Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 114

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 842

USA > Vermont > Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont > Part 114

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LAWRENCE.

bers of this firm were young and inexper- ienced and had few acquaintances and their practice was mostly waiting and seeking em- ployment, Mr. Lawrence was induced to go to Quincy, Ill., and form a partnership with David 1 .. Hongh, son of Prof. John Hongh, .for many years of the faculty of Middlebury College. This partnership was soon termin- ated by the appointment of Mr. Hongh to the land agency of the Michigan and Illinois canal. Then Mr. Lawrence became the part- ner of the lon. Archie Williams, one of the leading attorneys of northwestern Illinois, with whom he continued until 1856. Dur-

CHARLES B. LAWRENCE.

ing this period the firm did a large and profitable business and Mr. Lawrence at- tained a high rank for learning, professional skill and ability, and for integrity and up- rightness of character.

In the meantime he had married Miss Margaret Marston, a young English lady, whose parents had become residents of Quincy. Being in poor health-a life-long sufferer with asthma-in 1856 he closed his business, and after attending as a delegate to the national convention that nominated John C. Fremont for the presidency, he spent a winter in Cuba and the two years following in Europe, and on his return to this country settled on a farm in Warren county, Ill., but was soon elected circuit judge of his circuit, in which position he showed such marked judicial qualities that he was soon elected one of the supreme judges of the

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state and served in that capacity for many years. As a judge his standing was one of the highest, for great powers of analysis, in- tegrity, uprightness and legal attainments. His opinions are characterized by clearness, close logic, perspicuity and force, and are models of their kind. He was regarded, both in and out of the state, as one of the strong- est and ablest jurists that ever sat on the Supreme Court bench of Illinois. On the closing of his judicial career, he resumed practice in Chicago, where it became large and profitable.

In the controversy for the presidency be- tween Tilden and Hayes, he was sent as one of the commissioners to Louisiana to investi- gate the results of the election in that state, and subsequently was much talked of as U. S. Senator from Illinois. He was originally a Democrat, but his residence in the South had convinced him of the evils and dangers of slavery, and he became thereafter a Republican.

In February, 1885, to avoid the inclem- ency of the weather on the lake, he started on a trip to reach the more genial climate of the South, but was overtaken by death at Decatur, Ala.

He had three children, two sons and a daughter. The eldest son and daughter died on reaching adult years, and in his life- time. The youngest son survived him, but died soon after his father's death, while a student in Yale College. His wife alone sur- vives, and is now residing in England.

LEE, JOHN STEBBINS, of Canton, N. Y., son of Eli and Rebekah (Stebbins) Lee, was born Sept. 23, 1820, at Vernon.

He was educated in the common schools and fitted for college in Deerfield, Shelburne Falls and Brattleboro ; entering Amherst Col- lege in 1841, he graduated with honors in 1845. He taught his first school when eighteen years of age at Guilford. From 1845 to 1847 he was principal of Mount Cæsar Seminary at Swanzey, N. H., and for two years principal of Melrose Seminary at West Brattleboro, and at the latter place was ordained to the Universalist ministry June 23, 1847. . He held brief pastorates in West Brattleboro, Lebanon, N. H., and Mont- pelier, where be became assistant editor of the Christian Repository, associated with Dr. Eli Ballou.

In March, 1852, he took charge of the Green Mountain Institute at South Wood- stock and labored there twenty-one terms in succession until 1857, when wearied with constant work he removed to Woodstock village. He served as pastor of South Wood- stock, Bridgewater and Woodstock parishes for seven years, and in April, 1859, he was called to take charge of the St. Lawrence

University at Canton, N. Y., where he has since resided. For nine years he was act- ing president of the collegiate department and college and in April, 1869, he was trans- ferred to the theological department and appointed professor of ecclesiastical history and biblical archæology which position he now holds ( 1894). For nearly fifty-five years he has been an able and successful teacher, passing through all grades from common schools to college.

JOHN STEBBINS LEE.

In July, 1868, seeking rest from his ardu- ous labors he obtained leave of absence and travelled extensively in England and on the Continent, Egypt and the Holy Land. His work and varied historical reading had pre- pared him to study intelligently classical scenes and Bible lands, historic and anti- quarian relics, and the results of his obser- vations were written out for several publi- cations while abroad. Upon his return, improved in health and mind, stored with valuable knowledge, he lectured upon his travels to large audiences in many states. In 1871 he published a work entitled, "Nature and Art in the Old World," and in 1877 another volume entitled, "Sacred Cities," devoted to biblical scenes. In ad- dition to these he has written many articles for the Ladies' Repository, the Universalist Quarterly and other journals.

