USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 50
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WILLIAM f. BACON.
ings, the generation of lawyers with whom he was associated and over whom he presided unite in their testimony. Under the system which formerly prevailed he took his turn as a member of the Court of Ap- peals, sitting two years on that bench, and when he left it the opinions given by him in his private practice as a referee were invariably sus- tained by that court.
Judge Bacon was always interested in politics, but was never an office seeker. He accepted public office as he did so many of the local trusts that were laid upon him, and discharged its functions with fidelity. He was city attorney in 1837 and was elected to the Assembly in 1850, taking high rank with his associates. In 1876 he was elected as a Re- publican to represent the Oneida district in Congress; and the honor was the more grateful to him as he followed his grandfather and his father in the experience of service in the State legislature, in Congress, and on the bench. In Congress he sat with the minority, but in debate and in committee as well as in personal influence he served well. Dur- ing his life-time Judge Bacon was officially connected with many liter- ary, business, and charitable institutions, for Utica never had a more public spirited inhabitant who was both more ready and more compe- tent to supervise and manage its concerns and those of the neighbor- hood. Indeed he was so long identified with the best interests of the community that it is difficult to think of the city without a recognition of his genial and earnest personality. Some of the positions he filled are here given : Member of the Board of Trustees of Hamilton College for many years and senior member at the time of his death ; a director for upwards of twenty years of the Oneida County Bible Society; direc- tor of the Second National Bank and trustee as well as president of the Utica Savings Bank; director and vice-president of the Utica Gaslight Company ; director and president of the Forest Hill Cemetery Associ- ation ; director of the Utica and Black River Railroad, of the Utica Water Works Company, and of the Utica Cotton-Mills; trustee of the Home for the Homeless and consulting manager of the Utica Orphan Asylum ; councillor and vice-president of the Oneida Historical Soci- ety and trustee of the Saratoga Monument Association ; president of the Utica Philharmonic Association, etc. These were not empty sine- cures, honorary posts without a duty attached ; he was punctual in re-
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sponding to the summons of these assemblies, where his counsel was as trustworthy as it was free and courteous in the giving.
Judge Bacon was also a man of marked literary attainments and cult- ure. His knowledge was wide, his taste refined; he loved the best things and charged his mind with the most precious of scholarly lore. Shakespeare was a never-ending delight, but above Shakespeare he ranked the Bible, not alone as a treasury of the highest morals and for the wisdom and intellectual strength it imparted, but for the majestic imagery of its poetry, the logic of the Pauline and other epistles, and the beauty of the life and teachings of Jesus. As a writer and speaker he was facile, elegant, and forceful, a favorite orator at public celebrations, and happy with voice and pen to promote municipal, social, religious, and patriotic advancement. His contributions to this class of literature were varied and numerous; not a few of them will long endure in local chronicles. Especially may be mentioned his masterly address upon the Continental Congress read before the Oneida Historical Society ; his discourse upon the Early Bar of Oneida County delivered to a gath- ering of his colleagues of the bar, an instructive and valuable contribu . tion to the history of the county; his touching tribute to the late Presi- dent Fisher spoken in the chapel of Hamilton College; and his welcome to Kossuth on his visit to Utica in 1852, which was one of the most ele- gant of his platform addresses. His newspaper articles, recognizable by their justness, their finish, and the appropriateness of their illustration, were called out on occasions of great public importance or when some person of unusual merit had recently ended his career.
The public life of Judge Bacon was spent during the most stirring period of our nation's existence. He was intensely and aggressively right on all the momentous questions that were agitated before and during the war of the Rebellion. He could and did take part in meet- ings for the Union cause, for he had laid his only son as an offering on the altar of his country. What that sacrifice cost him few but his in- timates ever knew, yet through it all he never murmured. At the re .. unions of the soldier boys of the Twenty-sixth Regiment, to which his son belonged, nearly every year since the war the judge was present to express his appreciation of their success, and while he bestowed his praise upon the living and dead heroes but few knew how his heart
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WILLIAM f. BACON.
