John K. Richards
United States federal judge (1856-1909)
John Kelvey Richards (March 15, 1856 – March 1, 1909) was the 20th Attorney General of Ohio, the 10th Solicitor General of the United States and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and of the United States Circuit Courts for the Sixth Circuit.
Education and career
Born on March 15, 1856, in Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio, Richards was the son of Samuel and Sarah (Kelvey) Richards. Having received his early education in the schools of his native town, Richards received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1875 from Swarthmore College, an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1877 from Harvard University and read law in 1879, in the office of Judge William Wartenbee Johnson, later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio. He was a prosecutor for Lawrence County from 1880 to 1882. He was city solicitor for Ironton from 1885 to 1889. He was a member of the Ohio Senate from 1890 to 1892, serving as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He was the 20th Attorney General of Ohio from 1892 to 1896, his term running currently with that of Governor of Ohio William McKinley. He was a member of the Commission to Codify Insurance Laws of Ohio from 1895 to 1896. He was counsel for the Commission on Taxation of the Ohio General Assembly in 1896. He was general counsel for the Ohio State Board of Medical Registration and Examination from 1896 to 1898.
The public source identifies “John K. Richards” as united States federal judge (1856-1909). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Richards and United.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1700671. VIAF identifies the subject as 75989181. The Library of Congress control number is no2002078507. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1856, 1909, 1875 and 1877.
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This entry incorporates text from “John K. Richards” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.