Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties, Vt. 1764-1887, Part 10

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse Journal Co., Printers and Binders
Number of Pages: 886

USA > Vermont > Essex County > Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties, Vt. 1764-1887 > Part 10
USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties, Vt. 1764-1887 > Part 10

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When a member of the Senate, the right of Mr. Stockton, of New Jersey,

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to a seat in that body, came under consideration. Mr. Stockton was a Dem- ocrat, and was deprived of his seat by a vote cast wholly by Republican sen- ators. Judge Poland was a member of the committee which heard the case, and advocated and voted in favor of his right to the seat. He was a mem- ber of the committee on elections during his first term in the House of Rep- resentatives. There were many contested seats, especially from the recently reconstructed states, and the still intense feeling for the Union and against the Rebellion, made the Republican members more than usually partisan in their action. Judge Poland endeavored always to assume a judicial attitude of fairness which, several times, brought him in conflict with his own party. In 1876 his name was suggested in many Republican papers as a suitable candidate for the Vice-Presidency. He entertained the opinion that the Vice- President should be taken from a more influential and less certain state than Vermont. He was chairman of the Vermont delegation to the Cincinnati convention, which nominated Hayes and Wheeler. He presented the name of Mr. Wheeler to the convention, and by his efforts and influence secured his nomination as Vice-President.

In 1878 he represented the town of St. Johnsbury in the state legislature. He was chairman of the judiciary committee, and exerted a potent influence in all the legislative measures brought before the House.

In the re-appointment of the members of Congress, based upon the census of 1880, Vermont lost one representative.

He was again elected to Congress by the new second district, in 1882. He entered upon the discharge of its duties with his accustomed ability and per- severance. His industry, readiness in the dispatch of and elevation to busi- ness, reputation for fairness, and well-known judicial and legislative ability, at once secured him a leading position in the minority party. A Republican in a Democratic House, among other measures, he secured the passage of several important acts for the relief of the constantly accumulating business of the United States supreme court. Together with his associates he made the Vermont delegation foremost in influence at Washington. Nearing his seventieth year, at the close of the session, he declined to be a candidate for re-election, preferring the quiet and peace of a private citizen, to the strife, turmoil, and hard work of political life.

He moved to St. Johnsbury in 1850. He was influential in securing the removal of the county seat to that place in 1856, and was chairman of the committee for the erection of the county buildings. For twenty-two years from its organization he was president of the First National bank of St. Johnsbury. In 1885 he purchased the old homestead of his father-in-law, Dr. Page, at Waterville, with the intention of making that the home of his declining years. There he now resides. He represented the town in the legislature of 1886, was chairman of the judiciary committee, and the acknowledged leader of the House of Representatives.

In 1858 the University of Vermont showed its appreciation of Judge

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Poland by confering upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts, and in 1861, of Doctors of Laws. In 1878 he became trustee of the University, and in 1882 founded in the institution the Westford scholarship, in honor of his native town.

Judge Poland has been all his life a constant, general reader. With those who know him intimately in private life, he is very popular. His conversa- tion sparkles with wit and humor. He married Martha Smith, daughter of Dr. William Page, of Waterville, January 12, 1838. He had three children by this marriage. Of these Martin L., the eldest, was educated at West I'oint Military academy, and afterwards served as captain of the ordinance corps. He died at Fort Yuma, in August, 1878. Mary, the second, died n August, 1865. Isabel is the wife of A. E. Rankin, of St. Johnsbury. Mrs. Po nd died in April, 1853. In 1854 Judge Poland married Adelia H. Page, sı. . er of his deceased wife, who is now living. It is needless to add that his in- fluence on the bench and bar of Caledonia county has been greater than that of any other living man.

