USA > West Virginia > Preston County > A History of Preston County, West Virginia, V. 2 > Part 23
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ington's Birthday, February 22, 1861. His eldest child, Jefferson Slidell, was born November 28, 1861 ; her second child, Benjamin Loid, March 17, 1863, which was St. Patrick's Day. By her second marriage to Charles R. Morgan, of Marion county, in 1872, she had a daughter, May Fairfax, her youngest child, born on May Day, 1874. She died December 27, 1897.
(VI) Jefferson Slidell, son of Charles Mercer and Harriet Virginia (Fairfax) Brown, was born at the old Fairfax Manor House, erected by his great-grandfather, Colonel John Fairfax, in 1818, situated two miles west of Kingwood, West Virginia. He received his education, beginning with the common schools, after which he taught school five years in Preston county, after his graduation from the Cleveland Col- lege, Ohio. He then served as clerk and secretary to the board of directors of the State Institution for the Insane, at Weston, West Vir- ginia. Having already determined upon becoming a lawyer, he re- signed his position; but things frequently change one's plans for life, and such was the case with Mr. Brown, who purchased the "Argus," at Kingwood, in 1889, and he has ever since been at its helm. He is a brilliant, forceful writer, and his editorials are widely read and copied. He also contributes for other publications. Politically he is a Democrat, and his party, knowing his capability, has kept him constantly in their service. He was chairman of the Democratic Committee sixteen years ; He served on judicial, Senatorial, Congressional and State committees. He was twice a candidate for state senator. In April, 1893, he was ap- pointed postmaster of Kingwood and served over four years. In 1896 he was a delegate for West Virginia to the National Convention at Chicago for the nomination of William Jennings Bryan, and subsequently served eight years as a member of the board of regents of the State School for the Deaf and Blind, at Romney, West Virginia. He also served as presi- dent of the State Editorial Association five terms, which was the longest ever served by any one man. He positively declined another term. He served as captain of Company G in the National Guards, having had many an exciting experience, and was called out on two occasions to suppress mob violence. On one occasion his company was ordered to Charleston by the Governor to guard a negro on trial for rape on a white woman. The company succeeded in suppressing the violence of a mob composed of five hundred men who attempted to storm the jail one night and lynch the negro. Hard and unpleasant as was the task, the Captain at once arrested the leaders of the mob, one by one, until
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he had fourteen of them in jail, by which time the mob was quieted down, and all was done without the shedding of blood. The negro was afterward tried by a fair and impartial jury, was sentenced to death by the court and properly executed. Mr. Brown is socially connected with about every order calculated to better the conditions of his fellow- men. Among these may be mentioned the Masonic, Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias fraternities.
On October 15, 1902, Mr. Brown married Stella Maud, daughter of Captain Job W. Parsons, who served in the Confederate army under General Robert E. Lee. Children: Fairfax, born September 21, 1903, Hazel Ewing, born June 25, 1905; Keith Parsons, born January 19, 1907; Leland Dickson, born March 15, 1909; Lynden Bonn, born June 2, 1911.
THE WADDELL FAMILY.
The Waddell family, though small, desrves a creditable mention in the history of the county in which one might almost say the family was founded.
The head of this branch of an old Virginia family, Richard Bona- parte Waddell, was born in Frostburg, Maryland, September 14, 1837. He was the son of John Matthew Waddell and Sophia Fogle Waddell, who had emigrated to that place from Virginia a few years before. Ow- ing to a family estrangement, John Waddell never returned to his birth- place. As his interests broadened in his new home, he ceased all com- munication with the remainder of the family, and consequently lost all accurate record of the family history.
Almost the only communication the pioneers ever held with their relatives in Virginia was when their son, who had been named Richard, was five or six years old. At that time David Waddell sought out his brother John and paid him a long visit. David Waddell was an ardent admirer of Napoleon, and insisted upon inserting "Bonaparte" into his young nephew's name. This in itself was sufficient to make any boy in young Richard's place wish he had never seen his esteemed uncle. When that uncle called him "Bony," the boy was surely excusable for wishing he might never see Uncle David again.
When Richard Waddell was seven or eight years old, his parents moved into what is now Preston county. They moved about consider-
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ably, but finally settled near Brandonville. There John Waddell worked at his trade, shoemaking, till his death. He was declared one of the most skillful craftsmen of his day. Besides his trade, he could turn his hand to any useful device emergency demanded.
