Excerpt of the book "Writer and Engraver's Picture of Graham County's Progress Since Its Organization" (1906)

John S. Dawson, L. L. B.

(pages 16-17)

We here present a half tone of a Graham county lawyer who at present is "making good' as Assistant Attorney General of Kansas.

John S. Dawson was born at Grantown, Scotland, in 1869. He was educated at Knockands High School and Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen. He emigrated to Illinois, and later to Kansas, settling in this county in 1888. He took a hom[e]stead in Gettysburg township and taught a district school for several years. In 1894, he was elected Principal of the Hill City school; and, in 1897, was chosen Principal of the WaKeeney High School. In 1898, Mr. Dawson was admitted to the bar, having been tutored therefore by Henry J. Harwi, Esquire, the leader of the bar in this part of Kansas for a quarter of a century.

Returning to the principalship of the Hill City Schools in the autumn of 1898, Mr. Dawson resigned at Christmas that year to accept a Clerkship in the State Treasury at Topeka, for the purpose of further qualifying himself for the profession of law. He attended evening law lectures for three years, conducted under the auspices of the Topeka Young Men's Christian Association. Later he attended lectures at Washburn College Law School and received the degree of Bachelor of Laws from that institution.

In 1903, Mr. Dawson was appointed Chief Clerk in the office of the Attorney General; later he served as Second Assistant; and, in June, 1905, was appointed Special Assistant Attorney General, which position he still occupies. Mr. Dawson is recognized as a thoroughly competent and conscientious official. He gives the state the same loyalty and zeal that a true lawyer gives to his private clients. Perhaps his best work has been accomplished in the last year when he successfully carried through a series of suits involving over one hundred thousand dollars belonging to the Kansas School Fund being invested in a multitude of small amounts in municipal bonds of the counties and school districts of southwest Kansas and Oklahoma during the boom, and which the people of Kansas have for many years considered practically worthless. By sagacity, tact and tireless industry, both in litigation and by judicious compromises, the great sum has been rescued and adjusted where its safety is assured.

Aside from his official duties, Mr. Dawson has a very satisfactory private law practice. He is also an author and public lecturer of more than local note, and his services are continually in demand at lyceums and at high school and college commencements. He has recently delivered a course of lectures on Roman Law at Washburn College. His lectures, "Aaron Burr," "Court and Camp of Napoleon," and "Under the Dome,"--the last a political lecture,--have both added to his reputation and put money in his purse.