official duties.

STEPHEN B. CUSHING, one of the most promising and brilliant advocates that adorned the Tompkins bar from 1837 to 1855, having almost on his first entrance upon practice stepped at once to the head of the bar as a jury lawyer, was soon called to serve in the Legislature, and although a young member of the house, was a prominent candidate for Speaker on the Democratic side iu 1852. Turning his attention to politics, he had achieved so much distinction in the Legislature as an able debater, he was nominated, in 1855, for attorney-general of the State, and elected to that position, entering upon the office Jan. 1, 1856. On retiring from office he formed a professional partnership with the senior Mr. Sickles, of New York, and for a number of years practiced at the New York bar, where he died suddenly in 1865.

Mr. Cushing had the conceded reputation of being one of the brilliant stars of the profession. Possessed of a heart overflowing with generous impulses, a most genial com- panion, the life and spirit of the social circle, he shot athwart the professional horizon like a meteor of light, illuminating his passage with scintillations of his genius, then paled and faded away, burned out in the meridian of his day by the intensity of his nature, the unfortunate sufferer and victim of his too impetuous and generous im- pulses.

MILO GOODRICH, another member of the bar, command- ing a large practice, and of wide influence, represented the district in Congress from 1871 to March 3, 1873, and

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delegate to the last Constitutional Convention of the State. On returning from his seat in Congress, he removed subse- quently to the city of Auburn, where he finds a more ex- tended field for his professional labors.

GEORGE D. BEERS carly served as a State senator, and obtained in early life distinction at the bar and in the Senate of the State. Having acquired an ample fortune, he has retired from the more active duties of his profession.

F. M. FINCH, a scholar of classic culture, a clear and terse reasoner, is seldom met at the trial circuits, but has a commanding position as one of the most able counselors of the Sixth District. His office practice is extensive, and in the settlement of large cstates, and as attorney for rail- road corporations, advisor and counselor to the Cornell University, and trustee of the University endowment lands, he finds a laborious practice. He is consulted by the bar on important legal questions, and his opinion is sought as counsel in most of the important causes in our courts. As a reliable counselor, he stands at the head of the bar. Mr. Finch finds time in his relaxation from his professional labors to indulge his taste in a wide range of general litera- turc, and when he retires from his office, laying aside his professional cares,-gives wing to his finer faney,-he finds himself refreshed and invigorated by a sweeter communion with the best minds of ancient and modern literature, who are always his silent guests, reposing in well-arranged alcoves in his spacious private library, where he is always ready to meet his friends with a genial and hearty greeting.

Mr. Finch, from his college days, has been distinguished for his poetic culture. His impromptu speeches in his moments of inspiration have enriched our literature with as undying lyrics as were ever penned by Bryant or Lowell. His college songs at Yale, " Gather Ye Smiles," "Smoking Song," " Liona," " Nathan Hale," "The Blue and the Gray," with others, thrown off in his moments of relaxa- tion, have become crystallized and set with the classical gems of the recognized pocts of the country.

Other gentlemen who have at various periods held more or less distinguished relation to the profession iu Tompkins County, had we the space, are deserving of mention.

LEVI HUBBELL, long a resident practitioner at the bar, held a commanding place in professional favor. Removing West, he readily took a prominent position, and held im- portant office as one of the Supreme Court judges of his adopted State, Wisconsin, at the time of his death.

WILLIAM H. L. BOGART resided many years in Ithaca. He represented the county in the Legislature at Albany, taking an influential position, and as a versatile and grace- ful orator ; served as clerk of the Senate and House, and held several offices of honor and trust under State appoint- ments. Always a graceful writer, as Albany correspondent for several of the leading New York daily journals, his facile pen furnishes most racy and readable articles on public questions during the sessions of the Legislature. He some years since removed from Ithaca to that crystal- lized gem of Cayuga Lake, Aurora, where he enjoys the delights of an Eden home, and dispenses a genial and ele- gant hospitality.

Other members of the bar who are still doing the labors of an exacting profession might each be named.

HENRY D. BARTO served many years as county judge, resided at Trumansburg, and was for many years one of the most honored citizens of that thriving village.

WILLIAM R. HUMPHREY, son of Charles Humphrey, retired from practice many years ago to assume the super- intendency of the Ithaca branch of the Delaware, Lacka- wanna and Western Railroad Company.

O. G. HOWARD, a prominent practitioner at the bar for many years, a most genial and publie-spirited gentleman, died in the midst of his usefulness, with brilliant prospects for professional distinction opening before him.

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History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 105

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 1112

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 1112