USA > New York > Livingston County > The annual address: The judges and lawyers of Livingston County and their relation to the history of western New York > Part 5
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Livingston County Historical Society.
really the sphere for which nature designed him. We also have considered him as a politician. Here, though eminently successful, he was out of his sphere. Here he was severely criticised. But so flagrantly corrupt has become party machinery that with rare exceptions the best, the ablest men who mingle in politics are taint- ed with corruption.
ENDRESS FAULKNER.
The professional career of Endress Faulkner though brief was brilliant and ex- emplary. Long enough, however, to exhibit strong intellect and unusual forensic powers. As a law-student he fully explored the science of jurisprudence, and as a lawyer his mind was a well arranged law library, in which he could easily lay his hand on whatever he desired. His was what is rarely found, a legal mind in its truest sense It was imbued with the spirit of the science ; it instinctively percei v- ed and observed all its limitations, harmonies, modulations and discords, just as a cultivated musical ear percives what is congruous or incongruous with the harmo- nies of sounds. In this he manifested the true distinction between a lawyer and a random speculator upon law. between the case lawyer and the legal scientist. As a real estate lawyer it is doubtful whether the Livingston bar ever produced his superior. He studied the old writers on this branch of law with the purest delight. I can recall repeated instances when I have found him in his office late at night absorbed in the study of one of those great, subtle and philosophic writers on the law of real property, on the doctrines that govern the devolution of estates and the interpretation of devises-Sugden or Ferne or Preston-drawing as much delight from their black lettered law page as the novel reader finds in the enchantment of romance or the beautiful fictions of the poet. As a legal debater Mr. Faulkner was so modest and unassuming, that a stranger might mistake his modesty for timidity. His language was plain, direct, forcible and free from tawdry rhetoric. He possessed a real talent for legal disquisition, and there was a pleasing concord between his thoughts and his language. His briefs were elaborate and carefully prepared, they were a logical analysis of cases in full legal sequence, and although far from being a case lawyer, no one was better versed in reported cases than he, knowing as he did when and how to apply them, but he never piled them one upon another, never launched them indiscriminately at an opponent, as soldiers some- times load and fire at will. Endress Faulkner was born at Dansville, N. Y., in the year 1819. He was a son of Hon. James Faulkner. He prepared for college at Can- andaigua academy, entering Yale college in July, 1837, and graduated from that institution in 1841. In conformity with his early intentions he immediately commenced the study of law, and was called to the bar in January, 1843. Opening an office in Dansville, he commenced there the practice of his profession. He was for a time the law partner of Hon. Cyrus Sweet, now of Syracuse, the eminent and learned surrogate of Onondaga county. He was also a partner of Hon. Solomon Hubbard of Geneseo. His professional advancement was flattering to himselfand his friends. Very soon after his call to the bar be conducted the trial of several Important cases, with a degree of ability and success that could hardly have been expected in one so young. Among these was the case of Streety agt. Wood, Barry agt. Bassett, McQuigg agt. The Central Railroad, and other equally important cases. In these trials he was opposed by the ablest lawyers at the bar. In one John B. Skinner and Orlando Hastings, to whom I have referred, were his opponents. The trials were conducted in a manner that elicited the sharpest collisions and all the subtle tactics of the forum, but Faulkner won from his opponents that respect which is due to ability, learning, and more than all, to high toned professional courtesy. He won more than this, he won his causes. At the circuit at which these cases were pending, a lawyer from New York city conducted a case, He was one of those lawyers who believe themselves modern Ciceros, or, what is more, rivals of the famous old lawyer who tried causes in old Rome. In summing up the case he made an attempt, as some city lawyers often do, to astonish the country bar. He was evidently a man of ability, and his speech though clumsy was strong. When he closed some one asked Faulkner what he thought of the speech. "Well," said he with an expression of the infinite humor at his command, "I can only say of him as Barrington once said of an oralor, 'It was vehement and fluent, and the man's language was just what came uppermost. It had power, but it was the power of a runaway horse, plunging and kicking all that approached."" In the midst of Mr. Faulkner's professional career. then becoming so profitable to him- selfand gratifying to his friends, the hand of disease fell heavily, though insidiously upon him-feil, as it often does, when hope was highest and the future seemed the most promising, when the ties of life were the strongest and he had much to live for. For a time he indulged the hope that his disease would yield to skillful medical treatment. But as months wore away it became more and more obstinate, until hope deferred began to make the heart sick. He sought more gen- ial climes, but in vain. It soon became apparent that his life Was slowly but surely drawing to a close. As disease wasted his form his mind seemed to strengthen, seemed to fall back upon itself, and intellectual objects became more attractive to him. Though possessing wealth far beyond every want, real or anticipated, his love of professional labor grew more and more intense as his physical powers de- clined. He even undertook the management of a case that took the strongest bod- ily and mental powers. With this case there was a circumstance so analagous to one related by Judge Kent of an eminent jurist, who was suffering under the rav- ages of consumption, that I can not refrain from relating it here. "I was engaged." said Judge Kent, "with him in the conduct of a case which for voluminous and complicated pleadings and proof was, perhaps, unparalleled in our courts. It was deemed necessary that a condensed statement of the evidence of the whole case, and legal points, with minute references to the authorities affecting every point, should be prepared for the court. I shrunk from the task as utterly beyond my
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Annual Address by L. B. Proctor.
