The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-04-15
r.rmer Keokuk Newspaper Reporter
Learns Keokuk News from Iowa
Supreme Court Reports,
Slow But Sure.
HE WRITES JUDGE BANK
has Many Pleasant Reeo'leetions OF
people Here Who Also Remem-
Der Him with Apprecia-
ton and Regard.

former Keokuk newspaper re-
nter has been keeping up on the
po ows Of this city by reading-no;
ho' didn't guess it-by reading the
~ ~, supreme court reports.
ioM" there, is anything slower than
\ 40 iowa supreme court reports. 1t
~ some undiscovered part of snail
70 They are generally thirty
nntbs behind the facts.
in mt that is all George H. Armitage
- for news of Keokuk until recent
u, naN he writes in very interesting
~ .ar 70 Judge Henry Bank.
Finally his mother. in Los Angeles,
sont him copy Of The Gate CITY
and that paper, on which he was a
r rsnorter twenty years ago, brought
hin, I'M to date out of his long sleep.
he Is now a prosperous attorney,
,r;th offices at 424 Rookery building,
Snorane Wash, married, with a
daughter going to school.
Once Prominent Here.
ue was born and reared in keo.
r,, graduated from the Keokuk
h;gb school, studied law In the office
nf General John w. Noble, one time
secretary OF war, admitted to the
Iowa bar. elected justice Of the peace
in Keokuk and served IN that otlice
for a term or two, practiced in the
courts here, and, while studying law
and assisting as a justice of the
neace. working evenings on the OLD
morning Gate City.
He was a lieutenant in the Spanish
American war, with hard service in
the Philippines long after the rest
NJ those soldiers came home, and
made a fine record there. President
roosevelt came within a hairbreadth
Of appointing Armitage to be fed
eral Judge in Manila, but another
fellow got it. Armitage then stopped
On the pacific coast to practice his
profession.
He has many warm friends In Keo-
kuk vet, for he is the kind OF man
who makes and retains friends.
Still Loyal to keokuk.
He wrote the following letter to
Judge Henry Bank, which the latter
has just received:
Nv Dear Judge: received
from my mother in Los Angeles,
Calf. a copy of The Gate City
containing an account of BAN
quet held in your honor, the occa-
sion being your retirement from
the bench after thirty-five years
of service.
| have often thought of you In
the years Of my absence from
Keokuk, and In looking through
the Northwestern Reporter, |
have many times enquired in its
pages to see that you were still
on the bench Of Lee county, and
have taken special interest in
reading the Iowa decisions that
were appeals from your dispost
ton of cases.
One time | noticed that Judge
w. S. Hamilton was referred to
in a case as the Lee county
Judge, and l thought you must
have either retired yourself or
had been displaced by him; but
! found on further reading that
such was not the fact, but that
Lee county had two judges.
1t turns the round of time
back more than score Of years
to read the account of this ban
quet and note the names OF many
lawyers who were among my &C
quaintances John E. Craig,
Louis Mcnamara. Hazen ]. Saw
yer, w. G. Blood, w. B. Collins,
James Burrows, A. Holdings
worth, B. A. Dolan, William Tim
herman, James H. Anderson, F.
T. Hughes, Palmer Trimble, A.
l.. Parsons, Theodore Craig, w.
c. Howell and I. N. Tichenor.
! had no idea that so many OF
the lawyers who were there
when was in Keokuk are still
there. and / am glad to know
that / would not be altogether
like Rip Van Wrinkle II should
happen back at my old home
place.
| have been in the practice
here in Spokane ten years, and
! have no cause to complain ~
how those years have used me.
| have been married eight years
and have a little girl, aged six,
just starting to school.
will always feel deep ap-
probation of your kindness to
me in many ways. II you nave
occasion, please remember me
TO the lawyers / have named,
also Charles J. Smith and DIR.
Barr.
With sincere regards,
GEO. II. ARMITAGE.