USA > West Virginia > Braxton County > History of Braxton County and central West Virginia > Part 40
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MAJOR CHARLES D. ELLIOTT.
Major Charles D. Elliott, son of Dr. Thomas Irvin Elliott, was born Jan- uary 1st, 1861, in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, and after the close of the Civil war, Dr. Elliott with his family came to the hills of West Virginia, and settled in Tyler county. Here Major Elliott received the rudaments of a eom- mon school education ; afterwards he was given advantages at the State College at Flemington. He supplemented his practical education by spending six years in the great plains of Colorado and Wyoming. In 1886 he returned to West Virginia, and located at Sutton, Braxton county, and engaged with Gen- eral Curtin in the lumber business. He was later appointed Deputy Colleetor
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under A. B. White. In 1896 he was admitted to the Bar, but has never been actively engaged in the practice of the law. On June 18, 1901, Major Elliott was appointed U. S. Marshall. For many years he has been actively engaged in political work in West Virginia. During the Spanish American war he was made Major of the 2nd West Virginia Infantry ; he was later commissioned by the President, Major of the 47th U. S. Infantry during the war with the Phil- ippines, and was appointed Inspector General on the staff of Governor White in March, 1901. On December 1st, 1901, General Elliott purchased the Par- kersburg News. He formed a company, and became the president. This jour- nal was one of the leading papers of the State, and under the management of the new company it more than trippled its circulation. In 1912, General Elliott was appointed Adjutant General of the State. His health failing, he went to the mountains of Colorado, and worked in a gold mine. Recovering his health, he returned to Braxton county and engaged in the coal business in Braxton and Webster counties. General Elliott's indomitable energy will move on, through every vicissitude fortune, looking with a sweet temperament on the brighter side of life.
In 1888, General Elliott was united in marriage with Mary, daughter of Attorney Joseph Thompson, of Staunton, Virginia. The two children of this union are Viola N. and Catharine E. General Elliott's home is in Sutton, West Virginia.
DR. ALBERT N. ELLISON.
Dr. Albert N. Ellison was born in Lawrence county, Ohio, February 17, 1817. His father, Wm. Ellison, moved from Virginia to Ohio in an early day. His father's name was John, and he came to Virginia with three brothers. Two of them settled in Virginia, and two in Pennsylvania.
Dr. A. N. Ellison came to Braxton county about 1840, and settled first at Sutton, but shortly afterward moved to the Little Birch where he made his future home. Dr. Ellison had a large practice. He was for several years a minister in the M. E. Church, South. He was a man of great influence in his community and universally beloved.
He married Eliza Mace, and their family consisted of five daughters and two sons. The oldest son, William, was killed at Fredericksburg, Md., being a soldier in the Confederate army.
Rev. A. C. Ellison, for several years a traveling minister in the M. P. Church, is living near the old homestead on the Little Birch.
Dr. Ellison was a Whig until the slavery question became so prominent at the beginning of the Civil war, when he cast his lot with the South, and volun- teered in its defense. He was twice elected Assessor of Braxton county, and was at one time captain of the militia. He died in his eighty-sixth year at his home on the Little Birch.
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H. E. ENGLE.
H. E. Engle was born in Barbour county, Va., Sept. 30, 1849. His father, William Engle, was born in Pendleton eounty, Va., April 9, 1824. His mother, Tahitta Criss Engle, was born in Harrison county, Va., Oct. 12, 1823. His grandparents, Solomon Engle and Sarah George Engle, were born in England in 1800. All were Methodists.
Mr. Engle is well learned in voeal music, having taught in that line for many years. He wrote the music to the West Virginia Hills and other pieees of merit. Mr. Engle is a member of the present County Court.
DAVID EVANS.
