USA > West Virginia > Barbour County > The history of Barbour County, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time > Part 49
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Our greatest poet has said:
"Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time."
"Footprints that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forelorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, may take heart again."
The life of Judge Woods was well-balanced and well-rounded, and from it may be gathered much by our young men to inspire them to greater effort and better living. Samuel Woods was born in Beauce County, Can- ada, East, on the 19th day of September, 1822. His birthplace, I have heard him say, was in the territory in dispute between England and the United States, and when the Maine boundary question was settled, his birthplace became a part of the territory of the United States, and so he became a citizen of this country.
His parents were Irish. He was born poor, and by experience knew. what poverty meant. He knew, when a boy, if he were ever educated, he must do the greater part in furnishing his own opportunities. When a boy his father moved to Meadville, Pennsylvania, the seat of Allegheny Col-
*This sketch was written by Judge Okey Johnson, an associate with Judge Woods on the Supreme Bench of West Virginia, and now Professor of Law in the West Virginia University.
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lege, where the boy, with his father, worked at the plasterer's trade. Fortunately for the boy the father took him to a college town. Seeing the college and the students did, no doubt, much to fire his young heart with the greatest desire for a college education. He did not give up this great desire of his heart, but toiled and studied, and entered the college, and graduated in the classical course in 1842, when he was twenty years old. He studied law with Fox Allen, a noted lawyer in Pittsburg. He also taught school. He was one of the teachers in the famous old Academy at Morgantown, where so many men, who afterwards gained distinction, commenced their education. In 1844 he married, at Meadville, Miss Isabella Neeson, sister of James Neeson, a prominent lawyer, afterwards at Fairmont, in this State, and afterwards in Richmond, Virginia. In 1849 young Woods moved to and located for the practice of the law at Philippi, Barbour County, Virginia. To this place the year after he brought his bride, and they then founded a home, which has as many pleasant memo- ries surrounding it as any home in West Virginia; a home, the sweet influence of which has blessed the children reared therein, and from which benedictions have gone to bless the country all around it. Here in this town and at this home Mr. Woods commenced his professional career. Of splendid physique, of fine address, of great natural endowments, a classical education, a fine legal education under one of the leading lawyers in Pitts- burg, in a comparatively new country, he commenced his career as a lawyer under most favorable circumstances. A man who despised falsehood, with no bad habits, strictly abstaining from all intoxicating liquor, and not even using tobacco, and being enthusiastic in religion, his fidelity to every trust reposed in him, his indomitable perseverance and great industry, his ability to take care of his client's interests in court, soon gave him a standing in the counties in which he practiced, that no other lawyer possessed. His zeal, honesty and ability gave him a clientage that placed him in the very front ranks of his profession, and until he retired from the practice in 1883, he was regarded as the Nestor of the bar in the counties of Barbour, Ran- dolph, Taylor and Webster, where he practiced. He had so won the confi- dence of the people that with his learning and great legal ability, fine ad- dress and persuasive eloquence, he was well nigh irresistible before a jury. In more than one instance .he successfully defended clients on indictment for murder on the ground of self-defense, when most people outside of the jury thought his client was the aggressor.
By his earnestness and tenacity to the interests of his clients, his influ- ence was great, not only with juries but with the courts also. His great success in his profession did not come to him by extemporaneous efforts, but by a life of integrity, by his general education, by his legal learning, and by that without which his splendid talents would not have availed him, -his mastery of the facts and laws of his cases, and never going into an
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Edward M Bartlett.
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Patrick F. Bartlett
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important case without thorough preparation, unless forced in by the other side; then frequently the other side was sorry it brought on the battle, for few men were more ready for a sudden legal contest then he. He was a man of splendid physique, about six feet tall, with broad shoulders, with a grand personal presence; from his boyhood to old age he was what the world calls a handsome man. He was abstemious, using neither spirituous liquors nor tobacco, and in consequence through his long life enjoyed per- fect health. He was erect, he was agile as a boy, and was fond of boyish sports; he fenced and boxed, and like a boy even in his manhood rollicked with the children. He was pure and earnest in speech and never used slang, was self-reliant, and with men bore himself with great dignity. Was skillful with mechanical tools, and understood surveying and could practice it. He was a man of great industry and indomitable will. He never worked without a purpose; and having formed the purpose he pursued it without change or flagging to its consummation. He did not wait for opportunities, but by his great will power made the opportunity.