In 1848 the degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by Amherst College, and in 1875

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MAARHIN.

1.VON.

the honorary degree of D. D., by Buchtel College, Akron, O.

Mr. Lee was married, Feb. 22, 1848, to Elmina Bennett, of Westmoreland, N. H. Sis children have been born to them : the eldest, Ida Ehnine, died in infancy ; the other five, Leslie Alexander, John Clarence, Frederic Schiller, Florence Josephine and Lulu Gertrude Lottie are living and all have taken up the profession of their father and ocenpy prominent positions.

1.YON, LUCIUS, was born in Vermont, but emigrated to Michigan when quite a young man; devoted himself for several years to the business of surveying the wild lands of the territory; was a delegate in Congress from that territory during the years 1833,-'34,-'35, and a senator in Congress from Michigan from 1836 to 1840, and a representative in Congress from 1843 to 1845. Ilis last public position was that of surveyor-general in the Northwest. Died at Detroit, September 25, 1851.

MARTIN, MOSES MELLEN, of Allegan, Mich., son of Deacon Moses and Almira (Dana) Martin, was born in Peacham, April 8, 1834. He inherits sterling qualities and sound judgment from a good stock of ances- tors, counting among them the Chamber- lains and Mellens of Hopkinton, Mass., his

MOSES MELLEN MARTIN.

great-grandfather, Samuel Chamberlain, hav- ing married Martha Mellen, daughter of Deacon Henry Mellen of that town. His grandparents, Ashbel and Lydia (Chamber- lain) Martin, were among the first settlers of Peacham, having built one of the first frame farm houses in the town.

Mr. Martin received the rudiments of his education in the country district where his father lived; he fitted for college at Peacham Academy and graduated from Mid-

dlebury College in 1861, and from the Prince- ton Theological Seminary in 1864. He was licensed to preach at Peacham by the Minis- terial Association of Caledonia county in May, 1864, and was ordained at Middletown where was his first pastorate in 1865. He entered upon home missionary work in Wis- consin the following year and has held pas- torates over Congregational churches in Prescott, and Mazomanie, Wis., and in Three Oaks, and Allegan, Mich., where now he is pastor of the First Congregational Church.

He has always taken a deep interest in educational matters, serving for many years as school inspector and in this capacity visit- ing schools, advising teachers and stimulat- ing pupils to make the most of themselves, to desire above everything good character. Through his influence the town library of Three Oaks grew to be one of the best in southwestern Michigan. In college he was from the first opposed to secret societies and allied himself with the Delta Upsilon frater- nitity the highest offices of which he held. He is an honorary member of the A. B. C. F. M. His Princeton classmates made him a life member of the Bible Society ; he received the title of Doctor of Divinity from Olivet College, Mich.

In the ministry his labors have been marked by great earnestness and excellent judgment so that although in every instance his charges, though at the outset unpromising, became, under his wise and able leadership, strong and flourishing churches ; and as an instance of the regard of his people, one of his churches, in rebuilding fifteen years after he left it, called him back to preach the dedica- tory sermon and surprised him with their beautiful " Martin memorial window." One of his most striking characteristics is extreme modesty, and every pastorate and every honor have been unsought. An honor which he greatly prizes was his election by ballot by the state association composed of between three and four hundred churches, to preach in Ann Arbor the opening sermon at one of the most important conventions during the

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MASON.

fifty years of Congregationalism in Michigan when the subject of state self-support was to be introduced and acted upon. One of the members of the body said the sermon, the subject of which was "Opportunity," presented the initial of all the intense and able discussions which followed. He was also appointed by the church at Peacham to deliver the historical address at its centen- nial celebration.

His great kindliness, geniality and ready wit make him a favorite in all social circles. His popularity, like that of Lord Mansfield, is "that which follows, not that which is run after.'

Mr. Martin was married Jan. 19, 1865, to Miss Laura A. Kellogg, who died in August, 1870. Mary Louise, the only child of this union, died in infancy. He was again mar- ried in October, 1871, to Margaret Johnston, daughter of Joseph Johnston, one of the pio- neers of Chicago, who died in 1878. He was married to his present wife, Mary, daughter of Alva W. and Lydia (Atwood) Pierce, of Londonderry, in June, 1880. Of this union are four children : Pauline, Persis Lydia, Mellen Chamberlain, and Blanche Elizabeth.

