USA > West Virginia > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of West Virginia. Including reference articles on the industrial resources of the state, etc., etc. > Part 39
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July 8, 1865; Augusta Genevieve, born Decem- ber, I, 1868, and John C. deceased. Dr. Hupp, for forty years or more, has been a member of Panola Lodge, I.O.O.F., and also a member of Wheeling Union Chapter No. I, A.F. and A.M. He is still actively and successfully engaged in the practice of his profession and the manifold duties incident thereto. Dr. Hupp has the lit- erary faculty to a degree. He has always taken a peculiar interest in unravelling historical mys- teries, particularly in relation to the pioneer history of the border line between Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Upon these themes he has furnished many communications to the press of Wheeling, some of them descriptive of thrilling scenes in the early history of the region of his childhood, a species of writing for which he seems peculiarly adapted. Some of his most important contributions may be found in "Creigh's History of Washington County," Pa., and which have been copied in Brant and Ful- ler's "History of the Upper Ohio Valley." An additional mark of his qualification in this re- spect is found in the fact that by the voice of his college classmates he was chosen to prepare the quarter century historical sketch of his class at the reunion held at Washington, Pa., Wed- nesday, August 4, 1869, incumbent duties com- pelling him to decline the invitation, however. He is well equipped with diaries and volumi- nous scrap books, denoting much mental occupa- tion and energetic investigation into all depart- ments of human interest. Dr. Hupp's zeal in the pursuit of pioneer history and relics found most remarkable opportunity in following up the hunt for Ebenezer Zane's cross-cut saw, with which that great pioneer settler constructed Fort Fincastle in 1774 (subsequently named Fort Henry) at Wheeling. Dr. Hupp presented the relic to the West Virginia Agricultural College at Morgantown in a letter to the Rev. Alexan- der Martin, D.D., President, under date of March 4, 1868, from which these extracts are taken: Upon Colonel Zane's death in 1811, the saw came into possession of John Clarke, who sold it to Francis McConnell, Sr., who had been a revolutionary soldier. In the year 1825, his son Francis McConnell, Jr., concealed the saw in the woods under the leaves near a fallen tree and hid it so effectually that he could not find it himself. The McConnell homestead was pur-
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
chased by Luther Harrah, who in the winter of 1854, while getting timber out for building pur- poses discovered the famous relic covered with the accumulations of its leafy bed, where it had lain for twenty-nine years. Francis McConnell, Jr., recognized the old saw, and it was finally taken to a foundry at Bridgeport, Ohio, where it was heated and straightened; it then came into the possession of Dr. Hupp who had been hunting for it a long time. It was first exhibited June 28, 1864, at the great Sanitary Fair and Festival held at Wheeling to aid the Union sol- diers in hospitals and suffering privations in the field. The blade is 5 feet 11 inches long, length of blade and ends 6 feet 312 inches; width at centre 472 inches; width at ends 212 inches. Number of teeth 38. Distance between the teeth 11/2 to 17/8 inches. The wooden handles are wanting, but the irons for their attachment remain. It was of course of English manufac- ture, and can now be seen at the College Mu- seum, Morgantown. Dr. Hupp has an exten- sive circle of friends who appreciate his good qualities as neighbor and citizen interested in the progress of Wheeling and in its charities, especially the "Children's Home of Wheeling," of which he has been the attending physician for several years. Dr. Hupp was a strong union man during the war, when it meant something to express Union sentiments in Wheeling, even after the new State had been fully organized.
RALPH L. BERKSHIRE.
