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 The bench and bar of Orange county :Repr 
 
 3 1924 022 817 724 
 
 -«8 
 
 The Bench & Bar 
 
 OF 
 
 Orange County 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM VANAMEE NOV 24 Wi 
 
 LAW LUMI 
 
 REPRINTED FROM THE 
 
 HISTORY OF ORANGE CO., N. Y. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 RUSSEL HEADLEY 
 
 THE BERKUI-BY PRESS. NEW YORK 
 
 19 8 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 3J.. 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022817724 
 
The Bench & Bar 
 
 OF 
 
 Orange County 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM VANAMEE 
 
 REPRINTED FROM THE 
 
 HISTORY OF ORANGE CO., N. Y. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 RUSSEL HEADLEY 
 
 THE BERKEI.EY PRESS, NEW YORK 
 19 8 
 
 476;?3 
 

THE BENCH AND BAR. 466 
 
 CHAPTER XXXn. 
 
 THE BENCH AND BAR. 
 
 By William Vanamee. 
 
 AT the unveiling in Goshen, September 5th, 1907, of the monument in 
 memory of the gallant soldiers of the 124th Regiment, erected by 
 that modern exemplar of medieval knighthood, that truest of 
 men, of gentlemen and of heroes, Thomas W. Bradley, it was mentioned 
 by one of the speakers that just forty-five years before, upon that very 
 spot, as the regiment was about to start for the front, the stand of colors 
 destined to be carried by it through many a battle, was presented to it in 
 behalf of the Daughters of Orange by Charles H. Winfield. 
 
 His noble, inspiring speech upon that occasion was fitly responded to in 
 behalf of the regiment by David F. Gedney, then Mr. Winfield's only 
 rival at the Goshen bar and his acknowledged equal. The highest praise 
 that can be bestowed upon either is that each feared for the success of 
 his cause when opposed by the other. Indeed they were nearly always 
 opposed, for what timid, anxious client, learning that his adversary had 
 engaged the services of one, ever failed to suggest to his local attorney 
 the importance of averting prospective defeat by the employment of the 
 other. This remark of course applies chiefly to litigations arising in the 
 Western end of the county, in which the trials were usually held at 
 Goshen, for in Newburgh, Stephen W. Fullerton, who was admitted to 
 the bar in 1844, just one year before Mr. Gedney was admitted and two 
 years before Mr. Winfield, had from the first successfully challenged their 
 supremacy in the county at large. Well might he do so, for while he was 
 not the equal of Winfield in magnetism and force or of Gedney in scholar- 
 ship and style, yet he excelled them both in acuteness, in industry and 
 in mastery of the rules of evidence. This, then, was the great triumvirate 
 that forty years ago reigned supreme throughout the county of Orange 
 in the affection of their associates, in the admiration of juries and in the 
 plaudits of the multitude — Winfield, Gedney, Fullerton. All three pos- 
 sessed genius of an uncommon order and no court, however insensible 
 to the graces of oratory, could wholly restrain its flights or direct its 
 
467 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 course. When the vexatious details of the testimony were over — for im 
 those days the testimony was regarded by the pubHc as a tedious formality 
 preparatory to the great event of the trial, the summing up — and when it 
 was understood that the addresses to the jury were to begin, the court- 
 room was quickly filled by people from all parts of the county, eager for 
 the intellectual treat that was sure to follow. Winfield was wont to begin 
 hi's closing argument somewhat slowly and even laboriously. This was 
 due partly to the habit of his mind, which required the stimulus of exer- 
 cise to quicken it to its highest exertions, but partly also to rhetorical de- 
 sign, by which he sought to make his subsequent outbursts of impassioned 
 eloquence seem wholly unstudied, spontaneous and irrepressible. Indeed,, 
 they usually were. As the thought of his client's wrongs surged in upon 
 him, as he dwelt upon his client's right to protection or relief, or contem- 
 plated the disaster involved in defeat, his words could scarcely keep pace 
 with the torrent of impetuous, sincere and deep emotion on which they" 
 were upborne. He always struck the human note which the case pre- 
 sented. To him a trial did not involve a mere application of legal prin- 
 ciples to an ascertained state of facts, but to him every case, however dry, 
 barren or abstract, was a human drama. He saw, with the eye of imagina- 
 tion and the insight of genius, those forces of hate and revenge, of greed 
 and falsehood, of cunning and cruelty, of devotion and affection, of honor 
 and truth, which in one form or another, surcharge every trial, and pro- 
 ject their palpitating figures upon the most intensely vital, vibrant stage 
 for which the scenes were ever set: — the conscious court-room, the austere 
 judge, the impassioned advocates, the enthralled spectators; human- 
 life or liberty, human happiness or despair, human rights or relations, 
 hanging in the balance upon a jury's nod. All this Winfield saw. In 
 every trial the panorama of human life unfolded itself to his inspired 
 vision. He took the broken, confused fragments of human testimony 
 and, subjecting them to the kaleidoscope of his own fervent, symmetrizing, 
 mirroring imagination, they were transformed into pictures of beauty or 
 shapes of evil, as he willed. 
 
 It can easily be imagined that his power over juries was well nigh irre- 
 sistible. If David F. Gedney, who was so often pitted against him, had 
 sought to counteract his influence by the exercise of similar gifts, he^ 
 might well have despaired of success. But happily for himself and for 
 the delight of juries and the bar, no advocates were ever more unlike each 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 4^8 
 
 other in method of argument, in point of attack, in form of expression, 
 in appeal to the sentiments, than Winfield and Gedney. Winfield filled the 
 eye ; Gedney charmed the ear. Winfield visited upon wrong or duplicity 
 the bludgeon blows of invective, Gedney pierced it with the envenomed 
 shaft of sarcasm. Winfield sought to break the armor of his adversary 
 with the broad axe of denunciation. Gedney penetrated it with the slender 
 arrow of wit and the fatal spear of ridicule. To Winfield language was 
 a necessary vehicle of thought, a familiar medium of expression. To Ged- 
 ney language was a divine instrument, over the responsive chords of 
 which his master touch swept with unerring taste and classic grace, 
 evoking notes of exquisite harmony and images of surpassing beauty. 
 The words that flowed unbidden from his enchrismed lips were music 
 indeed. His sentences, chaste and polished as though chiselled in the very 
 laboratory of thought, were but the unconscious reflection of a mind 
 steeped in the literature of every age and tongue. Even Winfield often 
 found to his dismay that those weapons of solid argument which would 
 have defied all the onslaughts of the gladiator, were powerless before 
 the arts of the magician. Not indeed that Gedney elevated style above 
 matter or sacrified strength to beauty. But in him style and matter were 
 so delicately balanced, beauty and strength so discreetly blended, that each 
 borrowed from the other and none was poorer for the exchange. 
 
 The personal characteristics of the two men were also different. Win- 
 field loved the approbation and applause of his fellows and aspired to poli- 
 tical honors. Gedney looked out upon the world with philosophic calm, 
 undisturbed by its clamors and untempted by its baubles. The only 
 offices which he held were strictly in the line of his profession — district 
 attorney and county judge — while Winfield acquired a conspicuous po- 
 sition in Congress at a time of intense public interest and excitement. 
 Winfield bore defeat with impatience, Gedney with equanimity. Win- 
 field, who especially could not endure the thought of defeat by a younger 
 adversary, often treated him with unnecessary severity ; always, however, 
 taking care to express his regret afterwards that the heat and zeal of con- 
 flict had carried him too far. Gedney, on the other hand, never suffered 
 to arise the occasion for apology or regret. He disdained to use his un- 
 rivaled powers of sarcasm and ridicule at the expense of a weaker adver- 
 sary, and throughout the entire course of a trial, he was scrupulous not 
 to say one word which might in any degree wound the sensibilities of a 
 
469 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 younger member of the bar. Moreover, he always took pains to speak a 
 word of encouragement and praise to the younger lawyers whenever their 
 maiden efforts justified interest or respect. 
 
 Gedney's happiest hours were passed at his own fireside, while Win- 
 field loved to mingle freely with his fellow men. But Winfield's children 
 had died, one by one, in childhood, and it is pathetic to recall that he sank 
 to his long sleep while addressing little children on a peaceful Sunday 
 afternoon in June, just sixty-six years after his eyes had opened not far 
 away on a world in which he was destined to reap many cruel sorrows, 
 some substantial rewards, and all the mocking, delusive delights of a 
 transient fame. 
 
 His friend. Judge Gedney, followed him only a month later as he sat 
 upon the porch of his home in Goshen. As together they had journeyed 
 through life, sharing its burdens and its conflicts, so in death they were 
 not long separated, and in the manner of their summons they were alike 
 blessed, for to neither did it come upon a bed of lingering illness. 
 
 Tbeir lifelong friend. Judge Stephen W. Fullerton, was not so fortu- 
 nate. Surviving his old associates fourteen years, he lived to see the 
 world march past him and to realize the bitter truth that it takes but little 
 interest in a lawyer, however prominent, popular or useful he may have 
 been, after his activities and usefulness have ceased. And yet Judge Ful- 
 lerton possessed some traits of character which should have ensured him, 
 above all his fellows, from the sharp tooth of either ingratitude or neglect. 
 He actually gave away three fortunes. His generosity knew no bounds. 
 An appeal to his sympathies was never made in vain. A claim put for- 
 ward in the name of friendship was to him sacred and admitted of no 
 hesitation. Every consideration of selfishness or even of prudence went 
 down before the spectacle of a friend in need. It was inevitable that a 
 nature so generous and so confiding should often be imposed upon by 
 unworthy claims, but to these he never referred with bitterness or even 
 regret. A few dear friends, including especially Judge Hirschberg and 
 Walter C. Anthony, were true and faithful to the last, and it must be a 
 satisfaction to them to know that their loyal, undeviating attachment 
 cheered and consoled the last hours of a lawyer who once shared with 
 Winfield and Gedney undisputed preeminence at the bar of Orange 
 County. 
 
 For never were tender, affectionate and generous traits of character — 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 470 
 
 often assumed to be inconsistent with the coldness and sternness of the 
 law — joined to a more severe, patient, thorough, comprehensive training 
 in the law than in the case of Judge Fullerton. To him the law was 
 a science and the practice of it an art demanding the sleepless pursuit 
 and worship of its votaries. To the principles of such a science and the 
 rules of such an art, having for their object the most exalted end of all 
 organized society, the establishment of truth and the maintenance of 
 justice, he was willing to consecrate the noblest energies of his mind and 
 heart. To him no labor was too hard, no sacrifice too great to deter him 
 from mastering the minutest details of a complicated case or from ascer- 
 taining and applying the principles by which it should be governed. When 
 he came to court to present it every form in which difficulty might be 
 apprehended or obstacles interposed had been anticipated and provided 
 for. He always tried the case on both sides before he went to court, and 
 his opponents never raised many of the points which he, in his anxious 
 survey, had most dreaded. His thorough knowledge of the rules of evi- 
 dence enabled him to introduce testimony upon some minor issue in the 
 case which was afterwards used with telling effect upon the main issue. 
 In his addresses to the jury he discarded every appeal to mere sentiment 
 and sought to impress only their reason and their judgment. His analy- 
 sis of the evidence was so close and perfect, his presentation of it so 
 clear and convincing that the jury were led to think that his was the 
 view they had taken of it all the time it was being given. Gathering up 
 the different threads of narrative in the case he wove them together in 
 a strand of pitiless, impervious, cohesive logic that not all the frantic 
 efforts of his adversary could avail to unwind. Such was the man who, 
 like Gedney, had also been county judge and district attorney of the 
 county, to whom Mr. Marsh, as the spokeman of the Orange County 
 bar, paid fitting tribute at the Newburgh court house in June, 1902 — 
 Luther R. Marsh who at the time of his own death in 1903, constituted 
 the last lingering tie between the present and the past. 
 
 No history of Orange County is complete that fails to chronicle the 
 twelve years' residence of Luther R. Marsh, who imparted luster to 
 every scene in which he mingled, dignity to every spot in which he lin- 
 gered. He spent in Middletown the closing years of a life which had 
 been marked by the most intense ardor and activity in his profession, 
 and, though he had retired from active practice when he settled in Orange 
 
471 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE, 
 
 County, he was drawn into court after that upon two occasions in liti- 
 gations arising in the county. The intimate friend all his life of Orange 
 County's ablest sons, from the Hoffmans to the Fullertons, he became the 
 friend, the companion, the idol of a new generation of its lawyers when 
 he came to Middletown in 1889, being then nearly eighty years of age. 
 For though he lived to be ninety, he never became old, worn or feeble in 
 spirit. In a public speech delivered a few months before his death, he de- 
 clared that to be the happiest period of his life. In his daily walk and 
 conversation he exemplified the philosophy of Rabbi Ben Ezra, as ex- 
 pressed by Browning: 
 
 "Grow old along with me! 
 
 The best is yet to be, 
 The last of life, for which the first was made; 
 
 Our times are in His hand 
 
 Who saith 'A whole I planned. 
 Youth shows but half ; trust God : see all, 
 
 Nor be afraid !' " 
 
 Nor was he afraid. His daring vision sought to pierce the secrets of 
 the hereafter. For a long time before his death he was deeply interested 
 in spiritual phenomena and in the investigation of those manifestations 
 of persistent personal energy after death, the authenticity of which con- 
 titutes the only proof we can ever obtain of the doctrine of immortality. 
 Trained to estimate the weight and value of evidence, engaged during 
 his entire professional career in convincing arguments as to its proper 
 construction and effect, he accepted as sufficient and satisfactory the evi- 
 dence adduced to him of communications and impressions still conveyed, 
 as the church even now maintains they were of old, from those who have 
 passed on to the spirit world. 
 
 But, though during his later years he clearly saw how trivial were the 
 ordinary ambitions and pursuits of men ; though his thoughts became more 
 and more centered upon things spiritual and eternal, yet he never lost his 
 interest in the sterling values and, above all, in the beautiful friendships 
 of life. Childhood, youth and manhood held each its claim upon his 
 tender regard, his ready understanding, his never-failing sympathy. To 
 him more than to any man I ever knew do Goldsmith's immortal lines 
 apply: 
 
 "E'en children followed, w'th endearing wile, 
 And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile. 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 472 
 
 His ready smile a parent's warmth exprest; 
 Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distrest; 
 To them his heart, his love, his griefs, were given, 
 But all his serious thoughts had rest in Heaven : 
 As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
 Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm. 
 Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 
 
 Luther R. Marsh was unquestionably the most original, brillient, fas- 
 cinating, prolific, versatile genius that ever dwelt in Orange County during 
 the years in which in him it "entertained an angel unawares." He mingled 
 on equal terms with the greatest men of his generation. He was a part- 
 ner of Daniel Webster. Among my most cherished possessions is the 
 tin sign which Mr. Marsh had framed and hanging for many years in his 
 study, bearing in his own handwriting the inscription : 
 
 Luther R. Marsh." 
 
 "In 184s, on Mr. Webster's retirement from business to return to the Senate of 
 the United States, I took this sign off from our office door, 44 Wall Street, New 
 York, where it had been during our partnership. 
 
 When Webster was dying in 1852, Henry J. Raymond, the gifted editor 
 of the New York Times, wrote : 
 
 "My Dear Marsh : — We hear from Marshfield that Mr. Webster cannot live 
 through the day. I want from you, if it is possible, for to-morrow morning, an 
 article — of what kind you know a good deal better than I can tell you. ***** 
 No man in this city certainly can do it so well. Nine o'clock this evening, or even 
 ten, will be early enough to have it here. 
 
 Yours as ever, 
 
 H. J. Raymond." 
 
 The article, occupying over four columns, was there on time. Mr. 
 Marsh, that afternoon, upon a moment's notice, at a single stroke, threw 
 off an estimate of Webster's genius and achievements that never was ex- 
 celled later, even in the glowing, studied periods of Everett, Winthrop, 
 and Curtis. 
 
 When in 1869, Henry J. Raymond died, Mr. Marsh was invited to 
 become his successor, but he declined the honor fearing that the position, 
 though congenial to his tastes, would be too exacting in its demands. 
 When we consider that at this time Mr. Marsh was besieged by clients 
 and immersed in cases ; when we consider, too, that a busy lawyer is the 
 last one to whom a publisher would naturally turn (for there is no class 
 of men in whom the truly literary instinct combined with the gift of 
 
473 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 literary expression is so rare as among successful lawyers), this recog- 
 nition of the unique literary distinction which Mr. Marsh had attained, 
 even while engaged in the fiercest legal contests with such hard-headed 
 lawyers as David Dudley Field, John Van Buren, Charles O'Conor, James 
 T. Brady, John K. Porter and Judge Comstock, is most impressive and 
 conclusive. But in his forensic contests the lawyer dominated the lit- 
 terateur. Any opponent who thought that because of Mr. Marsh's fin- 
 ished, faultless, elegant literary style he would escape hard blows and 
 sturdy onslaughts soon learned his mistake. He was, at about the time 
 he received this offer from the Times, in the very zenith of his powers and 
 his fame. Mr. Hunt, then the superintendent of public schools in 
 Massachusetts, thus wrote in 1873, of a trial he had just attended, in 
 which Mr. Marsh was opposed to Joseph H. Choate : 
 
 "I shall never forget the spectacle of that trial ; from the opening to the close, it 
 was the most perfect thing I ever saw. Having entered upon the study of law in 
 the late William Pitt Fessenden's office; having seen many able lawyers conduct 
 cases in court: — Fessenden and Evans in Maine, Rufus Choate and other great 
 lawyers in Boston, and, in the South, Yancey and others — allow me to say that I 
 never saw anything to be compared with the ease, dignity and power with which 
 Mr. Marsh managed everything." 
 
 But his splendid gifts and varied powers could not be restricted in 
 their exercise to the energies of the law and the graces of literature. 
 Equally fitted to shine in society or among scholars, in pulpit or press, 
 on the rostrum or in the forum; always facile princeps as poet or 
 preacher, essayist or journalist, publicist or philanthropist, advocate or 
 orator, his unapproached range and versatility mark him indisputably 
 as the Admirable Crichton of his land and age. 
 
 During the period covered by Mr. Marsh's impressive eulogy upon the 
 character and attainments of his friend Stephen W. Fullerton, the Orange 
 County bar was enriched by the weight, the influence and the learning 
 of a group of lawyers whose temperament disinclined them to the fierce 
 excitements, the rude conflicts, the temporary triumphs of the forum. 
 Foremost among them was Eugene A. Brewster, who, though he per- 
 sonally argued his cases with great ability and success before the appel- 
 late courts, where reason and reserve count for more than fervor and 
 fluency, was unskilled in the art of swaying a jury against its will or 
 snatching a verdict against the evidence. Mr. Brewster's warm admira- 
 tion for his great preceptor, Judge John W. Brown, may have uncon- 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 474 
 
 sciously influenced his bearing, but his moral and intellectual equipment 
 was entirely his own. This embraced a deep sense of the responsibility 
 resting upon every lawyer to sustain the honor and dignity of an ancient 
 and honorable profession. He scrupulously maintained throughout a 
 busy and active career the high ideals with which he started out. His 
 aim was to ascertain the truth, not to circumvent it; to apply "the law, 
 not to evade it; to draw from the fountains of justice, not to pollute 
 them. He enjoyed the respect of the courts, of his brethren and of the 
 public because of his character as well as his ability, his virtues as well 
 as his talents. His whole life was a steady influence working for honesty 
 in the moral fibre of the community; a persistent power making for 
 righteousness ; a never-failing light guiding to the path of safety and of 
 honor. In him were incarnated those conserving principles, those for- 
 mative influences, those stimulating ideals, those ennobling traditions 
 which impart dignity to human life, strength to human character, stabil- 
 ity to human society. 
 
 David A. Scott was another eminent member of the same group. As 
 surrogate of the county for two terms his administration was distin- 
 guished by an unusual display of those qualities of breadth, wisdom, 
 patience, knowledge of human nature and capacity for affairs so pecu- 
 liarly requisite in a probate judge exercising jurisdiction over the saddest 
 controversies, disclosures and scenes ever presented for adjudication — 
 contested wills, disputed claims, angry accountings, recrimination between 
 brother and sister, calumniation of the dead, sordid passions and petty 
 avarice disrupting old friendships and family ties. In calming these dis- 
 sensions whenever possible and in deciding them whenever necessary 
 Judge Scott manifested that happy blending of tact, temper, common 
 sense, sound judgment, practical sagacity and professional learning so 
 essential in the office of surrogate. I say judge because the title sur- 
 rogate is a most unfortunate one. The office is known in other common- 
 wealths as that of probate judge. People are so influenced by mere 
 names that if such were the title here the claims of an able surrogate to 
 public respect would be more fully understood. When it is considered 
 that once in every generation the entire wealth of the county, including 
 vast fortunes amassed elsewhere by those who die residing in it, is ad- 
 ministered upon in this court and that nearly all the intricate and per- 
 plexing questions involved in its distribution are passed upon by the 
 
475 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 surrogate, it will readily be seen that the duties and responsibilities of 
 this office are among the most important, extensive and onerous that can 
 devolve upon judicial officers. 
 
 It is now nearly fifty years since David A. Scott entered upon the 
 duties of this office. There are those who still remember the dignity and 
 grace with which he discharged them. It is forty years since he laid them 
 down. One year after the close of his second official term and one year 
 after Judge Michael H. Hirschberg had been admitted to the bar, they 
 entered into a partnership under the name of Scott & Hirschberg, which 
 continued until Mr. Scott's death. What this long, close association 
 meant to the younger member of the firm he alone fully knows. Surely 
 he would be the last to repel the suggestion that it doubtless profoundly 
 influenced a character still sensitive and impressionable when the intimacy 
 began. Indeed he himself bore affectionate testimony to this impress 
 when, in the court proceedings, held to honor his dead friend's memory, 
 he said : "For more "than twenty-one years we have labored together side 
 by side in the perfect intimacy and union of the partnership relation, and 
 realizing how very much I am indebted to his precepts, his example and 
 his support; with only sweet and grateful memories of that connection 
 now remaining, wholly unalloyed by even the momentary shadow of 
 doubt or distrust, and unvexed by even an occasional suggestion of dis- 
 cord or dissension — indeed one long and unbroken period of harmonious 
 intercourse, of joint and cheerful endeavor, and of undisturbed confidence 
 and esteem, I deem it a duty no less than a privilege to add my humble 
 meed of praise to the chorus of eulogy which I am sure will greet his 
 memory to-day." 
 
 In closing his tribute Judge Hirschberg said, with the heartfelt concur- 
 rence of the entire bar : 
 
 "And so passed away forever an honorable lawyer, a faithful friend, a 
 loving father, an estimable citizen, a good man. We will all miss his 
 familiar form, his friendly greeting, and his kindly presence. Let his 
 virtues be commemorated in the records of the court. Let the sweet and 
 wholesome fragrance of his memory remain, to inspire lawyers, living 
 and to come, to emulate his upright deeds, and to con the lasting lessons 
 of his pure and simple life." 
 
 And now as we pause in the contemplation of this fine and beautiful 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 47^ 
 
 character there rises before the mind another figure associated with the 
 days of Winfield and Gedney in Goshen ; of Fullerton, Brewster and Scott 
 in Newburgh — the figure of James G. Graham. It is difficult to classify 
 him in either group to which reference has been made. A constitution 
 naturally delicate led him to shrink from the strife and turmoil of sharply 
 contested trials and to prefer the seclusion of his office and his library. 
 Yet no lawyer of the period under consideration approached him in the 
 kind of oratory adapted to public and ceremonious occasions. Indeed 
 James G. Graham stands in a group or class alone. None but himself 
 could be his counterpart, for he was compacted of every creature's best. 
 In serenity he was equal to Scott, in strength to Winfield. In counsel 
 he was as wise as Brewster, in speech as gifted as Gedney. While in 
 vigor of expression he may be compared to Winfield and in felicity of 
 style to Gedney, yet he excelled them both in a certain tender grace, 
 a poetic touch, a romantic spell, an iridescent play of fancy and sentiment 
 which were the spontaneous reflection of an ardent, imaginative, spiritual 
 temperament, united to and controlled by exquisite literary taste. 
 
