This cane was presented to one of Greenfield, Massachusetts’, longest-serving lawyers on his retirement in 1903. Samuel Lamb was born in Guilford, Vermont, in October of 1821, the son of a Baptist minister and farmer. He was a good student, and taught school for four years after completing his own formal education. In 1843, Lamb came to Greenfield and began reading law in the offices of Whiting Griswold. Two years later, he began writing for one of the local newspapers, the Franklin Democrat and in 1848, he became editor and proprietor. Lamb became a lawyer without attending college, which was typical at the time. Throughout the 1700s and 1800s men training for the profession read law in an established law office for several years. Then they took an oral examination administered by other lawyers, who would either accept or reject their application “to the bar.” Lamb passed the bar in 1850. He practiced in Greenfield for more than fifty years. A pillar of the community, he was involved in a number of other business and service interests, including serving as president of the Franklin Savings Institution. He died in 1908.