USA > West Virginia > Tucker County > History of Tucker County, West Virginia, from the earliest explorations and settlements to the present time; > Part 14
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The convention now began to be called a clique or ring. The Pioneer opposed every man put in nomination ; and, among the conventionals, the want of a newspaper began to be felt. It was this occasion that called the Tucker Dem- ocrut into existence. On August 12, 1880, it arrived in St. George, having been removed from Taylor County, West Virginia, where it had been in existence a year under the name of the New Era, owned by Messrs. J. P. Scott and M. J. Bartlett. The press on which it was printed was thought to be the oldest in the State, having first been used in Charleston. Soon after the arrival of the press at St.
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HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
George, Scott sold his interest to Lloyd Hansford and L. S. Auvil. The paper supported the convention and the nomi- nees, and was supposed by its supporters to be Democratic. The contention between the two papers, and the two fac- tions, grew more determined each day. Never in the history of the county had a campaign been fought with such ani- mosity. A. B. Parsons was the nominee for the office of Prosecuting Attorney, and P. Lipscomb was the Independ- ent. William E. Talbott was the nominee for sheriff, opposed by A. C. Minear, Independent. The hardest fight was for these offices, but the contest for the others was bitter in the extreme.
The Democrat labored under disadvantages. Its outfit of machinery and material was defective and incomplete, and it found much difficulty in its press work. However, it kept steadily at work for a cause that was plainly losing ground. The Pioneer, under the editorial management of C. L. Bowman, grew in circulation and influence. Its sub- scribers at this time amounted to over seven hundred, while that of the Democrat was considerably less than half that number.
As the election drew near, the excitement rose to fever heat, and there was scarcely a voter in the county who did not feel a personal interest in the contest. Everybody seemed waiting and anxious for the final struggle, which, as they said, must decide whether the convention or the voters were to be umpire in Tucker County. We are to judge the justness of the issues by the result; for, in a republican country, as long as it remains a republic, the majority must rule.
The election came at last ; and the result was an over- whelming victory for the Independents, the party of the
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Pioneer. That paper, in its succeeding issue, carried its exultation with a great manifestation of triumph, and dis- played in its columns cuts and representations of the vic- tors and the vanquished. There were a number of cuts, but the following reproduction of one of them will give an idea of their character :
Our Eagle Carries off
THE RING!
The following poem was written for the occasion by some wag, and found its way into the columns of the Pioneer. It represents, in an allegorical manner, the campaign and the defeat of the modern Hohenlinden : 13
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HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY
BATTLE OF ST. GEORGE.
Eroritur clamorque virum clangorque tubarum.
In Tucker when the sun was low, Beside Mill Run's chub-breeding flow. There was a rather ghostly show, A show of dire immensity.
For, candidates from near and far Had gathered on the gravel-bar ; Their faces were as black as tar With hate and animosity.
With muttering rage they seemed to choke, And wildly shrieked "amoke ! amoke !* As fierce the storm with fury broke Upon the vast menagerie.
Soon they began to whoop and tear, And grab each other by the hair And dash them on the ground and swear In blood-emblazoned revelry.
On high above the battle plain The gravel stones flew up amain As thick as fell the iron rain Upon the hills of Gettysburg.
Then Bowman t looking from his den. Beheld the awful mess of men,
And wished that he had never been A Tucker County editor.
He gazed about the field of gore Like Neptune gazed the ocean o'er : He fainted on the office floor Like Neptune's nephew, Mulciber.
More horrid still the battle grew, They manled each other black and blue And tore the very sky in two With yells and screams and bellowings.
Some groveled on the gory ground Amid the thumping thump and pound, And some went spinning round and round Like crippled flies and whirligigs.
* A Kaffir word meaning " kill."
+ C. L. Bowman, editor of the Ploneer.
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And some, the little ones they say, Got kicked in that fantastic fray Up nearly to the Milky Way, And twice as high as Jupiter.
And some, the bigger ones 'tis said, Got whacked and cracked across the head
With broken rails and slugs of lead Until they wailed most balefully.
