USA > Ohio > History of the Upper Ohio Valley, with family history and biographical sketches, a statement of its resources, industrial growth and commercial advantages, Vol. I > Part 25
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Safety being thus secured, the extension of the line was pushed on vigorously in the summer of 1767. Soon the host of red and white men led by the London surveyors, came to the western limit of Mary- land, "the meridian of the first fountain of the Potomac," and why they did not stop there is a mystery, for there their functions termin- ated. But they passed by it unheeded because unknown, resolved to reach the utmost limit of Penn's "five degrees of longitude" from the Delaware, for so were they instructed. By the 24th they came to the crossing of Braddock's road. The escort now became restless. The Mohawk chief and his nephew leave. The Shawnees and Delawares,
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tenants of the hunting grounds, grow terrific. On the 27th of Sep- tember, when camped on the Monongahela river, 233 miles from the Delaware river, twenty-six of the laborers deserted, and but fifteen axemen are left. Being so near the goal, the surveyors (for none of the commissioners were with them) evinced their courage by coolly sending back to Fort Cumberland for aid, and in the meantime they pushed on. At length they came to where the line crosses the Warrior branch of the old Catawba war path, at the second crossing of the Dunkard creek, a little west of Mount Morris, Green county, and there the Indian escort say to them: " that they were instructed by their chiefs in council, not to let the line be run westward of that path." Their commands were peremptory, and there for fifteen years MASON AND DIXON'S LINE IS STAYED.
Mason and Dixon, with their pack-horse train and attendants, re- turned to the east without molestation, and reported to the commis- sioners, who approved their conduct, and on the 27th of December, 1767, granted to them an honorable discharge, and agreed to pay them an additional price for a map or plan of their work.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
CITY OF WHEELING.
James R. Acker, an old and honored citizen of Wheeling, W. Va., and a prominent grocer and flour and feed merchant, was born in Wheeling, November 22, 1830. He is the son of David and Hannah Acker, the former of whom died when James was three years old, and the latter died in 1851. The home of our subject has been in Wheeling all his life. He received a common school education, and during his youth was employed as a nail feeder. At nineteen years of age he entered the employ of Isaac Blanchard, for whom he clerked in a grocery store ten years, and in June, 1859, engaged in the grocery and flour and feed business at No. 115 Sixteenth street, where he has continued ever since-a period of thirty years. He has built up an honorable reputation, and he is widely known as a successful and reliable merchant. Mr. Acker was married in 1857 to Miss Kate Keller, who died in 1867, leaving three children: Millard, Agnes and Minnie, all of whom are still living. In May, 1868, Mr. Acker was married to Miss Emma S. Hobson, who has borne him two children: Alice B. and Homer B., the former of whom died, aged nine years. Mr. and Mrs. Acker are members of the First Presbyterian church. Mr. Acker has been a member of the I. O. O. F. since 1856, and in politics is a democrat. He has served two terms as a member of the city council, and for the past ten years has been a member of the board of education. Before the office was abolished he served one term a's overseer of the poor. Mr. Acker is one of Wheeling's best citizens, and he is very highly respected by all who know him.
Gregory Ackerman, M. D., one of the prominent physicians of Wheeling, has had an extensive practice in this city during the past
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decade, which has embraced the period of his residence. He was born in Prussia, September 8, 1852, near the city of Fulda, where he received his early education, and completed his studies preliminary to his professional reading. Deciding to pursue the practice of medi- cine, he entered upon the study, and continued it mainly in the uni- versities of Zurich and of Berne, in Switzerland, at the latter of which institutions he was graduated in 1879. . He began his practice in Ger- many, and three months later, was appointed physician for the North German Lloyd line of steamers, and was stationed at Bremen. In the fall of 1880, he came to the United States, and made his home at Wheeling, where he has since resided. As a surgeon, he has few com- peers in this region, and as a general practitioner, has the confidence of the community in a remarkable degree. He is a member of the Ohio Medical society. Dr. Ackerman was married in 1882, to Mary Elizabeth Coevilia, daughter of Laurence Sikler, deceased, formerly of Wheeling.
