Gazetteer of Washington County, Vt., 1783-1889, Part 11

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836-, comp; Adams, William, fl. 1893, ed
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., The Syracuse journal company, printers
Number of Pages: 898

USA > Vermont > Washington County > Gazetteer of Washington County, Vt., 1783-1889 > Part 11

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MOSES N. FLINT was admitted April term, 1833. I am told that "he was a New Hampshire boy and went up north, where he practiced and soon died."

JEREMIAH T. MARSTON, of Montpelier, was admitted April term, 1833. He practiced one year in Cabot, and in 1834 came to Montpelier and be- came editor of the Vermont Patriot, and so continued till 1846, the latter part of the time owning as well as editing the paper. He was town representa- tive in 1844 and 1845. Something more than forty years ago he moved to Madison, Wis., where he has had a successful life. He married a daughter of Jacob F. Dodge, of Montpelier, and they had three children.

ANSON SARGENT was admitted April term, 1834.

ALANSON C. BURKE studied with Merrill & Spaulding and was admitted November term, 1834. He went into practice in Stowe and there continued until 1856, when he moved to Berlin and there remained, practicing a part of the time for about ten years, when he returned to Stowe. J. A. Wing says he was living at Morrisville two years ago, and he thinks he is still living there.

BENJAMIN F. CHAMBERLAIN, of Northfield, was admitted November term, 1834. He practiced in Northfield two years and went to Snowsville, in Braintree, where J. P. Kidder read law with him. He practiced at Snows- ville several years, and Gov. Farnham says in Child's Gazetteer of Orange County that he went to Concord and was an editor. He fell out of a tree and broke his back about 1843, but where this fatal accident occurred I am not sure.

EDWARD L. MAYO studied with Judge Prentiss and was admitted Novem- ber term, 1834. He went to Woodstock, Ill., where he was successful, and where he was living not many years ago.

HARRISON B. PAGE was admitted November term, 1834. His father was a clergyman and went to Ohio. Mr. Page was a gentlemanly young fellow, but economical ; he never practiced in this county.

JOHN COLBY, son of Jonathan and Esther Colby, was born in Barre, Sep- tember 19, 1807, studied with N. Kinsman, and was admitted April term, 1835. He practiced in Washington till 1848; went to Salisbury ; and in

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1853 to Craftsbury; to Glover in 1855 and soon to Hartland, where he staid till 1872, when he went to Fairlee, where he died March 19, 1875. He rep- resented Washington, Salisbury, and Hartland. In 1837 he married Adaline M. Kneeland, of Hartford, by whom he had four children. I have followed Baldwin's account, which see for more detail.

SAMUEL A. CHANDLER practiced in Montpelier a few months-in 1835. He was a man of some capital and went to Concord, N. H., where I am told he was in business and did not practice much.

STEPHEN S. JONES was admitted November term, 1835.

HOMER WALLACE HEATON, of Montpelier, was born in Berlin, August 25, 18II, and is the son of Dr. Gershom Heaton, who moved to Berlin in 1795, and Polly (Wallace) Heaton. His education was in the common schools, and in St. Lawrence Academy at Potsdam, N. Y., and Washington County Grammar School. He read law with J. P. Miller and N. Baylies, Jr., was admitted to the bar, November term, 1835, and-the firm of Miller & Bay- lies dissolving that year-at once became a member of the law firm of Miller & Heaton. Col. Miller's health in 1839 obliged him to retire from prac- tice, and with Charles Reed the firm of Heaton & Reed was formed, which lasted till Mr. Reed's death, March 7, 1873.

