USA > West Virginia > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of West Virginia. Including reference articles on the industrial resources of the state, etc., etc. > Part 25
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
of the Thirty-sixth Virginia Regiment of in- fantry, having been promoted from the ranks, he served throughout the war until June, 1864, when he was captured and held prisoner of war on Johnson's Island, Ohio. Mr. Duffy makes his home at Webster Court-House, and is engaged in commercial pursuits when not engrossed by his official duties. His office is a very impor- tant one, and with the greatest diligence he protects the rights and claims of the State. To use a figurative expression, the Auditor or Comptroller of the State is "the watch-dog of the treasury." He must not only look after the dues accruing to the State, but also guard against fraudulent claims. He has also large discretionary powers in settling delinquent taxes and other arrears due the State, and in the disposal of lands returned to his office on account of delinquent taxes the most scrupu- lous care is to be exercised that no undue hard- ship fall upon the unfortunate citizens who find themselves debtors to the State, yet are helpless to extricate themselves and must needs abide by the sheriff's execution. As to those receiv- ing moneys from the State, the Code says: "Every person claiming to receive money from the treasury of the State shall apply to the Auditor for a warrant for the same." The Audi- tor then examines the claim, and if found satis- factory issues his warrant on the Treasurer of the State, who shall "indorse his check upon said warrant," provided "the same has been drawn in pursuance of an appropriation made by law, but not otherwise." The Auditor is a member of the Board of Public Works and of the School Fund Board, of which he is Secretary, the fund being a permanent investment of inter- est-bearing bonds for the benefit of free public schools. The general school fund is also in the Auditor's hands on deposit with the Treasurer, and he distributes it among the sheriffs, who pay it to the teachers. The Board of Public Works levy the taxes upon the railroads of the State and the Auditor collects them directly. Mr. Duffy has been particularly successful as a col- lector of revenues. He has also been scrupu- lously careful about the portion of taxes due the schools, which is distributed with unfailing reg- ularity and promptitude. When he first came into office in March, 1885, he found in the treas- ury only $164,524.30 for distribution to the
schools that year; and a large portion of the tax levy was still in the hands of the sheriffs uncol- lected, or at least not paid into the treasury. He changed the plan of collection, and on every payment made separated the State and school funds-no matter how small the amount. On the 10th of June of the next year, 1886, he had in the treasury to the credit of the General School Fund for distribution the sum of $367,- 724.96, more than $200,000 increase over the amount of the fund in the preceding year. During the year from the Ioth of June, 1885, to the Ioth of June, 1886, there had been collected for this fund from levies due prior to the year 1885, $149,243.76. In 1887 Mr. Duffy had col- lected of old accounts due and of the levies that year, together with the interest on the per- manent school fund, the sum of $402,396.87, which he duly apportioned and distributed. In 1888 he collected and distributed $390, 564.88; in 1889, $313,928.52; in 1890, $314,600. 10; in 1891, $374,019.71. To keep the accounts of such an ex- tensive financial system as the Auditor is obliged to maintain requires some seven clerks, who are constantly engaged, being the largest force in any department of the State Government. The number of books, as well as the number of clerks, is constantly increasing with the growth and development of the State. The Insurance Department is also under the Auditor's control, and this important branch of the fiduciary man- agement is in the hands of M. H. Dyer, who ex- amines every company, both life and fire, seeking to do business in the State or incorporated by the State. The assets, financial standing, and business credentials generally have to be satis- factory, or the Auditor withholds his license, as a protection to the public. The Auditor is the highest-salaried official of the State next to the Governor, and it is a well-known fact that the position imposes continued thought and care upon the incumbent who attends to its duties unsparingly. Every collector of State revenue, including the clerks of the Circuit Courts and the sheriffs and other county officials, must report all dues, fines, penalties, and other public moneys to the Auditor; failing to do which the Code pro- vides: " If any sheriff or collector fail to pay as required by the last section, the Auditor may pro- ceed against him for the collection of the amount due, as provided in the thirty-fifth chapter of
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
the Code." Every official failing to pay as re- quired "shall be charged with the interest on the amount in arrears from the time it ought to have been paid into the treasury, at the rate of twelve per cent per annum." Mr. Duffy's cred- itable record as Auditor, which is universally conceded throughout the State, may be said to result from the diligence and persistency with which he has followed up the sources of rev- enue; never flagging in his pursuit of delin- quents, and never sparing himself labor and pains in the conduct and management of the details and routine of his department. His ad- ministration will always stand as an example of faithful and efficient public service ren- dered to his State and to his fellow-citizens. It goes without saying that to his Chief Clerk, W. A. Cracroft, and associates of the depart- ment, is largely due the highly satisfactory condition of the State's business under Gov- ernor Fleming's administration and of the Treas- urer's resources for meeting the ends of the State Government at this writing, which are in a most flourishing condition and indicative of a prosperous future. Both in official and com- mercial life Mr. Duffy is conspicuous for his integrity and his entire devotion to his duties. Genial and warm-hearted, with a characteristic quiet vein of humor, he is vastly popular. De- votedly attached to his friends, he receives from them affectionate appreciation of his many and sterling qualities. In 1870 Mr. Duffy married Miss Margaret Duffy, daughter of Owen and Ann Duffy, of Nicholas County, W. Va., who died in 1877 without issue. In her loss Mr. Duffy sustained a deep affliction, and it is need- less to add that this devotion was mutual.
