History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 138

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 138

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Judge Jay, and was one of his ablest efforts. When the Legislature seemed about to pass laws intended to erush the efforts of the Abolitionists, by prohibit- ing the publication and circulation of Anti-Slavery documents, he charged the grand jury of the county that any laws tending to prevent freedom of speech or of the press were null and void. The official mani- festo of the American Anti-Slavery Society was also written by him, and was signed by men whose nanies are now famous in history.

After being relieved from the office of judge he went to Europe, extended his travels to Egypt, and made a careful examination of the institution of slavery as it existed there. A firm believer that the time would come when men should " beat their swords into plow- shares," and "learn war no more," he became presi- dent of the American Peace Society, and published a work, " War and Peace -- the evils of the first, with plans of preserving the last." This book led to the famous protocol adopted by the Congress of Paris after the Crimean War, the first united international effort to have arbitration take the place of war. In 1833 he published the life and writings of his father, the chief justice.

Judge Jay was an able writer and possessed reason- ing powers of the highest order. The works which he published were forty-three in number, and to analyze them would require a volume. It is sufficient to say that all, without exception, were devoted to the ele- vation of society, by the removal of the evils which retard its progress. His useful and eventful life ended October 14, 1858. This event caused heartfelt grief among all who realized the value of the friend of humanity. The various societies of which he was a member paid tributes of respect to his memory, and Frederick Douglas, as the fit representative of the race for whose freedom he had labored so long and so well, delivered an eloquent and fitting eulogy. It was his fortune, like that of many others who have labored in a noble eause, not to be permitted to see the result of his labors. The end of slavery, for which he toiled so long, came not till years after he had passed away, and was accomplished by means of which he never dreamed. But of all the names that grace the list of the friends of humanity and freedom, none deserves a higher place than that of William Jay.

His portrait is placed over the bench in the county court-house at White Plains, in grateful and appro- priate recognition of the illustrious position which the name of Jay holds in the annals of Westchester jurisprudence. After Judge William Jay left the bench, in 1823, Judge Caleb Tompkins was re-ap- pointed to the position of first judge, which he held up to 1846, when he died.

George Case, of New Rochelle, a side-judge of the Common Pleas and General Sessions of the county, during the last two years of Judge Tompkins' life, often presided as first judge in his absence. It is said that

1 This sketch was prepared and inserted by the editor.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

Mr. Case came from New York City and began to practice in Westchester County in 1834. He resided at New Rochelle and died there in 1863. He had the reputation of being somewhat arbitrary in his actions while judge, and was not regarded as an eminently learned jurist, but was respected by all as a man of ontire integrity. He was a widower when he came to New Rochelle, and had a daughter, who died before him. He had a considerable fortune.

Robert S. Hart, now living (1886) at Bedford, was, in 1846, appointed to succeed Judge Tompkins. He was nominated by Governor Silas Wright and unani- mously confirmed by the Senate. Judge Hart is still in vigorous health and active practice, and in years of practice is the senior member of the Westchester bar. He was the last of the judges appointed. His successor, Albert Lockwood, of Sing Sing, was elected under the Constitution of 1846 as county judge, and those who have occupied the position since have beeu elected. Mr. Lockwood proved to be a very success- ful judge, and gained a most enviable reputation, especially for judicial fairness.

John W. Mills, of White Plains, succeeded Mr. Lockwood on the benchi in 1851. He had studied law under J. Warren Tompkins, and before being ad- mitted to the bar became deputy county clerk, De- cember 30, 1836. He was admitted to practice in 1837, was appointed master in Chancery in 1844, and an examiner in Chancery in 1846. He was county judge from 1851 to 1855, surrogate from 1862 to 1870, and was supervisor of White Plains several times. He was at one time associated in the practice of his profession with J. Warren Tompkins, subsequently with John J. Clapp, and afterwards with Robert Cochran. Later still he was the senior member of the law-firm of Mills, Cochran & Verplanck. After the dissolution of the firm he attended to private business only. Mr. Mills died suddenly, September 25, 1882, of apoplexy, in the seventy-third ycar of his age. At one time he had a very large and lucrative practice, perhaps the largest, of the members of the Westchester bar at that time.

