Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888, Part 12

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., The Syracuse journal company, printers
Number of Pages: 836

USA > Vermont > Orange County > Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888 > Part 12

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Judge Vilas at an early age took part in politics and was chosen to many positions of trust and honor in his native state. In 1835 he was elected from Johnson to the State Constitutional convention, and represented that town in the legislature in 1836 and 1837, and in the latter year was elected by the legislature one of the state commissioners of the deaf, dumb and blind, and during the same period held the office of judge of probate. He removed to Chelsea in 1838 and represented that town in the legislature from 1840 to 1843, during which time he served on the judiciary committee, the last year as its chairman. He was elected a state senator from Orange county in 1845, and re-elected in 1846, in which year he was unanimously chosen president pro tempore of the Senate, although the senators of his political party were but a small minority of that body. He also held the office of judge of probate in Orange county for the years 1843, 1847 and 1848, and in 1850 represented Chelsea in the State Constitutional convention. In 1844 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress against Jacob Collamer, and in 1848 was supported by the Democrats of the legislature for United States senator against Hon. William Upham, the Whig candidate, but was defeated for these high offices, as his political party was in the minority in that state.

In 1851 Judge Vilas removed with his family to Wisconsin and settled at Madison, where he continued to reside until his death. He represented the Madison Assembly district in the legislature in the years 1855, 1868 and 1873, and was elected mayor of the city of Madison in April, 1861, without opposi- tion, and held that office for one year. In 1837 he was married to Esther G. Smilie, a daughter of Nathan Smilie, of Cambridge, Vt., a lady of rare charac- ter and marked womanly power and accomplishments.

He died at his home in Madison on February 6, 1879, universally mourned by the community. His widow and five children survived him. Hon. William F. Vilas, late Postmaster-General, and present Secretary of the Interior, of the cabinet of President Cleveland, is one of the surviving sons.

Perley Chandler Jones, son of Thomas Jones, was born in Chelsea in 1812, and graduated at Amherst college about 1833. He studied law with his father and was admitted to the Orange county bar at the December term of the County Court, 1835. An obituary notice that appeared immediately after his death says : "From that time he practiced his profession with fair success, soon taking rank with the foremost of the county bar, until about 1850, when he virtually retired and became a silent partner in a mercantile concern, devoting to that huis principal attention ; still, however, devoting himself considerably to counselling his old clients, many of whom sought him for advice long after he ceased to appear in court." While in practice Mr.

ORANGE COUNTY.

Jones was in company with Hon. A. P. Hunton. He was clerk of the Supreme and County Courts and Court of Chancery for the county of Orange from 1840 to 1845, inclusive, represented his town in the state legislature for the years 1849, '50 and '51, held the office of judge of probate for the Ran- dolph district in 1861 and 1862, and was register of probate in the same dis- strict from 1865 to the time of his death in 1874. The same notice says of him :-

" Judge Jones possessed more than ordinary natural talents, a well cultivated mind, an educated taste for general literature, and had sought and gained a wide acquaintance with the literature of both ancient and modern times. As a lawyer he was well grounded in the first principles, possessed the power of just discrimination and of ready application of principles to facts, was earnest, terse, pointed as an advocate without care for display ; but as a general practitioner he was extremely cautious, distrustful of his own powers, and almost timid ; and this cast in his constitution at length rendered the practice of the law so distasteful as to lead him to abandon it for other pursuits. In the last three or four years of his life some alarming premonitions of failing health, upon which paralysis finally supervened, withdrew him for the most part from active business and kept him pretty much in the seclusion of his home.

" In politics Judge Jones was originally a Democrat, with a tendency favor- ing universal freedom. It was natural therefore that he should join the free- soil movement under the lead of Mr. Van Buren in the campaign of 1848, and ever afterward he was an ardent supporter of anti-slavery doctrines and measures.'

He married a daughter of Judge George E. Wales, of Hartford, Vt., and had two children,-Edward T. Jones, who was born in 1841, was educated at Norwich university and died of consumption August 7, 1862, and Caroline Dana Jones, two years younger than her brother, and who makes her home in Oakland, Cal. Mr. Jones died April 12, 1874.

