Draft:N. D. Wernette

N. D. Wernette (May 5, 1885 – 19__) was a justice of the Idaho Supreme Court from 1933 to 1934. He received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1907.

"N. D. Wernette, who since 1907 has engaged in the practice of law in Coeur d'Alene, while for six years he filled the office of prosecuting attorney of Kootenai county, was born at Remus, Michigan, May 5, 1885, a son of Jacob and Katherine (Boltz) Wernette, the former a native of Canada, while the latter was born near Metz, Germany, and came to the United States with her parents in 1847. The Wernette family had gone to Canada from the Metz district. In his native land Jacob Wernette worked as a farm hand in early life. In young manhood, however, he crossed the border to New York, where he resided for sixteen years, and then went to Michigan, where he followed both cabinet making and farming. He was a very early settler of the state, his original home being forty-six miles from a railroad, a fact indicative of the unsettled condition of Michigan at that time. As the years passed he became recognized as a prominent and influential resident of that state.

N. D. Wernette pursued his education in the schools of his native town and in the Ferris Institute at Big Rapids, Michigan. He afterward attended the University of Michigan, in which he completed his course in 1907, thus preparing for the bar. He had been reared in the usual manner of the farm bred boy and assisted in the work of the fields until he entered the State University in preparation for a professional career. Following his graduation he came to Coeur d'Alene with Roy L. Black, who is now attorney general of Idaho and with whom he was associated until 1919, since which time he has been a partner of C. H. Potts. He has always continued in the general practice of law, handling all kinds of cases. He was from 1909 until 1915 prosecuting attorney of Kootenai county and made an excellent record in that connection. His business affairs aside from his profession have to do with extensive mining interests in the Coeur d'Alene country.

In 1909 Mr. Wernette was married to Miss Ossalinda Blanchard, a daughter of Joseph Blanchard, a French Canadian, who became one of the pioneers of Idaho and was very prominent in connection with early affairs in Coeur d'Alene county. To Mr. and Mrs. Wernette have been born six children: Francis, Bernice, Blanche, Margaret, Florence and Thomas, the last nạmed being born on the 28th of August, 1919.

Mr: Wernette has always been keenly interested in public affairs and aside from his service as prosecuting attorney has been a member of the city council of Coeur d'Alene and he cooperates most heartily in all plans and measures for the general good, assisting in every possible way in the upbuilding and development of the community. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and he is one of its recognized leaders in the state, having been chairman of the state central committee from 1916 until 1918. He was secretary of the Kootenai County Council of Defense, was a member of the legal advisory board and of the selective service board for the district, which comprises all four of the northern counties. He spoke throughout this district in behalf of all of the drives during the period of the war and did everything in his power to advance the interests of the country."

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