MASON, GEORGE, of Washington, D. C., son of Ephraim Hubbard and Pru- dence (Hills) Mason, was born in Putney, Dec. 31, 1831. His parents removed to Brookline in 1832, where they resided for more than thirty years, and where his father died, having been a prominent man in the town which he represented in the Legisla- tures of 1835 and 1836. His grandfather, Anthony Mason, moved to Brookline from Warren, R. I., in 1796. He married Elizabeth Temple, of Dummerston, and raised a large family, of whom Ephraim Hubbard was the eldest. The maternal grandfather of George Mason, Samuel Hills, was a soldier in the Continental army in the war of the Revolu- tion. He was taken prisoner at Quebec and paroled, but never exchanged. His two brothers, Nathaniel and William, were also sodiers during the Revolution. Their father, Nathaniel, lived in Swanzey, N. H., where he and his wife were much esteemed. The Mason family were of English descent.

George Mason grew up very much like other Vermont boys of fifty years ago, at- tending school a few months in summer and in winter, and working on his father's farm in spring and autumn. He thus, in boy- hood, acquired some knowledge of the ele- ments of an English education and of farming. As he grew older he became ambitious of obtaining a more liberal education, and he succeeded without assistance in mastering the principles of algebra and surveying, while with assistance of Prof. L. F. Ward, at

MASON.

Saxton's River and at Westminster, he ac- quired such knowledge of other branches as was necessary for admission to Vermont University. He graduated from the univer- sity in the class of 1858, and has since received the honorary degree of A. M. from his alma mater. During his four years at the university and even before that time he earned a great part of the means to pay his bills by teaching for a part of each year, and after graduation he continued to teach for several years, principally in Worcester county, Mass.

GEORGE MASON,

In 1862, June II, he married Josephine Augusta, daughter of Col. Moses and Louisa (Pitts) Buffum of Oxford, Mass. Of this marriage he has two sons : H. Harry Buffum, and George Ernest.

In 1859 he was made a Master Mason, in Putney. In 1860 he became a charter mem- ber of the Oxford Lodge in Massachusetts, and its first worshipful master. He was sub- sequently re-elected and installed by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. In 1863 he removed to Washington, D. C., where he received an appointment in the office of the paymaster general of the army. and served for five years, reading law meanwhile, and graduating from the law department of Col- umbia College with the degree of LL. B. He was admitted, on graduation, to the bar of the District Supreme Court, and practiced his profession for some years, making a specialty of bankruptcy law. He subse-

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MEIGS.

quently withdrew from practice and engaged in the real estate business. In 1869 he was elected a member of the school board of Washington, D. C., serving one year.

In 1889 he visited Europe with his family, and spent the summer of that year in Paris at the Exposition. He afterwards traveled in Great Britain and on the Continent, visit- ing several European countries, witnessing the celebrated passion play at Ober Ammer- gau, and spending some time in Munich, Vienna and other capital cities, viewing their treasures of art and relies of antiquity, and studying the social and industrial con- ditions of the people as developed under their varions political institutions. In the winter of 1890 he returned to his native land, a more appreciative and ardent lover of its free institutions.

Republican in politics, his sympathies are with and for the race which owes its en- franchisement to that party, and with the struggling masses rather than with the fa- vored few.

MEIGS, HENRY B., of Baltimore, Md., son of Captain Luther, and grandson of Benjamin (pioneers of that town), was born in Highgate, Nov. 23, 1844.

Remote from the district schools of the locality, his education was very limited, but upon attaining the years of manhood he became a great reader of current literature and substantial standard works almost ex- clusively of history, biography and travel, and has pursued all through life a self- directed course of study and reading of standard and classical authors. Thus stor- ing his memory with facts that have uncon- sciously but admirably fitted him for a life of usefulness.

In 1862 he enlisted as a private soldier in Co. K, 13th Vt. Vols., Col. F. V. Randall commanding, and was with his command and in the ranks until the mustering out of the regiment, and participated in all of the varying experiences of his regiment during its service, including the march to and the battle of Gettysburg.

Upon the conclusion of the war, Captain Meigs emigrated to the wilds of the far West and for six years was engaged in ranching, merchandising, gold-mining and freighting across the plains in the days when Indians were numerous and railroads were unknown in that country. In 1871 he returned east and engaged in the manufacture of lime, and merchandising until 1874 in northern New York.

