Judge Alpheus F.
Haymond
Judge Haymond, son of Col. Thomas S. and Harriet A. Haymond, was born
on a farm near Fairmont, Marion County, Virginia, December 15, 1823. His early
life was uneventful, but even in his youth he showed the vigor of thought and
bold independence characteristic of subsequent years. Until the age of
thirteen he attended school near his home, then went to Morgantown, Monongalia
County Academy, where he remained two years, then to William and Mary College,
Williamstown, Virginia, where he remained for a few terms. He read law with
Edgar E. Wilson, of Morgantown, and was admitted to the Bar in 1842 when only
nineteen years of age. He soon became recognized as an able lawyer, and had
secured a paying practice before the Civil War. In early life he revealed a
liking for politics. In 1853, and again in 1857, he was elected a member of
the Legislature of Virginia from Marion County, and in 1861 he was a member of
the Virginia Convention, and opposed Secession; but after the State seceded he
entered the Confederate Army and remained therein until after the surrender of
General Lee at Appomattox, when he returned to his home at Fairmont and
resumed his law practice, which rapidly grew to large proportions.
Being a strong
lawyer he was appropriately chosen a member of the Constitutional Convention
of 1872 to frame a new Constitution for the State of West Virginia, in which
he figured conspicuously and ably. At the first election under that revised
Constitution he was elected a member of the Supreme Court of Appeals of the
State; served ably thereon until 1876, when he was re-elected to the same
position for the full term of twelve years. He was a just and able judge. He
wrote many opinions, all of which reveal honesty of purpose and determination
to deal out justice without fear or favor. He was most careful in the
preparation of his opinions, because he knew that hasty, ill-considered
decisions by Appellate Courts are unprofitable to the public, unreliable as
precedents and authority for the legal profession or the citizen, and
discreditable to the court that makes them. Consequently he labored zealously
to get at the facts, merits and law of every case he passed upon, or was
decided by any of his associates on the Appellate Bench during his membership
of the Court. He was necessarily an untiring worker, so much so that he found
his health giving way under the necessary strain of the daily grind, and he
decided to abandon his work upon the bench; consequently he resigned the
position January 1, 1883, which he had so ably filled for ten years, and
retired to private life.
Judge Haymond was a
Democrat, a man of medium height, heavy build, face of a round contour, of
agreeable and graceful manners, and of even temper. In his later years his
practice was confined exclusively to the Supreme Court. He departed this life
December 15, 1893, thus ending a distinguished and useful career.
He was a married man
and had an interesting family. One of his sons is now judge of the Circuit
Court of Marion County, and is a lawyer of acknowledged ability, and a safe
and reliable jurist.
[Bench and Bar of West Virginia by George Wesley
Atkinson, 1919 - Transcribed by
AFOFG]
Hogg Family
Charles Edgar Hogg, a
prominent jurist and public man of theMonongahela Valley, was born in Mason county, West Virginia, December 21, 1852,
near the Ohio river, at
a place called the Pleasant Flats. His paternal ancestry is Scotch, his
maternal English.
His great-grandfather was Peter
(2) Hogg, son of Captain Peter (1) Hogg, of Augusta county, Virginia, who was a crown officer in the
Dunmore war, an intimate
friend of George Washington and participated in the war of the revolution. He
was a near relative of "Etrick Shepherd," one of the popular poets and prose
writers of Scotland. The
great-grandfather located in the Ohio valley, just below where West Columbia
now stands, in the latter end of the eighteenth century, where his son, Thomas
Gory Hogg, was born in the year 1800. He was a land surveyor, and was widely
and popularly known throughout that section of the state of Virginia, now West
Virginia. He was recognized by all as a man of a high
sense of honor and sterling integrity. James Abney Hogg, father of Charles
Edgar Hogg, was born in Mason county. He was a frugal and thrifty farmer, and
highly respected by the people in that part of the state as a public-spirited
and intelligent citizen. The paternal grandmother of Mr. Hogg was Lucy (Ball)
Hogg, daughter of Captain James Ball, who settled in Mason county about the
year 1785, and was a prosperous and highly respected farmer and citizen. He
was a large landowner, as was the great-grandfather, in Mason county, and most
of his descendants still reside in that county. The mother was a daughter of
George Ray Knight, who married Elizabeth Kirk, to whom was born a large family
of boys and girls, who stood high in the community where they resided, for
intelligence, industry and integrity. The mother of Mr. Hogg, Susan (Knight)
Hogg, is still living, and is a woman of rare intellectual qualities and
Christian virtues. His brothers and sisters are citizens of his native state,
one of whom is a prominent physician of Huntington and one of the sisters has long been a teacher
in West Virginia.
Mr. Hogg attended the common
schools of his native place, and did his high school work at Carleton Academy, Ohio. In 1868, at the age of fifteen, he
successfully passed an examination for a teacher's certificate, and taught his
first school satisfactorily in 1868-69. Following his first year's teaching he
spent six months in Oldham and Howe's Business College, graduating from that
institution. He then taught again for two years, and on February 1, 1871, he
became bookkeeper for the Valley City Salt Company. During all these years
young Hogg had been a diligent student of History and English. Among the books
he carefully studied were Tyler's General History,
Bancroft, Rollin, Buckle, Hume, Quackenbos, Harrison, Macauley and other works
on literature and history. He did most of his studying during this period
under the tutorship of his uncle, Dr. A. L. Knight, a great linguist and
student of science and history.
Mr. Hogg remained at the Valley
City Salt Company's plant as its bookkeeper, and part of the time as its
general manager, until the fall of 1873. While engaged here he found time to
study language, literature and science, under the instruction of Dr. Knight,
Professor Guthrie, a graduate of the Ohio University, and Dr. Toombes, a graduate of
Hamilton University, an eminent and most
accomplished scholar. He studied Latin during all this time, finishing
Harkness' Introductory Latin, his Elements of Latin Grammar, his Latin Grammar
and Caeser's Commentaries, Cicero's Select
Orations, Sallust's Jugurtha and Catiline. He spent sufficient time in Greek
to finish Harkness' First Greek Book and Introductory Reader, a great deal of
Hadley's Greek Grammar and Owen's Xenophen's Anabasis, with numerous
references to Kuhner's, Crosby's and Hadley's grammars. During this period he
studied German under the instruction of Prof. Maerker, using as a text
Woodbury's Shorter Course in German, his German readers, German grammar, and
several selections from Schiller. He also studied mathematics, finishing Ray's
Higher Arithmetic, his Higher Algebra and Plane Geometry. He also studied
anatomy, physiology and physics.
In 1874 Mr. Hogg ascertained
that he could enter as a junior in the A. B. course at Roanoke College, Virginia, thereby being able to finish the
course in two years, and he intended to do so, but he was advised by some of
his friends to add these two years to his law studies. Following this advice
he went to Point Pleasant, October 6, 1874, in the twenty-second year of his
age, and began the study of law under Judge C. P. T. Moore, of the supreme
court of appeals of West Virginia, one of the founders of the Phi Kappa Psi,
and the Hon. Henry J. Fisher, both of whom were well educated and able
lawyers, the latter of whom was the most profound lawyer of his day in all
that section of the south, and under whose instruction, many young men had
studied law and been admitted to the bar.