Hon Jonathan Ross* was born April 30, 1826, on the farm, in the town of Waterford, Vt., which had been cleared by his grandfather, to which his father, Royal Ross, had succeeded, and upon which he resided till his death, in 1856. The Ross family is of Scotch lineage, and marked by those sturdy qualities and admirable characteristics which enabled so many of that descent to take foremost rank among the pioneers who, by their energy and sterling qualities, contributed so largely to the determining and shaping of the early history of New England. Royal Ross, for many years one of the most influential men of his native town, was a man of marked individuality, and commanded the respect and esteem of his townsmen during his life, and their unfeigned re- gret at his death. His wife, the mother of the Judge Ross, and the daugh- ter of Rev. Reuben Mason, who was of English ancestry, is still living. She is a woman of rare worth, and richly endowed with both moral and intel- lectual qualities. There were born to this worthy couple twelve children, six sons and six daughters, Judge Ross being the third child and the eldest son. Under such influences and with such surroundings, he was brought up in the admirable old-fashioned habits of industry, frugality and morality, laboring upon his father's farm until he reached his majority, attending the district school both summer and winter, until he was ten or eleven years old, after which he labored in the summer and attended school only during the winter months, until he attained the age of seventeen years. The last of these winter terms was under the admirable tuition of Hon. Harry Bingham, now of Littleton, N. H., then just graduated from Dartmouth college. He early evinced an aptitude for scholarship and a love for books, which has marked his maturer years. He attended a select school at Waterford a part of two autumn terms, and a portion of one fall term at the Danville academy. The

* By Andrew E. Rankin.

Jonathan Ross

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autumns of 1844, '45 and '46 he attended the St. Johnsbury academy, then under the charge of that most rare man and gifted teacher, Mr. James K. Colby, whose influence was, perhaps, more potent in determining the moral and intellectual character of the citizens of Caledonia county than that of any other man. While here, the vision of a professional life and a more liberal culture first dawned upon him. With this end in view he spent the spring and one-half of the summer of 1847 under Mr. Colby's tuition, and was, that year, admitted to the fireshman class of Dartmouth college, with a preparation not so comprehensive as that of many of his more fortunate class- mates, but with a thorough mastery of the studies he had pursued, and with a mind trained to self-reliance.

During his college course he held a high position for scholarship, and for the cultivation of those qualities which go to constitute true manhood. Among his classmates who, like him, have attained distinction, were Hon. Charles W. Willard and ex-Governor Proctor, of Vermont, and Hon. E. A. Rollins and Joshua Hall, of New Hampshire. He was graduated in 1851, and his alma mater, ever mindful of merit in her sons, in 1885, conferred upon him the distinguished and well-merited degree of LL. D.

When eighteen years of age Judge Ross began teaching in the district schools, and taught seven successive winters in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In the autumn of his junior year he assisted Mr. Colby in St. Johnsbury academy. He taught the first year, after being graduated, in the academy at Craftsbury, Vt., and the two succeeding years in the academy at Chelsea, Vt. The next two years he spent in the office of Hon. William Hebard, at Chelsea, reading law, and at the same time instructing some classes in the academy. At the December term, 1855, he was admitted to the Orange county bar, and in the spring of 1856, returned to St. Johns- bury, and assisted Mr. Colby in the academy. In May of that year he formed a co-partnership with A. J. Willard, and with him practiced law at St. Johns- bury until 1858, when this partnership was dissolved, and he practiced by himself until he was elected a judge of the supreme court, in 1870. : 4

He was elected state's attorney for the county of Caledonia, in December, 1862, and re-elected to the same office in 1863. He was treasurer of the Passumpsic Savings bank from 1859 to 1869. He represented the town of St. Johnsbury in the legislature during the years 1865, '66 and '67. Was elected senator for Caledonia county in 1870, and was an exceedingly in- dustrious, useful and influential member of these legislative bodies, holding positions upon the judiciary and other important committees in both branches. He was appointed a member of the state board of education in 1866, and held this position until he was called to the bench. He has always been active in both public and private affairs at home, having been trustee of the village of St. Johnsbury, and prudential committee in the St. Johnsbury Union district for eleven years. He was regarded as one of the most valuable and influential members of the state board of education, where his thorough

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education and long experience as a teacher rendered him specially fitted to detect the needs of public school, and apt in descerning the best methods of remedying its defects. At home, under his care, the schools of St. Johns- bury attained a usefulness and efficiency which was readily and gratefully recognized and acknowledged by his oft repeated election to the board of its management. His work in the educational departments is, by no means, second in its importance and usefulness to any other work of his busy life.

