USA > West Virginia > Genealogical and personal history of the upper Monongahela valley, West Virginia, Volume II > Part 46
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(IV) Benjamin Franklin, ninth child of James and Susannah (Roderick) Martin, was born in Georges township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, March 30, 1854. He was educated in the public school, finishing his studies at Georges Creek Academy, one of the noted acade- mies of the county. He learned the trade of wheelwright under the able instruction of his father, and became an expert workman. He fol- lowed his trade for twenty years, then abandoned it for more promis- ing enterprises. He is now (1912) president of the Morgantown (West Virginia) Granite Works, which he established in Morgantown in 1908. The company conducts an extensive local business, and from their well-stocked and well-managed plant ship their product to outly- ing points in West Virginia and adjoining states. Mr. Martin is a Democrat in politics, and in Fayette served as county auditor. He is a member of Mount Moriah Baptist church, and of the Independent Or- der of Odd Fellows.
He married, at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, November 20, 1884, Emma O. Summers, born June 18, 1861, at Smithfield, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, daughter of John and Sarah (Ross) Summers; her father is a prosperous farmer of Fayette county and in early days a noted hunter. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Summers: Minerva, born 1835; Jesse C., 1837; Rhoda, 1839; Mary, 1841; Joseph R., 1843;
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Dianna, 1845; Malinda, 1847; Gwenn, 1849; Robert J., 1851; Jane, 1853; Samuel, 1855; Lizzie, 1858; Emma O., 1861. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Martin: 1. Jesse Summers, of whom further. 2. Grace Roderick, born September 23, 1887; now a teacher in the public schools of Fayette county, Pennsylvania. 3. Benjamin Franklin, born Sep- tember 10, 1894.
(V) Jesse Summers, son of Benjamin Franklin and Emma O. (Summers) Martin, was born at Smithfield, Pennsylvania, October 18, 1885. He was educated in the public schools, and for four years was a teacher in the schools of Fayette county, Pennsylvania. In 1908 he located in Morgantown, West Virginia, where he engaged in the mar- ble and granite business, specializing in monumental work. He is now secretary and treasurer of the Morgantown Granite Works, of which company his father is president. He is a member of the Baptist church and of the Patriotic Order of Sons of America. He married, July 12, 19II, Kathryn H., daughter of E. B. Swaney, of Smithfield, Pennsyl- vania.
MILLER William Miller, immigrant ancestor of this branch of the Miller family in America, was a tanner and a planter of Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1638. He came to this country from England, probably about 1635, although he may have lived in Germany a few years previous. In 1643 and 1646 he served as a soldier against the Indians. He resided in Ipswich in 1648, and in 1654 was one of the twenty-three original settlers of North- ampton, Massachusetts. He lived on King street in that town, and died there July 15, 1690. He acquired a plantation at Northfield in 1672 and settled there, but returned to Northampton probably on ac- count of the Indian war. He married Patience -, who died, very aged, at Northampton, March 16, 1716. The Northampton rec- ords say that she was a skilled physician and surgeon. Children : John, married, March 24, 1670, Mary Alvord; Mary, married (first), De- cember 18, 1672, Obadiah Williams, (second), November 28, 1677, Godfrey Nims; Rebecca, died August, 1657. Born at Northampton : Patience, September 15, 1657; William, November 30, 1659; Mercy, February 8, 1658; Ebenezer, mentioned below; Mehitable, July 10, 1666; Thankful, April 25, 1669; Abraham, January 20, 1671.
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(II) Ebenezer, son of William Miller, was born at Northampton, June 7, 1664, died there December 23, 1737. He was called a hus- bandman. He married, in 1688, Sarah Allen, born July 28, 1668, died August 4, 1748, daughter of Samuel and Hannah (Woodford) Allen, of Northampton. Children, born at Northampton: Sarah, 1689; Mary, 1690; John, January 12, 1692, died October 23, 1696; Ebenezer, mentioned below; Captain Jonathan, Hannah, August 20, 1700; Patience, Joseph, June 4, 1705; Aaron, November 6, 1707-08; John, 1711-12.
(III) Ebenezer (2), son of Ebenezer (1) Miller, was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, August 15, 1696, died February 26, 1777. He married (first), May 8, 1725, Hannah Burt, and (second), November 15, 1754, Mrs. Elizabeth (Denning) Norton. His second marriage is recorded at Avon, town of Farmington, Connecticut, in the church records (p. 13, vol. iv., "Bailey's Early Conn. Marriages"). 'She was then of Farmington. In Avon we find also the marriages of his children or grandchildren: Jonathan Miller, married, September 24, 1761, Sarah North; Elisha Miller, married (first), October 18, 1764, Sarah Fowler, and (second), November 18, 1778, Abigail Bunnell; Ebenezer, married, September 25, 1788, Diantha Hutchinson. His son Noah is mentioned below.