David Evans and Christeney, his wife, came from Randolph county, Vir- ginia, to Braxton, then Lewis, at an early period of the settlement of the county. They settled on the Elk river, a few miles above the town of Sutton. Mr. Evans was a earpenter by trade. The latters years of his life he lived in Sutton, where he reared his family, consisting of five sons and one daughter, Petro, Jaeob and Isaac, (twins), Marshall and Charles S., Mary Ann, whose first husband was Lemaster Stephenson, and after his death slie married Levi Waybright.
JACOB M. EVANS.
Jacob M. Evans, son of David and Christena Evans, married Lydda, a daughter of Jacob Riffle, on Salt Lick. They reared a family of several chil- dren, most of whom reside in Braxton. Mr .- Evans was a successful farmer, a prominent, and reliable eitizen. He was Justiee of the Peace for several years, and a useful and active member of the M. P. Church for a number of years. He was noted for his generous support of the Gospel. It was his universal custom on meeting occasions, to give a general invitation to his home. He is buried on the hill at the old farm, overlooking the church where he used to wor- ship. His companion still survives him.
CHARLES S. EVANS.
Charles S. Evans, son of David and Christena (Petro) Evans, was born in Randolph county, Va., April 11, 1830. Feb. 6, 1853, Charles S. Evans wed- ded Maria Heater who was born in this eounty, Nov. 11, 1834. Her parents were Jacob and Delilah (Riffle) Heater. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Evans were: Virginia, James Clark, Mary F., Pierson (killed by a falling tree), Ma- dora, Charles Homer, Lorenzo D., Margaret L., Fanny M. (died young), Ida May, and William W. who died in infaney.
JAMES H. FACEMIRE.
James H. Facemire was the son of Aaron Faeemire, and the eldest of twelve children. Born in Kanawha county in 1831, moving to what is now Braxton
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county the followwing year, he grew up on the beautiful Elk and its tribu- taries. It was here that he learned the art of hunting and trapping. He mar- ried Caroline Stonestreet, by whom he had nine children. His family was of German deseent.
Mr. Facemire has been a man of keen observation and great memory, and it is interesting to hear him talk of the past, and especially to relate his exploits in the wilds of the forest. He remembers many of the older settlers of the county. He also remembers having seen the old war gun that red-headed Jesse Carpenter took from the Indians when he made his escape from captivity ; with this gun, he killed an Indian by shooting across the Ohio river. The gun had been furnished by the French to the aid the Indians in their war against the Americans.
He relates that he killed two bears, over three hundred deer, and gives an account of one night's coon hunt on Skyles creek of the Big Birch river, in which he treed and killed nine coons, and the following night, killed five more. He gave part of the coons to come person as pay for carrying the others on a horse to his home on Two Lick run of the Little Birch.
He estimates that the number of bee trees that he has cut would run into the thousands; sometimes he cut as many as three in one day, often obtaining large quantities of honey. He said that at one time, he salted down six hundred pounds of venison and seventy-five pounds of eoon bacon. He killed wild eats, black foxes, hawks, owls, skunks, rattlesnakes, and was a terror to everything that was harmful and destructive to domestie animals or dangerous to man.
Squirrel hunting and fishing were two of his most delightful sports. I have seen him bring down squirrels from the tallest twig on the loftiest hickory tree with his rifle offhand. His greatest day's hunt for squirrels was one hun- dred, around James A Ross' corn field, and the next day he killed forty-seven on Mr. Linger's farm. On Bug ridge, he killed fifty-six in one day. To be a successful hunter and trapper, one has to study the nature and habits of ani- mals. A great day's catch of fish occurred one day while the old woodsman was waiting for his grist at the old Gillespie mill. He and Mr. Knight went to the shoal above the mill and saw a great school of fish. The river was very low, and they drove the fish to a little pool, built a rock dam below, and caught eighteen or twenty large fislı, some measuring three feet long.
