John Baxter was a North Carolina state legislator, and later a United States federal judge

United States federal judge

In the United States, the title of federal judge usually means a judge appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate in accordance with Article II of the United States Constitution....

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Born in Rutherford County, North Carolina

Rutherford County, North Carolina

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 62,899 people, 25,191 households, and 17,935 families residing in the county. The population density was 112 people per square mile . There were 29,535 housing units at an average density of 52 per square mile...

, Baxter read law to enter the bar in 1841. He was a merchant in South Carolina from 1835 to 1839. He was in private practice in Rutherford County from 1841 to 1849, in Henderson, North Carolina

Henderson, North Carolina

Henderson, with a population of 16,095 at the 2000 census, is the county seat of Vance County, North Carolina, United States.The city was named in honor of former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Leonard Henderson, who lived nearby and was a friend of early settler Lewis Reavis...

 from 1849 to 1857, and in Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee

Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...

 from 1857 to 1877. His political activities included ten years of service as a member of the North Carolina State Legislature, in Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...

, spread across three separate periods. The first was from 1842 to 1843, then from 1846 to 1848, and finally from 1852 to 1857. He was also a newspaper publisher in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1862.

On December 6, 1877, Baxter was nominated by President Rutherford B. Hayes

Rutherford B. Hayes

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...

 to a seat on the United States circuit court

United States circuit court

The United States circuit courts were the original intermediate level courts of the United States federal court system. They were established by the Judiciary Act of 1789. They had trial court jurisdiction over civil suits of diversity jurisdiction and major federal crimes. They also had appellate...

 for the Sixth Circuit vacated by Halmer Hull Emmons

Halmer Hull Emmons

Halmer Hull Emmons was a United States federal judge.Born in Keesville, New York, Emmons read law to enter the bar...

. Baxter was confirmed by the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 on December 13, 1877, and received his commission the same day. He served thereafter until his death, in 1886, in Hot Springs, Arkansas

Hot Springs, Arkansas

Hot Springs is the 10th most populous city in the U.S. state of Arkansas, the county seat of Garland County, and the principal city of the Hot Springs Metropolitan Statistical Area encompassing all of Garland County...

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