Tucker County, West Virginia Biography of DAVID EARL CUPPETT. This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: **The Submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch.** This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 523-524 Tucker DAVID EARL CUPPETT. A resident of Thomas, and one of the leading members of the Tucker County bar, David Earl Cuppett has in the course of a quarter of a century done some good work as a teacher, but for nearly twenty years his time has been fully taken up with a law practice that has afforded opportunity for the exercise of his striking abilities as a criminal lawyer. The founder of the family in West Virginia was John Cuppett, Sr., who lived in Pennsylvania during the Revolu- tionary war and was one of the few men who escaped the Wyoming Valley massacre. When he moved out of Bedford County he settled at Glade Farms in Preston County, Vir- ginia, and spent the rest of his life there as a farmer. His son, Daniel Cuppett, was born in Bedford County, was a child when brought to West Virginia, and his life work also was identified with the farm. He married Mary Scott, and their nine children were: William; Alpheus; Daniel; Henry; David; Isaac; Lucy, who married Josiah Smith; Miss Jane; and Mrs. Nancy Edwards. Of these brothers, Henry was a Union soldier and captured a Confederate flag when Fort Donelson was taken; while Isaac was in the service as a member of General Custer's command and died in Andersonville Prison. Alpheus Cuppett, father of David E. Cuppett, was born in Preston County, had a country school education, and his active years were spent as a farmer and stock dealer. He was interested in the success of the republican party, and was a prominent leader in the Methodist Church at Glade Farms, being influential in building the church there. He died June 15, 1900, at the age of seventy-four. Alpheus Cuppett married Elizabeth Harned, daughter of Edward and Sarah (Johnson) Harned. She died March 12, 1908. Their children were: Milford H., of Uniontown, Pennsyl- vania; Clark A., who died in Southern California; Ross, deceased; Edward E., of Terra Alta; Mary, wife of Rufus Augustine, of Confluence, Pennsylvania; Ella, who died at Addison, Pennsylvania, wife of C. H. Bird; Charles H., a school man of Bellvernon, Pennsylvania; Sylvia, who died unmarried; and David Earl. David Earl Cuppett was born in the Glade Farms locality of Preston County, February 13, 1878. He lived there through his boyhood and youth, shared in the labor of the farm, attended the country schools, and several summer normal courses prepared him for teaching. He took his first school at the age of sixteen, being in charge of the North Avenue School. For six terms he continued teaching in the country, two terms being spent in Fayette County, Pennsyl- vania. He left teaching to enroll as a student in the literary department of West Virginia University, in which he did three years of work and then finished with the law course, graduating LL. B. in 1904. Immediately after qualifying as a lawyer he located at Thomas in Tucker County, and tried his first law suit in the courts of this county. He has practiced alone, and while he has appeared in some notable litigations in both the civil and criminal branches his reputation has become fixed as a defense lawyer in criminal practice. Up to the spring terms of 1922 he had figured in twenty-nine murder cases, and several of the cases in which he has appeared have gone before the Court of Appeals, where he has won victories as well as in the lower courts. Mr. Cuppett is a former president of the Tucker County Bar Association and a member of the West Virginia Bar Association. His public service includes two terms as city recorder at Thomas and fifteen years as city attorney, during which time he handled the legal matters connected with bond issues for street improvement and water supply. For twelve years he was secretary of the Board of Education of Fair- fax District, and in 1909 was elected member in the House of Delegates from Tucker County, serving under speaker James H. Strickling, and was a member of several com- mittees. He was connected with the passage of the State Board of Control Bill at that term. In 1919 he was again elected to the Legislature, and Speaker L. J. Wolfe ap- pointed him chairman of the committee on elections and privileges and a member of the judiciary, education, Vir- ginia debt, mines and mining, private corporations and joint stock companies committees. In that session he was much interested in securing the passage of the Amended Work- men's Compensation Law, in the passage of the New School Code, the Child Labor Law and the amendment of the Juvenile Court Law, all of which measures originated in the judiciary committee. He also voted for the ratification of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments to the Fed- eral Constitution and was author of the Women's Registra- tion Law, which enlarged the field for political action for women, carrying into effect the real purpose of the Nine- teenth Amendment. Mr. Cuppett has participated in a number of campaigns as a speaker in behalf of the repub- lican candidates, is a member of the Tucker County Execu- tive Committee, and has attended several congressional and state conventions. Fraternally he is a member of the Sigma Nu college fraternity, the Knights of Pythias, and is presi- dent of the board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church. During the World war he was one of the Four- Minute speakers and chairman of that body in Tucker County, and was also a member of the County Council of Defense. In a business way Mr. Cuppett is a director and attorney for the Miners and Merchants Bank of Thomas and the First National Bank of Bayard, and is local attorney for the Davis Coal and Coke Company, the largest industry at Thomas. He is a stockholder and director in the Black- water Coal Company. In Preston County, December 26, 1905, Mr. Cuppett mar- ried Miss Vida Barnes, daughter of J. P. and Amanda (Harshbarger) Barnes, both of whom lived in Preston County, though her father was a native of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Cuppett was reared at Brandonville in Preston County, and is a graduate of Southwestern State Normal School of Pennsylvania, and for five years taught in Charleroi, Penn- sylvania. She and Mr. Cuppett have three children, named Reardon S., David Earl, Jr., and Mary Elizabeth. Mrs. Cuppett is one of the well known women in the republican party, being a member of the Republican State Committee. She came of a democratic family, but she cast her first vote as a republican. She is a Methodist, helped organize and has served as president of the Women's Club of Thomas, nd was one of the active workers in the Red Cross Chapter during the war.