Rufus A. Ayers was a Virginia lawyer, businessman, and politician, who served as Attorney General of Virginia

Attorney General of Virginia

The Attorney General of Virginia is an executive office in the Government of Virginia. Attorneys General are elected for a four-year term in the year following a presidential election . There are no term limits restricting the number of terms someone can serve as Attorney General...

.

Ayers was born in Bedford County, Virginia

Bedford County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 60,371 people, 23,838 households, and 18,164 families residing in the county. The population density was 80 people per square mile . There were 26,841 housing units at an average density of 36 per square mile...

. His family set out for Texas, but passed through Goodson (now Bristol

Bristol, Virginia

Bristol is an independent city in Virginia, United States, bounded by Washington County, Virginia, Bristol, Tennessee, and Sullivan County, Tennessee....

) en route, and decided to stay there. Ayers attended Goodson Academy until it was closed at the start of the Civil War. He never went to school again, for the rest of his life. At age 14, young Ayers ran away and joined the Confederate Army. Although under age, Ayers served for some months as a soldier in East Tennessee.

After the war, Ayers went into business at age 19 in Estillville, now Gate City, Virginia

Gate City, Virginia

Gate City is a town in Scott County, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,034 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Scott County....

. Encouraged by his uncle, a judge in Bedford, he began to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1872. In 1875, Ayers became the Commonwealth's Attorney for Scott County, Virginia

Scott County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 23,403 people, 9,795 households, and 7,023 families residing in the county. The population density was 44 people per square mile . There were 11,355 housing units at an average density of 21 per square mile...

, serving until 1879. Expanding his political career, Ayers served as reading clerk for the House of Delegates

Virginia House of Delegates

The Virginia House of Delegates is the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbered years. The House is presided over by the Speaker of the House, who is elected from among the...

 from 1875 to 1879, and was appointed a district supervisor by President Rutherford B. Hayes

Rutherford B. Hayes

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...

 for the 1880 census.

Ayers became one of Southwest Virginia's industrial development leaders. In 1876, Ayers obtained a charter for a railroad from Bristol to Big Stone Gap

Big Stone Gap, Virginia

Big Stone Gap is a town in Wise County, Virginia, United States. The population was 5,643 at the 2010 census.-History:The community was formerly known as "Meneral City" and "Three Forks." The "Big Stone Gap" refers to the valley which has been created on the Appalachia Straight, located between...

. That same year he founded the Scott Banner. He participated in the founding of Virginia Coal & Iron Co.

Penn Virginia

Penn Virginia are three interrelated Radnor, Pennsylvania-based companies that trade separately on the New York Stock Exchange and control 916.4 Bcfe of oil and gas deposits, 827 tons of coal and have 400 million cubic feet per day midstream oil and natural gas pipeline and processing...

, which became Virginia's largest coal company, and many other coal companies, as well as banks, a telephone company, and other businesses, and he owned the Big Stone Gap Post.

Ayers became involved with Virginia politics as a member of the Democratic State Committee of the Ninth Congressional District in 1883. The next year, he was Vice-President of the Virginia delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, at which Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland

Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...

 was nominated.

In 1885, Virginia's Democrats nominated Ayers as their candidate for Attorney General, along with Fitzhugh Lee

Fitzhugh Lee

Fitzhugh Lee , nephew of Robert E. Lee, was a Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War, the 40th Governor of Virginia, diplomat, and United States Army general in the Spanish-American War.-Early life:...

 for governor and John E. Massey for lieutenant governor. Besides Ayers, once the under-aged private, the other leading candidate for the nomination was James A. Walker

James A. Walker

James Alexander Walker was a Virginia lawyer, politician, and Confederate general during the American Civil War, later serving as a United States Congressman for two terms...

, who had been a Confederate Army general. In the general election, Ayers defeated the incumbent Republican Frank S. Blair

Frank S. Blair

Frank S. Blair was a Virginia lawyer who served as Attorney General of Virginia.The son of Tennessee congressman John Blair, Frank Blair was an officer in the Confederate Army, then practiced law in Wythe County, Virginia....

. Following the inauguration of Lee, Massey, and Ayers in 1886, the Democrats would control Virginia's statewide offices until 1970.

As Attorney General, Ayers was made a defendant in litigation over Virginia's debt, was held in contempt by the United States Circuit Court, and checked into the Richmond city jail on October 10, 1887. On December 5, before a packed courtroom, the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 announced its decision to grant Ayers' petition for habeas corpus. The Virginia Coupon issue was not resolved on the merits until 1890. That same year, the New York Times interviewed Ayers, noting that he had spent six days in jail in the Coupon case, and that Ayers had chosen instead of seeking re-election in 1889 to return to Southwest Virginia, "which is now enjoying a genuine boom."

From 1889 to 1892, Ayers had as his law partner Joseph L. Kelly

Joseph L. Kelly

Joseph L. Kelly was born in Marion, Smyth County, Virginia, the son of Judge JohnA. and Martha Kelly. John A. Kelly was a lawyer and...

 in Estillville. In 1893, along with his successor as Attorney General, R. Taylor Scott

R. Taylor Scott

Robert Taylor Scott was a Virginia lawyer who was three times elected to serve as Attorney General of Virginia.From Fauquier County, Virginia, Scott graduated from the University of Virginia in 1856, and studied law under his father. He served as an officer in the Confederate Army during the Civil...

, and William F. Rhea

William Francis Rhea

William Francis Rhea was a U.S. Representative from Virginia, a Virginia state court judge, and a member of the Virginia State Corporation Commission....

 from Bristol, Ayers represented Virginia before the Supreme Court in the boundary dispute with Tennessee over "a strip of land about 113 miles in length, and varying from 2 to 8 miles in width," that would have put all of Bristol, Tennessee

Bristol, Tennessee

Bristol is a city in Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 26,702 at the 2010 census. It is the twin city of Bristol, Virginia, which lies directly across the state line between Tennessee and Virginia. The boundaries of both cities run parallel to each other along State...

 in Virginia. They lost. In 1895, Ayers moved his family and his law practice from Scott County to Big Stone Gap.

In 1901-02, Ayers was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention

Constitution of Virginia

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the document that defines and limits the powers of the state government and the basic rights of the citizens of the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. Like all other state constitutions, it is supreme over Virginia's laws and acts of government,...

, serving as Chairman of the Committee on Public Institutions and Prisons.

Ayers ran for Congress in 1912 against the Republican, C. Bascom Slemp

C. Bascom Slemp

Campbell Bascom Slemp was an American Republican politician. He was a six-time United States congressman from Virginia's 9th congressional district from 1907 to 1922 and served as the presidential secretary to President Calvin Coolidge...

, his longtime friend, who purchased Ayers' residence in 1929 and used it to house his collections. Today, Ayers' mansion in Big Stone Gap is the home of the Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park

Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park

The Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park is a Virginia museum, run as a state park, dedicated to preserving the history of the southwestern part of the state. It is located in Big Stone Gap, in a house built in the 1880s for Virginia Attorney General Rufus A. Ayers. The structure was...

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