For a number of years after the death of his father, Richard Waddell made his home with the family of Mr. William Hagans. The rule of this home was "early to bed and early to rise," a rule that was very hampering to young Waddell's social tendencies. But he dutifully marched off to bed at the appointed hour every night, and not until several months had passed did Mr. Hagans learn that his ward was in the habit of slipping away after the rest of the family had retired, and circulating among his kindred spirits in the village.
For a while it puzzled Mr. Hagans to know how the boy got out of the house, but rising earlier than usual one morning, he found a stout pole leaning against the wall under the boy's ber-room window. The mystery was solved. But the next night when the young reveller re- turned from his nocturnal wanderings, his improvised ladder was not to be found. He spent the night-what little was left of it-in the hay loft. The matter was never mentioned between them, but Mr. Waddell never forgot the trick Mr. Hagans had played on him, and often told it to his own children.
On April 11, 1858, Richard Waddell married Lucy Weyant, daughter of John and Susan Fichtner Weyant. The Weyant family-unlike the Waddell family-was reasonably large, consisting of: Katherine, who married David Shaffer, and with him lived the greater part of their lives in Preston county ; Margaret, who died in early girlhood; Matilda, who married Felty Shaffer and lived and died in Fayette county, Penn- sylvania; Ellen, who married John Spindler and with him lived almost all their lives in Preston county; twins, Elizabeth, who married Jeffer- son Rhodes and lived in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and Philip Henry, who died young; and Lucy Anne, who married as before stated and spent her life near Brandonville. Although the five Weyant girls each reared a good-sized family of energetic, industrious offspring, the family name, so far as their branch of the family is concerned, became extinct with the death of Philip Henry.
To Richard and Lucy Anne Weyant Waddell were born seven children, of whom three died in infancy. Those who survived are : Jennie, Nancy J., Margaret Lynne and Charles Walter. Jennie became Mrs. Marshal Benson. To them were born seven children, as follows:
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Charles Albert, Wilbur Harold, James Richard, Erroll Clyde, Bruce Emmens, Meta Adaline and Lucy Edna. Nan married M. F. Chorpen- ning and became the mother of nine children, of whom the following eight are living : Monroe Oscar, Olonzo Jay, Walter Elmo, Lloyd Sher- man, Homer Irion, Henry Ward, Creed Mckinley and Lucy Ellen.
Margaret Lynne graduated from the Mount Carroll (Illinois) Semi- nary (now the Frances Shimer School) and took her A. B. at the West Virginia University. She has been one of the leading educators in this section of the state for sixteen years, having taught in all grades from the rural schools to the normal schools. For the last nine years she has been engaged in normal school work-four years at Glenville as general assistant, and five at Shepherd College in charge of the department of English. For the past two years she has spent her summers in doing graduate work in Columbia University.
Charles Walter took his A. B. at West Virginia University and taught Greek and Latin in the Fairmont State Normal School. When he took charge of this position he was the youngest instructor engaged in normal school work in the state, being barely twenty. In 1907 he re- ceived his M. D. from Howard Medical School. Soon after his gradua- tion he began the practice of medicine in Fairmont. He married Myrtle De Vene Shaw, a woman of remarkable musical ability. Dr. Waddell has bought property in Fairmont and made an attractive home for his wife and two little girls, Jean Shaw and Mary Anne. As a physician he has been exceedingly popular and successful.
To return to the main subject of the sketch, Richard Waddell, and follow his career, we find that for some time he served in the Union army, and on April 19, 1862, has was given a commission as captain in the One Hundred Fourth Regiment of the Tenth Brigade, third divi- sion of the brigade militia, signed by Governor Pierpont. He was after- ward appointed third sergeant of Company L, Sixth Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry. Another appointment was as quartermaster sergeant of Company E, Sixth Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry, stationed at Fort Laramie, Nebraska. He was honorably dis- charged there May 2, 1866. It was while convalsecing from a fever in the army hospital at Fort Laramie that he formed a friendship with the Indian, Chief Spotted Tail. One of Miss Lynne Waddell's most cherished possessions is a small bead kinnikinic pouch given to Captain Waddell by Chief Spotted Tail. Dr. Charles Waddell has a large Indian pipe procured from the same source.
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Richard Waddell held various offices of trust in his county. As a public official he was safe and conservative, and looked well to the in- terests of his constituents. He was a kind and obliging neighbor, though extremely fond of his joke now and then.
