Newspapers / The Waynesville Mountaineer (Waynesville, … / Nov. 4, 1943, edition 1 / Page 6
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THE W A YNES VILLE MOUNTAINEER (One Day Nearer Victory) THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4 l9 Page 6 Judge Felix E. Alley A Musing Mountaineer By R. C. LAWRENCE (Written for 7 he Stale Magazine, Raleigh, N. C.) Bar- HAYWOOD is an ancien ony and, as was Mount Zion, it is "beautiful for situation;" and from her high hills have come many men who have risen to eminence on the field of State and Church. Even within the period of my own recollection (and I am in my young and tender years) on this soil have lived Garland S. P'erguson, Sr., gal lant officer in the army of North- year of such service he was forc jed to retire on account of lameness contracted during the Mexican war, whereupon he was commissioned liy his friend Governor Vance as Colonel in the home guard, a ser vice even more dangerous than that of the regular army, for the moun tain fastness was the retreat and hideout of deserters, bushwhack ers and outlaws of both armies, and the Home Guard was charged with em Virginia, desperately wounded the duty of seeking them out and at the seige of Petersburg, distin- , carrying them to Fort Sumter, guished lawyer, solicitor, and vete- ( Three of his Uncles were killed in ran superior court jurist at a time the Confederate army, while a when the Judges rode the entire fourth was foully murdered by the aiate. his son uarianu o. jr., at.- alien troops under the notorious before that prince of the bench, tained such eminence as a lawyer Col. George W. Kirke, whose law-j William A Hoe wno when told that he was named by President less acts and infamous brutalities that unless a pris'0ner was tried at ""BU" " a o luc rcuco. iinaiiy resuueu in me impeaenment; ; tnat term for a caDjtal felony com- 01 uovernor rioiuen. I one," that he received the nomina- I tion by acclamation. What is even more, although Jackson was a Re publican County, young Alley was elected with fifty-seven votes to ; spare! Such, my Masters, are just a few of the many struggles I through which this man of the mountains passed to come to a bench to which Thomas Ruffin : brought international fame; which i has been adorned by Richard M. Pearson; graced by Walter Clark; and on which Walter P. Stacy shed lustre before elevation to the Chief Just iceship. Young Alley opened his law offi ce with an imposing library of just j five volumes, among which was the "Lawyer's Bible Simms Manual of Law and Forms. Concerning j Simms, when he came to the Bar j the examinations were oral and Chief Justice Clark, who conduct ed the examination, did not ask the aspiring young barrister a single question. Maybe that will explain how Judge Alley got his license! His hrst court appearance was FIRST NURSES TO ARRIVE BY AIR IN ITALY Trade Commission, one of the Na lion's most important administra- , The greflt Dr Samue, Johnson) tive agencies; of which body he is , father of English literature, trulv mitteed the day prior to the con vening of the court that there would be a lynching, continued the trial yetamemDer, ana ne nas serveoas jsaid. slow rises worth by poverty saying that the prisoner had not its chairman more frequently than oppressed ... The boyhood of my had sufficient time to prepare his any umci meiuuci. subject was passed on only during There was the outstanding law- , the poverty of the post war per. jt . , . ,- . , i a cs Mc me an,i Pk,. ln its v, n' t.'J.- n William T. Crawford; Homer L. construction, but he was born with u- t" -?j ' preslaenl 01 llVf laresl I asthma in its severest form, and the MupuuuuiiiB Lun,.., uu w.e , firsf R xteen vearg of h If. wpr spent in a struggle for breath. He tic Seaboard; William T. Lee, Chairman and veteran member of the old Corporation Commission, now known as the Public Utilities Commission. Consider Harlee B. Ferguson, General of Engineers, United States Army, who directed the operations which raised the bat tleship Maine after it had been sunk in Havana Harbor, an act which brought on the Spanish American War; William L. Nor wood, gallant soldier of the South, last of the Judges of the Republi can political faith to serve on the bench of our mountain district; the great physician J, Howell Way, so distinguished for his service in the Public Health work of his native State; John Ferguson, Rear Ad miral, United States Navy, and others who have risen from the ranks. Then lastly, but by no means least, consider FELIX E. ALLEY MUSING MOUNTAIN EER. If I state not the year of his birth, it is not to hide his years but to conceal his youth. He is a native of Jackson county, named for Pre sident "Old Hickory", concerning whose birthplace there has been so much argument "about it and about," but that of Judge Alley was safely in our own State, for it was eight miles from both the South survived only because he possessed the qualities described by Words worth as " .... . strong in will To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield." , He passed his boyhood on the farm and was almost grown be fore he owned a suit of store bought clothes. President Lincoln attained immortality without the benefit of formal education; and Carolina's President Andrew John son, was the head of a family be fore he could read or write. When young Alley came along, it was be defense, and that if there was to be any violence it was better for the prisoner to be lynched by the mob, than mobbed by the court. God bless his gallant soul! Judge Hoke was noted for his gracious kindness to struggling young lawyers, and young Alley was