USA > Vermont > Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont > Part 34
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He moved to Vergennes in May, 1832. Here his health broke down and he spent the winter of 1835-'36 in Fayette, Miss. With bettered health he returned to Ver- mont, but was always a man of frail health. He represented Vergennes in 1841 and was Register of Probate from 1836 to 1857. In 1855, 1856 and 1857 he was in the state Senate and chairman of its judiciary com- mittee two years.
In 1857 he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court and his service on the bench was thence continuous till his death ; he was chief judge from November, 1865 to 1882.
In 1838 he married Sarah M. Lawrence of Vergennes and they had seven children. He died Jan. 7, 1882, and Mrs. Pierpoint died Jan. 20, 1884. The bar of Vermont erected a monument over his grave.
No more lovable man ever was a judge, no inan more pure, no man more just, no man whose work was better done. And of all things in him that made him beloved did Charity most abound.
BEARDSLEY, HERMAN R .- H. R. Beardsley of St. Albans, son of Ephraim Beardsley, was born in Kent, Conn., July 21, 1800. His father moved to Grand Isle while Herman was a boy and sent his son to school to Rev. Asa Lyon. Herman entered the University of Vermont in 1819, but be- cause of failing health left college in his junior year and soon after began the study of law with Bates Turner and afterwards read with Asa Aldis. He took high rank at the bar and on the resignation of Asa Owen Al- dis in the summer of 1865 was appointed by Governor Smith a judge of the Supreme Court. His service was short, as the Legis- lature of that year instead of electing Mr. Beardsley chose William C. Wilson.
BARRETI.
Judge Beardsley married Abigail S. Webb, stepdaughter of Bates Turner, and by her had three daughters and one son. He died in St. Albans, March 9, 1878.
BARRETT, JAMES. - James Barrett of Woodstock, and now of Rutland, son of Martin and Dorcas ( l'atterson ) Bar- rett, was born in Strafford, May 31, 1814. He graduated at Dartinonth Col- lege in 1838; read law with Charles Crocker of Buffalo, N. Y., in 1838 and 1839, and with Charles Marsh in Woodstock in 1839 and 1840; was ad- mitted and began practice in Woodstock in 1840; moved to Boston in 1848, and re- turned to Woodstock in 1849. He was a state senator two years, and state's attorney two years.
In 1857 he was elected a judge of the Su- preme Court, and served as such twenty- three years, his last service on the bench being in 1880. No man of more profound knowledge of the law than Judge Barrett was ever on the Supreme Court bench unless Asahel Peck was that man. It is said of Judge Peck that, having taken his position in consultation on cases in which he differed from his brethren, he was known to confess himself wrong and his brethren right in but one instance in all his service. Judge Poland told me that, in consultation, when he and Judge Peck disagreed, he once said to Judge Peck : " You are a great deal the better law- yer, but I am a great deal the better judge."
There can be no doubt that the Supreme Court, when I. F. Redfield, Poland and Bar- rett were on its bench together and after- wards when Poland, Barrett and Peck were members, was a court that was supreme- one that united stood and divided didn't fall a great ways. How many times Judge Bar- rett gave up that he was wrong is not of record. When those men differed, who would now dare to say which was right and which wrong-unless he could find out what John Pierpoint thought, was, taking everything into consideration, the right way to dispose of the case.
Judge Barrett's many opinions, reported in the near a quarter of a century that he served, exhibit a strength and living force that will always in legal circles give good repute to Vermont courts and to the state.
185
KELLOGG.
The degree of Doctor of Laws conferred on him is in his case a truthful as well as honorable title-given in accordance with the fact.
After his retirement from the bench he moved to Rutland where he practiced his profession and where he suffered, Feb. 15, 1887, the great loss of the death by accident of his son James C. Barrett who had though yet young in years attained position in the very front rank of lawyers.
Judge Barrett married, Sept. 24, 1844, Maria Lord, daughter of Dr. Simeon Wood- worth of Coventry, Conn., and they had nine children. He lives in Rutland, adding days of good old age to the years of honor that lie behind him, and still dignifying the profession of which he became a member more than half a century ago, by doing good work in it.
KELLOGG, LOYAL CASE .-- L. C. Kellogg of Ben- son, son of John and Harriot (Nash) Kellogg, was born in Ben- son Feb. 13, 1816. He grad- uated at Amherst College in 1836, read law with Phineas Smith at Rutland, and with his father in Benson, and was admitted in Rut- land county, September term, 1839. He settled in Benson, which town he represented in 1847, 1850, 1851, 1859 and 1870. He was a member of the constitu- tional conventions of 1857 and 1870, and president of that of 1857.
