Charles R. Cline, Danville, ILL., then Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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Charles R. Cline.  Possessing the qualities which advance a man in the 
legal profession, ability, resourcefulness and good judgment, the 
career of Charles Russell Cline at the bar has been successful, and 
he is now becoming an authority on title law, though he still continues 
his general practice.  Recognition as a lawyer of solid attainments 
came to him early after his admission to the bar, and his professional 
life has since been one of constant and laborious employment, and yet, 
in spite of this, he has not failed to take an effective interest in 
civic affairs.

Charles R. Cline was born at Danville, Illinois, April 9, 1873, a son of 
William Hamilton and Nancy Anne (Rankin) Cline, the former born in Logan 
County, Illinois, and the latter in Londonderry, Guernsey County, Ohio.  
Soon after their marriage they crossed the plains to Oregon, but later 
returned to Illinois.  He had been graduated from the Illinois Wesleyan 
University with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and he entered the 
ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  After serving several 
pastorates in Kansas, he was made presiding elder of the Newton, Kansas, 
Conference, and subsequently was pastor of the Methodist Church at 
Arkansas City, Kansas.  In 1888, he came to Lake Charles, read law, 
and was admitted to the bar, and there was engaged in the practice of 
his profession with his two sons, Charles R. and Judge J. D. Cline, 
until his death which occurred in 1909, when he was sixty- four.  He 
served in an Illinois regiment in the Union army during the war between 
the North and the South.  He was a democrat, a Mason, and first president 
of the Gulf Coast Mission Conference of Louisiana, and always took a 
very active part in local affairs.  The mother died in 1923.

After attending the public schools of Kansas, Charles R. Cline was a 
student of the Lake Charles High School, and later, of the Southwestern 
Kansas College at Winfield, Kansas.  He took his legal training in the 
law department of the Illinois Wesleyan University, and was admitted to 
the Louisiana bar in 1892.  Immediately thereafter he began the practice 
of his professional at Lake Charles, where he was associated with his 
brother and father, under the firm name of Chine & Cline.  When 
J. D. Chine was elected to the bench, Charles R. Cline formed a 
partnership with U. A. Bell, under the firm name of Cline & Bell.  In 
1922 the present firm of Cline & Planche was formed.  This firm carries 
on a general civil practice.  Mr. Cline specializing on successions and 
title law.  He is attorney and director of the Calcasieu Building and 
Loan Association, and of the Rosenthal & Brown Fur Company, the latter 
concern being the largest exporters in furs in the South.  Mr. Cline is 
very active in the Association of Commerce, and in all movements which 
have for their purpose to upbuilding of the city or parish.  He belongs 
to the Court of Honor, Boy Scouts of America and belongs to the 
Country Club.  Professionally he maintains membership with the Louisiana 
Bar Association and the American Bar Association.  During the late war 
he was one of the most effective Four- Minute Speakers of Calcasieu Parish.

Our June 6, 1900, Mr. Cline was married at Luverne, Minnesota, to Miss 
Villa Kitterman, born in Rock County, Minnesota, a daughter of Benjamin 
Kitterman, now deceased, but for many years a very prominent rancher 
and stockman of Rock County, where he had pioneered.  Mr. and Mrs. Cline 
have no children.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 303, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published 
by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.