James Broadhead

James Overton Broadhead (May 29, 1819 – August 7, 1898) was an American lawyer and politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives and of the Missouri Senate. He was also the first president of the American Bar Association.

Biography Broadhead was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, and studied law at St. Louis, Missouri, after a one-year stay in the University of Virginia. Having received his license, Broadhead began a private practice in 1842 at Bowling Green, Missouri. Joining the Missouri Constitutional Convention in 1845, it a year later that he participated in the Missouri House of Representatives. From 1850 until 1853 he also served in the Missouri Senate before returning to private practice as a partner in a law firm back in St Louis. Between 1883 and 1885 Broadhead represented Missouri in the House of Representatives as a Democrat, as well as being a member of the Judiciary Committee, as special commissioner to France and later minister to Switzerland