The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-01-02
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Supreme Court HOnOrs Memory
OF Justice Cunningham.
Memorial Address by Thomas e.
Dewey.
JOHNSTON'S RESPONSE.
Chief Justice Speaks for the
Court.
Speaks of Moral Courage of
Judge Who Is Gone.
JOHNSTON'S RESPONSE.

At the opening of the January term
of the Kansas supreme court this morn
ing, memorials to the late justice, Ed
win w. Cunningham. We're read, and by
order Of the court. viii be embodied in
the next volume Of Kansas supreme
court reports. A similar memorial ser
vice was held for Justice Ellis, who was
the only member Of the court to die
while in Office.
Thomas E. Dewey, supreme court re-
porter, read to the court this morning
very able and effective memorial adj
dress He said in part:
For the second time in the history
OF this court Death has caused va
caney, and strange and singular is the
fact that the two justices to whom the
summons came were contemporaries in
appointment, nominatio and election,
their experience of the ermine differing
only IN length of service On such oc-
CASTOR 1t seems fitting that the record
be prepared and presented upon the
suggestion and motion of the court it.
ser, ana; IN pursuance thereof, your
reporter has undertaken to put into
FORM the sentiments of the present JUS
Ices, inspired by the death of Justice
Cunningham, together with mention Of
those incidents of his life and death
that are necessary to a true estimate
of the man.
1T is pleasure to pay tribute to the
memory OF good man. In way his
goodness removes the sting of death,
Tor his friends and associates who are
assured that for him is every reward
that eternity may have in store for the
deserving. Sweet is the satisfaction of
knowing that in the life of Justice Gun
bingham there was nothing ia he hid
nothing to be avoided. nothing to he
passed over in silence because de
mortnis nil nisi bonum, and all of this
means that there was nothing of which
he was afraid. The task of the biosra-
pher lies not in spreading the mantle
OF CHARITY but in Withdrawing the veil
from memory.
Edwin W. Cunningham was born
IN Clarksheld. Ohio. August 81, 1912,
ana there resided until 1866 His
education began in the country dis
trict schools and was continued at
Baldwin university at Berea Ohio.
and at HillsdaIe college. Michigan.
where he was graduated in 1866 He
ENLISTED as a private in cOmDanV d
one Hundred and First Ohio volunteer
infantry in July, 1862, and was dis
charged after one years service. He
then enlisted in the regular service as
hospital steward and served until
January, 1864. In 1856 he spent sew
eral months at UrbanaG III and in the
fall of 1857 became uperintendent of
schools at Milan, Ohf0,x After one
year he accepted a similar position at
one year. He was admitted to the bar
in June, 1862 and the following
month located at Emporia, Kan, for
the practice of his profession. He was
probate judge of Lyon county for
three terms.
After the constitution of Kansas
was amended in 1900, increasing the
membership of this court from three
justices to seven, Governor William z.
Stanley, on January Is, 1901, selected
Justices Cunningham, Greene. Ellis
and Pollock for the new places. In
1902, Justice Cunningham was nomi-
mated and elected for the two year
term, and in 1904 he was irenominated
and reelected for ask year term.
His service on the bench continued
four and one-half years.
After his election to the full term
he began to arrange for a home in
Topeka in order that he might have
constantly with him the family to
whom the i'll health of the wife and a
daughter had made his care a neces-
sity: but in the midst of it all early
in the year 1905, his own strength
gave way. After months of effort to
bear the burdens of official life he
gave up Tho struggle and went to
Colorado in the hope of relief. but
none came, and the summons was an