Mr. Hogg read law continuously
under Colonel Fisher and Judge Moore for five successive years, although his
progress was so rapid that he was able to pass the examination and be admitted
to the bar in 1875, in which year he was elected county superintendent of
schools in his native county, and was re-elected in 1877. During the four
years of his official term he read and studied law continuously, mainly under
the direction and advice of Mr. Fisher. The subjects of study during this
period were principally the following: Chittyon Pleading, including his two
large volumes of annotated forms; Stephen on Pleading; Greenleaf on Evidence
(three volumes); Parsons on Contracts (three volumes) ; Blackstone's
Commentaries (four volumes) ; Coke on Littleton (three volumes); Doctor and
Student; Kent's Commentaries (four volumes); Adam's Equity; Story's Equity
Jurisprudence (two volumes) ; Story's Equity Pleading; Wood on Damages; Angel
and Ames on Corporations; Green's Brice's Ultra Vires; Reeves' Domestic
Relations; Story on the Constitution; Vattel on the Law of Nations (two
volumes); Domat's Civil Law; Criminal Practice; Chitty's General Practice
(four volumes); Tucker's Commentaries (two volumes); Robinson's (old) Practice
(three volumes); the Code of West Virginia; Story on Partnership; the subject
of Bailments, Negotiable Instruments, Trusts, Real Property, Agency, Sales,
and Wills, Criminal Law, and many of the cases in the reports of the two
Virginias and the Supreme Court of the United States. He also found time to
read much in history and literature. During this time he did some work in the
practice of the law, including a few cases in the supreme court of appeals of
West Virginia.
It is remarkable that Mr. Hogg's
grandfather, his father, himself and oldest son were all born in the
county of Mason, all of whom spent their lives
there with the exception of Mr. Hogg, who moved to Monongalia county in 1906
and has since resided there. One of the regrets that Mr. Hogg had upon leaving
his native county was that he and his ancestry had made that their home from
the latter part of the eighteenth century.
While engaged in the practice of
his profession, Mr. Hogg wrote a number of biographical sketches, which he
intends to publish under the title of "Great Men of the Virginias." He is also one of the authors of
"History of the Kanawha Valley," in two
volumes. He has also delivered many addresses before schools, teachers'
associations, colleges and other bodies, and all while in the active work of
his practice. His work as an author was carried on during his busy engagements
in the state and federal courts, both of original and appellate jurisdiction.
Some idea can be formed of the magnitude of the work that he has done as a
practitioner of law by stating that he has argued more than one hundred cases
before the supreme court of appeals of West
Virginia, either orally or on brief. He has been a
practitioner in the supreme court of the United States since 1888, and in the
United States circuit court of appeals at Richmond since 1893, having entered
upon the practice in that court in the third year after its formation by the
act of congress of 1891. He was associate counsel, as is well known, in the
historic case of the Commonwealth of Virginia against West Virginia, having made two oral arguments in that
case before the supreme court of the United
States. Mr. Hogg has had some experience in
politics. In 1884 he was a presidential elector, and in 1886 he was elected to
the fiftieth congress, serving from March 4, 1887, to March 4, 1889.
As a law author Mr. Hogg has
written "Pleading and Forms" (775 Pages) now in its third edition; "Equity
Principles" (900); "Equity Procedure" (2 volumes, 1723 pages); and "Treatise
and Forms" (874 pages). He is also one of the authors of the "Encyclopedia of
Evidence" (13 volumes), and the "Standard Encyclopedia of Procedure," now in
course of preparation to contain about eighteen volumes. He was also one of
the consulting editors of the "American & English Encyclopedia of Law and
Practice," to contain fifty-five Volumes of about fifteen hundred pages each
as originally designed, but the publication of which will not be further
continued, by reason of the inability of the publishers to prosecute the work
for lack of means.
Associated with him in this work
as consulting editor were such men as William J. Gaynor, of New York; Horace
H. Lurton, of the supreme court of the United States, the deans of several law
colleges throughout the country, also Sir Frederick Pollock and Edward Manson,
prominent English authors, as well as eminent lawyers in Canada. Mr. Hogg was
elected dean of the College of Law of West
Virginia University in 1906, and took charge of
the work at the beginning of the school year, 1906-07, and is laboring to
build up a practical and useful law school. Since he began his work here he
has taught nearly all of the branches given in the course, and is at all times
an indefatigable worker. He is a recognized authority in the subjects on which
he has written, and his books are used very extensively by practicing
attorneys.
In 1907 Temple University of
Philadelphia conferred upon Dean Hogg the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in
recognition of his scholarly attainments and his success as a law author, as
well as his achievement in the practical line of his profession. He is now
engaged in writing a work on "Common Law Pleading," primarily designed for the
use of law colleges, and, while giving the principal rules of this ancient
common law subject, he has shown the modifications thereof and what the
modernized subject now requires. It will be illustrated with select cases as
part two of the work. It is his purpose to further extend his field of
authorship, devoting more time to it than he has ever done in the past, unless
the demands upon his time by teaching and the work of his profession shall
preclude him from doing so.
Mr. Hogg regards the teaching of
the law as a great problem, and feels that what may be denominated the best
method possibly has not yet been evolved, though his own judgment has
committed him to the Dwight system, which is employed almost entirely in the
college of which he is the dean. Nevertheless, he feels that there is great
room for improvement, not only along the line of the method of teaching, but
also in the preparation of text-books and cases, even in those schools where
the case system is generally employed. He is firmly of opinion that the period
required for the course of instruction in our colleges of law is entirely too
short for the successful presentation of the principles of the law by the sole
means of cases. He is further convinced that to become a thorough and
successful teacher of the law some knowledge of its practice is absolutely
essential. He is not unmindful, however, that on this subject there is
considerable diversity of opinion, many reputable teachers believing that the
law may be successfully taught without any acquaintance with its practical
phases.
Mr. Hogg is still in the prime
of life, and has before him apparently many years of good service to his state
and its people. He is an untiring worker, and is never better contented than
when employed in his lecture room or in the line of authorship.
In
1881 Mr. Hogg married Nannie Berden, only child of William and Mary (Saunders)
Hawkins. Mrs. Hogg, on the paternal side, is of English descent, her
forefathers emigrating from England and settling in Virginia in the latter part of the
seventeenth century. On the maternal side she is Scotch, her grandfather and
grandmother having been born in Scotland, emigrating to this
country soon after their marriage. Her father was born in Mason county,
Virginia, and lived there his whole life; likewise her mother. There have been
born to Mr. and Mrs. Hogg four sons, three of whom are living, and two
daughters. The oldest son, Charles J. Hogg, is located in the practice of law
in Morgantown, West Virginia.
[Source:
GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL OF THE Upper Monongahela
Valley, WV Vol. III; By James Morton Callahan;
Edited by Bernard L. Butcher; Publ. 1912; Transcribed by Andrea Stawski
Pack]
Jacob Jones
Jacob Jones, born in 1732 and left fatherless almost from
his birth, was adopted by a wealthy planter near Wilmington and lived with his
foster parents until he became of age. In his early manhood he married Dinah,
or Diana, Stanton, a young lady of the same neighborhood, three years younger
than himself. Jacob, always fond of hunting and "a dead shot" early developed
those pioneer traits which distinguished his career. Some time after his
marriage he moved to Va., nears his step-father, and his mother, resided and
about 1770 moved with them into the wilderness across the Alleghany Mountains.
