Berkeley County, West Virginia Biography of Frank Vernon ALER ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Pat C. Johns March 2000 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923. The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York. Volume II Pg. 477-478 FRANK VERNON ALER. A successful corporation lawyer must not only be an alert and broad member of his profession, but a keen and far-seeing business man. His is preeminently the domain of practical law, in which solid logic and hard fact, fertility of resource and vigor of professional treatment are generally relied upon in preference to the graces of oratory and ingenious theorizing. When to these qualities are added oratorical powers, and the humor, geniality and unfailing courtesy of a gentleman, the main traits have been set forth of the prominent corporation lawyer, Frank Vernon Aler, of Martinsburg. Mr. Aler was born at Martinsburg, Berkeley County, West Virginia, April 19, 1868, and is a son of Samuel and Elizabeth Virginia (Coomes) Aler. His father was born February 11, 1828, in Maryland, and after acquiring a good literary education was thoroughly trained as a mechanic and draftsman and became an expert in these lines. When still comparatively a young man he entered the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company during the time of that railroad's construction, and was a close friend and associate of John W. Garrett. At the breaking out of the war between the states Mr. Aler was placed in charge of the United States Government arsenal at Harpers Ferry, and was subsequently identified with the Quartermaster's Department. While thus occupied with his duties on one occasion he was detailed to go to Frederick, Maryland, to dismantle several locomotives that were in danger of capture by the Confederate forces in the locality, and this feat he accomplished, he and his men working under cover of darkness, taking the locomotives apart and secreting the numerous parts. Following the close of the four-year struggle he settled down at Martinsburg, where he became assistant master mechanic for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. In 1891 United States Senator Stephen B. Elkins, then secretary of war, secured Mr. Aler a position in the United States Navy department, and he moved to Washington, D.C., where he was living at the time of his death. Immediately upon receipt of the news of the Johnstown flood Mr. Aler rushed to the Bridge at Harpers Ferry several locomotives, the combined weight of which probably saved the bridge from being swept away by the rushing flood waters. Mr. Aler held his position at Washington until he reached the age of eighty-six years, at which time he resigned, and died in the next year, a man greatly respected and esteemed by all who knew him. He married Elizabeth Virginia Coomes, a native of Virginia and a lineal descendant of Capt. William Richardson, a master mariner of the merchant marine service who located in Maryland in Lord Baltimore's time. Her parents moved from Virginia to Maryland and spent their last days at Gaithersburg. Mrs. Aler survived her husband two years, and was eighty-seven years of age at the time of her demise. She and Mr. Aler reared eight children: Charles Edwin, Anna Madora, Lillie Virginia, Ida Summers, Samuel E., Frank Vernon, Royal W. and Walter Marvin. At the age of twelve years Frank Vernon Aler left the public schools to commence an apprenticeship to the trade of printer in the office of the Martinsburg Independent, which was published at that time by J. Nelson Wisner. On the completion of his apprenticeship he entered the office of Senator Charles J. Faulkner and studied law for two years, partly under the preceptorship of Judge Daniel B. Lucas. At the age of twenty-two years he took the examination before the Supreme Court of Appeals, in open court, and was admitted to practice, at that time forming a partnership with his former preceptor, Judge Lucas, an association which continued for fifteen years, during which time the combination was looked upon as one of the strongest in this part of the state. Since then Mr. Aler has been engaged in practice alone at Martinsburg, where he confines himself to the practice of corporation law. He has personally represented a number of large interests in important litigation during the past few years, and is an active and successful practitioner. His practice has covered a wide range and he has a brilliant record as a trial lawyer, but his constructive ability, as shown by the various organizations and reorganizations with which he has been connected, has won for him a still higher place in the esteem and confidence of his clients. He has promoted and financed industries representing $12,000,000, and in 1921 accepted a case involving the organization of a concern with $5,000,000 capital. He practices in the Circuit and Federal Courts of various states and in the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest tribune. Mr. Aler's large and important practice makes him a very busy man, but he is something more than a professional drudge, for he has several side interests that occasionally take his attention away from the serious business of law. In his home community of Martinsburg he is known as a horticulturist of something more than amateur ability, a producer of apples from his orchard on his country estate, and a thoroughly learned breeder of Scotch collie dogs. He is a valued member of the West Virginia State Historical and Antiquarian Society, and that he was possessed of a facile and trenchant pen even in his younger days is shown in the fact that in 1888 he published Aler's History of Berkeley County, which is a recognized authority on the early history of the county.