History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 136

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 136

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).

Michael Herscher was reared at Pomeroy. O .. and attended school until he was ten years old, when he went to work in the bakery of a Mr. Adkinson. He made himself useful and was paid sixty cents a week for his services. While

living at Pomeroy he won something of a repu- tation as a long distance swimmer and per- formed many swimming feats in the Ohio river. In 1862 he became an assistant in the dental office of Dr. D. C. Whaley with whom he remained for eighteen months and during this time acquired considerable knowledge of the science of dentistry in its practical applica- tion. Mr. Herscher afterward learned the car- penter's trade and worked under Christopher Mittinger for one year and in this way he en- tered into the lumber business, with which he has been more or less identified ever since. He entered a planing mill at Pomeroy and worked there under Henry Priode from 1865 until 1878, afterward spending two years at Port- land, Ore., in the same business. In the fall of 1879 he resumed his old place in the mill at Pomeroy, of which he later took charge and was general manager for John S. Davis until 1888, when he came to Charleston. Here he was in partnership with Henry Dilcher in a mill and was general manager until 1898, when he started into business for himself and spent some time in buying and selling sawed lumber. His various experiences had made him ac- quainted with the lumber business from almost every angle and for twelve years afterward he was a valued employee of D. G. Courtney. In April, 1908 he became connected with his present firm, where, as buyer and inspector he carefully looks after this end of the business.

Mr. Herscher was married May 4, 1880, to Miss Elizabeth Margaret Shilling, a daughter of George and Anna Margaret Shilling. The parents of Mrs. Herscher were born in Ger- many and died at Pomeroy, O. They had eight children, Mrs. Herscher being the fourth in order of birth. The others were : Michael, who is deceased; George A .: Barbara, who is the wife of George Willman : Elizabeth, who is the wife of John Habig: Kate; John; and Mary, who is the wife of F. W. Steinbauer. Mrs. Herscher was born at Pomeroy. O., and at- tended school and was married there. Mr. and Mrs. Herscher have eight children, namely : John William, who married Lilian Paulsen, and has one child, Mary Louise : Charles H., who is a resident of Chicago, married Elizabeth Dickey, and has two children-William and

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Rudolph Dickey; and Anna Margaret, Philip in the world. He received training as a me- A., Fred William, George S., Edward L. and Elizabeth. The family home at No. 522 Hall street, is a handsome 12-room brick residence which Mr. Herscher built in 1909 and he also owns other property. The family belongs to the Presbyterian church. Politically he is a Democrat and fraternally is identified with the Odd Fellows and is a member of the Encamp- ment at Pomeroy, O.

GEORGE E. BREECE,* president and general manager of the West Virginia Timber Company ; president of the National Veneer Company ; president of the United Savings and Annuity Company, who is identified also with other important business enterprises, is one of the representative men of Charleston, of which city he has been a resident for the past nine years. He was born in Hardin county, O., De- cember 13, 1861, and is a son of George and Aseneth ( Tingle) Breece.

George Breece was born in Hardin county, where his father, a native of Wales, had settled very early, being one of the organizers of Roundhead Township. George Breece was a lumberman and in 1862 he built a saw-mill near Roundhead, which he operated until near the close of his life, his death occurring in 1883, when he was aged fifty-three years. He mar- ried Aseneth Tingle, a daughter of one of the early ministers of the Methodist Episcopal church in Central, Ohio, who, for years covered the circuit between Lebanon and Sandusky City. To the parents of George E. Breece eight chil- dren were born, as follows: Ann, who is the wife of E. R. Snell, a merchant near Summit Hill, in Ross county, O .; Mary, now deceased, who was married in Auglaize County to a Mr. Bradner: J. W. and W. W., twins, the former of whom lives at Kenova, W. Va., and the latter at Garrison, Ky .; George Elmer. of Charleston ; Frank, who was accidentally killed in a mill explosion, when aged twenty-two years : John T., who is connected with the Reese Lumber Company of Portsmouth, O .; and Charles O., who is a lumberman at Waverly. Ohio.

Until he was seventeen years of age, George E. Breece attended school more or less regu- larly and then started out to make his own way

chanic while with J. H. Irwin & Co., of Pot- tersburg, Union County, O., where he became a superintendent, after which he became pur- chasing agent for Cranie & McMahan, trav- eling through Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. In 1892 he embarked in the milling business at Bainbridge, Ross County, O., where he con- tinued for two years, when the explosion al- ready referred to not only wrecked his mill but cost the life of his brother Frank. Sub- sequently he resumed business at Waverly, where he remained until August, 1902.

