USA > New York > Ulster County > The history of Ulster County, New York > Part 43
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On the 3rd day of May, 1777, the convention which had adopted the republican constitution, reorganized the Supreme Court ; and on the eighth of the same month, by ordinance, it appointed John Jay, Chief Justice, and Robert Yates and John Sloss Hobart, puisne justices. The first term of · court was held under the new government opened at the Court House in Kingston on the 9th day of the following September, with Chief Justice Jay presiding. In his charge to the grand jury he congratulated that body on the dawn of free government, and remarked with satisfaction that the first fruits of the new constitution appeared in a part of the State, the inhabitants of which had "distinguished themselves by having unani- mously endeavored to deserve them."
The public services of Justice Jay occupy an important place in the history of the young commonwealth and of the nation. In addition to his other honors he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Among the many others of our honored dead who have · held terms of the State Supreme Court in the Court House at Kingston and who are deserving of mention, were Smith Thompson and Brock- holst Livingston, who also attained the Federal Supreme bench; and James Kent, Chancellor and Chief Justice, whose official titles, honorable as they were, appear almost insignificant when compared with the splen- dor of his fame as the author of the "Commentaries on: American Law."
Notwithstanding the unfavorable conditions heretofore referred to, the revolutionary period found an active and able bar in the county. Foremost, of course, in point of official prominence, was George Clinton, a member-and the leader-of the patriotic minority of the Colonial Assembly ; member of the Congress which adopted the Declaration of Independence, for which he votes, although his signature is not appended ; Brigadier General in the Continental army; first Governor of the State; president of the State Convention which ratified the Federal constitution, and vice-president of the United States. For many years he was clerk of the county.
Associated with Governor Clinton, and ranking high among the law- yers and statesmen of the period, was Charles DeWitt, who, with Clinton,
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had, in the assembly, opposed the royalists, and supported the proposition to send delegates to Congress; who was chairman of the committee of safety, a member of the Provincial Convention; helped to draft the first State constitution, and subsequently sat in the Assembly of the State and in Congress.
It would not be possible within the limits of this paper to even enu- merate all the worthy contemporaries of Clinton and DeWitt. Among the First Judges of the county were Dirck Wynkoop and Lucas Elmen- dorf. The former was a member of the Committee of Safety, of the Provincial Congress of 1775, of the Assembly in 1780-81, and the State Convention of 1788. The latter served in the Federal Congress from 1797 to 1803, and was particularly prominent in the profession.
John Addison was a leading lawyer of that day, who appears to have contented himself with the practice of his profession, without seeking political preferment. Conrad Edmund Elmendorf lived and practiced at the same time and was one of the prosecuting officers who were then known as Assistants Attorney General, appointed for a district made up of several counties. A relic of the system survives in the title of the officer whom we call District Attorney. Berent Gardinier, who served in the tenth and eleventh congresses, and who had much reputation for elo- quence, conducted a long and bitter newspaper controversy with Gen. John Armstrong, Secretary of War, Gardinier claiming that Gen. Arm- strong was and had confessed to being the author of the "New Burgh army letters."
Note that when the lines were drawn and the issue was made up, almost every Ulster County lawyer of position was found on the side of the colonies. There was hardly a Tory upon the roll .* These lawyers of the Revolution were versed in the lore of the common law. They had imbibed the learning of Coke and the Whig jurists of the mother country. They knew the importance of eternal vigilance ; that seemingly slight departures from correct principles of government are dangerous ; that the exercise of the power of taxation without the consent of the representatives of the taxed spells despotism. They were aware that the guarantees of freedom, imbedded in the great charter and soon to be re-enacted in the bills of
* Conspicuous, however, as an exception was Cadwallader Colden, Jr., the presiding judge of the last court held within the county whose writs ran in the name of George the Third. He was arrested at the instance of Governor Clinton and confined within his own county jail, but was soon released on parol. Levi Pawling was appointed to his place by an ordinance of the Pro- vincial Convention. Judge Pawling was the first citizen of the county who sat in the State Senate.
Reuben Bernard.
