Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol I, Part 26

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1032

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Mr. Hickok was married January 16, 1875, to Miss Harriet Whiting, who was born at St. Albans, Vermont, a daughter of Enoch B. Whit- ing, and granddaughter of Enoch Whiting. Enoch B. Whiting was born in Amherst, Massa- chusetts, February 26, 1816. Coming to Ver- mont as a young man, he was for thirty years ed- itor of the Saint Albans Messenger, making it one of the leading papers of the state. He died in Burlington, April 3, 1898. He married Mary 1 .. Fairchild, who was born in Georgia, Vermont, March 21, 1817, a daughter of Philo Fairchild, who was born in Arlington, Vermont, January 2, 1788, and a lineal descendant of Thomas Fair- child, one of the original proprietors of Stratford, Connecticut, and its first magistrate. Stephen Fairchild, the great-great-grandfather of Mrs. Hickok, born in 1725, married Lillian Beardsley, and removed in 1765 to Arlington, Vermont, la- ter, with his three sons, Stephen, Jr., Daniel and Joel, being the first settler of Georgia, Vermont. Stephen Fairchild and his son Stephen, Jr., were soldier in the Revolutionary war, and were both taken prisoners. The line of descent was contin- ued through Stephen Fairchild, Jr., father of Joel Fairchild, who was the paternal grandfather of Mrs. Hickok. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Hickok seven children were born, namely: Con- stance ; Laura Platt, who died in childhood ; Mary Whiting: Kate Morton; Harriet Elinor ; Doro- thy; and Marjorie. Mr. Hickok passed away April 2, 1898.

HIRAM AUGUSTUS HUSE.

Hiram Augustus Huse was born at Randolph, Vermont, January 17, 1843 ; parents Hiram Syl- vester Huse, a man of great mental power and absolutely honest character, and Emily Morgan ( Blodgett) Huse, a woman of infinite self-sac- rifice, charity and simple goodness; his family

moved to Wisconsin in 18445; he had his home there until 1868; was educated in a district school, at Willard Seminary in Watertown, Wisconsin, at a normal school in Dixon, Illinois, and him- self was a teacher in elementary schools for sev- eral termis prior to 1860; completed his second- ary education at Randolph, Vermont, in the Orange County Grammar School; entered Dart- mouth College in 1861, suspending study there to serve as a private in the Civil War ; enlisted, August 19, 1862, in Company F, Twelfth Regi- ment, Vermont Volunteers; mustered out with honor July 14, 1863, at the close of the Gettys- burg campaign; returned to Hanover, New Hampshire, and graduated from Dartmouth in the class of 1865 : entered the law school at Albany, New York, and graduated therefrom in 1867 ; re- turned to Vermont in 1868, and, until 1872, practiced law at Randolph as a member of the Or- ange County Bar ; during part of said time served as assistant principal of the State Normal School ; moved to Montpelier, Vermont, his final and per- manent residence, in 1872, entering the law office of Heaton & Reed; after initial work at the State Library, became State Librarian in 1873, and so remained during life; for about a decade fol- lowing 1873 helped edit The Green Mountain Freeman; was in law partnership with William A. Lord, 1876-8; represented Montpelier in the general assembly in 1878; was state's attorney for Washington County in 1882-4; was in law partnership with Clarence H. Pitkin during 1883-90; formed, in 1890, a lasting partnership with William P. Dillingham, United States Sena- tor, and Fred A. Howland, Secretary of State ; was the general counsel of the National Life In- surance Company during the four years next preceding his death ; was a member of the Ver- mont Society, Sons of American Revolution, of Brooks Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of Aurora Lodge, Free & Accepted Masons, of the trustees of Hcaton Hospital and the Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company, all of Mont- pelier ; was always a prolific and authoritative writer on historical and biographical subjects per- taining to Vermont, articles from his pen ap- pearing everywhere; was always a leading citi- zen, counsellor and leader in local and state affairs, being not only one of the best known but one of the most constructive influences in

Hiram A House,

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Vermont; true worth and absolute integrity characterized everything he was and did through- out his whole life; was married in Randolph, Vermont, January 30, 1872, to Miss Harriet Olivia, daughter of Melzar and Eunice Harriet (Smith) Woodbury; his wife and their two children survive, Harriet Emily (wife of Carlos C. Bancroft, of Montpelier), and Ray Woodbury Huse, of the same city ; died September 23, 1902, at Williamstown, Vermont ; rests, truly loved, honorably mourned and remembered, in Green Mount Cemetery, by the stream and near the peo- ple whom he loved and served with all his great ability and virtue for thirty years, a great, true- hearted man.

