History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 130

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 130

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From early manhood Senator Chilton has been intelligently interested in public antestions and for years has been a notable 53

factor in Democratic politics in West Vir- ginia. He served Kanawha County in the office of prosecuting attorney from May 10, 1883, to January 1, 1885, and in 1886 was the candidate of his part of the state for the West Virginia senate. He failed of elec- tion by but eighty-four votes under condi- tions easily explained. He was Secretary of State of West Virginia from 1893 to 1897. In 1911 he was elected to the United States Senate, a high office for which he is well qualified, possessing as he does that sturdy manhood which makes him invinc- ible in advocating the right, that unblem- ished private character, and that conception of public service which Americans have come to require in those who represent them. Senator Chilton was nominated January 19, 19II, in the Democratic sena- torial caucus as the choice of a majority of the Democratic members of the West Vir- ginia legislature, to succeed Senator Nathan B. Scott, and received the nomination for the long term of six years on the sixth bal- lot. On February 1, 19II, before the joint assembly of the West Virginia legislature, Mr. Chilton was elected United States Sen- ator, receiving thirteen votes more than were necessary for a choice, and his com- mission was issued by Governor Glasscock.

In 1892 Senator Chilton was married to Miss Mary Louise Tarr, and they have had four children, all now living, namely : Wil- liam Edwin, Jr., Joseph Eustace, Eleanor Carroll, and Elizabeth Leigh. They reside at No. 1222 Virginia Street. Many influ- ences have been brought to bear at differ- ent times to tempt Senator Chilton to other sections but he has continued to make his home in his native county. In the larger field into which his admiring fellow citizens have sent him, he still carries home pride and love in his heart. Kanawha County will watch with especial appreciation the career of this favorite son in the national arena.

STAUNTON-The Staunton Family of Charleston, West Virginia, originated in Eng- land. The first settlers of this name came to

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Connecticut in the first half of the seventeenth century, and the Stauntons and Stantons are probably branches of the same parent stock.

Later some of the Stauntons settled in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, for at Worthington on September 13, 1782, was born John Warren Staunton, son of Elisha and Anna ( Rust) Staunton. John Warren Staun- ton, a school teacher by occupation, married on December 14, 1814, Sally Brewster the daugh- ter of Jonathan Brewster, a lineal descendant of Elder William Brewster, the Mayflower pil- grim. Jonathan Brewster was a prominent man in his native state and served as a member of the General Court. He married Lois Marsh.

John Warren Staunton and his wife re- moved from Massachusetts to Nunda, New York, where on September 29th, 1819, their third child, Joseph Marshall Staunton, was born. Soon after this event they moved again to Ellicottville, New York, and there this son grew to manhood. He studied medicine at Geneva, New York, and settled in Ellicottville where he practised his profession until 1859. In that year he came to Kanawha County, Virginia, to engage in the manufacture of il- luminating oil from cannel coal. This indus- try was soon destroyed by the discovery of petroleum, and Dr. Staunton engaged in va- rious occupations, resumed the practice of his profession, and in 1875 settled in Charleston as a physician and continued in practice there until within a few months of his death, Jan- uary 2Ist, 1904.

Dr. Staunton was a skillful physician, widely known and much loved. No doctor stood higher in the confidence of his patients, and as a man his probity and candor won the re- spect and esteem of all. He was a lifelong mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church, which he joined at the age of fourteen and for many years was an elder in that church. Originally a Whig in politics, he joined the Republican party upon its formation and never failed in adherence to its principles and policies.

Dr. Staunton married October 10. 1847, at Ellicottville. New York, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Church and Hannah Sever (Gam- bell) Wilber, born in Vermont March 16th,

1830, and at this date ( 1911) living in Charles- ton.

Dr. and Mrs. Staunton had ten children, two of whom died in infancy. The remaining eight are Sidney Augustus, now a Rear-Ad- miral in the Navy, married in 1886 to Emily Duncan Biddle who died in 1892, has no chil- dren; Mary Lucinda, married in 1872 to Dr. Sidney S. Staunton, her cousin, has four chil- dren; John Galusha, Julia Prescott, Mary Mar- shall and Warren Brewster; Susan Augusta; John Warren, a lawyer who died in 1881 at the age of twenty-three; Edward Wilber died June, 1904, at the age of forty, prominent in Republican politics and County Clerk of Ka- nawha County at the time of his death, he mar- ried in 1892 Florence Buffington and left five children, Juliet Lyell, Florence Buffington, Ed- ward Wilber, Katherine Brewster and Fred- erick Marshall .. Frederick Marshall, banker and prominent man of affairs married in 1892 Elsie Quarrier Smith, has one daughter Caro- line Quarrier : Archibald Galusha, a physician now living in Denver, Colorado, married in 1898 Rachael Hornbrook Bullard and has one daughter Frances Hornbrook: and Katharine Sever.

