The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-06-15
The Late G.. w, Clarke.

held last December Roswell Farnham
Joseph d. Denison and Curtis S. EN-
cry were appointed committee tt
draft resolutions and to make arrange
ments for a meeting to be held this
June term of court in memory OF G
w. Clarke, ESQ, who died last Au
gust. The time of the meeting was
fixed for Tuesday evening the first day
of court. There was a good attend
ance of the lawyers of the county and
the meeting was called to order by the
States Attorney.
Mr.. G.. S. Emery read the resolutions
and they were adopted later in the
evening.
WHEREAS, 1t has been the decree of an
all-wise Providence to remove from our
midst our brother, Cornelius Wilder Clarke,
therefore by the members of the Orange
County Bar, be it hereby
RESOLVED, That we recognized in Brother
Clarke the elements of the scholar, the
finished lawyer and the gentleman, and re-
call with pleasure our associations with
him.
Resolved, That we deplore his decease
and realize most keenly the loss sustained
by his family and the Bar
ResoIUed, That to his family be rendered
the sympathy of his brothers and that these
the court.
} SS;$S4 : $ H S5s';5s
Chelsea, Vt, June 5, 1894.
After the reading of the resolutions
the chairman called upon Gov. Farm
ham to read short memoir of Mr.
Clarke, which had been prepared at
the request of the committee for the
occasion:
Cornelius Wilder Clarke came into Or
ange County more than forty-seven years
ago and for thirty years was among the
leading lawyers of the county. He was
mutually quiet and modest man and made
his way into public esteem somewhat slow
ly but he gradually took a position at the
bar that for time at least was second to
none in the county and as pleader and one
skilled in the knowledge of the law he was
among the foremost in the state
Mr.. Clarke was born in Barnard, one of
the mountain towns on the 18th day of
October 1929 and died at Chelsea on the I'd
day of August, 1893, in the SEVENTEEN year
of his age He was the son of Joseph
Clarke who was born in Peterboro, n. H.,
Jan. 14th, 1896, and of Mercy Collins
(Stevens) Clarke who was born Oct. %,
1902. His father piled the double occupa-
ton of farmer and blacksmith and the son
had the opportunity to develope and harden
the muscles of which he always seemed to
have super abundance. Judging from
his habit and almost passion in later years
he must, even in his boyhood, have been a
great devOurer of books, He enjoyed the
ordinary experience of Vermont boys in
those DAYS in the district school and doubt |
less made good use of the opp rtunity.
Evidently his father had some pride and
ambition for his son, for during the years
164l and 1912, when he was about Is years
of age he sent him to the Academy at
Royalton for several terms and in l843 and
1874 to the Methodist Conference Seminary |
at Newbury, vt. This was the last of his |
school days and Judging from Mr.. Clarke
as we knew him in later years, he must
have made good use of his time while at
school.
Soon after the close of his school days he
entered the office of l.. h. Streeter, Esq,
an attorney of his native town, as a student
at law. Probably Prof. Amos Dean of the
Albany law school, who was native of
Barnard, had become acquainted with the
ambitious young student before this time
and had given him an invitation to come to
Albany and pursue his studies there, for in
March, 1916 we find him in that city
student in Prof Deans office and mem
T1rUf the school. He left Albany in Octo-
Der 1S46. Undoubtedly Mr.. Clarke had the
best instruction that Prof. Dean, a good
lawyer and systematic teacher, could give
him. Prof Dean must have felt great IN
terest and considerable pride in the correct
and StudOus young man from his own ma
tive town among the Green Mountains. {
We know that Mr.. Clarke was dilligent {
not only in his studies while at Albany but I
also in the use of his pen in making copies
of legal documents for his preceptor and !
others in that wonderfully even and beauti-
full hand which he kept till the days of his
writing ceased. He was compelled to do {
this to aid in defraying his expenses while I
away from home, for his rcmittanceS from !
his father were necessarily limited and he
had to rely to a great extent upon his own !
eXertiOns. [
After leaving the Law School he came to
Chelsea in November 1916 and entered the
office of Hon. Levi b. Villas and remained I
with him as a student and clerk until Mr..
Villas left the state in 1851. Mr.. Clarke
was admitted to practice in Orange County {
court at its June term 1919 and in the
Supreme Court two years later. Up to this
time and for several years later his labors
were confined to Office work. He was
learning carefully the art of special plead
ing and acquiring the habit of expressing I
himself with eXactness upon paper. He {
was frequently called upon by his brother /
lawyers, who were to busy to give the nee
essary time or who felt diStrust in their abil-
ity or requirements to draw difficult plead {
ings and other papers requh ed in a varied |
practice. Gradually his reputation grew
in this respect until the courts even realized
that the evolution of principles of law and t
points of practice by Mr.. Clarke in his !
briefs and written arguments was a great
help to them.
For several years he was so occupied ,
with his pen and his studies of the books I
that he took little part in the examination |
of witnesses or the argument of cases. He
furnished the papers, briefs of the law and /
authorities, and took minutes of the testi- {
mony in cases where he was associated i
with others in trials, while they did the 6
other work. This was before the days of
snort hand reporting and when important /
points in the case depended upon the &C S
curacy of the attorneys minutes.
Mr.. Clarke opened an office by himself s
after Judge Villas had gone west and he
was soon driven into the oral argument {
and trial of cases, all of which he did very c
well, vet he never was so much at home in |
this part of the practice as he was in the
study of the law of case and putting it
in lucid form upon paper. 1t need hardly /
be said that with Mr.. Clarke's habits and '
methods of labor he became a good chan /
cery lawyer and that he delighted in long
HEADINGS He was so desiruOs of :