Biography

Monday, February 26, 1844 - Sunday, July 12, 1914

Horace Lurton was a man of the South. He was born in Kentucky and raised in Tennessee. He ventured north to attend the University of Chicago, but returned to the South fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War. He was captured but then escaped and then captured again. Sick with tuberculosis, Lurton's mother successfully petitioned President Lincoln to release her son to her care. Lurton later attended Cumberland Law School and entered law practice in Clarksville, his hometown.

Lurton served on the Tennessee Supreme Court for seven years. He was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals by President Grover Cleveland. There he was a colleague of William Howard Taft. When he was elected president, Taft made Lurton his first appointment to the Supreme Court.

Lurton wrote infrequently during his brief tenure on the Court. He confined his talent, such as it was, to procedural issues or employer liability cases.

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