Ralph Lazier Berkshire

Ralph Lazier Berkshire (born April 8, 1815 or 1816; died November 8, 1902) was a lawyer, judge, and Republican politician who helped found the state of West Virginia and became the first chief justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia (from June 20, 1863 to December 31, 1866). Although defeated for re-election, Berkshire again served from September 10, 1868 until December 31, 1872, and later represented Monongalia County in the West Virginia Senate (1874–1878) as well as continuing to practice law.

Early and family life

Berkshire's grandfather John Berkshire had been a Monongalia County pioneer. In 1817 his father, farmer William Berkshire, moved his young family across the Ohio River from what had become Maryland to Monongalia County (then in the state of Virginia). William Berkshire would marry three times; only Ralph and his brother Edmond C. Berkshire, who moved westward on the National Road to Addison, Champaign County, Ohio, would survive of the ten children born to his second wife, the former Ruth Bradget. His father was a Whig and Patriot and a devout Methodist, and against his will was once written in by friends in opposition to Sherrard Clemens. When he was 18, the home-schooled Ralph Berkshire left his family's farm, moved to Morgantown and apprenticed himself to a carpenter. Upon leaving the bench, Berkshire practiced law with George C. Sturgiss, who for a time served as U.S. Attorney and later became a U.S. Congressman. Monongalia County voters elected Berkshire to represent them in the state senate in 1874. In 1888 and 1892 he strongly supported Benjamin Harrison for President and was a delegate-at-large to the Republican national convention of 1888.