George Adams, of Wheeling, W. Va., is a descendant of a family of that name who crossed from England about the year 1695, and made their home in Somerset county, Md., in which county the par- ens of Mr. Adams were both born. They afterward became resi- dents of Baltimore, and there the father died in 1846. George, the subject of this mention, was born at Baltimore in 1834, and in the schools of that city received his early education, which was supple- mented by study at Newton university, a high grade classical institute presided over by Dr. H. W. Heath. After leaving school he entered the employment of a large shipping and commission house. He was engaged in this house in 1852 when he came to Wheeling as its repre- sentative, to take charge of a large pork packing establishment under its control. In 1857 Mr. Adams, deciding to remain at Wheeling, en- gaged in the wholesale grocery and commission business, establishing a house of his own, which met with pronounced success. In the same year in which this business was founded he was married to Mary, daughter of Samuel McClellan, an old and highly respected merchant of Wheeling. Mr. Adams continued in the mercantile business until 1864, when he organized the First National bank of Wheeling, of which he was elected cashier. He served as cashier and manager of that establishment until 1874, when he resigned to enter the whole- sale boot and shoe trade with J. N. Vance, he and partner succeeding in the well established business founded by their father-in-law in 1837. In the latter part of 1876 Mr. Adams resumed his position as cashier, the bank having in the meantime been changed in title and organiza- tion from the First National to the Bank of the Ohio Valley. He held this position in the bank until the early part of 1880, when he resigned, in order to travel with his son, who was in feeble health. He was thus occupied for about three years, and since his return to Wheeling he has not been actively engaged in business affairs, though his interests are extensive in various enterprises in and about Wheel- ing. Though of southern birth and training Mr. Adams was during the civil war a firm supporter of the Union and unfaltering in loyalty.
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He was in Baltimore on April 19, 1861, and on account of the excite- ment and the anti-union sentiment then manifested, removed his mother and family to St. Clairsville, Ohio, where the aged lady, who was born in 1808, still resides, in full possession of her faculties. By his first marriage Mr. Adams had three children, of whom there is one survivor, the wife of Philip Taylor Allen, of Staunton, Va. The first wife of Mr. Adams died in 1870, and in 1874 he was married to her sister, Jane W. McClellan.
The family of Alderson, which in more ways than one has been conspicuous in the early history of West Virginia, and of which Major J. C. Alderson, of Wheeling, is a descendant, originated in Yorkshire, England. During the sixteenth century John Alderson was a Baptist minister at Yorkshire, and his son John, then a young man, became enamoured of a young lady who for some reason was not acceptable to his parents, and in order to break off the relations of the young couple, the son was given {200 with which to travel on the continent. He did not leave England, however, on his contem- plated travels, but in the course of time found himself on the coast at Liverpool without money and friends. Falling in with a man by the name of Curtise, who was preparing to sail to America, the young and penniless Alderson was induced to embark with his new found friend. This man Curtise was the first settler of the territory which now comprises the state of 'New Jersey. Nine years after coming to America young Alderson married a daughter of Curtise, and later followed in the foot-steps of his father and became a minister of the Baptist church. He then, for the first time in ten years, wrote home, much to the delight of his parents, who thought him dead. His father at once wrote him a congratulatory letter upon his being alive and well, and being a Baptist minister, sending him three large volumes of ecclesiastical works of great value which had been in the family for many years, and which were to be handed down from gen eration to generation of his descendants who became clergymen of the Baptist faith, which books are now in the possession of J. C. Alder- son, who, while not a minister, is the surviving son of his father, Rev. L. A. Alderson. Rev. John Alderson, the great grandfather of Major Alderson, built the first church in the valley of Virginia, at Lynnville, just above Harrisburg, which was called the Lynnville Baptist church. In the same neighborhood settled the grandfather of President Lincoln, who was then known as Linkhorn. Rev. Alderson was imprisoned some time about 1750 or 1760 in the old Faircastle jail, Bortetourt county, Va., for preaching the gospel and uniting people in marriage contrary to the laws of the church of England. He was the first of the Alderson family to come west of the Allegheny mountains, and brought the first wagon across the mountains in 1770, making the journey from Faircastle to Alderson's Ferry, opposite what is now the town of Alderson, on Green Brier river, Green Brier county, Va., in that year. This journey consumed eighteen months. In 1772 he built the first church west of the Alleghenies, which was known as the Green Brier Baptist church, and the beautiful white chapel which
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stands on the above site is the third erected on the old foundation. The settlement of that portion of what is now West Virginia was sparse indeed, and the Indians were very hostile. In planting corn the old minister was compelled to carry his musket for protection, and he preached the gospel throughout that country on Sundays, often taking two or three members of his church and going from twenty-five to thirty miles to preach to half a dozen people. His son Joseph, grandfather of J. C. Alderson, was a leading character in Green Brier county, being known as 'Squire Joseph Alderson, and while he was not a minister he was a zealous Christian worker, and for over forty years he was moderator and presiding officer of every Baptist association held in that county. He gave freely of his means for the erection of churches and the support of the same, and it was often said of him, "That as long as 'Squire Alderson would build the churches, pay the preachers and feed the congregations we will have preaching." He represented Green Brier county in the Virginia leg- islature several consecutive sessions, and sunk the first salt well in the Kanawha valley, above Charleston. His death occurred in 1845, and he left a handsome estate to his son, Rev. L. A. Alderson, father of Major Alderson, who was born in Green Brier county in 1812. He graduated from the Ohio university at Athens in 1832, in a class of forty-five, with first honors.
