Alexander Hamilton Handy (December 25, 1809 – September 12, 1883) was a Mississippi attorney who served on the

Mississippi Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Mississippi is the highest court in the state of Mississippi. It was established in the first constitution of the state following its admission as a State of the Union in 1817 and was known as the High Court of Errors and Appe ...

from 1853 to 1867, sitting as Chief Justice of Mississippi from 1864 to 1867. Leslie Southwick
Mississippi Supreme Court Elections: A Historical Perspective 1916-1996
18 Miss. C. L. Rev. 115 (1997-1998).

Biography

Handy was born in

Somerset County, Maryland Somerset County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,620, making it the second-least populous county in Maryland. The county seat is Princess Anne. The county was named for Mary, ...

on December 25, 1809, the son of Betsey (née Wilson) and George Handy.Thomas H. Somerville, "A Sketch of the Supreme Court of Mississippi", in Horace W. Fuller, ed., '' The Green Bag'', Vol. XI (1899), p. 510. He studied at the Washington Academy and was admitted to the bar in 1834. After marrying, he moved to

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

with his family, in 1836. In 1853, he was elected as an associate justice on the High Court of Errors and Appeals and was reelected in 1860, and again in 1865. on April 18, 1864, he was made Chief Justice, where he served until October 1, 1867. He resigned his office due to the Reconstruction-era subjection of the court to military power by the Federal government. Thereafter, he returned to

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

where he practiced law and taught at the

University of Maryland Law School The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (formerly University of Maryland School of Law) is the law school of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and is located in Baltimore City, Maryland, U.S. Its location places Maryland ...

. In 1871, he moved back to

Canton, Mississippi Canton is a city in Madison County, Mississippi, Madison County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 13,189 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is the county seat of Madison County, and situated in the northern part of th ...

where he died on September 12, 1883. Handy was a secessionist, opining of the "black" Republican Party that:

Personal life

In 1835, he married Susan Wilson Stuart. His daughter Arianna Handy married

German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

immigrant musician and conductor

Otto Sutro Otto Sutro (1833 – January 19, 1896) was a German-born American organist, conductor, minor composer, publisher and music store owner, and a leading figure in the musical life of Baltimore, Maryland. Biography Sutro was born to a Jewish family i ...

(also brother of San Francisco mayor

Adolph Sutro Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro (April 29, 1830 – August 8, 1898) was a German-American engineer, politician and philanthropist who served as the 24th mayor of San Francisco from 1895 until 1897. Born a German Jew, he moved to Virginia Cit ...

). His granddaughters were the piano duettists

Rose and Ottilie Sutro Rose Sutro (15 September 187011 January 1957) and Ottilie Sutro (4 January 187212 September 1970) were American sisters who were notable as one of the first recognised duo-piano teams. It has been claimed they were the first such team, but Willi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Handy, Alexander Hamilton 1809 births 1883 deaths Washington Academy alumni People from Somerset County, Maryland University of Maryland School of Medicine faculty People from Canton, Mississippi Sutro family 19th-century American judges Justices of the Mississippi Supreme Court 19th-century American businesspeople