USA > New York > Ulster County > History of Ulster County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers. Vol. I > Part 28
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Photo. by Lewis, Kingston.
Machammalia
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THE BENCH AND BAR.
terpreting and applying the law. The case of Charles H. Phelps is one. This man having abstracted some three hun- dred thousand dollars from the State Treasury by fraudulent practices, hoped to shield himself from punishment, if de- treted, by the plea that his act was simply " a breach of trust," and that this was the limit of his accountability. But Judge Westbrook tore away this flimsy screen by pre- senting the offense as a larceny, and as such punishable, in kind and degree, as such crime deserves. The criminal got fifteen years in the penitentiary, the honest public ap- plauding the award, and the courts approving the decision. lu the suit of W. M. Tweed, involving millions, tried in New York in 1876, before Judge Westbrook, the same im- partial justice in the rulings of the court and in the charge to the jury, was dealt out to the offender and his accomplices, and a verdict rendered in accordance with both of over six millions and a half. Immediately upon the close of the Tweed trial in the city of New York, Judge West- brook, at the Albany Circuit, heard the first of the famous canal suits brought by the State against canal contractors. This cause consumed several weeks, and at its close he dis- missed the case, sustaining such dismissal by a long and ex- haustive opinion, which has since been fully confirmed by the Court of Appeals. This decision was rendered in the face of a strong public feeling created by the friends of Governor Tilden, but was fully justified by the press after reading the opinion which accompanied it. Another is the recent and famous ease growing out of the granting of a writ of certiorari ou the application of Sidney P. Nichols to review Mayor Cooper's proceedings in removing Nichols from the office of police commissioner of the city of New York. The writ was granted by Judge Westlrook after a full hearing of the parties, and to it a return was made by the mayor. Judge Westbrook was then holling a special term of the Supreme Court at chambers in the city of New York, and was proceeding, as the Court of Appeals has since unanimously decided, in the regular and usual way to dispose of the case. when an extraordinary gen- cral term of the Supreme Court was convened by Lacius Robinson, Governor, on Mayor Couper's appeal to him, the purpose being to protect the mayor from the effect of Judge Westbrook's supposed decision which had been foreshadowed by his opinion written on granting Nichols' application for the writ. This court thus convened granted an order pro- hibiting Judge Westbrook from deciding the matter, hold- ing that the special term at chambers had no jurisdiction in the pretuises. From such order of prohibition an appeal was taken to the Court of Appeals by Mr. Nichols' counsel, and that high court rendered an unanimous decision re- versing the order of prohibition, and fully sustaining the law contained in Judge Westbrook's opinion on issuing the writ, and the entire proceeding had by and before him, thus vindicating fully the correctness of his decision, and re- baking those whose clamors and censures had sought to disparage both.
During Judge Westbrook's service on the bench, several important murder trials have been heard before him, that of Hilaire Latrimouille, at the Albany Oyer and Terminer, June 3, 1879, being especially notable. This trial lasted ticarly a month, and called into requisition all the knowledge,
theoretical and practical, adapted to this class of trials for which Judge Westbrook had been distinguished as a erim- inal lawyer before being raised to the bench. His conduct of this trial gained him wide approval. At the close of it he received a rare and gratifying tribute to the "able, im- partial, patient, and courteous manner in which the business of these courts has been transacted," in a paper presented to him by Mr. Andrew J. Colvin, and signed by more than a hundred members of the Albany bar, who thus united iu conveying their high estimate of his character and services.
This sketch would fall far short of doing justice if it failed to mention that Judge Westbrook has constantly won the hearty respeet and approbation of all order-loving and Christian citizens by his carnest efforts to check and sup- press such disorganizing practices as gambling, illegal liquor- selling, election frauds, corruptions, and the like. His rulings and decisions, his charges to grand juries attest the determined stand he has taken in regard to exposing and punishing those violations of law, which, because of their insidious character, hope and seek to evade the arm of justice, and which wound society deeper on that account. All up- right citizens will bid Judge Westbrook "Godspeed" in applying the judicial axe to the root of such evils.
Judge Westbrook married, in 1846, Julia Augusta Vail, danghter of Hon. David W. Vail, of New Bruns- wick, N. J., a lady of high intelligence and of unassuming excellence and worth. Her many virtues endear her to a wide circle of kindred and friends, and for all the qualities that serve to make a home bright and cheerful, that repay confidence by assiduity and make a husband's burdens sit more lightly by helpfully sharing them, she is held in hovor none the less for not being conscious of possessing them.
