48 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



of LL. D. by the Kansas Agricultural College. He was chairman 

 of the Kansas State Dairy Commission in 1907-08 and was also 

 chairman of the State Entomological Commission 1909-14. He 

 was elected an honorary life member of the Kansas State Horti- 

 cultural Society, the Kansas State Historical Society and the 

 Kansas State Editorial Association. Mr. Coburn was tentatively 

 oflfered the presidency of the Kansas, Hlinois and Oklahoma 

 Agricultural Colleges. 



Political honors were not uncommon. He refused the nomi- 

 nation as candidate for governor from the Republican Party in 

 1898 at the Kansas City meeting of the State Editorial Associa- 

 tion, but polled some eighty-odd votes at the state convention 

 despite his refusal. He was appointed by Governor E. W. Hoch 

 to fill the senatorial vacancy caused by the resignation of J. R. 

 Burton in 1906, but declined to leave his agricultural post. He 

 was considered by two different presidents for the national secre- 

 taryship of agriculture, but blocked local booms tending to aid, 

 him in such an undertaking. In 1908-09-10 he was a member of 

 the joint Kansas-Oklahoma committee to investigate the Kansas 

 penitentiary, being appointed by Governor Hoch and reap- 

 pointed by Governor Stubbs. On Nov. 8, 1916, he was 

 appointed by Gov. Capper a trustee of the "Industrial and Edu- 

 cational Institute of Topeka" (colored), and one week later was 

 made its president. Four times he was unanimously elected presi- 

 dent of the Kansas State Temperance Union, and on declining 

 reelection was made its treasurer. He was chairman of its execu- 

 tive committee for ten years. In 1917 he was appointed by 

 President Wilson a member of one of the two Exemption Appeal 

 Boards for Kansas, and served as chairman until his resignation. 



