USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Ellicott > The early history of the town of Ellicott, Chautauqua County, N.Y. > Part 21
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ably was fatally wounded at that time. His body re- turned to mother earth on Virginia soil. John F. Smith, as soon as he could arrange his business, also raised a company and followed his partner Brown to the field. He fell leading his men to the desperate charge of Fort Fisher. As he sat on the ground sur- rounded by his officers he predicted that he would be killed that day. His body came back wrapped in his country's flag, and rests in the peaceful shades of Lake View cemetery. Col. John F. Smith and his brother Capt. Hiram N. Smith, and the captain's two sons Mil- ton and William, sleep side by side. Brave men ! Such were the ones that Ellicott sent to her country's defence.
An act of heroism of Capt. Hiram Smith should
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be recorded. After a battle {Williamsburg, I think) his son Milton who belonged to the same regiment, was not among those mustered after the battle. Smith knew he was either killed or wounded. After mid- night he went alone over that gloomy battle field, guided by the sickly light of the moon ; he beheld the outstretched forms of the dead and heard moans and groans of the dying. Every few paces he halted and called, "Milton ! Milton!" Finally his call was met by the feeble response of "Here I am father; I am shot, I cannot get up." He was fatally wounded. Smith took his wounded, dying son in his arms and conveyed him to the hospital, where he soon expired. It was at a time when leave of absence, and more especially transportation, were with great difficulty to be procured. Capt. Smith was furloughed for ten days to go home and bury his son. But there was no trans- portation. Smith took letters from the Colonel and General, wrapped his dead son in his blanket, and went aboard a boat at Fortress Monroe. The living and the deud bunked together until they arrived at Baltimore ; there a coffin was procured and the next day Smith and his dead child were in Jamestown. His telegram had been received and everything was in readiness. The burial was the next morning, and the day after Smith was on his way back to the Peninsula. These are the bare facts. Such were the men who defended us in the great war of the Rebellion.
We would have the memory of this lowly building embalmed in the remembrance of every citizen as the headquarters of patriotism and love of country in Jamestown, in 1861. There the old man gave up his sons and younger men their homes, their wives and
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SAMUEL A. BROWN.
children, to become sacrifices on the altar of their country's needs.
HON. SAMUEL A. BROWN was the first lawyer to settle in Jamestown. He was the son of Col. Daniel Brown of Connecticut. When but eighteen years of age he left his home and came west to his brother's, who was a lawyer in Otsego county in this state, and with whom he studied law. He left his brother's house in the summer of 1816 on horseback, and after travel- ing as far west as Painesville, Ohio, viewing the country and forecasting its future prospects, he returned to this state. Meeting Jacob. Houghton, Esq., at the Cross Roads he was induced to ride over to the rapids, which at that time was beginning to be known by its new name of Jamestown. He arrived here in November, and after consulting with Judge Prendergast, Dr. Ha- zeltine and Abner Hazeltine, who was then studying law under Houghton, and Edward Work, he concluded to prepare for examination in Houghton's office, and to apply for admission as an attorney at the coming common pleas of Chautauqua. He boarded at Dish- er's tavern, and opened an office in the northeast cor- ner of a new unfinished building on the southwest cor- ner of Main and Third streets.
In March, 1819, Mr. Brown married Prudence O., daughter of Capt. Cotes of Otsego county. Capt. Cotes resided in the same village in which Brown had studied law with his brother. He soon returned with his wife and that season erected a low, one-story building with a front and back room on the ground now occupied by the store built by Dr. Simons on Main street, next to the Ormes residence. In the back room of this office Mr. and Mrs. Brown lived for several months after their
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marriage, and boarded a portion of the mechanics en- gaged in building their house, which was located where the Ormes residence now stands.
Mrs. Brown did her cooking by the side of a big oak stump back of the office, over which a slight shel- ter of boards had been placed. This stump was stand- ing long after the writer's remembrance, Mr. Brown preserving it as a memento of the past, and was very fond of showing it to his friends as Mrs. Brown's first kitchen. In fair weather Mrs. Brown was accustomed to set her table for her boarders by the side of the stump on a platform over which a shelter of boards had been placed. Brown in after years in showing his friends the limited accommodations of his early house- keeping was accustomed to say: "Well and then, gen- tlemen and ladies, I can assure you we had ample ac- commodations, plenty of room-especially in Mrs. Brown's dinin' room and kitching. We slept in the back room of the offis, 10x20; it contained besides our bed all of our furniture, but the room was ample."
