Jesse Lynch Holman

Jesse Lynch Holman (born April 1, 1776; died March 18, 1842) was an Indiana lawyer, politician, and jurist, serving as one of the first justices of the Indiana Supreme Court, and later as a United States federal judge.

Holman read law to enter the bar in 1805 and was in private practice in Pointe William, Kentucky from 1805 to 1811, and in Aurora, Indiana (then still a territory) from 1811 to 1835. He was a district attorney of territorial Dearborn County, Indiana in 1811, becoming an Indiana Territorial Representative in 1814 and President of the Indiana Territorial Council later that year. He was a judge on the territory's 2nd Judicial Circuit Court from 1814 to 1816, and also on the 3rd Judicial Circuit Court in 1816. Indiana became a state in 1816, and Holman thereafter served as a judge of the Indiana Supreme Court from 1816 to 1830. He was then Superintendent of Schools for Dearborn County from 1830 to 1834, unsuccessfully seeking election to the U.S. Senate from Indiana in 1831.

On September 16, 1835, Holman received a recess appointment from President Andrew Jackson to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Indiana vacated by Benjamin Parke. Formally nominated on March 21, 1836, Holman was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 29, 1836, and received his commission the same day. He served until his death, in 1842, in Aurora, Indiana.

Holman was also the founder of Franklin College. He was the father-in-law of Allen Hamilton.

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