Jeremain W. Brinckerhoff, a prominent lawyer of Lyons and a former judge of the Twentieth Judicial District, cast his fortunes with Kansas in 1886, and in the quarter of a century that has passed since then has, through his useful and honorable activities, become one of the foremost citizens of his section of the state. A native of New York, Judge Brinckerhoff was born at Turin, Lewis county, Oct. 5, 1854, and is the only son of John R. Brinckerhoff. The father, who was born in the same New York town, in 1830, devoted his whole career to law and served three terms as district attorney of St. Lawrence county, New York, during the '70s. In June, 1882, he removed to Kansas, locating at Lyons, where he formed a law partnership with J. W. White, who at that time was a state senator. He was elected county attorney of Rice county, in 1886, and served one term, declining a renomination on account of ill health. He died Oct. 1, 1889. Politically, he affiliated with the Republican party and, fraternally, with the Masonic order. On Feb. 14, 1849, at Turin, N. Y., was solemnized the marriage of John R. Brinckerhoff and Miss Susan M. Wilcox, who was born at Turin, Dec. 7, 1829, and whose father and mother were natives, respectively, of Connecticut and New York. Of this union were born three children—two daughters, who died in infancy, and Jeremain W. The mother, who was a devout Christian and active in church work, died at Lyons, Kan., Oct. 13, 1896, after a long illness of fifteen years.

Judge Brinckerhoff was reared in his native state and was educated in the district schools and at the State Normal, at Potsdam. He then took up the study of law, at Norfolk, under the careful and able direction of his father, and was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of New York, Nov. 18, 1881. That state remained the field of his practice until 1886, when he joined his father, at Lyons, Kan., where he has since been engaged in professional duties. In April of that same year he was appointed city attorney of Lyons, and in 1888 he was elected to succeed his father as county attorney of Rice county. In 1892 he was elected mayor of Lyons, as a Republican, and served as the executive head of that city four years. In 1902 he was elected judge of the Twentieth Judicial District, which is composed of Rice, Barton, and Stafford counties, and was reëlected in 1906, serving eight years in all. He declined a second renomination, preferring to retire. While on the bench of that district many important cases were tried before him, four of them being murder cases, in Rice county. With an exalted sense of the responsibility and duty of his office, he ever dispensed justice with an even hand and won recognition as one of the ablest circuit judges of Kansas. He has also been very successful in business affairs and is now a director in two banks and owns a number of improved farms in Rice and Reno counties.

On Oct. 4, 1893, Judge Brinckerhoff was united in marriage to Miss Maud E. Sollitt, who was born in Chicago, July 3, 1869. Her parents, John C. and Anna W. Sollitt, had removed from Chicago to Kansas and were residents of Lyons at the time of their daughter's marriage. To Judge and Mrs. Brinckerhoff three children have been born: Marjorie S., born June 28, 1894, died April 7, 1895; Philip J., born Feb. 6, 1897; and Barbara J., born May 10, 1907.

Judge Brinckerhoff has attained a prominent standing in the Masonic order, being a Knight Templar Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias. He is a man of well rounded character, whose public service was characterized by unfaltering devotion to duty and a wise interpretation of the laws. With his fidelity to public interest unchallenged and his personal integrity unassailed, he ranks as a worthy representative of his profession and of the best citizenship of Kansas.