Shields was born at his family's estate "Clinchdale", near the early pioneer settlement of
Bean's Station, Tennessee in
Grainger County. His education as a
youth was by private
tutors, a sign of the family's affluence. He studied
law and was admitted to the Tennessee
bar in 1879. He practiced in the counties surrounding his home until 1893, when he was named Chancellor of the former 12th Chancery Division. The next year, he resumed private practice in nearby
Morristown, in
Hamblen County. In 1902, Shields was nominated in the Democratic primary to succeed retiring incumbent
David L. Snodgrass to become an associate justice of the
Tennessee Supreme Court, an office which he held until 1910 when he was named chief justice. He resigned that post in 1913, becoming the last Tennessean elected to the U.S. Senate by the
Tennessee General Assembly prior to the
17th Amendment coming into effect. Shields was popularly reelected in 1918 but in 1924 lost the Democratic nomination to
Lawrence Tyson, and returned to the private practice of law, this time in
Knoxville. While in the Senate, Shields served as the chairman of several committees. He chaired the Committee on Canadian Relations in the
63rd and
64th Congresses, the Committee on Interoceanic Canals in the
65th Congress, and the Committee on the Sale of Meat Products in the
66th Congress. Shields died at his estate "Clinchdale" and is buried in Knoxville's Highland Memorial Cemetery. ==References==