Amorine Montgomery Wilson (1882-1966)

From the Sullivan County Times, October 29, 1948.

   Featured on this site's Facebook page back on May 28, 2019, Amorine Montgomery Wilson was a farmer and attorney residing in Sullivan County, Indiana who ran three unsuccessful candidacies for state circuit court judge. Prior to those campaigns Wilson had been elected as a bank director and was a trustee for the Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana. The son of Uriah and Mary (Wood) Wilson, Amorine Montgomery Wilson was born in Pleasantville, Indiana on December 8, 1882.

  A student at Dennison University in Granville, Ohio, Wilson earned his bachelor's degree in 1908 and later enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he earned a bachelor of philosophy degree in 1912. Wilson married in September 1909 in Sullivan County to Rose Florence Benefiel (1883-1971), with who he had one son, Roger Montgomery (1911-1960). The couple later separated, and in September 1930 he remarried to Edna Wantland, who predeceased him in 1940.

  Following graduation from the University of Chicago, he pursued a teaching career in Carthage, Illinois, and by 1920 is recorded as a farmer residing in Burnside, Illinois. He returned to Chicago in 1920 to enroll at that university's law school, where he earned his law degree. After being admitted to the Indiana bar Wilson established his practice in Sullivan County, which continued for over two decades. This period saw him serve as attorney for the First National Bank of Carlisle, Indiana, and for an indeterminate period served on the board of trustees for Franklin College. In 1946 he was elected a director of the Sullivan State Bank, filling a vacancy occasioned by the death of director Flaud M. Lloyd.

  Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 Wilson put his law practice on hold to focus on farming, "having closed for the duration to produce food." He operated a 321-acre farm in the town of Haddon and would serve as chairman of the Haddon Farm Bureau. 

  Wilson entered Hoosier politics in 1930 when he launched his first candidacy for circuit court judge. His candidacy failed to extend past the Republican primary, and in 1934 was selected to preside as a special judge in the case of Dugger-Martin Coal mine superintendent Ted Smith,  who had been charged with endangering the lives of mineworkers by "permitting dynamite shots to be fired in the mine while then men were at work."

  In March 1936 Wilson announced his second candidacy for judge of the 14th judicial circuit and was again dealt a loss in that year's Republican primary, polling 1,142 votes. Wilson is also recorded as having served as mayor of Sullivan prior to 1940, though no sources relate his dates in office or how long he may have served. In 1948 Wilson made a third run for circuit judge, and in that year won the Republican primary. That November he opposed Democrat Norval K. Harris, and prior to the general election was featured in a large campaign advertisement in the Sullivan Daily Times, which noted his two decades experience and law degree from the University of Chicago. Wilson himself would state:

"These qulaifications were brough about by my own hard work, therefore anyone can understand why I value work and respect the laborer, whether he be on the farm, in the shop or in the mine."

  On election day in November Wilson was defeated by Harris by nearly 1,000 votes, but Wilson was not to be deterred. Crying foul, he contested Harris's election by bringing a suit against him, declaring that Harris was "ineligible on the grounds that he had once served a federal prison term upon his conviction of a forgery charge." Harris countered by bringing charges of slander against Wilson for $100,000, alleging that Wilson had referred to both he and his daughter as Communists. The brouhaha subsided in the latter part of November when Wilson was shown an earlier presidential pardon that Harris had received and withdrew his suit against him. Harris, in turn, forgave Wilson and noted that when in court both "he and his client would be treated fairly and courteously at all times." Nearly four years following the election Harris would wind up wearing a prison uniform, having been ousted from the bench due to a contempt of court conviction, and would serve sixty days at the Putnamville State Penal Farm.

  Little else is known of Amorine Wilson's life after 1948. In the early 1960s, he and his third wife Ida removed to Sebring, Florida, where he died on February 23, 1966, aged 83. He was survived by his wife and was returned to Indiana for burial at the Indian Prairie Cemetery in Carlisle.

From the Terre Haute Star, February 24, 1966.