powers, and it fell to his self-sacrificing industry. Our conferences in regard to it were frequent, and I observed with alarm its gradual effects on his health. Often I left him at noon bending over his task, and when I returned in the evening he was in the same posture; which had been varied in the interval by only a brief in- termission. 1 remonstrated, often seriously, almost angrily, but it was impossible to draw him from his work ; and when his task was finished, the anxious eye of friendship saw too surely that he had made rapid progress toward the grave." At last Faulkner's friends induced him to give up all professional care; but it was too late. He lingered long after all hope of his recovery was gone, and finally, with calm fortitude and Christian resignation, the inevitable hour came. He died In December, 1852. in the 35th year of his age. And so lived, so died Endress Faulkner. As in life he adorned the bar, may I not say that his history will embellish our society ?
COL. JOB C. HEDGES.
Job. C. Hedges was a member of the Livingston bar who wore the wreath of Justinian twined with laureis of the soldier. He left the forum, at his country's call, where, though yet young, he was rapidly growing eminent, and a practice already remunerative and increasing. True to his duty he served on many a weary march, on many a blood-stained field, amid the harvest of death. leading his col- unın of tiery valor where "showered the death-bolts deadliest the thin'd tiles along." To-day we turn to him in memory as we do to many of the unreturning brave who fell where
"The earth was covered thick with other clay. Which her own clay soon covered, heap'd and pent,- Rider and horse, friend and foe,-in one rude burial blent."
For him as for them, "there have been tears and breaking hearts." Though time wear out the keener pangs of agony, though surviving friends discharge Ilfe's duties, foster its affections, suffer no pause in their career, yet the death of the loved, on the field, In camp or in prison, caused a wintry change to come over their hearts, dimming a sun-beam that once radiated their homes. Col. Job C. Hedges was born in the city of New York in June, 1835. . While yet very young his parents removed to Dansville, where Job spent the remainder of his life with the excep- tion of a few years. He received his rudimentary education and prepared for col- lege at Dansville, and was graduated with honors at Lima, N. Y. Having decided to adopt, the legal profession for his future calling, he entered the law office of Messrs. Hastings & Newton of Rochester. Under the instruction of these accom- plished lawyers he prepared for the bar, and in October, 1868, took his degree as an attorney and counsellor at law. He commenced his practice in the city of New York, as an assistant of Hon. Stephen B. Cushing, who had recently retired from the office of attorney general of the state. Such were the legal qualifications of young Hedges that his services soon became In valuable to Mr. Cushing, who offered to make him his partner on terms the most flattering, but he preferred to practice his profession alone, and yielding to the solicitations of his friends returned to Dansville and opened an office. His severe labors In Mr. Cushing's office, though they greatly taxed his mental and physical energies, were profitable, giving him a thorough preparation for the professional career he had marked out for himself. His first professional effort, in yonder court house, was the trial of a cause of much importance, attracting considerableinterest. Hisopponent wasone of the veterans of the bar. Hedges conducted his case unaided. Though there was then at our bar, as there was in those days at most bars, two orbits in which lawyers moved, the inner circle for the older lights, who were not disposed to allow any rising young man to enter it, frowning down all who were bold enough to make the attempt. Hedges, believing there was no royal road to legal eminence, indifferent to all dis- tinctions, bold and self-reliant, entered on the trial of the cause, as we have sald, without a legal chieftain to aid him; not, however, without the usual advice and warning of friends. "Had you not better," they said, " have Mr. So-and-So to help you? He is just the man you want, he has so much influence with the judge and with thejury," etc. The case proceeded, contested inch by inch. As Hedges