USA > West Virginia > Summers County > History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 52
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HOBBS.
There are two families of Hobbs in the county, one of which is of the very first settlers of the city of Hinton, James H. Hobbs, who located on the island in Avis in the early history of the town about 1874. He married a Miss Foster, a daughter of James E. Foster, of the Wolf Creek Mountain, and reared a large family of children. He now resides in Jumping Branch District, his wife having died a few years ago. His son, Cyrus C. Hobbs, resides in Hinton, and is a painter and an employe of the C. &. O. Railway Company, and was a sergeant in Co. A, First Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer Infantry in the Spanish-American War of 1898, and was in service throughout that war. James H. Hobbs, the founder of the family in the county, is a carpenter by trade and an educated and intelligent gentleman, celebrated for his wit and good sense-a strong, old-time Republican, who was one of the
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
founders of the party and organizers of it in this county. For the past few years he has been engaged in farming and teaching school. He is generally known as the "mayor of Leatherwood," he being the owner of the old Williams farm on that branch. He was a constable for four years, elected in Greenbrier District when the same was Democratic, and has filled other important positions. He is quite an intellectual gentleman; frequently writes for the public press. His daughters teach in the high school at Hinton.
THOMAS NASH READ.
Thomas Nash Read is by birth a native of Danville, Virginia, having been born in that city on the 18th day of February, 1868. His father's name was Thomas N. Read, and he was an accom- plished doctor of dentistry. He was accustomed to spend the sum- mers at the noted summer resort, Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, and in the year 1870, while en route over the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway to that place, was killed in a railway accident at Jerry's Run, on the Virginia side of the Allegheny Mountains. The railroad track ran along the mountain beside a deep ravine, called Jerry's Run. The train left the track, which was on trestles, and rolled down the mountain side into the ravine, killing thirteen persons instantly, one of whom was Dr. Read.
Prior to the date of this accident, there existed no laws in the State of Virginia or West Virginia by which damages could be recovered for the death of a person caused by the neglect, care- less or criminal intent of another, and this accident being so ter- rible in its consequences, the neglect of the railway company being so apparent, that the statesmen of those days took the matter up, and the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia pro- ceeded to pass an enactment, fixing a pecuniary liability of not exceeding $10,000.00 for a death caused by that character of ac- cident, which enactment in that State was later followed by the present West Virginia laws on the same subject.
Mr. Read's mother was Rebecca S. Barksdale, of Halifax County, Virginia, and a sister of Dr. William Leigh Barksdale, a prominent practicing physician and surgeon, now residing in Hin- ton. She now resides with her sons, Thomas N. and Leigh. He has one brother, Dr. E. L. Read, a dentist, now residing and prac- ticing his profession in the city of Baltimore, he having married Emma Gwinn, of Bloomington, Ill., a daughter of Jackson Gwinn,
CHARLES GARTEN, SR., Ancient Farmer and Capitalist.
JAMES HI. HOBBS, Wit, Teacher, Farmer (Mayor of Leatherwood.)
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
AT ., L'AUX AND T
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
who removed to the western country many years ago, being one of the Lowell Gwinns.
Mrs. Read removed with her sons to Alderson, in Monroe County, when the subject of this sketch was seven years of age, and in which town he grew to manhood, attending the public schools and the Alderson Academy, later taking a literary course at Hampden Sidney College, the noted Presbyterian school, lo- cated in Prince Edward County, Virginia, after the completion of which he took the law course of the University of Virginia, under the celebrated law professors, John B. Minor, author of "Minor's Institutes," and Gilmore, of 1899-90.
He was first admitted to the practice of the law and received his license in Virginia in the year 1890, and was admitted to the bar in Virginia in 1891, beginning active practice at Newcastle, in Craig County, having located for that purpose in Newcastle, the county seat of said county, where he practiced by himself for a short period, but soon after locating, formed a co-partnership for the practice of the law with the Hon. James W. Marshall, known all over Virginia as "Cyclone Jim," which partnership was dissolved in 1894, when he removed to Hinton and formed a law partnership with James H. Miller, the writer, on the first day of July, 1894, which partnership continued until the election of the latter to the judgeship of the Ninth West Virginia Circuit, on December 1, 1904, since which time he has continued in the practice of his profession in Summers, Monroe, Greenbrier and Fayette Counties, the part- nership name of the old firm having been Miller & Read, he suc- ceeding to the business of the old firm and concluding all of the unfinished business, which was extensive for a county of the popu- lation and wealth of Summers.
