USA > Vermont > Orange County > Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888 > Part 13
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studied law with Hon. William Hebard, at Chelsea, was admitted to Orange county bar January 18, 1856, and after teaching a short time, began the prac- tice of his profession in 1856, at St. Johnsbury. In 1862 and '63 he was state's attorney for Caledonia county, represented St. Johnsbury, as a Republican, in the General Assembly in 1865, '66 and '67, was senator from Caledonia county in 1870, was a member of the State Board of Education from 1866 to 1870, was one of the council of censors in 1868, and was elected an asso- ciate judge of the Supreme Court in 1870, receiving successive elections since ; was appointed second associate judge by Gov. Farnham in 1882, vice Timothy P. Redfield, promoted, and was elected first associate judge in 1884 and again in 1886. From 1858 to 1868 he was treasurer of the Passumpsic Savings bank, and under his management the corporation made no losses. While in the legislature he was upon the judiciary and other important com- mittees. One of the most salutary statutes of Vermont is that which allows persons accused of crime to testify in their own behalf, and for that statute the Commonwealth is indebted to the enlightened and persistent efforts of Judge Ross. He was also interested in the legislation necessary to the Port- land & Ogdensburg Railroad Company.
Judge Ross was married, on the 22d day of November, 1852, to Eliza, daughter of Isaiah Carpenter and sister of Judge Carpenter, of New Hamp- shire. Eight children were the fruit of this union. Mrs. Carpenter is now deceased and the Judge has remarried.
William C. Grant was born in Thetford, studied law with Hon. William Hebard, at Chelsea, and was admitted to the bar in Orange county, July 10, 1856. He died in Chicago in the fall of 1887.
Lieut .- Gov. Lyman G. Hinckley .- The following account of Lieut. Gov. Hinckley was taken mainly from the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press of November 29, 1887, and the Boston Journal of November 30.
The many friends of Hon. Lyman G. Hinckley at Chelsea, as well as other towns in Vermont, were startled by the intelligence of his death about I I o'clock Saturday night, November 26, 1887, in Boston, where he had gone to spend Thanksgiving with his sisters at the home of his brother-in-law, Mr. Charles G. Prescott. He started from his home in Chelsea Wednesday morning, and after his arrival in Boston appeared in his usual health until Friday afternoon, when he was suddenly seized with a severe pain in his stomach, which resulted in the rupture of a blood vessel, caused, it is thought, by stricture of the esophagus.
Lyman Gillett Hinckley was born at the village of Post Mills, in the town of Thetford, April 13, 1832. He was the eldest child of Lyman Hinckley, now deceased, a well-to-do farmer, who held various positions of honor and trust in that town, and in 1860 and 1861 was elected assistant judge of Orange County Court. The son was fitted for college under Hiram Orcutt, at Thetford Hill academy, then a flourishing school, which he entered at the age of fourteen. He entered Dartmouth in 1852, and his sparkling wit,
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brilliant conversational powers, general knowledge of affairs and keen com- mon sense brought him at once into notice, and he soon became one of the most popular men in the class. Among his classmates may be mentioned ex-Governor Benjamin F. Prescott, Rev. F. D. Ayer, D. D., of Concord, N. H., Dr. Joseph L. Elkins, of Newmarket, Judge Caleb Blodgett and Hon. A. B. Coffin, of Boston, Hon. William H. Hale, of Springfield, Mr. Walter S. Church and the late N. S. Simpkins, of New York city. He taught district schools in Strafford and Norwich, Vt., and in Upton and Gloucester, Mass., during the winters of his academic and collegiate course, and in September, 1857, he went to Chelsea as assistant of Horace B. Woodworth, then princi- pal of Chelsea academy, and at the same time he commenced his study of law with Hon. Birnam Martin, and later with Hon. William Hebard. He was assistant clerk in the grand list department during the session of the Ver- mont legislature in 1856, was second assistant clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives during the session of 1857, and first assistant or reading clerk dur- ing the sessions of 1858 and '59. He was admitted to the bar as an attor- ney at the January term of Orange County Court, 1860, and at the same term was appointed clerk of the Supreme and County Courts and the Court of Chancery for Orange county, which office he held continuously up to the time of his death, a space of almost twenty-eight years. He was one of the oldest and perhaps the oldest clerk in term of service in the state. He was a member of the House of Representatives from the town of Chelsea in the years 1862, '63, '68, '69, '70, and '80, senator from Orange county in 1872 and '73, and lieutenant-governor in 1874 and '75. He has been moderator of town meeting in Chelsea for the past twenty years, and has been select- man, lister and justice of the peace for more than twenty years.
