Courts in the Classroom
Supreme Court of Indiana
Division of State Court Administration
30 S. Meridian Street, Ste 500
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Dr. Elizabeth R. Osborn
Coordinator for
Public History and
Education Programs
Pho: 317.233.8682
elizabeth.osborn@courts.IN.gov
Sarah Kidwell
Outreach Coordinator
Pho: 317.234.3055
sarah.kidwell@courts.IN.gov
2011 Outstanding Public
History Project Award
from the National Council
on Public History
Justice Biographies
Justice Samuel Elliott Perkins
(Ninth Justice)
Justice Perkins was born on December 6, 1811, in Brattleboro, Vermont, and died December 17, 1879, in Indianapolis.
Left as an orphan at age five, he lived with friends in Massachusetts and then read law in New York.434 He arrived in Indiana in 1836 and opened a law office in Richmond, Indiana.435
He was very active in Democratic politics and edited a newspaper that recruited new party members from those displeased over the failure of the canals and other improvement projects.436 Governor Whitcomb nominated him to the Indiana Supreme Court, and his nomination was twice rejected by the Indiana Senate.437 He served on the supreme court created by Indiana's first constitution, until January 3, 1853 and then joined the supreme court, created by the second Indiana Constitution, on the same day. The only justice to serve on both supreme courts, he remained on the bench until January 3, 1865. He returned to the Indiana Supreme Court, serving from 1877 to 1879. He is remembered for his publication of an Indiana Digest of more than 800 pages and his Indiana Practice.438
434. 1 MONKS, supra note 25, at 207.
435. WHO WAS WHO, supra note 342, at 406.
436. 1 MONKS, supra note 25, at 207.
437. 1 id.
438. 1 id. at 206-07.
Source: Browning, Minde C., Richard Humphrey, and Bruce Kleinschmidt. "Biographical Sketches of Indiana Supreme Court Justices." Indiana Law Review: Vol. 30, No. 1, 1997. View this source in PDF format.
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