USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 47
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
It was in 1813 that Mr. Kirkland transferred his residence from New Hartford to Utica, and thenceforth for thirty years he was identified with its prosperity and enterprises, with its charities, hospitalities, and its municipal administration. Sent again to the legislature during the ses- sions 1818-21 he vacated his seat in the latter year to fill a higher one in the seventeenth Congress, where he succeeded that eminent speaker, Henry R. Storrs. After serving a single term with great acceptance to members of all parties he was again elected to the Assembly of 1825. Mr. Kirkland was the first mayor under the city charter of Utica and was re-elected in 1834, two years afterward. Without disparagement to his successors it may be affirmed that no administration is remem- bered with a livelier gratification than the one of which he was the head. It was while he presided over the public councils that the city was visited by that desolating calamity, the cholera, which in no part of the State broke out in a more sudden or fearful manner or swept into eter- nity, in proportion to the population, such a crowd of victims. A large number of citizens left the place. Men much younger and better able to contend against the ravages of disease fled their homes. Mr. Kirk- land, although then sixty years of age, remained at his post and con- tinued during the entire period of this frightful visitation to perform the duties which devolved upon him. He was ever devising measures to re- lieve those who were smitten or to check the violence of the pestilence and prevent its spread. He manifested during this crisis the real boldness and energy of his character, and showed that there was in him a spirit which, in more auspicious circumstances and on a larger field, would have secured to him no ordinary amount of reputation. In the upbuild- ing of Hamilton College, the Utica Academy, the Presbyterian Church,
499
WILLIAM H. MAYNARD.
the Ontario Branch Bank, the Oneida Glass Factory, the New Hartford Manufacturing Society, the Farmers Factory, the Paris Furnace Com- pany, and other early institutions of the county Mr. Kirkland bore a part from their inception. If not one of the originators he was at a very early stage of the enterprise a coadjutor in opening and construct- ing the Seneca turnpike, the great- internal highway of commerce through Central New York, and was for many years and until his death the president and treasurer of its corporation. And in schemes after- ward projected to advance the educational, commercial, or manufactur- ing interests of town or county there was scarcely one in which this public hearted man was not called to participate. To a large circle of individuals also, of various classes, he was the valued counselor or com- passionate friend. He died January 2, 1844. He had a large family, of whom scarcely one survives.
William Hale Maynard was one of the ablest lawyers and acutest and best furnished intellects of any that has ever made his home in Utica. He was the son of Malachi and Anna Hale Maynard, of Conway, Mass. Soon after his graduation he removed to New Hartford in Oneida County and entered himself as a student of law in the office of Gen. Joseph Kirkland. To some extent he continued his employment of teaching, and was at the same time diligent and laborious in the study of his profession. In the year 1811 he purchased of John H. Lothrop his interest in the Utica Patriot and at once assumed its editorship. With this paper he retained a connection and was its chief contributor down to the year 1824. In January following he was made attor- ney of the village. His first associate in practice was Samuel A. Tal- cott. Their office in 1816 was at No. 4 Broad street. Another attor- neyship which he received about this time was of more importance to him pecuniarily than that of prosecutor of the village. He was ap- pointed law officer of the Utica Insurance Company, which was a bank- ing company also, and here he laid the foundation of his property. In 1818 he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court. "But," says Judge Bacon, " he rose rapidly after he had made his first mark, and was soon employed on one side or the other in most of the heavy litiga- tion that engaged the attention of the courts of the county."1 It was in
I Bacon's Early Bar of Oneida County.
500
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
the Supreme Court and that for the Correction of Errors that his talents found the best field for their exercise ; the preparation of a cause for trial in the inferior courts, the presentation of the evidence, and the art- ful moulding of the jury to an opinion favorable to one's own client were done as well by many others. But in logical acumen and in wealth and profundity of learning, in exact perception of the points at issue, and in thorough elucidation of them by all of law and of precedent that were citable and apposite, and that, too, in the presence of his com- peers, and where reason and not prejudice or feeling was to judge,- it was here that Mr. Maynard most excelled and where his principal laurels were obtained. For these were his distinguishing traits, and which characterized him both as a speaker and a writer. He had little imagination ; he was not graceful in manner nor finished in elocution, though the language he used was always the purest and plainest Saxon. But his mental vision was clear and his reasoning cogent, and, in addi- tion, he was possessed of a memory wonderfully retentive and whose stores were ever at command. He would try a cause for days without touching pen to paper and yet in the end retain all the evidence adduced.
