History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

Isaac Toucey was born in Newtown, Nov. .5, 1796, and studied law with Asa Chapman. He commenced the practice of his i)r()fession in Hartford in 1S18, and sul>sequently held various offices of tr\ist and respon- sibility. He was State's attorney for Hartford County from 1822 to 1835, and in the latter year was elected to Congress, where he served four years. He was elected Governor of the State in 1846, and during the latter year of President Polk's administration filled the office of Attorney-General ; in 1.S.50 was a mem- ber of the State Senate; in 1851 Wius elected to the United States Senate, and Wiw Secretary of the Navy under Buchanan. Mr. Toucey was offered a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, which he declined. He was one of the ablest law- yers in the Slate. He died .July .30, 1809. Thomas IlEi.DiiN IUti.er was born at AVethers- field, Aug. 22, 1.806. He was preiHired fiir college by his father, and entered Yale Medical School, where he remained two years, then went to Philadelphia, where he continued one year and eom])leted his pro- fessional .Htudics. He commenced the practice of his profession at Nor\valk, and continued about eight years, when he abandoned the practice of medicine and com- menced the stu<ly of law in the office of the late Judge IJissell, and was admitti-il to the bar in 1837. He .«oon after formed a copartnership with Thaddeus Betts, and ujion his death entered into partnership with Orris S. Ferry. Ho^ai subsequently a partner with Josiah M. Carter. He was called to the bench of the Superior Court in 1855, and remained there until his election to the Supreme Court, in 1861. In May, 1870, he was appointed chief judge, which office he held until his resignation, in May, 187.'5. He was elected to Congress in 1849 ; was .^tate senator in 1848, 1852, and 18.53, and member of the General Assembly in 1832, 1833, 1837, 1843, and 1846. He died June 8, 1873, aged sixty-six. Nelson L. White was bom in Danbury, April 7, 181 2. Ho studied law in the office of the late Reu- ben Booth, and in 1840 was admitted to the bar. He was clerk of the State Senate in 1844 and 1K45; judge of Probate in Danbun,- in 1847, 1X48, and 1849. In 1856 he was a delegate to the first Rei)ul)lican National Convention, at Philadelphia. He was State's attorney for Fairfield County from 1868 to 1874. In 1861 he joined the AVooster Guards, at Danbury, but was re- jected on account of his age. He was jironiptly com- missioned by Governor Buckingham lus a field-officer in the Fourth Connecticut Infantry. He was lieu- tenant-colonel, and also served as inspector-general. In the words of Hon. Gideon H. Hollister, "he loved his profession ardently and always stood up in the defense of the right. He had peculiar ])ower as an advocate, and sometimes spoke with a fervor that madeJiim a dangerous antagonist before a jury. " Col. White came of an old colonial family, and lived up to its record. He possessed great, personal advantages and a peculiar style and manner, but at the same time seemed unconscious of them. The thought of himself found little jilace in his .sympa- thetic and impulsive nature, while the kindliness of his heart yielded only to his sense of justice and his fidelity to truth." Josiah Mason Carter was born in New Canaan, Jan. 19, 1813, and graduated at Yale College in 1836. He sttidieil law with Hon. Thomas B. Osborne, of Fairfield, and was admitted to the bar in August, 1839. He commenced the practice of law in the city of New York in 1841, and in 1847 removed U) Nor- walk and formed a partnership with Hon. Thomas B. Butler, which continued until Mr. Butler's eleva- tion to the bench, in 18.55. He was a member of the General Assembly in 18.56, 1861, and 1862, and the latter year was Speaker of the House. He was the candidate of the Whig party for lieutenant-governor in 1856. He was appointed State's attorney for Fair- field County in 1862, and held that office until his death. On two different occasions he declined to be a candidate for the judgeship of the Su])erior Court, as he never allowed polities to interfere with the prac- tice of his profession. He died March 21, 1868. (JiUKoN ToMUNsox. — The ancestors of Gideon Tondinson, late Governor of the State of Connecti- cut, were distinguished for activity, firmness, and in- tegrity. His father, Jabez Huntington Tonilinson, was born in 1760, and died Jan. 14, 1849, aged eighty- nine yejirs. He was an officer in the Revolutionar\' BENCH AND BAR. 13 war, anil after the war followed the occupation of a practical farmer, residing in Stratford, Conn. He had three sons and three daughters, viz., Gideon, George, Huntington, Hannah, Nancy, and Sally. Gideon was horn at Stratford, in this State, Dec. 31, 1780, educated at Yale College, and graduated there in the year 1S02. In June, ISO.'i, he was admitted to the bar in New Haven County, and soon after com- menced the