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rights, were absolutely essential to the preservation of the liberties of the people. They saw such guarantees threatened by the action of the king and his parliament ; and they unhesitatingly risked their lives and fortunes in defense of the great principles which have kept us free.
. The laity followed willingly the leadership of the bar. Indeed, there was never much love for the British throne or loyalty towards its occu- pants among the descendants of the early settlers. Naturally enough, Dutch William, for a time, was popular in Ulster; but the enthusiasm which he evoked was never extended to his stupid though respectable sister-in-law, nor to the equally stupid and generally less respectable heirs of the body of the Electress Sophia. From the standpoint of an English Officer, General Vaughan wrote truth when he characterized Esopus as "a nursery for almost every villain in the country."
Between the lawyers of revolutionary times and those who belong prop- erly to the latter half of the nineteenth century stretched an unbroken line containing many names of good repute. Abraham Bruyn Has- brouck was Representative in Congress in 1826 and 1827, and President of Rutgers College from 1840 to 1850. Charles H. Ruggles was in the State Assembly in 1820, and was afterwards Vice Chancellor, Circuit Judge and Judge of the Court of Appeals under the Constitution of 1846. John Sudam attained great eminence professionally and served with equal dis- tinction in the State Senate. Charles G. DeWitt represented the district in Congress in 1830-31, and was charge d'affaires of the United States in Central America from 1833 to 1839. As a writer on political questions he was known throughout the country. Herman M. Romeyn, whose repu- tation as an advocate has never been surpassed by any member of the Ulster County Bar, held no office, except in 1836, when he sat in the Assembly, and in 1840, when he was a member of the Electoral College and its messenger to Washington. John Van Buren was a member of Assembly in 1831 and of Congress in 1842-43. John Cole was the leading lawyer of Southern Ulster.
Connected somewhat with these names, and reaching over among those that follow, was William B. Wright who, having with signal ability repre- sented Sullivan County, of which he was then a resident, in the Constitu- tional Convention of 1846, was elected, in 1847, to the Supreme Court. He removed to Kingston in 1852 and was twice re-elected to the Supreme bench. In 1861 he was promoted by the people to the Court of Appeals,
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of which he became chief judge. His powerful mind and massive common sense are best evidenced by his many opinions while a member of the court of last resort.
Marius Schoonmaker was State Senator in 1850-51 ; Representative in the Thirty-second Congress; auditor of the Canal Department in 1854; Superintendent of the Bank Department in 1855; and a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1867. He also held office for many years in the old village of Kingston. In 1888, at the age of seventy-seven, he published his history of Kingston, which is, and will doubtless ever re- main, the standard work on the subject. Mr. Schoonmaker was a lawyer of the old school, particularly well versed in the law of real property and inclined strongly to equity as against purely legal remedies.
John B. Steele sat in the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses as the Representative of the Eleventh New York district, of which Ulster County was a part. He was a strong man at the trial bar, of great per- sonal popularity and high character. His temperament, however, led him to prefer a political life, even in times of stress and peril, to a career at the bar.
Erastus Cooke was one of the leaders of the bar while in Kingston, and subsequently served on the bench of the Supreme Court in the Second District.
Severyn Bruyn, Charles R. Westbrook, Nicholas Sickles, County Judges James O. Linderman, Henry Brodhead, Jr., Gabriel W. Ludlum and James C. Forsyth belong to the same era. With them should be mentioned Egbert Whitaker, who, surviving many younger men, lived almost to the time these lines were written.
This was the golden age of the village lawyer. His income would appear small to-day. The majority of his cases involved trifling amounts and they were not great in number. But he had a code of professional ethics, adherence to which was to be preferred to riches. He was a gen- tleman at heart and in conduct; he had the respect and confidence of his neighbors; he tried patiently to keep people out of trouble instead of enticing them in; when important questions divided opinion and agitated the public, his judgment was asked and freely given, and it exerted an influence unequalled by pulpit or press.
As the nineteenth century approached its last quarter, the bar which assembled in Kingston at the sound of the Court House bell, preserved
Hector Sears.
