Draft:Horace Mower

Horace Mower (– December 11, 1860) was a justice of the New Mexico Territorial Supreme Court from 1851 to 1853.

"Horace Mower was born in Woodstock, Winsor county, Vt. He graduated at Dartmouth College, read law with Hon. Andrew Tracey, of Woodstock, and came to Kalamazoo in 1838; was a member of the state legislature in 1847, and appointed judge of New Mexico, and served two years. He had a fine classical education, and was the finest belles lettres scholar in Kalamazoo. He was affable, gentlemanly, social, and had wit and humor. He was an astute lawyer, and, in his best days, was the pride and ornament of the Kalamazoo bar. As a lawyer he was not as logical, as a thinker he was not as profound as some of his compeers, but he was endowed with extraordinary tact and was full of expedient and resource. He was not noted for sustained oratory, but with an occasional burst of genuine eloquence he would carry his audience by storm. His irony and satire were inimitable, and often fell with withering effect upon his opponent or an obstinate witness. He was com pactly built, of medium size, had an aquiline nose, and an eye like a falcon, was always neatly dressed, walked with an elastic step, evincing the energetic, stirring man. He was quick to see the weak point in an enemy's argument or design, and as quick to give a thrust, which he did so dexterously that surprise and discomfiture came at one stroke. The old whig party had in him a leader, strong, eloquent and brave. No man in this entire border had more influence among the old whigs than had Horace Mower. Says Hon. Gilbert E. Reed, of Richland: "Horace Mower was the sharpest lawyer in western Michigan. Had he lived and remained free from dissipation, he would have been one of the first of the bar of this State. In his best days he was the strongest man in the old whig party in this part of the State." He died Dec. 11, 1860."