USA > West Virginia > Genealogical and personal history of the upper Monongahela valley, West Virginia, Volume II > Part 43
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(II) George, son of John Alexander, was born about 1802, in Greene county, Pennsylvania. He learned the trade of stonemason and followed his occupation until his death, April 4, 1877, in his sev- enty-sixth year. Removing to Monongalia county, he purchased land and became a farmer. He married Mary Chaplin, and they had two sons and four daughters, among them, John, mentioned below.
(III) John (2), the son of George and Mary (Chaplin) Alex- ander, was born in Cass district, Monongalia county, May 6, 1842, but removed in 1890 to Morgantown. He spent his early life in the man- agement and cultivation of his farm; but after taking a western trip, he decided to enter into business in Morgantown. There he engaged ex- tensively in the sale of agricultural machinery and implements. In political creed he is a Democrat, and has always taken an active and prominent part in the activities of the party. He served two terms of four years as justice of the peace, and, by appointment of Governor Fleming, was assessor in 1891 and 1892. He is a member of the Bap-
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tist church and is a past grand master of Monongalia Lodge, No. 10, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a man of the highest repu- tation among his fellow citizens. Mr. Alexander married, February 10, 1867, Caroline Conn, a daughter of the late Rev. George F. C. Conn, a resident of West Virginia, who had come from Pennsylvania. They had two children : George M., mentioned below, and Clyde.
(IV) George M., son of John (2) and Caroline (Conn) Alex- ander, was born in Cass district, Monongalia county, West Virginia, November 10, 1867. He spent his boyhood on his father's farm, and attended the public schools of the neighborhood. He was prepared for the University of West Virginia and matriculated in the scientific course. His ambition and industry put him among the students of the front rank, and a tireless vigor of constitution enabled him to carry out during the last two years' legal studies in addition to those of the course in which he had enrolled. He was graduated, therefore, in 1892, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws as well as of Bachelor of Science. After his graduation he came to Fairmont and entered upon the prac- tice of the law in October, 1892. A year later he formed a partnership with Emmett M. Showalter, under the name of Showalter & Alexander. This partnership continued from 1892 until 1895, and Mr. Alexander then practiced alone until 1900. Mr. Alexander was elected in 1896 and served four years as prosecuting attorney of Marion county. After his term of office expired he practiced until 1902, when he was ap- pointed attorney for the Fairmont Coal Company. He continued with that company until it was taken over by the Consolidated Coal Com- pany in 1910, and is serving in that capacity at the present time ( 1912). He is also attorney for the Fairmont & Clarksburg Traction Com- pany and Fairmont Trust Company. Mr. Alexander has ability not only of the brilliant and aggressive type, but has also that painstaking and conscientious devotion to work that in the long run conquers all ob- stacles. He is not only a brilliant and vigorous lawyer, well informed and well equipped in all matters of his profession, but is also a schol- arly and cultured man, using the weight of his influence in all move- ments for public betterment. His friends look forward to even greater professional laurels than he has yet won, an expectation which is shared by many that have known him less closely. His political opinions are Democratic, and he has been very prominent in the activities of the
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party. He is a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa Greek letter society; of the Free and Accepted Masons, Fairmont Lodge, No. 9; Marion Lodge, No. 11, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is also con- nected with the First Baptist church of Fairmont.
George M. Alexander married, June 22, 1892, Gertrude, daughter of James Jamison, of Morgantown, Monongalia county. Children : Virginia, born December 18, 1900; Edward E., born August 11, 1904.
HALE The Hale family now under consideration was one of the earliest families to locate in this country, and is well known in New England and elsewhere. Rev. Thomas Hale, who came from England about 1630, uncle of Nathan Hale, was the first to find a home in the new world. The first Hale to come to Morgan- town, Virginia, was the revolutionary soldier, Thomas Hale. This old English family have, with the passing of many generations, shown their spirit of independence and patriotism to a marked degree. They have left the country better for their many deeds of valor and good citizen- ship, ever being loyal to the best interests of the Union and true freedom.
(I) Thomas Hale, with whom this genealogy commences, had a military record contemporary with the days of the revolution, and is named in history. He settled after that war at Morgantown, Virginia.
(II) Abraham, son of Thomas Hale, was born in Monongalia county, and was a hatter by trade. He married Sarah Taylor, a native of the same county, related to the Zachary Taylor family; also to the Shore, Hutchinson and Fox families, of Loudoun county, Virginia. Among the children of Abraham and Sarah (Taylor) Hale was a son Presley Marton Hale, of whom further.