In politics Captain Meigs has never been interested as an active partisan, with the single exception of having been a member of the city council of Julesburg, Col., in 1867. While residing in northern New

York, Captain Meigs organized the first G. A. R. Post ( William D. Brennan ) at Malone, in Franklin county, and was its commander five successive terms, during which time the post grew to be the largest in all northern New York. While in command of his own post, he was continuously serving in some capacity upon the staff of the department commander, or of the commander-in-chief, and during those years organized nine posts and personally mustered into the Grand Army more than one thousand members. When a young man he became identified with the Baptist denomination and has always been actively interested in the church of his choice.

HENRY B. MEIGS.

Special work in life requires special pre- paration, and sometimes the training begins very early. It would seem so in the case of Captain Meigs, whose early life and sur- roundings admirably fitted him for the work he was to accomplish in the general field of life insurance. In 1876 Captain Meigs adopted life insurance as his life's work, and has since followed it with increasing success, first in New York and later in Baltimore until the present time.

He went to Baltimore to take charge of the Southeastern department of the Etna Life Insurance Co., in 1888, and the success of this department has been phenomenal. From a small beginning he has built up one of the largest general agencies on the con- tinent, the territory comprising the states of

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MERRIFIELD.

Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware and District of Columbia. By his own endeavors he has steadily pushed to the front and now stands among the foremost in his chosen profession. Is a member of the executive committee, Baltimore Life Under- writers Association, and is vice-president of the National Association of Life Under- writers.

It is a treat to be in company with Cap- tain Meigs when he is in a reminiscent mood ; from his memory flows a stream of humorous stories and interesting personal history which entertain, instruct and benefit.

In 1872 Captain Meigs was married to Alvira, daughter of Abijah Stanley of Ban- gor, N. Y.

MERRIFIELD, WEBSTER, of Grand Forks, N. D., son of John A. and Louisa W. Merrifield, was born at Newfane, July 27, 1852.

He attended the common schools at Will- iamsville, the Powers Institute at Bernards- ton, Mass., the Wilbraham ( Mass.) Aca- demy and graduated with the degree of B. A. at Yale College in class of 1877. From 1 877 to 1879 he was a teacher in a private school at Newburgh, N. Y. In 1879 he went to North Dakota with expectation of remain- ing there permanently and opened up a farm, while reading law in the office of a local attorney, but in the fall returned to New Haven and accepted a position on the faculty of Yale College.

In the early days of the territory he served as postmaster and justice of the peace. The State University of North Dakota, at Grand Forks, has been the scene of his great work. There he was professor of Greek and Latin from 1884 to 1891, and subsequently, pro- fessor of political and social science. In 1891 he became president of the University. By nature, by his literary attainments and by practical business experience, President Mer- rifield is eminently qualified for the duties of this responsible position. He is naturally keen, active and earnest and broadened by collegiate training and years of study and foreign travel. He has been connected with the University from its start and has always been an influential member of the faculty. The uniform success of the pupils in his classes long since demonstrated his posses- sion of rare faculties as an instructor, while his active engagement in business pursuits in- sures him the possession of practical ideas, well adapted to the needs of the University.

President Merrifield is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society; the American Oriental Society, as well as various other learned societies. Yale College conferred the honorary degree of M. A. upon him in 1892.

MILLARD.

MILLARD, STEPHEN C., of Bingham- ton, N. Y., was born at Stamford, Jan. 14, 1841 ; was educated at Williams College, graduating in the class of 1865 ; read law at Harvard Law School, and in the office of Pingree & Baker, Pittsfield, Mass., and was admitted to the bar of the state of New York in May, 1867, at Binghamton ; has been in constant practice of the law at Bing- hamton from date of his admission to the bar to the present time; was chairman of the Republican county commission 1872- '79, and was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress as a Republican ; was re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress.

MOORE, HEMAN ALLEN, was born in Plainfield in 1810 ; studied law in Rochester, N. Y. ; removed to Columbus, O .; obtained distinction as a lawyer ; was appointed ad- jutant-general of the state militia, and was a representative in Congress from that state from 1843 to the time of his death, which occurred in Columbus, April 3, 1844.

