Howard-Rush County IN Archives Biographies.....Kirkpatrick, Lex J. 1853 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 5, 2006, 3:49 am

Author: Jackson Morrow (circa 1909)

HON. LEX J. KIRKPATRICK.

   Standing out distinctly as one of the central figures of the judiciary of
Indiana is the name of Hon. Lex J. Kirkpatrick, of Kokomo. Prominent in legal
circles and equally so in public matters beyond the confines of his own
jurisdiction, with a reputation in one of the most exacting of professions that
has won him a name for distinguished service second to that of none of his
contemporaries, there is today no more prominent or honored man in the state
which he has long dignified by his citizenship. Achieving success in the courts
at an age when most young men are just entering upon the formative period of
their lives, wearing the judicial ermine with becoming dignity and bringing to
every case submitted to him a clearness of perception and ready power of
analysis characteristic of the learned jurist, his name and work for years have
been allied with the legal institutions, public enterprises and political
interests of the state in such a way as to earn him recognition as one of the
distinguished citizens in a community noted for the high order of its talent. A
high purpose and an unconquerable will, vigorous mental powers, diligent study
and devotion to duty are some of the means by which he has made himself
eminently useful, and every ambitious youth who fights the battle of life with
the prospect of ultimate success may peruse with profit the biography herewith
presented.

   Lex J. Kirkpatrick is a native of Indiana and traces his genealogy to a
remote period in the history of Scotland, in which country the family of
Kirkpatrick appears to have had its origin. It is a well established fact that
certain of the name were living in the counties of Nithersdale and Galloway, as
early as the ninth century and later by reason of the Jacobite troubles one of
them was obliged to flee from Scotland and take refuge in Ireland, where the
Kirkpatricks now comprise a very large and influential family, the descendants
of George Kirkpatrick., constituting the most numerous branch. Another
representative of the family, William Kirkpatrick, fled from Scotland during the
Stuart war, and settled at Malaga. Spain, in the latter part of the eighteenth
century. He was a man of prominence and influence, both in his own and adopted
land, and is remembered chiefly as being the grandfather of Eugenie, widow of
Napoleon the II, and Empress of France. The motto of the Scottish Kirkpatricks
has long been the following sentiment, "I mae sickar," or "I make sure."

   Three Kirkpatrick brothers, descendants of George Kirkpatrick, came from
Scotland to America a number of years prior to the War of Independence and
settled in Pennsylvania, where they became actively identified with the growth
and development of their respective communities. John Kirkpatrick. a son of one
of these brothers, was born in the town of Easton and later moved to Harrison
county, Kentucky, where he is said to have suffered much from the depredations
of the Indians. Consequently he served under General St. Clair in the latter's
ill-starred expedition against the savages and received a wound in the thigh
which rendered him a cripple during the remainder of his life. Removing to Ross
county, Ohio, he spent a number of years as a teacher and appears to have been a
man of much more than ordinary intelligence, as well as public-spirited. He was
twice married and became the father of eight children, five by his first wife
and three by the second. His eldest son, William, who was born June 8, 1776, in
Pennsylvania, married in Harrison county, Kentucky, Anna Maize, whose birth
occurred on April 17, of the year 1784, and whose parents immigrated to this
country from Ireland some years prior to that date, and settled in the county of
Harrison. Some time after their marriage William and Anna Kirkpatrick moved to
Rush county, Indiana, where they spent the remainder of their days, he departing
this life July 13, 1860, she on January 10, 1866. Of the large family that at
one time gathered around the hearth-stone of this estimable couple, not one
survives. John Kirkpatrick, the second child, and grandfather of the subject of
this review, was born October 23, 1802, in Harrison county, Kentucky, married in
Fayette county, Indiana, in 1824, Nancy Oldham, whose birth occurred in
Knoxville, Tennessee, on the 3d day of July, 1802. They also took up their
residence in Rush county, and in due time became the parents of four children,
namely: William. David, Stephen and Mrs. Mary Jane Austille, all living but
William, who died April 4. 1874, and David. The father of these children
departed this life in Rush county, August 8, 1848, the mother on the 28th day of
August. 1868.

