History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/La Vega G. Kinne
[L. G. Kinne]
LA VEGA G. KINNE is a native of Syracuse, New York, where he was born on the 5th of November, 1846. He graduated at the high school then, taking the law course in the Michigan University, graduated in 1868 and was admitted to the bar at Ottawa, Illinois. In September, 1869, he removed to Iowa, locating at Toledo, in Tama County where he entered upon the practice of his profession. In the summer of 1881 he was nominated for Governor by the Democratic State Convention and made a vigorous canvass of the State but the Republican majority was too large to be overcome. In 1883 he was again nominated by his party for the same position, again meeting with defeat by his former competitor, Governor Buren R. Sherman. At various times he has been the Democratic candidate for United States Senator, District Attorney and Circuit Judge. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1876 and again in 1884. In 1886 he was elected judge of the District Court and reëlected in 1890. In 1891 he was nominated by his party for judge of the Supreme Court and was elected for a full term of six years. Judge Kinne has the distinction of being the first and only Democrat ever elected to that position by the people of Iowa since it became a State. In 1894 Judge Kinne was one of the commissioners from Iowa, upon uniform legislation in the several States. In 1896 he was president of the Iowa Bar Association. For ten years he has been law lecturer at the State University and lecturer before the Iowa College of Law at Des Moines. He is the author of “Kinne’s Pleadings and Practice.” When the State Board of Control was established by act of the General Assembly, Judge Kinne was appointed one of the three members and has served as president of the board.