USA > West Virginia > Genealogical and personal history of the upper Monongahela valley, West Virginia, Volume II > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
Gc 975.4 B976 v.2 1233384
M.L".
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
L
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02263 5756
0
GENEALOGICAL AND PERSONAL HISTORY
OF THE
UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY, WEST VIRGINIA
UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF
BERNARD L. BUTCHER
Member of West Virginia Historical Society; Organizer and Corresponding Secretary of Marion County Historical Society; former State Superintendent of Free Schools of West Virginia
With an Account of the Resources and Industries of the Upper Monongahela Valley and the Tributary Region
-BY-
JAMES MORTON CALLAHAN Professor of History, West Virginia University
Together with Various Historical Articles by Staff Writers
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 1912
COPYRIGHT, 1912 LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
1233384
UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY
GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL
SURNAME FILE
A. B. Fleming
UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY
The Fleming family has occupied a prominent place FLEMING in the history of Virginia and West Virginia for more than a hundred years, and Aretas Brooks Fleming is one of its most prominent members.
As legislator, judge and governor of the state, he has served the state and his native country with fidelity, and reflected credit upon himself and the people whom he served. Public-spirited as a citizen, he carried his enthusiasm for righteousness and efficiency into the offices he has held. He attracted the attention, especially while governor, of the whole country to the, then, almost undeveloped mineral and timber resources of West Vir- ginia, by public addresses and published articles in trade and other papers.
The fact that he was engaged, with others, in the active develop- ment of the natural resources of his state, in his own county and other counties of the state, gave his words and writings as governor great weight with strangers looking for investments and new locations; and, with other causes, was the beginning of the great industrial development which has followed in the state, especially of the Upper Monongahela Valley. He has been stockholder and director in many of the industrial enterprises in Fairmont, Marion and other counties, and says as a rule he has lost money in the investments made in other states, but has never lost money on an investment in Marion county. His natural dignified simplicity and cordiality of manner has won and held hosts of friends, making him welcome wherever he goes.
Governor Fleming is a man of medium stature, and has been hearty and vigorous all his life, taking no vacations from his work, but about five years ago his doctor prescribed a vacation on account of his health, and he traveled several months abroad; but since his return he has fol- lowed the advice of his old physician (as often as he could think of it) who directed him to work when he felt like it and to quit early.
He has always had a youthful appearance, and tells a good story on himself when he first went to Pruntytown to hold court after his appoint- ment in February, 1878, as judge. He wrote the hotelkeeper to reserve him a room with fire. Mr. Rogers, the hotel man, was not acquainted
402
UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY.
with him personally. So when he reached the hotel and applied for a room with fire Mr. Rogers, who was expecting a large elderly man, said he had no room with fire except the room reserved for the new judge, whom he was then expecting, and inquired if the new guest was acquainted with the new judge. When assured that he was and would answer for any objection on the part of the judge for using his room, Mr. Rogers said, "Well, young fellow, if you make it all right with the new judge, you can have it."
Governor Fleming was born on a farm near Middletown, now Fair- mont, in Harrison, now Marion county, Virginia, now West Virginia, on October 15, 1839, being the eldest son of Benjamin F. (q. v.) and Rhoda (Brooks) Fleming. He was reared on his father's farm, and attended the private and select schools of the neighborhood and in the town of Fairmont, acquiring a thorough preparatory education. After this, beginning in 1859, he completed the course of law lectures under the famous Dr. John B. Minor, at the University of Virginia. He taught school in Marion and Gilmer counties, in which last-named county he located for the practice of law in 1861, after being admitted to the bar in Marion county. He opened a private school at Glenville, the county seat, while waiting for clients. Clients came faster than usual to so young a lawyer, and he soon called on his brother, Robert F. Fleming, to take charge of the school while he attended to his practice. This brother after- wards was elected judge of the circuit court in that circuit. The war between the states, however, came on, and the future governor returned to Fairmont, "the courts being silent in the presence of the flagrant war." He was elected prosecuting attorney in 1863, under the new state of West Virginia, for Marion county, and at the close of his term in 1865 was reelected and served a second term of two years. After the war closed, he formed a law partnership with the late Judge Alpheus F. Haymond, who afterwards, in 1872, was elected one of the judges of the supreme court of appeals of the state. The same year, 1872, Mr. Fleming was elected to the house of delegates from Marion county, and again in 1875, serving on the judiciary committee and on other important committees, in 1872 ; and in 1875 as chairman of committee on taxation and finance.