Judge Westbrook is still in the full maturity of his powers, in robust health, which his temperate aud regular habits serve to confirm, spite of the labors, often exhausting, which the pressure of business imposes. But for the ten - deney to overwork and cachew needed relaxation, which the remonstrances of his friends have hardly succeeded in abating, there is no reason why there may not be before him many honored and useful years of service to the miblic.
MARIE'S SCHOONMAKER
is fifth in descent, from Jochem Hendrick Schoonmaker, who was of German birth and died in Kingston in 1681.
His grandfather, Cornelius C. Schoonmaker, a native of Shawangunk, Ulster Co., married Sarah Hoffman, of the same town. He was a representative man in local and na- tional legislation, and was an intelligent farmer and sur- veyor. He was a member of the first Assembly of the State under the constitution, in 1777, at Kingston, and continued eleven sessions, including 1790, when he was elected to the Second Congress of the United States, and was again a member of the State Legislature in 1795. He was also a member of the convention of 1788 to deliberate upon the Federal Constitution.
Of his three sons and three daughters, Zachariah, father of the subject of this notice, was youngest ; born in 1754, was graduated at Union College, read law, and practiced his profession in Kingston, N. Y., until his death, in 1815. His wife was Cornelia Marins, daughter of Peter Marius
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IHISTORY OF ULSTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Groen, who was third in descent from Jacob Marius Groen, who came from Holland in 1670 with his uncle, married Letitia, a daughter of Admiral, the Earl of Salisbury, and soon after returned to his native country; he embraced the Protestant faith, and between 1725 and 1735 returned to this country with the Huguenots, on account of religious persecution.
Mr. Marius Schoomnaker, son of Zachariah and Cornelia Marius (Groen ) Schoonmaker, was born in Kingston, April 24, 1811. He received his preparatory education at Kings- tou Academy, was graduated at Yale College, in the class of '30, read law with the well-known law firm of Ruggles & Hasbrouck, at Kingston, and was adinitted to the bar in 1833. The same year, Mr. Ruggles having been appointed to a judgeship, he entered into partnership with Mr. Has- brouck, and continued with him until the election of that gentleman, in 1840, to the presidency of Rutgers College, New Jersey, from which time he has continued the practice of the law.
Mr. Schoonmaker was elected to the State Senate in the fall of 1849. In the fall of 1850 he was elected to Con- gress from the Tenth Congressional District of the State. At that time there were only seventeen Whig senators in the State Senate, which was the least number that could pass any bill. The loss of a single vote from the Whig ranks would have deprived that party of their control in the Senate, which was particularly important at the time, because of the pendency of an important canal bill and the election of a United States senator. Consequently, after the 4th of March, 1851, the trust strenuous efforts were quade by the Democrats to deprive him of his seat in the State Senate; but, as he had carefully avoided any signifi- cation of his acceptance of his election to Congress, he re- tained his seat till the close of the legislative session of 1551. He then served as a representative during the Thirty-second Congress, having been nominated and elected by the Whigs in a district largely Democratic. He de- clined a re-election and returned to his practice.
In January, 1854, he received the appointment of Aud- itor of the Canal Department of the State of New York, and after about one year he was, by the appointment of the Governor and approval of the Senate, transferred to the office of Superintendent of the Bank Department, which office he held for nearly a year, resigned, and resumed the practice of the law. In 1967 he was a member of the convention for the revision of the constitution of New York, and in that convention he was on the committee on canals.
Mr. Schoomnaker has had much to do in organizing and putting into practice the system of free and graded schools in this portion of the State, under an act of the Legisla- ture passed in 1863. Upon the organization of the Kings- ton Board of Education he was elected its president, which place he fiile-) for nine years; and through his efforts the new system was largely brought into practical and success- ful operation. He was president of the village of Kingston in 1866, '69, all '70.
Mr. Schoonmaker has been successful in his profession, is known as a judicions and safe counselor in all matters of law, and is a man of integrity in all his business relatious.
