USA > Vermont > Orange County > Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888 > Part 6
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Elisha Hotchkiss was the eighth chief judge of the Orange County Court, serving in that capacity during the years 1810 and 1811, and was state's at- torney in 1812 and 1813. He graduated from Dartmouth college in 1801, was admitted to the Supreme Court in Orange county at the August term, 1807, and resided and practiced law in Chelsea for a number of years. He represented that town in the state legislature in 1807, 1811, 1812, and 1813.
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How much later than that he resided in that town we are not informed. He died in Aurora, Indiana, June 10, 1858.
Daniel Peaslee, the ninth chief judge of Orange County Court, was born in Plaistow, N. H., February 28, 1773. He came to Washington, Orange county, in 1795, and was for many years a merchant and tavern keeper in that town. He was a prominent man in town affairs and representative in the legislature in 1805, 1806 and 1807, a member of the Methodist society, and his daughter thinks he was a Federalist in politics. He held the office of sheriff of the county for five years, from 1807 to 1811, inclusive, and, although not a lawyer, he was made chief judge of the County Court in 1812. The assistant or side judges that year were Hon. Josiah Dana, of Chelsea, and Hon. John H. Cotton, of Bradford. He died December 3, 1827, at Washington, in the prime of life. By his first wife he had two children. The son, James Peaslee, graduated at the University of Vermont in 1822, and died at the age of twenty-two. He married Lucy Pepper for a second wife, who survived him six years, leaving three children, two girls and a boy, who bore his father's name. The son married Miss Lucia M. Stevens, daughter of Hon. Tappan Stevens, of Newbury, and died several years ago, leaving his widow and a son surviving him. The eldest daughter, Lucy Ann, married B. F. Dickinson, Esq., for a long time sheriff and deputy sheriff in Orange county, but now deceased. The second daughter, Laura Ann, married Rev. Alonzo Webster, an eloquent preacher of the Methodist de- nomination. They lived for a long time in South Carolina, but are both now deceased.
Hon. Josiah Dana, the tenth chief judge of the Orange County Court, was a descendant of Richard Dana, a French Huguenot who' settled in England in 1629, and in Cambridge, Mass., in 1640. Judge Dana was born in Barre, Mass., probably in November or December of the year 1772, as the parish records of that town show that he was christened December 13, 1772. His father was a Congregational minister for a long term of years in Barre, said to be fifty years. Judge Dana left home early and engaged in trade at West- minster, Vt., in company with John Bellows, father of the late Rev. Henry Bel- lows, of All Souls church in New York city. Before 1803 he removed to Chelsea in this county. The ground had just been broken in that township by a few former settlers of limited means, and Judge Dana was the first man to go in there with capital. In politics he was a Jeffersonian Democrat, and was an intimate friend of Governor Van Ness. The two men were of like character- istics and similar antecedents, making allowance for the difference between New York and New England, and were in sympathy politically. The Judge was not college bred and never studied law. He represented the town of Chelsea in the General Assembly in 1803, 1806, 1808 and 1809 ; was a dele- gate in the Constitutional convention in 1814 ; was assistant judge of Orange County Court in 1812, chief judge for four years from 1816 to 1820, and presidential elector on the John Quincy Adams ticket in 1828 with Jonas.
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Galusha, Asa Aldis, Ezra Butler, John Phelps, William Jarvis and Apollos Austin. He was a member of the Governor's council in 1821 and 1826, and died in April, 1841. Judge Dana married for his first wife Lucy Chandler, of Pomfret, Ct., sister of Perley Chandler, by whom he had a daughter who married Russell Jarvis, a relative of the late Consul William Jarvis, of Weather- field. Mrs. Jarvis died in Clearmont, N. H., where she resided with her hus- band, leaving a daughter, Caroline, who made it her home with her grand- father, Judge Dana, for several years. She is now the wife of John H. Uhl, Esq., of Yonkers, N. Y. His second wife was Desire Lathrop, of Sharon, N. Y. Few men in Chelsea manifested a more marked character than Judge Dana.