bled for the light of a life so soon gone out. Geniality and benevo- lence, honesty and purity, attachment to his country and to his home, these were his most obvious traits, and it was these which made him universally trusted and beloved. Yet it was easy to see that beneath these more salient features Christian truth leavened his entire character and made his as one of old " in whose heart there was no guile." Em- inently a religious man, long active as a teacher and superintendent in Sunday schools, a pillar in the church, he illustrated in every relation the vitality of his faith and his principles. He loved men because they were children of a common father and the inheritors of a common des- tiny. His hand was an open hand; he helped the poor and lifted up the fallen ; he was kind to the erring, more ready to pity than to con - demn; he hated the sin, but not the sinner. It would be difficult to name a cause having as its object the amelioration of mankind in which he had not an interest. Rank or position no more affected his courtesy than though no such social distinction had being. His knowledge of the Bible, as I have said, was phenomenal. He honored and loved the sacred volume for what it had plainly revealed, and his reading of it was devotional. Its history, its eloquence, its literary beauties pos- sessed for him a charm; but far more sweet were its spiritual truths- their tenderness and their purposes, as they gave an inward joy which all else failed to impart. During the earlier years of his residence in the city he was connected with the First Presbyterian Church, but for more than half a century he was a member and for forty-nine years an officer of the Reformed Church. "Exemplary and consistent," say the resolutions of the officers of that church, " fervent in the cause of relig - ion and the prosperity of our own church, calm, judicious, and unpreju- diced, we regarded him as our pattern and guide. No one accepted more willingly the responsibilities in which he was called to engage, or discharged them with more faithful exactitude. Absent by necessity only from the meetings of consistory and the services of the Sabbath and the week-day, no one held more naturally the leadership among us, voiced more acceptably the feelings of the worshipers, both in prayer and in praise, aided more helpfully the pastor in his duties, or suc- ceeded more fittingly to these duties in his absence. Esteemed as he was in his public and official positions and widely admired by those of
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
like standing with himself, admired not less in social life for the exhibi- tion of gifts which win attraction to the foremost in those walks, he never lacked in a word of friendliness and sympathy toward the low- est among his fellow members of the church. Both his counsel and his purse were freely opened to the needy, and numerous were the objects of his beneficence." A mere catalogue of single words and phrases, whose appropriateness will be questioned by none who knew him, may serve somewhat to delineate the character of the subject of my sketch. An honorable lawyer, an upright judge, an honest politician, a pure legislator, a ready co adjutor, a scholar, a patriot, a gentleman, a good citizen, and a consistent Christian, unostentatious, unaffected, social, courteous, affable, cheerful, frank, sincere, charitable, kind, sympathetic, and humane,-together these qualities present a rare summary. His wife and the mother of his children was Eliza, daughter of Gen. Joseph Kirkland, who died many years before him. At an advanced age he was again married to Mrs. Susan Sloane Gillett. His only surviving child is Mrs. Seth W. Crittenden. The judge himself passed away July 3, 1889, when he had reached the age of eighty-six.
Oneida County has produced few jurists who, in broad views, in sound judgment, in legal learning, stand above Hiram Denio.1 With the cast of mind eminently judicial, with studious habits that never wearied, with conversance with the principles as well as the letter of the law seldom surpassed, and with integrity never questioned, he de- serves to rank with the magnates of the bar of the county and the State ; as a judge of the Court of Appeals his decisions are accepted as standards and as models. He was not a man to startle observers by brilliance and eccentricity. His prudence, his common sense, his thor . ough conscientiousness were his marked characteristics. He was trained in the best school of the law, for he studied with Henry R. Storrs, whom Henry Clay pronounced the most eloquent man he ever listened to. Young Denio learned early the need of thorough preparation of his cases, and this was always a rule with him. He was a student throughout his life, and his culture was broad and varied, reaching be- yond his profession into the rich fields of literature and of history.
1 This obituary notice of Judge Denio was prepared for the Utica Morning Herald by its editor, Ellis H. Roberts.
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HIRAM DENIO.
