History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 1

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LIBRARY WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY

GEO. A

FLOUR LIBRARY

0 SEP 7 1972 BI : CINCIIN . JI, '

West Virginia University Libraries

3 0802 100302109 2

West Virginia University Library This book is due on the date indicated below.

RETURNED 3 1996

JANTURALES

DEC 9 1 1991 RETURNED

AUG 3 0 1997

AUG 30 199.

MAY 1 RETURNEE

5- 31- 2010

L' 22 93 22 103

MAY 5 84

MAY 5

HISTORY OF

WEST VIRGINIA Old and New

and

WEST VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

By Special Staff of Writers

VOLUME III BIOGRAPHICAL

ILLUSTRATED

THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC. CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1923

APPAL RM.

Library est Virginia University

&Grauch Lazelle

History of West Virginia

HON. I. GRANT LAZZELLE. The career of Hon. I. Grant azzelle, judge of the Circuit Court, is strongly entrenched n the history of the jurisprudence of Monongalia County. The City of Morgantown, which witnessed the beginning of is professional career in 1889, offered a promising field or the young man of twenty-seven years, and the citizens who have watched his advancement have never had cause o regret the faith they placed in his energy, enthusiasm and ability. He has grown into his opportunities, has fashioned his resources to his needs, and has reflected lignity, sincerity and genuine worth upon a profession for which he is singularly and even admirably equipped. Judge Lazzelle was born on a farm in Cass District, hear Morgantown, May 10, 1862, and is a representative n the fourth generation of an honored pioneer's family of Monongalia County. The Lazzelle family, as the name night intimate, is of French stock, and was founded in America during Colonial days. Thomas Lazzelle, the great- grandfather of the Judge, was born near the City of Phila- lelphia, married Hannah Beck, of Pennsylvania, and a short time after marriage he and his wife came to the bor- lerland of Virginia and settled on Government land in Cass District of what is now Monongalia County, West Vir- inia. Thomas Lazzelle was a pioneer farmer, and was ilso the first Methodist preacher of his district.

Thomas Lazzelle, the younger, son of Thomas Lazzelle, was born in Cass District in 1788, and became a large armer and stock-raiser and one of the prominent and in- luential men of his locality. He married Miss Rebecca Bowlly.

James Lazzelle, the son of Thomas Lazzelle, the younger, was born on the old Lazzelle homestead December 25, 1810, and followed in his father's footsteps as to a choice of vocations, likewise becoming a successful farmer and raiser of livestock. He was a man held in high esteem in his community and took an active interest in civic affairs, al- though not a seeker of public office. He married Miss Eleanor Courtney, of Monongalia County, who died in 1896, and Mr. Lazzelle's death occurred the following year. Among their children was Judge Lazzelle of this review.

I. Grant Lazzelle received his early education in the public schools, following which he attended the University of West Virginia, from which he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1883 and his Bachelor of Laws degree in the year following. He did not immediately enter upon the practice of his profession, taking up teaching instead, and from 1884 for four years was engaged in educational work, during which period he was principal of the Kingwood, West Virginia, and LaGrange, Arkansas, public schools. He entered the practice of law at Morgantown in 1888, as senior member of the firm of Lazzelle and Stewart, which association continued until the senior member was elevated o the Circuit Bench in 1921. Great ability, unusual nat- aral resource and firm belief in the best tenets of his pro- fession enabled Judge Lazzelle to make himself a factor to be reckoned with, and in the course of his career as a awyer many of the most important cases in Monongalia County received his support. In 1894 he was appointed mayor of Morgantown to fill a vacancy, a position in which he served during that year, and in 1897 was elected prose- suting attorney of Monongalia County, an office in which

he served for four years. His splendid record in these two capacities was a helpful factor when he became, in 1920, the candidate of the republican party for the office of judge of the Circuit Court, and he assumed the duties of this position January 1, 1921. In addition to ability and experience Judge Lazzelle possesses in marked degree the judicial temperament, and during the comparatively short time that he has been on the bench has won the esteem of the members of the Monongalia bar and the confidence of the people in general.

