USA > New York > Saratoga County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Saratoga County, New York > Part 53
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was one of the original incorporators in 1838. There was then no other bank within convenient distance, and it was a great advantage to the village. His reputation for uncompromising integrity and conservative management were of great advantage to the bank. In 1856 Mr. Thomp- son was made president of the bank, and thereafter devoted himself to its care and management until his death. He rendered it a very successful and sound institution. He was fully recognized by all the old bank presidents of this section as an able financier, his knowledge of finance embracing both its minutiæ and its more abstruse and broader principles. In several instances, through correspondence with senators, his ideas were adopted and utilized by Congress in the financial legis- lation following the Civil war.
When the building of the Saratoga and Whitehall Railroad was con- sidered a hazardous enterprise, Mr. Thompson regarded it differently, and by loaning his money and using his efforts did much to accomplish its success.
Reserved and retiring by nature, John W. Thompson avoided rather than courted prominence in public affairs. Deeply interested in poli- tics, he preferred to quietly exercise his influence rather than actively enter the field. Only once, when the town needed him for supervisor, did he consent to taking a nomination. He served one term. With all his love of retirement and aversion to seeking precedence, he had too great mental activity and interest in the welfare of his native county to avoid taking an important place in its affairs. No citizen was more relied upon for sound advice in all public and private enter- prises, and many a luckless struggler in a sea of financial difficulties was brought into safe harbor by his wise counsel and practical assist- ance. His dislike of ostentation and display was great. The accumu- lation of wealth never tempted him to alter his simple mode of life.
He married, early in life, a daughter of Joel Lee, who, after a life of devotion to her family and her church, died in 1871. John W. Thompson lived to the age of eighty-four and died on June 28, 1892, leaving three sons and one daughter. His eldest son, George Lee Thompson, suc- ceeded his father as president of the Ballston Spa Bank, and like him took great interest in politics while refusing to hold office, except that of supervisor, which he filled for several terms. Ill health compelled him to withdraw from active life for some time before his death, which occurred on December 29, 1895, in his sixty-first year. Of a very gen- erous nature, and having inherited ample means, he found his chief hap-
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piness in giving pleasure to all about him. The grateful affection of his fellow townsmen solaced his last years of illness, and was strongly mani- fested at his death. He left a widow and three children.
When his sister, Alice Thompson, died in Europe in 1898, a noble life ended. She had "done good by stealth " in such large measure that only her death revealed its extent. Her care for her native village and its needs was shown by her bequests.
John W. Thompson's two younger sons, Samuel and Frank, both live at the old homestead. Samuel Thompson served one term as super- visor.
REUBEN HYDE WALWORTH.
IN THE history and development of the judiciary of the State of New York, Chancellor Walworth1 stands pre-eminent as an authority in equity law; and by his wisdom and fairness, his profound knowledge, and his force of character, he marks an epoch in the legal history of the State, and is entitled to that distinction which common usage has attached to this term. To praise him, we call him the last of the chancellors, as if, as Plutarch said of another, this Empire State has produced no other great equity jurist since that time. We may affirm this as true, and say, also, that possibly the dignity of the judiciary has suffered some loss in consequence of the absorption of the equity practice into the the courts formerly limited to common and statute law.
The history of the Walworth family is full of interest, on both the paternal and maternal sides. The chancellor's great-grandfather, Will- iam Walworth, came from England with Governor Winthrop of Con- necticut, at his request, about 1680, to make a model farm and show the colonists English methods. Walworth settled on Fisher's Island, near New London, where he succeeded with the model farm, and had a handsome residence; and, as stated in his will, he had much table silver and other valuables. In the latter part of his life the pirates, then infesting the eastern shore of Long Island, caused so many alarms at Fisher's Island, that Walworth bought farms at Groton and other places in that vicinity, and moved his family to the mainland. He was
1 For much of the material employed in preparing this sketch the compiler of this work is in- debted to a paper read by Mrs. Ellen Hardin Walworth before the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society in 1895.
