USA > West Virginia > Prominent men of West Virginia: biographical sketches, the growth and advancement of the state, a compendium of returns of every election, a record of every state officer; > Part 19
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Having completed his preparatory course of study, he was, on the 28th of April, 1823, examined by the Hon. Judges Rob- ert White, Dabney Carr, and Lewis Summers, and was duly licensed by them to practice law in the several courts of Vir- ginia. By studious application and force of character, he soon
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took position in the front ranks of his profession, and was re- cognized as one of the leading lawyers of the State. And that position he successfully maintained to the end of his profes- sional career.
In 1826, he was appointed prosecuting attorney of the County Court of Wood; and in 1830, he succeeded to the same office in the Circuit Superior Court of Wood county. This position he held until 1852, when the office became elective, and he retired from its duties. He was also prosecutor in the Circuit Superior Court of Ritchie county, from the year 1842 to 1852. With him, this office was no sinecure ; for, while its emoluments were very small, he brought to its duties the same diligence and untiring energy which characterized him in all his other undertakings. He guarded the interests of the counties and State, whose official he was, with the utmost care, and became a terror to evil-doers, while he was the admired and loved of the upright. He sought not the praise of men, but labored to have an approving con- science, because this, after all, is the best reward for duties honestly and faithfully performed. He was elected by the peo- ple of Wood county, and served them in the capacity of their Representative in the House of Delegates of Virginia six sev- eral times, his first session being in 1825, and his last in 1844. Here, too, he displayed his accustomed energy, and showed himself to be a wise and discreet legislator. His fellow repre- sentatives soon found out his value, and acknowledged his worth. In a brief sketch, such as this is designed to be, it would be impossible to speak of his labors as a delegate with any degree of minuteness ; but, happily, this is not necessary. Therefore, it will suffice to remark, that in each of the Legis- latures to which he was returned, he filled a prominent posi- tion, and ably represented the claims and interests of his county and State to the entire satisfaction of his constituents.
In 1842, he was elected, by the Legislature of which he was a member, and duly commissioned brigadier-general of the Twenty-third Brigade of the Militia of Virginia. This position he held until 1861, when the Constitutional Convention passed the ordinance of secession, and the peaceful avocations of the people were changed for the active duties of tent and field, in our late deplorable and fractricidal war.
In political sentiment, he belonged to the school of the dis-
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tinguished patriots Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, believed in public improvements by the General Government, Protection to American Industries, and in a liberal construction of fundamental law for the welfare and benefit of the people, in whose capability for self-rule and wise legislation he ardently trusted. In the histo- ric convention of 1861, which met at Richmond when clouds of war hovered darkly on the horizon, he was a member, sent with unanimous vote from the shores of the Ohio, to voice the loyalty and conservatism of his stalwart constituency. In that turbulent assembly he was noted for his eloquence, fervor and unfaltering devotion to "the Union, the constitution, and the enforcement of the laws," almost risking his life in efforts to protect the interests of his people in Western Virginia, and stay the fury of secession. Upon his return home, the people with intense in- terest assembled to hear his clear and concise report of his efforts and the spirit which prevailed in the tidewater counties. He counselled firmness in the assertion of their rights under the constitution, but moderation and wisdom in the execution of their wishes. Here, with his public report to the people among whom he grew up and prospered, and whom he loved, practically end- ed his public career, and in subsequent years, while his gifted sons took position in the contentions and duties of the hour, he retired to the more pleasant occupation of private business and home quietude. Nevertheless, he lost not his interest in events rapidly forming national history, or in the welfare of his city, county and State. All that concerned the interest of either, found a welcome place in his heart; and he sought the good of his people, by setting them an example of frugality and indus- try. He had studied well the principles on which our complex system of government was based, and was ever ready to give his countrymen a reason for that line of policy which he felt it incumbent on him to pursue. Hence, during and after the war he made several speeches, in all of which he exhorted to mutual forbearance, reconciliation and love, and counselled all to stand by the Constitution, as that instrument was expounded by the fathers in the purest and best days of the Republic. While he would have no compromise with the fanaticism which would overthrow and destroy the best system of government ever devised by the wisdom of man, yet he was always conserv- ative in his feelings and actions. Hence, in the Presidential
