The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-08-10

tice, of Hartford; salute Chief Justice George Wakeman Wheeler of Bridge port and to both best wishes of The Times.
 This change in the leadership of the Connecticut supreme court of er- TOTS, under the operation of the Con- necticut constitution compelling the on reaching their seventieth birthday, took effect on Monday. Justice Wheeler's accession to the office vacated by Justice Prentice came about through appointment hy his ex- cellency, Governor Marcus H. Hol- comb, and confirmation by the last general assembly.
 Heredfity Counts.
 As has been the case with many of Connecticut's jurists, George w. Wheeler's call to the Judiciary would seem to have been in accordance with the law of selectivfty, or family deS- tiny. His great grandfather, stephen Wheeler, of Easton, this state, was a judge of the Fairfield county court; his grandfather, Charles Wheelr, also of EaSton, a man Of education and worth, ably served as member of the Connecticut general assembly and his father, George w. Wheeler, after having passed some years as a sue cessful school principal upon his grad uation from Amherst college, class of 1856, became judge of the court of common pleas of Bergen county, New Jersey, which position he occupied with ability and distinction until in capacitated by age some years before his death in 1918. Judge Wheeler's 8 father maintained his New Jersey residence until his death. His wife was Lucy, daughter of Henry Dowie, of Aides, N. Y, and to them were born two sons, of whom the incoming chief justice is the elder.
 Yale and the Law.
 The first four years of Judge Wheeler's life were passed at Wood vile, Miss, where he was born, Dec. 1, 1860. His parents, in 1868, es- tablished a residence in Hackensa ok, N. J., where he attended public schools and the Hackensack academy, graduating from the latter in 1876. He then attended williston seminary, East Ham pton, Mass, graduating with the class of 1877. -Four years later he received his sheepskin from Gale, aca demic, and after a preparatory | course in the office of Garret Acker- son, of. Bergen county, N. J., bar, en- tered Yale Law school, graduating 1 with the class of 1883. Confronted | with the young lawyers problem of
 
 1 chose ancestral soil and within few months joined with Howard J. Cur | us, of Stratford, who tomorrow be- | comes one of his associates the I supreme court bench, in forming the | law firm of Wheeler & Curtis. For 1 ten years that firm continued a high l 1y successful existence until dissolved | by both members being called to the bench, Wheeler to the superior and l Curtis to the common pleas court o1 1 Connecticut. It is of further inter est to add that the close friendship which arose between Judge Wheeler l and Judge Curtis as classmates anC | roommateS at Yale, academic and law 1 has continued unbroken to this day 1 Judge Curtis went from the common pleas to the superior court bench ir 1907, and ever since both judges have occupied in common adjoining offices in the Fairfield county court house While at Yale, Judge Wheeler played | first base and Judge Curtis third [bast i on their class baseball nine. Ina | nine won the college championship during all the four years they played on it.
 Law and Politics.
 While his devotion to the law wal constant he had that natural ane | laudable American inclination to in
 terest himself in matters political, the l more so coming from the old line | democraNc stock that he did. Observ. CTS of such things noted his ability te | think and talk when on his feet ano l to drive a point home with no waste o1 words. In the campaign of 1894 he
 was induced to go upon the stump fol l Grover Cleveland.
 | His prominence in political work | soon brought him leadership and by the time he was 2S Or 29 he was the | acknowledged leader of his party IT | Bridgeport. Without solicitation the 1 common council made him city attor ney and he held that office two years It was a time of turmoil and the city attorney was kept busy most of the
 time Some lawyers who were ther
 or have since become prominent | among them the Honorable Danie
 Davenport, who afterwaard became
 famous in his successful fight agalns
 the Danbury hat strikers and the St
 Louis stove operatives, could best tel
 how he carried on the po1itico-lega l fights then under way in Bridgeport Rebuilding Bar Exams Rules. | He had found that there was nc 1 state system of bar examinations, tha.
 each county conducted it's own exam l nations in it's own way, and tha | they amounted to but little as a tes
 of legal qualifications. To correc
 this pernicious custom was task t which he had some time previou' (
 decided to set himself. He collec,
 from the different states where the.
 had bar examinations their method
 and prepared a code adapted for Con neoticut When he had his data al
 at hand he consulted some of tn older leaders of the Fairfield count.
 bar, among them the late Sa1nue
 Fessenden of Stamford and Lyman D
 Brewster of Danbury. They approv l ed of the idea of having the judge
 adopt rules for the admission and dis
 barment of attorneys which should b.
 standard for the state and agreed tt help put this through. This wa done at a meeting of the Fairfieh
 county bar and MT. Fessen den, Judg'
 Brewster and MT. Wheeler were nam
 ed to represent Fairfield county
 Then through correspondence simila
 committees were formed in the othe
 counties, and at the next tsrm of tn