 He never received, either in life or in death, the public recognition due 
 to his splendid gifts and exalted character. He was ever generous in his 
 own praise of substantial worth. His tributes to his departed brethren 
 were marked by peculiar elevation of thought and tenderness of senti- 
 ment. A work professing to be history, seeking to readjust the balances 
 in which the superficial judgment of contemporaries is corrected by the 
 tardy recognition of posterity, should not fail to register the star of 
 James G. Graham in that brilliant constellation from which Marsh and 
 Winfield, Gedney and Fullerton, Brewster and Scott shed undying re- 
 fulgence upon the traditions and memories of the Orange County bar. 
 Let a garland of affectionate, reverent homage entwine the memory of 
 one who never failed himself to lay a chaplet of rosemary upon the grave 
 of friendship. 
 
 To this period also belongs Abram S. Cassedy. Admitted to practice 
 just fifty years ago, his rise from the time that he settled in Newburgh 
 was so rapid that he came into professional relations with the members 
 of both groups which have been considered, though they were all ad- 
 mitted to the bar several years before. Indeed he belonged to both 
 groups. He was emphatically what is meant by the expression "an all- 
 'round lawyer." He could work patiently and assiduously in his office 
 
477 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 drawing contracts and giving counsel and then proceed to the court- 
 room to try his cases. His knowledge of the law commanded the respect 
 of the courts, while his earnestness and sincerity produced a favorable 
 impression upon juries. He was essentially a man of affairs, equally 
 at home in the bank directors' meeting, the common council, the mayor's 
 office and the board of education. He was corporation counsel of his 
 city and district attorney of the county. He was the executor of large 
 estates and the trustee of great interests, one of the most important of 
 his transactions being his sale of the West Shore Railroad for the sum 
 of $22,000,000, and his distribution of the fund. In all the positions that 
 he occupied and all the capacities that he filled he was animated by the 
 very highest ideals of professional honor and personal probity. In many 
 ways the influence of his life and the force of his example have been more 
 persistent and abiding in Newburgh than in the case of lawyers whose 
 fame has been exclusively in the courts. His interesting and stainless 
 career affords a striking illustration of the results which may be accom- 
 plished by an acute and active mind concentrated upon one leading ob- 
 ject and directed in its energies by a simple, sincere, straightforward, 
 undeviating devotion to the noblest standards of public duty and private 
 honor. 
 
 Looming large and masterful in the second group of lawyers, the friend 
 and associate of Winfield, Gedney and Fullerton, who always valued 
 highly his legal opinions and who frequently were influenced by them, 
 though he distrusted his own ability to cope with them in court, comes the 
 figure of John G. Wilkin. Twice elected county judge, the first time in 
 1851 and the second time in 1883, the interval between these elections 
 was marked by the presence and the power of his persistent, aggressive, 
 dominating, yet at the same time winning, gracious, picturesque per- 
 sonality. Born to command, the exciting times in which he lived, covering 
 the most painful period of our national history, tended to develop his 
 natural powers of leadership. He had a talent for friendship. His abso- 
 lute devotion to his friends in times of adversity and defeat confirmed a 
 leadership which, however, was constantly challenged by those who, be- 
 cause they could not control him, sought to crush him. He tasted many 
 a time the bitter truth of Joubert's epigram that a man who by the same 
 act creates a friend and an enemy plays a losing game, because revenge 
 is a stronger principle than gratitude. But Judge Wilkin never knew 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 478 
 
 that he had lost. He never accepted defeat. Like his old friend Hal- 
 stead Sweet, who always began the day after election to prepare for the 
 next election, the hour of Judge Wilkin's defeat was the most dangerous 
 one for his enemies. In the case of such a character, deeply implanted 
 with the love of power for its own sake as well as for its rewards, it was 
 inevitable that it should pass through many periods of storm and trial. 
 But if Judge Wilkin perforce bent to the storm he never quailed before it. 
 The deepest trial of his life was one that he never foresaw. This was the 
 failure in 1884 of the Middletown National Bank of which he was the 
 attorney and nominally the vice-president. This failure, which was pre- 
 cipitated by the unsuspected acts of the president in giving up to a grain 
 shipper who had acquired a hypnotic control over his mind, two hundred 
 thousand dollars' worth of bills of lading without the payment of the 
 drafts to which the bills of lading were attached, came to Judge Wilkin 
 with all the force of a cruel and Crushing accident. The spirit which 
 no opposition could daunt recoiled for a moment under the stab of treach- 
 ery. But only for a moment. Quickly recovering himself — though deeply 
 pained and humiliated that such a distaster should come to an institution 
 with which he was connected and especially to friends who might have 
 been influenced by his name — the strength, the courage, the manliness 
 of his royal character were never more strikingly exemplified, were never 
 shown to greater advantage than at this very time. He never flinched 
 from any obligation which this or any other relation, business, political, 
 social or professional entailed upon him. His devotion to his clients, his 
 determination to relieve them from the consequences of their own folly 
 or imprudence was absolute and fearless, never taking any note of 
 whether they could have avoided the plight they were in. If they were 
 in trouble through no fault of their own, of course anybody would be 
 glad to help them. But if they were in trouble through their own fault 
 the very addition to their troubles which this reflection caused them only 
 created a double claim upon Judge Wilkin's sympathies and energy. This 
 is the spirit of the true lawyer, who, when appealed to in distress, has no 
 more right to arrogate to himself the functions of court and jury and 
 decree that his client must take his punishment than a physician has to 
 refuse to cure a disease which his patient has incurred through a violation 
 of the laws of health or morality. 
 
 Judge Wilkin's interest in the young men who grew up about him never 
 
479 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 deserted him. He welcomed their advances, he reciprocated their esteem, 
 
 he enjoyed their companionship. His reminiscences of the older bar were 
 
 lively and entertaining, his sense of humor keen, his exultation in life 
 
 and all its activities throbbing and intense. He was not ready to go when 
 
 the summons came and he made no hypocritical pretense of resignation 
 
 to it. His was a life so full of promise and performance, passion and 
 
 power, persuasiveness and preeminence that well may we exclaim with the 
 
 poet: 
 
 "But what rich life — what energy and glow ! 
 Cordial to friend and chivalrous to foe! 
 Concede all foibles harshness would reprove, 
 And what choice attributes remain to love." 
 
 If James N. Pronk had given the thought and attention to his own inter- 
 ests that he gave to the interests of the public and to the development 
 of his city he would have died wealthy and famous. In his early manhood 
 when, as the only lawyer in Middletown, except Judge Wilkin, he acquired 
 a large practice, he quickly accumulated a fortune sufKcient to enable him 
 to build and wholly pay for what still remains the finest store and office 
 block in Middletown. He had nothing to do then, in order to a successful 
 life, but to take his ease and accept such work as he might enjoy. But 
 this was not his nature. He simply could not take his ease. He was 
 possessed by the desire to originate and carry forward every public enter- 
 prise that might benefit the town. He lived plainly and simply, had no 
 personal indulgences, spent nothing upon himself, denied himself every 
 pleasure in order that he might give himself wholly to the service of the 
 public. Every pleasure indeed except that of friends and books. He 
 loved the society of congenial spirits and he dwelt much among books. 
 But he was not selfish even in this. Instead of putting the books he 
 bought into his own library he put them into a public library. He estab- 
 lished the Lyceum, the fine circulating library of which gave to Middle- 
 town its first literary impetus. In connection with this he organized de- 
 bates in which the ablest men of the community discussed every moral, 
 social and political question of the day. These debates brought out the 
 native talent and debating powers of many men who otherwise might 
 have been silent, notable among them Israel O. Beattie, whose wide in- 
 formation, keen reasoning and sparkling wit are well remembered by 
 those who know how naturally his distinguished son. Judge John J. 
 Beattie, comes by these qualities. 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 480 
 
 Moreover, Mr. Pronk brought to the platform of the Lyceum the 
 foremost intellects of his time — Henry Ward Beecher, Wendell Phillips, 
 Horace Greeley, Edward H. Chapin, Theodore L. Cuyler and many 
 others. I well remember when, a few years ago at Mohonk, Judge 
 Beattie and I introduced ourselves to Dr. Cuyler and mentioned Middle- 
 town, he at once exclaimed: "How's my old friend Pronk?" though they 
 had not met for forty years and he had not heard of his death. 
 
 The great mistake of Mr. Pronk's life was when he mortgaged his 
 fine building, on the income of which he might easily have lived, in order 
 to establish what became the passion and the idol of his life, Hillside 
 Cemetery. But was it a mistake? Is it not success, after all, to live in 
 lasting institutions? This cemetery is to-day the most beautiful resting 
 place of the dead in Orange County. Over this sacred spot where he 
 himself was laid, broods ever the sentiment inscribed over the tomb in St. 
 Paul's Cathedral of Sir Christopher Wren, its architect — "If you would 
 behold his monument look about you." (Si monumentum quaeris circum- 
 spice.) 
 
 Younger than any of the lawyers thus far considered, but entering 
 upon his professional life while theirs was still active, and dying prema- 
 turely before the close of those careers with which his own was strictly 
 contemporaneous, was William F. O'Neill. Perhaps no career was ever 
 more of a surprise to the public and to the profession than that of Mr. 
 O'Neill. From Winfield, Gedney and Fullerton with their distinguished 
 lineage, family influence, county connections, social position, superior 
 education, wide culture, courtly address and imposing presence much was 
 expected and expectation was always satisfied. But here was a young 
 man, who coming from Monticello to study law in Middletown with 
 Judge Groo and entering upon his career without any of these advan- 
 tages, boldly flung himself into the courts to try conclusions with the 
 ablest of Orange County's advocates and began at once to captivate juries 
 and to win his cases. Small in stature, unimpressive in appearance, de- 
 ficient in culture, unformed in style, averse to application, trying his cases 
 with very inadequate preparation, the lawyers were puzzled at first to 
 know the secret of his immediate and enormous success at the bar. It 
 lay, as they soon learned, in his faculty of making the jury think that he 
 always happened to be on the right side. It was like the case of the juror 
 who was descanting enthusiastically upon the magnificent, unrivaled 
 
48i THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 powers of Brougham as an advocate. "But," said a bystander, "I see that 
 you always give the verdict to Scarlett." "Scarlett, O yes," said the 
 juror. "Well, you see Scarlett is always on the right side." 
 
 Kfr. O'Neill was a natural verdict getter. He never went over the 
 heads of the jury. He talked with them on their own plane of thought, 
 sentiment and experience. Juries liked him personally. They felt inter- 
 ested in his success. I remember a trial in which he obtained a verdict 
 of $2,000 against the village of Port Jervis for a woman who had fallen 
 upon a defective sidewalk, but who did not appear to have been much in- 
 jured. After the verdict, one of the jurors, Coe Goble, of Greenville, 
 asked me what I thought of the verdict, to which I replied that they prob- 
 ably gave as much as the evidence justified, since she did not seem to be 
 hurt much. "Well," said Goble, "it was this way — we thought the woman 
 ought to have $1,000 and we thought Billy ought to have $1,000." 
 
 This familiar, affectionate reference to him as "Billy" indicates his 
 place as a popular idol. Indeed the boyishness of his appearance and 
 stature seemed to help him. People who saw him for the first time and 
 who had not expected much from him, went out of the court-room saying, 
 "Did you see how little Billy O'Neill laid him out?" 
 
 Mr. O'Neill made negligence cases a specialty, and he became known 
 far and wide as a negligence lawyer. Those who deprecate the rise of 
 the negligence lawyer and the increase in negligence cases during the last 
 forty years fail to make sufficient allowance for those changed conditions 
 in the business of the world under which its various currents of capital 
 and industry converge in one swollen stream of corporate enterprise and 
 control. This tends, on the one hand, to encourage professional alertness 
 in protecting the individual from corporate greed or neglect and, on the 
 other hand, to create extreme devotion to corporate interests seeking the 
 aid of professional skill and judgment. While the zeal of attorneys in 
 behalf of corporations is rarely condemned it is somewhat the fashion to 
 deprecate the negligence lawyer who takes the case of a client against a 
 corporation upon a contingent fee. As the client is usually destitute it 
 is difficult to see how his case is to be presented at all unless the attorney 
 takes his chances upon success. As courts and juries must determine that 
 the claim is a worthy one before it can succeed, the whole criticism seems 
 to resolve itself into the position that worthy causes and clients should be 
 deprived of a hearing. This feeling can be well understood on the part 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 482 
 
 of corporations constantly compelled to pay damages on account of their 
 carelessness, but the expression of it comes with poor grace from lawyers 
 who receive large retainers and liberal fees from wealthy clients. It is 
 at least as fair to a client to wait for compensation until the work is done 
 as it is to insist on a retainer before any work at all is done. It is notice- 
 able that the criticism upon the contingent fee at the conclusion of the 
 case comes usually from the lawyer who expects a large fee at the begin- 
 ning of the case. 
 
 It is simple truth and justice to say that human Hfe and limb are safer 
 to-day in Orange County because that sturdy fighter and dangerous oppo- 
 nent, William F. O'Neill, caring not whether his client was poor or rich, 
 never allowed a case of negligence, once brought to his attention, to pass 
 unchallenged and unpresented to a court of justice. And if his example 
 and his influence have encouraged others, as indeed they have, in the same 
 path of professional honor and public duty, then he, too, has not lived in 
 vain. 
 
 The advent of Mr. O'Neill was coincident with the rise of a new gen- 
 eration of advocates who were confronted at first with a supremacy in the 
 older bar which never could have been ousted by superior talent. It 
 yielded at last to the only rivals it could not resist, decay and death, even 
 as now the lawyers I am about to name will soon surrender to a still later 
 generation their coveted place and prominence in the courts. ] say about 
 to name because, notwithstanding the considerations which suggest the 
 omission of any reference to the living, it seems to be inartistic and it 
 ought to be unnecessary to break off a narrative in the middle because 
 some of its characters are still living. Caution and delicacy may indeed 
 discourage, if not wholly forbid such unstinted praise as may be properly 
 bestowed upon a finished, rounded career, far removed from possible mar- 
 ring by some late and regrettable error. But, on the other hand, the 
 opinion of his contemporaries by one who has freely mingled with them 
 and frequently been pitted against them ought to be accurate, and, if 
 accurate, then interesting and valuable. How we would all enjoy now 
 Winfield's own characterization of Samuel J. Wilkin and William F. 
 Sharpe, his partner; of Benjamin F. Duryea and Joseph W. Gott, the 
 senior; of David F. Gedney and Stephen W. Fullerton. There are his- 
 tories of our own times and this is one of them. Let me proceed then, 
 diffidently, indeed, but still unflinchingly, to perform the task assigned to 
 
483 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 me before the subjects and the generation chiefly interested in them have 
 all alike passed away; appealing to the judgment of those still able to 
 decide, upon the candor, fairness and impartiality of the estimates. In- 
 deed, if we wait until all contemporaries have passed away, who is left 
 to determine whether the estimates are just? 
 
 William J. Groo is older than the lawyers who came to the bar in the 
 late sixties, but he falls naturally in this group, because he came to 
 Orange County in 1866, when he at once took a foremost place among its 
 trial lawyers, his reputation having preceded him. He had already become 
 a leader of the bar of Sullivan County, where in 1856 he was elected its 
 district attorney. This leadership was, in itself, evidence of great ability, 
 for he had to win his spurs against such intellectual giants as General 
 Niven, Judge Bush, Senator Low and James L. Stewart. It is not 
 strange, then, that in him Winfield, Gedney and FuUerton found a match 
 for all their powers and an equal in all the arts and accomplishments of 
 the advocate. His perfect self-possession, his readiness in retort, his firm 
 grasp of the points in controversy, his unfailing memory enabling him to 
 marshal the testimony with crushing effect, his severe logic, his scathing 
 denunciation, his intrepid spirit, and, above all, his moral earnestness 
 combined to make him a dreaded and formidable adversary. 
 
 Judge Groo (for he acquired the title through his election as special 
 county judge of Orange County in the year 1868) has carried this quality 
 of moral earnestness, which so largely contributed to his success at the 
 bar, into all the interests and relations of life. He early espoused the 
 cause of temperance and has long been one of the most prominent mem- 
 bers of the prohibition party, which at different times has bestowed upon 
 him its complimentary but unsubstantial nomination for governor and 
 judge of the Court of Appeals. He has always insisted that the absolute 
 prohibition of the sale of liquors in the State of New York is not only a 
 righteous and necessary reform, but an entirely feasible one. The re- 
 markable strength of this movement in the South, followed as it has been 
 by recent prohibitory legislation in several of the States, is one of the 
 cheering rewards for unselfish, life-long devotion to principle which he is 
 permitted to enjoy in his declining years. There is no doubt whatever 
 that his sacrifices in behalf of this cause seriously interfered with his 
 later eminence at the bar, for such eminence, even when once achieved, 
 can be maintained only by sedulous, unrelaxed devotion; by steady, un- 
 
THE BENCH. AND BAR. 484 
 
 qualified, undivided allegiance to that most exacting of all masters — the 
 law. 
 
 This consecration to higher duties and nobler aims than those involved 
 in mere professional success does not, however, constitute the sole reason 
 why Judge Groo ceased to be a familiar and prominent figure in the 
 courts of Orange County. This was due primarily to the removal of his 
 office to New York, where he continued to win many notable legal 
 triumphs until failing health compelled him to retire from active practice. 
 His dignified and honorable repose is divided between his home in Mid- 
 dletown and his summer retreat in his native county of Sullivan at Groo- 
 ville, so named in honor of one of his Revolutionary ancestors. 
 
 Though Lewis E. Carr has transferred his professional activities to a 
 wider field, yet he acquired and developed in Orange County those tran- 
 scendent qualities as a trial lawyer which have since, in nearly every 
 county of the State, excited the astonishment of the bar and the admira- 
 tion of the courts. From the very first he produced a profound impres- 
 sion upon Winfield, Gedney and Fullerton, with whom he engaged in 
 vigorous, courageous contest at a time when it was difficult, indeed, to 
 stand up against their powerful and almost irresistible influence. But it 
 was when he came to be associated with them in some most important 
 trials that they were even more impressed with his knowledge of funda- 
 mental principles, his wisdom in consultation, his mature and unerring 
 judgment. Judge Gedney once remarked in a public tribute to Mr. Carr 
 in his early life that it was possible to gain a far more accurate measure- 
 ment of a lawyer's real ability through association with him than in 
 opposition to him. He added that it was after enjoying such opportunities 
 to become acquainted with Mr. Carr that he was the better able to express 
 admiration of his surpassing talents as well as confidence in his brilliant 
 future. Mr. Carr has since then enjoyed many honors and some supreme 
 triumphs, but it is doubtful that any encomium has ever given him deeper 
 pleasure than this now amply verified prediction by so competent an au- 
 thority. 
 
 Nothing more surely attests the eminence which Mr. Carr has attained 
 in the State than the recognition of it by the Assembly of the State of 
 New York in inviting him to pronounce in its chamber the eulogy upon 
 its beloved speaker, S. Frederick Nixon, upon the memorial occasion 
 dignified by the attendance of the Governor, the Senate and the judges of 
 
48s THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 the Court of Appeals. In that august presence Mr. Carr, defending the 
 prerogatives of the State, said : 
 
 "However much we take pride in the nation's greatness and power we 
 cannot shut our eyes to the fact that in some way, not easy to understand, 
 the Federal Government of which we constitute no mean part, has been 
 steadily encroaching upon the province of the State, and year by year the 
 waves of its rising power are biting away some part of the shore on 
 which our feet should rest. * * * Preservation of the rights of the 
 State, as the framers of the Constitution intended and provided, is as 
 essential to the safety, security and perpetuity of the sisterhood of States 
 as the armies that carry and defend the flag and the navies that patrol 
 the sea and protect our harbors against the dangers of attack. Our State 
 is an empire in and of itself. Dominion over it and control of its price- 
 less interests are all our own, save to the narrow extent they were ex- 
 pressly yielded to give needed strength and requisite power for the pro- 
 tection of the whole." 
 
 This extract gives some idea of the force and clearness which charac- 
 terize all Mr. Carr's public utterances, but no extract can give any concep- 
 tion of his extraordinary powers as an advocate. The assembly indeed 
 had already enjoyed an unusual opportunity to witness their display, for 
 Mr. Carr was easily the most conspicuous and imposing figure in a. public 
 trial of great importance conducted before it, in which he made the prin- 
 cipal and prevailing argument. But it is perhaps in the appellate courts 
 that Mr. Carr's abilities find their most congenial field of exercise. There 
 his ready command of all the resources of a trained, vigorous and 
 richly stored in,tellect enables him to discuss every proposition pro- 
 pounded by the court, or advanced by his opponent, with a breadth of rea- 
 soning, a fertility of illustration, an array of authority which never fail to 
 arouse admiration and delight. Indeed in every argument or trial in which 
 he engages he organizes from the outset an intellectual duel. One who is 
 not prepared to cope with him on equal terms, or with a cause so strong 
 that it overcomes the intellectual handicap, will find it prudent not to enter 
 the lists with him. 
 
 When Mr. Carr resided in Port Jervis before going to Albany, where he 
 is the general counsel for the Delaware and Hudson Company and where 
 he is called as senior counsel into many important cases not at all con- 
 nected with railfoad litigation, such was his devotion to his profession that 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 486 
 
 it was only in exciting political campaigns that he could yield himself to 
 the demands of the platform. But in Albany so insistent and repeated 
 have been the demands upon him that he has been compelled to yield more 
 frequently, until now his reputation is firmly established as a platform 
 speaker of rare attractiveness. A fair example of his after-dinner oratory 
 may be found, in fit company and enduring form, in the book entitled 
 "Modern Eloquence," edited by Speaker Thomas B. Reed ; it being a re- 
 sponse, at the banquet of the State Bar Association, in which, with a fine 
 blending of humor and seriousness, he commends that recent revival of 
 an ancient custom which has done so much already to revive and promote 
 the dignity of the bench — the wearing by judges of the robe of office. 
 
 The Orange County Bar has contributed to the bar of the State many 
 gifted sons of whom it has been, indeed, proud — Ogden Hoffman, William 
 H. Seward, William Fullerton and others — but it has never contributed 
 one of whose character, ability and fame it is more justly and tmiversally 
 proud than it is of the character, ability and fame of Lewis E. Carr. 
 
 Henry Bacon is now, indisputably, the leader of the Orange County 
 Bar. His career has been marked by a singleness of devotion to his pro- 
 fession rarely equaled. It was interrupted at one time by his service for 
 five years in the House of Representatives, in the debates of which he 
 bore an honorable part, impressing himself most favorably upon the 
 leaders of his own party and those of the opposition. But his heart was 
 all the time in the law, which he keenly enjoys as a science and reveres as 
 a master. Returning to Goshen at the expiration of his congressional 
 .service he threw himself with renewed ardor into the practice of his pro- 
 fession to which he has since applied himself with undeviating purpose, 
 persistency and power. The position of leadership now held by him is the 
 natural, inevitable and only consistent result of high endeavor and unfal- 
 tering purpose united to intellectual gifts and legal qualifications of a 
 superior order. Mr. Bacon has the legal instinct. He is not content until 
 he has penetrated to the heart of the mystery. He revels in a perplexing 
 and complicated case. He loves to unravel its intricacies and explore its 
 mazes. 
 