A mind thus copiously furnished and so clear in its convictions could not be otherwise than instructive, and its possessor was much sought both as a companion in private and as a speaker in public. His public addresses were spontaneous and free, and though often abounding in facts and statistics were delivered without notes and apparently with- out purposed preparation. To the confidence reposed in him as a wise adviser and a skillful manager of the concerns of individuals he added also much influence in matters of general and political interest. He was among the early trustees of the Utica Academy ; and we are in- formed by the historian of that institution that from his entrance to the board the marks of his vigor and activity are traceable in various sug- gestions and reports in writing, which, although not signed by him, are cognizable by his peculiar handwriting ; and also that he was one of a committee appointed to make arrangements for the opening of the school, to procure a teacher, and to devise a system of instruction.
In politics Mr. Maynard was the leading spirit of the Adams admin- istration in this county, his most formidable opponent being Samuel Beardsley. In 1819, when De Witt Clinton was nominated as governor
501
WILLIAM H. MAYNARD.
in opposition to Daniel D. Tompkins, he left the Federal party, which had now almost ceased to exist as an organized faction, and took sides with the fifty-one " high-minded " gentlemen who befriended Governor Tompkins. Naturally he soon began to manifest his change of senti- ment by a change in the tone and conduct of the paper which he man- aged. Messrs. Seward & Williams, the publishers and chief owners of the Patriot, were startled at this sudden revolution in the character of their paper and alarmed by the falling off of its subscribers. Legal ad- visers whom they consulted recommended the setting up of a new one as their only mode of relief and accordingly they started the Utica Sentinel. Mr. Maynard had been a member of a Masonic lodge, yet when, in consequence of an atrocious crime committed in Western New York by some individuals among the Masons, there arose a strong op- position to the whole order, which, spreading through the State, resulted in the formation of the anti Masonic party, he took sides with that party. In 1828 he was by them elected senator from his district and continued to serve during the years 1829, '30, '31, and '32. By his election the Senate received a great accession of talent, and though he was one of a small political minority he exercised a high and commanding influence and became in the latter portion of his career the acknowledged leader of that body. "He was," says Proctor, " the great intellectual light of the Senate-the Halifax of his party." In the different branches of the legislature of 1832, to quote further from this author, “ two future gov- ernors of the State occupied seats, one of whom was William H. Seward and the other John Young. The former was elevated from the guber- natorial chair to the Senate of the United States and thence to be prime minister of two presidential administrations. Both of these gentlemen in 1832 were overshadowed by the talents, position, and in- fluence of Maynard and Granger. The early death of the former opened a field for the splendid abilities of Mr. Seward, while the mental resources of John Young gradually removed all opposition in his way and he grasped the highest honors of the Empire State." Among the projects advocated by Mr. Maynard while in the Senate, and one which was mainly effected through his advocacy, was the act for the creation of the Chenango Canal. In its favor he delivered a long and able speech, statesmanlike in its policy, and marked by careful research, un-
502
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
erring figures, and wise deduction. During this period he continued to be actively engaged in the duties of his profession and was so up to the time of his death. From the year 1822 his law partner had been Eb- enezer Griffin. After 1828 this connection was exchanged for a part- nership with Joshua A. Spencer. A brief editorial notice of Mr. May- nard appeared in the Albany Argus immediately after his death. After adverting to his vigor of mind, thoroughly imbued with the learning of the day, professional and political, his exactness of logic, and his remark- able facility of bringing out and applying his resources, Mr. Croswell continues as follows : "As a lawyer, as a debater in the Senate, and as a capable writer he has left few superiors among his cotemporaries. Although of opposite politics with ourselves we knew and estimated the power of his intellect, and along with our friends have felt the sharpness and force of an encounter with it. To his personal friends his death is a severe deprivation. In the political party to which he was attached he has left no equal and none that can supply his place."
