Chenango and Unadilla Valleys Fifty Years Ago
by S.S. Randall
Chenango Telegraph, April 3, 1872
Early Courts
Continued from posting of October 23, 2017
In 1815, Isaac Sherwood and John Noyes, Senior, were appointed Associate Judges, and in 1816, Tilly Lynde, Barnabus Brown and Charles Josslyn. In 1819, Uri Tracy, of Oxford, was appointed first judge, in 1822, Nathan Taylor and Levi A. Bigelow, Associate judges; and in 1824, John Tracy took his seat as first Judge. In 1829, Hezekiah Read, first judge, and in 1831, Charles York took their seats as Judges, and in 1833 Smith M. Purdy as first Judge succeeded Judge Tracy. It is deemed unnecessary to carry further this judicial catalogue, as the more recent incumbents of the Bench are within the recollections of most of the present citizens of the County [in 1872]. Robert Monell of Greene, was admitted to the Chenango Bar as early as 1809. John Tracy of Oxford, and James W. Gazlay of Norwich, during the same year, William Welton in 1810, S.G Throop and Lyman S. Rexford in 1811, Noah Ely in 1812, Samuel Birdsall and Nathan Chamberlin in 1813, Simeon S. Emmons in 1815; John C. Clark, Lot Clark and Hiram Carter, in 1816, Samuel Miles Tracy in 1818, John Birdsall, Smith M. Purdy and Abial Cook, in 1819, Charles A. Thorp in 1820, and Addison C. Griswold and John Clapp in 1822. Mr. Griswold preceded Mr. Clapp as law partner of Lot Clark. Simeon S. Emmons was at that early period, well known as "Little Orator Emmons," small, delicately formed, but with a great heart and great powers of elocution. He was very ambitious and aspired to the high places of the political world, became a self-nominated candidate for the legislature in 1819 or thereabouts, and issued a flaming address to the electors, but obtained but few votes--dwindled in business, failed in health, and died in extreme poverty at the then residence of William Palmer, nearly opposite Dr. Mitchell's in 1823 or 4. His office was just above that of Mr. Clark's near the corner store.
William W. Price entered into co-partnership with James Clapp, Esq. at an early period; and after their admission to the bar of the Supreme Court, according to a statement of M.M. Noah of the New York "National Advocate," reproduced by Mr. Clark in his History, "both young adventurers went into the interior of the State to seek their fortunes, stopping at various villages, which seemed to exhibit an opening. Early one summer evening they entered the village of Oxford. The beauty of its position, the neatness of the palce, and the substantial air of comfort which presented itself in every direction, determined them to make that town their residence. Bargaining, therefore, with a milliner for a small but neat building in the heart of the village, they unloaded their books, chairs, desks, etc., arranged everything in their new office, and nailed up their sign on the window, as the shades of night set in. The next morning at daybreak, seated at the door of their new habitation, they saw approached a citizen, whose appearance denoted that he was a distinguished person in the village. He was, indeed, the largest land owner in Oxford. He stopped, read the sign on the window, looked at the young lawyers, and said: "Whence came you, gentlemen! You were not here when I took my afternoon walk yesterday." Being informed by the emigrants of their views and objects, he observed, "I like this enterprise; and you shall have my law business." The gentleman referred to, says Mr. Clark, was Judge Benjamin Hovey, one of the earliest and wealthiest settlers of Oxford. The firm became eminently prosperous; but the senior partner, Mr. Price, soon afterwards removed to the city of New York, where he assumed a high position at the bar, and was subsequently appointed United States District Attorney. Having in 1836 become implicated with the notorious Sam Swartout in governmental peculations, he left New York for Europe, and a few years afterwards, in a fit of despondency, put an end to his existence.
To be continued
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