USA > West Virginia > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of West Virginia. Including reference articles on the industrial resources of the state, etc., etc. > Part 19
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
within an old grant of over 200, 000 acres, claimed by Messrs. Low and Aspinwall, he was retained by other parties claiming lands lying within the same large boundary and who had been sued in ejectment. These defendants numbered over one thousand, and the trial involved nearly every question embraced in the land law of Virginia. The case was twice tried. The first time the jury disagreed; the second trial was so closely con- tested that the plaintiffs proposed terms of com- promise with the adverse claimants, which were accepted, and for several years Colonel Buttrick was engaged, in connection with the agent of the plaintiffs, in settling up the conflicting titles, which was finally accomplished. Since then he has devoted his whole time to the exami- nation of land titles and the care of landed interests. He has charge of several very large tracts, and has been for several years one of the attorneys for the trustee of the "Swan estate," embracing claims to several hundred thousands of acres of land in Virginia and West Virginia. He is an earnest Republican and has always been ready to aid in the success of his party. He has been twice married. His first wife was Fannie, daughter of Hon. James Burling, of Wis- consin. She died in Ceredo, W. Va., in 1871. His second wife was Jane, daughter of the late Edward Bigelow, of Grafton, Mass., by whom he has one child, Mary, now eighteen years of age. Colonel Buttrick has been a Mason and Knight Templar for nearly forty years, is Past Grand Commander of the Templar Order for West Vir- ginia, and a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. Colonel Buttrick is a student of West Virginia history, and at the ceremonies of laying the corner-stone of the new county court- house in Charleston he was selected to deliver the historical address, which was a masterpiece of eloquence and research and made a very fa- vorable impression upon his hearers of the Ma- sonic fraternity. It was also published in full by the Charleston daily and weekly papers. It would be next to inexcusable oversight not to mention the good deeds of Mrs. Buttrick in the noble cause of charity of which she is a shining example, and her efforts, in co-operation with other thoughtful and kind-hearted ladies, have been productive of much practical aid to the deserving needy and sick in Charleston and vicinity.
ANDREW R. BARBEE.
ANDREW RUSSELL BARBEE, M.D., a distinguished physician and surgeon and ex- State Senator, of Point Pleasant, was born in Hawsburg, Rappahannock County, Va., Decem- ber 9, 1827. He is the son of Andrew R. Barbee, of French and Welsh descent, and of Nancy (Britton) Barbee, of Irish and German descent. He was educated at Petersburg, Va., studied medicine under Dr. J. J. Thompson, of Luray, Page County, Va., and at the University of Pennsylvania in 1848-49, and at Richmond Med- ical College in 1849-50, and again at the former institution, where he graduated M.D. in April, 1851. He located first at Flint Hill, Rappahan- nock County, Va., then removed to Criglers- ville, Madison County, Va., and afterward went to planting and farming, besides attending to his profession, at Poca Bottom, where he remained till the war broke out. Of Dr. Barbee's politics it is not so easy to treat as of his medical career, which has always been true to one creed-that of saving life and relieving the sick. Whether the blue or the gray uniform marked the suffer- ing soldier made no difference, and he never acted the rôle of Levite to any unfortunate vic- tim of the Civil War, in which he took an active part both as a soldier and a surgeon. He has been equally true in principle to one creed-that of patriotism as he best understood it. A man of broad and sympathetic nature, he rather ap- preciated the larger and fuller scope of political questions, and it always seemed true to his na- ture and conscience that the Star-Spangled Ban- ner was too glorious an emblem ever to be robbed even of one star from its constellation. His father was an Andrew Jackson Democrat, and he, too, believed in Democratic doctrine and of government by the people, but always with the idea first of preserving the nation inviolate. His father and he held slaves, but were not up- holders of slavery in the marketable sense and for traffic. They often purchased the wives or husbands and family relatives of their own slaves from other owners in order to have them in family unity. At the beginning of the war the money value of the Barbee estate in slaves was fully $30,000. Nevertheless the inherent love of the Republic as a whole which ever ac- tuated Dr. Barbee prevented his being a will-
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