   Stephen Kirkptarick, the judge's father, was born on the family homestead in
Rush county, Indiana, February 10, 1832, and there grew to maturity and received
such educational training as the indifferent schools of the period could impart.
In his twenty-first year he was united in marriage to Rebecca Jane Jackson, a
native of Rush county, born February 14, 1834, the ceremony by which they were
made husband and wife being solemnized on the 9th day of September, 1852, by
John Legg, Esq., well-known justice of the peace of that county. William and
Abigail Jackson, grandparents of Mrs. Stephen Kirkpatrick, were Virginians.
Their family consisted of nine children, the seventh being Joseph Jackson, whose
birth occurred in Surry county, North Carolina, March 1, 1794, and who married,
November 13, 1817. Lydia Jeffrey, the latter born in the same county January 2,
1801. Joseph and Lydia Jackson in 1819 located in Union county, Indiana, and two
years later moved to Rush county, settling on a farm in Washington township,
where they spent the remainder of their lives, Mrs. Jackson dying February 8,
1841, her husband following her to the grave July 20. 1851. Of their eleven
children Mrs. Rebecca J. Kirkpatrick is the only survivor. Calvin C. Jackson,
who died recently, was for many years a leading fanner and representative
citizen of Mahaska county, Iowa. an ex-member of the legislature of that state
and a successful and influeuntial minister of the Christian church. John Tyler
Jackson. the youngest of the children, for a number of years a distinguished
lawyer of Indianapolis and son-in-law of the late Lucien Barbour, died in that
city on the 2d day of April, 1866.

   Lex J., the only living child of Stephen and Rebecca J Kirkpatrick, was born
on the home farm in Washington township, Rush county, September 6, 1853. When he
was four months old, his parents moved to Howard county, and located on a farm
adjoining Greentown, but five years later changed their residence to Taylor
township, where, in close touch with nature, amid the bracing airs and wholesome
influence of rural life the future lawyer and jurist spent his youth and young
manhood. His early experience on the farm tended to develop a strong and
healthful physique, and while engaged in the labor of the fields he learned to
place a correct value upon honest toil, besides laying' broad and deep the
foundation for his future course of action. Possessing an ardent temperament and
a natural taste for books and study he became at the proper age a pupil of the
school in the neighborhood, which was taught in a primitive log cabin with
puncheon floor and but indifferently furnished, with rough slab benches minus
backs, notwithstanding which unfavorable environment he made commendable
progress in his studies and was soon far in advance of the majority of boys of
his age. After attending the county schools until completing the usual
curriculum and feeling an intense desire to add to his scholastic knowledge, he
entered in 1870 a college at Oskaloosa, Iowa, where he prosecuted his studies
one year when he returned to Kokomo and became a student of the Howard College,
which he attended until 1873. In the latter year he yielded to a desire of long
standing by entering the law office of Hendry & Elliot, to prepare himself for
the legal profession, and after a preliminary course of reading under the
instruction of those gentlemen he entered, in September, 1874, the Central Law
School at Indianapolis, from which he was graduated with a creditable record in
June of the following year, dividing the honors of his class with the late D. S.
Thomas, of Rushville. After finishing his legal studies Mr. Kirkpatrick formed a
partnership with James F. Elliot, his former tutor, the firm thus constituted
lasting until November, 1890, during which time the youngattorney forged rapidly
to the front, and it was not long until he gained a large and lucrative practice
and earned recognition as one of the leading members of the Howard county bar.
Meantime, May 10, 1879, he was admitted to practice by the supreme court from
which date to the present time his legal career presents a series of continued
success such as few lawyers achieve. As a careful and painstaking student he has
availed himself of every opportunity to familiarize himself with his profession
in its every detail to the end that he might the better serve his fellow men and
render justice to those who appeal to the courts for redress. From 1881 to 1884
he served as probate commissioner of Howard county and in September, 1890,
received without any solicitation on his part, the nomination by the Democratic
party, for judge of the thirty-sixth judicial district, composed of the counties
of Howard and Tipton, which at that time had a normal Republican majority of
about one thousand. Notwithstanding this formidable opposition he accepted the
nomination and such was his popularity with the people, regardless of political
affiliation, that in the ensuing election he defeated an able and worthy
opponent by a majority of two hundred and twenty-one, running three hundred and
thirty-six ahead of the ticket, and in November, 1890, entered upon the duties
of the judgeship with the hearty endorsement of the laity as well as the bar of
his jurisdiction.