From the time he began to practice until 1878, a period of about fif- teen years, he became attorney for one or the other parties in many of the important cases pending in Marion, Monongalia and Harrison
403
UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY.
counties, and held a leading position at the bar of these and adjoining counties. About this time the judge of the second judicial circuit, the Hon. Charles S. Lewis, died, and Mr. Fleming was in February, 1878, appointed by Governor Henry M. Matthews to fill the vacancy. At the ensuing election in the fall of 1878, he was made the nominee of his party and was elected by a large majority, carrying every county, although the circuit was largely Republican. In 1880 he was again nominated for the same office and carried his old circuit, consisting of six counties, four of which were Republican; he was also elected as can- didate for judge of the new circuit composed of Marion, Monongalia and Harrison counties, provided for by the amendment to the constitu- tion ratified at that election. Both circuits were largely Republican, and he carried them both by large majorities.
This very flattering approval and testimony to his efficiency as a public servant was very unusual at that time in our political history, and especially in a presidential year. Judge Fleming continued to occupy the bench in the new circuit until the fall of 1888, completing more than ten years of service on the bench. In August, 1888, at Hunting- ton, he was nominated for governor of the state by the Democratic state convention, and accepted the nomination and resigned his place on the bench, September 1, 1888. His opponent for governor on the Republican ticket was General Nathan Goff, now a judge in the United States circuit court of appeals, who had then been in congress several terms from the first district of West Virginia, and candidate for governor in 1876, a brilliant orator and the idol of his party. The result of the election showed a small margin in favor of General Goff on the face of the returns, with the balance of the Democratic ticket elected. The Demo- cratic state executive committee was dissatisfied and instituted an investi- gation; they charged that there had been a large number of illegal votes cast for the Republican candidate, especially in the new mining regions on the Norfolk & Western railroad. At the request of this state com- mittee, and numerous other prominent citizens, Judge Fleming inaugu- rated a contest for the office of governor before the legislature. A joint committee of both houses was appointed by the legislature, and after taking a vast amount of testimony, reported a majority of votes in favor of Judge Fleming, having excluded a large number of votes both for General Goff and for Judge Fleming, which were found by the joint
404
UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY.
committee to be illegal. After discussion before the legislature by emi- nent counsel, the legislature on February 4, 1890, declared Judge Flem- ing duly elected, and on the 6th day of the same month he was inaugu- rated governor. The contest, carried on with utmost vigor by both parties, developed no personal animosity between the contestants them- selves, who were in fact personal friends long before the contest and have been ever since.
Governor Fleming, as a leader of his party during his term of office, was very successful in holding his party together, and rendering it valuable service; but his greatest service to his party, as well as to his state, was in his efficient administration of the duties of his office and economical character of his administration, also his constant effort to induce capital to enter the state for investment, and aid in the building of railroads, opening of mines, developing timber lands and oil and gas fields.
During the most of Governor Fleming's business life from about 1874 he has been identified with the coal development of the Upper Monongahela Valley, with his father-in-law, the late James Otis Wat- son, who was the pioneer coal operator in this region. Together with the sons of Mr. Watson, he was interested in the organization of the early coal companies, which have acquired coal acreage on the Monon- gahela and West Fork rivers. One of the first was known as the Gas- ton Gas Coal Company, which was reached by a branch railroad, built by the coal company, from the Baltimore & Ohio railroad at the head of the Monongahela river up the West Fork, which mine is still oper- ated as a part of the Consolidation Coal Company.
He has been identified with all the coal operations of the Watsons under the various names of the Montana Coal & Coke Company, West Fairmont Coal Company, New England Coal Company, Briar Hill Coal & Coke Company, and others. He was also identified with the late Senator Johnson N. Camden in the building of the Monongahela River railroad, along the West Fork to Clarksburg, resulting in the opening of the big Monongah and other mines along the West Fork, most of which are now operated by the Consolidation Coal Company.
