Archibald W. O. Totten (November 25, 1809 – 1867) was a justice of the

Tennessee Supreme Court The Tennessee Supreme Court is the ultimate judicial tribunal of the state of Tennessee. Roger A. Page is the Chief Justice. Unlike other states, in which the state attorney general is directly elected or appointed by the governor or state le ...

from 1850 to 1855. Born in

Overton County, Tennessee Overton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 22,511. Its county seat is Livingston. Overton County is part of the Cookeville, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area. History On May 1 ...

, his family moved to Gibson County in the west of the state when Totten was young.Albert D. Marks, "The Supreme Court of Tennessee", Part II, '' The Green Bag'', Volume 5 (1893), p. 180. Totten studied law to gain admission to the bar, and commenced the practice of law at the county-seat,

Trenton, Tennessee Trenton is the county seat and fourth largest city of Gibson County, Tennessee, Gibson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 4,264 at the 2010 census, down from 4,683 in 2000. History Trenton was established in 1824 as a county se ...

. After building a successful practice in Trenton, he moved to

Jackson, Tennessee Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Tennessee, United States. Located east of Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, it is a regional center of trade for West Tennessee. Its total population was 68,205 as of the 2020 United States ...

, as that was where the Federal Courts for the Western Division of the State met. When William B. Turley resigned from the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1850, Totten was appointed to the seat, and on February 28, 1850 was elected to continue serving. On May 25, 1854, Totten became a member of first group of Tennessee Supreme Court justices to be elected by popular vote. As a justice, Totten was "not a man of preeminent ability, but he filled the measure of judicial duty", being described as "deliberate in the formation of his opinions, diligent in research, attached to established precedent, and could not be swayed from his conscientious convictions". He remained on the bench until his resignation on July 17, 1855. Totten was a member of the

Peace Conference of 1861 The Peace Conference of 1861 was a meeting of 131 leading American politicians in February 1861, at the Willard's Hotel in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the American Civil War. The purpose of the conference was to avoid, if possible, the secess ...

, held in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Totten died in 1867.

References

Justices of the Tennessee Supreme Court People from Overton County, Tennessee People of Tennessee in the American Civil War 1809 births 1867 deaths 19th-century American judges {{US-state-judge-stub