Reuben Reid Gaines was an American justice and lawyer. He was a chief justice of the supreme court of Texas.
Background
Reuben Reid Gaines was born on October 30, 1836, in Sumter County, Alabama. He was the son of Joab and Lucinda (McDavid) Gaines.
His childhood was passed on a plantation cultivated by slave labor, his father being a planter of some means.
Education
Gaines's early education was secured in a country and private schools. After graduation from the University of Alabama in 1855, he entered the once-famous law school of Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tennessee, and in 1857, received from that institution the degree of LL. B.
The next four years were devoted to the practice of law and to the management of his plantation at Selma, Alabama.
Career
During the Civil War, Gaines's commanders were the celebrated cavalry leaders, John T. Morgan, and Joseph Wheeler. But though he was severely wounded and served with distinction in most of the important western campaigns, in later life Gaines could seldom be persuaded to mention his career in the army.
Few knew what rank he had borne; and in the South where colonel was the courtesy title of many citizens, his friends never heard him referred to by any military appellation.
The close of the war found the young lawyer ruined financially and face to face with the disastrous consequences of an economic and political revolution in his native state. Like many others, he turned his eyes toward Texas, young, full of possibilities, and comparatively, untouched by war.
He and his wife removed in 1868 to Clarksville, in Red River County, where he successfully engaged in the practice of law and established his reputation as a leading member of the Texas bar. As the result of a unique non-political convention of the lawyers of his district, Gaines was nominated and elected in 1876 judge for the sixth judicial district, a position in which he served until 1884.
Two years later, he became an associate justice of the supreme court. On the death of the celebrated Chief Justice Stayton in 1894, Gaines was appointed chief justice, and continued in this position by successive nominations and elections, always without opposition, until January 5, 1911, when he resigned on account of the growing infirmities of age.
His term of service lacked only a few months of completing a quarter of a century, the longest in the history of the court. In the course of his work on the supreme court, Gaines delivered over a thousand written opinions.
For twelve years, his colleagues were Judge Frank A. Williams and Judge Thomas J. Brown. This period is known to Texas lawyers as that of the “strong court. ” Although the three judges were men of decided views, the twelve years during which they were associated were marked by only three instances of dissenting opinions, one by each of them, so careful were they to harmonize their views and reach conclusions in which they could all agree.
Achievements
Personality
The opinions of Gaines are clear and brief, marked by no elaborate display of legal learning. Their impersonal tone is in strange contrast to a vigorous and almost volcanic personality, about which many anecdotes have gathered.
Connections
In March 1859, Gaines married Louisa Shortridge, who was his constant companion through more than fifty years, and who survived him.