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Fleming, Aretas Brooks (1839-1923)
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BENCH AND BAR of WEST VIRGINIA
Edited by Geo. Wesley Atkinson, L.L.B., L.L.D.
Virginia Law Book Company, Charleston W.Va.; 1919

Pages 59-60
Hon. Aretas Brooks Fleming, LL.D.

Our subject is the son of Benjamin F. and Rhoda B. Fleming, all of
whom are natives of Marion County, Virginia, now West Virginia. He
was educated in the common schools, and at the University of Virginia
at Charlottesville, from which he graduated in the law department,
then conducted by that able and distinguished lawyer and teacher Dr.
John B. Minor, who never issued a diploma to a student who was not,
in all respects, competent to receive it. He was admitted to the
Marion County Bar in 1860, where he is still practicing. He is of
medium height, of stocky build, and although long since past the
meridian of life, carries the appearance of one much younger in
years. His practice, extending over many years, embraced cases in all
the State and Federal Courts, in which he has been unusually
successful. By industry, honorable conduct, and proper methods of
living, he has accumulated a large estate, which he carefully
supervises and thoroughly enjoys. He is known and respected as an
upright man, and honest in both thought and purpose, which in a large
degree, account for his success in life. In the beginning of his
career, he saw and believed that the ability to earn, power to learn,
and the faculty of looking forward are the three capacities requisite
to success in his profession, and he followed them to the letter, and
has succeeded grandly.

Judge Fleming was a member of the West Virginia Legislature for two
terms, and served successfully eleven years as a judge of the Circuit
Court. In 1888, he was the nominee of the Democratic Party and was
elected and served faithfully until the end of a four-year term as
Governor of the Commonwealth. In all of his official acts he was both
courteous and conservative, and with his modesty and urbanity went no
shadow of weakness or lack of decision, but on the contrary, the
"fortiter in re" was an essential part of his nature, necessary to
his own self respect and commanding the respect of others.

After his term of Governor expired, he returned to Fairmont and
resumed his law practice, which was large and profitable, and
although his health has not been good for the last two or three
years, he has several attorneys in his office, who carry the greater
part of the burden of his large volume of business, but it is all
supervised and directed by himself. For several years past he has
confined all of his energies to the business of large corporations,
and is known to be one of the State's ablest attorneys in that branch
of the law.

Governor Fleming married in early life, has five children, and
resides in the City of Fairmont, in the county where he was born,
with several grandchildren gathered about him, who are a pleasure and
comfort to him in his declining years.

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Additional Information:
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DEATH CERTIFICATE
Date of birth: October 15, 1839
Date of death: October 13, 1923
Father: Benjamin Fleming, born in Marion County, WV
Mother: Rhoda Brooks, born in Massachusetts
Place of burial: Woodlawn Cemetery

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