William Wagner was an American lawyer who practiced in WaKeeney, Kansas, as a partner in the firm that later became Deines & Deines. He also served as Trego County Attorney and as WaKeeney City Attorney. Born in 1911, he died in 1986.
Background
William Wagner was born in 1911 into a family whose legal practice was rooted in western Kansas. His father, William Henry Wagner, graduated from the University of Kansas and was sworn in before the Kansas Supreme Court in June 1900. That year he opened his first law office in Russell Springs, in Logan County, where he also served as county attorney.
The father's career later moved north to Trego County. In 1921 he relocated there, and the family's practice became established in the town of WaKeeney. The region's farming and small-town economy shaped the kinds of legal work the family handled, including property, estate, and county government matters.
Education
Wagner completed his legal education at the law school of Washburn College in Topeka, graduating in 1934. The institution is today Washburn University. It began in 1865 as Lincoln College, chartered by the State of Kansas and the General Association of Congregational Ministers and Churches in Kansas, and was renamed Washburn College in 1868 after a donation from Ichabod Washburn. It did not become a municipal university until 1941.
The law school was founded in 1903 when Washburn College's president asked a prominent Topeka lawyer to lead a committee to form it. The school opened that September under a dean who was a Harvard Law graduate. It joined the Association of American Law Schools in 1905 and moved to the main campus in 1918. Its tradition of public service and its early role in legal education in Kansas made it an important regional institution during Wagner's student years.
Career
Wagner's professional life centered on the law practice his father had founded. After graduating from Washburn in 1934, he began practice with W. H. Wagner, and the two practiced together in WaKeeney for more than two decades. The firm traces its origins to 1900, when the elder Wagner opened an office in Russell Springs, Kansas, and it later carried the name Deines & Deines. The firm describes itself as one of the oldest law practices in western Kansas.
Wagner served as a partner in the firm. He also held public legal posts in the community, serving several times as Trego County Attorney and as WaKeeney City Attorney. The county attorney's office handles prosecutions and legal matters for county government, while the city attorney advises the municipal government. These offices gave him a public legal role alongside the firm's private practice.
The firm's areas of practice included real estate, probate, and oil and gas law, reflecting the economic and legal needs of western Kansas during the mid-twentieth century. Ernest J. Deines, another member of the firm, lived from 1915 to 1988. Wagner died in 1986.
Connections
Wagner married Elene Marie Moden on October 14, 1939. She had been born in 1917 on a family farm northwest of WaKeeney. At the time of their marriage he was a young lawyer who had recently joined his father's law firm, so the marriage and his professional life were closely connected in the same community.
Father:
William Henry Wagner
Founded the family's law practice in Russell Springs, Kansas, in 1900 and later practiced with his son in WaKeeney.
Wife:
Elene Marie Wagner
Born Elene Marie Moden on August 27, 1917, on a family farm northwest of WaKeeney; the couple married on October 14, 1939.
Collegue :
Ernest J. Deines
Fellow member of the WaKeeney law firm Deines & Deines.
References
Martindale-Hubbell
Firm profile of Deines & Deines in WaKeeney that identifies William W. Wagner, Jr. (1911–1986) as a former member of the firm.
Firm History — Deines & Deines
Firm history describing the 1900 founding by W. H. Wagner, his son's start in practice in 1934 after Washburn law school, and the son's service as Trego County Attorney and WaKeeney City Attorney.