The middle-sized, the story runs, Went whizzing like the powder tuns At Shipka Pass, when gattling guns Belched forth their nitro-glycerine.
Yet, deeper grew the dreadful war, And woe betide the gravel-bar !
It looked like Conkling while Lemar Was handling him at Washington.
'Twas dug and heaved in mighty piles. Like Borneo's volcanic isles.
They heard the rumpus many miles, They say 'twas heard in Beverly.
But, when the evening sun was down No candidate was left to frown
In Tucker County's only town ; They'all had perished manfully.
Their blood was hot and they were brave ; They fought their pickled pork to save ; They fought for office or their grave And perished on the gravel-bar.
Then people came with faces blank And hauled them like a load of plank And dumped them o'er the river bank While Bowman sang their obsequies.
The election was not a surprise; but, it set heavily upon the defeated candidates. The people throughout the county seemed to feel relief that it was past. The Pioneer came out with a "patent side," and the Democrat sus- pended publication, and got out a paper only once in sev- eral weeks, until February 14, 1881, when William M. Cay-
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HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
ton arrived to take charge of it. It was now owned princi- pally by a stock company, and was in a deplorable condi- tion. Its circulation was very limited, and its press and type insufficient.
W. M. Cayton was born in Upshur County, West Vir- ginia, 1862 ; moved when very young to Parkersburg, and thence to Cincinnati, where he remained eight years. He then returned to Harrison County, West Virginia, and re- mained there four years, part of the time in the office of the Clarksbuag News. February 14, 1881, he came to St. George, and has since edited the Democrat, and has built up the financial condition of the paper to some extent. The Democrat has passed through many vicissitudes of for- tune. It came to supply a need that was not extensively felt, and for that reason its support has not been as exten- sive and uniform as its proprietors could wish. At times, too, its editorial management has not been excellent, for, at times, it was not paying property, and a good editor would not stick to it. In politics it claims to uphold the principles of Democracy; but, its extreme views, and its uncompro- mising opposition to all who differ from it, have had a ten- dency to build up the Republican party in the county, and its work in that direction, though unintentional on its part, has been greater than it has to build up the cause of the Democrats.
The party which it represented, the conventionals, car- ried the election of 1882, and the victory had a tendency to build up the cause of the Democrat, and placed it on a firmer footing than it ever was before.
The Pioneer has passed through no such vicissitudes. Since its first issue it has gone steadily forward, or, at least, has never retrograded. Its financial success has not been
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immense ; but, it has always been able to keep in the field without the aid of a stock company-except, at the very first, when it received some support from individuals, all of which was paid back as borrowed money. The paper's in- fluence in the county has been permanent. It is independ- ent in politics, and has aimed principally to build up the county, socially and financially.
In February, 1884, it was bought by Hu Maxwell, Cyrus H. Maxwell and Jeff Lipscomb. Within a few weeks Lips- comb sold his interest to the other members of the firm. In politics it still represented no party to the exclusion of others.
The benefit that Tucker County has gained from the two papers has been considerable. Nearly every family in the county reads either one or the other of them, and the influ- ence for good must be felt. There is room for the papers to extend their influence, and they surely will within the course of a few more years. They should be co-partners with the schools and churches in guarding and advancing the public good.
CHAPTER XII. THE ST. GEORGE BAR.
ALTHOUGH we have no forensic eloquence to rival Henry and Cicero, yet our county has its legal ability, and as such it is not afraid or ashamed to place it before the State as a competitor in the courts against the lawyers from any part of West Virginia. Our little Court-house has been the scene of contention, argument and debate, in which not only our own lawyers, but those from other counties, have met at the bar, and fought for justice, or parleyed over legal technicalities. It is not more than is due these gentlemen that they be given a place in history, to which their pro- fession and labors in the cause of right so undoubtedly and so justly entitle them.
WILLIAM EWIN.
