History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 127

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 1066

USA > West Virginia > Kanawha County > Charleston > History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens > Part 127

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).

Miss Sally J. Lewis married Henry Clay Dickinson. Miss Mary, her sister, married John Quincy Dickinson, the brother of Capt. H. Clay Dickinson-brothers married sisters.

Charles C. Lewis married Miss Elizabeth Wilson, who was a Ruffner descendant.

Julia married James Madison Hite Beal of Mason county.

William married Miss Jennie G. Stanley.

The eldest son was Joel Shrewsbury Lewis, who lived in Raleigh county. He was said to have been the picture of General Andrew Lewis. Joel has been deceased for some years.

An incident shows the man. John Dickinson Lewis was at home and had been laid up for some time in his room and he told Mrs. Lewis (No. 4) that he was going to Nicholas on some business and to prepare his saddle bags, as he had to ride horseback about 75 miles and would be gone a week or so. She coaxed him not to think of going, but "he had said it." She sent for his physician to have him tell him the consequences and keep him from going. Dr. Ewing came and was instructed by Mrs. Lewis. The Doctor came to his bed- side and told him it would not do and the con- sequences might be fatal, etc. Mr. Lewis asked him if that was what he came for, and he admitted that it was, and he then said, "Doctor, you can go home, for I'm going on Monday next," and he went and did well.

His son, Charles C., belonged to a military company, which he had joined in 1858. When the war came on the company wanted to offer its services to Virginia in 1861. Mr. J. D. Lewis was opposed to the War of Seccession and he told Charles he must not go, but to remain with him. Charles was under no ob- ligations to go, and he was in the habit of obeying the commands of his father, and he did not go-he did right.

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JOHN SLACK COLE,* proprietor of the John Slack Cole Engineering Co., of Charles- ton, W. Va., and a lifelong resident, was born here January 1, 1877, and is a son of John Lewis and Anna (Slack) Cole.

John Lewis Cole was born on Cabin Creek, Kanawha County, where his parents had set- tled as pioneers and his father was a farmer. The youth, however, cared nothing for agri- cultural pursuits, possessing talents in an en- tirely different direction and these he devel- oped through individual effort. He became a surveyor and a lawyer and later was con- sidered an authority on the value of West Vir- ginia real estate. He surveyed much of the wild land in the state and one of these tracts is what is now known as the Griffith oil terri- tory, and for a number of years was county surveyor, spending the greater part of his active life at Charleston. He was elected state librarian and was faithful to the charge en- trusted to him. Much of the early history of Charleston and Kanawha County has been preserved in the records so carefully kept by the late John Lewis Cole. He was born in 1827 and died in 1901. In 1874 he married Fannie Slack, a daughter of John Slack, Sr., who, at different times served as sheriff of Kanawha County. Mrs. Cole was born at Charleston in 1848 and died in 1888. They had but one child, John Slack Cole. In pol- itics, John L. Cole was a Democrat. He was a charter member of the Masonic lodge at Malden, which was established prior to the Civil War. In addition to his other talents he was an artist of no mean ability.

John Slack Cole was reared at Charleston and attended the public schools until 1894. He studied his father's work in which he found much to interest and claim his attention, and under his direction learned civil, mining and consulting engineering and after his father's death continued the business and has associated with him a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Virginia. He maintains his offices in the McCrorey Building and does a large amount of business. In politics he is a Democrat and when but twenty-one years of age was honored by his party with a nomina- tion for county surveyor.

JOHN A. GARDNER, general real estate dealer at Charleston, W. Va., occupying offices in the Odd Fellow Building, is a native of this city, born in 1871 and securing his education up to the age of thirteen years in the Charles- ton schools. He is a son of John Monroe and Isabel (Pollock) Gardner, and a grandson of Nathan Gardner.

Nathan Gardner came to the Kanawha Val- ley from Rockbridge County, Va., early in the fifties. He had started for California but his wife died when they had only reached Malden, Kanawha County, on their way, and with his domestic circle thus broken, Nathan Gardner evidently lost his ambition to proceed to the far West. He died in Kanawha County in 1878, at the age of seventy years. Two of his children yet survive: Mrs. Lizzie Sentz and James, both residents of Charleston.

