Worcester County, Massachusetts - The Bench and Bar, 1889 (part 3 of 4)

Though he gave diligent attention to his professional pursuits and acquired a lucrative clientage, it was in political life that he found his greatest usefulness and rose to his greatest eminence. He was an early and influential member of the Free-Soil party, eager in his opposition to the encroachments of the slave-power, and roused to indignation by the proceedings under the Fugitive Slave Law on the soil of his native State. With Charles Sumner and John A. Andrew he formed an intimate friendship, and was their active co-worker and enthusiastic supporter throughout their political contests. In his devotion to the principles which he believed should govern the State and Nation he was unselfish and consistent. Though undoubtedly he would have been gratified by the evidence of the appreciation of his services and abilities, which an election to important office would have afforded, he never faltered in his exertions for the success of his party because others were assigned to more conspicuous stations. He enjoyed the possession of influence over the minds of his fellowcitizens, and to that influence he was justly entitled, since it was always exercised in the cause of what he believed to be the truth. He was the friend and adviser of all the prominent leaders of the Republican party from its formation, and to liis powerful assistance the State owes in a large degree the fact that she has been able to retain in lier service some of her ablest representatives. In the best sense or the term he was a partisan. Thoroughly convinced of the righteousness of his cause, conscientiously believing that it was the duty of every good ciiizen to take part in the decision of public questions, he threw himself into a canvass with the spirit of a soldier, determined that failure should not result from any lukewarmness on his part. He was a great believer in the necessity for organization in political work. The campaigns which he directed were marked by the most thorough attention to details and by the seizure of every honorable method of securing victory. He did not often appear as a public speaker, but when he did his language was forcible, clear and charged with his earnest convictions. Some of his addresses upon general political topics are admirable in style and logical completeness.

His ofiices were few. For several years under Lincoln, and again under Grant, he was collector of internal revenue [^for this district. For two years lie served in the State Senate. Perhaps his most prominent political service was as chairman of the Republican State Committee in 1878, when, with all his power, he successfully combated what he believed to be a great danger to the welfare of the State.

Upon Judge Chapin's death, in 1878, he was appointed to succeed him in the Probate Court. The nomination excited some opposition among those who had become accustomed to regard Mr. Thayer as solely a [Kditician. But by his ten years of impartial, faithful disciiarge of the duties of the oflice, he approved the wisdom of the selection, and earned the approbation of the bar and the public.

His natural disposition was genial and sympathetic. A fund of quiet humor made him a most agreeable companion in hours of relaxation. Towards the latter part of his life ill-health from time to time clouded the usual brightness of his temper, and induced periods of depression, through all of which, however, he preserved his kindly interest in others and his affection for his friends. He had interested himself in several of the business enterprises of the city, where his foresight had been of great service. But these cares, added to his other activities, were too great a strain upon his physical and mental powers. He was oppressed by the thought of gradually losing his capacity for usefulness on the stage where he had filled so honorable a part. In the summer of 1888, when his friends were looking forward to his restoration to health as the result of a contemplated season of rest and travel, in a moment of aberration he died by his own hand. Massachusetts has lost no more devoted lover, no more staunch defender.

In several instances to which our attention has been attracted the honors of the profession, together with the mental traits befitting the wearers of those honors, have seemed to be transmitted from father to son as a natural inheritance. Others, from the most unpropitious antecedents, have achieved success and high position. In truth, the pathway is open to all ; to all it presents difficulties hard to overcome. Few have had to contend with greater obstacles, or have done it with so good courage, as Matthew J. McCaf- FERTY. Born in Ireland in 1829, his parents brought him to this country during his infancy. They were poor, hard-working people, and at an early age the lad must assist in his own support. In 1841 the family moved to Lowell, and Matthew began as an operative in the great mills there. Later on he learned the trade of a machinist. While so employed he was inspired with the ambition to become a lawyer, and devoted his evenings and spare moments to reading such law-books as he could obtain. In 1852, having saved some little capital from his trade, he entered the oiJice of Brown & Alger, in Lowell, and regularly devoted himself to study. After two years he found it necessary to replenish his funds, and betook himself once more to his trade in Worcester. With his determination still unchanged he spent his evenings reading in Mr. Bacon's office. A fellowstudent at that time was Hamilton B. Staples, now an associate justice of the Superior Court.

For a short time Mr. McCafferty tried the rule of an actor, but soon found it neither agreeable nor remunerative, and returned to rely upon his shop to furnish him the means of living until better times. His generous, filial di.'iposition is illustrated by the fact that, after having with some difficulty saved money enough to carry him through college, he gave it all to his mother, wlioih he visited in Lowell and found lacking some of the comforts to which her age and infirmities entitled her. Soon after this Benjamin F. Butler became interested in the young man's sturdy struggle, and assisted him through a partial course in the College of the Holy Cross at Worcester. In 1857 he was admitted to the bar in Lowell, and soon after opened his office in Worcester. He was a natural orator, warm-hearted, impulsive, sympathetic, and came to be regarded as the special champion of his race in the city of his adoption. When the call for volunteers was issued in 18(31, he enlisted as second lieutenant in the Emmet Guards, a company composed of men of Irish descent, in which he had previously served as captain. After its three months' service had expired, he received the commission of major in the Twenty -fifth Massachusetts Regiment. With this command he rendered gallant service in several battlts until March, 1862, when he resigned on account of some difference with his colonel which could not be adjusted. Returning home, he continued to support the government by his eloquent speeches on public occasions. He served four terms in the Legislature, and one as alderman of the city. In 1883 his early friend and constant political ally. Governor Butler, appointed him an associate justice of the Municipal Court of Boston. In this capacity his impartiality and his kindness of heart made him an excellent police magistrate. In the short time before his death, in 1885, he had approved himself to the jirofession in his new sphere of action, where at first there had been a disposition to cavil at the appointment of a judge from another county.

The career of Francis T. Blackmer compressed within less than twenty years an amount of professional labor which might well have formed the employment of an additional decade, and would then have left him but little of that leisure he so much neglected. He seems to have felt that his time for work was short, and that in the days allotted him he must accomplish what would suffice for the years of a longer pilgrimage. He was born in Worcester in 1844, but passed his boyhood in the towns of Prescott and Hardwick, where his father carried on the occupation of a farmer at successive periods.

In the district schools and at Wilbraham Academy he received all the instruction which he obtained be fore beginning his legal studies. In later life he keenly appreciated the advantages bestowed by a more extended course of education, and expressed his regret that he was unable to receive a college training. Yet the reflection is inevitable that it is not the schools that make the man. We cannot be sure of the effect of the same discipline upon different minds, and Mr. Blackmer certainly profited admirably by the limited facilities which he enjoyed. When twenty years of age he returned to Worcester, and entered the office of William W. Rice. During his studies, and for some years after his admission to the bar, he was employed by Mr. Rice, on terms continually more advantageous, as he demonstrated his capacity for work and his mastery of the law. Subsequently a partnership was formed under the name of Rice & Blackmer, which continued until after Mr. Rice's Congressional duties called him away from regular attention to professional employments.

Mr. Blackmer had a remarkable facility in forming acquaintances. There was not the slightest formality or diffidence about him. In the same easy, off-hand manner he met every new-comer, and inspired him with confidence in his own ability to conduct his business. His addresses to the jury were marked by the same familiar style. Brought up like many of them, in a farming region, familiar with the habits of thought of our New England country people, he talked to them as a friendly adviser, citing homely incidents of country life to illustrate his meaning, and in language and accent showing clearly that he was one of them. It was here that he achieved his principal success. Day after day during the sessions of the court he appeared on one side or the other, ot almost every case, and probably became personally known to more of the inhabitants of the county than any other of the advocates at the bar during his later years.

His arguments did not pursue a logical order; but neither did the usual train of thought of the majority of his hearers in the jury-box. He went over the story of the evidence as it arranged itself in his mind, and when he had finished, there was no point which he had forgotten, no inference which had not been suggested. In his examination of witnesses he showed a remarkable knowledge of human nature and an adroitness which was rarely matched. Never losing his temper, he was prepared to meet any surprising development of testimony with unruffled composure and the best resources at his command. His profession thoroughly interested him. He loved to talk over his cases with students or brother lawyers, and was ever ready to receive new suggestions or to state his own views when they were called for. Before the Supreme Court he argued questions of law with care and skill, thoroughly appreciating the value of the distinctions on which he relied and the effect of earlier decisions upon the point in issue.

In 1875 he was chosen city solicitor, and so continued until 1881, when he resigned, to take the place, as district attorney, of Judge Staples, then

His interests outside of his profession were few, for he gave himself little time for otlier pursuits. In local jjolitical contests he took part from time to time. The parish to which he belonged was always an object of his attention. In his brief hours of social relaxation he showed liimself an affectionate and sunnytempered friend. But his constitution was not strong enough to endure the strain to which he subjected it. In 1883 he was obliged to give U[) work, and seek in absolute rest the reinvigoration of his enfeebled energies. During the fall he returned to his office, and was so far encouraged to believe in his restoration to health as to accept a le-election to tlie district attorneyship. The apparent im|)rovement was but temporary, however. His tasks were done, as his brethren at the bar sadly noted when he appeared among them at the opening of the December term of court. Again he left his clients, and, hopeful to the last, took his way toward a Southern climate. But his disease had taken too firm a hold while he had refused to leave his post of duty, and in January of 188-1 he died in the city of Washington.