 Mr. Bacon has in the past twenty years tried more cases than any lawyer 
 in the county. He is retained in nearly every important trial. His mani- 
 fest knowledge of every principle of the law involved in the case always 
 commands the respect of the court and of the bar. In presenting his 
 
487 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 views to the jury he relies upon logic rather than eloquence, upon con- 
 secutive force of argument rather than the arts of persuasion. In the 
 celebrated case of Magar vs. Hammond his opening address to the jury 
 upon the second trial was a masterpiece of close, coherent, cumulative 
 and convincing statement. 
 
 Mr. Bacon is never more interested than when he is confronted with 
 some grave question of constitutional construction. His attack upon the 
 constitutionality of the drainage law, which was declared invalid by the 
 Court of Appeals upon the arguments advanced by him, and in which he 
 was opposed by the eminent advocate John G. Milburn, will be long re- 
 membered. 
 
 All lawyers are true to their clients, but Mr. Bacon's inflexibility in the 
 assertion or defense of his client's rights is uncompromising to the last 
 degree. It has even been said that, in his zeal and ardor, he is willing to 
 trample upon all the ties of private friendship and all the claims of per- 
 sonal courtesy. But no client was ever heard to complain of this and, 
 after all, the fact remains that no lawyer can serve his clients with abso- 
 lute fidelity without, at times, wounding his neighbors and his friends. An 
 honest lawyer can know no one but his client and him crucified. His 
 standard of morality and manners, of duty and decorum is expressed in 
 the sentiment, "Stop pursuing my client and I have no further quarrel 
 with you." Mr. Bacon typifies this spirit and embodies this principle 
 in his professional life more strikingly than any lawyer who has ever 
 practiced at the bar of Orange County. 
 
 On the other hand, Mr. Bacon's social gifts and graces are in the high- 
 est degree winning and attractive. One would never suspect, in the velvet 
 palm that greets him at his threshold, the iron hand that crushed him 
 but the day before in court. One would never recognize in the beaming, 
 graceful host the hard-headed lawyer who, with stern, unflinching pur- 
 pose, will destroy him to-morrow. United in marriage to the brilliant and 
 accomplished daughter of one of America's purest and noblest statesmen, 
 Samuel J. Randall^ his home is a center of charming, courtly and gracious 
 hospitality dispensed with lavish, refined and unaffected generosity. Mr. 
 Bacon is the only lawyer in Orange County who has ever both recognized 
 and fulfilled his social duty to his brethren of the bar by throwing open 
 his home to them in receptions intended to bring the judges and the 
 lawyers together in social relations. In olden days and in other counties 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 488 
 
 this custom once prevailed. Possibly it is because Orange County labors 
 under the misfortune of being a half-shire county — a calamity to any bar 
 for the reason, besides many others, that it effectually destroys the possi- 
 bility of having a suitable court house — that a spirit of comradeship 
 among its lawyers has never grown up. It is noticeable that in counties 
 where the legal interests converge in one central county seat the brotherly 
 spirit is more active. But, however that may be, Mr. Bacon is entitled 
 to the grateful acknowledgment of his efforts to suspend the asperities 
 of professional conflict in the solvent of social converse. In this, as in 
 every other respect, his leadership of the bar is supreme. 
 
 Walter C. Anthony preceded Mr. Bacon a few months in their student 
 life with Judge Gedney at Goshen. No one has painted so perfect and 
 beautiful a picture as he of those halcyon days in that country law of- 
 fice. In his memorial tribute he said : 
 
 "But of all the delightful hours spent with Judge Gedney I recall, with 
 most pleasure, our afternoon talks at the office. As the day was wearing 
 late and he began to make preparations to leave, he usually seemed to 
 want to draw me into conversation. Frequently it took the form of an 
 examination as to those branches of the law which I was then reading 
 upon. Occasionally he would draw me into the discussion of some legal 
 question, in which he would maintain an opinion opposed to that which 
 I expressed, and in which after combatting me, with all his ingenuity and 
 acuteness and frequently discomfiting me, he would in the end explain 
 the whole question and point out the errors of either side of the argu- 
 ment. At times some event of the day's work would be used as a founda- 
 tion for an explanation of the legal questions involved. In whatever way 
 the conversation was begun his evident purpose was that it should be 
 profitable to me in connection with the studies I was pursuing ; and when 
 that end had been accomplished our conversation would wander on 'at its 
 own sweet will,' touching on many and varied themes which all developed 
 new beauties and suggestiveness beneath the light of his varied learning 
 and fertile fancy. Is it to be wondered at that I recall them with a 
 chastened delight ? Judge Gedney was then in the very prime of his re- 
 markable powers. His mind was a storehouse of varied and interesting 
 knowledge, and his conversational and descriptive skill were not only 
 very great, but quite unique. 
 
 "I shall always regard it as one of the most fortunate circumstances of 
 
489 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 my life that I was brought into such intimate association with David F. 
 Gedney. And as my life passes on into the 'sere and yellow leaf and I 
 sit among the lengthening shadows of its afternoon looking back upon 
 the friends and friendships of my youth, I shall very, very often recall 
 Judge Gedney — the slender, erect figure; the strongly marked face; the 
 scant but expressive gesture; the wonderfully melodious and well modu- 
 lated voice; the words so deftly chosen from a vocabulary surpassingly 
 rich and full, that they always reminded me of the sentence in holy writ: 
 'Words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in pictures of silver;' and 
 above all I shall recall his kind and generous deeds, the fit exponents of a 
 loving, loyal heart; and, thus recalling him, I shall often in the future 
 exclaim — as I have already in the past — in no empty phrase and with no 
 exaggeration of speech: 
 
 'Oh for the touch of a vanished hand 
 And the sound of a voice that is still !' " 
 
 This extract is made not solely to embellish the portrait of Judge 
 Gedney, the man — though I indeed left it unfinished intending thus to 
 invoke Mr. Anthony's aid in completing it — ^but also to illustrate Mr. 
 Anthony's own cast of mind, character and literary style. Mr. Anthony 
 is by nature and inclination, a scholar and a recluse. If he were rich he 
 would shut up his office and browse in his library; but not selfishly, for 
 no one has been more generous than he in responding to demands for 
 public and literary addresses. I heard him once, before the Chautauqua 
 Assembly, give a purely extemporaneous lecture upon wit and humor 
 which for range of reading, wealth of information, critical analysis and 
 brilliant characterization has never been surpassed by our most famous 
 lecturers; and yet it was delivered with a modesty, sweetness and sim- 
 plicity which seemed to deprecate the suggestion that it was anything out 
 of the ordinary. 
 
 His memory of Judge Gedney unconsciously reveals how deep was 
 the impression made in youth upon a mind singularly susceptible to the 
 charms and graces of literature and upon a nature no less susceptible to 
 the beauties and joys of friendship. As in the case of all such natures, 
 the books must be choice and the friends fit but few. Not, indeed, that 
 Mr. Anthony is deficient in the elements of personal popularity. His 
 election twice to the office of district attorney of the county, the duties 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 49° 
 
 of which he most ably discharged, attests his popular strength. But it is 
 undeniable that his predilection for the society of the great and wise of 
 every age, to be found in his well-filled library, has tended more and more 
 to withdraw him from the society of the shallow, the superficial, the 
 frivolous. He stands to-day a lonely but alluring figure, on whose heights 
 those who choose to follow may find in him the charming companion, the 
 accomplished scholar, the earnest inquirer, the inspiring instructor. 
 
 Let no captious reader take cynical exception to the note of honest 
 praise sounded in these memoirs. Let it be remembered that, out of hun- 
 dreds of lawyers, only a few of those entitled to admiration and praise 
 have been selected for extended mention. While personal memoirs should 
 be accurate they need not be exhaustive. In those rare instances in 
 which conspicuous talent has yielded to temptation and, in weakness or 
 dishonor, forfeited public respect, it has seemed to be the truest kindness 
 to pass over it in silence. Indeed, as one surveys the procession down 
 half a century of those who have become notable in the law he is pro- 
 foundly impressed that not by infirm, invertebrate character have they 
 gained their prominence but only by firm resolution, high endeavor, 
 moral purpose and intellectual power. One is led to wonder not that 
 there should be so few entitled to praise, but that there should be so 
 many. Impartial criticism will demand of the contemporary chronicler 
 not that his praise be stinted, but only that it be discriminating. 
 
 Indeed only the most unstinted, unqualified praise would be either just 
 or appropriate in summoning from that stately procession of great and 
 honored lawyers the lofty, imposing figure of Judge John J. Beattie, who 
 for eighteen years — 1889 to 1907 — presided over the County Court of 
 Orange. County, having been elected for three successive terms. His 
 dignity of presence, weight of character and wealth of learning amply 
 sustained the traditions of a bench once occupied by Gedney and Fuller- 
 ton. Many of Judge Beattie's decisions have been in cases of far-reach- 
 ing public importance — notably the case involving the construction of the 
 eight-hour law in which Judge Beattie decided that the provision pro- 
 hibiting a contractor from allowing his men to work over eight hours 
 a day on a public improvement was unconstitutional and void. The Ap- 
 pellate Division reversed but the Court of Appeals affirmed Judge Beattie 
 in an opinion sustaining every position which Judge Beattie had taken in 
 his opinion. 
 
491 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 Judge Beattie is grounded in the principles of the law. In all that he 
 does he is thorough, going to the very bottom of the case whether as to 
 the law or the facts. This quality was strikingly brought out in the case 
 tried by him for eight days before Judge Maddox involving the liability 
 of a railroad company for the damage resulting from the explosion of a 
 locomotive boiler. There was absolutely nothing about a boiler that 
 Judge Beattie did not understand. One would have supposed that he 
 had been brought up in boiler works and had then run an engine on the 
 road. He succeeded in dividing the jury and Judge Maddox said after 
 the trial that he had never seen a finer display of sheer intellectuality 
 than Judge Beattie's management of the defense. 
 
 He is an omniverous reader and his marvelous memory retains all 
 that he ever read. His conversation is an intellectual feast, for he pours 
 out a never-failing stream of literary anecdote, historic incident and 
 choice passages from the classics of every age, all ready to gush forth 
 from his well-stored memory as the conversation glances from one sub- 
 ject to another. 
 
 Judge Beattie- carries into his retirement from the County Court the 
 gratitude and respect of the bar and of the public for the fine example 
 of judicial dignity and learning which he has given for eighteen years — 
 an example which may well be followed not only by all who succeed him 
 in the County Court, but by all who administer in the same court houses 
 and from the same bench the wider jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. 
 
 Having considered several leaders of the bar who came into practice 
 in the late sixties, but who, like their predecessors, Winfield, Gedney and 
 Fullerton, were never invited to the bench of the Supreme Court, we come 
 now naturally to that group of their early associates who have achieved 
 judicial honors, those honors which have always held a glittering fascina- 
 tion for the bar whether in the wearing or the recounting of them. There 
 never have been enough judgeships to go around and the long tenure 
 now established wholly excludes rotation among the leaders of the bar 
 in respect to judicial position. Hence the prospect that any member of 
 the bar, however able, will ever attain judicial honors is so remote and 
 dependent upon so many unforeseen conditions that when they do de- 
 .scend and repose upon the modest brow of some highly favored but 
 always unenvied brother, the circumstances combining to produce such 
 a fortuitous selection possess all the charm of romance and all the fasci- 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 49^ 
 
 nation of a fairy tale. While it is true that many unforeseen conditions 
 must always unite in determining the destination of this coveted prize, 
 there still seems to be one inexorable condition to which all Orange 
 County aspirants must conform. They must not reside in the interior of 
 the county. They must practice in the old, historic city of Newburgh — a 
 city which has always taken a deep, honorable, patriotic pride in its 
 Revolutionary associations and in the land they represent, but which has 
 no more pride in, no more sense of connection with. Orange County as 
 a whole than West Point has. Its bar has always been distinguished for 
 great ability and high character. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the State of New York, the wide jurisdiction 
 of which extends from Long Island to the St. Lawrence and the Lakes, 
 was never more fortunate than in the acquisition to its bench from the 
 Newburgh bar of the two Browns, father and son — John W. Brown and 
 Charles F. Brown — the elder having ascended the bench in 1850 and the 
 younger in 1883. 
 
 It is Charles F. Brown who belongs to the period we are now consider- 
 ing. Graduated from Yale College in 1866, admitted to practice in 1868, 
 elected district attorney in 1874 arid county judge in 1877, he resigned in 
 1882 the position of county judge to assume the duties of supreme court 
 judge. 
 
 Mr. Winfield had always ardently desired a position upon the bench 
 of the Supreme Court. It was one of the bitterest disappointments of 
 his life that he so narrowly missed this object of his ambition in 1875, 
 when Judge Dykman was elected. In that year the widespread revolt 
 among the bar and public against the re-election of that most unpopular 
 official. Judge Tappen, who had received the regular democratic nomina- 
 tion, made it evident that any independent democratic candidate who 
 should receive the endorsement of the republican convention would be 
 elected. Mr. Winfield's hopes of receiving this endorsement rose high 
 and were on the point of being realized when an unexpected influence in- 
 tervened to dash them. General Benjamin F. Tracy, who had a long- 
 standing personal feud with William Fullerton, the brother of Stephen 
 W. Fullerton, suddenly came to the conclusion that he did not want upon 
 the bench an intimate friend of the Fullertons. He therefore threw his 
 influence in favor of Jackson O. Dykman, then a prominent democratic 
 lawyer of Westchester County, who thus received the nomination. His 
 
493 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 election by a large democratic and republican vote confirmed the pre- 
 diction that such a coalition would easily accomplish the defeat of Judge 
 Tappen. Orange County, notwithstanding that it shared Mr. Winfield's 
 disappointment, followed his generous lead in supporting Judge Dykman 
 and gave him a majority of 10,000. No one labored for Mr. Winfield's 
 nomination at this time more earnestly than Charles F. Brown himself. 
 
 In 1882 Mr. Winfield's hopes of obtaining a nomination revived, but 
 Charles F. Brown, who cherished the natural and honorable ambition to 
 emulate his father's noble example and distinguished career as a jurist, 
 felt that he ought not to stand aside again. He' of course secured the 
 delegate from his own assembly district without opposition. Overcoming 
 the opposition offered by Mr. Winfield's friends in the second assembly 
 district, he secured its delegate also. By thus presenting a united front 
 Orange County was able to successfully assert its claims in the judicial 
 convention and to secure for Judge Brown the nomination that was fol- 
 lowed by his election. 
 
 No one was more gratified by Judge Brown's election than Mr. Win- 
 field himself, especially as it involved the defeat of General Tracy, the 
 very man who, seven years before, had snatched from him the same 
 prize when almost within his grasp. When General Tracy, of Kings 
 County, was nominated by the republican convention against Judge 
 Brown, of Orange County, he confidently expected to defeat Judge 
 Brown, whose greatness was then unknown to the district at large, 
 through the promised support of many large Brooklyn interests. But all 
 his calculations were confounded by a wholly unexpected event. This 
 was the cataclysm in which Grover Cleveland, with whom Judge Brown 
 was running, carried the State by the enormous, unprecedented majority 
 of 200,000. 
 
 Thus was Orange County enabled to contribute to the bench of the 
 Supreme Court a jurist who, in the fourteen years of his incumbency, 
 made a profound, a lasting impression upon the jurisprudence not only of 
 his State but of his country. 
 
 After serving for six years with great acceptance in the trial and 
 special terms, he was, upon the formation of the second division of the 
 Court of Appeals, promoted to its bench. His services during the four 
 years' existence of that court were of the highest value, his luminous 
 opinions being still quoted and followed in every State in the Union. 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 494 
 
 Some of the litigations which came before him were in the highest de- 
 cree difficult and complicated ; one of the most important being the case 
 involving the construction of the Tilden will, in which the opinion of 
 Judge Brown, declaring the trusts invalid, was adopted by the court. His 
 ■opinions rendered in this court constitute an imperishable monument to 
 his learning and ability. 
 
 Judge Brown's manner upon the bench, at trial and special term, was 
 a happy mingling of simplicity and dignity. His most noticeable personal 
 trait was his entire lack of self-consciousness. He never thought about 
 himself or about the impression which he might be making upon the bar 
 or the public. His mind was wholly upon the case and upon the prin- 
 ciples involved in it. He was considerate of the feelings of counsel and 
 rarely rebuked them for imperfect presentation of their views. When 
 they wandered from the point he thought about the case and when they 
 came back to the case he followed them again. It is simply the truth of 
 history to say that the members of the bar, not only of Orange County 
 but of the entire State, do not expect to see in this generation a nearer 
 approach to the ideal judge than they were permitted to behold during the 
 fourteen years of Judge Brown's incumbency. 
 
 There was one marked characteristic of Judge Brown while upon the 
 bench which deserves more than a passing mention. After a case was 
 submitted to him and while it was still under consideration he was never 
 afraid to enter upon a discussion of the principles involved in it, with 
 either of the counsel he might happen to meet, if he felt that such a dis- 
 cussion might prove profitable. In this respect he differed from somo cf 
 his colleagues who were perfectly aghast at the thought of counsel con- 
 versing with them upon any phase of a pending case in the absence of op- 
 posing counsel. This of course was due to their high sense of the im- 
 portance of preserving not only real impartiality but the strictest appear- 
 ance of impartiality. But there was something in Judge Brown's char- 
 acter which did not need the protection of such a rule ; something in the 
 very atmosphere which he threw out ; something in the impression which 
 he gave of being simply a thinking, working, impersonal, intellectual ma- 
 chine, which left no room for misunderstanding on the part of any lawyer 
 thus admitted to a share in his deliberations and which left his judicial 
 independence and impartiality absolutely untouched. This capacity at 
 once constitutes the highest test and the consummate type of the strictly 
 
495 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 judicial temperament. To this test Judge Brown easily responded and 
 of this type he was the perfect embodiment. 
 
 No one can be accused of sycophancy in awarding to a judge long 
 since retired from the bench his merited meed of praise and gratitude 
 for distinguished public services. Nor even in the case of judges still 
 occupying the bench can such a charge fairly lie when the faithful hisr 
 torian surveying and reviewing, from the serene heights of retirement 
 and reflection, the stirring scenes in which once he bore an active part, is 
 now as indifferent to, as independent of, the opinions of judges as they 
 are of his. It would indeed be far more entertaining if there could be 
 contributed to this volume the opinions which the judges hold of each 
 other, thrown into literary form instead of merely being promulgated 
 from the bench or disseminated by the press. When, upon the occasion 
 of Queen Victoria's jubilee, the judges met in London to prepare an 
 address to Her Majesty, the proposed draught submitted to them began 
 with the words, "Conscious as we are of our shortcomings," whereupon 
 Lord Bowen gravely suggested, as an amendment, "Conscious as we are 
 of each other's shortcomings." Human nature is very much the same 
 here and in England; very much the same, in its manifestations, among 
 judges and among lawyers. 
 
 Judge William D. Dickey ascended the bench in 1896, one year before 
 Judge Brown's retirement from it. The second judicial district, of 
 which Orange County then formed a part, was for many years demo- 
 cratic and it was not unusual for the republican conventions to endorse 
 the democratic nominations. But in 1895 there seemed to be such a fair 
 prospect for success that the republicans put forward a full ticket of 
 judicial nominees, including Judge Dickey, who was elected, though one 
 of his associates upon the ticket, Hugo Hirsch, of Brooklyn, was defeated 
 by Judge Martin J. Keogh, whose court ought to be attended every year 
 by visiting delegations of judges from all parts of the State as a training 
 school and object lesson, illustrating how a busy judge may at all times, 
 in all circumstances and under all provocations still be the model, fault- 
 less, consummate gentleman. 
 
 Although Judge Dickey removed from Newburgli to Brooklyn soon 
 after his election and is counted as a judge of the second judicial district, 
 while Orange County is now a part of the ninth judicial district, still 
 Orange County is where he was born; where his professional life was 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 496 
 
 passed; where he rose to prominence and power, and where he lived 
 when he was elevated to the bench. He exhibited even in boyhood the 
 qualities which have marked his public career, his patriotic ardor inspir- 
 ing him to enlist in the Union Army when only seventeen years of. age; 
 his promotion being so rapid that before he was twenty years old he had 
 been breveted colonel in recognition of conspicuous gallantry. 
 
 Admitted to practice soon after the close of the Civil War he threw 
 himself with characteristic energy not merely into the legal contests 
 which arose in his city, but into all the public and political controversies 
 of the day. Ardent in his affections and implacable in his hatreds, loyal 
 to his friends and relentless to his enemies, he soon acquired an extensive 
 influence and attracted to himself a devoted following, both personal and 
 political. 
 
 The public spirit and civic pride shown by Judge Dickey in promoting 
 every enterprise tending to beautify or benefit his native city was gener- 
 ally recognized and his election to the constitutional convention of 1893 
 was a distinct turning point in his career. His ability, vigilance, au- 
 thority, force of character and readiness in debate, soon gave him a dom- 
 inant influence in the deliberations of that highly intellectual body^an 
 influence aided by his commanding presence and resonant voice, advan- 
 tages not without value in that most difficult of all auditoriums, the as- 
 sembly chamber in the Capitol at Albany. Among the many far-reaching 
 reforms which he proposed or advocated in the convention he undoubt- 
 edly looks back with special satisfaction upon the provision incorporated, 
 with his active support, in the new constitution prohibiting any legislative 
 limitation upon the amount of recovery for death occasioned by negli- 
 gence, since he has had abundant occasion in his experience upon the 
 bench to verify his convictions of the justice, necessity and public policy 
 of this amendment. 
 
 Judge Dickey displays upon the bench the same sterling qualities which 
 marked his active professional career. Among them none is more pro- 
 nounced than his remembrance of and kindness to old and valued friends. 
 The exercise by a judge of the patronage necessarily pertaining to his 
 office has always been a trying question for him. But since one lawyer 
 has no natural, superior claim over any other lawyer upon the fruits of 
 patronage, there seems to be no reason why a judge should not be per- 
 mitted to gratify his feelings of friendship and esteem in the appoint- 
 
497 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 ment of referees whom he knows to be not only estimable but entirely 
 capable. No one questioned this sentiment or principle of conduct when 
 Judge Brown appointed his old friend and partner, Mr. Cassedy referee 
 to sell the West Shore railroad, or when he appointed his old friend, 
 William Harvey Clark, of Minisink, receiver of the Port Jervis and Mon- 
 ticello railroad; Mr. Clark, by the way, proving to be so capable a re- 
 ceiver that he not only paid its debts but surprised the stockholders by 
 handing over to them a large amount of money. 
 
 But in the distribution of patronage Judge Dickey has not only been 
 loyal to the claims of private friendship; he has nobly used it in the 
 recognition of the debt which the public owes to distinguished public 
 .services and sacrifices. I know one able lawyer whose physical infirmi- 
 ties disqualify him from active practice at the bar, but whose eye is still 
 as clear, whose judgment as alert as when, from the heights of Gettys- 
 burg, he directed the Federal forces on the first day of the battle and 
 saved the fortunes of the day till they could be turned and redeemed upon 
 the morrow. In appointing this old hero to important service in various 
 public condemnation proceedings, in which his sound judgment and wide 
 experience have been utilized to the public benefit. Judge Dickey has en- 
 titled himself to the gratitude of all who believe that conspicuous worth 
 and patriotic service should not be forgotten and neglected by judges any 
 more than by governors or presidents. And personal gratitude is no less 
 due to Judge Dickey from all those whose appointment by him to posi- 
 tions of trust and responsibility has enabled them to justify his own un- 
 erring judgment as to their fitness and capacity. 
 
