- Adolphus Frederic St. Sure
Adolphus Frederic St. Sure (
March 9 ,1869 –February 5 ,1949 ) was an American judge. He served as aUnited States District Judge for theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of California for 22 years, untilJune 30 ,1947 , although he was eligible for retirement in 1939. Born inSheboygan, Wisconsin , he came to California with his parents when six months old. Judge A. F. St. Sure’s father, Franklin Adolph St. Sure, came to California with his wife Ellen Donohue St. Sure as a merchant late in 1869. Franklin was a Confederate veteran who settled his family inOroville, California , where he ran a shop as a druggist catering to the area gold dredging miners. Judge St. Sure’s uncle, Charles Washington St. Sure settled in Oroville as well. Judge St. Sure was thrown into the role as head of the family when his father died in a mysterious drowning. Family circumstances forced young A.F. St. Sure to quit school at 13 to help his mother support the family. His first job was as aprinter's devil at the Oroville Mercury. St. Sure moved toAlameda, California in 1891. He later worked as a reporter at theSan Francisco Examiner and theSan Francisco Chronicle .St. Sure entered politics by chance. He lived in Alameda and was nominated for
Justice of the Peace by some friends almost as a prank. He ran as a conservative Democrat in a Republican community and lost. Later when the recorder of Alameda County died, St. Sure was appointed to the post. He served in that position from 1893-1899. St. Sure did not have a high school education. Realizing a need to educate himself, he began to 'read' the law; in essence earning a self-taught legal education. In 1895 he was admitted to the California Bar.Later, he was counsel for the
Southern Pacific Railroad in the East Bay. St. Sure joined the firm ofTirey L. Ford in San Francisco. Following the1906 San Francisco earthquake he moved his practice to Oakland. Under the tutelage of prominent Bay Area Republican politicianJoseph R. Knowland , he eventually joined the Republican party. [ "Thirty Years of Collective Bargaining Joseph Paul St. Sure: Management Labor Negotiator 1902 - 1966" Thesis. Jennifer Marie Winter [http://www.pmanet.org/docs/index.cfm/id_subcat/58/id_content/2023238677] ]In 1915, St. Sure was named Alameda City Attorney and developed the community's first City Manager Charter. He held this post until 1918 when he was elected to a six-year term as a Judge of the Superior Court of Alameda County. He resigned the superior court post on his appointment by Governor
William D. Stephens as an Associate Justice of theCalifornia Court of Appeal , for the First District onJanuary 4 ,1923 . Then, two years later he was appointed to the Federal bench by PresidentCalvin Coolidge . He was confirmed by the Senate, and received commission onFebruary 23 ,1925 . St. Sure assumed senior status onJune 30 ,1947 . [ [http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=2261 Judges of the United States Courts ] ]Upholding the dignity of the court became an obsession with St. Sure, but at the same time, his sense of humor frequently broke loose.
Judge St. Sure insisted during his early days on the bench that women be permitted to sit on Federal juries, explaining he “had two years’ experience with women jurors when I was on the superior court bench in Alameda County and found them conscientious, independent, highly intelligent, and willing to serve”. ["Death Takes St. Sure" (February 5, 1949). San Francisco Chronicle pp. ___ ] The barrier banning women jurors in Federal Courts was lifted in 1939.
