Obituary, Delos L. Atkyns 1900

Delos L. Atkyns

Utica Saturday Globe, February 1900

 

Delos L. Atkyns

1840 - 1900

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  Delos L. Atkyns, a prominent Chenango county barrister, died at his home in Sherburne [Chenango Co., NY], after an illness of several weeks, last Monday evening.  Deceased was the son of William S. and Eunice Atkyns and was born in the town of Pharsalia [Chenango Co., NY].  His great-grandfather, Asahel [Atkyns], came from Connecticut to Chenango county, in 1810, and settled on a farm in the town of Smyrna.  A son, William, the father of the subject of this sketch, was then but five years old, and the farm upon which the family settled was covered with dense forest.  With the heroic sturdiness characteristic of those days the work of improving the property was started and sustained until the farm became one of the best and most productive in that region.  When the son, William, became of age, or soon after, he bought the farm adjoining his father's, but which lay across the town line in Pharsalia.  Here on September 30, 1840, Delos L. Atkyns was born.  He was one of four children, only one of whom, a brother, James Calos, survives and is a prominent and prosperous farmer in Pharsalia.  A deceased brother, George H., was a corporal in the war of the rebellion, and the deceased sister, Pluma, was the wife of H.T. Robbins.

 

Mr. Atkyns assisted his parents upon the farm until after he had attained his majority, acquiring the limited education to be obtained in the district schools of the town.  This period of his life gave little promise of the brilliant future that was in store for him.  But he was ambitious and at the age of 22 took up the study of law with Rexford & Kingsley, of Norwich, one of the then leading law firms of the county.  He was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court in May, 1865, and in October of the same year commenced the practice of his profession at Sherburne.  His first half dozen law books he paid for by chopping wood at 30 cents a cord, but in time built up a large library of over 3,000 volumes and won a wide clientele.  He assisted in the prosecution of many murder cases in Chenango county, and except for one acquittal was always successful in securing conviction in the first or second degree.  He had also assisted in capital cases in other counties, and enjoyed a large practice.  While never active in politics he was always a Republican and refused several times to be a candidate for district attorney, giving as a reason for refusal the exacting duties and small compensation which the office entailed.

 

In 1876, Mr. Atkyns married Mrs. Mary C. Sholes, of La Salle, Ind., who, with two sons, Duane L. and Paul W., survives him.  He had been for many years a member of the Board of Education of Sherburne, and had been secretary and president of the body.  He had had an unusual number of bright and promising students in his office, among whom were Robert Kutschback, of New York city;  M. Van Buren, of Denver, Colo.; Delos D. Jaynes, of Detroit, Mich.; ex-District Attorney George P. Pudney, of Smyrna, and the late Ernest C. Dart, of Earlville, N.Y.

 

The funeral services were held at the Congregational Church, of which he was an attendant, on Wednesday.  The church was crowded as it has seldom been.  The exercises were conducted by the pastor, Rev. William A. Trow.  Judge John E. Smith made on behalf of the bar an eloquent and appropriate address, and Rev. Samuel Miller, a former pastor, concluded the speaking in words strongly commendatory of the character and abilities of the deceased. A very able and discriminating letter from Judge Albert F. Gladding, a schoolmate of Mr. Atkyns, was read. The floral offerings were numerous and of the choicest flowers.

 

Chenango Semi-Weekly Telegraph, February 24, 1900

 

Of his life and works the Sherburne News of today, Saturday, says:  At the hour of going to press on Friday last, we were informed that Mr. Atkyns was a little better, and it was thought that he might recover from his long and severe illness, but a turn for the worse occurred that day, and from that time to the end, he gradually failed, and on Monday afternoon, at about two o'clock, he breathed his last.  It will be remembered that Mr. Atkyns fell in his office on Saturday evening, December 23, 1899, while lighting the gas and received an injury to his left side.  He was taken to his home and from that time was never on the street again.  The injury, no doubt, was more severe than was at first thought, and he never fully rallied.  He was not a strong man and it did not take much in later years to lay him by.

 

Delos L. Atkyns, the subject of this sketch, was born in the town of Pharsalia, this county, September 30, 1840, and was a son of William S. and Eunice Babcock Atkyns, and a grandson of Asahel Atkyns.  His great grandfather, Joseph Atkyns, served in the Revolutionary war, and came from Farmington, Conn., to this county about 1810, and settled in the western part of the county.  Delos L. Atkyns assisted his parents on the farm, and only had the advantages of a district school education.  He was a studious boy and secured a pretty good foundation for the brilliant career before him, and when quite young entered the law office of Rexford & Kingsley at Norwich, and after close application to the study of law he was admitted to the bar as an attorney and counselor of the supreme court in 1864.  In October of that year he came to Sherburne where he began the practice of his profession and where he has ever since resided.  As years rolled by he became one of the best lawyers in this part of the country, and his clientage was very large and his able counsel was sought in some of the most prominent cases in the state.  He had one of the best law libraries in the county, there being over 3000 volumes.  His first half dozen law books were paid for by chopping wood at thirty cents a cord.  He had a number of students study under him and follow his instructions, some of whom are now able lawyers....

