History of Watertown, (Middlesex County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

Benjamin Robbins Curtis, jurist, was born in Watertown, Mass., Nov. 4, 1809; son of Capt. Benjamin and Lois (Robbins) Curtis; grandson of Dr. Benjamin and Elizabeth (Billings) Curtis, and a descendant in the sixth generation from William and Sarah Curtis, who came from Essex county, England, to Boston in 1632. He was a brother of George Ticknor Curtis. He was graduated at Harvard in 1829, admitted to the bar in 1832, and practised at Northfield, Mass., for a short time, when he removed to Boston where he acquired renown as a lawyer. He served two years in the Massachusetts legislature, and in 1851 President Fillmore appointed him a justice of the U.S. supreme court. The Dred Scott case came before the court while he was on the bench as one of the two dissenting justices and in his argument he upheld the right of congress to prohibit slavery and claimed that a person of African descent could be a citizen of the United States. He resigned in 1857 and resumed the practice of his profession in Boston, also practising in the U.S. supreme court. He was elected to the state legislature two terms. In 1868 he was one of the council for the defence in the impeachment trial of President Johnson and he read the answer to the articles of impeachment, the argument largely embodying his own conclusions. He also opened the defence in a speech occupying two days in its delivery, which attracted the attention of high legal authorities. He was the Democratic candidate for U.S. senator in 1874 in opposition to Henry L. Dawes. His son, Benjamin Robbins, born in 1855, was graduated from Harvard in 1875; admitted to the bar in 1878; lecturer on jurisdiction and practice of U.S. courts in Boston University, 1882-91; judge of the municipal court of Boston, 1886-91; the author of Dottings Round the Circle (1876); editor of The Jurisdiction, Practice and Peculiar Jurisdiction of the Courts of the United States (1880), and of Vol. II of Meyer's Federal Decisions in Courts (1885); and died in Boston, Mass., Jan. 25, 1891. Among Judge Curtis's published works are; Reports of Cases in the Circuit Courts o.f the United States (2 vols., 1854); Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States (22 volumes); and Digests of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, from the origin of the court to 1854. His brother, George Ticknor, prepared Vol. I., and his son, Benjamin R., Vol II., of his Memoirs and Miscellaneous Writings. He died in Newport, R.I., Sept. 15, 1874.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

George Ticknor Curtis, lawyer, was born at Watertown, Mass., Nov. 28, 1812; son of Capt. Benjamin and Lois (Robbins) Curtis. His grandmother, Elizabeth Billings Curtis, after the death of her husband Dr. Benjamin Curtis, was married to Elisha Ticknor, and their son, George Ticknor, was step-uncle to George Ticknor Curtis and to his brother, Judge Benjamin Robbins Curtis. George Ticknor Curtis was graduated at Harvard in 1832 and in 1836 was admitted to the Suffolk bar. During the winter of 1836-37 he practised in Worcester, settling in Boston in the latter year. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1841-44. During Tyler's administration he declined the mission to England, offered him by Secretary of State Daniel Webster. He made a special study of constitutional history and law and in 1849-50 delivered before the Lowell institute in Boston a course of lectures on that subject. He was appointed United States commissioner in Boston and as such caused much comment by enforcing the fugitive slave law by returning to slavery the negro, Thomas Sims, who had lived in Massachusetts for several years In 1862 he removed to New York city, where he declined several times to be made judge. He is the author of English and American Admiralty Decisions (1839); Decisions of the Courts of Common Law and Admiralty in the United States (1840-46); Rights and Duties of Merchant Seamen (1841); American Conveyances (1846); Law of Copyright (1847); Law of Patents (1849-73); Equity Precedents (1850); Inventor's Manual; Commentaries on the Jurisprudence, Practice and Jurisdiction of the Courts of the United States (1854-58); History of the Origin, Formation and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States (2 vols., 1855-58); Life of Daniel Webster (1870); Life of James Buchanan (1883); McClellan's Last Service to the Republic (1887); Creation or Evolution (1887); and Constitutional History of the United States; from their Declaration of Independence to the Close of the Civil War (2 vols., edited by Joseph Culbertson Clayton, 1896). He died in New York city, March 28, 1894.