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Rufus A. Ayers

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Rufus A. Ayers

Rufus Adolphus Ayers(May 20, 1849 – May 14, 1926) was a Virginia lawyer, businessman, and politician, who served asAttorney General of Virginia.

Ayers was born inBedford County, Virginia.His family set out for Texas, but passed through Goodson (nowBristol) en route, and decided to stay there.[1]Ayers attended Goodson Academy until it was closed at the start of the Civil War. He never went to school again, for the rest of his life.[2]At age 14, young Ayers ran away and joined the Confederate Army.[3]Although under age, Ayers served for some months as a soldier in East Tennessee.[4]

After the war, Ayers went into business at age 19 in Estillville, nowGate City, Virginia.Encouraged by his uncle, a judge in Bedford,[2]he began to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1872.[4]In 1875, Ayers became the Commonwealth's Attorney forScott County, Virginia,[3]serving until 1879.[4]Expanding his political career, Ayers served as reading clerk for theHouse of Delegatesfrom 1875 to 1879, and was appointed a district supervisor by PresidentRutherford B. Hayesfor the 1880 census.[1][4]

Ayers became one of Southwest Virginia's industrial development leaders. In 1876, Ayers obtained a charter for a railroad from Bristol toBig Stone Gap.[2][3]That same year he founded theScott Banner.[5]He participated in the founding ofVirginia Coal & Iron Co.,[6]which became Virginia's largest coal company,[2]and many other coal companies, as well as banks, a telephone company, and other businesses, and he owned theBig Stone Gap Post.[1][5]

Ayers became involved with Virginia politics as a member of the Democratic State Committee of the Ninth Congressional District in 1883. The next year, he was Vice-President of the Virginia delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, at whichGrover Clevelandwas nominated.[3][5]

In 1885, Virginia's Democrats nominated Ayers as their candidate for Attorney General, along withFitzhugh Leefor governor andJohn E. Masseyfor lieutenant governor. Besides Ayers, once the under-aged private, the other leading candidate for the nomination wasJames A. Walker,who had been a Confederate Army general.[7]In the general election, Ayers defeated the incumbent RepublicanFrank S. Blair.[8]Following the inauguration of Lee, Massey, and Ayers in 1886, the Democrats would control Virginia's statewide offices until 1970.

As Attorney General, Ayers was made a defendant in litigation over Virginia's debt, was held in contempt by the United States Circuit Court, and checked into the Richmond city jail on October 10, 1887.[5][9]On December 5, before a packed courtroom, theSupreme Court of the United Statesannounced its decision to grant Ayers' petition for habeas corpus.[10][11]The Virginia Coupon issue was not resolved on the merits until 1890. That same year, the New York Times interviewed Ayers, noting that he had spent six days in jail in the Coupon case, and that Ayers had chosen instead of seeking re-election in 1889 to return to Southwest Virginia, "which is now enjoying a genuine boom."[12]

From 1889 to 1892, Ayers had as his law partnerJoseph L. Kellyin Estillville.[13]In 1893, along with his successor as Attorney General,R. Taylor Scott,andWilliam F. Rheafrom Bristol, Ayers represented Virginia before the Supreme Court in the boundary dispute with Tennessee over "a strip of land about 113 miles in length, and varying from 2 to 8 miles in width," that would have put all ofBristol, Tennesseein Virginia.[14]They lost.[15]In 1895, Ayers moved his family and his law practice from Scott County to Big Stone Gap.[5]

In 1901-02, Ayers was a delegate to theVirginia Constitutional Convention,serving as Chairman of the Committee on Public Institutions and Prisons.[16]

Ayers ran for Congress in 1912 against the Republican,C. Bascom Slemp,his longtime friend, who purchased Ayers' residence in 1929 and used it to house his collections.[5]Today, Ayers' mansion in Big Stone Gap is the home of theSouthwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park.[17]

Notes and references

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  1. ^abc"RUFUS A. AYERS, PROMOTER OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA, By Nancy Harman".VaGenWeb Project.RetrievedApril 5,2008.
  2. ^abcdTyler, Lyon Gardiner, ed. (1907).Men of Mark in Virginia: Ideals of American Life, v.2.
  3. ^abcd"Ayers, Rufus".The Southwest Virginia Museum.RetrievedApril 5,2008.
  4. ^abcdBrock, Robert; et al. (1888).Virginia and Virginians.
  5. ^abcdef"National Register of Historic Places, Registration Form, Rufus A. Ayers House"(PDF).Virginia Department of Historic Resources.RetrievedApril 5,2008.
  6. ^Rottenburg, Dan (2003).In the Kingdom of Coal: An American Family and the Rock That Changed the World.ISBN0-415-93522-9.
  7. ^"THE TICKET COMPLETED; VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS READY FOR THE CAMPAIGN, July 31, 1885"(PDF).New York Times.July 31, 1885.RetrievedApril 5,2008.
  8. ^"VIRGINIA'S VOTE, November 26, 1885"(PDF).New York Times.RetrievedApril 5,2008.
  9. ^"VIRGINIA'S IMPRISONED LAWYERS, October 11, 1887"(PDF).New York Times.October 11, 1887.RetrievedApril 5,2008.
  10. ^"THE VIRGINIA COUPON CASE; A DECISION IN FAVOR OF THE COMMON WEALTH. JUDGE BOND HELD TO HAVE NO JURISDICTION, AND HIS ORDERS IN CONTEMPT DECLARED VOID, December 6, 1887"(PDF).New York Times.December 6, 1887.RetrievedApril 5,2008.
  11. ^In re Ayers,123 U.S. 443 (1887).
  12. ^"VIRGINIA'S STATE DEBT.; POPULAR FEELING IN FAVOR OF ITS SPEEDY SETTLEMENT, October 10, 1890"(PDF).New York Times.October 10, 1890.RetrievedApril 5,2008.
  13. ^Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, ed. (1915).Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography.
  14. ^"VIRGINIA SUES TENNESSEE.; THE OLD DOMINION STATE WANTS A SLICE OF TENNESSEE'S TERRITORY, March 8, 1893"(PDF).New York Times.March 9, 1893.RetrievedApril 5,2008.
  15. ^Com. of Va. v. State of Tenn.,148 U.S. 503 (1893).
  16. ^Brenaman, Jacob (1902).A History of Virginia Conventions.
  17. ^"About the Museum".The Southwest Virginia Museum. Archived fromthe originalon February 17, 2008.RetrievedApril 5,2008.
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1886–1890 		Succeeded by
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