Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1879 — Obituary [ARTICLE]

Obituary

Samuel E. Perkins, Chief Justice of the. Supreme Court of Indiana, died at midnight, Dec. 17, at his residence in Indianapolis. Judge Perkins was born in Braltleboro, Vt., Dec. 6, 1811. He came to this State, locating at Richmond, in 1836, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. In 1843 he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney for the Richmond judicial circuit. In 1844 ho was one of the Presidential electors on the Polk ticket, and was appointed ono of the Judges of the Supremo Court by Gov. Whitcomb. The Whig Senate refused to confirm- the nomination, and he was appointed in 1845 with the same result. After the adjournment of the Legislature, however, the Governor again appointed him, and two years later he was regularly confirmed. He succeeded Judge Sullivan, and remained on the Supreme bench for nineteen consecutive years —until 1865. In 1872 Gov. Baker appointed him Judge of the Marion County Superior Court, which office he held until again elected to the Supreme bench in 1876. Two of Judge Perkins’ acts while on the Supreme bench were the cause of wide and varied comment. One of these was his decision against the collection of the tax for school purposes as then provided for. The result of this was that for several mouths, until provided for by a following Legislature, the public schools were closed and the children deprived of educational privileges. The other decision was that in the case of Beebe vs. The State, in which Judge Perkins decided that the prohibitory liquor law, then in force but a short time, was, so far it prohibited tho manufacture and sale of liquors, unconstitutional. He was the editor of the Sentinel in 1865-’66. when it was known as the Indiana Herald. In 1858 he prepared an Indiana “ Digest,” and the following year published “The Indiana Practice.” In addition to this he filled the law chair several years in the Northwestern Christian University. His service on the Supreme bench is longer than that of any other Judge, and when ho entered upon the office he was probably younger than any one who has filled that position-in Indiana. He was twice xuarried, first in 1838, and again in 1856, eaoh time to a daughter of Joseph Pope, of Richmond. He had but two children. At the bar he has achieved the reputation of a sound and upright jurist.