(IV) Noah, son of Ebenezer (2) Miller, was born about 1735, in Farmington, Connecticut. He was a soldier in the revolution from July 15, 1780, to December 9, 1780, among the levies enlisted in the Sec- ond Regiment in 1779 and 1780 for short terms and was in the second company, Lieutenant Colonel Hart, Second Connecticut Regiment, Colonel Zebulon Butler (p. 186, vol. xii., "Conn. Hist. Society, Revo- lutionary Rolls"). He married, at Avon, Farmington, April 9, 1760, Ann Buel. In Farmington, in 1790, the first federal census shows as heads of families Anna, Job, Reuben, Solomon, Ebenezer and Noah, who had in his family two males over sixteen, two sons under sixteen and three females. Noah Miller was a prominent citizen, a builder and contractor. He is said by descendants to have been one of the finest looking men in Connecticut. His son James is mentioned below.
(V) James, son of Noah Miller, was born in Farmington, Con- necticut, in 1780. When about twenty-one years of age he married Sarah, daughter of Abner Messenger, a soldier of the revolution under
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General Washington in 1782 (Connecticut in the Revolution). Ab- ner Messenger married a Miss Pike, who was a cousin of General Pike. About a year after his marriage James Miller, together with his father- in-law, Abner Messenger, went to the Muskingum Valley in the tide of emigration that went west of the Allegheny mountains about that time. Abner Messenger settled in what is now Preston county, West Virginia, and died there at an advanced age, his descendants now being numerous in that section. James Miller, contracting malaria at Marietta, Ohio, and becoming discouraged with the western country, started back to Connecticut, but finding a good opening at Morgantown, Virginia, opened a coopering establishment at that place, that being his trade, and employed a number of hands in his shop. A few years later he went to Greensboro, Pennsylvania, where Albert Gallatin had established a glass plant, the first one west of the Allegheny mountains. About 1837 he moved to Middletown (now Fairmont), Virginia, where he con- tinued in the coopering business and also conducted a ferry between Fairmont and Palatine, in which latter town he bought the first laid-out lots and to which he removed in 1839. His first wife, Sarah Messen- ger, having died, he married a Mrs. Hirons, of the Pricket Creek set- tlement, and a few years later he and his step-son purchased a farm upon which he resided until his death, March 19, 1856. He was an exemplary citizen, and a class leader in the Methodist church. His first wife died in Palatine in 1839; his second wife survived him. To his first marriage five sons and five daughters were born: Noah Buel, who died in infancy; Abner Amherst; Samuel B .; James; William Ed- mund; Emily, married Jesse Core; Ann, wife of Daniel Gantz; Abigail Pike, married Thomas Pickens, of Ohio; Sarah, wife of M. D. Purnell; Mary, married L. D. Fox. All these are now deceased.
(VI) William Edmund, son of James and Sarah (Messenger) Miller, was born at Morgantown, Virginia, now West Virginia, July 29, 1822, died at Fairmont, November 19, 1911. He was reared prin- cipally at Greensboro, Pennsylvania, where he received his education at a private school. He learned the trade of cooper of his father, which he followed until 1841, when he engaged in the manufacture of hand- rolls for domestic spinning of cloths and flannels, at Barnesville. Five years later he turned his attention to the flouring mill business, which he conducted up to 1863, in which year he secured the flouring mill at
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Sincerely yours, Thor Guiller,
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Nuzum's Mill, where he remained two years. At the end of that time he returned to Barnesville, where he managed the woolen mills of the Barnesville Manufacturing Company until 1888, being a director and serving as president of that company. Politically Mr. Miller was a staunch Republican, and an official in the Methodist Protestant church, a teacher in the Sunday school fifty-seven years or more, as well as its superintendent many years. In early life he was first lieutenant and then captain of a Marion county volunteer militia company that offered its services to the government during the Mexican war, but was not called into active service. On October 21, 1847, Mr. Miller married Nancy Jeretta, daughter of Thomas Hall, a prominent citizen of the county, and an upright Christian gentleman. She died August 19, 1907. Thomas Hall was born in Delaware, January II, 1779, and was brought by his father, Asa Hall, to the Forks of Cheat river in 1782. He was ordained a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church in 1815, at Morgantown, Virginia, and later purchased a farm near Houlttown, on which he erected a flouring mill in 1828. He died of erysipelas July 28, 1869. He was twice married (first) to Jane Bennett, 1799, and (second) to Elizabeth Stewart, 1813. To Mr. and Mrs. Miller were born six children : Professor Thomas Condit Miller, of whom further; Charles Albert, a teacher; Anna Belle, a teacher; Buena Vista; Richard S., now deceased; Mattie A.