He came to the bar the latest of those whom we have mentioned. Many who saw his earliest efforts are still in the full vigor of their usefulness, but as we close these records with his name, let it be said that none among them all more diligently followed the injunction : " Work while the day is, for the night Cometh."

In these imperfect sketches an attempt has been made to preserve some memorial of a few of those who have completed their life-work and are to be remembered as representatives of that ability and integrity which has characterized the administration of justice in this county and Commonwealth. Necessarily the names of many who have largely contributed to the establishment of this reputation are omitted. The records of a lawyer's life are too often written in water. The writer has mainly selected those who have seemed to him to leave some lasting impression on their times and to furnish examples for the edification of their successors in the same field of enterprise. To learn that the qualities which secured their successes are still exhibited among us, it needs only to glance over the honored list of names which now adorns the roll of this bar. A Senator of the United States, a justice of the Supreme Court of the State, two justices of its Superior Court and one of the United States District Court, and two recent members of Congress figure in the list. In active practice are advocates as skillful and eloquent, counsel as sagacious and learned as any who have gone before.

Living Lawyers

the military and judicial history of the State of Massachusetts is the Hon. Charles Devens, one of the justices of the Supreme Judicial Court. General Devens was born in Charlestown, !Mass., April 4, 1820. He graduated at Cambridge in 1838. He studied law at the Harvard Law School, and subsequently with Messrs. Hubbard & Watts, in Boston, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He first commenced practice at Northfield, where he remained until 1844, when he removed to Greenfield and formed a co-partnership with Hon. George T. Davis, which continued until 1849, when he was appointed by President Taylor United States marshal for the district of Massachusetts. This office he held until his resignation in 1853. While residing at Greenfield he represented Franklin County in the State Senate. Upon resigning the office of marshal, he located in Worcester and resumed the practice of his profession, forming a p.artnership with Hon. Ge(nge F. Hoar and .1. Henry Hill. Soon after Mr. Hill retired, and the firm of Devens & Hoar continued until 1861. During his residence in Worcester he served as city solicitor in 1856, 1857 and 1858.

Upon the breaking out of the Rebellion, Mr. Devens promptly responded to the President's call for troops, and entered the service as major of the Third Battalion of Infantry. He soon after became colonel of the Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment, and from thi-i date until the close of the war he was in active service. He received his baptism of fire on the disastrous field of Ball's Bluff, and in 1862 was made a brigndiergeneral for gallantry on this memorable field of carnage. From the very beginning General Devens saw severe service. In the battle of Fair Oaks he was severely wounded, also at Chancellorsville, in 1863, and at Antietam his horse was shot under him. His distinguished bravery before Richmond was especially commended by General Grant, and he was commissioned major-general for gallantry at the capture of the city. At the close of the war he was appointed military governor of the Eastern District of South Carolina. This position General Devens held until June, 1866, when he was mustered out of the service.

Civil honors seemed to await him upon his return to his native State, and in the following year, 1867, he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court, and in 1873 became an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, and remained upon the bench until 1877, when he was appointed Attorney-General of the United States by President Hayes. At the expiration of four years he returned to Massachusetts, and in 1881 was re-appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court. Notwithstanding the exacting duties of a judicial life Judge Devens finds time to manifest his interest in military affairs, and has been president of the Society of the Array of the James ; president of the Society of the Array of the Potomac, and of the Sixth Army Corps. He has been National Commander of the Grand Army of tlie Republic, and was

Judge Devens is eminently an orator, and his public addresses and eulogies have been many and varied. He is a member of various societies and clubs, and as statesman, judge and general ranks among Massachusetts' most distinguished citizens.

George Fkisbee Hoar ' was born in Concord, Mass., August 29, 182{;. His ancestors, from the early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, were men of action and courage, humane, and always in advance of their times, but not so radical as to be parted in sympathy from their contemporaries, and to lose the influence which their character, talents and public spirit deserved. John Hoar, Senator Hoar's earliest ancestor in Massachusetts, was one of three brothers who came, with their widowed mother, from Gloucestershire, England, among the early colonists.

He was a friend and co-laborer of Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, and after the massacre at Lancaster, in King Philip's War, followed Philip's band into the wilderness with a single Indian guide, and ransomed Mrs. Rolandson, one of the Lancaster captives.

His brother, Leonard Hoar, was one of the early presidents of Harvard College. Senator Hoar's father, Samuel Hoar, was one of the great Massachusetts lawyers, contemporary with Mason, Webster and Choate. His aspect inspired reverence, which was increased by knowledge of his character. He was a Representative in Congre.«s, and was chosen by Massachusetts to protect in the courts of South Carolina her colored ci)izens unjustly imprisoned there. He was expelled from the State by force, and was not allowed to discharge his mission ; but his conduct throughout was marked by dignity, tirmness and courage. Senator Hoar's mother was the youngest daughter of Roger Sherman, of Connecticut.

The village of Concord, where Mr. Hoar's boyhood was passed, was full of fine influences. No place could have been better for the forming of character and preparation for a life of public or private usefulness. After his school-days there he entered Harvard College, and was graduated in 1846. Choosing the law for his profession, he studied at the Harvard Law School and in the oflice of the late Judge Thomas, in Worcester. Upon his admission to the bar in 1849, he began practice in Worcester, and this city has ever since been his home.

He was for a time associated in practice with the late Hon. Emory Washburn, and later with the Hon. Charles Devens and J. Henry HiH, Esq. Mr. Hoar rapidly rose to a very high rank in his profession. The native capacity of his mind, disciplined by education and superbly equipped by study, was supplemented by uncommon industry and assiduous devotion to the business of his clients.

after twenty years at the bar, was probably the largest and most valuable in the State, west of Jliddlesex County. Mr. Hoar married, iu 1853, Miss Mary Louisa Spurr, whe died a few years after, leaving a daughter and a son, both of whom are now living. He married, in 1862, Miss Ruth Ann Miller.

Mr. Hoar's first appearance in political life was as chairman of the committee of the Free-Soil party for Worcester County in 1849, which was more efficiently organized here than in any other county of the United States. In 1851, at the age of twenty-five, Mr. Hoar was elected a representative to the General Court. He was the youngest member in that body, but became the leader of the Coalitionists in law matters, and to him was given the task of drawing resolutions, protesting against the compromise measures of the National Government in 1850.

So manifest at this time to the people of this district was Mr. Hoar's fitness for public service that the way was open to him to succeed the late Hon. Charles Allen as the Representative of this district in Congress.

But he put aside all suggestions fending that way, because it seemed to him that to enter Congress then would be to make politics instead of the law his profession. If his decision had been otherwise, his energy, courage, eloquence and firm grasp of constitutional principles would doubtless have placed him in the very front rank of the statesmen of the civil war and reconstruction period. Although refusing Congressional service, he did not decline such duty in the State Legislature as was pressed upon him. In 1857 he was a member of the Senate, and chairman of its Judiciary Committee. In tliat capacity he drew a masterly report, defining the boundaries of the executive and legislative authority.

He made many political addresses, as varying occasions called for them, and was always ready with service in behalf of enterprises for the public welfare in his own city. He aided in the establishment of the Free Public Library and reading-room, was a member of the board of directors and one of its early presidents. His counsels and efforts were of great value in the founding of the Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science, now the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, whose usefulness as a pioneer in a new field and conceded eminence now are due to the wisdom with which its foundations were laid by that group of sagacious and public-spirited men of whom Mr. Hoar was one. His argument for technical education before a committee of the Legislature in 1869 was, if not the first, among the earliest adequate public statements of the claims of this branch of education. He was also an early advocate of woman suffrage, having made an address on that subject in Worcester in 1868 and before a legislative committee in 1869.

Baldwin. In this, the Forty-first Congress, he was a member of the Committee on Education and Labor, and his chief work was tlie preparation and advocacy of the bill- for national education. The bill dittered widely in its details from that now pending and known as the Blair Bill, but its purpose - to give national aid to education where illiteracy most prevails and where, through poverty or indiiference, the State and local governments inadequately provide for public schools - was the same. The bill did not pass in that Congress, and Mr. Hoar reported it with some changes in the Forty-second and again in the Fortythird Congresses, when it was passed by the House, but failed in the Senate. In his first term in Congress Mr. Hoar, by a timely and convincing speech, saved the Bureau of Education when the Committee on Appropriations had reported it ought to be abolished. f* In this Congress, too, he vindicated General Howard from the charges preferred by Fernando Wood, supported Sumner in his opposition to President Grant's scheme for the annexation of Santo Domingo, and became known as a formidable antagonist in debate by his prompt and severe treatment of Mr. D. W. Voorhees and Mr. S. S. Cox, of New York, who ventured to " draw" the new member. His retort upon Mr. Cox was much relished by his associates. Mr. Cox, then the triumphant wit of the House, had been carping at Massachusetts and daring Mr. Dawes, already a Congressional veteran, to come to her defence, assuring him that her stoutest champion was needed. " Troy," said Mr. Cox, " was defended by Hector, yet Troy fell." Mr. Hoar's reply was quick and scathing. " Troy," said he, " did not need her Hector to repel an attack led by Thersites."

