USA > Vermont > Orleans County > Biography of the bar of Orleans county, Vermont > Part 1
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01085 9699
D.W. Dixon.
Otras F. Rofile
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BIOGRAPHY OF THE BAR
- OF -
VI.
ORLEANS COUNTY, VERMONT.
BY
FREDERICK W. BALDWIN,
BARTON, VERMONT.
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WITH STEEL ENGRAVED PORTRAITS.
MONTPELIER: VERMONT WATCHMAN AND STATE JOURNAL PRESS. 1886.
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D
COPYRIGHTED BY FREDERICK W. BALDWIN, I886.
1721823
PREFACE.
"Biography is history teaching by example. It is the basis of all historical structures. The chronicles of the nations are com- posed of the sayings and doings of their men and women. These make up the sum of history."
Since the year 1800 a county court has been held in Orleans county, and persons year after year have been admitted to practice as attorneys in this court, have been admitted to its bar. A record of such admissions in most instances has been kept by the county clerk ; but this number is small compared with those admitted else- where who have resided and practiced law here. Of this large number there was no correct record, and in a very few years the scattered links of history could not have been gathered up sufficient to have written the chronicles of the bar of Orleans county. Even now, with the most careful and diligent research, a few are lacking. The aim of the author has been to give a more or less extended biography of every lawyer in regular standing ever in this county ; also a few pioneers of the profession, who in the early days made the bar of North-eastern Vermont famous. If in this I have not been entirely successful, it may be I have succeeded in collecting and preserving data which at some future day may serve as a nucleus for a history worthy of this bar. All facts and figures have been gathered from the most reliable sources, and writers secured who were possessed of an intimate and extensive knowledge of the life and character of their subjects. The earnest endeavor of all has been to fairly and faithfully represent the legal fraternity. I have been assisted in preparing the material for this volume by many of the profession and others, who have contributed articles and ren- dered efficient aid in other ways. I have also received valuable information from various historical and biographical works. To all these I have intended to give proper acknowledgment under indi- vidual biographies, but I desire here to tender them my sincere thanks for their very acceptable help.
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PREFACE.
.
Thanks are especially due to those who have furnished me their portraits, and to Hon. Redfield Proctor of Proctor for portrait of Hon. Isaac F. Redfield, to T. C. Kimball of New York for portrait of John H. Kimball, Esq.
I am also indebted to John Mattocks of Chicago for article of Hon. - John Mattocks, to Isaac F. Davis of Rockford, Ill., for articles of Hon. Charles Davis and Hon. Isaac Fletcher ; to Edward P. Vilas of Madison, Wis., for article of his father, Hon. Levi B. Vilas ; to W. W. Frost of Manchester, N. H., for article of Henry H. Frost, Esq. ; to F. J. Prentiss of Greenport, L. I., for sketch of Henry F. Prentiss, Esq.
To extend a knowledge of the career of those whose fame rests upon their high legal character and attainments must exert a whole- some effect upon the rising generation of American lawyers, and increase that honorable ambition which forms the main incentive to great and noble actions.
In these pages the reader will perhaps find memoirs of some who have enjoyed every advantage that wealth and early education could bestow; he can also trace the history of many more who, by their own individual efforts, have risen from the obscurity of penniless and friendless boys to some of the highest and most responsible stations in the land.
If the humble, care-worn student, as he reads these brief sketches, shall feel his hope of success raised, his difficulties diminished, his energies stimulated to renewed and more vigorous exertion ; if those who in years past have gone out from among us to make their homes in the great city or upon the wide prairie, as they peruse these memoirs, shall be carried back to old scenes, and are thereby assisted in recalling the many virtues of old friends, the pleasure experi- enced by the author in preparing this book will be distributed according to his desire.
FREDERICK W. BALDWIN.
HISTORICAL CHAPTER.
