Milledge Lipscomb Bonham

Milledge Lipscomb Bonham was a chief justice on the South Carolina Supreme Court. He was born on October 16, 1854, to Milledge Luke Bonham and Ann Patience Griffin.^[1] He attended Sachlaben's Academy (1863–64), Edgefield Academy (1866–72), and Carolina Military Institute (Charlotte) (1875–76).^[1] After studying the law under the tutelage of Col. Robert Aldrich, he was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1877. He married Daisy Aldrich on October 24, 1878, with whom he had three children. After Daisy died, Bonham remarried to Dr. Lillian L. Carter on March 2, 1925.

Bonham began his career as a newspaper editor. He first helped found the Ninety Six Guardian and then moved to Newberry, South Carolina where he was the editor of the Newberry News. Only afterwards did he relocate to Abbeville, South Carolina, where he started practicing law.^[1]

Bonham was made a state trial court judge on February 1, 1924; an associate justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court on February 17, 1931; and chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court on January 10, 1940.^[2]

He was a hereditary member of the Aztec Club of 1847.

Chief Justice Bonham died on June 23, 1943, in Anderson, South Carolina, and is buried at the Silver Brook Cemetery there.^[3]

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