ALFRED CALDWELL.
HON. ALFRED CALDWELL, a well-known lawyer and for four terms Mayor of Wheeling, later United States Consul to Honolulu, be- longed to one of the oldest families in the Ohio Valley. The first settlement in the beautiful country about Wheeling Creek was made by James Caldwell, the elder, in 1772. By virtue of two land patents he took possession of eight hundred acres of land. His native energy was
evident, for in five years we find him Justice of the County Court. He had a numerous family, all of whom seemed to have inherited his energy and success. One of them, John, was present at Fort Henry at the time of the massacre, but escaped to practise for many years his profes- sion of surveyor. Another, Joseph, bore arms for his country in 1812, and afterward for many years directed the fortunes of the Wheeling Exchange Bank, dying in 1864 at the advanced age of eighty-four. Yet another, Alexander, was the first Judge of the United States Circuit Court for Western Virginia. Of his daugh- ters, Jane Relfe married Dr. Linn, of Missouri ; the other was Elizabeth Williamson. James Caldwell, the younger, is the one with whom we are chiefly concerned, for he was the father of Alfred Caldwell, the subject of our sketch. He was a man of conspicuous energy. While yet young he removed to St. Clairsville, Ohio, and there soon amassed a fortune in business. In 1825 Ohio sent him to represent her in Con- gress. He had seven children, viz. : Elizabeth, who married Stephen Caldwell, of Philadelphia; Theresa, who married John H. Langhorne, of Marysville, Ky .; Joseph Caldwell, Jr .; James Caldwell, Jr., of Zanesville, Ohio; Samuel Caldwell, now practising medicine in Illinois; Ann Caldwell, who married Dr. Chaloner, of Philadelphia; and Alfred Caldwell, the elder, of whom we write. Alfred Caldwell was born at St. Clairsville, Ohio, on June 4, 1817. He was educated at Washington College, graduating thence in 1836. He then entered the Law De- partment at Harvard, and when he departed two years later his diploma bore the honored names of Simon Greenleaf, Josiah Quincy, then in the zenith of his fame, who, born a child of the Revolution, lived long enough to denounce the War of Secession, and Joseph Story, whose fame, like his learning and his eloquence, sim- ple, massive, and splendid, no time can deny. Ushered into professional and public life by three such names, and gifted with no common endowments of character and ability, he soon took a leading position at the bar. His gifts and powers were of a practical order, and with a lavish hand he devoted them to local services and to the State at large. The public was not slow to recognize the value of his labors, and in the year 1850 he was elected Mayor of Wheel-
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ing, and re-elected the following year. In 1856 he was again elected Mayor, and no one ever filled that high office with more honor to him- self or a larger benefit to the community. It was at this period that circumstances called forth the most conspicuous example of his fearless independence of character and his possession of that judicial calmness and impartiality needed in great crises. Strong underlying principles and agencies were then at work gathering head, until a few years later their explosion shook the continent. The Republican party was at that time born into public life there. A mob, headed by Bolivar Ward, burst in upon the first meeting of the party and with violence dispersed it. Justly indignant, the Mayor had the manli- ness to face popular clamor. He threw the ægis of his character and his office over the persecuted party, and proclaimed aloud the primal and inalienable rights of liberty of thought and freedom of discussion. It was no slight matter at that time and in that place to maintain that the Republican party had stand- ing-place within the boundaries of the Constitu- tion. This, however, he did, and when elected to the State Senate that year as a Free-Soiler he stood true to his principles, and was long the only Virginian of note who opposed the principles of secession. His deeply rooted conviction was proof against remonstrance and even against the social ostracism which threatened him and his. The public sense, however, of his worth and integrity survived these differences, and in 1860 he attended, as Chairman of the Virginian delegation, that famous Convention in Chicago which in the face of the rising tempest placed Abraham Lincoln at the helm. Shortly after the election of Lincoln, Mr. Caldwell was offered and accepted the post of United States Consul at Honolulu, the capital of the Sand- wich Islands. There he resided for six years- years of peace and happiness, in those far-off Southern climes, where the loneliness of exile was tempered by a sense of duty and cheered by the presence of his wife and of his children, three of whom were born in Honolulu. After six years of faithful service he returned to his native country, and settled down again at Wheeling, but in the following spring, on May 3, 1868, he died, sincerely mourned by citizens of every party and by every member of that