In 1859 he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court and served eight years ; he was elected for a further term, but declined to continue in office. He moved to Rutland while judge, but returned to Benson on re- tiring from the bench. Judge Kellogg was a most honorable and learned judge. His love of order was great, and I well remember how, years ago, after he had returned to practice, he got me to copy one live-long night papers that were to be presented to the court the next day. They were done to his satisfaction-and that was cause of won- der when I learned how particular he was- except that he had well-defined and positive ideas about the place for putting the filing which were new to me, but for which he gave reasons at large. His mode I after- wards followed till Judge Rowell, who is as orderly minded as was Judge Kellogg, insti-
WILSON.
tuted the present method, for which he has reasons as cogent as Judge Kellogg had for his way ; and now that Judge Rowell's method has been embodied in a rule, I try to follow that, but always with a mental apology to the memory of Judge Kellogg. Both ways are good ways-mine wasn't- and it is entirely probable that the departed judge's respect for a rule of court as a sacred thing would lead him to comply with it should he return to practice, and if he didn't so comply, revisiting the glimpses of the court room would be unpleasant for him.
Judge Kellogg never married. He died at Benson, Nov. 26, 1872.
PECK, ASAHEL .- Asahel Peck of Jeri- cho was a judge of the circuit court from 1851 to 1857 and of the Supreme Court from 1860 to 1874. [See sketch in “ Gov- ernors," ante page 100.]
WILSON, WILLIAM C .- W. C. Wilson, of Bakersfield, was born in Cam- bridge, July 2, 1812. Hisfather, John, was a farm- er, and till eight- een William worked on the farm and attend- ed districtschool. The boy then went to school in Jericho and by teaching got money enough so he could study law, which he did first in Cam- bridge, then for two years in Fairfax and then in St. Albans. Mr. Wilson was admitted to the Franklin county bar September term, 1834, settled in Bakersfield, and obtained a large practice. He maintained a school for law students for some time after 1850 and drilled them carefully in their studies. He was state's attorney in 1844 and 1845, assist- ant judge of the county court in 1849, 1850, and 1851, member of the Constitutional Con- ventions of 1843 and 1850, state senator in 1848 and 1849, and representative in the Legislatures of 1863, 1864, and 1865. In 1865 he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court and served five years, till 1870.
He married Clarissa A. Pratt of Bakers- field and by her had three children, three of whom survived him : W. D. Wilson, Esq., of St. Albans ; Mrs. M. R. Tyler of St. Paul, Minn., and Mrs. C. M. Start of Roches- ter, Minn. Mrs. Wilson died in 1869. Soon after leaving the bench in 1870 Judge Wil- son removed to Rochester, Minn., where his
SI1.1.1 ....
daughter, Mrs. Start, was then living. 1873 he married a second time. The Min- nesota climate benefited his health and he began writing upon a law work for publica- tion, but the sickness and death of his wife and then his own failing health compelled him to abandon the undertaking.
Judge Wilson died April 16. 1882, and in accordance with his expressed wish was buried in the cemetery at Bakersfickl.
STEELE, BENJAMIN HINMAN .- B. H. Steele of Derby, son of Sanford and Mary ( Hinman) Steele, was born in Stanstead, P. (., Feb. 6, 1837. Fond of books his progress
BENJAMIN HINMAN STEELE
in study was so rapid that when but fourteen he taught an advanced school in his native town, the next winter he taught in Troy, then two winters in Concord, Mass., then again in Derby. Governor Dale said of him : " He had early selected the road he was to take, and was preparing earnestly for his journey, teaching, studying, reading ; now the most ardent devotee at the Derby and Stanstead academies, again reciting Latin and French to the kind Catholic priest ; then busily learning French five months at the College of St. Pierre ; rush- ing into a course at Norwich University, quickly hurrying from there to Dartmouth College for want of time to complete a course at both institutions ; prostrated by sickness, burdened with the care of a family which sickness and death threw upon his capable and willing mind, he ran towards the city of
his destiny with wonderful courage. Thus with a long arm and a strong will, he hewed his way through college, over the threshold of which he was stepping out into the world as the acknowledged leader of his class, when I first saw him."