He then came to Charleston and purchased the mill of C. C. Lewis, where the West Vir- ginia Timber Company's plant is now located on the Gauley River. He is interested also in the Boone Timber Company ; the Belle Meade Timber Company, of Webster Springs; the Barton Lumber Company, or Bartonville, Ga .; the Bascon Lumber Company of Bascon, La. and the Advance Lumber Company of Cleve- land, O. The output of these various plants includes all grades of lumber known to the sections in which they are operated, Mr. Breece having under operation 135.000 acres of tim- ber, giving a daily output of 3,000,000 feet. The main office is maintained in the Charles- ton National Bank Building at Charleston. Mr. Breece is one of the largest lumber pro- ducers in West Virginia and either organized or purchased outright all the different con- cerns in which he is interested. He has numer- ous other interests than those mentioned, be- ing, for example, at the head of the Hall Lum- ber and Tie Company, and, with his brother, John T., is part owner and operator of the Three States Manufacturing Company at Kenova. W. Va., where the veneer plant is also located and where employment is given to a large force.

Mr. Breece married Miss Nettie Robinson, who was born in Union County, Ohio, a daughter of James Robinson, and they have five children: Olin, who is manager of the sales department of the various concerns owned by his father: Pearl, who is an office assistant with her father: and Aseneth, Joy and Chris- topher. Mr. Breece and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. The fam- ily residence is situated at No. 94 Bradford

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Street, Charleston. Mr. Breece is a man of great business capacity. His fortune and large business interests have been built up through his own efforts, but he attributes a part of his success to his established habits of temperance in all things. He is in the prime of life and has a frank and cordial manner that invites friendship. He is credited with having done much to aid others in becoming established in business and he is regarded as one of Charles- ton's most useful and valued citizens.

THE ALDERSON FAMILY .- John Al- derson, Sr., known as the "Prodigal Son" was the founder of the Alderson family in Amer- ica. He was the youngest son of Rev. John Alderson, of Yorkshire, England, where he was born in 1699. and he died in Fincastle, Va., in 1780, aged 81 years. While in Eng- land he was about to contract an alliance with a young lady whom his father thought be- neath his social standing and so he presented him with a horse and two hundred pounds and advice to travel, "trusting that his gambols in pastures new would dispel the memory of his injudicious frisking in the field of Auld Lang Syne." and being possessed of a social and con- vivial disposition, he soon found himself in Liverpool without horse or money.

Having made the acquaintance of the cap- tain of a vessel about to sail for the American Colonies, he was invited aboard the ship and was treated courteously and when he found himself and before he was aware of it, found hiniself under way and was sailing on his way to America. It was in 1719. on the coast of New Jersey. that the young Mr. Alderson took up his residence, with Mr. Curtis, a respectable farmer near Bethlehem Church, N. J.

The parents in England had mourned their son as lost for ten years, when they received a letter from him, telling them of his having joined the Baptist Church and had studied for the ministry and had married Jane Curtis, the daughter of his benefactor. His father was greatly rejoiced and while he did not prepare the fatted calf, he sent to his son three large volumes of a theological work, which has been preserved by the family and are now in the Bureau of Archives and History in Charleston.

He afterwards was in Germantown. Pa ..

and in 1755 he removed with his family to Rockingham County, Va., and in the follow- ing year purchased a farm and built a Baptist Church on Linnville Creek, about nine miles from Harrisonburg, adjoining that of old Mr. Linkhorn, the father of President Abraham Lincoln.

Rev. John Alderson had seven sons and one daughter. His son John was born in New Jer- sey in 1738 and died in Palestine, now Alder- son, W. Va., in 1821. He married in his twenty-first year, Mrs. Mary Carroll, a rela- tive of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. He and Morris married sisters-they were broth- ers-in-law. William Morris was among the first settlers of Kanawha.

Mr. Alderson is said to have preached the first sermon in Kanawha Valley. Between 1760 and 1775 he made two exploring and mis- sionary trips into the Greenbrier and Kana- wha valleys and on one occasion went as far as the Ohio river and is said to have discovered the Burning Spring. He made, in 1774-1775, the first road to Ianetts Fort on Wolf Creek, now in Monroe County, and after this settled on the Greenbrier River where now is Alder- son, where he planted the first orchard and built the first church west of the Alleghenies in 1781. Rev. John Alderson, Jr., had three sons and three daughters ; the sons were George Alderson, Sr., Joseph and John.