WILLIAM HENRY CANTERBURY .* master mechanic of the Campbell's Creek Rail- road, and chief electrician at the coal works at Dana Station. Kanawha County, W. Va., was born in Loudon District, Kanawha County. July 1, 1855, and is a son of Lewis J. and Elizabeth (Woodward) Canterbury.

Lewis J. Canterbury was twelve years old when he accompanied his parents to Loudon District. Kanawha County, from Giles County, Va. His father. James Canterbury, settled on the old Donley estate and became one of the managers for the Donleys at the salt works. His son became also interested in the salt in- dustry and bored many salt wells including the first one in the Pomeroy region, on the Ohio Railroad. His death occurred in February, 1910, when over eighty years of age. He mar- ried Elizabeth Woodward, who still survives. They became the parents of eight children: Andrew D .: William Henry: Sallie, who is

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deceased; Bettie, who is the wife of Simpson Honnigan; John D .; Florence, who is the wife of Caleb Farley; Anna, who is the wife of Al- bert Stanley; and Lewis.

William H. Canterbury attended the public schools until about twelve years of age when he began to make himself useful around the salt works and soon was employed at running an engine and having a natural talent for me- chanics, learned the principles of engineering with but little real study of the subject. He entered the employ of his present company in April, 1888, first as a locomotive engineer and after the road was built to Putney, became master mechanic. Since 1892, when the elec- tric plant was installed, he has had charge of the electrical department. Added to his nat- ural capacity along this line, Mr. Canterbury has had practical experience almost since child- hood and he is considered one of the most ef- ficient men in the employ of the corporation alluded to above.

Mr. Canterbury was married to Miss Willie A. Duling a woman of beautiful character and a member of one of the old families of Malden. Mrs. Canterbury died in 1903, three children surviving her: Fannie, Lorena and Sallie, the last named being the wife of Daniel Snyder.

JACOB FRANK CORK, a prominent mem- ber of the Kanawha County bar who makes a specialty of land law and chancery practice, and who has been otherwise prominent as author and business man, was born at Clarks- burg, W. Va., April 25, 1857. He is a son of Capt. John James Cork, and a descendant in the 5th generation of George Cork, a native of Maryland, who appeared upon the scene of life's activities about the time of the Revolu- tionary war and who was a soldier in Lieut. Harrison's company in the War of 1812-15, enlisting from Harrison county, Va. He mar- ried in Frederick county, Va., Susan Fresh- our. He was a man of property, having large estates in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsyl- vania. He died in the state of Virginia.

George Cork, Jr., son of the foregoing, was born in Morgan county, Va., in 1795. He was a farmer by occupation and in later life re-

moved to Ohio, dying at Bainbridge, Ross county, that state, in 1834. He was married and had a somewhat numerous family, name- ly, John, George (3d), Peter, Susan, Andrew, Polly, Jacob (grandfather of the direct sub- ject of this sketch), Daniel, Joseph and Harri- son.

Jacob, or Squire Cork, by which name he was usually known, was born at Wilsonburg, Va. (now W. Va.), in Harrison county, April 27, 1809. He was a man of an energetic and industrious disposition and was engaged largely in farming and stockraising, and to some ex- tent in manufacturing. In the sixties of the last century he moved to Walker's Creek in Wood county, W. Va., 17 miles east of Park- ersburg, where he farmed a large tract of 600 acres and also raised large numbers of sheep and cattle, being one of the foremost agri- culturists and stockraisers in that section. It was about this time that the Northwestern turnpike road connecting Parkersburg with Staunton and other points were constructed, a work which tended to advance the prosperity of this section. His daughter Prudence mar- ried Hamilton Gose Johnson, son of Hon. Jo- seph Johnson, then governor of Virginia, and Mr. Cork and his son-in-law became interested in taking contracts for construction of the pike in this section and bridges over the large streams, Mr. Cork developing ability as a bridge builder. He was commissioned by the governor as one of the justices of the old county court of Wood county, and as such was one of the court that in 1856 or thereabouts presided over the Court during the construction of the court house, then regarded as a very magnificent building, and he was in various ways a man highly regarded and looked up to by his fellow citizens. He was of a command- ing presence, being fully six feet tall and of erect carriage, with raven black hair and pierc- ing eyes, but somewhat reticent of speech. Among his intimate friends and companions were numbered judges, generals, lawyers and statesmen-many of them prominent in public affairs, who left their mark on the history of the state. At the period of the Civil war he voted for secession and his general sympathies

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were with the Confederacy, though he was not by any means a partisan. Naturally he was an adherent of the Democratic party.

When about 1863 oil was discovered along the Little Kanawha and Hughes rivers and the N. W. Branch of the B. & O. Railroad and Northwestern Turnpike, Mr. Cork became in- terested in the new industry and his lands in- creased greatly in value. He subsequently sold his real business interests in this section and he and his wife took up their abode in his na- tive county, his son, John James, and his daughter, Mrs. Johnson, remaining in Clarks- burg. His fine blue grass farms in Harrison county were at his death divided among some of his grandchildren.

He was married in Harrison county, now WV. Va., January 29, 1829, to Harriet Hard- man, who was born November 24, 1810, a daughter of Henry and Prudence ( Scott) Hardman. Her father, born January 5, 1780, married Prudence Scott, March 22, 1808. She was born January 9, 1785, and died about 1879. The place of her nativity was on the North branch of the Potomac river and she was related to the Kentucky Scotts and to the noted statesman Henry Clay. The father of Henry Hardman was also father of George Hard- man, of Georgetown, Md. Henry Hard- man served in the war as major of the 6th Maryland regiment.

Jacob Cork died December 29, 1877, and his wife, surviving him some years, passed away July 10, 1885. He was commonly known as 'Squire Cork. Their children were three in number, namely : Prudence A., John James and Susan V. Prudence A. Cork, born June 18, 1830, died August 10, 1892. As before men- tioned, she married Hamilton G. Johnson, son

of ex-governor Johnson, and at her death left four children. Capt. John James Cork ( father of our direct subject), born November 9, 1831 ; died at Limestone, W. Va., December 2, 1864. Susan V., born April 26, 1833, became the wife of Maj. Arthur H. Chevalier, a captain brevetted major, now residing at Parkersburg. W. Va., and they are the parents of three chil- dren.

Capt. John James Cork served for a short time in the Union army, being commissioned

captain a short time before he died. He was married in Clarksburg, W. Va., to Rebecca Lupton Campbell, who was born in Frederick county, Va. After the death of Capt. Cork, she married Martin W. Kidd, of Auburn, Shelby county, Ala. Mr. Kidd, who was born October 5, 1819, and was reared among the Creek Indians, whose language he spoke and whose character and habits he thoroughly un- derstood. He came to West Virginia in 1861 and was clerk of the Circuit Court for twelve years. He was a man of lovable na- ture, an interesting character and in every way a perfect gentleman. He died at the age of seventy-nine years. His widow, who is still living, is a woman of bright mental endow- ments, taking an interest in life and keeping well informed upon the leading events of the day. She is of Scotch ancestry and numbers among her first cousins three generals, namely : Gen. J. W. Denver, U. S. A., whose home is in Ohio; who was appointed governor of Kan- sas by President Lincoln and for whom the city of Denver was named; and Gen. William L. Jackson, ex-lieut. Governor of Virginia. who was a general in the Confederate army and later U. S. judge at Louisville, Ky .; and Gen. Benjamin Brice, who was paymaster gen- eral of the U. S. army, and cousin of Hon. Benjamin Wilson, congressman for Harrison county, W. Va., and assistant Attorney-Gen- eral of the United States.

Rebecca Lupton Campbell was descended from members of the famous Scottish clan of that name, whose acknowledged head was the Duke of Argyle. Her father was John Chambers Campbell, born 1811, who married Ann Brice Wilson, and died May 9, 1895. He was engaged in business in Clarksburg, W. Va., for years and was later clerk of court in Calhoun county, afterwards prosecuting at- torney. He was a man of fine presence and a Scotch Presbyterian in religion. He died in 1895, aged 84 years. One of his sisters mar- ried Col. Denver, father of Gov. William Den- ver. Another, Polly, became the wife of William Woods, of Illinois. His brother James served with distinction as an officer in the War of 1812 and died at Baltimore on his return from that war. The mother of

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these three children was in maidenhood a Miss Buchanan, a relation of President Buchanan. Other members of the family, which numbered in all ten children, were prominent in profes- sional life.