I N November, 1792, the Legislature of Vermont in session at Rutland passed an act entitled " An act for dividing the coun- ties of Orange and Chittenden into six separate counties," and cre- ating as one of such counties the county of Orleans, and its limits as set forth in said act were as follows : "That all the lands lying east of the county of Franklin, westward of the west line of the county of Essex, bounded north by Canada line, and south by the south lines of the towns of Morristown, Elmore and Greensborough, including those towns be, and the same is hereby erected into one entire county, to be called and known by the name of the county of Orleans." At this time, within said limits, the following towns had been granted : Barton, Brownington, Coventry, Craftsbury, Derby, Duncansborough (now Newport), Eden, Elmore, Glover, Greensborough, Hydepark, Holland, Irasburgh, Jay, Kellyvale (now Lowell), Lutterloh (now Albany), Missiskouie (now Troy), Morgan, Morristown, Navy (now Charleston), Salem, Westfield and Wolcott ; but no settlements had been made only in the following named towns, which, according to the Vermont Register of 1804, had in 1791 the following population : Craftsbury, eighteen, Elmore, twelve, Greensborough, nineteen, Hydepark, forty-three, Morris- town, ten, and Wolcott, thirty-two. In 1821 the town of Westmore was annexed to the county from Essex county, and the town of Elmore annexed to Washington county from Orleans ; and in 1835 when the county of Lamoille was formed, the towns of Eden, Hydepark, Morristown and Wolcott, were made a part of that county. In 1880 the town of Salem was annexed to Derby, leav- ing eighteen towns in Orleans county.
In 1799 the legislature established courts in Orleans county, but provided that the supreme court should not meet in said county until directed by a future act of the legislature ; that all causes proper to come before the supreme court should be tried and deter-
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HISTORICAL CHAPTER.
mined before that court at its session in Danville, in the county of Caledonia. Brownington and Craftsbury were made half shire towns for the time being, but the act provided that no permanent place be established for the county buildings until five years from the passage of said act. John Ellsworth of Greensborough, was ap- pointed first chief judge, and Timothy Hinman and Elijah Strong, assistants. The time for holding county courts was fixed for the fourth Monday of November and March, annually ; to be alter- nately holden in said towns ; the first session to be in Craftsbury in the month of March, 1800. The judges, as above, met at the house of Dr. Samuel Huntington in Greensborough, November 20, 1799, and appointed Timothy Stanley of Greensborough, clerk, and Royal Corbin of Craftsbury, treasurer. The first session of the county court was held at Craftsbury, March 24, 1800. Timothy Hinman of Derby, was chief judge, Samuel C. Crafts of Craftsbury, and Jessie Olds of Westfield, assistants, Timothy Stanley was county clerk, Joseph Scott of Craftsbury, sheriff, Joseph C. Brad- ley of Greensborough, state's attorney, and Ebenezer Crafts of Crafts- bury, judge of probate. On the second day of the session Moses Chase was admitted to the Bar of Orleans county. The docket for that term shows five causes, and the names of John Mattocks and Moses Chase appear as attorneys of record. At the November term, which was held at Brownington, the docket shows twenty-six causes, and the names of John Mattocks of Peacham, Moses Chase of Bradford, Asa King of Danville, Samuel B. Goodhue of St. Johnsbury, Joseph Bradley of Greensborough, and Jonathan Ware appear as attorneys of record. While the town of Craftsbury was one of the shires of the county, courts were held in a building which stood upon the same lot where Craftsbury Academy now stands. The oldest residents remember it as the "Old Court House." From the best information I can obtain it was built by the town or the citizens of the town of Craftsbury, and it was used for a time for the purposes of court house, town house and church ; and about 1830 the town took it away and built a new town house upon the site, and subsequently when the town house was built at South Craftsbury, the town presented the old one to the academy corporation. I am informed that Col. Joseph Scott's buttery was used for a jail. At Brownington courts were held in the school house of District No. One (the only school district in town at
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HISTORICAL CHAPTER.
