George W. Atkinson

George Wesley Atkinson (June 29, 1845 – April 4, 1925) was a United States cavalryman, lawyer, politician, judge and scholar who became the tenth governor of West Virginia after running as the candidate of the Republican Party. He also served in the West Virginia House of Delegates, as well as in the United States House of Representatives from West Virginia and ended his career of public service as a United States federal judge of the Court of Claims.

Early life and education

Born on June 29, 1845, in Charleston, Virginia (now West Virginia), to the former Miriam Radar of Nicholas County and her husband, Col. James Atkinson, a farmer and Kanawha County deputy sheriff. George, the second-born and named for his paternal grandfather, would have seven sisters. Atkinson attended public school in Charleston.

During the Civil War, Atkinson enlisted and mustered out as a private in Company F of the 1st West Virginia cavalry. After the war, in addition to becoming superintendent of the Kanawha County public schools, losing his father and marrying (as discussed below), Atkinson attended Ohio Wesleyan University and received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1870. He continued his studies and received an Artium Magister degree in 1873 from the same institution.

Career

Atkinson Charleston board of education, 1869-'71, and assistant county superintendent of public schools, 1868-'70. became the assistant superintendent of public schools for Kanawha County, serving from 1868 to 1870. Atkinson moved to Wheeling in 1877,

Federal judge President Theodore Roosevelt on April 15, 1905, gave Atkinson received a recess appointment, to a seat on the Court of Claims (later the United States Court of Claims) vacated by Judge Lawrence Weldon. Nutter also won re-election, and was nearly the only black to occupy statewide office in the South. poems (1899) and Bench and Bar of West Virginia (1919).

Death, honors and legacy

Atkinson died on April 4, 1925, in Charleston. He was interred in Charleston's historic Spring Hill Cemetery.

Atkinson received several honorary degrees, including an LL.D. from U.S. Grant University, an LL.D. from the University of Nashville in 1890, and a D.C.L. from West Virginia University in 1897.

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