His former partner says of him in a letter: " He studied law with Hon. Milo L. Bennett and was learned and able. He attended to business occasionally and on such occasions was earnest and diligent. He was honorable in his practice and courteous in his demeanor, was a good citizen, honored his par- ents, was faithful to his wife, indulgent to his children, fair in his dealings, constant to his friends and generous to his enemies."

Augustus P. Hunton is one of the oldest, best and most substantial lawyers of Windsor county, where he has lived for many years in the active practice of his profession, but as he at one time was a prominent lawyer in Orange county he is entitled to a place here.

Mr. Hunton was born in Groton, N. H., February 23, 1816. His parents removed to Hyde Park, Vt., in 1818, and that was his home until he made one for himself. He attended the district school at Hyde Park and the academy at Johnson. In the spring of 1834, when he was eighteen years old, he commenced the study of law with Joshua Sawyer, at Hyde Park, continued the study the next year with William C. Wilson, at Bakersfield, and finished his studies with William M. Pingrey, at Waitsfield, and was admitted to prac-

BENCH AND BAR.

tice as an attorney at the April term of the Washington County Court, 1837.

In September, 1833, he formed a partnership with Hon. Julius Converse, afterwards governor of Vermont, and opened an office for the practice of law at Bethel. Mr. Converse already had a large practice there and Mr. Hunton entered the firm as the junior partner. In the summer of 1844 he removed from Bethel to Chelsea and resided there until 1848, when he returned to Bethel and has resided there ever since. During all the time he was at Chel- sea he had as a partner in the law business Perley C. Jones, Esq.

Mr. Hunton represented Bethel in the General Assembly of Vermont in 1861 and 1862, and was the speaker of the House of Representatives both years, including the extra session held in April, 1861, and favored any measure which he thought would encourage or strengthen the hands of the President in his efforts to suppress the Rebellion.

In 1864, at the State convention to choose delegates to the National con - vention, and to nominate presidential electors, Mr. Hunton was one of a committee on resolutions. The chairman read a draft of a series of resolu- tions including one which declared that Abraham Lincolon was their first choice for President. Mr. Hunton moved that the word " first " be stricken out, very much to the apparent surprise of some of the committee who evi- dently thought that he preferred some other man. Hon. Benjamin H. Steele, afterwards judge of the Supreme Court, but whom Mr. Hunton had not be- fore that time seen, seconded the motion with such cogent reasons that it was agreed to unanimously.

Mr. Hunton was a delegate to the National convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln for a second term. The Vermont delegates were of course unanimous for Mr. Lincoln, but there were different minds as to the Vice- President. It seemed to Mr. Hunton that the second place should be filled by a man who had been a slave-holder, but who was then in favor of suppress- ing the Rebellion. He remembered Mr. Andrew Johnson's speech denouncing sundry of the conspirators to their faces in the Senate, also his good service as governor of Tennessee, and was in favor of his nomination for the office of Vice-President and so voted each time. Subsequent events, however, con- vinced him that a better nomination might have been made. In 1863 and 1864 he was superintendent of recruiting for Windsor county to raise soldiers to send to the front to fill the ranks of the brave men depleted by the terrible engagements of those days. He was a faithful, honest and patriotic officer, and performed the duties of his position not only for the true interest of the government, but also with humanity to the brave sons of Vermont who were ready to risk their lives for their country.

Mr. Hunton is still in the active practice of his profession, and is quite as vigorous in mind and body as many of the younger brethren who encounter him to their discomfiture.

Wyman Spooner started a weekly newspaper at Royalton, Vt., somewhere about 1830, called the Vermont Advocate. After publishing it there a short

ORANGE COUNTY.

time he removed with it to Chelsea, where he published it several years. It was conservative and Whig in its political tone. Mr. Spooner finally gave up its publication and began the study of law at Chelsea, and was admitted to the County Court at the June term, 1833. Walton's Register shows him to have been in practice in Chelsea from 1833 to 1836. He then removed west, to Wisconsin probably, where he became quite prominent as a citizen and a lawyer. He was promoted to the bench of some court and was sent to the legislature of his state. So says Thomas Hale, Esq.

