Rufus Pettibone (1784 - 1825)

Born 26 May 1784 in Norfolk, Ct.

Ancestors

Husband of Maria L. C. (DeBucy) Pettibone — married [date unknown] in New York, United States [uncertain]

Descendants

Biography

Rufus Pettibone was robust and healthy as a boy and was a leader in his studies and on the playground. He graduated with high honors from Williams College in 1805. Deciding on law as a profession, he began the study of law in 1806 in the office of a lawyer with a large practice in Onondaga County, New York. After working there for two years, he entered the office of Abraham Van Vechten, a leading lawyer in Albany, New York. Rufus was admitted to practice as an attomey and counsellor in 1809 and in 1810 settled in Vemon, Oneida County, New York, where he opened his own law office. In 1812, at the age of twenty-eight, he was elected to represent Onondaga County in the lower house of the New York Legislature. In that same year he married Louise Esther DeRussey, daughter of a Frenchman who had escaped the insurrection on the Island of San Domingo in 1791 by taking refuge on a boat which took him and his family to New York State, where he settled inland in Oneida County [ibid., 263-4].

In the early spring of 1818 Rufus left Vernon and set out for St. Louis with his wife and children, his brother Levi, and a friend, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft [see J4418 Levi Pettibone]. Missouri was a huge borderline territory where southerners outnumbered northemers.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi River. He married Jane Johnston, whose parents were Ojibwe and Scots-Irish. Her knowledge of the Ojibwe language and of Ojibwe legends, which she shared with Schoolcraft, formed in part the source material for Longfellow's epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha. (Wikipedia) Schoolcraft Rd in Detroit, Mi., is named for him.

In late 1819 the Missouri Territory included all the Louisiana Purchase excerpt for the segments organized in 1812 as the state of Louisiana and in 1819 as the Arkansas Territory. When the Assembly of Missouri Territory applied for statehood and admittance to the union, a violent controversy arose immediately over whether slavery should be allowed in the new state. The issue was debated in Congress and throughout the nation. Both southerners and northerners flocked into the territory the southerners often bringing slaves with them and the almost all the northemers determined to keep slaves out. The stakes became very high and the level of hostility extremely dangerous. When Missouri was finally admitted to statehood, it was only as the result of an agreement, known as "The Missouri Compromise," which satisfied neither side. It forbade slavery anywhere north of 36' 30’ except in Missouri, where it would be allowed, the new State of Maine having been admitted at the same time as a new free state, supposedly balancing the issue. From the earliest days of statehood until well after the end of the Civil War, the conflict over slavery in Missouri grew ever more violent until it became literally a guerilla war.

Rufus Pettibone was one whose convictions were fired by the contest. Upon his arrival in May 1818 he was offered a partnership by Col. Rufus Easton, the most experienced lawyer then in St. Louis, and with this introduction to his new life he went on record against slavery and entered the political arena. He was one of five men on the ticket in 1820 for election to a committee to write the constitution for the new state. He failed to be elected to the committee, but was immediately appointed Judge of the Second Judicial Court of Missouri by the first Governor of the new state. His district encompassed the counties of Ralls, Pike, Lincoln, St. Charles, Montgomery, and Callaway on the north side of the Missouri River, and Gasconade on the south side.

After his appointment Judge Pettibone and his family moved to St. Charles. He served in the second Judicial District until a vacancy arose in the supreme court of the state, and he was appointed to fill that higher position. While on the Supreme Court, Rufus was asked to join with Honorable Henry S. Geyer (later a senator from Missouri) to review and revise the statutes of Missouri for publication. The result comprises two volumes of revised laws, published early in 1825, which have become Missouri classics since that time. A biographical sketch of Rufus Pettibone states, "The additional duties appear to have been too great a burden, for his death followed in St. Charles, Missouri 21 July 1825" [National Cyclopedia of American Biography, 16:409]. Rufus Pettibone was forty-one years old when he died.

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Second Judicial Court. His district encompassed the counties of Ralls, Pike, Lincoln, St. Charles, Montgomery, and Callaway on the north side of the Missouri River, and Gasconade County on the south side of the river.

After his appointment, Judge Pettibone moved to the town of St. Charles. He served in the Second Judicial District until a vacancy arose in the supreme court of the state, which vacancy he was appointed to fill. While on the Supreme Court of Missouri, he was asked to join with Honorably Henry S. Geyer (later U.S. Senator from Missouri) to review and revise the statutes of Missouri for publication. The result was two volumes of revised laws published early in 1825, which have been Missouri classics since that time. A biographical sketch of Rufus Pettibone states, ‘The additional duties appear to have been too great a burden, for his death followed in St. Charles, Missouri, 21 July 1825" [National Cyclopedia of American Biography, 16:409]. Rufus Pettibone was forty~one years old when he died.

Sources

• Tom Bredehoft, Pettibone Registry, page 134, see K. Pontius.
• Tom Bredehoft, Pettibone Registry, pages 233, following, see K. Pontius.^[1]

1. ↑ Entered by Tom Bredehoft, Dec 21, 2012