represent- ed the plaintiff he closed the argument to the jury in an address that exhibited foren- sic talents of a high order, and a strong, vigerous, well-stored mind. Unlike most young men who occupy such places, he made no attemptat eloquence, but he made a thor ugh, practical analysis of the evidence, presenting it to the jurors from a stand-point like their own, which was an earnest effort to reach the real justice of the case. He caught all its weak and strong points, cautiously selecting his grounds of defence and attack. The jury retired and the labors of the young lawyer were soon rewarded by a verdict in his favor. The result of this trial greatly accelerated his professional progress. One of Col. Hedges's characteristics was the rapidity with which his intellectual powers moved. 'Though he was somewhat precipitate in his conclusions, he was cautious in his manner of conducting a legal campaign, and he was regarded as a safe, careful and far-seeing adviser, and a rising young lawyer. But in the midst of his promising career the war for the Union broke out, and Hedges, inspired by the patriotic spirit that everywhere pervaded the north, engaged with Captain C. S. Benjamin in the work of recruiting the depleted ranks of " the bloody, fighting 13th Regiment N. Y. S. V. Their efforts were crowned with success, and Hedges was commissioned first lieutenant, and very soon afterward was promoted to the rank of adjutant. In this position he marched with his regl- ment to the peninsula. He was engaged in all the battles that were fought on it, and in all the other battles in which his regiment were subsequently engaged. To use the language of a distinguished and gallant officer who was fighting by his side when he fell : "Major Hedges was a brave and efficient officer, and his conduct on many hard-fought battle fields elicited the highest commendation from his supe- rior officers." His gallant conduct on the bloody field of Fredericksburg, on the
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Livingston County Historical Society.
13th of December, 1862, when serving as aid to Gen. Barnes, who commanded the first division of the 5th corps, was especially mentioned by that officer in his re- port. Though severely wounded Hedges kept the field until the battle ended. In the summer of 1864 the far-famed 14th Heavy Artillery was recruited at Rochester, E. G. Marshall was commissioned colonel and Hedges a major. On the 2d of May. 1864, the regiment marched to the Rapidan, crossing it on the 6th. It participated in the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania where it was under fire four suc- cessive days. From that time until the fatal 17th of June 1864, the regiment was in constant active service. At Petersburgh, Va., on the morning of that day, Major Hedges was instantly killed while bravely leading his regiment to a charge on the enemy's lines. The severity of the fighting in this assault is attested by our losses, which were estimated at 1,000 men. The losses of the rebels were heavy. In the entrenchments they lay three or four deep, while the ground between their en- trenchments was covered with their dead. Indeed it was a bloody day when Hedges fell, but he fell
"With his back to the field, and his feet to the foe ! And leaving in battle no blot on his name,
Looking proudly to heaven from a death-bed of fame."
I met him a few weeks before his death, and I shall never forget the touching, even beautiful manner in which he spoke of his wife, child, his father, mother, sis- ters, and other friends, whom he was destined never to meet again. The moistened eye, the quivering lip, and the stified utterance told how tender and deep was his affection for these. A very short time before his death he was made Colonel by brevet, of his regiment for gallant conduct on the field, but he fell before he was aware of this distinguishing recognition of his valor and efficiency as a soldier. Though the Livingston bar was valiantly, Ihad almost said gloriously, represented by the private soldier, through all grades, up to the general officer, in many a bloody field in the late war, Col, J. C. Hedges was the only member of it who died in battle. It is meet, therefore, that his memory should be embalmed in the archives of our society, for he was not only an able lawyer, but a splendid example of the calling, career and valor of the citizen soldier.