(VII) Professor Thomas Condit Miller, son of William Edmund Miller, was born in Fairmont, Virginia, now West Virginia, July 19, 1848. He received his early education in private schools. Among his in- structors was Dr. William R. White, who afterward was the first state superintendent of free schools of West Virginia. The civil war interrupt- ed the course of his studies. For a year he served in the Home National Guard under United States officers, and when but sixteen years old en- listed in Company E, Seventh Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer In- fantry, April 1, 1865, and served until July 10, 1865, when he was honorably discharged. He then resumed his studies, attending the Fairmont Academy and high school, teaching between terms after No- vember, 1867. After the State Normal School was opened at Fair- mont he was enrolled as a student and completed the prescribed course under Principal J. G. Blair. Among his other instructors there was Pro- fessor J. C. Gilchrist, who graduated from Antioch College when Hor-
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ace Mann was president. He afterward spent a year in Adrian Col- lege, Michigan, but on account of ill health gave up his college course during the junior year. He has since then continued in school work. For a period of twenty-one consecutive years he was principal of the Fairmont high school, after having five years' experience as a teacher in country schools. His devotion to the Fairmont high school, and his suc- cess as a teacher brought him attractive offers from various parts of the state, and from other states. In 1893 he finally resigned to accept the position of principal of the preparatory department of the West Virginia University, and he afterward received the appointment of professor of pedagogy in the university, in which position he served with ability and fidelity for eight years. He resigned when elected state superin- tendent of free schools in 1900 and was reelected at the end of his term, serving from 1901 to 1909. In the election of 1904 he received more than 25,000 plurality, the largest vote ever received by a candi- date in West Virginia except that of President Roosevelt. In politics he is a Republican. Under the first state constitution he was for a time township clerk. Since 1909 Professor Miller has been principal of Shep- herd College Normal School, Shepherdstown, West Virginia. He is a popular institute lecturer and has probably addressed as many educa- tional gatherings in the state as any other man, and he has also visited and spoken at institutes in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. He is a member of Meade Post, No. 6, Grand Army of the Republic, and was assistant quartermaster-general of the Depart- ment of West Virginia for several years. He has held about every position on the state department and in the local post and served on the staff of the commander-in-chief a number of times; also as patriotic in- structor for West Virginia. It was largely through his influence and ef- forts that the monuments now standing in honor of the fallen heroes of his state on the battlefield at Gettysburg were erected. In 1866 he much time and energy to the denomination, now being a member of the joined the Methodist Protestant church, and since then has devoted general conference. For twenty years he was superintendent of the Sunday school and he has been president of the State Sunday School Association. He was a member of Lincoln Lodge, Good Templars, and has always been active in the temperance movement. He is a mem- ber of the National Education Association and a member of its National
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Council; of the American Historical Association and of the National Geographic Society.
He married, September 6, 1876, at Fairmont, Drusilla C. Hamilton, born at Fairmont, June, 1847, daughter of Elmus and Louisa S. (Hamilton) Hamilton. She had brothers: James B., William S. and John S. Hamilton, and a sister, Paulina B. Pierpoint. The Hamilton family is prominent in Fairmont. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Miller: I. Archie Hamilton, born November 4, 1877; now engaged in clerical work. 2. Dwight Edmund, born October 5, 1879; engaged in clerical work. 3. Dana Paul, born October 6, 1883, died September 1, 1907. 4. Pauline Barns, born June 14, 1887; married Henry C. Capito, and resides in Charleston, West Virginia.
GORDON The Gordons are an English family, first represented in America by Frank Gordon, who located in Halifax county, Virginia.
(I) Frank Gordon, English ancestor of this family, emigrated from England with his young wife and made for himself a home in Virginia as just stated. He was a successful farmer in Halifax county. In his family was a son John, of whom further.
(II) John, son of Frank Gordon, the English emigrant, was born in Fairfax county, Virginia, in 1799, died in Ohio, at the age of seventy-two years. His life was largely spent as a farmer in Virginia, he residing in Frederick county, that state. In his religious faith he was of the Methodist Episcopal church. He married Susan, daughter of David Cooley, who was a mechanic at Winchester, Virginia, and who also came from England. Children: Robert Thomas, Samuel, James, Frank, John, George, Mary, the five last named being deceased.
