Uxbridge Town (part 4 of 4)

It is unnecessary, perhaps, for me to add, that Mr. Chapin's administration of our city affairs, whenever entrusted to him, was in the highest degree acceptable to the people and creditable to himself. Always kindly and conciliatory in his manner, he nevertheless maintained a firm and dignified course of conduct, carefully seeking and zealously guarding the rights of all, neither forgetting his responsibilities as a magistrate, nor his duty to those whose interests for the time being were committed to his hands. As a necessary result, he was ever popular with the people, enjoying their confidence to an almost unlimited extent. Beyond Judge Chapin's connection with the administration of our municipal affairs, however, it is not my purpose to speak. This is not the time nor the place for any extended notice of him in the numerous other fields of public service to which, from time to time during his life, he was called. Those who have been associated with him in that service will, we cannot doubt, upon proper occasion, bear ample testimony to his loyalty to them, and his unswerving fidelity to the work which has been assigned to him.

It now only remains for you, Gentlemen, to take such action in relation to the event which calls us together, as you may deem necessary to pay a fitting tribute of respect to the worth and the memory of our departed friend.

Alderman Dickinson offered the following order, prefacing it with brief remarks. He alluded to his own service in the Board of Aldermen, when Judge Chapin was Mayor, about twenty-five years ago, and to long-continued service with him as Directors of the State Mutual Life Assurance Company. In all his associations with the deceased he had

Resolved: That the City Council desire to place upon their records their sense of great public loss sustained by the city of Worcester in the death of Hon. Henry Chapin, its second Mayor, who has been largely identified with the various interests of the city from its incorporation until the time of his death.

Resolved: That Judge Chapin was a model Mayor, Lawyer, Magistrate, man of business, friend and citizen; that in all his varied relations in life, his great ability, his integrity, his industry, his warm and kind heart, made him useful, trusted, and universally beloved.

ftesolved: That in his kindly greeting, his genial nature, his generous heart, and in his devotedness to principle, we recognize the true Christian gentleman, and the character of one which will always be admired and loved by all who knew him, and one whose memory will always be affectionately cherished by the citizens of the city he loved, and by all who were associated with him in life.

Resolved: That the sympathy of the city government is extended to the family of Judge Chapin in this their great bereavement; and as a token of the respect of the City Council to his memory, it is resolved, that his Honor the Mayor, the President of the Common Council, and a committee of three from each branch of the City Council, be appointed to attend his funeral.

Resolved: That the foregoing resolutions be entered upon the records of the City Council; and the City Clerk be directed to transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased.

Remarks Of Councilman Lovell

There are times, when we, contemplating the life of one whose days were well spent, and who has gone to his long home, would fain commune with self and be still. But occasions and circumstances arise in which our own desires and wishes must be laid aside, and some expression, however inadequate to reveal the inward grief, must be given. We recognize the presence of death in our midst, and pause to pay tribute to the memory of one of our most honored and beloved citizens. Our city to-day is in mourning. She mourns the loss of one who in life devoted his time, his talents, his means, to whatever tended to the honor and well-being of the city of his adoption. Henry Chapin is dead, and Worcester mourns not alone. The County and the Commonwealth share her grief. Others are more able than I to speak of his life and its reminiscences. He was aman distinguished both for his literary and professional studies, and his devoted attachment to both. Possessing a strong and vigorous mind, success was certain to follow all efforts to succeed. He was a man of strong convictions, faithful to duty, and true to all. He is gone from among us, and we shall miss him in the daily walks of life.

Henry Chapin was one of the best types of our public men. In all official stations he was faithful, diligent, and courteous ; a man who squared all his acts by the fundamental maxims of right and wrong; whose sympathies were always with the weak, and whose life was dignified and pure.

Time does not permit me to speak of his varied accomplishments, - that wealth of knowledge, and that kindness of heart, - which were the charm of his social life. Those who knew him best have met the greatest loss, and will tenderly cherish his memory. It is meet that to the memory of such a man high honors be paid.

Chapin

sentiment of these resolutions. To me, especially, does the sad news of the death of Judge Chapin come with sorrow and bereavement, and my heart is too full for utterance. I can not but go back in my memory to nine years ago, when a boy, fresh from college, I came to this city, fatherless and motherless, and with but few friends or acquaintances, and entered the office of Judge Chapin as a law student. He at once, as it seemed to me, took a special interest in my welfare, and was to me a father, a friend, a counsellor and director. His counsels were freely but judiciously given ; and, I may say, gladly received and followed. The parting words he gave me as I left his office were, '' Be honest, be active, be lenient ;" and it seems to me to-day, as I look back upon him, filling the various positions of esteem, trust and honor, to which the people of this City and this State have so frequently and unanimously called him, - whether as legislator, judge or mayor of this city, which he loved so well, - that we can trace this motto lived out and realized in his life and acts.

