Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-01-18
JUDGE GEORGE SHEA.
A Unique Personality No More.
His Career and His Associations with
Distinguished Men.

! home, 20 West Forty sixth street, Tues
! day evening, Of pnuemonia, after an illness
Of four days. A despatch that evening
! told his daughter, NJ ). Charles Glidden of
! Dummerston, the sad news which became
! generally known in Brattleboro the follow
| ing day. The main facts in regard to Judge
! Sheas ancestry aud career are concsely
! given in the New York Sun:
"Mr. Shea was born in Cork on June 10,
| 1927, and came of a family, some of the
members of which attained high rank
abroad, notably the families now repre-
sented by Count Dillon Shea in France,
and Henry O'Shea, Duke of San Luca, in
| Spain. His father came to this country
when the judge was an infant and became
attached to the press in Washington in the
days of the National Intelligencer under
Gales & Seaton, after which he established
a literary journal in Philadelphia, the Ath-
| en2um. Thence he came to this city,
where he died in 1916. The Judge, who
was brought up to his fathers occupation
of printer, was attracted to the law while
setting up the type for new edition of
| kents Commentaries, and being brought,
through the reading of proofs, into contact
| with Judge Kent, who edited his fathers
! Commentaries, the judge accepted him as
a student, and his legal studies were COM
| pleted i'm the office of Kent & Tallman in
this city,
"When admitted to the bar he went to
! Oswego, and there became the legal ad-
wiser of that municipality, but shortly
afterward returned to practice his profess
sion in New York He filled the Office of
corporation attorney in this city in the
| years 1865 and 1866 and in 1870, he was
elected a Judge of the Marine Court, of
Il. ii. /. s.c =.
which court he continued for twelve years.
On leaving the bench he returned to the
practice of his profession, devoting him
self mainly to organization of corpora
tions for the establishment of railroads or
industrial objects, in which he became es-
pecially distinguished. In securing the
discharge of jefferson Davis he was as
sOciated with Charles O'Conor and Horace
Greeley, with both OF whom he had life
long intimacy. He wrote a life of Alex
ander Hamilton, which passed through
two editions and has been justly praised.
He wrote an erudite account of Duns
Scotus, the medieval metaphyscan and
scholar, and other publications, theologi-
cal, archaeological, and artistic"
"He went abroad annually for many
years, and few Americans had so wide an
acquaintance with distinguished men in
England, France and Italy as he. He was
a man of a most genial nature, a good con-
versatonalist, and witty, with scholarly
and artistic tastes. Forty-two years ago
he married daughter of Floyd Smith, for
many years president of the Manhattan
Gas company, who survives him. He
leaves three children, a son, George Shea,
and two daughters, Miss Mary Ritter Shea
and Mrs. Glidden of Vermont. Mr.. Shea
was the senior warden of the Protestant
Episcopal church of the Annuncation in
Fourteenth street, and was a member of
the Manhattan club and of other bodies"
Judge Shea's connection with Brattle-
boro extends over a period of more than &c
years. 1t began with the fact that his
wife was daughter of Floyd Smith, the
prominent New Yorker, of whose large
family of children, four at least besides
Mrs. Shea, have been residents of Brattle-
boro-Mrs. Judah, Mrs. Mendon, Mrs. F
w. Brooks, and Cushman Smith. Fol-
several years the family were summer visit
ors to Brattleboro, but some 10 or II years
ago Judge Shea bought the Alfred Wright
house on Oak street, which was remodeled
and enlarged into a handsome summer
place, which has been the centre of a gen
erous and delightful hospitality. Brattle
boro people who have been privileged to
more or less intimate acquaintance witt
the family have found in Judge Shea
man of marked and distinguished personal
ity, a remarkably entertaining converse
tionalist, and of genuine affability, com
bined with an old-time dignity and a Ger
tain formality which were delightful Hi
acquaintance with distinguished men, boil
in this country and in Europe, had beel
very wide, and in not few cases it hal
taken the form of personal intimacy. HI
had a correct and educated taste in art
and had accumulated rare store of treas
ures in this direction. He possessed a larg
number of souvenirs and mementoes o
| men of note. In these he felt commend
able pride, and it was a rare enjoyment t.
hear him discourse upon them.
He had been a prolific writer, mainl
+ upon subjects connected with the earl
constitutional and religious history of tn
country. His most important work wa
the life of Alexander Hamilton, which wen
through a second edition. His publishers
q Houghton, Miflln Il Co., regarded him a
I a writer who possessed rare knOwledg
/ of the English language, and a style c
; peculiar elegance which belonged rather t
an old English period than to the NOR
q concise and pointed manner of eXpressiO
which our own time demands. Those VIII
/ have known Judge Shea well for a Ion
q term of years are impressed with the fac
\ that he was man of genuine goodness {
: heart. His generosity knew no bound
9 excepting the need of the cause or of tn
v individual.
In politics he was a Democrat of th
JeffersOnian school, having little sympath
i with the course and principles of his part
as developed in recent years 1t is relate
of him that when he retired from the ms
rine court judgeship in 1882 he did so b,
cause Tammany Hall demanded as til
u price of his reelection years salary of I'll
si Office, S15, 5,000 To this he answered, wit
a true Roman scorn, that, if his services
II the city had not been such as to warraI
II his reelection on his own merits he did NJ
desire the office. The confidence whiC
/ was reposed in him by prominent men du
+ ing and following the war is shown by IL
: fact that he held among his treasures ii
= power of attorney of Horace Greeley, Co
uelius Vanderbilt and Gerrit Smith to pI
= their names upon jefferson Davis's ba
bond or to take any course in the matt
which his judgment dictated.
The company of Brattleboro men wi
listened to Judge Shea's paper on the Ii
and times of Alexander Hamilton, deliverC
before the Professional club some thr,
years ago, were impressed with the realist
way with which he had identified himse
with the life of the formative time of ol
government, and with the personality