Alexander, Gerard (Gerrard), was burgess from
Fairfax county, session of 1752-1755. He was a
great-grandson of John Alexander, the immigrant, and son of Robert Alexander,
of Stafford County, and his wife, Anne Fowke,
daughter of Col. Gerard Fowke, of Alexandria. At one time he resided at Holm's
Island, Prince William County. In 1753 he docked
the entail of a tract of 6,000 acres left him by h1s father, and settled other
lands in Frederic and Fairfax counties to the same uses. His will was proved
in Fairfax, Sept. 16, 1761. It names wife, Mary (Dent?), and six children, and
disposes of houses and lots in Alexandria, chairs and horses, and land in
Loudoun county.
[Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Under The Editorial
Supervision of Lyon Gardiner Tyler, 1915 – Transcribed by
AFOFG]
Aulick, John H., naval officer, was born in 1789 in Winchester, Va. In
1851 he was empowered to obtain permission to purchase supplies for the United
States steamers in Japan and to negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce with
that empire; and commenced the important work which was completed by Commodore
M. C. Perry. He died April 27, 1873, in Washington, D.C.
[Herringshaw’s National
Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of
the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William
Herringshaw, 1909 – Transcribed by Therman Kellar]
Barton, Richard Walker (1800-1859), a Representative from Virginia;
born at "Shady Oak," near Winchester, Frederick County, Va., in 1800; pursued
academic studies; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice
in Winchester, Va.; member of the State assembly in 1823-1824, 1832-1835 and
1839; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1841-March 3,
1843); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1842 to the Twenty-eighth
Congress; resumed the practice of his profession in Winchester, Va.; died on
his estate, "Springdale," near Winchester, Frederick County, Va., March 15,
1859; interment in the family burying ground at "Springdale."
(Source: Biographical
Directory of the US Congress 1774-Present)
Barton, Richard W.,
legislator, congressman, was born in
Virginia. In 1841-43 he was a representative from
Virginia to the twenty-seventh congress. He served
in the state legislature; and was the first president of the Valley
agricultural society. He died March 15, 1859. in Frederick County, Va.
[Herringshaw’s National Library of American
Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged
Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909
– Transcribed by AFOFG]
Black,
John
United States senator was born in Virginia. He was at one time a resident of Louisiana;
but removed to Mississippi. In 1832-38 he was a member of the United States
senate. He died Aug. 29, 1854, in Winchester, Va.
[Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography:
Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life
and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 – Transcribed
by Therman Kellar]
Brannon, Judge
John
Among the really great lawyers and jurists of West Virginia,
now deceased, the subject of this brief sketch must be classed. He was
born at Winchester, Virginia, October 19, 1822.
His ancestors on both his paternal and maternal
sides were engaged in the Revoluntionary War for American Independence. His
Grandfather Brannon was a native of Ireland, and
his father was a thrifty farmer in the valley of Virginia, where he was recognized as a man of sterling
integrity and of high moral character in the
citizenship of that highly cultured community. Mr. Brannon received a thorough
academic training in the Winchester Academy, a well-known, high grade
classical school of that section of Virginia,
where a large number of the prominent, influential men of "The Mother
State" received their educational training. Shortly after his graduation from
this educational institution, the Brannon family moved their residence to
Lewis County, now West Virginia, and established a
home in Weston, the county seat of that very rich and
prosperous county. Our subject before he left Winchester had already
begun the study of law, and was pursuing it
diligently, which he continued at Weston, and
after passing a creditable examination, was admitted to the Bar in 1847. He rapidly acquired a leading, profitable
practice. He was a solid, sedate, honorable man in all of his dealings, and possessed the implicit confidence of the general
public, who entrusted their business to his management and supervision. It was not long, therefore, until he
stood at the head of that able, progressive Bar.
He
was in politics a Whig, and was elected to the
Legislature of Virginia, serving therein ably from
1853 to 1857. He was then promoted by an appreciative constituency to the
State Senate from 1857 to 1865. In both branches of the State Legislature he
was regarded as an able and careful legislator.
After the close of the Civil War he allied himself with the Democratic Party, and
in 1872 he was elected a Circuit Judge, serving
the full term of eight years. Being thoroughly informed in all branches of the
law, and being
absolutely honest and just, he proved to be satisfactory to both lawyers
and litigants. He was
urged to accept a second term, but courteously declined and returned to the practice of
the law at Weston. In 1884 and 1886 he was the nominee of the Democratic Party for a seat in
the American Congress, but was both times defeated by Gen. Nathan Goff, the
Republican candidate, by a majority each time of a little more than two
hundred. The Legislature came within two or three votes of electing him to the
Senate of the United States.
He married a Miss
Bland of Weston, and was a member of the
Protestant Episcopal Church. He departed this life at about eighty years of
age. No man in Lewis County was more highly respected than he.
[Bench and
Bar of West Virginia by George Wesley Atkinson, 1919 - Transcribed by
AFOFG]
Caldwell
Family Please click on
this link to go to the Caldwell Family Biography page.
Carlile, John Snyder
Senate Years of Service:
1861-1865
Party: Unionist
CARLILE, John Snyder (1817-1878, a Representative and a
Senator from Virginia; born in Winchester, Va., on December 16, 1817; educated
by his mother; clerked in a store and commenced business for himself in 1834;
studied law; admitted to the bar in 1840 and commenced practice in Beverly,
Va. (now West Virginia) in 1842; moved to Philippi and later to Clarksburg and
continued the practice of law; member, State senate 1847-1851; delegate to the
State constitutional convention in 1850; elected as the candidate of the
American Party to the Thirty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1855-March 3, 1857);
delegate to the State secession convention in February 1861; elected as a
Unionist to the Thirty-seventh Congress and served from March 4, 1861, until
July 9, 1861, when he resigned to become Senator; elected as a Unionist to the
United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of Robert
M.T. Hunter and served from July 9, 1861, to March 3, 1865; member of the
convention that submitted the new State ordinance in August 1861; died in
Clarksburg, Harrison County, W.Va., October 24, 1878; interment in Odd Fellows
Cemetery.
(Source: Biographical Directory of the US
Congress 1774-Present)
Hon. John S.
