Andrew Hunter (lawyer)

Andrew H. Hunter (March 22, 1804 – November 21, 1888) was a Virginia lawyer, slaveholder and politician who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. He was the Commonwealth's attorney (prosecutor) for Jefferson County, Virginia, who prosecuted John Brown for the raid on Harpers Ferry.

Andrew H. Hunter
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the Jefferson County district
In office December 7, 1846-December 3, 1848
Preceded by	William F. Turner
Succeeded by	Joseph F. McMurran
In office December 2, 1861-September 6, 1863
Preceded by	John T. Gibson
Succeeded by	Jacob S. Melvin
Member of the Virginia Senate from the Berkeley and Jefferson Counties district
In office 1864-March 15, 1865
Preceded by	Edwin L. Moore
Succeeded by	n/a
Personal details
Born	March 22, 1804 Martinsburg, Berkeley County, Virginia, U.S.
Died	November 21, 1888(1888-11-21) (aged 84) Charles Town, Jefferson County, West Virginia, U.S.
Alma mater	Hampden-Sydney College
Occupation	Lawyer

Early life

Hunter was born in 1804 to Col. David Hunter (1761-1829) and his wife, the former Elizabeth Pendleton (1774-1825) in Martinsburg, then in Berkeley County, Virginia, where his father long served as the county clerk. Although he had three brothers, the family had resources sufficient to pay for his education at Washington Academy (now Washington and Jefferson College) further along the National Road in Washington, Pennsylvania, then at Hampden-Sydney College, from which he graduated with highest honors in 1822.[1] He married Elizabeth Ellen Stubblefield (d. 1873) and they had a son, Henry Clay Hunter (1830-1886) and seven daughters.[2]

Career

The Virginia Capitol at Richmond VA
where 19th century Conventions met

Hunter was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1822, and practiced law in what became the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia in his lifetime. His elder brother became a prominent lawyer in Martinsburg, the Berkeley County seat, and Hunter began his practice in Harpers Ferry, then by settled in Charles Town (Jefferson County's seat). Beginning in 1840, Andrew Hunter became one of the local attorneys for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), and for many years assisted it, first in acquiring the right of way to lay tracks in the county for the connection at Harper's Ferry, although beginning in 1844 Hunter was also a director of the Winchester & Potomac Railroad Company and represented them in their attempts to be taken over by the B&O as it tried to lay track to Wheeling (then in western Virginia).[3] Hunter was a presidential elector for the Whig party in 1840, but declined nomination for Congress.[4]

Jefferson County voters elected Hunter as one of their (part-time) representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1846, and he also worked for the B&O while in Richmond, but neither he nor his colleague William B. Thompson won re-election.[5][6]

In 1850, Jefferson County voters and those from neighboring Berkeley and Clarke Counties elected Hunter to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850, along with Charles J. Faulkner (another local B&O attorney), William Lucas and Dennis Murphy.[7] Hunter and Lucas were "states rights" men, although in the South Carolina nullification crisis of 1833, Hunter and Thompson had spoken strongly condemning South Carolina's course.[8]

Following John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Governor Wise appointed Hunter to assist the local prosecutor, Charles B. Harding. Thus, Hunter drafted the indictment and prosecuted John Brown and his associates for treason against Virginia in 1859, for which all prisoners eventually received the death penalty.[9] During the U.S. Federal Census taken the following year, Hunter owned five slaves: a 36 year old black male, black females aged 35 and 40 and a 6 year old mulatto boy.[10]

After Virginia voted for secession and the American Civil War began, Hunter and fellow lawyer Thomas C. Green (Charles Town's mayor, a Confederate tax assessor and later a justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court)[11] represented Jefferson County under the Confederate regime in the Virginia House of Delegates during the sessions of 1861/62 and 1862/63, but neither won re-election in 1863.[12] Another local B&O attorney, Thomas Jefferson McKaig (the railroad's counsel in Cumberland, Maryland for nearly four decades and who served in both houses of the Maryland legislature), would also side with the Confederacy.[13] After the resignation of banker and Confederate officer Edwin L. Moore (of the 2nd Virginia Infantry (where his lawyer son Henry Clay Hunter fought as a private before receiving a lieutenant's commission in July 1861),[14] Hunter then became State Senator for his district, by then occupied by Federal troops (and the U.S. Congress having recognized West Virginia as the 35th State).[15][16] Hunter advised Robert E. Lee during the war on civil and military affairs.[17] His youngest brother, Rev. Moses Hoge Hunter (1814-1899) served as chaplain of the 3rd Pennsylvania cavalry during that war, and would later edit the memoirs of their cousin, Union General David Hunter (particularly despised by Confederate sympathizers in western Virginia because of his raids, including that which destroyed the Virginia Military Institute). General Hunter in July 1864 ordered subordinates to burn Andrew Hunter's home, and Hunter was then imprisoned for a month without explanation nor charges.[18]

After the war, Hunter resumed his legal practice. As perhaps the county's leading attorney, he again often opposed Charles J. Faulkner in court. Beginning in 1865, when West Virginia legislators moved the Jefferson County seat to Shepherdstown from Charles Town, Hunter fought to move the county seat back, and successfully defended a later law moving the county seat back to Charles Town (from Shepherdstown); Faulkner represented the losing Shepherdstown side.[19] Hunter was later one of the losing attorneys representing Virginia in Virginia v. West Virginia, Virginia's suit to take back the counties of Jefferson and Berkeley which the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1871 (Faulkner was on the winning side).[20]

Death

Andrew Hunter died in Charles Town, Jefferson County, West Virginia on November 21, 1888. He is buried with other family members in the cemetery of Zion Episcopal Church in Charles Town.[21] His nephew Robert W. Hunter, also a Confederate officer and delegate, would survive the war and become the Secretary of Virginia Military Records.

References

1. Pulliam 1901, p. 107
2. findagrave no. 18189914
3. James D. Dilts, The Great Road: the Building of the Baltimore & Ohio, the Nation's First Railroad, 1828-1853 (Stanford University Press 1993) p. 260
4. Pulliam 1901, p. 107
5. Cynthia Miller Leonard (ed), The General Assembly of Virginia 1619-1978: A Bicentennial Register of Members (Richmond, 1978) pp. 422
6. Swem 1918, p. 390
7. Leonard 1978, p. 441
8. Bushong 1941, pp. 114, 144
9. Bushong 1941, pp. 190-202
10. 1860 U.S. Federal Census for Jefferson County, Virginia pp. 37 and 38 of 44
11. Dennis E. Frye, 2nd Virginia Infantry (3d ed. H.E. Howard Inc. 1984) p.101
12. Leonard 1978, p. 479
13. Dilts p. 260
14. Frye p.108
15. Leonard 1978, p. 487n
16. Swem 1918, p. 390
17. Pulliam 1901, p. 107
18. Bushong 1941, pp. 230-231
19. Bushong 1941, p.276-277
20. Bushong 1941, pp. 277-279, 293-294
21. findagrave no. 18189914

Bibliography

• Bushong, Millard Kessler (1941). A History of Jefferson County, West Virginia, 1719–1940.
• Pulliam, David Loyd (1901). The Constitutional Conventions of Virginia from the foundation of the Commonwealth to the present time. John T. West, Richmond. ISBN 978-1-2879-2059-5.
• Swem, Earl Greg (1918). A Register of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1776-1918, and of the Constitutional Conventions. David Bottom, Superintendent of Public Printing. ISBN 978-1-3714-6242-0.