"History of the Third Department"

In addition to Justice Herrick, who served on the first Court, past Presiding Justices Cochrane, Foster, Bergan, Cooke, Koreman, Mahoney, and Weiss, and current Presiding Justice Cardona, several Justices who have gone on to the Court of Appeals (Justices Chase, Foster, Bergan, Cooke, and Graffeo), and current Justices Peters, Spain, Carpinello, and Kane, 17 other justices of the Supreme Court, Third Judicial District, have served on the Appellate Division, Third Department.

Justice Samuel Edwards was born in the Town of Glenville in Schenectady County on April 24, 1839. He prepared for college at academies in Schoharie and Washington counties, and in 1858 entered Union College, from which he was graduated in 1862. He studied law with S. L. Magoun in Hudson, Columbia County, and was admitted to the Bar in December 1864. He entered into a partnership with Robert E. Andrews (Andrews & Edwards). In January 1887, Gov. Hill appointed him to the Supreme Court for the Third Judicial District. In November of that year he was elected to a 14-year term. He was designated to the Appellate Division, Third Department, by Gov. Roosevelt in April 1900 to succeed Justice Herrick. He served until his Supreme Court term expired on December 31, 1901. He died on February 16, 1912. Justice Edwards also served one day on the Appellate Division in place of Justice Herrick on April 28, 1896.

Justice Edgar L. Fursman was born in Charlton, Saratoga County, on August 5, 1838. He was educated at the Schuylerville and Greenwich Academies, the New York Conference Seminary at Charlotteville and at Fort Edward Collegiate Institute. He studied law with Hon. A. D. Wait at Fort Edward (Washington County) and was admitted to the Bar in 1857. After practicing at Schuylerville (Saratoga County) for a time, he moved to Troy in 1866 and formed a partnership with Judge James Forsyth. In 1870, he became a member of the firm of Smith, Fursman & Cowen, which continued in existence for twenty years. He was elected Rensselaer County Court Judge in 1882 and was re-elected in 1888. In 1889 he was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court, Third Judicial District, and during the years 1897 to 1900 he sat on the criminal bench in New York City. Effective January 1902, Gov. Odell designated him to the Appellate Division, Third Department. He resigned in November 1902 and thereafter engaged in the private practice of law. He died April 2, 1910. He served as colonel in the New York State National Guard and for three years was Judge Advocate on General Carr's staff. He was a descendant of William Fursman, a member of an old family of Oxfordshire, England, who emigrated to America in 1760. William Fursman joined the patriot army during the Revolutionary War and was killed at the battle of White Plains. Justice Fursman was an accomplished trial lawyer.

Justice Alden Chester was born at Westford in Otsego County on September 4, 1848. He was educated in the local schools and at Westford Literary Institute. He taught at the Institute and became a store clerk in his native village. At the age of 18, he was a telegraph operator on the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad. He was also the editor of a newspaper in Otsego County and then, for a time, an insurance clerk in Boston. He then took up the study of law at Columbia University Law School, from which he graduated in 1871. He was also admitted to the Bar in 1871, in New York City. He began practicing in Albany with a cousin, Andrew S. Draper, until 1887. Draper later became president of the University of Illinois and the first Commissioner of Education of the State of New York. From 1876 to 1882, Hon. William S. Paddock was also a member of the firm, under the name Paddock, Draper & Chester. From 1887 until 1895, he practiced alone. In 1895, he was elected to the Third Judicial District Supreme Court; he was re-elected in 1909 at the end of his first 14-year term. He was designated to the Appellate Division by Gov. Odell and served from 1902 to 1909. (He also served one day in 1913 in place of Justice John M. Kellogg.) Although he was the senior associate justice in 1909 and would normally have continued on the Appellate Division and had good prospect of being appointed Presiding Justice, he returned to the trial bench at the behest of Gov. Hughes to help clear an unusual backlog of cases; he worked so assiduously at this task that he became ill and had to sojourn in Europe for several months to completely recover. He retired from the bench at the end of 1918, having reached 70 years of age. In addition to his judicial career, Justice Chester served as deputy clerk of the New York State Assembly from 1874 to 1876; as a member of the Board of Public Instruction of Albany from 1881 to 1884 (and as its president in 1884); as an assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York from 1882 to 1885; and as an assistant corporation counsel of the City of Albany from 1894 to 1895. He also served as president of the Albany Medical College, a trustee of the Albany College of Pharmacy, a governor of Union University, and a special lecturer on the Federal judicial system at Albany Law School. He was president of the American Bar Association in 1919. He could trace his ancestry back to English settlers in the early to mid 1600s on both his maternal and paternal sides. On his mother's side, he was descended from Elder William Brewster, who came to America on the Mayflower. Both of his grandfathers were Revolutionary War soldiers and his maternal grandfather was at the battle of Bunker Hill. Justice Chester died February 12, 1934. Among the cases he handled on the trial bench were the "Ice Trust", "Coal Trust", and "Beef Trust" cases which attracted much attention throughout the country. He also presided over a large number of murder trials, prominent among which was that of the three Van Wormer brothers at Hudson for killing their uncle, Peter A. Hallenbeck, on Christmas Eve, 1901, and which resulted in the conviction of all three of murder in the first degree and their subsequent execution. Justice Chester was the author/editor of two noteworthy multivolume works: "The Legal and Judicial History of New York", published by the National Americana Society, New York, 1911 (2 volumes); and "Courts and Lawyers of New York: A History", published by the American Historical Society, New York and Chicago, 1925 (4 volumes).

