History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 76

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 76

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Mr. Thayer was married at Charleston to Miss Katharine Burrows, who is a daughter of John D. and Julia ( Miller) Burrows, natives of Ohio and Illinois respectively, and now resi- dents of Charleston. Mrs. Crawford was edu- cated at Massillon, O. Mr. and Mrs. Crawford attend the Presbyterian church. They have four children: Katharine V., born April 22, 1899: William Phillips, born November 23. 1901 ; Ellis Thayer, born November 19. 1905 ; and Helen E., born December 8. 1908.

MEREDITH PAYSON RUFFNER .- In the death of Meredith P. Ruffner, which oc- curred at Charleston, W. Va., March 2, 19II, this city lost one of her most solid citizens and the business world of this section one of its most conservative and substantial members. He was born in Kanawha County, W. Va., July 2. 1844. and was a son of James and Martha Ruffner. a grandson of Daniel Ruffner and a descendant, some generations removed, of Baron Peter Ruffner.

The Ruffner family was founded in America by Peter Ruffner, probably a German baron from Hanover, Germany, who came to the colo- nies as early as 1730. settling first in Pennsyl- vania and left descendants who were found in the Valley of Virginia in 1836. Joseph Ruff- ner was the earliest settler of this family re- corded in the Kanawha Valley. He owned large plantations along the Kanawha River, his

lands including the present site of the city of Charleston. He left descendants, one of whom was Daniel Ruffner, who was the grandfather of the late Meredith Payson Ruffner.

Daniel Ruffner resided at Charleston and was probably born here. He was identified with all its early history. He was the mem- ber of the family who deeded the land which for many years was the old Ruffner burial plot. At that time it was a beautifully situated tract lying on the bank of the Kanawha River and within its confines not only were the Ruffners interred but many of the earlier residents when they passed off the scene of life. It long since was abandoned as a burial place and now is covered with stately residences. the beautiful situation of the land making it very valuable for building purposes. It was also Daniel Ruffner, or his father, who built the fine brick house, which has walls eighteen inches in thick- ness, which still stands, comfortable and in good repair, and is now the home of Mr. J. H. Nash. The house is surrounded by orchards and the blossoming of these old trees in the spring is only equaled in beauty by the wealth of fruit in the autumn. Both Daniel Ruffner and wife lived into advanced age. Daniel Ruff- ner was twice married and in the later years of his life moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where his death occurred. To his first marriage five sons and two daughters were born: James and An- drew, twins. Augustus. Joel, Charles, Kather- ine and Elizabeth.

James Ruffner, father of Meredith P. Ruff- ner, was born at Charleston and spent his life here. He married Martha Morton, who was born at Portsmouth. Ky .. a member of an old Virginia family of Prince Edward County. They had children and among these were sons. Meredith Payson and Andrew, both of whom became men of importance at Charleston.

Meredith Payson Ruffner and his brother were educated in the Charleston schools and at Marietta. Ohio. Meredith at sixteen enlisted for service in 1862, in the Civil War then in progress, entering the 22nd Va. Vol. Inf., Con- federate army. He served with remarkable valor for three years and at the end of that period was honorably discharged on account of disability occasioned by sickness, having con-

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tracted typhoid fever. Soon after the close of the war the brothers embarked in the grocery business and conducted the same as retailers for three years under the firm name of Ruffner Brothers, and then started into wholesaling, antedating any other wholesale grocery house in the city and at that time there were few of this class in the whole state. The partnership of the brothers continued until the death of Meredith P. Ruffner, as noted above. As a business man he was held in the highest regard. Prudent and conservative, he took few chances, and endowed with a large amount of good judgment and the foresight which must ac- company important ventures of any kind, he met with much success. When misfortunes .- fell upon him, caused by business depressions at times, he met each issue bravely and through his enterprise and business acumen, weathered every storm. It has been said of him that he was a friend and adviser to innumerable young men who started into business as he had earlier done, but these services were known only to the recipients of his kindness.