After leaving college he fitted himself for the ministry, studying with Rev. Dr. Jones, at Williamsburg, Va., preaching his first sermon in the old Powder Horn church, the historical building in which Gen. Washington placed his powder to keep it dry during the revolution. Subsequently he was the pastor of the Grace Street Baptist church, in Richmond, Va., removing from that city to the Alderson plantation in Green Brier county, taking charge of the same and filling the pul- pits of four different churches on alternate Sabbaths. As a farmer, he was successful, tilling 1,500 acres of land, and he was the first to introduce the wheat drill into that section of the country. In 1853-54 he organized the Green Brier Agricultural society, and was president of the same until 1858, when he removed to Atchison City, Kas., and built almost entirely out of his own purse the first Baptist church erected in the territory of Kansas, and also aided in building half a dozen others in northeastern Kansas. He gave fifty good years of his life and a large portion of his fortune to the Baptist church and its work, both at home and in foreign lands. He rarely ever accepted a salary for his services as pastor, and when he did it was devoted to foreign missions. In 1838 he was married to Eliza Floyd, daughter of Capt. John Coleman, of Amherst county, Va. The ceremony was performed at "Locust Grove," the Coleman plantation, in July of that year, and it was on this plantation that Maj. J. C. Alderson was born, October 29, 1839. Rev. L. A. Alderson died at Atchison, Kas., May 19, 1882. His widow survives. Maj. Alderson was reared on the Alderson plantation, and until his sixteenth year, was educated by private teachers in his father's family, subsequently he attended the Lewisburg academy, then taught by Prof. Custer. In 1858 he went
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with the family to Kansas, returning to Virginia in the spring of 1859, having spent several months in Kansas and Missouri. He then entered Allegheny college, where he was in the graduating class at the beginning of the late war. He was the first one of the 150 stu- dents and the third citizen in the county to volunteer in the Confed- erate army. He became a member of the Green Brier cavalry, one of the finest bodies of men and horses in the army, so pronounced by Gov. Litcher, of Virginia. This company was disbanded in the win- ter of 1861-1862, and immediately nearly every member of the same organized individual companies of their own. Maj. Alderson organ- ized a company, and was offered its captaincy, but declined and ac- cepted the first lieutenantcy, being attached, with his company, first to the Eighth, and then the Fourteenth Virginia cavalry, commanded by Maj. Gen. J. W. Sweeney, of Wheeling, until Jnne 12, 1863, when that officer was terribly wounded at the battle of Opaqua, he receiv- ing thirteen shots in his body, three of which passed entirely through him, his wounds rendering him unfit for further service the balance of the war. Maj. Alderson was after this given command of Com- pany A, as captain. His captain succeeding to command of battal- ion. During the winter of 1863-4 Maj. Alderson had command of the battalion, though he was not commissioned major. He partici- pated in many fierce engagements, in three of which he lost over half of his command in each, and in two of which his command fought hand to hand with the enemy with sabers for almost half an hour. Maj. Alderson carried the order which opened the battle of Gettys- burg on the Confederate side, on July 1, 1864, having on that day been detached on Gen. Rhodes' staff, whose division opened that cele- brated battle. On the raids into Pennsylvania preceding and follow- ing the battle of Gettysburg, Maj. Alderson commanded and led the advance, and covered the retreat of the army. His battalion was in Tennessee when they were ordered to join the army of the Potomac prior to the battle of Gettysburg, and while en route reached Lexing- ton, Va., the same night the body of Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson ar- rived there for burial, and he was requested by Col. Smith, in command of the military institute, at Lexington, to delay his march long enough to attend the funeral of Jackson the following day, and his command was the only body of soldiers who fired over the grave of the dead hero. On the Pennsylvania raids Maj. Alderson was in the saddle for twenty-eight days and nights without over two or three hours rest at any one time, fighting every day and often at night. On Hunter's Raid, at Lynchburg, Va., in June, 1864, he lost his general, William E. Jones, at the battle of Piedmont. He fought Du Fay for ten days at Waynesboro, just below Stanton, and that general slipped away on the second night and crossed the Blue Ridge into Amherst county, Va., but the confederates crossed at another gap and got ahead of Du Fay on Sunday morning, June 12th. Gen. Imboden took command, in connection with his own and the command of Gen. W. L. Jackson, and the following morning, before daylight, Maj. Alderson asked permission to lead the advance, as he was acquainted
