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974.7 M. L. 

H63 

v. 2 

1148896 

GENEALOGY COLLECTION 



Al I [II I" I..NI i PI HU' 1 



3 1833 01067 8248 



HISTORY OF THE 
BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 




WILLIAM M.EVARTS 



HISTORY OF THE 
BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



EDITED BY 

HONORABLE DAVID McADAM, HONORABLE HENRY BISCHOFF, Je. 

RICHARD H. CLARKE, LL.D., HONORABLE JACKSON O. 

DYKMAN, HONORABLE JOSHUA M. VAN COTT, 

AND HONORABLE GEORGE G. REYNOLDS 



VOLUME II 



NEW YORK HISTORY COMPANY 

132 NASSAU STREET 

1897 




1118896 



THE BAR OF NEW YORK, 1 792-1 892. 1 

E TOCQUEVILLE, in his great work on the United States, 
comments upon the exceptional position occupied by the 
Bar in the United States, and concludes that the profes- 
sion in our country constitutes an aristocracy. In one 
sense, probably the one in which it was intended, the remark is true. 
In every free country the Bar constitutes, and necessarily must, an 
order of unusual importance. Its function in peace is similar to that 
of the army in war, viz.: to defend society and to guard the general 
welfare. Whether special privileges are, or are not, conceded in 
terms to such a body of men, enlightened opinion must realize its 
value and rely upon its service. It is the natural organ by which out- 
raged law protests against tyranny, whether from above or below; 
the sentinel and advance post which signals danger and warns the 
community of impending peril. The chosen men who gather around 
a monarch as the fountain of honor shine with reflected luster because 
of their proximity to the royal person. So it is with the Bar. Its 
members and they alone can serve in the Temple of Justice and see 
that due reverence is paid to the only recognized sovereign, the Law. 
To be the mouthpiece of that sovereign, to expound his decrees, to 
stand firmly by his throne, to protect his dignity, this is no mean func- 
tion. Take away the sanction of the Law and nothing is left in Pan- 
dora's box; least of all Freedom, for Freedom without the Law ceases 
to be anything of value. It changes its name and is not worth pre- 
serving. The history of free government shows the truth of this so 
clearly that illustration drawn from the past records becomes unnec- 
essary. Whether an unwholesome transition has not already begun 
is another and far different question. 

It may be that Plutocracy is gradually displacing the profession 
of Law. There are signs that point in that direction, but thus far the 
peril has only been a threat and not a reality. With scarcely an ex- 
ception every president of the United States has been a lawyer by 
profession; senators and representatives are almost universally 
trained and reputable lawyers, and if it be true that a 
practice has of late years been growing, in remote states, to 
confer high legislative offices on men of wealth because they are able 

1 Mr. Frederick R. Coudert, having been invited to prepare a paper 
paper, which had previously been published, and to which we are pleasec 



Z HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

and willing to pay for the privilege of serving the public, these are 
but rare exceptions. We may still truly say that the government of 
the United States for the last one hundred years has been in the 
hands of the legal profession. As we have prospered and grown on 
a scale of greatness heretofore unknown, it may not be a reckless in- 
stance of deductive reasoning to suggest that government by law, as 
administered by lawyers, is the best that has thus far been tried. 
Some persons, in other respects rational, claim that our progress is 
due to paternal government protection. It may be curious to specu- 
late upon the effect of a possible combination of free trade and law- 
yers in office as common factors in the future prosperity of our coun- 
try, but this would be foreign to my purpose. 

True, Washington was not a lawyer, at least so far as I am in- 
formed. Probably there were many occasions in which this chasm 
in his early training was to him a source of deep but unavailing re- 
gret. But the necessity for a legal training was not as obvious in his 
day as it has been since his great service to the nation. 

The seeds of our Revolution were sown and cultivated by the law- 
yers, who plainly saw that the struggle must come. The youthful 
giant was stretching his young and awkward limbs and fretting at 
the shackles which bound him and checked his growth. He was un- 
easy, then impatient, and finally angry. He was slow to wrath, but 
when he was at length moved to righteous indignation the lawyers 
told him why he was justified in his complaints; they taught him the 
duty of resistance; they encouraged him in its assertion; they in- 
structed him as to his rights and helped him by voice and pen, and 
often, too, with musket and sword, to vindicate his dignity by claiming 
his independence. Years before the war broke out the lawyers of 
Boston and New York had formed societies to discuss the great ques- 
tions that agitated the public mind. The Sodality of Boston was one 
of these, composed not of striplings trying their young voices on 
their neighbors and practicing their arts on open-mouthed rustics, 
but men of years and standing, like John Adams and James Otis; 
earnest, thoughtful, patriotic, and wise men who might well assume 
to act as self-constituted pedagogues of a young and rising commu- 
nity. The " Moot '* was another, which had its headquarters iu New 
York, and consisted of the ablest lawyers of the state. Their debates 
were of great importance, and their opinions so highly valued that 
counsel often cited them as bearing upon, illustrating, and establish- 
ing the law. In one case it recorded that the chief-justice of the 
State of New York referred a difficult point of law to the Moot for its 
opinion. 

There were many conspicuous men at the Bar as the last century 
closed and the present one displaced it — men of unsurpassed ability 
and independent character. The war that had just ended was a 
training school that kept its influence for many years, indeed until 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 6 

the next conflict revived the warlike spirit and made the peaceful 
disputes of the forum seem tame and unprofitable. , 

What young lawyer of to-day has ever heard of Egbert Bensou, 
Brockholst Livingston, John Lansing, Melancthon Smith, or Josiah 
Ogden Hoffman? And yet they were learned, eloquent, houorable, 
and patriotic men. They were giants while they lived, and did much 
to settle important questions for the generations to come. They 
served the public as well as their clients, faithfully and well; but 
the lawyer's fame is evanescent as the speech that makes it. His con- 
temporaries bear testimony to his merits, but when he has passed 
from the scene of his labors, his glory sleeps with his perishable body. 

Seeming exceptions there are to this, but exceptions only in ap- 
pearance. The names of the two greatest, the acknowledged leaders 
of the bar of one hundred years ago, still live, but only because the 
men who bore them have entered into history in a public capacity, 
and because their names are bound together in one bloody tragedy. 
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr were the leaders in their day. 
Hamilton especially enjoyed an undisputed title to pre-eminence. 
Chancellor Kent, in an address delivered in 1836, speaks of him in 
terms of unstinted admiration. " Among all his brethren," he says, 
" Colonel Hamilton was undisputably pre-eminent." This was uni- 
versally conceded. He rose at once to the loftiest heights of " profes- 
sional eminence by his profound penetration, his power of analysis, 
the comprehensive grasp and strength of his understanding, and the 
firmness, frankness, and integrity of his character. We may say of 
him in reference to his associates, as was said of Papinian, Omnes 
lonc/o post se intervallo relinquerit." 

Such praise as this coming from such a source is sufficient to place 
Hamilton on the pinnacle of professional fame. It is, however, the 
gallant soldier, the friend of Washington, the writer of the Federalist, 
the founder of our financial system, and the victim of Burr's pistol, 
who is really recalled by tradition, and who will be remembered by 
remote posterity. He might otherwise be discovered onlv by the pa- 
tient explorer into those musty records that history half scornfully 
glances at, to mitigate the dryness of more important themes. Who 
will care to know, a generation hence, that Hamilton 1 made a great 
speech in Crosswell's case, or that he argued with success, fifty years 
before Erskine, that the jury in a libel case were the judges of the law 
as well as of the facts? 

Nor can it be said that Burr's name would arouse an echo of. even 
passing interest but for the part he took in great events, wherein he 
showed his consummate ability and absolute indifference to principle. 
As the would-be usurper of the presidency, as Jefferson's vice-presi- 
dent, as the defendant in a great treason trial, and as the slayer of 

1 This, however, was Andrew Hamilton, whose fame was only that of a lawyer, and hence has passed into oblivion. 



4 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Hamilton, his place is fixed forever beyond the destructive processes 
of time. Unfortunately for him, if there be such a thing; as posthu- 
mous misfortune, he will not be forgotten. 

These two men, great lawyers as they were, cannot therefore be 
cited as exceptions to the rule. If they had been engaged in the man- 
ufacture of tin plate they would have been equally (if not more) con- 
spicuous, provided other elements of their fame had concurred to 
make them prominent. 

One of the most eminent of the lawyers whom I have named, 
Brockkolst Livingston, narrates an incident in the other Livingston's 
life which is very characteristic of the times, and for that reason de- 
serves repetition here. It seems that Mr. Livingston was a bit of a 
wag, and amused himself on a certain occasion in writing an account 
of a political meeting, which had been attended by some of his politi- 
cal adversaries. These he sought in turn to ridicule. His raillery 
seems to us at this day quite harmless. He spoke of a Mr. Fish as a 
stripling about forty-eight years old, and of a Mr. Jones as " Master 
Jimmy Jones, another stripling about sixty." Why Messrs. Jones and 
Fish should have resented so mild a form of pleasantry does not ap- 
pear, but they did feel very deeply whatever sting there may have been 
in these mysterious imputations. They demanded an explanation 
of Mr. Livingston while he was walking on the Battery with his wife 
and children. The explanation does not appear to have suited Mr. 
Jones, who proceeded to chastise Mr. Livingston with a cane, where- 
upon Mr. Livingston became wroth in his turn, and gave evidence 
thereof, by challenging and killing Mr. Jones, after which perform- 
ance he felt at liberty to resume his promenade, en fcuniUc, on the Bat- 
tery, which he did without further molestation. Mr. Jones having 
been removed in this summary but orthodox fashion, there was noth- 
ing to prevent Mr. Livingston from reaching higli political preference. 
He accordingly became shortly after a justice of the Supreme Court 
of the United States. 

This gentle toleration of a duelist who had killed an adversary is 
in striking contrast with the treatment of Burr after he had killed 
Hamilton. Certainly the provocation in the latter case was real, the 
fashion of dueling was still recognized as a legitimate mode of set- 
tling differences between gentlemen, both men were tried and brave 
soldiers, accustomed to face death without flinching, and the fight 
was a fair one, in which the regular forms were minutely observed. 
And yet Burr became practically an outcast, and spent the balance of 
his life in friendless solitude. He was punished for his other offenses; 
not for the venial sin of dueling. The man whom he happened to 
kill was an eminent citizen, honorable and respected. If Hamilton 
had slain Burr his own social and professional standing would prob- 
ably have remained unimpaired; possibly it might have received some- 
thing of increased dignity. But Hamilton enjoyed a good character 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 5 

and Burr did not. The moral of this seems to be that before a man 
determines to commit an offense against the law he should be sure 
that his character is good. If his character is bad, the risk is greatly 
enhanced. The jury or the public, as the case may be, will convict 
him of something. Sir Jonas Barring'ton assures his readers that 
a man was once convicted at the Irish Assizes of murder, although 
the victim came into court apparently alive and ready to swear that 
he had not been killed. They were then about retiring, and in spite 
of the judge, did so. They explained their verdict of guilty by saying 
that while they knew that he had not killed that particular man, they 
also knew that he had stolen a cow that belonged to one of the jurors, 
and they might not find another and so good a chance to hang him. 

It is, of course, the fashion to decry the Bar of to-day and to cite 
illustrious examples in the past to shame the advocates and practi- 
tioners of our own time. But this is natural enough; at least it has 
been universal. Those who look back upon the men and things of a 
past generation, to which their own life was linked, the memory of 
which comes back with the joyousness of departed youth, will always 
find a fitting theme for mournful retrospection in the degeneracy of 
the times. Imagination, uncontrolled, joins hands with vain regret; 
the harsh contours of unpleasant fact are smoothed into beauty by 
the softening process of uncounted years, and grow beautiful in pro- 
portion as our vision grows dim. Chancellor Kent himself indulged 
in this pessimistic fashion of reviewing the past. In the lecture above 
cited he mournfully discants upon the " tendency of things at present 
to disenchant the profession of much of its attraction. The spirit of 
the age," he says, " is restless and presumptuous and revolutionary! 
The rapidly increasing appetite for wealth, the inordinate taste for 
luxury which it engenders, the vehement spirit of speculation, are so 
many bad symptoms of a diseased state of mind." Who would have 
believed that our professional forerunners were afflicted with such 
fearful propensities? Good, great, venerable gentlemen we supposed 
them to be, eminently respectable from the top of their bald heads to 
the soles of their gaitered feet, moving with decorous deliberation 
from their shabby office to their uptown residence in Prince or IIous- 
ton street for dinner, returning to work until supper time, unmolested 
by telephones, undisturbed by telegraphs, ignorant of messenger boys, 
living in happy though unconscious immunity from stenographers, 
interviewers, law reporters, daily law journals, and other sources of 
unhappiness: to think that the virus of avarice, gambling, selfishness, 
and the like had polluted their simple and virtuous natures! Per- 
haps, after all, we may be better than they, for we have to contend 
against all these insidious foes, and yet we still exist as a body, and 
upon the whole may claim, in comparison with the rest of the com- 
munity, to constitute a very respectable class of citizens. 

Whatever may have been the merits or shortcomings of the Bar 



b HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

when Chancellor Kent spoke thus mournfully, there was a class of 
young men coming to the front than which the history of our bar 
offers nothing more admirable. From 1835 to 1870 our roll was 
bright with splendid names and our courts filled with life aud learn- 
ing. Charles O'Co'nor was then at his best, the facile princeps of the 
profession in his mastery of the principles that underlie the law, 
and in his incisive ability to communicate to others what he had first 
made clear to himself; Cutting, with his splendid presence and per- 
fect mastery of the commercial law; Brady, the orator, lawyer, poet, 
wit; George Wood, the massive expounder of all the learning that 
related to trusts and real property; Evarts, polished, self-possessed, 
keen-witted, the hero of the three great cases of our generation — the 
Johnson impeachment, the Tilden election case of 1876, the Geneva 
arbitration case; Fullerton, the peerless examiner and cross-exami- 
ner — both of these last still ready with memory intact to tell of the 
great battles which they fought and the giants that they met; David 
Dudley Field, aggressive, earnest, impressive, relentless, and like 
Achilles that Horace describes: 

Imjtriger iracundvs inexorabilis acer. 

He, too, is still among us 1 in the radiance of an undimmed intellect, 
to show of what material were made the men whom Chancellor Kent 
looked upon with such mournful suspicion. "Prince" John Van 
Buren, too, who covered up his real genius with a cold affectation of 
cynical indifference, and lived to be the putative father of uuniber- 
less sayings from Aristophanes to date; William Curtis Noyes, ever 
courteous and ever ready, diligent and indefatigable, until the over- 
strained cords suddenly snapped while he was still in his prime. And 
James W. Gerard — " Jimmie " to his friends, — with the polish and 
wit of his French ancestry, his inexhaustible bonhomie and good na- 
ture, his irresistible facility and felicity in winning juries over to 
the wrong side, on which he was most at home. " Never attack your 
adversary with a bludgeon," the writer once heard him say, " run 
him through with a rapier." He lived up to his own precept. He ran 
his adversary gracefully and thoroughly through the vital parts, and 
when he was sure that his victim was thoroughly dead he held out 
his hand to help him to his feet. And Benjamin D. Silliman, the vet- 
eran of sixty odd years' practice, still ready to counsel his many cli- 
ents, to unravel intricate knots of law and to delight hosts of friends 
with his winning smile, Ins wise speech, his kindly judgments of 
men long since gone. Time, alas! will not let my willing pen run on 
to tell of so many others whom the young Bar of my generation 
looked upon with something akin to superstitious admiration. A 
volume would hardly suffice to tell of their virtues and their frail- 
ties, for it is a comfort to think that they, too, were human. 

1 Mr. Field was still living when the above was written. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK I 

Have they left successors worthy of themselves? Certainly they 
have. The Bar is now as firm as it ever has been in the possession of 
learned, upright, sagacious, and honorable members. We are too 
near them now to judge them fairly, but we may feel assured that the 
young men of to-day will, after their hair has turned, recall the broad 
and scientific arguments of Carter, the brilliant versatility of Choate, 
the deadly keenness of Parsons, the scholarly erudition of Butler — 
nay, the splendid qualities of a host of others whom it would be tedi- 
ous and invidious to single out: — they, too, will rank with the best 
examples of what our profession has produced. But, alas! we shall 
not be there to see. 

Frederic R. Coudert. 



BBOTT, AUSTIN (born in Boston, Massachusetts, Decem- 
ber 18, 1831; died in New York City, April 19, 1896), was a 
son of Jacob Abbott, the author, and a brother of Doctor 
Lyman Abbott. He received his early educational train- 
ing under the personal supervision of his parents, at Boston and 
Roxbury, Massachusetts, and Farmington, Maine. In 1813 his father 
removed to New York. In 1847 Austin entered the University of 





AISTIX ABBOTT. 



the City of New York, from which he was graduated in 1851, taking 
an English oration at the commencement. He subsequently studied 
law, and in 1852 was admitted to the bar, having been allowed by 
the court to offer himself for examination shortly before he attained 
his majority on the condition that he should not take the oath or 
enroll until lie became of age. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 9 

He entered into partnership with his elder brother, Benjamin 
Yaugkan Abbott, his brother Lyman afterward joining the firm. 
They practiced law and wrote on legal subjects under the firm name 
of Abbott Brothers. Austin Abbott prepared the greater part of 
" Abbott's New York Digest " and " Abbott's Forms." After the 
dissolution of the firm by the removal of his brothers, Mr. Abbott 
continued in practice alone, being chiefly engaged as counsel in im- 
portant cases, serving as consulting counsel in many in which he 
never appeared in court. In the conduct of the defense of the suit of 
Theodore Tilton against Henry Ward Beecher he gained a national 
reputation. He was associated with the counsel for the government 
in the Guiteau case, in which his advice was sought on the question 
of insanity and the practice in selection of jurors. 

Mr. Abbott began the publication, in 1880, of a series of works, 
for the writing of which he had been long preparing. The first, vol- 
ume, the " Trial Evidence," was followed in 1883 by a " Brief for the 
Trial of Civil Issues before a Jury," and in 1889 by a " Brief for the 
Trial of Criminal Cases," and another on the " Modes of Proving 
the Facts in Either Class of Trials." In 1891 a " Brief on Questions 
Arising on the Pleadings in Civil Actions " appeared. The object of 
these works was to aid in clearing and simplifying the technical 
difficulties of procedure, and in reducing the number of mistrials, 
thus facilitating contests on their merits. These works have been 
adopted as text-books and desk-books for the bench in all parts of 
the country. Few legal works have had so extended a circulation 
in so short space of time. Speaking of these books, the Albany 
Law Journal says: " The treatment is in every way admirable. The 
series of four is indispensable to the safe conduct of causes, civil 
and criminal. There is no other living lawyer who devotes such 
shining powers to the benefit of his profession in such unambitious 
and practical ways." 

In 1889 the University of the City of New York conferred on Mr. 
Abbott the degree of doctor of laws, and in 1891 he was appointed 
dean of the Law School of the University, with the chair of plead- 
ing, equity, and evidence, he having already lectured in the special 
course of the institution for several years. By his advice the under- 
graduate course was revised and enlarged and the practical features 
were increased, as the best preliminary introduction to the theory 
of the law, and a graduate course, founded on the same principle, 
was adopted; improvements which have resulted in a great increase 
of numbers in the school, and a higher grade of instruction. Among 
Mr. Abbott's other works are " Reports of Practice Cases," " Report 
of New Cases," " New Practice and Forms." 

Mr. Abbott was one of the foremost members of the NeAV York 
bar, and died universally lamented. 




10 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

BBOTT, JOHN BEACH (born in Dansville, Livingston 
county, New York, December 31, 1854), is the son of 
<5f^v|P: Adoniram J. and Mary .lane Beach Abbott. After attend- 
' ing academic institutions he entered the Geneseo State 

Normal School, from which he was graduated in 1875. He then stud- 
ied for two years at the University of Rochester, but did not gradu- 
ate. He was prepared for the legal profession under the direction of 
his father, and was admitted to the bar at Rochester in October, 1880. 
Soon afterward he engaged in practice at Rochester, where he con- 
tinued until the spring of 1884. He has since been in successful 
practice at Geneseo. 

In February, 1888, he was appointed by President Cleveland post- 
master of Geneseo, an office which he held for two years. Since 
May, 1886, he has been editor of the Livingston Democrat, of Geneseo. 




|CKERLY, NATHANIEL SCUDDER (born in Northport, 
Long Island, May 29, 1843), is the son of Samuel Ackerly 
and Jane Scudder. In the paternal line he is descended 
from an old family which emigrated from Haddam, 
Connecticut, to Long Island early in the last century. His great- 
grandfather on his mother's side, Edmund Scudder, was in the rev- 
olutionary war, and at one time was confined in the prison ship. 

Nathaniel S. Ackerly attended country schools until soon after 
the completion of his eighteenth year. In August, 1S61, he enlisted 
in Company K., 48th New York state volunteers, and for a 
period of two years he was engaged in active service. In the charge 
on Battery Wagner, South Carolina, July IS, 1S63, he lost his left 
arm, and in the November following he received his discharge, being 
awarded a medal for gallant and meritorious conduct by Major-Gen- 
eral Q. A. Gilmore, commanding. 

After leaving the army Mr. Ackerly attended the Albany State 
Normal School, from which he was graduated in March, 1S66. He 
also completed a course at the Albany Law School, was admitted 
to the bar at Albany, May 4, 1S6S, and later was admitted to prac- 
tice successively in the United States District and Circuit Courts of 
New York, and the United States Supreme Court. For a period of 
about six months after his admission to the bar he pursued profes- 
sional studies in the office of J. Lawrence Smith. In 1S69 he began 
practice iu his native place, Northport, Long Island, and he has 
ever since been active, conspicuous, and successful at the Long 
Island bar, and in connection with important interests and public 
concerns. 

He has been especially prominent in the notable work of estab- 
lishing the title of the Town of Huntington to the lands under the 
waters of its harbors and bays, and to the ownership of shell-fish 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 11 

rights thus involved, under patents or grants made to the town by 
the colonial governors. The cases of Bobbins vs. Ackerly (91 N. Y., 
98) and Lowndes vs. the Town of Huntington (153 U. S., 1) establish 
such title, respectively, to the lands under Northport Harbor and 
those under Huntington Bay. 

Mr. Ackerly was one of the first persons to engage in the artificial 
cultivation of oysters on the New York side of Long Island Sound 
and to encourage others to develop that important industry. He 
was instrumental in procuring the enactment of state legislation 
granting the use of lands exclusively for that purpose, and he has 
prosecuted special studies bearing upon oyster culture, which have 
contributed to a large increase in the production. 

He was a member of the New York state constitutional conven- 
tion of 1894. 

In 1870 Mr. Ackerly married Mary M. Davis, of Kingston, New 
York. They have six children living. 



IfpppFpCKLEY, OLIVES SMITE (born in Champion, Jefferson 
■■j^j^Jf county, New York, .May 15, 1835), is the son of Oliver and 
ra^2§^1 Lydia Bead Ackley. His father, who removed from Con- 
' ' necticut to Jefferson county, New York, in 1807, was a 

soldier in the war of 1812, participating in the battle of Sackett's 
Harbor. Three of his ancestors fought in the Bevolution. 

He removed with his parents from Champion to Watertown, Jef- 
ferson county, New York, in 1847, where he attended school at the 
Jefferson County Institute until 1853. He was graduated from 
Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Massachusetts, in 1856, studied 
law at the State and National Law School at Poughkeepsie, from 
which he was graduated in August, 1857, and was admitted to the 
bar at Albany, September 7, 1857. He soon afterward opened a law 
office in New York City, where he has since continued in successful 
practice. 



LBBO, WILLIAM CLAEK, was born August 16, 1848. He 
attended the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Massa- 
chusetts, Cornell University, and the Columbia Col- 
lege Law School, then under the direction of Theodore W. 
Dwight, and received from the latter institution the degree of 
bachelor of laws. He was admitted to the bar in 1874, and has 
since been engaged in the practice of his profession in Pough- 
keepsie. His practice is of a general character. He has been execu- 
tor or administrator of several important estates. Since 1891 he has 
been a member of the Poughkeepsie Board of Education. He has 
always taken an active interest in the public schools. 





12 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

LDEN, HARRY WILBUR (born in Hudson, Columbia 
county, New York, June 22, 1872), is the son of George 
W. and Jennie Miller Alden. He is a direct descendant 
of John Alden, who won the " Puritan maiden Priscilla," 
immortalized by Longfellow's verse. On his mother's side he is de- 
scended from Cornells Stephense Muller, who emigrated from Hol- 
land to the valley of the Hudson in 1651. His maternal great-grand- 
father, Honorable Killian Miller, was one of the leaders of the Co- 
lumbia county bar of his time, and served in the state legislature 
and in the national congress. Mr. Alden's grandfather, Henry Mil- 
ler, was also a lawyer and a prominent and highly esteemed citizen. 

Harry W. Alden was graduated at the Hudson High School in 
1889, being the valedictorian of his class. He entered the competi- 
tive examination for entrance to Cornell University, ranking third 
in the list of competitors from the entire state. He decided, how- 
ever, to at once fit himself for the legal profession, and to this end 
first took a course in stenography in the Albany Business College 
and then entered the law offices of Cady & Hoysradt, of Hudson, as 
a student. Upon the dissolution of this firm in 1892 he accepted 
the position of managing clerk with Honorable J. Rider Cady, county 
judge of Columbia county, and continued to act in that capacity 
until September, 1893, when he entered the Albany Law School. 
Meantime he was very successful as a stenographer. In 1891 he was 
appointed official reporter of the Columbia County Court and Court 
of Sessions. In the fall of that year he was employed by the repub- 
lican county committee to report the proceedings in the celebrated 
Deane electoral contest, and subsequently the canvassing board, 
although democratic, made him its official stenographer. 

Having successfully pursued his studies at the Albany Law 
School, Mr. Alden was admitted to the bar in February, 1891. He 
thereupon, at Judge Cady's request, resumed his position as manag- 
ing clerk in the latter's office, but also began to practice independ- 
ently. One of his first cases was the successful defense before a 
naval court of inquiry of a public official against whom grave 
charges had been presented. This brought him prominently before 
the public. In December, 1891, he was elected civil justice of the 
City of Hudson, a notable success in view of the large normal demo- 
cratic majority. In January, 1896, by the passage through the legis- 
lature of the Hudson city charter, he was made city judge, with entire 
jurisdiction over criminal and civil cases in the city. 

Since his admission to the bar he has been quite extensively en- 
gaged in active litigation, and has successfully conducted several 
cases of importance. 

In the spring of 1896 Judge Alden was instrumental, with others, 
in obtaining the passage by the legislature of the bill for the erec- 
tion of a state armory at Hudson. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 13 

LEXANDER, DE ALVA STANWOOD (born in Richmond, 
Maine, July 17, 1846), is the son of Stanwood Alexander 
and Priscilla Brown (born in Lockport, Niagara county, 
New York). In 1858 he went to Ohio with his mother, and 
during the war served three years as a private soldier in the 128th 
Regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry. Leaving the army in 1865, he 
returned to Maine, fitted for college at the Edward Little Institute 
in Auburn, and in 1866 entered Bowdoin College. He was graduated 
in 1870, receiving the degree of bachelor of arts, and three years 
later that of master of arts. He was a member of the Delta Kappa 
Epsilon fraternity. 

Upon leaving college he taught school in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 
but soon afterward became editor of the Fort. Wayne Gazette, a daily 
and weekly newspaper. In 1871 he was made staff correspondent of 
the Cincinnati Gazette, with headquarters at Indianapolis, where, 
in the same year, he began the study of law under the tuition of ex- 
United States Senator Joseph E. McDonald. He was admitted to 
the bar at Indianapolis in January, 1877, and formed a partnership 
with Honorable Stanton J. Pelle, now of the Court of Claims, City 
of Washington. 

Mr. Alexander served four years as secretary of the republican 
state committee of Indiana. In 1881 he was appointed auditor of 
the state department at Washington, an office which he held until 
1SS5, when he came to Buffalo, entering into a legal association with 
Honorable James A. Roberts, afterward comptroller of the state, 
who was a college classmate. In May, 1889, he was appointed by 
President Harrison United States district attorney for the northern 
district of New York, holding the office until December, 1893. While 
in Washington Mr. Alexander was elected and served as comman- 
der of the department of the Potomac, Grand Army of the Republic. 
He is now (1897) serving a term in congress, to which he was elected 
from the 33d district in 1896. 



LLISON, THOMAS (born in New York City, September 19, 
1840), is the son of Michael Allison and Susan Gentil, both 
of New York families. His grandparents on his father's 
side were Richard Allison and Elizabeth Ruckel, the for- 
mer of New York, the latter of Saint John's, New Brunswick. 

Mr. Allison was graduated from the public schools, and in 1860 
from the College of the City of New York. He studied law immedi- 
ately after, entering the office of ex-Judge John W. Edmonds, of the 
Supreme Court, and was admitted to the bar in 1861. After his ad- 
mission to the bar he served for many years as a clerk, but steadily 
advanced until he had achieved his present professional standing. 
While his private practice has include cases frequently cited, he 




14 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

has won especial prominence in municipal law, being employed as 
special counsel in cases in which the city was a party by every cor- 
poration counsel irrespective of political affiliations, from ex-Secre- 
tary Whitney to the present time. Judge Allison brought the suit 
in which Hubert O. Thompson enjoined Tammany Hall from initiat- 
ing 167 new members, thus balking the scheme to control the presi- 
dential nomination in the Tilden campaign. While Edward Cooper 
was mayor he argued against the Public Burdens bill before the 
senate committee, and secured its rejection after it had passed the 
assembly. By means of this bill Tammany Hall had sought to leg- 
islate the county democracy out of office. He represented the city 
as sole counsel throughout the Broadway surface railroad litiga- 
tion, obtaining the final injunction restraining the board of alder- 
men from passing the ordinance giving the franchise to the Broad- 
way company. He represented the city in proceedings to condemn 
lands for the speedway, and reduced the claims for damages from 
13,850,000 to $255,000. Mr. Allison's private practice has also been 
extensive. Among his cases may be mentioned that of the Tenth 
National Bank, in which he recovered a judgment for nearly $400,- 
000; Greery vs. Cockfort; Mechanics' and Traders' Bank vs. Crow; 
Avery vs. Willson; Mabie vs. Bailey; in re the Third Avenue Savings 
Bank in the matter of Juch; and Abernethy vs. Knight, involving 
intricate points of the law of partnerships. 

In the following cases the opinions delivered by Mr. Allison as 
referee have been accepted by the courts on appeal as their opinion, 
and ordered printed in official reports: Jordan vs. Haran, 56 Superior 
Court (24 J. & S.), 185; Avery vs. Jacob, 15 N. Y. Supp., 564 and 59 
Superior Court (27 J. & S.), 585; Leadbetter vs. N. H. Leadbetter 
Ltd., 11th New York Supp., 228. 

For nine years Mr. Allison was at the head of the firm of Allison & 
Shaw. Since May, 1882, he has practiced alone, being employed 
almost exclusively to try cases for other lawyers. In politics Judge 
Allison has been with the people against machine domination even in 
his own party. In 1880 he was the citizens', republican, and county 
democracy candidate for judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and 
polled about 92,000 votes, winning from the press, irrespective of 
party, the most cordial tributes. In April, 1895, by Governor Mor- 
ton, he was appointed a judge of the Court of General Sessions, suc- 
ceeding Honorable Kandolph B. Martine, deceased. He proved an 
able judge. During his term of eight months occurred some of the 
most difficult cases ever tried in that court, including that of Sheriff 
Tamsen. He was nominated to succeed himself by the republicans, 
state democracy, and good government clubs, and in the election in 
the fall of 1895 polled over 110,000 votes, the highest vote on the 
tickets on which his name appeared. At the very end of his term as 
judge, the jurors who had served under him presented him with a 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YORK 15 

silver and ivory gavel and set of resolutions, while the members of 
the bar who had practiced before him presented him with a silver 
service, the presentation speech being made by General Benjamin 
F. Tracy. 

On August 30, 1871, Judge Allison was married to Mary C, daugh- 
ter of the late William E. Millet, of New York. Three sons and 
three daughters were born to them, of whom only the daughters sur- 




]NDEESON, ELBEET ELLERY (born in New York City, 
October 31, 1833), is the son of Henry James Anderson, 
also born in New York, a man of singular attainments in 
languages, the classics, modern literature, and mathe- 
matics. 

Mr. Anderson traveled in Europe, Asia, and Africa from 1813 to 
181S, was graduated from Harvard College, and admitted to the New 
York bar in 1854, since which time he has continuously practiced 
law in New York, appearing as counsel in many notable cases. In 
late years he has conducted extensive railroad litigations, and has 
accomplished a number of successful reorganizations. In the suit 
against Jay Gould, to recover interest on the income bond coupons 
of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company, he secured the 
payment of more than .$2,000,000 to his clients. 

But Mr. Anderson is even better known, perhaps, for his promi- 
nent services in the cause of reform in the democratic party. In 
1871 he was actively engaged in the fight against the Tweed ring. 
He subsequently joined Tammany Hall, and for several years was 
its chairman in the 11th district; but in 1879 withdrew, and, with 
Abram S. Hewitt, William C. Whitney, and Edward Cooper, organ- 
ized the county democracy, and for some years was chairman of its 
general committee. He was active in the reform campaign of 1881, 
resulting in the election of William R. Grace as mayor. He has also 
been one of the most effective champions of tariff reform, and in 
recent years a leader of the Cleveland element of the democratic 
party in New York. His energy in the organization of the " Anti- 
Snappers " in 1892, in revolt against the democratic " Snap " con- 
vention of that year, was a chief, if not the principal, factor in de- 
feating Senator Hill and securing the nomination of President Cleve- 
land by the democratic national convention at Chicago. He was 
prominent during the campaign of the same year, preceding Mr. 
Cleveland's election, as president of the reform club and chairman 
of the tariff reform committee. 

Mr. Anderson has declined nominations as Supreme Court justice, 
and has never held a political office. He has accepted a number of 
public trusts, however, such as school trustee, rapid transit commis- 




16 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

siouer, and commissioner in reference to acquiring; lands both for 
the Croton aqueduct and the elevated railway. In 1SS7 President 
Cleveland appointed him a commissioner to investigate the affairs of 
the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railway companies, and the 
majority report of the commission was prepared by him. 

During the civil war Mr. Anderson served as major in the New 
York state militia, and, going to the front in 1S62, was captured by 
Stonewall Jackson. He was subsequently released on parole. 



NDERSON, HENRY HILL (born in Boston, Massachu- 
setts, November 9, 1827; died at York Harbor, Maine, Sep- 
tember 17, 1896), was the son of Reverend Doctor Rufus 
Anderson, Senior, a graduate of Bowdoin College and a 
distinguished clergyman of Boston. His grandfather, Reverend 
Rufus Anderson, was a graduate of Dartmouth College and a man 
of great force of character. The family is of Scotch descent and 
long settled in the State of Maine. Mr. Anderson's grandmother 
was a cousin of Chief Justice Parsons, of Massachusetts. 

Mr. Anderson was prepared for college at Phillips Academy (An- 
dover, Massachusetts), entering that institution in 1841 and gradu- 
ating in 1811. In 1818 he graduated from Williams College, cum 
lemde, subsequently (in 1851) receiving the degree of master of arts. 

Immediately after his graduation, in 1818, he came to New York 
and commenced reading law, supporting himself as instructor in 
the Friends' School, then at the corner of Elizabeth and Hester 
streets. In the spring of 1819 he entered the office of Henry E. 
Davies, then counsel to the corporation, and the same year was ad- 
mitted to the bar. His work in the office of Judge Davies was one 
of large responsibility, being chiefly the trial of important cases for 
the city. He was almost immediately intrusted with the prepara- 
tion and trial of the famous " New Jersey fire cases," arising out of 
the blowing up of buildings in New York by Mayor Lawrence during 
the great fire of 1835. These suits, involving over a million dollars, 
were brought against Mayor Lawrence in New Jersey, and after a 
hard-fought litigation resulted finally in a verdict for the city. He 
was also at this time employed by the Croton Water Board to ac- 
quire land for the Central Park reservoir, and in these and other 
important matters was brought in direct contact Avith such distin- 
guished lawyers of that day as Francis B. Cutting, Daniel Lord, and 
James T. Brady. 

In 1852 Mr. Anderson formed a partnership with Amiel J. Willard 
and Peter B. Sweeny, under the name of Willard, Sweeny & Ander- 
son. The firm from its inception acquired a large practice in public 
matters. They were engaged in the establishment of the 8th 
avenue horse-car railroad, then owned bv George Law, Senior, and 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 17 

were employed in most of the early city railroad litigation. They 
successfully conducted for Kuss & Reid the protracted litigation 
against the city arising out of the laying of the stone block pavement 
in Broadway, the first block pavement laid in New York City. 

Claudius L. Monell, afterward judge of the Superior Court, be- 
came a member of the firm. This firm continued until 1857, when, 
having met with a severe family affliction in the loss of his wife and 
two children, Mr. Anderson retired and spent two years in foreign 
travel. 

Returning in 1859, he was called by Honorable Greene C. Bronson, 
then counsel to the corporation, to act as assistant. In this position 
he remained over three years, taking entire charge of the trial of all 
the cases for the city. He was a partner of Judge Bronson until the 
judge's death in 1863, when he formed a partnership with Mason 
Young, Honorable Henry E. Howland afterward becoming a part- 
ner. Mr. Young subsequently retired. Later George W. Murray 
and Henry B. Anderson were admitted to membership, the firm con- 
tinuing as Anderson, Howland & Murray to the present time. 

Mr. Anderson in 1871 received the nomination for Supreme Court 
judge from the Apollo Hall Democracy, but was defeated by Judge 
Noah Davis. He thereafter steadily refused public office, and al- 
though in 1872 nominated by Tammany Hall for judge of the Supe- 
rior Court, and subsequently offered by Mayor Wickham the office of 
counsel to the corporation, he refused both honors, preferring to 
devote his time to an increasing private practice. 

Mr. Anderson enjoyed a high standing at the New York bar, as a 
sound logician and a direct, forceful speaker. For many years he 
had been the adviser for numerous large estate and corporation in- 
terests, and as referee decided many important cases. 

He was always a sincere churchman, and was for years a vestry- 
man of Calvary Protestant Episcopal Church when Doctor Satter- 
lee, now bishop, was its rector. A member of many clubs, he was 
particularly active in the organization of the University Club in its 
present form and was elected its first president, continuing in that 
office for nine successive years, during which the club grew into a 
condition of sound prosperity. 

The long period of his active life brought Mr. Anderson in contact 
with most of the men of prominence in New York during its latter 
history, and gave him a broad understanding of men and affairs. He 
was careful in his judgments, tenacious of his conclusions, a for- 
midable adversary, and a jealous guardian of the honor of the profes- 
sion. 

He traveled considerably, both in this country and abroad, and 
was always fond of out-of-door life, having spent four or five sum- 
mers yachting along the New England coast. 

His family consists of his wife (Sarah B., daughter of the late 



18 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

William P. Burrall, of Hartford) and bis three sons, Henry B., Will- 
iam R, and Chandler P., all of whom are actively practicing law in 
New York. 






fNDERSON, GEORGE EDWARD (born at German Flats, 
now Mahopac Mines, New York, June 24, 1853), is the son 
of Peter Anderson and Mary Austin. His paternal great- 
grandfather, Peter Anderson, came to this country from 
Scotland about 1750 and settled upon the farm at Mahopac Mines, 
which has been in the family ever since. His mother's family has 
also lived in that locality for about the same period of time; her 
grandfather, Job Austin, was a patriot soldier in the Revolution. 

Mr. Anderson received his early education in the public schools, 
and was graduated from the State Normal School, at Albany, in 
1873. He was prepared for the bar at the Union University Law 
School, at Albany, and under the direction of Calvin Frost, of 
Peekskill, Westchester county. He was admitted to the bar at 
Albany, May 18, 1876, and siuce shortly after that date he has been 
in continuous practice at Carmel, Putnam county. 



fpjrrillXDKEWS, CHARLES (born in the Village of New York 
refjjlr: Mills, Town of Whitestown, Oneida county, New i'ork, 
I^PSg^ May 27, 1827), is descended from a Xew England ances- 
t==J try. He attended the public school and the seminary of 
the Oneida Conference at Cazenovia, studied law in the office of 
Sedgwick & Outwater at Syracuse, and was admitted to the bar in 
January, 1849. After a brief practice alone he formed with Charles 
B. Sedgwick the firm of Sedgwick & Andrews, to which George D. 
Kennedy was admitted in 1855. From 1851 to 1857 he served as 
district attorney of Onondaga county. Heartily in sympathy with 
the principles of the newly organized republican party, he became 
one of its most prominent men in Syracuse and that part of the 
state. He was elected mayor of Syracuse in 1861, and again in 1868. 
He w r as one of the delegates-at-large to the constitutional conven- 
tion of 1867. 

In May, 1870, he was elected an associate judge of the Court of 
Appeals. Upon the resignation by Charles J. Folger, in 1881, of the 
office of chief-judge of the court, he was appointed to succeed him. 
In 1882 he was a candidate for re-election on the republican ticket. 
In that celebrated campaign, in consequeuce of republican factional 
quarrels, the entire republican ticket was defeated by tremendous 
majorities, Grover Cleveland being chosen governor by 192,000. The 
majority against Judge Andrews, however, was 120,000 less than that 
against the head of the ticket. Resuming his professional career, 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 19 

be continued in active practice until January, 1893, when, having 
been elected for another term in the Court of Appeals, he once more 
took his seat upon that bench. On January 1, 1895, he for the sec- 
ond time became chief-judge, succeeding Judge Earl, who had re- 
tired, having reached the age limit. 

Judge Andrews married in 1855 a daughter of Judge Shankland, 
of Cortland. 




|NDEEWS, GEORGE PEIRCE (born in North Bridgeton, 
Maine, September 29, 1S35), is the son of Solomon An- 
drews and Sibyl Ann Farnsworth, both of old puritan 
families of New England. Upon the completion of a com- 
mon and high school course, Mr. Andrews attended Williston Semi- 
nary, Easthampton, Massachusetts, and Dudley's Institute, North- 
ampton, Massachusetts, aud graduated from Yale College in 1858, 
having been elected class orator. Upon the completion of his col- 
lege course Judge Andrews began the study of law in Portland, 
Maiue, in the office of Honorable William Pitt Fessenden, United 
States senator from that state, and subsequently secretary of the 
treasury. A little later he spent a year in the south as private tutor, 
and then coming to New York City, entered the office of Henry P. 
Fessenden, a cousin of the senator. Two years later he was ad- 
mitted to the bar, and at once opened an office in New York, which 
city has been continuously since the field of his activities as lawyer 
and judge. 

Under the Buchanan administration Judge Andrews was ap- 
pointed assistant district attorney for the southern district of New 
York, a position he filled for six years, under four different chiefs. 
A remarkable tribute to the esteem iu which he was held was the ac- 
tion of E. Delafield Smith, one of the chiefs under whom he served, 
himself a republican, who refused absolutely to entertain the re- 
quest of a delegation of republicans that Mr. Andrews be removed 
from office on the ground that he was a democrat. In his official 
position Mr. Andrews's practice covered a wide and varying field, 
especially including revenue cases, criminal prosecutions, and inter- 
nal revenue, bankruptcy, common law, and equity suits. 

From 1872 to 1882 Judge Andrews served as assistant counsel to 
the corporation of New York City; and during two years immedi- 
ately following he was corporation counsel. His service in this po- 
sition was thus characterized at the time: 

Mr. Andrews as corporation counsel is the legal adviser of all the depart- 
ments of the city government, the mayor, the commissioners of the sinking 
fund, hoard of estimate and apportionment, aqueduct commission, gas commis- 
sion, and board of assessors, and is himself a member of the board for the 
revision and correction of assessments and city record board. Indefatigable as 
a worker, Mr. Andrews's time, outside of the litigated business of his office, is 



20 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

largely occupied in investigating the laws pertaining to the departments and 
their proper administration, and in answering the thousand- and-one questions 
that are submitted to him by the various branches of the city government. 
Since his occupancy of office, he has written hundreds of opinions on questions 
relating to departmental law and other matters. He has personally appeared 
in court and conducted very many important and difficult cases, and has been 
signally successful in compelling the payment of taxes by banks, railroads, 
telegraph and insurance companies, and other corporations. The amount 
actually realized to the city by the efforts of Mr. Andrews in this direction in 
the past two or three years is between three and four millions of dollars. The 
saving to the city in resisting fictitious and fraudulent claims has saved many 
millions more. Mr. Andrews is a genial gentleman, broad in his views, and a 
friend to all classes. With no bigotry toward any party or factions, he is an 
honest worker for unity and the greatest good to the greatest number. 

In November, 1S83, be was elected a justice of the Supreme Court 
for the 1st judicial district. Iu this position he has distinguished 
himself by his judicial temperameut and his able decisions. 




NSLEY, HUDSON (born in Collins, Erie county, New York, 
January 15, 1S3S), is the son of Hudson Ansley and Maria 
Heaton, both of English descent. About 1830 his parents 
removed to this state from Pennsylvania. He was edu- 
cated at district school and at the Gowanda and Fredonia academies, 
taught school for five terms, studied law with Torance & Allen, of 
Gowanda, and was admitted to the bar at Buffalo in October, 1863. 
After practicing for about six months at Gowanda in association 
with Honorable Henry F. Allen, he removed to Salamanca, where 
he has since resided. In Salamanca he was for eight years in part- 
nership with Honorable O. S. Yreeland, now county judge, and for 
twelve years with Honorable C. D. Davie, now surrogate. His pres- 
ent partner is John J. Spencer. 

Mr. Ansley has pursued a general practice. He was counsel for 
the defense in the important case of Mary Wileman, charged with 
poisoning her husband. She was convicted of murder on the trial, 
but the general term on appeal reversed the conviction, and when 
tried again she was acquitted. 

For several months during the war Mr. Ansley was connected 
with the Glth New York regiment as hospital steward. He has held 
the offices of supervisor of the Town of Salamanca for seven years, 
surrogate for nine months by appointment from Governor Robinson, 
attorney for the Seneca nation of Indians from 1882 to 1892, and 
postmaster of Salamanca since 1895. 

He has been a director in the 1st National Bank of Salamanca 
since its organization in 1878, and is also a director in the Salamanca 
Water Works Company, a private corporation for supplying water 
and electric light for the village. He is a member of the G. A. R. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 21 

t(W"VP N0LD ' CHARLES w - H - ( born in New York Cit y. Ma y 

: ' v • 5, 1860), is the son of Henry Arnold and Margaret Hem- 
street, both of German families, his father having been 
born in Germany and his mother in this country. He at- 
tended the common schools, and, for a brief period, the Claverack 
Institute, studied law with J. S. Van Cleef, of Poughkeepsie, was ad- 
mitted to the bar in Brooklyn, December 13, 1883, and has since that 
date pursued his profession at Poughkeepsie, being one of the well- 
known practitioners of that part of the state. He was a member of 
the constitutional convention of 1894. 




ACKUS, HENRY CLINTON (bom in Utica, New York, 
May 31, 1848), is the son of Charles Chapman Backus and 
Harriet Newell Baldwin. His ancestors were puritans, 
the first, William Backus, coming from Eugland and set- 
tling at Saybrook, Connecticut, about 1637. He and his son Stephen 
were among those who twenty-two years later received letters pat- 
ent for and settled Norwich, Connecticut. In 1700 his grandson, 
Stephen, settled the town of Canterbury, Connecticut. From 1741 
to 1756 Timothy Backus engaged with success in a keen theological 
discussion causing much dissension in New England. Elisha 
Backus, great-grandfather of Henry C, was a major in the Revolu- 
tion, and among the soldiers under General Putnam at the battle of 
Bunker Hill. At the close of the war he removed to Onondaga 
county, New York, settling the Village of Manlius. His son Elisha 
was a colonel in the war of 1S12, and after its close owned and oper- 
ated the stage route connecting Utica with Watertown and Ogdens- 
burg, New York. Charles Chapman Backus, his son, was a promi- 
nent citizen of Utica, where for several years he was a member of 
the book concern and publishing house of Bennett, Backus & Haw- 
ley, and issued the Baptist Register, now the Examiner, of New York, 
which is the leading baptist publication in the country. He removed 
to New York City about 1850, and became active in the formation of 
the American Express Company and in other enterprises. His wife, 
Harriet Newell Baldwiu, was a daughter of Edward Baldwin, who 
came to this country from Wales in 1800, settling in Utica, New 
York, in 1805. 

Henry Clinton Backus received his early education in the public 
schools of New York City, and at private schools and under private 
tutors. He prepared for college at Phillips Exeter Academy, New 
Hampshire, and entered Harvard University, from which he gradu- 
ated in 1871. He graduated from the Columbia College Law School 
in 1873, and was admitted to the bar of New York. He was at first 
connected with the office of Sanford, Robinson & Woodruff, and a 
year later with that of Beebe, Wilcox & Hobbs. The latter firm en- 



22 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

joyed a large admiralty practice in the United States courts, and Mr. 
Backus gained valuable experience in this department. He has 
acted as counsel in important cases, and in the management of es- 
tates. While not making a specialty of criminal practice, in the 
notable case of the State of Kansas vs. Baldwin he undoubtedly 
saved the life of an innocent man. Sentence of death had been 
passed upon the defendant for the murder of his sister, in response 
to local public clamor for a conviction. The Supreme Court of the 
state refused to rectify the wrong. Mr. Backus prepared an elab- 
orate brief, and caused the publication and distribution throughout 
Kansas of editorial articles in the New York Tribune, New York Sun, 
and the Albany Law Journal, thereby creating a counter public opin- 
ion which constrained the Governor of Kansas to investigate care- 
fully, and ultimately to grant the application for an absolute and 
unconditional pardon. 

Mr. Backus is a republican, and has been a member of the repub- 
lican county committee of New York for over ten years, during five 
of which he served upon its committee on resolutions. He secured 
the passage of an amendment to the constitution of the county com- 
mittee whereby twenty-five enrolled voters in any assembly district 
were empowered to compel the polls at any primary election to re- 
main open twelve instead of six hours. In 1891 he became a member 
of the executive committee of the republican county committee, and 
was chosen district leader of his assembly district. Frequently he 
has represented his district in county and state conventions. He 
has refused nominations for the assembly, for surrogate, and for 
judge of the City Court. In 1893 he was nominated to represent the 
7th senatorial district in the constitutioual convention of New York, 
but the district was overwhelmingly democratic. He was a member 
of the committee upon the construction of the monument on River- 
side drive, New York City, to Ulysses S. Grant. 

Mr. Backus is a member of the Chelsea Republican Club, the 
Dwight Alumni Association, the city and state bar associations, a 
fellow of the American Geographical Society, and an honorary 
member of the Railway Conductors' Club of North America. 




ALDWIN, GEORGE VAN NEST (born in New York City, 
January 23, 1838), is the son of Reverend Doctor Eli Bald- 
win, for many years pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church, 
asea formerly located at the corner of Greene and Houston 
streets, New York City, and is lineally descended from Joseph Bald- 
win, a member of the original colony of New Haven, one of the found- 
ers of the settlement of Milford, Connecticut, in 1639, and who sub- 
sequently removed to Newark with the band of pioneers who founded 
that city. He was of the ancient family of Baldwin, settled in Bucks 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



23 



county, England, prior to the accession of William the Conqueror. 
The line can be traced in direct descent from John Baldwin, who in 
1485 inherited from his brother Richard " the Manor of Otterarsfee," 
acquired " in socage of the King, by the service of finding litter for 
the King's bed." A century later the family is described as " of the 





^Jr/3^U/^ 



Manor of Dundridge " — a gift from the king in 1544 to Sir John 
Baldwin, chief-justice of the Common Pleas from 1536 to 1546. A 
later descendant, Richard Baldwin, of Cholesbury, County Bucks, 
was the father of Joseph Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin's great-grandfather, 
Ezekiel Baldwin, was a revolutionary patriot, serving among the 



24 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

New Jersey troops. On bis mother's side he is descended from the 
old Dutch family of Van Nest. His great-grandfather, George Van 
Nest, served during the revolutionary war in the New Jersey line in 
Captain Jacob Ten Eyck's company, 1st battalion. After the war 
he was a resident of Somerset county, New Jersey, and a large land- 
owner and slaveholder. Mr. Baldwin's grandfather, Abraham Van 
Nest, was a wealthy New York merchant and owned a handsome 
country seat in the part of the present city then known as Green- 
wich village. 

Mr. Baldwin was prepared for college at a private school at New 
Brunswick, New Jersey, and graduated from Rutgers College in 
1856 and from the Columbia College Law School in 1860. In the 
latter institution he took first honors, winning the first prize of |250. 
He was admitted to the New York bar, and from that time to the 
present has been in active practice in this city, enjoying a large and 
successful business and recognition as one of the leading members 
of the bar. He has deyoted much attention to the law of trusts and 
the investigation and trial of causes arising under it. In recent 
years his practice has been largely as a consulting lawyer and in the 
management of large estates. 

Mr. Baldwin was one of the original members of the Bar Associa- 
tion, was the first vice-president and one of the founders of the Uni- 
versity Club, and for many years a member of its council. He is the 
president of the board of trustees of the New York Society Library 
and a member of the Metropolitan, Union, and Century clubs, the 
Saint Nicholas Society, and various other social and literary associ- 
ations. 




ABGEB, SAMUEL F. (born in New York City, October 19, 
1832), is representative among lawyers who, haying dis- 
played not merely legal talent, but aptitude for the man- 
agement of practical affairs, have been induced to aban- 
don general practice to devote their whole energies to building up 
a single great interest. The demands of the yast corporations which 
have sprung up in America have created a special department for 
the adjustment of business intricacies. The association of men with 
legal training and executive ability with a single enterprise is an- 
other step in this development. The Vanderbilts have been among 
the first to recognize the advantage of this, and their policy of call- 
ing to their aid such helpers as Mr. Barger and Mr. Depew has been 
justified by the results. With the continued development of cor- 
porate enterprises we may expect to see frequent imitations of this 
policy; yet the credit of establishing the precedent must always re- 
main with the Vanderbilt management, and the two lawyers named 
will hold a unique place in the history of contemporaneous legal 
practice. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 25 

Mr. Barger is descended from Dutch ancestors who came to New 
Amsterdam in the early days of the settlement, and located on Staten 
Island. He was educated at the Columbia College Grammar School, 
conducted by Doctor Charles Anthon, and the University of the City 
of New York, then under the chancellorship of Theodore Freling- 
huysen; and studying law in the office of Honorable Aaron S. Pen- 
jngton, of Paterson, New Jersey, was admitted to the New Jersey 
bar in 1854, and to the New York bar in 1855. Beginning practice in 
New York City, he exhibited such abilities as to attract the attention 
of the late Commodore Vanderbilt, who employed him in various 
legal capacities, and in 18(37, when Mr. Barger had been in practice 
but twelve years, associated him with himself as a director of the 
New York Central Railroad Company. 

From this time Mr. Barger's energies were employed almost ex- 
clusively in building up this enterprise. With the consolidation of 
the " Central " and " Hudson Biver " companies 1 in 1869, he became 
a director of the new organization, Mr. Depew then holding the post 
of corporation attorney. The details of Mr. Barger's efforts from 
that time to the present in assisting in the acquisition and develop- 
ment of the western lines and various connections which make this 
great railroad system what it is cannot be entered into here. His 
success has doubtless been due to his ability to add to business quali- 
fications of the first order the advantage of looking at all questions 
from the standpoint of a trained lawyer. According to the charac- 
terization by one of his colleagues, he also has " what seems to be 
an almost intuitive knowledge of men and human nature, and a re- 
markable faculty for judging abilities and motives in those with 
whom he comes in contact or has dealings." 2 

In addition to the responsible positions of director and member 
of the executive committee and chairman of the law committee of 
the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company, Mr. Bar- 
ger has for many years served in the same relation to the greater 
number of the chief allied lines. 3 While he has never permitted 
the use of his name in connection with political office, he has ac- 
cepted a few public trusts where his services were rendered gratu- 
itously, such as commissioner on the board of education of New 
York City, and commissioner by appointment of the legislature in 
18R0 to appraise the damage done the quarantine station on Staten 

1 The confidence in Mr. Barger entertained by the direc- Company. He is a trustee of the Union Trust Company. 
) companies, says the " Memorial History He was also a director and member of the e 



of New York," was "shown by the fact that he was chosen nnttee of the Western Union Telegraph Company from 

to preside over the famous meeting in Albany, November the death of Commodore Vanderbilt in 1ST7, until Jay 

1, I860, at whirh tii. us,, ligation was effected." Gould secured a controlling interest in 1881. when he 

2 Cited in " Memorial History of New York." resigned. Mr. Barger is the only surviving member of 

3 Including the Harlem Railroad, the West Shore. Lake the board of directors of the original "Central 1 ' corn- 
Shore & Michigan Southern. Chicago & Northwestern, pany prior to the consolidation of 1869. His associates 
Michigan Central, and the Canada Southern systems. in that body were Commodore Vanderbilt, William H. 
From its inception he has been a trustee of the Wagner Vanderbilt, Augustus Schell, Horace F. Clarke, Dauiel 
Palace Car Company: and he is a director of the Albany Torrance, C. W. Chapin. James H. Banker. H. H. Baxter, 
Bridge Company, and of the Canada Southern Bridge William A. Kissam, and George J Whitney. 



26 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Island by rioters. He likewise represented the State of New York 
as presidential elector on the democratic ticket in 1876. 

Mr. Barger occupies a prominent place in the social circles of New 
York City and Newport. He is a patron of art, and has collected 
many exquisite paintings. His library also contains many rare treas- 
ures of the book-making art. He is a life member both of the New 
York Historical and American Geographical societies, as well as of 
the Saint Nicholas Society, a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of 
Art, an attendant of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church (Doctor 
John Hall, pastor), and a well-known club man. 1 




jjARKER, GEORGE (born in Venice, Cayuga county, New 
York, November 6, 1823), is the son of John A. Barker, 
born of English ancestry in Queens county, New York, 
in 1787, and Phoebe Ogden, born in Elizabethtown, New 
Jersey, in 1787. His grandfather, Joseph Barker, was a revolution- 
ary soldier, who did service at and near Norwalk, Connecticut, 
where the family then resided. His mother was the daughter of 
Joseph Ogden, a descendant of John Ogden, one of the first settlers 
of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and the ancestor of the Ogden fami- 
lies in New Jersey and New Y T ork, many of whom have held distin- 
guished public positions and have been prominent in business affairs. 

Mr. Barker was educated at the common and select schools near 
his father's home, and at the Aurora Academy, Cayuga county, from 
which he was graduated in 1S13. He read law with David Wright, 
of Auburn, New York, was admitted to the bar at Auburn in No- 
vember, 1847, and commenced practice the following January at 
Fredonia, Chautauqua county, where he has ever since continued, de- 
voted to his profession and the discharge of official duties connected 
therewith. He at once interested himself in the affairs of the vil- 
lage, was its clerk for several successive terms, and was elected its 
president for two terms. He was elected district attorney for Chau- 
tauqua county in 1853, serving one term with marked efficiency in 
the prosecution of criminals. In 1862 he was re-elected to the office, 
but resigned before the expiration of his term, owing to the pressure 
of professional business. 

In 1867 he was a member of the constitutional convention and 
served on the judiciary committee and on the committee on organi- 
zation of the legislature, rendering effective service in both these 
capacities. In November, 1867, he was elected a justice of the Su- 
preme Court for the 8th judicial district, a position for which, by 
his wide and successful experience at the bar, his familiarity with 

1 He was one of the founders and early governors of Metropolitan, Knickerbocker, Racquet, Tennis, and New 
the Manhattan Club : for a number of years one of the York Yacht Clubs of New York, the Somerset Club of Bos- 
governing committee of the Union Club, of which he ha8 ton, and the Casino and Reading Room of Newport. 
been a member for thirty years : and a member of the 





^^7^ 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 27 

precedents and legal principles and his judicial temperament, he 
was specially qualified. In 1876 he was re-elected for a term of four- 
teen years, by the unanimous vote of the district, being nominated 
as a candidate by both the leading political parties. During the 
greater part of his last fourteen years on the bench he was a mem- 
ber of the general term for the 4th judicial department, and during 
the last part of his service was the presiding justice. In 1890 he was 
a member of the committee created to revise the judiciary article of 
the constitution. 

Judge Barker's half century of professional and public life has 
been characterized by unremitting toil and energy, conscientious de- 
votion to his profession, and successful achievement in its higher 
walks to which he has been called. An eloquent advocate before 
courts and juries, he has gained equal reputation as an able and im- 
partial judge. 

In 1857 he married Achsah Elizabeth Glisan (born in Frederick 
county, Maryland). His only child, Mary Elizabeth, is the wife of 
Honorable John Woodward, of Jamestown, New York, now one of 
the justices of the Supreme Court for the 8th judicial district of New 
York state. 



AELOW, FRANCIS CHANNING (born in Brooklyn, New 
York, October 19, 1834; died in New York City, January 
11, 1896), was the son of David Hatch Barlow. His father 
was a prominent unitarian minister, born at Windsor, 
Vermont, his mother a native of Brookline, Massachusetts. General 
Barlow graduated from Harvard College in 1855, taking the highest 
honor, and, pursuing his legal studies in the office of William Curtis 
Noyes, of New York, was admitted to the New York bar and prac- 
ticed continuously in that city, except when engaged in the public 
service, until his death. 

Soon after his admission to the bar the civil war broke out, and 
from April 19, 1861, to November 16, 1865, his career was one of con- 
tinuous and conspicuous military service to his country. Enrolling 
as a private in the engineer company of the 12th New York state 
militia volunteers, he emerged as major-general of volunteers, hav- 
ing been appointed to the full grade May 26, 1865. His promotion 
was rapid, his service gallant and daring throughout. He partici- 
pated with his regimental command, the 61st New York volunteers, 
in the battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia, May 31 and June 1, 1862; in the 
seven days' battle of the Peninsular campaign, including actions at 
Peach Orchard, June 29, 1862; White Oaks Swamp, June 30, 1862; 
Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862, and in the valley of Antietam, Maryland, 
September 17, 1862. With his brigade command (2d brigade, 2d di- 
vision, 11th army corps) he took part in the Chancellorsville cam- 




28 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

paign of May, 1863, and in the first day's battle at Gettysburg, July 1, 
1863. With his division command (1st division, 2d army corps) he 
participated in the battles of the Wilderness, May 5 and 6, 1864; 
Spottsylvania Court House, May 12 and 18, 1864; Cold Harbor, June 
3, 1864; and the campaign before Petersburg in June, July, and 
August, 1864, including the battle of Deep Bottom, Virginia, Au- 
gust 14, 1864. 

Returning from the war General Barlow was elected secretary of 
state of New York, serving from 1866 to 1867; was appointed United 
States marshal in 1869, and elected attorney-general of New York 
state for the years 1872-73. 

General Barlow appeared as counsel in the following litigations 
growing out of the Tweed frauds: People vs. Starkweather, People 
vs. Connolly, People vs. Ingersol, People vs. Tweed. While attor- 
ney-general he began the fight against the canal ring, which was car- 
ried on by his successors. He was counsel in the interest of deposi- 
tors in a number of savings bank litigations, including the follow- 
ing: French, Receiver, vs. O'Brien; Hun, Receiver, vs. Salter; Hun, 
Receiver, vs. Carey; Paine, Receiver, vs. Willett. He also appeared 
in many other prominent cases, bearing on corporation and general 
commercial law. 

ARNUM, FREDERIC STONE (born in Southeast, Putnam 
couuty, New York, June 17, 1858), is the son of LeRay Bar- 
num and Frances E. Stone. He was prepared for college 
at Amenia Seminary and Selleck's School (Norwalk, Con- 
necticut), and was graduated at Columbia University, receiving from 
that institution the degrees of bachelor of arts in 1879, bachelor of 
laws in 1881, and master of arts in 1882. He took the full course at 
Columbia Law School, being graduated in the class of 1881, served a 
professional apprenticeship in the office of Close & Robertson, at 
White Plains, and was admitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie, May 
21, 1881. He began practice at Brewsters, New York, subsequently 
practicing in New York City and White Plains. With the exception 
of a term as district attorney of Putnam county, to which office 
he was appointed in 1884 by Governor Cleveland, he has devoted 
himself to private practice. 




fARRETT, GEORGE CARTER (born in Ireland, July 28, 
183S), is the son of Reverend Gilbert Carter Barrett, a 
clergyman of the Church of England, who subsequently 
became a missionary to the Canadian Indians, and grand- 
son of Lieutenant John Carter Barrett, of the English army, who 
served in the campaigns against Napoleon, receiving a medal for 
braverv at Waterloo. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 29 

Judge Barrett was educated in the schools of London (West Can- 
ada), Columbia College Grammar School of New York, and Columbia 
College, leaving the latter at the end of his freshman year to begin 
the study of law. He largely supported himself at this time by con- 
tributing articles to the newspapers and short stories and serials to 
various literary periodicals. He was engaged in the successful prac- 
tice of law for several years after his admission to the bar, and in 
1SG3 was elected justice of the 6th judicial district of New York City. 
In 1S69 he was elected a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, serving 
one year and nine months, when he resigned to resume practice as a 
lawyer. 

Just at this time, however, occurred the attack upon the Tweed 
ring, iu which Judge Barrett was active. Of the Young Men's Munic- 
ipal Reform Association, which so strenuously opposed Tweed, he 
was president; while he was also a member of the reform Committee 
of Seventy of that period, serving as its counsel, with A. R. Lawrence, 
Francis C. Barlow, and Wheeler H. Peckham. He was counsel of 
John Foley in the famous injunction suit brought against the ring. 

In 1871 Judge Barrett was elected a justice of the Supreme Court, 
for the term of fourteen years, and in 1885 was re-elected. He was 
transferred to the Supreme Court by the state constitution of 1894, 
and is one of the seven members of its Appellate Division. " Identi- 
fied for nearly a quarter of a century with the Supreme Court, al- 
though at all times possessed of unusual political power, yet unsul- 
lied in reputation either as a man, lawyer, or judge, it is not an un- 
fitting tribute that Judge Barrett should be one of the original seven 
members of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the 1st 
judicial district of the State of New York.'' 1 




EACH, MILES (born at Saratoga Springs, New York, in 
1833), is the son of the late Honorable William A. Beach, 
one of the most prominent leaders of the bar of his gen- 
eration. He graduated from Union College with honors 
in 1851, and studied law, and after his admission to the bar associ- 
ated himself with his father as a member of the law firm of Beach & 
Smith, of Troy, New York, whither his father had removed from 
Saratoga Springs long before. 

Judge Beach attracted attention as a young lawyer, and was 
elected mayor of the City of Troy, as the nominee of the democratic 
party, serving two successive terms. 

In 1871 he removed to New York with his father, with whom he 
succeeded Judge Rapallo (elected to the Court of Appeals), in the 
firm of Rapallo, Daly & Brown, which thus became Beach, Daly & 
Brown. With the subsequent retirement of Mr. Daly, the firm style 

1 "History of the Court of Common Pleas," by James Wilton Brooks (New York, 1896), p. 98. 



30 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

was changed to Beach & Brown. Representing the interests of Jay 
Gould, as well as of the Yanderbilts largely, they had the most 
extensive railway business of any firm in Xew York. 

Governor Bobinson, in 1879, appointed Judge Beach to succeed 
Judge Bobinson, deceased, as a justice of the Court of Common 
Pleas. The following year he was elected for the full term of four- 
teen years, over such opponents as ex-Recorder Smyth and Elihu 
Root. In 1893 he was re-elected for another term, and by the con- 
stitution of 1894 transferred permanently to the Supreme Court 
bench, in connection with which court, however, his work previously 
had been chiefly done. 

" More litigation came before the Supreme Court in the City of 
New York than was brought before either the Superior Court or the 
Court of Common Pleas. To relieve the Supreme Court judges the 
governor was accustomed to appoint one of the judges of the Supe- 
rior Court, and one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, to 
sit on the Supreme Court bench. Judge Miles Beach, through fre- 
quent appointments of successive governors to act with the justices 
of the Supreme Court, was always more identified in the popular 
mind with the latter than with the court to which he had been origi- 
nally appointed and twice elected, and of which he was one of the 
last judges. . . . 

" Judge Beach has been known for many years as one of the most 
cultivated judges of the Xew York courts. His opinions are mod- 
els of conciseness. He has a notable faculty of expressing his con- 
clusions in half the space usually required by others." * 




||EAMAN, CHABLES COTESWORTH (born at Houlton,, 
Maine, May 7, 1810), is the son of Reverend Charles C. 
Beaman and Mary Stacy, both of old New England fami- 
lies. He was educated at Smithville Seminary (in North 
Scituate, Bhode Island) and at Harvard College, from which he was 
graduated in 1861, subsequently receiving the degree of master of 
arts. He studied law at the Harvard College Law School, aud in 
I860 was admitted to the bar in New York City. 

Since 1866 Mr. Beaman has practiced law continuously iu New 
York City, during the greater part of this time as a member of the 
well-known firm of Evarts, Choate & Beaman. In 1S71 he was ap- 
pointed examiner of claims, at the state department, Washington, 
and in 1872 he was solicitor of the United States before the tribunal 
of arbitration at Geneva, Switzerland, in the matter of the famous 
Alabama claims. 

1 Brooks's " History of the Court of Common Pleas," pp. 119, 120. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YOBK 31 

JECKER, TRACY CHATFIELD (born in Cohoes, Albany 
county, New York, February 14, 1855), is the son of Storm 
A. Becker and Eliza M. Cannon. On his father's side he 
is descended from early Dutch settlers of Schoharie 
county, New York, and on his mother's from English emigrants who 
settled in Winsted, Connecticut. He was graduated at Union Col- 
lege, Schenectady, in 1874, and at the Albany Law School in 1876, 
having also pursued legal studies with G. B. & J. Kellogg, of Troy, 
and Honorable S. W. Rosendale (attorney-general of the state), of 
Albany. He was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court at 
Binghamton, May 8, 1876. Since August, 1877, he has been actively 
prosecuting his profession in Buffalo. He is now a member of the 
prominent firm of Roberts, Becker, Messer & Orcutt, of which State 
Comptroller Roberts is the head. 

From 1881 to 1885 Mr. Becker served as assistant-district attorney 
of Erie county. In that capacity he made much reputation by his 
connection with important trials, notably the ease of People against 
Bork (the defaulting city treasurer) and the Kennedy and Thomas 
graveyard conspiracy cases. In his private practice he has been 
identified with various actions of celebrity. He defended the mur- 
der case of People vs. Bartholemy, and has been counsel in a number 
of suits involving very important questions, including the celebrated 
case of Bertles vs. Neenan, in which the question of the right of sur- 
vivor to lands owned by husband and wife as tenants of the entirety 
was settled by the Court of Appeals. 

He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1894. 
In that body he served as chairman of the committee on legislative 
organization, and on the committees on judiciary and cities. He 
was one of the organizers of the Buffalo Law School, and since 1886 
has been professor of criminal law and medical jurisprudence in 
that institution. From 1SS9 to 1892 he was a member of the char- 
ter revision committee of the Citizens' Association, which prepared 
and secured the enactment of the present city charter of Buffalo. 
He was president of the New York State Bar Association for the 
year 1894. 

Mr. Becker is the author, in conjunction with Professor R. A. 
Witthaus and other collaborators, of " Wittliaus and Becker's Medi- 
cal Jurisprudence, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology " (4 vols., New 
York, 1896). 



fECKWITH, CHARLES (born in Genesee county, New 
York, July 9, 1825; died in Buffalo, March 9, 1895), for 
many years judge of the Superior Court of Buffalo, has 
left a reputation as " one of the most equitable judges 
who ever adorned the bench." When he was eleven years old his 




32 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

parents removed to Michigan, where the youth continued the pre- 
paratory education begun in his native county. In 1845 he entered 
the University of Michigan, and he was graduated in the class of 
1849. He then removed to the State of Mississippi, where he studied 
law and was admitted to the bar in 1852. For a year or two he prac- 
ticed law in the southwest, but near 1855 he returned to New York 
state, settling in Buffalo. He soon became widely known for his 
clear professional insight and his hard, earnest labors. This careful 
and conscientious work soon called him to the public service, as well 
as to increased private practice. In 1860 Jie was elected alderman 
from the old 5th ward. He served in that capacity for the next four 
years with marked efficiency, being chosen twice president of the 
common council, and during the troublesome times of the draft riots 
in 1863 he became for a few months acting-mayor. 

In the fall of 1863 he was elected city attorney, in which position 
he served one term with exceptional ability. He continued his pri- 
vate practice of the law until the autumn of 1877, when he was 
elected to the Superior Court bench. It was said of him during his 
active practice that, although a lawyer of high attainments, faithful 
and devoted to his clients, " he would work as hard to settle his cli- 
ents' lawsuits as other lawyers would to win them." He possessed 
the spirit of modesty and fairness to a remarkable degree, was a 
man of great qualities, without pretension or display, and never 
allowed partisanship to take possession of him, or willingly per- 
mitted technicality to triumph over what he believed to be essential 
truth. 

He held the position of Superior Court judge for fourteen years, 
during the last five of which he was chief-justice, succeeding Hon- 
orable James M. Smith. 

Throughout his long term of service upon the Superior bench, and 
as chief -justice, he commanded, in an eminent degree, the respect, con- 
fidence, and esteem of the bar and of the entire community. He was 
patient, pre-eminently judicial in temperament, painstaking in his 
attention to cases, and a stanch upholder of what he thought to 
be right. He singularly possessed the power of analysis. His opin- 
ions were quite uniformly sustained in the highest appellate court, 
and for strength of reasoning and excellence of diction rank among 
the best emanating from the bench. 

Judge Beckwith was also a member of the faculty of the Buffalo 
Law School. His lectures upon equity jurisprudence were models 
of careful, thoughtful, and scholarly treatment of that specialty. 

He was amiable in character, courtly and gracious in manner, 
and both in practice and on the bench was the personification of 
kindliness toward all with whom he came in contact. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



33 



EECHER, WILLIAM C. (born in Brooklyn, New York, Janu- 
ary 26, 1849), is the second son of the late famous Henry 
Ward Beeeher. He was educated in several institutions, 
spending two years at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, 
a period more than twice as long- in the Ounnery School at Washing- 





ton, Connecticut, and three years in the Bound Hill School at North- 
ampton, Massachusetts. In 1868 he entered Yale College, graduating 
four years later. 



34 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

In the autumn of 1873 Mr. Beecher entered the Columbia College 
Law School, and two years later, in May, 1S75, was graduated and ad- 
mitted to the bar. He began practice as a partner in the firm of Lewis 
& Beecher, which enjoyed a prosperous existence until its dissolution 
in 1885. In 1881 Judge Rollins appointed Mr. Beecher assistant-dis- 
trict attorney for New York county, a position which he held until the 
following year, when he resumed his private practice. General C. T. 
Christensen in 1880 having appointed Mr. Beecher judge-advocate, 
with the rank of major, on the staff of the 3d brigade, national guard 
of New York, he served in this position until the re-organization of 
the national guard in 18S6; the merging of all existing organizations 
in the newly formed 2d brigade necessitating the retirement of all 
staff officers. 

Although following no one branch of the law as a specialty, Mr. 
Beecher has had much experience in insurance assignment and negli- 
gence causes, and in the trial of causes in court has proved himself a 
successful jury lawyer. He is special counsel for a number of law 
firms in New York and Brooklyn. 

He resides in Brooklyn, where he is a member of the Hamilton, 
Crescent Athletic, and Rembrandt clubs. 



|EEKMAN, HENRY RUTGERS (born in New York City, De- 
cember 8, 1845), is the son of 'William E. Beekman, late of 
New York, and Catherine A. Neilson, daughter of a New 
York merchant. Judge Beekman was graduated from Co- 
lumbia College in 1865, and from Columbia College Law School in 
1S67, in the latter year being admitted to the New York bar, and 
entering upon the practice of his profession. He was a successful 
lawyer, and at the time of his elevation to the bench, in 1894, was a 
member of the law firm of Ogden & Beekman. 

Judge Beekman was for many years interested in political reform 
and the study of practical social and economical questions. In 1881 he 
was appointed school trustee for the 18th ward, New York City. 
Mayor Grace, in 1885, appointed him a park commissioner, to fill the 
unexpired term of William M. Oliffe, deceased, and the following 
year, being re-appointed for the term of five years, he was made presi- 
dent of the board. The project of establishing small parks, as 
" breathing-places," in the heart of the most thickly settled parts of 
the city, for the benefit of the poorer classes, was his conception; and 
Mulberry Street Park and the extension of the East River Park were 
fruits of his efforts, he having in 1887 prepared and secured the pas- 
sage of the legislative bill providing for the completion of these and 
other similar park enterprises. 

Having been elected president of the board of aldermen of the city, 
on the united democratic ticket, Judge Beekman resigned from the 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 35 

park board, December 31, 1880. In January, 1SS8, he was appointed 
by Mayor Hewitt corporation counsel, to succeed Honorable Morgan 
J. O'Brien, who had been elected to the Supreme Court. In 1888, 
under Mayor Hewitt, and in 1889, under Mayor Grant, respectively, 
Judge Beekman drew up the two bills providing schemes of rapid 
transit for the city, and also was the author of the " Chamber of Com- 
merce " bill, and legal adviser of the commission appointed under it. 
In 1890 Governor Hill appointed him a member of the commission to 
secure uniform marriage laws in all the states, and he was elected 
chairman of the conference of state commissions on this subject. 

In the fall of 1894 Mr. Beekman was elected justice of the Superior 
Court of New York City on the union, or " Committee of Seventy " 
ticket; and by the constitution adopted in the same election he was 
transferred to the Supreme Court. 

He is a member of the Century, Union, Manhattan, Democratic, 
Reform, and University clubs. In 1870 he married Isabella, daughter 
of Mr. Richard Lawrence, of New York City. They have four chil- 
dren, two sons and two daughters. . . -^^^.^ 

1118896 



ELFORD, JOSEPH McCRUM (born in Mifflintown, Juniata 
county, Pennsylvania, August 5, 1852), is the son of David 
W. and Anna M. Belford. He was graduated at Dickinson 
College (Carlisle, Pennsylvania) iD 1871, with the degree 
of bachelor of arts, studied law with Timothy M. Griffing at River- 
head, New York, was admitted to the bar in Brooklyn in September, 
1889, and entered upon professional practice at Riverhead, where he 
has since continued. In 1896 he was elected a member of congress 
from the 1st district. 

Mr. Belford, aside from his professional and political prominence, 
has made a reputation as a lecturer, chiefly upon literary subjects. 



ENSON, MARTIN Y. (born in East Randolph, New York, 
June 28, 1839), is the son of John Benson, born in New Jer- 
sey, and Millie E. Benson, born in Genesee county, New 
York. 

He was educated in the common schools and Randolph Academy, 
attended the Albany Law School two terms, and also read law with 
Alexander Sheldon and Jenkins & Goodwill, and was admitted to 
the bar February IS, 1871. From the beginning of his professional 
life he has practiced law in East Randolph, the place of his birth. He 
is an earnest friend of education, and has taken great interest in char- 
itable work. He has also been prominent in the affairs of the com- 
munity in which he lives and of Cattaraugus county. He is one of the 
trustees of the Western New York Home for the protection of home- 
less and dependent children. He has served for three terms as presi- 




36 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

dent of the Village of East Randolph, and has been supervisor of the 
town for sixteen years. He has been for two terms chairman of the 
board of supervisors of Cattaraugus county, a position which he still 
holds. He is also president of the People's State Bank of East Ran- 
dolph. 

The law firm is Goodwill & Benson. 



ERNARD, REUBEN (born in the Town of Plattekill, Ulster 
county, New York, February 24, 1830), is the son of David 
L. Bernard and Abby Demarest, both natives of Ulster 
county. He received his education at public and private 
schools, Amenia Seminary and New Paltz Academy, and studied law 
at the New York State and National Law School, at Ballston Spa, and 
also in the office of Jonathan H. Hasbrouck, of Kingston. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Ballston Spa, August 8, 1851, and at Albany, De- 
cember 1, 1851, and on February 17, 1S76, he was admitted to practice 
in the Circuit Court of the United States for the southern district of 
New York. 

Soon after his admission he began his professional career at Kings- 
ton, where he has since continued without interruption. His legal 
business has been largely in the settlement, of estates, collection of 
claims, investing of money, and the transaction of business of a confi- 
dential character. For many years he has been the attorney of the 
Huguenot National Bank of New Paltz, the Ulster County Savings 
Institution, the Kingston National Bank, the New Paltz Savings 
Bank, and many other corporations, as well as for individuals and 
associations in concerns of importance. 

Mr. Bernard has been president of the Kingston National Bank 
since 1877, and has for several years held the office of president of the 
Board of Trade of the City of Kingston. 




ETTS, FREDERIC HENRY (born in Newburgh, Orange 
county, New York, March 8, 1843), is the son of Honorable 
Frederic J. Betts and Mary Ward. His father was district 
attorney of Orange county in 1823; master in chancery, 
1823-27; clerk of the United States Circuit and District courts of New- 
York, 1827-41, and judge of the Hustings Court, Campbell county, 
Virginia, 1867-70. 

Mr. Betts is descended from New England ancestors, including 
many notable colonial personages. 1 He was educated at Russell's 

1 He is eighth in descent from John Haynes, third gov- John Taylor, who was killed by Indians; fourth from 
ernor of Massachusetts, and first governor of Connecticut; Samuel Comstock Betts and third from Uriah Betts, rev- 
eighth in descent from George Wyllys and William Leete, olutionary soldiers; and is also lineally descended from 
respectively, governors of Connecticut; ninth from Ed- the following, who were members of the Connecticut pro- 
ward Rossiter, assistant of Massachusetts; seventh from vincial assembly— William Spencer, George Bartlett, 
Samuel Wyllys and Samuel Sherman, assistants of Con- Christopher Comstock, Nathaniel Stone, Josiah Rossiter, 
necticut; Bixth from Colonel Andrew Ward, who served in Lieutenant John Scoville, and Captain Andrew Ward. 
the expedition n^uiiist Luiiisburg; ninth from Captain 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 37 

Military Academy (New Haven, Connecticut) and Yale College, grad- 
uating from the latter in 1864, and subsequently receiving the degree 
of master of arts. He studied law with Governor Henry B. Harrison, 
of New Haven, Connecticut, and Man & Parsons, of New York City, 
and graduated from the Yale Law School in 1865 and the Columbia 
College Law School in 1866, being admitted to the New York bar in 
the latter year. 

Mr. Betts is recognized as one of the ablest lawyers in the difficult 
department of patent law, and has been counsel in many of the most 
important patent litigations of the past twenty years. In 1874 he was 
counsel for the insurance department of the State of New York, and 
was the counsel of New York City in patent causes from 1877 to 1893. 
He is counsel, also, for the Western Union Telegraph Company, the 
Edison Electric Light Company, the General Electric Company, the 
Westing-house Air Brake Company, the Mergenthaler Printing Com- 
pany, the Harvey Steel Company, and other corporations. 

He is the author of " Policy of Patent Law " (1879), and was lec- 
turer on patent law in the law department of Yale University from 
1872 to 1883. He has always been interested in city reforms, and was 
a member of the citizens' committees of " Fifty " and " One Hun- 
dred," in 18S3 and 1884, respectively; also serving in 1884 as a mem- 
ber of the republican county committee. 




HETTS, JAMES ALBERT (born in Broadalbiu, Fulton county, 
New York, March 18, 1853), is the son of Isaiah and Mar- 
garet Ann Hoes Betts. He is a direct descendant of Cap- 
tain Richard Betts (born in 1613), who was one of the orig- 
inal patentees of the Town of Newtown, Queens county, a member in 
1665 of the provincial assembly held at Hempstead, high sheriff of 
Yorkshire, and for many years a magistrate. The father of Judge 
Betts, Isaiah Betts, of Broadalbiu (Fulton county), has creditably 
filled many local offices and is a successful farmer on the farm where 
his grandfather located in 1786. Through his mother Mr. Betts is lin- 
eally descended from the Holland Dutch family of Hoes. One of his 
remote maternal ancestors was Johannes Hoes, born about 1692. 

James A. Betts attended district schools and the Broadalbin Union 
Free School, and in 1S75 was graduated at the New York State Nor- 
mal School at Albany. He studied law with Honorable Augustus 
Schoonmaker and Honorable John J. Linson, and in November, 1880, 
was admitted to the bar upon examination at the Albany general 
term. He thereupon began practice in Kingstou, where he still re- 
sides. Since the 1st of January, 1893, he has held the office of surro- 
gate of Ulster county. In that position he has had many intricate 
cases before him, which have been strongly contested. His opinions, 
which have been fully reported, have frequently covered points not 



3S HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

heretofore written upon. In the few instances in which appeals have 
been taken from his decisions he has been generally sustained. 

Judge Betts has held several other public offices of importance, and 
for years has been prominent in the affairs of the City of Kingston. 
He was the first secretary of the New York state civil service commis- 
sion (1SS3), was clerk of the Ulster county board of supervisors in 
1890 and 1891, and since January, 1886, has been a trustee of the 
Kingston board of education, having also been president of the board 
for two years. He was active in securing the organization on broad 
lines of the Kingston board of trade, and also in bringing about the 
organization and erection of the City of Kingston Hospital, of which 
he has been vice-president since June, 1893. 




IjfETTS, SAMUEL ROSSITEE (born June 8, 178(5, in Eich- 
mond, Berkshire county, Massachusetts), was the son of 
Uriah Betts, who served in the revolutionary war, and of 
Sarah Rossiter, whose great-grandfather was one of the 
assistant-governors of Connecticut. Mr. Betts was educated at Lenox 
Academy, being the first student of that institution to enter college. 
He graduated from Williams College in 1806, in 1830 being made a 
doctor of laws by the same college. Having read law with Grosvenor 
& Bay, of Hudson, New York, he was admitted to the bar about 1809, 
and commenced practice at Monticello, Sullivan county, New York. 
He was elected a member of congress from this district, serving from 
1815 to 1817. 

Afterward settling in Newburgh, Orange county, he was appointed 
state circuit judge in 1823, and judge of the United States District 
Court, southern district of New York, in 1827, by John Quiucy Adams, 
filling the latter office until his resignation in May, 1867. In addition 
to his labors at the bar and on the bench he compiled Betts's " Admi- 
ralty Practice," and supervised the preparation of his opinions, as 
published in the reports of Blatchford & Hadland. He was instru- 
mental in establishing the principles of admiralty law as now admin- 
istered, in interpreting the bankrupt act of 1810, and in administering 
the prize law during the civil war. During the war of 1812 he served 
with the troops called into service to defend the harbor of New York, 
and was appointed judge-advocate by Governor Tompkins. He died 
in November, 1868, at eighty-two years of age. 



gpRDSEYE, LUCIEN (born in Pompey, Onondaga county, 
New York, October 10, 1821; died in New York City, Janu- 
ary 27, 1896), was the son of Honorable Victory Birdseye 
and Electa, daughter of Captain James Beebe. He pre- 
ared for college at the Pompey Academy, which his father had 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 39 

founded, and was graduated from Yale College in 1841. He com- 
menced the study of law in his father's office, at Ponipey, at the end 
of two years entered the office of Kirkland & Bacon, prominent law- 
yers of Utica, and was admitted to the bar in July, 1844. In October 
following, he began practice at Albany, New York, when he was ad- 
mitted as solicitor in chancery and counselor-at-law in chancery. 
Upon the removal to New York of Mr. Kirkland, in 1850, Judge Birds- 
eye became a partner under the firm name of Kirkland & Birdseye. 
In 1856 he was appointed by Governor Clark a justice of the Supreme 
Court for the 2d district, to succeed Judge William Rockwell, de- 
ceased, and held the office until the fall election of 1857. While on 
the bench Judge Birdseye devoted himself with marked assiduity to 
the work of clearing up the calendars of the circuit and equity term of 
Kings county, the legal business of which he found greatly in arrears. 
Upon his retirement he returned to practice in New York City, con- 
tinuing with his old firm (which had, however, undergone some 
changes), under the style of Birdseye, Sommers & Johnson. In 1861 
this partnership was dissolved, Mr. Birdseye remaining in practice 
alone until 1865, when he took into partnership Charles P. Crosby. 
In 1872 the firm of Birdseye, Cloyd & Baylis was formed. For several 
years Judge Birdseye was much occupied with the hearing of refer- 
ences, but his general practice became so exacting that he declined 
further referee service. He has been counsel in many notable litiga- 
tions. Among these were the suits of Prouty, Boardman, Jermain, 
and others, against the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Rail- 
road Company, which was consolidated with other corporations dur- 
ing the contest, forming the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern. These 
suits were the prosecution of claims for arrears of dividends on the 
preferred and guaranteed stocks, and were stubbornly resisted, the 
most eminent counsel being engaged in the defense. The litigation of 
the various cases, which were many times in the general term of the 
Supreme Court and in the Court of Appeals, extended over a period of 
fourteen years, Judge Birdseye becoming finally successful. A fore- 
closure case of great magnitude which he conducted was that of the 
mortgage on the Maxwell tract, lands granted by the Republic of 
Mexico to Beaubien and Miranda in 1841, some seven years prior to 
the transfer to the United States of the territory now comprised in 
southern Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The suc- 
cessful termination of the proceedings required Judge Birdseye's 
presence in the courts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Amsterdam, in 
the Netherlands, where the bonds secured by the mortgage were 
largelv held. 



40 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 




HJ1SCHOFF, HENBY, Junior (born in New York City, Au- 
gust 16, 1852), is the son of Henry Bischoff, a prominent 
banker. He is of German descent. His grandfather, of 
Achim, Prussia, was a church builder in Germany nearly a 
century ago, and subsequently became a lumber merchant and manu- 
facturer of brick, some of his descendants still carrying on the busi- 
ness. 

Judge Bischoff attended the public schools of the city and Blooni- 
field Academy (Bloomfield, New Jersey), and was subsequently placed 
under a private tutor. He graduated in 1871 from Columbia College 
Law School, receiving honorable mention in the department of politi- 
cal science. He read law in the office of J. H. & S. Biker for two years, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1873. He commenced practice in New 
York City with F. Leary, with whom he remained in partnership until 
1878, after which he continued alone. 

Mr. Bischoff's practice has been confined exclusively to civil cases, 
being largely in the direction of real estate litigations and surro- 
gate cases. In 1879, becoming interested in politics, he attracted the 
attention of party leaders and soon took a prominent place in the 
councils of the democratic party. He was appointed to collect the ar- 
rears of personal taxes for the city, holding the position until his 
election as judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1889. In the change 
arising from the Revision of the state constitution in 1894 (the Court 
of Common Pleas being abolished) he became a Supreme Court judge, 
January 1, 1896, for the balance of his term, expiring January 1, 1904. 
With Honorable Joseph F. Daly and Honorable David McAdani, he 
holds the appellate term, before which all appeals from the lower 
courts are carried. 

His early practical education in the details of banking and finance, 
acquired while connected with his father's banking house during the 
period immediately after leaving college (having at times entire 
charge of the business), became invaluable to him in his legal and ju- 
dicial career. His decisions upon all questions appertaining to these 
subjects have been marked by exceptional clearness and comprehen- 
sive knowledge of the points involved. His work upon the bench has 
been thus characterized: 

" His moral courage, his self-reliance, his independence of charac- 
ter, his firm adherence to the right cause have rendered his decisions 
more than usually acceptable to the bar. Though one of the youngest 
judges on the bench, he has already become noted for his industry, his 
uniform courtesy, and the soundness of his decisions." 1 

Judge Bischoff is one of the directors of the Union Square Bank, of 
which he was also a founder. He is a member of the Manhattan Club, 
the Democratic Club, the Tammany Society, the German Society, the 
Liederkranz, Arion, and Beethoven societies, and many other German 

1 BrookB's "History of the Court of Common Pleas of the City and County of New Tork " (New York, 1896), p. 126. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 41 

organizations. He belongs to a musical family, and is himself master 
of many instruments, excelling upon the piano. He speaks German 
with perfect accuracy and purity of accent, and has an intimate ac- 
quaintance with German literature. 

He was married in 1873 to Annie Moshier, daughter of Frederick 
and Louise Moshier, of Connecticut, and has one daughter, Loula, 
born May 13, 1876. 




ISSELL, WILSON SHANNON (born in New London, Oneida 
county, New York, December 31, 1S47), is the son of John 
and Isabella Hally Bissell. His father was one of the pio- 
neers in the business of shipping grain in large quantities 
to the seaboard by way of the Erie canal. He removed with his fam- 
ily to Buffalo when the son was five years old. 

Wilson S. Bissell attended the Buffalo schools, and also the private 
grammar school of Doctor Schelle. He was prepared for college at 
the Hopkins Grammar School, of New Haven, entered Yale Univer- 
sity and was graduated with honor in the class of 1S69. Soon after- 
ward he commenced the study of law in the office of Laning, Cleve- 
land & Folsom (Honorable A. P. Laning, Grover Cleveland, and Oscar 
Folsom). Of this firm, one of the most prominent in Buffalo, young 
Bissell became managing clerk. In that position he had charge of all 
the office details of cases, which at the time were extraordinary iu 
number — aggregating some four thousand, — in consequence of the 
actions for overcharges of fare brought against the New York Central 
Railroad Company, of which Laning, Cleveland & Folsom were the 
attorneys. 

Having been admitted to the bar he formed a partnership, in 1872, 
with Honorable Lyman K. Bass, the retiring district attorney of Erie 
county, the firm being styled Bass & Bissell. He at once began to 
attract corporation business, one of his clients in this first period of 
his practice being the Buffalo & Jamestown Railroad (now the Buffalo 
& Southwestern). At the beginning of 1871 Mr. Cleveland joined the 
firm, which thereupon became Bass, Cleveland & Bissell. Mr. Bass, 
who was serving a term in congress, had little active connection with 
it, however, and later retired altogether from the association. The 
firm then assumed the name of Cleveland & Bissell, which it retained 
until the end of 1881, when, Mr. Cleveland having been elected mayor 
of Buffalo, Mr. George J. Sicard was admitted to membership. On 
January 1, 1883, Mr. Cleveland, upon assuming the office of governor 
of New York, dissolved his partnership relations and Mr. Bissell or- 
ganized with Mr. Sicard and Charles W. Goodyear the firm of Bissell, 
Sicard & Goodyear. He continued to devote himself uninterruptedly 
to his profession until March, 1893, when he entered the cabinet of 
President Cleveland as postmaster-general. In this position he re- 



42 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



mained, hem-ever, for only two years. He resigned early in 1S95, bis 
successor, Honorable William L. Wilson, being qualified April 4, 
1895. He immediately returned to bis law practice in Buffalo, in 




7T& /fautt-^ 



which be is still actively engaged. His present firm is Bissell, Carey 
& Cooke (Mr. Bissell, Martin Carey, and Walter P. Cooke). 

Mr. Bissell's professional tastes have always been especially in the 
line of corporation business, with which he early obtained a thorough 
familiarity. In this department of practice he bas long been one of 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 43 

the foremost men of the Buffalo bar. Particularly as a counselor he 
enjoys an eminent reputation. 

He possesses in a remarkable degree that judicial mind, that natural sense of 
justice, that calm, orderly, and methodical arrangement of ideas, that power of 
differentiating the essential from the non-essential, which go to make up the 
able and trusted counselor. Quick of decision, fearless of responsibility, true 
to himself as well as to his client, always mentally as well as morally honest, 
he has become and continued the confidential adviser of very many of the most 
prominent citizens and corporations through whom so much has been done to 
build up the city of Buffalo. 1 

Throughout his life he has had little inclination for active politics, 
and his retirement from the high office of postmaster-general was in 
pursuance of his decided preference for his profession. Devoted to 
the principles of the democratic party, however, he took a cordial 
interest in the success of that organization until the campaign of 1S96, 
when, with so many democrats of conspicuous reputation, he deemed 
it his duty to repudiate the new doctrines that had been promulgated 
in its name. Associated with Mr. Cleveland professionally from the 
beginning of that statesman's public career until his election as gov- 
ernor of New York, he heartily contributed his influence to promote 
his friend's advancement. Both in the state convention of 1882, at 
which Mr. Cleveland was nominated for governor, and in the state 
and national conventions of 1884, which first made him the candidate 
of his party for president, Mr. Bissell was one of his most earnest and 
powerful supporters. 

In 1886, by appointment from President Cleveland, he served as a 
member of the government visiting board at West Point. He was a 
candidate on the democratic ticket for elector-at-large in the presi- 
dential campaign of 1888. In 1890 he was appointed by Governor 
Hill a member of a commission to propose amendments to the ju- 
diciary article of the state constitution. 

Since 1895 he has held the honorable position of vice-chancellor of 
the University of Buffalo. The degree of doctor of laws was conferred 
upon him in 1893 by Yale University. 

Mr. Bissell has been prominently identified with social and other 
representative organizations in Buffalo, notably the Young Men's As- 
sociation, of which he has been president, and also, for a number of 
years, a director. 



LAINE, CHESTER CAMBER (born in Varick, Seneca 
county, New York, March 23, 1856), is the son of John G. 
and Angelina G. Blaine. After attending a district school 
he completed his general education at Ovid Seminary. He 
studied law in the law department of the University of Michigan, and 

1 Encyclopedia of Contemporary Biography of New York, Vol. iv., p. 214. 





44 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

also in the office of Charles H. Roys, of Lyons, New York, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Rochester, April 2, 18S3. He began his profes- 
sional career at Lyons, and is still engaged in practice there. 



LISS, GEORGE (bom in Springfield, Massachusetts, May 3, 
1830), is the son of George and Mary S. Bliss. His father 
and grandfather were prominent lawyers of western Mas- 
sachusetts. From 1837 to 1S17 his father was connected 
with great railroad corporations, being successively agent and presi- 
dent of the Western Railroad of Massachusetts, now the Boston & Al- 
bany Railroad; while in 1850 he became president of the Michigan 
Southern and North Indiana railroads, and was also president of the 
Chicago & Mississippi Railroad Company, besides being a director in 
many other prominent western railroads. 

Mr. Bliss received his early education at home, spent eighteen 
months in European travel, and entered Harvard College as a sopho- 
more in 1848, graduating in 1851. During his college course he was 
associated with David A. Wells in the publication of two volumes of 
the " Annual of Scientific Discovery " and a work called " Things Not 
Generally Known," both of which were successful. After his gradua- 
tion he spent two years in Europe, studying at the University of Ber- 
lin and in Paris, and traveling through Sweden, southern Germany, 
Switzerland, northern Italy, Spain, and Portugal, much of the time 
on foot. Returning to this country, he studied law in the office of 
George Walker, of Springfield, Massachusetts, and after a year in 
Harvard Law School came to New York, entering the office of Will- 
iam Curtis Noyes. The following year he was admitted to the bar. 

Declining a partnership offered him by William Curtis Noyes, he 
engaged in practice for himself. In 1859 and I860 he was private sec- 
retary to Governor Edwin D. Morgan; in April, 1861, was placed upon 
his staff, and in 1862 became paymaster-general of the state with the 
rank of colonel. The same year he was appointed captain in the 
4th New York Heavy Artillery and detailed to the staff of Major-Gen- 
eral Morgan, commanding the Department of New York. In 1S62 
and 1863, under authority of the secretary of war, he organized the 
20th, 26th, and 31st regiments of the United States colored troops, 
as the representative of the Union League Club of the City of New 
York. 

Returning to the x>ractice of law, in 1866, he became the attorney of 
the metropolitan board of health and metropolitan board of excise. 
In the litigation to test the constitutionality of the acts creating t hese 
boards, as attorney for the boards, with Dorman B. Eaton as counsel, 
Mr. Bliss carried the cases to a successful close in the Court of Ap- 
peals. Pending the litigation in the excise cases a thousand injunc- 
tions were granted in the Common Pleas Court alone. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



45 



On January 1, 1873, he was appointed United States attorney for 
the southern district of New York; which position he held for more 




than four years, successfully clearing up a congested calendar. 
Among important cases during this period was the trial of Robert 
Des Anges, a deputy collector, whom Mr. Bliss convicted of conspir- 



46 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

acy to defraud the government. Another case led to the exposure of 
what was known as the " Lawrence Conspiracy," whereby the cus- 
toms had been defrauded of over a million dollars. 

In 1881 and 1882, by appointment of President Garfield, Mr. Bliss 
was the active counsel of the government in the trial of the celebrated 
" Star Route Cases " against ex-Senator Dorsey, ex-Assistant Post- 
master-General Brady, and others. The cases were twice tried in 
Washington before a jury, each trial occupying from four to five 
months. In the first, though some of the minor accused were con- 
victed, the verdict was unsatisfactory and was set aside by consent; 
the second trial resulted in an acquittal. The law upon which the 
prosecution was based was subsequently affirmed by the Supreme 
Court of the United States. The trials put a final end to a system of 
frauds by which the government was robbed of many millions of dol- 
lars. 

Mr. Bliss is the author of several works of a legal nature. He has 
published three editions of the " Law of Life Insurance " and four edi- 
tions of the " Annotated New York Code of Civil Procedure," which 
has become the standard authority on that subject. At one time he 
contributed to the North American Review, and was for many years 
an active newspaper contributor, writing editorially, chiefly on politi- 
cal subjects, for the Springfield Republican, the New York Tribune, and 
the New York Times. 

Mr. Bliss has always been an active republican, and was an inti- 
mate friend of President Arthur, but has always refused, except dur- 
ing the war, to take any unprofessional office. He has been closely 
connected with the history of the laws relating to New York City, 
having drawn up many of the existing statiites. He prepared the 
charter of 1873 and many of the important amendments since passed. 
He drew and procured the passage of the original tenement house act 
for the City of New York, and was one of three commissioners who in 
1879 and 18S0, under the authority of the legislature, prepared the 
compilation known as the " Special and Local Acts Relating to the 
City of New York," and later drew the " New York City Consolidation 
Act." 

Despite a large practice, Mr. Bliss has found much time for travel, 
especially in out-of-the-way places in Europe and America. He has 
been twice married and has two children. 



OOKSTAVER', HENRY WELLER (born in Montgomery, 
Orange county, New York, September 17, 1835). is the son 
of Daniel Bookstaver and Alletta Weller. He is a lineal 
descendant of Henry Buchstabe, of Switzerland, the relig- 
ious reformer of the 16th century, who was compelled to oppose his 
own brother, Johannes Buchstabe, equally prominent on the conserv- 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



47 



ative side, in the theological contest in the Swiss republic. From 
Switzerland some of the family emigrated to Germany; while from 
the latter country, near the beginning of the 18th century, Jacobus 
Buchstabes, or Boochstabers, ancestor of Judge Bookstaver, came to 
America, settling in Orange county, New York. 

Judge Bookstaver was educated at Montgomery Academy, in 
Orange county, New York, and at Rutgers College, in New Bruns- 
wick, New Jersey, from which last he was graduated with high honors 
in 1859, subsequently receiving the degree of master of arts, and in 




HENRY WELLEK BOOKKTAVEK. 



1888 that of doctor of laws. He studied law with the firm of Browu, 
Hall & Vanderpoel, of New York City, and was admitted to the New 
York bar in 1861. A little later he became a member of the firm of 
Brown, Hall & Vanderpoel, and since that time has successfully prac- 
ticed in this city, with the exception of the considerable period during 
which he has been upon the bench. While enjoying a large private 
practice, he became successively sheriff's attorney, counsel to the 
police board, and counsel to the commissioners of charities and cor- 
rection. His defense of Sheriff Keilly won him considerable reputa- 
tion as an eloquent pleader. In 1885 he was elected a justice of the 



48 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Court of Common Pleas of this city, since which time his services in 
this judicial capacity have been highly creditable to him. 

Judge Bookstaver's interests outside his professional work are in- 
dicated by the fact that he is a member of the Archaeological, Geo- 
graphical, and Historical societies of this city, and a patron of the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History. He 
is a member of the Casino Club of Newport, Rhode Island, and of the 
Manhattan, Saint Nicholas, and Zeta Psi clubs (which last he was 
instrumental in organizing) of New York. He is an enthusiastic alum- 
nus of Rutgers College and a member of its board of trustees. He was 
married September G, 1SG5, to Mary Bayliss Young, of Orange 
countv, New York. 



RADLEY, GEORGE BECKWITH (bom in the Town of 
Greene, Chenango county, New York, February 5, 1825), is 
the son of Orlo F. Bradley and Julia A. Carter, who in 
early life came with their parents to this state from Con- 
necticut. After receiving a common school education in his native 
town he attended the academy at Ithaca. He did not have the ad- 
vantage of either a collegiate or a law school training. His legal stud- 
ies were pursued in law offices in Greene, New York, and Fulton, New 
York. He was admitted to the bar at Oswego, in .May, 1848. He be- 
gan practice at Addison, New York, was located there and at Wood- 
hull for about four years, and since the summer of 1852 practiced at 
Corning up to the time of his election to the supreme bench. 

He was a member of the constitutional commission of 1S72-73, and 
from 1874 to 1877, inclusive, he served in the state senate. Since the 
beginning of 1884 he has been one of the justices of the Supreme 
Court of the state. During the years 1889, 1890, 1891, and 1892 he sat 
on the bench of the 2d division of the Court of Appeals. 



HllSi R1ST0W ' BENJAMIN HELM (born at Elkton, Todd county, 
£fyi$:; Kentucky, June 20, 1832; died June 23, 1896), was the son 
yP5& of Honorable Francis Marion Bristow and Emily Edwards, 
niece of the first governor of Illinois. His father was a 
congressman and member of the constitutional convention of Ken- 
tucky in 1850. 

General Bristow was graduated from -Jefferson College, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1850; studied law in his father's office, and practiced as his 
partner until 1858, when he removed to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and 
formed a partnership with Judge R. T. Petrie. Upon the breaking 
out of the civil war he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 
25th Kentucky regiment. He was in the battles of Fort Henry, Fort 
Donelson, and Shiloh, being wounded in the last mentioned. When he 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 49 

recovered he was active in recruiting the Sth Kentucky cavalry regi- 
ment, of which he was made colonel. He participated in the pursuit 
and capture of Morgan's raiders in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. 
While in the field in 18(33 he was elected to the state senate, and dur- 
ing his term as senator was appointed assistant United States attor- 
ney for the district of Kentucky. He thereiipon removed to Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, and a little later was appointed United States attor- 
ney for that district. After holding this office for a short time he re- 
signed and formed a partnership with John M. Harlan. In ISO!) the 
office of solicitor-general was created by congress and he was ap- 
pointed by President Grant as the first solicitor-general of the United 
States. After two years he resigned, and returning to Louisville, 
Kentucky, resumed the practice of law. In 1874 he was appointed 
secretary of the treasury, which office he held for two years. In 1876 
his mime was prominently mentioned as nominee of the republican 
party for the presidency, and he received a large vote for the nomina- 
tion in the republican convention of that year. Upon his resignation 
as secretary of the treasury he returned to the practice of law at 
Louisville, where he remained until 1878, when he moved to the City 
of New York. Here he formed a partnership under the firm name of 
Bristow, Peet, Burnett & Opdyke, which was continued under the 
various styles of Bristow, Peet & Opdyke and Bristow, Opdyke & 
Willcox. 

The work of the United States district attorney's office, during Mr. 
Bristow's service, was exceedingly onerous and varied. At the same 
time he engaged in heavy private litigation. As solicitor-general he 
had charge of the argument of the government cases in the United 
States Supreme Court, and took part in many cases that have become 
leading authorities. After his removal to New York, his practice in- 
cluded the argument of cases not merely in the New York courts, but 
also many in the United States Supreme Court, as well as in the 
higher courts of various states aud in the federal courts throughout 
the country. 

In 1879 he was president of the American Bar Association. 

He was married, November 21, 1854, to Abbie Slaughter Briscoe, in 
Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Two children survive him, Nannie Bris- 
tow, wife of Eben Sumner Draper, of Hopedale, Massachusetts, and 
William Benjamin Bristow, of New York City. 



JUOWN, AUGUSTUS CLEVELAND (born in York, Living- 
ston county, New York, October 23, 1839), is the son of Eev- 
erend Silas Clark Brown, of Northampton, Massachusetts, 
and Mary Cleveland, of Brooklyn, Connecticut. He at- 
tended the village schools of West Bloomfield, New York, from 1810 
to 1853, and Canandaitnia Academv from 1853 to 1854, the Geneseo 




50 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Academy from 1855 to 1857, and in 18G1 graduated from Williams 
College. He studied law in the offices of Smith & Lapham, of Canan- 
daigua, New York, of which firm James C. Smith became a justice of 
the Supreme Court of the state, and Elbridge G. Lapham United 
States senator. 

Mr. Brown was admitted to the bar at Rochester, New York, June 
5, 1863, and in 1865 began practice in New York City, where he has 
continued since in association at different times with Honorable 
Charles A. Rapallo, Honorable James C. Spencer, William M. Hoes, 
James B. Metcalf, and Eugene F. Daly in the fimi of Rapallo & Speu- 
cer, and with Honorable William A. Beach and Honorable Miles 
Beach in the firm of Beach & Brown. 

After his admission to the bar in June, 1863, until he began the 
practice of law in New York City in 1865, Mr. Brown was a soldier in 
the civil war. In March, 1864, he was commissioued captain of Bat- 
tery H. of the 4th New York artillery, and in command of his battery, 
which was at different times attached to the 5th and 2d corps of the 
Army of the Potomac, participated in the campaign of 1864 from the 
Wilderness to Petersburg and in the engagements about Petersburg. 

As a lawyer in New York City Mr. Brown has been eminently suc- 
cessful, and has been engaged in a large number of important and in- 
teresting cases. 




jROWN, CHARLES F. (born in Newburgh, New York), is the 
son of the late Honorable John W. Brown, of Newburgh. 
The latter was born in Dundee, Scotland, October 11, 1796, 
and brought to this country with his parents, who origi- 
nally settled in Putnam county, New York, but in 1801 removed to 
West Newburgh. Here the grandfather of the present Judge Brown 
was the successful proprietor of a fulling-mill. 

John W. Brown, the elder, as a lawyer and jurist, was no less dis- 
tinguished than his son, the present Supreme Court justice. He re- 
ceived his early education in the common schools of Newburgh, ami 
studied law with Jonathan Fisk, the most eminent lawyer of his day 
in Orange county. Judge John W. Brow r n was connected in early life 
with the Orange county militia, in which he held the commissions 
first of captain and subsequently of colonel. He held the office of jus- 
tice of the peace, and from 1821 to 1825 was clerk of the board of trus- 
tees of the Village of Newburgh. He served two successive terms in 
congress, 1833-35 and 1835-37; was an active member of the constitu- 
tional convention of this state in 1846; in 1849 was elected a justice 
of the Supreme Court for the 2d Judicial District, and in 1857 was re- 
elected. As a justice of the Supreme Court he enjoyed the distinction 
of never having one of his decisions reversed by the Cotirt of Appeals; 
while he himself served as an associate-justice of the Court of Appeals 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



51 



during the later years of his second term on the Supreme Court bench. 
Distinguished as an advocate, he was still more so as a judge. One of 





^%s? Zs^s ar-2>^z^^>ix^. — . 



his decisions, in which he withstood a strong public opinion, was 
against a proposed state loan of $7,000,000. 

