Background
Don Albert Pardee was born on Merch 29, 1837 in Wadsworth, Ohio, United States. His parents were Aaron Pardee, a native of that part of Marcellus which became Skaneateles, New York, and Eveline (Eyles) Pardee, of Kent, Connecticut.
Don Albert Pardee was born on Merch 29, 1837 in Wadsworth, Ohio, United States. His parents were Aaron Pardee, a native of that part of Marcellus which became Skaneateles, New York, and Eveline (Eyles) Pardee, of Kent, Connecticut.
Don Albert Pardee attended the public schools of Medina County, Ohio, and the United States Naval Academy (1854 - 1857) at Annapolis. Resigning before graduation he entered upon the study of law in his father's office at Wadsworth, Ohio, and was there admitted to the bar of Ohio in 1859.
Don Albert Pardee practised law in his native county from 1859 to 1861, when he volunteered in the 42nd Ohio Volunteers. He was commissioned major on October 27, 1861. In 1862 his regiment was transferred to the Army of the Mississippi, where he won distinction at Vicksburg and Port Gibson. In 1863 he was made provost-marshal of Baton Rouge. He remained with his original unit until it was mustered out in Arkansas late in 1864, and in March 1865 he was brevetted brigadier-general. In January 1865 Pardee moved to New Orleans to practise law. His success was immediate. In 1867 he was made register in bankruptcy and in 1868 he was elected judge of the second judicial district of Louisiana, which embraced the parishes of Jefferson, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines.
He held this judgeship for twelve years, being reelected in 1872 and 1876. He was a delegate in 1879 to the Louisiana constitutional convention, and was Republican candidate for attorney-general of Louisiana in 1880. On May 3, 1881, President Garfield, under whom he had served in the war, appointed him United States circuit judge of the fifth circuit, and from 1891, when the circuit courts of appeals were created, until his death in 1919, he was senior judge of the circuit court of appeals for the fifth circuit. He removed to Atlanta in 1898 and maintained his residence there for the remainder of his life, spending a good part of each winter in New Orleans and a few weeks each summer on his farm in Medina County, Ohio.
Within three years he was elected judge of an important state court, retaining that position for three terms, then for thirty-eight years he graced the bench of the federal circuit court, achieving distinction as an admiralty judge and as a fair and able judicial administrator of railroads. A Union army officer become Southern jurist, a stanch Republican who believed in the results of the war as written into the Constitution, and yet so understanding conditions in the South as to be able to give no offense.
He died on September 26, 1919. After his death his wife discovered in his billfold a small piece of paper on which he had written that the thing he prized most highly, in the long span of his judicial career, was the fact that he had never in all those years had to rebuke or punish an attorney for contempt.
Don Albert Pardee was a member of Republican Party.
Don Albert Pardee was tall and of massive proportions. Although he was always dignified and outwardly austere he gave to a few intimate associates a warm friendship. Many anecdotes survive to illustrate his kindly sympathy, his subtle sense of humor, his modest dislike of the limelight. Don Albert Pardee was able, courageous, and just.
On February 3, 1861, Don Albert Pardee was married to Julia E. Hard, of Wadsworth, who died soon. On June 14, 1898, he was married to Frances (Cunningham) Wells of Atlanta.
