CHOATE.
CHOATE.
CHOATE, Charles Francis, lawyer, was born
at Salem, Mass., May 10, 1828; son of Dr. George
and Margaret M. (Hodges) Choate, and a de-
S-'eiidant of John Choate, who emigrated from
the western part of England in 1643, and settled
in Ipswich, Mass. He was educated at the Salem
Latin school, was graduated at Harvard college
in 1849, and from Harvard law school in 1853.
From 1850 to 1853 he was tutor of mathematics in
the college. He was admitted to the bar of Bos-
ton in 1854, and became an authority on railroad
law^. In 1864 he was made counsel for the Boston
& Maine and Old Colony railroad corporations.
He was elected a director of the latter in 1873,
and in 1878 was chosen president of the corpora-
tion, holding also the presidency of the Old Col-
ony steamboat company. He continued in the
presidency of the road by annual re-election
until May 1, 1893, when it was consolidated
with the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
railroad company. On June 13, 1893, he was
chosen actuaiy of the New England trust com-
pany. He received from Harvard the degree of
A.M. in 1852, that of LL.B. in 1853, and from
Dartmouth the degree of A.M. in 1873.
CHOATE, David, educator, was born in Che- bacco, Ipswich, Mass., Nov. 39, 1796; son of David and Miriam (Foster) Choate, and brother of Rufus Choate. He was employed as a school teacher from 1815 to 1843. He inaugurated and developed the local high school, was one of the founders of the Essex county teachers' associa- tion, and for many years its president ; was one of the trustees of the Mount Holyoke female seminary from its incorporation in 1836; was a trustee of Dummer academy, Byfield, Mass., 1840- '50; a member of the state legislature, 1839-"41, and a member of the state senate and chairman of the committee on education, 1841-'43. He was for many years justice of the peace. He wrote : An Agricultural and Geolor/ical survey of Essex County, which was published by tlie Essex county agi'icultural society, of which he was an officer and member. He died in Essex, Mass., Dec. 17, 1872.
CHOATE, Joseph Hodges, lawyer, was born at Salem, Mass., Jan. 24, 1832; son of George and Margaret M. (Hodges) Choate. He was grad- uated from Harvard college in 1852, and from the law school of that institution in 1854. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1855, and to the New York bar in 1856, after a course of study in the office of Scudder & Carter, New York. He then formed a partnership with W. H. L. Barnes, under the firm name of Barnes & Choate, so remaining until 1800, when he became a member of the firm of Evarts, Southmayd & Choate. Among the celebrated cases in which he was concerned are the Del Valle breach
of promise case, the de Cesnola libpl case, Geb-
hard vs. the Canada southern railroad, Stewart
vs. Huntington, and the Fitz John Porter case,
in which Mr. Choate, as counsel for General
Porter, secured the reversal of the decision of the
original court martial. He was active in the
presidential campaign in 1856 in behalf of Fre-
mont, and his witty and ready speeches were
heard in every Republican national campaign
from that date. He was president of the state
constitutional convention of 1894; a candidate
befox'e the Republican legislative caucus of 1897
for US. senator; orator on the occasion of the
unveiling of the statue of Rufus Choate in the
Court House, Boston, Mass.; and U.S. ambassa-
dor to Great Britain, appointed Jan. 11, 1899,
by President McKinley. He was president of the
New England society. 1867-'71 ; of the N. Y. Union
League club, 187.3-'77; and of the Harvard club,
1874-78. He received the degree LL.D. from
Harvard in 1888, from Ainlierst, 1889, from Cam-
bridge and Edinburgh, 1900, and from Yale, 1901.
CHOATE, Rufus, lawyer, was born in Ipswich,
Mass., Oct. 1, 1799; son of David and Miriam
(Foster) Choate, and descended from John
Choate, who immigrated to Massachusetts in
1643. His father's sterling integrity' and unusual
intellectual endowment marked him as a superior
man, and his moth-
er"s keen perceptions,
ready wit, and nati^ e
dignity of bearing
were remarkable.
Rufus was early
noted for his insati-
able thirst for knowl-
edge, for his tenaci-
ous memory, and his
extraordinary preco-
city. He could re-
cite whole pages of
Pilgrim's Progress
when he was but .six
years old, and he had
perused the greater part of the village library
before he was ten. He entered Dartmouth col-
lege at the age of sixteen, after attending the
academy at New Hampton, N. H., for a term,
and was graduated with the valedictory in 1819.
The famous Dartmouth college case was on trial
during his undergraduate days, and it was Web-
ster's great speech in connection therewith that
so inspired Choate as to lead to his final choice
of the law as his profession. After tutoring at
Dartmoiith for a year, he spent three years in
Washington, D. C, studying law imder William
Wirt, attorney-general of the United States in
1823 was admitted to the bar, and for five years
practised at Dan vers, ]\Iass. In 1835 he was sent
