THE OMAHA SUOTAY BEE: AUGUST 13. 1911.
Kearney, Neb., Aug. 11, 1911
T the . Voters .off MelbrasEca
If I were not a .candidate and If you were not a
voter I would not venture to tell you anything of my
personal history, It would be presumption in me to
ask you to give any time to it, except for your interest
aa a voter and a citizen and a member of the governing
body. The supreme judges of the state may hold tho
live, liberty and property of the people within their
keeping; subject only to restrictions frequently not
clearly understood, and they often make mistakes ami
sometimes do wrong through constitutional infirmity
or unfortunate environment. It is perhaps nearly as
ranch' to your interest to know something of the rais
ing, culture, -tendency, mental and moral soundness ot
our judges of the supreme court as It is to know some
thing of the'.:, financial soundness of the banks and
other institutions ,with which you do business, and of
the tendency' and character of the people who manago
and control them. '
I am a candidate for the republican nomination
for judge of the supreme court as one of the threo
republican candidates to be selected August 15th, by
republicans to run against three democratic candidates
selected on the same day by democrats, and the final
race is to be, as you know, at the November election
between three republicans on the republican side
against three democrats on the democratic side.
There are eight republican candidates running
against each other and seeking the republican nomi
nation. Only three of these can be nominated becauso
there are only three offices to fill and therefore five
of the republican candidates must be defeated. I am
naturally seeking to be one of the three republican can
didates who are nominated. The seven republicans .
who are running against me all live inthe southeast
corner of the state except Macfarland of Omaha. I am
the only republican candidate from the west two-thirds
of . the state.. .All of the seven ' supreme court judges
live in the. east third of the state. All the republican'
candidates live there too. There has never been a
supreme court judge nominated iand elected in the ter
ritory included in the, west two-thirds of the state.
After Governor Holcomb 's term as governor 'had ex-,
pired, he was nominated by a convention and elected
by the people, but at that time he resided at Lincoln
and was in business there, and so did not belong to the
west.....'
Thero are' no longer any conventions to nominate
candidates, as. you are well aware. Before the adoption
of the new way, the way of the primary, a man's
neighbor boosted him in the convention if he was a
candidate and those who were not his "neighbors
boosted somebody else, and there was more or les's ex
aggeration, of good qualities and fitness along with
some slight criticism, and there seldom waa a nomina
tion by .a convention without a respectable body of men
vouching for the ability and fitnesa of . the candidate
and his availability at the election as a strong man
who would poll the party vote.'.or more. ' Men who are
active in politics and Who engage in party campaigns
and who make speeches at political meetings from one
end of the state to the other, and whose names are con
stantly in the newspapers in connection with party
measures, may be known to the public, at least to a
certain extent, but how do the public know much about
a busy lawyer who is seldom' seen out of the court-room
.or out of his office f Have the public any special inter
est in the' ordinary "grind". of the courts. Do the
public care more for the business of the lawyer trying
civil cases, such as suits on notes, the administration of
estate, ordinary, dainage cases, etc., etc., than they do
of the occupation of the farmer, the merchant, the me
chanic or the bankert
Often the good lawyer is a plodder, just a hard
working plodder. Do the people know or care any
more about his plodding than they care about the plod
der of any other ocupation? Do the people study lawt
How, do they know when a judge is qualified or fit to
be trusted, or anything else about him touching his
. profession? Do they know anything about the lawyer
who aspires to be judge unless- he tells them! and if
the newspapers do not know, or for some other reason
fail to tell the people and the candidate himself fails
to tell them, then how shall the citizen exercise his
intelligence in selecting men. to determine who shall ,
live and who shall die, "and who shall be deprived, of
liberty, and who shall , go free, and who shall have
judgment rendered against them, and who 6hall not!
How many of your neighbors who are not lawyers even
know the names of the supreme judges, let alone' their
fitness for the position that they hold? '-.
The necessity of the case must be my excuse for'
telling you something of myself. You know little or
-nothing about me, unless I tell you, and yet I have been
a busy lawyer! and a judge among ,the people .of my
state and I have lived in the state more than forty-one
years. Thave done 'little political speaking although
I have tried many cases. As a lawyer I have done tne
legal business of a country community. I have' repre
sented the Vountry banker in prosperity. At that time
I Kave looked 'after, his collections' and his cases in
cotrt. If trouble tame upon the whole country because
of drouth or crop failure and he and his business were
in danger, then, I was a modest sympathizer and an
earliest helper,- "While I have always been the business
man's attorney, I have at the same-time had a client
age of poor people who got in trouble perhaps oftener '.
than they should. I have helped them the best I could
and if the trial was unfair and the result unfortunate
then I have not hesitated to spend my time and often a
little money in going to the supreme court , to seek a
new trial.