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well the traditions of the past and added to the reputation of the frater- nity. In what follows, the mention of certain names which became promi- nent in civil life is not to be taken to the disparagement of others, per- force omitted. The law of the survival of the fittest holds good not always among lawyers' reputations. The soundest reasoner, the strongest advocate, is by no means, necessarily, the most successful politician. But the memory of those who have served the State is best preserved and the limitations of space are inexorable.
Theodoric R. Westbrook was chosen to Congress in 1852 and to the bench of the Supreme Court in 1873; he remained a judge of that court until his death in 1885. When at the bar he had a very extensive experi- ence in the trial of cases-a branch of the profession in which he took delight. His trial practice made him a ready judge. His command of English was remarkable, and his charges to juries were models of diction. He was a man of kind heart, of quick perception and of indefatigable industry.
Jacob Hardenbergh was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1867 and a member of the State Senate in 1870, 1871 and 1872. In both bodies he took high rank. At the bar he was noted for the almost unerr- ing skill with which he selected the strong central point of the case, about which to make his fight, leaving minor issues and complications to take care of themselves. It was, perhaps, not too much to say of him, as has been said, that he "was for several years the most conspicuous and popu- lar citizen of Ulster County."
William S. Kenyon represented Ulster and Greene counties in the exciting Thirty-sixth Congress, which sat for the two years preceding the Civil War. From 1884 to 1899 he was County Judge. He was a courtly gentleman, reminiscent of an older school than ours. His integrity was of the highest order, and his knowledge of the science of law was pro- found. For many years in the latter part of his life he confined his pro- fessional activities mainly to office practice.
Augustus Schoonmaker filled the office of County Judge from 1863 to 1871; that of State Senator in 1876-77; Attorney General in 1878-79; State Civil Service Commissioner from 1883 to 1887, and member of the Federal Interstate Commerce Commission thereafter until 1891. His long public service attests the contemporary estimate of his character and ability. He had a large practice, particularly in litigated cases, and his
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great strength with a jury of the county was equalled only by his standing in the appellate courts.
George H. Sharpe engaged but little in the active practice of the pro- fession after the outbreak of the Civil War. He was the Colonel of the 120th Regiment, N. Y. S. V., and brevetted Brigadier and Major General. He was afterwards, successively, Special Agent of the State Department in Europe, Marshal for the Southern District of New York, and Surveyor of Customs at the Port of New York. He served in the Assembly in 1879, 1880, 1881 and 1882, being speaker in 1880 and 1881. General Sharpe enjoyed the personal friendship and confidence of at least two presidents of the United States, Generals Grant and Arthur.
William Lawton was County Judge from 1872 to 1883. Together with Seymour L. Stebbins, who was his partner, he had a large practice. Judge Lawton was a man of singularly even temper, judicial and fair to the tips of his fingers. He was no mean antagonist in the court room, and his absolute rectitude was axiomatic with his professional brethren.
The name of Seymour L. Stebbins falls naturally in line after that of his partner. They were associates in business for more than a quarter of a century. Mr. Stebbins held no office other than some of a local nature, but he was a lawyer of subtile mind and clear reasoning faculty, a wit of a high order, whose humor was pleasing and without malice; the master of a fine literary style and the possessor of much literary knowledge, and a companionable, agreeable and honorable man.
Frederick L. Westbrook was Special County Judge and District Attor- ney. He was best known, however, as counsel in litigated cases, in which capacity, either at nisi prius or in the Appellate Courts, he had few superi- ors anywhere. His professional experience was large. He was a man of noticeable presence. In addition to his multifarious and pressing business engagements he found time to interest himself in local matters of moment, notably in the cause of education.
Peter Cantine was Surrogate from 1872 to 1877. He had a very large practice, representing, perhaps, at one time, more important interests than any other member of the bar of the county. He possessed extraordinary capacity for labor, was never satisfied until he had probed the subject under consideration to the very depths, and he was considered by every other leader of the bar as a dangerous and honorable antagonist.
Charles A. Fowler was elected Surrogate in 1867 and State Senator in
Charles W. Walton.