In 1885 Mr. Ruffner was married to Miss Hattie Brown Maxwell, at Knoxville, Tenn., who was born at Nashville, Tenn., and was carefully reared and thoroughly educated, be- ing a graduate of Hollins Institute, a Virginia seminary of repute. She is a daughter of Col. Anthony Legget Maxwell, who traces a clear ancestry to his Scotch ancestors, and in his own person was for years one of the best known and most progressive business men of the South. He was a large manufacturer and bridge builder and concerned in allied lines and dur- ing the Civil War was a member of the firm that constructed the Howe iron truss bridges. In Tennessee he was married to Harriet Janet Brown, who belonged to a distinguished old family of Massachusetts, one that has con- tributed largely to the learned professions, one of its members being the founder of Brown University. The ancestors of Mrs. Ruffner participated also in the Revolutionary War, her grandfather, Captain Brown at the Battle of Bennington, together with two of her great- uncles, who were killed at the siege of Savan- nah. Here great-grandfather, Rev. John Le- land, was a famous pioneer preacher of the

Baptist faith, in Culpeper County, Va. He was a contemporary and personal friend of Thomas Jefferson and this statesman showed him many favors at a time when Baptist minis- ters and their teachings, in that section, were not acceptable to the wild, rough people who most needed these ministrations. Mrs. Ruffner is eligible to the Society of Colonial Dames and is a Daughter of the American Revolution, and she belongs to the order of the Daughters of the Confederacy. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ruffner: Janet Maxwell and Robert E. Lee. The former was born at Charleston, attended the Charleston schools and Hollins Institute and after graduating from a Baltimore, Md., college, went to Europe and is now enjoying her fourth year of musical in- struction at Berlin, Germany. Robert. E. Lee Ruffner was educated at Fishburn Military School and Hampden-Sidney College. He has succeeded his father in the wholesale grocery firm of Ruffner Brothers.

The late Meredith P. Ruffner was a Demo- crat in politics. He belonged to no fraternal organizations. He was liberal in his gifts to charity and was always interested in benevolent movements. For many years both he and wife were very active in the Presbyterian church, in which he was a deacon, and in which she still continues her interest. Personally he is re- membered as a companionable and true friend and in his home he had the warm affection that makes his loss one particularly hard to bear. In all public-spirited, movements he did his share and Charleston will keep green his mem- ory when consideration is given to those who have done most for its advancement and up- building.

CAPT. T. J. TORMEY, residing in Union District, Kanawha County, W. Va., some ten miles west of Charleston, owns two farms, one of three hundred acres situated in Union Dis- trict, and the other of one hundred acres, which lies in Putnam County, W. Va. He was born in Greenbrier County, then Virginia, July 4, 1847, and is a son of Michael and Margaret (Call) Tormey.

Michael Tormey was born in County Ros- common, Ireland, was reared and married there.

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Two of his children, John and Bridget, were born in Ireland. He was yet a young man when he decided to emigrate to America and took passage with his family on a sailing ves- sel bound for the harbor of New York. The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean consumed three months, but the landing was safely made, and there is no doubt but that the passengers were glad to be again on dry land even though all their surroundings were unfamiliar. By stage line and canal boat they reached their desired destination, Meadow Bluff, Va., and Mr. Tor- mey followed farming in Greenbrier County for the next ten years. During this period four more children were born: T. J., Julia, Mary and Maggie. Michael Tormey then sold his property in Greenbrier County and moved into Putnam County and had become a well known man there when his life was accidentally termi- nated, his death occurring from the kick of a mule. His widow survived to be seventy-five years of age and both she and husband were buried in the Catholic cemetery near their home in Putnam County.

T. J. Tormey attended school in Putnam County, in the Vernon Church school-house, after which he helped his father on the farm and for four years was employed in railroad construction. After marriage he came to Union District, Kanawha County, and settled on his present three-houndred acre farm, two hundred of which he has since cleared. The improvements he has made include the erection of all the present substantial farm buildings. He has brought his land to a high state of cul- tivation and is numbered with the prosperous farmers of the district. In politics he is a Democrat, but has never accepted any public office except one connected with the public schools and for six years he has been a member of the board of trustees of Union District schools.

Mr. Tormey was married in Kanawha County to Miss Mary Ryan, a daughter of Patrick Ryan. She was reared near Gallipolis Ferry, Mason County, W. Va., but her parents were born in Ireland. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Tormey, namely: John, a promising youth, who died at the age of seventeen years; Frank, who resides on the

home farm and assists his father; Robert, who is a street car conductor at Charleston; and Annie and Katie, who are at home, the latter still attending school. Mr. Tormey and fam- ily belong to the Roman Catholic church.