In 1828 he was appointed district attorney for the county and held the office up to 1838. In 1826 he be- came agent for the "Cherry Valley Land Co.", who owned a large tract of land in the eastern part of the county. For many years he paid to the soldiers of the Revolution their pensions. He was elected a member of Assembly in 1827 and again in 1845. In 1824 he lost the election by two votes to Nathan Mixer of the north part of the county. He was among the fore- most in all educational matters, and for many years an elder of the Presbyterian church. He was always fore- most in any business or plans for the advancement or care of the village. In 1829 Richard P. Marvin be- came his partner in business; Mr. Marvin retiring,
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George W. Tew, who had studied law in his office, be- came his partner in 1831. Afterwards his three sons successively-1st Charles C., 2d Theodore, and 3d, Le- vant were his partners. None of these sons are now living. The Ormes residence was built by Brown a few years before his death. Mr. and Mrs. Brown were among the very best of Jamestown's early residents. He was remarkable for his industry, perseverance and close attention to business. He was a strict adherent of Franklin's rule, "Keep your place of business and it will keep you."
Samuel A. Brown was a man of a remarkably cheerful temperament, quick and active mind, and appeared to great advantage as a conversationalist. He conversed without effort and without pretense, but with great humor and wit and with skillful adaptation to the tastes of his hearers. He was ready to converse on all subjects, whether well understood by him or " not, and with all classes of persons. What he lacked in knowledge of the subject he made up in wit, and never lapsed into garrulity. He would engage in a grave discussion upon important subjects when the occasion required, but he hated disputation and dog- matism and seldom failed to divert the current of argu- ment by some stroke of humor or quaint extravagance of remark. His more pointed and brilliant sayings should be preserved, although they could give but a faint reflection of his wit, and do imperfect justice to. the shrewdness, humor and good sense of his conver- sation. The humorous sayings of a lively, quick-wit- ted talker like Brown cannot be reproduced in print, their point and delicacy are sure to be lost in the pro- cess; they sparkle only in the atmosphere in which they were produced. He was a keen observer of men
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and often exposed the weaknesses and foibles of others with quick and pungent satire-sometimes not spar- ing his best friends and associates; but there was no malice in his wit, nor any disposition to inflict a ser- ious wound. His sarcasms were sometimes apparently thoughtless, but never harsh or intentionally unkind, and he would go far to do a kind deed for those whose faults or peculiar position he had just visited with playful severity. Always pleasant and agreeable, and eminently social, his society was courted by all, and during his whole life he was always found among the foremost in all undertakings for the building up of the town and advancing the welfare of its citizens. From first to last more young men studied law in Brown's office than in any other. Mr. Brown was a devoted and affectionate husband and father. He had a large family-eleven children in all, five of whom died in infancy or childhood. But three of the children are now living. Prudence Olivia Cotes, wife of S. A. Brown died in 1862. Samuel A. Brown died June 7, 1865, sincerely lamented by all who knew him.
ABNER HAZELTINE,
Hon. Abner Hazeltine came to Jamestown in No- vember, 1815, taught school three seasons in James- town and studied law under Judge Houghton. In the summer of 1819 he was admitted as an attorney in the supreme court, and returned to Wardsboro, Ver- mont and married Polly Kidder in September of that year. He returned in November and settled in War- ren, Pa. Three years afterwards he returned to Jamestown. A talented young lawyer named Shel- don Smith, had settled in Jamestown nearly two years
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previous, but his health, which had always been deli- cate, began to fail rapidly and he left the town and went to Buffalo where for several years he stood in the front rank of the profession. Samuel A. Brown says of him in his History of the Town of Ellicott, that he was a man of talent and an able lawyer. That when a resident here he amused himself and others in writ- ing humorous poetical effusions and still more humor- ous accounts of some of the crooked transactions that happened here at an early day, especially those of the "Junto." . The writer is now the owner of the papers spoken of by Mr. Brown, and although they deal in facts he has no desire to draw upon them for this His- tory. Sheldon Smith died in Buffalo, of consumption in 1836. The office vacated by Smith in the back end of the second story of Tiffany's store and which was reached from Second street by stairs on the outside at the east end, was soon occupied by Abner Hazeltine. He continued to practice law in Jamestown up to within a few days of his death, December 20, 1879. His first wife died October 14, 1832, leaving three children; the fourth died in childhood. Two years af- ter he married Matilda Hayward, who died April 1, 1877, leaving three children all of whom are now liv- ing; of the first family two only are living at the près- ent writing. Abner Hazeltine in 1828, also in 1829, was elected assemblyman of the state; in 1832, also in 1834, he was elected member of congress. In 1847 he was made district attorney for Chautauqua county, and in 1859 and 1873 was elected judge. He was one of the founders of the Congregational church in James- town in 1816, the first religious society formed in Jamestown.