John Monroe Gardner was born in 1815 in Rockbridge County, Va., and accompanied his parents to the Kanawha Valley. As a flat-boat man he early became well known on the river and through this merited notoriety became connected with the State Board of Improve- ment and was subsequently made superin- tendent of improvements on the river, in which capacity he served for thirty years. During this time the U. S. Government took over the work of improvement, retaining the services of Mr. Gardner until he retired, his death occur- ring in 1891. He was better acquainted with the Kanawha River and its improving than many of the expert engineers, having spent al- most all his life on its waters and having made this his main interest. He was held in very high esteem by public officials as well as hosts of friends, his honesty, fidelity and efficiency bringing him respect from all who knew him. In his church relations he was a Presbyterian and in politics he was a Democrat. In early manhood he became identified with Kanawha Lodge No. 25, Odd Fellows and filled all the chairs of the organization. He married Isabel Pollock, whose whole life was spent in Ka- nawha County, her death preceding that of her husband by a number of years. He sub- sequently married Mrs. Anna (Johnson) Woodward, but all of his six children were born to his first union. Charles E., the eldest,

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was born and reared at Charleston and was associated with his father during the latter's active years and after his retirement, succeeded as river superintendent. He resides at Belle, Kanawha County, with wife and family of children. He is a prominent Odd Fellow and belongs to the Encampment. William H. died at the age of twenty-seven years and is sur- vived by a widow and one child. Theresa died when aged four years. Ella N. resides at Charleston and is the widow of E. O. Lang- horn. She has two sons, both of whom are married. Mary M. is the wife of W. H. Mor- rison, who conducts a hotel at Washington, D. C.

John Andrew Gardner, the youngest mem- ber of the family, was thirteen years of age when he started as a messenger boy for the Government River Improvement Board, in Charleston. Later he went on a river boat and had a practical training in navigation, so that by the time he was twenty-one years of age he was a licensed pilot. He remained on the river as a captain and as a pilot until he was twenty- eight years of age, when he engaged in a gen- eral mercantile business, and for the past seven years has devoted himself especially to hand- ling real estate and owns a number of sub- stantial properties. He is a member of the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Red Men and the Eagles, being more or less prom- inent in all these organizations. He is identified with the Democratic party.

G. KUHN CABELL,* manager of the stores for the West Virginia Colliery Com- pany, on Cabin Creek, Kanawha County, W. Va., and a far-seeing business man, was born June 17, 1872, at Charleston, W. Va., and is a son of Napoleon B. and Lavina (Wood) Cabell.

Napoleon B. Cabell was born in Virginia and in early manhood came to Kanawha Coun- ty and settled at Malden, where he became identified with the salt industry, and he and his father-in-law, Henry Wood, operated a salt furnace. After leaving Malden he became interested in real estate and banking at Charleston, with James Brown, and afterward retired to the Cabell farm on Elk River, five

miles from the capital city, where he resided until the close of his life. His widow then retired to Charleston, where her death sub- sequently took place. They had seven chil- dren: William, Florence, Hewitt, Charles, George Kuhn, Rosa and Ann, of whom Flor- ence, Hewitt, Charles and George survive. Florence is the widow of Albert Pierce. Rosa was the wife of Harry Comstock.

G. Kuhn Cabell was educated in the public schools of Charleston, in his earlier years worked on a farm, was a clerk in a grocery store and later was employed in the Roy Fur- niture factory. After this he was with the Charleston Transfer Company prior to taking charge of the Dickinson Lumber Company stores. In 1899 he came to the West Vir- ginia Colliery Company as store manager and continued with the sucecssors of this company on the K. & M. side of the river, the Kanawha & Hocking Coal Company. Still later when the old company was organized on the Cabin Creek side, Mr. Cabell resumed his old rela- tions with that organization and in 1903 be- came a stockholder in the same, taking up his residence at Wevaco, Kanawha County. His position is one that requires considerable busi- ness shrewdness as he has the purchasing of all supplies for the company's five stores.

Mr. Cabell was married November 14, 1904, to Miss Madge Burks, a daughter of W. P. and Margaret Burks, and they have two chil- dren : Charles and Margaret. They are mem- bers of the Episcopal church. Mr. Cabell is identified with the Elks at Charleston.

W. FROST BROWN, president of the Brown Milling and Produce Company, of Charleston, W. Va., a large enterprise which was incorporated in March, 1911, is a progres- sive and representative business man of this city. He was born October 26, 1881, at Mt. Carmel, Pa., and is a son of William N. and Emma (Garrett) Brown.

William N. Brown was born in Pennsyl- vania, October 26, 1844, and died Feb. 10th, 19II, at Charleston, where his widow still resides. When less than eighteen years of age, in 1862, he enlisted for service in the Civil War, becoming a member of Company E.

