HARRY M. CLABAUGH
HARRY M. CLABAUGH, lawyer, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, was born in Cumberland, Maryland, July 16, 1856. His parents were George W. and Ellen Clabaugh. When their son was about six years of age, they removed to Baltimore, Maryland, where they resided until 1873, during which period he received a preparatory education at Loyola college. His family left Baltimore, and removed to their country home, "Antrim," Carroll county, Maryland, and shortly thereafter he entered Pennsylvania college, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1877. He read law in the office of Bernard Carter, one of Maryland's leading lawyers, and also pursued a course of study in the law school of the University of Maryland, from which he received the degree of LL.B., in 1878.
He at once began practice, and rose rapidly in influence and esteem, among the lawyers of his state. His characteristic force and legal ability led to his retention in a number of celebrated cases, and won the attention of the Republican party leaders of Maryland, resulting in his election as chairman of, the Republican state committee for four years. In 1895 he was elected attorney-general of Maryland, when Honorable Lloyd Lowndes was chosen governor in the face of strong Democratic opposition. He served in that position until March, 1899, when he was appointed, by President McKinley, to an associate judgeship on the bench of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, vacated by Judge Lewis E. McComas, upon the election of the latter to the United States senate. After four years as associate justice, and on the retirement of Chief Justice Bingham, May 1, 1903, Judge Clabaugh was promptly promoted, by President Roosevelt, to the chief justiceship of the same court.
In both judicial positions Judge Clabaugh has won much praise as a fair-minded judge and interpreter of the law. He has been a thorough student of the common law in its history and its principles — and this has largely contributed to his success on the bench of
