Judge H.E. Hoover, Panhandle lawyer-banker-farmer for fifty-nine years, died March 21 [1945] after an illness of five months. He was 84 years old.

Born November 16, 1862, at Murfressboro, Tenn., he received his education in various schools and graduated from Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tenn., in 1888. He came to Higgins, Texas, where he stood a preliminary examination before Judge Frank Willis and obtained a temporary license to practice law. That fall he taught school and practiced law at Higgins. He then moved to Lipscomb where he practiced law until 1891, when he moved to Canadian to continue his law practice. He was given the attorneyship of the Southern Kansas Railway Company of Texas, which is now the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway of Texas. He served as its attorney until he resigned on his 80th birthday but remained in an advisory capacity until his death.

Judge Hoover was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Canadian and served as its president until the bank consolidated with the Southwest National. He was a director at the time of his death. Judge Hoover also helped organize the White House Lumber Company in 1898, which now has yards in six Panhandle towns, and he organized the Canadian Light and Power Company, which he aferward sold to the city. Judge Hoover organized the Hemphill County Creamery and had extensive ranch and farm holdings in Hemphill and adjoining counties.

A few years before his death he wrote a book-length verse, "The Lay of the Law," in which he castigated prohibition. Judge Hoover was famous for his public addresses and was in demand over the Southwest for patriotic and pioneer celebrations in the Panhandle.