USA > West Virginia > Monongalia County > History of Monongalia County, West Virginia, from its first settlements to the present time; with numerous biographical and family sketches > Part 12
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The consent of Congress to the admission of the State
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into the Union was next sought. The petition for the admission was presented in the United States Senate by Senator Willey on the 29th of May, 1862. After a long struggle, the amended bill offered by Mr. Willey on the 1st of July, 1862, was passed. It provided that the new State should be admitted in the event of a certain change being made in the constitution. The constitutional convention, which, fortunately, had not adjourned, but merely taken a recess, re-assembled February 12, 1863, made the change, submitted it to the people, the people ratified it, and President Lincoln, by proclamation of April 19, 1863, declared the fact, and West Virginia became a State of the United States. The State officers elected on the 28th of May were inducted into office on the 20th of June, 1863-the day from which the existence of the State is reckoned.
The Legislature, on the 31st of July, 1863, appointed William Price, Reuben Finnell, James T. McClasky, Thomas Tarleton, Philemon L. Rice, Jesse Mercer and Jesse J. Fitch commissioners to divide Monongalia County into townships, and designate them by names. Philemon L. Rice and Jesse J. Fitch did not serve, and Michael White and Harvey Staggers were appointed in their place. These commissioners marked off the first township, and ran its lines with but little variation from the existing lines enclos- ing the old First Magisterial District, and named it Clinton. They then laid off the remainder of the county in like manner, making each magisterial district a township with but little alteration of its enclosing lines. The Second District became the second township, by the name of Mor- gan; the Third District, the third township, which was
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named Union; the Fourth District became Cass Township ; the Fifth District became Grant Township ; the Sixth Dis- trict, Clay Township, and the Seventh District became Bat- telle Township.
During the remainder of 1863 nothing of unusual interest occurred within the county beyond several false alarms* of Confederate invasions.
In August, 1864, the militia were called out and went into camp for four days on the Runner farm, four or five miles from Morgantown, in apprehension of a Confederate raid. In November, some one entered the court-house one night, and tore up and otherwise injured the public records.
Early in the month of June, 1876, steps were taken to appropriately celebrate on the Fourth of July the county's as well as the Nation's centennial anniversary. A meeting was called, which assembled at the court-house, to make arrangements for the celebration. Of this meeting the Hon. W. T. Willey was elected chairman and Henry N. Morgan secretary. Addresses were made by Mr. Willey, the Hon. J. Marshall Hagans and the Rev. J. R. Thompson. Resolutions, offered by George C. Sturgiss, declaring the propriety of a celebration on the Fourth of July of the county and nation's hundredth anniversary, and providing for the appointment of a general committee of arrange- ments, were adopted unanimously. Joseph Moreland, Thomas P. Reay, George C. Sturgiss, A. W. Lorentz, Wm. C. McGrew, Jesse J. Fitch, Ed. Shisler, George Hall and J. P. Shafer were appointed such committee, which organ- ized by electing Mr. Moreland chairman and Mr. Reay
* The people were frightened several times by reported raids, which the Post enu- merated, in 1864, as the "Dusenberry," the " Weaver," the "Granny " and the " Cart- wright" raids.
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secretary. Sub-committees were appointed in each district by this committee. Col. Joseph Snider was chosen mar- shal of the day, with Capt. George W. McVicker assistant.
"No event," said The New Dominion, "that has trans- pired in our town for time immemorial was so generally observed as the Centennial Celebration here on the 4th. Early in the morning immense crowds poured into town from every direction, in every conceivable means of convey- ance. The rich and the poor, the high and the low, in car- riages, wagons, on horse-back and on foot, without regard to past or present, political or religious distinction, they assembled for a day of genuine pleasure, enjoyment and hearty patriotic demonstration. ... The reverence which we feel for our noble fathers, who so earnestly labored to give us pure and independent government, was brilliantly manifested. ... Though after the exercises had been con- cluded, a heavy rain commenced to fall, which made it extremely unpleasant for all those going home that evening, still they did the best they could to protect themselves, and departed for their homes with a feeling of serene satisfac- ١ tion and supreme contentment over the manner in which the day had been passed, and with renewed zeal for the perpetual and enduring prosperity of our country and Union."
