E. ELMO BOLLINGER History of Arizona, page 55 One of the most distinguished members of the Mohave County bar is E. Elmo Bollinger, whose record as a practicing lawyer and as Judge of the Superior Court has stamped him as a man of superior ability and attainments. He was born in Iron County, Missouri on October 8, 1877 and is a son of Joseph and Margaret (Sutton) Bollinger, to whom were born nine children. Joseph Bollinger, who devoted the active years of his life to farming pursuits, died in his Missouri home on September 20, 1917. The maternal grandfather, James Sutton, joined the historical rush of gold seekers to California in 1849 and after being there several years wrote to his folks at home that he had plenty of gold for them. However, he was never heard from after that. Judge Bollinger's paternal ancestors came across the Mississippi River into Missouri in 1803 and became prominent among the pioneer families of that state, Bollinger County being named in their honor. George Frederick Bollinger wrote the first constitution for the state of Missouri in 1814. E. Elmo Bollinger was reared at home and attended the public and high schools at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He attended the University of Missouri, at Columbia, two years and completed his professional studies in Tulane University at New Orleans, from which he was graduated wit the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1907. He then entered the practice of law in New Orleans, where he remained several years and then, in 1914 came to Kingman, Arizona where he gained prompt recognition for his ability and was soon in command of a large practice. In 1918 he was elected Judge of the Superior Court and was later re-elected, serving two full terms and then voluntarily returned to the private practice of law. During his occupancy of the bench he made the decisions in two of the most famous cases ever tried in this district. One, a civil case, was that of the Tom Reed Gold Mines Company versus the United Eastern Company. This case was carried to the U.S. Supreme Court where Judge Bollinger's decision was sustained. The other case, a criminal one, was a Chinese tong war murder case, in which five Chinese were sentenced to be hung, one of them escaping hanging by pleading that he was under eighteen years of age and having his sentience commuted to life imprisonment. Judge Bollinger married Helen Krabiel, who graduated from the University of Missouri, with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts and is now National Secretary of the Parent- Teacher Association. Judge and Mrs. Bollinger are the parents of a son, Edward E. Jr., eleven years of age, who is attending a military academy in Los Angeles. USGenWeb Project NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, nor for commercial presentation by any other organization. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain express written permission from the author, or the submitter and from the listed USGenWeb Project archivist. submitted by burns@asu.edu