Braxton County, WV Biographies
Braxton County, WV Biographies
Biographies
A-E -- F-J --
K-R -- S-Z
(From History
of Braxton County and Central West Virginia by John Davis Sutton, 1919)
Other
Biographies
Johnson,
Levi
Levi Johnson, son of George W. and
Mary Jane (Davis) Dean, was born January 9, 1878, on his father's farm, in
Braxton county. West Virginia. He attended the local schools of his native
county, and later went to Scranton, Pennsylvania,
where he took a course in architecture, his progress and proficiency being
greatly furthered by the fact that he had all his life been a practical
mechanic. He afterward practiced his profession, in connection with mechanical
work, at Charleston and other places, including Huntington, where he finally
settled, going into business for himself in February, 1906. He afterward formed
a partnership, but since September, 1910, has again conducted business alone,
having offices in the Foster Building. Among the edifices which he has been
instrumental in erecting are the following: The United Woolen Mills, the L. A.
Daniels Building in East Huntington, the Guthrie-Steenbergen Hospital-, an
apartment house and business block for F. F. Starcher; business block for D. A.
Mossman; the T. W. Dinkins apartment house; the English Lutheran Church; the
Highland Baptist Mission Church, and a number of residences, notable among the
latter, those of Dr. A. K. Kessler, Hans Watts, Thomas Garland, and J. P.
Douglass, and at the present time he is building a structure of steel for
department store use for B. W. Foster.
He
married (first) November 18, 1901, Ada Leonora, a resident of Nicholas county, daughter of Robert and Mary Jane Johnson. Mr.
Johnson served throughout the civil war in the Confederate army, and died in
1892. His widow, now sixty years old, is living at the old home in Nicholas
county. Children by first marriage: Wayland Ogden,
born June 20, 1903; Kildrae Pauline, March 13, 1905; and Creola Bliss, April 15,
1907; the mother of these children died September 12, 1910, at the early age of
twenty-six. Mr. Dean married (second) March 13, 1912, Susie Ada Turner, born
February 19, 1891, of Chesapeake, Ohio, and by this marriage has one child,
Jewel Marlowe, born March 24, 1913.
In politics Mr.
Dean is a Republican. He affiliates with the Junior Order of United American
Mechanics and the Order of Owls, and is a member of the Baptist Missionary
Church.
In the practice of his profession
Mr. Dean has already accomplished much, but if the past be a true index to the
future, the coming years will witness his execution of works of still greater
magnitude than those which now testify to his energy and skill.
[Source: West Virginia and it People, Volume 3 by Thomas Condit Miller and Hu Maxwell
- Transcribed by AFOFG]
Linn
Family
History discloses the fact that this Linn family came from good old
Scotch-Irish ancestry, and that among its scions were revolutionary soldiers,
eminent judges, attorneys, physicians and politicians, of much more than the
ordinary ability and influence, especially in the states of Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, the Virginias, and Missouri. Later generations intermarried with the New
England family of Newcombs; hence the following narrative will treat, to some
extent of both families, which include the well known attorney-at-law in West
Virginia and Charleston. Robert G. Linn.
(I) Joseph Linn, of
Scotch-Irish descent, was born in 1725, and died April 8, 1800. He married
Martha Kirkpatrick, a native of the city of Belfast. Ireland, born in 1728; died
March 7, 1791, daughter of Andrew Kirkpatrick. Joseph
Linn was an adjutant in the Second Regiment of Sussex Militia, of Virginia, during the revolutionary struggle, Aaron
Hankinson being the colonel. Joseph and Martha (Kirkpatrick) Linn had four sons
and four daughters: 1. Alexander, born in 1753, married Hannah, daughter of
Nathan and Uphamy (Wright) Armstrong. 2. David, married Sarah, daughter of
Brigadier-General Aaron Hankinson, and they had eight children among whom were:
Alexander, married and removed to Ohio; Mattie, married Jacob Shepherd: Polly,
unmarried; Margaret, married a Mr. Shepherd; Aaron, married Eliza Hankinson, and
settled in Finleyville, Pennsylvania. 3. Andrew, mentioned below. 4. Margaret,
married Hon. Joseph Gaston, paymaster of the Sussex Militia, during
revolutionary war days. 5. Marv. 6. Ann, married Jacob Hull. 7. Martha, married
(first) Isaac Schaeffer, (second) Joseph Desmond; she died in 1830, and was
buried at Sandusky, Ohio; the Rev. Isaac Desmond was her son. 8. John, married
in 1791, Martha Hunt, daughter of Lieutenant Richard Hunt; children: Elizabeth,
married Rev. Edward Allen; Sarah, married Nathan Armstrong Shafer; Andrew,
married Isabelle Beardslec; Mary Ann, married Rev. Benjamin I. Lowe; Caroline,
married Dr. Roderick Byington; Alexander, a doctor at Deckertown, married Julia
Yibbert; William H., who was also a physician. The father of these children,
John Linn, was appointed to the court of common pleas of Sussex County, Virginia, in 1805, serving until his death in 1823. He was
twice a member of congress and died at Washington, D. C., during his second
term. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church at Hardyston.
