Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-03-29
JUSTICE BREWERS
DEATH SHOCK TO
WHOLE COUNTRY
Stricken with ApOplexy, End
Comes Quickly TO Noted Jurist
in Washington Home

WASHINGTON. March %. The
death of Justice David Josiah Brewer,
of the Supreme Court of the United
States, at his home in this city late
last night, caused profound regret here
and throughout the country. Many
calls were made at the Brewer resi-
dence today by sympathizing friends OF
the family and messages of coincidence
arrived in great number. Members OF
the Supreme Court of the United states
were among the callers.
Justice Brewer was found in the bath
room of his house, dying of apopleXy,
the discovery being mad by Mrs.
Brewer. She at once t~elephoned Tor
Justice Gould, of the Supreme court OF
the District of Columbia, who lives
nearby. Hurrying to the Brewer home,
Justice Gould, with the assistance OF
two servants, carried the body from
the bathroom to the bedroom. Justice
Gould said that Justice Brewers pulse
was still family beating as he carried
him into the bedroom. Mrs. Brewer
and a nice. Miss Clara Hala, were the
only members of the family in the
house at the time. An attempt was
made to notify the other justices of the
court, but it was found too late to
reach any of them but Justice Harlan,
who sent his son to convey his regrets.
Marshall Wright and Deputy Clerk
Maher soon got word of the death. Jus
tice Gould in the meantime summoning
DIR. ]. H. Taylor, who lives a few doors
from the Brewer house. DR.. Taylor de-
clared that Justice Brewer was dead
when he arrived. DR.. Sterling Ruffin
also was summoned.
Justice Brewer had not been we'll for
several days. He had had several at
tacks. headache and stomach trouble.
News of his death Travelled quickly and
a large number of newspaper CORE
spondents and others were at the house
within a short time afterwards.
President Taft Distressed.
President Taft, Upon his arrival here
today from New York. was much dis
tressed by the news of the death last
night of his friend. He had learned the
bare fact last night before his de-
parture from Jersey City, and eagerly
read the detailed accounts of the death
of the noted iurist as soon as the news
papers reached him in his car at the
UniOn station this morning.
David Josiah Brewer had been a
Justice of the United States Supreme
Court for a little more than twenty
years. He was appointed by President
Harrison in December. 1889, to succeed
Justice Stanley Matthews. and he was
sworn in on January 6, 1890.
He was a stickler for constitutional
ideas on and off tho bench, and in
the past few years delivered speeches
on that general subject which were
read around the world. Perhaps the
most celebrated of these addresses was
made in Carnegie Hall on November
u, 1907. in which, discussing the sa-
credness of the Constitution and GER
tain dangerous tendencies that
thoughtful men had observed SPRING
ing up. he found it necessary to say
some very sharp things about Theodore
Roosevelt, then President. He was a
fine, forceful speaker at all times, with
an ability to cut straight to the heart
on a subject.
He sprang from the remarkable Feld
family, which for three generations has
been prominent in church, State and
law. He inherited richly. not only from
his mother. who was a sister of Justice
Field, but from his father, who was
an early missionary to Turkey. His
face was regarded as the most intel
lectual on the bench, the face at once
OF q student and a philanthropist. His
forehead was high and broad, his blue
eyes radiated kindness, and the express
sicr of his lean, cl~ean-shayen face was
very genial for that of the typical
judge.
He was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor.
on June 20. 1887, but his life there vas
limited to eleven months. Like his
father. his grandfather and his great
grandfather and a number of his UNI
Giles, he was an alumnus of Yale. hav-
ing taken his degree with the class of
1856. The class had a membership of
ninety-seven and the name of David j,
Brewer stood very high on the list
Among Justice Brewers classmates
were C%hauncey NJ. Depew. now United
States Senator from New York, and
Justice Brown.
After leaving college. young Brewer
studied law for a while in he office of
his uncle. Dudley Field. in this city, the
same office where Justice Field had
previously beer a student, then a part
ner, before he gave up the place to join
in the great rush to the gold fields in
California. Subsequently Justice Brewer
took a course in law in Albany, and
was graduated from the Albany Law
School in 1858. The next year he re-
moved to Lcavcnworth, Kan, where he
practised law in the days when Kansas
was the battle-ground of the pro-slavery
and anti-slavery factions. In Leaven-
worth he occupied the office of United
States commissioner, and was judge Of
the Probate and Circuit Courts. In 1865
he was appointed a United States dis