Judge F. O. Ellison 1853-1944

ELLISON, MCCUTCHEN, PAUL, ABBOTT

Posted By: Sharon Elijah (email)
Date: 1/22/2021 at 10:33:28

12 October 1944 - The Anamosa Journal

Judge F. O. Ellison, 91, died at his home in Anamosa early last Saturday evening following a long illness. Funeral service was held Monday at the Smykil funeral home with burial at Riverside cemetery. Judge Ellison served 42 years on the district bench before his retirement in 1938.

He was born in New York City, July 4, 1853, and came to Iowa with his parents in 1870. He studied at Simpson college and read law in the office of Hunter and Williamson in Indiana. He was admitted to the bar in 1874.

A year after beginning his practice in Clinton, he moved to Wyoming, where he was mayor and councilman. In 1889 he moved to Anamosa, where he made his home until death. He was first associated with Ezra Keeler, and was the senior member of the firm of Ellison, Ercanbrach and Lawrence, and of Ellison and Gorman. His association with Gorman continued until he was elected judge in 1906.

Active in public office, he was never defeated in 15 bids. He was mayor of Anamosa, Jones county attorney from 1887 until1893, state representative from 1894 to 1896 and state senator from the Jones-Cedar district from 1896 to 1900. During his term in the senate he spent three winters with other legislators in framing the Iowa code, which is still in use.

He was elected Jones county attorney when the office was created in 1887, and served three terms in a county then slightly Democratic. He returned to business after one term as state senator.

Beginning his tenure on the bench in the old courthouse in Marion, Judge Ellison was the first to sit in the $200,000 Jones county courthouse, under the motto by which he was guided, "Justice to all men." His period of service in the 18th judicial district is one of the longest among Iowa jurists.

When Judge Ellison first hung out his shingle at Clinton 65 years ago few courts used shorthand reporters, and he saw and promoted the development of the state's judicial system.

Most exhaustive case on which he believed he served was the Council Bluffs water case in which the city, the water company and its bondholders deadlocked over the extent of service. He was assigned to the case by the supreme court, and hearings occupied two months.

He has written thousands of case histories and weighed the evidence in several thousand law suits and decided cases of nation-wide interest. He made several important decisions in Cedar Rapids, affecting present day policies.

When he retired in 1938 he contended that the courts had developed too much red tape, formality and technicality, so that lawyers had become too prone to gain advantage through fine discrimination, sometimes making it impossible to convict a guilty man because of technicalities.

He was a past grand commander of the Knights Templar of Iowa.

He was married in 1875 to Anna Elida McCutchen, Indianola, who died Dec. 8, 1927. Two sons, Rolland R. Ellison, a dairy farmer near Anamosa, and Clifford W. Ellison, a New York City physician, and a daughter, Mrs. Mildred Paul, Anamosa, survive.

In 1930 Judge Ellison was married to Vorinda Abbott of London, Canada, who also survives him.