Seward Smith (born Granville,Massachusetts,August 1,1830, [1] died probably Iowa,December 10,1887) was an Iowa Republican politician,lawyer,and associate justice of the Dakota Territory Supreme Court. [2]
He moved to Des Moines,Iowa in 1860 [2] and in 1868 Seward was elected city solicitor of Des Moines as a Republican. By February 1879 Smith was still practicing law with his partner (Ripley N. Baylies) in Mitchellville,Iowa. On August 10,1881 the Republican Party of Des Moines nominated Smith as candidate for the State Senate.
In July 1884 President Chester A. Arthur appointed Smith to the Supreme Court of Dakota Territory [3] [4] on the recommendation of the Aberdeen,South Dakota circuit judge. However Smith quickly became controversial,appointing a woman (Elizabeth M. Cochrane) clerk of Faulk County district court,an unusual appointment for the time. Smith went on to announce his candidacy for the senate while still serving as a sitting territorial supreme court justice. Critics began openly questioning his sanity while even his proponents admitted to his poor health. In October 1885 President Grover Cleveland removed Smith from office and appointed Louis K. Church of New York to replace him. Smith's friends admitted him to an Iowa sanitarium [5] where he subsequently died. He is interred in Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines,Iowa.
Albert Baird Cummins was an American lawyer and politician. He was the 18th governor of Iowa elected to three consecutive terms and U.S. senator for Iowa serving for 18 years.
George Henry Williams was an American judge and politician. He served as Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court,was the 32nd Attorney General of the United States,and was elected Oregon's U.S. senator,and served one term. Williams,as U.S. senator,authored and supported legislation that allowed the U.S. military to be deployed in Reconstruction of the southern states to allow for an orderly process of re-admittance into the United States. Williams was the first presidential Cabinet member to be appointed from the Pacific Coast. As attorney general under President Ulysses S. Grant,Williams continued the prosecutions that shut down the Ku Klux Klan. He had to contend with controversial election disputes in Reconstructed southern states. President Grant and Williams legally recognized P. B. S. Pinchback as the first African American state governor. Williams ruled that the Virginius,a gun-running ship captured by Spain during the Virginius Affair,did not have the right to bear the U.S. flag. However,he argued that Spain did not have the right to execute American crew members. Nominated for Supreme Court Chief Justice by President Grant,Williams failed to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate primarily due to Williams's removal of A. C. Gibbs,United States District Attorney at Portland,Oregon.
George Washington McCrary was a United States Representative from Iowa,the 33rd United States Secretary of War and a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Circuit Courts for the Eighth Circuit.
William Squire Kenyon was a United States Senator from Iowa,and a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Louis Kossuth Church was an American politician who was a New York Supreme Court justice,a member of the New York Legislature,and the ninth and penultimate Governor of Dakota Territory,serving from 1887 to 1889.
Steven Michael Colloton is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit since 2003.
George Grover Wright was a pioneer lawyer,Iowa Supreme Court justice,law professor,and Republican United States Senator from Iowa.
George Allison Wilson was an American politician and lawyer. He was a United States Senator and 28th Governor of Iowa.
John Fitch Kinney was a prominent American attorney,judge,and Democratic politician. He served as Justice of the Supreme Court of Iowa,twice as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Utah and one term as the Territory of Utah's Delegate in the House of Representatives of the 38th Congress.
Hiram Ypsilanti Smith was a nineteenth-century Republican politician,lawyer and clerk from Iowa. For three months,he represented Iowa's 7th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives,after winning election to serve out the term of John A. Kasson following Kasson's appointment as U.S. Envoy to Germany.
Hubert Utterback served very briefly on the Iowa Supreme Court,then was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives,serving only one term.
John Albert Tiffin Hull was a ten-term Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 7th congressional district. He had earlier served two terms as the Lieutenant Governor of Iowa and three terms as Iowa Secretary of State.
Joseph Rea Reed was an Iowa Supreme Court justice,one-term Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 9th congressional district in southwestern Iowa,and chief justice of a specialized federal court.
James E. Gritzner is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.
Daryl L. Hecht was a justice on the Iowa Supreme Court and president of Iowa Trial Lawyers Association.
Mark Steven Cady was an American jurist. He served on the Iowa Supreme Court for 21 years from 1998 to 2019. From 2011 to 2019,he was the chief justice of the court. He was the author of the court's opinion in Varnum v. Brien,which legalized same-sex marriage in Iowa.
Bayard Taylor Hainer (1860–1933) was a Justice of the Territorial Oklahoma Supreme Court in 1898.
Susan Kay Christensen is the Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court.
Christopher Lee McDonald is an Associate Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court.