Alexander T. Bodle, Jr., a prominent attorney-at-law at Meade, Kan., enjoys not only a local reputation as an able lawyer but is a leader in the legal profession of southwestern Kansas. He is a son of the late Alexander T. Bodle, the pioneer lawyer of southwestern Kansas and also the oldest in point of years, having been an active practitioner up to the time of his death on Aug. 15, 1911, when he passed away in his eighty-fourth year. Alexander T. Bodle, Sr., was born Nov. 2, 1827, in Orange County, New York, to parents that also were natives of that state. His whole career was given to law. In 1884 he removed to Kansas, locating first in Newton but removing a year later to Meade county, where he located on a homestead, which land his son now owns. He opened a law office at Meade and served as county attorney of Meade county four years during the '90s, also as probate judge of that county two years. At a meeting of the Southwestern Kansas Bar Association at Meade in 1906 the members gave him a banquet and presented him with a gold headed cane as the pioneer member of the association and the oldest lawyer in that part of the state. The presentation speech was made by the late Congressman E. H. Madison. He was an enterprising citizen and a popular lawyer of the old school, and in political affairs was a Republican. Fraternally he was an Odd Fellow. He was married May 21, 1856, at Greenville, Ohio, to Miss Caroline M. Henkle, who was born Nov. 9, 1832, in Ohio and died Aug. 21, 1882, at Greenville, that state. She was a college woman and a teacher before her marriage and was the daughter of Silas Henkle of Clark county, Ohio, who was a contractor on the old Miami canal and who laid out the original site of Springfield, Ohio, on his farm. To the marriage of Alexander T. Bodle, Sr., and Caroline M. Henkle were born six children—two sons and four daughters, viz.: Clara H., born April 9, 1857, died in 1871; Alexander T., Jr., the subject of this review, is second in order of birth; Minnie Amelia, born June 27, 1864, now the wife of Hugh S. Wood, a telegrapher at Clinton, Okla.; Lucretia M., born Oct. 25, 1866, now the wife of Charles McCrelis, a stock raiser at Englewood, Kan.; William Van Tyle, born April 9, 1879, died in infancy; and Caroline M., born April 5, 1871, died on Feb. 20, 1910.

Alexander T. Bodle, Jr., was educated in the public schools of Greenville, Ohio, and was a teacher in that state for four years, reading law in the meantime. Admitted to the bar at Hutchinson, Kan., in 1886, he began the practice of law with his father at Meade, where he has since continued to the present time and has achieved a professional success, being now recognized as one of the leading lawyers of southwestern Kansas. In political affairs he is a Republican and served as county attorney of Meade county in 1893 and 1894. He has been attorney for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company and the United States Express Company for the west end of Kansas since 1888.

On April 26, 1887, at Meade, Kan., Mr. Bodle was united in marriage to Miss Abbie Wightman, a daughter of Minor and Harriet Wightman. Mr. Wightman was formerly a banker at Meade. Mrs. Bodle, who was born April 21, 1864, in Iowa, is a graduate of the high school at Sigourney, that state, and was a teacher several years prior to her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Bodle have two children, a son and a daughter. Miss Marjorie L. Bodle, born Sept. 2, 1898, graduated from Mt. Carmel Academy at Wichita, Kan., in 1907 and took the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Kansas in 1911. She is now a high school teacher at Tonganoxie, Kan. Alexander Thurston Bodle, the son, born Feb. 2, 1891, graduated from the Kansas State Agricultural College with the class of 1911 as an architectural engineer and with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Mr. Bodle and his family occupy an enviable standing among the people of their city as citizens of the highest worth and intelligence, progressive in their personal attainments and influential for good in their community.