Yanceyville Lawyers 1913 and 1877

"They Once Practiced In Rockingham County"

Many of our older citizens will recall that Caswell at one time had in numbers and ability the equal, if not the superior, of any bar in the State -- we have reference to the practitioners of the court bar, not to sordid things. We chanced recently to run a cross a printed copy of "Minimum Fees of Caswell County Bar." This document is signed by Dillard and Ruffin, M. McGehee, Watt and Withers, Samuel P. Hill, A. M. Scales, James T. Morehead, John W. Graham, George N. Thompson, John Kerr, J. T. Morehead, Jr., L. L. M. Totten, Walker J. Jones, and R. Y. McAden. All of these lawyers practiced at the Rockingham bar also, and we believe most of them regularly attended Guilford courts. It will be news to many that the lawyers had in those halcyon days a formidable "trust." It is interesting to note that while the scale of fees seems very reasonable, those old lawyers charged for everything from an unwritten opinion up to a "motion for license to retail spiritous liquor." -- Yanceyville Sentinel.

Source: The Reidsville Review (Reidsville, North Carolina), 25 March 1913, Tuesday, Page 1.

The [Yanceyville] Bar, Colonel Thomas Ruffin says, is as usual, more weighty in numbers than in ability, abounding in briefs, and as hungry for fees as wolves. The resident lawyers are: R. B. Watt, J. A. Long, J. F. Terry, A. E. Henderson. Visitors: Geo. N. Thompson, Leasburg; John R. Winston, Caswell county, J. H. Dillard, Rockingham; Thomas Ruffin, J. W. Graham and F. N. Strudwidk, Hillsboro; Jas. A. Graham, Graham; P. B. Johnson, A. J. Boyd and R. B. Glenn, Wentworth; E. B. Withers and Thos. Hamlin, Danville, Va.

The last two gentlemen are natives of North Carolina, and have settled in Virginia, and as they have license to practice in the courts of both States, parties having business in either State in the border counteies will find it to their interest to consult them.

Source: "Caswell County Letter," R. A. Leigh (Correspondence of The Observer, Yanceyville, October 8, 1877). The Weekly Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina), 16 October 1877, Tuesday, Page 1.