Tourgée’s Life

Albion Tourgée was born May 2, 1838, in Williamsfield, OH, the son of a Methodist farm family that had migrated to Ohio from Massachusetts. At the age of 21 Tourgée enrolled at the University of Rochester and attended school until the Civil War, when he enlisted in the Union Army.

During the Civil War, Tourgée participated in the battles at Manassas, Perryville, and Chickamauga. He was initially injured in July 1861 only to reenlist the following year, but finally left service in December 1863. For the remainder of the war, he served as a journalist, studied law, earned his M.A. at the University of Rochester, and taught school.

Following the war, Tourgée moved to North Carolina to take advantage of opportunities provided by Reconstruction. He became a vigorous promoter of political, legal, and economic reform, including civil rights. 

Despite strong opposition because of his “northern roots,” Tourgée served as one of three commissioners charged with rewriting North Carolina’s law and in 1868 he was elected a state superior court judge. Following his judgeship, Tourgée ran for Congress on the Republican ticket but lost. He moved to Colorado to work as an editor for the Denver Evening Times. While out west he also wrote several books on the Civil War and Reconstruction. Two of his books, A Fool’s Errand, By One of the Fools and Bricks Without Straw, remain historical classics.

In 1881 Tourgée purchased a home in Mayville. From 1881 to 1884 he published and edited a weekly literary magazine and wrote a variety of additional novels, including Button’s Inn which was based on this historic Inn located in Westfield. 

Tourgée also set his sights on a variety of social reform issues, including civil rights. He founded his own civil rights association in 1891 and was appointed chief counsel by Louisiana black leaders in a legal struggle that culminated with the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal” decision of 1896.

Tourgée spent his final years as a diplomat and was appointed consul to Bordeaux, France. He died in France on May 21, 1905, and his body was returned to Mayville. Most of his possessions, including his writings, are in the collections of the Chautauqua County Historical Society.