(III) Presley Marton, son of Abraham Hale, was born three miles from Morgantown, August 25, 1826. He obtained such school- ing as the times afforded, then learned the hatmaker's trade with his brother, Albert Hale, in Morgantown. He went to Fairmont in 1847, where he worked for the hatter, Benjamin Fleming, until 1849, when he formed a partnership with James Vandervort, and they went to Wes- ton and there engaged extensively in the hat and shoemaking trade. They soon had the chief trade of Lewis and adjoining counties. When talk of secession and civil war became rife, Mr. Hale became an active
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Union man, and was a member of the historic "Wheeling Meeting," and prominent in its deliberations. He was also a member of the pro- visional legislature held in Wheeling. It was while in Wheeling that he heard General George B. McClellan was in Grafton, and immedi- ately left for that town to see General McClellan, whom he found at the hotel consulting the maps and charts of Virginia. He failed, how- ever, to secure an interview with the Union commander then at the head of the armies, and immediately telegraphed Hon. John S. Carlisle, at Wheeling, to join him in Grafton. Carlisle came on the next train and they met General McClellan. Hale informed the general that Colonel Tyler (before the war a fur trader doing business around Weston) had joined the Union army and had just been made colonel of the Seventh Ohio Volunteers, then stationed at Camp Dennison, Ohio, and that Hale wished McClellan to order Tyler to Weston to suppress the rebel depredations there. General McClellan, acting upon his sugges- tions, ordered Tyler to Grafton, where McClellan, Tyler, Hale and Carlisle held a conference, and Tyler was then ordered to bring his troops to Weston, which was immediately done, under escort of Hale. Reaching Weston at daybreak, they surrounded the town and captured the rebels. The cashier and money in the Exchange Bank were pro- tected and finally removed to Bailey hotel and placed under strong guard, and Governor Pierpont was notified. He ordered that the bank effects be removed to Wheeling, to which place Hale then returned to his seat in the legislature.
Mr. Hale was also a delegate to the convention which formed the new state of West Virginia. It was he who, in the first mass meeting at Wheeling, interrupted Willey (afterward United States senator) in his speech "to go slow" by direct contradiction, breaking up Willey's influence in the meeting. Cries of personal violence were raised against Willey. The next day, on the advice of Governor Pierpont, he with- drew his remarks of the previous day, and a later speech made him United States senator from the new state. Hale and Willey became fast friends.
Mr. Hale was elected to a seat in the first legislature in West Vir- ginia in 1863, and served on many important committees. During the war he went before the county court of Lewis county and offered to loan the county, without interest or security, $5,000 with which to take
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care of the families of Union soldiers at the front. This was accepted. Later the business of Mr. Hale was raided by General Jenkins, Colonel Whitcher and others, and Hales' loss thereby was upward of $35,000 -practically everything he possessed except the loan given to the county. Since the close of the civil war Mr. Hale has been a prominent Republican, but has avoided office-seeking.
He married, in 1849, Sina Shore, daughter of Simon Shore, of Fairmont, a blacksmith. Sina Shore's mother was a Fox and her grandmother was a Hutchinson, of Virginia. Children by this union: Curtis P., mentioned below; Flora, wife of Joseph Stark, of Weston. Mrs. Sina (Shore) Hale died in 1856 and was buried in the Weston cemetery. Mr. Hale married (second) Eliza Butcher, of Lewis county. The issue by this marriage was one son, Thomas W. Hale, of Indianapolis, Indiana. Mrs. Eliza (Butcher) Hale died in Weston in 1904. Mr. Hale has for many years conducted a meat market on First and Main streets, Weston, which he still operates. He retains all of his faculties and enjoys excellent health, which he attributes to never having dissipated or used liquor or tobacco. He is regarded in Weston as the "Grand Old Man."
(IV) Curtis P., son of Presley M. and Sina (Shore) Hale, was born July 7, 1854. He now resides in Florida, where he is engaged in the fruit business. Politically he is a Democrat. He married Mar- garet Tierney and had children : Roy R, mentioned below; Presley E., Mary, Eugenia, John T., Marguerite, Josephine, Matthew.
