Portrait from the Choctaw Plaindealer, August 5, 1932.
The son of a leading Mississippi capitalist, Norfleet Ruffin Sledge was a Senatobia County-based attorney who later served twelve years as a chancery court judge in his state. He would later resign from the bench to serve as a campaign manager for U.S. Senator Byron "Pat" Harrison in 1936 and died a few months after Harrison won his fourth term in the senate. Born in Como, Mississippi on June 4, 1888, Norfleet Ruffin Sledge was the son of Norfleet Ruffin (1839-1910) and Lucile Johnson (Meriwether) Sledge (1861-1950). A leading businessman in Panola County, Norfleet Sledge Sr. was a Confederate veteran who earned a fortune in the cotton industry, and in addition to owning over 7,000 acres of land also distinguished himself as a banker, railroad director, and lumber company executive.
A student at the University of Mississippi, Norfleet Ruffin Sledge graduated in the class of 1909 with his bachelor of laws degree. He first established himself in practice in Sardis, Mississippi, and by 1913 relocated to Senatobia, where he was a partner in the firm of Holmes and Sledge. Sledge married in Mississippi in 1914 to Clara Wesson (1894-1927), who died in childbirth in July 1927 after delivering a son, Norfleet Ruffin (1927-2008).
Sledge practiced law in Senatobia until 1917 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army. After completing training he served in the intelligence department of the Judge Advocate General's office until his honorable discharge in April 1918, due to "disability incurred in the line of duty." Following his return stateside he maintained memberships in several veterans organizations, being a vice commander of the Arthur Armes Post No. 127, Sardis-Como, Mississippi; the Drum Major and Bugle Corps Post. 127; the Rube Baskin Chapter 17 of the D.A.V.; and was chairman of the Legislative Committee of the American Legion, Department of the Mississippi.
Sledge's senior portrait from the 1909 Ole Miss yearbook.
Through the early 1920s, Sledge continued with his law partnership and in 1924 was elected to fill a vacancy on the Third Chancery District Court of Mississippi, this vacancy occurring due to the elevation of Judge M.M. McGowan to another judicial post. Sledge was elected to a full term of his own in 1926, and in the year following his election suffered the death of his wife Clara. Three years after her passing Sledge remarried to her younger sister, Obedience "Beady" Wesson (1897-1961), who would survive him. The couple's union was childless.
In 1930 Sledge won a third term as chancellor and in 1934 entered into his fourth term, which extended until his resignation in 1936. In 1932 he was an unsuccessful aspirant for the state supreme court, and despite "magnificent support" outside his district failed of election by only a few hundred votes. His twelve-year tenure as chancellor for the third district was later lauded by the Clarksdale Daily Register as one of credit, noting:
"It is said that his record showed fewer reversals by the Supreme Court for the same period and volume of business than that of any Chancellor who ever held this position in the history of Mississippi."
A Sledge campaign notice from his 1932 Supreme Court candidacy.
Following his 1936 resignation, Norfleet Sledge joined the campaign of friend Byron Patterson "Pat" Harrison, then running for reelection to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi. As Harrison's campaign manager, Sledge was also brought aboard as a member of the campaign's finance committee, a role that put his name on the federal payroll with a $3,000 salary. This fact subsequently drew the ire (and watchful eye) of fellow senator Theodore Bilbo, with whom Harrison had a checkered history, but despite Bilbo making charges of payroll corruption, Harrison won reelection that November.
In the weeks following Harrison's win, Sledge journeyed with him to Washington, D.C., where he hoped to be named to the Interstate Commerce Commission. Although he was passed over for that post, Sledge achieved some measure of consolation when he was appointed an assistant to Attorney General Homer S. Cummings for the U.S. Department of Justice's claims division. During his residency in Washington Sledge had a home at the Raleigh Apartments, and died in his room from an unexpected attack of apoplexy on March 11, 1937. Just 48 years old at the time of his death, Sledge's body was escorted back to Mississippi by Senator Patterson and Congressman Wall Doxey, with burial occurring at the Friendship Cemetery in Como.
From the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, March 12, 1937.
Norfleet Carney during his mayoralty.
Another "Norfleet" that made his name in the public forum was Norfleet Lynn Carney, a physician who served three terms as mayor of Clarksville, Tennessee. A lifelong Tennessean, Carney was born in Montgomery County on September 21, 1854, the son of Christopher Norfleet and Margaret (Lynn) Carney. Carney's formative years were spent on his father's plantation and in the late 1870s attended the University of Tennessee until departing in his junior year.
Desiring to begin a career in medicine, Carney enrolled at the Vanderbilt University and in 1879 graduated with his medical degree. Following graduation, he had further clinical study at a Nashville hospital and in 1880 removed to Clarksville to begin his practice. Carney married in Clarksville in 1888 to Hattie Grinter (1866-1956), and the couple's forty-three-year marriage produced four sons, Edwin Lee (1889-1971) Norfleet Lynn Jr. (1890-1971), Clarence Grinter (1892-1980), and Richard Rodney (1894-1933.)
In the early 1890s Carney began to focus attention on Clarksville civic affairs, and in 1892 was elected as mayor of that city. He would be returned to that office on two more occasions, and after the completion of his third term in 1898 was acknowledged as a "thorough student of municipal government and was one of the best posted men in the city along that line." Carney's final term as mayor saw him become affiliated with the Street Railway, Light and Gas Company of Clarksville, and from 1896-1909 served as its president. He retired from the practice of medicine in the early 1900s.
After leaving office Carney's name continued to be prominent in Clarksville civic life, with his being a multi-term city alderman, and for a time served as president of the First National Bank of Clarksville. In 1911 he became an early dealer in automobiles in his region, partnering with his son Clarence to establish a Ford distributing agency. Carney's sons Norfleet and Richard would also join this concern, which later distributed Buick models.
Norfleet L. Carney died at his Clarksville home on August 9, 1931, aged 76. At the time of his death, he was a councilman for the city's fifth ward, and he was survived by his wife and four sons. His wife Hattie survived her husband by a quarter-century, and following her death at age 89 in 1956 was interred alongside him at the Greenwood Cemetery in Clarksville.
From the Nashville Tennessean, August 10, 1931.
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