Justice John Henry Gillett
(Fiftieth Justice)

Justice Gillett was born September 18, 1860, in Medina, New York, and died March 16, 1920, in Hammond, Indiana.²⁶⁶

He was educated in the public schools of Valparaiso, Indiana.²⁶⁷ He studied law under the direction of his father, Judge Hiram A. Gillett and was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1881.²⁶⁸

He practiced law from 1881 to 1885, and he was also a law instructor at Northern Indiana Normal School.²⁶⁹ In 1885, he was appointed City Attorney of Valparaiso, Indiana.²⁷⁰ He served as Deputy Attorney General of Indiana from 1886 until 1890.²⁷¹ In 1890, he moved to Hammond, Indiana, and formed a law partnership with Peter Crumpacker which continued until June 1892.²⁷² He was appointed judge of the 31st Indiana Circuit Court, and was elected for a full term at the next election.²⁷³ He served on the circuit court from 1892 to 1902, when he was appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Justice Baker.²⁷⁴ In November 1902, he was elected for a full term and served until January 3, 1909.²⁷⁵

Among his other accomplishments, he authored two legal volumes: Criminal Law and Indirect and Collateral Evidence.²⁷⁶

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.