Chapter XXXII: The Bench and Bar (5)

He was for many years the attorney for the Middletown State Hospital and he has occupied many other positions of responsibility, the duties of which he has always discharged with fidelity and ability. His service as special surrogate brought the bar of the county into close acquaintance with his superior judicial qualifications and prepared it to expect his elevation to still higher judicial station.

Orange County has always been fortunate in its surrogates and the friends of Judge Swezey confidently expect him to maintain unsullied the traditions and the standards set by such predecessors as Scott and Coleman, Wadsworth and Howell.

Obadiah P. Howell retired from the office of surrogate on the first of January, 1908, after an incumbency of twelve years, with the profound respect of the bar and of the public for both his character and his attainments. Judge Howell possesses an evenly balanced, well poised character which admirably fitted him for the duties of this position.

His abilities as a lawyer were also brought into constant requisition during his terms of office on account of the many new questions which arose under the operation of the transfer tax statutes. These questions were disposed of by him with rigid impartiality, zealous regard for every interest represented, and deep anxiety to arrive at a just and sound conclusion. His careful discrimination in applying the principles of law involved has resulted in a body of decisions which command the respect of both the bar and the judiciary.

Judge Howell was always most conservative. Such was his veneration for the last wishes of a dying testator that if he ever felt it his duty to set aside a will, the fact is not generally known. He gave no encouragement to those frivolous and often merely speculative or intimidating contests which have done so much to bring probate administration into reproach in many jurisdictions.

Judge Howell always exhibited one characteristic which commands special commendation. He never tolerated the merely perfunctory performance of their duties by guardians appointed to represent the interests of minors or incompetents. He exacted the most careful investigation of their rights to the end that they should be fully protected and he so exercised his authority in making appointments as to insure this result. His administration will go down to history as one of the purest and ablest in the annals of the county.

Roswell C. Coleman, who preceded Judge Howell in the office of surrogate, occupying it for twelve years (1883-1895), entered upon his duties with peculiar qualifications for their successful discharge. His professional bent had always been in the direction of practice in the Surrogate's Court and of interest in all the questions arising in the construction of wills. Moreover he began his practice with the senior Joseph W. Gott, an association from which he could not fail to derive benefit as well as pleasure.

His eminently judicial temperament was early recognized by the judges and by his associates with the result that, in the days when references were far more common than they are now, owing to the inadequacy of the judicial force and the necessity for auxiliary requisitions upon the profession, Mr. Coleman was constantly designated by the court and by consent of counsel to serve in important references. His absolute fairness, his love of justice, his freedom from influence and his unerring judgment made him the favorite referee in the county during that entire period of imperfect judicial service which was supplemented in him by an ability fully equal to that of the judge appointing him. I remember an occasion when judge Barnard, in announcing the selection of Mr. Coleman as referee, remarked to the attorney, "Don't let him get after you with his gun," referring to his well-known experience in 1875 as a member of the first American rifle team that ever went abroad, Mr. Coleman returning with several prizes for his skillful marksmanship.

Mr. Coleman's tenure of the office of surrogate was distinguished for the display of those high judicial qualities with which the entire bar had become acquainted in his frequent exercise of them as referee. Indeed, so great was the respect in which they were held that in many contests involving large interests, the parties acquiesced in his decision as final, the defeated party taking no appeal. This was notably the case in the matter of the will of John S. Sammons, in which all his property was given to a church upon the condition that it should care perpetually for his tomb. The church took no appeal from the decision of Surrogate Coleman refusing to admit the will to probate. The opinion of the surrogate is a masterly review of the law of insane delusions as affecting testamentary capacity, pointing out that a will may often be upheld notwithstanding the presence of insane delusions when those delusions do not tend to produce the will. But in this case the will was rejected because the delusion under which the testator labored did govern him in the disposition of his property, he having formed the delusion that his body was to be preserved to the end of time and having given his property to the church to secure the protection of his tomb from disturbance. The opinion contains a very subtle, acute and interesting discussion of other delusions cherished by the testator which would not in themselves have invalidated the will, but which are considered as bearing upon the liability of the testator to form a delusion by which he was controlled in the disposition of his property.

