USA > West Virginia > Preston County > History of Preston County (West Virginia) > Part 26
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Neil J. Fortney was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1880.
Isaac Cox Ralphsnyder was born in Monongalia County. graduated at the Fairmont Normal School, followed teaching, and was admitted to practice law October 8, 1880.
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
A. W. Frederick was admitted October 8, 1880.
Patrick Joseph Crogan was born in Lyon District, June 17, 1856. He taught school, read law, and was admitted in, April, 1881.
The Hon. Joseph T. Hoke was born in Berkeley County, in 1835, graduated at Hillsdale College, and at Michigan Law School in 1864. He was judge of the 5th judicial cir- cuit from 1869 to 1873. He located in Preston in the fall of 1881.
NOTE. - In our reference in the first part of this chapter to, the appointment of Eugenus M. Wilson, as prosecuting at- torney of the superior court, we have to state a fact that we have since learned, viz., that this Mr. Wilson continued to hold the position until about 1831 or 1832, when he was succeeded by Guy R. C. Allen, of Morgantown, who held the position until July 1, 1852. Gustavus Cresap was elected to the position on the 4th Thursday of May, 1852, to succeed Mr. Allen, and was re-elected in 1856 and 1860. But the war coming on Mr. Cresap resigned in 1861, and was suc- ceeded by James Alexander Brown,
CT:OSSCUP & IS
THOMAS BROWN.
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a
THOMAS BROWN.
Thomas Brown, son of James and Rachel Brown, was born on Christmas, 1802. Of Mr. Brown's ancestry nothing need be said here, as that subject was fully treated in the biogra- phy of his brother, the Hon. William G. Brown.
Thomas Brown received the advantages of a classical ed- ucation, attending the classical school at Morgantown, taught by the celebrated Rev. Dr. Ashbel Fairchild, and was said to be the best Latin scholar in the county at that time. Upon leaving school, he turned his attention to the study of the law, reading with his brother, William G. Brown, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1824, He soon built up an extensive practice at home, and practiced beside in the courts of Barbour, Tucker and Randolph.
Mr. Brown was a prominent man in Preston, and was always alive to, and deeply interested in, every enterprise for the advancement of his county. He was one of the original incorporators of the great Northwestern Turnpike. He mar- ried Miss Ellen S., daughter of Alexander Smith, of Fort Pendleton. He died November 13, 1867, leaving nine chil- dren : Linnie S., wife of Judge Dille ; Delia J., wife of W. P. Totten, Esq., of Oakland, Md .; James A., an attorney of the Kingwood bar; General George W., now a resident of Graf- ton and a quartermaster-general during the Rebellion ; Thomas P. R., prosecuting attorney at Phillipi ; John Hoye, for a long time engaged in the mercantile business in King- wood ; Lieutenant R. M. G., now in command of the United States Steamer Alarm on the coasts of Europe; Charles Ed- gar, an attorney at-law in the city of Cincinnati; and Mary E., wife of Joseph Moreland, Esq., a lawyer of Morgantown,
Mr. Brown bore the reputation of being one of the best and safest chancery lawyers of his day. Politically, he was a Democrat of the Andrew Jackson school. In religious
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belief he was a Presbyterian, and was an exemplary elder in that church.
The engraving does not do justice to Mr. Brown's personal appearance, the original from which it was made being taken when he was in very ill health. His familiar face was long missed at the bar of which he was a leading and one of the oldest members. He was no office holder, never aspiring to or holding an office during his life.
Mr. Brown sank to rest after seeing his well-loved county attain a front rank in the new State of West Virginia by the development and consummation of many enterprises, in every one of which he had taken a deep interest from its origin to completion.
IPHILA
SMITH CRANE.
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JUDICIAL HISTORY.
SMITH CRANE.
Smith Crane, the eldest son of John and Nancy Crane, was born on the "old Crane farm, " near Muddy Creek, in this county, on February 28, 1821.