Unlike his step-father, he settled on the west side of the Monongahela River
on Dunkard creek, near the present town of Pentres, W. Va. This was known then
as the Indian side of the river and the place he selected was then on the
extreme frontier. They started out in life poor and cast their lot in the
wilderness across the mountains from the scenes of their youth; they brought
with them nothing, but at the close of their lives they were well-to-do and
were loved and respected by all. Their adventures, struggles and hardships if
fully described would require volumes. Fights with Indians and hunting
expeditions are still being told over and over again, but they left as a
legacy to their children something far better than the land which they
pre-empted, or tales of adventure—purity of character, strong, vigorous,
healthy bodies, piety, honest and frugality. These are the traits which have
made their children and their children's children leaders and bulwarks of
society in the communities in which they have lived and still live. The assets
of those times, however, consisted in adventure and the bare necessities of
life. Constant vigilance was the law of life and the rifle was as essential as
any article of apparel. Always in danger, they suffered from three
well-organized raids of the Indians, 1774, 1777 and 1778. In the outbreak of
1774 the settlers were warned by scouts of the approach of the Indians and
most of the people were sent to for at Morgantown, about seventeen miles away.
Jacob Jones's wife was not in condition to travel. The children were sent to
the fort and the father and mother resolved to stay in their cabin and, if
necessary, die together. A scout by the name of Morgan who was watching the
approach of the Indians, again warned them that the Indians were almost upon
them and practically forced Jacob and his wife to set out for the fort. After
proceeding for about five miles Dinah gave birth to William Jones. Morgan
carried the new-born babe and the rifles, and Jacob, his wife, and the march
to the fort was resumed. The rest of the journey through an untrod and
unbroken forest and through creeks and rivers, may be left to the imagination.
During the year 1775 or 1776 a fort was built only a short distance from their
home on the old Stattler farm, now owned by L.R. Shriver, and during the
outbreak of 1777 the families resided at the fort and the men and children,
who were old enough, went out in armed squads to cultivate their crops. On the
evening of July 13, 1777, a party consisting of Jacob Farmer and his daughter,
Susie, Jacob Jones, and his oldest children, Mary, aged twelve, and John aged
eleven, Alexander Clegg, Nathan Worley and John marsh went to the home of
Jacob Farmer, expecting to hoe corn on the morrow. The house was surrounded by
a band of twenty Indians and an attack was made about daylight on the morning
of the 14the. Nathan Worley and Jacob Farmer were killed and Susie Farmer and
Mary and John Jones captured. Jacob Jones escaped by rushing out past the
Indians, running first over the bank of the stream and then along the waters'
edge under the protection of the bank. Three Indians followed him and finally
forced him to leave the stream. He then ran up the hill along the fence of the
clearing. The Indians at first hoped to catch him alive but finding that they
could not do this without endangering their own lives, they each fired at him.
One shot passed through his ear, another hit his belt and a third passed
between his legs. His escape was almost miraculous as he later stated that as
he left the house no less than fifteen Indians shot at him. On the hill Jacob
met marsh who had gone out before the attack to hunt game for breakfast.
Together they saw the captured children being dragged by the Indians up the
hill on the opposite side of the creek. Jacob started to follow but was
restrained with difficulty by Marsh, knowing that if Jacob had shot an Indian
the children would have been killed before their eyes. In the meantime Glegg
had also escaped by running into the stream and had carried the news to the
fort where he was soon joined by the other survivors. The militia attempted to
follow the Indians, but nothing came of the pursuit. The children were taken
westward across the Ohio. Susie Farmer was unable to keep up with the warriors
and was tomahawked and scalped, the other children being witnesses of the
bloody scene. On the way John devised a plan to escape, but was dissuaded by
Mary who told him that they could not find their way back and even if they
could they could not cross the big river. John and Mary were adopted into
different family of the Wyandotte's and lived near Sandusky, Ohio. After
arriving at Sandusky the children were made to run the "gauntlet" which they
did successfully to the gratifications of their captors. On the whole the
children were treated as kindly as the Indians' method of living would admit
and their hardships were probably no greater than those which the Indians had
to undergo themselves. Mary was especially obedient and, consequently was held
in high esteem, but John never became reconciled and was always planning to
escape. Finding at last, after 5 years of persuasion, that he could not induce
Mary to join him, John's desire to get away became so great the he left his
sister, ran away and finally reached Detroit. Here he entered the family of a
Doctor Harvey where he was treated as a son given as good schooling as the
times afforded, and as much knowledge of medicine as the Doctor could give.
John started for England to complete his medical course and got as far as
Montreal when a desire to see his people if any were yet living, caused him to
return and go to Pittsburg instead. Jacob Jones, learning of this fact went
after him and took him home. In all John was away eleven years, five at
Sandusky and six at Detroit. Mary remained with the Indians for ten years
during which the members of the family which adopted her, all died. She made
her way to Detroit and was taken into the family of General McCoombs. Three
years later she married Peter Malott and settled first on Grosse Isle and then
at Kingsville, Ontario. The marriage was a most happy one and their many
descendants are among the most prosperous and respected citizens of that
community. Peter Malott died in 1815 and Mary or `Aunt Polly' as she was
familiarly known still longing to see her people, set out in 1817 to visit
Virginia. She crossed the lake to Cleveland and went the rest of the way on
foot. A remarkable family reunion thus occurred after a separation of forty
years. On her return two of her brothers accompanied her as far as Cleveland,
all on horseback. It is now the custom of the Jones family to hold its reunion
every third year with the Malotts at Kingsville, Ontario. Returning to the
further experiences of Jacob Jones, Sr., after the capture of his children, he
moved his family to a safer position on Cheat River, but he, himself served in
the militia on the frontier until the close of the Revolutionary war, when the
militiamen were replaced by regulars. For some time afterward he lived on
Cheat Bottom, now Tucker County, W. Va., where he had a grant of land. In
1794, he obtained a grant of land near Knottsville, W. Va., where he spent the
remaining years of his life in peace and comfort. Both Jacob and his wife died
in the summer of 1828 aged, respectively, 96 and 93 years. In 1904, the family
reunion was held near the spot where this remarkable couple was buried and
monument erected over their graves was dedicated to their memory.
The children of Jacob and Dinah
Jones, in the order of their birth were: Mary (Malott), John, Benjamin,
Samuel, William, Jacob Jr., Rebecca (Powers), and Martha (Powers).
Mary married Peter Malott and
had the following children: Joseph, Mary, Anne, and Peter and two who died in
infancy. She was born in Delaware or in Loudon County, Va., in 1764 and died
in Kingsville, Ontario, Oct. 16, 1845.
John Jones was born in Delaware
or Loudon County in 1766 and died in 1850.
[Contributed by Carla Mascara - Ross Co
OH]
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]
James Clark McGrew
(1813—1910)
- a Representative
from West Virginia; born near Brandonville, Monongalia County, Va. (now West
Virginia), September 14, 1813; attended the common schools; engaged in
mercantile pursuits and banking; delegate to the Virginia secession convention
in 1861 and voted against secession; mayor of Kingwood, Preston County, Va.
(now West Virginia), 1863-1865; member of the West Virginia house of delegates
1863-1865; managing director of the West Virginia Insane Hospital for four
years; elected as a Republican to the Forty-first and Forty-second Congresses
(March 4, 1869-March 3, 1873); chairman, Committee on Mileage (Forty-second
Congress); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1872; again mayor of
Kingwood in 1879 and 1880; resumed banking in Kingwood, W.Va., from 1886 until
his death in Kingwood, W.Va., September 18, 1910; interment in Maplewood
Cemetery.
