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The election controversy of 1942
As World War II raged across much of the globe in 1942, life continued as best it could in the small American towns that was sending its sons off to fight in the conflict. And, in Scott County, an election controversy erupted in 1942 that would ultimately be decided by a court — but not before the man who, in the opinion of the court, actually lost the election had served as Scott County Judge for more than a year and a half.
The race for County Judge in 1942 pitted newspaper editor C.W. Wright — a former mayor of Oneida — against longtime County Trustee Roscoe Byrd.
County Judge, in those days, was the same office we refer to as County Mayor today. It was called County Judge from the 1860s all the way up until Verda “Buddy” Cope’s tenure in office neared an end at the beginning of the 1980s.
Born Feb. 14, 1886 in Kentucky, Clifford Winfield Wright was an attorney and businessman who had served as publisher of the Scott County News and had even run for governor of Tennessee as a Democrat in 1936. He only received 1.5% of the vote across the state, losing to former Congressman Gordon Browning.
The next year, 1937, Wright was elected mayor of Oneida, succeeding Sam Blair. He resigned the office after one year, and was replaced by Arnold Colditz. Wright continued his work as a newspaper publisher, writing editorials in support of damming the Big South Fork River to create a lake in Scott County. The federal government considered a dam at the site of Devils Jump in Kentucky or at the confluence of New River and Clear Fork near Helenwood, and Wright wrote in a January 1942 editorial that “the people of Scott County, we believe, are practically 100 percent in favor of the proposition.”
Roscoe Byrd, born Feb. 28, 1893, was a fourth-generation Scott Countian, the son of George Washington Byrd and Nancy Phillips of the Straight Fork community in eastern Scott County. He received a Purple Heart in World War I, and then was elected Scott County Trustee in 1922, at the age of 29. He would serve in that capacity for 18 years before leaving the office in 1940.
In 1942, Wright and Byrd squared off in the Scott County Judge’s race. They were both competing against William A. Terry, who had been elected county judge in 1934 and had served two terms in that capacity. J.F. Ellis, who was a squire (what we call county commissioner today) was also a candidate.
Wright was a well-known man about town. Just a few days before the election, he had introduced Tennessee Gov. Prentice Cooper when the governor spoke to a crowd outside Duncan Department Store in Oneida. But Byrd was also popular, having won county-wide election five times as a candidate for the trustee’s office.
The election was held on Aug. 6, 1942, and it was a close one. When the final vote was tallied, Wright had won by just 16 votes — or so the Scott County Election Commission said. Ten days later, Byrd filed a lawsuit in Scott County Chancery Court with a damning allegation: he claimed election officials had deliberately changed the vote count in favor of Wright.
Those were the days of paper ballots, and after noticing a 32-vote difference between the preliminary tabulations of the precincts immediately after the polls closed and the recount of the tally sheets on the following Monday by the Election Commission, Byrd formally lodged charges of tampering, saying that the ballots had been re-marked after they were polled.
Byrd further claimed that Scott County election authorities had violated the federal Hatch Act by giving citizens “priority ratings” for automobile and truck tires to persuade them to vote for Wright. He notified the FBI of his allegations.
Byrd was represented in his court case by the Knoxville law firm Jennings, O’Neill and Jarvis, and by Huntsville attorney William York.
Meanwhile, a high-profile name went to battle for Byrd. Congressman John Jennings Jr., a native of Campbell County, waded into the court battle on Byrd’s behalf. He told a crowd in Maryville on October 1942 that he had no choice but to fight for Byrd.
“Roscoe Byrd, former trustee of Scott County, ran for the office of county judge,” Jennings said. “He came to me and told as how he had been robbed of the election. Votes were stolen from him and the returns had been altered.
“Back in 1917 this boy’s father, on his death bed, told me to take care of his four sons. Roscoe then was serving in the Army in France and had one of his legs shot away. I had no alternative but to help him when he came to me and asked my help. If it costs me my seat in Congress, I will do it again, again and again. I uncovered the election fraud and I won’t apologize to any of the election thieves for having helped Roscoe Byrd.”
With the case unresolved when Sept. 1, 1942, rolled around, C.W. Wright was sworn into office as the winner of the election. He took over the duties of county judge from Terry.
More than five months later, in February 1943, Chancellor J.H. Wallace of Clinton ruled in Byrd’s behalf. Byrd’s attorneys had argued that the voting results were changed in five precincts — Robbins, Brimstone, New River, Paint Rock, and Buffalo — after the polls closed, causing him to go from 100 votes up to 16 votes down. More than 200 witnesses were called to testify in the packed courtroom. In the end, Wallace ruled that Byrd had been elected by a 61-vote margin.
Wright appealed the decision to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which slowed the transition of power and kept him in office.
On Feb. 5, 1944, the Tennessee Supreme Court initially ordered the earlier finding of the local Chancery Court upheld due to a technicality. Finally, on April 7, 1944, the Supreme Court issued its final ruling, dening a rehearing requested by Wright’s attorneys and demanding that Wright turn over the office of county judge to Byrd. Four days later, on April 11, 1944, Byrd took the oath of office and began his duties as judge.
The court battles weren’t finished, though. Byrd almost immediately filed another lawsuit in Scott County Chancery Court, contending that he was owed the salary of county judge from Sept. 1, 1942 to April 1944 — an amount of $3,373 (the equivalent of about $60,000 today). The court ruled in Byrd’s favor, and that decision was also appealed to the Supreme Court. The state’s high court sustained the lower court’s decision, saying that Scott County owed both men the salary of $3,373 — Byrd because he had been duly elected, and Wright because he had actually performed the duties of the county judge for 19 months.
Byrd was re-elected in 1946 and served another four year term as county judge before being defeated by Charles T. Marcum in 1950. Marcum won by a vote count of 2,832 to 2,678.
Byrd was appointed postmaster in Huntsville in 1952 and served in that capacity until 1966. He died at his home in Huntsville on Nov. 28, 1983, at the age of 90. His funeral service was officiated by Rev. Dale Smith, and he was buried at Byrd Cemetery.
As for C.W. Wright, he has the distinction of being the only person in Scott County’s history to serve as county judge (or mayor) without having been elected by the people or at least appointed by the county legislative body to fill an unexpired term.
Wright died on Feb. 20, 1961, at the age of 75. He was buried at Hazel Valley Memorial Cemetery. The U.S. Highway 27 bridge over Roaring Paunch Creek in Winfield was later named the C.W. Wright Memorial Bridge in his honor.
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Our Newsletters:
• Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
• Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
• Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
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