Hon. William Spencer, the eleventh and last judge of the Orange County Court, like many of the leading men of the state in the first part of this cen- tury, was born in Connecticut, in the city of Hartford, August 6, 1781. His father's name was Ashbel Spencer. What his early education was we have not the means of knowing, but he did not commence the study of his pro- fession until he came into Vermont, where he entered the office of Samuel Miller, Esq., of Middlebury, and completed his legal studies in the office of the late Judge Mattocks, of Peacham. In 1804 he was admitted to the bar of the County Court, and at the August term, 1807, to the Supreme Court, and in the former year established himself in the practice of law in Corinth, where he always resided. He was chief judge of Orange County Court from 1820 to 1824, inclusive, when the system of courts then in vogue was abolished and one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the state was assigned to hold the nisi prius courts in the counties. He was one of the assistant judges of the court held in the county under the new system from 1825 to 1830, inclusive, and held the office of judge of probate for the district of Bradford from 1824 to 1839. Judge Spencer was a very useful man in his town, holding many important places of public trust therein. He was postmaster for several years, was town representative in the state legislature, and was a trustee of Brad- ford academy from its organization. He took great interest in public affairs, and for more than sixty years in succession cast his vote at freemen's meeting. He died January 19, 1871, in his ninetieth year.
Major John Taplin, the first sheriff of Gloucester county, was the son of Col. Taplin, the first judge of the county, and was born in Marlboro, Mass., in the year 1748. In about 1764 he removed with his father to Newbury, Vt., and soon after to Corinth, of which town his father was one of the origi- nal proprietors. After receiving a fair common school education, he was, from the age of twelve to fifteen years, out with his father in the French and Indian war, being generally stationed at Crown Point and Ticonderoga. After Col. Taplin had been appointed judge of the courts in Gloucester county his son was appointed sheriff, by the governor of New York, and was commissioned March 17, 1770, when he had but just attained his majority. He held two other commissions of the same office, dated respectively Oc-
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tober 6, 1772, and November 19, 1774. All of these commissions of course emenated from British colonial authority. The court ordered their young sheriff to build a jail at the county seat, in Kingsland, which he promptly did, of logs, and made return to the court accordingly. This log jail, then probably the only structure for habitation in town, was situated a mile or more southeast of the present village in Washington, near the source of what, for that reason, is now called Jail Branch. D. P. Thompson, in his history of Montpelier, says this jail was never occupied ; but Judge White, in his account of the town of Washington in Hemenway's Gazetteer, writes : "Tradition says that at a session of the New Hampshire court at Newbury, a man was convicted of an offense against the laws of New Hampshire, and sentenced to solitary confinement in the Kingsland jail, and the sheriff exe- cuting the warant committed the prisoner to the log jail, the prisoner taking with him a few potatoes to sustain life until an opportunity might present itself for his deliverance. Soon after the officer left, the prisoner broke jail; but being a very benevolent man, planted the potatoes he brought with him, before the jail, that the next offender might receive the benefit of his labor. It is said the potatoes thus planted grew spontaneously for years." Col. Taplin having retired to Canada during the Revolution, his son, Major Taplin, remained on the paternal farm in Corinth, where he resided many years after Vermont had become a state, and was so much esteemed by his fel- low townsmen as to receive from them two elections as their representative in the legislature. So says Thompson ; but Major Taplin is not mentioned as a representative in the list given in the account of Corinth in Hemenway's Gazetteer. In the summer of 1787 he removed to Berlin and became the first representative of that town. At the age of twenty Maj. Taplin married Miss Catherine Lovell, daughter of Col. Nehemiah Lovell, of Newbury, who was grandson of the celebrated hero of the Lovell Pond Indian battle. And this wife dying in 1794, he married for a second one, the following year, Miss Lydia Gove, of Portsmouth, N. H. By his first wife he had twelve children, and by his last, nine, making twenty-one in all, and what is more remarkable, they all, except one who was accidentally scalded to death in infancy, lived to reach years of maturity, marry and settle down in life as the heads of families. He died at Montpelier, in the family of one of his sons, in November, 1835, aged eighty-seven years. His memory was for many years warmly cherished, not only by his numerous descendants, but by all who remembered his tall, comely person, the mild dignity of his deportment and the never varying amenity of his manners towards all classes of persons.
