The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 165

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II > Part 165

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In 1844, he came to Williamsburgh, we might say as an adven- turer, having achieved no marked success in his previous undertakings, eave the hard economies and discipline which his experience had imposed. With a wife and two children, a few dollars in hand, and a respectable debt of $300 owing in the country; without acquaintances, without employment, without professional or business reputation, he determined to begin the world here as he found it; to await no opportunity, to despise no employment because it appeared servile, and to beg no man's patronage as a favor, but because of the advantage to be derived by the employer. So he started at once to utilize his knowledge of printing and book-selling, as a walking broker through the business streets of New York, having arranged with stationers, printers and book-binders to execute his orders st a small profit to himself. He sold Harpers' cheap publica- tions, also their heavier works on orders. He sometimes sold clocks; but he says he never sold to a man who did not become his enemy for life, for the clocks would not go. So that branch of trsde was presently dropped. Besides being diligent in business, he sought to exemplify another motto, "Always be cheerful in business." In these pursuits, he was careful not to make known hts affiliation with the clergy, lest he should be thought appesling to the charities of his customers, rather than

standing on his merits as a business man, and giving value for value received-s laudable pride, which is sadly lacking in some of the brethren of the cloth. He realized six or seven hundred dollars a year in trade, which supported his family, and in three years paid off his debts. About 1846, he commenced the study of law, as time and opportunities permitted; obtaining a certi- ficate of clerkship from a local lawyer, on which Hallet, the old County Clerk of New York, made an allowance of two and a half years for classical studies, and filed the papers in his office. Under the Constitution of 1847, which admitted any reputable citizen to practice law upon passing an examination by the Court, he was examined by the judges in open Court at General Term, held in the City Hall, Brooklyn, and admitted March 8th, 1849, to practice in all the courts in the State, being then in the 39th year of his age. It was the second year of his practice before his profession paid his expenses, but subsequently it became substantial and successful. He is still, after thirty four and a half years, in the active duties of his profession. He carried his Christian principles into the practice of the law, thereby gainiog a "good name," which is better than " great riches." Although he has not amassed a large fortune, he stands high in his profession-a Nestor of the Bar, secure in the confi- dence and esteem of his fellow-citizens, and holding many important positions of trust.

M. Gilmour ja N.Y.

JOHN M. STEARNS.

Speaking of the lawyer's reputation, Mr. Stearns says: "It is often brilliant for to-day, but in a short time it comes to be that with respect to which ' the memory of man runneth not.' The name that has been widely praised may survive for a gene- ration, but the life work has scarcely a skeleton or fossil to preserve, and vanishes when the old briefs of the dead man are given to the flames, with the remark that they were great achieve- ments for their day."

Notwithstanding his busy professional life, Mr. Stearns has published several volumes, large and small, of his writinge. The first was the Wreath of Wild Roses, in 1846; this was followed in 1866 by The Rights of Man the true Basis of Reconstruc- tion; The Puritan as a Character in History, 1876; The Bible in Har- mony with Nature, being a review of Thomas Paine, James Anthony Froude, and the scientists. He has also written An Appeal for Lay Preaching, and Tom Paine on Trial, and The Infidels in Court, 1880; and has been a frequent contributor

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to the Brooklyn Times and other papers. He has been en- gaged for several years in writing a work on Municipal Law, as developed in the history of the Patriarchs, the Mossic ritual, the laws and jurisprudence of Rome and the Middle Ages, the Roman traditions of Great Britain, especially of the Druids, and the Saxon laws down to the days of Magna Charts -to elucidate, in fact, the historical development of law as a science. During his long professional career, he has accumu- Isted a large library, especially rich in ancient law. In 1872, he gave an address at the centennial celebration of the first settlement of his native place, which was. published as a part of the history of the town. In 1867, with his wife and niece, he visited the French Exposition st Paris, traveling through parts of France, England and Scotland. He published a series of letters containing observations and sketches of what he noted in the Old World. This excursion having proved beneficial to his health, then somewhat impaired, he has since traveled through most of the States and Territories of the Union, visiting also Manitoba and the Red River country of the North. He has spent some $15,000 in these travels, but in addition to the varied knowledge so gathered, he believes that his life has been pre- served thereby to the sound old age of seventy-three, with a fair prospect for lengthened days. Mr. Stearns has twice married; first, Emeline H. Adams, of Bethel, Vt., in September, 1836; second, Mrs. Sarah J. Valentine Vandberg, December 16, 1861. He has two children: Helen J., who married Hon. Homer A. Nelson, of Poughkeepsie, in 1855, who is widely known as a lawyer and politician, having been County Judge of Dutchess County four years; member of Congress, 1861-1862; Secretary of State of New York three years, and State Senstor for two years last past. J. Milton Stearns, Jr., has practiced law with marked success, as far as his health permitted. He has latterly given special attention to the law of pstents.

