Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888, Part 16

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 16

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).

The subject of this sketch was a student rather of men and things than of books, hence his greatest strength lay in the trial of cases before a jury. Indeed, though not deficient in other branches, his pride as well as his chief excellence lay in this direction. His cases (especially with reference to ques- tions of fact) were carefully prepared. His presence was commanding, his voice strong and his argument at once forcible and alluring as well as analyti- cal. In the legal struggle he was tenacious to the verge of obstinacy, and his chief gratification was not fees, but verdicts. Politically he was a Democrat and one from conviction, hence having cast his lot in a Republican strong- hold he attained no prominent official position, though strong on the stump and repeatedly the choice of his party for high honors.

Washington Patterson was born in Newbury, February 22, 1841, and was the youngest son of Richard Patterson, who was born in the county of Fife, in Scotland, on the 3d day of January, 1809. Richard Patterson married Janet Donaldson, in Scotland, in 1829. She was also born in the county of Fife, February 23, 1810, and died in Newbury, February 20, 1882.

The father received a very limited education at the parish school, and be- came a weaver by occupation. He and his wife immigrated to this country in 1832, and soon settled where he now resides, in Newbury, and has remained there ever since, following the business of farming during all the time. With the Scotch disposition for intellectual activity he studied surveying and the mathematics necessary to give him a good knowledge of it, and has prac- ticed that art to a limited extent to the present time. He has been an ex- pert witness upon the subject of lines and boundaries in some very important cases in the County Court and Court of Chancery. He was a member of the last Constitutional convention.

Washington Patterson received his education at the "old brown school house " near Newbury Center, supplemented by a few terms at Newbury seminary. He read law with Leslie & Rogers, at Wells River, and with Dickey & Worthen, at Bradford, and was admitted to the bar of Orange county in January, 1867, being the December term, 1866. In the following spring he removed to Toledo, Tama county, Iowa, and practiced his profes- sion in that county and Benton county adjoining it for four years, but his health becoming impaired he returned to his native town where until recently he has been engaged in farming. It is reported that he will soon remove to.

126

ORANGE COUNTY.

Dakota. He says of himself: " Am a Democrat-shaky theologically-a strict constructionist-did not believe in the right of nullification but did in the right of secession until after the ' Amendment'-in theory a free trader and female suffragist-opposed to centralization-have been guilty of poetry ·(so called), never accepted a nomination for office, and like Saxe I love the "' law of literature ' better than the ' literature of the law.'"

Edgar W. Smith was born at Randolph, Vt., July 3, 1845, and is the son of Elijah Whitney Smith and Dolly Higgins Smith. He had a brother and two sisters, all of whom are now dead. His sisters were both older and his brother younger than he. His father died when he was about four years old, and the farm, which had been their home, was divided between the widow and the children, the mother continuing to reside on the homestead until Edgar was about ten years of age, when she married Dea. William Osgood and moved to East Randolph. Edgar remained at the village with his mother until he was twelve years of age, when he went to live with his guardian, Jehial Weston, on a farm adjoining his father's farm in the north part of the town. He re- mained there at work upon the farm until he was seventeen years of age, when he went to New Hampton Literary Institution, at New Hampton, N. H., and remained in school there about three years. He was a diligent student and made good use of his time, so that when he left he went to New Jersey and taught school four years, at Saddle River and Fairview. He then re- turned to Vermont and continued the study of law which he had already commenced, having entered his name as a student with Hon. Philander Per- rin, at Randolph, Vt. During the time he was studying law he taught school four terms at East Randolph, and during that time was a student under Hon. N. L. Boyden. While pursuing his studies Mr. Smith was one summer at Morrisville, Vt., in the office of George W.Hendee, then governor of the state. Upon the recommendation of Gov. Hendee, in August, 1871, he went into the office of Hon. Abel Underwood, of Wells River, formerly one of the cir- cuit judges of the state, and at that time register in bankruptcy. Mr. Smith was admitted to the Orange county bar January 1, 1872, at Chelsea, and at once commenced practice at Wells River, continuing in the office with Judge Underwood. Two years later he was admitted to the Supreme Court of the state, and as solicitor in chancery, and at the May term, 1881, was admitted to the United States Circuit Court, at Windsor, Vt. His business gradually increased, until it occupied all of his time and became quite lucrative. He practiced as much or more in the Caledonia courts as he did in Orange county, and was frequently called into cases in Grafton county, N. H. As his business and reputation in his profession increased he grew in favor with his townsmen, and in 1875 was made town superintendent of schools, and in 1882 represented Newbury in the General Assembly of the state. He was state's attorney for Orange county for two years from December, 1884.