Graduating at Dartmouth with honor in 1857 he continued studying law, first in Bar- ton (teaching as principal of Barton Acad- emy at the same time) ; typhoid fever com- pelled him to stop, on recovery he went to Cambridge, Mass., intending to pursue his studies at the law school. Ile went into the Supreme Court as a spectator and was ad- vised by his friends to apply for admission to the bar and at the age of twenty-one he did so, was examined by Benjamin F. Butler, commended by Choate, who heard part of the examination, and was admitted. He pre- pared to go west, but his old friends were loath to let him go and persuaded him to begin at Derby Line. This he did and at once by untiring application, zeal and elo- quence went to the forefront as a lawyer.
When Judge Poland, in the fall of 1865, was appointed to the Senate the other judges each went up a peg and the place thus made vacant was filled by Governor Dillingham's appointing Steele a judge of the Supreme Court. Only twenty-eight when he went on the bench he was one of the strongest judges of his day during his five years' service. In 1870 he declined a re-election to the bench, was appointed a member of the board of edu- cation, and in 1872 was a formidable candi- date for the nomination to Congress against Judge Poland. The canvass was an active one and Judge Poland was barely successful in convention. Judge Steele was a member of the Republican national convention in 1872, and the civil service and tariff planks of the platform were from his draft.
Judge Steele had an enthusiastic following among the younger members of his party and his genius justified their admiration. Had he lived he would have taken his proper place in the work of national legisla- tion and would have stood second in national fame to no other of Vermont's representative men. He was not only a thorough student and profound thinker but an orator by na- ture and cultivation. His early death was not only a grievous loss to his family and friends, but to the state in good service and in the honor a worthy and brilliant son gives her when he becomes on a broader field a statesman and leader of men.
Judge Steele married, Feb. 6, 1861, Martha, only daughter of David and Wealthy (Thomas) Sumner. Two children were the issue of this marriage : Mary Hinman, and David Sumner. The last years of Judge Steele were spent at Hartland, where his widow yet resides, and not many miles from
187
PROUT.
the home of his sister, Mrs. Samuel E. Pin- gree in Hartford.
His health had always been delicate, and in 1873 he went to Minnesota, hoping its climate would arrest the disease that has been fatal to so many of New England's sons and daughters. He died in Faribault, Minn., July 13, 1873. No man who knew him can write of him, even after the lapse of more than a score of years, without quick- ening blood as he remembers the man of whom at the commenorative meeting of old neighbors and friends at Derby Line, Dale long ago said : "A pleasant, happy father, husband, brother, man. From his couch in that far off Western town he looked back upon no wild irregularity of his youthful or riper years. He looked back with conscious rectitude, through the fact that he had done all he could, and with regret that he could no longer comfort his friends ; and forward, across the river lit by the faith of that church, the forms and creed of which had long been pleasant to his mind ; then quietly passed beyond our view."
PROUT, JOHN .- John Prout, of Rut- land, was born in Salisbury, Nov. 21, 1815. His training was of the old-fashioned kind, and his education was in the common schools and academy. He followed the trade of a printer several years and then studied law in the office of E. N. Briggs and was admitted to the bar in Addison county in 1837 and began practice with Mr. Briggs. He represented Salisbury in 1847, 1848 and 1851 and was state's attorney of Addison county from 1848 to 1851.
In 1854 he moved to Rutland and there pursued his profession most successfully till he retired in 1886. He had at various times as partners, Caleb B. Harrington, Charles Linsley, W. C. Dunton, N. P. Simons and Col. Aldace F. Walker. He represented Rutland in 1865 and 1866 and was a sena- tor for Rutland county in 1867. In 1867 he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court and served two years. The work was not as congenial to him as that of his profession and he declined further service. He was honest, learned and wise ; and was a sort of counselor-general not only to his clients but to the community and his brethren of the bar. It has been said of him that " to one who knew Judge Prout principally in his later life, its most striking characteristic was the degree in which his name and his opinions were deferred to in the community wherein he lived."
Judge Prout died in Rutland, August 28, 1890.
WHEELER, HOYT H .- H. H. Wheeler of Jamaica, now of Brattleboro, and United States district judge for the district of Ver-
REDFIELD.
mont, was a judge of the Supreme Court from 1869 to his resignation, March 31, 1877. [See sketch in Part II, post page 427.]
ROYCE, HOMER ELIHU .- H. E. Royce of St. Albans was a judge of the Supreme Court from 1870 to 1890, serving as chief judge after the death of Chief Judge Pier- point in January, 1882. [See sketch in "Representatives," ante page 155.]