This city is in deep mourning because one of its great men is gone; one of the real fathers of the City, an honest, Christian gentleman; and we moun his loss in common with the widowed and bereaved Rachels and orphans of this county, who cannot but mourn his loss as the loss of a near friend, a willing and true adviser, and an upright and honest judge.

I remember well, that the last time I saw him for any length of time, - and this was when his strength was nearly gone - he was anxious to know how the city affairs were getting on. He was ever anxious for its good name and prosperity. He has gone; we shall see him no more; but his example will live on, and we as young men will rarely find one more safe or more worthy of imitation.

Action Of The American Antiquarian Society

At a meeting of the Council of the American Antiquarian Society, held at the house of the Hon. Isaac Davis, on the evening of October 14th, to take action in regard to the death of their associate, the Hon. Henry Chapin, the following resolutions, offered by Samuel F. Haven, Esq., were adopted : .

Fesolved: That in the death of the Hon. Henry Chapin, LL.D., on the 13th inst., at the age of 67 years and five months, this society, of which he has long been a valued member and officer, the community of Worcester, and the public at large, have experienced a serious loss.

Resolved: That we shall miss his genial manners, his unfailing public spirit, his ready wit, and happy faculty of speech on festive occasions, and his prompt response to the claims of society, of whatever nature.

ftesolved: That in his interest in benevolent. institutions, in his attention to all religious duties, and in his labors for | the advancement of education, his example is worthy of distinguished praise.

Resolved: That in official stations he has been able and energetic, and as a man of business has led an active and industrious life, honorable to himself and useful to his fellowmen; and that as a magistrate, and as a citizen, our friend was worthy of the confidence and respect of those he so faithfully served.

Resolved: That the Council will attend officially the funeral of Judge Chapin, and invite the members of the Society to join in this manifestation of affection and respect.

Dr. Joseph Sargent, in seconding the resolutions, said: Having taken Judge Chapin's place at a very late period before the last meeting of the Society, to present the semiannual report of the Council, - it being foreseen that his very grave illness must deprive us of his presence on that occasion, - it seems proper that I should say a few words for him now. The Council are informed that his illness terminated in the fatal result - which we had long apprehended - two days ago. Nothing that I could say of Henry Chapin would do justice to the merits that were prominent in the many positions of trust and honor which he occupied for many years. And language is too poor to express the love which I had long cherished for him, and which was unabated. His physician and his friend in all the earlier years of his happy married life, my respect for him never knew any doubt: and our friendship ripened constantly. Affectionate by nature, he was warm and demonstrative in his affection; and his sympathies flowed always in a generous stream. He was of pure heart, of pure life, and of high motive. Devout by organization, he always looked heavenward; and loving God, he loved his fellow-men. No associate could be taken from us, whose loss would be more personally felt. To say more now would be to take up the eulogy which will soon be presented by an abler pen.

'Hon. Henry Chapin, for many years treasurer of the American Antiquarian Society, died in this city a week ago yesterday, in the 68th year of his age. The important offices, political and judicial, which he has filled, and filled so well, testify to the respect with which the community regard him; a respect which has already been evinced by public testimonials of love and esteem. In these testimonials the Council and the Society sadly join.

'' For the last twenty years of his life, he filled the very important trust of the Judge of Probate of this large county. His immediate predecessors, of whom Judge Thomas was one, had, like him, been officers in our Society. It is delightful to think of a man with the admirable traits of character of Judge Chapin, as representing in the concrete, the tenderness, justice, and sympathy of the Commonwealth in her dealings with her citizens. All the wisdom of the trained lawyer is well nigh worthless there, unless he who administers these great trusts is tender, patient, and true. It is said of our friend who has now died, that the adjustment of half the estates in this county, has passed under his eye since he was in office. It may therefore be said that his administration has been such that half the people in the county will hear of his death as in some sort that of a personal friend. or he carried to every duty, not simply personal integrity, but an unselfish and sympathetic disposition which made him willing to be his brother's keeper, when he could serve his brother's cause, or advance his brother's welfare. His standard in life was the very highest; whether this or that were right or wrong, was with him the first question. This directness, which nothing could warp or flatter, gave him the confidence of all around him.

