Josiah T. Settle

Josiah "Joe" Thomas Settle (September 30, 1850 – August 21, 1915) was an American lawyer, active in Washington, D.C., Sardis, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee. He was a part of Howard University's first graduating class in 1872. In 1875, he moved to Mississippi and was elected a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1883. In 1885 he moved to Memphis where he was appointed Assistant Attorney-General in Shelby County. He held that position for two years before turning to private practice.

Early life Josiah "Joe" Thomas Settle was born a slave in the Cumberland Mountains of East Tennessee or North Carolina on September 30, 1850, to Nancy Settle. His father was the owner of the family, also named Josiah, and at the time of his birth, his master was moving the household from their former home in Rockingham, North Carolina, to Mississippi. Josiah Sr. felt devoted to Settle's mother and children by her, and in the 1850s manumitted her and their children. As the state forbade the presence of free blacks, in March 1856, they moved to Hamilton, Ohio, although Settle kept his slaves and plantation in Mississippi and lived there in the fall, winter, and spring. In 1858 Josiah's parents married and in 1861, when the American Civil War began, the elder Josiah sold his land and slaves in Mississippi and moved to Ohio and supported the Union. He died in the spring of 1869. The next year Settle entered the Sophomore class at Howard University. He graduated from Howard in 1872 in the schools first class along with James Monroe Gregory and Arthur Clough O'Hear; O'Hear died in 1876 in Charleston, SC. During his last two years at Howard, Settle clerked in the education division of the Freedmen's Bureau and in the last part of his senior year he became reading clerk of the Washington, District of Columbia House of Delegates In August, he was nominated to the position of District Attourney of the Twelfth Judicial District in Mississippi, but the 1875 election in Mississippi was overwhelmingly won by Democrats and Settle lost. In 1876 and 1880 he was selected as a delegate to the Republican National Conventions. In 1876, he initially supported Roscoe Conkling and Stewart L. Woodford before turning to Hayes and Wheeler. In 1880 he supported Garfield and Arthur.

From March 1886 to September 1887, Ida B. Wells boarded with Settle and his wife at their home on Lauderdale Street and Settle was one of a number of father figures for the budding journalist and activist. Wells and Theresa became close, but Wells moved out when she felt the wealthy Settles' were cheap and asking for too much money. Wells would later criticize Settle in her paper, Free Speech and called him a "sycophant" in her writings. This was in response to Settle and fellow black lawyer Thomas Cassels' representing members of Reverend Taylor Nightingale's church on charges that Nightingale's leadership was militant and incendiary "on the race question". Nightingale was convicted and fled Memphis rather than serve his sentence of 80 days in prison.

In private practice in 1905, Settle and Benjamin F. Booth represented Mary Morrison in a case challenging state law mandating segregation on street cars, although the judge ruled in favor of the state law. In 1900, Settle reported that "We have faced unreasoning prejudice. We have found, not our clients, but ourselves on trial, and not ourselves alone, but the whole race with us." In the early 1910s, Booker T. Washington wrote that Settle told Washington that as a lawyer he did not face discrimination from judges, lawyers, or juries.

In 1906 he, Robert Reed Church, M. L. Clay, and T. H. Hayes founded the Solvent Bank and Trust Company at 392 Beale Street in Memphis.

Other activities He was an Episcopalian, In Memphis, he was a member of a circle of African American elites which included Robert Church, his daughter Mary Church Terrell and her husband Robert Heberton Terrell, Roscoe Conkling Bruce, Charles F. Hookses, and Samuel A. McElwee. Settle was the first president of the National Negro Bar Association (NNBA), serving from 1905 until 1913. The NNBA was affiliated with the National Negro Business League which had been organized by Booker T. Washington.

On March 20, 1890, Settle married Fannie McCullough, director of music at Lemoyne Normal Institute. About that time the Settles lived on South Orleans Street.

Death and family Settle died on August 21, 1915, in Memphis after a long illness. He had two sons, Josiah T. and Temoy.