From the description of the day published in The Mor- gantown Weekly Post we extract: "The celebration in Monongalia County, West Virginia, on Tuesday, July 4th, 1876, of the one hundredth anniversary of American Inde- pendence and the one hundredth anniversary of the organi- zation of Monongalia County, will long be remembered by our children after the present generation has passed away. . At 3:30 o'clock Tuesday morning, the signal was . .
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given for a general ringing of bells. The clear notes of the old bell in the cupola of the court-house, immediately under the statue of Patrick Henry, one of Virginia's patriotic sons, rang out on the still air of that balmy July morning with music sweet to the American heart. Then followed the pon- derous strokes of the sledge-hammer upon the big bell at the University, and the ringing of the old Monongalia Academy bell, and all the church bells in town." Describing the procession, the same paper says : "The attractive feature at the head of the procession was a splendid representation of 'Brother Jonathan;' personated by John Guseman. John was on horseback, decked out in the stars and stripes. His horse was covered with a blanket of stars and stripes, and he wore a suit of the same. The short breeches, strapped to the bottoms of his boots, the gaunt figure, the hatchet-faced visage, the keen Yankee contour in every respect, was a real 'Uncle Sam' in costume and figure. . . The day indeed was a glorious one, in which we will all recur in the future with patriotic pride and joyful recollections."
The ringing of the bells brought almost the whole town on the streets, and at sunrise a Federal salute was fired at the University. People were now coming in from the country in all directions. Two bands were present from Fayette County, Penn .: a martial band, whose members were Henry, John and Ulysses Scott and Philip and Ad. Lyons ; a brass band from Morris X Roads, composed of Thomas F. Protzman (leader), Martin Hope, Ira Conn, Paton B. Protzman, George Hertzog, Hugh Scott, Amody Gans, Samuel Conn, James Frankenberry, "Abe" B. Hall, Jr., and A. Jackson Hirdman. The Monongalia martial band was "headed by Silas Sinclair, fifer, and the irre- pressible Riley Walker on the tenor drum."
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The procession was headed by the artillery under com- mand of Col. Frank W. Thompson ; next, the martial bands ; then citizens, followed by Indians-boys decked out in full Indian costume; then the brass band, after which came the colored people closing the procession. After marching through the streets, the long line marched to the fair ground, where a national salute of thirty-eight guns was fired. Here, after music by the band and prayer by the Rev. Dr. Jimeson, the choir* sang "1876," a patriotic ode. J. S. Boyers read the Declaration of Independence; and the "Star Spangled Banner," solo, duet and chorus, was sung by T. P. Reay and J. M. Lazier, and the chorus by all the people. John J. Brown now delivered the Historical Ora- tion (local), followed by Carl Reden's "Centennial Hymn" by the choir, and music by the band. The Historical Oration (general) was delivered by the Hon. W. T. Willey; music by the band, and recess for dinner. During the recess a centennial salute of one hundred guns was fired. After dinner, the colored citizens had an hour in the rendi- tion of a programme of their own making. At 2 o'clock, after music by the band, the Rev. J. R. Thompson delivered an oration; music by the choir, and "Old Hundred" by all the people, led by Dr. J. M. Lazier. The benediction was now pronounced, and the vast concourse of people was dismissed about 4 o'clock. A heavy rain-storm set in before all of them reached the town. In the evening a balloon ascension, fire works from the suspension bridge, and a pyrotechnic display at Robert L. Demain's on the
* The choir was composed of the Fletcher Class-J. A. Jones (leader), Amy, Alice, Drusilla, Elza, Clark and Lindsay Warman, Isaphine and Filena Hunter, Laverna Stewart and Morgan Hertzog; and the Granville Class-Z. Taylor Martin (leader), J. W., L. and Martha A. Bixler, Theodocia, Fannie and E. V. Finnell, Minnie and Martha Martin, George and William Lewellin, Luinie and Ellison St. Clair, Kate Frum, Josie Corothers, Clavin Roby and R. P. Hess.
GEORGE FREDERICK CHARLES CONN. See Page 457.
