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Brewer, David Josiah

associate justice of the United States supreme court, was born June 20, 1837, in Smyrna, Asia Minor. He is the son of Rev. Josiah Brewer and Emilia A. Field, sister of David Dudley, Cyrus W., and Justice Stephen J.

Field; and his father was an early missionary to Turkey. He was graduated from Yale college in 1856 and from the Albany Law school in 1858; and established himself in his profession at Leavenworth, Kan., in 1859, where he resided until he removed to Washington to enter upon his present duties. In 1861 he was appointed United States commissioner; from 1862 to 1865 was judge of the probate and criminal courts of Leavenworth county; from 1865 to 1869 was judge of the district court; and from 1869 to 1870 was county attorney of Leavenworth. In 1870 he was elected a justice of the supreme court of his state, and re-elected in 1876 and 1882; in 1884 was appointed judge of the circuit court of the United States for the eighth district; and was appointed to his present position, to succeed Justice Stanley Matthews, deceased, in December, 1889, and was commissioned December 18, 1889.