History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 3

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In 1909 Mr. Delbridge wedded Miss Bessie M. Shuttle- worth, a member of one of the oldest and best known families of Harrison County, which has been her home from the time of her birth.

HON. EDWIN MAXWELL. One of West Virginia's most gifted native sons was the late Hon. Edwin Maxwell, who as lawyer, judge and legislator impressed his abilities on the early state government and a wide range of important affairs for a period of half a century. His home for many years was at Clarksburg, a community that cherishes his memory and in which his son Haymond has attained most marked distinction as a lawyer and judge.

Edwin Maxwell was born at Weston, Lewis County, July 16, 1825, son of Levi and Mary (Haymond) Maxwell. His father was a successful farmer of Lewis County. His mother was a daughter of Colonel John Haymond, of West Virginia. Edwin Maxwell was the oldest of four children, the othera being Rufus, John and Mary Jane.

While a youth on his father's farm his associations with nature and practical work gave him lessons invaluable in later yeara. From an early age he showed an independence and initiative that enabled him to rise above circumstances of a very modest education and achieve his own opportunities for greatness. He never had the advantages of a college training, but the love of books and knowledge was innate. With exceptional natural qualifications for the law he began to study under his uncle, Lewis Maxwell, and in 1848, at the age of twenty-three, was admitted to the bar. Five years

later, in 1852, he located at West Union in Doddrige County, and subsequently served that county two terma as prosecut- ing attorney. At the beginning of the Civil war he espoused the Union cause, and in 1863 was elected on the Union ticket to the first State Senate of West Virginia. He was one of the very resourceful and able leaders in that party until after the close of the war. In 1866 Governor Boreman appointed him attorney-general of the state. In the fall of 1866 he was elected judge of the Supreme Court of Appeala, and he was with thia court until December 31, 1872, and in that time many cases of great importance involving the interpretation of the early statutes of the state came before him for decision. In 1880 Judge Maxwell was republican candidate for judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, and in 1884 was candidate of the republican and greenback parties for governor. In that campaign he was referred to as "OLD HONESTY." In 1888 he was elected to the State Senate and in 1892 to the House of Delegates. His last political honor came in 1902, when he was in hia seventy-eighth year. He was elected a member of the House of Delegates, and while at his post of duty at Charleston he contracted pneumonia and died Febru- ary 5, 1903. A period of forty years had intervened from his first service in the Legislature of West Virginia and his last legislative service. He imparted his wisdom in legislative ability to the making of some of the soundest laws of the state. For fifty-four years he ranked as one of the foremost lawyers of the state, and his associates have repeatedly testi- fied to his comprehensive knowledge of the law, and, above all, to the dignity and depth of his character.

In 1872 Edwin Maxwell married Loretta Shuttleworth, who died in 1905. Her father, Colonel John Shuttleworth, was one of the prominent citizens of West Virginia. The two sons of Edwin Maxwell and wife were Edwin Maxwell, Jr., and Haymond Maxwell.

Judge Haymond Maxwell, son of Edwin and Loretta (Shuttleworth) Maxwell, had the prestige of his father as an example, and since completing a liberal education has rapidly achieved honors both in his practice as a lawyer and on the bench. He was born at Clarksburg, October 24, 1879, was educated in the public schools, completed his literary educa- tion in West Virginia University in 1900, and received his law degree from the same source in 1901. He immediately began practice at Clarksburg, and in 1905 was elected on the repub- lican ticket to the House of Delegates. May 7, 1909, eight years after he entered practice, he was appointed judge of the Criminal Court of Harrison County, serving until December 31, 1912. In 1912 he was nominated and elected judge of the Circuit Court for the district comprising Harrison and Lewis counties, and at the close of his first term of eight years he was reelected, in 1920.

Judge Maxwell in 1905 married Miss Carrie Virginia Maxwell, daughter of Porter and Columbia (Post) Maxwell, of Harrison County. Their five children are: Edwin, Hay- mond, Jr., Carrie Virginia, Emily Frances and Porter Wilson Maxwell.

