ELWIN B. ROBINSON DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CHESTER FRITZ LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA 58202

JUDGE GUY CORLISS PAPERS

COLLECTION: OGL #145

DATES: 1882-1937

SIZE: .25 linear feet

INTRODUCTION

ACQUISITION: The Judge Guy Corliss Papers were deposited in the Orin G. Libby Manuscript Collection by Mrs. Mildred Corliss Andrews and Harold Corliss. The acquisition records are unavailable.

ACCESS: Available for inspection under the rules and regulations of the department of Special Collections.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Guy Carlton Haines Corliss, son of Cyrus and Clarinda Corliss, was born on July 4, 1858, in Poughkeepsie, New York. He was the youngest of the family, and studied at home until the fall of 1869 when he entered the Poughkeepsie High School. After graduation in 1873, he worked at a local grocery store and studied law in a law office, unable to attend college due to financial concerns. He was admitted to the bar at Brooklyn, New York, in the fall of 1879.

He moved west to Grand Forks, Dakota Territory, in 1886. When North Dakota was admitted to the Union, Corliss was selected as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a position he held for nine years. He resigned on August 15, 1898, and was asked to organize a law school at the University of North Dakota. He became the first dean of the school in 1899.

Corliss resigned from the position of dean to concentrate on his law practice. He continued, however, to teach classes at the school. On February 25, 1911, the Guy H. Corliss Chapter of Phi Alpha Delta was installed at UND, in his honor.

During the winter of 1911-1912. Corliss came down with a serious case of typhoid fever, which developed into acute Bright's disease. Corliss was forced to move farther west, and settled in Portland, Oregon, in June 1912. He joined the faculty of the Northwestern College of Law, where he was employed for twenty-three years.

Judge Guy Corliss married Effa V. Edson and had three sons and one daughter. He died on November 24, 1937.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The Judge Guy Corliss Papers consist mainly of correspondence (1882-1933), newspaper and magazine clippings, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous documents.

BOX AND FOLDER INVENTORY

Box 1
Folder

1. Correspondence, December 2, 1882 - May 22, 1933
   Funeral service, 1937
   Newspaper Clippings
   Calendar of Causes, North Dakota Supreme Court: 1890
2. The Law, June 1890
   Phi Alpha Delta Quarterly, 1927
   Scrapbook
   Certificates of admission to the practice of law: Dakota Territory, North Dakota, Oregon
3. Scrapbook

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