Page:Autobiographies and portraits of the President, cabinet, Supreme court, and Fifty-fifth Congress (IA autobiographiesp02neal).pdf/43

 MELVILLE WESTON FULLER

, Chief Justice of the United States, was born in Augusta, Me., February 11, 1833; was graduated from Bowdoin College in 1853; studied law, attended a course of lectures at Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1855; formed a law partnership in Augusta, Me., and was an associate editor of a Democratic paper called The Age; in 1856 became president of the common council, and served as city solicitor; removed to Chicago, Ill., in 1856, where he practiced law until appointed Chief Justice; in 1862 was a member of the State constitutional convention; was a member of the State legislature from 1863 to 1865; was a delegate to the Democratic national conventions of 1864, 1872, 1876, and 1880; the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the Northwestern University and by Bowdoin College in 1888, and by Harvard in 1890; was appointed Chief Justice April 30, 1888, confirmed July 20, 1888, and took the oath of office October 8, same year.