2
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1879. He served in the legislature with distinguished ability. As a law- yer he was noted for his grasp of legal principles and his remarkable command of apt language in argument. An address of his to a jury or a court, even a speech from the hustings, would have required no revision for publication. He was a genial companion and a kindly man.
William Lounsbery represented the first district of the county in the Assembly of 1868; in 1878-79 he was Mayor of the City of Kingston, and in 1879-80 Representative in Congress. In both the Legislature and in Congress-taking into consideration the fact that he served but a single term in each-he occupied very prominent positions. He wrote with much ability, contributed frequent articles to the press, including occasional poems of considerable merit. He possessed unusual powers of condensa- tion, and his legal papers present in that respect a sharp contrast to the precedents of the olden time.
John E. Van Etten was a lawyer of large practice who held no office. In his leisure moments he relieved the professional strain by oversight of his farms, of which he possessed several, and by versification-an art of which he was fond. He was a man of great industry and he had many devoted clients.
A sketch of the bench and bar of Ulster compressed within the limits required by a work of this character, must necessarily be desultory and incomplete. The writer has tried to forestall two kinds of criticism; the one that his paper is a panegyric, imaginative, rhetorical ; the other that it is a brief biographical dictionary of the dry-as-dust order. He has pre- ferred the middle way. Whether he has succeeded is for others to decide. Reference to specific professional work has been manifestly impossible. To even allude to the important questions which have been determined by the court of last resort in cases originating in the county would require a paper as long as this. To catalogue and comment on the interesting causes which have been tried within the walls of Kingston Court House would fill a volume. It has seemed imperative, too, that all reference to persons now living be omitted. Let those who follow us write a supple- ment if they will; and may the Judge of judges grant that the successors of the giants of the past prove worthy of their professional heritage.
The panorama is a long one. The figures upon the canvas are some-
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times blurred ; again, they appear in full relief. As one contemplates the prodigious amount of work accomplished by those who have gone before, and contrasts it with the rewards which have accrued to the laborers, it seems, perchance, their message may be this :
"Do what thy manhood bids thee do; from none but self expect applause; He noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self-made laws; All other life is living death, a world where none but phantoms dwell,
A breath, a wind, a sound, a voice, a tinkling of the camel bell."
Eng sy E G Withams & Bre NY
bran Hoevenberg
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MEDICAL PROFESSION.
THE
CHAPTER XLII. THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
BY HENRY VAN HOEVENBERG, M.D.
A T the time of the settlement of Ulster County in the early part of the seventeenth century, the profession of medicine was in a condition which, to this age, seems that of the Dark Ages, for the members of the profession were just beginning clinical observation and study. The books in use were, many of them, of no value so far as giving the physi- cian any actual aid in the treatment of disease. The works of Hippocrates, who wrote in the second century before Christ, and Galen, seven cen- turies later, were still the standard authorities. The armamentarium of that day consisted of simples and compounds with the addition of mineral preparations in a crude form. These were administered in powders, pills and decoctions, or applied locally as ointments, plasters or linaments. The time for gathering the herbs, of which many remedies were composed, was regulated by the phases of the moon or conjunctions of the planets. Above all was the lancet, and on it the physician placed the most reliance in his efforts to overcome ailments. Practically nothing was known of the cause of disease, and its treatment was almost entirely empirical.
The earlier physicians who practiced physic and surgery in the colonies, received their degree in medicine from the Universities of Europe, but as time passed, laws were enacted providing for the licensing of persons to practice physic or surgery, or both, after having passed an examination as to their qualifications. This condition was necessary by the fact that there were no medical schools in this country. The first medical school was founded in 1765 in Philadelphia and was followed in 1768 by the organization of a medical department in Kings College, now Columbia University, in New York City, and to the latter belongs the honor of conferring the first degree of Doctor of Medicine in this country. The seventeenth century doctors, while not the equals of the physicians of the present day in qualifications and training for their professional duties. were very much in advance of those of the previous century, and included
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in their ranks many men of marked ability. The physician was the guide, counsellor and friend of all his neighbors, wielding an influence second only, if at all, to that of the pastor of the church. This caused him to be frequently called upon to perform public duties other than those arising from his profession, and he was consequently one of the most potent factors in the political as well as the social life of the community.
