DOUGLASS BOARDMAN
pp. 9-11

Douglass Boardman was born in the town of Covert, county of Seneca, on the 31st day of October, 1822. He was the youngest of twelve children, of whom his brother, the Hon. Truman Boardman who represented his district in the State Senate of 1858, and two sisters, Mrs. Lucy B. Smith and Miss Emily Boardman, alone survive. The youngest son of this large family early sought an education which might fit him for a professional life. In a private school of his native town and afterwards in the academy at Ovid he prepared for a collegiate course, and, after three years of study in Hobart College at Geneva, he entered the senior class at Yale and graduated from that institution in 1842. H immediately began the study of law and was admitted to the bar after the usual period of preparation. He was married in 1846 to the wife who now survives. He held the office of district attorney of the county of Tompkins from 1848 to 1851, and of county judge and surrogate from 1852 to 1856. In both positions he displayed unusual ability, and met his duties and responsibilities with an unflagging industry and a promptness and accuracy which characterized his whole life. At the close of his term as county judge he formed a partnership with Judge Francis M. Finch, which lasted for ten years, and until Judge Boardman was called to the bench of the Supreme Court. Those were years of hard study and severe labor, which alone could enable the young practitioners to cope with an existing bar of unusual strength and ability. Whatever of success they attained was largely due to the clear and discriminating judgement, and the wise and prudent discretion of the older member of the firm. And it is a source of satisfaction to the survivor to remember that the connection was never marred or disturbed by the slightest disagreement, the least misunderstanding, or even one worried or hasty word.

In 1863 Judge Boardman was elected a justice of the Supreme Court for the Sixth District to serve for a term of eight years. In the convention which nominated him there were numerous candidates, each having his own zealous and earnest friends, and when the result was reached after a long struggle it was largely due to a conviction on the part of the delegates that Judge Boardman possessed in unusual degree the character and habit of mind, the firmness and decision of purpose, the patience and strict integrity which should attend the judicial office. The result outran even the expectation of partial friends. The new judge found in his work the field and the arena best suited for his development and success. Pleasant but firm, cheerful but in earnest, patient but determined, prompt but careful and prudent, and always thoroughly impartial and striving only for exact justice, he so won the confidence of the bar and of the people that at the close of his term he was re-elected for a new term of fourteen years without an antagonist and practically by an unanimous vote. His judicial ability was at that time so well understood and appreciated that he was at once assigned to the General Term of the Third Department, and so passed from the trial courts to an appellate tribunal, presided over at first by Judge Miller, who later passed to the bench of the court of last resort, and afterwards by Judge Learned, who still presides at a General Term. Undoubtedly Judge Boardman preferred the variety and mental excitement of the Circuit where point and decision follow each other with swift velocity, to the slower and more studious labors of the appellate court, but he soon demonstrated that there also he was in his proper place, and fully equipped for his new duties and responsibilities. His opinions were almost without exception terse and brief, with no waste of words and little elaboration of argument, but marked always by the strong good sense and sound judgement which were his chief characteristics. He easily won the respect and the friendship of his associates and came to be universally regarded as a prudent and careful and able judge. And so his life and his work ran on until 1887 when his term expired. He might have been again chosen for the five years remaining before reaching the age of seventy, but resolutely declined, saying that he needed rest, and was entitled to it after twenty-six years of judicial labor.

But rest, with him, meant only change of occupation; to duties less exacting and laborious, but still requiring the exercise of all his ability and discretion.

He possessed in an unusual degree the qualities of a thorough businessman. In the management of his own affairs he was systematic, thrifty and prudent; averse to anything like waste or extravagance, and inclined to a plain and simple life. His financial prudence and ability found a wide field and a sever test in the management of two large estates committed to his care as executor. The first came to his hands heavily burdened with debts accumulated by the owner in a determined struggle to hold his assets against the sacrifice of a falling market. To Judge Boardman, who seldom approved of a debt and dreaded its risks, the situation was peculiarly disquieting, but he met the emergency both with skill and courage and saved the large fortune entrusted to his care from loss or sacrifice, and transmitted it unharmed to the daughter who was substantially the sole legatee. Naturally he became the executor of her will, and was compelled to hold the estate through a long and severely contested litigation which ended in the diversion to private and personal use of a large residue which the testatrix had devoted to a worthy public purpose, and the educational benefit of the youth of the land.

Judge Boardman was a director of the First National Bank of Ithaca from its organization , in 1864, to the time of his death, and became its president, succeeding in that office the Hon. J. B. Williams in 1884. He became a trustee of the Cornell University by vote of the alumni in 1875 and was re-elected by the trustees in 1885. Upon the organization of the Law School of the University he was appointed its dean and became active and efficient in promoting its success.

In all these positions his business sagacity and prudence were of great value to the interest which he served. In the investment and management of the large endowment of the university and the appropriation and administration of its income, in the care of the bank and a watchful oversight of its finances, in the control of the estates committed to his trust, he found heavy burdens and large responsibilities which were borne with far more than the usual ability. To these duties it was a pleasure to him to add his governing aid to the law school and his advice in its management, always thoughtful and wise. And so in these labors his days were usefully spent after the close of his judicial career.