Justice Jehu Tindle Elliott
(Nineteenth Justice)

Justice Elliott was born February 7, 1813, in Richmond, Indiana, and died February 12, 1876, in New Castle, Indiana.¹⁶⁹

He was not able to regularly attend local country schools and consequently taught himself enough to become a teacher.¹⁷⁰ He studied law with an attorney in Centerville and was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1833.¹⁷¹ He held many elective offices, including Assistant Secretary for the Indiana House of Representatives in 1835 and 1837, 6th Judicial Circuit Prosecuting Attorney from 1839 to 1844, and serving as the Henry County Treasurer from 1834 to 1839.¹⁷² In 1839, he was elected to a three-year term in the Indiana Senate.¹⁷³ The general assembly elected him to the position of circuit judge in 1844 at the age of thirtyone.¹⁷⁴ In 1851, he resigned to become the president of the Cincinnati, Logansport & Chicago Railroad, but within three years he returned to private law practice.¹⁷⁵ He quickly returned to public office. In 1855, he was elected to the position of circuit judge.¹⁷⁶ He was elected to the Indiana Supreme Court in 1864.¹⁷⁷ After serving one term, he once again returned to private law practice in 1871.¹⁷⁸ In his thirty-seven-year career, he served twenty-four years on the bench, eighteen years on circuit courts, and six years on the Indiana Supreme Court.¹⁷⁹

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.