Edward Roscoe Meek: Life and Legacy of a Federal Judge (1865–1939)


By: Claudia Hazlewood

Published: 1952

Updated: April 1, 1995

Edward Roscoe Meek, federal judge, the son of Aaron and Rhoda (Gardner) Meek, was born in Davenport, Iowa, on December 23, 1865. He graduated from the University of Iowa in 1887 and took a law degree in 1889. He married Elizabeth Clarkson of Des Moines on October 2, 1890, and they had three children. The Meeks moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where he entered practice. His firm later became attorneys for Western Union Telegraph Company. On July 13, 1898, Meek, a Republican, was appointed United States District judge of the Northern District of Texas. In 1906 he moved to Dallas, where he lived until he retired from the bench in 1936, when he moved to Santa Monica, California. He died there he died on April 10, 1939.

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Sam Hanna Acheson, Herbert P. Gambrell, Mary Carter Toomey, and Alex M. Acheson, Jr., Texian Who's Who, Vol. 1 (Dallas: Texian, 1937). Dallas Morning News, April 11, 1939. Clarence R. Wharton, ed., Texas under Many Flags (5 vols., Chicago: American Historical Society, 1930).

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Claudia Hazlewood, “Meek, Edward Roscoe,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/meek-edward-roscoe.

Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

TID: FME06

1952
April 1, 1995

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