Marion-Monongalia-Brooke County WV Archives Biographies.....Willey, Waitman T October 11, 1811 - 
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Alice Warner http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 June 16, 2009, 4:39 pm

Author: Virgil A. Lewis

Waitman T. Willey, one of the first United States Senators from West Virginia,
was born near the present site of Farmington, now in Marion county, but then in
Monongalia, October 11, 1811. In 1823 he removed with his father to a farm on
the Monongahela, opposite the present site of Rivesville. In 1827, when in his
seventeenth year, he entered Madison College, at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where
he graduated in 1831. A year later he began the study of law in the office of
Philip Doddridge, in Wellsburg, Brooke county, and after the death of his
preceptor the same year, he completed his studies in the office of John C.
Campbell, at the same place. In 1833, ne was admitted to the bar at Morgantown,
where he began the practice of his profession. He was an elector on the Harrison
and Tyler ticket in 1840, at which time he canvassed a large portion of Virginia
and Southern Pennsylvania. In 1841, he was elected clerk of the County Court of
Monongalia, and at the same time was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Clerk's
office of the Circuit Superior Court, both of which he held until 1852, when he
was a candidate for re-election but was defeated by a small majority. In the
Constitutional Convention of 1850, he was one of the delegates representing the
counties of Monongalia, Preston, Marion and Taylor, in which body he
distinguished himself as a ready debater. In 1859, he was a candidate for
Lieutenant-Governor on the Whig ticket, at the head of which was William L.
Goggin, who was, however, defeated by his competitor, Henry A. Wise. In the
Richmond Convention of 1861, which passed the ordinance of Secession, Mr. Willey
occupied a seat, having been chosen without opposition to represent the people
of Monongalia county therein. His last vote in that body was in opposition to
the Ordinance, and on the 21st of April, having obtained a permit from Governor
Letcher to leave the city, he began the journey home. At Alexandria, he was
stopped, and not allowed to proceed to Washington. Retracing his course, he
proceeded by way of Manassas Junction, thence over the Blue Ridge to Winchester,
and from there to Harper's Ferry, where he saw the Government buildings a mass
of smoking ruins. Here he was detained some time under military surveillance,
but was at length allowed to proceed to Morgantown. He was a member of the first
and second Wheeling Conventions, and in July, 1861,was elected by the Assembly
under the Restored Government, to a seat in the United States Senate, and on the
4th of August, 1863, was chosen to the same position by the first Legislature of
West Virginia. Proceeding to Washington with his colleague, Peter G. Van Winkle,
he, by lot, drew the short term of two years, but on the 31st of January, 1865,
the Legislature re-elected him for the term of six years. He was a member of the
convention of 1872, which framed the present Constitution of the State, in which
body he represented Monongalia county. Mr. Willey, in addition to his political
life, has been widely known in the lecture field and in literature, one of his
most important productions being "The Life of Philip Doddridge," published in
1875.


Additional Comments:
"History of West Virginia" by Virgil A. Lewis 1889


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