USA > Vermont > Orange County > Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888 > Part 14
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out with an honorable discharge at Brattleboro, Vt., July 14, 1863, at the end of his term of service.
He then returned to his farm, but in the fall of 1863 he was fortunate enough to discover near Cookville, in Corinth, a continuation of the Pike Hill copper vein, and although he says he did not receive as much out of the sale as he ought, yet he made more in that mining, and in less time, than he ever had in California.
He then went into the mercantile business for seven years, in which he was quite successful, although he says he was not quite adapted to the busi- ness. In 1871 he sold out his store and commenced reading law with Hon. Roswell Farnham, and was admitted to the Orange county bar, June term, 1874. He immediately opened an office at East Corinth, and having done some justice business while a student, he was able to enter twenty-one cases in court on his first appearance there. February 14, 1884, he removed to Chelsea, the county seat of the county, where he now remains. He was postmaster at East Corinth from 1864 to 1871, and was first selectman of Corinth for two years. He was twice the Republican candidate for repre- sentative of Corinth, but failed of an election, the town being strongly Demo- cratic. He has been for several years chairman of the Orange County Re- publican committee, and in 1882 was elected state's attorney, and served the biennial term. He is now deputy clerk of Orange County Courts.
His first wife died October 20, 1873, leaving three children surviving- Charles Kimball, Emma Lydia, and Hale Knight Darling. In October, 1884, he remarried, taking as his second wife Miss Emma Webster, daughter of Rev. Harvey and Laura Webster, of Chelsea. She died in just twenty- three weeks from the marriage. Although Mr. Darling cannot boast of much education received from the schools, he has been pretty well educated in the hardships, disappointments and toils of life ; and probably his sympa- thies with his fellowmen in trouble and sorrow, and his knowledge of the practical affairs . of life are much greater than they would have been had he been otherwise educated. He has a large practice and is highly esteemed by all who know him.
FAIRLEE.
Samuel T. Morey, son of Judge Moulton Morey, was born in Fairlee, March 20, 1797, and married Belinda Davis, but at what date cannot be stated. He studied law, probably with Hon. A. G. Britton, of Orford, N. H., and his father, and hung out his shingle as an attorney at Fairlee from about 1824 to 1836 ; but having a natural mechanical genius, his mind instinctively turned in that direction, to the gradual and finally total neglect of law. He spent most of his life in Fairlee enjoying the confidence and esteem of his fellow townsmen. He died in the place of his birth in July, 1872.
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NEWBURY.
Hon. Daniel Farrand, of Newbury, a member of Orange county bar at the time, was a member of the convention to consider the adoption of the con- stitution of the United States, which met at Bennington, January 10, 1791, and took an active part in the proceedings and discussions of the convention. He represented the town of Newbury in the General Assembly in 1792, '93, '96, '97 and '98, and was also a member of that body in 1802, but not from Newbury. Probably he represented Burlington at that time. He was elected state's attorney for Orange county in joint committee of the House and Gov- ernor's Council, October 21, 1795, for the year 1796, and also held the office in 1798. He was judge of probate for the Thetford district, in Orange county, in 1796, after having been register for three years, and was speaker of the House of Representatives in 1798-99.
On October 27, 1813, in joint committee of the House and Council, he was elected one of the assistant judges of the Supreme Court, and re-elected to the same office October 25, 1815. He was undoubtedly a resident of Burlington at this time. In 1809 he was one of a committee to select a place for a church in Burlington, and the same year he was chosen moderator of a. meeting held in that town for the purpose of deliberating upon the alarming condition of the country, at which resolutions were adopted denouncing the em- bargo and other measures of the general government. In 1814 Judge Farrand presided at a convention held at Williston, which denounced the administra- tion in the highest terms. His political proclivities can be easily guessed from the position taken by him at these public gatherings.
When President Monroe, on his tour through New England, in 1817, reached Burlington, July 24, Hon. Daniel Farrand, as chairman of the com- mittee of arrangements, read an address of welcome to the President, to which the latter responded, alluding to the battle of Plattsburgh in very fit- ting terms. At the dinner provided for the occasion Judge Farrand responded to the toast, "Our Beloved Country-Union in Her Councils and Respect to Her Constituted Authorities." Where the subject of this sketch was born, and when and where he died, we are at this time unable to state. His name ap- pears on the Orange county docket as counsel as early as the June term, 1789. He appears as a party to a suit at the June term, 1784. Between that term and the June term, 1789, the dockets are missing. He was a man of influence in his day, but there is very little record left of him in Orange county. His name appears as counsel in eighty-eight cases at the December term, 1793, of Orange County Court. Walton's Register shows that he was- an attorney in Chittenden county from 1812 until after 1825, and was a justice of the peace at Burlington from 1821 to 1824.
