Joshua Fry Bullitt Jr.

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Joshua Fry Bullitt Jr.

Joshua Fry Bullitt Jr. (July 24, 1856 – April 20, 1932) was a Virginia lawyer who practiced in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. He was one of the leading citizens of Southwest Virginia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, both as a practicing lawyer and as a political figure. His prominence corresponded with the rise of the coal business in central Appalachia. His legacy includes both the continuation of the energy companies that he helped to create and the careers of the prominent legal figures who worked with and learned from him, just as he was the heir to a series of accomplished legal figures. As the leader of a citizen police force, he was the model for a character in one of the best-selling novels in the United States in the first half of the 20th century.

Biography

Born in

University of Virginia Law School, before starting out as a lawyer in 1880. Bullitt served in the Kentucky legislature in 1884 and 1885 and ran for Congress in Virginia in 1896 against incumbent James A. Walker.[3]

After seven years as a lawyer in Kentucky, Bullitt moved his practice to Big Stone Gap. Big Stone Gap was conceived as a model town, viewed by some to become the "Pittsburgh of the South."

labor unions, concluding that their reason for being would disappear once corporations were reformed.[8]

Bullitt's main client was the Virginia Coal and Iron Company.

Penn Virginia Corporation.[10] Today, Penn Virginia is listed on the S&P 600. The papers of Bullitt's law office are included with the Westmoreland collection at the Hagley Museum and Library in Delaware.[6] Bullitt's son-in-law, Ralph Taggart, became president of Westmoreland in 1929.[11]

"In 1890, when the coal boom was in full swing," Bullitt "organized the Police Guard of Big Stone Gap. The Guard was formed to suppress the more raucous behavior of the mountaineers who periodically poured into town looking for excitement."[6] The Guard and its activities were described by its most famous member, the popular author John Fox Jr. Fox used Bullitt as the model for the "Captain of the Guard" character in his best-selling book, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, and Fox dedicated his earlier book Blue-grass and Rhododendron,[12] published in 1901, to Bullitt and McDowell, along with Horace Ethelbert Fox, as "The First Three Captains of the Guard."[3] The Trail of the Lonesome Pine sold more than 1.5 million copies by 1942.[13] The "vigilance committee," as the Guard was also known, cleaned up the town in 18 months.[14]

The most famous case involving the Guard was the disappearance of Philadelphian E.L. Wentz, a member of the family that included the principal owners of Virginia Coal and Iron Company. In 1904, when the missing body was discovered, Bullitt led his group of men into the woods to guard the remains of the victim, who had not been seen since the fall of the previous year.[15] Bullitt represented the Wentz family at the coroner's inquest, at which the jury reached a surprise verdict that the cause of death was suicide and not homicide.[16] Bullitt was also the commander of a National Guard unit, Company H of the 2nd Virginia Regiment, which was called to service in Mexico in 1916 and later in World War I.[17]

Bullitt concluded his career in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the owners of many of the coal companies in Wise County, Virginia
were based.

Notes and references

  1. ^ "Death List of A Day: Joshua Fry Bullitt, February 18, 1898" (PDF). The New York Times. February 18, 1898. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  2. ^ a b Tyler, Lyon G., ed. (1907). Men of Mark in Virginia: Ideals of American Life; A Collection of Biographies of the Leading Men in the State, volume III.
  3. ^ a b Tyler, Lyon G., ed. (1915). Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography.
  4. ^ "Southwest Virginia Museum". Southwest Virginia Museum. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
  5. ^ "VBA History and Heritage". The Virginia Bar Association. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved March 2, 2008.
  6. ^ a b c d "Records, 1885-1942". Hagley Museum & Library. Retrieved September 7, 2011.[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ The Torrens System: An Open Symposium, The Virginia Law Register, Vol. 11, No. 7 (November 1905)
  8. ^ Annual Report of the American Bar Association, 1903 (available on Google Books)
  9. ^ "Finding Aid for the Virginia Coal and Iron Company Records, 1883-1915". University of Tennessee. Archived from the original on July 3, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  10. ^ "Westmoreland Coal Company Historical Timeline". Westmoreland Coal Company. Archived from the original on February 17, 2007. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  11. ISBN 0-415-93522-9
    .
  12. ^ Fox, John Jr. (1901). Blue-grass and rhododendron: outdoors in old Kentucky.
  13. ^ "Half-Century Scoreboard". Time Magazine, February 9, 1942. February 9, 1942. Archived from the original on July 28, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  14. ISBN 0-7864-1372-7
    .
  15. ^ "WENTZ'S BODY GUARDED BY TWENTY-FIVE MEN; Roped Off Where It Was Found in the Virginia Mountains" (PDF). The New York Times, May 10, 1904. May 10, 1904. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  16. ^ "WENTZ SHOT HIMSELF, SAYS CORONER'S JURY; Verdict Rendered on Mystery of Mine Owner's Death" (PDF). The New York Times, May 12, 1904. May 12, 1904. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  17. ^ "Wise County in War Time". New River Notes. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
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