Jeremiah Sullivan

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Jeremiah Sullivan (Indiana Supreme Court portrait)

Jeremiah C. Sullivan (born July 21, 1794, Harrisonburg, Virginia; died December 6, 1870, Madison, Indiana) was a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court from 1836–1846 and coined the name "Indianapolis" for the new state capital.

Jeremiah Sullivan studied at The College of William & Mary in Virginia. After serving in the War of 1812, during which he rose to the rank of major, he returned to Virginia to study law. He was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1816, feeling that there was more opportunity in the newly opened West, he ventured out to Louisville, Kentucky. On his way, he was told of the opportunities offered by Madison, Indiana, a new and growing town on the banks of the Ohio River.

He built his home in 1818 and from this base went on to carve a career as state legislator, state supreme court judge, and county judge, Presbyterian elder, and Mason. He helped found nearby Hanover College and the Indiana Historical Society. Jeremiah Sullivan’s public career was immediately successful. Governor Jennings quickly appointed him prosecuting attorney in Madison and within three years of his arrival he was elected a member of the state legislature. While in the Legislature, he gave Indianapolis its name. He later was judge of the Supreme Court of Indiana from 1836–1846. In 1869, a criminal court was created for Jefferson County, and he was appointed judge.

Judge Sullivan's house, the Sullivan Home, in Madison, is acknowledged to have been the first brick mansion built in the Northwest Territory. It is now on tour and associated with Historic Madison.

Among his sons were Algernon Sydney Sullivan, founder of the Sullivan & Cromwell law firm in New York and Jeremiah C. Sullivan and Thomas Crook Sullivan, Civil War generals.