The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-07-04

apparently good health lately and there
had been no premonitory symptoms of
any kind of trouble. Yesterday he at
tended church as usual and when he
retired last night he was to all ap-
l-earances in his customary health.
Death came about O'Clock this MORN
ing. His daughter, Mrs. Nathaniel
Francis and Rev. James E Freeman.
who was a guest of Justice Fuller at
his Sorrento cottage "Mainstay," were
with the Jurist, when he died.
The funeral services will be held at
Sorrento and the internent will be at
Chicago. The date for the funeral has
not yet been fixed. Chief Justice Full
Ter was in his seventy-eighth year.
For many years the chief justice had
spent his summers at Sorrento, a sum-
mer colony located on Frenchman's
bay, five miles from Bar Harbor.
His Career.
Washington, July 4-To Chief Jus
tice Fuller fell the honor of third rank
for length of service as presiding JUS
tice in the highest tribunal of the
American government. For % years
he was chief justice of the supreme
court of the United States but Chief
Justice Marshall presided over the
court for "a wears and Chief Justice
Taney for % wears. With the future
rests the determination of his rank
among the eight chief justices of his
tory for ability and accomplishments.
Before Grover Cleveland sent his
name to the senate on April 80. 1888
for confirmation as chief justice, he
was practically unknown except to
/. members of the legal profession In
Maine, where he was born on Febru-
ary IL. 1888. he had been known as
a well behaved. rather scholarly lad
He had gone to Bowdoin college and
incidentally there won most of the
prizes for elocution. He had gone
down to Harvard law school for one
year. Finally he blossomed forth as a
| full f1edged lawyer and politician of o
| high minded sort in his native city OK
Augusta. He became an associate edf-
tor on Democratic paper called 'The
| Age,'' and about the same time was
elected president Of the city council
and city solicitor. Soon thereafter he
| left Maine for the greater opportuni-
ties of life in Chicago.
His Residence in Chicago.
From 1855 to 1888 he lived in Chi
cago, but attracted little attention out
side his immediate circle of friends
and associates at the bar until he un-
dertook the defense of Bishop Henry
/ on charge of heresy. His knowledge
of ecclesiastical history and procedure
astonished those who conducted the
case and his argument of the cause OF
the bishop before the supreme court
of Illinois is referred to still as
forensic effort seldom If ever surpassed
in that court.
He was a delegate to the national
conventions of the Democratic party in
I1S64, 1872. 1876 and 1880.
The Maine boy who had gone west"
accomplished much, however, notwith-
standing his quiet life He had laid
the foundations for a deep understand
Il ing of the commercial laws of the
country and along this line he had per-
formed services for clients that was
estimated to have netted him an an
nuaI income of $4,000. These accom-
plisnments led the Republican senators
[ from Illinois to urge upon the Demo-
!, cratic president the appointment or
= Mr. Fuller as the successor of Chief
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