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hill south of town, closed the exercises of the Centennial Fourth at Morgantown. It was "one of the largest popular demonstrations ever witnessed in the county, participated in by nearly three thousand people, and not marred by the arrest of a single person by the police." Mr. John J. Brown's historical oration was a masterly effort-the best centennial address the writer has yet seen. He opened by saying :
"The voiceless tomb holds in eternal silence the unrecorded 'thoughts that breathed and words that burned' a hundred years ago. The patriots who then rallied around the unfurled standard of freedom, erected by their invincible courage, burning zeal, and patient and prolonged sufferings, this grand temple of liberty, under whose shadow we this day gather. More than forty millions of freemen are met to-day at the shrine of patriotism to worship, and to learn from tradition, from history, from eloquence, from poetry and song, the events of other years; and to renew at a common altar their pledges of fidelity to their country, and to be baptized with the spirit of a hundred years ago. Those brave men who would have gathered around Washington in the mountains of West Augusta, had the cause of their country gone down amid the shock of battle on the eastern slopes of the Alleghanies, are now forever speechless and silent.
"The recorded events of the distant past alone remain to us. And, as the years go by, even these are yielding to those seen and unseen agencies, before whose power the solid brass and the enduring marble perish. Other generations will live when the record of those I address to-day has been made up, and they in turn make room for others.
'So the multitude goes, like the flowers or the weed That withers away to let others succeed. So the multitude comes, even those we behold, To repeat every tale that has often been told.',
As distance lends enchantment to the view, so time softens the asperities and hallows the memories of the past. History written amidst passing events is fraught with the angular 'harshness, the 11
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prejudices and excitements of the hour. As the azure hue covers and hides from our vision the huge rocks and deep ravines on the mountain-side, so may the record of this day conceal beneath the mantle of charity the imperfections of all, and breathe naught but the spirit of kindness.
"I ask your attention and patience, fellow-citizens of Mononga- lia, while we go back and attempt to gather some of the wrecks on the shores of time, ere the outgoing tide shall wash them away for- ever."
Mr. Brown then spoke, in eloquent and glowing terms, of the early settlements, sketched the formation and extent of the county, told of its soldiers in the past wars, its courts of law, its county-seat, its newspapers, banks and post- offices, its honored sons and daughters at home and abroad, its educational institutions and influences, and, in the con- clusion of his brilliant peroration, said :
"Who will say, standing this day beneath his country's flag, and witnessing the universal joy of a free and happy people, that the wars, the tears, and the blood of a century have been a costly sac- rifice ? Who will say that if it has taken a hundred years to give practical interpretation to the great charter of American freedom, and to present every citizen in this year of jubilee before High Heaven, redeemed, disenthralled and regenerated by the spirit of universal liberty, that the cry will not ere long be heard from the tops of the mountains-Watchman, what of the night? And in ten thousand answering voices echoing around a ransomed world the welcome response will be-The morning cometh ! to usher in the meridian splendor of the Son of Righteousness, to whom not only all the honors of all the centennial years of earth and time, but the excellent glory of the eternal ages belong."
Monongalia County was well represented at the Centen- nial Exposition in Philadelphia, no less than three hundred and five of her inhabitants visiting that mammoth exhibit. of arts and industries.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .- WAITMAN T. WILLEY .*
It is apparent to the student of History that no record of the life of a people is complete that does not relate the story of those individual members of the communities, who, by their virtues or vices, their genius or talents, their natural endowments or acquirements, their achievements or their adventitious surroundings, make them important factors for weal or woe on the theater of life's actions. Such is the complex system of human operations that a species of mastery is engendered by the very elements of which it is composed, in those whom native genius and for- tuitous circumstances bring to the aid of the infirmities as well as the strength of the aggregate mass. Therefore, they who rise to prominence either by the force of intellect or the exercise of private virtues, become a part and parcel of the body of the nation or people, and whilst they exercise an influence for good or evil, a faithful chronicle of their lives is an index to the spirit of the age in which they live, and they are in no small degree representatives of its chief characteristics. Hence, a faithful portrayal of their career involves the annals of surrounding events, connected with their advent into the world and their bearing whilst on the stage of action. Such explanation is deemed necessary for much that may appear in the following pages sketching the life and character of the distinguished citizen of Monongalia County whose name appears above.
