Introduction The Law Office Papers of William F. Long and R. Watson Sadler (110 boxes + bound volumes; 42.5 linear feet) were transferred to the Law Library in 1988 by the Manuscripts Department of Alderman Library and are on loan from the Albemarle County Historical Society. The Historical Society received the papers along with the office building owned by William Long at the time of his death in 1967. The collection consists of case files, ledgers, bound copies of abstracts of title, and a name index of clients, as well as personal/professional correspondence.

Biographical Sketches of William F. Long and R. Watson Sadler

[adapted from a memorial, provided by the Albemarle County Historical Society, written at the time of Long's death, and from obituaries in the Daily Progress]

William Fife Long was born in Charlottesville on February 2, 1874, the son of John Cralle Long. His father, a Baptist minister, moved shortly after William's birth to Crozier, Pennsylvania, where he taught history at Crozier Theological Seminary. It was not until 1895 after graduating from Richmond College and teaching for a year that William Long returned to Charlottesville to attend law school at the University. He received his law degree in 1897 and hung out his shingle in the spot where seventy years later he would end his law practice. This little building, No. 220 Court Square, had earlier served as law office to U.S. Senator Thomas S. Martin. Long slept in one room and saw clients in the other. To make ends meet he also worked for a time at the Michie Company. After serving in the Spanish American War in 1898 as a member of the Charlottesville Monticello Guards, he formed a partnership with John S. White, son of Judge John M. White of the Circuit Court of Albemarle County. In 1914 he became Commissioner of Accounts of the Circuit Court, a position he held for 53 years, until he closed his law office about two weeks prior to his death.

Robert Watson Sadler was born in Charlottesville on October 19, 1899, the son of William Robert and Mary Ann Hall Sadler. Watson served in World War I, attended Randolph-Macon College and earned a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1923. When Long's partner left law practice to become Charlottesville's postmaster, he took Watson Sadler as his partner. For the next 25 years Long and Sadler practiced together, although Sadler handled most of the cases since Long was occupied as Commissioner of Accounts. During the last two years of the partnership, Sadler was also justice of the peace, and civil and police justice for Charlottesville. In 1951 he was appointed Corporation Court judge, a position he held until a cerebral hemorrhage caused his sudden death in 1957. From the time Sadler became judge Long practiced alone, although for a number of years prior to his death he shared office space with his friend Henry B. Goodloe. Toward the end of his life he employed office assistants, first, Anne Irving Cox and later, Emily Y. Wilson.

Both Long and Sadler were active in many Charlottesville civic activities. Long was a member of the Board of Zoning Appeals for almost 25 years and pushed the City Council to pass the "Architectural Design Control Ordinance." In May 1962, the Charlottesville and Albemarle Bar Association held a special meeting to express its affection for Long, its senior member, by presenting him a framed resolution naming him the first Patriarch of the Bar. Sadler's memberships included the Lions' Club, Elks' Lodge, American Legion, Young Men's Business Club, and Red Land Club.

William Long was married to Ada Perry; their one child, Frances, who married James B. Hodges, had five children. Ada Long died in 1960, and William died March 11, 1967 at the age of 93. Watson Sadler was married to Elizabeth Randolph Dey, and their children were Mrs. John L. Sadler [?], Diane Randolph Sadler, and Robert Watson Sadler, Jr. Watson Sadler died on June 23, 1957 at the age of 57.


Scope and Content Note

The practice of Long and Sadler as documented in this collection was characteristic of legal work in a small town in the early twentieth century. The cases are virtually all civil, primarily trusts and estates, real estate, insurance, torts, and divorce. From the earliest period of Long's practice, there are very few documents: one case file, two bound abstracts of title, and a ledger book dating from the early 1900s. After 1914 Long's time was apparently taken up primarily by his duties as Commissioner of Accounts, although he also served as attorney in trust and estate cases and handled some divorces. The bulk of the cases documented here, therefore, are Sadler's.

The papers were acquired in their original, usually numbered folders. Although they may once have been filed in numerical order, they were in no particular order when they arrived. The name index file, consisting of 3 x 5 cards containing the name and a number for each client, does not necessarily correspond to the number on the case file for that particular client. The numbers (if present) and any other information on the original folders were transcribed to new folders, including the designation "colored" for African-American clients. The case files have been arranged in alphabetical order by client name, or in some cases plaintiff name. Cases that Long handled as commissioner were numbered and filed along with those he handled as attorney, so they remain amid the others. Following the case files are bound copies of abstracts of title, ledgers containing financial records both for the practice and for individual clients, and personal/professional files for Long and Sadler, especially financial records.

