EARLY MECCA OF LEGAL TALENT—ORGANIZATION OF JUDICIAL DISTRICT—EARLY JUDGES—PROMINENT PIONEER LAWYERS—MEMBERS OF THE ATCHISON COUNTY BAR.
Atchison county has always been particularly proud of the high order of talent that has graced its bench and bar. From the very earliest days of its history, the legal profession has been well represented here. Men who have reached a high order of distinction in the profession have had their beginning at the bar of this county. In fact, this county has been somewhat unique in this respect, for there is perhaps no other county in Kansas that has furnished a greater number of distinguished representatives of this noble profession, who have shed their luster upon the fair name of the State. For a long period, indeed, Atchison seemed to be the Mecca towards which the best legal talent from all quarters of the country gathered, and it was the Atchison bar that furnished three chief justices of the supreme court of Kansas, one United States district judge, an attorney-general, a governor, a United States senator, and a general counsel for a large railroad system.
No attempt will be made in this chapter to give a complete roster of names of the many lawyers who have successfully practiced their profession here. The list is too numerous, but reference will be made to a number of conspicuous leaders, whose names stand out prominently in the history of the State, and whose careers have enriched the story of success and achievement.
Atchison county was one of the counties of the second judicial district, which composed, in addition to Atchison county, Doniphan, Brown, Nemaha, Marshall and Washington counties. The first judge of the district was Hon. Albert L. Lee, who lived at Elwood, Doniphan county, and served from January 29 to October 31, 1861. He died in New York City December 31, 1907. The second judge of this district was Hon. Albert H. Horton. Judge Horton was born in Orange county, New York, March 12, 1837, and was educated at Farmers’ Hall Academy, in that county, and at Ann Arbor University. He was admitted to practice in the supreme court of New York, at Brooklyn, in 1859, and continued the practice of his profession at Goshen until 1860, when he removed to Kansas, locating at Atchison. His first public office here was city attorney, to which place he was elected in the spring of 1861, upon the Republican ticket, and the same year was appointed by Governor Robinson judge of the second judicial district, and held this office, by election, until 1866, when he resigned. He was a Republican presidential elector in 1868, and in 1869 was appointed a district attorney of Kansas by President Grant, which office he held until 1873, when he was elected a member of the house of representatives from this county. Three years later he was elected to the State senate, and was also a delegate to the National Republican convention in June of that year, and in the same year was appointed chief justice of the supreme court of Kansas by Governor Thomas A. Osborn, to succeed Hon. S. A. Kingman, who was before that time a prominent practitioner in Atchison. In 1877 Judge Horton was nominated on the Republican ticket to the office of chief justice of the State, and he served in that capacity for seventeen years, at the end of which time he returned to Atchison and formed a partnership with Hon. B. P. Waggener. Judge Horton was an able jurist and lawyer, a strong argumentative and fluent speaker. He displayed marked ability as a parliamentarian while in the legislature, and was, altogether, a man of strong mental capacity, good judgment, coupled with executive ability, and much practical experience. After a number of years’ practice here, following his resignation as chief justice of the State, he subsequently was reëlected to the same position. He died on the second day of September, 1902.
Judge Horton was succeeded as judge of the district court of this district by Hon. St. Clair Graham May 11, 1866. Judge Graham served as Judge until January 11, 1869, and was on the bench at the time that the celebrated Regis Liosel land contest was tried in Nemaha county, in which John J. Ingalls, another Atchison lawyer, represented some claimants to 38,111 acres of land in the counties of Nemaha, Marshall, Jackson and Pottawatomie. It was one of the celebrated cases of that day. The litigation grew out of a French land grant, which subsequently was confirmed by an act of Congress in 1858.
Judge Graham was succeeded by Hon. Nathan Price, of Troy, Doniphan county, January 11, 1869. Judge Price served until March 1, 1872. He practiced law in the district for a number of years thereafter, and died in Troy March 8, 1883. B. P. Waggener, who began his wonderful career as a lawyer during the administration of Judge Price, and who has been in the active practice in Atchison since that time, is authority for the statement that Judge Price was one of the most brilliant judges that ever adorned the bench. He is described by Mr. Waggener as being a man of a powerful personality, and thoroughly grounded in the principles of the law.
S. C. KINGMAN
P. T. ABELL