HON. WILLIAM EDWIN CHILTON

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 517-518
Kanawha

HON. WILLIAM EDWIN CHILTON. While his distinguish-
ing public service was in the United States Senate, where
he was one of the most resourceful members who formu-
lated and shaped the laws and policies of the Government
during the first term of the Wilson administration, William
E. Chilton in his home state has for forty years been a
remarkably successful lawyer, and in and out of his pro-
fession has been a leader in West Virginia affairs.

He was born March 17, 1858, at the place then known
as Colesmouth, now Saint Albans, in Kanawha County.
The Chiltons were a well known family in old Virginia.
His grandfather, Blackwell Chilton, was a planter in West-
moreland County, and about 1830 came from Fauquier
County to West Virginia. He had been a boat owner on
the Potomac River, and in Kanawha County he was a
farmer and merchant. He died at the age of eighty-nine.
William E. Chilton, Sr., father of former Senator Chilton,
was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, and was a child
when brought to West Virginia. He served as a captain
in the State Militia, and for many years was a merchant
at Clendenin, Kanawha County, and was twice democratic
nominee for the office of sheriff. He died in 1881, at the
age of fifty-six. His wife was Mary Elizabeth Wilson,
a native of Kanawha County, who died in 1918, at the age
of eighty-seven. Her father, Samuel Wilson, was brought
as a child from Kentucky by his father, James Wilson,
who was a native of County Tipperary, Ireland. Samuel
Wilson was a tobacco manufacturer and also a manufac-
turer of staves and lumber and a merchant at Saint Albans,
where he died at the age of eighty eight.

William Edwin Chilton secured his early education in
public and private schools and under private tutors, one
of whom was H. B. Mickey, whose chief enthusiasm was
Latin and Byron, still another instructor of his youth was
W. R. Jones, still living. He attended the Baptist school
known as Sheldon College at Saint Albans, whose proprietor
was Peter B. Reynolds. One of his fellow students at the
same time was George B. Foster. Senator Chilton had
experience as a teacher, and for a time was principal of
Saint Albans School. He was admitted to the bar and
began his law practice at Charleston in 1880. He was ad--
mitted to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1891,
and for thirty years has handled a large volume of busi-
ness in the Federal Courts.

Mr. Chilton has steadily espoused the cause of the demo-
cratic party, and for many years worked for the success
of the party and its candidates without thought of any
reward for himself. Being in a locality where the party was
in the minority, he accepted nominations for the good of
the cause rather than through hope of election. In 1883
he was appointed prosecuting attorney of Kanawha County
for an unexpired term. He was the democratic nominee
for the same office in 1884, and was also nominated for the
State Senate in 1886. In 1892 he was chairman of the
Democratic State Executive Committee, and he served a
term as secretary of state of West Virginia from 1893 to
1897. In the early years of his practice he was a partner
of John E. Kenna, and was active in the campaign that
elected Mr. Kenna to the United States Senate, in which
he served ten years beginning in 1883.

The State Legislature was democratic in 1910, and Mr.
Chilton became a candidate before that body for the
United States Senate. He was elected for the long term,
from 1911 to 1917. In 1916 he was a candidate before
the people for re-election. When Mr. Chilton entered tlie
Senate, March 4, 1911, the republicans were still in the
majority. He was placed on the judiciary committee and
the printing committee, and after the democrats secured
the majority he was made chairman of the census com-
mittee and later became chairman of the printing commit-
tee, one of the most important in the Senate. It is possible
to review only some of the outstanding features of his
work in the Senate. The Democratic Caucus and Judiciary
Committee put him in entire charge of the matter of con-
firming Judge Brandeis' appointment to the Supreme Court.
He was chairman of the subcommittee that took evidence,
and he wrote the majority report and made the fight that
after many weeks of delay and obstruction resulted in
the confirmation. LaFollette was the only republican to
vote for the confirmation of Justice Brandeis. The evi-
dence on this subject made two large volumes. Owing
to the illness of Senator Culbertson of Texas, chairman
of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Chilton was named
to take charge of the Clayton Bill on the floor of the
Senate. This bill, now a law, dealt with the interlocking
directorates and other subjects in the field of interstate
commerce, and the relations of capital and labor. He had
charge of that bill while it was in conference, where he
was active in the debate, and some of the sections of the
bill were written by Senator Chilton.  He was one of
the Senate members who used their influence to carry out
Wilson's policy for the repeal of the free canal tolls.

It was Senator Chilton, who discovered by digging
through the records, that when in 1784 Virginia conveyed
the Northwest Territory to the General Government of
the colonies it did not deed it outright, but in trust, and
that all the subsequent dealings of the Government dis-
regarded the spirit of the words "in trust," and that all
the revenues from the sale of the land in the Northwest
Territory had been applied to the Federal Treasury and
without any benefit to Virginia. West Virginia as an
original part of the old State of Virginia was competent
to sue in the Federal Court to share in the recovery of
any moneys that might be recovered on this account.
Senator Chilton was author of the bill authorizing West
Virginia to sue for this purpose.  His proposal met a
great deal of ridicule, and among others Senator Cum-
mings called his bill the "coldest trail and the longest
line to the United States Treasury he ever heard of."
Yet Cummings after studying carefully the document Sen-
ator Chilton had prepared and the latter's argument be-
came a supporter of the bill. Similar ridicule was en-
countered from Senators Gallinger and Lodge, and they
too became converted and the bill passed the Senate, but
failed in the House through the congestion of business
that piled up at the close of the session.

Senator Chilton has been chairman of several state
conventions, including the Wheeling convention of 1920.
He is chairman for West Virginia of the Woodrow Wilson
Foundation. For twenty years he has been interested in
oil development in West Virginia and more recently in
Kentucky, and also in the development of the coal lands
over the state. For eighteen years he has been owner
of the Charleston Gazette, now the paper with the largest
circulation in West Virginia. He was appointed a colonel
in the National Guard of West Virginia in 1897. Senator
Chilton is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Elks,
Modern Woodmen of America, Knights of Pythias and
the Moose.

On December 19, 1892, he married Mary Louise Tarr,
of Wellsburg, West Virginia, daughter of Campbell Tarr,
who was the first treasurer of the State of West Virginia.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Chilton are four in number.
William E., Jr., is president of the Daily Gazette Company
of Charleston, is married and has a son, William E. Chil-
ton, third. Joseph Eustace is completing his education
abroad, in the University of Paris, where he is making a
special study of French literature and institutions. The
older daughter, Eleanor Caroll, graduated in 1922 from
Smith College at Northampton, Massachusetts, and while
in college distinguished herself as a playwright, being the
author of several dramatic compositions that have won
favor. The youngest child, Elizabeth Leigh, is the wife of
Girard Rice Lowrey, of Essex, New York, and they have
a son, Girard Rice, Jr.


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