Judge Alexander Blizzard This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. www.electricscotland.com

   www.electricscotland.com/histo - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/21/2000   Last Visited: 3/8/2001

   Judge Blizzard He is one of West Virginia's distinguished lawyers , formerly a circuit judge , and has also been a con- structive factor in the larger business affairs of the state.
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   Judge Blizzard was born in Nicholas County , West Virginia , October 17 , 1864 , son of James and Elizabeth ( Gill ) Blizzard. His maternal grandfather came to this country from Ireland. His paternal grandfather , Alexander Blizzard , came from Scotland. His wife was a Campbell , also of Scotch ancestry and related to Alexander Campbell , founder of Bethany College , West Virginia. Alexander Blizzard made his home in New Jersey. James was one of his three sons , one of whom went to Ohio and the other to Indiana , while James settled in Greenbrier County , West Virginia. He was a clergyman of the Methodist Protestant Church , though his duties were only local. The greater part of his life was spent in West Virginia , and he was a private soldier in the Confederate army and wounded in the battle of Shiloh. He died in 1889 and his widow in 1907. James Blizzard's first wife was a daughter of Rev. A. T. Morrison , of Nicholas County , and she became the mother of ten children. His second wife , Elizabeth Gill , was the mother of thirteen children.
   
   Reese Blizzard lived in Nicholas County until he was thirteen , and thereafter made his home with his parents in Gilmer County until he reached his majority. Following that he spent some time in Calhoun County , and eventually came to Wood County. His education was the product of common schools , and the Glenville Normal School at Glenville in Gilmer County.
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   Judge Blizzard served only four years of his eight-year term , resigning midway to remove to Parkersburg and engage in the general practice of the law.
   
   In 1901 he was appointed by President McKinley United States district attorney for the State of West Virginia. Soon after this the state was divided into two districts , and Judge Blizzard was made district attorney to the Northern District. He was reappointed by President Roosevelt , and had charge of all matters in his district under the Federal Department of Justice until 1910. For ten years he was attorney for the Street Railway Company of Parkersburg. He has served as attorney for the Little Kanawha Syndicate Properties , and in that capacity directed the condemnation proceedings for the right of way from the Pennsylvania state line to Fairmont for the Buckhannon & Northern Railroad. Judge Blizzard is president of the Parkersburg Commercial Banking & Trust Company , president of the Parkersburg Ice Company , president of the Oil & Gas Company , and has many other business interests too numerous to mention. His chief hobby outside the practice of law is farming , and his home is on a beautiful suburban place at Parkersburg. He has given considerable attention to the breeding of pure bred livestock , chiefly horses. Judge Blizzard has been directly connected with the building of five fair grounds in West Virginia , the last one being at Parkersburg , said to be the best in the state. He was president of the Parkersburg Fair Association for many years.
   
   In politics he has always been a loyal republican. The five counties in the Sixth Judicial Circuit had a normal democratic majority of 1 , 372. In that circuit he was elected to the judgeship by 819 majority.
   
   In 1904 Judge Blizzard was in the storm center of the politics of West Virginia. The late A. G. Dayton , W. P. Hubbard , George 0. Sturgiss and Judge Blizzard were agreed upon as a committee to make recommendations to the Legislature for the enactment of laws after the storm produced by the report of the West Virginia Tax Commission.
   
   As a member of this committee Judge Blizzard proposed many laws that had not been recommended by the tax commission and which were afterward enacted as laws by the Legislature. As a result , leaseholds for oil , gas and coal have been taxed ever since. The fees of state officers , and especially that of secretary of state , amounting to $ 60 , 000 per year , has been turned into the state treasury. Capitation taxes have been collected by the assessor when assessment is made. This has netted the state treasury something like $ 100 , 000 per year. In all , more money has been turned into the state treasury as a result of these recommendations than was turned in as a result of the recommendations of the State Tax Commission.
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   Judge Blizzard then married Fannie Holland , and they have three children , named Paul , Pansy and Fannie. Two of his sons , Reese , Jr. , and Paul , made creditable records during the World war , both seeing service abroad.
   
   By a system of strenuous exercises and by using milk as the greater part of his diet , Judge Blizzard has rebuilt a constitution worn by work that , fifteen years ago , seriously threatened his life , and he is now a stronger and more rugged man and capable of performing much more labor than he has been since he was thirty years of age.