General Notes

Attended Williams College but did not graduate and Litchfield Law School, the first law school in the United States.

the first lawyer- to settle in town, was born
in Litchfield, Conn., May 23, 1787. He was an elder brother of Hon. Julius Catlin, Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut in 1858-60.

In 1806, at the age of nineteen, he entered the celebrated Litchfield Law School. It was there that young Catlin made tlie acquaintance of John C. Calhoun, with whom lie was on terms of intimacy, was his pleasure, in after years, wiien Calhoun had become one of our foremost statesmen, to relate incidents of their student life, referring especially to the fact that they were both experts in fencing, and often parried foils in the manly exercise. When and where Cat-
lin was admitted to the bar, we know not. About 1812, he came to Sanford, and opened an oflflce in Deacon Moulton's house. He had considerable practice, though not enough to encourage a long residence in town ; and not far from 1815 he sold out to Arthur McArthur and removed to Waterborough Corner. There, in addition to his
legal business, he did some copying for lawyers at Alfred, and taught school near his home. He was a popular and successful teacher. It was ills custom to bolt the door of his office, and to pass out and enter through the window. In 1832, he moved his office to the Centre, and tlie year following left town. A day or two before his departure,
meeting several of his associates in a store, he I'emai-ked that he was going to do something that the devil never did. Surprised at the strange remark, they eagerly asked what that was. " I am going to leave town," was his answer.

From Waterborough he went to Harrison or Bridgton, in 1833, and later took up his residence at Livermore Falls. There and on a farm in Jay, he lived and practiced some thirty-five years, when he removed to Keene, N. H. In 1870 he went to live with his children in Fitchfield.

Mr. Catlin's abilities were such as to have placed him in the front rank in his profession. II is form and bearing attracted attention, even among strangers. "He was one of the handsomest and most fascinating men I ever saw," wrote Dr. James II. Peirce, one of his old-time acquaintances in Waterborough. He was gifted with uncommon powers of anecdote and repartee, and was quick, apt and witty.
His law arguments were usually logical and to the jjoint, and he was especially skilful in the examination of witnesses. Somewhat irritable, he would chafe when overruled in a trial. Illustrative of this, we have this story from one of his contemporaries at Livermore Falls: '' 1 had brought an sictiou before a justice of the peace, and at the trial Catlin was on the defence. The court had ruled in my favor on every contested point. At length he became so irritated
that he got up, took his hat, and as he was passing out of the door, turned around and said, 'D — n such a court, to be ruled by that calf's head of a lawyer!' and went homo, leaving his client to look out for " himself."