George Alderson was among the first to set- tle in Kanawha. He became the friend and associate of Daniel Boone, was one of the County Court of Kanawha, was one of the first sheriffs of this county, owned the lot on which the courthouse was erected and was one of the leading citizens of his day. It is also claimed that he was one of the first members of the General Assembly, representing Kana- wha County, but this has been questioned and we cannot determine the said question. He was a large land owner in Kanawha County and sold the lot to the county on which the courthouse was erected. In naming the streets "Alderson" was given to one of the early ones for him. He was the father of Rev. James O. Alderson, who was the pastor of the Green- brier Baptist Church in 1831-32 and who was the father of James Alderson now residing at Alderson. W. Va. George Alderson was

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buried at the mouth of George's Creek which was named after him.

Joseph Alderson was the father of Col. George Alderson of Fayette County, and Rev. Lewis A. Alderson. John was the father of Squire Geo. Alderson, of Alderson, W. Va. These three sank a salt well and made salt over a hundred years ago opposite Browns- town, near the Malone stage stand. They flooded the first salt down the Kanawha and Ohio, W. Va., to market and sold it at $0.25 per bushel in Cincinnati. Rev. Lewis A. Al- derson was the youngest son of Squire Joseph Alderson and grandson of Rev. John Alder- son, Jr. He was born in 1812 at North Alder- son, in Greenbrier County in the large stone house built in 1789, and now owned by Mr. Joseph S. Thurman. He graduated at the University of Ohio at Athens, Ohio, in 1832, and the day after he married Miss Lucy B. Miles, of Athens. He brought her home but she lived but three months. In 1838, while pastor of Grace Street Baptist Church in Rich- mond, Va., he married Miss Eliza Floyd Cole- man, daughter of Capt. John Coleman, of Am- herst County, Va. They had eight children, one a daughter. The eldest son was Joseph Cole- man Alderson, of Charleston, W. Va. He and Mrs. Church J. White, of Atcheson, Kansas, and Lewis A., of Sheridan, Wyoming, are all that are now living. Rev. Lewis A. Alderson went to Atcheson and built the first Baptist Church in 1858, mostly with his own means. He and Dr. L. H. Kalloch, founded Ottawa University, one of the largest educational in- stitutions, west of the Mississippi River. He died and was buried at Atcheson in 1881.

There has been a line of representatives in the Virginia and West Virginia legislatures, representing the same county and people by eight Aldersons and one of them now a mem- ber of that body. Rev. John Alderson, of Yorkshire, England, was the father of Rev. John Alderson, Sr., the "Prodigal Son," who was the father of Rev. John Alderson, Jr., who first preached to the people of Greenbrier County and the Kanawha Valley.

MAJ. J. COLEMAN ALDERSON is the eldest son of Rev. Lewis A. and Eliza Floyd

Alderson, and a grandson of Squire Joseph Alderson. His mother was a daughter of Capt. John Coleman, of Locust Grove, Am- herst county, Va., the ancestral home of the Colemans.

After the death of his grandfather Alder- son, in 1845, his father fell heir to the large plantation on the north side of Greenbrier river, in Greenbrier county, in which part of the town of North Alderson is now sit- uated. He was taught here by private teachers until at the age of 17 he attended the old Lewisburg Academy, and in 1859- 60 and 61 he was a student at Allegheny college, Blue Sulphur Springs, W. Va. He was in the graduating class when, on April 17, the day Virginia seceded, being a patri- otic and loyal Virginian, believing in the doctrine of States' Rights, he volunteered in the Confederate army, joining the Green- brier Cavalry, of which John Letcher, the governor of Virginia said, "was the finest body of men and horses he had ever seen." He was promoted from private to second, and then to first lieutenant of cavalry. He twice refused the commission of captain, preferring to remain with the gallant men who had volunteered with him.

In that terrible campaign in east Tennes- see, during the winter of 1863-4, under Gen- William E. Jones, when Longstreet had General Burnside surrounded in Knoxville, Lieut. Alderson often commanded the five companies composing the 36th batallion of Virginia cavalry. General Jones's Brigade supplied Longstreet's Corps almost entirely with provisions captured from the enemy, while his own command subsisted mostly on parched corn. Though his command was half clothed and many barefooted. it marched nearly every night and fought al- most daily, during those three months of the coldest winter ever known in the state, the temperature being often below zero. General Longstreet said that "Jones's Bri- gade had performed more active and effi- cient service that winter than all the armies of the Confederacy."

The Major's Company A, 36th batallion Virginia Cavalry, was the escort of honor at the burial of General "Stonewall" Jackson.