that time), a one-story, four-roofed building, just about large enough to hold comfortably the judges, jurors, and officers of the court. This building was situated about a mile north of where Browning- ton village stands, on the old road to Derby. Judge Strong's cellar was used as a jail when occasion demanded. In 1812 the legisla- ture established the shire at Irasburgh, as soon as the inhabitants of that town, within four years, should build a court house and jail to the acceptance of the judges of the supreme court. In 1815 a court house and jail were built and accepted, so that the August term, 1816, of the county court was held at Irasburgh. The court house built at that time was used for that purpose until 1847, when it was moved off, and a new one constructed upon the site at an expense of about four thousand dollars ; this was also built by the town of Irasburgh at no expense to the county. This court house was used by the county until the one now in use at Newport was erected. The jail built in 1815 was made of logs hewn square, and put one upon another for the walls, and ceiled with three-inch hard wood plank. This structure was used for a jail until 1838, when it was taken down, and a stone building eighteen feet square, and two stories high, was erected. This was found to be too small, and was not considered safe ; hence, in 1861, the legislature authorized the county judges to raise three thousand dollars for the purpose of building a new jail. In 1862 a jail twenty-six by thirty-six, two stories high and built of the best of granite, was completed, and afterward used for a jail. In 1884 the legislature passed an act locating the shire of Orleans county in some town on the Connecti- cut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad, said place to be selected by a committee of three, to be appointed by the governor. Such com- mittee were appointed, and designated Newport as the best location for the shire, and a very commodious and substantial brick court house and other buildings having been constructed at a cost of about twenty-two thousand dollars, the February term, 1886, of the county court was held at that place. In 1801 the legislature changed the time of holding the county court to the first Monday of March and fourth Monday of August. In 1812 the August term was changed to the third Monday of August. In 1821 the time was changed to the last Monday of February and second Monday of September. Again in 1827 the time was changed to the second Tuesday of April and last Tuesday of August. In 1831 the time
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HISTORICAL CHAPTER.
was changed to the third Tuesday of June and the third Tuesday. of December, and in 1833 the fall term was changed to the fourth Tuesday of December. In 1837 the spring term was changed to the fourth Tuesday of June. In 1868 the terms were fixed to be held on the last Tuesday of February and the first Tuesday in October, and in 1870 changed as they now are, the first Wednesday next after the first Tuesday of September, and the first Tuesday of February.
A supreme court was established by the legislature in 1816, to be holden annually on the second Tuesday next following the fourth Tuesday of June. In 1822 the time for holding this court was changed to the fourth Tuesday of January. In 1846 the time was again changed to the eighteenth Tuesday next after the fourth Tuesday of December, and in 1849 changed to the second Tuesday of August, and in 1857 changed to the first Thursday next after the third Tuesday in August. In 1882 the time was changed to the second Tuesday in May.
PIONEERS OF THE BAR
OF
ORLEANS COUNTY, VERMONT.
JOHN MATTOCKS.
By HON. ISAAC F. REDFIELD.
M Y first recollection of Gov. Mattocks of Peacham, Vermont, dates from the year 1816, when at the age of twelve years I was a pupil at the academy in that town, and in the " town and gown" contests, in ball playing or other games, Gen. Mat- tocks, as he was then called, was the champion of the academy boys. I trust it will not be considered scandalous to name here, that the prize in one of these contests was a gallon of pure whiskey. That was before the days of modern scientific discovery that all stimulus in health is either useless or hurtful, or that the Bible is a myth.
I cannot say that my personal knowledge of Gov. Mattocks was of much account from that time until my admission to the bar in Orleans county in 1827. At that time he stood decidedly at the head of the bar in that section of the state, and had done so for nearly forty years. He was born at Hartford, Conn., March 4, 1777. His father, Samuel Mattocks, who was the Treasurer of Vermont from 1786 to 1801, was one of the early settlers of Tin- mouth Rutland county. He read law, I think, at Middlebury, with his brother-in-law, Miller, who was a very distinguished mem- ber of the bar of that day, when it embraced as much talent, to say the least, as it has ever done since. He subsequently removed to Peacham, where he spent the remainder of his life, mainly in the practice of his profession.
Those who think of Peacham as it has been for the last thirty years, isolated from public travel, and equally from that great source of assumed modern enlightenment, the conversion by means
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PIONEERS OF THE BAR
of rapid revolution and more rapid progress ; perched upon hills a thousand feet above tide water, more completely shutting it out from the sunshine of modern progress than a thousand miles of distance, have no adequate comprehension of what it was in the early years of the present century, when John Mattocks, the young giant in his profession, and the young leader in the politics of the state, (for that was still in the hands of the old Federalists, the most national, and the most upright and talented party the country has ever produced) ; the champion of every field and always facile princeps inter pares, might not unjustly be said to wield a wider and more controlling influence than any man of his years had ever done before or has ever done since in the state.