SMITH BLAIR has devoted himself with singular fidelity and efficiency to his duties aa cashier of the Bank of Jacksonburg for over fifteen years. This is one of the prosperous banking institutions of Wetzel County. It was organized in 1903, being opened for business January 1, 1904, under a state charter. This bank has a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars, surplus and profits of fifteen thousand dollars and average deposits of two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. The president is L. E. Lantz. The Board of Directors comprise L. E. Lantz, S. J. Kilcoyne, of Mobley, W. R. McIntyre and S. J. McIntyre, of Alvy, A. L. Chambera, G. B. Meredith and W. T. Price, of Smithfield, A. G. Higgin- botham, of New Martinsville, F. M. Willey and John M. Lowe, of Jacksonburg, and W. B. Lowe, of Coburn.

Smith Blair, the cashier, was born at West Union in Doddridge County October 4, 1882. His father, Jackson V. Blair, is one of the prominent lawyers of long standing at West Union. He was born in Harrison County, West Vir- ginia, in 1853, and as a young man removed to Doddridge County, where he taught school and married. In 1872 he began the study of law at West Union under Judge Stuart, was admitted to the bar, and has practiced with great success for over forty years. He once made the race for Congress

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

against Blackburn B. Dovener as a democrat. He is an active member of the Baptist Church and a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling. He was judge advocate on Governor Fleming's staff. Jackson V. Blair married Miss Ella M. Smith, who was born at Smithton in Doddridge County in 1860. She was the mother of eight children: Julia, wife of P. M. Ireland, an attorney of the West Union bar; Smith; William Eldridge, of Detroit, Michigan; Nan Morgan, wife of George C. Crouse, of West Union, who has charge of the leasing department in West Virginia for the Hope Natural Gas Company; Jackson V., Jr., a revenue officer in the income tax department at Huntington, West Virginia; George Neely, in the bonding department of Le Fever & Company, stock and bond brokers at Akron, Ohio; Francis K., employed by the Portland Atlas Cement Association at Parkersburg; and Marion, a high school student at West Union.

Smith Blair was educated in the public schools of West Union, in Bethel Military Academy at Warrenton, Virginia, and finished his preparatory course in West Virginia Univer- sity at Morgantown. He left Morgantown in 1901, and during 1902 kept up some special studies in the high school at West Union. In the same year he became clerk in a store at Pine Grove, and subsequently entered the Bank of Pine Grove as teller. With several years of banking experience he was chosen cashier of the Bank of Jacksonburg in 1905, and has held that post continuously and almost throughout the existence of the institution.

As a banker he was able to do much work to assist the Government at the time of the war, particularly in the sale of Liberty Bonds. He is a democrat, a member of West Union Lodge No. 56, A. F. and A. M., has attained thirty-two degrees in the Scottish Rite in West Virginia Consistory No. 1 at Wheeling, and is a member of Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling.

At Leesburg, Virginia, in 1908, Mr. Blair married Miss May Caldwell Powell, daughter of William L. and Fannie (Cald- well) Powell, her mother still living at Leesburg. Her father was a farmer there. Mrs. Blair is a graduate of Marshall Seminary of Winchester, Virginia. They have two children: Smith, Jr., born July 3, 1913, and William Powell, born February 14, 1915.

HON. SAMUEL B. MONTGOMERY, of Kingwood, grand keeper of records and seals of the Knights of Pythias of West Virginia, has for years represented the voice and Icadership of liberalism and progressiveism in West Vir- ginia. It is doubtful if there is a better known man in the state, taking all classes of population into consideration.

The experiences of his own life admirably qualified him for the breadth of sympathy and knowledge of humanity which are among his prominent characteristics. A native West Virginian, he was born in Barber County May 15, 1876, and two years later his parents established their home at Independence in Preston County. His people were poor but of very sturdy mountaineer stock. Four generations of the Montgomerys have lived among the hills of West Vir- ginia. The remote ancestor of this family was Rogers de Montgomerie, a Norseman who accompanied the army of William the Conqueror to England in the eleventh century. A subsequent member of the family settled in Ireland and was made an esquire and given a grant of land. Two of Rogers de Montgomerie's descendants arrived at the port of Philadelphia in 1729, one of them settling at Baltimore, and from him sprang the West Virginia branch of the family.