 It was in the autumn of 1902 that Judge Dickey was called upon to 
 pass through the first deep sorrow of his life in the loss of his only son, 
 Frank R. Dickey, cut ofif in his young manhood at the very beginning of 
 his promising career at the bar. Born and educated in Newburgh he 
 had followed his father to Brooklyn, where he established himself in 
 practice and where he soon won a large and growing clientage. His solid 
 abilities; his pure, lofty character; his open, sincere nature; his refined, 
 engaging manners ; his gentle, amiable disposition united to create a per- 
 sonality of singular charm and interest. Troops of new friends, attracted 
 to him by the graces of a sweet and beautiful character, joined with those 
 who had always known and loved him in heartfelt sorrow over the un- 
 timely grave of Frank R. Dickey. 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 498 
 
 Judge Dickey's wide experience ih affairs, with his knowledge of 
 human nature, its secret springs and devious ways, enables him lo arrive 
 at decisions always prompt and usually just. His influence upon the 
 bench has always been powerfully exerted in support of the domestic 
 virtues and social purity. Gambling, which is fast becoming one of the 
 most threatening of our national dangers, as it is already one of the 
 most degrading and corrupting of our social vices, whether practiced by 
 men in policy shops, or by 'women at bridge parties, finds in him, when- 
 ever it comes within his judicial purview, neither countenance nor toler- 
 ation. 
 
 There is one trait of Judge Dickey upon the bench which calls for 
 special mention. When, in an action which has been tried and decided 
 by him, without a jury, the attorneys come before him for settlement of 
 the case upon appeal, he does not seek to emasculate the appeal, as some 
 judges in their weakness and vanity do, by striking olit the exceptions 
 designed to bring up sharply for review the points of difference between 
 him and the defeated counsel. He always gives the unsuccessful and dis- 
 satisfied litigant a fair opportunity to review every issuable ruling and 
 to get a reversal if he can. He is not hyper-sensitive upon the subject 
 of being sustained by the appellate courts. Indeed, his mental attitude 
 toward them is doubtless reflected in the remark once made by the 
 famous judge. Lord Young, when he was told that one of his decisions 
 had been affirmed upon appeal by the House of Lords, "Well, I may have 
 been right, notwithstanding," said Lord Young. 
 
 As Judge Dickey has never been assigned to the Appellate Division 
 and much prefers the close contact with the bar and with vital human 
 interests which is enjoyed by judges constantly engaged in trial term 
 and special term, he has never felt called upon to accompany his decisions 
 with opinions of any length. When he does write, his opinions are clear, 
 terse and sententious. Indeed there is very little satisfaction for a judge 
 at special term in writing elaborate opinions, only to find them arrested 
 and archived in that mere vestibule of fame, that hall of unmerited but 
 predestined and pathetic oblivion known as the Miscellaneous Reports. 
 
 But the waters of a cruel, though often kindly, oblivion can never wholly 
 submerge the fine superstructure of judicial fame reared by Judge Michael 
 H. Hirschberg upon a foundation of singularly exclusive, concentrated, 
 severe, professional, intellectual and literary training. Born and reared 
 
499 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 in Newburgh, but coming to practice at the bar without those intermediate 
 college advantages enjoyed by his life-long friend and associate, Judge 
 Brown, whom he succeeded upon the bench, he has, nevertheless, strik- 
 ingly verified the saying of Carlyle that, after all, books are the best uni- 
 versity. During all the years of his professional activity in Orange 
 County he sedulously, patiently wrought out, cultivated and perfected a 
 crisp, nervous, virile, epigrammatic, yet withal, polished, mellifluous, or- 
 nate and opulent English style which constituted an admirable discipline 
 and equipment for the very field of juristical service in which he was later 
 destined to engage. 
 
 Elected in 1896 to a seat upon the bench, he was, after a brief period 
 of service at trial and special terms, assigned to the Appellate Division, 
 and later, upon the retirement of Judge Goodrich, he was appointed the 
 presiding justice of the court. This was the opportunity for which his 
 slumbering, but not unready, accomplishments long had waited. Then 
 ensued the disclosure to his judicial associates and to the bar of the State 
 of those attainments as a writer and as a jurist, which had long been 
 known to the bench and bar of his county and his district. While com- 
 parisons are often more dangerous than odious his career almost inevit- 
 ably reminds one of that literary lawyer, known then chiefly for his 
 writing of "The Blue and the Grey," who was summoned by his friend. 
 Governor Cornell, from his scholarly seclusion at Ithaca to take a seat 
 upon the bench of the Court of Appeals ; and who thereupon enriched the 
 literature of the law with a body of opinions, unrivaled for English style 
 and judicial learning, which have entranced and instructed two genera- 
 tions of lawyers. Equally true is it of Judge Hirschberg that already has 
 he permanently enriched the Reports of the Appellate Division with a 
 series of opinions which, for lucidity of statement, force of reasoning, 
 felicity of style, and perfect command of the literary implements adapted 
 to the expression of exact distinctions or delicate discriminations, stand 
 unrivaled in the pages of these imposing volumes, which will long per- 
 petuate his fame as a judicial writer. 
 
 One characteristic of Judge Hirschberg during his brief service in 
 holding trial terms should be mentioned, because no ponderous tomes can 
 reveal character. Contemporary history must transfix for posterity the 
 personal traits and manners of a judge. When Judge Hirschberg was 
 elected even his intimate friends supposed, from long familiarity with his 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. Soo 
 
 extraordinary quickness of mental action, his scintillations of repartee in 
 social life and his swift rejoinder at the bar, that he would show some im- 
 patience with the slowness, dulness and density due to imperfect prepara- 
 tion or inherent inaptitude, which every judge is called upon, more or 
 less frequently, to endure; that he would find it difficult to restrain the 
 bubblings of wit and sarcasm at the expense of ignorance or incapacity. 
 But on the contrary, he proved to be the most gentle, indulgent and long- 
 suffering of judges. The wearisome lawyers might drone on, he made no 
 effort to take the trial of the case out of their hands and try it himself. 
 j?Te could try it better than they, but he felt it his duty to let them try it in 
 their own way. No one could tell what he was thinking of them or their 
 methods. He might be a maelstrom of seething disgust or amusement 
 within ; but he wore the impassive, inscrutable, incommunicative exterior 
 of a sphinx. Under the responsibility of his great office he unconsciously 
 developed and engrafted that quality which Judge Jenks in his impressive 
 eulogy upon Judge Wilmot M. Smith declared to be almost the greatest 
 attribute of a judge — infinite patience. 
 
 And since the entire bar of Orange County regarded with peculiar af- 
 fection the character of Judge Smith and now holds in deepest veneration 
 his sacred memory, it is not amiss to incorporate in this record that ex- 
 pression of its feelings by Judge Hirschberg himself, which sheds a re- 
 flected light upon his own standards of duty and with which this attempt 
 to limn his portrait for succeeding generations may fitly close : 
 
 "Judge Smith was truly an ideal jurist, profound as a lawyer, estimable 
 as a citizen, lovable as a man. The mortal part of each life ends neces- 
 sarily in nothing but an insignificant contribution to an immense volume 
 of pathetic dust, but the spiritual sense is satisfied when, as in this instance, 
 the ashes are sanctified with the memory of a noble life devoted to duty 
 and glorified with the love of God, of justice and of humanity.'' 
 
 And now, having sought to project upon the canvas a faithful por- 
 traiture of the judges who were drawn into the public service from the 
 Orange County bar, within the period embraced in these personal recol- 
 lections, it is convenient and fitting at this time to briefly outline the condi- 
 tions of practice which prevailed in Orange County at the time they came 
 to the bar — Judge Dickey in 1866 and Judges Brown and Hirschberg in 
 1868 — when Winfield, Gedney and Fullerton were at the zenith of their 
 powers and their reputation. It is a great mistake to assume that the 
 
SOI THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 older members of the bar were satisfied with these conditions. On the 
 contrary, they bitterly chafed under them. The number of judges was 
 wholly inadequate to the needs of the district, as will readily be seen when 
 it is considered that twenty-five judges are now required to serve the same 
 territory then covered by only four judges upon whom devolved all the 
 motions, trials and appeals arising and heard within it. The ever-increas- 
 ing volume of business created by the rapid growth of Brooklyn made 
 it impossible for the judges to hold a trial term — then called the "circuit 
 term" — longer than five days. The judges were indeed upon a circuit, for 
 they were always under assignment to open court in some other county on 
 the following Monday. Every Thursday afternoon or Friday morning 
 the judge marked off the calendar every case which could not be tried in 
 time to enable him to leave on Friday afternoon in order to hold his Sat- 
 urday special term. This arbitrary, inexorable limitation of time, which 
 was equivalent to shutting out many cases that had been carefully pre- 
 pared, was most cruel to the younger members of the bar whose sole 
 chance of either emolument or distinction lay in getting their cases tried ; 
 while to say that these conditions were satisfactory to the older members 
 of the bar of that period would violate the truth of history. They always 
 unduly and often indecently accelerated the trial of important cases in 
 which advocates like Winfield and Gedney were spurred to an undignified 
 celerity which was not merely distasteful but detestable to them. Both 
 Winfield and Gedney were tenacious of dignity, deliberation and decorum 
 in the administration of justice. They disliked extremely to be told, "Go 
 on with the case, gentlemen," or to be asked, "What are you waiting for ?" 
 They could not share the glee manifested by the judge when he succeeded 
 in having three juries "out" at one time, and boasted to the justices of 
 Sessions at his side how he was "expediting the business." They, too, 
 wanted the business advanced, but they wanted it done with due regard to 
 the traditions and the usages of the bar. Winfield was especially the dis- 
 tinct representative in this county of the old Websterian school of advo- 
 cates. He believed earnestly in the maintenance of all that form and 
 dignity, of all those ancient usages and proprieties which once uniformly 
 marked the relations to each other of the bench and bar. When in 1874 
 I met him in Albany to argue my first case in the Court of Appeals, then 
 presided over by that most urbane jurist. Judge Sanford E. Church, Mr. 
 Winfield carefully attired himself on the morning of the argument in a 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 502 
 
 full-dress black suit with its broad expanse of shirt front, now used only 
 for evening wear, but regarded at that time as a suitable uniform for ap- 
 pearance before the highest court in the State ; just as, at a slightly earlier 
 period, Webster and Pinckney appeared before the Supreme Court at 
 Washington in blue coat and brass buttons, with buff waistcoat. How 
 different from the present when able lawyers in short sack coats of gray, 
 looking like commercial travelers, hasten from the Albany station to the 
 two o'clock sessions of the court without stopping to even remove the dust 
 of travel before launching into their keen and brilliant arguments. 
 
 When Judge Joseph F. Barnard, of Poughkeepsie, upon the transfer of 
 Judge Lott to the Court of Appeals in 1869, became the presiding judge of 
 the old general term, he became also the presiding genius, the dominating, 
 all-pervading spirit of the second judicial district. He was opposed to 
 any increase in the number of judges. With his insatiable voracity for 
 work and his preternatural velocity of thought, enabling him to accomplish 
 as much alone as the other three judges combined, he thought that four 
 judges ought to be fully able to keep up with all the business of the dis- 
 trict; as indeed they were if the administration of justice, involving the 
 most profound issues of human life and society, had been merely a matter 
 of getting the business out of the way, as on a wharf, to make room for 
 the next cargo. 
 
 The judges, fresh from their several circuit terms, met in the general 
 term and proceeded to hear appeals from the decisions made by themselves 
 at special and trial term. It was, indeed, an impressive, inspiring and 
 solemn spectacle to see Judge Tappen and Judge Gilbert gravely consider- 
 ing whether they would reverse Judge Barnard; and in the next case 
 Judge Tappen and Judge Barnard sitting upon Judge Gilbert. Of course 
 the tacit challenge, "You reverse me, I'll reverse you," pervaded all the 
 proceedings. Nothing else could be expected of human nature. It has 
 never been pretended that the State supplies lawyers with any superior, 
 exclusive brand of human nature when it gives them their diploma, and 
 judges are simply lawyers upon the bench. That an appellate system 
 should ever have been devised so exquisitely adapted to defeat its object 
 and destroy respect for its operations was hot, of course, the fault of the 
 judges of the second district. 
 
 When the general term sat in Poughkeepsie, as it did every May, to 
 accommodate Judge Barnard, the business was disposed of even more 
 
503 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 rapidly than in Brooklyn, Judge Barnard greeting with delight any 
 lawyers who would appear at eight o'clock in the morning, both ready 
 to argue their appeal in advance of the regular session. The judges con- 
 stantly interrupted the attorneys to assure them that they could not possi- 
 bly remember what they said but that they would read their briefs. It was 
 of course true that no human mind could retain or even grasp the argu- 
 ments discharged at the court as from a catapult by attorneys gasping 
 for breath in the mad race against time. 
 
 Some amelioration of the intolerable conditions under which circuit 
 terms were held in Newburgh and Goshen was effected through the elec- 
 tion in 1870 of Judge Calvin E. Pratt, whose conservatism, affability and 
 dignity won for him universal respect. This improvement was extended 
 by the election in 1880 of Judge Edgar M. Cullen, whose high sense of 
 absolute fairness to all suitors alike led him to devote as much time and 
 thought to a case involving a trifling amount as to one involving large in- 
 terests ; though even he was merciless in his infliction of night sessions 
 upon the attorneys during the hot June term at Goshen, a course to which 
 he felt impelled because of his inability to remain longer than one week 
 and his desire to crowd as much work as possible into that wholly inade- 
 quate time. 
 
 The comfort and convenience of the Orange County bar and the in- 
 terests of litigants were served to a still greater degree by the election in 
 1882 of Judge Charles F. Brown. Though he could not extend the trial 
 terms beyond two weeks, on account of his assignments to other counties, 
 still he held a special term every Saturday at Newburgh where, by con- 
 sent of counsel, many cases were tried that otherwise would have been 
 tried before a jury, thus affording great relief to the overtaxed calendars 
 of the trial terms. 
 
 From that time to the present there has been a steady reaction against 
 feverishness and ferment as a suitable atmosphere for judicial proceedings 
 and a gradual return to calm, neutral, deliberate, dignified, decorous 
 methods of judicial procedure, until finally, for the first time, in the history 
 of the county, a four-weeks' term of court was held in February, 1907 ; 
 this being one of the first fruits of the formation of the ninth judicial 
 district, consisting of the river counties alone — a change which was op- 
 posed by some Orange County lawyers but which is now generally recog- 
 nized as, in the highest degree, conducive to the convenience and interests 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 504 
 
 of the bar and of the public, though it does involve some additional 
 burdens upon jurors. 
 
 Forty years ago the familiar excuse made by judges for dispatching 
 business with unseemly haste was their solicitude for the time and con- 
 venience of the jurors. Indeed there never was a judge more popular 
 than Judge Barnard among jurors, witnesses, spectators and the public. 
 They admired the celerity of his movements and they were vastly enter- 
 tained by his caustic remarks to counsel. But his remarks about counsel 
 and witnesses during the progress of the trial were far more entertaining 
 and racy than any the public was permitted to hear. The favored persons 
 privileged to hear these were his associates upon the bench of the old 
 'Oyer and Terminer, since abolished and now merged in the Supreme 
 Court. They were drawn from the justices of the peace of the county and 
 with the presiding judge constituted the criminal branch of the court. 
 Squire George A. Durland, of the town of Greenville, who sat in this 
 capacity next to Judge Barnard at many terms of court, never tired of 
 telling about the trenchant, scathing, witty commentary kept up by the 
 judge upon every incident of the trial, the counsel engaged in it and the 
 witnesses sworn upon it. 
 
 During Judge Barnard's entire tenure of office the plea of not taking up 
 the time of the jurors was invoked to override every other consideration. 
 Not even death itself was superior to it or sacred from it. When Mr. 
 Winfield died on the tenth of June, 1888, and court convened at Goshen on 
 Monday, the eighteenth of June, Judge Cullen suspended the regular 
 business of the court at four o'clock to allow a suitable tribute to his 
 memory, including several addresses in addition to the resolutions. But 
 when Judge Gedney died, a month later, there was no opportunity to 
 take formal action upon his death at a trial term until the regular No- 
 vember term. Accordingly, when court convened at Newburgh the 
 twelfth of November an informal request was made to Judge Barnard for 
 an opportunity to pursue the same course in respect to Judge Gedney's 
 memory that had been adopted at Goshen in respect to Mr. Winfield. 
 Judge Barnard promptly and firmly refused to allow the time of the jurors 
 to be taken up in this way, adding: "Why, he's been dead some time, 
 hasn't he ?" So it became necessary to change the plan and to offer simply 
 a motion "that a committee be appointed to present at a meeting of the bar 
 of Orange County to be hereafter called suitable resolutions." That there 
 
50S THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 should be further delay in honoring the memory of this great lawyer and 
 brilliant advocate, after there had already been a necessary delay of four 
 months, is not a reproach that rests upon the bar of Orange County. As 
 the motion occupied only two minutes it was promptly granted and the 
 committee purposed to present the resolutions at the following term of 
 court to be held at Goshen in January, 1889, which was expected to be 
 presided over by Judge Brown. But when Judge Brown was transferred 
 to the Court of Appeals he became disqualified from holding the term and 
 Judge Barnard unexpectedly took his place. Admonished by previous ex- 
 perience no attempt was made to present the resolutions at that time or 
 to apply for permission to make addresses in honor of Judge John G. 
 Wilkin, who, also, had meantime died. So the tributes of the Orange 
 County bar to Judge Gedney, Judge Wilkin and Surrogate Henry A. 
 Wadsworth, whose death also had occurred, were massed together at a 
 meeting of the bar presided over by Judge Brown on Saturday, the second 
 day of February, 1889, seven months after the death of Judge Gedney, 
 without those customary adjuncts to the dignity of the occasion — the 
 crowded court room; the attendance of litigants, jurors and witnesses 
 from all parts of the county; the solemn pause in the business of the court; 
 the impressive silence ; the strained, eager attention of old friends in the 
 audience to the last tributes of respect for one they loved ; all of which 
 were not only appropriate but, indeed, imperative in honoring one who 
 had so often held that very court room silent, captive, enthralled by the 
 spell of his genius. 
 
 If Judge Gedney's brethren had felt, in the first instance, that a tribute 
 to his memory at a mere meeting of the bar would be appropriate and 
 adequate, it would not have been delayed seven months, as such a meeting 
 could have been called at any time after his death. That it was not so 
 called shows the strength of a sentiment which was ruthlessly trampled 
 upon by judicial contempt not merely for all the traditions of the bar but 
 for all the sacredness of love and death. 
 
 At the same time the bar always recognized with gratitude the earnest 
 desire on the part of Judge Barnard to transact all the business that he 
 could and to accommodate the bar as much as possible. It was this dis- 
 position that led to his constant signing of ex parte orders without looking 
 at them, trusting to the honor of the bar not to impose upon him and, also, 
 to a motion by the other side to vacate any improvident order. The 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. So6 
 
 lawyers, through long custom, so came to prefer this system that they 
 resented any departure from it by new judges who could not take this 
 view of their duties. When Judge Brown's transfer to the second division 
 of the Court of Appeals led to the Newburgh special terms being taken by 
 Judges Cullen and Bartlett, the bar practically boycotted them in favor 
 of Judge Barnard's Saturday term at Poughkeepsie, merely because both 
 Judge Cullen and Judge Bartlett manifested a very decided preference to 
 know what they were signing. Gradually, however, the lawyers learned 
 that this course was not intended as a reflection upon the bar, but as a 
 help to it, in preventing any such mistake or oversight as might lead after- 
 wards to serious consequences. Of this I once witnessed a striking illus- 
 tration. An attorney desired an order to examine a party before trial 
 in a case in which the examination of his adversary was absolutely essen- 
 tial to his success in the litigation. Judge Bartlett sent the affidavit back 
 to him three times for correction and the order was finally sustained in 
 the Court of Appeals because of the sufficiency of the affidavit. All this 
 involved to Judge Bartlett conscientious labor and minute examination 
 which he might well have shirked and which judges generally consider 
 counsel have no right to expect of them or to impose upon them. 
 
 Judge Barnard was the most conspicuous of all the judges in his anxiety 
 to save the lawyers the trouble of travel in order to transact their business. 
 He instructed the Orange County attorneys to mail to him an order desig- 
 nating a referee of their own choice, to compute the amount due in fore- 
 closure cases, with the report of the referee signed by him in anticipation 
 of his appointment, together with the judgment of foreclosure; where- 
 upon he signed at the same time both the order of reference and the judg- 
 ment of foreclosure, promptly mailing them back, although it was physi- 
 cally impossible that the referee should have acted in the interval between 
 his appointment and the judgment. This practice, which is now regarded 
 as irregular and which even the most accommodating judges now dis- 
 countenance, resulted in no harm, for it rested upon the most implicit 
 good faith on the part of the attorneys, while the confidence of the judge 
 was never, in a single instance, abused. An incident strongly illustrating 
 this trait of Judge Barnard also grew indirectly out of Judge Brown's 
 transfer to the Court of Appeals. Judgments of foreclosure in cases in 
 Sullivan County had usually been taken before Judge Brown at New- 
 burgh because, though in another judicial district, Orange County is an 
 
507 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 adjoining county and this is permitted by the code. But soon after 
 Judge Brown left Newburgh an attorney, overlooking the fact that 
 Dutchess County does not adjoin Sullivan, sent the papers in a Sullivan 
 County foreclosure case to Judge Barnard to be signed by him on Satur- 
 day at Poughkeepsie. His eagle eye at once noticed that the action was 
 in Sullivan County and that he had no jurisdiction to act in the case in 
 Dutchess County. Any other judge would have returned the papers, 
 calling attention to the difficulty. But did this satisfy Judge Barnard? 
 Not at all. This would not have advanced the business. This would not 
 have "helped out the boys." So he struck out the word "Poughkeepsie" 
 in the order and judgment and in his own handwriting substituted the 
 word "Newburgh," thus making himself, by a legal fiction, sit in an 
 adjoining county for five minutes, for the purposes of that case, though 
 he was actually in Poughkeepsie all that day, and though he never held 
 a Saturday special term in Newburgh in all his life. Judge CuUen and 
 Judge Bartlett would have felt that they were inviting impeachment by 
 such an act, and yet Judge Barnard was moved solely by the desire to 
 facilitate the business of the attorneys in every possible way. To him an 
 irregularity meant nothing unless it meant also a wrong. But those days 
 have passed and have been succeeded by better days, in which it is recog- 
 nized by the courts and the lawyers alike that they should co-operate in 
 making even their routine practice so regular as to exclude any possibility 
 of error. 
 
 There will be no sigh in this retrospect over the better days of long ago, 
 no wail about the "good old times." The better days are now and the 
 good times have come at last. The new generation of lawyers now enter- 
 ing upon their active career has reason for gratification that the facilities 
 for the orderly, deliberate, tranquil trial and hearing of their causes, with 
 the prospect that even and exact justice will be rendered in them, are 
 greater to-day than at any previous period in the history of the county. 
 There never was so good an opportunity for a young, ambitious, able 
 advocate to win fame at the bar of Orange County as there is to-day. 
 While the subjects of litigation and the conditions of business have some- 
 what changed in the last fifty years, human nature has never changed. 
 Juries respond to-day as readily as then to the touch of a master spirit. 
 When jurors ask nowadays why they do not hear sufch speeches at court 
 as their fathers have told them about the answer generally given is that 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 508 
 
 judges frown upon anything like display and hold the lawyers down to 
 business. The business of an advocate is to make a good speech and no 
 judge ever was able to stop a good speech. Let no young lawyer seek 
 indolent refuge in the pretext that the judges will not give him a chance. 
 Let him not, with difficulty, fold his restless pinions lest they be arrested 
 in their soaring flight by judicial insensibility. No, the reason that 
 forensic eloquence has so lamentably declined in Orange County lies not in 
 the hostility of judges, but in the absorption of lawyers themselves in 
 the merely material, sordid aspects of life, to the exclusion of any interest 
 in those liberal arts and erudite pursuits which alone can anoint the hesi- 
 tating lips with the honey of eloquent discourse. The field is clear for 
 another Winfield or Gedney. 
 
