Genealogical and personal history of the upper Monongahela valley, West Virginia, Volume II, Part 23

Author: Butcher, Bernard Lee, 1853- ed; Callahan, James Morton, 1864-1956
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: New York, Lewis Historical Publishing co
Number of Pages: 660


USA > West Virginia > Genealogical and personal history of the upper Monongahela valley, West Virginia, Volume II > Part 23


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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Mr. Grant married, June 13, 1876, Florence Mary, daughter of Colonel Frank and Mary (Pike) Dale, of Pennsylvania. Children : I. Edith Mary, born December 3, 1878; married Harry John Zevely; one child, John Grant. 2. Dale, born March 1, 1879, died during the Spanish-American war; he enlisted in the First Virginia Regi- ment and was transferred to the Reserved Ambulance Corps. 3. Han- nah Elizabeth, born January 30, 1880; married Charles Everett Casto; two children: Dale Grant and Florence. 4. Frank, died in infancy. 5. Edward, died in infancy.


Samuel Edmondson, the first of the line here EDMONDSON under consideration of whom we have definite information, was born in 1750, died about 1830. He served in the revolutionary war as quartermaster in the continental army, as quartermaster in the Fourth Maryland Battalion of the Fly- ing Camp, June, 1776; as hospital surgeon's mate from June, 1777, to June 20, 1780, and as hospital physician and surgeon from September 20, 1781, to the close of the war. He married Martha Elmore, and among their children was Richard Coleman, see forward.


(II) Richard Coleman, son of Samuel and Martha (Elmore) Edmondson, was born in 1789, died November 6, 1859. He was active in the affairs of the community in which he resided, and was highly esteemed and respected by all with whom he was brought in contact. He married, May 15, 1823, Susan Howell, born Decem-


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ber 23, 1803, died November 14, 1891, daughter of Isham and Sallie (Howell) Chastain, the latter-named his first wife. Among the chil- dren of Mr. and Mrs. Edmondson was Richard Howell, see forward. (III) Richard Howell, son of Richard Coleman and Susan Howell (Chastain) Edmondson, was born February 2, 1829, died June 23, 1910. He was a resident of Halifax Court House, Virginia, where his parents also resided, and later removed to Richmond, Virginia, and then to Austin, Texas, where he engaged in business, from which he derived a comfortable means of livelihood. He married, July 2, 1860, Mary Missouri, daughter of Price and Elizabeth (McMurtry) Mont- gomery, born February 6, 1840, died September 2, 1868. Among their children was Richard Henry, see forward.


(IV) Richard Henry, son of Richard Howell and Mary Missouri (Montgomery) Edmondson, was born in Richmond, Virginia, May 22, 1867. When three years of age his parents moved to Austin, Texas, where his boyhood was passed. He attended a private school until he was fifteen years of age, when he was sent to the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, where he remained three years, grad- uating with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Upon his return to his home in Texas he accepted a state position in the General Land office, and worked at the adjoining desk to William H. Porter, who later be- came the noted author of short stories under the nom-de-plume of O. Henry. Having an earnest desire to become a member of the medical profession, he pursued a course of special preparation for one year and then matriculated at the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduating from that institution in the class of 1890. Returning to Texas he engaged in the practice of his chosen profession at his former home, Austin, but later went to Arizona and New Mex- ico. For ten years, in addition to his private practice, he served as sur- geon to the Caledonian Coal Company, to Senator W. A. Clarke's mines and to the Crescent Coal Company. In 1902 Dr. Edmondson returned east and pursued a course of study at the Post-Graduate Med- ical School in New York City, and in June of the same year located in Morgantown, West Virginia, where he is engaged in successful prac- tice at the present time (1912). He is thorough and painstaking in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, takes an interest in his patients, and therefore fully merits the patronage enjoyed by him. In 1903-04


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he served in the capacity of county and city health officer, discharging these onerous duties with promptness and fidelity. He was one of the incorporators of the Morgantown City Hospital Association, in which he also served as secretary; ex-president of the Monongalia County Medical Society, and delegate to the State Medical Association at the meeting of this association held at White Sulphur Springs, Sep- tember, 1911, at which time he was elected counsellor of the second district. He is a consistent and active member of the Episcopal church. Dr. Edmondson has traveled extensively throughout the United States, but derives his greatest pleasure in the home circle, where he spends all of his leisure time. He is a member of Free and Accepted Masons, Union Lodge, No. 4, of Morgantown; Improved Order of Red Men, and Sons of the Revolution. Politically he is a Democrat. Mrs. Edmondson is ex-state regent and present vice-president-general of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.