On September 23, 1891, Judge Lazzelle was united in marriage with Miss Norah H. Jackson, daughter of Joseph Jackson, of Kingwood, West Virginia, and to this union there were born two sons: Donald Grant, born February 3, 1894, now a practicing attorney of Morgantown; and Eugene, born January 25, 1897, who died November 30, 1902. Judge Lazzelle is esteemed for his many admirable qualities of heart and mind, and his thorough knowledge of the theory and practice of law and his wise interpre- tation thereof, and for a public-spiritedness that has ever prompted a sane and practical interest in those measures which tend to greater happiness, stability and good gov- ernment.

DONALD G. LAZZELLE. One of the leading professional men of Morgantown is Donald G. Lazzelle, a lawyer of sound judgment, and a citizen of honest purpose and enterprising effort. He is a member of a sturdy old county family, and other good fortune has been his, in the way of honored parentage, educational advantages and social opportunities. He was born at Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia, February 3, 1894, and is a son of Hon. I. Grant Lazzelle, judge of the Circuit Court of Monongalia County.

In the public schools of his native city Mr. Lazzelle continued a student until he was graduated from the high school in 1913, with decision already made as to his future career. The profession of law undoubtedly offers a very attractive field to the ambitious young man of studious habit and disciplined mind, especially when inheritance plays a part. Mr. Lazzelle has the example of a distin- guished father. He then entered the West Virginia Uni- versity, where be completed a course in law and was graduated from that institution in 1919, and in June of that year was admitted to the bar.

As a loyal son, Mr. Lazzelle returned to his native city to start his professional life, and was associated with the law firm of Lazzelle & Stewart until January 1, 1921, when he entered independent practice. It is the expressed opinion of many of the older members of the Monongalia bar that very seldom have young lawyers shown such a mature grasp of the letter of the law and such thorough- ness and accuracy of judgment. He has forged rapidly to the front in his profession, and commands universal confidence, in recognition of bis legal ability and his per- sonal probity.

Mr. Lazzelle married in 1918 Miss Mildred Price, daugh- ter of William E. and Elizabeth E. (Mack) Price, old residents of Morgantown, and they have two daughters: Louise, born March 19, 1919; and Mary Jean, born Sep- tember 5, 1920.

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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

Mr. Lazzelle is interested in politics to the extent of earnest, good citizenship, and is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce. He belongs to the Monongalia County Bar Association and the West Virginia State Bar Association. He is a member of Morgantown Lodge No. 4, A. F. and A. M .; Morgantown Commandery No. 18, Knights Templar; and Osiris Temple, Mystic Shrine. Per- sonally he is genial and companionable, and belongs to the Country Club.

JUDGE GEORGE W. ATKINSON. A life of public service, in- volving some of the highest honors that can be conferred by state or nation-former governor of West Virginia and former judge of the Federal Court of Claims-has been that of Judge Atkinson. Most significant is the fact that he has retired from his publie career possessing in magnified degree the affection and esteem of the people of his home state. This esteem was justified by his character. It can be said of him as of few other men that he never abused the con- fidence so completely reposed in him during all the years he was in public office.

Judge Atkinson was born on a farm along Elk River in Kanawha County, June 29, 1845, son of James and Miriam (Rader) Atkinson. He was carefully educated, and his scholarship is attested by degrees representing graduation from several higher institutions and also honorary degrees conferred as tokens of his public services. He graduated A. B. from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1870, and Master of Arts in 1873, and in 1874 graduated in law from Howard University at Washington. He received the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Mount Union College in 1885, pro merito, and honorary degrees have been conferred upon him by De Pauw University, U. S. Grant University, University of Nashville, Ohio Wesleyan University and West Virginia University.

He was admitted to the bar in 1875, and from the first has been active in civil and political affairs. Before he took up law practice he was a member of the Charleston Board of Education, in 1869-71, and was postmaster of that city from 1870 to 1876. He was a United States internal revenue agent from 1876 to 1880, and in 1881 was appointed United States marshal for the District of West Virginia, serving four years. His conduct in that office was accorded special commendation by the Department of Justice. In the mean- time Judge Atkinson had become a resident of Wheeling, and in 1888 he was elected to represent the First Congres- sional District in Congress, serving as a member of the Fifty-first Congress from 1889 to 1891. He declined re- election. He was engaged in the practice of law at Wheel- ing until 1896, and in that year came to him the distinctive honor of being elected governor of West Virginia on the republican ticket, the first republican to hold that office since 1871. His term of governor ended in 1901. As gov- ernor his administration was an effective one in every department requiring his executive ability, and these results were accomplished in part by his practical and diplomatic method of handling conflicting interests and disposing of party and personal quarrels. Possibly no other governor of West Virginia ever left office with so great a degree of esteem from his party and citizens generally.

