USA > West Virginia > Summers County > History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 56
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When he was twenty-one years old, his father desired that he enter into the practice of medicine. The son, how- ever, declined, declaring that medicine was a humbug, and that he would beg from door to door before he would do it. The old gentleman told him it was time to try it, and on that day the son left home, went to Clarksville, and bought a suit of clothes from a friend, whom he made promise that if he never paid for it, that he would not ask his father for his money. He went from thence to Tennessee and taught school there, earning his first money. From there he went to Pine Bluff. Arkansas, where he had three brothers who were operating a cotton farm. He proceeded to be- come a bookkeeper and a clerk for a firm in that town, Alltschul & Bloom. There he lost his health, and returned to Clarksville, Vir- ginia, being confined to his bed with congestive chills. His doctor advised him that one more chill would kill him. He got on his horse and started for the White Sulphur Springs; took one drink of the water, declared he would not pay fifty cents for the whole place because it smelled like rotten eggs. He then started to Fay- etteville to visit a Colonel Coleman, with whom he was acquainted, took sick at John Gwinn's, and landed as above stated. He never had another chill from the time he left Clarksville. He went through the Civil War as a Confederate soldier, being a quarter- master in the Confederate Army. He was buried at Barger Springs, having died February 8, 1885. He was the sixth child of the fifteen children of Colonel Lydall Bacon and Mary Ann Bacon, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Carter, of Nottoway County, Virginia. Colonel Lydall Bacon was born December 26, 1793, and was a son of Drury Allen Bacon and Nancy E. Bacon. Sons of this Bacon settled in Tennessee and Georgia. Colonel Lydall Bacon died June 23, 1875, aged eighty-one years and six months. Drury Allen Bacon was born December 4, 1765, and was the elev- enth child of Lydall Bacon and Mary Bacon. Her maiden name was Mary Thompson, of Lunenburg, Virginia.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
INSCRIPTION ON THE TOMBSTONE OF NATHANIEL BACON.
"Here lieth the body of Nathaniel Bacon, Esquire, whose de- scent was from the ancient house of Bacon, one of which was Chancellor Bacon and Lord Berulian, who was ancestor of Vir- ginia and President of the Honorable Council of the State and Commissioner in Chief for the County of York, having been such commissioner for above six years, and having always discharged the office in which he served with great fidelity and loyalty to his friends, who departed this life the 16th of March, 1692."
The tombstone from which the above inscription is taken lies in the old churchyard of Glebe of York, Hampton Parish, at Hamp- ton, Virginia.
KESLER.
Osborn Taylor Kesler (named after General Zachary Taylor), who now resides on the old Gwinn farm at Pence's Springs station, on the C. & O. Railway, was born on the 2d day of October, 1849, in Botetourt County, Virginia, and removed with his father, Abra- ham C. Kesler, to Monroe County, now Summers, in 1858. The wife of A. C. Kesler and mother of O. T. Kesler was Miss Sallie Coiner. The Keslers are of German descent. Abraham C. Kesler, the founder of the family in this county, is now about eighty years of age. He first settled on what is known as the "Chattin" farm, across Greenbrier River from Talcott. O. T. Kesler married Miss Sallie A. Keller, October, 1869, a daughter of George Keller, Esq., of Lowell, and is a descendant of the Kellers who settled at Lowell in the early Indian fighting days, when that section was settled by the Grahams, Konrads, Kellers, Ferrells and Hinchmans, Homer Kesler, postmaster and merchant at Pence Springs, is the only child of O. T. Kesler.
O. T. Kesler has been one of the leading citizens of the county, engaged for many years as a stock dealer and farmer, taking an active interest in the politics of the county, being a Democrat in his party principles. He is the present general manager of the Summers Dairy & Food Co., a corporation chartered in the fall of 1906, the present business being conducted is the dairy. A modern establishment is being placed in operation on the farm at Pence Springs, on the Greenbrier River, purchased from Mr. Kesler for $4,000.00. The farm consists of the old Gwinn place, one of the
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
first grants in the county acquired by Silas R. Mason from Andrew Gwinn (Long Andy), the celebrated and prosperous farmer at Lowell, and by Mr. Kesler from Mason.