Source: Biographical Directory
of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
Submitted
by Anna Newell
Morgan
Family
This is the
Morgan family of great renown as relates to pioneer days in America. The
family is of Celtic origin—extracted from the only white race or clan that was
never at one time or King Lear" another conquered or subdued. The word
"Morgan," traced back to its Cymric origin, means "seabrink" or "one born on
the seashore." Glamorgan County, Wales, which is situated on the coast, takes
its name from the Morgans. The family is very old; members of it held
important posts in early English history, and were provincial rulers. To one
of these Morgans is accredited the adoption of the jury system, in England, in
the eighth century; to members of the family in Britain were awarded more than
thirty different coats-of-arms for as many different achievements, throughout
the medieval period.
(I) Rev.
Morgan Morgan. The West Virginia Morgans, of Welsh extraction, are
descendants of Rev. Morgan Morgan, Glamorgan County, Wales. He was educated in
London; ordained a clergyman of the Church of England; settled at Christiana,
Delaware, in 1702; removed to Winchester, Virginia, and followed his calling.
Children: Morgan, Anne, Zackquil, Evan, David, Charles, Henry and James. In
1726 Rev. Morgan Morgan crossed into Berkeley County, Virginia, and near
Bunker Hill Post office made the first white settlement in what is now West
Virginia territory, and also built the first church in the state. Later, Rev.
Morgan Morgan's children removed farther west, crossing the Alleghany
Mountains to the Monongahela Valley, and founded Morgantown, West
Virginia.
(II) David
Morgan, born May 12, 1721, at Christiana, Delaware, son of Rev.
Morgan Morgan, was a skilled engineer. He aided George Washington, under
commission from the governor of Virginia, in surveying Mason and Dixon's line;
was with Colonel Washington on other trips, on one of which they discovered
the region on the Monongahela afterwards taken up and settled by the Morgans.
He married Sarah Stevens, a Quaker lady of Pennsylvania. Children: Stephen,
Sarah, Zacquille, Morgan, Katharine.
At the
opening of the revolutionary war, Morgan Morgan, son of David, was captain of
a company of Virginia militia. This company, with Morgan Morgan, together with
the latter's father, David, and Evan and James, brothers of David, and James
Jr., son of the latter James (five Morgans in one small company), entered a
company, in 1777, which served in the revolutionary war, on expeditions in
Pennsylvania, with William Haymond as captain, and Morgan Morgan as
lieutenant, and the other four Morgans as privates. One year later, David
Morgan, in his fifty seventh year, had his deadly encounter on the Monongahela
River with the Indians.* Evan and Zackquil Morgan, brothers of David, saw
service in the revolution at another time, in Captain Brinton's company, when
they made an expedition up the Allegheny River, raided an Indian village
called Muncietown, killing several savages and one or more white desperadoes.
See accounts of this trip, written by Zackquil and Evan, when they were in
their seventies, at the request of the secretary of war. These documents
contain also a brief family history, with dates, etc., and are remarkable for
their diction and the evident educational attainments of these pioneers who,
doubtless, were never inside a schoolhouse, and whose time was mostly taken up
guarding the frontier settlements from Indian depredations. The original
payroll of Captain William Haymond, with the names of the five Morgans
thereon, is in the custody of Colonel Henry Haymond, of Clarksburg, West
Virginia.
(III) Captain
Morgan Morgan was a son of David Morgan, the Indian slayer. He was
captain of a company of Virginia militia, also lieutenant in Captain Haymond's
company of revolutionary soldiers. Children: James, Morgan, David, Jacob,
Druscilla, Elizabeth, Aaron and Achilles.
(IV) Captain
James Morgan, son of Captain Morgan Morgan, was captain in the war of
1812, in which was also commissioned a major, and during said war was, at one
time, in command of Fort Meigs (now Toledo, Ohio). Children: David, John,
James, Stephen, Alpheus, Sarah, Mary, Salinda, Marcus.
(V) Captain
David Morgan, son of Captain James Morgan, removed from Marion to
Randolph County in 1858. Early in the war of 1861 he raised and became the
captain of a company of Union soldiers, in which company his son, Charles,
became a lieutenant, and another son, David C, a corporal. Captain David was
born June 26, 1806, in Marion County; married Pleasant Harris, born October 1,
1808, of Dutch extraction. Children: 1. Charles, born June 12, 1827; lives
near Buckhannon, West Virginia. 2. Morgan, born January 9, 1829; lives near
Lorentz, West Virginia. 3. Juretta, born September 9, 1830; married Joseph
Garlow. 4. Hilleary, born December 25, 1831; died a child. 5. Aaron, born June
19, 1833; died a child. 6. Littleton T., born January 30, 1835; died a child.
7. Littleton Taswell, born November 22, 1837; lives at Buckhannon. 8. Aarah,
born January 14, 1840; died August, 1899. 9. Sebra, born June 18, 1842;
married Rev. B. B. Brooks; both dead. 10. David Crockett, born February 28,
1844; lives at Buckhannon. 11. James P., born May 22, 1846; lives near
Selbyville, West Virginia. 12. Helen, born December 28, 1848; deceased. 13.
Waitman, born October 23, 1850; died a child. 14. Elmira, born September 16,
1863; died a child. 15. Martha died an infant.
Note: As a
matter of fact, David Morgan never skinned a human being —he was "all in"
after this conflict. In which he lost two Angers, and it would have been a
physical impossibility for him to have denuded the Indian of his Integument.
The Indian was Skinned by refugees of Prickett's Fort, and not by David
Morgan. The skin war tanned, made into a shot pouch, and presented to David as
a souvenir.
(VI) Corporal
David Crockett Morgan, son of
Captain David Morgan, was a retired farmer, and a member of Presbyterian
Church. Politically he was always a staunch Republican, never bolting a
primary or convention nor scratching a ticket, until, as he says, he became
convinced that the party had fallen into the hands of a set of dishonorable
men who were politicians not because of any patriotic sense but merely for the
business and the money they could get out of it, since which time he votes for
the best man, regardless of politics. He served clear through the war of 1861,
as a Union soldier, enlisting in his father's company, at the age of
seventeen, and was drawn up in line of battle at Appomattox, the day General
Lee surrendered. His first wife was Evelyn Phillips. Children: Infant died a
child; Loren Boriors and Orlan Bunyan, both married, have families, and live
in Stillwater, Oklahoma. His second wife was Eliza Jane Phillips, daughter of
Richard and Eliza J. (née Perry—Commodore Perry family) Phillips, of French
Creek, West Virginia. Richard and wife, then children, came to French Creek
with their parents, in 1815, from Massachusetts, overland, making the trip of
nearly one thousand miles in carts drawn by oxen through the forests,
following the buffalo trails, and driving their stock before them. Richard's
paternal ancestor, Nicholas Phillips, was an Englishman, and immigrated to
America in 1630, and was one of the incorporators of the town of Dedham,
Massachusetts. When David C. Morgan married his second wife she was the widow
of the late Lieutenant Claudius B. See, by whom she had three children,
namely: Sylvester Bunyan, Claudius Synnamon, and Julia Agnes, all of whom are
married, have families, and live in Upshur County. By his second wife, Eliza
Jane, he had four children: Haze, Patrick Lawson, Otto, and Clara, all of whom
are married and live in West Virginia.
(VII) Haze
Morgan was named for a distant relative of the same name who
was shot in the forehead and instantly killed, while on the firing line as a
Union soldier in the war of 1861. He was born June 19, 1876, on his father's
farm, one mile south of the noted Raccoon Meeting House Rock, Laurel Fork of
French Creek, Upshur County, West Virginia, son of David C. Morgan. He was
educated in public schools; spent four years at Wesleyan College, Buckhannon;
took a degree in Georgetown University; was five years in one of the legal
departments, Washington, his duties taking him over most of the United States.