Honorable Charles F. Brown, like his father a successful lawyer 



52 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

and distinguished jurist, was graduated from Yale College in 1800, 
and early achieved success and recognition in the practice of law in 
Newburgh. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Newburgh in 
1874, and continued in the position until 1877, distinguishing himself 
in the service of the city. At the end of his term, in 1877, he was 
elected county judge of Orange county. His abilities as a judge, dis- 
played in this position, were recognized in his elevation in 1882 to the 
Supreme Court bench, where he has since continued. His many nota- 
ble decisions, in cases of great importance, cannot be entered into 
here. From 1889 to 18!>2 he served upon the 2d division of the Court 
of Appeals, and in December, 1893, he became the presiding justice 
of the General Term of the 2d department. On the creation of the 
new Appellate Division at the beginning of 1890 he was appointed 
j (residing justice by Governor Morton. On October 5, 1890, he de- 
clined the democratic nomination to succeed himself, giving the fol- 
lowing reason: " At the approaching election I shall cast my vote for 
the candidates of the republican party, as I cannot support the candi- 
dates nominated at the Chicago convention or give my adherence to 
the political principles set forth in the platform adopted by that 
bodv." 



UROWN, IRVING (born in Westchester, Westchester county, 
New York, February 11, 1850), is the son of E. Otis Brown 
and Harriet Cooper Brown. On his father's side he is de- 
scended from Massachusetts ancestors, and on his mother's 
from a prominent family of Rockland county, New York. After re- 
ceiving an academic education he began the study of law at the age of 
seventeen in the office of Andrew E. Suft'ern, of Haverstraw. He was 
admitted to the bar in 1877, and soon afterward entered upon the 
practice of his profession in partnership with Alonzo Wheeler, dis- 
trict attorney of Rockland county. This association continued until 
1881. Since then he has pursued his professional business alone. He 
has always resided and practiced in Haverstraw. 

Mr. Brown is one of the recognized leaders of the Rockland county 
bar, and at present has probably the best practice enjoyed by any 
lawyer of the county. For the last dozen years he has been connected 
with most of the notable cases arising and tried there, and much of 
his business has extended to the higher courts, including the Court of 
Appeals, in which he has argued a variety of important suits. His 
services have been equally in request as an advocate before a jury and 
in the conduct of litigation. 

Although he has taken an active interest in politics, as a supporter 
of the principles of the democratic party, Mr. Brown has always had 
a decided preference for a strictly professional career, and has never 
held public office. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAK OF NEW YORK 



r»:; 





Il;\lN(. I'.KOWN. 




IKOWN, SAMUEL HOLMES, was born on a farm near Mil- 
lerton, Dutchess county, New York. He is the son of Mil- 
ton Brown and Phebe Holmes, grandson of Samuel 
Brown, and great-grandson of Noah Brown. The latter 
was of Scotch ancestry, and about the year 1800 removed from Johns- 
town, New York, to the eastern part of Dutchess county, settling at 
the Square near Amenia. Samuel H., the subject of our sketch, at- 
tended the local schools, and afterward had the advantage of Amenia 
Seminary, Cazenovia Seminary, the Troy Business College, and the 
Albany State Normal School. After leaving the Normal School he 
went to Newark, New Jersey, where he taught for a vear and a half 



54 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

in the New Jersey Business College. Later, having prepared himself 

for a court stenographer, he followed that profession for a short time. 

Upon the death of his father, in 1881, he took up the study of the 

law in the office of Honorable Milton A. Fowler, of Poughkeepsie, New 




York, and on September 14, 1883, he was admitted to the bar. He im- 
mediately opened an office in Poughkeepsie, with a branch office in 
Millerton. From the beginning of his professional career he enjoyed 
marked success, and he has become one of the leading lawyers of the 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 55 

Dutchess county bar, taking a prominent part in important civil and 
criminal litigations. ^ 

Mr. Brown inherited from his father valuable farm properties, and 
for several years he was extensively engaged in rearing horses, cat- 
tle, and sheep, and in producing milk for the New York market. 
About 1S90, however, he disposed of these interests, and he has since 
devoted himself exclusively to the profession of the law. 

He was one of the first to subscribe for stock in the Millerton Na- 
tional Bank when it was established, and was one of the members of 
the first board of directors. Afterward he became a director of the 
Farmers' and Manufacturers' National Bank of Poughkeepsie. He 
was also one of the organizers of the Hallock and Duryee Fertilizer 
Company, of Mattituck, Long Island. 

He is a republican in politics, has on several occasions been a mem- 
ber of the board of supervisors of his county, and also has, at various 
times, been the choice of many of his party and friends for more im- 
portant offices. In 1893 he was elected president of the Lincoln 
League Club of Poughkeepsie. He is recognized as a very acceptable 
political speaker, and has done a great deal of effective work for his 
party on the stump. 

On October 30, 1877, he married Clara Lefferts Duryee, daughter of 
John Wyckoff and Elizabeth Verity Duryee, of Mattituck, Long 
Island, formerly from near Brooklyn. Mr. and Mrs. Brown, together 
with his mother, now reside at Poughkeepsie. 




JROWNE, IRVING, lawyer and author (born in Marshall, 
Oneida county, New York, September 14, 1835), is the son 
of Lewis C. Browne and Harriet Hand. He was educated 
in the schools and academies of Nashua, New Hampshire, 
and Norwich, Connecticut, pursuing afterward legal studies in the 
office of Theodore Miller at Hudson, New York, and subsequently grad- 
uating from the Albany Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 
March, 1857, and the following September organized the firm of Town- 
sends & Browne at Troy, New York, which continued until June, 1878. 
The litigations with which Mr. Browne was connected during this pe- 
riod are scattered through the various reports, among the more im- 
portant being Meneeley vs. Meneely (62 N. Y., 427), involving the right 
to use of family name; Corcoran vs. Holbrook (59 N. Y., 517), involving 
the alter e;jo doctrine; and Cowee vs. Cornell (71 N. Y., 91), involving 
the question of constructive fraud. 

Since 1878 Mr. Browne has devoted all his time to the literary side 
of his profession as editor, lecturer, and author of legal works. From 
1879 to 1893 he was sole editor of the Albany Law Journal. He has 
also edited the American Reports from Vol. 25 to Vol. 60, inclusive, 
two volumes of National Bank Cases, a digest of the New York Re- 



56 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



ports to Vol. 95, and has edited and annotated a new edition of the 
same to A'ol. 123. His legal works include standard treatises on Pa- 
role Evidence, Short Studies of Evidence, Domestic Relations, Crimi- 
nal Law, Sales, and Bailment. He has besides written " Short Studies 
of Great Lawyers," " Humorous Phases of the Law," " Law and Law- 
yers in Literature," " Judicial Interpretation of Common Words and 
Phrases"; a large number of humorous cases in verse; and, in the 
purely literary domain, a series of essays on " Iconoclasm and White- 
wash," a translation of Racine's comedy " Le$ Plaideurs " (*'• The 
Suitors"), an essay on the Nineteenth Century Novel, another en- 
titled " The Track of the Bookworm," and a volume of poems entitled 
" The House of the Heart." At the present time he is annotating Eng- 
lish Billing Cases and editing the " Lawyers' Easy Chair," in the 
(ireen Bag. 

From time to time Mr. Browne has lectured at the Albany and 
Cornell Law Schools, and is now a lecturer at the Boston University 
and Buffalo Law Schools. He was for two terms president of the 
school board of Troy, and is now a member of the Xew York commis- 
sion on uniform legislation, a membership entirely congenial with his 
life-long and persistent advocacy of law reform and codification. 




H UCKINGH AM, CHARLES LUMAN (born in Berlin Heights, 
Ohio, October 14, 1852), is the son of George Buckingham 
and Ariadne Andrews. His grandfather, Samuel Buck- 
ingham, and great-grandfather, Thomas Buckingham, 
were early settlers of the famous " Western Reserve," to which they 
had removed from Connecticut. 1 

His father's death left Mr. Buckingham and a brother dependent 
upon their mother, " a lady of unusual attainments and great 
strength of character." Thrown into circumstances calculated to de- 
velop self-reliance, his educational advantages were largely of his 
own providing. Finishing with the public schools, he made a busi- 
ness trip to the west when sixteen, and returning to Ohio engaged in 
some successful enterprises. He entered the University of Michigan, 
and was graduated in 1875, an easy mastery of mathematics and me- 
chanics characterizing his course. Receiving an appointment as ex- 
aminer in the United States patent office, he held positions in this 

1 The Buckingham family can be traced to a remote town in general court. Mr. Charles L. Buckingham is 

antiquity. From the time of William the Conqueror. ninth in descent from this gentleman aud eighth from his 

branches of the family were among the English nobility distinguished son. Reverend Thomas Buckingham, ex- 

and landed gentry. Mauy ancient manors in Buckham- Governor Buckingham, of Connecticut, being of the same 

shire, Norfolk, and Suffolk still bear the family name. family. Through his mother Mr Charles L Buckingham 

Sir Owen Buckingham was lord mayor of Loudon in the is descended from the old New England families of Adams 

seventeenth century. Tin- Aiiirriran emigrant. Thomas and Andrews. 

Buckingham, one of the prominent early settlers of Con- The paternal Hue is as follows : Thomas Buckingham 1 , 

necticut, arrived in Boston .tune ;!!'•. 10:17, became a founder Reverend Thomas-, Thomas*, Thomas', .Tedediah\ 

of New Haven in 1638 aud of Milford in WS9, was one of Thomas', Samuel 7 , George", Charles L. Buckingham', of 

"seven pillars" of Milford Church, and represented the New York. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 57 

office several years, receiving various promotions, and at the same 
time attending the Columbian Law School of Washington. He Avas 
admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia, and subsequently in 
New York City, where he began practice as counsel of the Western 
Union Telegraph Company. " Almost at once lie attracted attention 
by his brilliant abilities as a lawyer, no less than by his remarkable 
knowledge as an expert." 

Mr. Buckingham's work as a lawyer has been of a character so 
remarkable as to deserve some notice. It is from the difficulties aris- 
ing iu many departments of legal practice that the necessity for spe- 
cialism has grown, and it is in the most difficult of these fields that he 
has achieved distinction. The success of Mr. Buckingham in the line 
of practice which he has followed strikingly illustrates the possibili- 
ties of a professional career where systematic special training has 
been added to the greatest natural aptitude. His work has been 
thus charactrized: 

Mr. Buckingham has attained unusual prominence in the legal profession, at 
an age when most men have their reputation yet to make. He stands in the 
foremost rank of distinguished lawyers who have made a specialty of the vast 
interests and intricate questions involved in modern patent litigation, and in the 
peculiarly difficult field of electrical cases he is pre-eminent. It may be said 
that he is the creator of a legal method in this department, requiring, in addition 
to the highest abilities of the lawyer, an expert scientific knowledge and a genius 
for original and exhaustive investigation, which, in the degree he exhibits them, 
few men can ever hope to possess. . . . 

He has conducted many of the most important patent cases which have ever 
come to trial, involving enormous interests, and in this work has enjoyed an 
extraordinary success. . . . 

His industry is one of the marked characteristics of Mr. Buckingham's work. 
. . . The study of the mechanics of a single great case has cost him the labor 
that would be necessary to acquire a profession, and, ... as preliminary 
work, he has given months to the study of publications and patents bearing even 
remotely upon the question at issue. Thus equipped, and with a technical 
knowledge quite as complete as that of the expert witnesses, he possesses a 
power in cross-examination which is almost unprecedented in this department of 
law. 

The labor involved in the larger of these cases is indicated by the fact that 
the printed report of evidence and briefs sometimes occupies nine or ten vol- 
umes, aggregating several thousand pages, with hundreds of intricate illustra- 
tions. 

The mere financial importance of his cases frequently amounts to immense 
sums, and it is the guarding of such large interests which has directed the best 
legal talent into the special field of patent law. Moreover, with the multipli- 
cation of intricacies, this field lends itself, in turn, to subdivision, in which proc- 
ess Mr. Buckingham's peculiar expert work has contributed not the least factor, 
separating the subfield of electrical cases — most difficult of all — into a division 
by itself. In this department Mr. Buckingham is the most original figure. 

But if attention is naturally drawn to his unusual technical skill, it should 
not be forgotten that as a lawyer, pure and simple, Mr. Buckingham is one of the 



58 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YORK 

most skillful cross-examiners at the liar, and that his carefully prepared briefs 
are distinguished for their clearness, unusual vigor and originality, and remark- 
able command of irony and satire in exposing the weakness of the opposition. 1 

Following are the titles of a conspicuous line of suits, in most 
of which the causes of Mr. Buckingham's clients were achieved 
before the cases came to a hearing, either through abandonment or 
settlement by the opposing side: four or five suits of the Holmes Burg- 
lar Alarm Company vs. the American District Telegraph Company, 
1882-83, prosecuted by General Duncan and Eoscoe Conkling; the 
Brush Electric Company vs. the Schuyler Electric Light Company, 
1883-85, prosecuted by E. N. Dickerson, Senior, C. E. Mitchell, and 
Witter & Kenyon; several suits of the Gold and Stock Telegraph 
Company vs. the Commercial Telegram Company, 1883-85, success- 
fully prosecuted against David Dudley Field, Koscoe Conkling, Gen- 
eral Duncan, and James E. Chandler; the Western Union Telegraph 
Company vs. the Baltimore & Ohio Telegraph Company, 1885-87, in 
which the defendant was represented by Messrs. F. H. Betts, G. P. 
Lowrey, and Edward B. Bacon; State of Delaware us. Delaware & 
Atlantic Telephone Company, 1889-91, involving the question of com- 
mon-carrier precedence over patent-right and contract; Edison Elec- 
tric Light Company vs. New Haven Electric Company, 1890-92, pros- 
ecuted by Frederic H. Betts and Dyer & Seely; the Ore Separator 
cases, two suits (Magnetic Separator Company vs. International Ore 
Separating Company, and same vs. William Dean Hoffman), 1892-96, 
defended by Dyer & Seely and Cowen, Dickerson, Nicoll & Brown; 
two suits, involving the great issue of electric overhead traction 
(Overhead Conductor Electric Railway Company vs. Pittsburgh, Al- 
legheny & Manchester Traction Company, and same vs. Duquesne 
Traction Company, virtually an issue between the General Electric 
and Westinghouse companies), 1892-9fi; Deprez vs. Thomson-Houston 
Electric Company, 1892-95, prosecuted by Edmund Wetmore; three 
suits involving the Tesla patents (Westinghouse Electric and Manu- 
facturing Company and the Tesla Electric Company against the 
Thomson-Houston Electric Company), 1893-9G, prosecuted by Ed- 
mund Wetmore, Duncan & Page, and Kerr & Curtis. 

Mr. Buckingham is an active member of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Political 
find Social Science, and the American Institute of Electrical Engi- 
neers, as well as of a number of social clubs and societies of New 
York City and Washington. He was a contributor to the series 
of technical articles written by the leading engineers of the country, 
which were published in Rcribncr's Magazine (1889-90). 

1 " Memorial History of New York," Vol. v., pp. 246-8 ; National Magazine, September, 1SA4, pp. 405-7. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



59 



UEL, OLIVER PRINCE (born in Troy, New York, January 
22, 1838), is of Connecticut ancestry on both sides. His 
mother, Harriet Hillhouse, was of an ancient Connecticut 
family, while all the Buels of this country are descendants 
of Connecticut ancestors. Mr. Buel's father, the late Honorable David 





#^64*4, /^/^^/^>£^ 



Buel, Junior, was for nearly half a century a practicing- lawyer, one of 
the most distinguished members of the bar of northern New York, 



OU HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

and a member of the constitutional convention of 1821. His son, 
Oliver P., graduated from Williams College in 1859, and studied law 
under bis father, and after bis deatb under tbe late ex-Judge John K. 
Porter. After a few years' practice in Troy, Mr. Buel removed to New 
York, where he has been in active practice since. 

Although not a specialist, as general counsel of the United States 
Life Insurance Company and other corporations, be has been largely 
engaged in insurance and corporation litigations. In 1871, in an 
attack upon the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association, instituted by a 
political ring backed by Boss Tweed, and before a judge afterward 
driven from the bench, Mr. Buel succeeded in rescuing the corpora- 
tion from the clutches of a receiver. In the case of Ilarley against the 
United States Life Insurance Company in the Supreme Court, he 
succeeded in a defense depending upon destroying on cross-examina- 
tion the testimony of the most eminent medical expert in the country. 
The defense was sustained by the Court of Appeals. In the more 
recent case of Gould vs. Seney (31 N. Y. State Reporter) he obtained 
for his client a decision compelling the syndicate committee of the 
projected Richmond, Allegany & Ohio Central Railroad to account 
for more than a million dollars alleged to have been misappropriated. 

Mr. Buel is a democrat, inclined to tbe doctrine of free trade. Soon 
after his removal to New York, in the early days of the Democratic 
Club, be was accustomed to engage in its debates. From 1881 to 1885, 
while residing in Yonkers, he was president of the democratic club of 
that city, and was also interested for several years in educational 
matters as a member of the Yonkers board of education. lie is a 
member of the Reform, Catholic, and Salmagundi clubs and the Bar 
Association. He was chairman of tbe Bar Association committee 
Avhich favorably reported a proposition submitted by him to consoli- 
date the courts of New York. On behalf of the association, Mr. Buel 
made an argument before the judiciary committee of the senate in 
favor of the consolidation, and the senate approved an amendment of 
the constitution to this end, but adverse influences succeeded in shelv- 
ing the measure in the assembly. However, this proposition was 
adopted by the constitutional convention of 1894. As a member of 
the Excise Reform Association, Mr. Buel also appeared before Gover- 
nor Hill in favor of high license. 

Mr. Buel was brought up an episcopalian, but in 1881 bis convic- 
tions led him into the catholic church. He is fond of controversial 
literature, and has contributed to periodicals. Huxley's attack on 
Christianity led him to publish in the Catholic World a satire, " The 
Abraham Lincoln Myth," since re-published in book form. 

In December, 1871, Mr. Buel married Josephine, daughter of the 
late General Charles McDougal, one of tbe ablest surgeons in the 
United States army. 





HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 61 

ULL, JOHN, JUNIOR, was born in Slaterville, Tompkins 
county, New York, September 25, 1S63. He was graduated 
at Cornell University in 1885, and studied law with Halli- 
day & -Finch, of Ithaca, and Marsh, Wilson & Wallis, of 
New York City, and also at the Columbia College Law School, from 
which he received his diploma in 1887. He was soon after admitted 
to the bar at Syracuse. He has since been successfully practicing in 
Elmira. 

jjURNETT, HENRY L. (born in Youngstown, Ohio, December 
26, 1838), is the son of Henry Burnett and Nancy Jones. 
His mother was of an old Yirginian family, her parents em- 
igrating to Ohio about the year 1800, from Lynchburgb, 
Virginia. 

The Burnett family is one of the oldest and most honorable in 
America, tracing directly to AVilliam Burnett, colonial governor of 
New York and New Jersey from 1720 to 1728, and afterwards of Mas- 
sachusetts and New Hampshire. A later William Burnett, a mem- 
ber of this family, was a distinguished physician of New Jersey, a 
member of the continental congress of 1776, and served from that 
year until the close of the Revolution as surgeon-general of the army 
for the eastern district of the union. 

Mr. Burnett's grandfather, Samuel Burnett, also a native of New 
Jersey, was a prominent supporter of the Revolution and a man of 
rare culture and polish, as well as of exalted patriotism. At the close 
of the struggle for independence, finding himself impoverished by the 
war, he sought to better his fortune in the territorial wilderness of 
northern Ohio. In spite of the rigors of pioneer life, he established 
a substantial home, but was unable to give his children the educa- 
tional advantages which he had enjoyed. By necessary environment, 
therefore, Mr. Burnett's father became a farmer, but added to his 
vocation the business of contractor and builder. 

To young Burnett, having inherited the propensities of his grand- 
father, and aspiring to a professional career, the plodding life of a 
farmer was distasteful. Unable to get the consent of his father to 
acquire an education beyond that of the district schools, at the age of 
fifteen, stealing away from the old homestead at night, equipped with 
a bundle of clothing, forty-six dollars which he had saved up, copies 
of " Thaddeus of Warsaw " and the " Lady of Lyons," he walked 
about a hundred miles to Chester Academy, where James A. Garfield 
was then a student. He built fires, rang the bell, and did any odd job 
at hand to help pay expenses while at the academy. Later he went to 
Hiram Institute, where Garfield was one of his teachers. Leaving 
the institute, he entered the Ohio State and National Law School and 
was graduated in 1859. He was admitted to the bar in 1860, and com- 
menced the practice of law in Warren, Ohio, the same year. He had 



62 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

scarcely started in his profession when, the civil war breaking out, he 
responded to the first call for volunteers, enlisting in the first cavalry 
authorized in Ohio. Each recruit was to bring his own horse and re- 
ceive pay for it from the government. When the recruits were as- 




IIKXKY L. BURNETT. 



sembled at Warren, they were informed that government certificates 
would be tendered instead of cash. This caused great dissatisfaction 
and the men were about to disperse. At this juncture Mr. Burnett 
leaped upon a fence and shouted: " Those who go into this war to 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 63 

fight for the cause, and not to sell their horses, follow me into that 
yard," and mounting his horse dashed into the yard. The effect was 
electrical; the company followed him to a man. The troop was organ- 
ized afterward as Company C, 2d Ohio cavalry, with the impetuous 
Burnett as captain. The regiment, under Colonel Donbleday, par- 
ticipated in the battles of Carthage and Fort Wayne, and afterward 
in the Cherokee expedition through Arkansas and the Indian Terri- 
tory under Colonel Weir, who was intemperate and proved utterly 
incompetent. He finally reduced his command to such straits that a 
council of the officers of the troop composing the expedition decided 
to arrest him, and detailed Major Burnett to carry out their man- 
date, prepare the manifesto to the soldiers in defense of their action, 
and inform General Blunt at Fort Leavenworth. Major Burnett's 
regiment also served under General Burnside during a part of the 
Knoxville campaign, and he was promoted from time to time until he 
reached the rank of brigadier-general. In July, 18C>3, he was ap- 
pointed by General Burnside judge-advocate of the Department of 
Ohio, in place of Captain Cutts, relieved from duty and ordered to be 
tried by court-martial. The ability displayed in the trial and con- 
viction of Captain Cutts led eventually to the extension of his juris- 
diction to the northern department, in which were situated nearly all 
the military prisons. He tried the famous Sons of Liberty or Knights 
of the Golden Circle cases in Indiana, and the cases growing out of 
the Chicago conspiracy to liberate and arm the large force at Camp 
Douglass. He had scarcely closed these cases when he was sum- 
moned to Washington by Secretary Stanton to aid in trying the Lin- 
coln assassins. Associated with Judge Holt and Honorable John A. 
Bingham, he secured the conviction of the conspirators. 

He resigned from the army in December, 1865, and associated him- 
self in the practice of law in Cincinnati with Honorable T. W. Bart- 
ley, late chief-justice of Ohio. Judge Bartley removing to Washing- 
ton, in 1869, he formed a partnership with ex-Governor Jacob D. Cox 
and Honorable John F. Follett, of Cincinnati, which continued until 
1872, when General Burnett removed to New York. He was at once 
accorded a recognized position at the bar of the metropolis. In 1873 
he became associate attorney and counsel of the Erie Bailway Com- 
pany, resuming general practice, however, in 1S75, in partnership 
with Honorable B. H. Bristow, William Peet, and W. S. Opdyke. He 
subsequently formed a partnership with ex-Judge Emott, continuing 
until the death of the judge, and was associated with Edward B. 
Whitney until the latter was appointed assistant-attorney-general of 
the United States under President Cleveland. His practice has al- 
ways been important and eminently successful. He was counsel for 
the English bondholders in the Emma Mine litigation, in which he 
was successful. He was associated with Honorable A. F. Walker, and 
made the closing argument in the great case of the Rutland Railway 



64 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Company against Governor Paige, of Vermont, involving some four 
millions of dollars. The trial, lasting three months, was one of the 
most exciting legal battles ever fought in New England. In the clos- 
ing argument General Burnett spoke for sixteen hours, his address 
attracting wide comment from the press. " If General Burnett had 
won no previous reputation in the legal forum,'' said one journal, 
" the consummate ability displayed in the defense of Governor Paige 
would stamp him the peer of the greatest advocate of the age." 

General Burnett is a member of many clubs, including the Union, 
Colonial, Century, and Metropolitan. He is president of the Ohio 
Society, and is ex-president of the Land and Water Club. He is also 
one of the new reform directors of the Northern Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany. His wife, a lady of literary culture and high social position, 
was formerly Miss Tailer, descended from Governor Tailer of the 
Colony of Massachusetts. 

HJFRRELL, MYRON LEWIS (born in Sheffield, Berkshire 
county, Massachusetts, January 21, 1816), is the son of 
Warren Burrell and Mary Schelenger. He was educated at 
common and private schools, studied law with Isaac Hills, 
of Rochester; Joseph Centre, of Lockport; Fillmore, Hall & Havens, 
of Buffalo; and Smith & Chase, of Lockport, and was admitted to the 
bar at Albany in January, 1849. Throughout his long professional 
career he has practiced at Lockport. 





USH, TIMOTHY F. (born in Liberty, Sullivan county, New 
York, January 3, 1833), is the son of Abie] and Rachel 
Bush, natives of Connecticut, who removed from Cole- 
brook, in that state, to Sullivan county, New York, about 
1800. Mr. Bush's education was limited to common school and home 
instruction. He took the course in the Albany Law School, 1855-56, 
and also studied under the direction of an elder brother, the late Hon- 
orable Albert J. Bush, who was twice elected to the office of judge 
and surrogate of Sullivan county, dying before the expiration of his 
second term. 

Mr. Bush was admitted to the bar at the general term of the Su- 
preme Court held at Albany March 10, 1856, and began practice at 
Liberty, Sullivan county. Since December, 1871, he has been lo- 
cated at Monticello, the county seat. He has made a reputation as a 
prominent member of the state bar, and has conducted numerous im- 
portant suits in all the courts of the state and in the federal courts. 

Upon the incorporation of the Village of Liberty, he was chosen 
its first president. He was appointed to fill the office of county judge, 
made vacant by the death of his brother, and in November, 1872, was 
elected for a full term of six years in that position. In 1890 he was 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 65 

appointed by Governor Hill a member for the 3d judicial district of 
the constitutional commission created for the purpose of revising the 
judiciary article of the state constitution. In connection with the 
labors of this commission he served as a member of the standing com- 
mittee on the Supreme Court. 




DTLER, WILLIAM ALLEN (born in Albany, New York, 
February 20, 1825), is the son of Honorable Benjamin 
Franklin Butler, one of the most prominent leaders of the 
bar of the State of New York during the first half of the 
present century, one of the revisers of the statutes of the State of 
New York, and attorney-general of the United States in the cabinets 
of Jackson and Van Buren. 1 Imitating his father in winning a fore- 
most place as a lawyer, William Allen Butler has also distinguished 
himself as an author, especially in the direction of poetical satire, and 
has exhibited a deep interest in the study of social problems and in 
educational matters. 

He received his early education in schools at Albany and George- 
town, D. C., was graduated in 1843 from the University of the City of 
New York, and studied law in his father's office. Before entering 
upon the practice of law, he spent part of two years, 1846 to 1848, in 
travel in Europe. Upon his return he commenced practice in New 
York City, and he has continuously followed his profession there from 
that time to the present. His early practice was in association with 
his father. For many years past he has been at the head of the well- 
known law firm of Butler, Stillman & Hubbard. Mr. Butler has 
been one of the most successful among the leading lawyers of New 
York City, and has been counsel in many of the most notable cases 
occurring during the long period of his active practice. 

He has been concerned in the organization and business of some of 
the most important banking, trust, and insurance corporations, and 
has long held a conspicuous position at the admiralty bar. His inter- 
esting cases include the following in the United States Supreme 
Court, settling, according to the principles which he advocated in 
each case, important rules of the maritime law of this country: " The 
Pennsylvania" (19 Wallace, 125); "The Lottawanna " (21 Id., 558); 
" The Scotland " (105 U. S., 24), and " The Montana " (129 Id., 397). 
He has been president of the American Bar Association (1886), and of 
the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (1886 and 1887), 
under whose auspices he published, in 1888, a history of the Revision 
of the Statutes of New York, with biographical sketches of the re- 
visers. 

Mr. Butler's contributions to literature have been notable. Dur- 
ing his explorations in Europe, in 1846-48, he contributed to the Lit- 

1 For a sketch of I 



bb HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

crary World a series of sketches of travel entitled; " Out-of-the- Way 
Places in Europe.'' In the same periodical he also published a series 
of humorous papers under the general caption of "The Colonel's Ciub." 
His " Cities of Art and the Early Artists " was published in the Art 
Union Bulletin. " The Future," a poem, was issued in 1846, while 
from that time " poetical pieces, displaying wit and fancy," frequently 
appeared in the current periodicals, and especially in the Democratic 
Review. In 1850 he published a volume entitled, " Barnum's Parnas- 
sus." In 1857 he published anonymously in Harper's Weekly his fa- 
mous satirical poem, " Nothing to Wear." This satire obtained imme- 
diate celebrity, was reproduced in many forms in the United States 
and England, and translated into German and French. Its author- 
ship beiug a secret, it was claimed by an impostor, until Mr. Butler 
publicly acknowledged himself the author. 

In 1858 Mr. Butler published his " Two Millions," written and 
originally delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Yale Col- 
lege. A little later appeared the " General Average," a " stinging 
satire on sharp practices in mercantile life." His notable address de- 
livered before the New York Bible Society on " The Bible by Itself " 
was published in 1SG0, and in 1862 a biographical sketch of " Martin 
Van Buren." In 1871 he published an essay on the ethical relations of 
" Lawyer and Client," founded upon a lecture on the same subject be- 
fore the Law School of the University of the City of New York. About 
the same time appeared his collected poems (Boston, 1871). In 1879 
he published a memorial address on Evert A. Duyckinck, who had 
been his intimate personal friend. Mr. Butler is also the author of 
two successful works of fiction — " Mrs. Limber's Raffle," which was 
originally published anonymously in 1876, and " Domesticus," a story 
touching upon the labor problem in various ways, which appeared in 
1886. 

He has been deeply interested in the cause of education, and for a 
long term of years has maintained an active part in the direction of 
the University of the City of New York, serving upon the council of 
that institution, by continuous re-elections, since 1862, and delivering 
an annual course of lectures on admiralty law before the Law School. 




ADY, JONATHAN RIDEK (born July 31, 1851, at Rayville, 
in the Town of Chatham, Columbia county, New York), is 
the eldest son of Perkins F. and Ann M. Rider Cady, his 
ancestors having long resided in Columbia county, and 
being of English origin. One of the members of his father's family 
was the late Judge Daniel Cady, of Johnstown, Fulton county, who 
served as a justice of the Supreme Court and judge of the Court of 
Appeals, and who was the father of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 

Mr. Cady was educated in the public schools, and at the Friends' 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 67 

School, Providence, Rhode Island. He studied law in the office of 
Gaul & Esselstyn at Hudson, graduated at the Albany Law School, 




.^^ 



and was admitted to the bar in 1ST2. He resides and practices his pro- 
fession at Hudson. 

While pursuing his studies at the law school he served as clerk to 
the judiciary committee of the assembly. This was during the mem- 



68 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

orable legislative session of 1872, when the charges of the Associa- 
tion of the Bar of the City of New York against Judges Barnard, Car- 
dozo, and MeCunn were investigated, leading to the Impeachment of 
Barnard, the resignation of Cardozo, and the removal of MeCunn. 
Tliis investigation was conducted by the assembly judiciary commit- 
tee, whose chairman was L. Bradford Prince, since chief -justice of 
New Mexico and governor of that territory. Among its members 
were Samuel J. Tilden and David B. Hill. He thus enjoyed the ad- 
vantage of close association and acquaintance in early life with some 
of the most prominent men of the state. 

Since his admission to the bar he has steadfastly devoted all his 
energies to the learning and pursuit of the law. His experience has 
been extensive and varied. In 1882 he formed a partnership with 
Albert Hoysradt, Esquire, which continued until 1892. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1888, 
on motion of Attorney-General Garland. From January 1, 1890, to 
December 31, 1890, he served as county judge of Columbia county, 
making a conspicuous record for judicial ability and strength. At 
the expiration of his term of service he declined the renomination 
that was tendered to him by a unanimous vote of the committee. 

Very early in his practice, when he was twenty-live years of age, 
he was associated with Charles L. Beale in the defense of John V. 
Kiere and his wife, who had been jointly indicted for the murder 
of Charles Hermance, a popular citizen of Hudson. Mr. Beale was 
taken suddenly and severely ill on the second day of the trial, and the 
entire conduct of the defendants' case thus unexpectedly devolved 
upon Mr. Cady. In the trial, which lasted about a week, Gershom 
Buckley, district attorney of Columbia county, and John B. Longley, 
ex-district attorney, both lawyers of ability and distinction, were op- 
posed to him for the prosecution. He succeeded in obtaining the ac- 
quittal of the wife, and in limiting the verdict against the husband 
to one of murder in the second degree. 

He has taken part in several other well-known homicide cases. As- 
sociated with Robert E. Andrews, he defended Henry Moett, charged 
with a double murder in Taghkanic. Moett was convicted of the 
murder of his wife, and three times sentenced to death; but his per- 
sistent counsel finally prevailed upon a motion for a new trial, on the 
ground of newly discovered evidence and surprise, made at the Oyer 
and Terminer, and their client escaped with his life, the district at- 
torney consenting to accept a plea of niurder in the second degree. 
With Mr. Andrews he also defended Lewis Coon, indicted for the 
murder of his wife. Coon escaped the death penalty and was con- 
victed of manslaughter in the first degree. He was associated with 
the district attorney, Mr. Aaron B. Gardenier, in the successful prose- 
cution of Oscar F. Beckwith for murder in the first degree. On behalf 
of the People he conducted the preliminary examination of Giuseppi 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK W 

Scoma, charged with a murder in the Town of Greenport, and devel- 
oped a remarkable chain of circumstantial evidence upon which the 
defendant was finally convicted in the first degree. He was counsel 
with the district attorney upon the second trial of Andrew Ford, ac- 
cused of the murder of his wife in the Town of Chatham. This was 
one of the most notable cases involving alleged arsenical poison- 
ing ever tried in the state. He successfully defended Reuben Best, 
indicted for the murder of one Sisson in the Town of Claverack, and 
he has appeared in a number of other homicide cases, either upon the 
part of the People or of the defense. 

In conjunction with District- Attorney Gardenier he conducted the 
extradition proceedings against J. H. W. Cadby, who Avas charged 
with very extensive forgeries, and secured his return from the Prov- 
ince of New Brunswick, after a strenuous legal contest which, com- 
mencing in the Province of Ontario, at Hamilton, was removed to 
Halifax in Nova Scotia, and thence transferred to the Province of 
New Brunswick. It went through all the courts of that province, and 
was finally disposed of by the Supreme Court of the Dominion of 
Canada, at Ottawa. Many prominent Canadian lawyers took a part 
in it, and it was the first successful attempt, up to that time, to secure 
extradition from New Brunswick. 

While his practice at the criminal bar has been varied and inter- 
esting, it has formed but a minor and incidental part of his work. 
He has been for many years one of the most active lawyers in eastern 
New York, and transacts a large volume of counsel business in the 
state and federal courts, as well as in those of other states. 

He was associated with Joseph H. Choate, Matthew Hale, Robert 
F. Wilkinson, George Bliss, William A. Sutherland, and John F. 
Parkhurst in the celebrated Deane senatorial contested election case 
of 1891, which resulted in a decision by the Court of Appeals in favor 
of Deane, the republican candidate, although the democratic board 
of state canvassers afterward awarded the seat to the latter's oppo- 
nent. Upon the occasion of this arbitrary action by the board of can- 
vassers, Mr. Cady appeared before them on the part of the republican 
counsel, and in memorable and effective language protested against 
and condemned the illegality and dishonesty of the proceeding. 

In 189G he was counsel for William L. Ward in the matter of the 
contested republican nomination for representative in congress in 
the ltJth congress district of New York, composed of Westchester 
county and a portion of New York City. The regularity of Mr. Ward's 
nomination was contested by Ben L. Fairchild, for whom Honorable 
Benjamin F. Tracy, late judge of the Court of Appeals and secretary 
of the navy under President Harrison, appeared as leading counsel. 
The struggle in the courts was bitter and protracted. The Appellate 
Division of the Supreme Court in the 3d department decided in favor 
of Mr. Ward, and he was elected to the office. 



70 HISTOKY OF THE BENCH AND BAK OF NEW YORK 

In politics he lias been attached from boyhood to. the republican 
party, and he is one of its recognized leaders in the state. He was 
for eight years chairman of the republican county committee of Co- 
lumbia county, and has frequently represented that county in state 
conventions. 

From 1885 to 1889 he was postmaster of Hudson, receiving his ap- 
pointment from President Arthur. In 1893 he was elected a dele- 
gate-at-large to the state constitutional convention, which assembled 
in 1891. In that body he was chairman of the committee on canals, 
and framed and secured the passage of the amendment providing for 
the improvement of those great waterways of the state. This provi- 
sion of the constitution was adopted by the largest popular vote cast 
for any of the amendments, and is the basis of the legislation since 
passed authorizing the expenditure of |9,000,000 for canal improve- 
ments. He was also a member of the judiciary committee, and was 
one of the sub-committee of four that drafted the amendments to the 
judiciary article. His associates on the sub-committee were Elihu 
Root, Louis Marshall, and John M. Bowers. In the republican state 
convention of 1896, at Saratoga, he made the speech in which Gover- 
nor Black was placed in nomination. 

Mr. Cady is especially prominent at the state bar as an advocate, 
ranking with the leading nisi prius lawyers. He is thorough and ef- 
fective in the preparation and the presentation of his cases. He is, 
moreover, a careful student of the fundamental principles of the 
law, and to the qualities of the brilliant advocate adds the equipment 
of the sound, sagacious, and well-balanced lawyer. 

He was married in 1873 to Sarah C, daughter of Philip K. Burger, 
of Hudson. They have two children, Elizabeth B. and Perkins F. 




AMERON, DANIEL (born in Broadalbin, Montgomery coun- 
ty — now Fulton, — New York, March 5, 1825), is a son of 
Allan and Catharine Cameron. His mother's name before 
==yi marriage was Catharine Fraser. 
He acquired his literary education at Johnstown Academy (Johns- 
town, New York), studied law with Honorable John Wells, of Johns- 
town, and was admitted to the bar January 4, 1818, at the general 
term of the Supreme Court, held at Fonda, Montgomery county. He 
thereupon commenced practice at Johnstown, where he continued 
until 1876. Since that time he has practiced in Brooklyn. 

For a number of years, while in Johnstown, Mr. Cameron held the 
offices of superintendent of schools and justice of the peace. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 71 

AMERON, WINFIELD SCOTT (born in Ellicott, Chautau- 
qua county, New York, June 5, 183S), is the son of John 
Armstrong and Harmony Hitchcock Cameron. He was 
educated at the Jamestown Academy, the Randolph Acad- 
emy, and the Chamberlain Institute, attended the Albany Law 
School, and received his office training for the profession under Hon- 
orable Alexander Sheldon, of Randolph, New York, and at James- 
town, New York. He was admitted to the bar at Buffalo in May, 
1866, and since that time has practiced at Jamestown, becoming one 
of the prominent lawyers and citizens of that locality and section. 

Mr. Cameron was one of the members to charter the Jamestown 
Street Railway.Company, and for many years has been a director and 
secretary of that company. He was for a long period a director of 
the City National Bank of Jamestown, and upon its consolidation 
with another bank, in the Chautauqua County Trust Company, he 
became a director in the new institution, which position he still holds. 
He was a member of the assembly in 1868 and 1869, and has served 
on the board of trustees of the Village of Jamestown. 

On August 5, 1862, Mr. Cameron enlisted as a private in the 1 54th 
regiment, New York state volunteers. He was at the battle of Fred- 
ericksburg, was wounded and captured at Chancellorsville, took 
part in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and many 
other battles and engagements, and marched with Sherman to the 
sea, remaining in the service to the close of the war. He was bre- 
vetted major by the president, and lieutenant-colonel by Governor 
Fenton, for meritorious services in battle and on Sherman's march. 
In 1S64 he was appointed acting assistant-inspector-general on the 
staff of the 20th army corps, in which position he continued until the 
end of the rebellion. Mr. Cameron's only brother, John E. Cameron, 
was killed in the battle of the Wilderness. 



ANTINE, CHARLES FREEMAN (born in Saugerties, Ulster 
county, New York, November 4, 1S58), is the son of Peter 
and Sarah A. Cantine. He was educated at the Saugerties 
Academy and Rutgers College, being graduated from the 
latter institution in the class of 18S0. He began the study of the law 
under the direction of his father, a practitioner in Saugerties, and 
then took the complete course at the Columbia College Law School. 
Upon the completion of his studies there he was admitted to the bar 
at Ithaca, in May, 1882. He soon afterward engaged in professional 
business in Kingston, where he has practiced without interruption 
since. 

Mr. Cantine is now (1897) serving as district attorney of Ulster 
county, to which office he was elected in November, 1895. 




72 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

|ARTER, JAMES COOLIDGE (born in Lancaster, Massachu- 
setts, October 14, 1827), is the son of Major Solomon Carter, 
a prominent citizen of Lancaster, Massachusetts, and at 
times its representative in the legislature, and is lineally 
descended from the Reverend Thomas Carter, the original emigrant, 
who at the age of twenty-five came to New England in the ship Planter 
in 1635, having previously been educated at Saint John's College, 
Cambridge. Reverend Thomas Carter was "ordained as the first 
minister of Woburn, December 2, 1642," 1 and served the church con- 
tinuously for forty-two years, until his death in 1681, at the age of 
seventy-four. 3 

Mr. Carter was prepared for college at Derby Academy, Hingham, 
Massachusetts, and was graduated from Harvard in 1850, having dis- 
tinguished himself at this university for scholarship, and by winning 
two prizes for essays and one for a Latin dissertation. He was gradu- 
ated from the Harvard College Law School in 1853, and the same 
year was admitted to the bar in New York City, where he has been in 
active practice since. 

By brilliant and thorough professional work he achieved the dis- 
tinction now universally accorded him of a foremost place among 
great American lawyers. His treatment of questions of law, in the 
words of another, exhibits the possession of " one of the finest legal 
minds this country has ever produced." His penetration and grasp 
of a subject may be described, in lieu perhaps of better adjectives, as 
intellectual and logical; although, in the presentation of his theme, 
he is able to add much of the persuasive warmth of eloquence to the 
more convincing, if less emotional, effect of searching analysis and 
keen logic. 

He has been prominent in famous litigations and controversies in- 
volving questions of public interest and of national and international 
law. He has been counsel for the City of New York in many of its 
most important cases carried to the New York Court of Appeals. 
Among such litigations were the proceedings in the nature of quo 
warranto respecting the title to several important city offices; cases of 
the alleged claims of private parties against the city for wharfage 
rights; the important proceedings for exemption from taxation insti- 
tuted by the elevated and surface railroad companies and various for- 
eign banks and other corporations; the claims against the city for the 
recovery of huge sums as alleged rents of private buildings leased for 
use as armories, and the recent suits for enormous amounts brought 

* "History of Middlesex Comity, Massachusetts," by in Lancaster, Massachusetts: his son, Ephraini Carter *, 

Samuel Adams Drake, Vol. ii., Boston, 1880. of Lancaster ; his oldest surviving son. Captain Ephraim 

2 The line comes down from this clergyman to James Carter \ of Lancaster ; his son, Major Solomon Car- 

C. Carter as follows: Reverend Thomas Carter 1 ; his ter °, of Lancaster ; his son, James C. Carter', of New 

eldest child. Reverend Samuel Carter '-', minister of the York. 

church in Groton, Massachusetts (born August 8, 1640: Through his mother, Elizabeth White, Mr. Carter is 

died 1693) : his oldest surviving son, Samuel Carter 3 descended from John White, one of the early settlers of 

(born January 7, lloT, died August :!0, 1T3N), who settled Lancaster. 




^ 



^] (^^Wt^- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 73 

by the contractors for the building of the new aqueduct. He was also 
counsel for the people of the State of New York in the famous suit to 
recover from William M. Tweed |6,000,000 for moneys abstracted 
from the city treasury under the fraudulent contrivance known as the 
" Six Million Audit." 

He has argued in the Supreme Court of the United States a large 
number of cases, many of them involving questions of constitutional 
law. Among others, the proceedings of the banks of New York City 
to set aside their tax assessments were carried before this tribunal, 
Mr. Carter arguing for the city; he also appeared in the Louisiana Lot- 
tery cases, which raised the question of the validity of the United 
States statutes denying to lotteries the use of the public mails; in the 
Counselman case, involving the right of the government to compel the 
testimony of the accused before grand juries; in a series of cases test- 
ing the claims for land grants made by the United States to aid the 
construction of transcontinental railroads; in the cases questioning 
the validity of congressional litigation prohibiting the immigration 
of Chinese laborers; and the important case of the Bate Refrigerator 
Company, involving the construction of United States statutes upon 
the subject of patents. 

In addition to the above cases, he was one of the principal counsel 
for the defendants in the noted litigations some years ago in connec- 
tion with the will of the celebrated Madam Jumel, which were car- 
ried through the various tribunals to the United States Supreme 
Court. The original case — an attack upou the will — was followed by 
the claims of various pretenders to the right of inheritance. These 
cases presented a singular union of professional and dramatic per- 
sonal interest, and in his able conduct of them Mr. Carter attracted 
wide attention. 

More recently he has also argued in the United States Supreme 
Court the important cases to recover on foreign judgments from the 
late firm of A. T. Stewart & Co. Another of his litigations, the case 
of the Scotia, was carried through the United States courts and up 
to the Supreme Court. This case involved two important issues: first, 
concerning the limitation of liability for marine torts; second, the 
question whether a British vessel, libeled in the courts of the United 
States by the owners of an American vessel, could avail of the defense 
afforded by United States statutes prescribing rules of navigation, 
in view of the fact that American vessels libeled by British citizens 
in the English admiralty courts are denied the benefit of similar Brit- 
ish statutes by the courts of England. 

But of cases involving international law, the more important and 
most recent in mind in which he has been engaged was the argument 
in 1893, before the tribunal of arbitration at Paris, upon the question 
of the rights of the United States in the seal herds and seal indus- 
tries of the Pribylof Islands in the Bering Sea. As counsel for the 



74 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

United States he delivered a brilliant argument. In the income tax 
cases he was counsel for the government, and delivered a powerful 
argument for the constitutionality of the law. 

An independent in politics, he is one of the more prominent figures 
in the group of distinguished New York lawyers who have been ac- 
tive in all movements looking to municipal reform. His activity in 
this direction began with the organization of the Bar Association of 
the City of New York as a protest against the Tweed regime, and 
more especially against the degradation of the bench under Tweed's 
corrupt henchmen, Judges Barnard and Cardozo; and from that time 
to the present he has participated in every similar movement for the 
elevation of the legal profession or the purification of our political 
institutions. In 1875 he rendered distinguished service as a member, 
by appointment of Governor Tilden, of the commission to devise a 
form of municipal government for the cities of the State of New York. 
Since its organization in 1892 he has been president of the City Club, 
a society of about 650 well-known citizens associated expressly to 
reform the evils of corrupt or incompetent municipal government. 1 

He is the author of several notable addresses and monographs on 
legal subjects. " The Proposed Codification of our Common Law " 
(New York, 1881), a masterly argument against the threatened codifi- 
cation, prepared at the request of a committee of the Bar Association, 
attracted wide attention to the subject and added to the fame of its 
author. The address before the Virginia State Bar Association in 1889 
on " The Provinces of the Written and the Unwritten Law," and that 
on " The Ideal and the Actual in the Law," delivered at the thirteenth 
annual meeting of the American Bar Association, August 21, 1890, 
and reprinted (Philadelphia, 1890) from the Transactions of that asso- 
ciation, were scarcelv less notable. 




|ARVER, DAVID II. (born in the Town of Union, Broome 
county, New York, March 19, 1813), is the son of Reverend 
John and Maria Sturgess Carver. His father was a metho- 
dist minister, who removed from Columbia county, New 
York, to Broome county in 1852, and died at Susquehanna, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1872. The son attended a district school and the Cortland- 
ville Academy, at Cortland, New York. At the age of seventeen he 
began teaching school in Cortland and Broome counties. In this oc- 
cupation he continued for three winters, and then entered Hamilton 
College, from which he was graduated with the degree of bachelor of 
arts in the class of 1871. The master of arts degree has since been con- 
ferred on him by that institution. In 1874 he was graduated from the 
law department of Hamilton. He also pursued legal studies for one 

and Alpha Delta Phi ClubB of New 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 75 

year in the offices of Chapman & Martin (the late Honorable O. W. 
Chapman and Honorable Celora E. Martin, of the Court of Appeals), 
at Binghamton. 

Immediately after his admission to the bar (which occurred at 
Utica in July, 1875), Mr. Carver began practice at Binghamton, where 
he has continued without interruption until the present time. He is 
at the head of the firm of Carver, Deyo & Jenkins, which has the 
largest professional business, and is generally recognized as the lead- 
ing law firm of Broome county. 

Mr. Carver has held the offices of district attorney of the county 
(1880-83) and member of the board of education of Binghamton 
(1886-92). He has been president of the Binghamton Library Asso- 
ciation for the past ten years, and president of the Binghamton Pres- 
bvterian Union for three years. 



ART, CHARLES SYLVESTER (born iu Hornellsville, New 
York, November 25, 1827), is the son of Christopher and 
Mary Cary. He received a common school, academic, and 
legal education, being graduated from Alfred Academy 
(now college) in 1847, and from the National Law School, at Ballston 
Spa, New York, in 1850. He was admitted to the bar at Canton, Saint 
Lawrence county, New York, in May, 1850, and soon afterward 
opened a law office in Olean, New York, where he is still engaged in 
the practice of the profession. 

Mr. Cary's career of nearly half a century at the bar of western 
New York has been highly successful and distinguished. Throughout 
this long period he has attended every term of the Supreme Court 
held in his county, and for very many years he has had an exception- 
ally large and important clientage, extending throughout the oil re- 
gions. He has been successively at the head of the firms of Cary & 
White, Gary & Bolles, and Cary, Rumsey & Hastings. 

While he has never been a politician in the ordinary sense, or an 
office-seeker, he has taken an active interest in political affairs and 
has filled various high official positions. In his party affiliations he 
has always been a democrat. Notwithstanding his connection with 
the democratic organization he was appointed by President Lincoln, 
in 1863, a commissioner of the board of enrollment for the 32d district. 
In 1865 and 1866 he served as collector of internal revenue for the 
same district. In 1872 he was the democratic candidate for congress 
in the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus district. A large number of the 
votes cast for his republican opponent were rendered technically in- 
valid by an inaccuracy in the ballots, and there was no doubt that Mr. 
Cary was legally entitled to the seat. He refused, however, to under- 
take a contest for setting aside the evident will of the people on merely 
technical grounds. In 1883 he was elected to the assembly, overcom- 



76 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

ing a large republican majority, and in the same year, being nomi- 
nated for justice of the Supreme Court by the democratic convention 
for the 8th judicial district, he ran some 11,000 votes ahead of his 
ticket. He was appointed in 1SS6, by President Cleveland, a member 
of the national commission on the Pacific railroads, and from 1887 
until March, 1889, also by Mr. Cleveland's appointment, he occupied 
the office of solicitor of the treasury of the United States. In 1895 
he was urged to become the democratic candidate for secretary of 
state of New York, but declined. 

Mr. Cary has also long been prominently identified with western 
New York railway interests and banking institutions. He has held 
the positions of president of the Olean, Bradford & Warren, the 
Kendall & Eldred, and the Olean & Bolivar railroads, and is now vice- 
president of the Coudersport & Port Allegheny Railroad. He was 
one of the incorporators, and is still a director, of the Exchange Na- 
tional Bank, of Olean. 




ARY, EUGENE (born November 21, 1857), is the son of 
Richard L. Cary and Lucia Beecher. He was graduated at 
Cornell University in 1878 with the degree of B.S., read law 
with Honorable T. P. Grosvenor, of Dunkirk, New York, 
and Lewis & Rice, of Buffalo, and was admitted to the bar at Buffalo 
in June, 1884. He practiced alone at Dunkirk from June, 1884, to 
November, 1884, and from that date to October, 1885, as a member 
of the firm of Sherman & Cary, and then until May 1, 1887, at Niagara 
Falls, in association with H. C. Tucker. From then he practiced 
alone until May 1, 1893, when he organized with William 0. Wallace 
the firm of Cary & Wallace, a partnership which still continues. 

Mr. Cary has taken an active interest in politics. In the campaign 
of 1884 he was a member of the Chautauqua county republican com- 
mittee, and edited the political department of the Dunkirk Journal. 
He was for one year a member of the Niagara county republican com- 
mittee, and in 1895 he was chairman of the judicial convention for the 
Stli judicial district. Since April, 1890, he has been a member of the 
Niagara Falls board of education. 

He is a director of the Bank of Niagara and the Power City Bank. 




ASSEDY, ABRAM STEVENS (born in Ramapo, Rockland 
county, New York, November 29, 1833; died in Newburgh, 
New York, April 29, 1890), was the grandson of Archibald 
Cassedy, who emigrated from the north of Ireland about 
the time of the Revolution, and became one of the pioneer settlers of 
Rockland county, New York, ne was imbued with the indomitable 
industry and moral principles characteristic of the Scotch-Irish, and 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 77 

became a successful and respected member of the community. His 
son Archibald engaged in mercantile and agricultural pursuits and 
married Lydia Gurnee, daughter of Judge Gurnee, of Rockland 
county, who was of French descent. They lived at Raniapo, where 
Abram S. was born. 

Abram S. Cassedy received an academic education and was gradu- 
ated from the State Normal College, at Albany, in 1S52. He studied 
law with Judge William F. Fraser, at Clarkstown, New York, and 
then with Wilkin & Gott, at Goshen, New York, and was admitted to 
practice in 1857. Doctor Charles Drake was then county clerk, and 
Mr. Cassedy was appointed his deputy, and filled the position for two 
years. Then for the next four years he was clerk of the board of su- 
pervisors of Orange county. Meanwhile, in 1859, he removed to New- 
burgh and entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1862 he 
was elected district attorney of the county on the democratic ticket, 
and served three years. In 1869 he formed a partnership with Honor- 
able Charles F. Brown, son of Honorable John W. Brown, and the 
firm of Cassedy & Brown acquired a large clientage. The partnership 
continued until Mr. Brown became a justice of the Supreme Court. 
From 1886 until his death he was in partnership with his son, Will- 
iam F. Cassedy, under the firm name of A. S. & W. F. Cassedy. In 
1874 Mr. Cassedy commenced a term in the board of education, and 
served one year as its president; he declined the nomination for a sec- 
ond term. In 1875-78 he was corporation counsel. 

In 1880 he was nominated by acclamation by his party for mayor, 
and was elected by a large majority. During his service in this 
office the Quassaick creek bridge was built, the West Shore Railroad 
was building, and the first steps were taken to perfect arrangements 
for the centennial celebration. He was a director and attorney for 
the Quassaick National Bank of Newburgh for the last twenty years 
of his life. 

During the partnership of Cassedy & Brown they represented in 
part the Erie Railroad in Orange county, and were attorneys at New- 
burgh for the North River Construction Company, which built the 
West Shore road. They paid out about $ 700,000 for the company in 
procuring the right of way through the city and its immediate vicin- 
ity. He was local attorney for the West Shore, and afterward for the 
receivers. In October, 1885, he was appointed by the court as ref- 
eree in the matter of the foreclosure sale of the West Shore, and in 
November of that year sold the road at Newburgh court-house for 
■122,000,000 and distributed the proceeds among the creditors. It is 
worthy of mention that in making this distribution he issued one 
check for f 1,067,412.76, and three others for more than half a million 
dollars each. Since then he represented the West Shore Railroad 
Company in Newburgh. 

Mr. Cassedy was an able lawyer, painstaking and conscientious in 



78 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

all his acts, and won in a marked degree the confidence of the com- 
munity. 

He married Margaret J., daughter of Doctor Charles Drake, of 
Newburgh, in 1861. William F. Cassedy, his oldest son and partner, 
is now practicing law in Newburgh, and Frank H., his younger son, 
is following the same profession at Chicago, Illinois. 



HACE, A. FRANK B. (born in Hillsdale, Columbia county, 
New York, February 13, 1837), is the son of John McGone- 

•gjy ii gal Chace and Eliza Ann, daughter of John L. Becker. In 
the paternal line his family is of English descent. His 
mother's ancestors, on both sides, were natives of Holland. During 
his iufancy his parents removed to New York City, where his father 
engaged in business; but six years later, influenced by considerations 
of health, the family returned to Columbia county, purchasing a large 
farm near Spencertown. Here young Chace was reared to manhood. 
He attended the district school and Spencertown Academy, and, 
looking forward to a college education, completed his preparation for 
it at the New York Conference Seminary (Ckarlotteville). He then 
passed a creditable examination for admission to the junior class of 
Union College. But the death of his father in the summer of 1856 
compelled him to abandon his plans and devote himself to the care 
of the family and the farm. While pursuing his academic studies he 
obtained employment as a teacher in the country and village schools, 
continuing in this occupation for foiir winter terms. 

In 1859, having decided to fit himself for the legal profession, he 
entered the law office of Martin H. Dorr, at Hillsdale. At the time 
of the firing on Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, he was nearly prepared 
for admission to the bar. Early in that month a meeting to promote 
the enlistment of volunteers had been held in Hudson, as the result 
of which, and of a subsequent meeting, Company K. of the 14th regi- 
ment of New York state volunteers was recruited, composed of mem- 
bers of some of the most prominent families of the city and county. 
In this company Mr. Chace enlisted as a private on April 23, eleven 
days after the firing on Fort Sumter. On the 17th of May following- 
he was mustered into the United States service, and one month later 
the regiment was sent to the front. He participated with his regi- 
ment and company in the battles of Hanover Court House, Mechanics- 
ville, Gaines Mills, and Malvern Hill, having meantime been pro- 
moted to I he rank of corporal, in charge of the colors. 

At the bloody battle of Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862, lie was wounded 
in the left thigh by a rifle ball, suffering a fracture of the femur. Me- 
ridian's army, retreating to Harrison's Landing, was forced to leave 
its thousands of wounded on the field. Here Mr. Chace lay for twenty- 
four hours, when he was removed by a cavalry squad of the rear guard 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



V.) 



to an old barn. His leg was straightened, bandaged, and splinted, 
but it was not until six days after receiving his wound that he was ex- 
amined by a surgeon. This, however, proved a fortunate circum- 
stance. Up to that time it had always been assumed by the medical 




A. FRANK B. C'HACE. 



profession that amputation of the limb was the only recourse in a 
case such as his; and undoubtedly if he had been placed in an army 
hospital promptly after being wounded his injured leg would have 
been taken off. But when, six days subsequently, he was put under 
surgical treatment, it was decided not to amputate, and, much to the 



SU HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

surprise of the medical and surgical department of the army, he was 
able not only to preserve the leg, but gradually to regain the use of 
it. His case attracted much attention, being the subject of articles 
by specialists in the leading medical journals. Mr. Chace has always 
attributed his successful endurance of this ordeal largely to his vig- 
orous constitution and to his perfectly temperate and careful habits 
of life as a youth and young man. 

After being removed, as already related, from the battlefield to a 
place of temporary shelter, Mr. Chace, in common with the other 
union wounded, presently fell into the hands of the enemy. He was 
then (July 8) taken in a rude wagon over a rough corduroy road to 
Richmond and placed in Libby Prison, where he remained for four- 
teen days. Being exchanged at the end of that time he was trans- 
ported to the United States army hospital at Baltimore, from which 
he was discharged (also being honorably discharged from the mili- 
tary service) on the 11th of October. 

Upon his return home he zealously devoted his abilities to the union 
cause, frequently addressing war meetings while yet on crutches. Re- 
suming his legal studies he opened a law office in Hillsdale in the 
spring of 1863. He did a successful office business and iu the Justice's 
Court until his admission to the bar (December, 1863), when he en- 
gaged regularly in his profession, enjoying a steadily increasing prac- 
tice. From the spring of 1864 to the spring of 1866 he was in partner- 
ship, at Hillsdale, with Edgar L. Snyder, in the firm of Chace & Sny- 
der. On July 8, 1867, he removed to the City of Hudson and formed a 
professional association with Judge John C. Newkirk. The firm of 
Newkirk & Chace soon took a prominent place at the bar of Columbia 
county and the judicial district, transacting a large and profitable 
business until its dissolution, by mutual consent, in November, 1889. 
Mr. Chace thereupon succeeded to its clientage. He has recently es- 
tablished the new firm of A. Frank B. Chace & Sons, in which two of 
his sons, Alfred Bruce Chace and J. Frank Chace, are associated with 
him. His youngest son, William Wallace Chace, is at present (1897) a 
student in the office. 

From the outset of his professional career Mr. Chace's abilities have 
been widely recognized and abundantly rewarded. Still in the vigor 
of life, he is now, at the age of sixty, admittedly the leader of the bar 
of Columbia county; and his extensive reputation and clientage have 
gained for him also a high rank at the bar of the state. For many 
years he has done an especially large counsel business, trying suits 
for many of the young lawyers of the county, as well as for practition- 
ers in surrounding counties. He has always given his attention 
mainly to litigated civil cases, having little taste for the criminal 
branches of the profession. Thoroughly read in the law, he is con- 
spicuous among the lawyers of his part of the state for judgment and 
discrimination in all matters involving fundamental principles and 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 81 

constructions. He is equally well known for conscientious and exact 
devotion to details. A considerable part of his practice has been in 
connection with wills and other instruments; and it is said that no 
legal document drawn by him has ever been broken or even in any 
manner questioned. He is, moreover, prominent as an advocate; and 
although of late years his duties as a counselor have engaged most 
of his time, he still takes part with zest in the contests of the forum. 

Of the mauy important suits tried by Mr. Chace in his thirty-three 
years of practice, a few may be instanced as involving certain funda- 
mental or otherwise particularly interesting questions of law. 

He was associated with Rufus W. Peckham (now one of the justices 
of the United States Supreme Court) in the case of Chrysler vs. Ken- 
nedy, as counsel for the defense. This was an action for damages. 
The judge held that the defendant was liable for a breach of war- 
ranty if the jury found that, in a real estate transaction with the 
plaintiff, he had made exaggerated statements as to value — the plain- 
tiff having seen and examined the real estate. Upon the trial the 
presentation of the law of the case was, by agreement of counsel, left 
to Mr. Chace. The jury rendered a verdict of $30,000, which was 
affirmed by the general term. But the Court of Appeals ordered a re- 
versal, and the case was subsequently settled for $1,000. 

Mr. Chace's firm obtained the first discharge for debt granted in 
Columbia county under the national bankrupt act, and also inter- 
posed the first successful opposition to a discharge applied for under 
the terms of that statute. 

In the peculiar will case of McGiffert et al. vs. McGiffert et ah, Mr. 
Chace obtained a notable victory for his clients. John McGiffert, a 
resident of Hudson, upon his decease left considerable property, 
which he disposed of by a holographic will, containing a provision 
prohibiting the distribution of the estate among the beneficiaries 
until a period of ten years should elapse. The court held this provi- 
sion to be a void limitation and not a trust term, and preserved the 
will without the limitation; Mr. Chace, by a very able argument, hav- 
ing disproved the contention that the provision was a void trust term, 
which, if established, would have caused the court to hold that the 
entire will consequently failed. 

In Groat vs. Gile, his firm procured a very interesting decision con- 
cerning the right of a purchaser to the increase or produce of per- 
sonal property in cases where possession of the property had not 
been changed. Gile, a farmer, entered into a contract in the month 
of A] nil to sell to Groat and another, speculators, a flock of ewes 
with about the same number of lambs, and received $25 on the con- 
tract, it being agreed that the ewes and lambs should run on the farm 
until October, when the balance of the purchase money was to be 
paid. At shearing time the seller sheared the sheep against the pro- 
test of the purchasers, who thereupon sued him for the value of the 



82 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

wool. A decision was rendered in favor of the purchasers, Mr. 
Chace's clients, which was reversed by the general term; but upon 
appeal to the Court of Appeals the original decision was sustained. 

In the suit of the Board of Water Commissioners of the Milage of 
Philmont vs. the Forest Lake Club and others, he secured a construc- 
tion of the law of damages upon a point at that time involved in some 
confusion. This action was brought by the authorities to condemn 
a portion of the water of Forest Lake for the use of the village. 
The commissioners held, with Mr. Chace, that as the village was a 
customer for the rights claimed in the suit, this fact should be taken 
into account in determining the amount of damages to be awarded. 

In the notable divorce case of Younghanse vs. Younghanse, in the 
City of Cleveland, Ohio, Mr. Chace was counsel for the wife, charged 
by her husband with desertion. A counter-plea of desertion was pre- 
ferred by the defense, and the court decided in favor of the wife, 
granting a divorce and alimony. It was said by Judge Hamilton, 
who held the term, that this was the first divorce case in the State of 
Ohio in which a counter-claim had been allowed and prevailed. 

Mr. Chace, though born and bred a democrat — his father having 
been attached to the freesoil wing of the democratic party, — has al- 
ways, since attaining his majority, been an ardent and active republi- 
can. He has supported the principles of the republican party, on the 
stump and otherwise by his influence, in almost every campaign for 
thirty years. He has frequently been a delegate to county, congres- 
sional, and state conventions. He has always refused, however, to 
take nominations for public offices not in the line of his profession, 
and twice he has declined to become a candidate for district attorney 
of the county. 

As a public speaker he has long been distinguished for effectiveness 
and eloquence. He has frequently been selected to deliver addresses 
on occasions of especial importance and interest. 

He is prominent in the Grand Army of the Kepublic and in the 
Masonic fraternity. In the former organization he has held the office 
of commander of K. D. Lathrop Post, No. 138, and he is at present an 
aide-de-camp on the staff of the state commander. In the Masonic 
order he has served three terms as master of Aquila Lodge, No. 700. 

While uniformly declining to accept ordinary political offices, he 
has been active and influential in all matters related to the welfare 
of the City of Hudson, of which he is one of the most prominent citi- 
zens, equally respected and esteemed for his abilities and for the 
honesty and integrity of his character and life. From June 1, 1881, 
to June 1, 188(3, he was a member of the local board of education, and 
during the last year of his service was its president. 

August 16, 1865, he was married to Mary Z. Bruce, only daughter 
of Alfred Bruce, a successful merchant. Mrs. Chace is the only sister 
of Wallace Bruce, of Brooklyn, the well-known poet and lecturer, and 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 83 

formerly United States consul to Leith, Scotland. Mrs. Chace is a 
graduate of the Hudson River Institute and plaverack College. 
Their only children are the three sons above named, to whom they 
have given a liberal education, including a course at Yale College. 
Each of the young men has chosen the profession in which their 
father has made so great a success. 




1IAPMAN, OELOW W. (born in the Town of Ellington, Con- 
necticut, January 7, 1832; died in the City of Washington, 
January 19, 1S90), was the son of Honorable Calvin and 
Hortensia Dorman Chapman. Among his ancestors were 
Edward Chapman, who settled in Windsor, Connecticut, about 1000, 
and was the earliest of the family in America. He was a soldier in 
the colonial army, and died from a wound received in a battle with 
the Indians in 1075. Others in the line of his ancestors were Captain 
Samuel Chapman, who died in the service of his country during the 
French war; also Colonel Samuel Chapman, of the revolutionary war. 
The education of Orlow W. Chapman as a farmer's boy was con- 
fined to a few months' study in winters, and later to preparatory 
studies in the academies at Ellington, Connecticut, and Monson, Mas- 
sachusetts. He entered Union College, at Schenectady, New York, 
graduating in the class of 1854, and being a member of the Phi Beta 
Kappa Society. During his collegiate course he supported himself 
largely by teaching during portions of the year. After graduation he 
taught classes in languages in the Fergusonville Academy for one 
year, and in 1855 entered the law office of Messrs. Parker & Gleason, 
at Delhi. He was admitted to the bar at a general term of court at 
Owego, New York, in 1857. In 1858 he removed to Binghamton. In 
1862 he married Susan F. Pope, who still survives him. In 1808 he 
formed a law partnership with Honorable Celora E. Martin, now a 
judge of the Court of Appeals, in 1876 Honorable George F. Lyon, 
now justice of the Supreme Court, being added to the firm, which 
partnership as thus constituted continued until the appointment of 
Judge Martin as justice of the Supreme Court in 1S77, and that with 
Justice Lyon until Mr. Chapman's death in 1890. 

Mr. Chapman was appointed by Governor Morgan district attorney 
of Broome county in 1802, and was elected to that office in 1805. 
In 1807 he was elected state senator, and he was re-elected in 1809. 
In 1872 he was appointed by Governor Hoffman a member of the con- 
stitutional commission. In the same year he was nominated by Gov- 
ernor Hoffman as superintendent of the insurance department, being 
unanimously confirmed by the state senate, and resigned his posi- 
tion as member of the constitutional commission to accept that of 
insurance superintendent. The latter office he held until his resigna- 
tion in 1870. He was a member of the national republican convention 



84 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

at Chicago in 1890, and one of the 306 who favored the renoniination 
of General Grant. 

Mr. Chapman was appointed solicitor-general of the United States 
by President Harrison in 1889, and held that office at the time of his 
death, January 19, 1890. In Washington the president with his cabi- 
net, and the highest officials of the government, attended the brief 
funeral ceremonies. In Binghamton every mark of respect was paid 
to his memory. Mourning emblems were displayed throughout the 
city, business offices were closed, and the citizens in a veritable pil- 
grimage of sorrow crowded to the church where the funeral services 
were held. 

Mr. Chapman was a man of beautiful and striking presence, tower- 
ing like Saul above his fellow-men. Nature had been most generous 
to him. With a broad, vigorous, well-balanced, active intellect, in a 
physical frame that men might envy for its massive strength, he was 
steady of purpose, sound of judgment, clear of comprehension, untir- 
ing in research, keen in discrimination, accurate in conclusion, and 
fruitful in adaptation. His mind was disciplined by education, re- 
fined by culture, and quickened by social intercourse; he was patient, 
earnest, faithful, eloquent, apt for occasions, always to be relied upon, 
and added to all a gracious charm of manner, a rare personal magnet- 
ism and a kindness of heart that never wore out. 






HASE, EMORY ALBERT (born in Hensonville, Greene 
county, New York, August 31, 1854), is the son of Albert 
Chase, of English descent, who was engaged for many 
years in contracting, building, and lumbering, and then 
retired on a farm, and Laura O. Woodworth Chase, of Scotch ances- 
try. Most of his early life was spent on his father's farm. He at- 
tended the public school at Hensonville, and continued his studies 
at the Fort Edward Collegiate Institute, but did not graduate. He 
received his preparation for the legal profession in the office of King & 
Hal lock (Rufus H. King and Joseph Hallock), at Catskill, New Y r ork, 
and was admitted to the bar at Ithaca May 6, 1880. He had pre- 
viously obtained an interest in the firm of Hallock & Jennings (Joseph 
Hallock and W. Irving Jennings), at Catskill, and in 1882 he became 
one of its members, the firm name being changed to Hallock, Jen- 
nings & Chase. After Mr. Hallock's retirement, September 22, 1890, 
The business was continued under the style of Jennings & Chase, until 
December 1, 1890, when it was dissolved in consequence of Mr. 
('Iiasc's election (on the republican ticket) as justice of the Supreme 
Court for the 3d judicial district. Since the 1st of January, 1897, he 
lias devoted himself to the duties of that office. 

During his career at the bar Judge Chase was constantly connected 
with important litigations arising in the 3d judicial district. He was 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 85 

admitted to practice also in the United States District and Circuit 
Courts aud the United States Supreme Court. He has long been 
prominent in the local affairs of Catskill. He was a member of the 
board of education for fourteen years previously to December, 1896, 
and for live years was its president. He served for a long period as 
corporation counsel of the Milage of Catskill, retiring from that 
office in 1895, and was supervisor of the Town of Catskill in 1S90. 

Judge Chase has also been conspicuously identified with several of 
the most representative local interests. He is now 1st vice-president 
of the Catskill Savings Bank, a director in the Tanners' National 
Bank, the Cairo Railroad Company, and the New York & Hudson 
Steamboat Company, and is president of the Catskill Rural Cemetery 
Association. 




jEEW, JOHN CALHOUN (born at Holly Springs, Missis- 
sippi, May 28, 1S38), is the eldest surviving son of Captain 
John Chew and Mary Ann Smith, both natives of Mary- 
land; and is of the ninth generation, in this country, in 
direct descent from the founder of the American branch of the Chew 
family, John Chew, of Chewton, Somersetshire, England, who set- 
tled in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1620-21. 

Mr. Chew's education was acquired mainly at Chalmers Institute, 
Holly Springs, Mississippi, but it was supplemented by a private 
course of study, and by extensive travel in this country, while recu- 
perating from a precarious state of health, which precluded a two 
years' term at a Virginia college for which he had prepared. Later he 
road law with Thomas W. Harris, of Holly Springs, concluding his 
law studies at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, from which he 
graduated, March 6, I860. He was admitted to the bar the following- 
April, at Brenham, Texas, where he began the practice of law, estab- 
lishing the same year a cotton plantation on the Brazos River in that 
state. The civil war intervening, Mr. Chew at its close resumed prac- 
tice at Houston, Texas. In 1866, during an extensive European tour, 
he wrote a series of letters to the Galveston News that attracted wide 
attention. On his return, in addition to his law practice, he became 
connected with the press of Houston, as editor and proprietor and 
afterward as correspondent at New York of the Houston Telegraph. 

In 1872 he took up his residence in New York City, where he estab- 
lished an office, representing large Texas interests at the metropolis. 
For nearly a quarter of a century he has remained counsel and fiscal 
agent at New York of important corporations, municipal, railway, 
and land, and has been promoter of various industrial interests in the 
great southwest. In 1873 and 1874, by appointment of Governor 
Davis, he was fiscal agent of the State of Texas in New York City; 
and from 1873 to 1876, by appointment of President Grant, he was 



86 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

United States centennial commissioner, from the same state, in 
charge of the international exhibition at Philadelphia. 

Mr. Chew has been eminently successful in dealing with the intri- 
cacies of financial questions; and, through his efforts for the interests 
he has represented, he has contributed largely to the development of 
the resources of the southwest. 

In 1801 he married Zilphia Guthrie Fuller. She died August 8, 
1 803, leaving issue a son, Reverend John Marshall Chew, who, since 
June, 1891, has been rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, at 
Newburgh, New York. Mr. Chew married again February 1, 1876, 
Theodora E. Seixas. 




HOATE, JOSEPH HODGES (born in Salem, Massachusetts, 
January 24, 1832), is lineally descended in the sixth genera- 
tion from John Choate, who emigrated to Ipswich, Massa- 
chusetts, from England about the middle of the seven- 
teenth century, taking the oath of allegiance in 1007. Various mem- 
bers of the Choate family attained distinction in Essex county, Mas- 
sachusetts. Thomas Choate, born in 1071, and commonly called 
" Governor Choate," was active in public affairs, a member of the 
Massachusetts legislature, and a zealous opponent of Governor An- 
dros and his tyrannous government. John Choate, grandson of the 
pioneer of that name, was a member of the Massachusetts house of 
representatives from 1741 to 1761, serving also as speaker of the 
house, and for five years was one of the governor's council. Another 
grandson of the first settler, Francis Choate, was for thirty years a 
justice of the peace, and was a writer and speaker of note. David 
Choate, in the fourth generation of descent, was a revolutionary sol- 
dier and prominent in local affairs, while his son, Rufus Choate, was 
the famous orator, jurist, and statesman, who attained a national 
reputation. Rufus had a brother David, who was a trial justice in 
Essex county, and served in both branches of the Massachusetts leg- 
islature. Captain Rufus Choate, Junior, son of the famous lawyer of 
that name, was a union soldier during the war. 

Joseph Hodges Choate, of New York City, received his early educa- 
tion in the public schools of Salem, Massachusetts, entered Harvard 
College at the age of sixteen, and graduated four years later iu 1852. 
Iu 1851 he graduated from the Dane Law School, in 1855 was admit- 
ted to the Massachusetts bar, and in 1850 removed to New York City 
and was admitted to the bar of this state. He has since practiced con- 
tinuously in New York City, and has risen to a position where he 
stands, in a group with a few other lawyers, confessedly at the head of 
the bar of the city and state. He has achieved a national reputation 
as an orator, and as a pleader in cases at law. He has been counsel iu 
many of the most famous litigations which have occurred in the last 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 87 

quarter of a century. He was one of the Committee of Seventy which 
organized the campaign against the Tweed ring, and he was associ- 
ated with Charles O'Conor in the prosecution and conviction of 
Tweed and his confederates. He was also counsel for General Fitz 
John Porter, and secured his client's reinstatement to military rank 
after several years' litigation and argumentation before the military 
commission at West Point, appointed by President Hayes to try the 
case. He also successfully defended General di Cesnola in the libel 
suit brought against him by Gaston L. Feuardent, growing out of the 
controversy regarding the integrity of the Cyprus antiquities pre- 
sented by Cesnola to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. More recently 
Mr. Choate was counsel for Laidlaw in the action of Laidlaw vs. Rus- 
sell Sage, for damages incurred at the time of the throwing of the 
Norcross bomb in Mr. Sage's office. He was also counsel, in May, 1895, 
for Medical Inspector Kershner, of the United States navy, tried by 
court-martial. But perhaps no argument by Mr. Choate has been 
more notable than that before the United States Supreme Court in 
the recent income tax case. In the first hearing of this case 
Mr. Choate secured exemption from taxation for corporate and vested 
interests, and in the rehearing he succeeded in having the remnant 
of the income tax law declared unconstitutional. 

Mr. Choate is famous as an after-dinner speaker, and his deft ser- 
vices in this direction are in constant requisition at important public 
social functions. In politics he is an active republican, and a leader 
in reform movements within the party, as contrasted with the meth- 
ods of the " practical politicians." He is a member of the Union 
League Club, and of the New England Society, and has served as 
president of each of these organizations, as also of the Association of 
the Bar of the City of New York. 




JHURCH, FRANK BENJAMIN (born in Friendship, Alle- 
gany county, New York, December 17, 1852), is the son of 
Smith and Mary D. Church. He was educated in the com- 
mon schools and the Friendship Academy, and studied law 
in the office of S. M. Norton at his native place. He was admitted to 
the bar at Rochester, April 10, 1880, and thereupon organized with 
Mr. Norton the firm of Norton & Church. This association continued 
until January, 1888, when he removed to Wellsville. He has since 
been practicing his profession there in partnership with his brother, 
Frederic H. Church. 

Mr. Church was a member of the constitutional convention of 1894, 
representing the 32d senate district. In Marcli, 1889, he was ap- 
pointed United States commissioner for the northern district of New 
York, an office which he still holds. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



|^ps^ ;: jLAEK 3 FREDERICK LEWIS, was born in East Wilson, 
g*T£H Niagara county, New York, December 2, 1851, and died in 
J|m^ Tonawanda, New York, February (i, 1887. He was the son 
of Charles Marsh Clark, of Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, and 
Mary W. Lewis, daughter of Valentine Lewis, Esquire, of Milton, 
New York, near Cornwall. 

His early youth was spent on his father's farm and in the district 
school. Later he attended the Wilson Academy, and afterward the 
Lockport Union School, from which he graduated with honor in 1874. 
He immediately began the study of the law in the office of Holmes, 
Fitts & Chipman, of Lockport, where he remained until his admis- 
sion to the bar in 1877. In July of that year he opened an office in 
Tonawanda, in partnership with Elias Eoot, under the firm name of 
Root & Clark. This partnership continued until the spring of 1882, 
when, Mr. Root retiring from the firm, Mr. Clark continued the busi- 
ness in his own name, and built up an excellent clientage and lucra- 
tive business. In 1S85 he again formed a partnership association 
with Mr. Root, which continued for two years, but his close applica- 
tion had undermined his health, which was never robust, and he died 
in 1887, at the early age of thirty-five years. 

During the ten years of Mr. Clark's active professional life he 
achieved successes attained by but few men at mature years. The 
Tonawanda Herald of February 10, 1887, referring to his professional 
career, said: 

It was not long before his many sterling qualities of mind and heart were 
duly recognized and appreciated by the business community in which he cast his 
lot, and during the short decade in which he was permitted to pursue his profes- 
sion he built up a successful practice and achieved marked success. 

He was the soul of honor, courteous and generous, which, added to his natural 
ability and high legal attainments, won for him the good will and esteem of all 
with whom he had business or social relations. 

The entire Tonawanda press reflected with equal prominence the 
popular feeling. 

By the bar Mr. Clark was recognized as " an intense worker, al- 
ways thoroughly in earnest; a man of unusually good judgment, an 
excellent counselor in business and in legal matters." 

Memorial resolutions were passed by the Tonawanda Aid and Sav- 
ings Association, the Royal Arcanum, and the various lodges, coun- 
cils, and organizations of which he was a member. The funeral ser- 
vices, which were conducted by the pastor, Reverend I. P. Smith, as- 
sisted by the Reverend G. H. Dunning, of Buffalo, were held in the 
Presbyterian Church, of which Mr. Clark was a regular attendant, 
and of which he was a trustee at the time of his death. 

In January, 1885) Mr. Clark married Isabella P. Fuller, daughter of 
Nelson Fuller and Pamelia Tupper, both of Orleans county, New 
York, and a descendant of Doctor Samuel Fuller, of the Mayflower. 




~>J£c*K/' 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 89 

|LEARWATER, ALPHONSO TRUMPBOUR (born at West 
Point, New York, September 11, 1848), is of Dutch 
descent, bis family having settled in Ulster county in 1661, 
coming from Baarn, Holland. (The original spelling of the 
name was " Klaarwater," it being anglicized about the beginning of 
' the present century.) His ancestor, Jacob Clearwater, with Rip Van 
Dam, then governor of the province, Adolph Philipse, Doctor Gerardus 
Beekman, and Colonel William Peartree, procured a patent of 7,000 
acres of land in the southern portion of Ulster county. On his 
mother's side Judge Clearwater is a descendant of Jean Baoudin, the 
distinguished Huguenot exile from France. His remote ancestors 
took a prominent part in the eighty years' war which resulted in the 
establishment of the Dutch republic. His grandfather was a soldier 
in the war of 1812, and both his great-grandfather and great-great- 
grandfather were soldiers in the war of the American Revolution. 

He was educated in the City of New York and at the Kingston 
Academy, studied law with Judge Augustus Schoonmaker and Sen- 
ator Jacob Hardenberg at Kingston, and was admitted to the bar 
in 1871. Since his admission he has been actively engaged in the 
practice of his profession, and has been connected with many of the 
most important cases tried in Ulster county during the last twenty 
years. These are too many for enumeration here. The ones 
of greater interest will be found in the reports of the Court of Ap- 
peals from 54 to 152 New York, and of the Supreme Court from 7 
Lansing to 15 Appellate Division Reports. 

In 1877 he was elected district attorney of Ulster county, in 1880 
was re-elected, and in 1883 was chosen a third time to the same office. 
In 1889 he was elected county .pidge of Ulster county, and he was re- 
elected to that office in 1895, being now the county judge of the 
county. He took an active interest in the codification of the statutes 
relating to the practice in criminal cases, and at the request of the 
late David Dudley Field prepared many of the provisions of the pres- 
ent code of criminal procedure. 

Judge Clearwater is, and always has been, a republican, and has 
represented his party in national, state, congressional, senatorial, and 
judicial conventions. He is president of the Kingston Club, president 
of the Wiltwyck Rural Cemetery Association, and president of the 
Citizens' Charity Relief Association of Kingston. He is vice-president 
of the Huguenot Society of America, and was the first vice-president 
for Kingston of the Holland Society. He is a member of the Union 
League, Metropolitan, and Grolier Clubs of the City of New York, a 
member of the Saint Nicholas Society, of the Holland Society, of the 
Society of the Sons of the Revolution, of the New York Genealogical 
and Biographical Society, and of the Ex Libris Societies of London 
and Washington. He is a corresponding member of the New York 
Historical Society, a member of the State Bar Association, one of the 



90 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

trustees of the Senate House Association of Kingston, was chairman 
of the committee representing the Holland Society in the construction 
of a monument at Delfts Haven, Holland, to commemorate the sailing 
of the Pilgrims from that port in 1620, and is corresponding member 
of several state historical societies. He has repeatedly delivered his- 
torical addresses, and is a frequent speaker at the dinners of the Hol- 
land, Huguenot, and Saint Nicholas Societies. He delivered the 
commemorative address upon the celebration of the one hundredth 
anniversary of the establishment of Kingston Lodge, No 10, F. and A. 
M., his subject being " The Antiquity of Free Masonry." 

He spent the greater part of the year of 1888 in Europe, and at the 
dinner given by the chamber of commerce of the City of Rotterdam 
to the Holland Society, delivered the address in response to the for- 
mal speech of welcome to the society made by the burgomaster of the 
city on behalf of the Dutch government. This address, in which he 
paid a high tribute to the influence of the Dutch race in the forma- 
tion of the American republic, has been published by the direction of 
the burgomaster and scheppens of Rotterdam. 

Judge Clearwater is, and for many years has been, deeply interested 
in the preservation and publication of data relative to the formative 
period of this republic, particularly that in which the residents of 
Ulster county bore a conspicuous part; and at his request the board 
of supervisors of Ulster county have undertaken and are now carry- 
ing on under his supervision the translation of the Dutch records of 
the county, from 1614 to 1777. He has also taken an active interest 
in the preservation and publication of the records of the Dutch 
churches of the county, and it is largely due to his efforts that the 
records of two of the most famous churches in America, the 1st 
Dutch Church at Kingston, and the Huguenot Dutch Church at New 
Paltz, have been translated and published. The further prosecution 
of this work is now being carried on by the Holland Society, of which 
Judge Clearwater was one of the founders. 

In 1S75 the judge married Anna Houghtaling, only daughter of 
Colonel William D. Farrand, of San Francisco, California, and grand- 
daughter of Henry Houghtaling, of Kingston. They live in a large 
old-fashioned house at Kingston, commanding a fine view of the low 
lands of the Esopus, the Brabant Hills, and the Catskill mountains, 
and here they dispense an old-time hospitality. 

LEVELAND, GROVER (born at Caldwell, Essex county, 
New Jersey, March IS, 1837), is descended from an English 
family, early seated at Ipswich, Suffolk county, a member 
of which, Moses Cleveland, emigrated to Massachusetts in 
1635, settling at Woburn. He is lineally descended in the eighth gen- 
eration from this pioneer. Mr. Cleveland's father, Richard Palley 
Cleveland, a graduate from Yale College and a Presbyterian clergy- 





^a:.^_ 



y 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 91 

man, married Annie Neal, daughter of a Baltimore merchant. When 
the son was four years of age, his father accepted a call as pastor of 
the church at Fayetteville, New York, and here young Cleveland re- 
ceived an academic education, and afterward served an apprentice- 
ship as clerk in a country store. He then removed with his father to 
Clinton, Oueida county, where he enjoyed further educational ad- 
vantages. In his seventeenth year he was appointed assistant 
teacher in the New York Institution for the Blind, New York City, 
where his elder brother, William, was also a teacher. In 1855, he 
assisted his uncle, Lewis P. Allen, in the compilation of the " Ameri- 
can Herd Book," as also in the preparation of a number of the suc- 
ceeding volumes. In August, 1855, he obtained a clerkship with the 
law firm of Rogers, BoAven & Rogers, of Buffalo, and in 1859 he was 
admitted to the bar. From that time until January 1, 1863, he re- 
mained in the employ of his firm as managing clerk. 

In 1863 Mr. Cleveland was appointed assistant-district attorney of 
Erie' county. This office he held for three years. During the civil 
war he was drafted to serve in the union army, but borrowed money 
and hired a substitute to take his place. Two of his brothers were 
already in the army, while his mother and sisters were dependent 
upon his earnings for their support. 

In 1865 he received the nomination for district attorney of Erie 
county on the democratic ticket, but was defeated. He formed a law 
partnership with Isaac V. Vanderpool, which continued from Janu- 
ary 1, 1866, until August 1, 1869, when he became a member of the 
firm of Laning, Cleveland & Folsom. In 1870 Mr. Cleveland was 
elected sheriff of Erie county. At the expiration of his term of office, 
in 1873, he resumed the practice of law as a member of the firm of 
Bass, Cleveland & Bissell. By the retirement, of Mr. Bass, and the 
admission of George J. Sicard, in 1881, the firm name was changed to 
Cleveland, Bissell & Sicard. 

Mr. Cleveland's public reputation may be said to date from his elec- 
tion as mayor of Buffalo in 1881, as the nominee of the democratic 
party, but also the acknowledged candidate of the reform elements 
outside of party lines. He was elected by an unprecedented majority. 
Entering upon his duties as mayor May 2, 1882, he became known 
almost immediately as the " Veto Mayor." " By vetoing extravagant 
appropriations he saved the city nearly $1,000,000 in the first six 
months of his administration." The city government of Buffalo a1 
that time was flagrantly corrupt, and Mr. Cleveland's determined 
stand for pure government occasioned a bitter contest with the city 
council, in which he was victorious. His course as mayor brought 
him into prominence as a public man, and upon the convening of the 
democratic state convention at Syracuse, September 22, 1882, he was 
nominated for governor of the state. 

In his inaugural address as mayor of Buffalo, Mr. Cleveland said: 



92 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

" It seems to me that a successful and faithful administration of the 
government of our city may be accomplished by constantly bearing 
in mind that we are the trustees and agents of our fellow-citizens, 
holding their funds in sacred trust, to be expended for their benefit; 
that we should at all times be prepared to render an honest account 
of them, touching the manner of their expenditure; and that the af- 
fairs of the city should be conducted, as far as possible, upon the 
same principles as a good business man manages his private con- 
cerns." This profession Mr. Cleveland had zealously carried out in 
the conduct of the mayoralty. Similarly in his letter of acceptance 
of the nomination for governor, he wrote: " Public officers are the ser- 
vants and agents of the people, to execute the laws which the people 
have made, and within the limits of the constitution which they have 
established. . . . We may, I think, reduce to quite simple ele- 
ments the duty which public servants owe, by constantly bearing in 
mind that they are put in place to protect the rights of the people, to 
answer their needs as they arise, and to expend for their benefit the 
money drawn from them by taxation." Mr. Cleveland was elected 
governor by the enormous plurality of 192,854 over Honorable Charles 
J. Folger. It has been well said that his " state administration was 
only an expansion of the fundamental principles that controlled his 
official action while mayor of Buffalo." 

As his course as mayor had won the confidence of the citizens of the 
state, in like manner his career as governor, considered in connection 
with the phenomenal vote given him by the people, attracted the at- 
tention of the nation, and at the national democratic convention held 
at Chicago in July, 1884, he was nominated for the presidency, with 
Thomas A. Hendricks as candidate for vice-president. The ticket 
was elected by a popular majority, as well as by a majority in the 
electoral college. As president of the United States, Mr. Cleveland 
once more exhibited a determination to veto measures which he 
deemed injurious, and thus gained the distinction of using the veto 
power beyond all precedent on the part of a chief executive of the 
United States. A majority of these vetoes, however, were of private 
pension bills, and Mr. Cleveland took a bold stand in relation to this 
species of abuse, regardless of the clamor which was raised in the 
name of the old soldiers. 

President Cleveland's first administration was also characterized 
by efforts for civil-service reform, and by the message of 1887, in 
which he made the tariff question the issue of the succeeding elec- 
tion. In 188S he was again the democratic candidate, but was de- 
feated by Benjamin Harrison in the electoral college, although re- 
ceiving a popular majority. At the end of his term he resumed the 
practice of law, locating in New York City, and subsequently ap- 
peared in many important cases before the Supreme Court of the 
United States. ' 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 93 

In 1892, notwithstanding' the most bitter opposition of the demo- 
cratic machine in his own state, he was the choice of the democrats 
of the country for a third nomination for the presidency, and was 
nominated on the first ballot in the national democratic convention at 
Chicago. He was elected by a large majority, both of the popular 
vote and of the electoral college. The second term of President 
Cleveland was begun under circumstances seemingly promising the 
complete establishment of the governmental and party policies for 
which he stood. Chosen by a peculiarly decisive expression of the 
popular will — which was especially decisive in the great doubtful 
states, — on clearly defined issues, with both houses of congress under 
the full control of his party, all the conditions appeared favorable to 
a masterful administration. But very serious divisions existed in the 
democratic party, alike on questions of principle and along factional 
lines. The issue of the free coinage of silver had long found much 
favor among the democratic masses, and the advocates of that pro- 
gram were now determined to force it to the front. On the other 
hand, the president was unalterably committed against enlarging the 
functions of silver in the financial system of the country, and, indeed, 
believed it was needful to further limit those functions. He accord- 
ingly called an extra session of congress for the purpose of repealing 
the silver purchase law of 1890. In that body bitter antagonisms 
were immediately developed, and, although the repeal bill was ulti- 
mately passed, is was evident that grave and probably permanent 
differences had supervened between the executive and a considerable 
element of his party. Meantime, a money panic had seized the coun- 
try, and a long period of severe business prostration followed. The 
democratic majority in congress was not even united on the tariff 
bill ; the measure framed, after months of delay, was so unsatisfactory 
to the president that he refused to give it his approval, although per- 
mitting it to become a law without his signature. The silver wing 
of the party, embracing financial and agrarian extremists of all varie- 
ties, continued hostile to Mr. Cleveland throughout his administra- 
tion. The finances of the government were consequently involved in 
serious difficulties. Under the new tariff the revenues raised were 
insufficient to meet expenditures, and congress failed to provide any 
means of relief. Moreover, the gold reserve of the treasury at times 
declined alarmingly. The executive, perceiving no other resort, was 
obliged to issue special sales of bonds, to the amount of several hun- 
dreds of millions, to replenish the reserve and supply the deficit in the 
revenues. These executive acts were violently condemned by the ex- 
tremists. The country naturally lost confidence in the democratic 
party, and at the congressional elections of 1894 a heavy republican 
majority was returned. 

Thus Mr. Cleveland's second term, inaugurated under the brightest 
auspices, ended in utter failure from the point of view of positive legis- 



94 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

lation. In several important respects it compares, however, with 
the most distinctive presidential administrations in the history of the 
republic. On the occasion of the formidable railroad riots at Chi- 
cago the president, dissatisfied with the action of the governor of Illi- 
nois, authorized the use of federal troops for the protection of prop- 
erty, under the terms of the interstate commerce provisions of law, 
thereby asserting the supremacy of the national military power in a 
manner most novel and significant. In his remarkable special mes- 
sage to congress, in December, 1895, on the subject of the boundary 
controversy between Great Britain and Venezuela, he gave expres- 
sion to the Monroe doctrine in terms more resolute and practical than 
had been employed by any other president. Another memorable act 
of executive policy was the negotiation by the state department of a 
general arbitration treaty with Great Britain, which, though rejected 
by the senate, forms a precedent in the spirit of our relations with 
foreign powers upon which strong hopes for the future are based by 
the advocates of international arbitration as a substitute for war. 
Finally, toward the end of his term, he caused a sweeping extension to 
be made in the civil-service regulations, applying the exclusive merit 
test to substantially all the ordinary offices under the government. 

Upon leaving the presidency, in March, 1897, he took up his resi- 
dence in Princeton, New Jersey, with the intention of passing the re- 
mainder of his life in retirement. 

Mr. Cleveland's candidacy for the various public offices which he 
lias filled lias been remarkable for the large independent vote 
he lias commanded, and the considerable number of voters whom he 
has drawn from opposing parties. However opinions may differ as to 
the wisdom or expediency of some of his policies and executive acts, 
dispassionate men agree that the great lesson of his public career is 
its demonstration that an honest and earnest administration of office, 
as opposed to the scheming and wire-pulling tactics of " practical 
politicians," will generally win the confidence of the people, and 
prove in the end to be the wisest and shrewdest policy. 



"f LINTON, GEORGE (born in Buffalo, New York, September 
7, 1846), is a son of the late George W. Clinton, a grandson 
of Governor De Witt Clinton, and great-grandson of Gen- 
eral James Clinton, of the Revolution. His mother, Laura 
Catherine Clinton, was a daughter of John C. Spencer, the reviser, 
and a granddaughter of Chief-Justice Ambrose Spencer. 1 He at- 
tended the Buffalo schools, being graduated from the Central School 
(now High School), and studied law with the Honorable Henry L. 
( Minion, of New York, and also at Columbia College Law School, from 

1 Sketches of Mr. Clinton's ta 
appear in their alphabetical sequel 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 95 

which institution he was graduated with the degree of bachelor of 
laws. He was admitted to the bar in New York City, May IS, 1868, 
and after a brief period of practice there removed to Hudson, Wis- 
consin. In 1874 he returned to his early home, Buffalo, where he has 
since been continuously engaged in active and very successful prac- 
tice, advancing steadily to the eminent position which he now occu- 
pies at the bar of that city. 

Mr. Clinton has taken a hearty interest in promoting improvements 
in the great canal system of the state, whose construction was so pe- 
culiarly the achievement of his renowned grandfather. He was for 
several years, and until it ceased to exist, president of the Union for 
the Improvement of the Canals of New York. To the efforts of this 
organization is due the credit of awakening the public interest in the 
canals which has resulted in the improvements now in progress. 

He has held the public offices of park commissioner of Buffalo (1882- 
83), member of the assembly (1884), and member of the trunk sewer 
commission of Buffalo. He has also served as president of the Buffalo 
Merchants' Exchange (1893). 

For two years Mr. Clinton was connected with the faculty, of the 
Buffalo Law School as professor of admiralty law. The pressure of 
his professional business compelled him to resign this position. 




OATSWORTH, EDWARD EMERSON (born in Buffalo, 
New York, November 5, I860), is the son of Caleb and Jane 
Webb Coatsworth. He was educated at Public School 
No. 4 and the Central School of Buffalo, prepared for the 
profession of the law in the office of Tabor & Sheehan, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Buffalo, January 6, 1888, since which date he 
has been in active practice in that city. He is associated with John 
Cunneen in the firm of Cunneen & Coatsworth. 




10DLING, WILLIAM BEACH (born in Wilton, Connecticut, 
May 9, 1S55), is the son of Reverend Robert and Matilda 
B. Codling. His father was a naturalized Englishman. 
The son attended public and select schools, the high 
schools of South Norwalk and West Winsted, Connecticut, and the 
Fort Edward (New York) Collegiate Institute, from which he was 
graduated in 1877. He taught school from 1877 to 1884, studied law 
under the direction of the late Judge J. Lawrence Smith, of Smith- 
town Branch, New York, and was admitted to the bar in Brooklyn, 
February 13, 18S5. He has since practiced in Northport, New York. 
He served as school commissioner for the 2d district of Suffolk county 
two terms, from 1888 to 1894. 




96 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

jOFFIN, OWEN TRISTRAM (born near the Village of Me- 
chanic, Town of Washington, Dutchess county, New York, 
July IT, 1815), is the son of Robert and Magdalen Bentley 
Coffin. He is of the sixth generation in descent from Tris- 
tram Coffin, who emigrated from Devonshire, England, about the 
middle of the seventeenth century and settled on the Island of Nan- 
tucket, of which he became one of the proprietors (owning one-tenth 
of it), and also the chief magistrate. 1 Mr. Coffin's mother was a 
daughter of Colonel Taber Bentley (a descendant of the family to 
which the famous Doctor Bentley belonged) and a granddaughter of 
Colonel James Vanderburgh, of the Revolution. 2 Robert Coffin, the 
father of Mr. Coffin, was a thrifty farmer, prominent in the affairs of 
his town, of which he was a magistrate for many years, and repre- 
sented the county in the assembly. He had ten children (the subject 
of this sketch being his seventh child and fourth son), of whom four 
survive, whose united ages are 326 — an average of eighty-one, — the 
eldest being ninety and the youngest seventy-four. 

Owen T. Coffin attended the schools of his neighborhood and was 
prepared for college at the Sharon (Connecticut) Academy and the 
Kinderhook Academy. In 1837 he was graduated at Union College, 
in the same class with John K. Porter, afterward the distinguished 
judge of the Court of Appeals, between whom and himself a friend- 
ship was formed which was never interrupted. He studied law in 
the office of Judge Rufus W. Peckham, the elder, was admitted to the 
bar in 1810, and began practice at Carmel, Putnam county. In 1812 
he removed to Dutchess county, and in 1815 became a member of the 
law firm of Johnston, Coffin & Emott, of Poughkeepsie, in which 
Charles Johnston, ex-member of congress, and James Emott, after- 
ward justice of the Supreme Court, were associated with him. Retir- 
ing from this firm, he formed a co-partnership with General Leonard 
Maison, a well-known lawyer of Poughkeepsie, whose daughter he 
had married in 1842. During his residence in Poughkeepsie he held 
several positions of importance, including that of district attorney of 
the county. 

In 1851 he became a partner with Honorable W. Nelson and his 
son, W. R. Nelson, in the firm of Nelson & Coffin, at Peekskill, where 
he still resides. After nearly twenty years of successful practice at 
the Westchester county bar, in which he established a reputation as 
one of its leading and strongest members, he was elected, in 1870, 
surrogate of the county. In this office he continued for four succes- 

1 One of Tristr;mi Cnttin's il.'s.rinUuit.s w;is Isaac Coffin, - Colonel James Vanderburgh was descended from 
who entered the British navy before the breaking out of Holland ancestors, who at an early period settled in 
the American Revolution and rose to the rank of admiral. Dutchess county. He was a prominent citizen of Beek- 
He was knighted and received a grant of the Magdalen man, in that county, was a member of the provincial con- 
Islands, at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, of which one gress of 17711, and was a zealous patriot in the Revolution, 
of the name, Colonel Coffin, is the present lord. Admiral While "Washington and Lafayette were in his vicinity, 
Coffin, after leaving the navy, was for many years a he entertained them, with their start's, at his house, 
prominent member of the British parliament. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



97 



sive terms, retiring on the 31st of December, 1894. His long service 
as surrogate of Westchester county was distinguished throughout 
by an exceptional capacity for the delicate duties of that responsible 




^>*^e^^c 



position. " Many of his judgments were carried to the highest court 
of the state and received its sanction, and many opinions in cases de- 
cided by him have been referred to as authority in other courts." 1 
Judge Coffin is one of the most prominent and respected citizens of 



The Surrogate, March, 1891. 



9(5 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Peekskill. He has always taken a warm interest in educational mat- 
ters. For thirty-eight years lie has been president of the board of 
i rustics of the Peekskill Academy. For a long period he has been a 
member and warden of the Peekskill Episcopal Church. Though 
now (1897) eighty-two years old, he is still in the vigor of active life. 

In 1 88!) he received from Union College the degree of doctor of laws. 

He has been twice married. His first wife, Belinda Emott Maison, 
whom he married in 1S42, died in 185G. In 1858 he was married to 
Harriette Barlow, daughter of the late Doctor Samuel Barlow, and a 
sister of the late S. L. M. Barlow. 




;()LE, HIVING W. (born in Farmer, Seneca county, New 
York, September 21, 1859), is the son of Ira Hopkins and 
Mary Caroline Denison Cole. He received his education in 
the school of his native place, and in the Cook Academy, 
Havana, New York. He entered the law office of Honorable O. P. 
Hurd, at Watkins, New York, and during his studentship was clerk of 
the Surrogate's Court of Schuyler county for two and one-half years. 
In 18S3 he was graduated at the Albany Law School. Being admitted 
to the bar, he began practice in September of the same year at Wat- 
kins, in association with his brother, ex-Speaker Fremont Cole. Since 
October 1, 1893, he has practiced at Buffalo, and since May 1, 1891, 
in partnership with E. J. Plumley, under the firm name of Plumley & 
Cole. 




|OLEMAN, BOSWELL CABPENTEB (born in Goshen, 
Orange county, New York, December 3, 1840), is the son of 
James Carpenter Coleman and Phebe Ann Mead. He is 
of English descent by both parents. His ancestors have 
lived in this country for about two hundred years, and have been 
residents of Orange county for more than one hundred years. By 
occupation they have been mostly farmers. His mother is a grand- 
daughter of Colonel Matthew Mead, of Connecticut, who served in 
the Revolution; and ancestors of both his parents were refugees from 
Wyoming, Pennsylvania, after the massacre. 

He was graduated from Ward School No. 35 in the 9th ward of the 
City of New York into the New York Free Academy, where he re- 
mained for one year. He completed his course of academic education 
at Farmers' Hall Academy in (ioshen, New York. While attending 
schoolhe also clerked in stores and worked upon the farm. lie studied 
law at Goshen with Sharpe & Winfield, and afterwards attended and 
graduated from the Albany Law School with the degree of bachelor 
of laws, being admitted to the bar at Albany in May, 1863. He at 
once commenced practice at Goshen as managing clerk in the office 
of Joseph W. Gott, where he remained for about four years. He then 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 99 

engaged in practice for himself. On January 1, 1896, upon retiring 
from the office of surrogate, he opened an office in Newburgh, and in 
May following moved with his family to that place. 

He held the office of justice of the peace of the Town of Goshen 
from 18G5 to 1872, and that of surrogate of Orange county from 1883 
to 1895, inclusive. 

He is principally known to the profession outside of his county by 
the numerous opinions written by him while surrogate, which appear 
in the law reports. In 1875 he with his associates became famous as 
members of the celebrated American rifle team which then visited 
Ireland. In that year he was appointed by Governor Tilden inspector 
of rifle practice, with the rank of captain, in the 19th battalion of state 
militia. 

OLGAN, WILLIAM PAUL (born in Dunkirk, Chautauqua 
county, New York, July 4, 18G9), is the son of Bernard and 
Mary Prendergast Colgan. After attending the Dunkirk 
Union Schools he was appointed by President Cleveland 
in May, 1885, to a position in the United States mail service, in which 
he continued until May 29, 1889, being dismissed for political rea- 
sons. Soon after leaving the mail service he began the study of law, 
at first with Holt & Holt, of Dunkirk, New York, and then with his 
brother, John H. Colgan, of Buffalo. He was admitted to the bar at 
Buffalo, June 8, 1893, and on January 1, 1S94, entered into a legal 
copartnership in that city with his brother, under the firm style of Col- 
gan & Colgan, which continued until the hitter's death, September 
14, 1894. Since that date he has practiced alone. 

Mr. Colgan has won a reputation among the young lawyers of Buf- 
falo. He was associated with Honorable John Laughlin in the de- 
fense of Bernard Murray, charged with the killing of William H. 
Bright, President of the Genesee Oil Works, and succeeded in acquit- 
ting James Towe, charged with the murder of Josie Bennett in Buf- 
falo in 1894. Aside from his criminal practice Mr. Colgan enjoys a 
large and lucrative civil practice, being counsel in numerous cases of 
importance. 

| OLLIN, FREDERICK (born in Benton, Yates county, New 
York, August 2, 1850), is the son of Henry Clark and Maria 
Park Collin. He attended district school and Penn Yan 
Academy, completing his preparation for college under the 
direction of his brother, Charles A. Collin. He was graduated at Yale 
in 1871 with the degree of bachelor of arts, subsequently receiving 
from that institution the A.M. degree. After leaving college he pur- 
sued legal studies with Collin & Atwill, and also with John A. Rey- 
nolds, with whom he is now associated in the well-known law firm of 
Reynolds, Stanchfield & Collin. He was admitted to the bar at Syra- 



100 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

cuse, October 26, 1876, and entered upon practice at Elmira, where he 
has continued without interruption since, becoming equally promi- 
nent at the bar and in political and public life. 

From 1887 to 1894 he served as president of the board of education 
of that city. In 1894 he was elected mayor, and in 1896 was re- 
elected. He is still the incumbent of the mayor's office, his term ex- 
piring with 1898. 




[OTHRAN, GEORGE W., LL.D. (born in Royalton, Niagara 
county, New York, February 25, 1834), is a son of John 
Cochran and Amelia Grove. The changed spelling of the 
name was instituted by Mr. Cothran's elder brother, and 
generally adopted by the family. 

George W. Cothran was the youngest of a family of thirteen. In 
1838 his father died, leaving a small and heavily encumbered estate, 
and in the fall of that year his mother removed with her children to 
Richland county, Ohio. In 1842 she returned to the homestead at 
Royalton, New York, whence she removed in 1850 to Lockport. 
Young Cothran received only an elementary education, but having 
an alert mind and an ambition to succeed in life, he built extensively 
by self-study upon these meager foundations. Before he had attained 
his majority, he had contributed numerous articles to magazines and 
other periodicals, and had also made himself highly proficient in the 
mechanic arts, his practical studies in this department being prose- 
cuted so thoroughly that it has been said of him that " to-day he could 
not only draw plans for a house, a mill, or a bridge, but could con- 
struct them." 

In August, 1854, he entered the law office of Phineas L. Ely, of 
Lockport, and three years later he was admitted to the bar at Buffalo. 
He remained for another year with his preceptor, and then, in Sep- 
tember, 1858, began practice for himself in Lockport. He was imme- 
diately successful; at the second term of court after the opening of 
his office only one law firm in Lockport had a larger number of cases 
on the calendar than he. 

Soon after the breaking out of the war Mr. Cothran decided to aban- 
don his profession and enter the military service. In September, 1861, 
he organized a battery of volunteer light artillery, of which he was 
commissioned captain. Although his military career was compara- 
tively brief, it was eminently creditable, and, indeed, brilliant. 
" Cothran's battery " achieved a reputation not excelled by that of 
any other volunteer battery in the army of the Potomac. He was at 
Winchester, Cedar Creek, Beverly Ford on the Rappahannock, New- 
market, Cedar Mountain in Virginia, Antietain, and Fredericksburg, 
and participated in various reconnaissances, retreats, and marches. 
It was by his battery that General Ashbv was killed near Newmar- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 101 

ket, Virginia, in 1862. After the battle of Antietani, at which he 
was under fire for eight hours, he was recommended to the president 
for promotion by every commissioned officer in the 11th army corps. 
But influences at Washington, probably controlled somewhat by 
political considerations, were not favorable at the time to his ad- 
vancement, and he remained with his battery while serving on the 
staff of General Williams as chief of artillery of the 1st division of the 
12th corps. Preferring the responsible position of battery comman- 
dant, he declined a proffer of promotion to the rank of major or lieu- 
tenant-colonel tendered him by the adjutant-general of New York. 
In 1803, having contracted sciatica-neuralgia as the result of severe 
exposure, he resigned from the army and returned to Lockport. In 
the same year he married Jennie, the daughter of W. W. Mann, of 
Buffalo, and removed to that city. 

In Buffalo Mr. Cothran soon rose to prominence in his profession, 
ranking among the ablest and most successful practitioners of that 
brilliant bar. On January 1, 1877, he was appointed county judge 
of Erie county by Governor Bobinson, as his first official act, a selec- 
tion which has been specially recommended to the new governor by 
ex-Governor Tilden. At the close of his term he was urged by the 
members of the bar to coutinue on the bench, but he declined the 
nomination. He also declined a nomination for judge of the Superior 
Court of Buffalo. Ou a subsequent occasion, however, he consented 
to be a candidate for that office, but was defeated with his party at 
the polls. 

In July, 1879, he went to Chicago to assist his friend, F. E. Hinckly, 
in the conduct of certain complicated railway litigations. He was 
instrumental in arranging the affairs of the Chicago & Iowa Bailroad 
Company and placing that corporation on a satisfactory basis. He 
also became general solicitor of the Chicago & Iowa, the Chicago, 
Pekin & Southwestern, and the Chicago, Eockford & Northern rail- 
road companies. While in Chicago, he was in partnership for about 
two years with Judge Van H. Higgins and Henry J. Furber. In 18S7 
he returned to Buffalo, where he has practiced ever since. 

Among the important cases with which Judge Cothran has been 
connected, especial mention may be made of Fisher vs. the New York 
Central & Hudson Biver Bailroad Company (46 N. Y., 641), which 
compelled a revision of the passenger tariff on all the railways of the 
United States, and out of which some nine thousand actions have 
resulted, aud Cothran vs. Ellis (107 111. Beports), settling an impor- 
tant question of law relating to transactions on boards of trade. 

He has made a number of notable contributions to legal literature. 
He has edited what is known as the sixth edition of the New York 
Bevised Statutes in three very large volumes, and also has edited 
and annotated several editions of the general statutes of Illinois from 
1879 to the present time. Besides these works he has published " The 



102 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Law of Supervisors " (Albany, 1SSS) and " The Law of Assessors and 
Collectors " (Albany, 1889). 

The degree of doctor of laws was conferred upon him by Baker Uni- 
versity (Kansas) in 1S77. 

Throughout his life Judge Cothran has manifested an active inter- 
est in free-masonry, having taken all the degrees and orders except 
the thirty-third. At the triennial gathering of Knights Templar at 
Chicago in 18S0, he was Grand Master Hurlbut's chief of staff. He 
was one of the founders of Medinah Temple, Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine, at Chicago. 

He has collected a very valuable library, which is especially rich in 
law books, in literature, and in music. He has one of the largest pri- 
vate collections of music in America. He has always been a warm 
friend of educational institutions. He took a leading part in founding 
the Buffalo College of Physicians and Surgeons, became its president, 
and filled in it the chair of medical jurisprudence. 




OUDERT, FKEDEBIC BENE (born in New York City, 
March 1, 1832), is the son of Charles Coudert, born in Bor- 
deaux, France, in 1795, who after an adventurous career in 
the service of the Bonapartes escaped to America in 1821, 
where he settled for the remainder of his life. He was an officer in 
the Guard of Honor attached to the old imperial herald of Napoleon 
I., was wounded in the famous three days' fight at Leipsic, partici- 
pated in the battles of Montereau and Montmirial, and served ac- 
tively in the desperate engagement when the allies entered Paris. 
After the restoration, through the influence of Lafayette, he became 
involved in the conspiracy to place the Duke of Keichstadt (Napoleon 
II.) on the throne of France. The conspiracy failed, and he was tried 
and condemned to be shot. Through some informality in the trial, 
the execution was postponed, and after many months spent in prison 
he escaped to England. Two years afterward he returned to France 
in disguise, which was discovered, but through the assistance of influ- 
ential friends he escaped to the United States. He was awarded two 
decorations for his devotion to the cause of the Bonapartes, one being 
the Legion of Honor, and the other a medal presented by the Second 
Empire for services rendered to the First. This was the medal which 
Napoleon I., when dying at Saint Helena, desired to have presented to 
the companions of his glory, and which was, in accordance with his 
wishes, awarded by Louis Napoleon to every surviving officer and 
soldier of the First Empire. Louis and Joseph Bonaparte were en- 
tertained at Charles Coudert's house during their visit to America. 

Frederic R. Coudert received his early education at his father's 
school in New York City, and at the age of fourteen entered Columbia 
College, graduating with the highest honors in 1850, his address on 




FREDERIC R. CODDERT, 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 103 

{hat occasion attracting attention from the press. In 1852, at the age 
of twenty-one, he was admitted to the New York bar. His brothers, 
Louis and Charles Coudert, Junior, joined him in the practice of law, 
forming the firm of Coudert Brothers, which, with its Paris branch, 
is one of the oldest law firms in New York, transacting a large busi- 
ness and numbering among its clients many of the governments of 
Europe. 

Of late years there have been a great number of cases involving nice 
questions of law, in which the advice of Mr. Coudert has been sought. 
His success as a jury lawyer has been pronounced. He has the happy 
faculty of quickly recovering himself in a trial, if the facts seem to 
change or the evidence to go against him. He at once leads the jury 
to believe that the particular adverse evidence brought out was ex- 
actly what he had contemplated as a possibility. 

As a mark of his fairness, courtesy, and popularity, he was selected 
by his fellow-members of the bar to be their spokesman in opposition 
to the civil code which was so persistently urged upon the legislature. 
He was also selected to write the memorial of Charles O'Conor, and 
again honored by being elected president of the Bar Association of 
New York City. As a speaker he commands the closest attention of 
his professional brethren. His style is clear, his ready wit enlivens 
the most tedious subjects, and he also has the power of appealing to 
the judgment and convincing the intellect. It would be impossible to 
give a complete list of his orations and after-dinner speeches. One of 
the most notable was his address at the centennial celebration at 
Columbia College in 1887. He lectures at times for charitable pur- 
poses, and has treated as platform subjects " Edmund Burke," " Ly- 
ing as a Fine Art," " Manners and Morals," " The Church and the 
Bar." He has written largely for the leading periodicals upon sub- 
jects outside of his profession. 

Mr. Coudert has taken an active part in the political work of the 
democratic party. During the Tilden and Hayes campaign his ser- 
vices were in constant request. After that election, he was appointed 
by the democratic committee to go to New Orleans and assist in se- 
curing a fair count of the vote of Louisiana. He was a personal 
friend of Samuel J. Tilden, and in 1879 an ardent supporter of Gov- 
ernor Robinson. During the latter campaign he made an eloquent 
speech in favor of " democratic union," and was the only speaker who 
claimed the rapt attention of the noisy crowd. He supported Mayor 
Grace in both his campaigns, and took a prominent part in the first 
election of Mr. Cleveland. He was president of the Lawyers' Cam- 
paign Club, and made many speeches in favor of the candidate. 

Mr. Coudert has himself positively refused political preferment, 
and has several times declined nominations which signified election 
to the Court of Appeals. Aside from this, he has held many positions 
of trust and honor. In 1877 he was appointed to represent the inter- 



104 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

ests of American commerce at the international congress on the 
law of nations, held at Antwerp. In 18S2 he attended another ses- 
sion of that congress, held in Liverpool. He was one of the most 
prominent figures in the so-called " anti-snap " organization, the ac- 
tivity of which was chiefly instrumental in securing the nomination 
of Grover Cleveland for president in 1892. He was chairman of the 
Maynard committee of the New York Bar Association, which investi- 
gated the alleged election frauds, influencing the defeat of Maynard 
in 1893. He was counsel for the United States, with Edward J. 
Phelps and James C. Carter, in the famous Bebring Sea controversy 
with Great Britain, before the jury of arbitrators at Paris in July, 
1893. In January, 1896, he was appointed by President Cleveland a 
member of the high commission to inquire as to the true boundary 
line betweeu the Republic of Venezuela and the Province of British 
Guiana — a, commission constituted pursuant to the recommendations 
in Mr. Cleveland's famous Venezuelan message. 

For ten years Mr. Coudert was president of the French Benevolent 
Society. He was the first president of the United States Catholic 
Historical Society, holding this office several terms, was president of 
the Young. Men's Democratic Club of New York City, and for many 
years president of the Columbia College Alumni Association. For 
three years he was government director of theUnion Pacific Railroad ; 
for several years vice-president, and is now president, of the Manhat- 
tan Club; for a considerable period was trustee of Seton Hall College, 
New Jersey; and is a trustee of Columbia and Barnard Colleges, a 
member of the visiting committee of Harvard College, and a director 
in numerous social and charitable institutions. He was awarded 
the degree of doctor of laws from Seton Hall College in 1880 and 
from Fordham College in 1884, and the degree of doctor of canon and 
civil law (J. U. D.) from Columbia in 1887. 

Mr. Coudert has also received many honors from foreign govern- 
ments. He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor of France dur- 
ing the presidency of Marshal McMahon; an officer of the crown of 
Italy for services rendered to the Italian ambassador to Washington; 
and an officer of the Order of Bolivar by Venezuela, as a graceful com- 
pliment in recognition of the address he delivered on the inaugura- 
tion of the Bolivar statue in Central Park. 



lOYVING, RUFUS BILLINGS (born in Jamestown, Chautau- 
qua county, New York, May 25, 1S40), is the son of John 
Kirkland Cowing and Sedate Foote. He received a good 
common school education, took courses in Jamestown 
Academy and the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, and was graduated 
from Harvard College. He studied law in the office of Niles & Brad- 
ley, New York City, and was graduated from the Harvard College 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 105 

Law School, being admitted to the bar the same year (1864) both in 
Boston and New York. 

Judge Cowing began practice in New York City, and was soon in 
the enjoyment of a successful business. A few years later his prac- 
tice was interrupted by his elevation to the bench, in which capacity 
he has served continuously since. As a judge Mr. Cowing has ac- 
quired an established reputation. He has been on the criminal bench 
of New York for seventeen years, and during that time has disposed 
of more than seventeen thousand cases. 

In 1877 he was alderman-at-large of New York City. He is a mem- 
ber of various social organizations, president of the New York Homoe- 
opathic Medical College and Hospital, and vice-president of the Union 
League Club. As a lawyer and judge he has followed in the foot- 
steps of three of his uncles, one of whom was judge of Chautauqua 
county for twenty-five years, another, city judge of Milwaukee for 
seven years, and a third, ex-law partner of Honorable John G. Car- 
lisle, secretarv of the treasurv in President Cleveland's cabinet. 




ROAK, JOHN (born October 25, 1846), is the son of Thomas 
and Ann Croak. He attended the common schools and the 
Mariners' Harbor Academy (Staten Island), studied law 
with S. E. Church and Brown & Estes, of New York City, 
and also at the Albany Law School, and was admitted to the bar at 
Albany on December 5, 1867. He was subsequently admitted to prac- 
tice in the United States District and Circuit Courts. 

Mr. Croak has served two terms as district attorney of Richmond 
county (1876 to 1882) and one term as a member of the state legisla- 
ture (1892). In August, 1891, he was elected one of the trustees of 
the Firemen's Home, of Hudson, for a term of five years. He has 
always practiced in New York City. 




ROWLEY, RODNEY RUFUS (bom in Mount Holly, Rut- 
land county, Vermont, November 12, 1836), is the son of 
Rufus and Permelia Crowley. Both his parents were 
great-grandchildren of Abraham Crowley, who was born 
at Newburyport, Massachusetts, and about 1760 located at Mount 
Holly, Vermont. Mr. Crowley's father, Honorable Rufus Crowley, 
was a member of the legislature in Vermont, and in 1841 removed to 
the Village of Randolph, New York, where he followed mercantile 
pursuits, and was twice chosen a representative in the assembly at 
Albany (1847 and 1857). 

Rodney R. Crowley attended the common schools and took the four 
years' course in the Randolph Academy, being graduated from that 
institution in 1855. He then read law, successively, with Weeden & 



10(5 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Henderson, of Randolph, Honorable Porter Sheldon, of Rockford, 
Illinois, and Honorable Alexander Sheldon, of Randolph. He was 
admitted to the bar May 16, 1SG1, at Buffalo. 

On the 17th of August, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company 
B. of the 61th regiment, New York volunteers. He was promoted 
rapidly, receiving the appointment of captain in December, 1862. He 
was engaged in some of the most desperate battles of the war, and 
was wounded at Fair Oaks, and again at Gettysburg, the second time 
so seriously as to compel his resignation (November 7, 1863). Later 
he was appointed provost marshal of the 31st district, of New York, 
serving from December, 1864, to October 15, 1865, with the rank of 
captain of cavalry. 

Engaging in the practice of the law at Randolph, Captain Crowley 
soon became prominent in the profession and also in political and 
official life. He was connected with the Juinel estate litigation in 
1871, was counsel for the defense in the Mudge murder case, and acted 
as counsel, among other suits, in the litigations concerning the Cham- 
berlain estate (1874-75), railroad bond suits (1878-79), in bank cases 
at various times, and in a great variety of country cases, Surrogate's 
Court practice, etc. 

In 1868 and 1869 he served as supervisor of the Town of Randolph, 
from 1869 to 1871 was collector of internal revenue for the 31st dis- 
trict of New York (embracing Cattaraugus and Chautauqua coun- 
ties), was elected state inspector of prisons in 1S75 by 21,000 majority, 
and continued in the office until its abolition in 1877, and was deputy 
superintendent, of banks of the State of New York from 1893 to 1896. 
He has also held the position of president of the Village of Randolph 
(1890 and 1891). 

In politics he was a republican until the Greeley campaign, when 
he joined the democratic party, with which he has since been .affili- 
ated. He has been a delegate to numerous democratic state conven- 
tions, and from 1891 to 1893 was chairman of the Cattaraugus 
county democratic committee. 

He has taken an active interest in veteran societies, having been 
commander, in 1892 and 1893, and again in 1897, of G. A. R. Post 297, 
and president, in 1894, of the 64th New York Volunteers Regimental 
Society. IIp is a royal arch mason and a member of the A. O. U. W. 

On September 2, 1801, he was married to .Jane Hobart Mussey, of 
an old Connecticut family. Thev have two grown children. 



|EUMB, LEVERETT FINCH (born in Matawan, Monmouth 

county, New Jersey, November 28, 1859), is the son of Rev- 
erend John \Y. and Roba Finch Crumb. When lie was six 
years old Ins parents removed from New .Jersey to Peeks- 
kill, Westchester county, New York, which has been his home ever 




HISTOKY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



107 



since. He attended the old Howard Street School until his fifteenth 
year, and then entered the Peekskill postoffice as a clerk. Later he 
pursued studies at the Westchester County Institute and the Peeks- 







kill Military Academy. In 1878 he began the study of the law in the 
office of Edward Wells (since deceased), and in May, 1S83, was ad- 
mitted to the bar. 



108 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YOBK 

Mr. Crumb from early youth took a hearty interest iu politics, 
being ardently attached to the principles of the republican party, and 
his political career began almost simultaneously with the practice of 
his profession. In April, 18S3, he was elected to the responsible posi- 
tion of clerk of the Village of Peekskill, and a year later was chosen 
corporation counsel of the village. These two offices he has held ever 
since, having been re-elected annually for fourteen years, although 
at one time the partisan complexion of the board from which he de- 
rived his appointment was democratic. 

In 1895 he was nominated by the republican party for the office of 
county clerk of Westchester county, and after a very difficult and ex- 
citing canvass he was elected by a large majority, becoming on Jan- 
uary 1, 1896, the first republican clerk that the County of Westchester 
had had in its history. As county clerk he is also clerk to the 
Supreme Court and the County Court. His administration of the 
office has been characterized by great conscientiousness and the in- 
troduction of many improvements in its conduct, his knowledge and 
ability as a lawyer enabling him to promptly perceive in what partic- 
ulars existing defects could be remedied. In 1896 the county clerk's 
office was the center of a most bitter and persistent partisan struggle 
to prevent his printing of the official ballots. In the course of this 
contest thirty-two stays, mandamuses, and injunctions were served 
upon him, but he successfully carried out his official duty, without 
violating any of the orders of the court, and placed the ballots in the 
hands of the electors for the whole county, without error, on election 
morning. 

In his profession Mr. Crumb has built up a large practice. To this 
he gives careful and assiduous attention in addition to his many 
public duties. He is recognized as one of the ablest practitioners of 
the county. His success, both professionally and in political life, is 
largely due also to unusual qualiiies of executive ability, to 
which he adds uncommon energy and activity, and a pleasing person- 
ality that has attracted to him many warm friends and a large per- 
sonal following. 

He is one of the leading and most popular citizens of Peekskill, and 
takes much interest in all matters calculated to promote its interests 
and prosperity. He was instrumental in organizing the Board of 
Trade of Peekskill in 1890, and was chosen its first secretary, a posi- 
tion which he still holds, having been continued in it from year to 
year. 

Mr. Crumb has a number of fraternal connections. He is active in 
Freemasonry, being a member of Courtlandt Lodge No. 34, F. and A. 
M.,Mohegan Chapter No. 221, P. A. M.,and Westchester Commandery 
No. 42, Knights Templar, of Sing Sing. He is also a member of 
Cryptic Lodge No. 75, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of Paid 
Eagle Tribe No. 264, I. O. R. M. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 109 

He is a member of the City Club of Yonkers. He is a trustee in the 
1st Baptist Church of Peekskill, and assistant superintendent of the 
Sunday-school, and is prominent in the work of the Young People's 
Society of Christian Endeavor. 

On April 20, 1888, Mr. Crumb married Nellie M. Starr, youngest 
daughter of George S. Starr, of Peekskill. 




JUDDEBACK, CORNELIUS E. (born in Port Jervis, New 
York, March 10, 1849), is the son of Elting Cuddeback and 
Ann B. Elting, both of Huguenot descent. Jacob Caude- 
bec, the ancestor of all of the name in this country, came, 
from France as a fugitive after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. 
In 1690 he received, with others, a patent from Queen Anne for 1,200 
acres of land in the vicinity of Port Jervis, and his descendants still 
own and occupy a considerable portion of it. 

Mr. Cuddeback attended the public schools at Port Jervis, was 
graduated at Yale in 1871 with the degree of bachelor of arts, read 
law for a few months with Carr & Howell in Port Jervis, and in 1873 
was graduated from Columbia College Law School. In May of the 
same year he was admitted to the bar in New York City, and soon 
afterward he entered upon the practice of his profession at Port Jer- 
vis, where he has since continued. He has participated actively and 
with success in most of the litigations arising in that village and its 
vicinity since he engaged in practice. He served as corporation attor- 
ney for the Yillage of Port Jervis for twelve years from 1879 to 1891, 
and was a member of the reorganization committee of the Port Jervis, 
Monticello & New York Railroad Company in 1891 and attorney for 
the receiver of that corporation during the period of its insolvency. 

At the celebration by the Minisink Yalley Historical Society of 
the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the valley, Mr. 
Cuddeback contributed an address on some of the important histori- 
cal aspects of that interesting locality. 




CLLEN, EDGAR MONTGOMERY (born in Brooklyn, New 
York, December 4, 1813), is the son of Doctor Henry James 
Cullen and Eliza McCue. His father, born in Ireland, came 
to America early in life, studied medicine, and became one 
of the most eminent physicians of Brooklyn. His grandfather, Henry 
James Cullen, Senior, was settled at Malla Might, County Sligo, Ire- 
land. Judge Cullen's mother was the sister of Judge Alexander Mc- 
Cue, of Brooklyn. 

Judge Cullen prepared for college at Kinderhook Academy, was 
graduated from Columbia College in 1860, and, having decided to 
become a civil engineer, attended the Troy Polytechnic Institute. 



110 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



With the outbreak of the civil war he entered the union army as a 
volunteer, and was commissioned 2d lieutenant in the 1st United 




States infantry. He was assigned to the Department of the Missis- 
sippi, and participated in the battles of Corinth and Farmington. In 
1862 Governor Morgan commissioned him — at the age of nineteen — 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 111 

colonel of the 96tli New York volunteers, attached to the 18th army 
corps, and in this capacity he served throughout the operations in 
Virginia, resulting in the capture of Petersburg and the surrender of 
Eichmond. 

Eesigning his command at the close of the war, he resumed the vo- 
cation of civil engineer, which he followed actively for a year and 
which led to his appointment, in 1875, as engineer-in-chief with the 
rank of brigadier-general on the staff of Governor Tilden. Meantime 
he had stiidied law in the office of his uncle, Judge McCue, was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Brooklyn in May, 1867, and had successfully en- 
tered upon the practice of law. He was a partner in the firm of McCue, 
Hall & Cullen, re-organized about 1870 as Hall & Cullen, which en- 
joyed a large corporation business. In 1872 he was appointed assist- 
ant-district attorney, and served the city several years in that office. 
In 1880, as nominee of the democratic party, he was elected a jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court for the 2d judicial district of the State of 
New York. 

On the bench he attracted attention by his integrity and legal acu- 
men. His connection with the notorious Dutchess county election 
case is worthy of special attention. It is alike complimentary to the 
integrity of the justice and to the intelligence and patriotism of the 
people of the 2d judical district, who, irrespective of party, hastened 
to support with their franchises a judge whose honest, impartial ad- 
ministration of the law had mortally offended the unscrupulous ele- 
ment in control of his own political party. No attempt can be made 
here to explain to those who have not the facts in mind the many 
legal complications in the Dutchess case. Suffice it to say that the 
political complexion of the state legislature for the ensuing year de- 
pended upon the returns of the 1891 election for senator in the hands 
of the board of canvassers for Dutchess county, and that in the par- 
tisan strife over this issue two sets of returns had come into existence 
through the action of this board, one of which, if accepted by the state 
board of canvassers, would elect the republican candidate, while the 
other would elect his democratic rival. The original figures, as tab- 
ulated by the county board (which was overwhelmingly democratic), 
favored the republican. An adjournment was had, however, and at 
the next meeting, instead of footing up the figures which it had al- 
ready officially tabulated, and sending the result to the state canvas- 
sers, the board arbitrarily adopted, by resolution of a democratic su- 
pervisor, other figures, derived how or whence no one knew. When 
the county clerk, the legal secretary of the board, who chanced to be 
a republican, hesitated to certify this fabricated return, a democratic 
secretary pro tern, was appointed (one Mylod), who signed and trans- 
mitted the false figures to the state board of canvassers. Actions 
were at once begun restraining the state board from canvassing this 
return and compelling the county board to reconvene and correct its 



112 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

work. The facts were so notorious that Mr. Justice Barnard, of the 
Supreme Court, himself a democrat, said in his opinion in one of these 
actions: The state board has a return which does not indicate the true 
result. It is proper that the board should hold its hand until the true 
record reaches it." 

Eventually the Dutchess board reconsidered its action and issued 
corrected returns which demonstrated the election of the republican 
candidate, but meantime Governor Hill had peremptorily removed 
the republican county clerk of Dutchess and appointed a democrat 
(Mr. Storm Emans) in his place. With the co-operation of this ap- 
pointee every effort was made to prevent the forwarding of the cor- 
rected returns to the state board of canvassers. Orders requiring 
their transmission from one judge were followed by stays from an- 
other. In this situation the case was brought before Mr. Justice 
C'ullen, December 19, 1S91. He ordered the transmission of the cor- 
rected returns to Albany, but upon the agreement of the counsel on 
both sides to promptly carry the whole case to the Court of Appeals 
for decision on its merits, he restrained the state board of canvassers 
from canvassing either return until a decision from the Court of Ap- 
peals for their guidance should be handed down; providing, how- 
ever, in case of unwillingness of counsel to bring the case to a deci- 
sion as agreed, or, as he expressed it, " on proof that said appeals are 
not prosecuted with due diligence,'' the restraint upon the board of 
canvassers might be vacated on a day's notice. In making this order, 
Justice Cullen declared: 

I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that this is a great political question and 
must be decided by strict law. If each party is desirous of seeing justice done, 
I think they will agree that it ought to go to the court of last resort. Though 
this court does not wish to be understood as evading any responsibility, it sug- 
gests that the case be taken to the general term of the Supreme Court of the 1st 
department in New York on Monday, where a formal judgment may be taken, 
and that the next day it be taken to the Court of Appeals, the condition being, 
however, that the certificate now in the hands of the county clerk of Dutchess be 
transmitted to Albany, so that the state board of canvassers, now under a stay 
which you do not question, may act at once on whatever return the Court of 
Appeals may decide to be valid. 

The next important development was of a sensational character. 
Pursuant to Mr. Justice Cullen's order of December 19, the new 
county clerk of Dutchess, on the evening of December 21, mailed at 
Poughkeepsie copies of the corrected returns to the governor, secre- 
tary of state, and comptroller, respectively, but at three o'clock the 
following morning set out for Albany, where he 

proceeded first to the executive mansion to consult Governor Hill. Hill testi- 
fied that he directed him to go to Mr. Isaac H. Maynard, the deputy attorney- 
general, for advice, which he at once did, and then with Maynard proceeded to 
the offices of the three officials to whom the copies of the return had been sent. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 113 

At the governor's office a messenger boy was found in charge, who testifies that 
he permitted them to look over the governor's mail, take out the letter contain- 
ing the return, and carry it off, and that when he subsequently informed the 
governor of what had been done, the latter told him " that was all right." At 
the office of the comptroller an office boy was in charge who testifies that Mr. 
Maynard came in and told him he wanted to get a letter that had been "mis- 
directed," and thereupon went to the table on which the mail had been depos- 
ited and helped himself. But at the office of the secretary of state that official 
himself was in, and states under oath that he handed back to Mr. Emans the 
envelope. 1 

Proceedings were instituted to punish Clerk Emans for contempt of 
Justice Cullen's order, it being assumed that he bad not, in effect., 
transmitted the returns. This view, had it prevailed, would have 
made Emans the scapegoat for the guilty state officials, while at the 
same time establishing the opinion, which the conspirators so greatly 
desired, that the correct returns had not been, in law, transmitted to 
them. But Mr. Justice Cullen, in his notable decision in the contempt 
proceedings, held otherwise. He denied the motion to punish for con- 
tempt, on the ground that the order of the court requiring an actual 
transmission of the returns to the state board of canvassers bad been 
complied with, and that any criminal operations by the clerk subse- 
quently in re-possessing himself of the returns must be reached 
through some action other than contempt proceedings. He declared: 

Though the duty imposed on the clerk, both by the statute and the order of 
this court, was to transmit, still it is clear that at some point this duty of the 
clerk ceased, and that the responsibility for the returns devolved upon other 
officers. The person who was clerk might afterward purloin the returns and 
thereby commit an offense, but it would not be official misconduct, but personal 
crime, nor woidd it be a disobedience of the court's order. Such point occurred 
when the returns reached the officers to whom by the law and the court's man- 
date they were directed to be sent. . . . Though the inclosures containing 
the returns had not been opened, no imposition was practiced upon any of the 
officers as to their contents, but the officers were entirely aware of the character 
of the papers delivered up. There was, therefore, in law and in fact, a com- 
plete transmission of the returns to the officers prescribed by statute. The 
returns were not before the board of state canvassers, not because of any defect 
in the transmission, nor of a disobedience of the older of the court, but because 
by the action of the secretary of state, the governor, and the counsel (Maynard) 
of the comptroller, the returns were taken from the several public offices, where 
they had been properly received, and were given to Mr. Emans. 2 

Thus, as the eminent committee of the New York City Bar Associa- 
tion, citing Mr. Justice Cullen's opinion, justly remarked: 

The county clerk's transmission of the returns of the 21st was regular and 
lawful. On the morning of the 22d they were regularly and lawfully in the 
respective offices of the governor, the secretary of state, and the comptroller. 

'"The Dutchess County Case," by John I. Piatt, 
Poughkeepsie, 1892, p. 19. 

J Report of Committee of New York City Bar Associa- 



114 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

The secretary of state, under the statute, was bound to procure the two copies 
in the offices of the governor and comptroller. And those officers had no right 
in law to deliver those copies to any other person than the secretary of state. 

It was this opinion of Mr. Cullen, moreover, which that committee 
refers to as the occasion of their organization as a committee to re- 
port upon Mr. Maynard's connection with the case, the resolution 
under which they were appointed beginning, " Wliereas, It appears 
from a late opinion pronounced by a judge of the Supreme Court that 
grave offenses may have recently been committed in the taking of an 
election return from the office of the comptroller of this state," etc. 

Naturally enough, Mr. Cullen's straightforward course in this case, 
together with a similar impartiality in other instances bearing a po- 
litical complexion, 1 was a cause of grave offense to that stripe of poli- 
ticians who justified the fraud which had been perpetrated at Albany. 
In 1S94 it became apparent that this element hoped to avenge itself 
by nominating a successor to Mr. Cullen. But the scheme was frus- 
trated. The Brooklyn Bar Association, as a body and irrespective of 
party, passed resohitions declaring that, in view of the character and 
reasons for the opposition to Mr. Justice Cullen, the honor of the 
judiciary and the bar required his re-election. Accordingly, he was 
nominated by the republican convention of Kings county, September 
29, 1894, and one week later (October 6) was nominated by both wings 
of the democracy. Thus, as the candidate of all parties, he was re- 
elected by an enormous vote of confidence. 

In his acceptance of the republican nomination, Mr. Cullen said: 
" That I am a democrat, you all know. That party faith may influence 
a judge in the decision of principles which are the cardinal doctrines 
of his party, may well be. Nay, I go further: such should be the case; 
otherwise the profession of political faith would be mere political 
hypocrisy. But in the application of those rules of justice, honesty, 
and fairness, which people of all parties hold alike — aye, even in the 
application of those principles which are party tenets, — certainly the 
judge should know no distinction between man and man, or party and 
party, but award according to his light the same justice to each." 




^CNNEEN, JOHN (born near the City of Ennis, County of 
Clare, Ireland, May IS, 1S4S), is the son of Daniel and 
Bridget Scanlon Cunneen. In his fourteenth year he came 
to Albion, Orleans county, New York, making the journey 
from Ireland alone. He had attended a private school in Ireland, 
and completed his education in public schools in the vicinity of Al- 
bion, and in the Albion Academy. November 1, 1S70, he entered the 
law office of John H. White, at Albion, as a law student, and in Janu- 

1 Notably in liberating by habeas corpus citizens who had been summarily arrested and refused bail by the political 
bosses of Gravesend, Long Island. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 115 

ary, 1874, was admitted to the bar. He thereupon began practice at 
Albion, where he continued until January 1, 1890, when he removed 
to Buffalo and became a member of the law firm of Tabor, Sheehan. 
Cunneen & Coatsworth, composed of Honorable Charles F. Tabor, 
then attorney-general of the State of New York, Honorable William 
F. Sheehan, then speaker of the assembly and subsequently lieuten- 
ant-governor, Mr. Cunneen, and Edward E. Coatsworth. This firm 
was dissolved in October, 1894, when Mr. Sheehan removed to New 
York City. Since then Mr. Cunneen has been associated in business 
at Buffalo with Edward E. Coatsworth, in the firm Cunneen & Coats- 
worth. 

Mr. Cunneen's life has been devoted almost exclusively to his pro- 
fessional work since his admission to the bar. He has been a suc- 
cessful lawyer, having been engaged in cases involving difficult ques- 
tions of law and fact, and very large amounts, notably the litigations 
occasioned by the mismanagement of the managing executor of the 
estate of Roswell S. Burrows, at Albion. This estate was worth over 
a million dollars, but had been largely dissipated, and the managing 
executor left the country a defaulter. Charles H. Moore, of Albion, 
was appointed receiver, and engaged Mr. Cunneen as his attorney. 
The estate had large interests at Richmond, Virginia; Baltimore, 
Maryland; New York City, and other places. No regular books of ac- 
count had been kept by the executor, and none of the personal estate 
was on hand when the receiver took possession, many of the avail- 
able securities being held in banks in the cities mentioned, in pledge 
for loans marie to the managing executor, who had used a large por- 
tion of the moneys borrowed in unfortunate speculations. Litiga- 
tions arose between the holders of these securities and other claim- 
ants iipon the estate, including the receiver of a bank at Albion, and 
the receiver of the estate. Almost five years of Mr. Cunneen's life 
were devoted to these litigations, in which he was remarkably suc- 
cessful. In the suit between the receiver of the bank and the receiver 
of the estate, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the northern 
district of New York, Mr. Cunneen recovered a judgment for his cli- 
ent of about a half million dollars, which is said to be the largest 
amount ever recovered in a single suit by any attorney residing in 
Orleans county. 

He also succeeded in a suit between the receiver of the Burrows 
estate and the American Loan and Trust Company of the City of New 
York, which involved the power of executors in dealings with trust 
property, and which establishes important rules of law on the sub- 
ject. It was twice decided in the Court of Appeals, and is reported 
in 115 N. Y. Reports, 65, and 133 N. Y. Reports, 69fi. 

Since removing to Buffalo Mr. Cunneen has appeared as attorney 
and counsel in many of the most important cases which have been 
tried in that city. Prominent among these was the Ingalls will case, 



116 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

the trial of which occupied about eight weeks continuously in the 
Surrogate's Court of Erie County and a like period of time before a 
jury in the Circuit Court, and involved the title to about $800,000. 
The jury disagreed, and an amicable settlement was afterward made 
between the interested parties. In this case he was associated with 
Adelbert Moot and William B. Hoyt, of Buffalo, and David J. Wil- 
cox, of Springville, New York, and opposed by Honorable Sherman S. 
Rogers, John G. Milburn, and several other prominent members of 
the Buffalo bar. 

Mr. Cunneen has always regarded it a patriotic duty to interest 
himself in public questions. He has been in demand as a campaign 
speaker in every important campaign since 1870, and has generously 
responded. He represented Orleans county in the democratic state 
conventions for many years, and represented one of the congressional 
districts of Erie county in the national convention of 1892 at Chi- 
cago. In 1895 and 1896 he represented that county in the democratic 
state committee, of which he was chosen secretary. He has never 
been an office-seeker, however, the only exception being that in 1883 
he was the nominee of the democratic party for the office of district 
attorney of Orleans county, and while the republicans had 1,500 ma- 
jority, Mr. Cunneen was defeated by only twenty-six votes. 



UETISS, HARLOW CLARKE (born in Utica, New York, 
November 6, 1858), is the son of Charles Gould Curtiss and 
Amelia Lent Main. He was graduated at Trinity College 
(Hartford, Connecticut), in 1881, with the degree of bache- 
lor of arts, studied law with Cleveland, Bissell & Sicard, of Buffalo, 
was admitted to the bar at Rochester, October 5, 1883, and in No- 
vember of the same year began practice in Buffalo, where he has since 
continued. 





jURTISS, JOHN DELEYAN (born in Frewsburg, Chautau- 
qua county, New York, April 13, 1858), is the son of Ed- 
ward J. and Elizabeth Eaton Curtiss. Both his parents 
died before he had completed his fifth year, leaving him 
without money and with practically no relatives or friends. He at- 
tended school in the winters and worked on a farm in the summers 
until the age of sixteen, when he received a teachers' certificate. He 
thereupon devoted himself to teaching during the winter season, con- 
tinuing to attend school in the spring and fall and to perform 
farm work during the summer. He thus was able, notwithstanding 
the great disadvantages of his early years, to obtain a very respect- 
able academic education, completing the course of study at the James- 
town Union School and Collegiate Institute. 

In 1880 he entered the law office of John G. Wicks, of Jamestown, 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 117 

and after three years of professional study he was admitted to the bar 
at Rochester, October 5, 1883. He soon afterward began practice at 
Jamestown, where he has continued to the present time, enjoying a 
large and successful business. 





JUTTING, CHARLES HENRY (born in Buffalo, New York, 
November 23, 1856), is the son of Thomas S. and Maria 
Barbour Cutting. He was educated in Buffalo, attend- 
ing Public School No. 18 and the Buffalo Central High 
School, studied law with his father, was admitted to the bar at Roch- 
ester, April 5, 1878, and since that date has been engaged in active 
practice at the Buffalo bar, chiefly as attorney for mercantile houses. 
He was for five years, from 1877 to 1882, a member of Company C, 
71th regiment, New York state national guard. 

Mr. Cutting's father, Thomas S. Cutting, was for twenty-five years 
a legal practitioner in Buffalo, well known and highly respected. He 
died in 1881. 

ALY, CHARLES PATRICK (born in New York City, Octo- 
ber 31, 1816), is descended from the ancient Irish family 
of O'Daly, of County Galway, his parents having emi- 
grated to New York from the north of Ireland in 1814. 
He was educated at a private school, and, early thrown upon his own 
resources by his father's death, obtained employment as a clerk at 
Savannah, Georgia, and a little later shipped before the mast. Three 
j ears of a sailor's life sufficing him, he returned to New York City 
and apprenticed himself to the trade of stationery manufacture. At 
the same time he pursued his studies and joined a debating society. 
His abilities in debate attracted the attention of William Soul£, who 
persuaded him to enter his law office. After three and a half years of 
legal study he was admitted to the bar, the rule of that clay requiring 
seven years of preparation being suspended for the occasion. 

Judge Daly formed a partnership with Thomas McElrath (who 
with Greeley founded the New York Tribune), and entered upon a 
successful practice. He was elected to the state legislature in 1813, 
refused a nomination for congress, and in 1811 was appointed by 
Governor Bouck to succeed Judge Inglis on the bench of the Court of 
Common Pleas. The constitution of 1816 making the judges elective, 
he was continued upon the bench by popular vote, and successively 
re-elected until his enforced retirement, December 30, 1885, having 
reached the constitutional limit of seventy years of age. His term of 
continuous service for forty-two years upon the same bench is perhaps 
only paralleled in the history of the judiciary of the United States in 
the case of Judge William Cranch, of Washington. 1 

1 Judge Cranch served the extraordinary term of titty-four years on the bench of the Circuit Court of the District 



118 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

In 1857 he succeeded Honorable Daniel P. Ingrahani as " chief- 
judge " of the court, this title of the presiding-justice being changed 
to " chief-justice " in 1871. 

A meeting of the bar of New York City was held, December 30, 
1S85, in testimonial to Chief-Justice Daly, upon his retirement, ex- 
President Arthur, David Dudley Field, William Allen Butler, Honor- 
able Eichard O'Gorman, and Honorable Richard L. Larremore mak- 
ing addresses, to which Mr. Daly responded. The gavel which he had 
so long wielded, encased in gold, was presented to him. Ten years 
later, December 30, 1895, Judge Daly was himself a chief participant 
in the meeting of the bar to commemorate the dissolution of the his- 
toric Court of Common Pleas, under the terms of the constitution of 
1894, consolidating the Superior Courts of cities with the Supreme 
Court of the state. He delivered an address, giving a historical ac- 
count of the court. From William Allen Butler's address, upon the 
retirement of Judge Daly, the following is extracted: 

To have served as associate-judge, first judge, and chief-justice of the Court 
of Common Pleas for the City and County of New York is to have held a fore- 
most place as a judicial officer in the commercial center of the nation, during 
the most eventful period in the history of our jurisprudence — a period marked 
by progress and reform, by the simplification of the methods of procedure, by 
the application of the principles of justice to all the new and unprecedented 
activities of the age, by the enlargement of the field of judicial cognizance and 
research through the aid of science and the inexhaustible energies of commerce, 
by the investiture of the courts of common law with the benignant powers of 
equitable jurisdiction, and by the unexampled advance of freedom and the 
rights of man. 

Very near to the people in its original and its appellate jurisdiction, this 
court has commanded the respect of the bench and the bar, by the character of 
its judges and the weight of their decisions, a respect largely due, as many of 
us can testify, to the personal probity, the undeviating courtesy, the ability, the 
industry and painstaking of the learned and accomplished jurist who for more 
than twoscore years has aided in its administration of justice, and for more than 
a quarter of a century been its presiding-judge. Standing thus as a represen- 
tative of the past as well as the present judicial system, we may well point to the 
chief-justice as an example of the best working of both, and as illustrating, in 
his person and career, the excellence of the judges we had when judges were 
appointed, and the excellence of the judges we have had since judges became 
elective ; while his protracted term certainly vindicates the wisdom of the pop- 
ular suffrage by which his long continuance in office has been secured. 

In i860 Judge Daly received the degree of doctor of laws from Co- 
lumbia College. He has delivered numerous addresses on public 
occasions and before learned bodies, has lectured at the Columbia 
College Law School, and for many years has beeu president of the 
American Geographical Society. Many of his decisions appear in 
the " Reports of Cases in the Court of Common Pleas, City and County 
of New York " (New York, 1S68-S7), compiled under his supervision. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YORK 119 

His published works include: " Historical Sketch of the Judicial Tri- 
bunals of New York, from 1623 to 1846 " (New York, 1855); " History 
of Naturalization and its Laws in Different Countries " (1860) ; 
"Are the Southern Privateersmen Pirates?" (1862); "Origin and 
History of Institutions for the Promotion of Useful Arts by Industrial 
Exhibitions " (Albany, 1864); " When was the Drama Introduced in 
America?" (1864); "First Settlement of Jews in North America" 
(1878); " The Jews of New York "; " What We Know of Maps and 
Map-making before the Time of Mercator " (1879); " The Ancient Feu- 
dal and the Modern Banking System Compared"; "History of the 
Surrogate's Court of New York"; "Barratry: Its Origin, History, 
and Meaning in the Maritime Law"; "History of Physical Geogra- 
phy "; " Have We a Portrait of Columbus? " " Is the Monroe Doctrine 
Involved in the Controversy between Venezuela and Great Britain? " 
" Wants of a Botauical Garden in New York "; " Biographical Sketch 
of Gulian C. Verplanck"; " Sketch of Henry Peters Gray, the Ar- 
tist "; " Biographical Sketch of Charles O'Conor." 




ALY, JOSEPH FRANCIS (born in Plymouth, North Caro- 
lina, December 3, 1840), is the son of Captain Denis Daly, of 
Limerick, Ireland, who while a youth received an appoint- 
ment as purser's clerk in the British navy, afterward built 
and sailed his own vessel in the merchant service, and finally settled 
in North Carolina as wharfinger, ship-owner, and merchant. His 
wife, whom he married in New York, July 31, 1834, was Elizabeth 
Therese (born March 9, 1812, in Montego Bay, Jamaica), daughter of 
Lieutenant John Duffey, of the British service, and Margaret Mori- 
arty, of Tralee. 

Judge Daly has resided in the City of New York since 1849. He 
began the study of tbe law with S. Weir and Bobert B. Roosevelt, and 
was admitted to the bar in May, 1862. From that time until his ele- 
vation to the bench, in May, 1870, he was actively engaged in prac- 
tice. Among his prominent and interesting cases were the prosecu- 
tions of public officials before the governor in 1865 ; injunctions 
against waste by municipal officers in Hecker vs. the Mayor, in Janu- 
ary, 1865, the first action of the kind 8 ; trials of public officials, inves- 
tigations of local departments, and a suit involving the constitution- 
ality of legislative appropriation of private wharf property for a 
canal district without compensation to owners (Roosevelt vs. God- 
ard). 3 

Together with Hamilton W. Robinson, Charles H. Van Brunt, and 
Richard L. Larremore, Judge Daly was elected to the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas, May 17, 1870, taking office July 1 of the same year. He 
has served as judge continuously since that time, having been re- 

1 19 Abbott's Practice Reports, 376. ' 18 Ibid., 3S9. 3 52 Barbour's Reports, 534. 



120 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

elected with Judge Larremore and Henry Wilder Allen in November, 
1884. In October, 1890, he was chosen chief-judge, and under the 
amended constitution of 1894 was transferred to the Supreme Court, 
January 1, 1896. 

Mr. Justice Daly has done a vast amount of editorial, critical, and 
miscellaneous writing, besides his judicial opinions, which are to be 
found in Daly's, Abbott's, Howard's, and the Miscellaneous Reports, 
the State Reporter, and the New York Supplement. He was married 
to Emma Robinson Barker, step-daughter of Judge Hamilton W. Rob- 
inson, November 19, 1873. She died in 1886, leaving three children. 
He was married again June 18, 1890, to Mary Louise, daughter of 
Edgar M. Smith. Judge Daly was one of the founders and incorpora- 
tors of the Flayers' Club, together with Edwin Booth, Augustin 
Daly (his brother), Lawrence Barrett, and others. He is president of 
the Catholic Club and a member of the Geographical Society, the 
New York Law Institute, the Southern Society, the Democratic Club, 
the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, the American Authors' Guild, the 
Board of Managers of the Roman Catholic Asylum, the advisory 
board of Saint Yincent's Hospital, and other societies. The degree 
of doctor of laws was conferred upon him in 1883 by Saint John's Col- 
lege, Fordham. 

ANFORTH, GEORGE LINTNER (born in Middleburgh, 
Schoharie county, New York, July 19, 1844), is a son of the 
distinguished Judge Peter S. Danforth (noticed below) and 
Aurelia, daughter of Reverend Doctor George A. Lintner, 
of Schoharie, New York. He received his preparatory education in a 
select school at Middleburgh and in Schoharie Academy, entered 
Rutgers College, and was graduated from that institution in the class 
of 1863 with the degree of bachelor of arts. Afterward his alma 
mater conferred upon him the degree of master of arts. He studied 
law under the direction of his father, and was admitted to the bar 
upon examination by the general term at Albany in September, 1865. 
Soon afterward he engaged in practice at Middleburgh, where he 
still resides. His career at the Schoharie county bar has been emi- 
nently successful, and he has also been identified in a conspicuous 
manner with the public, educational, and general affairs of his com- 
munity and with banking and railway interests of foremost local im- 
portance. 

Mr. Danforth, in 1886, held the position of president of the Village 
of Middleburgh, and he has served for six years as a trustee of that 
municipality. In 1894 and 1895 he was president of the board of edu- 
cation of the Middleburgh High School, and he has been connected 
with that body as a trustee for a period of seven years. He was a 
democratic delegate from the 17th senatorial district to the New 
York constitutional convention of 1S94. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 121 

He has taken a strong interest in historical investigations apper- 
taining to Schoharie county and that section of the state, has deliv- 
ered various lectures on historical subjects, and for seven years has 
been president of the Schoharie County Historical Society. 

For the past ten years Mr. Danforth has been identified with the 
1st National Bank of Middleburgh. He is also a member of the board 
of directors of the Middleburgh & Schoharie Railroad Company, and 
since 1892 has been treasurer of that corporation. 

On December 15, 1869, he married Anita Whitaker, of New York 
City. Their son, Pierre W. Danforth, is the publisher of the Middle- 
burgh Press. 




ANFOETH, PETEE SWAET (born in Middleburgh. Scho- 
harie county, New York, June 19, 1816; died there, July 18, 
1S92), was the son of George Danforth, a lawyer of Mid- 
dleburgh, who was born in Albany on the site of the pres- 
ent state capitol, and died in Savannah, Georgia, at the age of forty- 
one. The son at an early age became a student in Kinderhook Acad- 
emy, and at seventeen entered Union College, of which the famous 
Doctor Eliphalet Nott was then president. At this institution he 
made a highly creditable record. He was one of five in a class of 
one hundred and thirty-seven who were received into the Phi Beta 
Kappa Society. He was graduated in 1S37. Among his classmates 
were the late Judge John K. Porter, Reverend Phineas Gurley, D.D., 
of Washington, D. G; Edward Tuckerman, formerly professor in 
Amherst College; Reverend Mr. House, the distinguished missionary, 
and Owen T. Coffin, for eighteen years surrogate of Westchester 
county. 

Mr. Danforth began the study of law in the office of Robert Mc- 
Clellan, member of congress from the Schoharie district, and later 
studied for a year under the celebrated Marcus T. Reynolds, of Al- 
bany. Admitted to the bar at Albany on January 1, 1810, he began 
practice at Middleburgh with Judge Lyman Sanford, with whom he 
remained associated for sixteen years. In 1845 he was appointed dis- 
trict attorney for Schoharie county, a position which he retained for 
three years. In 1854 and 1855 he represented Delaware and Scho- 
harie counties in the state senate. In that body he delivered a not- 
able speech, in April, 1855, upon the engrossing question of internal 
improvements, advocating the policy of retrenchment. 

For a long period he was prominently identified with the state 
militia, being judge advocate of the 18th brigade for fourteen years. 
Always a democrat in politics, he was conspicuous among the " war 
democracy " during the rebellion, took an active part in raising regi- 
ments for the union army, and contributed generously for that pur- 
pose from his private means. He was active in the sanitary commis- 



122 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

sion, and served as one of the four commissioners-at-large appointed 
by the State of New York. 

In 1872 lie was appointed by Governor Hoffman a justice of the 
Supreme Court. He retired from this office in 1874. 

Judge Danforth was warmly interested throughout his life in re- 
ligious, educational, and benevolent work and institutions. He was 
a communicant of the Dutch Reformed Church, and was frequently 
a representative in its general synod, serving on its most important 
committees. He gave special attention to Sunday-school matters, 
and during a visit to England delivered numerous addresses in con- 
nection with the Robert Raikes centenary. For fourteen years he 
held the position of trustee of the Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton. 

He was married October 10, 1S39, to Aurelia Lintner, only daugh- 
ter of Reverend Doctor George A. Lintner, of Schoharie. Three chil- 
dren were born of this marriage: — George Lintner Danforth (noticed 
above); Elliot Danforth, a lawyer in New York City, and Cornelia 
S., wife of Doctor Isaac W. Ferris, son of the late Chancellor Ferris, of 
the New York University. 



'ANIELS, CHARLES (born in New York City, in the month 
of March, 1824 or 1825), is of Welsh descent. He was born 
in obscurity and poverty, was left an orphan when very 
young, and his earliest recollections are of hard work for 
his daily bread, first on farms in Ontario county and after that learn- 
ing and following the trade of shoemaker. His educational oppor- 
tunities were confined to a part of two terms in district schools and 
part of one term in an academy. About the age of seventeen he 
strolled one day into the courtroom at Canandaigua and listened to 
an eloquent address delivered to a jury by Mark H. Sibley. This made 
a profound impression on him, and he resolved to become a lawyer. 
Removing to Buffalo in 1842 he reduced his living expenses to $2 a 
week, spending the remainder for books, which he studied industri- 
ously at night and while at work on the shoemaker's bench. He se- 
cured his admission to the bar in 1840, being specially favored as to 
time by the late Chief-Justice Nelson, who presided over the court 
before which he was examined. He thereupon formed a legal co- 
partnership with Honorable Eli Cook, afterward mayor of Buffalo, 
which continued until 1852. From that time until his elevation to the 
bench of the Supreme Court he practiced alone, constantly gaining 
in reputation as one of the most able, as well as one of the most 
learned and most industrious, members of the profession. 

In 1SG3 Mr. Daniels was nominated and elected to the office of jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court of the state. He retained that position for 
twenty-eight consecutive years, also serving during the year 1809 as 
a member of the Court of Appeals. While still ou the Supreme bench 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 123 

he was nominated by the republican party as its candidate for a full 
term as Court of Appeals judge, but was defeated. 

The long career of Judge Daniels in the Supreme Court was marked 
throughout by the highest conscientiousness, integrity,' and capac- 
ity. It is fully recognized that a judge more honest, more devoted to 
duty and more generally correct in his decisions has never sat in the 
higher tribunals of this state. He was rarely overruled, and some of 
his decisions are justly celebrated. Upon his retirement from the 
bench very flattering tributes were paid to him by the profession and 
the judiciary. A reception in his honor was tendered by the Associa- 
tion of the Bar of the City of New York, at which the justices of the 
United States Supreme Court, the federal justices for the 2d circuit, 
and the justices of the State Supreme Court were present. 

Judge Daniels has taken a hearty interest in the affairs of the City 
of Buffalo, where he resides, and has been especially prominent in the 
promotion of improvements for the harbor and for public buildings. 

Since he left the bench he has served four years in congress as a 
republican representative. In the 54th congress he was chairman 
of the committee on elections. 




AVIS, NOAH (born in Haverhill, New Hampshire, Septem- 
ber 10, 1818), received his early education in the public 
schools of Albion, New York, whither his parents had re- 
moved in 1825, and at a seminary in Lima. Studying law, 
he was admitted to the bar in 1841, and began practice in the Village 
of Gaines and later in Buffalo. In 1844 he returned to Albion, form- 
ing a partnership with Honorable Sanford E. Church, which con- 
tinued for fourteen years. At the end of that period, in March, 1857, 
Mr. Davis was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court, and was 
subsequently elected to succeed himself. 

In November, 1868, however, he resigned from the bench to accept 
the seat in congress to which he had been elected on the republican 
ticket. After serving from March 4, 1869, to July 20, 1870, he re- 
signed from the house of representatives to accept an appointment by 
President Grant as United States attorney for the southern district 
of New York. This office he also resigned, December 31, 1872, hav- 
ing been elected a justice of the Supreme Court of New York for the 
1st judicial district. He served with distinction upon the bench in 
New York City until his retirement at the end of his term, in Janu- 
ary, 1887, at which time a committee of members of the New York 
bar presented a portrait of him by Daniel Huntington to the Supreme 
Court. Judge Davis said at the time: " It is my nature to form strong 
convictions, and sometimes I express them too strongly, but neither 
by speech nor silence have I ever designed to injure any suitor or his 
counsel. In searching the record of my judicial life I can find no 



124 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

entry that I ever decided any cause or matter contrary to iny then 
convictions of right." 

Two interesting trials before Judge Davis were those of Edward 
Stokes for the murder of Fisk, and William M. Tweed, indicted on 
twelve counts for malfeasance in office. The penalty for Tweed's of- 
fense was imprisonment for a year, but in order to punish him more 
severely Judge Davis made the sentence cumulative, inflicting the full 
penalty of a year's imprisonment for each of the twelve counts of the 
indictment. In the Court of Appeals, two years later, this cumulative 
sentence Avas set aside as contrary to law. Judge Davis and Charles 
O'Conor (who had prosecuted Tweed) thereupon indulged in severe 
strictures upon the justices of the Court of Appeals, and much feeling 
was exhibited. 

In 1874 Judge Davis became presiding-justice of the Supreme Court 
of the 1st judicial district, holding the position until his retirement 
from the bench. 




ECKER, GEORGE HENRY (born in Branchport, Yates 
county, Xew York, April 23, 1842), is the son of William H. 
Decker and Lucy Caroline, daughter of Benjamin Durham. 
In the paternal line he is of Dutch descent, and is in the 
sixth generation of the Decker family in this country. His maternal 
grandfather emigrated from England and purchased a large tract of 
land in Yates county, which is still in the family. George H. Decker 
attended district school and prepared for college at the Genesee Wes- 
leyan Seminary (Lima, New York), and was graduated in the classi- 
cal coiirse in 1866 from Hamilton College, which in 1869 conferred 
upon him the degree of master of arts. After his graduation he 
taught in the Wallkill Academy at Middletown, for one year, when he 
resigned and commenced the study of law with Franklin & Morris, of 
Penn Yan. In September, 1888, he returned to the Walkill Acad- 
emy as its principal. In this position he continued until June, 1870, 
meantime completing his legal studies under the tuition of James N. 
Pronk, of Middletown. In May, 1870, he was admitted to the bar at 
the general term at Poughkeepsie. Resigning his principalship in 
the academy, he entered upon the practice of his profession at Mid- 
dletown, where he has continued to the present time. 

Mr. Decker has gained a prominent position at the Middletown bar. 
He has been connected with numerous cases of local importance, note- 
worthily one involving the constitutionality of a portion of the char- 
ter of the City of Middletown, which affected also nearly every other 
village and city charter in the state. His contentions in this case 
were sustained by the courts. 

He has held the offices of city clerk of Middletown for one year, and 
corporation counsel for two terms. He has for sixteen years been a 
member of the local board of education, serving as its president for 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 125 

two years. He has also for three years been secretary of the board 
of managers of the New York State Homoeopathic Hospital for the 
Insane at Midclletown. 

EMAREST, ABRAM ACKERMAN (born in Nanuet, Rock- 
land county, New York, October 27, 1831), is the son of 
Abrani J. Demarest and Jane Ackerman. He is of French 
Huguenot ancestry on his father's side, and of Holland de- 
scent on his mother's. His early education was received at the public 
schools at Nanuet, and in the spring of 1850 he was graduated from 
the State Normal School at Albany. From January 1, 1857, to Janu- 
ary 1, I 869, he occupied the office of county clerk of Rockland county. 
During this period he studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 
Brooklyn in 1871, and began practice in Nyack, Rockland county, 
where he has continued to the present time. In the years 1885, 18S6, 
and 18S7 he was district attorney of Rockland county. 

Sir. Demarest was one of the early and most active promoters of 
the Rockland Central Railroad, being a director of the company and 
its attorney. This road, which required about ten years for its com- 
pletion, was consolidated with the Ridgefield Park Railroad under 
the name of the Jersey City & Albany Railroad, and later was sold to 
and became a part of the West Shore. 




j|EPEW, CHAUNCEY MITCHELL (born in Peekskill, New 
York, April 23, 1834), is of Huguenot descent on his father's 
side and of New England descent through his mother. He 
was prepared for college at Peekskill, was graduated from 
Yale College with honors in 1856, studied law with Honorable Will- 
iam Nelson, of Peekskill, and was admitted to the bar in 1858. The 
same year he was elected a delegate to the republican state conven- 
tion, having been active in connection with the republican party dur- 
ing the two years of his legal study. He began the practice of law, 
but did not cease his political activity, canvassing the state for Lin- 
coln in 1860. In 1861 he was elected to the assembly from the 3d 
district of Westchester county, and re-elected the following year, 
during which he was chairman of the committee on ways and means 
and frequently acted as speaker. In 1863 he was the successful re- 
publican candidate for secretary of state. He declined a re-nomina- 
tion for this office in 1865, and removed to New York City, where he 
was soon appointed tax commissioner. President Johnson had made 
out the papers for Mr. Depew's appointment as collector of the port 
of New York, but a rupture between the president and Honorable 
Edwin D. Morgan led to a change of plan. Appointed United States 
minister to Japan by Secretary of State Seward, Mr. Depew resigned 
after holding the commission a few weeks. 

Mr. Depew early abandoned the regular practice of law to devote 



126 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

himself to the general management of the affairs of a great corpora- 
tion. In 1866 he was appointed attorney for the New York & Harlem 
Railroad Company. Upon the consolidation of the New York Central 
and Hudson River Railroad companies, in 1869, he was made general 
counsel. Subsequently he became a director. In 1875 he was ap- 
pointed general counsel of the entire Yanderbilt system, and elected 
a director of each company composing it. Upon the re-organization 
in 18S2 he was elected 1st vice-president of the New York Central, 
and he succeeded James H. Rutter as president of this road and the 
West Shore, June 14, 1885. These positions he has held ever since. 

Contemporaneously with his business activity, Mr. Depew has re- 
tained his strong interest in politics. In 1872 he was the candidate 
for lieutenant-governor of New York on the ticket of the liberal 
republicans who had nominated Greeley for president. In 1871 the 
legislature appointed him a regent of the State University, and he has 
held this office ever since. His name was before the legislature eighty- 
two days for election to the United States senate in 1881, when Sena- 
tors Conkling and Piatt had sought to embarrass President Garfield 
by their resignations. He was the leading candidate, and failed of 
election by but ten votes on joint ballot. After the assassination of 
President Garfield he withdrew, feeling " that the senatorial con- 
tests should be brought to a close as decently and speedily as pos- 
sible." In 1881, with a two-thirds republican majority in the legis- 
lature, he was offered the United States senatorship, but declined. 
In 1888, in the national republican convention, he received the solid 
vote of the delegation of this state for the presidency. Diverting his 
strength to Benjamin Harrison, the latter was nominated. In the 
national convention of 1892 he was one of the leaders who secured 
Harrison's re-nomination, as opposed to Mr. Blaine. Mr. Depew re- 
fused the appointment as secretary of state to succeed Blaine offered 
him by President Harrison. 

As an orator and after-dinner speaker Mr. Depew enjoys a national 
reputation. Since 1872 he has been a trustee of Yale College, and in 
1887 received the degree of doctor of laws from that institution. He 
is president of the New York Society of the Sons of the American 
Revolution, and of the Saint Nicholas Society, for seven years was 
president of the Union League Club, for ten years president of the 
Yale Alumni of New York City, and is a member of the Holland So- 
cietv of New York and the Husnienot Society of America. 



E WITT, JEROME (born in Nicholson, Wyoming county, 
Pennsylvania, February 15, 1815), is the son of Evi De Witt, 
a descendant of the Dutch De Witt family, and Anne E. 
Wilson, of English birth and ancestry. He was educated 
at home by his mother, in the public schools and at academies in Sus- 




HISTOEY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 127 

quehanna county, Pennsylvania. He received his professional train- 
ing at Binghanrton, in the law offices of William Barrett, Honorable 
Horace S. Griswold, and Honorable Benjamin N. Loomis, and also 
was a student for one year in the law department of the University 
of Michigan. On February 9, 1871, he was admitted to the bar at 
Albany, and has since been in continuous practice at Binghamton, 
where he has become prominent in his profession and as a citizen. 
For about twelve years, ending in May, 1S95, he held the position of 
treasurer of the Binghamton State Hospital. 




flEXTEB, SEYMOUR (born in the Town of Independence, 
Allegany county, New York, March 20, 1S41), is the son of 
Daniel Dexter, a successful farmer, born in Herkimer 
county, New York, and Angeline Briggs Dexter, born in 
Yates county, New York. He is a lineal descendant of Reverend 
Gregory Dexter, an associate of Roger Williams in the Providence 
plantations. Young Dexter attended district school, and at the age 
of fourteen entered Alfred Academy, where he studied for two win- 
ter terms. He then entered Alfred University, but at the breaking 
out of the war left his books to enter the army. On April 27, 1861, 
lie enlisted in Company K., 23d regiment, New York state volunteers. 
At the end of his two years' term of service he was mustered out with 
the rank of corporal, and returned to college, being graduated in 
1861 with the degree of bachelor of arts. The literary degree of 
Ph.D. has since been conferred upon him. 

Selecting the legal profession, he went to Elmira in the fall of 
1864 and entered the office of James L. Woods. In May, 1866, he 
was admitted to the bar at the general term in Binghamton. He 
then became managing clerk for George M. Diven, and after a year 
in this capacity he formed a partnership with Robert T. Turner, to 
which E. C. Van Duzer was later admitted. The firm of Turner, Dex- 
ter & Van Duzer soon commanded a prosperous business and took a 
high rank at the state bar. 

In the spring of 1872 Mr. Dexter was appointed city attorney of 
Elmira, and in the fall of the same year he was elected to the assem- 
bly, being the only republican chosen to that office in Chemung couuty 
from 1866 to 1883. Declining a re-nomination the next year, he con- 
tinued his legal practice until the 1st of January, 1S78, when he as- 
sumed the office of county judge and surrogate of Chemung county, 
to which he had been elected the previous fall on the republican 
ticket. At the close of his term he was re-elected. He remained on 
the bench until July, 1S89, when he resigned to accept the presidency 
and active management of the 2d National Bank of Elmira, a 
position which he still occupies. Upon his retirement from the bench 



128 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

a banquet was tendered liini by the county bar and highly compli- 
mentary resolutions were adopted. 

Judge Dexter has won a high reputation in the management of 
the banking institution of which he is the head. His inclination and 
capacity for financial concerns had previously been displayed in his 
administration of the affairs of the Chemung Valley Mutual Loan 
Association, of which he has been president since its organization 
in 1875. This association now has assets of nearly f700,000, and 
has been a very important factor in the promotion of thrift and sub- 
stantial citizenship in Elmira. During the past ten years Judge 
Dexter has devoted especial attention to the cultivation of general 
interest in local building and loan enterprises. He was one of the 
chief promoters of the New York State League of Co-operative Sav- 
ings and Building Loan Associations (being its president for three 
terms), organized the United States League, and was its president 
for two years, and was the organizer and presiding officer of the 
world's congress of building and loan associations at the Columbian 
exposition. He was the proposer of the motto of the United States 
League, " The American Home the Safeguard of American Liber- 
ties," which is now printed on all the literature of local associations 
in the United States. He is the author of a standard work on this 
subject, " Dexter's Treatise on Co-operative Savings and Loan Asso- 
ciations," published by the Appletons in 18S9. 

He has also been actively interested throughout life in all economic 
and public questions, and has contributed considerably to their dis- 
cussion. In 1890 he delivered an address on " The Economic Value 
of Local Building and Loan Associations " before the American Eco- 
nomic Association, and in 1892 he discussed the subject of " Compul- 
sory Arbitration " before the American Social Science Association at 
Saratoga Springs. He has delivered other addresses of importance, 
was for three years a lecturer on political economy before the ad- 
vanced classes of the Elmira Reformatory, and has been a contributor 
of articles to the magazines and the press. 

Judge Dexter has not practiced law since he took his place on the 
bench in 1S78, although he consented in a few instances to serve as 
counsel before resigning the office of county judge and surrogate; 
since then his time has been given to the active management of the 
bank. He is now president of the New York State Bankers' Asso- 
ciation. 

He has been, and is still, prominent in various institutions. He is 
a trustee of Elmira College and Alfred University. He was conspic- 
uously identified with the Soldiers and Sailors' Home, drew all the 
bills relating to that institution until it was turned over to the state, 
and was chairman of its ways and means committee while its build- 
ings were being erected. He was one of the charter members of 
Baldwin Post, G. A. R., and has been judge advocate of the state de- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 129 

partment of that organization. He has been a member of Park 
Church, Elmira, from the time he was a law student, sustaining an 
active connection with its Sunday-school work, and a close friend 
of its eminent pastor, Reverend T. K. Beecher. 

Judge Dexter was married, June 17, 1868, to Eleanor E. Weaver, 
daughter of Ebenezer Weaver, of Leonardsville, Madison county, 
New York. They have four living children, two sons and two daugh- 
ters. 




1EYO, ISRAEL TRIPP (born on a farm in the Town of Union, 
Broome county, New York, January 28, 1S54), is the son 
of Richard Deyo and Caroline Ackert (or Eckert). His 
father was born in Ghent, Columbia county, New York, 
in 1819, and was of French Huguenot stock, a lineal descendant of 
the original Ulster county patentee. His mother was of German pa- 
rentage. He attended the district school and Binghamton High 
School, being graduated from the latter with the valedictory, in 1875. 
In the fall of the same year he entered Amherst College, from which 
institution he was graduated in 1879 with the degree of bachelor of 
arts. His legal studies were pursued mainly in the office of D. H. 
Carver, of Binghamton. He was admitted to the bar at the general 
term at Albany in January, 1883, and has practiced at Binghamton 
since that date, for the past ten years as a member of the firm of Car- 
ver, Deyo & Jenkins. 

This firm, of which Mr. Deyo's old preceptor is the head, has for 
several years been connected with much of the important litigation 
arising in Binghamton and that part of the state. It effected a com- 
promise with the creditors of the Lester Shoe Company, which failed 
in 1892 with liabilities aggregating more than half a million. 
Through it was brought about the re-organization of the Chenango 
V alley Savings Bank, which became insolvent in 1895. Carver, Deyo 
& Jenkins are attorneys for various local banks, including the Strong 
State Bank, the People's Bank, and the Chenango Valley Savings 
Bank, are general attorneys for the Security Mutual Life Association, 
and similarly represent many other corporations. 

Mr. Deyo is prominent and well-known in republican politics. He 
served in the state legislature in 1890, 1891, 1892, and 1893, declining 
a re-nomination. During his service he was a member of some of 
the most important committees of the assembly, and one of the repub- 
lican leaders of the house. In April, 1894, he was appointed by Gov- 
ernor Flower on the commission to investigate the charges preferred 
against the managers of the State Reformatory at Elmira. The re- 
port of this commission was submitted to the governor in December 
of that year, and is a valuable contribution to the literature of the 
times bearing upon the treatment of criminals, particularly in rela- 
tion to the Elmira Reformatory system. 




130 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

ILL, CHARLES G. (born in Middletown, New York, March 
9, 1839), is the son of Charles Dill, born in Little Britain, 
Orange county, New York, in 1799, and Apphia C. Dill, born 
near Middletown in 1801. He received a common school 
and academic education, being graduated at the Wallkill Academy 
(Middletown) in 1856. He studied for the legal profession in the law 
department of the University of Albany, and also in the office of Wil- 
kin & McQuoid, of Middletown, and was admitted to the bar at Al- 
bany, May 13, 1861. He has since pursued a general practice at Mid- 
dletown, in which he has enjoyed marked success. 




ILLON, JOHN FORREST (born in Northampton, Montgom- 
ery county, New York, December 25, 1831), is the son of 
Thomas Dillon and Rosanna Forrest, and grandson of Tim- 
othy Dillon, of the ancient Irish family of Dillon. When he 
was seven years of age his parents removed to Iowa, then a sparsely 
settled territory. He attended the public schools, and, entering the 
medical department of the Iowa University, was graduated three 
years later and practiced medicine for six months. Believing he had 
been unwise in the choice of a profession, he supported himself by 
engaging in business as a druggist and began the study of law. He 
was admitted to the bar in 1852. 

After practicing law a few months he was elected prosecuting at- 
torney of Scott county, Iowa. Declining re-nomination, he formed a 
legal partnership and engaged in a successful practice which gave 
him local reputation. In 1858 he was elected judge of the 7th judicial 
district of Iowa, embracing four counties, and was re-elected at the 
solicitation of the bar of the district. During this period he prepared 
his first legal work, a digest of Iowa Reports, the fruit of careful 
study of the decisions of the Iowa Supreme Court. During his sec- 
ond term as district judge he was elected to the Supreme Court of 
the state by the republican party and served his term of six years, 
dating from January 1, 1863, a part of the time as chief-justice. He 
was re-elected in 1869, but before he had qualified was appointed by 
President Grant United States circuit judge of the 8th judicial cir- 
cuit, embracing the States of Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri, 
Kansas, Arkansas, and (eventually) Colorado. He had already ac- 
cumulated materials for his notable work on " Municipal Corpora- 
tions " (Chicago, 1872), and being under contract to the publishers, 
completed it with the help of his gifted wife, Anna M., daughter of 
Honorable Hiram Price, of Davenport, Iowa. During his ten years 
as circuit judge (1869-1879) he also founded and himself for one year 
edited the Central Law Journal; published " Removal of Causes from 
State to Federal Courts " (1875), and " Municipal Bonds " (1876); each 
winter delivered lectures on medical jurisprudence before the stu- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 131 

dents of the Iowa State University, and prepared five volumes of 
" United States Circuit Court Reports " (1871-80), largely made up 
of his own decisions. 

In September, 1879, Judge Dillon removed with his family (two 
sons and two daughters) to New York City to accept the professor- 
ship of real estate and equity jurisprudence in Columbia College Law 
School and the position of general counsel to the Union Pacific Rail- 
way Company. In 1881 he formed a partnership with General Wager 
Swayne (which was dissolved in 1893), and in 1882 resigned his profes- 
sorship in Columbia College, giving his attention entirely to practice 
in New York City. He has argued notable cases in the Court of Ap- 
peals, including the Arcade Railway cases and the cause of the prop- 
erty-holders in connection with the new parks acquired by New York 
City. He also enjoys a large practice in the United States Supreme 
Court. He argued, among others, the express cases in that court, the 
Boyd-Thayer contest for the governorship of Nebraska, the quo-war- 
ranto case of the State of Kansas agamst the Kansas Pacific and Union 
Pacific railroad companies, in\ olving the title to the Missouri Pacific 
Railway, and the Texas Railway Commission case. He was also senior 
counsel for the defense in the trials of the unique case of Laidlaw vs. 
Sage, growing out of the exploding of a bomb by the dynamiter Nor- 
cross. He is standing counsel of such important interests as the 
Union Pacific Railway system, Missouri Pacific system, Western 
Union Telegraph Company, Manhattan Railway Company, Texas & 
Pacific Railway Company, Keweenaw Association (Limited), and the 
estates of James C. Ayer, Sidney Dillon, and Jay Gould. 

Judge Dillon is a member of the association for the reform and 
codification of the law of nations, and attended its third annual con- 
ference in Europe. He is also one of two Americans who are among 
the forty members of the Institute de Droit International. He was one 
of the commissioners appointed by Governor Morton to prepare a 
charter for " Greater New York." Judge Dillon's work on " Munic- 
ipal Corporations " reached the fourth edition in 1890, and his " Re- 
moval of Causes " the third edition in 1881. He is also author of 
" Laws and Jurisprudence of England and America " (1891), and nu- 
merous addresses. In 1891-92 he was " Storrs " professor of munici- 
pal law in Yale University, and in 1892 was elected president of the 
American Bar Association. The famous work on " Municipal Corpo- 
rations " has been characterized (by Mr. Irving Browne in the Albany 
Law Journal) as " a legal classic, a work that will live alongside of 
Kent and Story and Washburn and Parsons and Greenleaf, when 
nearly all the other books of the past decade are quite forgotten." 




132 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

ITTENHOEFEE, ABEAM JESSE (born in Charleston, 
South Carolina, March 17, 1836), is the son of Isaac and 
Babetta Dittenhoefer, both natives of Germany, who came 
to this country in 1834, settling at Baltimore, removing 
thence to Charleston, and in 1840 to New York City, where Isaac Dit- 
tenhoefer became a prominent merchant. Judge Dittenhoefer at- 
tended the public schools of New York, the Columbia College Gram- 
mar School, and Columbia College, where he received first prizes in 
Latin and Greek. At the age of twenty-one he was admitted to the 
New York bar, and at once entered upon a successful practice. 

As a lawyer, Judge Dittenhoefer has been conspicuous in litiga- 
tions relating to the dramatic stage, and is recognized as an authority 
in that branch of the law. He procured the incorporation of the be- 
nevolent institution, the Actors' Fund, and has since been its counsel 
without compensation. While successful in stage litigations, he has 
also been active in every other branch of the law, appearing as coun- 
sel in many commercial and corporation cases. He is at present coun- 
sel for the Lincoln National Bank, the Franklin National Bank, and 
the Mercantile Credit Guarantee Company. He has also been re- 
tained in important criminal cases. Years ago he was appointed one 
of its counsel by the board of aldermen indicted for granting permits 
to encumber the streets with newspaper-stands, and succeeded in 
quashing the indictment. He was counsel for the old excise commis- 
sioners, Doctor Merkle, Richard Harrison, and Murphy, indicted for 
an infraction of the law, and succeeded in obtaining a verdict of ac- 
quittal. In the more recent indictments against the excise commis- 
sioners, Meakim, Fitzpatrick, and Koch, he was one of the leading 
counsel for the commissioners, and after years of litigation the 
indictments were dismissed on a motion argued by him. 

Judge Dittenhoefer identified himself with the republican party in 
its infancy. He served as chairman of the German republican cen- 
tral committee for twelve consecutive terms. At the age of twenty- 
two he was the unsuccessful candidate of the republican party for 
justice of the City Court, but some years later was appointed by Gov- 
ernor Fenton to the bench of that court, to fill the vacancy caused by 
the death of Honorable Florence McCarthy. In 1860 he was a repub- 
lican elector. President Lincoln offered him the position of United 
States judge for the district of South Carolina, his native state, but 
he declined, being unwilling to abandon his practice in New York. 
He was a delegate to the republican convention that nominated Presi- 
dent Hayes. Judge Dittenhoefer was married in 1858. His son, Irv- 
ing Mead Dittenhoefer, is a lawyer, a partner with his father. 




o 



M.B 



^A>J^v^ 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 133 

IVEN, ALEXANDEE SAMUEL.— To recall to the memory 
and review the career of General A. S. Diven, with a brev- 
ity and conciseness suitable for these pages, is embarrass- 
ing and unsatisfactory to the person who undertakes it. 
His long life of more than eighty-seven years was so full, that a mere 
recapitulation of what he accomplished would more than occupy the 
space allotted, and to set forth only one phase would be unjust to his 
memory. He excelled as a statesman, a lawyer, a soldier, and a busi- 
ness man, making such a record in each one of these lines of endeavor 
as alone would have satisfied the ambition of most men. 

General Diven belongs by ancestry, birth, and residence to New 
York state and its history. He was born within its borders, on the 
beautiful hills near the head of Seneca Lake and not far from the 
famous Watkins Glen, on February 10, 1809. His ancestors were 
of Irish and English extraction. His direct ancestor, from whom he 
gets one of his Christian names, Alexander Diven, came from " sweet 
Tyrone among the bushes," and settled in the valley of the Cumber- 
land, where many of his descendants now dwell. His wife, Margaret, 
was English. 

General Diven's father was John Diven, a patriot soldier of the 
Eevolution, who rose from the ranks to be a captain. After the war 
he became interested in the Duncan Islands in the Susquehanna river, 
near Northumberland, Pennsylvania, but losing them by some an- 
cient flaw in the title, he removed, in 1799, to what is now Schuyler 
county, New York. The farm that he bought, cleared, and long oc- 
cupied, is on the hills west of the Village of Watkins, and is still in 
the possession of the family. He was the first postmaster in that 
locality. John Diven's second wife was Eleanor Means. Her family 
was among the sufferers in the Wyoming valley in the massacre of 
1777. A small child then, with some of the survivors she had a thrill- 
ing escape, fled down the Susquehanna and settled near Northum- 
berland. She became the mother of General Diven. He was the only 
son by this marriage, besides him three daughters having been born 
into the family. Two of these, Eleanor and Charlotte, lived unmar- 
ried on the old homestead, to an advanced age. John Diven died in 
1842 at the age of eighty-six. 

General Diven's education, obtained by his own exertions, was 
completed at the academies in Penn Yan and Ovid. When twenty- 
one years of age he went to Elmira and studied law in the office of 
Judge Hiram Gray, at the same time teaching school. He was also 
at different times in the offices of Fletcher Haight in Kochester and 
Judge J. M. Parker in Owego, conducting for a few months the county 
clerk's office in the latter place. He chose for his residence the then 
promising little town of Angelica, in Allegany county, to which 
place he removed in the spring of 1833. He was licensed as an attor- 
ney on July 15, 1830, as counselor on May 12, 1S37, and as solicitor 



134 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

on May 16, 1837, and was admitted to practice in the United States 
District and Circuit Courts on March 18, 1812. In Angelica he formed 
a partnership, lasting only a year and a half, however, with George 
Miles, a lawyer of commanding ability and large practice, who sub- 
sequently removed to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and became a justice 
of the Supreme Court of that state. For four years, from 1838 to 1812, 
General Diven served, by appointment, as district attorney of Alle- 
gany county. In 1815 he returned to Elmira, taking up his residence 
on " Willow Brook farm," a short distance from the city, a beautifully 
located spot, that ever after, except for a brief period, was his home. 
The next year he formed a partnership with Colonel Samuel G. Hath- 
away and James L. Woods, under the firm name of Diven, Hathaway 
& Woods. It speedily became the leadiug law firm of all that section 
of the state, continuing until July, 1861, when it was dissolved and 
General Diven formed a partnership with his son under the firm name 
of A. S. & G. M. Diven. This connection was in existence until the 
fall of 1865, when General Diven relinquished entirely the practice 
of his profession. 

During the height of his career as a lawyer was the period when 
there was intense activity in railroad construction. His industry, 
ability, and business sagacity drew him within the influence of this 
activity and absorbed much of his energy. Largely through his in- 
strumentality that great thoroughfare of the southern tier, the New 
York & Erie Railroad, was completed. From 1813 onward, for more 
than ten years, he helped to carry it safely through its early snug- 
gles for existence. He was the commissioner to obtain the right of 
way for it, and with his firm managed the legal business of the wes- 
tern end of the line. He had, too, a large part in its practical con- 
struction. Afterward, in 1862, when it again fell into financial straits, 
he was made a director of the company and theu its vice-president. 
He served in that capacity up to 1872, and during most of these years 
resided in New York City. 

Many other lines of railroad had the benefit of General Diven's sa- 
gacity and energy. He was interested and largely instrumental in 
the construction of the several lines of road that now make up the 
Northern Central Railway, that connects Philadelphia with tlie New 
York Central at Canandaigua, a line running through Elmira, and 
also its continuation to Niagara Falls. He was the active partner in a 
firm that constructed a large portion of the main line of the Missouri 
Pacific road and had nearly completed what was then known as its 
southwest branch when the war broke out and all operations thereon 
ceased. With one of his sons in the early seventies lie built the road 
from Carbondale, Pennsylvania, to near Susquehanna, and soon after- 
ward constructed a portion of the New York & Canada Railroad, 
along the west shore of Lake Champlain, both now operated by the 
Delaware & Hudson Canal Company. This closed General Diven's 
active business career. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 135 

General Diven was always interested in the politics of his country, 
"but never a politician in the ordinary acceptance of the term. He 
cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson at his first election, and was 
an earnest democrat until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 
He was a candidate for the assembly from Allegany county in 1843, 
and again in Chemung county in 1854. He neither desired nor had 
he solicited these nominations, and his time was so fully engrossed 
with his extended legal business that he scarcely thought of or at- 
tended to them. He was not elected in either instance. In the great 
contest of 1840 he took the stump for the democratic ticket and 
worked with zeal and energy for its success. 

General Diven was opposed to the institution of slavery, but recog- 
nized its constitutional protection, and believed it should be restricted 
to the states where it existed, but prohibited in the territories and 
not allowed in any new state. With such views he became one of 
the founders of the republican party and canvassed all of the south- 
western counties of the state in the Fremont campaign of 1856. "While 
he was engaged in his extensive railroad operations in Missouri in 
1857, without his knowledge and against his consent, he was nomi- 
nated for the New York state senate, and although absent from home 
during most of the canvass, was elected by a very handsome majority. 
He was very prominent in the body of which he was a member, intro- 
ducing resolutions and advocating the national policy of his party, 
with persistent energy and eloquence. In 1858 his name was before 
the republican state convention as a caudidate for lieutenant-gover- 
nor. But it was presented by the radical wing of the party, and that 
element being much the lighter, greatly to his satisfaction he was 
not nominated. In 1859, his name, without solicitation on his part, 
was again before the state convention, for judge of the Court of Ap- 
peals. But. he was opposed because of a report made by him in the 
senate against a so-called " personal liberty bill," and the nomination 
went elsewhere. But the next year, in 1800, he was nominated for 
congress, took an active part in the canvass, and received a large ma- 
jority of the votes of his district. He speedily became one of the 
strongest men on the floor of the house. In the newspapers of the 
period he is referred to as " one of the ablest men in congress, as well 
as one of the purest and most patriotic." He was the first to intro- 
duce resolutions for the employment of negroes in the army. Three 
of his speeches are worthy to stand with the best political literature 
of the house, and at the time attracted wide attention and comment. 
In one he contended that it was impossible to put an end to the war 
by legislation, and pleaded the necessity for its prosecution for the 
purpose for which it was undertaken — the preservation of the union 
— solely. He " stood by " Lincoln. In another he inveighed forcibly 
against the " confiscation bill," arguing that congress had no power 
over the property of individuals by virtue of the laws of war. But 



136 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

probably his best speech, grounded on the very highest order of 
statesmanship, and one that created great excitement throughout 
the country, was one in favor of the surrender to the English of Ma- 
son and Slidell. It was considered at the time, and deservedly, to be 
the best exposition of the reasons for the policy that ultimately pre- 
vailed in the unfortunate incident. 

In the summer of 1862, while yet a member of congress, General 
Diven rose from his seat and after a stirring and patriotic speech, 
which in the then condition of our country thrilled every one who 
heard it, asked for leave of absence to go home and raise a regiment 
of troops. Of course the leave was granted, and the outcome was the 
107th New York volunteers, which was ready for the field in Septem- 
ber of the same year, and was the first regiment in the state to re- 
spond to the call of President Lincoln, issued in July. 

General Diven went to the front with the command of lieutenant- 
colonel, his commission signed by Governor E. D. Morgan, dated Sep- 
tember 6, 1862. The colonel of the regiment, Van Valkenburg, also 
a member of congress, soon after retired on account of his health, and 
General Diven became colonel, his commission as such being dated 
October 21, 1862. He distinguished himself at the front, was in the 
battle of Antietam, and led his regiment on the bloody field of Chan- 
cellorsville, the published official records of the war bearing frequent 
testimony to his gallantry. 

Early in 1863 the State of New York was divided into three de- 
partments for purposes of the draft, and Elmira was selected as the 
rendezvous for the eleven western congressional districts, which 
formed one department. General Diven was chosen as commander 
of the post, as he was one of the most conspicuous men in the region, 
and his personal relations with the authorities of the state, then dem- 
ocratic, Avere such that there would be little apprehension of any fric- 
tion between them and the general government. The wisdom of the 
choice was apparent from the start. The operations of the general 
government were conducted in the division without the shadow of a 
difficulty, to its entire satisfaction, while in other portions of the 
state tliere was continued turmoil and confusion. General Diven, for 
the purpose of the post, was made adjutant-general and acting-assis- 
tant-provost marshal-general, with the rank of major, his commission 
as such being signed by Mr. Lincoln, March 8, 1864. A little over a 
year after that, on March 28, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-gen- 
eral for meritorious services during the war. It was only eighteen 
days before President Lincoln died and was one of the latest official 
acts that he performed. 

General Diven's attachment for and loyalty to the spot that he 
chose for and always called his home were conspicuous. Whatever 
made for its advantage and interest was close to his heart. He made 
of his " Willow Brook " property one of the loveliest country seats 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 137 

in the whole land. Many of his railroad operations, as can be seen, 
had Elmira for their center. He was interested in and gave freely of 
his time, money, and energy to the building up of a serviceable water 
works system in his city. He also helped to originate, with his son, 
its street railway line. He was one of the founders, a liberal patron, 
and for many years chairman of the board of trustees of the Elmira 
College for women, the first institution in the country to educate 
and grant degrees to women, on lines similar to those of colleges and 
universities for men. From early manhood he was a member of the 
presbyterian church, and was always connected with the organiza- 
tion in Elmira, being for many years one of its active, influential, and 
interested officers. With every minute of his life, as might be said, 
fully occupied, he yet found some leisure to maintain a good acquaint- 
ance with literature and society. He was quick, apt, and accurate 
in quotation and of such excellence as a reader of the older authors 
that many found him, at times, in his own home, charming to listen 
to. He was a great lover of children, and in his presence, with child- 
ish intuitiveness, they were at once at peace and at home. 

In July, 1834, General Diven married Amanda M. Beers, of a well- 
known family of that region, who was born on October 22, 1811. She 
died on August 18, 1875, after a married life of more than forty years 
that was a perfect union in all respects. During the war, for some 
time she was in the field with her husband, and her care and con- 
sideration for the soldiers of his regiment made her beloved by all, 
and established a memory that is still warm and bright in the hearts 
of many of the members of the 107th. Eight children were the fruits 
of this marriage, of whom two sons and three daughters survive. A 
second marriage took place in 1876, to Maria Joy, who still survives. 
Twenty years ago, General Diven acquired property on the Saint 
John's river, Florida, near the City of Jacksonville, and since that 
time he spent his winters there. While engaged in no regular active 
business, he kept himself in touch with the progress of events, took 
great interest in political matters, and devoted much of his time and 
means to benevolent and educational institutions and enterprises. 

Early in January, 1896, he made his usual trip to Florida, but soon 
after was attacked by the grippe. He rallied somewhat and in April 
was able to return to his Elmira home. For a time hopes were enter- 
tained that, in the pure air of his native valley, he might ultimately 
recover, but his great age was against him, and after a brief rally his 
strength gave way and he gradually sank to his final rest. He died 
on June 11, 1896, four months over eighty-seven years of age. The 
funeral services were observed at his home at " Willow Brook," there 
being present one of the largest gatherings of a like nature ever 
known in the history of the county. The body was attended to the 
family vault in Woodlawn cemetery by a delegation of the survivors 
of the 107th regiment. Numerous meetings were held by public 



138 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

bodies, citizens, and societies, of which he had been a member, and 
there was a representative memorial gathering of the Chemung 
county bar. At all of these sentiments were uttered and resolutions 
adopted bespeaking the high character of the deceased, bewailing his 
loss, and lamenting him as one of the most distinguished, beloved, 
and honored citizens of Elmira and the state. 




|IVEN, GEORGE MILES, eldest son of the preceding, and 
named for the partner and warm personal friend of his 
father, was born at Angelica, New York, August 28, 1835. 
He inherited many of his father's personal characteristics, 
not the least of which were his energy, activity, and capacity in the 
management of extensive business operations. His earlier education, 
obtained at the Elmira Academy and at a private school in Geneva, 
New York, was at times varied by employment, which, while it inter- 
rupted his regular studies, gave him lessons of experience that proved 
useful to him in after life. Before he had reached the age of four- 
teen he was for several months employed as rodman in a corps of 
civil engineers engaged in the construction of the Chemung Rail- 
road. Again, in his sixteenth year, he was connected, for some time, 
with an extensive lumber concern in Allegany county, in which his 
father was interested. Entering Hamilton College in 1853, he was 
graduated in the class of 1857. While in college he pursued an extra 
course of law under Professor Theodore YV. Dwight, who afterward 
attained great eminence in connection with the law department of 
the Columbia University of New York City. 

After graduation Mr. Diven was engaged for more than a year in 
a large lumbering establishment in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, con- 
trolled by his father. Returning to Elmira he read law in the office 
of his father's firm until April, 1860, when he went to Saint Louis, 
Missouri, to take charge of the financial affairs of Diven, Stancliff & 
Co., contractors for the construction of the southwest branch of the 
Pacific Railroad of Missouri. Except to return home in June of that 
year to pass an examination in Binghamton for admission to the bar 
of his native state, he remained at Saint Louis until June, 1861, pur- 
suing his law studies in the meantime, with the intention of practic- 
ing his profession there. The breaking out of the war put an end to 
his plans. He returned to Elmira, and on July 1 of that year began 
the practice of his profession with his father, under the firm name of 
A. S. & G. M. Diven, a connection that continued until the fall of 1865. 
For thirty-six years he has had his office in the spot where it is now 
located. He early established a reputation as a good and careful 
lawyer and a sound and trustworthy business man. Until 1879 he 
continued in business alone, although having associated with him, 
in his railroad cases, ex-Judge Hirain Gray, until the latter was ap- 




r ' 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 139 

pointed one of the commissioners of appeals of the state, on July 1 , 
1870. On October 1, 1879, the partnership of Diven & Eedfiehl 
was formed, the junior member of which, Henry S. Redfield, had 
studied law in Mr. Diven's office. This partnership still exists, its 
membership having been increased on January 1, 1896, by the admis- 
sion of Mr. Diven's eldest son Eugene, a graduate of Leigh Univer- 
sity and of the National Law School of Washington, D. C, who after 
two years' service as an examiner in the patent office, is making a spe- 
cialty of patent law. 

Mr. Diven's practice has been largely connected with railroads. 
For more than ten years he was an attorney for the Erie Railway Com- 
pany, at one time having charge of all its legal business in the west- 
ern part of the state. Since the Northern Central Railway Company, 
now forming part of the Pennsylvania system, leased the Elmira & 
Williamsport Railroad, in the spring of 1863, he has been and still 
continues its solicitor for the State of New York, a position he has 
now held for nearly thirty-four years. For about twenty-five years 
he has been the local attorney and counsel for the Lehigh Valley Rail- 
road Company, and as such he was largely engaged in the legal work 
required in the re-organization of its various lines in the State of 
New York. While his practice has been by no means confined to rail- 
road business, yet his calls in that direction have demanded most of 
his time. 

With devoted attention to his profession, Mr. Diven has not only 
acquired a large experience and an extended reputation, but has 
gathered together one of the largest law libraries in western New 
York. He was active in the organization of the New York State Bar 
Association, has been a regular attendant at its meetings, and for the 
year 1891-92 was its president. In 1874 his college elected him one 
of its board of trustees, a position that he continues to hold. 

An active but conservative member of the republican party from its 
organization, Mr. Diven has never desired and never held any politi- 
cal office, although serving, by appointment of the common council, 
nearly seven years as a member of the board of education of the City 
of Elmira, and for six years as its president. 

While giving chief attention to his profession, Mr. Diven has had 
the management of matters involving unusually large sums of money, 
and his judgment has never failed him or been at fault. Some of the 
most important business enterprises of Elmira, in their immature and 
uncertain beginnings, have relied, with safety, upon his advice and 
judgment. At one time he was largely interested in coal mining, was 
a stockholder and director of the Erie & Atlantic Sleeping Coach 
Company until it was absorbed by the Pullman company; has dealt 
extensively in real estate; in 1868 purchased the orginal but bankrupt 
Elmira Water Works, re-organized the company, and with other mem- 
bers of his family brought the property to a high and profitable state 



140 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

of efficiency. He aided greatly in the construction of the first street 
railway in his city, and for a number of years managed its affairs; 
was instrumental and influential in the re-organization of the Rolling 
Mill Company of Elmira, one of the largest plants of its kind in the 
country, and was foremost in the conception and construction of the 
Elmira State Line Railroad, now the Tioga branch of the Erie. lie 
is largely interested in the La France Fire Engine Company, of which 
he has been president nearly all the time of its existence, and which, 
almost entirely owing to his efforts, has achieved noted prominence 
for its steam fire engines and other fire apparatus, by which it is 
known throughout the United States, and, to no small extent, in for- 
eign countries. 

Notwithstanding Mr. Diven's active life, he has found time to in- 
dulge in somewhat extensive travels, having made three trips abroad, 
on one of which he spent a winter along the Mediterranean and in 
Egypt, and he has also passed many pleasant winter months at the 
family residence in Florida. 

He is a member of the Union League of Philadelphia, the Manhat- 
tan Club of New York, the Red Jacket Club of Canandaigua, and a 
charter member of the Elmira City Club. 

Mr. Diven, on June 3, 1S63, married Lucy M. Brown, of Clinton, 
New York, where his college is located, a lady of the most estimable 
character and the sweetest disposition, combined with great personal 
attractiveness. She died September 2, 1SS8. Of the six children of 
this marriage four sons survive, Eugene, already mentioned, married 
Jeannette Pettibone Murdoch, a daughter of John Murdoch, Esquire, 
one of the most distinguished lawyers of southwestern New York. A 
child, the fruit of this marriage, is named for his great-grandfather, 
General A. S. Diven, and will probably carry the designation far 
into the twentieth century as "'Alexander the Third.'' Of the 
other sons of Mr. Diven, Alexander S., named for his grandfather, 
a graduate of Yale College, is now (1897) studying law in his father's 
office; Alden B., a graduate from a course of civil engineering at Le- 
high University, is engaged with the La France Fire Engine Com- 
pany, and Louis has recently finished a course of electric engineering 
at Lehigh. 

|OWNS, FRED LESTER (born in Medina, Oilcans county, 
New York, August 14, 1855), is the son of Lester 0. and 
Susan (I. Downs. He was educated in the common schools 
and at Medina Academy, studied law with Stanley E. Fil- 
kins, was admitted to the bar at Rochester, April 10, 1880, and at 
once opened a law office in Medina, where he has since practiced his 
profession. lie has been prominent in local affairs, having held the 
office of justice of the peace of the Town of Ridgeway, trustee of the 
Village of Medina for three years from 1883, and president of the vil- 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 141 

lage for three successive terms (1S92, 1S93, and 1S94). He has always 
been active in republican politics, is a member of the republican 
county committee, and in 1895 was elected the representative of the 
county in the assembly at Albany. 




UGRO, PHILIP HENRY (born in New York City, October 
3, 1855), is the son of Anthony and Dorothea Dugro. He 
was educated in New York City at the famous grammar 
school of Doctor Charles Anthon, and in 1876 was gradu- 
ated from Columbia College. His legal studies were prosecuted in 
the law offices of McKeon & Smyth and at the Columbia College Law 
School, from which he was graduated in 1878, the same year being ad- 
mitted to the bar. He has practiced his profession in New York City 
continuously since his admission. 

In the fall of 1878, when but twenty-three years of age, he was 
elected to the assembly from the 14th district of the city. He also 
served a term in congress (1881-82), being elected from the 7th con- 
gressional district in the fall of 18S0. In 1883 he was nominated for 
comptroller of the city, but declined on account of the death of his 
father. In 18S6 he was elected a justice of the Superior Court of New 
York City, and in 1896 elevated to the Supreme Court bench through 
the re-organization of the judiciary effected by the constitution of 
1894. 




WIGHT, CHARLES C. (born in Richmond, Berkshire county, 
Massachusetts, September 15, 1830), is the son of Reverend 
Edwin Wells Dwight, a congregational minister, and Mary 
Sherrill, both natives of Massachusetts. He was gradu- 
ated at Williams College in 1850, and then for two years was engaged 
in teaching. He studied for the legal profession in the office of Amos 
Dean, of Albany, was admitted to the bar in 1853, and in 1855 began 
practice at Auburn. In 1859 he was elected county judge of Cayuga 
county, and was serving in that office when, upon the breaking out of 
the war, he entered the army, being commissioned captain in the . 
75th New York volunteers. In 1862 he was appointed, by President 
Lincoln, assistant-adjutant-general of volunteers, and assigned to duty 
on the staff of General Lewis G. Arnold, in command at New Orleans. 
In the same year he became colonel of the 160th New York volun- 
teers. In 1863 he was judge of the Provost Court at New Orleans. 
Erom 1864 until the close of the war he served as a member of the 
staff of General Canby, being detailed to act as commissioner for the 
exchange of prisoners in the department of the gulf. 

Resuming his practice at Auburn in 1865, he steadily added to the 
high reputation he had already gained in the profession. He was 
elected a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1867, and in 



142 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

1868 he was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court for the 7th 
judicial district to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice 
Henry AYells. In 1869 he was elected to that office for a full term. 
He has since served continuously on the Supreme bench, and is now 
the senior judge in service in this state. 

Justice Dwight was married, in 1868, to Miss Emma Munro, of 
Onondaga county. 




YKMAN, JACKSON O. (born in Patterson, Putnam county, 
New York, in or about 1826), is the great-grandson of Cap- 
tain Joseph Dykman, an early settler of Putnam county 
and a captain in the continental army during the revolu- 
tion. He was educated in the public schools, taught school, and stud- 
ied law with Honorable William Nelson, of Peekskill. After his ad- 
mission to the bar, he commenced practice at Cold Spring, Putnam 
county, where he was elected school commissioner and district attor- 
ney of the county. 

In 1866 he removed to White Plains, where he has since resided. 
He was elected district attorney of Westchester county in the fall of 
1868, and in this office "particularly distinguished himself by the 
energy, skill, and success with which he prosecuted the famous Buck- 
hout murder trial, one of the celebrated cases in the history of the 
county." Although a democrat in politics, Judge Dykman received 
the nomination of the republican party in 1875 for justice of the 
Supreme Court for the 2d judicial district, and, receiving the sup- 
port of the best elements of both parties, was elected by a large ma- 
jority. 

At the end of his first term of fourteen years he received the unani- 
mous nomination of both political parties, and, of course, received the 
full vote of botli. He served upon his second term until the 31st day 
of December, 1896, when he reached the constitutional limitation of 
age. By virtue of a jn'ovision in the new constitution of the stale, 
however, Governor Black, on the 2d of January, 1897, re-assigned 
Judge Dykman to duty, and he has since that time been engaged in 
the full performance of the duties of a justice of the Supreme Court. 

Upon his retirement from the bench Judge Dykman was given two 
banquets, one by the Bar Association of Brooklyn, and one by the 
Bar Association of Westchester county. At the latter banquet the 
Honorable Chauncey M. Depew closed his eulogistic remarks upon 
Judge Dykman in the following language: 

From the tail of a plow to an academy, from the academy to the law office, 
from the law office to the law practice, from the law practice to the bench, our 
friend Judge Dykman worthily can hear the encomium which Daniel Wehster 
put upon Chief-Justice Jay, that " the ermine when it fell upon his shoulders, 
touched nothing less spotless than itself." 

The lawyers of Westchester county have procured a fine portrait 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 143 

of Judge Dykman to be painted and hung iu the court house at White 
Plains, aud his fellow-citizens of the county presented him with an 
ivory gavel highly ornamented with gold. 

He may often be seen at the court-house in White Plains in the 
discharge of his official duties. He is ever kind and courteous to all, 
his health is firm, and the prospect is that his usefulness will continue 
to the end of his term. 

As a judge he has been thus characterized: 

In the performance of his judicial duties, Judge Dykman is ever patient, 
affable, and courteous. He is kind and obliging to the members of the bar, and 
especially so to the younger lawyers. He has been a member of the general 
term of the Supreme Court from the time he took his seat on the bench, and his 
opinions in that court, in the numerous cases on appeal, evince laborious re- 
search, sound judgment and discretion, and absolute fairness and impartiality, 
and demonstrate the propriety of his elevation to the high judicial position 
which he occupies. At the circuit for the trial of cases he is a favorite with 
both lawyers and suitors for his patience and impartiality. He manifests great 
love for justice and right, and deep abhorrence for wrong and oppression. 1 

Judge Dykman was married to Emily L. Trowbridge, of Peekskill, 
of the old family of that name of New Haven, Connecticut. Their 
two sons, William N. Dykman and Henry T. Dykman, are both prac- 
ticing lawyers, the former in Brooklyn and the latter in White Plains, 
New York. 




AEL, ROBERT (born in Herkimer, New York, September 
10, 1824), is the son of John and Margaret Petry Earl. On 
his father's side he is descended from Ralph Earl, who 
emigrated from England to Rhode Island in 1634. His 
mother was the daughter of Doctor William Petry, born near Mentz, 
Germany, in 1733, who was a surgeon in the armies of Frederick the 
Great, emigrated to America in 1763, was an ardent patriot in the 
Revolution (being a member of the committee of safety of the then 
Tryon county, New York), and died at Herkimer in 1806. 

Robert Earl was prepared for college at the Herkimer Academy 
and was graduated at Union College in 1845. In 1874 the degree of 
doctor of laws was conferred upon him by that institution, and in 
1887 by Columbia College. For two years after leaving college he 
was principal of Herkimer Academy, meantime pursuing legal 
studies with Honorable Charles Gray (afterward justice of the Su- 
preme Court). Completing his legal education in the office of his 
brother, Samuel Earl, he was admitted to the bar in 184S, and he 
then established with his brother, at Herkimer, the law firm of S. & 
R. Earl, which continued until 1870. 

In 1849, and again in 1860, he served as supervisor of his native 
town, and from 1856 to 1860 held the office of judge and surrogate of 

■ Scharf's "History of Westchester County," Vol. i., p. 533. 




144 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

the county. On November 2, 1801), he was elected a judge of the 
Court of Appeals, lie took bis seat upon the bench of tbe court Janu- 
ary 1, 1870, and served as chief-judge until July 1, when, under the 
amended constitution, be became a commissioner of appeals, serving 
as such until July 1, 1875. On November 5, 1875, be resumed his seal 
in the Court of Appeals, being- appointed by Governor Tilden to suc- 
ceed Judge Grover, deceased. He was in 1870 elected for a full term, 
and in 1890 was re-elected, having been nominated by both parties. 
On January 25, 1892, Governor Flower appointed him chief -judge of 
the court, to till the vacancy caused by the death of Chief-Judge 
ltuger. He retired from the bench on the 31st of December, 1894, hav- 
ing reached the age limit prescribed by the constitution. lie has 
since been living at his home in Herkimer. 

In politics, Judge Earl bas always beeu a democrat. He was mar- 
ried, in 1852, to Juliet, daughter of Henry J. "Wilkinson, of Richfield 
Springs. 

ATON, DOKMAN BRIDGMAN (born iu Hardwick, Ver- 
mont, June 27, 1823), is the son of Honorable Nathaniel 
Eaton and Kuth Bridgman, of early New England ancestry 
on both sides. He was graduated from the University of 
Vermont in 1818, subsequently receiving the degrees of master of 
arts and doctor of laws, and from the Harvard Law School in 1850, 
taking first prize for a legal essay in the latter institution. He was 
admitted to the New York bar in 1851, formed a partnership witli 
Judge William Kent, and was engaged in the successful practice of 
iaw in this city for many years. 

Mr. Eaton is especially known, however, through his efforts in the 
direction of various public reforms. In 1SG5 he was instrumental in 
securing Hie establishment of a paid tire department iu New York 
City. He drafted the law of 18(50, creating the board of health, and 
tbe next year drew up its sanitary code. He also prepared the law 
under which the police courts were organized. From 1870 to 1873 he 
was abroad studying tbe civil-service systems of Europe. Upon his 
return President Grant appointed him a civil service commissioner 
to succeed George W. Curtis. He was made president of the com- 
mission. In 1871, at the request of congress, he prepared a code for 
the government of the District of Columbia. In 1877 he visited Great 
Britain for a further study of this subject, lie drafted the civil ser- 
vice law enacted by congress in 1SS3, and was the first commissioner 
appointed under its provisions by President Arthur. 

He is an acknowledged authority on the question of civil service re- 
form, and has written much on this and other subjects. He has been a 
frequent contributor to the North American Review, and prepared a 
number of articles for Lalor's "Cyclopedia of Political Science." 
Soon after his admission to the bar lie assisted Judge William Kent 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 145 

in editing " Kent's Commentaries," and in 1S52 prepared an edition 
of " Chipman on Contracts Payable in Specific Article." He pub- 
lished a volume giving a history of civil service in Great Britain as 
the result of his investigation in 1877. He is also the author of " The 
Independent Movement in New York " (1880), " Civil Service Iieform 
in Great Britain " (1880), " Spoils System and Civil Service Iieform in 
the New York Custom House and Post Office," " Term and Tenure of 
Office," and " Secret Sessions of the United States Senate." 

For many years he was chairman of the committee on political re- 
form of the Union League Club. The first civil service reform society 
formed in this country was organized at his home in 1878. 




DWAHDS, FEANCIS SMITH (born in Windsor, Broome 
county, New York, May 28, 1817), is the son of Joseph and 
Abigail Buell Edwards. His grandfather, Jasper Ed- 
wards, was a sergeant in the French and Indian war, was 
at the battle of Quebec, and assisted in carrying off the body of Gen- 
eral Wolfe; and in the llevolution was with Washington when the 
Hessians were captured at Trenton, and also during the winter at 
Valley Forge. 

He received a good academic education and nearly completed the 
classical course at Hamilton College, leaving in his senior year before 
graduation. He read law with Abiel Cook and John Waite, of Nor- 
wich, and Judge Boswell Judson, of Sherbourne, and was admitted to 
the bar in New York City, May 20, 1840. After practicing at Sher- 
bourne, Albany, and Fredonia, he located in 1S59 at Dunkirk, where 
he has since lived. His active professional career, from which he 
has only recently retired, extended over considerably more than half 
a century. Although ranking high as a civil practitioner, he has 
been especially prominent as an advocate. He defended the Battles 
murder case in 1862, and Governor Seymour, upon refusing a pardon, 
complimented him for his efforts in behalf of the condemned man. 
He also defended Herman Koch, charged with murder, and secured 
a verdict of manslaughter in the third degree. 

Mr. Edwards was appointed by Governor Seward, in 1812, master 
and examiner in chancery for Chenango county. In 1852 he became 
special county judge of Chautauqua county. In 1851 he was elected 
on the American ticket a representative in the 31th congress, defeat- 
ing Reuben E. Feuton. The first session of this congress was made 
memorable by the long and exciting contest for the speakership, 
which, to a certain extent, was a struggle between the sections nomi- 
nally dividing on Mason and Dixon's line, but really separating and 
sub-dividing without reference to geographical considerations. Op- 
posed to sectional agitation, and bent on giving prominence on all 
occasions to the questions on which he was elected, it was natural 



146 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

that Mr. Edwards should have favored, during that great struggle, 
the choice of some northern man not so closely identified with sec- 
tionalism as was Mr. N. P. Banks; and it was also natural that finally, 
coming to the conclusion that the house could be organized in no 
other way, he should give his support to Mr. Banks, who, moreover, 
had solemnly pledged himself to the maintenance of American prin- 
ciples. 

Judge Edwards has at various times held the local offices of vil- 
lage and city attorney and police justice. From the latter he finally 
retired at the beginning of 1S97. 




|DWARDS, SAMUEL (born in Glenville, New York, April 
24, 1839), is the son of Samuel B. Edwards and Ruth L. 
Rogers. He attended public and private schools, and acad- 
emies in Schoharie and Washington counties, and Avas 
graduated at Union College in 1862 with the degree of bachelor of 
arts. After studying law with S. L. Magoun, he was admitted to the 
bar at Albany, in December, 1864. He engaged in practice at Hud- 
son, where he still resides. He soon rose to prominence in the pro- 
fession, being retained in many important litigations, and became 
recognized as one of the leaders of the bar. 

Since January, 1887, he has been one of the justices of the Supreme 
Court of the state for the 3d judicial district. 




|LY, WILLIAM CARYL (born in Middlefield, Otsego county, 
New York, February 25, 1856), is the son of William II. Ely 
and Ellen Caryl. Mr. Ely's family, both in its direct and its 
collateral lines, is of New England origin, and is intimately 
identified with the history of Otsego county. Many of his lineal an- 
cestors were soldiers in the Revolution and in the American colonial 
wars. His great-grandfather, Benjamin Gilbert, was a lieutenant 
of the 5th Massachusetts regiment of the line in the regular conti- 
nental army under Washington, came to New York at the close of 
the Revolution, and was the second sheriff of Otsego county; he held 
that office for three terms, and was several times member of the as- 
sembly. The paternal grandfather of W. Caryl Ely, Doctor Sumner 
Ely, represented the county in the assembly, was a senator for a term 
of four years, and was president of the New York state medical so- 
ciety, 1 and his maternal grandfather, Leonard Caryl, was a member 

1 Doctor Sunnier Ely entered Yale at the age of four- was for thirty-five years a partner of Winchester Britton. 

teen in the sophomore class, and graduated at seventeen Being deaf tie could not appear in court. His specialty 

in the class of 1804. Oue of his sonB, Sumner Stow Ely was real estate law, but his briefs are celebrated. It 

(W. Caryl Ely's uncle), became eminent at the bar. He may not unjustly be said that li is briefs, researches, aud 

was graduated at Hamilton College and practiced law in work in the famous case of the La Abra Silver Mining 

New York and Brooklyn, as a member, successively, of Company aiiuiiisl the Mexican government constitute a 

the firms of Britton &• Ely, and Britton, Ely & Suell. He monument of legal learning and ability. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 147 

of the assembly from that county. Both were contemporaries and 
political and personal friends of Marcy, Wright, and Seymour. Mr. 
Ely's father, William H. Ely, served as an Otsego county assembly- 
man in 1874 and 1875. 

\Y. Caryl Ely attended school at his native place, and after study- 
ing at academic institutions entered Cornell University in the class 
of 1S7S. He did not, however, graduate, leaving college in his junior 
year. Soon afterward he began the study of the law at East Worces- 
ter, New York, in the office of John B. Holmes (now a practitioner in 
Troy), and in 1882 he was admitted to the bar at Ithaca. Commenc- 
ing practice at East Worcester, his abilities soon brought him into 
prominence at the bar of Otsego county. In 1885 he removed to Ni- 
agara Falls, where he practiced alone for two years, with steadily 
increasing success, and then organized with Frank A. Dudley the 
firm of Ely & Dudley. Since 1893 (when Morris Cohn, Junior, was 
admitted) the firm has been Ely, Dudley & Cohn. It now transacts 
the largest law business done in Niagara county. 

During the first ten years of his professional career Mr. Ely was 
an " all-'round " practitioner, trying cases at circuit, acting as coun- 
sel, arguing appeals, etc. From the beginning he was uniformly suc- 
cessful in jury cases. Since 1886 he has enjoyed the distinction of 
having recovered the largest verdict awarded in Niagara county in 
an action for damages for personal injuries. Notwithstanding his 
reputation as a jury lawyer, he has only once consented to defend a 
person accused of crime. In this instance his client was the treasurer 
of the board of water commissioners of Suspension Bridge, who had 
been indicted on three distinct charges. Mr. Ely tried the suit on 
two of the charges, with a successful issue in each. 