He was married, November 21, 1861, to Marry Sibel Henry, of Waterbury, sister of Gen. W. W. Henry, of Burlington, and Hon. John F. Henry, of Brooklyn. They had one daughter, Hattie E., who died of scarlet fever, March 11, 1872, at the age of eight and a half years. Mrs. Hinckley died suddenly at Elizabeth, N. J., on the 12th of May, 1874, while on a visiting tour to her sister in North Carolina, her brother in Brooklyn, N. Y., and other friends in Washington and New Jersey. Gov. Hinckley did not remarry, but kept his home in Chelsea for the reception of his many friends and relatives.
Lieut .- Gov. Hinckley was ever an unflinching Republican in his political faith, and there seemed to be no public office or trust that his fellow citizens were not willing to bestow upon him. This is not at all surprising to those who were his intimate friends and knew his qualities of character. In private life he was universally beloved. Of generous impulses and a tender, sympa- thetic nature, he seemed to be everybody's friend, and quickly won the warm regards of all who knew him. He was accessible alike to the rich and to the poor. No one in trouble ever went away from him without aid and encour- agement. His brilliant wit and the exquisite charm of his personal presence
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captivated even the stranger. The best of neighbors, a public spirited citi- zen and a friend beloved wherever known, he leaves throughout the range of his extended acquaintance a host of sincere mourners.
Gov. Hinckley was buried at Chelsea, and his funeral took place there November 30, 1887, at two o'clock, P. M., from the Congregational church, Rev. E. E. Herrick, the pastor, and Rev. J. A. Sherburne, of the Methodist Episcopal church, officiating. The house was crowded, for, besides members of the family, not only citizens of the town and county, but, despite the rough traveling, people from outside the county attended. Hon. S. B. Hibbard, for thirty years past almost a brother in personal intimacy with the deceased, had charge of the services. Hon. Herman A. White, of Washington, the oldest member of Orange county bar, Sheriff Lyman P. Barron, ex Gov. Ros- well Farnham, of Bradford, and Joseph D. Denison, of West Randolph, bore the remains to the altar. At the head was placed a beautiful pillow of flowers, on which was the word " Brother"; upon the open lid of the casket lay a floral anchor, the gift of Charles I. Hood, of Lowell, Mass., and a sheaf of wheat bound with a broad white satin ribbon, inscribed " Rest."
After anthems by the choir and Scripture reading, Pastor Herrick, in well- chosen words, delineated the life and paid a beautiful tribute to the noble nature of the deceased. Fitting remarks were then made by Elder Sherburne, followed by heartfelt testimonials from Brothers Farnham, Denison, Hibbard and Charles P. Tarbell, Esq, of Royalton. An anthem and the benediction closed the services. The remains were followed to the grave, though a piercing wind was blowing, by a vast concourse of his fellow-townsmen, rich and poor alike joining the sad procession. Such a scene has seldom been witnessed in a New England village. All places of business were closed during the services and the expressions of profound grief were universal. Among those present from Boston were ex Alderman Charles J. Prescott, at whose liouse the ex- Lieutenant-Governor died, Edward L. Prescott, George A. Clough, Charles M. Hinckley, and others.
Salmon Blodgett Hebard, the eldest son of the late William Hebard, was born in Randolph, November 15, 1835. Until November, 1845, he lived in Randolph, when his father moved his family to Chelsea, where the son has lived ever since, excepting an absence of three years from the fall of 1861. His education was obtained at the Orange County Grammar school, at Ran- dolph, and at the Chelsea academy, at Chelsea. He was fitted for college, but owing to some financial difficulties of his father's, in connection with his own aversion to the drudgery of teaching, which would, in part, become neces- sary, determined him to forego the advantages of a collegiate course ; which decision has been sincerely regretted by him. When he was nineteen years of age he entered his father's office as a student of the law, and continued his studies there until the May after he was twenty-one, when, on the resignation of the late Hon. Burnam Martin, as clerk of Orange County Court, he was appointed to fill that vacancy, and held the office until January, 1860.
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After his retirement from the clerkship, he resumed his law studies, and was admitted to the bar in January, 1861.