There is a picture of this man in my study. When it meets the eye, it invariably inspires but one thought, that it represents a character, which, when measured by all the standards of those vir- tues which distinguish the most eminent and de- serving biographies, is not surpassed in quality by any, and whose owner attained to a less con- spicious position in human affairs for no other reason save that of opportunity. He spent his life and did his work amid surroundings which contributed not much to personal opportunity but which, for all that, enabled him to exemplify in his life the best there is in a true gentleman, scholar, and man of affairs. The work he did was itself actually great, but the character and soul of the man surpassed his mere work, and of these I wish to speak.

Mr. Huse always distinguished between the man of memory and the man of trained mind. The latter he had in a remarkable degree, in- deed he may be said to have trained and dis- ciplined a naturally strong mind by half a century of the most assiduous study and work. Men in- stinctively felt before him that they stood in the presence of a strong will, a comprehensive mind, a learned man and an absolutely impartial and able judge. This made him influential. At the same time, his tireless and ubiquitous read- ings, sustained by a most retentive memory, en- abled him to extend his reach in a great many directions. and, thereafter, as circumstances of business or of conversation might require, he was able to and he actually did at all times, disclose facts, data and conclusions therefrom in the most

marvelous abundance. He was at once a good judge of the value of a fact and of the value of its use, although, of course, he varied in the de- gree of its effective use at different times. This combination in him of a good memory and a trained mind, joined with a love for humanity and directed to the acquisition and the expression of the truth, gave him his power. It resulted in universal respect for him and his opinions, an achievement of essential character and a truly successful life.

Mr. Huse, like all his contemporaries, had in- finite pride in his native state, but, mainly and especially, I think, because its people had con- tributed in such conspicuous manner to the great events and progress of the United States. He was somewhat cosmopolitan, at least broad enough not to limit his interests and affections to the state alone. They reached out to and took firm grasp on a profound love of the nation as a whole, and it was always pleasing to him to note progress and prosperity in every section of the United States. In these respects he was not a partisan, and no mere trimmer either. It was said that there was in him a strain of Indian blood. This is not at all confirmed, but might have been sustained as a fact, if consideration was given to the strength of his face, his great shaggy head, his clear-cut profile, his searching eye and the dignity of his presence. He had the love of the Western Continent in his veins, however : but always paramount was his own country, its insti- tutions, its great history, its powerful people, its illimitable wealth. To his mind the United States leapt into quick comparison with old Rome and still more ancient Greece in their prime and with the more modern European dynasties. In such comparisons the free institutions of his native land, founded on the political equality of men and their rights to independent thought and action, gave him the utmost satisfaction and exalted his own attitude toward public affairs.

He was a continuous and careful student of his country's history and, in fact, a student al- ways. To spend several days in fixing a single fact was with him a pastime. Perhaps he did not always care so much for the fact as for honesty and perfection of method in its pursuit. Honest intent and a true result, constituted for him the major share of compensation in all effort.