Conspicuous for his discretion and his integrity he was burdened with trusts as executor and trustee, and at his death was president of the Savings Bank of Utica. As a citizen he was above reproach. His re- ligious connections had been for years with Grace Church. In politics he was a Democrat, but he was still more a patriot. He gave all his sympathies to the Republic during the war, and voted for Lincoln for President and sustained the measures necessary for the nation's life. His fame will rest upon the services which he rendered as judge of the Court of Appeals. His decision on the metropolitan police law offended extreme Democrats at the time, but it illustrated his independ- ent and non-partisan character, and the party was compelled to recog- nize his fairness and his integrity by a renomination. The ermine was honored by him. As he was without dogmatism he could admit and correct errors. In every sense he was a good judge, and in some re- spects his associates have pronounced him among the best and fore- most that ever sat upon the bench of our highest tribunal.
Judge Denio died at his residence on Broad street Sunday, Novem- ber 5, 1871, aged seventy-two years. He was born at Rome on the 2 Ist of May, 1799. He was two years a student in the academy at Fairfield, Herkimer County, with Albert Barnes for his classmate. He came to the bar in the light of some of the greatest names which have adorned our local history, and he did no discredit to their tutelage. After commencing the study of the law with Judge Hathaway at Rome in 1816 he came to Whitesboro and entered the office of Storrs & White, where he remained until 1821. In that year he became a partner of Wheeler Barnes, a lawyer in established practice at Rome. October 30, 1825, he was appointed by the Court of General Sessions district at- torney to succeed Samuel Beardsley, and he served worthily in that capacity for nine years. In the meantime, in July, 1826, he became a resident of Utica and a partner with his life-long friend, E. A. Wet- more, esq., in the law firm of Wetmore & Denio. May 7, 1834, Mr. Denio was appointed a Circuit judge for the Fifth Circuit, and then began the judicial career in which he won eminence, serving about four years. About 1836 Judge Denio formed a partnership with Hon. Ward Hunt, and for some time the firm of Denio & Hunt stood in the fore-front of the profession here. On the 23d of June, 1853, he was appointed to
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
fill a vacancy on the bench of the Court of Appeals and twice afterward elected to the same position, closing his career in 1866. Other honor- able positions he also held, such as bank commissioner and clerk of the Supreme Court, and he was from 1835 a useful and efficient trustee of Hamilton College. Judge Denio married, in May, 1829, Miss Anne H. Pitkin, of Farmington, Conn. Three children were born to them : one died an infant; the eldest daughter died in Madeira, where she had gone in search of health ; the third is the wife of Dr. L A. Tourtellot, of this city. A paralytic stroke befell Judge Denio on the 17th of Oc- tober, 1868. He partially recovered from the effects of it, but was neveragain fully himself. For some time he had been failing. For a fort- night his friends knew that death was nigh. He has passed away, a high type of the Christian jurist of whose memory eulogy may speak without reservation. His life proves that eminence involves no sacrifice of worth, that purity of personal character is consonant with personal, professional, and political success.
William Tracy was the son of William G. Tracy, an early merchant of Whitesboro, where he was born June 16, 1805. He was educated at the school of Rev. Mr. Halsey, a somewhat noted teacher of that vil- lage, and at Union College, where he was graduated in 1824. He studied law with Henry R. Storrs, came to Utica in 1827, and opened an office in the following year. In 1833 he was associated in practice with John G. Floyd and the following year with William C. Noyes, the husband of his sister. In 1837 his own brother, Charles, became his- partner and they remained some years together. In 1854 he removed to New York city and resumed his partnership with Mr. Noyes, Charles having preceded him by a few years. In the metropolis Messrs. Noyes and the brothers Tracy all took high rank. So long as he was a resi- dent here Mr. Tracy was awake to municipal affairs and assisted materi- ally in the conduct of them. He was one of the early Board of School Commissioners, a trustee of the Utica Academy and of the Female Acad- emy, and of the Cemetery Association. In the First Presbyterian Church and afterward in the Reformed Church he was an officer and a teacher in a Bible class. He took much deeper interest in the Society for the Colonization of the Negroes of Liberia than he did in that which agitated the country for the immediate abolition of slavery. He was almost the
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WILLIAM TRACY.