Although the case attracted great attention, the opinion of the surrogate never was reported. For this reason it is especially appropriate that a partial report of it should be preserved in this all too perishable record. The case constitutes, also, one of the notable legal victories of Henry W. Wiggins, who appeared for the contestants.

Mr. Coleman since his retirement from the bench has been honored with many marks of continued confidence in his judicial qualifications. No lawyer now living commands greater respect for the simplicity of his life, the purity of his character, the force of his example, the vigor of his manhood, the solidity of his attainments and the genuineness of his learning than does Roswell C. Coleman.

Henry A. Wadsworth, who preceded Mr. Coleman in twelve years' incumbency of the office of surrogate, brought to its duties a large fund of practical knowledge, common sense and capacity for affairs. His legal attainments were ample and he was deeply anxious in every case to arrive at a sound and just decision. His place in the affections of the bar was accurately as well as touchingly set forth in the memorial address of Judge Hirschberg, in which he said:

"The sweetness and gentleness of his nature, his genial and frank spirit, the generous impulses of his heart, and the broad and engaging charity of his views are known best to the favored few who rejoiced in his intimate companionship. His hand was open as the day to melting charity. His dealings were ever plain, straightforward and direct. He despised all shams and affectations. To his friends he was the very soul of unselfish loyalty, and to the party which honored both him and itself in his elevation, and in whose counsels he was ever a trusted leader, he rendered always a manly and unfaltering allegiance. A loving husband, an affectionate and indulgent father, a wise, honest and safe adviser, an unstained lawyer, an incorruptible judge, and a loyal friend are buried in his grave. And if amid the good of his great nature there was mingled any blemish or alloy of human fault or folly, let us to whom his name is now but a sweet and tender memory:

"'No further seek his merits to disclose
Nor draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose)
The bosom of his Father and his God.'"

Gilbert O. Hulse, who preceded Mr. Wadsworth in the office of surrogate, still survives at the age of eighty-four to relate his reminiscences of the bench and bar of a previous generation. Before coming to this office in 1868 he had enjoyed a large professional experience which fully qualified him for his duties. He was engaged in many notable cases, in one of which, attracting great attention at the time, he established a lost will many years after it had been wrongfully destroyed and secured the property till then denied to its rightful owners, his clients. Much of his professional life has been passed in the city of New York but he retains his residence in Orange County, in which he was born in 1824, and with which his ancestors had been identified since 1775.

The early part of the last century was marked by the rise in Orange County of an able and progressive bar, whose courage and public spirit contributed to keep alive the fires of exalted patriotism. Jonathan Fisk, who removed to Newburgh in 1800, became one of the most influential citizens of the county, being elected twice to congress and being appointed twice United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Henry G. Wisner, who was admitted in 1802, settled in Goshen in 1810, where for thirty years he stood forth as its most prominent citizen, its most active philanthropist and one of its foremost lawyers.

Walter Case, who also was admitted in 1802, settled in Newburgh, serving in Congress and becoming the surrogate of the county in 1823 for a term of four years. His scholarly tastes and literary gifts still find inherited expression through the cultured mind of his descendant, Walter Case Anthony.

David W. Bate and Thomas McKissock, who were associated under the name of Bate & McKissock, were strong and able men, exercising a wide and potent influence. Judge Bate was elected county judge in 1847. Judge McKissock was appointed supreme court judge to serve for a few months and was elected to Congress in 1849.

William C. Hasbrouck, who studied with Mr. Wisner, was admitted in 1826 and began his practice in Newburgh. where he resided until his death. He was speaker of the Assembly in 1847 and attracted attention and admiration abroad as well as at home by a courtly presence and charming address, united to robust manhood and sturdy principles. He enjoyed the personal friendship of many prominent men of every shade of opinion, including Sam Houston, Andrew Jackson and William H. Seward. He died in 1870.

