CREEK ROAD GANG
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Autobiography of
Nathaniel Watson Ladd
(1848-1932)
Part 8
Editor's note:
This
is the eighth excerpt from the autobiographical manuscript left by
Nathaniel Watson Ladd. See prior issues for the first
installment, the second
installment, the third
installment , the fourth
installment,
the fifth
installment, the sixth
installment and the seventh installment.
Born in 1848 in Derry, New Hampshire, the second child and first son of Daniel and Lucy Ladd, Nathaniel Watson Ladd went on to graduate from Dartmouth College and to study law at Boston University. He became a Boston lawyer and political figure, serving on the Boston Common Council, and later in the State Legislature. He was also a founder of the Boston Athletic Association. He died in 1932.
In this section, Nathaniel Watson Ladd tells of returning to Boston and attending Law School at Boston University.
After about fifteen months of this work [Ed.: as a book representative for Ginn], I returned to Boston, and never will forget the thrust of delight that went through me as I looked once more on the hills of our New England.
The Law School of the Boston University had been going on for several weeks. I had an interview with the then acting Dean, and told him I wanted to get credited with a year’s private reading of law, for I had read Blackstone and Kent and some other law books, and had been registered as a student in a law office in Louisville. I asked him to give me a chance to listen to both lectures a day and take notes on them and look up the references, and get credited with the year’s private reading; so that if I could pass the examinations at the end of that year, I could graduate and get my law degree. He agreed to do so. I knew that the work at the school at that time was simply the giving of these two lectures each day. There were at that time no quizzes, and no other general exercises. I was in a hurry to get admitted to the Bar, because I was past twenty-five when graduated at college.
He agreed to do that, but when the catalogue came out, about the first of January, I saw that my name was in the first year class. Even if I did all the work and passed all the examinations, I could not graduate and get my degree. I went to him and made complaint. He remembered the conversation we had and acknowledged that he had agreed that he would fix it so I could graduate and get my degree, but finally added that he and Judge Bennett were a Committee to decide all such questions. This was on a Friday, and he knew that Judge Bennett did not come in to Boston from Taunton, where he lived, until the next Wednesday. He said that no changes could be made in the list after the next Monday, for it had to go into the printer’s hands that day.
I always felt that he thought his plan would prevail, but I knew Judge Bennett was a very kindly man. It so happened that he had appointed me as Associate Justice with himself to decide a Mott Court case, and I had written out an opinion in that case citing many authentications, and knew I had done the best possible with it. He [Judge Bennett] was the only one on the Faculty who had any knowledge of what I had acquired in the school.
Saturday morning I took an early train for Taunton and found Judge Bennett in Court there, trying a horse case. When the recess came, I had an interview with him and told him that the acting dean had said that he was willing if Judge Bennett was that my name should go into the lists, so that if I could pass my examinations at the end of the year, I could graduate and get my degree. Judge Bennett sat down and wrote a letter, giving his full consent that my name should go onto that list. I returned to Boston and saw that the letter got into the hands of the acting dean that same day. My name went into the proper list.
Examinations came, fourteen of them, two each day. I expect I only passed them by the skin of my teeth, but I did pass them, graduated, and got my degree with the class of 1875. I have sometimes wished that I had taken the drill then given at the Harvard Law School, and taken three years more of the work, but perhaps it has not made much difference.
In the Fall of that year, I took my examinations for admission to the Suffolk Bar. There were two examiners at the time, and I went before both of them, and they passed me. Mr Seth Thomas moved my admission to the Suffolk Bar on the eighth of November, 1875.
Born in 1848 in Derry, New Hampshire, the second child and first son of Daniel and Lucy Ladd, Nathaniel Watson Ladd went on to graduate from Dartmouth College and to study law at Boston University. He became a Boston lawyer and political figure, serving on the Boston Common Council, and later in the State Legislature. He was also a founder of the Boston Athletic Association. He died in 1932.
In this section, Nathaniel Watson Ladd tells of returning to Boston and attending Law School at Boston University.
After about fifteen months of this work [Ed.: as a book representative for Ginn], I returned to Boston, and never will forget the thrust of delight that went through me as I looked once more on the hills of our New England.
The Law School of the Boston University had been going on for several weeks. I had an interview with the then acting Dean, and told him I wanted to get credited with a year’s private reading of law, for I had read Blackstone and Kent and some other law books, and had been registered as a student in a law office in Louisville. I asked him to give me a chance to listen to both lectures a day and take notes on them and look up the references, and get credited with the year’s private reading; so that if I could pass the examinations at the end of that year, I could graduate and get my law degree. He agreed to do so. I knew that the work at the school at that time was simply the giving of these two lectures each day. There were at that time no quizzes, and no other general exercises. I was in a hurry to get admitted to the Bar, because I was past twenty-five when graduated at college.
He agreed to do that, but when the catalogue came out, about the first of January, I saw that my name was in the first year class. Even if I did all the work and passed all the examinations, I could not graduate and get my degree. I went to him and made complaint. He remembered the conversation we had and acknowledged that he had agreed that he would fix it so I could graduate and get my degree, but finally added that he and Judge Bennett were a Committee to decide all such questions. This was on a Friday, and he knew that Judge Bennett did not come in to Boston from Taunton, where he lived, until the next Wednesday. He said that no changes could be made in the list after the next Monday, for it had to go into the printer’s hands that day.
I always felt that he thought his plan would prevail, but I knew Judge Bennett was a very kindly man. It so happened that he had appointed me as Associate Justice with himself to decide a Mott Court case, and I had written out an opinion in that case citing many authentications, and knew I had done the best possible with it. He [Judge Bennett] was the only one on the Faculty who had any knowledge of what I had acquired in the school.
Saturday morning I took an early train for Taunton and found Judge Bennett in Court there, trying a horse case. When the recess came, I had an interview with him and told him that the acting dean had said that he was willing if Judge Bennett was that my name should go into the lists, so that if I could pass my examinations at the end of the year, I could graduate and get my degree. Judge Bennett sat down and wrote a letter, giving his full consent that my name should go onto that list. I returned to Boston and saw that the letter got into the hands of the acting dean that same day. My name went into the proper list.
Examinations came, fourteen of them, two each day. I expect I only passed them by the skin of my teeth, but I did pass them, graduated, and got my degree with the class of 1875. I have sometimes wished that I had taken the drill then given at the Harvard Law School, and taken three years more of the work, but perhaps it has not made much difference.
In the Fall of that year, I took my examinations for admission to the Suffolk Bar. There were two examiners at the time, and I went before both of them, and they passed me. Mr Seth Thomas moved my admission to the Suffolk Bar on the eighth of November, 1875.
