Justice John Pettit
(Twenty-second Justice)

Justice Pettit was born June 24, 1807, in Sackets Harbor, New York, and died June 17, 1877, in Lafayette, Indiana.

He studied law with Judge Potter in Waterloo, New York, and then came to Indiana where he was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1833.⁴³⁹ He served as an Indiana State Representative from 1838 to 1839, as a U.S. District Attorney from 1839 to 1843, and as U.S. Representative from 1843 to 1849.⁴⁴⁰ In 1853, he was appointed a U.S. Senator to fill the unexpired term of James Whitcomb. He served in that capacity until 1855. He was a member of the 1850-1851 Indiana Constitutional Convention. He served as a judge in Indiana’s 12th Circuit in 1855 and 1857. He traveled west to Kansas Territory and served as Chief Justice of the U.S. Courts there from 1859 to 1861.⁴⁴¹ Returning to Indiana, he served as Lafayette City Attorney from 1861 to 1865, and as mayor of Lafayette from 1867 to 1870.⁴⁴² He was elected to the Indiana Supreme Court in 1870. He completed just one term, leaving office in 1877.⁴⁴³

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.