Inasmuch as there has been but a mere reference made to the Crane family, a more extended notice in this connection is deemed proper. For some time past there has existed an organization known as "The Crane Genealogical Association" having an executive committee, of which Ellery B. Crane, of Worcester, Massachusetts, is the secretary. The committee, on the 5th of October, 1881, held one of its meetings in New York City. We learn from the secretary that the object of this association is to collect the family genealogy, and, if possible, to obtain (with a view of publishing) a satisfactory record of all the Cranes in America; also, that in 1666, among the first settlers of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, was Stephen Crane, believed to have been originally from Eng- land, who was the father of Samuel, John, Stephen, Jonathan, Abner, Joseph, Moses, Joanna, Anna, Ruth and Elizabeth Crane. Stephen, Jonathan, Abner and Moses all went to Ohio, and some of them from there to Indiana, where their numerous descendants now reside.
Samuel (the grandfather of Smith Crane) married Jane Bonnell, and moved to this county about 1790, and settled on the "old Crane, farm" before mentioned, having also lived at the mill property built and owned by him on Muddy Creek, where the "Ringer Mill " now stands, and where he died, December, 1821. Their children were Jonathan, Smith, Samuel, Joseph, John, Jacob, Calvin and Elizabeth. The widow moved in 1831, to her only daughter's, Elizabeth's (then wife of Isaac Romine,) in In- diana, where she died, March 21, 1848, at the ripe age of almost 85 years. Calvin is the only survivor of this branch of the family, and is an old man, having been born August 4, 1805. The most of the other members went West, and died there. Jacob died on the "old Crane farm, " October 1, 1859.
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
John, the father of the subject of this sketch, married Nancy Dunham (March 16, 1820), whose parents had emi- grated from Elizabethtown, before mentioned. John, after whom the town of Cranesville in this county is named, died peacefully, while absent with cattle and horses, in Harford County, Md., November 15, 1858, in his 59th year. His widow fell asleep in Jesus, July 28, 1878, aged nearly 80 years; both having united with the Baptist Church in the summer of 1832. Their family consisted of eleven children, nine, of whom are living, Smith being the oldest.
He received a common English education in the country schools of the day, the only one having any special merit (and the last he attended) being that taught by the now sainted Rev. Joseph Uncles, in 1838-9, in the town of Brandonville in this county. It was there, while attending school, in the early part of the year 1839, that he first "turned his feet unto the testimonies of the Lord," was converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Having a fondness for penmanship and the keeping of pub- lic records, he was hired by his father to John P. Byrne, Esq., who was then clerk of both courts, and on the 1st day of May, 1844, came to Kingwood, where he pursued diligently the office of a deputy clerk for three successive years. On November 16, 1847, he married Mary Catharine Morris, the oldest sister to Mrs. Charles M. Bishop and daughter of Reuben Morris, Esq.
Mr. Crane has only one representative of his name, a son, John Morris Crane, who was born September 22, 1853, and who, with a fair education, is now his father's deputy and a val- assistant in his office. Mr. Crane was also engaged as the deputy of Mr. Byrne from the 14th of October, 1850, to the 1st of July, 1852. When (pursuant to a previous election) he assumed the duties of clerk of the county court of this county, a position which he filled with acceptance until July 1, 1863, when he became clerk of the circuit court, and has ever since held the position. He informs us that when he commenced his official duties in July 1, 1852, it was with
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JUDICIAL HISTORY.
the full determination (that he still thinks commendable) to aim at being the best clerk in the State-certainly, a most commendable purpose; and we think it but just to say that he has achieved his ambition, for it is the judgment of those who are competent to give opinion, that Mr. Crane is the most efficient court clerk in the State. Such an officer as Mr. Crane is, is always of inestimable value to the people whom he serves.
Mr. Crane is a most zealous and most consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has been a class- leader since December, 1844. He is exceedingly liberal in his gifts to all benevolent purposes. He has great love and reverence for the Bible, which he has read through once, and the Psalms and the New Testament twice, every year since the fall of 1844. In this year he composed a couple of verses which he keeps copied on the fly-leaf of his Bible, and which seem such an appropriate closing of this sketch, that we have obtained his consent to insert them here;
"I take the Bible for my guide While traveling to the grave: It points me to the Saviour's side, Who died my soul to save.
" With it I'll never, never part, While here on earth I stay :
Its sacred truths shall guide my heart, To realms of endless day."
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
CHAPTER XIV.
RELIGIOUS HISTORY.
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS - CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS - SUNDAY - SCHOOLS - MISSIONARIES : HOLMES AND M'GREW.
The first attempted settlement of the county was by the Eckards. who were Dunkards in religious belief. Of the first actual settlers' religious belief we hale no account.
