Hon. Henry Stanbery

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Historical Marker #1059 in Fort Thomas notes the location of the home of Henry Stanbery, who was attorney general in Andrew Johnson's presidential administration.

Henry Stanbery was born in New York City in 1803. When Henry was age eleven, his family moved to Zanesville, Ohio. Stanbery graduated from Washington College in Pennsylvania when he was sixteen and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1824. He then began practicing law in Fairfield County, Ohio.

In 1829, Stanbery married Frances Beecher. The couple had five children before Beecher died in 1840. Stanbery remarried a year later to Cecelia Bond. In 1846, the prominent lawyer was elected attorney general of Ohio and moved to the state's capital, Columbus. Seven years later, Stanbery relocated his law practice to the Cincinnati area. Then, in 1857, he moved across the Ohio River to Fort Thomas, Kentucky, where he lived for a number of years.

After President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Vice President Andrew Johnson took office. The newly appointed chief nominated Stanbery for the Supreme Court. Congress, however, attempted to reduce the number of members on the Supreme Court and rejected the nomination. Johnson then nominated Stanbery for attorney general. After the president was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, Stanbery resigned in order to serve as Johnson’s defense counsel. After the trial, Stanbery returned to his law practice and retired in 1878. He died in New York in 1881, and was buried in Cincinnati's Spring Grove Cemetery.