As the coal, oil and gas business developed and railroads were built, he was actively identified in all of the efforts for advancement, both in the Upper Monongahela Valley and other parts of the state. When
405
UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY.
the Fairmont Coal Company was organized in 1901, he was one of its directors and its attorney in the purchase and consolidation of other companies into it, largely owned by the Watsons, who purchased nearly all the active coal companies in the Fairmont region about the year 1901. This company in turn has since developed into the Consolidation Coal Company, owning vast properties in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky, the governor maintaining his place on the board of directors, and as general counsel for the company in West Virginia. He is a director in the Cumberland & Pennsylvania and in the Monongahela River Railroad companies. Governor Fleming has been identified and interested in the building of the traction lines in Fairmont and Clarksburg, and the connecting lines between these cities, and to other points, in recent years. He has been identified with the National Bank of Fairmont from its beginning, in which he is a director. He is a stockholder and director in the Watson Company, which owns the fine stone ten-story bank and office building known as the Watson building, which was recently erected in the city of Fairmont.
Governor Fleming has also been identified with the educational interests, both state and local institutions, and was one of the founders of the State Normal School at Fairmont, originally organized as a private institution, and afterwards turned over, in 1863, to the state as a gift from the owners, in consideration of the establishment of a State Normal School at Fairmont. This institution has for many years justi- fied both the state and its liberal founders in its establishment. He has had many formal honors and has served local constituencies as faith- fully in small offices as he has the state in the larger places. In the year 1881 the State University conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
Governor Fleming's father and mother were Presbyterians; for many years he has been a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church of Fairmont.
Governor Fleming married, September 7, 1865, Carrie M., eldest daughter of James Otis and Matilda Watson. He says his wife and mother are largely entitled to the credit for whatever success he has had in life. His children are: 1. Gypsy W., married Charles E. Ward, of Charleston, West Virginia, January 18, 1894; two children: Mar- garet F., born in 1895, and Caroline B., born in 1897. 2. Ida W.,
406
UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY.
married Walton Miller, cashier of the National Bank of Fairmont, April 23, 1896, and died in 1906, leaving one child, Helen. 3. George W., and 4. Virginia W. Fleming, twins, born 1874; Virginia unmar- ried; George W. married Doris Underhill, December II, 1905; is one of the vice-presidents of the Consolidation Coal Company, and resides in Baltimore, Maryland. 5. Brooks, born in 1882; married (first) Amy Dodson, in 1906, who died in 1907; (second), 1910, Marie Antoinette Boggess, to whom one child, Caroline, was born in 1911. He is assistant manager of the West Virginia division of the Consolida- tion Coal Company.
The name of Fleming is as old as any of the FLEMING many time-honored family names of Scotland, and has worthy connection and honorable mention in numerous important events in Scottish history, that have passed into song and story. During the stormy political and religious times of Scotland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, persecution, on account of religion, was prevalent, and it was during one of these periods when reason and justice were supplanted by prejudice and wrong, four brothers of this family, William, Robert, Archibald and John, were driven by church tyranny to the North of Ireland, where the wonderful Scotch-Irish race was passing the nursery stage of its existence, ere being transplanted to this country to attain its full develop- ment in the pathless forests of the new world'. 'The four Fleming brothers above named emigrated to this country, settling in 1741 in Penn's colony, on the Delaware, taking up lands in what is now known as Mispillion Hundred, Kent county, Delaware. This land is still own- ed by their descendants. In 1789, John, with three of his brother Will- iam's sons-Nathan, Boaz and Benoni-removed to western Virginia and settled on lands along the Monongahela river.
Of John Fleming (one of the four brothers) there is but little account. After a few years the brothers Nathan, Boaz and Benoni, were joined by their sister Mary and family, and their stepmother (Ann Hudson) and her son Thomas. Gradually their children scattered until now almost every state and territory in the union boasts of some of the name as worthy citizens. As a family they are notably upright and trustworthy. Their history shows the guiding hand of a kind
407
UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY.
Providence. "Their lines are fallen unto them in pleasant places; Yea, they have a goodly heritage." The Flemings have been known for more than a century as one of the steady, industrious and progressive families of western Virginia, and many of its members have held with credit and honor prominent and responsible positions in both Old and West Virginia commonwealths.
The following concerning its ancient history was published in Den- ver, Colorado, December, 1893, in "The Great Divide," from the pen of Henry Dudley Teetor, M. A .:
The statue of an armed knight with a fret upon his shield, hands elevated in a praying posture, sword by his side, and legs across, may be seen in Furness Abbey, Lancashire, England, an ancient burial place of the Fleming family. It was placed there generations ago in memory of Sir John Le Fleming, a Crusader.
One branch of the Flemings still bears a shield charged with a fret-a heraldic composition of the cross and Norman mascle indicating that the family had a founder, one or more, in the holy wars.
The surname of this illustrious family, according to the sentiments of the most approved historians and antiquarians, was at first assumed from a person of distinction, who in the days of King David I. (1124), a Fleming, by nation, transplanted himself into Scotland and took the surname Flander- ensis, or Le Fleming, from the country of his origin.
Robert Le Fleming, the direct and immediate earl of Wigton, was one of the great barons of Scotland under King Edward I., of England ( 1272- 1309). It was this Sir Robert who repaired to the standard of Robert the Bruce, and with a few trusty friends, all brave men, accompanied him whom they thought their lawful sovereign in adventure at Dumfries where they killed Sir John Cuming, and never rested until they set the crown upon the head of the immortal monarch, on the Feast of Annunciation, A. D., 1306. He was succeeded by his son, Sir Malcom Fleming, Lord of Fulwood, also in great favor with the king, who made him a large grant of land in Wigton- shire, and also governor of Dunbarton Castle and sheriff of the county.
He was succeeded by his son, Sir Malcom Fleming, who was a forwarder and assister of the right and title of David II., Brucian line. He succeeded his father as governor of Dunbarton Castle, and discharged the trust with the utmost fidelity. During the whole of the usurpation of Baliol, this castle was a place to which the royalist did flee and with great security resort. Here Sir Malcom had the honor to shelter and protect, in that evil time, Robert Lord High Stewart of Scotland, afterwards King Robert II. (1371). His highness was graciously pleased in reward of Sir Malcom's signal loyalty and fidelity in his service to create him Earl of Wigton. The good earl fell sick and died soon after. He left his estates and title to his grandson, Thomas Fleming, second earl of Wigton.
408
UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY.
Malcom Fleming, Earl of Wigton, was in great favor with James V. by whom he was constituted Lord High Chamberlain of Scotland. He was slain in the service of his country at the battle of Pinkey, September 10, 1545. He married Janet, daughter of King James IV., and by her had a son, James Fleming, who being a nobleman of fine and polite parts, by special favor of Mary, Queen of Scots, made her Lord High Chancellor. He accompanied Queen Mary to Scotland, and died in Paris, December 1, 1558. He was governor of Dunbarton Castle and distinguished himself for his zeal and loyalty to his queen.
The Flemings, who became Lords of the Barony of Slane, county Meath, Ireland, descended from Archibald Fleming, who went from England to Ireland, A. D., 1173, with Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, and took part in the Norman invasion and Conquest of Ireland. The Lords Fleming, of Slane Castle, numbered, successively, twenty-three. This branch of the family came also originally from Flanders, with William the Conqueror, whose wife is known in history as Matilda of Flanders.
Sir Thomas Fleming, son of the Earl of Wigton, emigrated to Virginia in 1616. Many of the family followed him to the same colony, one of whom was Colonel William Fleming, and another, the father of James Fleming, who was born in Iradell county, North Carolina, in 1762. He served in the revolutionary war ; afterwards removed to Ohio, where he died in 1832. He was the great-grandfather of Hon. Josiah Mitchell Fleming, of Denver, Colorado.
Another descendant of these Wigtonshire Flemings was Colonel John Fleming, who emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky in 1790. He was the grandfather of Hon. John Donaldson Fleming, late United States district attorney for Colorado.
