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Horace P. Biddle

American judge

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ16030256 ↗
Source-derived summary

Horace Peters Biddle (March 24, 1811 – May 13, 1900) was a lawyer, judge, poet, musicologist, and famous hermit.

Biography

Horace P. Biddle was born on what was then the frontier in present-day Hocking County, Ohio on March 24, 1811. He was the youngest of nine children and was largely raised by his oldest sister after the death of his mother when Biddle was five. After working for seven years for his brother Daniel, a store owner, he caught the attention of lawyer and future Ohio Senator Thomas Ewing who advised him to study law and found a place for him in the office of Hocking H. Hunter. After being admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1839, Biddle moved to Logansport, Indiana and opened a practice there. From 1847 to 1852 he served as the presiding judge of the Carroll County circuit. In 1850 he was a member of the state constitutional convention. In 1852 he resigned from the circuit court and ran for United States Representative on the Whig Party ticket but was unsuccessful. He was elected as a Republican to the Indiana Supreme Court in 1857, but the court decided that the vacancy, created by a resignation, could be filled by the governor by appointment. He was nominated again for the position in 1858, but was not elected.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Horace P. Biddle” is american judge. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Horace, Biddle and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1811, 1900, 1839, 1847—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1811-01-01, 1812-03-24—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Horace, Biddle and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american judge” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16030256. VIAF identifies the subject as 36096793. The Library of Congress control number is n91082845. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1811, 1900, 1839 and 1847.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Horace P. Biddle” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.