Osborn, Stephen J.
Stephen J. Osborn of Coffeyville, an old prominent member of the Kansas bar, has taken an active part in the public
affairs of his adopted state, having served several terms in the state legislature where he was honored with the
position of speaker of the house and having been for a number of years judge of the Twenty-third judicial district,
besides serving in other positions of responsibility and trust. Judge Osborn was born in Preble county, Ohio, near
the city of Eaton, Nov. 22, 1846. His parents, Samuel and Rachel (Elliott) Osborn, natives respectively of Virginia
and North Carolina, were married in Ohio, to which state Samuel Osborn had gone when a young man and where he operated
a woolen mill. He was similarly engaged at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, to which state he removed his family in the spring
of 1848, but after his wife's death at Mount Pleasant he went to Mills county, Iowa, where he engaged in farming
until a few years prior to his death, which occurred at the home of his son, Stephen J. The parents had two sons
and one daughter, of whom Stephen J. is the only survivor.
Mr. Osborn was reared principally in Iowa and received a common school education which was supplemented by a two-years
course in Iowa Wesleyan University, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, after which he went to Atchison county, Missouri, where
he taught school and studied law until his admission to the bar in 1872. He was elected prosecuting attorney of
Atchison county in the fall of 1876, and at the expiration of his term of office in the spring of 1879, he came
to Ness county Kansas, where he witnessed the building of the first house in Ness City. In the fall of that year
he went to Wakeeney, Trego county, Kansas, where he engaged in the practice of law. He was elected county attorney
of that county in 1880, and served one term of two years. In 1884 he was elected as a Republican to the state legislature
in which he served during the regular session in 1885 and the special session of 1886, and at the close of the
latter session, was appointed judge of the Twenty-third judicial district by Gov. John A. Martin to which position
he was twice reelected, serving in all nine years and retiring in January, 1895. He then located at Salina, Kan.,
where he became a partner of T. L. Bond in the practice of law and was thus engaged until 1898 when he was elected
to represent Saline county in the state legislature, taking
his seat in 1899, being elected speaker. He remained at Salina until 1902 when he moved to Coffeyville, where he
formed a law partnership with H. C. Dooly, which partnership continued until the latter's death when Judge Osborn
took as a partner his son, Roy Osborn. In 1909 John H. Keith became associated with him in the practice of law.
Judge Osborn's success in life has been attained through his own individual efforts and is the reward of years
of upright dealings with his fellow men and by his straight forward course in the performance of whatever duty
at hand. He has won a business success and an honorable name and deserves to be numbered among the most respected
and worthy citizens of Kansas. He has always given his political allegiance to the Republican party. Fraternally
he is a Knight Templar Mason, a Noble of the Mystic Shrine and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks. In April, 1864, when seventeen years of age, Judge Osborn enlisted in Company A, Forty-fifth Iowa infantry,
with which he served five months, being discharged in October, 1864, by reason of the expiration of his term of
enlistment. He commemorates his war associations with his old comrades by membership in the Grand Army of the Republic.
In 1874, in Atchison county, Missouri, occurred the marriage of Judge Stephen J. Osborn, and Miss Belle McCreary,
a native of Morrow county, Ohio. To their union have been born three children: Roy T., probate judge of Montgomery
county; Grace, assistant state librarian of the Kansas State Library; and Nellie, a domestic science teacher.
Kansas Biography, Part 2, vol. III 1912
Page: 873-874
Transcribed as written by, Millie Mowry
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