By Pat Turner Ritchie
In the old days, if you had a neighbor problem or committed a crime, the local Justice of the Peace would be your judge. You didn’t get arrested by the county deputy from Harrisonburg; the local constable would serve you with a summons.
Justices of the Peace were elected, and I think there was one or more for each voting precinct. They were able to handle minor civil and criminal cases, administer oaths (like swearing in the appraisers of estates), and debt cases. No formal legal training was necessary. The ability to read and write was essential when not everyone could read. I think there was a how-to manual for the justices with procedures to follow and samples of documents like deeds. Of course, the justices were male because before 1920, females could not vote, much less run for office.
Some Brocks Gap justices were Jacob Caplinger, John G. Cootes, Samuel Cootes, George Dove, Reuben Dove, George W. Fawley, Adam H. Fulk, John Hess, William May, Samuel R. Sprinkel, Naason W. Turner, Noah F. Turner, and Suffary Whitmer. Adam H. Fulk was a justice for 40 years. I have a note that he wrote in 1875 announcing his candidacy for reelection, which concludes, “and If Elected pledge my Self to discharge the duties of the office to the best of my abilities.” Adam was known as “Squire Ad” which was shortened from Esquire, referring to someone who practiced law. You may have heard of “Squire Cooper” for Justice of the Peace J. C. Cooper, grandfather of the late Richard Cooper of Fulks Run.
Justices handled paternity cases. Unwed mother Mary Ann Ritchie appealed to Justice George W. Fawley for child support from Isaac Turner in 1866. He issued a summons for Isaac to appear before him to answer the complaint. I don’t know the outcome of the case, but Isaac finally married Mary Ann two months before their second child was born.
Justices handled assault and battery. In 1890, Squire Ad Fulk’s wife had to testify at Fawley’s Schoolhouse in Annie M. Fitzwater versus Sarah J. and Martha J. Fawley. The Fawley women had caught Annie at a rail fence corner and beat her for mistreating their motherless niece and nephew. How impartial could Squire Ad be? He was an uncle of the defendants Martha and Sarah and also an uncle of Annie’s future husband John T. Fawley.
Did superstition help determine guilt? In 1874, Jacob Yankey’s body was discovered, murdered on a mountain trail. Tradition says that at Jacob’s funeral, the preacher invited all to come forward and shake hands with the dead man. All present shook hands except for one man, who immediately left the funeral and rode away on his horse. By his action, he confirmed his guilt as the murderer, because they knew that if a murderer touched the body of his victim, the body would begin to bleed, no matter how long the victim had been dead.
Squire Ad had the accused arrested and held an inquest about the murder, with the jurors sitting on logs in a circle, but the accused man was acquitted. I’m sure the fact that the accused man’s wife was a niece of the Squire Ad had nothing to do with his acquittal! Nevertheless, the acquitted man left the country for a year.
Justices didn’t need a formal courtroom. Their courts were held at businesses like Sprinkel’s store (Fulks Run), Fawley’s shop (Fulks Run), William Fulk’s store (mouth of Dry River), Caplinger’s mill (Criders), and Fulk’s mill (across from Fulks Run Ruritan park).
Lewis Yankey wrote that Gern Dove 1855-1939 was the last person in the Gap to be whipped at the whipping post. Squire Neff whipped him at Bergton for stealing a horse. Humiliated, Gern moved to Missouri, married, and returned to Virginia after 1883. He and some of his family moved to Pennsylvania in the 1920s. Gern’s great-granddaughter from Pennsylvania later gave the other side of the story: Gern had sold a horse to a man who did not pay. Gern was merely repossessing, not stealing, the horse.
If you owed money, the justice ordered a constable to sell enough of your property to pay the debt.
Neighbors sometimes administered justice themselves by tarring and feathering a “guilty” party. This punishment seems to have been for adultery. A man and woman in Bennetts Run were tarred & feathered, leaving him forever with the nickname “Frank Tarheel.” Susie L. was tarred & feathered at Fulks Run; her husband was 20 years older, and she may have been keeping company with another man. I wonder if the guilty man was tarred, too?
And finally, sometimes Justices were called upon to decide if a person was a lunatic. Ahh, the good old days.