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In this respect he was singularly honest. And he made nice distinctions, also, holding gossipy trifles about men and women in derogation, and insisting that their large acts and prime motives should define their character. He disposed of events in like manner, detesting any act by which a foible of conduct or an accident of detail was made to spot the character of a great man or a great event. Nothing was too humble to escape his study. History, science, theology, politics, law, the state, news, editorial, trade statistics, reviews, litera- ture, everything in which the brain of man ex- pressed its activity, interested him. Not with re- gard to any order of precedence, however, except that such subjects interested him most which most interested others. And so it was that even strangers, as well as friends, could always com- mand his great amount of information on all subjects and, also, his special ability for research in bringing light to matters on which information was sought. The story is not wanting that he would even drop the practice of law for a day, in order, as the librarian of the people, to spend that time in examination and study of some his- toric or literary fact. This free and constant use of himself to help others to knowledge and correct opinions was one of Mr. Huse's greatest attributes and moulded his life into one of special service to his times. No one takes his place in that regard. If he had a fault at all, and that may be referred to here, as well as elsewhere, it was only in the use or manner and not in the quality and extent of his information. Some- times it seemed as if the great knowledge that he had was badly or illy deranged. At least the confused and involved manner in which he ex- pressed himself at such times was indicative of that. He seemed on such rare occasions to be oppressed by his own wealth of ideas and hardly able to arrange and present them clearly, losing, so to speak, the control and direction of their count. This was never true of his writings, par- ticularly when done by his own hand, his style being always perspicuous and his language most forceful and select. And, indeed, this was also true, particularly when roused, of most of his arguments and speeches, which would clearly lay down their premises, logically and incontroverti- bly proceed with their middle terms and climax up to a positive conclusion, which would strike

its hearers as something fixed and established, not by mere declaration, but by qualified and sus- tained reasoning. He deserved the great repu- tation which he had for scholarship throughout the state.

I do not undertake to judge him as a lawyer. In that thing, which was his profession, his work was the mixed and varied effort of the country squire. Being a correct as well as a right thinker he naturally enjoyed, admired and honored the profession of the law. Being a humanitarian, no client, however humble, was refused his aid. Being an honest man, he worked within the limits which pure honesty exacts. He was said to be by his associates the ablest lawyer in active prac- tice at his bar. A laymen, acquainted with his abilities in other directions, would be prepared to accept this statement. For it was certainly true that Mr. Huse had great talent and exact train- ing, and to these he added the rule of conduct in his professional work of expressing no opinion without thorough study of the subject. I think, however, that his best work as a lawyer is less written in court records than on the statutes of his state, and was less often brought to final issue before judge and jury than carefully perfected and applied within the sanctity of his own office. He joined the services of the lawyer, the jury and the judge in all of his work, and concluded that service in counsel and in adjustment of the cause more frequently out of court than in. He was a legitimate influence in the law, and, in his own town and county and, to some extent, in the state, stood as a faculty of law. His aid in the prepa- ration of pleadings and his counsel to others in the profession was very extensive, and was more generally bestowed without than with gratuity. His instructions traveled. Therefore he taught others and helped them on in their professional careers. He constantly advised the use of equity. To so act over a long term of years was to prove himself a master in law, preferring what was just to what was the law, when equity and law were in conflict. The doctorate degree would have fitted him. That it was not conferred is merely a proof that the universities have not yet come to distinguish between mere publicity and strong, silent work. Mr. Huse, like natural laws, worked quietly, influencing his professional associates by example. Perhaps nothing truer

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or better can be said of his work in law than that he always aimed to do what was right, recog- nizing that men and things were not perfect and that their thoughts and relationships could not always be exact. That was why he stood ready to compromise difficulties instead of propagating them, and was always prepared to counsel an amicable adjustment of all disputes. If, how- ever, this proved impossible, no man would fight harder, hit more direct, and maintain the action longer and out of more ample resources through his great knowledge of the law and of practice than Mr. Huse, and no client in that case would have a more earnest, more loyal or more skillful support. He believed, however, that ability and honesty were pretty nearly synonymous in law, in business, in scholarship and in action. That was why he admired Abraham Lincoln so profoundly above all other public men of his day, and caused him to make nice discriminations in his friend- ships for men.

