William J. Gilmore

Who was William J. Gilmore?

William James Gilmore was a Democratic jurist in the U.S. State of Ohio who was an Ohio Supreme Court Judge during 1875-1880.

Gilmore was born in Bedford County, Virginia, son of Dr. Eli Gilmore and Clarissa Mosby Clayton, sister of a prominent Mississippi judge, later a member of the Confederate Congress, Alexander Mosby Clayton. The family moved to Israel Township, Preble County, Ohio in 1825, where the father became a prominent physician. Here William was educated at a log schoolhouse, at Hopewell Academy, and at Westfield Academy.

He began study of law in 1844 in the office of Thomas Millikin in Hamilton, Ohio, and continued with J.S. and A. J. Hawkins in Eaton, Ohio. He supported himself with school teaching, farm labor and clerking. He was admitted to the bar on December 8, 1847, and he worked and lived in Eaton.

Gilmore was Prosecuting Attorney of Preble County for two terms, and was elected to the Common Pleas bench in 1857. He was successively re-elected, and served until 1874. He was appointed a trustee of Miami University in 1871, and was a trustee of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society.

In 1874, Gilmore was selected at the state Democratic Party convention to run for a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court, and later that year defeated Republican incumbent Luther Day for a five-year term. He was seated February 1875 and was defeated in the 1879 election by Republican William Wartenbee Johnson.