Home County: Audrain
Term of Service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: January 1927 – December 1946
Ernest S. Gantt was born on January 11, 1867, in Centralia, Missouri.[i] He attended the public schools of Martinsburg, Missouri, and studied law at the University of Missouri in Columbia.[ii] He attended the University of Missouri from 1883 to 1887.[iii] Gantt was admitted to the bar on October 22, 1892, at Mexico, MO.[iv]
He began his legal practice in Mexico, MO, in association with Judge George Robertson.[v] After three years with Judge Robertson, Gantt withdrew from this association and pursued private practice.[vi] He served as Mexico’s City Attorney from 1894 to 1898 and Audrain County’s prosecuting attorney from 1909 to 1913.[vii] Additionally, Gantt was a member of the Audrain County Bar Association.[viii] In March of 1916, Governor Elliot W. Major appointed Gantt to succeed the late Judge James D. Barnett as judge of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit.[ix] He was elected in November of 1916, and re-elected in November 1922.[x]
On November 6, 1926, Gantt was elected as a judge to the Supreme Court of Missouri for a ten year term.[xi] He began serving with the Court on January 1, 1927,[xii] and was reelected on November 3, 1936, for another ten-year term.[xiii] Gantt served as Chief Justice with the Court from November 1932[xiv] to May 1934[xv] and again from December 1940[xvi] until May 1942.[xvii] While a judge with the Court, The University of Missouri conferred to Judge Gantt an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, in 1934.[xviii] He served with the Court until December 31, 1946. [xix]
On March 4, 1947, Gantt died of a heart attack at his home in Jefferson City.[xx]
[i] Charles U. Becker, Secretary of State, Charles U. Becker, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Twenty-Nine and Nineteen Thirty, (Jefferson City, MO: Botz-Hugh Stevens Press, 1930), 121.
[ii] Charles U. Becker, Secretary of State, Charles U. Becker, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Twenty-Nine and Nineteen Thirty, (Jefferson City, MO: Botz-Hugh Stevens Press, 1930), 121.
[iii] Mexico Evening Leger Staff, “Heart Attacks Prove Fatal to Judge Gantt, Judge Bickley, and Mexico Supreme Court Justices,” Mexico Evening Ledger, vol. 59, no. 28, March 5, 1947. Copy of article in file in Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
[iv] Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State Dwight H. Brown, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Thirty-Five and Nineteen Thirty-Six, (Jefferson City, MO: Midland Printing Company, 1936), 113.
[v] Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Thirty-seven and Nineteen Thirty-eight, (Jefferson City, MO: Midland Printing Company, 1938), 127.
[vi] Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Thirty-Three and Nineteen Thirty-Four, (Jefferson City, MO: Midland Printing Company, 1934), 115.
[vii] Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Thirty-Three and Nineteen Thirty-Four, (Jefferson City, MO: Midland Printing Company, 1934), 115.
[viii] Mexico Evening Leger Staff, “Heart Attacks Prove Fatal to Judge Gantt, Judge Bickley, and Mexico Supreme Court Justices,” Mexico Evening Ledger, vol. 59, no. 28, March 5, 1947. Copy of article in file in Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
[ix] Wilson Bell, Secretary of State, Wilson Bell, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Forty-Five, Nineteen Forty-Six, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing Co., 1946), 191.
[x] Wilson Bell, Secretary of State, Wilson Bell, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Forty-Five, Nineteen Forty-Six, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing Co., 1946), 191.
[xi] Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Thirty-Three and Nineteen Thirty-Four, (Jefferson City, MO: Midland Printing Company, 1934), 115.
[xii] Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Thirty-Three and Nineteen Thirty-Four, (Jefferson City, MO: Midland Printing Company, 1934), 115.
[xiii] Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Thirty-seven and Nineteen Thirty-eight, (Jefferson City, MO: Midland Printing Company, 1938), 127.
[xiv] John Turner White, reporter, Reports of Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, vol. 331 (Columbia, MO; E.W. Stephens Publishing Co., 1933), iii.
[xv] John Turner White, Reports of Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, vol. 335 (Columbia, MO: E.W. Stephens Publishing Col, 1935), iii.
[xvi] John Turner White and John M. Holmes, reporters, Reports of Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, (Columbia, MO: E.W. Stephens Publishing Co., 1942), iii.
[xvii] John M. Holmes, reporter, Reports of Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, vol. 349, (Columbia, MO: E.W. Stephens Publishing Co., 1942), ix.
[xviii] Archives of the University of Missouri, “Honorary Degree Recipients,” Archives of the University of Missouri website, accessed on July 16, 2019 available from https://muarchives.missouri.edu/honorarydegree.html Copy of document in file in the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
[xix] Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Thirty-seven and Nineteen Thirty-eight, (Jefferson City, MO: Midland Printing Company, 1938), 127. See also: Jefferson City News and Tribune Staff, “Simple Rites to Be in Audrain for Judge Gantt,” Jefferson City News and Tribune, March 5, 1947. Copy of article located in the file in the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
[xx] The State Board of Health of Missouri, Standard Certificate of Death, filed March 12, 1947, information courtesy of Missouri State Archive website, Missouri Death Certificates, 1910-1968 database, accessed on July 16, 2019, available from https://www.sos.mo.gov/images/archives/deathcerts/1947/1947_00004368.PDF Copy of document in file located in the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
Biographical information authored by Ms. Anna Theroff, 2019, Washington University – St. Louis, Missouri.