James H. Miller was the prosecuting attorney of the county at the date of the formation of the firm of Miller & Read, and Mr. Read at once qualified as an assistant, and which position he filled during the remainder of that term and for the next succeeding term. to which he was elected in 1896. Ilis fulfillment of the duties of that position was able, consistent and conscientious. He is an able and faithful attorney. The associations of the writer with him for a period of ten years gave him an exceptional opportunity to learn of his ability, his honesty as an attorney, as well as his short- comings, and it is a pleasure to record the testimony as to this gentleman's manly character. We consider him in the front rank of his profession, well worthy of the full confidence of his clients.
He is a Democrat in politics and an Episcopalian in his religious
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
connections, having the confidence and esteem of his political as- sociates, frequently stumping the county in the interest of its can- didates, and is one of the trustees and vestrymen of his church.
In 1905 he was married to Miss Nannie D. McCartney, of Craig County, Virginia, a daughter of Captain Thomas B. McCartney, of that county, an old Confederate veteran, for many years clerk of the county court, and an "old Virginia gentleman."
Mr. Read was a candidate for the office of prosecuting attorney in this county at the election of 1900, having received the nomina- tion at the Democratic primary over one of the favorite "sons of Summers," the popular and well-esteemed Charles Allen Clark, now practicing law in San Francisco, Cal., but was defeated at the polls by fourteen votes, as shown by the returns of the board of canvassers, by Hon. Frank Lively, the present Assistant Attorney- General of this State. It was over this election and the Read vote at the court house precinct that the Republican organization re- ceived the famous appellation of "Blue Pencil Brigade," given to it by Mr. Howard Templeton, then editor and proprietor of the "Independent Herald," a newspaper then published in Hinton, the claim being made by the Democrats that a man by the name of Smith, one of the election commissioners at the court house, while counting the vote in that ward on the night of the election, and in taking out the ballots from the box, smoothing them out and pass- ing them on to another commissioner to read; and after reading them, had passed them on to a third commissioner, to be strung on a string arranged for the purpose, Mr. Read's name was erased from thirty-six of the first eighty ballots counted, a blue pencil being used in making the erasures .. When eighty ballots had been counted, the other commissioners discovered that something im- proper was being done, the count was stopped, and an investigation made, which revealed something of these facts, after which the count proceeded. The honest commissioners watched, and no fur- ther suspicious erasures were discovered on the remaining 200 ballots counted after the dicovery. This Mr. Smith has ever after been designated as "Fishy Smith," he at one time having been fish and game warden.
That this fraud was perpetrated has never been successfully denied, although it has been alleged frequently and continuously from that day to this, in and out of the public prints, by reliable, responsible and truthful persons of a political faith opposite to that of Mr. Read. Mr. Smith later became a captain in the war with
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
Spain, and is now a citizen of Richmond, Virginia, in the coal agency business.
At the election in 1904, Mr. R. F. Dunlap was elected prosecut- ing attorney on the Democratic ticket, and upon taking the office on the 1st day of January, 1905, Mr. Read, upon his motion, took the oath as assistant prosecutor, which position he has held to the present time, and still retains.
Mr. Read is a pleasant speaker, with considerable oratorical powers. He has been engaged as counsel on one side or the other in practically all of the principal cases tried in the courts of the county within the last ten years, and has had considerable practice in the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State, equal to that of any other attorney in this section of the State. He was senior counsel in the celebrated case of Pence and Davis vs. Carney et al., con- cerning the Pence's Springs property, lately determined by the highest legal tribunal of the State. He has one child, a lad of nine years of age, named Thomas Leigh Read.
He is attorney for the city of Hinton, New River Grocery Co., Hinton Hardware Co., National Bank of Summers, and a number of other leading enterprises and leading business men of the county.
His first law partner was the Virginia statesman, Judge James M. Marshall, of New Castle ("Cyclone"), when he was admitted to the practice of his profession. He located in Hinton July 1, 1894. His brother, Dr. Leigh Read, is a dentist and resident of Baltimore City. He is a Democrat in politics, a believer in the doctrines of Jefferson, Jackson and Bryan, but has taken no active interest in politics outside of the county. He has engaged on one side or the other in most of the litigated causes arising in the county since his location here in 1894.