He was state's attorney in 1839, 1841, 1860, and 1861, and representative in 1848. When J. Y. Vail resigned as county clerk Judge I. F. Redfield and his associates offered the place to Mr. Heaton, but he kept at the law, thinking rightly that in its steady pursuit he would find his account. He was the candidate of the Democrats for speaker in 1848, for governor in 1869 and 1870, and for Congress in 1872 and 1874. His first vote was for An- drew Jackson, and in Rebellion days he was a war Democrat. He would probably call himself a Jeffersonian Democrat, and his definitions are gener- ally correct. I have always wished that he was a Republican, but while at times I have thought he was almost under conviction he has never exhibited any indications of coming forward into the anxious seats; and instead of seeing my old law instructor come over to the right side I have lost off my partner to the Democrats.

Mr. Heaton's professional life and his later engagements in other fields have been above all an example of steady and persistent work, and his suc- cesses have all been earned by painstaking labor and care. Conservative, cautious, and industrious, he has made progress in the walks of life by regu- lar steps,-good long ones, some of them, though,-and has attempted no ad- vancement by sudden flights. But all the while he has been genial in social life and not averse to its enjoyment. That "stern mistress, the Law," has been known now and then to look without disapproval on timely amuse- ments, and even the venerable Hannibal Hamlin is remembered as a good dancer as well as a good Vice-President. In court, too, a quick turn some- times helps when rightly made, as did Mr. Heaton's suggestion when trying to get the bonds chancered in a case where his absent client in a drunken

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frenzy had flourished a revolver and put a bullet through a man's hat and hair. The state's attorney was earnest in opposing the chancering of the bonds, for the assault was really an outrageous one, but he unfortunately made several allusions to the " bullet through the hat," so that Mr. Heaton's only suggestion in reply, " but the hat, your honors, was an old straw hat," finally characterized the case in the minds of the judges, and the bonds were greatly cut down.

Mr. Heaton was always a good " all round " lawyer, and while he was a good pleader his special strength was in his extensive knowledge of real estate law and in his careful conduct of all the business interest of his clients and in his power as a jury lawyer. He was, though an easy speaker and a good advocate, not given to flights of oratory, and an adversary might for once (but never a second time) underrate what he had to contend with. A verdict for his client was the goal aimed at, and he scored in his professional life full more arrivals at the point of destination than was his share. His success was obtained by careful preparation, lasting vigilance, and going around such obstacles as he could not remove.

Of late years he has kept out of practice all that he could to devote him- self to the conservation and increase of his large property, and to the manage- ment of the Montpelier Savings Bank and Trust Company, of which he has been president since its organization, and which is as financially sound and honest as Mr. Heaton himself. This large business institution is confessedly a model of its kind, and none would rate Mr. Heaton's efforts higher towards making it such a model than Mr. Brock, Mr. Ferrin, and his other associates in its management.

I wish here to acknowledge the value of Mr. Heaton's and Mr. J. A. Wing's reminiscences of the bar during the second third of this century, and of the traditions by them preserved of the earlier bar and judges. 'Mr. Heaton and Mr. Ewing are the fathers of our bar,-ex-Gov. Dillingham is its good grandfather,-and we thus have "more ancestors than wealth"; and indeed had we a good big pot of wealth we should take more pride in our an- cestry than in it. They have all been kind and helpful to the younger mem- bers of the bar, and when we have got any distance from what is the right way it is a sure sign we have n't followed their advice. It should be here justly said that good feeling towards each other has been peculiarly a mark of Washington County bar from the very first. This feeling is strengthened by the example of these three men, and the high respect in which they have always held their own profession has no doubt elevated its standard in the county as well as given them their high place in the minds of the community at large and their brethren of the bar.

Mr. Heaton married Harriet Stearns, of Boston, July 1, 1841. She died April 26, 1859. Three of their four children are now living-Charles H., James S., and Homer W.

Homer W. Heaton

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CHARLES REED, of Montpelier, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Burnap) Reed, was born in Thetford, November 24, 1814. His father moved to Montpelier in 1827-they came in the winter, and I have heard Mr. Reed say that, as they were coming into town, they met Gen. Walton driving a span of fine horses, and that the equipage as the General dashed by awed him by its magnificence as nothing had since.

