Acheson, Dean Gooderham (11 April 1893–12 October 1971), lawyer and secretary of state, was born in Middletown, Connecticut, the son of Edward Campion Acheson, an Episcopal minister, and Eleanor Gertrude Gooderham. He grew up in comfortable, middle-class circumstances. His mother’s family wealth and his father’s appointment as a bishop in 1915 attest to his family’s secure place in local Connecticut society. Acheson attended Groton and then Yale University, receiving his B.A. in 1915 with an undistinguished academic record. In May 1917 he married Alice Caroline Stanley; they had three children. At Harvard Law School, he studied under ...
Article
Acheson, Dean Gooderham (11 April 1893–12 October 1971), lawyer and secretary of state
Robert A. Divine
Article
Alexander, Raymond Pace (13 October 1898–24 November 1974), lawyer, judge, and civil rights leader
David A. Canton
Alexander, Raymond Pace (13 October 1898–24 November 1974), lawyer, judge, and civil rights leader, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the third son of Hillard Boone and Virginia Pace Alexander, both slaves in Virginia who were freed in 1865 and migrated to Philadelphia in 1880. His background was working-class poor and he grew up in Philadelphia's seventh ward, an all-black community made famous by W. E. B. Du Bois's seminal study ...
Article
Atchison, David Rice (1807-1886), lawyer and U.S. senator
William E. Parrish
Atchison, David Rice (11 August 1807–26 January 1886), lawyer and U.S. senator, was born in Frogtown, in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky, the son of William Atchison and Catherine Allen, farmers. Educated at Transylvania University, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1827. After practicing for three years in Carlisle, Kentucky, he moved to Liberty in western Missouri....
Article
Baker, Newton Diehl (1871-1937), lawyer, mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, and secretary of war
Daniel R. Beaver
Baker, Newton Diehl (03 December 1871–25 December 1937), lawyer, mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, and secretary of war, was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, the son of Newton Diehl Baker, a physician and former Confederate soldier, and Mary Ann Dukehart. Baker graduated in 1892 from Johns Hopkins University, where he first met ...
Article
Baldwin, Roger Sherman (1793-1863), lawyer, governor, and senator
Sylvia B. Larson
Baldwin, Roger Sherman (04 January 1793–19 February 1863), lawyer, governor, and senator, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Simeon Baldwin, a lawyer, judge, congressman, and mayor of New Haven, and Rebecca Sherman. Baldwin was a direct descendant of the Puritan settlers of Connecticut and the Founding Fathers of the nation. His father’s family was among the original New Haven colonists, and his mother was the daughter of ...
Article
Ballinger, Richard Achilles (1858-1922), lawyer and secretary of the interior
James L. Penick
Ballinger, Richard Achilles (09 July 1858–06 June 1922), lawyer and secretary of the interior, was born in Boonesborough, Iowa, the son of Richard H. Ballinger, a lawyer, and Mary E. Norton. His father read law in the office of Abraham Lincoln and during the Civil War was regimental colonel of the Third Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. Ballinger entered Williams College in the class of 1884 and after graduation read law in an attorney’s office. Admitted to the bar in 1886, he that year married Julia A. Bradley. They had two sons. He practiced law briefly in New Decatur, Alabama, but in 1890 cast his lot with the new state of Washington, admitted to the Union in the same year. He settled first in Port Townsend but soon shifted to the young city of Seattle....
Article
Bankhead, William Brockman (12 April 1874–15 September 1940), lawyer and Speaker of the House of Representatives
Evans C. Johnson
Bankhead, William Brockman (12 April 1874–15 September 1940), lawyer and Speaker of the House of Representatives, was born in Moscow, Alabama, the son of Senator John Hollis Bankhead (1842–1920), a farmer, and Tallulah Brockman. He was the younger brother of U.S. Senator John H. Bankhead...
Article
Barnard, Daniel Dewey (1796-1861), lawyer, congressman, and diplomat
Sherry H. Penney
Barnard, Daniel Dewey (11 September 1796–24 April 1861), lawyer, congressman, and diplomat, was born in East Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Timothy Barnard, a county judge, and Phebe Dewey. Barnard’s early years were spent on the family farm near Hartford, Connecticut. When he was twelve the family moved to Mendon, New York (near Rochester). His formal education started with a year at Lenox Academy, after which he transferred to Williams College, where he graduated in 1818....