I know this will seem like exaggeration to those in the cities and large towns of the state, and who have not the slightest compre- hension how any man, not in contact with the railway and the tele- graph, can possibly acquire any influence upon anybody or anything. But such men have yet much to learn of the real elements of great- ness, whether in individual character or in that of states and em- pires. When the state was controlled by such men as Isaac Tichenor, Nathaniel and Daniel Chipman, Chauncey Langdon, Charles H. Williams, David Edmonds, Samuel Swift and his brother Benjamin, Samuel Miller, Daniel Farrand, Daniel Buck, Elijah Paine, John Mattocks, Samuel Prentiss, and others of like character and caliber, Peacham was in fact the headquarters of the council chambers of the party for all the most essential practical ends, and Peacham Academy was then under the leadership of such head masters as Ezra Carter and David Chassell, whose equals could not now be found in any similar positions in all New England, and sent forth such pupils as Thaddeus Stevens, the great American commander, and Samuel Merrill, the early political leader in Indiana, and Wilbur Fisk, the almost inspired disciple and preacher of Meth- odism throughout America, and an army of others of like eminent character and gifts. At such a time we need not wonder that such men as Leonard Worcester, the eloquent preacher and wise and conscientious guide and counselor, and William Chamberlin, and John W. Chandler and John Mattocks, all residents of Peacham, wielding and surrounded by such influences, were able to make an . important impression upon public sentiment throughout the state. And such was most unquestionably the fact during all the period of
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ORLEANS COUNTY, VERMONT.
the Federal ascendancy in the state until the year 1815, with occa- sional interruptions of more or less extent before that time.
But Gov. Mattocks' great life work was certainly not accom- plished mainly in public political positions, although he undoubt- edly secured a very large share of the public confidence throughout the whole period of a full and rounded term of earthly existence. He was always the representative of his town in the legislature, whenever he desired it. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1835. During the last war with Great Britain he was brigadier-general of militia in that part of the state. He was in congress three terms-1821-1823, 1825-1827, 1841-1843. He was a member of the supreme court from 1833 to 1835, and gov ernor of the state in 1843 and 1844, during which period the former vice-president of the United States, Richard M. Johnson, visited the state, and was received by the governor and general assembly in joint session, the governor making one of his always happy speeches of welcome, concluding, in his own inimitable manner, "How are you, Dick Johnson ? I am glad to welcome you to this state, and to this chamber." The vice-president afterwards said, he was sorry he had not known his excellency's sobriquet, that he might have replied, " How are you, Jack Mattocks ? God bless you !"
But I must hasten to conclude my brief exposition of the public and professional life of one of the most eminent and highly gifted men of my native state-the most gifted, as it always seemed to me, among them all, with the single exception of Senator Phelps, who unquestionably bears the palm in that respect above all others of the state to the present time.
But . Gov. Mattocks' great field of excellence and glory was the bar. There is no shamming and no short-cuts to eminence there. Stern justice applies its measuring-rod with unflinching impartiality to all comers there, whether from the walls of the uni- versities, or from the fields and the flocks, or the highways and by-ways of common life in any department. There is there no favor- itism, and no stinted or grudging recognition of power and strength in that field. The humblest may there expect a patient hearing, and the most highly favored can demand no more. It was my for- tune, when I came to the bar in Orleans county, to find all the im- portant advocating in the hands of lawyers from other counties. And of this number Gov. Mattocks was far the most eminent,
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PIONEERS OF THE BAR
although there were many others, such as Fletcher, Cushman, Pad- dock and Bell, that it would not be easy to match anywhere in the state, at any time since. We naturally felt some humiliation at such a state of things, but we could not break it up, since the cli- ents would control the matter to a large extent, in spite of the advice of the local bar. But we could and did seek redress in another way. Some of the members of that bar attended the terms in the adjoining counties, and returned the favor they did us by arguing their causes. This was always kindly received by Gov. Mattocks. His position was too assured to feel any twinges of envy or jealousy. He said to his old companions of the bar that it had something of the sound of old Roman times, " delendo est Carthago," more in sport or badinage than in earnest, no doubt.
The most effective and eloquent address I ever heard from Gov. Mattocks, was the closing address to the jury on behalf of the information in the trial of Cleveland for murder in procur- ing an abortion. The accused was connected by affinity with some of the most influential families in the state, who naturally shrunk from being declared kindred with a murderer, which gave great interest to the trial in many important aspects. The court was composed of the chief justice and one other judge of the supreme court, with two lay assistants. The law was discussed at the bar from day to day during the trial, and was supposed to be definitely settled before Mr. Mattocks arose to make his closing argument. The popular sentiment seemed quietly to have settled down into the expectation of a verdict of manslaughter. But Mr. Mattocks had not spoken twenty minutes before we all felt that he was carrying everything before him, with the power of the enchant- ing wand. The spectators, the bar, and the court, and especially the jury, comprehended at a glance that Mattocks would accept nothing less than a verdict of murder in the first degree, and that this he must and would have, in spite of all obstruction from the public opinion or the charge of the court. His manner was cool, almost to solemnity, his diction plain even to the very verge of the common places of the vernacular in ordinary conversation. His person short and dumpy, and his eye almost obscured by fixed introversion, gave no special force to his look or his manner, which was indeed that of fixedness, rather than of expression. But his words possessed such a power as words never seemed to me to
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ORLEANS COUNTY, VERMONT.