He was, further, a good associate, prepared to pass over the defects in others and especially to recognize and publish their virtues. His partners in law, Lord, Pitkin, Dillingham, Howland, all had always his entire confidence and commendation. He respected their opinions, testing same by checks of his own. He never claimed what was not his, referring here to ideas, opinions, plans or even expressions of thought. He was as honest in handling other people's ideas as their money, and as anxious to account for one as the other. He was no plagiarist, but took delight in pushing other men to the front, in court, in public meeting and on the rostrum. It was an exper- ience of joy and satisfaction to observe the anxiety with which he followed his student's first case and his pride in the success of the man, the lawyer and the friend. He made a good nomi- nator but a poor nominee, much preferring to place others than to seek a place for himself. This normal attitude of mind, such was the generous, whole-souled nature of Mr. Huse, made it natural for him to regard his associate as an able lawyer, his friend as a tactful politician, his comrade as an entertaining friend, his chance acquaintance as a man of merit, and his fellow director as an able man of affairs. This was by no means all optimism or mere makeshift policy, but an honest recognition of the law that most

men have merit, and that it is right to concede this rather than to practice a pernicious criticism of others upon the theory that their loss may signify the chance of some 'fragment of gain for oneself. He demonstrated his tendency in this respect by his readiness to accept amendment to his motions, although he would always fight and fight well for any matter in which he thought himself unqualifiedly right. He was great enough, however, to give the benefit of any doubt to his opponent in all debate or in any transaction, and nothing better than this can be said of any man to his more lasting credit and honor. He was fond of saying that "the man stands above the dollar." I have read this or neard it somewhere else and before he used it, but from Mr. Huse it always came with the force of a command or a law. His own necds were few in terms of dollars ; in terms of the head and the heart they were large and filled only by books, family and friends. He was compelled to thought and action in local and state affairs. This was apparently his sole excuse for being in politics and keeping out of office ; but, no matter where he was, his motives and his acts were always honest and able, so that his death created a pro- found and universal public as well as private regret.

It would be injustice to Mr. Huse to omit mention of his great love of family, father and mother and of the old places in Randolph and Wisconsin. The places where he lived at any time became sacred to him, wherever they were. The line he trod on picket duty in war times be- came a part of liis recoverable memory. The spot where he buried his dog he revisited again. In like manner he clung to his esteem for men with whom he was associated, and was exceed- ingly slow to discontinue an old friend. No case of his having done so even recurs to mind. It is difficult to designate this characteristic. but, for the want of a better term. it may be called cam- araderie in its best manifestations. To him it sig- nified personal loyalty, filial duty, local affection and good faith. It enabled him to be tenderly true to ail the associations of childhood. home, school, college and town, and to all the people whom he came to know and who came to know him in all these places during life. It sanctified his friendship and enabled him to win quick and

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hold fast innumerable acquaintanceships. He pre- ferred the loss of a business chance to the sacri- fee of any sort of obligation due to association. Did he practice this virtue? Always, and it explains exactly why his fellow citizens held him in such great esteem and his death created a vacancy which no one can fill.

It was said of Mr. Huse that he had no particular regard for money. This imust be so, or some part, at least, of what has already been said of him cannot be so. He seldom thought of money-not that this was an entire virtue ; it was a characteristic. Men cannot always do some other things well and at the same time accumulate gold. This was true of Webster, and it is said that Emerson lost his savings on railroad stocks and had his boy put through college and his home restored by friends. Why not? He will, for all that, outlive the other New England writers and , alone survive the provincialism of his time and place. When Mr. Huse returned to his Maker, whom he trusted and loved, the good was not all gone. People by the hundreds will retain and take courage from the example of his noble life, and young men and associates in law will con- tinue to feel the inspiration and direction of both his method and his thought. The curious fact was that our people hardly knew what their loss was until sudden death snapped the thread of his mortal 'life. It was like turning a useful stream from their doors. His services in law were probably never compensated for by half, but it is certain that his public services always were, yet only and always through the pleasure which the consciousness of their performance gave him as an act of duty to the state.

It may be that this estimate does not do jus- tice to Mr. Huse. It is founded, however, upon a very long and most intimate acquaintance with him and his acts, and is conceived in the sole de- sire to record an honest impression of a very honest man, whose success in life was truly great, truly honorable and truly earned.

Jos. A. DE BOER.

H. P. S. BOARDMAN, M. D.

Dr. Harland Page Smith Boardman is one of the most successful physicians and surgeons of Montpelier, Vermont, and a prominent resident

of that city. He has much natural ability, but is withal a close student and believes thoroughly in the maxim "there is no excellence without labor." Ilis devotion to the duties of his pro- fession, therefore, combined with a compre- hensive understanding of the principles of the science of medicine, has made him a most suc- cessful and able practitioner, whose prominence is well deserved.

