George W. Atkinson

Source:  The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 
         1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
         Chicago and New York, Volume III.

***********
pg. 2
Kanawha
JUDGE GEORGE W. ATKINSON. A life of public service, in-
volving some of the highest honors that can be conferred by
state or nation—former governor of West Virginia and
former judge of the Federal Court of Claims—has been that
of Judge Atkinson. Most significant is the fact that he has
retired from his public career possessing in magnified degree
the affection and esteem of the people of his home state.
This esteem was justified by his character. It can be said
of him as of few other men that he never abused the con-
fidence so completely reposed in him during all the years
he was in public office.

Judge Atkinson was born on a farm along Elk River in
Kanawha County, June 29, 1845, son of James and Miriam
(Rader) Atkinson. He was carefully educated, and his
scholarship is attested by degrees representing graduation
from several higher institutions and also honorary degrees
conferred as tokens of his public services. He graduated
A. B. from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1870, and Master
of Arts in 1873, and in 1874 graduated in law from Howard
University at Washington. He received the Doctor of
Philosophy degree from Mount Union College in 1885, pro
merito, and honorary degrees have been conferred upon him
by De Pauw University, U. S. Grant University, University
of Nashville, Ohio Wesleyan University and West Virginia
University.

He was admitted to the bar in 1875, and from the first has
been active in civil and political affairs. Before he took up
law practice he was a member of the Charleston Board of
Education, in 1869-71, and was postmaster of that city from
1870 to 1876. He was a United States internal revenue
agent from 1876 to 1880, and in 1881 was appointed United
States marshal for the District of West Virginia, serving
four years. His conduct in that office was accorded special
commendation by the Department of Justice. In the mean-
time Judge Atkinson had become a resident of Wheeling,
and in 1888 he was elected to represent the First Congres-
sional District in Congress, serving as a member of the
Fifty-first Congress from 1889 to 1891. He declined re-
election. He was engaged in the practice of law at Wheel-
ing until 1896, and in that year came to him the distinctive
honor of being elected governor of West Virginia on the
republican ticket, the first republican to hold that office
since 1871. His term of governor ended in 1901. As gov-
ernor his administration was an effective one in every
department requiring his executive ability, and these results
were accomplished in part by his practical and diplomatic
method of handling conflicting interests and disposing of
party and personal quarrels. Possibly no other governor
of West Virginia ever left office with so great a degree of
esteem from his party and citizens generally.

Soon after the close of his term as governor he was
selected in 1901 as United States district attorney for the
Southern District of West Virginia. He served in that office
until April 15, 1905, when he was named by President
Roosevelt a member of the United States Court of Claims.
When he retired from this court after eleven years of serv-
ice, on April 17, 1916, he received the grateful tributes of
many men prominent in the life of the nation, who united
in paying their respects to the high quality of his work on
the Federal Bench and to his personal character as well.

Early in his life Judge Atkinson became a member of
the Masonic order, and he was grand master of the Grand
Lodge of the state in 1876-77, and for twenty years, 1885-
1905, was grand secretary. Judge Atkinson from youth
has been an earnest Christian, and one of the prominent
lay members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, being lay
delegate to the National Conference of 1876 and to that of
1888. He has been one of West Virginia's most popular
and widely sought public speakers, and besides his appear-
ance in political campaigns he has done much platform work,
lecturing on literary, religious and Masonic subjects. He is
author of an impressive list of works, including: "History
of Kanawha," 1876; "West Virginia Pulpit," 1878;
"After the Moonshiners," 1879; "Revenue Digest," 1880;
"ABC of the Tariff," 1882; "Don't, or Negative Chips
from Blocks of Living Truths," 1886; "Prominent Men of
West Virginia," 1895; "Psychology Simplified," 1897;
"Volume of Public Addresses" and a "Volume of
Poems," and more recently he was author of the "Bench
and Bar of West Virginia," published in 1919 by the
Virginia Law Book Company of Charleston.

December 2, 1868, Judge Atkinson married Miss Ellen
Eagan, of an old Kanawha County family. She died in
1893, the mother of five children. On June 24, 1897, Judge
Atkinson married Mrs. Myra Hornor Camden, widow of the
late Judge G. D. Camden of Clarksburg.

Kindly by nature, generous to a fault, true to his friends
and his convictions, knowing no distinction in rank among
men, except that marked by character, Judge Atkinson
is a splendid type of the sturdy American boy grown to
a man of influence and still, at the age of seventy-seven,
exercising an influence for good in his home state.


Submitted by:  vfcrook@trellis.net (Valerie F. Crook) 

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