He resigned from the government service in 1903 and went to Clarksburg, West
Virginia, and opened up a law office. He is a member of the Presbyterian
church of Clarksburg, in which a relative was the first pastor; in politics is
an independent Republican. He married, at Washington, D. C., September 29,
1897, Anna G. Jones, born near Smithton, Doddridge county, West Virginia,
September 29, 1879, daughter of William H. Jones, a miller by trade, and of
revolutionary stock, who was born April 4, 1851, died August 26, 1896; had but
one other child, Eula B., who was born November 10, 1886, graduated at
Clarksburg high school, and died June 17, 1907. Children of Haze and Anna G.
Morgan: William H., born at Washington, November 13, 1898; Eliza Isabelle,
born at Clarksburg, May 17, 1905; Virginia, born at Clarksburg, September 27,
1907; Anna Mildred, born at Clarksburg, November 6, 1911.
In the
possession of Haze Morgan, Clarksburg, West Virginia, is quite a large piece
of the skin taken from an Indian slain in a combat with David Morgan. It is
accompanied by the affidavit of Josiah P. Smith, who received it more than
sixty years ago from a son of David Morgan, which is as follows:
State Of West
Virginia, County Of Harrison, Ss.:
Josiah P.
Smith, being by me first duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that he
was born on Big Rock Camp, Harrison County, West Virginia, on the 21st day of
December, 1826, being the first white person born on that stream according to
the statement of his parents; that, sometime in about the year 1850, a little
while after affiant attained his majority, he visited a son of the Indian
Fighter, David Morgan, at his house on a branch of Fishing Creek, in Wetzel
County, West Virginia; that, while there, the said son (whose Christian name
affiant has forgotten) exhibited to affiant an old-fashioned shot-pouch, which
had been partly cut away, and stated that said shot-pouch was made of the
tanned skin of an Indian which had been killed by David Morgan, in an
encounter on the Monongahela River, West Virginia, wherein the said David
Morgan fought two Indians; that said shot pouch had been given to him, the
said son, by the said David Morgan, and that he, the said son, was disposing
of it by cutting it up into pieces and distributing it among his friends as
souvenirs; that the said son then and there gave affiant a piece of said
shot-pouch about two inches square; that affiant afterward gave away a piece
of said skin; that the remaining piece has been in the possession of affiant
ever since; and that the piece of skin hereto annexed is a portion of the same
piece of the aforesaid shot-pouch given to affiant by the said son at the time
aforesaid.
(Jurat
Follows). (Signed): Joseph P. Smith.
(V) John
Morgan, son of Captain James Morgan, was born on the old Morgan
homestead about 1800, died February 7, 1854. He was a farmer, and died on the
old homestead farm after having been a successful agriculturist for many
years. He married Mary, daughter of Archie Wilson, a native of Monongalia
County; she died in 1863. The children of John and Mary (Wilson) Morgan were:
Cassil, deceased; Alcindia, deceased; Matilda, deceased; Margaret; Lydia;
Oliver Perry, mentioned below; William, deceased; John; James E., mentioned
below. The parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and
politically the father was a Whig and later a Republican.
(VI) Oliver
Perry, son of John Morgan, was born in what is now Marion
County, West Virginia, September 14, 1835. He was brought up on the old
homestead, where he lived and labored until he reached man's estate, when he
purchased a farm in the neighborhood and carried on farming and stock raising.
During the civil war period he served in Company A, Sixth West Virginia
Volunteer Infantry. He participated in several battles and skirmishes, and was
also among the guards along the frontier. After two years' service he was
wounded and honorably discharged. After the war he resumed farm life and
continued there until 1895, when he engaged in the mercantile business, and
later removed to Fairmont, where he is engaged in the real estate business.
Politically he is a supporter of the Republican party, and in church
affiliations is connected with the Methodist Episcopal denomination.
August 19,
1860, he married Margaret, daughter of Bushrod W. and Sarah (Shaw) Vincent.
The children of this union were: 1. John, a farmer who married and has five
children: Wateman; Lester; Virgil; Bertha C.; and Roy. 2. Francis Lorenzo, a
farmer, married and has two children. 3. Laura E., married James Carpenter,
and they have three children. 4. Mollie, married O. S. Holland, and they have
one child, Pearl. 5. Henry, married Alice Brown, and they have eight children.
6. Lee, married Nettie Vincent, and their children are Oliver and Mary. 7.
Virginia, married Samuel H. Keener, and their children are Clarence, Opal and
Ralph.
(VI) James
E., son of John Morgan, was born on the old Morgan homestead
in what is now Marion county, March 18, 1854. He was reared on his father's
farm and educated in the common schools. He followed farming until the autumn
of 1892, and in the spring of 1893 was appointed a member of the Fairmont
police force, and has held the office of chief of police, water commissioner
and street commissioner for a number of years, to the entire satisfaction of
the citizens of the municipality. In March, 1910, he resigned as street and
water commissioner. Politically Mr. Morgan votes the Republican ticket, and is
an attendant at the Methodist Episcopal Church.
He married,
July 18, 1875, Ella Swisher, a native of Marion county, daughter of Jacob and
Elizabeth Swisher, of Winfield district, Marion county. Children: Mary, born
August 28, 1876, wife of Thomas Howard, and they have two children: James E.;
and Mary E. 2. William Curtis, born February, 1879, died aged sixteen years.
3. Mont E., born August 14, 1881, now an attorney-at-law. 4. Mary Edna, born
April 15, 1884, married Gale Fishback, and they have two children: Annetta,
and Irma. 5. Maud Belle, born June 2, 1887, died September 24, 1888.
(V) Marcus
Morgan, son of Captain James Morgan, was born in 1835. He was
brought up on his father's farm, receiving the ordinary common school
education, and was a justice of the peace eight years; also member of the
board of education, and county commissioner when the present courthouse was
erected. He served as a trustee in the Methodist Episcopal church. During the
civil war he served in Company E, of a volunteer regiment in the federal army.
Politically he was a staunch Republican. He died in 1906, his wife preceding
him fourteen years, she having died in 1894.
He married
(first) Mary Wymer, daughter of Levi Wymer, who came from Virginia; he was a
blacksmith. Their children, four in number, were: Lydia; Della; Levi W.; and
one deceased. He married (second), in 1868, Virginia Wymer, and to them were
born five children: Ephraim F., mentioned below; Pearlie, wife of Elbert
Moran; Mattie, married Marcus Layman; Mary, wife of M. West; Nettie, wife of
Wayne Meredith.
(VI) Hon.
Ephraim F., son of Marcus Morgan, was born in Foxburg, Marion
county, West Virginia, January 16, 1869. He obtained his education in the
common schools, taught nine years, attended the State Normal School at
Fairmont, graduated from the law department of West Virginia University in
1896 and was admitted to the bar in 1897. He commenced to practice law in the
spring of 1898, in Fairmont, where he built up a large legal practice. He
continued until elected judge of Marion county in 1905 for a term of six
years. He is proving himself an excellent judge. He was president of the board
of education for Palatine independent district for four years; was city
solicitor of Fairmont two years. Politically he is in accord with the general
principles of the Republican party, and in church connection is of the
Methodist Episcopal society at Fairmont. In May, 1898, at the outbreak of the
Spanish-American war, he enlisted in Company E, of a West Virginia regiment,
serving until February, 1899, when he received an honorable discharge; he
acted as quartermaster for his company. Judge Morgan is a member of the
Knights of Pythias and of the Woodmen of the World; also is an honored member
of Fairmont Lodge, No. 9, Masonic fraternity, as well as of the Chapter and
Commandery.
