Edward Livingston Edwards (March 17, 1812 – September 1, 1894) was a Missouri lawyer, state legislator, journalist, and judge.

Early life, education, and career

Born in

Rutherford County, Tennessee Rutherford County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located in Middle Tennessee. As of a 2023 estimate, the population was 367,101, making it the fifth-most populous county in Tennessee. A study conducted by the Univer ...

, Edwards grew up on a farm near Murfreesboro, attending a country school in the winter season.''The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities'' (1884), p. 10. At the age of 19, he was hired to teach in a new institution started in Williamson county, but his mind was on the West, and in the autumn of 1831 he resigned and moved to

Jefferson City, Missouri Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Missouri. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 United States census, ranking as the List of cities in Missouri, 16th most popu ...

. Here he

read law Reading law was the primary 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 un ...

under the supervision of his older brother, John Cummins Edwards, then secretary of state, and afterward governor of Missouri. In February 1835, Edwards he was licensed to practice, and was elected clerk of the circuit court and county court, the offices then having just become elective. In 1837 he was elected brigadier general of the first brigade, sixth division of the Missouri militia, but soon resigned. In 1838 he tried his hand at journalism by starting the ''Jefferson Enquirer'', in company with John McCulloch, a Democratic paper which expired for lack of support at the close of the

1840 United States presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States from October 30 to December 2, 1840. In the shadow of an incomplete economic recovery from the Panic of 1837, Whig nominee William Henry Harrison defeated incumbent President Martin Van Bure ...

Political and legal career

In 1841, Governor Thomas Reynolds appointed Edwards circuit attorney of the fourteenth circuit, but for personal reasons he only remained in that office for a short time. He then commenced in earnest the practice of his profession, and while thus engaged, in 1846, he was elected to the

Missouri House of Representatives The Missouri House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 163 members, representing districts with an average size of 37,000 residents. House members are elected for two-year terms during general elections ...

, and two years afterward he was elected to the

Missouri Senate The Missouri Senate is the upper chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 34 members, representing districts with an average population of 181,000. Its members serve four-year terms, with half the seats being up for election every two yea ...

. While in the senate, he successfully introduced a bill prepared by Judge

Robert William Wells Robert William Wells (November 29, 1795 – September 22, 1864) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri (1857–1864) and the United States District Court for ...

materially changing the civil practice in courts of justice. In 1858 Edwards discontinued his legal business, farming in the Osage Valley, but remained intensely interested in politics, and in 1860 became the editor in chief of ''The Examiner'', published at the capital, a strong democratic organ. At the end of a short year he returned to his farm. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, his sympathies were with the confederates, but he took no active part. In 1863 he once more left the farm, and resumed the practice of law. In 1874 he was again elected to the Missouri state legislature, to fill a vacancy in the Cole County delegation, and in May 1879, he was elected to a seat on the Missouri First Circuit Court, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Judge George W. Miller. Edwards was reelected in November 1880 for term expiring in 1886.

Personal life and death

In 1840, he married Ann Ivy Dixon, daughter of Warren Dixon, from North Carolina. They had three sons, one of whom died young, and one daughter. Edwards died in Jefferson City at the age of 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Edward Livingston 1812 births 1894 deaths People from Rutherford County, Tennessee Democratic Party members of the Missouri House of Representatives Democratic Party Missouri state senators Journalists from Missouri Missouri state court judges Missouri Democrats 19th-century members of the Missouri General Assembly