profession of which he had been so long an honored member. He was married August 16, 1839, to Martha, daughter of George Baird, then of Wheeling, later of Washington, Pa., and by this union had the following children : George B. Caldwell; Annie, wife of Judge George E. Boyd, of Wheeling; Jennie W., widow of Lieut. Thomas T. Dougherty, of the United States Navy, now residing at Paris; Alfred Caldwell; Harry Caldwell, of St. Paul, Minn., engaged in real estate; Catharine W., wife of Frank W. Farrar, now residing in St. Paul, Minn .; Elinor B., in Paris; Martha T., of Washington, Pa. His first wife died in 1859, and on August 16, 1860, Mr. Caldwell married Alice Wheat, of Wheeling. To them were born five children, viz. : Joseph Caldwell, of Chicago; Fannie W., wife of F. B. Hempstone, of Washington City; James Caldwell, of St. Paul; Alice B., wife of George B. Atkinson, of Washington City; and Maud, of Corning, Iowa.
GEORGE B. CALDWELL.
HON. GEORGE B. CALDWELL, a well- known lawyer and public man of Wheeling (son of the foregoing), was born August 1, 1840. He was educated, as his father had been, at Washington College, and graduating thence in 1859, immediately embraced the profession of the law. But stirring times were at hand, and the first shock of war found him a private in the United States army, and he so served for fourteen months, first in the Twelfth Pennsyl- vania Infantry for three months, then in the One Hundredth Pennsylvania, known as the “ Round- heads." He became Second Lieutenant in the Twelfth West Virginia Infantry (receiving his commission from Governor Pierpont), and sub- sequently First Lieutenant and Adjutant. He served under good soldiers-Milroy, Crooks, Hunter, Sheridan, Butler, and Grant-to the close of the war. He took part in the expe- dition to South Carolina and in the battles and campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley, in front of Richmond, Hunter's raid, and many minor engagements, and was brevetted by the Presi- dent Captain, Major, and Lieutenant-Colonel for gallant and meritorious conduct, especially
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
at the desperate battle of Piedmont, where his horse was so badly disabled by a shell that it was killed immediately by shooting in the head, to relieve it of useless suffering. Referring to this engagement the Wheeling Intelligencer of June 20, 1864, in an editorial said :
" George B. Caldwell, of this city, Adjutant of the Twelfth Regiment, had his horse shot under him at the battle of Piedmont by a shell. With his usual good fortune the little Adjutant escaped. We are indebted to him for the list of the killed and wounded of the Eleventh Regiment which we publish this morning. He pays a glorious tribute to our brave boys- especially to Corporal Joseph S. Holstead, who won the admiration of friends and foes by his matchless valor, and who fell dead with the colors in his hand on the enemy's parapets."
Like thousands of other brave men in both hosts, when war's alarms were over Mr. Cald- well returned to the practice of his profession and pursued it with the same ardor as he had fought for honors on the battle-field. An enthu- siastic Republican, influential with his party, and having been for many years Assistant United States District Attorney for West Vir- ginia, Mr. Caldwell was nominated in 1880 for Attorney-General, but his party's entire ticket was defeated. Again, in 1888, he was nomi- nated for Judge of the First Judicial Circuit. He was elected member of the City Council of Wheeling in 1885 and re-elected in 1887, and was City Solicitor for two years, 1887-88. Mr. Caldwell belongs to Holiday Post, G. A. R. On June 28, 1866, Mr. Caldwell married Miss Sue M. Smith; he has had five children, three of whom survive, viz., Perry M., one of the first six in the graduating class of Yale, 1889; Martha and Sue. Previous to her marriage Mrs. Cald- well was the heroine of an adventure which had well-nigh ended disastrously. Like others of her sex, her sympathies were strong and ardent, and danger added the touch of romance that alone was wanting. Watching his opportunity, a half-brother of hers, in command of a Con- federate iron-clad ram on the James River, about thirty miles from Richmond, would man a boat with five or six soldiers, and under cover of the darkness take a boat-load of tobacco to a rendezvous where Miss Smith was in waiting. This tobacco was to be exchanged for gray cloth for uniforms or other requisites for the South-
ern armies. Many times successful, the ruse was at last betrayed by negroes, and in the con- flict which followed the officer and one man only were left living. General B. F. Butler was then in command. He ordered the arrest of Miss Smith and her trial. She was confined in the Hygeia Hotel for some time. Happily circumstances and the tact and resources of Hon. Joseph Segar, her counsel, afterward United States Senator for Virginia, saved her. The soldiers who seized the boat had confiscated its cargo, but instead of turning it over to the quartermaster's department, had themselves with their comrades enjoyed the contraband. This Mr. Segar learned. He at once sought them out, and by judicious manipulation and a vivid picture of the consequences of their in- fraction of the military code, secured their ab- sence from the trial. Miss Smith was released on parole to await permission to leave Accomac County. But the orders never came, nor did she wait them long. She is the wife now of a veteran of the Northern army, her half-brother is now an Episcopalian divine, and all is peace. Colonel Caldwell, despite his protracted army experience, is well preserved in health, and may be said to be in his physical and mental prime. He is below medium height, but of well- knit, symmetrical figure. A vigorous and logi- cal speaker, he is specially potent on the plat- form of public assemblies and political meetings, and enjoys the friendship and esteem of his fellow-citizens irrespective of party politics.
