Edward C. O'Rear
Edward C. O'Rear | |
---|---|
Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals | |
In office 1900–1911 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Edward Clay O'Rear February 2, 1863 Montgomery County, Kentucky, US |
Died | September 12, 1961 Woodford County, Kentucky, US | (aged 98)
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Virginia Lee Hazelrigg Mabel Taylor |
Children | 5 |
Profession | Lawyer |
Edward Clay O'Rear (February 2, 1863 – September 12, 1961) was an American politician who served on the Kentucky Court of Appeals and was a Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives in 1888 and for Governor of Kentucky in 1911. His father died when O'Rear was very young, and he began work as a printer's devil to help support his mother and fourteen siblings. Eventually, he became editor of the Mountain Scorcher newspaper and read law under its publisher. He gained admission to the bar in 1882.
In 1888, O'Rear failed to unseat incumbent Congressman William P. Taulbee, but in 1894, he was elected county judge of Montgomery County, Kentucky, by a small margin, becoming the only Republican to hold that office in the county's history. He was elected to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, then the state's highest court, in 1900 and was re-elected in 1908. Among his important decisions were legalizing parimutuel betting, designating counties as the voting unit in local option prohibition votes, and upholding the Day Law that mandated racial segregation in the state's public schools. In 1911, O'Rear ran for governor, but his progressive platform alienated his party's more conservative wing, and he lost the election to Democrat James B. McCreary. Shortly after the election, he resigned from the Court of Appeals and returned to private practice.
O'Rear became wealthy as a chief counsel in Kentucky for the
Early life and family
Edward Clay O'Rear was born February 2, 1863, on his parents' farm in Camargo, Kentucky.[1] He was the fourteenth of fifteen children of Daniel O'Rear and was born when his father was 68 years old.[1] His mother, Sibba (Mynheir) O'Rear, was his father's second wife.[2] When O'Rear was seven years old, his father died, and his mother moved the family – destitute in the aftermath of the Civil War – to the county seat of Mount Sterling.[2][3] To help support his family, he began work as a printer's devil at The Sentinel and Democrat, a county newspaper, at age nine.[1] He later worked for The Outlook in Owingsville and The Sentinel in Flemingsburg before taking a job as editor of the Mountain Scorcher, a newspaper in West Liberty, at age seventeen.[1][4] Colonel John T. Hazelrigg, the publisher of the Mountain Scorcher, was also an accomplished lawyer, and in his spare time, O'Rear read law with him.[1] He was later appointed deputy circuit court clerk.[2]
On March 16, 1882, O'Rear was admitted to the bar in Morgan County.[2] Candidates were legally required to be twenty-one before admission, and the Kentucky General Assembly had to grant O'Rear – then only nineteen – a special exemption.[2] He began practice in West Liberty.[2]
On November 29, 1882, he married Virginia "Jennie" Lee Hazelrigg (9 August 1963 - 20 November 1944), daughter of his law tutor.
Political career
O'Rear returned to Mount Sterling in 1886.
In 1894, O'Rear was elected county judge of Montgomery County by 145 votes, becoming the only Republican to hold that office in the history of the heavily Democratic county.[6][4] During his four-year term, a Pineville real estate mogul hired him to abstract the titles to numerous acres of land in the Cumberland and Kentucky river valleys, an assignment that allowed him to travel the area and gain the confidence of wealthy investors in the eastern part of the state.[4]
In November 1900, O'Rear was elected to represent the 7th district on the
1911 campaign for governor
O'Rear was chosen as the Republican nominee for governor at the party's 1911 nominating convention, soundly defeating sitting
The Democrats, who nominated former Governor and U.S. Senator
Post-political life
After the election, O'Rear tendered his resignation from the Court of Appeals and returned to private practice in
O'Rear established a lucrative practice as chief counsel in Kentucky for the
In 1922, O'Rear's friend E. O. Robinson, a wealthy
In the early 1930s, O'Rear divorced his first wife; later he married his secretary, Mabel Taylor.[4][15]
During World War II, O'Rear was chairman of Kentucky's salvage drive to collect materials for the war effort.[4] In 1943, he purchased the Ashley House, an estate in Woodford County, that became his home for the rest of his life.[4]
Later in life, O'Rear became more conservative, and friends quipped that he resented "everything from the outcome of the Civil War to the advent of the twentieth century".
O'Rear quipped that he attended "the University of Camargo." Both the University of Kentucky and
A 1953
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Hughes, p. 1
- ^ a b c d e f g Johnson, p. 813
- ^ a b c d e f Klotter, p. 217
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Trout, "Judge O'Rear Dies at 98"
- ^ a b c d e f g Johnson, p. 814
- ^ a b Johnson, pp. 813–814
- ^ Klotter, pp. 217, 219
- ^ a b c Harrison and Klotter
- ^ a b c d e f g Klotter, p. 219
- ^ Klotter, p. 223
- ^ Appleton, p. 35
- ^ Appleton, pp. 36–37
- ^ "Virginia Lee Hazelrigg O'Rear". "Votes for Women" Digital Map for Kentucky Woman Suffrage Project. H-Kentucky network. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ "Women Prepare Platform Fight". (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal. 16 May 1916.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Hughes, p. 4
- ^ Breckinridge, pp. 160, 166
- ^ a b c d e Pearce, p. 157
- ^ a b c Hardin, p. 95
Bibliography
- Appleton Jr., Thomas H. (January 1977). "Prohibition and Politics in Kentucky: The Gubernatorial Election of 1915". The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 75.
- Breckinridge, Mary (1981). Wide Neighborhoods: A Story of the Frontier Nursing Service. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813101492.
- Hardin, John A. (1997). Fifty Years of Segregation: Black Higher Education in Kentucky, 1904-1954. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813132711.
- ISBN 0-8131-2008-X.
- Hughes, Paul (September 6, 1953). "Prototype of A Kentucky Gentleman – That's Edward Clay O'Rear at 90". The Courier-Journal.
- Johnson, E. Polk (1912). A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. Vol. 2. Lewis Publishing Company.
- ISBN 0-916968-24-3.
- Pearce, John Ed (1987). Divide and Dissent: Kentucky Politics 1930–1963. ISBN 0-8131-1613-9.
- Trout, Allan M. (September 13, 1961). "Judge O'Rear Dies At 98". Louisville Courier-Journal.