   Judge Kirkpatrick came to the bench well qualified for its exacting duties
and responsibilities and from the beginning his judicial career was
characterized by such a profound knowledge of the law and an earnest and
conscientious desire to apply it impartially that he was not long in gaining the
respect and confidence of the attorneys and litigents and earning for himself an
honorable reputation among the leading jurists of the state. From the first his
labors were very arduous as many important cases were tried in his court, not a
few coming before him by change of venue, in addition to which he was also
frequently called to other districts to sit on cases in which large interests
were involved. Among the more noted of the cases in his own jurisdiction were
that of the State of Indiana versus Calvin J. Armstrong, defaulting Treasurer of
Tipton county, who was accused of embezzling public funds to the amounty [sic]
of forty-three thousand dollars; The State versus Ann Augusta Schmidt, convicted
of manslaughter and sentenced to a term in the female prison at Indianapolis,
besides others of no less interest and import. The courts of Cass, Miama [sic]
and Hamilton counties profited frequently by his services on the bench and as
far as known his rulings in all cases were eminently satisfactory, fair and
impartial, and his decisions so in accord with the principles of law and
practice that everybody interested was thoroughly satisfied with his course.

   After an eminently useful and honorable career of six years' duration Judge
Kirkpatrick, on November 4, 1896, retired from the bench, and the same year
became a member of the well known law firm of Morrison & McReynolds, the style
being changed with his admission to that of Kirkpatrick, Morrison & McReynolds.
Later Mr. McReynolds retired from the firm, which is now known as Kirkpatrick &
Morrison. Since resuming the practice of his profession he has acted as special
judge in different circuits and tried some of the most important cases in the
state, notably, among which was the celebrated case of the State versus John C.
Evans, president of the Jonesboro Bank, and John W. Crum, a prominent insurance
agent, tried in the Grant circuit court in the spring of 1897, wherein each
defendant was convicted of larceny on account of certain green goods
transactions involving the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, and both sent to
the penitentiary. In the same court in January, 1898, he presided during the
case of the State versus Noah Johnson, who was convicted of murder in the first
degree and given a life sentence, his crime being the murder of his sweetheart,
a young lady only sixteen years of age. He also acted as special judge in the
Blackford, Wells and Rush county circuits, being elected by the officers of the
last named court to preside at the March term, 1898. on account of the illness
and subsequent death of Hon. J. C. Miller, the regular judge of the circuit.
While thus engaged he had the honor of dedicating the fine new court house at
Rushville and to him also fell the privilege of holding the first term of court
in Tipton's new and imposing temple of justice.