employed in thirteen misde meanor cases of which, with the kindly protection and kindness of the judge, he was able to win elev en. Thenceforth he commanded all the practice he could handle, and his legal reputation widened until it attracted the attention of all the western country, and there was scarce any case of importance in which he did not appear. Nor has his practice been confined to nisi prius, for he is a member of the bar of the U. S. Circuit Court of EAGER TO GET TO WORK, the first group of Allied nurses to arrive In Italy by air leave i an bulanef plan on a field on the southern mainland. Many of the nurses are now stationed at front urn field hospitals. bringing medical comfort to soldiers and civilians alike. (international) fore the days of Aycock with his Appeals, of that of the Supreme program ot a school for every child and evtry child in a school." In Jackson county the average term was but six weeks, sometimes extended for a short period by the "subscription method." But he was able to get one full session at Cul lowhee high school (now Western Carolina Teachers College) and from its scholarly President Robert L. Madison he received much of the inspiration of hs life. During his teens all the property of his father was sold for "security debts" and the son had to fend for himself, and he considered no labor beneath his dignity. Then came the great opportunity of his life, for Carolina and the Georgia lines! He ! ne yearned and longed for a col comes of a family of fighting men, I 'ee education and friends finally and he is himself a fierce fighter ! procured for him the opportunity as you will see, for he not only j to work his way through Erskine conquered his outside handicaps College. But it was given to him but his own infirmities, and is there- to withstand the temptation, as he fore "greater than he that taketh ff't that it was his imperative duty a city." His ancestors served at to go to work to aid his aged fath King's Mountain, turning point of ' and saintly mother in their help the Revolution; and his father, John 't'ss old age. Surely here was an II. Alley, in his capacity as Colonel act of which the Recording Angel of Rutherford county militia, as-! took due notice; and certainly on sisted the military forces sent out that day Felix Alley, as did Abou by General Scott to remove the r5en Adhem, wrote his name in im Cherokee tribe from Western Caro- perishable letters, "As one who lina to their future home in the loves his fellow man." Indian territory. He volunteered He contrived to borrow $300.00 for service in the Mexican war, and an,l went to the University just after the battle of Chapaultepec lon enough to study part of Black (in which Stonewall Jackson first stone, but his mother became des rose to military fame) he was com- j perately ill and the doors of in missioned as a Colonel in the regu- struction closed upon him forever, lar United States army. When the j 0n tne advice Of his father that the Civil War drew on and our State j "ice of Clerk of the Superior seceded, some of the Alleys served j Court would offer an opportunity in the Union army, but Colonel ' fr practical legal education, he Alley remained staunch in his al-1 sought the nomination and so popu legiance to the South and imme- j 'ar was he, and so familiar were diately volunteered for service in the people with the heroic efforts he the Confederate army. After a I had made to "find a way or make Court of the United States, and of the Supreme Courts of the States of Virginia, Tennessee, South Caro lina and Georgia, and he has tried cases of importance in eight States. While he is best known as a trial lawyer, his arguments before the appellate tribunals have been mark ed by his lucid logic; his briefs are models of clear, cogent and con vincing reasoning; and the percen- by the suffrage of the people. Such tage of cases won by him on appeal has been his record that many attest the effectiveness of his ef- think when there is another va forts. jcancy on the bench of the high Of course such a man was soon 'court to be filled by a western man, called into the political life of the the ehoice wiH fal1 uPon Felix State and he was elected to the! L. ....... ! Ha w pnthiistiMerip in his in- legislature two years after he set Isistence on the nomination of tied at Webster; and here he met ; L(cke Craij, for Governor by the John Christopher Blucher Ehring-:charlotte Convention but when haus, and the man of the moun-ttw lw1v nominated William Wal- amid all the carking cares of his judicial office, travelling from place to place, week after week, some how finds the time to deliver hun dreds of addresses, and his ser vice has been as effective to the cause of religion as it has been in that of the State, and he has grac ed many a pulpit, for he possesses all the holy zeal of a Prophet and he pursues his ideal with all the ardor shown by Sir Launfal when tains so impressed Ehringhaus that '. ton Kitchini he did not like Achil- I he sought the Holy Grail, wnen ne rose to power nut oi mac ; ,es sulk jn hig ttnt but he rend, later. As early as 1910 Alley was ered effective service, speaking in elected Solicitor and won for him- mountain county. Four years self a reputation as a bold and fear-: later there was a unanimous de less prosecutor, yet a man who felt i nd that Crajg recejve the nQmi. r t.rtt. .i, r:: ?tio. ha.d been th? any te , " . ' " ;.j ivices or Alley tnat he was seiectea those of the State. He did not f iQ tua nf rv,; His mind is so well furnished and is such a storehouse of infor mation that he can speak with au thority on almost any subject with little or no preparation, and