MAJ. J. COLEMAN ALDERSON

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On the morning of July 3d, 1863, he was de- tailed on General Roades' staff and deliv- ered one of the first orders on the Confed- erate side which opened that terrible battle of Gettysburg. He selected Oak Hill for Col. Carter's Artillery, which saved Gen- eral Heath's division from complete anni- hilation, on July 1, 1863. He assisted in rolling General Ewell's horse off of him, when a shell splintered his wooden leg and killed his horse. Early the next morning, while General Albert Galatin Junkins was show- ing the Major from a map, where to place his command, a shell exploded by them, se- verely wounding the General and killing his horse. He participated in over 100 battles and skirmishes during the war, some des- perate in which many of his company were killed and wounded. He was in four en- gagements which were fought hand to hand with sabres, and was twice wounded-once on July 6, 1863, near Hagerstown, Md., when General "Jeb" Stuart repulsed Greggs' Corps of Federal Cavalry, and on July 12, 1864, on Piney river, Amherst county, Va., near his birthplace, when he captured Gen- eral William Fay's advance guard, and was afterwards captured himself while trying to hold a position he had been ordered to hold. He was sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, and remained nine months in that noted bastile before he was exchanged. Six months of the time he subsisted on one- third rations of corn meal and salt fish and under retaliation. There was much sick- ness and many deaths in the camp. When exchanged in the latter part of February, 1865, though reduced to a mere skeleton, he mounted his horse to regain his com- mand as soon as able to ride. When within a few miles of Appomatox Court House, on the morning of April Ioth, he was in- formed of General Lee's surrender.

He had but eight days' leave of absence from his command during his four years of service, except what a shell gave him at the battle of Hagerstown, July 6, 1863, and July 12, 1864, when wounded, captured and sent to prison.

Soon after the close of hostilities he went to Atchison, Kansas, and in 1865-66 and '67

had charge of the middle division of the Butterfield Overland Freight and Express Company, which ran from Atchison, Kan., to Denver, Colo., up the Kaw and Smokey Hill rivers and across the plains. His di- vision extended from Fort Ewlsworth, Kansas, 260 miles west to Fort Wallace, Colo., through the very heart of the Indian and Buffalo country. The hostile Indians broke up the company, which was capital- ized at $3,000,000, by murdering their em- ployees, capturing and burning their prop- erty and stealing their stock. A divine providence spared the Major's life, as it had done during that terrible war.

In the fall of 1867 he returned to Atchison where his father gave him a farm five miles west of that city, which he cultivated for two years. He was there in the spring of 1858 when he planted out 12 acres in trees on this farm, which was the first grove planted in Kansas territory, and which has been known ever since as "Alderson's Grove."

In 1869 he returned to West Virginia and located in Wheeling, where he engaged in the general insurance business for 27 years. He had the leading insurance agency in the state, composed of companies of the high- est standing and resources. Possessed of great energy he was not long in building up a large and profitable business. Ex-Gov- ernor G. W. Atkinson, now one of the judges of the U. S. Court of Claims, Wash- ington, D. C., was associated with him for some time.

In 1888 he began buying coal and timber lands along the Norfolk and Western Rail- road ; also in Boone, Wyoming, and Raleigh counties, for himself and associates. He sold some, but retained much, which has be- come very valuable. In 1907 he wrote a brochure on the coals, gas and timber of West Virginia, which was widely circu- lated and attracted a great deal of attention and was the means of bringing much capi- tal into the state. He is a man of broad and liberal views upon all living questions -is conscientious, honest, enterprising. liberal and generous to a fault. No man of

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means is more charitable and kinder to those that need sympathy and assistance.

Though popular he has never been a can- didate for office, yet always ready to give his time and means to the advancement of his worthy democratic friends. He has been mentioned in connection with many important official positions, but private bus- iness is more in accord with his own tastes and wishes, and he has accordingly de- clined everything like political advance- ment. He was a director of the West Vir- ginia Penitentiary under Governors Mathews and Jackson, and resigned under Governor Wilson, and was a West Vir- ginia commissioner to the Ohio Valley Cen- tennial at Cincinnati in 1888 and at the Con- tinental Celebration of the inauguration of George Washington as the first president of the United States, at New York, April 17, 1889. He also represented West Vir- ginia in 1893, under Governor McCorkle's administration at a meeting of the Southern Governors, called for the purpose of secur- ing and properly locating suitable foreign immigration in these states.

