Gazetteer of Washington County, Vt., 1783-1889, Part 8

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 8

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).

I. George Houghton Prentiss, born June 25, 1805, educated at West Point from 1822 to 1827, in which last year he graduated; was second lieutenant. U. S. Infantry till 1828, when he resigned because of poor health ; studied law and was admitted at the May term, 1830, of Washington County Court. He practiced law in Hyde Park for a couple of years till ill health forbade, and died September 3, 1833.

2. Samuel Blake Prentiss, born January 23, 1807, studied for a time at the. University of Vermont, then studied law with his father, was admitted, June term, 1829, in Montpelier, and there practiced law till 1840, when he went to. Cleveland, Ohio, and practiced in company with his brother Frederick James. He was, from 1867 to 1882, judge of the Common Pleas and district courts. of the 4th Judicial District of Ohio. He married Jane Atwood Russell, April 14, 1851, and they had two children, one dying in infancy, and the other now the wife or J. D. Cox, Jr., a son of Gen. and Gov. Cox, of Ohio. Con- gressman Burton, of Cleveland, informed me about March 20, 1889, that Judge S. B. Prentiss was still living in Cleveland, respected by all, but in failing health.

3. Edward Houghton Prentiss, not a lawyer, but briefly noticed above.

4. John Holmes Prentiss, born February 10, 1811, went to Boston, and was. in business pursuits seven years, returned to Montpelier and studied law, and was admitted, November term, 1835. He practiced here till 1839, when he went to Irasburgh, where his brother Charles W. was. He practiced while. his health permitted, but in 1869 removed to Winona, Minn., where he went into the banking business, and died September 28, 1876.

5. Charles William Prentiss, born October 18, 1812, was one year in the University of Vermont, then went to Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1832. He studied law first with his father, and afterwards with I. F. Red- field, at Derby, from whose office he was admitted to Orleans County bar,. June 24, 1835. He practiced law in Irasburgh until 1843, when he came to. Montpelier and practiced until 1853, when he went to New York city, and about 1867 went to Cleveland, Ohio, and practiced until 1882, when he re- tired. He married Caroline Kellogg, of Peacham, October 2, 1838, and they had seven children.

6. Henry Francis Prentiss, born November 27, 1814, studied law first with his father, and then with I. F. Redfield, of Derby, and was admitted to Orleans County bar, June term, 1837. He practiced in Derby and Iras- burgh until the fall of 1855, when he moved to Milwaukee. In Derby he was. a partner of Stoddard B. Colby, and in 1847 and '48 was state's attorney. In 1860, having been appointed register in bankruptcy, he practically with-

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drew from practicing law. He died December 2, 1872. He married Ruth Colby, and they had three children.

7. Frederick James Prentiss, born October 18, 1816, studied law, and in 1839 settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where he began practicing law, and where, in 1840, he was joined by his brother Samuel B. They were in partnership until February, 1861. In 1860, his health not being equal to further prac- tice, he accepted an election as clerk of the Common Pleas and district courts for three years and was reë ected in 1863. In 1877 he removed to New York city, where, and at Greenport, Long Island, he has since resided. It is owing to him that the Vermont Historical society has a most excellent portrait painted by Thomas W. Wood of Judge Samuel Prentiss. F. J. mar- ried Delia Adeliza Hurd, of Middle Haddam, Conn. They had one child, Frederick Charles, who is a manufacturer. Any one who has known Mr. Frederick James Prentiss is ready to believe all the good things that are said of the grace and courtesy of both his father and mother.

8. Theodore Prentiss, born September 10, 1818, went south for his health and remained two years. He studied law with his father and was admitted to Washington County bar, April term, 1844. The next fall he went to Wisconsin, and in February, 1845, began the practice of law at Watertown. He was a member of the conventions to form a state constitution for Wisconsin, a member of the legislature, and though never "thrice Lord Mayor of London" has been three times mayor of his adopted city. He married, December 4, 1855, Martha J. Perry, of Burlington, Vt. They had three children. Mr. Prentiss had a very pleasant home in Watertown and an office built for his own convenience. He and his brother James had a factotum-a veteran of the Mexican war named Field-who, and his violin, were of much interest to me when I was a boy.

