Elbert Hartwell English

Brethren if you have ever looked closely at the Masonic Arkansas Digest of Laws this name will stand out. Here is a part of this brothers life story.

E. H. English was born on March 6, 1816, in Madison County, Alabama. In his twenties, he read law, the method by which one could enter the profession. He joined the Alabama bar in 1839 and practiced law in Athens for nearly five years. While pursuing his legal studies, he won election to the Alabama state legislature. Elbert Hartwell English was one of the most important jurists in Arkansas across a crucial period of legal development and turmoil in the state, including the eras of the Civil War and Reconstruction. In addition to his years of private practice, English served as chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court for a total of twenty years, one of only four chief justices to have served over twelve years in the role.

English moved to Arkansas. He began practicing law in Little Rock, Pulaski County, in 1844. He also served as co-editor of the Democratic Arkansas Banner newspaper. English balanced a private legal practice, newspaper work, and his role as an Arkansas Supreme Court decision reporter. He quickly left the newspaper industry to focus solely on his legal career. He gained extensive and complex knowledge of the Supreme Court and its operations during his nine years as a court reporter. As a result, the Arkansas General Assembly appointed him to write English's Digest of Laws, a digest of laws that was published in 1848 and functioned as the state's standard compendium for ten years.

He was Grand Master for the Most Worshipful Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons during 1849 and from 1859 through 1868 consecutively. Brother English and his fellow Arkansas Freemasons spearheaded the creation of the first chartered college in the state, St. Johns’ College, in Little Rock. The institution opened its doors in the fall of 1859. However, the disruption of the Civil War combined with the financial collapse it engendered effectively bankrupted the school, which, despite some efforts to sustain it, closed for good in 1882.

Tombstone of E.H. English at Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock

In 1854, English was elected to the position of chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court. He held this position until 1864, then resumed private practice in Little Rock until his re-appointment as Chief Justice in 1874.

English died on September 1, 1884, while vacationing in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, and is buried at Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock Arkansas. There was even an obituary for him in the New York Times. The Masonic Epithet on his burial marker said it best: “High in her most important offices he was the pride and glory of Masonry in Arkansas."