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MEMOIR

OF

1621

GEORGE BEMIS, ESQ.,

PREPARED AGREEABLY TO A RESOLUTION OF THE
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

By E. R. HOAR.

BOSTON

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON.

1878.

HARVARD

COLLEGE

LIBRARY

3

MEMOIR

OF

GEORGE BEMIS, ESQ.

GEORGE BEMIS was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, on the 13th of October, 1816; and died at Nice, in France, on the 5th of January, 1878, in the sixty-second year of his age.

He was the youngest son of Seth and Sarah (Wheeler) Bemis. His father was an intelligent and successful manufacturer, a graduate of Harvard College of the year 1795, who died in 1850, leaving to his children a considerable property. His ancestors on the father's side had been substantial citizens of Watertown from about the year 1640. His mother was a native of Concord, belonging to a family of the earliest settlers of that town.

Mr. Bemis was fitted for college with Mrs. Samuel Ripley of Waltham, a lady whose thorough scholarship and elevation of character made a profound and permanent impression upon the young men who were fortunate enough to be her pupils. He was a handsome boy, fond of study, quick of apprehension, with a ready and retentive memory, affectionate, and with a native refinement and purity. I have heard that he was a favorite with his teacher; but, from another source, have learned that she once said "that her objection to George Bemis was that he was too perfect." He passed the examination for entering Harvard College in 1829, when but thirteen years of age; but continued under Mrs. Ripley's instruction for three years more, entering the Sophomore class in 1832, and graduating the second scholar in his class in 1835. He studied law in the law school of the University, then in the charge of Judge Story and Professor Greenleaf; took the degree of bachelor of laws in 1839, and was admitted to the bar in July of that year. His legal training

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