In the Forty-second Congress Mr. Hoar, as a member of the Committee on Elections, drew the report in the case of Cessna against Myers. Many questions of great interest were discussed and decided in this report, which has been an authority ever since, being frequently cited in election contests both here and in England. In this case the report assigned the seat to Myers, the Democrat. Mr. Hoar's dealing with election cases in this Congress and in the next was recognized by his associates of both parties as judicial and conscientious, and when the charge of undue partisanship was afterwards brought against him, he was defended by Mr. Giddings, a Texas Democrat. In this Congress Mr. Hoar made an eloquent appeal for the rebuilding, at the national expense, of the College of William and ilary in Virginia, which was destroyed by fire while national troops were encamped in its neighborhood during the Civil War.

In the Forty-third Congress Mr. Hoar, besides obtaining the vote of the House for his Education Bill, reported and carried through the House a bill to establish a Burfau of Labor Statistics, and was chairman of a special committee to investigate the political disorders in Louisiana. The fairness of the inquiry and report of this committee was conceded even by the Democratic counsel employed jn the case. In this Congress Mr. Hoar delivered his eulogy of Senator Sumner.

By the elections of 1874 the Republicans, who had held undisputed control of the House of Kepresentatives for fifteen years, were outvoted in so many districts that in the Forty-fourth Congress the Democrats were a majority of the House. In this Congress Mr. Hoar made a number of notable speeches. At his suggestion the Eads' Jetty Bill, which was in danger of failure, was put into such form as to win favorable action from the committee and Congressi and thus, as Captain Eads himself testified, it was through Mr. Hoar's efforts that New Orleans was opened to ocean commerce. He wjs one of the managers of the impeachment of Secretary Belknap, and as such made an argument so convincing and powerful that it not only changed the opinions of several Senators on the question of jurisdiction, but it awoke the conscience of the people and gave the initial impulse to the wave of official and political reform, which has not yet spent its force. But Mr. Hoar's most distinguished service in this Congress was that with which it closed - his work for and as a member of the Electoral Commission. He was a member of the special committee which prepared the bill establishing the commi.s-sion, was its advocate in the House, and was chosen by the House a member of it, his associates being General Garfield, Judge Abbott, of Massachusetts, General Hunton, of Virginia, and Mr. Payne, of Ohio. In 1872 and again in 1874 Mr. Hoar had given notice to his constituents of his wish to retire from public life, but had yielded to the general and imperative demand for his further service.

In 1876 his resolve not to be a candidate for reelection to the House was announced as final, and the people, accepting it, elected his successor. But in the winter following the Legislature chose him as Mr. Boutwell's successor in the other branch of Congress, and he took his seat in the Senate in March, 1877, at the opening of President Hayes' administration, of which he was one of the few steadfast Senatorial supporters. In the Senate Mr. Hoar has been a member, and for some years chairman of the Committee on Privileges and Elections and a member of the Committee on Claims, on the Judiciary, on the Library, and others of less importance. Besides conducting many inquiries, preparing many reports, involving large pecuniary interests or deciding weighty questions of individual right or public polic-y, he is the author or was the leading advocate of several measures of first-rate importance. Among them are the bill for distributing the balance of the Geneva award, the Lowell Bankruptcy Bill, the bill for counting the electoral votes for President and Vice- President, the Presidential Succession Bill, the repeal of the Tenure of Office Act and the resnlution for amending the Constitution so as to make the Presi- dential term aiid the term of eacli Congress begin witli tjie liiith (lay of April instead of the 4th day of Martli. All of these measures passed the Senate, and most of them became laws.

In general Mr. Hoar has occupied himself in Congress with matters of wide scope and of fundamental importance rather than with those measures of narrower range and temporary application, upon which most of the labor of Senators and Representatives is spent. His success in gaining for so many of these larger measures the attention and favorable action of a body somewhat dilatory, apt to be engrossed with the affairs of the moment, and seldom looking farther forward than to the next Presidential campaign, is proof of his powers of convincing and persuading and of the confidence of his associates in his wisdom and the purity of his motives.

Mr. Hoar was re-elected to the Senate by the Legislature in January, 1883, and again in 1889. His election for the third time by the unanimous vote of his party in the Legislature, without a note of dissent or the public suggestion of any competitor, was a distinction not accorded to any man in Massachusetts for many years before, and proof that the people have learned to set a value upon his services not less than that which they assigned in earlier days to those of Webster and Sumner.

Mr. Hoar has four times been chosen to preside over Republican State Conventions. In 1880 he was president of the National Convention at Chicago by which General Garfield was made the Republican candidate for President of the United States. His dignity and courtesy, his prompt and impartial decisions, and the easy mastery by which he held the great convention to its work amid the enthusiasms for rival leaders and the disturbing hopes and fears and other strong excitements of the occasion, commanded general applause, and gave to the public of the United States a better knowledge of his strength and breadth of character.

Besides his political, legislative and professional activity, which has been briefly outlined above, Mr. Hoar has been and is usefully busy in other ways. He has written valuable papers for the magazines; has delivered many addresses on other than political subjects ; has been a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College; an active member and for some years the president of the American Antiquarian Society; a trustee of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute; a regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and was selected by Mr. Jonas G. Clark as one of the corporators of Clark University. He has received the degree of Doctor of Laws from William and Mary College, Amherst, Yale and Harvard.

P. Emory Aldrich,' of Worcester, an associate justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, is a native of New Salem, Bias*. His familv is of the early New England stock, he being a lineal descendant of George Aldi-ich, who emigated from England in 1G35 and settled at first in Dorchester, but afterwards became one of the original founders of the town of Mendon. Members of this family in the seventh and eighth generations from the founder are now living in nearly every State of the Union; it has had its Representatives in both Houses of Congress and in all the learned professions; several of the lineage have been judges in the courts of different States. The family, in some of its branches, has been, and is, honorably known in literature and commerce; but a great majority of the race have been farmers. As a race they are distinguished for longevity and vigor of physical constitution and an inflexible will in tlie pursuit of the objects of their choice.

The subject of this notice attended the district school in his native village until he was sixteen years old, and then became himself a teacher. He received an academical education, and thereafter taught in the schools of this State and Virginia; pursuing at the same time a course of studies, such as were at that day usually found in the curricula of New England colleges. While teaching in Virginia he began the study of law, which he continued at the Harvard Law School in 1843-14, and graduated with the degree of LL.B.

After that, returning to Virginia and resuming there for a definite period his former vocation of teaching, he was admitted to the bar upon examination by the judges of the Court of Appeals at Richmond in 1845. He did not, however, enter upon practice there, but returned the same year to his native Slate, and after six months' study in the then wellknown office of Ashman, Chapman & Norton, of Springfield, he was admitted to the bar at the spring term of the old Common Pleas Court for Hampden County in 1846.

Subsequent to his admission he passed a few months in Petersham in the ofBce of F. A. Brooks, Esq., who had been a fellow-student of his at Cambridge ; and in December, 1846, he began practice in the town of Barre, Worcester County, and continued there during the following seven years. For about three years of the seven he was editor and publisher of the Barre Patriot. He represented the town of Barre in the Constitutional Convention of 1853. In May, 1853, he was appointed by Governor Clifford district attorney for the Middle District, which office he continued to hold, with an interval of a few months in 1856, until 1865. In the spring of 1854 he removed to Worcester and opened an office in that city, and in January, 1855, he formed a law partnership with the Hon. P. C. Bacon, which partnership continued until he left the bar for the bench in October, 1873. He was mayor of Worcester for the year 1862.

Upon the organization of the Slate Board of Health, in 1870, Mr.- Aldrich was appointed a member of the board by Governor Claflin, and remained a member till his appointment to the bench of the Superior Court. While he was a member of the Board of Health he prepared an historical paper, relating to the use of and the legislative regulation of the sale of intoxicating liquor, which was published in one of the annual reports of the board. He was one of the Representatives from Worcester in the State Legislature in the years 1866 and 1867 ; he took an active part in the debates and business of the House. In 1866 he was one of the minority dissenting from the decision of the Speaker of the House upon the question of the right of an interested member to vote. Mr. Aldrich prepared at that time an elaborate report upon the subject, wliich was published under the title of "The Right of Members to Vote on all Questions of Public Policy Vindicated." The principles of parliamentary law and practice contended for in that report were, at a later date, held to be correct, both in the Federal House of Representatives and in the British House of Commons. Judge Aldrich is a member of the American Antiquarian Society and one of the council of that venerable and learned body.

As a member of the society and council he has prepared several papers on historical, legal and literary subjects, which have been published with the proceedings of the society. He has written and delivered addresses before other societies and associations upon various aspects of social science and education, and upon the right of the State to provide not only for the elementary education of its children, but also for their higher education in high schools, etc. For the last few years he has given much time and study to the cause of technical education. He has long been one of the trustees of that admirable institution - the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Since he left the bar he has written a work on " Equity Pleading and Practice," which was published in 1885. In 1886 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Amherst College. In 1850 he married Sarah, the eldest daughter of Harding P. Wood, Esq., late of Barre.

