History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

Mr. Curtis commenced the practice of his profession at Greenwich, Conn., in the summer of 1851, and soon took high rank and established a fine jiractice. He wits elected in 1858 and re-elected in 1S60 as senator, to represent the Twelfth Senatorial District in the General Assembly of the State. He removed to Stam- ford in the fall of 1864 and opened an office for the practice of law. In 1867, Mr. Curtis wits elected judge of the court of Probate for the district of Stamford, and held the office by successive yearly elections until 1870. His practice as a lawyer is extensive. In his jirofession he is esteemed as acute, painstaking, and diligent; of perfect rectitude, one can intrust business to him without fear that his trust is misjilaeed. As a law- yer he is logical and argumentative, rests his case upon the law, and his jiresentation of it is apt to dis- cover any technical defect in an opiionent's case. In polities he has ever been a pronounced Free- Soiler; voted for Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams in 1848. Previously he was a Whig, and a Republican from the first nominations of that ])arty. Mr. Curtis married JIary Acker, daughter of Peter and Mary Acker, of Greenwich, Oct. 30, 18.54. Their two children are Sarah, born March 9, 1866, and Louis J., born March 11, 1869. Mr. Curtis is of positive character, imlependent thought, and close reitsoning powers, — does not blindly follow the lead of any one, but must satisfy himself that his course is right. He is strong and loyal in liis friendships, and would stand alone, if occasion demanded, to defend either a friend or a principle, and, in consequence, has to a large degree the respect and ' ,y r BENCH AND BAR. 21 confidence of the community. He is jire-eiiiincntly the enemy of sliams, wherever they exist, and nothing will sooner disgust him than hy])ocrisy, ])revaneation, or untruth. He has heen a diligent and i)ersistent worker in his chosen sphere, and lias met with good reward tinaneially and otherwise. Calvin G. Child, son of Asa Child, Esq., a native of Norwich, Conn., graduated at Yale in 1S55, and practiced law in New York until ISGfi, when he re- moved to this place. He died 8ept. 2S, ISXO. Samuel Ff.ssexdex, the present folate's attorney, is also a resident of Stamford. Judge Oeorge A. Davexpoet is of English de- scent, which may be traced through a long line ot ancestry, reaching back, according to the "Daven- ])(irt (!eneah>gy" of Mr. A. B. Benedict, to the eleventh century. He was horn in Wilton, Fairfield Co., Conn., Jan. 31, 1808. His father was a manufac- turer of woolen fabrics in a small way, carrying on fanning at the same time. His eilueational advan- tages were both common school and academic. At the conclusion of his studies he entered the profession of the law. Of his career as Probate judge, however, we wish more particularly to write, and we think wc cannot do better than to quote entire an article ap- pearing in the Nonrnik Gazette, Jan. 8, 1878, upon tlie retirement of the judge from the office wliicli for nearly thirty years he had filled so creditably : " During the present month Judge George A. Dav- enport, who for a quarter of a century has adminis- tered the duties of the Orphans' Court of the district of Norwalk, will retire from further service by reason of the constitutional limitation of age. This is no trivial event in our local history. Few, if any. Pro- bate districts in the country have been so highly favored with such exceptional capacity and fidelity to jiublic trust, and we are sure that the regrets at Judge Davenport's retirement will be lioth universal and sincere. Differing as widely as the jioles with him in many things, we all the more gladly bespeak the district's obligations and gratitude with the most hearty unreserve. Both parties have uniformly voted for him as the best possible candidate that could be chosen for the trying and responsible duties of Pro- bate judge. The angry disputes he has ((uellcd among those once friends, the jealousies and heart- burnings among members of the same families he has removed, the expensive lawsuits and vexatious litiga- tions he has prevented by his own free and sound advice, — all are matters of consi)icuous local his- tory. Of all the wills he has drawn, settlements and decisions he has made, not one has ever been upset or reversed. His records arc models of clerkly beauty and neatness, and marvels of legal accuracy. " We trust we shall not yet lose tlie wisdom of his ripe exjierience and counsels, or the light of his pres- ence among us for many years to come. Though re- lieved