James L. Hogin

JAMES L. HOGIN. - The personnel of the bar of Wyandotte county is such as to reflect marked honor and distinction on this favored organic division of the Sunflower state, and within the pages of this publication will be found specific mention of a large proportion of the representative legists and jurists of the county. James L. Hogin, who is now engaged in active general practice in Kansas City, the metropolis of the county, is well entitled to such representation, and the success gained by him in an exacting profession is the more gratifying to contemplate from the fact that his advancement in the world has been gained through his own powers and efforts.

James L. Hogin was born at Sigourney, Keokuk county, Iowa, on the 3rd of January, 1877, and is a son of Benjamin R. and Adaline (Lowe) Hogin. Benjamin R. Hogin was born in the state of Indiana, and is a son of James L. Hogin, who was born in Maryland and whose father was a native of Scotland, whence, in company with an only brother, he came to America just prior to the war of the Revolution, in which both served as valiant soldiers in the Continental line, thus showing their sturdy loyalty to the land of their adoption. These brothers changed the original orthography of the name, "Hogins," to the present form. After the war one of the brothers settled in Maryland and the other in North Carolina, the subject of this review being a direct descendant of the former. The lineage is traced back through many generations of pure Scottish ancestors, and the Lowe family, representing the maternal line of him to whom this sketch is dedicated, is of sterling English origin. Mrs. Adaline (Lowe) Hogin. was born at Sigourney, Iowa, where her parents established their home in the pioneer days, and this family also gave loyal soldiers to the cause of independence in the war of the Revolution. Benjamin R. Hogin followed the practice of law for a quarter of a century. In 1880 he removed from Iowa to Kansas and settled at Belleville, Republic county, and in the early '90s he came to Kansas City, this state, where he is now living virtually retired. He is a man of sterling character and marked intellectual and professional ability. In former years he was known as a specially versatile and brilliant lawyer and he also has wielded much influence in public affairs in Kansas, as a prominent advocate of the cause of the Republican party, though he has never sought or held public office. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. They reared to maturity a family of six sons and all are living except one.

James L. Hogin gained his early educational discipline in the public schools of Belleville, Kansas, where his parents took up their abode when he was about three years of age, and he there completed a course in the high school, in which he was graduated. He accompanied his parents on their removal to Kansas City and in preparation for the work of his chosen profession he went to the Missouri city of the same name and entered the Kansas City School of Law, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1905 and from which he received his coveted degree of Bachelor of Laws. In the spring of that year he was admitted to the bar of Missouri and also to that of Kansas, and in 1904-5 he was gaining valuable experience through association with the work of the law office of Silas Porter, who is now associate justice of the Kansas supreme court. Mr. Hogin has been successful in the work of his profession and now controls an excellent practice in Wyandotte county, besides which he practiced for an interval in Kansas City, Missouri. He has worked earnestly from his youthful days and none has a fuller appreciation of the dignity and value of honest toil and endeavor. Before he was seventeen years of age he was engaged in teaching in the country schools of Kansas, and he continued to be engaged in the work of the pedagogic profession for three years, after which he devoted his attention to civil engineering for some time. In the meantime he had formulated the definite plans that found their fruition in his admission to the practice of law. In his chosen profession his success has amply demonstrated the wisdom of his choice of vocation. Mr. Hogin is a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party.

The year 1908 witnessed the marriage of Mr. Hogin to Miss Elizabeth Cherbonnier, who was born and reared in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, and who is a representative of one of the old and distinguished French families of that state.