ALFRED CALDWELL, JR.
HON. ALFRED CALDWELL, JR., ex- Attorney-General of West Virginia, brother of the foregoing, and forming with him the firm of Caldwell & Caldwell, counsellors at law, was born July 14, 1847, at Wheeling. His educa- tion was diversified and of the highest order. Attending first at Professor Harding's Academy and at West Liberty, he accompanied his father to Honolulu and there entered at Oahu College. In 1864 he returned home and entered Yale, where he graduated as Bachelor of Philosophy in 1867. He then returned to Wheeling and began the study of law under his distinguished
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father, who had just returned from Honolulu. In the following spring, however, the hand of death removed the gifted father. The son then pursued his studies, passed his examination be- fore the Supreme Court, was admitted to the bar in 1868, soon after reaching his majority, and speedily attained to high distinction as an advocate in all the higher courts. Mr. Caldwell has been eminently successful both in his pro- fession and as a public official. He served as Clerk of the First Branch of the City Council of Wheeling from 1869 to 1875, when he re- signed and was elected to the State Senate for two years. He was elected member of the Sec- ond Branch of the Council 1879-80 and City Solicitor for two years, 1881-82. He became a member of the First Branch of the Council for two years, 1884-86. In 1884 he was elected Attorney-General of West Virginia, a position he has filled with conspicuous ability and with so much saisfaction that in 1888 he was re- elected. In personal appearance Mr. Caldwell is of medium height and rotund figure, and looks young for one of his age and experi- ence. He is a brilliant and graceful speaker, and is recognized as one of the popular leaders in the Democratic party of his State. On Sep- tember 14, 1871, Mr. Caldwell was married to Miss Laura E., daughter of William S. and Priscilla J. Goshorn, of Wheeling, and eight chil- dren have been born to them. Their names are: William G., Jane G., Laura B., Helen B., Martha B., Mary, Alfred, and Isabel G. Like his brother, George B., Mr. Caldwell is promi- nent in society, and joins with his estimable wife in the hospitalities and entertainments of Wheeling's noted people.
THOMAS BROWN.
THOMAS BROWN, a prominent lawyer and representative citizen of Kingwood and Preston County, son of James and Rachel Brown, was born on Christmas, 1802. He received the ad- vantages of a classical education, attending the classical school at Morgantown taught by the celebrated Rev. Dr. Ashbel Fairchild, and was said to be the best Latin scholar in the county at that time. Upon leaving school he turned
his attention to the study of the law, reading with his brother, William G. Brown, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1824. He soon built up an extensive practice at home, and practised besides in the courts of Barbour, Tucker, and Randolph. Mr. Brown was a prom- inent man in Preston, and was always alive to and deeply interested in every enterprise for the advancement of his county. He was one of the original incorporators of the great Northwestern Turnpike. He married Miss Ellen S., daughter of Alexander Smith, of Fort Pendleton. He died November 13, 1867, leav- ing nine children: Linnie S., wife of Judge Dille; Delia J., wife of W. P. Totten, Esq., of Oakland, Md .; James A., an attorney of the Kingwood bar; General George W., now a resi- dent of Grafton and a quartermaster-general during the Rebellion; Thomas P. R., prose- cuting attorney at Phillipi; John Hoye, for a long time engaged in the mercantile business in Kingwood; Lieutenant R. M. G., now in com- mand of the United States steamer Alarm on the coasts of Europe; Charles Edgar, an attor- ney-at-law in the city of Cincinnati; and Mary E., wife of Joseph Moreland, Esq., a lawyer of Morgantown. Mr. Brown bore the reputation of being one of the best and safest chancery lawyers of his day. Politically he was a Democrat of the Andrew Jackson school. In religious belief he was a Presbyterian, and was an exemplary elder in that church. The en- graving accompanying this sketch does not do justice to Mr. Brown's personal appearance, the original from which it was made being taken when he was in very ill health. His familiar face was long missed at the bar, of which he was a leading and one of the oldest members. He was no office-holder, never aspiring to or holding an office during his life. Mr. Brown sank to rest after seeing his well-loved county attain a front rank in the new State of West Virginia by the development and consumma- tion of many enterprises, in every one of which he had taken a deep interest from its origin to completion. To the foregoing from the "History of Preston County" should be added, as a matter of record, that following Mr. Brown's death the bar of Kingwood and Morgantown and Judge Dille's court held a special meeting, in which Judge R. L. Berkshire
Thos Brown
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read a series of resolutions, prefaced with an address extolling the high character and pro- fessional accomplishments of the deceased law- yer. The resolutions were concurred in by Judge Dille and ordered to be inscribed upon the minutes of the court.