   As already indicated Judge Kirkpatrick is a Democrat, and as such has been
active in public and political affairs and an influential force in his party not
only in  local matters but in  the larger and more important theater of state
and national politics. He comes of Democratic ancestors but he does not
attribute to this fact his strict adherence to the principles which he supports,
but rather to history, also to reflection, judgment and conscience, all of which
have combined to make him not only an able and judicious counselor, but a
moulden of opinion and leader of men, in what concerns the best interests of the
body politic. While loyal to his power to promote its success he believes that a
man can be an earnest and active politician and yet be strictly honest in his
methods and above reproach in all that he does to advance the interests of his
cause. So earnest has he been in the advocacy of honesty in party management
that in 1894, when the charges were made against certain Democratic parties in
Tipton county for forging the tally sheets he gave from the bench specific and
vigorous instructions to the grand jury to lose no time and spare no pains in
investigating the matter and bringing indictments against those accused
providing their guilt could be established. He has ever acted upon the
principles that he who served his country best, serves his party best, and with
this object in view his political efforts, although strenuous and in the highest
degree influential and successful, have been above the slightest suspicion of
dishonor and his counsels have not only met with the approval of his party
associates but commanded the respect of the opposition as well.

   In the midst of his varied and strenuous duties and responsibilities, judge
Kirkpatrick has not been negligent of the higher concerns and imperative claims
of the Christian religion, a matter to which he has devoted much thought and in
which he has long yielded an implicit and abiding faith. In his study and
investigation of this important subject which makes paramount to every other
consideration, he has little regard for the doctrines of the schools and the
statements of ecclesiastics or councils, but disregarding all man-made creeds
and accepting the Holy Scriptures alone as his rule of faith and practice he has
learned to live the plain and simple life such as the Master exemplified and to
repose confidence in the will of the Heavenly Father, whose instructions are so
clear and explicit as to require no interpretation by priest or pope or the
cunningly devised creeds conceived in an age of superstition and strengthened by
centuries of ecclesiastical despotism. On January 13, 1868, when but fifteen
years of age, he united with the Christian church in the village of Fairfield,
since which time his life has been consistent with the faith, affording a
conspicuous example of the beauty and worth of the Christian religion when made
the basis of action in the affairs of men. No sooner had he made public
profession of his faith than he began to evince a decided interest in various
lines of religious work and in due time he became a participant in the affairs
of the church, both local and general, and it was not long until his activity
brought him to the notice of leading Sunday school workers and religious leaders
throughout his county and state. On his removal to Kokomo he became identified
with the Main street Christian church of which he is still a member and in which
lie has been honored at different times with various official positions,
including among others that of superintendent of the Sunday school, in which
capacity he served very acceptably from July 1, 1883, to January 1, 1896, and
from 1899 to the present time, the attendance of the school ranking second in
numbers among the schools of the Christian church in the United States.

   From August, 1879, to August, 1881, Judge Kirkpatrick served as president of
the Kokomo Young Men's Christian Association, was chosen President of the
Seventh District Young People's Society Christian Endeavors in 1880, and in
November, 1893, was further honored by being elected president of the State
Young People's Society Christian Endeavors, which important position he held by
successive selections for three terms, and the duties of which he discharged in
an eminently, able and satisfactory manner, winning glowing encomium from all
the churches represented in the movement, and earning a reputation which made
his name a familiar word wherever the society has gained a footing. During his
tenure of office he often visited different parts of the state, delivering
addresses in all the principal cities, and establishing societies in many
places, besides giving a great amount of personal work which tended greatly to
the strengthening of the organization and making it popular among people who had
previously been indifferent or prejudiced against it. The distinguished career
achieved as leader of this great movement in one of the most important states of
the Union, led in 1896 to the election of the judge to the high and honorable
position of vice-president of the World's Christian Endeavor Union, in which
capacity he rendered valuable service until the world's convention in the year
of 1900, which added to his already well established reputation as an earnest
Christian worker and honored and influential official.

   Judge Kirkpatrick's domestic life dates from 1881, on September 22d of which
year he was united in the bonds of wedlock to Emma Palmer, of Adrian, Michigan,
daughter of Stephen H. and Letita (Saville) Palmer, natives of Michigan, and
residents of the town of Holloway, that state. Mrs. Kirkpatrick was born in
Ridgway, Michigan, on the 9th day of February, 1860, and is the mother of one
child that died in infancy.