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129th Pa., Vol. Inf. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant of his company and at the expiration of his service re-enlisted with the rank of lieutenant, but before the regiment went to the front, his parents succeeded in withdrawing him, as he was under military age. After the war was over he went to Vir- ginia, where he became interested in the coal industry, and from there came to the New River coal fields and the Gauley River section. Some nineteen years before his death he came to Charleston and spent eighteen years as spe- cial accountant for various coal companies, and as expert examiner of coal properties. He was very well known at Charleston and in this vicinity, for two terms was commander of Bloundon Post, G. A. R., and was adjutant- general of the G. A. R. of the state. At the time of his death he was State Aide de Camp to the National Commander in Chief of the G. A. R. Politically he was a Republican and in fraternal life he was active, belonging to the Masons, Odd Fellows and the American Mechanics. He was a worthy member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Charles- ton, to which his widow is also attached. They had the following children: Elizabeth; Mar- garet, wife of A. J. Weethee, of Cabin Creek ; George F., secretary of the Brown Milling and Produce Company: T. Boone, with Mor- ris Fork Coal Co. of Columbus, O .; W. Frost : and May, residing with her mother and brothers.

WV. Frost Brown was educated in the Charleston schools and afterward was con- nected with the clerical department of the K. & M. Railroad, where he finally became chief clerk, and filled this office with the general agent of the company for this road at Charles- ton. From June, 1906, until January, 191I, Mr. Brown was a member of the wholesale jobbing firm of the Steele & Brown Co., since when he has been identified with the Brown Milling and Produce Company, successor to the J. A. Carr Feed & Produce Company. Of this new company, Mr. Brown is president : T. M. Anderson, of Petersburg, Va., vice presi- dent: G. F. Brown, secretary; and Edward Calderwood, treasurer. The capital stock of the company is $45,000, and a wholesale busi-

ness is done, largely within West Virginia, four men being kept on the road.

Mr. Brown married Miss Lula L. Botkin, who was born in Charleston and being left an orphan in her infancy, was adopted by her grandfather, C. J. Botkin. The latter was once a very prominent citizen of Kanawha County, serving as sheriff and also as mayor of Charleston. His death occurred in 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are members of the First Presbyterian Church.

PATRICK T. BOARD,* a railroad con- tractor and builder residing at Charleston, WV. Va., occupying his handsome residence at No. 1820 Quarrier Street, has been a lifelong resident of Kanawha County and was born June 26, 1875 at Wellford, which was for- merly known as Junction Palace. His parents are John H. and Susanna (Gwinn) Board.

John H. Board was born also in Kanawha County and has devoted himself to agricul- tural pursuits. His birth took place in 1850 and that of his wife three years later. The paternal grandfather, Patrick Board, was a farmer in Greenbrier, Va., where he died at the age of thirty-three years, leaving three children: John H .: Joseph, a resident of Clendennin; and Nancy, wife of John H. Lowe, residing at Wellford. John H. Board was only ten years old when his father died and he had his own way to make in the world. In early manhood he married Susanna Gwinn. one of a family of three sons and five daugh- ters. To Mr. and Mrs. Board seven children were born, namely: Charles, engaged in the contracting business at Clendenin, W. Va .. who married Edna Schaffer; Nona, who is the wife of Meade Schaffer, and resides at Well- ford; Laura, who is the wife of William Brown; Opie, contractor residing at Garrison, Ky., who married Nellie Gunther: Ethel, who is the wife of Edward Young, residing at Wellford: and Carlos, who lives with his parents: Patrick T., being one of the older members of the family.

Patrick T. Board attended the public schools of Wellford and when twenty years of age em- barked in a mercantile business at Clay Court House, where he continued for several years.

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after which he became buyer for the Ridder Lumber Company at that place and remained with that concern for two years. Mr. Board then went into contracting for railroad con- struction, his first piece of work being twenty- five miles of the Coal & Coke Company Rail- road, in 1901, which kept him busy for sev- eral years. He has done a great deal of similar work and for the greater part of the last ten years has done railroad constructing for the C. & O. Railroad, having completed large con- tracts on Cabin Creek, Loop Creek, Coal River, and for the past fourteen months has been engaged in building the double track for this railroad between Garrison and Buena Vista, and between Rome and Concord, giving employment to 100 men and sometimes more. To handle such large enterprises successfully and profitably, requires many qualities and these Mr. Board evidently possesses. In 1895 he attended the Huntington Business College.