Mr. Reed graduated at Dartmouth in 1835, read with W. Upham, and was two years in Harvard Law School. He was admitted at the April term, 1838, and finished his law school studies and graduating LL. B. in 1839. In 1839 he began practice, forming a partnership with H. W. Heaton, under the name of Heaton & Reed, which lasted more than a third of a century, and in the same office the whole time.

Mr. Reed was state's attorney in 1847 and 1848; state librarian from 1858 till his death, and also librarian of the Vermont Historical society, and was a valuable legislator as representative from Montpelier and senator from this county. He was particularly a Supreme Court lawyer, and, in the divis- ion of labor between him and Mr. Heaton, that part of the firm's practice fell to his share. He was a public spirited citizen and gave himself to much work in all matters that promoted the public good. He was as good a lawyer as any who practiced at this bar in his time, and the bar and the court knew it-the men who won verdicts had trouble in keeping them when he was on the other side, and many cases came to his hands after they had left the County Court on their way up.

He was a man of marked personality, and pages might be filled with his wise and terse sayings. A student in his office, as the years go by I remem- ber him with the same affection and with, if possible, increased respect-for experience shows the value and the rarity of such knowledge as his, of such men as he.

A just estimate of Mr. Reed by Rev. J. Edward Wright is found in Hem- enway, vol. 4, p. 513 ; and a sketch appears in the Vermont Bar Associa- tion's Proceedings for 1880.

Mr. Reed married Emily Eliza Baldwin, June 5, 1842. Of their five chil- dren, one, Minnie G., is now living : she resides with her mother in Mont- pelier. Another daughter, Elizabeth Burnap Reed, was the wife of Col. Lucia, and died leaving three children. Mr. Reed died March 7, 1873.

George Washington Reed, brother of Charles, was born in Thetford, No- vember 4, 1817, graduated at U. V. M. in 1838, and was admitted to the bar, and he was a lawyer of Montpelier from 1842, but never pursued the practice. He was postmaster of Montpelier from 1845 four years, and has long been secretary of the National Life Insurance Company. He married Almira Robinson, of Boston, in June, 1853. Mr. Reed was admitted to the Washington County bar, he tells me, in the days when Stillman Churchill was clerk of the court, which explains why there is no record of his admis- sion.

WASHINGTON COUNTY.

JOSEPH ADDISON WING, of Montpelier, son of Josiah and Polly (Gray) Wing, was born in what is now East Montpelier, October 26, 1810. He went to district schools in the summer till seven years old and then to winter district schools till he was eighteen, and attended the Grammar School three months. He lamed his shoulder, concluded to study law, entered his name in Merrill & Spaulding's office, used to come and get books once in two weeks, meantime working on the farm three miles from here and reading at home, until November, 1834, when he came into their office and read there till April, 1835. He went to Plainfield, May 13, 1835, and began practice and says: "I supposed, in 1835, when I started, I knew just as much law as I suppose I know now." He was admitted April term, 1836.

Mr. Wing is especially a chancery lawyer. He has all his life delighted in that form of practice. Another delight of his has been pleading in law cases. He used to read the pleadings in every case in court. And he has always been ready and willing to give the younger members of the bar the benefit of his knowledge of pleadings and practice. He knows more statute law and points decided by the courts than any other man who has been at this bar. He is an indefatigable worker, and to this day carefully prepares and writes out at length many of his arguments.

One of his first cases is illustrative of the man and the lawyer. James Bell in 1836 brought suit for a client before a justice in Caledonia county. Wing was employed to defend, got beaten, and took an appeal to County Court. There he called in L. B. Peck to help him; they got beaten ; Wing told Peck he was going up to the Supreme Court ; Peck said not to do it. Wing carried it up all the same, got a new trial, went back to the County Court, and got beaten worse than ever. Peck said: "You've got beat this time"; Wing said: "No, there is a hole just big enough for me to get through." I. F. Redfield was presiding in the County Court ; Wing had taken excep- tions and asked to have them allowed; Redfield said there was nothing in them and that he would not stay execution. Wing said : "Your honor, the execution is yours, the exceptions are mine." He went up to the Supreme Court again, got another trial ordered, and at that trial in the County Court ended the case by getting a verdict ordered for the defendant, the plaintiff not being able to change his case from what the last exceptions showed it to have been at the preceding trial.