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with the country, which request Gen. Imboden granted with pleasure, at the same time giving instructions to the effect that when he met the enemy to select a good position to bring on a general engage- ment. About 8 o'clock that morning the major met Du Fay's ad- vance, commanded by Maj. Ringold of the first New York cavalry, and capturing the advance, he selected a commanding position for a general engagement, which he held unsupported until surrounded and compelled to surrender, all of which occurred in sight of his su- perior officer, Gen. Imboden, who made no attempt to prevent the catastrophe, but instead retreated, when had he advanced as he agreed, the enemy's command would have been captured. The last of June, 1864, Maj. Alderson was brought to Wheeling as a prisoner, and on July 3d, following, was taken to Camp Chase, Ohio, where he remained until February 28, 1865.
In October, 1864, he, with others, were placed under retaliation for the treatment of Federal officers confined at Andersonville prison, they being placed on one-third rations, and not permitted to buy or receive anything from the outside. The major was offered, but declined, a parole at the hands of President Lincoln, but in February, 1865, his father, through friends in congress, secured a special exchange, and he again started for the Confederate front to join his command, and with his command was within a few miles of Gen. Lee when he sur- rendered. The major and his command cut their way out on the morning of Lee's surrender. The major was paroled by Gen. Ohley at Lewisburg about one month after Lee's surrender, and the follow- ing fall he went to Kansas. He was express messenger on one of the first coaches sent out from Atchison to Denver over the Smoky Hill route, and the following winter he was placed in charge of the middle division of the road, extending from Fort Ellsworth, Kan., to Fort Wallace, Col., a distance of 250 miles through the heart of the Indian and buffalo country. The Cheyennes and Rapahoes made almost weekly raids upon the road, killing men and passengers, burning sta- tions and wagon trains and coaches, carrying off goods and driving off the stock. They absolutely destroyed 175 miles of the major's division three different times during one winter. A carpenter in the major's employ resembled him so closely that the Indians killed him, taking him for the major, and placed a board over his grave with his name upon it. So fierce were the attacks of the Indians that the major and his men were forced to corrall the wagons and coaches and fight them for days at a time. Altogether he was in charge of the road for two years, during which time he had many encounters with the Indians; he and a party were caught in a northwestern storm when the thermometer fell to thirty-five degrees below zero, and the party was in the snow storm for about five days, the last four days and nights being spent without food. The major then settled near Atch- ison on Alderson Grove, which he had purchased from his father, on this there were planted 4,000 cottonwood trees, and it was the finest grove and plantation in Kansas. At the Centennial in 1876, one of these cottonwood trees was exhibited which measured twenty-four
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inches in diameter. This magnificent grove could be seen for fifty miles in almost any direction, and the example set by the major was followed by almost every farmer in Kansas. Rev. Alderson planted about 2,000 walnut trees on his plantation, and they measured from 8 to 12 inches in diameter. For two years Major Alderson operated this plantation, and then engaged in the insurance business at Atch- ison, and in December, 1869, he located in Wheeling, where he has since resided, and has been engaged in the insurance and real estate business ever since. In 1882, in connection with Rev. C. P. Masden and Rev. Ed. W. Ryan, he founded Mountain Lake Park, a religious and literary retreat in Garrett county, Md., on the B. & O. railroad. The major also owns large quantities of land in the southern part of West Virginia in connection with J. F. Paull, of Wheeling. Major Alderson has always been in politics, but only in the interests of his friends, as he has never sought an office. Gen. Mathew appointed him a director of the West Virginia penitentiary, which position he held for eight or nine years, having been reappointed by Gov. Jackson. Gov. Wilson appointed him commissioner to the centennial in 1876 for West Virginia, and also to the centennial of the Ohio valley in 1888, and as such secured Judge G. L. Cranmer to deliver the lecture on West Virginia. He was appointed a commissioner from West Virginia to the centennial of the inauguration of Washington in New York, and was honored with the appointment as a member of the staff of the commanding officer of that occasion to represent West Virginia. Major Alderson was married February 26, 1874, to Miss May Price, daughter of ex-Governor and ex-United States Senator Price, of Lewisburg, W. Va.