   The judge has ever kept in touch with the interests of his city and county
and is an ardent advocate and liberal patron of all worthy enterprises, making
for their advancement and prosperity. His activity in behalf of every movement
for the good of his fellow citizens has endeared him to the people among whom
the greater part of his life has been spent and his popularity is bounded only
by the limits of his acquaintance; as a lawyer he is easily the peer of any of
his professional brethren throughout the state., and the honorable distinction,
already achieved at the bar is an earnest of the still wider sphere of
usefulness that he is destined to fill, and the higher honors to be achieved in
years to come, as he is yet in the prime of manhood and a close observer of the
trend of the times and an intelligent student of the great questions and issues
upon which the thought of the best minds of the world are centered.

   As judge, Mr. Kirkpatrick more than met the expectations of his friends and
the public, and so discharged the duties of the office as to receive the hearty
approval and warm commendation of the bar, in his own and other circuits,
without regard to party. He brought to the bench a dignity becoming the high
position, and in the line of duty, was industrious, careful and singularly
painstaking. which combined with his sterling honesty and fearlessness of
purpose, made him one of the most popular and efficient men ever called to
preside over the courts of the thirty-sixth judicial circuit. It is but just to
say and greatly to his credit, that no political prejudice, bias or zeal, was
ever allowed to deflect his mind from its honest convictions, and while
discharging his official functions, personal ties and friendships, as well as
his own interests and opinions, were lost sight of in his conscientious efforts
to render equal and exact justice to those whose affairs were adjudicated in his
court. His opinions and decisions attested his eminent fitness for judicial
positions, being always lucid, unstrained and vigorous, his statements full and
comprehensive, and his analysis and interpretations of the law conspicuous and
complete. The judge has always stood high in his profession and since retiring
from the bench has built up an extensive practice, in his own and other
counties, being frequently retained in important cases in courts remote from his
place of residence. He has argued many cases before the highest tribunal in the
state and lost but few. No one knows better than he the necessity. of thorough
preparation for the trial of cases, and no one more industriously applies
himself to meet the issue than he, though of a warm and ardent temperament, he
is always master of himself in the trial of cases and is rarely not at his best,
being uniformly courteous and deferential toward the court, and kind and
forbearing to his adversaries. As a speaker, the judge is direct, logical and
forcible, and not infrequently, truly eloquent. His treatment of his case is
always full of comprehension and accurate, his analysis of the facts clear and
exhaustive, and he seems to grasp without effort, the relation and dependence of
the facts, and so groups them as to enable him to throw their combined force
upon the point they tend to prove. He is not only an able and reliable
counselor, with a thorough acquaintance of the principles, intricacies and
complexities of jurisprudence, but his honesty is such that he has frequently
advised against long and expensive litigation, and this too, at the loss of the
liberal fees which otherwise he could easily have earned. Sufficient has been
said to indicate the judge's character and high standing in the community where
he has so long resided, and it only remains to be said, that throughout his
entire professional and official career, he has been animated by lofty motives,
and made every personal consideration subordinate to the higher claims of duty.
Broad and liberal in his views, with the greatest good of his fellow men ever
before him, his conduct has been that of the lover of his kind and the true and
loyal citizen, who is ready at all times, to make any reasonable sacrifice for
the cause in which his interests are enlisted. He is, withal, a man of the
people, proud of his distinction as a citizen of a state and nation for whose
laws and institutions he has the most profound admiration and respect, while his
strong mentality, ripe judgment and unimpeachable integrity, demonstrate to the
satisfaction of all, his ability to fill honorably, important official
positions, and to discharge worthily the duties of high trusts. In point of
critical legal scholarship, keen intellectually and professional success, he
easily stands in the front rank,, while in all that constitutes the upright man,
the public-spirited citizen and the earnest conscientious Christian, his
position in the social circle and the world of affairs has been firmly
establisited, and he stands today among the leaders of thought and moulders of
opinion in a state prolific of great men.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)



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