Omaha daily bee., 1909-10-18
BOY MINER SUPREME JUDGE
Sympathetic Review of Career Of
Judge Jacob Fawoett.
FACED BULLETS WITHOUT FEAR
Present Justice of Nebraska High
Court Early Developed the
Qualities that Distinguish
Him Today.

In the Chicago Tribune Of Sunday ap-
pears an article giving the life history, in
narrative form, of Judge Jacob Fawcett
of the Nebraska supreme court. 1t APP
pears under the caption, Boy Miner
Climbs to Supreme Bench" and draws
the lesson that the discipline and train
ing Of honest poverty and service in the
volunteer army of the COS has been most
valuable in building up character for those
who had the nerve to fight against all
obstacles The writer in the Tribune says:
Among the lawyers who have achieved
distinction either at the bar or on the
bench none has acquitted himself with
more fidelity to the higher instincts of
the profession than has Jacob Fawcett
of Omaha, now on the supreme bench of
Nebraska.
In the legal profession, as in all of the
avocations of life, there is a growing de-
mand for more common honesty and a
growing. belief that this common honesty
is more frequently found in the man
whose early life started under common
conditions and among common people
In the early history of Judge Fawcett is
an interesting story, familiar to many OF
the old timers, especially the old soldiers
of Illinois and Wisconsin, showing how
had their starting point in the stanch
character and ripening experience of the
grownup boy.
From Mine TO Battlefield.
At the age of IA, with his mother dead
Jacob Fawcett was working with his father
in the lead mines in southwestern Wiscon-
sin. After each days work, by the light
of the candle, he would pore over the
war news, following with avidity the move
ments Of the great armies ana the detailed
accounts Of the great battles.
His brother, a few years older, re-
sponded to the first call for volunteers, and
all the more for this the father and mother
less family needed the 14-year-old boy.
But the country needed him, too, as he
reasoned it out, and he begged the en-
rolling officers who were raising COM
pany at Hazel Green, Wis, to let him
go as a drummer boy. Once enlisted, he
refused the drum and took his place in
the ranks with a musket in Company /,
Sixteenth Wisconsin infantry.
At daylight Sunday morning, April g.
1862, this Wisconsin regiment fired the
shot which opened the great battle Of
Shiloh, one of the blooSiest battles of the
war. At sundown of ,the first day 25O
men Of the regiment had been killed or
wounded and among the wounded was
the boy, Jacob Fawcett
On the morning of the 9Th, two and a
half days after he had been wounded, the
doctors found Fawcett lying on some
sacks Of corn on the deck of a steam
boat on the Tennessee river, and the sur
geon dressing his wounds learned that It
was his 18th birthday. There were weeks
of suffering in the hospital; there were
four months of painful hobbling about on
crutches. 1t was a time for the boy IS
years old to show a manly patience and
strength of character and self-rellance
equal to the courage he had shown In
the battle of Shiloh In due time he re-
turned to duty, participating in the bat
ties and campaigns Of his regiment, under
General Grant, through the years of so
and '63.
Successful Plea for Freedom.
Fawcett was a born lawyer, as suggested
at that time by the following interesting
Continued on Second Page)