Mr. Stearns himself has never held any office above that of Notary Public and Commissioner of Deeds. In 1860, he was a candidate for the Assembly, and again in 1861. He had reason to believe that certain great corporations required a "man of straw " for their purposes, rather than a person of independent thought and judgment; hence he was in both years defeated. His political preferences of late years have been for the Repub- lican party.

In person, Mr. Stearns is somewhat above the average size, hsle and ruddy, hair frosted by seventy-three winters, but his bright blue eye is as keen now ss thirty years ago. He is a man'of great force of character, strong in his opinions, and courageous in their defense; at the same time permeated with an acute sense of humor, altogether a typical New Englander of the best class. His long and varied experience of life has mellowed, not soured, his disposition, so that his comments on men and things, though somewhat sarcastic, are given with a merry twinkle of the eye, that makes them sparkling, but not scid. In these character- istics he resembles Carlyle, without Carlyle's bitterness.

It has already been mentioned that he was ordained to the ministry in early life. The reasons that impelled him to change his profession may be gleaned from the following committee report, which he made to the Congregational Association of New York State, under a resolution in reference to the employing of lay preachers:

"As one who has failed in his early aspirations for usefulness and success in the Christian ministry-first, through his pre- sumed lack of educational preparation for the work, and the influences that dominated churches in that regard; and, again, through the contests for ascendency between old school and new school, old measures and new measures, back of which lay the contest as between justice and right, and apologies for human slavery-I confess I bring from this experience an earnest interest in behalf of the humblest servant of Christ, in his efforts, in duty, and his aspiration for aggressive work in the interests of Zion. I confess I looked for saintly sympathy from

the clergy of those times; but found I could only be appre- ciated as a factor on the one side or the other of the great contests that were sgitsting the land. And when I look back and remember what slight influences, or perhaps unconscious prejudices, and unguarded remarks, shut out the prospects I had cherished, and finally changed the whole course of my life, I am impressed with the duty of treating the modest and humble aspirations of young men with grest tenderness and care. The amens responded to the discourse of the humble exhorter have often been the inspiration of hope to his soul, and developed in due time the prescher ss a man of God with power.

" But I may be asked why I have not returned to the work? This I have often asked myself, and found my chart of life msds up and controlled by inexorable laws. You might as well ask s sea captain in mid ocean why he did not come to land. If the ghosts of human quarrels could be laid by a word and the wav- ing of a wand, we could make an end of toil in the legal pro- fession. But we have no such power.

"I might occasionally have lent a hand in the interest of my cherished early hopes. But I have always believed that church order is essential to permanence of religious influence; and to go from secular duties to the pulpit without the immediate sanction of church authorities would have done violence to s useful popular sentiment, and not have been useful to the cause."

BREWSTER KISSAM.

BREWSTER KISSAM was born in the city of New York on the 16th day of March, 1849, and is now in his thirty-sixth year. He is a son of George Brooks Kissam, who in his lifetime was s well-known lawyer, and law partner of Hon. Dudley Selden, deceased. Brewster Kissam received an ordinary common school education, and at the age of fourteen years went to sea. He fol- lowed this life for about two years, having, during thst time, been to Chins, Japan, the East Indies, California, and other parts of the globe. Upon his return to New York, about the year 1865, he commenced the study of law in the law office of Charles B. Hart, in New York. In April, 1870, being then twenty-one years and one month old, he was admitted to the Bar in thst city, and entered immediately upon the sctive prac- tice of his profession in this State. In October, 1870, a few months following his admission to the Bar, he married & Miss Emma C. Atkinson, of Brooklyn, who is now his wife. The issue of this marriage is one child.

Mr. Kissam is well known as a lawyer, has a large and lucrative practice in the cities of New York and Brooklyn, and has acted as counsel in many important lsw cases. As a lawyer, he has the reputation of carrying conviction to the minds of the court and jury, by the sound common sense of his arguments rather than by any attempted flights of oratory.

In politics, Mr. Kissam is an uncompromising Democrat. For a period of five years he represented his word in the Democratic General Committee of Kings County, and took an active part in the deliberations and discussions of that body.

He resigned from the committee in the fall of the yesr 1878. He has, during the past ten years, represented his district in numerous city and county conventions, and in several State con- ventions. In the fall of 1877 he was chairman of the Kings County delegation to the Democratic State Convention, held st Albany. Mr. Kissam has always taken an active interest in the politics of the party with which he is identified, and for several years past has taken the stump, each fall, in the interest of his party. Although not a particularly flowery speaker, he is known as a forcible and common sense one.

In the fall of the yesr 1881, Mr. Kissam was appointed as one of the thres Commissioners of Charities and Corrections of Kings County for the term of four years from the 1st January, 1882.

This position he still holds, continning, at the same time, the practice of his profession.

Brewster Kussam

A.LITTLE

a O huillard

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LEGAL BIOGRAPHIES.

The duties and responsibilities devolving upon him as a com- missioner are very great, involving the care, management and control of the Penitentiary, Almahouse, Hospital, Lunatic Aay- lum, Asylum for the Incurable Inaane, and their 4,000 inmates. His record as a commissioner is well known to the people of this county. Reforms in this department, previously commenced, have been continued, and other important reforms have been effected during his term of office.

Mr. Kissam is about five feet ten inches in height, weighs 210 pounds, is dark complexioned, and has dark eyes and hair.

JOHN A. NICHOLS.

JOHN A. NICHOLS is a son of John and Eliza (Camerden) Nichols, and waa horn at Port Richmond, Staten Island, August 28th, 1831. He was educated at the old Academy in Newark, New Jersey, read law in the office of Norman B. Judd, of Chicago, and was admitted to the Bar in 1855. In 1860, he received the hon- orsry degree of A. M. from Kenyon College, at Gambier, Ohio. Hewas engaged in the practice of hia profession in Chicago until 1864, when he removed to Brooklyn and became identified with insurance interests in New York. A year later these interests necesaitsted his removal to Baltimore, Maryland, where he was manager of an extensive agency and organized an insurance company, still in existence, of which he was for some time pres- ident. He returned to Brooklyn in 1873, residing at No. 437 Clinton avenue, and was again prominently connected with New York insurance interests until 1882, when he resumed the practice of the law, his offices being located at 73 Broadway.

Politically, Mr. Nichols is a Republican. In January, 1880, he was elected president of the Kinga County Republican General Committee, and in the following spring he was appointed Commissioner of Quarantine by Governor Cornell, which posi- tion he yet holds. He has long been active and influential both in local and State politics, and has served as a delegate from his district to all Republican State Conventions for some years psst. Mr. Nichols' religious affiliations are with the Prot- estant Episcopal Church, and he and his family are communi- cants of the Church of the Messiah, Brooklyn, with which he is officially connected as vestryman. For several years past he hss regularly been a delegate to the Diocesan Conventions.

March 19th, 1855, Mr. Nichola was married to a daughter of Francis Bortells, of Palmyra, Wayne County, New York; they have four sons and a daughter. The identification of Mrs. Nichols with the charitable institutions of Brooklyn is well known, and dates back almost to the time when Mr. Nichols first hecame a resident of the city. It is to the Sheltering Arms Nursery, however, that she devotes most of her time and gen- erosity. Of this institution she is president and a more than liberal supporter.

A. ORVILLE MILLARD.

A. ORVILLE MILLARD is a native of Ulster County, New York, horn January 9th, 1809, a son of T. Aitken and Charlotte (Ro- selle) Millard. His parents died when he was a mere child, and he had s hard struggle until he reached young manhood. He taught school and was engaged in civil engineering until he wss twenty-one years of age, when he came to New York and began to read law in the office of Samuel Sherwood, one of the most distinguished lawyers of that time.

At the time of his arrival in New York, Broadway extended only as far up as Canal street, with farma above, and Brooklyn was a mere country village clustering about Fulton Ferry. He lived in New York during the whole of the memorable year of 1832, during the terrible ravages of the cholera, and alao during the period of the abolition riots, in 1834, when he witnessed many scenes of turbulence and excitement which have become historical. It is matter of interest in this connection that

Brooklyn's growth dates from 1833, the year after the cholera season, when New Yorkers sought that locality for country seats remote from the city, and only a few years later the slope only a short distance from the ferry was dotted with villas, with partially cultivated apaces between. The rapid growth of Brooklyn, during the earlier years of its advancement, Mr. Millard attributes to the fact that the assessors of Kings County exempted personal property from taxation, which afforded an inducement to New York merchants to settle in Brooklyn.

In July, 1833, Mr. Millard was admitted to the Bar, and at once opened an office at No 7 Nassau street. . He was engaged in the general practice of his profession until 1849, when he retired from active professional life; but being engaged in real estate practice, he continued the same until the commencement of the Rebellion. He has been a resident of Brooklyn since 1839, and has since taken a deep interest in the growth and pros- perity of the city at large, and especially of Old Bedford, within the confines of which he has so long had his home. He was for several years one of the supervisors of Brooklyn, and waa one of the earliest members of the Board of Education, which he assisted materially to organize. He was appointed Master in Chancery by Governor Bouck about 1843, and held the office until the Court of Chancery was abolished. The rapid development of his part of the city ia attributable in a great degree to the operations in real estate of Mr. Millard and others, and to him is due the credit of having induced many worthy citizens to take up their residence in that locality.

It is probable that Judge Millard, in view of hia long resi- dence in, and his identification with the interests of Brooklyn, ia more thoroughly conversant with the history of its progress from a village to its present statua aa the third city in the Union, than any other resident. He has been a property-holder and a close and attentive observer of passing events, and the various interests of Brooklyn have been watched by him through many years of development, and he is thoroughly acquainted with the causes which have resulted in the remarkable progresa of the city. The introduction of the Croton water in New York gave to that city an impetus and advantages that left Brooklyn at a standatill until the Ridgewood water was introduced, which gave her an immediate and vigorous acceleration of growth. The next important event of which Mr. Millard apeaks in this con- nection, was the introduction of horae railroads in New York, in consequence of which thousands of families moved up town, and the settlement of the Brooklyn shore waa retarded until the introduction of the street railways in Brooklyn; and, with other far-seeing citizens, Mr. Millard believes that the progresa of Brooklyn will be comparatively slow until she can compete with New York in the matter of rapid transit.

Mr. Millard has been a life-long Democrat; he was reared in the Episcopal Church, and for many years has been interested in St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Clinton avenue.

FRANCIS E. DANA

is of the old New England Dana family, which has produced some men eminent in lettera and in the profession, while all ita members have been at least respectable law-abiding citizens; in fine, it is a good example of the New England aristocracy of talent and intelligence. Mr. Dana's great-grandfather was a member of the Connecticut Assembly from the Connecticut Colony that had settled in the Connecticut lands in Pennsyl- vania; returning to his home, he fell a victim to the massacre in the Wyoming Valley, whence his widow and nine children made their way back on foot to friends in Connecticut.

