James J. Bulger has been a resident of Kansas since his boyhood and through recourse to the best of educational institutions in the Sunflower State he prepared himself for the legal profession, which he has dignified by his character and achievement and through the medium of which he advanced to judicial position, his service having been on the bench of the District Court of Cherokee County. Since 1912 he has been engaged in the general practice of his profession in the City of Wichita, where he has built up a large and important law business and retains a representative clientage.
Judge Bulger was born in Christian County, Illinois, on the 9th of November, 1875, and thus he was about ten years of age when, in 1886, his parents removed to Kansas and established their home near Baxter Springs. After completing the curriculum of the public schools Judge Bulger entered the Fort Scott Normal College, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1895. With well formulated plans for his future career, he was soon afterward matriculated in the law department of the University of Kansas, in which he completed the prescribed course and in which he was graduated in 1898, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was forthwith admitted to the bar and soon afterward he entered upon his professional novitiate, at Weir City, Cherokee County. There he remained a few months and he then consulted personal and professional expediency by establishing his residence at Columbus, the judicial center of the same county, and forming a professional alliance with the late Richard Blue, with whom he continued to be associated in the control of a successful general practice until 1906, when he was appointed to a responsible legal position in the claim department of the Union Pacific Railroad, with headquarters in the City of Omaha, Nebraska. Of this position he continued the incumbent until the death of his former law partner, Mr. Blue, in 1907, when he returned to Baxter Springs, to adjust some matters pertaining to their former law business, and while there he was appointed district judge, to complete the unexpired term of Judge C. A. McNeil. On the bench Judge Bulger continued his effective administration until the expiration of the term, and in 1912 he removed to Wichita, where he has since been engaged in practice in an individual way and where he has admirable standing both as a versatile trial lawyer and a counselor of broad and exact knowledge of the science of jurisprudence. Judge Bulger is a staunch and effective advocate of the principles of the republican party, is affiliated with the time-honored Masonic fraternity, and also holds membership in the Wichita Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In 1912 was solemnized his marriage to Miss Eulah Sawyer, of Galena, Kansas.