In 1883, holding a degree from the University of Michigan Law Department, William T. Valentine returned to his home town of Winona and practiced there until the late 1890s when, suddenly, he closed his office and went prospecting in Alaska, but without luck. He relocated to Long Prairie in Todd County and ran for a seat on the district court in 1904, again without success. Returning to Winona, he reestablished his law practice, and served as an assistant city attorney, a municipal court judge and a federal bankruptcy referee from mid-1917 to January 23, 1919, when he died at age sixty-nine. In April of the following year, the Winona County Bar Association delivered a memorial to him in district court.

View Article