He was a man of great strength and enduranee. His greatest weight was never over 148 pounds, but if he had been trained as pugulists are now trained, his great nerve, natural skill and generalship in battle would have made him one of the greatest middle weight pugulists of the world. He never was beaten in a fisticuff, though he met in single combat some of the best heavy-weights of the country. He would have been killed by Bill Meeks if the knife blade had not broken off in his skull, the point of which he has carried there for half a century or more; but he never fought a man unfairly, no matter how large or powerful his enemy.
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We remember several coon hunts with this old veteran of the forest. It was the custom in those days to roast corn grown in the field from which you scared the coons and in the dry fall season when water was scarce, it was con- sidered not unusual to burst the rind of a lucious melon while the dogs were out looking up the game.
James Facemire was a hard working man and a good neighbor. He had for a companion a noble woman who never turned a hungry man away from their cabin. When we see his once fleet and active frame tottering on broken limb, leaning on his staff, with gun and traps, wending his way to the forest in his ever persistent pursuit of the wild game, we can imagine the blazing fires of energy that once animated the woodsman's unquenchable desire for sport, and realize the fleeting years that overtake us all.
FOX FAMILY.
The earliest information on this family is that sometime before the Revo- lution, Samuel Fox came from England and settled in what is now Nelson county, Virginia, near Avon of that county. This is in the northern part of the county and near the main line of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Samuel Fox had seven children, namely, Samuel, Richard, Joseph, William, Jackson, Bart- lett and Lucy. 1
Of these children, Samuel, Richard and Joseph lived and died in Nelson county, Virginia, and Lucy married a Mr. Quick and moved to some point in what is now West Virginia. William and Jackson Fox moved to what is now Summers county, West Virginia. William Fox had several sons, one of whom was David Fox. David Fox had several sons, two of whom, B. F. Fox and John L. Fox, moved to Braxton county. John L. Fox is dead. B. F. Fox lives near Frametown in this county. William Fox had a daughter, Ruth, who married Lewis Ballengee who lived and died near the mouth of Strange. Creek in this county.
Bartlett Fox was born in Nelson county, Virginia, about 1780. He married Mary Lively who was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, about the year 1800. Bartlett Fox died in 1861 and his wife died November 5, 1878.
Bartlett Fox moved to what is known as the Lively place in Nicholas coun- ty, about the year 1835: he next moved to what is now the J. B. MeLaughlin place near the mouth of the Birch river in 1840; he next moved to what is now the John L. Ballengee farm near the mouth of Strange Creek and next to the farm now owned by Troy Nottingham.
Bartlett Fox had eight children, namely, Samuel, M. D., L. F., George W., Tiburtis, Henry, William, Jane and Mary. M. I). L. Fox lived on what is known as the David Evans farm on Leatherwood Run ; George W. Fox lived the greater portion of his life in the edge of Nicholas county and died on Carpenters Fork of the Little Bireh near where John Brown now lives; Tiburtis Fox enlisted in the Confederate army in the beginning of the war. between the states and was cap-
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tured and died in prison in 1861; Henry and William Fox both died prior to the war; Jane Fox married Maxwell H. Frame, and Mary married John S. Not- tingham.
Samuel Fox was born on the ...... day of 1817, and died the 1st day of October, 1892. He was twice married. His first wife was Susan Boggs, daughter of Benjamin L. Boggs, who died on the 18th of August, 1855, aged 23 years, 4 months and 20 days. There were two children born to this marriage, Camden Fox, on the 14th of December, 1854, and Rebecca Fox, a year or two prior to that date. She married G. R. Mollohan and now lives in California. Samuel Fox's second wife was Mary Dean who is still living. They were married about 1856.
FRED L. Fox.