In 1939, Lettuce workers in
Salinas, California wereblacklisted by employers for their union activities. Attorneys provided by theILWU brought action and St. Sure, in the first instance of its kind, issued an injunction holding blacklisting to be illegal. [ [http://www.ilwu19.com/history/the_ilwu_story/the_warehouse_industry.htm The ILWU Story - The Warehouse Industry ] ]St. Sure was the Federal Judge who signed the order giving the
United States Navy title toTreasure Island, California after it formally served notice of its unilateral 'declaration' taking ownership onApril 17 ,1942 . ["Treasure Isle Goes to Navy" (April 17, 1942) San Francisco News [http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist9/tiseizure.html] ]On
September 8 ,1942 , the case of Fred Korematsu, aUnited States citizen of Japanese ancestry who had evaded authorities to avoid 'Japanese internment ', was heard before Judge A. F. St. Sure in San Francisco. [ [http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov1999/rabbitinthemoon/index.html P.O.V. - Rabbit in the Moon | PBS ] ] [ [http://www.rabbit-in-the-moon.org/chronology.html Chronology ] ] Korematsu's conviction was eventually appealed to theUnited States Supreme Court and onDecember 18 ,1944 , the Court issued its landmarkKorematsu v. United States decision.Twenty years later, after letting it be known he had no intention of retiring on his full $10,000-a-year salary, Judge St. Sure had the distinction at the time of having served longer than any other Federal Judge in Northern California.
Judge St. Sure died
February 5 ,1949 and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery at Piedmont Avenue inOakland, California .He was survived by his wife, the former Ida Laura Pettes, whom he married in Alameda in 1897, and two sons,
J. Paul St. Sure , an Oakland Attorney and President of thePacific Maritime Association . His son, William P. St. Sure, aPublic Relations Consultant, predeceased him. Judge and Mrs. St. Sure had resided at 492 Straten Avenue in Oakland. Judge St. Sure was also survived by a brother, Dr.Franklin Augustus St. Sure [ [http://hml.org/mmhc/mdindex/stsure.html Franklin August St. Sure ] ] (bornApril 25 ,1874 , at Oroville, California, diedJune 22 ,1948 , atHamakuapoko , Maui) a physician.Family Background
Judge St. Sure was the grandson of
Adolph Fredrik St. Sure Von Lindsfelt , MD [ [http://www.15thwisconsin.net/15sssl01.htm 15th Wisconsin, Profile of Adolph Fredrik Saint Sure Von Lindsfelt of Field & Staff ] ] [ [http://www.15thwisconsin.net/15biojkl.htm 15th Wisconsin, Soldier Profiles, Last Names Beginning with J, K, or L ] ] , sometimes spelled "Adolf" "Frederik" "Saint Sure" and "Lindsfeldt" in various sources, who was bornMay 8 ,1806 , diedMay 19 ,1887 , and who himself led a storied life. He was a former Swedish Army Officer and Chamberlain to the Court of KingCharles XIV John (Karl XIV Johan) who had fled Sweden to avoid the judgment of a bankruptcy Court. As a young man, he was apparently in the French Army during theNapoleonic Wars . He adopted the name 'St. Cyr', later anglicized to 'St. Sure'. This is in possible reference toLaurent, Marquis de Gouvion Saint-Cyr (1764-1830), Marshal of France, whom he admired or perhaps claimed lineage from. His also gave his sons middle names of other famous generals (e.g. Washington, Bolivar), Lindsfelt came to America as an early settler of thePine Lake Settlement known as 'Nya Upsala ' (New Upsala), in Wisconsin, founded byGustaf Unonius . Lindsfelt later studied atRush Medical College in Chicago and became a medical doctor and a Civil War surgeon in the Union’s15th Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment . [ [http://www.15thwisconsin.net 15th Wisconsin Infantry Home Page ] ] He was a purveyor of his ownpatent medicine . His first of three wives came to America with him; Elisabet Concordia C.von Krassow was the daughter of cavalry captain Carl Vilhelm von Krassow, and Baroness Gustava Eleonora Leijonsköld, and was a member of a noble family originally fromPomerania andMecklenburg . They were married onMay 25 ,1835 at Nya Skottorp in Skummeslova, Sweden. The Von Krassow family is listed at numbers 157 and 315 of the Baronial families (Friherrliga ätter) on aList of Swedish noble families . Another list has the name listed under untitled noble family (Adliga Ätten) [http://www.geocities.com/svenskadel/ Swedish aristocracy] The Leijonsköld's are listed at number 53.External links
* [http://www.geocities.com/montiederby/stsure.html Montie Derby's St. Sure genealogy website ]
References
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