Mr. Wing moved from Plainfield to Montpelier, in June, 1858, and has practiced in Montpelier ever since. He marred Samantha Elizabeth Web- ster, January 1, 1840, and their sons, George W. and John G., and their daughters, Mrs. Florence A. Blakely, Mrs. Annette M. Farwell, Alice M., and Elizabeth B., all live in Montpelier.

George Washington Wing, of Montpelier, son of J. A., was born in Plain- field, October 22, 1843, graduated at Dartmouth in 1866, read law, and was admitted in this county, March term, 1868. He was assistant state librarian in 1864 and 1866, deputy secretary of state from 1867 to 1873, town repre-

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sentative in 1882, and postmaster from July, 1884, to July, 1888. Mr. Wing has a good law practice, and entertains and instructs whether before the jury or the court, or on the stump. He is at once scholarly and practical, and has an enviable power of illustration peculier to himself.

Mr. Wing, December 1, 1869, married Sarah E., daughter of Dr. Orlando P. and Millie (Hendee) Forbush, of Montpelier, who died in April, 1871, leav- ing one daughter, Sarah Forbush. Mr. Wing in 1882 married Miss Ida I. Jones, of Montpelier.

John Gray Wing, of Montpelier, son of J. A., was born in Montpelier, October 20, 1859, read law with his father, and was admitted September term, 1880. He has practiced ever since in Montpelier, studies his cases carefully, and argues them well. He married, August 16, 1882, Dora M. Hathaway, daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Hathaway. They have one child, Charles A.

Marcellus N. Fletcher, of Plainfield, a nephew of Joseph A. Wing, was admitted to Washington County bar, March term, 1856, and went at once to Plainfield, where he entered into partnership with Mr. Wing, and practiced law till his death, in June, 1858.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON BINGHAM, of Stowe, son of. Elias and Martha (Robinson) Bingham, was born in Fletcher, April 13, 1813, read law and was admitted in Washington county, November term, 1836, and began prac- tice in Stowe, where he remained until in 1877 he made his business head- quarters in Montpelier, where he was for some years president of the Vermont Mutual Fire Insurance Company. He was state's attorney for Lamoille county for four years, and has held numerous other positions, being now, as he has been for more than ten years, a director of the state prison and house of correction.

Mr. Bingham was, in 1874, 1876, and 1878, the Democratic candidate for governor, and would long ago have been governor of his native state had he belonged to a party not in the minority. As it is he is " Governor Bing- ham " to his host of friends throughout the state, not because he has been governor, but because he deserved to be. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Vermont and Hemenway give more full sketches.

Mr. Bingham married, July 31, 1838, Orpha R., daughter of Riverius Camp, of Stowe. They last summer celebrated their golden wedding, at which there was a most notable gathering of Vermonters.

HEMAN CARPENTER, of Northfield, son of Nathaniel and Abigail (Morse). Carpenter, was born in Middlesex, July 10, 1811, read law with W. Upham, and was admitted November term, 1836. He at once began practice in Northfield, and there continued the remainder of his useful and honorable life. Judge Carpenter held many offices of importance, and his life was full of professional and business duties too numerous to be here described. I refer the reader to Frank Plumley's appreciative sketch of his old instruc- tor in the law, read at the meeting of the Vermont Bar Association in 1885.