His professional rule is, never to permit an intending client to de- 
ceive him as to the facts, and, on the other hand, never knowingly 
to deceive a client as to the law. In other words, he always recom- 
mends the settlement of a doubtful case, never advising a fight unless 
it is clear that something is to be gained which cannot be achieved 
otherwise; and he makes it a rule never to take a bad case if aware 
of its character. 

Since his removal to Niagara county he has had a very large corpo- 
ration practice. He was one of the original promoters and incor- 
porators of the great Niagara Falls Power Company. He drew and 
secured the enactment of its charter, and has assisted in the prepa- 
ration and has had charge of all subsequent legislation. He is at 
present local counsel to the company. He was the chief promoter of 
the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Electric Railway, and is now its presi- 
dent. He was one of the founders, and is attorney and trustee, of the 
Niagara County Savings Bank, a flourishing and growing institution; 
is counsel and a director of the Carter-Crume Company, a large manu- 
facturing corporation, and is counsel at Niagara Falls for the Manu- 



148 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

facturers and Traders' Bank of Buffalo. In brief, lie lias been and 
is still actively connected with almost all the large enterprises con- 
tributing to the building up of the new City of Niagara Falls. 

Mr. Ely has traveled extensively throughout the United States, 
taking a keen interest in everything relating to the material develop- 
ment of the country. He has been especially attracted by the re- 
sources of the Pacific states. In this connection he has acquired a 
considerable interest, and has been identified with the construction 
of about sixty miles of irrigating canals in the Columbia river valley 
in tbe State of Washington. 

In politics, Mr. Ely has always been warmly attached to the funda- 
mental principles of the democratic party, as all his ancestors have 
been for a century. He has held the offices of clerk of the board of 
supervisors of Otsego county (1879-80), supervisor of the Town of 
Worcester (1882-83), member of the assembly from the 1st district of 
Otsego county (1883 to 1885, inclusive), and village attorney of Niag- 
ara Falls for five years. While in the assembly he was one of the 
most conspicuous democratic members, serving on the ways and 
means, rules, railroad, and other leading committees, and being the 
candidate of the minority for the speakership in 1885. In 1891 he was 
the democratic nominee for justice of the Supreme Court for the 8th 
judicial district. He has been tendered the nomination for district 
attorney of Niagara county and other offices, and his name has been 
prominently mentioned among the party leaders for high state offices, 
lie has, however, in consequence of the exacting demands of his busi- 
ness engagements, uniformly refused to stand as a candidate. Upon 
quitting his last public employment he formed the opinion, which 
has never since been changed, that no man should accept an office of 
any kind unless he can so arrange his affairs as to give to the con- 
duct of the office all the time necessary to secure the best results to 
the public. 

From 1893 to 1896 Mr. Ely was a member of the democratic state 
committee, being also for two years its treasurer and a member of 
the executive committee. In the campaign of 1896, unable to support 
the candidacy of Mr. Bryan, he resigned from the committee, writing 
a letter in this connection which excited much comment throughout 
1 lie state. 

In 1881 he married, at Cobleskill, New York, Grace Keller, a lineal 
descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, by the line of Eliza- 
beth Alden, the first female child born in the Plymouth colony. Mrs. 
Ely is a member of the Society of Mai/flourr Descendants. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 149 

gggglgSMOND, DARWIN WILLIAM (born in North Egremont, 
•tffclSV Massachusetts, June 22, 1845), is the son of Darwin Esmond 
?|<«g*j|j and Geraldine L. A. Warner, lie was educated in the 
— — — ' common schools of New England, New York, and Illinois, 
and studied for two years each with Reverend Charles S. Brown and 
Reverend L. W. Walsworth, of the New York methodist conference. 
Later he prepared for the profession of the law in the office of Honor- 
able Abram S. Cassidy, of Newburgh, New York. He was admitted 
to the bar in Brooklyn, December 11, 1S67, and immediately began 
practice in Newburgh, where he is still located. 

Mr. Esmond has won a reputation as a practitioner at the New- 
burgh bar for fidelity and devotion to his cases, and has been con- 
nected with various causes of much local interest. In two notable 
trials he claims to have obtained his highest fee. One was the case of 
a little child of six years, who had been outraged; the other was of 
a serving woman, arrested on a false charge of larceny. Both were 
friendless and penniless; they paid him by kissing his hand. 




VAKTS, WILLIAM MAXWELL (born in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, February G, 1818), is the son of Jeremiah Evarts, 
the well-known Christian philanthropist who, bred a law- 
yer, devoted himself to the cause of missions and the rights 
of the Indians. Mr. Evarts was prepared for college in the Boston 
Latin School, and in 1837 was graduated from Yale College, having 
founded the Yale Literary Magazine during his course. His legal 
studies were prosecuted at the Harvard Law School, and in the office 
of Daniel Lord, of New York City. Admitted to the New York bar 
in 1811, he at once engaged in practice there, and " soon established a 
reputation for learning and acumen, and was often consulted by older 
lawyers." 1 

In the article which introduces this volume Mr. Coudert happily 
characterizes him as " polished, self-possessed, keen-witted, the hero 
of the three great cases of our generation — the Johnson impeachment, 
the Tilden election case of 187G, the Geneva arbitration case.'' There 
were also other cases of almost equal renown, notable among them 
being his defense, as senior counsel, of Henry Ward Beecher in the 
suit brought against him by Theodore Tilton. 

From 1810 to 1853 Mr. Evarts was assistant-district attorney of 
New York City. In 1851 he successfully prosecuted the filibusters 
engaged in the expedition of the Cleopatra to Cuba, and the same year 
delivered the argument in favor of the constitutionality of the met- 
ropolitan police act. In 1857 before the Supreme Court, and in 1800 
before the Court of Appeals, he argued the Lemmon slave case as 
counsel for the State of New York, opposing Charles O'Conor, coun- 

1 Appleton's " Cyclopedia of American Biography," Vol. ii., p. 385. 



150 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

sel for the State of Virginia. lu 1862, in the United States Supreme 
Court, he argued the right of the government in civil war to treat 
captured vessels as prizes, according to the laws of war. In 1865 and 
1866 he successfully established the unconstitutionality of state laws 
taxing national bank stock and United States bonds without authori- 
zation by congress. In 1868 he was chief counsel of President John- 
son in the impeachment proceedings in the United States senate, and 
by appointment dated July 15, 1868, became attorney-general in 
President Johnson's cabinet, serving until the close of the administra- 
tion. In 1872, as counsel for the United States before the arbitration 
tribunal at Geneva on the Alabama claims, he " presented the argu- 
ments on which the decisions favorable to the United States were to 
a large extent based." In 1875 occurred the sensational trial of 
Beecher, in which he was conspicuous as leader of the brilliant array 
of counsel for the defense. Two years later, in 1877, he was again 
successful at his appearance as the advocate of the republican party 
before the electoral commission in the famous Tilden-Hayes presi- 
dential contest. He was likewise counsel in the Parish will contest 
and the litigation over the will of Mrs. Gardner, mother of President 
Tyler's widow, both of which involved great fortunes and aroused 
wide interest at the time. Mr. Evarts's " services were often sought 
in cases in which large corporations were parties, and he received in 
some instances fees of |25,000 or f 50,000 for an opinion, such as that 
on the Berdell mortgage upon the Boston, Hartford & Erie Kail- 
road." 1 For many years he has been the head of the law firm of 
Evarts, Choate & Beaman, comprising several of the leaders of the 
New York bar. 

Outside the strict profession of the law, Mr. Evarts is universally 
conceded a high rank as a statesman. He was early prominent as a 
leader of the republican party, being chairman of the New York 
delegation in the republican national convention of 1860, in which 
body he placed William H. Seward in nomination for the presidency. 
In 1861 he was Horace Greeley's rival before the New York legisla- 
ture as a candidate for the United States senate, and by his subse- 
quent withdrawal from the contest secured the election of Ira Harris. 
His elevation to the position of attorney-general of the United States 
under President Johnson has been already noted. In 1877, in recogni- 
tion of his distinguished services to the republican party in the presi- 
dential contest, as well as in recognition of his profound abilities, he 
was given the portfolio of secretary of state in President Hayes's 
cabinet, serving the full presidential term. " His administration of 
the state department was marked by a judicious and dignified treat- 
ment of diplomatic questions, and especially by the introduction of a 
higher standard of efficiency in the consular service, and the publica- 
tion of consular reports on economic and commercial conditions in 

1 Appleton's " Cyclopedia of American Biography," Vol. ii., p. 385. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 151 

foreign countries." 1 At the close of his term, in 1SS1, Mr. Evarts 
was appointed as delegate of the United States to the international 
monetary conference at Paris. He was subsequently elected to the 
United States senate by the New York legislature to succeed Elbridge 
G. Lapham, and served the full term, from March 4, 1885, to March 
3, 1891. In the senate he was one of the most distinguished figures, 
and was a recognized leader of his party. 

As a public speaker Mr. Evarts is distinguished by the brilliancy, 
depth, and intellectual power of his oratory. His published addresses 
include orations at the unveiling of the statues of William II. Seward, 
Daniel Webster, and Bartholdi's "Liberty," in New York City; on 
Chief-Justice Chase, at Dartmouth College, in June, 1873; and upon 
the opening of the centennial exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. 




|1ELD, STEPHEN JOHNSON (born in Haddam, Connecticut, 
November 4, 1816), is the son of Reverend David Dudley 
Field, and a brother of the late David Dudley Field and 
Cyrus W. Field. At the age of ten he accompanied his sis- 
ter, the wife of a missionary, to Smyrna, for the study of oriental 
languages. Returning, he was graduated from Williams College in 
1857, at the head of his class. He studied law in New York City with 
his brother, David Dudley Field, was admitted to the bar, and became 
a partner. Discontinuing this association in 1848, he traveled exten- 
sively in Europe, and in the fall of 1849 went to San Francisco. 

He was one of the founders of Marysville, California, serving as its 
first alcalde prior to the organization of the judiciary of the state. 
As a member of the first legislature after the admission of California 
as a state, serving on its judiciary committee, he secured the passage 
of important, laws affecting the judiciary and the civil and criminal 
procedure of the various courts of the state, as well as the law giving 
a legal sanction and authority to the regulations of miners among 
themselves, " thus solving a perplexing problem." 

During the succeeding six years he was in the enjoyment of an ex- 
tensive practice. He was elected a justice of the California Supreme 
Court for the term of six years beginning in January, 1858, but took 
his place on the bench in October, 1857, being appointed to fill a 
vacancy. In September, 1859, he succeeded David S. Terry as chief- 
justice of the court, and so continued until his appointment as a jus- 
tice of the United States Supreme Court by President Lincoln in 1863. 

In 1869 he was appointed professor of law in 1he University of Cali- 
fornia. In 1873 the governor of California appointed him a member 
of the commission to examine the laws of that state and make recom- 
mendations for legislative amendments. He was a member of the 
Tilden-Hayes electoral commission in 1877 and voted with the demo- 

1 Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biography," Vol. ii., p. 385. 



152 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

cratie minority. In the democratic national convention al Cincinnati, 
in LS80, be received sixty-five votes on the first ballot for the nomina- 
tion for the presidency. 




ILKINS, STANLEY EUGENE (born in the Town of Beth- 
any, Genesee county, New York, February ID, 1836), is the 
son of James Filkins and Abigail Jenkins. He is a direct 
descendant of Henry Filkins, the first collector of the port 
of New York, and also of the Filkins named as the grantee of the 
tract of land known as the " Little Nine Partner Grant," in the vicin- 
ity of the present City of Pougbkeepsie. On his mother's side he is 
a grandson of Herman Jenkins and a great-grandson of Elder Na- 
thaniel Brown, who were the first free-will baptist ministers in wes- 
tern New York. He attended the Grand River Institute, in Ohio, 
studied law with Brown & Glowackie, of Batavia, and M. T. Jenkins, 
of East Randolph, was admitted to the bar early in 1S57, and engaged 
in practice at Medina, where he has remained to the present time. He 
has always devoted himself strictly to his professional business, never 
seeking political honors. He has been connected with a number of 
cases notable in the legal annals of his part of the state. He de- 
fended George Alford, indicted for the murder of one Toombs, and 
also Asa Boughton, on trial for the murder of Levant Bancroft. Al- 
ford was acquitted and Broughton was found guilty of manslaughter 
in the third degree. 

As a member of the school board of Medina, Mr. Filkins drew and 
put through that body the first resolution of the kind passed by any 
school board in this country, excluding religious exercises from the 
public schools. An indignation meeting was held, which strongly 
denounced the action of the board. But the movement thus inaugu- 
rated spread throughout the country, school boards everywhere took 
similar steps, and both the great political parties responded to the 
popular demand by inserting in their state and national platforms 
planks in opposition to sectarian schools. 



INN, DANIEL (born in Westfield, Chautauqua county, New- 
York, November 0, 1843), is the son of William and 
Frances Halsey Finn. On his father's side he is descended 
from a family resident in this country for six generations, 
ami in the maternal line he is in the eighth generation of descent from 
his original American ancestor. He was prepared for college at the 
S. S. Seward Institute, of Florida, Orange county, and he was gradu- 
ated at Hamilton College in 1868 with the degree of bachelor of arts. 
In bis senior year at that institution he took the law school course. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 153 

After leaving college be continued his legal studies with Henry Mc- 
Quoid, of Middletown, New York, and later in the office of Osborne & 
Swayne, of Toledo, Ohio. He was admitted to the bar at Albany in 
October, 1870. Since March, 1871, he has been in successful practice 
at Middletown. 




ITCH, THEODORE (born in Franklin, Delaware county, 
New York, March 30, 1844), is the son of Reverend Silas 
Fitch and Mary A. White, both of early New England an- 
cestry. 1 Mr. Fitch was prepared for college at academies 
in Poughkeepsie and Middletown, New York, and was graduated 
from Yale College in 1864. He became tutor in Latin, Greek, and 
mathematics in Delhi Academy (Delaware county, New York), of 
which his father was then principal, at the same time studying law 
with Honorable William Murray, of Delhi (then county judge and sub- 
sequently a justice of the Supreme Court). He was admitted to the 
bar at Binghamton, in May, 1867, and in the fall of the same year 
commenced practice at Yonkers. While Yonkers has always re- 
mained his residence, he also opened a law office in New York City, 
and since 1883 has had his office exclusively in New York, in partner- 
ship with his brother in the firm of T. & S. H. Fitch. 

He soon acquired a high standing at the Westchester bar, and has 
enjoyed a successful practice .for many years both in Westchester 
county and New York City. His work has been chiefly in the prov- 
inces of corporation and real estate law. From 1876 to 1883 he was 
city attorney of Yonkers, serving three terms, and during that time 
won every case for that city, with a single exception, in which also he 
was virtually successful, greatly diminishing the claim against the 
city. Among his interesting cases are the People ex rcl. Manhattan 
Savings Institution vs. Otis, Mayor (90 New York, 48), in which it was 
held unconstitutional to re-issue bonds in place of those stolen; Hobbs 
vs. City of Yonkers, a peculiar suit for back fees which had been re- 
linquished by the plaintiff while a candidate for office as an induce- 
ment to his election; Theall vs. City of Yonkers, involving the historic 
boundary between the townships of Yonkers and Eastchester; the 
suit several times in the Court of Appeals, of Levi P. Rose, to regain 

1 The family of Fitch is of ancient antecedents in Eng- learn that Thomas ffiteh married Anna Pew, 6 August, 

land. In old records the name is written " Fytche," 1611. Of their children, five sons and the widowed 

" ffytche," "Fytch," "ffytch," and "ffiteh." The mother emigrated to America and settled in Connecti- 

family is of Geiman origin, its modem German repre- cut.' 1 

sentative bearing the names of " Fichte," " Ficht," and From the eldest of these sons, Thomas Fitch, Mr. 

" Fecht." According to tradition, the English emigrant Theodore Fitch is descended, the line being as follows : 

came from Saxony undir Hengist and Horsa. In the Thomas Fitch 1 , of Booking. Essex, England ; Thomas 

Heralds' Visitations for Essex the pedigree descends Fitch 2 , of Norwalk, Connecticut ; John Fitch 3 ; John 

from William, second son of John Fitch, who was living Fitch* ; Matthew Fitch 8 ; Matthew Fitch 8 ; Silas Fitch 7 , of 

in Fitch Castle (in the parish of Widdington in north- Norwalk, Connecticut, settled in 1795 in Franklin, I)ela- 

western Essex) in 22 Edward I. (A. d. 1294). "From ware county, New York ; Reverend Silas Fitch"; Theodore 

one of the remaining fragments of the ancient church Fitch 9 , of New York City. Honorable Thomas Fitch, gov- 

register of Bocking, adjoining Braintree in Essex, we ernor of Connecticut, was also of this branch of the family. 



154 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



title to Getty Square, Yonkers, on the ground of breach of condition 
in the original grant through the encroachment of the Radford build- 
ing upon the square; and the litigations for several years over the 




<3jGmUk fcMr 



Smith Moquette Loom patents, in which, in association with Joseph 
H. Choate and Francis N. Bangs, he successfully represented the 
Smith Carpet Company. 




HISTORY OP THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 155 

| OSDICK, LEWIS L. (born in Springfield, Long Island, July 
21, 1837), is a son of Morris Fosdick, who was county judge 
and surrogate of Queens county from 1850 to 1858, and 
again held the office of surrogate from 1858 to 1866, after 
which he practiced in Jamaica until his death in 1892. The son, after 
attending district school and the Union Hall Academy, entered the 
University of the City of New York, from which he was graduated 
June 30, 1858, with the degree of bachelor of science. He studied law 
with John J. Armstrong (district attorney of Queens county and af- 
terward county judge), and was admitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie, 
May 17, 1860. He has always practiced in the Village of Jamaica, 
Queens county. He was a partner with Judge Armstrong for twenty- 
five years, until the death of the latter in 1886. He has held several 
local offices of a non-political character. 




OWLER, BENJAMIN MALTBY (born in Durham, Connec- 
ticut, April 27, 1854), is a son of Doctor Benjamin M. 
Fowler and Mary Payne. In both the paternal and the 
maternal lines he is descended from early New England 
settlers. His first American paternal ancestor, William Fowler, ar- 
rived in Boston from England in 1637 with Reverend John Daven- 
port, and was one of the prominent founders and officials of the New 
Haven colony, which afterward became a part of Connecticut. 
Thomas Payne, a progenitor on the maternal side, landed at Plymouth 
in 1621, having emigrated from Kent county, England. Though as a 
rule Mr. Fowler's people have not taken a conspicuous part in public 
affairs, they have always been noted for sobriety, integrity, industry, 
and eminent respectability — qualities which he therefore comes hon- 
estly by and possesses in no small measure. 

His father, a physician of great promise, highly esteemed by all 
who knew him, died at the early age of thirty-seven, leaving a widow, 
two sons, and a daughter. In 1856 Doctor Fowler removed with his 
family from Connecticut to Poughkeepsie. The son was educated in 
the schools of that place, being graduated from the Poughkeepsie 
High School, and later took a special course of study at the River- 
view Military Academy. Soon afterward he began the study of law 
with Thompson & Weeks, with which firm and its successor, Thomp- 
son, Weeks & Lown, he spent most, of his clerkship, although for a 
time he was with Anthony & Losey and Robert E. Taylor. He was 
admitted to the bar by the general term of the Supreme Court, at 
Poughkeepsie, May 13, 1875. 

While studying law he also took up the study of shorthand. As he 
was the pioneer stenographer in Dutchess county his services were 
in constant request in the various courts in that locality. He was 
official stenographer of the Dutchess County Court, Surrogate's 



156 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Court, and the state board of assessors for some years. In 1889 he 
gave up the practice of stenography to devote exclusive attention to 
the practice of law. At that time he was engaged in the settlement 
of the late John Guy Vassar's estate, having been appointed by Mr. 
Yassar an executor of his will. As the estate was an unusually large 
one, and was the subject of considerable litigation, it attracted much 
public attention. Although the litigation was carried through the 
Court of Appeals, the estate was finally settled and distributed within 
three years — a record which reflected great credit on Mr. Fowler and 
his associates. 

In 1S91 he was appointed one of the administrators of the estate 
of the late Honorable Homer A. Nelson. Since 1S88 he has been sec- 
retary and assistant treasurer of Yassar Brothers' Hospital at Pough- 
keepsie. For some years past he has been local attorney for the 
American Surety Company. 

While he has never sought or held public office, the fact that these 
and other large interests have been committed to his care indicates 
the esteem and confidence with which he is regarded in the commun- 
ity Avhere he resides. 

On December 15, 1881, at Jersey City, he married Miss Ada M. 
Douglas, daughter of the late M. S. Douglas, a New York merchant. 
Of this marriage three children were born: Douglas P., August 11, 
1883; Maltby S., July IS, 1886, and Benjamin M., Junior, September 1, 
1890. 




OWLER, MILTON ALANSON (born in Claverack, Colum- 
bia county, New York, March 12, 1835), is the son of Alan- 
sou Fowler and Sarah E. Miller. He is descended, both in 
the paternal and the maternal lines, from old New England 
families. His father (born in Granville, Massachusetts, May 21, 1802; 
died in Poughkeepsie, New York, in March, 1891) was engaged in 
early manhood in the building of the national road over the Blue 
Ridge in Virginia, and later was connected with various public works 
and for many years was in business in Claverack, New York. Mr. 
Fowler's mother, Sarah E. Miller (born in Tolland, Massachusetts, 
in 1811, and still living), is descended on her father's side from early 
settlers of Tolland, Massachusetts, and on her mother's from the 
Birdseye family, of Middletown, Connecticut. 

Milton A. Fowler attended public and private schools at Claver- 
ack, was prepared for college at Claverack and Hudson Academies, 
and at the age of seventeen entered Rutgers College, from which he 
was graduated in 1855 with the degree of bachelor of arts, taking the 
first honors. He also received in his senior year the Suydam prize in 
natural sciences. He entered the law office of Gaul & Essylstyn, at 
Hudson, New York, and took the complete course of study at the 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 157 

Albany Law School, being graduated from that institution in the 
spring of 1857, and admitted to the bar upon his law school diploma. 
After practicing for six months at Red Hook, Dutchess county, he 
removed to Fishkill, in the same county, where he continued to follow 
his profession until his election as surrogate of the county, in the fall 
of 1867. He thereupon took up his residence in Poughkeepsie. At the 
expiration of his service as surrogate, January 1, 1872, he resumed his 
professional business. He is still an active practitioner in Pough- 
keepsie. 

Mr. Fowler has been connected as counsel with various cases of 
great importance arising out of railroad law, involving especially 
questions resulting from the acts of one company in taking the land 
of another, and questions as to private and public railway crossings 
and as to the taking and restoration of highways. He was engaged in 
the celebrated case of Kumsey against The New York & New England 
Railroad Company, settling riparian rights when a railway runs 
along tidewater. He was also counsel in the cases of Fishkill Savings 
Institute against Bostwick, Receiver, settling the law as to the re- 
sponsibility of a bank for the acts of its cashier, and Bostwick, Re- 
ceiver, against Directors of the Bank of Fishkill, determining the 
measure of responsibility of directors. 

He took an active part in the building of the Dutchess & Columbia 
and connecting railroads, and of the Poughkeepsie bridge and the 
railways on both sides of the Hudson river connecting with that 
structure. 



f| BENCH, WINSOR BROWN (born in Cavendish, Windsor 
county, Vermont, July 28, 1832), is the son of Luther and 
Lydia Brown French. His paternal great-great-grand- 
father, Joseph French, of Concord, Massachusetts, was a 
lieutenant in the revolution, and on his mother's side he is a lineal 
descendant of Chad Brown, of Providence, and also of Roger Will- 
iams. 

He attended district school, the Clinton Liberal Institute of Clinton, 
New York, and Woodstock Academy (Vermont), at which latter in- 
stitution he was prepared for college. In 1859 he was graduated from 
Tufts College (Massachusetts), with the degree of bachelor of arts, 
to which the honorary degree of A.M. has been added since. After his 
graduation he became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, with 
which he is still connected. 

His legal studies were pursued in the offices of Honorable James B. 
McKean and Pond & Lester, at Saratoga Springs. He was admitted 
to the bar at that place in 1861, and has since been in continuous prac- 
tice there, except for a period of three years, when he served in the 
union army. 




158 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

At the breaking out of the rebellion he assisted in recruiting and or- 
ganizing the 77th regiment, New York state volunteers, and went with 
it to the field as adjutant. He was subsequently promoted to be 
major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel of his regiment, and thereafter 
breveted brigadier-general of United States volunteers. 

At the end of three years, on December 14, 1864, he was mustered 
out of the service with his regiment, having particpated in all the 
battles of the 6th corps, army of the Potomac, during that period. 

From 1865 to 1888 he was in partnership with Honorable Alembert 
Pond. During a portion of the time Honorable Edgar T. Brackett 
(now state senator) was a member of the firm. The practice carried on 
by Pond, French & Brackett was of a general character, extending to 
all the courts. 

Mr. French was elected to the office of district attorney of Sara- 
toga county in 1868, and held it for three years. While serving in 
this capacity he caused the arrest of Henry Kay, a member of the 
state legislature, on an attachment issued by the direction of Justice 
Piatt Potter, of the Supreme Court, and had Ray brought to the court- 
house in Saratoga to testify in a. criminal proceeding. This arrest 
occasioned great excitement in the legislature, and out of it grew 
the great " Breach of Privilege " case, wherein the legislature under- 
took, but signally failed, to establish that the power of the legislative 
branch of the government was superior to that of the judicial. The 
case attracted widespread interest in the courts and among the legal 
profession throughout the country. It is reported in the appendix to 
Barbour's Supreme Court Reports, Vol. 55. 

In 1896 Mr. French was a McKinley and Hobart presidential elec- 
tor, and cast his vote as a member of the electoral college held at 
Albany, January 11, 1897. 




FRLOW, ALFRED LETSON (born on a farm in the Town of 
Gerry, Chautauqua county, New York, February 8, 1860), 
is the son of Luther J. and Emily Beach Furlow. He re- 
ceived his education in the common schools, and later 
taught school during the winter seasons, working on the farm while 
not thus employed. In the fall of 1882 he began reading law with 
Byron A. Barlow, of Jamestown. During his student years lie sup- 
ported himself by collecting and by practicing in the justice's courts. 
In 1884 he removed to Michigan, where he was admitted to practice 
in the highest courts of the state on December 30 of that year. Soon 
afterward he returned to Jamestown, and on April 2, 18S5, he was 
admitted as an attorney of the Supreme Court of New York state. 
He then opened an office in Jamestown, where he has since con- 
tinued, becoming prominent in the profession. 

In June, 1889, Mr. Furlow was appointed one of the justices of the 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YOBK 159 

peace of the City of Jamestown, to fill a vacancy, and subsequently 
lie was elected to serve for the remainder of the term and also for 
another full term of four years. In this office his court transacted the 
principal share of litigated justice's business in Jamestown, and his 
decisions, when appealed from, were almost uniformly sustained by 
the higher courts. In one important case, where Justice Furlow di- 
rected the jury as to its verdict, a reversal was ordered by the County 
Court, but the general terni of the Supreme Court sustained the Jus- 
tice's Court upon appeal. 

On January 1, 1S95, Mr. Furlow formed a co-partnership with Allen 
E. Billings, in the firm of Furlow & Billings. In the fall of 1896 this 
relation was discontinued, and he has since practiced alone. 

Mr. Furlow has been particularly successful in the prosecution of 
violators of the excise laws in Chautauqua county. He has also made 
a high reputation at the Jamestown bar as a general practitioner. 
In politics he has always been an earnest republican. In the fall of 
1S96 he was prominently mentioned as a suitable person to receive 
the republican nomination for county judge of Chautauqua county. 
He is an active member of the 1st Baptist church of Jamestown, 
and was one of the charter members of the Young Men's Christian 
Association of that city. 

He was married in January, 1889, to Jennie E. Bristol, a teacher 
in the Jamestown schools. One child was born to them, whose 
mother, however, died in May, 1891. Mr. Furlow was again married 
in September, 1S93, to Anna N. Harper, daughter of Samuel Harper, 
of the Town of Charlotte. 




URMAN, JOHN WESLEY (born in Haverstraw, Rockland 
county, New York, March 9, 1847), is the son of Gilbert and 
Sarah Furman. His father's ancestors were Germans, who 
were among the early and influential settlers of Long 
Island, the old Furman homestead having been located near the pres- 
ent site of the court-house in the City of Brooklyn. His mother was 
also of German descent, being a member of the old Van Wart and 
Dey families of the State of New Jersey. He attended district school 
at Camp Hill, in the Towns of Haverstraw and Ramapo, and later 
was a student in Canandaigua Academy and Cornell University. He 
was graduated in 1871 from the Oswego Normal School, and was en- 
gaged for several years in teaching. In May, 1881, he completed the 
course at the law school of the University of the City of New York, 
and in the same month he was admitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie. 
He has since practiced his profession at Haverstraw. 



160 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

HSH fl URSMAN > EDGAR LUYSTER (born in Charlton, Saratoga 
|^S\ county, New York, August 5, 1838), is the son of Jesse B. 
rcfcSyL, Fursman, a farmer, and is a descendant of William Furs- 
' man, a member of an old family of Oxfordshire, England, 

who emigrated to this country in 1760, and who, entering the patriot 
army in the Revolution, was killed at the battle of White Plains. 
Edgar L. Fursman was educated at academic institutions, being grad- 
uated from Fort Edward Institute in the class of 1855. After pur- 
suing legal studies for two years in the office of Judge A. Dallas 
Waite, of Fort Edward, he was admitted to the bar and engaged in 
practice at Schuylerville, Saratoga county. His abilities soon at- 
tracted attention, and in a few years he built up an extensive busi- 
ness. In 1867 he removed to Troy, entering into partnership with 
Honorable James Forsyth, one of the leaders of the Rensselaer county 
bar. This association continued until 1870, when, upon the removal 
of William A. Beach to New York, he became a member of the new 
firm of Smith, Fursman & Cowen, which was organized to succeed 
Beach & Smith. 

In 1882 he was elected judge of Rensselaer county by the largest 
majority ever given a candidate for that office, and he was re-elected 
in 1888. From this position he was elevated by election in 1SS9 to 
the Supreme bench of the state, again receiving a very large major- 
ity. His term expires on the 31st of December, 1903. 

His acceptance of judicial office was in pursuance of a sense of pub- 
lic duty, involving personal sacrifices of an unusual character. As a 
practitioner he had gained a recognized place in the front ranks of 
the profession, being equally distinguished in the conduct of litiga- 
tions and as an advocate. His clients numbered some of the leading 
moneyed interests of Troy and various great corporations. As a 
jury lawyer also he had obtained a very high reputation, being some- 
times likened to the famous William A. Beach. One of his noted 
successes as an advocate was in the case of Arthur J. McQuade, a 
New York " boodle alderman," re-tried on a change of venue in Sara- 
toga county, in which he obtained a verdict of acquittal. 

Before going on the bench Judge Fursman was at times a dele- 
gate to democratic state conventions, and otherwise manifested a 
strong interest in the cause of the democratic party, to which he had 
been warmly attached from boyhood. 

In 1860 he married Minerva, daughter of James P. Cramer, a lead- 
ing merchant and iron manufacturer of Schuylerville, and niece of 
Honorable John Cramer, one of the prominent citizens of his genera- 
tion, who served as a Jefferson presidential elector. 




KI.r.KIlK.K 1 HUM AS liEHKY. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 161 

ASKILL, JOSHUA (born in Boyalton, Niagara county, New- 
York, November 4, 1835), is the son of Varney and Sarah 
Bishop Gaskill. His father was of a Quaker family, whose 
ancestors emigrated from England about 1750 and settled 
in New Hampshire, where he was born. His mother was of French 
descent, her American ancestor having come over in the latter part 
of the seventeenth century; her father, Thomas Bishop, was a cap- 
tain in the Revolution. Joshua Gaskill was reared on a farm, and 
until the completion of his twentieth year continued to perform farm 
work while not attending school. He received bis early education in 
the common schools, at the Lockport Union School, and at Wilson 
Collegiate Institute and Gasport Academy, and was graduated at 
the University of Rochester with the highest honors in 1859, after- 
ward (1863) receiving the degree of master of arts. He pursued legal 
studies with Honorable George D. Lamont, of Lockport, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Buffalo in December, 1860. He has practiced in 
Lockport continuously since, except for about four months in 1862- 
63, when he was associated with William H. Sweet, at Saginaw, 
Michigan. From 1863 to 1868 he was in partnership with A. J. En- 
sign at Lockport, in the firm of Ensign & Gaskill. Since 1868 he has 
practiced alone. 

Mr. Gaskill has for many years transacted a large collection and 
real estate business, and has pursued a miscellaneous practice, being 
connected with numerous important litigations. He has held the 
offices of city clerk of Lockport (1865-66), clerk of the board of super- 
visors (1866), and surrogate of Niagara county (1872 to 1878). He 
has written and delivered occasional poems and addresses. On May 
25, 1863, he was married to Miss Salome Cox. 




IEKBY, ELBRIDGE THOMAS (born in New York City, De- 
cember 25, 1837), is the son of Thomas E. Gerry and grand- 
son of Elbridge Gerry, vice-president of the United States 
and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. 
He is lineally descended from Thomas Gerry, of Newton- Abbot, Eng- 
land, who came to America in 1730 and became a merchant in Mar- 
blebead, Massachusetts, where he lived until his death, in 1774, hav- 
ing married the only daughter of Enoch Greenleaf, a prominent and 
wealthy citizen of Boston. Through the Greenleaf family the de- 
scendants of Thomas Gerry are connected with a number of the oldest 
puritan families. After one of these families the famous Elbridge 
Gerry was named. This first Elbridge Gerry was one of the notable 
figures of the revolutionary period. He was born in Marblehead, 
July 17, 1744, entered Harvard College at the age of fourteen, and 
was graduated in 1762. He represented Marblehead in the Massa- 



162 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

chusetts general court in 1772, and was made a member of the im- 
portant committee of correspondence. He was returned to the pro- 
vincial congress of Massachusetts in 1774, and again in 1776; was 
elected to the continental congress in 1776, and became a signer of 
the Declaration of Independence; was re-elected continuously 
throughout the Revolution; took an active part in the organization of 
the United States; served in congress under the constitution; was 
appointed on a special mission to France; was governor of Massachu- 
setts, and became vice-president of the United States. 

Mr. Gerry's mother was a daughter of Peter P. Goelet. His father, 
a naval officer, died in 1846, leaving him a child eight years of age. 
He was carefully educated, graduating from Columbia College in 
1857, delivering the German salutatory oration. The same year he 
was elected president of the Philolexian Society of Columbia Col- 
lege. After his graduation he entered the law office of William Cur- 
tis Noyes. In 1866 he was admitted to the bar, and the same year 
to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. Shortly after- 
ward he became a partner of Mr. Noyes, as a member of the law firm 
of Noyes & Tracy. Upon the death of Mr. Noyes he formed a part- 
nership with Honorable William F. Allen, subsequently judge of the 
Court of Appeals of New York, and Benjamin A'aughn Abbott, the 
well-known author of many standard law-books. Judge Allen event- 
ually withdrew from the firm, which was then continued under the 
uame of Abbott & Gerry. While at the bar Mr. Gerry enjoyed an 
extensive practice, appearing in many important cases. Among these 
were the Marx will contest, the Martin will case, the Carman will 
case, the Strong divorce case, and the Louis Bonard will case. He 
was counsel in defending McFarland and Stokes, both indicted for 
homicide. 

Mr. Gerry was married, December 3, 1867, to Louisa M., only 
daughter of Robert J. Livingston and great-granddaughter of Mor- 
gan Lewis, who was, successively, attorney-general, chief-justice, and 
governor of the State of New York, and grand master of the Masonic 
fraternity. 

Mr. Gerry was elected a member of the constitutional convention 
of 1867, serving as a member of its committee on the pardoning power. 
Shortly afterward he became associated with Mr. Bergh, who founded 
the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and 
lie was chiefly instrumental in securing the greater part of the legis- 
lation affecting animals now on the statute-books of New York. 

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was brought 
into existence at his instance in 1S74, while in 1879 he succeeded John 
D. Wright as its president, and has held that position ever since. In 
18S6, by appointment of the New York state senate, he served as 
chairman of the commission to examine into the most humane and 
effective method of executing the death sentence. On the strength of 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 163 

the report of this commission, the present system of electrical execu- 
tion was adopted as a substitute for hanging. 

Mr. Gerry has been a governor of the New York Hospital since 1878, 
is a trustee of the Protestant Episcopal General Theological Semi- 
nary, and was commodore of the New York Yacht Club from 1885 to 
1893. In 1889 he was chairman of the executive committee and of the 
committee on literary exercises of the centennial anniversary of the 
inauguration of George Washington, and in 1892 was chairman of the 
commission appointed by Mayor Grant to examine into the question 
of the best method of caring for the city's insane. The commission 
presented a valuable report on this subject. Since 1882 he has been 
president of the Chi Psi fraternity, one of the oldest Greek letter col- 
lege societies. Many articles from his pen have appeared in maga- 
zines; among others, a series in the North American Review on 
" Cruelty to Children " (July, 1883) ; on " Capital Punishment by Elec- 
tricity " (September, 1889); on " Children of the Stage " (July, 1890); 
also, in Purple and Gold, " A Plea for College Fraternities " (Yol. i., 
No. 1); "Chi Psi at Columbia" (Vol. iv., No. 1); "In Memoriam, 
Samuel Hand " (Vol. iv., No. 1). 

Mr. Gerry's chief work, however, has been in connection with the 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and through his 
incessant labors in this direction he has won a national reputation. 




I BBS, CLINTON BUBT (born in Buffalo, New York, June 9, 
1857), is the son of James S. Gibbs, of English descent, 
born at Ovid, New York, and Sarah Burt Gibbs, of Hol- 
land descent, born at Wales, New York. His grandfather, 
Asgill Gibbs, who died in Bochester, New York, at the age of ninety- 
five years, was at the time of his death the oldest practicing lawyer in 
the United States. 

Clinton B. Gibbs received a public school and high school educa- 
tion, receiving a full diploma in the classical course from the Buffalo 
High School. He studied law with Hawkins & Stevens, of Buffalo, 
was admitted to the bar at Bochester, October 10, 1879, and soon 
afterward entered upon his professional career at Buffalo, where he 
still practices. He has obtained a large and varied practice, and 
ranks with the prominent general practitioners of the Buffalo bar. 

Mr. Gibbs has taken much interest in local educational questions 
and conditions. In 1S89 he delivered an address in the symposium on 
the needs of the public schools of Buffalo. He was a member of the 
committee of the Associated Alumni of the Buffalo High School 
which secured the enlargement of that structure in 1885. He has 
never sought political office, preferring to devote himself to his pro- 
fession. 



164 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 




IBSON, JUDSON A. (born in the Town of Lincklean, Che- 
nango county, New York, August 16, 1857), is the sou of 
Alouzo Gibson, of Scotch-Irish descent, and Maria Burdick, 
who came from a Ehode Island family. At the age of thir- 
teen the death of his father placed upon him the responsibility of 
caring for his invalid mother and the farm properties left by his 
father. He continued to work on the farms and manage them until 
1876, when for a brief time he was in business in Cazenovia. In 1878 
he sold out his business and entered the Cazenovia Seminary, where 
he remained for four years, pursuing the classical course preparatory 
to college. After his graduation from that institution he decided to 
begin at once»to fit himself for the legal profession. His first studies 
to this end were pursued in Cazenovia, but he soon removed to Elmira 
and entered the office of H. Boardman Smith and Newton P. Fassett. 
Upon Mr. Smith's election to the Supreme bench, he continued his 
studies with Mr. Fassett and Justice Smith's son, Walter Lloyd 
Smith. In September, 1S85, he was admitted to the bar at the gen- 
eral term at Binghamton. In 1887 Walter Lloyd Smith was ap- 
pointed a justice of the Supreme Court to succeed his father, and 
later was elected to that office. Mr. Gibson thereupon succeeded to 
most of the business of the old firm of Smith & Fassett. In 1888 he 
formed a partnership with Colonel Archie E. Baxter. This was suc- 
ceeded in 1891 by the firm of Babcock, Baxter & Gibson, which, how- 
ever, continued for only two years. Since 1893 he has practiced alone. 
Mr. Gibson, from the time that he engaged in the study of the law, 
has devoted himself entirely to his chosen profession. He has en- 
joyed increasing success, both in criminal and civil practice. The 
first important case with which he was connected was that of Will- 
iam Decker (1889), whom he defended on the charge of murder. He 
also defended James J. Bush, cashier of the defunct Elmira National 
Bank, who was indicted in the United States court for wrecking the 
bank. The action was tried at Buffalo in September, 1896, and Mr. 
Gibson had sole charge of the preparation of the defense from the be- 
ginning. 

He has served one term as citv attornev of Elmira. 




IEGEMCH, LEONARD A. (born in Kotz, Bavaria, May 20, 
1855), was brought to this country with his parents when 
about a year old. He was educated in the public schools, 
Saint Nicholas parochial school, and De la Salle Institute 
(supporting himself from the age of twelve), and, studying law, was 
admitted to the bar in 1S77. 

In 1886 Judge Giegerich was elected to the assembly. The follow- 
ing year President Cleveland appointed him collector of internal rev- 
enue for the 3d New York district. In 1890 Governor Hill appointed 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 165 

him to succeed Judge Nehrbas (deceased) on the bench of the City 
Court. The same year he was elected county clerk. He resigned this 
office in the fall of 1891 to accept the appointment by Governor Hill 
to succeed Judge Allen (deceased) in the Court of Common Pleas. In 
1892 he was the successful nominee of both parties to succeed him- 
self for the full term of fourteen years. He was elected a member of 
the constitutional convention of 1891, and through the operation of 
the new constitution was transferred to the Supreme Court, January 
1, 1896. 

He was married in 1887 to Louise M. Boll, of New York City. 

As a member of assembly his record was warmly indorsed by the Reform 
Club of New York. He was one of the two members who persistently refused 
all passes from railway corporations. As county clerk he introduced many re- 
forms which relieved wants long felt by practicing lawyers. During his incum- 
bency of the county clerkship he endeared himself, probably without the least 
intention, to all historians by the classifying of musty records two hundred years 
old that had been stored for years in the courthouse. Always attentive to duty, 
he has required the same attention from those under him, and has thus earned 
the reputation of a disciplinarian. Though the youngest judge on the Common 
Pleas bench, his record was most satisfactory to both the bar and the public, and 
he has rapidly acquired a reputation as one of the best trial judges of our time. 1 



jIPFOED, EDWARD A. (born in Athens, Greene county, New 
York, December 22, 1850), is the son of Alfred Gifford and 
Christina Hallenbeck. In his paternal line he is of English 
and in his maternal of Holland Dutch descent. He was 
brought up on a farm and received only a district school education, 
upon which he improved, however, by industrious study at home. 
He served a legal clerkship of three years in the office of J. Washing- 
ton Hiseerd, at Coxsackie, was graduated at the Albany Law School 
May 22, 1884, and was admitted to the bar at Albany on January 25, 
1884, four months before his graduation from the law school. After 
three years of practice in New York City he became superintendent 
and general passenger and excursion agent of the Seneca Falls & 
Cayuga Lake Railroad and the Cayuga Lake Park Companies, at 
Seneca Falls, New York, holding these offices from August, 1887, 
until October, 1889. In November, 1889, he settled at Athens, Greene 
county, and resumed the practice of his profession. 

In November, 1892, Mr. Gifford was elected district attorney of 
Greene county, being the second republican to hold that office in the 
history of the county, and in 1895 he was re-elected. As district at- 
torney he has made a high reputation for ability and conscientious 
devotion to official duty. He conducted, without assistance, the pros- 
ecutions of George W. Hess, indicted for murder in the second de- 

1 Brooks's " History of the Common Pleas,' 1 p. 131. 




166 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

gree for the killing of Hezekiah Bedell, and Pasquale Caserta, tried 
for murder in the second degree for the killing of bis cousin, Joseph 
Caserta. Jn the Hess case the prisoner, although ably defended by 
Honorable Jacob H. Clute and Honorable Eugene Burlingame, was 
convicted of manslaughter in the first degree, and the conviction was 
subsequently affirmed. In the case of Caserta (the accused being de- 
fended by Egbert Palmer, of Catskill) a verdict of murder in the sec- 
ond degree was obtained. Both cases excited great public interest 
and rank among the most celebrated criminal suits ever tried in the 
County of Greene. 

and rank among the most celebrated criminal suits ever tried in the 
daughter of Clark Porter, of Athens. 




IFFORD, SILAS DEVOL (born in Columbia county, New 
York, December 31, 1826; died at Tuckahoe, Westchester 
county, New York, September 15, 1895), was the son of 
Isaac S. Gilford and Annis Ford. His father was a promi- 
nent baptist minister, and his grandfather, Amaziah Gifford, served 
in the continental army for four years. Judge Gifford attended the 
public schools of his native town, was prepared for college, and was 
graduated from Williams College. He taught school for one year at 
Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown. Relinquishing pedagogy, he entered the 
law office of Honorable Robert S. Hart, of White Plains, New York, 
was admitted to the bar in 1852, and opened an office in Morrisania, 
on old 5th street (now East 167th street, New York City). 

Becoming prominent in his profession and in republican politics, 
Judge Gifford was appointed town superintendent of public schools. 
In 1856 he was elected justice of the peace and was re-elected at the 
close of his term. In 1862 he was appointed by Governor Morgan sur- 
rogate of Westchester county to fill the vacancy caused by the death 
of Robert H. Coles. He was elected supervisor of Morrisania in 1870 
and in 1871 county judge of Westchester. He remained upon the 
bench until 1883. Upon his retirement he was presented with a mag- 
nificent gavel by the attache's of the court as a mark of appreciation 
of his courtesy and ability. 

He was a member of the recruiting committee during the civil war 
and was instrumental in raising several companies of volunteers. He 
married Elizabeth, daughter of John Rae, by whom he had two chil- 
dren, Jessie and Stanley Pelham Gifford. The latter is a mining en- 
gineer. In April, 1873, Judge Gifford changed his residence from 
Morrisania, New York, to Marble Hall, Tuckahoe, Westchester 
county, where he resided continuously until his death. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 167 

fILDERSLEEVE, HENRY ALGER (bom in Dutchess 
county, New York, August 1, 1840), is descended from an 
old Dutch family, and was brought up on his father's farm 
with the limited educational advantages of such a position. 
In 1862 he recruited a company (Company C. of the 150th New York 
volunteers), and participated with his command in the battle of Get- 
tysburg and the subsequent campaign in Maryland and Virginia. In 
1863 he was assigned to special duty in recruiting and forwarding 
troops, but requesting active service with his regiment again in 1861, 
was with Sherman in Georgia, and until the close of the war. He was 
made provost marshal of the 1st division, 20th army corps, and in 
1865 was commissioned major and breveted lieutenant-colonel " for 
gallant and meritorious service"; while he was congratulated by 
Generals Slocuni and Williams for his services before the capture of 
Savannah. 

Judge Gildersleeve was subsequently connected with the national 
guard of New York. He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 
12th regiment in 1870, and became one of the incorporators and direc- 
tors of the National Rifle Association, serving as its secretary, and 
subsequently as its president. He was captain of the company of 
American riflemen sent to Ireland in 1875, and was offered by Gover- 
nor Dix the position of general inspector of rifle practice upon the cre- 
ation of that office, but declined. 

Upon his return from the field Judge Gildersleeve studied law in 
New York City, attending the Columbia College Law School, and was 
admitted to the bar in May, 1866. He acquired a successful practice 
as a jury lawyer in both civil and criminal cases, frequently serving 
as referee. 

In 1875 be was elected a judge of the Court of General Sessions of 
New York City, his term of office expiring December 30, 1889. In 
May, 1891, Governor Hill appointed him a justice of the Superior 
Court of the City of New York, and the following fall he was elected 
for the full term of fourteen years, beginning January 1, 1892. Under 
the constitution of 1S94 he was transferred to the Supreme Court. 
Very few of his decisions have been reversed by the higher courts. 




JILLETTE, JOHN (born in Palmyra, Wayne county, New 
York, November 18, 1840), is the son of John and Margaret 
Gillette. His paternal grandfather emigrated to this state 
from New England and resided at Kinderhook, being a 
neighbor of Martin Van Buren. 

John Gillette received a common school education and went 
through the high school at Palmyra. He did not attend college, 
though prepared to enter. He studied for the legal profession in the 
office of Aldrich & McLouth, at Palmyra, and was admitted to the bar 



168 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

at Rochester in 1864. Soon afterward be engaged in practice at Can- 
andaigua, where he has since continued. He has devoted himself 
exclusively to his profession, and has uniformly declined to accept 
public office or to become interested actively in concerns not related 
to his professional pursuits. As a lawyer he has long been prominent 
at the bar of his part of the state, has been constantly connected with 
litigations of importance, and has been employed by various corpora- 
tions as their legal representative. He has had an extensive practice 
in many counties as a trial lawyer. Among his clients have been the 
JEtna Life Insurance Company, the Mutual Life Insurance Company, 
and the Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York. He is now at- 
torney for the Pennsylvania & Northern Central Railroad Company, 
and has for years been attorney in negligence cases brought against 
railway companies and municipal corporations, having tried as many 
such suits as any lawyer of his section. He has also taken part in a 
number of exciting criminal actions, notably the case of Frank Law- 
rence, tried for murder, in which he appeared for the defense. 




>fLUCK, JAMES FRASER (born in Niagara Falls, New York, 
April 28, 1852), was graduated in 1874 at Cornell Univer- 
sity, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and rose to 
prominence in the profession. He is a member of the emi- 
nent Buffalo law firm of McMillan, Gluck, Pooley & Depew (Daniel H. 
McMillan, James F. Gluck, Charles A. Pooley, and Ganson Depew). 
He is attorney for the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad 
Company, and other corporations. 

Mr. Gluck has been prominent in politics, and holds the office of 
president of the Central Republican Club of Erie county. His work 
in perfecting the organization of his party in Buffalo has attracted 
attention throughout the United States. 

He is curator of the Buffalo library, and has presented that library 
with one of the most valuable collections of autographs, manuscripts, 
and letters in the United States. It includes complete book manu- 
scripts of 106 eminent American and English authors; letters, ad- 
dresses, essays, and other autograph fragments (in many cases a 
large number of an author's manuscripts) of about one hundred emi- 
nent American men and women of letters; of eighty-eight eminent 
English men and women; a small collection of manuscripts of French, 
German, and other continental authors; Latin missals of the fifteenth 
century, Persian scripts, and many American and English historical 
documents, seals, and other relics. 

Mr. Gluck is also a trustee of Cornell, a trustee of the Buffalo Acad- 
emy of Sciences, and vice-president of the State Bar Association. 

Among his public addresses are the following: "The Position of the 
Scholar in Politics," delivered before the Cornell Alumni in 1S77; 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 169 

" The Power and Influence of Music," at the laying of the corner- 
stone of the new Music Hall in Buffalo, and " The Responsibilities 
and Eights of the Medical Profession," at the commencement of the 
University of Buffalo. 1 



GOODWILL, JOHNSON VAN BUKEN (born in Darien, Gen- 
county, New York, January 6, 1S37), is the son of 
Johnson and Livonia M. Goodwill. He was educated in the 
common schools, studied law with M. T. Jenkins and at the 
Albany Law School, was admitted to the bar at Albany in December, 
18G2, and has since practiced at East Randolph. He is the head of the 
firm of Goodwill & Benson. 





jREEN, ELEAZER (born in Remsen, Oneida county, New 
York, March 16, 1846), is the son of Eleazor Green and Syl- 
vina Kent. After attending the common schools he com- 
pleted his education at the Westfield Academy. He re- 
ceived his office training for the law with Cook & Lockwood (Orsell 
Cook and Clark R. Lockwood), and was graduated at the Albany Law 
School, with the degree of bachelor of laws, in May, 1868, being ad- 
mitted to the bar at Albany upon his graduation. He began the 
practice of his profession in May, 1870, at Jamestown, where he still 
continues, being the head of the firm of Green & Woodbury (organized 
in 1894). 

Mr. Green was mayor of the City of Jamestown from 1894 to 1S96. 
Since January 1, 1896, he has been district attorney of Chautauqua 
countv. 




fREENE, GEORGE CALEB (born in Ballston Spa, New York, 
January 16, 1833), is the son of William Peter Greene and 
Mary Hough. He was educated in the common schools and 
at Chester Academy (Chestertown, New York), studied law 
with William H. Greene, of Chestertown, and Woods & Murray, of 
Lockport, and was admitted to the bar at Buffalo on January 12, 
1857. 

From 1857 until 1881 Mr. Greene was a general practitioner at 
Lockport. In 1881 he established himself at Buffalo, where he still 
resides, becoming the head of the prominent firm of Greene, McMil- 
lan & Gluck. He retired from this partnership in 1887, when he dis- 
continued general practice, and has ever since devoted himself to his 
duties as general counsel of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern 
Railway Company. 

1 This sketch is reproduced from Appleton's " Cyclopedia of American Biography." 



170 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Mr. Greene was appointed canal appraiser of the State of Xew 
York in 1870. He served in that office three years, and was there- 
after special counsel for the state in several important cases. 



REEXE, WILLIAM H., was born near Boston, Massachu- 
setts, August 31, 1812, and died in Buffalo, Xew York, 
April 21, 1882. At the age of fifteen he entered Dartmouth 
College, and he was graduated from that institution with 
the first honors. For a time he conducted a select school in Skane- 
ateles, New York, and while thus engaged he studied law in the office 
of Lewis H. Sanford. Being admitted to the bar, he entered into part- 
nership in Buffalo, in 1836, with Thomas T. Sherwood. After Mr. 
Sherwood's death he was associated for some years with William C. 
Bryant. He lived and practiced in Buffalo, and was one of the 
foremost leaders of the bar. Devoted to his profession, in which 
he was a most indefatigable worker, his career was strictly that of a 
lawyer, and he never held or was a candidate for public office. 

Mr. Greene was regarded by his professional brethren as one of 
the best read and best equipped lawyers of his generation. One of 
the old school, he never took kindly to the modern code-makers of 
law practice. An intense litigant, he always refused to accept defeat 
so long as there was the power of appeal. He had absolute confidence 
in his own legal judgments, a characteristic which gave point to his 
definition of law, as " the power of decision." He was a man of great 
pleasantry and wit, and his bon mots were always current, and are still 
remembered. He possessed very scholarly and cultivated tastes, 
and in his library and home he found his recreation and diversion 
from the labors of his profession. Highly successful in his practice, 
he accumulated large means, to which he added by fortunate invest- 
ments in Buffalo real estate. 

In politics Mr. Greene was a Clay whig and subsequently a repub- 
lican. He was identified with various institutions and societies. He 
was for a time a trustee of the State Normal School in Buffalo, and he 
was also a member and president of the Buffalo Historical Society. 

A widow, two sons, and a daughter survive him. 




IRISWOLD, JOHN A. (born in the Town of Cairo, Greene 
county, New York, November 18, 1S22), is the son of Ste- 
phen II. Griswold and Phoebe Ashly. His most remote 
known ancestor was George Griswold, of Kenilworth, 
Norwich county, England, whose two sons, Matthew and Edward, 
emigrated from there to Connecticut in 1(539. The Griswold family 
descended from them has for generations been one of the most prom- 
inent families of Connecticut, numbering anion"' its members two 




'U&7-U* 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



171 



governors, several judges, and other officials of the state and national 
governments. 

John A. Griswold received a common school and academic educa- 
tion, and at the age of eighteen entered the law office of Griswold & 
Corning at Syracuse. He afterward studied in the office of the firm 
of the late John Adams and Justice Malbone Watson, at Catskill, 




JOHN A. GRISWOLD. 



Greene county. He was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court 
of this state in September, 1848, and in the Supreme Court of the 
United States in December, 1869. 

His professional business has been of the usual general character, 
and he is still engaged in its active practice at his home, Catskill. 
Throughout his long career he has enjoyed a high reputation at the 



172 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

bar of that part of the state, and at various times be bas been con- 
nected with suits of much public interest. During the civil war be 
brought an action in bebalf of one Albert W. Patrie against United 
States Marshal Robert Murray and bis deputy Buckley, charging 
them with assault and false imprisonment in arresting and confining 
him for some days in Fort Lafayette on account of alleged " disloyal 
language " against the national administration. Mr. Griswold ob- 
tained for his client a verdict for $9,000 damages, which was subse- 
quently affirmed with costs by the United States Supreme Court. 

He was elected district attorney of Greene county in 1S57, surro- 
gate and county judge in 1864, a member of the 41st congress in 1868, 
and served as a member of the state constitutional convention of 
1894. In that body he strenuously opposed the provision prohibiting 
or restricting the labor of convicts in the state prisons. He also op- 
posed the amendment authorizing the appropriation of $9,000,000 for 
the widening of the canals to be used free and without tolls, main- 
taining that it would operate mainly for the benefit of citizens of 
other states, to the detriment of agriculturists of this state on both 
sides of the Hudson river and to and near the Pennsylvania line, who 
would be compelled to pay by taxation for the improvement really 
tending to their own injury. He was one of the strongest opponents 
of the female suffrage amendment, contending that it would have the 
effect of degrading not only the female sex but the entire people. 

In 1857 Mr. Griswold married Elizabeth H. Roberts, of Clintondale, 
Ulster countv, who died November 8, 1890. 




UERNSEY, DANIEL WEBSTER (born in Stanford, 
Dutchess county, New York, March 29, 1834), is a son of 
Stephen Gano and Eleanor Bogers Guernsey. He is a de- 
scendant of John Guernsey, who was one of the New Haven 
colony in 1638. The Guernseys are a very old New York state family. 
John Guernsey, grandson of the first John, removed from Connecticut 
to Amenia, New York, in 1709. The Sogers family, to which Mr. 
Guernsey's mother belonged, came from Connecticut. 

Daniel W. Guernsey was educated at district school, at a private 
school maintained by his father and Colonel J. Thompson for several 
years, and at Rose Hill Academy (Newburgh, New York). He en- 
tered the law office of Talcott & Thompson, at Buffalo, and later stud- 
ied with Honorable George W. Houghton (judge of the Superior 
Court) and bis partner, Delavan F. Clark. He was admitted to the 
bar in 1856. From 1857 to January, 1861, he was engaged in practice 
at Valley Falls, Kansas. Returning to this state he located at Pough- 
keepsie, where he still resides. 

In September, 1862, he enlisted as a private in the New York 
state volunteer infantry. He continued in the service through- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YORK 173 

out the war, being discharged August 30, 1865, with the rank of cap- 
tain. He took part in various memorable battles, assaults, and ex- 
peditions. He was present at the taking of Forts Wagner and Gregg, 
fought at Petersburg and Cold Harbor, and was engaged in both Fort 
Fisher expeditions and the final skirmish at Wilmington, where as 
senior officer he was in command of his regiment. 

Resuming his law practice after the war he advanced to prominence 
at the Poughkeepsie bar. For twelve years, from 1884 to 1896, he 
held the office of judge of Dutchess county. 




UERNSEY, STEPHEN GANO (born in Stanford, Dutchess 
county, New York, April 22, 1848), is a son of Stephen 
Gano and Eleanor Rogers Guernsey, and a brother of 
Judge Daniel W. Guernsey (noticed above). He attended 
the public schools and Fort Edward Institute, studied law with his 
brother and Honorable Charles Wheaton, and was admitted to the 
bar in May, 1871, at Poughkeepsie, where he began, and still con- 
tinues, in the active practice of his profession. From 1874 to 1876, in- 
clusive, he held the office of deputy county clerk, and from 1S90 to 
1894 he was a member of the board of education of Poughkeepsie. 
Since 1892 he has been president of the Poughkeepsie National Bank. 




UTHRIE, WILLIAM DAMERON (born in San Francisco, 
California, February 3, 1S59), is the son of George Whitney 
Guthrie and Emma Gosson. He received his early educa- 
tion in Paris, where his family lived from 1861 until 1870. 
The two years following were spent at school in England. He then 
returned to this country, and after two years' attendance at the pub- 
lic schools in New York City he was obliged to support himself. He 
entered the office of Blatchford, Seward, Griswold & Da Costa as 
clerk and stenographer at the age of sixteen, studying indefatigably 
at night, reading law and pursuing other studies. At the end of four 
years he gave up active work in the office for a year and attended 
Columbia College Law School, carrying the work of junior and senior 
classes at the same time, completing the course in one year. He was 
admitted to the bar in New York City in May, 1880. Returning to the 
office of Blatchford, Seward, Griswold & Da Costa as managing clerk, 
in three years' time he was admitted to the firm, which in 1885 was re- 
organized as Seward, Da Costa & Guthrie, and subsequently changed 
to Seward, Guthrie, Morawetz & Steele. 

Since his admission to the bar, a large share of the important busi- 
ness of the firm has been intrusted to Mr. Guthrie. In jury cases he 
has been signally successful and he has shown ability in unraveling 
many complicated equity cases. His firm has always represented 




174 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

large interests, and he has been connected with heavy financial trans- 
actions and has successfully adjusted many complicated matters in 
corporation re-organizations. His arguments in the income tax cases 
and in other important matters have attracted the attention of law- 
yers and judges by reason of their force, literary merit, and scholar- 
ship. 

Mr. Guthrie has paid large attention to general literature. Few 
college men have wider classical attainments or a greater familiarity 
with the works of the great orators and with English and French 
literature. He has prepared and delivered various addresses upon 
subjects connected with the lives of leading generals of the war as 
well as upon legal and literary subjects. While his devotion to his 
profession is thorough and unremitting, concentrating all his efforts 
thereon, he has taken a deep interest in politics and has achieved 
success as a political orator. 



ALL, CHARLES SAMUEL, was born in Middletown, Con- 
necticut, May 10, 1S27, and in 1837 removed with his par- 
ents to Binghamton, New York. He is the eldest son of 
Samuel Holden Parsons Hall and his wife, Emeline Bulk- 
eley. The first of his line in this country was John Hall (Boston, 
1633), who settled first in New Haven and afterward in Wallingford, 
Connecticut. He numbers among his ancestors Reverend John Eliot, 
the apostle to the Indians; Reverend Richard Mather, Reverend 
Charles Chauncy, second president of Harvard College; Reverend 
Peter Bulkeley, founder of Concord; Henry Woleott and Matthew 
Griswold, the founders of the noted families of those names; Gover- 
nor William Brenton, of Rhode Island, and Governors Thomas 
Welles and Jonathan Law, of Connecticut. General Samuel Holden 
Parsons, of the continental army, was his great-grandfather, and 
Governor Lyman Hall, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, 
his cousin. On his father's side he traces back to Hugh Capet, and 
on his mother's to the Emperor Charlemagne. His family is dis- 
tinctively a New England family, nearly every ancestor having come 
to this country during the great puritan immigration which com- 
menced in 1630, and no ancestor of his having removed therefrom 
until his father, afterward prominent in New York politics and a 
member for two terms of the New York senate, settled in Bingham- 
ton. 

Mr. Hall was prepared for college in the Binghamton schools, and 
in the fall of 1841 entered Yale College, graduating with the class 
of 1818, in which were several noted lawyers, including Judge Na- 
thaniel Shipman, of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals; 
Judge Dwight Foster, of the Massachusetts Supreme Court; Honor- 
able Henry Hitchcock, of Saint Louis; Sidney Webster, of New York; 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 175 

Isaac S. Newton, of Norwich, aud Samuel C. Perkins, of Philadelphia. 
In September, 184S, Mr. Hall entered the Yale Law School. After 
finis hin g the course he continued his studies in the office of Daniel 
S. Dickinson, United States senator from New York. In August, 

1850, he received from Yale College the degree of LL.B., and in 1851 
that of A.M. He was admitted to the bar in this state in January, 

1851, to the United States District Court in May, 1879, and to the 
United States Circuit Court in August of the same year. He was 
appointed United States commissioner for the northern district of 
New York on December 13, 1856, and master and examiner in chan- 
cery in November, 1879, which offices he continues to hold. Mr. 
Hall has since resided in Binghamton, where he is still in the practice 
of his profession, much of his time being occupied with the care of 
estates. He has held several important positions in the city govern- 
ment, and at the request of a committee of which Mr. Dickinson was 
a member drafted the charter of the city and later revised the school 
laws. He was engaged in the famous Dwight insurance case, having 
charge of the defense for the New England Life Insurance Company. 

Mr. Hall has been a frequent writer on matters of public interest. 
In 1854 he published an article entitled " Why the Missouri Com- 
promise Should be Repealed," which was extensively copied with 
more or less favorable comments, according to the politics of the 
critic. He has also published articles on the relations of the states 
and the general government, on the currency, and on education. 
Within the past year the Putnams have issued for him a book of five 
hundred pages, consisting of sketches of the lineal ancestors of his 
family, which has been received with considerable approval. 

In the critical campaign of 1896 he was the candidate of the na- 
tional or sound money democrats for representative in congress in 
the 26th congressional district, comprising the Counties of Broome, 
Chenango, Delaware, Tioga, and Tompkins. 




| AND, WALTER MARTIN (born in Binghamton, New York, 
August 9, 1851), is the son of Doctor Stephen D. and El- 
mina H. Hand. His father was a native of Berkshire 
county, Massachusetts, was a schoolmate of Samuel J. Til- 
den at New Lebanon, and was a prominent citizen of Binghamton. 
representing the county in the state constitutional convention of 
1867. He died in March, 1879, at the age of seventy-three. His 
mother, who died in May, 1897, at the age of ninety, was a descendant 
of the Granger family. He attended the Binghamton public schools, 
and was graduated from Hamilton College in the class of 1872. He 
then entered the office of Peter W. Hopkins (state senator and district 
attorney), and on January 13, 1S76, was admitted to the bar at Al- 
bany. He has since practiced successfullv at Binghamton. 




176 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

fASSETT, JAMES JOHN (born in Elmira, New York, Sep- 
tember 14, 1873), is the eldest son of ex-Alderman P. Has- 
sett, of Elmira, who has been actively engaged in business 
in that city for the past twenty-five years. He attended 
Grammar School No. 5 of Elmira, and then entered the Elmira Free 
Academy, where he pursued a special course of study selected with 
particular reference to equipping him for his chosen profession. 
From this institution he was graduated in 1892. He then took the 
three years' course in the law department of Cornell University, being 
graduated in 1894. Meantime, during his vacations, he was a clerk in 
the law offices of Babcock, Baxter & Gibson, of Elmira, with whom 
he continued after his graduation. He was admitted to the bar at 
Syracuse, October 1, 1895. He had previously for a considerable time 
conducted actions in the different courts of record. On January 1, 
1897, the old firm of Babcock, Baxter & Gibson having been dis- 
solved, Mr. Hassett associated himself with one of its members, Jud- 
son A. Gibson. Besides attending to his own clientage, he has beeu 
engaged in completing the business of the former firm and attending 
to the trial of cases pending in the appellate courts. He and his part- 
ner, Mr. Gibson, are rapidly acquiring a large practice and becoming 
prominent trial lawyers, both of civil and criminal causes. 




ATCH, EDWARD W. (born in Friendship, Allegany county, 
New York, November 26, 1842), is the son of Jeremiah 
Hatch, a native of Vermont. Jeremiah Hatch was a class- 
mate of the poet John G. Saxe at Middlebury College, re- 
moved to Allegany county, New York, and engaged in the practice of 
law at Oramel. In the fall of 1862 he raised a company of infantry and 
went to the war as a captain in the 130th New York volunteers. Con- 
tracting a disease in the service, he died in December of the same year. 
The son was thus left an orphan at the age of ten. He remained at 
school until his fourteenth year, when he obtained employment in a 
blacksmith's shop. He continued to work at the blacksmithing trade 
until 1872. He then entered the law office of Andrew J. Lorish, at At- 
tica. Removing to Buffalo in 1875 he continued his studies with Cor- 
lett & Tabor. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1876, and the next 
year established with Mr. Corlett the firm of Corlett & Hatch. After 
Mr. Corlett's elevation to the bench of the Supreme Court, in January, 
1884, he entered into partnership with H. W. Box and Porter Norton 
in the firm of Box, Hatch & Norton. As a practitioner his abilities 
soon gained for him prominence at the bar, especially as an advocate. 
He also became active in politics as a supporter of the republican 
party, being particularly effective as a campaign speaker. 

From 1881 until 1887 he held the office of district attorney of Erie 
county, to which he was twice elected. Since January 1, 18S6, he has 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 177 

been one of the justices of the Supreme Court for the 8th judicial dis- 
trict, having been elected to succeed Honorable Loran L. Lewis in 
that position. He is a member of the appellate division of the court 
for the 2d department. 

Justice Hatch was married, Mar 24, 1880, to Helen Woodruff, of 
Conneaut, Ohio. 




AVEN, SOLOMON G., lawyer and statesman (born in Eaton, 
Chenango county, New York, November 27, 1810; died in 
Buffalo, New York, December 24, 18G1), was the son of Asa 
Haven, a descendant of the Haven family of Lynn, Massa- 
chusetts. 

He was brought up on a farm, attending district school winters, 
until seventeen years of age, when he commenced the study of law 
in the office of Governor John Young, of Geneseo, New York, with 
whom he remained until admitted to the bar. Upon admission, in 
1835, he removed to Buffalo, and after practicing alone for a few 
months formed a co-partnership with Millard Fillmore and Nathan 
K. Hall, under the firm name of Fillmore, Hall & Haven. Mr. Fill- 
more was already a member of congress and a rising man in national 
politics, and Mr. Hall was soon to be elevated to the bench. It is 
worthy of note that each member of this firm subsequently attained 
national renown — Mr. Fillmore as president of the United States, 
Mr. Hall as postmaster-general under Fillmore's administration, and 
Mr. Haven as a member of the United States congress during the 
same administration, the three being re-united in conspicuous promi- 
nence at Washington. The law partnership continued until January, 
1841, when Judge Hall, elected to the bench, withdrew. Messrs. Fill- 
more and Haven pursued business together until December, 1847, 
when, Mr. Fillmore having been elected comptroller of the State of 
New York, Mr. Haven succeeded to the clientage of the firm. In 
1848 he formed a partnership with James M. Smith, which continued 
until 1857, Mr. Smith then withdrawing to engage in banking. With 
the exception of a brief business association with William Dors- 
heimer in I860, Mr. Haven continued practice the remaining four 
years of his life alone. 

As a lawyer he was devotedly attached to his profession, relin- 
quishing it only under the compulsion of failing health. He was an 
indefatigable worker to the extent of disregarding recreation, and 
even fatally overtaxing his energies. For years, by common consent, 
he occupied the front rank at the bar in western New York. He was 
distinguished for strong, clear perception and self-reliance, for earn- 
estness, directness, and cool determination before a jury, and for his 
thorough knowledge of the law and compact logic before the court. 

In his public career Mr. Haven was scarcely less eminent than at 



178 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

the bar. In 1844 be was appointed district attorney of Erie county, 
and in 1846 was elected mayor of Buffalo. In 1850 be was elected to 
tbe bouse of representatives, and be was re-elected in 1852, and again 
in 1S54. In congress be was conspicuous for bis industry, bonesty, 
and straightforward independent course, was a ready debater, and 
though in the minority maintained a position of influence in a criti- 
cal period of national history. He was active in securing the appro- 
priation for the post-office and custom-house at Buffalo. In politics 
be was a conservative whig, retaining bis cherished principles unaf- 
fected by political changes. 

Mr. Haven died suddenly of heart disease, December 24, 1861. At a 
memorial meeting of tbe Buffalo bar, held December 26, nearly tbe 
entire bar of the city, the justices of the Supreme and Superior Courts, 
and many prominent citizens being present, the following resolution 
was adopted: 

Resolved, That while we bear this public testimony to his professional stand- 
ing, a just appreciation of the character of the deceased requires that we should 
make special commendation of the care and scrupulousness with which he per- 
formed every public and every private duty, of his probity and uprightness as 
a citizen, of his prudence and wisdom as a statesman, and of the geniality of 
his temper, which never failed to win the hearts of all who approached him. 
The political and professional contests in which he bore so prominent a part 
did not excite bitterness of feeling in his heart. The weapons which passion 
gives to some men were unknown to him. His victories were won by the in- 
fluence of a sunny and gentle disposition, by the play of unfailing wit, by con- 
stant industry and varied learning, and by the force of a strong, vigorous, and 
comprehensive intellect. 

In 183S Mr. Haven married Harriett N. Scott, daughter of Doctor 
William K. Scott, of Buffalo. Of his four children, three of whom 
survived him, two are now living — Mrs. Charles Day, of New York 
City, and Ida, who resides with her mother in Buffalo. 




AWES, JAMES WILLIAM (born in Chatham, Massachu- 
setts, July 9, 1844), is the son of James Hawes and Susan- 
nah Taylor, and is lineally descended from Edmond Hawes, 
who came from England in 1635 and was prominent in tbe 
affairs of Plymouth colony. He is also descended from Stephen Hop- 
kins, one of the passengers of the Mayflower. He received his early 
education in tbe public schools and tbe high school of Chatham, Mas- 
sachusetts, was graduated from Harvard College at the head of his 
class in 1866, attended the Harvard Law School one year, being at the 
same time instructor in mathematics in tbe college, spent some 
months in the office of Hawkins & Cotbren, of New York City, and was 
admitted to tbe New York bar in November, 1868. He has continu- 
ously practiced in this city since. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 179 

Among his interesting cases are the following: Miner vs. Beekman 
(50 N. Y., 337), first determining the statute of limitations in this 
state applicable to an action to redeem mortgaged premises; Harper 
vs. Skoppell (23 Blatchf., 431), involving questions under the copy- 
right law; Smith vs. Gold and Stock Telegraph Company (42 Hun, 
454), holding that in furnishing stock quotations a telegraph com- 
pany is a quasi common carrier and must serve the public without dis- 
crimination; Beiss vs. New York Steam Company (128 N. Y., 103), re- 
lating to the proof necessary to establish negligence in the manage- 
ment of steam apparatus; Nirdlinger vs. Bernheimer (133 N. Y., 45), 
holding a sub-partner entitled to an account of the business of the 
firm; Francis vs. New York Steam Company (114 N. Y., 380), in which 
he sought to hold a passenger on a horse-car in a city to the same 
measure of care respecting exposure of his person out of a window as 
on a railroad; People ex rel. Barron vs. Martin (48 State B., 288), 
where, as counsel for the republican county committee, he applied for 
a writ of prohibition against the board of police to obtain a decision 
on the question of what constituted a quorum of inspectors of elec- 
tion. He was counsel for one of the defendants in Belden vs. Burke, 
involving 1 8,000,000 of the mortgage bonds of the Columbus, Hocking 
Valley & Toledo Bailway Company (33 State K,, 1019; 20 Supp., 320, 
72 Hun, 51). In 1890, appearing before the board of health, he suc- 
cessfully defended the New York Steam Company against a proceed- 
ing to declare its pipes in Broadway a nuisance. In 1884, as counsel 
for John N. Stearns and other taxpayers, he conducted an examina- 
tion of the park commissioners under section 60 of the consolidation 
act. 

Mr. Hawes participated in the overthrow of Tweed in 1871, and has 
been active in the cause of good government in New York City from 
that time to the present. He was one of the Cooper Union committee 
of fifty-three chosen in 1884 to secure reform measures at Albany, as 
well as one of the sub-committee that did the actual work of that 
committee. Previously, in 1883, he had been chosen one of the Cooper 
Union committee of sixty to secure legislation looking to an increased 
water supply by an economical method, free from partisan control. 
In 1885 he was an active member of the committee that drafted and 
submitted to the legislature a constitutional amendment separating 
municipal from state elections, and was a member of the committee 
of the Kepublican Club which, in August, 1885, successfully advo- 
cated before the republican state committee an increase of the num- 
ber of delegates to state conventions. In 1886 he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the Academy of Music citizens' committee of one hundred, and 
was a member of its executive committee and chairman of the sub- 
committee on its general policy. In the same year he was chairman 
of the joint committee of the Bepublican Club of the City of New 
York, the Young Men's Democratic clubs of New York and Brooklyn, 



180 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

the City Reform Club, ami three other organizations to secure an af- 
firmative vote of the people on the question of calling a constitu- 
tional convention. He was chairman in 1893 and 1894 of the commit- 
tee of the Republican Club, which drafted and submitted amend- 
ments to the constitutional convention of 1891 which became the 
basis of part of its action. In 1891 he was chairman of a committee 
that prepared a bill for compulsory voting. He has also been the 
originator of various movements to secure ballot reform. 

He has been active in connection with the management of the re- 
publican party, serving as an officer of assembly district organiza- 
tions, a member of the county committee, and a delegate to state con- 
ventions. He was one of the organizers of the Republican League of 
the United States in 1887, and the first chairman of the executive 
committee of the New York Republican State League. In 1881 and 
1882 he was a member of the board of aldermen of New York City, 
and in that body was chairman of the committee on law department. 
In 1885 he was the republican candidate for justice of the City Court 
(in 1895 declining the anti-Tammany nomination for the same office), 
and in 1890 was anti-Tammany candidate for president of the board 
of aldermen. From 1882 to 1884 he was president of the Republican 
Club of the City of New York, and for two years thereafter chairman 
of its executive committee. He is a member of the Bar Association of 
the city, was one of the incorporators of the Harvard Club in 1S87, and 
is a member, and in 1881 and 1882 was president, of the Pin Beta 
Kappa Alumni in New York. 

lie was a regular contributor to Appleton's " American Cyclopae- 
dia " from 1873 to 1876, to Appleton's " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 
several years, and to Kiddle and Schem's " Cyclopaedia of Educa- 
tion " (1877). He is author of " Legislative Reform " (Columbia Jurist, 
January 21, 1886); "The New Constitution of Brazil" {Overland 
Monthly, February, 1892); and "The Guarany " (Overland Monthly, 
1893), a Brazilian romance translated from the Portuguese. In 1881 
he delivered an address on Garfield before the board of aldermen in 
New York City, and he has delivered addresses on public and political 
subjects on other important occasions. 




AYS, DANIEL PEIXOTTO (born in Pleasantville, West- 
chester county, New York, March 28, 1854), is the son of 
David Hays and Judith Peixotto, and a direct descendant 
of Jacob Hays, who was high constable of New York dur- 
ing the period of the Revolution. His great-grandfather served with 
credit in the patriot army during the revolutionary war, and the 
homestead purchased by him at the close of that memorable struggle 
is still in possession of Mr. Hays. He attended the 13th street public 
school in the City of New York, and was graduated from the College 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 181 

of the City of New York in 1873. Entering the Columbia College Law 
School, he was graduated in 1875. Having accepted a position as 
office boy in the law office of Carpentier & Beach while pursuing his 
studies, at the time of his graduation he had advanced to the position 
of managing clerk with this firm, and in 1877 was taken into partner- 
ship with the senior member, ex-Judge Beach, the new firm becoming 
Beach & Hays. A few months later, on the death of Judge Beach, 
Mr. Hays formed a co-partnership with James S. Carpentier, the re- 
maining member of the old firm, which was maintained until the 
death of the latter in 1885. He then became associated with Mr. 
Samuel Greenbaum under the present firm style of Hays & Green- 
baum. 

As a lawyer Mr. Hays ranks among the leaders of his profession. 
He has managed with ability and success many important cases that 
have come before the New York courts, notably that of General Adam 
Badeau against the executors of General Grant's estate for services 
in writing the " Grant Memoirs." He was counsel for General 
Sickles while the latter was sheriff of New York county, and is his 
attorney at the present time. Mr. Hays argued the case for General 
Sickles against Ashbel Green and others, trustees of a railroad mort- 
gage, in the United States Supreme Court. He also argued before 
the Court of Appeals and won the case of the People against Wilmer- 
ding, involving the right of the state to tax goods sold at auction, 
arguing against the constitutionality of the law. 

In November, 1893, Mr. Hays was appointed commissioner of ap- 
praising relative to the changing of grades in the 23d and 24th wards, 
New York City, and the same year was made civil service commis- 
sioner and elected chairman of the board upon the death of the pre- 
ceding chairman. He has always taken an active interest in politics 
as a democrat. He was a delegate to the state convention from Rock- 
land county which nominated David B. Hill for governor. He pur- 
chased the Nyack City and County, a publication in Nyack, New York, 
with a view to changing its political complexion and giving its sup- 
port to Grover Cleveland. The paper is still a flourishing democratic 
organ. 

Mr. Hays is a member of the Democratic, Lawyers', Reform, Saga- 
more, and Harlem Democratic clubs, of which latter organization he 
was for two years president, and is now chairman of the executive 
committee. 

He Avas married, April 7, 1880, to Rachel, daughter of Aaron Hersh- 
field, of New York. They have five daughters. 



182 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 




AZEL, JOHN R. (bom in Buffalo, New York, December 18, 
1860), is the son of John Raymond Hazel and Adelheit 
Seherzinger. He was educated in the Saint Louis paro- 
chial and common schools, studied law with James C. Ful- 
lerton, and was admitted to the bar in Rochester, April 7, 18S2. He 
soon afterward entered upon practice in Buffalo, where he has been 
engaged continuously until the present time, since 1891 as the head 
of the firm of Hazel & Abbott, his partner being Frank A. Abbott. 

Mr. Hazel has taken an active interest in politics. Since 1893 he 
has been state committeeman of the republican party for the 32d con- 
gressional district. In 1894 and 1895 he held the office of commis- 
sioner of corporation tax in the department of the comptroller of the 
State of New York, and he is now (1897) one of the receivers of the 
Bank of Commerce in Buffalo. 



AZELTINE, ABNER (born in Wardsborough, Vermont. 
June 10, 1792; died in Jamestown, New York, December 
20, 1879), was the son of Daniel Hazeltine and Susaunah 
Jones. His original American ancestors were among the 
earliest settlers of Plymouth colony. His parents removed from east- 
ern Massachusetts to Windham county, Vermont, when that county 
was new. The son's youthful experiences were consequently those 
of privation and hardship. Without the advantage of schools, such as 
the humblest child now enjoys, it was a difficult matter to obtain the 
very beginnings of an education. He made the best use, however, of 
his opportunities, and in a single winter completed " Pike's Arithme- 
tic," the only textbook then available. Not satisfied witb the ordi- 
nary attainments possible to be reached by the farmer's boy in the 
ordinary schools, he eagerly pursued the classical studies necessary 
for admission to college, under the direction of his pastor. He then 
entered Williams College, from which he was graduated in 1815. 

In September of that year he removed to Jamestown, New York, 
then a mere settlement, to which some of his friends and relatives 
had previously emigrated. Having already decided to make the legal 
profession his life-work, he devoted himself assiduously to the study 
of law. In due time he was admitted to practice in the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas, and at the expiration of the regular stated period (as was 
the rule in those days) in the Supreme Court and Court of Chancery. 
Soon afterward he went to live in Warren, Pennsylvania. He re- 
mained there for three years, and then returned to Jamestown, but 
continued to practice in the courts of Pennsylvania, as well as those 
of New York. 

He devoted himself with untiring energy to his profession, and 
pursued it constantly to the end of his long life, never abandoning 
it to engage in other pursuits. The law was his delight, and to it he 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 183 

gave not merely his best energies, but the whole of them. Not gifted 
with eloquence as it is ordinarily defined, or with remarkable bril- 
liancy, it was by great labor and complete and thorough preparation 
of and for every single cause, no matter how small its amount or 
how indifferent its results might be, that he succeeded in obtaining a 
full mastery of the whole subject of the law, and made himself famil- 
iar with its history and the application of its principles. No emer- 
gency found him unprepared, and when seeming difficulties appeared, 
apparently blocking further advance or threatening defeat, he was 
fully equipped. He often achieved success when disaster was immi- 
nent by the complete knowledge he had acquired of the law. It was 
this knowledge that enabled him to elucidate the principles upon 
which the matter in controversy rested, and to show how the appli- 
cation of those principles controlled the case. 

It was not long before his attainments became known to his associ- 
ates. His advice and counsel were sought, and he was, without effort 
or solicitation on his part, placed in positions of honor and trust. In 
1S28 he was elected to the legislature, and again in 1829. Iu 1832 he 
was chosen a representative in congress, to which body he was re- 
elected in 1831. After the adoption of the state constitution of 1846, 
he was elected district attorney, and later county judge. He held 
also, by appointment, for many years, the office of commissioner of 
the Circuit Court of the United States for the northern district of 
New York. But public life had no attractions for him. He was con- 
tent to fill his measure of usefulness to his fellows in his chosen pro- 
fession. His successes were at the bar. There he found a field wide 
and difficult enough to satisfy his greatest ambition and to require 
his closest attention. He was a ready and graceful writer. He found 
his recreation in literature, and was often called upon to write ad- 
dresses on literary and historical subjects. He contributed frequent 
articles to the local newspapers. 

At a meeting of the bar, held after his death, one of his associates 
said: 

It is but a short time, Mr. Chairman, that we heard an argument in this 
court-house, from the Honorable Abner Hazeltine, involving one of the nicest 
and most intricate questions of law, when from his physical appearance, from his 
great age, and apparent weakness, it was hardly to be supposed that we were to 
have an elucidation from him such as we would have expected years before. 
When he took the floor it is true we witnessed some degree of physical weak- 
ness ; but there was yet that strength of mental power that I do not think I 
ever heard Judge Hazeltine himself excel. 

And another said: 

Paramount to all professional duties, he recognized allegiance to the moral 
law. His store of moral virtues exceeded his acquisition of attachable goods. 
Throughout his long life there blended in beautiful harmony the lawyer and the 
honest man, the barrister and the Christian. The confidence of the early set- 



184 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

tiers of this county in his integrity was never equaled by that extended to any 
of his associates or successors. 

Any sketch of Abner Hazeltine would be imperfect that did riot 
make mention of his Christian life and character, for these were so 
marked as to mold and influence the whole man. His religion was 
no formal, outward thing, but was at the very foundation of his char- 
acter, and his entire life was consistent with it. He was one of the 
nine who organized the first church of Christ in Jamestown, in 181(5. 
He continued all his life a pillar in that congregational church, zeal- 
ous for its welfare and strongly attached to it. His counsel and help 
were frequently sought in ecclesiastical matters and difficulties in 
neighboring congregational churches, and also throughout western 
New York. 




AZELTINE, ABXEIJ, Junior, the third son of Abner Hazel- 
tine, the first lawyer who settled in Jamestown, was born 
March 18, 1836. He was in the atmosphere of the law from 
boyhood. While a student in the Jamestown Academy he 
was required in the evenings to copy in his father's office, in long 
hand, as was necessary in those days, before stenography and type- 
writing were in use, the lengthy papers in chancery suits. Thus was 
acquired an early familiarity with legal proceedings that induced him 
to adopt the practice of the law as his profession. When prepared he 
joined the class which was graduated at Williams College in 1856. 
He then returned to his father's office and began seriously the study 
of law. He practiced civil engineering to some extent while so en- 
gaged. In December, 1860, he was admitted to the bar, after com- 
pleting a course of study in the Albany Law School. 

He immediately joined his father in practice at Jamestown, and 
succeeded to the business at his decease. This he has continued to the 
present time. He has held the office of district attorney of Chautau- 
qua county, and for a number of years has been United States Circuit 
Court commissioner. From 1864 to 1868 he served as postmaster of 
Jamestown. His practice has been general, and he has been employed 
in numerous intricate and difficult matters. While devoted to his 
profession he has found time to direct extensive agricultural enter- 
prises. He is largely engaged in developing and improving the dairy 
interests of Chautauqua county, managing a large dairy farm and 
giving much of his time to the improvement of this, the chief agricul- 
tural industry of the region where he lives. He finds pleasure in 
keeping himself familiar with all the improvements and advances 
made in agricultural science, and is often called upon to address farm- 
ers' institutes. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 185 

EADLEY, KUSSEL (born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 
September 27, 1852), is the son of Joel T. and Anna A. 
Headley. After attending Siglar's Preparatory School, 
at Newburgh, he entered Cornell University, from which 
he was graduated in June, 1872. He then pursued legal studies with 
Judge Francis M. Finch and Judge M. H. Hirshberg. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie in May, 1871. Mr. Headley has 
always practiced at Newburgh, being now the head of the firm of 
Headley & McClung, in which Benjamin McClung is associated with 
him. 

He has held the offices of corporation counsel of the City of New- 
burgh (1881-83) and district attorney of Orange county (1883-89). He 
is the author of several well-known and standard legal works — 
" Headley's Criminal and Penal Code," " Headley's Criminal Justice," 
" Headley on Assignments," and " Headley's Privilege and Compe- 
tency of Witnesses." 

Mr. Headley is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution 
and the Manhattan Club of New York City, a trustee of Washington's 
Headquarters Commission, and a director of the Newburgh Historical 
Society. In 1879 he was appointed inspector of rifle practice in the 
17th battalion, New York state national guard, and served therein 
until the battalion was mustered out of service a few years ago. 




EDGES, H. P. (born in East Hampton, New York, October 
13, 1817), is the son of Zephaniah Hedges and Phoebe Par- 
sons Osborn. After attending Clinton Academy, at East 
Hampton, he entered Yale College, from which he was 
graduated in 1838. He studied law one year in the New Haven Law 
School, and later in the offices of David L. Seymour, of Troy, and 
George Miller, of Riverhead. He was admitted to the bar in May, 
1842, after examination at the city hall in New York. In the fall of 
1843 he began practice at Sag Harbor. Ten years later he removed 
to Bridgehampton, where he is still engaged in his profession. 

Mr. Hedges has for more than forty years held a prominent posi- 
tion at the Suffolk county bar. Early in his professional career he 
became specially interested in questions affecting property owner- 
ship in the eastern part of the county. He was connected with the 
suit in relation to the Montauk titles in 1851, and for many years 
he has been engaged in litigations appertaining to Montauk and Shin- 
necock lands. He drew the legislative bill which divided the Shinne- 
cock Hills from the Neck with the Indians, and has had an extensive 
practice in Indian titles. 

He has held the ofiices of member of the legislature (1852), district 
attorney for four years from January 1, 1862, and county judge and 
surrogate (1866-70 and 1874-80). As surrogate he tried several very 



186 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

interesting will eases, notably the Nancy Smith ease, which covered 
one thousand printed pages. 

Judge Hedges has throughout his life taken an especial interest in 
local town and county historical subjects. He delivered the bi-cen- 
tennial address at the East Hampton celebration in 1849, one of the 
bi-centennial addresses in commemoration of the organization of Suf- 
folk county in 1883, and one of the addresses at the fifth semi-centen- 
nial of South Hampton in 1890. He is now engaged upon a history 
of East Hampton. 




EERMANCE, MARTIN (born in Jefferson, Hillsdale county, 
Michigan, December 17, 1852), is the son of Reverend Har- 
rison Heermance and Rebecca A. Van Denbergh. He was 
educated at the De Garmo Classical Institute, Rhinebeck, 
New York, studied law with Essylstyn & McCarty, of Rhinebeck, and 
was admitted to the bar at Brooklyn in September, 1883. He began 
practice at Poughkeepsie, where he is still engaged in active profes- 
sional business. 

Mr. Heermance has held the elective offices of supervisor of the 
Town of Rhinebeck (1881 and 1882) and district attorney of Dutchess 
county (1889 to 1892). In January, 189G, he was appointed state asses- 
sor by Governor Morton. The legislature subsequently changed the 
board of state assessors into a state board of tax commissioners, and 
Mr. Heermance is now (1897) chairman of that board. He is a mem- 
ber of the Holland Society and of the Masonic order, and is a past 
master of Rhinebeck Lodge. 




ENDERSON, WILLIAM HARRISON (born in Tulley, Onon- 
daga county, New York, December 4, 1828; died in Ran- 
dolph, New York, December 5, 1890), was the son of Jo Lin 
and Mary Hunt Henderson. With his parents he removed 
to Cattaraugus county in 1840. He attended the well-known Fre- 
donia Academy for three years, entered the State Normal School at 
Albany, being graduated with honors in the spring of 1848, and dur- 
ing the next two years was engaged in teaching as principal of the 
public school at Randolph, New York. He commenced the study of 
law in 1850 with Honorable Alexander Sheldon, of Randolph, con- 
tinuing with Honorable Joseph E. Weeden, of the same place, and 
was admitted to the bar at the general term held at Buffalo, April 
27, 1852. From that time until his death he was engaged uninter- 
ruptedly in the practice of his profession at Randolph, excepting dur- 
ing the periods of his service as county judge and on the Supreme 
bench of the state. He was first associated with his preceptor, Mr. 
Weeden, and then with Alson E. Levenworth. In 1859 he entered 




//':-//-, 




' /V ' 'V£/>1- t>^l^^'' y '-" 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 187 

into a copartnership with Alexander Wentworth, under the firm 
style of Henderson & Wentworth, which continued until the death 
of Judge Henderson, and which, at that event, was probably the old- 
est continuous law partnership in western New York. 

One of the leaders of the bar of Cattaraugus county, and conspicu- 
ous as a citizen, Judge Henderson, while never seeking public office, 
was ready, when called upon to do so, to contribute his abilities to 
the public service. In politics an earnest supporter of the principles 
of the democratic party, he was nominated by that organization at 
various times for important offices to which his election was made 
impossible by the large republican preponderance in the county. 
His candidacy, however, generally operated to reduce the normal re- 
publican majority. In 1851 he was an unsuccessful candidate for 
county treasurer. On August IS, 1875, Governor Tilden appointed 
him judge of Cattaraugus county to fill a vacancy caused by the death 
of Judge S. S. Spring. Upon the expiration of his term he was his 
party's choice for the same position, and succeeded in cutting down 
the republican majority from 3,000 to about 300. In recognition of 
the marked ability with which he had discharged his duties«as county 
judge, he was appointed by Governor Tilden, March 21, 1876, a jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court for the 8th judicial district, to succeed 
George D. Lamont, deceased. His services upon the bench of the 
highest trial court of the state have been thus described: 

He carried to the bench the same habits of careful study and of painstaking 
research which had characterized him at the bar. His opinions soon began to 
attract attention. They were logical, learned, and exhaustive, critical in anal- 
ysis and comprehensive in reasoning. He shirked uo labor, slighted no cause. 
Kind and courteous to all, yet ever fearless and unswerving in following his 
convictions, he became known and honored as an impartial and upright judge. 
His administration was universally satisfactory and successful. The young men 
of the bar found in him a judge who heard them patiently and respectfully, and 
from whose presence they went away satisfied that whatever might be the fate of 
their cases, they had had a fair and respectful hearing, and would have an honest, 
intelligent decision. His entire service disarmed criticism and won universal 
commendation. 1 

In the fall of 1876 Judge Henderson was the democratic candidate 
to succeed himself upon the Supreme Court bench, but the heavy re- 
publican majority of the district could not be overcome. 

At the centennial celebration of American independence held at 
Olean, July 4, 1876, Judge Henderson presided. In 1879 he was the 
democratic nominee for state senator from the 32d district. He was 
alternate delegate-at-large to the democratic national convention of 
1880, at Cincinnati, sitting in that body in the place of Governor Rob- 
inson, at the governor's request. 

Judge Henderson was active and prominent in connection with 

1 " History of Cattaraugus County." 




188 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

various local interests. He was for ten years president of the State 
Bank of Randolph, and was a director of that institution and of the 
1st National Bank of Salamanca and the People's Bank of East Ran- 
dolph. For many years he was legal adviser of Benjamin Chamber- 
lain, the founder of Chamberlain Institute, and as president of the 
board of trustees of Chamberlain Institute since 1876 carried out the 
plans of the founder. He was also for years president of the board of 
trustees of the Western New York Society for the Protection of 
Homeless and Dependent Children, and under his direction was 
erected the " Home " which now cares for about one hundred and 
forty children, who are being trained and educated until permanent 
homes can be found for them. 



ERENDEEN, EDWARD GIDEON (born in Macedon, Wayne 
county, New York, October 19, 1857), is the son of Edward 
Welcome and Anna Hallett Nickerson Herendeen. He is 
descended in both the paternal and maternal lines from 
ancestors resident in New England for more than two hundred years. 
The original American ancestor of the Herendeen family came to 
Rhode Island with Roger Williams. Mr. Herendeen's mother's fam- 
ily (Nickerson-Crowell-Hallett) is descended from old Cape Cod set- 
tlers. His father removed from Macedon to Geneva, New York, in 
1869. He was president of the Herendeen Manufacturing Company, 
of Geneva, until his death, which occurred early in 1897. 

Edward G. Herendeen received his early education in private 
schools and under the direction of tutors. He later attended the Ge- 
neva Academy and Geneva High School, and in 1S79 was graduated 
with honors at Hobart College, receiving the degree of bachelor of 
arts, an election to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and subsequently 
(1882) the degree of master of arts. While in college he was a member 
of the Kappa Alpha Society. After pursuing legal studies witli the 
late Supreme Court Justice n. Boardman Smith, at Elmira, he was 
admitted to the bar in May, 1882. He immediately entered upon his 
profession in Elmira, where he still continues. After a brief prac- 
tice alone he became a member of the firm of Knox & Herendeen. 
After its dissolution in 1887 he again practiced alone until 1891, when 
he formed with Mr. H. C. Mandeville the partnership of Herendeen & 
Mandeville, with which he is still identified. 

Mr. Herendeen has attained a degree of prominence at the Elmira 
bar. He was counsel for the plaintiff in the case of the Elmira Sav- 
ings Bank vs. Davis, receiver of the Elmira National Bank. In this 
suit action was brought to establish the statutory preference of sav- 
ings bank deposits in national banks, under the laws of New York. 
Decisions in favor of Mr. Herendeen's client were rendered by the 
general term in 1893 and the Court of Appeals in 1894. ne argued 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 189 

the case before the Supreme Court at Washington in 1895 and again 
in 1896, the outcome being a reversal, right to preference being de- 
nied. This interesting test case (in which the final opinion is by Mr. 
Justice White) is reported in 73 Hun, 143 N. Y., and 161 U. S. 

Mr. Herendeen's professional specialty is commercial and corpora- 
tion practice. In 1896 he delivered an address before the New York 
State Bankers' Association on " Commercial Paper." He has for a 
number of years been a member of the American Bar Association and 
the New York State Bar Association. In the latter association he 
has held the office of secretary of the committee on grievances. He is 
a trustee, and secretary and treasurer, of the Supreme Court Library 
at Elmira. 

Mr. Herendeen is connected in an executive capacity with several 
corporations. He is president of the Elmira Advertiser Association 
and the Herendeen Manufacturing Company (Geneva, New York), 
and a director of the State Bank of Elmira and the Elmira Iron and 
Steel Rolling Mill Company. 




|ICKEY, CHARLES, was born in the Town of Somerset, Ni- 
igara county, New York, April 18, 1857. Orphaned in 
childhood by the death of his father, who left no prop- 
erty, he was obliged from the age of ten to make his own 
way in the world. His education was limited to attendance at the 
common schools of his county and the union school of Lockport. For 
several years he taught school, and while thus engaged he served two 
terms as president of the Niagara County Teachers' Association. 
Having fitted himself for the legal profession under the direction of 
Honorable John E. Pound, of Lockport, he was admitted to the bar 
at Rochester in October, 1884. He engaged in practice in Lockport, 
of which place he is still a resident. 

Soon after entering upon his profession Mr. Hickey was elected a 
justice of the peace, but he resigned the position after one year's ser- 
vice. From 1892 to January 1, 1896, he was city attorney of Lock- 
port. Since the latter date he has been judge and surrogate of Niag- 
ara county, being the first to hold these two offices jointly. In poli- 
tics he is a republican. 

Mr. Hickey was instrumental in having the Odd Fellows' Home 
Association of the state locate its Home in Lockport, and is now 
(1897) serving his third term as president of the association. 




ICKS, EDWIN (born in the Township of Bristol, Ontario 
county, New York, February 14, 1830), is the son of Aaron 
Hicks and Sarah Cornell. The Hicks family is of English 
origin. Its earliest American ancestor was Robert Hicks, 
who came over in the ship Fortune, November II, 1621, and who was 



190 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



it descendant of Ellis Hicks, knighted on the field of Poictiers, Sep- 
tember 19, 1356, for bravery in the capture of a set of colors from 
the French. In the maternal line Mr. Hicks is descended from 
Thomas Cornell, one of the first settlers of Massachusetts colony, who 
resided in Boston as early as 1638. 

Edwin Hicks attended district school, meantime working on his 
father's farm. After leaving school he devoted himself for several 
years to teaching, and also continued his studies. In 1850 he entered 
the law office of Seward, Blatchford & Morgan, at Auburn. Complet- 
ing his preparation for the legal profession with Honorable Benja- 
min F. Harwood, of Dansville, New York, he was admitted to the bar 
in March, 1854, and on the 1st of January, 1855, he began practice in 
Canandaigua, where he still resides. 

From the first he has maintained a prominent position at the bar 
of the county. In 1857 he was appointed by Governor King district 
attorney of Ontario county, and in 1863 he was elected to that office, 
in which he was continued by re-election for four successive terms. 
His administration of this office was characterized by marked vigor 
and ability. He prosecuted the case of People vs. Charles Eighmy, 
for murder in the first degree, obtaining the first conviction for mur- 
der (the condemned man being duly executed) ever had in Ontario 
county. In March, 1876, he was employed for the prosecution in the 
case of People rs: George Crozer, accused of the murder of his wife 
by arsenical poisoning at Benton, Yates county. This case excited 
great popular interest on account of the high respectability of the 
parties concerned. The defendant was convicted of murder in the 
first degree and sentenced to the gallows. Mr. nicks has been en- 
gaged in many other cases of homicide, in the trial of which he lias 
been very successful. In his civil law business he has been concerned 
in numerous litigations involving important interests, with highly 
satisfactory results. 

In politics he has been a republican ever since the organization of 
the party, and has frequently been a member of its state and other 
important conventions. He was elected to represent the 26th dis- 
trict in the state senate of 1878 and 1879, although that district had 
previously been represented by a democrat for six years. In the sen- 
ate he was a member of the judiciary committee and other prominent 
committees. Since his retirement from that body he has devoted 
himself without interruption to his law practice. 



ILL, JOHN LINDSAY (born in Florida, New York, October 
31, 1840), is the son of Reverend Nicholas Hill and Sarah 
Hegeman, of Irish, English, and Dutch ancestry. His 
mother was a descendant of the old English family of 
Palmer and the equally ancient Dutch family of Hegemau. His 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 191 

grandfather, Adam Hill, was a native of Londonderry, Ireland. His 
father, before he became a clergyman, was a revolutionary soldier. 
Enlisting as a drummer-boy in Colonel Cornelius Van Dyke's regi- 
ment in 1776 when but ten years of age, he was discharged as a 
sergeant at the age of fifteen, having shared with Washington's army 
the winter of terrible suffering at Morristown, New Jersey, and seen 
active service in the famous " Sullivan expedition " and in the siege 
and battles of Yorktown. In 1S03 he became a methodist episcopal 
clergyman — a pioneer in methodism in the Mohawk valley. 

John L. Hill was prepared for college at the academies of Amster- 
dam and Jonesville, New York, and was graduated from Union Col- 
lege in 1861, the last year of the presidency of the venerable Eliphalet 
Nott. He learned practical surveying and printing to some extent 
before entering college. He spent the latter part of his senior year 
as superintendent of the public schools at Waterford, New York, con- 
tinuing in this charge after graduation until February, 1SG2, when 
he resigned to prepare for admission to the bar. lie was admitted 
the following May, and at once commenced practice at Schenectady, 
New York, in partnership with the late Stephen II. Johnson, then 
county judge. He soon acquired a leading practice, and in 1861 was 
elected district attorney of Schenectady county. During the next, 
four years he was one of the counsel for the canal commissioners. In 
1S6S he removed to New York City, and was for four years in partner- 
ship with Guy R. and T. D. Pelton, and afterward for a time was as- 
sociated with Henry L. Clinton. In May, 1873, he entered the firm of 
Barrett, Redfield & Hill, which was changed to Redfield & Hill, and 
later to Redfield, Hill & Lydecker. In 1887 the present firm of Lock- 
wood & Hill was organized. 

Mr. Hill has been prominent in his profession in New York City as 
advocate and counselor, and has tried many important cases. He was 
one of the counsel for Henry Ward Beecher in the famous Tilton- 
Beecher case, being associated with Thomas G. Shearman and Gen- 
eral Tracy as counsel for Plymouth Church during the preliminary 
church investigation, and continuing afterward with the same gentle- 
men, together with Messrs. Evarts, Porter, and Abbott, throughout 
the six months' trial, with Judges Beach, Fullerton, Pryor, and Sam- 
uel D. Morris as opposing counsel. 

Mr. Hill belongs to many clubs and historical and literary organiza- 
tions. He is a member of the Alpha Delta Phi Club of New York, and 
was one of the founders of the Union Chapter. He is a member of 
the New York Union Alumni, the Phi Beta Kappa Association, Law- 
yers' Club, Law Library Association, New York Geographical Society, 
Society of the Sons of the Revolution, Brooklyn, Carleton, Montauk, 
and Wyandanck clubs, Brooklyn Bar Association, Brooklyn Law Li- 
brary Association, Long Island Historical Society, Brooklyn New 
England Society, and State Bar Association. He is president of the 



192 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 




Wyandanck Club, and a trustee of the Berkeley Institute. He is a 
resident of Brooklyn. His political sympathies are with the reform 
element in the democratic party. 



ILTON, HENRY (born in Newburgh, New York, in October, 
1824), was of Scotch-Irish antecedents on his father's side 
and of Scotch descent through his mother, Janet Graham. 
His father early removed to New York City, and here 
Judge Hilton was educated in the public schools, studied law, and in 
181(5 was admitted to the bar. He served as master in chancery, 
and acquired a large practice. As counsel of the property-owners he 
defeated the plan to condemn " Jones's Woods " for a city park. In 
1857 he was elected a judge of the Court of Common Pleas over Will- 
iam M. Allen by 17,000 majority. He edited two volumes of " Hilton's 
Reports," covering the period 1855-60. 

After his retirement from the bench he resumed practice as head of 
the firm of Hilton, Campbell & Bell. He was counsel and business 
adviser of the late A. T. Stewart, his wife being a cousin of Mr. Stew- 
art's wife. Mr. Stewart, by will, in 1876, left him a large legacy, and 
Mrs. Stewart subsequently transferred to him all interest in the mer- 
cantile business, by her late husband's request, as she declared. 
Judge Hilton retired from law practice and conducted the mercantile 
business until 1883, when his sons and son-in-law succeeded him, 
under the firm name of Sylvester, Hilton & Company, later changed 
1o Hilton, Hughes & Company. 

Judge Hilton's country seat at Saratoga Springs, " Woodlawn 
Park,'' with its fifteen miles of wooded drives, is one of the striking 
features of that resort. 




INSDALE, ELIZUR BRACE (born in Genesee county. New 
York, December 4, 1831), is descended from puritan ances- 
tors who were located in New England during early colo- 
nial days. The founder of the Hinsdale family in America 
arrived at Plymouth colony, Massachusetts, about 1650, and subse- 
quently removed to Connecticut, where (in Litchfield county) the im- 
mediate ancestors of Judge Hinsdale were located for several gener- 
ations. His grandfather, Jacob Hinsdale, and four brothers were 
soldiers in the Revolution. His father, Elizur Hinsdale, was a captain 
in the war of 1812, and was the founder of the edge-tool business in 
Winsted, Connecticut, where he was proprietor of a large manufac- 
tory for those days. He sold out, and removing to Leroy, Genesee 
county, New York, became an extensive land owner. The famous 
Eliliu Burritt was his cousin. Judge Hinsdale's grandmother was a 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 193 

sister of Jonathan Brace, of Hartford, a leading member of the Con- 
necticut bar in his day. 

Judge Hinsdale was educated in the common schools and at a local 
academy, and studying law was admitted to the bar at Buffalo in 
May, 1856. He at once began practice in Leroy, where he remained 
five years. During the campaign for the election of Lincoln, in I860, 
he was chairman of the Genesee county republican central commit- 
tee. He removed to New York City in 1861. Making a specialty of 
corporation law and the settlement of financial difficulties, he gained 
a leading place in this department. His practice has been largely liti- 
gated cases, and he has been a prominent figure in important contests 
in all the courts. In 1870 he organized the firm of Hinsdale & 
Sprague. He was connected for more than twenty-five years with the 
Long Island Railroad Company as general counsel, and was counsel 
for the several corporations prior to amalgamation. He was for some 
time its vice-president, and until recently was at the head of its law 
department. He took part in making all the contracts of the road, 
with the result that not a single contract has been successfully as- 
sailed iu the courts. He effected the final consolidation of the three 
independent roads on Long Island and carried through successfully 
the notable litigations connected with the system, from 1877 to their 
termination in the Court of Appeals in 1895. 

Judge Hinsdale has long been active in the republican party, espe- 
cially in connection with the Union League Club. For ten years he 
has been a member of the committee on political reform of this club, 
and for a number of years its chairman, in which capacity he has 
been active in the preparation of the important addresses on public 
questions issued by the committee from time to time. 

Judge Hinsdale is the author of other valuable papers, one on the 
reform of land transfer being especially notable. He was also the 
author of the legal opinion, affirmed by the Court of Appeals, credit- 
ing the City of New York with power to issue bonds for the purpose 
of acquiring new public parks. 

Under the magistrates' act, reforming the bench of New York City, 
he was in 1895 appointed a judge of the Court of Special Sessions by 
Mayor Strong, and in recognition of his ability as an organizer and 
his effectiveness in securing the results of reform, was made presid- 
ing justice by his associates. 



INSON, CHARLES WESLEY (born in Buffalo, New York, 
November 20, 1844), is the son of George and Mary Hinson. 
His father was born on the island of Heligoland in 1818, 
and his mother in Ireland in the same year. He was edu- 
cated in the public schools and high school of Buffalo, studied law 
with Judge James M. Humphrey and Galusha Parsons, and was ad- 




194 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

mitted to the bar at Buffalo, May 9, 1866. He soon afterward entered 
upon the practice of bis profession at Buffalo, continuing actively and 
successfully until bis election to tbe bench. He was the attorney for 
the Fenians who under General O'Neill invaded Canada at Fort Erie 
in 1866. In this celebrated case twenty-eight officers and four hun- 
dred men were charged with violating the neutrality laws. He pro- 
cured their release on habeas corpus. In 1867 he served as a member 
of the assembly. In 1892 he was elected judge of the Municipal Court 
of Buffalo for a term running to 1899. 




ITCHCOCK, CHARLES HENRY (born in Binghamton, New 
York, November 12, 1857), is the son of Henry B. Hitch- 
cock and Mary Jane Smith. The Hitchcock family has 
been in the country since 1680, when three brothers of the 
name emigrated from England to Connecticut. Mr. Hitchcock's im- 
mediate branch of the family was resident in Massachusetts until 
1810, when his great-grandfather, Samuel Hitchcock, removed to Mad- 
ison county, New York. 

Charles H. Hitchcock was graduated from the Binghamton High 
School in 1875 and from Hamilton College in 1879, with the degree of 
bachelor of arts. He received his legal training in the office of Mil- 
lard & Stewart, at Binghamton, and was admitted to the bar at 
Albany in February, 1885. Since his admission he has practiced con- 
tinuously at Binghamton, devoting himself especially to conveyanc- 
ing, Surrogate's Court business, accountings, and similar lines. He 
is particularly experienced in the department of real estate titles, 
and has an extensive knowledge of local history as bearing upon ques- 
tions of title, being a recognized authority upon these subjects. Since 
January, 1883, he has been attorney for the Binghamton Board of 
Health.' 