(II) Andrew, son of
Joseph Linn, was born in 1759, and died in 1799. He studied medicine at Log
Goal. He married Ann Carnes, of Blandensburg, Maryland, and they were the
parents of five children: 1. Robert, mentioned below. 2. Margaret, married Major
William T. Anderson, of Newton. 3. Mary, married David Ryerson. 4. Martha,
married (first) Hugh Taylor, and (second) Richard R. Morris, of New York. 5.
Alexander, settled at Easton, Pennsylvania.
(III) Robert, son of
Andrew Linn, was born April 20, 1781. He probably came to Virginia from Pennsylvania about 1810, and located in what
was then Harrison County, now in Marion County, West Virginia, where he died September 9, 1834. He was by
occupation a farmer and miller. He married Catherine Lyon, born in Pennsylvania,
October 18, 1788. He and his family resided at Linn's Mills. Children: Mary
Jane, married Smith M. Hensill, and died in Portland, Oregon; Priscilla, married
Newton Maxwell; Nancy, married Newton's brother, Milton Maxwell, of Butler,
Pennsylvania; Sarah, married Isaac Courtney; Louisa, married Dr. John T. Cooper,
of Parkersburg; Benjamin, married Sarah Shriver; and Robert, mentioned
below.
(IV)
Robert (2), son of Robert (1) and Catherine (Lyon) Linn, was born in Marion
County, West Virginia, while it was yet within Old
Virginia, December 27, 1813, and died December 7,
1860. He studied law in the office of Hon. Edgar C. Wilson, of Morgantown, Virginia, and was subsequently admitted to the bar at
Pruntytown, Taylor county, in 1846; later he practiced law in Gilmer County,
West Virginia. For four terms in succession he
served as prosecuting attorney, having been elected on the Whig ticket, and he
was serving in that office at the date of his death. He held other offices of
trust and importance, in which he served with faithfulness and much ability. He
was among the best known men of his section and bore the esteem of all with whom
he came in contact. Mr. Linn was an elder in the Presbyterian church. He married
in Fairmont, West Virginia, Sophronia S. Newcomb,
born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 1816, daughter of Ebenezer (2) and
Sophronia (Smith) Newcomb (see Newcomb VI). She was a woman of rare intelligence
and refinement, and a lifelong worker in the Presbyterian church. She was only
two years of age, when her family removed to Fairmont: hence her life was
largely spent in what is now West Virginia, and she
died in August, 1890. Children: 1. Mary S., born September 21, 1841, married
Newton B. Bland, who died in March, 1896; she died January 28, 1910, leaving
three children: Robert Linn Bland, now an attorney at Weston, West Virginia, who married and has four children; George Linn
Bland, assistant cashier of the Citizen's National Bank of Weston; Hattie, of
Weston, West Virginia. 2. Nancy Catherine Lyon, born
May 3, 1845, married Marion T. Brannon, of Glenville, West Virginia; she has three living children: Hon. Linn
Brannon, ex-judge of the circuit court; Alice, of Fairmont; Howard R., a bank
cashier of Glenville. 3. Robert G., mentioned below.
