Justice Geoge Pettus Raney
Former Justice George Raney was the 23rd Justice on the Supreme Court and served from 1885-1894. He grew up on the Florida frontier.
He was admitted to the University of Virginia in 1862, but withdrew to join the Confederate Army, where he achieved the rank of sergeant major by the war’s end.
Raney resumed his studies at the University of Virginia after the war and was then admitted to the bar at Apalachicola in 1867, where he began his law practice. He also involved himself in the Democratic Party, and was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1868. He moved permanently to Tallahassee the next year.
Raney worked hard to promote the Democrats and planned the party strategy that enabled George Drew to win the governor’s race in 1876. The new governor appointed Raney to his cabinet as Attorney General. The appointment was renewed by Governor Bloxham in 1880.
Raney played a major role in the 1881 purchase of four million acres of Florida swampland by the first of Florida’s great industrialist developers, Hamilton Disston, of Philadelphia.
In 1885, incoming Governor Edward Perry appointed Raney to the Supreme Court. In 1888, with popular election of justices, Raney was returned to office, and by lot received a six-year term and the position of Chief Justice. At the end of this term Raney resigned to once again take part in state and local politics.
Once in private practice, he often represented railroads in court and before the state’s regulatory board, the Railroad Commission. He became a well-known elder statesman in Tallahassee, campaigning to keep the city as the state capital in 1900. Raney died suddenly of pneumonia in 1911.
Quick facts about Justice Raney:
- Served 1885-1889 as Justice and 1889-1894 as Chief Justice
- Born: October 11, 1845 – Apalachicola, Florida
- Died: January 8, 1911 – Tallahassee, Florida
Former Justices
- Justice Robert J. Luck
- Justice Barbara Lagoa
- Justice Alan Lawson
- Justice James E.C. Perry
- Justice Ricky Polston
- Justice Kenneth B. Bell
- Justice Raoul G. Cantero
- Justice Peggy A. Quince
- Justice R. Fred Lewis
- Justice Barbara J. Pariente
- Justice Harry Lee Anstead
- Justice Charles Talley Wells
- Justice Major B. Harding
- Justice Gerald Kogan
- Justice Stephen H. Grimes
- Justice Rosemary Barkett
- Justice Leander J. Shaw, Jr.
- Justice Raymond Ehrlich
- Justice Parker Lee McDonald
- Justice James E. Alderman
- Justice Frederick Brennan Karl
- Justice Joseph Woodrow Hatchett
- Justice Alan C. Sundberg
- Justice Arthur J. England, Jr.
- Justice Ben. F. Overton
- Justice Hal P. Dekle
- Justice David Lucius McCain
- Justice Joseph Arthur Boyd, Jr.
- Justice James Calhoun Adkins, Jr.
- Justice Vassar Benjamin Carlton
- Justice Wade Lee Hopping
- Justice Richard William Ervin
- Justice Millard Fillmore Caldwell
- Justice Stephen C. O'Connell
- Justice Benjamin Campbell Thornal
- Justice Edward Harris Drew
- Justice John Elie Mathews
- Justice Bonnie Kaslo Roberts
- Justice Tolbert Frank Hobson
- Justice Paul Dryden Barns
- Justice Harold Leon "Tom" Sebring
- Justice Alto Lee Adams
- Justice Elwyn Thomas
- Justice Roy Harrison Chapman
- Justice Fred Henry Davis
- Justice Rivers Henderson Buford
- Justice Louie Willard Strum
- Justice Armstead Brown
- Justice William Glenn Terrell
- Justice Thomas Franklin West
- Justice Jefferson Beale Browne
- Justice William Hull Ellis
- Justice Charles Breckenridge Parkhill
- Justice James Bryan Whitfield
- Justice William Adams Hocker
- Justice Evelyn Croom Maxwell
- Justice Robert Spratt Cockrell
- Justice Thomas M. Shackleford
- Justice Francis Beauregard Carter
- Justice Benjamin Sullivan Liddon
- Justice Milton Harvey Mabry
- Justice Robert Fenwick Taylor
- Justice Henry Laurens Mitchell
- Justice Geoge Pettus Raney
- Justice George Gray Mcwhorter
- Justice Robert Bruce Van Valkenburgh
- Justice Franklin D. Fraser
- Justice James Diament Westcott, Jr.
- Justice Ossian Bingley Hart
- Justice Edwin M. Randall
- Justice Samuel James Douglas
- Justice James Mcnair Baker
- Justice Augustus Emmet Maxwell
- Justice David Shelby Walker
- Justice William Augustus Forward
- Justice Bird Murphy Pearson
- Justice Charles H. Dupont
- Justice Benjamin D. Wright
- Justice Albert Gallatin Semmes
- Justice Leslie Atchinson Thompson
- Justice Walker Anderson
- Justice Joseph Bradford Lancaster
- Justice George W. Macrae
- Justice George Sydney Hawkins
- Justice Thomas Baltzell
- Justice Thomas Douglas
Contact Information
Florida Supreme Court
500 South Duval Street
Tallahassee, Florida
32399-1925 | EMAIL
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