In the fall of 1861 he enlisted, and was made second lieutenant of the First Vermont Light Battery, and served in the Department of the Gulf, and was away until November, 1863, when he returned to Chelsea and resumed the practice of the law. Shortly after his return he entered into partnership with his father, which continued until the death of the latter, October 20, 1875. Since then he has continued the practice of the law alone, with some degree of success. He has been deputy clerk of Orange County Court, with the exception of some seven years, ever since January, 1860, and upon the death of Hon. Lyman G. Hinckley,-who had held the office of clerk from January, 1860,-on the 27th day of November, 1887, he was appointed clerk to fill the vacancy, and is the present in- cumbent of that office. He has been the town agent for the prosecution of suits ever since the death of his father. In 1880 he was elected state's attor- ney for Orange county, and held that office two years. In 1884 he was elected senator from Orange county. He has never married, which he re- grets, but hopes he may do better in the future.
Mr. Hebard is a man of ability, and has a good deal of the good judgment and common sense that go to make up a good trial lawyer before a jury. He is instinctively honest and reliable. Whatever he says to be true is true. He has had a good practice since his father's death, but he gave it all up to take the position of clerk of the courts of Orange county, a place for which he is eminently fitted by his good penmanship and his long experience in the clerk's office as deputy under Mr. Hinckley. No more satisfactory man for the place could have been found among the lawyers of the county.
George Lewis Stow was born in Grafton, Worcester county, Mass., Octo- ber 10, 1851, only son to John Adams Stow and Margaret Sophia Fay, both of Grafton, where their ancestors, of English descent, had lived for sev- eral generations. His father dying in 1855, the mother and child removed to the adjoining town of Upton, Mass., where he attended the district or com- mon and high school of the village. Thence removing to Burlington, Vt., in April, 1866, he fitted for college at the high school in that city, and in 1869 entered the University of Vermont and State Agricultural college, graduating in the class of 1873. After teaching school for a while and attending lectures at the Dane Law school, Harvard university, he was admitted to the bar at. the September term, 1875, of the Chittenden County Court. Mr. Stow set- tled in Barre, Vt., October 15, 1875, whence he removed to Chelsea, in Jan- uary, 1880. In August, 1884, he was married to Mrs. Laura A. Davis, widow of the late Aaron Davis, Esq.
Horace S. Moore was born in Chelsea, and was the son of William Moore. He was admitted to the bar in Orange county, January 13, 1864, and died at Wentworth, N. H., a few years later.
Arthur Sidney Austin was born in Royalton, Vt., near the Bethel line, in
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1854. He is the son of Isaac F. and Clarissa M. Austin. His father was a farmer, and the son strengthened his muscles and his constitution by the healthy labors of the farm. He studied law with Hon. James J. Wilson, of Bethel, and afterwards with C. W. Clarke, Esq., of Chelsea. At the June term, 1876, of Orange County Court, he was admitted to the bar and imme- diately formed a partnership with Mr. Clarke, the firm of Clarke & Austin continuing as long as Mr. Austin remained in Chelsea. He was appointed deputy county clerk by Hon. Lyman G. Hinckley, the clerk, December 22, 1875, and held that position much of the time that he continued in practice in the county. He was elected town clerk in 1877. May 26, 1879, he mar- ried Miss Fannie Winslow, of Malden, Mass., a granddaughter of Dr. Thomas Winslow, who, forty years ago, was a famous physician of Chelsea. He bought and refitted the Harry Hale house next the court-house in Chelsea in the sum- mer of 1879, and moved into it and there continued to reside until he left town. He became known and respected in this and surrounding towns as an honest, industrious young lawyer and good citizen. Growing restless and dis- satisfied with his prospects in Chelsea, although comfortably situated and doing well, he sold his place at a sacrifice and removed with his family to Birmingham, Ala., in the late fall of 1882, where he resided until 1887. He is understood to have made a fortune in the rise of real estate there, and now lives with his parents in Agawam, Mass.
William D. Laird was born in Chelsea, and was admitted to the Orange county bar about 1881, but there is no record of his admission. He was deputy county clerk in 1882, and the next year formed a partnership with Hon. Charles B. Leslie, at Wells River, where he remained in the practice of his profession about two years. He is now a clerk of some court in Texas. He was a bright, ambitious young man, and we are sorry not to have the data for a more extended sketch of him.
