The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1913-12-11

Sary OF st. John the Baptist, 1873.
After leaving the Hotel he devoted the
larger portion of his time to surveying
land, the duties of Notary Public, and
Justice of the Peace, until the almost
exclusive jurisdiction of criminal offences
committed within the town was conceded
to him; he became in fact the Police
Court of the village. When the law
creating Town Courts was enacted he
was appointed by the Governor to the
Office of Judge of the Town Court of
Belfast; an Office which he held until
compelled by failing health to abandon
/ the discharge of its duties. In the exer-
else of his judicial duties no man ever
had reason to complain that in judgment
he failed to remember mercy. 1t is told
! of him that not infrequently when COM
I PEELED by the evidence before him to i'm
pose fine for violation of the law on a
party who was so unfortunate as to be
destitute of the means to pay it, he
| would set him at work in his garden and
assume the payment himself. Out of
this habit grew the joeose remark, that
'the Judge has sentenced the party to
two days hard labor in his garden" His
manner of administering an oath was
peculiarly impressive; the following is
illustrative of the fact. He was trying
case in which an elderly female of not
r,fp oh L.
temperament was witness, to whom
he administered the oath in his usual
manner and resumed his seat There
was deep silence pervading the Court
room, broken only by the exclamation of
the witness, "Mv God! how solum!'
Although net ordinarily sportive in his
demeanor he possessed large fund of
quiet humor on which he often drew,
sometimes even in the Courtroom, as
the following anecdote will show. Some
boys were brought before him charged
with the helnous offence of appropriate
, ing to their own use certain tar-barrels
for the purpose of a bonfire on the even
ing of the Fourth of July. The little
fellows were in terrible state of trepi-
dalton. anticipating nothing less than
confinement in the county Jail as the
sentence Of the court. Their surprise
may be imagined when the judge with
great solemnity, but with a merry
| twinkle Of the eye, ordered them to be
discharged on giving bonds to keep the
peace against all barrels for the term
of one year, As truthful annalist it
becomes the duty of the compiler to add.
| that one Of the young culprits was the
| present editor of The Republican Jour
nal. To this event in early life may be
attributed his passion for the rooster,
! rather than the tar-barrel, as the symbol
of patriotic joy.
Although not possessing any legal edu
cation beyond that acquired in the dis
charge of his duties as magistrate, his
, decisions Ill cases pending before him
| were almost uniformly in unison with
| the law involved, appeals from his deci-
sons were not infrequent, but the in
stances were rare in which those de-
cisions were not sustained in tine higher
court. He was called in his declining
years to bear heavy burthen of physi-
cal and mental ipfrmity, but bore it pa
tiently and resignedly to the end. He
left four sons and two daughters, all OF
whom save one, the wife of the late
Hon. James White, are still living.
Hon. John Wilson, who died on the 9th
of July, aged seventy one, was native
of Peterborough, N. H. He graduated
at Harvard in 1899, in the same class
with the late Rev. William Frothing-
ham, pursued his legal studies in the
office of his elder brother, James, and in
1903 came here and commenced the prac-
tice of his profession. In 1918 he
erected the house formerly occupied by
his son-in-law, Hon. Albert G. Jewett,
DESTROYED by fire in April 1867, on the
hill ever since known as Wilson's Hill.
About a year previously he married a
daughter of Andrew Leach, ESQ.,, of
whom particular mention was made in
an early chapter, whom he survived; he
afterwards married Miss - Tinkham
of Wiscasset, who survived him. He had
large practice in the counties of Han
cock and Washington, as we'll as at home.
until 1924, when in consequence of ex.
posture to severe storm he was attacked
with fever, from the effects of which
he never wholly recovered. He was g
member Of the 18th and the 18th Con.
gress; and that, it is believed, was the
only public Office he ever held; his incli
nations did not naturally tend in that di.
rection. He was an able lawyer, occupy
ing position in the front rank of his
profession, an ingenious, not an eloquent
advocate, an inf1exibly, upright man
No shadow Of dishonesty or chicanery
rests on his memory. He was a man Of
popular manners and universal favor
lite. He was one of Natures noblemer
and in whatever situation he might b.