Carrollton Arthur Roberts (1903-1979)

Portrait from the Fairport Herald-Mail.

    A recent discovery as far as unusual names are concerned, Judge Carrollton Arthur Roberts of Ontario County, New York is very likely the only man named "Carrollton" ever to be elected to public office in New York state. A veteran of the First World War, Roberts was a former District Attorney for Ontario County and in 1943 began a quarter-century tenure as Ontario County Judge. In the twilight of his life, further honors were accorded to him when he won election to the New York State Supreme Court, being elected at the ripe old age of sixty-four.

  The son of Milton and Mary Roberts, Carrollton A. Roberts was born on January 30, 1903, and spent his early years in Geneva, New York. He would attend a boarding school in Dayton, Ohio during his adolescence and at the dawn of American involvement in World War I enlisted in the Army, joining the 29th Engineers. His time with that unit saw him deployed to both Germany and France, and in the latter country "served in the four American engagements, Soissons, Chateau Thierry, St. Mihiel, and the Argonne Forest." 

  Following his return stateside Carrollton Roberts entered into law studies at Cornell University, attending that school from 1925 to 1928. He continued his studies at the University of North Carolina's Law School and was admitted to the New York bar in the early 1930s. Soon after his admittance Roberts entered into a clerkship at the Geneva-based law firm of Lapham, McGreevy, and Ryan, with whom he would be affiliated for several years. During this time he made his first foray into local politics, being elected to the Geneva Common Council. 

   In 1935 Carrollton Roberts won election as Geneva City Treasurer, holding that post until his election as District Attorney of Ontario County two years later. Roberts would serve six years as District Attorney and in 1943 succeeded to the post of Ontario County Judge. His tenure on the bench extended twenty-five years, and during that time also served in the capacity of family and surrogate court judge. Judge Roberts married in 1950 to Flint, Michigan native Alice Marie Light and later had two children, Marianne and Gregory.

  Three years after taking the reins as county judge Carrollton A. Roberts announced that he would be seeking the Republican nomination for Congress from New York's 38th district. Hoping to wrest the nomination from thirteen-term incumbent John Taber (1880-1965), Roberts faced an uphill battle. The Newark Courier-Gazette reported on that year's primary election, relating that Roberts:

"Is expected only to reap the harvest of the longstanding Townsend opposition to Taber because of his refusal to vote on the Old Age Revolving Pension Plan of Dr. Townsend."

From the Newark Herald Courier-Gazette, August 15, 1946.

   When the primary votes were cast in late August 1946 it was John Taber who claimed victory. He would continue to serve in Congress until 1963, retiring after a total of 41 years of service.  Despite this loss, Roberts would continue as Ontario County Judge, and after a quarter-century on the bench set his sights on a higher judicial position, that of Supreme Court Justice for New York's 7th Judicial District. Several New York newspapers in that district touted Roberts' judicial experience during the 1967 election year and in November Roberts won election to that court.

   Elected as a justice at the age of 64, Roberts would serve only four years on the Supreme Court, announcing his retirement on February 1, 1972. Little is known of Roberts' life following his retirement, except notice of his death in Broward County, Florida on June 6, 1979. A burial location for Roberts remains unknown at this time but is presumed to be somewhere in the Ontario County area.

From the Fairport Herald-Mail, Nov. 1, 1967.

Frothingham Fish (1820-1895)

From the Medico-Legal Journal, Volume 25, 1907.

   Oddly named New Yorker Frothingham Fish was a two-term member of the state assembly, a Montgomery County district attorney, and a State Supreme Court justice. A member of the prominent Fish family of New York State, Mr. Fish was blessed with a very eye-catching first name, one that is truly unique in the annals of the New York State Assembly (a legislative body that has been very well represented here!)

    Frothingham Fish was the third of five children born to Howland (a former Montgomery County district attorney) and Eliza Frothingham Fish, his birth occurring in the town of Glen, New York on August 26, 1820. Given the first name "Frothingham" due to it being his mother's maiden name, Fish followed in his father's footsteps and embarked upon the study of law in Montgomery County, eventually establishing an office in the town of Fultonville.

   On April 29, 1845, Fish married Susan E. Bronk (1820-1906), with whom he would have four children: Robert Bronk (1849-1919), Howland (1848-1888), Edmund (1858-1918) and Leonard Frothingham (1867-1932). Of these children, Leonard followed in his grandfather's stead and was elected as the District Attorney for Montgomery County in 1893, serving six years in office.

   Three years following his marriage Frothingham Fish was elected to the first of two terms in the New York State Assembly, representing Montgomery County. Taking his seat at the beginning of the 1849 term, Fish served on the assembly committees on Privileges and Elections. He was later returned to the assembly for the 1861 term and sat on the House Committee on Claims. A capable member of the legislature, Fish was described in the 1861 Biographical Sketches of the State Officers and Members of the Legislature of the State of New York as:

"Formerly a Whig. He adhered firmly to that ancient organization until it ceased to exist, and then became a Republican, to the principles and policy of which party he is still firmly attached. He is not one of the rabid Abolition John Brown school of politicians, and in the present threatening aspect of our national affairs, has generally, by his votes in the house, shown a disposition to do whatever appears best calculated to restore peace and quiet to the country."

Frothingham Fish, from an 1861 New York Assembly photo album.