JAMES A. BROWN.
HON. JAMES ALEXANDER BROWN, a prominent lawyer and representative citizen of Kingwood, who was a member of the first Wheeling Convention and for several years filled the office of Prosecuting Attorney of Pres- ton County, was born on the 11th day of June, 1837, and has always resided on the lot on which his present residence now stands. He was bred a lawyer, his father, Thomas Brown, having been one of the ablest and most successful chancery lawyers of his day (see preceding sketch). Mr. Brown was graduated from Wash- ington College, of Washington, Pa., and took a course at the University of Virginia. He studied law under the tutelage of his father and the Hon. John A. Dille, at one time Judge of this judicial circuit, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. About the time of his admission to the bar and at the beginning of his promi- nence in life, the clouds of sectional dissension were gathering which finally burst forth into the greatest internecine conflict of the world's history. He made many speeches for the Union, against secession, for the abolition of slavery, and for the embryo State and its pro- posed Constitution. He was numbered among the intrepid Union leaders who so notoriously encountered the able and well-girded chieftains of secession in Preston County during the stir- ring scenes and excitements of 1861. As a member of the now historic convention held at Wheeling on the 13th day of May, 1861, he took a prominent and leading part. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney for Preston County, to fill a vacancy, and served from 1861 to 1864, and held the same office by appointment in 1875-76. Mr. Brown was never considered sound on the slavery question by some of his friends who favored the "divine institution." Having boarded at the same hotel and associated much
with Samuel McFarland, a distinguished aboli- tionist, who was afterward his party's candidate for Vice-President on the ticket with Gerrit Smith, he early imbibed his views and was hos- tile to slavery from the day, as a college boy, he shook hands with the author of the Wilmot Proviso. Yet during the dark days of recon- struction, as it was termed, Mr. Brown was a Liberal, believing that the friends of the Union cause should be more generous toward their erring brethren than was indicated by the pro- nounced policy of his party, which was then in power. In 1880 he received the nomination for Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit by acclama- tion. In the canvass he proved much stronger than his party and came near being elected. Mr. Brown, as his friends have always claimed, was treated unfairly by the managers of his party in 1888, when he was not allowed to be a candidate before the convention which made the nomination for Circuit Judge. Having fought the battle of 1880 for his party, when it was weak, his friends claimed that he should have had the nomination by acclamation in 1888 when his party was in the ascendency. In 1890 he was a candidate for the nomination for Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, and as such stood next to the nominee of the Martinsburg Convention. Mr. Brown, never to the neglect of his professional duties, but for health and recreation, finds time to operate a large farm he owns near his native town. He seems to have a passion for agricultural pursuits, enjoys indi- vidual labor on his farm, and knows how to make farming pay. Mr. Brown was married on the 5th day of November, 1868, to Miss Elizabeth A. Hanna, of Frederick City, Md., who died at Kingwood, W. Va., on December 20, 1881. His married life was a most happy one. He has been a regular communicant of the M. E. Church for many years and is liberal toward all denominations. As a man, both from a moral and a business point of view, neither Mr. Brown nor his friends fear the fiercest light that can be turned upon his record. As a lawyer, his active practice of more than thirty years has given him a position at the bar and a well- known prominence in his profession not usually attained by the well-directed industry of an ordinary lifetime. The foregoing sketch of Mr. Brown, taken from the Kingwood Press of May
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