ftecent &>eatfj& Hon. Amasa J. Parker, of Albany, N. Y., died May 13, after a brief illness. He was eighty-three years of age, and less than a week before his death argued a case in the Court of Appeals. He was born in Sharon, Conn., and was a graduate of Union College. He was admitted to the bar in 1828, and was made Supreme Court judge in 1844. He was a member of the Twenty-fifth Congress, and also a member of the Court of Appeals in 1855. In 1856 he was a candidate for Governor, but was defeated. At the time of his death he was a trustee of Cornell University, and president of the trustees of the Albany Medical College. The " Green Bag " for April of this year con tained an excellent portrait of Judge Parker.
Hon. Reuben R. Thrall, the oldest practis ing attorney in the United States, if not the world, died in Rutland, Vt., May 1i. He was born in Rutland, Nov. 10, 1795. He studied law and was admitted to practice at the Rut land County Court in 1819, and had been in practice ever since, having cases on the docket of the County and Supreme Courts at the time of his death. He appeared in court at the March term, in 1889, and answered to the call of his cases. He was postmaster of Rutland from 1822 to 1829, and State Attorney in 1836. Mr. Thrall was an old-time Abolitionist, and a friend and co-worker with William Lloyd Garrison. Hon. Sidney A. Beardsley, of Bridgeport, Conn., ex-Judge of the Supreme Court of that State, died April 24. He was sixty-seven years of age, was born in Monroe, Conn., and was a graduate of Yale. He went to Bridgeport in 1850, where he practised law until 1874, when he was appointed Superior Court Judge. He was appointed to the Supreme Court bench in 1887. He resigned in 1889, on account of poor health. Hon. George W. Nesmith, ex-Judge of the Supreme Court, died at Franklin Falls, N. H., May 2. He was nearly ninety years old. Mr, Nesmith was born in Antrim, Oct. 3, 1800. He 36
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graduated at Dartmouth College in 1820, was admitted to the bar in 1825, appointed judge of the Supreme Judicial Court in 1859, and re mained on the bench until he was retired by constitutional limit as to age. Judge Nesmith represented Franklin several times in the Legis lature, had been a trustee of Dartmouth College since 1858, a. trustee of the State Agricultural College since 1870, and its president since 1877. He was for many years president and a director of the Northern Railroad. He was an intimate personal friend of Daniel Webster, and an ar dent supporter of the " great expounder " during his memorable campaign for the Whig presiden tial nomination. Hon. Hiram Gray, an eminent judge and lawyer, died at his home in Elmira, N. Y., May 6, aged eighty-nine years. He had held the posi tions of Congressman and justice of the Supreme Court, and was one of the five Commissioners of Appeal appointed when the new Court of Ap peals was created in 1869. Since 1875 he had lived in retirement. Hon. E. M. Wilson, one of the most promi nent members of the Minneapolis Bar, died at Nassau, N. P., on April 10. He was born at Morganstown, Va., in 1833, and was the son of Edgar C. Wilson, an eminent Virginia lawyer. In 1856 he went to Minnesota as U. S. District Attorney for that Territory, and took up his per manent residence there. He was a most suc cessful jury-lawyer and a noted case-winner. In the celebrated King-Remington case which he won for Colonel King, and in which millions were involved, his fee was said to have been $125,000. As a citizen he was alike conspicuous in service to the State as United States District Attorney, as soldier, member of Congress, Mayor of our city, City Attorney, State Senator, mem ber of the Park Board, or in the councils and services of party, he was alike the capable ex ponent and the faithful steward of the interests intrusted to his care. As a man, above all, he was at once an exam ple and a splendid type. Courteous in inter course, upright in conduct, considerate of others, no man was his enemy, and all were his friends.
