Rufus A. Ayers

Rufus A. Ayers (May 20, 1849 - May 14, 1926) was a Virginia lawyer, businessman, and politician, who served as Attorney General of Virginia.

Ayers was born in Bedford County, Virginia. His family set out for Texas, but passed through Goodson (now Bristol) en route, and decided to stay there.cite web |url=http://www.vagenweb.org/wise/HSpub6.htm|title=RUFUS A. AYERS, PROMOTER OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA, By Nancy Harman|publisher=VaGenWeb Project|accessmonthday=April 5 |accessyear=2008] Ayers attended Goodson Academy until it was closed at the start of the Civil War. He never went to school again, for the rest of his life.cite book
last = Tyler, ed.
first = Lyon Gardiner
title = Men of Mark in Virginia: Ideals of American Life, v.2
publisher = Men of Mark Pub. Co. (accessed via Google Books)
date = 1907] At age 14, young Ayers ran away and joined the Confederate Army.cite web |url=http://www.swvamuseum.org/ayers.html|title=Ayers, Rufus|publisher=The Southwest Virginia Museum|accessmonthday=April 5 |accessyear=2008] Although under age, Ayers served for some months as a soldier in East Tennessee.cite book
last = Brock, et al.
first = Robert
title = Virginia and Virginians
publisher = H.H. Hardesty (accessed via Google Books)
date = 1888]

After the war, Ayers went into business at age 19 in Estillville, now Gate City, Virginia. Encouraged by his uncle, a judge in Bedford, he began to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1872. In 1875, Ayers became the Commonwealth's Attorney for Scott County, Virginia, serving until 1879. Expanding his political career, Ayers served as reading clerk for the House of Delegates from 1875 to 1879, and was appointed a district supervisor by President Rutherford B. Hayes for the 1880 census.

Ayers became one of Southwest Virginia's industrial development leaders. In 1876, Ayers obtained a charter for a railroad from Bristol to Big Stone Gap. That same year he founded the "Scott Banner".cite web |url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Wise/101-0002_SWVA_Museum_Historical_SP_2002_Final_Nomination.pdf|title=National Register of Historic Places, Registration Form, Rufus A. Ayers House|publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources|accessmonthday=April 5 |accessyear=2008] He participated in the founding of Virginia Coal & Iron Co., [cite book
last = Rottenburg
first = Dan
title = In the Kingdom of Coal: An American Family and the Rock That Changed the World
publisher = Routledge (accessed via Google Books)
date = 2003
isbn = 0415935229] which became Virginia's largest coal company, and many other coal companies, as well as banks, a telephone company, and other businesses, and he owned the "Big Stone Gap Post".

Ayers became involved with Virginia politics as a member of the Democratic State Committee of the Ninth Congressional District in 1883. The next year, he was Vice-President of the Virginia delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, at which Grover Cleveland was nominated.

In 1885, Virginia's Democrats nominated Ayers as their candidate for Attorney General, along with Fitzhugh Lee for governor and John E. Massey for lieutenant governor. Besides Ayers, once the under-aged private, the other leading candidate for the nomination was James A. Walker, who had been a Confederate Army general.cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9900E6DF1139E533A25752C3A9619C94649FD7CF&oref=slogin|title=THE TICKET COMPLETED; VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS READY FOR THE CAMPAIGN, July 31, 1885|publisher=New York Times|accessmonthday=April 5 |accessyear=2008] In the general election, Ayers defeated the incumbent Republican Frank S. Blair.cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F06E6DD123FE533A25755C2A9679D94649FD7CF=slogin|title=VIRGINIA'S VOTE, November 26, 1885|publisher=New York Times|accessmonthday=April 5 |accessyear=2008] Following the inauguration of Lee, Massey, and Ayers in 1886, the Democrats would control Virginia's statewide offices until 1970.

As Attorney General, Ayers was made a defendant in litigation over Virginia's debt, was held in contempt by the United States Circuit Court, and checked into the Richmond city jail on October 10, 1887.cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B01E6D81238E533A25752C1A9669D94669FD7CF|title=VIRGINIA'S IMPRISONED LAWYERS, October 11, 1887|publisher=New York Times|accessmonthday=April 5 |accessyear=2008] On December 5, before a packed courtroom, the Supreme Court of the United States announced its decision to grant Ayers' petition for habeas corpus.cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9902E2DB1338E533A25755C0A9649D94669FD7CF|title=THE VIRGINIA COUPON CASE; A DECISION IN FAVOR OF THE COMMON WEALTH. JUDGE BOND HELD TO HAVE NO JURISDICTION, AND HIS ORDERS IN CONTEMPT DECLARED VOID, December 6, 1887|publisher=New York Times|accessmonthday=April 5 |accessyear=2008] ["In re Ayers", 123 U.S. 443 (1887).] The Virginia Coupon issue was not resolved on the merits until 1890. That same year, the New York Times interviewed Ayers, noting that he had spent six days in jail in the Coupon case, and that Ayers had chosen instead of seeking re-election in 1889 to return to Southwest Virginia, "which is now enjoying a genuine boom."cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C04E5DE113BE533A25753C1A9669D94619ED7CF|title=VIRGINIA'S STATE DEBT.; POPULAR FEELING IN FAVOR OF ITS SPEEDY SETTLEMENT, October 10, 1890|publisher=New York Times|accessmonthday=April 5 |accessyear=2008]

From 1889 to 1892, Ayers had as his law partner Joseph L. Kelly in Estillville. [cite book
last = Tyler, ed.
first = Lyon Gardiner
title = Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography
publisher = Lewis historical publishing (accessed via Google Books)
date = 1915] In 1893, along with his successor as Attorney General, R. Taylor Scott, and William F. Rhea from Bristol, Ayers represented Virginia before the Supreme Court in the boundary dispute with Tennessee over "a strip of land about 113 miles in length, and varying from 2 to 8 miles in width," that would have put all of Bristol, Tennessee in Virginia.cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C06E2DD1031E033A2575AC0A9659C94629ED7CF|title=VIRGINIA SUES TENNESSEE.; THE OLD DOMINION STATE WANTS A SLICE OF TENNESSEE'S TERRITORY, March 8, 1893|publisher=New York Times|accessmonthday=April 5 |accessyear=2008] They lost. ["Com. of Va. v. State of Tenn.", 148 U.S. 503 (1893).] In 1895, Ayers moved his family and his law practice from Scott County to Big Stone Gap.

In 1901-02, Ayers was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention, serving as Chairman of the Committee on Public Institutions and Prisons. [cite book
last = Brenaman
first = Jacob
title = A History of Virginia Conventions
publisher = J.L. Hill Printing Co.(accessed via Google Books)
date = 1902]

Ayers ran for Congress in 1912 against the Republican, C. Bascom Slemp, his longtime friend, who purchased Ayers' residence in 1929 and used it to house his collections. Today, Ayers' mansion in Big Stone Gap is the home of the Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park.cite web |url=http://www.swvamuseum.org/aboutus.html|title=About the Museum|publisher=The Southwest Virginia Museum|accessmonthday=April 5 |accessyear=2008]

Notes and references