He married, Dec. 13, 1837, Elizabeth Van Wyck, daughter of Cornelius D. Westbrook, D.D., of Kingston. Of this union were born four children, -- Cornelius Marius. a commander in the United States navy, served during the late Rebellion, and in January, 1880, was sent by the gov- . ernment, in command of the ship " Nipsie," to Venezuela. Henry Barnard studied law with his father, practiced for a short time in Kingston, and died, at the age of twenty-three, in 1867; he was a talented, industrious, and Christian young man of great promise. Julius, and Ella, the wife of Henry D. Darrow, of Kingston, N. Y.
WILLIAM SCHUNEMAN KENYON
is a native of Greene Co., N. Y. He was born at Catskill, in that county, on the 13th day of December, 1820, and is descended from a venerable and patriotic ancestry. He pur- sued his earlier studies at a private academy in the village of Catskill, but his course preparatory to entering college he completed at the far-famed Kinderhook Academy. At the latter academy he was a classmate of the late Judge John II. Reynolds. He graduated from Rutgers Col- lege in 1842. Having studied law at Kingston, Ulster Co., N. Y., in the office of Marius Schoonmaker, Esq., the required time, he was admitted to the bar at the general term of the Supreme Court, held in the city of Albany, N. Y., iu January, ISIG, and at once formed a copartucrship with Mr. Schoonmaker, which lasted until January, 1S54. He married, at Kingston, in 1819, a daughter of the late Heury Tappen, well known as a gentleman of superior cul- ture and a lawyer of varied and extensive attainments. Mr. Tappen was a grandson of Christopher Tappen, a very prominent and representative man of his day, whose sister became the wife of George Clinton.
In 1858, Mr. Kenyon was elected to the Thirty-sixth: Congress from the congressional district composed of the counties of Ulster and Greene, and took part in many of the occurrences which have made that Congress especially Inemorable in the annals of the nation.
In 1873 he was nominated and ran as the Republican candidate for justice of the Supreme Court in the third judicial district, but failed to be elected. His party through- out the district that year proved to be largely in a minority. In his own county, however, his canvass resulted in a flat- tering majority in his favor.
He was a delegate to the Republican national convention which met iu the city of Philadelphia in the year 1872, and also to the one which met in 1876 in the city of Ci- cinnati.
From the first organization of the Republican party he has been prominently connected with it, and for years has served as chairman of the Republican central committee of Ulster County.
Mr. Kenyon is still engaged in the active practice of his profession at Kingston, Ulster Co .. N. Y., where he has resided since his admission to the bar.
JUDGE WILLIAM B. WRIGHT,
son of Samuel Wright, was born at Newburgh, April 16, 1806. . At the age of fourteen he began learning the printer's trade with one Gazley, with whom he remained
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Photo. by Lewis, Kingston.
HON. HENRY BRODHEAD, JR.
Judge Brodhead died in the village of Kingston, N. Y., Oct. 18, 1868.
He was born in the year 1817, near Ellenville, iu UIster Co., N. Y., and was, therefore, at the time of his death fifty-one years of age. He graduated in the year 1810 at Rutgers College.
Mr. Brodhead commeneed the practice of the law in 1844, in Ellenville, but on being elected surro- gate of Ulster County he removed to Kingston in 1851, where he continued afterwards to reside.
In 1859 he was elected county judge, in which
office he served four years. Ilo also became presi- dent of the State of New York Bank in 1862, and held this position at the time of his death.
He had an extensive practice in liis profession, especially in will cases and the settlement of estates. He was unmarried.
His professional industry and his excellent finan- cial judgment had served him in accumulating a considerable property. His professional skill and his sterling integrity made him universally esteemed and universally regretted.
I.S. Westbrook
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THE BENCH AND BAR.
until he reached his majority ; during which time he nvailed himself of the use of the law library of that gen- tleman, and became somewhat proficient in that study while a printer. He read law with Mr. Ross, of Newburgh, was admitted to the bar, and after editing a newspaper for one year in Goshen, N. Y., he settled in Monticello, in the practice of his profession, where he remained until his re- moval to Kingston in 1852.
Ile married in December, 1846, Martha, daughter of Jesse Crissey, of Monticello ; and at the time of his death left one surviving daughter, Kate, whose husband, La Rue P. Adams, lieutenant-commander United States navy during the late Rebellion, died Jan. 11, 1868; her present husband being F. J. R. Clark, a druggist in Kingston.