He was blessed with an interesting family, three sons and three daugh- ters. He educated his three sons at the University,-nice young men moral, Christian and upright like himself; endowed with bright minds, and all chose their father's profession. The eldest, Frank, has a good law practice in Baltimore. J. Hop. and Samuel V. are lawyers in good prac- tice in Philippi, their native place. I had the privilege of examining all of them for admission to the bar, and the license of each bears my signature.
The three daughters were all sent to good female seminaries and all were finely educated. It was indeed a happy home, just such as might be expected with such a father and mother.
The judge had a fine law office in Philippi, in which was a good law library. On the wall of that office was placed the mortar-board and trowel, the tools with which he worked at the trade that enabled him to educate himself. He was not ashamed of them, but to his friends who called on him he exhibited them with pardonable pride.
He also had in his pleasant home a fine private library, in which could be found many valuable books, classical, scientific, philosophical, theolog- ical, poetical and many others. His books were not in his library for show, but for use, and no one used them so much as he. He found much of his recreation in reading and in solving difficult mathematical problems. He was a great mathematician. He was passionately fond of poetry. He could read poetry without his book for hours at a time. I have heard him repeat nearly all of Tam O'Shanter. He also kept up his French so that he could read it with facility.
He was very successful in business; accumulated quite a fortune, be- tween 1848, when he located in Philippi, and the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861, thirteen years. He sympathized with the South. He was a
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candidate for a seat in the convention of 1861. He was elected. He went to the convention, and while the convention was in session the country was plunged into civil war. Sumpter had been fired on, and the vibration of the explosion was heard around the world. President Lincoln called for three hundred thousand troops for the purpose of suppressing the resist- ance to the government and apportioned Virginia's quota for her to raise. For what! as they viewed it, to fight against Virginia and Virginians. Brave old Jubal Early had stood up for the Union in that convention; even went so far as to indorse General Anderson's returning the fire from Fort Sumpter; said he had done nothing but his duty. But when Virginia was required to raise troops to fight against Virginia his love for the Union was destroyed. Mr. Woods, regarding the Civil War as actually begun and the dire alternative presented to fight for Virginia or the Union, he cast his fortune with Virginia, and a few days after Fort Sumter fell, and the call for troops was made; the ordinance of secession was passed by a large majority, although up to to that time a large majority of the convention was opposed to secession. But they regarded the die as cast, and they had no alternate but to stand by their State. How fixed they were in their opinions, and in their allegiance to Virginia, let the terrible struggle, the most gigantic in either modern or ancient history, attest. Poor Virginia bared her sacred bosom to the storm of war, and her soil drank up more fraternal blood in the Valley, at First and Second Bull Run, the Seven Days battles near Richmond, at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, First and Second Cold Harbor, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, Peters- burg, Appomattox, and other places from Washington to Richmond, than was spilled in all other places, in that terrible four years of war and carn- age. Mr. Woods was now an exile from his Philippi home for four years. He was in the South fighting for what he believed to be right. He was. attached to the celebrated "Stonewall Brigade."
When the war closed and the angel of peace spread his white wings in benediction over the stricken land, and the South lay prostrate beneath a mighty load, singing the sad strain :-
Around me blight, where all before was bloom, And so much lost, alas, and nothing won Save this, that I can lean on wreck or tomb, And weep, and weeping pray, "Thy will be done."
And oh! 'tis hard to say, but said 'tis sweet: The words are bitter, but they hold a balm, A balm that heals the wounds of my defeat, And lulls my sorrows into holy calm.
It is the prayer of prayers, and how it brings, When heard in heaven, peace and hope to me; When Jesus prayed it, did not angels' wings Gleam 'mid the darkness of Gethsemane?
