William Stryker Gummere

Who was William Stryker Gummere?

William Stryker Gummere was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Gummere was captain of the Princeton football team that met Rutgers in 1869 in the first intercollegiate football game played in America.

After graduating from Princeton in 1870 at the age of 18, Gummere studied law at his father's office in Trenton and was admitted to the bar in 1873, the same year he received his A.M. from Princeton. Gummere received an honorary LL.D. in June 1902 from Princeton. In the Class of 1870's twentieth reunion book, Gummere said he was a Republican. Consequently, he added, I have never held office. Republicans don't as a usual thing hold office in New Jersey. This pessimism proved premature because five years later a Democratic governor appointed Gummere to the Supreme Court of New Jersey, and six years after that a Republican governor appointed him Chief Justice, a position he held until his death thirty-two years later.

Gummere was appointed an associate justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1895.