(V) Robert G., son of
Robert (2) and Sophronia (Newcomb) Linn, was born April 6,
1849, at Glcnville,
West Virginia (then
Virginia) and was
reared and educated as most youths of his time were, commencing in the common
schools and later at Witherspoon Institute. When eighteen years of age, he
became assistant clerk in the circuit clerk's office, at Clarksburg, where he
remained three years. In 1869 he entered the Cincinnati Law School, graduating
with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, in 1870. His instructors at law school were
Ex-Governor Hoadley, Bellamy Storer, and H. A. Morrill. After his graduation he
took up law practice at Glenville, the town of his birth, where he became
prosecuting attorney, serving one term. He was two years in Gilmer county, and
twelve in Calhoun county, West Virginia,
where he served two years as prosecuting attorney.
He then returned to Glcnville, in March, 1884, and remained there until 1900,
being associated in law with Hon. John S. Withers. In 1900 he went to
Charleston, Kanawha County, this state, where he now resides and practices bis
profession. He has been associated, as partner in law business in Charleston,
with George Byrne, now of the Manufacturers' Record, and also with
William E. R. Byrne, his present law partner, having also his son, Robert Linn,
as a member of the firm. Mr. Linn maintains offices at Sutton, Weston and
Glenville, this state, having partners in each locality. From 1873 to 1907, he
had for a partner, Hon. John M. Hamilton, with offices at Grantsville, Calhoun
County. It goes almost without saying that Mr. Linn has to do with much of the
important legal business in this section of West Virginia, having so many
sub-offices, the important cases pass through his hands for final investigation.
Politically, he is a Democrat. In religious faith, he is of the Presbyterian
Church. In fraternal connections, he is numbered among the members of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Glenville.
He married at Weston,
West Virginia, June 12, 1876, Mary Hamilton, who was
born, reared and educated at that place. Her parents were Dr. J. M. and Mary
(Lorentz) Hamilton, her mother being the daughter of John, and the granddaughter
of Jacob Lorentz, of pioneer fame in this state. John Lorentz married Mary
Roger; both are now deceased. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Linn, probably not in
order of birth, were: 1. Ernest, died young. 2. George, died June 22, 1908,
while a law student at the University of West Virginia.
3. Edna, born June 25, 1878, educated at Wilson College, Pennsylvania;
taught in normal schools, is now at home. 4. Mary, born April 25, 1880, educated
at the Normal School of Glenville, West Virginia,
and Hollister Seminary, Roanoke. Virginia,
now at home. 5. Harriet, born March 30, 1884; graduated first in high
school, then from the Glenville Normal School, and later as a trained nurse at
Washington, D. C. 6. Robert, born July 25. 1882, graduated at the law school of
the University of West Virginia, in the class of
1906, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws; was admitted to the bar the same
year, and has been associated in law business with his father, at Charleston,
ever since. 7. Ruth, born October 25, 1886, is fitting herself as a trained
nurse, at Washington, D. C. 8. John Hamilton, born December 6, 1892, now in high
school.
(The Newcomb Line).
As above referred to,
the Linn and Newcomb families are intermarried, and this fragment of the Newcomb
genealogy naturally finds a place here:
(I) Francis Newcomb,
born in England. 1605, came to the American colonies, 1635, with his wife, whose
name was Rachel.
(II) Peter, son of Francis and Rachel Newcomb, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, March 16, 1648; married, April, 1672,
Susanna Cutting, daughter of Richard Cutting, of Watertown,
Massachusetts.
(III) Jonathan, son of
Peter and Susanna (Cutting) Newcomb, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, March
1, 1685, married Deborah; and their children included Benjamin, of whom
below.
(IV)
Benjamin, son of Jonathan and Deborah —— Newcomb, was born at Braintree,
Massachusetts, April 9, 1719, removed to Norton, Massachusetts, and died in
1801. He married, November 24, 1743, Mary, daughter of John and Mercy Everett,
of Dedham.
(V) Rev. Ebenezer Newcomb, son of Benjamin and Mary (Everett) Newcomb,
was born at Norton, Massachusetts, in November, 1754; he was a carpenter by
trade, also a farmer and a Baptist minister. He fought in the war for national
independence, being a member of Captain A. Clapp's company. He died February 13,
1829. He married Wealthy Willis, February 23, 1779, and she died May 11,
1818.