 It is the fashion to say that the influence of the bar has decUned — that 
 the legal profession, as a body, does not enjoy the same measure of pub- 
 lic respect which was paid to it in the early days of the republic, or exer- 
 cise now that ascendency over public opinion which once it exerted so 
 powerfully and so naturally. It is true, indeed, that coincidently with the 
 stealthy, sinister growth in the Northern States of the modern machine 
 methods of party management the lawyer has been gradually and inevit- 
 ably displaced as a leader of public opinion. It is only in the South that 
 the influence of the lawyer among the masses is still unshaken because 
 there the appeal of candidates is still made directly to the people who, 
 through their primaries and in other republican ways familar to the 
 fathers and founders of the nation, express their preference and give 
 effect to their choice. 
 
 But it is significant that, even in the North, whenever the people at 
 large resolve to destroy long-standing abuses or odious machines, as, at 
 stated intervals, they always proceed to do, they turn instinctively, as of 
 old, to the plain, simple, honest, busy, practicing lawyer. Among the 
 lawyers elected to the high office of governor of our State the three gov- 
 ernors whose homely, direct, straightforward methods have most capti- 
 vated the imagination and impressed the conscience of the passing gen- 
 eration are Tilden, Cleveland and Hughes, who simply brought to their 
 duties the habits, the instincts, the training and the ideals of the old- 
 fashioned country lawyer, whose first aim is always to protect the inter- 
 ests committed to his charge without any thought as to the effect of his 
 course upon his own interests, popularity or future. This training, this 
 
509 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 tradition, this character of the true lawyer still happily survives " all 
 changes in political methods or party management and still constitutes 
 the highest security the people have for the faithful administration of 
 their laws, wholly unswerved by selfish, ulterior or sinister purposes. 
 
 At the time, now forty years ago, to which my memory of the Orange 
 County bar runs back, these honorable traditions were wholly maintained 
 by a bar, the members of which still enjoyed a high place in the public 
 esteem and exercised a profound influence upon public opinion, based 
 upon the dignity and importance of their profession as well as upon their 
 personal talents and character. The relations between the lawyers and 
 the farmers were particularly close, confidential and agreeable. The 
 soil was still largely occupied by men of character, education and intel- 
 ligence who freely sought the counsel and society of their friends among 
 the lawyers at whose offices and homes they were as cordially welcomed 
 on a social or political call as upon a professional visit. The reason that 
 the sons and successors of the lawyers of that day have, to some extent, 
 lost touch with the interests of the soil is that the farmers of that day 
 were not able to persuade their sons to become their successors. The 
 saddest change that has overtaken Orange County in the last forty years 
 is not in the character of its professional men, but in the character of its 
 farming population. 
 
 Identified with the period included in the personal recollections here 
 but partially preserved are several groups of fathers and sons who may 
 for .convenience be considered together; especially as a sufficiently con- 
 secutive view of the period has now been presented to admit, henceforth, 
 of greater latitude in respect to time and order. 
 
 Joseph W. Gott, senior, died in 1869 after twenty-seven years' con- 
 tinuous practice in Goshen, where he established the enviable reputation 
 throughout the county of being one of the most honorable and high- 
 minded men, as well as one of the most able and successful lawyers, 
 known to his generation. His premature and deeply regretted death 
 occurred before his only son could be admitted to practice. 
 
 Joseph W. Gott, Jr., was admitted in 1875 and since then, like his 
 father, has practiced continuously in Goshen. No higher praise can be 
 bestowed upon him than to say, that while he has, by his own vigorous 
 intellect and independent character, won for himself prominence at the 
 bar, he has never lost sight of the high ideals which animated his father. 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 510 
 
 The general confidence in his supreme honor and integrity which he has 
 always enjoyed corresponds most touchingly to the confidence and re- 
 spect always inspired by his honored father. With him is now associated 
 in practice his own son, Percy Van Duzer Gott. These two are men- 
 tioned first in the group of fathers and sons because they are the only 
 lawyers in Orange County, thus associated, who constitute and represent 
 four generations of Orange County lawyers. For in them flows not only 
 the blood of the elder Gott, but the blood of the Van Duzers and the 
 Gedneys. 
 
 Isaac R. Van Duzer, who married in 1826 the older sister of Judge 
 Gedney — their daughter, Charlotte, being married to Joseph W. Gott in 
 1847 — was, undoubtedly, the most brilliant advocate, with the single ex- 
 ception of Ogden Hoffman, who ever addressed an Orange County jury. 
 All the accounts of contemporaries and all the traditions of the bar unite 
 in this verdict. Often have I heard Judge Wilkin, who as a boy heard 
 him in Goshen, expatiate upon his transcendent powers. He died pre- 
 maturely in his fortieth year, but the opinion entertained by his genera- 
 tion was that, had he lived, his name would have gone down to history 
 with the foremost orators of his age. Of their distinguished ancestry at 
 the bar of Orange County the Gotts may well be proud; for the junior 
 member in the present firm is now the fourth in a line of lawyers whose 
 practice and residence at Goshen have extended over a period of eighty- 
 five years — from 1823 to the present time. 
 
 John W. Brown was admitted to practice in 1822, just one year before 
 Mr. Van Duzer, to whom he was related, Judge Brown having married 
 a Reeve, which was the family name of Mr. Van Duzer's mother. It is 
 remarkable that if the practice of Judge Brown and of his own son, 
 Charles F. Brown, had not been interrupted by extended terms of judi- 
 cial service in the life of each — sixteen years in the life of the elder Brown 
 and fourteen years in the life of the younger — the continuous practice of 
 the two Browns would now cover a period of eighty-six years. As it is, 
 their contributions in two generations to the jurisprudence of the State, 
 at the bar and on the bench, cover a longer period than that embraced in 
 the careers of any father and son associated with the legal annals of 
 Orange County. I say still associated because, although Judge Charles 
 F. Brown is now one of the two or three acknowledged leaders of the bar 
 of the State, with his office in New York City, where his practice is 
 
511 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 largely in the Appellate Courts, he still retains his residence in Orange 
 County and a nominal connection with the firm established in Newburgh 
 by his former partner, Mr. Cassedy. 
 
 His own career has already been sufficiently treated in its appropriate 
 place in this commentary. It only remains to add that his life-long 
 veneration for his father's memory and his consistent emulation of his 
 father's example supply an element of interest to his career and of 
 filial tenderness to his character not appreciated by the thousands of his 
 admirers, among the judges and lawyers of the country, who know him 
 only through the cold medium of his published judicial opinions. 
 
 Judge John W. Brown was undoubtedly a great man. Serving two 
 terms in Congress from 1833 to 1837; a prominent member of the 
 Constitutional Convention of 1846; elected in 1849 to the Supreme Court 
 and again in 1857, his life was one of unceasing activity, influence and 
 power. His greatness as a judge may be inferred from the remarkable 
 circumstance that no decision made by him was ever reversed by the 
 Court of Appeals, of which court he was himself a member, under the 
 system then prevailing, during the last years of his successive terms as 
 a judge of the Supreme Court. 
 
 It is not strange that one who was born to the heritage of such a name 
 should have sought to add, as indeed he has added, to its luster in a suc- 
 ceeding generation. 
 
 It was while Charles F. Brown was district attorney of Orange County 
 that John W. Lyon became an official of the county through his appoint- 
 ment to the office of assistant district attorney. The career of the Lyons, 
 father and son, now covers a practice of sixty-one years in Port Jervis, 
 the longest period of continuous practice at the bar carried over from 
 father to son, in Orange County. 
 
 Thomas J. Lyon, or, as his friends affectionately preferred to call him, 
 Tom Lyon, was a man of great native talent and marked originality. 
 Beginning life as a Methodist preacher, but coming to prefer the more 
 extended opportunities for usefulness afforded by the law, his fame in 
 the fifties soon spread from the Delaware to the Hudson. Throwing 
 himself with ardor into the exciting political contests which marked this 
 period, he was in constant demand as a campaign speaker and his poli- 
 tical services were recognized by a lucrative appointment under the 
 administration of" President Franklin Pierce. Twice elected to the As- 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 512 
 
 sembly and once a candidate of his party for the Senate, his abilities 
 always received the cordial recognition of the public with whom he kept 
 constantly on good terms. The announcement that he was to speak at a 
 political gathering was always sure to attract a large attendance of ad- 
 herents of the opposite party for they knew they would be entertained 
 by his sallies though they might not be seduced by his arguments. 
 
 His control over juries was due to a mingling of magnetism and 
 humor. He could touch the chord of sentiment and the response was 
 immediate. He could cover his opponent with ridicule and the result 
 was contagious and convulsive laughter. No weapon is more powerful 
 at any time than gentle banter and no one knew better how to employ its 
 arts to the discomfiture of an adversary than Thomas J. Lyon. 
 
 His son, John W., inherits his ability and much of his originality. 
 He, too, has always taken a deep interest in politics and he has been 
 heard on the platform in every campaign since 1872. 
 
 He was the pioneer of the bar in that branch of the practice which 
 has since assumed such proportions, railway htigation. He was the first 
 to carry to the Court of Appeals many important questions, relating to 
 the liability of the master for injury to the employee, which were settled 
 by that court in favor of the positions contended for by him. 
 
 A most interesting feature in the genealogy of the profession is the 
 fact that the daughter of John W. Lyon, Frances D. Lyon, is also a 
 lawyer duly admitted to practice, having supplemented her studies in her 
 father's office by a course at the Cornell Law School from which she 
 graduated with honor, subsequently passing her examinations before the 
 State Board. She is now engaged in practice with her father, to whom 
 her aid is invaluable in the office, while she has also shown marked ability 
 in her appearances at court. 
 
 Thus we have in the Lyons the only family in Orange County, except 
 the Gott family, in which there have been three successive generations 
 of lawyers bearing the same name. 
 
 Eugene A. Brewster and George R. Brewster cover a period of sixty 
 years' continuous practice, the elder Brewster having been admitted in 
 1848. The judgment of his associates, placing Eugene A. Brewster in 
 the front rank of the lawyers of his time, has already been expressed. 
 Upon his death his son, George R., succeeded to his practice in the same 
 office to which for so many years the friends of his father were accus- 
 
513 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 tomed to bend their steps and where they never received any but the 
 most wise and judicious counsel. George R. Brewster inherits the sound 
 judgment and conservative instincts of his father and well maintains the 
 dignity and responsibilites of his honorable name and lineage. His public 
 spirit and devotion to every worthy cause are among the most conspicuous 
 of his traits of character. Possessed of ample means and under no spur 
 of necessity he gives freely to the public all the time he can spare from a 
 practice which has been attended with great success, one of the most no- 
 table of his recent legal victories having been gained in restraining the 
 building of a railroad across his client's property. 
 
 His sense of civic duty has been strikingly exemplified in the consci- 
 entious performance of his duties as supervisor, though his acceptance of 
 the office involved great inconvenience and sacrifice. His labors in be- 
 half of St. Luke's Hospital have been of inestimable value to that noble 
 benefaction. 
 
 In a community as conservative as Newburgh, where one minister is 
 still acceptably serving his congregation for the fifty-second year and 
 another for the thirty-fifth, it counts for something, and very properly 
 so, that a man should be the son and successor of an honored, respected 
 father. When Mr. Brewster died his son was made a director of the 
 Newburgh Bank in his father's place and when Abram S. Cassedy died 
 the same course was taken in the Quassaick Bank in respect to his son, 
 William F. Cassedy. 
 
 The Cassedys, father and son, cover a period of fifty-one years' con- 
 tinuous practice, the elder Cassedy having been admitted in 1857. The 
 high place gained by him in the esteem of the bar and in the confidence 
 of the public has already been set forth at length. This confidence has 
 been transferred to his son, William F. Cassedy, to a degree almost un- 
 precedented in the career of a young practitioner but in every sense justi- 
 fied by his high character and brilliant talents. Mr. Cassedy has during 
 the last few years managed and represented estates of as great magnitude 
 as the estates represented by all the other lawyers of Orange County 
 combined. He has a special talent for this important branch of the prac- 
 tice, but, like his father, can drop his papers and go to court with his 
 case well prepared for trial. The ability with which he uniformly presents- 
 it to a jury is well reenforced by the same winning manner and pleasing 
 personality which has endeared him to so many friends. 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 514 
 
 When Judge Charles F. Brown was in 1883 elevated to the bench 
 of the Supreme Court, the firm of Cassedy & Brown, of which Abram S. 
 Cassedy was then the senior member, was, of course, dissolved. When 
 Judge Brown retired from the bench in 1897, Mr. Cassedy having mean- 
 time died, the names became transposed, the firm of Brown & Cassedy 
 then formed, and still continuing, being composed of Judge Brown and 
 William F. Cassedy. That this association of his name with that of 
 his old partner's son should be pleasing to Judge Brown is a distinguished 
 mark of that great jurist's confidence, esteem and affection which in- 
 deed, are shared by all, bar and public alike, who come to know the pure 
 and lofty character of William F. Cassedy. 
 
 William B. Royce who with his son, Herbert B. Royce, is engaged in 
 practice in Middletown, was admitted forty years ago, but being per- 
 suaded, while in the full tide of active practice, to accept the position of 
 president of the First National Bank in 1875, his career as a lawyer was 
 interrupted for seventeen years. Resigning this position, however, at 
 the end of this period, he soon recovered his scattered practice and upon 
 the admission to the bar of his son the firm of William B. and Herbert 
 B. Royce was formed. This continued until the autumn of 1906 when, 
 John C. R. Taylor, having been elected to the Senate, the firm of Taylor, 
 Royce & Royce was formed. 
 
 Mr. Royce has greater capacity for public business than any lawyer 
 who ever practiced at the bar in Orange County. His mind grasps 
 readily, his tastes run naturally to, every phase and variety of town, 
 county and municipal relations, improvements and enterprises, with all 
 the important questions involved in them in respect to the proper dis- 
 tribution of public burdens. He is an authority upon corporation law 
 in respect both to the organization and management of corporations. 
 His power of clear statement, in respect to any involved or intricate 
 situation, is very great. 
 
 There is one characteristic of Mr. Royce which is fully appreciated 
 only by those who have been in a position to see its frequent effective 
 exercise. He loves to settle disputes among neighbors and litigants. 
 He has genuine talent for making each party see how it would benefit 
 him to make some concession and even greater tact in pointing out how 
 certain concessions necessary to the settlement will still leave the pride 
 and dignity of the parties uncompromised. He absolutely has never 
 
515 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 failed in bringing about an agreement which he started out to compass. 
 Sometimes, indeed, the perverseness of the parties has seemed to make 
 the difficulties insuperable, but this has only spurred him on to renewed 
 exertions. Those who know how unprofitable and unwise for both 
 parties is any litigation which can possibly be avoided and, especially, any 
 litigation representing only an honest difference of opinion, will realize 
 the indebtedness of the public to Mr. Royce for those unselfish exer- 
 tions and that salutary influence which, throughout his entire profes- 
 sional career, have been steadily, consistently and successfully directed to 
 the promotion of peace and the soothing of angry controversy. 
 
 His son, Herbert B. Royce, who enjoyed the advantages of both 
 the classical and law course at Cornell University, was launched from 
 the first into the activities of a busy office. Having been elected special 
 county judge he has enjoyed an opportunity, in presiding over the trial 
 terms of the County Court, to impress his abilities upon the bar and 
 the public to a degree and in a manner never before enjoyed by a special 
 county judge in the entire history of the county. Before Judge Seattle's 
 time the county judges were never very considerate to the special county 
 judges. They regarded them as officers provided merely for the con- 
 venience of the bar in signing orders and they affected to think that 
 there might be some serious question of jurisdiction involved in their 
 trying and sentencing criminals. Even Judge Hirschberg and Judge 
 Beattie were never invited, as special county judges, to hold a term of 
 court, but the judges, when they could not act themselves, always brought 
 in a county judge of a neighboring county. Judge Beattie acted more 
 generously to his official coadjutor and when it became necessary for him 
 to surrender two terms of court, Judge Royce was requested to hold 
 them. This service was performed by him with such marked ability, 
 and so greatly to the satisfaction of the entire bar and public, that Judge 
 Seeger, who succeeded Judge Beattie in 1907, and who was disqualified 
 from sitting in any cases in which he, as district attorney, had procured 
 the indictments, again summoned Judge Royce to the bench, when again, 
 he was enabled to give a public demonstration of his judicial fitness and 
 capacity and to prove that it will never be necessary to call in a judge from 
 a neighboring county as long as Judge Royce remains special county 
 judge. 
 
 Finn & Finn is the name of the firm of which Daniel Finn was the 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. Si6 
 
 senior member until it was ruthlessly dissolved by the untimely hand 
 of death, which overtook him without warning in the very midst of an 
 unusually active and prosperous career. Admitted to the bar in 1870 he 
 began and, for thirty-five years continued his practice in Middletown, 
 becoming one of the most respected and influential of its citizens as well 
 as one of the ablest and most trusted of its bar. He was especially 
 versed in the law of wills. Nothing appealed more strongly to his in- 
 terest than the ambiguous provisions of a will and the difficult questions 
 raised as to their proper construction. His opinions upon these were 
 often submitted to the court with the result that his judgment was in- 
 variably sustained. 
 
 He was the most imperturbable of men. Nothing agitated or even 
 ruffled him. He could lay down his pen to engage in an interview with 
 some irascible client and, after it was over, calmly resume work upon his 
 thoughtful brief at the very point at which it had been interrupted. 
 This faculty, the result of training as well as of temperament, enabled 
 him to accomplish a great deal of work. The day was never spoiled for 
 him by some untoward incident, unpleasant letter or peevish client. Each 
 day marked distinct progress in some appointed task. 
 
 Mr. Finn, who drew the will of Mrs. Thrall, was deeply interested in 
 the noble institutions founded by her — the hospital and the library in 
 addition to the park — and it was largely through his influence that her 
 thoughts were directed to these beneficent objects. It was also through 
 his careful prevision that her testamentary wishes in respect to an addi- 
 tional endowment for the hospital were not defeated by statutory pre- 
 cautions. Mr. Finn foresaw that she might die within the two months 
 set apart, arbitrarily and without respect to testamentary capacity, by 
 the inscrutable wisdom of the legislature as the fluctuating hiatus, that 
 may or may not turn out to be the vitiated period, within which testa- 
 mentary benevolence must be suspended ; within which all tardy attempts 
 of the passing soul to make its peace with God or restitution to man- 
 kind must be overruled and nullified in favor of worthless or distant 
 relatives; but still within the last day of which the cunning physician 
 seeking to cheat death of its prey and rapacity of its spoils, might so 
 galvanize into convulsive life the dissolving frame, might so fan into 
 flickering flame the vital spark that, in the race between greedy kindred 
 and melting charity, rapacity will lose by a single hour. In the case of 
 
517 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 Mrs. Thrall there was no such dramatic suspense. She died twenty 
 days after the execution of her will; so that the bequests in her will 
 and codicil of twenty thousand dollars to Thrall Hospital, already 
 founded by her, were declared void. But Mr. Finn also advised her 
 to give to her executors, Isaac R. Clements and Nathan M. Hallock, in- 
 dividually, absolutely and outright all legacies which might for any rea- 
 son be declared void or ineffectual, and this provision was incorporated 
 in her codicil. After this provision had withstood in the courts the at- 
 tacks of relatives who claimed that it represented a secret trust, equally 
 as abhorrent to legislative solicitude for relatives as a direct charitable 
 bequest, Mr. Clements and Mr. Hallock, in honorable recognition of Mrs. 
 Thrall's wishes, as expressed in her defeated bequests, but under no legal 
 compulsion so to do, turned over to Thrall Hospital the twenty thousand 
 dollars which came to them absolutely under this alternative provision. 
 Thus were Mr. Finn's wisdom and foresight, not only in respect to his 
 client's provision for the hospital but in respect to her bequest to the 
 city of Middletown for its library, amply justified by the event. The be- 
 quest of $30,000, for the library was sustained by the courts. These 
 noble foundations — the library and the hospital — constitute an enduring 
 monument to the generosity of S. Maretta Thrall but are no less a monu- 
 ment to the learning, skill and prescience of Daniel Finn. The people of 
 Middletown, though they have always recognized his virtues and his 
 abilities, but imperfectly understand the full measure and extent of 
 their indebtedness to his guiding hand and public spirit. It is simple 
 justice to his memory that the incidents of his professional career bear- 
 ing upon the public welfare should be embraced in any work professing 
 to be history. 
 
 Mr. Finn's intense affection for and loyalty to his alma mater, Hamil- 
 ton College, was a very pronounced and interesting trait of his character. 
 His only son, Frank H. Finn, also graduated from this classic institution 
 of learning which numbers among its alumni that most intellectual of 
 all living American statesmen, Elihu Root. 
 
 Frank H. Finn, upon being admitted to practice, entered into partner- 
 ship with his father under the firm name of Finn & Finn — the name under 
 which, notwithstanding his father's death, he and his present partner, Ar- 
 thur H. Payne, himself also a graduate of Hamilton College, conduct 
 their business. Every writ and process issued by the present firm runs in 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. Si8 
 
 the name of Finn & Finn, thus perpetuating the potent influence, the fine 
 example and the gentle memory of one of the purest and ablest of Orange 
 County lawyers. It is unusual among lawyers to preserve the name, in 
 a firm, of a deceased partner. The only instance I recall is that of James 
 C. Carter, whose surviving partner, Lewis Cass Ledyard, has always, with 
 a tenderness and delicacy of sentiment so in consonance with his own noble 
 nature and chivalric character, kept Mr. Carter's name at the head of his 
 firm, through all ensuing changes. The filial reverence shown by Frank 
 H. Finn for his father's memory, his unwillingness to let his father's name 
 disappear at once beneath the cold waters of swift forgetfulness, illumi- 
 nates his own strong and sterling character. Called upon suddenly to as- 
 sume charge of many intricate and involved cases pending in the office at 
 the time of his father's death he accepted and discharged the painful re- 
 sponsibility with a dignity, firmness, manliness, courage and ability which 
 commanded the admiration and won the affection of the community. 
 Though he owes much indeed to his noble father, he has given abundant 
 evidence of his capacity to stand alone. He and his brilliant partner, Mr. 
 Payne, will bring no reproach upon the honored name still in their pious 
 keeping. 
 
 Henry W. Wiggins came to the bar two years later than Daniel Finn. 
 The business established by him in Middletown in 1872 is now carried on 
 by the firm of Henry W. & Russell Wiggins, father and son. 
 
 Henry W. Wiggins is especially distinguished for his knowledge of the 
 law of real estate, but his practice has- always covered a wide range. I well 
 remember an important litigation between mill owners in which Mr. Wig- 
 gins established the right of the upper owner to substitute a turbine for 
 an overshot wheel and to take water at a lower depth, provided he did 
 not use a greater quantity of water than before. His success was the 
 more notable and gratifying because he was opposed by both Mr. Brewster 
 and Mr. Winfield. But it has been in litigations involving the liability of 
 the city of Middletown for damages that Mr. Wiggins has won many of 
 his most conspicuous triumphs. He was, at intervals, its corporation 
 counsel for many years, his son Russell now holding the position. It is 
 safe to say that no city was ever more ably served and carefully protected 
 than the city of Middletown was by Mr. Wiggins. No expensive con- 
 demnation proceeding in his charge ever proved ineffective because of 
 some flaw or oversight. No suit for damages defended by him ever ter- 
 
519 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 minated in an extreme or excessive verdict. His caution, vigilance and 
 conscientiousness combined with his sturdy independence in always stand- 
 ing his ground, in always adhering inflexibly to any position once, after 
 due consideration, taken by him, have been of incalculable service to his 
 clientage and have resulted in saving to the city of Middletown alone many 
 thousands of dollars. 
 