REDFIELD, TIMOTHY PARKER .- T. P. Redfield of Montpelier was one of the twelve children of Dr. Peleg and Han- nah (Parker) Redfield. He was born at Coventry, Nov. 3, 1812, and was educated at Dartmouth in the class of 1836. He read law with his brother, Isaac F., was ad- mitted to the Orleans county bar in the year 1838, and be- gan practice at Irasburgh, where he remain- ed ten years. In 1848 he was elected sen- ator from Orleans county. He moved to Montpelier after the session of 1848, prac- ticed there till his election as a judge of the Supreme Court in 1870, and continued on the bench till the fall of 1884, when he de- clined a re-election. He married Helen W. Grannis of Stanstead, Feb. 6, 1840, and she survives him. They had four children, one of whom, Alice, the wife of Andrew J. Phil- lips, is living in Chicago. Alice has one child living, a son Timothy. The judge, after many years, lies with his three other children in Green Mount cemetery, that pleasant place of rest of which Eastman wrote :
" This fairest spot of hill and glade, Where blooms the flower and waves the tree, And silver streams delight the shade, We consecrate, O Death, to thee."
Judge Redfield was a wise and genial man, as well as a profound lawyer and great judge. No man at the bar had quite so much the flavor of the olden time. Some way he re- membered the wise and witty things that seemed to be the common stock of the ancients of the law, and it was an education to hear him discourse of the old lawyers and the old practice. And withal he knew more things that were "going on" about him than nine-tenths of their actors ; how he became possessed of his information was a mystery- he must have absorbed knowledge from the air as he went along. He was a powerful
188
ROSS.
VEAZŁY.
advocate while at the bar ; logical, adroit, with play of wit and humor, he was a dangerous antagonist. And after he was on the bench his power and mastery of the art of putting things used to make the lawyer who was getting the worst of the charge wince, and make the one whose law and facts the judge thought were right ashamed of himself to see how a real artist could do his work. When he had his mind made up he took care that his position should be understood. When he made decisions as a chancellor he would often file reasons with or as a part of the deeretal order that, when the case went up, were a tower of strength in defense of the order he had made.
It is, 1 find, the general sense of those who knew the two Judges Redfield that Isaac F. was the more studious in habit, and Tim- othy P. the stronger by nature. The elder brother cultivated more assiduously, but the younger plowed the deeper, and he seemed to know intuitively legal fields and what grains and fruits they bore. I have been surprised, after examining a doubtful point, and going over all the authorities attainable, to hear him, the moment the question was sprung in the court room, start from a prin- ciple and go on till he had talked all the law there was about the thing-give a better summary of the law off-hand than one could find in the books of those who had taken their time for thought and statement. He was solidly grounded in the principles of the law, and he remembered a vast deal about practice. He was to the younger members of the bar a spring of pure and ever flowing law, and I believe that his brethren on the bench would say that they looked to him as to the master of a stronghold of the law, with all its weapons available to his hand.
Judge Redfield died in Chicago, May 27, 1888, and was buried in Green Mount cem- etery, Montpelier.
ROSS, JONATHAN .- Jonathan Ross, of St. Johnsbury, now chief judge of the Su- preme Court, was elected a judge of that court in 1870, and has been chief judge since 1890. [See sketch in PartI I, post page 342.]
POWERS, HORACE HENRY .- H. H. Powers, of Morrisville, was a judge of the Supreme Court from 1874 to 1890, when he was elected to Congress. [See sketch in "Representatives," post page 324.]
DUNTON, WALTER C. - Walter C. Dunton, of Rutland, was born in Bristol, Nov. 29, 1830. He was educated at Malone Academy, N. Y., and Middlebury College, graduating at the latter institution in 1857. He read law with Dillingham and Durant at
Waterbury and with Linsley & Prout at Rut- land and was admitted to the bar of Rutland county in 1858.
Hle resided in Kansas some years and was a member of its last territorial Legislature in 1861. That same year he located in Rut- land. In 1862 he went into the army and served as Captain of Co. H, 14th Vt. Vols. He was Rutland's member of the constitu- tional convention of 1870. In 1865 he was elected judge of probate for the district of Rutland and served till April 14, 1877, when he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court by Governor Fairbanks to fill the vacancy caused by promotions consequent on the resignation of Judge Wheeler. Judge Dunton served on the Supreme Court bench terminated in the fall of 1879 by his resig- nation of the office.