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Mr. Woods returned to his Philippi home. Not like a culprit, not like a traitor, but with head erect, realizing that God still reigned. "He was troubled on every side, yet not disturbed. He was perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed." Mr. Woods came home like a man and by his upright Christian conduct, won those who had looked askance upon him when he returned. When he left he was the class-leader in his little church in Philippi. He had not been long at home when he was invited by those who were " on the other side," to take his old place as class-leader. He took it, and at the alter of prayer he mingled his petitions with theirs, he visited their sick and dying, he spoke words of consolation to the bereaved ones, aye, he went with them to holy communion and partook with them of the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of their common Savior. He was good enough to do all this, they had the greatest confidence in his Christian character, but they would not let him vote. He was not good enough for that. But he waited, and but a few years of political persecution could endure, and he saw his political shackles fall to the ground.
In 1871 he was a candidate in the Sixth Senatorial District for a seat in the constitutional convention which was to meet in 1872. He was elec- ted; and in that convention was Chairman of the Committee on Bill of Rights and Elections, a member of the Revisory Committee, composed of the Chairmen of the several committees. He was a very able, influential member of that convention and had much to do in forming a constitution that not only made test oaths odious and impossible, but a constitution that has stood the test of over a quarter of a century without very material change. He did much on the stump in his district to have the constitution ratified by the people. He was a fluent speaker and a clear logical reas- oner, and his power with the people was great. He could say with truth, what but few justices could ever say, that he never was defeated for a pub- lic office by the people.
At the election in August, 1872, under the new constitution, all the offi- cers of the State were elected. The candidates for circuit Judge in the Parkersburg Circuit, Geo. Loomis, the Republican candidate, and James M. Jackson, the Democratic, both claimed to be elected. Judge Jackson obtained the certificate, and Judge Loomis contested. In the special tri- bunal for the trial of the case, Mr. Woods was selected as one of the judges. He wrote the opinion in the case; a clear, concise and able opin- ion, deciding the contest in favor of Judge Jackson. For this opinion, see . Loomis v. Jackson, 6 W. Va. Judge Haymond resigned his seat on the Supreme Bench of the State the last of December, 1882. Gov. J. B. Jack- son, on the first of January, 1883, appointed Judge Woods to fill the vacancy until the next general election in November, 1884. He was a can- didate for election to fill the unexpired term of Judge Haymond. He was
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elected by a good majority, after nearly a year's service on the bench. Of his qualifications for that high position, serving with him for the six years he was on the bench, I believe I am qualified to speak.
He brought with him to the bench fine native talents, his classical edu- cation, wide range of reading, his legal education, which was very much widened and deepened by his long and successful practice at the bar; these, with sound and mature judgment, practical good sense, great industry, with a profound sense of love of justice, and the obligation on him to find the justice and right of the case, fitted him in a high degree to discharge the duties of that most responsible position. He was a cautious, consci- entious judge. He also studied and worked to keep himself in the line of the decisions. He did not believe he had any right, and he did not dare, to depart from the rule of settled law. For the strongest proof of this let me refer to this very able and exhaustive opinion in the case of Wilson v. Perry, 30 W. Va., where he was compelled to decide that of a testator's bequests, some were void because the settled law in this State and in Virginia said they were, because indefinite charities. A good and pious old man had left money in trust for churches and Sunday-schools, and Judge Woods would have been glad to have sustained the bequests if he could have done so. Authorities from many of the States would have upheld such bequests, but the decisions in Virginia and this State had pronounced such bequests void, and he did not dare to depart from those decisions. The Legislature had not overruled them, and he did not dare to usurp the law-making power. His duty was to decide what the law was, and not what he might think it ought to be. He and his associates would not, because they felt that they did not dare to do so, indulge at all in "judge- made law."