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a descendant of Sir William Walworth, the Lord Mayor of London who killed Wat Tyler and thereby saved the life of King Richard II. A representation of the dagger with which he struck Wat Tyler appears in the coat-of-arms of the Walworth family, with the motto, "Strike for the Laws." From a very ancient time a large district in London was named Walworth, and the name still lingers in that region.
The maternal side of the family shows an illustrious line in this country, including a descent from the Winslows and Tracys, and in the Old World a genealogy of twenty-seven generations, carefully traced back to Queen Margaret of Scotland, wife of Malcolm III., and yet further to Queen Clothilde of France.
Reuben Hyde Walworth was born at Bozrah, Conn., October 26, 1788, the third son of Benjamin Walworth. While he was a boy his parents moved to Hoosick, Rensselaer county, N. Y. His father was an officer, with the rank of major, in the Revolutionary war, in Nicoll's regiment, Heath's division. When the young Reuben had finished his studies at home he went to Troy and taught school for a short time, when he en- tered the law office of John Russell, State's attorney for the northern district, who was said to be the best common law practitioner in the State. William L. Marcy was one of his fellow students. Mr. Russell was impressed with the ability and energy of young Walworth, and proposed to introduce him into practice in the northern part of his circuit; thus the young lawyer was led to settle in Plattsburgh. He quickly acquired a good practice there, and soon had occasion to refuse political preferment that would be out of the direct line of his profes- sion; but he accepted an appointment as justice of the peace, and later one as a master in chancery. In 1818 a new law created the office of commissioner to perform certain duties of a judge of the Supreme Court, and he was chosen for the place.
During the war of 1812 he was engaged in the conflict at Plattsburgh, with the rank of major, and acquitted himself with marked courage. During the military occupation of the town he was selected by General Wilkinson to act as judge advocate in a difficult case that arose concern- ing a British prisoner. After the war Major Walworth was appointed division judge advocate, with the rank of colonel.
In 1821 he consented to run for Congress, and was elected by a large majority. Under amendments made to the constitution of this State in 1821, in each district there were appointed certain judges, who not only presided in the Court of Oyer and Terminer, but they were made
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equity judges in each district, under supervision of the chancellor of the State. Colonel Walworth became judge of the fourth district. His decisions in this court were pronounced by Judge Cowen to be "able and luminous," and of such value as to be included in the State reports, although the Circuit Court cases were not a regular part of those re- ports. Judge Walworth was appointed chancellor of the State in April, 1828, when he was thirty-eight years of age, by Governor Clinton. He held the office twenty years. He was also ex-officio a member of the Court of Errors, and required to review the intricate legal decisions of the Supreme Court in cases of dissatisfaction. His decisions as chan- cellor are found in fifty two volumes of printed reports and thirty-nine books of manuscript. Amendments to the Constitution of the State in 1847 abolished the Court of Chancery, when Chancellor Walworth retired.
About 1844 the New York delegation in Congress and lawyers out- side of Congress presented the name of Chancellor Walworth to Presi- dent Tyler to fill a vacancy then existing in the Supreme Court of the United States. Tyler sent the name to the Senate, and it was referred to the judiciary committee, which delayed making a report. Charles O'Connor used to tell some amusing stories of "wire-pulling " in that committee. One of the absurdities related was that, after President Tyler had sent the chancellor's name to the Senate, some one told Tyler that this Walworth was a descendant of that Sir William Walworth who killed his (President Tyler's) progenitor, Wat Tyler, and thereupon the president withdrew the chancellor's name. The real cause was in one of those curious combinations that are peculiar to New York politics.
After Chancellor Walworth's retirement his counsel was sought from all parts of the country, and as referee in cases from the Supreme Court of the United States he held his court at his homestead in Saratoga, where cases were argued by such men as William H. Seward, Blatch- ford, Butler, Daniel Lord, and other distinguished lawyers.
Of this great man's ability Judge Story said: "Walworth is the greatest equity jurist now living." Chancellor Kent, in his Commen- taries, referring to Walworth's decisions, said: "I am proud of my own native State." Professor Dane of Harvard said: "No court was ever under the guidance of a judge purer in character or more gifted in talent than Reuben Hyde Walworth, the last chancellor of New York."
