Thomas Sheldon Maxey was born to Robert and Harriet Virginia Maxey in Brandon, Mississippi in 1846. After fighting for the Confederate Army during the Civil War, Maxey graduated from the University of Virginia with a law degree in 1869 and served in the Mississippi legislature. He practiced law in Jefferson, Texas, before moving to Austin in 1877 and married Mary Frances Campbell a year later. In 1888, President Grover Cleveland appointed him United States district judge for the Western District of Texas, a post he held until 1916. He died in 1921.
Source: “Maxey, Thomas Sheldon,” Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed on February 11,
2011.
The Thomas Sheldon Maxey Papers, 1868-1933, comprise personal letters, legal documents, and telegrams documenting Maxey’s legal career as attorney and judge. His personal papers include a 1914 letter from President William H. Taft, then a Law Professor at Yale Law School, proposing Maxey’s membership to the American Bar Association and a 1916 letter from President Woodrow Wilson, accepting his resignation as a United States district judge. Legal documents consist of Texas court pamphlets; memos from his law firm, Peeler & Maxey; law files; and correspondence with legal clients. Additionally, the collection contains a scrapbook of 1880-1881 newspaper articles, a certificate and diplomas, a book of pressed letters, and sympathy notes addressed to his wife after Maxey’s death in 1921.
This collection is open for research use.
Thomas Sheldon Maxey Papers, 1868-1933, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.