    After leaving the legislature Fish returned to practicing law in Fultonville and continued along this route until reentering political life in 1883, when he was elected as an Associate Justice of the New York State Supreme Court for the state's 4th judicial district, which comprised the counties of Montgomery, Saratoga, Warren, Fulton, and Hamilton. His tenure on the court extended until 1891 when he retired, and during his time on the bench "occasionally presided at the Warren County circuit at Lake George." 
  Frothingham Fish spent the remainder of his life in retirement in Fultonville and died at his home there on April 27, 1895, at age 74, and was mentioned in his Johnstown Daily Republican obituary as "having been an invalid for a long time." He was survived by his wife Susan, who, following her death in 1906 was interred in the same plot as her husband at the Fultonville Cemetery and Natural Burying Ground.

                                                         From the Johnstown, NY Daily Republican, April 1895.

Hooper Cumming Van Vorst (1817-1889)

  

From the Yearbook of the Holland Society of New York, 1887.

   The theme of interestingly named judicial figures continues as we take a peek at the life of a judge named Hooper.....Hooper Cumming Van Vorst to be precise. While most people (after hearing the name "Hooper", mind you) will probably remember "Mr. Hooper" and his store on "Sesame Street", one would probably never guess that there was a New York State Supreme Court justice with it as a first name!! An attorney and first President of the Holland Society of New York, Van Vorst was viewed as one of New York's leading legal lights during his sixteen years of service on the bench. Despite his prominence in 19th century New York, Van Vorst is all but forgotten today, and although a few pieces of period literature can be found online that mention him at great length, the following piece aims to shed more light on the life of this oddly named New York jurist, more than a century after his death.

  Born of Dutch ancestry on December 3, 1817, in Schenectady, New York, Hooper Cumming Van Vorst was the son of John (1784-1844) and Elizabeth Baker Van Vorst. A descendant of a Dutch family that had resided in New York since the 1670s, John Van Vorst bestowed upon his son the unusual name "Hooper Cumming", in honor of an "eloquent preacher" (1787-1825) with that name who was then residing in Schenectady. 

   Van Vorst began his schooling in his native city and in 1839 was a graduate of the Union College. During this time he studied law in the offices of Paige and Potter and in 1841 completed his studies and removed to Albany to begin a law practice. During his Albany residency, he was named as "attorney and counsel to the city" by the local municipal board, subsequently serving in this capacity for several years. In September 1848 Van Vorst married Albany native Maria L. Boyd (1821-1855), who died a few months after the birth of the couple's only child, Frederick L. Van Vorst (1855-1919.) Five years following her death Van Vorst remarried to Josephine Treat (1835-1917) and had two more children, John (1872-1899) and Marie Louise (1867-1936).

  In addition to practicing law in the New York state capital, Van Vorst also gained prominence as president of the Albany Young Men's Association, serving a one-year term from 1848-49. In 1853 Van Vorst left Albany and resettled in New York City, where it is noted by the New Amsterdam Gazette "that he was extensively engaged in the practice of law" until 1868, when he was selected by then Governor Reuben E. Fenton to serve as an Associate Justice of the Court of Common Pleas of New York City. His term on the bench lasted but one year, and in 1873 was elected to serve a fourteen-year term as a judge of the Superior Court of New York.

   Shortly following his election to the Superior Court Hooper C. Van Vorst received special designation by the Governor of New York John A. Dix, who named him to "hold special and circuit terms in the Supreme Court of the state" in addition to "occasional service" on the Superior Court bench. The Magazine of Western History Vol. 22 denotes Van Vorst's service on the bench as one of "arduous duties", further noting that he "became famous a learned, careful, impartial equity judge, earning from his fellow judges the sobriquet ''the Chancellor.""  Among the various cases tried before Van Vorst was one in which he "rendered the decision setting aside the lease to the Brooklyn Ferry Company of the valuable East Ferry privileges made for only one dollar rental in the Tweed times."

From the August-September 1886 New Amsterdam Gazette.

    While his time on the bench earned Van Vorst both notoriety and a wide circle of acquaintances, it was his activities in non-judicial areas that are also worth mentioning. Before his service on the Superior Court, he served for a time on the New York State Board of Education and later was a member of the Presbyterian Church's Board of Missions. A religious man, Van Vorst also took on a position as Sunday School teacher for the Children's Aid Society in New York City, where he "did all in his power to lead the children who thronged the school into the paths of a pure moral life."

   As a scion of an old, established Dutch family in New York, Hooper Van Vorst was intricately involved in the establishment of the Holland Society of New York, an organization devoted to the memory of the families of New Netherland and their living descendants. Prior to the society's incorporation in May 1885 Judge Van Vorst served as its provisional president and was one of the original group of 46 signers of the society's certificate of incorporation. Van Vorst served the society as its first "official" president and held this post until his death.

   Upon reaching the mandatory retirement age for judges in New York in 1887, the seventy-year-old Hooper Van Vorst left the Superior Court bench and devoted the remainder of his life to charitable work and the practice of law, forming a firm with his son Frederick that was located on Wall Street. The retired judge is recorded as keeping an active schedule until a few days before his death, which occurred at his home on October 26, 1889. The New Amsterdam Gazette noted in its memorial to him that he "died quite unexpectedly of a congestive chill" and after a well-attended funeral at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church was interred at the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York. 

  In the weeks following his death, Van Vorst received lavish praise in literature of the time, including a substantial five-page memorial in the New Amsterdam Gazette of December 6, 1889. In this obituary, the Gazette recollected that:

"In the death of Hooper C. Van Vorst a notable judicial career has reached its noble and final consummation. For the best years of his life he has been a conspicuous and honored member of our bar and bench. Endowed with choice scholastic abilities, he was able to embellish the trite principles of the law with popular interest, and full recommendations to sober thought and action."

Van Vorst obituary from the Albany Evening Times Oct. 28, 1889.