Hon. William Ewin, of Irish nativity, has, for nearly forty years, been a lawyer, practicing in Tucker since its organization, and living here for more than ten years before. His ability as a lawyer has long been recognized, not only in his own county, but in neighboring counties, and, in a measure, throughout the State. His education and general intelligence have made him prominent in his profession, and he has ever been among the first to investi- gate new subjects and to acquaint himself with them. At the bar, he would not condescend to unmanly abuse or resort to chicanery to gain an advantage over a rival. If he could not succeed by fair, honest and honorable means, he preferred failure. An honest defeat, with him, was bet-
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ter than a dishonest victory. Opponents in arguement and debate were treated with all the respect of colleagues. In this was one of the secrets of his success as a lawyer. It was known that what he said was uninfluenced by prejudice or partisanism, and he was taken at his word.
That his legal ability was known and appreciated by the people of his county is attested by the confidence which they have ever placed in him. They have bestowed upon him various offices of trust, feeling fully assured that no scheme of gain or no party preference could infinence him from the field of honor and duty. Confidence placed in him was by him regarded sacred ; and, in all the official acts of his life there is not one instance where he departed or de- viated from the course marked out by his sense of honor.
If every bar in the State and country could feel the influ- ence of one or more such men as Senator Ewin, the legal profession would soon enjoy an elevation above that which is consequent upon a scramble and contention for gain, no matter by what means it is to be reached ; there would be one more step gained in the general cause of advancement, which is marking the present era in our history and has marked the eras of the past ; which is separating dignity and honor from infamy and fraud, and lifting this noble profession, the noblest, perhaps, of the world, above that baseness to which the tendency of the age has, at times, seemed disposed to lower it.
RUFUS MAXWELL.
In the earliest years of Tucker County, Rufus Maxwell was one of the most active members of the bar. He had practiced at Weston, in Lewis County, before that time, and had there quite an extensive business. When he came
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to Tucker, it was a part of Randolph, the separation not yet having taken place. He was with those who worked for the new county, and when at length, on March 6, 1856, the Act of the Legislature creating the county was passed, he was material in assisting to organize the functions of gov- ernment and justice for the new county. Owing to some imperfections in the Act, this was a difficult task, and it re- quired much labor from those who had undertaken it and who had it to do.
Mr. Maxwell was the first Prosecuting Attorney of Tucker County, having been elected in 1856. He held the office four years, and, in the election of 1860, was re-elected over Thomas Rummell, who was at that time a well-known law- yer of our county. In 1861, the war came on, and the affairs of our county were in a bad fix. We were often under neither Federal nor Confederate government ; but each claimed jurisdiction over us, and the result was that at times we were under rule little better than anarchic. Officers had no power to execute the functions of their offices ; and, rather than hold a trust over which they had not jurisdiction, many of our county officers resigned, and let things take their course, as they would anyhow. Among those who thus retired was Rufus Maxwell. He retired not only from the office of Prosecuting Attorney, but also from the profession of the law. It had grown distasteful to him, and from that time he had nothing more to do with it.
A. B. PARSONS.
Hon. A. B. Parsons stands before the people principally as a land and criminal lawyer, although in chancery practice his business is extensive. He is most successful before a jury. He has studied well the modes of presenting an ar- gument in the most forcible manner, and in this he has
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hardly an equal and no superiors in this or the neighboring counties.
In his early life he was a farmer and school teacher ; but, in 1870, in his twenty-sixth year, he commenced reading law, and was admitted to the bar at St. George in 1872. In 1876 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney and served four years, having succeeded Hon. William Ewin in the office. In 1880 he was instrumental in the organization of the Democratic party in Tucker County. In 1882 he was elected from Tucker and Randolph to the Legislature, by sixty-eight majority over three Democrats and a prominent Republican. The several offices which he has held have not, in a great measure, kept him from his legal profession, although he has filled such offices with honor and ability. Scarcely a case comes before the Court in which he is not a counsel · for one side or the other. His practice extends throughi the courts from the bench of the Justice to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.
In the cause of the State against Heath, a well-known ease, Mr. Parsons was counsel for the defendant, and gained the suit, which was taken from Tucker to Taylor County. His first case commenced before a Justice and was decided in the Circuit Court. In the Supreme Court his practice has been extensive. His practice extends to the Circuit Courts in several of the counties of West Virginia."