Judge Ross was married November 22, 1852, to Eliza A. Carpenter, of Waterford, daughter of Isaiah and Caroline (Bugbee) Carpenter, and sister of Hon. A. P. Carpenter, now one of the associate justices of the supreme court of New Hampshire. She was educated at Newbury, Lyndon and St. Johnsbury academies, and taught many terms in the public schools of Ver- mont and New Hampshire ; also in the Lyndon and St. Johnsbury acade- mies. She was a woman of exceptional intellectual, moral and personal qualities, of high culture and a most estimable wife and mother.

To Judge Ross and wife were born eight children, six of whom were daugh- ters, viz .: Caroline C., Eliza M., Helen M., Julia, Martha E. and Edith, all of whom are now living except Helen, who died some five years since. Of the sons, Edward H. was graduated at Dartmouth college with high rank, in the class of 1886, and Jonathan C. is a member of the present sophomore class at the same college.

The wife of Judge Ross died January, 1886, leaving, in a large family of well endowed, well educated and well trained children, the best monument of her worth. .

With all his outside duties, not sought, but gracefully assumed, at the call of his fellow citizens, Judge Ross never neglected his obligations to his chosen profession. From the outset of his professional career, by means of his strong natural gifts and his thorough mental discipline, he took a command- ing position as a lawyer and maintained it while he continued to practice at the bar. He always proved true to his strong moral instincts and never allowed any false notions of duty to his clients to swerve him from his higher allegiance to the great and eternal principles of right and justice ; and throughout his professional career he exemplified the fact that one may be a successful lawyer and at the same time a true Christian gentleman. He has enjoyed throughout his active professional life the highest confidence and the profoundest respect of the bench, the bar, and of the public at large. In his associations with his professional brethren he was always courteous, consid- erate, accommodating and reliable, and when the time came that a vacancy upon the supreme bench was to be filled from the northeast portion of the State, common consent, both of lawyers and laymen, designated him as the man best fitted by natural endowment and legal attainment to fill the re- sponsible position of judge, and his success through a period of seventeen years has more than justified the preconceived opinion of his friends.

Coming to the bench in the maturity of his power, though ripe in learning

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for his years, he did not abate one jot of zeal or effort to keep himself abreast of the most industrious and ambitious of his associates, and to-day he holds rank second to none of his associates in point of legal erudition and thor- ough knowledge of the fundamental principles of law, or familiarity with the established methods of practice.

As a trier of causes his eminent practical sense, his strong sense of justice, joined to his varied attainments, secured him at once the respect of the bar and the confidence of litigants. Sprung from and reared among the people and in full sympathy with their mode of life, no pride of position ever removed him from touch with the every-day life of the laboring classes, who ever find him ready to sympathize and advise them in the troubles and perplexities of life.

Uniformly courteous and indulgent to the bar, and especially to those whose limited experience leaves them, unaided, at the mercy of more astute and more experienced practitioners ; patient to hear and considerate in ex- pression of opinions to those from whose views he is obliged to dissent, it is both pleasant and easy to practice in his courts. Diligent in the performance of the functions of his office, there is never in his courts an accumulation of business, and no one ever has occasion to complain that the cases which fall to him in supreme court are not promptly attended to, and his written opin- ions always able and often times exhaustive, are with dispatch placed in the hands of the reporter. The early habit, acquired upon his father's farm, of doing at once and with thoroughness the thing to be done, makes him one of the most efficient and reliable men of his day and generation, in all of the manifold departments of public and private life, where he is called to act. Fair and impartial in the trial of issues of fact, questions which would natu- rally have gone to a jury for determination, are frequently, by mutual consent, submitted to the court. Simple and plain in the statement of the issues of cases submitted to the jury, he is enabled easily to assist them to reach just conclusions and further the ends of justice. Few lives, so crowded with responsible duties, have been more admirably lived, and it is to be hoped that the future has for him large store both of usefulness and of honors.

