Daniel Coleman (August 2, 1801 – November 4, 1857) was an American jurist who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama in 1851.

Life and career

Born in Caroline County, Virginia, Coleman left home at the age of sixteen, his father's death having reduced the family to poverty.''Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical Illustrated'' (1888), p. 87. taught school for a year at the Kanawha Salt Works in Kentucky, and used the money thus obtained to attend Transylvania University in Lexington.Biography of Daniel Coleman from the Alabama Judicial System
He then obtained employment as a scribe at a court in

Frankfort, Kentucky Frankfort is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States, and the seat of Franklin County. It is a home rule-class city; the population was 28,602 at the 2020 census. Located along the Kentucky River, Frankfort is the prin ...

, and

read law Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under the ...

under the supervision of Judge Jesse Bledsoe. In 1819 Coleman moved to Alabama, settling in Mooresville, Limestone County, Alabama, where he opened a law office. In 1822, he was chosen by the state legislature to serve as judge of the Limestone County court; though he was only nineteen years old, "the gravity of his deportment led no one to question his majority, and he held the office several years". In 1829 he represented Limestone County in the state legislature. In 1835 he was elected by the legislature to serve as a judge of the Alabama 8th judicial circuit, continuing in this office for twelve years. In June 1851, Governor

Henry W. Collier Henry Watkins Collier (January 17, 1801 – August 28, 1855 in Bailey Springs, Alabama) was the 14th Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1849 to 1853. He was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, son of James Collier and Elizabeth Boul ...

appointed Coleman to a seat on the Supreme Court of Alabama vacated by Silas Parsons. However, he only served for six months, and "declined a candidacy before the Legislature, feeling that his enfeebled health would not permit him to undergo the labors of the post". He retired to Athens, Alabama. In December 1851, Coleman was elected as one of several vice presidents of the Alabama State Colonization Society, a group formed "to promote the emigration of free persons of color of this State to

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

"."Alabama State Colonization Society", '' Tuskegee Republican'' (December 25, 1851), p. 2.

Personal life and death

Coleman was a conspicuous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His wife, a native of South Carolina, survived her husband many years, and died at Athens, February 14, 1885. Their children included Reverend James L. Coleman; Daniel Coleman, an attorney; John Hartwell Coleman, also an attorney; Richard H. Coleman, who was killed during the American Civil War; and Dr. Ruffin Coleman, who studied medicine at the University of Nashville, Tennessee. Coleman died at Athens at the age of 56.

References

1801 births 1857 deaths People from Caroline County, Virginia Transylvania University alumni U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law Members of the Alabama Legislature Justices of the Supreme Court of Alabama 19th-century American legislators 19th-century American judges 19th-century Alabama politicians {{Alabama-state-judge-stub