LeBaron Bradford Prince (July 3, 1840 – December 8, 1922) was an American lawyer and politician who served as chief justice of the New Mexico Territorial Supreme Court from 1878 to 1882, and as the 14th Governor of New Mexico Territory from 1889 to 1893.
Biography
Prince was born on July 3, 1840, in Flushing, Queens, New York. His parents were horticulturist William Robert Prince and his wife, Charlotte Goodwin (Collins) Prince. Young Prince started his career working in nurseries run by his father and brother. The nurseries were sold at the end of the Civil War, and he studied law at Columbia University, where he received an LL.B. in 1866.[1][2]
In the Republican National Convention of 1876, he was among those who supported Rutherford B. Hayes over Roscoe Conkling. That resulted him being given the opportunity to be governor of the Territory of Idaho.[1] He passed on that option but later became a chief justice of the New Mexico Territorial Supreme Court from 1878 to 1882. In 1883, he became president of the New Mexico Historical Society.[1]
President Benjamin Harrison appointed Prince to be Governor of New Mexico Territory from 1889 to 1893. Prince and his wife, Mary, resided in the Palace of the Governors and held social functions there.[3]
Prince led the movement to create the Spanish American Normal School and served as President of its governing board from 1909 to 1912.[4]
He was a member of New Mexico Territorial Council in 1909 and a delegate to the New Mexico State Constitutional Convention of 1911.
^Poldervaart, Arie (1948). Black-robed justice : A history of the administration of justice in New Mexico from the American occupation in 1846 until statehood in 1912. Santa Fe: Historical Society of New Mexico. p. 118.
^Prince, L. Bradford (1977). Spanish Mission Churches of New Mexico. Glorieta, N.M: Rio Grande Press. p. 12. ISBN0873801261.
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