I make friends of my clients. Some of them who
began with me thirty-five years ago are still my clients
and still my friends.
.1 was born in Ohio, February 20, 1843, on the littlo
farm that belonged to my grandfather, "William Hamer.
The first home was a log cabin. By and by a hewed
log cabin additibn was built. Afterwards father built
a better home for himself in town, Fostoria. When I
was about ten the family moved from Seneca county,
Ohio, to Carroll county, Indiana. There I grew to man-
hood. I was a strong
and industrious boy
early in life. I helped
father and his two
brothers, David and
Daniel, to clear their
farms. I also worked
out by the month at the
rate of thriteen dollars '
per month for nearly a
year. I helped make
rails and build fence. I
also cut many sawlogs.
I helped father dig a
ditch through his farm
that was one hundred
and twenty rods long.
At eighteen I began
to teach school. Before
I was twenty-two I had
purchased from father's
youngest brother, Dan
iel, a little farm of one
hundred and ' twenty'
acres. I had also taught
school during the win
ters, when I was eigh
teen, nineteen and
twenty. I studied law
at Indianapolis and was
admitted to the su
preme court there with
the law class.. I was
next to the youngest
man in the class. Before
I went to the law school
I had engaged in fre
quent debates and had
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FRANCIS G.
written numerous, short essays which were read at our
.'literary society. ,
At the law school we had a moot court. I was at
once active in it. I also wrote a long essay on "Con
tracts." Judge Samuel E. Perkins of the Indiana
supreme court, dean of the law school, was compliment
ary to me and gave me much encouragement to pursue
my legal studies. I was very fond of literature and I
read much of it. Jly legal studies were a great pleas
ure to me. -
I-was married in December, 1869, to Miss Reb.ecca
A. McCord. Her father (owned a farm adjoining the
county 'seat of Carroll county, Delphi, and the young
lady was the teacher of the district school at the little
school house on top of the hill where the debating and
literary society met.
After looking over Minnesota and Iowa with a
view to selecting a place to practice law I arrived : in
Omaha in December, 1869. t
T WPTlf nvor tn T.?nrnlT i n oKnnt fViioa trmnlr a btiA ot
once put out my "shingle" as a lawyer. I first occu
pied desk room in a real estate office, but in about two
months I was the owner of a little wooden building
. at the west side of Tenth street and this immediately.
. became my office. Lincoln was a little town then, and
it only took me four or five months to get acquainted
and to get started as a lawyer. I was soon busy in the
probate court and before the justice of the peace anl
in the U. S. Land Office. I also had five or six cases
at the first term of the district court held after my ar
rival. The trials in the district court were rather hotly
contested and these trials helped to get me more
business.
' After I had been at Lincoln about a year Alex
ander H. Connor, a prominent lawyer and politician of
Indianapolis, came along and he and I formed a part
nership under the firm name of Hamer & Connor. Mr.
Connor was able to buy law books for the use of tho
I new firm and we were soon very busy. We did well
enough in a professional way but we wanted land to
better our financial condition. I went to Kearney to
see if we could get it. On the way I stopped at Grand
Island and made a plat of the public lands about the
' proposed city of Kearney. On the morning of the 30th
of May, 1872, I werft up to Kearney. I walked fron
Buda, the next station east. It was five miles. There
was one little dwelling house near the town site of
Kearney. I got breakfast there.
By reference to the plat which, I had made at
Grand Island, I discovered two tracts of land that
might be taken under the homestead Or pre-emption
law. After dinner I borrowed a spade and immediately
began to dig a cellar on one of these tracts. I reported
finding the other tract to Mr. Connor aud he settled
on it and acquired title to it.
On the L'Qth day of June, 1872, my wife and I left
Lincoln for the new home in Kearney. We went by
way of Omaha. It took all day to go from Lincoln to
, Omaha then. There were two channels of the Platte
river to cross in boats and there was quite a ride on
an island in the river over a very rough wagon road.
The conductor stopped the train for us at the point
where Kearney was to be. Trains did not stop there.
It took all day to go from Omaha to Kearney. Wo
started early in the morning and it was 7:30 in the
, evening when we left the train. We at once moved
into the little hou&e on our claim and we lived there
nineteen months. The house was 12x16 and contained
one room. . , -
We built a small dwelling house on our lots in
Kearney. It was then the best house in town, although
it only cost. $825.00. We still occupy the same lots.
Our children were born and raised there. We built a
better house.
Pretty soon after our arrival in Kearney I went to
Mr. Dart, the owner of the little store. I asked him
whether there was room in his little store for a law
office. He said, "Room, roorar why there is just lots
of room," and he went over to the northwest corner
of the little building and 6aid: "Here, you can put
your office in this corner." I got a rough board for
a table and I fastened one end of it to the wall of the
building and put an empty barrel under the other end.
