Summers County
Meador Family

Source: "History of Summers County, West Virginia"
Author James H. Miller Pub. 1908 pg. 403-404
Transcribed for Geneology Trails by Mrs.Walter Henderson Pack, Sr.

There is some difference as to the origin of the families and their names and the source of ancestry, and it is claimed that they are an entirely distinct and separate ancestry, and had separate family beginnings, which is probably true.

Josiah Meador was the father of Squire William Meador, and was probably the first of the name within our territory. Allen H. Meador, the first elected circuit clerk, six years; a commissioner of the county court six years; a justice of the peace of Jumping Branch four years; Larkin McD. Meador, the merchant at the mouth of Bluestone, and was expected to be the owner of a "sang hoe" to complete his outfit. It was not unusual for a farmer to kill three deer in those days before breakfast.

The Meadors were among the earliest settlers of the Bluestone and Jumping Branch region. It is one of the largest family connections in the country. It has frequently been remarked that if a candidate for office had the support of the Lilly and Meador families, he was sure of election. Both being among the earliest settlers, the families largely intermarried, and were closely allied by affinity, as well as by a consanguinity. Both families have to the present day and are now largely represented in the annals of political and official history of the county. Probably the first settler by the name of Meador within our territory was Josiah Meador. Juda Lilly was the name of Josiah's wife, and after his death married John Woodrum, who was the father of Major Richard Woodrum; Harrison Woodrum, Green and Hugh were his sons, and Judith their daughter. They were all farmers and hunters. A considerable amount of their time was devoted to "sanging," and farming. The first location was at the mouth of Little Bluestone, on which plantation is located the oldest cemetery known in the county.

There have been many men of local note of that name. There was John J. Meador, the Baptist minister, the father of "Little Joe," our present courteous county clerk; Green F. Meador, the merchant, of Meador & Deeds, of Jumping Branch, who is also a minister of the missionary Baptist Church, and who was a deputy sheriff under O.T. Kessler, elected in 1888, but who died soon after the election; D. Morgan Meador, the merchant and lumberman of Hinton; his brother, LaFayette Meador, for a number of years a general merchant in Hinton, now a citizen of Virginia; B.P. Shumate's first wife was a sister of Squire Allen Meador; William T. Meador, the first elected president of the county court; E.B. Meador, the pioneer merchant at the mouth of Greenbrier, and whose wife was a daughter of Ephraim J. Gwinn; William Meador also, who lives on a part of the Charles Clark place at the mouth of Bluestone.

The Meadors are numerous and scattered throughout this section of the State, all springing from the common source. Hon. Rufus Meador, of Athens; Calvin Meador, a school teacher of this county; Beecher Meador, now of Little Bluestone, and Hon. Isadore Meador, clerk of the County Court of Raleigh County; Marion Meador, the merchant of Hinton; Squire George Meador, of Richmond District in Raleigh County, and others prominent in the affairs of the county.