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Quentin Durward Corley

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Judge Corley in 1916, driving his automobile using a prosthesis of his own invention.
Quentin Corley plowing in the 1910s

Quentin Durward Corley, Sr. (January 21, 1884 - April 22, 1980) was a Texas circuit judge.

Biography

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He was born in Mexia, Texas on January 21, 1884, to Daniel Jacob Corley (1852–1948) and Mary Louise California (1851–1946). His parents were from Alabama, and moved to Texas in 1874. Quentin moved to Dallas, Texas in 1895. In 1901 he graduated from the Oak Cliff high school. On September 18, 1905, in Utica, New York he was in a railroad accident and lost both hands and one arm and shoulder.[1] Within two years he invented and patented an artificial limb.[2]

He went on to study law in the offices of Muse & Allen in Dallas, and in 1907 passed the Dallas County, Texas bar. In 1908 he was elected to the office of justice of the peace, and his service in that capacity was of such a character that in the campaign of 1912 he was elected a county judge.[1][2] He died on April 22, 1980, in Dallas, Texas.

Patents

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  • Improvements in and relating to artificial arms (1920)

Legacy

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  • Quentin D. Corley Academy

References

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  1. ^ a b Francis White Johnson and Ernest William Winkler (1914). A History of Texas and Texans. American Historical Society. p. 1327. Retrieved 2009-08-14. Probably few men in the entire state of Texas have better exemplified the principle of self-help, or have made better use of the opportunities of life in spite of the limitations of physical powers, than the present judge of the Dallas county courts, Quentin D. Corley. In the city of Dallas, in Dallas county, Judge Corley is one of the most popular officials and his career is probably familiar to the majority of the local citizenship. His has been a career of loyal usefulness and service, and his general popularity is based, not only upon his personal character and his gallant fight against difficulties, but upon his practical value as a working member of his community. ...
  2. ^ a b The American magazine. 1915. p. 57. Quentin D. Corley was born in Mexia, Texas, in 1884, and lived just like other boys. He was graduated from Dallas High School in 1901, and then began working as a stenographer. He was just past twenty-one years of age when he was injured at Utica, New York, by falling from a train; he thus lost both arms. ...