History
Radford's First Governor
The ensuing meteoric rise of James H. Tyler as a politician coincided with the rise of Radford as a major transportation hub in this part of the state. He served as lieutenant governor from 1890-1894. Although defeated for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1893, he was elected governor four years later. During his administration (1898-1902), public school funding was increased and a state labor bureau was created. Governor Tyler’s last years in office were overshadowed by the 1901-1902 Constitutional Convention.
Built in 1941 and named after Governor Tyler:
Tyler Hotel, overlooking Wildwood Park.
From the beginning,its mission was to restrict voting rights for black Virginians without violating the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution or disenfranchising poor whites. Predictably, the convention passed a new constitution that included various measures designed to exclude blacks from voting and enshrined “Jim Crow” laws in Virginia for years to come. Tyler was not a member of the convention but spoke out against disenfranchisement. In a statement to the New York Times on June 5, 1901, a week before the convention was about to meet, he announced, “I am opposed to any measure having for its object the curtailment of the right of suffrage. I do not believe that those who are called upon and required to exercise all the duties of citizenship, including the payment of taxes and the observance of the State laws, should be restricted in voting on all questions that affect the body politic.”
It is very likely that Tyler’s prominence made Radford a campaign stop in William Jennings Bryan’s (unsuccessful) 1900 bid for the presidency. A photograph in our archives documents this event with Tyler holding an umbrella for his famous Democratic colleague. A devout Presbyterian, Tyler’s political viewpoints most likely resembled those of Bryan (also a Presbyterian). This ideology combined a progressive economic ideology, which reflected the growing impoverishment of rural America (particularly in the South and Midwest) during the Gilded Age, with a strict social conservatism promoting issues such as prohibition and the adherence to strict moral values.
After his political career, Tyler returned to Radford where he soon reassumed the position he had held there before, namely that of civic leader, businessman, and man of faith. He was an active supporter of bringing a state institution of higher education to the city, which was placed along a road that even at the time was already named after him and close to his home, Halwyck. As is custom for retired politicians, he was member of various boards, ranging from the Southwest Virginia Livestock Association (original owner of the Fairgrounds) to the Synodical Orphans’ Home.
His real passion, however, became genealogy. Tracing back his family, he compiled “The Family of Hoge”, a book dedicated to his illustrious Scottish ancestry. The ork was published posthumously in 1927. Governor James Hoge Tyler died in 1925 at the age of 79. He is buried in Westview Cemetery.
BACK
