William Stuart Glass of Marysville, State Tax Commissioner of Kansas, was born on a farm near Napoleon, Ripley county, Indiana, April 8, 1856. His father, John Glass, was a son of James Glass, a Revolutionary soldier, and was reared a farmer. He died in Ripley county, Jan. 19, 1871, aged about seventy-four years, having been born in 1797. The mother of Judge Glass was Ann Major, daughter of Allen Major and an aunt of the well known novelist and writer, Charles Major of Shelbyville, Ind. She was born in County Longford, Ireland, and came to America with her parents, in 1825, when a little girl. She died in Ripley county, Indiana, Dec. 29, 1866. Her brother, Judge Stephen Major, father of Charles Major, was for many years judge of the circuit court at Indianapolis, Ind.

Judge Glass spent his boyhood on the farm until fourteen years of age when, upon the death of his father, he went to the home of an older brother, in Illinois, and remained there several years. He received his collegiate education in Blackburn University, at Carlinville, Ill., and at Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, Ind., and during the earlier years of his manhood taught school three years. In 1879 he graduated in the law department of the Iowa State University and in the same year located in Marysville, Marshall county, Kansas, and there entered upon the practice of law. He has been a resident of Marysville for the past thirty years and has been a practicing lawyer at the Marysville bar from 1879 until the present time, except for a period of four years, from 1898 to 1902, during which he served as judge of the Twenty-first judicial district of Kansas, which district is formed by Clay, Riley and Marshall counties. In 1906 he was the candidate of the Democratic party in Kansas for judge of the supreme court. This honor came unsought, when he was at home engaged in his private work. In 1907 he was appointed a member of the state tax commmission by Governor Hoch, the appointment coming to him without any solicitation upon his part, whatsoever. In 1909 he was reappointed to the position by Governor Stubbs, and his present term extends to 1913. In view of the fact that he is a Democrat his appointment at the hands of two Republican governors is a very high compliment to his merit and worth as a citizen. Since becoming a member of the tax commission Judge Glass has resided temporarily in Topeka, but he regards Marysville as his permanent home. He votes there and is frequently called upon to take part in the trial of important cases in the courts of Marshall and surrounding counties. Prior to his services as judge of the Twenty-first judicial district he served two terms as prosecuting attorney in Marshall county, two terms in the state legislature, and several terms as city attorney of Marysville. Much credit is due him for all of these political honors, since he is a Democrat and all of the counties in which he has ever been a candidate for office are strongly Republican. He has made a special study of political economy and taxation in all of its phases, and the fact that he has been placed twice on the state tax commission by governors not of his own political faith is no doubt due to his wide knowledge of these subjects. His services to the tax commission are given more for the benefit he can thus give his state than for the small salary attached to the office, for he would be wholly independent without this salary. He is a member of the Kansas State Bar Association. While he has specialized, to a degree, in the study of philosophical and economic subjects, he has devoted his life to the service of his clientele, which has called him to all the courts of Kansas and to the local Federal courts, in addition to which he has been employed in the trial of important cases in many other states and in the higher Federal courts.

On Jan. 30, 1884, Judge Glass was married to Miss Sadie May Raguet, of Marysville, Kan., daughter of Llewellyn Gwynne Raguet and his wife, whose maiden name was Carrie Hadley, a member of the well known Massachusetts family of that name. On her paternal side Mrs. Glass is a lineal descendant of a Frenchman who came to America and served as a surgeon in the Revolutionary war. Llewellyn Gwynne Raguet, father of Mrs. Glass, is a Mexican war veteran, and he and his wife survive at this date (1911), aged, respectively, eighty-one and seventy-eight years. On her paternal side Mrs. Glass is also related to the Virginia Thornton family, of Revolutionary fame. Judge and Mrs. Glass have an only daughter, Mabel Ann, who is the wife of Benjamin C. Johnson of Topeka.