WILLIAM EDWARD KELLER, who owns a valuable farm of one hundred acres, which lies in Charleston District, Kanawha County, W. Va., was born May 2, 1848, in what is now Cabell County, W. Va., but then was a part of the old state of Virginia. His parents were Adam and Nancy (Arthurs) Keller.

Adam Keller was born in Germany and was brought to the United States when between five and ten years of age and was reared in Cabell County, W. Va. He there married Nancy Arthurs, a native of that county, and twelve children were born to them, the survivors be- ing: William Edward, Henry, Mrs. Rhoda Ray, and Mrs. Maria Ray. Adam Keller lived to be eighty years of age and was a well known man of his community, a leading member of the Presbyterian church. In his political views he was a Democrat.

William Edward Keller remained on the home farm assisting his father until he was twenty-one years of age, when he came to Kana- wha County. At the time of marriage he owned about three acres of his present farm, and to that small tract he has kept adding until he now has a large estate, one that is carefully cultivated and is proportionately productive. All the farm industries are well looked after. including crop raising. stock raising, dairying and fruit growing.

Mr. Keller married Miss Mollie Williams, a daughter of Henry Williams, of Kanawha County, and they have six children: Eursa, Mont, William H., Alonzo, Beatrice and Ira L. All have attended school, Mr. Keller being in- terested in public education, having served many terms on the school board. He is a staunch Democrat. For fourteen years he was postmaster at Mound, the post office being on his farm.

H. EUGENE SHADLE, president and general manager of the Morgan Lumber

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and Manufacturing Company, at Charles- ton, W. Va., is an alert and enterprising business man, thoroughly representative of modern ideas and methods and a trained and experienced one along the line of his own industry. He was born February 22, 1866, at Williamsport, Pa., of German an- cestry.

In 1900 Mr. Shadle came to West Vir- ginia and became interested in the lumber business at Parsons and in Tucker and Randolph counties, giving six years of his life to this business in those sections, and then became similarly interested in Clay and Nicholas counties, in all sections doing an unusual amount of business and still owns a mill and manufactures lumber at Yankee Dam, in Clay county. He has bought, sold and traded in lumber and es- timates that he has disposed of more than fifty thousand acres of lumber and timber lands. Since coming to Charleston he has devoted himself heart and soul to the fur- thering of business interests here and is recognized as a very important factor not only in the lumber industry but in other directions concerned with the upbuilding of the city's commercial prosperity.

The Morgan Lumber and Manufacturing Company is an enterprise that was con- ducted by John Morgan from 1884 until 1890, he having succeeded its founder, J. C. Roy, now of the Knight Lumber Company. For some time Mr. Morgan had Fred Gard- ner as a partner, some four years, after which the firm became John & J. S. Mor- gan, both now deceased. John and J. S. Morgan sold their interest to the Morgan Co. and afterwards sold to the Morgan Lumber Co., a corporation, which existed as such for seven months, when, in 1908 H. Eugene Shadle took over all the interests and some months later had affairs in such excellent shape that with no difficulty he was able to establish the present company which does business under the style of Morgan Lumber and Manufacturing Com- pany. The officers of this company are all men of high standing in the business world: H. Eugene Shadle, president and general

manager; S. L. Huffman, vice president : S. C. Peeler, treasurer; and I. E. Hodge, secretary. The mill of the company is sit- uated on Pennsylvania avenue, on the Elk river, a thoroughly up-to-date plant with capacity for two million feet of lumber and a 135,000-foot dry kiln. In its machinery equipment it is probably one of the most modern and complete in the whole country. The company has its own electric plant, all machines are eletcrically driven, each ma- chine having its own motor. The company is manufacturer of interior finish and furni- ture and mill work of all kinds is done and of such a character that the services of an architect is continually required, the com- pany having in A. P. Henneman a very competent one. Employment is given in the mill to seventy-five people.

Mr. Shadle was married in Pennsylvania to Miss Sarah Bitner, who was born in 1869, at Center Hall, Pa., of German par- entage, and they have one son, Harold, who was born December 6, 1893, who is a high school student at Charleston. Mr. and Mrs. Shadle are members of the Baptist church. Their handsome residence is at No. 1426 Quarrier street, Charleston. Mr. Shadle is identified with a Masonic lodge in Pennsylvania. In his political views he is a Democrat.

SQUIRE BENNETT JARRETT, one of the well known resdents and prominent public men of Elk district, who is now liv- ing retired after many years of active effort, is the owner of the old family homestead, known as Jarrett's Ford, on Elk river, Kan- awha county, W. Va., where he was born July 2, 1853, a son of Eli and Nancy (New- house) Jarrett.

