Otis Elmo Hungate, a very capable, earnest and skilled lawyer, of Topeka, is one of the few members of the Topeka bar that are native to that city, he having been born there Dec. 8, 1871. He is the son of Capt. Andrew Jackson Hungate, a native of Kentucky, whose active business career was spent practically as a live stock auctioneer, and who came to Topeka in 1868. Captain Hungate was a second lieutenant in the Thirty-seventh Indiana infantry, in the Civil war, and after resigning, on account of poor health, reënlisted and was commissioned adjutant of the One Hundred and Fifth Indiana infantry, with the rank of captain. He died in Topeka in 1904, survived by his wife, who is still living and resides in Topeka. Her maiden name was Sarah L. Ritchie; she is a native of Indiana, and is a sister of Gen. John Ritchie, who figured prominently in the early history of Kansas.

Otis Elmo Hungate has spent his entire life in Topeka, except the time spent in college. He attended the public schools of Topeka and was graduated in the Topeka High School in 1889, soon after which he took up the study of law in the office of Capt. Joseph G. Waters of Topeka. Later he spent one year in the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and was admitted to the bar on his twenty-first birthday, Dec. 8, 1892, since when he has been an active practitioner and has won a representative clientele. He served as assistant city attorney from 1893 until 1895, and was county attorney of Shawnee county from 1903 to 1907. He is a member of the Shawnee County Bar Association, and fraternally, he is a Royal Arch Mason and a Scottish Rite Mason, having attained the Thirteenth degree in the latter branch of Masonry. Politically, Mr. Hungate is a Republican.

On Dec. 23, 1896, occurred his marriage to Miss Alice Kepley, of Bourbon county, Kansas, the daughter of Ephraim Kepley, one of the pioneers of Bourbon county, he having settled there in 1854. Mr. Kepley was the first settler of his particular locality and erected the first cabin on the Little Osage river. He died in 1905. Mr. and Mrs. Hungate have one daughter, Augusta Jane, born Jan. 1, 1904.