The following sketch was taken from the Caledonian of July 30, 1859, on the death of Hon. Ephraim Paddock :-

"In the death of Hon. Ephraim Paddock we have lost a highly es- teemed citizen who has longer been identified with the character and condi- tion of our community than any man now living. For more than half a century he has been known, and his influence felt as a professional and business man ; and during the whole period he has commanded a respect which has been as freely accorded during his life as it is now thoroughly felt to have been de- served. While we mourn the departure of a prominent patriarch of the com- munity, we desire to honor as one of the pioneers in those efforts for civil and social improvement that have contributed to results which we, who come

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after, feel ourselves incited to trace backward, and appreciate still more, as those actors are becoming still fewer.

"Judge Paddock was born in Holland, Mass., January 4, 1780. In his early youth he came to Vermont on foot and alone. In accordance with much of the immigration of that day, he came with nothing but his stick and a bundle whose contents numbered but three articles of dress most essential for change. He found his brother, Dr. Paddock, in Craftsbury, and made his partial home there several years. Strongly desiring an education, he labored summers to earn means to go to school winters. He finally became able to attend the academy at Peacham in the fall, and taught school winters. Having made this progress he was invited into mercantile business, first as clerk at Peacham, then as partner at Danville. But true to his desire for improvement he soon embraced an opportunity to study law in the office of the late Hon. William A. Griswold, then of Danville. In due time he com- menced the practice of law, was married, and settled in St. Johnsbury, De- cember, 1807. He readily obtained business and respectability among the strong men of Caledonia bar, in that past generation which contained the honored names of Fletcher, Bell, the two Mattocks, and others of whom he alone had remained till now. In 1828 he was elected to the bench of the supreme court of Vermont, which he occupied three years with honor to his position and credit to himself. After retiring from office he continued to some extent his legal practice, but subsequently restricted him- self mostly to farming and mercantile pursuits and the duties and enjoyments of domestic and christian life. He was a self-made man, and his suc- cess proves his enterprise. His reputation is one of integrity in life, and great fairness in all his professional transactions. In his uprightness of in- tention, his firmness of will and his unfailing hopefulness, he is an example. His success is a stimulus. He made a public profession of his religious faith in 1831, and united with the Congregational church. This profession he maintained with consistency till a good maturity of piety has shed its cheering light upon the close of his life, and afforded him an intelligent faith in his Savior for the life to come."

I find the above sketch of Judge Paddock in the Caledonian. I am inclined to believe it was written by the late Gov. Erastus Fairbanks, whose mother was a sister of Judge Paddock. I think it does not at all overstate the merits of the man. I did not know him until after he left the bench, and never saw very much of him at the bar. In comparing him with his cotemporaries, I have this idea, that while many of them as jury advocates excelled him, in accurate bearing, and knowledge of the law, he was the equal, if not superior, to any of them. I think that was the general impression of the bar of that day.

Judge Paddock was a tall, slender man, grave and serious in his deport- ment, and with a peculiar mildness of manner and view, but he had a will of his own. He was sensitive and delicate in every way, and was a skillful and

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accomplished musician. The good music for which St. Johnsbury has always been noted dates back to him.

His portrait hanging in the court-house at St. Johnsbury is an excellent likeness, though I believe it was painted from a small photograph .*

The photograph from which the accompanying engraving is made, is in the possession of Mrs. Horace Paddock, who furnishes the engraving.

Horace Paddock, only son of Hon. Ephraim Paddock, was born in St. Johnsbury, June 16, 1809, and died March 11, 1877. He was educated in the academy of Brownington, Vt., and the Cadet academy, of Norwich, Vt. Although he had a leading inclination to agriculture, in deference to his father's desire he entered the mercantile business when he was about twenty- three years of age, at Troy, Vt., where he remained until 1845. He then returned to his native town, and in connection with his father, established a large and lucrative wholesale business in tea and tobacco, which he success- fully conducted until he retired, about four years preceding his death. Mr. Paddock was of medium height, rather frail physical organization, and un- able to bear heavy labor without great fatigue, but his close attention and great energy compensated this deficiency.

In early life he was an "Old Line Whig." At the organization of the Re- publican party he became one of its earnest supporters, and in a quiet way rendered his party efficient service. . He was a member of the North Con- gregational church, and had a membership with that denomination just fifty years, which fact he mentioned to his wife only two or three days before he died.