While residing at Plattsburghi Chancellor Walworth married Maria Ketchum Avery. They had four daughters and two sons, the latter
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being Rev. Clarence A. Walworth of Albany, N. Y., and Mansfield Tracy Walworth, the author. Mrs. Walworth died April 24, 1847, and Chancellor Walworth subsequently married Sarah Ellen, daughter of Horace Smith of Locust Grove and widow of Colonel John J. Hardin. She brought with her to Saratoga three children of her first marriage, one of whom is the present Mrs. Ellen Hardin Walworth, the noted historian and author.
WINSOR BROWN FRENCH.
WINSOR BROWN FRENCH, the son of Luther and Lydia Brown French, was born in Proctorsville, in the county of Windsor, State of Vermont, on the 28th day of July, 1832. His father was a member of an old Massachusetts family, and a grandson of Joseph French, a lieutenant in the army under Washington,'residing in Concord, a branch of which family settled at an early date in the State of New Hampshire, subse- quently Vermont. His mother was Lydia Brown, a descendant of Chad Brown of Providence, R. I., and also of Roger Williams, whose daughter Mercy married the Rev. Samuel Winsor. Their grandson, the Rev. Samuel Winsor was the father of Mr. French's grandmother. To this family belongs Prof. Justin Winsor, Harvard's famous historian.
Besides the subject of this sketch there were four brothers and four sisters of this family, of whom Dr. Walton W. French, a practicing physician in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Mrs. Howard Aldrich, of Chi- cago, Ill., are now living.
When he was four years of age his father removed from the village of Proctorsville, to the town of Wilton in Saratoga county, and carried on the business of farming during his lifetime, and died in 1865. Winsor attended district school in the town in which he lived, and later Clinton Liberal Institute, then one of the most celebrated schools in the State, situated at Clinton, N. Y., and continued his studies and was fitted for college at Woodstock Academy, Vermont, from which institution he entered Tufts College in the State of Massachusetts in the fall of 1855, with the class of 1859. His father was unable to furnish the means necessary to educate his son, and Winsor was obliged to depend largely upon his own energies to accomplish his earnest desire. He taught day and singing school winters, and assisted his father summers; - and in that way was able to push his way through college. He
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became a member of the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity and has always kept up his interest in the society and the prominent and famous men connected therewith, among whom are Col. William L. Stone, the his- torian; Secretary of State John Hay; Attorney-General Griggs of President Mckinley's cabinet and John W. Hammond, judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. He took a prominent stand in col- lege and graduated with honor, receiving an oration appointment on commencement stage.
After graduation he returned home and began the study of law in the village of Saratoga Springs, first with Hon. James B. Mckean, and later with Messrs. Pond & Lester, then the most prominent lawyers in the county. After two years of study and in May, 1861, he was admitted to the bar.
Mr. French had hardly passed his examination when the nation's call to arms rang out and he instantly responded. He was instrumental in raising Company D of the Seventy-seventh Regiment, New York State Volunteers, which became known as the Bemis Heights Battalion. He was made captain of his company, but his colonel, James B. Mc- Kean, being then a member of Congress, wished some one as adjutant who could assist him in his duties as colonel and turned at once to his personal friend, the young captain, and requested him to act as his adjutant, to which he consented and was mustered in and went as such to the front with the regiment on November 23, 1861.
On the recommendation of General Davidson, the brigade com- mander, Adjutant French was promoted for gallant conduct during the "Seven Days Fight " in the front of Richmond, received a Major's com- mission and immediately that of Lieutenant-Colonel, and subsequently, in July, 1862, that of Colonel of the regiment.
This regiment formed a part of the Third Brigade, Second Division, Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and was recognized as among the best of the army, the brigade having, according to the Mortuary Record of the War, written by William Fox, who is a recognized author- ity, lost more officers killed in battle than any other brigade in either the Federal or Confederate armies. At the battle of Fredericksburg, fought in May, 1863, this regiment, led by Colonel French on his horse, was in the front line in the celebrated charge on Marye's Heights and captured the Lieutenant-Colonel and a portion of a Mississippi regiment, together with a battery which commanded the Heights and had made sad havoc in the regiment on its advance. While standing on a cap-
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tured cannon the Colonel was complimented by General Neil in the following language: "Colonel, write your name on it ! write your name on it ! you have won it! it is yours." And in a few moments after the regiment received an unusual commendation from its division command- er, General Howe, who rode up in its front with his staff and taking off his hat said: "Noble Seventy-seventh, to-day you have covered yourself with glory."1
Colonel French was always a favorite with his command and its love for him was particularly manifested when the regiment was at Stone House Mountain near the Rapidan river, where he was presented by his Line Officers with a beautiful gold mounted sword, on which was the Greek inscription : "He fights for his country," and under it were the dates and names of some of the battles in which they had been engaged.