The marriage of Lord James Fleming, governor of Dunbarton Castle, to the daughter of Lord Ross, took place in Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh. A banquet was spread in the park adjoining the palace. There is still a dam traceable which held the water back to make an artificial lake. Queen Mary graced the occasion with her presence. It was a highly esteemed privilege to me personally to walk around upon the scene of this historic marriage. The incident is so pleasantly picturesque and associates Queen Mary so agreeably with one of her subjects, that it is gratifying to reflect on Lord Fleming proving a steady friend to the Queen throughout her subsequent troubles. He stoutly maintained Dunbarton Castle in her favor against the regents and against Elizabeth's general, Sir William Drury.
Archbishop Richard Fleming, founder of Lincoln College, Oxford, was born in Crofton, county York. He was educated at University College, Oxford, and in 1407 was appointed proctor of the University. In his early days he was an ardent disciple of Wycliffe, but recanted and espoused the cause of the Pope. In 1415 he was prebendary of Langford, Church of York, and in 1420 bishop of Lincoln. In 1428 he carried into effect the decree of the Council of Constance, which ordered that the bones of Wycliffe should be disinterred and burned to ashes. It is remarkable that the endow- ments which he gave to the University have contributed to educate more
409
UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY.
than one celebrated opponent of the opinions he so vehemently espoused; among them it is sufficient to name John Wesley, who was sometime fellow of Lincoln College.
Major General James Fleming was buried in Westminster Abbey where I saw his monument, of which an illustration is given. He was born in 1633, died in 1751, spending forty years of his life in the British army.
Gleaston Castle was the seat of the Flemings after the Norman Conquest, being a special grant by William the Conqueror to Sir Michael Le Fleming, Knight.
The ruins of Furness Abbey, founded in the twelfth century, are among the most picturesque and extensive in England. The finest feature of the ancient remains are the chapter house and the triplet of grand Norman arches. In the Abbot's chapel are two effigies of Norman Knights, twelfth century, said to be the only ones of the kind in England; and the allusion in the opening sentence to this article, is the one to them-the effigy of Sir John Le Fleming.
Dunbarton Castle is built on a rock two hundred and forty feet high and one mile in circumference-a rock trodden by Roman soldiers two thousand years ago. When Queen Mary as a child was sent to France to be educated at the French court, she was brought from the monastery of Inchmahome, in the Lake of Menteith, to the Castle of Dunbarton on the 28th day of Febru- ary, 1547, and on the 17th of March embarked from it to the palace of St. Germans.
As a royal-fortress-residence it was entrusted to the custody of the Flem- ing family for generations-from Sir Malcolm Fleming, time of the Bruces, to Lord James Fleming, time of Queen Mary. I stood under its walls and listened to the sermons its stones have been preaching during the lapse of centuries :
"One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever."
"Tell ye, your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation."
In the article is the Fleming coat-of-arms and ensign with the motto: "Pax Capia Sapientia." "Fleming A. D. 1066."
The following is the genealogy of the Fleming family lines, espe- cially of those inhabiting the Virginias, including all of the Marion county branches and those residing in and around the city of Fairmont, West Virginia :
(I) William Fleming, one of the four brothers who emigrated to this country from the North of Ireland, in 1741, was born in Scotland, January 5, 1717, died May 5, 1784. He married (first) Jean Frame, born July 26, 1726, died March, 1768; married (second) Ann Hud- son. Children by first wife : Mary, born 1745, married Matthew Flem- ing; Andrew, born 1748, record unknown; Nathan, see forward; Will-
410
UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY.
iam, born 1755, died 1772, unmarried; Boaz, see forward; Beniah, born 1762, married Elizabeth Turner; Benoni, see forward. Children by second wife: Thomas, see forward.
(II) Nathan, third child of William and Jean (Frame) Fleming, was born February 23, 1750. He held a commission in the military service dated July 10, 1814. He married Lydia Russom. Children : Mary, married Alexander, son of Matthew Fleming; William, see for- ward; Elizabeth, married Henry Hayes; Rachel, married Joshua Hart; Lydia, married Matthew, son of Matthew -; Nathan, married Mary Wood; Leven, married Mary Willey; Thomas, married (first) Ann Martin, (second) Mary Lothan; Beniah, drowned at the age of twenty-two years, in 1813; Archibald, see forward.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.