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Thomas Baltzell


Thomas Baltzell (July 11, 1804 – January 1866) was an American lawyer and politician who was the first popularly elected chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court. Baltzell was also a Florida Territory Senator and a Florida State Representative as well as a Florida Constitutional Convention delegate for two of the state's Constitutions.

Baltzell was born in Frankfort, Kentucky and studied law with Kentucky Attorney General Solomon P. Sharp, attaining his license at age 20. Following his friend Florida Governor William Pope Duval, Baltzell moved to Florida in 1825. Baltzell was well known to have a fiery temper which surfaced in October 1832 when he and James Westcott engaged in a duel near the Alabama border. Baltzell was uninjured while Westcott was only slightly injured and eventually became a U.S. Senator.

Soon after his duel with Westcott, Baltzell was elected to represent Jackson County on the Florida Territorial Legislative Council. In 1834, Governor Duval appointed Baltzell as justice of the peace for Escambia County. That year he married Harriet King. The couple had six children by 1850. In 1838, Baltzell served on the Constitutional Convention and signed the 1838 Florida Constitution. Later that year, he ran for the territory delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives on an anti-bank stance but lost to Charles Downing.


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