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History of Wetzel County, West Virginia
by John C. McEldowney, Jr., 1901

Pages 91-92
JUDGE THOMAS I. STEALEY.

In the History of Wetzel county, Judge Stealey should not be
forgotten for the part which he took in the proceedings preliminary
to the formation of the county by the act of the legislature of
Virginia. The continued agitation of the re-location of the county
seat of Tyler county from Middlebourne to Sistersville. caused the
citizens of Middlebourne to take such a course as would put at rest
the vexatious question and to that end the father of Judge Stealey,
James Stealey, long since deceased, in connection with other citizens
of Tyler county, held a meeting in the law office of J. M. Stevenson
(then residing at Middlebourne), but subsequently an honored citizen
of the city of Parkersburg, who at the election for president in 1844
was an elector on the Whig ticket, bearing the name at its head of
the distinguished American Statesman, Henry Clay, the author of the
protection tariff of 1845 and the compromise bill of 1853. This is
not wholly a digression, for strange as it may seem, it was a wise
act of strategy politically to hold a meeting in the office of a
leading Whig such as was James M. Stevenson. It was intended at that
time to nominate a Democrat as a candidate for the election to the
Virginia Legislature. P. W. Martin, according to the Democratic party
usage, was entitled at that time to the nomination for the office,
but there had been local dissentions in the ranks of the party which
made it unwise to select a man from that part of Tyler county in the
person of P. M. Martin, a staunch Democrat of the Jeffersonian style,
to be the candidate, and the friends of the measure, to divide Tyler
county by making a new county (Wetzel), by a line striking off all of
the northern portion of Tyler county for that purpose, and thus get
rid of that part of the territory of the county that was in favor of
the re-location of the county seat, it became necessary to secure a
delegate who would advocate the new county in the legislature, and
James G. West, of the northern portion of the county, was selected by
James Stealey, James M. Stevenson, and Joseph McCoy, two Whigs, and
the last named a Democrat. A committee appointed to select a delegate
by the Democratic meeting held in the law office of a leading Whig,
after the nomination of James G. West by James M. Stevenson and James
Stealey, two Whigs, and Joseph McCoy, a Democrat. Judge Stealey, then
only fifteen years of age, was directed by said nominating committee
to prepare the notice required by law to secure the formation of a
new county, which was promptly prepared and posted by him at many
prominent places in the county as required by law. After years the
people of Wetzel county remembered favorably the part taken by him in
the formation of the county by giving him a majority of 1,200 votes
over his opponent, the late distinguished Judge C. J. Stewart, for
the office of Judge in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, composed of the
counties of Wetzel, Tyler, Doddridge and Ritchie, which position
Judge Stealey held for a term of eight years, discharging the duties
thereof faithfully and with ability and honor. Judge Stealey moved
from New Martinsville in the year 1889 to the city of Parkersburg,
where he has since resided, engaging in the practice of law with
great success, and having accumulated a sufficient competency to live
a quiet life, he retired from the practice of his profession in 1898
and is yet living at the age of 72, the picture of health and
contentment, devoting much of his time to the study of the advanced
problems of science, history and economies.

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