James Stanley Emery was born in Franklin County, Maine in 1826. Educated at Waterville College, he was admitted to the bar in New York in 1854. He was involved with the New England Emigrant Aid Company, coming to Kansas with the second party of immigrants, and generally in free state activities in Kansas to ensure that it became an anti-slavery state when it entered the Union. Through the following years, he worked in numerous states for the cause. Emery was a member of the Leavenworth constitutional convention and served on the Kansas Legislature in 1862 and 1863. He was a lawyer and worked as a journalist for the New York Daily Times. President Abraham Lincoln appointed Emery U.S. District Attorney for Kansas in 1864. In 1891 he was president of the Kansas State Historical Society. Emery died in Lawrence in 1899.
From the description of James Stanley Emery papers, 1855 - 1899. (Kansas State Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 711794968
