Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 25

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 25

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In 1858, he took formal leave of the bar, after fifty-six years of constant practice, ex- cept when called away by public duties, with the most brilliant success, and always as the acknowledged head. The banquet and toasts on this occasion at Newfane formed one of the most interesting annals of the Windham county bar. The sunset years that followed were indeed beautiful. He had been called a free thinker, because he was willing to read and to discuss can- didly all that was written on the great prob- lems of life, the works of the German infidels as well as the Scriptures whose thought and feeling had been interwoven with every fiber of his mind in childhood. He was a truth seeker always, but never a scoffer. "Theol-

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ogy" he once said "is the noblest profession, law is second to it." "My boy," he said to a pert fellow once, "never make sport of the religious worship of any seet, no true gentle- man will do it." Shortly before his death he remarked to a minister "As I grow older, my faith grows simpler ; I come nearer and nearer to the simple truth of salvation by Christ." A correspondent of a New York paper, who visited him about this the, wrote, "He was portly and florid, as if fed on roast beef and port ; but redeemed from the sensual by a massive, noble-formed head. Ile had a keen bright eye, which gave me at once a glance into that capacious brain. as I have sometimes peeped through the window of a conservatory and caught a vis- ion of rich masses of foliage and rare flowers. * * It is delightful to see this man in the green November of life, hale and hearty, ripened and mellowed, with all the juices of a kindly nature flowing in a full, strong cur- rent in his veins. Such a spectacle does one good ; we understand better the capac- ity and power of the human soul to enjoy and impart enjoyment."

He died at Westminster in March, 1867, at the old homestead where he had remained after bringing the remains of his fondly loved wife from Brattleboro, for interment in the family tomb in the August preceding. She was a daughter of Hon. Mark Richards, a woman of rare beauty of person, and had mingled in the politest society of the time, to whom he plighted troth when they were school boy and girl together and between whom love and devotion grew till at the age of eighty-four death separated them. There were four children of whom only two, Jona- than Dorr and Merah Ann, who afterwards married Judge Daniel Kellogg, survived until maturity.

Mr. Bradley with his rich imagination and vast stores of learning from English, French, German, Latin, Greek, Arabic and Hebrew literatures, his keen wit and wholesome nature, was a good deal of a poet and some of the scraps which he dashed off, notably "A Ballad of Judgment and Mercy," may fairly be counted among the gems of our litera- ture.

Rev. Pliney H. White in the estimate above quoted of him, says : "Williams may have equalled him as a lawyer, Collamer as a reasoner, Phelps as an orator and Marsh may be a peer in multifarious learning ; but neither of them, nor any other Vermonter, living or dead, who has come to my knowl- edge, has been at once lawyer, logician, orator and scholar to so eminent a degree. His personal presence was that of a remark- ble man."

And E. P. Walton says, "Rich in the wisdom that comes from learning, reflection

and intercourse with the ablest men of the country, he had also a ready wit and a large fund of anecdotes, so that in public ad- dresses or social converse he was charming."

Rev. J. F. Fairbanks, says " He possessed a wonderful memory, accompanied with rare conversational powers. His capacious mind seemed an inexhanstible reservoir of learn- ing, wit and wisdom, which poured forth in a full torrent from his powerful, yet melodi- ous voice, that would hold the delighted hearers entranced for hours."

J. DORR BRADLEY, was of the third gen- cration of this remarkable family, and by many good judges rated as the most brilliant intellectually of all, with the large practical

J. DORR BRADLEY.

talent of his grandfather, and the rich origin- ality of his father developed into positive genius. He held no public office higher than that of representative in the Legislature from Brattleboro, though he was several times the Democratic candidate for Congress from his district. Indeed, he had very little ambi- tion for official place which he could have readily commanded after the formation of the Republican party, of which he early be- came a member. He was also utterly without care for money. His tastes and desires were all intellectual ; the only acquisitions for which he cared were those of law, literature and science, with liberal enrichment from the humorous and the knowledge of contact with life.

Jonathan Dorr Bradley was born at West- minster in 1803, the son of William C.

