U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Maxwell, Wilson Brent (b. 1853) ------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Tucker County, West Virginia From the Earliest Explorations and Settlements to the Present Time. by Hu Maxwell Kingwood, W. Va.; Preston Publishing Company, 1884. Pages 202-204, and Pages 455-459 W. B. MAXWELL. On August 31, 1874, W. B. Maxwell received license to practice law, having been examined before Judges C. S. Lewis, John Brannon and J. S. Huffman. He had been studying law three years, and had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the forms and technicalities of the law before he presumed to enter into the profession. He had spent several years attending school at Morgantown, Weston and Clarksburg, and, at that time, was regarded as the most finely educated man in the county. Having gained an important case before Justice William Talbott, at the first of his professional life — it was his very first case — he established or won a reputation at once as a lawyer of ability. His practice soon became considerable; and he followed up his first success with a series of others, so that, ere long, he had gained for himself a permanent practice. He has never particularly studied to become a criminal lawyer. It is not to him the most desirable branch of the profession; although, in numerous cases which have been entrusted to him he has proven himself possessed of the characteristics that go to make up a criminal lawyer of the first class. The main set of his inclination is toward civil cases ; and in this his superior, considering his age, perhaps, cannot be found in West Virginia. To understand and bring into practice the principles of the common law seem natural to him. He has made himself the master of Blackstone, Kent, Tucker, Minor, Jones, and other lawyers who have penetrated unexplored fields. As a speaker he stands pre-eminent. None of his colleagues surpass him in this. With a clear voice and a distinct articulation, he speaks with a natural earnestness and force that surpasses all that artificial culture could do. The juries whom he addresses forget the man in the subject, and hear not the words so much as the meaning that is in them. He never appeals to passion or depends upon momentary excitement for success. He relies upon sober reason to decide for him. If, in the course of an address, he finds that his jury have been placed under the influence of furor or undue enthusiasm, it is his first study to lead them back again to a normal mood, then to appeal to their natural reason and understanding. No lawyer of Tucker County has, or ever has had, a more extensive practice than he. His business is large and is fast increasing in the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State. In chancery practice he is eminently successful, and at such business he has no peer at this bar. The suits of the large land-holders are placed in his hands, and the party who can secure his services considers himself fortunate. He has never allowed politics to interfere with his profession, although his political ability is scarcely second to his ability in the law. At the age of thirty, he finds himself not only at the head of the legal profession of his county, but also well established in neighboring counties, and recognized throughout the State. - - - - - - - - Pages 455-459 Wilson B. Maxwell, son of Rufus Maxwell, was born April 17, 1853. In his younger days he possessed a most prolific imagination. He could imagine anything. He never went into the woods, or the orchard or beyond the yard-fence without having wonders to relate of deer, lions, hyenas and gigantic frogs that he had seen while gone. Just before McChesney's skirmish it was rumored that the war was to be one of extermination, and that sixty thousand Yankees had been scattered along the B. & O. R. R. with instructions to sweep south and destroy everything that should fall into their power. The country was much agitated, and young Maxwell, although only eight years old, seemed to enter into the general anxiety. So, when his mother sent him to the spring for a bucket of water he imagined that he saw Yankees. He ran to the house and reported that three, soldiers had run down from the hill, stopped to load their guns, and then advanced toward the house. His father was reading the newspaper; but when he heard this, he ran into the wheat field and lay hid all day. It is needless to say that there was probably not a soldier within twenty miles. During the war, farmers in Tucker did not work much, because they did not know at what time their property might be destroyed. They aimed to raise only what they could use. This seemed to give young Maxwell a distrust of farm work ever afterward, and he did not like to buckle up fairly and squarely to agricultural drudgery, and, in fact, would not do it. Probably he thought that the war might flare up again at some unguarded moment and consume the work of the farmer, and, therefore, it would be as well to wait awhile longer till things should become