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WOOD COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Pam Honaker
pam_honaker@hotmail.com
May 21, 2000
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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,
page 463
HON. WALTER EDMUND McDOUGLE, WOOD COUNTY
Hon. Walter Edmund McDougle. Thirty years as a lawyer and eight years on
the Circuit Bench is embraced in the professional and public record of Judge
McDougle of Parkersburg. He is one of the best loved men in that community,
and upright and able judge, and a man who has been true to all the heavy
obligations of his life.
He represents the third generation of this family in West Virginia, and was
born on a farm eight miles below Parkersburg, in Wood county, December 4,
1867. His first American ancestor was John McDougle, who was born in
Scotland in 1731. Benjamin McDougle, of the second generation, was born in
Maryland in 1762, and married Elizabeth Duke. Their only child, Samuel F.
McDougle, grandfather of Judge McDougle, was born n Virginia, June 14, 1798,
and for some years had his home in that portion of Warren County which is
now part of Clark County in old Virginia. In 1848 he moved to what is now
West Virginia. All his active career was spent as a farmer. He was
pronouced opponent of the institution of slavery, thought essentially true
to the institutions of the South.
His son, Albert Armstrong McDougle, whose mother was Mary Armstrong, was
born in Warren County, Virginia, December 2, 1838, and spent practically his
entire life as a farmer and stockman in Wood County, West Virginia. He was
killed on a railroad crossing July 5, 1905. He was a student at Williams
College in Ohio when the Cival War broke out. He returned home with the
intention of entering the Union army. Three brothers had gone into the
Confederat service, and he was influenced not to enlist. In his old home
community at Washington Bottoms in Wood County, January 11, 1866, he married
Louisa Jane Lewis, who was born February 21, 1841, and died October 7, 1870.
Her father was Francis Keene Lewis.
Walter Edmund McDougle was the oldest of four children, and the only one to
survive infancy. His boyhood days were spent on the home farm until 1886,
and in the meantime he attended the local schools. For about eightenn
months he attended the Tri-State Normal College at Angola, Indiana, taking a
commercial course, and in 1889 began reading law with Judge John G. McCluer
of Parkersburg. In Septtember 1890, he entered the law school of Washington
and Lee University, graduating with the law degree in June 1891, and was
admitted tothe bar at parkersburg, July 13th.
Judge McDougle continued active in his work as a lawyer for over twenty
years, until he went on the bench. He was frequently honored with public
office, serving four years, 1893-96, as prosecuting attorney of Wood County.
During this term in office he never has a mistrial or any case
successfully appealed against him in higher court. The judge before whom he
tried many of his cases said that he was the best prosecuting attorney that
had ever practiced in his court. From 1909 to 1912, he was assistant
prosecuting attorney. He was elected judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit
of West Virginia in 1912, being chosen on the republican ticket, though for
his second termhe had no opposition. He has never beeen a partisan
politician, and his widespread popularity is due to the eminent fitness he
has shown for his judicial responsibilities.
Judge McDougle is affiliated wht the Knights of Pythias, Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and other
fraternal and social organizations, and he and his family are Presbyterians.
At Marietta, Ohio, April 18, 1891, he married Myrtle Elizabeth Curry,
daughter of George and Eliza (White) Curry. Her father was a Union soldier
and later a brick manufacturer. The only son of Judge McDougle is Robert
Boreman McDougle, who was born February 7, 1893. He graduated from the
Parkersburg High School, from Washington and Lee University in 1916, and
during the World war was a first lieutneant in the Three Hundred and
Twenty-fourth Field Artillery, serving two years, fourteen months of which
time were spent overseas in France. He was in the battle of the Argonne.
He is now rated as one of the ablest young lawyers in the section of West
Virginia, and is assistant prosecuting attorney of Wood County.
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