ing secessionist, and when he came over from old Virginia to the western portion of the State at the breaking out of hostilities, he and others of his stamp, like the late Judge Summers, can- vassed Kanawha and other counties, urging the people not to secede from the Government. But the tide was too strong the other way, and the Doctor was in constant danger of his life- often menaced and threatened by the highly excited and desperate men who shaped much of public opinion at that time. Finally, when it came to casting the die and making a choice, the Doctor decided to share the fate of his fellow- citizens of Virginia, and acting much upon the same theory as the Vice-President of the Con- federacy, Alexander H. Stephens, had laid down, reluctantly decided for war when peace was out of the question. He entered the service of the Confederates with a company of 161 men, of which he was Captain-all good shots and good fighters, and every one, like himself, had voted against secession. It was a crack body of men from Kanawha and Putnam counties. The company joined Colonel Tompkins' Twenty- second Regiment of Virginia Infantry, and par- ticipated in all the battles of the West Vir- ginia section and later in the Army of the Potomac. In one year after entering the ser- vice the regiment reorganized, Col. George S. Patton succeeding Colonel Tompkins, and Dr. Barbee was elected Lieutenant-Colonel. Colo- nel Patton was killed at the battle of Win- chester and Colonel Barbee succeeded to the command. The regiment fought under several generals and finally under Gen. John C. Breck- inridge, on whose staff he served until that officer became Secretary of War for the Confed- eracy. Colonel Barbee proved in battle that he could stand where those who had called him " coward" and " submissionist" were glad enough to run and keep running for dear life's sake. After being wounded, Colonel Barbee was as- signed to the medical charge of the Virginia re- serve forces of Southwestern Virginia, and was in all the battles of that department. When peace was declared Dr. Barbee was among the first to take the oath of allegiance, and settled at Buffalo, Kanawha County, in the practice of his profession. In 1868 he removed from Buffalo to Point Pleasant. Dr. Barbee had become so well known throughout West Virginia that the
public of his section appealed to him in the try- ing times following the close of the war, and his sterling qualities, good judgment, and true principles were so well understood that it seemed as if he was destined to take an active part in civil life as he had in military operations. Not wishing to rejoin the secession element of the Democratic party and not being radical enough for a full-fledged Republican, he naturally affili- ated with the Greenbackers, whose party princi- ples seemed to him good and certainly patriotic. The result was that he became the candidate of the Greenback party, receiving the indorsement of the Republicans for State Senator of the Fifth District, composed of the counties of Mason, Jackson, Roane, and Putnam. He was elected over the Democratic candidate, Daniel Polsley, by 750 majority. This victory was all the more significant and complimentary from the fact that the Doctor was an invalid for several weeks before election, having fallen a victim to py- æmic blood-poisoning, obtained through an abrasion of the index finger while engaged in an extraordinary operation to save the life of a patient. This disease rendered him very ill and often unconscious for several months, so that he was unable to give any personal attention to the campaign, but the people carried his standard without his leadership, knowing well the paths he would have them follow. Dr. Barbee served in the State Senate with marked ability and fearlessness. So noted was his career and so satisfactory his legislation that the nomination for Congress was tendered him, and he ran against that able politician and well-known public man, Eustice Gibson. It was a neck-and- neck race, resulting in nearly a tie vote and a disputed count, which was finally decided in favor of Mr. Gibson, who represented the dis- trict in Congress. During the war Dr. Barbee was wounded several times. A serious injury was through the elbow-joint, which broke the bone and severed the ulnar nerve. This was at the battle of Skeery. He was also hit in the right hip by a gun-barrel, which was driven into the groin, causing paralysis of the great muscles of the hip and thigh and affecting the leg. This wound was received at the battle of Rocky Gap, near White Sulphur Springs, against General Averill. Since then the Doctor has suffered a compound fracture of the lower leg-
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
also the right-which completely disabled him for three months. He is now fully restored, and save an occasional weakness and pain in the right leg, has good health and leads a very active and laborious professional life, often going late at night several miles on horseback in important cases. Of Dr. Barbee's professional career much might be written, but one case of surgery of his became famous throughout the medical world and gave rise to an astonishing phenomenon. The Doctor attended a convalescing camp of several hundred Union and Confederate soldiers before the close of the war, where he performed some difficult operations. The one referred to is thus described in "Physicians and Surgeons of the United States :"
" His practice is general, but he has devoted himself particularly to surgery and chronic dis- eases. Among the most peculiar cases in his experience was that of a soldier whose temporal bone had been driven in by a brick during a drunken row. The man had been rendered in- stantaneously insensible while he was in the act of applying an opprobrious epithet to some one with whom he had been quarrelling and had uttered half of the last word. Although forty- eight hours had elapsed before the trephining operation had been resorted to, the instant the brain was relieved from pressure by the eleva- tion of the temporal bone the patient finished the concluding word of the sentence he had begun forty-eight hours before. His drunken- ness also returned on his return to conscious- ness."