LLOYD HANSFORD.
As a lawyer Mr. Hansford has only a short record, hay- ing so recently entered the profession. But, in his qualifi- cations he starts none behind his competitors and col- leagues at the bar. A scholar of finished education, he be-
* See Brief Biographies.
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HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
gins with fewer disadvantages than many whose educations are more limited. He is the only graduate in Tucker County from the State Normal School, and was our first graduate from any State school. He graduated in 1879, in his twenty-second year.
In 1880 he went to Clarksburg and studied law under Caleb Boggess. After six months he returned to Tucker, but still continued the study of law, and at regular times returned to Clarksburg to recite to Boggess. On the first of January, 1884, he received license to practice law, having been examined by Judges Boyd, Jacobs and Fleming .*
L. S. AUVIL.
As a lawyer, L. S. Auvil is only a few months the senior of Lloyd Hansford, having obtained his license to practice, in May, 1883, after two years study of the law. He' was examined before Judges Ice, Boyd and Jacobs. He was in his twenty-ninth year when he obtained license to practice. He had, before that time, served several years as County Superintendent of Tucker. Since he entered the profession of law, he has been successful in every particular, and has been counsel in several important cases. He was at one time editor of the Tucker County Democrat, which paper he sold to William Cayton, and turned his attention wholly to the law. +
W. B. MAXWELL.
On August 31, 1874, W. B. Maxwell received license to practice law, having been examined before Judges C. S. Lewis, John Brannon and J. S. Huffman. He had been studying law three years, and had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the forms and technicalities of the law be-
* For a further sketch of Mr. Hansford see " Brief Biographies."
+ See "Brief Biographies."
PH
W. B. MAXWELL.
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fore he presumed to enter into the profession. He had spent several years attending school at Morgantown, Weston and Clarksburg, and, at that time, was regarded as the most finely educated man in the county.
Having gained an important case before Justice William Talbott, at the first of his professional life-it was his very first case-he established or won a reputation at once as a lawyer of ability. His practice soon became considerable ; and he followed up his first success with a series of others, so that, ere long, he had gained for himself a permanent practice.
He has never particularly studied to become a criminal lawyer. It is not to him the most desirable branch of the profession ; although, in numerous cases which have been entrusted to him he has proven himself possessed of the characteristics that go to make up a criminal lawyer of the first class.
The main set of his inclination is toward civil cases ; and in this his superior, considering his age, perhaps, cannot be found in West Virginia.
To understand and bring into practice the principles of the common law seem natural to him. He has made him- self the master of Blackstone, Kent, Tucker, Minor, Jones, and other lawyers who have penetrated unexplored fields.
As a speaker he stands pre-eminent. None of his col- leagues surpass him in this. With a clear voice and a dis- tinet articulation, he speaks with a natural earnestness and force that surpasses all that artificial culture could do. The juries whom he addresses forget the man in the subject, and hear not the words so much as the meaning that is in them. He never appeals to passion or depends upon mo- mentary excitement for success. He relies upon sober rea-
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HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
son to decide for him. If, in the course of an address, he finds that his jury have been placed under the influence of furor or undue enthusiasm, it is his first study to lead them back again to a normal mood, then to appeal to their natural reason and understanding.
No lawyer of Tucker County has, or ever has had, a more extensive practice than he. His business is large and is fast increasing in the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State. In chancery practice he is eminently successful, and at such business he has no peer at this bar. The suits of the large land-holders are placed in his hands, and the party who can secure his services considers himself fortu- nate. He has never allowed politics to interfere with his profession, although his political ability is scarcely second to his ability in the law. At the age of thirty, he finds him- self not only at the head of the legal profession of his county, but also well established in neighboring counties, and recognized throughout the State.
