Joab Houghton

Joab Houghton (1811 – January 31, 1876) was an American lawyer and judge who served as the first Chief Justice of New Mexico.

A native of New York, Houghton came to New Mexico when it was still a Mexican territory, and became a successful merchant. Though lacking any legal education, he was appointed Chief Justice when New Mexico was occupied by the United States in 1846 during the Mexican-American War. In 1850, Houghton led an anti-slavery faction in the drafting of New Mexico's proposed constitution during its first attempt at statehood. His service as Chief Justice ended in 1851, and he practiced law in Santa Fe, as he would during much of his life, and also served as a district attorney during the American Civil War. Houghton was again appointed a justice on the Supreme Court of New Mexico Territory from 1865 to 1869. He made numerous political enemies, and his rulings regarding property confiscated during the Civil War were widely criticized as contrary to basic legal principles. After his replacement on the bench, Houghton spent his last years in private legal practice.

Houghton was born in New York in 1811. He attended college and then worked as a civil engineer. Houghton arrived in New Mexico in 1843, traveling over the Santa Fe Trail on a trading expedition. He entered into a mercantile partnership in Santa Fe with brothers Eugene and Thomas Leitensdorfer, doing business as E. Leitensdorfer & Co. from 1844 until 1848, when it went bankrupt. Prior to its failing, it was considered the leading mercantile house west of the Missouri River. Houghton also began a partnership with Jared W. Folger in 1847, operating as Houghton & Folger.

Houghton was appointed the U.S. consul in Santa Fe in 1845. He was serving in that capacity when Santa Fe was occupied by the United States Army in August, 1846, shortly after the start of the Mexican–American War. The military governor, General Stephen W. Kearney, quickly formed a civilian provisional government, and on September 22, 1846, appointed Houghton as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court alongside two associate justices. Like both of his colleagues, Houghton had no legal training, though he read law as a hobby and continued to study it while serving on the bench. As a consequence of Houghton's ignorance of the law, the court's record keeping was inadequate and irregular, and he also issued no rules of practice to guide attorneys in his court. In the two terms he would ultimately serve on the bench, Houghton apparently filed only one written opinion. Most of the bar of New Mexico at the time, however, was even more ignorant of basic legal principles than Houghton. Even apart from those limitations, the court's functioning was frequently impaired by the military's interference with its orders.

...
Wikipedia