Edgar P. Rucker

Edgar Parks Rucker was born in Covington, Virginia, on December 23, 1861, during the early period of the American Civil War.^[2][3][4] He was the youngest of four sons of William Parks Rucker and Margaret Scott Rucker.^[4][5][6] Rucker's three older brothers were Hedley Scott Rucker; William Waller Rucker, U.S. Representative from Missouri; and James Thomas Rucker.^[5][7][8] During his early years, Rucker and his family relocated to Lewisburg in Greenbrier County,^[2][3][9] where he attended Lewisburg Academy.^[4] In his early adulthood, Rucker was a schoolteacher in Greenbrier County public schools.^[10] He then attended and completed a course in West Virginia University's Department of Law, where he won a prize for his essay entitled "The Works and Age of Milton",^[11] and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1887.^[2][3][4]

Immediately following his graduation, Rucker returned to Lewisburg, where he practiced law with his father.^[3][4][10] In July 1887, Rucker engaged in a duel with Lewisburg deputy postmaster Bedford Beirne, in which Rucker shot and seriously injured Beirne.^[12][13][14] The duel occurred after Beirne supposedly insulted Rucker.^[14][15][16] Rucker fired the first shot, which broke Beirne's wrist,^[15][16] then both men fired at each other and Beirne was shot in the chest.^[14][15][16] Rucker was arrested and bailed out of jail after the duel.^[16][17] When Beirne's condition worsened, however, Rucker was re-arrested and jailed.^[16][17]

After his marriage to Maude Applegate in January 1888, Rucker and his wife relocated to Princeton, where he practiced law for three years.^[3][4][10] On September 3, 1890, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the West Virginia National Guard's 2nd Regiment, Company A, which was organized and mustered into service in Princeton.^[18] In 1892, Rucker then moved to Bramwell in the burgeoning Pocahontas Coalfield region, where he remained for one year and served as the editor of the Flat Top Monitor, a Republican newspaper.^[10][19]

In 1893, Rucker and his family moved to Welch,^[2][3][20] which the previous year had become the county seat of McDowell County,^[4] and Rucker established a law practice there.^[4][10] Rucker served as the senior partner of his law firm, which initially consisted of Benjamin Franklin Keller and James L. Hamill, and was known as Rucker, Keller, and Hamill.^[10] This partnership lasted until 1898, after which Rucker was joined by other law partners, including Luther C. Anderson, William Wellington Hughes, and Daniel J. F. Strother.^{[4][8][20][a]}

Rucker took an interest in politics^[21] and was active in West Virginia's Republican Party.^[2][3][4] In 1888, he unsuccessfully ran as the party's candidate for the 8th district of the West Virginia Senate,^[3][21] losing by 403 votes.^[22] Due to his young age, he became known as "the boy candidate".^[22] In June 1892, the Republicans of West Virginia's 3rd congressional district met in Montgomery and selected Rucker as their candidate for the district's congressional seat.^[23][24] He lost the November election against Democratic incumbent John D. Alderson.^[2][3][21] Rucker served on the West Virginia University board of regents for a two-year term from 1895 until June 1, 1897.^[25][26] In February 1897, Rucker joined regents in advocating for appropriations from the West Virginia Legislature for a new building to accommodate the increased enrollment at West Virginia University.^[27]

In June and July 1896, Rucker was endorsed by McDowell County Republican Conventions as their candidate for Republican nominee for West Virginia attorney general.^[28][29] On July 23, 1896, at the state convention in Parkersburg, he was formally nominated as the Republican candidate for attorney general,^[30] and in November, he ran for election against Democratic incumbent Thomas S. Riley.^[31] On January 14, 1897, the West Virginia Legislature convened a joint assembly to canvass the returns of the 1896 election, and declared Rucker the 12th attorney general-elect with 105,432 votes to incumbent Riley's 94,060 votes.^[32]

Rucker commenced his tenure as attorney general on March 4, 1897.^[1][33][34] At the start of his term, he was directed by the West Virginia Board of Public Works to represent the state in the case Pittsburgh, C., C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Board of Public Works of West Virginia, 172 U.S. 32., and appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court alongside his predecessors Riley and Thayer Melvin.^[35][36] In November 1888, the court decided in favor of West Virginia, ruling the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad and other railroad companies were required to pay taxes on their bridges across the Ohio River to the state of West Virginia.^[35][36] The taxable amount of the railroad bridge in question at Steubenville alone was $3,060 per year, with back taxes for four years, totaling $12,240 (equivalent to $448,278 in 2023), owed to West Virginia.^[35][36] Also during Rucker's term, the case Maryland v. West Virginia,^[35] in which Maryland claimed the South Branch Potomac River rather than the North Branch Potomac River as its true southern boundary, was ongoing.^[37]