In 1888 Mr. Kesler was nominated for sheriff without opposition as the Democratic candidate, and was elected over Hon. Sira W. Willey, the Independent Republican candidate. He held the posi- tion for the full term of four years. L. McD. Meadows was his first deputy for the west side of New River. He, dying soon after the election, Henry F. Kesler, a brother of O. T. Kesler, filled the position to the end of the term.
In 1896 Mr. Kesler was again a candidate for sheriff before the Democratic primary, but was defeated by James H. George, of Green Sulphur Springs. Mr. Kesler is an active, enterprising man, and is now one of the jury commissioners of the county.
Bunyan L. Kesler is the second son of Abraham C. Kesler, and is a farmer and stock dealer, and resides at Lowell, having married a Miss Lively, a sister of the Hon. Frank Lively. In 1900 he was appointed to re-assess the real estate of the county by the State Board of Public Works, on the recommendation of the county court of the county. In 1906 he drilled for sulphur water at Lowell on the west side of the Greenbrier, and succeeded in developing a very fine mineral water, which is likely in the future to become famous and make its discoverer wealthy. The analysis of the water is given elsewhere.
Henry F. Kesler, the third son of Abraham Kesler, married Miss Ella Lively, a sister also of Mr. Frank Lively, and resides on a good farm on Greenbrier River between Lowell and. Talcott, a part of the old Kincaid-Griffith Meadows tract. He was born in 1854, and has been twice nominated by his party, the Democratic, and elected to the position of county superintendent of public schools. His first term under the old law in 1882 was for two years, and his second term of four years began in 1898. He is one of the oldest in service of the teachers of the county, is a gentleman of accomplishments and a practical and successful educator as well, as farmer. He is a Democrat in politics and a Presbyterian. He is also one of the oldest and most successful teachers of vocal music in this region, having pursued that vocation in his younger days. Hon. Upshur Higginbotham, now an attorney located at Charles- ton and the accomplished private secretary to Hon. Joseph Holt Gaines, M. C., married the oldest daughter of Mr. Henry F. Kesler.
George Kesler, the youngest son of Mr. Abraham C. Kesler, was born in 1861. He is a resident of Greenville, Monroe County,
HARVEY EWART, Ex-Sheriff and Capitalist.
OSBORN T. KESLER, Ex-Sheriff and Farmer.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
being now the proprietor of the famous old grist-mill at that town on Indian Creek. A. C. Kesler, the ancestor, still resides near Lowell, and is in the possession of his mental and physical activi- ties, although one of our oldest citizens.
BRAGG.
The Braggs were early settlers in Green Sulphur District, especially in the Laurel Creek and Chestnut Mountain region, and their descendants still reside in that section, but not in great numbers.
The most celebrated Bragg of the name was the Rev. John Bragg, a good Missionary Baptist minister, and who was a hardy pioneer in the work of the Master. Some mention of his great labor in this rough and then poor and sparsely settled region is due to history. He was a verteran soldier of the cross in the wil- derness in all the surrounding counties. He was born December 21, 1815, and married twice, his first wife being Amanda Thompson, and the second, Mary J. Witt. By his first wife he reared twelve children, and by the second, eight, twenty in all. During his min- istry he united in marriage 396 couples, and was the pastor of practically all the churches organized in the early days in the territory of Raleigh, Summers, Greenbrier, Monroe and Fayette Counties. In 1884 he removed to Imperial, Nebraska, where he died many years ago. He has two sons now residing in this county. Judson Bragg, of Pipestem, and Braxton Bragg, named after the two famous generals of the same name, one a Confederate general who fought at the great battle of Chickamauga, and the other a Union general of Wisconsin.
One daughter, Mrs. Dr. Clement White, resides in Raleigh.
RYAN.