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Bradley. He graduated from Yale, studied law in his father's office, began practice at Bellows Falls, but moved to Brattleboro about 1832. It was in 1856 that he repre- sented that town in the Legislature, and greatly distinguished himself in the debate over the new state house question. He was prominent in the Vermont and Massachu- setts R. R. enterprise, and was on the first board of directors of the company. Pro- fessionally, he stood for years admittedly at the head in this portion of the state, and one of the two or three leaders of the brilliant bar of Vermont. As a pure lawyer, a rea- soner from foundation principles, he was great and masterful, and added to that, in the words of the tribute of a committee at the session of the U. S. circuit court after his death, "his varied and elegant acquire- ments as a scholar, his general and attractive qualities as a man * professional labors en- riched by learning so complete, by wit so rare, and sense so full, and inspired always by so thorough an appreciation of what be- longed to the lawyer and the gentleman," it is not to be wondered that he won so large a fame. E. P. Walton says of him: "His reading was extensive and recherche, his memory was retentive, his style of conversa- tion was playful and captivating, and always appropriate to his theme, his perceptions were quick and vivid, his illustrations apt and beautiful, and his whole air and manner reminded us of the school of elder times in which he had his training." He was always fond of mechanical and scientific investiga- tions, and especially strong, of course, in those lines of law that were allied to these studies. He was facile in adapting himself to all grades of intellect, a keen judge of human nature, and so a jury advocate of tremendous power. Thousands are the anecdotes that still linger in local annals of his wit and readiness at repartee. Withal he was something of a poet and dashed off at different times some good specimens of verse, especially of a satirical kind.

He married at Bellows Falls, in 1829, Susan Crossman, who bore him four children : William C., a Harvard graduate in 185 1, now librarian at Brattleboro ; Richards, of Boston and Brattleboro ; Stephen Rowe of New York, and of the firm of Hall, Bradley & Co., exten- sive manufacturers of white lead ; and Arthur C., an Amherst graduate in 1876, and now of Newport, N. H., and who has won fortune by the genius of mechanics and scientific experiments which he inherited from his father.

Mr. Bradley died after three weeks of ill- ness from fever, in September, 1862.

RICH, CHARLES .- Congressman for ten years, was a thoroughly representative Ver-

monter in the first quarter of this century with its vigorous Democratic growth, healthy hard-working prosperity and beautiful home life. He was born in Warwick, Mass., Sept. 13, 1771, and came to Vermont with his father, Thomas, in 1787, going all the way to Shoreham on foot. Charles at the age of twenty-nine was elected representative from Shoreham to the Legislature and was re- elected eleven times. He served as county

judge six years. He was first elected to Congress in 1812, and constantly re-elected, except for the terni of 1815-'17, till 1825. He was there a member of practical useful- ness, a ready debater, well and quite widely informed, with a habit of thoroughly study- ing every subject that came before him, so constantly growing more active and promi- nent in service. He had only a limited education, attending school only three months when he was fifteen years old, his aid being required by his father in erecting mills, clearing land, etc., but he was always a great reader, especially of Addison's Spec- tators, had a retentive memory and a faculty of analysing and assimilating his informa- tion, and he early began to discipline his mind by committing his thoughts to writing. As a youth he was often called upon for ora- tions on public occasions. His mind was well balanced and considering his opportun- ities, a well trained one, his knowledge of human nature was penetrating, and his fine personal appearance and his open bland manners fitted him for the great popularity he so long enjoyed. He continued, along with his public duties, the mill business which his father established, and he took a cold from working in the water for several days on some repairs, and died from the con- sequences Oct. 15, 1824, aged fifty-three.

He wedded at the age of twenty a daugh- ter of Nicholas Wells, to whom he had been attached since childhood and toward whom he was a lover to his last day, and the affec- tion evidenced by his correspondence with her and with the children is inspiring for the depth and richness of life's possibilities which it shows. He commenced life with one cow, a pair of steers, six sheep and a few articles of furniture, on about forty-five acres of land which Mrs. Rich's father had given them, but by industry and prudence from this small beginning he became a very wealthy man.