(VI)
Ebenezer (2), son of the Rev. Ebenezer (1) and Wealthy (Willis) Newcomb, was
born October 22, 1785; was a carpenter, and cabinet maker. He removed from
Greenfield, Massachusetts, to Fairmont, Virginia,
now in West Virginia, where he died in 1859.
He married Sophronia Smith, born December 24, 1792. Their daughter, Sophronia,
born December 6, 1816, died in August, 1890. She was a native of Deerfield,
Massachusetts, came to Virginia, with her parents
when two years of age; she married Robert (2) Linn and became the mother of
Robert G. Linn (see Linn V).
[West Virginia and Its People, Volume 2 By Thomas Condit Miller, Hu Maxwell -
Transcribed by AFOFG]
Mollohan,
Wesley
One
of the most illustrious legal products of West Virginia was the subject of this
sketch. He was a man of simple habits; was courteous and dignified in his
general deportment; attended to his duties promptly and faithfully; was more
inclined to listen than to speak; was kind hearted, frank, straight forward, and
independent; was conscientious and upright, and was a philosopher and a thinker.
In fact he knew something of most everything; could reason from cause to effect
on most every branch of human knowledge, and could give a logical reason for
every principle he chose to present. He was apparently always thinking about
something worth while wherever and whenever one might chance to meet him. He had
pronounced convictions practically on everything beneath the sun, except
politics. Whilst he always claimed to be a Democrat, yet on election day he
generally split his ticket. He was eccentric. That much cannot be denied. He was
peculiar. He at times was abstracted. Like Cassius, "he thought too much." But
no one can say that he did not always stand "four square" every day in the week
and every week in the year.
Mr. Mollohan was the
son of the Reverend Charles Mollohan, and was born in Braxton County, Virginia,
January 31, 1841, and died while visiting in Kansas, September 25, 1911. His
early education was obtained from the public schools of Gallia County, Ohio, and
later at Gallipolis, Ohio, Academy. He possessed an aspiration for knowledge
which- no circumstances of his youth could suppress, and an ambition to achieve
a name and place among men undaunted by any prospect which the future could
present to his view. When he quit the Academy he read law under the direction of
the late Judge Simeon Nash at Gallipolis, one of the eminent lawyers and text
writers of Southern Ohio. In less than two years he was thoroughly prepared for
examination. He was critically examined, passed with a high grade, received his
license and was admitted to the Gallipolis Bar. He, along with James Henry Nash
(son of Judge Nash), a brilliant, brainy young attorney, came to Charleston,
West Virginia, in 1865, opened a law office and began a business which was
lucrative from the day they hung out their "shingle." Mr. Nash died in about ten
years after his arrival and location at Charleston. Later George W. McClintic
and William Gordon Mathews became partners with Mr. Mollohan and were members of
the firm at the time of his demise.
Mr. Mollohan's
practice embraced a period of nearly a half century and extended through the
State and Federal Courts to the Supreme Court of the United States, and he
appeared in many important cases involving a large number of land titles, tax
sales, forfeitures and kindred subjects in many of the different counties of the
entire State, he being recognized as one of the foremost, if not the best
equipped and strongest land lawyer West Virginia has thus far presented to the
profession. He was also a specialist upon all matters involving the construction
of all constitutional questions. Indeed he seemed ready and at ease in the
discussion of all cases, and especially appeals to the higher courts, involving
intricate questions of law. In all cases where he appeared he rarely failed to
show that he was generally well fortified behind impregnable breastworks. His
successes were the fruits of his unceasing efforts, of vigorous, systematic
application, a rectitude of purpose and a determination which nothing short of
the achievement of the highest and noblest ends could satisfy. He commanded
success and he deserved it.
He was a marked man in
another respect. He never was a candidate for an office, never held an office,
and never wanted one. He was distinctively a lawyer, and allowed nothing outside
of his profession to draw his attention from it.
He married Miss Mary
E. Donnally of Warren, Ohio, in 1872, who passed away in the early part of
January, 1918. They left five daughters surviving them. Mr. Mollohan never
connected himself with any religious organization, nor any secret society: He
was an active member of the State Bar Association, and was president of the
Association in 1902. He was a marked man, and must be classed among the great
lawyers of his generation.
[Bench and Bar of West Virginia by
George Wesley Atkinson, 1919 - Transcribed by AFOFG]
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