9. Joseph Addison Prentiss, born August 31, 1820, studied law and must have been admitted to the bar about 1844. as he began practicing in Mont- pelier that year, and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court in Washington county, April term, 1847. He remained here until his removal to Winona, Minn., in May, 1869, where he opened a law office with his brother John H. He has mainly, however, devoted himself to financial matters, and was for some years cashier of the Second National Bank of Wi- nona, and has been president of it since January, 1878. He married, Janu- ary 7, 1852, Rebecca D. Loomis, daughter of Judge Jeduthun Loomis and Sophia Brigham. They had five children.

10. Augustus Prentiss died in infancy as noted above.

II. Lucretia Prentiss died in infancy as noted above.

12. James Prentiss, born July 19, 1824 ; graduated at the University of Vermont and studied law ; was admitted to the bar about 1848. He went to Watertown, Wis., and was in partnership with his brother Theodore for twenty years. I do not find where he was admitted to the bar. James mar-

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ried Rachel Ann Prentiss. He was elected mayor of Watertown in 1865, and died there January 24, 1868.

Samuel Prentiss was in the full practice of the law when Washington county was formed, and so continued for the next fourteen years. In politics he was in early days a Federalist and afterwards a Whig. In 1822 he de- clined an election as judge of the Supreme Court, and it is said that his reason was a modest distrust of his own ability to perform the duties, a dis- trust shared by no one else. In 1824 and 1825 he represented his town, and in 1825 became a member of the Supreme Court, and in 1829 chief judge of that court. In 1830 he was elected to the United States Senate and re- elected in 1836. In 1842 he was appointed judge of the United States District Court for Vermont, and was judge of that court until he died.

E. J. Phelps, late Minister to England, in his address in 1882 upon Judge Prentiss, refers approvingly to Chancellor Kent's declaration that he regarded Judge Prentiss, although Judge Story was then living, as the best jurist in New England. Mr. Phelps says of the last time he saw him on the bench : " He was as charming to look at as a beautiful woman, old as he was. His hair was snow white, his eyes had a gentleness of expression that no painter could do justice to ; his face carried on every line of it the impression of thought, of study, of culture, and complete attainment. His cheek had the glow of youth. His figure was as erect and almost as slender as that of a young man's. His whole fine attire, the snowy ruffle and white cravat, the black velvet waistcoat, and the blue coat with brass buttons was complete in its neatness and elegance, and the graciousness of his presence, so gentle, so courteous, so dignified, so kindly, was like a benediction to those who came unto him."

Of Mrs. Prentiss, Thompson says that " she was one of earth's angels "; and Rev. Dr. Lord that she was " of remarkable sweetness and gentleness of dispositon. She never forgot a favor. She never remembered an injury. The one never escaped her acknowledgment and gratitude ; the other never stirred her spirit." Of her Judge Prentiss said, after her death, that in all his married life of more that fifty years he had never known or heard of an instance in which she had spoken an unkind word or lost the perfect control of her temper.

Rare lives, those of the Judge and his wife, but not lived without a strug- gle ! Mr. Prentiss, "inheriting from his father existence and poverty," had not the stolid nature that goes its way untouched by temptation. As he neared middle life he became intemperate. " Mrs. Prentiss was very judi- cious." She judged him not, and her presence and her voice shielded him.

"I will attend my husband, be his nurse,

Diet his sickness, for it is my office,

And will have no attorney but myself ; And therefore let me have him home with me."

1 WASHINGTON COUNTY.

The influence of her daily life at last triumphed and the good husband was regained to and by the good wife. His restoration to mastery over himself, once returned, was never lost. It came some years before his public career began. And all through the after years that brought honors to him, honors that he worthily bore, his neighbors saw in the wife his "guardian angel " who had made the wearing of those honors possible, and who had preserved him to be the statesman and the judge.

