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OULKE, WILLIAM DUDLEY, civil service reformer and author, has reached an honorable position in his chosen profession of the law and in the field of letters. In public life he has been an earnest and a highly efficient worker for what he regarded as greatly needed reforms along various and widely different lines.

Mr. Foulke was born in New York city, November 20, 1848. He was a son of Thomas and Hannah S. Foulke. He was married on October 8, 1872, to Mary Taylor Reeves. They have had six children, four of whom are now living.

The father of Mr. Foulke held no civil office but was a minister of the Society of Friends and a successful educator. He was a genial companion, an excellent public speaker, and a man of unusual executive ability. He, too, was a son of an influential minister of the denomination to which he belonged. The earliest known member of the family in America was Edward Foulke, who came from England in 1698. With the exception of a vacation each summer the childhood and youth of Mr. Foulke were passed in New York city. His recreations were such as are common to children who live in large towns and he had no tasks to perform which required physical exertion. Ill health greatly increased the difficulties of acquiring an education, as it often interfered with his attendance at school. His preparatory course was taken in the public schools and at a Friends' seminary. He was graduated from Columbia college. New York city, in 1869, and then took a course in the law school of that institution, graduating in 1871.

Mr. Foulke commenced the active work of life as a practising lawyer, in New York city, the year of his graduation. From 1876 to 1891 at Richmond, Indiana, he was attorney for the Chicago, St. Louis and Pittsburg Railroad Company (Pennsylvania Railroad system), for the First National Bank, and various other corporations,