William W. Rice,' son of Rev. Benjamin Rice, a Congregational clergyman, was born in the historical old town of Deerfield, Mass., on the 7th of March, 1826. His collegiate education was acquired at Bowdoin, whence he graduated in 1846. And it may be mentioned, in passing, that his alma mater in 1886 conferred on him the degree of LL.D. After graduating he spent four years as preceptor of the far-famed Leicester Academy, and in 1851 commenced the study of law in the office of Emory Washburn, then in full practice in Worcester. After the usual course of three years' study he was admitted to the bar; and from the first year of his professional life to the present time has been a prosperous and highly-esteemed practitioner. His courtesy of man-

The career of Mr. Rice as a lawyer, successful as it has been, by no means exhibits his whole character - perhaps not the most useful or conspicuous part. He has been almost constantly called by his fellow-citizens to iill positions of honor, trust and responsibility.

In the municipal administration of Worcester he has served in various capacities, particularly in those connected with the educational interests. In 1860 he was mayor, and administered the duties of that high ofiBce with efficiency and universal satisfaction. In the capacity of special justice of the Police Court and as occiipant of the bench of the County Court of Insolvency his course met with marked approval.

The duties of the office of district attorney or public prosecutor tor the Worcester District, to which he was elected in 1868 and which he held five years, he discharged with signal ability, with fidelity to the State and a manly regard for the rights of those whom it became his duty to prosecute. Few offices are beset liy more difficulties and annoyances, the duties being always arduous, often disagreeable and sometimes of doubtful justice ; and he who successfully discharges them is worthy of the highest praise.

But perhaps it was as a member of Congress that Mr. Bice has become most widely known. He was for ten years a member of that august body, having been first elected in 1876. In the discussions there his speeches had much influence and his committee work was often of the greatest importance. There, as well as at, the bar, he was courteous and forbearing, though never shrinking from the enforcement of his convictions with ardor and eloquence. By his fellowmembers of all parties he was regarded with great respect, for every one recognized him as honest and patriotic. He was able in debate and not liable to be taken unawares on any current suliject, was intelligent, earnest and persistent as a worker in the interest of his constituents, and exhibiting the same zeal that characterized his efforts for clients at the bar. . But it would savor a little of ostentation and at the same time add nothing to the reputation of jNlr. Rice to further pursue this jdiase of his career.

Some men possess such magnetic power that they, without a particle of self-assertion, draw to themselves the sympathy and confidence of all with whom they are brought in contact. And such have a controlling influence in the common affairs of life. There are others, on the contrary, who seem always surrounded by a chilling atmosphere, impenetrable to any brotherly feeling or confidential nearness. Those who best know Mr. Rice will have no difficulty in which class to place him. Assuredly he does not belong to the latter.

the city. In the War of the Rebellion his voice gave no uncertain sound in urging upon every one the duty of doing their utmost to preserve the integrity of the Union ; and it was not by speech alone that he fortified his patriotic sentiments. In his religious sentiments he is a Unitarian.

Mr. Rice was united in marriage November 21, 1855, with Miss Cornelia A. Moen, of Stamford, Conn., by whom he had two sons, - the eldest, William W. Rice, Jr., dying in childhood, and the youngest, Charles Moen Rice, a graduate of Harvard, is now a member of Mr. Rice's law firm. His first wife died June 16, 1862. In September, 1875, he married Miss Alice M. Miller, daughter of Henry W. Miller, Esq., of Worcester.

Fraxk Palmer Goulding.' - The .subject of this sketch is descended from Peter Goulding, who lived in Boston in 1665, and afterwards in Worcester and Sudbury. Palmer Goulding, son of Peter, had a son John, who was born in Worcester, October 3, 1726, and inherited from his father the business of tanning. He removed early in life to Grafton, and died November 22, 1791. His wife, Lucy Brooks, of Concord, died at the age of thirty-eight, the mother of ten children. Ephraim Goulding, one of the children, was born September 4, 1765, and married, March 6, 1792, Susannah, daughter of William and Sarah (Prentice) Brigham. He was a prominent man in the town, serving as moderator of annual town-meetings eleven years, as selectman six, as assessor one year and as member of the School Committee six years. He died January 14, 1838. Palmer Goulding, son of Ephraim, was born October 11, 1809, and died in Grafton, March 22, 1849. He married, first, Fanny W. Maynard, who died August 9, 1839, having had three children - JohnC, who was born in 1832, and died in 1839 ; Susan E., born in 1835, and Frank P., the subiect of this sketch, who was born in Grafton, July 2, 1837. By a second wife, Ann Cutting, whom he married June 2, 1842, he had Fanny A., born May 4, 1843.

Frank Palmer Goulding while a boy lived in Grafton, Holden and Worcester, his father having at various times occupation in those places, but on the death of his father, in 1849, returned to Grafton, and at the age of twelve years was apprenticed to learn the liusiness of making shoes. From 1853 to 1857 he worked at his trade in Worcester, and at the latter date, at the age of twenty, entered the academy at Thetford, Vt., and prepared for college. He graduated at Dartmouth in 1863, and at once began the study of law in the office of Hon. George F. Hoar, in Worcester. A year at the Harvard Law School completed his preliminary law studies, and in 1866 he was admit ted to the Worcester County bar. In the same year he became a partner with Hon. Francis Hensbaw Dewey, then in full practice, and remained with him until Mr.

Dewey was appointed a justice of the Superior Court in 1869. Mr. Goulding then formed a partnership with Hon. Hamilton Barclay Staples, which continued until Mr. Staples was appointed a Superior Court justice in 1881. Since that time he has been alone, enjoying a large and increasing practice, to which has been added the performance of the duties of city solicitor, which office since 1881 he has continued to hold.

It is not difiicult to form an estimate of the character and intellectual powers of a man who, with slender educational advantages in early life, has reached the professional position enjoyed by Mr. Goulding. At a bar excelled by none in the State beyond the limits of Suffolk County, he at an early day in his career secured a rank which he has not only sustained, but steadily advanced. His appointment as one of the trustees of the new Clark University attests both the confidence of the community in which he lives in his business methods and sound judgment and their respect for his mental attainments and culture.

There are other evidences of the regard in which he is held. He was one of the Presidential electors chosen on the Republican ticket at the last election ; he is also one of the trustees of the Worcester County Institution for Savings, a director in the First National Fire Insurance Company, and either a present or retired member of the Worcester School Board. With the pressure of professional business, his political aspirations have been satisfied by two years of service in the House of Representatives.

Hon. Johx D. Washburn.'-' - John Davis Washburn is a native of Boston, where he was born March 27, 1833, being the eldest son of John Marshall Washburn, who married, in 1832, Harriet Webster, daughter of Rev. Daniel Kimball (Harvard University, 1800).

His parents removed to the grand old town of Lancaster, in Worcester County, when he was five years old, and his early youth was passed amid those beautiful surroundings.

At the age of twenty he graduated in 1853 from Harvard University, and entered the profession of law, studying first with Hon. Emory Washburn and George F. Hoar in 1854, and later receiving a diploma from the Harvard Law School in 1856.

He practiced law in Worcester, in partnership with Hon. H. C. Rice, and, by a development of his professional business and inclinations, made a prominent place, first, as an insurance attorney, and lastly, succeeding the late Hon. Alexander H. Bullock as general agent and attorney of the insurance companies, in 1866.

By his friendship with Governor Bullock he became associated witli his military family as the chief of his staff, from 18G6 to 1S69, receiving a colonel's commission.

During the period from 1871 to 1881 he was a trustee of the Worcester Lunatic Hospital, and from 1875 to 1885 filled the same relation to the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1876 to 1879, and a Senator from the city of Worcester in 1884, rendering the excellent public service to be expected from his knowledge of affairs and his general sympathies with all matters of care and concern in the Commonwealth.

His association has always been sought in corporate and financial affairs. From 1866 to 1880 he was a director of the Citizens' National Bank.

He has been a member of the Board of Investment of the Worcester County Institution for Savings since 1871, and a trustee and treasurer of the Memorial Hospital since 1872.

He has been a director of the Merchants' and Farmers' Insurance Company since 1862, and succeeded the Hon. Isaac Davis as president in 1883.

His large humanitarian instincts and tastes, taking hold on all matters that have to do with educational and intellectual advancement, have made for him a congenial field where associates have warmly welcomed him in the numerous relations he has sustained to our higher institutions and learned societies. Since 1871 he has been a councilor and secretary of the American Antiquarian Society, and is a councilor of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

He is also an original member of the American Historical Association, and has been, since 1884, a corresponding member of the Georgia Historical Society. It is much to say of one that he stands high with his own alma mater. Colonel Washburn is a member of the overseers' committee on the government of Harvard University, and one of the directors of the Alumni Association of the same institution. He is one of the Board of Trustees and secretary of the new Clark University of Worcester.

This is a good record for any man to have won in middle life, and opens a field of service worthy of the best ripened powers, such as promises to give the subject of this sketch many years of useful citizenship.