Justice James A. Betts was a native of Broadalbin in Fulton County; he was born on March 18, 1953. He was educated in the public schools and at the Albany Normal School. He moved to Kingston in Ulster County in 1875 to act as principal of Public School No. 11. After teaching for a few years, he took up the study of law with the firm of Schoonmaker & Linson. He was admitted to the Bar in November 1880. He served as Secretary of the State Civil Service Commission in 1883. Beginning in 1885, he was elected four times to the Kingston Board of Education. In 1890, he was elected clerk of the Ulster County Board of Supervisors and in 1892 was elected Ulster County Surrogate. In 1898, he was elected a Supreme Court Justice for the Third Judicial District over his opponent, Hon. Alphonso T. Clearwater. He did not run for re-election after serving his 14-year term. Rather, he returned to the practice of law. He served on the Appellate Division for the last two years of his Supreme Court term. Justice Betts was a personal friend of William Jennings Bryan and often entertained him at his home. Justice Betts died on May 6, 1928.

Justice Wesley O. Howard was born in Troy on September 11, 1863. At an early age, because of the death of both of his parents, he was moved to his grandfather's mountain farm in the town of Grafton in Rensselaer County and he attended the district school there. He attended the Lansingburgh Academy and afterwards taught school in order to obtain means to further pursue his studies. He studied law in the office of Robertson, Foster & Kelly in Troy and afterwards in the office of W. W. Morrill, when he was admitted to the Bar. At the age of 21, he was elected Justice of the Peace of the Town of Grafton. In 1894, he was attorney for the Rensselaer County Board of Supervisors. In 1896, he was elected Rensselaer County District Attorney, and was re-elected in 1899. In the fall of 1902, he was elected to the Third Judicial District Supreme Court, succeeding Justice Fursman, whose term had expired. He served on the Appellate Division for four years, beginning in 1913. After his re-election to the Supreme Court in 1916, he voluntarily returned to the trial bench at the end of the year. In 1920, he was a potential gubernatorial nominee of the Republican Party. He retired from the bench in 1925. He died on May 11, 1933, from injuries.

Justice Harold J. Hinman was born in Albany on February 22, 1877. He attended the public schools and graduated from Albany High School in 1895. He graduated from Union University in 1899 and from Albany Law School in 1901, the same year he was admitted to the Bar. After admittance, he practiced law with the firm Bender & Hinman; in 1912 it became Arnold, Bender & Hinman. From 1910 to 1915, Justice Hinman was an Assemblyman from Albany. In 1914 and 1915, he was majority leader. In 1915, he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. That same year, he accepted an appointment as a deputy Attorney General; he served in such capacity until the beginning of 1919. In 1918, Justice Hinman was a candidate for Attorney General but withdrew from the candidacy to successfully run for a seat on the Supreme Court, Third Judicial District. In January 1922, he was designated to the Appellate Division by Gov. Smith, and served on the Court for almost eleven years. He died at the age of 77 in 1955. He served on the Albany Law School Board of Trustees for over 35 years and as president of the board for 25 of those years.

Justice Gilbert D. B. Hasbrouck was born at Port Ewen, Town of Esopus, in Ulster County on February 19, 1860. He attended the public schools, the New Paltz Academy, and then Rutgers College, graduating from the latter in 1880. He studied law with W. S. Kenyon in Kingston and attended Columbia Law School during 1881 and 1882. He obtained a masters degree from Rutgers in 1883. He was admitted to the Bar on May 28, 1882, and at once entered the office of County Judge A.T. Clearwater, where he remained until the beginning of October 1883. He began his law practice at Rondout, Ulster County. In 1894, he formed a partnership with Walter N. Gill at Kingston and in 1899 with Russell S. Johnson at New York City, which continued until December 21, 1904. He was elected Assemblyman in 1883 and in 1885. He was corporation counsel of Kingston from 1887 to 1894. In 1895, he served as second deputy Attorney General; he served as first deputy Attorney General from 1896 to 1899. He had been a candidate for the Republican nomination for Attorney General in 1893. His opponents were John Woodward of Chautauqua (who would later serve on the Appellate Division) and Theodore E. Hancock of Syracuse. The race was close and Justice Hasbrouck threw his support to Hancock, who won the nomination and election and later rewarded Justice Hasbrouck with his position as deputy Attorney General. Effective January 1, 1902, Gov. Odell appointed him a judge of the Court of Claims; he was promoted to Presiding Judge on December 1, 1903. On December 16, 1904, he was appointed to the Supreme Court for the Third Judicial Department to fill the vacancy that occurred when Justice Herrick resigned to run for Governor. During his service on the trial bench, he maintained his chambers in Albany, commuting almost daily between Kingston and Albany, because there were two trial and special term justices resident in Kingston and none in Albany. He was unable to secure the nomination for Supreme Court for the 1905 election. He returned to his law practice. In 1912, he won the nomination and election for a seat on the Supreme Court. He served on the Appellate Division, Third Department, from September 12, 1922 to November 24, 1923, when he resigned and returned to the trial bench. He was re-elected to the Supreme Court in 1926. On January 18, 1928, Gov. Smith again appointed him to the Appellate Division, where he remained until his retirement at the end of 1930. In 1927, he was chairman of the sesquicentennial celebration of the organization of State government at Kingston. Justice Hasbrouck was of Huguenot descent. One of his ancestors, Jean Hasbrouck, fled from Calais, France, in 1666 to escape religious persecution and settled in New Paltz as one of that community's patentees. The Hasbrouck family had a long history of public service in Ulster County prior to Justice Hasbrouck's birth; three Hasbroucks were Congressmen. The judge was an avid fisherman. He died on June 5, 1942.

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