DAN CARPENTER, of Waterbury, son of Simeon Carpenter and Anna Burton, was born November 21, 1776, in Norwich, Vt .; was admitted to Windsor County bar in the spring of 1804, and the following summer settled in Waterbury. He was the fifth lawyer to come into this county. He was married at Norwich, January 27, 1805, to Betsey Partridge. They had eight children, one of whom still survives, the wife of ex-Gov. Dillingham.

Mr. Carpenter was tall, lithe, and graceful ; a gentleman of the old school. He represented his town some ten years, and beginning with 1827 was first assistant judge of the County Court for eight years. He was also for many years a merchant. In 1823 Paul Dillingham, Jr., became his law partner, and in 1827 Mr. Carpenter retired from practice. He died December 2, 1852.

JEDUTHUN LOOMIS, of Montpelier, was the sixth lawyer in the county. He was born in Tolland, Conn., January 5, 1779. He studied law with Oramel Hinckley, of Thetford, Vt., and after admission to the bar came to Mont- pelier, Thompson says in 1805 ; he was certainly here in 1806, as December 6, 1806, he was summoned by the constable to depart the town. Many like hospitable invitations to depart are on record, one having been served on J. Y. Vail, Nicholas Baylies, Timothy Merrill, and others at a later date. It was the custom in those days to " warn out " all new comers ; the voters wanted immigrants to settle, but were not anxious they should "gain a settlement." Mr. Loomis married Hannah Hinckley, of Thetford, March 11, 1807 ; she died December 24, 1813, and October 10, 1814, he married Charity Scott, of Peacham, who died June 13, 1821, and October 8, 1822, he married Sophia Brigham, of Salem, Mass., who died in 1855. In 1820 he was elected judge of probate and served ten years. He was a tall, dark man, of grave countenance, " rather set," Thompson says, but at heart charitable and of known good motives. He died November 12, 1843.

Charles Loomis, the son of Judge Loomis, by his third wife, studied law and was admitted to Washington County bar, September term, 1853. He went very soon to Cincinnati, where he was living in 1860, and has since died.

DENISON SMITH, of Barre, the seventh lawyer in the county, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1805, and was admitted to Orange County bar at its December term, 1808, and settled about that time in Barre. He was the son of Joseph and Ruth Smith, and was born at Plainfield, N. H., January 8, 1784, and died at Barre, February 8, 1836. He was one year chief judge of

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the County Court, and was six years state's attorney. He had a good prac- tice and was a sound lawyer. He married Fannie Kimball, of Cornish, N. H.

Denison Kimball Smith, their son, was born at South Barre, October 16, 1822 ; read law, was admitted to the Washington County bar, November term, 1847, the same term that Matt Carpenter was admitted. He began practice in Barre in 1847, was state's attorney about 1858, and died March 4, 1860. He married Maria B. Follett, June 24, 1854.

TIMOTHY MERRILL, the eighth lawyer of the county, was born in Farm- ington, Conn., March 26, 1781, and when of age went to Bennington, where his brother, Orsamus C. Merrill, was practicing law. He read law, was ad- mitted, and then went to Rutland, where he began practice with Robert Temple. He came to Montpelier in 1809 and opened an office. He was the first state's attorney of the new county and held that office in all nine years, longer than any other man. In 1811 and 1812 he represented Mont- pelier. He was seven years engrossing clerk of the General Assembly and nine years clerk of the House of Representatives. In 1831 he was elected secretary of state and held that office until his death in 1836. In 1812 he married Clara Fassett, of Bennington. They had five children, a son who died in infancy ; Ferrand F .; Edwin S .; Clara Augusta ; and Timothy R., who was for ten years judge of probate and has for many years been and now is town clerk of Montpelier. Mr. Merrill was a sound lawyer, and had the confidence of the community as the early dockets show, and as the fact that such men as Gov. Van Ness sent their business to him testifies. His fellow citizens kept him in public life, and that they did not send him to Washington was owing to his own reluctance to undertake that service. He advised settlements rather than litigation, and partly as the result of this, and partly because his political service took his time from his profession, he had not attained such financial success as he thought would permit him to under- take service in the National legislature. He therefore declined to have his name used when the prospects of an election to the United States Senate were very flattering, had he consented.

