U.S. Data Repository -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: History and Progress of the County of Marion, West Virginia by George A. Dunnington, Publisher 1880 Pen Sketches of Prominent Citizens JAMES MORROW, JR., ESQ. The position which the above named gentleman occupies among the legal fraternity of West, Virginia is second to none. He is one of the brightest and best known lawyers in the State, and is a distinguished citizen of Marion county. Mr. Morrow was born in that portion of Brooke county, Va., which now comprises Hancock county, West Virginia, in the year 1837, and passed his boyhood days upon his father's farm, attending school in the neighborhood, and laying the foundation of his after life of usefulness. He received a classical education in the neighboring States of Pennsylvania and Ohio "the people of the Northern Pan-Handle being in that day," as Mr. Morrow himself humorously expresses it, "obliged to resort to their more highly cultured neighbors for the humanizing agencies of higher education and harvest whisky." At the age of twenty years he commenced the study of law and continued to prosecute his legal studies until the year 1862, when he was admitted to the bar in Illinois. Three years afterwards, in 1865, he located in Fairmont and has since engaged constantly in the practice of his profession in Marion and adjoining counties. In 1871, he represented Marion county in the West Virginia Legislature-the first session of that body after the removal of the Capital to Charleston--and was a member of the Committee on the Judiciary. He was a member of the Special Court in the contested election case of Harrison against Lewis for the office of Judge of this circuit, and wrote the opinion of the majority of the Court; he was also counsel for Auditor Bennett and Treasurer Burdette in their impeachment trials before the West Virginia Senate. In 1870-71, he occupied the editorial chair of the Fairmont Liberalist for some months. There are few such men as James Morrow in the State. He possesses rare legal abilities, and as an orator has few superiors. By his quiet humor, sparkling wit, cutting sarcasm, eloquent and dignified language and manners, as well as by his great knowledge of the law, he has attained an enviable reputation as a pleader in court, while as a public speaker he is exceedingly popular. Aside from his abilities as a lawyer, Mr, Morrow is a gentleman of culture and refinement from a literary and social standpoint.