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THE SUPREME COURT OF WEST VIRGINIA.
III. BY J. W. VANDERVORT OF THE WEST VIRGINIA BAR. SOME men have such marked person ality, mentality and inherent strength that they impress their time and age with the stamp of their genius. Such a man was Judge Haymond. Like most men who are not born great and had not greatness thrust upon them, but who achieved it, he came from the humbler walks of life. He was born upon a farm near Fairmont, Vir ginia, December 15, 1823. He was a son of Col. Thomas S. Haymond and Harriet A. Hay mond. His early life was uneventful and was much the same as that of other boys growing up under roundings, similar but seven u rin his youth he showed the vigor of thought and bold in dependence acteristic of his charlater ALPHEUS F.
years. He attended the Morgantown Academy, an excellent school of its day, for two years, and later studied law with Edgar E. Wilson of Morgantown and was admitted to the bar in 1842, when only nineteen years of age. He soon became recognized as an able law yer and had a lucrative practice before the war. It may be here remarked that in Western Virginia and in many Southern
States the Rebellion of 1861 is a period marked in the lives of men even yet living, for it was then that home ties were broken, offices were closed, the ordinary avocations of life were turned over to other hands and the youth and chivalry of the South, moved by varying impulses, went forth to war, with the North or the South. Even in 1853 and 1857 he was a mem ber of the Virginia Assembly, and in the Richmond Conven tion of 186 1 opposed secession; but after hostilities begun he entered the Southern Army and remained there until General Lee surrendered at Appomattox. He returned to Fairmont sumed his and practice. reBy an act of Con gress he was relieved from disabilities aris HAYMOND. ing from his relations He was in 1872 a member with the of South. the Consti tutional Convention, and at the election held under it he was elected a Judge of the Su preme Court of Appeals to fill a short term, and in 1876 he was elected for a full term of twelve years. He resigned this position, to take effect January i, 1883, on account of failing health and business responsibilities. Prior to his resignation and after its an