Dr. Edmondson married, October 27, 1897, Harriette Frances Cod- wise, of Kingston, New York, daughter of Edward B. and Emma (Snyder) Codwise, of Kingston, New York. Children : Helen Louise, born in Gallup, New Mexico, October 23, 1898 ; Gladys Chastain, born in Gallup, New Mexico, May 22, 1900; Harriette Codwise, born in Morgantown, West Virginia, July 16, 1905; Richard Edward, born in Morgantown, West Virginia, April 20, 1910.


ROGERS This is one of the oldest family names in America, dating from the arrival of the "Mayflower" in 1620, Thomas Rogers and his son Joseph being passengers on that historic craft. Writing in 1650 Governor Bradford says "Thomas Rogers died in the first sickness, but his son is still living and is married and has six children-the rest of his children came over and are married and have many children." The name is a very common one in the United States-emigrants of that name having come from England, Scotland and Ireland. There is no connection traced between the New England families and those of the south and west, there being no record of this particular branch that is discov- ered beyond Thomas Rogers, of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, a de- scendant of ancestors who settled in Maryland.


The earliest record found of this branch of the Rogers family in


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Pennsylvania is in Fayette county, Dunbar township. Thomas Rogers and his five brothers are said to have come from Maryland to Mount Braddock accompanied by their widowed mother. They took up lands in Dunbar township, under what was commonly styled "Tomahawk Claims," but becoming dissatisfied soon disposed of their interests to Samuel Work. The Rogers families then moved to Washington county, and in the Indian aggressions that befell that region three of the brothers lost their lives. The others then moved to the mouth of the Beaver, but shortly returned to Dunbar township and located in what is now known as the Cross Keys school district. One of the brothers opened a blacksmith shop on the Uniontown road and soon built a tavern nearby. It is said he set a pair of cross keys over his shop as a sign that he was a locksmith as well as a blacksmith, and when he opened his hotel he conceived the idea of calling it the Cross Keys Tavern, by which name it was long known. There is a tradition that the Rogers brothers founded a Masonic lodge in that neighborhood and that for a time the mysterious meetings of the brotherhood in the Cross Keys school house periodically excited the awe and wondering curiosity of the people of that vicinity, who were accustomed to gather regularly on lodge nights and exert themselves to a painful degree in their fruitless efforts to penetrate into the awful secrets and amazing performances which they were convinced were hidden within the school house walls.


Daniel Rogers, a son of the early family, married a daughter of Colonel Isaac Mason, a Virginian by birth and an important figure in the early history of Fayette county. Daniel Rogers died in 1873 at New Haven, Fayette county, at the great age of ninety-five years.


(I) Thomas Rogers' name appears in a list of the taxpayers of Dunbar township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, under date of 1799, as owner of one slave, five cattle and three hundred acres of land. He married and among his children was a son William.


(II) William, son of Thomas Rogers, was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, about the year 1790. He was a farmer and woodsman. There is little record to be found of him in Fayette county.


(III) Thomas (2), son of William Rogers, was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, December 20, 1812. He was a farmer of Fay- ette county until 1866, when he moved to Morgantown, West Vir-


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ginia, where he engaged in looking after his farm and milling prop- erties. He was a man of good business ability and bore an unblem- ished reputation. He was a member of the Episcopal church and a Republican in politics. He died in Morgantown, March 4, 1894. He married Mary M., born September 14, 1818, died April 27, 1887, daughter of John Rogers, born March 3, 1795, died 1833, in Hagerstown, Maryland; his wife was Mary (Squibb) Rogers; she was born in 1796, died October 28, 1822. Children : George, William, Daniel E., Anna P., deceased.


(IV) George, son of Thomas (2) Rogers, was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, May 26, 1857. He attended the public school of his town until the removal of the family to Morgantown in the au- tumn of 1866; he completed his preparatory studies in the schools of that city, and later entered the University of West Virginia. After completing his course of study he engaged in agriculture and stock raising. He owns a well-improved farm of one hundred and sixteen acres and conducts a business in cattle, buying, selling and breeding. He is a Republican in politics, and a vestryman of the Episcopal church. His fraternal order is the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He married, in 1895, Louise C., daughter of Thomas Brown, of Charles- ton, West Virginia. Children : Mary W. and Louise C.