Judge Wright first came prominently before the public in 1846, having been elected to the Constitutional Conven- tion from Sullivan County, where he then resided. During the deliberations of that body he attracted attention to himself by the wisdom of his suggestions and by the great ability with which they were presented. Without seeking notoriety he acquired a solid reputation, and on the ad- journment of the convention his friends predicted for him a distinguished future. In the autumn of 1846 he was elected to the Assembly from Sullivan County, and his name was presented for Speaker. He possessed in an emi- veut degree all the requirements for that position, but he was not successful. The prevailing sentiment of the hour in the Whig party was against the advanced views enter- tained by the judge, and a "Silver Gray" was elected. Hlad he been successful it is probable that he would have been called to other public positions than those which he has filled so honorably to himself and so satisfactorily to the people. His failure to secure the Speakership was for- tunate, for he would not have been happy in the mere po- litical life to which success upon that occasion would have initiated him. With ability for the highest office, his tastes and temperament led him to study and retirement.
In June, 1847,-the first election for judges under the new constitution,-Judge Wright was elected to the Su- preme Court bench from the third district, and was twice re-elected to the same position. His associates, elected in 1847, were Ira Harris, Ausa ). Parker, aud Malborn Watson. Tu 1861 he was elected one of the judges of the Court of Appeals, and was chief judge of that court at the time of his death, Jan. 12, 1865, which occurred at " Con- gress Hall," in Albany, having thus been on the beuch of our highest courts for more than twenty years, and enjoy- ing through the entire period the respect and esteem of the profession and the affection and confidence of the people.
Judge Wright was uot popularly attractive in his man- ner. It required more than a casual acquaintanceship to fully appreciate all the amiable phases of his private char- acter. It was only his more intimate friends who knew how genial he was, and how fully he enjoyed the relaxations of social life.
He was decided in his political views, intense in his patriotismin, unwavering in his friendship, of unerring com- mon sense, souil judgment, and profound learning. He adorned the high position which he so long occupied, and in his death the profession lost oue of its brightest orna-
ments and the State one of her purest and most patriotic citizens.
FREDERICK L. WESTBROOK.
Both his grandfather, Jonathan, and his father, Jona- than, were by occupation farmers, and resided in the towns of Rochester and Marbletown, Ulster Co., N. Y. His mother was Maria, daughter of Joseph Hasbrouck, a lineal descendant from Abraham Hasbrouck, who settled in Eso- pus in 1675. Frederick L. Westbrook was born in the town of Marbletown, Oct. 17, 1828. He received his early education in the common schools and academies of his na- tive county, and prior to reaching his majority was a teacher in Ulster County and at Stamford, Conn , for three years. In the spring of 1850 he commenced reading law in the office of Hon. Theodoric R. Westbrook, Kingston, and in December, 1851, was admitted at Albany to prac- tice in the courts of this State. Subsequently he formed a law partnership with Hon. T. R. Westbrook (T. R. & F. J. Westbrook), which continued until the election of that gentleman to the judgeship of the Supreme Court beuch in 1863, since which time he has had associated with him in practice T. B. Westbrook, a son of his former part- ner, under the firm-name of F. L. & T. B. Westbrook. Mr. Westbrook has been in practice, with his office iu Kings- ton, for nearly thirty years, giving his attention largely to causes in the Supreme Court and in the Court of Appeals.
For many years he has been retained in nearly all of the important cases upon the Ulster County calendars, has been notably engaged in the practice of criminal law, and is acting counsel for many of the large corporations in the county.
In 1851 he was elected special county judge of Ulster County, serving four years, and in 186S he was elected district attorney, and served three years. In 1877 he was the Democratic candidate for judge of the county, but was defeated through complications arising out of an important murder ease theu pending, in which he took an active part as counsel.
Aside from his professional duties, Mr. Westbrook has been closely identified with the school interests of Kings- ton for many years, took an active and influential part in obtaining from the State Legislature a special law for the Kingston schools, thereby incorporating the academy as a part of the common-school system, and he has been a memr- ber of the Kingston Board of Education most of the time since 185S.
Upon the formation of the city government, in 1872, he was elected alderman from the First Ward, and in 1873 he was re-elected withont oppositiou, and held the office for three years.
He married, Feb. 3, 1857, Miss Elsie Anna, daughter of Jacob Burhans, of Kingston. She died June 16, 1874.
