Edward Terry Sanford, 1865-1930

An exhibit on Knoxville’s only U.S. Supreme Court Justice opens Monday, October 3rd, in the upper lobby of the Special Collections Library. The exhibit — “Edward Terry Sanford, United States Supreme Court Justice and Trustee of the University of Tennessee” — will run through December.

The son of Edward Jackson and Emma Chavannes Sanford of Knoxville, Edward Terry Sanford was the only Justice of the United States Supreme Court to have come from this city. He received the A.B. Ph. B. from the University of Tennessee, 1883; the A.B. from Harvard University, 1885; and the A.M. and L.L.B. from Harvard University, 1889; and was honored with an L.L.D. from the University of Cincinnati in 1908.

A member of the Tennessee bar, he was in practice for eighteen years, in the firm of Lucky, Sanford, and Fowler. He married, in 1891, Lutie Mallory Woodruff, the daughter of a prominent Knoxville merchant. Among his service on various boards and associations, Mr. Sanford served as a trustee of the University of Tennessee, from 1897-1923. In 1907 he was appointed Assistant United States District Attorney, by President Theodore Roosevelt. Eighteen months following that appointment he became Judge of the United States District Court for the middle and eastern districts of Tennessee.

President Warren G. Harding nominated Judge Sanford to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court; and, after congressional confirmation, he assumed this appointment on February 19, 1923, and served until his death in March of 1930. Well regarded by history, Justice Sanford is remembered as one of Knoxville