Dr. Boardman was born in Middlebury. this state, October 26, 1850, and is a lineal descendant of Timothy Boardman, who came to Vermont from Connecticut at a very carly day and cleared and improved a farm at what is known as Board- man Hill, West Rutland. He served in the navy during the Revolutionary war, fighting valiantly for the freedom of the colonies. His son, Timothy Boardman, the Doctor's grandfather, took up arms against the mother country in the second war with England, in 1812. He was born in Rutland and followed farming throughout life. In carly manhood he married Sally Tupper, and to them were born six children, namely : Darius, Timothy, Hannah, Louisa, Norman W., and Sarah Ann, who died at the age of twenty- three years. The father of this family died in 1871, and his wife passed away at the age of forty-four years. .

Timothy Boardman (third of the name). the father of Dr. Boardman, was born on the 2nd of March, 1818, and made farming his life occupa- tion. He wedded Miss Mary P. Smith, a daugh- ter of Jonathan and Nancy (Pierce) Smith, of Chester, Vermont, and by this union two children were born, but the only daughter, Mary Nancy, died at the age of three years. The mother died in 1890, and the father now makes his home with the Doctor. He is an active and earnest member of the Congregational church, to which his wife also belonged.

Dr. Boardman received his literary education at Middlebury College, where he was graduated in the class of 1874, and then began his prepara- tion for his chosen profession, attending lectures at the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital College at Cleveland, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1877, with the degree of M. D. He began practice at Cambridge, Vermont, where he spent one year, and in April, 1878, opened an office in Woodstock, this state, where he remained until

HS. Boardum Lu

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April, 1881. He was next at Ludlow until April, 1885, when he came to Montpelier, and has since successfully engaged in practice at this place. He has one of the most perfectly equipped offices for electrical treatnient in the United States. He is a close and thorough student, and in 1900 was graduated from the New York Electro- Therapeutics Clinic and Laboratory, of which M. A. Cleaves is dean. He is thoroughly up-to-date in his methods of treating all kinds of diseases. In this branch of medical science he is an en- thusiast and has built up a lucrative practice. During the year of 1902 he has effected some wonderful cures with the X-rays in inoperable cancers and malignant growths. Among the cases cured is one of tuberclous glands, one large epithelioma and one small one; one large double sarcoma of the head and face ; three cases of carcinoma of the breast and onc carcinoma of the nose. These growths were all from five to twenty years' standing, the youngest person being fifty-nine and the oldest eighty years of age. Dr. Boardinan is one of the most prominent and influential members of the Vermont State Homcopathic Medical Society, in which he has served as president, vice president and treasurer, and was chairman of the board for ten years.

On the 3d of June, 1880, Dr. Boardman was united in marriage with Miss Mary G. Griswold, a daughter of William B. Griswold, of Wisconsin, and by this union were born two children : Mary Adaline, born December 11, 1885; and Margaret G., who was born August 23, 1889, and died August 23, 1890. Fraternally Dr. Boardman is a Royal .Arch Mason, and politically is a stanch supporter of the Republican party. He is senior deacon in the Congregational church, with which he holds membership, and is a pleasant, genial gentleman who makes many friends and is held in high regard by all who know him.

EDWARD HUNGERFORD.

Edward Hungerford was born in Wolcottville (now Torrington), Connecticut, September 20, 1829, descended'on the side of both father and mother from New England colonial ancestry. His father, John Hungerford, born in Southing- ton, Connecticut, August 29, 1787, died in Wol- cottville, Connecticut, August 29, 1856, and came

in direct line from Thomas Hungerford. who appears in the records' of the town of Hartford, Connecticut, as having received, in the year 1639, an allotment of land in a distribution made at that time. From this Thomas Hungerford, who is supposed to have come from Thetford, in Nor- folk county, England, are descended most of the Hungerfords in this country. The family history in England runs back to the year 1160, and in- cludes several names among the nobility. The family seat was Farley Castle, in the Hants.

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Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol I, Part 26

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed Publication date: 1903 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1032

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1032