WYOMING COUNTY, WV
Biographies

HON. JOHN W. COOKE , member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, from Jesse, Wyoming County, one of the prominent, substantial and well educated young members, was born June 29, 1873, at Jesse, where he owns farming lands and is interested in coal and mineral enterprises. He is a son of Green M. and Margaret (Cooke) Cooke, the latter of whom is a daughter of David Cooke, a distant relative of the family. Green M. Cooke was born August 3, 1830, and was a son of James Cooke, both of them being born in Wyoming County, the birthplace of Green M. Cooke being on the same farm our subject now occupies.
     The mother was born February 19, 1830, and both she and her father were also born in Wyoming County. The Cooke family is of English descent and was founded in Wyoming County, West Virginia, then Montgomery County, Virginia, in the 18th century. His great-grandfather and great-grandmother were kidnaped in London, England, about 1750 and brought to what is now Virginia and sold to a wealthy planter for a period to pay the cost of their passages. When they had served out the time with him, they were married and settled temporarily in the Valley of the Shenandoah. From the start to the close of the Revolution, he took an active part in behalf of the Colonies, he fought under several of the worthy generals of that memorable struggle.
     Later in the "nineties" of the 18th century he moved west and make the first permanent home in what is now Wyoming County, West Virginia.
     John W. Cooke was educated in the common schools, and in the Normal School at Athens, West Virginia, in 1896. At the age of 17 years, he began teaching, in which profession he continued for a considerable period, conducting both township and select schools in Logan, Mercer and Summers counties. Until recently, Mr. Cooke has taken but little interest in local politics. The family has been generally Democratic, but our subject identified himself with the Republican party, by casting his first vote in 1896 for the late President McKinley. In 1902 he was selected as the Republican representative to the Legislature, and after a very active campaign was elected to the office, running ahead of his ticket and ahead of the candidates for Congress. His attitude in the House has been that of a conservative, voting with his party in all important measures. Although he has entered upon a successful political life, Mr. Cooke desires to perfect himself in the law, and with this end in view proposes to take a course in the University of West Virginia. He still retains his home on the old farm in Wyoming County, which is valuable not only for its adaptability for farming operations but also for its mineral resources.
     On August 9, 1898, Mr. Cooke was married to Mary Elizabeth Swope, who is a daughter of Attorney J. J Swope of Hinton, Summers County, West Virginia. Mrs. Cooke's great-grandfather was captured by the Indians when a small boy and eight years of his young life was spent with them. He became greatly attached to them and their mode of life and, when rescued by his people at one time, went directly back to continue life among them but was finally persuaded to remain with his own people. Mrs. Cooke's great-grandfather, Johnathan Swope, was of German parentage, and great-grandmother, a Cornwallis, of English descent. The Swope family were the first permanent settlers in what is now Monroe County, West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Cooke have two children: Paul Haddon. born July 1, 1899, and Nida Elizabeth, born October 6, 1901. Mr. Cooke belongs to the Lodge No. 48, A. F. & A. M., at Athens, West Virginia. For a number of years he has been a member of the Missionary Baptist Church and has always taken an active part in both church and Sunday-school work. Mr. Cook is one of the rising young men of Wyoming County, and is held in high esteem by members of all parties.
[Source: "Men of West Virginia", By Biographical Publishing Company, 1903 - Transcribed by K. Torp]

Judge James Damron
     Judge James Damron, lawyer and jurist, residing at Williamson, Mingo County, West Virginia, was born in that county April 28, 1876. By close application and hard work in the short periods permitted him in the common schools and utilization of odd hours at home he acquired sufficient learning to enable him to obtain employment in the County Clerk's office of Mingo County in 1897, when he was but twenty years of age. He served as Deputy County Clerk for two years and then accepted employment with the Kirk-Christy Lumber Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, as bookkeeper and store manager, which position he held for one year, severing his connection to become a candidate for the office of County Clerk of Mingo County, to fill an unexpired term of two years, caused by the death of County Clerk Chafin. After a hard political fight he was elected to his first office by a small majority. In 1902 he was re-elected County Clerk for a full term of six years. In 1908 he was again re-elected to this office for a full term of six years, but resigning before his term of office expired to become a candidate for Judge of the Circuit Court of the Twenty-second Judicial Circuit of West Virginia, comprising the counties of Mingo and Wyoming.
     Judge Damron, being reared by poor parents, did not have the advantage of a college education, but his experience as County Clerk of his own county for several years gave him an opportunity to read law for a number of years prior to his admission to the Bar under H. K. Shumate, who was one of the most prominent lawyers of the southern section of West Virginia during his lifetime.
     In 1909 Judge Damron entered the Law Department of the West Virginia University at Morgantown, and in 1910 was licensed to practice law. As soon as he had procured his license he was admitted to practice in his home county and in the Supreme and Federal Courts of West Virginia. In the same year, 1910, he became associated with the well-known law firm of Sheppard, Goodykoontz and Scherr, of Williamson, under whose able preceptorship his progress was so rapid and his prominence so swift and sure that he was honored by his fellow citizens in the counties of Mingo and Wyoming by the election of Judge of the Circuit Court at the November election, 1912, by a majority of over one thousand votes. As Judge Damron is a Republican, this majority was quite surprising, as President Wilson carried the State by several thousand votes. His judicial record is an enviable one. He has a vigorous, analytical, discriminating mind and is independent, impartial and fearless in the rendition of decisions. He was not thirty-five years old when he was elected Circuit Judge, and was, perhaps, the youngest man who ever sat upon the Circuit Bench of West Virginia. Judge Damron has not only gained a State-wide reputation in administering the laws of his State and county, but he can point with pride to his judicial decisions rendered during the five years that he has been on the Bench, having been upheld by the Supreme Court of the State in all with the exception of three cases. He resides in Mingo County, one of the largest coal producing counties in the State. Prior to his election to the Bench, the records disclose that his county was third on the list in sending criminals to the West Virginia penitentiary, but by a strict administration of the law, Mingo County now sends fewer criminals to the penitentiary than any other coal producing county in the State. At the first term of court held by him he announced from the Bench that he believed in the strict enforcement of all laws, and that every officer, high or low, should measure up to the full responsibilities of his duties. He further announced that he would ask the officers of the law to see that all the laws were rigidly enforced, and that in all elections that the sanctity of the ballot should be upheld, and that corruptions in the elections should be made a thing of the past. From this standpoint he has not deviated in the least. It will be recalled that less than one year ago an attempted assassination was made upon his life, during a term of court being held in his home county, for the stand taken by him in the enforcement of the law.
     Judge Damron is a member of the American Bar Association, as well as the West Virginia Bar Association. Besides his legal activities he has several business interests, being Vice-President and a Director of the First National Bank of Pineville, at Pincville, West Virginia. He is a member of the Baptist Church, a member of the Masonic Fraternity at Williamson, and of the Royal Arch and Knights Templar of Huntington, of the Mystic Shrine of Charleston, of the Elks of Huntington and has reached the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite branch of Masonry, belonging to the Rite at Wheeling, West Virginia.
[Bench and Bar of West Vrginia by George Wesley Atkinson, 1919 - Transcribed by AFOFG]