He married,
in September, 1903, Alma Bennett, a native of Monongalia county, daughter of
Albert and Isabelle (Robe) Bennett, of English descent. One child has been
born to Judge Morgan and wife, Lucile, who died aged fifteen months.
[Source:
GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL OF THE Upper Monongahela Valley, WV Vol. III; By
James Morton Callahan; Edited by Bernard L. Butcher; Publ. 1912; Pgs.
949-956;Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack]
Stephen Morgan
Family
(III) Stephen
Morgan, son of David Morgan (q. v.), was born in Berkeley County
(then Virginia), October 14, 1761. In the year 1771 his father, David Morgan,
moved with his family and located in the Upper Monongahela Valley on a farm
six miles north of the site of the present city of Fairmont, West Virginia. On
this farm six years later occurred Morgan's famous encounter with the Indians.
Here Stephen resided until the time of his death, which occurred in 1849. He
was a farmer and surveyor; was for many years a justice of the peace, and
sheriff of the county for two terms; was a member of the Protestant Episcopal
church as was his father and grandfather.
In 1797 he
was married to Sarah Sommerville, daughter of John and Margaret Robinson
Sommerville, of Clarksburg, Virginia. John Sommerville was a son of Joseph and
grandson of John Sr., of Gransha., near Londonderry, Ireland, and was a lineal
descendant of the Scotch barons of that name. He had five sons who came to
this country in 1773, three of whom were Captain William of revolutionary
fame, Alexander, and Joseph. His wife was Elizabeth Alexander, of a
distinguished Scotch family, a descendant on her mother's side from the Scotch
Kirkpatrick’s. The children of Stephen and Sarah (Sommerville) Morgan were:
Henry Sommerville and Charles Stephen Morgan (twins); William S.; Albert;
George Pinkney; Elizabeth, wife of Colonel William Willey; Ann, wife of
Horatio McClean; Ruhama, wife of Notley Carter; Jane, wife of Colonel Austin
Merrill.
(IV) Henry Sommerville
Morgan, the first son of Stephen Morgan, was born June 4, 1799, died
September 26, 1873. He spent his life on his farm near Rivesville. On February
14, 1826, he was married to Mary Lanham, born August 23, 1803, died June 3,
1886, daughter of William and Catherine (Ferguson) Lanham, of Morgantown,
Virginia, a lineal descendant of Alexander Ferguson, of Scotland, who in 1709,
married Annie Lawery, of the Maxwelton House, Scotland. She was also a grand
niece of Edward Livingston, the jurist and minister to France.
Children born
to Henry S. and Mary (Lanham) Morgan were:
1. Louisa M.,
wife of John C. Gallahue, of Fairmont, who had one son, Harry Gallahue.
2. Charles
R., a farmer and surveyor; married Harriet Fairfax Brown, of Kingwood; their
daughter, May F., married C. W. Wolfe, and their children are: Virginia, Karl,
Slidell and Helen Wolfe.
3. Willian
L., physician of Baltimore, Maryland.
4. Edward
Livingston, a farmer and machinist; was twice married, (first) to Ellen
Barnes, and (second) to Elizabeth Welty.
5. Stephen
A., of Baltimore, Maryland; married Louisa V. Huffman; children: Stephana and
Otilia.
[The
above-named four sons served in the Confederate army during the entire
war].
6. Sallie
Morgan, of Fairmont.
7. Henry B.,
mentioned below.
(IV) Henry B. Morgan,
son of Henry Sommerville Morgan, was born July 3, 1847. He received
his education in the Fairmont and Morgantown schools between the years 1858
and 1865. A Jeffersonian in politics, he represented Marion county in the
legislature in 1892; is a local elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and devotes the greater part of his time to the work of the church. He
has left his farm, which is a part of the land originally granted by patent to
his grandfather, Stephen, and with his sisters resides in Fairmont. He
married, September 18, 1873, Myrtle Merrill; two children were born to them,
Lily Sarah and Eva Myrtle. Lily S., wife of William W. Davis, of Houston,
Texas, has two daughters, Myrtle M. and Beulah K.; they reside at Hillside,
Arizona. Eva M., wedded R. A. Watts, an attorney of Fairmont; they have one
daughter, Sara Morgan Watts.
(IV) Hon. Charles
Stephen, twin brother of Henry S. Morgan, was educated in Morgantown,
Virginia, served in both branches of the Virginia legislature, and was warden
of the penitentiary at Richmond from 1825 to the time of his death in 1859. He
married Alcinda Gibbs Moss, of Virginia. Their children were: Alcinda
Robinson; Captain Charles S. Jr., and Major Stephen E., who both served in the
Confederate army under Lee in Virginia; Virginia, youngest daughter, married
Enders Robinson, of Richmond.
(IV) Hon. William S.
Morgan, third son of Stephen Morgan, was born September 7, 1801. He
was for some years a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church, then
represented his county in the legislature of Virginia; was a member of the
twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth congresses of the United States; was a
naturalist of note and was employed by the Smithsonian Institute until near
the time of his death in 1875, at Washington, D. C
He married
Elizabeth Jones. Children: George W., lawyer of Washington, D. C; Robert S.,
journalist and Baptist minister, of North Carolina; Virginia, and
Elizabeth.
(IV) Albert Morgan,
fourth son of Stephen Morgan, was a successful farmer and stock raiser of
Marion county; also a justice of the peace for many years. He married Mary
Prickett. His descendants who survive him are: Charles and Joseph Merrill, of
Rivesville, and Earl Hennen, of Fairmont.
(IV) George
Pinkney, fifth son of Stephen Morgan, was born August 23, 1820. He
spent the early part of his life in Richmond, Virginia. He enlisted in Company
A, Thirty-first Virginia Infantry of the Confederate army. On October 3, 1861,
he was taken prisoner in an engagement on Greenbrier river, and died at Camp
Chase, Ohio, December 30, of the same year.
He married
Catherine Neeson, of Meadville, Pennsylvania, a sister of Judge James Neeson,
of Richmond, Virginia. His children are: Alice; James, deceased; William G.,
and Mary Josephine, who with their mother still reside at their beautiful
country home on that historic old farm which is a part of the land originally
granted by the Commonwealth of Virginia to Stephen, assignee of David
Morgan.
[Source:
GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL OF THE Upper Monongahela Valley, WV Vol. III; By
James Morton Callahan; Edited by Bernard L. Butcher; Publ. 1912; Pgs.
956-959;
Transcribed
by Andrea Stawski Pack]
Righrmire Family
This family
has been known to have been residents of Virginia since the latter years of
the eighteenth century, and possibly one generation before that date.
(I) James
Rightmire, was brought up if not born in Barbour County, Virginia. Among his
children was a son named Alpheus, of whom further.
(II) Alpheus
Rightmire, son of James Rightmire, was a native of Taylor County, Virginia,
born in 1821. He followed farming for his occupation, and was sturdy and
successful in his undertakings in life, being an excellent citizen and
prosperous. He married and had children, including a son called Adolphus, of
whom further.