It may be added in relation to this remarkable case that the man was left for dead when Dr. Barbee saw him, and he made it the subject of a medico-military reprimand in plain English to the surgeons in charge, who had became indif- ferent and case-hardened and made no effort to even examine the prostrate man who lay like dead among his comrades of the camp. The man is still living and has since been examined by Dr. Barbee for a pension. Dr. Barbee is a member of the Mason County Medical Associa- tion and of the Galen County Medical Asso- ciation, Ohio ; of the West Virginia State Medical Association and of the Ohio Valley Medical As- sociation. In 1875 he was elected President of the West Virginia Medical Association. He is the presiding surgeon of the United States Ex- amining Board for his section of West Virginia, his associates being Drs. Gillion and Cher-
rington. Dr. Barbee was first appointed Presi- dent of the Board in 1885, and although the mem- bership has been twice changed since then, excepting himself, he has been retained con- tinuously. He has granted certificates for pen- sions to over 3,000 men who have been examined by him as a member of this Board and in other semi-military positions since the close of the war. Dr. Barbee until recently was a member of the State Board of Health of West Virginia, to which he was appointed in 1881 by Gover- nor Jackson and was reappointed by Governor Wilson. The Board consists of eight members, selected for their special fitness as sanitarians and as experts generally in the domain of medi- cine as applied to the public health and preven- tion of contagious and epidemic diseases. Dr. Barbee married Miss Margaret A. G. Thompson, daughter of Dr. J. J. Thompson, his early pre- ceptor, of Petersburg. They have had six chil- dren. Their first-born, John Russell, died in infancy ; next Blanche, married C. W. Harper, of Raymond City; next Kate, married John Mc- Cullah, who is deceased (she afterward became the wife of J. S. Spencer, Esq., prosecuting attor- ney of Mason County). Their son William Thompson, born in 1868, died on his third birth- day. Ann Rebecca is unmarried. Their young- est child, Hugh Barbee, is a promising young student at Princeton College, New Jersey, and it is Dr. Barbee's intention to have him follow the profession in which he has been so actively en- gaged for a lifetime and which the son himself also prefers. Dr. Barbee, it need hardly be said in conclusion, is a man of great natural courage, with a temperament and phrenology indicating a combination of strong elements of both mind and body. Indeed, men so constituted happily rise where others would remain helpless; they are leaders by natural adaptation and always make a marked impression upon the times in which they live. The noble profession of medi- cine needs such men-alert, inquiring, sympa- thetic, resourceful, and self-denying. The good such a physician does in a lifetime cannot be overestimated or even approximately described. Dr. Barbee has a large practice in Point Pleasant and throughout Mason County, and is highly representative of that class of practitioners who are ably equipped as both specialist and theorist for every emergency.
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
JOHN A. WARTH.
