Meekins, Isaac Melson, 1875-1946.

Isaac Melson Meekins (1875-1946) of Elizabeth City, N.C., was a lawyer, U.S. district court judge, and Republican political leader.

Isaac Melson Meekins (1875-1946) of Elizabeth City, N.C., was a lawyer, U.S. district court judge, and Republican political leader. Meekins was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1896 began to practice law in Elizabeth City. He was appointed district judge of the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina by President Calvin Coolidge in November 1924 and served until February 1945. He was a special U.S. district judge in New York, Illinois, and other states by order of Chief Justice William Howard Taft.

Meekins served as mayor of Elizabeth City in 1897 and as city attorney in 1898. He was appointed postmaster in 1903. From 1910 to 1914, he was the assistant U.S. attorney of the Eastern District. A member of the Republican state committee from 1900 to 1918, he was the Republican candidate for governor in 1924. In 1936, the Republican state committee endorsed his nomination for president of the United States.

Meekins married Lena Allen of Wake Forest in 1896. They had five children: William Charles (1897-1967), Mahalah Melson (d. 1925), Jeremish Charles (d. 1912), Isabella James (m. Dr. Joseph J. Combs, Raleigh), and Mary Purefoy (m. Oliver F. Gilbert, Elizabeth City).

From the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography .