Chief Justice W. A. Hoke
lie was 4i <le.H4‘€‘iidaiif of one of North Caro¬
lina's most <lislin*>iiislM*«l families anil con¬
tinued tlieir recor«l of outstanding service*
to North Carolina. Few men have ever be<»n
held in higher respect tliiin he.
ANEGRO was brought before a
Carolina court charged with a
, capital felony against a white
woman. On the day before court
convened, there was great excite¬
ment in the community where the
crime had been committed. When
court opened, the counsel for the
defendant lodged a motion for a
continuance, upon the ground that
he had not had sufficient time to
summons his witnesses or to pre¬
pare for trial. It was suggested to
the court that unless the case were
tried at that term, a lynching would
probably result. To this intimation
the Judge replied: "If there is to
be any violence, it is better for the
prisoner to be lynched by the mob
than to be mobbed by the court/
The presiding judge was William
Alexander Hoke, and this one inci¬
dent cuts a clear cameo of the man¬
ner of man and character of judge
that he was.
No Carolina county has produced
I more distinguished sons than Lin¬
coln; and Lincoln has produced no
I family more outstanding than that
of Hoke, an eminent name through¬
out that section since pre-revolu¬
tionary days. Judge Hoke came of
distinguished ancestry, was an aris¬
tocrat by birth and by tradition,
and held membership in the Society
of the Cincinnati as the representa¬
tive of his great-grandfather. Lieu¬
tenant William Lee Alexander, of
the Fourth Regiment of the Conti¬
nental Line, who was an original
member of this Society. He num¬
bered among his collateral kins¬
men such outstanding figures as
Col. John Hoke, plaintiff in the case
of Hoke v. Henderson, the greatest
legal landmark in the annals of the
Carolina bench; Michael Hoke.
Democratic nominee for Governor;
Major General Robert F. Hoke, the
most eminent of our Civil War Gen¬
erals. promoted for gallantry upon
the field by President Davis, and
declared by historians to have been
the General selected by Robert E.
Lee as his successor in the event
he should become disabled.
When William Alexander Hoke
was born at Lincolnton in 1851,
Hi/ R. C. LAURENCE
he was born to the legal purple,
for he was descended from a dis¬
tinguished legal ancestry on both
sides of his family tree. His grand¬
father was Colonel John Hoke, and
his father was Colonel John F.
Hoke, both of whom were lawyers
of outstanding ability. His mother
was a granddaughter of Joseph
Wilson, and a daughter of Colonel
William J. Alexander, both of
whom were lawyers of learning and
reputation. In later years the emi¬
nent Charlotte lawyer, Colonel
Hamilton C. Jones, in speaking of
Judge Hoke, truly said: "He would
have had less excuse for not being
a great lawyer than any man of
my acqaintance."
Judge Hoke passed his boyhood
amid the "havoc of war and the
battle's confusion." and he grew to
man's estate amidst the wreck and
ruin of the Reconstruction era. He
was therefore denied the advantage
of a college education, but he re¬
ceived sound academic instruction
at the Lincolnton Male Academy.
Upon his completion of the courses
offered by the Academy, he became
a student at the famous law school
of Chief Justice Richmond M. Pear¬
son at "Richmond Hill." where he
soon evinced his great natural abil¬
ity for the practice of the profes¬
sion which he had selected, and he
was admitted to the bar on his
twenty-first birthday. Notwith¬
standing the lack of a college edu¬
cation. Judge Hoke became a man
of deep scholarship and wide cul¬
ture, and in later years our Uni¬
versity did honor to itself by con¬
ferring upon the great jurist the
honorary degree of Doctor of Laws;
a similar degree being also con¬
ferred upon him by Davidson Col-
lege.
Practiced Law in Shelby
Upon coming to the bar. he first
engaged in the practice at Shelby
where he remained for eight years,
after which he returned to his na¬
tive town of Lincolnton and
formed a partnership with his dis¬
tinguished father, which contin¬
ued until his father’s death in 1888.
As a private practitioner. Judge
Hoke was an excellent trial law¬
yer, a clear, cogent and convincing
debater, and he enjoyed an exten¬
sive and lucrative practice. He
could have held almost any posi¬
tion within the gift of his people,
but he contented himself with but
one extra-judicial position, that of
membership in the legislature of
1889. During this one session he
evinced such high qualities of lead¬
ership and such profound knowl¬
edge of the law, that he took first
rank in that body.
By 1890 he had grown so much
in legal stature and in favor with
the electorate that he was elevat-
to the bench of the Superior Court,
a position he continued to occupy
for more than twenty years. When
he was elected to the bench, the
judges rode the circuit of the en¬
tire state, and therefore the bar of
every county had the opportunity
to form its own estimate of the cali¬
bre and judicial qualities of each of
the Superior Court judges. Judge
Hoke soon acquired a reputation
as a nisi prins judge second to none,
and during the period of which I
write, if asked who was the great¬
est of the western judges, the bar
would have answered Hoke; and
if a similar inquiry had been made
concerning the eastern judges, the
answer would have been George
H. Brown,
Model of Judicial Temperament
Rugged integrity, inflexible hon¬
esty. mastery of the law. love of
justice, and loftiness in ideals,
moulded the figure of this outstand¬
ing judge as the idol of his people,
for he was a model in judicial tem¬
perament. in learning and in char¬
acter. He brought to his court the
dignity of a Mansfield, the learning
of a Blackstonc and the character
of a Hale. He sought not only to ad¬
minister equal and impartial jus¬
tice to all, but he also endeavored
to make the litigants themselves
( Continued on page 18)