Enlisting in the national guard of NeAV Y'ork in 1S83, he was pro- 
moted through the several grades to the rank of 1st lieutenant (Janu- 
ary 31, 1893). He served in the railway strike of August, 1892. He 
has received the si ate decoration bestowed for fifteen years of faithful 
service. 



| OADLY, GEORGE (born at New Haven, Connecticut, July 
31, 1826), is descended from illustrious New England an- 
cestry, the son of George Hoadly (born at Northford, Con- 
necticut, December 15, 1781), and grandson of Captain Tim- 
othy Hoadly, of that place. His father was a graduate of Y'ale College 
in 1801, which institution he served as tutor from 1S03 to 1806. He 
was both a lawyer and banker, and was also mayor of New Haven. 
Removing with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1830, he became 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



195 



mayor of that city, and for fifteen years was a justice of the peace 
there. 

Governor Hoadly's mother, Mary Anne, widow of Jared Scarbor- 




ough, of Hartford, Connecticut, and eldest daughter of William Wal- 
ton Woolsey and Elizabeth Dwight, of New York City, was born in 
the latter city, May 3, 1793. She was the great-granddaughter of the 



196 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

famous Jonathan Edwards, niece of President Dwight of Yale Col- 
lege, sister of President Woolsey of Yale College, and aunt of Theo- 
dore Winthrop, the well-known author, and of Sarah Woolsey, better 
known under her pseudonym of " Susan Coolidge." Among the chil- 
dren and grandchildren of William Walton Woolsey have been no 
less than eleven presidents and professors in American colleges, or 
their wives. 

Governor Hoadly was educated in private schools at Cleveland, 
Ohio, and entered the W T estern Reserve College (since removed to 
Cleveland, Ohio, and known as Adelbert College) when fourteen years 
of age. He was graduated in 1844, and spent the following year at 
the Harvard Law School under the tutorage of Judge Joseph Story 
and Professor Simon Greenleaf. During the following year (1845-40) 
he continued his legal studies with Judge Charles C. Convers, of 
Zanesville, Ohio, and in the fall of 1846 entered the offices of Chase 
& Ball, of Cincinnati, at the head of which firm was the famous Sal- 
mon P. Chase. He was admitted to the bar in August, 1847, and in 
1849 became the partner of his employers, the firm name being 
changed to Chase, Ball & Hoadly. 

Governor Hoadly participated in cases of the greatest importance 
from the outset, the activity of Mr. Chase in politics throwing the 
work upon his shoulders. His abilities speedily won recognition, and 
in 1851 the state legislature elected him judge of the Superior Court 
of Cincinnati to complete its constitutional term of existence, which 
expired in 1853. Upon leaving the bench he formed a partnership 
with Edward Mills. In 1855-56 he was city solicitor of Cincinnati, and 
in 1850 was elected by the people to the (second) Superior Court of 
Cincinnati, to succeed Judge Gholson. By Governor Chase in 1850, 
and again by Governor Tod in 1862, Mr. Hoadly was offered a judge- 
ship upon the Supreme bench of Ohio, but in each instance declined. 
He was re-elected to the Superior Court in 1864, but two years later 
resigned, and organized the law firm of Hoadly, Jackson & Johnson, 
which, after 1874, became Hoadly, Johnson & Colston. This firm be- 
came distinguished for its extensive conduct of railroad litigatious. 
Governor Hoadly represented the democratic party in the famous 
Tilden-Hayes presidential contest, arguing the Florida and Oregon 
cases before the electoral tribunal in February, 1877. 

He likewise established the liability of the State of Tennessee to 
receive for taxes the issues of the Bank of Tennessee, both ante-In Hum 
(8 Wall., 44) and post helium (97 U. S., 454). He argued unsuccessfully 
with James C. Carter against the constitutionality of the Chinese ex- 
clusion act (130 U. S., 581). 

In 1S73-74 he was elected to the constitutional convention from 
1 lamilton county, ( >hio, and was chairman of the committee on munic- 
ipal corporations. 

Be was active after the war in the liberal republican movement, but 





4- 




-a-h^i£?^ 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 197 

opposed the nomination of Horace Greeley as president in 1872. He 
voted for Grant's re-election, but in 1876 supported Tilden, and was 
active in the Tilden-Hayes contest, as already stated. 

In July, 1883, he was nominated for governor of Ohio by the demo- 
cratic party, and after a spirited campaign was elected by 12,521) plu- 
rality over Foraker. His administration was successful and popular, 
but with the overthrow of his party in 1885 he was defeated for re- 
election. In March, 1887, he removed from Cincinnati to New York 
City, where he has since successfully practiced law, at the head of 
the firm of Hoadly, Lauterbach & Johnson. This firm is conspicuous 
for its large railroad and corporation practice. In 1890 he supported 
General Palmer for president, being a thorough disbeliever in protec- 
tion as well as populism. 

1-p^w.jOLLS, FREDERICK WILLIAM (born in Zelienople, Butler 
tjBjy|J county, Pennsylvania, July 1, L857), is the son of Reverend 
Doctor George Charles Holls,an eminent German Lutheran 
educator, clergyman, and philanthropist. He comes from 
original Dutch stock, and most of his ancestors were theologians or 
soldiers. Both his father and mother were natives of Darmstadt, 
Germany. He received his preparatory education under the direc- 
tion of his father and at the Columbia Grammar School, and in 1878 
was graduated at Columbia College with the degree of bachelor of 
arts. He then entered the Columbia College Law School, from which 
lie obtained his diploma cum laude in 1880, meantime studying law in 
the office of Honorable Jacob F. Miller, and on May 20, 1880, was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie. He has since been in continuous 
practice in New York City. He is now at the head of the firm of 
Holls, Wagner & Burghard (organized May 1, 1890). He is counsel 
for the German Society, the German Savings Bank, and the German 
Hospital. 

Mr. Holls was a delegate-at-large to the state constitutional con- 
vention of 1894, and in that body was chairman of the committee on 
education. He has also held the office of commissioner on uniform 
charter for cities of the third class. In 1883 he was the candidate of 
his party for state senator, and succeeded in reducing the adverse 
majority in the district from 3,500 to 429. 

He is the author of various essays, lectures, aud travels. Since his 
marriage, in 1889, he has resided in Yonkers. 




ORNBLOWER, WILLIAM BUTLER (born in Paterson, New 
Jersey, May 13, 1851), is the son of Reverend Doctor Will- 
iam H. Hornblower, professor of theology in the Allegheny 
(Pennsylvania) Theological Seminary, and Matilda Butler, 
•lonial family of Connecticut active in the French wars and 



198 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

the Revolution. His grandfather, Honorable Joseph C. Hornblower, 

for many years chief-justice of New Jersey, was one of the foremost 
advocates and jurists of his day. His great-grandfather, Honorable 
Josiah Hornblower, was a revolutionary patriot and member of the 
old national congress in 1785, and brought, in 1750, the first steam 
engine to America. The late Justice Bradley and Judge Lewis B. 
Woodruff were his great-uncles. 

Mr. Hornblower prosecuted his preparatory studies at the Colle- 
giate School of New York City, and in 1871 was graduated from 
Princeton College, where he won first prize in English literature and 
belles-lettres, graduating as belles-lettres orator of his class. He was 
graduated from Columbia College Law School in 1875, having en- 
joyed the advantage of frequent discussions with his famous uncles, 
Woodruff aud Bradley. After his admission to the bar he rose rap- 
idly to prominence in the special department of bankruptcy law, soon 
enjoying a large practice in mercantile cases. The law reports con- 
tain a large number of important cases argued by him in state and 
federal courts, involving questions of insurance, railroad, and cor- 
porate law. The firm of Hornblower, Byrne & Taylor, of which he is 
the head, represents many of the largest corporations and business 
consolidations. 

The possession of wide legal learning and of a judicial temperament 
have led to the calling of Mr. Hornblower's services into frequent 
requisition as a referee, and to his selection to fill high judicial posi- 
tions. In 1890 he was appointed by the governor of New York on the 
commission created by act of legislature to propose amendments to 
the judiciary article of the state constitution. In 1893 President 
( Jleveland nominated him to succeed Justice Blatchford of the United 
Slates Supreme Court, but he shared the fate of other appointees who 
were rejected in the senate by intrigue against the president on the 
part of factionists of Mr. Cleveland's own party. 

Mr. Hornblower's sympathies are with the reform wing of the dem- 
ocratic party. He is a member of the Manhattan, Century, Metropoli- 
tan, University, Democratic, and Reform clubs and the New York 
Bar Association, in whose reform movements he has always been 
active, serving on its important committees, and as secretary (for 
three years) of its executive committee. He has written and lectured 
on legal subjects. Among his chief productions in this line may be 
mentioned: "Conflict between Federal and State Decisions" (Ameri- 
can Lair Review, March, 1880); " Is Codification of the Law Expedi- 
ent? " (address before the American Social Science Association, Sep- 
tember G, 1888); "The Legal Status of the Indian" (address before 
the American Bar Association, August, 1891), and " Appellate 
Courts " (address before the students of Columbia College Law 
School, February 26, 1892). 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YOEK 199 



! OWLAND, HENRY ELIAS (born in Walpole, New Hamp- 
shire, June 30, 1S35), is the son of Aaron P. Howland and 
Huldah Burke, his father being in the fifth generation in 
descent from John Howland of the Mayflower, and his 
mother a descendant of the family of which Silas Wright was a mem- 
ber. His early education was received at the High School at Walpole 
and at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire. He was 
graduated from Yale College in 1S54, subsequently receiving the de- 
gree of master of arts. He read law with Judge Frederick Vose at 
Walpole, afterward pursuing his legal studies at Harvard Law 
School, from which he was graduated in 1857. He continued his 
studies in New York City with John Sherwood, and was admitted to 
the New York bar in October, 1857. His practice has been large and 
varied, many of the cases in which he has appeared involving large 
amounts. He is a member of the firm of Anderson, Howland & Mur- 
ray. 

He was judge of the Marine (now City) Court from 1S73 to 1S74, by 
appointment of Governor Dix; alderman in 1875 and 1876; president, 
of the department of taxes in 1881, and is now president of the board 
of managers of the Manhattan State Hospital. He was the republi- 
can candidate for judge of the City Court in 1873,. for the Court of 
Common Pleas in 1884, and for the Supreme Court in 1887, but in 
each case was defeated by the democratic nominee. In addition to a 
professional and judicial career in which his ability and learning, his 
fairness and unfailing courtesy, have commanded the confidence of 
clients and the profession, perhaps no member of the bar enjoys a 
wider popularity among the social clubs and various social, benefi- 
cent, and literary institutions of New York City. 

He is a member of the corporation of Yale University, secretary of 
the Century Club, has been a member of the council of the University 
Club since it was formed, is a member of the executive committee of 
the Union League, president of the Society of the Mayflower Descend- 
ants, 1st vice-president of the New England Society, trustee of the 
New York Free Circulating Library, has been connected with the 
State Charities Aid Association for many years, is trustee of the old 
Marion Street Maternity Hospital, president of the Society for the Re- 
lief of Destitute Blind, president of the Jekyl Island Club (Brunswick, 
Georgia), and vestryman in the Ascension Church. His club member- 
ship includes nearly all the prominent clubs in the city, — among them 
the Metropolitan, Century, Union League, Players', Downtown, Re- 
publican, City, Shinnecock Hills, Golf, Meadow Club of Southampton, 
of which he is president; Adirondack League, and the City Bar Asso- 
ciation. His readiness, graceful address, and humor have made him 
exceedingly popular as an after-dinner speaker. 




200 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

UBBARD, THOMAS HAMLIN (born in Hallowell, Maine, 

December 20, 1838), is the son of the notable Doctor John 
Hubbard, an active figure in public life in Maine a half 
century ago, who was elected to the state senate in 1843 
and served as governor from 1849 to 1853, during which period the 
famous prohibitory legislation known as the " Maine Liquor Law " 
was placed on the statute-books, the successful enforcement being 
largely due to the zeal of Governor Hubbard. On the side of his 
mother, Sarah Hodge Barrett, General Hubbard is descended from 
one of the " minute-men " of Lexington fame, who was afterward 
killed in the second battle of Stillwater, preceding Burgoyne's sur- 
render. 

General Hubbard was graduated from Bowdoin College in 1857, 
studied law in his native town, and was admitted to the Maine bar in 
1860. He still prosecuted his studies during the succeeding year, 
however, at the Albany Law School, and May 14, 1861, was admitted 
to the New York bar. 

The call for troops in the civil war interrupted his legal practice. 
Returning to Maine in 1862, he joined the 25th volunteers of that 
state, with the commission of 1st lieutenant and adjutant. During a 
part of the subsequent service he was acting-assistant-adjutant-gen- 
eral of his brigade. Mustered out July 11, 1863, he became active in 
raising the 30th volunteers, receiving the commission of lieutenant- 
colonel in this regiment November 10, 1863. He served through the 
Bed River campaign and presently assumed command of the regi- 
ment, leading it in the assaiilt of Monett's Bluff. He assisted in the 
construction of the Red River dam, increasing the depth of the water 
at Alexandria, Louisiana, in order to float the stranded gunboats, 
and helped to bridge the Atchafalaya River with a line of steamers 
for the passage of the army. Commissioned colonel May 13, 1864, he 
was transferred with his regiment to the Shenandoah Valley, where 
he served throughout the campaign of 1864-65, sometimes in com- 
mand of the regiment, occasionally in command of the brigade. Dur- 
ing this time he acted as president of a court-martial. He was or- 
dered to Washington in April, 1865, and participated with his com- 
mand in the grand review of the following month. A little biter he 
was dispatched to Savannah, Georgia, where he conducted a board for 
examination of officers of the volunteer force who were applicants for 
commissions in the regular army. Shortly after, having received the 
commission of brevet brigadier-general, July 13, 1865, he was mus- 
tered out of service, and returning to New York City resumed the 
practice of law. 

Between 1S65 and 1866 General Hubbard was associated with the 
late Honorable Charles A. Rapallo. Tn January, 1867, he became 
partner in the firm of Barney, Butler & Parsons, which in 1874 was 
re-organized as Butler, Stillman & nubbard, the present firm style. 





~^ 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 201 

General Hubbard has achieved great success in his profession, and is 
recognized as one of the leaders at the bar. He has been counsel in 
many commercial cases involving large interests, and for many years 
gave especial attention to railroad and other corporate litigation, in 
which his firm has been largely engaged. He is a director and vice- 
president of the Southern Pacific Company, and president of several 
railroad companies affiliated with that corporation. 




| UGHES, WILLIAM (born in New York City, May 21, 1856), 
is the son of Patrick and Dorothy Hughes, both born in 
Ireland. His father was inspector of ironclads in the 
civil war and superintendent of the fire department of the 
City of Brooklyn until his death in 1870. The son was educated at 
public and parochial schools, became a student in the law office of ex- 
Judge James Troy, of Brooklyn, and was admitted to the bar in that 
city, September 20, 1877. He has since been in uninterrupted practice 
at the Brooklyn bar. In 1892 and 1893 he served in the Kings county 
board of supervisors, and in 1894 was a member of the state legis- 
lature. 



YNDMAN, WILLIAM HUGH (born in Newburgh, New 
York, October 13, 1861), is the son of Robert and Elizabeth 
Gibb Hyndman. He attended the public schools and the 
Newburgh Free Academy, and in 1884 was graduated at 
Yale College. He then entered upon the study of the law in the office 
of Scott & Hirschberg (Honorable M. H. Hirschberg). He was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie, May 16, 1889. He has since been 
in active and successful practice in Newburgh. On January 1, 1895, 
lie became recorder of the City of Newburgh, an office which he still 
occupies. 

Mr. Hyndman has been active in fraternal societies. He is at pres- 
ent (1897) master of Newburgh Lodge, No. 309, F. and A. M., and a 
member of Highland Chapter, No. 52, E. A. M., Hudson River Com- 
mandery, No. 35, and Mecca Temple, A. A. O. U. M. S. 





|\'GALLS, CHARLES RUSSELL (born at Greenwich, Wash- 
ington county, New York, September 14, 1819), is of 
English descent, both on the paternal and maternal sides, 
the earliest ancestor of whom he possesses reliable infor- 
mation being Edmund Ingalls, who with his family emigrated from 
Lincolnshire, England, and arrived in the Colony of Massachusetts 
Bay in June, 1629, settling in the territory which is now the City of 



202 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Lynn. Four of his kinsmen were soldiers in the revolutionary army, 
one of them, James Ingalls, a great-uncle, being killed at the battle 
of Bunker Hill. Charles Ingalls, his grandfather, resided in Methuen, 
Massachusetts, and after being graduated from Dartmouth College 
removed to Washington county, New York, and read law. As soon 
as he was admitted to practice in the courts of this state, in 1802, he 
located in Greenwich, New York, where he opened the first law office, 
and successfully conducted a law practice until his death, September 
2, 1812. Charles Frye Ingalls, the father of the subject of this record, 
adopted the same profession, and after his admission to the bar, Octo- 
ber 9, 1S19, began the practice of law at Greenwich, which he con- 
tinued until within a few years of his death (March 5, 1870). He 
served as district attorney and judge of the Common Pleas of his 
county, and was a member of the New York assembly. He Was highly 
esteemed for his integrity and ability as a lawyer, and for his probity 
as a citizen. The maiden name of the mother of Justice Ingalls was 
Mary Sogers; she was the daughter of Nathan and Dorothea (Cleve- 
land) Rogers, natives of Canterbury, Connecticut, and removed in 
the year 1800 to Greenwich, New York. 

Charles Russell Ingalls read law at Greenwich under the instruc- 
tion of his father, and on January 12, 1844, was admitted to the Su- 
preme Court and Court of Chancery. Soon thereafter he formed a 
partnership with his father, who had secured an extensive practice. 
In June, 1860, he removed to Troy, New York, and became a partner 
of Honorable David L. Seymour, a lawyer of recognized learning and 
ability, where they conducted an extensive law business under the 
firm name of Seymour & Ingalls. Mr. Ingalls became so favorably 
known as a lawyer and citizen in the 3d judicial district that in 1863 
he was unanimously nominated and elected to the office of justice of 
the Supreme Court of that district. In 1870 he became c.r-officio a 
member of the Court of Appeals. In 1871 he was nominated by both 
political parties for the same office, and elected for fourteen years, 
without opposition. In 1877 he was appointed by the governor a 
member of the general term of the 1st department of the state, com- 
prising the City of New York, and served in that capacity three years. 
In 1885 he was again nominated, and without opposition elected, to 
the same office for another term of fourteen years. He continued to 
serve until January 1, 1890, when he retired from the bench, having 
been a Supreme Court justice for twenty-six years, and having at- 
tained the age of seventy, the limit prescribed by the constitution of 
the state. 

He had the honor, in 189(5, of being appointed as one of the com- 
mittee of one hundred to the conference at Washington, D. G, to 
consider the practicability of a permanent system of arbitration be- 
tween Great Britain and the United States. He was a delegate-at- 
large from the State of New York to the national democratic conven- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 203 

tion, which met at Charleston, South Carolina, in I860, and favored 
the nomination of Stephen A. Douglass for president. 

He has been a trustee of the Eensselaer Polytechnic Institute for 
twenty -five years, and in 1887 was unanimously elected its president, 
but declined the office because he deemed it incompatible with his 
judicial duties. He has been a member, and ruling elder, in the 2d 
Street Presbyterian Church of Troy many years. 

The family of Justice Ingalls consists of himself, of his wife, Mar- 
garet L. Ingalls, and a daughter, Margaret Marvin Ingalls. 




INGERSOLL, ROBERT GREEN (born in Dresden, New 
York, August 11, 1833), was the son of " a congregational 
clergyman of such broad views as frequently to cause dis- 
sension between himself and his parish." 1 The family re- 
moved to the Mississippi valley in 1843, and Mr. Ingersoll's boyhood 
was mainly passed in Wisconsin and Illinois. He received only the 
elementary education which the rude district schools of that section 
and period afforded, but was always an extensive reader. He read 
law in a country office, was admitted to the bar, and established him- 
self in practice at Shawneetown, Illinois, in partnership with his 
brother, Honorable Eben Ingersoll, subsequently a member of con- 
gress. Both brothers became active in local politics, but in 1857 re- 
moved to Peoria. 

Mr. Ingersoll was the democratic candidate for congress in his dis- 
trict in 1860, but was defeated. In 1S62 he enlisted in the federal ser- 
vice and was commissioned colonel of the 11th Illinois cavalry. Sub- 
sequently he identified himself with the republican party, and in 
1866 was appointed attorney-general of Illinois. His services as a 
campaign orator have been in constant requisition since the republi- 
can national convention of 1876, in which his speech nominating 
James G. Blaine for president attracted great attention. President 
Hayes offered him the appointment as United States minister to 
Germany in 1877, but he declined. 

Mr. Ingersoll is one of the best known lawyers in the country, hav- 
ing been called upon to try important suits in the courts of all sec- 
tions. He was the counsel of the defendants in the notable " Star- 
Route " prosecutions in 1883, and secured an acquittal. 

Mr. Ingersoll is Avidest known, however, as a lecturer against Chris- 
tianity and the bible. He is the author of " The Gods " (AVashington, 
1878), " Ghosts " (1879), " Some Mistakes of Moses " (1879), " Lectures 
Complete " (1883), " Prose Poems and Selections " (1884), together 
with many pamphlets and published addresses, and introductory 
chapters in " Modern Thinkers " (Chicago, 1881), and " The Brain and 
the Bible " (Cincinnati, 1882). 

1 Appleton's " Cyclopedia of American Biography," Vol. iii,, p. 348. 



204 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



EpSpll NGRAH AM, FRED (born in Hempstead, Queens county, 
Bfiflir ^ ew York, July 16, 1857), is the son of Richard and Jane 
r/JL\? Dikeman Ingraham. His father, who came from Amenia, 
*™ — New York, was a practicing lawyer of Brooklyn, and his 

mother was a daughter of Judge John Dikeman, of that city. He was 
graduated at Wesleyan University in the class of 1878, read law in 
the office of Hinsdale & Sprague, of New York City, and was admitted 
to the bar in Brooklyn in the spring of 1880. He has always practiced 
in the City of New York. 




AMES, EDWARD CHRISTOPHER (bom in Ogdensburg, 
Saint Lawrence county, New York, May 1, 1811), is the 
son of Honorable Amaziah Bailey James and Lucia Will- 
iams, daughter of Captain Christopher Ripley, a soldier in 
the war of 1812. His father, grandfather (Samuel B. James), and 
great-grandfather (Amos James) were all lawyers, the latter being a 
rnminissioned cavalry officer in the Revolution. The family came orig- 
inally from Wales, settling in Rhode Island in early colonial days. 
Through his mother's line Mr. James is connected with Governor 
Samuel Huntington, a signer of the Declaration of Independence; 
the two governors, William Bradford, Senior and Junior; General 
Roswell S. Ripley, historian of the Mexican war (in which he won 
distinction), and major-general in the confederate army, and General 
James W. Ripley, who gained fame in the war of 1812 and against the 
Indians, was in charge of the armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, 
and was chief of ordnance on the personal staff of President Lincoln. 
Mr. James's father was a justice of the New York Supreme Court 
from 1853 to 1S77, and from the latter date until his death, July 6, 
1883, a member of congress. 

Mr. James received his early education in the common schools, and 
attended the Ogdensburg Academy and Doctor Reed's Walnut Hill 
School, at Geneva, New York. He went to the front in the service of 
the country, in August, 1861, as adjutant of the 50th New York vol- 
unteers. During the winter of 1861-62 he was acting assistant-adju- 
tant-general of the engineer brigade, and during the Peninsula cam- 
paign (1862) was aide-de-camp on the staff of General Woodbury. 
He was commissioned, successively, major, lieutenant-colonel, and 
colonel, assuming temporary command of his brigade at times, and in 
August, 1863, was honorably discharged on a surgeon's certificate for 
disability received in service. 

Returning to Ogdensburg, he commenced the practice of law, his 
previous reading of law in his father's office having been such that in 
October, 1863, he was admitted to the bar. January 1, 1864, he 
formed a partnership with Honorable Stillman Foote, surrogate of 
Saint Lawrence county, under the firm name of Foote & James, this 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 205 

association continuing until the retirement of Mr. Foote, July 1, 1874, 
after which, for seven years, Colonel James conducted his large prac- 
tice alone. In November, 1881, he formed a partnership with his 
managing clerk, Alric R. Herriman, and leaving the Ogdensburg 
office in his charge, established an office in New York City. Here he 
soon secured wide recognition. Since the dissolution of the Ogdens- 
burg firm, in 1886, he has had no partner. 

His interesting cases in New York include the " Freight Handlers' 
Strike " case (People vs. New York Central & Hudson River Railway 
Company), in which as counsel for the state he in 1882 successfully 
brought mandamus proceedings against the New York Central and 
Erie railway companies to compel the performance of their duties 
to the public, establishing the right of the state to compel the opera- 
tion of railways (28 Hun, 543). Honorable Roscoe Conkling was 
leading counsel for the corporations. Since January 1, 1885, he has 
been special counsel for the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company, 
and has defended many of the important cases involving the rights 
of abutting owners in the streets through which the railroads pass. 
From 1887 to 1892 he was counsel for Mrs. Appleton in her action of 
ejectment (growing out of the will of her father, John Anderson, the 
late tobacconist), to recover from the New York Life Insurance Com- 
pany a fifth part of the Plaza Hotel property, the opposing counsel 
being Joseph H. Choate and William B. Hornblower. The jury trial 
before Judge Patterson, from December 7, 1891, to January 11, 1892, 
resulted in a satisfactory settlement. He obtained a verdict for $37,- 
500 damages in the Court of Common Pleas in the action of Mrs. Ellen 
Pollock against her father-in-law for alienation of her husband's affec- 
tions. He was counsel for the widow's estate and the next of kin in 
the Fayerweather will case, involving between two and three million 
dollars. He was counsel for Russell Sage in the action of Laidlaw vs. 
Sage, arising out of the explosion of a dynamite bomb by the assassin, 
Norcross, the opposing counsel being Joseph H. Choate. He defended 
Captain William Devery, of the New York police force, upon an in- 
dictment for neglect of duty growing out of the " Parkhurst crusade," 
and secured a verdict of acquittal in April, 1894. He was also coun- 
sel for Inspector McLaughlin and other members of the police force, 
indicted for extortion in March, 1895, after the Lexow committee in- 
vestigation. In 1886 he was counsel for the minority bondholders in 
the proceedings for the re-organization of the East Tennessee, Vir- 
ginia & Georgia Railway Company. In 1888 he was counsel for the 
Mutual Life Insurance Company in the McCullum case, in Niagara 
county, with his associate, Mr. Robert Sewell, defeating the claim on 
a life policy for $50,000 on the ground that the insured was a suicide. 
He was counsel for Russell Sage and the executors of Jay Gould in 
the recent action brought to recover $11,000,000 by the bondholders 
of the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, the complaint, after a year's 



206 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

litigation, being withdrawn. He was also counsel for the Dueber 
Watch Case Company in their action against the combined watch 
manufacturers to recover $500,000 damages for a boycott. He was re- 
tained for the defense in the actions arising out of the fall of the Ire- 
land building, at West 3d street and South 5th avenue, in August, 
1895. 

Colonel James's practice being exclusively that of a counsel, requir- 
ing his presence only when the courts are in session, he is enabled to 
devote his long summer vacations to travel, and in this way has vis- 
ited many of the most distant countries. He visited Japan during her 
recent war with China, and has visited North Cape, in Norway, nearly 
every European country, including Russia, and all the more interest- 
ing parts of North America. 

He was married, November 10, 1864, to Sarah Welles, daughter of 
Edward H. Perkins, of Athens, Pennsylvania. She died December 
3, 1879, leaving two daughters, Lucia and Sarah Welles. The elder, 
Lucia, is the wife of Doctor Grant C. Madill, of Ogdensburg. 




IFFERY, DANIEL ELWOOD (born in Ransomville, Niag- 
ara county, New York, June 5, 1855), is the son of David 
A. and Mandana Tuttle Jeffery. In the paternal line he is 
of Welsh descent, and in the maternal his ancestry runs 
back to the landing of the pilgrims. He attended district school, and 
later the Lockport Union School. Selecting the legal profession, he 
prepared himself for it in the offices of Alfred Holmes and Fitts & 
Bulger (William J. Bulger), of Lockport. After his admission to the 
bar, in September, 1884, at Buffalo, he began practice at Lockport, 
where he still continues. 

Mr. Jeffery has held the offices of clerk to the Surrogate's Court of 
Niagara county (February, 1881, to January, 1886), and assistant-dis- 
trict attorney of Niagara county (January 1, 1SS7, to January 1, 1890). 




FYYELL, MAROIUS BESHNELL (born in Machias, Catta- 
raugus county, New York, November 7, 1858), is the son of 
Jerome B. Jewell and Charlotte Warner. He is in the 
third generation of descent from the American ancestor 
of his family, who came from England. He attended the common 
school at Machias and the Ten Broeck Free Academy at Franklin- 
ville, New York, and in 1879 commenced the study of law with A. J. 
Knight, of Wyoming county. The next year he removed to Olean, 
where he continued his studies in the office of Cary, Jewell & Rumsey. 
Being admitted to the bar at Rochester, April 3, 1883, he entered into 
partnership with his brother, J. R. Jewell, at. Olean. This associa- 
tion was dissolved in 1892, since which time he has practiced alone, at 



HISTORY OF THE_BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 207 

the same place. He has devoted much of his time to criminal cases, 
and during the past ten years has been engaged in the principal crim- 
inal actions tried in Cattaraugus county. 

For seven successive terms Mr. Jewell held the office of supervisor 
of the Town of Olean. 




JOHNSON, JAMES GOULD (born in Ellicottville, New York, 
June 28, 1830), is the son of Marcus H. and Sopkronia Wil- 
loughby Johnson. He was educated at Randolph Acad- 
emy, Randolph, New York, and received his preparation 
for the legal profession in the office of Honorable Alexander Sheldon, 
of that place. After the breaking out of the war he enlisted in the 
union army. He served in the Peninsular and Maryland campaigns 
(1861 and 1802), after which he obtained his discharge. Having al- 
ready been admitted to the bar (in June, 1800), he now entered ac- 
tively upon his profession. In his early career Mr. Johnson was a 
practitioner at Randolph, where he still resides. Since 1880 his office 
has been in Salamanca. 




JOHNSON, OSCAR WILLIAM (born in the Town of Butter- 
nuts, Otsego county, New York, September 8, 1823), is the 
son of William and Olive Mann Johnson. He was educated 
at the district school of Gilbertsville and the Fredonia 
Academy, and in 1813 commenced legal studies in the office of Colonel 
John Wait, an able lawyer of Norwich, Chenango county. Being ad- 
mitted to the bar at Albany in January, 1848, he began practice the 
next year in Norwich. In 1851 he removed to Fredonia, where he 
has pursued his profession ever since, ranking as one of the promi- 
nent members of the bar of that section of the state. 

Mr. Johnson was for twenty-five years the attorney of the Dunkirk, 
Allegany Valley & Pittsburgh Railroad Company, and in that ca- 
pacity was connected with the litigation growing out of the bonding 
of towns to aid in the construction of the roads. For fifteen years 
he was the attorney of J. Condict Smith, a prominent railroad builder, 
who during that period built the Dunkirk, Allegany Valley & Pitts- 
burgh, the Warren & Venango, the Northern Central Michigan, the 
Chicago & Atlantic, and other roads. He died in November, 1883, 
leaving Mr. Johnson as his sole executor. The settlement of the 
complicated estate was prolonged for many years. 

Mr. Johnson has held no official position except that of postmaster 
at Fredonia during the administration of Franklin Pierce. He has 
taken a warm interest in the cause of popular education and has 
delivered many addresses before teachers' institutes and literary as- 
sociations, and in other connections. He has written sketches of 



208 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

pioneers of western New York, and of pioneer life, and has contrib- 
uted largely to Ferguson's " History of Chautauqua County." In 
1891 he published for gratuitous and private circulation a volume of 
his writings, entitled "Addresses, Essays, and Miscellanies, from 
1840 to 1890." 

In his profession, while he has not been an advocate before juries, 
his learning, judgment, and character have obtained for him much 
respect, both for his attainments and his personality. 




JOLINE, ADRIAN HOFFMAN (born in Sing Sing, Westches- 
ter county, New York, June 30, 1850), is the son of Charles 
Oliver Joline, who served with distinction in the Mexican 
and civil wars, was a native of Princeton, New Jersey, and 
was the son of John Joline, a well-known resident of Princeton. His 
mother, Mary Hoffman, is the daughter of Doctor Adrian Kissam 
Hoffman, and a sister of the late Governor John T. Hoffman. Doctor 
Hoffman was the grandson of Martinus Hoffman, of Red Hook, and 
Alida Livingston, whose father, Philip Livingston, was a son of Rob- 
ert Livingston, " Lord of the Livingston Manor." 

Mr. Joline was prepared for college at Mount Pleasant Academy, 
Sing Sing, and under the private tuition of Reverend Doctor James 
I. Helm. In the summer of 1863 he was clerk of the military commis- 
sion at Norfolk, Virginia, convened for the trial of Doctor Wright for 
the murder of Lieutenant Sanborn, one of the first officers of colored 
troops. In 1864 he was clerk of the military commission which sat 
at Fort Lafayette for the trial of prisoners. In I860 and 1867 he was 
a clerk in the street commissioner's office and in the mayor's office in 
New York. 

He entered Princeton College in 1867, and was graduated in 1870. 
In college he was a junior orator in 1869, received the prize for essay 
offered by the Nassau Literary Magazine and the essay prize of the 
Cliosophic Society, wrote the class ode, and delivered the literary ora- 
tion at commencement. He was president of the Princeton Club of 
New York in 1891, established the C. O. Joline prize in American po- 
litical history in 1890, and is a member of the committee on the in- 
crease of the endowment of Princeton University. 

After graduating he studied law in the office of Brown, Hall & 
Yanderpoel, in New York City, at the same time attending Columbia 
College Law School, from which he was graduated in 1872. During 
this period he was tlie New York correspondent of the Atlanta True 
Georgian. He was admitted to the bar in May, 1872. In 1873 he 
formed a partnership with ex-Judge William H. Leonard, which con- 
tinued until 1876; he then entered the firm of Butler, Stillman & Hub- 
bard, becoming a partner in 1881; more recently he has become a 
member of the firm of Butler, Notman, Joline & Mynderse. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 209 

Since 1884 he has been engaged principally in business relating to 
railway and other corporations, and as one of the attorneys of the 
Central Trust Company of New York has had since 1888 charge of 
most of that company's railroad litigations. He has been associated 
as junior or leading counsel with many railroad re-organizations, in- 
cluding the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia, Nickel Plate, Rio 
Grande Western, Scioto Valley, Houston & Texas Central, Saint 
Louis & Chicago, Minneapolis & Saint Louis, and other companies. 
He has also been counsel in a large number of suits relating to the 
foreclosure of railway mortgages, and his practice has been chiefly in 
the federal courts throughout the country. He was counsel for the 
American Contracting and Dredging Company, which had the con- 
tract for dredging the Panama Canal, and represents other corpora- 
tions. 

He was for two years one of the examiners of applicants for admis- 
sion to the bar in New York City, and is chairman of the executive 
committee of the Bar Association of the city. He is a member of the 
New York Historical Society and of the University, Grolier, Delta 
Phi, and Downtown clubs. 

In 1876 he was married to Mary E., daughter of Honorable Francis 
Larkin, a leading lawyer of Westchester county. 




ANE, MICHAEL NOLAN, was born in McLean, Tompkins 
county, New York, April 1, 1851. He received his early ed- 
ucation in the district school of his native locality and in 
the Cortlandville Academy. In July, 1873, he was gradu- 
ated from the Cortland Normal School, being president of his class. 
He taught school two years, as principal of Monroe and Norwich High 
Schools. He then (1875-76) took a special course in Cornell Univer- 
sity. His office training for the legal profession was obtained under 
the direction of Honorable Samuel D. Halliday, of Ithaca. He was 
graduated at the Albany Law School in 1878, delivering the class ora- 
tion, and in September of the same year was admitted to the bar at 
the Brooklyn general term. He has since been engaged in general 
practice in Warwick, New York. He has held the offices of police jus- 
tice and president of that village, special surrogate of Orange county 
(1881 to 1S90), and member of the assembly (1891). 



m^jELLOGG, RALPH AVERILL (born in Champlain, Clinton 
fs|f5r4l county, New York, September 1, L867), is a son of Sylvester 
|J^pg£ Alonzo Kellogg, one of the justices of tin- Supreme Courl 

' of the 4th judicial district, and Susan Elizabeth, daughter 

of James Averill, a lawyer of Rouse's Point, New York. Mr. Kellogg's 
great-great-grandmother, Hannah Kent, was a sister of the celebrated 



210 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Chancellor James Kent. His brother, Henry T. Kellogg, is a promi- 
nent lawyer of Plattsburgh, New York. 

He was graduated from the classical department of Harvard Uni- 
versity in 1888, with the degree of bachelor of arts, and from the law 
school in 1891 with the degree of bachelor of laws, receiving also in 
the latter year his master of arts degree. While at the law school he 
was one of the editors of the Harvard Law Review. In September, 
1892, he was admitted to the bar at Saratoga Springs. He entered 
upon the practice of his profession at Plattsburgh, but in December, 
1892, removed to Buffalo, where he has since pursued his profession 
with steadily increasing success. He is now associated witli Edward 
C. Mason in the law firm of Mason & Kellogg. 




ELLY, FAYETTE (bom in the Town of Baston, Erie county, 
New York, June 5, 1850), is the son of Dennis Kelly and 
Betsy Gwin. He was graduated with the degree of bach- 
elor of arts, from Hamilton College, in 1870, subsequently 
receiving from that institution the degree of master of arts. After 
leaving college he was for four years teacher of the classics in the 
Military Institute at Tarrytown. Meantime he studied law in the 
office of Lucius T. Yale, of that place, and in the spring of 1880 was 
admitted to the bar at Brooklyn. In 1882 and 1883 he was principal 
of the Hamburg Union School and Academy. He began his career 
as a legal practitioner at Hamburg. Subsequently he opened a law 
office in Buffalo, where he is still actively engaged in the business of 
his profession. 

In the spring of 1890 Mr. Kelly was elected supervisor of the Town 
of Hamburg, a position which he has held ever since by successive 
annual elections. In 1891, 1892, and 1893 he, was chairman of the 
board of supervisors of Erie county. 




ENEFICK, DANIEL JOSEPH (born in Buffalo, New York, 
October 15, 1803), is the son of Michael Keneftek and Mary 
O'Connell, both natives of Ireland, who emigrated to this 
country and settled in Buffalo about the middle of the pres- 
ent century. 

He was educated in the public schools of Buffalo, graduating from 
the High School in the class of 1881, and subsequently read law with 
Messrs. Crowley, Movius & Wilcox, of Buffalo, being admitted to the 
bar at Bochester in October, 1884. He commenced practice alone in 
Buffalo. Ou January 1, 1880, he was appointed law clerk in the office 
of the counsel to the corporation, where he remained one year, at the 
end of which he resigned to accept the position of 2d assistant-district 
attorney nmler George T. Quinby. He held this office from January 1, 




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frwv^ 



^CVvJL J.Kva^V^ 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 211 

1887, to January 1, 1893, when he was appointed 1st district attorney. 
During the greater part of 1893 and all of 1894, owing to the absence 
of Mr. Quinby, he was practically district attorney, Mr. Quinby re- 
signing in the fall of 1894. Mr. Kenefick, who had already been ap- 
pointed by the governor to fill out the balance of the year, was nomi- 
nated and elected Mr. Quinby's successor, an office which he still 
holds, his term not expiring until January 1, 1898. 

In 1889 he formed a partnership with Joseph V. Seaver, which con- 
tinued during the year, Mr. Seaver then being elected county judge. 
He was thereafter associated with Cuddeback & Ouchie, continuing 
until April, 1893, when he withdrew and with William H. Love organ- 
ized the present firm of Kenefick & Love. 

As district attorney Mr. Kenefick has conducted a large number of 
important criminal cases, and has met with a large measure of suc- 
cess as a public prosecutor. He has conducted his office with strict 
impartiality, and has insisted on speedy disposition of all criminal 
cases. The practice of " pigeon-holing " indictments does not obtain 
in his office, which may account in some measure for the extraordinar- 
ily small percentage of crime in Erie county. 

Mr. Kenefick early took an interest in politics, allying himself from 
conviction with the republican party. He was a delegate to the Roch- 
ester state convention at which, in an effective speech, he seconded 
the nomination of Philip Becker for governor. He was also elected an 
alternate to the Minneapolis national convention, which nominated 
Harrison for the presidency. 

In June, 1891, Mr. Kenefick married Maysie Germain, daughter of 
Victor and Ella Germain, of Buffalo. They have one child, Daniel 
Kenefick. 




| ENYON, WILLIAM HOUSTON (born in Hartford, Connect- 
icut, January 5, 1850), is of Scotch parentage, the son of 
Robert Kenyon, from Dunfries, Scotland, and Jean Hoiis- 
ton, from Ayrshire. Both parents came to this country as 
children and grew up and were married in Thompsonville, Connecti- 
cut. After marriage their residence was, successively, in Hartford, 
Philadelphia, and New York City. Mr. Kenyon was educated in the 
Old South School of Hartford, the Hancock Grammar School and 
Central High School of Philadelphia, and the College of the City of 
New York, from which he was graduated in 187G, having taken prizes 
in mathematics, drawing, English, Latin, Greek, natural history, and 
law. In 1883 he received the degree of master of arts. After gradua- 
tion he became tutor in Latin from 1876 to 1880, at the same time 
doing much private teaching, reading law, and attending Columbia 
College Law School, in which he not only took the required course in 
municipal law under Professors Theodore W. Dwight and George 



212 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



Chase, but also the optional course iu constitutional and interna- 
tional law under Professor Burgess. He was graduated in May, 1879, 




/J^^%l^fx^^Ct^^^ 



having taken third prize in municipal law and the only prize in inter- 
national law. He was at once admitted to the bar, and, selecting the 
specialty of the patent law, began a special preparation under the 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 213 

direction of Edward N. Dickerson, Senior, one of the earliest leaders 
in this specialty. 

In 1S80 Mr. Kenyon became associated with Causten Browne, then 
one of the leading patent specialists at the Boston bar and at one time 
president of the Boston Bar Association. In 1885 the firm became 
Browne, Witter & Kenyon, including William 0. Witter, of New 
York, who for fifteen years had been associated in the practice of pat- 
ent law with George Gifford, father of the specialty; in 1887 it became 
Witter & Kenyon. The firm now consists of William C. Witter, Will- 
iam H. Kenyon, Alan D. Kenyon, and Bobert N. Kenyon (Mr. Ken- 
yon's younger brothers), and is one of the leading firms in the depart- 
ment of patent law. 

Mr. Kenyon drafted an amendment to the design patent laws of 
the United States, known as the act of February 5, 1887, and argued 
in its favor against strenuous opposition before the patent committees 
of both houses of congress and before the executive branch of the 
government. The constitutionality of the law, though hotly assailed, 
has been since upheld by the United States courts, and the practical 
benefits in the added respect paid to design patents of the United 
States have been great. Mr. Kenyon has been connected with many of 
the important patent litigations of the last fifteen years, including the 
telephone cases, the Brush electric arc lamp and dynamo and storage 
battery cases, the Eagleton and Gary furniture-spring cases, the fruit- 
jar litigations, the Brewster side-bar buggy and lamp cases, the Edi- 
son electric incandescent lamp litigation, the Bate refrigerator and 
Pohl cases in the United States Supreme Court, and important car- 
pet and carpet-design, ice-machine, and beer-filtering cases. 

He was married, April 21, 1887, to Maria Wellington Stanwood, 
of Cincinnati, Ohio, whose family is of the Stanwoods of Gloucester, 
Massachusetts, and the Wellingtons, Thorndykes, and Yateses of Ar- 
lington, Massachusetts. They have two children, Dorothy and Tkeo- 
dare Stanwood Kenyon. 

Mr. Kenyon is a republican in politics and a member of the Univer- 
sity, Lawyers', Colonial, and Delta Kappa Epsilon clubs, the Saint 
Andrew's and New England societies, and the City, State, and Ameri- 
can Bar associations. He was a member of the 7th regiment. 



|E0GH, MARTIN JEROME (born in Ireland in 1853), like 
most young men of catholic parents in the south of Ireland 
in his time, had his higher education broken off by the fail- 
ure of the Catholic University which had been established 
at Dublin under the management of Cardinal Newman. The branches 
of this institution established throughout the country were attended 
by the flower of Ireland's youth, but the failure of the university at 




214 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



Dublin involved the closing of the branches, and many of the stu- 
dents came to the United States. 

Judge Keogh was one of these, emigrating to this country while yet 




a minor, his only capital being an academic education. He supported 
himself by work on the press while studying law, and in 1STG was 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 215 

graduated from the law school of the New York University as valedic- 
torian of his class. 

He began practice in Westchester county, where he speedily won 
distinction in competition with such veterans as Isaac T. Williams, 
Edward Wells, Calvin Frost, Judge J. O. Dykman, and W. Bourke 
Cockran. One of his interesting cases was the defense of a poor negro 
on trial for murder. The contention that the man's brain was dis- 
eased attracted the attention of alienists everywhere, and an autopsy 
proved his theory correct. He defended prisoners in no less than 
twelve capital cases' and had the remarkable record of having ac- 
quitted every one of them. He acted upon the principle of not hesi- 
tating to defend the most lowly criminal, while at the same time 
being counsel for wealthy men and great estates in and around New 
York City. In less than ten years after his admission to the bar he 
had accumulated a fortune and purchased a charming estate on Long- 
Island Sound. 

Judge Keogh has adhered strictly to his profession, never taking- 
part in public affairs, except that in 1892 he was one of the democratic 
presidential electors. At the meeting of the electoral college he dis- 
tinguished himself by his fearless opposition to the passage of a reso- 
lution recommending the election by the New York legislature of the 
machine candidate to the United States senate, the proposed resolu- 
tion being intended as an insult to Fresident-eleet Cleveland, whose 
opposition to the candidate in question was well known. Judge 
Keogh's effective protest attracted wide attention, and he was warned 
that it would be hopeless ever to aspire to public office. This threat 
did not, however, deter him from accepting the democratic nomina- 
tion for justice of the Supreme Court for the 2d judicial district of 
New York, made at the suggestion of judges of that court; and al- 
though the state went republican by 90,000 majority in November, 
1895, he was elected, being the only successful candidate on the demo- 
cratic state ticket. His election was a personal tribute, the bar, irre- 
spective of party, and the republican press supporting him. 

Judge Keogh was married in 1893 to Katharine Temple Emmet, 
great-granddaughter of the patriot and lawyer, Thomas Addis Em- 
met. He is a member of the Bar Association and the Vaudeville, 
Metropolitan, New .York Yacht, Westchester Country, and Turf and 
Field clubs. 



ETCHUM, ALEXANDER PHOENIX (born in New Haven, 
Connecticut, May 11, 1839), is the son of Edgar Ketchuni 
and Elizabeth Phoenix, descended through both lines from 
distinguished old New York families. Through his grand- 
parents on his father's side (John Jauncey Ketchum and Susanna 
Jauncey, who were cousins) a double line comes down from Guleyn 




216 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Yigne and Adrianna Cavilge, as also from Cornelius Van Tienhoven, 
secretary of New Netherlands, " one of the largest contributors to the 
defenses of New Amsterdam in the list of 1665." Through his mother 
he is descended from Jacob Phoenix and Anna Van Vleck, who ap- 
pear in Dominie Selwyn's list of the Dutch Church in L686. His 
grandfather was Keverend Alexander Phoenix, and his great-grand- 
father Daniel Phoenix, the illustrious merchant, who as chairman of 
the delegation of merchants in 1789 delivered the address of welcome 
on the occasion of Washington's inauguration, and was the first comp- 
troller of the City of New York, which office he held nearly a quarter 
of a century and a member of the first Chamber of Commerce of New 
York. 

Colonel Ketchum was educated in New York, being graduated with 
honors from the College of the City of New York in 1858, after hav- 
ing won prizes in natural history, drawing, mathematics, and ora- 
tory. He served a year as tutor in drawing and mathematics in this 
college, and in 1860 was graduated from the Albany Law School and 
the same year admitted to the bar. The civil war then breaking out, 
he became connected with the department of the south, and as a staff 
officer of the military governor of South Carolina, General Bufus Sax- 
ton, was active in the conduct of affairs on the southern coast. Trans- 
ferred to the staff of Major-General Oliver O. Howard in 1865, he 
served as acting-assistant-adjutant-general in Charleston, and later 
in Washington. In September, 1867, he resigned from the army with 
The rank of brevet-colonel. 

In 1869 Colonel Ketchum was appointed by President Grant asses- 
sor of internal revenue for the 9th district of New York; later became 
collector for the same district; in 1874 was transferred to the customs 
service as general appraiser of the port of New York, and in 1883 
was appointed by President Arthur chief appraiser of the same port, 
resigning in 1885 with the accession of President Cleveland. He has 
since devoted himself exclusively to the practice of law, building up 
a large and lucrative business along the lines in which his father was 
so successful — the charge of estates and conveyancing, important cus- 
toms suits in the United States courts, and a considerable general 
practice. 

As a resident of Harlem since 1839 Colonel Ketchum has been ac- 
tive in the development of upper New York. He was one of the foun- 
ders of the Mount Morris Bank, and its first president. In 1890 and 
J 891 he was president of the Presbyterian Union of New York City, 
while he has been prominent in connection with the Young Men's 
Christian Union and various benevolent and educational projects. He 
lias done considerable literary work and has delivered many public 
addresses, that on Garfield, delivered before the students of West 
Point, being especially notable. Colonel Ketchum was for four years 
president of the Alumni Association of the College of the City of New 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 217 

York; is president of the City College Club, and a member of the mili- 
tary order of the Loyal Legion, the City and State Bar Associations, 
the Numismatic Society, Archaeological Society, New England So- 
ciety, Phi Beta Kappa Society, and the Republican, Harlem Republi- 
can, Harlem, Quill, Merchants', Central, and Alpha Delta Phi clubs, 
and the New York, Atlantic, Larchmont, New Kochelle, Riverside, 
and Rhode Island yacht clubs. 




ETCHUM, EDGAR (born in New York City, July 15, 1840), 
is the brother of Colonel Alexander Phoenix Ketchum, of 
the preceding sketch. He was educated in the public 
schools of this city, being graduated in I860 from the Col- 
lege of the City of New York, subsequently receiving the degree of 
master of arts. In 1862 he was graduated from the Columbia College 
Law School, and admitted to the bar in this city. He entered the 
union army as 2d lieutenant of the signal corps, March 3, 1863; in 
August, 1864, was stationed at the signal camp of instruction at 
Georgetown, District of Columbia, soon after was assigned to duty at 
Fort Signal Hill, about six miles from Richmond, and during the 
operations about the confederate capital so distinguished himself as 
to receive special mention in the report of Captain L. B. Norton, chief 
signal officer of the department of Virginia and North Carolina. In 
January, 1865, he participated in the Fort Fisher expedition, serving 
on the staffs of Generals Charles J. Paine and Alfred H. Terry, taking 
an active part in the difficult maneuvers, including the perilous night 
operations, preceding the capture of that fortress. After the capture 
he was placed in command of the signal station on the northeast para- 
pet of the fort, and narrowly escaped death through the explosion of 
an adjacent magazine. A little later he was appointed signal officer 
on the staff of General J. M. Schofield, and was subsequently assigned 
to duty as chief signal officer of the 23d corps, commanded by General 
Jacob D. Cox, composing the left wing of General Schofield's army 
in the operations against Wilmington, and in this capacity partici- 
pated in the capture of Fort Anderson, the battle of Town Creek, and 
the capture of Wilmington. He sailed up the Cape Fear River with 
a gunboat expedition to open communications with General Sher- 
man; as signal officer on General Terry's staff took part in the north- 
ward march through North Carolina, and the battles of Bentonville 
and Averysborough; and subsequently operated with the army of the 
Potomac in Virginia until the fall of Richmond, when he returned to 
the signal camp at Georgetown, and was honorably discharged, Au- 
gust 12, 1865, with the brevet of 1st lieutenant for gallant services at 
Fort Fisher, and the brevet of captain for his general gallantry during 
the war. On his return to New York he was appointed by the gover- 
nor engineer, with the rank of major, in the 1st brigade, 1st division, 



218 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

New York national guard, which position lie held for three years, 
when he was honorably discharged. 

After the close of the war, Major Ketchum began the practice of 
law in New York City, which he has continued ever since, building up 
a valuable clientage. He has argued cases in all the state courts, 
including the Court of Appeals, as well as in the United States dis- 
trict courts and the various supreme courts. His practice has been 
especially in the department of real estate law, in the examination of 
titles and conveyancing. 

In 1S69 he was married to Angelica Schuyler, daughter of Smith W. 
Anderson, an old New York merchant. They have two children. He 
is a member of the war veterans of the 7th regiment, the Society of 
the Army of the Potomac, the Veteran Organization of the Signal 
< \nps, Lafayette Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and the military 
order of the Loyal Legion, and is treasurer of the Harlem Library. 

He is an active promoter of the " Christian Endeavor *' movement, 
was one of the organizers of the Church of the Pilgrims in Harlem, 
and is at present a member of the Collegiate Dutch Church, 5th ave- 
nue and 48th street. 




ING, PATRICK FREEMAN (born in Towanda, Pennsylva- 
nia, July 22, 1859), is the son of John J. and Mary Brown 
King. His educational opportunities were extremely lim- 
ited, but by industrious study he overcame these early dis- 
advantages. He taught in the public schools of Niagara county from 
1S7S to 1883, when he began the study of the law. After serving his 
apprenticeship to the profession under John E. Pound and William 
C. Greene, of Lockport, he was admitted to the bar at Buffalo in June, 
1886. He began practice alone in Lockport, and then became senior 
member of the firm of King & Morgan, which he abandoned to estab- 
lish the firm of King & Leggett, now known as King, Leggett & 
Brown, with offices at Lockport and Niagara Falls. 

Mr. Kins, although he has been at the bar for only eleven years, 
lias taken rank among the brilliant and able lawyers of northwestern 
New York, and has been connected, both officially and as private 
counsel, in suits of particular importance and interest. From Janu- 
ary 1, 1890, to January 1, 189fi, he held the office of district attorney 
of Niagara county. In this capacity he prosecuted the wreckers of the 
Merchants' Bank (People vs. Arnold and People vs. Helmer). Among 
the other cases of special interest in which he was the prosecutor dur- 
ing this period may be cited: People vs. J. Carter Sheldon (the coal 
exchange case, 139 N. Y., 251); 1 People vs. Lawrence (137 N. Y., 517); 
People vs. Tower (135 N. Y., 457); People vs. Murphy (135 N. Y., 459); 2 

1 It was upon the doctrines established in this ease that • This case is instanced by Abbott in his work on 

the Tobacco Trust prosecutions of the summer of 189? "Select Cases " as illustrative of the rule for the admis- 
were conducted in New York City. sion of handwriting as evidence. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 219 

People vs. Trimble (131 N. Y., 118) and People vs. Parker (137 N. Y., 
535). 

Mr. King was one of the organizers and charter members of the 
Niagara, Lockport & Ontario Power Company, for the construction 
of the Great Power Canal from Niagara river to Lake Ontario, au- 
thorized by chapter 722 of the laws of 1894. 




|ISSAM, BENJAMIN TREDWELL (born at 64 Beekman 
street, New York City, February 17, 1819), is the son of 
Joseph Kissam and Ann M. Embury, and is descended from 
John Kissam, who was born in Flushing, Long Island, in 
1064. His mother was a daughter of Peter Embury, born in 1765. 

Mr. Kissam received his early education at the hands of a quakeress 
teacher and under the tutorship of the celebrated Benjamin Mortimer 
and of Mr. Carpenter, all of New York City, and in June, 1826, entered 
Nazareth Hall, a Moravian school in Pennsylvania. In 1831 he en- 
tered Oxford Academy, at Oxford, New York. He was graduated 
from Columbia College in 1838 and pursued his legal studies in New 
York City with Tillou & Cutting and Samuel B. Romaine. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Utica in July, 1841, and has practiced in New 
York City continuously since that time. 

Among his more important cases are those of Embury vs. Conner 
(2 Sand. R., 98; S. C. 3 N. Y., 511), Embury vs. Sheldon (68 N. Y., 227), 
Ludlow vs. Van Ness et al. (8 Bos., 178), People ex rel. Debenetti vs. 
Clerk of the Marine Court (3 Ab., 309), and Excelsior Petroleum Com- 
pany vs. Lacv and others (3 Hun, 111; 5 N. Y., S. C. (T. & C), 305; S. 
C, 63 N. Y., 422). 




NAPP, SANFORD REYNOLDS (born in Peekskill, West- 
chester county, New York, December 8, 1832), is the son of 
Sanford R. Knapp and Mary Brown, and is of English de- 
scent. His father was an eminent physician of extensive 
practice in New York City and of repute both for medical-scientific 
investigation and the contribution of valuable remedies to his school 
of practice. On his mother's side the ancestral line traces back to the 
French Huguenots. 

Mr. Knapp was educated at Peekskill Academy, preparing there 
for Princeton College, from which he was graduated in 1854, receiv- 
ing the additional honorary degree of A.M. in due course. Choosing 
the profession of law upon leaving college, he entered the office of 
Edward Wells, under whose tuition he pursued his preparatory legal 
studies and was admitted to the bar in Newburgh, in 1856. He com- 
menced practice in Peekskill, Westchester county, where he has since 
been actively engaged in his profession, giving attention to general 



220 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



litigation but mainly to office business and all matters relating to real 
estate, the investment of money, and the settlement of estates. In 
connection with this, an extensive insurance business has also been 
established, and he is the agent for many of the largest insurance 
companies of the world. Mr. Knapp has won an enviable reputation 




for varied information, sound judgment, and disinterested devotion 
to the interests of his numerous clients, and his record has been such 
as to entitle him to the high degree of confidence which he enjoys 
among the leading men of Peekskill and vicinity. 

He has always been largely identified with the educational inter- 
ests of Peekskill. For thirty years, from 1860 to 1890. he was the sec- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 221 

retary of the board of education of one of the school districts, and 
since 1873 has been the secretary of the PeekskiU Military Academy. 
Since 1863 he has been the secretary of the PeekskiU Savings Bank, 
and he is one of its trustees. In all matters concerning the advance- 
ment of the interests of PeekskiU Mr. Knapp has always taken an 
active and leading position. His wide experience and sound advice 
professionally in everything pertaining to his business and to the 
public good, places him in the front rank of the solid men of the town. 

In politics he is a stanch republican, but has declined all political 
office. Prevented by physical disability from going to the front in 
the war of the rebellion, he furnished a substitute without being 
drafted and at his own expense, and gave patriotic, moral, and liberal 
material support to the union cause throughout the struggle. He has 
been closely identified with the religious life and growth of his local- 
ity, having been for thirty years an elder in the 1st Presbyterian 
Church of PeekskiU, and is at present the secretary and treasurer of 
its board of trustees. 

In October, 1861, Mr. Knapp was married to Georgia N orris Knox, 
eldest daughter of Reverend John Prey Knox, D.D., LL.D., of New- 
town, Long Island. He has one son, William W., now a senior in 
Princeton University, and one daughter, Aletta V. D., now Mrs. 
James B. Thomson, of New Britain, Connecticut. 




fNAUER, EDWARD JOHN (born in New York City, Decem- 
ber 7, 1855), is the son of Oscar and Catharine Yost Knauer, 
both natives of Germany — the former born in Saxony and 
the latter in Frankfort-on-the-Main. He was educated in 
the public schools of New York City, being graduated from Grammar 
School No. 18 in 1869. In 1871 he entered the office of the late Presi- 
dent Arthur as errand boy. The firm afterward became Arthur, 
Phelps, Knevals & Ransom, being composed of Chester A. Arthur, 
Benjamin K. Phelps (who had been district attorney), Sherman W. 
Knevals, and Rastus S. Ransom (afterward surrogate). It is still con- 
tinued, under the name of Knevals & Perry. Judge Ransom took a 
special interest in young Knauer, and gave him much valuable advice 
and assistance in his law studies. He was admitted to the bar at 
Poughkeepsie, May 17, 1877. Remaining with Mr. Arthur's firm he 
became a partner in it in 1882, and he has retained that connection 
-to the present time, practicing in New York City and Queens county. 

Mr. Knauer has served two terms (1892 to 1896) as a member of the 
board of aldermen of Long Island City. 



222 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 





NOX, JOHN MASON (born in New York City, September 23, 
1820; died January 29, 1894), was the eldest son of Rever- 
end John Knox, S.T.D., senior minister of the Collegiate 
Reformed Dutch Church of New York from 1816 to 1858, 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 223 

and Euphemia Prevoost, daughter of Keverend John Mitchell Mason, 
S.T.D., of New York, provost of Columbia College. He was educated 
at William Forest's School and at Columbia College, being graduated 
from the latter in 1838 and subsequently receiving the degree of mas- 
ter of arts. He received his legal education under the instruction of 
Judge John L. Mason of the Superior Court, and was admitted to the 
New York bar in 1841. His entire professional life was spent in New 
York City. He was associated for about two years with S. Weir 
Koosevelt under the name of Knox & Roosevelt, and from 1849 to 
1878 with his cousin, John Mitchell Mason, as Knox & Mason. 

Among the more prominent cases with which he was connected 
were Burrill vs. Boardman (the Roosevelt Hospital case), Knox vs. 
Jones, the matter of the Empire City Bank, the matter of the will of 
Harriet D. Cruger, and Howland vs. Union Theological Seminary. 
His practice was confined more especially to the business of estates. 
He was an expert in drafting wills (not a single will drawn by him has 
been overthrown) and in examining titles to real estate, and a recog- 
nized specialist in questions of real estate law. He was also very 
learned in profane and sacred history. 

Mr. Knox was for many years trustee of common schools in the 15th 
ward, trustee and president of the Northern Dispensary, trustee and 
president of Roosevelt Hospital from 1864 to 1894, treasurer of Leake 
& Watts Orphan House from 1863 to 1894, a charter member of the 
New York City Bar Association, and a member of the New York State 
Bar Association. 



RUSE, FREDERICK WILLIAM, was born in Germany, 
June 25, 1852, and emigrated to America with his parents 
in 1853. They settled near Buffalo, where he resided until 
he was thirteen years of age. He then left his home and 
was employed at labor on a farm summers and attended the district 
school winters until 1868, when he became a student at Griffith Insti- 
tute at Springville, New York. He attended this institution several 
terms and also taught in the district schools during that time, until 
1874. He then began the study of law in the office of Cary & Jewell 
in Olean, and was admitted to the bar in 1S77. After his admission 
he went to Arcade and formed a partnership with A. J. Knight, which 
continued two years. He then removed to Olean, where he has since 
resided and practiced his profession. 

He was a member of the New York assembly from the 1st district 
of Cattaraugus county in 1884, 1885, 1886, and 1887. In 1886 the com- 
mittee on ways and means in the assembly was divided and all ques- 
tions relating to appropriations were referred to the new committee 
then created, called the " committee on appropriations." Mr. Kruse 
was made chairman of this committee when it was organized. The 




224 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

next year he was chairman of the committee on revision. Mr. Kruse 
took an active part in the legislation during his service in the assem- 
bly and served on various important committees. 

In 1888 a commission was created by an act of the legislature to 
revise the excise laws of the state, and Mr. Kruse was appointed one 
of its members. In 1890 he was appointed by Robert P. Porter, super- 
intendent of census, a special agent to take charge of the census re- 
count of the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and he also visited other 
western cities while in the performance of this duty. In 1895 he was 
appointed by Governor Morton a member of the committee of distin- 
guished constitutional lawyers to prepare and recommend general 
legislation for third-class cities. 

He has frequently been appointed referee in important legal cases, 
and his decisions have been usually sustained by the courts. 

In May, 1897, he was appointed by Governor Black county judge of 
Cattaraugus county to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge 
Oliver S. Vreeland. 




ACOMBE, EMILE HENRY (born in New York City, Janu- 
ary 29, 1846), received his early education in the Columbia 
College Grammar School, was graduated from Columbia 
College as fourth honor man in 1863, and was graduated 
from Columbia College Law School in 1865. 

He was admitted to the bar in New York City in 1867, and was en- 
gaged in the private practice of law until December, 1S75. At that 
time he entered the law department of the corporation of the City of 
New York as a subordinate, and rose through the different grades 
until he was appointed corporation counsel June 1, 1884. 

He resigned this office June 30, 18S7, and on the following day took 
his place upon the bench as United States circuit judge for the 2d cir- 
cuit. He has delivered able opinions on some of the most important 
cases which have appeared in the courts in recent years. 




AING, PHILIP ADAM (born in East Otto, Cattaraugus 
county, New York, May 14, 1856), is the son of Stephen 
Laing and Arvilla Pratt. He was graduated at Hamilton 
College in 1880, with the degree of bachelor of arts. From 
1SS0 to 1883 he was principal of Hamburg Academy (Hamburg, Erie 
county). Meantime he studied law in the office of Lewis & Moot, and 
in 1S84 he was admitted to the bar at Syracuse. In the same year he 
became associated with John J. Sayles in the law firm of Laing & 
Sayles. From 1886 to 1891 he was a member of the firm of Farring- 
ton & Laing. Since January 1, 1894, he has practiced alone. From 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 225 

the beginning of his professional career he has been located at Buf- 
falo. 

Mr. Laing held the office of secretary to the mayor of Buffalo from 
January 1, 1890, to January 1, 1891, and that of city attorney from 
January 1, 1S91, to January 1, 1894. 



fligpn| AMONT, WILLIAM C, was born in Charlotteville, Schoharie 
ErafiEfl county, New York, November 26, 1828. He received an aca- 
mM^M i demic education, taught school for a time, and in 1S49, at 

' : the age of twenty-one, began the study of law at South 

Worcester, Otsego county, in the office of Abraham Becker, a distin- 
guished and able practitioner. In June, 1852, he was admitted to the 
bar at Owego. After practicing for a brief period at Harpersfield 
Center, Delaware county, he removed to Charlotteville, continuing 
there until 1860. Since then he has practiced at Eichmondville and 
Cobleskill. He still maintains his law office in the latter place, divid- 
ing his attention between his profession and agriculture. 

In 1864 he was elected county judge of Schoharie county, an office 
which he held for two terms. He then continued his legal practice 
until February, 1887, when he was appointed county judge of Scho- 
harie county by Governor Hill. He served during the remainder of 
the term, retiring on the 1st of January, 1893. 

In 1876 and 1877 Judge Lamont was a member of the state senate 
from the 23d district. While in that body he was instrumental in 
obtaining the passage of a resolution providing for the erection of a 
monument over the remains of David Williams, one of the captors 
of Major Andre. This monument stands in the cemetery at the old 
Stone Fort, about one mile east of Schoharie village, and has en- 
graved upon it the resolution introduced by him, pursuant to which it 
was erected after the remains had been removed to that spot. An- 
other important incident of Judge Lamont's senatorial service was his 
successful advocacy, in conjunction with the late Honorable Isaac H. 
Maynard (then an assemblyman from Delaware county) of an appro- 
priation for establishing a law library at Delhi. 

He is still practicing his profession, being counsel in most of the 
important legal controversies in his part of the state. He is, and al- 
ways has been, a democrat of the Jeffersonian stamp, although not a 
rabid or extreme partisan. 

Judge Lamont was married to Miss Eliza C. Becker, a daughter of 
the late Nicholas Becker, in 1852. His only children are two sons. 
His wife died in 1895. 




226 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

AROCQUE, JOSEPH (born in New York City, April 2, 1831), 
is of French descent, bis grandfather in the latter part of 
the last century having emigrated from France and settled 
in Savannah, Georgia, in which city Mr. Larocque's father 
was born in 1780. Mr. Larocque was graduated from Columbia Col- 
lege in 1849, having been prepared for college at the Columbia College 
Grammar School, then under the late Doctor Charles Anthon. After 
his graduation he immediately entered upon the study of law with 
the firm of Griffin & Larocque, which was composed of the late Fran- 
cis Griffin and Jeremiah Larocque, brother of Joseph. He was ad- 
mitted to practice in the spring of 1S52, and at once became a member 
of the law firm of Bowdoin, Larocque & Barlow, which was formed 
on the death of Francis Griffin in January of that year. All Mr. La- 
rocque's associates in that firm, George R. J. Bowdoin, Jeremiah La- 
rocque, and Samuel L. M. Barlow, have since died. He is now a mem- 
ber of the law partnership of Shipman, Larocque & Choate. From 
1852 to the present time he has been actively engaged in the practice 
of law, and has appeared in many of the most important cases in the 
courts during that time. 

Mr. Larocque has always been a democrat in politics, but has not 
ordinarily taken a very active part in public affairs. In the summer 
of 1894, however, impressed with the importance of rescuing the ad- 
ministration of city affairs from the corrupt control of Tammany Hall 
and securing a non-partisan local government, he was led to unite, 
with other citizens entertaining similar views, in the organization of 
the " Committee of Seventy.'' Mr. Larocque was elected chairman of 
this committee and served in that capacity. This movement was suc- 
cessful in uniting, on a platform declaring for non-partisan adminis- 
tration of municipal affairs, citizens of all parties opposed to the rule 
of Tammany Hall, and in electing the candidates put in nomination 
on that platform, thus bringing about the administration of Mayor 
Strong and those associated with him in the city government. 

Mr.'Larocque was elected president of the Association of the Bar of 
the City of New York at the annual meeting held in January, 1S95, 
and re-elected at the annual meeting of 1S96. He is a member of the 
Century, University, Metropolitan, City, Reform, and other clubs. 



AUGHLIN, JOHN (born in Newstead, Erie county, New 
York, March 14, 1856), is the son of Bartholomew and Ellen 
O'Hara Laughlin. Both his parents were born in Ireland. 
His father, who was a farmer, removed to the Town of 
"Wilson, Niagara county, when the son was nine years old. 

John Laughlin worked on the farm and during the winter seasons 
attended district school until his nineteenth year. He then, in 1874, 
entered the Lockport Union School, and after completing the four 








' 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 227 

years' course in that institution he began the study of law at Lock- 
port in the office of Honorable Richard Crowley, United States attor- 
ney for the northern district of New York. In December, 1880, he 
accompanied Mr. Crowley (who was then serving a term in congress) 
to Washington, and during that winter he held a position in the cen- 
sus bureau. Eemoving to Buffalo in the spring of 1881, he continued 
his legal studies with the newly organized firm of Crowley & Movius, 
and in October of the same year he was admitted to the bar upon ex- 
amination before the general term at Rochester. He thereupon be- 
came managing clerk for Mr. Crowley's firm. Two years later Mr. 
Crowley discontinued his former relations and established with Mr. 
Laughlin the firm of Crowley & Laughlin. This was in turn dissolved, 
by the removal of Mr. Crowley to New York City. Since 1890 Mr. 
Laughlin has been at the head of the prominent firm of Laughlin, 
Ewell & Houpt, in which Joseph E. Ewell and Wilbur E. Houpt are 
associated with him. 

Prom the first Mr. Laughlin was highly successful in his profes- 
sion, steadily advancing to a recognized position among the most 
conspicuous members of the Buffalo bar. He at once attracted atten- 
tion as an advocate, and his services were soon sought in important 
jury trials. In 1887 he defended the celebrated case of Hattie Pen- 
seyres, charged with the murder of her husband. This trial, which 
lasted for a month, is one of the most memorable in the criminal an- 
nals of western New York. A verdict of murder in the second degree 
was rendered. The judge, in sentencing the prisoner, said: 

I think you may well feel that by the services of your counsel your life has 
been saved. A counselor of this court has defended you with a courage, with a 
persistency, with a determination and an ability, and with an eloquence that 
have excited the admiration of the whole community ; and I think that his 
efforts have probably saved you from the gallows. 

While zealously pursuing his profession Mr. Laughlin had always 
taken a strong interest in politics, and had made a reputation as one 
of the most brilliant campaign orators of the republican party. In 
1884 he accompanied Mr. Blaine on his tour of the state. In the fall 
of 1887 he was tendered the republican nomination for state senator 
from the Erie district. He was elected by a majority of 4,301, run- 
ning some 2,000 votes ahead of his ticket; and in 1889 he was re-nomi- 
nated and re-elected, again running largely ahead of the party ticket. 

During his two terms in the senate Mr. Laughlin was identified in 
a prominent manner with the transactions of that body. Throughout 
his four years of service he was a member of the judiciary committee. 
As chairman of the canal committee he favored liberal appropriations 
for the canals. He took an active interest in promoting improved 
legislation for the City of Buffalo, being the author of the police-ex- 
cise bill for that city and the Buffalo public school bill, measures 



228 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

which, though defeated at the time, were subsequently incorporated 
in the revised Buffalo charter, of which Mr. Laughlin was a hearty 
and successful advocate when it came before the senate. He was 
one of the principal supporters of the policy of separating municipal 
from state and national elections, which was embodied in the new 
constitution by the convention of 1894. During his last term in the 
senate he prepared and introduced a proposed amendment to the 
state constitution with that end in view. He also strongly urged 
legislation to provide for uniformity in the selection of textbooks for 
the public schools, proposing the creation of a commission to choose 
books, purchase copyrights, and prepare originals where necessary. 
Although his school-book bill was defeated, his efforts in this direc- 
tion led to the adoption of free textbooks in the City of Buffalo and 
elsewhere. 

In 1SS8 he was a delegate to the republican national convention in 
Chicago, where he warmly supported the presidential candidacy of 
Chauncey M. Depew. He was again a candidate for state senator in 
1891, but was defeated, although once more polling considerably more 
than his party vote. He has since devoted himself uninterruptedly 
to his law business, taking no part in politics except as a public 
speaker. 

In his career at the bar Senator Laughlin has built up a large gen- 
eral practice in both the state and the United States courts. In the 
line of criminal practice he has steadily added to the great reputation 
which he gained in the Penseyres case. In 1895 he acted as counsel 
for Barney Murray, charged with killing his employer, William H. 
Bright, a prominent oil man, because the latter would not pay him 
his wages. In 1896 he defended Michael Sammon, a former captain 
of the Buffalo police department who had been reduced to the rank 
of patrolman, tried for shooting Sergeant Cantlin, his superior officer, 
because he suspended him for neglect of duty. In the latter case the 
defense of insanity was interposed, and the trial lasted for over three 
weeks. Doctor McDonald, the famous expert, who testified for the 
prosecution, was kept under constant cross examination by Senator 
Laughlin for two days. Both these cases were of the exceptionally 
desperate character, and Mr. Laughlin's successes in preventing im- 
position of the death penalty (a verdict of murder in the second de- 
gree being rendered in each instance) were regarded as great vic- 
tories. The Buffalo Eucniiir/ Times of March 2, 1895, commenting on 
the summing up in the Barney Murray murder trial, said: " Senator 
Laughlin made one of the ablest speeches ever heard in the trial of a 
murder case in this country." 

Within the last several years Senator Laughlin, while not abandon- 
ing criminal business, has been gradually obtaining a large corpora- 
tion practice. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 229 

AUTEEBACH, EDWARD (born in New York City, August 
12, 1S44), was graduated from the College of the City of 
New York with honors in 1864 and at once commenced the 
study of law in the office of Townsend, Dyett & Morrison. 
After his admission to the bar he was made a member of the firm, 
which was re-organized as Morrison, Lauterbach & Spingarn. Upon 
the death of Mr. Spingarn the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Lauter- 
bach becoming a member of the present firm of Hoadly, Lauterbach & 
Johnson. He early applied himself with indefatigable industry to 
his profession and soon acquired a recognized standing at the bar as 
a successful corporation lawyer. He has been engaged in many fa- 
mous litigations, and has been especially successful in settling cases 
involving large interests outside of court. He has a wide reputation 
as a railroad organizer. He was concerned in the re-organization of 
the Philadelphia & Eeading Railroad, brought about the consolida- 
tion of the Union and Brooklyn Elevated roads, thereby transform- 
ing two conflicting interests into a single powerful and prosperous 
property, and induced the merging of interests which created the 
Consolidated Telegraph and Electrical Subway. As attorney of the 
Pacific Mail Steamship Company he obtained a recognition of the 
advantages of subsidies from the United States government. He also 
secured the incorporation of the East River Bridge Company, whose 
charter empowered them to erect two bridges between New York and 
Brooklyn, both starting from the same point in New York and sep- 
arating to reach two different points in Brooklyn, with a cross-town 
elevated road from the New York terminus to the Hudson river. 

Mr. Lauterbach has drafted a number of important legislative bills, 
many of which were enacted into laws. One of these was a law for 
uniformly regulating surface cars throughout the State of New York, 
putting all the cities on a par. He was one of three delegates-at-large, 
representing the City of New York, in the constitutional convention of 
June, 1894, and was chairman of the committee of public charities. 
Outside his profession he is especially interested in the cause of edu- 
cation and holds the office of vice-president of the College of the City 
of New York. He also devotes much attention to philanthropic and 
benevolent institutions and is a generous contributor to every form of 
charity. He was for two years chairman of the republican county 
committee of New York, and was active and energetic in that capac- 
ity, bringing the organization into the most perfect condition that it 
ever attained. He is a member of the advisory committee of the state 
committee, his associates being Thomas C. Piatt, Chauncey M. De- 
pew, Frank S. Witherbee, and Frank Hiscock. He represented the 
State of New York as delegate-at-large to the national republican 
convention at Saint Louis in June, 189G, and was New York's member 
of the committee on resolutions and a member of the sub-committee 
of five which drafted the platform, being especially interested in the 



230 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

adoption of the financial plank which formed the issue presented to 
the people at the last presidential election. He is a member of sev- 
eral clubs and is now director and counsel of the 3d Avenue Surface 
Railroad Company, the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad Company, the 
Consolidated Telegraph and Electrical Subway Company, and various 
other important corporations. The Subway Company was organized 
and the legislation authorizing the exercise of its functions was 
secured by him. It has resulted in the removal of poles and wires 
from the principal streets in this city and their burial underground. 
This legislation was unique in its character, but although attacked in 
more than a hundred actions, has been uniformly sustained by the 
state and federal courts. 



IT cy^JAWRENCE, SPENCER J. (born in Le Roy, Genesee county, 
■Mp^fjl New York, October 11, 1864), is the son of James and Alida 
/gPcTi J. Lawrence. He received a common school education, 

entered the office of William C. Watson, at Batavia, New 

York, and on March 29, 1889, was admitted to the bar at Rochester. 
After practicing for about a year in Batavia he removed to Niagara 
Falls, where he is still actively prosecuting his profession. 




ENT, HERBERT D. (born in New York City, August- 22, 
1858), is the son of Isaac B. and Hester B. Lent. He was 
educated in the common schools of Yonkers and East- 
chester, New York, studied law with William H. Pember- 
ton, of Mount Vernon (former district attorney of AYestchester 
county), and was admitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie in May, 1880. 
He has since practiced in Mount Vernon. 

Mr. Lent has been twice elected town clerk of the Town of East- 
chester (18S7 and 18S9). and since 1892 has served continuously as 
supervisor of Eastchester, having been chairman of the judiciary 
committee and other important committees of the board of super- 
visors. He has also been prominent in the affairs of the Village of 
Tuckahoe, where he resides. 




ESTER, CHARLES SMITH, was born at Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts, on the 15th of March, 1824. His father, Charles 
Gove Lester, was a graduate of Vermont University and 
was subsequently engaged in mercantile pursuits in the 
City of Montreal. His paternal ancestors were for several genera- 
tions natives of Connecticut and Vermont. He is a descendant of 
Andrew Lester, one of the original settlers of New London, Connecti- 
cut, and of Captain Nathaniel Gove, of revolutionarv fame. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 231 

He was educated at Washington Academy in Salem, New York, 
and in September, 1841, became a student in the law office of Crary & 
Fairchilds. In October, 1843, he removed to Saratoga Springs and 
continued his legal studies in the office of his uncle, Honorable John 
Willard, then circuit judge and vice-chancellor of the 4th circuit. On 
his twenty-first birthday he was admitted as a solicitor in chancery 
by the late Chancellor Walworth, and in May, 1845, was admitted as 
an attorney in the Supreme Court. In 1S53 he was admitted as an 
attorney and counselor of the Supreme Court of the United States. 
In 1854 he received the honorary degree of A.M. from Yale University. 
In early life he held at different times the offices of justice of the 
peace and supervisor of his town, village clerk, village trustee, and 
president of the board of trustees of the Village of Saratoga Springs. 
He has been for more than thirty years a member of the presbyterian 
church and a trustee of the 1st Presbyterian Church of Saratoga 
Springs. In 1859 he was elected district attorney, and in 1869 county 
judge of Saratoga county; 

For more than half a century he has been engaged assiduously in 
the practice of his profession. The law reports of the state bear 
witness to his industry and ability. His name has been connected 
with most of the important litigation of his county, and many impor- 
tant legal questions have been finally settled in suits which he con- 
ducted. Since 1873 he has been a member of the law firm of C. S. & 
C. C. Lester, a copartnership formed in that year between himself and 
his eldest son, who was then admitted to the bar. This firm, to which 
two other sons have since been added upon the completion of their 
legal studies and admission to the bar, is among the oldest in the 
state. At the time of this publication Judge Lester, though in his 
seventy-fourth year, is still in active practice, with unabated physical 
and intellectual powers. 



| . wgjgfcj E VENTKITT, DAVID (born in Winnsboro, South Carolina, 
hfpKf); January 31, 1845), is the son of The late George M. Leven- 
IQjgjs/ tritt and Betty Goldberg. In 1854 he removed with his 
L-^^-J father to New York, and entering the College of the City of 
New York was graduated in 1864 as salutatorian of his class. He was 
awarded the Burr Medal for proficiency in mathematics, and received 
various other prizes for scholarship. He was graduated from the 
New York University Law School in 1870, and the same year was ad- 
mitted to the bar. 

Mr. Leventritt has attained a prominent position at the bar, win- 
ning special repute as a trial lawyer. He has been engaged in some 
of the most important cases. He acted as special counsel for the city 
in proceedings to condemn for a public park lands located between 
High Bridge and Washington Bridge, running from 10th avenue to 



232 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

the Harlem river. He was also chairman of a commission to 
estimate value and damages in the case of lands condemned by the 
city for a bridge across the Harlem river at 3d avenue. He is counsel 




for a large number of attorneys in the trial of cases before juries. 
For twenty or more years this has been a large part of his extensive 
practice. He is a member of Tammany Hall and is and has been for 
years chairman of the law committee of that organization. He is 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 233 

vice-president of the Aguilar Free Library, and a patron of a number 
of asylums, hospitals, and charitable organizations. 

On June 9, 1868, he was married to Matilda Lithauer, of New York. 




EVI, JOSEPH CHARLES (born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb- 
ruary 27, 1839), is the son of Charles Levi and grandson of 
George and Judith Levi. His father (born in Portsmouth, 
England, in 1807; died in Saratoga Springs in 1S72) came 
to the United States about 1829, married in New York in 1838, and 
was a merchant in Cincinnati from 1832 to 1842, being a friend and 
neighbor of William Henry Harrison and Salmon P. Chase. His 
mother, also of English birth, came to this country when very young. 
Mr. Levi was educated in private and public schools in New York 
City, being graduated in 1854 from the Columbia College Grammar 
School, of which Doctor Charles Anthon was then principal, and 
began his legal studies in the office of Joshua M. Van Cott and How- 
ard C. Cady, April 30, 1855, continuing until April, 1860. In 1859 this 
firm joined with that of Buckham & Smales, Mr. Levi and Honorable 
George C. Barrett becoming managing clerks. Mr. Levi was admitted 
to the bar in New York City in May, 1860, and with the exception of 
a few months in 1862 has practiced continuously in New York to the 
present time. Between May and October, 1862, he was with his regi- 
ment, the 37th national guard, as a non-commissioned officer in the 
government service in Maryland. 

Mr. Levi has been attorney for various trusts and associations, and 
for many years has been counsel for one of the principal metropolitan 
newspapers. One of his cases, Simon vs. Kaliske (6 Abb. N. S., 224), 
established as law in this state that a general assignment for the ben- 
efit of creditors, expressly conveying real estate and recorded in the 
county clerk's office under the assignment act of 1860 but not recorded 
in the register's office, conveys no title to the lands and creates no 
encumbrance upon the title, and is not constructive notice as against 
a subsequent bona fide grantee, and that the assignee is not a neces- 
sary party to a foreclosure of a prior mortgage on the premises. In the 
case of Emanuel vs. Ennis (48 Superior Court, 430), it was held that 
the " ancestor " from whom the half-blood may inherit is the imme- 
diate and proximate, not the original or remote ancestor, this decision 
unsettling the title to some four acres of land in the upper part of the 
city, known as the Susan Milledoler tract. In Uhl vs. Loughran (16 
Civil Pro., 386; 22 State E., 459), a title acquired through partition 
and sale was held ineffectual to divest the estate of an infant defend- 
ant, notwithstanding the appointment of a guardian ad litem under 
section 473 of the code. 

Mr. Levi is eminently an equity lawyer, having special taste and 



234 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



adaptability for the law of wills, real estate, and equity jurispru- 
dence, and is frequently employed as counsel in such cases. He has 




had the good fortune during his practice of being invariably sus- 
tained by the courts in his contentions upon the law of these subjects. 
He takes great interest in social and political economy and in law 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 235 

reform, is in favor of codification, and is a strong advocate of the 
abolition of the requirement of unanimity in jury trials both in civil 
and in criminal practice. 

He has taken an active interest in the City Bar Association, with 
which he has been connected for twenty years. He was one of the 
original members and examining counsel of the Lawyers' Title Insur- 
ance Company. He is the author of a number of monographs and 
essays, semi-legal, some of which have appeared in the Albany Lair 
Journal. 

He was married, February 8, 1865, to an accomplished daughter of 
Doctor Manly Emanuel, of Linwood, Pennsylvania. 




EWIS, LORAN LODOWICK (born in Cayuga county, New 
York, May 9, 1825), is a son of John C. Lewis and Delecta 
Barbour. His early life was spent under great disadvan- 
tages, and he had practically no educational opportuni- 
ties. This, however, did not deter him from educating himself in such 
a manner that he was soon deemed fit to teach in the district schools, 
and this occupation he pursued for several winters, at the same time 
reading law at night. 

After his admission to the bar, in July, 1848, he engaged in the 
practice of the law at Buffalo, where he still resides. 

He gradually attained prominence among the lawyers of Buffalo, 
and it is generally conceded by those competent to judge that when 
he accepted the nomination for justice of the Supreme Court in 1882 
he was the best trial lawyer in western New York. 

He ran on the republican ticket for justice of the Supreme Court 
at the same time that Grover Cleveland, as a candidate for governor, 
carried New York state by nearly 200,000 majority. Judge Lewis was 
the only person on his ticket elected. He had previously served two 
terms in the state senate. On January 1, 1896, having reached the 
constitutional age limit of retirement for justices of the Supreme 
Court, he ceased to be a member of that body. He has since been 
associated with his two sons, as counsel, under the firm name of 
Lewis & Lewis. 

On June 1, 1852, he married Charlotte E. Pierson. They have had 
seven children, of whom four are now living, viz.: George L. Lewis, 
Louise Lewis Kahle, Elizabeth Lewis Preston, and Loran L. Lewis, 
Junior. 



EWIS, LORAN LODOWICK, Junior (born in Buffalo, Octo- 
ber 20, 1864), is the son of Justice Loran Lodowick Lewis 
and Charlotte R. Pierson. His first education was received 
in the public schools of the city where he was born. He 
was prepared for college at the Buffalo High School and was grad- 




236 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

uated at Williams College in 1SS7 and at the Buffalo Law School in 
1889, being a member of the first class graduated from that insti- 
tution. He also prepared himself for his profession in the office of 
Lewis & Moot, and was admitted to the bar at Buffalo on June (5, 1889. 

On the 12th of June, 1S89, he was married to Anna Maudlin Browne, 
daughter of Irving Browne, a well-known law writer and for many 
years editor of the Albany Loir Journal. Soon afterward he estab- 
lished with George L. Lewis and Adelbert Moot the firm of Lewis, 
Moot & Lewis. From January 1, 1891, to February 1, 1895, he was 
city attorney of Buffalo, but he resigned that office to return to his 
private practice. About this time Mr. Moot retired from the firm 
and Mr. Lewis then formed, with his brother, the partnership of 
Lewis & Lewis, of which he is still a member. 

Mr. Lewis is a lecturer at the Buffalo Law School on liens ami emi- 
nent domain. 

He has two children, Loran Lodowick Lewis, 3d, and Lorraine 
Lewis. 



OCKWOOD, CLARK RAWSON, the nestor of the Chautau- 
qua county bar, son of Jeremiah Lockwood, Junior, and 
Amanda Eawson Lockwood, was born at Schroon, Essex 
county, New York, June G, 1827, being one of the family of 
eight surviving children, four boys and four girls. After attending 
the common school, with a few terms at select school, he apprenticed 
himself, at the age of sixteen, to Jonathan E. Stevens, of Castleton, 
Vermont, as a wagon-maker. His health failing, he abandoned this 
work and resumed his studies, first at Tieonderoga, New York, and 
then at the Poultney Academy (Poultney, Vermont). 

After some months in Canada, where he went to study French, Mr. 
Lockwood, at the suggestion of a friend, A. R. Catlin, removed to the 
then Village of Jamestown, Chautauqua county, and began the study 
of law in the office of Orsell Cook. Upon entering this office he in- 
ventoried his worldly possessions and found himself with §20, some 
poor clothing, and a fund of ambition and courage. With these 
assets he began the struggle among strangers, gaining a livelihood 
by teaching and practicing his profession in the justice's courts. In 
1852-53, having been in Mr. Cook's office since August 24, 1S49, he at- 
tended the Fowler Law School at Ballston Spa. New York, and in the 
spring of 1853 he was admitted to the bar at Buffalo. On the 6th day 
of July following he Mas united in marriage with Miss Eunice E. 
Wheeler, daughter of Nehemiah Wheeler, of Schroon. 

Returning to Jamestown he entered into a partnership which was 
soon terminated, and the firm of Cook & Lockwood was formed, An- 
gusl 25, 1855, continuing without change until the spring of 1880, 
when bv the admission of Jerome 1>. Fisher it became Cook, Lock- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 237 

wood & Fisher. Eighteen mouths later failing health caused Mr. 
Lockwood to retire from this association, and he soon afterward 
opened an office in the then new Allen Opera House. He next entered 
into a partnership with Lee J. Lockwood iu the firm of C. R. & Lee J. 
Lockwood, which was successively changed to Lockwood, Lockwood 
& Shaw and Lockwood & Peterson. Since 1893 he has been practic- 
ing his profession alone, his practice being characterized by the same 
vigor and force for which he has been conspicuous throughout his en- 
tire career. 

Mr. Lockwood, at a time in life when most men would have re- 
frained from new enterprises, constructed the magnificent opera 
house block, giving to Jamestown its first modern playhouse, and his 
energies have long been exerted in organizing and developing the 
Jamestown street railroad, the history of which he has prepared for 
publication. He is a man of great public spirit, au active and con- 
scientious republican in politics, a liberal in religious matters, and a 
consistent advocate of equal suffrage. He has devoted much time to 
the work of writing biographical and historical matter connected 
with Chautauqua county, and is considered an authority upon these 
subjects. 



RpglOCKWOOD, DANIEL NEWTON (born in Hamburg, Erie 
bfPsw county, New York, June 1, 1S44), is the son of Harrison and 
r££%/ : Martha Lockwood. His family came from Stamford, Con- 

necticut. He attended the public schools of Buffalo, and 

was graduated at Union College, Schenectady, in the class of 1865, 
receiving the degree of master of arts. After pursuing legal studies 
in the office of Honorable James M. Humphrey, of Buffalo, he was ad- 
mitted to the bar in May, 1866. He has always practiced in Buffalo, 
where for many years he has been prominent professionally, in poli- 
tics, and as a citizen. 

In 1874 he was elected district attorney of Erie county for a term of 
three years, and in 1876 he was elected a representative in the 15th 
congress. He was appointed by President Cleveland, in October, 
18S6, United States district attorney for the northern district of New 
York. Prom 1891 to 1895 he served as a member of the 52d and 53d 
congresses. He was a delegate to the national democratic conven- 
tions of 1884, 1S88, and 1896. 



OCKWOOD, JAMES BETTS (born in Poundridge, West- 
chester county, New York, July IS, 1849), is the son of Al- 
sop Hunt Lockwood and Mary Eliza Reynolds, and is a de- 
scendant in the eighth generation of Robert Lockwood, a 
freeman of Watertown, Massachusetts, who came from England in 




238 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

the Mary and John, May 10, 1030. His family has been prominent 
from its first appearance in this country, and his father, grandfather, 
and great-grandfather are numbered among the distinguished men 
of Westchester county. 1 He attended the common schools, Bedford 
Academy and Betts Military Academy (Stamford, Connecticut), and 
was graduated at Union College in 1870. He has received from that 
institution the degree of master of arts. He studied law in New York 
City with Honorable Clarkson N. Potter and the firm of G. K. & T. D. 
Pelton & Hill, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1873. He has 
since been in continuous practice in New York City and White Plains. 

Mr. Lockwood has held the offices of president of the Village of 
White Plains and school commissioner for the 2d district of West- 
chester county (1885-91). 

He is a member of the Westchester County Bar Association, the 
Westchester County Historical Society, the Order of Founders and 
Patriots of America, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the 
devolution, and the Society of Tammany or Columbian Order. 




OEW, FREDERICK WILLIAM (born in Alsace, now a part 
of Germany, December 20, 1834), is the son of Frederick J. 
Loew, and was brought to this country when three years of 
age and educated in the city schools. His father dying 
when he was sixteen years old, he learned the art of engraving, at 
which he was very proficient. Ill health forced him to abandon this 
occupation, however. December 7, 1855, he was shipwrecked off the 
Bahama Islands while on a voyage for his health aboard the 
Crescent City. Returning to New York by way of the Island of Nas- 
sau, Havana, and New Orleans, he obtained a clerkship in the sher- 
iff's office, and studying law was admitted to the bar in 1860. 

He enjoyed a successful practice in the line of examination of titles 
to real estate and conveyancing. In 1863 he was elected a justice of 
the 5th district court of New York City, and in 1867 represented the 
12th assembly district in the constitutional convention. In Novem- 
ber, 1869, Governor Hoffman appointed him a justice of the Court of 
Common Pleas, to succeed Honorable George C. Barrett, resigned. 

1 Jonathan Lockwood,- sou of Robert, the original New York state constitutional convention, a member of 
American ancestor, settled in Greenwich, Connecticut, the board of regents of the State University, the first 
was a prominent citizen of that place, and was a member judge of Westchester county, a member of the assembly 
of the Connecticut assembly. His son, Joseph, 3 lived in for five years, and a commissioner to locate the county 
Stamford, Connecticut. The latter's son, Joseph,' re- seat. Ebenezer's sou, Horatio,'- was supervisor of Pound- 
moved to New York State and was one of the original ridge for seventeen years, and member of assembly from 
settlers of Poundridge, Westchester county. The second Westchester county from 1833 to 1830, and also in 1841 
Joseph's son. Major Ebenezer Lockwood, 6 was a justice of and 1842. Alsop Hunt Lockwood, ' father of James B., 
the peace prior to the Revolution, ami upon the outbreak of was supervisor of the Town of Poundridge for sixteen 
that struggle became major of the '2d regiment of West- years, sheriff of Westclii-ster county 1 1 S".:j-5o), member of 
cheater county militia. He was also a member of the the assembly < lsC4-r. r >i, and a commissioner for the erec- 
committee of safety and the provincial congress, and a tiou of the Harlem bridge at 3d avenue and 130th street, 
reward of forty guineas was offered for his capture by New York City, 
the British. Subsequently he was a member of the first 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 239 

The same month he was elected to succeed himself for the full term 
beginning January 1, 1870. Governor Tilden appointed him in Octo- 
ber, 1875, to hold a special term in the Supreme Court for the trial of 
jury cases. The democratic candidate for re-election to the Court of 
Common Fleas in 1875, he was defeated by the republican and inde- 
pendent democratic combination of that year, notwithstanding that 
he led the entire ticket several thousand votes. In 1877 he was 
elected register of the City and County of New York, and served until 
1880. 

Poor health leading him to travel, Judge Loew has since resided 
mainly in Paris. He has visited all parts of Europe and the east. He 
was married, December 19, 1807, to Julia Augusta, daughter of the 
late Jacob Vanderpoel, who was dock commissioner of New York 
City. 

As justice of the Court of Common Pleas, Judge Loew made good his highly 
creditable record in former offices, and tried many notable and difficult cases 
with marked ability and impartiality. His decisions were very seldom reversed 
by the Court of Appeals. 1 



[^rglOUNSBERY, WILLIAM (born at Stone Ridge, in the Town 
Nfl pil fl °^ Mtu'bMown, Ulster county, New York, December 25, 
fjEji/; 1831), is the son of John Lounsbery and Sarah Peters. His 

' ' ' great-grandfather, Edward Lounsbery, was a captain in 

the Revolution. William Lounsbery attended a select school and the 
Kingston Academy, also studying under a private tutor, and in 1851 
was graduated at Rutgers College. He has since received from that 
institution the degree of master of arts. He attended the Albany 
Law School for one term, also studying in the office of Stevens, Ed- 
wards & Mead, at Albany, and in February, 1853, was admitted to the 
bar at the Albany general term. He began practice in Stone Ridge, 
his native town, but in 1854 removed to Kingston, where he is still 
active and prominent at the bar. At the breaking out of the war, 
being a member of the 20th New York militia, as commissary, he 
served for three months in Maryland with that regiment, and then re- 
turned to his law practice. In his professional career he has been 
highly successful, and has been connected with a variety of impor- 
tant litigations. Some of his notable cases may be found reported in 
81 N. Y., 557; 74 N. Y., 310, and 114 N. Y., 439. 

Mr. Lounsbery has held the offices of member of the assembly 
(1868), mayor of Kingston (1877), and member of the 46th congress. 
He was secretary of the Rondout & Oswego Railroad Company during 
the period of construction, in 1870 and 1871. He is the author of a 
" History of the Three Months' Campaign of the 20th Regiment," pub- 
lished by the Ulster County Historical Society, and a published ad- 

1 Brooks's 'Common Pleas," p. 101. 




240 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

dress, being a historical sketch of the County of Ulster, delivered in 
1876 at the request of the common council of the City of Kingston. 



OVE, THOMAS CUTTING (born in Cambridge, New York, 
November 30, 1789; died in Buffalo, New York, September 
17, 1853), was the son of Mary Cutting and Robert Love, a 
man of collegiate education. After a course of schooling 
under Professor Town, author of the standard " Town's Speller " and 
" Town's Reader " of that day, he began the study of law in the office 
of Phineas Tracy, Esquire, of Batavia, New. York. 

Leaving his studies to take part in the war of 1812, that year and 
the year following he served as a volunteer soldier on the western 
frontier, and in 1814 was one of the first to respond to the call upon 
patriotic citizens of the western counties to go to the rescue of the 
gallant American soldiers pent up in Fort Erie on the Canadian side 
of the Niagara river. On September 17, 1814, he was engaged in the 
memorable sortie from that fort, where he was severely wounded, 
taken prisoner, and carried ultimately to Quebec. 

Discharged from imprisonment at the close of the war, he returned 
to Batavia, and after "a short residence removed to Buffalo. There he 
formed a law partnership with Albert Haller Tracy, brother of his 
former preceptor. His ability and force of character soon gave him 
leadership at the bar and prominence in public movements, and 
opened before him the highest official positions of the locality. 

He was one of the first five councilmen after Buffalo became a city 
in 1832, was first judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1828, dis- 
trict attorney of Erie county in 1829, and surrogate of Erie county 
in 1841. He was elected to congress in 1835 on the anti-masonic 
ticket, and declined a second nomination. Complying with the re- 
quest of his constituents, he selected his successor in that body, des- 
ignating Millard Filmore, who was subsequently elected vice-presi- 
dent and became president. Mr. Love served in his various public 
positions with marked ability, a high sense of duty, and a coinage 
commensurate with his intense convictions and sympathies in behalf 
of justice and humanity. These sympathies were practically mani- 
fested by his services to protect the Indians from the frauds of the 
white settlers and by his activity in the cause against slavery, in 
which he was an able assistant to what was known in those days as 
the " Under-ground Railroad." 

He married Maria Maltby, of Hatfield, Massachusetts, grand- 
daughter of Seth Murray, a revolutionary general. He was survived 
by her and one son, George M. Love, afterward a volunteer in the war 
of the rebellion, and by three daughters, Julia (Mrs. Walter Cary), 
Maria M. Love, and Mrs. Elizabeth M. L. Cary. 




<^L/ &*£- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 241 

OVELL, HERBERT MARLOW (born in Marathon, Cortland 
county, New York, February 16, 1S5S), is the son of Ran- 
som Marlow Lovell and Dorcas Eliza Meacham. He is de- 
scended from the Cape Cod families of Lovell and Bodfish. 
Other New England families among his ancestors are the Carpenters, 
the Emersons, and the Hales. Matthew Hale Carpenter, the cele- 
brated Wisconsin jurist and senator, was his cousin. 

Herbert M. Lovell attended the Marathon Academy and Cortland 
Normal School, and in 1887 was graduated from Cornell University 
with the degree of bachelor of arts. At college he was elected to the 
Phi Beta Kappa and was president of his class during the senior year. 
He was also the author of a treatise on " The Constitutional Issues 
Involved in the English Revolution of 1688," for which he was award- 
ed honors at commencement. After graduation he became principal 
of the Elmira Free Academy; and he continued in that position until 
his admission to the bar (April 27, 1893), for which he had qualified 
himself by pursuing legal studies in the office of Rockwell, McDowell 
& McCann. He has since practiced with success in Elmira. 

Mr. Lovell is a prominent mason, and is at present (1897) master of 
Ivv Lodge, No. 397, at Elmira. 




YDECKER, HARRY ROSS (born in Yonkers, New York, 
March 4, 1869), is the son of Albert Lydeeker, of Rocklaud 
county, and Martha B. Morrison, of Orange county. After 
studying at the 2d Ward High School of Newburgh and 
at the Newburgh Academy, he entered Mount Saint Mary's Academy,, 
from which he was graduated in 1887. Having been prepared for the 
bar under the direction of Honorable William D. Dickey (elected jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court in 1895), he was admitted to practice at a 
general term held at Poughkeepsie, May 11, 1893. He has since pur- 
sued his profession in Newburgh, rapidly gaining a reputation for 
ability. He is at present (1897), counsel for the Newburgh Electric 
Railway Company, corporation counsel of New Windsor, New York, 
and town counsel for the Town of Blooming Grove. He is a member 
of the 10th separate company, N. G. N. Y.; of Newburgh Lodge, No. 
309, F. and A. M. ; of the .Etna Boat Club (Orange Lake), of the Young- 
Men's Christian Association, of Newburgh Council, No. 1320, Royal 
Arcanum, and of the Newburgh Cycle Club. 



YON, GEORGE FREDERICK (born in the Town of Barker, 
Broome county, New York, July 13, 1849), is the son of 
Harry and Pamelia A. Lyon. He attended district schools 
and the Binghamton Academy, was graduated at Hamil- 
ton College in the class of 1872, and after pursuing legal studies in 




242 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

the office of Chapman & Martin (Orlow W. Chapman, late solicitor- 
general of the United States, and Celora E. Martin, now a judge of the 
Court of Appeals), was admitted to the bar at the Albany general 
term in November, 1875. In January, 1876. he became a member of 
the firm of Chapman & Martin. After the appointment of Judge 
Martin to the Supreme Court bench in 1S77, the firm of Chapman & 
Lyon was formed, continuing until the death of Solicitor-General 
Chapman in 1890. In November. L895, he was elected a justice of the 
Supreme Court, being nominated to that office by both the republican 
and the democratic parties. 

Justice Lyon was president of the Broome County Bar Association 
from 1888 to 1897. He was a member of the constitutional conven- 
tion of 1894. 



llwe^JYON, JOHN WESTFALL (born in Port Jervis, New York, 
IwPCfl October 1(5, 1819), is the son of Thomas J. Lyon (noticed be- 
tfiLa/ low ) aucl J emima West fall. He was educated in the com- 
t^^^J mon schools of Port Jervis and at the Waverly Institute, 
studied law with his father, and was admitted to the bar at a general 
term in Brooklyn in December, 1874. He was a member of the well- 
known Port Jervis firm of T. J. & J. W. Lyon, until October, 1887, 
when the elder Lyon retired. 

Mr. Lyon throughout his professional career has been especially 
occupied with railway litigation in cases relating to the liability of 
the master to the servant. He has probably conducted more litiga- 
tion of this character during the past twenty years than any other at- 
torney in the state. 

From 1874 to 1877 he was assistant-district attorney of Orange 
county, under Honorable Charles F. Brown. He has twice been an 
unsuccessful democratic candidate for the office of district attorney. 




VOX. THOMAS JEFFEKSON (bom in Caldwell. New Jer- 
sey, June 20, 1816; died in Port Jervis, New York, April 10, 
1889), was descended in tlie paternal line from a Scotch an- 
cestry. His education was received in the public schools 
of Newark, New Jersey, and in Montclair Academy. Removing to 
Goshen, New York, he entered upon the study of the law with Nathan 
Westcott, a well-known practitioner of that period. Before he had 
completed his clerkship he began to practice the profession, having an 
office in Port Jervis. He was admitted to the bar at Brooklyn in No- 
vember, 1849, and immediately entered upon regular professional 
business at Port Jervis, where he continued in practice until his death 
— a period of nearly fifty years. 

Mr. Lyon was one of the earliest lawyers in Port Jervis. He was 
the first counsel of the Erie Railway in Orange county, and acted in 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 243 

that capacity for upward of twenty years, always, however, retaining 
a miscellaneous practice. He was a born trial lawyer, possessing the 
old-time magnetism in declamation, aud spoke invariably from inspi- 
ration. His oratorical faculty was derived somewhat from his ex- 
perience as a methodist minister before he began reading law. He 
was especially strong in sensational and sentimental cases. His il- 
lustrations and arguments were novel and amusing, and his odd say- 
ings are still quoted by the members of the bar. When old and iu- 
firni, in cases conducted by his son, John W.,Mr. Lyon would be urged 
by the presiding judge and by his brethren of the bar to sum up, as it 
was considered a pleasure to hear him. He was also an eloquent po- 
litical and platform orator, and devoted much time to services on the 
stump in behalf of the democratic party, of which he was a stanch 
adherent from youth. He was a candidate for state senator (1856), 
was postmaster at Port Jervis under President Pierce, and was mem- 
ber of the assembly (1868 and 1869). 




|cADAM, DAVID (born in New York City in October, 1838), 
is the son of Thomas aud Jane McAdam. His father, a 
native of Glasgow, came to New York in 1836 and success- 
fully established himself as a merchant tailor in the up- 
town district of the city. 

Judge McAdam received his early education in the city schools, 
and in 1849, at the age of eleven, entered a lawyer's office as office boy 
He soon applied himself to reading law, aud in 1855 became the man 
aging clerk of his employer, Mr. F. F. Marbury. In 1859 he was ad 
mitted to the bar, and beginning to practice the following year was 
presently in the enjoyment of a lucrative general law business. 

In 1S73 he received the nomination of the democratic party for 
justice of the Marine Court, and was elected by a large majority for 
the statutory term of six years. In 1879 he was re-elected, and in Jan- 
uary, 1881, he was chosen chief-justice by his associates. Principally 
through his efforts the jurisdiction of this court was greatly enlarged 
in 1882, and its name changed to the more appropriate one of " City 
Court." 

In 1885 he was re-elected for his third term in this court, but did not 
serve the full period. His term would have expired in December, 
1891, but in the fall of 1890 he was elected a justice of the Superior 
Court for the term of fourteen years. He became a justice of the 
Supreme Court January 1, 1896, through the operation of the provi- 
sion of the constitution of 1894 merging the Superior Court and 
Common Pleas of New York City with the Supreme Court. 

Judge McAdam is widely known as the author of several standard 
works on various special departments in law. He is the author of 
two works on " Marine Court Practice." three on " Landlord and Ten- 



244 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



ant," one on " Terms of Court," one on " The Slillwel] Act," and one 
on " Names.*' He has also published a number of pamphlets on dif- 
ferent branches of the law, and has been a frequent contributor to the 
general press as well as to law periodicals. 

lb is an eloquent speaker aud an attractive lecturer. His best 
known lectures include th< subjects. " Character," " Time and Tide," 
'•Lawyers," "Wise and Otherwise," "Legal Chestnuts," "George 
Washington," " Lincoln and Grant," and " Robert Burns." 

For many years Judge McAdam lias taken an active interest in leg- 
islative enactments in the State of Xew York designed to further the 
ends of true equity, and he is the author of several of the most impor- 
tant statutes of the kind. Among these may be mentioned the statute 
now in force which makes it illegal for landlords in Xew York City 
to dispossess monthly tenants without having given notice at least 
live days previously. This just measure has placed a necessary check 
upon a certain class of abuses, and has proved so popular that not 
merely have its provisions been extended to other cities in Xew York, 
but it has become a model for similar laws in various other states. 




uated 



Hugh 



ADAM, THOMAS (born in Xew York City in 1SC>0), is the 
eldest son of Honorable David McAdam, of the Supreme 
Court bench. He was educated at Moeler's Institute, Xew 
York City, and Columbia College, from which he was grad- 
n 1885. He was also graduated from the Columbia College 
Law School, and in 1887 was ad- 
mitted to the Xew York bar, at 
once engaging in practice. He 
has devoted himself to general 
civil litigations, but making a 
specialty of real estate law, in 
which department he has built up 
a valuable business and estab- 
lished a reputation. 

He takes an active interest in 
politics, and for some time was a 
member of the Tammany Hall 
general committee, representing 
the old 13th district. He is a 
member of the West-side Demo- 
cratic and Harlem and Atlanta 
Boat clubs and the Arion So- 
ciety. He resides in Harlem. In 
188(i he was married to Sarah 
S., granddaughter of Reverend 
Henry Blair, of Xew York City. 





HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 245 

|cCANN, GEORGE (.born in Elmira, New York, June 23, 
1864), is the son of James McCann and Helen L. Neish. In 
the paternal line lie is descended from original Scotch- 
Irish ancestors, who were among the oldest settlers of Che- 
mung county. His mother's parents emigrated from Scotland about 
seventy years ago. He attended the Elmira schools, being graduated 
from the Elmira Free Academy in 1S82, and took the four years' 
course in Cornell University, receiving the degree of bachelor of sci- 
ence in 18S6. In 1888 he was graduated from the Cornell University 
Law School, meantime obtaining familiarity with office business with 
the firm of Reynolds, Stanchfield & Collin, and in November of the 
same year he was admitted to the bar at Syracuse. Since then he has 
practiced continuously iu Elmira. 

