Stillwell H. Russell

Stillwell Heady Russell (1846–1914) was a Texas lawyer, politician, U.S. marshal, soldier in the Confederate Army, and, at the time of his death, justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Born in Marshall, Harrison County, Texas and living in Texas through a long political career, he moved to what would become the state of Oklahoma in 1899 to practice law. In 1914, he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Oklahoma Supreme Court, but he died after serving only two months.

Early life S. H. Russell was born in Brazoria County, Texas on Valentine's Day (February 14), 1846 to William Jarvis (1802–1881) and Eleanor (Heady) Russell (1817–1890). Little about his early life has been published except that he attended the Texas Military Institute and farmed until the U.S. Civil War intruded. He enlisted as a private in the 25th Regiment of the Texas Cavalry, fighting for the Confederate Army. His military career was evidently unremarkable, because he emerged as still a private at the end of hostilities.

Returning to civilian life, Russell got a job as a clerk in a Brazoria, Texas dry goods store. He used his spare time to study law in the offices of Lathrop & McCormick. In 1869, he was admitted to the Texas bar, and soon after moved to Galveston, Texas.

The Washington Post described Russell as the victim of intraparty Republican politics: "[Brewster] Cameron, of the Department of Justice, was Russell's enemy...Russell dressed well and is self-willed and self-reliant. He was hated, therefore, by many vulgar people. The Department of Justice was invoked to destroy him. He was indicted again and again, and again and again he was tried and acquitted. He was utterly impoverished by these prosecutions, ever failing and ever renewed. The government's purse was infinitely larger than Mr. Russell's...poor Russell was undone. He is penniless and must crack stone two years in a northern penitentiary. Corkscrew Cameron willed it and the Department of Justice effervescing with exquisite delight gloats over the downfall of a citizen victimized by malice and limitless wealth and power wielded by Corkscrew Cameron."

By July 1883, Russell had been assigned to a prison clerkship and to work in the brickyard. Some of Russell's friends and supporters started a campaign for his early release. Russell was released in February 1885, after serving 21 months. He went to live in Denison, Texas, where he reestablished his law practice, and later to Dallas.

Move to Oklahoma By 1895, the Texas chapter of the International Order of Odd Fellows selected him as a delegate to its convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In April 1899, he participated in an IOOF encampment in Oklahoma Territory, where he decided to start a new life. He and Edgar Wilhelm opened a law office in Ardmore in December 1899. Shortly after Oklahoma became a state on November 16, 1907, he returned to politics, leaving the Republican fold to become a member of the Democratic party. He was elected judge of Oklahoma's 8th judicial district, then reelected in 1910, defeating Republican James Humphrey by a vote of 2,797 to 1,204.

Death Soon after his appointment, Justice Russell became ill at a meeting of the Oklahoma Bar Association. He died on May 16, 1914 in his room at the Lee-Huckins Hotel in Oklahoma City. The cause of death was called "a weak heart," with an "attack of acute indigestion" as a contributing factor. Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice F. E. Riddle eulogized him thusly: "At the bar, he was a learned and ingenious advocate, possessing a brilliant and persuasive eloquence. On the bench, his love of justice, his candor and modesty, were no less distinguished than his learning, acuteness and discrimination."