(III)
Adolphus Rightmire, son of Alpheus Rightmire, was born in Taylor County,
Virginia, near the city of Grafton, March 16, 1851. He was educated at the
public schools and at the West Virginia College, near Flemington. For five
years he taught school winters and went to school at other periods. He engaged
in the growing and shipping of cattle for five years. In 1884 he embarked in
the mercantile business at Grafton. In 1893 he organized the first wholesale
grocery company in Grafton, Pennsylvania. Two years later he sold out this
business, and in 1899 removed to Morgantown, where he engaged in the real
estate and lumber business, being a large owner in realty and other valuable
property. Since 1895 ne has been engaged in the oil industry, owning five
wells in Greene County, Pennsylvania. Politically Mr. Rightmire is a
Jeffersonian Democrat. He belongs to the Elks order. He married, in September,
1877, Augusta, daughter of J. H. Barnes, of Taylor County, West Virginia.
Children: Byron W., of whom further; Ina, Edna, Beulah. Mrs. Rightmire died in
May, 1889.
(IV) Byron W.
Rightmire, son of Adolphus and Augusta (Barnes) Rightmire, was born in Taylor
County, West Virginia, March 31, 1880. He secured a good education at the
public school and later entered the West Virginia University. After leaving
the University he had charge of the water, gas and electricity in Morgantown.
He then went to Oklahoma and engaged in the grocery business, also handled
large quantities of meats. From that he shifted to the real estate business,
and after two years located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he took up real
estate work. Upon his return to Morgantown he engaged in lumber and builder's
supplies, under the firm name of Rightmire & Shriver. Their factory was
burned and Mr. Rightmire, with his father, rebuilt the plant, where the
business is now carried on. Mr. Rightmire purchased thirty-five acres of land,
formed a stock company, known as Lockview Land and Water Company, of which his
father was president and he acting secretary and treasurer. He then bought a
large tract of land under the firm name of Rightmire, Rohsbough &
Thornhill, called the West Morgantown First Addition. With all of these
various business operations, Mr. Rightmire has accumulated considerable
property. He belongs to the Elks order. In December, 1909, he married Nellie,
daughter of Henry Baker.
[Source:
GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL OF THE Upper Monongahela Valley, WV Vol. III; By
James Morton Callahan; Edited by Bernard L. Butcher; Publ. 1912; Pgs.
959-960;
Transcribed
by Andrea Stawski Pack]
John Henry
Robinson; born, (Monongalia Co.) , W. Va., b. Jan. 15, 1877; son of
John R. and Mary E,. (Sloan) Robinson; educated in schools of West Virginia;
married, W. Virginia, Apr. 16, 1900, Kate B. Henshaw. Began active career in
general store owned by his brother, at Burton, W. Va., continuing for three
years; became connected with the Wheeling Corrugating Co., at general offices
of the company, at WHeeling, W.Va., Jan. 1899, and has been manager with
headquarters at Detroit since Jan. 1906. Also president Coco-Cola Bottling
Works, Columbus, O. Republican. Baptist. Recreations: Baseball, fishing.
Office: 1409 Majestic Bldg. Residence: 64 Willis Av., W.
(Source: The Book of Detroiters by Albert Nelson Marquis
1908, Submitted by Christine Walters)
Dias A. Shriver
Among the typical representatives of the agricultural
element of Oklahoma County, (Oklahoma) whose industry, energy and careful
management in farming operations have enabled them to relinquish active labors
while still in the prime of life and to enjoy in leisurely retirement the
fruits of former toil, is Dias A. Shriver, who is now living at his
comfortable home at No. 2949 West Tenth Street, Oklahoma City. During the
twenty years in which Mr. Shriver has been a resident of this community, he
has built up a reputation for substantial and public-spirited citizenship, and
for honorable dealing in all affairs of life.
>
Born at Wadestown, Monongalia County, West Virginia, March 4, 1859, Mr.
Shriver is a son of Bazle G. and Mary Ann (Wise) Shriver, natives of the same
county, where the grandparents were also born and where the family has been
known and honored for many years. His father was born January 15, 1827, and
his mother January 7, 1833, and in 1864 they removed for the West, locating on
a farm in Scotland County, Missouri, where Bazle G. Shriver continued to be
engaged in farming operations during the remainder of his life. In that
county, amid agricultural surroundings, Dias A. Shriver was reared to manhood,
securing his education in the district schools. He adopted farming and
stock-raising as a means of livelihood on attaining his majority, and
continued to be thus employed there until 1895, when he disposed of his
Missouri interests and moved to the newly-opened country of Oklahoma, settling
with his family on a farm three miles west of the business section of Oklahoma
City. Here he also farmed until 1905, when the young city spread out toward
him in such a tempting manner that he had his farm surveyed into small tracts
and town lots and sold all of it off with the exception of twenty acres, upon
which he still resides, and which he has improved in a way that makes it one
of the ideal places near the city, being equipped with all modern comforts and
conveniences, including natural gas, water works and electric lights. After
disposing of most of his own land adjoining Oklahoma City, Mr. Shriver became
a buyer and seller of lands throughout the West, for a time handling large
tracts in Texas and Oklahoma. He is one of five heirs to inherit rich coal and
oil lands in West Virginia, from a brother of his late father, valued easily
at $1,500, 000 to $2,000,000, but, naturally, it must pass through a tedious
litigation before being distributed among the five beneficiaries. As a
citizen, Mr. Shriver has always been active, a liberal contributor to the
material advancement of the county and state and a conscientious and stirring
booster for Oklahoma and the Southwest.
At Memphis,
Missouri, Mr. Shriver was united in marriage, April 14, 1881, with Miss Martha
Jane Baker, daughter of Franklin and Rosa (Sedoris) Baker, of Memphis,
Missouri. Mrs. Shriver died December 9, 1911. To this marriage there were born
four children, as follows: Hugh H., born February 10, 1882; Beulah, born May
23, 1884; Arthur, born August 11, 1887; and Eliza Vera, born February 13,
1899.
[Source: "A
Standard History of Oklahoma", by Joseph B. Thoburn , 1916 -- Transcribed by
Cathy Ritter]
Shuman
Family
This family
is of German origin and was among the early settlers in eastern Pennsylvania,
whence John Shuman emigrated from Philadelphia to what is now known as
Minister's run, Marion County, then Monongalia County. He was one of the first
to penetrate the wilds of that section of what is now West Virginia. He had
two brothers, Philip and another, who served in the revolutionary war. He
followed farming as a means of livelihood. He married Elizabeth Smith.
Children: Mary, Rachel, Catherine, Joseph, Benjamin, Jacob, Sophia, David,
Elizabeth, Hannah, Joshua, Jonathan, of whom further.
(II) Jonathan
Shuman, son of John and Elizabeth (Smith) Shuman, was born in 1831, in
Monongalia County, Virginia. He was by occupation a farmer. He married Dorcas
_____, and they had children, including Philip, of whom further. The Shumans
were nearly all of the Methodist religious faith, and in politics, of later
years, Republicans.
(III) Philip
Shuman, son of Jonathan and Dorcas Shuman, was born in Battelle district,
Monongalia County, Virginia, in 1860. He obtained the ordinary common school
education, and followed farming. He took much interest in educational matters
when grown to manhood, and was elected trustee of the public schools. He was
known for his good and upright character. He was a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and in politics a Republican. He married (first) a Miss
Minor, (second) Rebecca Ann Darrah, (third) Nancy A. Kennedy. Children of
second wife: Albert, of whom further; Mary Alice, married Simeon Lemley and
their children are Milford and Mildred. The mother of these children died
November 8, 1895. Children of third wife: William A. and Edna May.
(IV) Albert
Shuman, son of Philip and Rebecca Ann (Darrah) Shuman, was born in Battelle
district, Monongalia County, West Virginia, November 3, 1885. He was educated
in the public schools and Fairmont State Normal School, after which he
attended the West Virginia University (law department), graduating in 1910.