Ferrand Fassett Merrill, son of Timothy and Clara, was born in Montpe- lier, October 24, 1814. He read law and was admitted to Washington County bar, November term, 1836. He was clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives from 1838 to 1849, and was secretary of state from 1849 to 1853. He represented Montpelier in 1856 and 1857, and the latter year had the responsibility of conducting "the State House fight," in which he was op- posed by George F. Edmunds among others. Mr. Merrill possessed marked ability as a lawyer and as a legislator. He was both scholarly and practical. He died of apoplexy, May 2, 1859, in the noon of his life, and when its after- noon promised to be one of domestic happiness, of high professional success, and of increased public honors. He married Eliza Maria Wright, who with three children, one son and two daughters, survived him.

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Chester Wright Merrill, son of Ferrand F. and grandson of Timothy Mer- rill, was born in Montpelier, April 23, 1846. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1866; read law and was admitted to the Washington County bar at the September term, 1870. He soon afterwards went to Cincinnati, where he for many years held the important position of librarian of the Cincinnati Public Library. He now lives in Cincinnati in the practice of his profession.

JOSHUA YOUNGS VAIL, of Montpelier, was the son of Abraham and Betty (Lee) Vail, and was born in Pomfret, Vt., August 30, 1784. I think he came to Montpelier to live before Timothy Merrill did, but that he was not admitted to the bar until after Mr. Merrill had opened an office in Montpe- lier. Mr. Vail graduated at Middlebury College, August 17, 1808. He taught Montpelier Academy the winter preceding his graduation, and I have his manuscript copy of the " Conditions of the Academy School "; they are as follows :-

"Conditions of the Academy School beginning on Thursday the 17th of Decbr., 1807.

" Tuition, for reading and writing, ten shillings and sixpence, and for arithmetic, grammar, and other english studies, two dollars per quarter, each scholar to be charged 3 shillings for fire wood. For those who study the languages 3 dollars per quarter & not to be charged for wood.

" The strictest attention will be paid to the instruction of the pupils. Should the school be so much crowded as to make it necessary to refuse any the smallest must be excluded.

" The above conditions are the same as established by the board of trus- tees. Montpelier, Decbr. 15, 1807.

" JOSHUA Y. VAIL, Preceptor."

I have, also, kindly furnished me by Mrs. H. H. Deming, his daughter, his list of scholars for that term which began December 17, 1807, and closed March 10, 1808. On this paper, in a list of "lads" who studied reading and writing, the first name is that of Elisha P. Jewett, who came to Mont- pelier in February, 1807, and now lives here at the age of nearly eighty-eight years, hale, hearty, active, and bright. I met him on the street to-day and he told me the history of Samuel Prentiss's first election as representative for Montpelier in 1824.

J. Y. Vail, when the the county was organized, had been admitted to the bar and was a partner of Judge Prentiss. I think he settled in Montpelier immediately after graduation. His and Mary Tuthill's intention of marriage was published December 31, 1809, and they were married by Rev. Chester Wright, January 27, 18to. She was a sister of Abraham G. D. Tuthill, a portrait painter, who was a pupil of Benjamin West. They had nine chil- dren, two of whom are now living in Montpelier : Oscar John Tuthill Vail, born March 7, 1824, and Laura Davis Vail, wife of H. H. Deming, Esq. Joshua Y. Vail was clerk of the court, beginning in 1819, for about twenty years. He was the first secretary and treasurer of the Vermont Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which early had its office in a small building which now stands back of Mr. Deming's house, and which had formerly been Mr.