Owen Jarrett, the grandfather of Squire B. Jarrett, came from Greenbrier county, Va., during the early days and settled on the Jarrett homestead, being the second pioneer to locate on the Elk river, and the second to build a log cabin there. He died at the age of fifty-three years, in 1852, in the old home, where his wife, who had borne the maiden name of Elizabeth Ven-

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son, also passed away. Eli Jarrett was born near the Elk river in 1809, and his life was spent in farming and lumbering on the family homestead, where his death oc- curred in 1897. He married Nancy New- house, a daughter of Michael Newhouse, also an Elk river pioneer, and she died in 1899, aged eighty-eight years, having been the mother of these children: Squire Ben- nett; Eli T., living in Dickinson Station, W. Va .; John T., a lumberman of Kelly Creek; Mark S., who conducts a hotel at Charleston; Mary E., who married Mar- shall Depew of Roane county; Caroline, who is the wife of Burdett Price, of Elk river; and Nancy Catherine, who married D. S. Jarrett of Hunt, W. Va.

After completing his education in the common schools, Squire Bennett Jarrett worked for his father until his marriage at the age of twenty-six years, when he started out on his own account. For ten years he operated a property on Wills creek, and at the end of that time removed to Charleston, where he engaged in a livery business for seventeen years. He is now retired, having rented his Charleston prop- erty and his Elk river farm.

Mr. Jarrett was married to Mary J. Vick- ers, who was born in 1864. daughter of Henry and Emma (Pawley) Vickers, farm- ing people of Elk district. Squire B. Jarrett is a member of the Baptist church. His politics are those of the Democratic party and he has served two terms as a member of the council and one term as deputy sheriff.

J. EUGENE DANA, a retired coal oper- ator of Charleston, who has also been ac- tive in public life, was born at Worcester, Otsego county, N. Y., August 14, 1844, son of John, Jr., and Catharine (Frink) Dana. He is a grandson of John Dana, Sr., who came of French Huguenot stock, his ances- tors taking refuge in England from the per- secution which raged against Protestants in their native land, whence they subse- quently emigrated to the colony of Massa- chusetts, going from there to the colony or

State of New York, in which some of their members achieved prominence.

John Dana, Sr., was born in Massachu- setts and subsequently removed to Otsego county, N. Y., where he passed the rest of his life, his occupation being that of mill- wright. He and his wife had one son and three daughters.

John Dana, Jr., was born in Otsego county, N. Y., in 1825 and for the greater part of his life was engaged in business as a flour mill operator. He died at Richfield Springs, Otsego county, N. Y., in 1880. In politics he was an old line Whig and later a Republican. A Methodist in his earlier years, he later became a member of and an active worker in the Presbyterian church. His home was for many years a place of hospitality and refreshment for ministers, elders and other church people. He mar- ried in Otsego conuty, Catharine, daughter of Stephen Frink, her mother's maiden name being Low. She was born in Otsego county about 1830 and died in Brooklyn, N. Y., when sixty-four years of age. Her parents went to Otsego county from Connecticut, Stephen Frink having been a soldier in the Revolutionary War. His father was massacred at a fort in Connecti- cut during the French and Indian War, about 1755 or '56. The subject of this sketch possesses his grandfather Frink's old hall clock, with wooden works, a fine specimen of its kind. John Dana, Jr., and his wife were the parents of nine children, of whom four are now living, our subject being the only one residing in West Vir- ginia.

J. Eugene Dana was the youngest but two of his parents' children, and he was only nine years old when they moved to Richfield Springs, where he was educated in the public schools. He was not quite eighteen years old when, on July 18. 1862, he enlisted in Company M, 3d N. Y. Light Artillery, and with his regiment he partici- pated in a number of engagements, the forces of which his regiment formed a part operating in the vicinity of Newport News, Va., and Newbern, N. C., as well as at other

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points, in 1864 having active work all along the line. His battery was the first to enter Richmond when that city was evacuated by the Confederates. Promoted to corporal, he exercised minor commands in that ca- pacity, and he was honorably discharged after three years of pretty active service.

