Henry G. Smith

Henry Grattan Smith (June 23, 1807 – December 31, 1878) was a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1867 to 1870.[1]

Born in Hartford, Connecticut,[1][2] on June 23, 1807, Smith was the son of Moses Smith Jr. and his wife Phoebe L. Adams.[3] He attended Trinity College in Hartford, graduating in 1828.[2][4] Smith then worked as a private tutor in Maryland before serving as a tutor at the University of North Carolina from 1830 to 1832.[2][5] He studied law and began to practice in Somerville, Tennessee, before moving to Memphis, Tennessee in about 1842. He became a professor of commercial law at the new University of Memphis in 1846. The university closed after its building was destroyed by fire in 1849, and Smith resumed his private practice.[2][6]

Smith was one of the judges serving on the highly partisan "apocryphal" court, which was in place in Tennessee between the end of the American Civil War and the enactment of the Constitution of 1870. The justices who served on this court "without exception, were bitter partisans" who "had all been Union men, and... took the partisan view of all questions growing out of the war". Of this group, Smith is described as one of several "of mediocre ability, who could not by possibility have reached a position of such importance in ordinary times",[7] though he was also later eulogized as one of the "most talented citizens" of the state.[8] Smith served as a Republican member of the Tennessee Senate for Shelby County from 1877 until his death the following year.[1][2]

Smith died at his home in Memphis on New Year's Eve, having just returned home from a citizen's mass meeting.[9] He was reported as having "returned to his home apparently in good health, but on entering his room fell dead on the floor, without speaking".[10] Smith left an estate of about $50,000, a small fortune at the time, which his will primarily divided between Smith's widow, his brother George, and his sister Caroline.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society. "Justices".
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 McBride, Robert M.; Robison, Dan M. (1979). Biographical Directory of the Tennessee General Assembly. Vol. II. Nashville, Tennessee: Curley Printing Company. p. 835.
  3. ↑ Cossitt, Pearl Steele; White, Frederic Henry; Stebbins, Frederic Briggs (1925). Cossitt Family: A Genealogical History of Rene Cossitt, a Frenchman Who Settled in Granby, Conn. A. D. 1717, and of His Descendants. Pasadena, California. p. 24. Retrieved July 29, 2026.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ↑ Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates of Trinity College, Hartford, from Its Foundation in A. D. 1823. Hartford, Connecticut: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company. 1855. p. 22. Retrieved July 29, 2026.
  5. ↑ Sketches of the History of the University of North Carolina, Together with a Catalogue of Officers and Students, 1789–1889. Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 1889. p. 81. Retrieved July 29, 2026.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ↑ Carrico, Caroline (March 29, 2022). "Before the Tigers: The First University of Memphis". StoryBoard Memphis. Retrieved July 29, 2026.
  7. ↑ Albert D. Marks, "The Supreme Court of Tennessee", Part II, in Horace Williams Fuller, ed., The Green Bag, Volume 5 (1893), p. 171.
  8. ↑ "The Late Judge Smith", Memphis Public Ledger (January 2, 1879). p. 4.
  9. ↑ "A Judge Dropped Dead", The Indianapolis News (January 1, 1879), p. 1.
  10. ↑ "Obituary", The Cincinnati Enquirer (January 1, 1879), p. 1.
  11. ↑ "Will of the late Judge Henry G. Smith", Memphis Public Ledger (January 9, 1879). p. 4.


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