He was married, August 17, 1869, to Miss Emma M. Gates, of Morrisville, Vt., the daughter of George W. and Betsey S. Gates, of that place. They

I27

BENCH AND BAR.

have now living as the fruit of this marriage two fine and promising boys. Mr. Smith is a fine violinist, his wife is a musician, and the boys partake of their parents' talents in this respect, and social gatherings at their house are really musical entertainments.

Mr. Smith is an excellent lawyer, ardent and faithful to the interests of his clients to the last degree, a pleasant gentleman and a respected and esteemed citizen of the town and county. He has formed a co-partnership in the prac- tice of law with Scott Sloan, Esq., formerly of Haverhill, N. H., under the style of Smith & Sloan.

Charles Edward Leslie, son of Judge Leslie, was born at Wells River, July 3, 1854. He fitted for college at St. Johnsbury, Vt., and graduated at Dart- mouth college in the class of 1877, standing near the head of his class, being in the first quarter. He read law in the office of Leslie & Rogers, and was admitted to the bar at the June term of Orange County Court, 1879. In the July following he went to Waterville, Le Sueur county, Minn., and was again examined in open court and admitted to practice in all of the courts of that state. He remained at Waterville but a few months, when he went to Waseca, Minn., where he now resides. He has been municipal judge of the city of Waseca, and is now the city attorney for the second year. He resigned the judgeship, as it hurt his other practice and was of no pecuniary benefit to him. He stands well in his profession in his new home.

Amos Herbert Carpenter practiced law in Orange county but one year, and that was at Wells River in company with Hon. Charles B. Leslie. He is the son of Amos B. and Cosbi (Parker) Carpenter, and was born at West Water- ford, Vt., January 1, 1855. He graduated at Dartmouth college in 1878, and was admitted to the bar in Orleans county in September, 1880. He began the practice of law at Middlebury, Vt., the fall of the same year. In the fall of 1882 he came to Wells River and entered into the business arrangement first mentioned. In 1883 he went to Minnesota, where he continued in the practice of his profession until 1885, when he went to Stockton, Cal., tempo- rarily on business, but where he remained until 1886. He is a nephew of Hon. A. P. Carpenter, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the state of New Hampshire.

Scott Sloan was born in Montreal, Canada, where his parents were resid- ing temporarily in 1855. He received his education in the schools of New York city, at the academy and common schools in Haverhill, N. H., at the Methodist seminary at Montpelier, and finished his studies at Newport, R. I., and was admitted to the bar in New Hampshire in 1884. He studied law in Haverhill and with E. W. Smith, Esq., at Wells River, with whom he is now in partnership.

RANDOLPH.

Hon. Dudley Chase was a native of Cornish, N. H., and was born Decem- ber 30, 1771. His parents came from Sutton, Mass., and settled upon the

I28

ORANGE COUNTY.