McNEIL SEYMOUR.
No member of the Livingston bar was held in higher esteem than Mr. Seymour. He was one of those men who without apparent effort inspire confidence and es- teem. In the alchemy of his character there was no dross. He made no preten- sions to showy talents, or any of those attributes that win popular applause, and yet few men stood higher in the estimation of the public than he. This was ex- hibited when a candidate for county judge. He accepted the unanimous nomina- tion of the democratic county convention with reluctance, impressed with the be- lief that it would be degrading in a candidate for a judicial office to enter the can- vass in his own behalf. He remained inactive during the campaign, and though the republican party was strongly dominant, in the county, such was Mr. Seymour's popularity that he was defeated by so small a majority it was evident that a tri- fling effort on his part to succeed would have resutred in a triumphant election. When a friend expressed his regret at his inactivity, he replied : " I am better sat- isfied with my defeat than to have secured my election at the loss of my self-re- spect; any candidate for a judgeship that will eiectioneer for himself ought to be defeated for he would not be fit for the position." Another instance in which Mr. Seymour's popularity was exhibited, occurred in the autumn of 1854 when he was a candidate for member of Assembly, from the second assembly district of Living- ston county. Notwithstanding his opponent was a very strong and popular man, he was elected by a very large majority. In the legislature he took a high posi- tion. His unassuming manner, his solid but unostentatious attributes, his happy eccentric abilities, and his hatred of legislative pyrotechnics gave him a high standing as a legislator. Mr. Seymour possessed a judicial mind and method, hence, the members of the bar knowing his legal learning, fairness and impartial - ity, were in the habit of referring the most important and intricate cases to him. His decisions were usually acquiesced in by the defeated party as the only true re- sult of a just construction of the law and facts of the case. The theatre of Mr. Sey- mour's career was, I believe, mainly in Livingston county. He settled in Mount Morris soon after his admission to the bar, where he resided until his death. He died in the prime of his manhood, in the midst of his usefulness as a lawyer and citizen. He died regretted by all who knew him, particularly by his fellow mem- bers of the bar. As was said by an eminent writer of Sir. Robert Peel, " the falling of the column revealed the extent of the space it had occupied." Mr. Seymour was a brother of the Hon. Norman Seymour of Mount Mortis, the eloquent and effi- cient secretary of our society, and one of its founders.
HARVEY J. WOOD.
One of the most agreeable and pleasant members of the Livingston bar was Harvey J. Wood. He was an accomplished practitioner, profoundly learned in the law. His counsel was always received not only by his clients but by members of the profession, in entire confidence that they could be sately guided by it. During the sittings of a circuit court, at the general or special term, Mr. Wood was a sort of legal oracle in the practice of drawing rules, orders, decrees or judgments in diff- icult cases. He always disliked the trial of causes. It, however, he was forced to conduct a trial, a prosecution or defense, as he often was, he was strong, vigorous, able,-an opponent to be dreaded. He prosecuted his case in such a manner that all its best features were exhibited with advantage, but he made no pretension 10 oratory. In his address to the jury he was plain, direct, sincere, but pointed and searching. Wood had lively sensibility and quick perceptions, a thoroughly cultivat-
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Annual Address by L. B. Proctor.