Judge William H. Robertson1 who succceded Judge Mills in 1855, is a son of Henry Robertson, of whom a brief sketch appears in another part of this work. He was born at the family homestead in Bedford, October 10, 1823. His boyhood was spent on his father's farm, and his early education was obtained at the district schools and at Union Academy, in Bed- ford, of which Alexander G. Reynolds was principal. He taught school for a considerable time in Bedford and Lewisboro. He read law in the office of Judge Robert S. Hart, in Bedford village, was admitted to the bar in 1847, and in 1854 formed a partnership with Odle Close for the practice of law in White Plains, under the firm-name of Close & Robertson, which has continued till the present time. Before

attaining his majority his taste for politics developed itself and he took a warm interest in the Harrison campaign of 1840. His first vote was cast for Henry Clay in the fall of 1844. The next spring he was elected town superintendent of schools, and continued in that position for several years. He has been four times supervisor of Bedford and twice chairman of the Board of Supervisors. His legislative career be- gan in 1848, when he was elected to the Assembly, and he was re-elected the following year. In 1853 he was chosen to the State Senate, where he at once took a prominent position. Among other public acts, he introduced the bill for establishing the Depart- ment of Public Instruction, which may justly be con- sidered one of the most important events in the edu- cational history of the State. In the Assembly of 1849, and also in the Senate of 1855, he supported Hon. W. H. Seward for United States Senator. Only one other person, Reuben Wells, of Warren, voted twice for Mr. Seward for that office. In 1855 Mr. Robertson was elected county judge of Westchester County, and was twice re-elected to that responsible position, thus holding it for twelve years, and dis- charged the duties of the office with such ability and fairness as to win the commendation of the members of the bar, and merit the respect of all classes of citizens.

He served six years as inspector of the Seventh Brigade New York State Militia, was chairman of the military committee appointed by Governor Morgan in 1862 to raise and organize State troops in the Eighth Scnate District, and was commissioned to superintend tlic draft in Westchester County.

In 1860 he was a member of the Electoral College, and voted for Abraham Lincoln. He supported hin again in the National Convention of 1864, and during his whole administration was one of his most loyal and faithful adherents. In 1866 he was elected a representative in 'the Fortieth Congress by a majority of two thousand two hundred over William Radford, who had represented the district for the two terms immediately preceding. While member of Congress he voted for the impeachment of President Johnson, took an active part in the legislation which led to the restoration of the Southern States to the Union, and throughout his term devoted himself to the in- terests of his district and his constituents.

Judge Robertson's second term of service in the State Senate began in 1872 and continued without interruption for ten years, during the last eight of which he was president pro tem. of that body. He served as chairman of the Committees on Commerce and Navigation, Rules, Literature and Judiciary. As the head of the Judiciary Committee for eight years, lie occupied a position of great responsibility and useful- ness, and it is freely conceded by all who are capable of judging, that it is due to his ability and watchful- ness that many unwise and improper bills were pre- vented from becoming laws. As a Senator he par-

1 This sketch was prepared and inserted by the editor of this work.

Melian I Robertson

531

THE BENCH AND BAR.

ticipated in six State trials-those of Judges Barnard, McCann, Curtis and Prindle, Superintendent De Witt C. Ellis, of the Bank Department, and Superin- tendent John F. Smythe, of the Insurance Depart- ment.

Iu 1876 Mr. Robertson was one of thirec gentlemen of this State who, at the request of the President, visited Florida to supervise the counting of the votes for the office of President.

In 1872 the personal and political friends of Mr. Robertson throughout the State made a vigorous effort to place him in nomination for the Governor- ship, and with excellent prospects of success, until the assembling of the convention, when the name of the honored soldier and statesman, General John A. Dix, was presented, and he was chosen to head the ticket. Again, in 1879, Judge Robertson had a strong support for the nomination, but owing to the opposi- tion of what was known as the " machine" influence in the party, he was defeated.