The father of Senator Montgomery was Adam Montgom- ery, who with his brother Michael and cousins John, Samuel and Asberry joined the Seventh West Virginia Infantry at the time of the Civil war. John was captain of Company H, and this company took part in the engagements at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and the Wil- derness and in others of less importance, and they helped make the regiment famous as the Fighting Seventh. At Antietam, Asberry was killed and Adam Montgomery was wounded so badly that he was discharged. The effects of his war service were so severe that he was hardly able to resume the duties and burdens of civilian life afterward,

and he had been a partial invalid for years when he died May 16, 1889, at the age of forty-four. On December 11, 1863, Adam Montgomery married Susan Digman, who was descended from sturdy mountain stock of strong character, and she was a fitting helpmate for such an upright man as her husband. They became the parents of eleven children : John, Sarah, Sophronia, Nancy, Mary, Samuel B., Berta, William, and three that died in infancy.

This brief record of the family indicates some of the cir- cumstances that surrounded the childhood and youth of Samuel B. Montgomery. At Newburg he attended common schools and select schools, but at the age of eleven was earning money selling papers, as delivery boy, and at other forms of common labor. When he was thirteen his father died, and thereafter his responsibilities were increased as the mainstay of his widowed mother and the younger chil- dren of the household. This enforced daily grind deprived him of certain other advantages, but it also developed in him a devotion to duty to the fatherless and the helpless and taught him the principles of loyalty to those who toil, and to this class of citizenship he has been insistent in his sympathy and aid during his mature manhood. He gave up all thought of further education when his father died, and six days of labor in a week was hardly long enough to provide the necessities for his mother's household of younger children. With his older brother he was soon working in the yards of the Newburg Orrel Coal & Coke Company, be- ginning as coke drawer, then as day laborer on tipple, later as boss of a gang of Italians, and also mule driver with the Monongah Coal & Coke Company, now the Consolidation Coal Company. In these occupations he acquired his first impressions of the hardships of the miners for whom he was destined to spend his after life in an effort to improve, and about that time he joined his first labor union, the United Mine Workers of America.

The year following his acceptance into this union he went into the service, in 1896, of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway as a brakeman on the Parkersburg Branch and later on the Cumberland Division. Sickness caused him to leave the railroad service, and his next work was as an at- tendant at the Second Hospital for the Insane at Spencer, where he subsequently became night watchman.

When only twenty years of age he commenced his politi- cal career. He grew up in a republican atmosphere, though his father had been a Union democrat. He cast his first presidential vote for William McKinley, and in 1896 he made his first political speech for Major Mckinley. This speech was delivered at Evansville in his home county, and it made such a good impression that the local manage- ment put him on its program as a speaker throughout the rest of the campaign. In 1898 he supported as a delegate in the Roane County Republican Convention the candidacy of Governor Atkinson for the United States Senate. That fall he campaigned over the county in behalf of Gen. Romeo H. Freer and the rest of the republican ticket. Returning to Preston County in 1899, he located at Tunnelton and was on the republican delegation from the county the next year to the state convention. He spoke in Lewis, Taylor and other counties that fall, and was himself elected to the of- fice of justice of the peace for the Kingwood District. This was his first political office. In 1902 he was elected mayor of Tunnelton, serving during 1903, and was again elected in 1908, having in the meantime been a member of the town council in 1905-06. Mr. Montgomery resigned as justice of the peace in 1903, when President Roosevelt ap- pointed him postmaster of Tunnelton.

In the state campaign of 1904 he was the successful nom- inee of his party for state senator from the Fourteenth District, composed of Tucker, Preston, Mineral, Grant and Hardy counties. Though opposed by the county, state and federal leadership he was elected by a large majority, ex- ceeding that of the national ticket.