Mr. McCann is an active republican. He is now chairman of the 
Elmira republican city committee. For the past three years he has 
been a member of the city board of education. 




JcCARTY, JAMES CANFIELD (bom in Rhinebeck, New- 
York, May 7, 1824), is the son of Stephen and Nancy Mc- 
Carty. His grandfather, Daniel McCarty, saw the tea 
thrown overboard in Boston harbor and was a soldier in 
the Revolution. 

James C. McCarty attended the common schools and Rhiuebeck 
Academy, being graduated from that institution in 1840. He studied 
law under Ambrose Wager, in Rhinebeck, and Avas admitted to prac- 
tice in the Dutchess County Court in 1846 and in the state courts in 
1847. He has practiced at Rhinebeck ever since — a period of half a 
century. He has devoted himself chiefly to office business, has had 
comparatively little to do with litigated suits, and has settled more 
cases than he has tried. Since 1872 he has been in partnership with 
George Esselstyn of the firm of Esselstyn & McCarty. He has held 
the offices of supervisor of the Town of Rhinebeck (1852, 1860, and 
1861) and assistant-assessor of internal revenue (1863-65). 




jcCAULEY, WILLIAM, Junior (born in Stony Point, Rock- 
land county, New York, August 5, 1856), is a son of Will- 
iam and Sarah Rose McCauley. He attended the public 
school of his native town until the age of thirteen, and 
then, for a period of eighteen months, a private school conducted by 
Reverend E. Gay, Junior, at West Haverstraw. Afterward he was a 
student in the State Normal School, at Millersville, Pennsylvania, 
and in the Wesleyan University. Ill health compelled him to aban- 



246 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

don his collegiate course. He pursued legal studies at Haverstraw 
with Honorable George W. Weiant, and in May, 1881, was admitted 
1o the bar at a general term held at Poughkeepsie. He engaged in 
practice at Haverstraw, where he still resides. From January 1, 
1891, to January 1, 1894, he was district attorney of Rockland county. 
For many years he has been corporation counsel to the Village of 
Haverstraw. 




IcCLELLAND, CHARLES PAUL (born in Scotland, Decem- 
ber 19, 1854), is the son of William McClelland, of the an- 
cient Scotch clan of that name. His mother, Nicholas, 
daughter of Charles Paul, a resident of Morristown, New 
Jersey, was also of Scotch descent. Senator McClelland arrived in 
this city with his parents at an early age and was educated in the 
public schools. He entered the law offices of B. Reilly, Junior, and 
Frederick Hemming, was graduated from the Law School of the New 
York University, and in May, 1881, was admitted to the bar of New 
York at Poughkeepsie. 

He has always practiced his profession in New York City, although 
his residence has been at Dobbs Ferry, Westchester county. For four 
years (18ST-90) he was special deputy collector and acting collector 
in the New York custom house, and equipped by this experience with 
special knowledge, he has since devoted himself in his law practice 
to revenue cases, customs, and internal revenue complications, and 
general practice in the United States courts, including that line of 
criminal practice arising from revenue frauds. In these departments 
he has gained distinction. 

He has also been prominent in state politics. He was a member of 
the assembly in 1885, 1886, and 1891, and during the latter year was 
chairman of the ways and means committee, and recognized as a 
leader of the democratic majority. In 1892 and 1893 he served as 
state senator from Westchester county. Since 1886 he has served as 
one of the managers of the State Hudson River Hospital for the In- 
sane at Poughkeepsie. 

As one of the active members of the reform contingent in the demo- 
cratic party, and a so-called " Cleveland democrat,"' Senator McClel- 
land enjoyed the cordial hatred of the " ring " element at Albany. 
In the assembly of 1891, controlling the expenditures as chairman of 
the ways and means committee, he directly antagonized this element. 
For the first time in nearly ten years, the democrats then had the 
power of unhindered administration of the finances. Many antici- 
pated a reckless license, but Senator McClelland stood in the way. 
Resisting all appeals, he on the contrary cut down the budget so as to 
produce the lowest tax-rate in the state for many years. Again in the 
senate of 1892 and in 1893 he was of that little group of four " Clevo- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



247 



land " senators who frustrated the enactment of the flood of perni- 
cious legislation introduced by their felloAV -partisans; and as leader 
on the floor the senator was in constant opposition to the leadership 
of the presiding officer, though of the same party. With the single 
exception of the City of Buffalo (where republican defection carried 




CHARLES PAUL McCLELLAXD. 



the measure), he defeated the scheme to substitute a power of ring 
appointment for the American principle of home-rule in the munici- 
palities of the state. At the close of the session, when the Buffalo bill 
was carried through, Mr. McClelland predicted from the floor of the 
senate the overthrow of the democratic ring. The prophecy was veri- 
fied in the fall of 1894. 




JcCLUNG, BENJAMIN (born in Little Britain, Orange county, 
New York, October 29, 1867), is the son of Samuel and Mar- 
garet McClung. After attending preparatory schools he 
entered the University of the City of New York, from 
which he was graduated with the degree of bachelor of laws. While 
at the university he also pursued legal studies in the office of John H. 
Strahan, of New York City. In February, 1890, he was admitted to 
the bar and immediately thereafter engaged in professional business 



248 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

in Newburgh, where he is still an active practitioner. He was for a 
time associated with George C. Smith, now one of the professors of 
law in the New York Law School, and thereafter formed a partner- 
ship with Honorable Russell Headley, ex-district attorney of Orange 
county. The firm still exists as Headley & McClung. Mr. McClung 
was counsel in the matter brought to establish the rights of West 
Point soldiers or government employees, and of inmates of alms- 
houses, to exercise the elective franchise. He also assisted in the 
editing and publishing of " Headley on Assignments." 




|cCLURE, DAVID (born in Dobbs Ferry, Westchester coun- 
ty, New York, November 4, 1848), was admitted to the bar 
in New York City in December, lSG'J, and is a member of 
the law firm of Turner, McClure & Rolston. His practice 
has brought him very prominently before the courts during the last 
twenty-seven years as counsel in cases which have attracted much at- 
tention. 

He was counsel for the executors and Cardinal McCloskey, princi- 
pal legatee, in the celebrated Men-ill will case of 1SS1; was also suc- 
cessful counsel for the executors in the contest over t he will of Schuy- 
ler Skaats in 1892, the trial occupying six successive weeks; and more 
recently has had charge of the litigation over the will of Charles B. 
Beck, affecting large values of real property in the City of New York. 
He successfully represented the defendant in the celebrated case of 
De Meli vs. De Meli, brought for separation and divorce, the trial in 
the Supreme Court in 1SS4 occupying nearly two months. In the Liv- 
ings! mi and General Burnside litigations he was also prominent. He 
has appeared in many large corporation foreclosure suits, including 
that of the Omaha Water Works plant, involving the validity of a 
mortgage securing bonds amounting to $3,600,000, in which many 
important questions were disposed of. The case was successfully 
prosecuted in the Circuit Court of the United Stales for the District of 
Nebraska, the Circuit Court of Appeals at Saint Louis, and the Su- 
preme Court of the United States. He also successfully represented 
the bondholders in t lie suit for the foreclosure of the mortgage of the 
New York & Northern Railroad Company in 1893, which was argued 
at the special and general terms of the Supreme Court and in the 
Court of Appeals. With his law partners, Mr. McClure has been asso- 
ciated in many of the principal railroad foreclosures of the past 
twenty years, some of the more recent actions being in the cases of 
the Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan, the Northern Pacific, the 
New York, Lake Erie & Western, the Oregon Railway and Naviga- 
tion Company, the Oregon Improvement Company, the Georgia Cen- 
tral Railway Company, the Chicago & Northern Pacific Railroad 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 249 

Company, the Bankers and Merchants' Telegraph Company, and the 
Memphis & Charleston Railroad. 

Mr. MeClure for many years has been counsel for the Farmers' 
Loan and Trust Company, West-side Sayings Bank, Consolidated 
Gas Company, several insurance companies, Roman Catholic Orphan 
Asylum, and the trustees of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and is a direc- 
tor of the Lawyers' Surety Company. He has never held public office 
other than as school trustee and member of the constitutional con- 
vention of 1S91, in which he was distinguished for the attention 
which lie gave to the question of the preservation of the forests of the 
state, the committee on forestry, of which he was chairman, procur- 
ing an amendment to the constitution preventing the state from sell- 
ing or leasing the public woodlands. 

In 1893 he was appointed by Mayor Gilroy a member of a commis- 
sion of five to draft a new system of laws for the government of the 
public schools of the City of New York, which committee prepared a 
bill and presented the same to the legislature. He was also a mem- 
ber of a commission appointed by the Supreme Court in 1892 to con- 
sider the question relating to plans for rapid transit in the City of 
New York by means of an underground railroad, the report of this 
commission being approved by the court. In June, 1893, he was ap- 
pointed by the comptroller of the currency of the United States re- 
ceiver of the National Bank of Deposit in the City of New York, and 
in spite of the stringent financial condition which prevailed during 
the summer of that year, the widely distributed assets were so real- 
ized upon that within thirty days after his appointment he declared a 
dividend of 40 per cent., forty days later au additional dividend of 25 
per cent., and in a short, time thereafter 10 per cent., making a total 
of 75 per cent, declared within three months. The entire receiver- 
ship was closed out within one year, and the claims against the bank 
having been paid in full, the remaining assets were turned over to 
the agent of the stockholders. 

Mr. MeClure is a member of the Manhattan and Democratic clubs 
and the Association of the Bar of the Citv of New York. 




IcCROSKERY, LEWIS W. YOUNG (born in Newburgh, New 
York, November 8, 1860), is a son of Honorable John J. S. 
MeCroskery and Henrietta Young. His father was several 
times mayor of Newburgh. His mother is a direct de- 
scendant of Colonel Lewis Dubois, who served with distinction in the 
revolutionary war, and is a Daughter of the American Revolution. 

He was educated in the public schools and graduated from the 
Newburgh Free Academy in June, 1876. He studied law in the office 
of Cassedy & Brown (Honorable A. S. Cassedy, ex-mayor of New- 



250 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

burgh, and Charles F. Brown, late chief-justice of the Appellate 
Court, 2d division). After bis admission to the bar, May 12, 1S82, be 
remained in the office of Mr. Cassedy for several years, when be 
started practice for biinself, in which be has continued to tbe present 
time. 

He was elected recorder of tbe City of Newburgh, and served from 
1891 to 1895. He is at present (1897) postmaster of Newburgb, hav- 
ing been appointed by President Cleveland on January 30, 1896. He 
bas served fourteen years in tbe national guard as a private and an 
officer. He was commissioned 2d lieutenant of tbe 10th separate 
company on November 9, 1891, 1st lieutenant on March 21, 1892, and 
captain on December 12, 1893. After serving about one year as cap- 
tain be resigned. 

At present be is master of Hudson River Lodge No. 607, P. and A. 
M., a member of Hudson River Commandery No. 35, K. of T., a mem- 
ber of Higbland Cbapter No. 52, R. A. M., a member of Lawson Hose 
Company No. 5, of tbe Veteran Association, and of tbe Newburgh 
City Club. 

In tbe fall of 1895 be was a candidate on the democratic ticket for 
district attorney of Orange county, but was defeated by Honorable 
Michael H. Hirschberg, who is at present one of the justices of tbe 
Supreme Court. He ran 600 ahead of tbe regular democratic ticket 
in the county. 

He was married, February 15, 1888, to Margaret R., daughter of 
Isaac L. Corwin. 




]eDOWELL, JOHN GUY (born in Elmira, New York, Janu- 
ary 17, 1867), is the son of Robert Morris McDowell and Ar- 
lena C. Boyd. He is a direct descendant of Daniel Mc- 
Dowell, of a Scotch-Irish family, who was the first settler 
in Chemung county and a captain in the Revolution. In the maternal 
line he traces bis ancestry to William Pitkin, founder of the Pitkin 
family in America, who was born in England in 1635 and came to 
Connecticut in 1659. 

John G. McDowell received his general education in the Elmira 
public schools and Free Academy, and the Smith Academy and 
Washington University, of Saint Louis, Missouri. In 1890 he was 
graduated from the law school of Cornell University with the degree 
of bachelor of laws, and on September 12 of the same year he was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Binghamton. His office training for the profes- 
sion was received under the direction of Hosea H. Rockwell, of El- 
mira. 

Mr. McDowell bas been in active and successful practice at Elmira 
since his admission to the bar. In 1895 lie held the office of city at- 
torney. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 251 

*1jga#l cGUIRE ' JEREMIAH (born in the Isle of Wight, November 
jtW| 22, 1823; died in Elmira, New York, October 25, 1889). was 
PffWffl for nearly a half century one of the most distinguished 
' — — - ^a lawyers and most eminent citizens of the southern tier of 
New York. He received his early education in the public schools, and 
was a graduate of old Starkey Seminary, Yates county, New York. 
He pursued his legal studies with Honorable Hiram B. Jackson at 
Havana, New York, and was admitted to the bar at Ithaca in 1845. 
He began the practice of law at Havana, then located in the County of 
Chemung. Later the County of Schuyler was created from a part of 
Chemung county. Mr. McGuire's law practice extended through 
southern and central New York; and upon his demise the bar in the 
several counties paid tribute to his memory. In 1874 he removed from 
Havaua to Elmira, where he resided until he was " summoned hence." 
"With his name inseparably connected with the legal history of New 
York state, Mr. McGuire could not be otherwise than devoted to his 
profession. 

He was unambitious for official position, yet in 1873 he was the 
assemblyman from Schuyler county, and in 1875 represented Che- 
mung county in the state legislature, and was unanimously chosen 
speaker of the assembly. His public record was brilliant. In 1873 he 
was the democratic leader in fact, and in a single speech challenged 
the interest and attention of the educators of the whole country by his 
criticism of a gigantic land grant to Cornell University, by the State 
of New York. A rigid investigation followed, by a commission ap- 
pointed by the governor. In 1875, while speaker, Mr. McGuire's faith 
in the reform professions of Governor Tilden was shaken, and an 
estrangement between these former political allies resulted. Mc- 
Guire, the commoner, and Tilden, the politician, were never reunited. 

Mr. McGuire will be reverently remembered as a great and success- 
ful lawyer of the old school — convincing before a court en banc, invin- 
cible before a jury. 




|cKOON, DENNIS DANIEL (born in Ilion, Herkimer county, 
New York, October 17, 1827), is the son of Martin McKoon 
and Margaret Clapsaddle, and is descended from an old 
pioneer family of Herkimer county, of early Scotch origin 
witli Norman antecedents. The first American ancestor, James Mc- 
Koon, came from Scotland near the middle of the last century and 
settled in Herkimer county. His descendants were prominently iden- 
tified with the history of that section of the state. Mr. McKoon, at 
seven years of age, removed with his parents to Oswego county. He 
was educated at Fulton Academy in Oswego, studied law in the 
office of Judge Ranson H. Tyler of that place, and was admitted to 
the bar in 1854. He began the practice of law at Phoenix, New York, 



252 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AXD BAR OF NEW YORK 

build up a profitable business in a short time, and served as a judge of 
the Oswego county courts for two terms. He resigned at the begin- 
ning of his third term upon the breaking out of the civil war, enlist- 
ing in Company D, of the 110th New York volunteers. He soon rose 
to the rank of 1st lieutenant, and also served as adjutant of the regi- 
ment. He was, however, prostrated with typhoid fever, which inca- 
pacitated him for further service in the army, and from which he was 
nearly three years in convalescing. 

In 18GT he was sufficiently recovered to resume the practice of law, 
and removed from Oswego county to Middletown, Orange comity, 
where he became a member of the law firm of Foote, McKoon & Stod- 
dard. He soon built up a large clientage. In 1874, while retaining 
his office in Middletown, he also opened one in New York City. The 
arrangement continued for three years, when the increasing New 
York business forced the abandonment of the Middletown branch. 
In New York City he has confined himself almost exclusively to the 
practice of civil law, making the department of real estate a special 
feature. He has been eminently successful. In 1889 his son, D. Gil- 
bert McKoon, and three years later David B. Luckey, were taken into 
partnership, the firm name becoming McKoon & Luckey. 

Judge McKoon has interested himself in many business enterprises 
outside of his legal practice. He is a director and treasurer of the 
Richmond Homestead Association of New York, director and vice- 
president of the Frontier Bank of Niagara, and president of the Man- 
nahasset Park Association of Monmouth county, New Jersey. 

In 1852 he was married to Mary, daughter of Andrus Gilbert, a 
prominent citizen of Oswego county. 



•MA1IOX, DENNIS (born in New York City, September 24, 
1824), is descended from an ancient Celtic family long 
seated at Thomond, West Munster, Ireland. His father, 
Dennis McMahon, was born in County Clare, near Limer- 
ick, and came to America in April, 181fi. He became an influential 
citizen of New York City, where he was long established :is ;i dry- 
goods merchant. His wife, Martha Lawrence, was of the old West- 
chester county family, descendants of which have been prominent 
citizens of New York. 

Mr. McMahon graduated in July, 1838, from the famous Grammar 
School of Columbia College, and prosecuted his law studies with sev- 
eral of the more prominent New York law firms of that day, includ- 
ing Marvin & Austin, Crooke & Austin, Martin & Strong, and Griffon 
& Havens. He also studied with the admiralty and criminal lawyers, 
W. J. Hasket and Thomas Warner. He was admitted to practice in 
the sin to Supreme Court at Rochester, October 30, 1845, in the old 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



253 



Court of Chancery, New York City, October 31, 1845, and in the 
United States Supreme Court at Washington in March, 1856. 

Commencing in New York in October,' 1845, Mr. McMahon has con- 







tinued in active practice in that city during the long period of fifty 
years. He has argued no less than five hundred and fifteen important 
cases which have been reported. Of these, fifteen were argued in the 



254 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

United States Supreme Court, thirty-nine in the United States Cir- 
cuit Court, ninety-seven in the United States District Court, oue hun- 
dred and twenty-eight in the New York Supreme Court (general 
term), and fifty in special term, fifty-two in the Court of Appeals, 
twenty-eight in the Superior Court (general term), sixty in the New 
York Common Pleas (general term), and three in the New Jersey 
Court of Errors. His library contains no fewer than forty-live bound 
volumes which include the cases on appeal argued by him. Although 
seventy-three years of age, he is robust and actively continues his 
professional work in court as well as at his office. His careful briefs 
continue to show the result of " midnight toil." 

Mr. McMahon has several times been tendered nominations for 
judgeships by political organizations, but has uniformly declined. 
He is a prominent layman of the Roman catholic church, and is the 
author of many articles which have appeared in reviews and the 
newspaper press on questions affecting that church, as well as on vari- 
ous miscellaneous themes. Among these are papers on " Political 
Bosses," " The Homestead Case," " Celibacy of the Clergy Treated 
Historically," " The Evangelization of the Southern Negro by the 
Catholic Church," " Review of the Encyclical of the Pope on the 
Union of Christendom," " Theological Cursing," " The Future of the 
Catholic Church in the United States, P>ased on the Prophecy of Saint 
John," " The Prophetic Power of Jesus," " The Miraculous Power of 
Jesus," " The Payment by the Southern States of Their Full Debts," 
" The Animal Origin of Man," and " Importance of Building Up Our 
Commerce." 



MAHON, MARTIN THOMAS (born in La Prairie, Canada, 
March 21, 1838), is the son of Patrick McMahon, a civil 
engineer and contractor, formerly of Pallas Green, Ire- 
land, and .Mary Power, id' Cappoquin, Ireland. His earliest 
educational training he received at home. At an early age lie en- 
tered Saint John's College, Fordham, New York, from which lie grad- 
uated in liis seventeenth year as honor-man. He later received the 
degrees of master of arts and doctor of laws. He entered the law 
office of Honorable Eli Cook, then mayor of Buffalo, and there fitted 
himself for the practice of law, hut owing to his extreme youth was 
not admitted to practice at once. He received an appointment as 
corresponding clerk in the postoffice department at Washington. 
Later he was sent to California as special agent of the departmenl of 
the Pacific coast, serving also as Indian agent. 

He was admitted to the liar at Sacramento, California, in 1861, and 
began practice in the City of San Francisco, his professional work, 
however, being soon interrupted by the civil war. He responded to 
the lirst call for (mops and was elected captain of the first company 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 255 

'of cavalry organized in that region. Upon learning that bis company 
was not to go to the front immediately, lie resigned, and received a 
commission as captain in the United States army, as an additional 
aide-de-camp on the staff of Major-General George B. McClellan, witli 
whom be formed an intimate and lasting friendship. Throughout 
the war lie served with the army of the Potomac, and a medal of 
honor was conferred upon him by congress for " distinguished brav- 
ery at the battle of White Oak Swamp."' Promotion followed in 
rapid succession. From aide-de-camp, with the commission of major, 
he became lieutenant-colonel and assistant-adjutant-general of the 
left grand division, army of the Potomac. Later he was adjutant- 
general and chief -of -staff of the 6th corps, of the army of the Poto- 
mac, under General William B. Franklin, serving also under General 
John Sedgwick until the latteFs' death at Spottsylvania, as also 
under General Horatio G. Wright, until after the final operations be- 
fore Petersburg. At this period he was assigned to temporary duty 
in New York, on the staff of Major-General Dix, commanding the de- 
partment of the east. Before his resignation, in 1SG6, he had re- 
ceived the brevets of colonel, brigadier-general, and major-general of 
volunteers. 

At the close of the war General McMahon established himself in 
the practice of law in New York City, and in 1S6G became corporation 
attorney to the city. During President Johnson's administration he 
v\ as appointed minister to Paraguay. Upon his return to New York 
he resumed the general practice of law, in which he has continued 
with great success to the present time. In 1872 he was appointed 
receiver of taxes in New York City, and he held the position until 
1885, when he resigned to accept an appointment as United States 
marshal for the southern district of New York. In 1890 he carried 
the 7th district as democratic nominee for the assembly, although the 
district had always been strongly republican. The following year 
he became a member of the state senate, and upon the expiration of 
his term was re-elected. On November 5, 1895, he was elected as 
democratic candidate for judge of the Court of General Sessions of 
the City and County of New York. 

Judge McMahon is a member of Tammany Hall, the Manhattan 
Club, aud the United Service Club. In 1886 and 1887 he was presi- 
dent of the Society of the Army of the Potomac. He has been a con- 
tributor to the Century Magazine, Harper's Magazine, and the (nihil 
Service Magazine, and has delivered lectures for charitable purposes. 




256 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

jcNAMARA, WILLIAM FRANCIS (born in Corning, New 
York, June 17, 1800), is the son of Martin and Bridget Mc- 
Namara, who were born in Ireland and emigrated to this 
country in 1847. He attended the public schools of Corn- 
ing and iu 1875 was graduated at the Corning Free Academy, being 
valedictorian of his class. He read law in the office of Spencer & 
Mills, of Corning, and also took the course at the Albany Law School. 
From that institution he received his diploma in May, 1884, and was 
one of the four commencement orators, the highest honor conferred 
by the faculty. He had previously, in January, 1S84, been admitted 
to the bar. 

Mr. McNamara has always practiced in Corning, enjoying success 
in his profession, and also being active in politics and local affairs. 
He was attorney for the families of the victims of the wreck on the 
New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad at Ravenna, Ohio, in July, 
1891, when sixteen young Corning glass cutters were killed outright. 
He has held the offices of village clerk of Corning (1880) and corpora- 
tion counsel (1885 and 1886). He has been prominent as a stump 
speaker. In the presidential campaigns of 1884 and 1888 he delivered 
political speeches throughout New York and Pennsylvania. 




IANDEVILLE, HUBERT CARPENTER (born in Ithaca, 
New York, January 29, 1807), is the son of Doctor Edgar 
W. and Carrie E. Mandeville. He attended schools at 
Plains, Pennsylvania, and at Ehuira, New York, and in 
1888 was graduated at Union College with honors, receiving the de- 
gree of bachelor of arts. He pursued legal studies in the office of Ed- 
ward G. Ilerendeen, at Elmira, and was admitted to the bar at Bing- 
hamton in August, 1890. Since then he has been in practice continu- 
ously in Elmira. He is now in partnership with Mr. Herendeen, his 
former preceptor. 

Mr. Mandeville has gained a professional reputation not often real- 
ized in so brief a period at the bar. In 1893-94 he acted as the gen- 
eral assignee of David G. Robinson, whose assets amounted to a mill- 
ion and a half of dollars. At present he has charge of the mileage 
book case in this state, testing the constitutionality of the mileage 
book law. He is attorney for the Mutual Life Insurance Company 
for southern New York, and with his partner is attorney for the 
VYells Fargo Express Company, for various Elmira banks, and for 
i In- New York State Association of Hardware Jobbers. 

He is a trustee of the Elmira Savings Bank and the Elmira (Fe- 
male) College, is treasurer and pari owner of the Elmira Advertiser 
Association, and is a member of the New York Slate Bar Association, 
and of the stale board of the Yonng Men's Christian Association. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 257 

ARCUS, LOUIS WILLIAM (born in Buffalo, New York, 
May 18, 1803), is the sou of Leopold and Amelia E. Marcus. 
He was graduated from the Buffalo High School, and 
thereafter entered Cornell University, from which institu- 
tion he graduated iu 1889 with the degree of bachelor of laws. In 
October, 1889, lie was admitted to the bar at the Rochester examina- 
tions, since which time he has successfully practiced his profession 
in Buffalo. In 1895 Mr. Marcus was elected surrogate of Erie county, 
a position that he still holds. 





ARSH, LUTHER RAWSON (born at Pompey Hill, Onon- 
daga county, New York, April 4, 1813), is the son of Luther 
Marsh, and lineally descended from John Marsh, of Hart- 
31 ford, Connecticut, whose wife was the daughter of John 
Webster, governor of Connecticut. He is also descended from Ed- 
ward Rawson, secretary of the Colony of Massachusetts, and Rever- 
end Charles Chauncey, second president of Harvard College. 

Until the age of fourteen Mr. Marsh attended Pompey Academy, 
taught for a time by his step-grandfather, Reverend Joshua Leonard, 
a learned scholar, subsequently attending the military school of Cap- 
tain Partridge at Middletown, Connecticut. A brief clerkship in a 
large country store at Onondaga was followed by study in the law of- 
fice of Mr. Jewett at Skaneateles; in 1830 continuing with Mr. Flem- 
ing, of Manlius, and afterward with Samuel Beardsley, of Utica. He 
was admitted to the bar at Albany in 1836, and immediately ac- 
cepted a position in the office of Henry R. Storrs, of New York City. 
Upou the deatb of Mr. Storrs he returned to Utica. In 1848 he once 
more came to New York, and soon formed a partnership with Oscar 
W. Sturtevant. Daniel Webster, on retiring from the United States 
senate, came to New York to engage in counsel business, aud opened 
an office with Marsh & Sturtevaut, continuing with them until his re- 
call to the senate. After the Sturtevant partnership Mr. Marsh be- 
came associated with Honorable John T. Hoffman and Honorable 
William H. Leonard under the firm name of Marsh, Leonard & Hoff- 
man. Subsequently he became head of the firm of Marsh, Coe & 
Wallis, and still later of that of Marsh, Wilson & Wallis. This firm, 
founded by John Wallis in 1810, is believed to be the oldest legal es- 
tablishment but one in New York City. Including his Utica practice 
of six years, up to 1888 Mr. Marsh was in the active practice of his 
profession fifty-two years, and met nearly every lawyer of promi- 
nence who practiced at the metropolitan bar during that period. His 
practice covered the entire field of litigated business, all criminal 
practice being relinquished in 1851, however, as interfering too much 
with his business in civil cases. One of his notable cases was a suit 
brought in behalf of Colonel James L. Lamb, of Springfield, Illinois, 



2.">8 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

against the Camden & Aniboy Railroad Company for not having de- 
livered at New York a large quantity of cotton which came into their 
hands. It took Mr. Marsh ten years to successfully carry this suit 
through and collect the money for his client. In the successive stages 
of the litigation he was opposed by eminent lawyers at the New York 
bar. 

In addition to his professional career, Mr. Marsh has given much 
labor and time to measures for the public welfare, disconnected with 
politics. He was active with others in connection with the construc- 
tion of the great reservoir in Central Park, the postal reform of 1850, 
and the abolition of intramural interments in New York City. In the 
latter case he agitated for two years through the press and drew the 
bill passed by the legislature and the ordinance passed by the com- 
mon council of the city prohibiting interments in the churchyards, 
and requiring the removal of bodies from the old burying-grounds to 
places outside the city. Still more untiring were his services in con- 
nection with the movement for new parks for New York City between 
June, 1SS1, and June, 1884. He addressed mass-meetings, argued be- 
fore legislative committees, and in every way exercised skillful gen- 
eralship to secure the enormous park acreage which raised New York 
almost from the lowest to the first'place in this respect among the 
great cities of the world. The bill placing the cost upon the city in- 
stead of upon the bordering owners, passed by the legislature in 
April, 1883, was drawn by him, and he was made chairman of the 
committee appointed by the mayor to lay out the grounds. The bill 
growing out of the report of this committee met with determined op- 
position from city and state officials, property-owners, and legisla- 
tors, but largely through Mr. Marsh's indefatigable efforts ultimately 
passed both houses by overwhelming majorities. A struggle before 
the governor followed, but the bill was signed. The test of the con- 
stitutionality of the act required still further labor. Mr. Marsh was 
made chairman of the commission of appraisal of the value of the 
lands appropriated, and being the only lawyer on the commission had 
to decide the many questions arising from defective titles, judgments, 
mortgages, leases, public highways, gores of land, railroads, old es- 
tates, swamp lands, forests, gardens, every variety of buildings, trus- 
teeships, infants, and absentees. 

John Mullaly, in his volume concerning the new parks (1887), says: 

As to Mr. Marsh's share in the work, it is indeed doubtful if in the legal 
ranks of the city there could be found one who would have been willing, through 
six years of steady, unwavering, chivalric devotion, to give, without compensa- 
tion, his talents and his lifelong professional experience to the promotion and 
success of this great movement for the benefit of his fellow-citizens. 

Another public service of .Mr. Marsh was as chairman of the com- 
mittee, organized at Niagara Falls in 1884, to inspect the lands, re- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 259 

ceive testimony, hear arguments, aiid give decisions relative to the 
international reservation of grounds at Niagara Falls. The untiring- 
labors of this commission, its decisions being upheld by the Supreme 
Court, made the proposed park practicable, and the requisite legis- 
lation was secured. 

Mr. Marsh has always been a brilliant speaker on public occasions. 
His more notable addresses include the following: In honor of Gen- 
eral Nathaniel Woodhull, in Brooklyn, 1848; before the Dramatic 
Fund Association, 1854; at the re-inauguration of the Crystal Palace, 
1854; anniversary address of the American Institute, 1855; before the 
postal reform committee at University Chapel, 1856; on breaking- 
ground at the Central Park for the new reservoir, April IT, 1S58; on 
the completion of the reservoir, August 19, 1862; at a meeting at 
Cooper Iastitute in aid of the people of Italy, presided over by Gen- 
eral Dix, December IT, 1800; at the complimentary banquet by the 
bar to tbe late James W. Gerard on* his retirement from practice, 
January 14, 1809; on the organization of the New York Common 
Pleas under the new constitution, July 1, 18T0; at the Saint Patrick's 
dinner, March IT, 1871; at the reunion of the Sons and Daughters of 
Pompey,, June 29, 1871; at the dinner given by the New York Geo- 
graphical Society to Henry M. Stanley, at Delmonico's, November 2T, 
1872; at a meeting of the descendants of Edward Rawson, at Worces- 
ter, Massachusetts, October 9, 1ST2; before the Pioneers of Central 
New York, at Syracuse, September IT, 18T3; at the Stenographers' 
dinner, December 30, 1ST0; before the graduating class of the Law 
School of Columbia College, March 14, 18T9; at the Burns dinner, 
January, 1880; before the Society of the Army of the Potomac, at 
Burlington, Vermont, June 16, 1880; on Shakespeare, at a meeting 
for inaugurating a national pantheon, April 23, 1881 (published in 
Lester's " History of the United States "); before the Union League 
Club on the death of President Garfield, September 21, 1881 ; on " The 
Power of the Alphabet," before the Athenaeum, at Brooklyn, Janu- 
ary, 1882; before the graduating class of the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons, May 16, 1882; at the Union League Club in the memo- 
rial service to Henry W. Bellows, March 9, 1882; at the Union League 
Club on its twentieth anniversary, February, 1883; a course of lec- 
tures on spiritualism, at Boston, 1891; an address on Daniel Web- 
ster, at Tremont Temple, Boston, 1891; an Independence and Memo- 
rial Day oration, at Middletown, New York, 1892; an address before 
the Oneida County Historical Society, at Utica, 1893. 

He contributed many editorial articles to the New York Times from 
1S52 to 1853, and declined the editorial chair offered him in 1869 on 
the death of Henry J. Raymond. His " Recollections of the Bar and 
Sprinkles of Biography," published from 1892 to 1895 in the Con- 
glomerate, a weekly publication conducted by a former law partner, 
would fill two large volumes. 



260 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Mr. .Marsh was married September 15, 1845, to Jane E., daughter of 
Alvan Stewart, one of the foremost leaders of the anti-slavery move- 
ment. 

A devoted student of Swedenborg, during the last seven or eight 
years of Ms life Mr. Marsh has retired from law practice, and given 
his time largely to the subject of spiritualism. lie is a frequent 
speaker on the platform, and a prolific contributor to periodical liter- 
ature in tlie interests of this religion. 




|AKS11ALL, LOUIS (born in Syracuse, New York, December 
14, 1850), is the son of Jacob Marshall and Zilli Strauss, 
the former a native of Baden, Germany, the latter of Wur- 
temberg, Germany, lie was educated in the public schools 
of Syracuse, being graduated from the high school in June, 1874, after- 
ward reading law with N.B.Smith until 1870. The year following was 
spent at Columbia College Law School, New York City, after which 
he entered the office of Honorable William C. Ruger, of Syracuse, 
uutil January, 1878, when he was admitted to the bar. On the day 
of his admission he became a member of the law linn of which Judge 
Ruger was the head. When Mr. Ruger was elected chief-judge of 
the Court of Appeals, he became a member of the firm of Jenney, 
Marshall & Ruger, subsequently of Jenney & Marshall, practicing at 
Syracuse until February, 1894, when he entered the firm of Guggen- 
heimer, Untermyer & Marshall, of New Y'ork. 

While practicing in Syracuse he was interested as counsel in much 
of the important litigation of central New York. He acted as counsel 
for Nichols in the senatorial contest of 1891, was counsel in the re- 
cent litigation involving the constitutionality of the liquor tax, and 
has argued no less than one hundred and fifty cases in the Court of 
Appeals, involving every branch of jurisprudence. Aside from the 
routine of professional life he has written a number of papers for the 
New York State Bar Association, and is the author of various lec- 
tures and articles on legal, historical, and literary subjects. 

He was appointed by Governor Hill a member of the constitutional 
commission of 1890 to revise the judiciary article, and served on the 
committee on the Court of Appeals. Iu 1894 lie was elected from the 
25th senatorial district a delegate to the constitutional convention, 
and served as chairman of the committee on future amendments and 
was second on the judiciary committee. He proposed the judiciary 
article, was one of the subcommittee which formulated it in its final 
form, drafted the report on the powers of the convention and its free- 
dom from control by the courts on the occasion of the attempt by 
Trapper to procure a writ of prohibition by which it was sought to 
preclude the convention from passing on his right to sit in (he con- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 261 

vention, and took a prominent part in drafting the various amend- 
ments adopted. 

Mr. Marshall is now chairman of the committee on law reform of 
the New York State Bar Association as successor to William B. 
Hornblower. He drafted the amendments to the codes of civil and 
criminal procedure rendered necessary by the judiciary article, re- 
ceiving the thanks of the legislature of 181)5. He was selected by the 
Committee of Seventy to prepare an opinion on the constitutionality 
of the police magistrates bill, and to argue in its support before the 
legislative committees. He has for a long time been actively con- 
cerned in all movements relating to law reform. 




AKTIN, CELOBA EATON (born in Newport, Herkimer 
county, New York, August 23, 1834), is the son of Ellis and 
Lucetta Brayton Martin. As a boy he worked on his fa- 
ther's farm and attended district school. Later he was a 
student for one year in the Fairfield Academy (Herkimer county), and 
also for a year in the academy at Holland Patent, Oneida county. 
He then entered upon the study of law in the office of John C. Harris 
at his native place, and in 1856 he was admitted to the bar at the 
Oswego general term. After a year's connection with the United 
States district attorney's office at Providence, Rhode Island, he be- 
gan practice for himself at Whitney's Point, Broome county. In 
1802, in consecpience of impaired health, he discontinued his profes- 
sional business to accept the office of deputy provost marshal, in 
which he continued until the end of the war, when he resumed his 
practice at Whitney's Point. From 1867 until 1877 he was in partner- 
ship with O. W. Chapman at Binghamton. This firm, to which 
George F. Lyon (now a justice of the Supreme Court) was admitted 
in 1S76, became one of the most conspicuous law firms of Bingham- 
ton and that part of the state. 

Meantime Mr. Martin was prominent in politics, as a republican, 
being for ten years chairman of the Broome county republican com- 
mittee. Notwithstanding this, the democratic governor, Lucius Rob- 
inson, in recognition of his high abilities and character, and pursuant 
to tlie geueral recommendation of both the republican and demo- 
cratic members of the bar, appointed him, in May, 1877, one of the 
justices of the Supreme Court for the 6th judicial district, to fill a va- 
cancy. In the ensuing fall he was elected for a full term, being nomi- 
nated for the office by both the great parties, and upon the expiration 
of the term he was nominated by all the parties and unanimously re- 
elected. 

In 1895 he was nominated as associate-judge of the Court of Ap- 
peals and elected. His term expires December 31, 1905. 



262 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



He was married in September, 1857, to Almanza, daughter of J< 
athan Barney, of Newport, Herkimer county. 





IARVIN, CHARLES MARSH (born in Peekskill, New York, 
May 22, 1864), is the son of Charles M. Marvin, who was 
born in Connecticut in 1816, and Frances Cottrell, born in 
Rhode Island and descended from puritan ancestors, lie 
was graduated from Alfred University in 1882 and Harvard College 
in 1884, and in 1885 received from Harvard University the degree of 
master of arts. After preparing for the legal profession in the offices 
of Jacob Schwartz and Reynolds, Stanchfield & Collin, at Elmira, he 
was admitted to the bar (May .~>, 1890, at Syracuse). He' has since 
been in practice in Elmira. For some years Mr. Marvin was an in- 
structor in ethics and political economy in the New York State Re- 
formatory. 



|ARVIN, RICHARD PRATT (born in Fairfield, Herkimer 
county, New York, December 23, 1803; died in Jamestown, 
New York, January 11, 1892), was the son of Selden Mar- 
vin and Charlotte Pratt, and was lineally descended from 
Reinold Marvin, who came from England about 1030-37 and was a 
prominent man among the founders of Hartford, Connecticut. 1 Mr. 
Marvin was reared upon a farm in Dryden, Tompkins county, New 
York, to which his parents had removed from Herkimer county in 
the winter of 1808-9. He attended the district schools until nineteen 
years of age, when he began to teach school, also attending the higher 
public schools and studying Latin with a private tutor. He began 
the study of law in 1820, at first with (Jeorge W. Scott, of Newark, 
Wayne county, and subsequently with Mark II. Sibley, of Canan- 
daigua, and Isaac Seeley, of Cherry Valley. He was admitted to 
the bar in New York City in May, 1820, as attorney in the Supreme 
Court and as solicitor in the Court of Chancery, and ten years later, 
upon the motion of Daniel Webster, was admitted as an attorney 
and counselor in the Supreme Court of the United States. In June, 
1820, he began his long professional career in Jamestown, New York. 
Mr. Marvin rapidly achieved distinction as an advocate in Chautau- 
qua and Cattaraugus counties, and soon became prominent in public 
life. He was originally a member of the Adams party, subseqitent- 

1 The- line cif descent is as follows: Heinold Marvin', of Han Marvin', born January -\ 1731, died December 80, 

Hartford. Farmington and Saybrook (now Lymel. Con- 1776, who married Mehitabel Selden, October 14, 1762; 

neetii -lit, who died in in.; ; Honorable Marvin 2 , of Lyme, Selden Marvin", born in Lyme ('. eti. ■ut. November 

lieutenant of militia and representative in the Connect ieiit 'M, 177.1. married Charlotte Pratt bom in Saybrook. Con- 

general court : Honorable Remold Marvin', ol Lyme, necticutl in 17'.is ; Honorable Richard I'ratt Marvin' . 
captain of militia and representative in the general court; 



net* 




tr**l< dZ^w^P 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 263 

ly becoming a national republican. In 1835 he was elected to the 
New York assembly, where he performed a notable service in secur- 
ing a charter and state aid for the construction of the Erie Railroad. 
The practical scheme of such a great road originated with Mr. Mar- 
vin, and the mass-meeting in favor of the project which he organized 
at Jamestown, September 20, 1831, was " the first public movement 
made in reference to the New York & Erie Railroad." He was 
elected to congress from Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties in 
1836, and re-elected in 1838 by a phenomenal majority. In 1840 he 
was a delegate to the constitutional convention and was active in 
connection with the judiciary article of the new constitution, which 
provided for the selection of four Supreme Court justices in each of 
the eight judicial districts of the state. The Sth district comprised 
the counties of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Erie, Orleans, 
Niagara, Genesee, and Wyoming. At the convention held in Buffalo 
in June, 1847, to nominate justices under the new constitution, Mr. 
Marvin was the first of the four justices nominated, and the only one 
whose nomination was made unanimously, without a contest. 1 Upon 
the organization of the court, in deciding the rotation, he drew for 
the full term of eight years from January 1, 1818, and he was twice 
re-elected. As the court was organized July 1, 1847, the original term 
was longer by six months than the constitutional term of eight years, 
so that in all Judge Marvin served continuously on the Supreme 
Court bench of the state for twenty-four years and six months. Dur- 
ing two years of this period, however, his actual services were in the 
Court of Appeals. 

Of the many interesting cases which Judge Marvin argued as a 
lawyer, or decided as a judge, only a few can receive bare mention 
here. He was counsel for Nathaniel A. Lowry and others of James- 
town in the famous litigations brought by Guy C. Irvine and others 
of Warren, Pennsylvania, over the lumber interests of that region. 
These cases were contested, with many dramatic features, being 
finally argued in the United States Supreme Court (14 Peters U. S. 
R., 293). As a judge, his decision in the " Jerry rescue " case in 1852, 
in maintaining the constitutionality of the fugitive slave law, cre- 
ated a furor throughout the uorth. It exhibited on his part courage 
and faithfulness in maintaining sound principles of law in the face 
of popular clamor. On the other hand, his private convictions on the 

1 Honorable Noah Davis was a member of this conven- lieve, nominate il unanimously upon the first ballot. He 
tion, and his recollection of it, as set forth in a paper had become well known as a lawyer, especially in the south- 
written by him in June, ISA), is interesting in this connec- em counties of the district, and had acquired much and 
tion. Hewrites: "The judicial convention was held at very honorable distinction as a representative in the legis- 
the American Hotel in the City of Buffalo I was a dele- lature aud in congress, and as a member of the constitu- 
from the County of Orleans. tional convention. The selection of candidates for justices 



There were four justices to he nominated for the Sth ju- of the new court was left at that time almost wholly to 

dicial district. A large number of candidates was pre- the members of the bar, and the unanimity of the selection 

sented from the eight counties composing the district. of Judge Marvin was a high compliment to his standing as 

It was soon found from canvassing that Judge Marvin's a lawyer and his merit as a citizen and his worth as a 

name was acceptable to all the delegates. He was, I be- man. He was elected to the office by a large majority." 



2W 



HISTORY OF THE JIEXL'H AND BAH OF NEW YORK 



slavery question were manifested in bis early and energetic support 
of the republican party. The most important of Judge Marvin's early 
opinions, in the estimation of Honorable Noah Davis, was " the cele- 
brated case of the People vs. Shorter, who was tried and convicted of 
murder." The conviction was affirmed in the Court of Appeals. In 
Palmer vs. Davis (28 X. Y., 242) Judge Marvin sustained tlie right of 
a married woman to sue without joining the husband, and in Burnell 
vs. Pierce (28 N. Y.) upheld the right of married women to submit to 
arbitration touching their separate property. In the legal tender 
case (Metropolitan Dank vs. Van Dyck) his opinion ably sustained the 
view that legal tender of the government was non-taxable. 

In 1871, at the close of his long service upon the bench, he re- 
sumed active practice at Jamestown, and was subsequently counsel 
in various important cases, also serving as referee in many, no 
saved $275,000 of principal and interest to the tax-payers of Ellicott 
as leading counsel of the town in the bond case against the Buffalo & 
Jamestown Railroad Company. In this notable litigation Judge 
Marvin was opposed to Grover Cleveland at special and general term, 
to Judge George F. Comstock in the Court of Appeals, and to K. T. 
Merrick in the Supreme Court of the United States, and won in every 
court. 

Upon his retirement from the bench he received a testimonial ad- 
dress signed by one hundred leading members of the bar of Erie 
countv, and requesting him to sit for a portrait in oil to hang in the 
Supreme Court chambers in Buffalo. In this address they said: " We 
presume, sir, that you are not aware how largely the proud position 
occupied by the Supreme Court of this district is due to your own 
personal character and labors, and how well this is understood by 
the people not only of your district, but of the entire state." Noah 
Davis has credited Judge Marvin with exerting a powerful forma- 
tive influence upon his own judicial career. In 1804 he said: "In 
my own subsequent judicial experience T must be permitted to say 
that the patient example of .Indue Marvin in the pursuit of truth 
often occurred to me and led me to the exercise of similar patience 
in seeking to administer justice." Again: " I have myself great rea- 
son to be grateful to the Providence that placed me as a pupil, as it 
were, in his judicial school, where for many years his personal asso- 
ciation and example wore blessings of which the great and true value 
is now justly appreciated." Speaking of the " high degree of ability, 
clearness in comprehension of the questions involved, and directness 
in indication of the grounds and reasons for the judgment pro- 
nounced " which characterized Judge Marvin's opinions, Mr. Davis 
says: " In this regard he ranked high among the judges of the state; 
and his opinions, of which large numbers were published during his 
long judicial career, combine to place him very high in the roll of 
able judges of the state." 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 265 

Horace Greeley, who opposed the elective system for judges, ad- 
mitted that this system had given the 8th judicial district " the ablest 
judges iu the state," and declared it was " no wonder the 8th district 
favored it, when it had such pure and able judges as Marvin and his 
associates." 

A notable " Early History of the New York & Erie Railroad, Es- 
pecially in Reference to the Village of Jamestown in 1831," written 
by Judge Marvin in 1880, is in the archives of the Chautauqua So- 
ciety of History and Natural Science. His Supreme Court opinions 
are mainly found in Vols. 1 to 56 of " Barbour's Supreme Court Re- 
ports," in " Lansing's Reports," " Parker's Criminal Reports," and 
" Howard's Practice Reports," and his Court of Appeals Reports in 
2, 3, 26, 27, 28, and 37 N. Y. 

He was married in September, 1834, to Isabella Newland, of Al- 
bany, daughter of David Newland. This distinguished lady died in 
1872. Their children are General Selden E. Marvin, of Albany; Mrs. 
Sarah Jane Hall, of Jamestown; the late David N. Marvin, of James- 
town; Mrs. Mary M. Goodrich, of Cambridge, Massachusetts; the late 
William R. Marvin, of Jamestown; Robert N. Marvin, of Jamestown, 
his father's representative for a quarter of a century in business mat- 
ters; Richard P. Marvin, of Akron, Ohio, a lawyer, and the late Isa- 
bella Marvin. 




A.YHAM, STEPHEN L. (born in Blenheim, Schoharie 
county, New York, October 8, 1826), is descended from the 
family of Mayhams who settled in Troy, New York, in the 
latter part of the last century. His father in the early boy- 
hood of Stephen removed to Blenheim. After receiving such early 
education as the schools in the immediate vicinity afforded, he com- 
menced the study of law at the age of twenty in the office of Samuel 
W. Jackson, afterward a justice of the Supreme Court of the 4th ju- 
dicial district. A year later he entered the office of Love & Freer, of 
Tthaca, one of the leading firms of western New York. He was subse- 
quently, for two years, superintendent of the Blenheim public 
schools, under the old school law which gave to the town school su- 
perintendent substantially the same powers later conferred upon 
county school commissioners. 

Upon admission to the bar he commenced practice at Blenheim 
and was for three successive terms elected supervisor of the town. 
At the expiration of his third term, in 1859, he was elected district at- 
torney of the county. Four years later he removed to Schoharie. 
In 1863, before his term as district attorney had expired, he 
was elected to the assembly, of which he was one of the young- 
est as well as one of the .ablest members at a perilous period 
in the history of the country. In that capacity he championed 



266 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

the cause of state aid to the construction of the Albany & Sus- 
quehanna Railroad, and made the principal speech on the floor 
of the house in support of a bill for that purpose, which was 

passed and received the sanction of Governor Seymour. The 
next four years were devoted to the uninterrupted practice of his pro- 
fession, during which he took rank as one of t lie leading attorneys 
of his judicial district, often appearing in important cases before the 
Court of Appeals, his success being marked by an exceptional men- 
tal and legal equipment that gave him equal power before juries and 
before the highest court of the state. 

In 1868 his recognized prominence again brought him into official 
position as representative in congress from the 14th congressional 
district, consisting of Albany and Schoharie counties. In 1878 he 
was elected to represent the 13th congressional district, comprising 
Schoharie, Greene, and Ulster counties. During both these terms he 
served on important committees, and, although in the minority, his 
opinions, especially on questions of law, carried great weight both 
in the committee-room and on the floor of the house. 

In 1S83 he was the unanimous choice of the democratic party for 
county judge and surrogate of Schoharie county. He was elected 
and held the position until January, 1887, when he was appointed by 
Governor Hill to be justice of the Supreme Court for the 3d judicial 
district, to fill the vacancy caused by the election of Judge Ttufus W. 
Peckham to the Court of Appeals. In 1887 he was triumphantly 
elected to succeed himself. He served on trial and circuit courts for 
four years, and on general term until January, 1802, when he was 
appointed presiding-justice of the 3d department, holding the posi- 
tion until January, 189."), when the new constitution went into effect. 
He then returned to trial work, in which he continued until retired 
on account of having reached the age limit at the end of December, 
1896. 

As a trial judge Justice Mayham was courteous to the bar, ready 
in seeing the legal questions involved in the action, and usually cor- 
rect in his rulings, so that comparatively few of his decisions were re- 
versed on appeal. As a presiding and associate-justice of the general 
term he wrote nnmerous opinions which are to be found in the reports 
of the judicial decisions of the state and which fully attest his thor- 
ough equipment for the position he occupied. 

Aside from professional ami official labors, Judge Mayham has 
been connected with important interests. He was president of the 
Schoharie Valley Railroad during its construction, and continued as 
such until the re-organi/.ation of the company. For many years he 
was president of the Schoharie Academy and Union Free School. Tie 
has been an earnest advocate of all plans of public improvement con- 
nected with Schoharie county and a prominent factor in the enter- 
prises undertaken to advance the interests of the county and vicinity. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 267 

While a stanch and earnest democrat, he is ever ready to subordi- 
nate party advantage to the general good. He has had many politi- 
cal matters to decide judicially, and in each case has been sustained 
by the court of last resort. He is an earnest, forcible, eloquent 
speaker, and his judicial career, which succeeded his prominence at 
the bar, is without blemish. 

In 1849 Judge Mayham was married to Julia Martin, granddaugh- 
ter of General Freegift Patchin, who served the patriot cause during 
the Revolution. Of his seven children only two, a son and daughter, 
are living. Two of his sons, F. Matt, and Don, both of whom were 
young lawyers of great promise, died early in their professional ca- 
reers. His surviving son, Claude B. Mayham, is also a young lawyer 
of ability and promise, and occupies the office with his father at Scho- 
harie, where both are engaged in the practice of their profession. ' 



pgJwlEADS, WILLIS HOWARD (born in South Limington, York 

l]wj7|i county, Maine, February 22, 1846), is the son of Simeon 
rl/wff Pease Meads and Ann Maria Libby. He was graduated at 
' ' Bowdoin College in 1870, with the degree of bachelor of 

arts, and lias since received from his alma mater the degree of master 
of arts. His studies for the profession of the law were pursued in the 
offices of George Wing and J. H. Kennedy, and immediately after his 
admission to the bar (January 8, 1880) he began pradice at Buffalo, 
where he has continued to the present time. In 1885 he became a 
member of the firm of Quinby & Meads, which in 1886 was changed to 
Quinby, Meads & Rebadow. This partnership was dissolved in 1893 
through the serious illness of Mr. Quinby. Since 1880 he has been loan 
commissioner of Erie county, and since 1895 commissioner of jurors 
for that county. 




fEEKER, ROLLIN WESTON (bom in Hawleytown, Broome 
county, New York, December 25, 1870), is the son of Eli 
Samuel and Samantha Morgan Meeker. His paternal an- 
cestors were early settlers of New England, and are men- 
tioned in the English Domesday Book, showing that they were land- 
owners. He was educated at the Binghamton Central High School 
and under private tutors. In the fall of 1888 he entered the law office 
of Senator Edmund O'Connor, and soon after completing his twenty- 
first year was admitted to the bar at Binghamton, February 5, 
1892. Since then he has been in practice at Binghamton, with 
steadily increasing success. 

Mr. Meeker has been associated with Senator O'Connor in many 
suits. He has made a specialty of litigation and corporation law. 
As attorney for the assignee of the estate of Erastus Root & Sons, 



268 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

hankers, he lias become connected with a variety of important suits 
growing out of their failure, among them an action to set aside a 
mortgage of $150,000 against the Merchants' Bank of Binghamton. 
In January, 1895, he became police attorney of Binghamton, hut he 

was compelled by pressing business to resign that position. He is at 
present the local attorney in Binghamton for the state commission in 
lunacv. 




IBEKILL, JOHN BRYANT (born in Plainville, Hart lord 

county, Connecticut, January 7, 1857), is the son of Squire 
Q. Merrill and Lucy Porter .Merrill. His father served in 
the Mexican war as a boy musician in the Stevens regiment 
of volunteers under General Fremont, and in the civil war was lieu- 
tenant of the 5th Connecticut volunteers. His mother was the 
daughter of Bryant Porter, a Connecticut farmer. 

John B. Merrill received his education in the public schools of 
the City of Washington. In his eighteenth year he enlisted in the 
signal corps of the United States army. With this service he was con- 
nected from November 2, 1871, to April 1, 1883, becoming a specialist 
in the science of meteorology. From March, 1880, to .March, 1881, la- 
was detailed as instructor of military tactics and army signaling to 
the West Virginia state cadet corps, University of West Virginia. 
Under the direction of the chief signal officer of the army he con- 
ducted an investigation concerning the trades and causes of the 
severe western tornadoes of 1881, the results of which were published 
in a valuable government report. He is the only known specialist in 
tornado investigation who ever witnessed both the formation and the 
destructive work of one of these clouds, having been an eye-witness 
of the WoodhavenlXew YorlOtornado in 1895,from its inception until 
its dissolution. In June, 1882, he was placed in charge of the United 
States weather bureau in New York City, a position which he held 
until his resignation from the signal service the next year. 

Deciding to adopt the profession of the law. Mi'. Merrill pursued 
studies to this end with Honorable Benjamin W. Downing, formerly 
district attorney of Queens county, New York. He was admitted to 
the bar upon examination before the general term at Brooklyn, Feb- 
ruary 13, 1890, and immediately opened a law office in Woodhaven, 
County of Queens, where he has since practiced continuously. 

Mr. Merrill, although he has been in practice for only a little longer 
than seven years, has made a high reputation at the Queens county 
bar for both solid and brilliant qualities, lie has been connected 

w it h some of the most conspicuous cases that have arisen in that part 
of the state during the last three years. His first memorable plea 
was in March, 1S!H, in behalf of Anna Wandalowshky, a young Polish 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 269 

immigrant, charged with the killing of her babe at Glen Cove, to 
whose defense he had been assigned. The jury acquitted her, when 
followed a pathetic outburst of sympathy from the court-room of 
spectators and attending jurors, for the stranger prisoner, so strong 
that it passed beyond the power of control aud compelled a recess of 
the court. He defended Cliarles A. Sharkey, of Flushing, indicted for 
murder in the first degree, on the charge of poisoning his mother, who 
died April 27, 1894. The case was tried in April, 1895, and Mr. Merrill 
obtained the prisoner's acquittal. He appeared in defense of Mat 
thew Gray, of the United States engineer corps, tried for the killing of 
one William Gray in October, 1895, by stabbing. Gray had been in- 
dicted for murder in the first degree, but by the able efforts of his 
counsel he was convicted of the minor crime of manslaughter in the 
Jirst degree. In 1896 he defended Mary Lalor, John Fleishhauer, and 
Anthony Forstell, tried on the charge of murder in the first degree for 
the killing of William Lalor at Long Island City, January 1, 1896, 
and procured their acquittal. He was the defendant's counsel in the 
celebrated case of Arthur Mayhew (colored), indicted for the murder 
of Stephen Powell, of Hempstead, on March 14, 1896. The jury ren- 
dered a verdict of guilty, whereupon Mr. Merrill carried the case to 
the Court of Appeals, which, however, affirmed the conviction. Two 
stays were afterward obtained. Mayhew was finally electrocuted, 
having been three times sentenced to die. 

Mr. Merrill has been prominently identified with the enforcement 
of the fish and game laws. In September, 1895, he secured the con- 
viction of the entire noted Wanser net-fishing crew before Justice 
Wartz and a jury at Canarsie. The prosecution of these parties had 
been undertaken by the State Fish and Game Commission. Mr. Mer- 
rill Avas not the attorney for the prosecution, but being in Canarsie 
on the day of the trial he was invited by the prosecuting attorney to 
sum up the case before the jury. This was the only conviction of a 
fishing crew ever procured in Canarsie. Violations of the net-fishing 
law have for years been notorious in that vicinity, and although there 
have been scores of prosecutions, the accused, having demanded trial 
before Canarsie juries, have always been acquitted except in this one 
instance. 

In December, 1896, he successfully prosecuted the North Shore 
shell-fish cases in behalf of the state commissioners on game and 
fisheries. 

Mr. Merrill has held the position of school commissioner of Queens 
county for three years, from 1890 to 1893, and for four years has 
served as a member of the Woodhaven board of education. In the 
office of school commissioner he made an exceptional record for ener- 
getic and intelligent work, greatly promoting efficient school manage- 
ment and the general educational interests of the county. State 
Superintendent James F. Crooker, alluding to his services in a public 



270 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

address, said: "Commissioner Merrill has done a great work. The 
department views it with great interest and satisfaction." 

In politics Mr. Merrill lias always been a decided and active demo- 
crat. He has taken an earnest interest in the concerns of the Village 
of Woodhaven, and is among the most public-spirited citizens of that 
community. At the time of the disastrous Woodhaven tornado, in 
July, 1895, he stood on a washtub in front of the ruined schoolhouse, 
and for five hours appealed to the visiting people for cash contribu- 
tions. The visitors, whose number was estimated at 75,000, re- 
sponded so generously that before sundown 81,400 in bills and change 
had been given, completely filling a keg provided for the purpose. 




JERWTN, MILTON H. (born in Leyden, Lewis county, New 
York, June 16, 1S32), is the son of Alanson and Amanda 
Kimball Merwin, both of New England descent. He was 
gradtiated at Cazenovia Seminary in 1848 and at Hamilton 
College in 1852, studied law at Watertown in the office of Honorable 
Joseph Mullin (afterward presiding judge of the Supreme Court for 
the 5th district), was admitted to the bar in 1853, and thereupon 
formed a legal copartnership with his preceptor, which continued 
until the latter's elevation to the bench (1857). He afterward prac- 
ticed alone until October, 1874, when he was appointed by Governor 
Dix one of the justices of the Supreme Court. He has served without 
interruption in that capacity to the present time. Under the provi- 
sions of the constitution of 1894, creating the appellate division of 
the Supreme Court, he was appointed by Governor Morton one of the 
members of that division for the 3d judicial department. 

Justice Merwin has also held the office of surrogate of his county. 
He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 18G7. In 
1858 he was married to Helen E., daughter of Ira Knapp, of Gran- 
ville, Washington county. 




IESSBR, LOUIS FRANKLIN (born in Buffalo, New York, 

February 7, 1856), is the son of Christian and Dorothea 
Messer. His ancestors on both sides were of original 
French descent. Both his parents were among the pio- 
neers of Buffalo, having come to that city when they were children 
As a boy he attended district school and the public schools of Buffalo. 
After taking a preparatory course at Saint Joseph's ( Jollege (Buffalo), 
he entered Columbia College, from which he was graduated in 1S82 
with the degree of bachelor of philosophy. In addition to the regular 
course at Columbia he attended lectures and took the junior course in 
the law department. Subsequently he entered the law office of Hon- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 271 

orable James A. Eoberts,of Buffalo. Upon his admission to the bar, in 
1SS5, he formed a partnership with Mr. Roberts, in which he still con- 
tinues. 

Mr.Messer has devoted himself exclusively to the practice of the 
law and to enterprises incidental to that pursuit. He was one of the 
organizers of the Erie County Guaranteed Search Company, the first 
find largest title company in Buffalo, and has been its president ever 
since its incorporation. He is identified with several other large cor- 
porations of that city, either as an officer or as a director. 




JETCALF, JABEZ HENRY (born in Canand'aigua, New 
York, June 25, 1857), is the second son of the late Jabez 
H. Metcalf, a life-long resident and prominent lawyer of 
Canandaigua. The elder Metcalf was admitted to the bar 
in 1843, and had a large practice and an extensive acquaintance 
throughout western New York. He was a law partner of Senator 
Lapham, and in later years was at the head of the firm of Metcalf & 
Field. The son was educated at Canandaigua Academy and prepara- 
tory schools, studied law in the office of Metcalf & Field, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Buffalo June 2G, 1878, having just completed his 
twenty-first year. He entered upon practice at Canandaigua, and 
continued to reside there until January, 1897, when he removed to 
Buffalo and formed with Mr. Herbert P. Bissell the firm of Bissell & 
Metcalf. This firm is engaged in a large corporation practice. 

Mr. Metcalf, while in practice in Canandaigua, was appointed (Jan- 
uary, 1890) county judge of Ontario county. In the following year he 
was elected to that office for a full term of six years. 




EYEK, JAMES GULICK (born at Fishkill Landing, New 
York, January 17, 1804), is the son of Lewis and Mary 
Nelson Meyer. He was graduated from the grammar 
school of Rutgers College in 1880 and from Rutgers College 
in 1884. The degrees of bachelor of arts and master of arts have been 
conferred upon him by that institution. His preparation for the legal 
profession was received under the direction of Judge Samuel K. 
Phelps, and he was admitted to the bar at Brooklyn in September, 
1886. He has been in active practice at Matteawan since, devoting 
himself exclusively to his profession, conducting numerous important 
litigations. 

Mr. Meyer has at various times been attorney for the Town of Fish- 
kill, and also attornev for the board of auditors and one of its mem- 




272 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

bers. He organized the new general hospital of the Town of Pishkill, 
and he is a trustee of the Rowland Library, and also a member and 
one of the organizers of the Willard II. Mase Hook and Ladder Com- 
pany. 



LLER, JOHN HUNTER (born in New Rochelle, Westches- 
ter county, New York, May 11, 1850), is the son of Leonard 
P. Miller, who for thirty years was a prominent citizen and 
one of the leading lawyers of Westchester county, and 
grandson of Nicholas Miller, of Mamaroneck, also a leading citizen of 
Westchester in the early part of this century. His mother, Susan 
Ann Le Count, was of a New Rochelle family, of honorable lineage in 
France prior to their advent in this country witli other Huguenot 
refugees about 1685. Mr. Miller was educated by private tutors and 
in private schools, and was graduated from Wesleyan University in 
1871, and from Columbia College Law School in 1ST:]. While attend- 
ing Columbia lie also read law in the office of Miller, Stoutenburgh & 
Peckham, of New York City, and after his admission to the New York 
bar in 1873 at once engaged in practice in that city. 

One of his first cases, attracting wide attention, involved the con- 
struction at 110th street. New York City, of the trestle for the New 
York Central Railroad tracks. In 1870 he became attorney for the 
Hunter, Overing, and Van Cortlandl estates, and had charge of the 
extensive business and litigation iu the Counties of Delaware, Sulli- 
van, I'lster, and Greene in closing up the perpetual leases which had 
been unsettled by the famous "anti-rent " war and the legislation 
growing out of this agitation. This was brought to a conclusion by 
the notable partition suit of Hunter vs. Overing, continuing from 
1S70 to issi, and involving "Great Lot 25," part of the " Harden- 
burg Patent" in Greene and Lister counties, including a considerable 
portion of the Village of Tannersville. This suit laid the foundation 
for sound titles to all the Catskill region, opening that country to de- 
velopment as a summer resort. About 1S81 he became engaged in a 
series of interesting cases involving points under construction con- 
tracts, as attorney for Smith & Ripley, successors to Sidney Dillon's 
firm of Dillon, Clyde & Company, the leading contractors of the coun- 
try for the construction of railroads and public works. The important 
suits tried for this firm include one growing out of the construction of 
the bridge across the Genesee River at Charlotte for the Lome, Water- 
town & Ogdensburg Railroad; another in connection with the con- 
struction of the New York, Woodhaven & Kockaway Beach Railroad, 
and another in connection with the erection of the 2d avenue rail- 
road stables, lie was general adviser of .1. Mclntire iV; Company and 
( '. .1. Ryan in the construction of the extension of the Delaware & 
Lackawanna Railroad from Ringhamton to Buffalo, out of which 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 273 

grew the. ease of Murchie vs. Mclntire, at Saint Paul, Minnesota, 
which excited great local interest because of the novel points in- 
volved. The case of the bridge at Charlotte was of legal interest as 
settling the question as to the measurement of piles driven. Mr. 
Miller successfully established that where the work is contracted for 
at so much per foot payment may be enforced for the entire length of 
each pile as swung in the ways, and not merely for the part remaining 
in the ground after the pile has been cut off. For several years he was 
general attorney and counselor for Schwartz & Dupee, of New York 
and Chicago, leading members of the Chicago Board of Trade, and in 
this connection conducted the suits in the famous controversy with 
Morgan, Marsh & Company aud General Cutting, and against the 
assignee of Sutre !& Company, of New York, in each case securing 
successful settlements for his Chicago clients. 

In the case of Ward vs. Kilpatrick (1880-81!), finally adjudicated in 
his favor in the Court of Appeals, he established a rule of construc- 
tion as to the knowledge required by the member of a firm who veri- 
fied the notice of mechanic lien as enforced by statute, and secured a 
decision on the new question whether the elaborate and expensive 
cabinet hnish of mirror-frames, hatstands, and wainscoting in the 
modern luxurious house construction should be classed as fixtures or 
as subject to mechanic's lien. From 1884 to 1889, as representative of 
John Hunter, the late William I\. Travels, the late Silas H. Witherbee, 
Charles L. Tiffany, and other property-owners, he became interested 
in the proposed new parks for New York City. His professional ser- 
vices were devoted almost exclusively to the legal and legislative pro- 
ceedings in this connection. In 1885, 1880, and 1887 he appeared per- 
sonally before the joint senate and assembly committees on cities in 
all contests and litigations having this public improvement in view, 
assisted in preparing the two leading cases to test the constitutional- 
ity of the park act of 1S85, and secured the ruling that the amount of 
the sinking fund of New York City be credited agaiust the gross in- 
debtedness of the city, thus making it possible to issue bonds for the 
purchase of the park lands without exceeding the limit indebtedness 
permitted by law. The committee appointed to ascertain a proper 
award of damages to property-owners whose lands were condemned 
for parks decided the line of testimony to be received upon Mr. Mill- 
er's argument. 

During this period he was also attorney for Mark N. Stanfield and 
Frank Risley, proprietors of the Victoria Hotel, settling the estate of 
Mr. Risley, and continuing as attorney and counsel of Mr. Stanfield 
until the latter's death. He was counsel in 1887 for Alexander Howe, 
special partner and assignee of the failed firm of Webster & Company, 
one of the largest liquor houses in San Francisco and New York. The 
thirty or forty actions begun against his client on the ground of his 
special partnership he succeeded in adjusting Avithout liability. In 



274 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

1893 be argued in tlie Ohio Supreme Court, in couuection with the 
estate of S. S. Stone, of Cleveland, that the brothers and sisters men- 
tioned in section i 162 of the Ohio revised statutes as entitled to in- 
herit included the brothers aud sisters of whole blood only. His con- 
struction was sustained. For several years past he has confined him- 
self almost exclusively to corporation practice, and has had the set- 
tlement of important affairs as attorney of the Hydraulic Brake Com- 
pany, the Electric Bleaching Company, the Electrozoue Company, the 
New York, Elmsford & White Plains Railroad Company, the Citizens' 
Gas and Electric Company of White Plains, and the New York, Mani- 
aroneck & White Plains Railroad Company. He was recently en- 
gaged in adjusting important business matters with the General Elec- 
tric Company. 




ITCHELL, CHARLES ELLIOTT (born in Bristol, Connecti- 
cut, May 11, 1837), is the son of George H. Mitchell and 
Lurene, daughter of Honorable Ira Hooker, who served live 
terms in the Connecticut legislature. He is lineally de- 
scended from William Mitchell, born in Scotland in 1748, who was a 
manufacturer of cloth in Connecticut prior to the Revolution, and 
served in the militia during that struggle. Through his mother he is 
also directly descended from Thomas Hooker, the famous divine and 
statesman of colonial Connecticut, from his son, Reverend Samuel 
Hooker, and from Captain Thomas Willet, one of the " Pilgrim Fath- 
ers," a magistrate and captain of militia at Plymouth, and partici- 
pant in the capture of New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, and 
the first mayor of New York City under English rule. 

Mr. Mitchell attended the Connecticut Literary Institute at Suf- 
field, and Williston Seminary, Eastnampton, Massachusetts, was 
graduated from Brown University in 1801, became principal of a high 
school, at the same time studying law, and was graduated from the 
Albany Law School iu 1S64, and the same year admitted to the bar 
both in New York and Connecticut. He engaged iu successful prac- 
tice in New Britain, Connecticut, was first prosecuting attorney after 
the incorporation of that city, and in 1880 and 1881 was a member of 
llii' Connecticut assembly, refusing consent to his nomination to the 
state senate. During his firsl term in the assembly, as chairman of 
tlie committee on corporations and in conjunction with Honorable 
John B. Buck, chairman of the corresponding senate committee, he 
re-drafted the corporation laws of Connecticut. During his second 
terra he served on the judiciary committee. 

Mr. Mitchell's practice lias hugely been in the special department 
of patent and trademark cases. His interesting cases include the 
Tucker bronze and Rogers trademark cases, and many of the Edison 
lamp cases. Tn 1S89 he was appointed commissioner of patents by 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 275 

President Harrison, serving until his resignation to resume practice 
in New York City, in 1891. His administration was one of the ablest 
the country has ever had, and it is believed that none of his decisions 
as commissioner have been overruled by the courts. The thorough- 
ness at which he aimed is shown by his annual report to congress, 
January 1, 1891, in which he declares: "A patent should evidence 
such painstaking tare in examination that upon its face it should 
warrant a preliminary injunction; and there can be little doubt that 
the continuance of the ' American ' examinations system depends 
upon so conducting examinations into the novelty of alleged inven- 
tions as to make the seal of the patent office create a powerful if not a 
conclusive presumption that the patent is valid.'' At the centennial 
congress, convened at Washington April 8-10, 1891, " in celebration 
of the beginning of the second century of the American patent sys- 
tem," Mr. Mitchell made the opening address of the first day's pro- 
ceedings, following the introductory address of President Harrison, 
who presided at this session. In this not-able address on " The Birth 
and Growth of the American Patent Systems," Mr. Mitchell traced 
the patent laws of ancient England, the American colonies, and the 
United States. 

Since 1889 his law firm of Mitchell & Hungerford, which had been 
in existence in Connecticut for a quarter of a century, became also 
established in New York City. The firm style in the last few years 
has been changed to Mitchell, Hungerford & Bartlett. Mr. Mitchell 
is counsel for many leading corporations, and a director in several. 
He is a member of the City Bar Association and the University Club. 




fONFORT, HENRY ALONZO (born at West Hills, Suffolk 
county, New York, September 3, 1852), is the son of Will- 
iam H. Monfort and Sarah E. Whitney, of Huguenot and 
(on the maternal side) English ancestry. His father, a sub- 
stantial farmer still living on tlie ancestral estate where he was born, 
was for many years justice of tlie peace of the Town of Huntington, 
Long Island. His mother is the sister of ex-Mayor Daniel D. Whit- 
ney, of Brooklyn. Mr. Monfort received his early education at Hunt- 
ington, Long Island, where he was graduated from the high school, 
afterward taking a two years' course of study at Cornell University, 
ne subsequently read law with ex-Judge Thomas Young, of Hunt- 
ington, was admitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie in May, 1875, and 
commenced practice in Jamaica, Long Island, the following spring, 
where he has since continued. 

He has acted as counsel in many important cases. He was counsel 
for Horatio N. Sanford in 1892 in his contest with Patrick J. Gleason 
for the office of mayor of Long Island City. It was generally pre- 
dicted that Gleason could not be ousted except by writ of quo war- 



276 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



ranto, but Mr. Monfort carried the case through successfully, and Bai 
ford took his seat as mayor a few days after his term began, Jauuar 
1, 1893. He was counsel for Captain William Woodrick in the d< 




tense of an action for divorce brought by his wife. The case was tried 
twice, the jury in the tirst trial disagreeing. In the second trial, be- 
fore Justice Dyknian and a jury, Captain Woodrick secured an abso- 
lute divorce. He was counsel for defendant in the case of People VS. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 277 

John Alb, indicted for murder in the first degree, securing a verdict 
of acquittal. Another election case of prominence which he carried 
to a successful conclusion was in the matter of Madden (148 N. Y., 
136). 




OOKE, HARBISON SHERMAN (born in Waterford, Sara- 
toga county, New York, April 23, 1840), is the son of Lewis 
K. Moore and Lucinda J. Bassett. In the paternal line he 
is descended from a family resident at Braintree, Massa- 
chusetts, in revolutionary times, and on his mother's side from old 
families of Rensselaer county, New York. He attended the public 
schools and Half moon Academy (Middletown, Saratoga county, New 
York), and in 1874 was graduated at the State Normal College, at Al- 
bany. After completing legal studies with Benjamin W. Downing, 
of Flushing, New York, he was admitted to the bar (at Poughkeepsie, 
in May, 1877), and opened a law office in Flushing, where he still prac- 
tices. 

Mr. Moore has at various times been counsel to the officials and 
boards of the Town of Flushing, and to the board of supervisors of 
Queens county. Since 1893 he has been president of the board of edu- 
cation at Little Neck, and since December 28, 1896, he has held the 
office of county judge of Queens county, by appointment of Governor 
Morton. He was also appointed by the governor a member of the 
Greater New York Conn 




| (JOT, ADELBERT (born in Allen, Allegany county, New 
York), is the son of Charles D. Moot, of German descent, 
and Mary, daughter of Andrew Rutherford, of English de- 
scent. He received his early education in private and 
public schools, and attended the State Normal School at Geueseo, but 
did not graduate. He studied law with Richardson & Flanagin, of 
Angelica, and Angel & Jones, of Belmont, and also at the Albany 
Law School, and was admitted to the bar at Albany, November 22, 
187(1. After a brief country practice he removed to Buffalo, where 
he has since pursued his profession. He is a member of the firm of 
Moot, Sprague, Brownell & Marcy, one of the leading law firms of 
that city. 

Mr. Moot since he engaged iu practice at Buffalo has been con- 
stantly connected with cases of importance, especially as related to 
local Buffalo interests, which are reported in nearly every volume of 
the Court of Appeals reports from 84 N. Y. to 152 N. Y. 

Be has been for a number of years a lecturer on evidence in the 
law department of the Buffalo University, and lias been active in pub- 
lic work like that of The Good Government Clubs and similar organi- 



278 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

zations. At various times he lias delivered addresses on subjects of 
historical interest. 




(ORRIS, LORENZO, for more than fifty years a prominent 
lawyer and citizen of western New York, was born in 
Smithfield, Madison county, New York, August 14, 1817. 
In 1829 he came with his parents, David and Abigail Blod- 
gett Morris to reside in Chautauqua county, where he attended the 
common schools. After graduating from the Mayville Academy in 
1836 he turned his attention to the study of law, entering the office 
of Honorable Thomas A. Osborne at Mayville, who was one of the 
judges of the Court of Common Pleas of the county. On June 23, 
1811, after reading for a time with Judge Cooke, of Jamestown, he 
was admitted to practice in the Court of Common Fleas and became 
the partner of his preceptor. In 1S14, at the end of three years' prac- 
tice in the lower courts, having been admitted to practice also in the 
Supreme Court, Mr. Morris removed to Mayville, where he practiced 
his profession until 1852, in which year he removed to Fredonia, 
where he has been engaged in active and successful practice ever 
since. Shortly after taking up his residence in Fredonia, he formed 
a partnership with Stephen Snow. Later he became a partner with 
Honorable Emery F. >Yarren, later still with John S. Russell, and 
last of all with Honorable John S. Lambert, now a justice of the Su- 
preme Court and a former student in the office of Morris & Russell. 

His practice during all these fifty years has been of a varied char- 
acter, taking him into all courts and involving all branches of the 
law. In his partnership relations, upon him has nearly always de- 
volved the preparation and trial of causes; for in the management of 
cases he has been unusually successful and always satisfactory to 
his clients. His criminal practice has been considerable but local, 
due largely to the fact that he has often been called upon by the dis- 
trict attorney or by the court to act as advocate for the people. In 
1872 Governor Hoffman assigned him to try the case of the murderer 
Marlowe, who was convicted and sentenced. 

At the time when Mr. Morris came to the bar, Honorable Richard P. 
Marvin and Honorable James Mullet! were, doubtless, the leading 
lawyers in Chautauqua county. When, in 181(1, these men left their 
practice and were elected justices of the Supreme Court, no man could 
claim a belter title lo the name of leading advocate than Madison 
Burnell; and upon his death, as Doctor Hazeltine, in his "History 
of the Town of Ellicott," aptly says, " If as an advocate the mantle of 
Madison Burnell fell upon the shoulders of any compeer, it will be 
found in the possession of Lorenzo Morris." 

During his long residence in his county and village Mr. Morris has 
been many times honored with positions of trust which he has faith- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 279 

fully and competently filled. Though in his political preferences al- 
ways firmly democratic and ardent in his support of the principles of 
Jefferson and Jackson, yet in .1807 in a strongly republican district 
he was elected by a considerable majority to the senate of the state, 
the only time that honor has ever been conferred on a man of his par- 
tisan affiliations by the citizens of that portion of the state. His duties 
as senator were performed faithfully and with honor to himself and 
for the best interests of his constituents. In 1S72 he was appointed 
by Governor Hoffman one of the commissioners to revise the state 
constitution. In the same year he was appointed to the presidency 
of the board of directors of the State Normal School at Fredonia, 
which office he still holds. In his interest in matters of educational 
advancement, as thus shown, and in the improvement and betterment 
of his beautiful town, he has always been zealous and active. Now 
in his eightieth year, his mental faculties remain unimpaired by the 
toil of a lifetime, and though not in active practice his wise counsel 
and sound advice are still sought by many. 




fORSE, WALDO GRANT (born in Rochester. New York, 
March 13, 1S59), is the son of Adolphus Morse, seventh in 
descent from Samuel Morse, who settled in Dedham, Mas- 
sachusetts, in 1635, and of Mary E., daughter of Abraham 
Grant, sixth in descent from Christopher Grant, one of the founders 
of AVatertown, Massachusetts. He was educated in Rochester and 
entered the University of Rochester, but owing to ill health left before 
completing the course, spending two years in rest and travel. He 
read law with Martindale & Oliver, of Rochester, New York, and was 
admitted to the bar in Buffalo in 1884. He commenced practice alone 
in Rochester, and so continued for four years, when he removed to 
New York City and established the firm of Morse & Haynes, now 
Morse & Acer. He enjoys a successful practice, and is a sound lawyer 
and effective speaker. 

He has taken a special interest in the movement to preserve the 
Palisades of the Hudson from defacement and spoliation at the hands 
of private interests. He drafted and secured the passage of the bill 
in the state legislature for the appointment of the Palisades commis- 
sioners of the State of New York in 1895, and drew the Palisades na- 
tional reservation bills passed by the States of New York and New 
Jersey in 1896. He also drafted the act on the subject now before 
congress. 

Upon the passage of the legislative bill he was appointed by Gover- 
nor Morton one of the three Palisades commissioners to act conjointly 
with three appointed by Governor Werts, of New Jersey, and was 
made secretary and treasurer of the joint commission for the States 
of New York and New Jersev. The commissioners made an elaborate 



280 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YORK 



joint report to the governors of both states, December .">, 1895. Since 
tlic national bill has been before congress Mr. Morse has not only agi- 
tated its merits widely through the press but has appeared before 
committees in Washington in its advocacy. 

He is now president of the Morse Society, incorporated under the 







WALDO (iKAM MOKSK. 



laws of the Stale of New York, member of the American Academy of 
Political and Social Science, the American Bar Association, New 
York State liar Association, Association of the liar of the City of New 
York, Society of ( olonial Wars, Sons of the Revolution, the Lawyers', 
Reform, Quill, and other clubs. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YORK 



281 




Manch 



OSS, FRANK (born in Cold Spring, Putnam county, New 
York, March 16, 18(!0), is the son of John R. Moss and Eliza 
Wood, the latter of English and Dutch descent, daughter 
of a soldier of the war of 1812. His father was a native of 
England, a teacher of music. He came to America, and 




♦luring the war of the rebellion was a lieutenant in Hawkins's 
zouaves (9th New York volunteers), and was captured by the confed- 



282 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YOBK 

erates and confined in Libby Prison. After attending the common 

school departments of New York City, Mr. Moss took a special course 
in the College of the City of New York, and later pursued systematic 
courses in private study, including that of The Chautauqua literary 
and scientific circle. He studied law in the office of Joseph Fettretch, 
of New York, and was admitted to the bar in the spi-ing of L881. 
Three .years later he engaged in practice for himself. 

Mr. Moss has been executor of seyeral large estates, including that 
of the eccentric Maltby G. Lane. This estate has been involved in 
constant litigation, and Mr. Moss's adjustment of the contested will, 
involving the complicated interests of widow and infant heirs, has 
been sustained by the courts, serving as a model for the settlement of 
will contests where the interests of infants are involved. He has had 
large experience in real estate and testamentary law, and in the trial 
of civil and criminal cases. He is an expert on excise and police l;n\ . 
and has frequently appeared before legislative committees which 
have been charged with the consideration of bills on these subjects. 
He is professor of medical jurisprudence in the New York Medical 
College and Hospital for Women. 

For the past ten years he has been especially prominent through 
his service in the interests of municipal reform in New York City. 
When but twenty-five years of age he attacked the corrupt adminis- 
tration of Police Captain Williams in the Tenderloin precinct, nis 
fearless and able conduct of the trial of that captain before the police 
commissioners in 1887 attracted the notice of the Society for the Pre- 
vention of Crime, then under the presidency of Howard Crosby, and 
they invited him to act as their counsel. Soon after he became a di- 
rector, and before Doctor Parkhurst became president of the society, 
he had urged that it undertake a systematic war on the corrupt police 
force, and had prepared the way for such a campaign. When that 
work was inaugurated, he was unanimously elected, with Doctor 
Parkhurst and Thaddeus D. Kenueson, a member of the executive 
committee which shaped the aggressive policy of the society, ne was 
especially active in the Lexow investigation as one of the counsel to 
the committee. Much of its work was planned by him. He examined 
many of the witnesses, and drafted a large part of the committee's 
report. The bills finally proposed by the Committee of Seventy were 
largely based upon drafts made for the Society for the Prevention of 
Crime by Mr. Moss and Mr. Kenueson. Said Pecorder Goff : 

As counsel for the Paikhurst Society and as counsel for several local prop- 
erty-owners' associations in various parts of the city, Mr. Moss had derived an 
experience and acquired a knowledge of police oppression and corruption in this 
city which peculiarly fitted him as an associate counsel to the senate investigat- 
ing committee. He entered upon the work exceptionally well equipped, and for 
almost a year he kept at that work, through gloom as well as brightness, with 
unabated enthusiasm. He was tireless in energy, unflagging in industry ; day 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 283 

and night he was at his post, whether in court or out of it, and to his keenness, 
sagacity, perseverance, and devotion is to be attributed in a great degree the 
success and the residts which attended that investigation. In the midst of the 
severest trials he was always steadfast and confident, and I learned not only to 
esteem him for his high intellectual qualities, but also to love him for his loyalty 
and goodness of heart. 

In his book, " Our Fight with Tammany," Doctor Parkhurst says: 

It is my pleasure as well as duty to recognize the services which have been 
rendered by Messrs. T. D. Kenneson and Frank Moss as members of the execu- 
tive committee of the Society for the Prevention of Crime. The community 
has no appreciation of the amount of time and effort which have been expended 
by these two gentlemen in the interest of our city during the years past. There 
is altogether too much disposition to bestow the credit of the issue upon the 
president of the society, and vastly too little recognition of the fact that if he 
has been able to accomplish anything it is because of the wise and tireless sup- 
port of these two colleagues. Our relations have been those of unbroken har- 
mony. Our mutual confidences have been complete, and all questions of 
moment have been decided by our combined judgment. Neither will it be 
considered by Mr. Kenneson as unjust to himself if I emphasize especially the 
faithful service rendered by Mr. Moss. His relation as counsel to the society 
involved a special draft upon his time and energy. It ought to be understood 
by our citizens that during all the years that he has served the city, devoting 
to it sometimes for many days together his entire energy, he has not received a 
dollar of compensation ; indeed, the terms of our constitution forbid that the 
services of any member should be remunerated except by love of our friends 
and the hatred of our enemies. 

In the spring of 1807 Mr. Moss was appointed by Mayor Strong a 
member of the board of police commissioners of New York City, as 
successor to Honorable Theodore Roosevelt. The presidency of the 
board having become vacant by Mr. Roosevelt's retirement, Mr. Moss 
was elected by his associates to that position. He is a trustee of tlie 
City Vigilance League, and a member of Good Government Club P., 
the Bar Association, Law Institute, Harlem Republican Club, Twi- 
light Club, Methodist Social Union, and Epworth League. He is trus- 
tee and Sunday-school superintendent in the Trinity Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. The degree of doctor of laws was conferred upon him 
by the Taylor University of Indiana. 



OSS, ROSWELL RANDALL (born in New York City, Octo- 
ber G, 1845), is the son of Reuben E. Moss and Harriet New- 
ell Randall. He is in the sixth generation of lineal descent 
from John Moss, one of the company of London merchants 
who, under Reverend John Davenport, settled New Haven in 1638. 1 
In the maternal line he is a Mayflower descendant,tracing his ancestry 

1 John Moss was one of the prominent men of the quenth a representative in the general court. He died at 
colony. He was a signer of the original compact, and Wallinefeprd. Connecticut, in 1707, at the age of one hun- 
after the union of New Haven with Connecticut was fre- dred and three. 



284 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

to John Howland, who w;is the last survivor of the original band of 
puritan pilgrims that landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620, and who 
married Elizabeth Tillie, an adopted daughter of Governor Carver. 

Roswell R. Moss attended schools in New York City and Brooklyn 
until 1860, when his parents removed to a farm in the Town of South- 
port, now Ashland, near the Village of Wellsburgh, ChemUng county, 
New York. He was a student in the Elmira Free Academy for parts 
of two winters, and afterward remained at home on the farm, teach- 
ing country schools for a time, until January, 1871. He then began 
the study of law at Elmira in the office of Smith, Robertson & Fassetl 
(Congressman II. Boardman Smith, District Attorney Archibald 
Robertson and Newton P. Fassetl, father of J. Sloat Passett). In this 
office he continued for three years, meantime performing farm work 
for two summers. lie was admitted to the bar at a general term of 
the Supreme Court held at Albany, January 9, 1S74, being among 
the members of the class who received special mention for attain- 
ments and abilities. He thereupon accepted an offer from his old pre- 
ceptors, becoming chief clerk of the firm and having principal charge 
of the practice of the office, occasionally acting as counsel in trials 
and upon appeals, until October 1, 1870, when he engaged in practice 
alone. In the fall of 1880 he formed with Edward B. Youmans Hie 
law firm of Youmans & Moss, which in 1884 became Youmans, Moss 
& Knipp, upon the admission of Charles IT. Knipp, who hail been a 
student in the office. During President Cleveland's first term .Mr. 
Youmans was chief clerk of the treasury department at Washington; 
and retired temporarily from the firm. Mr. Knipp (who is now serv- 
ing a second term as district attorney id' Chemung county), withdrew 
from it in 1891, and it has since continued under the original style 
of Youmans & Moss. 

Mr. Moss has been connected as attorney or counsel witli many 
cases important for the questions or interests involved. A careful 
and thorough practitioner, he is said to know the code by heart and 
is able to cite from memory the number of the appropriate section 
upon most questions of procedure, no has been in many important 
motions involving the validity and regularity of attachments, and 
lias never lost either an attack' or defense, although final decision in 
liis favor has in some instances been deferred until the result of an 
appeal in which he has been more often respondent than appellant. 

In 1S04 he compiled a manual id' the election laws of the State of 
Yew York", with instructive notes for the information of inspectors. 
clerks, watchers, and voters, concerning their duties and rights. For 
several years he has compiled an annual digest of New York laws for 
the information of non-resident lawyers and laymen, published in 
.Marti ml ale's " American Law Directory." He has been an occasional 
contributor to the local press, especially the Elmira Vdtiertiser, of 
political editorials and of articles on current questions and literary 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 285 

and scientific topics. He lias at various times read papers on precise 
subjects, chiefly historical, sociological, and financial, before the El- 
mira Academy of Sciences, of which he is a fellow and has been vice- 
president and frequently the head of a division. He has always been 
interested in educational matters and has given them attention so 
far as the practice of his profession has permitted. 

During the war Mr. Moss was prevented by delicate health from 
entering the active service. But in February, 1865, he received a 
commission from the United States Christian Association as dele- 
gate, in which capacity he was a teacher among the colored troops 
north of the James for several weeks, and later was in charge of the 
" small issue office" of the commission at City Point. While there 
he was in the hospitals during the engagements before Petersburg 
and Richmond, and he entered Petersburg on the day of its capture. 
In undertaking his work for the Christian Association he contem- 
plated enlisting at the end of the term, but before that time arrived 
the war had practically closed. 

From his youth Mr. Moss has been an earnest republican in poli- 
tics. While lie lias devoted himself strictly to his profession, avoid- 
ing public life, lie has frequently contributed his time and abilities 
for the promotion of the party cause. 

In 1865 lie became a member of the Park Church, then known as 
the 1st Congregational Church, of which Reverend Thomas K. 
Beecher was for so long a time the pastor. He has been a teacher in 
its Sunday-school since 1878. 

He was married, June 7, 1S7P>, to Anna D. Mason, daughter of the 
late George W. Mason, who founded the Elmira Daily Gazette. They 
have two (laughters. 




|OVIUS, EDWARD H. (born in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Octo- 
ber 19,1818),is the son of Julius and Mary Leonard Yibbard 
Movius. Me was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy 
and the University of Heidelberg, being graduated from 
the latter in 1869, receiving the degrees of doctor of philosophy and 
master of arts. His preparation for the legal profession was ob- 
tained in the offices of the late Honorable E. C. Sprague and the late 
Honorable Delavan P. Clark, both of Buffalo, and as a student at the 
Hamilton Law School, from which he received his degree of bachelor 
of laws in 1878. In the same year he was admitted to the bar, at 
Syracuse. Entering upon practice at Buffalo he became successively 
a member of the firm of Crowley & Movius (1881), Crowley, Movius & 
Wilcox (1882), Allen, Movius & Wilcox (1883-91), and Movius & Wil- 
cox (1889-94). His associates in these various firms were Honorable 
Richard Crowley, Ansley Wilcox, and Honorable Henry F. Allen. 
After dissolving his partnership with Mr. Wilcox he practiced alone. 



2Sb HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YORK 

until his appointment by President Cleveland, in April, 1895, on the 
Board of Mineral Land Commissioners for the district of Helena, 
Montana. He still retains that office, being located at Helena for a 
part of each year, retaining, however, his law office in Buffalo, New 
York. 

Mr. Movius has been professionally employed in connection with a 
variety of important interests. He was one of the attorneys for the 
New York, AVest Shore & Buffalo Bailroad Company until it \v;is 
leased to the New York Central & Hudson River company, and in 
that capacity examined all the land titles involved in Erie and Gene- 
see counties. He was also (from 1883 to 1885) one of the attorneys 
for the commissioners of the New York State Reservation at Niag- 
ara, examining in behalf of the commissioners the titles to all lands 
acquired by the state within the reservation boundaries. From 1885 
to 1888 he acted as receiver of the 1st National Bank of Buffalo. 

Mr. Movius, until his appointment as mineral land commissioner, 
devoted himself strictly to his profession. As a young man, he took 
a decided interest in the state militia, in which he served from 1871 to 
1 S7C> with the rank of major, but after engaging in the legal profes- 
sion he abandoned that connection. 



|URRAY, CHRISTOPHER AUGUSTINE (born in Rondout, 
Ulster county, New York, April 18, 1857), is the son of 
William and Catherine Murray, both born in Kildare, Ire- 
land, nis father settled in Rondout in 1826, being one of 
the earliest catholics in that place, and died there in 1893, having be- 
come one of the most substantial citizens. The son attended com- 
mon schools in the villages of Port Ewen and Rondout until 1871, 
and in 1873 became a student, successively, in Saint Mary's College, 
of Montreal, Canada, and Georgetown College (District of Columbia). 
Entering the law office of John E. Van Etten, of Kingston, New York, 
he made himself familiar with the principles and practice of the legal 
profession, and in due time was admitted to the bar, at Albany, Jan- 
uary 26, 1883. He has since been engaged in successful practice at 
Rondout, devoting himself chiefly to office work and Surrogate Court 
business. 

From January 1, 1884, to December 31, 1887, he held the office of 
justice of the peace. Since January 1, 1SP4, he has been recorder of 
the City of Kingston. In that position he is now serving his second 
term, which expires on the 1st of January, 1000. In politics he is a 
democrat. When he ran for justice of the peace he carried seven of 
the nine wards of the city, receiving a majority of 600. At his first 
election as recorder his majority was 200, although the head of the 
ticket was successful by only eight votes, and at his second election 
he had a majority of 98, notwithstanding that the city went republi- 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 287 

tan by 600. He has repeatedly declined nominations for various city 
and county offices. 

Mr. Murray has always taken a strong interest in matters concern- 
ing the welfare of the City of Kingston, and to his activity in this re- 
spect his popularity is largely due. 




EAR, IRVIN WILSON (born in the Town of Alexandria, 
Jefferson county, New York, January 20, 1835), is the son 
of Kichard Near (sometimes written Neher) and Mary Cot- 
ter. His paternal ancestors were refugees from the Bava- 
rian Palatinates of Germany. John Neher, his grandfather, served 
in the American navy in the war of 1812. Mr. Near's mother, Mary 
Cotter, was a granddaughter of James Cotter, who emigrated to this 
country from Londonderry, Ireland; and of Mary DeWitt, of Ulster 
county, New York. 

Irvin W.Near attended district and village schools and the Orleans 
Academy, at La Fargeville, New York, and in 1S54 was graduated 
from the College of Montreal. He pursued legal studies with Horace 
E. Morse, of Clayton, and Clarke <& Calvin, of Watertown, and also at 
Transylvania University (Lexington, Kentucky), and on January 5, 
1858, was admitted to the bar at Syracuse. After practicing at Clay- 
ton for a year and at Bath for six years, he removed, in 1865, to Hor- 
nellsville, where he is still in active practice. 

During his professional career of nearly thirty years Mr. Near has 
been identified with a variety of litigations of a vital and interesting 
character. He has been counsel, among other suits, in the bonding- 
cases in the New York Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, involv- 
ing the constitutional validity of bonds issued by towns in aid of rail- 
road construction, and in cases concerning the liability of municipal 
corporations for injuries caused by alleged defective streets and side- 
walks, the validity of bequests for pious uses, the right of a going 
railroad to interfere with or prevent the construction of a proposed 
parallel and competing line, and the right of creditors over a dead 
trust. In the federal Circuit and Supreme Courts he has argued cases 
affecting certain mining and land grants, and in actions construing 
the bankrupt act. He was the commissioner appointed to determine 
the claims of the State of New York to 40,000 acres of the Adirondack 
Park, embracing Raquette Lake. The result of his services in this 
connection was that the claim of the state was sustained, the decision 
being subsequently affirmed. It anticipated the present policy of the 
state in that respect. He has held the elective offices of president of 
the Village of Hornellsville, member of the local board of education 
(1S67-82), and district attorney of Steuben county (1884-86). In poli- 
tics he has usually been identified with the democratic party, al- 



28$ 



HISTORY OF TH1! BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



though he voted for Lincoln in 1864, for Grant in 1ST-!, and for Harri- 
son in 1892. 

Mr. Near was one of the original projectors of the Rochester, Hor- 
nellsville & Pine Greek Railroad, the Hornellsville & Cohocton Val- 
ley Railroad, the Rochester, Hornellsville & Lackawanna Railroad, 
and the New York & Pennsylvania Railroad. He is at present one of 
llie officers of the last named company. 

He was the organizer of the public school system and Free Acad- 
emy of Hornellsville, and founded the Iloruell Library, a free circu- 
lating and reference institution — one of the largest and oldest in the 
third-class cities of the state. He took a prominent part in drafting 
and procuring the enactment of the laws creating the Village and 
City of Hornellsville, and he devised and secured the present system 
for the supply of water for the city. 

Mr. Near has always taken a deep interest in historical investiga- 
tion. He is the author of historical addresses on the following sub- 
jects: "The First Grant, Purchase, and Settlement of That Portion 
of the State of New York (Maimed by .Massachusetts," " The Pioneers 
of the Northwest Branch of the Susquehanna," " The claim of Colum- 
bus as the Original Discoverer of America.'* "The Life and Public 
Services of Baron Steuben." and " Early Jesuit Explorations in West- 
ern New York." 




ICOLL, WILLIAM GREENLY (born in Islip, Suffolk county, 
New York, August 29, 1845), is the son of William and 
Sarah A. Nicoll. He was prepared for college in the union 
school of Huntington, Long Island, and in July, lS(i(i, was 
graduated from Yale with the degree of bachelor of arts, the master 
of arts degree being conferred upon him four years later. He studied 
law at Columbia College Law School and in the office of Scudder & 
Carter, of New York City, and was admitted to the bar in that city on 
April 30, 1867. He was engaged in practice in the metropolis until 
November 1, 1880, since which date he has been a practitioner at 
Babylon, Suffolk county. 

Mv. Nicoll has held tin- offices of supervisor of the Town of Babylon 



(April, 1893, to April, 1896) and ji 
(April, 1891, to January, 1896). 



th 



.f tl 



[LES, WILLIAM WATSON (born at WestFairlee, Vermont, 
March 26, 1822), is the son of Judge William Niles and 
belief, daughter of Colonel John Barron, of Bradford Ver- 
mont, an officer id' the French and Indian war, as also id' 
I he Revolution. The ancestral line of the Niles family goes back to 
I he Norsemen of England. The tirst American ancestor. John Niles. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 289 

settled in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1636. Samuel Niles, second 
in the line given below, was a famous colonial clergyman, and a his- 
torical and theological author. His son, third in the line. Honorable 
Samuel Niles (a graduate of Harvard College like his father), was an 
eminent jurist. Honorable Nathaniel Niles, fourth in the line, was a 
jurist, presidential elector, congressman, eminent manufacturer, and 
inventor of a method of making wire from bar-iron by water power. 

I lis grandson, William Watson Niles, was tutored by his father, 
attended Bradford Academy aud Newbury Seminary, and after sev- 
eral succesive terms of teaching in schools and academies in New 
Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, entered Dartmouth Col- 
lege, and was graduated iu 1845. He entered the law office of his 
brother, Judge Niles, of La Porte, Indiana, at the same time serving 
as assistant to him as professor of chemistry in the Indiana Medical 
College. He was admitted to practice in Indiana without examina- 
tion, having already tried cases in the lower courts against most of 
the lawyers in the county. Coming to New York, he entered the of- 
fice of General John Cochrane to familiarize himself with New York 
parctice and was soon admitted to the New York bar. He visited 
Europe, traveling largely on foot over Great Britain and the conti- 
nent, and returning engaged in practice in New York. 

In one of his first cases James T. .Brady was opposing counsel 
Nevertheless he was successful. While almost unknown he was em- 
ployed by Judge Price, of New Jersey, iu a suit against Daniel Web- 
ster, and recovered a large stun of money in a determined contest in 
which United States District Attorney David P. Hall, Honorable 
Samuel Blatchford. Oscar W. Sturtevant, and Luther R. Marsh repre- 
sented the distinguished defendant. Be tried and won the first case 
in this state against a ship's officers and crew for goods that had been 
shipped, and for which a bill of lading had been signed in a foreign 
port, and where there was no evidence as to how the loss had oc- 
curred. In the case of Sweet vs. Morrison he was successful iu a de- 
fense which had been deemed hopeless, after some fourteen years of 
active contests. Be was also successful after litigations for fourteen 
years in defeating the " thin tin " can patent case of Masury vs. the 
Borden Condensed Milk Company, after final judgment had been re- 
covered by the plaintiff in the case of Masury vs. Tiemauu, tried be- 
fore the late Justice Blatchford, and defended by several of the 
ablest patent lawyers in the country; and his victory in that case led 
to the dismissal of a large number of other cases on the same patent, 
in which he had been retained. 

He also argued and won the first case on the pateut for railroad 

1 The direct line is as follows: Jonn Niles 1 ; Samuel from Dartmouth, as was also his father, his grandfather 

Niles 2 , born May 1, 1G74 ; Samuel Niles 3 , born 1711; beiiiLr a graduate of rrineeton, beranie a judge and lueni- 

Nathaniel Niles 1 , bom April 3, 1741; William Niles', ber of the constitutional convention of Vermont ; William 

born at Norwich, Connecticut, July 15, 1775, died in Watson Niles r ', of New York. 
Brooklyn, New York, September ('., 1848, was graduated 



290 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

axle boxes before the United States Court at Trenton, New Jersey, 
which led to settlements of the claims of the patentee for royalties 
against the New York Central, the Illinois Central, and some hun- 
dred other railroad companies in suit or in his hands for collection. 

In Ackerman vs. English, argued before the New York Supreme 
Court, November 18, 185(>, he established a precedent, being the lirst 
to recover in an action brought by a first indorser on a promissory 
note against a second indorser, notwithstanding the orders shown by 
the written contract. In Stowell vs. Stowell, also argued in Supreme 
Court, June 1, 18(58, he was the first to establish the doctrine that an 
attempt to corrupt the morals of a wife is cruel and inhuman treat- 
ment, justifying a limited divorce under the statute, even when there 
is no pretense of a harsh word or violent action on the part of the hus- 
band. Mr. Niles became counsel for Governor Tilden's law office 
when the latter retired from practice, and was also his private coun- 
sel in every case he ever had in this state. 

During the regime of the Tweed ring Mr. Niles conceived the plan, 
and organized and was the executive head of the Citizen's Associa- 
tion, established in all the upper wards of the city to compel both 
political parties to make satisfactory nominations. He was elected 
to the assembly, put on the judiciary committee, and procured the 
signature of the entire committee to a resolution of impeachment of 
Judges Barnard, Cardozo, and McCunn; and by the assembly was ap- 
pointed one of the managers who tried Judge Barnard before the 
court of impeachment. During the civil war he assisted in raising 
several regiments, and with ten others organized the Central Loyal 
League under which all the leagues in the state were formed. After 
the war its members originated the Union League Club. In 1881 he 
was again elected to the assembly, and served as a member of the 
committees on general laws, charitable and religious societies, aud 
federal relations. A signal public service at this time was the im- 
portant part performed by him in the political and legal contests 
which added nearly live thousand acres to the public park area of 
New York City. He was appointed one of the commissioners for 
the location of these parks. 

Outside of his professional life Mr. Niles has engaged in large busi- 
ness enterprises in the south, west, and east. He assisted, while a 
student in his brother's office, in securing the construction of the first 
railroad west of Lake Erie; secured (lie charter for the 42d street 
ferry, New York City, organized the Perry and Land Improvement 
Company, and was its first secretary and afterward its president. 



HISTORY OP THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 291 

OBLE, DANIEL (born in Brooklyn, December 25, 1859), is 
the son of Solomon B. and Agnes Nieolson Noble. He re- 
ceived his early education in a private school, "was gradu- 
ated at Columbia College, studied law with his father and 
also at the Columbia College Law School, and was admitted to the 
bar in Brooklyn in 1S84. He has been actively and successfully prac- 
ticing his profession in Long Island City since. 

Mr. Noble has held the offices of justice of the peace of Long Island 
City and district attorney of Queens county. 




|OYES, CHABLES SOMEBBY (born in Brooklyn, New York, 
November 8, 1858), is the son of Charles Horace Noyes, a 
New York City merchant, of puritan descent, and Jane B., 
daughter of Alexander H. Dana, a lawyer of New York. 
He attended the Adelphi Academy, in Brooklyn, and the Montclair 
(New Jersey) High School, and was graduated at Amherst College 
in the class of 1880. He studied law at the Columbia College Law 
School and also with the firm of Stanley, Clarke & Smith, and was 
admitted to the bar in Brooklyn in 18S2. He has always practiced in 
New York City, his business being chiefly of an office character. 




|| O YES, DANIEL WEBSTE1J, whose name was associated 
with the pi'actice of the law in Livingston county for many 
years, came of good New England stock. He was born in 
Winchendon, Massachusetts, on the 30th day of Septem- 
ber, 1824. His father was Samuel Noyes, an architect by profession, 
and a lineal descendant of Nicholas Noyes, who came from Choulder- 
ton in Wiltshire, in the brig EUzabtili, in 1634, and his family was 
originally of Norman descent. The mother of Daniel W. Noyes was 
Elizabeth Wales, of Boxbury, Massachusetts, a daughter of Captain 
Jacob Wales, a staunch patriot who served in the revolutionary war 
on Washington's staff. Soon after the birth of Daniel W. Noyes, 
their youngest child, Samuel Noyes and his wife removed to Edin- 
burgh Saratoga county, New York, where the boy was brought up on 
a farm. 

As a youth he was sent first to Galway Academy and then to the 
Amsterdam Academy, and in these two schools he received his fitting 
for Union College, which was then, with Doctor Nott at its head, in 
its prime. From this institution he graduated with honor in the year 
1847, and afterward pursued his legal studies in the law offices of 
Judge Belding at Amsterdam and Nicholas Hill at Albany, being ad- 
mitted to the bar in the year 1849. In the same year he married Miss 
Frances C. Baldwin, then of Owasco, New York, and shortly there- 
after located in Dansville, Livingston county, as a partner of Benja- 



292 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

mill P. Cook, Esquire. This association lasted but a short time, and 
during the next dozen years he was successively in partnership with 
Joseph W: Smith, Esquire, and Judge Solomon Hubbard. The old 
firm of Hubbard & Noyes continued until Mr. Hubbard's election as 
county judge of Livingston county caused his removal to the Village 
of Ueneseo, where he still resides. 

Shortly after the close of the war Mr. Noyes formed a copartner- 
ship with Major Seth N. Hedges, which existed almost continuously 
down to the year 1878, when Mr. Noyes was appointed county judge 
of Livingston county by Governor Bobinsou, to till the vacancy in 
that office caused by the death of Judge Samuel I). Faulkner. During 
the continuation of his copartnership with Major Hedges, and in the 
year 1873, he was elected to the office of district attorney of his 
county, running upon the democratic ticket and overcoming the usu- 
ally large republican majority. His conduct of that office won for 
him many friends in the county and materially increased his already 
wide reputation as a trial lawyer. 

After his retirement from the office of county judge, on the 1st day 
of January, 1871), he associated his son, Fred W. Noyes, as a partner 
with himself under the firm name of Noyes & Noyes. This firm con- 
tinued to exist until the death of Daniel \Y. Noyes in the year 1888. 

In his practice of the law, .Mr. Noyes had charge of many import- 
ant and complicated cases, both in his own county and in the sur- 
rounding counties, and his fame as a trial lawyer and as a faithful, 
industrious student of the law was far more than a local one. He 
held no official positions which were not in line with his own work 
as a lawyer, and his time and energies were always devoted to his 
chosen profession, and his tireless industry in his professional work 
was such as to impress one with the idea that his great ambition was 
to be a good lawyer and a safe counselor. 



'BBIEN, DENIS (born on a farm near Ogdensburgh, New 
York, March 13, 1837), is the son of John and Catharine 
O'Brien, who emigrated to this country from the vicinity of 
Limerick, County of Clare, Ireland. He received his edu- 
cation in the common schools and the Ogdensburgh Academy, and 
after studying law for three years in a law office at Ogdensburgh, 
was admitted to the bar at I'lattsburgh, .May (i, 1801. He at once 
engaged in practice at Ogdensburgh, but in a few months removed to 
Watertown, where he still resides. 

Mr. O'Brien rapidly advanced to distinction in his profession. He 
also became prominent in political lite, as a supporter of the princi- 
ples of the democratic party. In 1S78 and 1879 he served as mayor of 
Watertown. In November, 1883, he was elected attorney-general of 
the State of New York, lie occupied that office for two terms, retir- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 293 

ing on the 1st of January, 1888. As attorney-general his services 
were of a highly distinguished character; the cases which he con- 
ducted on behalf of the state are reported in volumes DO to 112 of the 
New York Reports. 

Since January, 1890, he has been one of the judges of the Court of 
Appeals, having been elected for a complete term in November, L889. 




I'BRIEN, MORGAN JOSEPH (born in New York City, April 
28, 1852), is the son of Morgan O'Brien and .Mary Burke, 
both of whom were born in Ireland, but came to this coun- 
try early in life and were married in the City of New York. 
He received his early education in the public- schools of New York, 
attended the institutiou of the Christian Brothers of the Order of De 
la Salle, on 2d street, and later was graduated from Saint John's Col- 
lege at Fordham in June, 1872. He also completed a post-graduate 
course at Saint Francis Navier's College, receiving from this institu- 
tion the degree of master of arts in June, 1873. In 1889 he received 
1he degree of doctor of laws from Saint John's College. 