In February, 1880, Mr. Robertson was appointed a delegate to represent the State in the National Con- vention to be held in Chicago in June. A vote was passed at the State Convention, instructing its delc- gates to vote as a unit, the purpose being to enable the majority of the delegates to carry it en masse for General Grant. Mr. Robertson had been in Congress with Mr. Blaine, was his warm admirer and personal frieud, and believed him to be the favorite of the Republicans of Westchester for the Presidential nou- ination. Soon after the State Convention he pub- lished a letter in the Albany Journal, in which he repudiated the principle of the unit rule, and declared for Mr. Blaine. The letter attracted attention throughout the country and gave its author great prominence in the opposition to the "third term movement." It is generally conceded that it was his leadership and organizing ability, more than that of any other man, that broke the power of the "unit rule " in Republican conventions, and defeated the " third term " candidate.

Iu March, 1881, Mr. Robertson was nominated by President Garfield for collector of the port of New York. His political acts having been distasteful to the Senators from this State, they demanded the withdrawal of his nomination by the President. This being refuscd, a bitter contest followed, which was ended by the resignation of the Senators in May, and the confirmation of Mr. Robertson soon afterward. He did not, however, assume the collectorship until the 1st of August, as the Legislature (he being in the Senate) did not adjourn till late in July. His judicial and legislative experience had prepared him for the most difficult duty of the position, the consid- eration and decision of intricate points of revenue law, aud he discharged its obligations to the satisfac- tion of the importers, and with the almost universal commendation of the public press.

Mr. Robertson has been conspicuous and influ-

ential in local and State Conventions for many years, took an active part iu the National Couventions of 1864, 1876, 1880 and 1884, and was for fifteen years a member of the Republican State Committee. In his political life he has been remarkably successful, hav- ing never been defcated when a candidate before the people, although his principal canvasses have been inade in a district of which the party majority was against him. He has achieved this result by the strength of his personal character, his fidelity to friends, his uniform and sincere courtesy, his unques- tioned integrity and his legal and business ability. He possesses in an unusual degrce "the genius of common sense," an acute knowledge of human nature and thorough self-control. He is of literary tastes and studious habits, and values no less than his political honors the degree of LL.D., which was conferred on him by Williams College in 1876.

Iu 1865 Mr. Robertson married Miss Mary E. Ballard, daughter of Hon. Horatio Ballard, who was a prominent lawyer of Cortland Couuty, and well known throughout the State. In 1869 he built the house at Katonah, where he has resided since that time. In the community where he lives, he is a judicious and williug counselor of all who seek his advice, a liberal contributor to religious and chari- table objects, a public-spirited citizen and a valued friend.

Robert Cochran, who succeeded Judge Robertson in 1867, was born in New York City in 1824, aud after being graduated from Columbia College, became associated in the practice of the law with George T. Strong, with whom he remained for several years. Subsequently he went into partnership with General Muuson I. Lockwood at Sing Sing, and afterwards (in 1857) with Samuel E. Lyons, at White Plains. Still later he became a law partner of Judge John W. Mills, formerly county judge.

In 1854 he was elected supervisor of White Plains, and at the annual session of the board took a promi- nent and influential part in procuring the passage of the resolutious to change the location of the court- house from the old site on Broadway and to erect the new buildings where they now stand. He was elected on the Democratic ticket as a delegate to the Con- stitutional Convention in 1867, and at the annual election in that ycar was elected county judge of Westchester County for the term of four years. In 1874 he was elected to the office of district attorney, and in 1875 was elected supervisor of White Plains, over Elisha Horton, Jr., the then Republican incum- bent. In all these positions Judge Cochran dis- charged the duties confided to him with marked ability, and no one ever questioned his integrity. In the practice of his profession he was remarkably suc- cessful, and was regarded by his associates at the bar as a learned and brilliaut lawyer. He is reputed to have been one of the ablest judges who ever sat npon the county bench. He was learned in the law, con-

532

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

scientious and painstaking in his opinions and emi- nently courteous and dignified.

About 1877 Judge Cochran was compelled by fail- ing health to retire from the active practice of his profession. He died December 14, 1880, in Brooklyn, whither he had removed. The cause of his death was consumption, brought on by malaria. He left a widow and several children by a former wife.