 Russell Wiggins also has enjoyed marked success in defending the in- 
 terests of the city. His recent victory in a case involving the validity 
 of the provision in the charter of the city of Middletown making notice 
 to the common council of snow or ice upon a sidewalk prerequisite to an 
 action for injuries sustained in consequence of it, has attracted wide 
 attention. Mr. Wiggins was overruled by the special term and by the ap- 
 pellate division which held that this provision exceeded the powers of the 
 legislature and was, therefore, unconstitutional. But Mr. Wiggins suc- 
 ceeded in convincing the Court of Appeals, which, in an opinion embody- 
 ing the arguments advanced by him, sustained the validity of this pro- 
 vision of the charter, with the result that all actions of this class are prac- 
 tically done away with. It is not surprising that all the cities of the State 
 have been so impressed with the importance of Mr. Wiggins' victory that 
 they are now trying to secure a similar provision in their own charters. 
 It seems, indeed, somewhat hard that a total stranger, alighting from a 
 train on a dark night, should be compelled to proceed at his peril along a 
 city street, under conditions which physically exclude his either having or 
 giving notice, but Mr. Wiggins ingeniously persuaded the Court of Ap- 
 peals to say that this is a question for the legislature and not for the courts, 
 thus establishing a new precedent, if not a new principle, in constitutional 
 construction, in a case sure to become a leading one ; sure to be cited for 
 many years to come, in the courts of the entire country. In thus linking 
 his name at the very outset of his career, to a leading authority, Mr. 
 Wiggins has set for himself a hard task. He must now live up to his 
 own reputation — which there is abundant reason to believe he is entirely 
 able to do. 
 
 Cornelius E. Cuddeback, admitted to the bar in 1873, immediately 
 established in Port Jervis the business now carried on under the firm 
 name of C. E. & S. M. Cuddeback, his son Samuel M. having become 
 associated with him. 
 
 Mr. Cuddeback early became prominent in all the interests of the 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 520 
 
 community, social, business, legal and public — a position which he main- 
 tains by virtue of his unquestioned integrity, great ability and enormous 
 industry. He was largely instrumental in straightening out the affairs 
 of the Port Jervis & Monticello Railroad Company, and he has for many 
 years been the attorney for the town of Deer Park and the village (now 
 the city) of Port Jervis. He has also been the attorney for many public 
 service corporations. His defense of the Barrett Bridge Company in a 
 test case tried at Goshen in June, 1905, to determine the liability of the 
 company for the deaths occasioned by the sweeping away of the bridge 
 over the Delaware River in a freshet, furnishes a fine example of his 
 characteristics as a lawyer. The defense was prepared with a thorough- 
 ness, exhaustiveness and comprehensiveness and conducted with a verve, 
 vigor and vivacity which carried everything before it, sweeping away the 
 case of the plaintiff as ruthlessly as the freshet swept away the bridge ; 
 leaving little for the jury to do but to register the fact that the defence 
 had been completely successful. 
 
 Mr. Cuddeback finds in his son a lawyer well qualified to assume the 
 burdens of his practice when he shall be prepared to lay them down. 
 
 All the living lawyers thus far considered, except the sons and daugh- 
 ter, will very soon be passing from the scene. The pages that bear this 
 imprint will scarcely be flung from the press before the lawyers whose 
 now familiar names they carry forward to a generation that knows them . 
 not, will drop away, one by one, from their accustomed places. So true 
 is this, so strong is the author's sense that only, by slight anticipation, do 
 these pages commemorate the departed, that nothing has been set down 
 here which could not be truthfully and becomingly said if they had gone 
 before who yet, for a little, linger. This, indeed, suggests the chief 
 reason why the present record, to be of any value, should include the 
 living; for long before this publication is superseded by a rival or a suc- 
 cessor the figures it portrays will have passed from action to remem- 
 brance. 
 
 In connection with this thought it is proper to point out that the 
 sketches and estimates now published bear this further resemblance to 
 veracious and posthumous biography — they have not been edited by the 
 subjects. The system adopted in some modern compilations of permit- 
 ting prominent men to write their own biographies, or of procuring from 
 them the data for less sympathetic treatment, has not been followed 
 
521 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 here. Indeed, with a single accidental and insignificant exception, not 
 one lawyer has any knowledge of the scope or purpose of this under- 
 taking or has furnished any information available for use in it. He who 
 carelessly takes up this volume to read about others will be covered with 
 modest confusion to find himself included in it. This is an attempt not 
 to let a man speak for himself, but to collect and crystallize in definite 
 forms of expression the floating particles of contemporary judgment 
 upon his character. It is for this reason, besides others, that so few 
 specific dates and irrelevant facts are given. They have not been asked 
 for. They are not needed. They do not fit with the scheme of this work, 
 which aims, perhaps presumptuously, but still consistently, to be a gal- 
 lery of portraits, not a table of statistics. Of what possible interest is it 
 to know the number of a lawyer's children, or the building in which his 
 office is located ? Character and achievement are the things that count. 
 
 It will be convenient at this point to return to the consideration of the 
 leading advocates now at the bar of the county. No one recognizes more 
 than advocates themselves their frequent indebtedness to the great! 
 lawyers who, undisturbed by absorbing, distracting and exhausting trials, 
 apply to life's complex and varying conditions the immutable principles 
 of the common law. It implies no disparagement of Winfield and Gedney 
 to assume that the one often leaned upon the judgment of his partner, 
 William F. Sharpe, and that the other often sought the wise counsel of 
 his esteemed relative, Joseph W. Gott. At the same time it cannot be 
 doubted that public interest has always centered upon the trial lawyer, 
 for the obvious reason that the open field, the public challenge, the com- 
 bat of intellectual athletes, the palm of victory appeal strongly to the 
 imagination and dramatic sense. There need, therefore, be no apology 
 for making prominent in a popular work those who engage the larger 
 share of merely popular interest. 
 
 There is no man at the bar of Orange County, or indeed anywhere, 
 for whom the term .colorless would be so inept as it would be for Judge 
 Albert H. F. Seeger. He radiates color. He is the incarnation of sun- 
 shine. He is the forerunner of gladness, sounding a proclamation of 
 hope and good cheer wherever he goes. No one would suppose that he 
 ever had a care or sorrow. Yet he must have had his share. He per- 
 forms more perfectly than any man I ever knew that mission which 
 Robert Louis Stevenson glorifies when he says: 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 522 
 
 "There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. 
 A happy man or woman is a better thing to find than a five-pound note. 
 He or she is a radiating focus of good will; and their entrance into a 
 room is as thpugh another candle had been lighted. We need not care 
 whether they could prove the forty-seventh proposition ; they do a better 
 thing than that, they practically demonstrate the great theorem of the 
 liveableness of life." 
 
 But Judge Seeger can alsa prove the forty-seventh proposition. He 
 can usually prove anything he sets out to prove, as lawyers opposed to 
 him have often found to their dismay. And even when the law and the 
 facts are all against him and you have him thoroughly beaten, according 
 to all the rules of the game, there will still be three to six jurors who 
 strangely refuse to believe that anything but infallible argument could 
 emanate from a personality so radiant. Not that his propositions always 
 need the support of his personality, upon which, indeed, he never con- 
 sciously presumes. He always builds up a strong, solid, telling, con- 
 vincing argument, delivered with unaffected earnestness and artless sin- 
 cerity. 
 
 And his sincerity really is artless. While he is personally the most 
 popular man in Orange County and while such pre-eminence can only 
 be attained by the use of popular arts, yet in his case they are entirely 
 legitimate and unstudied. He really does feel kindness when he seems 
 to. He really is interested in the things which interest others. He really 
 does love their babies, their dogs, their horses — anything, in fact, but 
 their automobiles. His bubbling spirits and effervescent mirth, his ready 
 wit and sparkling sally, the ring of his laughter and the spell of his 
 bonhomie are all the genuine expression of a rich, ardent and impression- 
 able nature. 
 
 It might be thought that such a man would be a time-server. Far from 
 it. There is not a trace of the demagogue in his composition. Much as 
 he would naturally desire to retain his remarkable popularity he would 
 fling it all away, if necessary, in the performance of his duty or in the de- 
 fense of law and order. He showed this unmistakably when as district 
 attorney he boldly held at bay the lawless mob, at a personal risk which 
 his official duties did not call upon him to incur. Knowing then that he 
 would soon be a candidate for a higher office he cared not whether he 
 made friends or enemies, whether he lost votes or gained them; he 
 
523 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 simply saw his duty and went straight for it. As it was, the very forces 
 he antagonized respected him. When this genial friend, this blithe com- 
 panion became transformed into the stern, unyielding, inexorable officer 
 of the law the very mob he awed retired to worship him, and when the 
 time came it voted for him. 
 
 This mingling in Judge Seeger's character of the sterner and softer 
 elements, of courage and tenderness, manliness and simplicity, firmness 
 and forgiveness, has inspired in the people of Orange County a respect 
 and affection such as rarely attiends upon a public man. His election 
 to the office of county judge was inevitable whether the "organization" 
 had been friendly or not. If it constitutes high qualifications for this 
 responsible position to possess a character noble and sincere, a disposition 
 just and fair, a judgment sound and true, a mind well trained and in- 
 formed, a knowledge of the law wide and various, a knowledge of human 
 nature keen and close, a sense of public duty deep and earnest, then is the 
 county of Orange indeed fortunate that a judge as respected as John J. 
 Beattie should be followed by a successor so worthy as Albert H. F. 
 Seeger. 
 
 From painting to stenography ; from stenography to the law ; from the 
 law to the recovery of a judgment for eight hundred thousand dollars in 
 1906 — that is the condensed history of Thomas Watts. As the painting 
 was, not of pictures but, of houses, it will readily be seen that he is the 
 most consummate embodiment of that familiar phrase, the self-made man, 
 that the Orange County bar possesses. After working all day painting, 
 often walking back several miles to his home, he spent his evenings study- 
 ing stenography. After acquiring this art and while pursuing its prac- 
 tice as a court stenographer he studied law assiduously, following care- 
 fully also the course of every case that came under his notice in court and 
 drawing out the able judges and lawyers whom he met in conversation 
 that was not less instructive than edifying. 
 
 Born in England, about the same time that Judge Seeger was born in 
 Germany, and brought to this country at an early age by his parents, as 
 Judge Seeger was also, the career of both men is a striking illustration 
 of what may be accomplished in this land of opportunity, without the 
 social influence of generations of local ancestry, by sheer pluck, persever- 
 ance, energy and ability. 
 
 Mr. Watts is a very nucleus of abounding and snperabounding energy. 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 524 
 
 He generates energy by a process of spontaneous mental combustion. His 
 mental activity is more continuous and intense than any I have ever 
 known. His mind never goes fallowr, but seems to be constantly fructified 
 by the floating pollen in the business, legal or intellectual atmosphere sur- 
 rounding him. It is of course inevitable that, with such a temperament, 
 he should repeatedly cross the path of people who would like to have him 
 keep out of their way. But Mr. Watts is so constituted that where other 
 people are there would he be also ; and he is always willing to keep out 
 of their way by letting them step aside. 
 
 Yet, despite all his initiative, aggressiveness and combativeness with 
 respect to those who can meet him upon equal terms, he is tenderness and 
 generosity itself to the weak, the helpless and the dependent. He has been 
 known to pour out his bounty for years upon those who appealed to his 
 sympathy or invoked his aid. He has, in a marked degree, the English 
 love of fair play and is as ready to acknowledge a mistake as he is to 
 resent an injury. Often brusque and impulsive in hi? manner when no 
 offence is intended, and quick to regret when it is, he is always surprised 
 to find that others are not so ready to forget as he is to forgive. 
 
 The fighting qualities of Mr. Watts are never shown to better advan- 
 tage than when he is asserting the rights of the poor and weak against all 
 the resources of corporate or individual wealth. He never tires. His 
 tenacity cannot be shaken. No reversal of the first judgment dismays 
 him. He enters upon the second or third trial with as much vigor and 
 vim as upon the first. In one case he more than doubled upon the second 
 trial the verdict obtained upon the first trial. Indeed he has led in the 
 securing of large verdicts, having obtained the largest verdict in a death 
 case ever rendered in the county and the largest verdict, with one excep- 
 tion, ever rendered for personal injuries. 
 
 The judgment for eight hundred thousand dollars to which reference 
 has been made was obtained by Mr. Watts in an action brought by him 
 for a contractor against a railroad company for extra work in the building 
 of a branch, disputed by the company. Mr. Watts examined and cross- 
 examined all the witnesses and, with the aid of his office force, prepared 
 the final argument. He was opposed by the finest legal talent in the State 
 and the case was tried before that learned, eminent and profoundly re- 
 spected judge, the Honorable Alton B. Parker, sitting as referee. The case 
 involved many intricate questions of which Mr. Watts exhibited entire 
 
525 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 mastery. His management of this case marks the zenith of his ability and 
 reputation as a trial lawyer. A lawyer who, before such a tribunal, wins 
 such a case, involving such large interests and attended with results of 
 such magnitude, for the judgment was not only obtained but settled, has 
 established his place, beyond all question, in the very front rank of the 
 trial lawyers of the State. 
 
 Mr. Watts excels in cross-examination. In a case brought by him for 
 injuries resulting from the explosion of a locomotive boiler, the judge 
 hesitated at the close of his case about letting it proceed, but finally ruled 
 that the railroad company should go on with its proof, reserving the 
 questions that troubled him. Mr. Watts thereupon took the defendant's 
 witnesses in hand and on cross-examination he so completely established 
 the liability of the company out of the mouths of its own witnesses that 
 all thought, not merely of nonsuit, but of defense even was abandoned 
 and the company was thrown into a panic. It made an offer in the 
 recess and when the court convened again to resume the case it was 
 announced as settled. 
 
 Mr. Watts' addresses to the jury are marked by pith, point and 
 piquancy. He emphasizes the salient features of the case and lets all 
 minor or subordinate issues take care of themselves. His sturdy defense 
 of his client's rights, his strong individuality and his intellectual force 
 combine to make him a formidable opponent. 
 
 Perhaps no lawyer at the bar of Orange County ever received a more 
 emphatic, pronounced, unmistakable tribute of personal regard than John 
 C. R. Taylor, of Middletown, received at the election of 1906, when, in 
 a district opposed to him politically, he ran over four thousand ahead of 
 his ticket and was elected Senator by a majority of over twelve hundred. 
 The good opinion of him thus expressed by his fellow citizens has been 
 confirmed by his broad, patriotic, statesmanlike course at Albany, which 
 has attracted the attention and commended him to the approbation, of 
 the entire State, without respect to party lines. The purity of his 
 character, the singleness of his motives, the soundness of his judg- 
 ment and the independence of his action carried him in a single session 
 to a position of weight and influence usually acquired only after several 
 terms of legislative service. Senator Taylor is one of those public 
 servants who believe that the State is a great business corporation of 
 which the Governor is president and each Senator a trustee. Under this 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 526 
 
 •conviction he refuses to consider either party advantage or private inter- 
 ests but seeks to asceFtain solely what is best for the welfare of the 
 people and the cause of good government. Whether he can repeat his 
 phenomenal success at the polls under less favorable conditions is of 
 course uncertain. But whether he does or not he has set an example 
 of clean, straightforward, high-minded methods in politics and legislation 
 which will long be remembered in his district. He has set a standard 
 of political morals which will have to be satisfied by any successor who 
 hopes to retain the mandate of a now aroused, vigilant, exacting and 
 independent public conscience. 
 
 Senator Taylor's success at the bar was almost as immediate as his 
 later success in the Senate. Early in his practice he went to Kingston 
 to try a case against one of the leaders of the famous Ulster County bar 
 and obtained a verdict of $10,000 in an action against the town of Shaw- 
 angunk for damages resulting from a defective bridge, a verdict which 
 was subsequently paid after passing the ordeal of all the courts. Judge 
 Clearwater who presided over the trial and whose qualifications as a 
 critic will be conceded, since he has himself made both the bar and bench 
 illustrious, told me that he had never seen a case more ably tried and 
 presented than this case was by Mr. Taylor. 
 
 Senator Taylor has the courage of the true lawyer. When a few 
 years ago he was engaged to defend a client accused of a shocking 
 offense, people went to him and said, "Why, you will be ruined if you 
 defend that man." He simply replied, "He is my client and I shall stand 
 by him to the end." Senator Taylor not only was not "ruined" but he 
 completely reversed public sentiment which had been misled from the 
 start, and established his client's entire innocence of the charge against 
 him in a crushing cross-examination of the first witness which demon- 
 strated its complete falsity. 
 
 Senator Taylor's professional ideals are as high as his political ideals. 
 He is an honorable foe, a straight lawyer, a cultured gentleman. 
 
 Michael N. Kane, of Warwick, the most beautiful village in the county, 
 if not in the State, also received at the election of 1906 a vote for the 
 office of supreme court judge which strikingly attested the admiration and 
 regard in which he is held by his fellow citizens in the county and district. 
 He ran several thousand ahead of his ticket but this was not sufficient to 
 overcome the adverse majority caused by the creation of the new ninth 
 
527 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 judicial district out of the river counties. Mr. Kane has securely estab- 
 lished his reputation as a trial lawyer of conspicuous ability and success. 
 He is frequently employed as counsel in important cases and has never 
 failed to satisfy the expectations of both attorney and client. His prepa- 
 ration of cases for trial is complete and masterly. 
 
 In the appellate courts his arguments are marked by a learning, lucidity 
 and power which always command attention and usually assent. 
 
 The breadth of character and fineness of moral fibre which have con- 
 tributed so largely to his professional success are displayed in all his 
 relations to his professional brethren, in which he is the pattern and 
 exemplar of uniform courtesy, consideration and indulgence. While 
 never imperiling the interests of a client to accommodate a professional 
 brother he is always able to find a way to accommodate him without in- 
 juring his client. He never takes refuge in the transparent pretext that 
 his client will not consent, which is the customary formula used to cover, 
 though it does not conceal, professional churlishness. In the very cases 
 in which Mr. Kane has been most generous to his opponents he has had 
 the most complete ultimate success; thus furnishing to his brethren of 
 the bar an object lesson from which they may learn that courtesy to each 
 other is entirely consistent with perfect loyalty to their client. 
 
 Mr. Kane's public spirit has always been a noticeable phase of his 
 character. His pride in and devotion to the interests of Warwick have 
 endeared him to his community which not only respects him as a lawyer 
 but esteems him as a neighbor and honors him as a citizen. 
 
 Ferdinand V. Sanford is another citizen of Warwick whose abilities en- 
 title him to rank among the trial lawyers of the county. Fluent in speech, 
 cultivated in manner and refined in character, his personal charm imparts 
 weight to his opinion and impulsion to his utterances. He, too, is deeply 
 interested in his beautiful village, the citizens of which have bestowed 
 upon him many marks of their favor and confidence. His prominence 
 in its affairs led to a most interesting experience in the summer of 1906 
 when he represented his village at the brilliant and imposing pageant held 
 by old Warwick in England at which he upheld the reputation abroad of 
 American oratory in a most graceful, felicitous and eloquent address. 
 
 Darwin W. Esmond, of Newburgh, prepares his cases for trial more 
 thoroughly than any lawyer I ever knew. His trial brief is comprehen- 
 sive, elaborate and minute, even containing instructions in reference to 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 528 
 
 the cross-examination of the witnesses expected to be called by his op- 
 ponent. Every case likely to be cited by his opponent is discussed and 
 distinguished. Every pitfall into which his opponent might seek to draw 
 him is pointed out and provided against. If he should die the day before 
 a case is set down for trial and it should be thought best, notwithstanding, 
 to go on with the trial, any experienced trial lawyer could, on a moment's 
 notice, take his brief and try the case without consulting an authority, 
 seeing a witness, or even talking with the client. He would find his open- 
 ing to the jury outlined for him, the statements of the witnesses ar- 
 ranged in the order in which they should be adduced, the authorities 
 bearing upon a motion for nonsuit carefully analyzed and, finally, the 
 points to be dwelt upon in the submission to the jury clearly emphasized. 
 
 It is needless to say that such painstaking industry implies the most 
 conscientious devotion on the part of Mr. Esmond to his client's cause — a 
 devotion as earnest and intense when the amount involved is small as 
 when it is large. His theory is that a small case is just as important to a 
 poor man as a large case is to a rich one and that the measure of duty, 
 of fidelity and devotion should be the same in each. 
 
 But mere industry is of little avail in the law unless directed by ability. 
 It is a valuable supplement to ability, never a substitute for it. Mr. Es- 
 mond has all the qualifications of an able trial lawyer. I once saw him 
 in Kingston pitted against one of the leaders of the Ulster County bar 
 overturn by the sheer force of his ability and address, all the prejudices 
 first formed against his client, the defendant, in the mind of both court 
 and jury, in a case in which the plaintiff, an old man, was seeking the 
 restoration of property turned over by him to his son. I heard Judge 
 Chester say that in the beginning of the trial he thought the plaintiff was 
 right but that as the case proceeded his mind changed. This result was 
 due solely to the splendid defense made by Mr. Esmond in a case which 
 from the start was full of elements of danger and defeat. 
 
 Mr. Esmond has always taken a prominent part in the literary life of 
 the community and in the discussion of public topics. His services to the 
 Chautauqua society have been most valuable, while his own addresses 
 upon a large variety of topics have been a distinct contribution to the 
 literature of the subject. 
 
 It is fortunate indeed for Mr. Esmond at this time that he has all these 
 resources to fall back upon ; else might he have been wholly crushed by 
 
529 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 the cruel sorrow that came to him and his devoted wife in the recent loss 
 of their only child, Paul Warner Esmond, one of the most precocious, 
 promising and brilliant boys who ever lived. His poems, dealing with 
 the problems of life and death, are as mature, reflective and suggestive 
 as though written by a man of fifty. That such a child of genius should 
 be snatched away when the angel of death leaves untouched so many 
 circles from which one could be better spared, is a mystery that has 
 never ceased to perplex mankind. 
 
 Howard Thornton, of Newburgh, bel-esprit, bon-vivant and raconteur, 
 the favorite of society and the delight of dinner tables, is not one whit 
 less a good lawyer because he can smooth away the difficulties of a hostess 
 in entertaining her guests as easily as he can glide over the difficulties of 
 Jiis client's case in court. The best lawyers have always shone in society, 
 from Hamilton to Choate, and Mr. Thornton's social gifts have never 
 interfered with his devotion to his profession. Every morning, year in 
 and year out, the early riser can see Mr. Thornton at seven o'clock wend- 
 ing his way to his office where by ten o'clock he has already accomplished 
 a day's work and is ready to talk with his clients. 
 
 Mr. Thornton has always found his chief pleasure in some abstruse 
 question arising out of the law of wills or of real estate. He has been 
 drawn into some very important litigations involving the construction of 
 the transfer tax law and his contentions have been uniformly sustained by 
 the Court of Appeals. 
 
 Mr. Thornton's service in the Assembly, of which he was for three 
 years a member, showed his capacity for public affairs. He was chairman 
 of the judiciary committee and took high rank in legislation and politics. 
 But his tastes incline him to the more arduous and less devious duties of 
 his profession in which he has gained the reputation of an honorable, 
 talented and brilliant lawyer. 
 
