William T. Zenor

            WILLIAM T. ZENOR, Circuit Judge, was born in Harrison county, Ind., three miles east of Corydon, April 30, 1846. His parents, Philip and Anna C. Zenor, were natives, the father of Ohio, and the mother of Harrison county, Ind. The mother Anna C. Shuck, was the daughter of Christopher Shuck, a Pennsylvania German, who settled in Harrison county about 1790, about three miles east of the present site of Corydon. His grandfather, Jacob Zenor, was a soldier in the War of 1812. He fought in the battle of Tippecanoe, where he was wounded, being a lieutenant of the Spencer Rifles, led by Capt. Spier Spencer, of Corydon who fell in the battle. He served as a member of the Indian Legislature from its first session in 1810 to 1820-21.

            Judge Zenor’s father was born in 1810, came to Harrison county when a small boy, is still living, and has always been a farmer. The family is probably of French origin. The father served in the second Indiana Volunteer Regiment of Infantry in the war with Mexico, with rank of lieutenant, and draws a pension for his services.

            Judge Zenor was reared on his father’s farm, educated in the common schools of the county, and graduated from the High School, at Salem, Ind., under Prof. May.

            He read law under Judge D.W. LaFollette, at New Albany, and was admitted to practice in 1869 in the Harrison County Circuit Court.

            In 1871 he moved to Leavenworth, Crawford county, and for five years, under appointment by the Governor and two elections by the people, he served faithfully, energetically and successfully as Prosecuting Attorney of that Judicial Circuit.

            In 1882 he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the State.

            In 1884 he was elected Judge of the Circuit Court for Harrison and Crawford counties without opposition, the people of both counties recognizing his high legal abilities and fitness for this honorable and responsible position. His popularity with the people is the reward of a life of honor and usefulness and of noble qualities of manhood. He carried with him to the bench abilities of the highest order, and presides in the Circuit Court of his circuit with dignity and justice.

            In 1873 Judge Zenor was married to Miss Emma Lynn, daughter of Mr. Pierson Lynn, of Lanesville, Harrison county, and a lady of rare accomplishments. Judge Zenor is a self-made man; he enjoyed none of the educational advantages of the present era, nevertheless he is a man of scholarly acquirements, a student of industry and research, the hewer out of his own fortune and the honest architect of his own fame. No citizen of Harrison or Crawford county is held in higher esteem by the people of the two counties than Judge William T. Zenor.

Source: Biographical and Historical Souvenir for the Counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott and Washington, Indiana by John M. Gresham & Co., 1889. Part 2, page 198.