Biographies
from
The History of Otsego County, New York
1740-1878
D. Hamilton Hurd
Published by Everts & Fariss, Philadelphia
MOREHOUSE, Eben B., Hon. - Cooperstown
Hon. Eben B. MOREHOUSE was born in Hillsdale, county of
Columbia, in this State, in the year 1791. The delicacy of his
constitution while a youth was such as to induce his friends to
believe he would fall an early victim to an hereditary consumption;
and for that cause he was, at an early age, taken from a boarding-
school and placed in the office of a medical practitioner, as it was
thought the exercise incident to the practice of physic would be the
most sovereign, and, indeed the only means of giving health and
vigor to his slender constitution.
At the age of sixteen, he therefore entered upon the study of
medicine, as he said, with the same cheerfulness that he would have
received from the hands of a nurse or physician a dose of medicine
he was designed to mix for others; although the practice of medicine,
as he felt satisfied, would be distasteful to him, yet he was fond of
the science as a study and pursued it with great diligence and pleasure,
and received from the State medical society, in February of 1812, a
diploma to practice as a physician and surgeon in this State. He
commenced business as such at Caughnawaga, county of Montgomery,
and while there practiced with marked success, and secured the
respect and high esteem of the citizens of that locality. Intending,
however, to change his residence to a larger town, he accepted, in
1813, an offer to be attached to a regiment of militia marching from
that county to Sackett's Harbor, for service in the war then pending
with Great Britain.
After his term of service expired he continued the practice of his
profession at Athens, in his native county; but his distaste of the
practice of medicine so increased upon him that he resolved to
renounce the mortar and pestle and abandon the profession forever;
and, accordingly, in September, 1815, he entered as a clerk in the
law-office of STRANAHAN & JORDAN, in Cooperstown, and
began to dream of life anew. He came here on the invitation of Mr.
Jordan, who was also a native of Columbia county, and between
whom there was an acquaintance of long standing. His student-life
was devoted to laying board and deep the foundation of those legal
requirements for which, in after-life, he was so eminent. He was
admitted to the bar as an attorney of the supreme court in January,
1818, his license was signed by Chief Justice Thompson, and in
June following he was commissioned by Governor De Witt Clinton,
as brigade judge advocate of the second brigade of infantry in this
State.
In 1821 he was admitted as counselor of the supreme court of
the State, Ambrose SPENCER then being the presiding judge. In
the same year he was made solicitor in the court of chancery, and
his license was signed by Judge Kent; and in 1824 he was admitted
counselor of that court, and in the same year he was made a master
in chancery, and afterwards was appointed "injunction-master," an
office which conferred upon him many of the powers and duties of
vice-chancellor. He held the office many years, receiving his
commissions successively from the chancellor, from Governor Troop,
and in 1833 from Governor William L. Marcy. In 1836 he was
admitted to practice in the supreme court of the United States.
In 1831 he was one of the four members that represented this
county in the assembly. He held the office of district attorney in this
county form 1829 to 1837, and in June, 1847, was elected justice of
the supreme court of the Sixth judicial district, and died while holding
that office, in December, 1849.
His literary taste and acquirements, his ready wit and genuine
humor, his genial disposition and courteous manners, made him a conspicuous ornament in the social and literary circle for which Cooperstown was then distinguished; his legal erudition, his manly bearing, his ability and fidelity in all the trusts, public or private, reposed in him, rendered him eminent at the bar; his inflexible love of right, his clear and lucid perception of vexed questions of law, his perspicuous exposition of
intricate questions that came before him to be decided, distinguished
him as a judge.
In 1827 he married Eliza, daughter of Dr. Thomas FULLER, of
Cooperstown. She was a lady thoroughly educated, but her kindness
of heart, her refinement of manner, her mild and gentle disposition,
and her unostentatious piety, were the marked traits of her character;
and whoever have been recipients of their refined hospitality, at
"Woodside," their beautiful residence, constructed on the mountain-side,
overlooking the main street of Cooperstown, erected under the
superintending care and guidance of the taste of Mr. Morehouse, know
something of the graceful and accomplished manner in which she
presided over that delightful home.--
Excerpt from History of Otsego Co., NY, page 30