A. H. Skidmore. The general instances in the early life of men who “do things” are peculiarly similar. Differing in detail, the general outline is the short and simple story of the rise and progress to eminence from poverty to prosperity. Assiduous toil, the common school advantages, and the struggle for supremacy generates reliance on self, the natural, rather than art is their guide; individual talents are developed and each shows through the originality thereby becoming and recognized as self-made men. Judge Skidmore was born in Virginia February 14, 1856, was reared to manhood on a farm by parents possessing the energy, zeal and thrift of the hardy Highlanders of Scotland. His father, now eighty-seven years of age, is hale and hearty, although he underwent the hardships of almost five years’ service in the Civil war, participating in many closely contested engagements, and was mustered out as captain of his company.
Judge Skidmore was admitted to the bar at Ottawa, Illinois, on September 14, 1876, after spending 1874-5 in the department of law of the University of Michigan, and spending about one year in the law office of Hon. C. H. Frew of Paxton, Illinois. After being admitted to practice he sought the better opportunities existing in the West, and on November 14, 1876, opened a law office at Columbus, Kansas, at which city he continued to reside and practice his profession until he was elected, in 1903, to the bench of the Eleventh Judicial District, composed of Cherokee, Labette, and Montgomery counties. He was reelected in 1907, and after eight years of satisfactory service in his judicial office he declined further political favors, preferring the practice of his profession. He built a neat, commodious law office and again resumed private practice and still had a successful and prosperous business. He is also extensively connected with banking interests and coal industries in Cherokee County.
As a judge he was noted for his fair rulings, consideration for the less fortunate while in the discharge of his duty, and economical and conservative in transacting the business of the court, which brought the expense of court proceedings down to a minimum. Appeals were taken in numerous cases but less reversals exist from his rulings than in a like number of appeals from any other one judicial district in the state.
Being in the front rank of his profession, with a sufficient income to guarantee the necessities of life, he, his wife, and children are entitled to the confidence and respect of their neighbors and friends, as well as to enjoy the comforts of the good home they possess and occupy in the suburbs of the city.