Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/425

 The Late Judge Emmet Field of Kentucky AT Louisville, Kentucky, there died on Monday, June 21, a Judge of whom, in view of his sterling character and fine attain ments, the Green Bag is pleased to publish a short sketch. Judge Emmet Field, who was stricken with acute heart disease shortly after opening court, at the age of sixty-eight, had presided over the first division of the Common Pleas branch of the Jefferson Circuit Court of Kentucky since 1886. He handed down the decision in the Goebel-Taylor election case. The Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court sustained every point of law laid down by Judge Field. Even in the decision in this case, Judge Field was never subjected to adverse criticism. He was absolutely fair to all. He was proud of having spent his early youth upon a farm, for, he was wont to say, "it makes a man of a fellow to dig his living from the soil." The freedom of life with which he became imbued while a boy re mained with him throughout his career. He was a loyal son of his state, and used to say that he was prenatally akin to Kentucky —that he was the offspring of ancestry who did a share in the original peopling of Ken tucky from the sturdy manhood of old Vir ginia. Despite the pressing exactions of his pro fession, Judge Field was notably calm and serene under the most trying circumstances. He possessed the happy faculty of leaving business cares at his office and in the court room. His private library of general litera ture was one of the best in Kentucky. His family life was ideal. He married Miss Susan McElroy, a member of an old and excellent Missouri family, and was the father of five children. Though a native of Louisville, Judge Field received his education in Missouri. He was in Westminster College, at Fulton, Mo., at the outbreak of the Civil War and enlisted in the 2d Missouri Cavalry of the Confederate army. He saw service as a private in the trans-Mississippi campaigns. His father was killed early in 1861 by Union soldiers for having expressed sympathy for the cause of the Confederacy, though he was never en listed. Judge Field came back to Kentucky

and took up the study of law. He was gradu ated from the University of Louisville and became a member of the Louisville bar about 1868, practising his profession with diligence and ability for many years, till he was called to the bench. He had also, since 1884, been a member of the faculty of the Louisville Law School. Judge Field was highly esteemed in Louis ville, and the Republicans paid him a singular compliment recently when they offered to nominate Judge Field on their ticket, as an expression of their desire for a non-partisan judiciary made up of men of this Judge's type, but the latter said that, while he appre ciated the offer greatly, the Democratic party had bestowed upon him all the favors it could and he preferred to cast his lot with it alone. A joint meeting of the Louisville bar and the Louisville Bar Association was held for the purpose of paying honor to his memory, at which speeches marked by genuine sorrow were made by Judge W. O. Harris, Charles Seymour, J. T. O'Neal, Judge Thomas R. Gordon, Col. Bennett H. Young, Judge Samuel Kirby, Judge Matt O'Doherty, Judge Alex Humphrey, Judge Joseph Pryor and John S. Jackman. Judge Shackelford Miller offered appro priate resolutions, which were adopted, and from which we quote:— "We might say many things in praise of Judge Field—of his knowledge of the law, of his industry, of his patience, of his fairness, of his kindness—words of affection and of admiration; but we turn from these because the man and the occasion demand something that shall fairly strike the mark. "Many young men have been taught by him; many lawyers have practised before him; many litigants have heard him try their cases; many witnesses have testified in his presence; many juries have had him as their guide and instructor; these many men, of every rank, of much or little education, of every variety of employment, of every dis position—kindly or critical, of little or of great influence, have told many men like them what manner of man Judge Field was, and the one strong, predominant note in this chorus of opinion is character. When we thus speak of character, we mean that in a Judge