(V) Roy R., son of Curtis P. and Margaret (Tierney) Hale, was born at Weston, West Virginia, August 8, 1876. He graduated from the Weston high school in 1896, but not being able to gratify his ambition for college life and acquirements, he engaged in newspaper work (the next best educator) on the Wheeling Register, and subse- quently on the Indianapolis Sentinel and other papers, until 1905, when he returned to Weston and with H. F. Rymer, established the Record, which they conducted until 1907, then sold it. It is now known as the Weston Republican. Previous to selling the office, and while in the newspaper business, Mr. Hale entered the service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, and was made general freight and pas- senger agent. In 1908 the duties of general yardmaster were given over to his care also. He has some real estate interests in Halesville,
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an addition to Weston. In 1908 he was elected president of the board of education. He has been a leader in the long campaign for better high school facilities at Weston, which was successfully ended Novem- ber, 1911. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Weston Lodge, No. 10, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Bigelow Chapter, No. 4, Royal Arch Masons, and St. John's Commandery, No. 8, Knights Templar; also belongs to Osiris Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles Mystic Shrine, Wheeling, West Virginia. Politically he votes the Dem- ocratic ticket.
He married Maude Vandervort, daughter of James G. and Cor- delia (Horner) Vandervort, of Weston. Children : Marjorie, born May 2, 1908; Robert, born July 9, 1910.
The following is an account of the Williams fam-
WILLIAMS ily to which Perry C. and Thompson H. Williams, of Harrison county, West Virginia, belong. Three generations will here be noticed, all of whom were natives of West Virginia.
(I) Mark Williams, born in Harrison county, married Jane Tate and had children : William J., Hugh, Thomas, Isaac, Margaret, Jane, Anna, Sophia.
(II) William J., son of Mark and Jane (Tate) Williams, was born on Ten Mile Creek, Harrison county, West Virginia, in June, 1825, died in November, 1901. He was a farmer all his life; was a member of the county court, a justice of the peace, politically a Demo- crat. He resigned the office of justice of the peace on account of ill health. He was a very popular man and one in whom all had the ut- most confidence. He was active up to the year of his death. He mar- ried Elizabeth Jane Riley, born at Pruntytown, West Virginia, in 1824, died in November, 1896, daughter of Freeland Riley, born in Ireland, but spent the greater part of his life in Pruntytown, West Virginia, where he married. Children, fourteen in number-nine sons and five daughters, ten of whom are still living, all in Harrison county save one, Isaac, of Barbour county: Margaret Ellen, died aged four- teen years; Riley M., of Wolf Summit; Jahn; Mark, died in infancy; John T., died in 1911 ; Polly, died in infancy; Isaac, of Barbour county, West Virginia, a merchant; Mrs. Sarah A. Law, of Ready, West Vir-
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ginia ; Perry C., of whom further; James E., of Clarksburg, realty and oil dealer; Thompson H., of whom further; Mrs. Alice Lanham, of Olive, Harrison county; Andrew J., of Bridgeport; Mrs. Ida May Fletcher, of Clarksburg, wife of Samuel R. Fletcher.
(III) Perry Columbus, son of William J. and Elizabeth Jane (Riley) Williams, was born February 2, 1861, at Lynch, Harrison county, West Virginia. He received his education in the public schools, after which he taught school seven terms and then engaged in farm- ing. He purchased two hundred acres, near Lynch, and there became successful at farming operations. In 1901 he went to Clarksburg and has dealt largely in real estate. He is vice-president of the Empire National Bank of Clarksburg. He votes the Democratic ticket; has served as justice of the peace in Ten Mile district for four years. His private residence is among the most attractive in Clarksburg. He and his family are members of the Baptist church. He married, October 26, 1886, Rosa B. Randolph, born at Salem, Harrison county, Novem- ber 3, 1861, daughter of Lloyd F. Randolph, who was born at Salem, West Virginia; was drafted by the Union army, but provided a substi- tute; served as constable and justice of the peace at Salem; died about 1906. He married Elizabeth Davis, a native of Harrison county. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Williams are: Warren Lee, born August 3, 1887; Lloyd W., May 15, 1889; Harvey C., April 3, 1891; Jessie D., August 15, 1892. Lloyd W. and Harvey C. are away at school at this date (1911), and Warren L. is employed in the Empire National Bank.
