Frank Earl Gilkison

Frank E. Gilkison was born on November 3, 1877 in Rutherford Township, Martin County, Indiana. He attended a one-room schoolhouse for his early education, while he was required to board for secondary school in Loogootee and Shoals. He entered the Indiana University School of Law in 1899 and graduated in 1901. He was admitted to the bar and he returned to Martin County to set up his law practice. He practiced law for 33 years until he was elected judge of the Forty-Ninth Judicial Circuit (Daviess and Martin counties) in 1934. He was reelected in 1940, and then he was elected to the Indiana Supreme Court on the Republican ticket in 1944. Justice Gilkison was known as an intellectual, having extensively read the classics and the Bible. He was a firm believer personal liberty and inalienable rights. He also place the value of human beings over the rights of property, particularly as it related to children. His dissents in two cases involving the rights of property owners verses the safety of children have subsequently been adopted in to Indiana law. Justice Gilkison served on the Indiana Supreme Court until his tragic and unexpected death on February 25, 1955.https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/notablealumni/1044/thumbnail.jp