Fred L. Fox, son of Camden and Caroline (McMorrow) Fox, was born at the mouth of the Big Birch river, Oct. 24, 1876. Samuel Fox and Dr. Job Mc- Morrow were his grandfathers, both being prominent men in the lower end of the county. Mr. Fox was educated in Braxton county schools, taking a law course in the West Virginia University with a degree of L. L. B. in 1899. He began practice of law in Sutton in 1899, and was associated with Alex Dulin from 1901 to 1904, and with W. E. Haymond since 1904 in the law firm of Hay- mond & Fox. He was Chairman of the Democratic Committee in campaigns of 1902, 1908 and 1910; elected to State Senate in 1912, and re-elected in 1916; was Democratic leader in the State Senate in the sessions of 1915 and 1917.
Mr. Fox was married in 1900 to Anna Lee Frame of Sutton, daughter of James T. and Rebecca Byrne Frame, and their children are: Gordon Byrne, John Holt, George McMorrow, Agnes Jane, Rebecca Ellen and Anna Jean.
ELMORE FRAME.
Elmore Frame was born March 13, 1819, and died April 17, 1896. His wife Marcella Frances A. (Ray) Frame, was born May 4, 1829, and died March 28, 1909. They were married October 10, 1849, and names of their children are as follows: W. L., Jasper, Willis, Martha Y. T., David and Elmore W. Mr. Frame joined the M. E. church in 1839, and his wife joined a short time later. He was many years a class leader in this church, and was a Justice of the Peace for sixteen years.
DAVID FRAME.
David Frame, son of above mentioned parents, was born July 12, 1865, in Harrison county, and was married to May M. Mowrey, Aug. 28, 1887. Names of their children are: Eddyth A., Harry E., Flora I., Ira Ray, Ella Ruth, David W., Jr., and Ruby L. Mr. Frame resides near Gassaway, and is engaged in farming. Mr. Frame was for several years a magistrate in Otter district, and is now Deputy Game and Fish Warden.
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THE FRIEND FAMILY.
The first account given of this most numerous and hardy pioneer family, is in Kerchival's History. He says that Israel Friend came from Maryland to the Valley of Virginia in 1730, in company with fifteen others, and it was sup- posed that they came through the gap at Harpers Ferry. From there, the friends worked their way up the Potomac river and we find them scattered along through the South Branch valley and Randolph county, also as far west as Braxton and Nicholas counties.
A lonely Indian warrior, the only one of a northern tribe who escaped with his life in a battle with another tribe of Indians some where on the upper branches of the Potomac, was ferried across the Potomac by a man named Friend who lived on the Maryland side of the river, and to whom the Indian related the incidents of the battle, including an account of the massacre of his eomrades. Therefore it is fair to presume that the early settlers of the Friends came to the Potomae Valley from Maryland. The Friends are of German de- scent.
JOSEPH FRIEND.
Joseph Friend married the daughter of Joseph and Rachael Skidmore and a sister of Captain John Skidmore. They had a son, Joseph, whose daughter married Wm. Arthur. Joseph Friend had valuable land in what is now Web- ster county where he resided for many years and died there. Joseph Friend, the progenitor of the Friend family, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and was Captain of Seouts.
JACOB FRIEND.
Jacob Friend settled in Pendleton county before the Revolutionary war. He married Elizabeth Skidmore, sister of Andrew Skidmore. They had nine children, six boys and three girls. Three of his sons were drafted, and went to Norfolk in the war of 1812. Others of his children settled on the Elk river, near the mouth of Otter. The names of his children were: Andrew P., Jacob, Isreal, Thomas, Jonas, Jonathan, Margaret, Elizabeth and Catherine.
WILLIAM FISHER.
William Fisher, born February 14, 1786, died March 11, 1853; Elizabeth Fisher, his wife, was born July 9, 1792, and died in 1861. Their children were William, born April 16, 1821, and died in Hardy eounty; Susannah Martha, born September 18, 1823, who was married twice, her first husband being Dr. Robert Newby, and her seeond husband Rev. Michael Laneaster; Jemima, born July 13, 1828, married Jonathan Koiner of Augusta eounty, Virginia; George B., born May 17, 1830, died young; Benjamin Franklin, born August 17, 1831, died August 2, 1902; Adam Fisher, born August 31, 1834, and died May 29, 1837.
