Court History

Chief Justice

Benjamin Dudley Tarlton (1892 to 1898) 

Benjamin Dudley Tarlton was born on October 18, 1849, in St. Mary’s Parish, Louisiana.  He attained a B.A. degree from St. Charles College in 1868 and studied law at the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University), graduating in 1872.

After practicing law in Louisiana for several years, Tarlton moved to Texas in 1875.  In the 1880s, Tarlton was elected to the Texas Legislature and in 1890 temporarily chaired the Democratic State Convention that nominated James Hogg for governor.   

Once elected, Hogg appointed Tarlton as a justice to Section B of the Commission of Appeals in 1891.  When the Commission was dissolved in 1892 in favor of the First, Second, and Third Courts of Appeals, Hogg appointed Tarlton as the first Chief Justice of the Second Court of Appeals.  Tarlton authored over 400 opinions as Chief Justice before choosing not to run in the 1898 election.  After leaving the court, he entered private practice in Fort Worth.  

In 1904, Tarlton served as the first president of the Tarrant County Bar Association, and that same year he became a Professor of Law at the University of Texas where he taught for the next fifteen years.  On September 22, 1919, Tarlton passed away and was then buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas.  Following his death, he received numerous tributes from members of the Texas legal community, and in 1953, the law library at the University of Texas was dedicated in his name.