he seek re-election which he could the nominating Convention; and if have had for the asking. He re- do not believe that his was a moved to Waynesville in 1913;gTeat deiiverance you should have wneie lie naa amce icbiucu auu where he was active in the legal, civic and political life of the sec tion until 1933 when he was named by Governor Ehringhaus as Judge of the 20th District to fill the va cancy caused by the death of Judge Walter E. Moore, and since that time he has been continued in office HOSPITAL SHIP SUNK BY NAZIS iiiiiilftiiitf11? iff ii -o heard it, for it swept the Conven tion, bringing that body to its feet several times in a storm of ap plause. Before he went upon the bench his powerful voice was heard in every campaign. He often served as Presidential elector, and was a delegate to the National Conven tion at Chicago when President Roosevelt was first nominated, and in that campaign at his own ex pense he made more than thirty speeches, pleading the cause of Jef fersonian Democracy. It is no wonder that this man of high ideals, lofty patriotism and eminent public st rvice, should have been selected by Western Carolina Teachers College as its most distinguished graduate. He possesses amazing physical court but that he is called upon to address some Bar Association, to make some speech before some edu cational gathering, community ral ly or to render some other public service of an extra judicial nature. He has been a constant burner of the midnight oil, and has authored many articles, and there has been no cause of moral, civic or relig ious righteousness on the field of the State which has not received powerful impetus for the work of this Joshua among Judges. His mind is a storehouse of in formation concerning our State, and if you do not believe that he is a writer of compelling charm, read his MUSINGS OF A MOUN TAINEER, recently published, than which no book published by any son of Carolina has attracted wider or more favorable comment; and had I been upon the board of award he would have received the Mayflower Cup. When I get to be a University Trustee (which may degree of Docw V "e nN it- ... Jt- Law Hia i.ifl . 6"t as an ink, great as his " . ,Llhor 4 but recently rwJV" ora; his potent and proline ptrTan cle descriptive of the l?v grandeur of Western Car!li J -,7 ""c a Pem m pro,. ever wrote in rhy do majestic was i mat uan Goerch, ed cuaLe, me man w! a- i is iu Knuw .nrtli r only published it in hi but read it over the til ? fered $25.00 to anv.r.w. ? match it in describing ti. Seaboard and coastal pl.V" far the offer has gone 'unda and I believe Goerch cuuM nis ante by a considerable sUm '7 l een Portran d 'til nils it M.,.,,l.l i i u "I orusn or a Gainsborough Joshua Reynolds. Such, my Lords and Gentle is a rough anH PU (rrr,.,l . . i. u J i n.ir, a man who f"cu lulre upon the annals of nencn and bar; who has rend! eminent serv ce nn wno nas wrod ""pcusiiauie monument in me vi our people; who; servea ine cause of religion and I acclaim him as a chrij OLaiesinun. "LET US LOOK Unto HILLS WHENCE COMETH I Jrthyi or Industry is paying such .mr.An V, J . t ... . "6 mo uevu will hava tJ something about the wages ofi LOST Gas Rationing "B" Number 302087L. Address 41, Waynesville. Nov. 4-li FOR SALE 11 acre farm in Ct T. . . i : r-, . r luwiisnip on atate High rncea ac $400 an acre. Addl Register of Deeds, Waynes! Nov. 4 4 And Your Strength an Energy Is Hclou I'ar It may be caused by disorder o( ney lunction tnat permits poisaft waste to accumulate, ror truly people feel tired, weak and miwi when the kidneys fail to removes acids and other waste matter fronw blood. You may suffer naceine backi rheumatic pains, headaches, dinif getting up nights, leg pama, swtl Sometimes frequent ana scanty mjg tion with smarting and burning 1 other sign that something is wrong the kidneys or bladder. There should be no doubt that pn treatment is wiser than neglect. : Doan's Pills. It is better to rely I medicine that has won count rywid proval than on something less Tavoi Known. Poan'siiave been tried and ed many years. Are al all drug sti ind intellectual resources, and has happen any day now) he will be DESPITE ITS PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED Insignia and bright lights, the Allied hospital ship Newfoundland (above) was sunk by Nazi dive bombers in the Gulf of Salerno. No patients were aboard the vc. :el when it was hit. All of the 103 U. S. Army nurses aboard were saved. Several British nurses and doctors were killed. (International) WHEN YOU NEED Blanks - - -We Have Them! Legal Chattel Mortgages Warrants Warranty Deeds -Deed Of Trust State Warrants Claim-Delivery Proceedings No Trespassing Signs No Hunting Signs Leases Ejection Blanks Transcript Of Judgment Civil Summons Mountaineer SCOH'S SCRAP BOOK foRM PUEP of Lorraine. PuC PUotli m 1581 By R. J.SCOTT km. . -was- . -- l AjX'il loMfi'fttK CTJ MILK 6i MAPI llMM Ml ' FUTURE! Just as War Stamps will provide for your future . . . bo will Insurance take care of any emergency in time of need. See us today about your insurance needs! Consult . . . L N. DAVIS CO. Rentals Real Estate Insurance Bonds PHONE 77 MAIN STREET Letters Build Morale Write often to your men and women in the Armed Services . . . keep them posted, keep them cheered. Have the pleasure of in specting our varied lines of sta tionery, in several colors. Just the kind you'll like for your own correspondence and to use as gifts. The MOUNTAINEER 4
The Waynesville Mountaineer (Waynesville, N.C.)
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Nov. 4, 1943, edition 1
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