"Prominent Men of West Virginia"
George Wesley Atkinson, Alvaro Franklin Gibbens
Published by W. L. Callin, 1890 - West Virginia


FRANCIS ASBURY GUTHRIE. 

HON. F. A. GUTHRIE, the present Judge of the Seventh 
Judicial Circuit, constituted by the counties of Kanawha, 
Mason and Putnam, was born April 12, 1840, in Tyler county,
Virginia. He attended the ordinary schools of the neighbor-
hood, then the college at Meadville, Pennsylvania. At the
opening of the war in 1861, he enlisted in the One Hundred
and Eleventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, as a private;
was promoted the same year to Sergeant; in 1862 to Lieutenant
of Company E ; then in 1863 to Captain. In September, 1862,
he received a medal for bravery at the battle of Antietam.
After the war he attended college at Ann Arbor, Michigan,
where he studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1867.
He removed to Mason county and was elected Prosecuting Attor-
ney and served two years. In 1880 he was elected upon the
Fusion ticket, by the Republican and Greenback parties as
Circuit Judge for the term of eight years. In 1888 he was
re-elected upon the Republican ticket by an overwhelming
majority over S. S. Green, Democrat. He was the nominee of
the Republicans for State Supreme Judge at the election in
1884, but was, with the other candidates, defeated. 

Judge Guthrie resides at Point Pleasant, on the Ohio river;
is affable in manner, sociable, prompt in the dispatch of the
cases upon a crowded docket; fond of fishing and hunting, is
popular, and is an able jurist. 

Submitted by Linda Fluharty.