CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY: JOHN W. STAYTON - Smith County, TX

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Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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Submitted by Doris Peirce - ginlu@charter.net
27 January 2002
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson 
JOHN W. STAYTON.

John W. Stayton, of Victoria, was born in Washington county, Kentucky, 
Dec. 24, 1830.  He was graduated from the law department of the 
University of Louisville in 1856, and in the fall of that year 
came to Texas and began the practice of law.  He soon gained both 
personal and professional popularity and his advancement was rapid.  
In 1858 he was elected district attorney of the 18th district and 
was reelected in 1860.  Upon the expiration of his second term of 
office he enlisted as a private in the Confederate army, was soon 
promoted to a captaincy and served in the army until the end of 
the war.  He now resumed the practice of law and in 1871 removed 
to Victoria where he resided continuously thereafter.  In 1875 
he was a member of the Constitutional Convention.  In Nov. 1881 
he was appointed by Gov. O. M. Roberts an associate justice of 
the Supreme Court of Texas, and in 1882 was elected for a full 
term of six years and before the expiration of that time he was 
appointed Chief Justice by Gov. Ross entering upon the discharge 
of the duties of that high post Mar. 3, 1888.  In the fall of 
that year he was elected chief justice for a term of six years 
and was holding that office when he died in Tyler on the fifth 
day of July, 1894.  Judge Stayton was one of the greatest judges 
that Texas called to her service and his opinions are cited with 
frequency in the courts of all the states.  He was married in 
Kentucky in April 1856 to Miss Jennie Weldon.  Their son, Hon. 
Robert W. Stayton, is a leading lawyer in San Antonio; and thier 
daughter, Norma, is the wife of Col. John T. Bonner (son of the 
late Judge M. H. Bonner of the Supreme Court) one of the popular 
citizens of Tyler, and the general manager for Texas of the life 
insurance department of the Knights of Pythias.