Hon. Burnam Martin was born August 10, 1811, at Williamstown. He was the eleventh of twelve children born to James Martin and Martha Coburn, who were married in Hampton, Conn., in July, 1789. The father was of Scotch and the mother of English ancestry. But two of these twelve children survive, Milton, the next older then Burnam, now a farmer in Will- iamstown, and Mary, a younger sister, now living in Northfield, Vt. The subject of this sketch learned the saddler's trade of William S. Beckett, in Williamstown, and at one time worked at his trade in Chelsea in the same room in which he afterwards practiced law. He was at Berkshire, Vt., for a time, and then went to Saratoga, N. Y., where he married Christina Ann Brotts, October 6, 1834. After this he returned to Williamstown for a time and bought out the business of Mr. Beckett ; but his health failing, he sold out and removed to Fayette county, Ohio, where he lived eleven years. He gave up his trade and took up the business of school teaching, com- menced the study of law, and was soon admitted to practice. He was at once chosen state's attorney for the county and served in that capacity from 1841 to 1843. He was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives in 1843, and a state senator from 1845 to 1847. Mr. Martin was as popular in Ohio as he was every where he lived, and had his health not compelled him to leave that state just at this important and critical period of his career he would undoubtedly soon have represented his district in Congress or held some other equally important public position. He was a Whig at this time, and remained such until the organization of the Republican party, when his convictions led him to join the new organization in the cause of freedom.

He returned to Williamstown in 1848, but the same year removed to Chelsea, where he continued to reside until his death, November 17, 1882. He soon formed a law partnership with Hon. William Hebard, which con- tinued until after the latter's return from Congress in 1853. In 1849 and 1852 he was elected state's attorney for Orange county, on the Whig ticket, the Democrats and Free Soilers electing Col. Asa M. Dickey at the interven- ing elections for 1850 and 1851. In 1852 he was nominated by the Whigs for town representative and received a plurality of votes at the polls, but there was no election owing to the presence of a Free Soil candidate. In 1857, however, he was elected to the legislature from Chelsea as a Republi- can, and again in 1876 at the biennial election. He was appointed clerk of the County Court in 1857, and held that office two years. In 1858 and 1859

BENCH AND BAR.

he was chosen lieutenant-governor of Vermont during the two terms that Hon. Hiland Hall served as governor, and presided with more than ordinary ability. He was chosen state senator by the Republicans in 1866 and 1867, with Hiram Barrett, of Strafford, as his colleague. From 1872 to 1882, inclu- sive, with the exception of a single year, he was town clerk of Chelsea. For several years before his death he was justice of the peace, court auditor and a member of the committee for the examination of candidates for admission to Orange county bar. His first wife having died he married Mrs. Anna S. Bishop, of Vergennes, Vt., September 19, 1859, who survives him. His only child, a daughter by his first wife, Annette, the wife of Burnam K. Wat- son, of Lakeland, Minn., also survives him. Gov. Martin was a genial, pleasant gentleman, and made many friends everywhere. His character and habits were above reproach.

James M. Gilson was born in Stockbridge, Vt., and his father kept hotel in Gaysville, a village in the town of his birth. He was admitted to practice in Orange County Court in 1842, and in the Supreme Court of the state at the March terin, 1845, of that court held in Orange county. Soon after his admission to the County Court he formed a partnership with Hon. L. B. Vilas, at Chelsea, under the style of Vilas & Gilson, which continued until 1844. He left Chelsea about 1846 and removed west. Not long since he wrote one of his old friends, who formerly lived in the county, that he had lived in seventeen states and territories. He is now (1888) in Kansas, and holds the position of pension examiner under the United States government.

Jehial Lillie, according to Walton's Register, was an attorney in Chelsea during the years from 1843 to 1845. He was admitted to the bar of Orange County Court at the December term, 1841, of that court, and to the Supreme Court February 27, 1844.

J. W. Twiss appears in the Register as a lawyer at Chelsea in 1844. At one time he was located at East Randolph.

Samuel Minot Flint was born at Braintree, August 4, 1818. His parents were Dea. Augustus and Nancy (Vinton) Flint. He was educated at the academy at Newbury, studied law in the office of the late Hon. J. P. Kidder, at Braintree, and completed his studies in the office of the late Judge Hebard, of Chelsea, being admitted to the bar June 18, 1845. He began practice in Snowsville in the town of Braintree, but soon moved to Chelsea, where, in 1854, he was elected state's attorney for Orange county, and served three terms as county clerk in 1852, '53 and '54. He married Miss Cornelia M. Craig, eldest daughter of Dr. Samuel Craig, of Braintree, May 4, 1847, and sister of Capt. Craig, mentioned in these sketches. In 1856 he took up his residence in St. Paul, Minn., where he opened a law office, the firm being Kidder, Flint & Craig. He was elected county attorney three times in succession, while at St. Paul, serving in that capacity six years, and afterward served as city attorney, after which he was elected city justice and held that position two years, when the office was changed to judge of the

ORANGE COUNTY.

