Hon. Robert Thomas St. John, ex-judge of the forty-eighth judicial circuit, is one of the oldest and most prominent members of the Grant county bar. He is of New England parentage, but his birth took place in the state of Mississippi. His grandfather, John St. John, was a native of Connecticut, and from 1775 to 1781 served in the Revolutionary army, and made an enviable record as a soldier. He entered the army as a volunteer, was made sergeant of his company, and promoted to lieutenant, captain and major. His service was under General LaFayette, and at the battle of Monmouth he was seriously wounded, which necessitated his leaving the army. After the war he married Hannah Fitch, a daughter of Governor Fitch, of Connecticut.

        Samuel St. John, father of Hon. Robert T., was a native of Connecticut, where he grew to manhood. At Saratoga, New York, he married Nancy Darling, who was also a native of Connecticut. He was a physician and surgeon, and after marriage located at Fairfield, Franklin county, Indiana, whence he went to Alabama and later to Mississippi. While in the south, he practiced medicine and, in Mississippi, also owned a cotton plantation. He was a surgeon in the army of General Andrew Jackson and, as such, did hospital duty in time of peace at different posts. His wife's health was not good in the south, she being obliged to spend the summer months in the north; so in 1832 he sold out and removed to Ohio, thence to Indiana, and after living in Franklin and Decatur counties, settled in Marion in 1845, where he died in 1861, aged seventy-two years. His wife died in 1851, aged sixty-two years. He was prominent as a physician and as a citizen. He was a Royal Arch Mason; a charter member of the first Masonic lodge in Grant county, of which he was master several years. At his death he was one of the oldest Masons in the state, he having been made a member of the fraternity in 1817.

        Dr. and Mrs. St. John reared four children, viz.: Abel F., a wagon maker, died at Colorado Springs, Colorado; Anna C. married John Speers, and died in Grant county; John D., a physician, died in Wabash county; and Robert T.

        Judge R. T. St. John, whose name introduces this biography, was born east of Natchez, Miss., October 27, 1828. He attended the common schools and at the age of seventeen commenced to read law in the office of George Holland at Brookville. In 1845 he came with the family to Indiana, and when twenty-one years of age was admitted to the bar.

        In 1849 he joined several others and the company made an overland trip to the gold fields of California, where he delved in the mines some two years and then returned by way of the isthmus. He brought back health instead of gold, and so was well paid for his trip. He then engaged in the practice of his profession, met with marked success, was elected Prosecuting Attorney, and served one term.

         In 1872 he was chosen a member of the State Legislature, but after serving forty days he with thirty-three others resigned, for the purpose of breaking a quorum to prevent the Democrats from defeating Oliver P. Morton for the United States Senate. He was a director and president of the board of directors of the penitentiary at Michigan City, and for six years Judge of the Forty-eighth Judicial Circuit when the circuit was composed of Grant and Blackford counties. For twenty-four years his law partner was Colonel A. Steele, the father of Major George W. Steele, Congressman from Indiana.

        As a lawyer he is a close student, and always has his case carefully prepared before entering the court room. A Republican in politics, he is an active campaigner in local and state politics.

        Judge St. John was married, in 1859, to Emily Ward, daughter of Willis P. Ward, a prominent contractor and large real-estate owner at Michigan City. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. St. John, viz.: Maggie, wife of William H. Charles, who is law partner of Judge St. John; Hartley W., a merchant at Marion; Bertha, a talented musician, and Jessie, an artist of marked ability, are at home.

        The Judge has a very comfortable home on the corner of Washington and Thirteenth streets, and owns other city realty.