Then I got an empty
nail keg and over the
end of the nail keg I
placed a sheep skin. Iii
this way I had a desk
and, a chair. I used the
board for a desk and
the nail keg for a chair.
I had an old copy of the
Revised Statues of Ne
braska and a book
called "Ram on Facts."
I put these books on my
desk. This was my first
law office at Kearney.
I was a candidate in
the republican 6tate
convention for the nom
ination of the judge of
the supreme court in
the summer of 1883. At
that time there were
three supreme judges
and there was only one
judge to nominate. I
wasv the high man in
the convention for six
or seven ballots, al
though I came from tho
west. Judge Ree6e of
Wahoo, was nominated
and ' that fall he was
elected.
In December, 1883, I
was appointed by Gov
ernor Dawes as judtre
HAMER. - ?.the di8trict court l
fill a vacancy and
thereafter I was twice elected. I was elected first
over Judge John Barnd by a majority of about 1,700
votes, and the second time I was elected over Judge
William L. Greene by a majority of 4,196 votes. When
the populist wave came along Judge Silas A. Holcomb
ran against me and defeated me by a majority of 13
votes, according to the official count. The district had
been cut down so that it only included Buffalo, Sher-
' man, Custer and Dawson counties.
Immediately after my defeat by Judge Holcomb I
formed a partnership with Judge H. M. Sinclair and
Senator. Norris Brown, under the firm name of Hamer,
Sinclair & Brown. I have steadily and industriously
practiced law ever since that time. I have tried cases
in very many of the counties of the state. I was sue-.
cessful m the first important cases in which I was em
ployed and I have always had plenty of work to do as!
a lawyer: My term as district judge ceased on the 6th
day of January, 1892. T
After Mr. Conner and I removed to Kearney we
were soon busy with small professional matters. The
new settlers were generally poor. We tried a good
many little civil cases and we were for the defense in
nearly all the criminal cases. Mr. Connor was an elo
quent and forcible advocate and he was a tactful law
yer and an excellent judge of men. If we were beaten
in the district court then we went to the supreme court.
I generally prepared the briefs in the supreme court
and of ten spent a month or more in writing one brief.
Our business grew and we soon had cases In many of
the state district courts and we also had important bus
iness, in the U. S. circuit and district courts.
The most important case I have ever had was an
irrigation case at Chadron, Nebraska. In this case
there was a mill owner who contended that all the
water in the White river should come down to his mill
and be used to turn his mill wheel. I represented the
irrigators who desired to take water out of the White
river above the mill and to apply it to the fields for
the purpose of raising crops. Notwithstanding the leg
islation on the subject the supreme court held that
there was no right to take the water out of the stream.
I wrote nine hundred pages of brief and filed two mo
tions for rehearings and occupied two or three years
in persuading the supreme court to take it back and let
the people have the water for irrigation.
I made a long fight in the state court and in the
U. S. supreme court for the purpose of having the doc
trine established that surveyed lands in the Platte
river, which have never been appropriated could be
taken by homestead settlers. It .was my contention
that land of this character should be allowed to be
taken by the first settler who in good faith went upon
the land and asked to have it surveyed. The Nebraska
supreme court beat me. It seemed to hold that the un
surveyed land which had not been appropriated be
longed to the surveyed land which had been appropri
ated. The decision of the Nebraska supreme court was
not in the highest interest of homestead settlers. It
was in the interest seemingly of the men who desired
to take more land than had been surveyed. When I
took one of these cases to the U. S. supreme court, that
court did not squarely pass on the question. It held
that it was for the land department to say whether it
would survey the unsurveyed islands.
It would seem that so long as there are unappro
priated, unsurveyed public lands in the Platte river,
that they should be allowed to be taken by the settler
who goes upon the land in good faith and that the gov
ernment should in all cases direct a survey of the un
surveyed lands and permit the homestead settler to
make his homestead entry and to acquire title to the
unappropriated land.
By dint of a very long struggle I got one of these
islands for one of my clients.
When judge of the distriot court I was averse to
permitting the hanging of insane persons, but in two
cases where insanity was alleged on behalf of the pris
oner after conviction, I ordered juries to be impaneled
to try the question of sanity and when the verdict jn
each case was returned showing that the convicted man
was then sane, I made the order in each case under
which these men ceye executed. One of the cases was
that of Haunstine sat Broken Bow and the other was
the case of Reynolds at Sidney. Both were tried before
me. Haunstine had stolen a clock from a school house
and when he was arrested by the constable and school
director he watched his opportunity and killed them
both. Reynolds killed his prospective father-in-law
and brother-in-law, because they failed to pay him a
small sum of money, which he claimed that they should
refund to him. A special jury in each case found these
men to be sane before they were executed.
