Draft:Thomas W. Coleman

Thomas Wilkes Coleman (March 31, 1833 – November 9, 1920) was a justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama from 1890 to 1898.

Read law under Stephen F. Hale.

He was a delegate at Alabama’s 1865 Constitutional Convention and served as chair of its 1901 Constitutional Convention.

"Chancellor, is a son of James C. and Martha (Anderson) Coleman, natives of North and South Carolina, respectively. Judge Coleman's grandfather, John Coleman, a planter, came from North Carolina to Alabama in 1818, and settled near Eutaw in 1821. James C. Coleman, his son, was also a planter, and, like his father, farmed successfully and on an extensive scale. Thomas Wilkes Coleman was born at Eutaw in 1833, educated partly at Green Springs, Ala., and graduated in classical course at Princeton, N. J., in 1853. He read law at Eutaw under Stephen F. Hale (for whom Hale county was named), and was admitted to the bar in 1855. Mr. Coleman volunteered in the Confederate army in 1861, raised a company and became its captain. He was captured at the siege of Vicksburg, and, at the battle of Missionary Ridge, was wounded by a minie ball which passed entirely through his body, destroying his left lung, and incapacitating him for further military duty. He recovered from his wound, however (a fact which seems marvelous to those who know its character and extent), and resumed the practice of law. Capt. Coleman was a member of the constitutional convention of 1865, and in 1866 he was elected solicitor for the fifth circuit, but was ousted by the reconstruction performance of 1868. In 1878 he was appointed to the same office for the seventh circuit by Gov. W. R. Cobb, and, in 1880, was elected to that office, by the legislature, for a six-year term. In 1866, Capt. Coleman was again elected solicitor for another six-year term, and in March, 1887, he was appointed chancellor of the southwestern chancery division of Alabama, by Gov. Thomas Seay. Judge Coleman's life has been a busy one. In politics, he has always been a stanch democrat. He lost a fortune by the war, but has made for himself a name and a place among his people, which might well be envied by the most fortunate of the land. He was heartily opposed to the idea of secession and war from its earliest inception, but, when the issue was made, he threw his entire influence with the cause of his people. The judge was married, in 1860, to Miss Frances J., daughter of Samuel J. Wilson."

In the constitutional convention, Coleman "led the fight to disenfranchise the negro voter".

"Jurist and banker; born at Eutaw, Alabama, March 31, 1834; son of James C. Coleman and Martha (Anderson) Coleman. His great-grandfather Charles Coleman, was a Revolutionary soldier, and his great-grandparents on his mother's side were Andersons and Kennedys, both in the Revolutionary War from South Carolina. After a careful preparatory education he entered Princeton University, from which he was graduated as A.B. in 1853. He afterward studied law and practiced at Eutaw, Alabama, and was solicitor of the State of Alabama for fifteen years, later becoming chancellor and for many years was a judge of the Supreme Court of Alabama. While never doubting the legal right of a State to secede he opposed the principle of secession, but when his State seceded, he joined the Confederate Army, and was wounded at the Battle of Missionary Ridge. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Conventions of Alabama in 1865 and 1901, being the only member who served in both conventions, and in 1901 was chairman of the committee appointed to frame the article of the Constitution on suffrage and elections, and was the principal author of the suffrage article, providing for qualified suffrage. He received from the convention a resolution specially thanking him for his services in framing the new Constitution. He is a trustee of the University of Alabama and is chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees; and he has had the degree of LL.D. conferred upon him by the University of Alabama. Judge Coleman is president of the Merchants' and Farmers' Bank of Eutaw, and is also largely identified with cotton planting operations. He is a Democrat in politics. He married at Sumterville, Sumter County, Alabama, November 1, 1860, Frances G. Wilson; and by that union there have been ten children."

Coleman's grandson, James S. Coleman Jr., would also go on to serve as a justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

Coleman died at his home in Eutaw at the age of 87.

"In July 1890, Judge Somerville resigned and Thomas. W. Coleman was appointed to succeed him".

Coleman was reelected to the court in August 1892.