Benjamin Porter lived at South Newbury, in the house now owned by E. R. Davenport, and which for a long time was known as the Porter house.
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He was in Newbury as early as 1796, as appears from a letter addressed to him at that place now in the possession of Hon. H. C. McDuffee. On the 27th day of November, 1797, Mrs. Martha Wentworth, widow of Col. Michael Wentworth, and before that time the widow of Governor Benning Wentworth, executed a deed to him of large tracts of land, and Mr. Porter is set up as of Newbury in the deed. The description of the land conveyed may be of inter- est, and is as follows, viz .: "All and each of the five hundred acre lots of land which were originally granted, reserved and intended in and by the charters of New Hampshire to and for the said Governor Benning Wentworth in the following Townships of land in the now state of Vermont, to wit : Brumley, Bottom, Burlington, Cornwail, Dorsett, Glostenburgh, Highgate, Mansfield, Middlesex, Mooretown (now Bradford), Swanton, St. George, Worcester, Whiting and Woodford." The consideration for these 7,500 acres of land was $2,000. This deed was received for record in Mooretown, May 19, 1804, and was recorded by Roswell Smith, then town clerk. Some of the lots of land in Newbury and other towns in the county are still called the Porter lots from him. He undoubtedly had his office and practiced law at South Newbury, and probably came from Newburyport, Mass .; but when he first came to Newbury, and when he died, has not been ascertained. The Register shows him to have been a lawyer at South Newbury as late as 1819. Hon. C. B. Leslie writes that he has three law books in his library which once belonged to Mr. Porter, and which he sold to Peter Burbank. Mr. Porter represented the town of Newbury in the state legislature in 1812.
William Bannister was in the practice of the law at Newbury in 1804 and 1 805.
John Wallace appears by Walton's Register to have been in practice as a lawyer at Newbury from 1814 to 1826. He was admitted to the Orleans county bar in August, 1811, having graduated at Dartmouth college in 1808. He never married, and died at Newbury in July, 1826. He was the son of William and Hannah (Carleton) Wallace. Judge Leslie says of him in that excellent work the "Biography of the Bar of Orleans County," by F. W. Baldwin, Esq , that he was a polished and eloquent speaker, but was too much of a scholar to obtain a large practice.
Peter Burbank was born in Somers, Conn., and was fifty-five years old when he died, January 13, 1836. He was admitted to Orleans county bar, August 24, 1812, and to the Caledonia county bar in September, 1816, and lived and practiced at Wells River from some time prior to 1820 to the time of his death. At one time he was in the office of Gov. John Mattocks, at Peacham, Vt. He represented the town of Newbury, as a Democrat, in the legislature from 1829 to 1831, inclusive, and was the means of the Bank of Newbury being located at the village of Wells River, instead of at the other village in Newbury, sometimes called Newbury Street. During the session of 1831 Mr. Burbank introduced a resolution directing inquiry to be made as to the boundary line between Vermont and New Hampshire,
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and that a committee be appointed of one member from each of the counties of Windham, Windsor, Orange, Caledonia and Essex, to report by bill or otherwise. The committee appointed was Peter Burbank, of New- bury ; Wyllis Lyman, of Hartford ; Lemuel Whitney, of Brattleboro ; Jacob C. Morrill, of Sutton ; and Horace Hubbard, of Guildhall. The Council con- curred in this action of the House, and appointed Councillor Daniel Cobb, of Strafford, to join. The committee made a full and exhaustive report upon the subject, which is well worth the reading. It may be found in the Gov- ernor and Council, Vol. VIII. The views of the committee are summed up in a single expression, viz .: "Your committee, therefore, feel strongly im- pressed with the conviction, that the exclusive right to the bed of the Con- necticut River, is not vested either in the state of New Hampshire or Ver- mont."
Mr. Burbank was not liberally educated, but he was a man of a good deal of intellectual strength and of great originality, which carried him at times into eccentricities of conduct, that made him a very marked character in his day. He died in the very prime of life and in the maturity of his powers.
