Edward Baldwin Whitney

Edward Baldwin Whitney (August 16, 1857 – January 5, 1911) was an American lawyer and judge.

Life

Edward Baldwin Whitney was born August 16, 1857. His father was linguist William Dwight Whitney (1827–1894) of the New England Dwight family. His mother was Elizabeth Wooster Baldwin, daughter of US Senator and Governor of Connecticut Roger Sherman Baldwin.[1]

He graduated from Yale College, 1878, where he was a member of Skull and Bones along with future US President William H. Taft.[2]:150 After Yale he went on to the Columbia Law School and was admitted to the bar of New York, 1880.

He was managing clerk, Bristow, Peet & Opdyke. In 1883, with General Henry Lawrence Burnett, who was a member of that firm, he formed the firm of Burnett & Whitney.[3]

He was a justice on the First District New York State Supreme Court from 1909-1911.[4]

Aside from his judgeship, he never held elected office. He was an active Democrat and organizer of the national association of Democratic clubs, secretary from its organization, 1888-90. Secretary, anti-Hill organization in New York up to the time of the February convention last year, when it was reorganized. At the May 1892 convention at Syracuse he was chosen as delegate to the National Democratic Convention at Chicago.

Whitney was a trustee, Reform Club; member, Century Club; Democratic Club; Skull and Bones; and of the Lawyers' club and of the bar association of New York. He was appointed by President Grover Cleveland to be Assistant Attorney General of the United States.

He married A. Josepha Newcomb, the daughter of astronomer and mathematician Simon Newcomb. Their son was mathematician Hassler Whitney. He died January 5, 1911. He had just been appointed to the New York State Supreme Court, and contracted a cold that turned into pneumonia on his return from being sworn in.[5]

References

  1. Benjamin Woodbridge Dwight (1874). The history of the descendants of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass. 2. J. F. Trow & son, printers and bookbinders. pp. 833–836.
  2. Catalogue of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. The Delta Kappa Epsilon council. 1910. Retrieved March 25, 2011.
  3. "General Henry L. Burnett". Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery Vol. 6, page 1354. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
  4. "New York Supreme Court 1900s". Political Graveyard. Retrieved 2009-09-17. In New York, the Supreme Court is the lower, trial court. The Court of Appeals is its highest court.
  5. "Justice Whitney Dies of Pneumonia: Jurist Caught Cold After being Sworn in as Dayton's Successor in Supreme Court". New York Times. January 6, 1911. Retrieved January 27, 2011.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.