In September 1897, Rucker went to Keystone to intervene in a mob intending to lynch Tom Major, who was being held in jail in connection with the murder of special officer Newt Hines.^[38] Rucker and local officials transported Major via freight engine from Keystone to the jail in Welch to ensure Major's safety and avoid a race riot.^[38] In October 1897, Rucker's office was also involved in the prosecution of the "Wheeling whiskey cases" in response to the banding together of Wheeling saloonkeepers to resist payment of state license taxes to sell whiskey.^[35] At that time, the saloonkeepers paid for licenses to sell beer and wine, which were $100 per year (equivalent to $3,662 in 2023), but continued to sell whiskey without paying for the annual $350-dollar license fee (equivalent to $12,818 in 2023).^[35] Rucker went to Wheeling and assisted Ohio County prosecuting attorney W. C. Meyer in instituting proceedings against the saloonkeepers who were violating state law.^[39] Ohio County made more than 1,700 indictments; however, Rucker and Meyer procured injunctions against the most-prominent violators, which resulted in those saloonkeepers agreeing to pay the full license tax and in West Virginia recovering $18,000 in taxes (equivalent to $659,232 in 2023).^[40] Rucker served as attorney general until March 3, 1901.^[1][33][34]

Rucker served as the president of several companies, including the Margaret Mining Company, the Hensley (or Hursley) Coal Company, the Merrimac Coal and Coke Company, the Slick Rock Coal Company, and the Welch Lumber Company.^[2][41] He also served as a director of the McDowell County Bank and a number of other corporations.^[2] In June 1896, Rucker was an incorporator of the McDowell Publishing Company in Welch, which was chartered for the purpose of publishing a newspaper and book printing.^[42] In October 1899, Rucker was an incorporator of the C. L. Ritter Lumber Company of Welch.^[43] In March 1905, Rucker was among several representatives of West Virginia's coal industry who met with Governor William M. O. Dawson and state tax commissioner Charles W. Dillon to protest a state law that taxed coal, oil, and gas leases as personal property.^[44]

Rucker married Maude Applegate of Keytesville, Missouri, on January 11, 1888, at the residence of her uncle L. M. Applegate near Keytesville; according to the Chariton Courier, the wedding was a "quiet and unpretentious affair".^[21][41][45] Rucker and his wife had one daughter, Margaret Clarke Rucker,^[8][21][41] who was born in Princeton on November 4, 1890, and married Edward Robert Shannon Jr. on June 12, 1916.^[41] She and Edward had one daughter, Margaret "Peggy" Rucker Shannon, who was born July 6, 1917, in Cincinnati.^[41]

Rucker served as president of the West Virginia League of Republican Clubs in 1894.^[46] He was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows^[2] and an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,^[2][4][20] where he worked to secure a new building for the congregation and served as a delegate to the Methodist General Conference of 1902.^[4][20]

Rucker's final years were dedicated to his law practice and his businesses in Welch.^[21] News reports in 1903 and 1904 noted Rucker's poor health.^[7][47] He remained ill and for three years, he consulted specialists for a cure.^[20] In April 1908, Rucker underwent surgery at Episcopal Hospital in Washington, D.C., to remove from his nose a malignant polyp that had caused a partial loss of eyesight.^[8][9][48] He died following complications from the operation at 5 p.m. on April 21, 1908,^[8][9][48] and was buried at the Old Stone Church cemetery in Lewisburg.^[41]

Following Rucker's death, his wife and daughter relocated to Cincinnati.^[49] At the West Virginia Republican Party's 6th Senate district meeting at Keystone in August 1908, a resolution expressing sorrow at Rucker's death was passed.^[50] Former Governor George W. Atkinson said of Rucker in his book "Bench and Bar of West Virginia" (1919):

General Rucker was an unusually brilliant and successful lawyer. Always intensely active, wholly devoted to the interests of his clients, ever resourceful, particularly in an emergency, a fine orator, a born leader of men, he was a good lawyer and a splendid gentleman.^[49]

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