Municipal Court. He was elected judge of this court without opposition, and served two terms, when, on account of poor health, he was compelled to leave the bench, and in a little more than a year died at his home in St. Paul, of apoplexy, October 6, 1881. A St. Paul paper published the following week after the death of Judge Flint said :-

" Judge Flint has been universally acknowledged as a man of great natural ability, a lawyer of fine capacity, and a judge of unimpeachable integrity. The correctness of his decisions on the bench has never been brought in question. His decision has never been reversed by the Supreme Court. He- was a man of warm, generous impulses, and while he had some enemies he could number his friends by the thousands. He dies universally regretted, not only for what he proved himself to be, but for the inherent nobleness of character he was known to possess."

The widow and one son (Henry) now (1888) reside in St. Paul, Minn.

For the last thirty years Cornelius Wilder Clarke has been one of the lead- ing lawyers of Chelsea. He was born in Barnard, Vt., October 17, 1823, and is the son of Joseph Clarke, born in Petersboro, N. H., January 14, 1796, still living (1888), and of Mercy Collins (Stevens) Clarke, born October 28, 1802, and who died April 16, 1876. His father was a farmer and blacksmith, and the son had good opportunity to develop and harden his muscle in help- ing his father at the anvil. He had the usual fortune of boys in Vermont at the district school, although he must have been a more than usually apt scholar even then. He was ambitious, and his father shared in this feeling so that he went to the Royalton academy or Windsor County Grammar school for several terms, in 1841 and 1842, and then attended the Methodist Conference seminary at Newbury, in 1843 and 1844. Having decided to make the practice of the law his profession, soon after the close of his student life at Newbury, he commenced the study of law with S. R. Streeter, Esq., of his native town, and in March, 1845, he went to Albany, N. Y., and entered as a student the law office of Prof. Amos Dean, and remained there until October, 1846. Prof. Dean was for many years prominently connected with the Albany Law school, and was really its founder. and being himself a native of Barnard, he took especial interest in his young student, and gave him his- best instruction. Mr. Clarke was a diligent and consciencious scholar, and paid a large portion of his expenses by copying legal documents in the ele- gant, round hand for which he has so long been noted. In November, 1846, he came to Chelsea and entered the office of the late Hon. Levi B. Vilas, and continued with him as student and clerk until he left the state, in 1851. He was admitted to practice in County Court at the June term of Orange County Court, 1849, and in Supreme Court at the March term, 1851. By this time he had made himself very proficient in drawing papers of all kinds, and an excellent special pleader, and his time was so taken up in the use of his pen that he did not attempt to try cases in court or to make arguments before a jury to any great extent. After Judge Vilas's departure Mr. Clarke opened an office by himself, and the rapid increase of his business soon drove

BENCH AND BAR.

him into the trial and argument of causes, all of which he did with great ability. He was register of probate for the Randolph district in 1848 and 1849, Hon. Levi B. Vilas being judge, and again in 1852 and 1853, Hon. Philander Perrin being judge. He has also held the office of clerk of the County Court and the Supreme Court for Orange county, and the Court of Chancery for the years 1853 and 1854. With these exceptions Mr. Clarke has held but few offices. He has never been an office-seeker in any sense of the term, and always being a consistent Democrat, such favors have not naturally come to him in Chelsea, or in Orange county, or in the state of Vermont. He was several times the candidate of his party for state's attorney and other offices in the county, and also before the legislature for judge of the Supreme Court.