For years he delighted in playing harmless jokes on his neighbor, the widow of one of his superior officers in the army. A favorite jest was his request each spring for the privilege of tapping a row of unusually fine sugar trees that stood in front of her house. The little woman always emphatically refused. Great was her indignation one morning -April first, it might be mentioned-when she darted out (she always moved as if she had been shot out of a gun), armed with a broom to sweep off every suggestion of dust on her sidewalk. For a moment she gazed fairly spell-bound. Eeach of her precious trees had two or three spiles in it with crocks under them to catch the saccharine liquid. Her anger knew no bounds and she began to jerk furiously at the spiles. She found them to be only elder stems tied to the trees with black thread. The crocks were mostly bottomless ones gathered from the garbage heap. A cheerful "ha-ha" from across the fence readily in- formed her to whom she was indebted for the joke.
When anyone got the better of him in a joke he was usually game, no matter how much the joke hurt. Here is one instance, however, when he lost his temper over the trick played. An old German walked into the store one morning when Mr. Waddell was unusually busy. Without waiting his turn, the old fellow held up a young chicken and asked :
"Mr. Vaddell, vat you bay for sich ghicken like dot?"
Mr. Waddell, annoyed at the unseemly haste of his Teutonic cus- tomer, glanced up carelessly and said, indifferently, "Oh, about fifteen cents."
"I take him," said Mr. Dutchman. "I kotch him in your hen yart."
After diving into a veritable bottomless pit of a pocket, he tossed a dime and a nickel on the counter and hobbled out. The fowl was one of Mr. Waddell's carefully bred Plymouth Rocks, the eggs for which had cost him a fancy price. When he realized the trick, he said a few words not found in the International Dictionary, and it was not quite safe for several days to ask him the price of young chickens.
Richard Waddell was endowed with an intellect that would have made it possible for him to attain almost any renown the most ambitious could crave had his early education been systematic and complete. Un-
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erring in his judgment, logical in his reasoning, and upright in his con- duct, he made himself almost indispensable in his own community. Even with his meager education "he could," as one of his neighbors said, "fix up a deed or a will so safe and fast that all the lawyers in Christendom couldn't budge it." Half the people in his neighborhood went to him for legal advice rather than to a lawyer.
His mechanical skill was little less marked than his judgment in legal matters. This talent was no doubt transmitted to him from his- father, John Waddell, whose mechanical bent has been mentioned. Until within the last few years before his death, almost every piece of machinery in the neighborhood was wheedled into obedience by Richard Waddell's skillful touch. If he had been well paid for all the useful service rendered he would have been wealthy, but he did his "thanky jobs" freely and uncomplainingly.
He never approved of secret orders. For a while he took a great interest in the G. A. R., but in later years he lived a very retired life.
"There'll be more than one miss 'Uncle Dick,'" said a neighbor when he learned of the death of Richard Waddell at his home in Brandonville, early on Sunday morning, February 24, 1907. This brief encomium not only voiced the sentiment of the community in which he lived, but of all who knew him.
CHARLES CARROLL STONE.
The Stones of Preston county came from Hanover county, Virginia. There were three brothers, all married when they came. Andrew C., a soldier in the War of 1812, came soon after he left the army. He settled in the vicinity of Reedsville, and died on a farm west of King- wood. The farm is now known as the James A. Brown farm. John R. and Clarborne W. Stone settled on Greens Run. John R. Stone was the father of William, who lived on the west side of Kingwood. He died in 1883 at sixty-five years of age :
Charles C. Stone owns and occupies the old Rodeheaver homestead.
He is the son of William J. and Louisa (Trowbridge) Stone, and was born December 15, 1851. His whole life has been spent on a farm, and in teaming. He owned and handled the team that brought the Soldier's Monument from the depot to its place in the public square, and all heavy work of that kind in and around Kingwood generally fell
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to him. Besides hauling a number of the heaviest monuments from Tunnelton to the cemetery, it being before the railroad was built, he also hauled the six-ton globe safe for the Kingwood Bank.
Mr. Stone was educated in the common schools of Kingwood and in the Kingwood Academy. When thirty years of age, he married Miss Amanda Bishop, of this county. She was a daughter of Adam Bishop. When eleven years of age the mother, Mrs. Carroll Bishop, died, after which her daughter lived with her grandfather, James Carroll, of Kingwood. Mr. Carroll was proprietor of a hotel known as the Van- kirk property. It stood where the Soldier's Monument now stands in the Public Square. Mr. and Mrs. Stone, after their marriage, moved to the farm they now own. They built the house in 1893, the barn in 1904, two substantial buildings which, with one hundred and twelve acres of land on which they stand, makes a valuable homestead. It is one of the oldest and most desirable farms in Preston county, very con- veniently located near Kingwood, on the road to Albright.