At the battle of Fort Stevens, Washington, D. C., Colonel French led the charge which drove out Jubal Early and his army and received there the first wound of his service. At the battle of Cedar Creek, October 18, 1864, he succeeded General Bidwell, the brigade command- er, who was killed in that action, and from that time until his muster out commanded his brigade, and subsequently received his commission as Brigadier-General by Brevet for "gallant and meritorious service on the field." The regiment was mustered out of service in Saratoga Springs on the 13th of December, 1864.
A monument to the regiment stands on Gettysburg battle field with this inscription : "Participated in the Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, Fort Stevens, Washington, D. C., and Sheridan's Campaign of the Shenandoah Valley." This monument was dedicated on the 17th day of October, 1889. General French made a most fitting and eloquent presentation address, in which he sums up the three years' record of his gallant regiment in the following words: "Saratoga county's favo- rite regiment, the Bemis Heights Battalion, has a record of noble deeds, without a single blot. It never, by any act in the field, or in the camp, on the march, or in the fight, disgraced the county from which it was sent. It never flinched or wavered from any duty, however perilous, which was assigned to it, nor until ordered to do so, did it ever turn its back upon the foe. From the beginning to the end of its service the regiment bore its colors untouched by the hand of the enemy. They were often shattered and torn by shot and shell, often
1 " Three Years in the Sixth Corps," p. 197, George T. Stevens.
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levelled to the dust by the death or wounds of the bearers, but they were always kept sacred and on the muster out of the regiment were deposited in the Bureau of Military Statistics at Albany."
During its service the regiment had accumulated a Regimental Fund of $500 which by vote of its members was at the time of its muster out put into the hands of Colonel French to be disposed of as he deemed best for the regiment. He at once put the same at interest and in ten years it became doubled, and together with voluntary contributions of patri- otic citizens of Saratoga Springs was used in the erection of the mon- ument now standing on Monument Square in said village, dedicated to the memory of the " Seventy-seventh Regiment, New York State Vol- unteers."
During all the years since his muster out General French has taken an active part in military matters connected with the Civil war. He was one of the charter members of Grand Army Post Wheeler No. 92, of Saratoga Springs, and several times its commander. He became early a member of the New York Chapter of the Society of the Loyal Legion, and the Society of the Army of the Potomac. The Gen- eral may be seen almost daily, well mounted, galloping over the country as erect as a young officer, sitting in the same saddle that bore him in the thick of the fight in so many battles in the war of the Re- bellion. The military spirit of the general is manifest in his son, Win- sor P., who went out as a private in the Twenty-second Separate Com- pany of Saratoga Springs, Company L, New York State Volunteers, in the Spanish War. He was promoted to a second lieutenancy in the Two Hundred and First Regiment, New York State Volunteers.
Soon after his muster out and in April, 1865, General French re- sumed his law practice and entered into partnership with his former preceptor, Hon. Alembert Pond. He was admitted to practice in the Supreme, District and Circuit Courts of the United States, and has ever since been and now is an active lawyer in his profession. His part- nership with Mr. Pond continued until 1888, a portion of the time Hon. Edgar T. Brackett, now State Senator, was a member of the firm; and the practice carried on by it was of a general character extending through all the courts and became very large and lucrative.
