Alfred Bixby Quinton, of Topeka, who holds an enviable place among his colleagues at law, has been a member of the Shawnee county bar for the past thirty-five years and this long period of efficient service in the legal profession, and of public-spirited citizenship, well entitles him to a place among the representative men of this state in this volume. Mr. Quinton was born on a farm near Denmark, Iowa, Jan. 26, 1855, and is the descendant of ancestry that was originally English, but which became established in the New England colonies in an early day and was prominently represented in the American Revolution. His father, Royal Bellows Quinton, was by vocation a farmer, born in Geneva, Ohio, Aug. 27, 1819. He was a son of Samuel and Lucretia (Henry) Quinton, the former a native of Walpole, N. H., and the latter of Nashua, the same state. Lucretia Henry's mother was a member of the distinguished Chase family of the United States, and was the first cousin of Salmon P. Chase, the American statesman and jurist who was a member of Lincoln's cabinet, and later a chief justice of the United States supreme court. David Quinton, the paternal great-grandfather of Alfred B. Quinton, served as a sergeant in the Revolutionary war and later toward the close of the war was made paymaster in the Continental army. He had enlisted from Stonington, Vt. He contracted smallpox before the war ended and died from the effect of that disease, at Philadelphia. He was a son of Joshua Quinton, who immigrated to America from Londonderry, Ireland. The parents of Alfred B. were pioneer settlers in Lee county, Iowa, where the father, Royal Bellows Quinton, died Oct. 24, 1892, at the age of seventy-four years, in the house in which he had lived for more than fifty years. His wife survived him until Nov. 2, 1910, when she died in Topeka, Kan., whither she had removed after the death of her husband, in order to be near her children residing in that city. She was born in Maine, Feb. 7, 1826, and was eighty-four years of age at the time of her death. Her maiden name was Sarah Hornby, and she was a daughter of John and Hannah (Hilton) Hornby, the former having been a native of London and a sea captain by occupation.

Alfred Bixby Quinton was reared, to the age of eighteen, on the old Iowa homestead and received his earlier education in the Denmark, Iowa, Academy. He entered the University of Michigan when eighteen and there completed a full course in the law department, graduating as a Bachelor of Laws, in 1876. He at once located in Topeka, where he has since very successfully practiced his profession, and where, by dint of his ability and study, he is recognized as one of the ablest lawyers, not only of the Topeka bar, but of the whole state. He possesses an analytical mind, a magnificent power of concentration, and an unwearying industry, and his briefs are marked for their directness and lucidity of expression. His practice has been extensive, both as to the number and the character of the suits tried. He served as city attorney of Topeka from 1882 to 1885, and as probate judge from 1887 to 1891. For five years he served as a member of the city park commission.

Mr. Quinton was married, Jan. 25, 1882, to Miss Georgia Helen Hoffman, of Topeka, but a native of Rochester, N. Y., where she was born, Sept. 8, 1858. They have four children: Helen Hoffman, born April 5, 1883, the wife of Harley E. Reisman, editor of the "Rock Island Employees' Magazine," published at Chicago; Georgia Fay, born Oct. 24, 1886, the wife of Fred A. Davis, chief clerk to the auditor of the Santa Fe railway in Topeka; Eugenia Livingston, born Jan. 15, 1888; and Alfred Bixby, Jr., born Aug. 17, 1890, a senior in Cornell University. Mr. Quinton is a Republican in politics and for six years was chairman of the Republican central committee of Shawnee county. He is a member of the Shawnee County Bar Association and of the Kansas State Bar Association, and occupies a prominent place in fraternal circles, being a Royal Arch Mason, and Eighteenth degree Scottish Rite Mason, and a Knight Templar. He is also an Elk and a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the Commercial Club and of the Country Club. His financial and commercial activities, aside from his professional work, have been in connection with the Aetna Building & Loan Association, of which he was one of the organizers and of which he has been attorney and vice-president since its organization in 1891. It is one of the leading financial institutions of the West, being the largest building and loan association in the West, with $20,000,000 capital and $3,500,000 in assets. He is also a director of Crane & Company, of Topeka, and is president of the Topeka Cemetery Association.