Curtis Stanton Emery, born in Brookfield, November 6, 1861, removed to Chelsea in March, 1869, attended the common schools in Brookfield and Chelsea, and Chelsea academy, read law with C. W. Clarke and A. S. Austin, at Chelsea, and was admitted to the bar of Orange County Court, December 29, 1883, and to that of the Supreme Court at Montpelier, May 6, 1886. He was elected county commissioner for Orange county in March, 1885, again in 1886, and for the third time in March, 1887. March 15, 1886, he was elected cashier of the First National bank of Chelsea, which position he now holds. He was married, May 12, 1885, to Miss Hattie J. Ordway, of Tunbridge, and they have one child, Sallie Helena, born in 1886.
John Arnold Keyes was born in Chelsea, June 23, 1859. He attended the common schools in Chelsea and Chelsea academy, read law with George L. Stow, and was admitted to the bar at the October term of Supreme Court, 1884, at Montpelier. In 1883 and 1884 he was elected superintendent of schools in Chelsea. In April, 1885, he removed west, and since then has been practicing law at Winona, Minn., in the office of Hon. William H.
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Yale, ex-lieutenant-governor. He was a very diligent student of law, and passed an excellent examination for admission to the bar before the state examining board. As superintendent he was thorough and painstaking. As correspondent of a local newspaper he wrote a series of articles concerning the early history of Chelsea, which were afterwards published in pamphlet form, entitled, " Among the Early Chelseans," a work of considerable literary and historical merit. May 1, 1887, he formed a co-partnership, and is now head of the law firm of Keyes & Brown, in Winona, Minn.
CORINTH.
Alden Sprague Sanborn, son of Amos Sanborn, was born in Corinth about 1823, was educated at the common schools of his town, and at Bradford academy. He studied law with Seth Austin, Esq., and was admitted to the bar of Orange county, December 20, 1845, and went west in 1846. He made his home in Madison, Wis., and there practiced his profession success- fully until his death, in 1885. He held many appointments and offices of trust and responsibility, and was judge of probate for fifteen years. In a fit of aberration of mind he committed suicide.
Daniel Batchelder James was born in Newbury. His mother was a sister of Daniel Batchelder, of Haverhill, N. H., and of Corinth, Vt., after whom he was named. He married a sister of Hon. W. T. George, of Topsham, who was at one time sheriff and assistant judge of Orange county. Mr. James was admitted to the bar of Orange county about 1846, and opened an office at East Corinth. He was appointed register of probate for the Brad- ford district, under Hon. Stephen Thomas, then judge of probate. About 1850 he removed from Corinth to Sycamore, Ill., where he died.
Amus Stearns Little was born in Corinth on the 15th day of May, 1800, and died in the same town July 12, 1865. He was a self-made man, receiving what education he had in the common schools of his native town and of Haverhill, N. H., and was for a short time a student at Bradford academy. He was admitted to the bar of Orange county very late in life, probably in the year 1857. He had practiced law in the justice courts a good many years before being admitted, and had acquired considerable practical knowledge of the practices in such courts in the days when there was a good deal of justice business, and when the contests did not always turn upon the accurate deter- mination of the legal principles involved in the cases on trial. His practice in the County and Supreme Courts was never extensive. He was a character in his day, and had many excellent qualities. He was constable in 1842, was for many years justice of the peace, and held various town offices. In 1857 he represented Corinth in the state legislature. For several years he was the secretary of the Corinth Copper Company.
Lorenzo Dow Carpenter, son of Horace and Sabrina ( Blanchard) Carpen- ter, was born in Vershire, February 14, 1829. After leaving the common
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school he attended Corinth academy a few terms, and then went to the acad- 'emy at Thetford Hill, where he prepared for college ; but his health failed him and he was obliged to give up the idea of a college education. About 1851 he entered Fowler's Law school in Cherry Valley, Otsego county, N. Y., where he remained for a time, and somewhat later entered the law office of Robert McK. Ormsby, Esq., for the purpose of completing his studies. During the time that he was a student in Mr. Ormsby's office he attended one course of lectures at the Harvard Law school. He was admitted to ·Orange county bar, February 21, 1857, and commenced the practice of law in Corinth. He married a daughter of Moses Magoon, of that town, Sep- tember 5, 1858, and procured a divorce from her a year or two later. He removed to California in February, 1865, and commenced teaching there, but he did not pursue this calling a great while. He soon took up some land in Humboldt county and was making farming his business, when, on the 31st day of July, 1868, he received an injury from a falling tree from which he died the next day.