Benjamin F. Duryea filled a large place in the life of the county. Admitted in 1839, he became surrogate in 1847 and county judge in 1855. His opinion upon any state of facts submitted to him was regarded by his associates of the bar as conclusive upon the questions of law involved. His son, Henry C. Duryea, whose career was marred by precarious health, survived him until 1906.

Of all the able lawyers who have kept bright the fame of the Goshen bar, perhaps no one ever exhibited greater force of character or made a deeper impression upon his fellow citizens than Samuel J. Wilkin, who was admitted to the bar in 1815 and who practiced in Goshen from that time until his death in 1866. He served with distinction in Congress and in the Senate of the State. His fiery eloquence, commanding presence and lofty character live in traditions that will long preserve his name from indifference or his memory from neglect. His daughter Sara became the wife of ex-Surrogate Roswell C. Coleman. His father, General James W. Wilkin, was also a distinguished man, serving in the Senate, Assembly and Congress, and coming within one vote of being elected to the United States Senate.

Oliver Young rose to conspicuous influence and weight in Port Jervis soon after his removal there in 1849. He lived during the period of political unrest which soon afterwards set in, and he was the foremost champion of anti-slavery principles in the county at a time when his sentiments were highly unpopular. He survived to see the once decried abolitionists acclaimed by the arbitrament of war and the verdict of history the most advanced statesmen of their century. He died in 1871.

This brings our narrative to the point of time from which the direct connection of the Orange County bar with the events of that stirring period and with the subsequent history of the county has been traced.

When it is considered that, in the sixty years preceding the publication of Eager's History of Orange County in 1847, no less than one hundred and seventy-five lawyers were admitted to practice in Orange County, their names appearing in the appendix to that volume; and that, in the sixty years now elapsed since its publication, fully as many more have been added to the number, it will readily be seen how impossible it is to undertake, in one department of a general county history, a sketch of many, among the living and the dead, whose estimable career it would be a pleasure to follow and depict. The purpose of this review and the treatment of its themes are entirely different from the plan and method adopted in Ruttenber's History of Orange County published in 1881, to which the reader is referred for such dates as may not be accessible here in respect to some of the lawyers who nourished before that time; while to Eager's history is referred the reader who may seek simply the names of those who were admitted to practice before 1847.

The bar of Orange County has also contributed to wider fields of activity many who have reflected high honor upon the place of their professional nativity. One of these was Benjamin F. Dunning, who, when he was in practice in Goshen in 1853, was invited by the leader of the New York bar, Charles O'Conor, to become associated with him. That veteran of the Orange County clerk's office, Charles G. Elliot, who has seen three generations of lawyers come upon the scene, told me that he was in the clerk's office when Mr. Dunning received the letter from Mr. O'Conor containing this proposition and saw him show it to Nathan Westcott, then a leading lawyer of the county and once its district attorney, whose brilliant career was interrupted by paralysis resulting from a fall from a wagon. Mr. Westcott handed the letter back to Mr. Dunning with the remark that Mr. Dunning would never live to receive a higher honor than this evidence of Mr. O'Conor's admiration and confidence. This confidence was abundantly justified in the long years of Mr. Dunning's association with Mr. O'Conor, which continued until Mr. O'Conor retired from practice.

William Fullerton also was invited by Charles O'Conor to New York, where he soon established a reputation as the most superb cross-examiner of his generation and as an advocate of remarkable gifts. He retained until his death his residence in Newburgh, where he had originally been associated in practice with James W. Fowler, whose honorable service as the surrogate of Orange County from 1851 to 1855 is still remembered.

John Duer, after several years of practice in Goshen, went in 1820 to New York, where he became a justice of the Superior Court and the author of several Valuable textbooks. His fame is preserved in his writings, though these give no conception of the effect of his noble presence and impassioned oratory.

