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C h a p t e r 2 5 County Organization The work of the Committee on Judiciary and the Committee on County Organization substantially overlapped because the main county governmental body had judicial as well as administrative and legislative functions. Even the referral of delegate resolutions for standing committee consideration was inefficient because the subject of county government involved both committees. The arrangement reached by respective standing committee chairmen provided that the Committee on County Organization formulated provisions pertaining to the county court and referred them to the Committee on Judiciary for its action and for incorporation in its report to the convention. The Committee on County Organization referred the first ten sections of its work in this fashion and then presented nine other sections as its report to the convention. Delegate Benjamin W. Byrne of Clay County Court House chaired the Committee on County Organization. The other ten members were Logan Osburn, Alexander Campbell, John J. Thompson, H. M. Dickinson, Fountain Smith, James M. Byrnside, Beverly H. Lurty, Blackwell Jackson, Thomas Thornburg, and Lewis Allen. Lewis Allen of Berkeley Springs was the sole Republican.1 Contemporary knowledge about the less emotional intricacies of constitution making was lacking because the newspaper correspondents reported comprehensively only proceedings of high public interest and of controversy. Race, delegate conflict, latent Civil War issues, vitriolic interchange, and matters affecting Wheeling constituted the convention business that was certain to be more fully reported. Thereportersslightedmanyimportantconstitutionalandlegaldecisions.Outsideof concern over the lucrative sheriff’s position, local government was not the primary area of newspaper or public scrutiny. About a month after the Committee on County Organization filed its original report with the convention, on 6 March, the convention’s Committee of the Whole 627 628 West Virginia’s Civil War–Era Constitution took up the report and spent the major portion of that day and the next on it. Evermont Ward served as Chairman of the Committee of the Whole. The committee report had nine sections—numbers eleven through nineteen.2 In regard to county offices, the Committee on County Organization report did not radically break with those created by the 1863 constitution. The new report did replace the office of recorder with that of county court clerk. The offices of sheriff, prosecuting attorney, surveyor of lands, and assessor existed in both frames. Under the 1863 Constitution, constables operated at the township level, but the office shifted to the magisterial district as county subdivisions were redesignated.3 The Committee on County Organization originally proposed in section 11 to have the surveyor of lands and assessor serve six-year terms and the prosecuting attorney and sheriff serve four-year terms. Charles James Faulkner moved to amend the section so that all these county officers had four-year terms. After it accepted the Faulkner motion, the Committee of the Whole passed the entire section.4 The report’s section 12 provided for a plethora of petty county officers. The voters had to elect one constable for each magisterial district to a four-year term; however, the constable’s jurisdiction was countywide. With the advice and consent of the county court, the assessor could appoint one or more assistants. The county court had the power to appoint coroners, overseers of the poor, and surveyors of roads. All county officers, with the exception of the prosecuting attorney, had to be residents of the county and district from which they were elected. (During the antebellum period, in rural western Virginia counties, the prosecuting attorney frequently resided in an adjoining county.)5 Disagreement over the proper number of constables ignited a squabble over the 12th section. William H. Travers proposed an amendment to add one constable to any magisterial district that exceeded 1,500 people to the one already provided. Chairman Benjamin W. Byrne and Logan Osburn readily supported the Travers proposal. Both Alpheus F. Haymond and Daniel D. Johnson wondered if the committee ought to provide simply for two constables in each magisterial district. To a knowing laughter, Delegate William G. Brown warned that some counties had ten districts and twenty constables would ruin any county. Delegate Haymond observed that he and Brown practiced law in a county that had as many as ninetysix constables swarming in it. Benjamin Wilson preferred leaving the question of constable numbers to the legislature. Osburn disagreed, thinking the ideal would be to leave the determination to each county court. The Committee adopted the Travers amendment and then agreed to the amended section.6 The office of...

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