White G. Ryan was a native of Fluvanna County, Virginia, born in 1815, and removed to Mercer County, now Summers, in February, 1857, bought 392 acres of land from Edmond Lilly's heirs. He was an Irishman, and the red blood of the Celtic race was strong in his veins. He enlisted in the Confederate army, and was the captain commanding Ryan's Company, Company I, Third Virginia Regiment, as brave a lot of men as fought in that army. He was educated for the law, and practiced that profession, but divided his time between the law and his farm. He was elected in
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
1872 as the first elected prosecuting attorney of the county, serving four years, a full term, with J. Speed Thompson as his assistant. In November, 1841, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Jane Burnett. He was licensed to practice law in 1858.
Captain Ryan was an ardent Southern man and Jeffersonian Democrat and a member of the Missionary Baptist Church. His children were Joseph W. Ryan, a successful farmer in the county, assistant assessor under E. D. Ferrell, and resides in Pipestem District : is a prominent man of intelligence and honor: Edward M. Ryan. a Confederate. soldier, killed at Cloyd's Mountain battle, shot through the heart and fell dead into the arms of his brother ; Joseph W., Bowman G., John T. and C. L., who is also a success- ful farmer of the county, John T. being a locomotive engineer of the N. & W. Railway, and Bowman G. also having been killed in the army of the Confederate States ; one daughter, Mary W., inter- married with W. F. Ryburn, of Glade Springs, Virginia. Captain Ryan, during the war, was also division provost marshal; was captured at Waynesboro, Virginia, on the 2d of March, 1862, and carried by the Federals to Fort Delaware as a prisoner of war. He organized two companies for the service of the Southern cause from Mercer County, then Virginia, being the captain of each company.
Joseph W. Ryan was wounded in the war by being shot through the thigh. He has been married three times, his first wife being Fannie Lee Wilson, of Fayette County : the second, Miss Minerva A. French, of Mercer County, and the third, Miss Sarah F. Pine, of Mercer.
His children are Bertie Edwards, Mary Verne, who married Rufus Butler : Charles W., Rachel R. and Fred L.
Captain W. G. Ryan, before the war was an ardent Whig, and was opposed to secession, but went with his State, and after the war and until his death, some five years ago, was identified with the Democratic organization. An uncompromising friend and an open enemy. During the exciting times just prior to the secession of Virginia, being opposed to secession, he had a noted fight with one William Dunbar, a strong secessionist, who, however, after the secession, organized a company of bushwhackers to prey on the citizens of the border. He was one of the prominent men of the county, and took an active interest in public affairs up to his death. although in his later years living somewhat a retired life. He was a familiar figure at party conventions, a strong speaker and influential in his section. He was one of the founders of the
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
county. The farm which he bought and resided on at his death was underlaid with coal, and became a valuable inheritance to his children. He was a brave, loyal pioneer.
BOWLES.
There is living on the Hump Mountain, in Green Sulphur Dis- trict, several families by the name of Bowles, which is a familiar name to all of the inhabitants of Summers County. The original settler, whose name was William Allen Bowles, was an English- man who crossed the ocean shortly after the Declaration of Inde- pendence by the thirteen American colonies. His wife's name was Sarah Preston, and was Irish. Both he and his wife crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the same ship before their marriage, and were unable to pay their transportation. Both were arrested and sold for the amount of their ship fare across the sea to New York. William A. Bowles was sold to a tanner, and Sarah Preston was sold to a baker, each for a term of seven years. After the expira- tion of this long period they were married, and removed to Frank- lin County, Virginia.
David Bowles, the oldest son, was born in Franklin County. Virginia, and was bound out at the age of ten years. Before his term of service expired he was removed to Raleigh, then Giles County. After his majority he married Ruth Richmond, a daugh- ter of William Richmond. She was born on the 15th of March, 1818, and died February 22, 1895, her grandfather coming from Germany, as well as her grandmother. David Bowles and his wife. who were married on April 5, 1836, settled in what is now Sum- mers County, two miles below Richmond's Falls, on the Hump. Mountain, at the old David Bowles place, now owned by W. W. Richmond and wife, of the city of Hinton, and was a farmer by occupation, born on the 17th day of December, 1811. His wife was born on March 18, 1818. They raised seven children, three girls and four boys. Four of the children are still living. The girls' names were Cynthia, who married Beckenridge Gwinn Oc- tober 15, 1858, and died in Carroll County ; Jude Ann died Novem- ber 8, 1864; Ruth died in infancy; Louisa Jane married T. L. Bragg, and lives now in Oklahoma. She was married March 3. 1867.