ARCHIE ROY HEFLIN.
Archie Roy Heflin, attorney at law and prominent member of the Hinton Bar, was born in Stafford County, Virginia, on the 18th day of September, 1856, his father being Charles Seddan Heflin, a relative of Seddan, famous in war times as a prominent Confed- erate, and Secretary of War in President Davis' Cabinet. His mother was Miss Nannie E. Latham. On the 27th of October, 1881, he married Miss Ellie Dunlap, of Monroe County, W. Va. Judge Heflin was educated at the Virginia Agricultural and Me- chanical College at Blacksburg, Va., and took the law course at Richmond College, Richmond, Va., graduating at the former in
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
1877 and the latter in 1880, and was the orator at his graduation in both of his colleges, winning the $50.00 prize Cochran Medal of the Maury Society in the debate on his graduation at the Virginia A. and M. College. In 1880 he was unanimously elected as final orator of the Mu Signa Rho Society, one of the literary societies of the Richmond College, an exceedingly flattering com- pliment, as that honor is universally hotly contested for. The Society was founded in 1845, and in its history this is the only occasion where the honor was bestowed unanimously and without opposition. His subject on that occasin was "Perils of States' Dishonor," which he handled with great ability and credit, his opponent being M. P. Huff, whose subject was "Bismark." The subject of his debate at his graduation at the Blacksburg College was, "Is the World Advancing in Civilization?" in which he had a hard proposition to handle the negative, and it was in this de- bate he won the Cochran Gold Medal, awarded by a distinguished committee consisting of Hon. John W. Daniel, Hon. John Ran- dolph Tucker, and Governor J. Hoge Tyler. He was called back to deliver the alumni address in 1881 of this school.
Judge Heflin is a speaker of great force and very effective, es- pecially in his arguments before the jury. He began the practice of law at Blacksburg. Va., in 1881, his license being signed by the late Judge Moncure, of Stafford. Va., one of the most distin- guished jurists that ever occupied a seat on the bench of the Su- preme Court of Appeals of Virginia. In 1885 he was elected by the Legislature of Virginia to the county judgeship of the dis- trict composed of Giles and Bland counties, in Virginia, for a term ending in 1891. This court had original criminal jurisdic- tion in all criminal probate and fiscal matters, which gave him a wide range of experience in his profession. In 1895 Judge Heflin, on the 24th day of December, located in Hinton for the practice of his profession, forming a copartnership with the late George D. Haynes. Mr. Haynes died within a short time, since which time he has continued the practice in Summers and adjoining counties.
In 1891 he was appointed by Governor A. B. White as a mem- ber of the Board of Directors of the Asylum for the Insane at Spencer for a term of two years, and again for a term of four years, but resigned in 1905, having filled the position with honor to himself and profit to the State. He also served one term as city attorney for the city of Hinton, and as assistant prosecuting attorney of the county with Hon. Frank Lively, until his resig-
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
nation, and then with Hon. E. C. Eagle, until the expiration of the full term of four years. Judge Heflin is an accomplished law- yer and gentleman. He has a family of four children-Miss Archie, who is a student in New York City; Dunlap, engaged with the C. & O. Railway Co. at Lexington, Ky .; John, a student at William & Mary College, and Paul, a student at the Hinton High School.
He has taken an active part in the majority of the contested legal battles occurring in the courts of the county since his set- tlement in Hinton, on one side or the other. He is considered a safe and wise counsellor.
LEFTWICH.
There are but two families of this name now residents of Summers County-George W. Leftwich, the veteran school teacher, and Jabez F., farmer, of Barger's Springs.
The family is of English origin, emigrating from Europe in the latter half of the seventeenth century. Jabez seems to be a family name, that being the given name of the grandfather of the above-named Jabez and George. He was a soldier in the war with England of 1812, and his wife's name was Early, being a first cousin of the illustrious Confederate General Jubal A. Early. David W. Leftwich, the father of George and "Jabe," was born in Bedford County, on February 11th, 1827, and married Nancy Jane Williams, of Giles County, Va., February 14th, 1850, and died November 29th, 1895, near Talcott, W. Va. He volunteered in the Confederate Army in 1861, and served with honor and bravery throughout the Civil War in Clark's Battalion, Vawter's Company.