HON. RALPH LAZIER BERKSHIRE, one of the three first judges of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, and the presiding judge for a part of the time, ex-State Senator, and an eminent practitioner of Morgantown, was born in Allegheny County, Md., on April 8, 1816. His father, William Berkshire, re- moved the year following to Monongalia County, Va., where he continued to reside until his de- cease in 1866. Ralph Lazier has always re- mained in the same county from infancy and has never had any other residence. In his youth he lived with his father, who was a farmer of limited means located near Morgantown, and made his daily help a part of the total work on
the farm, where he continued until he was about eighteen years of age, when he concluded to learn the trade of a carpenter and went to Mor- gantown for that purpose. He served his full term of apprenticeship and continued to work at his trade for several years after attaining his majority. The foregoing is taken from a sketch of Judge Berkshire prepared by Hon. John Mar- shall Hagans and published in the West Virginia Reports of the Supreme Court of Appeals. The sketch of Mr. Hagans continues as follows :
"In 1838, he commenced reading law in Mor- gantown with the late Guy R. C. Allen, a prom- inent member of the bar in Western Virginia, and was admitted to the bar in 1840, and con- tinued to practise his profession in Monongalia and adjoining counties until the breaking out of the rebellion. His father in politics being a Whig, he was early led to attach himself to that party and adhered to it until the general disin- tegration of former parties at the commence- ment of the rebellion, when he promptly espoused the cause of the Union. He never held any political office and was never a regular candidate for any, though his friends, in a por- tion of the congressional district in which he lived, voted for him in opposition to the Hon. Sherrard Clemens, he receiving a heavy vote in Monongalia and a full party vote in several other counties in which it was understood he would be voted for. Soon after coming to the bar, he was appointed by the county court prosecuting- attorney for Monongalia, to succeed Mathew Gay, Esq., who had been the veteran prosecutor for some twenty-four years, and at the expira- tion of his terin was re-elected to the same office by the people under the amended constitution. In 1861, he was a candidate for the office of Cir- cuit Judge against the Hon. George W. Thomp- son, receiving a majority of upward of four hun- dred in Monongalia, but was defeated in the Circuit. At the first dawn of the secession movement he entered his solemn protest against it and denounced it as unconstitutional, utterly indefensible, and fraught with the most direful calamities to the whole country, and as soon as the news of the passage of the ordinance of se- cession reached Morgantown on the 17th of April, 1861, he with others called an impromptu meeting to define the position of the loyal people of the county on the momentous issues thus thrust upon them. The meeting was large, en- thusiastic, and the most intense interest and solemnity pervaded it. Being put upon the committee on resolutions, he assisted in draft- ing the same, which were adopted by a unani- mous vote of the meeting, and were soon there- after published in the National Intelligencer and other leading papers as the 'first loyal voice from Western Virginia.'"
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He was appointed a delegate to the first con- vention at Wheeling in May, 1861, but was pre- vented from attending by his professional en- gagements. He was also elected by the people of the county a delegate to the convention of the 11th of June, 1861, which restored and re- organized the government of Virginia. Subse- quently the office of Judge of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit becoming vacant by reason of the refusal of Hon. George W. Thompson, the former Judge of the Circuit, to take certain oaths required by the convention of June, 1861, he became a candidate for that office in opposition to Major (afterward Judge) Good, a leading member of the Wheeling bar, and was elected by a very large majority. He continued to discharge the duties of this office until June, 1863, when, having been previously nominated by the Union State Convention, he was elected one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Appeals for the State of West Virginia. On the organization of the court, he drew the short term of four years and thereby, under a rule of the court, became president of the court during his term. He is a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, but entertains the utmost respect for and charity toward Christians of other denominations. In 1860 Mr. Berkshire was elected Judge of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit of Virginia, and served till June 20, 1863, under the "restored" or loyal State gov- ernment. He was elected a Judge of the Su- preme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, and entered upon the duties of the office with the creation of the new State, June 20, 1863, and served till December 31, 1866, as President of the Court. Judge William A. Harrison resigned as a Judge of that Court September 1, 1868, and Judge Berkshire was appointed by the Governor to fill the vacancy. He was elected at the Octo- ber election following to fill the unexpired term, and served till December 31, 1872. In 1874 Judge Berkshire was elected to the State Senate for four years, serving on the Judiciary Com- mittee and taking an active part in legislation and in the election of United States Senator. In 1888 he attended the National Republican Convention at Chicago as a delegate at large. Originally a Whig, he naturally inclined to the support of General Harrison and voted for him on each of the eight ballots taken, and pressed
his claims persistently upon his associates, and enjoyed with infinite pleasure his nomination and election. He sustained intimate relations with the Administration, which commanded his confidence and support. He ardently supported President Harrison for a second term. With the exception of about eight years on the Circuit and Supreme Bench, he has been an active ad- vocate all his professional life; and, although nearing his eightieth year, he is still in practice with his partner, Hon. George C. Sturgiss, ex- United States District Attorney. In the year 1842 Judge Berkshire became united in marriage with Miss Maria L. Chadwick, daughter of James Chadwick. Three children are now liv- ing, one dying in infancy, and a daughter, in maturity, leaving five infant children surviving her. Judge Berkshire, it may be interesting to note, received his license to practise in 1840, which was signed by Judges Joseph L. Fry, Edwin S. Duncan, and Daniel Smith. Senator W. T. Willey's license was signed at the same time. Judge Fry opened the first "Circuit Su- perior Court of Law and Chancery," at Morgan- town, May 28, 1831. The first Judicial Circuit of that day embraced the counties of Rocking- ham, Pendleton, Preston, Monongalia, Brooke, Ohio, Lewis, and Harrison, and included all the territory between the Pennsylvania line and the Little Kanawha River. Judge Fry made the tour of this vast region every spring and fall, mounted on a large sorrel, and usually ac- companied by his body servant, a colored man Samuel, also on horseback, following consider- ably in the rear.