practice of law at F'airlield, in this State (it was then the county-seat), where he continued to reside until his death. He married Sarah Bradley, daughter of William Bradley, of the parish of Green- field Hill, Dee. 15, 1807. Tliey had one son, Jahez H. Tomlinson, born June 28, 1818, died April 2, 1838, aged twenty years. Gideon Tomlinson was a representative of the town of Fairfield in the General Assembly at the May ses- sion of 1817, and at the October session of the same year, when he was chosen clerk of tliat body. He was re-elected a member of the General Assembly from the same town at the two sessions of the year 1818. At the session in May he was chosen Speaker of the House, and at the October session in that year he was re-elected to the same office. He was a member of tlie convention which formed the constitution of this State, and gave to it his cordial ai>]iriibation and effec- tive support in the convention and before the people. In the year 1818 he was elected one of the represen- tatives of Connecticut in Congress, and took his seat as a member of the House of Representatives of the United States in December, 1819. At the three suc- cessive elections of members of Congress from this State he was re-elected, and continued to serve in the House of Ilej>resentatives of the United States until March, 1827, when the term expired for which he had been last elected. In April, 1827, he was chosen G.)v- ernor of this State by the people, and was re-elected to the same distinguished and honoralile station in the three succeeding years. Having Iteen elected a sen- ator in the Congress of the United States in iMay, 1830, for si.\ years from the 4th of March, 1831, he re- signed the office of Governor of Connecticut on the second day of March, 1831. At the commencement of Washington College, at Hartford, in the year 1827, the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by them. In December, 1831, he took his seat in the Senate of the United States, and served in that body until the 4th of March, 1837, when his senatorial term expired. After that time he did not resume the prac- tice of law, but retired to his home in Greenfield Hill, Coun., where he died, Oct. 8, 1854, aged seventy-three years, eight months, and nine days. Judge David Hill also lived in Fairfield, and was a leading and influential man in the parish and town, where he held many important otRces. Abram Baldwin was a distinguished lawyer, re- siding in Fairfield, and was United States senator from this State. He assisted in the formation of the Constitution of the United States, and died in otflce. March 4, 1807, aged fifty-two years. His tomlistonc in the cemetery at Greenfield Hill bears the lullow- ing inscription : " Abram Baldwin lies buried at Wash- ington. His memory needs no marble. His country is his monument, her Constitution his greatest w<irk." RoGEK MisoTT Shkrmax, son of Rev. Josiah and Martha Sherman, was one of the lights of the Fair- field bar. He was born at Woliurn, Mass., May 22, 1773. His father was brother to the Hon. Roger Sherman, of Revolutionary celebrity. In 1789, when only sixteen years of age, he entered the suphomore class in Yale College. After the compIeti(ui of his academic course he commenced the study of the law with the Hon. Oliver Ellsworth, and subsequently continued it with Judge Reeve at Litchfield, and later with Hon. Simeon Baldwin. He was admitted to the bar in New Haven, and commenced the practice of his ])rofession in Norwalk. In 1807 he transferred his residence from Norwalk to Fairfield, where he re- mained till his death. In piditics Mr. Sherman be- longed to the school of Washington, Jay, Hamilton, Ellsworth, and his illustrious uncle, and held many prominent official positions, the last being associate judge of the Supreme Court. His high legal endow- ments raised him to an eminence almost ]>eerless in every department of legal practice. He (-lied Dec. 30, 1844, aged seventy-one years. Taylor Sherman, a native of Woodbury, Conn., practiced law in Norwalk jirior to 1812, contempo- raneously with Roger Sherman, of whom, however, he was not a relative. He emigrated to Ohio, and was the grandfather of Gen. W. T. and the present Secretary of the United States Treasury, John Shcr- nnin. Among other lawyers who resided in Fairfield are mentioned the names of John Banks, Jehu Burr, Thomas B. Wakeman, Daniel Wakemau, Burr Wake- man, Thomas B. Osborii, Thomas Robinson, George B. Kissani, George B. Murrey, E. H. Nichols, J. H. Bradley, Abram Wakeman, Edward B. and Frank C. Stnrges. Judge Asa Chapman was a native of Saybrook, Conn., and a lineal descendant of Robert Chapman, of Whitliy, Yorkshire, England, who was born in lOKi, and came to this country in 1035, taking up his residence the following s])ring at Saybriiok, where he served many sessions in the colonial legislature, finally dying on the estate he had settled upon, on Oct. 13, 1687, at the age of seventy-one years.