him through. He died from the injury on May 27, 1851. In his dying moments his thoughts wandered back to the consultationroom where he had so often sat; and his last words were, " I can never agree to that, Judge Green." Judge Green was the intellectual giant of the bench, Judge Turley was its genius, and Judge Reese its scholar. William B. Reese was born in Jefferson County, Tenn., on Nov. 19, 1793, dying at Knoxville on July 7, 1859. He was the son of James Reese, one' of the pioneers of East Tennessee, and a leading member of the Legislature of the State of Frankland, which the early settlers had set up for their protection in the wilderness when they were neglected by the mother State. The father was a lawyer, and from him the son inherited mental endowments of the highest order. By the time he had reached the age for men tal training, he found on every hand schools able to give him a classical education. The early settlers of Tennessee had turned their attention to the establishing of good schools, before they had made secure the tenure of their new homes, conquered from the Indians. Judge Reese was first put in the preparatory school of the Rev. Dr. Henderson in his na tive county. He was afterwards a student at Blount College. He finally entered Greeneville College, and was there graduated. But his education did not stop here. His intel lectual vigor, independent thinking, and pro found research led him into deep studies of everything that makes up the sum of human knowledge; and these he continued during his long and active life. He became one of the most thorough scholars that the State has ever had in all the departments of learning. Taking up the study of law, he mastered it as a science. For a considerable part of his life he was a judge, and in his decisions he always dealt with the question before him as one to be answered by the application of fixed principles of law that were not to be varied by the hardships of the particular case.
He was admitted to practice in 1817. His care in the preparation of his cases and his logical power made him a formidable adver sary. That was pre-eminently the day of young men; and in 1831, when he was but little past thirty-five, he was made Chancel lor of the Eastern District, to succeed Chan cellor Green. Out of his many decisions brought before the Supreme Court, he was reversed only twice. He made such a repu tation as a chancellor that on the reorgani zation of the Supreme Court in 1835, he was unanimously elected by the Legislature a judge of that court. He was the first native Tennessean to become a Supreme judge. Reference has been made to the high or der of his judicial work; but there is one opinion of his that deserves especial mention, as a splendid illustration of the qualities his mind possessed. It is the case of Polk ï'. Paris, 9 Yerger, 159, where it was held that personal property given by a deed to a per son for life, and after the termination of that estate, then to the heirs of the body of that person, and upon default of such issue, then to return to the grantor and his heirs, vests absolutely in the first taker, under the rule in Shelly's case. The erudition of that opin ion drew forth especial praise from Chancel lor Kent. Judge Reese on the expiration of his term as Supreme Judge in 1847, became a candi date for United States Senator; but after a prolonged contest, John Bell was elected. Judge Reese shortly afterward became Presi dent of East Tennessee University. He held the position until a short time before his death, when the encoachments of disease compelled him to resign it. Judge Reese was not simply a judge and man of letters. He took an active interest in the development of his State. He was in 1828 an earnest advocate of the building of a canal to one of the South Atlantic ports, and was afterwards a director in the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad Company. He was also President of the East Tennessee