Carlile
Mr. Carlile was born at Winchester, Virginia,
December 16, 1817. He was educated by his mother, who was a woman of
high culture, until he was fourteen years of age. He then entered a dry goods
store as salesman and clerk, remaining till his
seventeenth year, when he commenced business for himself. At an early age,
having a decided taste for the profession, he began the study of law, was
admitted to the bar in 1840, settled at Beverly,
Randolph County, and began practice. He was
elected to the Senate of Virginia in 1847, and served until 1851. His associates were not long in
finding in Mr. Carlile a man of untiring energy, a close student, a diligent
legislator, and a ready and
forceful debater. He took a leading rank in the Senate, which was
filled with the ablest men of Virginia. In 1800 he
was elected a delegate from Randolph County to the Constitutional Convention
to revise the Constitution of the State. In this body of learned and distinguished Virginians Mr. Carlile's splendid
natural abilities, added to his experience of four years in the Senate, made
him influential, and placed him along side of the
ablest men in that body. The people by this time recognized Mr. Carlile's
commanding abilities, and in 1855 nominated him as
a candidate for Congress and elected him in one of
the most spirited campaigns peculiar to that day. He served one term and returned to the practice of his profession, which
had become large and lucrative.
To secure better
opportunities for the display of his superior legal attainments Mr. Carlile
removed his residence to Clarksburg, Harrison County. He was employed in all
the important cases in litigation in County, Circuit, Federal and Supreme Courts in that portion of the State, and accordingly achieved great distinction as a member
of the bar. At the breaking out of the war he was
an avowed Unionist, and threw all of his great
powers on the side of the Government. He was a member of the Wheeling
Convention that established the Restored Government of Virginia, and was one of the
leading spirits in all of its councils. He was elected to the Thirty-seventh
Congress from the Wheeling District in 1861, and
remained a member until his promotion to the Senate of the United States, the latter part of that year, from the Restored
Government of Virginia. While in the Senate he served as a member of the Committee on
Public Lands and Territories. His Senatorial term expired in 1865, when he
retired to private life at Clarksburg and
resumed the practice of his
profession.
As an orator Mr. Carlile had but few, if any, superiors in Virginia. He died at his home in Clarksburg in 1878.
While it is true that Senator Carlile is regarded most as a statesman, yet he
was universally esteemed as an eminent and
successful lawyer, and was an honor to the
profession in and outside of the "Mountain State."
He was unusually talented, and maintained a high
rank both as a lawyer and a statesman.
[Bench and Bar of West Virginia by George Wesley
Atkinson, 1919 - Transcribed by AFOFG]
Carson, Joseph
Preston
A great deal of interest attaches itself to each of the
four American generations of this family, represented in legal and business
circles in Richmond, Virginia, by Joseph Preston Carson, no small part of
which is in the fact that each of the direct line leading from the immigrant
ancestor, Joseph Carson, to Joseph Preston Carson, has been indentified with
the professions, three with the law and one with the ministry. Joseph Carson,
who founded his line in Virginia, was a native of Ireland, and was a prominent
lawyer of his period.
(II) Judge Joseph S. Carson, son
of Joseph Carson and grandfather of Joseph Preston Carson, was born in
Winchester, Frederick county, Virginia, and there died in 1870. The law was
the calling he adopted early in life, his career as an attorney a successful
one, and at his death he was judge of the county court sitting at Winchester.
Judge Carson was connected with the confederate service during the civil war,
although at the opening of it past the age when he might serve as a soldier in
the ranks.
(III) Rev. Dr. Theodore M. Carson, the
eldest son of Judge Joseph S. Carson, was born in Winchester, Frederick
county, Virginia, in 1834, died in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1904. He was an M.
A. of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and after his ordination into
the ministry spent the first four years as chaplain in the army of the
Confederacy. At the close of the war, and after several previous charges, he
was for thirty-three years rector of St. Paul's Church, at Lynchburg,
Virginia, where he attained high position in the church, and at his death was
president of the standing committee of the Diocese of Southern Virginia, also
dean of the Convocation of Southern Virginia. Rev. Dr. Carson was a scholar of
broad culture, a preacher of intense inspiration, and a minister of
measureless sympathy, and during the years of his life, passed in such
faithful devotion to the cause he had espoused, he became the instrument of
infinite good in the service of the Master. He married, in 1860, Victoria
Ellen, daughter of William and Ann (Waters) Allison. William Allison was a
member of an old Irish family, born in Ireland, and after coming to Virginia
made his home in Richmond. His wife was a native of Maryland, and they were
the parents of a family of thirteen children, the eldest, James head of the
firm of Allison & Allison, the youngest Victoria Ellen, of previous
mention, married Rev. Theodore M. Carson. Children of Rev. Dr. and Victoria
Ellen (Allison) Carson are: Joseph Preston, of whom further; Maud Lee, born in
1866, married Professor W. M. Lile, dean of the law department of the
University of Virginia.
(IV) Joseph Preston Carson, son
of Rev. Dr. Theodore M. and Victoria Ellen (Allison) Carson, was born at the
Preston homestead, "Solitude," Montgomery county, Virginia, August 2, 1862.
His youthful education was obtained in the schools of Winchester and
Lynchburg, and after a course in the Episcopal High School at Alexandria, he
matriculated at the University of Virginia, being in the class of 1882. Soon
after graduation he became an analytical chemist with the firm of Allison
& Allison, in 1883 taking up residence in Richmond, where he has since
remained. For ten years he was associated with the previously mentioned firm,
during that time pursuing legal studies at the University of Virginia, and in
1887 gained admission to the bar. He has made steady advances in his
profession and now occupies a responsible position in legal circles, but has
not confined his labors to this field, being at this writing connected with
several large business interests, and president of a widely extended company
of manufacturing chemists, in Richmond. With the responsibility of the affairs
of this latter company and the exactions of his law practice, Mr. Carson's
existence is a busy one, a fact that detracts little from his enjoyment, for
he is of vigorous nature, finding in close application to his business an
agreeable satisfaction that comes only with labor well done and duty
thoroughly performed.
Mr. Carson, although he has never
sought or held political office, is a staunch Democrat in both state and
national politics. While a member of many of the social organizations of
Richmond, his recreations are sought in outdoor pleasures, and he is a
director in several hunting and fishing clubs in the state. Mr. Carson is a
Royal Arch Mason, belonging to Lodge and Chapter, and is a vestryman of the
Protestant Episcopal church. His residence is the handsome estate of "Dundee,"
Chesterfield county, Virginia.
