Valley of Kansas City

Masonic History 

Justice Thomas Todd
(Jan 23, 1765 – Feb 7, 1826)
Occupation: Attorney, Judge, US Supreme Court Justice.
Interred: Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, Kentucky
Lodge affiliation:
Member of Lodge #24 of Virginia
1826 - Charter member, Lexington Lodge #1, Lexington, Ky.

Thomas Todd was an American attorney and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Raised in the Colony of Virginia, he studied law and later participated in the founding of Kentucky, where he served as a clerk, judge, and justice. He was married twice and had a total of eight children. Todd joined the U.S. Supreme Court in 1807.

Todd was born in King and Queen County, Virginia, on January 23, 1765. He was the youngest of five children. Both of his parents died when he was young. He was raised Presbyterian. At the age of sixteen, Todd served in the American Revolutionary War for six months and then returned home. He attended Liberty Hall Academy in Lexington, Virginia, which is now Washington and Lee University, and graduated in 1783.

Todd then became a tutor at Liberty Hall Academy in exchange for room and board and instruction in the law. Todd read law to gain admission to the Kentucky bar in 1786. Todd served as the clerk at five constitutional conventions between 1784 and 1792 where Kentucky was seeking statehood. He served as secretary to the Kentucky State Legislature when Kentucky was admitted to the Union in 1792. When the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the State's highest court, was created in 1789, Todd became its chief clerk. He also maintained a private practice in Danville, Kentucky from 1788 until 1801, when Todd was appointed a Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals. In 1806 he was elevated to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Valley of Kansas City