The settlers who founded the communities embraced in that portion of West Virginia, which earlier in the century was designated as North-western Virginia, were for the most part a hardy race of pioneers who were chiefly
· Written by the Hon. J. Marshall Hagans, for this work.
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engaged, in the localities from which they came, in agricul- tural pursuits. The fertility of the soil, the boundless realms of wooded waste which only awaited the coming of the advancing tide of honest toil to develop fair fields and lovely landscapes, were attractive to the eye of the adven- turous sovereigns whose limbs had but just donned the mantle of freedom in the struggle with the mother country. The emigration came from New Jersey in colonies and fam- ilies. A few New England people in search of a softer climate found their way to its hospitable borders. The eastern Pennsylvanian in search of thrift looked with admiration on future comforts. Many also came from Maryland and contributed their share to the labor of found- ing in toil the abodes of peace and happiness. From the eastern portion of Virginia there came a large number who brought their slaves, and settled in the valleys where con- tentment and ease promised to spring from the efforts of labor. Others came from the shores of the gallant little colony which had borne on her bosom so much of the struggle in the Revolutionary conflict, and where the Brandywine had been reddened with the blood of relatives and neighbors. Among the latter was the father of the sub- ject of this sketch, William Willey, who was born in Sussex County, Delaware, in 1767. Although a mere child during the greater part of the war of the colonies, he retained a vivid recollection of many of the incidents connected therewith in his own locality, and loved to recount them in after years to the willing ears of the rising generation. He heard at a short distance away the guns at the disas- trous battle of Brandywine and witnessed some of the demoralization following that untoward event. He was the son of William Willey whose ancestry came from Great Britain. In the year 1782 or 1783, the grandfather re- moved to Monongalia County, Virginia, locating near Collins's Ferry, then called Martin's Ferry, on what has since been known as the Burris farm, now owned by D. I. B. Anderson, Esq. A few years thereafter he purchased
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and removed to the farm near Cassville now owned and occupied by John T. Fleming, Esq., where he died a few years later.
In 1802, William Willey, the younger, purchased and settled on a tract of land adjoining the present site of Farmington, in the now county of Marion, on Buffalo Creek. Here the Hon. Waitman T. Willey was born on the 18th day of October, 1811, in a log cabin not twenty feet square. His mother was the second wife of his father, and her maiden name was Sarah Barnes, daughter of Thomas Barnes, who had removed from Frederick County, Md., in 1779 or 1780, where his daughter was born. The ancestry of Thomas Barnes were from England, whilst his wife was of Irish descent. He settled at the mouth of Buffalo Creek, then in Monongalia, now in Marion County.
The scenes which surrounded the childhood of Mr. Willey were far different from those which greet the eyes of the youth in the same locality at the present day. Then it was an exceptionally isolated community. The few scattered settlers along the stream from thence to its head were thirty miles or more from the county-seat. They were situ- ated on no great thoroughfare which marked the tide of emigration to the great West. A few log cabins with the curling blue smoke, in the midst of a small "deadening," were all that denoted that the restless spirit of the Anglo- American courage had attacked the vast primeval solitudes of the upper waters tributary to the Monongahela. The tastes and habits of the population were simple, their dress plain and their manners unaffected. The chief character- istic that distinguished them in their primitive, rustic life was a cheery hospitality that was unbounded in its wel- come. This feature was exhibited in their genial intercourse with each other, and manifested itself by frequent assem- blages at their respective homes, where feats of generous rivalry in physical prowess were enlivened and interspersed with simple abundance and good cheer. The educational facilities of such a stage in the progress of a people, at that
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day, were not great. In this section the grand truth that the stability of the Republic depended on the intelligence of the suffragans had not been popularly brought forward. Nor had it been necessary. The men who had wrested the principle of Republican government from the domination of the old-world methods of ruling, were still on the stage, and jealously guarded in infancy what their valor had won. It is not until the memories of the participants in a struggle for human liberty fade from men's minds, or its echoes have died away or been lost in the surging ocean of human pride, ambition or revenge, that it becomes necessary to hedge it about with all the barriers that knowledge can oppose to ignorance allied to malevolence. The few log school-houses which stood as lone sentinels of knowledge in the midst of such rugged frontier patriotism, were sufficient to supply all the needs of men engaged in a hand-to-hand contest with the forces of nature.