SMITH Germany produced this industrious, intelligent Smith family. The generations have been active in this coun- try, the heads of two of which were natives of the Fatherland, as is shown by the following genealogical line :


(I) Henry Smith, the first of the family to seek for himself a home in the New World, made his settlement in the state of Pennsyl- vania about the year 1820. His family accompanied him to America and they resided in Pennsylvania. By occupation he was a farmer. He married, and among his children was a son, named Henry N.


(II) Henry N., son of Henry Smith, was born in Germany in 1839. He came to this country when about ten years of age and received his education at the public schools of York county, Pennsylvania. He learned the carpenter's trade, and later followed agricultural pur- suits. He was tax collector for his county at one time. In 1890 he moved to Huntington, West Virginia, where he engaged in contracting


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and building. In 1898 he removed to Newport News, Virginia, still following his trade as a builder. Subsequently he formed a partnership with his sons. In 1901 he removed to Morgantown, West Virginia, where he met his death by falling from a building that he was con- tractor for in 1902. In his church faith he was a Lutheran, and voted the Republican ticket. He married Mary A. Hildebrand. Children : Milton A., born 1867; Edward H, 1869; Cora, 1871, deceased; Carl H., of whom further; Charlotte, 1875; William W., 1877; Jesse B., 1879; August, 1882; Charles J., 1888, died in 1909.


(III) Carl Harrison, son of Henry N. and Mary A. (Hildebrand) Smith, was born in York county, Pennsylvania, November 3, 1873. At an early age he came with his family to West Virginia, settling at Ceredo. His father being an excellent carpenter and builder, the son had a very good opportunity to master the same trade, which he took advantage of. For a number of years he was a diligent student at Mar- shall College State Normal School at Huntington, from which institu- tion he graduated in 1897. He then turned his attention toward teach- ing school, but later returned to the college named and took up book- keeping and shorthand. Being well equipped in those professions, he became bookkeeper and stenographer for the Emmons-Hawkins Hard- ware Company at Huntington, with whom he remained for three years. In 1902 he went to Morgantown, and since that date has been exten- sively engaged in contracting and building, at first with his father, then with his brother, W. W. Smith, a prominent lawyer of Kenova. The test of his skill as a master builder is the large number of massive and well-built structures which stand as monuments to his credit, including the Grafton public school building; a $25,000 residence for Samuel W. Schrader; the $7,000 portico for Mrs. Bishop, at Kingwood; the Sigma Chi and Phi Kappa Psi chapter house; the Star Glass plant, at Randall; the new White Block, at Morgantown, and the Lutheran church, at Charleroi, Pennsylvania. These and many more all attest his excellency as a contractor and builder. Mr. Smith supports the Republican party. In his religious faith he favors the Presbyterian denomination.


He married, December 27, 1906, Helen Barrett, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ballard Smith, of Charleston, West Virginia. They


19-2M


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have one daughter, Helen Virginia, born May 7, 1909. As a means of protection to his family, Mr. Smith is a member of the Woodmen of the World, a beneficiary insurance and fraternal society, so universally popular at this age of the world.


The name Price, originally Ap Rhys, son of Rhys, is PRICE borne by various families in Wales, some noble, some not.


As a settled surname, however, it is of recent adoption. The name has several forms, including Apreece, Pryce, Prys. The names Rice and Rees are also derived from Rhys. In America the names Price and Rice are widely spread.


(I) Michael Price, the founder of this family, was born in Wales about 1767, died July 9, 1853. He was a brewer by trade, but after coming to America lived on a farm, settling in Greene county, Penn- sylvania. He married, in Wales, Mary Evans, born in 1770, died in June, 1870, one hundred years and thirteen days old. She was a mid- wife. They had six children, including: William, of whom further; Michael, Jeremiah, born September 7, 1815, married, August 14, 1855, Mary J. Goslin.


(II) William, son of Michael and Mary (Evans) Price, was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, November 21, 1803, died May 14, 1881. Removing to Dunkard Creek, Clay district, Monongalia coun- ty, Virginia, he was a large landowner and a farmer. For twenty years he was justice of the peace, and he served in the state legislature. He married Catharine Brown, born December 22, 1813, died April 27, 1869. Children: George, Abraham Brown, Elizabeth, Mary, Michael, killed in the civil war; John Evans, of whom further; Ger- aldine O., Albert Clay, Mariah L., Thomas H., Christine, Jane B., Sarah V.