Silas D. Gifford,'then of Morrisania, was chosen in 1871 to succeed Judge Cochran. He was born at Canaan, Columbia County, New York, January 31, 1826. His grandfather, Amaziah Gifford, was a soldier in the Revolution, and was said to have run away from home at the early age of fourteen, joined the army and served four years. He then went to Columbia County, where he lived for some years, when he was accidentally recognized by an ac- quaintance, which led to his restoration to his friends and relatives in Dutchess County. He married Sarah Whitman, and they were the parents of four children, -David, who died in Rensselaer County ; Samuel, who moved to the West ; Mary, wife of Silas Devol ; and Isaac S. The latter was a Baptist clergyman, and was settled in Caanan, Columbia County, at the time when his son, the present judge, was born. He mar- ried Annis, daughter of Jonathau Ford, and they were the parents of five children,-Amanda M ; Horace C., of Berlin, Rensselaer County; Silas D., Edwin S., of Stamford, Conn. ; and Sarah J., wife of John M. Lyons.

Judge Gifford resided with his parents at Caanan till he reached the age of twelve, and then removed with them to Berlin, Rensselacr County. He after- wards became a student in the well-known collegiate institution at Williamstown, Mass. His father sub- sequently removed to Bedford, in this county, and upon leaving college, his son made his home at the same place. The first episode of his life was a ser- vice of one year as school-teacher at Sleepy Hollow, near Tarrytown, where he was a successor of the im- mortal " Ichabod Crane," though his career as an in- structor of youth did not terminate as disastrously as did that of his "illustrious predecessor." He then entered the law-office of Hon. Robert S. Hart, at Bedford, and upon being admitted to the bar in 1852, established an office of his own in Morrisania, and has kept his law-office there until the present. Be- coming prominent in politics and in his profession, he was appointed to the office of town superintend- ent of common schools, elected justice of the peace in 1856, and re-elected at the close of his term. In 1862 he was appointed by Governor Morgau surrogate of Westchester County, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Hon. Robert H. Coles. He was elected supervisor of Morrisania in 1870. His elec- tion to the office of county judge of Westchester County occurred in 1871, and he held the office con-

tinuously till the close of 1883. Upon the occasion of his retirement from a position he had so long and worthily filled, he was presented by the officers of the court with a beautiful gavel, as a token of their high appreciation of the dignity and impartiality which had ever characterized his discharge of official duties, and of their esteem of his many excelleucics as a citizen.

He was appointed a member of the Recruiting Committee during the late war, was instrumental in organizing several companies of volunteers, and by his active energy the quota of troops required from his town at that time was supplied without the ueces- sity of a draft. During long years of prominence in political affairs he has always been recognized as among the leaders of his party, and his official career has been an honor to himself and to the community whose suffrages placed him in a well-deserved posi- tion. He married Miss Elizabeth, daughter of John Rae. They have two children, Jessie and Stanley, both uow living with their parents at Marble Hall.

Judge Gifford lives in the village of Tuckahoe, in the town of East Chester, in a mansion known far and wide as "Marble Hall." It stands upon the site of the home of Stephen Ward, a prominent Revolu- tionary hero, who was surrogate of the county and a citizen of character and influence. This locality was the scene of a sanguinary conflict between the contending forces iu the Revolution, when Ward's house was burned.

The present incumbent, Isaac N. Mills, of East Chester, was chosen at the election of 1883 to succeed Judge Gifford, and is the present county judge. The following sketch of Judge Mills is taken from the Mount Veruon Chronicle of October 19, 1883, and is inserted in this chapter upon the sole responsibility of the editor :

"It is unnecessary for us to tell the people of the town of East Chester who the Republican nominee for county judge is ; but in order that those outside of our town who do not know him may be able to fully realize his fitness for the office he seeks, the following sketch of his life may prove useful :

" He is a descendant, on his father's side, front a family of farmers, of moderate means, who have re- sided and tilled farms in the town of Thompson, Windham Co., Connecticut, prior to the Revolution- ary War. On his mother's side, he is descended from a family of Rhode Island Quakers, residents of that State for inany generations, to a branch of which fam- ily General Greene, of Revolutionary fame, belongs. Mr. Mills was born in the town of Thompson, Conn., September 10, 1851, and is, therefore, thirty-two years of age. At the age of seventeen he decided to become a lawyer and entered the Providence Confer- ence Seminary, at Greenwich, R. I., to prepare for college. In the winter of 1869 and 1870 he taught a a district school for a term, near Newport, at the same

