John C. Cannon, of Mound City, Judge of the Sixth Judicial District, was born in St. Charles county, Missouri, Aug. 3, 1850. His parents, David W. and Nancy (Walthall) Cannon, were both Kentuckians by birth, being natives of Glasgow, Barren county, Kentucky. After their marriage, in 1849, they removed to St. Charles county, Missouri, where John C., the eldest of their four children, was born. They resided on a farm in that county until their removal to Mound City. Kan., March 20, 1854, where the father located a homestead of 160 acres, part of which is now included within the town limits of Mound City, the city school building standing on the northwest corner of the farm. When he located there, however, there were but three families in his township, and it was at a time when Kansas was making sensational history and wonderful events were happening upon her soil. Though in no sense a politician, yet he took a prominent and active part in the public affiairs[sic] of Kansas at that time, having served as a member of the Territorial legislature and as a probate judge of Linn county, from 1857 to 1859. During the Civil war he served as a member of the local militia and in that capacity passed through many thrilling experiences during the border warfare incident to that period. It was his privilege, however, to live to see Kansas emerge from that turmoil and strife and take a place among the most progressive and leading commercial states of the Union, thus justifying the faith he had in its future when he became one of its earliest pioneers. David W. Cannon was a member of the town company which laid out the site of Mound City. He resided on his homestead adjoining the town until his death, Jan. 2, 1892, in his seventy-eighth year. The mother of our subject survived her husband until Jan. 8, 1900, when she passed away in her eighty-fourth year. Of their four children, but two survive—John C., and Theresa, who resides on the old homestead.

Judge Cannon was educated in the public schools of Linn county and in the University of Kansas. After completing his course in the University he read law in Mound City, and was admitted to the bar Aug. 17, 1872. He began the practice of his profession in his home town and continued there until 1877, when he moved to Sedan, Chautauqua county, Kansas, where he was engaged in practice six years, or until failing health compelled him to seek relief in the mountains, where he spent a year and a half. While a resident of Chautauqua county he served one term as probate judge, refusing to be a candidate for a second term. He was also a candidate for Congress in 1882, against Hon. Thomas Ryan, the Republican candidate. In 1884 Judge Cannon returned to Mound City, where he has since resided. In 1890 he was elected county attorney, but refused to be a candidate for a second term, and in 1902 he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for justice of the supreme court, but was defeated. He was elected judge of the Sixth Judicial District in 1908, on the Democratic ticket, though both Linn and Bourbon counties are normally strongly Republican, and in that campaign gave President Taft a large majority.

On Feb. 22, 1877, Judge Cannon was united in marriage with Miss Irene M. Rhodes, of Mound City, who died April 26, 1881. His second marriage occurred in Mound City on Sept. 6, 1886, when Miss Dickie Van Buskirk became his wife. Judge and Mrs. Cannon have two children—Zella C., a teacher in the public schools of Mound City, and John Marshall, a student in the Mound City schools. Judge Cannon is a member of the Blue Lodge and Chapter of the Masonic order in Mound City, and a member of the Consistory at Fort Scott. In politics he is a Democrat. He is a profound thinker and has an unusually wide knowledge of both books and affairs, being an assiduous student of history, literature, philosophy and science, as well as of law. During his thirty-five years of practice in law he has gained more than a statewide reputation as one of the foremost men in his profession, and as an advocate, he has few peers at the trial table. His intuitive knowledge of the strong and weak points of a case, his broad and comprehensive knowledge of jurisprudence, and his long years of experience, have eminently qualified him for the discharge of his duties on the bench, and both his professional and judicial record have at all times been remarkably free from adverse criticism, because of his unquestioned fidelity to duty and his wise interpretation of the laws. The dominant element in securing his election as judge as a Democratic candidate in a strongly Republican district was his eminent fitness for the position, and as a citizen, Mound City has none more esteemed or honored.