with many intricate legal problems, demanding in their solution a broad knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence and remarkable accuracy in applying to the points at issue the law applicable thereto. For more than a year he was assistant professor of law in the University of Kansas and is a member of the Kansas City Bar Association.

In more specifically social relations Frederick H. Wood is known as a member of the University Club, of the Country Club and the Knife and Fork Club, and good fellowship and congeniality render him popular with many friends.

HON. JOHN W. WOFFORD.

The life record of Hon. John W. Wofford was ended February 25, 1907. For years he had been numbered among the leading residents of Kansas City, and he left the ineffaceable imprint of his individuality upon the profession with which he was connected. In this city he engaged in the practice of law from 1877 to 1892, when he was appointed by Governor Francis to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Henry P. White. For almost fifteen years he presided over this court, and throughout this period his opinions were models of judicial soundness, and won for him high encomiums from the bar and from the general public.

Judge Wofford was of Scotch-Irish descent and was born in Banks county, Georgia, August 14, 1836, his parents being William Benton and Rachel (Dill) Wofford, who were natives of the south. Early generations of the Wofford family resided in Maryland, whence two of three brothers, William and Nathaniel, removed some years preceding the American Revolution. Nathaniel settled in South Carolina, where his son Benjamin founded the well known Wofford College, at Spartanburg in that state, which is a leading educational institution of that portion of the country; and William Wofford, great-grandfather of Judge Wofford, settled in Virginia, where he became prominent as a lawyer and served in the houses of burgesses. In the Revolutionary war he was colonel of a cavalry regiment under Marion. At the close of the war, William Wofford removed to North Carolina, and there his youngest son, Nathaniel, married Lydia, the daughter of a hated Tory, Samuel Hopper. Upon this marriage, strongly opposed by his relatives, the entire family moved to northern Georgia, where William Benton Wofford, son of Nathaniel and father of Judge Wofford, was born.

William Benton Wofford also became prominent in the south, gaining distinguished honors in public life. He served in the Mexican war; was major general of the Georgia State militia; a member of the general assembly; lieutenant governor of the state, and auditor of the first railroad that ran into Atlanta. His influence was far-reaching, and his labors were directly beneficial in promoting the interests of the commonwealth. Much of his time was necessarily spent in Atlanta, but the family home-his birthplace and the birthplace of all of his children-was maintained by his widow until her death in 1893. His death preceded hers some thirty-three years.

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Ten children were born to them, five of whom are yet living. The liv ing are: Benjamin F., ex-member of the Georgia and the Arkansas legislatures, who is now engaged in farming near Hartman in the latter state; Charles, who is also identified with the agricultural interests of that locality; Mrs. Martha Jordan, of Cooksville, Texas; Mrs. James Wofford, also of Texas; and Mrs. Lydia Alexander, of Banks county, Georgia.

Judge Wofford's education was gained altogether in the country schools of Banks county. His father destined him for the medical profession, but, after a course in a medical college at Augusta, Georgia, he became disgusted and refused to pursue his studies further. Thereupon his father appointed him to a responsible official position in the treasurer's office of the railroad company with which he was still connected. Judge Wofford devoted a few years to that service, then removed to Rome, Georgia, where he became proprietor and editor of a newspaper and continued its publication until the beginning of the Civil war.

True to his loved southland, Judge Wofford entered the Confederate army as a private, enlisting with Company B, Phillips' Legion, and in April, 1862, he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant of that company, by the secretary of war of the Confederate States, and given the additional duties of adjutant. He could have been captain and lieutenant colonel but refused to allow his name to be proposed, saying that he would not serve in any capacity other than he held and would resign and reenter the ranks as private rather than command a company or regiment. He was a brave soldierbrave to recklessness his comrades said of him, seemingly oblivious of personal peril. He took an active part in many of the hotly contested engagements of the war, including the battles of Sharpsburg or Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Battle of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and North Anna River. He was thrice wounded: slightly, at Sharpsburg, or Antietam; dangerously, while with General Lee at North Anna River; and, after a stay in the hospital at Richmond, Virginia, returning to his duties, with an unhealed wound; and was painfully injured in a skirmish in Pennsylvania, just before the battle of Gettysburg. He was ever loyal to the cause he espoused. Being superior to the temptations of money, while studying law after the war and eking out his slender means by keeping books at night for a merchant of the town of Cartersville, though offered a judgeship by the republican party if he would abjure his politics and strongly urged thereto by a northern friend, he indignantly refused.

Just prior to his enlistment in the Confederate army, Judge Wofford was married to Miss Cornelia Trescot, of Charleston, South Carolina, a daughter of George and Amelia (Carrère) Trescot. Mrs. Wofford's father, a graduate of West Point and civil engineer by profession, was identified with the marine corps as military engineer-in-chief of the coast of South Carolina. The family home was maintained at Charleston until the bombardment of that city in 1863, by the Federals, when Mrs. Wofford's mother and two sisters, joined her in the mountains of northern Georgia.

Eleven children were born to Judge and Mrs. Wofford. The record is a remarkable one in that all are yet living: Edwin Hampton, of Chicago;

Fanny, Mrs. Frederick J. Lewis, of Philadelphia; Ormond Trescot, George, Wallace, Clarence, John W., Gordon, Amelia, Louisa Carrère; and Nena, Mrs. Larkin M. Tyler, of this city.

After the war Judge Wofford studied law in Cartersville, Georgia, was admitted to the bar and began practice. He also became prominent in political affairs and was elected to the Georgia legislature, serving in both house and senate. In 1872 he was chairman of the judiciary committee in the senate. In 1875 he resigned and in the following year was elected on the Tilden ticket as elector for the state at large.

He removed to Kansas City in 1877, where he became acquainted with Dr. Munford and for many years contributed special articles to the Kansas City Times, of which Dr. Munford was the owner. He was building up, however, a law practice which gradually demanded all of his time and attention, and he continued as an active representative of the bar and the bench until his death. In August, 1892, as has been said, he was appointed by Governor Francis to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Henry P. White. In November of that year he was elected to that office and reelected in 1898 and 1904. His services on the bench thus covered nearly fifteen years and were characterized by the utmost fidelity to duty. His decisions were strictly fair and impartial, being based upon the law and the equity in the case and showed a comprehensive knowledge of the legal principles. He was popular and honored by the legal fraternity, there being no member of the Kansas City bar that was not glad to call him friend. He possessed considerable literary talent; his fluency in writing contributed to the clearness and cogency of his decisions, which are recognized as models of judicial soundness.

In politics Judge Wofford was ever a stalwart democrat and was greatly interested in promoting the principles of the party. On the 28th of May, 1903, he was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, with whom he had long traveled life's journey in a most happy and congenial relation. Less than four years later, after a brief illness, he, too passed away. The family residence which he built at 1012 Vine street, twenty-seven years ago, is still occupied by two daughters and three sons.

GEORGE MAXWELL.

George Maxwell, although one of the more recent arrivals in Kansas City, has become well known as a representative of real-estate and investment business here. He was born in New York, February 18, 1864, a son of James and Matilda (Levy) Maxwell, both of whom were natives of the Empire state, where the mother still resides. The father, however, passed away in 1874. The Maxwell family is of Scotch lineage, descendants of Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland. The founder of the family in America came to the new world when this country was still numbered among the colonial possessions of Great Britain. The mother's people were also a revolutionary family here.