Evangelical Lutheran Church .- The Rev. John Stough, in 1787 came out to Mount Carmel with his own and four other families, and founded Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church sometime between 1792 and 1796. It was the first church built in the county. The church was supplied by Lutheran and German Reformed ministers, as the congregation was composed of both denominations. About 50 years ago, Dr. Philip Mockenhouse and the Rev. Mr. Nicksdorf organized the Lutheran Church in Portland, Pleasant and Grant dis- tricts, where to-day six churches exist and constitute the Brandonville charge.
The Friends .- About 1786, contemporary with the set- tling of the Lutherans, we find the Willits, Formans and other Quaker families in the vicinity of where Brandonville now is. They worshiped in an old house that stood on land now owned by David Frankhouser. Some years afterward, and between 1796 and 1812, a church was built about one mile and a quarter east from Brandonville, and was known as the Quaker Church. It was the second church built in the county. In that old Friends' meeting-house the followers of George Fox and his religion of peace gathered for over
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY.
25 years to speak words of peace or keep more peaceful silence, but each succeeding year witnessed their numbers decreasing. The old brothers and sisters put off their plain garb and were clothed with immortality, while the young members went to the "world's people." The meeting- house is torn down and gone, and hardly a follower of the Friends' belief remains in the county.
The Methodist. - About the year 1798, we find traces of the adherents of this church in the county, and in the year 1815 a class was existing at Kingwood, having been formed some time previous. And in this year was erected a log meeting-house near Kingwood, the third church built in the county. The church rapidly increased in numbers from that time until the present, when its classes exist and church edifices stand in all parts of the county. The Rev. George Hagans was one of the fathers of the church, and the cele- brated Henry Clay Dean of political fame at one time was a minister of the church and preached in Preston County. The early fathers of the church were gathered to their rest, and a long list of estimable men emulous of their many vir- tues succeeded to their places, and in their turn gave way to the many present leaders in the church. In 1879, this sect built a church in Kingwood that will compare favorably with any other church edifice in the State.
The churches in Preston were in the Pittsburgh Confer- ence till 1849, when the West Virginia Conference was. formed. The churches of Preston are in 8 circuits-2 in the Morgantown, and 6 in the Oakland District. Under Presiding Elder D. H. K. Dix of Morgantown District, Kingwood Circuit has for pastor A. Hall; and Masontown, has G. W. Parriott. Under Presiding Elder B. Ison of Oakland Dis- trict, are the Rev. F. G. W. Ford of Brandonville Circuit. the Rev. J. B. Feather of Pleasant Hill, the Rev. D. Tasker of St. George and Aurora, the Rev. D. Cool of Evansville, the Rev. L. E. Leslie of Newburg, and the Rev. G. Rogers of Rowlesburg.
The Baptist. - We find account of this denomination next
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
after the Methodist. About the year 1800, the Rev. Kidd Smith, who was known as an "Iron side Baptist," preached at Sand Ridge, now called Scotch Hill. A church was after- ward built here, known as the Iron-side Church, but finally went down in 1856. A Regular Baptist church was built on Sandy Creek about 1820 or 1825, whose pastor was Elder Jonathan Smith. In 1834, the Muddy Creek Baptist Church was organized at the house of Abraham Elliott. Churches were organized after this at Kingwood, on Buffalo Creek, Hazel Run, at Independence, Gladesville, Evansville, and other points. In 1848, the Rev. J. M. Purinton came to Preston County on account of ill health, and served these churches for many years, in connection with preaching out- side of the county. He was a very able divine. In April, 1862, he left Preston, never to return. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Burritt College, and died at Morgantown, West Virginia, June 17th, 1869, greatly lamented.
Presbyterian .- The Presbyterian Church was the nursling of pious women. About 1840, Mrs. Israel Baldwin and Mrs. William G. Brown held meetings for prayer alternately at Baldwin's and Brown's. They were seconded in their efforts by Mrs. Thomas Brown and others. An organization was effected by the Rev. Mr. Bristol, and elders Jones and Smith, of Fairmont. A brick house was built which served its day, and on whose site the present fine edifice erected in 1877 now stands. A church was organized some time after, near Masontown ; and one in 1869 at Cranberry, and another about the same time at Newburg. These churches are in the Presbytery of West Virginia.