On January 14, 1900, Mr. Board was mar- ried to Miss Cora Carr, a daughter of Dr. Claudius and Heloise ( Mace) Carr, who reside in Kanawha County. Mr. and Mrs. Board have four children: Bernard, Elizabeth, Pat- rick and Robert. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, south, this being the faith of Mr. Board's mother, while his father is a member of the Baptist church. In June, 1905, he completed the erection of the beautiful residence on Quarrier Street. He is identified with the Masonic lodge at Clay Court House.

COL. BENJAMIN HARRISON SMITH, deceased, was born October 31, 1797, near Harrisonburg, Va., and died at Charleston, Kanawha County, W. Va., December IO, 1887. He was a son of Benjamin Harrison and Elizabeth (Cravens) Smith, the latter being a daughter of Major Robert and Mary (Harrison) Cravens, both of his grandmothers being Harrisons, his paternal grandfather, Col. Daniel Smith, having married Jane Harrison. Colonel Smith came of very substantial and distinguished Scotch-Irish ancestors, being a lineal descendant in the male line of Capt. John Smith, of Augusta County, Va., who had been an officer in the British army, later served in

the Colonial army and aided Major Andrew Lewis in driving Governor Lord Dunmore from Virginia, at the opening of the Revolu- tionary War. Four of Col. Daniel Smith's sons were officers in the Revolutionary army, one of whom, Benjamin Harrison Smith, was the father, as noted above, of Col. Benjamin Harrison Smith. In 1810, the father of the late Colonel Smith, removed from the Valley or Virginia with all his slaves preparatory to giving them their freedom, which he did, after reaching what is now the site of Lancaster, O.

It was while living in Ohio that Col. Smith met with an accident on his father's farm that confined him to his bed for some weeks and probably was the means of determining his future career. According to his own state- ment he had been a hearty, careless youth, only happy when out of doors and engaged in phys- ical exercise and it was a terrible strain when he not only had to remain in bed but keep still in order that the severed ligaments of his knee might knit together. By chance a book with the title, "Thinks I To Myself," fell into his hands and in its perusal he became inter- ested and thus was awakened the sense of the value of literature which contributed so largely to his future success in his profession, he, him- self, asserting that from that time on it was his ambition to read everything that he could secure. He willingly went to Athens and en- tered school there, graduating creditably, and later was a law student for nearly three years in the office of Hon. Thomas Ewing, Sr. As an interesting side light, it may be remembered that Hon. Thomas Ewing pursued his educa- tion under adverse circumstances, studying law and Latin while attending to a salt furnace in Kanawha County.

In February, 1822, Mr. Smith came to Ka- nawha County and shortly afterward made it his permanent home. His earliest business as- sociation was with the late James Craik, who was a son of Dr. James Craik, of Alexandria, Va. Mr. Craik subsequently became a min- ister of the Gospel and had charge of the Epis- copal Church at Charleston, in 1844 moving to Louisville, Ky., where he had charge of Christ Church, and was succeeded by his son, Rev. Charles Craik, pastor of Christ Cathedral,

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Louisville. Colonel Smith, himself, never seemed to have any church preference although his family was connected with the Presby- terian church, and to that church he gave his support.

In 1833, Colonel Smith was elected a del- egate to the Virginia State Senate and was twice re-elected, being a Whig in his political beliefs. In 1849 he was appointed district at- torney, by President Taylor and in 1855 was a member of the Virginia Constitutional Con- vention. In 1862 he was a member of the Wheeling Convention which formed the State of West Virginia. He was appointed U. S. district attorney by President Lincoln and con- tinued in office for four years, when he re- signed. In 1868 he was a candidate for gov- ernor of West Virginia, on the Democratic ticket but was not elected. This bore the ap- pearance of a change in his political views, but the change was principally in the people and the times. He was a consistent Union man, during the Civil War from conviction, al- though his friends and relatives, including his only son, were in the Southern ranks. As dis- trict attorney in the Federal courts, he treated returned soldiers of both sides with impartial justice, for which he sometimes suffered abuse.

