Biography of David Josiah Brewer



Excerpted from "Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1911-1912", Edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary. 

Vol XII., State Printing Office, Topeka, Kansas 1912.



submitted by Teresa Lindquist (merope@radix.net); (copyright) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist

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DAVID JOSIAH BREWER was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor, June 20, 1837, the son of the Rev. Josiah Brewer, who was missionary of

the Congregational Church to Turkey. His mother was Emalie, daughter of Rev. David Field, of Stockbridge, Mass., and a

sister to Cyrus W. Field, of Atlantic cable fame, and Stephen J. Field, at one time chief justice of the supreme court. 

Soon after his birth the parents returned to Connecticut. He graduated from Yale with high honors in 1856. He read law with 

his uncle, David Dudley Field, and took a course at the Albany Law School. He graduated in 1858, practiced a few weeks in 

Kansas City, Mo., and after making a trip to Denver and Pike's Peak, settled in Leavenworth in September, 1859. In 1862 he 

was elected judge of the probate and criminal court of Leavenworth county. In 1865 he was elected judge of the district 

court, first judicial district. He next served as county attorney, and then as superintendent of city schools, and was the 

first president of the State Teachers' Association. In 1870 he was elected as associate justice of the supreme court of the 

state. In 1884 he was appointed judge of the United States circuit court, and in 1889 associate justice of the supreme 

court of the United States. In 1896 President Cleveland appointed him to represent the United States upon the Venezuela 

Boundary-line Commission, and he was also one of the five members of the British-Venezuela Arbitration Tribunal. He was 

married October 3, 1861, to Miss Louise Landon, of Burlington, Vt. Mrs. Brewer died in June, 1899. Justice Brewer married 

June 5, 1901, Miss Emma Minter Mott, of Burlington, Vt. He died March 28, 1910, and is buried at Leavenworth.



(Included with the article "The Founding of the State Normal School", page 89-90)