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He married, November 14, 1838, Harriet S. Gilchrist, who died June 21, 1865, and left four children who survive : Col. George N., of Boston ; Jason H., of Grand Rapids, Mich. ; and Mrs. Caroline S. Porter and Mrs. Abigail F. Howes, both of Northfield. Mr. Carpenter, October 16, 1866, married Betsey S. Edgerton. Judge Carpenter died at Northfield, January 16, 1884. His son George N. graduated at the U. V. M. in 1860, read law a few months, enlisted, was a captain in the 8th Vt., and is now in Boston, the general agent of the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Albert V. H. Carpenter, of Northfield, a brother of Heman, was born in Middlesex, read law with his brother Heman, and was admitted April term, 1884. He began practice in Strafford and remained there till 1847, when he went to Northfield and practiced for a time, being admitted to the Supreme Court bar in 1853, but soon turned his attention to railroading, and for nearly thirty years has been general ticket agent of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway lines, with headquarters at Milwaukee and Chicago.

HARMAN G. REYNOLDS was from Berlin and was admitted November term, 1836. He went West, to Illinois Mr. Wing says ; and Gov. Bingham says he became an editor.

RUFUS C. SMITH, of Waterbury, practiced in that town from 1836 till his death, which was about 1854. I as yet find nothing further concerning him except that he was a reputable lawyer.

WILLIAM WELLINGTON WELLS, of Waterbury, son of Roswell and Pamelia (White) Wells, was born in Waterbury, October 28, 1805, and died there April 9, 1869. He graduated from the U. V. M. in 1824, read law and was admitted in Chittenden county, but went into business and returned to Waterbury, and never practiced law. He married Eliza, daughter of Dan Carpenter, January 31, 1831. They had ten children, of whom seven sons and one daughter grew up. Gen. William Wells, of Burlington, is one of the sons, and Mrs. James W. Brock, of Montpelier, the daughter. See Hemenway, vol. 4, p. 852, for longer sketch.

JOHN RICHARDSON, of Barre, is given in the Registers as a practicing law- yer in that town for two years. He was there in 1836 and 1837.

AARON BAILEY is gived in a Register as a practicing attorney in Wood- bury in 1836.

HARLOW P. SMITH, of Berlin and sometime of Cabot, was an attorney there in 1836. He went to Hyde Park in a short time and was in practice there a number of years. He was at one time state's attorney of Lamoille county.

AUGUSTUS PINGRY HUNTON, of Bethel, son of Dr. Ariel and Polly (Pingry) Hunton, of Hyde Park, was born at Groton, N. H., February 23, 1816, read law with Joshua Sawyer at Hyde Park, W. C. Wilson at Bakersfield, and then with William M. Pingry at Waitsfield, and was admitted in Washington county, April term, 1837. He practiced at Warren, and in 1838 went to Bethel and was a partner of Julius Converse till 1844, when he went to Chel-

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sea and practiced till 1848, when he returned to Bethel and has practiced there since. He was speaker of the House of Representatives in 1861. Mr. Hunton's ability deserved still higher preferment, and he is a lawyer of great skill. See Child's Orange County Gazetteer and Pingry Genealogy for fur- ther notices. He married Caroline Paige, of Bethel, April 29, 1849, and their daughter Mary is the wife of William B. C. Stickney, of Bethel.

GEORGE BARNEY MANSER, D. D., of Montpelier, son of John and Sarah (Barney) Manser, was born at New Haven, Conn., August 8, 1803. He read® law at Danville, practiced at Williston, was secretary to the Governor and- Council, and afterwards civil and military secretary from 1832 to 1841, removed to Montpelier in 1837, and practiced law till 1841. He entered the Episcopal ministry in 1843 and was the first rector of Christ church in Montpelier, 1843. to 1850 ; he then went to Bennington, where he was rector of St. Peter's till his death. He married, June 12, 1831, Mary, daughter of Augustin Clark, of Danville ; and he died in Bennington, November 17, 1862.

STILLMAN H. CURTIS, son of Col. Caleb Curtis, of North Calais, read law with S. C. Eaton, and was admitted April term, 1838. He practiced four or- five years in Plainfield and died of consumption.