 Russell Headley, of Newburgh, is the son of the eminent historian Joel 
 T. Headley from whom, doubtless, he inherits those literary gifts which 
 account in part for the direction of his energies into the field of legal 
 authorship. But this is not the only reason. It is but justice to him that 
 it should be known that Mr. Headley was interrupted in the very midst of 
 a brilliant career at the bar by the coming on of that most disqualifying 
 of all infirmities for an advocate — deafness. This naturally had the effect 
 of turning Mr. Headley to the labors of authorship for which his inherited 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 53° 
 
 tastes and acquired accomplishments so well fitted him. His works upon 
 assignments, witnesses and criminal justice are well known to and widely 
 read by the profession. 
 
 Mr. Headley filled the position of district attorney of Orange County 
 for two terms. He especially distinguished himself at this time by his 
 abilities as a trial lawyer. ,, 
 
 Mr. Headley accepted in 1902 and still holds a position in the legal divi- 
 sion of the State Excise Department at Albany. His research, his faculty 
 for writing sound, able, exhaustive opinions and his knowledge of the 
 law of pleadings make him a most valuable member of the legal staff of 
 that very important branch of the public service, in which questions are 
 constantly arising which could scarcely be expected to come within the 
 purview of an arm of the service devoted to the enforcement of a single 
 law. In this work Mr. Headley is able to reconcile himself to the sur- 
 render of those more spectacular triumphs of the court room in which 
 his activities and his ambition once found a more congenial field. 
 
 Cornelius L. Waring, of Newburgh, is an authority in the law of mu- 
 nicipal corporations. He was for many years the attorney for the city, 
 the interests of which he always most zealously and successfully pro- 
 tected. He has a large general practice including among his clients some 
 wealthy business corporations. 
 
 Mr. Waring has had wide experience in the trial of cases. His man- 
 ner in court is marked by dignity, determination and persistency. He 
 never yields a point on his own side and he never fails to seize upon the 
 weak point in- the case of his adversary. His arguments are terse, direct 
 and forceful, always commanding ready and respectful attention. 
 
 Elmer E. Roosa, of the Newburgh bar, who was associated with Judge 
 Hirschberg at the time he ascended the bench, succeeded in large part 
 to the prestige of an office which had been established for nearly thirty 
 years. The confidence always reposed in him by Judge Hirschberg is 
 shared by a large body of devoted clients who find in him a safe, dis- 
 creet and honorable counselor. 
 
 Edward J. Colhns, of Newburgh, who is associated in practice with 
 Judge Seeger, possesses in a high degree that dignity of bearing and of 
 character which well supports professional attainments of a superior 
 order. He has been honored by his fellow citizens by repeated marks of 
 their confidence. He was for some years president of the common 
 
531 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 council of the city of Newburgh, a position which brought into prom- 
 inence his fine qualities of mind and character. 
 
 Henry R. Lydecker, of Newburgh, has the most amiable disposition 
 of any lawyer at the bar. If he were more self-assertive his abilities 
 would be more widely appreciated. He showed marked ability in his 
 service four successive winters in the attorney general's office at Albany in 
 the work of reviewing for constitutional and other objections, the bills 
 sent by the Legislature to the Governor. This appointment was made 
 each year and would not have been repeatedly conferred unless the dis- 
 charge of his important duties had proved to be able and satisfactory. 
 
 Mr. Lydecker has recently received, at the instance of Presiding Jus- 
 tice Hirschberg, an appointment upon the clerical force of the Appellate 
 Division — another evidence df the high opinion entertained of him by 
 governors, attorneys general and judges alike. 
 
 J. Renwick Thompson, Jr., of Newburgh, is still permitted to write 
 "junior" to a noble and conspicuous senior, who now for more than fifty 
 years has ministered over one of the most important churches and con- 
 gregations in Newburgh. Mr. Thompson's character and standing wholly 
 contradict the adage about "ministers' sons." In his keeping all the tradi- 
 tions of an honorable lineage are safe, while a large and increasing client- 
 age can testify that in his hands are equally safe all the interests com- 
 miitted to him. 
 
 Elwood C. Smith, who has an office in Turner as well as in Newburgh, 
 has advanced rapidly in reputation and standing. His agreeable manners 
 and attractive personality always create a favorable impression sure to be 
 confirmed by future acquaintance with his character and abilities. He 
 enjoys the respect of the community and the confidence of a very consid- 
 erable clientage. 
 
 N. Deyo Belknap, of Newburgh, has shown great talent in all his 
 appearances in court and is a rising aspirant for professional honors. In 
 an action brought by him for the construction of a will he exhibited all 
 the qualities of a mature and experienced practitioner. His success at 
 the bar has been immediate and pronounced. 
 
 R. H. Barnett, of Newburgh, has made a specialty of negligence 
 actions. Like his great exemplar, John M. Gardner, he never concedes 
 that he is beaten. He always renews the argument to the court, after be- 
 ing nonsuited, so undauntedly that the court often reverses itself and 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 532 
 
 lets the case go to the jury, before which Mr. Barnett meets with unvary- 
 ing success. A jury always admires pluck and pertinacity and these quali- 
 ties Mr. Barnett possesses in a marked degree. 
 
 Graham Witschief, of Newburgh, would attract attention in any assem- 
 bly for the intellectual cast of his features, which clearly betoken unusual 
 talent. This impression is at once confirmed when he addresses the court. 
 He so excels in the power of lucid statement that by the time he has 
 informed the court of the nature of the controversy he has already pro- 
 duced the effect of an argument. This faculty of seizing upon the crucial, 
 controlling points of the case, of applying the philosophical rather than 
 the historical method, is one of the rarest among lawyers, who usually 
 narrate the facts in the order in which they occurred, leaving the court to 
 pick out the essential, determining elements from a mass of more or less 
 related matter. This gift Mr. Witschief possesses to a degree so unusual 
 that it constitutes a large factor in the success which he has so rapidly 
 attained. He is a rising advocate, taking his place easily among the lead- 
 ers of the Orange County bar. 
 
 Benjamin McClung, of Newburgh, obtained, early in his practice, a 
 foremost position at the bar of the county. Oije of his first and most 
 notable victories, which attracted wide attention at the time, was won in 
 a proceeding instituted by him in 1892 to require the registry board of 
 the town of Highlands to strike from the register the names of over a 
 hundred soldiers quartered at West Point, who claimed the right to vote 
 in the village of Highland Falls, adjoining the Government reservation. 
 Mr. McClung took the position that the West Point reservation is not a 
 part of the territory of the State of New York; that upon the cession of 
 the territory by the State the general government became invested with 
 exclusive jurisdiction over it and that persons resident within it are not 
 entitled to vote. Mr. McClung, notwithstanding the limited time at his 
 disposal, upon the very eve of an exciting election, made a most exhaus- 
 tive and convincing argument, collating all the authorities and relying 
 chiefly upon the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Fort 
 Leavenworth Railroad Company vs. Lowe, which involved the character 
 of Government property at Fort Leavenworth. Though he was opposed 
 by such eminent counsel as Judge Hirschberg, Walter C. Anthony and 
 Howard Thornton, his argument was sustained by the court and the law 
 upon the subject was finally established in this State. 
 
533 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 His stubborn defence a few years ago of an unpopular client will be 
 long remembered. So strong was the public sentiment against his client 
 and so thoroughly had the court room been surcharged with this sentiment 
 that it was impossible for Mr. McClung to prevent his client's conviction 
 of the oflfense of receiving stolen property, knowing it to be stolen. But, 
 nothing daunted, Mr. McClung procured a stay of the sentence, reversed 
 the conviction on appeal, and on the second trial cleared his client trium- 
 phantly, the court saying that the proof for the prosecution did not make 
 the slighest progress toward fastening guilt upon the defendant. This 
 case affords a striking illustration' of the dangers that often surround 
 innocent men in the artificially superheated atmosphere of a court room 
 created by an excited and credulous public opinion eager for a victim. 
 Had it not been for Mr. McClung's steadfast, stalwart and fearless exer- 
 tions in this case, in the face of much hostile criticism, an absolutely inno- 
 cent man, as subsequently ascertained by the court, would have been con- 
 signed to the ignominy of a term in State prison. Mr. McClung's action 
 in thus stemming the tide of adverse, powerful and malignant influences 
 bent upon crushing and ruining his client cannot be overestimated. It 
 attests his place at the Otange County bar not merely for intellectual 
 ability but for that moral courage which constitutes the very highest 
 attribute, the noblest equipment of the advocate. 
 
 That Mr. McClung's manly, independent and intrepid character is 
 understood and admired by the public was strikingly shown in the fall 
 of 1907 by his election to the office of mayor of the city of Newburgh by 
 a majority of over five hundred votes, overcoming an adverse majority 
 of about five hundred usually cast in that city against the candidate of 
 his party. The people evidently believed that Mr. McClung is imbued 
 with the idea that a municipal corporation is, in its last analysis, simply a 
 business corporation in which each taxpayer is a stockholder, the aldermen 
 its directors and the mayor its business manager. 
 
 Mr. McClung has already shown that this confidence in his character 
 and aims is well founded. He may be relied upon to give the people a 
 purely business administration unfettered by political obligations and 
 uninfluenced by the desire to build up a personal machine or to reward a 
 band of hungry parasites. 
 
 Henry Kohl, of Newburgh, now the partner of Mr. McClung, is also a 
 fighter. His tastes and his sympathies incline him to espouse the weaker 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 534 
 
 cause, and he is often assigned by the court to defend those who are 
 unable to employ counsel. I remember a notable case in which he was 
 thus assigned arising out of the killing of a motorman by the alleged 
 criminal negligence of another motorman in causing a collision. The 
 indictment was for manslaughter and the trolley company refused to give 
 any assistance to the accused motorman, who languished several months 
 in the county jail while his case was being tossed back and forth between 
 the supreme and county courts. Mr. Kohl took hold of the case and so 
 stoutly convinced several jurors that the fault was that of the company 
 in not providing the motorman with proper appliances that a disagreement 
 was secured and the motorman discharged on his own recognizance. This 
 illustrates the quality of Mr. Kohl's work — earnest, strong, enthusiastic, 
 courageous, loyal. Nothing dismays him. The more able and astute his 
 opponent, the better he is satisfied, since it proportionately increases his 
 credit in beating him, as he always expects to do, and frequently does. 
 
 Mr. Kohl is a verdict getter. His recent success in getting a verdict 
 for $9,000 in a negligence case was a gratifying one, while he also recently 
 secured a favorable settlement in a case against the city growing out of 
 the fall of a tree in a high wind, causing the death of a young lady. The 
 lawyers who start in to try a case against Henry Kohl know that in him 
 they will find an opponent equipped at every point and with every art to 
 sway a jury and to save his client. He has forged his way ahead until 
 now he is in the front rank of Orange County's trial lawyers. 
 
 J. Bradley Scott, of Newburgh, is the son of that noble lawyer, David 
 A. Scott, whose precious legacy of an honorable name is guarded well by 
 the son, who came to the bar several years after his father's death. He 
 has developed far more fondness for the trial of cases than his father had 
 and has already achieved a distinct standing as a trial lawyer. His recent 
 success before the appellate courts, in the case involving the right of a 
 soda water establishment to refuse to furnish soda water upon request to 
 a colored person, has attracted great attention. The case involves grave 
 questions and far-reaching consequences. Mr. Scott's broad, powerful 
 and convincing argument in it shows that he inherits not only the good 
 name but also the fine intellectual, discriminating qualities of his distin- 
 guished father. 
 
 George H. Decker, of Middletown, is the dean of its trial lawyers. He 
 is the one first asked upon every public occasion to voice its spirit, or its 
 
535 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 purpose, filling in this respect the part so often taken by Mr. Winfield, 
 who was, by the way, until his death, always one of Mr. Decker's warm- 
 est friends and admirers. 
 
 Possessed of a highly sensitive, responsive nature, a poetic, imaginative 
 temperament, an exquisitely nervous organization, his fibre is almost too 
 fine for the buffetings and shocks of the court room. While his brilliant 
 mind, his legal attainments and his oratorical powers have always been 
 exhibited in the court room to great advantage and with marked success, 
 yet he has often declined conflicts in which, if he had entered upon them, 
 not he, but his opponent, would have had occasion to regret it. Mr. 
 Decker has always placed a far more modest estimate upon his own 
 abilities than he should have done, and a far lower estimate than that of 
 the public, by which he is unreservedly admired and respected. 
 
 Mr. Decker's gifts as a public speaker, his scholarly tastes and his 
 literary attainments are never shown to greater advantage than upon the 
 lecture platform, from which he has often instructed and delighted a 
 cultured audience. His recent series of brilliant lectures upon Edgar 
 Allan Poe will be long remembered. 
 
 Soon after Mr. Decker's admission to the bar in 1870 he formed a part- 
 nership, under the name of McQuoid & Decker, with Henry M. McQuoid, 
 who died a few years later. Mr. McQuoid's portrait hangs in Mr. 
 Decker's office, but there is little else to remind us now of one who once 
 occupied a large place in the interest and attention of the public. Mr. 
 McQuoid was distinguished for bold, dashing, sparkling qualities as a trial 
 lawyer. Soon after Judge Groo moved from Monticello to Middletown 
 in 1866 he and Mr. McQuoid were opposed to each other in a trial in 
 which Mr. McQuoid disputed all of Judge Groo's legal propositions with 
 the prefatory remark, "That may be good law in Sullivan County but it 
 won't go in Orange County." After Judge Groo had stood this as long 
 as he thought he ought to, he remarked, "I want you to understand that 
 there are just as good lawyers in Sullivan County as in Orange County." 
 "Oh, yes," said McQuoid, "I know that, but they all stay there." 
 
 Judge Groo himself enjoyed the sally and was himself very quick at a 
 retort. Once upon a trial in Goshen in which he was opposed by Judge 
 George W. Greene, who at one time occupied a prominent place at the 
 Orange County bar, subsequently living in New York, where he died, 
 Judge Greene asked the jurors the usual question, whether any of them 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 536 
 
 had ever done any business with Judge Groo, saying that if so he would 
 excuse them, whereupon Judge Groo said, "Are there any gentlemen in 
 th box who have ever done any business with Judge Greene; if so I 
 would like to have them remain.'' 
 
 Mr. McQuoid had a wonderful memory. He could entertain his friends 
 by the hour repeating passages from famous orations or works of poetry. 
 His memory treasured even a fugitive poem read once in a newspaper. I 
 recall an instance of this. One day when I was driving back with him in 
 a buggy from Circleville, where we had tried a case against each other (it 
 was the local custom for the lawyers to drive out together for their jus- 
 tice's court trials) he repeated to me a poem he had seen in a newspaper 
 written by Prime, the well known Eastern traveler, in memory of a 
 young girl, Claude Brownrigg, who had died soon after he had told her 
 of his travels in Palestine, as they walked the beach one night in the moon- 
 light. I told Mr. McQuoid I would like a copy of it. So as soon as he 
 got back to Middletown he wrote it off for me. I have preserved it these 
 thirty years and more. Here are some of the lines : 
 
 "All this I wished as on the beach 
 
 Beside the sea I walked. 
 And to a young and white-robed girl, 
 As thus I wished I talked. 
 Talked of far travel, wanderings long, 
 
 And scenes in many lands, 
 And all the while the, golden path 
 Led eastward from the sands. 
 
 "And she has crossed the shining path. 
 The path where moonbeams quiver. 
 And she is in Jerusalem, 
 Forever, yes, forever." 
 
 That lines like these should be repeated by him in coming back from a 
 commonplace suit in justice's court shows how thirty-five years ago law- 
 yers thought and talked of something besides law and politics, money and 
 stock markets. 
 
 The name of the McQuoids should not be permitted to fade from the 
 memory of the passing generation. His brother, Charles C. McQuoid, 
 who died in 1866, attained even greater prominence at the bar. He en- 
 joyed great personal popularity and his premature death at the age of 
 thirty-six from typhoid fever, contracted at the home of a client, whose 
 
537 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 will he had been asked to draw, removed from the bar one of its most 
 conspicuous figures. His popularity is shown by his success in defeating 
 Judge Gedney for district attorney by a narrow majority in 1859. He 
 served as district attorney until 1862, being succeeded by Abram S. Cas- 
 sedy, who in 1865 was succeeded by J. Hallock Drake, another brilliant 
 member of the Orange County bar who practiced in Newburgh for some 
 years but who subsequently settled in New York. 
 
 Charles G. Dill, now the Nestor of the Middletown bar, studied law 
 with Charles C. McQuoid, whose memory he holds in deep veneration. 
 Mr. Dill at one time enjoyed the largest practice in Middletown. It is 
 only lately that he has relaxed his devotion to business, now spending 
 several months each year in Florida, where he has extensive interests. 
 
 Mr. Dill is the very soul of honor and integrity in all the relations 
 of life. The kindness of his heart is often obscured by the brusqueness 
 of his manner which sometimes gives strangers a wholly erroneous 
 impression of a disposition singularly generous, open and buoyant. He 
 is the precise opposite of the type represented by the traditional cow 
 that gives a good pail of milk and then kicks it over. Mr. Dill kicks 
 over the pail first and then proceeds to fill it with the milk of human 
 kindness. He generally explains at the beginning how impossible it is 
 for him to do anything for you and ends by doing more for you than 
 you asked or expected. 
 
 Mr. Dill's miscellaneous library is the best in Orange County. He 
 is a born, inveterate, irreclaimable bibliophile. A week that passes by 
 without his buying some old, rare or scarce volume is to him a failure. 
 The question of price is never considered. If he wants it he gets it and 
 that is all there is of it. He has built several additions to his home to 
 accommodate his treasures, but they constantly overtax its capacity. They 
 overflow and regurgitate in a confusion that drives to despair the order 
 fiend and the dust hunter. 
 
 Rosslyn M. Cox, who was for many years the partner of Mr. Dill and 
 who recently has entered into partnership with Mr. Watts, is one of the 
 most successful lawyers in Middletown. He is an expert in accountings 
 before the surrogate and before the bankruptcy courts, but he is equally 
 at home in a trial or in an argument before the court. The esteem 
 in which he is held is shown by his nomination in 1906 for the office 
 of county judge. 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 538 
 
 Associated with Mr. Cox is Elmer N. Oakes, whose abilities in the 
 preparation of a case for trial are unique and remarkable. He is a 
 natural mechanician, understanding with ease the most difficult adjust- 
 ments, functions and forms of complicated machinery. The knowledge 
 displayed by him in respect to the construction and operation of a loco- 
 motive boiler was an important element in the success of several actions 
 growing out of an explosion. 
 
 After preparing the case for trial Mr. Oakes is entirely competent to 
 try it. He has often examined and cross-examined the witnesses but 
 distrusts his own powers when it comes to summing up the case to the 
 jury. When his modesty shall be replaced by greater assurance he will 
 be better known for his really solid attainments and fine abilities. 
 
 Abram F. Servin will probably never overcome his timidity at the 
 sound of his own voice in the presence of a jury, though he can furnish 
 enough law to other lawyers to keep them busy expounding it to the 
 courts. He has argued and won cases in the Court of Appeals but his 
 chief victories are carried off by other lawyers who argue from the 
 learned and exhaustive briefs prepared by him. He is an expert in the 
 preparation of a brief for the appellate courts. He can take the printed 
 record of a case of which he never heard and construct from it a per- 
 fectly convincing brief upon either side. 
 
 Allen W. Corwin, who occupies the position of recorder of Middletown, 
 has displayed in the performance of his duties firmness tempered by 
 forbearance, judgment informed by conscience, justice controlled by 
 wisdom. His broad and humane policy in dealing with minor offenses, 
 united to his stern and rigid enforcement of the law in serious cases, 
 largely accounts for the almost entire freedom of Middletown from 
 crimes of pillage and violence. 
 
 Recorder William H. Hyndman, of Newburgh, has also succeeded 
 during the last few years in greatly reducing the number of crimes 
 committed in and about a city which was at one time infested by bold and 
 desperate criminals. A river town is always subject to greater danger, 
 through its opportunities for access and escape, but Recorder Hyndman 
 has earned the gratitude of the public for an administration of the 
 criminal law which has resulted in a marked improvement of the condi- 
 tions once prevalent in his jurisdiction. 
 
 Of course the discouragement of crime rests largely in the vigilance of 
 
539 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 the district attorney of the county. Thomas C. Rogers, of Middletown, 
 the son of William H. Rogers, who himself could easily have attained 
 eminence at the bar if he had so chosen, was elected to this office in 
 1906. He has already shown that in his hands the wise, faithful and 
 efficient enforcement of the criminal law may be confidently depended 
 upon. His previous administration for three years of the office of 
 assistant district attorney was distinguished for unusual ability. He is 
 amply qualified to uphold the traditions of an office always ably filled by 
 such men as Fullerton and Garr, Brown and Hirschberg, Anthony and 
 Headley, Powelson and Seeger. 
 
 J. D. Wilson, Jr., of Newburgh, who received the appointment as 
 assistant district attorney, to serve with Mr. Rogers, is well qualified to 
 sustain the burdens of the position, which are necessarily very consider- 
 able when it is considered that he is expected to exercise special vigil- 
 ance in the entire eastern part of the county, including Newburgh itself. 
 
 Wickham T. Shaw was one of the most alert assistant district attorneys 
 that Orange Gounty ever had. He served in that capacity under Judge 
 Fullerton from 1868 to 1871, trying many of the cases. His career at 
 the bar of Middletown has afforded many opportunities for the display 
 of his knowledge of the criminal law, gained in that association with 
 one of the foremost lawyers of his time. 
 
 Abram V. N. Powelson never satisfied the expectations of his friends 
 until he came to the office of district attorney in 1897, a position which 
 he filled for seven years. They always knew that he had ability and they 
 always regretted that his retention of the office of justice of the peace, 
 for many years, prevented that recognition of his abilities to which they 
 were entitled. But the opportunity to show his solid worth both as a 
 lawyer and as a law officer came with his entrance into a wider field of 
 county administration in which he acquitted himself with credit and 
 distinction. 
 
 John F. Bradner, of Middletown, was also at one time closely con- 
 nected with the administration of the criminal law, having been 'the 
 recorder of Middletown for many years ; a position in which he presided 
 with great dignity over many important and exciting trials. Mr. Bradner 
 is an advocate who enters upon a trial with all the ardor and enthusiasm 
 born of absolute conviction in the justice of his cause, and he never 
 fails to make a strong impression upon a jury. 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 540 
 
 John L. Wiggins, of Middletown, son-in-law of Judge Groo and brother 
 of WiUis H. Wiggins, an eminent member of the Ohio judiciary, is 
 distinguished for the earnestness, energy and enthusiasm with which he 
 espouses every cause committed to liim. He is original and resourceful. 
 In an action brought once against his client for a violation of the law in 
 respect of adulterated milk, Mr. Wiggins gravely argued to the jury that 
 in his judgment the law was unconstitutional. As the facts were clearly 
 against his client, the judge did not take the trouble to interrupt him, 
 but was astonished when the jury rendered a verdict in favor of Mr. 
 Wiggins' client, based wholly upon the constitutional argument. 
 
 The next day Mr. O'Neill, encouraged by Mr. Wiggins' tactics, entered 
 upon the same line of defence, but Judge Gaynor admonished by the 
 miscarriage of the day before, promptly suppressed it, and Mr. O'Neill's 
 client was convicted. 
 
 Alton J. Vail, of Middletown, is a lawyer whose modesty often conceals 
 his merits, which, however, are well known to his clients. Mr. Vail has 
 for many years transacted the business of the Middletown Savings Bank. 
 He is an authority upon titles and upon all questions involving the law 
 of real estate, his opinion upon these and kindred questions having 
 frequently been sustained by the courts. Wide experience, sound judg- 
 ment, conservative instincts, elevated character, absolute probity and in- 
 tense loyalty in friendship unite in Alton J. Vail, the able lawyer, the 
 honorable man, the upright citizen. 
 