Article
Beck, James Montgomery (09 July 1861–12 April 1936), lawyer, solicitor general, and congressman
James N. Giglio
Beck, James Montgomery (09 July 1861–12 April 1936), lawyer, solicitor general, and congressman, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of James Nathan Beck, the owner of a small music publishing company, and Margaretta C. Darling. Coming from modest financial means, Beck inherited his father’s interest in music and the family’s Moravian antiwar and communitarian heritage, which contributed to his early pacifism and anticorporation viewpoints. Following matriculation at Philadelphia’s Episcopal Academy, Beck graduated from Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1880. After reading law, he began legal practice in 1884. From 1888 to 1892, he served as assistant U.S. attorney for eastern Pennsylvania. In 1890 he married Lilla Mitchell, daughter of a Philadelphia businessman, with whom he had two children....
Article
Belli, Melvin (1907-1996), lawyer
Ann T. Keene
Belli, Melvin (29 July 1907–09 July 1996), lawyer, was born Melvin Mouron Belli (pronounced Bell-eye) in Sonora, California, to Caesar Belli, a prosperous banker and rancher whose family had emigrated from Switzerland after the Civil War, and Leonie Mouron Belli. After spending his early childhood in Sonora, Melvin moved with his parents to the town of Stockton, California. During his youth he was especially drawn to his maternal grandparents: he was fascinated by the medical collections of his grandfather, a physician and surgeon, and by the apothecary jars in the drugstore owned by his grandmother, the first female pharmacist in California. Medicine, however, never appealed to him as a career, nor was he especially interested in science. A romantic by temperament, he preferred reading adventure stories by ...
Article
Benjamin, Judah Philip (1811-1884), Confederate cabinet member, U.S. senator, and lawyer
Michael B. Chesson
Benjamin, Judah Philip (06 August 1811–06 May 1884), Confederate cabinet member, U.S. senator, and lawyer, was born at Christiansted, St. Croix, West Indies, the son of Philip Benjamin, a shopkeeper, and Rebecca de Mendes. St. Croix was under British rule at the time of Benjamin’s birth. He grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. Though his father’s circumstances were always modest, wealthy relatives and other benefactors helped him attend Yale (1825–1827), but he left as a junior under circumstances that remain unclear....
Article
Bingham, John Armor (21 January 1815–15 March 1900), lawyer and politician
Richard L. Aynes
Bingham, John Armor (21 January 1815–15 March 1900), lawyer and politician, was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania, the son of Hugh Bingham, a carpenter, and Ester Bailey. His father was active in local politics, holding several offices including clerk of courts. After his mother’s death in 1827, John went to Cadiz, Ohio, to live with his uncle Thomas Bingham. He returned to Mercer in 1831 and served two years as an apprentice to an anti-Masonic newspaper. He was a full-time student at Mercer Academy from 1834 to 1835 and enrolled in the antislavery Franklin College in New Athens, Ohio, in 1835. Though some sources suggest that an unspecified illness prevented Bingham from completing his course of study, he appears to have only missed the graduation ceremony. He moved back to Mercer in 1837 and studied law under two prominent local attorneys, John J. Pearson and William Stewart. Bingham was admitted to the practice of law in Pennsylvania and Ohio in 1840. He returned to Cadiz that same year campaigning on behalf of ...
Article
Blair, Montgomery (1813-1883), postmaster general and lawyer
Jean H. Baker
Blair, Montgomery (10 May 1813–27 July 1883), postmaster general and lawyer, was born in Franklin County, Kentucky, the son of Francis Preston Blair and Eliza Violet Gist Blair. His father, who served in the War of 1812 and was an assistant newspaper editor at the time of Montgomery’s birth, later became the founder and editor of ...