As a member of the Senate Mr. Montgomery acquitted himself well, and his efforts helped in the enactment of laws which made the state richer and its government bet- ter. He voted in the Senate for the 2 cent fare law, the eight hour telegraphers' bill, and for the bill submitting the prohibition amendment to the people; was a fearless

Samil B. Montgoway

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

exponent of all reform and labor measures. The well-known Montgomery statutory Attorney Bill, credited to his au- thorship, diverted the fees of foreign corporations from the office of the secretary of state to the state treasurer, sav- ing not less than $20,000 a year to the state. He fathered the Corrupt Practices in Elections Act and fought it to victory over the protests of its opponents. He framed and succeeded in having a bill passed fixing a penalty for tres- passing and cutting timber on lands without the owner's consent, a measure opposed by the railroads and other corporations. Besides supporting the prohibition amend- ment measure he pushed through the Senate, with the aid of the Protestant Ministerial Association, the bill known as the Sunday Closing Act, the most drastic anti-liquor legis- lation yet passed, and he voted for an amendment to the license law prohibiting the shipment of liquor from wet into dry counties. He raised his voice in great earnestness against the guard system around which had grown up the coal police, warning the Senate that a grave error was be- ing committed and that dire results would follow-a pre- diction verified four years later when the miners revolted against the execution of the law, with great consequent loss of life, entailing the establishment of martial law and a heavy expense required before peace was restored. Sena- tor Montgomery aided in the passage of a law against the sale of narcotic drugs, a law to raise the salaries of school teachers, and another bill making it an offense to work minors of both sexes under the age of fourteen years in mines and factories during the free school term. He voted for the state wide primary election law, and was the only republican in the body who cast a ballot for the initiative, referendum and recall. In 1905 and again in 1907 he led the fight in the Senate for a production tax on oil and gas, and was one of two members of his party who appealed to the Senate in those years to submit an amendment to the State Constitution granting the franchise to women. While in the Senate Mr. Montgomery served on the committees of mines and mining, and labor, and was embodied to preside over the Senate during the regular session of 1907 and the special session of 1908.

His record in the Senate was such as to cause him to be singled out by the corporations for defeat in the next cam- paign. Nevertheless he was a delegate to the Republican State Convention and helped write the party platform. In December following President Roosevelt appointed him a special agent in the Department of Commerce and Labor. He resigned to study law and labor problems in the Uni- versity of West Virginia, and began practice at Kingwood. In 1912 he was chosen a delegate at large to the Republican National Convention in Chicago. He had declared himself for Colonel Roosevelt's nomination in 1910, and as the West Virginia member of the Platform Committee with Governor Herbert Hadley of Missouri, George A. Knight of Cali- fornia, and William Draper Lewis of Pennsylvania he con- tested with the reactionaries for control of the committee and attempted to have adopted the progressive program that was subsequently written into the progressive party plat- form. He was elected chairman of the Republican Executive Committee of Preston County that summer, but championed the Roosevelt and progressive party both with tongue and pen throughout the following campaign.

In October, 1912, he was elected permanent chairman of the Citizens' Organization of West Virginia, a body dele- gated with the duty of making a sociological survey in line with a proposal in the House of Delegates following the coal miners' strike on Paint and Cabin Creeks. As chairman Mr. Montgomery went before the people of the state in the election that fall and declared for the abolishment of the mine guard system, for the abolishment of child labor, for a workmen's compensation law, for legislation prohibiting water power monopoly, for a state pension for widowed mothers in destitution, for the initiative, referendum and recall and for the legal right of miners to belong to a union. Proposed amendments to the Constitution providing for the establishment of the minimum wage, the initiative, referendum and recall, and state pension for widows were defeated by a close vote. The legal right of a miner to belong to a union was recognized by the state government,

and a law greatly restricting the granting of water power privileges was enacted.

While engaged in the practice of law at Kingwood, Mr. Montgomery was appointed state commissioner of labor for West Virginia by Governor Henry D. Hatfield, and served through the administration of Governor Cornwall, his term ending February 28, 1921. As labor commissioner he suc- ceeded J. H. Nightingale. Under his department came the inspection of factories and the enforcement of the Child Labor Law, and he was also ex-officio commissioner of weights and measures. During the World war he had addi- tional duties as director of the U. S. Public Service Reserve, which had the mobilization and distribution of labor en- ployed on war contracts. He had the decision in declaring what were essential industries for the successful prosecution of the war, and in conjunction with the War Labor Board the closing down of plants deemed unnecessary in war times. He was frequently called to Washington, and as the representative of West Virginia in Labor Councils was asked to consultations at the White House and the Depart- ment of Labor, and every labor conference called by the President included an invitation to Mr. Montgomery. He also acted as representative of the secretary of war and navy in inspecting all workshops where war contracts were let as to hours of employment and general health of employes. During the war the enforcement of the Federal Child Labor Law was intrusted to the commissioner, and his permits were accepted by the Child Labor Bureau without question.