He married, in Richmond,
Virginia, April 18, 1900, Catherine Valentine, born in Richmond, Virginia,
December 17, 1873, daughter J. J. Montague, her father a native of Prince Anne
county, Virginia. He also was a soldier in the Confederate States army,
serving during the entire war, and is now vice-president of the Planters'
National Bank of Richmond. Mr. Montague married Catherine Warren, a native of
Virginia, who died in 1909. Children of Joseph Preston and Catherine Valentine
(Montague) Carson are: Theodore Montague, born February 10, 1901, now a
student in Richmond Academy; Catherine Warren, born May 24, 1903; Joseph
Preston Jr., born April 1. 1905.
(Source: Encyclopedia of
Virginia Biographies - Vol. IV. Transcriber: Chris Davis)
CONRAD,
Charles M., soldier and statesman: b. Winchester, Va., about 1804; d.
New Orleans, La., Feb. 11, 1878. While yet an infant, he was taken by his
parents to Mississippi and thence to Louisiana; received a liberal education,
and then studied law; was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1828, and practiced
in New Orleans. For several years he was a member of the state legislature;
was elected to the United States senate to fill the unexpired term of
Alexander Mouton, resigned, and served from April 14, 1842, to March 3, 1843.
He was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1844, was elected to
Congress in 1848, and served till August, 1850, when he was appointed
secretary of war by President Fillmore, serving in this office from Aug. 13,
1850, to March 7, 1853. He was a leader of the secession movement in Louisiana
in December, 1860, and was a delegate from Louisiana to the provisional
Congress held in Montgomery, Ala., in 1861. He was a member of the first and
second Congresses of the Confederacy, and from 1862-64 served in the
Confederate army as brigadier-general.
[Source: THE
SOUTH in the Building of the Nation Volume XI; Ed. by James Curtis Ballagh,
Walter Lynwood Fleming & Southern Historical Publication Society; Publ.
1909; Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack.]
Duke, William Dabney
The Duke family
came originally from England, and is typical of the best character of that
strong and dominant race, which formed the foundation upon which has since
been constructed the composite citizenship of the United States, in safety,
thanks to its sterling strength, and has filled our history with most of those
great names, associated with the birth and development of the nation.
(I) John Duke, the paternal great-grandfather of William
Dabney Duke, the subject of this sketch, was the first of the name to come
from the "Mother Country" to America. He settled in Frederick county,
Virginia, in the seventeenth century. One branch later moved to Hanover
county, in the same State, and there founded the home which remained for many
years that of his descendants.
(II) Thomas Taylor Duke,
a son of John Duke, was born in Hanover county, Virginia, and followed the
occupation of farming. He married Mary Netherland, and by her had ten
children, all of whom are now deceased.
(III) Francis
Johnson Duke, eldest son of Thomas Taylor and Mary (Netherland) Duke, was born
in Hanover county, Virginia, in 1842. In his youth he became connected
with a railroad, and continued in that business for the remainder of his life.
At the age of twenty-five years he removed to Richmond, Virginia, and
there made his home until his death in December, 1905. Mr. Duke was
connected with the telegraph service of the Confederate army, in which he
served during the civil war, and was taken prisoner and confined at Point
Lookout until the close of hostilities in 1865. He became associated
with the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac railroad, in 1868, and later
rose to the position of treasurer. Francis Johnson Duke married Lucy
Burton Williamson, who was also a native of Hanover county, Virginia.
Mrs. Duke was the daughter of William and Elizabeth (De Jarnette) Williamson,
of that county. Mr. Williamson was a farmer all his life and the father
of six children, of whom Dabney Williamson, now a resident of Richmond, and
Lucy Burton (Williamson) Duke are the only survivors. Mrs. Duke is now a
resident of Richmond. To Mr. and Mrs. Francis Johnson Duke were born
eight children, five of whom are living, as follows: Frank W., of Richmond,
now the superintendent of the Mechanics' Institute of that city; William
Dabney, of this sketch; Thomas Taylor, a lieutenant in the United States army;
Cora De Jarnette, now Mrs. Thomas A. Lewis, of Granville, Ohio, Mr. Lewis
occupying the position of professor in the Denison University; Lucy
Williamson, who lives unmarried with her mother.
(IV) William Dabney Duke, third child of
Francis Johnson and Lucy Burton (Williamson) Duke, was born December 11, 1872,
in Richmond, Virginia. He was educated in the local public schools,
which he attended through the high school in preparation for a college course.
He then matriculated at Richmond College in Richmond, and graduated
therefrom with the class of 1894, with the degree of Bachelor of Science.
His father's life-long experience in railroad matters naturally turned
his thoughts and inclinations in that direction, but prior to attending
college he occupied a clerical position with the Richmond Locomotive and
Machine Works of Richmond, from 1888 to 1891. In 1894, after his
graduation, he became associated with the Richmond, Fredericksburg &
Potomac railroad, with which his father had been for so many years, first
taking a position as stenographer under Major Myers, the president of the
company. He continued in this work for six years with Major Myers, and
then, in 1901, was given the position of general manager of the system.
Mr. Duke was only twenty-eight years of age when he was thus put in
charge of a railroad, a most conspicuous tribute to his capacity and skill, to
say nothing of industry, which he had displayed from the outset. The
competent manner in which he filled the post of general manager is evidenced
by the fact that five years later he was promoted to the position which he
holds to-day, that of assistant to the president.
The
Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac railroad and the Washington Southern
railway, as the complete system is called, is the direct line between the
capital of Virginia and the National Capital. It forms thus one of the
most important links in the great chain of railroads which binds the south
into an industrial unit. Besides this material importance, it also
possesses for the people of the United States a sentimental significance
surpassed by no railroad in the country, in virtue of the many points of
historic and romantic interest along its line, cities, towns, hamlets,
associated with the dearest and most stirring episodes and traditions of the
American people. From Washington the line runs along the Potomac river,
passing the home of General Lee at Arlington, passing Alexandria, where is
located historic Christ Church, where the unaltered pew of George Washington
still stands, near Mount Vernon, through Fredericksburg and so on to Richmond,
with its glorious and tragic associations. It is upon the official staff
of this railroad that Mr. Duke holds his important post.