John Chamberlin, whose name appears in Walton's Register as having been in practice in Newbury from 1818 to 1822, was the son of Asher and Olive (Russell) Chamberlin, and was probably born in Bradford, but possibly Thetford, December 17, 1787. Asher Chamberlin had lived in Thetford for some time before that year, but before 1788 he removed to Bradford, for he was selectman of that town in the last named year, and he represented Brad- ford in the state legislature in 1790. The town also appointed Col. John Barron to assist him in obtaining a charter for the town. He lived on the farm now owned and occupied by J. K. Cummings, Esq. John Chamberlin was a cousin of Moody Chamberlin, of Newbury, and of Capt. Moses Cham- berlin, of Bradford, and uncle of Mrs. Edwin R. Aldrich, of the latter town. He married a daughter of Isaac Bayley, Esq., of Newbury, a sister of Isaac Bayley, Jr., and of the first wife of Col. William Barron, of Bradford. At some time after 1821, if Walton's Register is to be relied upon, or in 1818, or 1819, according to the recollection of Mrs. Edvin R. Aldrich, Mr. Cham - berlin removed to Stanstead Plain, in Lower Canada, as it was then called, where at some time he kept a hotel, and there died, November 24, 1847.
Hon. Abel Underwood* was born in Bradford, April 8, 1799, being the youngest of ten children of John and Mary (Fassett) Underwood, who were early settlers in that town. The children of John and Mary Underwood were all boys but one, and the family not being in affluent circumstances, the boys, as soon as they were old enough, were expected to do something in the way of helping themselves, and were early taught habits of diligence, as was the -custom in those days. One of the boys was the father of Hon. Levi Under- wood, who practiced law in Burlington, Vt. When Abel was about seventeen
* Furnished by E. W. Smith, Esq.
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years of age he determined on having a liberal education, and although he was aware that his father was not able to furnish him means for that purpose, he proposed to make the attempt, relying mainly on his own resources. He accordingly took a bundle of clothes and started on foot for Royalton academy, which he entered, and where he continued until he was fitted for college, teaching a portion of the time to raise the necessary funds.
He then entered Dartmouth college, from which he graduated in the class. of 1824, when he entered the office of Hon. Isaac Fletcher, at Lyndon, and commenced the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in Caledonia county in 1827, when the county seat was at Danville, and after his admission entered into partnership with Mr. Fletcher, at Lyndon, where he remained about one year. He had in the meantime been married, July 12, 1827,to Emily, daughter of Elisha Rix, of Royalton, Vt., and although he found himself in debt about one thousand dollars for his education "without a dollar to pay it with" (as he was in the habit of saying), he concluded to dissolve partnership with Mr. Fletcher and open an office on his own account, which he did in 1828, at Wells River. Clients who sought the services of the young lawyer were not numerous in those days at Wells River, and after remaining a few years he removed to Maine and practiced his profession there about one year, when he returned to Wells River and opened an office where he remained until the time of his death, which occurred April 22, 1879. After his return to Wells River his business began to increase, until in a few years he found himself with a large and lucrative business. During the time of the building of the Connecticut & Passumpsic Rivers railroad and afterwards he was the regularly retained attorney for that company, and during the building of the Vermont Central railroad was one of the commissioners for appraising land damages on that road, and was over a large portion of that route in that capacity. In 1839 he was elected state's attorney for Orange county, which office he filled two years, and from 1849 to 1853 he was United States district attorney for the district of Vermont. In 1854, Hon. Jacob Collamer having been elected United States senator, it caused a vacancy in the Circuit Court, and Abel Underwood was chosen to fill the vacancy. He held the office of judge from that time until 1857, when the legislature abolished the Circuit Court and adopted the present system of Supreme and County Courts, the judges of the Supreme Court presiding in the County Courts. Judge Underwood's circuit included the counties of Orange, Windsor and Windham. In 1861 he was elected as a representative for the town of Newbury to the legis. lature, which office he held two years, being re-elected in 1862, and when the last United States bankrupt law was passed, in 1867, he was appointed one of the registers, which latter office he held until the time of his death. He was essentially a diligent man, and in addition to the office of register in bank- ruptcy, he held, for several years, the office of president of the National bank, of Newbury. He was a genial, warm-hearted man, whom it was always a pleasure to meet, and his affection for his friends was especially strong. His
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fund of anecdote was large, and he always delighted to meet his brethren of the bar, for whom he had a particular regard and affection, and with whom he was ready to converse without reserve. He always kept up a habit of diligent reading, and his mind was richly stored with information. He had a poetical turn of mind, and used frequently to correspond with his friends in rhyme.