The following extracts from the proceedings of
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the Chautauqua Bar in reference to the Hon. Abner Hazeltine, we take from a heavy document which would fill a dozen such papers as this, and it is all so true, without undue laudation, from the address of Judge Barker to the closing speech, that the writer would be pleased to give place to the whole as a trib- ute to one of the best of men.
Mr. Jenkins says: "Mr. Chairman, I knew Judge Hazeltine for a long number of years. 'There was a characteristic of his of which I wish to speak. In the younger days of my professional life I looked upon him as a model to be kept in view. It was one great characteristic of his life, that he read the law as a grand science worthy of the best efforts ofhis life. Who is there among you from Jamestown, who in going home late at night, have not noticed the flickering at the window of that tallow candle, without feeling aware that Abner Hazeltine was there and would be there until after midnight, wrapt in deepest study, his brain teeming with the grandest thoughts, and with heart intent on the performance of duty? He was a model judge, and he had a heart full of sympathy and goodness. His intellect was trained to a higher and holier life by that industry the young men might well imitate. He stood out like the oak that had long withstood the blast of many winters and fell by its own weight at last."
HON. AUSTIN SMITH, of Westfield, speaks of him as "one who has always distinguished himself as an honest and upright man in every position he has oc- cupied in life. As a member of the State Legislature, as a Member of Congress, as District Attorney, as Judge of Chautauqua county, and in all the varied re- lations of life."
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HON. LORENZO MORRIS, of Fredonia, says : "That in any relation in which you could meet him, either professionally or socially, you could never leave him without an admiration for him and without feeling you had been meeting a great, good and perfectly bal- anced man."
JUDGE GEORGE BARKER thanked the bar for invit- ing him to the chair on an occasion so important. " This meeting will be the most distinguished in our annals-for Abner Hazeltine was the oldest in years and practice of the lawyers of this county. His life has been so useful and so honorable, characterized by so many virtues, and at this bar so pre-eminent, and his departure delayed to a period so far beyond the privilege of most men to live-so full of honors and so full of usefulness, that it is a pleasure, a sad one in- deed, to speak of his life and character on this occa- sion. And whatever may be spoken of him at this time by his brethren who survive him will be but speaking the sentiments of every citizen of this county. He was known to us and to every inhabitant. He outlived all his earliest associates in the profession, and I doubt not survived the first client he ever had. Judge Hazeltine enjoyed one advantage which all the members of the legal profession in this county did not have, and that was a collegiate education. This early education distinguished his whole life. I never heard him speak on any occasion to court or jury, to people or to fellow associates, without he expressed himself in the completest manner and with the most thorough diction."
Many persons studied law in Abner Hazeltine's office. Prominent among them was-
HON. ABNER LEWIS, who afterwards was Member
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of Assembly in 1839 and Member of Congress from 1847 to 1849, and County Judge in 1852. Soon after his term of office expired he emigrated to the west and there died a few years ago.
HON. EMORY F. WARREN studied law in the office of Hon. R. P. Marvin, and practiced law in Jamestown from in 1834 to 1846. He soon became a partner of Mr. Marvin's, and succeeded Abner Hazeltine as ed- itor of the Journal, and wrote a history of Chautauqua county, often referred to, and which was published by J. Warren Fletcher in 1846. In 1841 Mr. Burnell, who had studied law in the office of Marvin & Warren, be- came the partner of Mr. Marvin, Warren retiring and becoming the partner of Abner Hazeltine. In 1840 Mr. Warren was appointed an Examiner in Chancery by Gov. Seward. He was elected a Member of Assem- bly in 1842 and 1843. In 1846 finding that his health was failing he removed to a farm in Stockton and took to agriculture. At the close of the same year his health was so improved that he concluded to resume the prac- tice of law at Sinclairville, where he continued until 1856. He was appointed Postmaster in Sinclairville in 1849, and held that appointment for several years, In 1855 he was elected Surrogate of Chautauqua county, and the next year removed to Fredonia. In 1859 he was appointed Commissioner in the Court of Claims at Washington. He held the office of Excise Commissioner for Chautauqua county from 1861 to 1870. He was county Judge for six years ending in 1877. We are not aware that at the present time the Judge holds any office-he is too old-yet we are in- formed in good health, goes to his office daily, and is as busy with his law books and papers as ever, al- though he has slipped into the seventh year of his
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eighth decade. What long lives these honest lawyers are permitted to enjoy.
