Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1877-10-20
THE LATE WILLIAM LUCAS.

Died on Wednesday, the goth OF
August, 1877, at "Rion Hall, in the
county of Jefferson, aud State of West
Virginia, William Lucas, aged seventy
seven years. The bells toll and pane
gyrics glow over the valiant men of
the earth as they fall in the race, and
their dust is laid away in the bosom OF
the common mother with pious hands
and ceremonies meet on the part OF the
living.
Here was a man who went away
from our busy haunts thirty years ago,
like Tully's farmer in De Aenectufe,-
enraptured with his glebe, his curtilage
and his sylvan solitude. Once or twice
he was called thence by the people
urgent for his service, and he stepped
back on the stage he had deserted to
obey the special call, but nothing could
entice him from his spreading acres.
His name was mentioned about 1850
for the office first of Lieutenant Cover
nor, and afterwards for that of Cover
nor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
When he was approached on the sub
ject at the Exchange Hotel in Richmond,
he said /: 81 am here, gentlemen, with
Hunter and Faulkner, at the Constitu-
lional Convention, to do what | may
for the old State,-but no office for me.
l have possessed me of a goodly home
on the banks of the Shenandoah in the
Valley of Virginia, with the Blue Ridge
stretching away to the East and the
Allegheny to the West of my estate.
In the morning as stand on my portlco
l can behold the sun rising through the
Gap at Harper's Ferry, where the
marriage of the waters of the Shenan-
doah and Potomac takes place. Thanks,
gentlemen, but no Office. l wouldn't
swap my curtilage and acres for your
whole city of Richmond" And he
came back to his goodly home Oh the
banks of the Shenandoah, and made it
very wilderness of sweets; Cedar OF
Lebanon and Southern Cypress, ever
green and deciduous trees, magnolias
and far-tropic plants; such as are found
no where else in the State of West Nir-
ginia, springing up around him, and
fairly empowering his residence-Rlon
HAHN their multitudiuous shades.
Agriculture engrossed him, and the
small farm of two or three hundred
acres with which he had started eX-
pended by degrees into the great plan
tation of nearly two thousand acres.
The fertility of Jefferson county is
famous. Mr.. Lucas estate in fair times
yielded him from eight to ten thousand
bushels of wheat year, and other
crops in like proportion. His ambition,
--almost mania with him,-was to
own a magnificent landed estate. Al
ter his hopes had been fulfilled, and
farm after farm had been added to his
possessions, the war came and smote
him cruel blows right and left. Living
at the mouth of the Valley, he was un-
happily IN the very track Of the armies
which stripped him of everything they
could carry away Since the war the
inexhaustible fertility of his lands help
ed to recuperate. TO what extent he
had repaired his losses before his death
is not known to the present remlnls-
cent; but Just government should in
demnify his estate for the property 1t
appropriated out of it for its own uses.
Although William Lucas was born so
long ago as the yer 1900 at Cold
Spring." near Shepherdstown, Jetfer-
son county, yet his family had inhablt-
ed the same land for three generations
before him. Members of the family
fought in the revolution, and his two
brothers, Edward and Robert, (the lat
ter of whom still survives in a green old
age,) saw service in the war Ut 1912.
William was too young 10 enlist, or 1t is
very certain he would have done so.
The war of Independence brought with
it the coveted freedom from tyrants,
but it left poverty as joint inheritance
to the patriot fathers. William Lucas
was the architect Of his own fortunes.
His academlcal chances he made the
most of, but his father could not afford
to him Collegiate finish. After teach
ing school at Harper's Ferry for short
time, he entered the law office OF Henry
Berry, of Shepherdstown, aud alter
wards the law school of Judge Henry
st. George Tucker at Winchester,where
he met as fellow. students several young
men who afterwards became eminent IN
the profession; among the number were
Robert'Y. Conrad and Robert }. Brent.
Judge Tucker, who combined elegant
scholarship and high literary accom-
plishmenls with great legal learning,
directed Mr.. Lucas studies with friend
ly care and judgment To those in
structions he gratefully ascribed his tu'
ture success at the bar. Judge Tucker
was his beau ideal of a scholar and gen.
tleman. To the end of his life he re-
tanned this admiration for his early
preceptor. ''In manners, sir, he has
often said to the present writer, "Henry
St. George Tucker was the Chesterfield
of America" The distinguished John
Il. Cooke also interested himself greatly
in the legal success of Mr.. Lucas.
That success was marked. AT Shop
herdstown, where he began the prac-
tice of law, and at Charlestown whittier
be removed later on, he became lea
der. No man, it is probable, ever ex-
ercised greater Influence over a jury.
His forms of speech were simple and
Socratic, while his manner was fiery,
aggressive and quantity eloquent. He
had, too, great mother wit, and the
hardest sort of saving common sense.
When man of this kind superadds 10
L.. A.. ,,,o,roo, n oouroua IL hirh ia