Gustavus Grout Cushman, son of Clark and Kate (Grout) Cushman, was born at Barnet, Vt., November 6, 1804. He obtained his education chiefly at the " People's Colleges," the common schools of Vermont, and at Peacham academy. At the age of twenty he commenced the study of law in the office of Messrs. Paddock & Stevens, of St. Johnsbury, Vt., and completed his legal education with Peter Burbank, Esq., of Wells River. He was admitted to the bar at Danville, Vt., in April, 1827, and established himself in business at Wells River. He married Mary Elizabeth Haddock, of Buffalo, N. Y., at Haverhill, N. H., in May, 1828, and in 1829 removed to Bangor, Me., where he resided until his death a few years since, probably about 1875.
January 22, 1828, he was commissioned by Gov. Butler, of Vermont, in the militia of this state, and subsequently held several other offices in the militia of Maine, up to that of major-general. In 1835 he was elected a member of the board of aldermen of the city of Bangor, in 1839 was appointed by Gov. Fairchild, of Maine, a judge of the Police Court for the city of Bangor, and in February, 1855, was appointed by the President of the United States, General Pierce, a "Commissioner under the Reciprocity Treaty, be- tween the United States and her Britannic Majesty, concluded July 5, 1854."" He had five children, one. of whom entered the navy. His middle name comes from his mother, who was a sister of the grandfather of Gen. Grout, the pres- ent member of Congress from this district.
Hon. Joseph Berry, who practiced law in Newbury for a time, came from Guildhall, Essex county, Vt., where he had been a man of some prominence for quite a number of years. He was state's attorney for Essex county in 18II and '[2, and again in 1815, '16, '17, '18, '21, '23 and '24, and was chief judge of the Essex County Court in 1822 and '23. He represented the town of Guildhall in the General Assembly in 1816, and was a member of the Gov- ernor's Council from Essex county, from 1819 until 1825. He removed to Newbury about 1827, was register of probate for the Bradford district in 1840, and clerk of Orange County Court from 1850 until 1852. He never had a large practice in Orange county, as he was quite advanced in years when he came into the county. He appears on the records of Guildhall in 1799 as a , member of the first church there organized. If he was but sixteen years of age at that time he must have been seventy when he was clerk of the Orange County Court.
Elijah Farr was born in Thetford, August 14, 1808, but his parents soon removed to Bradford and he always considered that his home. He was re- markable for his extreme height, as were all of the family in this vicinity. He was six feet five inches tall, and quite slender in form. He had a nephew,
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a namesake, son of Daniel Farr, of Bradford, who was the tallest man in the Bradford Guards in both campaigns which that company made in the war of the Rebellion. Elijah Farr attended the common schools of the town and finished his education at Bradford academy preparatory to the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in Orleans county, June 3, 1835, having studied with Hon. Isaac F. Redfield. He came immediately into Orange county and commended practice at Wells River, in company with Peter Burbank, Esq. He was a good lawyer and a powerful advocate, was a Democrat in politics, and held the office of state's attorney for Orange county in 1839 and 1841, and was state senator during the years 1843 and 1844. He was post- master at Wells River under more than one Democratic administration. The year before his death he formed a partnership with a young man who had studied law with him, now the Hon. Charles B. Leslie, of Wells River. Mr. Farr died July 2, 1845, of pulmonary consumption.
Isaac W. Tabor was born in Bradford, November 11, 1804, and was the fourteenth and youngest child of Stephen and Comfort (Parker) Tabor. He studied law and practiced in Newbury from 1830 to 1833, and was admitted to the Supreme Court of the state at the session of that court in Caledonia county in March, 1832. He married and afterwards removed to Houlton, Aroostook county, Maine, where he established himself in business. He represented that town in the state legislature, and died there January 23, 1859.