FRANCIS H. PIERPONT.
HON. FRANCIS HARRISON PIERPONT, of Fairmont, was elected Governor of the Re- stored Government of Virginia by the Wheeling Convention for a term of six months and until his successor should be elected by the people. On the fourth Thursday in May, 1862, he was, at the general State election elected to fill out the unexpired term of John Letcher, Governor of Virginia, who had joined the Southern Con- federacy. His term expired January 1, 1864. On the fourth Thursday in May, 1863, he was
Yours Truly F. H. Pierpont.
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
elected by the loyal voters of Virginia within the Union lines, Governor of Virginia for the full term of four years, commencing the first day of January, 1864. Governor Pierpont was never . Governor of the State of West Virginia. In a brief sketch the full history of a public man such as ex-Governor Pierpont cannot be given. His official life was such an important one, owing to the momentous and complicated events of which he was the resolute personage, that only an out- line of his early gubernatorial career can be elucidated in this article. His reception and administration at Richmond form a chapter for which space must be found in a succeeding vol- ume; but his principal acts in leading the move- ment that resulted in two State Governments, and ultimately in the formation of West Vir- ginia, are recorded with accuracy and will be found complete reference on that subject. Fran- cis H. Pierpont was born in Monongalia County, about five miles east of Morgantown. He is the third son of Francis and Catherine Pierpont, and the 25th of January, 1814, is the date of his birth. A small log cabin about twenty feet square, in the midst of the wilderness, was his infant home. There he first breathed the lib- erty-laden air of the mountains; and in 1814, when but nine months old, his parents removed to Harrison County, three miles southwest of the site of Fairmont, where the family lived until 1827, when they again changed their abode to Marion County, settling at Fairmont, where Mr. Pierpont has always resided. Of Mr. Pier- pont's parents and family, his father, Francis Pierpont, was born April 6, 1784, and died 4th of March, 1849, at Fairmont. His mother, Cath- erine Weaver, was born February 27, 1792, and died March 29, 1839. Both are buried at the Fairmont cemetery. They had five sons, Joseph W., Zackquill M., Francis H., Larkin, and New- ton; all now dead but Francis H., the subject
of this sketch. Francis P. Pierpont, son of Zackquill, was Major of Twelfth West Virginia
Volunteer Regiment of Union soldiers and sub- sequently Adjutant-General of West Virginia under Governor Boreman. Larkin Pierpont was
Major, then Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fourth
What
Regiment of West Virginia Volunteers.