more settled before expending much labor on the farm. So, he waited, and along three or four years after the war, his two brothers, next younger than him, came to be large enough to do something. He assumed control of the farm work, and seemed to think that the cruel war was indeed over, and there would be no risk to run now in raising a crop of corn. After a long siege of it, and not a little help, he got the fields plowed, and by the first of June, every hill of corn was planted. Now came the plowing and hoeing of the corn. A long series of experiments has proven that corn must be cultivated or it will throw up the sponge and quit growing. So, W. B. decided that his corn must be plowed and hoed. It had rained a good deal, and the fields were tolerably large, and the corn was soon hidden by the weeds. In such a case, three furrows should be run for every row, to tear out the weeds, and make less work for those who had the hoeing to do. But, young Maxwell concluded that two furrows were plenty, and in short rows one was enough. He plowed, and put his two younger brothers, one eight and the other six years old, to hoeing, and expected them to keep up with the plow. The little rascals didn't half work; but, if they had worked their best, they could not have kept up with the plow. The sun was hot, and the weeds were rank, and the corn was little, and the clods were hard, and, withal, the progress was slow. W. B. would get to the field with the old white horse about nine o'clock a. m., and by making the old horse bend to it he would get a couple dozen rows ahead of the boys by the time the hottest and laziest part of the afternoon came on. Then he would tie the old beast up in the fence corner to rest and chew weeds, and he would climb on the fence in the cool shade of the butter-nut trees and sit there like the lord of creation to watch the boys hoe corn. The boys were little, and one was awfully freckled; but, in spite of this, they were full of energy and independence, and would not ask for help as long as there was any hope of pulling through without it: so, they would dig and hoe at the weed-infested corn rows until they saw that it was impossible to get them all done before dark. Then they would suggest to W. B., who had been resting for two hours, that it would not be altogether alien to their wishes if he would lay hands on a hoe and lend a little assistance. But, he would reply by encouraging them to persevere, telling them that that was the way he got his start. Thus, the sun would go down, leaving ten rows for them to hoe in the morning while he was taking his morning nap; for, he was conscientiously opposed to getting up before eight o'clock. When fall came, and the corn was cribbed, it looked like a small aggregate; and W. B. could not understand why the crib was not fuller. However, he didn't expect to need much of it, as he was going to school. He went to Morgantown to the West Virginia University, and there fell in with J. J. Peterson, of Weston, and there is no telling how they planned mischief. Mr, Peterson may have been innocent, but it looks as if he had something to do with coaxing Maxwell to run away from Morgantown and go to Weston to school. At any rate, he very suddenly appeared in Weston, and remained there a year or two, coming home once or twice to give the boys some advice about the farming. When he left Weston, he went to Clarksburg, and attended a private school taught by a man named Turner. When he left Clarksburg, he did the most of his studying at home, out in the fields where the other boys were at work. He would repeat his old Latin Grammar, moneo, moneas, moneat, and tell the boys it meant, "mow weeds, mow grass, mow hay." Thus the summer seemed to pass beautifully over him, and he gained a great deal of agricultural knowledge from his books. From the Georgics and Bucolics of Virgil he learned how to trim apple trees, plant grape vines, take care of horses and sheep, and he always told the other boys how to do it. From Horace, Juvinal and Quintilian he learned how to arrange words in sentences, and he told the boys, and it was a great encouragement to them as they dug away at the work and listened with all the patience of Job for the dinner horn. W. B. Maxwell's talents seemed to fit him better for the profession of the law than for anything else, and accordingly, he commenced reading in 1873. In 1874 he was examined before Judges Lewis, Brannon and Huffman, and obtained license to practice. He located in St. George, and has since lived there, and has had a constantly growing practice. He is local counsel for the W. Va. C. & P. R. W. Co., the managers of which are Henry G. Davis, James G. Blaine, William Windom, and others. He has been county superintendent of Tucker. In 1876 he was married to Miss Caroline Howell Lindsay, of Madison, Indiana. Their children are Claud, Bessie and Hu. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Tucker County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/tucker/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------