 Admitted to the Virginia Bar, he was elected the Commonwealth Attorney (local prosecutor).As Virginia seceded from the Union, Governor John Letcher and General Robert E. Lee sent Col. George A. Porterfield of neighboring Jefferson County to Grafton, West Virginia, a relatively new Baltimore and Ohio Railroad town about three miles from Pruntytown.He was met with more hostility than he expected, for many in Taylor County favored Union, and after the Wheeling Convention, longtime Pruntytown resident Harmon Sinsel would become their delegate and help establish the new state (and its name "West Virginia" rather than "Kanawha").