History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

He was keen, witty, courteous, and social ; a good
guest and a genial host ; easy of speech, witii a good
fund of thought and anecdote; on all practical
subjects eminently judicious; and he devoted his
life "to the advancement, first of religion, next
of learning." His son, Charles R. Train (Brown
University, 1837), has been district attorney for
Middlesex County, a member of the governor's
council, and attorney-general of the common-
wealth.
Benjamin Rand, born April IS, 1785, gradu-
ated at Harvard College in 1808, in the same class
with Richard H. Dana. He was a gentleman of
the highest eminence in legal attaimnent, and one
of the most distinguished members of the Suffolk
bar. He died in Boston, April 26, 1852, aged
sixty-seven. Charles Sumner entered his office as
a student, January 8, 1834. Li the autumn of
the same year Mr. Rand visited England, where he
was well received by lawyers and judges. His
partner, Mr. A. H. Fiske, remained in charge of
their office. He was " a lawyer having a large prac-
tice, but was distinguished rather for his great
learning and faithful attention to the bushiess of
his clients, than for any attractive forensic quali-
ties."
Alpheus Bigelow, born September 38, 1784,
graduated at Harvard College in 1810. He fitted
for college under Dr. Kendal ; studied law with
Hon. Isaac Fiske, of Weston, and Tyler Bigelow,
of Watertown; was admitted to the bar of the
Court of Common Pleas at the December term of
1.815, and to that of the Supreme Court at the
March term of 1817. He was a member of the
House of Representatives in 1827-28, and was
for several years chairman of the selectmen of
Weston, and held other town offices. He was
a thorough musician, and the founder of the
Pierian Sodality, of Harvard College. Under the
rule of the college requiring the music arranged
for Commencement to be first submitted to the
president for approval, he, on one occasion, handed
in several pieces of music, which were duly ap-
proved, with one or two exceptions, and returned
to him. The pieces were taken in haste by him
from the miscellaneous pile lying on his piano, and
tossed back to their place after the approval, \\'hile
he went on witJi his preparation of the Commencement
music as he had planned it.
Abraham Harrington, born November 16, 1 790,
graduated at Harvard in 1812. He died at Hop-
khiton, in August, 1828.
503
Ebenezer Hobbs, Jr., born April 17, 1794,
graduated at Harvard College in 1814, having
as classmates William H. Prescott, Benjamin A.
Gould, Gamaliel Bradford, James Walker, and
other notable alumni. He took the degree of
M. D. in 1817, and immediately settled in Waltham.
He married, in 18 19, Mary Derby, of Weston.
He was the chief agent of the Boston Manufactur-
ing Company for nearly forty years, and an honored
resident of the town. In the latter years of his
life he contributed to the Sentinel and Free Press
several interesting papers concerning the local his-
tory of Waltham, valuable and reliable by reason
of the fund of information at his command, accu-
mulated during a residence of forty-five years in
the town. He died, December 11, 1863, from an
epileptic shock in the autumn of 1862. Two of
his sons died young, while in college.
Frederick Hobbs, sou of Isaac Hobbs, Jr., was
born February 28, 1797, graduated at Harvard
College in the class of 1817, having George Bancroft,
Caleb Cushing, and other distinguished men
as classmates. On his mother's side he was a
lineal descendant of Rev. John Cotton, minister of
the First Church in Boston, and as such descendant
was entitled to and received, while an undergraduate,
benefits accruing from bequests to the institution
from the Cotton family. After graduating he read
law in the office of Daniel Webster, in Boston.
In 1820 he went to Eastport, Maine, opened an
office, and soon entered upon an extensive practice,
gaining a high position at tlie bar of Washington
County. He was elected to various municipal
offices in Eastport, and was sent to the legislature
one year. He once received the Whig nomination
for representative to Congress from the Eastern Con-
gressional District, and received the solid vote of
his party ; but, it being in the minority in that
district, he failed of an election. He removed to
Bangor in 1836, and became emhiently successful in
his profession, having up to the time of his last ill-
ness more business in the United States Court than
any practitioner east of the Kennebec River. He
was equally prominent in the municipal aff'airs of
his adopted city, was president of the Musical As-
sociation, and a great friend to horticulture, being
among the founders of the Bangor Horticultural
Society, and for some time its president. " He
was a good and useful citizen, of stern integrity,
of strict honesty, and highly exemplary in all his
habits." In February, 1849, while engaged in an
important case before the Supreme Court of Mas-