This collection is remarkable because it covers more than fifty years of continuous practice. The documentation of Sadler's twenty-five years in the office provides a clear impression of his work: the types of cases he took, the socio-economic range of his clients, and his case load. For those years the collection is especially rich in detail about the lives of Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents, the property they bought, sold and left to heirs, and their disputes over inheritance. Some of the clients were prominent and well-to-do, for example, John West who early in the century owned a great deal of property downtown, but many others were either financially comfortable or poor. There are quite a few divorces, a number of which involve dissertion during World War II. Although it lacks significant cases or famous clients, the collection is representative of a large body of legal work for the period it covers.


The Papers of William F. Long

Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Extra Session 1955. Richmond, Division of Purchase and Printing, 1955

Charlottesville-Albemarle Bar Association. Desk Book. 1960

Civil Rights Bill. Full Text. Published as a public service by Richmond Newspapers, Inc, Richmond, Virginia, April 1964

Civil Rights and Federal Powers. A further critical commentary upon pending omnibus Civil Rights Bill, prepared and distributed by the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government. 1963

Civil Rights and Legal Wrongs. A critical commentary upon the President's pending "Civil Rights" Bill of 1963, prepared and distributed by the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government. 1963

Code of Virginia 1950. 1959 Interim Supplement. Charlottesville, Va., The Michie Company, Law Publishers, 1959

Code of Virginia 1950. 1964 Additional Supplement. Charlottesville, Va., The Michie Company, Law Publishers, 1964

Democracy and Despotism, an excerpt from a prophecy by Tocqueville. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1945
Federal Subsidies. The Facts and the Fictions. Richmond, Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, 1963

Mr. Justice Harlan Dissents. A Statement. Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, n.d.
Methods and Costs of Incorporation in Virginia. Richmond, Virginia, 1950

Retail Sales and Use Tax. City of Charlottesville, Virginia. Charlottesville, Michie City Publications Company, 1965

"State Action" and the 14th Amendment. A Study of Judicial Misinterpretation. Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, [1958]

Stock Guide. C. F. Cassell & Co., Inc. 1964

Taxes on Licenses for the City of Charlottesville. 1936

The American Beginnings. The Virginia Declaration of Rights. The Declaration of Independence, in Mr. Jefferson Original Text with some of his Comments Thereon. The Articles of Confederation. Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, 1961.

The Bill of Rights and the Constitution. An address by Associate Justice John M. Harlan of the Supreme Court of the United States, at the Dedication of the Bill of Rights Room, U. S. Subtreasury Building, New York City, 1964

The Civil Rights Cases. Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, [1956]

The Constitution of the United States of America. Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, 1958

The Constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A respond to the Attorney General of the United States by Robert Y. Button, Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, [1965]

The Magazine of Albemarle County History. Volume XII, 1951-1952
The Magazine of Albemarle County History. Volume XVIII, 1959-1960

The Negotiable Instruments of Law. n.d.

The Ole Rail Fence and Other Poems. 1939

The Red-Land Club. Constitution. Charlottesville, Va. 1965

The Tennessee Reapportionment Case. Views of the Minority. Excerpts from the Dissenting Opinions of Justices Frankfurter and Harlan. Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, n.d.

The Supreme Court of the United States. A Review of the 1964 Term. Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, [1964]

Thomas Jefferson on Constitutional Issues. Selected Writings, 1787-1825. Virginia Commission on Constitutional Rights Government, 1962

Virginia Corporation Law. Reprint from the Code of Virginia of 1950. State Corporation Commission, The Michie Company, 1958

Virginia Corporation Law Effective January 1, 1957. State Corporation Commission, The Michie Company, 1956
When Virginia Joined the Union. A Backward Look at the Powerful Prophecy of Men Who Foresaw in 1788 the Trend of Events in 1963. Richmond, September 1963

Voting Rights and Legal Wrongs. A Commentary on S. 1564, the proposed "Voting Rights Act of 1965", prepared and distributed as a public service by the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, 1965