 A. C. N. Thompson, of Middletown, who is in partnership with Mr. 
 Dill, has abundant inspiration in his name. He is the son of John A. 
 Thompson, once a prominent lawyer of Monticello who, on account of 
 his admiration for one of the greatest lawyers of his day named him 
 after Archibald C. Niven. 
 
 Mr. Thompson has already shown one quality conspicuous in his dis- 
 tinguished godfather — that of capacity for hard work. His energy and 
 self-denial in preparing himself for the bar while engaged in the exacting 
 duties of another calling, give promise of abundant success in the career 
 now opening before him. 
 
 Charles T. Vail, who entered upon a career of high promise at the bar 
 was cut down upon its threshold. No lawyer in Middletown ever had 
 the faculty of winning friends as easily as he. His sunny disposition, 
 affectionate nature and engaging manners won for him a host of admirers, 
 
541 
 
 THE COUNTY .OF ORANGE. 
 
 adherents and clients. Undimmed affection in many hearts still sheds a 
 tear over the untimely grave of Charlie Vail. 
 
 DeWitt Van Zandt, of the Middletown bar, was the son of that gifted 
 divine, Dr. Van Zandt, so long the beloved pastor of the brick church at 
 Montgomery. Coming to Middletown fresh from college, his sparkling 
 wit and ready repartee endeared him to a large circle of admiring friends. 
 But soon he was overtaken by broken health, which paralyzed his energies 
 and crumbled his ambitions. Through all the experiences of a life that 
 failed to fulfil its early promise, he maintained the instincts, the manners 
 and the bearing of the true gentleman. He never lost the sweetness, 
 serenity and gentleness of his disposition, or the high standard of personal 
 honor inherited from his revered father. Fond meditation still tenderly 
 dwells upon the fadeless memory of DeWitt Van Zandt. 
 
 John G. Mills, of the Goshen bar, removed to Washington, where he 
 died in April, 1883. While necessity chained him to the law inclination 
 led him along the flowery paths of literature. His talents and accom- 
 plishments brought him into relations with the great and the gifted, one 
 of his dearest friends being Robert G. Ingersoll, who pronounced the 
 oration at his funeral. Mr. Ingersoll said : 
 
 "My friends : Again we are face to face with the great mystery that 
 shrouds the world. We question, but there is no reply. Out on the wide 
 waste seas there drifts no spar. Over the desert of death the sphinx 
 gazes forever, but never speaks. 
 
 "In the very May of life another heart has ceased to beat. Night has 
 fallen upon noon. But he lived, he loved, he was loved. Wife and chil- 
 dren pressed their kisses on his lips. This is enough. The longest life 
 contains no more. This fills the vase of joy. 
 
 "He who lies here, clothed with the perfect peace of death, was a kind 
 and loving husband, a good father, a generous neighbor, an honest man, — 
 and these words build a monument of glory above the humblest grave. 
 He was always a child, sincere and frank, as full of hope as spring. He 
 divided all time into to-day and to-morrow. To-morrow was without a 
 cloud and of to-morrow he borrowed sunshine for to-day. He was my 
 friend. He will remain so. The living oft become estranged; the dead 
 are true. * * * 
 
 "With him immortality was the eternal consequences of his own acts. 
 He believed that every pure thought, every disinterested deed, hastens the 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 542 
 
 harvest of universal good. This is a reUgion that enriches poverty ; that 
 enables us to bear the sorrows of the saddest life ; that peoples even soli- 
 tude with happy millions yet to live, — a religion born not of selfishness 
 and fear, but of love, of gratitude and hope, — a religion that digs wells to 
 slake the thirst of others, and gladly bears the burdens of the unborn. 
 
 "But in the presence of death how beliefs and dogmas wither and 
 decay! How loving words and deeds burst into blossom! Pluck from 
 the tree of any life these flowers, and there remain but the barren thorns 
 of bigotry and creed. 
 
 "All wish for happiness beyond this life. All hope to meet again the 
 loved and lost. In every heart there grows this sacred flower. Immor- 
 tality is a word tliat Hope through all the ages has been whispering to 
 Love. The miracle of thought we cannot comprehend. The mystery of 
 life and death we cannot comprehend. This chaos called the world has 
 never been explained. The golden bridge of life from gloom emerges 
 and on shadow rests. Beyond this we do not know. Fate is speechless, 
 destiny is dumb, and the secret of the future has never yet been told. We 
 love ; we wait ; we hope. The more we love, the more we fear. Upon the 
 tenderest heart the deepest shadows fall. All paths, whether filled with 
 thorns or flowers, end here. Here success and failure are the same. The 
 rag of wretchedness and the purple robe of power all difference and dis- 
 tinction lose in the democracy of death. Character survives; goodness 
 lives; love is immortal." 
 
 Harrison W. Nanny, of Goshen, had a pathetic career. Possessed of 
 unusual talent and capacity he was handicapped in the practice of his pro- 
 fession by an accident which paralyzed his energies, embittered his soli- 
 tary life and pressed to his rebellious lips the chalice of mocking irony. 
 
 But while he was not resigned he was courageous. Some of the work 
 which he performed in suffering and illness is marked by a high degree of 
 intellectual power. Only his misfortunes prevented his attaining promi- 
 nence at the bar. 
 
 No one has a deeper affection for the memory of Mr. Nanny than his 
 old friend and partner, Charles L. Mead, who now lives in retirement 
 from the activities of his profession at his home in Middletown. Mr. 
 Mead has the unprecedented record of having served three terms in 
 succession as county treasurer — a striking proof of his influence, his pop- 
 ularity and his qualifications for public office. During his entire period 
 
543 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 of service not one of his official acts was ever questioned and he surren- 
 dered the office crowned with the respect and confidence of the public. 
 
 Bradford R. Champion, of the Goshen bar, was a contemporary of 
 Winfield and Gedney. While his talents were not brilliant or showy he 
 still possessed those solid, sterling qualities of mind and heart which im- 
 part strength and vigor to individual character ; which inspire confidence 
 in the community at large; which uphold the very structure of society; 
 which confer blessings' upon every relation in life and which bring peace 
 and honor, repose and happiness to their possessor. 
 
 The recent death of William H. Wyker removed one who, while not 
 prominent in the trial courts, possessed many endearing traits of character 
 and occupied a large place in the social and civil life of Goshen. He was 
 also in great favor and request as a speaker in political campaigns. He 
 could have taken his place among the trial lawyers of the county, had he 
 so chosen, but, he, too, suffered under the disadvantage of having accepted 
 the office of justice of the peace — that abyss in which talent has so often 
 found its unmarked grave. 
 
 The late Benjamin F. Low, of the Middletown bar, was one of the most 
 genial spirits ever drawn into social relations with his fellow-men. He 
 fairly oozed companionship and good fellowship. He was also a good 
 lawyer, coming from a family of which Senator Henry A. Low, his 
 brother, was the most able and conspicuous member. 
 
 He had some notable successes at the bar. In the case of Josie Teets 
 against the city of Middletown he obtained a verdict for considerably 
 more than he would have got if it had not been for the mistake of his 
 opponent in the cross-examination of the plaintiff's physician. Dr. William 
 H. Dorrance, who, on the direct, had testified to only moderate injuries 
 to his patient as the result of her being thrown over the dashboard on 
 account of an obstruction in the street. But he became nettled by the 
 cross-examination and when he was finally asked : "Now, doctor, tell me 
 just what is the matter with this young lady," he replied: "Why, Mr. 
 O'Neill, there is not one organ or function of that woman's body that 
 works healthfully or naturally." 
 
 This brought up the verdict from $i,ooo, all that Mr. Low expected 
 to get, to $3,000. It was a lesson to all who heard it as to the danger of 
 giving a hostile witness too good an opening. As a matter of fact, the 
 woman is still living in vigorous health. 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 544 
 
 Louis S. Sterrit, of Newburgh, who died in April, 1907, left a void 
 in the hearts of a large and intimate circle. He enjoyed an extensive 
 clientage and the confidence of the entire community. He was the 
 attorney of that old, strong and conservative institution, the Newburgh 
 Savings Bank, and of many other institutions and societies. His digni- 
 fied presence, his affable manners, his substantial worth, his sincerely re- 
 ligious character, his mental poise combined to produce an impression 
 upon the community which the corrosion of time will, with difficulty 
 efiface. 
 
 Mr. Sterrit was eminently public-spirited. In 1904 he erected at the 
 entrance of Woodlawn Cemetery, New Windsor, two very fine gates. He 
 also placed in the Union Presbyterian church of Newburgh a tablet in 
 memory of the late Rev. Alexander B. Jack, one of his pastors. 
 
 His generosity was unbounded. No client, however poor or humble, 
 ever failed of help or counsel because he lacked a fee. 
 
 The death in 1906 of Lewis W. Y. McCroskery, of the Newburgh 
 bar, created a general feeling of sorrow and a distinct sense of personal 
 loss. He had filled many offices which brought him into individual rela- 
 tions with the entire community, and it is safe to assert that he had not 
 a single enemy. His appointment as postmaster by President Cleveland 
 was filled with credit to himself and usefulness to the public service. His 
 professional career was interrupted by this service, but when he resumed 
 his practice at the expiration of his term his clients gathered about him 
 again, for they and the bar alike always appreciated deeply his amiable 
 disposition, his spotless character, his solid ability. 
 
 Joseph M. Leeper, of the Newburgh bar, also passed away in 1906. A 
 veteran of the Civil War his health did not permit him to engage in active 
 practice, but he took an honorable pride in his membership of a profes- 
 sion which he never did one act to discredit. 
 
 The mention of Mr. Leeper suggests the name of one who should not 
 be suffered to fall into oblivion, for it was one of the strongest passions 
 of his own life to perpetuate the memory of the leaders of the Orange 
 County bar, by which he was especially deputed to prepare and publish the 
 memorial to Mr. Winfield. No one will dissent from a passing tribute to 
 the generous instincts and throbbing heart of John K. Goldsmith. 
 
 Henry W. Chadeayne, elected in 1906 supervisor of the town of Corn- 
 wall, but practicing in Newburgh, stands out as one of the few men who 
 
545 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 always says what he thinks. You can always tell where to find him, and 
 that is just where he says he is. You do not have to go to any one else 
 to learn where he stands. Just ask him and you will know. He has no 
 patience with trimmers and time-servers. He always takes the most 
 straight road possible to any given end. 
 
 This rugged intellectual honesty constitutes a positive force and a 
 sterHng asset. The public service and the legal profession have no purer 
 representative than Henry W. Chadeayne. 
 
 Among the members of the Newburgh bar who have risen rapidly to 
 prominence is James G. Graham, the son of the gifted lawyer already 
 referred to, whose full name he bears. Mr. Graham, after four years' 
 experience in public affairs at Albany, in the executive chamber, accepted 
 the ofiEce of deputy attorney-general, which he held two years. This po- 
 sition, which has always been a most exacting one, involving the trial 
 and argument of cases of great magnitude, was filled by Mr. Graham 
 with marked ability and to the entire satisfaction of the public. It was 
 during his incumbency of this position that Mr. Graham was chiefly in- 
 strumental in bringing about the creation of the new ninth judicial dis- 
 trict—a service for which the Orange County bar can never be sufficiently 
 grateful to him. It is to his untiring and influential exertions that we 
 are chiefly indebted for the creation of a natural, homogeneous judicial 
 district, free from the blight and incubus of Kings County — a district in 
 which the accession to the bench of Judges Mills, Tompkins and Mor- 
 schauser insures the preservation of those standards of judicial dignity, 
 decorum, deliberation and, above all, consideration for the rights and 
 feelings of the bar, which have been so nobly maintained by their dis- 
 tinguished colleague. Judge Keogh. 
 
 The Newburgh bar has many members of varying degrees of promi- 
 nence and experience, including the venerable Jesse F. Shafer, who was 
 born in 1828; Samuel E. Dimmick, who comes from a family of able 
 lawyers ; Seward U. Round, who worthily bears the famous name be- 
 stowed upon him at the time his father was principal of the Seward In- 
 stitute at Florida; Caleb H. Baumes, who is idolized by his brethren of 
 the Odd Fellows ; Peter Cantline, aggressive, ambitious and rising, des- 
 tined to take his place among the foremost members of the Orange 
 County bar; James M. H. Wallace, earnest, forcible, unflinching, inde- 
 fatigable and intellectual ; Charles W. U. Sneed, modest, interesting and 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 546 
 
 well informed ; David C. Scott, patient, devoted and industrious ; Lero^ 
 Dicker son, engaging and efficient; John B. Corwin, the fit successor of 
 Louis S. Sterrit as attorney for the Newburgh Savings Bank and, like 
 him, retiring and reserved until the occasion calls for action, when he is 
 eloquent, convincing and powerful ; Frank W. Tompkins, popular and re- 
 spected; George W. May, refined and gentlemanly; Martin G. Mould, 
 courteous and affable ; W. J. Wygant, unassuming and competent ; Reeve 
 Ketcham, faithful and energetic; Reuben H. Hilton, U. S. Collector of 
 the Port of Newburgh; Russell S. Coutant, accomplished and scholarly; 
 Nehemiah Fowler, solid and dignified ; A. D. and A. W. Lent, father and 
 son, educated, amiable and conscientious. 
 
 The Walden bar is adorned by the ardent, impulsive, enthusiastic, bril- 
 liant A. S. Embler ; by the earnest, thoughtful, learned Irving H. Lough- 
 ran; by the bustling, energetic, ambitious Anson J. Fowler, and by the 
 fine natural abilities of Caleb B. Birch, Jr. 
 
 Joseph M. Wilkin, of the Montgomery bar, bears an honored name — 
 that of his father, who for several years occupied a prominent position 
 at the bar of Tennessee, returning to Orange County at the opening of 
 the war on account of his pronounced Union sentiments. He was the 
 brother of Judge John G. Wilkin, already referred to, and the two had 
 many traits of character in common derived from their sterling ancestry. 
 It is not strange that the younger Joseph M. Wilkin should exhibit in 
 his present administration of the duties of special surrogate the qualities 
 which have always distinguished the members of his famous and honor- 
 able family. 
 
 The bar of Montgomery is also strengthened by the high character and 
 unquestioned capacity of William L. Dickerson. But Montgomery has 
 ceased to be the center of legal interest which it was in the days when 
 Edward Van Orsdall organized a suit there at least once a week and 
 where he and that once well known member of the Goshen bar, George 
 W. Millspaugh, frequently tried out the issues before a jury packed to 
 beat one or the other. 
 
 The Middletown bar includes, among its well known members, Henry 
 T. Crist, whose personal popularity led to his election as coroner ; Russell 
 M. Vernon, who has acquired a large practice in the Surrogate's Court ; 
 Howard M. Starr, who is performing the duties of justice of the peace ; 
 John Bright, whose alertness, readiness and general information predes- 
 
547 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 tine him to an active career; Jeremiah E. Barnes, who served most 
 acceptably for several years as the recorder of the city of Middletown, 
 and Charles C. Elston, who has manfully overcome many difficulties in 
 establishing and maintaining his position at the bar. 
 
 The Goshen bar includes among its honored members Charles W. 
 Coleman, who, notwithstanding that he is a martyr to ill health and is 
 compelled to spend the winters in Florida, retains the confidence and busi- 
 ness of a host of personal friends ; also William D. Mills, who has learn- 
 ing enough to equip a dozen lawyers for successful practice. 
 
 Louis Bedell, of the Goshen bar, secured at Albany in the Assembly a 
 more powerful personal influence than any member from his district ever 
 enjoyed, with the exception of his former partner, George W. Greene. 
 This was, of course, partly due to the wisdom of the electors in keeping 
 him there. But Mr. Bedell's many qualifications for success in public 
 life accounted in a large degree for the extent of his influence. A lawyer 
 is always needed in either the Assembly or the Senate and no amount of 
 good fellowship or general intelligence can make up for the lack of legal 
 training and experience. 
 
 Joseph Merritt, of Goshen, whose diffidence prevents his coming into 
 prominence before the public is, however, unable to conceal from his 
 professional brethren his very superior legal attainments. He is a lawyer 
 of the very first rank. His opinion is respected and followed in many 
 instances in which the court is unaware that it is he who has guided it to 
 a correct conclusion. 
 
 Philip A. Rorty, of the Goshen bar, has gone rapidly to the front. The 
 wide experience gained by him in the extensive business established by 
 the firm of Bacon & Merritt, in which he is a partner, has been used by 
 him to great advantage. He is entrusted with the preparation of impor- 
 tant cases, in the trial of which also he takes a considerable and highly 
 creditable part. He is an expert in railroad law and in the law of 
 negligence. 
 
 J. Floyd Halstead, of Goshen, is the son of one of the most warm- 
 hearted, noble, honorable men who ever lived — the late John R. Hal- 
 stead of Unionville. If he will but emulate in private and professional life 
 the virtues of his most estimable father he will be sure to continue and 
 confirm the success which has already in a large measure attended upon 
 him. 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 548 
 
 J. V. D. Benedict, of Warwick, represented his district in the Assembly 
 in the year 1877. His suavity of manner and moderation of speech are 
 the sincere reflection of a kind, generous and affectionate nature. 
 
 His interest in various pursuits has interfered with the singleness of 
 his devotion to the law, but his opinion upon difficult questions has often 
 been sought and followed with the most satisfactory results to himself 
 and to his clients. 
 
 Clifford S. Beattie, of Warwick, who is associated in business with 
 his father. Judge Beattie, settled in his old home after a most valuable and 
 enlightening experience, as one of the legal staff of the Metropolitan 
 Railway system in New York. He possesses an individuality, an inde- 
 pendence and a strength of character which prevent his being over- 
 shadowed by the great reputation of his father. But if he did not have 
 these qualities he would not be a Beattie. 
 
 Lewis J. Stage, of Warwick, who is associated in business with Mr. 
 Kane, under the name of Kane & Stage, had the good sense to voluntarily 
 resign the oifice of justice of the peace — that grave of professional ambi- 
 tion ; that rock upon which so many a professional career has foundered. 
 Since then he has made strides in reputation and influence. 
 
 Mr. Stage has always taken an active part in the educational, philan- 
 thropic, historical and religious interests of the community. His sincerity 
 in this is manifest and unquestioned. He is free from all forms of cant 
 and pretense, sham and affectation. 
 
 John Miller, of Comwall-on-Hudson, whose memory goes back to the 
 days of McKissock, is a veritable encyclopedia of the law; a storehouse 
 of principles and authorities ; a reservoir of unlimited capacity ; a fountain 
 of perennial flow. If he had been as able to apply, discriminate and 
 assimilate as he has been to accumulate stores of knowledge his abilities 
 would undoubtedly have been more widely recognized. 
 
 Thomas S. Hulse, of Westtown, has long enjoyed the advantage of 
 being the only lawyer in town. He is often consulted upon the controver- 
 sies arising in it and his influence is always for peace rather than strife, 
 for settlement rather than litigation. His solid worth of character com- 
 mands for him universal and unchallenged respect. 
 
 Frank R. Gump, of Highland Falls, signalized his entrance into prac- 
 tice at the Orange County Bar by bringing the unusual action of a man 
 against a woman for her breach of promise in refusing to marry him. He 
 
549 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 has been the attorney for some most important interests involved in 
 actions brought to determine priority of water rights. The ability shown 
 by him in the management of these cases and especially in the examination 
 and cross-examination of the witnesses in several trials has given him a 
 recognized position at the bar of the county. 
 
 Frank Lybolt, of Port Jervis, who filled most competently a term of 
 office as special county judge, has tried some cases in the Supreme Court 
 with an intelligence, earnestness and spirit which attracted the attention 
 of his professional brethren. 
 
 Wilton Bennet, of Port Jervis, has given special attention to the trial 
 of criminal cases in which his zeal, earnestness, boldness and eloquence 
 have given to him many professional victories and to his clients many 
 occasions for profound and lasting gratitude. 
 
 William P. Gregg, of the Port Jervis bar, has, by his straightforward 
 and manly character, impressed himself most favorably upon the com- 
 munity. His ability as a lawyer received deserved recognition in Janu- 
 ary, 1907, when he was appointed the tax appraiser of Orange County. 
 
 Henry B. Fullerton, of Port Jervis, greatly resembles in character and 
 ability his relative, Daniel Fullerton, who, though he did not attain the 
 eminence of his brothers, William and Stephen W. Fullerton, possessed 
 more original gifts and natural eloquence than either of them. 
 
 The Port Jervis bar is also enriched by the fine character and sterling 
 abiHties of Alfred Marvin and R. Edward Schofield. 
 
 William A. Parshall, of Port Jervis, who was at one time associated 
 with Mr. Carr in the protection of the interests of the Erie Railroad 
 Company, has won the respect of the community and of his professional 
 brethren by the high-minded, honorable, sincere and manly course which 
 he has always pursued in every walk of life, private, public and profes- 
 sional. 
 
 His splendid vote in the autumn of 1907 for the office of surrogate 
 attests the popular esteem in which he is held. 
 
 John B. Swezey, his successful competitor, entered upon the duties 
 of the office of surrogate in January, 1908. 
 
 He was for many years the attorney for the Middletown State Hos- 
 pital 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 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 55° 
 
 with his superior judicial qualifications and prepared it to expect his ele- 
 vation to still higher judicial station. 
 
 Ojrange 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 attain- 
 ments. 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 con- 
 clusion. His careful discrimination in applying the principles of law in- 
 volved 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 encourage- 
 ment to those frivolous and often merely speculative or intimidating con- 
 tests which have done so much to bring probate administration into re- 
 proach in many jurisdictions. 
 
 Judge Howell always exhibited one characteristic which commands 
 .special commendation. He never tolerated the merely perfunctory per- 
 formance 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 exer- 
 cised 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 surro- 
 gate, occupying it for twelve years (1883-1895), entered upon his duties 
 with peculiar qualifications for their successful discharge. His profes- 
 sional bent had always been in the direction of practice in the Surrogate's 
 
551 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 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 fair- 
 ness, 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 
 3'ou 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. Cole- 
 man returning with several prizes for his skilful 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 re- 
 fusing 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 pro- 
 duce 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 pre- 
 served to the end of time and having given his property to the church to 
 secure the protection of his tomb from disturbance. The opinion con- 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 552 
 
 tains a very subtle, acute and interesting discussion of other delusions 
 cherished by the testator which would not in themselyes 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 surro- 
 gate 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 lai^ge 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 deaHngs 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 
 
553 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 '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 surro- 
 gate, 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 cit- 
 izens 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 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 554 
 
 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. Ad- 
 mitted 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 be- 
 came 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 his- 
 tory 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, "o 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 
 
555 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 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 treat- 
 ment of its themes are entirely different from the plan and melihod 
 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 flourished 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 attor- 
 ney, 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. Dun- 
 ning'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 writ- 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 556 
 
 ings, 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 WilHam 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 Count}' 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. 
 Stillman, 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 embodyings of thought and argument, sublime conceptions, glow- 
 ing 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 Clin- 
 ton 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. ha? 
 already been outlined. 
 
557 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 George W. McEIroy is a member of the Orange County bar, now repre- 
 senting 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 opin- 
 ion 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 Com- 
 pany. In this responsible position he finds unusual opportunity to exer- 
 cise 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, Benja- 
 min 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 promi- 
 nence 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 spe- 
 cially devoted to cases of negligence. Mr. Gardner was born in Warwick, 
 
THE BENCH AND BAR. 558 
 
 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-posses- 
 sion, 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 an 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 famil- 
 iarly 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 terma- 
 gant, 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 
 
559 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 
 
 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 atmos- 
 phere. 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 adven- 
 ture 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 sensi- 
 tive 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 let- 
 ters 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 contem- 
 poraries an unconscious reflection of his own commanding character, 
 lofty ideals and acknowledged abilities.