Home County: St. Louis
Term of service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: June 1865 - August 1868
Judge Nathaniel Holmes was born January 2, 1815, in Peterborough, New Hampshire.[i] He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and attended Harvard University.[ii] Eventually, he studied law at Harvard Law School.[iii] Admitted to practice law in Boston in 1839, Holmes moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to pursue opportunities in the West.[iv]
Holmes was appointed by Governor John C. Edwards, a former judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri, as circuit attorney for St. Louis County.[v] Holmes served as circuit attorney from 1846 to 1847.[vi] He served as a counselor to the board of St. Louis public schools from 1853-1855.[vii] Additionally, Holmes served as counselor to the North Missouri Railroad Company from 1862 to 1865.[viii]
After the “Ousting Ordinance” cleared the bench in 1865, Governor Fletcher appointed Judge Holmes to the Supreme Court of Missouri on June 13, 1865.[ix] Holmes served until his resignation on August 1, 1868, when he accepted the Royal Professorship of Law at Harvard in Massachusetts.[x] He performed his duties as professor of law until 1872.[xi]
Holmes died March 26, 1901.[xii]
[i] William Hyde and Howard Conard, eds. “Holmes, Nathaniel,” Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, A Compendium of History and Biography for Ready Reference, (St. Louis, MO: The Southern History Company, 1899), 1043.
[ii] Hyde and Conard, eds. “Holmes, Nathaniel,” Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, 1043.
[iii] Hyde and Conard, eds. “Holmes, Nathaniel,” Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, 1043.
[iv] Hyde and Conard, eds. “Holmes, Nathaniel,” Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, 1043.
[v] Hyde and Conard, eds. “Holmes, Nathaniel,” Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, 1043.
[vi] Hyde and Conard, eds. “Holmes, Nathaniel,” Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, 1043.
[vii] Hyde and Conard, eds. “Holmes, Nathaniel,” Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, 1043.
[viii] Hyde and Conard, eds. “Holmes, Nathaniel,” Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, 1043.
[ix]Charles Whittelsey, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri Vol XXXV (St. Louis, MO: George Knapp & CO., 1865), iv-v. Hyde and Conard, eds. “Holmes, Nathaniel,” Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, 1043, See Also: Liberty Tribune, June 23, 1865, page 1 column 2. Information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri-Columbia Newspaper Database, accessed July 2017.
[x] Hyde and Conard, eds. “Holmes, Nathaniel,” Encyclopedia of History of St. Louis, 1043. See also:
L. C. Krauthoff, “The Supreme Court of Missouri,” Horace W. Fuller, ed. The Green Bag, Vol. 3. (Boston, MA: The Boston Book company, 1891), 182.
[xi] Hyde and Conard, eds. “Holmes, Nathaniel,” Encyclopedia of History of St. Louis, 1043.
[xii] “Nathaniel Holmes,” Massachusetts Death Certificate, accessed on July 26, 2017, Information courtesy of ancestry.com website.
Biographical information authored by Matt Orf, 2017, University of Missouri-Columbia.