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Office of the Attorney General

Historical Biography

Attorney General: Felix Grundy

Grundy, Felix
13th Attorney General, -
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Felix Grundy was born in Berkeley County, Virginia, on September 11, 1777, and moved to Kentucky in 1780. Although he had little early formal education, he studied law and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1797. From 1800 to 1806 he was a member of the Kentucky Legislature. In 1806 he was appointed associate justice in the State Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals, was chief justice in1807, resigned the same year and moved to Nashville, Tennessee.

Grundy was elected to Congress in 1811, was reelected in 1813 and resigned in 1815. In 1819 he was elected to the Tennessee Legislature, and in 1820 was commissioner to settle the boundary line between Tennessee and Kentucky. In 1829 he was appointed to a vacancy in the United States Senate and was reelected in 1833. President Van Buren appointed Grundy Attorney General of the United States on September 1, 1838. He resigned on December 1, 1839, to reenter the Senate. Grundy died in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 19, 1840.

About the Artist: George Dury

(1817-1894)

George Dury was born in Munich, Germany, and moved to Wartburg, Tennessee, in 1849.  Among his portraits is that of Mrs. James Knox Polk, which hangs in the White House. He also painted Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee.

Dury made his home in Nashville, Tennessee, where he died in 1894. Some of his paintings are exhibited in the State Library in Nashville. His portrait of Felix Grundy was painted in 1858.

Updated August 8, 2024