Ilis surviving children are Frederick Arthur, J. Amelia, John S., Anna MI., and Alfred B.
REUBEN BERNARD,
second child and youngest son of David L. Bernard, born in the town of Plattekill, Feb. 24, 1830, was educated in the common school, and in the New Paltz Academy and Amenia Seminary. In the fall of 1849 he began reading
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HISTORY OF ULSTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.
law with the well-known firm of Forsyth & Hasbrouck, in Kingston. In 1851 he attended the law school at Ballston Spa,and was admitted to the bar upon examination in Albany, in 1852.
The same year he opened an office in the same roots "occupied by Mr. Hasbrouck, one of his former tutors, which rooms he continues to occupy in 1880.
Upon the organization of the Huguenot Bank, at New Paltz, in 1852, he was chosen its attorney, which position he retains. Mr. Bernard was appointed attorney of the Kingston Bank (now Kingston National Bank) in 1858, became a director in 1SC8, and was elected president in 1877. He was also attorney of the Ulster County Savings- Institution from 1855 to 1970, and has been attorney for the New Paltz Savings-Bank since 1877.
Ile was a director of the Wallkill Valley Railroad for several years, and president of the Kingston and Rondout Railroad for some four years. Hle has also acted as the attorney for both of these corporations.
Since his residence in Kingston he has been active in educational and church interests, a promoter of the work of the Sunday-school connected with the Second Reformed Church at home, and was for several years superintendent.
He has been and is a member, and for several years was . president, of the U'lster County Sunday-school Association. Since 1861 he has been a member and much of the time officially identified with the Second Reformed Church in Kingston.
As a member of the Republican party he was a candi- date for county julge in 1834, but failed of clection, although polling more than his party vote.
Mr. Bernard married, June 3, 1856, Jane C., only child of Dr. Garret D. Crispell, of Kingston. They have three children, -Mary L., Amelia, and Sarah C.
SEYMOUR LEWIS STEBBINS
was born Sept. 26, 1825, at Fishkill, Dutchess Co., N. Y. His father, Gaius Seymour Stebbins, was a merchant, mar- ried Anna Williams in 1822, and died in 1826. His mother was a descendant of the Williams family, of Berk- shire, Mass., which, through some generations of dwellers in Massachusetts, trace their ancestry back to Wake. His Maternal grandfather, Gaius Stebbins, represented Columbia County in the Assembly in 1807, and in 1808-9. Ilis inother remarried in 1828, and, after residing a few years in the city of New York, removed with her husband, John Westfield, to Hudson, N. Y., where they remained for the rest of their lives.
The subject of our sketch was educated at the Hudson Academy, at the Wilbraham Academy, Massachusetts, and at the Grand River Institute, Ohio. On three occasions in successive years he prepared to enter the university at Middletown, Conn, but illness prevented, and he was obliged to pursue his further studies in the languages under a private teacher from time to time, as his poor health would permit.
He married Elizabeth A. MeGalpin, Nov. 21, 1846. Ilis children are Mary F., wife of John C. Romeyn, of Kings- ton, Lucy A., and Grace Elinor.
During the year 1845 and a part of 1846 he studied law
at Jefferson, Ohio, in the office of Wade & Ranney, a lead. ing law-firm of Northern Ohio, composed of Benjamin F. Wade, afterwards United States senator, and Rufus P. Rauney, afterwards one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio. Ilis legal studies were afterwards pursued at Iludson, N. Y., in the office of Joseph D. & Claudius L. Monell, the latter of whem was subsequently one of the judges of the Superior Court of the city of New York. Ile was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1848, shortly after the code of procedure took effect.
For the first few years after his admission to practice he held in part simultaneously and in part successively the positions of clerk in the offices of Josiah W. Fairfield and of John Gaul, Jr., attorneys, at Hodson, N. Y .; elerk and afterwards justice of the Justices' Court of the city of Ind- son (at that time a court of record, composed of three ju -- tices, with a elerk and seal) ; and deputy clerk of Columbia County ; and for a large portion of that period furnished a daily column of editorial for the Hudson Star.
With Mitehell Sanford he practiced law at Hudson during 1852 and the early part of 1853, when, the latter removing to Kingston, Mr. Stebbins entered the law-office of Benedict & Boardman, New York City, and for a few months acted as their head elerk and examiner of real-estate titles, sue- ceeding Jolin E. Parsons in that position.
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