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canvass of 1876, while entertaining a high respect for the honesty, integrity, and patriotism of the Republican candidate, he es- poused the cause of his competitor. He presided at a mass convention held in Parkersburg, and in introducing the dis- tinguished son of his old friend, the late Thomas Ewing, as the chief speaker of the day, he made some remarks which showed that he understood clearly the issues involved in the canvass, and was not an indifferent spectator of what was going on around him. This taste of wisdom from his eloquent lips only excited the desire of his countrymen to hear him again. Ac- cordingly, at their earnest solicitation, he appeared before them on the 1st day of November, and again addressed them on the then pending issues. "As he came before the crowded audience, the fires of his intellect flashed forth as in former years," and he clearly and ably reviewed the great political questions of the day. His reference to the past, and his anxieties for the wel- fare and happiness of his country in the future, as the cares of a long life were closing around him, were full of eloquence and power. His patriotism and zeal flashed in the brilliant senten- ces which he uttered on that occasion, and will long be remem- bered by those who then heard him. They came upon the au- dience like the farewell words of a patriarch to his children, admonishing them of duty and faithfulness to their country.
He was active and aided in every enterprise to benefit the community. When the Baltimore and Ohio Railway Company sought right of way from the Potomac to the Ohio, he urged needed legislation, and was one of the earliest and largest con- tributors to the subscription of stock toward the building of the Northwestern Virginia Railroad, and his example, speeches, and influence urged to successful organization of the branch company and construction of the valuable road.
His means and his time were largely used in promoting, in recent years, the improvement of the Little Kanawha river. He formed a company, with his own funds to stock it, which erected locks and dams and made it navigable the year round. He organized and was President of the Second National Bank of Parkersburg from its formation. He was a member at vari- ous times of the Municipal Council, and Mayor of the City.
General Jackson was twice married : the first time in June, 1823, to Miss Emma G. Beeson, who departed this life in July,
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1842; his second marriage, to Miss Jane E. B. Gardner, occurred in July, 1843. Of his domestic life, it is needless here to speak. It was here that he found his greatest happiness, and in his home, in the bosom of his family, he realized his greatest earthly comfort. In his social life he was as gentle as he was apparently austere and positive with strangers, an indulgent parent, and a fond husband. He first won the affection of his children, and then commanded their respect as a parental pre- rogative : and that respect was not accorded through any senti- ment of fear, but was freely bestowed through the strongest sentiment of filial affection.
Illustrative of his vitality and endurance, this little incident has been narrated: When in the regular army, about the year 1820, he was stationed at Pensacola, in the routine of military life, which was temporarily interrupted by an order to report at Washington headquarters. The trip between these two places, though not a short one even now with railroad facilities for the passage, in that primitive day had to be performed on horseback. Lieutenant Jackson promptly mounted his charger and rode all the way to the National Capital without a halt, save each night, traversing the States of Florida, South Caro- lina, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. Upon reporting in person at the War Office, he was ordered to Baltimore on recruiting service, where he immediately presented himself, traveling solitarily as he had from Pensacola. After a few days in Baltimore, he received orders to report for duty again at Pensacola, and mounting the same horse he rode through Cum- berland to Parkersburg, crossed the river there, traveled through Ohio to Maysville, at which point he recrossed the river, and pushing on through Kentucky and Tennessee-then a wilder- ness and populated by Indians of the Cherokee tribe-he reached his destination, having traveled, alone and upon the same horse, a distance of more than three thousand miles. Like his cousin, " Stonewall " Jackson, he was at home in the saddle. And, when the writer of this was a boy, he remembers distinctly of frequently seeing the General ride rapidly past from his farm toward his city home on a pacing steed, so gracefully and ener- getically that rider and pacer seemed one.
Amid the cares and responsibilities of an intensely busy life, he was pronounced in his religious convictions, and devoted to
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the welfare of church as well as state. Although he was from conviction an Episcopalian, there being no church of his choice in Parkersburg, he, in early life, attached himself to the First Presbyterian society, and remained with that denomination until the organization of the Episcopal Church, when, afterwards, under the rectory of Rev. Thomas Smith, the first rector, whose remains sleep beneath the new edifice of worship, upon Juliana street, he transferred membership, and was ever after a consistent, ac- tive, and supporting member of Trinity Parish. He was for over forty years in its service as Senior Warden of that parish, which owes much of its sustenance, vitality and capability for Christian usefulness to his fostering care and solicitude.
At the dawn of the second century of our National existence, when we were just entering upon an era of wonderful progress, on the 1st day of January, 1877, the summons came to a typical, almost patriarchal home, and the spirit of Gen. John J. Jackson quietly took its flight from earth to the realms of endless rest and reward.
He left behind him an example worthy of emulation by the young who struggle in life's battle without pecuniary or inher- ited aid. Temperate, industrious, persevering, with invincible purpose, he became the architect of his own fame and fortune. As a lawyer he was clear and profound. With a retentive mem- ory and an enthusiastic style of speech and address, courts, juries and auditors were moved to humor or to tears. In law he was at the head of his profession; in business eminently suc- cessful, having accumulated a valuable estate, in his cherished city, and in public enterprise liberal and stimulative. His inti- macies and associations were with the foremost of Virginia's illustrious sons. Literary, eloquent, learned in his profession, devoted to his country, his church, his family, and the right as it was given him to see it, he has a noble place in history. Pos- sessing great decision and firmness of character, he never sur- rendered his convictions to expediency, hence was not in the ordinary acceptance of the term a successful politician. His fame rests upon his legal ability and erudition, his patriotic and wise deeds and counsel, his benevolent and Christian course, and his illustrious example of fortitude, integrity, in- dustry and success.
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RALPH LAZIER BERKSHIRE.
HE late Col. Benjamin H. Smith, of Charleston, himself one of the few really great lawyers of Virginia, once said to the writer that he regarded Judge Berkshire one of the clearest-headed jurists West Virginia had ever produced. His ability as a judge lay in clearness of expression and his power to see the real point in a case. It can be truthfully said of the subject of this sketch, as has been said of Odillon Barrot, the famous French lawyer: "His real strength lay in matters which he could lift into events of paramount importance by referring them to the broad principles on which all systems of social order or policy are based." Not only is Judge Berkshire clear and logical in expression, but he is at the same time, sincere, earnest and honest-these, too, are essential elements in the make-up of a judge. In the West Virginia Reports- and I mean no disrespect to many others, who at different times have adorned the Supreme Bench of our State-the line of decisions rendered by Judge R. L. Berkshire are among the clearest and best that are recorded in the whole of the thirty volumes thus far published.
Judge Berkshire was born April 8, 1816, in Bedford county, Pennsylvania. His father came to Monongalia county, Vir- ginia, the following year, where he died in 1860. Ralph lived with his father on the farm until he reached his eighteenth year when he went to Morgantown and worked for a number of years at the carpenter's trade. He began the study of the law in 1838, and in 1841 was admitted to the bar. He was ap- pointed Prosecuting Attorney of Monongalia county in 1847, and in 1852, he was elected by the people to the same position. In 1861, he was the candidate of the Whig party for Circuit Judge against Judge G. W. Thompson, of Wheeling, but was defeated. He was an ardent opponent of secession, throwing into the contest all his energies and abilities to preserve the Nation intact. He was a delegate to the Wheeling Convention in June 1861, which was called to oppose the effort then making to carry Virginia into the whirlpool of rebellion. During that year he was elected judge of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit over his former competitor, Judge Thompson. He acted in this capacity until June, 1863, when he was elected one of the three Supreme Judges of the Court of Appeals of the State,
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serving until 1867, a large part of the time as President of the Court. He was elected to the West Virginia Senate in 1874, from the district composed of Preston and Monongalia counties, and remained in that position the full term of four years. In 1888, he was a delegate-at-large to the Republican National Convention at Chicago.
With the exception of the six years in judicial office, Judge Berkshire has devoted practically all his mature life to the practice of his profession. Although past his allotted " three score years and ten," he is still engaged in active practice where he has spent more than half a century-in the staid, old town of Morgantown.
THOMAS MALEY HARRIS.
N military, political or civil history of Western Virginia, no more prominent individual has appeared in the arena than General Thomas M. Harris. He was born in Wood county, Virginia, June 17, 1813. From a howling wilderness, he has marked every change in political and industrial development. He was reared a farmer, attended winter schools from ten to sixteen, and then taught others. He practiced medicine from 1842 to the beginning of the war; was a Whig, but the war issues forced him into the Republican party; was always anti- slavery in sentiment, and in a Fourth of July oration, in 1849, boldly attacked the evil, on both moral and economic grounds, and insisted that the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850 should provide for gradual emancipation, For this expression, the leading papers of the State declared him a dangerous man. In August, 1861, he recruited the 10th West Virginia infantry, served as its Colonel, and for bravery and merit, was promoted, in 1865, to Brigadier General, and afterwards to Major General by brevet; was a member of the House of Delegates in 1867; was commissioned Adjutant General for West Virginia and served from March 4, 1869, to January 1, 1871, when he resigned, and was immediately by the President appointed United States Pension Agent, and located at Wheeling, serving until the Cen- tennial year. He has been a prominent candidate before the Republican Convention for Congress ; is a strong advocate of prohibition, and now resides at Harrisville, Ritchie county.
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DANIEL LAMB.
HE quiet mental and moral forces that governed this coun- try for the first twenty-five years of its existence had not yet been pushed aside by the progressive spirit of the new Nation, when the subject of this sketch was born. He began life in that era when the conflict was beginning between the conservative, thoughtful power that made us our great Bill of Rights and still greater Constitution, and those who held that the mighty resources of this crude country demanded more physical and less moral force. Two years before our second war with Great Britain, Daniel Lamb first saw the light of day at Connellsville, Pennsylvania. His ancestors came from the eastern shore of Maryland years before, exchanging a home with the oyster and terrapin, mosquitos and malaria for the rude life, but pure air of the mountains. They were all Quakers, and he is the only one of all his family that has left the road the Friends take for Heaven. He is an Episcopalian. Partisan feeling ran high in 1810, the year in which he was born. Jefferson was pursuing his hesitating policy against the aggressions of Great Britain, hoping to turn over to his successor, as he did, the responsibility of declaring war against the arrogant mother country.
The circle of years from 1810 to 1823, witnessed mighty changes in this Government. Before Mr. Lamb was able to form a word, the war with Great Britain was fought and won. While yet a lisping child, the political revolution began and was successful, that placed in power the representatives of the physical and material idea that started the land on the road to its great present and greater future. Calhoun championed the successful cause, and in 1815 the new life began. Immigration poured in and the country grew strong with remarkable rapidity. Daniel Lamb's boyhood days came and went amid some of the most important political changes in our country's history.
His early life in the mountains of Pennsylvania was in no wise different from that of others who began life amidst the rough civilization of those primitive times in a new section of the country. His father was a saddler, and worked up into fresh stock what little leather he could get, and cobbled for the teamsters who in those days hauled merchandise over the
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National road from the east to the west. Daniel was never a strong boy. Nature had not intended him for a working man. He did not therefore follow his father's bent or business, but rather turned to books and while yet in the mountains of the Keystone State, he laid the foundation of a fair education. His father, in 1823, when Daniel was but thirteen years of age, moved to Wheeling, Virginia, to sell leather for a. Baltimore firm that was dealing largely in that business. This was at a time when the " Missouri Question" of 1820 and '21 was sowing the seeds of agitation that forty years later culminated in civil war. Wheeling was but a village then, and there were only twenty-four States in the Union. The great mills that now are a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night were then far in the future-indeed, they were then unthought of. Steam- boat navigation was yet little more than an experiment, and transportation on the Ohio river was mostly by keel-boats. A good-sized steamboat was looked upon as a curiosity, and when one was expected, crowds of people would gather at the wharf to welcome its arrival. Only here and there within what are now the limits of the city of Wheeling could a little manufac- turing establishment be seen. That place then was only im- portant because it was a shipping point for merchandise and passengers over the National road both east and west. Mr. Lamb's residence in Wheeling covers, with his useful years, nearly every phase of its growth from a village to a great manufacturing city.
His early life in Wheeling was spent in obtaining an educa- tion. He was a studious boy and the consequence was rapid advancement in his studies. He was in the year 1830 elected City Clerk. In 1831, an insurance company called the "Fire and Marine," was organized, and Mr. Lamb was elected its first secretary. It did a prosperous business in both fire and marine insurance. In 1834, the " Wheeling Savings Institution" was organized and Mr. Lamb was made its Secretary and Treasurer, and for several years looked carefully after its interests as well the insurance company of which he was at the same time Secretary. While he was thus growing into an active business life, he conceived a taste for the law, and began his studies with Morgan Nelson, a distinguished attorney of that day. He was admitted to the bar in 1837, and soon after quit the banking
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and insurance business and began the active practice of his profession with Charles W. Russell, so well remembered as one of the most brilliant lawyers and politicians that was ever born in that portion of Virginia. In those days the law business was not overly lucrative. In 1848, Mr. Lamb retired from practice and became the Cashier of the old Northwestern Bank of Virginia, at Wheeling, and remained in that position until 1863, when he resigned to resume his study and practice of the law.
Early in life Mr. Lamb became wedded to the policies and fortunes of Henry Clay, the world-famed leader of the old Whig party. He not only believed in Mr. Clay personally, but he was a firm believer in the principles of Mr. Clay's party, as well. He, however, had never meddled much in politics. It was not until secession came and threatened the destruction of the Republic that he decided to enter the exciting arena of political life. The famous Wheeling meeting of May 11, 1861, was called to decide the course of the Unionists of Western Virginia, and it was on that occasion that Mr. Lamb made his debut in public political life. He was, therefore, a prominent figure in that noted gathering of able men.
In the Convention that framed the Constitution of West Virginia and provided for the division of the Old State, Mr. Lamb was chairman of the Legislative Committee, and all the legislative features of that Constitution, as well as some others, are the work of his hands. He was a prominent member of the first Legislature of West Virginia, and to his wise counsel and great powers as a legal draughtsman may be attributed, in a very large degree, the success of the New State. He remained a member of the State Legislature from 1863 to 1867. He had acted with the Republican party from the beginning of the war; but a great deal of that time he was in conflict with his party on questions growing out of the war which he be- lieved were treated too vigorously and aggresively both for the good of the party and the country as well. He opposed, in a most earnest manner, the enactment of all test oaths and attendant legislation that proscribed men who had participated in the rebellion. He became a leader of what was called " Con- servatives," and persevered in the advocacy of liberal principles until, in the campaign of 1870, the Republicans were defeated
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and the State was turned over to the organization then called the "Democratic Conservative party." Following this victory, Mr. Lamb's name was presented to the Legislature for United States Senator in 1871, but he was defeated by the Hon. Henry G. Davis, and Mr. Lamb has never since held a public office. He was many times urged to take a position upon the Supreme Court of Appeals, a place for which his rich legal attainments admirably fit him, but he declined with thanks, preferring to remain in his law office. As a lawyer he is noted for a thorough preparation of his cases, as having a sound legal mind, and a perfect knowledge of the law he seeks to present. ' He is not an advocate, but is strong before a court. He is rather a dull, heavy speaker, but a careful and sound reasoner.
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