Background
Mathew Duncan Ector was born in Putnam County, Georgia in 1822, and grew up in Meriwether County, Georgia. His parents were Hugh Walton and Dorothy Duncan Ector.
600 W Walnut St, Danville, KY 40422, United States
Ector was educated at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.
Mathew Duncan Ector was born in Putnam County, Georgia in 1822, and grew up in Meriwether County, Georgia. His parents were Hugh Walton and Dorothy Duncan Ector.
Ector was educated at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky before undertaking the private study of law under the tutelage of Georgia state supreme court justice, Hiram B. Warner, in Greenville, Georgia.
Mathew Ector was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1844. He practiced law and served a term, 1845-1847, in the Georgia legislature. Ector served in a Georgia regiment during the Mexican War. In 1849, he moved to Henderson, Texas, which he represented in the Texas legislature in 1855.
When the American Civil War began, he left the legislature, enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army, and served as adjutant to General Joseph L. Hogg at Corinth, Mississippi. He was later elected colonel of the 14th Texas Cavalry, and he was promoted to brigadier general on August 23, 1862. He fought in the battles of Richmond, Kentucky, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Chickamauga, Georgia. And in the Atlanta campaign, where he lost his leg as a result of wounds on July 27, 1864.
Forced to retire from active military service, Ector spent the last part of the war in command of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana in Mobile. Ector participated in the defense of Mobile at the end of the war, surrendered, and was soon paroled. He returned to Texas and practiced law.
From 1866 until he was deposed the following year, Ector was the judge of the Sixth Judicial District of Texas. Restrictions kept him from public office until after Reconstruction. In 1867, he practiced law in Marshall, Texas.
He was elected judge of the Seventh Judicial District in 1874 and served as a judge of the Court of Appeals from 1876 until his death on October 29, 1879, in Tyler, Texas.
Mathew was remembered by his colleagues for his generosity, dignity, kindness, and strength of character.
Ector was married to Louisa Phillips from 1842 to 1848, to Letitia Graham from 1851 to 1859, and to Sallie P. Chew in 1864. He had six children.