Evangelical Association. - In the year 1835, the Rev. Messrs. J. Lutz, A. Frey and G. Serger, of this Church, sta- tioned on the Somerset Circuit (Pennsylvania), extended their work into Preston County, and meeting with considerable success, Preston County was organized as Preston Circuit. In 1874, churches were built at Cranesville and Pleasant Dale. In March, 1875, the increase was such as to cause the
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division of the circuit, and the appointments on the west side of Cheat formed Kingwood, while those on the east still remained as Preston Circuit. Among the prominent min- isters of this church in Preston, is the Rev. G. W. White, an efficient, energetic worker, who is now stationed at Champ- ion, Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
Dunkards or German Baptist. - About 1836, members of this church were in Preston County, and Elder Jacob Thomas, lately deceased, and others preached at school- houses. German Settlement Church, in Union District, in 1856, was built, and Salem Church, a few years later, in Grant District. Elder Solomon Bucklew is a prominent min- ister in this denomination ; also, the Rev. Samuel A. Fike, and the Rev. James A. Ridenour, now preaching in Ohio.
Holy Roman Catholic. - About 1845, a church was built at Howesville, called St. Joseph's, by some German and Irish Catholic families living there. With the building of the Bal- timore and Ohio Railroad through Preston, a great many Catholics came to work upon it, and remained after its com- pletion. They built churches at Cranberry, Rowlesburg, Tunnel Hill and Newburg. Among their ablest pastors sta- tioned in Preston was the Rev. Father E. M. Hickey, now at Parkersburg. Preston County is included in the diocese of Wheeling, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Kain presiding.
United Brethren -- In 1873-4, the Rev. W. M. Weekley organized three churches : Old Sandy, Maple Run and Glade Run. They have as yet but one house of worship. Other churches, Irondale, Preston and Pleasant Hill, have been or- ganized since 1873.
Amish. - The Amish branch of the Menonite family has a few representatives in Preston. The Church of Christ, a new branch of the Menonites, organized a church in 1871, in Union District, near the Maryland line; present, the Rev. Messrs. John Silbaugh and H. M. Hayden.
Sunday Schools- About 1825, Mr. Shaffer, father of Squire J. H. Shaffer, of Aurora, was working at Cumberland, and returning to Mount Carmel, organized a Sunday-school
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
upon the plan of those then in operation in Cumberland. The idea was favorably received by the different religious de- nominations, and Sunday-schools were organized all over the county, one being established at Kingwood in 1829, of which William Sigler was the first superintendent, and E. M. Hagans the second. Now Sunday-schools are nearly as numerous as the secular schools. Every church and many school-houses have these training schools in morals and re- ligion for the youth of the land.
With the banner of the Cross in every land will be placed the Sunday-school standard leading the van of advancing civilization. Backward roll the tide of time a few decades. Two actors are on the stage of life. Each labor to establish empires. One, the storm-spirit of the old world, was send- ing the thunders of his death-dealing cannon into every quaking capital of Europe ; Napoleon Bonaparte crimsoning the battle plain with earth's noblest blood, that the world might bend beneath his imperial sway. The other, Robert Raikes, the founder of the Sunday schools, was sending a ray of light into thousands of youthful hearts all over the civil- ized world. The empire of the one lies in ruins-the em- pire of the other rests over millions of loving hearts. The whole world should celebrate the Sunday school anniversary. The United States has its Independence day ; let the world have its Sunday-School Celebration-day.
Missionaries. - The Rev. James L. Homes, of Preston County, graduated at Columbian College, D. C., in 1857; married Miss S. J. Little, of Cumberland, Maryland, that year, and sailed the same fall as a missionary for Shanghai, China. He obtained great influence over the Chinese. In September, 1861, a great rebellion was raging in the. Celes. tial Kingdom, and he was killed by mistake by a party of the rebels, near the city of Chefoo
The Rev. George H. McGrew, son of the Hon. James C. McGrew, was born in Kingwood, May 19, 1846. When fourteen years of age he entered Fort Edward Institute, New York, from which he graduated, and then entered the Wes-
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leyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, and graduated. Next, he attended the Harvard Law School. Returning to Kingwood, he became the law-partner of the Hon. William G. Brown. He sailed for Moradabad, India, as a missionary under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, No- vember 30, 1875. In 1876, he married Miss Julia Lore, and is still engaged in missionary work in the same field, and is a member of the North India conference of the M. E. Church. 23
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
CHAPTER XV.