'¢We had promised ourselves that his decided literary taste would, as he retired from more laborious occupations, give to this Society the advantage of his studies in subjects which profoundly interested him. The Society will remember that he had proposed to prepare the last semi-annual report of the Council; but his illness prevented. He had intended on that occasion, to treat the history of the development of the manufacturing interests of the Blackstone Valley ; a subject that is closely connected with that quiet revolution, by which New England, instead of being the

Judge Chapin

The late Judge Chapin filled a large place in the community. He touched life at many points, and was felt at all. In differing circles he was always a conspicuous figure, and he impressed himself on each according to its kind. He was a man of affairs and a man of society, a man much in demand for grave public trusts, and not less in demand for festal occasions and social enterprises. He was found to be so useful and so agreeable to his fellow-men, that they made large drafts on his time and his society, and he, not in the way of self-denial, honored them to the full. So it came to pass, that he grew to be one of the most familiar and well known figures among us. But while all knew him, all did not know him alike. Some saw one side of his character, and some another. For this reason, a complete portraiture would best be executed by various hands. A trait which one might fail to delineate, another might happily supply. In making the present contribution to such a delineation, therefore, the writer will confine himself chiefly to what most often fell under his own observation.

It is as judge of the Probate Court for our county, that Mr. Chapin will be chiefly remembered. For twenty years he filled the office, not only with conspicuous ability, but with rare satisfaction to the people. With great patience, they have waited for the turn of his long sickness, in the hope that his kindly face would once more beam upon them from the bench. He had established himself, not only in their confidence, but also in their affection, as a judge seldom does. The Probate Court is, in a special sense, a people's court. No bar interposes between the suitor and the judge; the humblest has of right immediate access to the judicial ear. But this accessibility might be greatly curtailed, if the incumbent were a person of an untoward disposition. Unsophisticated people are easily abashed by the judicial frown. It was the felicity of our Probate Court, that Judge Chapin was quite the opposite of this. He manifested a towardness that invited approach. It was not so much an occasional unbending of dignity as a permanent benignity of manner. If in the ebb of business, he chanced to espy a woman diffidently waiting at a distance, he would invite her to draw near and make known her request. But sometimes there were women not diffident, who were bent on availing themselves to the full of the freedom of the court. When such would impose themselves upon him in a helpless and uninstructed fashion, his unfailing good temper still bore him through. One, perhaps, would insist that he should act as an adviser, and he would find it hard to convince her that he could only act as a judge. Amusing scenes sometimes occurred when such an one, incredulous, unconvinced, would return again and again to the charge. Nine out of ten would have growled and roughly shaken her off, but so did not Judge Chapin.

Some judges make it a foremost point to maintain the dignity of the court. In Judge Chapin's court disturbance was not noticed as a personal matter; it was checked only when it impeded business. Yet because of this tolerance, no one was disposed to take liberties, and if at any time there was a lapse from strict decorum, it was rather through inadvertence than intention.

Much of the business in Probate Court is of the routine sort. But occasionally litigation arises, and the strictly judicial function is called into exercise. In such cases, it was a leading principle with Judge Chapin, so to dispose of the matter in controversy as to heal family breaches and compose family jars. Perhaps there were two opposing applications for administration: then he would persuade the parties to give up their own candidates and agree upon a third indifferent person. Perhaps the quarrel was over an account. He would hear the parties, and then often make up his decree on the principle of compromise. This he could very well do, since the point at issue was not a matter of absolute right or wrong. Each got something, neither got all; but neither could shake the judge triumphantly in the other's face.

The Probate Court is not a theatre for the display of legal learning, nor was it in Judge Chapin to make his court exceptional in this respect. Whatever law was needed he applied, but without elaboration or insistance. On the other hand, he never denied to counsel the opportunity for argument, even when perhaps his own mind had been made up. He sat patiently, and took notes of what must often have been an old story. It helped the client to understand his own case, to see its strength, or its weakness, as he might not otherwise have done. But there were occasions when he invited argument, and frankly informed counsel that he desired to hear them for his own clearer and more judicial understanding of the case. And he always bent his mind, seriously and persistently, both in court and out, to the elucidation of any difficulty. It is to be said with emphasis, ° that he never snubbed a young practitioner. He gave all such a courteous and kindly attention, with hints encouraged their uncertain steps, and speedily made them feel at home in his presence.

