8
21
1837
Judge Henry L. Warren, a prominent member of the bar of New Mexico, is an ex-Chief Justice of Montana, and is now the senior member of the well-known law firm of Warren & Fergusson of Albuquerque. As such he is entitled to some special consideration in this work, and it is gratifying to us to here present a sketch of his life.
Judge Warren was born in Quincy, Illinois, August 21, 1837. He traces his ancestry back to the Warrens of England who came over in the Mayflower and distinguished themselves in the Revolution at Bunker Hill. The Judge's father, Calvin A. Warren, was born in Troy, New York. He married Miss Viola A. Morris, daughter of Hon. Thomas Morris, who was one of the first settlers of Cincinnati, was for twenty-six years a member of the Ohio Legislature, and later of the United States Senate, and who has gone into history as the man who gave U. S. Grant his appointment to West Point. When Judge Warren was four years old his mother died, aged twenty-four years. His father lived to be seventy-two. The Judge is now the only survivor of the family, except his brother, Charles A. Warren, a prominent lawyer of Chicago. He attended the Naval Academy at Annapolis and Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; was a cadet midshipman, but resigned at the close of the second year in order to turn his attention to the study of law and entered his father's office, his father at that time being a member of the law firm of Warren & Skinner. Mr. Skinner afterward became one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois. In 1858 the subject of our sketch was admitted to the bar in Missouri by Judge Norton. He practiced law at Maryville and St. Joseph, that State, until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he returned to his native town, Quincy, Illinois. There he continued the practice of his profession. He served as City Attorney and also as a member of the Illinois State Legislature, and while in Quincy received from President Johnson the appointment of Chief Justice of Montana, in which capacity he officiated four years, during that time making several decisions which have stamped him as possessed of fine legal ability. At the expiration of his term of office he returned to his family in Illinois. Soon after, he was retained at St. Louis, Missouri, in two very important law cases, which detained him there for eight years. From that city he was called to Leadville, Colorado, as an attorney in large mining litigation, and after this, in 1880, he came to Santa Fe, New Mexico. He made his home in Santa Fe for seven years, during that time being in partnership with E. A. Fisk. Since June, 1887, the Judge has been identified with Albuquerque, as senior member of the firm of Warren & Fergusson.
Judge Warren was married in 1858 to Miss Mary L. Warren, a distant relative of his, and they had four children, of whom only one son, Paul, a surveyor, now survives. The wife and mother, after thirty-four years of happy married life, passed away in 1891.
Fraternally, the Judge has been a Mason for many years, in which order he has taken the Commandery degrees. Politically, he is a life-long Democrat.
Biography of Judge Henry L. Warren