After the close of civil strife, he came to Kanawha county, W. Va., to join his brother, who was engaged in the coal busi- ness here, and they were among the early coal operators of this section. Owing to the lack of railroads in those days, the coal was floated down the Kanawha and Ohio

rivers to Cincinnati, where it found a ready market. Mr. Dana continued in the busi- ness until his retirement therefrom about eight years ago, operating extensively on Campbell creek, and for four years was gen- eral manager of the Campbell Creek Coal Co., which has been in operation for thirty- eight years and which has shipped many million of tons, being one of the largest, if not the largest, shipper in this great coal section. Mr. Dana is still a director of the company.

A Republican in politics, Mr. Dana has been quite active in the councils of his party. He was a delegate to the Repub- lican National Convention that nominated Rutherford B. Hayes for President in 1876, and also to the convention that nominated Benjamin F. Harrison in 1892, to the con- vention that nominated William McKinley at St. Louis, and to the Republican Na- tional Convention of 1900. He has also served as a delegate to many state conven- tions. Of President McKinley he was a personal friend and entertained him at his home. Although he never sought but al- ways declined political preferment, he was appointed postmaster of Charleston by President Roosevelt, and served in that office for four and a half years with credit. Among his political acquaintances and per- sonal friends, in addition to President Mckinley were Presidents Harrison and Roosevelt, Mark -Hanna. Richard and Charles Dana and other men of prominence

in national affairs with whom he often con- versed on matters of importance.

Mr. Dana was married at Richfield Springs, N. Y., to Miss Maria A. Swift, a native of Newport, N. Y., and daughter of Aaron and Mary Swift. Her parents, who were natives of New York state, lived and died in Otsego county, that state. Mr. and Mrs. Dana have three children, Mary C., Elizabeth A. and John S. Mary C. is the wife of E. W. Knight, a member of the law firm of Brown, Jackson and Knight, of Charleston. Elizabeth A. married a Mr. Smith of Charleston and they have five children. John S. Dana, who graduated from Princeton College, is ex-secretary and vice president of the Abney-Barnes Co., a wholesale dry goods firm of Charleston. He married Launie Abney, and they have three children, all daughters. The family are members of the Kanawha Presbyterian church.

WILLIAM O'BRIEN, whose excellent farm of eighty-three acres lies two miles out from Charleston, W. Va., in Loudon district, was born in Ireland and was brought to what is now Wood county, W. Va., in infancy, a son of Richard and Jo- hanna (Lundegren) O'Brien.

Richard O'Brien came with his family to Wood county in 1850 and at first was em- ployed in flour milling and distilling, after- ward was a grocer and still later, his health failing, engaged in the liquor business. His death occurred at the age of forty-five years and four of his six children survive.

William O'Brien attended school in Wood county and afterward was variously employed, working as a carpenter and on the railroad for a number of years. After the death of his wife, in 1883, he came to West Virginia and followed carpenter work and building until 1890, when he purchased his farm and has devoted himself to agricul- tural pursuits ever since.

Mr. O'Brien was married first in 1875 to Mary Farrell, who died in 1884, having been the mother of four children: Edward,

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who is deceased; William, who lives in the state of Washington; Richard, who resides in Ohio; and Mary, who is deceased. Mr. O'Brien was married second to Mary Kis- sane, and they have a family of seven chil- dren, namely: Bernard, Thomas, Henry, Margaret, Robert, Anna and Helen. With his family, Mr. O'Brien belongs to the Catholic church. In politics he is a Demo- crat.

EDWARD S. IRWIN, formerly a well known business man of Charleston, W. Va., was born in 1825, in Malden district, Kan- awha county, and died at his home in Charleston, in Febraury, 1891. He was reared on a farm and was educated at Gal- lipolis, O., and started into business in this city as a grocery merchant. Some years later he went into the livery business which he continued until his last sickness.

The parents of the late Edward S. Irwin were David and Mary Irwin. The father owned salt furnaces in Kanawha county and operated the same until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he moved with his family to Gallia county, O., where he pur- chased a farm and spent the remainder of his life there. He and wife were Presby- terians. They had a number of sons, rec- ords of two, John and David, being as fol- lows: John continued in Gallia county, a farmer, married Mary A. Clark and they had a large family. She survives but he died at the age of seventy years. David, known as Captain David, was commander of a boat for some years on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers but later retired to his farm in Gallia county, where he died at the age of seventy-three years. He married a native of Indiana, an educated lady who was formerly a teacher. She died in 1910, in her eighty-first year, the mother of three sons and one daughter.

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History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 76

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