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Frank Austin Gooch, chemist, was born in Watertown, Mass., May 2, 1852; son of Joshua Goodale and Sarah (Coolidge) Gooch; grandson of Samuel and Hannah (Goodale) Gooch, and of Josiah and Mary (Hastings) Coolidge, and a descendant of John Gooch, Robert Goodelle, John Coolidge and Thomas Hastings, all resident in New England previous to 1640. He was graduated front Harvard in 1872, was an assistant in the chemical department there, 1873-75; studied in Europe and at Harvard, 1875-77, and received the degrees of A.M. and Ph.D. from Harvard in 1877. After two years more of post-graduate study at Cambridge he was appointed in 1879 a special agent of the 10th census and engaged in the expert analysis of iron ores and coals. He was chief chemist of the northern transcontinental survey, 1881-84; a chemist of the U.S. geological survey in Washington, 1884-85; and the latter year was appointed to the chair of chemistry at Yale where he planned the Kent chemical laboratory. He devised various forms of chemical apparatus and contributed to the literature of chemical research. He was elected a member of the National academy of sciences in 1897; was a Fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences, and a member of other scientific societies. The honorary degree of M.A. was conferred upon him by Yale in 1887.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Charles Greene Sawtelle, soldier, was born in Norridgewock, Maine, May 10, 1834; son of Cullen and Elizabeth (Lyman) Sawtelle; grandson of Richard and Sarah (Ware) Sawtelle and of Josiah Dwight and Betsey (Whiting) Lyman, and a descendant of Richard Sawtell (believed to have first settled at Groton, Mass.), who died at Watertown, Mass., Aug. 21, 1694. He was graduated from the U.S. Military academy in 1854; was assigned to the infantry and served on frontier duty at Fort Ripley, Minn., 1854?55, and on the Sioux expedition of 1855. He was promoted 2d lieutenant, 6th infantry, March 3, 1855, 1st lieutenant, July 1, 1859; served as quartermaster, 1857?61; was stationed in California, 1858?61, and appointed acting regiment adjutant, April 29, 1861. He was in charge of the quartermaster depot at Perryville, Md., 1861?62; was promoted captain of staff and assistant quartermaster, May 17, 1861, and served in the Virginia Peninsular campaign in 1862, and as acting chief quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac in the Maryland campaign, He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of staff, Nov. 12, 1862, was chief quartermaster of the 2d corps, in the Rappahannock campaign, 1862?63; chief quartermaster of the right grand division in the battle of Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 1862; chief quartermaster of cavalry corps, Army of the Potomac, Jan. 24?June 13, 1863; assistant chief quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac, June 21?Aug. 6, 1863; chief quartermaster of the cavalry bureau at Washington, D.C., 1863?64; chief-quartermaster of the forces on the Rio Grande river, Feb.-April, 1864, having charge of the transports and supplies for the relief of General Banks' army on its return from Red River. He was in charge of the steam transportation in the department of the Gulf, May 19?June 6, 1864; and was chief quartermaster of the military division of West Mississippi, 1864?65. He was brevetted major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel U.S.A., March 13, 1865, for faithful and meritorious services during the rebellion; was brevetted brigadier-general, U.S.A., March 13, 1865, for faithful and meritorious services in the quartermaster's department during the rebellion. He was promoted colonel of staff, U.S.V., May 25, 1865, was chief quartermaster of the military division of the Southwest, June 3?July 17, 1865; was appointed chief-quartermaster of the military division of the Gulf in 1865 and of the department of the Gulf in 1866. He was promoted major, Jan. 18, 1867; lieutenant-colonel and deputy quartermaster-general, Jan. 24, 1881; colonel and assistant quartermaster-general, Sept. 12, 1894; brigadier-general and quartermaster-general, Aug. 19, 1896, and was retired at his own request, Feb. 16, 1897. He was married, March 30, 1869, to Alice Chester, daughter of Edmund S. and Sarah (Clark) Munroe of Englewood, N.J.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor