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 20
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By hard work he has gathered a competency, and now lives in an advanced period of life to enjoy it. He can look back almost over the entire period of Wheeling's growth and pro- gress. Three wars have been fought since he began life-two since he has been a man. The whole history of this Nation has been made before his eyes, since it cast off the quiet, moral and mental, or rather blended them with the physical and material forces in such degree as to make a power that was capable of meeting the requirements of a new land and a pushing civiliza- tion.
CHESTER D. HUBBARD.
HESTER D. HUBBARD was born in Hamden, Connecti- cut, November 25, 1814; removed with his parents to near Pittsburgh, Pa., in the spring of 1815, and to Wheeling, Va., in March, 1819, where he has since resided. He assisted his father in making brick and in the lumber business until reach- ing his majority, when he prepared for college and entered Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Conn., with the Freshman class of 1836, graduating as valedictorian of the class of 1840. Since that time he has been incessantly a busy man, as a chrono- logical sketch of his career will show :
1840, in the lumber business at Wheeling until the organiza- tion of the Bank of Wheeling in 1853, when he was elected its President, giving it his personal attention until 1865.
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1844, a member of the City Council of Wheeling.
1852, represented his county in the Virginia Legislature.
1853, re-elected to the same body.
1861, a member of the Virginia Convention that passed the secession ordinance, and voted against it. And in the same year a member of the Convention that organized the Restored Government of Virginia.
1863, a member of the West Virginia Senate.
1864, delegate to the Baltimore Convention that nominated Lincoln and Johnson.
1865, President of the Board of Trustees, Wheeling Female College, which position he still holds.
1865 to 1869, represented his district in the lower House of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, where he served with marked distinction.
1871, Secretary of the Wheeling Iron and Nail Company, where he is still employed and devotes his great energies to the management of the business interests of that mammoth cor- poration.
1872, Lay Delegate to the M. E. Church General Conference in Brooklyn, N. Y.
1874, President of the Pittsburgh, Wheeling and Kentucky Railroad Company, which position he still holds.
1880, President of the German Bank of Wheeling, where he is still serving.
And in the same year a delegate to the Republican Conven- tion at Chicago that nominated Garfield and Arthur.
Mr. Hubbard is one of the most prominent and influential business men of Wheeling. He is still active in the business and politics of the State, notwithstanding the fact that he is now seventy-five years of age. He will always be remembered as a leader of men.
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HON. E. WILLIS WILSON, LL. D.
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EMANUEL WILLIS WILSON.
N 1810 there came to the United States from England, an I eleven-year-old boy, named James Fitzgerald Wilson, who settled and grew to manhood in Jefferson county, Virginia, where he met and married Maria Spangler, of Scotch descent, of Revolutionary ancestry, whose grandfather served in the Colonial army.
Emanuel Willis Wilson was the third son in a family of six children. He was born at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, August 11, 1844. He was educated in the common schools, finishing with a course of a year and a half at "Burnham's American Business College."
In 1866 he energetically entered upon the study of law, with- out an instructor, at home, and in 1869 was admitted to practice in his native county. In connection with his legal studies he pursued a course of thorough general reading and study, which he has ever continued. A Washington City journal says of him: "He is to-day, in general, scientific, historical and political information, as well as in literary acquirements, one of the most thoroughly equipped men in his State."
Rapidly achieving a leading position at the bar and before the people, in 1870, Mr. Wilson was elected to represent Jeffer- son county in the Legislature. In 1872 he represented his dis- trict in the Senate. In that body he became conspicuous by his able and successful opposition to a bill for the transfer of the Kanawha river to a corporation. The bill had passed the House and was on its third reading in the Senate, on the last day of the session. Mr. Wilson obtained the floor and spoke the session out, thus saving the Kanawha river from corporate control and opening the way for the magnificent improvement of that stream by the general Government, which has done as much toward developing and making this wonderful young State as any other factor, if not more.
He moved to Kanawha county in September, 1874, having, April 27th, of the same year, married an estimable lady of that .county-Miss Henrietta S. Cotton, daughter of Dr. John T. Cotton, the oldest practising physician in the city of Charles- ton-whose sketch and portrait appear elsewhere in this volume. Two living children are fruits of the union: Sallie
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Ashton, born April 1, 1880, and an infant daughter, Willis, born May 6, 1888.
In 1876 he was elected to represent Kanawha county in the State Legislature, and re-elected in 1880. Among other bene- ficent measures which he originated, and was a zealous advocate of, were those for the protection of miners and laborers from the evils of the merchandise check system; to exempt the tools of mechanics from forced sale or execution ; to secure the inspection and ventilation of mines; to prohibit unjust discrimination in railroad freight charges; and for the protection of the people against fraud, force and bribery at elections.
It would appear from this record that he was among the first of our thoughtful statesmen whose ideas on railroad rate dis- crimination culminated in the Congressional enactment of the Interstate Commerce law. His early and continuous advocacy of measures to prevent election frauds in the State has borne at least the partial fruit of fixing the attention of our people upon the necessity of extirpating this growing evil on the body politic. In passing, let it be recorded that while Governor he has in every message to the State Legislature urged the necessity of an immediate remedy for the wrong.
In the Legislature of 1880 he was elected Speaker, and his official record corroborates the statements of members of that body: that he displayed a thorough knowledge of parlia- mentary rules and practice, and filled the position with firm im- partiality and universal satisfaction.
As regards his gubernatiorial canvass we quote from a letter written by an old wheelhorse of West Virginia Democracy :
" For several years previous to the gubernatorial canvass of 1884, the people of his portion of the State had expressed strong disapprobation of the methods of ring politicians, and in that convention-the largest ever held in the State-they determined to give the self-asserted managers of the Demo- cratic party a rebuke they would not soon forget nor recover from. Personal ambitions and monopolistic greed received a severe blow by the triumphant nomination of E. Willis Wilson in the convention of 1884 at Wheeling. The importance of the State's political status in the coming November election was too great to permit such unworthy personal considerations to
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govern the action of that convention, and this strengthened their determination.
" That was a remarkable canvass, and it was well the Dem- ocracy had a remarkable man to conduct it. Mr. Wilson had not only the formidable organization of his political opponents to meet ; but he was met by, at least, lethargy on the part of an openly disaffected portion of the leaders of the Democratic party. All that wealth, prestige, family and party influence could do, having failed to defeat him in the Convention, it is no wonder that disaffection existed in the canvass. On the hustings, as in the Convention, he exemplified what was said of him by a speaker in that body : ' All his life he had encountered opposition, and all his life he had triumphed over it.'
"Mr. Wilson fought his battle with an energy that never faltered and courage that never quailed. He visited nearly every county in the State, speaking, when required, as often as thrice a day, and inspiring the Democratic masses with such enthusiasm as they had never felt before."
The result of that hotly contested canvass is known; its figures are in the election statistics of this volume. As Gov- ernor of West Virginia, his friends have no cause to regret their choice. Fortunate in having for his State officers men selected from the very best, intellectually and practically, that could be found, he has-as is acknowledged by men of all parties-improved every department of the executive; remedied many defects and weaknesses in the co-ordinate branches, or greatly neutralized evils arising outside of his immediate juris- diction. His bitterest enemies have not yet seriously denied that his term has been characterized by untiring energy, marked ability, and personal and official integrity. Being human, he has, doubtless, not been perfect. But the imprint of his inde- pendent administration is already seen throughout the State, and will be recognized in its prosperity long after he shall have passed away.
As an evidence of the necessity of what his messages plead for, and his legislative efforts worked for-a remedy for election frauds-a history of the close of his administration and of the difficulty of ascertaining his legal successor, should find place in these pages for the benefit of coming law-makers :
The Governor held his office after the four years for which
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he was elected expired. His term expired on the 4th day of March, 1889. At the November election in 1888, General Nathan Goff was the Republican candidate for Governor, and Judge A. B. Fleming was the Democratic candidate for the same office. The Legislature was Democratic on joint ballot by one majority, there being in the Legislature forty-six Demo- crats, and forty-five Republicans. The vote for Governor was very close. Judge Fleming conceded that on the face of the returns from the various counties that General Goff had a plurality of one hundred and ten votes. He, therefore, gave notice to General Goff, in pursuance of law, that he would con- test his election to the office of Governor on the ground that there were more than one thousand illegal votes cast for Goff, and that he, Fleming, was elected by the legal voters of the State. As soon as the Legislature assembled in joint session, Judge Fleming filed before them his notice of contest. The Legislature, by a majority of one, refused to open and publish the vote for Governor, and declined to declare any one elected Governor, pending the contest; taking the position, that under the Constitution, no one could take the office of Governor with a doubtful title and then at the end of a contest be ousted from the office; and without reading the returns for Governor, by resolution, sent all said returns, together with the notice of the contest to the Joint Committee on Contest, elected by the Legisla- ture. The Legislature expired by limitation before the 4th day of March. On that day General Goff, claiming to have been duly elected Governor, took the oath of office in the Governor's chamber, and demanded possession of the office from Governor Wilson, which demand the Governor politely, but firmly, refused. On the same day, Hon. R. S. Carr, Presi- dent of tlie Senate, also took the oath of office and demanded of Governor Wilson that he turn over the office to him, which demand was also refused.
General Goff claimed that he had been duly elected Governor, and that the Legislature failing to so declare it, violated its Constitutional duty, and that he could not by such failure be deprived of the office to which he had been elected by the people. President Carr based his claim on the ground that Governor Wilson's term had expired, and there was a vacancy in the office. General Goff at once filed before the Supreme
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Court of Appeals a petition for a mandamus to compel Governor Wilson to yield the office of Governor to him. The Governor at once appeared to the petition, and in an earnest speech con- tended that General Goff was not entitled to the office, because under the Constitution of the State, no one was entitled to assume the duties of the office of Governor until by the Legis- lature of the State, assembled in joint session, he was declared duly elected to that position, and this declaration the Legisla- ture refused to make pending the contest for the office; and that the Constitution having devolved the duty of publishing the vote and declaring who was elected on the Joint Assembly, that the Supreme Court, a co-ordinate branch of the State Government had no jurisdiction to interfere. The Court so decided and denied the mandamus prayed for. In this case the Court did not decide Governor Wilson's right to hold over pending the contest, because that point, as they held, was not involved, inasmuch as General Goff did not have a legal title to the office.
Hon. R. S. Carr, President of the Senate, then filed before the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State a petition claiming that Governor Wilson's term had expired, and he had no right under the Constitution to hold over, and praying a mandamus to compel Governor Wilson to turn over the office to him, until the vacancy be filled; claiming the right to the office under that clause of the Constitution which declares, " in case of the death, resignation, failure to qualify, or other disability of the Governor, the President of the Senate shall discharge the duties of Governor until such vacancy be filled, or such dis- ability be removed." Governor Wilson at once appeared, and resisted the application for a mandamus, and in an elaborate argument endeavored to show that Mr. Carr had no right to the office because, before he could have such right there must first be a Governor, declared by the Legislature duly elected, who as Governor might die, resign, fail to qualify, or be under other disability. He further showed that by another provision of the same Constitution it was his duty " to continue to discharge the duties of his office until his successor was duly elected and qualified." That he was but obeying the mandate of the Cons- titution by holding over, as no one had yet appeared to claim the office who had been by the Legislature, the only body hav-
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ing power so to do, declared elected, and, therefore, in a position to qualify and relieve him. That when that one should come so clothed with the right to succeed him he would gladly yield the office. The Court decided that Mr. Carr had no right to the office, and it was Governor Wilson's duty to remain in the office until his successor was declared by the Legislature duly elected, and had after such declaration qualified. These two decisions will be found in the Thirty-second West Virginia Reports, which show why Governor Wilson was continued Governor after his term had expired.
EDWIN MAXWELL.
€ DWIN MAXWELL, whose portrait and brief sketch we here present, was born in Weston, Lewis county, Virginia, about the year 1834. His father was a carpen- ter, and selected the trade for a life duty for Edwin, and often relied upon. his judgment in plans for house-building. When Edwin was quite young the family moved to a farm near the village. To the age of twenty-one the years were un- eventful, and he obtained only limited school privileges. He studied law, and in 1852, began practice at West Union. In 1857, he located at Clarksburg, and formed a partnership in law with Col. Burton Despard. In 1865, Nathan Goff, Jr., was added to the firm, and it so continued till 1867, when Mr. Max- well was elected to the State Supreme Bench, and thereon served to December 31, 1872, when the operation of the new Constitution ended his term. In 1880, he was again nominated for Supreme Court honors, but was defeated at the polls. He was State Senator from the first session of 1863 to 1866, head- ing the Judiciary Committee, and largely shaping the enact- ments of those years. During the year 1866, he was Attorney General for West Virginia. In 1884, he was the candidate of the Republicans, in a fusion with the Greenback-Labor wing, for Governor, but went into defeat with the ticket. To the State Senate, in 1888, he was again elected, and is Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and one of the members of the Joint Committee in the pending Gubernatorial contest. Judge Max- well for many years has stood high in the profession of the law, and for nearly two generations his private life has been above reproach.
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HON. EDWIN MAXWELL.
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ALLEN TAYLOR CAPERTON.
HE term of Hon. Allen T. Caperton as Senator in Congress began, as successor to Arthur I. Boreman, March 4, 1875, and continued only one brief year. He was born near Union, Monroe county, Virginia, November 21, 1810, and died at the National Capital, July 26, 1876, in the midst of our Centennial year, and in the very beginning of a promising official term.
He was descended from an old Virginia family. His paternal ancestors were English, and the maternal Scotch. The great- grandparents were among the pioneers at the source of the Ka- nawha in the days of Indian warfare. Hugh, the father of Sen- ator Caperton, represented his District in the Thirtieth Congress, and was a Whig in political faith, being an intimate friend and admirer of both Webster and Clay.
Primarily educated in the village of Union, he spent over two years in an academy at Huntsville, Alabama, then was sent to the Lewisburg Academy in Greenbrier county, under the principalship of the venerable Presbyterian, Rev. John McEl- henny, D.D. Next he took a course of four years in and was graduated from Yale College in 1832, and on his return attended and received the graduating degree of the Virginia University. His law education was begun and finished in Judge Briscoe G. Baldwin's School at Staunton, Virginia, and immediately there- after he commenced the practice of his profession.
In the 22d year of his age he wedded Miss Harriet Echols, a lady of refinement, culture and amiability, who still survives him, with residence at the homestead in Monroe county.
His first office was a State directorship in the James River and Kanawha Canal Company, which position, though not sal- aried, was deemed of National credit and importance. He was elected, as a Whig, from Monroe county, in April, 1841, a dele- gate to the General Assembly of Virginia. In 1844 to the State Senate, for four years, from Monroe, Giles, Montgomery, Floyd, Greenbrier and Mercer counties. In the 1850 Convention to amend the State Constitution, he was a member from Giles, Tazewell, Mercer and Monroe, and of the Compromise Com- mittee to adjust the question of White and Mixed basis of Tax- ation between eastern and western counties, then a subject of contention, and even of bitterness; was twice a Whig Elector on the Presidential ticket. He was a leading member in the
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General Assembly from 1859 to 1861. While thus serving in the Legislature he was elected a delegate to the Convention in Richmond, known as the Secession Convention, in which body he aimed to advocate the Union cause, but finally voted for the ordinance, conscienciously believing the preservation of the Union impossible. In 1862, he was elected by the Virginia As- sembly a member of the Confederate States Senate, to fill the vacancy created by the death of William Ballard Preston, in which position he served until the close of the war in 1865. After returning home, along with the restoration of his law practice, he took active part in bringing coal, mineral, timber and grazing lands of West Virginia before distant capitalists. Inheriting his father's popularity, as well as his large estate, he added to both. In 1875, the Legislature of West Virginia elect- ed him to the United States Senate. From this duty, his last earthly one, he was suddenly called into the realms where Chris- tian faith ends in fruition. Gentle in manner, honored by those who knew him well, and loved by a large circle of personal friends, he will long be remembered as one of the old school, urbane gentlemen of his native State.
SHERRARD CLEMENS.
H ION. SHERRARD CLEMENS was the son of Dr. James W. Clemens, and was born in Wheeling, Virginia, April 28, 1826. He received a thorough home training in the rudi- mentary principles of an English education, and was sent to Washington College, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated A.B. in the class of 1840. He studied law in Wheeling, and was admitted to the Bar in 1843. He became eminent as an ad- vocate and was a successful practitioner. He entered politics, and was elected to the Congress of the United States as a Demo- crat in 1852, and was re-elected in 1857. He was a man of brilliant parts ; was a great debater, and was one of the most attractive and entertaining public speakers of his time. He was seriously wounded in a duel with O. Jennings Wise, the eldest son of Governor Henry A. Wise, of Virginia. He moved to Missouri and died at St. Louis in 1874.
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HON. JAMES H. BROWN.
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JAMES HENRY BROWN.
OR nearly half a century, the subject of this sketch has been a well-known character in the Great Kanawha valley. He was born in Cabell county, Virginia, December 25, 1818, and was educated at Marietta College, Ohio, and at Augusta College, Kentucky, from the latter of which he was graduated in 1840. He studied law in the office of John Laidley, of Cabell county, and in 1842 was licensed as an attorney. His practice covers a period of nearly fifty years in the Circuit Courts of Cabell, Lincoln and Kanawha counties, and in the United States Dis- trict Court, the Court of Appeals of Virginia and West Virginia, and in the Supreme Court of the United States.
In 1848, he located at Charleston, Kanawha county, where he has since resided. In the winter of 1854-5, he was a delegate to the Democratic State Convention, at Staunton, that nomina- ted Henry A. Wise for Governor; and in 1855, he was a candi- date for the State Senate, but was defeated. In 1856, he was a delegate from Kanawha county to the Democratic Convention at Parkersburg which nominated Albert G. Jenkins, of Cabell county, for Congress.
Schooled in the doctrines of the fathers of the Constitution, he repudiated the modern heresy of secession. While he main- tained the just rights and reserved powers of the States and people, on the one hand, he defended with equal firmness the constitutional powers of the national Government on the other. He, therefore, denounced secession as tending inevitably to dis- integration and the ultimate destruction of all government. In the spring of 1861, while the Convention at Richmond was passing the ordinance of secession, he was a delegate to the Union Convention, at Parkersburg, that nominated Hon. John S. Carlile for Congress. No man in the southern section of the State took a more determined stand for the Union than did James H. Brown. He was a delegate to the Wheeling Conven- tion in 1861 that rescued the western portion of Virginia from the vortex of secession and rebellion, and was also a member of the Legislature of the Restored Government of Virginia. He was a leading spirit in both these bodies, which were practi- cally in session at one and the same time.
He was elected Judge of the 18th Judicial Circuit of Virginia in the winter of 1861-2, and it is a remarkable fact that not one
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of his decisions was ever appealed to a higher court. In 1863, he was elected to the Convention that framed a Constitution for the new State of West Virginia. May 28, 1863, he was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, which office he filled with conspicuous ability for the full term of eight years. After the expiration of his term as a Supreme Judge, he resumed the practice of his profession at Charleston. He was again twice renominated by his party (he became a Re- publican in 1861) for the office of a Supreme Judge, and was defeated along with the rest of the ticket. In 1882, he was nominated and elected by the Republicans a member of the House of Delegates of West Virginia from Kanawha county, and was the acknowledged leader of his party in that assembly. Judge Brown was twice his party's candidate for Congress in the 3d West Virginia district, first in 1883, at a special election to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of John E. Ken- na, and again in 1886. He was both times defeated, but reduced the majority from several thousand to a mere nominal figure.
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