earliest person to enlist the community in its own local history, having delivered an address before the Mechanics Association upon men and events of Oneida County in 1838, an address which has furnished im- portant material for subsequent workers in this field. He was a pro- moter of horticulture, a lover of art and science, getting up annual ex- hibitions of the products of his own and his neighbors' gardens, attach- ing himself to a scientific association and an art association. He had an inquiring mind and clear judgment, was possessed of much general intelligence, and was often called on both as a speaker and a writer. He delivered a Phi Beta Kappa address at Union College in 1862, and before that an address before the alumni of Madison University. He founded a weekly paper known as the Intelligencer and conducted it for a number of years. With all this outside activity he was never neglectful of professional business, which was large and important. He was well informed in the law, diligent in the study of his cases, and earnest in their advocacy. With Hiram Denio he published the fourth edition (1852) of the Revised Statutes of New York, Judge Denio aiding him, but Mr. Tracy being principally responsible for the work. He published also an edition of Cowan's Treatise on Justices' Courts and a legal hand-book for commercial men.
Mr. Tracy had a keen sense of justice and could never refrain from denunciation of whatever seemed in conflict with it. Be the sufferer rich or poor his sympathies were stirred in equal measure and his efforts in defence outspoken and earnest. These sympathies found active exercise during the invasion of the cholera, when he allowed him- self little rest from his labors among the sick. Thus upright, generous, and kind Mr. Tracy was impulsive in manner, and at times gave offence from the very ardor and quickness of his temperament. He had like- wise a strong love of humor, which, conjoined with his extensive ac- quirements and readiness to talk, made him delightful as a companion, yet betrayed him occasionally into speeches that were damaging to him- self more than to the subject of them. Mr. Tracy received from Union College the degree of LL.D. in 1862 and was a trustee of that institu- tion from 1868 to his death, never missing his attendance at commence- ment. He died in December, 1881.
In the list of noble names which have shed luster upon the bar of New
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
York State must be placed that of Joshua Austin Spencer. 1 Born at Great Barrington, Mass., May 13, 1790, removing to Lenox, Madison County, N. Y., when but eighteen years of age and to Utica at the age of thirty-nine, the most important part of his life was spent in this city, and while residing here he rose to be one of the leading members of the bar of Oneida County when that bar was celebrated for its ability throughout the State. In many respects he stood pre-eminent among them. " Mr. Spencer," said the Hon. Ward Hunt, in generous tribute to his com- manding talents, " is like Saul among his brethren, head and shoulders above us all." " He had become one of the foremost men of his pro- fession," said Judge Denio, " and he maintained that rank until the day of his death. No man within my knowledge has acquitted himself for a life- time with such universally distinguished ability." " He was a law- yer of great learning and ability," said the Hon. D. Wager. "His legal skill in the trial of causes, and his commanding eloquence, made him one of the brightest ornaments of the profession." When on one occasion he stood before the Court of Errors, convened in the city hall of New York, opposed to Daniel Webster in a cause of far-reaching importance, it was not wholly because Mr. Spencer had the better case that the great expounder of the constitution in spite of his " powerful argument," and practiced skill, and solemn eloquence, was not able to save his client from defeat. " He battled with giants," said one of him, " and achieved greatness among the great, because he was strong."
The influences which early disciplined the mind of Mr. Spencer and moulded his character, added to his own indomitable energy and industry, carried him to this commanding position. Some preparation for his subsequent successes he received by heredity, and much by wise training and instruction, but to these he added an earnest and persistent diligence in the pursuit of knowledge, and a patient thoroughness of preparation for whatever duty was assigned him; and these he faithfully continued to the end of his career. His successes were well earned. From an ad- mirable sketch of his life written by his eldest son, the late Hamilton Spencer, who inherited in large degree his father's intellectual power and acquired much of his legal ability, we learn that Samuel Spencer, the
1 Begun by Hamilton Spencer, son of Joshua A., this article was finished after his sudden death by Rev. George A. Howard, D.D., son-in-law of the distinguished advocate.
