Walter H. Winchester

Judge Winchester was born in Malone, New York, March 21, 1844. He received his early education in the common schools of New York, he also attended the Franklin County Academy from which he graduated in 1866. In 1867 he entered Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he spent two years. In 1870 he went to Davenport, Iowa, where he was employed as a reporter on the daily and weekly "Democrat" for six months. He then accepted the position as principal of the Cordova Academy at Cordova, Illinois, after one year he returned to New York, where he commenced the study of law in his native town, under John I. Gilbert, a well-known attorney of New York. Subsequently he served as principal of the Fort Covington Academy, New York, for three years, at the end of which time he entered the law department of Albany University, graduating in 1873. After his admission to the Bar in 1873, he began practice in his native county and remained there until coming to Bismarck, North Dakota, in 1883. He engaged in the practice of law and was recognized as one of the ablest attorneys of the state, he also served as Burleigh County Superintendent of Schools for six years. In 1889 he was elected Judge of the Sixth Judicial District, where he served until 1912. Judge Winchester died on March 4, 1913.