Chenango & Unadilla Valleys 50 Years Ago -1872

The Chenango and Unadilla Valleys Fifty Years Ago

S.S. Randall

Chenango Telegraph, March 13, 1872

 

Continued from posting of October 3, 2017

 

Guilford

In Guilford [Chenango Co., NY], situated about equi-distant from the Chenango and Unadilla rivers, resided the old Sheriff Samuel A. Smith, John Latham, Daniel S. Dickinson and Asher C. Moses.  Here the future distinguished Senator [Daniel S. Dickinson] commenced his career as a poor and struggling aspirant to the Bar, reading law in the office of Clark & Clapp, at Norwich, at such intervals as he was able to procure from his business as a worker on his father's farm, or a teacher of a district school, and it was not until he had attained his thirtieth year that, in 1829, he was admitted to practice in the county Court.  Here, too, out in the neighborhood, resided the veteran pettifogger, Joseph Sheffield, whose tall form, twinkling eyes and homely sun-burned humorous countenance with " Cowen's Treatise," in his horny hands, and iron-rimmed spectacles on his sharp nose, was often to be encountered in the Justices' Courts of the whole region round about; not seldom to the utter demolition of the most thoroughly trained professional practioners.  John Layman represented the county in the Legislature, and was subsequently elected County Clerk.

 

Bainbridge

 

In Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY] resided Levi Bigelow, long one of the judges of the Common Pleas, John C. Clark, Horace Dresser, Richard W. Juliand, Phillip M. DeZeng, Isaac Bush, Alvah C. Bush and Cyrus Strong, with other less prominent notabilities.

 

John C. Clark, at this period, was one of the brightest ornaments of the Chenango Bar; with brilliant talents, he combined the most pleasing and graceful manners, and commanded all the essential requisites of a wide spread popularity.  His strongly developed social qualities not unfrequently passed over the boundaries of proper moderation, but his heart was uniformly in the right place.  He filled the position of District Attorney at one time--was afterwards elected to Congress, where his abilities were speedily recognized and appreciated.--and was subsequently appointed solicitor of the treasury, by President Harrison.  His premature death, soon afterwards, was universally regretted.  Horace Dresser, at this time, was a promising and eloquent young lawyer, but having sustained an irreparable affliction in the death of his wife, he removed to the city of New York, where he now resides [in 1872].  Richard W. Juliand was a brother of Joseph Juliand of Greene--was a representative to the State Legislature, and widely known and respected.  Cyrus Strong soon afterwards removed to Norwich, and subsequently, with his son-in-law, John Clapp, and his family, to Binghamton, where he became President of the Binghamton or Broome County Bank, and died a few years since, the possessor of a large fortune, accumulated by his financial sagacity and practical business tact and ability.

 

The End