FACES OF THE CENTURY--SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE: GEORGE D. ABEL--PEOPLE WHO MADE NEWS IN THE 1900S

	There have been thousands of news stories that have appeared in The Vidette over the past 100 years. So, as we celebrate the year 2000, we have decided to run a weekly feature on influential people of Montesano and Grays Harbor County who made a name for themselves during the past 100 years.

	This week's feature is on one of Montesano's most loved Superior Court Judges and citizens, George D. Abel.

	George Douglas Abel was born on March 8, 1869 in Fernhurst Sussex, England. When he was a toddler, his parents came to the United States, making their home at Turkey Creek, Kan. After two years in the United States, the family returned to England, but in 1884 they came back to the U.S., moving to Salina, Kan., where he attended Salina Normal University, graduating from its scientific course in 1889. He then started to study in a law office in Salina and started practicing law in Lincoln Center, Kan., in 1891.

	When the Spanish-American War broke out, Abel volunteered and was commissioned first lieutenant in the 22nd Kansas infantry and was later promoted to captain.

	Abel's political experience in Lincoln County, Kan. was a remarkable example of the confidence people had in him. While with his regiment in Virginia the democrats of Lincoln County nominated him for prosecuting attorney, the nomination being endorsed by the republicans, and he was elected before he returned from army service. Two years later he was re-elected. In 1902 he was slated for the nomination by the democrats for congress, but the convention fused with the populists and the nomination was given to a man from the latter party. Mr. Abel later joined the legal department of the Union Pacific railway and served as trial attorney for some time for that company.

	Mr. Abel's first marriage was to Jennie Belle Smith of Lincoln, Kan. The couple had six children. In 1913 he married Alice E.Kelly of Wellington, Kan.

	Mr. Abel moved west to Hoquiam in 1911. After four years of practicing law in Grays Harbor County, he was appointed by the late Governor Ernest Lister as judge of the superior court here in succession to the late Judge Mason Irwin. He served as judge here for 14 years, retiring in 1928 in order to reenter private practice in Montesano, in which he continued until his death. He moved to Montesano in 1917. His older brother William H. Abel was noted as one of the outstanding lawyers of the Northwest.

	Among the most prominent cases to be heard in Judge Abel's courtroom was the prosecution of the I.W.W. case following the killing of several Legionnaires on Armistice Day in 1919 in Centralia.

	Mr. Abel took great pride in the fact that he was invariably and without solitary exception been on hand to open court on time and that no litigant or attorney has ever been put to any inconvenience or delay by reason of illness or absence of the presiding judge. Recognizing that no part of the country can compare with Grays Harbor as to its climate, he had never took a vacation.

	Judge Abel was a leader in the democratic party and was the one accountable for keeping the party alive and organized. He was a member of the Shrine, Masons, the Kels and Knights of Pythias Lodges. He was also a member of the Spanish War Veterans and the Montesano Chamber of Commerce.

	All of Montesano and Grays Harbor County was shocked to learn that Judge George Abel died in his sleep on Thanksgiving Night, Nov. 25, 1937. He was 68 years old.

	His funeral services were held at the Presbyterian Church in Montesano. The church was crowded with friends, members of the bench and bar, not only from Montesano and Grays Harbor County, but also from all parts of western Washington.

	A Vidette editorial on Dec. 2, 1937 had this to say about Judge Abel:	`

	We last saw Judge Abel in a peculiarly typical moment. He had a private joke he wanted to share with some one, but only the glint in his eyes belied his serious expression. Then came that suggestion of a smile, and we went our way, chuckling and feeling better.

	When you live close to a man, it is things like that you remember. In the small actions of life are reflected real character, and from those small things are welded the larger things. We in Montesano, who knew the judge as a neighbor, will miss his kindly humor, his overflowing friendships, his happy spirit. These we will miss even more than we will miss one who honored his profession, who served so long and so well as a jurist, whose counsels carried weight in politics, who, so often, found himself chosen to lead.

	The confidence people had in him was a spontaneous confidence. He did not seek it, yet he earned it. Once he was elected to office while he was not even in the county which elected him.  He was re-elected to that office as the nominee of all parties in the field. So long as he remained on the bench here, there was never any question of his re-election.

	So alive was he that none realized the end was near. When he laid down his torch, he could do so with satisfaction. He had served his nations, in war and in peace, with unselfish devotion. He had reared a splendid family who, in their turn, are serving well. He had made many friends and had held them in lasting affection. One envies, as one mourns, such a man.--The Vidette, January 20, 2000