William K. Skinner

WILLIAM K. SKINNER has enjoyed a constantly growing law practice since he located in Rooks County ten years ago. He is now filling his third term as county attorney.

Mr. Skinner is of colonial and revolutionary ancestry. The Skinners were originally Scotch-English and in colonial times settled in New Jersey. Three or four generations of the family lived at Dry Run in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Mr. Skinner's grandfather was born in 1815 and died in 1860 in Dry Run, where his father and grandfather before him had lived and died. The grandfather was a farmer and tanner by occupation.

The father of William K. Skinner is Dr. William O. Skinner, who was born at Dry Run, Pennsylvania, in 1847. He grew up and married there and received his M. D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. In 1873 he located at Griggsville, Illinois, where he has practiced forty-five years. For several years he has been relieving himself of the more important responsibilities of his profession, but in 1918, as a result of shortage of physicians consequent upon the war and also during the influenza epidemic, he resumed his work and treated two hundred cases of influenza. He has served as mayor of Griggsville and is a democrat in politics. Doctor Skinner married Sarah Frances Brown, who was born in Ridgeville, Illinois, in 1852. They have three sons: Harry, a farmer at Griggsville; F. L., a resident of Florida, and William K.

William K. Skinner was born at Griggsville, Illinois, January 24, 1884, and graduated from the high school of his native town in 1903. He then entered the University of Illinois at Urbana, pursuing the law course and received his LL. B. degree in 1907. The following year he came out to Kansas and located at Stockton, where he has since been busy with a general civil and criminal practice. His offices are in the Beckley Building. He was first elected to the office of county attorney in 1910, serving one term. In 1914 he was again elected, and re-elected in 1916, but was not a candidate in 1918. His present term expired January 14, 1919. Mr. Skinner is a republican, a member of the State Bar Association, and of Newahcuba Lodge No. 189, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Since coming to Kansas he has acquired 400 acres of farm land near Stockton, and buys and sells a large amount of western lands, that business being incidental to his law practice. He owns one of the modern homes of Stockton.

October 16, 1908, at Palmyra, Missouri, Mr. Skinner married Miss Ethyl McLaughlin, daughter of William and Nancy McLaughlin. Her parents are farmers at Baylis, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Skinner have two children: Jane Isabel, born September 5, 1909, and William Robert, born November 2, 1914.

Pages 2507-2508.