P. LIPSCOMB.
The present Prosecuting Attorney of Tucker County has built for himself a business and worked himself into a practice that speaks plainly of his success in the law. He is a self-educated man ; and, by his own exertions he has built his own business. He first filled the office of County Superintendent of schools for Tucker County, and reduced our school system to more order than it was ever in before. During this time he was zealously prosecuting his study of the law, and was making good progress. But, it was even several years before this that he obtained license to practice. He established himself at St. George, and was the only lawyer there. Mr. Ewin resided near the town, but not in it. The town, too, was then much smaller than it is now,
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and there was little business done. But, when the term of Circuit Court came, business grew more lively, and the law- yers found more to occupy them.
Lipscomb did not confine his practice to Tucker County, even at the first. He practiced in the Maryland Court, at Oakland, in Garrett County, and had nearly as much bus- iness there as in his own county. His greatest success has ever been in jury practice. He well understands the argu- ments that will persuade and convince, and he knows just to what men each order of argument is most applicable. In his style of speech he is more practical than theatrical. He speaks to the point, and is not so particular as to the words used. He never fails to arrest and hold the attention of a jury.
Of course, a lawyer of this kind will be more or less suc- cessful in criminal practice ; and, a criminal case seldom comes before the court that is not represented on one side or the other by Lipscomb. In the memorable campaign of 1880, he was elected to the office of Prosecuting Attorney, and held the office four years .*
* See "Brief Biographies " for additional matter on the lawyers of Tucker County.
CHAPTER XIII. TRAVELERS.
WITHOUT official records to show that such is the case, it is still safe to say that no county of West Virginia has, in proportion to its population, furnished more emigrants to the western country than Tucker has furnished. The rea- son of this may be two-fold. If the first would argue that our county's resources are not such as invite development, the second will make it plain that our people are possessed with that energy and industry that will search the remotest corners of a continent for the most favorable openings for labor. The hills and valleys of Cheat have furnished scores and hundreds of honest men, who are now building up with the West. There is hardly a state, probably not a state, west of the Ohio River that has not inhabitants from fucker. These and their descendants, if now brought back to this county, would probably double its population four times. Recently at the golden wedding of Abraham Par- sons, Esq., in the Salinas Valley, California, there were present one hundred persons who, or whose parents, were from Tucker. Nearly all of them belonged to the Parsons family, and had left Cheat River within the past twenty years. Yet, this is only an instance that could be equaled by other states.
It is not the plan of these chapters to deal at length with Tucker's people now in distant states ; but, as it is intended to give a history of our people, it seems proper to make mention of those who have taken up their residence else- where. But such mention must be brief, and will be con-
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fined to those only who are particularly remembered here, or to those whose travels and adventures claim especial attention. It is clearly to be seen that, as travelers and adventurers, the principal characters are found in the Mi- near, Parsons, Harper and Bonnifield families. It will likewise be noticed that Tucker County's travelers traveled for the most part over the Western States and California ; but some have been in the West Indies, Mexico, South America and the South Sea Islands, as well as in British America and on the Alaskan coast.
Of the travelers of Tucker, none are more extensively known than Abe Bonnifield. He has been a traveler all his life, although he has never been in foreign countries but once. It is estimated that he has ridden on horseback seventy-five thousand miles. More than enough to take him round the world three times. He was born in 1837, on Horse Shoe Run, and has considered that his home ever sinee. As is well known to all who will be likely to read this book, he was born without legs. He learned self-loco- motion as young as other children ; and when he was quite small, he could run and ride and swim as well as any of the boys of the neighborhood. His early life ran quiet ; and during the winter he attended school, and in the summer trained pet crows to stand on one foot, and harnessed liz- zards and crawfish together to see which could pull the hardest. At school, he led his classes, particularly in math- ematics, in which, like his father, Dr. Arnold Bonnifield, he was very apt.
It is not the purpose to give a lengthy account of his life; since he has been for years engaged upon his autobiogra- phy, and the book will probably be published soon. These chapters have particularly in view the collecting of material
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that seems likely soon to be lost or forgotten ; and, as Mr. Bonnifield will publish all that relates to himself, it appears unnecessary to give a very full account here. He has given the writer access to his manuscripts, and from them the faets here given have been mostly taken.
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