(III) John Evans, son of William and Catharine (Brown) Price, was born in Clay district, September 24, 1840. He was educated in the public schools, old Monongalia Academy and the West Virginia University. At the outbreak of the war he was a student at J. R. Moore's school at Morgantown; he enlisted in August, 1862, in Com- pany A, Third West Virginia Infantry; later he served in the cavalry; his service ended with the close of the war. In May, 1865, he returned home and commenced farming and surveying. From 1881 to 1888 he


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was a deputy sheriff, and rode on the west side of the Monongahela river. In 1884 he was elected to the legislature; he favored Prohibi- tion and co-education in the State University. In 1897 he was elected county clerk, and he served six years in this capacity. Mr. Price moved to Morgantown, his present home, in 1886. He has been a member of the Methodist church since 1875, and for a number of years he was a notary public. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the Free and Accepted Masons.


Mr. Price married, in 1869, Elizabeth A., daughter of Peter Chal- fant. Children : Otella; Virginia, married Charles W. Kennedy; Will- iam C.


HOLLAND The name Holland was brought into America from Holland or Wales, and is found at an early date in the state of Virginia. Widely differing explanations of the origin and meaning of this name have been given. The most obvious suggestion, but not approved by all, places it among the names taken by the descendants of the Dutch traders who settled in Great Britain. The name is not common in England or America, and the materials for tracing the family history are but scant. Three of this name settled in Clinton district, Moriongalia county, Virginia, in the colonial epoch. One of these, Jacob, served for four years as a non- commissioned officer in the war of the revolution. He came from Berkeley, Virginia.


(I) Capell Holland, the first member of this family concerning whom we have any definite information, was born August 8, 1733, died October 22, 1823. He came to Clinton district at a very early date and settled near where the Goshen Baptist church now stands. He married Mary Wilson, born in 1747, died December 10, 1830. Chil- dren : Brice and Rezin, mentioned below.


(II) Rezin, son of Capell and Mary (Wilson) Holland, was born in 1776, died in September, 1851. He is said to have erected the first mill in Monongalia county. He married Joan Wilson. Children : Rezin (2), mentioned below; Elizabeth, married Hamilton G. West; Eli, Capell, John, Sarah, Millie, Solomon, Hannah, Margaret, Mary.


(III) Rezin (2), son of Rezin (1) and Joan (Wilson) Holland, was born June 28, 1820, died December 29, 1879. He was a farmer


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by occupation, and was a valiant soldier in the Union army in the civil war, serving from 1861 to the close of that conflict. He was wounded in the battle of Gettysburg. He married Leah Way, whose birth oc- curred February 21, 1822, died November 9, 1891. Children : James Way, mentioned below; Hannah J, George and Anna.


(IV) James Way, son of Rezin (2) and Leah (Way) Holland, was born in Monongalia county, Virginia, May 8, 1845. He was educated in the subscription schools and in the Morgantown Academy. He initiated his independent career by engaging in the lumbering and grazing business, devoting some forty-two years to the former line of enterprise and handling large amounts of timber on the river. He was also interested extensively in cattle raising. For sixteen years he was a member of the board of directors of the Monongalia Valley Bank at Morgantown; was a member of the school board for many years; county commissioner for five years, and in January, 1910, be- came president of the county court. He has been a devout member of the Baptist church for forty-five years. He married Elbertina Boyers, who was born February 5, 1846. Children : Isa, born September 21, 1868, married John F. Keener, they have one child, Paul H; Walter F., born May 19, 1879, married Grace Jacobson, of Lakeside, Ohio; they have three children : Virginia, James and Agnes E.


BAILEY Robert Bailey, the first member of this family about whom we have definite information, was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in 1831. His trade was that of blacksmith. In the civil war, from 1862 to 1865, he served in the mechanical department. After the war he engaged in farming. He married Sarah Hall. Children : 1. William Henry, mentioned below; Frances, married Lindsay Cox; Anna, married George Boyd.


(II) William Henry, son of Robert and Sarah (Hall) Bailey, was born in Monongalia county, West Virginia, December 31, 1854. He was educated in the public schools and worked on his father's farm. He also attended the University of West Virginia, and subsequently taught school for eight years. From 1885 to 1889 he was jailor and deputy sheriff of the county, and in the fall of the latter year he en- gaged in the hardware business, the firm being Baker & Bailey. Fif- teen years later, in 1904, he purchased Mr. Baker's interest, and he has


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conducted the business individually to the present time, selling hard- ware, farm implements and builders' supplies. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; for ten years was a member of the school board, of which he has been president, and for six years has been one of the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a member. He is a Republican in politics. He is one of the prominent and highly respected residents of Morgantown, where he has so long resided.