(III) Robert Thomas, son of John and Susan (Cooley) Gordon, was born September 9, 1835, in Clark county, Virginia, on his father's farm. He attended the local subscription school convenient to his home, this being before the free school system had been inaugurated in Virginia. He assisted his father on his farm until he reached his ma- jority, then went to Newburg, Preston county, in what is now West Vir- ginia, where he learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed until the breaking out of the civil war, when he enlisted in Company D, Third West Virginia Regiment, and served two years, when he was dis-
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charged for disability. After the war ended he returned home and later went to Sycamore, Harrison county, West Virginia, where he re- mained twelve years, operating a flouring mill which he built himself. In 1872 he went to Salem, where he erected a similar mill, which he conducted until 1883. During his life as a Union soldier he saw hard service and participated in many engagements, among which may be named Cross Keys. He is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Salem, West Virginia, where he now resides. He is a Republican; be- longs to the Grand Army of the Republic, Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias fraternities. He has been a member of the Methodist Episco- pal church for sixty years, and superintendent of the Salem Sunday school for thirty-five years.
He married (first), at Newburg, Mary Virginia Waters, who died in 1864. He married (second), in Salem, West Virginia, April 17, 1896, Ellen Rose Harden, a widow. His children, all by first mar- riage, are: Mary Susan, wife of R. L. Towles, living at Salem, West Virginia; Estella, Mrs. Michael Dolan, of Wolf's Summit, a widow; John William, of Clarksburg.
This family for generations has been identified with the POTTER states of Maryland and the two Virginias. The Ameri- can ancestor was Clyte Potter, a revolutionary soldier, whose wife was Katie ( Koontz) Potter. From them have descended the Preston county, West Virginia, branches. They came from the east to Maryland, settling there at a very early time, and were the progeni- tors of very large families. Clyte Potter had two wives and was the father of twenty-two children. Nothing is known of the first wife. The children by the second wife were: Clyte, a name which continues through the genealogical line; David, of whom further; Charlotte, Charles, Katie, Basha, William, Eliza, Harriet, Henry, John, Wallace and Jacob. Some of these went west and some remained in Maryland. David and William moved to Preston county, West Virginia, in 1841, locating on land now owned by Frank Rand, near Kingwood. David died in 1845, at the age of fifty years, and his wife, Margaret (Cor- bus) Potter, died fifty years after their coming to their new home, at the age of ninety-six years, being able to walk about the house the day of her death. This was in 1891.
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(II) David, son of Clyte and Katie (Koontz) Potter, was a black- smith and served in the war of 1812. Both he and his wife, Margaret (Corbus) Potter, were Christian people, known as "warm-hearted Methodists," and reared their family in the same faith. Children : John, of whom further; William, who shared a division of the home- stead farm with John; Conrad, served in the civil war, and after the war ended in 1865 married Elizabeth Neff, and soon died; David, served in the civil war, was killed by a sharp-shooter when sitting with James E. Murdock resting at the battle of Cold Harbor; Clyte died in infancy; Hester Ann, married Peter Barracks; Maria, married David Menear; Rebecca, married Samuel W. Smalley.
(III) John, son of David and Margaret (Corbus) Potter, was born September 8, 1819. He lived and died on the old homestead, dying at the age of sixty-five years. He was a farmer. He was a hearty sup- porter of the free school system, and was the first clerk of the board of education in 1865, when the system was inaugurated in Preston county. He professed the Methodist faith. He married Mary Reckner, who was living in 1911 at the advanced age of ninety-one years; she is a woman of a remarkably strong character and possesses all of her nat- ural faculties, including a wonderful memory; she is the daughter of William R. and Rachel ( Hamilton) Reckner, of Frostburg, Maryland. Children: 1. Margaret. 2. William R., was educated at Cornell University, after which he obtained the degree of M. D. from the Medical College of Louisville, Kentucky. Being of a timid nature, he never practiced his profession, but conducted a drug business at King- wood, West Virginia. He opened his drug store in 1875 and in 1878 sold to D. R. Jackson, and that was the first drug store in the town of Kingwood. 3. Rachel C., married E. C. Stuck. 4. Luvenia M., (Venia).
KELLEY Aaron Kelley was born about 1780 in Butler county, near the town of Harmony, Pennsylvania. He was a farmer at Kannakanise, Butler county; in religion he was a Presbyterian and in politics a Whig. He married Sarah (accord- ing to the genealogy), or Mary, Newcomb, daughter of Ethan New- comb (see Newcomb). He died after 1860. Children : Isaac, Joseph,
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John, Ethan, Aaron, Pierce, mentioned below; Mary, Vashti, Eliza- beth.