STILLMAN CHURCHILL, son of Noah Churchill, of Stowe, was admitted in Washington county, April term, 1839, and began practice in Montpelier. He- was clerk of the court from 1840 till 1844, when he went to Stowe, and in about twelve years returned to Montpelier. He afterwards went West and was eight years ago living in Chicago.

GEORGE W. STONE, of Cabot, was a practicing attorney in that town most of the time from 1839 to about 1865.

BENJAMIN H. ADAMS, of Waitsfield, was born in Tunbridge in 1810, and was, I think, admitted in Orange county at the June term, 1838. He was- admitted to the Supreme Court bar in Washington county, March term, 1842 .. He began practice in Waitsfield in 1839, and there continued till his death, in October, 1849. He was a good advocate, and might have attained dis- tinction had his habits and health been different. He was a .man whose- ready wit made him remembered long after his asthma and appetite had wrought their work.

ALLEN SPAULDING, of Roxbury, is given as an attorney in that town from 1839 to 1842 in the Registers, but probably this was merely to put collection business into his hands, as Mr. Heaton says he was never a member of the bar.

ROBERT S. M. BOUCHETTE, of Montpelier, opened an office here in 1840. and remained a few months. He was a man of fine appearance and of abil- ity, and had been editor of the Quebec Liberal. He engaged in the " Patriot war," otherwise called the Papineau Rebellion, and in December, 1837, in. the fight at Moore's Corner, was shot in the ankle and taken prisoner by the British. He was transported to Bermuda, came to Vermont and was ad- mitted to the bar in Franklin county in 1839, and came to Montpelier the next:

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year probably on account of his friendship for J. A. Vail. He afterwards had an office in Burlington, and Thompson says was, in 1860, in Montreal.

O. H. P. MILLER was admitted to Washington County bar at the April term, 1840.

GEORGE GALE, of Waterbury, began practice there in 1840 and continued three years, when he went to Wisconsin. I suppose him to have been a brother of Mrs. Hannah Gale Luce, daughter of Peter and Hannah Gale, who with her husband moved to Galesville, Wis., in 1857, and that George Gale was the founder of Galesville.

ALPHEUS TILDEN, of Barre, was admitted at the April term, 1841, and practiced there six years or more. He was a brother of Judge Harvey Tilden, and removed to New York, but returned and died at Barre. He left a widow.

[See sketch of his brother, Judge Harvey Tilden, at close of this article.]

EPHRAIM EDDY FRENCH. *- The progenitor of the French family in America was John French, born in 1612, who came from Thorndic, Scotland, to the Massachusetts colony, when about twenty years of age, and in 1639 was ad- mitted as a freeman in Dorchester. He removed to Braintree in 1648, and from him have descended most of the name in New England. They are generally people of marked individuality.

Samuel French, a native of Salisbury, Mass., born January 29, 1789, married Lydia Sampson, born at Woodstock, Vt., December 2, 1779. Sam- uel emigrated to Vermont when a boy, with a. Mr. Baker, and engaged in fell- ing trees, clearing land, and other pioneer work. After his marriage he located on a wild lot in Washington, and in time his labors were successful in making a comfortable home for himself and wife and their four sons and three daughters,-Deborah, married John Paine ; Lucy (deceased), married Alfred Browning; Leander (deceased) ; EPHRAIM E .; Lydia (deceased) ; Philona (deceased), married Addison Ripley ; Samuel, Jr., died young. Mr. French was a hard working farmer, and a good and useful citizen. He died in 1850.

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Gazetteer of Washington County, Vt., 1783-1889, Part 11

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836-, comp; Adams, William, fl. 1893, ed Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., The Syracuse journal company, printers Number of Pages: 898

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836-, comp; Adams, William, fl. 1893, ed
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., The Syracuse journal company, printers
Number of Pages: 898