Joseph Kimball Darling is the fourth child and third son of Jesse and Rebecca (Whitaker) Darling, and was born in Corinth, March 8, 1833. His mother died when he was ten years old, and his father married for his second wife the widow Humphrey, formerly Harriet Heath, and after two removals settled in Vershire, where Mr. Darling passed his boyhood in the labors and pleasures of farm life. His father was a deaf mute ; and although he had some knowledge of mathematics and writing, yet ordinary conversation had to be carried on with him by the use of arbitrary signs, which he and the family well understood, but which were not known to other people, consequently, when the father went away from home to do any business, he usually took Joseph with him to act as interpreter. This seemed often a hardship to the lad, but it had its educating power in many ways and its other compensations. When eighteen years of age Joseph K. bought his time of his father and struck out into the world for himself. He worked on the farm summers, taught school winters, went to school at the Corinth academy in the fall and spring, and promptly paid his father the price of his emancipation. One summer he and two ambitious friends pursued their studies under the instruc- tion of Chester Prescott, A. B., a graduate of the University of Vermont in 1847. They sought their instructor at his home on a little farm in a wild and romantic place in the town of West Fairlee, called " Bear Notch." In the winter of 1852 and '53 he taught school in the town of Sandwich, at the head of Buzzard's Bay, in Massachusetts, and there he first saw the ocean and the ships sailing to and fro. Up to this time his purpse had been to fit for col- lege and take a full course of study, and returned to school at Corinth academy, then under the charge of the Rev. O. W. Merrill, with that idea still in his mind. But when he reflected what he had to accomplish, unaided, he felt somewhat discouraged. The gold of California had not long before been discovered, and he made up his mind that he could soon accumulate
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enough there to pay all the expenses of a college course. He was accustomed to think and act for himself, and in two days he was on his way to New York city with only twenty dollars in his pocket. After six weeks of uncertainty he found some friends who loaned him money enough for a steerage passage in one of the California line of steamships for San Francisco, where he landed in due time. His first employment was with a surveying party, under Sher- man Day, a son of President Day, formerly of Yale college, surveying town- ships in the Amador and San Joaquine valleys, at $100 per month. Next he was in the employ of E. L. Beard at the Mission of San Jose, one of the largest farmers at that time in all California. Mr. Darling was put in charge of the men employed upon his home farm, which was an undivided half of 40,000 acres. After spending eight or nine months at San Josè he tried his luck in the mines at Dutch Flat and Nevada, with, as he says, about the miner's average luck. After having been in California two years, the time which he had originally fixed in his mind within which to make his fortune and return and take his college course, he had sunk what little capital he had gathered together, in running a tunnel through a rim rock on Thompson's Hill, at Dutch Flat, and, in the vernacular of that region, was strapped. He had a few hundred dollars loaned to an old employer at three and a half per cent. per month, for which he had his note. He still occasionally looks upon that note and thinks with satisfaction of his rapid accumulations at forty-two per cent. per annum. Not long after his experiment in rim rock mining he went into the employ of the agent of Col. J. C. Fremont, in Mariposa county, and assisted in the opening of Fremont's final mining operations in Califor- nia. Mr. Darling remained with Fremont, and those who worked his mines, for nearly five years, and came home during the time, in the fall of 1859, and was married to Alice Knight, the youngest daughter of Dea. Joseph Knight, of Corinth. He was at home six weeks, and in two weeks after he was mar- ried he returned to California, leaving his wife at her father's. He went at once to Mariposa and entered into the employ of Hon. Trenor W. Park, who then had the control of Col. Fremont's Mariposa estate. And Mr. Darling says that Mr. Park was the only man that ever managed that great estate successfully, and he thinks that the main reason was because he was a Ver- monter with brains.
In the spring of 1861 he returned home via the Isthmus, and landed from the ocean steamer at New York the night of the day after Fort Sumter had been fired on by the rebels, and the city was at fever heat.
Mr. Darling came at once to Corinth and went to farming, but August 16, 1862, he enlisted in the Bradford Guards, under Capt. Farnham, to go to the war, and that company became Co. H, of the Twelfth Vt. Regiment. He shared with others the marches, fatigue, picket and guard duty, hard- tack and beans, and although he had a severe run of the typhoid fever at that " miserable Wolf Run Shoals," he lived through it all and was mustered
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