 

In politics Mr. Atkyns was a staunch Republican but never took a very active part in politics.  He had a number of times refused the nomination of district attorney of this county, because of the great duties and the small compensation.  He always took great interest in the welfare of this, his adopted town, and particularly our school, and for more than twenty years had been a member of the board of education and since 1895 had been president of the board.  he was a good friend to the poor and always gave liberally to needed charity.  In 1876 Mr. Atkyns was untied in marriage with Mrs. Mary C. Sholes, of LaSalle, Ill. and two children blessed this union, namely:  Duane L., born September 25, 1877, a graduate of Sherburne High School, and for the past year a student in his father's office, and Paul W., born August 16, 1880, a student in the Sherburne High school.  Mr. Atkyns was a most devoted husband and father and did everything to make those nearest and dearest to him happy and contented.  He will be missed, not only by his family but by all our towns people.  He always had a pleasant greeting for all, rich and poor alike.  The management of The News had lost one of his best friends. 

 

Delos L. Atkyns lived a good life.  His transition to a higher estate was calm and peaceful.

"The winds breathe low, the withering leaf

Scarce whispers from the tree,

So gently flows the parting breath

When good men cease to be."

 

Judge Gladding's Letter

Rev. William A. Trow:  My Dear Sir:  Your letter announcing the death of Mr. Atkyns has just reached me.  The sad intelligence was not wholly unexpected by reason of the latest discouraging news of his condition  My sorrow is augmented by an illness which will prevent me from attending his funeral tomorrow, and deprive me of the opportunity you so kindly offer, to express my appreciation of the life which has so sadly gone out from among us. I avail myself of the characteristics of my manly friend, and my sympathy with his bereaved family and friends which I would have hoped to have spoken more fully and fairly, could I have complied with your suggestion.

 

I was born in the same town with my dead friend, and knew of his early struggles, and can look back to them with the sympathy born of common adversity.  In his boyhood he fixed his eyes upon the legal profession and nourished an ambition to become a lawyer, until it became fixed and unalterable. To promote this [obsession, though] small his pay, or shadowy the hope of reward, his attention could not be distracted nor his efforts relaxed by tempting retainers in other cases promising larger fees or more profitable business. 

 

I know of no lawyer who gauged the amount of attention or work which he would give to a case, so absolutely without regard to the amount involved or the compensation expected.  If the case excited his sympathy, or love of justice, or if it contained interesting legal questions, or theretofore unsolved legal problems, it received his undivided attention, his most profound thought, and he would exhaust the midnight oil and his own vitality to his researches for argument and authority to uphold his cause.  With him, the practice of the law was not a business, but a learned profession.

 

His courtesy and desire to kindly accommodate his adversary in all ways not harmful to his client's interests, were unfailing, and, in my opinion, have never been exceeded by any man who has practiced at the bar of this county.  He had the respect and regard of all who knew him at the bar.  I have never heard one of its members speak harshly or unkindly of him.  They were all his friends.  He had not an enemy among them. 

 

He was honest with the judges, true to his clients, sincere with his friends, loyal to his party and his country.  He has left his mark upon the jurisprudence of our county and state, and will long be remembered by the legal fraternity and his contemporaries, while those who are to come after and soon take our places, will find in the legal reports and literature of our state, evidences of his strong grasp of current questions passed upon by the courts.

 

He enjoyed the intimacy and social acquaintance with our county's greatest jurist whose recent and early death was and is so greatly lamented.  And I know that he had the respect and confidence of Judge Follett, who appreciated his legal attainments and honorable practice.

 

Beyond his relation to our profession, it is not my purpose at this time to write to any extent, but I may remark in passing, what everyone knows, that he was a political partisan, but not a political bigot.  He respected the opinions of others though they differed from his own, and he conceded to a political or legal opponent the same honesty of purpose and sincerity of expression which he demanded for himself.

 

In his own town he was a good citizen, a law abiding citizen, mindful of the rights and privileges of others, cautious to condemn, charitable of the short comings of his fellow creatures, while his sympathy with suffering and those in trouble, and manifest desire to alleviate physical or mental pain, often exhibited to us a kindly and tender side of his character, full of much to commend, and drawing about him with closer ties his warm and numerous friends.

 

For such a life the veriest strangers could but wish a wider span.  He is cut off in the midst of his usefulness, at the zenith of his powers.  His friends and neighbors deeply deplore his loss.  His untimely death wrenches from his family a true and tender husband, a kind and indulgent parent, deprives the legal profession of one of its ablest and most useful members, and takes from out this community an honored and upright citizen.

 

His host of sorrowing friends extend profound sympathy to his bereaved and stricken family, and hope that they may have the divine assurance that what we call death only opens to the freed spirit the highway to immortal life.  With this brief tribute to the dead, I subscribe myself, his life long friend.--Albert F. Gladding, February 20, 1900

____________________________________

 

Mary Charlotte (Lawson) Sholes Atkyns

Utica Observer - Dispatch, November 15, 1933

Sherburne [Chenango Co., NYT]:  Funeral services for Mrs. Delos Atkyns, 76, mother of Duane L. Atkyns, Sherburne attorney, were held at her home in South Main Street Thursday afternoon with burial in West Hill Cemetery.  The Rev. C.W. Hilliker, minister of the Congregational Church officiated.  Mrs. Atkyns died after a brief illness Tuesday evening. She was born in LaSalle, Ill. Sept. 14, 1847.  After the death of her parents when she was in her youth, Mary Charlotte Lawson went to reside at the Hotel Hardy with the owners of the leading hotel in LaSalle.  For a time after her arrival in Chenango County, she was a tailoress.  After the death of her husband, George Sholes of Earlville, she again resumed her trade.  Later she was married to Delos L. Atkyns.  She is survived by Attorney Atkyns, and a daughter, Mrs. Carrie L. French of Sherburne, also by two grandchildren, Paul W. Atkyns, son of the late Paul Atkyns...[rest missing].