David Bowles was a great hunter in his day, the forests then abounding in bear, deer, wild turkeys, panthers and wolves. On one occasion he killed a buck that weighed 150 pounds, which he
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
carried to Blue Sulphur Springs, a distance of twenty miles, and sold it for $8.00. He used to relate to his children that he had seen thirty-one deer in one herd. He killed on Lick Creek a panther measuring eleven feet from the end of tail to the end of its nose. He was attacked by this vicious animal, having no weapons with which to defend himself except a dirk knife, one dog and two pups. He stabbed the panther nine times, eight times through the heart. He built the first schoolhouse in all that region at his own expense, and employed the teacher at like expense. The house was made, as was universal in those days, with a dirt floor and clapboard roof.
His death occurred July 11, 1885, his wife having died pre- viously, and both were buried at the family graveyard on the old home place. He left surviving him James Bowles, the youngest son, who died some eight years ago; William Bowles, who still resides on Hump Mountain, some two miles from Meadow Creek Station ; Ervin E. Bowles, who also resides on that mountain, and David Bowles, Jr., who also resides in the same vicinity.
David Bowles, Jr., is an old schoolteacher, and has held the position of Road Commissioner for this district, being a man of intelligence. William Bowles is quite a geologist, having taken up the study on his own account, and he has claimed to have found considerable deposits of gold, coal. and other minerals in the Hump Mountain, which, however, is doubted by mineralogists. He has not gotten his practical knowledge of geology into exten- sive uses, nor has he applied it beyond the narrow precincts of the Hump Mountain, principally on his own farm.
Mr. Ervin Bowles is quite an authority on the Bible and Bibli- cal literature, he being able to repeat large portions of both the Old and New Testament from memory. James Bowles, the young- est son of David Bowles, died August 17, 1895, without issue.
There have been fifty-one grandchildren born to David Bowles, Sr., in his lifetime.
P. K. LITSINGER.
One of the men who has made this county his adopted resi- dence and made a success is Pearnis Keefer Litsinger, born at Storistown, Pa., where his father, a tinner by trade, was tempo- rarily engaged, but whose residence was Westminster, Maryland, were young Litsinger grew up. He was born on the 23d day of June, 1858, and married Miss Lena Fredeking, at Hinton, on the
世心气价慧
DR. WM. LEIGH BARKSDALE, Surgeon in the Confederate Army, an Old Virginia Gentleman with His Valet, "Squire" Law.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
--
ASTIL NOX AND
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
21st day of June, 1891. He began as a machine smith, and followed his occupation in Baltimore, Richmond, and finally arriving at Hin- ton on the 27th of December. 1879, and began his employment with the C. & O. Railway in its shops here, which continued until within the past five years. He is an organization Democrat, belonging to Litsinger alone. Being loyal to his friends, he has friends of his own. He was elected mayor of the city of Hinton in 1894, and re-elected to succeed himself, and again elected in 1898, having served for three full terms, and is prominently spoken of for the position again at the next election : besides, he has served several terms of a member of the city council. At the election of 1904 he was elected a justice of the peace for Greenbrier District for a term of four years, and is now filling that position. He is a Shriner in Masonry, and takes great interest in that, as well as in all other secret order work, being also a member of the B. P. O. E. and other orders, and has done as much, if not more, than any other citizen in supporting and maintaining the progressive- ness of the societies of which he is a member. He has, by judicious investments and good judgment in financial matters, accumulated a handsome fortune, owning a handsome residence in the extreme lower end of the city. Mr. Litsinger is a tireless worker, full of energy and push. He married Miss Lena Fredeking, a daughter of the early settler, Charles Fredeking. He is the President of the Independent Publishing Company, a director of the Hinton Masonic Real Estate Company, the Hinton Water Company, and numerous other of the leading business enterprises of Hinton.