He resumed practice and died in Rutland April 23, 1890.
VEAZEY, WHEELOCK GRAVES .- W. G. Veazey of Rutland, now a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission, was ap- pointed a judge of the Supreme Court Nov. 1, 1879, upon the resignation of Judge Dun- ton, and served till August, 1889, when he resigned. [See sketch in Part II, post page 408.]
TAFT, RUSSELL F .- R. S. Taft of Bur- lington has been a judge of the Supreme Court since 1880, and since 1890 has been first assistant judge. [See sketch in Part II, post page 391.]
ROWELL, JOHN W .- John W. Rowell, of West Randolph, has been a judge of the Supreme Court since Jan. 11, 1882, when he was appointed by Governor Farnham sixth assistant after the death of Chief Judge Pier- point. He has been, since 1890, second assistant judge. [See sketch in Part II, post page 343.]
WALKER, WILLIAM H .- W. H. Walker, of Ludlow, was elected a judge of the Supreme Court in 1884, and served till September, 1887, when he resigned. [See sketch in Part II, post page 417.]
TYLER, JAMES M .- James M. Tyler, of Brattleboro, has been a judge of the Supreme Court since September, 1887, when he was appointed by Governor Ormsbee to fill the vacancy caused by promotions after resigna- tion of Judge Walker. He is now third as- sistant judge. [See sketch in Part II, post page 405.]
MUNSON, LOVELAND .- Loveland Mun- son, of Manchester, has been a judge of the Supreme Court since his appointment by
189
START.
Governor Dillingham in September, 1889, to fill the vacancy caused by promotions fol- lowing Judge Veazey's resignation. He is now fourth assistant judge. [See sketch in Part II, post page 283.]
START, HENRY R .- Henry R. Start of Bakersfield has been fifth assistant judge of
THOMPSON.
the Supreme Court since his election in 1890. [See sketch in Part II, post page 373.]
THOMPSON, LAFOREST H .- L. H. Thompson of Irasburg has been sixth assis- tant judge of the Supreme Court since his election in 1890. [See sketch in Part II, post page 397.]
VERMONT INVENTORS.
BY LEVI K. FULLER.
In a search for rare and curious inventions, there has been revealed, among the citizens of this state, a wealth of inventive talent, great ingenuity and remarkable achievements, little known and long forgotten. It is a pleasing task to rescue from obscurity and to bring into more prominent light the efforts of our citizens in this direction. Many inventors are found to have been too carly, as well as some too late, in the race ; so that they have performed their tasks upon a line so slender, in its relation to the then known wants or needs of the community, that recognition of their discoveries and the importance of their inventions, by the multitude, was not possible until future years and an advanced civilization should disclose their true value in industrial affairs.
In many respects the state of Vermont has been as fruitful in the development of great inventions as it has been unique in other interesting phases of American history. A few of the wonderful deeds of Vermonters are here recorded and their rightful place in the pro- gress of a century pointed out.
During the century there were 600,000 inventions patented in the United States, of which nearly 4,000 have been granted to Vermonters, upwards of 1,000 of these being the first of their class. Many of them have indeed been important and controlling, even revo- lutionizing, departments of industry ; but in many instances important inventions were never patented.
How came the inventions and improvements of the century to be made? They were not conceived or born in the patent office at Washington, or in any government bureau, much less brought forward by the order of any public official. They were of an impelling force, far different in its nature, strength and magnitude ; a force that had its source in that spirit born of freedom of thought, unfettered hands and unbounded opportunities ; a force that has carved a nation out of the forest, and made the prairie and the desert to blossom as the rose ; that has preserved to us freedom, and given to the nation prosperity-indi- vidual responsibility and opportunity-with governmental care only so far as is necessary to secure this in its largest and noblest sense.
It has not been my object to speak of inventions merely to show the number or kind, but to point out some of those in which citizens of Vermont were the earliest in the field.
Thus we see, up among the fertile valleys of our little state, and among the green hills, where live a hardy, thrifty and self-reliant people, left to carve out their own fame and fortune, the ordinary citizen has grappled with the most important inventions of the age, has solved successfully the mechanical and industrial problems of the century, reaping, in many instances, a fair reward with unusual distinction, many with gratifying honors.
Patents issued to Vermonters in the last century :
Richard Rhobotham, Floor Composition, two patents, April 12, 1794.
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