First among the persons admitted to a residence in the year 1816 comes one who was confessedly primus inter pares, eminent not here alone, but throughout the country, whose transcendent abilities gave him a repute that was national and a celebrity that is enduring. Samuel Austin Talcott was the son of Samuel Talcott, of Hartford, Conn., and Abigail, daughter of John Ledyard, of Bristol, England, and sister of Colonel Ledyard, who so gallantly defended Fort Groton in the war of the Revolution. This Samuel Talcott was son of Col. Samuel Talcott, who was sheriff, colonel, etc., and grandson of Gov. Joseph Talcott, the first governor of Connecticut born within its limits, and who occupied the chair seventeen years. Samuel Austin, who was born at Hartford, December 31, 1789, lost his father while yet a boy. At the age of four years he was sent to a school kept by a Mrs. Peterson, where he re- mained three years, and was then put under the care of Dr. McClure, of East Windsor. He continued with him until he was fourteen, when he went to Colchester Academy, and after a residence of two years entered the sophomore class of Williams College in 1806 and was graduated in 1809, and at the age of nineteen. Shortly afterward he married Miss Rachel Skinner, daughter of Dea. Benjamin Skinner, of Williamstown, and immediately began the study of law with Thomas R. Gold, of
5º3
SAMUEL A. TALCOTT.
Whitesboro. His course of study ended he practiced in Lowville, Lewis County, at first in partnership with Isaac W. Bostwick. About 1816 he removed to Utica and entered into a like connection with Will- iam H. Maynard, the contemporary of his college days. A vacancy having been created at New Hartford by the removal from that place to Utica of Gen. Joseph Kirkland Mr. Talcott took up his residence in the former village, and by the aid of his associate in Utica maintained an office in both places. On the 12th of February, 1821, he received the appointment of attorney-general of the State, when he made his home in Albany, and continued to live there during his administration of this office. From Albany he repaired to New York and carried on practice until his death, March 19, 1836, in his forty-seventh year.
Such in brief terms are the main incidents in the life of one of the marked men of the county and of the State. Indeed a friend of his youth, and one who was competent to judge, has pronounced him one of the most extraordinary men of the age. The characteristics of Mr. Talcott as they were seen in college this writer1 thus describes: "At this early age all those extraordinary qualities were developed which marked his career and so greatly distinguished him in after life,-tow- ering genius and profound investigation ; astonishing facility in acquir- ing knowledge and a memory which never lost what it had once ac- quired; surpassing eloquence as a writer and speaker ; a mind which could grasp and master whatever was most difficult in the abstruse sci- ences, and at the same time exhibiting powers of the imagination, wit, humor, raillery and sarcasm which have rarely been equaled. To all these were added the advantages of a commanding person, unrivalled address, a head, eye, and countenance ' the pattern of a man.' He was in all respects most truly one of nature's noblemen. His heart was gen- erous to a fault and he had a soul which knew not fear." Eulogium so lavish one might impute to the partiality of a friend did it not accord with the written testimony of a few cotemporaries of his manhood as well as with the traditionary report of all his generation. As a lawyer all admit that he was born to the calling; they join in praising the acuteness of his intellect and the cogency of his logic, his abundant learning and close and critical research, to which they add an eloquence
1 Hon. William H. Dillingham in Durfee's Biographical Annals of Williams College.
504
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
of oratory seldom witnessed. Though from an early period in his pro- fessional life Mr. Talcott was engaged in nearly every important case that was tried at the Circuit, and often argued at the bar of the Su- preme Court, yet scarce an impress of his commanding power is now to be traced. A few skeletons of arguments are preserved in the reports of the court, but this is all. In his day there was no reporting of the particular character that we now have, and the public efforts of this great lawyer have perished with the occasion. In respect to his style of oratory his sentences, we are told, were for the most part short and pithy ; he did not practice high-wrought illustration or nicely balanced periods, nor call on Shakespeare or some other poet to assist him in his flight and make good his own deficiencies; graced with a fancy all his own, spoken in a deep-toned, resounding voice, and in a manner that was most impressive his utterances were forceful and direct; weighty with reason they captivated the understanding while they charmed the sense ; or changing with magical transition from the subtlest argument they melted the hearer to the deepest pathos. "He produced in the minds of his audience," says Proctor,1 "all the sympathy and emotion of which the mind is capable-all which the argumentative can produce- all which solidity, pathos, or splendor, whether derived from original or assisted powers, can convey of pleasure or conviction." "But with all his ability he had striking weaknesses and some lamentable vices. Among the former was a foolish vanity of having it thought that all his gifts and resources came by inspiration and were not the fruit of careful study and laborious preparation."2 This led him to conceal every evidence of toil and to pass his days in idleness or worse, while his nights were often consumed in diligent reading and laborious thought. He spurned the labor of others and refused to appear in court with a brief that had been wholly or in part prepared by an associate. No cause was worthy of his handling that had not been subjected to his midnight crucible and worked up to the standard of his own conception. He never sought business, was not anxious for the pecuniary gains he might so easily have grasped, but solicitous only for professional fame he strove in what he did do therein without seeming effort and as it were by sheer force of genius to excel.