The oldest child born to this union was Pearl, now the wife of Bruce Morgan, of Kingwood. He is a farmer. Their eldest child was named Charles Marshall, after his two grandparents. (2) Laura, married Ed- ward Orr, a carpenter and contractor of Kingwood. They have four children. (3) Alma, married Arch Schaeffer, assistant cashier of the Kingwood National Bank. They have one child, Lillian. (4) Ned, married Jennie Borgman, and is in the tinplate business at Morgantown. (5) Merle, died when sixteen years of age. (6) Addie, the youngest child, married Forest W. White, of Kingwood. He owns and runs a livery stable.
Mr. Stone is a good farmer, keeps some blooded stock, and knows how to till his ground to the best advantage.
THE DILL FAMILY.
From a list of names recorded in the county of York, Pennsylvania, it is evident that the Dills were in this country prior to the Revolution, but the only reliable information we have of the Reedsville family is that Michael Dill, an educated German scholar, came to America from the fatherland and located in Buffalo, New York. He owned and operated a distillery there during the War of 1812, and kept his books in both English and German, as occasion required. By his wife, Cath-
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erine, he had three daughters, Polly, Susanna and Rosanna; and two sons, Henry and David, all of whom were born in Buffalo, then so small a place that Mr. Dill sold one lot of five acres, now in the heart of the city, for five ($5.00) dollars.
David, the youngest son, was born in 1805, and when he was a lad of eight or ten years of age, the Indians-incited by the British troops- committed various depredations against the inhabitants of the young settlement. Finally the Dill family were attacked, the inmates fleeing from the house, while their home was being burned to the ground. In the flight, Mrs. Catherine Dill lost an eye, when seeking safety in the bramble bushes, and one of the daughters came near being captured in trying to save a loaf of bread. In order to secure provision against want, the girl seized the bread but had to throw it over the fence, where sinking into the deep snow, it was lost. For a time the family camped at Black Rock, but later took up their march for Western Pennsylvania, went part of the way by raft, and located at Killbuck, about fifteen miles from where Pittsburgh now is. Here they set up housekeeping on a seventy-acre farm, where Michael Dill passed away July 9, 1858, about ninety-eight years of age. Catherine, his wife, died June 4, 1856, in the eightieth year of her age.
David Hill was reared a farmer and followed the cooper trade. He married Elizabeth Means, who died December 31, 1882, at the age of eighty-two years and two months. By her he had seven children, namely: (1) Henry, born April 11, 1830; (2) Margaret, born June II, 1831 ; (3) Thomas, born April 26, 1835; (4) John, born July 4, 1837 ; (5) Samuel A., born November 1, 1839; (6) Elizabeth, born November 23, 1841 ; (7) David, born January 25, 1847.
During the year of the great fost, in 1859, a visit to Virginia was made, and the year following, David and Henry Dill, with their children, moved to this state. David located on a farm now owned by Mr. Hoffman, near Reedsville, and Henry settled in Wood county, on the Kanawha, in the southern part of the state. Afterwards he went to Dayton, Ohio, but finally took up a permanent residence in Texas, where his two sons had gone before him.
David Hill and his sons, after their arrival at their new place of abode, scored logs, and soon built themselves a cabin, part of which still stands. Here the father lived until his death, farming and coopering for a living until May II, 1893, when he too passed to the great beyond. Of his children, Henry and David were blacksmiths. John, Henry and
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Samuel became veteran soldiers in the late Civil War, Samuel serving the longest, having enlisted in the 3rd W. Va. Infantry in 1861, and afterwards in the 6th W. Va. Cavalry, where he remained until mus- tered out in 1865. John enlisted August 15, 1862, in the 14th W. Va., and served until mustered out at the close of the war, in 1865. Both John and Samuel had their hearing affected by the bursting of shells overhead, the shock proving almost fatal, especially in the case of Samuel. It was at the battle of Lynchburg that John Dill's hearing was im- paired. Margaret and Elizabeth were their only sisters. Margaret married George W. Hartzell; both are now dead. Elizabeth first mar- ried James Ashburn, then married William Kemer.
After his return from the army, John Dill began housekeeping in a part of the old home, adding to the building in 1867, and thereafter as necessities required. Before going into the service he married Mary Menear, daughter of Lemuel B., March 17, 1862, and the births from this union were as follows: George G., born August 3, 1863; Virginia, May 4, 1865; Izah B., March 15, 1870; Harvey E., January 28, 1872; Susan F., December 20, 1873; Lona Hannah, November 1I, 1875; Lemuel Forest, November 28, 1878. The mother was born August 31, 1842, and departed this life June 4, 1904.
