William Edward Lively [11194]

  General Notes:

From: Prominent Men of West Virginia, pages 687, 688 - William Edward Lively.

The Constitutional Court, commissioned by the Legislature of 1889, to receive the evidence and determine the contest between the candidates Nathan Goff and A. B. Fleming for the office of Governor for the term ending March 3, 1893, has as one of its ablest members, the lawyer with the above name, whose portrait faces opposite. He is the son of Charles and Elizabeth Lively and was born March 6, 1830 in Williamsburg, Virginia. At the age of six months he was left motherless and to the care of a faithful colored servant until three years old, when his father again married, and his stepmother assumed control of him. Being an only boy, he was generally permitted his way and was sent to the best schools. When eighteen years old his father, who was a sailor all his life, offered him a schooner of 160 tons burden if he would take command. Declining this proposition his father next tendered 250 acres of land and to stock the same with negroes, animals and farming utensils, in addition to the 200 acre farm already owned and inherited from his mother. This was also rejected. Ambitious to carve out his own fortune and without the knowledge of his father, he accepted the Deputy Sergeancy of Williamsburg City. While thus employed he took an Academic course at William and Mary's College. His life from 1851 to 1854 was spent mostly traveling, teaching and clerking. In 1854 he began the study of law. In 1856, through a disagreement with Professor Minor of the law department of William and Mary College in which the instructor was accused of partiality, Mr. Lively refused to present himself for graduation. In 1857 he formed a law partnership with Caleb Boggess of Clarksburg and made his first appearance at the bar on Glenville, Gilmer County, about the 15th of March of that year. In 1859 he moved to Weston and practiced until the opening of the war in 1861. In that year the County Court of Gilmer made an appropriation of $3,000 "to arm and equip soldiers for the defense of the State against Northern invasion," and Mr. Lively was appointed to negotiate the bonds and expend the money. He went to Richmond and in an interview with General Wise it was agreed to commission him as Lieutenant Colonel of a regiment and appoint Judge Wm. L. Jackson as Colonel, provided Mr. Lively would return to Lewis County, recruit and report at Hawk's Nest in Greenbrier County. This was undertaken and he was captured in Weston by troops under the command of Co. E. B. Tyler, and from Weston was sent a prisoner to Grafton and put in confinement. During the confinement the Confederate guerrillas shot two Union men in Lewis County, and it was seriously contemplated by the military authorities to retaliate and put to death Mr. Lively and J. T. Jackson, a prisoner confined with him. In this time of trouble Co. Lander of Kentucky went to Washington and procured a parole for him. During his imprisonment Generals Rosecrans, Kelly, and Fremont commanded that department, and toward them he feels grateful for humane and gentle treatment, each of whom paroled him and gave him pass to travel within their command. While enjoying this freedom he went to Wheeling to have some dental work done, and only took one dinner at the house of McClure when he was arrested and ordered into the Atheneum, the old war prison in that city. Through the leniency of Major Darr, Provost Marshal's Office, he was intercepted and permitted to take meals at the Monroe House, sleep at Dr. Winchell's and play clerk in the Provost Marshal's Office. This continued three days when he was ordered to General Rosecrans to report at Clarksburg. His career as freeman lasted about three months, when he was re-arrested and served as prisoner in Forts Delaware, Warren, Point Lookout and Fortress Monroe, at which latter place he gained the confidence of General John A. Dix, commandant and was chosen by him as agent to purchase supplies for the citizens of Williamsburg and vicinity. About the 10th of May, 1863, General Wise with 2,500 men made a raid on Williamsburg and among others captured Mr. Lively and sent him to Richmond, where he was released from parole and entered the Confederate service as a private. He joined the Tenth Regiment of Cavalry, Company I until after the battle of Spottsylvania C.H., where he gave out and was sent to Richmond into the Treasury Department, serving there until Richmond fell. Thence he returned home to see it a ruin and wreck of despair and abandonment. He returned to Weston to be confronted with the test oaths and proscription laws that were incident to the times.

William married Emily North Shaw [11221] [MRIN: 3760], daughter of William M. Shaw [29662] and Unknown, on 3 Jun 1869. (Emily North Shaw [11221] was born in 1847 in Louisiana.)