(III) Thompson H., son of William J. and Elizabeth Jane (Riley) Williams, was born at Bristol, Harrison county, West Vir- ginia, on the old homestead farm, May 20, 1863. He had the ad- vantage of the public schools of his native district, after which he con- ducted a general merchandising store at Bristol for a period of eigh- teen years. November 3, 1902, he went to Clarksburg, where he en- tered the extensive department store of Parsons, Soudders Company, which store occupies more floor space than any other department house in West Virginia. For three years he was actively engaged in the store, but since then only holds stock in the corporation. He now oper- ates in real estate which fully occupies his time and attention. He is a member of the realty firm of Post Reger Company, in the Goff block; iii-4M
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is also a stockholder in the Warren Undertaking Company; the Point Comfort Oil & Gas Company, and others of less importance. He owns a fine residence on Clay street, and is interested in and part owner of the apartment house on Main street, known as the Williams & Cun- ningham flats. Mr. Williams is a Democrat. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He also holds membership in Salem Lodge, No. 84, Free and Accepted Masons; Adoniram Chapter, No. 11, Royal Arch Masons; Clarksburg Commandery, No. 13, Knights Templar; Osiris Temple, Valley of Wheeling, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
He married, at Bristol, October 19, 1890, Ollie Edna Conway, born in Bristol, daughter of Dr. Joshua B. Conway, born in Marion county, now West Virginia, who lived in Bristol and practiced medi- cine there forty years and there died in March, 1910, aged seventy-five years. Dr. Conway married Elizabeth Amos, born in Marion county, now West Virginia, now residing with her daughter, Mrs. Williams, aged seventy-four years. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Williams are: Glenn Foster, born in 1890, now in his third year at law school at Morgantown; Alice Merle, born in 1897, in her second year in high school.
The Dye family is an old one in Old Virginia and has been DYE mostly of the agricultural class of people. Little, however, is now known of the earlier ancestors back of three genera- tions dating from the present, which is represented at Clarksburg, West Virginia, by James F. Dye.
(I) Walter Dye, probably born in Virginia, married and later re- moved to the country now known as West Virginia. He was an in- dustrious farmer and was interested in the growth and settlement of what was then looked upon as the west. His wife, Agnes (Ford) Dye, lived to be a very aged woman; and it was the good fortune of her husband to live long enough to see a wilderness transformed into a desirable place for residence. Children : Walter Jr., John F., George W., of whom further; Phebe, Mary and Fannie.
(II) George Washington, son of Walter and Agnes (Ford) Dye, was born in Old Virginia in 1814, died in 1866. He came when only
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a youth to Harrison county, West Virginia, with the family when they emigrated from Virginia. When he reached voting years he supported the Whig ticket in politics and later became a Republican. George W. Dye was also a farmer, and cared well for his family; he was, in re- ligious sympathies, a Methodist Episcopalian. His wife was, before her marriage, Harriet E. Holiday. She was born in Virginia, and died about 1901, beloved by all who knew her womanly character and kind deeds. Children : Robert E., lives in Illinois; Virginia A., John W., James F., of whom further; Elizabeth C., and George Marshall.
(III) James Frederick, son of George Washington and Harriet E. (Holiday) Dye, was born February 10, 1854, near Wallace, Har- rison county, West Virginia, on his father's farm. He received a com- mon school education in his native county, and continued to live on the farm until eighteen years of age, his father having died during his twelfth year. Then he learned the blacksmith trade at Independence, Preston county, and after having mastered his trade, worked at West Union, Doddridge county. He first went into business in a shop of his own at Brown, Harrison county, where he remained for five years; then ran a shop at Wallace for ten years. He engaged in live stock business and later bought oil and coal lands by the acre, in this way ac- quiring most of his present possessions. In March, 1905, he removed to the city of Clarksburg and purchased a considerable town property. He is now a stockholder in the Union National Bank, the Farmers' Bank and the Bank of Wallace. He also has stock in the Parkersburg Trust Company Bank. He has eighteen residential properties in Clarksburg, besides owning a modern residence on Mechanic and Chest- nut streets. He belongs to the Odd Fellows order and in church con- nection is a Methodist Episcopalian. He is an independent voter.
James F. Dye married, in 1877, Mary C., born 1857, at Shinnston, daughter of John Silas Swiger, of Wallace, West Virginia, who died about 1892. Mr. Swiger was a farmer. He married Nancy White- man, born in Harrison county, Virginia, now West Virginia, died about 1901. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Dye is: Charles Claude, born February 1, 1880; married Ida Parker, of Buckhannon, West Virginia, and has two children: Harry Hood and John Frederick.
