|
Joseph Sprigg (October 1835 – November 3, 1911) was an American lawyer and politician in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Sprigg served as the sixth Attorney General of West Virginia from January 1, 1871, until December 31, 1872, and was the first Democrat to serve in the post. Sprigg was an organizer of the Democratic Party of West Virginia and the West Virginia Bar Association, of which he served as its inaugural president. Sprigg was born in 1835 on his father's farm in Hampshire County, Virginia (present-day West Virginia). He was a descendant of English pioneer Thomas Cresap, a nephew of Maryland lawyer John Van Lear McMahon, and U.S. House Representatives James Sprigg, Michael Sprigg, and Clement Vallandigham. He studied jurisprudence in Baltimore and was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1858. Following a hiatus during the American Civil War, Sprigg relocated to Moorefield, West Virginia, in 1866 and established a law partnership with former judge J. W. F. Allen. That year, Sprigg was instrumental in organizing the Democratic Party of West Virginia. In 1870, he was selected as the party's nominee for Attorney General of West Virginia, won election to the post and served from 1871 until 1872. During his term as attorney general, Sprigg decided that the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company was subject to taxation by the state; the case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which sustained Sprigg's decision. In 1886, Sprigg organized the West Virginia Bar Association; after being elected the inaugural president, he delivered the opening address at the organization's first meeting. Sprigg was elected to several terms as mayor of Moorefield and was afterward elected to a seat in West Virginia House of Delegates in 1888 representing the Second Delegate District, which consisted of Grant and Hardy counties. Following the disputed 1888 gubernatorial election between Aretas B. Fleming and Nathan Goff, Jr., Sprigg was appointed in 1889 as secretary of a joint committee of the West Virginia Legislature charged with investigating and deciding the results of the election. Sprigg relocated to Cumberland in 1890. He was one of three incorporators of the Allegany County Bar Association, and in 1899 he was elected by the association as one of its directors. He unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Cumberland city council in 1905 and a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1907. In response to pollution of the North Branch Potomac River, Sprigg became chairman of the Pure Water League and waged a successful campaign to require the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company to abandon the sulfite process of pulping in favor of a cleaner soda pulping method. While chairman of the Allegany County Democratic Convention in 1907, a resolution supporting an eight-hour workday was formally adopted by the convention. In 1908, he was appointed city attorney for Cumberland. Following a prolonged illness, he died in 1911. == Early life and family == Joseph Sprigg was born at "Swan Ponds" in Hampshire County, Virginia (present-day West Virginia), in October 1835. He was the son of Joseph Sprigg and Jane Duncan McMahon Sprigg. Sprigg's father was a paternal descendant of the prominent Sprigg political family of Maryland and a maternal descendant of the Cresap family, which descended from English pioneer Thomas Cresap. Through his mother, Sprigg was a descendant of William McMahon, an early resident of Cumberland.〔 Three of his uncles were U.S. House Representatives: James Sprigg of Kentucky and Michael Sprigg of Maryland (brothers of his father) and Clement Vallandigham of Ohio, who was married to his aunt Louisa Anna McMahon Vallandigham.〔 His maternal grandmother was a member of the Van Lear family of Maryland.〔 In addition, Sprigg's sister Mary "Mollie" R. Sprigg McMahon was the wife of U.S. House Representative John A. McMahon. Sprigg had seven siblings, six brothers and one sister:〔 Richard M. Sprigg, Howard Sprigg, Randolph Sprigg, James Sprigg, Mary "Mollie" R. Sprigg McMahon, John M. Sprigg, and Van Lear (or Vanlear) Sprigg. Sprigg was raised on his father's "Swan Ponds" farm in Hampshire County, where his father provided a private tutor for his son's primary education.〔 His father owned farms on both sides of the North Branch Potomac River in Hampshire County, Virginia, and Allegany County, Maryland. On March 7, 1844, the Maryland General Assembly passed an act authorizing Sprigg's father to freely move his slaves across state lines between his farms as often as he deemed necessary. His father relocated the family from the Hampshire County farm to Cumberland in 1852. Sprigg continued his education in Cumberland, and, following the completion of his studies there, he moved to Baltimore to study jurisprudence under his uncle John Van Lear McMahon.〔 He studied under his uncle until 1858, when he was admitted to the Maryland bar.〔〔 Sprigg's practice of law underwent a hiatus during the American Civil War.〔 He was a proponent of states' rights and sympathized with the cause of the Confederate States of America during the war; however, he did not take up arms during the conflict. During the war, his father died in Cumberland in 1864.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joseph Sprigg」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|