BALLINGER, WILLIAM PITT
William Pitt Ballinger achieved prominence as a distinguished Texas lawyer, which earned him the name the “Nestor of the Texas bar.”
Ballinger was born in 1825 in Barbourville,
Kentucky. From 1840 to 1841 Ballinger attended
St. Mary’s College, then began to study law on
his own. His father was clerk of the courts of
Knox County and hired the young Ballinger to
work as a deputy clerk and gain more legal back-
ground.
In 1843 Ballinger moved to Texas and
resided with an uncle who was a practitioner.
Ballinger acted as his uncle’s apprentice before
serving a tour of military duty in the Mexican
War. After Texas was admitted to the Union in
1845, and Ballinger returned from the war in
1846, he was one of the first to be licensed to
practice law in the new state.
Ballinger married into a prominent Texas
family in 1850 and in 1854 formed a law firm in
Galveston with his new brother-in-law, Thomas
M. Jack. Their partnership, which ended in
1880, the year of Jack’s death, was highly regarded throughout the South, particularly in
cases dealing with land claims.
In 1854 Ballinger sought interstate business
for his firm, and traveled to New York, Boston,
and Philadelphia. The trip was successful, and
the firm began to specialize and earn a reputation
in corporate law.
As hostilities increased in the South during
the pre-Civil War days, Ballinger proclaimed his
support of the Union; he favored SLAVERY, but
not secession. When Texas seceded, however,
Ballinger supported his state.
Ballinger served the Confederacy as a lawyer
as well as a receiver of enemy property. The
Sequestration Act provided for the seizure and
sale of such property, the proceeds of which were
deposited into a special Confederate treasury.
After the war, Ballinger reached the peak of
his success as an eminent corporate lawyer and
was considered for a seat on the United States
Supreme Court. He died January 20, 1888, in
Galveston, Texas.
