Hoke, William Alexander, 1851-1925

William Alexander Hoke, lawyer, legislator, and chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, of Lincolnton, Lincoln County, N.C., was the son of John Franklin Hoke (1821-1888) and Catherine Wilson Alexander Hoke (d. 1857), brother of Nancy Childs Hoke (1856-1893) and Sallie Badger Hoke (d. 1914), husband of Mary McBee Hoke (d. 1920), and father of Mary Hoke Slaughter.

William Alexander Hoke, lawyer, legislator and chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, was born 25 October 1851 in Lincolnton, N.C. His father, John Franklin Hoke (1821-1888), fought in the Mexican-American War, served as adjutant general of North Carolina by appointment of Governor John Ellis in 1861, and later, as a colonel, commanded the Thirteenth and, subsequently, Twenty-third North Carolina regiments of the Confederate Army. William Alexander Hoke's mother was Catherine Wilson Alexander Hoke (d. 1857), and he had two sisters, Nancy Childs Hoke (1856-1893) and Sallie Badger Hoke (d. 1914).

Educated at the Lincolnton Male Academy, Hoke later studied law under North Carolina Chief Justice Richmond M. Pearson and was admitted to the bar on 25 October 1872. After practicing law for eight years in Shelby, N.C., he returned to Lincolnton and joined his father in a law partnership, which lasted until John Franklin Hoke's death in 1888. A lifelong Democrat, Alex Hoke, as he was known, represented Lincoln County in the state legislature in 1889 and was elected a state Superior Court judge the following year. He remained a trial judge until 1904 when he was elected an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Reelected in 1912 and 1920, he was appointed chief justice on 2 June 1924, succeeding Walter Clark upon his death. Hoke was elected chief justice in November 1924, but resigned on 16 March 1925 because of poor health. He held the status of an emergency judge until his death on 13 September 1925.

The judicial opinions of Justice Hoke appear in 53 volumes of the Supreme Court Reports (#137-#189 inclusive) and deal with a wide range of subjects. In particular, several Supreme Court decisions prepared by Hoke show his mastery of the law of real property. In Hicks v. Manufacturing Co. (138 N.C), Hoke wrote the decision that settled questions of assumption of risk and contributory negligence as affected by the negligence of a master or employer. He also wrote significant decisions concerning other matters of civil law, such as contracts, wills, conveyances, notes, and various suits in equity.

A friend of Zebulon B. Vance, North Carolina governor and United States senator, Hoke took great pride in his work chairing the commission to provide a statue of Vance for Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. He received honorary doctor of law degrees from the University of North Carolina and Davidson College and was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati.

On 16 December 1897, Hoke married Mary (Mamie) McBee of Lincolnton, who died in 1920. Their only child, Mary, survived both parents and later married Edward Slaughter of Charlottesville, Va.

(Adapted from the biographical note by Walser H. Allen Jr., in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Volume III, 1988.)