An earlier ancestor of these Campbells was William Campbell, a Scotch Irish Presbyterian, born in County Derry, Ireland, who died in Winchester, Va., aged 85 years. He and the members of his family were personal friends of Robert Emmet and on the collapse of the revolution attempted by the latter, were forced to flee to America. The family had originally settled in Ireland in Cromwell's time. After emigrating to America they be- eame very numerous in the vicinity of Win- chester, Va., and in all the surrounding sec- tion, many becoming prominent in law, medicine or politics.

Mrs. Ann Brice Wilson Campbell, maternal grandmother of our subject, was the daughter of Benjamin Wilson Jr., of Clarksburg, born January 18, 1778, who married Patsey Davi- son. He was a lawyer by profession and was son of Benjamin Wilson Sr., born 1747, who died December 2, 1827, and who was twice married : first to Ann Ruddle, Sept. 4, 1770, who had 14 children; and secondly to Phoebe Davison, who had fifteen children. The father of Benjamin Wilson Sr. was William Wilson, who was born in County Ulster, Ireland in 1722 and who emigrated to Virginia in 1737, settling in the Shenandoah Valley about 1746. He died May 2, 1801. He married Elizabeth Blackburn, who died May 2, 1806. They had eleven children. The father of William Wil- son was David Wilson, born in Scotland in 1685, who emigrated to Ireland after the re- bellion of 1715. He was a son of David, born in Scotland in 1650. James Wilson, a member of this same family, was one of the signers of the American Declaration of Inde- pendence, and was a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention.

Jacob Frank Cork was the only child of his parents. When he was only seven years old his father died. His mother, a woman of great energy and intelligence, took pains to instruct him in the elementary branches of knowledge and to teach him the true principles

of morality and religion. After free schools were inaugurated he was allowed to attend them for a part of his time. Subsequently he entered the Glenville Normal school, where he was graduated in June, 1874. With the edu- cation thus acquired he began to teach school, devoting his winters to this occupation and his summers to work on the farm, in this way earning enough to pay his expenses through the Fairmount Normal school, which he attended in 1878-1879. In the fall of 1879 he entered the University of West Virginia, and after making up a year's work, part of which time he was out of the class, he took his degree of B. A. in 1883. In June of the following year he took his LL. B. degree and later his A. M. After examination by Judge (later Governor) A. B. Fleming, and afterwards by Judges Henry Brannan and James M. Jackson, was admitted to the bar and began practice at Spencer, W. Va., On the occasion of the State Democratic Convention at Wheeling he took an active part and, being offered the appoint- ment of chief clerk of the department of Free Schools in Governor Wilson's administration (B. S. Morgan, State Superintendent) he accepted, and continued in this position for eight years, or until the close of Governor Fleming's administration. He then resumed the practice of law at Charleston and since then has devoted his entire time to his pro- fession, making a specialty of chancery and land law practice. He is also joint author of a work on the history of education in West Virginia and has contributed . interesting articles to various magazines and periodicals, and also to different historical societies in the South. He is a charter member of the Historical Society of the State and also one of its officers. In the line of his profession he has made exhaustive researches into the subject of land titles and has in process of compilation an exhaustive text book on this subject, upon which he is a recognized authority.

Mr. Cork was married in 1880 to Harriet Chevalier, a native of Wood county, W. Va. and a graduate of Lindenwood College, St. Charles, Mo. He and his wife are the parents of five children, namely : John R., who was educated in the Charleston High School, and

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the Virginia Polytechnic School; Helen, who is now attending Hollins College, Va .; Donald Lupton (twin brother of Helen), who is attending school at Hampden Sidney; Ed- ward now attending the city high school; and Virginia, a Hollins girl. Mr. and Mrs. Cork are members of the First Presbyterian church of Charleston.

REV. THOMAS KEENEY, who has been a minister in the Missionary Baptist church in Cabin Creek District, Kanawha county, W. Va., for the past fifteen years, has long taken an active part in business affairs in this sec- tion and also has prominently participated in public movements. He was born on his father's farm in Cabin Creek District, March 18, 1848, and is a son of Michael R. and Elizabeth Ann ( Gatewood) Keeney.

Michael R. Keeney was born in Cabin Creek District at what was known as Keeney's Knob, and was a son of Moses, who came to this section from Greenbrier county, where he owned the site of Sulphur Springs. He had ten children. Michael R. Keeney became a farmer and lumberman and operated a mill on Cabin Creek and lived there until his death, at the age of seventy-one years. He married Elizabeth Ann Gatewood, a daughter of Ran- som G. Gatewood and she lived to be eighty- six years of age and was the mother of four- teen children, namely : Margaret, who was the wife of John Jarrett, both being now deceased ; Frances, who was the wife of George Weaver, both being deceased; Melvina, who is also deceased; Mary, who was the wife of D. S. Montegue, both deceased; Lucinda, who is the wife of J. F. Davis; Bettie, who is the wife of A. S. Montegue; Robert G .; David R., who is deceased; and William, Woodford, Thomas Y., John G., Charles F., and Daniel.