ed mind, a chaste, literary taste, polished by an enlarged acquaintance with the best. writers, ancient and modern. His refined taste extended to the fine arts and to fine mechanism. Finally, all his talents and instincts were those of a gentleman. High minded, generous and honorable himself he demanded these qualities in those he selected as his intimate friends. He detested fraud, trickery and every form of rascality. His word was sacred among his professional and other friends, and no client ever feared that his rights would suffer white intrusted to him. His social qualities, his genial nature, his deep sympathies were exhibited in his every day life, among his own immediate friends and extended to all with whom he came in contact. He loved to meet and enjoy the society of the young, and take by the hand the newly admitted members of the bar, struggling to gain their first foothold in the threshold of professional life. His favorite amusement was fish- ing, and excepting Judge Fitzhugh, Izaak Walton never had a more accomplished pupil at our bar than he. In his earlier years his gun resounded on every marsh. every wooded hillside, in every dell or gien within his reach, where a bird could be flushed or game of any kind started. Several years before his death he pur- chased a beautiful site on Conesus lake where he erected a cottage, and which he embellished in a style that Calypso and her nymphs might envy. Indeed, Pope never had any bigher enjoyment in Binfield or Twickenham than Harvey J. Wood found in this retreat, which he appropriately named "Blissport." Here, in the lieated months of summer, he invited his friends to share with him the delic- ious coolness of his beautiful place. Here judges, lawyers, merchants would come, and forget their cares, cast aside their labors, unbend from their dignity, and in the freedom of nature around them be boys again, happy in the enjoyment of the fine conversational powers and rich humor of Wood. He possessed one of those minds that finds
"Tongues in trees, books in the running brook,"
and there were times when, like one of Shakespeare's pensive characters, he loved to throw himself
" Under an oak whose antique roots peeped out Upon the brook that brawled along the woods,"
and there for a time forget his professional cares in the beauties of nature. Love of raillery was a strong feature in the character of Mr. Wood, and he was remarkable for his quick and happy repartees. If occasion required he could use sarcasm with fearful effect, but he was too aimiable in his disposition to resort to the use of this weapon unless driven to it. He was a native of Cayuga county. After completing his classical education he entered the office of Amos Gould, an eminent lawyer of Auburn, with whom he studied law for a year or more. He completed his legal . education, I believe, in the office of Governor Young at Geneseo, He was admitted to the bar in 1842, and commenced practice in Lima, N. Y., where he continued to reside until the close of his lite. He died in 1870. Such was Harvey J. Wood. If he had faults, as all have, the grave covers them ; his virtues, accomplishments and his genial nature outlive the grave and his, name is surrounded with pleasant memories.
JOSEPH W. SMITH.
Joseph W. Smith was born near Bath, N. Y., in the year 1821, hence at the time of his death he was fifty-five years of age. His father was a respectable farmer who died when Joseph was yet quite young. He was reared principally under the guardianship of his uncle, Jason Stone, Esq., now a highly respected citizen of Bath. Too frail to endure the occupation of a farmer he was early sent to the best schools in the country, attaining an excellent education. Often in his boyhood days he witnessed the stirring legal contests that took place at the court house in Bath. One of these was the first trial that the present Judge Rumsey of the su- preme court conducted as counsel. In this way his mind was directed to the legal profession. and his early aspiration was to become a lawyer, In this he was en- couraged by his friends, particularly by two uncles, Henry Goff, Esq., of Corning, and Jason Stone of Bath. In the year 1842, on completing his education, he came to Dansville and entered the office of the late Benjamin F. Harwood, then In the plenitude of his brilliant practice. He applied himself to his studies with great industry and perseverance. With a delicate constitution he successfully mastered the great elementary law writers. He delighted in studying the old metaphysical rules of special pleading. Bacon's Abridgments, with its antique phraseology, was an admirable instructor for him. He lingered with delight over the gracefully written commentaries of our own learned and illustrious Kent, a work that is still the text book of judges and lawyers in our own country, and it has called forth the eulogy and guided the labors of the learned in other climes, Mr. Smith always thoroughly and severely investigated the law applicable to cases submitted to him, and he made strong, exhaustive briefs. His preparatory course ended, we believe, in 1847, and he was immediately called to the bar. He commenced practice as the partner of Moses Stevens, who for a time was his fellow student in the office of Mr. Harwood. After a brief period this partnership was dissolved; Mr. Stevens re- moved to Wellsville, and Mr. Smith continued to practice alone at. Dansville for a short time. then removed to Almond, Allegany county, pursuing there his profes- sion. About the time of his removal to Almond, in the year 1819, he was united jn marrlage to Miss Mary Reynale, an accomplished young lady, the only daughter of the late Dr. Win. H. Reynale, and a favorite in society. She survives her hus- band, and is almost, the sole survivor of a large, happy and refined famlly circle. At Almond Mr. Sinith entered at once upon a lucrative and successful practice. But in the autumn of 1849, through the influence of his father-in-law, Dr. Reynale, and others, Mr. Smith was induced to return to Dansville, and there resume his prac-
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