Soon after the close of his term as governor he was selected in 1901 as United States district attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia. He served in that office until April 15, 1905, when he was named by President Roosevelt a member of the United States Court of Claims. When he retired from this court after eleven years of serv- ice, on April 17, 1916, he received the grateful tributes of many men prominent in the life of the nation, who united in paying their respects to the high quality of his work on the Federal Bench and to his personal character as well.

Early in his life Judge Atkinson became a member of the Masonic order, and he was grand master of the Grand Lodge of the state in 1876-77, and for twenty years, 1885- 1905, was grand secretary. Judge Atkinson from youth has been an earnest Christian, and one of the prominent lay members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, being lay delegate to the National Conference of 1876 and to that of 1888. He has been one of West Virginia's most popular

and widely sought public speakers, and besides his appear- ance in political campaigns he has done much platform work, lecturing on literary, religious and Masonic subjects. He is author of an impressive list of works, including: "History of Kanawha," 1876; "West Virginia Pulpit,"' 1878; " After the Moonshiners," 1879; "Revenue Digest," 1880; "ABC of the Tariff," 1882; "Don't, or Negative Chips from Blocks of Living Truths," 1886; "Prominent Men of West Virginia," 1895; "Psychology Simplified," 1897; "Volume of Public Addresses" and a "Volume of Poems,"' and more recently he was author of the "Bench and Bar of West Virginia," published in 1919 by the Virginia Law Book Company of Charleston.

December 2, 1868, Judge Atkinson married Miss Ellen Eagan, of an old Kanawha County family. She died in 1893, the mother of five children. On June 24, 1897, Judge Atkinson married Mrs. Myra Hornor Camden, widow of the late Judge G. D. Camden of Clarksburg.

Kindly by nature, generous to a fault, true to his friends and his convictions, knowing no distinction in rank among men, except that marked by character, Judge Atkinson is a splendid type of the sturdy American boy grown to a man of influence and still, at the age of seventy-seven, exercising an influence for good in his home state.

HARRY P. CAMDEN. Among the distinguished men of this state Harry P. Camden is entitled to a prominent place. His professional ability and standing give him rank among the foremost lawyers of the state, and his achieve- ments in other lines make him conspicuous among men.

Harry P. Camden was born at Weston, West Virginia, September 8, 1858. He is the son of T. B. Camden and Susan Holt Camden, and he owes much to these sturdy parents of good stock. His lineage runs back to the Cam- dens and the Spriggs of Montgomery County, Maryland, on the father's side, and to the Holts and the Wilsons of Pennsylvania on the mother's side, all of whom are of Revolutionary stock. One uncle on the father's side was twice elected United States senator from the State of West Virginia, and another uncle, on the mother's side, was judge of the Supreme Court of West Virginia for many years.

The subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools of this state, and later attended for two years a preparatory school at Norwood on the James River, in the State of Virginia, and from there he went to the Uni- versity of Virginia at Charlottesville. For two years he was a student in the academic department of the University and was graduated in 1878-79 and in 1879-80 in several branches of study. As a member of the class of history and English literature for the year 1879-80 he was awarded the honor of having his graduating essay adjudged the best essay written by the class, and he had as competitors such students as Charles W. Kent, who afterward became pro- fessor of History and English Literature at the University. Mr. Camden's essay was published in the first issue of the University Magazine for the year 1880, and the same issue of the magazine contained complimentary announce- ment of the fact that Thomas Woodrow Wilson had re- ceived the orator's medal and the magazine medal for the same year.

In the year 1880 Mr. Camden entered the law class of the University of Virginia, without any previous prepara- tion, and he achieved what has been accomplished by few students under the same conditions, and that was the making of his degree of Bachelor of Law, under Prof. John B. Minor and others, in one scholastic year.

After graduating in law he first located in Charleston, West Virginia, where for five or six years he practiced his profession, most of the time in partnership with Gen. C. C. Watts. He made his mark at the bar, even in that early day.

Later, at the instance of his uncle, Senator J. N. Camden, he came to Parkersburg to assist him in taking care of the legal end of the many large enterprises which he was then promoting, and after these were firmly established he entered into partnership in the practice of the law with the late John A. Hutchinson, a leading lawyer of the bar

Gerald S. Lezalle.

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

at Parkersburg, and remained with him until his death, at which time he fell heir to the large practice that had been huilt up by Hutchinson & Camden.

In 1896 Mr. Camden was made general counsel of the Ohio River Railroad Company, and for about nine years and until this road was sold to the B. & O., he success- fully and satisfactorily guided the legal destiny of this company, and always with conspicuous ability. One promi- nent member of the local bar, who had had experience in the same line of legal work, paid Mr. Camden the compli- ment of saying that he was the best counsel the Ohio River Railroad Company ever had, and it had had some able lawyers for counsel.

Mr. Camden is still in active practice and has justly earned the enviable reputation of being one among the leading lawyers, not only of the local bar, but of the state. At the present time he is attorney for the estate of J. N. Camden, deceased, the Union Trust & Deposit Company, the Wood County Bank, the Cairo Oil Company and the Parkersburg-Ohio Bridge Company.

Mr. Camden has been active at all times as a public spirited citizen outside of his profession, and has always taken an interest in the welfare and progress of the city in which he lives. For years he was a director of the Parkersburg Board of Commerce and was recognized as one of the most active and most valuable members. He was made chairman, some years ago, of a committee to devise ways and means for constructing a bridge over the Ohio River at Parkersburg, and he evolved and formulated the plan for financing the project, and it is due in great measure to the services, advice and activities of Mr. Camden that Parkersburg now boasts of one of the handsomest bridges over the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. He is president of the Parkersburg-Ohio Bridge Company, as well as attorney for the company.

Mr. Camden married Juliette Graham Blackford in Feb- ruary, 1899, and they have three children, Harry P., Jr., Mary V. and Graham Blackford Camden. He is affiliated with the Episcopal Church, and in politics is of the demo- cratic faith.

JOHNSON NEWLON CAMDEN. One of West Virginia 's most eminent citizens, a business man, financier and public leader, was the late Johnson Newlon Camden.

He was born in Lewis County March 6, 1828, and died at Parkersburg April 25, 1908, at the age of eighty years. He was the oldest son of John Scribner and Nancy (New- lon) Camden. In 1838, when he was ten years of age, the family moved to Braxton County, and he grew up there in the rural backwoods and became proficient in the arts and sports of that district, being a skilled hunter, fisher- man, and guiding a canoe with all the expertness of a native Indian. In this way he acquired his first practical knowledge of the mineral resources of the state, in which subsequently he played so prominent a part in the de- velopment. He made good use of limited opportunities to gain an education, and subsequently spent two years in an academy. He was deputy clerk of the Circuit Court of Braxton County under his uncle, Col. William Newlon, and at the age of eighteen was appointed a cadet in the West Point Military Academy, but resigned two years later to hegin the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1851, and served as commonwealth attorney for Braxton County and later for Nicholas County.

In a few years he gave up the practice of law to look after his growing interests acquired by the purchase of large tracts of wild land in Braxton and Nicholas counties. He established his home at Weston in 1853, and the following year was made assistant in a branch of the Exchange Bank of Virginia. Four years later he again resumed the practice of law and the work of developing his lands. He had made some experiments in the pro- duction of oil from cannel coal, but was soon diverted from this enterprise by hearing of the petroleum resources in Wood County. He began operating in that field when there was only one oil well, and soon had a company organized to drill and brought in a well that produced oil more rapidly than it could be stored or shipped. Much