(II) Pierce, son of Aaron Kelley, was born in 1818 in Butler county, Pennsylvania. He was educated in the public schools, and learned the trade of carpenter. He was a builder and contractor of Fairmont, where he located in 1857, and died in 1894. In religion he was a Presbyterian, in politics a Republican. He married, August 26, 1847, Ann Kelley, born at Fairmont, West Virginia, July 1, 1823, died January 15, 1899, daughter of John Kelley, of Delaware, and Rhoda (Fleming) Kelley, daughter of Benoni Fleming, who was born at Fair- mont, West Virginia. Children : Loyal Woodland, born June 26, 1848; William Howard, December 5, 1849; Henrietta, February 26, 1852; James Albert, September 26, 1854; Harriet Virginia, January II, 1857; Franklin Pierce, mentioned below; Annie Eliza, February 6, 1861; Carrie Belle, November 29, 1863; John Fielding, February 27, 1866; Rhoda May, August 3, 1868.
(III) Franklin Pierce, son of Pierce Kelley, was born January 16, 1859, near Fairmont, Marion county, West Virginia. He attended the Fairmont public schools, the Fairmont high school and the State Nor- mal School at Fairmont. After leaving school he was for three years a teacher in Mineral county. He began his business career in Shelbina, Missouri, as a retail salesman in 1876. After two years he became a traveling salesman for a hat and glove concern of Quincy, remaining for four years. Afterward he traveled for Chicago houses eight years in the same line of merchandise. Since 1891 he has been a lumber mer- chant at Fairmont, West Virginia. He was in partnership with his brother, W. H. Kelley, sixteen years, afterward with W. A. Finley until January 1, 1911, and since then he has been alone. The present name of the business is the "F. P. Kelley Lumber Company." Mr. Kelley is one of the leading merchants. He is financially interested in the Fairmont Gas & Light Company, the Monongah Glass Company and the Knobley Mountain Orchard Company, of Mineral county. For many years he was a Republican in politics, but his interest in the tem- perance movement has caused him to support the Prohibition party for the past twelve years. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and director of the Fairmont Business Men's Association. He has been a member of Mount City Lodge, No. 48, Knights of Pythias, for twen-
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ty-five years. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Protest- ant church (the Methodist Protestant Temple Congregation), and for twenty years Mr. Kelley was treasurer and at the present time he is chairman of the board of stewards.
He married, June 7, 1906, at Knobley Farm, near Keyser, West Virginia, Ellen Josephine Rees, born December 23, 1869, at New- creek, Mineral county, West Virginia, daughter of James Benjamin and Rebecca (Washington) Rees. Her father, born in 1836, died in 1904, was a farmer, tanner and later in life a dealer in coal lands. Her mother was born in 1839, died in 1904. Children of James Benjamin and Rebecca (Washington) Rees: Lucy Maria, Sallie Washington, Ellen Josephine, George Silas and Samuel Strader. James Benjamin Rees was a son of Silas Rees, whose wife was a descendant of the Ball family, which intermarried with the Washingtons of Virginia, and she was connected with the Browns, Burbridges and Burns. Silas Rees, son of William Rees, was born in Wales and came to this country. The father of William Rees was Thomas Rees, of Wales. Rebecca Wash- ington was a daughter of George W. Washington (see Washington XII). Children of Mr. and Mrs. Kelley: 1. James Franklin, born May 29, 1908; George Rees, born and died April 25, 1910. Mrs. Kelley is a member of the Daughters of the Revolution and of the Daughters of the Confederacy.
(The Newcomb Line).
The name Newcomb is said to be of Saxon origin, "Combe," signi- fying a low situation, a vale, a place between two hills. Newcome is defined by Hallowell as "strangers newly arrived;" but the family of this name, who trace back to Hugh Newcome, of Saltfleetby, county Lin- coln, England, in the reign of Richard Cœur de Lion (1189-99), are not newcomers. The name is doubtless the same as Newcombe, though the locality from which it is derived is unknown. In the early records of this country the name is found written, Newcom, Newcome, New- comb, Newcombe, Newcum, Newkum, Newkom, Newckum, Nucom, Nucome, Nucomb, Nucombe, Nucum, etc., in some instances in two or more ways in the same document. Now it is usually spelled Newcomb. In the records of Saltfleetby, where the family is first found in 1558, the name is spelled Newcomen; the records are written in Latin.
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