from official responsibility and drudgeries, he may yet serve his generation in many important ways, and he will not fail to do so. " On the 31st of January, 1878, Judge Davenport reachctl his seventieth year, and was by legal limita- tion debarred from holding the office of judge of Pro- bate." Judge Davenport was married early in life to Miss Mary Sturges, of Wilton, Fairfield Co., Conn. Their children are Mary A., wife of Charles B. White, surgeon in the United States army ; Julia A. ; Ben- jamin, a graduate of the law school of the University (jf (Jeorgetown, D. C, now practicing as an attorney and counselor-at-law in the city of Washington ; Daniel, graduate of Yale, studied law in the office of Woodward & Perry, Norwalk, now attorney and counselor-at-law in Bridgeport, married Mary E. Jones; Timothy, graduate of Yale, and attended New. Haven Law School; and Sarah. Isaac Morehouse Sturges was born in Wilton, Fairfield Co., Conn., July 6, 1807, and died at his sis- ter's residence in that town on the 30th day of Octo- ber, 1877. Admitted to the bar of Fairfield County in January, 1837, he at once commenced [iraetice in Newtown, re- moving from that place to Bridgeport in 1848, where he soon obtained a large clientage and continued in the full discharge of his professional duties till the last. He had been engaged in the trial of a cause the day before his death, and left it unfinished at the close of the day, intending to continue the trial on the morrow, Init died very suddenly from an attack of heart-disease before the morrow came. His father, Erastus Sturges, a farmer living at Wil- ton, was a justice of the peace of the old school, four- teen times elected to the General Assemtily, and a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1818; before him were tried many eases, and Belts, Bissell, and Slierwood, in their inanagemcnt of justice trials, furnished the student with examples of legal ability and models for emulation, — the only school of instruc- tion open to him, for until his admission to the bar Mr. Sturges had never lieen present at a higher court. Entering the profession somewhat late in life with limited educational advantages, being mainly those, aside from attendance at district schools in the winter mouths, derived from three years' instruction at the Wilton Academy, then under the charge of the late Mr. Hawley Olmstead, with his opportunity for liter- ary culture circumscribed, he neglected nothing, but treasured everything of which he could avail himself, and brought to the chosen calling of his life a mind so matured and trained that he liecame not only an acknowledged leader of a bar where leadershi[) carried with it deserved recognition of ability, but outside of professional studies he was one of the best read of our numlier,* and kept himself abreast of all that was new in literature and science. He thought earn- » Prerarel Ijy the late Hon. Calvin G. Childe, of the Faiifleld bar. HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. estly, talked well, and applied with discrimination the thought.s and oi)inions ofotliers. His chief char- acteristic was thoroughness. In the technics of the profession he had hardly a superior; he elaborated every detail sometimes beyond apparent necessity, but he always had a precedent for every proposition suggested, and, with abiding faith in his own premises, he considered it his duty to force a recognition from the court by citing numerous authorities of the con- dusious which he deemed established. He took nothing for granted in the court or in anything else, but developed his argument with syllogistic precision "Ab ovo uique ad mala." This minuteness of research characterized his professional life throughout. It was unsafe to disregard his law, for the motion in error was sure to follow, urged with dangerous persistency ; it was unwise to be heedless of his facts, for each was claimed for a fi.ved and special purpose in the Hue of his argument ; and as a result of such completeness few were emidoyed in as many cases, none was more able as a practitioner, and so vigorous was he as an adversary that it wa.s unsafe to meet him, with hope of success, having a single weak spot in armor, for his thrust was unerring with whatever weapon he went to battle, and he never asked nor gave quarter. One eminent in our profession has called Judge Hosmcr " a traveling index of the law." There was no safer digest for Fairfield County than Mr. Sturges, for his tenacious memory and diligent research ena- bled him to furnish infornuition of some decision oh almost every conceivable point, — information v.-hich lie was always ready to impart.