OLIN, HENRY .- Both Lieutenant-Gov- ernor and congressman and a leader of the Jeffersonian Democrats to their long con- trol of the state, was born in Shaftsbury, May 6, 1768, the son of Justice and Sarah (Dwin- ell) Olin, and a nephew of the distinguished patriot, Gideon Olin. The family was a Rhode Island one. . Henry settled in Leices-

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ter in 1788 and it was there that he passed his active lite and won his distinction. He was chosen to the Legislature in 1799 and steadily re-elected, except four years, until 1825 and was elected to the council in 1820 and '21. This twenty-three years of legislative service was matched by a similar period on the bench. He was elected assist- ant judge of the county court in 1801, when only twenty three years old, and held the place eight years, then being chosen chief judge and serving for fifteen years more. In 18244 he was elected to Congress to fill the unexpired term of Charles Rich. He was chosen Lieutenant-Governor in 1827, and for the three years subsequently. His popularity was so great that he had the nearly unani- mous vote of his town for Governor in 1827. He was a member of the constitutional con- ventions of 1814, '22, and '28. He became a Whig after that party was formed and about that time retired from public life after nearly forty years of almost uninterrupted service.

He was undeniably a strong man-one of the "self-made," so called-winning his way upward, in spite of his limited early educa- tion, by his native wit, shrewdness and vigorous common sense. He was almost Lincolnlike in his exhaustless fund of stories and apt illustrative humor. He had a great unwieldy frame, but such was the sense of power that went with it that it is said, wher- ever he went, men, women and children would abandon any task to look at him. He mixed his Jeffersonian Democracy with zeal- ous Methodism, and of his nine children one, Stephen Olin, D. D., became a famous Methodist divine in the South, professor of belles lettres in Franklin College, Ga., presi- dent of Randolph, Macon and Wesleyan Colleges, and author of "Travels in Holy Land " and other books.

Henry Olin died at Salisbury in August, 1837, having moved there the spring before.

CHIPMAN, DANIEL .- Brother of Na- thaniel, the youngest of seven sons who were all distinguished men, congressman for one session, legislator, speaker, biographer of his brother, Gov. Thomas Chittenden, and Seth Warner, and a law writer of some note. He was born at Salisbury, Conn., Oct. 22, 1763, fitted for college with his brother, Nathaniel, at Tinmouth, graduated from Dartmouth in 1788, studied law with his brother, opened an office in Poultney in '90 but moved to Middlebury in '94. He rep- resented Middlebury in the Legislature several times between 1798 and 1808, and also in 1812-13-14-18 and 21, was speaker of the House in '13 and '14, and was a member of the Governor's council in 1808. In 1814 he was elected to Congress, but

had to resign because of ill-health after one session. In 1828 he moved to Ripton, where he had large property interests and where he did most of his literary work. His biographies cannot be praised as either very interesting or instructive, though of course they have preserved a few facts from loss, especially in the history of the state mider Chittenden.

In 1822 he published a treatise on law contracts for the sale of specific articles which is highly esteemed by the profession and was commended by Kent, Story and other jurists. In 1823 the Legislature ap- pointed him reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court, the necessity of which work he had strenuously urged, and he had pub- lished one volume of reports when ill-health compelled him to resign. His law pactice was extensive and in his younger years took him regularly to all the courts in Rutland, Bennington, Addison and Chittenden coun- ties. He was state's attorney for Addison county for twenty years, from 1797 to 1817. He was a member of five different Consti- tutional Conventions in 1793, 1814, 1836, 1843 and 1850. In attending the latter at the age of eighty-four he incurred the disease that ended in his death. In the convention of 1843 he was conspicuous in the debate over the amendment for the establishment of the state Senate which was adopted by a small majority. E. P. Walton, who saw him there, says he strongly re- sembled John Quincy Adams in personal and intellectual qualities, and "with equal advantages in culture and experience in lofty statesmanship, Mr. Chipman would certainly have won high repute in the nation." His ideas were considerably different from his brother's, or rather ran to an extreme from the same premises, for his writings are not- able for the distrust they express of democ- racy, while some of his brother's grandest achievements had their roots in that trust. In state politics Daniel Chipman will proba- bly be longest remembered for his part as speaker of the Assembly in carrying through the seating of Gov. Martin Chittenden. The details of the affair are given in the sketch of Governor Galusha. Chipman's part was to refuse to yield his chair to the Governor for a joint assembly the second day, holding that the report of the canvassing committee the first day, that there was no choice, was conclusive, and that the two Houses had no power to canvass the votes or to act on the subject otherwise than by concurrent resolu- tions to meet and elect a Governor. In other words he held that the Legislature had no power to act on the report of its own committee ; if there had been a deliberate and palpable falsification of the figures there would have been no escape. In this case it