He was elected District Attorney of Saratoga county in 1888 and held the office for three years, and was pressed for renomination, but de- clined it owing to the large and laborious civil practice of his firm. During his service as district attorney he caused the arrest of one
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Henry Ray, a member of the State Legislature, on an attachment issued under the direction of Justice Platt Potter of the Supreme Court because of his refusal to obey a subpoena; and had Ray brought to the Court House in Ballston Spa to testify in a criminal proceeding. This arrest occasioned great excitement in the Legislature and out of it grew the famous Breach of Privilege Case, wherein the Legislaturc undertook, but signally failed to establish the doctrine, that the power of the legislative branch of the government was superior to that of the judicial. The case attracted widespread interest in the courts and among the legal profession throughout the country and is reported in the Appendix to Barbour's Supreme Court Reports, Vol. 55.
Mr. French withdrew from the firm of Pond, French & Brackett in 1888 and has since continued his practice alone, except, about three years when Will W. Smith was associated with him. His office is sit- uated in his own building, Nos. 7 and 8 French Building, Saratoga Springs. Mr. French has always been prominent before the courts and juries, demonstrating the characteristics of a careful, painstaking law- yer, extremely loyal to his profession, and displaying in his practice that dignity and courtliness that becomes a gentleman.
In politics Mr. French has always been a Republican and most earn- est and energetic in the success of his party, taking a prominent stand as a platform speaker. He was a prominent candidate for the nomi. nation of judge of Saratoga county in 1888, and in 1893 was a candidate for the nomination for member of congress from the Twenty-second district, composed of Saratoga, St. Lawrence, Fulton and Hamilton counties. Over thirteen hundred ballots were taken, Mr. French and General Curtis of St. Lawrence being opposing candidates. No nom- ination was made by this Congressional convention. Subsequently General Curtis was nominated by petition, Mr. French having with- drawn from the contest. In 1896 Mr. French was a Mckinley and Ho- bart Presidential Elector and cast his vote as a member of the Electoral College held at Albany January 11, 1897, for McKinley and Hobart. He was appointed by President Mckinley, postmaster of the village of Saratoga Springs, confirmed by the United States Senate, and received his commission as such on the 10th day of March, 1899.
Mr. French has always been deeply interested in religious work He is a member of the Bethesda Episcopal church and one of its wardens. He is also prominent in all philanthropic matters, being president of the board of trustees of the Church Aid and of the Home of the Good
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Shepherd. He is also president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and of Cruelty to Animals, and an officer of the Saratoga Athenæum since its organization; taking an active interest in matters relating to the welfare of the whole community.
General French's family consists of his wife, a daughter of the late Wm. A. Shepard, daughter Georgiana, wife of J. Andrew Harris, jr., treasurer of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and two sons, Winsor P., at present attending the Albany Law School, preparatory to joining his father in the practice of his profession; and William A. Shepard, a lad of eleven years of age attending the public school.
EDGAR T. BRACKETT.
HON. EDGAR TRUMAN BRACKETT stands pre-eminent among the bar of Saratoga county; born at Emerson's Corners in the town of Wilton, Saratoga county, July 30, 1853, son of William and Elizabeth Ann (Sherman) Brackett, our subject is seventh in descent of Capt. Rich- ard Brackett who came from Scotland to Boston in 1629. In childhood he accompanied his parents to Mount Vernon, Linn county, Iowa, where he remained until he had attained man's estate. In 1872 he was graduated from Cornell College at Mount Vernon, a denominational institution of learning under the management of the Methodist Episco- pal church. In September of that year he removed to Saratoga Springs, which has since been his home, and began the study of law in the office of Pond & French. In June, 1875, he was admitted to the bar at the General Term of the Supreme Court at Elmira, and in the same month the degree of Master of Arts was also conferred upon him by his Alma Mater, which later in 1898 also granted to him the degree of LL. D. The following spring he became the junior member of the law firm of Pond, French & Brackett, which continued for twelve years, and later he became the head of the firm of Brackett, Butler & Baucus. In 1895 Mr. Brackett was elected to the New York State Senate on the Republican ticket, from the Twenty-eighth district, comprising the counties of Saratoga, Schenectady and Washington, by a vote of 18, 558; his principal opponent, Charles O. McCreedy, Democrat, of Ballston Spa, polling 10,117 votes. He took prominent rank in the councils of his party and in the work of the Senate. In 1898, at the time of this writing, he was renominated by acclamation by the Republican
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