Cornelius Clarkson Watts

Who is Cornelius Clarkson Watts?

Cornelius Clarkson Watts, or C. C. Watts, was United States Attorney for the District of West Virginia and Attorney General of West Virginia. In 1896, he was the Democratic party candidate for Governor of West Virginia.

He was born April 23, 1848 at Amherst, Virginia. His parents, James D. and Lucy A. Watts, lived in Amherst until the beginning of the Civil War, when they removed to Albemarle County, Virginia. At 16, he entered the Confederate Army and served as a private soldier in Mosby's Command. After the war, he studied law and was educated at the University of Virginia. In 1870, he moved to West Virginia and began the practice of his profession at Oceana, West Virginia. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney for Wyoming County, West Virginia in 1872, and held the office until 1875. In that year he moved to Charleston and became a member of the law firm of Kenna & Watts.

He was nominated and elected by the Democratic party, in 1880, as Attorney General for West Virginia, and served his term of four years. While Attorney General, he argued many important cases for the State, and with Maj. 0. D. Cook, his faithful assistant, got out nine volumes of Supreme Court reports. He argued the tax case of Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co. v. Miller, 114 U.S. 176 on March 22, 1885, in the Supreme Court of the United States. In that case, he served as Attorney for the State under the employment and appointment of Governor Jacob B. Jackson, after his term of office as Attorney General had expired. In this litigation the State was successful, and besides gaining for itself and the counties through which the road runs, some $200,000, it established the right to forever tax, not only this railway, but all railroads now or hereafter to be built in West Virginia.