James Kent Hamilton was the thirteenth Lucas County prosecutor. His family originated in
Massachusetts and he claimed to have been descended from ancestors who came to America on the
Mayflower. Born in Erie County, Ohio, of a well-to-do merchant and his wife, Hamilton was a graduate
of Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio, from which he graduated with both a B.A. and M.A. He studied law
and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1862. Immediately after being admitted to practice in Ohio, he
enrolled in the Union Army, where he served with great distinction until the end of the Civil War.
His bravery was tested frequently as he fought, among others, in the famed Battle of Chickamauga,
Cumberland (under General Steedman of Toledo), and General William Sherman's March from Atlanta to
the Sea. When the war ended, Hamilton returned to Toledo where he became a distinguished member of
the bar and a public servant of great distinction. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney in 1867 and
served four years.
Following his tenure as Prosecuting Attorney, Hamilton continued in public service. He became the
City Solicitor and then Mayor of Toledo for two terms. He served on the Toledo Board of Education
for many years, several of which as President of the Charter Commission which drew up a Charter for
the City of Toledo in 1913. Finally, he was a candidate for Congressman for the Ninth Congressional
District.
It has been said of Hamilton:
For forty years he maintained a position of distinction at the Lucas
County bar...his careful and comprehensive analysis, combined with
his intimate knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence, made him
a most forceful figure in the courts. [Killits, Toledo and Lucas County,
vol. 2, p. 272].
As an individual, Hamilton was greatly liked and admired for the following reasons:
It is doubtful if any man in public life in Toledo had so few enemies. The
reason for this was found in his kind-hearted, sympathetic nature, his
open and frank sincerity and the fact that his motives of conduct in public
and in private were alike above suspicion. [Id. at 273].
After exceptionally long and distinguished life, Hamilton died in 1918 at the age of seventy-nine.
A veteran of the Civil War, he lived through the first World War and the dawn of the twentieth-century
industrial era. He was one of Lucas County's most prominent Prosecutors.