Appeals from his decrees were not infrequent - that, of course - but they were not often sustained by the court above. Not seldom the appeal was waived, before it came on for trial, and the case proceeded in the Probate Court. There was one memorable instance early in his administration, in which his decree was reversed. A will, fished out from a mass of waste paper, written on seven different pieces and subseribed only upon the last, was by him disallowed because of insufficient proof of execution. By appeal, the case was taken before the supreme court, where a jury trial was had. The judge who held the court, was of opinion that Judge Chapin's decree should be affirmed, but reported the case to the full bench, which established the will. Of the judges who then composed the court, none survive save the one first named, and he long since left the bench. The bulk of the property disposed of by the will was given for the founding of a sort of female college, but to this day it has never been founded.

Judge Chapin was a man of sincere religious convictions. The deep things of the soul were familiar to his thoughts. He had come of old Puritan stock, and ancestral training was in hima force. To those who saw him only amidst the press of business, or in his jovial hours, this side of his character might not reveal itself; but in the confidence of personal intercourse he was ever responsive to the suggestion of the religious topic and would himself introduce it. In the denomination to which he had joined himself, he was a pronounced conservative. He stood with Sears and Peabody, rather than with Parker and Frothingham. The Bible was for him a book of divine authority. For some years he was president of our County Bible Society, and on several public occasions he advocated its claims. Of the Sunday school in his own church, he was for a long time the superintendent. It was a labor ot love, it enlisted his most sedulous activities ; so much was it in his thoughts, that with one outside his pale, like the writer, he would discuss, even in secular moments, his plans and methods of Sunday-school work. But the full portrayal of all this part of his character, belongs rather to another place and pen.

that adjective would not suffice. He was a very warm and faithful friend. He put his heart and conscience, he put himself into his friendships. There was little profession, but there was solid performance. Nor was he narrowly eclectic. Men of diverse characters found in him a common friend, and always because of him the bond was enduring. Fidelity was with him a purpose; with the escutcheon on the label which he had engraved for his books was the legend, Pideliter.

"Mr. Chapin was Ponaeiteed as Judge of Probate and Insolvency by Governor Banks in May, 1858. By an act of the legislature in that year, the offices of judge of probate and of judge of the court of insolvency were united, the courts remaining separate; and Judge Chapin became the first ineumbent. He held his first Probate Court on the first Tuesday of July in that year, and his last on the same Tuesday of March in the present year. But during his long sickness he continued to transact more or less probate business on his couch, and once he had a hearing of parties at his house. His last official act was done on the evening before his decease. With the harness not wholly off, and working still, so he passed on beyond. C.E.S

At the annual miceting of the Alumni Association of Brown University, held in Providence, ihe 1.3 un Jane; 1879, the Secretary, Reuben A. Guild, called attention to the death of the President of the Association, Henry Chapin, since the last meeting, and moved that a committee be appointed to draft resolutions in his memory. This motion was carried, and the chair appointed as such committee, Hon. Hamilton B. Staples, Hon. Francis W. Bird, and Hon. Elijah B. Stoddard, who submitted the following report, which was unanimously adopted :

The Alumni of Brown University, at their first meeting after the death of Henry Chapin, desire to place on record the expression of their respect for his character and services, and of their sorrow that they ''shall see his face no more." No form was more familiar at Commencement than his, and none was more associated with 'sincerity, good 'humor and all social affections." His loyalty to the College was akin to the sentiment of filial duty. He was jealous of her honor, resolute in her defence and anxious by a generous policy to advance her welfare. He early saw the advantages of allowing the graduates a share in the government, and aided to put the measure, finally adopted, into practical operation. As President of the Alumni Association, he labored faithfully to promote its growth and efficilency - to make it areal bond of interest and affection between the Alumni and the College. In his qualities as presiding officer, he justified the choice of his associates, and proved a worthy successor of Dr. Caswell.

The Association will ever cherish as a part of its own fame the remembrance of his distinction as an advocate, his wisdom, uprightness and benevolence as a judge; of his consistent efforts in executive and legislative office for the progress of human freedom; of his untiring services in the Board of Education of his native State, and in his relations to this College, to advance a higher popular education ; of his reverent acknowledgment in all places of honor and trust, of the authority of the moral law, alike over States and individuals.

And his associates, in recalling the image of one so endeared to them, will not forget his private character and virtues. Rarely has any one been more widely, or deservedly, esteemed and loved. In social intercourse, he helped men by his kindly sympathy, and relieved life's sombre colors by the brightness of his fancy and the cheerfulness of his spirit. In the ripeness of years and of honors he has passed away, leaving us all the better for his labors and example.