meadows bordering upon the Connecticut river, where, after encountering the hardships of settling upon and clearing up new lands, they eventually ac- quired a handsome property and sent three sons through Dartmouth college. Dudley Chase married Miss Olivia Brown when she was seventeen years old. She was born March 22, 1779, and died March 22, 1846, the day she com- pleted her sixty-seventh year. Mr. Chase died February 23, 1846, twenty- seven days previous to the death of his wife. They had no children of their own, but they brought up and educated not less than twelve or fifteen neph- ews and nieces and children of other people. Mr. Chase graduated in 1791, read law with Hon. Lot Hall, of Westminster, Vt., and soon after com- menced practice in Randolph, where he remained as long as he lived. He was state's attorney of Orange county from 1803 to 1811, inclusive. He represented Randolph in the legislature in 1805 and for seven succeeding years, and was speaker of the House from 1808 to 1813, inclusive. He was United States senator from Vermont from 1813 to 1817, when he resigned, before the expiration of his term, to accept the position of judge of the Su- preme Court of the state, to which position he had been elected, and which he held until 1821. He again represented Randolph in the state legislature in 1823 and 1824, and was United States senator from 1825 to 1831, inclu- sive. Judge Chase was a member of the House of Representatives at the time of his election, and sat by the side of his principal, if not the only, com- petitor, Hon. Samuel Prentiss, who was also a member of the House. The contest was evidently a friendly one, says an eye-witness. Judge Chase was. a portly, fine-looking man, of commanding presence, and of very gentlemanly manners. He was probably the first lawyer in Randolph, and was an uncle of Hon. Salmon P. Chase, late chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Hon. Jacob Collamer, ex-postmaster-general of the United States and United States senator from Vermont, was born in Troy, N. Y., January 8, 1791. He was the third son of Samuel Collamer and Elizabeth Van Ornum, who were married in July, 1789. The parents removed from Troy to Bur- lington, Vt., in 1795, and there the father, and probably the mother, spent the remainder of their lives. He was admitted to the freshman class of the Uni- versity of Vermont in 1806, when but fifteen and a half years old, and gradu- ated in 1810, before he was twenty. He studied law at St. Albans with Mr. Langworthy and also with Benjamin Swift, afterwards United States senator from Vermont, and was admitted to the bar in 1813. "In 1812 he was drafted into the detailed militia service, and served during the period of the draft as lientenant of artillery in the frontier campaign."

Soon after his admission to the bar Lieut. Collamer removed to Randolph Center, as it is called, in distinction from West Randolph and the other vil- lages in that town, and opened an office for the practice of law. At that time Judge Dudley Chase had been in practice there ten years or more and Hon. William Nutting was about to commence his labors in the profession.

129

BENCH AND BAR.

At this time Lieut. Collamer was made an aide-de-camp upon the staff of Brig .- Gen. John French, commanding the brigade of militia organized in that vicinity. In September, 1814, when news reached Randolph that vol- unteers were wanted to meet the invading British army at Plattsburgh, a company was raised under the advice and influence of Lieut. Collamer and Gen. Joseph Edson, and marched to Burlington. Lieut. Collamer went to. Burlington with the volunteers and was instrumental in procuring a craft to carry them across the lake, but the victory was gained before they were embarked.

In 1816 Judge Collamer removed to Royalton, and in April, 1836, to Woodstock, which continued to be his home as long as he lived. In the early years of his practice he was register of probate. He represented the citizens of Royalton in the legislature in the years 1821, '22, '27 and '28. In 1822, '23 and '24 he was the state's attorney of Windsor county. In 1828 he delivered the oration before the Phi Sigma Nu society at the com- mencement of his Alma Mater, the University of Vermont, and had the pleasure of seeing it preserved in print by vote of the society. In January, 1836, he was a member of the Constitutional convention which amended the state organic law by creating the Senate as a branch of the legislature. Hon. James Barrett, then one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Ver- mont, in the memorial address which he delivered on the departed states- man before the Vermont Historical society, in the Representatives' Hall, October 20, 1868, said of him as a lawyer, that his knowledge of law was meager and inadequate and his library very small, at the time when he be- gan practice in Windsor county. But he rapidly advanced to the front rank in his profession, and steadily grew in strength and public esteem. He soon became a leader, not only in Windsor, but in Orange county, and was often engaged in cases in other sections of the state. He rose to be the ac - knowledged peer, the most able and brilliant legist of the day. He had the genius of success, by dutifully bending all his faculties, by laborious and per- sistent exertion, to subjects and occasions which his vocation and positions brought in his way and called on him to encounter.

In 1833 he was elected one of the assistant judges of the Supreme Court, and retained that position until 1842, when he declined a re-election, pre- ferring to return to his practice. " While on the bench Judge Collamer's fixed and stable characteristics of mind and heart enabled him to conduct the administration of justice, through the forms of law and the machinery of the courts, with vigor, with promptness, with dignity-giving law and equity and justice free course to work out their combined results, in modes that accorded to each subordinate department of the judicial system, full and free co-operation, securing for the law and its administration, for the court and bar and jury, public approbation and esteem, and like approbation and esteem mutually for each other."

Judge Collamer was elected a representative to Congress in November,

I30

ORANGE COUNTY.

1843, by the Whigs of his district, and on the first Monday of the following month he was in his seat, accompanied by his newly elected fellow-members, George P. Marsh, Solomon Fort and Paul Dillingham. He was thrice elected to that position, but declined a fourth election, ending his service in the House of Representatives March 3, 1849. He was an active and influential member of Congress, and performed his full share of public duty.