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William Fisher moved from Hardy county, Virginia, to Braxton county, then Nicholas county, about 1832, and settled on the head of Granny's creek. He was a farmer and stockman.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FISHER.
Benjamin Franklin Fisher, son of William and Elizabeth Fisher, was born August 17, 1831, and diced August 2, 1902. He was a prominent man in his county and represented Braxton county in the legislature sessions of 1881, 1882 and 1885. He inherited the large and valuable farm upon which he was reared, and by economy and good management he added other lands to his posses- sions. He married for his first wife, Margaret Sutton, daughter of Felix and Susan Skidmore Sutton. She was born November 4, 1834, and died April 24, 1885; was noted for her kindness and benevolence. They had a family of nine children : William, who died in infancy, Felix R .. John L., George B., Jake, and William. The girls were Susan, who married John Lloyd, Anna, who married A. L. Morrison, and May, who married A. W. Berry; she died in 1901.
Mr. Fisher married for his second wife, Mrs. Susan Hopkins of Pendleton county, a woman of noble character, who is still living at an advanced age. He and his first wife are buried in the Fisher cemetery where rest three generations of the family.
Mr. Fisher's sons are prosperous farmers and stock dealers. Jake, who studied law in the offices of Flick and Westenhaver, Martinsburg, West Va., was educated at Washington & Lee University. He represented Braxton county in the legislature sessions of 1899, 1901, and as senator, sessions 1905, 1907 and 1911. He was elected Judge of the 9th Judicial Circuit in 1912, and resides in Sutton, W. Va.
D. J. FURY.
D. J. Fury, son of Wm. O'Dell and Rebecca Fury, was born at West Milford, May 25, 1878. He was married August 10, 1906, to Nealie Esta Bailey. He has one daughter, Ruth Marie Fury. The family are members of the Bap- tist Church. Mrs. Fury is a railroad telegraph operator. The author has been the recipient of the friendship and hospitality of this family, and holds them in highest esteem.
JOHN ANDREW GROSE.
John Andrew Grosc was born on the Grose home farm, one mile south of Summersville, Nicholas county, April 17, 1864. His father was John Mc- Dowell Grose, son og Samuel Grose, whose wife was an Oliver. Samuel's father, Jacob Samuel Grose, settling in Nicholas county, on Line Creek, soon after the Mexican war, in which he was a soldier, moving from Virginia.
John Andrew's mother was Melvina Hamilton Grose, daughter of John McKee Hamilton and Rebecca Robinson Hamilton, whose mother was a daugh-
.
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ter of James Robinson and Betsy Lemasters, the latter a daughter of Benjamin Lemasters.
His mother died when he was eight years old and his father when he was fourteen years old. A very excellent stepmother, who, before marriage to his father, was the widow of Thomas MeVey, she being a daughter of Jacob Koontz, remained with him and his younger brothers, William Rush Grose and David Oliver Grose, until the fall of 1881 ,when they "broke up" housekeeping. At this time he entered the Nicholas Chroniele office, where he began learning the printer's trade and the newspaper business, having attended the distriet sehools previous to this.
He came to Sutton in September, 1885, when he purchased an interest in the Braxton Democrat, then a 7-column folio, with 650 eirculation. In one way or another he has been connected with this paper since that date, except from 1889 to May, 1893, when he resided in Nicholas, during which time he and his brother, D. O. Grose, acquired the Nicholas Chronicle.
The Democrat is now a 6-column quarto, with 2,450 eireulation.
In April, 1896, he and Dr. T. S. Wade established the Methodist Episcopal Advocate in the interest of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the paper being known at present as the Advocate-Herald. He is manager and publisher of both the Braxton Demoerat and Advocate-Herald, and is also associate editor.
