| Biography of Hamilton Ward
1829 - 1898
Attorney, State Supreme Court Judge, State
Attorney General &
a Representative to U.S. Congress
WARD, Hamilton, a Representative from New York;
born in Salisbury, Herkimer County, N.Y., July 3, 1829; attended the
common schools and was privately tutored; studied law; was admitted
to the bar and commenced practice in Phillipsville (now Belmont),
N.Y., in 1851; district attorney of Allegany County 1856-1859 and
1862-1865; appointed in 1862 by the Governor as commissioner to
raise and equip troops for the Civil War; elected as a Republican to
the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first Congresses (March 4,
1865-March 3, 1871); chairman, Committee on Revolutionary Claims
(Fortieth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1870;
delegate to nearly all State conventions from 1858 to 1890; attorney
general of New York in 1880 and 1881; member of the State
constitutional commission in 1890; appointed and subsequently
elected justice of the State supreme court and served from 1891
until his death in Belmont, Allegany County, N.Y., December 28,
1898; interment in Forest Hill Cemetery. (From: Biographical
Directory of the United States Congress)
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Judge Hamilton Ward was born in Salisbury,
Herkimer County, July 3, 1829. In 1849 he entered the law office of
A. & W. P. Konkle of Elmira, as a student and applied himself with
such assiduity that he was admitted to the bar in 1851. In
September, 1851, he settled in Belmont and soon took a prominent
position in the Allegany bar. In 1856 he was elected district
attorney and again elected in 1862. In 1864 he was elected to
congress, and was twice re-elected, serving six years continuously,
during a very important period in the administration of the
government. In congress he was a member of the committee on claims,
of the committee on reconstruction and of the committee appointed to
impeach President Johnson. For a few years subsequent to 1871 he
devoted himself entirely to the practice of law and was considered
as one of the most successful lawyers of the state. In 1879 he was
elected attorney general of the state, and May, 1891, he was
appointed to fill the vacancy on the bench of the Supreme Court
made by the death of Judge Thomas Corlett. In the fall of
1891 he was elected justice of the Supreme Court, which high office
he now holds, discharging its duties with ability of a high order.
While in practice he was connected with many of the important cases
in Western New York, among them that of The People vs. Hendryx for
the murder of his wife. He was the successful attorney in the
Angelica and Caneadea railroad bond cases, in the great Whitney
divorce case and in other hotly contested causes. While attorney general he was
assigned by the governor to prosecute Barney Hughes for the murder
of W. J. Hadley, a distinguished criminal lawyer of Albany. The case
attracted state-wide attention. and Mr. Ward’s summing up was very
highly commended. As a member of the capitol commission he caused
to be abrogated a contract for the purchase of granite at a saving
to the state of $200,000. He was appointed by Gov. Hill a
member of the commission to revise the constitution, and was one of
those who opposed the final action of the commission, which
resulted in its rejection by the legislature.
("Allegany County and Its People: A Centennial Memorial HISTORY
OF ALLEGANY COUNTY,NY"; John S. Minard; W.A.Fergusson & Co.,
Alfred,NY, 1896)
Hon. Hamilton Ward was born in Salisbury, Herkimer
county, July 3, 1829. He entered the law office of A. & W. P.
Konkle, of Elmira, as a student in 1849, and in July, 1851, was
admitted to the bar at Cooperstown, N.Y. In the following September
he removed to Belmont. He was chosen district attorney of Allegany
county in 1856 and re-elected in 1862. In 1864, he was elected to
Congress, and re-elected in 1866 and 1868, serving six years without
intermission, and acting during that period as a member of the
Committee on Clains, of the Committee on Reconstruction and of the
committee appointed to impeach President Johnson. Since 1871 he has
been entirely engaged in the practice of his profession, and is
justly regarded as one of the most successful lawyers in the State
of New York.
("HISTORY OF ALLEGANY COUNTY,NY"; 1806-1879
F.W. Beers & Co.,NY; Geo. MacNamara, Printer, 36
Vesey St., NY 1879)
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