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Vail's law office, on the site of the Ballou bulding near the bridge, but which, in the flood of July 27, 1830, floated off and landed near the present Central depot, whence it was drawn to the lot where it now stands. Mr. Vail died of lung fever, April 3, 1854.

Jackson Abram Vail, son of J. Y., was born February 25, 1815, and died April 15, 1871. He married Abbie G. Langdon, October 2, 1837, and after her death married Sarah Angier. His daughter Helen M. married William H. Blake, of Swanton, and his daughter Sarah A. married Homer W. Vail, of Pomfret. J. A. Vail was admitted to Washington County bar, April term, 1837. He was a brilliant lawyer, but his habits were such that he threw away his great opportunities. He was greatly interested in the Canadian Rebellion of 1837. He represented Montpelier in 1849 and 1850. He was as near a genius as any man who ever practiced at the Washington County bar, and when he was himself was the equal in the court-room of any man who ap- peared there in his day.

NICHOLAS BAYLIES, of Montpelier, son of Deacon Nicholas Baylies, of Uxbridge, Mass., was born in Uxbridge, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1794, read law with Charles Marsh, of Woodstock, was admitted to the bar, and practiced in Woodstock a number of years. He moved from Woodstock to Montpelier in 1809 (not in 1810 as stated in all printed notices that I have seen), for his family was in Woodstock April 9 of that year, and he was " warned out " of Montpelier the 15th of November following. He was a scholarly man and was the author of a 3-vol. " Digested Index to the Modern Reports," published at Montpelier in 1814, which received the approval of James Kent and Judge Parker. The "proprietors" of this book were Nicholas Baylies, Samuel Prentiss, Jr., and James H. Langdon. Mr. Baylies also published a theological work on free agency. He was elected state's attorney in 1813, 1814, and 1825, and a judge of the Supreme Court in 1831, 1832, and 1833. He removed to Lyndon about 1835, where he lived with his son-in-law, George C. Cahoon, and practiced law till his death, August 17, 1847. He was buried in Montpelier, August 22, 1847. Mr. Baylies was probably seventy-nine years of age at his death, though some authorities make him eighty-two and others only seventy five. He argued a case in the Supreme Court here but a few months before his death. He married Mary Ripley, daughter of Prof. Sylvanus Ripley and granddaughter of President Eleazer Wheelock. She was a sister of Gen. Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, who commanded at Lundy's Lane after Scott was wounded. Mr. Baylies's only daughter, Mary Ripley Baylies, married George C. Cahoon, of Lyndon, October 27, 1825. His son, Horatio N. Baylies, was long a merchant in Montpelier and died in Louisiana. Another son was a lawyer of whom I am enabled, by a letter from Ripley N. Baylies, to give the following notice :-

Nicholas Baylies, Jr., of Montpelier, son of Judge Baylies, was born at Woodstock, April 9, 1809 ; fitted for college at Montpelier and at Fryeburgh, Maine ; graduated from the University of Vermont in 1827, studied law in

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Montpelier, and was admitted to the bar in 1829. I do not find the record of this admission, but do find that he was admitted to the Supreme Court bar of this county, March term, 1832. He went, in the fall of 1829, to New York city, and studied further with Joseph Blunt until the summer of 1830, when, under the advice of his physician, he returned to Vermont. He prac- ticed in Johnson about a year, and then came to Montpelier and went into. partnership with J. P. Miller. In 1833 he accompanied his brother to Southern Brazil, but returned in 1834, and resumed practice in Montpelier till the fall of 1836, when he went to Washington, where he met his uncle, Gen. E. W. Ripley, then a member of Congress from Louisiana. Acting on his uncle's advice he went to Louisiana and located at Greensburgh in St. Helena. Parish. He was elected a member of the Louisiana legislature in 1840 and. 1842. In 1842 he married Harriet Cahoon, daughter of Hon. William. Cahoon, of Lyndon, Vt. From 1843 he was for ten years either district. attorney or district judge of the Eighth Judicial District of Louisiana. In 1853 he moved to Greggsville, Ill., and in 1858 to Polk county, Iowa, having. bought lands near Des Moines. He was elected a member of the Iowa leg- islature in 1863. In August, 1885, he and his wife were living in Des Moines,. and their eight children were also all living.

Ripley N. Baylies, son of Nicholas, Jr., furnished me with the above in -- formation as to his father, and was himself, in August, 1885, a lawyer prac- ticing in Des Moines, Iowa.

ROGER GRISWOLD BULKLEY, sometime of Montpelier, Duxbury, and More- town, had cases on the docket of Jefferson county at its organization, and had before that lived in Montpelier though he then resided in Williamstown. He was born in Colchester, Conn., May 6, 1786, studied for a time at Yale, and began studying law in Connecticut ; in 1806 or 1807 he came to Mont- pelier and studied with his uncle, Charles Bulkeley. He was admitted to Orleans County bar, August 8, 1809; the same year he married a Miss. Taylor, daughter of Daniel Taylor, of Berlin, and began practicing in Will- iamstown. He enlisted and served throughout the War of 1812, and after the war lived in Washington till 1817, when he moved to a farm in Duxbury,. near Moretown village. His name appears in the Registers as a lawyer in Duxbury as late as 1845, and as a lawyer in Moretown from 1851 to 1869 .. He lived in Moretown village for the last twenty-five or thirty years of his life, and died there February 2, 1872. Harry Bulkley and George Bulkley are his sons.

THE NEW MEMBERS OF THE EARLY BAR.

STEPHEN FREEMAN, of Barre, was the first attorney to be admitted in the- new county. On the docket of the June term, 1812, is this record : "At this term of the court Stephen Freeman, of Barre, in the county of Jefferson, was duly admitted and sworn as an attorney before this court. Attest, George - Rich, Clerk." Mr. Freeman's name appears in the Registers as a practicing.

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attorney in Barre till 1832. He, at one time, had something of a practice, but Denison Smith, Newell Kinsman, and L. B. Peck were too fast legal company for him to keep up with, and the last years of his life he was largely employed as a trial justice.

GUY J. A. HOLDING, of Waterbury, was admitted at the December term, 1812. He was in Montpelier November 15, 1809, for on that day he was "warned out " in company with Nicholas Baylies, Timothy Merrill, and others. He was also in Montpelier September 8, 1811, for on that day the intention of marriage of himself and Clarissa Jones, of Richmond, was pub- lished. His name appears in the Registers as a practicing attorney in Water- bury as late as 1815.

WILLIAM UPHAM, of Montpelier, was admitted to the Jefferson County bar, December term, 1812. He was born in Leicester, Mass., August 5, 1792. His father settled on a farm near Montpelier Center in 1802. William, when about fifteen years old, lost his right hand by getting it crushed in the machinery of a cider-mill. So he went to the academy in Montpelier and studied Latin and Greek with Rev. James Hobart, of Berlin, awhile. About 1809 he began studying law with Mr. Prentiss, and after his admission to the bar practiced in company with Mr. Baylies, and afterwards alone. He was town representative in 1827, 1828, and 1830, and was elected state's attorney in 1829. He was a famous jury lawyer and a man of very bright intellect and eloquent speech. He stumped the state for Harrison in 1840, and in 1842 was elected to the United States Senate, of which he was a member from March 4, 1843, to January 14, 1853, when he died of small-pox in Washing- ton after a ten days' illness. He married Sarah Keyes, who was born in Ashford, Conn., and was a sister of Mrs. Thomas Brooks, of Montpelier, the grandmother of Daniel Brooks, of the Vermont Brigade. Their children were William K., Charles C., and Sarah Sumner, wife of George Langdon, all now deceased ; and Mary Annette, their youngest daughter, now living in Montpelier.

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Gazetteer of Washington County, Vt., 1783-1889, Part 8

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