He married, in 1860, Mary F., daughter of Charles L. Putnam, Esq. (Dartmouth College, 1830), and has one daughter, Edith, who married, in 1884, Richard Ward Greene, Esq., of Worcester.

Edward Livingston Davis,' sou of Isaac and Mary H. E. Davis, was born in Worcester, April 22, 1834. He began his education in the public schools of his native town, completing his course at the High School in 1850 and was graduated at Brown University in 1854. Having studied law in the office of his father and at the Harvard Law School, he became a member of the Worcester County bar in 1857.

He gave up the practice of the law the following year, and associated himself with Nathan Washburn and George W. Gill in the manufacture of railway iron, locomotive tires and car-wheels, a business established in 1857 in Worcester, which soon gave profitable employment to a large capital. In 1864 a corporation was formed, under the name of the Washburn Iron Company, for carrying on the same business. Mr. Davis was the treasurer and one of the chief stockholders in this company, and continued to hold that office until 1882, when, upon the death of his associate, Mr. Gill, he sold his interest and retired from the corporation.

Since that time, as indeed before, he has been much occupied with various business engagements and public and private trusts, which the care of his own property and the confidence of others in his capacity and faithfulness imposed upon him. He has been a director of the Boston and Albany, the Norwich and Worcester, and the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad Companies, president of the proprietors of the Rural Cemetery, president of the Worcester County Musical Association, member of the Council of the American Antiquarian Society, and director and trustee of many other institutions and companies in his native city, and actively and helpfully concerned in all enterprises designed to promote the welfare of the city and its people.

While not ambitious of official honors or political influence, Mr. Davis has not refused to bear his part when his services were required iu responsible positions in the government of the city or State. He was elected a member of the Common Council for 1865 and held the office for three years, for the last year being president of the board. He was mayor of Worcester in 1874. During his administration important public improvements were carried out, notably the construction of a portion of Park Avenue, whose value has since been recognized. While holding this office Mr. Davis saw the growing need of the city for additional parks and play-grounds, which he has since in another official capacity and privately, so efficiently helped to supply.

While he was mayor, the Soldiers' Monument on the Common was publicly accepted by him on behalf of the city, and it was formally dedicated with appropriate ceremony. It is an interesting coincidence that his father, the Hon. Isaac Davis, accepted for the city the monument erected on the Common in memory of Colonel Timothy Bigelow, Worcester's most distinguished soldier of the Revolution. This dedication took place on the 19th of April, 1861, at the moment when other Worcester soldiers, among the first to be in arms in defence of the Union against foes of its own household, were attacked in the streets of Baltimore, and the first blood was shed in the great Civil War, whose heroes are commemorated by the monument dedicated by the second Mayor Davis thirteen years later. These two monuments in memory of the soldiers of two wars - for independence and for union - are the only memorial structures on the Common.

Mr. Davis was a member of the State Senate in 1876. He has since repeatedly declined to be the candidate of his party for various positions, including that of Representative in Congress, preferring private to political life.

He has not, however, declined employments of a public nature other than political, and has been chairman of the commissioners of the city's sinking funds, an office of financial responsibility, and a member of the Parks Commission. In this latter capacity, as well as by his gift of a portion of the Lake Park and a fund for its improvement, he has contributed materially to devise the present comprehensive scheme of public parks and play-grounds, and to secure its adoption, as well as to remove obstructions from the Common and prevent encroachments upon it, and thus to preserve it for the free use of the people, as a place of recreation and an adornment of the city.

Mr. Davis is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and has long been senior warden of the parish of All Saints. When the present church was built, from 1874 to 1877, he was chairman of the building and fijiance committees, and contributed in time and money more than any other member of the parish. He has repeatedly represented the parish in the Diocesan Convention, has been for several years a member of the standing committee of the diocese, and twice one of the four lay deputies of the diocese to the general convention of the church.

Mr. Davis has been twice married. Hannah Gardner, daughter of Seth Adams, Esq., of Providence, Rhode Island, to wliom he was married in 1859, died in 1861, leaving a son, who survived her but a few days. He married, in 1869, Maria Louisa, youngest daughter of the Rev. Chandler Robbins, D.D., of Boston. They have two daughters, Eliza Frothingham and Theresa, and a son, Livingston.

James Edward Estabrook.' - For nearly sixty years the name and title " Colonel Estabrook," descending from father to son, has been familiarly known and respected, both within and beyond the borders of this community.

" Colonel '' James Edward Estabrook, the subject of this sketch, may be said to have inherited the title, by courtesy, from his father, Colonel James Estabrook, of the State Militia, the gallant commander of the last Worcester County Regiment of Cavalry, and who had the honor of leading the escort at the reception of Lafayette in 1824.

The American line begins with the Rev. .loseph Estabrook, born in Enfield, England, who came to Concord, Mass., in 1660, was graduated from Harvard College in 1664, and soon after was settled as a minister in Concord, Mass., where he was a colleague for many years of the famous Rev. Edward Bulkeley, remaining there during a pastorate of forty-four years until his death, in 1711. Shattuck's " History of Concord " refers to him as :

" A man of great worth, and eminently fitted for his oflice. His appearance carried with it so much patriarchal dignity, that people were induced to love him as a friend and reverence him as a father. These distinguished traits obtained for him, in the latter part of his life, the name of The Apostle."

In an obituary notice, the Boston News Letter of September 18, 1711, says: " He was eminent for his skill in the Hebrew language, a most orthodox, learned and worthy divine, of holy life and conversation."

Three of his four sons became ministers, the eldest, Joseph, settling in Lexington, Mass., and reference is made to this branch in Hudson's " History of Lexington," as "the noted ministerial family."

Ebenezer Estabrook, the father of Major James Estabrook, and grandfather of James Edward, of Worcester, removed from Lexington to the neighboring town of Holden about the time of the Revolution and founded the Worcester County branch of the family.

Colonel James Estabrook removed from Holden, his native place, to Rutland and thence to Worcester in 1828, and, with the exception of a few years spent in Bostion, his active business life was closely identified with the rapidly developing town and city of Worcester until his death, in 1874.

During the administration of Governor Boutwell he was appointed sheriff of Worcester County, from which office he was removed, for political resisons only, on the return of the Whig party to power.

Colonel Estabrook was a devoted and distinguished member of the order of Free Masonry, and as early as 1825, on the organization of the Worcester County Commandery of Knights Templar, he was elected the first Eminent Commander of that honorable body. Always a respected citizen, he was entrusted with many local interests, was an honored and influential member of the Old South, and later of the Union Church, and was among the first to take an active and leading part in the early development of the real estate and mechanical interests of the city.

As one of the well-known men whose lives form an important part of the history of their times, we quote the following extract from an extended tribute in the records of that honorable and exclusive organization known as the Worcester Fire Society, of which he was a member, being tlie only person selected for this distinction at the annual meeting in 1830 :

" Colonel James Estabrook was a man of marked intelligence, who accomplished more by knowledge later acquired than have many men, whose education, begun at college, seems to have been absolutely discontinued theu and there."

From the same authority, the Hon. John D. Washburn, we also quote the following paragraph, not only as a faithful description of the founder of the Worcester branch of the family, but also as a remarkably terse and vivid pen-picture of his son. Colonel James E. Estabrook, the present postmaster of Worcester, in whom the type and characteristics are faithfully perpetuated :

" In stature he was below middle height, but made the most of such height as he had by the erection of his figure and military bearing. His complexion was very dark, and in this, as well as his features, he resembled the great Democratic leader, Stephen A. Douglas. His manner was quick, his eye bright and intelligent. Opposed to the party usually dominant here, he held few offices, though counted a politician, but he never adopted the coarser modes of warfare in politics, was courteous to his opponents, refrained from the imputation of unworthy motives, and carried none of the bitterness of party contest into the relations of private life."

This latter trait is especially true of his son, James Edward, who has been a life-long Democrat and a recognized leader and oracle of his party, not only in Worcester County, but also prominent in the party councils of the State and nation for a quarter of a century.

He has been a delegate to every National Convention of his party since the close of the war to the time of his appointment to a Federal office in 1887. He has served as chairman of the State Executive Committee, and of the County, District, Congressional and City Committees through many years of his party's minority in the State, and has ever been held in high esteem as an honest and honorable politician even by his political opponents.

In this connection, his life-long friendship with the late lamented Judge Adin Thayer, one of the acknowledged leaders of the Republican party in the State, will be recalled by their fellow-townsmen, among whom it had been long a matter of common remark that these two natural leaders of opposing forces only suspended their intimate social relations for a few weeks, during the active hostilities of a State or national campaign.

Colonel Estabrook has served his party in every capacity that choice or party exigency imposed upon him, with or without hope or prospect of reward, and his selection by President Cleveland to fill the office of postmaster, to succeed General Josiah Pickett, was received with a very general expression of approbation from his fellow-citizens, without regard to political affiliation, as a well-deserved recognition of his long and faithful devotion to the principles of his party.