Mr. Dana is of the third generation of lawyers in the family; his father, Mr. Alexander Hamilton Dana, and his grand- father, Elizur Dana, of Owego, having been bred to the law before him. He was born in Livingston street, Brooklyn, January 21, 1836 ; his early education was acquired at a

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private school in Powers street, kept by a Mr. Fairchild, and at the Columbia College Grammar School. At the age of sixteen, he commenced the study of the law in his father's office in New York, where his training was thorough and practical; he passed a good examination and was admitted to the Bar February 12, 1858. He soon after began the practice of his profession in New York. Many of his clients being Brooklyn people, in 1869 he removed to this city, where his practice largely centered, although he still has often to appear in New York courts. He is regarded by his brethren on the Bench and at the Bar as an able lawyer; in the trial of causes, his cases are carefully prepared and skillfully presented; shrewd, wary, and self-controlled, sharp in attack and strong in defense, not often disconcerted, he nearly always is master of the situation. Before a jury, his style is temperate and collected, rather than vociferous, yet sufficiently animated; it is more impressive than impulsive, more logical than declamatory, and he wins by force of reason- ing rather than by appeals to prejudice. In arguments addressed to the Court, his briefs and points are clear, succinct, and well sustained by authorities; his words terse and direct. Among the brilliant triumphs that Mr. Dana has won, may be men- tioned the following cases, viz .: The Phoenix Warehousing Company, respondent, v. Daniel D. Badger, appellant, reported in the 67th New York Court of Appeals Reports, page 294. In this case Mr. Dana appeared for the respondents, having been their attorney though the lower courts, and the Court sustained his position, that a trustee of a corporation who has taken part in its management and contracted with it as a cor- poration, cannot afterwards dispute the validity of its incorpo- ration; also that a subscription to the articles of incorporation, with a statement of the number of shares opposite the name, is a sufficient and binding subscription for stock, and takes effect on filing the certificate. Another is the case of W. L. Palmer, appellant, v. W. Purdy, as executor, etc., respondent, 83d New York, page 144, in which Mr. Dana appeared for the appel- lant, and the Court of Appeals held in his favor, that though one

of several original debtors may contract with the others for their assumption of the common debt so as to acquire the rights of a surety, their notice to the creditor of their changed attitude must be definite and distinct. Another and a very interesting case in connection with the colored public schools, which Mr. Dana conducted in behalf of the Board of Education, is reported in the 93d New York, page 400, as The People ex rel. Theresa W. B. King, by guardian, appellant, v. John Gallagher, principal, etc., respondent; Mr. Dana appearing for respondent. The Court held that under the provisions of the Common School Act, passed in 1864, applying to cities and incorporated towns, the school authorities have power to establish schools for the exclusive use of colored children, and that the establishment of such separate schools is not an abridgment of the "privileges or immunities " preserved by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution; that equality and not identity of rights and privileges is what is guaranteed; that neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor the Civil Rights Act of 1873 restrict the right to establish separate colored schools; as the common schools are granted by the State to its citizens, and depend solely upon State laws for their origin and support, they are not within the purview of the Constitution. This case attracted widespread attention, from its importance, and brought many commendations to the attorney for the able manner in which he conducted it. Mr. Dana has been so absorbed in his profession that he has never interested himself in politics, beyond voting, generally, the Republican ticket, and has never held office, except as a member of the Board of Education, to which he was first appointed in July, 1880, and reappointed by Mayor Low in 1883; he has been chairman of the Law Committee since 1881, and carried on the litigated cases of the Board.

In person, Mr. Dana is of commanding height, erect, and well proportioned.

In 1869, he married Julia, youngest daughter of Rev. Dr. Budington; their pleasant house on Washington avenue is the abode of refinement and culture.

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HON. JOHN VANDERBILT.

The Hon. JOHN VANDERBILT (referred to on pages 352 and 362, as a partner in the legal firm of Lott, Murphy & Van- derbilt), was the eldest son of John Vanderbilt and Sarah Lott, his wife, of Flatbush. In 1835, as we have seen, he be- came the junior member of the distinguished and very representative firm above referred to. It is said of the three gentlemen comprising this firm, that "they brought into local politics the principles of statesmanship, and to civil service the habits of fidelity, independence and diligence, and that grade of culture, force and knowledge, which made their public records a bright part of the history of their county, just as their private careers have been a most honorable part of the social and intellectual history of their city."

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 165

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co Number of Pages: 1345

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345