It is not surprising, therefore, that young Willey received but about nine months' schooling before he attained the age of twelve years ; snatched, as it were, from the intervals of hard labor to which all were devoted as soon as they were physically competent. In the year 1823, his father removed to a farm purchased by him on the Monongahela River, at the mouth of Pawpaw Creek, and across the creek from the site of the present village of Rivesville. This was quite a change for him. He soon felt the impulse of achievement, which seems to pervade the minds and hearts of all dwellers by the side of deep flowing streams. He never wearied of sitting on the banks of the river and listening to the monotone of its steadily moving currents. Still hard toil as a farm boy was his duty, and, as in every relation of life in subsequent years, he discharged it to the full measure. Until he attained the age of seventeen years, he labored assiduously on the farm, developing a magnificent physique, capable of immense endurance, and which was the foundation on which he builded largely in future years ; his stature then being six feet and two inches,
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and his weight two hundred pounds. The only interruption that occurred during these five years to his daily toil, was his attendance for two months on what was then called a grammar-school, taught by a strolling teacher from Phila- delphia. In this school he caught a glimpse of the temple of knowledge, and resolved to enter its portals.
Among the household treasures that found a place in the boyhood home of Mr. Willey, and which were yellow with age, were a time-worn copy each of the Illiad (Pope's translation) and the Essay on Man. These, with an oft- perused volume of Pilgrim's Progress, Pike's Arithmetic and the Bible, comprised the whole of the library to which, he had access until he left home to enter upon his collegiate course. The former of these works he was most diligent in reading and re-reading, although he early formed the habit of reading the Bible, and has constantly practiced it all his life, tintil long passages were at his command from memory alone. The more he read the more his wonder grew, and the sublime conceptions of the father of epic story, all of which he regarded as a verity, filled his imagination with a glowing fervor of mental exaltation. New thoughts rose to stir within him new desires. He longed to join in the scenes of the great world around him, and for himself to observe in the great surging multitude which he knew lay beyond the horizon of his rural life, the actions of men, and to participate in the grand conflict where each for himself hews out the pathway to honor. These feelings oppressed him until he besought his father for the means of obtaining an education, and was at length gratified by his reluctant consent.
Madison College, subsequently merged in Allegheny Col- lege, located at Uniontown, Penn., being the nearest to his home, was selected as the place where he should essay the arduous tasks of the student. On Christmas day, 1827, at, seventeen years of age, he left his father's house for college. His appearance at that time was characteristic of his times and surroundings. He was over six feet high and weighed
-
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two hundred pounds; he wore the native home-spun jeans of the butternut hue; his entire earthly effects were carefully wrapped up in a bandanna handkerchief which he carried in his hand, as, with a light heart and an unconquerable courage, he walked the whole of the distance, forty miles, in one day-a feat he performed at each vacation during his college course.
His advent into the ranks of the students was signalized by general diversion at his uncouth appearance and man- ners. He cared little, however, for all this; his was a deep purpose. Silently he kept in his unobtrusive way, feeling con- scious that his was at last to be the hour of triumph. It was soon apparent to those to whom he recited, that here was a gem in the rough, and his rapid advance enforced the respect of his early detractors. Under the date of Decem- ber 22, 1829, but two short years after he entered upon the course, Professor Fielding of the Faculty wrote to his father: "Your son Waitman has now been under our care about two years. . It affords me similar pleasure to be able to give a good character of Waitman. His natural capacity and talent are of a high order ; his love of learning is intense, and of course his habits of study have been assiduous. His gentlemanly deportment and his amiable disposition have secured him the esteem and affec- tion of all who know him. He understands English well; he writes in his native tongue with purity and especial elegance. He has laid a good "foundation in mathematical science, and has already read, and carefully read, a larger portion of Latin and Greek than is usually read in this country. From his capacity and diligence he may be ex- pected to graduate much sooner than the prescribed period." By dint of great exertions he outstripped all his competitors, though much below them at the outset, and finished the course six months before the allotted time, or the rest of his class. The last year he taught the junior class the course of Latin and Greek. Among the latter was William Hunter, who subsequently became the profound
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