Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-05-22
THE SENTENCE AFFIRMED.
Judge DrummOnd Takes No Exception
to the Divine Ruling.
After a Life of Usefulness He Sue
GumbS to Deaths Warrant.
History Of His Life as a Jurist Re-
markable to Degree.

Drummond uf the United States circuit
court and one of the oldest and best known
iurists in the country, died suddenly at
Wheaton, ILL.,, this morning.
Judge Drummond was born at Bristol,
Me, on Oct Is, 1909, and was, therefore
80 years of age. His preliminary edu-
cation was obtained at the public schools,
and in 1926 he entered Bowdoin, whence
he was graduated in 1880. In the fall of
that year he went to Philadelphia
and began the study of the law
with William P. Dwight, son of
the president of Yale, with whom
he remained until Mr.. Dwight entered the
ministry, after which Mr.. Drummond
entered the office of Thomas Bradford, with
whom he remained until he was admitted
30 the bar in March, 1888 In May, 1885,
ne removed to Galena, ILL.,, and entered
upon the practice Of law. In 1910, in the
Harrison campaign, he was the wing can
didate for the legislature in the counties
of Joe Daviess, Stephenson, Winnebago,
Boone, Ogle, Lee, Whiteside, Carroll,
Rock Island and Mercer, district which
has now three congressman. He was
elected and served one term, the only poll
teal office he ever held.
in 1850 Gen. Taylor appointed him dis
trict Judge of the district of Illinois. The
appointment was entirely unsolicited on
the part of Judge Drummond, but was
urged ty the entire bar of the circuit in
which he had been practicing. When the
state of Illinois was divided into two di-
visions in 1855 the act of congress as
signed Judge DrummOnd to the northern
district. He had removed to Chicago the
year before. In December, 1869 President
Grant appointed him Judge of the Seventh
circuit, consisting of the states of Illinois,
Wisconsin and Illinois.
In the fall of 1889 he was married to
Miss Della A. Sheldon, daughter of John
F. Sheldon, of Willow Springs, Wis.
and four daughters, all of whom have
grown up honored members of society.
The great work of Judge Drummond,
which has impressed itself upon the
judicial history of the country, has been
done since he went upon the circuit bench
The panic of 1873 swept over the west
like a simeon, and wrecked railroads In
common with every other expanded in
terests which ha.. sprung into life under
the initiation which followed the war By
the middle of 1876 nearly sixteen thou
sand miles of railroads, which were in
whole Or mainly in his circuit, had passed
into the hands of receivers appointed by
Judge Drummond, and this vast interest
represented ovor $500, 100000 in bonds
and nearly twice that amount in stocks.
Everyone of these receivers made their de
tailed reports of their financial and ope-
rating actions directly to Judge Drum
mond, and upon every act of theirs he had
10 give his approval. In this way he gave
more attention to the actual details of
their operations than Mr.. Vanderbilt or
Mr.. Gould ever did, and yet he controlled
as many miles of road as did both of the
great railroad kings, with large slice
from Tom SCOTS roads.
These roads were wrecked when the
court took them, and the almost super
human amount of labor necessary to save
the property and make IL of any value to
the creditors. had to be done by this one
man, who marked out the policy of each
one of his managers and though their in
terests often conhicted, his policy was so
wise that it saved every one of them. Not
Al pound of iron Or any improvement could
5e put on the roads without his order and
while he had selected the best possible
men, be never varied from his deliberate
Judgment, as to what action was best for
each line
1t would seem that this vast work,
greater than any other man has ever per-
formed alone, would have been all that
one could have done in d lifetime. yet he
did it in less than seven years, and while
he was doing it he discharged all the
other duties on his circuit and in that
time he did more to shape the policy of
courts in managing railroads in the
hands of receivers, and In determining
the rights of creditors, than any other
Judge In the country. Of course, this
would follow his having control of
SO many miles of road in a region where
they had had such a mushroom growth;
bat he had started with the advantage of
living on the seaboard, where he acquired
q thorough knowledge of admiralty law,
common carriers to the public. His main
policy IN the management of the bank
rupt roads was that his receivers should
not incur any debts except to put the
roads in a condition which would insure
the safe transportation of passengers and
freight.
When the strikes of 1877 stopped the
operation of nearly every railroad in the
west they included several of those in
Judge Drummond's court. To deal with
the men who had invaded the rights and
the authority of the court was a delicate
task vet the Judge did it with so much JUS
tice that even the strikers did not complain
of the sentences. And his reasoning in de-
Gliding the cases in Illinois was so profound
that every recent writer of the relations
between railroads and their employees
have quoted him. In all cases he has
held that the claims of the men who oper-
ate and care for the property of the cred
itors of railroad are first lien, and
must be paid before any other debts.
Had Judge Drummord been a railroad
manager instead of Judge the world
would have echoed his name if his success
in dealing with that interest had been only
half what it has been.
Owing to his advanced age Judge
Drummond was retired from the bench
several years ago, and President Arthur
appointed Gen. Walter Q. Gresham, of
indiana, as his successor. He was well
known in Wisconsin, and especially by
the bar, with whom he was justly popu-
lar.