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amounted to nearly the same thing, for the action prevented any consideration of ques- tions of law and fact, whether certain votes should be counted or not, on which the result turned. To the lay mind it looks like a curious doctrine for so great a lawyer as Mr. Chipman. At any rate it was unexpected for the joint assembly had adjourned to the next morning for just that consideration and Speaker Chipman's action assumed to dis- solve it. But he said he had satisfied him- self by an examination of the constitution during the night that this was the proper action, and Governor Galusha and his sup- porters were unable to help themselves with- out violence. Afterwards, while the dispute over the election was in progress, Chipman ended it by escorting Chittenden to the chair and having him sworn in as Governor.

He was a liberal supporter of Middlebury College and a member of the corporation from the beginning. He received the degree of LL. D. from it in 1849.

He married, in 1796, Elatheria, sister of Rev. Lemuel Hedge, of Warwick, Mass., sister of Prof. Levi Hedge, of Harvard.

JEWETT, LUTHER .- Congressman, physician, preacher, and editor of St. Johns- bury's first paper, was born at Canterbury, Conn., in 1772, graduated at Dartmouth in 1792, and came to St. Johnsbury in 1800. He began his career there with the practice of medicine and kept it up more or less all his active life. He was later licensed to preach by the Coos Association, and supplied the pulpits of Newbury and other towns for ten years. In 1827 he started the first paper in St. Johnsbury, which he styled the Friend, and issued chiefly to combat Anti-Masonry, to which he was strenuously opposed, though he gave considerable attention to slavery and intemperance. The next year, July 3, 1828, he issued the first copy of the Farmers' Her- ald, Whig in politics, but ably edited, and which he continued for four years, when de- clining health compelled him to abandon it. In 1815 he was elected to Congress from the northeastern district of the state, but served only one term. He was a man of varied ac- quirements, scrupulously just, and all through his later years was one of St. Johnsbury's most honored citizens. He died in 1860 at the age of eighty-seven.

LANGDON, HON. CHAUNCY .- Rep- resentative in Congress, 1815-'17, state leg- islator and councilor, was a man of very considerable power, who was kept from the public employment his talents merited, by the fact that he was a Federalist in a strongly Democratic locality.

Among the families that came early from Connecticut to the New Hampshire Grants,

LANGDON.

when it was probable that they would soon be admitted into the, American Union as a new state, were the Langdons. Chauncy was the second son of Ebenezer Langdon of Farmington, Conn., where he was born Nov. 8, 1763. Having by his own efforts, secured for himself a collegiate education, graduating at Yale in 1787, and studied law at Litch- field, he determined to seek his fortune in the new state, and removing to "the Grants" in 1788, he pursuaded his parents and his five brothers and sisters to go with him. They

HON. CHAUNCY LANGDON.

went first to Windsor, where his parents and older brother, Ira, remained. The young lawyer, however, with the younger members of the family settled in the new village of Castleton, between Rutland and Skeensboro.

Here Mr. Langdon became an influential member of the community, in consequence not only of his superior education and abili- ties, his force of character and his unflagging industry and energy, but even more on ac- count of his capacity for public affairs and his proud integrity and thorough uprightness. He was register of probate, 1792-'97, and judge of probate in 1798 and 1799. He represented Castleton in the General Assem- bly in 1813 and '14, '17, '19, and '20, and '22. He was elected to Congress with the full Federalist delegation in 1814, during the last war with England. But it was nearly the last effort of Federalism in Vermont. The delegation went out at the end of its first term and the party thereafter went rapidly to

LYON.

1.YON.

pieces. But Mr. Langdon who had been a councilor for one term in 1808, was again elected to this body in 1823 and continued until his death in 1830, While in Congress, and indeed so long as the party lasted, he was a Federalist of the most pronounced type, strong and sturdy in temper and character, a representative Vermonter of the day. He was a trustee of Middlebury College for nine- teen years, from 1811 until his death ; and for many years president of the State Bible Society.