1 Bench and Bar of New York.
2 Bacon's Early Bar of Oneida County.
505
SAMUEL A. TALCOTT.
In proof of some of these traits, and more especially of his simulated idleness, his accurate learning and its covert acquisition, is the narra- tive of the venerable Charles Dayan, of Lowville, who, at the same time with the late Russel Parrish, was a student in the office of Messrs. Bost- wich & Talcott. He says : "Mr. Talcott was, I think, the laziest man I ever knew. He would lie in bed till 10 o'clock and would lounge for hours. In fact I seldom or ever saw him read a book; and we began to set him down as an ignorant, clownish fellow. So Parrish and I one day laid a plan to trap and expose him by asking about some principle of law on which we had been posting ourselves from the books. Mr. Talcott replied that the principle had been discussed some years ago, and referred us to a case in the English term reports, mentioning the judge, the year, volume, and page. Turning to the authority we found the matter fully stated and decision given. 'Now,' said he, 'are you satisfied ?' 'Yes, of course ; it is quite plain.' 'But,' said he, 'in a case reported some years later this same principle arose and was set- tled in a different way.' Having recourse to the volume, page, and name of parties indicated we found the decision (this time by Lord Mansfield) as he had informed us. We again declared ourselves fully satisfied. But, remarking that the law was very uncertain, he cited another case some years later, in which a third decision had been ren- dered, differing from either of the former ones. We never again un- dertook to cross examine Mr. Talcott upon principles of law, but found him always ready to cite from memory upon any point on which we needed information." "In trying causes," said Judge Pomroy Jones, " he seemed to take pride in making it appear that he was paying no at- tention to the testimony or the summing up of opposing counsel. I have seen him during the progress of a trial making pictures and pass- ing them to members of the bar; but when he came to sum up all of the testimony, even the very words of the witnesses as well as of the law- yer in opposition, seemed to have been photographed on his memory." His appointment by the Council to the high position of attorney-gen- eral, in place of Thomas J. Oakley, when he was but thirty-one years of age is evidence of the estimate that was placed upon his talents. This appointment, remarks Mr. Hammond,1 was considered peculiarly
1 Hammond's Political History of New York.
64
506
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
Mr. Van Buren's. " Mr. Talcott had been a Federalist, but with many others of that party had opposed the election of Mr. Clinton ; and Mr. Van Buren no doubt felt that good policy required that some distin- guished mark of attention and respect should be bestowed on some of the individuals who had been ranked among the Federalists. Mr. Tal- cott, too, was a young man, and it was said to be a part of Mr. Van Buren's policy to appear as the patron of young men whose abilities and position in life afforded a promise that they would become influential in society." But though the acuteness of this " sage " leader may have led to the selection of Mr. Talcott for this honor it is also true that he was twice re-elected to the office,-once by the unanimous vote of the legislature,-that he held it during the greater part of nine years, and that he has been adjudged by competent authority as second in talent and ability to no former incumbent, unless it be Alexander Hamilton.
