James W. Hughes
James W. Hughes was an American politician, veterinarian, lawyer, and newspaperman from Maryland. Born in Washington, D.C., he earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1918 from the United States College of Veterinary Surgeons and a law degree from Washington College of Law in 1928. He began a veterinary practice in Amendale, Maryland, and taught at Washington College’s veterinary school. In 1929 he moved to Elkton, opened a law office, and worked with the University of Maryland extension in Cecil County.
A Republican, Hughes served in the Maryland Senate representing Cecil County from 1943 to 1947. He ran for re-election in 1946 but was defeated by Guy Johnson. Besides politics, he was active in journalism and healthcare, serving as editor and publisher of the Cecil Whig and purchasing the Cecil Whig and The Midland Journal in 1947.
In 1951, Governor Theodore McKeldin appointed him police magistrate, a position he left in 1954 due to ill health. Hughes also served on hospital boards, including the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in Wytheville, Virginia, and as president of the board of Union Hospital, where he helped fund a new building in 1944. He married Gertrude Ruth Tyrrell in 1930 and was an elder of the Seventh Day Adventist Church for 30 years.
Hughes died on November 8, 1955, in Elkton, Maryland, at Union Hospital, at the age of 57, and was buried in Gilpin Manor Cemetery.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 00:02 (CET).