James R. Hyland, banker and lawyer, of Washington, Kan., is a native of Kansas, and was born in Grant township, Washington county, November 26, 1876. He is a son of Herbert and Sarah (Metzker) Hyland. The father is a native of Ohio, and of Scotch descent, although his ancestors for three or four generations had lived in England. The mother of James Hyland was a native of Illinois. Herbert Hyland came to Kansas in 1870, and took up a homestead in Washington county. He erected a substantial stone house and engaged in farming and stock raising, in which he was very successful. When he came here, in 1870, Washington county was well on the frontier, and the family experienced real pioneer life. The nearest railroad was at Waterville or Fairbury, a distance of forty miles.

James R. Hyland received his early educational training in the public schools, which was supplimented by private instruction from his mother, who was a school teacher and an exceptionally well educated woman. She began her instructions with the boy when he was a mere child, and continued to teach him until he became a teacher himself. As a boy, James R. Hyland was always a hard student. He taught school six years, and during the last two years of his teaching he also read law. He then entered the law offices of T. P. Roney and Joseph G. Lowe, of Washington, Kan., as a law student, and was admitted to the Kansas bar in 1900. He immediately formed a partnership with J. G. Lowe, under the firm name of Lowe & Hyland. Mr. Lowe withdrew from the firm in a short time, engaging in the practice at El Reno, Okla., and Mr. Hyland continued alone until 1904, when he was elected cashier of the Morrowville State Bank of Morrowville, Kan. He was one of the organizers of that institution, and its first cashier, holding that position about five years, or until January 1, 1909, when he resigned and took the office of county attorney, having been elected to that office on the Republican ticket that fall. In 1910 he was reëlected to the office of county attorney and served two terms.

After his resignation as cashier of the Morrowville Bank, he served as vice-president of that institution for some time, when he disposed of his interest in that bank and bought an interest in the Hollenberg State Bank, serving as vice-president of it for two years. In the meantime he also became interested in the Washington National Bank, of Washington, Kan., and served as vice-president of that institution for a time, and on January 1, 1913, at the expiration of his term of office as county attorney, he became cashier of this institution, a position which he now holds. Notwithstanding Mr. Hyland's active career as a banker, he has been no less prominent as a successful lawyer, and, is at present the junior member of the firm of Freeborn & Hyland, who probably have the most extensive practice in Washington county. Mr. Hyland's dual positions as banker and lawyer naturally leads him to the office end of the practice, while his partner more especially attends to the court work. He is also a bonded abstractor and his clientage in this line of endeavor is very extensive throughout the county.

Mr. Hyland was united in marriage, November 22, 1905, to Miss Blanche, daughter of D. H. and Etta (Emerson) Cartwright, of Jewell county, where her father was an extensive farmer and stock raiser. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright are natives of Pennsylvania and number among the pioneer settlers of Jewell county. Mrs. Hyland was reared in JeweIl county and received her early educational discipline in the public schools and later attended Friends' Academy at Washington, Kan., and prior to her marriage taught school for a short time. To Mr. and Mrs. Hyland have been born two children: Leslie David and Herbert Neil. Mr. and Mrs. Hyland are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a trustee, and he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Modern Woodmen of America.