Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
Lois, who was born subsequently in New London.
Ebenezer, the father of the judge, was born in Hopkinton, April 3, 1768,
and was, of course, thirteen years old when he came to New London with
his father's family. After becoming of age he procured him a farm, and,
on the 25th of November, 1792, he married Prudence Chase, of Wendell
(now Sunapee), the daughter of John and Ruth (Hills) Chase. They had ten
children, as follows: Anna, Rebekah, Ruth, Seth Freeman, Aaron Lealand,
Sylvanus Thayer, Lois, Laura, Jonathan Kittredge, and Jonathan Everett.
Jonathan Kittredge died young, the other nine lived to mature age, and
five of them, three sons and two daughters, still survive. The parents
always lived upon a farm, securing what was then considered as a
competence, and both died in New London, having lived together more than
sixty-five years.
The following, then, is the order of descent:--
1. Richard Sargent, of England.
2. William, son of Richard, born in 1602.
3. Thomas, son of William, born in April, 1643.
4. Thomas, Jr., son of Thomas, born in November, 1676.
5. Stephen, son of Thomas. Jr., born in September, 1710.
6. Peter, son of Stephen, born about 1740.
7. Ebenezer, son of Peter, born in April, 1768.
8. JONATHAN EVERETT SARGENT, was born at New London, October 23, 1816.
He lived at home, working upon the farm until he was seventeen years of
age, and, being the youngest child, his father had arranged for him to
live at home and take care of his parents, and have the farm at their
decease. The son, however, had little love for the farm, and, as soon as
the care and support of his parents could be provided for in another
way, he arranged with his father that he was to have the remaining four
years of his time till twenty-one, was to clothe himself, and pay his
own bills, and call for nothing more from his father. He fitted for
college at Hopkinton Academy, and at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, and
in 1836 entered Dartmouth College, having paid his way by teaching
school winters and laboring in vacations. By teaching school every
winter and two fall terms in Canaan Academy during his college course,
he earned enough to pay all his expenses in college with the exception
of $200, which he borrowed of his father, and repaid the same, with
interest, within two years. Though out of college two terms, besides
winters in teaching, and another term on account of sickness, yet he was
always ready at each examination to be examined with his class. He was
elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and graduated, in 1840,
among the first in his class.
Mr. Sargent had long before this made up his mind to turn his attention
to the law as a profession, and he accordingly began the study of the
law at once with Hon. William P. Weeks, of Canaan, and remained with him
till the spring of 1841, when he was advised by his physician to go
South for his health. He went first to Washington, soon after to
Alexandria, D. C., where he taught a high school, then to Maryland,
where he remained a year in a family school, when, having regained his
health, he returned to New Hampshire in September, 1842. He had, upon
his arrival in Washington, entered his name as a law student in the
office of Hon. David A. Hall of that city, and continued the study of
the law under his direction, while engaged in teaching, and he was
admitted to the bar in the courts of the District of Columbia in April,
1842, only about twenty months after leaving college. By the rule of
that court any one might be admitted upon examination, without regard to
the length of time he had studied; and he was examined in open court by
Chief-Justice Cranch and his associates upon the bench, and was
admitted.
After returning home, he continued his legal studies with Mr. Weeks
until the July law term, in Sullivan county, in 1843, when he was
admitted to the bar in the superior court of judicature in this state.
He then went into company with Mr. Weeks at Canaan, where he remained
till 1847, when he removed to Wentworth and opened an office there. He
had been appointed solicitor for Grafton county in November, 1844, while
at Canaan, and he at once commenced a lucrative business at Wentworth;
was re-appointed solicitor in 1849 for five years more, thus holding the
office for ten years, to 1854, performing the duties to the entire
acceptance of the county and the people. He declined a re-appointment.
In 1851 he was first elected a member of the legislature from Wentworth,
and served as chairman of the committee on incorporations. The next year
he was re-elected, and was made chairman of the judiciary committee; and
in 1853 he was again a member, and was nominated with great unanimity
and elected speaker of the house of representatives. He served with
ability and impartiality and to the general acceptance of the members.
The next winter a new man was to be selected as a candidate for senator
in his district, and he was nominated, and was elected in March, in a
close district, by about three hundred majority. He was elected
president of the senate in 1854. He was renominated in the spring of
1855, but the Know-Nothing movement that year carried everything before
it, and he was defeated, with nearly all the other Democratic nominees
in the state.