George W. was born August 8, 1851, being the eldest of a family of six boys and six girls, and on December 18, 1873, mar- ried Miss Sarah J. Ellison, whose grandfather was the celebrated Indian fighter at the time the Indians and whites had a fort on Crump's Bottom, and others on New River below Indian Creek. He began early life in the occupation of farming and teaching school, which he continues to the present day, and is one of the. oldest and most successful teachers in the county. He was also one of the promoters and builders of the lower large grist mill on Indian Creek, at Indian Mills, just below the mouth of Brad- shaw's Run. In 1894 he was elected superintendent of free schools for a full term, which position he filled with great ability
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
and to the satisfaction of his constituents, being elected by about 300 majority in a Democratic county. Mr. Leftwich being a con- sistent Republican in politics, his election was a compliment to his honesty and capacity, and he is the second Republican elected to that office in the county, having been the regular nominee of his party, the other member of that party being Mr. J. F. Lilly, who ran as an independent candidate, back in the 80's. Mr. Ira W. Leftwich, the accomplished hardware salesman for Belknap & Co., is his eldest son. Mr. Leftwich is also an enterprising farmer and a gentleman of character, well informed and well edu- cated.
Jabez F. Leftwich is one of the most enterprising and thrifty farmers of Talcott District, and owns one of the neatest planta- tions and homes in the county, adjoining the Bacon plantation near Barger's Springs. He married Miss Ellison, and has reared a family of grown children, all enterprising and intelligent, his eldest son, Earl, being engaged with the C. & O. Railway, and another son is in Colorado for his health. One daughter married Mac Nowlan, Esq., of Pence Springs, and one daughter is at home. He is one of the best citizens in the county. Hon. J. F. Leftwich, now a member of the State Senate, elected in 1906, a prominent lawyer of Boone County, is a cousin, as is also Everett Leftwich, an attorney of Mingo County, and also Leftwich, attor- ney, of Mississippi. Robert W. Leftwich, a brother of George W. and J. F. Leftwich, took a course in medicine; resided for some years at Talcott, then removed to Texas and died there a few years ago, while engaged in the practice of his profession.
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CUNDIFF.
Wm. R. Cundiff was a locomotive engineer, and one of the first settlers in Hinton, being a native of Virginia, emigrating to Gauley Bridge, and after the construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway removing to Hinton with his family, consisting of his wife, Annie Cundiff, and his sons, Frank and Ollie, and one daugh- ter, Mamie, who afterwards married Charles H. Hetzel, the barber.
He was by occupation a locomotive engineer of the Chesa- peake & Ohio Railway Co., having been on the road since 1878, and on the 18th of February, 1881, he was killed by his engine running into a slide at Moss Run Fill. His widow was formerly Miss Annie Kilcollins, of Amherst County, Virginia, of which
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
county Mr. Cundiff was also a native, and she still resides in this city.
Frank Cundiff, the oldest son, born at Blue Ridge Springs, Va., 1874, is also a very competent and trusted locomotive rail- way engineer of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co., running west of Hinton. His picture will be seen on the little shed or the end of the double porch of the log building formerly standing in the center of the railroad yard near the roundhouse, he being the one on the left leaning against the one-story log building. He is now thirty-three years old, and was married on the 6th day of Oc- tober, 1898, to Miss Eunice Hutchinson, of Elton, a daughter of Michael and Mary Hutchinson, in this county. He has three chil- dren-Edith, Bernice and Frank, Jr. I am indebted to him for the photograph which he had preserved of that old landmark. W. R. Cundiff married Sarah A. Kilcollins, of Blue Ridge Springs, Bed- ford County, Virginia.
JOHN HINTON.
This gentleman resides two and one-half miles from the court house, on Madam's Creek. He is a son of Captain John Hinton, the first settler in the county, and a brother of Evan Hinton. His father at one time owned the land on which the city of Avis is now built. He was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, his wife being a Maddy, from Greenville, in Monroe County, a daugh- ter of John Maddy. He had been in the habit of coming to the mouth of the Greenbrier River during his boyhood, with his father, John Hinton, on hunting excursions, and when he was about ten years of age his father purchased the Henry and Isaac Ballengee land at the mouth of the Greenbrier River at Avis.
