Gummere was born on June 24, 1850, in Trenton, New Jersey, the third child and the second son in Barker and Elizabeth (Stryker) Gummere's family of nine. His eldest brother was Samuel René Gummere, and his youngest brother was Charles E. Gummere, who was reporter of the New Jersey Law Reports from 1914 until his death in 1941. The American family had its origin in Johann Gumere, a Huguenot who emigrated to Pennsylvania from French Flanders in 1719. He died in Germantown in 1739. Both the father and the grandfather of Samuel René and William Stryker Gummere were lawyers.
Education
Gummere was educated for the law, attending Trenton Academy, the Lawrenceville School, and the College of New Jersey, later Princeton University, and then studying law in his father's office. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Princeton in 1870, and the master of arts degree in 1873.
Career
Gummere had a long career as lawyer and judge. He was admitted to the bar of New Jersey in 1873 and became a counselor in 1876. He began practice in the office of G. D. W. Vroom, who was then prosecutor of the pleas for Mercer County. Next he became junior partner in Newark with his uncle, former Governor Joel Parker, and later he formed a partnership with Oscar Keen. In 1889 he returned to Trenton to become general counsel in New Jersey of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, succeeding in that office his brother-in-law, Edward T. Green, when the latter was appointed United States district judge for the district of New Jersey. His years of law practice ended when in February 1895 Gov. George T. Werts appointed him associate justice of the New Jersey supreme court. Although the court sat in Trenton, he took up his residence in Newark. In 1901, when the office became vacant by the resignation of David A. Depue, he was appointed chief justice, and he was reappointed four times by governors of both parties. He served thirty-eight continuous years in the court, and his decisions are recorded in 104 volumes of the New Jersey Law Reports. He died in Newark on January 26, 1933, in his eighty-third year, having presided over the court for the last time nine days earlier, on January 17, 1933. He lies buried in the cemetery at Princeton, New Jersey. Gummere was a stickler for rules of practice, felt that New Jersey had developed a body of law that was adequate for any situation, and in his opinions seldom referred to cases decided by the courts of other states.
Achievements
Gummere is best remembered as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
Personality
Gummere was tall and slender, but in his younger years he was strong and active. He had a high forehead, and a symmetrical egg-shaped head, the effect of which was accentuated by mustache and round-pointed beard. When he was on the bench, his piercing brown eyes, looking out from an imperturbable countenance, struck terror to junior counsel, until they came to know that he was fair and kindly in disposition, had a keen sense of humor, and was fond of making puns. In order to keep in touch with lawyers more intimately than was possible from the bench, he personally on Saturday mornings heard and disposed of practice motions at the Essex circuit.
Interests
In later years Gummere rode a bicycle, played golf, had a hunting shack in North Carolina, and maintained a summer home at Point Pleasant, New Jersey.
Connections
Gummere married Frances Beasley, daughter of Chief Justice Mercer Beasley, in 1876, by whom he had three sons and twin daughters.
