HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



69 



five years. At the time of his death he was the senior 

 justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. 

 During the latter part of his life, he was one of the justices 

 designated to hold the general term of the Supreme Court 

 in the fourth department. 



As a judge, no man of the past or present generation has 

 been held in higher esteem for his integrity and judicial 

 ability. His talents and character, which made him prom- 

 inent and successful at the bar, also gave him distinction 

 and honor on the bench. He received the honorary degree 

 of LL.D. from Hobart College, Geneva. 



He was a member of the Episcopal Church, of the tenets 

 and service of which he was an ardent advocate. At the 

 time of his death, and for many years previous, he was a 

 warden of Christ Church, Corning, and was the largest 

 contributor to the erection of its present church edifice. 



He was, in an enlarged sense of the term, a friend of his 

 fellow-man, and was ever among the foremost in enterprises 

 having for their object the amelioration of human sufi'ering. 

 Hence, at an early day, being duly impressed with the 

 misery and degradation resulting from habits of intemper- 

 ance, he became active in the cause, and was among the 

 earliest advocates of the total abstinence pledge as the basis 

 of temperance reforms. And during his long career of 

 public life he maintained a strict and consistent adherence 

 to the principles and practice of his earlier manhood. 

 Energetic and faithful in business, benevolent of heart, 

 conscientious in principle, and genial and courteous in man- 

 ner, he had but to form an acquaintance to secure a friend. 

 He lived a life void of ofi'ense to his fellow-men, and died 

 of a lingering and painful illness, lamented by all who knew 

 him. He departed this life Dec. 5, 1872. 



Judge Johnson married Polly H. Birdsall, of Grreene, 

 Chenango Co., N. Y., June 7, 1830. She died March 

 11, 1865. Their children were Anna B., born Oct. 3, 

 1831, married John Maynard, of Corning, Dec. 4, 1856, 

 (he died Aug. 17, 1865) ; Adelaide, born March 21, 1835, 

 married Chas. H. Thomson, of Corning, Sept. 26, 1855 ; 

 Mary Louise, born Feb. 8, 1840, married Hiram W. Bost- 

 wick, now of Franklin, Pa., Dec. 27, 1865 ; and Lizzie E., 

 born Oct. 21, 1845. 



For his second wife he married, Dec. 26, 1866, Mrs 

 Sarah W. Parker, daughter of Hon. Henry Welles, of Penn 

 Yan, who still survives him. They had one daughter, 

 Margaret Welles, born Aug. 22, 1867. All his children 

 are still living. 



JOHN BALDWIN. 



Mr. Proctor, in his " Bench and Bar of New York," gives 

 the following sketch of John Baldwin, who practiced law 

 for some time at Hornellsville : 



" The name of this eccentric and able lawyer will not soon be for- 

 gotten in the counties of Livingston, Allegany, and Steuben. Ilis wit, 

 his humor, his withering sarcasm, have created a fund of anecdote 

 almost inexhaustible. If sometimes his wit descended to vulgarity — 

 if occasionally he wielded a tarnished weapon — we can excuse him, 

 when we remember that the native mould of his mind was above such 

 perverted use of his intellectual powers. His vulgarisms were like 

 the rubbish and offixl which sometimes surround the polished and 

 classic column, showing still the glory and grandeur of a cultivated 

 architecture. 



'•John Baldwin was born in Lebanon, Conn., and while very young 

 settled at Gleneseo, intending to make that place his permanent resi- 



dence. He had, on attaining his majority, received a competence from 

 his father's estate, and the advantages of a good education. Soon 

 after settling at Geneseo he entered the office of Samuel Miles Hop- 

 kins, with whom he studied law, and after being admitted to the bar, 

 commenced practice at Moscow, Livingston Co. Not long after he 

 commenced practice, by the failure of a brother whose paper he 

 had indorsed, he was stripped suddenly of all his earthly possessions 

 and reduced to penury. He never again recovered his pecuniary 

 standing. He remained at Moscow but a year or two after his misfor- 

 tune, when he removed to Dansville, where, by his professional labors, 

 he gained a fair practice and considerable notoriety for his witty say- 

 ings and humorous speeches. While at Dansville his practice grad- 

 ually extended into the counties of Allegany, Livingston, and Steuben. 