Mr. Duke has not, however, confined himself to the
interests of his business, a policy which has narrowed so many of the great
figures in the financial and industrial world. On the contrary, he has
given generously of both time and energy to the affairs of the community of
which he is a distinguished member. Always keenly interested in public
affairs, of both national and local significance, he has entered the latter
with his characteristic enthusiasm, and made himself a force in local matters.
Possessing a great and well deserved popularity, he was elected to the
office of mayor of Ginter Park, which office he held when that charming suburb
was annexed to Richmond in November, 1914.
William
Dabney Duke married, September 21, 1904, at Wake Forest, North Carolina, Jane
E. Taylor, a native of that place, where she was born in 1883. Mrs. Duke
is the daughter of Charles E. and Mary H. Taylor. Mr. Taylor is a
distinguished scholar, was president and is now a member of the faculty of
Wake Forest College. Mrs. Taylor is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Duke
are the parents of three children, as follows: Francis Johnson, born March 6,
1906; Mary Hinton, born September 28, 1908; William, born May 2, 1914.
Mr. and Mrs. Duke are members of the Baptist church, and are active in
the work of the congregation.
(Source: Encyclopedia of Virginia Biographies - Vol. IV.
Transcriber: Chris Davis)
Fauntleroy, Thomas T., was born in Winchester,
Virginia, December 20, 1823, son of Gen. Thomas T. Fauntleroy, a Virginian,
who in 1861 resigned his commission as colonel of the Eleventh United States
Dragoons, and who was then the ranking officer in the United States army, of
all who took sides with the south. He was educated at the celebrated high
school of Benjamin Hallowell, in Alexandria, Virginia, and graduated in 1844
with the law class of the University of Virginia, with John Thruston Thornton,
John Page, of Hanover, J. Randolph Tucker, John C. Rutherford, William C.
Rives, Jr., and others, among his classmates. He entered upon the practice of
his profession in 1847, at Winchester. In 1850 he was elected commonwealth
attorney in Frederick County. He was elected to the legislature. In 1859 he
participated in the capture of John Brown and his followers at Harper's Ferry,
and in 1861 was commissioned lieutenant in the state military service. Upon
the passage of the "sequestration act" of the Confederate congress, he was
chosen as one of the receivers to execute the difficult and delicate
responsibilities imposed by that law. At the close of the war, he resumed
practice, with broken health. He again represented Frederick County in the
legislature, and in 1879 he was elected by the legislature, secretary of the
commonwealth. In 1883 he was elected by the legislature, one of the five
judges of the supreme court of appeals, for a term of twelve years, and upon
the organization of the court, he was made resident judge at Richmond. He made
an excellent judicial record.
[Source:
Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography; Edited by Lyon Gardiner Tyler; Publ.
1915; Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack.]
Forsyth, John,
fifteenth governor of Georgia, was born in Frederick County, Va., Oct. 22,
1780. After
graduating at Princeton, he studied law and was admitted to the bar
atAugusta, Ga., in 1802. In 1808 he became attorney-general of the
state, was elected representative in Congress in 1813, and Unites States
senator in 1818, resigning the latter position in 1819 to become United States
Minister to Spain. In the capacity
he completed the delicate task of negotiating the transfer of Florida to the United States, returned to
America in
1823 and was at once elected to Congress. In 1827 he became governor of the state and
in 1829 was again elected to the United
States senate. He was a delegate to the anti-tariff
convention in 1832, and secretary of state under Presidents Jackson and Van
Buren. He
died in
Washington
, D. C.,
Oct. 21, 1841.
[Source: Georgia: Sketches, Counties, Towns,
Events, Institutions & People, Vol. 2, Publ. 1906 Transcribed By: Maggie
Coleman]
Gardener, Helen Hamilton
Time Magazine, September 14, 1924
Brain
Helen Hamilton Gardener, an author and the only female
member of the U. S. Civil Service Commission, recently died (TIME, Aug. 17).
Among other things which she left in her will was her brain, bequeathed to the
Cornell Brain Association to prove her life-long contention that the brain of
a woman is not inherently inferior to that of a man. Last week the gruesome
package arrived at Ithaca. Scientists bore it to their laboratory. Dr. James
W. Papez, Secretary of the Association, began a preliminary study of the
specimen.
He described it as
normal, well proportioned, well preserved. He weighed it. It weighed 1,150
grams, exactly the same weight as the brain of Dr. Burt G. Wilder, who
contributed his brain to the Association last January. Weight does not count
much (the convolutions are more important) in determining the ability of a
brain, but in so far as weight may be taken as a guide, Mrs. Gardener by the
bequest of her brain placed herself in formidable company.
For Burt Green Wilder, born in
1841 (naturalist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 11 August, 1841), was
graduated from Lawrence Scientific School (Harvard) in 1862 in anatomia summa
cum laude. He served in the Civil War as surgeon of the 55th Massachusetts
Infantry (colored). Afterward he became curator of herpetology for the Boston
Society of Natural History, professor of neurology and vertebrate zoology at
Cornell. He was a member of the advisory council of the Simplified Spelling
Board, Vice President of the Non-Smokers Protective League, etc., etc. He
wrote the only article that ever appeared in the Atlantic Monthly with
illustration- the story of how he reeled 150 yards of silk from a spider in
South Carolina and later wove the silk into a ribbon. He studied nearly 2,000
brains of vertebrate animals including 13 educated persons. He advocated
simplification of anatomic names, the dissection of cats as prerequisite to
that of man, the use of chloroform in capital punishment, etc. He wrote What
Young People Should Know, The Brain of the Sheep, and many other books and
papers, chiefly on the brain. In 1910 he became emeritus at Cornell, but
continued to lecture and write. He wrote the words and music of Fiat Justitia,
an international hymn for the first Universal Races Congress. He set Old
Ironsides (by Oliver Wendell Holmes) and The Peacemaker (by Joyce Kilmer) to
music. Before he died he set to work upon a history of the 55th Mass.
Infantry.
Mrs. Gardener, with a brain of 1,150 grams
is indeed in honorable company.
From The Encyclopædia
Britannica:
Helen Hamilton Gardener
born Jan. 21,
1853, Winchester, Va., U.S.
died July 26, 1925,
Washington, D.C.