As a member of the School Board, president of the Common Council and for two years, 187-1 and 1875, as a representative of the city in the General Court of Ma.ssachusetts, Colonel Estabrook rendered able and faithful service, and discharged his duties with credit to his constituents and with honor to himself

He is now one of the directors of the Free Public Library of Worcester, an honor peculiarly in harmony with his tastes and acquirements, and his long familiarity with the good society of books.

Born in Worcester October 29, 1829, he prepared for college in the Worcester High School, and was graduated from Yale in 1851. He then studied law with Judge Benjamin F. Thomas, attended the Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the Worcester bar in the autumn of 1853, at the age of twenty-three. Later he became the law partner of Judge Dwight Foster, of the Supreme Court, and practiced his profession until the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion.

Early in that critical period of the nation's life Colonel Estabrook promptly tendered his services to the government, and was assigned to duty on the staff" of General Charles Devens, and later on the statf of General Butler, in the Department of the Gulf.

Compelled to resign from active service, by reason of sickness, in 1862, he returned to Worcester, and has since devoted his time to the care of his valuable estates, the duties of political life, the genial society of his chosen friends and the daily companionshiii of his library of classic, historical and standard authors.

Few, comparatively, of his many friends and acquaintances know or appreciate the fact that this modest, genial and unassuming gentleman is still, at three-score years, a familiar student of the classics, and is the owner of one of the largest and choicest libraries of rare editions of both ancient and modern literature in the city.

Colonel James Estabrook, the father, married Almira Read, of Rutland, Mass., and to them were born five children - ^one daughter and four sons. Two of these children are now living - the present postmaster and his brother, Arthur Edgar Estabrook, an esteemed citizen of Worcester, who shares with his brother the care of their joint interest in the family projierty. Colonel James Edward Estabrook remains a ripe and genial bachelor, having never married.

Hon. E. B. Stoddabd.' - Elijah Brigham Stoddard, the son of Col. Elijah Stoddard, a worthy and esteemed citizen of Upton, Mass., was born in that town on June 5, 1826.

For nearly forty years he has been a widelyrecognized factor in the professional, political and social life of Worcester, and has filled many public trusts with distinction.

"Colonel" Stoddard, as the subject of this sketch is familiarly known, was the first commander of the Third Battalion of Worcester County Rifles, organized in 1858, and was later a member of the military staff of Governor N. P. Banks, in 1860, and on the occasion of the reception to the Prince of Wales, during that year, Colonel Stoddard was one of the officers assigned to duty as personal escort to the prince.

On his admission to the bar in 1849 he began the practice of law in partnership with Hon. John C. B. Davis, under the firm of Davis & Stoddard, which continued until 1S52.

He then became the law-partner of his father-inlaw, Hon. Isaac Davis, a man of great prominence and large estates in the community, which association continued until 1857, when Colonel Stoddard was appointed district attorney for Worcester County, succeeding John H. Matthews, Esq., deceased in office. This position he held for about six months, until the expiration of the term. For nearly twenty years he was engaged in the regular practice of his profession, withdrawing somewhat from active practice in the courts in 1866, to accept the responsible duties of secretary and business manager of the Merchants' and Farmers' Fire Insurance Company, a position whicli he has ably and faithfully filled for the past twenty-two years and which he still holds.

Colonel Stoddard has, in fact, always been a man of affairs, prominent and helpful in the public concerns of the city, dealing with the affairs of men and property on a large and varied scale, and intrusted by his fellow-citizens with the care of large corporate and individual interests.

Beginning his public duties as the Representative of the city of Worcester in the Legislature of 1856, he has since ably served the city and State in many capacities. He was president of the Common Council in 1858; later, a member of the Board of Aldermen for two years ; twice elected to the Massachusetts Senate (1863-64), and served two terms as State Councilor of this district (1871-72).

Elected mayor of Worcester in 1882, his administration was able and dignified, and his judgment in matters of grave importance to the city has been confirmed by subsequent events as both broad and judicious.

Always actively interested in the progress of popular education, he has been a member of the School Board for nine years, and for the past ten years has been a member of the State Board of Education, where he has rendered zealous and lasting service. His native tact and business discretion has been recognized by thirty years of continuous service as a director of the Providence & Worcester Railroad, as a solicitor and trustee for many years of the State Mutual Life Insurance Company, and as the trusted counselor of various public and private enterprises.

In addition to his other duties, he is now the president of the t^uinsigamond National Bank, and also president of the Worcester Five Cent Savings Bank.

Edwin Conant. ' - One of the earliest European lodgments in Massachusetts, as distinguislied from Plymouth, was made in the year 1625, at Cape Ann. It was a little planting and fishing station, under the superintendence of the sturdy Roger Conant, who liad previously been at Plymouth and Nantasket. He was a native of Budleigh, in Devonshire, England, born in 1593, and came to America in 1623, soon becoming a prominent character among the settlers. He was a remarkable man - remarkable for firmness, for self-reliance, and, it may be added, for utter contempt of the common and smaller hardships and annoyances of life, that so distress some and trouble most of us.

The fishing and planting were not successful, and the station was broken up in the autumn of 1626, and Conant, with most of the company, removed to the territory now forming Salem, and settled on the tongue of land through which Bridge Street now runs. This settlement was permanent, and made before Endicott or Winthrop came.^

2 The severity of the winter, added to the privations they endured, so diBCoiiraged the little band that some of them proposed abandoning the enterprise. Not so with Conant. His mind was fixed, and go ho would not. He had suffered hardships in other places and surmounted many difficulties, but liere be bad set his foot, and wiis determined to make iu this vicinage a permanent stand. He says in a petition to the court, May, 1671 : " I was .... one of the first, if not the very first, that resolved and made good my settlement in matter of plantation with my family in this colony of Massachusetts Bay, and have bin instrumeutal both for the founding and carrying on of the same, and when, iu the infancy thereof, it was in great hazard of being deserted, I was a means, through grace assisting me, to stop the flight of those few that there were heire with me, and that by my utter deniall to goe away witli them who would have gon either for England or mostly for Viiginia, but thereupon staid to the hazard of our lives."' It is stated, on very good authority, that bis son Roger was the first white child born in Salem ; but an ancient record says that at a church-meeting, in 17o3, the old church Bible wiis presented to John Massey, a son of Jeffrey Massey, a companion of Conant, as the " first town-born child."

Conant was likewise among the first settlers of Beverly, which is just, on the other side of Bass River - Beverly, whose beautiful shores have now for years been the summer resort of the wealthy and refined from far and near, and which, during the last year or two, has so agitated our Legislature on the question of territorial division. Beverly was settled im a part of Salem about 1(530, and by 1649 the settlers were sufficiently numerous to ask of the Salem Church "that some course be

It is interesting to dwell upon the life of Roger Conant, so grand a type of the primitive and true New England character; to trace along the line of descent from him, the headof oneof our largest and best New England families.

Edwin Conant, the subject of this sketch, and many other well-known individuals can trace their lineage directly to him, and well may they be proud of their descent, though better, perhaps, that they should endeavor to emulate his virtues.

Edwin Conant, whose portrait appears in connection with this sketch, was born in Sterling, Worcester County, on the 20th of August, 1810. After pursuing the u>ual course of preliminary academic training, he entered Harvard College, where he graduated in 1829. Proposing to make the law his life business, he prepared himself for the duties of that honorable though often perplexing profession, under the direction of well-qualified instructors, and in 1832 commenced practice. After continuing in that calling lor some ten years, his attention was directed to other pursuits, and he did not return to the law.

In his religious views Mr. Conant has been a consistent Unitarian, thus swerving from the rigid Calvinistic faith of his early ancestors. Politically he was an adlierent of the old Whig party, but on the taken for the means of grace among themselves, because of the teiliousnesa and difliculties over the water, and other inconveniences." The town was incorporated in IGU8 by its present name - a name, however, which was not satisfactory to several of the principal settlei"S, especially to Conant, who, in the petition above referred to.saj's : " Now my umble suite and request is unto this honourable Court onlie that the name of our town or plantation may he altered or changed from Beverly, and be called Budligh. I have two reasons that have moved me unto this request, - the first is the great dislike and discontent of many of our people for this name of Beverly, because (wee being but a small place) it liatli caused on us a constant nickname of beggtcrli/ being in the mouths of many, and no order was given, or consent by the people to their agent, for any name until they were shure of being a town granted in the first place. Secondly, I being the first that had house in Salem (and neither had any hand in naming either that or any other towne), and myself, with those that were then with uie, being all from the western part of England, desire this western name of Budligh, a market town in Devonshire, and neere unto the sea, as we are heere in this place, and where myself was borne."

Roger Conant appears by every one to have been regarded as a very upright man ; and the Rev. Mr. White, who took so active an interest ill the settlement of Massachusetts, styles him " a pious, sober and prudent gentleman." That he was deeply pious, no one can doubt on reviewing his course. The petition for the change of name from Beverly to Bndleiiih ends in this strain : " If this, my sute, may find acceptation with your worships I shall rest umbly thankfull, and my praiers shall not cease unto the throne of grace fo.- God's guidance and his blessing to be on all your weightie proceedings, and that iustice and righteousness may be uverie where administered, and sound doctrine, truth and holiness everie where taught and practised throughout this wilderness to all posterity, which God grant. Amen." The court, however, did not grant the " umble petition," and Beverly the name is to this day.