On April 2, 1855, he was appointed a circuit justice of the court of
common pleas for the state. But in June of that year the old courts were
abolished, mainly upon political grounds, and new ones organized, and
new judges appointed. Judge Sargent received a request from Gov. Metcalf
that he would accept the second place on the bench of the new court of
common pleas. This offer had not been expected, but upon consultation
with friends it was accepted, and Judge Sargent was appointed an
associate justice of the court of common pleas. He acted as judge of the
new court of common pleas for four years, until 1859, when, by a statute
of that year, that court was abolished, and one new judge was to be
added to the supreme judicial court, making the number of supreme judges
six instead of five, as before. Judge Sargent was immediately appointed
to that place on the supreme bench. He was then the youngest member of
the court in age, as well as in the date of his commission. He remained
upon the bench of that court just fifteen years, from 1859 to 1874. In
March, 1873, upon the death of Chief-Justice Bellows, Judge Sargent was
appointed chief-justice of the state, which place he held until August,
1874, when the court was again overturned to make room for the
appointees of the prevailing political party. Chief-Justice Sargent, at
the time of his appointment as chief-justice, had become the oldest
judge upon the bench, both in age and date of commission. His written
opinions are contained in the sixteen volumes of the New Hampshire
Reports, from the 39th to the 54th, inclusive, numbering about three
hundred in all. Many of these are leading opinions upon various
subjects, and show great learning and research.
After the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the attempt to make
Kansas a slave state, Judge Sargent acted with the Republican party.
Upon leaving the bench, in August, 1874, he was solicited to go into the
practice of the law in Concord with William M. Chase, Esq., whose late
partner, the Hon. Anson S. Marshall, had recently been suddenly removed
by death. Judge Sargent accepted this offer, and thus at once stepped
into an extensive and lucrative practice. This arrangement was made for
five years.
In 1876 he was elected a member of the constitutional convention of this
state. In this convention he acted a prominent part. He was made
chairman of the judiciary committee, the same place held by Judge Levi
Woodbury in the convention of 1850. He took an active part in the
debates and discussions of that body, and wielded an influence probably
second to no one in the convention. He was also elected, by his ward in
Concord, a member of the house of representatives for the years 1877 and
1878.
Early in 1877 steps were taken for a revision of the statutes, and Judge
Sargent was appointed chairman of a committee, with Hon. L. W. Barton of
Newport, and Judge J. S. Wiggin of Exeter, to revise and codify the
statutes of the state. Their work was completed and the statutes enacted
by the legislature, to take effect the first of January, 1879. The
volume was prepared and printed by the committee before the day
appointed. It is the largest volume of statutes ever printed in the
state, and it is believed not to be inferior to any other in any
important particular.
In the fall of 1878, Judge Sargent was invited by a committee of the
citizens of New London to prepare a centennial address, to be delivered
on the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town. He at
once accepted the invitation and set about the work, and on the 25th day
of June, 1879, he delivered his address, and the occasion was
distinguished by a larger collection of people, probably, than ever met
in the town upon any former occasion. The address was published in the
_Granite Monthly_, in the numbers for July, August, and September, 1879,
and has been favorably noticed as a work of great labor and research.
Dartmouth College conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts, in
course, three years after graduation; also, the honorary degree of
Doctor of Laws, at its centennial commencement, in 1869. In compliance
with a request from a committee of the trustees, he prepared and
delivered at the commencement of 1880 at Dartmouth College a memorial
address upon the late Hon. Joel Parker, formerly chief-justice of this
state and afterwards professor of law in Harvard College. This duty
Judge Sargent performed in a manner creditable to himself and
satisfactory to the friends of the late Judge Parker. His address has
been printed with other similar addresses in memory of other deceased
judges, graduates of Dartmouth, by other distinguished sons of the
college.
In 1864 he was elected grand master of the Grand Lodge of Free and
Accepted Masons for the state of New Hampshire, and was re-elected the
next year. After this he declined a re-election. He has for many years
been an active member of the New Hampshire Historical Society, and for
the last five or six years has been one of its vice-presidents. For some
years past he has been connected with the National State Capital Bank as
one of its directors. The Loan and Trust Savings Bank at Concord
commenced business August 1, 1872, and in the nine years since then its
deposits have increased to over a million and a quarter of dollars.
Judge Sargent has been president of this bank, and one of its investment
committee since its commencement, and has given his personal attention
to its affairs. In 1876 the New Hampshire Centennial Home for the Aged
was organized and incorporated, and January 1, 1879, a home was opened
in Concord. Judge Sargent has been president of this institution four
years, and has taken a deep interest in its prosperity and success.
About the 1st of September, 1879, at the end of five years from the
commencement of his partnership in business, he retired from the
practice of law. Since he commenced the practice of the law, in 1843,
his residence has been as follows: In Canaan four years, to 1847; in
Wentworth twenty-two years, to 1869; and in Concord since. The judge has
acquired a competency, has one of the finest residences in the city, and
is enjoying life with his friends and his books.
Judge Sargent married, first, Maria C. Jones, of Enfield, daughter of
John Jones, Esq., November 29, 1843, by whom he had two children. John
Jones Sargent, the elder, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1866, and