Original name Alice Chenoweth
American writer, reformer, and public official, a strong force in the service
of woman suffrage and of feminism generally. Alice Chenoweth graduated from
the Cincinnati (Ohio) Normal School in 1873. After two years as a
schoolteacher she married Charles S. Smart in 1875, and she moved with him to
New York City in 1880.
[
Submitted by: Dena Whitesell]
GARDENER, Mrs.
Helen H., scientist and author, born near Winchester, Va., 21st
January, 1853. Her father, the late Rev. A. G. Chenoweth, freed his inherited
slaves and moved north with his family before the war. He saw the evils of
slavery and determined that his children should not be educated where the
atmosphere of race subjugation might taint them. Helen, the youngest of her
father's family, was then less than one year old. She grew into young
girlhood, little differing from other children of her surroundings and
condition, and her school and college career did not vary much from that of
girls whose environment and education were of a similar character. She was not
remarkable, either as being the brightest or the dullest pupil of her classes.
Her talent is not a result of scholastic training. Although books, from her
babyhood, have been her friends, and she has eagerly absorbed from them all
the information they could give, she has been and is a greedy student in a
broader and deeper school than the colleges afford. She is a believer in the
subtle law of heredity, and her own life is corroborative of that belief. She
traces her paternal lineage back to Oliver Cromwell and her maternal to the
Peels of England and Virginia. The first representative of her father's family
in America was John Chenoweth of Baltimore county, Md., whose wife was Hannah
Cromwell, whose mother was a daughter of Lord Baltimore. Her paternal
grandmother was the daughter of Judge John Davenport, of Virginia, to whose
family belongs the well-known southern writer, Richard M. Johnston, and she is
a cousin of Gen. Strother (Porte Crayon). Her oldest brother, Col. Bernard
Chenoweth, served with distinction during the war of the rebellion and was
sent by President Grant as consul to Canton, China, where he died at the early
age of thirty years. She did not choose literature or authorship as a
profession, nor did a desire for fame induce her to write for the public. With
her habit of close observation, rapid mental analysis and logical conclusion,
she soon saw and appreciated the world-wide difference between the man and the
woman as to advantages accorded by society to each in the struggle for
existence and advancement. It seemed to her that the strong were made stronger
by every aid society could give, and the weak were made weaker by almost every
conceivable hindrance of custom and law. Her sense of right was shocked and
she sought for the cause or causes for this manifest injustice. So she began
to write because she had something to say to her fellow-creatures. For three
or four years she simply wrote as she communed with herself. She was too
diffident to let the public or even her friends, except one or two of the
nearest, know what she wrote or that she wrote, and her first published
article was sent by one of her most intimate friends to the press, against her
desire. At length, when she was induced to send some of her writings for
publication, she was so timid and distrustful of her own work that she used
pseudonyms, generally masculine, and she rarely used the same name to more
than one article. She was twenty-seven years old when the name of Helen H.
Gardener was first given to her readers. She has devoted her life to the
disenthrallment of women and thereby of humanity. Everything she has written
has been done for the good of her sex and of humanity. She is a pronounced
agnostic, not an atheist. She has generous hospitality for all honest opinions
and principles. Her first book published, "Men, Women and Gods" (New York,
1885), was composed of a series of agnostic lectures, in which she called
attention to the attitude of the Old and the New Testaments toward women, as
interpreted by the adherents of the religions based upon those so-called
sacred writings. She wrote other lectures in that direction, which were given
to the public through the press and on the platform. She undertook the study
of anthropology in order that she might satisfy herself as to the correctness
of the dictum of the doctors, generally accepted as indisputable, that woman
is by nature man's inferior, having smaller brain and of inferior quality and
less weight, and consequently having less mentality as less physical strength.
Her investigations, in which she was aided by the leading alienists and
anthropologists of America and Europe, caused her to discover the utter
fallacy of the theory upon which this dictum, as to sex difference in brain,
is based. Her work in that direction is the first scientific, basic work and
the most thorough that has ever been done, and she settled beyond question the
error of the assertion that there is any difference known to science, in
brains, because of sex. She gave an epitome of her conclusions on that
subject, a part of which was published in the "Popular Science Monthly," to
the Woman's International Congress held in Washington, in 1888, in the form of
a lecture on "Sex in Brain" (New York, 1888), and her paper was a revelation
to all who heard it. It was favorably noticed and commented on by medical
journals in this country and in Europe. Knowing that the general public does
not read and would not understand essays and scientific articles, she
concluded to incorporate some of her scientific and sociologic ideas and
theories in stories. These stories appeared first in magazines. Their
reception by the general public was immediately so cordial that a publisher
brought out a number of them in a book entitled. "A Thoughtless Yes" (New
York, 1890). They were read as interesting stories by the general reader,
while the leading alienist in America wrote of them: " I have put the book in
my scientific library, where I believe more works by the same able pen will
appear later. I had believed there were but three persons in America able to
do such work, and these are professional alienists." Her first novel, "Is This
Your Son, My Lord?" (Boston, 1890), won extraordinary favor.
Twenty-five-thousand copies were sold in the first five months, a success
equaled by few other novels. All her vigor of thought and expression, her
delicacy of wit, fine sense of humor and clever dramatic powers, so manifest
in "A Thoughtless Yes, are equally marked in her volume of short stories, "
Pushed by Unseen Hands" (New York, 1892). She has recently published a novel,
"Pray You, Sir, Whose Daughter?" (Boston, 1892).
(Source: American Women by Frances Elizabeth Willard,
Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, Vol. 1, 1897. Transcribed by Marla Snow)
Harrison, Judge William A.