Judge O'Brien read law in the office of John T. McGowan, of this 
city, also attending the Columbia College Law School. In May, 1875, 
he was admitted to the New York bar, and at once engaged in the ac- 
tive practice of law in this city, building up an extensive business. 
He lias had much to do with questions relating to water rights, and is 
considered an expert in that department of law. lie has been coun- 
sel for numerous ferry companies, and was counsel for the ferry com- 
pany, the gas companies, and mauy individual property-owners in the 
successful litigations to prevent the change of the McClennan bulk- 
head line on the East River. 

in 1887 and 1888 he was corporation counsel of the City of New 
York. In 1888 he was elected associate-justice of the New York Su- 
preme Court, ami he has distinguished himself as an able and care- 
ful jurist. He was assigned by Governor Hill in 1892 as one of the 
justices of the general term in the 1st district, which position he occu- 
pied until selected by Governor Morton as one of the justices of the 
appellate division of the Supreme Court under the new constitution 
of 1894, his designation being for five years, from January 1, 1890. 
He was selected by Governor Hill to try the contested election cases 
in Onondaga county in 1893, and all his decisions were subsequently 
affirmed in the Court of Appeals. 



CONNOR, CHARLES L. (born in Stoneboro, Mercer county, 
Pennsylvania, January IS, 1S09), is the son of I). O'Connor 
and Mary A. Kearney. After completing the course iu the 
village public schools he was a clerk in a drug store and in 
ailway postal service, taught school, and studied during his 



294 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



spare Lours. In 1891 he was graduated from the Buffalo Law School, 
winning both the Clinton aud Daniels prizes of $100 each. He then 
continued his preparation for the bar in the office of Frank C. Laugh- 
lin, and in October, 1S92, he was admitted to practice, at Rochester. 
He remained with Mr. Laughlin, as his managing clerk, until the hit- 
ter's retirement from private practice to devote his entire attention 
to the duties of corporation counsel of the City of Buffalo. Since then 
he has been practicing for himself. 



RCUTT, GEORGE NATHAN (born in North Troy, Vermont, 
July 13, 1S5G), is the son of Doctor Hiram Clark and Helen 
M. Orcutt. He was graduated at the University of Michi- 
gan in 1S77, with the degree of bachelor of arts. He then 
entered the law office of Horace Bemis, at Hornellsville, and after a 
year's study there completed his preparation for the legal profession 
at the Columbia College Law School. He was admitted to the bar at 
Buffalo in June ,1879. Since then he has been engaged in the prac- 
tice of the law at Hornellsville. 




KCUTT, WILLIAM HUNTEB (born in Boston, Massachu- 
setts, November 15, 1847), is the son of Ira B. and Mary \Y. 
Orcutt. His ancestors on both sides for several generations 
were residents of Boston. He attended the primary and 
grammar schools of Boston, was fitted for college in the Cambridge 
High School, and in 1869 was graduated from Harvard with the de- 
gree of bachelor of arts. Two years later he received his A.M. degree. 
He also went through the Harvard haw School, being graduated 
there in 1873. His office training for the profession was obtained 
with Brooks & Ball, in Boston. After his admission to the bar (Janu- 
ary, 1875) he began practice in Boston. From there he removed to 
Buffalo in October, 1889. He is now a member of the Buffalo firm of 
Boberts, Becker, Ashley, Messer & Orcutt. 

In June, 18S2, he was appointed judge of the District Court in Cam- 
bridge. This position he resigned at the time of his removal to Buf- 
falo. 

Judge Orcutt has always taken much interest in educational work, 
particularly in the department id' manual training. For nearly 
twelve years he was a member of the school board in < !ambridge, ren- 
dering valuable service. 



RDRONAUX, JOHN (born in New York City, August 3, 
1830), was graduated fijom Dartmouth College in L850 and 
from the Harvard haw School in 1852, was admitted to the 
New York bar February 11, 1853, to the Massachusetts bar 
April 14, 1853, and began practice at Taunton, Massachusetts, remov- 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 295 

in";- in 1855 to New York City. In order to fit himself for the special 
department of medical jurisprudence, he was graduated in 1859 from 
the National Medical College, which is the medical department of the 
Columbian University of Washington. The degree of doctor of laws 
was conferred upon him by Trinity College in 1S70, and by Dartmouth 
College in 1895. In 1861 he was appointed lecturer on medical juris- 
prudence in the Columbia College Law School of New York, and he 
has filled that position ever since. 

Upon the opening of the civil war he was appointed by Governor 
Morgan surgeon to examine men drafted for the army in Brooklyn. 
President Lincoln, in April, 1863, commissioned him surgeon to the 
board of enrollment of the 1st congressional district of New York. 
In 1864 he was commissioned assistant-surgeon to the 15th New 
York regiment. During this period he issued three important 
medical-military publications. His " Hints on Health in Armies " 
(New York, 1861) is characterized as " the first American work on 
military hygiene." 1 

By request of the United States sanitary commission he prepared 
an elaborate report on the employment, of disabled soldiers and the 
revision of our pension legislation, based upon a comparative study of 
European invalid and pension systems. His recommendations were 
made the basis of congressional legislation. Again, at the joint sug- 
gestion and request of the military committee of the senate and house 
of representatives and of the United States sanitary commission, he 
prepared his " Manual for Military Surgeons on the Examination of 
Recruits and Discharge of Soldiers " (New York, 1863). 

In 1864 he succeeded Chief -Justice Redfield, of Vermont, as lecturer 
on medical jurisprudence in the medical department of Dartmouth 
College, and between 1865 and 1873 almost his entire time was 
devoted to similar work in a number of institutions, including the 
University of Vermont, Law School of Boston University, and the 
medical and law departments of the Columbian University. Upon the 
creation of the New York state commissionership in lunacy in 1873 
he received the initial appointment from Governor Dix, and he was 
continued in office under Governors Tilden, Robinson, and Cornell 
until his voluntary retirement in 1882. By resolution of the state 
senate in 1874 he was appointed to revise and codify the lunacy 
statutes of New York (Part I, Chapter xx., Title iii.). Hewas similarly 
appointed in 1882, but retired from office before the work was com- 
pleted. As commissioner in lunacy he rendered a number of im- 
portant decisions (Abbott's third volume of New Cases). These de- 
cisions form a " unique group. . . .not elsewhere to be found in any of 
our American reports," and are " exhaustive of the subjects on which 
they touch."' 2 

Since 1882 Professor Ordronaux has been in active practice in this 

1 Columbia Law Times, Vol. vi., No. 3, p. 67. = Ibid., p. 68. 



296 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

city, mainly in consultation, while carrying on his duties as lecturer 
in Columbia College. His published works, in addition to those 
already mentioned, are as follows: " The Jurisprudence of Medicine 
in lis Relation to the Law of Contracts, Torts, and Evidence " (Phila- 
delphia, 1809); " The Proper Legal Status of the Insane " (New York, 
1875); "Legislation in New York Relating to the Insane" (Albany Law 
Journal, Vol. xv., 1877); " Institutes of Equity as Revealed through 
Its Maxims" (three articles, Albany Law Journal, Vol. xviii., 1878); 
''Judicial Aspects of Insanity" (Albany, 1878); "Imbecility," " In- 
sanity before the Law," "Medical Jurisprudence" (three articles, 
"Johnson's Cyclopaedia," Vol. ii., New York, 1876); "The Plea of 
Insanity as an Answer to an Indictment " [Criminal Law Magazine, 
July, 1880); "Judicial Problems Relating to the Disposal of Insane 
Criminals " (two articles, Criminal Law Magazine, September and 
November, 1881); "On Expert Testimony in Judicial Proceedings" 
(American Journal of Insanity, January, 1S74) ; " Matter of Stander- 
niann," " People vs. Beno Yille," " Jenish's Case," " Matter of Waltz," 
" Ayer's Case," " Matter of Gilbert," " Rrush's Case," " People <-r rel. 
New York Hospital" (Abbott's "New Cases." Vol. iii., pp. 1S7-27:!, 
1878); "Constitutional Legislation in the United States" (Philadel- 
phia, 1801); "The Legal Status of the Medical Profession in New- 
York " (Transactions New York State Medical Society, 1860); " Report on 
Expert Testimony" (Ibid., 1862); "Metical Translation of the Regi- 
men Sanitatis Salerni " (Philadelphia, 1870); a series in the American 
Journal of Insanity — " Halucinations Consistent with Reason " 
(1862), "On Suicide" (1863), "On Moral Insanity" (January, L873), 
" Ts Habitual Drunkenness a Disease?" (April, 1874), " The Value of 
Expert Testimony" (July, 1S70; "Anniversary Oration before the 
New York Academy of Medicine" (I860); "Commencement Oration 
before the National Medical College " (1865); same, 1807; same, 1S70; 
"The First Discoverers of America" (Putnam's Magazine, November, 
1854; " History of the Bread Tlants and Their Influence upon Civili- 
zation " (I'nion Quarterly Magazine, April, 1856); " The Great Cycle " 
(American Church Monthly, January and February, 1858); " Eulogy on 
Reverend Z. Green, a Soldier of the Revolution" (New York. 1859); 
"History and Philosophy of Medical Jurisprudence" (American 
Jonmal of Insanity, October, 1868); " ode for the Centenary of Dart- 
month College " (1800); " On Corporations " (paper before old Colony 

Historical Society of Massachusetts; Transactions, Vol. v., 1880). 

TTAWAY, ARTHTJB P. (born in Mina, Chautauqua county, 
New York, May S, 1854), is the son of John B. ami Sarah 
Ottaway, both of original English stock. His grandfather, 

James Ottaway, was one of Hie early settlers of Chautau- 
qua county. Arthur P. was educated in the common schools and at 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 297 

the Sherman and Westfleld Academies, being graduated from the 
latter in 1875. He became a student of the law in the office of Will- 
iam Russell, of Westfleld, and in 1879 was admitted to the bar at 
Rochester. He has been located at Westfleld from the beginning 
of his professional career. 

Mr. Ottaway has for the past ten years been identified with the 
more prominent cases arising in Chautauqua county. He has held 
the office of district attorney for that county. 



| AGE, DE MEKVILLE (born in the Town of Oohocton, Steu- 
ben county, NeAV York, October 13, 1853), is the son of Esek 
Page, ex-sheriff of Steuben county, and Elizabeth A. Page. 
After attending public schools and the Kogersville Union 
Academy, he entered Cornell University, from which he was gradu- 
ated in the class of 1S72 with the degree of bachelor of science. He 
studied law in the office of Hakes & Stevens, of Hornellsville, and also 
at the Albany Law School, receiving his bachelor of laws degree from 
that school in 1874. On October 14 of the same year he was admitted 
to the bar at Rochester. Since 1876 he has been pursuing his profes- 
sion at Hornellsville, ranking prominently for both trial and appel- 
late practice among the lawyers of that part of the state. 

Mr. Page was one of the promoters and builders of the Hornells- 
ville & Canisteo Railway, and is now its president. He has held the 
public office of supervisor of the Town of Fremont. 





|ARKHURST, JOHN F., was born at Wellsboro, Pennsyl- 
vania, February 17, 1843. He is the sou of Doctor Curtis 
Farkhurst and Jane Ann Kasson,and is a lineal descendant 
of George Farkhurst, of Watertowu, Massachusetts, who 
removed to this country from England in 1(535. 

Mr. Farkhurst was educated at Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, in the 
public schools. In 1863 he removed to Rath, New York, where he 
took up the study of law in the office of Judge Guy II. McMaster. He 
was admitted to the bar at Rochester in 18(>5, and at once began the 
practice of his profession. In 1872 he formed a partnership with 
Judge McMaster, which lasted until the death of the latter in 1887. 
The firm enjoyed a large and important practice in the state and fed- 
eral courts, Mr. Parkhurst devoting his especial attention to bank- 
ruptcy and equity practice in the federal tribunals. 

Among the important cases successfully carried through the state 
courts by him was that of Griffith Jones against the Bradford oil 
Company, in which, after three jury trials and seven years of litiga- 
tion, the client recovered three hundred acres of oil land valued at 
several hundred thousand dollars, by virtue of a tax title which cost 



ZyO HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Mm less than fifty cents an acre. Another important case was Silver 
against Lindsay, in which the Court of Appeals passed upon the con- 
stitutional right of the 1,200 inmates of the Soldiers' Home at Bath to 
acquire a voting residence there (107 N. Y., 55). In 1891 he was asso- 
ciate counsel for the republican senators in the famous mandamus 
cases (129 N. Y., 360-468). 

Mr. Parkhurst has been a life-long republican, and an earnest 
worker for the party. Since 1889 he has been chairman of the repub- 
lican county committee of Steuben, and since 1890 has represented 
the 29th congressional district in the republican state committee, of 
whose executive committee he is also a member. He was a delegate 
to the republican national conventions of 1888, 1892, and 1896, and in 
1894 was a delegate-at-large to the constitutional convention, in 
which he served as a member of the judiciary and suffrage commit- 
tees, and as chairman of the committee on county, town, and village 
officers. In March, 1897, Governor Black appointed Mr. Parkhurst to 
be a judge of the Court of Claims, his term of office commencing Jan- 
uary 1, 1898. 

Mr. Parkhurst is vice-president of the Farmers' & Mechanics' Bank 
of Bath and of the Bath & Hammondsport Railroad Company, and 
has edited the Stevten Courier since 1890. He is a member of the Sons 
of the American Revolution, his grandfather, John Parkhurst, having 
been a soldier of the Revolution. He is now in active practice of the 
law at Bath. 




ARSHALL, WILLIAM ANDREWS (born in Walden, New 
York, December 9, 1865), is the son of Caleb and Jerusha K. 
Parshall. He attended the Port Jervis public schools, in- 
cluding the academic department, entered Yale College, 
and was graduated there in the class of 18SS. He also had the ad- 
vantage of a thorough professional education, being a graduate of the 
Albany Law School. His office preparation for the bar was obtained 
under Lewis E. Carr, of Tort Jervis. He was admitted to practice at 
Poughkeepsie, in May, 1890, and soon afterward began his profes- 
sional career at Port Jervis, where he still practices. He was a mem- 
ber of the law firm of Howell, Parshall & Schofield from September 1, 
1890, to September 1, 1893, since which date he has been practicing 
alone. 

Mr. Parshall has held the offices of town clerk of the Town of Deer 
Park (1890-91), and corporation counsel to the Village of Port Jervis 
(May, 1891, to July, 1895). He is at present a director in the Deer 
Park Electric Light Company of Port Jervis (Limited), the local Co- 
operative Loan and Savings Society and the National Bank of Port 
Jervis. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 299 

ARSONS, JOHN EDWARD (born in the City of New York, 
October 24, 1829), is the son of Edward Lamb Parsons and 
Matilda, daughter of Ebenezer Clark, of Wallingford, Con- 
necticut. His father was a native of England, the family 
residing in Lancashire at the time of his birth, although for many 
generations they had lived at Cubbington and in the adjoining parish 
of Stoneleigh, in Warwickshire. He came to this country when a 
young man and engaged iu business in New York. In January, 1839, 
lie was lost on the coast of Cheshire in the wreck of the packet ship 
Pennsylvania, while on his return from a voyage to England. Mr. Par- 
sons received his early education in the boarding-school of Samuel U. 
Berrian at Rye, Westchester coiinty, New York. In 1844 he entered 
the New York University, Theodore Frelinghuysen being chancellor, 
from which he was graduated in 1S48, when eighteen years of age. He 
became a member of the council of this university in 1865, and has re- 
mained upon the board ever since. In the fall of 1849 he entered the 
office of James W. Gerard, the distinguished member of the New 
York bar, and in 1852 was admitted to practice. January 1, 1854, he 
opened an office, and May 1, 1854, formed a partnership with Lorenzo 
B. Shepard. In July of that year Mr. Shepard became district attor- 
ney of New York by appointment of Governor Horatio Seymour, and 
appointed Mr. Parsons his assistant. He held the position until the 
close of the year. With that exception, he has never held public 
office. In May, 1857 (Mr. Shepard having died in September, 185fi), 
Mr. Parsons became associated with Albon P. Man, under the firm 
style of Man & Parsons. This partnership continued until 1884. In 
1890 he formed the firm of Parsons, Shepard & Ogden, during the in- 
termediate period having had no partner. 

Mr. Parsons has been long recognized as a leader of the New York 
bar. From the beginning his practice has been important. It lias em- 
braced many departments of the law. The interesting cases with 
which he has been connected include Dunham vs. Williams, involving 
the title to disused roads laid out in the parts of the state settled by 
the Dutch; Story vs. the Elevated Railroad Companies, in which, after 
years of unsuccessful litigation, the Court of Appeals sustained the 
liability of the companies to abutting owners; the Merrill will case, 
the Burr will case, the Hammersley will case, the Tracy will case at 
Buffalo, the Fayerweather will case, and the Jacob Sharp case. He 
was counsel for the committee of the New York senate to declare va- 
cant the seat of William M. Tweed, participated as counsel in the in- 
vestigation by the committee of the assembly into frauds in Kings 
county, was counsel before the committee of the assembly in the case 
against Henry W. Genet, and participated in the successful trial of 
Genet, and has been engaged in many other public cases. He has 
been counsel since its organization of the American Sugar Refining 
Company, and was counsel for its predecessor, the Sugar Trust, and 



300 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

took part in the various litigations and legislative and congressional 
proceedings which followed the formation of the trust. 

He was an original member of the City Bar Association, having 
participated actively in the proceedings preliminary to its organiza- 
tion. He submitted the draft for the original constitution of the as- 
sociation, which, as amended by the late Judge Bapallo, was in large 
part adopted. He took an active part in the reform movement which 
preceded the proceedings against the judges at the time of the cru- 
sade against Tweed; was selected by the Bar Association as one of 
the counsel to take the initiatory proceedings before the judiciary 
committee of the assembly, of which Samuel J. Tilden and David B. 
Hill were members, and was retained by the managers of the im- 
peachment of Judge Barnard as one of their counsel, participating in 
his trial. He also took part in the trial of Judge McCunn and in the 
proceedings against Judge Cardozo until his enforced resignation. 

Much of Mr. Parsons's time has been given to benevolent and phil- 
anthropic work. He participated in the organization of the New 
York Cancer Hospital, and has been its president from the beginning. 
He is the president of the Woman's Hospital of the State of New 
York, is a member of the executive committee of the New York City 
Mission and Tract Society, the Board of Home Missions of the Pres- 
byterian Church, and the American Tract Society, was president of 
the New York Bible Society, is a member of the board of the Ameri- 
can Bible Society, an original member of the board of trustees of 
Cooper Union, being associated upon that board with Peter Cooper, 
his son, Edward Cooper, and his son-in-law, Abram S. Hewitt, to- 
gether with Daniel P. Tieman and the late Wilson G. Hunt. 

Mr. Parsons has as a country residence an estate at Eye, New York, 
long held in his family. In 1875 he also established a country resi- 
dence at Lenox, Massachusetts, and he has continued to make his 
summer home at his estate of " Stonover " there, being much inter- 
ested in farming and the occupation which comes from the practical 
care of a large country property. He is a governor of the Lenox Club, 
a member of the vestry of the episcopal church of Lenox, and a mem- 
ber in New York of the Century, University, Players', Metropolitan, 
Biding, City, and Turf clubs, and a member of the board of trustees 
and the board of elders of the Brick Presbyterian Church, ne has 
been much interested in the poor children of the City of New York, 
for twenty years having been at the head of a large mission school, 
and maintaining at his own expense a fresh-air home at Curtisville, 
near his residence at Lenox, where one hundred children at a time 
are taken care of during the summer. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 301 

AYNE, ALVAN THOMAS (born in Cutchogue, Town of 
Southhold, Suffolk county, New York, February 16, 1840), 
is tbe son of Thomas Payne and Martha Maria Haynes. 
His great-grandfather, Eeverend Thomas Payne, was a 
native of Columbia county, New York, a graduate of Yale College 
and the first pastor of the presbyterian church of Cutchogue; and his 
grandfather, Benjamin Payne, was a captain in the Eevolution. On 
his mother's side he is a grandson of Eeverend Ezra Haynes, a pres- 
byterian clergyman. He was a student in Brainerd Academy (Con- 
necticut) and later became a pupil of Elizabeth Mapes, a renowned 
Long Island teacher. He then studied law with George B. Bradley, 
now a justice of the Supreme Court. After his admission to the bar, 
at Eochester, in May, 1862, he formed a partnership with Honorable 
Henry Sherwood, then a member of the assembly. Since 1867 he has 
resided in Long Island City. His firm, Alvan T. Payne & Son, is the 
leading law firm of that city. 

Mr. Payne has been connected, at various times, with cases of much 
public interest and importance, including the Hoffman lunacy pro- 
ceeding and the contest of Mrs. Hoffman's will, the Almqvist poison- 
ing and divorce case, and the two cases to oust the mayor of Long 
Island City from his office by reason of frauds at the election. He is 
counsel to the Queens County Bank of Long Island City, and has 
been counsel to the Long Island City Savings Bank for twenty-one 
years. 

He has held the offices of United States commissioner for the north- 
ern district of New York (1864-67), member of the assembly (1876), 
and corporation counsel of Long Island City for four or five years. 
He is at present (1897) president of the Queens County Bar Associa- 
tion, and is a member of the masonic order and also of the Suffolk 
County Historical Society. 

AYNE, LEWIS TABEE (born in North Tonawanda, New 
York, June 14, 1860), is the son of Lewis S. Payne, an old 
and prominent resident of Tonawanda, who is still (1897) 
living there, at the age of seventy-eight. The elder Payne 
entered the civil war as captain of Company D., 100th regiment, New 
York volunteers, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 
He was a member of the assembly in 1870 and of the state senate (rep- 
resenting the 29th district) in 1878 and 1879. 

Lewis T. Payne was graduated at Cornell University in 1883, with 
the degree of bachelor of science. He entered the law office of Brun- 
dage & Chipman, in Buffalo, and after the dissolution of that firm 
continued his legal studies with John M. Chipman until his admission 
to the bar. In June, 1886, he commenced the practice of law in North 
Tonawanda, where he has since continued, being successful and prom- 
inent in the profe 





HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

ECK, MYRON HOLLEY, was born in Victor, Ontario 
county, New York, May 28, 1827, and was the only son of 
Elisba Peck, an early settler in that locality. The father 
was a native of Otsego county in this state. His mother 
was of New England stock, having been born and reared to woman- 
hood in the State of Vermont. The parents, together with himself 
and an only sister, constituted the family. The parents and sister 
died several years ago, leaving Honorable Myron H. Peck the only 
surviving member of the family. His early boyhood was spent on his 
father's farm, but at the age of fourteen years he received an injury 
by an accidental fall from a tree, which was of a permanent character 
and entirely disqualified him from manual labor upon the farm. This 
was a severe blow to the young lad, involving as a consequence a con- 
dition of life-long physical disability and the necessity of abandoning 
agricultural pursuits and a life of comparative ease and independ- 
ence. 

In his fifteenth year he attended the State Normal School at Alba- 
ny, then under the superintendence of Professor George R. Perkins. 
In his sixteenth and seventeenth years he taught district school in the 
towns of Farmington and Bloomfield, in Ontario county. In each 
of these schools a majority of the pupils were much older than the 
teacher, but his ability was such that he successfully managed the 
schools, to the entire satisfaction of their patrons. At the age of 
eighteen he entered as a student the office of Messrs. Lapham & Met- 
calf, then engaged in active and successful practice as attorneys and 
counselors at Canandaigua — the firm being composed of Honorable 
E. G. Lapham, since United States Senator, and J. H. Metcalf, — at 
the suggestion and on the advice of William 0. Dryer, a life-long resi- 
dent of Victor, and a prominent and influential citizen of western 
New York, who was a warm friend and admirer of the senior member 
of the firm, and much interested in the welfare of young Peck. 

Very soon after the commencement of his clerkship, the young 
man was practically invested with the sole charge and supervision of 
the business details of the office. He was a close student, and directly 
after attaining his majority was admitted to practice as an attorney 
and counselor of the Supreme Court, at a general term hold at tlie 
City of Rochester, after an examination personally conducted by 
Judges Wells, Johnson, and Mullett, holding the term. Shortly after 
his admission to the bar he was taken in as junior member of the firm, 
and thereafter, on the retirement of Mr. Metcalf, the firm was con- 
tinued under the name of Lapham & Peck. 

Mr. Lapham was then fast acquiring a reputation .as an able trial 
lawyer and a brilliant and successful advocate; he was also an enthu- 
siastic politician of the democratic school, and actively engaged, in 
every important campaign, in addressing public meetings in the in- 
terest of his party. Mr. Metcalf, on the contrary, was not an advo- 




L/C/Ci^?-Zrz^/ 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 303 

cate, but had a well-established reputation as a safe adviser in legal 
matters aud iu the preparation of legal documents. Frequent pil- 
grimages made with Mr. Lapham, in fulfilling his engagements iu the 
surrounding couutry, in the conduct of litigations, aud in political 
discussious, furuished youug Peck with valuable experience aud iu- 
formation in these several departments. 

In the spring of 1S5S, he removed to Batavia, in Genesee county, 
where he continued iu the practice of his professiou, for the most part 
by himself, but during a portion of the time in association with Col- 
ouel James M. Willet and afterwards with Honorable George Bowen. 
For many years he was clerk of the Village of Batavia and legal ad- 
viser of the board of trustees of the village. He held the office of jus- 
tice of the peace for oue term, without, however, discharging the 
ordinary duties of that office, retaining his official position for the 
sole purpose of acting as a member of the board of town auditors, at 
the request of divers interested citizens of the town. In the fall of 
1882 he was the candidate of the democratic party of Genesee county 
for the office of couuty judge and surrogate, and in the face of an ordi- 
nary republican majority of 1,200 to 1,400, was elected by about 1,000. 
That he discharged the duties of these offices to the satisfaction of the 
citizens of Geuesee county, is sufficiently attested by the practical 
acquiescence of those transacting business in either tribunal iu the 
decisions aud determinations made by him duriug his term. 

In the spring of 1880 he removed to the City of Buffalo, where he 
now resides, having au office at ]S T o. 503 Ellicott Square. Upon his 
removal to Buffalo he decided to practically abandon active practice 
and confine his attention to the hearing of references and the argu- 
ment of cases at bar, and to giving geueral advice and counsel to par- 
ties desiring the same. 

During his professional career of nearly fifty years in western New 
York, he has frequently come in contact and communication with 
most of the distinguished members of the legal profession in that sec- 
tion, including such legal luminaries as John H. Martindale, Henry 
E. Selden, aud Honorable George F. Danforth, of Rochester, and 
Honorable Sanford E. Church of Albion; and although their junior 
in years and experience in the profession, has always received at 
their hands marked and gratifying consideration and atteution. He 
has been engaged in many important litigations of a civil and crimi- 
nal nature, the ultimate determinations of which are to be found in 
the published reports of the higher judicial tribunals of the state. 

His early reading and studies made him a great admirer of the sci- 
entific system of pleadings and practice theretofore in vogue in this 
state, and naturally arrayed him iu opposition to what he regarded 
as the ultra radical changes proposed to be effected by the code of 
civil procedure. In his judgment it would have been much better to 
have eliminated certain useless verbiage which constituted the chaff, 



304 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

leaving in operation the scientific portion constituting the kernel, of 
the old system. He was, and ever since has been, conscientiously 
opposed to the elective judicial system inaugurated by the constitu- 
tion of 1840, believing that while it may be good democratic policy 
to allow the people to govern upon questions generally affecting their 
welfare and interest, the composition of judicial tribunals and the 
administration of justice thereunder were not likely to be materially 
improved by the proposed change in that direction. 

In August, 184'J, Judge Peck married Delia M., youngest daughter 
of Azariah Bickford, one of the pioneers and a well-known and highly 
respected resident of Ontario county. Of their five children — three 
sons and two daughters — the eldest son, Myron H. Peck, Junior, is a 
lawyer in active and successful practice at Batavia, New York; 
Charles B. is engaged as a traveling salesman for the large wholesale 
boot and shoe establishment of W. H. Walker & Co., of Buffalo, and 
William O. is employed as a clerk in the engineering department of 
the board of public works in that city. His two daughters, Julia M. 
and Ella D., both reside in Buffalo. 

Judge Peck was one of the original organizers of the New York 
State Bar Association, and for some time thereafter was a vice-presi- 
dent representing the 8th judicial district. He has ever since re- 
mained a member of that organization. 

During a professional career of nearly half a century he has been 
recognized as one of the leading lawyers of western New York. He 
has been more intent upon maintaining the honor and dignity of his 
profession than in making any effort to secure adequate compensa- 
tion for services rendered. He has always had a warm place in the 
hearts of the younger members of the profession, in whose prosperity 
and advancement he has uniformly taken a deep interest, and to 
which he has liberally contributed by gratuitous advice and assist- 
ance. 






ECKHAM, RUFUS W. (born in Albany, New York, Novem- 
ber 8, 1838), is the son of the eminent Judge Rufus W. 
Teckham, of the Court of Appeals, 1 and Isabella A., daugh- 
ter of Reverend Doctor William B. Lacey, at one time rec- 
tor of the episcopal parish of Saint Peter's, Albany. After attending 
school at the Albany Boys' Academy and in Philadelphia he spent 
a year in Europe and then entered upon the study of the law in the 
office of his father and Honorable Lyman Tremain. Being admitted 
to practice on January 1, 18G0, he became Mr. Tremaiu's partner, his 
father having been chosen to the Supreme bench. This association 
continued until Mr. Tremaiu's death, in 1S78. In 1868 lie was elected 
dist iict attorney of Albany county. In the conduct of this office he 

■ Bee Vni. i , p. 4-13. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 305 

displayed signal ability aud zeal, notably in the celebrated prosecu- 
tion of Filkins, the express robber. After retiring from the position 
of district attorney he was constantly engaged in the conduct of cases 
of importance. 

He was one of the counsel for the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad Com- 
pany in its great legal contest with the Erie Railroad Company, controlled by 
.Jay Gould and James Fisk, Junior, in 1868 and 1869. He appeared as coun- 
sel for the people, representing the attorney-general in many capital trials, and 
generally with success. Besides this, he appeared as counsel for the defense in 
many important criminal trials, although most of his legal business was of a 
civil nature. He was the counsel retained by the City of Albany, also by the 
Count}' of Albany, to defend their system of taxation of the national bank 
shares, and argued their side of the controversy in the courts of the state and in 
the Supreme Court of the United States. 3 

In 1S81 he was appointed corporation counsel of Albany. In No- 
vember, 1883, he was elected a justice of the Supreme Court of the 
state, and while serving as such, in November, 1886, was elected one 
of the judges of the Court of Appeals. This distinguished position he 
resigned in 1895 to take a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of 
the United States, by the appointment of President Cleveland. 

Justice Peckham inherited from his father a strong preference for 
the democratic party, and from youth was active in support of the 
principles of that organization. He was a delegate to the national 
convention of 1876, and contributed to the nomination by that body 
of Mr. Tilden for the presidency. He was also a delegate to the na- 
tional convention of 1880. 

He married, in 1866, Harriette M., daughter of D. H. Arnold, a New 
York City merchant and president for many years of the National 
Mercantile Bank of that city. 




jECKHAM, WHEELER HAZARD (bom in Albany, New 
York, January 1, 1833), is the son of the late Honorable 
Rufus Wheeler Peckham, justice of the Supreme Court and 
of the Court of Appeals of this State, and a brother of Hon- 
orable Rufus Wheeler Peckham, justice of the United States Supreme 
Court. 

Mr. Peckham was educated at the Albany Academy and at Union 
College, but owing to ill health did not graduate from the latter insti- 
tution. He studied law with his father, and for some time practiced 
at Albany. February 9, 1864, he removed to New York City, becom- 
ing managing clerk of the law office of John A. Stoutenburg and 
George McCullough Miller. In the course of a few years he was ad- 
mitted to partnership. The firm was later re-organized as Miller, 
Peckham & Dixon, a style which has been continued to the present 

- Encyclopedia of Contemporary Biography of New York, Vol. ii., p. 124. 



306 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

time. It is one of the most prominent legal partnerships in the City 
of New York. 

Mr. Peckhum was leading counsel in the Tweed prosecutions, and 
his able conduct of these cases won for him national reputation. He 
was also counsel in the cases establishing the exemption from taxa- 
tion of legal-tender notes, as likewise in the bank tax cases, the Bell 
telephone patent litigations, and the Louisiana bond cases. For a 
short time he was district attorney of New York City. 

Mr. Peckham has long been prominently identified with the cause 
of political reform. " For many years he has been the ablest and 
most effective political and municipal reformer in the state and coun- 
try, and a terror to evil-doers." He was nominated by President 
Cleveland as a justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1893, 
but through the intrigue of Senator David B. Hill and other personal 
enemies of President Cleveland in his own party, the nomination was 
not confirmed. Another eminent gentleman whom Mr. Cleveland at- 
tempted to appoint to this position shared the same fate, the opera- 
tions of the intriguers amounting to a national scandal. 

Mr. Peckham has served two terms as president of the Bar Associa- 
tion of the City of New Y^ork. 




jECKHAM, WILLIAM GIBBS (born in Newport, Bhode 
Island, February 7,1819), is the son of William Cibbs Peck- 
ham and Mary Hull, daughter of Judge Joseph Perry. He 
is lineally descended from Elder William Peckham, who 
about 1039 was settled over the first baptist church in Bhode Island, 
and on his mother's side from Edmund Perry, common ancestor also 
of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, Commodore Matthew Galbraith 
Perry, and General Nathaniel Greene. 

Mr. Peckham was graduated from Harvard College in 1867, at 
eighteen years of age, having been the first editor of the Harvard Col- 
legian and its successor, the Harvard Advocate, the pioneer of college 
periodicals. The same year he was graduated from John Norton 
Pomeroy's law school, and studied with William M. Evarts and 
Joseph H. Choate in New York City. In 1808 and 1809 he pursued 
studies at Heidelberg, Germany, taking certificates' in Roman law, 
and returning was graduated from the Law School of the University 
of the City of New York in 1870, being admitted to the New York 
bar the same year. He was for many years at the head of the firm of 
Peckham & Tyler, more recently organizing that of Peckham, War- 
ner & Perkins. 

Mr. Peckham enjoys a large corporation practice, having had spe- 
cial experience in cases involving questions of marine insurance. lie 
has also been leading counsel in many of the suits of first importance 
against the New York Elevated Railway Company, and has been uni- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAK OF NEW YORK 307 

forinly successful. He represented Rutherford Stuyvesant in a claim 
for damages for fifty-seven houses along the elevated roads, all being 
tried in one case. The recovery of fl35,000 for the American Bank- 
note Company is the largest recovery on a single building in any 
elevated road case. He was successful also in all the suits in connec- 
tion with the Northampton National Bank robbery, the largest rob- 
bery in the history of the country, amounting to two million dollars. 
He recovered from stock brokers and others who had received the 
stolen securities, and defended the suits against the bank, several of 
these cases being carried to the Court of Appeals and United States 
Supreme Court, and all being won for the bank. 

While in the office of Joseph H. Choate, Mr. Peckham assisted the 
Committee of Seventy in its campaign against the Tweed ring. He 
was for six years a colleague of Carl Schurz and George William Cur- 
tis on the executive committee of the independent national commit- 
tee which managed the independent element in the Cleveland cam- 
paign of 1884 and since, and was chairman of the similar organization 
for the State of New Jersey in 1884. He became later the member 
from New Jersey of the executive committee of the national tariff 
reform league. 

Interested in the work of the University of North Carolina, situated 
at Chapel Hill, in that state, Mr. Peckham has established the " Uni- 
versity Inn " at that place for the convenience of college men. He is 
a member of the State and City Bar associations, the Lawyers', Re- 
form, Commonwealth, and New York Harvard clubs, and the New 
Jersey Historical Society. He is the author of several volumes of 
poems, one being selections from pieces written during college days 
and published in the Harvard Advocate. 




JERRY, TIMOTHY (born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, 
November 7, 1829), is the son of Chauncey Perry, Senior, 
and Abigail Stearns. His father was a New Hampshire 
farmer of small means, who reared a large family. His 
mother's father, Isaac Stearns, was an officer in the American Revo- 
lution; at the battle of Bunker Hill he was aide to General Prescott, 
and it was he Who suggested to the general that the Americans 
should reserve their fire until they could see the whites of the eyes of 
the British soldiers. 

Timothy Perry was educated in the common schools and the New 
Ipswich Academy, at that time one of the best institutions of the kind 
in New England. In 1853 he began the study of the law with his 
brother, Chauncey Perry, Junior, in the City of Brooklyn, and in 
April, 1857, he was admitted to the bar at a general term held at 
Poughkeepsie. Immediately afterward he joined his brother in the 
firm of C. & T. Perry. This partnership has continued without change 



308 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

ever since — a period of more than forty years, — and it is now the 
oldest law firm in Brooklyn whereof the original partners still sur- 
vive. 

The firm of C. & T. Perry has always done more or less litigating 
business, but its specialties have been examination of titles and the 
settlement of estates. It is one of the largest real estate firms in 
Brooklyn, has had very wide experience, and has gained much reputa- 
tion in keeping people out of law suits. 

From 185S to 1803 Mr. Perry was a member of the Board of Alder- 
men of Brooklyn for the 17th Ward, and from 1863 to 1870, and again 
in 1882 and 1883, he was a member of the board of education. He re- 
signed the latter position to accept an appointment by Mayor Seth 
Low as a member of the Brooklyn board of elections. Of this board 
he was president from 1883 to 1890. 




ETTY, NATHAN DICKEBSON (born at Good Ground, Suf- 
folk county, New York, January 0, 18i2), is the son of 
Charles and Harriet Petty, both of English families. He 
attended select schools and academic institutions, was pri- 
vately instructed in Latin and Greek, and was graduated at Prince- 
ton College, June 29, 1S65, with the degree of bachelor of arts, lie 
has since received from his alma mater the degree of master of arts. 
He studied law at the Albany Law School, being graduated there on 
May 5, 1866, with the degree of bachelor of laws, and the next day he 
was admitted to the bar. He immediately began practice in his na- 
tive town. In 1868 he removed to Biverhead, Suffolk county, where 
he still resides. 

In 1874 and 1875 Mr. Petty represented Suffolk county in the as- 
sembly. He was for several years assistant assessor of internal reve- 
nue for the 1st district. From January 1, 1879, to December 31, 188-4, 
he held the office of district attorney of Suffolk county. AVhile occu- 
pying that position he prosecuted several important murder trials. 
Since the 1st of January, 1S92, he has been surrogate of the county. 



H1LLIPS, SAMUEL KETCHAM (born in the City of Brook- 
lyn, February 12, 1858), is the son of Edmund S. and Re- 
becca Onderdonk Phillips. He was educated in the com- 
mon schools and private academies in Fishkill, Dutchess 
county, was instructed in the principles and practice of the law by 
his father, and was admitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie in May, L879. 
Beginning practice at Matteawan, he soon took a prominent place at 
the Dutchess county bar, and became identified with leading local in- 
terests. He was attorney for the State of New York in the matter of 
the acquisition of the site for the Matteawan State Hospital, and the 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 309 

right of way for the sewer to the river. He is the attorney for the 
Mechanics' Savings Bank of Fishkill Landing and the Matteawan 
Savings Bank. He was one of the promoters and is at present one of 
the owners of the electric railway system of the town, is a director of 
the N. D. & C. Railroad Company and its legal adviser, and is the 
president of the Matteawan Savings Bank and a director of the Mat- 
teawan National Bank. 

Since January 1, 1896, he has held the office of county judge of 
Dutchess county. 

]INDAR, JOHN S1XBEY (born in Sharon, Schoharie county, 
New York, November 18, 1835), is the son of John and An- 
gelica Sixbey Pindar. His great-grandparents on both 
sides emigrated from England and settled in Albany and 
Schoharie counties. He received his education in the common schools 
and the Richmondville Academy. For a number of years he was em- 
ployed by mercantile houses. In 1862 he began the study of law with 
Young & Ramsay (William H. Young and Honorable Joseph H. Ram- 
say), at Lawyersville. He was admitted to practice in the Supreme 
Court of the State of New York on May 4, 1805, and in the United 
States Supreme Court on January 25, 1872. In 1867 he entered upon 
active practice in Cobleskill, where he has since been engaged con- 
tinuously. 

Mr. Pindar has for many years ranked as one of the ablest and best 
known members of the Schoharie county bar, and has also been very 
prominent and influential in the affairs of the Village of Cobleskill 
and of the county. When the village was incorporated he was its first 
police magistrate, and afterward he was its president for eight suc- 
cessive years. 

An active democrat in politics, he was for a long period at the head 
of the party organization, serving as chairman of the Schoharie 
county democratic committee for thirteen or fourteen years, until he 
declined to hold that position longer. He represented the district in 
the 49th and 51st congresses. When Judge Mayham was raised to 
the Supreme Court bench, Mr. Pindar was tendered the appointment 
to the vacant office of county judge and surrogate, but he declined. 

Mr. Pindar married Miss Maggie T. Hiller, daughter of John F. 
Hiller, of Sharon, formerly a, member of the assembly. They have 
four children, all living. 



|ITTS, EDMUND LEVI (born in the Town of Yates, Orleans 
county, New York, May 23, 1S39), is the son of John W. 
Pitts and Mary A. Clark. He received his general educa- 
tion at the Yates Academy, studied law with Honorable 
Sanford E. Church and at the State and National Law School at 




310 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Poughkeepsie, and was admit ted to the bar at Newburgh in Septem- 
ber, I860. He began practice at Medina, New York, where be still 
continues. Since 1880 be has been at tbe bead of tbe firm of Pitts & 
Sherwood. 

Mr. Pitts has been very successful at tbe bar, aud is one of tbe best 
known lawyers of bis part of the state. Among tbe important actions 
in which be bas appeared as counsel may be mentioned tbe forgery 
case of Wilson vs. Heatb and the Lindsley murder case. He bas also 
figured prominently in politics and public life. From 1801 to 1808, 
inclusive, be was a member of tbe assembly, becoming speaker of 
that body in 1807. In 1809 be was appointed assessor of internal 
revenue, an office which he held until 1873. He served in the state 
senate from 1880 to 1883, inclusive, and again in 1886 and 1887, act- 
ing as president pro tempore during a considerable part of Ins sena- 
torial service. 




|LUMLEY, EDMUND JANES (born in Canoga, Seneca 
county, New York, October 7, 1815), is the son of Reverend 
Albert Plumley and Nancy Wheeler Cox He took the 
academic course at tbe Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, and 
entered Genesee College (now Syracuse University), but did not grad- 
uate. After pursuing legal studies in the office of Hiram C. Day, of 
Buffalo, he was admitted to the bar at tbe general term in that city, 
June 0, 1871. Since March, 1875, he has been in active practice in 
Buffalo. He is now at the head of the firm of Plumley & Cole, in 
which Irving W. Cole is associated with him. 

Mr. Plumley in his career at the bar of Buffalo has been connected 
with many important litigations. Among his cases to which special 
interest attaches the following may be instanced: Quinn rs. the City 
of Buffalo (20 Hun, 234), Schier us. the City of Buffalo (35 Hun, 501), 
Newton vs. Southworth (7 N. Y. St. K., 130), Flynn vs. Erie Preserving 
Company (12 N. Y. St. P., 88), Delamater vs. Folz (50 Hun, 528), 
Probst vs. Delamater (100 N. Y., 200), and Pryor vs. Foster (130 X. 
Y., 171). 

From February, 1S72, to March, 1875, he held the office of deputy 
city clerk of Buffalo. 



IOWELSON, AB11AM VAN NEST (born on the old Bowelson 
homestead near Somerville, New Jersey, April 15, 1812), 
is the son of Abraham •). Powelson and Sarah Ann Van 

Nest. His family came originally from Sweden, emigrated 
to Holland, and from there, at the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, to America, and were ; lg (lie early settlers of New Jersey. 

Me attended the public schools and afterward took a course of study 





^ (Z^zZT- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 311 

with the Reverend Doctor Blauvelt, of Lamington, New Jersey, who 
prepared him for college. He entered Rutgers College and from 
there went to Union College, where he was graduated with the de- 
gree of bachelor of arts in 1864. The degree of master of arts was 
afterward conferred upon him. For two years after leaving college 
he taught the classical department of the Walkill Academy. He 
then entered the law office of the Honorable John G. Wilkin, county 
judge of Orange county, New York. Being admitted to the bar at 
Poughkeepsie in May, 1868, he engaged in practice at Middletown, 
where he has since successfully pursued his profession. 

In 1869 he was elected justice of the peace, an office which he held 
for several years. He served for two years as corporation counsel of 
Middletown. and from 1890 to December. 1896, was assistant-district 
attorney of the county under Honorable Michael H. Hirschberg. 
Upon Mr. Hirschberg's resignation of that office, to become a justice 
of the Supreme Court, Mr. Powelson was appointed by Governor Mor- 
ton to succeed him in the office of district attorney. 

For several years Mr. Powelson has been a member of the board of 
education of Middletown, and he is at present (1897) chairman of its 
high school committee. 




IRATT, CHARLES RANSOM (born in Elmira, Chemung 
county, New York, January 24, 1847), is the son of Ransom 
Pratt and Sarah Alvord, both descendants of Connecticut 
families of colonial days. He received a thorough early 
training, first at private schools, followed by three years at Elmira 
Academy, a year's college preparatory course at the Union School 
of Schenectady, New York, three years at Union College, Schenec- 
tady, and a year at Amherst College, Massachusetts, where he gradu- 
ated in 1869, with the degree of A.B. He read law in the office of 
Smith & Hill, of Elmira, the firm consisting of the Honorable G. L. 
Smith and David B. Hill, subsequently governor of the state and 
United States senator. 

He was admitted to the bar at Albany in 1872, locating thereafter 
in the practice of his profession at Elmira, and soon attained a posi- 
tion of prominence and influence. From September, 1879, to Septem- 
ber, 1882, he was cashier of the 2d National Bank of Elmira, and he 
was vice-president of the same from 1882 to 1889. In 1892 he became 
for a short time assistant professor in Cornell University Law School, 
and in 1894 was a member of the constitutional convention. In the 
fall of 1896 he was elected to the office of county judge and surrogate 
of Chemunc county, taking his seat on the bench January 1, 1897, for 
a term of six years. 

In April, 1879, Judjre Pratt was married to Jane E. Carrier. They 
have three children, two sons and a daughter. 



312 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



RENTICE, AUGUSTUS (born in New London county, Con- 
necticut, September 30, 1826), is the son of Asa Prentice 
and Annie, daughter of William Browning, of North Ston- 
ington, Connecticut. The founder of the Prentice family 
came from Essex county, England, in 1631, settling in Roxbury, Mas- 
sachusetts, and in 1700 the branch from which Mr. Prentice is de- 
scended located in North Stonington, Connecticut. His ancestors on 
the mother's side were also among the earlier settlers of New Eng- 
land, his great-grandfather being a wholesale merchant and exten- 
sive real estate owner in Newport, Rhode Island, and had several 
houses destroyed at the time the English bombarded that place dur- 
ing the Revolution. 

Until about ten years of age Mr. Prentice attended the public 
schools of Springfield, Massachusetts, and Montpelier, Vermont, 
where his father was a merchant. His father retiring to a farm in 
Tolland county, Connecticut, he attended the public school there for 
a short time, was sent for several years to a private school, and for 
three or four years attended Wilbraham Academy, at Wilbraham, 
Massachusetts, preparing for college. Forced to reside in Florida 
for two years on account of ill health, he did not enter college, but 
upon his return to the north commenced the study of the law in the 
office of Honorable Thomas W. Gierke, of New York City, subse- 
quently judge of the Supreme Court, and was admitted to the New 
York bar in 1S51. In the spring of 1852 he commenced practice in 
that city. His practice has been chiefly in the department of com- 
mercial and corporation law, attending to the legal business of a 
large number of business men. Various corporations have come 
under his control as counsel, among them the Artisans' Bank, which 
he took charge of at the time of its failure, closing up its af- 
fairs, the Saint Louis & Saint Joseph Railroad Company, and the 
Saint Joseph & Denver City Railroad Company, which he formed by 
consolidating several smaller companies. He has been counsel of 
various other corporations. He has made successful investments in 
real estate, of which he is a large owner, both on Staten Island and in 
New York City. He was elected president of the Bank of Staten 
Island at the time of its organization, and still holds this position. 

His residence has been at New Brighton, Staten Island, since 1858. 
At that time there were no incorporated villages on the island. Be- 
lieving that village government was desirable, he drew up a charter 
for New Brighton in 1865, called a meeting and had it approved and a 
committee appointed to secure its passage by the legislature. As a 
result of these exertions the Village of New Brighton was organized 
under tin's cliarter in tlie spring of 1866. 

In June, 1855, he was married to Catherine A., daughter of William 
Browning, of Gales Ferry, Connecticut. Their only child, Augustus 
Browning Prentice, was born January 30, 1866. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YORK 313 

flRYOR, ROGER ATKINSON (born in Dinwiddie county, 
Virginia, in 1828), derives his descent from an old Virginia 
family closely related to the Blounts and Randolphs. He 
was graduated from Hampden-Sidney College at the head 
of his class when seventeen years of age, subsequently receiving the 
degree of doctor of laws, and attended several departments of the 
University of Virginia, which subsequently appointed him one of her 
board of visitors. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, entered 
journalism, and was editor successively of the Petersburg Southside 
Democrat, Washington Union, and Richmond Enquirer. 

He was appointed on a special diplomatic mission to Greece by 
President Pierce in 1855. During the following year he attracted at- 
tention through his opposition to the scheme of William L. Yancey 
for reviving the slave trade, and was elected to congress in 1857 and 
re-elected in 1859. He remained loyal to his state after her act of 
secession, was a member of the first regular confederate congress, and 
was commissioned colonel and a little later brigadier-general in the 
confederate army. Resigning his commission as an officer for polit- 
ical reasons, he at once re-enlisted as a private, and in 18G4 was cap- 
tured and confined in Fort Lafayette, New York. 

Removing to this city after the war, he began the study of law at 
thirty-five years of age, and soon had an important practice. As coun- 
sel for Tilton in the famous Beecher trial, he attracted attention by 
Ms arguments in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, in both 
of which he was opposed by William M. Evarts. He was counsel in the 
divorce suit of Governor Sprague of Rhode Island and in the various 
litigations respecting the Sprague estate, appeared in many impor- 
tant elevated railroad cases, represented the original stockholders in 
a suit against the New York & New England Railroad Company in 
the United States Circuit Court, and defended Governor Ames of 
Mississippi in the impeachment proceedings by the legislature of that 
state. 

He was appointed to the bench of the Court of Common Pleas by 
Governor Hill in 1890, and elected to succeed himself in the fall of 
that year. By the constitution of 1894 he was transferred to the 
Supreme Court, January 1, 1896. 




|UTNAM, HARRINGTON (born in Shrewsbury, Massachu- 
setts, June 29, 1851), is a descendant in the ninth genera- 
tion from Richard Harrington, who emigrated from Eng- 
land to Watertown, Massachusetts, early in 1640, and from 
John Putnam, also a native of England, who settled iu Salem, Massa- 
chusetts, about the same period. He was graduated at Colby Univer- 
sity (Waterville, Maine) in 1870, with the degree of bachelor of arts, 
entered the law office of E. B. Stoddard, at Worcester, Massachusetts, 




314 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

and completed his preparation for the legal profession, after studies 
in Heidelberg, Germany, at the Columbia College Law School, from 
which he received his bachelor of laws degree in 1876. He was admit- 
ted to the bar in New York on May 26, 1877, since which date he has 
been a practitioner in that city, devoting himself mainly to admiralty 
suits. 



|UTNAM, HARVEY, was born January 5, 1793, and was of 
the sixth generation from John Putnam, who emigrated 
from Buckinghamshire county, England, in 1634, settling 
in Salem (now Danvers), Massachusetts. He read his pro- 
fession with Judge Freeborn G. Jewett of Skaneateles. Xew York. In 
1817 he settled in Attica, Genesee county, the Holland Purchase 
being then the far west for eastern emigrants. Here he began, with 
few books and vast capacities of labor, his professional life. For 
twenty years it was wholly unvaried, except by those local trusts 
which are likely to fall to a good lawyer and trusted citizen. 

In 1839 he was elected to the short session of the 25th congress, to 
fill a vacancy. In 1840 he was appointed surrogate of Genesee county, 
which office he held until the division of the county, when he was ap- 
pointed surrogate of Wyoming county, and held the office until 1842. 
In 1842 he was elected to the state senate as a representative of the 
<tl«l 8th district, comprising the western counties of the state. The 
senate at that time constituted the court of final appeal in rases of 
law and equity. He was distinguished during his term of four years 
for his devotion to the practical duties of legislation and for his 
painstaking labor as a member of the Court for the Correction of 
Errors. 

In 1848 he was elected from his district to congress, and was re- 
elected in 1850, serving through the last half of Mr. Polk's, through 
General Taylor's, and a part of Mr. Fillmore's administrations. He 
was chosen as a whig, and acted with the great body of that party in 
western New York on all public questions that arose during the 
period of his public service. He was in sympathy with the anti- 
slavery sentiment of his district. At the close of his congressional 
service he returned to the duties and labors of his profession with un- 
abated zeal and enthusiasm. 

He brought industry and unwearied devotion to his business. To 
(lie most trifling causes that arose in a country district he gave the 
same research and exhaustive study which he gave the gravest ques- 
tions and most important controversies in courts of record. His 
briefs were formidable antagonists. His characteristic industry he 
brought to all his public trusts. To be never idle, to do with the high- 
est skill he possessed whatever was placed in his hands to do, was 
with him both a principle and a passion. He never shirked any duty 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 315 

imposed. He was a patient and laborious committeeman, and be- 
longed to the practical and working class of legislators. The ele- 
ments of his personal strength in the public confidence were character 
and adequacy. To these all the public trusts he held were sponta- 
neous tributes. 

His integrity was after the severest model of character — that is, 
absolute. He was a peace-maker, and often when applied to to insti- 
tute litigation would persuade the parties to allow him to act as arbi- 
trator of their dispute. This did not compensate his pocket, but it 
did his heart. He secured justice to the contestants and preserved 
good-will among his neighbors, and that satisfied him. 

For about thirty years he was a professor of the Christian religion, 
and a member and officer of the presbyterian church. The religious 
element was in him a deep, rich vein, running through his moral and 
social being. Christianity was with him, literally, a life. It budded 
and blossomed, not for controversy, but with the fruits of the spirit — 
faith, hope, charity. 

He died of an acute disease September 20, 1S55, in the sixty-third 
year of his aee. 




UTNAM, JAMES OSBORNE (born in Attica, Wyoming 
county, New York, July 4, 1818), is the son of Honorable 
Harvey Putnam (noticed above) and Myra Osborne, grand- 
daughter of Colonel Benjamin Simonds, of Williamstown, 
Massachusetts. He was prepared for college at the Middlebury Acad- 
emy (Genesee county, New York), attended Hamilton College for two 
years and entered Yale in the junior class of 1S39. After leaving col- 
lege he read law under the direction of his father, and in 1841 he was 
admitted to the bar at a general term of the Supreme Court held at 
Rochester. In 1842 he removed to Buffalo, and entered upon the 
active practice of his profession. He is still a resident of that city, 
but for a number of years has been living in comparative retirement. 
Mr. Putnam soon rose to prominence at the bar of Buffalo. Early in 
his career he entered into an association with Honorable George R. 
Babcock, which, however, continued for only two years. In 1844 he 
became secretary and treasurer, and in 1840 attorney and counselor 
of the Attica & Buffalo and the Buffalo & Rocheste railroad com- 
panies, positions which he held until their consolidation with the 
New York Central. 

In 1851 he was appointed postmaster of Buffalo by President Fill- 
more. This office he retained until the end of Mr. Fillmore's term. 
He served as a member of the state senate in 1854 and 1855. In that 
body he joined in the protests made against the repeal of the Missouri 
compromise and against, other aggressions of the slave power. He 
drafted and championed the celebrated measure known as the 



316 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



" Church Property Bill," which required that real estate consecrated 
to religious uses should be vested in trustees in accordance with the 
general policy of the state. 

In politics Mr. Putnam had been identified from his youth with the 
conservative element of the whig party. After the reconstruction of 




party lines he was for a time affiliated with the so-called American 
organization, by which he was nominated in 1S37 for secretary of 
state of New York. Meantime lie labored to bring about a union of 
the American with the republican party. In 1860 he was one of the 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 317 

two electors-at-large on the Lincoln ticket. From 1861 to 1866 he was 
United States consul at Havre, France. He was the author of the ad- 
dress of American citizens abroad to their government upon the 
assassination of President Lincoln. 

Returning in 1866, Mr. Putnam resumed his residence at Buffalo. 
During the years 1880, 1881, and 1882 he represented the United 
States as minister to Belgium. While serving in this capacity (1881) 
he was designated by the state department as the United States dele- 
gate to the international industrial congress at Paris. 

Mr. Putnam, as a prominent and highly respected citizen, has held 
various honorary positions of importance. He was for a time trustee 
of the State Normal School at Buffalo. 

He was appointed by Governor Dix a member of the state board of 
charities for the 8th judicial district, but was prevented by ill health 
from accepting that office. He has been a member of the council of 
the Buffalo University since its organization in 1846, and is at present 
its chancellor. 

Throughout his life he has taken a hearty interest in all matters 
related to the welfare of the City of Buffalo, and particularly in the 
promotion of its public institutions. 

He is the author of a volume of " Orations, Speeches, and Miscel- 
lanies," published in 1880. 




|UTNAM, JOHN EISLEY (born at Saratoga Springs, New 
York), is the son of Benjamin Risley Putnam and Eunice, 
daughter of Daniel Morgan, of Saratoga. He is a descend- 
ant of John Putnam, who emigrated from England in 1634 
and settled in Danvers, Massachusetts, and is of the same family 
as the famous General Israel Putnam of the Revolution. His grand- 
father, Gideon Putnam, a " man of strong nerve, comprehensive pow- 
ers of invention and indomitable will, who was the virtual creator 
and originator of the beautiful village of Saratoga Springs," removed 
to New York state from New England in 1789 and engaged in farm- 
ing and the manufacture of lumber at Saratoga Springs. Two years 
later he bought from Dirck Lefferts, one of the original purchasers of 
the Kayadrossera patent, three hundred acres of land, to which he 
subsequently added and upon which he began to erect buildings, fore- 
seeing the great advantages that the medicinal springs would in time 
give to the locality. Having in 1809 discovered and tubed the Con- 
gress Spring, he erected Union Hall, and commenced work on Con- 
gress nail, which, however, was interrupted by an accident that led 
to his death, December 1, 1812. He contributed generous gifts of 
land for the promotion of local educational and religious interests. 
His son, Benjamin Risley Putnam, father of the subject of this 



318 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

sketch, was also a generous giver to the same ends, and active and in- 
telligent in advancing the growth and prosperity of the community. 

John R. Putnam, after completing an academic education, pursued 
legal studies with Judges Charles S. Lester and Johu C. Hurlbert. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1852, and, engagiug in practice at his 
native place, steadily advanced to reputation and eminence iu the 
profession. After twenty-five years of successful practice he was 
nominated, in 1887, to the office of justice of the Supreme Court for 
the 4th judicial district, to succeed Justice Augustus Bockes. His 
election was practically unanimous, both the republican and the 
democratic parties giving him their support. 

Four years after his term of office commenced, he was designated 
by Governor Hill for the general term of the 3d department, and re- 
mained in that position until the adoption of the new constitution, 
when he was appointed by Governor Morton a member of the Appel- 
late Division for the same department. 

Justice Putnam was married, in 1867, to Mary S., daughter of R. M. 
Shoemaker, a well-known Ohio railway builder and operator. 




|AMSDALE, WILLIAM CRAWFORD (born in the Town of 
Malta, Saratoga county, New York, March 5, 1856), is the 
son of William and Parthena Crawford Ramsdale. He was 
graduated at the University of Rochester, in 1879, with the 
degree of bachelor of science. After pursuing legal studies with John 
H. White, of Albion, he was admitted to the bar, in 1881. He has 
always practiced at Albion. 

In November, 1S95, he was elected on the democratic ticket county 
judge and surrogate of Orleans county, receiving 300 majority, 
although at the same election the republican state and county ticket 
carried the county by about 1,700. Judge Ramsdale has also held the 
office of treasurer of Orleans county, as well as various town and vil- 
lage offices. 

ANSOM, WASHINGTON HUNT (born in Lockport, New 
York, March 9, 1842), is the son of Jerome Bonaparte Ran- 
som and Elvira Albright. After graduating from the 
Lockport Union School, he studied law with Murray & 
Greene, of Lockport, and also at the Albany Law School, receiving 
from that institution his degree of bachelor of laws. He was ad- 
mitted at the bar at Albany. May 6, 1867. and soon afterward began 
practice at Lockport with John T. Joyce in the firm of Ransom & 
Joyce, which continued until October 1, 1887. He then for several 
years continued his practice alone. Since February 1, 1894, he has 
been in partnership with his son, Frank A. Ransom, under the firm 
name of W. H. & F. A. Ransom. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 319 

Mr. Ransom's professional record embraces numerous cases of very 
considerable interest and importance. Some of these are: Day vs. 
Day (94 N. Y., 193), settling the construction of the law of bridges 
over streams crossing town lines; People ex rel. Joyce vs. Bruudage 
(78 N. Y., 403), establishing that the constitutional limit of age applies 
to county judges; Nicholls vs. Wentworth (100 N. Y., 455), in which it 
is decided that easements may be acquired by prescription; People 
C.J- rel. Lardner vs. Carson (78 Hun, 544; 29 Supp., 019), laying down 
the principle that a successor in the office of attorney-general needs no 
order of substitution in a pending action, and Campbell vs. Crompton 
(8 Abb. N. C, 363), which establishes that an agreement to marry be- 
tween aunt and nephew is against public policy and that the courts 
will not enforce it. 

As one of the leaders of the Lockport bar, Mr. Ransom has taken an 
important part in legal matters of vital interest to that community. 
He performed practically all the work of the revision of the charter of 
that city (chapter 120 of the laws of 1SS6), and he prepared the charter 
of the Lockport Water Supply Company (chapter 106 of the laws of 
1886), said to be the most comprehensive charter granted by the State 
of New York to a private corporation up to that time. 

He has held the offices of supervisor of the 4th ward of the city of 
Lockport for two terms, city clerk for one term, and clerk of the 
board of supervisors of Niagara county for four terms. 




EDFIELD, HENRY STEPHEN (born in Corning, Steuben 
county, New York, July 31, 1851), is the son of Jared A. and 
Mary Hayt Redfield, both of New England descent. His 
=* father was for a number of years superintendent of the 
Elmira and Canandaigua divisions of the Northern Central Railway 
Company. The son was graduated from the Elmira Academy at the 
age of fifteen. After following business employments for about five 
years he prepared for college, and entered Amherst, from which he 
was graduated in 1877 with the degree of bachelor of arts, having re- 
ceived the Greek appointment for commencement, and standing 
fourth in a graduating class of seventy-five members. The A. M. de- 
gree was subsequently conferred upon him by that institution. 

Upon leaving college he began the study of the law at Elmira with 
George M. Diven, and in September, 1879, he was admitted to the bar 
at Saratoga Springs. The next month he formed a legal copartner- 
ship with Mr. Diven, which still continues. The practice of the firm is 
largely of a corporate character. Among the corporations which they 
represent, are the Northern Central Railway Company, for which 
they are attorneys for the 7th district, comprising the State of New 
York, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, whose legal busi- 
ness in the southern portion of the state is committed to their charge. 



320 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



EDINGTON, LYMAN WILLIAMS (born in Waddington, 
Saint Lawrence county, New York, March 14, 1849),is the 
. son of Honorable George Eedington and Loraine Will- 
iams Sheldon, and is lineally descended from John Eed- 
ington, who located at Topsfield, Massachusetts, about 1640. One of 
his ancestors was killed in the French and Indian war, and his 





grandfather, Jacob Kedington, was a revolutionary soldier and a 
member in 171)4 of the first common council of Vergennes, the first 
city government in Vermont. His father was a prominent lawyer, 
judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Saint Lawrence county, for 
several years a member of the legislature, and at the same time a 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 321 

large lumber manufacturer and one of the projectors and a director 
of the Northern Railroad from Ogdensburg to Rouse's Point. On his 
mother's side he is descended from Captain Amasa Sheldon of the 
Revolution, and from Samuel Bass, whose wife was a daughter of 
the famous John Alden. 

Mr. Kedington was educated in the Waddington public schools, at 
the seminary at Castleton, Vermont, prepared for college at Willis- 
ton's Seminary, in Easthampton, Massachusetts, and although enter- 
ing Yale College, was obliged to leave at the end of the first year on 
account of the failure of his eyes. He subsequently attended the Co- 
lumbia College Law School for one year, and afterward spent two 
years in the law office of United States Senator Matthew H. Carpen- 
ter, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, being admitted to the Wisconsin bar 
May 3, 1871. After a year spent in travel in Europe, he began the 
practice of law at Rutland, Vermont, and while enjoying a successful 
practice became also prominent in politics. 

In 1876, in a republican district, he was the unsuccessful democrat- 
ic candidate for the legislature, but two years later was elected. In 
1880 he was delegate-at-large to the national democratic convention 
at Cincinnati. He became the democratic leader in his section of the 
state, was the democratic candidate for congress in 1882, and the 
same year was chairman of the democratic state convention. In 1884 
he was the democratic candidate for governor of Vermont, and March 
17, 1884, he was elected municipal judge for Rutland, and was also 
prosecuting attorney and corporation counsel for that city. 

In 1884 he was employed by the national committee and by the New 
York and New Jersey state committees to make political speeches. 
In 1888 he did service on the stump for the New York state committee 
from the commencement to the close of the campaign, and he has per- 
formed like service in every campaign since. 

By appointment of President Cleveland he became postmaster of 
Rutland in 1885, and held that office until 1889, when he resigned and 
moved to New York City. He has successfully practiced law there to 
the present time. He is a member of the New York Society of the 
Sons of the Revolution, and of Kane Lodge and Cceur de Lion Com- 
mandery. He has been for several years a member of the Tammany 
Hall general committee, and is a member of the Sagamore and Har- 
lem clubs. In 1894 he was the Tammany candidate for the assembly 
from the 27th district, and in 1896 from the 34th district. 



EH), WILLARD PLACIDE (bom in Babylon, Long Island, 
April 24, 1862), is the son of John R. Reid, a former county 
judge of Suffolk county, and Angle Davis, daughter of 
Abram Davis, of Poughkeepsie, a colonel in the state mi- 
litia. He was educated by private tutors, in the public schools, and at 





322 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

the Albany Academy, winning the Gannon philosophical medal, and 
took the complete course of study at Columbia College Law School, 
being graduated in 1SS5. In May of the same year he was admitted 
to the bar at Poughkeepsie. After practicing for a while at Babylon 
he removed to Brooklyn, where he is still engaged in his profession. 
He has been connected with various cases of considerable public in- 
terest, notably the Scheiwilder murder case, at Breslau, in which he 
successfully set up for the defense a plea of iusanity. At the time of 
the cholera scare he appeared for the board of health of the Town of 
Islip in the matter of the proposed conversion of Fire Island to quar- 
antine uses. 

Mr. Reid has been active in politics and is at present (1897) a mem- 
ber of the democratic state committee for the 1st district. He has 
taken much interest in the local affairs of Babylon, and has given es- 
pecial attention to promoting the success of the Babylon Library, of 
which he is the treasurer. 

EYNOLDS, EDWIN R. (born in Fort Ann, Washington 
county, New York, in the year 1816), is the son of Reverend 
Linus J. and Alice Baker Reynolds. His father was an 
editor and a baptist minister. The son was a member of 
the class of 1839 in Brown University, and in 1844 received the honor- 
ary degree of master of arts from Hobart College. . He read law at 
Albion with Honorable A. Hyde Cole (afterward state senator), and in 
1843 was admitted to the bar at Rochester before the Supreme Court, 
Chief-Judge Samuel Nelson presiding. Meantime he was engaged in 
educational work, having been principal of the Albion Academy since 
1838, a position which he retained until 1846. He was also, in 1S42 
and 1843, superintendent of common schools of Orleans county. In 
1842 he founded, in connection with the Albion Academy, the first 
normal school in the state. 

Discontinuing his pedagogic pursuits, Mr. Reynolds devoted him- 
self to the practice of the law, continuing his residence in Albion. 
From 1848 to 1854 he held the office of justice of the peace, and for 
three years he served as clerk of the county board of supervisors. In 
1860 he was elected a member of the 36th congress. In that body he 
voted for the admission of Kansas as a free state. He also voted with 
Roscoe Conkling, Washburne, Wade, and others of the old guard of 
sixty-five members who stood out against every project for extending 
slavery to the Pacific on the line of 36-30 or any other line whatever. 
He was an active supporter of the Morrill tariff of 1861. 

After his retirement from congress he was elected county judge and 
surrogate, in which office he served from 1864 to 1S67, inclusive. 

An earnest republican from the foundation of the party, Judge 
Reynolds was prominently connected with its organization. For 
about thirteen years he was chairman of the Orleans county commit- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 323 

tee, and lie also served as a member of the state committee and as a 
delegate to several state conventions. In 1808 lie was a Grant presi- 
dential elector. In 1872, however, he supported the candidacy of 
Horace Greeley— having been a lifelong friend and admirer of the 
famous editor, and ran as an elector on the Greeley ticket. 

Judge Reynolds is to-day the oldest living representative of the 
Orleans county bar, but has recently discontinued active practice. 
During his long professional career he conducted a general country 
practice, conveyancing, etc., with some important equity cases. He 
has always resided and practiced in Albion. From 1807 to 1880 he 
was associated in the firm of Reynolds & Crandall, with Albert W. 
Crandall, now of San Francisco. 

On November 25, 1847, he was married to Elizabeth Ann Gale, of 
Albion. 




|EYNOLDS, GEORGE GREENWOOD (born February 7, 
1821, in Amenia, Dutchess county, New York), is the son 
of George Reynolds and Abigail Pennoyer. He prepared 
for college at Amenia Seminary, and entering Wesleyan 
University at Middletown, Connecticut, was graduated in 1841. In 
1844 he received the degree of master of arts and in 1871 that of doc- 
tor of laws. 

His legal studies were pursued in the law office of Street & Wil- 
kinson, at Poughkeepsie, New York, and subsequently with Hon- 
orable John Dykeman in Brooklyn. He was admitted to the bar at 
Rochester in October, 1844, and first commenced practice in Brooklyn, 
but at the expiration of a year removed to Ulster county, and subse- 
quently to Poughkeepsie, Dutchess county, where he remained until 
1854. He returned to Brooklyn in the latter year, and has from that 
time been identified with the Brooklyn bar, standing in the front rank 
of his profession. 

He has appeared in many prominent cases, the most recent one 
which is of great public interest being that of Brooklyn against the 
Long Island Water Works to acquire title to the same. He also 
served two terms as judge of the City Court, from 1861 to 1867, and 
from 1873 to 1887. He was distinguished upon the bench for his able 
decisions, exhibiting in a remarkable degree the legal acumen and 
judicial temperament required in the jurist. He has been president of 
the board of trustees of Wesleyan University from 1887 to the present 
time, was a member of the commission appointed by Governor Hill to 
revise the judiciary article of the constitution in 1890, and a member 
of the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church at its 
sessions in 1872, 1876, 1880, and 1884. He has written articles quite 
frequently for prominent magazines, and a number of papers on legal 
subjects for " The New People's Cyclopaedia." 



324 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 




ICHARDSON, H. GARDINER (bom in Lockport, New York, 
May 11, 1869), is the sou of M. M. Richardson and Ellen 0. 

Witcher. He was graduated from the academic depart- 
^ ineut of the Lockport Union School in 1S90, studied law 
with Joshua Gaskill, aud was admitted to the bar at Rochester, Octo- 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 325 

ber 6, 1893. Since then he has been in active and successful practice 
in Lockport. 




IKER, SAMUEL (born in Newtown, Queens county, New 
York, April 10, 1832), is the son of John L. Riker and 
Lavinia Smith. His father was lineally descended in the 
fourth generation from Abraham Rycken, a native of Hol- 
land who emigrated to New Amsterdam in 1638. His mother's an- 
cestors came from England. Mr. Riker received a common school 
education, which he supplemented by extensive reading, especially in 
history and poetry. He studied law in the office of J. H. & H. L. Riker, 
of New York City, and was admitted to the New York bar in May, 
1853. He practiced his profession in that city continuously until 
January 1, 1893, a period of nearly forty years, when he retired from 
business. 

He enjoys a high standing among members of the New York bar. 
He devoted much time to the study of the law of real property, the 
investigation of titles to land and the drawing of wills, marriage set- 
tlements, and trust deeds. In this department of law he has no super- 
ior, and he was frequently called upon to give opinions on the mean- 
ing and construction of such instruments. He rarely appeared in 
court, except in cases involving the title to real property, the con- 
struction of trust deeds and wills, or the settlement and distribution 
of estates, but was largely engaged in advising executors and trustees, 
and in the settlement of estates in the Surrogate's Court. He has per- 
fected many questionable titles either by taking judicial proceedings 
or procuring legislative action, as the case required. 

He acted as attorney and counsel of the Sailors' Snug Harbor for 
upward of thirty years, preparing all instruments relating to their 
large landed estate in the City of New York and on Staten Island. 
He acted as executor of the wills of Sarah Burr and her sisters, and in 
that capacity distributed several millions of dollars among a large 
number of charitable institutions in New York City. Among his 
clients were a large number of wealthy and prominent citizens of New 
York. 

The family to which Mr. Riker belongs is notable in view of its 
many members who have been lawyers. His uncle, Richard Riker, 
was for ten years district attorney and for twenty years recorder of 
New York. His father was also a lawyer, as were his cousins, D. 
Phoenix Riker and John H. Riker, and his brother, Henry L. Riker. 
All occupied honorable positions in the profession. 

Mr. Riker is domestic in his habits, of a retiring disposition, fond of 
books, familiar with general literature, cultivated in his tastes, and 
has devoted much time to foreign travel. 



326 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 




ITCH, THOMAS GARDINER (born in North Salem, New 
York, September 18, 1833), is the son of Wells R. Ritch and 
Sarah A. Barnum. His father was a merchant in New 
York City, and subsequently resided in Stamford, Connec- 




ticut, where he was connected as president or director with various 
financial institutions. 




owvw, A^WUViL 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 327 

Mr. Ritch was educated in the private schools of Stamford, and in 
1S54 was graduated from Yale College, subsequently receiving the de- 
gree of master of arts. He attended the law school connected with 
Yale College and also studied in the office of Honorable James R. 
Whiting, of New York City, being admitted to the bar in New York 
City in 1857. He has continuously practiced in New York City since 
that date. He has been in partnership with Stewart L. Woodford 
since 185S and with William H. Arnoux since 1870, having been a 
member of the firm of Arnoux, Hitch & Woodford from 1870 until its 
dissolution by the retirement of Mr. William H. Arnoux, January 1, 
1896. The present firm style is Ritch, Woodford, Boree & Wallace. 






OBERTS, JAMES ARTHUR (born in Waterboro, York 
county, Maine, March 8, 1847), is the son of Jeremiah and 
Alma Roberts, and is the eighth in lineal descent from 
Governor Thomas Roberts, the last colonial governor of 
New Hampshire. He was educated at common schools, Edward 
Little Institute (Auburn, Maine), and was graduated from Bowdoin 
College in 1870 with the degree of A.B., subsequently taking the hon- 
orary degree of A.M. After his graduation he came to Buffalo and 
taught in the public schools of that city, at the same time pursuing 
his legal studies in the office of Edgar B. Perkins and George S. Ward- 
well, with whom he remained until his admission to the bar at Roches- 
ter, in 1875. He commenced practice in Buffalo, and early became 
identified with the development of various enterprises of that city, 
including banking, electric lighting and power, and real estate inter- 
ests. He was one of the founders of Depew, a suburb of Buffalo, and 
secretary of the Depew Improvement Company, vice-president of the 
Buffalo Loan, Trust & Safe Deposit Company; vice-president of the 
Buffalo, Bellevue & Lancaster Railway Company, the electric railroad 
that runs from Buffalo to Depew, and secretary of the Bellevue Land 
Company. He resigned these various offices when elected state comp- 
troller. 

In 1879 and 1880 he was a member of the New York state assembly 
declining re-election for a third term, and he was park commissioner 
of Buffalo from 1889 to 1893. In the fall of 1893, although absent from 
the state convention held at Syracuse, he was nominated on the re- 
publican ticket for comptroller. He was elected, and was re-elected 
to the same office in 1895. 

When the rebellion broke out Mr. Roberts was a mere boy attend- 
ing school. At the age of seventeen he enlisted as a private in the 7th 
Maine battery, and he was in the series of battles before Appomattox 
during the last year of the war, and participated in the final engage- 
ments before Petersburg, including its capture, and in the pursuit 
and capture of Lee. 




328 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

OBERTS, TIMOTHY HART (born in Dimock, Susquehanna 
county, Pennsylvania, March 21, 1847), is the son of 
Timothy Pickering Roberts and Eliza Warren. His great- 
grandfather Roberts was a colonel in Washington's army 
and a cousin of Timothy Pickering. On his mother's side he is a great- 
grandson of Colonel Seth Warren, of the Revolution. He was pre- 
pared for college at the Cincinnatus and Deposit Academies and the 
Cortland Normal School. In 1863, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted in 
the 22d New York volunteer cavalry, Company I. He was wounded 
during the Wilderness campaign, and was sergeant of the guard that 
had charge of Lincoln's body as it lay in state in the rotunda of the 
capitol on the night of April 19, 1865. His brother, Alpha F. Roberts, 
an officer in the 127th Illinois infantry, was shot under Grant at 
Vicksburg, May 22, 1863, his eighteenth birthday. 

After his discharge from the army, August 12, 1865, Mr. Roberts 
continued his studies, and, having qualified himself for educational 
work, engaged in that profession. From 186S to 1889 he was principal 
of public high schools and academies in Lyons, Rome, and Brooklyn, 
New York. Meantime he studied law, privately and in the office of 
Honorable Clarke Mason, of Lyons, and Honorable Watson T. Dun- 
more, of Iltiea. On April 22, 1886, he was admitted to the bar upon 
examination before the Supreme Court at Utica. In that city he prac- 
ticed for a time, continuing in New York City and Brooklyn. He is 
now an active practitioner at the Brooklyn bar. In his ]>rofessional 
career he has made a record for energetic and persevering qualities. 
One of his cases was prosecuted for eight successive years against 
parties who were accused by Mr. Roberts's client, a Brooklyn woman, 
of swindling her out of her property and of breach of contract. The 
suit was finally won before Judge Bartlett and a jury, the value of the 
property was recovered, and the parties — one a state official of high 
rank — were indicted by the grand jury for felonies. 

Mr. Roberts was for three years employed as a specialist in formu- 
lating the plans and in the preparation of the " Standard Dictionary." 
He has long been a popular lecturer on economic questions and mis- 
cellaneous historical subjects. In every presidential campaign, be- 
ginning with 1860 when he was a boy in Illinois, he has worked for 
and made public speeches in behalf of the principles of the republican 
party, in 1896 addressing seventy audiences for McKinley and sound 
money. 

In 1877 he received from Colgate (Madison) University, at Hamil- 
ton, New York, the degree of master of arts. 

He was clerk of the census committee of the 47th congress, and his 
duty required him to formulate the congressional and electoral col- 
lege apportionment bill, signed by President Arthur in February, 
1 882. From December, 1882, to June, 1 885, he held the office of special 
examiner of the interior department, traveling through the eastern 
and middle stales for the government. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 329 

Mr. Koberts is a member of Anglo-Saxon Lodge, F. and A. M. ; the 
Brooklyn Masonic- Veterans' Association, Wetumpka Lodge, K. of H. ; 
Holton Council, Junior, O. U. A. M.; Erastus T. Tefft Post, G. A. R., 
and of the baptist church. 




OBERTSON, WILLIAM H. (born in Bedford, Westchester 
county, New York, October 10, 1823), is the son of Henry 
Robertson and Huldah Fanton, his ancestors being of 
Scotch origin and among the early settlers of Fairfield 
county, Connecticut. John Robertson is mentioned in the records of 
Greenwich in 1667. William Robertson removed from that town to 
Bedford in 1744, buying a farm, which is yet in the possession of the 
family. The father of Judge Robertson (grandson of this William) 
was for fiften years supervisor of Bedford, and died at the age of 
ninety on the place where he was born and in the house in which he 
had lived for over three-quarters of a century. 

Judge Robertson was educated at the district schools and at Union 
Academy in Bedford. He taught school for a few years, then entered 
the law office of Robert S. Hart, of Bedford, and was admitted to the 
bar in 1847. In 1854 he formed a partnership with Odle Close in 
White Plains, under the firm name of Close & Robertson, a connection 
which continued until the death of Mr. Close in 1895. 

Judge Robertson took an active interest in the Harrison and Tyler 
campaign of 1840. In 1845 he was elected town superintendent of 
schools, holding the position several years. He was four times elected 
supervisor of Bedford and twice chairman of the board of supervisors. 
In 1848, and again the following year, he was elected to the assembly. 
In 1853 he was returned to the senate and at once took a promi- 
nent position. Among other public acts, he introduced the bill for es- 
tablishing the department of public instruction, which has proved one 
of the most important measures in the educational history of the 
state. In 1855 he was elected county judge of Westchester, and was 
twice re-elected, making a continuous service of twelve years. He 
served six years as inspector of the 7th brigade, state militia, was 
chairman of the military committee appointed by Governor Morgan 
in 1862 to raise and organize state troops in the 8th senate district, 
and was commissioned to superintend the draft in Westchester 
county. As a member of the electoral college he voted for Abraham 
Lincoln in 1860, and supported him again in 1864. In 1866 he was 
elected to the 40th congress, voted for the impeachment of President 
Johnson, and took an active part in the legislation which led to the 
restoration of the southern states to the union. In 1872 he was again 
elected to the state senate, commencing a term of service which con- 
tinued without interruption for ten years, the last eight of which he 
was president pro tern, of that body. He served as chairman of the 



330 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

committee on commerce and navigation, rules, literature, and judi- 
ciary. He was bead of the judiciary committee for eight years. 

During his senatorial service he participated in the trials of Judges 
Barnard, McCunn, Curtis, and Prindle, superintendent De Witt C. 
Ellis, of the bank department, and superintendent John F. Smythe, of 
the insurance department. In the excitement of the presidential con- 
test of 1S7G, be was one of three gentlemen from New York selected 
by the president to visit Florida and supervise the counting of the 
votes. For fifteen years he was a member of the republican stale com- 
mittee. In June, 1880, he was a delegate to the national republican 
convention at Chicago. His repudiation of the unit rule and declara- 
tion for Blaine, followed by his leadership and organizing ability at 
the convention, concededly defeated the " third-term movement " for 
Grant. 

In 1881 his nomination by President Garfield for collector of the 
porl of New York was bitterly opposed by the senators from tbis 
stale, who demanded the withdrawal of his nomination. The contest 
resulted in the resignation of the senators and the confirmation of 
Judge Robertson as collector. 

Judge Robertson is of literary tastes and studious habits. The 
degree of doctor of laws was conferred on him by Williams College 
in 1870. In 1865 lie was married to Mary E.. daughter of Honorable 
Horatio Ballard, who was a prominent lawyer of Cortland county. 
New York. Since 1800 he has resided at Katonah. 



|OBINSON, FRANK HURD (born in Cuba, Allegany county. 
New York, May 23, 1855), is the son of Charles Prescott 
and Elizabeth Hard Robinson, and is a lineal descendant 
of Reverend John Robinson, the English clergyman (1020). 
He attended the common schools and academy of his native town, 
and was graduated from the Albany Law School in 1S70 with the 
degree of bachelor of laws. His office training for the profession was 
received with Champlain, Armstrong & Russell, of Cuba, and Sickels 
& Miller, of Albany. He was admittted to the bar at Albany in May, 
1870, and began practice in the oil country (Cattaraugus county). 
After three years there he removed to Hornellsville, where he still 
lives. He soon became prominent in the profession, being employed 
in many suits of importance. From January 1, 1887, to January 1, 
1893, he was district attorney of Steuben county. In this capacity 
lie prosecuted six murder cases. On January 1, 1894, he became 
county judge of Steuben comity, an office which he still holds. Each 
time that he lias been a candidate for office he has obtained a very 
lar<i'e vote, running ahead of his ticket. 

Judge Robinson continues to conduct a large civil practice in the 
Supreme and Appellate Courts, ami also acts as counsel for attorneys 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 331 

of record. He is connected with various business and moneyed inter- 
ests. 




OCKWELL, HOSE A HUNT (born in Lawrenceville, Tioga 
county, Pennsylvania, May 31, 1840), is the son of Samuel 
and Joanna Hunt Rockwell. He is a direct descendant of 
Deacon William Rockwell, who landed at Plymouth in 
1029, coming over on the same vessel which brought Matthew Grant, 
the ancestor of General U. S. Grant. The party organized as a 
church, of which William Rockwell was made deacon. Mr. Rock- 
well's paternal great-grandfather, Lieutenant John Rockwell, and 
also one of his great-grandfathers in the maternal line, Captain 
Gideon Cowles, were patriot soldiers in the Revolution. 

Hosea H. Rockwell received an elementary education. Soon after 
the breaking out of the war he enlisted in the 23d regiment, New 
York volunteers. He was at the second battle of Bull Run, Antietam, 
Fredericksburg and other important engagements of the rebellion. 
After his discharge from the army he studied law in the office of 
Tomlinson it Ransom (late surrogate of New York City), in Elmira, 
and in December, 1809, he was admitted to the bar at the general 
term held at Rochester. Beginning practice at Elmira he soon be- 
came prominent at the bar of that city, of which he is now one of the 
leaders. For twelve years he was associated with C. A. Collin, now 
of the firm of Sheehan & Collin, of New York City. He has for some 
time been in partnership with George McCann in the firm of Rock- 
well & McCann. 

Mr. Rockwell has taken an active part in politics, as a democrat, 
and has held various positions of importance. He was for three 
years city attorney of Elmira. In 1877 he served in the assembly, 
and as a member of the judiciary committee of that body drew and re- 
ported the present general assignment law of New York. He was 
elected to the 52d congress, in which he served as a member of the 
committee on military and Indian affairs. A firm believer in the free 
coinage of silver, he was the only one of the New York delegation in 
that congress who voted for the silver bill. He has spoken and writ- 
ten extensively on this subject. He was chairman of the New York 
state democratic convention of 1890. 

Mr. Rockwell has held various commissions in the national guard 
of New York — among them those of major and judge advocate. He 
has been a frequent contributor to the press and periodicals on politi- 
cal topics. At different times he has been in charge of the editorial 
columns of the Elmira Daily Gazette. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

ODEB1CK, GEUBGE WASHINGTON, one of the leaders of 
the Brooklyn bar, was born December 14, 1852, in the City 
of Brooklyn. Both his parents were natives of Ireland. 
His father, John Kirby Roderick, was a physician and a 
nephew of Graham Turbnek, for many years surgeon-general of the 
port of Dublin. His mother's maiden name was Anna Walsh. 

Mr. Roderick's early education was obtained in the public schools 
of his native city, and after graduation there he entered the High 
(School of the City of New York, where he continued his studies until 
1870. in that year he entered the office of Morris & Pearsall, a well- 
known Brooklyn law firm, and he pursued his legal studies there until 
February, 1874, when he was admitted to practice. He remained 
with this hrm however until May, 1SS2, when he formed a copartner- 
ship with Alexander T. Carpenter, under the hrm name of Carpenter 
& Boderick. They conducted one of the largest and most lucrative 
practices in the city, their business being in the nature of general liti- 
gation. In 1892 the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Roderick has 
since continued alone. 

Among the important cases successfully conducted by Mr. Bod- 
erick was that of Ellen Wilson, who sued to recover a dower right in 
the estate of Jacob Wilson, who died worth .s250,000. After a tedious 
and exacting trial of several weeks before a jury, a common-law mar- 
riage was established to have occurred before the birth of her child, 
and Mr. Boderick secured a verdict for a handsome sum. In this suit 
the leading counsel for the defense was General Benjamin F. Tracy. 
In 1883 he successfully defended Samuel Sommers, tried in Brooklyn 
for murder. Brobably no case in the Brooklyn courts attracted more 
attention at the time than that of the child Bessie Cummings, who 
was run over by a 3d avenue car and lost a leg. Mr. Boderick gained 
a verdict of $10,000 for the child and $5,000 for the mother for loss of 
the child's services. 

Of the many prominent cases, however, in which Mr. Boderick has 
been engaged, the most famous and the one thai excited more public 
interest than probably any similar trial ever conducted in this slate, 
was that of John Y. McKane, of Gravesend, for crimes against the 
elective franchise and contempl of court, who was convicted in L894 
and sentenced to Sing Sing. Mr. Roderick w as one of his counsel, his 
associates being -lames Troy, Foster L. Backus, and James W. Glen- 
denning. The prosecution was represented by General Benjamin F. 
Tracy, Edward M. Shepard, Albeit E. Lamb, and Jerry Weinberg, 
and the trial lasted over a month. From the time of McKam's in- 
dictment until the final argument before the Court of Appeals, Mr. 
Roderick spared no effort in behalf of his client, and fought a hope- 
Less battle with wonderful ability and indefatigable energy. The 
grand jury was challenged, the first time in twenty-tive years. Noth- 
ing that might by any possibility help his client was overlooked, and 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 333 

Mr. Roderick's work in the case was enormous. The details of this 
trial, in which the people took an absorbing interest, are fresh in the 
memory of most persons, and the press far and near contained the 
fullest reports of the proceedings. 

Mr. Roderick has been particularly successful in the prosecution uf 
negligence damage cases. 

For a number of years he was the attorney for the Brooklyn, Bath 
& Coney Island Railroad Company. 

In politics he is a democrat, and he has frequently acted as dele- 
gate to democratic state, judiciary, and local nominating conven- 
tions. 

He was a member of the New York state constitutional convention 
of 1S94. 

Among his clubs are the Montauk and Aurora Grata, of Brook- 
lyn, the Long Island Wheelmen, and the Albany Club, of Albany, 
New York. Taking an active interest in a number of fraternal orders, 
he enjoys membership in Central Lodge of F. and A. M., Constellation 
Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Clinton Commandery of Knights Tem- 
plars, Kismet Temple, Mystic Shrine, and Aurora Grata Lodge of 
Scottish Rite Masons, also the Commonwealth Council of the Royal 
Arcanum, and is a member of the Knights of Honor. He is an enthu- 
siastic sportsman and is fond of shooting, fishing, and outdoor ath- 
letics. 

In 1877 he married Miss Hilda B. Harris, a daughter of Philip P. 
Harris, formerly a colonel in the British army, Miss Harris's mater- 
nal uncle was the Honorable Philip Van Koughnet, a celebrated 
Canadian jurist who for many years was chancellor of Canada and a 
member of the Dominion cabinet of Sir John A. McDonald, the dis- 
tinguished premier. 

JOE, CLINTON TOTVNSEND (born in Whitestone, Long 
Island, June 9, 1S70), is the son of Samuel D. Roe and 
Mary E., daughter of Edwin Powell, doth descended from 
old Long Island families. He was graduated at the Flush- 
ing High School, studied law with Black & King, of New York, and 
also at the Columbia College Law School, and was admitted to the bar 
at Poughkeepsie, July 2, 1891. He has since been practicing with 
success in New York City. 

10GERS, SHERMAN SKINNER (born in Bath, Steuben 
county, New York, April 16, 1S30), is the son of Doctor 
Gustavus Adolphus Rogers and Susan Ann Campbell. He 
is a descendant in the eighth generation from Thomas 
Rogers, one of the pilgrims on the first voyage of the Mayflower, and 
through his grandmother, Sarah Skinner, is descended from one of 
the early settlers of Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. Rogers's mother, 





334 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Susan Ann Campbell, was the daughter of Robert Campbell, a native 
of Ayrshire, Scotland, who was among the first settlers of Bath, New 
York, and whose wife, Martha MeCalla, was of Scotch-Irish ancestry 
resident in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, before the Revolution. 

Sherman S. Rogers was educated in public and private schools in 
his native town, lie was a law student, successively, in the offices of 
McMaster & Read (Honorable David M< Master and Lazarus H. Read), 
of Bath; Haven & Smith (Honorable Solomon G. Haven and Honora- 
ble James M. Smith), of Buffalo, and Honorable John Ganson, of 
Buffalo. After his admission to the bar at Buffalo in May, 1851, he 
began practice at Bath in partnership with his uncles, Honorable 
Robert Campbell and Charles YY. Campbell. In 1S54 he removed to 
Buffalo and became a member of the firm of Rogers, Bowen & Rogers, 
in which he was associated with Henry W. Rogers and Dennis Bowen. 
This original firm w;is changed, successively, to Bowen & Rogers, 
Bowen, Rogers & Locke, and Rogers, Locke & Milburn. The last 
mentioned still continues, Mr. Rogers's partners in it being Franklin 
I). Locke and John G. Milburn. It is one of the leading law firms of 
Buffalo. 

Mr. Rogers was a member of the constitutional commission of 1873, 
and one of the first commissioners of the Niagara Falls Reservation. 
In 1876 he represented the 31st district in the state senate. He has 
been prominently connected with the civil service reform movement 
from its beginning, being a member of the national league and of its 
executive committee. He is president, and has been for many years. 
of the civil service reform association of Buffalo. 



ROLLINS, DANIEL G. (born at Great Falls, New Hampshire, 
Gctober 18, 1812; died August 30, 1897), was the son of 
Honorable Daniel G. Rollins, judge of the Court of Probate 
of Strafford county, New Hampshire, his mother being the 
daughter of Captain Simon Jackson, of Newton, Massachusetts, and 
granddaughter of General Michael Jackson of the Revolution. The 
first American ancestor of the Rollins family, James Rollins, of 
Devonshire, England, came to Newington, near Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire, in 1C>37 and purchased a farm on the banks of the Piscat- 
aqua River. This property has remained in the possession of his de- 
scendants for more than two hundred and fifty years. Mr. Rollins's 
great-grandfather, Honorable [chabod Rollins, was New Hampshire's 
first probate judge and the first delegate to represent the town in the 
provincial congress in 1775. 

Mr. Rollins received an academic training at Hanover, New Hamp- 
shire, and in L860, at the age of eighteen, was graduated from Dart- 
mouth College as salutatorian. Immediately after gradual ion he 
began the Study of law in his native town with (he firm of Jordan & 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 335 

Rollins, and later spent a year in the Harvard Law School. He was 
admitted to the bar, and in 1863 settled in Portland, Maine, practic- 
ing there until 1806, and serving for a year as assistant-assessor of 
internal revenue. 

Removing to New York City, he became assistant-United States 
attorney under Dickinson, Courtney, and Pierrepont from 1S66 to 
ISC)!!. Retiring from public duties for a time he confined himself en- 
tirely to private practice until 1873, when District Attorney Benjamin 
K. Phelps appointed him his 1st. assistant, a post he occupied until 
the death of Mr. Phelps, when Governor Cornell appointed him Mr. 
Phelps's successor. A year later he was elected surrogate by a ma- 
jority of 15,000. This office he held until 1887, when he was nomi- 
nated for judge of the Supreme Court in the 1st judicial district, and, 
although defeated, ran 15,000 ahead of the ticket. In January, 18S8, 
Mr. Rollins became a partner of James C. Carter, under the firm name 
of Carter, Rollins & Ledyard. A year later he opened an office by 
himself. 

The business done by Surrogate Rollins during Ins term of six years 
presents an exceptional record. He heard 32,115 motions, made 2,726 
written decisions, signed and settled 28,037 miscellaneous orders and 
decrees, made 5,405 decrees in settlement of accounts, and 6,998 
decrees admitting wills. Some 505 foreign wills were filed, there 
were 381 contested wills, 50 wills were rejected, and there were issued 
7,000 letters testamentary, 881 ancillary letters testamentary and 
letters of administration, and 5,847 decrees of guardianship. Refer- 
ring to the work of his office, the New York Tribune said: 

During Mr. Rollins's term as surrogate more decisions were made in one year 
than by all the other surrogates in the state together, and as many, on an aver- 
age, as are written by the Court of Appeals Since Surrogate Bradford's 

day, forty years ago, no man sitting on the bench has laid down and established 
such a volume of surrogate's law as he, and certainly no one has had cases of 
greater importance to decide. 

Notable among the will contests decided by him were the Jesse 
Hoyt case, the Louis C. Hammersly case, the James Stokes case, and 
the Payne and Darling cases. All of these cases involved the dis- 
position of large fortunes, were argued at great length, and decided 
in written opinions which were regarded as models of judicial reason- 
ing. 

Mr. Rollins was president of the Alumni Association of Dartmouth 
from 1880 to 1884, and in 1885 received the degree of doctor of laws 
from that institution. He was president of the special commission 
for the revision of the excise laws in 1888, member of the state com- 
mission for the revision of the constitution in 1890, and president of 
the New England Society from 1892 to 1893. 



336 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



OUT, ELIAS (born in Pekin, Niagara county, New York, 
July 11, 1848), is the son of Thomas Root and Martha B. 
(Orton) Eoot. He was graduated at the Lockport Union 
School in 1S73, studied law in the offices of L. F. & G. \Y. 
Bowen and Holmes, Fitts & Ohipman, and was admitted to the bar 
at the Buffalo general term in June, 1877. lie immediately began 
practice in Tonawanda, forming a partnership with Frederick L. 
Clark, which was terminated by Mr. Clark's death in L887. 

In January, 1891, he and Charles S. Orton formed the linn of Boot 
& Orton. Afterward Leonard D. and Arthur J. Baldwin became as- 
sociated with them under the existing firm name of Boot. Orton. 
Baldwin & Baldwin. The firm is in active practice. 

Mr. Boot advocates civil service reform, municipal reform, tax re- 
form, the prohibition of the liquor traffic, and the ownership and 
operation by the public of franchises public in their nature, and op- 
poses monopolies. 



HOT, ELIHU (born in Clinton, Oneida dOUU.ty, New York. 
February 15', 1845), is descended from au old New England 
family. His father, Oren Boot, was professor of mathe- 
matics in Hamilton College for thirty-six years, from 1849 
to L885. Elihu Boot was graduated from Hamilton College in INCH. 
He studied law at Hamilton College and t he University Law School. 

He began the practice of law in New York ( !ity in 1SC7, and in a few 
years became prominent both as a lawyer and as a leader of the re- 
form element of the republican party. He rapidly acquired a large 
corporation practice, and has been counsel in many famous litiga- 
tions. Few lawyers have made a more remarkable record in winning 
the majority of cases undertaken. In the famous Stewart will case 
he was leading counsel for Judge Hilton, and he defended the suit of 
Branagh vs. Smith, disposing of the claim of the alleged Irish heirs 
against the Stewart estate. He was leading counsel in the llovt will 
case, as also in the Fayorweather contest. He appeared in the Broad- 
way surface railroad litigation, the Sugar Trust contest, the suit 
(growing out of the Bedell forgeries) of Sliipman. Bar-low, Laroque & 
Choate vs. the Bank of the State of New York, and defended the pro- 
ceedings before Mayor (J rant for the removal of Dock Commissioners 
Matthews and Tost. In the aqueduct litigation (O'Brien vs. the 
Mayor of the City of New York), as counsel for the city, he won 
against the opposing counsel. Joseph II. Choate, saving to the city 
several millions of dollars. He successfully resisted the removal of 
Charles A. Dana to Washington under indictment in the District of 
Columbia for publication of a libel in the New York Sun. In one of 
the most sensational cases of recent limes he defended Bobert Bay 
Hamilton from the machinations of the notorious Eva Mann. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 337 

In 1879 he polled a large vote as republican candidate for judge of 
the Court of Common Pleas. From 1883 to 1S85, by appointment of 
President Arthur, he served with distinction as United States district 
attorney for the southern district of New York, and tried and con- 
victed James D. Fish, president of the Marine Bank, for criminal acts 
connected with the Grant & Ward frauds. 

He resigned with the advent of a democratic administration. For 
many years he represented the 21st assembly district on the executive 
committee of the republican county committee of New York, and in 
1886 was chairman of the county committee. In 1893-94 he was one 
of the most active members of the committee of thirty in organizing 
the revolt against machine methods in the republican party of New 
York county. He was also one of the delegates-at-large to the con- 
stitutional convention of 1894, and while Joseph H. Choate officiated 
as president, Mr. Root was chairman of the judiciary committee and 
leader on the floor of the republican majority. 

Mr. Root's legal practice is characterized by exhaustive work in the 
preparation of his cases, and a keen intellectuality which penetrates 
to the marrow of things. He is also a ready speaker, but with the 
same characteristic of intellectuality appeals with forceful logic to 
the understanding, rather than merely to the more ephemeral emo- 
tions. He is one of the most powerful political speakers in the repub- 
lican party and is active in all campaigns. Especially notable was 
the analysis and exposure of municipal corruption in his famous ad- 
dress at Cooper Union during the presidential campaign of 1892. 
Preceding the Parkhurst agitation, this arraignment astonished all 
by the boldness of the assault; while its anticipation of the Lexow ex- 
posures seems now almost prophetic, and exhibits the keenest pene- 
tration on the part of its author. 

Mr. Root is president of the New England Society, vice-president of 
the Union League Club, at its election in January, 1895, was made 
president of the Republican Club of the City of New York, and is a 
member of the Century, Metropolitan, University, and Players' clubs. 




IOUDEBUSH, ALMON HAWTHORNE (born in Blooming 
Valley, Pennsylvania, October 1, 1849), is the son of John 
and Lucy Jane Roudebush. He was graduated at Alle- 
gheny College (Meadville, Pennsylvania) in 1870, and has 
since received from that institution the degree of master of arts. He 
began the study of law in the office of Roosevelt, Henry & Olin, of 
New York City, and also attended lectures in the Columbia College 
Law School. After being admitted to the bar (1874) he entered upon 
practice in New York, being successful from the start. 

From 1875 to 1877, inclusive, he was attorney for the Mercantile 
Trust Company, of New York. In the latter year he was admitted to 



338 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OK NEW YORK 



the bar in Colorado, where he practiced for five years, representing a 
New York mining syndicate. Since 1887 lie has been in professional 
business in Buffalo. For three years of this period, however, he acted 
as attorney for an English syndicate in the United States, and his 
duties in that connection caused him to be absent from Buffalo most 
of the time. Since 1875 he has had little to do with court practice, 
exercising mainly the function of counselor and making a specialty 
of corporation and mining law cases. 

He organized the first corporation in Colorado after it became a 
state, and also organized the Leadville Abstract Company, which 
was the second abstract company established in the United States. 
He was one of the pioneers in the introduction of hydraulic passenger 
elevators, being the organizer of the first company identified with 
that industry in this country. Under his superintendence the first 
modern hydraulic passenger elevator was built. It was placed in a 
private house in New York City, and, so far as is known, was the first 
passenger elevator used in a private house. 

Mr. Roudebush has held the public offices of deputy county treas- 
urer and deputy district court, clerk of San Juan county, Colorado, 
(1S77), and secretary of the fish commission of the State of New York 
(1871 to 1S75). In 1S72 he was chairman of the 22d ward committee 
(New York City) under the famous reform committee of seventy. In 
1874 he served as secretary and cashier of the Citizens' Association of 
New York City, ne is a member of the Association of the Bar of the 
City of New York. 

OUND, SEWARD UNDERBILL (born in Florida, Orange 
county, New York, November 10, 1850), is the son of John 
W. and Elizabeth P. Round. His father was principal of 
the Seward Institute, at Florida, and at that academy the 
son was educated. After reading law with Darwin W. Esmond, of 
Newburg, and attending lectures at the Albany Law School, he was 
admitted to the bar (1880, at Poughkeepsie). lie has since been in 
practice in Newburg. 




JOYCE, WILLIAM BLAKELY (born in the Town of Thom- 
son, Sullivan county, New York, December 9, 1S41), is the 
son of Alpheus B. Royce, a prominent citizen of Sullivan 
county. His family is of New England origin, five genera- 
tions of his ancestors having lived at or near the Town of Mansfield, 

Connecticut. His grandfather, Solomon Royce, removed to Sullivan 

county in 1S04, superintended the survey of a large part of the county 
and was instrumental in promoting its settlement by a substantial 
class of German immigrants. The father of Mr. Royce, Alpheus B.. 
also followed the profession of surveying, being connected with the 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 339 

original government survey of the State of Michigan and also a mem- 
ber of the corps of engineers of the Croton aqueduct. He resided for 
many years in the Town of Callicoon, was a justice of the peace and 
a supervisor, and left a considerable landed property. 

William B. Koyce received a public school education, also attend- 
ing the Monticello Academy. He then taught school for a while, 
afterward entering the United States provost marshal's office at Go- 
shen, of which he became chief clerk. Meantime he began the study of 
t lie law, and in January, 1866, he resigned his clerkship and placed 
himself under the professional tuition of James N. Pronk, of Middle- 
town. Being admitted to the bar at the February term of the Su- 
premo Court in Brooklyn, 1867, he engaged in practice at Middle- 
town. For about eight years he devoted himself actively and very 
successfully to his profession. Since April, 1875, he has held the 
position of president of the 1st National Bank of Middletown. 

Mr. Koyce is one of the leading citizens of Middletown, and has 
always been actively and influentially identified with its welfare. He 
has held the offices of village clerk and attorney (18<>9-70) for many 
years, has been supervisor of the Town of Wallkill, and has also been 
connected for a long period with the Middletown board of education, 
contributing much by his energy and ability to the excellence of the 
public school system. He is one of the prominent members of the 1st 
Presbyterian church, and for a long term of years has been a worker 
in its Sunday-school. He has taken a hearty interest in the Orange 
County Agricultural Society, and has served efficiently as its treas- 
urer. 

On June 12, 1867, he was married to Mary B., daughter of William 
O. and Catherine Sly Boe, of Goshen. 






PSSELL, HOBACE (born in Bombay, Franklin county, New 
York, June 19, 1843), is the son of Charles Bussell and 
Hannah Wright, and is descended from early puritan 
stock. He was prepared for college at Franklin Academy, 
Malone, New York, and Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New 
Hampshire, and entered Dartmouth College, from which he was 
graduated in 1865. In 1892 he received the degree of doctor of laws. 
He studied law in the office of Honorable William C. Brown, of 
Ogdensburg, New York, attended the law school of Harvard Univer- 
sity, and was admitted to the bar at Canton, Saint Lawrence county, 
New York, in October, 1866. He practiced law in Ogdensburo until 
March, 1869, when he removed to New York City, where he has prac- 
ticed continuously since Avhen not holding public office. He was 
assistant-district attorney from 1873 to 1880, judge advocate-general 
of the State of New York from 1879 to 1882, and a justice of the Su- 
perior Court from 1880 to 1883. 



340 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

He has appeared in many famous cases. One of these was the 
prosecution of E. D. Stokes for the murder of James Fisk. Another 
was the trial of Sheriff James A. Flack, under indictment for mal- 
feasance in office. He was also counsel for the defense in the cele- 
brated Litigations contesting the will of the late A. T. Stewart. He 
was receiver of the West Shore Railroad in 1884 ami 1885, ami has 
conducted a large business in connection with corporation practice. 



= USSELL, LESLIE WEAD (born in Canton, Saint Lawrence 
county, New York, April 15, 1840), is the son of John 
Leslie Russell and Mary Wead. He is a descendant of 
Samuel Russell, who came to America about 1650, and 
who was a member of the ancient English Russell family of which 
the present head is the Duke of Bedford. His father was a lawyer 
and prominent citizen of Saint Lawrence county, serving as county 
treasurer, member of the assembly, and delegate to the constitutional 
convention of 1846, was active in the democratic party, and was a 
personal friend of Silas Wright and other eminent party leaders. 

Leslie W. Russell was educated in the common schools and the 
Canton Academy, taught school for two years, and at the age of 
eighteen entered the law office of Hill, Cagger & Porter, at Albany. 
After .Mr. Bill's death, in 1859, he went to Milwaukee, where lie con- 
tinued his legal studies. At the breaking out of the war he purposed 
enlisting in the army, but was prevented by the death of his father, 
which caused him to return to his native place. After being admit- 
ted to the bar. May 7. 1861, he practiced alone for a few months and 
then, in January, 1862, entered into a co-partnership with William H. 
Sawyer. This continued until 1876, when Mr. Sawyer was appointed 
one of the justices of the Supreme Court He thereupon formed an 
association with William A. Toste and Nelson L. Robinson. 

In 1867 he was a delegate from Saint Lawrence county to the state 
constitutional convention. He was elected district attorney of the 
county in 1800 and served one term, declining a renomination. For 
three years, from 1869 to 1S72. he occupied the chair of professor of 
law in Saint Lawrence University. He served as a republican presi- 
dential elector in 1876 and again in 1S80. In 1877 he was elected 
county judge for a term of six years, and in 1878 he was chosen by the 
legislature one of the regents of the State University. From 1882 to 
1884 he was attorney-general of the state. Since January, 1802. he 
has been one of the justices of the Supreme Court for the 4th judicial 
district, to which office he was elected for a full term in the preceding 
year. 

Justice Russell, while a practitioner, ranked with the most promi- 
nent men of the state bar. Connected as counsel with the most im- 
portant civil and criminal suits tried in the county and circuit courts, 




A. 




^^v^~ 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AMI BAR OF NEW YORK 341 

he was almost uniformly successful. In his high public employments, 
as attorney-general of the state and as a judge, he has made an 
equally distinguished reputation. 

He was married, October 19, 1S64, to Harriet, daughter of Rev- 
erend R. F. Lawrence, " one of the collateral descendants of the Law- 
rence family of which Ames, Abbott, and the heroic Captain James 
Lawrence were distinguished members and representatives." 




YDER, AMBROSE (born in Southeast, Putnam county, New 
York, March 5, 1S26; died in Carmel, New York, April 9, 
1S92), was the son of Colonel Stephen Ryder 1 and Betsey, 
daughter of Gould Nichols, of Weston, Connecticut. His 
father was a man of strongly marked character. Immersed in the 
practical affairs of life, lie was yet a close student and attained a con- 
siderable knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy. 
He was prominent in local affairs, a candidate for the New York as- 
sembly in LS48 and for other offices, but during a period when his 
party was in a hopeless minority. Lie was originally a whig, becom- 
ing a republican on the formation of that party. Becoming inter- 
ested in the slate niililia. lie rose through every grade 1<> the 
colonelcy of the 35th regiment. Perhaps his rarest and most striking 
characteristic was his devotion andvuntiring energy in the personal 
supervision of the education and training of his children. The in- 
spiration received through his happy faculty of awakening and de- 
veloping the mind, bore fruit in the successful careers of his sons. 
Besides Judge Ambrose Ryder, of Carmel, New York, these were 
General James Ryder, of Danbury, Connecticut; Henry C. Ryder, 
treasurer of the Savings Bank of Danbury; Benjamin F. Ryder, the 
inventor, of Chicago, and Reverend Edward Ryder. 

Judge Ambrose Ryder, in addition to his father's careful instruc- 
tion, attended the common schools, and the academy at North Salem. 
Westchester county. New York, then under Professor John F. Jen- 
kins, and was graduated from Williams College, September 14, 1846. 
He studied law with Charles Ga Nun and Henry B. Cowles, well- 
known lawyers of Putnam county, and was admitted to the bar at 
Brooklyn, March 15, 1S49. He established himself in active practice 
at Carmel, and soon gained a leading place at the liar of Putnam 
county. He was counsel in many interesting cases, counsel for es- 
tates, and enjoyed the universal confidence of the community, no 
was of a judicial temperament, and had a deep understanding of the 
law. 

