Mingo County, West Virginia         Biography of JOHN LEWIS STAFFORD

This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook,
E-mail address:  <vfcrook@earthlink.net>

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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 588
Mingo

JOHN LEWIS STAFFORD, who is engaged in the practice
of his profession in the City of Williamson, judicial cen-
ter of Mingo County, has held for more than a quarter of
a century a secure place as one of the able and representa-
tive member of the bar of this section of the state, and he
is now senior member of the law firm of Stafford & Rhodes,
with offices in the Goodman building.

When Mr. Stafford came to Williamson in 1895 and
opened a law office in a building at the corner, of Pike Street
and Third Avenue, the present vigorous industrial city was
but a village, with no paved streets and with but few
sidewalks, and these of board construction, Third Avenue
having been the main street, and the Thacker Mine having
been about the only one in operation in this now important
coal field. Mr. Stafford continued in the independent prac-
tice of law about ten years, and then formed a professional
partnership with D. W. Brown, under the firm name of
Stafford & Brown. This alliance continued about three
years and was dissolved when Mr. Brown was appointed to
judicial office. Mr. Stafford thereafter continued his indi-
vidual practice four years and then admitted Mr. Rhodes
to partnership, under the present firm name of Stafford &
Rhodes. In 1896, the second year of his residence here,
Mr. Stafford was elected prosecuting attorney of the county,
and served the regular term of four years. In 1909 he was
again elected to this office, and his second term of four
years was marked by the same efficiency that had attended
his former incumbency of the office. During the nation's
participation in the World war he was active in patriotic
service, was a Four Minute Speaker and aided greatly in
the local campaigns in support of the Government war loans,
Red Cross work, etc. He is a member of the American Bar
Association, the West Virginia Bar Association and the
Mingo County Bar Association. He is a stalwart in the
local camp of the republican party, and he and his wife
hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

October 4, 1900, recorded the marriage of Mr. Staf-
ford and Miss Minnie B. Mullens, who was born in Lin-
coln County, this state, and of the two children of this
union the first, John Lewis, Jr., was born May 2, 1905, and
died March 26, 1908, while with his parents in San Fran-
cisco, California. The surviving son, Paul Edwards, was
born August 2, 1915.

John L. Stafford was born in Mercer County, West Vir-
ginia, which was still a part of Virginia, on the 22d of Oc-
tober, 1856, his father, William M. Stafford, likewise having
been born in that county, a representative of a family
founded in America in Colonial days and of English origin.
For many years William M. Stafford was a farmer in his
native county, and there both he and his wife remained un-
til their deaths. Their children were ten in number - four
sons and six daughters. Mrs. Stafford, whose maiden name
was Harriet Shumate, was born in Giles County, Virginia,
of Colonial ancestry.

The early education of John L. Stafford was acquired in
the country schools of his native county, and he began to
help in the work of the home farm when he was a mere
boy. In pursuance of higher education he next attended
the Concord Academy at Athens, Mercer County, and in
this institution he was graduated as a member of the class
of 1878. He then began the study of law in the office of
Johnston & Hale at Princeton, the county seat, and in 1880
he was admitted to the bar. He soon afterward opened a
law office at Oceana, Wyoming County, and almost imme-
diately was elected prosecuting attorney of that county, in
which office he served three consecutive terms. Finally he
returned to Mercer County and engaged in practice at Blue-
field, where, shortly afterward, he formed a law partner-
ship with J. M. Saunders, under the title of Stafford &
Saunders. This alliance continued about two years and Mr.
Stafford then removed to Williamson, which has since con-
tinued the central stage of his law business, which has been
of broad scope and importance and involves his appearance
in both criminal and civil departments of practice. He has
made a record of large and worthy achievement in his ex-
acting profession, and is one of its leading representatives
in Mingo County.