Biographies of VMI Cadets
Hampshire
County, WV Biographies from History of Hampshire County, West Virginia : From its earliest
settlement to the present
Jacob Henry
Emmett Biography
Governor John Jacob
Cornwell
John Jacob Cornwell was born on a Ritchie County farm
near Pennsboro. In 1870, his family moved to Hampshire County. He attended
Shepherd College before becoming a public school teacher at age sixteen. In
1890, Cornwell and his brother acquired the Romney Hampshire Review. He was admitted to the bar
in 1898 and served as a state senator from 1899 to 1905. Cornwell was defeated
by William Mercer Owens Dawson in the 1904 gubernatorial election. In 1917, he
became the only Democrat to serve as governor in a thirty-six-year span
between 1897 and 1933.
One month after Cornwell took office,
the United States entered World War I. Due in part to the governor's efforts,
West Virginia had one of the highest percentages of volunteers of any state.
During his term, the state reached an agreement on a public debt owed to
Virginia since the time of West Virginia's statehood. Cornwell advocated
strengthening the mining code, the creation of a state board of education, and
the establishment of a department of public safety and the state police. Two
months before the expiration of his term, the state capitol was destroyed by
fire.
His term was marked by growing labor
unrest in the coal industry. He discouraged an armed miners' march in 1919 by
promising to address the miners' grievances. His failure to handle the
situation led to increased violence, including a shootout between miners and
coal company guards in Matewan, Mingo County.
After leaving office, Cornwell served as a director of
and general counsel for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, before
retiring in Romney. He died in Cumberland, Maryland, in
1953.
(Source:West Virginia State Archives - Transcribed by
Therman Kellar)
J. Frank
Dixon
Sheriff of Mineral County, West Virginia, and one of the leading
citizens of Keyser, was born in 1848 inMineral County, and is a son of James and Eliza (Thayer)
Dixon.
James Dixon was born in Hampshire
County, Virginia, now West Virginia. He
followed farming through life, and died in 1878. In politics he belonged to
the Whig party and the formation of the Republican Party, later becoming
notified with that. His mother was born in Agany County, Maryland, and still survives, at the age of
84 years. She is a worthy member of the Methodist Church, with which her husband was also
connected. They reared a family of 10
children.
Sheriff Dixon was educated in the common schools and Fairmont Normal School, graduating from this
institution in 1877. The following six years were spent in teaching school.
Mr. Dixon then retired to a farm and engaged in farming and stock raising
until 1892, when he was called upon by his party to accept the office of
sheriff of Mineral County. After four years of faithful and
efficient service, he went back to the farm, but was recalled to public life
in 1900, by a re-election to the office of sheriff. His career has always been
marked with activity, and characterized by fairness toward all, and although
firm in the discharge of his duties, it can be truthfully said that he has
never mistreated a prisoner nor caused unnecessary suffering. From a
humanitarian standpoint, this is a very commendable trait of
character.
Mr. Dixon is a stockholder and director of the People's Bank at Keyser.
He is an ardent Republican and for years served on the Republican County
Executive Committee. He is also prominent in the Masonic fraternity, being a
32nd degree Mason. Plain and unassuming, of a retiring nature, generous to a
fault and faithful to his friends and pledges, is it small wonder that he has
so many friends and that he is one of the most popular officers Mineral County
has ever known.
[Source:
Men of WV Biographical publishing company, Publ. 1903; Pgs. 67-68; Transcribed
and submitted to Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski
Pack]
Charles H. Vandiver
On May 1, 1840, Charles H. Vandiver was born in Hampshire county, Old Virginia, a son of Archibald and Rebecca
Vandiver. He enlisted early in the C.S.A., and was made first lieutenant in Company F, 7th Virginia Cavalry, commanded
by Colonel Ashby. This regiment was under General Rosser and known as the “Laurel Brigade.” Young Vandiver was
a brave and gallant soldier, and while riding at the head of his company received a wound which incapacitated him
for further active service. On August 7, 1864, Lieut. Col. Thomas Marshall, then in command of the regiment, wrote
to Lieutenant Vandiver, assuring him of the high esteem in which he was held by his comrades, and expressing regret
that the ties which bound him to them as a soldier had been so rudely snapped asunder. No doubt that letter was
a perpetual inspiration to young Vandiver through life. Colonel Marshall (he soon afterwards fell in battle) caused
his letter with these words: “But shall ‘the chance of war’ as by some it is called, cause us to meet no more in
this life, I trust that in higher, holier, and happier world our acquaintance will be renewed, never to be broken.”
At the close of the war he studied law, and later became the editor of a paper at Keyser, W. Va. For ten years
he was the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate of West Virginia. Major Vandiver, as he was known to most of his Missouri
friends, moved to Vernon County, Mo., in 1880, and afterwards in 1883 to Lafayette county, where he continued to
resided until the day of his death, September 7, 1911. In 1896 Major Vandiver was elected to the Missouri State
Senate from the Seventeenth District, and was the author of the law making the Confederate Home of Missouri a State
institution.
In early youth he became a member of the Presbyterian Church, and for many years prior to his death was an elder
in the Church at Higginsville, MO.
During his career as a soldier, from 1861 until June 1864, he was engaged in a number of battles, and was thrice
wounded and had seven horses shot under him. He was ever kind-hearted and suave in his manners. The granite of
his nature was covered with flowers.
(Source: "Confederate
Veteran", Pg 31, February 1912. Vol. XX, No. 2.Transcribed and contributed by
Linda Rodriguez)