"Squire Langdon" brought with him from Connecticut a young wife, Lucy Nona Lathrop, daughter of the Rev. Elijah Lath- rop of Hebron, who, as "Lady Langdon," is remembered by some yet living. Besides children who died in early life, they left one daughter and two sons : Lucy, who married Charles K. Williams of Rutland, afterwards chief justice and Governor of the state ; Benjamin Franklin, who succeeded his father as lawyer and judge at Castleton ; and John Jay, who removed from Vermont to Washington, D. C., and afterwards to the South.

The Hon. Chauncy Langdon died July 23, 1830, and with his wife, who survived him four years, is buried at Castleton.

LYON, ASA .- Representative in Congress 1815-'17, member of the Governor's Council one year in 1808, for eight years a member of the lower house of the Legislature, for four years chief judge of the Grand Isle county court, a preacher who preached a life-time without pay, and yet died the wealthiest man in his county, was one of the unique characters of our history. He be- longed to that remarkable generation of clergymen, including Nathaniel Niles, Ezra Butler and Aaron Leland, that had so de- cided an influence in the state's adolescent period. He was always a hard fighter in theology and politics and in money getting, a man as cordially hated and roundly de- nounced by his enemies as Matthew Lyon (to whom he was in no way related), and yet within his range exercised the completest influence and commanded the most devoted following, which was very likely only strength- ened by his eccentricities.

Rev. Asa Lyon was born at Pomfret, Conn., Dec. 31, 1763, graduated from Dartmouth in 1790, and for nearly a year, from Octo- ber, 1792, to September, 1793, was pastor of the Congregational church at Sunderland, Mass., where he got into some controversy that resulted in his leaving. Soon after he appeared at Grand Isle, which was origin- ally united with North and South Hero in one town under the name of the Two Heroes, then divided into two and finally into three towns. Here he organized the Congrega-

tional church, and was its first minister and continued to serve it for over forty years, though he was never installed as pastor, but was elected by the members. When after a few years a difficulty arose about its sup- port he declared that his pastoral services should be gratuitous and so they ever con- tinued to be. One of his motives in this action was to match the Methodists, who were in those days declaiming against sala- ries. But while he proclaimed a free gospel he had an eye for the dollar in other direc- tions, and was all his days a shrewd and cx- acting, though strictly just, business man, frugal to the point of penuriousness and never giving money to any charitable object, regarding his contribution of services as sufficient for him.

He secured a fine tract of the most valua- ble land in North Hero, richly timbered, and built a house of cedar logs containing just two rooms and a lobby, in which he lived and wrote, reared his family, and transacted his business until in later years, after he had got wealthy, he built a brick house. He never made pastoral calls, except in sickness, but required people to come to him on church matters as well as other business, summoning each one by letter, for which he used about a tenth of a sheet of foolscap. His economy of time was as severe as of other things, and enabled him to do thorough work in each of his multifarious employments. With all the rest he had, because his wife (a Miss Newell from Charlotte) was crazy for many years, to carry the cares of the family and the rearing of five children. He was not too stingy to own a copy of the Edin- burgh Encyclopedia, and he studied it and made himself master of vast masses of its information. With his assimilative powers of mind, his vigor and positiveness of logic, he was regarded, as he was in fact, a very learned man. Theologically, he belonged to the Jonathan Edwards school, and he was the moulder of the religious thought not only of his congregation, but of the minis- terial associations of that part of the state.

He was also for a long period its foremost public man and its political leader. He represented South Hero in the General As- sembly 1799 until 1803, 1804 until 1807, and in 1808 for a short time until he entered the council. He was Grand Isle's representa- tive from 1812 until 1815, when he was elected to Congress, being the third of the council of 1808 who succeeded in the same Congress. He was chief judge of the county court in 1805,-'6,-'8 and '13, being in nearly continuous public service for eighteen years.

In politics he was a thorough-going Fed- eralist, and with Chipman and Arad Hunt was in constant tilts in the Legislature with

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such Jeffersonian champions as William C. Bradley, James Fisk, Ezra Butler, Aaron Le- land, Henry Olin, Charles Rich, Mark Rich- ards, Titus Hutchinson, and Samuel Shaw, who all but two afterward became congress- men.

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Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 25

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