HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



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Convention, and while in that body was a member of the 

 Committee on the Powers and Duties of the Legislature. 

 In 1872 he was appointed by Governor Hoffman a member 

 of the Commission to Propose Amendments to the Consti- 

 tution of the State. 



On the 7th of January, 1873, he was appointed by Gov- 

 ernor Dix one of the justices of the Supreme Court, to fill 

 the vacancy caused by the death of the late Hon. Thomas 

 A. Johnson, in the Seventh Judicial District, embracing 

 Cayuga, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Seneca, Wayne, Yates, 

 and Steuben Counties. In November, 1873, he was elected 

 by the people to fill the same exalted and honorable position 

 for a term of fourteen years. But by reason of age his 

 time will expire Dec. 31, 1880. 



Judge Rumsey, as a member of the bar, has had a long 

 and distinguished practice. He has been engaged in many 

 of the most difl&cult and laborious cases tried in the Su- 

 preme Court and Court of Appeals, and has a reputation 

 for integrity, fidelity to the interest of his clients, indefati- 

 gable labor, and legal acumen second to no other lawyer in 

 this section of the State. Many interesting and important 

 cases in which he has participated might be cited had we 

 space for them and did it comport with the wishes of Judge 

 Rumsey to have them inserted in a sketch for publication. 



As a justice of the Supreme Court, his rulings and de- 

 cisions are characterized by eminent impartiality, and his 

 demeanor by that courtesy which always renders his inter- 

 course with men agreeable. 



Judge Rumsey married, in 1841, Jane E., daughter of 

 Hon. Anthony Brown, of Ogdensburgh, N. Y., and has 

 three children. His only son, Col. William Rumsey, 

 served through the late war, and is his father's successor 

 in a large law practice at Bath. 



HON. EDWARD HOWELL. 



Edward Howell was born in Newburg, Orange Co., N. Y., 

 Oct. 16, 1792, at which place and in the city of New York 

 his early years were passed. In his boyhood he made several 

 voyages to sea on board of a ship of which his father was 

 master. In 1808, he came to Sidney, Delaware Co., and 

 at the age of seventeen was employed as a teacher in Una- 

 dilla. He came to the town of Bath in the spring of 1811, 

 and was employed in farming, teaching school, and mer- 

 chandise till 1816, when he commenced the study of law 

 with Gen. Daniel Cruger, of Bath. In 1818 he was ap- 

 pointed county clerk, and soon after postmaster of the vil- 

 lage of Bath. In 1823 he was admitted as an attorney in 

 the Supreme Court and solicitor in Chancery, and three 

 years later as counselor in these courts. In 1829 he was 

 appointed district attorney, and was elected to the Assembly 

 in 1832. In 1833 he was elected to Congress, when he re- 

 signed the office of district attorney, to which he was re- 

 appointed in June, 1836. He was soon after appointed a 

 Supreme Court commissioner. 



Mr. Howell for many years stood at the head of his pro- 

 fession in this section of the State. During the time he 

 was in practice seventeen young men entered his ofiice as 

 students-at-law, at difierent times within a period of about 

 twenty years. 



To his great abilities and profound knowledge of the law 



Mr. Howell added a wide range of information, and a con- 

 scientious fidelity in the discharge of his duties which 

 commanded the respect and regard of all who knew him. 

 He died Jan. 30, 1871, aged seventy-nine years. 



WILLIAM HOWELL, ESQ. 



William Howell, Esq., brother of Edward Howell, is 

 still in the practice of his profession at Bath, where he has 

 continued the same since 1830, a period of forty-nine years. 

 He is now the oldest lawyer in Steuben County. He was 

 born in Newburg, N. Y., Oct. 3, 1804. His father died in 

 Unadilla, N. Y., and in 1811 his mother moved with the 

 family to the Conhocton Yalley, about a mile above Kanona, 

 in the town of Bath. ^ He came to the village in 1827, and 

 commenced the study of law in the ofiice of Gen. Daniel 

 Cruger. In 1830 he was admitted to practice in the Court 

 of Common Pleas, and as attorney in the Supreme Court 

 and solicitor in the Court of Chancery in 1833. 



HON. ROBERT CAMPBELL. 



One of the distinguished members of the Steuben County 

 bar, as well as an incumbent of the second ofiicial position 

 in the gift of the people of the State, was Hon. Robert 

 Campbell, son of Robert Campbell, Sr., who was one of the 

 first settlers of Bath, and second to no other citizen in point 

 of honor and integrity. An old acquaintance, speaking of 

 the senior Mr. Campbell, says, " He was one of Nature's 

 noblemen, — kind, genial, honest, and true." His son, 

 Robert, was born in Bath, in the month of May, 1808. 

 After a preparatory course of study, he spent some time at 

 Hobart College, Geneva, and in 1826 commenced the study 

 of law in the office of Cruger & Howell, then the leading 

 law firm in Steuben County. He was admitted to practice 

 in 1829, and immediately opened an office in copartnership 

 with W. T. Worden, Esq., at Auburn, N. Y. In a year 

 or two he returned to Bath and entered into practice with 

 Gen. Cruger, under the firm-name of Cruger & Campbell. 

 Subsequently he formed a partnership with Hon. Samuel 

 H. Hammond. He was a scholarly, laborious, conscientious, 

 and successful lawyer, and attained a large and lucrative prac- 

 tice. His devotion to his profession induced him for many 

 years to decline political preferment. In 1842 he refused to 

 accept the nomination for senator, which was tendered him 

 by the Democratic Senatorial Convention. But in 1844 he 

 was a member of the Democratic National Convention which 

 nominated James K. Polk for the Presidency. The Legis- 

 lature, in 1846, elected him a member of the Board of 

 Regents of the State University, and he held the office at 

 the time of his death. Also in 1846 he was elected a 

 delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and did efficient 

 service in that important body. He was twice in succession 

 elected lieutenant-governor of New York, — in 1858 and in 

 1860, — and presided over the deliberations of the Senate 

 with great dignity and ability. As a member of the Canal 

 Board, and indeed in all his official relations, he discharged 

 his duty with singular fidelity and conscientious devotion to 

 the public welfare. 



As a member of the bar he attained an honorable posi- 

 tion. Though he never had the reputation of an eloquent 

 advocate, — a gift which is often the result of rhetorical 