But I must not fail to mention his rather uncommon record as to marriages, as follows :
To Miss Mattic Patterson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Patterson, May, 1888, who died January, 1890; to Miss Nannie Camden, daughter of Capt. and Mrs. E. A. Camden, April, 1892, who died September, 1898; to Mrs. Esther Peck, March, 1901; to Miss Luey Smith, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Smith, Sr., September, 1908, who died April, 1913; and to Mrs. Margaret E. Baxter, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Allen S. Berry, November, 1915-all happy and eongenial marriages, except that to Mrs. Peek, which ended unhappily for both in less than a year.
One daughter, Bessie M. Grose, school teacher, Charleston, survives Mattie Grose. One daughter, Ruth N. Grose, school teacher, Charleston, and one son, Lieutenant John Edwin Grose, of the Regular Army, survive Nannie Grose; another son, Thomas Wade Grosc, having died at the age of three and a half years-all having been born in Sutton, Braxton county, West Virginia.
BENJAMIN SKIDMORE. -
Benjamin Skidmore, son of William S. and Mary Ann Skidmore Gillespie, was born in Sutton, September 19, 1869. He attended the best schools of the county, and after graduating from the schools at Sutton, he learned the printer's trade, working in the office of the Braxton Central and the Braxton Democrat, and by diligenee he rose to the position of Assistant Editor and Manager. By
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his efforts very largely, the Democrat has attained its present high standard as a county journal. As a writer, Mr. Gillespie has no superior in central West Virginia. Congenial and affable in character, he is universally liked.
In 1912, he was elected Magistrate, and served four years, refusing a second election, to become against the assistant editor of the Democrat. May 22, 1907, he married Miss Lillian, daughter of Edward and Kitty Taylor Snopps. To this union have been born four children, two sons and two daughters. Their home is in North Sutton.
MORGAN GIBSON.
Morgan Gibson, son of Jacob and Eva (Lough) Gibson, was born in Brax- ton county, Dec. 18, 1827. He lived at home and worked with his father until he was eighteen years of age when his parents moved west, but he remained in Braxton county. He began lumbering, and about the time of his marriage added farming to his duties, and followed both until the war ruined both, leav- ing him with nothing except his family. After the war closed, he again returned to farming and grazing. He had one brother, Nicholas G. Gibson, who was a surgeon in the Confederate army during the entire war. He also had five brothers in the Federal army, William C .. Jacob S., Irving, James M., and George W. All went from Illinois, enlisting early in the conflict, and served until its close.
Morgan Gibson married Elizabeth Jane Given, Feb. 1, 1849, and the fol- lowing children were born: Arthur (died in infancy), Phebe E., Rebecca Jane, Millard Fillmore, Ruann (deceased), Viola Victoria, Luther H. and Eva M.
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JOHN GILLESPIE.
John Gillespie, progenitor of the Gillespie family, came from Bath county about 1830, and settled in Hackers Valley for a short time, and then moved to upper Flatwoods where he lived several years prior to his death. His is buried on what is called the Wyatt farm where he lived, and his wife is buried at the old Morrison cemetery.
JOHN GILLESPIE.
John Gillespie came from Bath county, Va. His children were Wm., John, Adam and Tramel; Betsy married Paulson Shaver, Becky married Lewis Per- rine. The Wyatt and Gillespie families settled on adjoining lands in upper Flatwoods.
REV. J. Y. GILLESPIE.
Rev. J. Y. Gillespie was born May 15, 1842, at Flatwoods. His parents, John Gillespie, was born in Bath county, Va., and mother, Ribera Morrison, in Greenbrier county, Va. He was married Jan. 20, 1875, to Miss Sarah J. Skid- more, and his children are Samuel L., Cora, Pat. C., Harry. Lena and Conde.
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He was first married to Miss Naomi J. Hyer in 1868, and their only ehild, Naomi, died at about five years of age. Naomi was the fifth generation from Andrew Skidmore, but never saw her great, great grandfather.
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