Samuel A. Dill lived on a portion of the home farm until 1908, when he moved to his present residence in Reedsville, where he now lives a quiet and retired life.
On March 5, 1868, he married Margaret, daughter of John and Mahala Menear, of Preston county, and from that marriage came twelve children, as follows: (1) Oliver Alzo, born Feb- ruary 7, 1869. He married Hattie Reid. (2) Lura Ella, born July 4, 1870. (3) Agnes Belle, born February 13, 1872, wife of John Gross, a carpenter in Reedsville. They have three children : George, Gertrude, and Virginia. They were married April 13, 1889. (4) Bertie May, born September 12, 1873, married William Wilson and reside in Morgantown. They had one child, Mary, born on St. Patrick's Day, 1912. She died September 27, 1912. (5) James Fleming, born May 3, 1875. He married Mae Harr, a native of Marion county. They have one daughter, Eleanor, now five years of age. Mr. Dill is a farmer, but lives in Reedsville. (6) Grace Blanche, born November 4, 1877. October 9, 1902, she married John T. Cleaver, a carpenter of Reedsville. They have three children: Gerald, Ruth, and Catherine. (7) David G., born May 8, 1879. He is a carpenter. He
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married Isa Dixon, October 17, 1906. (8) John William, born March 15, 1880. His wife was Miss Bertie Robinson. They have two children, Robert and Lloyd. (9) Samuel R., born November 1, 1887, is a farmer. He married Agatha Dixon, December 27, 1908. They have two children, Kenneth and Paul. (10) Eva Margaret, born May 4, 1890. (II) Curtis Leonard, born December 15, 1891, is a bookkeeper for the Cascade Coal Company. He married Jessie Lucille Pell. They have two children, Frank and Margaret. (12) Percy George, born October 24, 1893; is in the army at Fort Totten, New York.
The Dill brothers have taken but little interest in professional politics. Samuel Dill was justice of the peace at one time, and served one term as a member of the County Court. Both John and Samuel begin to show their hardships in the war, but their lives are placid ones, and having been well spent, nothing but sweet remembrances are left behind them.
LEVI L. MILLER.
There are at least seven distinct connections of the Miller family in Preston county. One of the ancestors of this family was Henry Miller, an emigrant from Germany, who came to Berks county Pennsyl- vania. His son, Joseph N. Miller, born in 1809, was brought by his mother and aunt, after the death of the husband, to Somerset county, Pennsylvania, about 1830. He came to Preston county, West Virginia, where he died at 92 years of age. He located first at Hazelton, then moved to Morgan's Glade, where he was a storekeeper, and postmaster, and blacksmith. He was an educated man, and justice of the peace many years. It was Joseph N. Miller who named the place Morgan's Glade. His eight sons followed his example in taking up the blacksmith- ing business, and they were all proficient in their trade. Ami H. lives in Eriel, Kansas, and is a man of wealth; Levi F., of whom mention will be made again ; William H., at Bruceton; Elisha J. has a shop at Terra Alta ; Benjamin A. C., at Cranesville; Hosea McC., at Buchtel, Athens county, Ohio; Joseph I., deceased, was foreman of the blacksmith shops for the B. & O. Railroad Company at Grafton, West Virginia, for many years, and Jacob A., now of Terra Alta. He married Rebecca Jenkins and is the father of Charles A. Miller, cashier of the First National Bank, Terra Alta.
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Joseph N. Miller's wife was Mary Meyers, from New England. She died when 88 years of age, two years before her husband did.
Joseph N. Miller, born December 14, 1809, died February 6, 1902. Mary A. Miller, born April 23, 1812, died October 2, 1900. They were married about 1830. Children : Elisha James, born May 28, 1832; William Harrison, born June 8, 1834; Josiah Joseph, born April 27, 1836, died September 9, 1892; Lucinda, born September 22, 1837; Ami Hess, born May 7, 1839; Hosea McCall, born February 19, 1841; Catharine Jane, born January 24, 1843; Levi Fribley, born December 27, 1844; Jacob Alter, born September 15, 1847; Martha Ellen, born May 15, 1849, died January 15, 1867; Elizabeth Ann, born June 23, 1852, died October 20, 1863; Benjamin Albert C., born July 10, 1855; Emily Arminda, born February 26, 1858, died JJanuary 23, 1896; Mary Ada Virginia, born July 15, 1859.
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