Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/308

 278 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

The early life of Harry Bingham was passed in about the same manner as that of most sons of New England farmers in moderate circumstances, except that he developed a great love for study and made the most of the limited ed- ucational advantages which the district school afforded. When quite young he resolved to secure a collegiate education, and had so diligently pursued his studies in the common school during the brief terms that he attended, with a few weeks at select school on one or two occasions, that at seventeen years of age it required but a year's academic training^ to fit him for admission to Dartmouth College. This he secured at the well known academy at Lyndon, Vt., and entered Dartmouth College in 1839, with the class graduating in 1843. As has been the case with his subsequent career, his college life was character- ized by industrious application and substantial acquirements, rather than by those brilliant intellectual efforts which excite momentary admiration, but are produc- tive of no enduring results. By the ordinary tests of scholarship his class standing was good, though not of leading rank, and in his case we have an ex- cellent ilhistration of the general rule, that it is the average scholar, as the rec- ord stands, rather than the class leader, who accomplishes substantial work and wins distinction in after life. Among the classmates of Mr. Bingham at Dart- mouth were Judge Robert L Burbank, Col. A. O. Brewster, and Thomas L. Wakefield, well known Boston lawyers ; Thomas W. Freelon, of San Francisco, a Justice of the Superior Court of California ; ex-congressman Daniel W. Gooch, of Massachusetts ; Hon. Henry C. Lord, of Cincinnati ; the late Rev. William H. Lord, of Montpelier ; the late Professor John N. Putnam, of Hano- ver ; Rev. Dr. J. M. Bailey, of Saco,Me. ; Hon. Lyman D. Stevens, of Concord ; Col. John B. Clarke, James O. Adams, and Bradbury C. Cilley, of Manchester ; and the late Hon. John R. Varney, of Dover.

Having determined to enter the legal profession, Mr. Bingham commenced the study of law in his native town, taking books for that purpose from the of- fice of David Hibbard, Esq., father of the late Hon. Harry Hibbard, who was a resident of Concord. He subsequently pursued his studies for some time in the office of Hon. George C. Cahoon, at Lyndon, Vt., and completed the same with Harry Hibbard, at Bath. He had previously taught school for several terms, twice at least before entering college, in Concord and at Burke, and, during his college course, at East St. Johnsbury and Woodstock. While en- gaged in the study of law he also taught a number of terms, one in the acad- emy at Concord Corner, a district school in Waterford, a select school at Lower Waterford, and a district school at Wells River, one winter while studying at Bath. He was admitted to the bar at Lancaster, at the May term of court, in 1846, and in September following opened an office and commenced the practice of his profession in Littleton, where he has ever since remained. Un- like many young men, upon admission to the bar, he did not sit down in idle- ness to await the arrival of clients, but continued his studies, extending his re- searches into every department of legal science, familiarizing himself thoroughly with the principles of law in the abstract aiid in their application to cases, as set forth in the reported decisions, with the forms of practice and the rules of procedure, so that, when called upon to grapi)le with any case arising, he was well equipped for the occasion, ready to carry it through to a successful result, if, under the circumstances, success was attainable.

At the time when he commenced practice, as has ever since been the case, the Grafton county bar, as well as that of Coos, with which he has also been extensively connected, was remarkable for its strength. Its member- ship included such men as Leonard Wilcox, of Orford, Josiah Quincy, of Rum- ney, and Jonathan Kittredge, of Canaan, then in the fullness of their power. Andrew S. Woods, of Bath, had gone upon the bench, but Harry Hibbard of

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