Judge Warren was born in Madison county in 1810, and came with his father to this county to reside when a little more that eight years old, He was an old settler and dates back to 1819. He was made into a lawyer in Jamestown. Fredonia will probably take charge of his funeral services and fur- nish the usual memorials.
HON. LORENZO MORRIS came from Madison county with his father to Chautauqua in 1829, when less than twelve years old. His early education was that of the common schools and Mayville academy. He read law, first with Judge Thomas A. Osborne in Mayville and afterwards with Orsell Cook in Jamestown. In 1841 he was admitted, and became a partner of Judge Cook's. In 1844 he removed to Mayville, and in 1852 to Fredonia where he has since lived, one of the prom- inent lawyers of the county and is still active in the "whereus," "nevertheless," "notwithstanding" profession of his early choice. If as an advocate the mantle of Madison Burnell fell upon the shoulders of any com- peer, it will be found in the possession of Lorenzo Morris. Unfortunately for his political preferment he has been an uncompromising Democrat, a very unfash- ionable kind of politics in this highly enlightened county, but exceedingly fortunate for his standing as a lawyer. The only accident that has broken in to lessen his high standing as a Counsellor and Advocate before a jury was his election in 1867 to the Senate of the state of New York by his fellow citizens, the Republi- cans of the district. We claim him as belonging on the south side of the ridge.
JOSEPH WAITE came from Vermont with wife and
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two children and all his worldly goods in a two-horse wagon, and settled on a small farm in the town of Car- roll in 1816. He moved to Jamestown in 1821, and commeneed the study of law after he was thirty-six years old. He became a successful lawyer and had a good practice up to 1854, when he emigrated to Wis- consin, where he died the next year of apoplexy. Hc was at one time District Attorney for the county. He was a good specimen of a self-made man. Hisremains rest in Lake View cemetery by the side of Olive Davis his wife, who died in Jamestown, in 1851.
FRANKLIN H. WAITE, the eldest son of Joseph Waite, studied law in his father's office and for several years was in company with his father. He was a young man of much promise. At one time he was Postmas- ter. He married Adeline, the eldest daughter of San- ford Holman, spoken of in a previous chapter. He was the oldest and leader of the boys of the village of the writer's set. He was our leader when we went to the swamp to cut red willows for horses, foremost in play- ing ball, captain in the duties of the crate. When the boys played at soldiers, Frank Waite was captain, Gust Allen was lieutenant, and the writer drummed on a quite peculiar drum that had been prepared for him. Rev. Dr. Hiram Eddy was the tallest and his. brother, Rev. Dr. Zaek Eddy, next tallest of the high privates. Dasc. (Dascum Allen) would not train be- cause he could not be captain. Many years ago Waite sought a larger field in the west. At Mankato, in Minnesota, he became a judge of the courts, and at the time of his death was a very important man in that region of the country.
HON. GEO. W. TEW read law in S. A. Brown's office and became his partner in 1831. Mr. Tew came
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to Jamestown in 1825 and opened a shop for the man- ufacture of tin and sheet iron ware, in the building north of Shaw's hotel, already spoken of as Noah's Ark. He was elected County Clerk in 1834, and re- moved to Mayville and never returned to Jamestown to reside. He was again elected County Clerk in 1837. In 1841 he became Cashier of the bank of Silver Creek and removed from Mayville to that place. He after- wards became President of the bank and continued to reside in Silver Creek as long as he lived. Just before his removal to Jamestown in 1825 he married Mary D. Alger, by whom he had four children, one dying in infancy. In 1840 he married Mrs. Caroline Reynolds, by whom he had three children. His two sons, G. W. Tew and Willis Tew, are now residents of Jamestown, the one president and the other vice president of the City National bank.
