My Genealogy Hound

JUDGE WILLIAM R. LEARN, one of the most popular citizens of Kearney, Nebr., was born in New York State, December 19, 1853, and is a son of William R. and Charlotte (Green) Learn, the former a native of Wales, who came to America when young and here met and married Miss Green, but was not spared long to aid and comfort her, nor even to behold the face of her offspring, as he died a few months before the subject of this sketch was born. Subsequently, however, Mrs. Learn found a protector in the person of H. Z. Hayner, who in 1851 was chief justice of the supreme court of Minnesota.

William R. Learn, the subject proper of this sketch, received a preparatory education at Yonkers, N. Y., and at the early age of fourteen entered the law office of E. Delafield Smith, ex-United States district attorney and corporation counsel for New York City, with whom he began the study of law, but afterward read with R. W. Hawkesworth, of 115 and 117 Broadway, in the same city, and later studied further with W. Q. Judge, also of New York City. After being admitted to the bar he began practice on his own account in the New York World building, and was so employed when that noble structure succumbed to the ravages of fire. In 1881 the aspiring and now well qualified young attorney came to Kearney, Buffalo county, Nebr., yet did not at once enter on the practice of his profession, but took a more prudent course and engaged as clerk in the store of G. Kramer, preferring an appreciable and certain income for a time, rather than depending on the somewhat precarious fees of a newly-come attorney. He afterwards engaged in the insurance business, but the office of constable having become vacant, he accepted that position, under appointment, and filled out the unexpired term, his knowledge of the law being of no mean assistance to him in the performance of the duties pertaining to the office. At the expiration of the term he was elected to the office, so great was the satisfaction he had given in carrying out its functions under appointment. Following the expiration of his duties in this position, he was advanced a step in political life by his admiring constituents, and in November, 1887, was elected justice of the peace, the county stepping-stone to higher official preference. April 1, 1888, he was elected police judge of the city of Kearney, and in the fall of 1889 was re-elected justice of the peace, and in April, 1890, was elected police judge, this fact showing that his executive abilities have been fully recognized. He is, in reality, a conservative executor of the law, and his thorough knowledge of the statutes is his guide in making his almost infallible decisions. His intuitive knowledge of human nature also comes to his aid and enables him to discriminate between the hardened criminal and the novice in transgression of the law. To the former he deals out the full penalty due as an expiation of his offense, while to the latter his leniency is extended, with a hope that a redemption to virtue may be made of the incipient culprit, and that he may in the hereafter become a good and worthy citizen.

The matrimonial union of the judge took place April 18, 1884. Two children have blessed this marriage and are named William R. and Eugene George. The Judge is a member of the A. O. U. W., of the K. of P., and also of the Modern Woodmen’s fraternity.