Of course, the reputation which towers above that of any man ever born in Orange County is that of William H. Seward, who studied law in Goshen with John Duer and Ogden Hoffman. This is not because he was a greater lawyer than either of his preceptors but because his career as a United States senator in the period of excitement before the Civil War, his valuable services as Secretary of State in the crisis of our national life and his farseeing statesmanship in acquiring the territory of Alaska, have written his name large upon the roll of everlasting fame.

Ogden Hoffman, indeed, excelled him in all the attributes of a great lawyer. Admitted to the bar in 1818 and elected district attorney of Orange County in 1823, his transcendent abilities soon drew him to New York, where he transfixed the wondering gaze of its brilliant bar, which welcomed into its firmament this star of first magnitude. Benjamin D. Silliman, one of its leaders, in an address made in 1889, thus refers to him: "the fascinating Ogden Hoffman, the Erskine of our bar, at which he became powerful and eminent and captivated all by his art and his wonderful eloquence; his voice was music from the note of a lute to the blast of a bugle." Luther R. Marsh, when opposed to him once upon a trial, sought to forestall the dreaded effect of the speech in which Hoffman was to follow by describing him as one who "could rise upon the heaving exigencies of the moment, and at whose bidding instant creations and mighty embodying of thought and argument, sublime conceptions, glowing analogies and living imagery burst as by miracle from the deep of mind in overshadowing forms of majesty and power."

George Clinton and his nephew, DeWitt Clinton, are claimed by Ulster County, because New Windsor, the town in which they were born was, at the time, a part of Ulster County, it not having been set off to Orange County until 1799. But their fame has passed beyond the trivial rivalries of county pride. It belongs to the State and to the Nation. George Clinton died in 1812, vice-president of the United States. DeWitt Clinton died in 1828, governor of the State of New York.

In our own time, too. Orange County has contributed to the bar of the State many distinguished ornaments. The brilliant career of Lewis E. Carr, once its district attorney, but now a member of the Albany bar, has already been outlined.

George W. McElroy is a member of the Orange County bar, now representing it at Albany, of which the bar is particularly proud. In the intervals of his official duties in the Transfer Tax Bureau he prepared a work upon the transfer tax law which affords abundant evidence of his industry, research and learning.

Mr. McElroy's service as special surrogate of the county at the time that he resided in Warwick, was distinguished for some opinions which showed his marked qualifications for judicial station. He wrote an opinion in a case involving the question whether the statute of limitations runs in favor of an administrator, in which the doctrine maintained by him was not generally accepted by the courts; but later the courts adopted and enforced the view which he, at one time, was almost alone in asserting.

Mr. McElroy is assured of a warm welcome from his brethren of the Orange County bar when he is ready to exchange the weary, dreary, depressing treadmill of department officialism for the pleasant, refreshing, verdured paths of general practice.

John B. Kerr, of the Newburgh bar, is another lawyer of whom Orange County is indeed proud, though he has now been separated for some years from its personal associations and activities, having accepted the position of general counsel for the New York, Ontario & Western Railroad Company. In this responsible position he finds unusual opportunity to exercise and develop those qualities of sound judgment, rare foresight, steady poise and intellectual grasp in which he so excels and of which his early career at the bar gave abundant promise.

Thomas P. Fowler, whose home is in Warwick, and who was at one time a member of the firm led by his distinguished father-in-law, Benjamin F. Dunning, has acquired a position in the railroad and financial world which reconciles him to his withdrawal from the activities of his profession. The masterly ability shown by him in making the New York, Ontario & Western Railroad Company one of the most important and valuable railroad properties of the country has given him national prominence and reputation.