Article
Boissevain, Inez Milholland (1886-1916), lawyer, feminist, and suffrage activist
Marilyn Elizabeth Perry
Boissevain, Inez Milholland (06 August 1886–25 November 1916), lawyer, feminist, and suffrage activist, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of John Elmer Milholland, a reporter and editorial writer, and Jean Torrey. Her father supported many reforms, among them world peace, civil rights, and woman suffrage. It was probably through his influence that Inez acquired her sense of moral justice and her activist stance....
Article
Bonaparte, Charles Joseph (1851-1921), lawyer and politician
Lewis L. Gould
Bonaparte, Charles Joseph (09 June 1851–28 June 1921), lawyer and politician, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jerome Bonaparte, a wealthy property owner, and Susan Mary Williams. His grandfather, Jerome Bonaparte, was Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother, and his grandmother, Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte...
Article
Brandegee, Frank Bosworth (1864-1924), lawyer and politician
Simone M. Caron
Brandegee, Frank Bosworth (08 July 1864–14 October 1924), lawyer and politician, was born in New London, Connecticut, the son of Augustus Brandegee, a lawyer, and Nancy Christian Bosworth. Brandegee grew up in an aristocratic family and followed closely in the footsteps of his father. Both men graduated Yale University, practiced law, and entered first state and later national politics as members of the Republican party. Brandegee received a B.A. from Yale in 1885, traveled a year in Europe, and was admitted to the Connecticut bar in 1888. At that time he joined the firm of Brandegee, Noyes & Brandegee. From 1889 to 1902, with the exception of two years, he served as corporation counsel of New London and also as U.S. attorney for his district for a time. Elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1888, he was elected again in 1898 and became Speaker of the house in 1899. During this same period, he served as a delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1888, 1892, 1900, and 1904....
Article
Brandeis, Louis Dembitz (13 November 1856–05 October 1941), "people's attorney" and U.S. Supreme Court justice
Philippa Strum
Brandeis, Louis Dembitz (13 November 1856–05 October 1941), "people's attorney" and U.S. Supreme Court justice, “people’s attorney” and U.S. Supreme Court justice, was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of Adolph Brandeis, a successful businessman, and Frederika Dembitz. His parents, non-practicing Jews, had quietly supported the unsuccessful Austrian uprising of 1848 and had immigrated to the United States with their families in the wake of the repression and anti-Semitism that followed. Born as Louis David, Louis changed his middle name as a teenager in honor of his uncle, abolitionist lawyer ...
Article
Bristow, Benjamin Helm (20 June 1832–22 June 1896), lawyer and statesman
Ross A. Webb
Bristow, Benjamin Helm (20 June 1832–22 June 1896), lawyer and statesman, was born at Elkton, Kentucky, the eldest son of Francis Marion Bristow and Emily Edwards Helm. His father was a planter, lawyer, and politician while his mother was a member of one of Kentucky’s most distinguished families. Graduating in 1851 from Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, Bristow studied law in his father’s law office and was admitted to the bar in 1854. He married Abigail (“Abbie”) Slaughter Briscoe in 1854, and they had two children....
Article
Browning, Orville Hickman (1806-1881), lawyer and politician
Brian J. Kenny
Browning, Orville Hickman (10 February 1806–10 August 1881), lawyer and politician, was born near Cynthiana, Kentucky, the son of Micajah Browning, a prosperous farmer and merchant, and Sally Brown. He attended Augusta College in Kentucky from 1825 through 1829 then read law in his uncle William Brown’s office in Cynthiana. In 1831 he was admitted to the bar and moved permanently to Quincy, Illinois. Browning served five weeks in the Illinois militia in the 1832 ...
Article
Bryan, William Jennings (19 March 1860–26 July 1925), Democratic party leader
Robert W. Cherny
Bryan, William Jennings (19 March 1860–26 July 1925), Democratic party leader, was born in Salem, Illinois, the son of Silas Bryan, a lawyer and judge, and Mariah Jennings. Bryan received strong values from his parents. His father was a Baptist, and his mother was a Methodist; church took a central place in the family’s life. William, at age fourteen, avoided choosing between his parents’ churches by becoming a Presbyterian during a revival meeting. Although he was a devout and active Presbyterian throughout his life, he felt comfortable worshiping with any of the major Protestant denominations. Silas Bryan was also a staunch Jacksonian Democrat, and William enthusiastically embraced his father’s party....