His range of duties went greatly beyond these formal responsibilities. He took an active part in the speeding up program, and because of his ability as a public speaker and knowledge of labor economics and his influence among the crafts he was one of the men most in demand at Liberty Loan drives and mass meetings to increase production, and in conferences between employer and employe to bring about team work in cooperation. During his four years as com- missioner with special reference to the war period there was not a serious industrial disturbance, and this in no small measure was the result of his taet, diplomacy and stand for a square deal.

In 1920 Mr. Montgomery made the race for governor of West Virginia. He was a candidate in the primaries of the republican party, and later he campaigned independ- ently, his nomination receiving the endorsement of the non- partisan league.

The magnetism of Senator Montgomery's personality is at once apparent. On the speaker's platform he radiates the sincerity of his conviction, and is known throughout the state as a brilliant political and fraternal speaker. His address on West Virginia and its future before the West Virginia Editorial Association, his discourse on the "writ of injunction and the right of free speech" before the State Federation of Labor, and his lecture on "Jolin Wesley" are perhaps the best known among his formal literary and oratorical efforts.

For many years Mr. Montgomery has taken a prominent part in fraternal work. He joined the Knights of Pythias November 26, 1901, as a charter member of MeKinley Lodge at Tunnelton, and began a rapid advancement as an honor man in the order. He reached the summit of Pythian dis- tinction at Elkins when in September, 1910, he was installed as grand chancellor. His splendid efforts in that office were rewarded by his selection as grand keeper of records and seals at the Wheeling meeting on August 18, 1911. When he took over the work of this office in 1911 there were 173 lodges in the state, with a membership of 13,505. In the fall of 1921 West Virginia had 268 lodges, with a total enrollment of 40,000. Mr. Montgomery is a member of Shiraz Temple No. 29, D. O. K. K. As a Pythian orator he is in great demand all over the Supreme Domain. Among his ablest Pythian efforts, which he has been called on to repeat on many occasions, was his Fraternal Memorial address delivered in the Methodist Episcopal Church at Fairmont, West Virginia. Sunday, June 21, 1914, under the auspices of Marion Lodge, Knights of Pythias, he delivered the oratorical address, April 26, 1919, in the State Armory, Charleston, West Virginia, commemorating

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

the 100th anniversary of American Odd Fellowship and the 100th anniversary of Washington Lodge No. 1, I. O. O. F., of Baltimore, Maryland, which was established April 26, 1819, and which was the beginning of American Odd Fellow- ship. He is affiliated with Kingwood Lodge No. 107, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Woodmen of the World, Invincible Council No. 147, Junior Order United American Mechanics at Tunnelton, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks No. 308, Grafton, West Virginia, and is a member of Kanawha Lodge No. 1444, Loyal Order of Moose, Charleston, West Virginia. He has served three terms as vice president of the Laymen's Association of the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the Oakland District. He is a member of the Beta Theta Pi Chapter of West Virginia University, and belongs to the American Academy of Social and Political Science of Philadelphia, the Southern Sociological Congress of Nashville, the National Conservation Congress, the Na- tional Geographic Society of Washington and the National Popular Government League.

On February 29, 1896, Senator Montgomery married Miss Grace K. Orr, daughter of the later Maj. and Mrs. U. N. Orr. Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery have one son, William Newton, born July 8, 1900. On his eighteenth birthday he enlisted in the marines, joining the Eighteenth Company, Fifth Regiment of the Second Division, and three months later going to France. He served near enough the front to hear the big guns of the contending armies, and after the armistice he went with his command into Germany and along the Rhine, stationed near Coblenz and Rodenbach. After eight months of duty he was honorably discharged and given an excellent service medal without a demerit. He is now a sophomore in West Virginia University at Morgan- town. The only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery is Susan, a graduate of Kingwood High School, also a gradu- ate of Dean Academy at Franklin, Massachusetts, and now a student in West Virginia University.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 3

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