Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-07-05
CHIEF JUSTICE OF
SUPREME COURT
DEAD IN MAINE
Melville w. Fuller, Victim of
Heart Disease, Though in
Usual Health Recently.

BAR HARBoR, Me-, July 5.-Melville
Weston Fuller. chief justice Of the SUI
preme Court of the United States. died
at his summer home. May Stay.
at Sorrento. near Bar Harbor. His
ceath was due to a sudden attack OF
heart disease. His daughter. Mrs.
Nathaniel Francis, and a guest, the
Rev. James E. Freeman. were with
him.
Though there have been reports that
Ill health would force MI. FulIer's re-
tirement from the bench during The
last v years, he was believed to be
in the best of health when he left
Washington for his summer vacation
On his seventy-seventh birthday. Feb
ruary II last. he announced that he had
never felt stronger In his life and that
he a no intention Of retiring.
Melville w. Fuller was appointed out
Of private life to the highest judicial
responsibility of the United States by
President Cleveland on April 80, 1888,
His appointment was confirmed by the
Senate on July 20. of the same year,
after bitter opposition by Senator Ed
n,rpds, of Vermont, who desired the
appointment of Edward ]. Phelps, OF
Vermont. who had been a classmate of
Mr.. Fuller at Bowdoin College.
Ar TTra1Tar Of fhn ffran ~ hts an-
p%ointrnent. had been for nearly twenty
years the leader Of the Cook County
(Illinois) bar. There were more Of his
cases. involving new applications and
interpretations of the law, in the Illi-
nois reports than Of any other lawyer.
The notification of the income IA
law by a narrow majority of the court
and the decision which destroyed the
Northern Securities merger were two Lf
the most important for which Justice
Fuller cast his opinion.
Other noted decisions of Chief JUS
tice Fuller were:
The Danbury hat case, in which la
Dor unions were held to be amendable
to the Sherman antitrust law.
The Western Union Telegraph Com
pany versus the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, In which the State was
denied the right to q telegraph mes
sages. except when intra Estate.
Justice Fuller read law at Harvard
and became a lawyer at 20. He was city
attorney and president Of the Common
Council of Augusta, and for a time was
editor of The Age, a newspaper on
which he was Obliged to- compete as
legislative correspondent with James g.
Blaine, Of the Kennebec Journal.
Mr.. Fuller went to Chicago and soon
became prominent there in politics as
well as at the bar. His qualities as an
orator attracted great attention, and In
1860 he was selected to deliver the adj
dress of welcome to Stephen A. Doug
las, to whose close friendship he a al
ready been admitted. His practise
p~rospered, and at the time of his ap-
pointment to be chief justice he was
reported to have an income as great as
that Of any other lawyer in Chicago.
Mr.. Fuller was twice married. His
first wife was Celesta Reynolds. of Au-
gusta, to whom he was married be-
fore he removed to Chicago. They had
two daughters-Grace and Maud. His
second wife was Ellen CooIbaugh, by
whom he had six more daughters
Mary, Mildred, Catherine, Jane. Paul
me and Frances. Their homes In
Washington and Chicago have always