MORTON, LEVI PARSONS, LL. D., ex-Vice President of the United States, the youngest son of the late Rev. Daniel Oliver Morton, was born at Shoreham, May 16, 1824. He is a direct descendant of George Morton, of Bawtry, Yorkshire, Eng., one of the Pilgrim Fathers who landed at Plymouth, Mass., from the ship Ann, in 1623. The Rev. Mr. Morton, his father, was one of those noble, old-fashioned, deep-thinking New England clergymen, who did God's work as it came to his hand in pious earnest- ness ; and, although he had a salary of only six hundred a year, he managed to give all his children, six in number, a good education. The subject of this sketch was named after his mother's brother, the Rev. Levi Parsons, a man of strong intellectual ability, who was the first American missionary that went to Palestine, where he served with great zeal.

Mr. Morton's early life differed little from that of most American boys who have risen to fame and fortune. Having finished his education at the academy in his native place, he decided on adopting a mercantile career, and at the age of twenty he engaged in busi- ness at Hanover, N. H., where he remained about five years. In 1849 he removed to Boston and entered the house of James M. Beebe & Co., as a clerk. He was ad- mitted to partnership at the same time that Mr. Morgan, the successor of George Pea- body & Co. of London, joined the firm. In 1 854 he removed to New York and established the dry goods commission house of Morton & Grinnell. In 1863 he engaged in the banking business, founding the now well- known house of Morton, Bliss & Co., of New York, and in company with Sir John Rose,

San Y. Martin

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MORTON.

formerly finance minister of Canada, that of Morton, Rose & Co., of London, England. After engaging in the business of banking, Mr. Morton carefully studied the financial transactions of the government, and his firm was one of the several syndicates which so successfully funded the national debt and made resumption of specie payment possible at the date fixed by law. Morton, Rose & Co., of London, were the first fiscal agents of the United States government from 1873 un- til 1884, and reappointed in 1889. Mr. Morton's firms were also active in the syndi- cates that negotiated the United States bonds, and in the payment of the Geneva award of $15,500,000 and the Halifax fishery award of $5,500,000.

Mr. Morton was appointed by President Hayes, honorary commissioner of the United States to the Paris Exhibition in 1878, and in the same year was elected to the Forty-sixth Congress from " Murray Hill" (eleventh) District, in New York, as a Re- publican, receiving 14,078 votes against 7,060 votes for his opponent, a Tammany Democrat. He was again returned in 1880, from the same district, by a largely increased vote. Mr. Morton entered Congress, it is said, as a diversion, but he found the office to be one of dignity and responsibility if conscientiously administered. He was elected from the wealthiest district in the United States, and devoted himself with scrupulous attention to the interests of his constituents and to the affairs of the nation at large. No man in Congress led a busier life. His special aptitude for finance natur- ally led him to pay particular attention to this department of legislation, and his speeches in the House on this subject were notable for their straightforward, plain, busi- nesslike presentation of facts and for the speaker's logical inferences based thereon. Personally he was one of the most popular men in Congress. Among its members, comprising men of all parties and profes- sions and from every walk in life, he had no personal enemies. No suspicion of jobbery ever attached to his name. Possessed of ample means and culture, he stood in our halls of legislation a typical American, the blending of the patriot, the gentleman, and the business man.

Fond of society and the good things and pleasures of life, he yet faithfully devoted himself to his duties first, attaching no less importance to his public demands than to his private business. Indeed, he labored as diligently in Congress as if his support de- pended upon it. At the time of the present- ation of the so-called " Warner Silver Bill" in Congress, when the bullion value of the silver dollar was about eighty-five cents, he took strong grounds against its unlimited

coinage and the unlimited issue of silver cer- tificates against silver bullion, and in a speech delivered on May 15, 1879, declared that he regarded the measure as a virtual repudiation of one-sixth part of all indebted- ness, public and private, and could only designate it as a "bill for the relief of the owners of silver mines and silver bullion of the United States and Europe." He advo- cated in a subsequent speech a suspension of the coinage of silver until some action could be taken jointly with European governments, which, in his opinion, would alone enable the United States to maintain a double, or gold and silver standard. Notable among his other Congressional speeches was one on " Fish and Fish Culture, Its Importance to the Industries and Wealth of the Nation," and also on " Immigration, Its National Char- acter and Importance to the Industries and Development of the Country." In the latter he took strong ground in favor of the en- couragement of immigration, and advocated the passage of a uniform national law for the protection of immigrants coming to our shores.

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Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 114

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896 Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 842

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 842