Senator Orlando Billings Courtright View All Years

ORLANDO BILLINGS COURTRIGHT

MR. PRESIDENT: Your committee which was appointed to report resolutions commemorating the life, character and services of the late Orlando B. Courtright, begs leave to submit the following report and moves its adoption:

Orlando Billings Courtright was born in Pawgrove, near Rockford, Ill., November 11, 1849, the son of Mr. and Mrs. G. C. Courtright. When he was nine years old, he came with his parents to Grundy county and settled on a farm near Parkersburg. At that time the Courtright home was the only house between Parkersburg and Grundy Center.

Judge Courtright received his primary education in the country schools of Grundy county, after which he attended the Rockford Academy at Rockford, Illinois, from 1868 to 1870. He then went to Nebraska and spent two years there as a pioneer farmer. He married Miss Clara Whiting at Red Cloud, Nebraska, November 27, 1872, and soon thereafter moved to Ackley, Iowa, and purchased a newspaper, the Ackley Enterprise.

He practiced law at Parkersburg, Iowa, until 1894, at which time, having formed a partnership with J. W. Arbuckle, he moved to Waterloo. Here he continued in the practice of law until the date of his death on January 13, 1930.

He was a member of the Senate from the Black Hawk-Grundy Senatorial District in the Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first General Assemblies. He was considered a safe legislator and was responsible for several important desirable changes in the Iowa statutes.

In 1919 Senator Courtright was appointed by the Governor to serve as one of the judges of the Municipal Court of the city of Waterloo, in which position he continued until 1924, after which he re-entered the practice of law.

At the time of Senator Courtright’s death he had been engaged as a practicing lawyer, a State Senator, and a judge of the Municipal Court for the total period of fifty-three years—probably longer than any other

Iowan.

Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved, by the Senate of the Forty-fourth General Assembly of Iowa, That in the death of Orlando B. Courtright, the people of the Thirty-eighth Senatorial District and the people of the entire state of Iowa have sustained a great loss. Everywhere he was known as a man honored and trusted, a man of sterling quality and irreproachable character.

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of this Senate.

EDW. J. WENNER,

H. C. WHITE,

LAFE HILL,

Committee.

The resolution was unanimously adopted by a rising vote.