Nelson Case

HON. NELSON CASE, formerly probate judge of Labette county, Kansas, and for over thirty years a leading member of the bar of the county, has spent his entire professional life in Oswego, where he has been prominently identified with reformatory and educational enterprises. He was born in Wyoming county, Pennsylvania, April 22, 1845, and, the same year, was taken by his parents to Lee county, Illinois. He graduated from the Illinois Normal University in 1866, after which he taught school for one year. He then attended a course of lectures in the law department of the University of Michigan, and graduated therefrom in 1869. In May, 1869, he came west to Oswego, Kansas, where he has since been located and has practiced law.

Judge Case was appointed probate judge by Governor St. John in June, 1880, and was twice thereafter re-elected, at the end of which time he declined to be again a candidate. He has twice been a candidate for a place on the supreme bench, - in 1896 for chief justice, and in 1898 for associate justice, and, although he did not receive the nomination, he stood next to the winning man in 1898. In each instance he received the solid vote of Southeastern Kansas, the section in which his record as a lawyer is best known. The members of the bar of Labette county gave him their heartiest support, and the entire press, as well as the leading citizens generally, offered the strongest testimony in favor of his qualifications. One of the leading editors of the county, who has known him intimately many years, says of him: "I have been intimately acquainted with him for more than twenty-five years - in fact from the time he started in the law business in Oswego, and have always found him one of the most conscientious and honorable men of the profession, - by some called an anomaly - an honest lawyer. He is regarded by the bar of this county, and of all Southeastern Kansas, as the ablest jurist, safest counselor, and best lawyer we have." Another prominent business man says: "He is regarded by many as the ablest attorney in Labette county." Judge Case has a first-class clientage and practices in all courts, including the Supreme Court at Washington.

He has always had a deep interest in educational matters, and was president of the board of education of Oswego for twelve years, also regent of the State Normal School several years. He was trustee and treasurer of the County High School at Altamont the first five years of its existence, and was trustee of Oswego College for many years. He has been a trustee of Baker University since 1883, and for several years has been president of the board. He was connected with the State Sunday-School Association and the State Temperance Union, for many years, and is serving his twenty-ninth year as superintendent of the M. E. Sunday-school in Oswego. In May, 1890, he was a delegate from the South Kansas conference to the general conference of the M. E. church, which met in Chicago.

Judge Case has twice been married, his first wife dying in 1892. By his second wife he has a daughter, Miriam, born in April, 1901. He also has raised two adopted children. A portrait of Judge Case appears on a preceding page as the frontispiece of this work.