1 This sketch was prepared and inserted by the editor.

Silas Clifford

533

THE BENCH AND BAR.

time working evenings, in order to keep up his studies in his class at the seminary. In the summer of 1870 Mr. Mills graduated from the seminary with the highest rank in his class. That same fall he en - tered Amherst College, where, during the four years' course, several prizes for excellence in Latin, Greck, philosophy, physiology, debate and extemporaneous speaking were awarded to him. In 1874 he graduated as the valedictorian of his class-a class numbering in all ninety-five members, out of which seventy-five graduated. Of that class, two of the graduates are now professors in Columbia College, one is a professor at Williams College and several others are prominent in other professions. Mr. Mills then entered Column- bia Law College, of New York City, from which he graduated in 1876. In October, 1876, he came to Mount Vernon and became a member of the law-firm of Mills & Wood. He continued as such, in the active practice of law, until May, 1882, when that firm was dissolved by mutual consent. Since then he has been actively engaged in legal practice in this county and in New York City. While a resident here he has been a close student of the law, and has devoted him- self exclusively to its practice. It is conceded by all who know him that he is honest, upright and able. He has been engaged in many important litigations and has been largely successful in them .. The judges and lawyers before whom and with whom he has prac- ticed speak of him in the highest terms. There is no one at the Westchester County bar who is more devoted to the interests of his clients, or earnest or successful in their advocacy. He will, if clected, make an exeep- tionally able and unquestionably upright judge, and for this reason should receive the votes of his fellow- citizens. His ability as a lawyer, his thoroughness, his keenness in detecting the salient point, and, above all, his judicial temperament, the proprietor of the Chronicle can speak most unqualifiedly, because he has known Mr. Mills as a fellow law student and a partner in the practice of the law for eight years. In the law school he ranked among the very brightest, keenest, hard-working men, and his record at the Westchester bar is one full of honor."

Only three of the judges of the present Supreme Court have been Westchester men, viz .: the late William M. Scrugham, of Yonkers; 1 Abraham B. Tappan, of Fordham, who is now living, and Jackson 0. Dykman, the present incumbent.

Judge Dykman? was born in the town of Patter- son, in Putnam County. His great-grandfather, Jo- seph Dykman, settled in what is now the town of Southeast, in that county, and became a captain in the Continental army in the Revolutionary War.

Ilis early life was the uneventful career of a boy in the country, attending the common school of the neighborhood and working on a farm. In this man-

ner lie obtained sufficient education to enable him to teach a common school at a very early age. Ile pursued this occupation until he commenced the study of the law in the office of the Hon. William Nelson, then a prominent lawyer at Peekskill, West- chester County, who manifested a lively interest in his advancement, and gave him generous aid. After his admission to the bar, he settled in Cold Spring, Putnam County, where he was shortly after elected school commissioner, and subsequently district attor- ney of the county.

In the spring of 1866 he removed to White Plains, in Westchester County, where he has since resided. In the fall of 1868 he was elected, by a very hand- some majority, district attorney of Westchester County, then a very responsible positiou, which he filled to the entire satisfaction of the people. He particularly distinguished himself by the energy, skill and success with which he prosecuted the famous Buckhout murder trial, one of the celebrated cases in the history of the county.

In the fall of 1875 he was elected to the high office of justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York for the Second Judicial District by a union of both political parties. He was nominated and sup- ported as the regular candidate of the Republican party and elected by the people by a majority ex- ceeding ten thousand.

That nomination, made by a party with which he had never acted, was a splendid tribute to his ability, integrity and impartiality, and the result has shown that the confidence of the people was not misplaced. In the performance of his judicial duties, Judge Dykman is ever patient, affable and courteous. He is kind and obliging to the members of the bar, and especially so to the younger lawyers. He has been a member of the general term of the Supreme Court from the time he took his seat on the bench, and his opinions in that court, in the numerous cases on ap- peal, evince laborious research, sound judgment and discretion aud absolute fairness and impartiality, and demonstrate the propriety of his elevation to the high judicial position he occupies.

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 138

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354