Mr. Bailey married, in 1880, Rosa Vandervort. Children: I. Mary E., born August 12, 1881, died December 18, 1885. 2. Gertrude, born June 12, 1883; married H. E. Webb. 3. Edith, born August 2, 1886, died July 4, 1911. 4. Ruth, born September 29, 1888. 5. Guy, born June 29, 1890. 6. Nicholas, born October 9, 1892.


MADEIRA Originally this family came from Spain, and was sometimes spelled "Madori." They owned the three islands of Madori, off the coast of Spain. They were usually artificers in filigree jewelry. During the reign of Charles V, the day of the persecution by the Inquisition, in the sixteenth cen- tury, they, being Protestants, removed to Holland, and some time in the seventeenth century, three brothers, Peter, Jacob and John Daniel, came to America, locating on the shores of Delaware Bay and at Gwynedd, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where they became owners of large tracts of land. To-day the family is scattered through- out the United States, writing their names Madori, Madeira, Mad- ery, Madera, Madara, etc. In 1754 they were generally members of the German Reformed church of Germantown, Pennsylvania, and later Jacob Madeira contributed to the erection of the German Re- formed church at Frankford, Pennsylvania. John Daniel Madeira, of the three who emigrated from Holland, settled in Virginia, and from him have descended all the Madeiras of both Virginia and West Vir- ginia, including the branch at Morgantown, the seat of the family being Woodstock, Shenandoah Valley. Later they removed to Chillicothe, Ohio.


(I) John Daniel Madeira, of the three brothers who sailed from Holland in the seventeenth century, and after a time located in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, had posterity at Chillicothe, Ohio. A


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station of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad is situated about thirteen miles from Cincinnati, and called Madeira, after this family.


(II) Jacob Madeira, one of the founders of the German Reformed church above mentioned, was born and died in Frankford, Pennsyl- vania. He married Hester -- , and had children : Jacob, Sebastian, Ester, George, Christian (?) and Christopher.


(III) Sebastian Madeira, son of Jacob and Hester Madeira, was born in 1737; he was killed near Pottsville, Pennsylvania, by the fall- ing of a tree in clearing up a tract of land. He married, in 1784, Catherine Frost, born 1747. Children: Jacob, born 1766, baptized in the German Reformed church at Germantown, Pennsylvania, July 14, 1766; Mary, born 1769; Catherine, born 1771; Sarah, born 1773; John, born 1774. At the time of the Indian massacre of Wyoming, the widow of Sebastian, with her son Jacob and the remainder of the family escaped down the Schuylkill river and settled somewhere west of Fairmount, Pennsylvania. She subsequently married a Mr. Dunbar, and they had children : James, born 1777; Joseph, born 1779; James, born 1781, and Jane, born 1784. Her husband evidently left her a widow, as she lived with her son Jacob up to 1837, and was buried in the Hood Cemetery, Germantown, Pennsylvania.


(III) Ester Madeira, third child of Jacob and Hester Madeira, was born January 1, 1744, died 1833, married December 23, 1761, to Jacob Zebley. Their daughter Hester married Jacob Mower, and their daughter married John F. Lewis, whose seventh son is G. Albert Lewis.


(III) George Madeira, fourth child of Jacob and Hester Madeira, was born in 1746, died June 1, 1801, in Warrington, Bucks county, Pennsylvania ; married Barbara Benther, March 13, 1777, in German- town Reformed church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their son Jo- hannes, or John, was born January 21, 1778. Barbara Benther died in 1813.


(III) Christopher Madeira, sixth child of Jacob and Hester Ma- deira, was born in 1750 and died February 19, 1828; married Eliza- beth Neff, born November 4, 1756, died December 21, 1821. The date of their marriage was April 30, 1776, and Elizabeth Neff was the daughter of Jacob and Anna (Briser) Neff. Children of Christopher and Elizabeth Madeira: Jacob, born 1777; Christopher, born 1779; Elizabeth, married Arnold Baker; Hester, born 1788, married Wil-


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liam Ross; Ann, married Francis Asbury; David, born January 21, 1797, married a Miss Cassidy; John, born January 12, 1800, died February 4, 1824.




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