The same year of his graduation he was admitted to the bar and commenced to
practice law at Morgantown. Mr. Shuman is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and connected with the Knights of Pythias order. Politically he votes
the Republican ticket. Mr. Shuman, by careful and exacting methods, has
commenced to build a good legal practice at Morgantown. He comes of a
well-known and highly intelligent family whose members have all left their
impress upon the various communities in which they have resided since the long
ago days after the war for independence when the forefathers settled in West
Virginia, as now understood. He married, in December, 1910, Goldie Prudence,
daughter of David S. and Hattie Lemley.
[Source:
GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL OF THE Upper Monongahela Valley, WV Vol. III; By
James Morton Callahan; Edited by Bernard L. Butcher; Publ. 1912; Pgs.
960-961;
Transcribed
by Andrea Stawski Pack]
Hon. Waitman
T. Willey, LL.D.
Mr. Willey, although for
many years an able and
successful lawyer, is best known as a public official and a statesman of prominence and worth. He was for many years,
prior to his death, regarded by the public generally as one of the really
great characters to whom West
Virginians, without regard to political affiliations, pointed with
pride. He was born on Buffalo Creek, Monongalia County, Virginia, October 18, 1811. He was reared on a
farm until he reached the age of seventeen, when he entered Madison College,
now Alleghany College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated, cum laude, in June, 1831. At college he was rated as
a hard working student, but was noted most for his gifts of oratory. He was
recognized not only as the towering orator of his class, but of the entire
college as well. All through his long and useful life he ranked as one of the very
greatest public speakers of both Virginias. This wonderful gift made him
almost invincible as an advocate and
court house trial lawyer. He read law for two years in the office of
the distinguished Philip Doddridge, at Wellsburg, Brooke County, who was one
of the greatest lawyers of his generation, and was admitted to the Bar of Monongalia County in September, 1833; he
immediately opened a law office and
began to practice. He was not long in getting his share, and more of the law business of the
community. He was well known, not only as a well educated and eloquent man, but his standing among the
people was that of one who was thoroughly upright, conscientious and reliable. From his boyhood up,
there was not a blot upon his moral character, and his veracity was absolutely unimpeachable,
and this sort of a reputation
and character were
continuously and constantly
the same until the end of his great career. A lawyer of that sort, will never
be required to hunt clients, or drum up supporters or followers among the
people. The truth is, Mr. Willey was so often sought after by the people, to
fill highly important public positions that he scarcely was allowed the
necessary time to attend to his own private affairs.
In 1840, he was an
elector on the Harrison and
Tyler ticket, and was
required to stump the entire Western part of the state for the Whig party. He
was the Clerk of both the County and
Circuit Courts of Law and
Chancery of Monongalia County, from 1841 to 1852; was a member of the
State Constitutional Convention in 1850-51; was the Whig candidate for
Congress for his District in 1852; was the Whig candidate for Lieutenant
Governor of Virginia in 1859;
he was a delegate to the National Convention in 1860 that nominated Bell and Everett for President and Vice-President; was a member of
the Virginia Convention of
1861, and voted against the
Ordinance of Secession; he ably aided in organizing the Restored Government of
Virginia at the City of
Wheeling; was elected United States Senator by said Restored Government; was a
member of the Convention that framed the first Constitution of West Virginia; was elected one of
the two United States Senators, and
drew the short term of two years. At the expiration of said term, he was re-elected to the Senate
for the full term of six years, which expired March 4. 1871. How could one
practice law very extensively with all these public duties loaded upon him?
And yet a good part of the time, he
maintained a large practice.
In 1834 Senator Willey married Miss Elizabeth Ray, of the City of
Wheeling. He was an active and
faithtful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church; was always a leader
on the moral side of every important question that came before the people
during his entire life. Allegheny College and the West Virginia University each conferred upon him
the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. After his retirement from the Senate,
he was Clerk of the Circuit Court of Monongalia County, which furnished him
all the necessary comforts of life. He died at his home in Morgantown when he
was nearly ninety years of age, and
was mourned by all classes of the citizens of the city. He was six feet
three and a-half inches tall,
and was one of the most
powerful athletes of his generation.
[Bench and bar of
West Virginia edited by George Wesley Atkinson, 1919 – Transcribed by
AFOFG]
Judge
Samuel Woods, A.M., LL.D.
Hon. Samuel Woods,
deceased, a former judge of the Supreme Court of West Virginia, was born in
East Canada, September 19, 1822. When he was but a boy, his father moved to
Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he learned the plasterer's trade. He, however,
in the meantime became a student at Allegheny College, and by energy and
perseverance, working at his trade during the summer seasons, and attending
college the remainder of the years, when twenty years of age, he completed the
required classical course, and received the diploma of Bachelor of Arts. He
studied law with Fox Alden, an able attorney of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and
in the meantime he was one of the teachers in the well-known academy at
Morgantown, Virginia. After his admission to the Bar, he located at Philippi,
Barbour County, Virginia, where he spent the remainder of his life, having
attained the standing of one of the greatest lawyers of the State.
Judge Woods was
large in brain and stature. He was a little more than six feet tall, weighed
over two hundred pounds, was round-faced and handsome, and was commanding in
appearance. He was as well rounded morally as physically. He possessed strong
religious convictions, and his personal character was as spotless as a
maiden's, and as unsullied as a ray of light. At every period in his long and
useful career, he was always found on the moral side of every question that
came before him. He never apologized for his faith, but always showed his
faith by his works. By his superior mental training, fidelity to his clients,
and his highly honorable methods, he achieved success in the practice of his
profession. Being a natural orator, he was almost irresistible as an advocate
in a court trial. He made the most careful preparation of his cases, and was
so well grounded in the law and so eloquent and convincing as a speaker that
he seldom, if ever, lost a deserving case. He was free from the use of spirits
and narcotics that often dwarf the body, deaden the intellect and poison the
soul of brilliant men. He was also a man of fine literary tastes and habits,
and was devoted to his family and to his home. In 1844 he married at
Meadville, Pennsylvania, Miss Isabclle Neeson, and has reared an interesting
family, three sons being successful lawyers, two of whom reside in Philippi,
Barbour County, the place of their birth, the elder of the three being
deceased.
He was a member of the Virginia Convention that passed the Ordinance of
Secession, and when the Civil War came on he went with the South, was a member
of the celebrated "Stonewall Brigade," and there remained until the close of
hostilities, when he returned to his Philippi home and resumed his law
practice. He was a Democrat in his political convictions, and in 1871 he was
elected a member of the State Convention that produced the State Constitution
of 1872, which is still the organic law of West Virginia. In 1883 he was
appointed a member of the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State to fill the
vacancy occasioned by the resignation of the late Judge A. F. Haymond, and in
1884 he was elected by the people to that important position. At the
expiration of his term of service in 1888 he retired from public life to
manage his large private interests. In that year Allegheny College conferred
upon him its highest honorary degree, that of Doctor of Laws, an honor most
worthily bestowed.
Judge Woods was an ajdent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and
was a leader in its councils. He was one of the founders of West Virginia
Weslyan College at Buckhannon, and was president of its Board of Trustees from
the origin of the same until the time of his death. He was also a prominent
member of the Masonic Fraternity. He died suddenly at his Philippi home
February 17, 1897. Thus passed from the throng of the living one of our States
ablest lawyers, a learned and conscientious jurist, an honest, upright
citizen, and above all a faithful Christian gentleman.
[Bench and Bar of
West Virginia by George Wesley Atkinson, 1919 - Transcribed by
AFOFG]
