Franklin Thomas Backus
{{Short description|American lawyer and politician}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Franklin Thomas Backus
| image = Franklin T. Backus.png
| state_senate= Ohio
| district=Cuyahoga & Geauga Counties
| term_start = December 6, 1847
| term_end = December 2, 1849
| preceded = Seabury Ford
| succeeded = Henry B. Payne
| state_house2 =Ohio
| district2 = Cuyahoga County
| term_start2=December 7, 1846
| term_end2=December 5, 1847
| preceded2=D. Harvey
| succeeded2 = Theodore Breck
| alongside2 =Theodore Breck
| birth_date = {{birth date|1813|5|6}}
| birth_place = Lee, Berkshire County, Massachusetts
| death_date = {{death date and age|1870|5|14|1813|5|6}}
| death_place = Cleveland, Ohio
| restingplace = Lake View Cemetery
| party = Whig
| otherparty = Republican
Democratic
| spouse = Lucy Mygatt (m. 1842)
| children =
| alma_mater = Yale University
| signature=Franklin T. Backus signature.png
}}
Franklin Thomas Backus (May 6, 1813 – May 14, 1870) was an American lawyer and politician. He was a defense attorney in the Oberlin–Wellington Rescue case and the Case Western Reserve University School of Law was once named for him.{{cite encyclopedia | title=BACKUS, FRANKLIN THOMAS | encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | accessdate=21 June 2015 | url=http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=BFT | date=11 July 1997}}
Life
Backus was born in Lee, Massachusetts on May 6, 1813, the fourth son of Thomas and Rebecca Backus. While he was very young the family moved to Lansing, New York He prepared himself for college while assistant teacher in an academy in Delaware kept by an older brother, and entered Yale College as a Junior in 1834. On leaving college in 1836, he established a classical school in Cleveland, Ohio, and at the same time began the study of law. Several notable younger Clevelanders attended his school, including Leonard Case, Jr., William Case, George Hoadly, and Horace Kelley.{{cite book |date=1892 |title=Western Reserve Historical Society: Tract, Issues 73-84 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z7Q1AAAAIAAJ&q=%22Rev.+Colley+Foster%22&pg=PA229 |page=229 |access-date=October 16, 2019}}
In 1839, he was admitted to the bar. In January 1842, he married Lucy Mygatt, who survived him.
In 1861, he was a member of the Peace Convention which met in Washington, with the hope of averting the American Civil War. The later years of his life were devoted to the duties of his profession, in which he had become eminent. His services were especially sought for by railroad corporations, and it is to the excessive and exhausting labor thus brought upon him that his death, from a disease of the heart, is to be attributed.
Notes
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Sources
- {{yaleobit}}
- {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Backus, Franklin Thomas|year=1900 }}
- {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Backus, Franklin Thomas |volume= 1 |page=175 |short=}}
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Category:People from Lee, Massachusetts
Category:Members of the Ohio House of Representatives
Category:Lawyers from Cleveland
Category:19th-century members of the Ohio General Assembly
Category:County district attorneys in Ohio