From 1851 to 1879 he had a very extensive and a very lucrative practice, in all branches of the business. He was one of the most industrious men at the bar, and did more writing than any other lawyer. His papers were all of them marvels of neatness and usually of correctness. He was often selected as referee and auditor and commissioner to take testimony in chancery. He took all of the testimony in the celebrated case in chancery of the Vermont Copper Mining Company vs. Henry Barnard, in 1865, '66 and '67, which occupied forty-nine days in the taking. His counsel was much sought by other attorneys in matters of pleading and the drawing of papers, and during the time named he led a most busy life. His arguments before the Supreme Court were usually written out at length, and read from the manuscript, a. practice which has grown into common use in these days. Very few impor- tant cases were tried from 1858 to 1878 without Mr. Clarke's assistance. About the latter date his health suddenly failed and he was compelled, for two or three years, to give up business altogether. The strain had been too much for him. His health seems to be now quite restored, but he has, to a great extent, retired from business.

Mr. Clarke married, for his first wife, a cousin, Miss Martha M. Stevens, July 13, 1851, a most estimable lady from Barnard, with whom he lived but few years, her sudden decease, February 14, 1855, being the cause of profound grief to him. She left no children. He married for his second wife Miss Laura L. Moore, May 15, 1862, daughter of S. J. Moore, Esq., of Chelsea, by whom he has had six children, three of whom survive. The second wife died June 5, 1881, and Mr. Clarke and his married daughter and husband, Mr. Charles P. Dickinson, now live together in the house so long the home of the family.

Alden Tuller was born at Royalton, Windsor county, May 29, 1822. He was educated at the common school and the Windsor County Grammar school at Royalton. He studied law at Bethel, in the same county, and at Chelsea, in Orange county, at the latter place in the office of Hunton & Jones. He was admitted to the Orange county bar June 16, 1847, com- menced practice at Bethel, but soon removed to Gloucester, Essex county,

100

ORANGE COUNTY.

Mass., where he remained in the practice of his profession until his death from heart disease, about 1873. " He was well mannered, exemplary in con- duct, a diligent student, attentive to business and trustworthy," says one of his instructors in the law. " He was very successful as a lawyer. His prin- cipal business was settling estates, collecting bills, etc., in which he gave satisfaction to all who employed him. We never heard a word derogatory to his integrity. He never sought office or took much interest in politics, and held no office to our knowledge," says a near friend.

Gilbert E. Hood was born in Chelsea, November 21, 1824, and worked on the home farm until he was twenty-one years old, with the exception of attending school in the fall and teaching winters after he was eighteen. He finished his preparation for college at the Thetford academy in 1846 and 1847, then taught by Hiram Orcutt, Esq., and entered the freshman class at Dartmouth college in the fall of 1847, and graduated in 1851 He after- wards returned to Thetford academy as an assistant teacher, under Mr. Orcutt, and at length became its principal. He studied law with Abijah Howard, Jr., Esq , at Thetford Hill, and later with David H. Mason, Esq., of Boston, and was admitted to the Orange county bar at Chelsea, June 30, 1854, and to the Suffolk county bar in Boston in 1855. He commenced the practice of law in Boston, but finally went to Lawrence, Mass., in the spring of 1859, where he continued in the practice of the law. He held various offices in that city, among which were city solicitor, associate justice of the Police Court, and register of deeds. He became superintendent of the public schools in 1864, and continued in that position until the fall of 1876, when he was chosen treasurer of the Broadway Savings bank in Lawrence, which place he still holds. He has been for several years and still is president of the Law- rence City Mission, and also of the Lawrence Young Men's Christain Associa- tion. In May, 1852, he married Miss Frances E. Herrick, of Danvers, Mass. They have no children.

Mr. Hood, in college, was a classmate of ex-Governor Redfield Proctor, of Vermont, and Hon. Jonathan Ross, for many years one of the judges of the Supreme Court of this state, and E. T. Quimby, for several years pro- fessor of mathematics in Dartmouth college. The positions hield by Mr. Hood in the city of his present residence indicate that he is esteemed there as highly as he was in the town of his birth, where his probity and other excellent traits of character are remembered and favorably commented upon.

Hon. Jonathan Ross, now of St. Johnsbury, first assistant judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont, was born at Waterford, Vt., April 30, 1826. He was the third child and eldest son of Royal and Eliza (Mason) Ross. The father died November 2, 1856, and the mother was the daughter of Rev. Reuben Mason, a Congregational minister. Jonathan, after passing through the usual course in the common schools in his native town, prepared for college at the St. Johnsbury academy, and graduated at Dartmouth in 1851. He

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888, Part 12

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., The Syracuse journal company, printers Number of Pages: 836

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., The Syracuse journal company, printers
Number of Pages: 836