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.
.
EARLY SCHOOLS-KINGWOOD AND BRANDONVILLE ACADEMIES
THE FREE SCHOOL SYSTEM : COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS - - THE PAPERS OF THE COUNTY : AGRICULTURAL, POLITICAL AND INDEPENDENT.
Two hundred years had not elapsed from the time when Enoch Flower opened in Philadelphia the first school in America until the schoolmaster was abroad in Preston County. With the disappearance of the "Settlers' Fort" of the frontier appeared the early school-house. From the memories of the old men the picture of that venerable insti- tution comes down to us.
A single-story round-log cabin with a huge stone chimney extending clear across one end of the structure; a log left out along each side and its space covered with paper pasted to the adjoining logs and greased with hogslard, answered for the transmission of light and constituted the windows of the establishment. The door swung on wooden hinges and was equipped with a wooden latch, which raised by a deer skin string. The roof was of clapboards, held down by weight-poles fastened with hickory withes. A puncheon floor of slabs with the round side down, was fastened to heavy sleepers by means of wooden pins. A slab fastened along the walls answered for a writing bench. The seats were slabs with the flat surface up, into which holes were bored and legs inserted. They were devoid of backs.
The "master, " as the teacher was then called, grim and stern, presided with absolute authority, and woe to the luck.
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less urchin who incurred his displeasure by a violation of his rules or a failure to have his "task, " as a lesson was .often called. The master made and mended the goose-quill pens of that day, while every scholar gathered maple bark and manufactured his own ink. The books were few, but were thoroughly mastered, and the old United States Spelling- Book and English Reader played an important part in the schools when aspiring to better houses in years not a half a century ago.
The subject of corporal punishment had not yet reached the debatable stage in those days, and a master's reputation depended to a large extent upon his whipping power. A rigid discipline and a stern enforcement were the order of the day ; and but a few years ago, when a teacher of ability and reputation said that "the basis of school government is a big club, " the remark was a cutting satire on the too com- mon and prevalent opinion of to-day, that the teacher should govern by "moral suasion " alone. There are scholars that no amount of moral suasion can affect, and the only efficient remedy that can be given with favorable results is a dose of "hickory oil, " and a pretty heavy one at that; and if given in time, one dose is found to be sufficient when all moral suasion remedies fail.
The early schools were kept up by subscriptions, the mas- ter boarding around among the patrons of the schools. These schools, as far as authentic evidence can be found, commenced about 1790 in Preston County, and among the early teachers were Augustus Christian Whitehair, in the German Settlement ; and a man by the name of Murphy, at Kingwood. Wood was used for fuel, and the master and scholars had it to cut, and often the hour at noon was thus employed. These early school-houses possessed one advan- tage-they were well ventilated, being generally very open. When a better class of houses succeeded them, the same sub- scription system was continued.
The Kingwood Academy was built to give a better educa- tion to those who desired it than that afforded by the sub-
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
scription schools, and to save them the great cost of attend .- ing good schools at a distance. Among its teachers was Alexander Martin, once president of the West Virginia University, and now president of Asbury University, Indiana.
The Brandon Academy was built for the same purpose.
After 1830 the State provided a fund by the name of the "Literary Fund" for the education of poor children unable to attend school on account of their parents' inability to pay tuition. Preston County never received very much aid from this fund. Israel Baldwin was for many years one of the commissioners of Preston for the distribution of whatever the county drew from this fund.
The subscription system with the limited aid of the literary fund engrafted upon it, continued until the formation of the State of West Virginia, when a free school system was orig- inated to take the place of the subscription system, and went into general effect in 1865. It provided that a tax be laid, and schools be opened for the teaching of all between the ages of 6 and 21 that saw fit to attend. County superin- tendents were to be elected to examine teachers and have general supervision of the schools in each county, while ev- ery township was to elect a school board which had special supervision of its schools, and appointed three trustees for each school, whose duties were to select a teacher and see the house was kept in order, etc. A provision was also made that every two years the people of every township should vote upon the question for and against school levy, thus leaving it to every township then and every district now to have free schools or not. The legislature of West Virginia since the creation of the free school system, in some respects, has done but little to advance its interests. Generally, what- ever laws one legislature passed concerning the schools, the. next legislature would reverse.
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