Thayer Melvin

Thayer Melvin (November 15, 1835 – November 9, 1906) was an American lawyer, politician, and judge in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Melvin served as the fourth Attorney General of West Virginia from January 1, 1867, until July 1, 1869, and twice served as the presiding circuit judge of West Virginia's First Judicial District in the state's Northern Panhandle (1869–1881 and 1899–1906).

Melvin was born in 1835 in present-day New Manchester, West Virginia. He was educated in local common schools and began studying law at the age of 17. In 1853, at the age of 18, Melvin became a member of the Hancock County bar. By the age of 20 he was elected as the Hancock County Commonwealth's attorney, a post to which he was twice reelected in 1856 and 1860.

In May 1861, Melvin served as a delegate to the First Wheeling Convention. At the start of the American Civil War, Melvin enlisted as a private in Company F of the 1st West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army. In August of that year, he organized a company of men in Hancock County. Melvin was later commissioned as Adjutant general of Volunteers on the staff of Brigadier General Benjamin Franklin Kelley in the Department of West Virginia. On February 21, 1865, Melvin was captured in Cumberland, Maryland, along with General Kelley and Major General George Crook, by the Confederate partisans, McNeill's Rangers. Melvin, Kelley, and Crook were taken to Richmond where they were exchanged for Confederate general Isaac R. Trimble.

In 1865, Melvin was elected prosecuting attorney of Hardy County and was elected as the prosecuting attorney for Hancock County the following year. He was elected West Virginia's Attorney General in 1866 and served in the post until 1869 when he was appointed to the circuit judgeship of West Virginia's First Judicial District. Melvin was twice reelected to his circuit judge position, resigning in 1881 to practice law in Wheeling. In 1899, Melvin was reappointed to his First Judicial District circuit judge seat and served on the bench until his death from a stroke in 1906.

Early life and education Thayer Melvin was born on November 15, 1835, in Fairview, Virginia. The eldest of five children, he was the son of James Melvin and his wife Philenia Thayer Melvin. Melvin's father James, of Irish descent, was from Pennsylvania. Melvin then practiced law in association with O. W. Langfitt in New Manchester.

Early law career In 1855, Melvin was elected as the Commonwealth's attorney of Hancock County, despite the fact that he was under the required minimum age of 21 to hold public office.

American Civil War In May 1861, Melvin served as a delegate from Hancock County to the First Wheeling Convention. Following the onset of the American Civil War, he volunteered as a private in Company F of the 1st West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army. By April 1862, while still a lieutenant, Melvin had received a commission as Adjutant general of Volunteers on the staff of Brigadier General Benjamin Franklin Kelley in the Department of West Virginia.

On August 12, 1863, in his role as adjutant general, Melvin delivered orders to Major General William W. Averell for the procurement of the law books of the Library of the Supreme Court of Virginia in Lewisburg and to place officers in charge of them for their transport to safekeeping in Beverly. Because the library had been purchased for the western part of Virginia, Kelley averred that the library "rightfully belongs to the new State of West Virginia. Our judges need it very much".

As the adjutant general for the Department of West Virginia, Melvin served under the department's succeeding commanding officers: Brigadier General Kelley, Major General Franz Sigel, Major General David Hunter, Major General George Crook, and Major General William H. Emory. By this time, he was serving with the military rank of Captain. In the early morning of February 21, 1865, the Confederate partisans known as McNeill's Rangers sent two detachments behind enemy lines to capture Kelley and his superior Major General Crook from their hotels in Cumberland. One of the two detachments was sent to the Barnum House hotel, where Melvin and Kelley were staying. Other sources claim the two were staying at the St. Nicholas Hotel, where William McKinley had been lodged. An article published in Richmond's Enquirer newspaper claimed that Melvin had been caught in bed with "a blushing bride" by McNeill's men during his capture; however, Wheeling's Daily Intelligencer newspaper reminded its readers that the story was baseless, as Melvin was unmarried.

Following his release, Melvin served as an adjutant until the end of the war in 1865. In 1866 he relocated to Wellsburg in Brooke County where he resumed the practice of law. receiving the highest number of votes cast for an attorney in West Virginia's brief three-year history. He served in the office until his resignation on July 1, 1869. He had been appointed to the judgeship by West Virginia Governor William E. Stevenson to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Elbert H. Caldwell.

While serving as a circuit judge, Melvin was appointed by the governor to assist in completing the codification of West Virginia state laws. Following a dispute between Charles Town and Shepherdstown over the location of Jefferson County's court, he was selected to serve as the circuit court judge in Charles Town for the fall term, which began on September 12, 1872. On August 24, 1872, Melvin was elected for a full eight-year term as judge of the First Judicial District, which began on January 1, 1873.

In 1873, Melvin refused to transfer the case of Taylor Strauder, a black man, to a federal court following his indictment by an all-white Ohio County grand jury for the murder of his wife. Strauder and his lawyers argued that he would not receive equal treatment in the West Virginia courts due to its all-white jury law and cited the Civil Rights Act of 1866 for a transfer to a federal court. The Supreme Court held that categorical exclusion of blacks from juries for no other reason than their race violated the Equal Protection Clause, and Strauder's conviction was overturned due to the Ohio County court's violation of United States constitutional criminal procedure. He resigned his circuit judgeship on November 19, 1881, after tiring of the "wool sack", which is what he called his judicial court dress.

Melvin resumed the practice of law in Wheeling. In 1881, he joined the law practice of J. Dallas Ewing and Thomas S. Riley under the name of Ewing, Melvin & Riley. The law firm became one of the strongest in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia. The court's decision upheld the law in the Code of West Virginia of 1891, c. 29, § 67, that taxed railroad bridges. The court's decision stated: "A railroad bridge across a navigable river forming the boundary line between two states is not, by reason of being an instrument of interstate commerce, exempt from taxation by either state upon the part within it."

On June 3, 1900, Melvin granted an injunction that prevented the Wheeling Stogies baseball team from playing Sunday games in Wheeling. The Stogies had begun holding Sunday games to increase attendance, but received warrants sworn by Wheeling Island residents and a fine on April 29, 1900, during their first Sunday game on the island. His injunction, the violation of which was a fine of $2,000, followed.

Later life and death Melvin served out his term until October 31, 1906, when he suffered a stroke while holding a session of the circuit court in Wellsburg. By the following day physicians had given up hope for his recovery. His body was taken to the McLure Hotel on November 10, where it lay in state until November 12. His heirs included his sister, Mrs. S. T. Moore of Fairview, his nephews James and Paul Melvin of Fairview, his nephew John Melvin of New Cumberland, and his niece Mrs. John Bendene of Steubenville.

Legacy Following his death, Melvin was memorialized by the West Virginia Bar Association at its annual meeting in December 1906. and was active in several Union veterans' organizations and reunions. In October 1871, Melvin delivered an address to welcome the soldiers and attendees of the Army of West Virginia Soldiers' Reunion in Wheeling. He was later a member of the Society of the Army of West Virginia, later known as the Army of West Virginia Association. In 1883, and again on September 9, 1897, Melvin was elected a vice president of the organization. Melvin was also a member of the 1st West Virginia Association, of which he was elected president on September 6, 1894. In addition, Melvin belonged to the Holliday Post of the Grand Army of the Republic and participated in the decoration of local Union graves on Memorial Day in 1897, 1898, and 1899.