 His good-humor, his never-failing fund of anecdotes, joined to his 

 acknowledged professional ability, made him a favorite with his legal 

 brethren and with the people. At this time the income from his pro- 

 fession rendered him independent, but he did not possess the faculty for 

 accumulation. 



'^ In 1835 he removed to Hornellsville and formed a partnership with 

 the late Hon. William M. Hawley. This connection in business was 

 attended by flattering circumstances, and gave Mr. Baldwin a grati- 

 fying assurance of the confidence he had inspired. After his business 

 relations with Judge Hawley were dissolved he continued to practice 

 at Hornellsville till 1842, when he removed to Almond, at which place 

 he resided till his death, in 1843.'' 



A few anecdotes will serve to illustrate some of the pe- 

 culiarities of this very eccentric man : 



'^ During his practice in Hornellsville he was called upon to try a 

 very important case before a magistrate in the town of Birdsall, Alle- 

 gany Co. The plaintiff in the suit was the great man of the place, 

 and Baldwin very soon discovered that the magistrate was one of those 

 truckling sycophants over whom wealth and station exert an almost 

 unbounded influence; and being disgusted with his evident perversion 

 of justice, he poured out upon him the bitterest anathemas. Probably 

 never before or since has a magistrate been subjected to such a terri- 

 ble excoriation by a member of the bar. We shall omit a part of the 

 conversation, giving only enough to show the spirit of the encounter. 

 When he had finished, the lawyer on the other side arose and informed 

 the court that it was his duty to immediately commit *Mr. Baldwin 

 for contempt, ' for,' said he, ' unless you do this, all respect for you 

 as a magistrate will be at an end.' 



"*Talk about respect for that thing!' thundered Baldwin, point- 

 ing to the magistrate ,• ' why, he acts more like a magpie peeping into 

 a marrow-bone than a magistrate trying a lawsuit; the deeper he can 

 get his head into a hole the better he feels.' 



'^ This sealed the doom of the irate lawyer, and the magistrate in- 

 formed him that he should commit him to the jail at Angelica for 

 twenty days for a contempt. 



^' ' For a contempt upon whom ?' asked the lawyer. 

 "'V(\ij, upon me,' said the justice. 



" ' K contempt upon you? The thing is impossible; the most con- 

 temptible thing in the universe is respectable compared with you ! 

 You are the dirty catspaw of the plaintiff here, — a burlesque upon 

 justice !' 



"The justice proceeded in earnest to draw up the papers to have 

 Baldwin committed, and as they were approaching completion and 

 opened upon the table to receive the signature of the court, Baldwin 

 suddenly seized a large inkstand, nearly full of ink, and turned its 

 contents over the dreaded instrument. In a moment — in the twink- 

 ling of an eye — it became a sheet of inky blackness, with every letter 

 obliterated. He then mounted his horse, and started for home across 

 the county line; but being on a poor and lame horse, he was over- 

 taken before he reached the point of safety by the constable and his 

 assistant with a new warrant which had been hastily made out. In 

 vain he urged his jaded steed; to be overtaken he saw was inevitable, 

 but his fertile mind soon devised another method of escape. Wheel- 

 ing his horse suddenly, he faced his approaching enemies. As they 

 rode up he sternly demanded what they wanted. 



*^'You are my prisoner,' replied the constable, 'and must go with 



me to Angelica,' and he attempted to make the arrest. 



" ' Stand off,' said Baldwin, ' or I'll blow you through !' 



"At the same time he drew from his pocket one of those old-fashioned 



brass inkstand-cases used in those days, and presented it to the breast 



of the officer. The polished surface of the inkstand flashed in the 