Hon. Charles Brigham Leslie was born in the village of Wells River, in the town of Newbury, on the 5th day of November, 1819, and he has always re- sided in the village of his birth except for a few months. His parents were John Warrier and Lucia Brigham Leslie. His father was of Scotch-Irish de- scent, and his grandfather came from the north of Ireland and settled in Lon- donderry, N. H. His father was born in Londonderry, August 18, 1791, and died at the residence of his son, in Wells River, February I, 1868. His father came to Wells River from Bradford in 1818, and carried on the cloth-dressing business. Lumbering and farming also engaged his attention for many years. He was a man of integrity and full of native wit, and was a genial companion and of a very even temperament. His mother, Lucia Brigham Leslie, was the daughter of Thomas Brigham, M. D., a celebrated and eminent physician, who was born in Norwich, Vt., and died in Wayne, Maine, at a ripe old age, and a granddaughter of Hon. Paul Brigham, of Norwich, and who, in the infancy of the state of Vermont, came to Norwich from Mansfield, Conn., and was elected lieutenant governor of Vermont twenty-two years, viz .: from 1796 to 1812, inclusive, and again from 1815 to 1819, inclusive. He was also clerk of Windsor County Court in the years 1784 and '85, assistant judge of Wind- sor County Court in 1786 and 1790, '91, '92, '93, '94 and '95, sheriff of Windsor county in 1787, '88 and '89, judge of probate in 1793 and 1800, and chief judge of Windsor County Court in 1801. He served in the American army during the whole of the Revolutionary war.
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The mother of the subject of this sketch was born at Norwich, Vt., March. 8, 1796, and died at the home of her son in Wells River on May 1, 1873. She was married February 17, 1819, and came immediately to Wells River, where she ever after lived. She was a very energetic, as well as an accom- plished and scholarly woman.
The parents of Mr. Leslie had three children born to them, viz .: Charles B., Elizabeth B., and Lucia A. Elizabeth B. married Judge Julius Hayden ,. who is now living at Sanford, Fla .; but she died at Memphis, Tenn., March 5, 1845, in the twenty-third year of her age, and left no children. Miss Lucia A. resides with Judge Leslie at Wells River.
Mr. Leslie's parents were not able to give him a college education, and he obtained what he could in the common schools and at the Bradford acad- emy, which he attended a few terms while Mr. Case was its principal. It was a most excellent school, and Mr. Case was a fine teacher. He read law with Hon. Elijah Farr, in the village of Wells River, and was admitted to the bar at the June term of Orange County Court in 1843. After his admission. to the bar he continued in the office of Mr. Farr until April, 1844, when he located at East Cornith, having bought a few law books, and by the June term of Orange County Court, of that year, he had the satisfaction of having. six cases to enter upon the docket of that term. In November Mr. Farr, having been taken ill, sent for Mr. Leslie to come back to Wells River and. go into co-partnership with him, which he did, and he was thus luckily and. immediately thrown into a good practice. Mr. Farr never recovered nor attended court after the co-partnership was formed, but he died in July,. 1845. Mr. Leslie helped the administrator settle Mr. Farr's estate, and so his business was increased considerably by that, and thus he had early in his. practice a fairly good business for a young practitioner and pretty good. success in his causes. He was at once brought into contact with such men as Judges Underwood and Parker and Mr. Seth Austin. Mr. Leslie held, the office of postmaster at Wells River four years under Mr. Polk's admin- istration, being appointed soon after he was inaugurated, 1845, and once since, about two years, when he resigned because it interfered with his business. He was register of probate under Judge Royal Hatch for the district of Bradford in 1850, 1851 and 1852, and was the judge of the same court in 1853, 1854 and 1858. He has been United States commissioner of the Circuit Court for the district of Vermont, since November 22, 1859, and still holds such commission, and has been admitted to and has practiced in the. United States Courts in the districts of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Judge Leslie's first cases in the Supreme Court are reported in Vol. 17, Vt., Reports, being two, one in Orange and one in Caledonia county. His. practice has been in Orange, Caledonia, Essex and Washington counties, Vt., and occasionally in Grafton and Coös counties, N. H. He has tried a good many cases in the Supreme Court of Vermont which have been reported, and. many not reported. Many of his cases, and those in which he has assisted in.
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the trial of, have been of considerable importance and leading cases in this state upon the questions and principles involved in them. Among them is the case of Stanton vs. Simpson (Vol. 48, Vt. Repts., page 628). This action was brought by Mrs. Stanton to recover damages, on account of the death of her husband, John Stanton, who was shot and killed by one Snow while intoxicated upon liquor sold and furnished by defendant to Snow while defendant was agent for the sale of liquors in the town of Greensboro, Vt. The case was fought hard and was a long time in court upon the main action, and also upon a petition for a new trial, and was finally settled in favor of the plaintiff.
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