HON. JOHN AUGUSTUS WARTH, a Sena- tor in the Legislature of Virginia and a mem- ber of the West Virginia Constitutional Con- vention of 1872, and who is widely known as the compiler of the present Code of Laws of the State, was born in Mason County, Va. (now Jackson County, W. Va.), on the 28th of Sep- tember, 1822. His ancestors on his father's side were English, from the Isle of Man, who came to Virginia before the Revolutionary War. His father, the late John Warth, was one of the first settlers of the State of Ohio, at Marietta, under Gen. Rufus Putnam, in the year 1788; and after participating in the Indian wars of that period, removed to Kanawha Valley and engaged in salt-making. In the year 1818 he removed with his family to his farm in Mason County, Va. (now Jackson County, W. Va.). He has always lived within the boundaries of what is now the State of West Virginia, and since the death of his father, in the year 1837, his home has been in Kanawha County. He was educated at the Ohio University when that institution was under the management of the late Dr. William H. McGuffey as its president. From 1843 to 1846 Mr. Warth was employed as a steamboat clerk, and from 1846 to 1852 he engaged in the busi- ness of salt-making, devoting his spare time to reading law, and was admitted to the bar in the latter year, his license being signed by Judges Joseph L. Fry, Mathew Dunbar, and David McComas. Mr. Warth represented the Kanawha District in the Senate of Virginia in 1857 and 1858, and was a member of the West Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1872, that framed the present constitution of the State. From 1876 to 1880 he was President of the County Court of Kanawha, and in 1887 the Legislature ap- pointed him Compiler of the Laws of the State. In 1891 the Legislature again entrusted him with the work of compiling another edition of the Code, in which capacity he is well known among the legal profession throughout the State. The Code is a codification of all the laws of the State, with full index and marginal notes, mak- ing a large and exhaustive volume. In politics Judge Warth has always been a Democrat. In business he has invariably pursued a straight- forward course, being specially careful to meet
his engagements and promises. His work on the Code of West Virginia is indicative of in- tellectual ability of a high order. He was mar- ried to Miss Alethea Briggs, daughter of the late Hon. Benjamin Briggs, of Newark, Ohio, on the 19th day of November, 1846. He is now en- gaged in the practice of his profession in part- nership with Murray Briggs, Esq., in the city of Charleston.
JOHN P. HALE.
JOHN P. HALE, M.D., President of the West Virginia Historical and Antiquarian So- ciety, was born at Ingles' Ferry, Montgomery County, Va., May 1, 1824. On his father's side Dr. Hale is descended from English ancestors, who settled in Virginia at an early period of its history. Subsequently Dr. Hale's immediate ancestors located in Franklin County, Va. His maternal ancestors, members of the Ingles and Draper families, were Scotch-Irish. In 1748 they founded at Draper's Meadows the first white settlement west of the Alleghanies in the United States. Dr. Hale's great-grandfather and great-grandmother, William Ingles and Mary Draper, were, in 1750, the first white couple united in marriage west of the mountains just referred to. Later they settled on the banks of the New River, some miles above, and there established a ferry, which has ever since been designated as " Ingles' Ferry." Five generations of the family lie buried at this place, and the site is even now occupied by descendants of the original owners. It was at this place that young Hale passed his early years. While still a boy he attended local schools in Wythe, Pulaski, Montgomery, Roanoke, Botetourt, and Rock- bridge Counties, in the State of Virginia. In 1840 young Hale removed to Charleston, Kana- wha County, and in the two years following studied at Mercer Academy, of which the late Rev. Dr. Stewart Robinson was president. In 1843 he commenced the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Spicer Patrick, since deceased. Graduating in 1845 at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadel- phia, Dr. Hale formed a co-partnership with his former preceptor, Dr. Patrick. But in 1847 he gave up the practice of medicine, doubtless
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finding it not altogether to his taste, and soon entered the salt-making business at Black Hawk, near Charleston. Three years later he purchased the White Hawk salt property, a short distance above Charleston. In 1860 he purchased the Snow Hill salt property, and subsequently the McMullen property, both of which are contigu- ous to his original purchase. These three prop- erties were then united under the name of Snow Hill, and for a considerable period it was the largest salt-producing property in the country, the daily capacity being 300 barrels or 1, 500 bushels. Later, Dr. Hale associated himself with several others in the purchase of the Don- hally, the Noyes, and the Venable properties, which were then consolidated under the name of the "Splint Coal Property." Dr. Hale was the largest stockholder of this company and became its president and general manager. On this prop- erty there were at that time two active salt fur- naces. The product of these, added to that of
Snow Hill, aggregated about 600 barrels or 3,000 bushels of salt per diem. It is stated that Dr. Hale was the longest continuous salt manufac- turer in the United States-about forty years- and during much of that time he was the largest individual salt manufacturer in this country. During that period he introduced several impor- tant improvements in the details of the manu- facture of the product in which he was so largely interested. It is a singular fact that within sight of the locality where the subject of this sketch so successfully prosecuted the salt indus- try, his great-grandmother, Mrs. Mary Ingles, once helped to boil salt water and make the first salt ever made by white people west of the Alleghanies, this incident occurring in 1755. while she was a prisoner among the Indians. During her captivity she was the first white woman known to have been in the Kanawha Valley, West Virginia, and within that section of country which has since been divided to form the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. In 1851 Dr. Hale made an extended tour in Eng- land and on the Continent, visiting Scotland, Wales, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and Holland. After having returned home, he was, in 1856, president and general manager of Ruffner, Hale & Co., this firm pur- chasing and marketing all the salt made in Western Virginia and Ohio. In 1857-58 Dr.
