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ELVILLE WESTON FULLER, lawyer, jurist, the eighth chief justice of the United States, was born in Augusta, Maine, February 11, 1833. His distinguished career runs emphatically counter to the extreme theory that a man's ancestry counts for little, and that the eminence of honor and fame belong only to those who begin the ascent with bare feet. Not only was he denied in his youth the proverbial country environment often set down as a sine qua non of distinction, but his forefathers for several generations had occupied places of distinct prominence in legal and judicial life. His maternal grandfather. Honorable Nathan Weston, was chief justice of the state of Maine; his paternal grandfather, Honorable Henry Weld Fuller, a classmate and intimate friend of Daniel Webster, was for many years, and at the time of his death, a judge of probate in Kennebee county, Maine; and his father, Frederick Augustus Fuller, studied at the Harvard law school, and was a lawyer of ability and zeal. His six uncles were all lawyers.

Melville Fuller entered Bowdoin college at the age of sixteen, and was graduated in 1853. Descended from a long line of lawyers, his decision was soon made in favor of the law. He began the study of this profession in college and in the office of his uncle, George Melville Weston, of Bangor, Maine, supplementing his office study with a course of lectures at Harvard law school. Two years after his graduation from Bowdoin, he was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Augusta, entering into partnership with his uncle, Benjamin A. G. Fuller in association with whom he also edited “The Age.” This paper was one of the leading Democratic organs of the state, and, to a certain extent, a rival of the “Kennebec Journal,” at that time managed by James G. Blaine. As a hard and conscientious worker Mr. Fuller, even at this time, commanded the attention and the confidence of his community in an unusual degree, and he became member and president of the common council, and city attorney.