His sense of civic duty has been strikingly exemplified in the conscientious performance of his duties as supervisor, though his acceptance of the office involved great inconvenience and sacrifice. His labors in behalf of St. Luke's Hospital have been of inestimable value to that noble benefaction.
In a community as conservative as Newburgh, where one minister is still acceptably serving his congregation for the fifty-second year and another for the thirty-fifth, it counts for something, and very properly so, that a man should be the son and successor of an honored, respected father. When Mr. Brewster died his son was made a director of the Newburgh Bank in his father's place and when Abram S. Cassedy died the same course was taken in the Quassaick Bank in respect to his son, William F. Cassedy.
The Cassedys, father and son, cover a period of fifty-one years' continuous practice, the elder Cassedy having been admitted in 1857. The high place gained by him in the esteem of the bar and in the confidence of the public has already been set forth at length. This confidence has been transferred to his son, William F. Cassedy, to a degree almost unprecedented in the career of a young practitioner but in every sense justified by his high character and brilliant talents. Mr. Cassedy has during the last few years managed and represented estates of as great magnitude as the estates represented by all the other lawyers of Orange County combined. He has a special talent for this important branch of the practice, but, like his father, can drop his papers and go to court with his case well prepared for trial. The ability with which he uniformly presents it to a jury is well reinforced by the same winning manner and pleasing personality which has endeared him to so many friends.
When Judge Charles F. Brown was in 1883 elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court, the firm of Cassedy & Brown, of which Abram S. Cassedy was then the senior member, was, of course, dissolved. When Judge Brown retired from the bench in 1897, Mr. Cassedy having meantime died, the names became transposed, the firm of Brown & Cassedy then formed, and still continuing, being composed of Judge Brown and William F. Cassedy. That this association of his name with that of his old partner's son should be pleasing to Judge Brown is a distinguished mark of that great jurist's confidence, esteem and affection which indeed, are shared by all, bar and public alike, who come to know the pure and lofty character of William F. Cassedy.
William B. Royce who with his son, Herbert B. Royce, is engaged in practice in Middletown, was admitted forty years ago, but being persuaded, while in the full tide of active practice, to accept the position of president of the First National Bank in 1875, his career as a lawyer was interrupted for seventeen years. Resigning this position, however, at the end of this period, he soon recovered his scattered practice and upon the admission to the bar of his son the firm of William B. and Herbert B. Royce was formed. This continued until the autumn of 1906 when, John C. R. Taylor, having been elected to the Senate, the firm of Taylor, Royce & Royce was formed.
Mr. Royce has greater capacity for public business than any lawyer who ever practiced at the bar in Orange County. His mind grasps readily, his tastes run naturally to, every phase and variety of town, county and municipal relations, improvements and enterprises, with all the important questions involved in them in respect to the proper distribution of public burdens. He is an authority upon corporation law in respect both to the organization and management of corporations. His power of clear statement, in respect to any involved or intricate situation, is very great.
There is one characteristic of Mr. Royce which is fully appreciated only by those who have been in a position to see its frequent effective exercise. He loves to settle disputes among neighbors and litigants. He has genuine talent for making each party see how it would benefit him to make some concession and even greater tact in pointing out how certain concessions necessary to the settlement will still leave the pride and dignity of the parties uncompromised. He absolutely has never failed in bringing about an agreement which he started out to compass. Sometimes, indeed, the perverseness of the parties has seemed to make the difficulties insuperable, but this has only spurred him on to renewed exertions. Those who know how unprofitable and unwise for both parties is any litigation which can possibly be avoided and, especially, any litigation representing only an honest difference of opinion, will realize the indebtedness of the public to Mr. Royce for those unselfish exertions and that salutary influence which, throughout his entire professional career, have been steadily, consistently and successfully directed to the promotion of peace and the soothing of angry controversy.
His son, Herbert B. Royce, who enjoyed the advantages of both the classical and law course at Cornell University, was launched from the first into the activities of a busy office. Having been elected special county judge he has enjoyed an opportunity, in presiding over the trial terms of the County Court, to impress his abilities upon the bar and the public to a degree and in a manner never before enjoyed by a special county judge in the entire history of the county. Before Judge Beattie's time the county judges were never very considerate to the special county judges. They regarded them as officers provided merely for the convenience of the bar in signing orders and they affected to think that there might be some serious question of jurisdiction involved in their trying and sentencing criminals, even Judge Hirschberg and Judge Beattie were never invited, as special county judges, to hold a term of court, but the judges, when they could not act themselves, always brought in a county judge of a neighboring county. Judge Beattie acted more generously to his official coadjutor and when it became necessary for him to surrender two terms of court. Judge Royce was requested to hold them. This service was performed by him with such marked ability and so greatly to the satisfaction of the entire bar and the public, that Judge Seeger, who succeeded Judge Beattie in 1907, and who was disqualified from sitting in any cases in which he, as district attorney, had procured the indictments, again summoned Judge Royce to the bench, when again he was enabled to give a public demonstration of his judicial fitness and capacity and to prove that it will never be necessary to call in a judge from a neighboring county as long as Judge Royce remains special county judge.
Finn & Finn is the name of the firm of which Daniel Finn was the senior member until it was ruthlessly dissolved by the untimely hand of death, which overtook him without warning in the very midst of an unusually active and prosperous career. Admitted to the bar in 1870 he began and, for thirty-five years continued his practice in Middletown, becoming one of the most respected and influential of its citizens as well as one of the ablest and most trusted of its bar. He was especially versed in the law of wills. Nothing appealed more strongly to his interest than the ambiguous provisions of a will and the difficult questions raised as to their proper construction. His opinions upon these were often submitted to the court with the result that his judgment was invariably sustained.
He was the most imperturbable of men. Nothing agitated or even ruffled him. He could lay down his pen to engage in an interview with some irascible client and, after it was over, calmly resume work upon his thoughtful brief at the very point at which it had been interrupted. This faculty, the result of training as well as of temperament, enabled him to accomplish a great deal of work. The day was never spoiled for him by some untoward incident, unpleasant letter or peevish client. Each day marked distinct progress in some appointed task.