Another one of Judge Woods' decisions which I will cite displayed great ability of analysis, and all the other qualities of an able jurist. That is Flanagan's case in 26 W. Va. Flanagan had been indicted for the murder of a woman, who, with her child, had been burned to death in a log cabin in Randolph County. Flanagan was tried, convicted of the murder and sen- tenced to die on the gallows. In the opinion Judge Woods desplayed great ability. He came to the conclusion, in which all the judges concured, that there was absolutely no proof in the record, (and all evidence was certified) that the house was burned by an incendiary; that it did not take fire acci- dentally, and there was no proof of the corpus delicti and the court reversed the judgment, set aside the verdict, and remanded the case for a new trial. In that case the rules governing circumstantial evidence are well and forci- bly laid down. Judge Woods wrote many strong opinions, covering a great number of subjects. His opinions will be found in eleven volumes of our Supreme Court reports from the twenty-first to the thirty-first, inclusive.
DAVID WILLIAM SHAW.
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If our courts of last resort could have such judges as Samuel Woods there would be no room for complaint.
Judge Woods was a deeply religious man and for his religion he never apologized, and was careful not to put any strain upon it. He was ever ready to testify to the truth of religion. A scene occurred once at a skat- ing rink in Wheeling that illustrates the faithfulness of Judge Woods to his religious 'principles. Miss Jennie Smith, the evangelist, was holding a series of meetings in the rink. One night a poor man in deep distress came to the anxious seat, to find comfort, that he sadly needed. Judge Woods and the president of the court were there, and Miss Smith called on both to pray for the poor penitent, which they did, and there on their knees wrest- ling with God for mercy for that poor distressed soul, was half the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. Did they lower their dignity? If there is anything in our holy religion, they did not. . They were but doing their duty. Judge Woods was never ashamed of the profession he had made. For many long years he had been a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The religion that he had exprienced in his youth was his solace though life and in death. Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State as he was, he felt he was but a poor mortal, and in daily need of forgiveness. He believed in prayer, as
"The simplest form of speech That infant lips can try; Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach The Majesty on high."
and that
"Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, The Christian's native air, His watchword at the gate of death, He enters heaven with prayer."
Judge Woods on the expiration of his term of office on the 31st day of December, 1888, retired from the bench and returned to private life, full of honor, and with a consciousness of having faithfully discharged the most sacred trust. He did not again go into active practice of the law as he might have done, but spent his time attending to his large private interests. In his retirement he enjoyed life; of his wife and family he was extremely fond, and his grandchildren were good company for him. A short time before his retirement from the bench in June, 1889, nis Alma Mater con- ferred on him the degree of LL.D. He had a great sorrow in December, 1895, in the loss of his loving wife, with whom he had lived for forty-six years. It was a hard blow and he only survived it a year and a few months, for on the 17th day of February, 1897, he died very suddenly, after a few days illness, of heart disease; died so suddenly that he had no time to call his children about him and bid them good-bye. But what of that? Had he not talked to them many a time of the future? His whole life speaks to
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them now. He was trusted in the church, in the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a prominent member, in every station of life, in the home, at the bar, in the political service of the State, on the Supreme Bench. He was conscientious, able and upright, and left the world better for having lived in it.