work Francis H. did until thirteen years old,
was on the farm. After he was of school age, he went about two and one-half miles to a log
school-house, four terms of three months each, in the winter time. From thirteen years old to twenty-one and a half he worked in his father's tan-yard, then he started on foot to seek an edu- cation at Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pa., about one hundred and eighty miles distant. He remained at Allegheny College four and one- half college years, and was graduated in the class of 1839, visiting home three times, in vaca- tion, travelling, as he first started, on foot most of the distance. After he left college he taught school for three years in Virginia and Mississippi. In political opinion, he was a Whig. His father taught him that slavery was a moral, social, and political evil. During his college life this senti- ment was increased. While residing in Missis- sippi, his personal observations of the institution intensified this sentiment. After leaving college and while teaching, he studied law. In conse- quence of the failing health of his father, he re- turned home in 1842, and was admitted to the bar in that year. He was an amateur politician, though never a candidate for office, and fre- quently addressed the people on political sub- jects. He was placed by his party on the State electoral ticket for President, in 1848. His dis- trict contained ten counties, six mountain coun- ties of which were overwhelmingly Democratic. It was proposed and agreed upon that the two electors should hold joint discussions of the points of difference between the parties, in all the counties in the district, at the county seats, and at such other points as they could attend. The meetings were largely attended and the canvass lasted over three months. It was in these discussions Pierpont took decided ground against slavery. Slavery and slavery propa- gandism were cardinal points in Democratic politics. His opponents charged General Tay- lor with being an abolitionist. Pierpont replied that he did not know what General Taylor's
views were on the subject of slavery, neither did he care to know. West Virginia knew nothing of slavery but the oppression of the slavocracy of the east, and hence he entrenched himself with arguments showing it a social and political evil. The young lawyer began to make headway in the little town of Fairmont as
it existed fifty years ago. His practice improved and being blessed with that most important of all adjuncts to professional success-absolute
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
good health-Mr. Pierpont soon received recog- nition as a leading lawyer of that section of Vir- ginia, which seems to have had an attraction for him that has kept him there all these years until now, in his hearty old age, he is the pride of the town and county, enjoying the loyal friendship and respect of his fellow-citizens regardless of politics. At the age of seventeen Mr. Pierpont joined the M. P. Church and for eighteen years before the war was an active Superintendent of Sunday-school and has had a class ever since. He says that the most valuable knowledge he ever received was obtained in Sunday-school work. As above stated, he began early to take an interest in public discussions and quickly gained a reputation as an earnest worker and a good platform political speaker. Dunnington's " History of Marion County" states that " he was a thorough Abolitionist and did more than any other man to cultivate Anti-Slavery sentiment" in that part of Virginia. Another writer, in " Prominent Men of West Virginia," states that " his convictions were so intense he rarely al- lowed an opportunity to pass without open op- position to the doctrine of human slavery." Mr. Pierpont seems from the first to have been im- bued with Anti-Slavery sentiments, and was one of those whose very nature and temperament inclined him to the humanity side of the slavery question-if we may employ such a term. It was his nature to be so: a man of highly emo- tional sympathies, he proclaimed against slavery as an institution; counting for naught any and all arguments in its favor as far as kind treat- ment and wise management of slaves could be considered in extenuation of the institution. In these discussions he did not deny the legal right of the owner to his slaves and kept within the laws of the State. In the words of another writer:
" Whatever accusations were brought against the Abolitionists, he knew that the people of Western Virginia knew the slavocracy of the State only by its oppression of white laboring people; that the Democratic party had always held the political power in the State, and that the part east of the Blue Ridge, though largely in the minority in population, held controlling power in the legislature. The west had had but one United States Senator and never a Judge of the Court of Appeals or a Governor until 1852. By the laws of the State, they to a great extent exonerated their slaves from taxation, and taxed
all the laboring man had, from a pig to an en- gine. By law, a poor man with three sons over sixteen years, with himself, might be called to work the roads ten or twenty days in the year, while the gentleman owning two male slaves over sixteen years, was exempt from road work- ing, and his land was seldom taxed for road purposes. The children were without free schools, and almost without schools of any kind. He pointed them to Pennsylvania and Ohio, with their free institutions; on the one side of an imaginary line you could see thrift, intelli- gence of the children, and prosperity of the people; not so where slavocracy reigned. He declared that Western Virginia wanted free schools, a sound currency, and a tariff for pro- tection. He continued this line of attack on the oppression of slave-holders, through the local press and before the people, in 1848, as elector 1852, 1856, and in the Governor's election in 1859 and Presidential in 1860. When the Demo- cratic party divided in 1860, and nominated Breckenridge and Douglas for President, Pier- pont at once announced that the Breckenridge party meant secession, rebellion, division of the Union, and war. He maintained this country could not be divided without war. ridge Democrats vehemently denied this charge. Brecken- Pierpont pressed it the harder, so that when the rebellion came a large number of Democrats were on the Union side. He was not an Aboli- tionist in their sense of the term, but he hated the institution of slavery, the intolerant spirit of pro-slavery men, and their oppression."