Colonel Smith married Miss Roxalana Noyes, whose father, Isaac Noyes, came early to this valley and was a merchant and salt manufacturer. The mother of Mrs. Smith was Cynthia Morris, who belonged to one of the earliest families of Kanawha. Three chil- dren were born to them: C. Elizabeth, Isaac Noyes, and R. Emmeline. The eldest of the family, C. Elizabeth Smith, married Fred- erick F. Brooks, and their children were: H. S., Frederick N., Morris O. and Lillie R. The last mentioned married William Burlingham, who was born in Erie, Pa., in 1839. Mr. Burlingham came to Charleston about 1870, in 1874 he moved to Baltimore, Md., and had three sons born in Baltimore-Frederick Har- rison, unmarried, now living in Paris, France : William, who married Ethel Robertson, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and has three children, and Prentice Hale, who married Bessie B. Russell, of Troy, N. Y., but has no children.

Isaac Noyes Smith, the only son, married

Caroline Quarrier, and they had five children : Benjamin H., Harrison Brooks, Elsie Q., Christopher T. and Isaac N. Benjamin H. Smith is now deceased. Harrison Brooks Smith married Katharine Bowne and they have three children. Elsie Q. Smith married F. M. Staunton and has a daughter, Caroline Q. Christopher T. Smith is deceased. Isaac N. Smith married Elizabeth Dana and has five children. R. Emmeline Smith, the youngest of the family, married Col. A. B. Jones, and they have a daughter, Lana Noyes, who was married first to W. B. Dixon, and secondly to D. T. Laine.

Col. Benjamin H. Smith was of a tempera- ment that made him friends, and that also made him unpopular with some. That is, he was outspoken as to his own opinions and firm in his convictions. In Kanawha county dif- ferent opinions were held on the subject of slavery, and while there were many here who opposed it, there were a great many who re- garded it as a sacred right, not to be inter- fered with in any way. There were many who believed in the gradual emancipation of the slaves and who were gradually getting rid of their own. It was about 1830-32, it will be remembered, that a large proportion of the best men in Virginia were said to entertain these plans, and that even Thomas Jefferson advocated this policy.

As a lawyer Col. Smith was thoroughly versed in the principles of his profession, and he continued to make the law a life-long study, paying much attention to the land laws of Virginia. He stood among the foremost men at the bar. As a lawyer, statesman, and other- wise, he was a strong man. He was full of humor, sweet natured and well disposed. His immediate family claimed his closest attention ; their respect and affection surrounded him, and their pride in his achievements has prompted many memorials.

CHARLES GUNTHER PEYTON,* cashier for the large coal corporations which include the West Virginia Colliery Company, the Carbon Coal Company and the Republic Coal Company, all located on Cabin Creek, Kanawha County, W. Va., has been a resi-

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dent of this county for the past fifteen years but was born in Albemarle County, Va. His parents were Charles S. and Sallie E. (Bran- ham) Peyton, who had five children: Pickett and Henry, both of whom are deceased; J. Goss, who is a resident of St. Paul, Minn .; Lucy F .; and Charles Gunther.

Charles G. Peyton, the youngest of the above family, was born October 26, 1874, and was four years old when his parents moved to West Virginia. He was reared in Greenbrier County. His education was secured in the pub- lic schools and in a business college at Staun- ton, Va., after which he spent two years in New Mexico. After he returned to West Vir- ginia he entered the Kanawha Valley Bank as bookkeeper and remained there for seven years. In 1902 he came to the present corporation, first as bookkeeper for the Carbon Coal Com- pany, his duties and responsibilities increasing as the business expanded. Mr. Peyton is fi- nancially interested in the Raven Run Oil Com- pany and also in western and Mexican mines, and is a stockholder in the Providence Life and Casualty Insurance Company, of which he is the agent at Carbon, W. Va.

Mr. Peyton was married September 7, 1904, to Miss Susan Park Woolfolk, and they have two children: Charles Gunther and Gordon Pickett. Mr. and Mrs. Peyton are members of the Christian church. Politically he is a Democrat and fraternally a Mason and is identified with the Masonic lodge at Mont- gomery, W. Va.

WILLIAM F. SHAWVER,* president of the Shawver Company, with business quarters at No. 630 Kanawha Street, Charleston, W. Va., where they deal in roofing and in all kinds of kitchen wares, is one of the representative business men of this city, to which he came in 1893. He was born in Greenbrier County, W. Va., in 1863, and is a son of William C. and Sarah C. (Crane) Shawver.

William C. Shawver was born in Greenbrier County and followed farming in the section known as the Meadows, where he died in 1901. During the Civil War he was a soldier in the Confederate Army but in later years his views changed and for a number of years he

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History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 127

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co Number of Pages: 1066

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 1066