June 5, 1834, he married Miss Mary L. Paine, a very estimable lady, who still survives her husband, and resides at the Paddock homestead. Their children (all living) are, Abbie L., born April 25, 1836, married Henry Bemis, of Brooklyn, N. Y .; Halsey R., born August 23, 1839, married Annie Hall, of Northı Adams, is a dealer in leather in Boston ; and Emma J. (Mrs. James Taylor), resides in St. Johnsbury.

Hon. Bliss N. Davis, one of the oldest members of Caledonia county bar, died at his home in Danville, February 1I, 1885, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. - His death removed a prominent figure from legal, politi- cal and social circles. Mr. Davis removed to Danville about the year 1850. In the year 1858-59, Mr. Davis was state senator. He was a director of the Caledonia bank for about twenty-five years, and president of the same for several years. Although a man without a classical education, or the polish of many advocates, he had a large amount of common sense which he used with tact and skill, and which made him a strong antagonist to meet in debate. In 1850 he was state's attorney, and had conducted the prosecution of Bris- tol Bill and Meadows indicted for counterfeiting. The defense was man- aged by two lawyers from Boston, and the trial had been a vigorous and hotly

*The sketch of Judge Paddock was furnished by Hon. L. P. Poland.

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contested one. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty, against both of the- defendants. The court took a recess of several days. At the reassembling of the court, Bristol Bill and Meadows were brought in for sentence. Both had fetters on their ankles, but their hands were free. Judge Poland had pronounced the sentence of the court, which was ten years' imprisonment in the state prison. Mr. Davis stooped down to speak with Meadows, when Bristol Bill suddenly plunged a sharp pointed case knife into Mr. Davis' neck, barely escaping the jugular vein. At first it was supposed Mr. Davis was fatally stabbed, but he recovered rapidly, and was afterwards a vigorous and useful man, during a period of thirty-five years. After the prisoner had been secured and the court adjourned, Judge Poland went at once to Mr. Davis's room, and as he entered, he said : " I am not dead yet, Judge, and you and I will live to punish a great many rascals yet."

Hon. Isaac Fletcher Redfield was born in Wethersfield, Vt., April 10, 1804,- the eldest of a family of twelve children. His father, Dr. Peleg Redfield, re- moved to Coventry, Orleans county, in 1808, where he spent most of his life, a prominent physician, and much respected citizen, and died in 1848, at the- age of seventy two. Isaac F. graduated with high honors at Dartmouth col- lege, in 1825, entered immediately upon the study of the law, and was admit- ted to the bar of Orleans county in 1827. He rapidly rose in his profession and in public estimation, and held from 1832 to 1835 the office of state's at- torney for that county. In February, 1834, on motion of Daniel Webster, he was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the United States, Chief Justice Marshall presiding.

At the October session of the legislature of Vermont, in 1835, he was- elected a justice of the supreme court. He was then only thirty-one years. of age, the youngest man who has ever attained that office in the state. His. election was entirely unexpected to himself, especially as his political opinions were not in accordance with those of the majority of the legislature ; and it afforded a very marked proof of the personal and professional reputation he- had acquired. Judge Redfield accepted the appointment with much hesita- tion and distrust of his own powers; but had, very soon, the satisfaction of knowing that he was regarded by the bar as the fit associate of his distin- guished compeers.

For twenty-four successive years after his first election (the judges being. then annually elected in Vermont) he was unanimously re-elected by the. legislature, though a large majority of that body were, during all that time, opposed to him in political sentiment. Judge Redfield succeeded Judge Royce as chief justice, and was eight times unanimously elected to that office. These facts are far more significant to show the estimation in which. he was held by the bar and the people of Vermont, than any comment that can now be made. His term of office was longer than that of any judge who ever sat upon the bench in the state, though exceeding by only two months that of Judge Royce.

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Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties, Vt. 1764-1887, Part 10

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn Publication date: 1887 Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse Journal Co., Printers and Binders Number of Pages: 886

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse Journal Co., Printers and Binders
Number of Pages: 886