Judge Harrison, the senior
member of the first Supreme Court of Appeals of the State of West Virginia, was born in Prince
William County, Virginia,
August 27, 1795. His education was obtained in the schools of that
section. He, however, was ambitious and was an earnest seeker after knowledge, and consequently used every
facility within his reach to store his mind with such knowledge as would be of
value to him in after life. At an early age he chose the law for his
profession, and all the books
he read, and really mastered,
were in that direction. In this way he pieced out what, in that day, was
considered a fairly good education for even a professional man. He, therefore,
may be classed as a self-educated and selfmade man. He read law under the guidance
of his brother-in-law, Obed Waits, of Winchester, Virginia, one of his most valued friends and helpers in time of need. In
1819 he was sufficiently informed in the fundamental principles of the
profession to enable him to pass a creditable examination for admission to the
Winchester Bar. Shortly after
his admission he came to Parkersburg, Wood County, on the Ohio River, and entered upon the practice of
his chosen profession. The first circuit in which he practiced was presided
over by Judge Daniel Smith, which was composed of the Counties of Rockingham,
Pendleton, Preston, Monongalia, Brooke, Ohio, Tyler, Wood, Lewis and Harrison. This circuit embraced
all the territory between the Pennsylvania line and the Little Kanawha River. The custom of that
period was for the aspiring attorneys to travel with the judge and attend all of the courts
embraced in the Judicial Circuit twice a year. In this way lawyers of ability
and industry managed to
secure a paying practice, and
young Harrison, who possessed many natural gifts, succeeded in picking
up more than his share of the cases disposed of on these various swings around
the circuit.
In 1821 he moved to
Clarksburg, Harrison County, and
thereafter made that town his permanent home, and remained there up to the time of his death,
which occurred December 31, 1870. In 1823 he was appointed Assistant United States District
Attorney for the Western Distript of Virginia, which office he filled acceptably and ably, traveling on horseback twice a year to Wytheville
to attend upon the sessions of the court. After the establishment of the Court
of Appeals of Virginia
at Lewisburg in Greenbrier
County, he practiced regularly at its bar until the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861. His
practice, during a long, successful life, was one of immense labor, requiring
great research and
profound investigation. He
appeared, during his career, before seven Federal Judges, fifteen Circuit
Judges, and twelve judges of the Supreme Court of
Appeals of Virginia. He was elected a member of the
Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia after the formation of the State in 1863, and served with great ability.
Judge Harrison was a
Union man and a Republican,
but was never a politician. He preferred the calm and dignified contests of the bar to the more animated scenes incident to
partisan warfare. He, however, represented Harrison County three terms in the
Legislature of Virginia in
ante bellum days. He was also United States Attorney for
the Western District, and
Prosecuting Attorney of Harrison County, one term in each office. When
the Civil War came on in 1861 he took a firm stand for the Union, and was one of the leaders in the
erection of the new Commonwealth of West Virginia. The Circuit Judge of the Harrison
County District was vacated by its judge going with the South, and Judge Harrison was elected that
year (1861) to fill out his term, which position he occupied until elected a
member of the Supreme Court of Appeals of the new State in 1863.
He was an able and a just judge, and ranked among the leading
lawyers of his time. He was of large stature and commanding presence; in religious convictions
he was a Presbyterian; was married and left a large family of honored citizens; one
of his sons, Thomas W. Harrison, became a prominent citizen and was one of Harrison County's
distinguished Circuit Court Judges. No better people can be found anywhere
than the immediate descendants of William A. Harrison.
[Bench and Bar of West Virginia by George Wesley
Atkinson, 1919 - Transcribed by AFOFG]
Hite, Joist
In 1731, the Van
Matres sold a part of their lands to Joist Hite, who, in the year 1732, with
his family and three of his sons-in-law, George Bowman, Jacob Crisman and Paul
Froman and other persons to the number of sixteen families, left York, PA and
cutting their way through the wilderness, crossed the Potomac at the "Old
Pack-Horse Ford", and thence proceeding up the Valley, found homes in the
vicinity of Winchester. These settlements were made in what is now Frederick
county, VA and therefore not within the present borders of this state, but we
make mention of them, for they exerted a great influence upon the early
settlements within the present boundaries of Berkeley and Jefferson counties.
[by Virgil A. Lewis in
"History and Government of West Virginia"]
Holliday,
Frederick William Mackey, was born in
Winchester, Virginia, February 22, 1828, son of Dr. Richard J. M. Holliday, an
early settler of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He graduated from Yale College in
1847, and then entered the University of Virginia, from which he was graduated
in law after one session, and was selected as final orator of the Jefferson
Literary Society. He was made commonwealth attorney for Frederick county, and
served until the war broke out. He went with the first troops to Harper's
Ferry, and on his return became captain of a company, which was assigned to
the Third Regiment, of the Stonewall Brigade, and rose to the colonelcy; was
in numerous engagements, losing his right arm at Cedar Run (or Slaughter's
Mountain), disabling him for field service. He then entered the Confederate
congress, of which he continued a member until peace was re stored. Resuming
practice, he took first rank at the Winchester bar. He was a commissioner at
the Centennial Exposition of 1876, in Philadelphia; in the same year he was a
presidential elector. Without opposition, he was elected governor in 1877. His
administration was principally concerned with the state debt question, and he
vetoed the repudiation scheme. As governor he delivered the address of welcome
at the Yorktown Centennial, under congressional appointment. After retiring
from office he busied himself on his farm, and in literary pursuits. He died
at Winchester, May 20, 1899.
[Source:
Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography; Edited by Lyon Gardiner Tyler; Publ.
1915; Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack.]
Lee, Judge George Hay
Judge Lee was one of
the eminent lawyers and
jurists of Western Virginia.
He was born at Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley in 1807, and was educated at the University
of Virginia, and graduated
about 1830, and soon
thereafter was admitted to the bar.
In 1831 he located at
Clarksburg, Harrison County, in the western part of the State, and practiced his profession with great success until the
time of his death, which occurred November 20, 1873. He was learned in the
law, and for nearly a half century maintained a
high rank among the members of the profession prior to and after the division of the State. For a number of years he
and the late Judge Mathew Edmiston, of
Weston, Lewis County, were partners in the practice, with offices at
Clarksburg, Weston and
Parkersburg. Both of them
being men of unusual ability, the firm was employed on one side or the other,
of most, if not all, of the important causes in all of the courts in the half
dozen or more counties of the interior section of what is now the State of
West Virginia. Judge Lee is remembered as one of the
ablest of office lawyers or pleaders of his day, while Judge Edmiston was
noted as a trial lawyer or advocate, thus giving the firm unusual prominence,
and rendering them almost invincible as trial
lawyers in all classes of cases.
