- Henry T. Backus
Henry T. Backus (
April 4 ,1809 –July 13 ,1877 ) was a politician from theU. S. state ofMichigan and judge from theArizona Territory .Early life
Backus was born in
Norwich, Connecticut to James and Dorothy Backus. He attended schools in Norwich and the academy in Plainfield. In Norwich, he worked in a crockery store and studied law with Judge Calvin Goddard. He later attendedYale Law School and was admitted to the bar in February 1833. The following year he moved to Detroit and practiced law with futureGovernor of Michigan William Woodbridge and later became senior partner in the law firm, Backus and Harbough. OnDecember 7 ,1835 , he married Woodbridge’s daughter, Juliana Trumball Woodbridge.Politics
Backus served as a Whig in the
Michigan House of Representatives in 1840 and was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1850. He was Grand Master of Masons in Michigan from 1851-1853 and served asalderman from the 9th ward of Detroit from 1860-61.In 1860, Backus was elected as a Republican to the
Michigan Senate and chosen as president pro tempore of the state senate afterJoseph R. Williams took on the duties of actingLieutenant Governor of Michigan . After the death of Williams a couple months later onJune 15 ,1861 , Backus took on the duties of lieutenant governor underAustin Blair until January 1863.Judicial career
On
March 10 ,1865 , Backus was nominated byU. S. President Abraham Lincoln to the Territorial Supreme Court of Arizona to replaceWilliam T. Howell . TheU. S. Senate confirmed the nomination on the following day and Backus took the oath of office onApril 20 . He left for Arizona that fall on held a term of Court at Tucson in January 1866.Backus rendered a decision that the
Governor of Arizona had no authority under theArizona Organic Act to apportion the members of the territorial legislature. As a result, all the laws enacted by the 3rd, 4th and 5th legislatures were void. TheU.S. Congress passed an act to legalize those laws which had been voided from 1866 to 1868. The act was approved onMarch 25 ,1870 .Retirement and death
Backus resigned in 1869 and returned to Detroit to practice law. In 1877, he returned to the Arizona Territory to look after some land he had acquired there. On
July 12 he became ill while traveling to Greenwood with Judge C. T. Hayden of Tempe. The following day he died at the age of sixty-eight on the Big Sandy River in Mohave County. He was originally interred at Greenwood, which is now a ghost town [ [http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/az/greenwoodcity.html Greenwood City] ] , and was later re-interred onAugust 7 ,1885 , in the Yantic Cemetery near Norwich, Connecticut.References and notes
* [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/backus.html#RRV0Y0UGC Political Graveyard]
* [http://info.lib.asu.edu/archives/azbio/backus,h.pdf Arizona State University Archives]
*cite book | last = Bingham | first = Stephen D. | title = Early history of Michigan, with biographies of state officers, members of Congress, judges and legislators. Pub. purusuant to act 59, 1887 | origyear = 1888 | url = http://name.umdl.umich.edu/bad6021.0001.001 | accessdate = 2007-08-19 | year = 2005 | publisher = University of Michigan Library | location = Ann Arbor, Mich. | pages = p. 54 | chapter = s.v. Henry T. Backus | chapterurl = http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=micounty;cc=micounty;q1=Henry%20T.%20Backus;rgn=full%20text;idno=bad6021.0001.001;didno=bad6021.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000060
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