It has been claimed that, strictly speaking, Roger Conant was the firet colonial Governor of Massachusetts. Probably the Eudicotts and AVinthrops would not concede that. Yet there is no doubt that he was Governor of the little colony that first made a permanent settlement within our borders.

The picturesque little island in the bay, now generally known as Governor's Island - sometimes as Winthrop's - was firet named Conant's Island, in hi>nor of the worthy old Roger. In 1632 it was granted to Governor Wiuthrop for a garden. Thence it was called Winthrop's or Governor's Island. E disruption of that he joined the Democratic ranks and still maintains his Jefforsouian principles. He has not been much in public office, though always interested in public affairs; has been something of a military man, though not exposed to the "shocks of war," as he served in peaceful times; has held brigade and staff offices, and been a judge advocate.

Sterling, Mr. Conant's native place, is much indebted to him in various ways, especially for the generous gift of the funds for the erection of the brick edifice for the Free Public Library, and offices for the town authorities. The building was dedicated to the memory of his eldest daughter, Elizabeth Ann Conant.

Mr. Conant has been twice married. His first wife was Maria Estabrook, daughter of Hon. Joseph Estabrook, of Royalston, whom lie married in October, 1833, and by whom he had two daughters, neither of whom are living. His second witie was Elizabeth S. Wheeler, granddaughter of Rev. Joseph Wheeler, Unitarian minister and register of probate. She was also a granddaughter of Rev. Dr. Sumner, so long the able minister of the First Church of Shrewsbury.

A genealogy of the Conant family has been published, by which the lines may be traced to the good old settler Roger, and wherein the notable achievements of some of the later members may be found recorded.

Hon. Charles Augustus Dewey.' - Judge Dewey is deservedly pre-eminent among Milford's most distinguished, honored and trusted citizens. His pedigree, heredity and education gave him an auspicious introduction to public life, which he has worthily justified by his own exertions. He was born in Northampton, Mass., December 29, 1830. His father was Hon. Charles Augustus Dewey, for nearly thirty years judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and his mother a sister of Governor De Witt Clinton, the pride of New York's executive chair. He was fitted for college at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, and graduated from Williams College in 1851. He first studied law with his brother, the late Hon. Francis H. Dewey, of Worcester; then a year at the Harvard Law School, and afterward in the city of New York, where he was admitted to the bar in 1854. Having practiced law there till the fall of 1856, he went to Davenport, Iowa, and pursued his practice for two years. He came to Milford in March, 1859, and for the next two years was a professional partner of Hon. Hamilton B. Staples.

In 1861 he was appointed trial justice. In 1864 the Police Court of Milford was established, and he was appointed judge. He held this office till the Third District Court of Southern Worcester was organized, in 1872, when he was appointed judge of said court, and has since discharged the duties of that office down to the present time. Meanwhile he has served seven years on the School Committee of Milford, and for some time as its chairman. For nearly twenty years he has heen a trustee of the town library and of late chairman of the board.

In all these professional and official positions Judge Dewey has discharged his responsible duties not only with admirable ability, fidelity and promptitude, but to such complete satisfaction of all parties concerned as rarely falls to the lot of one obliged to deal with so much conflicting mentality and interest. He has won for himself a remarkable amount of approbation and very little censure even from those whose passions and prejudices he has crossed. He is learned in legal lore, wears an inherited mantle of judicial rectitude, and holds the scales of legal equity with a firm hand of clemency. At his bar the innocent and guilty are alike sure of both justice and kindness. In public and private intercourse he is intelligent, candid, conscientious and courteous, and therefore universally respected. Id social life he is urbane, genial, modest and dignified, and so welcome to every reputable circle. In politics he is a stanch Republican, in religion an exemplary Congregationalist, and in literature an amateur of the best. He is simple in his personal habits, temperate, physiologically circumspect and averse to all forms of extravagance. In social and domestic affairs he is unostentatious, prudent and economical, without stinginess, and puts intellectual entertainments far above sensuous luxuries. His health is delicate rather than robust, and he watches over it so as to make the best of it, thereby managing to execute a large amount of business on a small capital of physical strength. He is a man of strong convictions on subjects he deems important, and pronounces his opinions without equivocation when properly necessary, but is not a controversialist from choice, and never puts on airs of dogmatic assumption or offensive severity towards opponents. He evidently desires to be the friend and well-wisher of his race, and, so far as compatible with true moral integrity, to live peaceably with all men. Of the many commendable ways in which he is practically exemplifying this laudable desire, it will hardly be expected that a brief biographical sketch should make detailed mention. Perhaps the few already indicated may suffice.

Judge Dewey was married to Miss Marietta N. Thayer, daughter of Alexander W. and Marietta (Dustan) Thayer, born in Worcester, June 22, 1847; ceremony in Milford, March 12, 1867, by Rev. George G. Jones. She has the ancestral honor of being a descendant of the celebrated Hannah Dustan, of Indian captivity renown. This marriage was one of mutual, intelligent affection, and has been a happy one. Mrs. Dewey has proved herself worthy of her husband, and their connubial house has been a pleasant one. They have one promising daughter, - Maria Thayer Dewey, born in Milford, August 8,1872. May many divine benedictions rest on this family group.

Thomas H. Dodge' was born September 27, 182.3, in the town of Eden, county of Lamoille, State of Vermont, being the fourth son of Malachi F. Dodge and his wife, Jane Hutchins, who were married in Belvidere, Vt., Jan. 9, 1812. His father, Malachi F., was born in New Boston, N. H., Aug. 20, 1789; his grandfather, Enoch Dodge, was born in Beverly, Mass., 1762, and where his great-grandfather, Elisha Dodge, was born May 19, 1723, and who was the fifth and last child of Elisha Dodge, of Beverly, and his wife, Mary Kimball, of Wenham, Mass., who were published Oct. 8, 1709. Young Dodge had the advantages of good district schools, his father being a well-to-do farmer. The family subsequently moved to the town of Lowell, Vt., and resided on a farm there until Thomas was about fourteen years old, when his eldest brother, Malachi F., Jr., having secured a desirable position with the Nashua Manufacturing Co., of Nashua, N. H., a change of residence was made by the family to that place.

At Nashua, Thomas H. attended for a time the public schools, and then entered Gymnasium Institute, at Pembroke, N. H. At this institution he made rapid progress, and ranked among the first in his class.

Returning to Nashua, he secured a position in the spinning and weaving departments of the Nashua Manufacturing Co., which gave him an opportunity to become familiar with those departments, in the art he was desirous of fully understanding. In this position he remained until he gained a full knowledge of the processes while at the same time earning money sufficient to permit him to take a course of study in the Nashua Literary Institute, then under the charge of Prof. David Crosby. In the meantime he had been pursuing a course of study in elementary law, the books being obtained from one of the leading law firms of the place, who encouraged him in his studies. He also continued his studies in Latin under a private tutor.

Diligent and careful investigations and study into the early rise and progress of cotton manufactures in the United States had also engrossed his attention, as being intimately connected with the business in which he was engaged, - he was, in fact, an enthusiast in those early years upon the great good and national prosperity that would result from mechanical and manufacturing industries if properly encouraged, and in the year 1850, he published his " Review of the Rise, Progress and Present Importance of Cotton Manufactures of the United States; together with Statististics, showing the Comparative and Relative Renriineration of English and American Operatives."

When he first became a resident of Nashua, the Nashua Onzette was printed in a rear room iu which the post-office was located, and young Dodge would go in and watch the operation of the hand-press used for printing the paper, and his quick mind at once - ran to devising some way to print on a plane surface and yet use a rotary motion, so as to print (rom a roll of blank paper. The Nashua and Lowell Railroad was something new, and he took an interest in looking at trains as they came in, and one day he noticed that the parallel-rod, which connected the drivingwheels, had the very motion which he wanted, and he drew the plan of a press, and later made one which worked perfectly and attracted much notice. One day, shortly after a description of the press had appeared in the public journal.s, a gentleman called to see Mr. Dodge, who found him to be a Boston manufacturer by the name of John Bachelder. Mr. Bachelder frankly made known his business and the object of his visit. He was largely engaged in the manufacture of cotton bags for salt, flour and similar materials. He said he had seen the notice of the press and came to see it, since he thought it was just what he wanted. Said he wanted to print the cloth direct from the bale, and should like to see it work. The press worked perfectly, was bought by Mr. Bachelder and patented, and came into very general use.

The publicity of this invention was the beginning of a new era in machinery for printing paper, which resulted in the production of the lightning presses of the present day. Being now in the possession of sufficient funds, he decided to study law.

In 1S51 he entered the office of Hon. George Y. Sawyer and Colonel A. F. Stevens, of Nashua, N. H. As an illustration of the quick appreciation and utilization by Mr. Dodge of favorable opportunities, he, while a law student, saw that the prospective city of Nashua must necessarily extend in a short time to the south, and with two other gentlemen purchased a large part of the Jesse Bowers farm, lying on the west of South Main Street, and had it surveyed and platted as an addition to Nashua.

