JAMES CHURCH ALVORD

Alvord, James Church (1808-1839), a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Greenfield, Hampshire, Mass., April 14, 1808. His father, Elijah Alvord, Esq., for many years, Register of Probate, and Clerk of the Courts of Franklin Co., died in Greenfield, in 1840. He was prepared for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., under the tuition of John Adams, Esq. After graduating, be studied law, two years, with his uncle, Daniel Wells, Esq., at Greenfield, and at the Law School, in New Haven, Ct. In 1829, he was admitted to the Connecticut bar, and commenced practice, in Greenfield, as partner with Mr. Wells. During a portion of the same year, be pursued legal studies at the Law School, in Cambridge, Mass. With the exception of this interval, and a few months, in 1833, passed at Cambridge, as Professor pro tempore, in the Law School, be was actively engaged in the pursuit of his profession, in Greenfield, until his decease.

He was elected a Representative to the General Court of Massachusetts, in 1836, and a Senator, in 1837. In 1838, he was elected a Representative to Congress.

As a lawyer, in the broad, generous sense of that term, Mr. Alvord, deservedly occupied a distinguished place in the first class of the profession, in the estimation of the bench and bar throughout the Commonwealth . . . . . . While in the Legislature, he manifested talents of a high order as a statesman. His speeches upon the Witness Bill, the restoration of the writ de homine replegiando, the License Law, and his several Reports upon the petition for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, for the abolition of the slave trade, and against the annexation of Texas, all indicated a liberality of sentiment, a comprehensiveness of intellect, and a power of accomplishment, which promised much for the future, while they secured for him, at once, the respect and attention of the most distinguished of his colleagues. . . . As a companion and friend, be exhibited frankness and simplicity of demeanor, a warm and sympathizing heart, purity and loftiness of soul, generosity of sentiment and action, to a degree seldom met with. "-Greenfield Mercury.

Mr. Alvord died, in Greenfield, Sept. 27, 1839, of ulceration of the bowels.

He was married, Oct. 20, 1836, to Anna, a daughter of the late John Grew, of Boston, Mass.

Source: Class of 1827, of Dartmouth College; Proceedings at their meeting in July, 1852; and Brief Notices of the Members. Lynn: W. W. Kellogg, Printer Over the Depot, Typographic Hall, 1853.

Submitted by Deborah Crowell