In 1849 Judge Collamer was appointed postmaster-general by President Taylor, and held that position until the death of the President, in July, 1850. .On his return to Vermont he was elected circuit judge by the legislature, which position he held until elected United States senator, in October, 1854. In 1860 he was re-elected to the same honorable position, and held it with ·ever-increasing dignity and grace, until the 9th of November, 1865, when he ceased from his labors and entered into eternal rest.

Hon. William Nutting was born during the Revolutionary war, October 30, 1779, and was the eldest son of William Nutting, of Groton, Mass., and Susannah (French) Nutting, daughter of Col. French, of Nashua, N. H. In his boyhood he was very fond of study, and commenced Latin with the hope that he should sometime be able to go through college. But on account of some pecuniary losses, his father felt obliged to dissuade him from his cherished purpose. He accordingly continued to work on his father's farm until he became of age, after which, for about three years, he followed the trade of carpenter and joiner. A severe sickness about this time apparently disabling him from manual labor, he resumed his study of Latin and com- menced Greek at the Groton academy, and applied himself with such dili- gence and success, that, after a year and a half, he was able to enter Dart- mouth college as a member of the same class which had been admitted at the time he began to prepare. He graduated with honor in the class of 1807, and was urged to become a tutor in the college ; but he preferred to accept the position of principal of Orange County Grammar school, then newly established at Randolph. He was thus led to a place in whichi he was to spend his long and useful life. So long as he lived he continued to feel a deep interest for the welfare of this institution, freely devoting time and money to that end. He was early chosen a member of the board of trustees, and was secretary and treasurer during the greater part of his life, resigning only when he felt the infirmities of age fast creeping upon him. For five or six years he continued to teach, meanwhile, however, pursuing the study of law in the office of Judge Chase, whose partner he afterwards became. When Judge Chase was obliged to quit his practice, on account of public duties, Mr. Nutting opened an office of his own, which he continued to occupy until a few years before his death. His ability and success in his profession were so remarkable that he would have found an easy road to preferment had he been in the least an ambitious man. He sometimes con- sented to represent the town in the legislature, once was a member of the council of censors, was town clerk nineteen years, and justice twenty-three

131

BENCH AND BAR.

years ; but he never sought public offices and emoluments, and sometimes expressed surprise and regret at seeing others do so. He was once offered the chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the University of Ver- mont, of which he was a trustee from 1816 to 1845, but although particularly fond of teaching he thought best to decline.

As a teacher he was remarkably successful. As a lawyer everybody knew him to be no less honest than able and successful. Long after age had ter- minated his attendance upon the courts of the county seats and capital, he was often consulted by clients in his retirement ; "To whom," said he, "I generally find occasion simply to repeat the counsel of the divine teacher, ' Agree with thine adversary quickly.' "

The foundation of his character as a man and a christian was doubtless laid in early life. He was brought up by pious parents, and the dying coun- sel of his mother to this her eldest son was expressed in the sacred words, " What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God." It was about the year 1812 that he publicly professed his faith in Christ, and for more than fifty years he was a strong pillar in the church to which he belonged. He was always among the foremost in the pecuniary support of the gospel, and was one of the first to advocate the temperance reform.

Mr. Nutting retained his mental and bodily faculties in an unusual degree, to the close of his life, and was able to employ himself in reading and writing the greater part of the time until the commencement of his last sickness. He read the Bible through in course a great number of times, and often kept at hand some favorite Latin or Greek classic, and seemed to enjoy a daily portion from its pages no less than in former years.

His last sickness (consumption) commenced about the middle of October, 1863, and after the 30th of October, the day on which he completed his eighty-fourth year, he was no longer able to leave his bed. He died on Thanksgiving day, November 26, 1863. On the 8th day of March, 1864, at the term of the Supreme Court, held in Chelsea, highly commend- atory resolutions were adopted by the members of the Orange county bar in affectionate honor of "Father " Nutting, as he was for many years called by his brethren. Hon. William Hebard, in his speech on that occasion, said : " In all my conversancy with classical scholars, in college and out of it, I have found no one who seem to me to have a more thorough command of the Latin tongue than he; or who had a finer appreciation of its force and beauties, as embodied in the best of Roman literature or more happy facility of developing such force and beauties by translating into English. Thoroughness, accuracy and order characterize all his intelletual culture and developments. These traits were as prominent in his character as a lawyer, as in that of a scholar ; and in his acute discrimination and rigid logic in dealing with the law as counsel and advocate, the predominance of his mathematical faculty was quite apparent."