The only child of John Hinton is his son, John Wayne Hinton, a valued citizen of Jumping Branch District-a farmer. He lives adjoining his cousin, Silas R. Hinton, a son of Evan. John Hinton was one of the sureties on the first sheriff's bond ever executed in the county, that of his brother Evan. He can tell of many of the pioneer reminiscences, and the way things were done in this then wilderness in his boyhood days. The Hintons are loyal. Democrats in party faith, and Missionary Baptists in their religious faith.
He says merchandise in those days was shipped to the imnie- diate region around where Hinton is now located and the upper end of the county from Lynchburg and Richmond overland. At the time Mr. Hinton moved to the mouth of Greenbrier there were
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
no roads-nothing but bridle paths ;- and there were plenty of deer, wild turkeys and bear in the woods. The Avis Hinton prop- erty was bought by his father from Henry Ballangee. There was no church then nearer Hinton than Alderson, twenty-one miles. The pioneer preachers were beginning to come into the region, however, and were permitted to preach at the private residences of the farmers. There were no schools or school houses. Mr. Hinton remembers John Rollyson, one of the foremost teachers in those times. Robert Commack was an old teacher, but his day was about 1860, and following the war. Green Lively was a cap- tain of militia, and Wilson Lively the colonel. Colonel Wilson Lively lived at the old Graham log house, now resided in by Bun Kesler, at Lowell, until his death during the war, being a brave Confederate soldier. He was the father of our townsman, Frank Lively, the lawyer. There was no postoffice nearer than Union, a distance of twenty-five miles.
John Hinton was mustered into the service of the Confederate Army at the mouth of Big Bluestone. In the days of the militia, Evan Hinton, the brother of John, was a captain, and the place of muster was at Jumping Branch. Lewis Upton was orderly ser- geant. Soon after the declaration of war, Mr. Hinton volunteered and joined the company of Captain Philip Thurmond, and was attached to General John Echol's Brigade. John Hinton was one of the pioneers, a man of strict honor and integrity.
He suffered much financially, by reason of his being one of the bondsmen of his brother, Evan Hinton, the first sheriff of Sum- mers County. John Wayne Hinton is his only son, and he and his father reside together. He was an early neighbor of the Foxes, who lived at the place where Brooks Postoffice is now located, which is at the mouth of Brooks Creek, four miles west of Hinton, was originally settled by Mr. Brooks, who sold out his possessions at that place to David Fox, who died several years ago. David Fox owned the farm at the mouth of Brooks Creek, on which the little village of Brooks is now located, as well as the postoffice, there being two stores there at this time, owned by R. Meadows and James Samples, and half a dozen houses.
The brother of David Fox, Samuel, resided about a mile above Brooks, at what is now known as Barksdale, where he died dur- ing the war, leaving several daughters, who still reside on the premises, and one son, George, who resides in Greenbrier County, at Dawson. David Fox was the father of Charles R., Samuel H. and James H., who all reside at Brooks Postoffice, who are each
JAMES D. BOLTON, Farmer and Capitalist.
JOHN HINTON, The Oldest Representative of the Hinton Generation.
THE NEW YOR! PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
thrifty, well-to-do and prosperous farmers, each having money in bank and owe no debts. They are noted for being the possessors of fine horse-flesh. Joseph is now living in parts unknown, having emigrated to Parkersburg, in this State, and afterwards going to parts unknown, having failed in business.
THE HINTON-RICHMOND FIGHT.
William C. Richmond was a son of Samuel Richmond, raised at Richmond Falls, and was a man of tremendous physical power. Evan Hinton, the "Father of the County," son of Jack (John) Hinton, was also a man of great physical strength; Richmond being a large-boned, tall, sinewy man, while Hinton was short, active and muscular.
Before the war it was very fashionable for the young men of the country to have wrestling matches, which very frequently ended in fights, as a test of manhood. Some of the neighbors of these gentlemen desiring to see a contest of their strength, told Evan Hinton that "Bill" Richmond had stated that he "could whip 'Jack' Hinton and all of his boys," for the purpose of incit- ing a fight for the amusement of the neighborhood. Evan imme- diately wrote to Richmond what he had heard, telling him if it was true to meet him, with his friends, at the farm just opposite Tug Creek, across New River, on the Raleigh side, below Hinton, and he "would show him whether he could whip 'Jack' Hinton and all of his boys." Richmond replied that he would be on hands.
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