1 Colonel Stephen Ryder, born in Southeast, Putnam revolutionary soldier His wife was descended from Ser- 

county. Xew York. Fein-nary '-!. I"- 1 !, "a* the sun of £eant Fiaii.-is Nichols, of Stratford. Connecticut, in 1(130, 

Fleazor Kyder ami Mary r.„: and u as lineally descended ami from 'lie Burrs, Golds for Goulds}, Bradleys, and 

from Thomas Ryder, who settled at Sonthold. Long Isl- other leading families of colonial Connecticut. Besides 

and, as early as 1659. as well as from the Coes, Fields, the sous mentioned in the text, lie had two daughters. 

Bowses, Palmers, Fekes, Farringtons, ami other old Long Mary Amelia and Annette Elizabeth, 
Island families. His grandfather. .Tohn Ryder, was a 



342 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Be served three terms, from 1852 to 1863, inclusive, as county 
judge and surrogate of Putnam county. In February, 1873, he was 
appointed county treasurer to fill the unexpired temi of John F. 
Cornish, deceased. He was a republican candidate for presidential 
elector in 1868, and in 1882 was elected supervisor of the Town of 
Carmel. 

Judge Ryder was interested in various public enterprises. ITe was 
one of the founders of the Putnam County National Bank, of Carmel, 
and was at different times one of its directors, and its cashier, vice- 
president, and president, holding the latter position at the time of his 
death. 

Judge Ryder was married, October 22, 1849, to Mary M., daughter 
of Reverend Shaler J. Hillyer and Catherine Tichenor. She was born 
July 22, 1S27. and died April 23. 1870. Through her father she was 
descended from John Hillyer, of Windsor, Connecticut, in 163!), and 
from the families of Grant, Hayes, Eno, Humphrey. Wakefield, and 
Holcomb. Through her mother she was descended from Francis 
Tichenor. of New Haven in 1644, and from the Lindslev, Harrison, 
Charles, and Williams families, which were among those who re- 
moved from Connecticut and founded Newark, New Jersey. 

Judge Ryder had four children, all of whom are still living,— Hill- 
yer Ryder, cashier of the Putnam County National Bank, and for 
eighteen years treasurer of Putnam county; Clayton Ryder, a lawyer 
(a sketch of whom follows), Stephen Ryder, a professor of physirs at 
Tacoma, Washington, and a daughter, Mary Grace Ryder. 




YDER, CLAYTON (born in Carmel, New York, February 8, 
I860), is the son of Judge Ambrose Ryder (noticed above). 
He attended public and private schools in Carmel, spent a 
year at Claverack Institute, and was graduated from Cor- 
nell University June lit, 1X79. lie studied law with his father, also 
attending Columbia College Law School, and was admitted to the bar 
at Brooklyn as attorney in December, 1SS1, and as counselor Septem- 
ber 14, 1882. 

He entered upon the successful practice of law at Carmel, New 
York, ill association with his father until the hitter's death, after- 
ward carrying on his father's large practice. He also succeeded 
Judge Ryder as president of the Putnam County National Bank, be- 
ing elected to that position April 28, L892. 

He was married July 31, L888, to Carrie Holcombe, widow of Doc- 
tor Henry <J. Cornwell, of Columbus, Ohio, and daughter of Alexis E. 
Holcombe, of Ravenna, Ohio, and Jane Breckenridge. She is de- 
scended from Thomas Holcombe. who settled in Windsor, Connecti- 
cut, about 1638, and from the families of Buel, Buttolph, Wanzer, and 
< dmstead. She is also descended from James Breckenridge, a Scotch 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 343 

emigrant who came to Palmer, Massachusetts, in 1726, and from 
( ieorge Morton, Stephen Hopkins, and John Lothrop, who were prom- 
inent among the early puritan and pilgrim immigrants. 




ANDERS, ARTHUR MARTIN (born in the Town of Aure- 
lius, Cayuga county, New York, October 3, 1854), is the son 
of Andrew Jackson and Sarah Baird Sanders. His grand- 
father, Captain Abner Sanders, born on Long Island, re- 
moved at an early age to Cayuga county, then a wilderness, and took 
up an extensive tract of land. 

Arthur M. Sanders received a district school and high school educa- 
tion, studied law with Honorable John T. M. Davie, surrogate of 
Cayuga county, and was admitted io the bar at Rochester in April, 
1879. After a brief practice in Auburn, New York, he removed to 
.N'ew York City (1881), where he has since prosecuted his profession, 
lie resides in Richmond Hill, Queens county, and has been prominent 
and active in securing the incorporation of that village and in estab- 
lishing a union free school system for the district. In 1895 and 1896 
he was counsel to the village. 




ANDERSON, JOHN (born in Alliens, New York, January 
21, 1834), is the son of John and Margaret Sanderson, who 
emigrated to this country from the north of Ireland. He 
received his preparatory education in select schools in his 
native town and in Hudson Academy and Williams Academy (Stock- 
bridge, Massachusetts), and in 1853 was graduated at Brown Univer- 
sity with the degree of bachelor of arts. He studied for the legal pro- 
fession under John C. Newkirk and Darius Peck, of Hudson, and also 
at the Albany Law School, and was admitted to the bar in Albany in 
1855. After practicing at Hudson and in New York City he returned 
to Athens, his early home, where he gradually took a leading place 
at the bar. 

In 1888 he was elected county judge of Greene county. He still 
occupies that position, having been re-elected in 1894. 




^ANFORD, FERDINAND VAN DERVEER (born in War- 
wick, New York, April 19, 1856), is the son of George W. 
Sanford and Frances A. Baird. He was prepared for col- 
lege at the Warwick Academy and was graduated at Cor- 
nell University in 1877 with the degree of bachelor of science. His 
legal education was received at the Columbia College Law School, 
from which he was graduated in May, 1881. Soon after his admission 
to the bar, at Poughkeepsie, May 21, 1881, he began practice at War- 
wick, where he still resides, being one of the recognized leaders of 



344 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND EAl! OF NEW YOKK 



the Orange county bar. lie was the successful counsel in the Court 
of Appeals in the mailer of Denton (103 N. Y., 607), derided in L886. 
In 1887 lie was elected special county judge of Orange county for a 
term of three years. 

Judge Sanford has for the past seven years been a member of the 
board of education of the Warwick High School. 

APERSTON, WILLARD W. (born in Leeds, England, in 
March, lStio), is the son of Joseph and Jeanette Wolf 
Saperston. He received his preparation for the legal pro- 
fession in the .offices, of Quinby, Meads & Rebadow and 
Honorable George W. Cothran, also attending lectures at the Buf- 
falo Law School, and was admitted to the bar at Buffalo in January, 
1893. lie has since established a lucrative commercial law practice- 
in that city, lie has defended various important murder cases — those 
of Max Milou, Chris Weinholtz, Frank Biehler, Clarence and Sadie 
Kobinson, and of the three stranglers, Joseph Ledwon, Anna Ledwon, 
and Joseph Zawatski. He was instrumental in obtaining the release 
from a Siberian prison of Stanislaus Scrzminski, an American citi- 
zen arrested while sojourning abroad. 





r|eiIKEIBEK, JULIUS AUGUSTUS (born in Buffalo, New 
York, August 15, 1SGS), is the son of Valentine J. Schreiber 
and Caroline Bittmau. He attended the Buffalo Grammar 
and High Schools, became a law student in the office of 
Roberts, Alexander & Messer and subsequently that of Quinby. Meads 
& Rebadow, was graduated from the Buffalo Law School, and was 
admitted to the bar at Buffalo, June 6, 1890. He soon afterward 
began practice in Buffalo, where he has continued to the present 
time. From November 1, 1S90, to February J, 1895, he was in part- 
nership with C. L. Feldman, present corporal ion counsel of Buffalo. 
Since the latter date he has practiced alone. 




jlCOTT, RUFUS, was born in Friendship, Allegany county, 
New York, October 8, 1838, and died in Hornellsville, New 
York,' October 10, 1896. Lie was brought up on a farm, at- 
tended district school in the winter seasons, and for 
brief periods was a student at the Friendship Academy and Alfred 
University. A1 the age of sixteen he began teaching school, and in 
I his occupation he continued until his enlistmenl in the army. 

In the stirring political events which preceded the breaking out of 
the civil war young Scott tool; a keen interest, his sympathies being 
strongly engaged in behalf id' the republican party. In the presiden- 
lial campaign of I860 he took the stuni]) for Abraham Lincoln, ren- 
dering effective services as an eloquent and convincing speaker. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 345 

Early in May, 1861, he was enrolled as a private in the 23d regiment 
of New York volunteer infantry. He was promoted in August, 1802, 
to the rank of major of the 130th New York infantry. This regiment 
was changed in May, 1803, to cavalry, being named first the 19th New 
York cavalry and then the 1st New York dragoons. Iu December, 
1804, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, and in March, 1805, 
colonel and brigadier-general of the United States volunteers. He 
was in active field service throughout the war and was six times 
wounded, four times in the Shenandoah valley campaign of 1801. 
He received an honorable discharge in May, 1805. Iu 1800 he was 
tendered an appointment as captain in the regular army, but de- 
clined. 

On November 12, 1864, while at his home in Friendship for a brief 
time in consequence of his wounds, he was married to Mary M., 
daughter of John A. and Mary A. Axtell. Upon leaving the army he 
took up his residence with his wife in the Village of Belmont. Here 
he engaged industriously in the study of the law, which he had under- 
taken before going to the war, and in May, 1800, he was admitted to 
the bar. He immediately began practice in Belmont, where he con- 
tinued until April, 1883. From May 20, 1871, to May 14, 1873, he was 
in partnership with Hamilton Ward in the firm of Scott & Ward. 
From 1883 until his death he was in active practice at Wellsville. 

About the year 1881, General Scott became financially interested 
in the development of the oil resources of Allegany county. He was 
fortunate in his investments and operations, aud soon took a prom- 
inent place among the energetic men of the oil regions. Through his 
enterprise the abandoned Waugh and Porter field was transformed 
into a valuable property, and he was one of the chief promoters of the 
Producers' Oil Company and the Pure Oil Company. He was active 
in the Producers' Protective Association, being its vice-president and 
a member of its executive board. He took a leading part in the cele- 
brated " shut in " movement, which culminated in the division of 
three to four millions of profits equitably shared between capital and 
labor. 

Another industry in which General Scott became much interested 
was that of the production of carbon black from natural gas. This 
industry had very much languished. In 1884 he engaged in the man- 
ufacture of carbon black from the products of wells at Alleutown, 
New York, and Ludlow, Pennsylvania. The result was eminently 
successful, an article being put upon the market which was prac- 
tically without competition. 

Throughout his life General Scott was an earnest republican. Be- 
ginning his political career at the age of twenty-one as a stump 
speaker in the Lincoln campaign, he continued this party work alter 
the war, delivering speeches in New York and Pennsylvania in every 
canvass until 1878, when he retired from the stump. He had little 



346 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

personal ambition, however, for a strictly political career, and was 
content to serve his fellow-citizens in local and county positions. He 
held the offices of supervisor of the Town of Wirt (1861), district attor- 
ney of Allegany county for two terms (1869-75), and supervisor of the 
Town of Amity (1876, 1877, and 1878). He uniformly declined nomi- 
nations for other public offices. 

His wife, Mary M. Scott, and son, Claude If. Scott, survive him. 




|CR1BNER, JOHN MARSTON (born in Middleburgh, Scho- 
harie county, New York, October ±, 1839), is the son of 
Reverend John M. and Ann Eliza Scribner. His father was 
the author of several mathematical works, and was princi- 
pal of young ladies' seminaries at Auburn and Rochester, New York. 
Mr. Scribner was prepared for college by four years' attendance at the 
Delaware Literary Institute of Franklin, Delaware county, New 
York, and entering the junior class of Union College in 1857 was grad- 
uated two years later. He commenced the study of law in the office of 
Sanford & Danforth, of Middleburgh, New York. Coming to New 
Y'ork City, in November, 1800, he entered the office of the late Honora- 
ble Hamilton \Y. Robinson as clerk and student, and in May, 1861, 
was admitted to the New Y'ork bar. He remained with Mr. Robinson 
as a clerk until September, 1863, when he became the partner of his 
employer, under the firm name of Robinson & Scribner. This associa- 
tion continued until July, 1870, when Mr. Robinson having become a 
judge of the Court of Common Pleas in New York City the business of 
the firm, including all of George Law's railroads and complications, 
rested on the shoulders of Mr. Scribner. Later, in January, 1876, he 
formed a partnership with E. Randolph Robinson, thus reviving the 
firm name of Robinson & Scribner, this style becoming Robinson, 
Scribner & Bright with the admission of Osborn E. Bright as partner 
in 1882. Mr. Scribner withdrew from the firm to resume practice on 
his own account May 1, 1890, and has continued to practice alone to 
the present time. 

He enjoys an extensive practice, in the course of which he has rep- 
resented a large number of important corporations and appeared in 
various interesting cases. For more than twenty years he was sole 
counsel of the Broadway & 7th Avenue Railroad Company, and 
during that time defended or prosecuted all the litigations of that 
corporation. For more than thirty years lie performed the same ser- 
vice as counsel of the Dry Dock, East Broadway & Battery Rail- 
road Company. He is also counsel of the 8th Avenue Railroad Com- 
pany and of the 9th Avenue Railroad Company, and was counsel for 
some of the stage lines before they were superseded by the railroad on 
Broadway, and Cor several years was one of the counsel in New Y'ork 
and Brooklyn for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



347 



Mr. Scribner is a democrat in national politics, but thoroughly in- 
dependent. He has never been a candidate for public office. He is a 







member of the Bar Association of New York City, and of the Law- 
yers' and University clubs. 




348 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

EABURY, ROBERT (born in Hempstead, Queens county, 
New York, December 10, 1844), is the son of Robert 8. and 
Elizabeth Hentz Seabury. He is a descendant of Doctor 
Adam Seabury, who was a brother of Bishop Samuel S. 
Seabury. His father was born in the Town of Hempstead, followed 
mercantile pursuits, and served as sheriff of Queens county. His 
mother's family have been residents of the same town for the past 
hundred years. He received a good elementary education and was 
prepared for college at Union Hall Institute (Jamaica, New York), 
but never entered. In the summer of 1SG4 he enlisted in the 5Gth regi- 
ment. He performed garrison duty until his discharge. After read- 
ing law with Honorable William II. Onderdonk, surrogate of Queens 
county, and Alden J. Spooner, of Brooklyn, he was admitted to the 
bar (at Brooklyn, in December, 18(57). For about two years he was 
managing clerk for John W. C. Leveridge, of New York City, and in 
1868 he formed a copartnership with Mr. Spooner, his former pre- 
ceptor. In 1870 he married and returned to Hempstead, where he has 
since practiced alone. He has devoted himself almost exclusively to 
surrogate's practice and the management of estates. 

He has held the offices of town clerk of Hempstead (1873, 1874, and 
1S75) and clerk of the board of supervisors of Queens county (annu- 
ally appointed since 1S7G). 




EAMAN, ALFRED PURDY WELCH (born in West Win- 
sted, Connecticut, September 7, 1S5G), is the sou of Samuel 
Augustus Seaman and Anna Alicia Byrne. He was grad- 
uated at Columbia College in 1879 with the degree of bach- 
elor of arts, studied law with Crosby & Kent, of New York City, also 
taking the course of the Columbia College Law School, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie, May 14, 1880. lie lias since been 
in constant practice of his profession in Queens county and New York 
City. Mr. Seaman has been an occasional contributor of articles to 
periodicals, and has published one or two books. 



EK< ! EH, ALBERT H. F. (born in the City of Stuttgart, Wiir- 
temberg, Germany, July 20, 1859), is the son of John and 
Louise Hammer Seeger. Both his parents were natives of 
the Kingdom of Wurtemberg. He was graduated at New- 
burgh Free Academy in 1875, became a law student in the office of 
Honorable William D. Dickey, since chosen justice of the Supreme 
Court, and was admitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie, May 14, 1880. 
He has since practiced at Newburgh, being in enjoyment of a Large 
practice in all the courts of the county, both civil and criminal. In 
L886 he was admitted to practice in the United States District and 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 349 

Circuit Courts. He at present holds the office of assistant-district 
attorney of Orange county, under District Attorney A. V. N. Pow- 
elson. 




|ESSIONS, FRANK EDGAR (born in the Town of Chautau- 
qua, Chautauqua county, New York, May 22, 1847), is the 
son of Columbus Sessions and Cordelia French. His father, 
who was born iu Rutland, Vermont, was one of the early 
settlers of western New York, and his mother's family came from 
eastern Massachusetts. He was educated in district and select 
schools in Fon du Lac county, Wisconsin. At the age of sixteen he 
commenced teaching school. In this vocation he continued until 
1869, when he began the study of the law with Walter L. Sessions, of 
Panama, New York, meantime teaching in the winter seasons until 
1874, when he was admitted to the bar. He then entered upou the 
practice of his profession in Jamestown. He soon won a reputation 
for ability. From 1880 to 1884 he served as special county judge of 
Chautaugua county, one year by appointment from Governor Cor- 
nell and three years by election. In 1895 and 1896 he held the office 
of alderman of the City of Jamestown, in the latter year being presi- 
dent of the council. 




ESSIONS, GILMAN L., now among the oldest of the practic- 
ing lawyers of Broome county, was born at Woodstock, 
Connecticut, on the 14th day of February, 1833. His stud- 
ies preparatory for college were at Monson Academy and 
Williston Seminary, Massachusetts, and he was graduated at Dart- 
mouth College, after the usual four years' course, in 1855. He stud- 
ied his profession as a clerk in the office of Honorable Daniel S. Dick- 
inson at Binghamton, was admitted as an attorney and counselor 
in July, 1858, and soon thereafter commenced the practice of his pro- 
fession at Binghamton. 

In 1862 severe and long-continued illness compelled a cessation of 
practice, which, after years of change and travel, was again resumed 
in 1869, and since then he has been busily engaged as a practicing 
attorney, interrupted by occasional short intervals of ill health. 
During this period, his entire time has been devoted to the duties of 
his profession, except such attention as he has given to literary mat- 
ters. He has uniformly lived the independent, quiet life of a private 
citizen, seeking no public position or political preferment, and de- 
clining all such when offered. 

During the later years, partly from the necessity of delicate health, 
and very much from choice, he has largely retired from active liti- 
gated practice, and has been occupied with the lighter and more con- 
genial work of consultations, examinations of titles, looking after the 



350 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

interests of estates, the investments of clients, the loans and securi- 
ties of one of the leading city savings banks, with which he has been 
long connected as attorney and as one of its executive officers, and 
with the many varying duties of an office practice. 




EWARD, CLARENCE ARMSTRONG (born in New York 
City, October 7, 1828; died in July, 1897), was the nephew 
of the well-known statesman, William II. Seward, in 
whose family he was brought up, his parents having died 
when he was a child. He was descended from an ancient and Lon- 
orable English family, the name Seward, before surnames were com- 
mon (according to Arthur) having been given to distinguish the ad- 
miral whose special duty it was to ward off or keep the sea in the 
vicinity of the English coast free from pirates. As was frequently 
the case, the name given to the individual in virtue of his office or 
pursuit became the family surname, the office being then frequently 
inherited or continued long in the same family. In this case the 
name was compounded of the two words " sea " and " ward," making 
•' Seward," an office at that time of importance, the island of Great 
Britain being then greatly infested by sea marauders. 

Three brothers Seward came to New York. One settled in Ohio 
and is said to have leveled the first tree on the site of the City of Cin- 
cinnati, another settled on Long Island, and the third fixed his abode 
in New Jersey; from him the subject of the present sketch was 
descended. 

Mr. Clarence A. Seward was carefully educated, being graduated 
in 184S from Hobart College, at Geneva, New Y r ork. He studied law, 
was admitted to the bar in 1850, and passed the first four years of his 
professional life in Auburn, New York, the residence of his uncle. In 
1854, however, he came to New York City and associated himself 
with his relative, the late Honorable Samuel Blatchford of the Uni- 
ted States Supreme Court, and Burr W. Griswold, under the firm 
name of Blatchford, Seward & Griswold. 

He first came into prominence in connection with the India-rubber 
cases between Day and Goodyear, which were distinguished by the 
importance of the questions raised and the magnitude of the amounts 
involved. He was engaged as one of the associate-counsel on the side 
of Day, although in the changes and different suits to which it gave 
rise he appeared toward the close of the litigation as a leading coun- 
sel on behalf of Goodyear. In 1856, two years after he came to New 
York, one printed volume embraced his briefs and cases. The collec- 
tion now contains more than one hundred and thirty volumes. Vol- 
ume cxxx. containing his brief and argument in the income tax cases, 
in which he was one of the counsel who successfully argued the un- 
constitutionality of the law. 



'103* &Sk 



^'■ L r ..... tr -^ 








<^ym^vcc ^l^-(/ec lrz*-t*9>^ 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 351 

To follow such a career, attended by all that professional distinc- 
tion can confer, would exceed the limits usually allotted to a bio- 
graphical sketch of this description. A former biographer 1 has 
pointed out the characteristics by which he was distinguished, such 
as his comprehensiveness, concentration, discrimination, omitting 
nothing essential and rejecting everything superfluous or the exact 
point of bearing of which was not obvious; the readiness, skill, and 
conclusiveness with which he disposed of seeming obstacles, the as- 
tuteness, the ability with which he deduced from a reported case the 
rule or principle it warranted and made it applicable in a way pre- 
viously unthought of, and finally the logical and convincing way in 
which he presented the whole case that he was arguing to the court; 
to which it may be added that all this was done without acerbity or 
anything to irritate or provoke his opponent, but with that bland 
courtesy of manner which is as smooth as it is incisive. 

The wide scope of his professional labors has been indicated, but 
it may serve to show its character to refer to the Bank of England 
forgery case, the Broadway Railroad investigating committee, and 
the Lauderdale peerage case in the House of Lords. He gave much 
attention to the investigation of the validity of patents, involving- 
most intricate questions, scientific and otherwise, while a large part 
of his labors was devoted to what are generally known as express 
cases, connected with the transportation of merchandise and involv- 
ing widespread litigation and intricate questions. He was also well 
known as a lawyer in Europe, having been heard as an authority on 
American law before the English House of Lords, for some time was 
the legal adviser and representative in this country of the Bank of 
England, and was employed professionally in important matters in 
France, Switzerland, and Austria. 

While accepting public office, he kept within the limits of his pro- 
fession, or yielded only when it seemed an imperative duty. He was 
judge advocate-general of the State of New York under Governors 
King and Morgan, and after the attempted assassination of his uncle 
was called to Washington and when necessary discharged the duties 
of assistant-secretary of state. A vacancy having occurred on the 
United States Supreme Court bench while his party was in power, 
he was prominently named to fill it, but gave no encouragement to 
the plan. 

He was long president of the Union Club, the oldest and most de- 
sirable social club in the City of New York. In those fields into 
which many-sided professional men are drawn, such as the delivery 
of public addresses and what appertains to literature or general cul- 
ture, he was a liberal contributor. His college conferred upon him 
the degree of doctor of laws, and he was president of its alumni asso- 
ciation and also president of the Alpha Delta Phi Society. He took 

1 The late James T. Brady. 



352 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



an active part in matters of a municipal character, and was president 
of the 5th Avenue Protective Association. He was vice-president of 
the Adams Express Company. From its formation he was an active 
and influential member of the republican party, representing it in 
state and national conventions, and was a presidential elector in the 
contest resulting in the election of Garfield and Arthur. He was a 
regular member of the Episcopal Church. 



EWELL, ROBERT (born in Castlebar, Ireland, October 2, 
1831; died May 2, 1897), was the son of Thomas Sewell of 
Carlisle, England, a collector of internal revenue, and Isa- 
bella Eleanor, daughter of William Butler Joyce, captain 
of his majesty's 5th dragoon guards. His brother, Honorable Will- 
iam Joyce Sewell, of Camden, New Jersey, has long represented that 
commonwealth in the United States senate. 

His education was received in a local school at Ballina, Ireland. 
He also took a course in modern languages at Queens College, Bel- 
fast. Coming to this country in 1849, he studied law with Henry 
Brace, of New York City, and was admitted to the bar in Poughkeep- 
sie, New York, May 17, I860. 

From the time of his admission he was constantly engaged in the 
practice of his profession in the metropolis, for many years as part- 
ner of James F. Pierce (afterward superintendent of the insurance 
department of the State of New York). As an insurance lawyer Mr. 
Sewell had few equals and no superiors, while he also distinguished 
himself in the province of municipal and corporation law. He was 
successful in cross-examination and effective before court or jury. 

The cases of more than ordinary public interest in which he was 
retained as leading counsel include Waterbury vs. The Merchants' 
Union, Gilenny vs. Stedwell, People vs. The Security Life, Astor vs. 
Arcade Railway, Williams vs. The Western Union Telegraph Com- 
pany, Metropolitan Railroad vs. Manhattan, Frothingham vs. Broad- 
way & 7th Avenue Railroad, Roeber vs. The Diamond Match Com- 
pany, the Lasaak will case, the Traynor will case, and many others. 

He contributed to the leading magazines, including articles which 
attracted attention on " The Status of the American Woman Married 
Abroad " and the " Income Tax, Is It Constitutional? " published in 
the American Lair Review. He was for many years counsel for the 
Stock Exchange and was counsel and one of the directors of the 
Mutual Life Insurance Company. He was also one of the original 
founders of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He 
served in Tarrytown, New York, as lieutenant-colonel and aide-de- 
camp to Governor Olden of New Jersey, detailed to take charge of the 
state hospitals from 1862 to 1864. He was a member of the Century 
Association, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, State 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



353 



Bar Association, American Bar Association, of such clubs as the 
Union League, Lawyers', Downtown, New York Yacht, and Prince- 




u^^W^ 



ton, and of the Society of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick. In 1885 
he received the degree of master of arts from Princeton College. 
In 1861 Mr. Sewell was married to Sarah Van Vorst, daughter of 



354 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Cornelius Van Vorst of Van Vorst, New Jersey, eighth in lineal de- 
scent from Cornelius Van Vorst, who settled in New Jersey in 1G30. 
He had two sons, Kobert Van Vorst Sewell, an artist of international 
reputation, and Cornelius Van Vorst Sewell. 




v|HAFER, IEA (born in Berne, Albany county, New York, 
March 4, 1831; died in Oakes, Ulster count}-, New York, 
November 30, 1896), was the son of Eeverend Thomas 
Shafer, formerly of Albany, and Eva Werner. 
Mr. Shafer came to Albany as a young practicing lawyer, and very 
soon became noted for his familiarity with the general principles of 
law and his indefatigable activity in his profession. Like all young 
lawyers, he found ample opportunity for rough and tumble contests, 
which were then frequent at the Albany bar in the Justices' Courts. 
His ability very early brought him into prominence. He was a forci- 
ble speaker, an untiring worker, and never knew what defeat meant. 
Under such circumstances, politics naturally attracted his at- 
tention, and after a short career at the bar he was elected to the im- 
portant position of district attorney of Albany county. In that office 
he gained distinction by his successful prosecution of the criminals 
of the county. Among the notable cases with which he was connected 
as district attorney was the celebrated " husband poisoning case,' 1 
known in the annals of the criminal law as the Hartung case. Tlie 
fact that the prisoner on trial was a woman, and that she was 
charged with the grave crime of murdering her husband, of course 
excited unusual interest. After the defendant had been convicted 
and her conviction had been confirmed by the general term, the legis- 
lature passed an act the effect of which was practically to abolish 
punishment for the crime of murder theretofore committed. The act 
defined what was murder in the first degree, and specified the punish- 
ment which should be inflicted for the crimes subsequently commit- 
ted. The Court of Appeals, when the case came before it, was called 
upon to construe this statute, and held that the repeal of the law 
which defined the punishment at the time the crime was committed, 
left the crime without punishment and so reversed the conviction, 
and accordingly ordered a new trial. When the case came up for a 
second trial, the prisoner pleaded the former conviction and the re- 
versal of the judgment by the court, and this plea was held by the 
Court of Appeals to be correct and the prisoner was acquitted. 

After leaving the office of district attorney, Mr. Shafer was elected 
to the state senate from Albany county. While a member of that 
body he took a prominent part in the impeachment proceedings 
against Judge Clute, one of the county judges, against whom grave 
charges of malfeasance in office had been brought before the bar of 
the senate. 







J, 



sn 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 355 

Shortly before 1870 he came to the City of New York and formed a 
partnership with James H. Coleman, of the New York bar, who had 
himself left Albany a few years previously. Soon after his arrival 
in New York he was retained in the legal contests which arose over 
the constitutionality of the act creating the Metropolitan Board of 
Health of the City and County of New York. 

One of the early cases in which Mr. Shafer was engaged was the 
celebrated suit brought against the owners and proprietors of the 
People's line of steamers, growing out of the accident on the steamer 
Saint John caused by the explosion of her boilers. The plaintiff was 
represented in that case by Mr. E. N. Dickerson, who was the designer 
of the engines of the famous steamer Algonquin. Mr. Dickerson was 
regarded as a great legal expert in all matters relating to the con- 
struction and operation of engines and boilers. The trial lasted 
several weeks, and called into play all of Mr. Shafer's peculiar abili- 
ties. 

Among the more recent cases with which he was identified was the 
trial of Alderman Carey, in what were known as the " Boodle Alder- 
men " prosecutions. These prosecutions were viewed with almost 
unprecedented interest by the New York public. Popular sentiment 
was arrayed against the defendants, and Judge Barrett, who tried 
the Carey case, was particularly severe in his charge. Never before 
had Mr. Shafer been concerned in any action which brought out so 
conspicuously his courage as an advocate, his utter and complete de- 
votion to the cause of his client. His sturdy independence of charac- 
ter almost brought him several times into collision with the presiding 
judge. When the judge's charge was finished, Mr. Shafer, with the 
fearlessness which so constantly characterized him in the trial of 
cases, asked the judge to charge that, if the jury had formed a preju- 
dice against the defendant by reason of the manner of the judge, 
either in the conduct of the trial or in his charge to the jury — that if, 
not simply from what the judge said, but from the manner in which 
he had said it, an impression had been created in their mind which 
was hostile to the prisoner, it was their duty to set it aside. The 
judge at first objected to so instructing the jury. He said it was a re- 
markable request; to which Mr. Shafer very coolly replied that it 
was a remarkable trial, that it was the right of the prisoner to have 
an impartial trial, and that it was the duty of the court to instruct 
the jury that they were not to be guided or swayed or influenced by 
anything the court had said or done, to his prejudice; and the judge 
so ruled. 

During the latter years of Mr. Shafer's life, he was not engaged in 
the general practice of the profession. He was willing to accept re- 
tainers only in special cases, and his advice was sought by people who 
had desperate suits to try, because he was a man whom no dangers 
appalled, to whom no difficulties seemed insurmountable. His 



35G HISTOKY OF THE BENCH A>"I> EAK OF KKW YORK 

thorough mastery of legal principles enabled hiin to meet sudden 
emergencies arising in the course of a trial. His qualifications as a 
lawyer mar well be summed up in the words of a distinguished jurist, 
the late Judge Bosworth, who said that Mr. Shafer was. in his opin- 
ion, one of the greatest: lawyers the State of New York ever produced. 
During the latter years of his life he purchased an estate on the 
Hudson River, opposite Poughkeepsie. where he resided, coming to 
the city only when occasion required. It was there he passed his last 



e&l 



HEAEMAN, THOMAS HASKELL -born in Birmingham. 
England. November 2-3. 1834), is the son of John H. Shear- 
man and Sarah Price. He was educated at home and by 
private tutors, studied law at the New York Law Institute. 
was admitted to the bar in Brooklyn in December. 1S59. and has prac- 
ticed continuously in New York City since. 

Mr. Shearman is in the enjoyment of a large practice and has been 
counsel in many notable cases. He was counsel in defense of Henry 
Ward Beecher. both in court and in the church councils, and was also 
counsel in the Erie Railway litigations extending from 1868 to 1>72. 

He has been for many year? active in the movement for free trade. 
as well as in the movement for the abolition of taxes on personal prop- 
erty and their transference to land values. He devised a plan of opti- 
arin tax methods for local purposes. He is author of part of the civil 
code, of two volumes on •• Practice." of a " Book of Forms." " Shear- 
man and Redfield on Negligence." u National Taxation." and many 
pamphlets, articles, and lectures on economic questions, and the par- 
ticular question of national ownership of land. 



as 



Rhode Island. September 1L 1805), is the son of the late 
- >illiman. of Brooklyn, who died in his ninety-first 

year, and a grandson of General Gold Selleck Silliman. 
who was an able and prominent lawyer of colonial Connecticut, at- 
torney for the crown in Fairfield county, and brigadier-general in the 
patriot army during the Revolution. He was a man of large influ- 
ence, an early promoter of the Revolution, and conspicuous in the bat- 
Long Island. Harlem, White Plains, Danbury, and others. 
Three days after the battle of Long Island, in which he commanded a 
regiment. Washington promoted him to the command of a brigade of 
nve regiinenrs. General Silliman was the s.-n of Judge Ebenezer 
Silliman, who for - speaker of the house, and for 

twenty-eight years a member of the council or upper house of the Con- 
necticut legislature, and was annually elected as judge of the Supe- 



HI-TORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YORK 



357 



rior Court of the colony for twenty-three successive years. He died 
in 1775. 

Mr. Sillinian's mother was the daughter of KeYerend David Ely. of 
Huntington, Connecticut. Her rare intellectual endowments, cul- 
ture, and attainments were only excelled by the loveliness and great 
excellence of her domestic character and life. His father's mother 




BENJAMIN DOUGLAS SILLIMAN. 



was a daughter of the Reverend Joseph Fish, of Stonington (who was 
graduated at Harvard in 172;>i. and through her was directly descend- 
ed from John Alden and Priscilla Moulins, both of whom came over in 
the Mayflower in 1621. 

Mr. Silliman was graduated in 1S21 from Yale College, at which 
universitv his race on both sides were educated. His father and his 



358 HISTOKY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

uncle, the distinguished Professor Benjamin Silliman, were graduated 
there in 1796, their father, General Gold S. Sillinian, in 1752, and the 
father of the latter, Judge Silliman, in 1727. His mother's family 
were also educated at the same seat of learning. Her great-grand- 
father was graduated there in 1722, her father in 1769. He was a trus- 
tee of the college for twenty-one years. He died in 1816. Her brothers 
took their degrees in the classes of 1S01, 1803, and 1806. Among 
Mr. Silliman's classmates who became distinguished in public life 
were the late Chief-Justice Origen S. Seymour, of Connecticut; Rev- 
erend Richard F. Cleveland, father of ex-President Cleveland; Honor- 
able Willis Hall, attorney-general of this state; General Elias W. 
Leavenworth, secretary of state of New York and member of con- 
gress from the Onondaga district, and Honorable Ashbel Smith, who 
was minister to France and to England from Texas before its admis- 
sion as a state into the union, and afterward president of its univer- 
sity. 

On leaving college Mr. Silliman pursued the study of law in the 
office of the distinguished Chancellor Kent and his hardly less distin- 
guished son, William Kent, who afterward became a judge of the Su- 
preme Court of the state, and succeeded Judge Story as professor of 
law in Harvard University. The closest friendship continued be- 
tween him and them during their lives. He was admitted to the bar 
at the May term, 1829, of the Supreme Court in New York, and from 
that day to this, Avith the exception of a visit to Europe in 1848, lias 
been busily and steadily engaged (almost " threescore and ten " 
years) in the practice of the profession, in which he has been energetic 
and prominent. He is now, by seniority, the nestor of the bar. He 
has always had a valuable clientage, including many important cor- 
porations, and has been steadily engaged in cases of all kinds, at 
common law, in equity, and admiralty, alike in the state and federal 
courts, including the United States Supreme Court. 

At a notable dinner at Delmonico's given to Mr. Silliman by leading 
members of the bar of New York and Brooklyn, May 29, 1889, to cele- 
brate the sixtieth anniversary of his admission to practice, he gave 
an interesting sketch of the courts, the judges, the bar and its busi- 
ness, and of much of the law and practice at that early date and of the 
great changes and progress to the present time. 1 Very interesting 
addresses were delivered on the same occasion by Joseph II. Ghoate, 
who presided at the dinner, and by David D. Field, James C. Carter, 
Judge Pratt. Frederic R. Coudert. William C. De Witt, and Ohauncey 
M. Depew. 

Mr. Silliman's professional career lias been thus singular in its 
length as well as its activity. Within the long span of his legal prac- 
tice the most important scientific and political events of the age have 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 359 

occurred. His early reminiscences relate to the time when New York 
was a comparatively small town and Brooklyn a mere village, and the 
circle of his personal association and friendships embraces men of a 
former and of the present generation who have attained the highest 
professional, political, literary, and social distinction at home and 
abroad. " There were giants in those days." Such men as Chancellor 
Kent, David B. Ogden, Josiah Ogden Hoffmann, George Wood, John 
Duer, Samuel Jones, William Kent, Marshall S. Bidwell, Thomas J. 
Oakley, Samuel Nelson, Peter A. Jay, Reuben H. Walworth, Henry 
R. Storrs, Ogden Hoffman, Hugh Maxwell, Gulian O. Verplanck, 
Samuel B. Buggies, Charles O'Conor, Edgar S. Van Winkle, Francis 
B. Cutting, James W. Gerard, Benjamin F. Butler, Joshua A. Spen- 
cer, Jasper W. Gilbert, William H. Seward, William 0. Noyes, John H. 
Reynolds, the Sanfords, the Emmets, Murray Hoffman, Greene C. 
Bronson, Nicholas Hill, Charles P. Kirkland, Hiram Denio, Joseph S. 
Bosworth, George R. J. Bowdoin, Lewis B. Woodruff, Jonathan 
Miller, Alexander S. Johnson, James T. Brady, John A. Lott, Samuel 
Beardsley, William Mitchell, and the great number of their distin- 
guished compeers who have passed away, to say nothing of the very 
eminent living members of the profession, have rendered the bar of 
New York indeed an illustrious fraternity. In the same period no 
part of the world could produce a more attractive society than that 
of New York. Her statesmen, scholars, poets, wits, her " merchant 
princes," her men of strength and wide general culture have made 
their day and generation of rarest interest. It is no small boon to 
have lived at such a time and in such a sphere. 

While yielding to none in devotion to his clients' interests, Mr. Silli- 
man has always regarded allegiance to right and justice as the para- 
mount duty of every lawyer. In an address to the graduating class of 
Columbia College Law School, delivered in 1867, he said: 

No man can consistently with personal honor or professional reputation mis- 
state a fact or a principle to the court or jury. The man who would cheat a 
court or a jury would cheat anybody else. Measured by the lowest standard, 
that of expediency, no lawyer can in any case afford to act meanly or speak 
untruly. He owes no such duty to his client; an honest client would not be 
safe in the hands of a lawyer who would do either. 

He also reminded the young men about to enter on the practice of 
law that it would be their province 

to dissuade more suits than they would bring, to promote peacefid and reason- 
able compromises in all cases where proper and practicable, and to shelter their 
clients from litigation as the physician would shelter his patient from continued 
sickness. 

In politics Mr. Silliman was, in early life, a whig. On the dissolu- 
tion of that party he became an energetic republican. During the 
rebellion he was an uncompromising supporter of the federal govern- 



360 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

inent. Adhering firmly to bis political convictions and to the tenets 
of his party, he has ever been influential in his advocacy of them. He 
has often been a delegate to local, state, and national conventions. As 
far back as 1S39 he was a member of the Harrisburg convention 
which nominated General Harrison for the presidency and John Tyler 
for the vice-presidency. This was one of the first of national conven- 
tions for nominating presidential candidates, such nominations hav- 
ing been previously made by caucuses of members of congress at 
Washington, or in some cases by one or more of the state legislatures, 
or by other local meetings. Its members were few in number com- 
pared with the later conventions. 

While active in political work, Mr. Silliinan has generally, 
though not wholly, abstained from public office, as inconsistent with 
his plan and purpose of professional life and labor. In 1843 he was 
selected by the whigs of the 2d district as their candidate for the 2Sth 
congress, but, although he led the whole ticket at the polls, the demo- 
crats carried the election by a small majority. He was nominated by 
the same party in 1853 for the state senate, but declined the nomina- 
tion, lie had previously represented Kings county in the state legis- 
lature. On the organization of the eastern district of New York he 
was appointed by President Lincoln to the office of United States 
attorney. Finding that his official duties interfered with his private 
practice, he resigned the office in 18GG. In 1872 he was appointed by 
the governor and senate a member of the commission (which held its 
sessions at Albany) for proposing its amendments to the constitution 
of the state. In the deliberations of the commission he bore an active 
and prominent part. He was the chairman of one and a member of 
other important committees, and efficient in advocating the amend- 
ments which were adopted. Although the commission consisted of 
sixteen republicans and sixteen democrats, its debates were abso- 
lutely free from party politics, and its action was in no respect influ- 
enced by party interests or purposes. Its discussions were conducted 
with entire harmony and dignity. Each member acted not as a poli- 
tician, but as a statesman, and the leading parts of the revision of the 
constitution which was the result of their labors were ratified with 
great unanimity by the people. 

In 1S73 Mr. Silliman was nominated by the republican party as 
their candidate for the office of attorney-general of the state, and re- 
ceived a flattering and gratifying support at the polls, though the 
ticket (with the exception of two of the candidates who had also been 
nominated by a third party) did not prevail. 

In 1873 the honorary degree of doctor of laws was conferred on him 
by ( 'olumbia College. In 1871 his alma mater, Yale College, also con- 
ferred on him the degree of doctor of laws. While a member of the 
legislature in 1S3S, he introduced and procured the passage of the 
bill incorporating the Greenwood cemetery, that great and beautiful 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 361 

city of the dead, already (in 1890) numbering more than 290,000 in its 
silent population. He has been prominently identified with the so- 
cial, political, and benevolent institutions of the day. He was for 
more than twenty years the president of the Brooklyn Club, president 
of the Yale Alumni Association of Long Island, is a director of the 
Long Island Historical Society, a trustee of Greenwood cemetery, and 
was the president of the New England Society in the City of Brook- 
lyn, from its organization until 1886, when he declined a re-election. 
For nearly twenty years he was one of the managers of the " House of 
Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents " in New York. He was a vice-presi- 
dent and one of the founders of the Bar Association of New York 
City, and a director in other benevolent and literary institutions. 
While his life has been devoted mainly to the law, he has found time 
for continued literary study and recreation. 




[MIS, ADOLPH, Junior (born in Hamburg, Germany, De- 
cember 2, 1846), is the son of Adolph and Johanna Simis. 
He received a public school education, was a student in the 
Columbia College Law School, and was admitted to the 
bar in May, 1S76. He has always practiced in Brooklyn. 

In 1862, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted in the United States navy, 
in which he served until after the close of the war. For several years 
he resided in Kansas, and during this period, when only twenty-four 
years old, received the democratic nomiuation for the state senate. 
But as the constituency was strongly republican he failed of election. 

In his profession Mr. Simis has been highly successful, ranking 
prominently at the Brooklyn bar. He has been connected with nu- 
merous important litigations, among which may be especially men- 
tioned the cases of People vs. Rosenberg (138 N. Y., 410), Willey vs. 
Mulledy (78 N. Y., 310), and Gall vs. Gall (114 N. Y., 109). From 1884 
to 1888 he was counsel to the commissioners of charities of Kings 
county. Since 1893 he has held the office of president of the commis- 
sioners of charities and correction of Kings county. His term expires 
December 31, 1897. 

He is a member of U. S. Grant Post, No. 327, G. A. R. 




KINNER, BENJAMIN F. (bom in the Town of Pomfret, 
Chautauqua county, New York, July 23, 1837), is the son 
of Alfred and Huldah White Skinner, both descended from 
New England ancestors. He received his education in the 
common schools and the Fredonia Academy, and read law, succes- 
sively, with Honorable F. S. Edwards, Honorable Lorenzo Morris, 
Honorable E. F. Warren and Honorable George Barker, ex-justice 
of the Supreme Court. After admission to the bar he opened a law 



362 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

office in Predonia, Chautauqua county, where he still continues to 
practice. 

For six years Mr. Skinner was assistant-district attorney of Chau- 
tauqua county, and for three years district attorney. He has also 
served as supervisor of his town for four years and as justice of the 
peace for twenty years, and is now actively engaged in the practice of 
his profession and has a large general business. 




|M1TH, CHABLES KILEY, was born in Bayport, Suffolk 
county, June 22, 1821. He was educated in the county 
schools and the academy at Bellport, and in his early life 
followed business pursuits. While thus engaged he was 
elected commissioner of highways and afterward trustee and justice 
of the peace of the Town of Brookhaven. The latter office he held for 
sixteen consecutive years, rendering valuable services and enjoying 
the respect and high opinion of his fellow-citizens. In 1870 he com- 
menced to study law in the office of Timothy M. Griffing, at the same 
time continuing to discharge his duties as justice of the peace. He 
was admitted to the bar as attorney and counselor on December 1, 
1880, and since that date he has been an active practitioner at Patch- 
ogue. Although now at the advanced age of seventy-six he continues 
to attend regularly to his professional duties. 

Mr. Smith was counsel for William J. Weeks in the libel suit for 
|5,000 brought against him by J. Madison Wells, one of the county 
superintendents of the poor. In behalf of his client he contended that 
the action was really an undertaking by the republican party to si- 
lence and get rid of Mr. Weeks because he knew too much about cer- 
tain official transactions. The jury brought in a verdict for f 5 dam- 
ages, which was a victory for the editor and his lawyer. The opposing 
counsel in this case were T. M. Griffing and N. D. Petty. 

Mr. Smith has three sons living, who are engaged in business. 



MITH, C. BA1NBBIDGE, is the son of the late John Taylor 
Smith, and is the descendant of an old family of Newport - 
Pagnel, Buckinghamshire, Eugland, which since the reign 
of Queen Anne has been illustrious in the history of the 
Colony and State of New York. His ancestor, William Smith, ruined 
by the great Port Royal earthquake, removed from Jamaica to New 
York during the reign of Queen Anne, and having repaired his for- 
tunes induced several branches of the family, including his brother, 
Thomas Smith, with three sons, William, John, and Thomas, to re- 
move to New York. Of these sons, William, a graduate of Yale Col- 
lege, became the leader of the colonial bar and was the first of a line 
of distinguished lawyers. Biographical sketches of this eminent 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 363 

jurist, of bis equally distinguished son, the chief -justice and historian, 
and of others of the line, will be found in the preceding volume. 1 
Through his father, Mr. Smith is also nearly related to Commodore 
William Bainbridge, whose portrait adorns City Hall, New York, 
and who, in command of the Constitution (" Old Ironsides "), captured 
the British frigate Java. 

Mr. C. Bainbridge Smith was born at the old family seat in Haver- 
straw, Kockland county, New York. His father was cut off early in 
life by a stroke of paralysis in the midst of a brilliant career. Though 
greatly impeded by the untimely death of his father, and in spite of a 
marked predilection for the army or navy, Mr. Smith embraced the 
family profession, becoming a student in the law office of William 
Curtis Noyes. He was an untiring student, and was admited to prac- 
tice when twenty-one years of age. He early attained distinction at 
the bar. The reports contain many important cases in which, at an 
early age, he met the foremost lawyers of the day, and they attest the 
ability which characterized his practice. His success before juries 
has always been remarkable, while in the cross-examination of wit- 
nesses he displays consummate skill. His briefs are models of concise 
legal presentment, and there is scarcely a modern textbook upon any 
legal subject which has not been enriched with valuable precedents 
drawn from the labors of the two score years of his active practice in 
cases of importance. 

Mr. Smith is an omnivorous reader, preserving the habits of a stu- 
dent to the present time. He is author of poems contributed to maga- 
zines and journals. He has never actively entered the field of politics, 
but was a stanch supporter of the government during the civil war, 
materially aiding in the organization and outfitting of New York 
troops. 

MITH, ELLIOTT JUDSON (born in Brooklyn, New York, 
June 17, 1860), is the son of Charles C. Smith and Adelia, 
daughter of Ebenezer Hawkins. He was educated in the 
common school of Islip and the Huntington High School, 
studied law with Honorable J. Lawrence Smith, of Smithtown 
Branch, Suffolk county, and was admitted to the bar at Poughkeep- 
sie in May, 1882. For three years he was in partnership with J. Law- 
rence Smith, at Smithtown Branch. He then continued his practice 
alone at Islip, later becoming associated with his brother, Herbert 
W. Smith. 

1 The direct line of descent to Mr. C. Bainbridge Smith gress of 1774 and one of the committee of one hundred ; 

isasfollows: Thomas Smith >, of Newport-Pagnell, Buck- Thomas Smith 4 , also an able New \orklawyer; Honor- 

inghamshire, England, who arrived in America, August able John Taylor Smith \ a graduate of Columbia College 

17,1715; Honorable William Smith 2 , who was recorder and able lawyer, district attorney of Rockland county, 

of New York City, member of the council, attorney-gen- judge advocate-geueral, and editor and proprietor of the 

eral, and Supreme Court justice of the colony, and refused Rocldand Register, the only newspaper at that time in 

the appointment as chief-justice; Honorable Thomas Rockland county ; C. Bainbridge Smith 6 . 
Smith 3 , an able lawyer, member of the provincial con- 





364 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

MITH, FREDERICK NEWTON (born in Portland, Maine, 
December 25, 1SG1), is the son of M. C. Smith, of East 
Hampton, Connecticut, and Mary E. Cobb, of Portland, 
Maine. He received a public school education, attended 
lectures at Columbia College Law School, also studying law with 
Foster & Stephens, of New York City, and was admitted to the bar 
at a general term held at Poughkeepsie May 16, 1884. He has since 
been a successful practitioner in Long Island City. He has held the 
office of assistant-corporation counsel of that city. 




^JMITH, FRELING H. (born at Chatham, Columbia county, 
New York, January 31, 1844), is the son of Joseph William 
Smith and Ruth Benjamin, of Scotch descent on both sides. 
His great-grandfather served in the revolutionary war and 
his grandfather in the war of 1812. His father, a prominent citizen 
of Chatham, is still living at the age of eighty-seven. His mother was 
a cousin of the late Judge Welcome R. Beebe, of New York. 

Mr. Smith attended the district schools of his native place and 
Stephentown, Rensselaer county, whither the family removed in 
1855; a boarding-school in an adjoining town, and in 1860 the semin- 
ary at Amenia, Dutchess county, completing his preparation for col- 
lege at the Hudson River Institute, Claverack, New York. He was 
graduated from Union College with first honors in 1865, and from the 
Columbia College Law School in 1867, having been admitted to the 
New York bar two weeks before graduation. 

Through Professor Dwight of the Law School he was offered the 
position of private secretary by Honorable Edwin D. Morgan, then 
United States senator, but refused to be diverted from his purpose to 
enter at once upon the practice of the law. The following October he 
entered the law office of Van Vorst & Beardsley, of New York City, 
as managing clerk. Owing to the elevation of Mr. Van Vorst to the 
bench of the Court of Common Pleas, and the absorption of Mr. 
Beardsley in real estate practice, the charge of litigated business 
devolved mainly upon Mr. Smith, affording a large and varied experi- 
ence. In 1868 he became managing clerk in the office of Moses Elv, 
and one year later partner, under the firm name of Ely & Smith, the 
partnership continuing until 1883, when Mr. Ely retired from prac- 
tice. Mr. Smith has since continued in business alone. His interest- 
ing cases include: Collins vs. Ralli, growing out of the fraudulent 
acts of the cotton brokers, H. M. Cutter & Company, and the stock 
certificate forgeries of Eben S. Allen. In the former case Cutter & 
Company bad procured large quantities of cotton from New York 
dealers ostensibly to deliver to purchasers, but which they stored in 
warehouses, taking out negotiable warehouse receipts and selling 
them on the Cotton Exchange to innocent parties. Suits were 




V. <J. <d>/??vitdu 



% 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 365 

brought to recover from the innocent purchasers, mainly Ealli & Com- 
pany, by the owners of the cotton. The questions arising were novel 
and first settled in this case. The cases growing out of Allen's crimes 
first presented to the courts of this state the question of liability of 
corporations for forged certificates of stock issued by one of its offi- 
cers. This question was settled in the actions brought by the 5th 
Avenue Bank, the Manhattan Life Insurance Company, the Mutual 
Life Insurance Company, and other cases in which Mr. Smith ap- 
peared. 

He has never held nor sought a political position or engaged in out- 
side business ventures. In the spring of 1887 he traveled extensively 
in all parts of Europe, and in 1895 visited Egypt, the Holy Land, and 
other eastern countries. 



vfMITH, GABEIEL LEWIS, was born in Minisink, Orange 
county, New York, August 4, 1824, At nine years of age 
he removed with his father's family to Tioga county, where 
he availed himself of the ordinary educational opportu- 
nities of that early day. In 1847 he entered the law office of Diven, 
Hathaway & Woods, in the Village of Elmira, and the year follow- 
ing, while yet a student, formed a legal partnership with Judge Theo- 
dore North. Being admitted to the bar in 1849, he commenced prac- 
tice under the firm name of North & Smith, in Millport, then the most 
thriving village in Chemung county. His reputation and clientage 
widening, he followed the changing center of population and in 1854 
removed to Elmira, where he has since remained, occupying the same 
office continuously for over forty years, during which he has been en- 
gaged in an extensive practice in all the courts of the state and fre- 
quently in the courts of the United States, interrupted only by the 
periods of his service in the army and on the bench. A unique case 
among the many with which he has been connected was that of Sayre 
vs. The State (123 N. Y. Sep., 291), in which, on appeal, the Court of 
Appeals increased a judgment for |3,000 in his favor to $8,136, and, 
thus modified, affirmed it. 

In 1863 he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the 
United States and the Court of Claims, and afterward in the United 
State Circuit and District Courts. In 1864 he was elected county 
judge and surrogate of Chemung county, serving one term. In 1865 
he took in as his partner David B. Hill, afterward governor of the 
state and United States senator. This partnership continued as 
Smith & Hill until June, 1874, in the same offices now occupied by 
Judge Smith. 

The civil war breaking out in the midst of his earlier practice, Mr. 
Smith responded to the call of his country. In 1858 he had been com- 
missioned by Governor King as brigade inspector, and, still holding 



366 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

that office, ill 18(51 and 1862 he examined and inspected every officer 
commissioned at the military post at Elinira, acting as chief of staff 
to General Van Valkenburg, its commander. Early in 1802 he was 
appointed by Governor Morgan a member of the committee to raise 
troops in the senatorial district, and in July following was appointed 
adjutant and raised the first regiment organized in the nation under 
the president's call for 300,000 men. He at once organized the fam- 
ous 107th New York volunteers, and personally mustered in most of 
its members. This regiment, the first to enter the United States ser- 
vice under the president's call, and carrying the silk embroidered 
banner offered by Governor Morgan to such regiment, left Elmira on 
August 13, 1802, was received and reviewed in Washington by Presi- 
dent Lincoln and Secretary Seward, and afterward marched into 
Virginia, where, previously to its being brigaded, it was frequently 
visited by the president and secretary. It was known at the time as 
the "Congressional Regiment," both its colonel and lieutenant-colo- 
nel being members of congress. In the following September it took 
its march for the Maryland campaign. On Septemer 6, 1862, Mr. 
Smith was commissioned major, and on October 21 lieutenant- 
colonel of the regiment, both commissions issuing to him while iu 
act ual seiwice in the field. For most of the time during the next two 
months, Lieutenant-Colonel Smith was in command of this regiment 
and the 3d Wisconsin, guarding Antietam ford across the Potomac, 
only a couple of miles from the place where the battle of Antietam 
was fought. After the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg, Lieuten- 
ant < 'olonel Smith was sent into hospital at Washington, and the next 
spring was honorably discharged from the service for physical dis- 
ability. 

In 1S67 he was commissioned by Governor Fenton as judge advo- 
cate of the 7th division, with the rank of colonel, and in 1876 by Gov- 
ernor Tilden as commander of the 110th battalion, X. G. S. N. Y., a 
command which he held for several years. 

In 1890 lie was appointed by Governor Hill one of the constitu- 
tional commission to propose amendments to the judiciary article of 
the constitution. In that capacity he rendered efficient service dur- 
ing the existence of the commission. 



MI TH, JAMES COSSLETT (born in Phelps, >s\>w York, 
August 14, 1817), is the son of Thomas Smith and Rachel 
( 'ossleit. lie attended Geneva College for three years, and 
then entered the senior class of Union College, being grad- 
uated from that institution in July, 1835. After reading law with 
Walter Bubbell, of Canandaigua, he was admitted to the bar at Al- 
bany in October, 1839. He began practice at Lyons and from there 
removed to Canandaigua, where he still resides, lie was successful 




C3^^^dw^w^c 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 367 

from the beginning of his professional career, and gradually obtained 
a recognized position among the eminent men of the state bar. 

From 1842 to 1847 he held the office of surrogate of Wayne county. 
He was one of the delegates from New York to the peace congress in 
Washington, in 1861. From May, 1862, to December 31, 1877, he was 
one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the state, and as such sat 
in the Court of Appeals in 1866. He was a delegate from the 7th judi- 
cial district to the commission which was appointed in 1890 to pro- 
pose amendments to the judiciary article of the constitution. 

Justice Smith has received the honorary degree of doctor of laws 
from Union, Hamilton, and Hobart Colleges. 




|MITH, JAMES MURDOCK, ex-judge of the Superior Court 
of Buffalo (born in East Poultney, Rutland county, Ver- 
mont, August 23, 1S16), is the only son of Honorable Har- 
vey D. Smith 1 and Harriet Murdoch, 2 and is a lineal de- 
scendant of the Reverend Henry Smith, an English clergyman who 
came to America in 1634, settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 
1636, and was the first minister in that place. 

Mr. Smith's father was a merchant prominent in business and of- 
ficial life in East Poultney, and represented the town several times 
in the A^ermont legislature. In 1824 he removed to Gouverneur, Saint 
Lawrence county, New York, where he filled successively the offices 
of supervisor, justice of the peace, surrogate and special county judge, 
and where he died in 1864 full of years and universally lamented. 

Mr. Smith was educated in the village school and in the Gouver- 
neur Academy. Upon graduation from the latter, he began the study 
of law in the office of Bishop & Thompson, of Granville, Washington 
county, New York. In 1836 he entered the office of Honorable Ed- 
ward Livingston in Albany, New York, then district attorney of Al- 
bany county, where he remained two years as managing clerk, during 
which time he was admitted to the bar as an attorney in the Supreme 
Court and solicitor in chancery. 

In 1S38 he located in Buffalo, then a city of small proportions, 
struggling to recover from the financial disaster of 1836, which had 
fallen with especial severity upon it. He first formed a partnership 
with Henry W. Rogers and John J. Leonard, but Mr. Rogers speedily 
retiring, Mr. Smith continued for a brief period with Mr. Leonard, and 
upon the latter's removal to Detroit, Michigan, entered into an asso- 

1 The line of descent on the paternal Bide is as follows : a merchant of Limerick, Ireland, who being a standi 

Reverend Henry Smith 1 , of Wethersfield, Connecticut; Jacobite was impoverished by the civil war of n'^> '"', 

his son, Samuel Smith", of Northampton, Massachusetts; through Peter-, Major John 3 , and Reverend •Tallies', the 

his son, Ebenezer Smith 3 , of Suffield, Connecticut ; his father of Harriet 8 . Peter came to this country in 1C96 

son, Nathaniel Smith', of Suffield, Connecticut; his son, and settled in Ea6t Hampton, Long Island. Major John 

Nathaniel Smith*, of Pawlet, Vermont ; his son, Harvey Murdock was of Saybrook, Connecticut, and was one of 

D. Smith", of Gouverneur, New York ; his son, Honorable the leading men of that state, and his son. Reverend 

James M. Smith 7 , the subject of this sketch. James Murdock, was the maternal grandfather of Judge 

3 On his mother's side the line is from John Murdock 1 , Smith. 



368 



lll-TORY OF THE BENCH AND EAR OF NEW YORK 



ciation with James Smith, Esquire, which lasted until 1S40, when he 
again went into partnership with Henry W. Rogers, the then district 
attorney of Erie county. This firm became noted and prosperous and 
brought Mr. Smith prominently before the business men of the grow- 
ing city, not only in matters of law but notably in concerns of business 
and finance. In 1848, Mr. Rogers having been appointed collector of 
the port of Buffalo, the firm was dissolved and Mr. Smith became the 
law partner of Solomon G. Haven, who until that time had been a 
partner of Millard Eillniore. A large and lucrative practice followed, 
Mr. Smith's services being more and more sought by the leading busi- 
ness and banking men of Buffalo. He developed so pronounced an 
adaptability for banking that his active co-operation was invited by 
certain men of capital, and iu 185G he was persuaded to abandon the 
law and take charge of White's Bank as its cashier. A year later, in 
conjunction with some of the ablest and soundest citizens of Buffalo, 
he founded the Clinton Bank, taking the position of cashier. This in- 
stitution was among the few that withstood the panic of 1857. Four 
years subsequently, owing to the financial uncertainties attending 
the breaking out of the civil war, the bank paid up its stockholders 
and depositors in full and wound up its affairs. 

In 1862 Mr. Smith, free from outside business connections, formed 
a partnership with Honorable John Ganson and resumed the practice 
of his profession. The firm at once attained, and during its existence 
held, a wide reputation in the state and national courts. Its advice 
was sought by individuals and corporations, and the calendars of all 
the courts were filled with its cases, while matters of vast importance 
Merc conducted by it to favorable and judicious settlement without . 
the intervention of the courts. In all matters of contracts, of trusts, 
of real estate, and of wills, Mr. Smith was an authority, and his guid- 
ing hand is still seen in the disposition of large estates left by gener- 
ous testators. 

In 1873 he was appointed by the governor and senate to fill the 
vacancy in the Superior Court of Buffalo occasioned by the death of 
Judge Isaac A. Verplanck, and in November following he was elected 
his own successor for the term of fourteen years. His elevation to 
the bench met with universal approval. He brought to the position 
an energetic mind, a clear perception, and a happy faculty of charging 
the jury in terse, strong language, which, while it vigorously laid 
bare the real points and presented his own views of justice involved 
in the case, was coupled with a fairness that never trenched upon 
the juror's rights. He was also distinguished on the bench by a large 
experience and an untiring industry that made him an exceedingly 
strong member of the court, of which the great, number of cases tried 
before him, and his written opinions, gave permanent record. 

On January 1, 1887, having reached the constitutional limit of 
years and for some time having been chief-judge of the court, he was 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 369 

retired from his judicial office. His retirement was made the occa- 
sion of a complimentary banquet given him by the members of the 
bar and distinguished citizens of Buffalo as a testimonial to the high 
qualities that had marked his professional and judicial career. 

Although engrossed by professional cares, augmented by an unus- 
ual number of private trusts, Judge (Smith has always been identified 
with matters of public interest to the citizens of Buffalo. Until he 
went on the bench he was chairman of the board of commissioners 
who built the City and County Hall — a monument to-day of honest 
work and economical expenditure. He was chairman also of the citi- 
zens' committee for the erection of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monu- 
ment in Lafayette Park, and he was in 1871 counsel for the executor 
of the will of Jesse Ketchum, and prepared the deed of trust which 
conveyed to the City of Buffalo the fund of $10,000 designated as 
" The Jesse Ketchum Memorial Fund," from the income of which 
gold and silver medals are annually awarded to meritorious pupils 
of the public schools. 

In 1873 Hobart College conferred on Judge Smith the honorary de- 
gree of LL.D. 

From his earliest residence in Buffalo he has been a member of 
Trinity Church, and he has long been identified with that church as 
vestryman and warden and as a liberal contributor to its work. In 
1871 he was appointed chancellor of the diocese of western New York, 
a position he still holds. He has represented the diocese as lay dele- 
gate to each of the triennial general conventions of the protestant 
episcopal church since and including that of 1874. 

Judge Smith has been twice married — in 1840 to Martha Washing- 
ton, daughter of Elias Bradley of Buffalo, who died in 1841, leaving 
an infant son who survived her but a few months; and in June, 1845, 
to Margaret, daughter of John P. Sherwood, Esquire, of Vernon, 
Oneida county, New York. The children of this marriage are: Mar- 
garet L., who married Robert P. Wilson, Esquire, a member of the 
Erie county bar, and Philip Sherwood Smith, who is also a member of 
that bar. 

Judge Smith has long been recognized as a good financier and an 
excellent judge of values and securities. His foresight and his faith in 
the growth and prosperity of Buffalo have enabled him to accumu- 
late a handsome fortune for his declining years, and for the gratifi- 
cation of those generous and liberal impulses in connection with pub- 
lic, charitable, educational, and religious objects which have ever 
characterized him. 

He is a man of marked literary tastes and habits, possesses a large 
and valuable library, and, still in the possession of sound physical, 
moral, and mental health, inherited from stanch old New England 
stock, genial, kind, and affable, he spends much of his time sur- 
rounded by scholars and men of letters. 




370 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

MITH, JARYIS E. (born in Moriches, Suffolk county, New 
York, January 15, 1866), is the son of Egbert and Joseph- 
ine H. Smith. He is a lineal descendant of Richard 
Smith, the founder of Smithtown, who is generally 
referred to as " the bull-rider," and is a great-great-grandson of 
Colonel Josiah Smith, who fought in the battle of Long Island 
and many of whose official and private documents, or copies of 
them, are preserved by the Long Island Historical Society. Jar- 
vis E. Smith received a good preliminary education, at the public 
schools and under private tuition, and in 1885 was graduated at the 
Huntington High School. After reading law with Edward R. 
Ackerly, of Huntington, he was admitted to the bar at Brooklyn, 
September 20, 1888. " He remained with Mr. Ackerly until July, 1889, 
when he became connected with the Title Guarantee and Trust Com- 
pany of New York and Brooklyn. Since January, 1895, he has been 
in partnership at Jamaica with George Wallace in the firm of Wal- 
lace & Smith. The firm does a successful law business. 




MITH, NELSON (born in Middletown, Delaware county, 
New York, September 29, 1832), is the son of Samuel Smith, 
his ancestry being English on his father's side and Dutch 
through his mother. His great-grandfather, Abel Smith, 
born on Long Island in 1702, married Ruth, daughter of Samuel 
Jackson, granddaughter of Colonel John Jackson, member of the 
colonial assembly, lieutenant-colonel of militia, and judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas, and great-granddaughter of Robert Jackson, 
one of the original settlers of Hempstead, Long Island, and a member 
of Governor Nicolls's convention, 1665. Through another great- 
grandfather, Harmonus Dumond, Mr. Smith is descended from 
Katrina Schuyler Dumond, daughter of David Schuyler, mayor of 
Albany. 

He was educated at the Delaware Academy, afterward taking spe- 
cial courses in New York City, and studied law with Honorable Sam- 
uel Gordon and Honorable William Murray. He was admitted to the 
bar and commenced practice in New York City in 1855, and was soon 
after admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. 
He has devoted himself closely to his profession, enjoying a wide prac- 
tice, his reported cases embracing nearly the entire range of the law. 
At the same time he has kept up his interest in the study of the sci- 
ences, natural rights, government, political economy, and kindred 
subjects. 

He took an active part in support of the democratic cause in the 
national campaigns of 1S84, 1888, and 1892, and throughout the cam- 
paign of education to promote the reform of the tariff. Ho contrib- 
uted many articles and made numerous speeches which were printed 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 



371 



and circulated as educational documents. In 1892 he was a presiden- 
tial elector. He was a delegate from New York City to the constitu- 
tional convention of 1894, and was an active and influential member. 
He was credited with many of the reforms effected by the judiciary 
article of the revised constitution, notably the creation of the new 
court known as the appellate division of the Supreme Court, which 
took the place of the old general term. 

For four years, from 1890 to 1894, he was chairman of the general 
committee of Tammany Hall, which position he resigned in January, 
1894. He has always been a warm sympathizer with the cause of Ire- 
land, and at one time was chairman of the central branch of the Irish 
Land League of America, which position he held for about four years. 
He is a member of the American Bar Association, State Bar Associa- 
tion, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Law Insti- 
tute, and the Press, Manhattan, Keform, and Democratic clubs. 




|PANN, ALBERT CARL (born in Attica, Wyoming county, 
New York, January 18, 1863), is the son of Henry and 
Matilda Beitter Spann. He was graduated at the Attica 
Academy in January, 1880, studied law in the offices of 
Crowley, Movius & Wilcox, and Allen, Movius & Wilcox, and in 
March, 1884, was admitted to the bar at Rochester. He was employed 
as managing clerk for Allen, Movius & Wilcox until February, 1888, 
since which time he has been practicing alone in Buffalo, except for a 
period of about, a year and a half, when he was associated with C. M. 
Harrington in the firm of Spann & Harrington. 

Mr. Spann has built up a large practice as counsel for private cor- 
porations, persons interested in real estate and commercial and mer- 
cantile houses. He also represents various important estates, and 
transacts an extensive collection business. He is the local Buffalo 
counsel for two prominent life insurance companies. 




PAULDING, ELBRIDGE GERRY (born in Summer Hill, 
Cayuga county. New York, February 24, 1809; died in 
Buffalo, May 4, 1897), was the son of Edward Spaulding, 
of an old and prominent American family, 1 and Mehitabel 
Goodrich, daughter of a presbyterian clergyman. He was named for 
the celebrated Elbridge Gerry, one of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, and a member 

1 The American ancestor was Edward Spaulding, who of] "widespread influence and of national reputation, 

came from England and settled at Hingham, Massachu- Edward Spaulding (father of Honorable E. G. Spaulding) 

setts, about 1630. was a brave and reliable soldier in the war of the Revolu- 

" The Spauldings have been a family noted for the very tion, and Levi, his father, shared in the dangers and priva- 

best of common sense, good judgment, and intelligence, tions of the memorable battle of Bunker Hill, and partook 

and many of them have risen high in the walks of life and likewise of its glory and renown."-D. W. Manchester, 

made their impression on and in the localities and com- in the Magazine of Western History, Vol. v., pp. 205-fl. 
munities where they lived, while some of them have been 



372 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

of tlie convention that framed the constitution of the United States. 

His early years were spent at the Auburn Academy, where he made 
the most of the opportunities afforded him for an education. At the 
age of twenty, deciding upon a professional life, and with a fixed pur- 
pose to achieve a recognized position in the world, he became a stu- 
dent in the law office of Fitch & Dibble, at Batavia, New York. De- 
pending upon his own resources for his support, he taught school win- 
ters and also acted as assistant to the county clerk. Two years later, 
in 1832, removing to Attica, New York, he entered there the law office 
of Honorable Harvey Putnam, where for another two years he con- 
tinued to apply himself closely to professional study. He was then 
admitted to practice in the Court of Common Pleas of Genesee county. 
He thereupon removed to Buffalo. After spending some time in the 
law office of Potter & Babcock, still pursuing legal studies, he com- 
menced practice. In 1836 he was admitted as a practitioner of the 
Supreme Court of the State of New York and solicitor in the Court of 
Chancery, and in 1839 as counselor of the Supreme Court and the 
Court of Chancery. 

From his admission to the Supreme Court his rise was rapid and 
continuous. He first formed a partnership with George R. Babcock, 
and afterward with Herman B. Potter. This latter connection lasted 
until 1844, when he became associated in partnership with Honorable 
John Ganson, a relationship that continued until 1848, their business 
reaching extensive proportions. 

In the mean time he had been called more and more prominently to 
public service. In 1836 he was appointed city clerk of Buffalo, in 
1841 he was elected an alderman, and in 1847 mayor of Buffalo. He 
discharged the duties and responsibilities of these several offices with 
universal approval. As alderman he served as chairman of the 
finance committee. While mayor many measures of great importance 
and utility were enacted through his recommendation and influence. 
Under his administration the state adopted the Erie and Ohio basins 
for enlarging the facilities of lake and canal commerce at Buffalo. 
An extensive system of sewerage was inaugurated, and the Buffalo 
Gaslight Company for lighting the city was chartered. In 1848 he 
was sent to the state assembly, and the year following his district 
chose him as its representative in the 31st congress. He was also 
elected to the 36th and 37th congresses. 

In the national legislature he at once took front rank. During his 
first term he was conspicuous in the memorable Cobb-Winthrop con- 
test for the speakership, voting steadfastly for Mr. Winthrop. In the 
36th and 37th congresses, when the government was crippled by the 
financial necessities of the civil war, his qualities as a statesman and 
financier were most brilliantly displayed. Mr. Spaulding, in an ad- 
dress before the Bankers' Association in Philadelphia in 1876, thus 
referred to this juncture: 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 373 

At the breaking out of the rebellion in 1861, the government of the United 
States had no national institution to resort to like the Bank of England or the 
Bank of France for aid to sustain the union army and navy. It had only a 
barren sub-treasury, which in every effort of the government to make loans was 
known to be antagonistic to the customary commercial operations of the state 
banks. The sub-treasury was in no way connected with the clearing-house 
operations, and could not check on the banks for government disbursements; 
and if the government borrowed money on its bonds from the banks, the money 
had to be paid into the sub-treasury in gold and silver coin or treasury notes, 
which at once weakened the bank reserves, and tended to disturb the whole 
financial business of the country. The sub-treasury law was a positive obstacle 
to a successful management of the finances in the great war then in progress to 
maintain the union. 

In the events which succeeded, Mr. Spaulding occupied the impor- 
tant position of chairman of the sub-committee on ways and means. 
At the request of Secretary Chase he prepared a bill to carry into ef- 
fect the plan of a national bank. As this measure encountered dila- 
tory opposition, disastrous at a time when the treasury was empty 
and the government overwhelmed with increasingly enormous war 
expenses, Mr. Spaulding at once introduced into the house of repre- 
sentatives the legal tender act. Its title, " An act to authorize the 
issue of United States notes and for the redemption and funding 
thereof, and for funding the floating debt of the United States," 
fully expressed its objects. In his opening remarks Mr. Spaulding 
said: 

The demand notes put in circulation would meet the present exigencies of 
the government in the discharge of its existing liabilities to the army, navy, and 
contractors, and for supplies, materials, and munitions of war. These notes 
would find their way into all the channels of trade among the people, and as 
they accumulate in the hands of capitalists they would exchange them for the 6 
per cent, twenty-year bonds. 

The act was brought forward and advocated solely as a temporary 
" war measure," its object being to fund the debt incurred for war ex- 
penses. The currency issued under it being convertible into 6 per 
cent, gold bonds, the act thereby provided for practical redemption, 
assuring an easy and natural mode of withdrawing a purely war cur- 
rency. The opening speech of Mr. Spaulding in support of the legal 
tender act was very able and exhaustive, and had great influence in 
carrying the bill through congress. It was the first official exposition 
of the necessity of the legal tender notes as a war measure and of the 
constitutionality of that measure, and also was the first complete 
statement of the grounds on which the plan should be supported in 
order to provide the necessary means. Charles Sumner, in a letter to 
Mr. Spaulding in 1869, referring to this service of the latter, said: 

In all our early financial trials while the war was most menacing, you held a 
position of great trust, giving you opportunity and knowledge. The first you 



374 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

used at the time most patriotically, and the second you use now in preparing a 
financial history 1 of the war for the instruction of the country. 

The first legal tender act, for $150,000,000, was approved by Presi- 
dent Lincoln, February 25, 1862; the second, for $150,000,000, July 
1 1. 1862. In February, 1863, the national currency bank bill, prepared 
by Mr. Spaulding in 1861, was reported, with some alterations and 
amendments, from the finance committee to the senate by John Sher- 
man. Upon its passage and reception from the senate Mr. Spaulding 
opened the debate in the house with an exhaustive speech, and its 
passage there was secured the following day by a substantial major- 
ity. 

While in congress Mr. Spaulding served on the most important 
committees, in association with such men as Sherman, Thaddeus 
Stevens, Morrill, and Grow. He opposed the Missouri Compro- 
mise in 1851, took an active part in the organization of the repub- 
lican party, for several years was a member of the republican state 
central committee, and in 1860 was an active member of the republi- 
can congressional committee in the campaign which resulted in the 
election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. 

Soon after he came to Buffalo he was made president of the Farm- 
ers' and Mechanics' National Bank, which was first organized as a 
state bank in the Village of Batavia in 1840, but was by special act 
of the legislature removed to Buffalo in 1850. He remained at its 
head until his death. One of the most useful and eminent citizens 
of Buffalo, he was ever identified with the public improvements, 
charitable and benevolent enterprises of the city. He was a life mem- 
ber of the Young Men's Association; a member of the Buffalo Histori- 
cal Society, the Society of Natural Sciences and the Buffalo dub; 
president of the International Bridge Company; director in the street 
railroads, and a stockholder in a number of banks. 

He published a history of " Legal Tender Paper Money Used Dur- 
ing the Great Rebellion " (Buffalo, 1869), which is the standard au- 
thority upon the subject, and also an address on "One Hundred 
Years of Progress in the Business of Banking," delivered before the 
Banking Association at the centennial exposition of 1876. 




PKING, ALFKED (born in Fraiikiinville, New York, Febru- 
ary 19, 1851), is the son of Samuel Stowell and Ellen Hogg 
Spring, He was graduated at the Ten Broeck Free Acad- 
emy (Fraiikiinville) in 1870, and then for two years was a 
student in the literary department of Michigan University. After 
si tidying law with his father he was admitted to the bar at Rochester, 
in October, 1875. He has always practiced at Fraiikiinville. In 1S7S 

1 Mr. Spaulilin^'s imi|.,. riant historical «"rk on Ihr legal t.inler issues. 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 375 

and 1879 he was in partnership with C. D. Van Aernani in the firm of 
Spring & Van Aernani, and from 1885 to January 1, 1S95, with his 
brother, George E. Spring, who is now a practicing lawyer in Frank- 
linville. 

In 1876 Mr. Spring served as supervisor of Frauklinville. He 
held the office of surrogate of Cattaraugus county for two terms 
(from 18S0 to 1892, inclusive). He is now one of the justices of the 
Supreme Court of the state, having been appointed to that office on 
January 10, 1895, by Governor Morton, and elected in the fall of that 
year. 

Justice Spring's father, Samuel S. Spring, was district attorney of 
Cattaraugus county, and, at the time of his death (July, 1875), county 
judge. 



;v^~a.j TACKPOLE, GEORGE FRANKLIN (born in Lebanon, York 
lypslk county, Maine, November 29, 1843), is the son of Isaac and 
joHflp Syrena Stackpole, and is a descendant of James Stackpole, 

' ' who emigrated from England about 1650. He received a 

common, high, and normal school education in his native state, and 
then entered Dartmouth College, where he was graduated in the class 
of 1872. After teaching seven years he studied law 'with Miller & 
Tuthill, of Riverhead, Suffolk county, New York, was admitted to the 
bar in Brooklyn in February, 1880, and since that date has been in 
successful practice in Riverhead. He has held the office of justice of 
the peace continuously since 1880, with the exception of the years 
1893 and 1894. 




r TEPHAN, FREDERICK, Junior (born in Rondout, now a 
part of the City of Kingston, May 20, 1859), is the son of 
Honorable Frederick Stephan, ex-member of assembly and 
an old resident of Rondout, and Magdelena von Beck, eld- 
est daughter of Major George F. von Beck, of Kingston. He attended 
a private school and the Ulster Academy, and in Feruary, 1886, was 
graduated from the law department of Union University (Albany) 
with the degree of bachelor of laws. His office preparation for the 
profession was received with Honorable William Lawton, ex-judge of 
Ulster county, Seymour L. Stebbins and Edmund S. Wood, all of 
Kingston. He was admitted to the bar at Albany in May, 1886, and 
began practice at Kingston, where he still resides. 

Early in his professional career Mr. Stephan served as a justice of 
the peace for Kingston. In 1895 he was appointed counsel to the 
board of supervisors. Since January 1, 1S9T, he has been judge of the 
City Court of Kingston, to which office he was elected in November, 
1896. 



376 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 




TERNE, SIMON (born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 
23, 1839), is the son of Henry and Regina Sterne. He was 
educated in the Philadelphia public schools, at the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, and at the University of Heidelberg 




and other European universities. He studied law in the law depart- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 377 

ment of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he was gradu- 
ated June 6, 1859, and also in the offices of John H. Markland and 
Judge Sharswood, of Philadelphia. He began practice at Philadel- 
phia in 1859, but shortly afterward removed to New York City, where 
he was admitted to the bar in June, 1860, and where he has practiced 
since. 

Mr. Sterne was the counsel for the bondholders in the Louisiana 
bond case before the United States Supreme Court; was counsel for 
New York City in various suits arising out of the Tweed ring frauds 
to recover interest moneys from various banks; was counsel for the 
plaintiffs in the litigation known as the New York City sinking fund 
case; was appointed in 1879 counsel for the assembly committee of 
New York to investigate the alleged abuses in the management of the 
railroads of the state; was counsel of the interstate commerce com- 
mission in its suits against the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, and 
against the Texas & Pacific Railroad Company; was formerly coun- 
sel of the Central Crosstown Railroad of the City of New York, and 
for many years has been general counsel of the Missouri, Kansas & 
Texas Railway Company and its affiliated lines. The assembly inves- 
tigation in 1879, referred to above, was conducted by him for a period 
of over eight months, five volumes of testimony being taken. This 
investigation resulted in the appointment of the board of railroad 
commissioners, and in many other reforms in connection with rail- 
road management in this state. He was also consulted by the Cullom 
senate committee on commerce in ISSfi and 1887, and drafted some of 
the important provisions of the interstate commerce act passed on the 
recommendation of that committee. 

He was the secretary of the reform Committee of Seventy in 1870 
and 1871, and a member of the Committee of Seventy appointed in 
1894. He was a member of the commission appointed bv Governor 
Tilden in 1875 to devise a plan of government for the cities of the 
State of New York, and was appointed in 1887 by President Cleveland 
to investigate and report on the railroads of Europe. In 1895 he was 
appointed by Governor Morton a member of a commission to recom- 
mend changes in the method of legislation in this state. He is the au- 
thor of a book on " Representative Government," a work on the " Con- 
stitution of the United States," and of the articles on " Administra- 
tion of American Cities," " Legislation," " Monopolies," " Railways," 
and " Representation " in Lalor's " Cyclopaedia of Political Science 
and United States History." 

TEVENS, FRANK WALKER (born in Leon, Cattaraugus 
county, New York, December 16, 1847), is the son of Daniel 
S. and Catharine E. Hurty Stevens. He was educated at 
Randolph Academy and was prepared for the bar at the 
Harvard Law School (from which he was graduated in 1870) and in 




378 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

the office of Jenkins & Goodwill, of East Randolph, New York. lie 
was admitted to practice at a general term of the Supreme Court held 
at Rochester in September, 1871. The next year he began his profes- 
sional career at East Randolph as a member of the firm of Goodwill 
& Stevens. From there he removed in October, 1882, to Jamestown, 
where he entered the firm of Sheldon, Green, Stevens & Benedict. 
From 1890 to 1893 he practiced alone. He is now at the head of the 
firm of Stevens & Peterson. 

He served for two terms as district attorney of Cattaraugus county 
(1878 to 1883, inclusive). Since 1891 he has been a member of the 
board of education of Jamestown. 




TEYENS, JAMES HUMPHREY, Junior (born in Dansville, 
Steuben county, New York, July 11, 1827), is the son of 
James Humphrey and Sallie Wilson Stevens. His father 
was of English and Scotch descent, and removed in early 
life to New York state from Warwick, Massachusetts, the place of his 
birth. The mother of James Humphrey Stevens, Senior, was a daugh- 
ter of Reverend James Humphries, a Scotch presbyterian divine. 
The mother of James Humphrey Stevens, Junior, born at Shoreham, 
Vermont; was a daughter of William Wilson, a "Green Mountain 
Boy." One of William Wilson's grandsous was Lieutenant-Governor 
(afterward Governor) Ormsbee, of Vermont, whose mother was a sis- 
ter of the subject of this sketch. 

James H. Stevens, the younger, was educated at common and select 
schools, the Rogersville Union Seminary and Alfred University. 
During his educational course he taught in country and village 
schools for eight winter terms. He began the study of law while liv- 
ing at home on his father's farm, borrowing books for that purpose 
from L. B. Proctor, who later became secretary of the State Bar As- 
sociation, and also from ex-Judge Hawley. In 1851-52 he took the 
course of study at the State and National Law School at Ballston Spa, 
Saratoga county, uuder professors Fowler, Hayden, and others; and 
he also pursued legal studies for a brief time with William T. Odell, 
then district attorney of Saratoga county. After his admission to the 
bar (January 5, 1852) he was for some months a clerk in the office of 
Honorable David Runisey, of Bath — afterward justice of the Supreme 
Court. Being elected superintendent of common schools of the Town 
of Dansville, he discharged the duties of that position for a few years, 
when he resigned to devote himself to his profession. He had pre- 
viously begun practice in Rogersville, in the Town of Dansville, but 
he removed to the Village (now City) of Horuellsville. where, on the 
L31 li day of April, 1854, he funned a copartnership with the late Hor- 
ace Bemis, which continued for upward of ten years. He was then 
for fifteen years in pari nersliip with the late Judge Harlo Hakes, who 



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HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 379 

during this period was appointed a register in bankruptcy. After the 
dissolution of this latter relation he established with his brother the 
well known firm of J. H. & C. W. Stevens. 

Mr. Stevens, during the forty-three years of his practice, has con- 
ducted a general civil business, avoiding criminal cases, and has 
gained a recognized place not only as one of the most conspicuous 
leaders of the Steuben bar but also as one of the representative prac- 
titioners of western New York. Since March, 1885, he has been at- 
torney for the Erie Railroad Company in the counties of the southern 
tier and of western New York through which the road runs, except in 
Erie and Monroe counties. 

A democrat in politics, he has adhered faithfully to his principles, 
notwithstanding the hopelessness of the democratic cause in his part 
of the state. He has consequently held no elective offices of general 
importance; but, being devoted to his profession, he has been satis- 
fied with its pursuits and has not sought political honors. He has, 
however, though against his protest, been the candidate of his party 
on four occasions for county judge of Steuben county, once for mem- 
ber of the assembly and once for district attorney. He has held the 
position of president of the Village of Hornellsville, and has served as 
a member and as chairman of the county board of supervisors. He 
has also been a vice-president of the New York State Bar Association, 
and for many years was one of its executive committee. Having been 
raised on a farm and being the owner of several farms, he has always 
been interested in farms and farmers; and he was the first president 
(retaining the position for two years) of the Hornellsville Farmers' 
Club, now somewhat well known, and located at Hornellsville. 

Although so long an adherent of the democratic party, in the fall 
of 1896, believing that the heresies of free silver, free riot, and free 
trade had dominated the convention at Chicago which nominated a 
young man of very excellent qualities for president, he felt that his 
duty to the country was above that of party, and voted for Mr. Mc- 
Kinley. 

Throughout his long and very active career at the bar Mr. Stevens 
has been an " all-'round " lawyer and has dealt with a great variety 
of suits involving highly interesting and important principles. While 
yet a young practitioner he found that the Pulteney estate, so-called, 
owning large parcels of land in Steuben and other counties, was not 
paying taxes which the people believed should be paid; and after a 
protracted and hard-fought contest the courts decided that these 
land-owners should pay their just share of taxes along with the resi- 
dent owners of land. This case (People vs. Halsey) is reported in 37 
N. Y., 344. Mr. Stevens has been counsel in various railway suits 
presenting notable legal questions, among which may be mentioned 
the following: Berrigan vs. the N. Y., L. E. & W. R. R, Co. (131 N. Y, 
582); Lacroy vs. the N. Y., L. E. & W. R. R. Co (132 N. Y., 570), and 



380 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Frace vs. the N. Y., L. E. & W. R. E. Co. (143 N. Y., 182). In the last- 
mentioned case a very important principle touching the liabilities of 
a railway company for damages caused by fire from locomotive sparks 
was established and sharply defined. According to the decision in 
this action, courts are bound to take judicial notice that the system 
of spark arresters now in general use by the railway companies is a 
correct system, and it is not in the province of jurors to decide other- 
wise — the verdict against the defendant rendered by a jury at circuit 
on the ground that the system was defective, having been reversed on 
appeal. In the Lacroy and Berrigan cases the court of last resort 
sustained the contention of the railway company that the rules of the 
Erie company were as good as any in use among the great railwav 
corporations; that they were well promulgated and furnished to the 
employees, and that in cases of accident resulting from the failure of 
employees to observe and obey such reasonable rules, such employees 
could not recover for injuries sustained in the circumstances. Other 
cases tried by Mr. Stevens which involve matters of peculiar public 
interest are Ayres vs. Hammondsport (130 N. Y., 665) and Thatcher 
vs. Hope Cemetery Association (126 N. Y., 530). 

He has also acted extensively in hearing cases as referee in the 
Counties of Allegany, Steuben, Livingston, Wyoming, and Chemung, 
several of which have been decided finally in the Court of Appeals. 
As referee in Rice vs. Manley (66 N. Y., 82) he found from the evidence 
and decided two propositions of novel character, which were declared 
by the general term to be unsound ; but upon appeal to the Court of 
Appeals the judgment of the general term was reversed and that of 
the referee was sustained. Also as referee in the case of West vs. 
Van Tuyl (17 N. Y. S. Rep., 273; affirmed in 119 N. Y., 620) he more 
clearly defined and established an important rule of evidence in re- 
gard to the use of books kept by parties as records of their transac- 
tions. 



ITTCKNEY, ALBERT (born in Boston, February 1, 1839), was 
graduated from Harvard College in 1859 and from the Har- 
vard Law School in 1862. He served in the civil war as 
lieutenant-colonel of the 47th Massachusetts volunteers, 
campaigning in Louisiana on the staff of Major-General Banks, and 
as inspector-general on the staff of Major-General William H. Emory, 
ne was in command of the United States forces on the Opelousas 
Bailroad, between New Orleans and Brashear City, in May and June, 
1863, and of the United States forces engaged at Lafourche Crossing 
against the confederates under Colonel Major on .Tune 19, 20, and 21, 
1 S63. After the war he came to New York, and was clerk in the office 
of Evarts, Southmayrl & Ohoate. Since 1866 he has been engaged in 
the practice of the law in that city. 




HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAB OF NEW YORK 381 

He was counsel in the prosecution of the claims against the United 
States government for the proceeds of the cotton seized by General 
Sherman's army at Savannah at the close of the march to the sea- 
coast; one of the counsel for the prosecution of Judges Barnard, Car- 
dozo, and McCunn in 1871 and 1872; with Mr. O'Conor and Mr. Carter 
one of the counsel in the Jumel litigation; counsel for the Brie investi- 
gating committee in 1873; counsel for General Gouverneur K. Warren 
in the years 1880 and 1881 before a military court of inquiry com- 
posed of Generals Hancock, Newton, and Augur, in the matter of the 
removal of General Warren by General Sheridan from the command 
of the 5th army corps at the battle of Five Forks, resulting in 
General Warren's vindication; with Mr. Choate was counsel for Gen- 
eral Oesnola and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the litigation 
as to the genuineness of the Cesnola Cyprus collection in 1883; was 
counsel in the litigations as to the Broadway surface railroad in 1S86 
and 1S87; was counsel for Jacob Sharp in his trial for bribery in 1887, 
where his conviction was reversed by the Court of Appeals, and was 
a member of the Bar Association committee which investigated and 
reported on the acts of Judge Maynard as to the Dutchess county 
election returns in 1891. 

He is a member of the Harvard, Commonwealth, University, and 
Downtown clubs, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Geo- 
graphical Society, and was one of the Committee of Seventy of 1S94. 



| TONE, THOMAS ROBLEY (born at Princess Anne, Somer- 
set county, Maryland, September 1, 1857), is the son of 
Thomas Waters Stone and Leah Holbrooke Jones. His 
great-grandfather, Thomas Stone, was one of the Maryland 
signers of the Declaration of Independence. He attended Washington 
College in Maryland, completing the junior year, studied law with 
John W. Cristfleld at his native town, and was admitted to the bar 
at Fredericktown, Missouri, October 3, 1878. He began practice in 
the City of Saint Louis, in the law department of the St. L., I. M. & 
S. Railway company. In March, 1880, he organized with his brother, 
William S. Stone, the firm of Stone & Stone, which still continues, 
being now located in Buffalo. He has practiced, successively, in Al- 
pine, Colorado (March, 1880 to November, 1882), Albuquerque, New 
Mexico (November, 1882, to 1887), Kansas City, Missouri (18S7 to 
1892), and Buffalo (since 1892). 

Mr. Stone is a democrat in politics, and has been active in the sup- 
port of the principles of his party. 




382 



I II V| OR Y OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 




| TONE, WILLIAM SAVAGE (born in Baltimore, Maryland, 
February 16, 1855), is the elder brother of the preceding. 
He was educated at Saint John's College (Maryland) and 
the University Law School of Maryland, also pursuing 
legal studies with John W. Cristfield. He was admitted to practice 
law in Baltimore in 1875. Removing to the west he was appointed 
assistant attorney to the Saint Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Rail- 
way Company. In this capacity he continued until the formation of 
the partnership of Stone & Stone. (See the preceding sketch.) He 
still remains at the head of that firm, which is well known at the 
Buffalo bar. 

While in the southwest he was one of the builders of the W., M. 
& W. Railroad of Texas, and was its vice-president. He served as 
county attorney of Bernalillo county, New Mexico. 




TOEMS, WILLIAM TEN BROECK (born in Clarkstown, 
Rockland county, New York, February 17, 1841), is the 
son of Abraham J. Storms and Sarah Smith Ten Broeck. 
His father carried on a cedar cooperage business at Nyack, 
and was the first to introduce water power, and afterwards steam 
power, in manufacturing cedar ware. His grandfather, John Storms, 
and great-grandfather, Abraham Storms, were soldiers, respectively, 
in the war of 1812 and the Revolution, Abraham being confined by 
the British for about a year in the old Sugar House in New York City. 
The first county clerk of Rockland county was an ancestor of Mr. 
Storms. On his mother's side he is connected with the prominent Ten 
Broeck family of New Jersey. 

He received a common school education, afterward taking an 
academic course at Nyack, studied law with Thomas Lawreuce. of 
New York City, and Edward Wells, of Peekskill, and was admitted 
to the bar at a special term at Poughkeepsie, May 16, 1866. After 
practicing for a time in New York City he removed to Nyack, pre- 
ferring country business. He has since been a leading practitioner 
there, although a considerable part of his practice has been in New 
York City, in connection with the Surrogate's Court. He has obtained 
a large clientage in equity causes and surrogate's business, and also 
devotes much of his professional attention to the interests of several 
large estates. 

He was the first clerk of the Village of Nyack, and has al various 
times been a republican candidnte for district attorney, the assem- 
bly, and county treasurer, his election having been uniformly pre- 
vented, however, by the large democratic majority in Rockland 
county. He has been and still is prominently identified with the 
Nyack Building Co-operative Savings and Loan Association, and is 
a member of the State Bar Association. 




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HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 383 

WAN, CYBUS (born in Sharon, Litchfield county, Connecti- 
cut, March 15, 1820), is the son of Cyrus Swan and Bachael, 
daughter of David Could. His father was a lawyer a^nd 
farmer, and held the office of judge of Litchfield county, 
Connecticut. The son received a thorough academic education, and 
was for two years a student in Yale College. He was trained for the 
bar in the office of Johnston & Cole, in Poughkeepsie, New York, and 
was licensed to practice at a general term of the Supreme Court at 
Eochester, October 28, 1842, Chief-Justice Samuel Nelson presiding. 
He was subsequently admitted as a solicitor in chancery before Chan- 
cellor Beuben H. Walworth, November 3, 1843. He has always prac- 
ticed in Poughkeepsie, and still resides there, being one of the oldest 
and most esteemed representatives of the Dutchess bar. 

Mr. Swan was the confidential friend and legal adviser of Matthew 
Vassar, founder of Vassar College, from the time of his admission to 
the bar until Mr. Vassar's death. He drafted the charter of that in- 
stitution and procured its passage by the legislature, was counsel and 
secretary to the trustees during the early years, and drew the con- 
tracts for its construction and equipment, also exercising general 
superintendence until the completion of the buildings and the suc- 
cessful opening of the college and for some years thereafter. He is 
still one of the trustees of the college. 



lip— «■ j ABOE, CHAELES FEANKLIN (born in Saint Joseph 
^Jm*| county, Michigan, June 28, 1841), is the son of Silas and 
JJ^flptl Betsey E. Eussell Tabor. In the paternal line he comes 

from an original Welsh ancestry, and in the maternal he 

is of Dutch descent. When he was two years old his parents removed 
from Michigan to Erie county, New York. He attended public 
schools, the Clarence and Williamsville Academies (Erie county) and 
the Lima Seminary (Livingston county). Although prepared to re- 
ceive a collegiate education he did not enter college. 

Upon leaving school he became a student in the law office of Hon- 
orable James M. Humphrey, of Buffalo. He was admitted to the bar 
in November, 1863, at Buffalo, and immediately entered upon his pro- 
fession in that city. He has been in continuous practice there since, 
except during the period of his service in the attorney-general's office. 
His present firm, Tabor & Wilkie, in which Lafay C. Wilkie is asso- 
ciated with him, is one of the best known law firms at the bar of Buf- 
falo and Western New York. 

Mr. Tabor has had a very prominent public career, which, in the 
main, has been in the line of his profession. In politics he has from 
his youth been devoted to the principles of the democratic party. He 
served in the assembly in 1876 and 1877 as a representative from Erie 
county, making a highly creditable record in that body, and in 1880, 



384 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

18S1, and 188- was a member of the county board of supervisors for 
the Town of Lancaster. In 1883 be was the candidate of the demo- 
cratic parly for county judge, and although the normal republican 
majority in Erie county is quite large he was defeated by only sev- 
enty-eight votes, lie acted for some time as attorney for the board of 
supervisors. In June, 1885, he became 1st deputy attorney-general 
of the state under Attorney-General Denis O'Brien. In the fall of 
1887 he was elected to the office of attorney-general, and in 1889 he 
was re-elected. He retired from that position on the 1st of January, 
1892. 

Mr. Tabor's legal services to the people in his official character have 
been of very unusual significance, interest, and value. As attorney 
to the board of supervisors of Erie county, he successfully conducted 
the important case of Board of (Supervisors vs. Jones (119 N. Y., 339), 
which involved the question of county treasurers' fees, and also tried 
other cases of considerable noteworthiness. As attorney-general of 
the State of New York for four years he had charge of a variety of 
suits of fundamental importance, in some of which the decisions are 
landmarks of New York state jurisprudence. 

While serving as attorney-general he carried to a successful issue 
the celebrated " Sugar Trust Case " (121 N. Y., 582). In People vs. 
Cook (110 N. Y., 113) he succeeded in establishing the principle that 
where railroad franchises are sold under foreclosure proceedings 
companies reorganizing must pay the state tax upon such reorganiza- 
tion. In the cases of People ex rel. Brush E. M. Co. vs. Wemple (129 
N. Y., 543) and People ex rel. American C. & D. Co. vs. Wemple (129 
X. Y., 558) he obtained a decision settling the law as to the liability 
for taxes of domestic corporations doing business within the state. 
Among the other important cases argued by Attorney-General Tabor 
affecting vital issues of taxation may be mentioned: People ex rel. 
S. C. Oil Co. vs. Wemple (113 jN t . Y., Gl), in which foreign corporations 
doing business in this state are declared to be liable for taxation; Peo- 
ple ex rel. Piatt vs. Wemple (117 In. Y., 130), establishing that " joint 
stock associations " are liable for taxes the same as corporations; 
Central Trust Company vs. N. Y. C. & 11. K. R. Co. (110 N. Y., 250), 
affirming that the claim for taxes against a railroad company is 
paramount to any other claim, and Home Insurance Company OS. 
New York (131 U. S., 594), setting forth the doctrine that a corpora- 
tion is liable for a tax upon its franchises and is not exempted there- 
from because its capital slock is invested in United States securities. 
Concerning; matters of the limitations of stale powers, etc., some of 
the Leading i >»>i n t s of law determined in sails decided during his term 
of office aii- the following: thai a citizen cannot maintain an action 
against the state except w lien the state has assumed liability by legis- 
lative enactment (Spelttorf vs. the Stair. His N. v., 205);* that the 
legislature has no power i<> authorize the board of claims t<> hear 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 385 

cases which as between citizens would be outlawed (Gates vs. the 
State, 128 N. Y., 221), and that the governor, as commander-in-chief, 
can disband a company of the national guard (People ex rel. Leo vs. 
Hill, 126 N. Y., 497). It was under Mr. Tabor's administration of 
the attorney-general's office that the constitutionality of the " elec- 
trocution law " was determined, in the case of People vs. Kemmler 
(119 N. Y., 569), the decision of the Court of Appeals being affirmed by 
the Supreme Court of the United States. 

Mr. Tabor since 1892 has devoted himself actively and without 
interruption to the practice of his profession. 

In 1893 he was appointed a trustee of the Buffalo Law Library, an 
honorable office which he still holds. 

On December 24, 1863, he married Phebe S. Andrews. 





AYLOR, EDWARD JAMES (born in Lockport, New York, 
January 2, 1856), is the son of James D. Taylor and Ursula 
M. Moore. He received a common school education, was 
prepared for the profession of the law under the direction 

of William S. Farnell, and was admitted to the bar at Rochester 

in April, 1880. He has since been in constant practice in Lockport. 

He is the senior member of the firm of Taylor & Nichols, in which 

Charles L. Nichols is associated with him. 



|OMPKINS, ARTHUR SIDNEY (born in Schoharie county, 
New York, August 26, 1865), is the son of Sidney B. Tomp- 
kins and Mary H., daughter of Reverend Isaac Yocum, a 
prominent baptist clergyman. His grandfather, Elias Q. 
Tompkins, of Yorktown, Westchester county, was for years a justice 
of the peace and supervisor of that town, and was prominent in the 
republican politics of the county. He died at the age of ninety-four. 

Arthur S. Tompkins was educated in the public schools of Clarks- 
town and Nyack, Rockland county, leaving school at the age of four- 
teen. He read law, successively, with Honorable Seth B. Cole, of 
Nyack, Henry C. Griffin, of Tariytown, and Abram A. Demarest, of 
Nyack, and in 1886 was admitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie. He 
soon afterward entered upon his profession at Nyack, where he still 
resides and practices. 

Although a comparatively young member of the bar, Mr. Tompkins 
has obtained a recognized position as one of the leaders of the Rock- 
land county bar. In 1894 he was elected county judge and surrogate, 
an office which he still holds. For several years prior to his election to 
that position he was concerned in the trial of almost every important 
case, both civil and criminal, arising in the county. With Honorable 
Clarence Lexow he defended Honorable Frank P. Demarest, a former 



386 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

assemblyman, who was tried on the charge of forgery, and obtained 
his acquittal. He secured several large verdicts in personal injury 
cases, one of them resulting in the payment of more than $12,000 by 
the Erie Railroad Company, after affirmance by the Court of Appeals. 
In the celebrated suit brought by William R. Thompson, editor of the 
Nyack Evening Star, against George A. Blauvelt, for alienation of 
Mrs. Thompson's affections, he was the plaintiff's attorney and ob- 
tained for his client a verdict of $10,000. 

Besides his present position of county judge and surrogate he has 
held the offices of police justice of Nyack (1887), and member of the 
assembly from Rockland county (1890). 

He has from youth taken an active interest in politics as a repub- 
lican, and has been a delegate to almost every congressional and sena- 
torial convention since he became of age. In 1888 he was chairman of 
the republican county committee. For several years he has been a 
delegate to judiciary conventions in and for the 2d judicial depart- 
ment, and in 1896 he was temporary and permanent chairman of the 
judiciary convention held in Brooklyn. 

Judge Tompkins is also prominent in the local affairs of Nyack and 
in social and other organizations. He is a member and director of the 
Nyack Board of Trade, and for ten years has been president of the 
Mazeppa Steam Fire Company No. 2, a volunteer fire company. He 
is a member and trustee of the 1st Baptist Church of Nyack. He 
is a director of the local Young Men's Christian Association, and is 
a member of the Oddfellows, the Improved Order of Red Men, the 
Foresters, and the Royal Arcanum, and is master of Rockland Lodge 
No. 723, F. and A. M., in all of which orders he is active and prom- 
inent. 




pRACY, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (born in Owego, Tioga 
county, New York, April 20, 1830), is the son of Benjamin 
Tracy, a farmer, whose family came originally from Ire- 
land, settled in Vermont, removing later to Massachusetts, 
and finally to New York. He was brought up on the farm until six- 
teen years old, attending the common schools and Owego Academy. 
At the age of nineteen he began the study of the law in the office of 
Davis & Warner at Owego, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1S51. 
He was in active practice in Owego for ten years, being successfully 
pitted against the veteran lawyers of the county. In November, 1853, 
he was elected district attorney of Tioga county, being the only can- 
didate on the whig ticket elected. Three years later he was re-elected 
for a second term. He was active in connection with the formation of 
the republican party in that, part of the state, and became one of its 
local leaders. 

In 1861 he was elected to the assembly, was instrumental in the 



f 





<~£ 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 387 

election of Henry J. Raymond as speaker, and was made chairman of 
several of the most important committees. With George Dawson, of 
the Albany Evening Journal, he was active in bringing about an al- 
liance between the war democrats and the republicans. Authorized 
July 22, 1862, to raise a regiment in his district, in less than two 
weeks he reported his regiment full and was appointed colonel. Re- 
ceiving authority, he also raised another regiment within a nionth, 
and would have raised a third, but was not authorized. His regiment 
was assigned to duty in connection with the defense of Washington, 
and later in Northern Virginia. It afterward formed part of the 9th 
ariny corps, and was actively engaged in the Virginia campaign of 
1864. At the battle of the Wilderness the brigade was on the extreme 
right, and took part in some of the heaviest fighting of the day. Un- 
der the heavy fire a portion of the line gave way. At this critical mo- 
ment Colonel Tracy seized the colors and carried his men forward 
with a charge. This movement resulted in the capture of the works, 
and for his gallantry he was awarded a medal of honor. Soon after, 
being prostrated by sickness and sent home,' he tendered his resigna- 
tion, but in the fall re-entered the service as colonel in command of 
the important post at Elmira, New York, where there were a large 
number of confederate prisoners and a camp and draft rendezvous. 
At the close of the war he resigned, having been commissioned briga- 
dier-general. 

July 1, 1865, General Tracy entered the law firm of Benedict, Burr 
& Benedict, of New York. Six months later he removed with his fam- 
ily to Brooklyn, where he continued to reside for many years. October 
1, 1866, he was appointed United States attorney for the eastern dis- 
trict of New York, and at once declared war against illicit distilling 
carried on through official connivance. He convicted and sent to 
prison violators of the law in office and out of office, and stamped out 
the business. In 1868 he was frequently consulted on the subject of 
revenue legislation, and drafted for the congressional committee the 
law relating to distilled spirits, which became the foundation of our 
present internal revenue system. 

Absorbed in his practice during the eight years following, General 
Tracy rapidly attained a recognized place among the leaders of the 
bar. His attention was given both to civil and criminal cases. He was 
associated with William M. Evarts, Thomas G. Shearman, and John 
K. Porter in defense of the famous suit brought against Henry 
Ward Beecher by Theodore Tilton, delivering the opening address on 
his side, and with Mr. Evarts conducting the cross-examination of the 
two principal witnesses, Tilton and Moulton. He was also counsel for 
Judge Charles L. Benedict in the interesting suit of Lange vs. Bene- 
dict (73 N. Y., 12) to recover damages for a sentence imposed by Judge 
Benedict in a trial in the United States Circuit Court, the United 
States Supreme Court having declared that the judge had exceeded 



388 HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK 

Ms power. It was held, however, that, being a judge of a court of 
general jurisdiction, he was not liable for a judicial act in a matter 
within his jurisdiction, although the act was excessive. Other inter- 
esting cases were the contest betweenDaly and Livingston for the sur- 
rogate's office in Brooklyn; the People vs. the Commissioners of 
Public Works of Brooklyn, in which he convicted the board and 
turned them out of office; the People vs. the Commissioners of Chari- 
ties, securing a reversal for the commissioners in the Court of Ap- 
peals after their conviction in the Supreme Court, and the suit of 
Kingsley and Keaney, contractors, against the City of Brooklyn, for 
whom he recovered a hundred thousand dollars. During this period 
he also appeared for the defense in five murder trials, in four of which 
he secured an acquittal. 

On December 8, 1881, he was appointed by Governor Cornell to the 
seat on the bench of the Court of Appeals made vacant by the resigna- 
tion of Judge Folger and the assignment of Judge Andrews as chief- 
judge. He occupied this position until succeeded through the election 
of Chief-Judge Kuger, January 1, 1883. His opinions appear in Vol- 
umes 88, S9, and 98 of the New York Reports. The important cases 
in which he wrote the opinion of the court include Story vs. the New 
York Elevated Railroad Company (90 N. Y., 122), establishing the 
fundamental principles of law applying to damages to abutting prop- 
erty, which have been regarded as controlling in these cases ever 
since; Stewart vs. the Brooklyn Crosstown Kailroad Company (90 N. 
Y., 588), maintaining the liability of a common carrier, under his con- 
tract, for injury to passengers arising from the willful misconduct 
of his employee; Goodale vs. Lawrence (88 N. Y., 513); Thorp vs. Thorp 
(90 N. Y., 003), deciding that a marriage contracted in another state, 
if valid there, is valid here, even though the parties remove for the 
purpose of evading the laws of this state; Conger vs. Duryea (90 N. Y., 
595), involving the principle that an acceptance of rent by a lessor, 
after knowledge of a breach of the covenant on the lessee's part, was 
a waiver of the forfeiture and an affirmance of the lease; Ellis vs. 
Doorman (90 N. Y., 407), an important case in mortgage law; Sined- 
is vs. the Brooklyn & Rockaway Beach Railroad Company (88 N. Y., 
13), involving the question of the duty of a traveler approaching a 
railway crossing to look and listen for an approaching train; Sheldon 
H. B. Company vs. Eick Meter H. B. M. Company (90 N. Y., 607), in- 
volving the doctrine of equitable estoppel, and Trustees of the Acad- 
emy vs. Kechnie, the last case in which he wrote an opinion, involving 
an interesting point in mortgage law. Upon leaving the Court of Ap- 
peals he resumed the practice of law, appearing as counsel in many 
important cases. These included a reversal in the Court of Appeals 
on the ground of error in the case of Alderman McQuade, convicted of 
bribery. 

For many years General Tracy had been active in republican poli- 



HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW YORK OOV) 

tics in the City of Brooklyn. In 1880 lie was a delegate to the Chicago 
convention which nominated Garfield for the presidency, being one of 
the famous " 300 " who held out to the end for the nomination of Gen- 
eral Grant. In 1881 he was the republican candidate for mayor of 
Brooklyn, and by his withdrawal in favor of Seth Low insured the in- 
auguration of a reform government. In 1882 he was a candidate 
for judge of the Supreme Court, 2d department, on the Folger 
ticket, and shared in that overwhelming defeat, though receiving 
23,000 more votes than the rest of the tic