Col. John Peters, the clerk of the first court held in Gloucester, now Orange county, and judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas in the same county, was born in Hebron, Conn., in 1740. He was the son of John Peters, Jr., who was born in Hebron in 1718, and of Lydia (Phelps) Peters. who was a direct descendant of John Phelps, secretary to Oliver Cromwell, and he was the father of Andrew B. Peters, who was for many years town clerk
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of Bradford, Vt. Col. Peters married Ann Barnet, and by her had eight sons and one daughter. He emigrated from Connecticut in 1765 to Thetford, and from that place to Mooretown, now Bradford, in or about the year 1771. He built the first grist-mill in Bradford in 1772, and was moderator of the first town meeting of which the record has been preserved. He was appointed by New York a justice of the peace, March 16, 1770, and also October 26, 1774; a commissioner to administer oaths, March 17, 1770, and again April Io, 1772 ; assistant judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and county clerk, March 17, 1770; and he was the clerk of the court which set out on snow- shoes, as related elsewhere, with Judge John Taplin and Sheriff John Tap- lin, Jr., to hold Gloucester County Court in Kingsland, now Washington, February 25, 1771. He was made judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, October 26, 1774 ; and county clerk again March 5, 1772. He was a most devoted Loyalist or Tory, while his brother, Gen. Absalom Peters, a graduate of Dartmouth, and some or all of his sisters, were decidedly in favor of the independence of the colonies. This set the two brothers in strong op- position to each other, and caused an unpleasant division in the family. In consequence of this state of feeling, near the commencement of the war, Col. Peters with his family emigrated to Nova Scotia ; and on account of his zeal and energy as a Loyalist, he received a commission as colonel of a regiment styled the Queen's Loyal Rangers, whence his military title. After the war was over, leaving his family at Cape Breton, he went to England, to prose- cute his claims on the government, and died there, at Paddington, near London, of gout in the head and stomach, January II, 1788, in the forty- eighth year of his age. His property was confiscated. A notice of him con- cludes thus: " Rebellion and Loyalty are alike fatal to some families and alike prosperous to others."
Hon. Davenport Phelps, of Orford, N. H., was the first clerk of the Orange County Court held at Thetford, Vt., the second Tuesday of June, 1781. At this time Orford was one of the towns on the east side of the Connecticut river that had been annexed to the state of Vermont. He had been a mem- ber of the convention of delegates from forty-three towns of the New Hamp- shire Grants held at Charlestown, January 16, 1781, and was made one of a committee to confer with the Assembly of the state of Vermont on the sub- ject of a union of certain towns in New Hampshire with Vermont. After the union was consumated, Mr. Phelps was chosen to represent the town of Orford in the Assembly of Vermont, and at Windsor, Vt., on the 6th day of April, 178t, he appeared before the Assembly with thirty-five others, pro- duced his credentials and took the necessary oaths to qualify him to a seat in the House and forthwith took his seat.
Aaron Hutchinson was the state's attorney for Orange county up to the June term, 1783, as appears by the portion of the records of the court given in the sketch of Mr. Daniel Buck. "The late settlement of the boundaries of this state," undoubtedly refers to the time when the sixteen towns now in
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New Hampshire and bordering upon the Connecticut river, were set back to New Hampshire from whose allegiance they had withdrawn in 1778. Among these towns were Lyme, Orford, Piermont and Haverhill, and undoubtedly Mr. Hutchinson was from one of the towns last named, but from which one cannot be ascertained. His name appears as counsel, in cases for several terms after he ceased to be state's attorney.
LAWYERS OF ORANGE COUNTY.
The first lawyer admitted to practice within the territory of what is now Orange county, so far as the records of the court show, was John Grout, Esq., who was admitted at a session of the court held at Newbury, in and for the county of Gloucester on the last Tuesday of August, A. D., 1772, on his own motion. The record is as follows :-
"Mr. John Grout moved the court to be admitted an attorney here, and produced his license from the Governor and Commander in Chief of this province (the province of New York). The court admitted him said Grout attorney of this court, and he was duly sworn accordingly and the court ordered that a record thereof be made."
The next day-
" A motion was made to the Court by Mr. Grout that the common rules for filing declarations in ten actions be entered. [Then follows the titles of ten cases,] and representing that a writ on each of these actions had been sued forth, all which were returned by the sheriff, that he had the persons sued in his custody ; which writs so being produced it appeared that they were all subscribed with the name of him the said Mr. Grout as attorney, and it like- wise appeared by a license under the hand and seal of the Gov'r and Com'r in chief of this province appointing him the said Grout an attorney of the Court previous to his suing forth and subscribing these writs, but that the same writs were sued forth before the said Grout was admitted and sworn here, the Court declare that the same writs issued irregularly, as they were not sued forth, endorsed or subscribed by any attorney then admitted and sworn in this Court, nor by any attorney of the Supreme Court, and that the Court will not take any further cognizance of those writs, or allow any dec- laration to be filed thereon, but that the sheriff set at liberty all persons now in his custody by virtue of any of those writs."
