Born on June 29, 1845, in Charleston, Virginia (now West Virginia), to the former Miriam Radar of Nicholas County and her husband, Col. James Atkinson, a farmer and Kanawha County deputy sheriff. George, the second-born and named for his paternal grandfather, would have seven sisters.[4][5] Atkinson attended public school in Charleston.[6]
During the Civil War, Atkinson enlisted and mustered out as a private in Company F of the 1st West Virginia cavalry.[7]
After the war, in addition to becoming superintendent of the Kanawha County public schools, losing his father and marrying (as discussed below), Atkinson attended Ohio Wesleyan University and received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1870. He continued his studies and received an Artium Magister degree in 1873 from the same institution.[1] He also took graduate level courses from Mount Union College, a Methodist-affiliated institution founded in 1845 in Alliance, Ohio, which would award him a PhD "pro merito" in 1887.[6] In 1871 he moved to either Nashville, Tennessee, or Washington, D.C., for legal studies, ultimately receiving a Bachelor of Laws in 1874 from Howard University School of Law.[1] He later attended lectures on law at Columbia University.[6]
He first married Ellen Eagan, with whom he had five children; their firstborn, Howard Atkinson, rose to become a major in the United States Army. In 1897, the widower married Myra Horner Davis Camden, the widow of Judge Gideon D. Camden.[8]
Career
Atkinson Charleston board of education, 1869-'71, and assistant county superintendent of public schools, 1868-'70. became the assistant superintendent of public schools for Kanawha County, serving from 1868 to 1870.[1] For part of this period, Atkinson also collected tolls for the Kanawha River Board (1869 to 1871).[1] He was also the postmaster for Kanawha Courthouse (now Charleston) from 1871 to 1877.[1]
Shortly after graduating from Howard's law school, Atkinson was admitted to the West Virginia bar, beginning a private practice in Charleston from 1875 to 1877.[1] In the final year (1876), he was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates.[9] Atkinson moved to Wheeling in 1877,[6] and edited the Wheeling Standard from 1877 to 1878.[1] Atkinson then received his next federal job, as revenue agent for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (now the Internal Revenue Service) of the United States Department of the Treasury in Wheeling from 1879 to 1881.[1] He then became the United States Marshal for the District of West Virginia from 1881 to 1885.[1]
Following his departure from Congress, Atkinson returned to his legal practice from 1891 to 1896 as well as the newspaper business. He became editor of the West Virginia Journal in Wheeling during the same period.[1]
Governor
Atkinson upset Democrat Cornelius C. Watts to become the 10th Governor of West Virginia, serving from 1897 to 1901. Democrats had ruled the state for 26 years, but West Virginia faced a fiscal crisis. Atkinson worked against corruption in politics and professional lobbying. He also negotiated with Republican party leader and U.S. Senator Stephen B. Elkins, who eventually agreed to a tax increase. However, concessions split the party's reform wing. Nonetheless, Atkinson worked for an eight-hour workday, to prohibit employing children under 14 years of age, improved working conditions for women, and safety regulations in manufacturing and mining. In addition to speaking out against racist Jim Crow legislation being adopted by neighboring states which disenfranchised most blacks and poor whites, Atkinson championed high-quality public education, a permanent road system, and open and equal immigration.[3]
After Atkinson's gubernatorial term ended, President Roosevelt named him (and the Senate confirmed him as) the United States Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, a position he held from 1901 to 1905.[10]
Atkinson returned to Charleston and continued to write, as well as remained active in the Republican Party. In 1918 he supported the candidacy of T. Gillis Nutter, an African-American attorney from Charleston, for the state legislature.[11] Nutter also won re-election, and was nearly the only black to occupy statewide office in the South.[11]
Atkinson wrote 11 books of poetry and non-fiction, including History of Kanawha County (1876), West Virginia Pulpit (1878)After the Moonshiners (1881), Revenue Digest (1880); A.B.C. of the Tariff(1882); Don't, or Negative Chips from Blocks of Living Truths (1886); Psychology Simplified (1887), Prominent Men of West Virginia (1890),[12] poems (1899) and Bench and Bar of West Virginia (1919).[9][3]
Death, honors and legacy
Atkinson died on April 4, 1925, in Charleston.[1] He was interred in Charleston's historic Spring Hill Cemetery.
^ ab"George W. Atkinson" in Johnson, Rossiter, ed.. Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. vol. 1 Boston, MA, USA: The Biographical Society (1904) available on ancestry.com
The United States Court of Claims: a history / pt. 1. The judges, 1855–1976 / by Marion T. Bennett / pt. 2. Origin, development, jurisdiction, 1855–1978 / W. Cowen, P. Nichols, M.T. Bennett. Washington, D.C.: Committee on the Bicentennial of Independence and the Constitution of the Judicial Conference of the United States. 1976.
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