Judge Lee was twice elected a member of the Legislature of Virginia from Harrison County while
he was comparatively a young man, and was also Prosecuting Attorney of Harrison
County for one or more terms. Later he served a full term as United States
District Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, and was an able and faithful official. He was next appointed a
Circuit Judge by the Legislature, where he developed superior qualities as a
jurist. His decisions were clear, pointed and strong, and clearly showed that he possessed, in a marked
degree, the judicial temperament. In 1850 the Constitution of Virginia was amended so as to
require the election of all judges by the people, and Judge Lee was elected one of the judges of the
Supreme Court of Appeals of the State. In this appellate position he served
with great acceptability until the close of his term. He returned to
Clarksburg and resumed the
practice of his profession, which he kept up, in important causes, until the
time of his death, as stated above in 1873. He was tall of stature, wore a
long beard, and was a
commanding figure in any gathering of men. He was also a man of exalted
character, and commanding
influence in both of the Virginias. His integrity was absolutely above
reproach. Rarely is there found in the ranks of men one so symmetrical in mind
and character, one so sound
in judgment, so unerring in moral perception, so faithful to every duty, and so loyal to the right, as he,
through his entire career. His life as a lawyer and a jurist, whether judged by reference to labor
performed, pecuniary gain or fame, he stood in the forefront of his
profession.
He was twice married
and had six children, three
daughters and three sons, all
of whom but one are now deceased. He lived in a palatial home on Lee Street in
the city of Clarksburg, where forty-two years of his life were spent.
[Bench and Bar of West Virginia by George Wesley
Atkinson, 1919 - Transcribed by AFOFG]
Massie Family
Massie Cheshire. The family of Massie, settled at Coddington
county, Cheshire, in
consequence of the marriage of Hugh Massie with Agnes, daughter and heiress of
Nicholas Bold, aud his son William by the said Agnes purchased with other
manors that of Coddington in the reign of Henry, VI. This William married
Alice, daughter and heiress of Adam Woton, of Edgerly, and the family
subsequently intermarried with that of Grosvenor, of Eaton. The celebrated
General Massie so distinguished during the Civil Wars, was the son of John
Massie, of Coddington, by Anne Grosvenor, of Eaton. The present representative
is the Rev. Richard Massie, of Coddington. Arms.—Quarterly gu. and or — in the
1st & 4th quarters three fieurs de-lis ar, for
difference a Canton ar. Crest — A demi-pegasus with wings displayed quarterly
or. and gu. Massie Quarterly az and ar. on the 1st and 4th a millet, Or.
Crest— A horned Owl ppr. Massie Ar a pile, quarterly gu. and or: in the field
quarter a lion pass, off the Held. Crest — Between two trees a lion salient
ar.—[Encyclopaedia of Heraldry of England, Scotland and Ireland, by John
Burke.]
The first representatives
of the family in America were Major Thomas Massie and William, his brother,
who settled in New Kent County,
in the Colony of Virginia.
Thence Major Thomas Massie moved to Frederick County, and afterwards settled in Nelson county, where he owned large
estates on Tye river and about the head waters of Rockfish river. For his
services in the War of the Revolution he received a
grant from the Government of valuable lands in Scioto Valley, Ohio, near the
present city of Chillicothe. He married Sally Cocke, and spent the remaining
years of his life in retirement at his seat, known as "Level Green," in Nelson
County. The issue of this
marriage were three sons: Thomas, William and Henry.
Dr. Thomas Massie, the
eldest son, married [1] Lucy Waller, by whom he had two sons; [i] Waller, [ii]
Patrick; and two daughters, one of whom married Boyd, and the other of whom
married Wm. 0. Goode. His second wife was [2] Sally Cabell; by whom he had one
son, Paul. Waller Massie, eldest son of Dr. Thos. Massie, married Mary James
of Chillicothe, Ohio, by whom he had issue: [1] Gertrude Waller Massie, [2]
Thomas Massie, recently deceased without issue. Patrick Massie, second son of
Dr. Thomas Massie, married Susan Withers, by whom he had issue: [1] Robert,
[2] Patrick C., [3] Thomas, [4]Thornton, [5] Withers, [6] . [7] Susan.
William Massie, second
son of Major Thomas Massie, was married — times. His eldest son was Col. Thos.
J. Massie, of Nelson, lately deceased without issue. His daughter, Florence,
married [1] Tunstall, son of Whitmell P. Tunstall, [2] Judge .Tno. D. Horsley,
of Nelson.
Henry Mamie, of Falling
Springs Valley, Alleghany County,
Virginia, third son of Major Thomas Massie, married [1] Susan Preston
Lewis, October 22nd, 1810, daughter of John Lewis of the Sweet Springs, and
Mary Preston, daughter of Capt. William Preston of Smithfield, Montgomery
county; [2] Elizabeth Daggs,
May 18th, 1826, the daughter of Hezekiah and Margaret. The issue of said Henry
Massie by his first wife, Susan Preston Lewis, were: [1] Sarah Cocke, who
married Rev. Franck Stanley and died without issue on March 30, 1879. [2] Mary
Preston, born September 26, 1813, married John Hampden Pleasants, December 15,
1829, and died April 18, 1837, leaving issue: [i] James Pleasants: [ii] Ann
Eliza, who married Douglas H. Gordon: [iii] Mary Lewis, who died in infancy.
[3] Henry Massie, Jr. [4] Eugenia S., born February 19, 1819, married Samuel
Gatewood. and died October, 1884. leaving issue. [5] Thomas Eugene Massie. [6]
Susan Lewis, who died in infancy. Said Henry.Massie died in January, 1841; and
Susan Preston, his wife, died November 22, 1825, in the thirty-third year of
her age. Said Henry Massie had by his second wife, Elizabeth, one son,
Hezekiah, now living in Falling Spring Valley on his paternal estate.
Henry Massie, Jr. ,
oldest son of Henry Massie and Susan Preston Lewis, was born July 4, 1816,
married Susan Elizabeth Smith, March 23, 1841, daughter of Thos. B. Smith of
Savannah, Georgia, and Caroline Sophia Rebecca Thomson, his wife, who was the
daughter of William Russell Thomson, of Charleston, South Carolina, who was
the son of Col. Wm. R. Thomson, born 1729, died 1796, who was the son of
William Thomson (of the family of James Thomson, the English poet), and the
founder of the family in America. The issue of said Henry Massie, Jr., and his
wife Susan, who was born February 5th, 1822, and died November 25th, 1887,
were: [1] Henry Lewis Massie, born May 12, 1842, died October 5, 1887,
unmarried. [2] Caroline Thomson, born December 16, 1845, and married November
8, 1865, to James Pleasants. [3] Lulie, bora June 15, 1849, died May 7, 1878.
