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522 JOHN P. HOBSON.

When the last term of Chief Justice Lewis expired, John P. Hobson, of Elizabethtown, Ky., was one of four able and up right lawyers who contested for the Demo cratic nomination to succeed him. The Re publicans also put forward a clear and able jurist in the person of Circuit Judge Wallace W. Jones, of Adair County. During the campaign, the people and especially the law

yers, of the State looked on with a feeling of satisfac tion that is seldom felt either in politi cal or in judicial contests. It was an assured fact that no matter what the fortunes of war or politics might be, the State of Kentucky would be served by a Judge of ability and integrity in its highest Court. If this assurance could always exist, much of the danger or at least the anx iety incident to the election of Judges by popular vote JOHN P. would be dispelled. came Judge to the Hobson bench in January, 1899, under most favorable auspices. His work in the Court thus far has justified the predictions of his friends and the expectations of all. In his private life, he is a devout Presby terian, active in all the good works of his church. hatan County, He was Virginia, born ononSeptember a farm in 3, 1850. PowHis family is one of the best in the " Old Dominion." He was educated under Gen. Robert E. Lee at Washington College, of which Gen. Lee was the President (now

Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Virginia). In September, 1870, he came to Kentucky and for three years he taught school. He then took up the study of law at Elizabethtown under the instruction of the venerable Judge A. M. Brown. He was admitted to the bar in the summer of 1873 and until his elevation to the bench he en joyed a large practice. Some of the most important cases that ever came up in his cir cuit were conducted by him. Only one, however, need be mentioned here — that of Hardin Coun ty v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. — in which after a fiercely fought bat tle Judge Hobson finally recovered for his county a judg ment in money and stock worth more than a quarter of a million of dollars. As a lawyer he took high rank at a bar that has been famous from the foundation of the State. As a judge he has HOBSON shown a ready grasp complicated questions coming of theup for many solution and and his diligent, studious nature gives prom ise of even greater achievements in the fu ture. In concluding this sketch, it is but due to the present Judges of the Court of Appeals to say that the period of their public service has been the most trying time in the history of the State. Political conditions for which the judiciary cannot be held responsible have brought Kentucky face to face with dangers that the Courts cannot avert. . In