JUDGE RICHARD P. MARVIN, EsQ., came to James- town in 1829. From the first he has been one of Jamestown's prominent men and one of the leading lawyers of the county and of western New York. It may be truly said of him, he was the originator of the N. Y. & Erie railroad. He frequently spoke of the feasibility and the necessity of this road to his friends, not only in Jamestown but in various parts of the state, long before the project took form, and to his constantly keeping it before the public is due the first commence- ment of this great road. Notwithstanding his studious habits and close application to the duties of his profes- sion, he was a great favorite among the young people of Jamestown. In the fall of 1834 he married Isabella Newland of Albany, a sister of Robert Newland of our city. He was a member of congress for four years from 1837 to 1841. In 1847 he was elected judge of the
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Eighth judicial district, which office he held by re- elections for nearly twenty-five years and until he reached the age by which he was incapacitated by law, and that was many years ago. No man walks our streets standing more erect than the Judge. No man is more interested and busy, planning for the present and future welfare of our city than the Judge. No man is more regularly in his office, busily engaged in preparing important law papers than JUDGE RICHARD P. MARVIN.
We have been urged to give a fuller mention to Judge Marvin, and intended to do so and had written a long article in addition to the above, but have concluded to lay it aside. The Judge is yet liv- ing, hale and healthy, and quite as good looking as sixty years ago, notwithstanding he has for several years been an octogenarian. We hope he will live to be one hundred years old, and we believe he will. It is not for us to write the biography of this great minded, active, busy old man.
JUDGE ORSELL COOK commenced the study of law in Brown & Tew's office near the same time Madison Burnell commenced in the office of Marvin & Warren. In due time he was admitted and has from that time been one of Jamestown's prominent and most trusted law- yers. Many young men received their legal education under his tutelage. We think a majority of them from time to time have been his partners. In 1839 he mar- ried Ann Tew, a sister of Geo. W. and W. H. Tew, by whom he had three children, all of whom are living, married and residents of Jamestown. In 1849 he mar- ried Eliza Reed Dexter, by whom he had one child. In 1844 and in 1847 he was elected Surrogate, and in 1863 and in 1867 County Judge, stations he filled with
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great satisfaction to the people. Gov. Fenton's home office for many years was with Judge Cook, and he was his confidential friend and advisor. The Judge is still engaged in the active duties of his profession. He is truly one of Jamestown's land marks. Erect in per- son and venerable in appearance, and like Judge Mar- vin, good looking as all old judges appear to be, James- town is truly proud of her venerable judges, and has the greatest reasons for being so. Judge Cook is in good health and as busy as ever in his office; we trust he has many years before him. We leave him in his studious quiet to finish his course and to become a prominent figure in some future history.
MADISON BURNELL.
A more than passing notice becomes necessary of this extraordinary man. There were no very remark_ able incidents in his life, but in his intellectual and moral make up, there was a fascination and a charm no one could resist. We shall therefore make only such references to his public career as will enable us to make manifest his personal characteristics as a man and a lawyer.
Madison Burnell was born in Chautauqua county on the 10th day of February, 1812. He was one of Chautauqua's first borns. His father, Judge Joel Bur- nell, settled in what is now the town of Charlotte, in the year 1810. The Judge is described by one who knew him well, as a man of "original and brilliant in- tellect and of superior mental endowments and sound judgment." Madison was the second of a family of eleven children. His childhood and youth were spent on the paternal farm, where he shared in the toil of changing the wilderness into cultivated fields. Both father and mother were persons of remarkable intelli-
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gence and judgment and great readers. Brought up by such parents it would be indeed strange if the son did not share their tastes; indeed, it is said of him that he was inclined to read whatever came within his reach, and that consisted of his father's law books, to which were added a fair library of religious and theological works, for his father was a preacher as well as a Justice and Associate Judge of the Court of Com- mon pleas. Books, such as these, was the reading of his boyhood days. Judge Burnell's residence was also his office and court room. On court days Madison al- ways tucked himself away in a quiet corner and watched the proceedings. He became thoroughly ac- quainted with court procedure and rules of evidence at an early age; he undestood everything and forgot nothing. He was not quite 16 years old when he com- menced reading Blackstone and other law books in his father's library. This great work interested the future lawyer more than ordinary minds would be in- terested in the perusal of romance. When a mere boy he conducted a prosecution brought before his father against a person for sheep stealing with such skill and ingenuity and in accordance with the rules of evi- dence as to obtain not only a verdict for the thief, but the acquiescence of the entire community in its justness. His tender sympathy for this misguided neighbor, created a desire to save him from prison, and believ- ing he had found a serious flaw in the evidence he voluntarily undertook to defend him, and with suc- cess.
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