Fleming 1959 candidate for office of Commonwealth Attorney

Submitted by Edith Faye Redden

Dickenson County Historical Society President

Political advertisements in the 1959 county election included not only the political platform of the candidates but also quite a bit of personal information about the candidates themselves. This is part 5 of a series of articles surrounding those advertisements. We have omitted most of the political platform of the candidate in favor of relating the personal history of those who ran for office in 1959.

This week’s article concerns Hansel “Gabe” Fleming, another one of the 1959 candidates for the office of Commonwealth’s Attorney. Fleming had already held the office previously and, after having taken some time away from that office, decided it was time to run again. The following excerpts were taken from the September 11, 1959, issue of The Dickensonian newspaper. It is presented with a few minor corrections and additions.

“He was a very unusual fellow in many ways. His name was Hansel Fleming, but he was known throughout the length and breadth of Dickenson County as “Gabe”. He had to scrimp and save and sacrifice in order to get an education. He worked during the day and attended school at night to get his law degree. And he was elected Commonwealth’s Attorney of Dickenson County before he ever tried a case in court…

“To begin with, he was a member of one of the county’s pioneer families, a family that not only had a lot to do with the founding of Dickenson County, but whose members down through the years have had a lot to do with guiding its political destiny. [Gabe] was the son of the late Pridemore Fleming, [who was] possibly the best known... Sheriff of the county twice...

“But it would be unfair and untrue to say that Gabe’s phenomenal hold on the voters stemmed entirely from the affection the people of the county held for his father. There was a measure of that naturally, but for the most part Gabe built his reputation while he was growing up – a reputation of an honest, hardworking kid whose only apparent goal in life was to get an education.

“And that goal was implanted in his mind early in life by his father. Pridemore, in his talks to his son, had urged thrift, hard work, and honesty as the cardinal virtues on which any life should be built. But he had also pointed out that they could be the means of obtaining an education, and he urged Gabe to get that schooling even if it meant working his fingers to the bone. A man of limited means (as were most of the citizens of Dickenson County at that time), Pridemore realized that it would be impossible for him to furnish all the money needed for the schooling Gabe desired, and therefore it would be necessary to do some of it on his own.

“Gabe was born on a farm near Tarpon on October 31, 1909. His father was also in the timber business, taking logging jobs for the various mills that were beginning then to spring up in this forest-rich county. Gabe worked on the family farm from the time he could toddle; and when he was old enough, he was enrolled in the Kerr Ridge School for his first look into the world of education.

“From that school, he went to the Fremont School, then Clinchco, then Flemingtown, and finally to Clintwood, where he finished the remainder of his elementary education and graduated from high school. During the vacation periods, even as a child, he was always looking for some sort of work that would earn him a little money for clothes and school supplies.

“While he was in high school, he spent the vacation months working on construction jobs. He worked as a mule driver on highway projects in Buchanan, Wise and Dickenson Counties, and when Clintwood’s Main Street was paved, he swung a heavy hammer alongside the burliest of the workers, beating in the base stone in heat that would have killed an ordinary man.

“The money he earned this way went for clothes and supplies for his next year of school. He spent none of it foolishly, because he had early learned the value of money and his goal of getting an education became almost an obsession. After his father’s death, he had to work just twice as hard and sacrifice twice as much to keep from having to drop out of school altogether.

“And the work not only helped toward his goal from a monetary standpoint, but hard physical labor molded him into one of the finest athletic specimens this county has produced. He played every sport while in high school in Clintwood, and was outstanding in all of them. He was a star in football, basketball, track, and baseball, and was a member of the first and only boxing team the school ever organized.

“When he graduated, he was offered an athletic scholarship at Emory and Henry College that paid a part of his expenses, and he lost no time in enrolling. At the time he had enough money in the bank to pay the remainder of his school year, but he had only two decent pair of trousers to his name. He didn’t let that stand in his way, though. He put one pair on, packed the other one in his bag and headed for Emory.

“And he wore those trousers throughout that school term, hoping that at the end of the semester he might have enough money left in the bank to buy another pair. But, then, fate struck a cruel blow. The bank went busted, and with it all of Gabe’s hard-earned school money. He was allowed to finish the term at Emory, but because he was unable to pay the remainder of the expenses for that school year, he was not permitted to return for the next term.”

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Our series of “biographical” political ads will continue next week with the last part of Hansel “Gabe” Fleming’s story.

Because of the recent increase in Covid19 virus cases within the county, our offices have once again been closed to the public. Assistance will be provided over the phone or by email. If necessary, individual appointments can be made. All of our newspapers articles are reprinted in the Historical Society’s Stories of Yesteryear booklets. Currently, Volumes 1-13 are available for purchase. For more information about this article, or any of our publications, or to make corrections or additions to an article, to purchase a local history book, or to inquire about a Historical Society event, please contact the Historical Society office at 276-926-6355, P. O. Box 52, Clintwood, Va., 24228, or dchs1880@gmail.com. If no answer, please leave a message (which includes your name and phone number) and one of our volunteers will return your call. Or contact Edith Faye Redden at 276-926-4117.