John M. Gardner, formerly of the Newburgh bar, settled in New York, where his chief reputation has been gained in actions against corporations. He is a recognized authority in the law of negligence, having won many important cases and having edited for some years a series of reports specially devoted to cases of negligence. Mr. Gardner was born in Warwick, to which lovely spot he frequently returns. His career in Newburgh was distinguished by the same qualities which have commanded success in a broader field. His fine presence, unfailing resources, entire self-possession, tireless energy, dauntless courage and impressive delivery combine to make him one of the most formidable trial lawyers of the State.

Amos Van Etten, who began his practice in Port Jervis, removed to Kingston, where he very soon established his title to recognition as one of the leaders of the Ulster County bar, a position which he now holds by general acknowledgment of both the bar and the public.

Mr. Van Etten, as the attorney for the New York Central Railroad, and of other public service corporations, has been compelled to give his chief attention to railroad and negligence law, though he commands also a wide general practice. His success has been emphatic, pronounced and permanent.

William H. Stoddard, formerly of the Middletown bar, has become a prominent member of the Buffalo bar. He is original, independent and entertaining in his addresses to juries, while his conversation is full of wit, sally and anecdote.

One day there came to his office on old client whose wife had just left him to take up her abode with another man. His client was in deep dejection and wanted comfort. This is the way "Stod"--as he was familiarly called by his friends--gave it to him. He said: "Cheer up, John, brace up; why, there are a dozen men in Middletown who would be glad to be in your shoes to-day."

Referring once to the wife of a friend, who was known to be a termagant, he said: "She's the most even-tempered woman I ever knew--always mad."

This faculty of bold, rapid characterization has always prevented him from being dull either in his speeches or in social life. He is nothing if not interesting. His rare qualities of mind and heart endeared him to a large Orange County circle, which still affectionately remembers him.

William S. Bennett, formerly of the Port Jervis bar, removed to New York, where his career has been one of uninterrupted prosperity and promotion. He is now representing his district in Congress, where he has already achieved distinction in that most difficult of all places in which to compel immediate recognition.

His abilities have been so conspicuous and the esteem of his colleagues has been so unmistakably manifested that the attention of the entire country has been fixed upon this still cherished son of Orange County.

Not only has Orange County sent forth many lawyers whose names have become famous throughout the world, but Orange County is the Mecca to which many of the country's ablest lawyers repair to spend their declining years, attracted by its beauty and invigorated by its atmosphere. Benjamin F. Tracy, once secretary of the navy and long one of the leading advocates of the bar of Brooklyn and New York, now spends much of his time upon his beloved farm near Goshen. General Henry L. Burnett, prominent in Ohio and New York, whose life of high adventure and brilliant achievement possesses all the interest of romance, also finds upon his Goshen estate the leisure in which to charm a choice circle of friends old and new with reminiscences of the famous men with whom he has been associated on equal terms and of the stirring scenes in which he has so honorably and conspicuously mingled.

Orange County, which has in days gone by attracted to itself the sensitive poet, Nathaniel P. Willis, the scholarly historian, Joel T. Headley, the gifted lawyer, Luther R. Marsh, and the still vigorous publicist, John Bigelow, will never cease to have a charm for the retired veteran of letters and the law. It should never cease to interest also the active and alert practitioner who, on its rugged hills and in its peaceful valleys and by its murmuring streams and from its bracing atmosphere can draw vitality, inspiration and delight--strength for the duties of each succeeding hour as he seeks to emulate the lofty virtues and resplendent talents of those whose eyes, like his, once wandered with rapture over its entrancing prospects.

NOTE BY THE EDITOR.

The Editor deeply regrets that since the modesty of the author has forbidden any reference to himself this review of the period in which Mr. Vanamee himself has borne so honorable and conspicuous a part contains no description of his own brilliant career as an advocate. But though it is thus unavoidable that his signal talents and accomplishments should not be specifically portrayed in these pages, still the intelligent reader will not fail to perceive in these graphic estimates of his contemporaries an unconscious reflection of his own commanding character, lofty ideals and acknowledged abilities.