Thomas Sumner, Esq., one of the judges, being defendant, and said Mr.Grout having been at this term now regularly admitted and sworn as an attorney of this court, he moved that the court make the following rule, viz .: That no writs for the future, other than such as shall be sued forth, endorsed and subscribed by some attorney regularly admitted and sworn in this court, or some attorney of the Supreme Court, be ever sustained or cognizance taken of any such writs, nor declarations be allowed to be filed thereon, and that in all such cases the sheriff shall disobey and not execute such writs.
The court order that it be entered they apprehend this motion to be unnecessary, as they conceive that what is moved for is granted in the above decision on the other foregoing nrotion, except directing the sheriff not to
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yield obedience to such writs; respecting which part of the last motion the court will give no direction.
The court consisted of Gen. Jacob Bailey, of Newbury, and Thomas Sum- ner, judges, and Jacob Kent, assistant.
Mr. Grout's name appears in the records of Gloucester county afterward,. but I am unable to give any further account of him in this county.
In 1770 some of the people of Windsor, in Cumberland county, where Grout was then practicing, appeared in court and declared that Grout ruled the court and demanded that he be forbidden to practice because he was "a bad man." There was so much disturbance that the court adjourned and the people took Grout by force and attempted to make him promise not to. practice any longer in the county ; but he escaped without making the prom- ise. Whether this was the occasion of his coming further north or not, does not appear.
John Lawrence was the first and only attorney-at-law commissioned as. such by the state of New York for the county of Gloucester. His commis- sion as attorney-at-law was dated January 20, 1775. Whether he ever resided in the county for any length of time or did much business here is un- certain. Mr. Lawrence was commissioned as county clerk of the county- of Gloucester, June 30, 1774, in place of John Peters, who had been clerk from the organization of the county, March 16, 1770. Mr. Peters's first com- mission was dated March 17th, the day after the organization of the county,. so that he must have been at Albany at the time. Mr. Lawrence's name does not appear among those who went to Kingsland (now Washington), the. county seat of Gloucester county, to hold court in 1770 and 1771, and he probably was not in the county at the time. He was one of the claimants for a portion of the $30,000 which Vermont paid to New York at the time of the set- tlement of the controversies between the two states, in 1795, to compensate- those who held grants of lands in Vermont from the governor of New York which the state of Vermont had granted to other parties, and he received as his. share $49.91. In 1789, February 13th, he declared himself to be a citizen of New York in a memorial which he signed with others to the New York. legislature in favor of Vermont. It is quite probable that while in Vermont. he stopped at Mooretown, now Bradford.
BRADFORD.
Moses Chase was probably the first lawyer who settled in Bradford, and he. undoubtedly came here in 1800, and lived in Bradford until 1833, when he removed to Lyndon, Caledonia county, where he died in July, 1861 .. Mr. Chase was born in Cornish, N. H., November 29, 1772, and was a rela- tive of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, who was born in the same town ..
His father, one of the first settlers of Cornish, was also named Moses. The subject of this sketch fitted for college in his own town and graduated at.
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Dartmouth college " with high honors " it is said, but what year we cannot here state. He studied law at Litchfield, Conn, and married Miss Deborah Ball, of that town, January 20, 1800. He immediately took up his abode in Bradford, having already been admitted to the bar in Connecticut. He was more given to agriculture than to law. He lived for some time in the house near the brick school-house in Bradford village, afterwards owned and occupied by Jesse Merrill, Esq. Later he bought what was called from him the Chase place on Mink hill, where Samuel E. Davis afterwards lived in the fork of the roads. The house is now gone. Mr. Chase there owned a small farm and had an abundance of fruits, such as apples, cherries, Canada plums, damsons and other small fruits. His law office was in a long, one-story build- ing, which is now removed, but then standing on the east side of the street north of where the paper-mill straw barn now stands. His great draw-back. was his violent temper. It was not an uncomnion occurrence in his encoun- ters with 'Squire Merrill in the trial of suits, for an ink bottle or other missile to be hurled at Merrill's head. He was quite aggressive, and able to carry out what he attempted. In person he was large and bony, above the medium height, heavy but not corpulent, with a prominent nose Roman in shape. His hair and complexion were dark. He was impulsive but gen- erous, and at heart a kind man. He had two sons, Gen. Epephras B. Chase, who lived for many years in Lyndon, and Coleman, who went to Wisconsin and died there. A daughter married a Mr. Mobley and removed to Ala- bama.