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JOSHUA A. SPENCER.
first American ancestor of Joshua A. Spencer, emigrated from Sheffield, England, and landed at Salem, Mass., on the 20th of July, 1633, and shortly after removed to Suffield, Conn., where he married and contin- ued to live until his death. Joshua Austin Spencer was the fifth in descent from him, and, as we have stated, was born at Great Barrington in 1790. He received only the public education then afforded by the common schools of Massachusetts. But he was the child of exception- ally intelligent parents. His father, who was a millwright and a skilled mechanic, was an omnivorous reader, and continued to be so, with a true scholar's hunger for knowledge, down to the very close of a long life. His mother, who was the daughter of Joshua Austin, esq., was a woman of remarkable intellectual power, and her features, mental and physical, were stamped on her son. Born and educated in Puritan Con- necticut she was a dissenter from what then was virtually the established church-the Congregational. As a member of the Baptist Church she had, according to their custom, the liberty of public speech, and was recognized as a preacher of unusual knowledge and discernment and fervid eloquence. In addition to the instruction received in the schools of the day Mr. Spencer with his brothers and sisters attended an even- ing school at home, in which these well-informed parents were the teach - ers, and there they received a moral, religious, and intellectual education which distinguished them from their associates and helped to shape their future lives. All the sons of the family became members of learned professions. Two were lawyers, one a clergyman, and one à physician ; each of them achieved considerable local reputation and two of them became widely known.
In his boyhood Joshua removed to Greenville, Greene County, N. Y., and for a short time was a clerk in " a country store" there. About the year 1808 he rejoined his father's family, which had removed to Lenox, Madison County, N. Y. Here, not finding as yet his true vocation, he was apprenticed to Waters Clark, a carpenter. In this employment he developed that unusual physical strength for which he was noted in subsequent years, and which now, young as he was, enabled him to do "the work of two men," as his employer said he often did; and the knowledge of the trade which he obtained in these cheerfully toilsome years was more than once in later life of use to him in the practice of his
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
profession. This apprenticeship was short, extending only from some time in his eighteenth year to his majority ; and when it ceased he en- tered the office of his elder brother, Gen. Ichabod S. Spencer, as a stu- dent of law. He had, however, hardly settled himself to his studies when the war with Great Britain in 1812 broke out, and catching the patriotic enthusiasm which swept over the land he enlisted and was ap- pointed orderly - sergeant of a company of horse artillery which was or- ganized in Madison County and commanded by one Captain Jennings. Repairing to the northern frontier he remained on duty at Sacket's Harbor until his term of service had expired. The performance of this duty cost him something more than the time which he gave to it, for when the company was mustered out, and its members scattered to their homes, young Spencer was left behind, fatally ill as was thought with " camp fever." But youthful vigor and a good constitution drew him back to life, and after his recovery he returned with new zest to his legal studies.
In 1814, at the early age of twenty-four, he married, at Lenox, Miss Clarissa Phelps, by whom he had two children, Hamilton, late of Bloom - ington, Ill., and Clarissa, afterward the wife of the Rev. Duncan Ken- nedy, D.D. While both these children were very young their mother died ; and Mr. Spencer subsequently married Miss Electa Dean, daugh- ter of the elder Judge James Dean, a graduate of Dartmouth College and a gentleman of high character and influential position.
Upon his admission to the bar Mr. Spencer entered into partnership with his brother and at once took a high rank in his profession. After a few years of growing practice and steadily increasing reputation, in 1829 he formed a partnership with the distinguished William H. May- nard and removed to Utica. This partnership, so important to his in- terests, continued for less than three years and was then dissolved by death. Mr. Maynard was elected senator from the Fifth Senatorial Dis- trict of New York, and while attending the Court for the Correction of Errors in the summer of 1832 died from an attack of Asiatic cholera. But the whole burden of an extended business thus thrown upon Mr. Spencer found him prepared to sustain it. He was now in the full maturity of his great powers and familiar with the work he had to do. He had a strong and healthy body. His habits were temperate. His
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