Deeply pitiable it is to record that his own vices required his resig- nation : that habits of intemperance which had fixed themselves in his youth became so strengthened by long years of indulgence, and were so gross in their manifestations, as to disgrace him in the eyes of the public and disqualify him to retain so responsible an office. For a time he con- tinued to practice in New York, and " such was his elasticity of body and mind that when he came out of his revels he would stand up and measure his strength with the ablest and best in the land." Its last and most memorable display we relate in the language of Judge Bacon : 1 " One of the last occasions on which he appeared was before the Supreme Court of the United States in what was known as the 'Sailor's Snug Harbor' case. This had been preceded by a week of indulgence, so that his friends began to fear that he would be utterly unfit to stand in the presence of that high tribunal. But on the day assigned for the argument he strode into the court room attired with scrupulous neat- ness, fresh as a bridegroom, and his imperial intellect untouched and un- obscured. Beginning in a low and measured tone he gathered strength and power as he proceeded in his masterly discourse, and for five hours or more he held the breathless attention of bench and bar and audience in an argument which the illustrious Marshall declared had not been equalled in that court since the days of the renowned lawyer, William
1 Bacon's Early Bar of Oneida County.
5º7
SAMUEL A. TALCOTT.
Pinckney. It was an argument that Daniel Webster, his great antag- onist, found it impossible with his profound learning and colossal intel- lect to overcome or even successfully to meet." Mr. Dayan, who was present and heard this speech, tells us, in reference to its effect on the chief justice, that, forgetting the staid dignity which he usualy carried, his head from bolt upright began to lean forward as the argument ad- vanced, until it bent quite down to the desk as he earnestly gazed and listened. The impassioned fervor of Robert Hall brought men, it is said, from their seats to their feet; the splendidly flowing logic of Tal- cott bowed the chief court of the nation in rapt and passive deference. " This," continues Judge Bacon, " was his last great effort, and from that altitude he rapidly sank ; like the sun even at high noon, in the meridian of a day that should have been flooded with light, his orb went out in dismal darkness."
Immediately on the opening of the Supreme Court, which was in session in the city of New York at the time of the death of Mr. Tal- cott, his decease was announced by Henry R. Storrs, whereupon the court, after a feeling and eloquent address by Chief Justice Jones, at once ad- journed. And at a meeting of the members of the New York bar, held on the same day, it was
" Resolved, That this meeting have heard with deep regret and sympathy of the death of Samuel A. Talcott, late attorney-general of the State; that in the brilliant course of his professional life they find much to shed honor, not only upon his own name, but upon the State to which he belonged and the bar whose reputation he ele- vated ; that his distinguished talent, profound learning, and finished scholarship have rarely been equaled and never been surpassed at the bar of this State."
To their opinion thus expressed may be joined the verdict of Daniel Webster given in 1838, and which was concurred in by Martin Van Buren, that Mr. Talcott was the ablest living lawyer of America. By his first wife, who died in 1819, Mr. Talcott had one son, John Led- yard, late judge of the Supreme Court of the Eighth District and re- siding at Buffalo, and one daughter who died in infancy. By his sec- ond wife, Miss Mary Eliza Stanley, of New Hartford, he had one son, Thomas Grosvenor, a lawyer of much native capacity who settled in Hartford, Conn., but died in 1870.
James Lynch had already for several years maintained a creditable place at the bar of Oneida. He was a son of Dominick Lynch, of
508
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
Rome, and was born about 1786. He was graduated at Columbia Col- lege in 1799, studied law at Rome, and began practice in that place. During the sessions of 1814-16 he represented his town in the State legislature. About 1819 he changed his residence for one in Utica, con- tinuing in the exercise of his profession and having as his partner Abra- ham Varick, who had been his classmate at Columbia. He lived at his coming on the north side of Broad street between Genesee and John, but about 1823 he built for himself the fine house on Chancellor Square, afterward occupied by Thomas H. Hubbard and by Dr. S. G. Wolcott. In 1825 he moved to New York city, where he was appointed a judge of the Marine Court. In this office he remained until his death, October 3, 1853, at the age of sixty- seven. Mr. Lynch was one of the founders of St. John's Church and after removing to New York he was an early and active member of the American Institute. Judge Bacon, in his " Early Bar of Oneida," speaks of him as " of princely bearing and com- manding presence." As a lawyer he was creditable and above medio- crity, though in the opinion of the judge he was " capable when roused, of efforts little inferior to those of Storrs and Talcott." Judge Lynch's wife was Miss Janette Tillotson, of an aristocratic family of Rhinebeck, N. Y., and was a member of Trinity Church in Utica, though her hus- band was foremost among the Catholics. They had three sons and four daughters.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.