A man in Kearney left his wife and three little girls
and went down to live with a woman in Chicago. Be
fore he went he put his farm in his brother-in-law's
name so that the wife might not bring suit for a divorce
and for alimony for the support of herself and three
little girls. After the man went to Chicago there was
A. A . 1 It
Nebraska. The woman could only get service upon
nira oy tne publication m the newspaper, fcsome time
after the husband abandoned the woman she brought
an action against him in Buffalo county district court
for a divorce and alimony for the support of herself
and the little girls. She obtained service by publishing
a notice in a Buffalo county newspaper. As judge of
the district court I granted the woman alimony and
ordered the property sold for the satisfaction of tho
judgment. When I was told by counsel for the runa
way husband that a decision had been previously ren
dered by the Nebraska supreme court, to the effect
that service by publication was not sufficient in such
a case and that the decree for alimony could not be
rendered, I held that there ought to be 6ome sort of
relief -for the wife and her children and if there was no
relief in a case of this kind, then any unprincipled fel
low who wanted to might run away from his wife and
children and desert them and refuse to support them
and that if he could do so successfully, then he would
bo bigger than the law and the courts and the govern
ment. In a suit by the runaway husband and thel
brother-in-law to cancel the decree which had been refll
dered in the first case, I decided that under the deci
sion of the supreme court I had been without jurisdic
tion to grant the decree for alimony and that
that part of the decree which allowed the woman ali-.
mony was invalid because of the decision of the su- :.
preme court concerning the matter of obtaining service
by publication in the newspaper; but I said to the twoi
plaintiffs and their counsel that equity contemplated
mat tnev naa come into court with rlenn hnrlR tmc
that thev could not come into court and ask the court
to help them unless they were there for a lawful purr
pose, aua x earn inai since me man wno is cnargea wiin. u
running away is in court by his counsel askinir to set
.aside the decree, it is proper that I should inquire what
amount of alimony should be given to the wife for the)
support of herself and her children. Then I proceeded
to take testimony and after I had heard the testimony i
I made an allowance to the wife of what I considered)
to be a proper amount of alimony and I ordered the
premises sold for the payment of it. It was most stren
uously argued by counsel for the runaway husband and
the brother-in-law who was attempting to help him,
that the whole proceeding was without jurisdiction and
ijh i riHiri rrti niirciinv i iih iii imipi i v. tin hiiiipx i t ti t ri
supreme court by the runaway husband and his brother-in-law
my decision was sustained. This had not
been the law in Nebraska, as I understand it, before
my decision. (Johnson vs. Johnson, 31, Neb. 385.)
I have received much encouragement from many
members of the bar and if I had not received such en
couragement I should not now be a candidate. Lead
ing business men have also assured me of their sym
pathy and their help at the primary and at the pollsA
Of course many of the common" people are for me andi
do not hestitate to say so. -
I served as district judge from December, ( 1883,
until January, 1892. The judicial district at the time
of my appointment and at each election covered a ter
ritory .ex tending from the east line of Buffalo and
Sherman counties to Wyoming on the west and I held
court at Kearney, Loup City, Broken Bow, Lexington,
North Platte, Ogalalla, Gandy, Grant, Chadron nnd f
Rushville. The district was about 300 miles long by
an average width of 150 miles. Many important civil
auu uiiu-uuai taoca cic uicu lnjiuib me,
When distnet judge I kept the work up. Towards
the end of my second term I had to work about 42
weeks in a year and there were frequent evening ses
sions, owing to the great increase in the business.
If elected as one of the judges of the supreme court
I 6hall make every effort possible to help keep up the
work and I shall do my best to enforce the law as I
understand it.
I believe in the careful and unfaltering protection
of human life and human liberty by the courts.
I believe in. the equal and efficient protection of
all classes of property by the courts-
I do not believe in new trials for technical rea-iona
alone. There should be a new trial, however, when
the district court has denied a fair trial.
I desire to urge this as the opportunity of the east
ern part of the state to recognize the west by the nom
ination of at least ONE republican candidate for su
preme judge, and I further desire to urge this as the "
opportunity of the west to get one of the supreme
judges. .
Is just one judge in seven too many for our share.
cousiurring mai we uavc iwo-ixiiraa oi me lemiory oi
the state T
My friends tell me that if I am nominated at the
primary in August that I shall be elected at the elec
tion in November by a very, substantial majority. I
believe their statement.
Please try to get everybody to turn out at the
primary.
; ; FRANCIS G. HAMER. X
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