Mr. Chase was interested in improvements and gave the land for the Back street in Bradford village, and April 19, 1804, he deeded the site where the brick school-house now stands, on condition that it be used for school pur- poses. He was one of the early trustees of Bradford academy, and was the first clerk of the corporation, being elected December 16, 1820, and held the position until September 4, 1822.
Jesse Merrill was born in Atkinson, Rockingham county, N. H, July 18, 1778. He was the tenth child in a family of thirteen children, of whom eleven were sons. His father was a farmer and hotel keeper, his residence being about five miles west of Haverhill, Mass. Jesse had the advantages of the common schools and academy in his native town, and graduated at Dartmouth college in 1806. His younger brother, Caleb, graduated two years later. They both studied law, and Jesse removed to Bradford, Vt., where he was admitted to the Orange county bar, but what year is not known. Moses Chase was in practice in Bradford when Mr. Merrill came here, and they had many sharp encounters. Mr. Merrill's name fust appears in Walton's Register as an attorney of Bradford in the year ISIS, so that he probably came here the year before. He represented Bradford in the Gen- eral Assembly in the years 1824, '25, '26, '28, '30, '32 and '33. He was a Whig in politics, and a great admirer of the illustrious statesman and orator, Henry Clay, and also of Cassius M. Clay. Like them he had no sympathy
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in his heart for the institution of slavery then existing in the country. He was in fact a staunch Abolitionist when it was a reproach to be one. He did not practice his profession after about 1840, having acquired a compe- tence for those days. Mr. Merrill was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Clarke, in Bradford, in the house near the brick school-house on Main street, where they spent the years of their married life. She was an educated and accomplished woman, having received her education in Charlestown, Mass. She survived her husband and left no children. In her will, after making a few bequests to friends, she made Bradford academy her residuary legatee, leaving that institution more that two thousand dollars for a library for the use of its students. No doubt she counselled with her husband pre- vious to his death in regard to the matter, for he had left the bulk of his property to his wife. Mr. Merrill was a man of good intellect, amiable char- acter and unquestioned integrity. He lived without reproach and died respected by all who knew him, in Bradford, March 18, 1854.
Miron Leslie was born in Bradford, September 22, 1806, studied law with Peter Burbank, at Wells River, and was admitted to the bar of Orange county at the December term of the Orange County Court in 1828. Soon after he removed to Derby Line, Vt., and entered upon the practice of his profession ; but in the spring of 1835 he removed to Jacksonville, Ill., where he continued in the practice of law, and soon made for himself a good reputation. He was at one time offered a commission as a judge of the Circuit Court of that state, but declined to accept it. In 1839 he removed to St. Louis, Mo., where he continued successfully in the law business. He was state senator for two biennial terms commencing in 1847 and 1849. He was much re- spected in his new home and held other offices than those named. He died August 1, 1854.
Seth Austin was born in Suffield, Conn., in September, 1797. His parents removed to Vermont when he was quite young, bringing their family with them. The father and older sons settled in the valley of White river in the counties of Orange and Windsor. Seth for some time lived with an older brother who settled in Bethel, in Windsor county, and there attended the common school. He finished his school education at the Royalton academy. With whom he studied law cannot now be determined, but he was admitted to the bar at the June term of Orange County Court in 1826. He was in the practice of his profession in 1828 and 1829 in the village of East Topsham, and in 1830 in Bradford, where he continued practice as long as he lived. While study- ing law he taught school in Topsham and Chelsea and other towns in the county. While living in East Topsham he married Jane E. Gibson, daughter of Samuel Gibson, Esq., of Newbury, by whom he had three children, all of whom lived beyond the age of majority. The only survivor of the three at this time, however, is Albert E. Austin, Esq., the youngest son, born July 10, 1835, now a successful farmer in Greene township, Butler county, Iowa. The other children were Helen E., born September 28, 1829, who married and
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