William Edward Hogueland, who had lived in Kansas since 1869, had the unusual distinction of being admitted to the bar when he was nineteen years of age and had been in active practice at Yates Center for the past thirty-six years. He had been elected to a county office just about the time he attained his twenty-first birthday, and having established his home at the county seat while in office he had remained there in the practice of law.
Mr. Hogueland’s ancestors came out of Holland in very early times. There were three brothers, one settling in New York, one in Pennsylvania and one in the South. Mr. Hogueland of Yates Center belongs to the Pennsylvania branch of the family. His grandfather, John Hogueland, was a contractor and was accidentally killed at Philadelphia at the age of forty-two. At the time he had a contract to build a rock road out of the City of Philadelphia.
William Edward Hogueland was born at Nashville, the county seat of Brown County, Indiana, October 3, 1859. His father was the late W. B. Hogueland of Yates Center, where he died February 15, 1907. His birth occurred November 16, 1823, on the site now occupied by Girard College in the City of Philadelphia. When a young man he removed to Belmont County, Ohio, was married there, and took up the trade of carriage maker. Subsequently he moved to Brown County, Indiana, and on July 12, 1869, arrived in Woodson County, Kansas. Here he joined himself with the meager population that comprised the County of Woodson, and for several years was in the harness business at Neosho Falls. In June, 1881, he removed his business to Yates Center, and spent his last years in retirement. He was a very vigorous supporter of the republican party throughout his career, and at one time served as postmaster of Nashville, Indiana. At the time of his death he was one of the oldest Masous in Woodson County, and had been charter member of a lodge back in Ohio. W. B. Hogueland married Cordelia Hobbs Barnes. She was born August 11, 1830, and died at Yates Center, Kansas, January 4, 1916, in her eighty-sixth year. Of the four children of the family William E. is the youngest. The oldest is S. H. Hogueland, in the real estate business at Yates Center, Mary Alice first married Mr. Atchison, who was an attorney at Neosho Falls, and her present husband is Robert Voy, their home being at Flandreau, South Dakota, where Mr. Voy is a farmer and also had charge of the Indian School as teacher of agriculture. Flora is the wife of M. C. Bidwell, a retired cabinet maker living at Norborne, Missouri.
William E. Hogueland acquired his early education in the public schools of Neosho Falls, where he was graduated in the high school course. He took up the study of law in the office of W. A. Atchison in Neosho Falls and was admitted to the bar in March, 1879, at the age of nineteen. He practiced at Neosho Falls, in the fall of 1880 was elected clerk of the court and moved to Yates Center. Mr. Hogueland was kept in the office of clerk four terms or eight years. In 1888 at the end of his last term, he formed a law partnership with G. R. Stephenson at Yates Center, and this firm continued as an agreeable and profitable relationship between these two well-known lawyers until January 1, 1901. Since that date Mr. Hogueland had practiced with Ex-Senator G. H. Lamb. Their offices are in the Post-office Building.
On May 27, 1897, Mr. Hogueland was appointed postmaster of Yates Center by President McKinley. He filled that office seventeen consecutive years, during the administrations of McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft. He is one of the ablest republican leaders of Woodson County.
While practicing law he had exercised good judgment in his business affairs and is the owner of several farms in Woodson County, of several business blocks on the Square and in other parts of Yates Center, and had a good residence at the corner of Sanderson and Main streets. Personally he had membership in the Woodson County, the Kansas State and the American Bar associations. He is affiliated with the Yates Center Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and with the Knights and Ladies of Security.
On June 20, 1887, at Iola, Kansas, Mr. Hogueland married Miss Mary R. Foster, of Slater, Missouri. She is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Foster, both now deceased. Her father for a number of years was a manufacturer of trunks at Racine, Wisconsin. She had a Revolutionary ancestor, and this patriot soldier was named William. Mr. and Mrs. Hogueland have two children. Frank F., who completed his education in Baker University, is now in the clothing business at Yates Center. Alice B., still at home, was also a student of Baker University.