Isabella
JOHN HOPKINS WOODS, son of Judge Samuel and Elizabeth (Neeson) Woods, was born in Philippi, November 23, 1853; and on June 22, 1898, at West View, near Staunton, Virginia, he was married to Miss Jennie, daugh- ter of John W. and Martha J. (Gammon) Canter. Mr. Woods is a member of the M. E. Church, is a Master Mason, in politics he is a Democrat, and by profession a lawyer, residing in Philippi, where his home, but recently completed, is a model of taste and elegance, both in architecture and furnish- ing. He is a gentleman of education and culture, of wide reading and cor- rect appreciation, having received his training in the West Virginia Uni- versity at Morgantown and at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He entered the University in 1872 and continued there till nearly the end of the sophomore year, 1875, when he entered West Point. His tastes were rather for law than for a military life, and he studied for that profes- sion under the excellent guidance of his father, and in 1878 was admitted to practice after having been duly examined as to his qualifications by the Supreme Court of West Virginia; and he soon built up a large practice to which he has given his sole attention. He has always taken a deep inter- est in politics, and has contributed much to the support and success of the Democratic party. His ideas on political subjects are broad and liberal, and his principles are the result of sound thinking; and his party, in his county and in the State, has had no supporter more conscientious, more industrious or more hopeful of ultimate triumph of the doctrine which he upholds in defeat as well as in victory. He was a clerk in the Constitu- tional Convention, of which his father was a member, which met at Charles- ton in 1872 and framed the present constitution of the State. In 1883 he became the joint owner (in connection with Hon. D. W. Shaw) of the Bar- bour Jeffersonian, and his management of the paper was able and his editor- ial writings were vigorous. The paper was Democratic in politics. Sub- sequently Mr. Woods purchased the interest of Mr. Shaw, and for some time was sole editor and proprietor, finally selling the property to Hon. D. W. Gall, who consolidated it with the paper which he owned, making of the two the Jeffersonian-Plaindealer. After retiring from the newspaper field, Mr. Woods devoted his whole time to his profession, except that he neglected none of the calls of duty in matters social and political. In 1898 he received the Democratic nomination, in the Tenth Senatorial District, for the State Senate; and although the district was overwhelmingly Re- publican, yet he conducted an admirable campaign and merited and received the thanks of his party for the able fight he had made, having canvassed
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and spoken in every county and nearly every magisterial district in the sen- atorial district, consisting of Barbour, Lewis, Randolph, Upshur and Web- ster Counties. In 1899 he was elected by the Philippi bar as special judge of the circuit court, and presided during the hearing of the result of the special election at Belington which divided that town.
SAMUEL VANHORN WOODS, son of Judge Samuel Woods, was born at Philippi, August 31, 1856, and was married March 9, 1892, at Philippi, to Mollie, daughter of Isaac H. and Margaret (Jarvis) Strickler. Their child, Ruth, is five years old. Mr. Woods is a member of the M. E. Church, is a Knight of Pythias, and in politics is a Democrat, and by profession a law- yer, living at Philippi. He was educated in the public schools and at the West Virginia University, where he was prevented from graduating be- cause of sickness. He never permitted ambition for political preferment to interfere with his business as a lawyer, although he takes a strong interest in his party; and as a result he has attained to a degree of success in his profession which places him in the foremost ranks of the lawyers of West Virginia, while still a camparatively young man. His practice is now worth more than $5000 a year, and he is so situated that he can, to a large extent, select from what is offered him such business only as is agreeable and profit- able. He was strongly urged in 1898, by influential members of his party, to permit his name to go before the convention as a candidate for Congress; but he persisted in declining the honor. He has been, at different times, chosen as a special judge of the circuit courts of the counties of Randolph, Upshur and Taylor. He has found time to take part in Sunday School work, and was president of the West Virginia Sunday School Convention which met in Fairmont July 26, 1894, and on that occasion he read a paper which attracted much attention. His residence at Philippi is one of the finest in the county and a handsome picture of it will be found in this book.
WILLIAM HENRY WENTZ was born 1863, son of James W. and Lucy Catherine (Harris) Wentz. His brothers and sisters are, John David, James Abner, Charles Columbus, George Wasnington, Virginia, Ellen, Martha, Emma and Allie. Mr. Wentz is a Baptist, an Odd Fellow, and K. of P., a Republican and a minister, now employed in the U. S. Fish Commission at Washington, D. C. He attended the Fairmont Normal School, the Mt. Pleasant Academy, Crozer Theological Seminary, and the University of New York City. He taught five years, was four years deputy clerk of the circuit court of Barbour; in 1895 was delegate to the National Convention of the League of Republican Clubs; in 1896 was alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention at St. Louis; U. S. Commissioner to Inter- national Fisheries Exposition held at Bergen, Norway, in 1898. He trav- elled through many parts of Norway, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Bel- gium, England, Ireland and Canada. James Wilson Wentz was born in Rockbridge County 1838, and was a son of John Wentz, who was
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