In 1880 he founded Mountain Lake Park and in 1894 Loch Lynn Heights-two noted summer resorts on the B. & O. Railroad in Garrett county, Md. He was also one of the founders of the prosperous town of Williamson on the N. & W. Railroad and Bellepoint at the junction of Greenbrier and New Rivers, on the C. & O. Railroad.

On February 25, 1874. Maj. Alderson married Miss Mary Price, eldest daughter of Ex-Governor Samuel Price of Lewis- burg, W. Va. She died at Mt. Lake Park, Md., August 15, 1895. On December 29, 1904. he married Miss Mary Kirker, of Wellsburg, W. Va. They reside at 1212 Kanawha Street, Charleston. While they never had children of their own, he has spent much time and means in educating those of others.

REV. CHRISTOPHER B. GRAHAM, D. D.,* pastor of the Sixth Street M. E. Church of Charleston. W. Va., of which city he has been a resident for seventeen years, was born in; Kanawha County, W. Va., May 19, 1850.

He is a son of William Graham, Jr., and grand- son of William Graham, Sr., the latter of whom was born in the north of Ireland, of Scotch ancestry, and was there married. There also his four eldest sons were born-William, Jr., George, Samuel and John-who accom- panied their parents to America, the trip be- ing made in a sailing vessel and taking many weeks. Landing probably in New York City, they went subsequently to Pittsburg, Pa., where William Graham, Sr. resided for some years, following the occupation of a merchant. He and his wife were Presbyterians in religion.

He had been twice married in Ireland, and by his first wife had Robert, Thomas, Will- iam Jr., George, Samuel, John and Isabella. Robert, who never married, died at Ripley, W. Va., at an advanced age. Thomas became a large land owner and farmer near Parkers- burg, W. Va. He married Belle Millrose, and both died leaving sons Richard. Alfred, Will- iam. Robert and James and a daughter, Caro- line, all of whom are married and have fam- ilies. Isabella Graham became the wife of George Best and they resided near Washing- ton, D. C. Both died when well along in years. Their son, John A. Best, became a prominent and wealthy business man of Pitts- burg. subsequently of Washington, Pa., and still later of Chicago, Ill .. where he now re- sides.

William Graham. Jr., father of the subject of this sketch, was born in the year 1805 and was a boy of twelve years when he accom- panied his parents to W. Virginia, which was then a part of the Old Dominion. He early became connected with the salt making indus- try, was later a merchant, and was the first man to operate a stave and barrel manufactory in Elk district. being also the first to make use of steam power in this industry. He also owned and opened the famed Graham Mine. This mine, opened in 1850, has continued in operation ever since. It contains four veins and has been very productive. Coming into possession of our subject, he operated it suc- cessfully for some time subsequently transfer- ring the management of it to his son, William W. Graham, by whom it is now conducted.

William Graham, Jr. was a prominent mem- ber of the Presbyterian church of Charleston,

Charleston

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serving therein as elder for several years. Al- though a Whig, and later a Republican in pol- itics, he held slaves. He did not, however, deal in them or treat them as chattels, and those he owned he cared for until their respect- ive deaths. He was a man of sterling char- acter and of an inflexible business honesty that was recognized by all his fellow citizens.

He was married in Charleston to Mrs. Mary A. Cowley, nee Peacock, who was born in Durham, England, about 1825, and who died at Graham Mines, this county, December 26, 1879. She was a daughter of Sir Christopher Peacock, whose family belonged to the English gentry, being related to other prominent fam- ilies of Durham and of Yorkshire, England. Her mother was in maidenhood Elizabeth Herd, also a native of England and of good ancestry. Of the Peacock family, Thomas, a brother of Christopher, was an officer in the English army, who resided for some years in Australia and who finally died at Graham Mines, W. Va. Matthew, another brother, died in Durham, Eng. One of his daughters, Mary, married a Mr. Joseph Addison, who came to America and was drowned in the Ka- nawha river, being lost overboard from a steamboat. His widow subsequently married Rev. Hezekiah Scott, D. D., a member of the West Virginia Conference and now resides in Huntington, West Virginia. Of the three sis- ters, one, Elizabeth, became the wife of John Archibald, and settling in Kanawha County, IV. Va., about the time of the war, lived and died at Raymond City, leaving issue. An- other, Mary, went to Nova Scotia, but subse- quently removed to West Virginia, where she died. The third, Sarah, lived and died in Durham, England. Mrs. Mary Ann Graham's first husband, Nicholas Cowley, died early, leaving a son Nicholas, who was killed by a horse at the age of ten years.

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History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 136

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