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DAVIS Among the pioneer band in West Virginia should not be overlooked the Davis families that came from New Jer- sey at the Revolutionary war period. Descendants of this particular Davis line are found at Salem, Harrison county. Their generations run thus : William, of New Jersey-William F., born 1786, in what is now West Virginia-Lodawick H., born in 1826-Herman B., now residing at Salem, born in 1841-and his children.
(I) William Davis, probably a native of New Jersey, emigrated to this state prior to 1786, as his first child, William F., was born here in that year. He settled in this part of Virginia at a time when all was one vast wilderness, infested with many wild and ugly animals of the forest and rugged mountains, and when his neighbors were savage red men not pleasant to abide among.
(II) William F., son of William Davis, the New Jersey immi- grant, was born in 1786 at Salem. He was a pioneer farmer and was a soldier in the war of 1812. He married and had children, in- cluding a son, Lodawick Hughes.
(III) Lodawick Hughes, son of William F. Davis, was born in 1816, at Flint Run, Doddridge county, then in Virginia, now in West Virginia, on the old Davis homestead, known as "Flint Run Billie Place." He died at Salem, Harrison county, to which place he moved five years before his decease in 1885, when he was sixty-nine years of age. He followed farming all his life, but kept a roadhouse on the old Pike road in the fifties, prior to the days of railroads. Politically he was a Democrat, while in his religious faith he favored the Seventh Day Baptist denomination. He married Margaret, whose maiden name was also Davis, born in Bristol, Virginia, died in 1895, aged seventy-nine years. Stephen T. Davis, father of Mrs. Margaret (Davis) Davis, was born in Harrison county, Virginia, died in Dodd- ridge county in 1867, aged eighty-five years. He had been a farmer all of his life. Children of Lodawick H. Davis: Herman B., of whom further; Harriet Smith, now of Morgansville, Doddridge county, a widow; Sarah V., wife of Stillman Lowther, of Salem; Emily V., wife of Preston F. Randolph, of Salem; Terrance M., now residing at Buf- falo, New York, has been a teacher all his active life; and six others.
(IV) Herman B., son of Lodawick Hughes and Margaret (Davis) Davis, was born in Doddridge county, Virginia, January I,
H. B. Davis
1
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1841, on his father's farm, six miles west of Salem, on the northwestern turnpike road. He had the advantages of such schools as were in his immediate vicinity-none the best in that day. Not having a good op- portunity to gain his education in schoolrooms, he taught himself and became a good scholar. He has taken care that all of his children should be well educated. All have, at one time or another, taught school themselves. His son, Silas B., taught in the commercial de- partment of Salem College. During John O. Pendleton's term as congressman he was his private secretary. The family are all finely educated and do honor to their parents. Mr. Davis still retains the old homestead on Flint Run. He assisted his father in the farm work until he reached the age of twenty-one years. He then married and commenced for himself on the farm where his father had been born, four miles from his father's property. Here he lived and labored forty years. During those years, however, he went to Dakota, took a homestead and secured other lands. His family now own a full section of land twelve miles from the Canadian border line, in Ward county, North Dakota. This was all wild prairie land and was brought under the plow and thoroughly improved by Mr. Davis. He served four years as justice of the peace at Doak, Doddridge county, on Flint Run, beginning about 1902. With his family he went to Salem Janu- ary I, 1906, where after two years he established his present office of justice of the peace. He was elected on the Democratic ticket with a large number of Republicans voting for him. He is a stockholder and second vice-president of the Merchants' and Producers' Bank of Salem. He was a charter member of the local Masonic Lodge at Salem; has belonged to the order thirty-eight years, and is the oldest member in the lodge from time of initiation and nearly so in years. He is a Bap- tist in church faith.
He was united in marriage at Flint Run, Doddridge county, Feb- ruary 23, 1863, to Elizabeth V. McMillan. She was born in Brooke county, January 23, 1842, and came to Doddridge county with her parents, Samuel and Martha (Langfitt) McMillan. They were mem- bers of old families from the farming section, and are both now de- ceased. Children of Herman B. Davis: Martha L., born February, 1865, died November 29, 1910, married George W. Brown, of Minto, North Dakota; Ida M., born 1867, married Alonzo G. Bartlett, of
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Barbour county, West Virginia, she now resides at Salem; Silas B., born 1870, now in business in Chicago; Lillie B., born 1872, living in Salem, widow of Chester V. Hamilton; Ila B., born 1876, died in 1902, at Los Crusus, New Mexico, of consumption.
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