Guy R. C. Allen, Jr., an able and successful member of the Wheel- ing bar, was born in Morgantown, Va., now West Virginia, May 26, 1854, the son of Guy R. C. and Delia (Lowry) Allen. The mother was a daughter of Joseph and Harriet Lowry. The father was a very prominent lawyer, having practiced in Morgantown for many years. He was admitted to the bar in Preston county, Va. The sub- ject of this biography was educated in the public schools and at the Morgantown university. He remained in the university for two years, and at the end of that period, having been forced to give up his col- legiate course by circumstances beyond his control, he began the study of law. He was graduated from the law department of the university of Virginia in the class of 1878, and in the fall of that year came to Wheeling, and began the practice of his chosen profession. May 12, 1886, he was joined in marriage to Miss Annie V. Glass, of Wheeling. Mr. and Mrs. Allen are consistent members of the Fourth Street Methodist Episcopal church, of Wheeling. Mr. Allen is a well- read, discreet lawyer, and has built up a large and growing practice in the comparatively short time of his residence here. If his life and health be spared he will doubtless become one of the most eminent lawyers in the state. Although he has never taken any active part in politics, Mr. Allen is a firm and loyal supporter of the democratic party.
14-A.
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J. W. Amick, of the extensive wholesale and retail boot and shoe establishment of J. W. Amick & Co., Wheeling, is a son of M. W. Amick, now retired, who was one of the prominent citizens of Wheel- ing during his active career. The latter is the son of Jacob Amick, a pioneer of this city, who was born in Baltimore, Md., in 1790. He served in the war of 1812, and in 1815, became one of the pioneers of the city of Wheeling. He engaged in brick manufacture, and was also for many years one of the leading ice dealers, becoming quite prominent and well-known. He died May 24, 1858, and his widow, Elizabeth Withro, to whom he was married at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, died in December, 1864. Seven children were born to them, of whom four, one son and three daughters, survive. M. W. Amick, the sur- viving son, was born at Wheeling in 1832. He succeeded his father in the ice business and continued the same until 1870, when he retired from that and all other active business. He was married in 1857, to Laura H. Maybury, daughter of Rev. W. R. Maybury, one of the first Baptist ministers of the city. The latter, a native of Baltimore, born in 1812, died at Wheeling, March 23, 1871, and his wife died January 24, 1872, in the fifty-fourth year of her age. Of their seven children, two daughters and one son survive. J. W. Amick, with mention of whom this sketch began, is one of the leading young merchants of Wheeling. His establishment at Nos. 1143 and 1145 Main street, is the leading wholesale and retail boot and shoe house in the city. The retail department occupies one floor of one of these buildings, and the wholesale department the basement floor of one, and the second and third floors of both. Seven salesmen are usually employed in the store, and three agents are kept upon the road. Mr. Amick was born in this city March 4, 1858, and was reared and educated in the city. In 1871 he began his connection with the boot and shoe trade as a clerk, and four years later he formed a partnership with W. H. Foster, under the firm name of Foster & Amick, and they successfully con- ducted the establishment until 1880, when Mr. Amick became the pro- prietor by purchase of the whole business. This he conducted alone until January 1, 1887, when Harry L. Bond, his brother-in-law, was admitted as a partner, and the firm of J. W. Amick & Co., was formed. The business hitherto had been exclusively retail, but the new firm added the wholesale department at once. Mr. Amick is an active member of the Baptist church of Wheeling, and superintendent of its Sunday-school. He devotes much attention to the welfare of the Y. M. C. A., of which he is vice president.
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