[4] Thomas Smith Massie, born August 15, 1850, died Sept. 17, 1863. [5]
William Russell Massie, born February 24, 1852, now living in Richmond, Virginia. [6] Susan Elizabeth, born
February 2, 1855, died January 10, 1869.[7] Charles Philip Massie, born
November 15, 1857, died October 31, 1863. [8] Eugene Carter Massie, born May
27, 1861, now practicing law in Richmond, Virginia.
Dr. Thomas Eugene Massie, second son of Henry Massie and Susan Preston
Lewis, was born April 22, 1822, married in 1858 Mary James Massie, the widow
of Waller Massie, and died in 1863, leaving issue: [1] Frank Aubrey Massie, now practicing law in
Charlottesville, Virginia. [2] Eugenia Massie, who married Oscar Underwood of
Kentucky, now living in Birmingham, Alabama. [3] Juanita Massie.
[History of Virginia From Settlement of Jamestown
to Close of The Civil War by Robert Alonzo Brock and Virgil Anson Lewis, 1888 – Transcribed by
AFOFG]
McDowell, Joseph
McDowell, Joseph
(father of Joseph Jefferson McDowell and cousin of Joseph McDowell
[1758-1799]), a Representative from North Carolina; born in Winchester VA,
February 15, 1756; moved to North Carolina with his parents in 1758; attended
the common schools and Washington College (now Washington and Lee University),
Lexington, VA; served against the Indians on the frontier and later took an
active part in the Revollution, attaining the rank of Colonel; engaged in
planting; elected to the Continental Contgress in 1787, but did not attend;
delegate to the State constitutional convention which ratified the
Constitution of the United States in 1789; member of the State house of
commons in 1791 and 1792; unsuccessful candidate for election 1794 to the
Fourth Congress; elected as a Republican to the Fifth Congress (March 04,
1797-March 03, 1799); was not a candidate for renomination in 1798; moved to
Kentucky in 1800, but returned to North Carolina in 1801; died at his
brother's home at Quaker Meadows, near Morganton, Burke Co, N.C., February 05,
1801; internment in Quaker Meadow Cemetery, on his Father's plantation, near
Morganton, N.C.
[SOURCE: Biographical Directory of the United States
1774-present.), submitted by Linda Rodriguez]
McDOWELL, Joseph; member of
congress and soldier, was born in Winchester, Va., Feb. 25, 1756. His father,
Joseph McDowell, who had emigrated fromIreland in 1730, finally settled at
Quaker Meadows, N. C. Joseph, who was distinguished from a cousin of the same
name as "Quaker Meadows Joe," entered military service at an early age in the
campaigns against the Indians on the frontier. In the revolutionary forces he
served under his brother Charles, commander of the district, and fought in all
the battles of western North Carolina that
followed the invasion of the British in 1780. His brother's troops having
disbanded, Joseph was made major and commanded the North
Carolina militia in the battle of King's Mountain. He
was subsequently made general of militia. Entering the service of the state at
the close of the war, he was sent to the house of commons in 1787, serving
until 1792. In 1788 he was a delegate to the North
Carolina constitutional convention, in which he was a
leader of the opposition that rejected the federal constitution. He passed
from the house of commons to congress in 1792, where for seven years he was an
active opponent of the federalists, serving in 1797 as a commissioner for
settling the boundary line between Tennessee and North
Carolina. He wielded a strong influence as a
republican leader in his section of the state and died in Burke county,
August, 1801.
{Source: The
National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume 2; Publ. 1906, by James T.
White, George Derby; Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack.}
McNeel, Colonel John
Colonel John McNeel was one of the earliest pioneers of
West Augusta and the first actual settler on the Little Levels, now in
Pocahontas County (West Virginia). He was born near Winchester, Virginia, but
early in life went to the Cumberland valley, in Maryland. Here soon after his
settlement he had an altercation with a young man which resulted in a
hand-to-hand fight and McNeel believing that he had killed his antagonist,
fled to the wilderness, and after some time spent in wandering amid the wild
solitudes of the Alleghanies. He came upon what has ever since been known as
the Little Levels. It is a beautiful little valley hemmed in on all sides by
lofty mountain ranges. Here the wanderer and, as he supposed, fugitive from
justice, decided to make his future home, and reared his lonely cabin. This
was about the year 1765.
Shortly after
McNeel completed his cabin, while hunting one day, greatly to his surprise, he
met Charles and James Kennison, two white men who were searching for a
suitable site to found a home. From them he learned that the man whom he
supposed he had killed had not died, and in fact had not been seriously
injured. To him this was joyful news, for the thought of having caused the
death of a fellow man was most dreadful to contemplate. The Kenisons
accompanied him to his lonely retreat, and with him as guide soon found lands
upon which they resolved to settle, then all three returned east of the
mountains to make preparation for their removal into the wilderness.
During their
stay in the Valley, McNeel wooed and won the hand of a lady named Martha
Davis. She was born in Wales in 1743, and early accompanied her parents to
Virginia. Now she prepared to share the toils and hardships of a pioneer home.
The man to whom she had given the best affections of her heart was worthy of
the trust. All things were made ready, the journey completed, and the new home
reached. A few acres of land were cleared then McNeel remembered his duty to
his God, and with his own hands reared a small log cabin in which his
neighbors and himself might worship. This rude temple, dedicated by its
builder to the Builder of the Universe, was called the White Pole Church, and
was most probably the first church building ever erected west of the
Alleghanies.
At length,
Dunmore's war broke out, and McNeel, together with his neighbors, the
Kennisons, repaired to Camp Union, enlisted and accompanied General Lewis to
Point Pleasant, where they participated in the bloody battle of October 10,
1774. During their absence, a child of McNeel's died, and the mother, true
heroine that she was, constructed a rude coffin, dug a little grave, and with
her own hands laid the infant away to rest.
The soldiers
returned but not to remain. The struggle between the mother country and her
colonies was rapidly verging to a crisis, and they at once crossed the
mountains and joined the patriot army, in which they served until they saw the
thirteen feeble colonies of 1776, the recognized nation of 1783.
[Source: History of West Virginia; By Virgil Anson
Lewis; publ. 1887; Pgs. 646-655; Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski
Pack]