The lots were in demand as soon as offered, and this investment proved very profitable, while, at the same time, adding much to the prosperity of the new city, which was soon after chartered, Mr. Dodge being elected a member of the first City Council. He was admitted to the bar December 5, 1854, and commenced practice in Nashua. Aside from his position as a lawyer, he was extensively and publicly known as a skilled manufacturer, a meritorious inventor and a man of science, and which attainments having attracted the attention of Hon. Charles Mason, then commissioner of patents, he was, in March, 1855, appointed to a position in the examining corps of the United StatesPatentOflice, Washington, D.C. Atfirstheheld the position of an assistant examiner, but was soon promoted to the position of examiner-in-chief.

When the famous Hussey Guard patent for mowing and reaping-machines came up for an extension, many of the ablest lawyers in the United States were engaged as counsel, either for or in opposition to the extension. Judge Mason referred the application to Mr. Dodge, who reported the invention both new and novel at the date of the patent, and that, under the law, Hussey was entitled to the extension. This report and decision was confirmed by Judge Mason, and the extension granted. Litigation in the Federal Courts soon followed, to test the validity of such action and the patent, and both were fully confirmed in the Circuit Courts of the United States, and which decisions of the Circuit Courts were subsequently sustjiined, on appeal, by the Supreme Court of the United States.

While Judge Mason remained at the head of the Patent Oflice the assistance of Mr. Dodge was constantly required in appeal cases, and upon the appointment of Judge Holt his services were still relied upon by the new commissioner of patents.

Judge Holt, in the administration of the office, reached the conclusion that a permanent court or board of appeals ought to be established to meet the public wants, and he appointed the three chief examiners, viz. : Thomas H. Dodge, DeWitt C. Lawrence and A. B. Little. The establishment of this board was a movement of great importance.

The decisions of the Board of Appeals, under the direction of Mr. Dodge, changed the entire aspect of the business before the Patent Office ; order, justice and promptness in its official actions were recognized by applicants throughout the country, while a stimulus was given to the inventive skill and ingenuity of the nation that resulted largely, no doubt, in the production of many of the great and valuable inventions of the past thirty years. He resigned November 2, 1858.

Mr. Dodge was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, and for twenty-five years and more, thereafter, he had a very large and profitable law practice in patent causes, and was, during that time, actively engaged in the great suits relating to the sewing machine, mowing and reaping machine, corset, horse hay-rake, wrench, loom, barbed wire, machines for making the same, and numerous other valuable patented inventions involving millions of dollars.

In the early part of 1864, Mr. Dodge located in Worcester, where he had previously had a law-office in the city, and besides was one of the active managers of the Union Mowing Machine Company.

It was while residing in Washington that Mr. Dodge devised the present plan of returning letters uncalled for to the writers thereof, and on the 8th of August, 1856, submitted in writing a detailed statement of his plan to the Postmaster-General, Hon. James Campbell, and in due time it received the sanction of law, and the present generation receives and enjoys advantages resulting from the change.

in Washington bis house was open to those engaged in relieving the sicli, wounded and dying soldiers ; Mrs. Dodge, too, also joining with others in visiting the hospitals to distribute food aud delicacies sent from the North to Mrs. Harris and Miss Dix, lor the sick and wounded. His youngest brother, Capt. Eli!-ha E. Dodge, of the Thirteenth New Hampshire Regiment, fell mortally wounded in the assault on Petersburg, Va., in June, 1864, and died at Fortress Monroe, June 22, 1864.

In 1881 he, in connection with Mr. Charles G. Washburn, organized the Worcester Barb Fence Company, he being president and Mr. Washburn secretary and manager, and for which company the late Stephen Salisbury, Esq., built the large factory at the corner of Market and Union Streets. The plant and patents were subsequently sold to the Washburn & Moen Company.

AuGUSTu.? George Bullock.^ - Mr. Bullock is a son of the late Governor Alexander H. Bullock, whose portrait, with a biographical sketch, appears elsewhere in this work. He was born in Enfield, Conn., on the 2d of June, 1847, and was educated in private schools, being fitted for college by the late E. G. Cutler, who was afterwards professor of modern languages in Harvard College. He entered Harvard in 1864 and graduated in 1868.

After traveling a year in Europe he commenced the study of law, pursued the usual course, and in due time was admitted to the bar in Worcester. He soon went into practice, occupying offices with Senator Hoar.

In 1882 his father. Governor Bullock, who had then recently been elected president of the State Mutual Life Assurance Comp.any, died ; and during the year it was determined to change the policy of the company, which had been of a somewhat limited character, and make it one of the leading institutions of the kind in the country.

It was in January, 1883, that the affairs and interests of this now widely-known and popular assurance company were submitted to the management of the subject of this sketch, he being elected president and treasurer. He accepted the responsible position, engaged earnestly in the work, arduous as it promised to be, and has been eminently successful. The suggestions for extended usefulness were efficiently and rapidly carried forward, and new life and healthful growth became visible in every department. Since his instalment, which was but about six years ago, the business of the company has been more than quadrupled, and is adding to its assets accumulations of nearly half a million dollars annually. Its operations and reputation are not now by any means limited to Massachusetts or New England, it having attained a large business, especially in the Middle and Western States.

But it is not alone as president and treasurer of the State Mutual Life Assurance Company that Mr. Bullock is well and widely known. He is a director in the Worcester National Bank, in the Worcester Gas Light Company, in the Norwich and Worcester Bailroad, in the Worcester County Institution for Savings, and president of the State Safe Deposit Company. He is also a trustee of the State Lunatic Hospital and of the Free Public Library, and a member of the American Antiquarian Society.

For an intelligent appreciation of literary and social observances of the higher order Mr. Bullock is well fitted by education and taste. And few places afford better opportunities for the development of refined sentiment than cultured Worcester. He has many of the genial traits of his honored father, many of his common-sense views and approachable amenities - traits and habits that never fail of leading to high social position. So then we find him, now in middle life, sustaining in the business world a high reputation for financial skill and ability, and in social life a position well worthy of aspiration.

In religious sentiment Mr, Bullock ranks with the Unitarians, having departed somewhat from the chosen faith of his fathers. His grandfather was of the rigid old New England "orthodox" type; but his father, after reaching manhood, embraced the faith of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and to the end of his life delighted in its ch.arming liturgical form of worship. In political sentiment he ranks with the Democratic party.

Mr. Bullock was united in marriage, October 4, 1871, with Mary Chandler, daughter of Dr. George and Josepbiue Rose Chandler, and four male children have been born to them, one of whom died in infancy.

Feancis Almon Gaskill ^ was born in Blackstone, Worcester County, on the 3d day of January, 1846. Until the year 1860 he lived in that town. In 1860 he moved to Woonsocket, R. I., and in the High School of that town, under the instruction of Howard M. Rice, Esq. (now one of the proprietors of the wellknown Mowry and Goflf School in Providence), he fitted for college. In the autumn of 1862 he entered Brown University, and was graduated in 1866. He was occupied as private tutor to the sons of Mr. Clement B. Barclay, of Newport, R. I., from October, 1866, till June, 1867, and thus had the advantage of that most excellent mental instruction which comes from teaching others.

student, till October, 1868, when, at the request of the late Hon. George F. Verry, he entered his office as clerk, and was duly admitted to the bar of this county March 3, 1869. Later he was associated with Mr. Verry as his partner, and so continued till Mr. Verry's death, in 1883.

Mr. Gaskill was married, October 20, 1869, to Miss Katherine Mortimer Whitaker, of Providence. For a considerable time Mrs. Gaskill was an invalid, and for the last few years of her life suffered almost constantly from a paiaful illness, which she bore with a truly beautiful fortitude and cheerfulness. She died January 25, 1889, leaving two children.

In 1875-76 Mr. Gaskill served as a member of the Common Council of the city of Worcester. In 1876 he was chosen one of the trustees of the Worcester Academy, and has served in that capacity continuously till the present time. He was elected a trustee of the Free Public Library of Worcester for six years from 1878 to 1884. and in 1886 was elected to fill a vacancy in that board, of which he was president in the year 1888.

In 1884 he was elected one of the trustees of the People's Savings Bank, and still serves on that board. In 1888 he was elected one of the trustees of Brown University. He is also a director of the State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, an institution whose standing and reputation in the financial world is such as to make a position in its directorate one of great honor and importance.

In 1883, during the illness of the district attorney, Hon. Frank T. Blackmer, Mr. Gaskill filled that office by appointment. In 1886 he was elected district attorney, to serve from January, 1887, to January, 1890, succeeding Col. W. S. B. Hopkins, whose brilliant and distinguished abilities and character had made his administration memorable.

It will thus be seen, from the preceding recital of some of the various positions of importance and responsibility to which Mr. Gaskill has been called, that he has possessed in a large measure the confidence and esteem of those to whom he has been known. In the discharge of the duties of educational, charitable, financial and professional trusts, it is obvious that he has had a training and experience that has fitted him to deal judiciously with the multitudinous interests which may be involved in the discharge of his existing official duties.

He has had personal and continuous acquaintance with and has shared in the direct management of affairs which make up and are essential elements in our complex industrial, social and governmental system. He has had an active and successful professional life.