Thomas Y. Keeney remained on the home farm until he was seventeen years of age, when he engaged in boating on the river in the salt trade and has been more or less con- nected with river life ever since, and for the past thirty years has been engaged in contract- ing. He is widely known. In public matters he has been interested since youth and for

many years has been a pronounced advocate of temperance and so prominent is he in the ranks of the Prohibition party that in 1910 he was its candidate for the House of Delegates.

Mr. Keeney was married May 6, 1869, to Miss Eliza White, a daughter of Woodward White, an old resident of Kanawha county, and they have had the following children and grandchildren born to them: Susan S., who is the wife of Charles Reynolds, and has four children-Bessie, Robert, Catherine and Thomas E .; Laura, who is the wife of Fred Young and has two children-Carroll and Clotel; Traver, who married Clara Young, and has six children-Anna, Iona, Fred, Julia, Elizabeth and Cameron; Ida, who died at the age of six years; Bertha, who is the wife of Ernest Hunter, and has two children- Thomas H. and Naomi; Hannah A., who is the wife of William Bond, and has four chil- dren-William, Ralph, Thomas E., and Lena ; Ralph, who died at the age of twenty-two years: Emery, who married Kinnie Bonham; Streeter, who died when aged fourteen years; and Aletha A. Mr. Keeney and family have resided at Witcher for the past fourteen years. The present church edifice was put up in 1907 and Mr. Keeney ministers to a large and interested congregation. He is identified with the Masons at Malden and the Red Men at Handley, W. Va.

T. O. M. DAVIS, deceased, who was a well known and highly valued citizen of Charles- ton, W. Va., for a number of years, was born at Syracuse, Meigs county. O., August 26, 1838, and was a son of William T. and Jane (Howell) Davis.

The parents of Mr. Davis were born in Wales and from that country in the early fifties they came to America on a sailing vessel, which, after many weeks on the Atlantic Ocean landed them safely and they made their way to Ohio. They spent the rest of their lives in Meigs County and left numerous descendants and the folowing children survive of their large family: William; Mrs. Anna Hopkins, wife of David Hopkins, and Mrs David Lawrence. (all living in Ohio) : Mrs.

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Thomas, a widow, who lives at Canyon City, of valuable land. A great-grandmother of Colo., and Mrs. Mary Matthews, residing in Charleston. Mrs. Davis was Elizabeth Tompkins, of another pioneer family. John Stockton mar- ried Elizabeth Rader, of Greenbrier county. The father of Mrs Davis, A. Judson Dickin- son, was a member of the 8th Va. Vol. Cav. during the Civil War, and died in the prime of life, in a hospital at Lynchburg, Va. His widow subsequently married William Morris a member of a family that has been very conspicuous in the development of the Kanawha Valley. Mr. Morris resides in Fayette County, W. Va., but Mrs. Morris died thirty-eight years since, leaving one child Llewellyn Lewis Morris. She married Will- iam H. Phelix.

Of the above family the late T. O. M. Davis was one of the younger members. He remained in his native state until he was eight- een years of age and obtained his schooling there, and then came to Kanawaha county, becoming a merchant's clerk in a store at Cannelton. He subsequently was made pur- chasing agent for the Winnifrede Mine Com- pany and remained in the employ of that cor- poration for eight years, as manager of the company's store and concerned with its rail- road as well as mines. After this he became secretary and treasurer of the company that was engaged in promoting the growth of a town to which the ambitious name of Kana- wha City was given. While the place was beautifully located and well arranged a lack of wisdom had been shown in providing no suburban outlet, hence, Charleston, which was started at a later date, soon outdistanced the older settlement and those who had invested extensively at Kanawha City failed to realize on their investments. Many of them, like Mr. Davis, withdrew their interests and embarked in other enterprises. Mr. David opened up a grocery business at Charleston and later be- came identified with an insurance company. He was a man of sterling character, was a thirty-second degree Mason and was a lead- ing Republican and at one time was the candi- date of his party for county treasurer. His death occurred October 25, 1900, at Charles- ton, and his burial was conducted by the Masonic fraternity with its impressive ritual.

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History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 130

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