As the result of conferences between members of the medical profession in Saratoga County held in the latter part of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries, it was decided to ask for the passage of an Act to regulate admission to the practice of medicine in this State, by the establishment of a State Medical Society, which was to be com- posed of representatives of the profession in the different counties, this body to have the power to grant or refuse licenses to practice medicine. This resulted in the passage, on April 4th, 1806, of "an Act to Incorporate Medical Societies for the Purpose of Regulating the Practice of Physic and Surgery in the State." This Act directed how the societies in the counties should be formed and that one representative from each society should meet in the city of Albany on the first Tuesday of February fol- lowing and there organize the Medical Society of the State.
In accordance with the provisions of this Act, meetings were held and the organization of both County and State Societies effected, the centen- nial of which event has this year been celebrated by the Medical Society of the County of Ulster with appropriate ceremonies.
The meeting of the physicians of Ulster County was called for July Ist, 1806, at the Court House in the village of Kingston, and the original record book of the Medical Society of the County of Ulster is now on file in the office of the County Clerk at Kingston. The first entry is a copy of the Act of April 4th, 1806, giving detailed directions as to where, when and how the organization should be effected; then follow amend- ments to the law made in 1807 and 1813. The following extract is taken from the minutes of the first meeting :
"KINGSTON, ULSTER COUNTY, July Ist, 1806.
In pursuance of an Act of the Legislature of the State of New York entitled "an Act to incorporate Medical Societies for the purpose of regulating the prac- tice of Physic and Surgery in said State," passed April 4th, 1806, Thirteen Phy- sicians and Surgeons, To Wit, James Oliver, Luke Kiersted, Benj. R. Bevier, James Houghtaling, Peter Vanderlyn, Andrew Snyder, James J. Hasbrouck, John Bakeman, Conrad Newkirk, Abraham Fieroe, Jr., Ezekiel Webb, George W. Bancker, and Abraham T. E. DeWitt, all of whom, now authorized by law to practice in their several professions, convened, ("pursuant to adjournment from
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the Court-house where the last term of the Court of Common Pleas, next previous to such meeting was last held,") at the house of Cornelius C. Elmendorf in the village of Kingston, Ulster County, on Tuesday, the first day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and six and made choice of the following officers, To Wit-James Oliver, President, Luke Kiersted, Vice President, Ben- jamin R. Bevier, Secretary, and James Houghtaling, Treasurer, as proper for the conduct and regulation of the Medical Society of the County of Ulster, now hereby established, to continue in office for the term of one year and until others are chosen in their Place.
Resolved that this Society will proceed to the Election of three proper Persons as Censors to said Society and one other proper Person to represent Said Society in the Medical Society of the State of New York."
Drs. Abraham T. E. DeWitt, Benj. R. Bevier and Peter Vanderlyn were chosen Censors, and Dr. James G. Graham, representative to the State Society. The dues of members were fixed at fifty cents, and a com- mittee, consisting of Drs. James Oliver, Luke Kiersted and Benjamin R. Bevier, was appointed, "to prepare and report to this Society at the next meeting thereof, a suitable code, or form of rules and regulations for the further conduct of the same."
The Society was soon called upon to take an active part in State Medicine, as is shown by the following communication received at its second meeting, held September 2d, 1806, which was referred to a com- mittee and a reply drafted by them was adopted unanimously :
"KINGSTON, September 2d, 1806.
Gentlemen,- The Village of Kingston is at present afflicted very generally with a Bilious Fever. Many Persons have an opinion that the Cause exists in the Stagnant Waters in Mr. Benjamin Bogardus' Mill Pond, others entertain a different opinion, but do not attempt to assign any cause for it .- The ideas of so large and respectable a Body of Physicians as are now assembled in the Village, would be entitled to great weight, and we do therefor take the Liberty of earnestly entreating you to communicate to us Your Opinion upon this very serious and important Subject.
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