Hale was a member of a commission firm in Cincinnati, under the style of Taylor & Hale. In the latter year he organized a company for the purpose of manufacturing cannel-coal oil in the States of Virginia and Ohio. Coal lands were acquired in both States, and extensive works were erected in Newark, Ohio, in which to manufacture oil. This enterprise, however, was eventually unsuccessful, owing to the dis- covery of oil in wells. In 1863 Dr. Hale, in company with several other gentlemen, organ- ized a banking institution in Charleston, which was named the Bank of the West, which be- came one of the largest banks in West Virginia. In the same year he became president and gen- eral manager of the Kanawha Salt Company. About this time he aided a private undertaking in establishing the first telegraphic line to Charleston, this being some time prior to the opening up of railroad communication with that city. In 1869 Dr. Hale introduced the first brick machinery used in that part of the State; and in the following year, at his own expense, paved with brick a part of Capital Street, Charleston, this being the first instance of brick being used as a street pavement in any city of the United States. Since then hundreds of miles of similar road pavements have been laid in numerous towns and cities of the country. In 1870 he was one of the incorporators of the Gas Company of Charleston and became its first president and largest stockholder. In the same year he built the first steam ferry-boat, and started the first steam ferry at Charleston, and owned all the ferries in the city. In 1871-72 Dr. Hale was Mayor of Charleston, and during his administra- tion many important improvements were made. In 1871, and for several years following, Dr. Hale was West Virginia Commissioner on a Board appointed by all the States bordering on the Ohio River and tributaries, to memorialize Congress and otherwise work for the improve- ment of the navigation of the Ohio River and tributary streams. The United States Govern- ment was induced to expend vast sums on the improvement of the Great Kanawha, the Cum- berland, the Ohio, the Little Kanawha, and others. Dr. Hale was a member of the old James River and Kanawha Board having in charge the improvement of the Kanawha River, and after the separation of the State was ap-
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
pointed by West Virginia on the Kanawha Board to continue the same work. About the same time Dr. Hale was a member of a large paper and paper-pulp company, which had a paper mill in New York State, with pulp works at Brooklyn, N. Y., and Elizabeth, N. J .- and Dr. Hale and others built a large pulp works at Wilmington, N. C., destroyed by fire soon after starting. During the war Dr. Hale organized and for a brief period commanded an artillery company for Southern service, which was called Hale's Battery, but, having had a misunder- standing with the commanding officer, he re- signed and acted for a time as Assistant Surgeon in the field about Richmond. Afterward, under the direction of the Confederate government, he made an examination of the Southern States for the purpose of locating the best place for the manufacture of salt, at that time very much needed in the South. During this period also he was president of a steam packet line running
between Charleston and Cincinnati, and in 1864 introduced the first steam packet boat in the upper Kanawha River. In 1871 Dr. Hale ad- vanced most of the money to pay for the cost of the erection of a temporary State House at
Charleston, the entire expense of which was
about $75,000. He also built there a hotel, called the Hale House, which was at the time the finest establishment of the kind in the State, but which was afterward destroyed by
fire. It is an historical fact that the invest-
ments of Dr. Hale in Charleston had very much to do with governing the choice of that city as the capital of West Virginia. In 1872 Dr. Hale started in Charlestón also a large
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