Edward Thompson Humes
Edward Thompson Humes was born March 7, 1872, on a farm in Brown Township, Delaware County, Ohio. He is the son of Isaac N. Humes and Mary (Overturfj Humes. The father was born in Ohio County, West Virginia, and the mother was born in Delaware County, Ohio. The subject of this sketch was educated in the public schools of Delaware County and the National Business College of Logansport, Indiana. He began the study of law with Messrs. Overturf and Coyner in Delaware and was graduated at the Law School of Cincinnati, Ohio, completing his course with the class of 1898. He was admitted to the Bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio on the eleventh day of June, 1898, and immediately opened an office in Delaware, Ohio, and began the practice of his profession, achieving a gratifying success.
He was nominated for the office of prosecuting attorney of Delaware County in the summer of 1900, and was duly elected in November of the same year, assuming the duties of the office on the sixth day of January, 1901. He was re-elected to the same office in November, 1903, and retired on the seventb of January, 1907, having completed his two terms, which is the limit allotted to that office by a time-honored custom and tradition in this county. During the time of Mr. Hume's incumbency of office, two noted cases were commenced by him, which involved the constitutionality of the Valentine Anti-trust Law and the County Road Improvement Act, which suits both terminated in the Supreme Court of Ohio. The first was a case in which Mr. Humes had a number of the coal dealers in Delaware indicted for a violation of the Valentine Anti-trust Law. They were fined by the Common Pleas Court and they had their cases taken to the Circuit Court, which court held the act to be unconstitutional. A test case was then made and it was taken to the Supreme Court of Ohio, which court sustained the law and that case has become one of the leading authorities in the United States in sustaining the anti-trust acts. The other case involved the constitutionality of the County Road Improvement Act. This case was brought in the Common Pleas Court and taken to the Supreme Court of Ohio, which court also held this act not to be within the inhibition of the Constitution of the State of Ohio.
Immediately upon his retirement from his office of prosecuting attorney. Mr. Humes again opened an office in Delaware and is now actively engaged in the practice of his chosen profession. Fraternally Mr. Humes is affiliated with the B. P. O. E., No. 76, Delaware. He was married October 12. 1898, to Miss Oro Belle Perfect, of Delaware, Ohio, and he is a member of the Presbyterian Church of this city.
From 20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Edited and compiled by James R. Lytle, Delaware, Ohio, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908