I32

ORANGE COUNTY.

Among those who studied law with Father Nutting are the following, viz .: Gov. Julius Converse, Hon. Mordecai Hale, ex-Judge William Hebard, ex- Judge Edmund Weston, Calvin Granger, Esq., Robbins Dinsmore, Esq., ex- Judge Philander Perrin, Dudley Chase Blodgett, Esq., Charles Nutting, Esq , Wilder Haskell, Esq., John Graves, Esq., Warren H. Smith, Esq., William Blodgett, Esq , Daniel C. Nutting, Esq., and Henry Partridge, Esq.

Mr. Nutting married Mary Barrett Hubbard, at Groton, Mass., October 5, 1809. She was the daughter of David and Mary (Barrett) Hubbard, of Con- cord, Mass. Mrs. Nutting died September 7, 1847. The foregoing is mainly from Miss Hemenway's Gazetteer of Vermont.

Jesse Olds was admitted to the Supreme Court at Chelsea, as a resident of Randolph at the September term, 1812. He came from the town of Mon- tague, Mass., in 1798, into Vermont, and was the first white settler of West- field, Orleans county. He had been, prior to coming into this state, a min- ister of the gospel, but he never officiated in that capacity but once here, and that was upon the occasion of the death of two young men by drowning in the Missisquoi river. He was town clerk of Westfield in 1802, represented: that town in the legislature in 1802 and 1803, and was elected one of the assistant judges of the County Court in 1800 and 1801. In 1804 he removed. to Craftsbury, and March 4, 1805, he was admitted to Orleans county bar. He represented the town of his new residence in the state legislature from 1808 to 1812. Judge Olds moved from Craftsbury to Randolph in 1812, and practiced law there until 1817, when he removed to Kentucky and thence to. Illinois, where he died.

Hon. Edmund Weston was one of the eight children of Abner and Huldah Weston, and was born in Randolph. He graduated at the University of Vermont in 1821, studied law with Hon. Dudley Chase and William Nutting, Esq., at Randolph, was admitted to the bar at the December term of Orange County Court in 1824, and continued to practice law in Randolph as long as he lived. At one time he had a very large practice, especially in justice- business. His court day before one of the justices at Randolph Center was. on Saturday, and he is said to have taken judgment by default in as many as. sixty cases in a single day, and all in collection suits. He was state's attorney for the county for the three years commencing with December, 1835, 1837 and 1842, and judge of probate for Randolph district for 1845 and 1846 .. In January, 1829, he married Sarah, daughter of Gen. Joseph Edson, for a long time sheriff of Orange county, and United States marshal under Presi- dent Adams. Mrs. Weston died in 1851, and in 1852 Judge Weston married her cousin, Sarah Throop, who died in 1854, and he again married, in 1859,. Aurelia, the widow of the late Dr. Austin Bradford, of Vergennes, and sister- of William H. A. Bissell, now bishop of the diocese of Vermont. He had three children by his first wife, the eldest of whom, Edmund, Jr., was captain of Company F, of the First Regiment of United States Sharpshooters, and has. resided in Washington for a number of years since the war. Judge Weston.

I33

BENCH AND BAR.

died in 1869. His daughter, Sarah O., a fine scholar and brilliant woman, married Fred A. Aiken, Esq., who was admitted to the Orange county bar in 1859, but subsequently removed to Washington, D. C., where he resided until his death. Mrs. Aiken still remains in that city.

Gov. Julius Converse* was born at Stafford, Conn., December 27, 1798, and was the fourth son, in a family of twelve children, of Joseph and Mary Con- verse. His father, with the younger members of his family, including Julius, removed to Randolph in 1801, where he ever after lived, and died there in 1826. His father was a farmer and Julius was brought up upon the farm, laboring summers and winters attending school, and when old enough attend- ing the Randolph academy, then under the charge of that celebrated instruc- tor, Rufus Nutting, and teaching winters. He studied law with William Nutting, at Randolph, and was admitted to the bar in Orange county, Decem- ber term, 1825.

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 16

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