It may be said further that he was a Radical in the fullest sense, yet for all he lacked the acerbity and narrow-mindedness of some of his more Northern confrères; for being a man of generous mould, brought up in a favoring clime, with accurate ideas of slavery as it existed in Virginia, his knowledge of the institution was of the more enlightened and practical character such as an intelligent Virginian only could pos- sess. The more exaggerated notions, the fic- tion and romance of the evil, were none of his stock in trade. He opposed slavery on the broader grounds of reason, science, and philoso- phy, as a growing institution, gigantic in pro- portions, and in conflict with advancing civili- zation. Therefore, his Abolitionism partook of the more sensible characteristics of the great Anti-Slavery crises, which resulted in what Eu- ropeans still designate as the "Slave War," and which did so much to change the political his- tory of these United States some thirty years ago. When the division finally took place, fol- lowing the Secession Act, Mr. Pierpont became
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
one of the most prominent and influential Anti- Slavery men in Northwestern Virginia, to whom all eyes were turned and upon whom loyal sym- pathizers depended for counsel and leadership. He never for once lacked the courage of his con- victions and never wavered in the hour of tu- mult and danger. This element of strength and consistency has always been accorded him even by his political opponents; and it made his name a bulwark of power and stability in the crisis of which he became the central figure and the chief actor in opposition to Governor John Letcher and the Richmond Administration. Mr. Pier- pont undoubtedly originated the plan of opposi- tion to Governor Letcher and the Confederacy, and with wise and skilful counsellors to formu- late his ideas and perfect the reorganization of the State Government, he must be given the credit for carrying to final and overpowering success the most sanguine expectations of the Anti-Slavery and Anti-Confederacy elements of the State. The history in brief of this unique and sweeping achievement is told in a chapter of Capt. Frank S. Reader's book entitled " His- tory of the Fifth West Virginia Cavalry, for- merly the Second Virginia Infantry, and of Bat- tery G, First West Virginia Light Artillery," published at New Brighton, Pa., and which regiments, the author remarks, "have many reasons to be thankful to the Governor, who is held in the highest esteem by every member of the old organizations." The descriptions of scenes and incidents, it may be said, have Mr. Pierpont's indorsement for accuracy and are given word for word as reliable data pertaining to the Restored Government of Virginia as well as to the formation of the New State. We have space for the conclusion only.
" Governor Pierpont went into the loyal part of the old State, not embraced in West Virginia. The people were anxious for him to follow the Restored Government, which he decided to do. 'I feared,' said he, 'if it failed the young State might fail.' The people elected him to take the office of Governor of Virginia for the full term from the Ist of January, 1864. Then he removed the seat of Government of Virginia from Wheel- ing to Alexandria, and in 1865, after the rebellion collapsed, he went to Richmond and completely restored the Government of the State. He was Governor for seven years, and was superseded by the 'Force Acts' of Congress passed in 1867. Governor Pierpont says the formation of West Virginia was not the act of any one man, nor
was it the act of the politicians of the State, as they were in the rebellion. It was simply the carrying out of an enthusiastic determination of a large body of serious, determined men, who felt that they had been oppressed by the slave power of the State, which power was then forc- ing them to antagonize the Union they so dearly loved, to enlarge the slave power they so cor- dially hated. This intense power was behind him, and he also had the counsel of true, intelli- gent men. The Wheeling Intelligencer, the only daily paper in the State, edited with great abil- ity and discretion by A. W. Campbell, Esq., was a tower of strength in support of the movement. The movement forming the Restored Govern- ment and the new State was of vast importance in determining the fate of the Union. It checked rebellion in Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri; it strengthened Union sentiment in the North; it added backbone to the administration at Wash- ington, and it dampened the ardor of the rebels at Richmond. The Western Virginia politicians promised the Confederacy 50,000 Western Vir- ginia troops. Rebels in the cotton States in the spring of 1861 said to the people, 'Plant your broad acres of corn and cotton. The war is transferred to the Potomac and the Ohio.' The intention was to make these rivers the picket line, but the first movement in Western Vir- ginia removed the picket line from the Ohio far back into the Allegheny Mountains. Governor Pierpont mustered into the United States service about 19, 500 men, as brave as ever shouldered a musket or drew a sabre. Some of them were brave Pennsylvanians and Ohioans, who wanted to help Western Virginia. The rebels were paralyzed in that section, and it is believed that less than 5,000 of them were in the Confederate regular service."
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