of the oil from this pioneer well was transported by flat- boats down the Little Kanawha River, and it is said that the first week's operations yielded the company $23,000. That was the beginning of a feverish oil boom in that section. The outbreak of the Civil war shortly afterward brought about a general suspension of work in the West Virginia oil fields, though Mr. Camden did not allow his interest to lapse. He and the Rathbone brothers developed some additional leases in the oil belt, and at the same time he became identified with others in providing a finan- cial organization to give more extended banking facilities, out of which the First National Bank of Parkersburg was fermed. Mr. Camden became its first president. During subsequent years it is said that he owned an interest in every oil producing belt in West Virginia with one excep- tion. From oil production he and his associates in 1869 entered the refining branch of the industry, erecting large storage tanks and a refinery at Parkersburg. Soon after- ward the West Virginia fields began to decline, the great bulk of production being in Pennsylvania, and in order to secure crude oil for the refinery Mr. Camden became associated with the Standard Oil Company, then in its in- fancy. He became a director in the company and had charge of its West Virginia and Maryland combinations. The business at Parkersburg was continued under the name of the Camden Consolidated Oil Company, and the re- finery at times manufactured 300,000 barrels of oil yearly. Later the refining interests were removed to the seaboard, and Mr. Camden was responsible for the consolidation of the refineries at Baltimore under the Baltimore United Oil Company, a million dollar corporation of which he was president.

Without doubt Senator Camden was one of the fore- most men in vision, executive planning and practical ad- ministration in developing the mining, manufacturing, com- mercial and agricultural interests of West Virginia. In 1882 he helped organize the Ohio River Railroad Company, which built the line from Wheeling to Huntington, now a part of the Baltimore & Ohio. He later organized and built a railroad from Fairmont to Clarksburg, opening a great coal field, and subsequently extended its facilities to important timber regions of the state. This was one of the first of an extensive system of narrow gange railroads that furnished a network of transportation for the pre- ductive resources of the state. With Henry Gassaway Davis he was interested in the building of the West Vir- ginia Central Railroad, now the Western Maryland. He was president of the Monongahela River and the West Virginia and Pittsburgh railroads, and at different times was identified with many of the financial and industrial corporations that have been powerful in West Virginia.

The responsibilities and honors of politics and public affairs could hardly have been avoided by a man of such prominence. He was a leader in 1867 in the movement to remove the political disabilities from the citizens who had given their support to the Confederacy. In 1868 he was nominee of the conservative party for governor. While continuing his efforts to repeal the disfranchising clause of the State Constitution, he was equally open in his ad- vocacy of recent amendments to the Federal Constitution, and this stand prevented his nomination for governor by the democratic party in 1870. He was again nominated in 1872, but was defeated by a combination of democrats with the republicans who were seeking to defeat the new State Constitution. In 1880 he was almost unanimously nominated by the democratic caucus for the United States Senate, and was elected by the Legislature of that year. He was one of the able men in the Senate while the democratic party was ascendant in national affairs during the '80s. While he was not reelected, he was able to name his successor, and subsequently he was offered the nomination for governor, but declined. His last political honor came in 1893, when he was chosen to the United States Senate to fill the un- expired term of Senator Kenna, and he served from Janu- ary 28, 1893, to March 4, 1895. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1868, 1872 and 1876.

Senator Camden in 1858 married Anna Thompson, dangh-

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

ter of George W. and Elizabeth (Steenrod) Thompson, of Wheeling, where her father was a man of public promi- nence. Senator Camden and wife had two children. The son, Johnson Newlon Camden, is a prominent leader in agricultural and stock raising affairs in Central Kentucky, married into one of Kentucky's oldest and most distin- guished families, and recently served a brief term as a member of the United States Senate. The daughter of the late Senator Camden, Annie, became the wife of Gen. Baldwin Day Spilman.

WILLIAM ALEXANDER MACCORKLE, who was the ninth citizen to hold the office of governor of West Virginia, has been a member of the Charleston bar for over forty years and is a member of the law firm of Chilton, MacCorkle, Clark & MacCorkle ..

He was born at Lexington, Virginia, May 7, 1857, son of William and Mary (Morrison) MacCorkle. He graduated in law from Washington and Lee University in 1879, was admitted to the bar the previous year, and began practice at Charleston in 1879. The law firm of Chilton, MacCorkle & Chilton was organized in 1897.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 1

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