James  A. Emmert

          Honorable James A. Emmert was elected judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit of Indiana at the age of thirty-three.  It was an unusual honor for a man of his years, but one fitly bestowed upon a record as a very thorough and painstaking lawyer, and the confidence of the people has been fully justified in the administration he had given of the difficult duties of this office.
          Judge Emmert was born at Laurel in Franklin County, Indiana, September 26, 1895.  The Emmert family came from Germany and settled at Wilmington, Delaware, about 1845, and in 1848 moved to Indiana, settling in Dearborn County.  Judge Emmert's grandparents were  Jacob and Catherine Emmert.  His father, Clinton B. Emmert, was born in Dearborn County, is a flour miller by occupation and is now located at Clarksburg, Indiana.  He married  Alice Patterson, and their only child is Judge Emmert.
          Judge Emmert attended schools in Indiana, graduating from the Clarksburg High School in 1913, completed his preparatory work in the Tennessee Military Institute in 1915, and then entered Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois.  He received his A. B. degree in 1920, and in 1923 was graduated from the Harvard Law School, with the LL. B. degree.
          In the meantime he had been with the colors during the World war.  He enlisted and in June, 1917, was assigned to the United States Base Hospital No. 12, and went overseas, his unit being attached to the British Expeditionary Forces.  He was in service in France twenty-two months, receiving his honorable discharge in April, 1919.
          Judge Emmert after graduating from law school at Harvard located at Shelbyville, in September, 1923.  Official honors came to him very early, and in 1925 he was elected mayor of Shelbyville, holding that office three years.  In 1928 he was elected judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit. Judge Emmert is a Republican, a member of the Shelby County and Indiana State Bar Associations.  He belongs to the American Legion, is a Royal Arch and Council degree Mason and a member of the Improved Order of Red Men. He married Miss Bernice L. Foster, of Knox County, Indiana, June 1, 1929.
Indiana One Hundred and Fifty Years of American Development,  vol. 3, by Charles Roll, A.M., The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming

Shelbyville News article, August 8, 2008, Ron Hamilton, columnist

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