A. JAY VALENTINE The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 529-530 Tucker A. JAY VALENTINE, judge of the Twenty-first Judicial Circuit and a resident of Parsons, Tucker County, has been a business lawyer in that county for more than a third of a century, having tried his first case before reaching his majority. His is an unusual record for a West Virginia lawyer and judge, since he has never represented the defense in a criminal trial and has never appeared in a contested separation case between husband and wife. The civil and business branches of the law have been his special field, and it is also noteworthy that he was never a candidate for public office until he made the race for circuit judge. Judge Valentine was born near Valley Furnace in Bar- hour County, March 8, 1866, son of Andrew and Rachel (Digman) Valentine, also natives of Barbour County, his mother being a daughter of George Digman. Andrew Valen- tine was a lieutenant in the Confederate army under General Imboden, and was never wounded in service, but for the last eleven months of the war was a prisoner at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio. He manifested the interest of a good citizen in politics and was a democrat. He died in 1887 and is buried near Montrose, West Virginia. The mother died in 1891. They had three children: Judge Valentine; Sarah E., wife of Stephen Murphy, of Montrose; and Carrie B., wife of Thomas Gross, of Levels, West Virginia. A. Jay Valentine spent the first fifteen years of his life near the hamlet of Meadowville in Barbour County, on his father's farm. In 1882 the family moved to .Randolph County, and another five years of his life were spent in the environment of a farm near Montrose. It was immediately after leaving this community that Judge Valentine began his professional work at St. George, then the county seat of Tucker County. His early education was acquired in the common schools and summer normal schools, and for four years he taught in the rural districts of Randolph County. As he looks back upon it Judge Valentine regards teaching as the hardest work he ever did. While teaching he became interested in the law, made some progress in his reading, and his two principal preceptors were the late A. C. Bow- man of Barbour County and W. B. Maxwell, still practicing in Randolph County and a former member of the Tucker County bar. Mr. Valentine was admitted to the bar at Beverly, then the county seat of Randolph County, in 1887, taking his several examinations for admission, one under Judge A. B. Fleming, another under Judge Henry Brannon and another under Judge W. T. Ice. In his first year or practice he was associated with W. B. Maxwell, of St. George, West Virginia, but after a year he relied upon himself to handle all his law business. That business was principally in the commercial and corporation law, and before many years he had a very extensive clientele. Judge Valentine is a republican without being a strict partisan, and increasing years and experience has made him less and less interested in partisan politics. He east his first vote for Benjamin Harrison. In 1920 he was urged to make the race for judge of the Twenty-first Judicial Circuit. There were three competitors for the republican nomination, one of them being the presiding judge and the other two able lawyers. The judicial convention at Keyser which decided the matter held a session all night until 11 o'clock the following morning, before the conflicting partisans of the different candidates were harmonized in the nomination of Mr. Valentine, who was nominated on the 207th ballot. In the following election he led his ticket by several hun- dred votes and had a majority of 4,697 over his democratic opponent. Judge Valentine held his first term of court in Keyser in January, 1921, succeeding Judge Francis M. Rey- nolds on the bench. At St. George, West Virginia, December 2, 1891, Judge Valentine married Lummie Kalar, a native of Tucker County, where her parents settled from old Virginia. Her father was Samuel D. Kalar, who married a Miss Mary Lee Gray. He was a farmer and died soon after the close of the Civil war, while Mrs. Valentine's mother lived until 1921, passing away at the age of eighty-four. In the Kalar family were the following children: Solomon W., of Par- sons; Elam B., of Santa Cruz, California; Mrs. Valentine, who was born May 23, 1868, and was educated in the public schools; Mrs. Hoy Ferguson, of Randolph County; Mrs. Lloyd Collett, of Wheeling; Spencer Kalar, of Porterwood, West Virginia; and Lloyd Kalar of Parsons. Judge and Mrs. Valentine had six children, two of whom died in infancy, and have one grandchild. Their daughter Zillah is the wife of Rev. A. B. Withers, of Louisville, Ken- tucky, and has a daughter Zillah Evelyn. Arthur, Jr., who was in the student army training corps during the World war, is now an automobile salesman at Parsons. Mark T. graduated in 1922 from the law school of West Virginia University. Paul, the youngest, is attending grammar school at Parsons. Judge Valentine is a member of the Masonic Lodge and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the war he was a member of the Legal Advisory Board of Tucker County.