James Frank Getty, of Kansas City, Kan., is an able lawyer and has won recognition at the Kansas City bar, which contains some of the finest legal talent of the state. He was born in Albany county, New York, Oct. 13, 1861, son of Isaac Robert Getty, who was one of the pioneer steamboat captains on the Hudson river and followed that vocation throughout the most of his life. He was born in Rensselaer county, New York, son of Robert Getty, a Revolutionary soldier who served under Gen. Ethan Allen at the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The mother of James F. Getty was Susan Ballou, of French Huguenot descent and was born in Connecticut. Both of Mr. Getty's parents are dead.

Mr. Getty was reared in his native New York county and there received a common school education. In early manhood he studied law and in 1882 was graduated in the Albany (N. Y.) Law School, a branch of Union University. He passed an examination before the supreme court of New York and was admitted to the bar before he was twenty-one years of age, by special order from the court. He began the practice of law in Troy, N. Y., but in 1886 came to Kansas City, Kan., where he has since been in the active practice of his profession and where he ranks as one of the prominent members of the bar. During the twenty-six years of his practice in that city he has gained the reputation of being not only a successful lawyer but also one who bears a conscientious fidelity to his clients, whether the amount involved is great or small. He is a Republican in politics and has served as a member of the Republican State Central Committee several terms. He served as state senator from Wyandotte county, from 1905 to 1908 inclusive, and in 1907 was a prominent candidate before the legislature for the United States senatorship, but failed of election, though he received a flattering vote.

Mr. Getty was married April 24, 1890, to Miss Edna Helen Hathaway of St. Joseph, Mo. They have two children living—Helen and James Summerfield. Mr. Getty is a member of the Wyandotte County Bar Association and of the Kansas State Bar Association. He is fraternally affiliated with the Masonic order as a Thirty-third degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen of America.