have on any other occasion. He arranged the evidence in such a manner it had never before assumed, and the rule of law which he invoked from the court as the only security of the life of the body politic, and of each of its members, was so simple and natural as to seem irresistible, and such it proved, for the court at once acceded to it, withdrawing all its former announcements.
I have listened to Webster, and to most of the more distin- guished American orators, both at the bar and in congress, and to the most distinguished orators of England at the present time, in parliament as well as at the bar, but for real maddened eloquence I have never heard anything which seemed to me quite up to this argument of Gov. Mattocks. It is scarcely needful to add that Cleveland was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, a most salutary example, but finally his punishment was commuted.
I have listened to a great many of Gov. Mattocks' arguments at the bar, both to court and jury, sometimes when not myself engaged in the cause ; sometimes when acting as opposing counsel, and sometimes while sitting as judge, and in all of them there seemed to me great power and ability. I had no reason to suppose myself a particular favorite of the governor at any time. Our position as opposing counsel in every case where we were both engaged naturally led to no very special intimacy, and in addition to this the effort of a young man to compete as far as pos- sible with one so much his senior, naturally tended to create the feeling of assumption and pretension on my part, unless I was more fortunate than falls to the common lot in such cases. But in our last tournament at the bar, just before his elevation to the bench, where he remained till his own voluntary retirement, when my labors at the bar had been exchanged for others of a graver nature, he acted the part of a noble and generous competitor, say- ing to some of his friends who urged him to attend to the re- argument of the case, directed by the supreme court, that he could never have a better time to retire than when he had made a drawn game with the young lion of the North. It was said with no expectation to have it reach me. He was far too delicate for any- thing of that character.
But I felt that it was generous and sincere, and as Junius says, "that it would wear well, because it was extorted from him ;" and I repeat it here, more in justice to him than from any gratification
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PIONEERS OF THE BAR
it can give me, when I scarcely expect consolation for the sorrows of advancing years from things of that character.
I am conscious that I have dwelt mainly upon the more serious elements in his character, which were always predominant in all his great efforts at the bar. But in times of relaxation, and when no deep sense of responsibility rested upon him, he was a man of great geniality and playfulness of character. His witticisms in the undertone of the bar are more remembered than those of almost any other in the state, and many of them are more worth repeating than most of those we meet in collections of the kind.
[The idea last expressed leads us to quote from a paper of Rev. S. Goodwillie in Vermont Historical Magazine.]
" His fund of anecdotes was inexhaustible, and both in public and private he illustrated the subject with pertinent anecdotes well told in a few words. His conversation was sprightly, and he en- joyed a hearty laugh. He was fond of joking, even with strangers. One evening at the place of his residence, he heard the agent of the Colonization Society represent its claims in a manner so forci- ble that he thought him a good beggar in a good cause. The next morning the agent called upon the governor, and in general con- versation asked him, 'What is the chief business in this place at present ?' 'Begging,' quickly replied the governor, 'is nowe the chief business,' at the same time slyly slipping some gold into the agent's hand, for which he thanked him. 'Not at all,' said the governor ; 'I thank you, sir.' 'Why thank me?' asked the agent. 'Because,' answered the governor, ' You let me off so easy.' In a tight pinch he was very adroit in devising ingenious and prompt expedients for effectual deliverance from difficulty. He wrote such a hasty and imperfect hand that sometimes he could not read it himself, but which his brother, a lawyer in the county, could decipher. Going to trial before the county court, on one occasion, he had such difficulty to read the writ, though written with his own hand, that the judge questioned the correctness of his reading, when he instantly gave it to his brother, saying, 'You are college learned; read that writ.' At one time when returning from the court at Guildhall, he lodged on Saturday night in the town of W., then a new settlement, where they had no public wor- ship. The next day he went home through Barnet, intending to worship with the Presbyterians in that town (whose religious prin-
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