ROBERTSON, SAWNIE (1850-1892). Sawnie Robertson, lawyer and justice, son of John C. and Sarah J. (Goodman) Robertson, was born in Chambers County, Alabama, on October 5, 1850. His family moved to Jefferson, Texas, in 1851 and later to Henderson and on to Tyler. Robertson studied law under Oran Milo Roberts, was admitted to the bar on December 29, 1870, and began to practice law in Dallas. On October 6, 1885, he was appointed associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court but resumed his practice in Dallas after one year on the bench. Robertson married Ellen Boren. In 1890 Robertson, with Horace Chilton, was influential in persuading James Stephen Hogg to run for governor. He died in Dallas on June 21, 1892.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dallas Morning News, June 22, 1892. Harbert Davenport, History of the Supreme Court of the State of Texas (Austin: Southern Law Book Publishers, 1917). A History of Greater Dallas and Vicinity, Vol. 1, by Philip Lindsley; Vol. 2, Selected Biography and Memoirs, ed. L. B. Hill (Chicago: Lewis, 1909).