Doster, Frank M., lawyer and the first Democrat to be elected to the office of chief justice of the Kansas supreme court, was born in Virginia, Jan. 19, 1849. He received his education at the Indiana State University and Illinois College, and later graduated at the Benton Law Institute of Indiana. At the age of fifteen years he enlisted in the Eleventh Indiana cavalry, under Lincoln's last three-year call, and served for two years. In the summer of 1865 his company was sent from the south and served along the Santa Fe trail. Prior to his enlistment he served in the state militia and took part in the Morgan raid of 1863. He commenced to practice law in Piatt county, Ill., but in about a year removed to Kansas and located in Marion county. In 1872 Mr. Doster was elected to the state legislature. Three years later he was elected judge of the Twenty-fifth judicial district, but was defeated for reëlection in 1891. In 1893 he was appointed judge of the district court and on Jan. 11, 1897, was made chief justice of the supreme court of Kansas, where he served until 1903. Judge Doster is an able lawyer, a close student, and though a Socialist, at the time of his election he said, "I know only one code of law and that is the same one studied by the other lawyers and I shall try to follow it as best I can." While upon the supreme bench Judge Doster advocated an amendment to the constitution which would increase the supreme court to seven members. On June 22, 1901, the following statement appeared in the Kansas City Star, "He expounded the law as he found it and as he learned it from celebrated jurists who have gone before him in America and England. No judge was ever more impartial, and to the corporation and the humble citizen alike he has given equal and exact justice. More than a learned judge, Judge Doster is a man of scholarly attainments, and his opinions have a classic flavor seldom found on the dry pages of court reports." One able lawyer said, "He is a credit to the state, a credit to the bench and a credit to his profession."