WILLIAM L. BARKSDALE.
William L. Barksdale, now a citizen of Hinton and a native of Virginia, was born on the 11th of November, 1836, in Halifax County. He married Miss Mary N. Holt, a daughter of George W. Holt and Ann Logan, on the 23d of October, 1872. He was educated at the Samuel Davis Institute and the University of Virginia, taking a medical course at that university, and eventually graduating at the Jefferson Medical College, of Louisville, Ken- tucky. Dr. Barksdale had located for the practice of his profes- sion at Lewisburg, and was there at the opening of the hostilities between the States in 1861. He promptly enlisted as surgeon in Jackson's Cavalry. Twenty-second Regiment, Edgar's Battalion, Patterson's Brigade, Warden's Division, and continued as a sur- geon in the army throughout the war. After the war he returned
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to Lewisburg, but later returned to Virginia and practiced his pro- fession for five years, and until the death of his father. Later, he returned to West Virginia, and finally, in January, 1874, located at Alderson, and practiced his profession in that community. In 1892 he removed to Hinton, at which place he has continued to reside until the present time. Dr. Barksdale has been continuously in the active practice of his profession since 1858, except two years and a half he was engaged in the lumber business at Barksdale. He is an enterprising citizen and a successful surgeon and prac- titioner. His great experience during the war gave him great opportunity for developing into one of the many great surgeons which that war produced. He was of a family of physicians and surgeons, his father being a doctor before him, as well as a number of others of his family. He is a relative of the famous Manchester lawyer, Leigh, after whom he was named. He has one son, Holt, who is now preparing himself for the medical profession in the Northwestern University of Chicago. Another son, John, resides with the father in Hinton. The other son, William L., Jr., having died a few years ago. His oldest daughter Annie, married Charles Bailey. His other three daughters, Misses Seldon, Cary and Maggie, reside with their father in Hinton.
It was through the enterprise of Dr. Barksdale that the Brown- stone industry was at one time developed in this country. It was due to his efforts and to those of Judge W. G. Hudgin that the Alderson Brownstone Company was formed, which constructed a railroad up Griffith's Creek to the quarries on the John Graham land.
He is the owner of the largest tract of land owned by a single individual in Summers County at this time. This tract of land of about 4,000 acres lies near Brooks. Dr. Barksdale is a true rep- resentative of the "old Virginia gentleman," a man of honor, faith- ful to his friends and his profession. In one of the most interest- ing cases in which he was called as an expert was that of the late J. S. Thompson, tried for the murder of Elbert Fowler at Lewis- burg in 1885.
HINTON-JOHNSON FIGHT.
John Hinton, the father of Joe, Silas and Evan Hinton, went one day before the war to Richmond's Mill, ten miles west of Hinton, to get a "grist ground." In those days, when enough apples could be gotten together, they were converted into apple jack. On this occasion there were enough men to get up a good-
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sized row-one of old-fashioned apple jack. The country in those days was new, rough and wild. Andy Johnson and Jake Adkins were each at the mill that day, and each claiming to be the "best man in the county." Johnson said "he weighed 164 pounds, and was the best man that ever walked on two legs on the New River Bottoms." Adkins said "he was the best man that ever walked on the New River Bottoms, and weighed 140 pounds." They prepared for a round or two just to see who was the best man. Andy Bennett walked up, strutted around and said that "he was the best man that ever walked on the New River Bottoms," where- upon Johnson struck at him, and they went at it. Johnson knocked him down and got on top of him. Bennett hallowed: "Take him off and let me get my coat off, and I'll lick him." They pulled Johnson off, let Bennett get his coat off, and they went at it again. Bennett again hallowed "Enough," and they let him up and the fight was over, and Bennett pulled away and knocked Johnson down while they were politely waiting to see which was the best man that ever walked on the New River Bottoms.
DUNN.
Hon. Edward L. Dunn is a native of Monroe County, but has been a citizen of Summers since its formation. He is a descend- ant of an old and honorable family of that name long resident of the lower end of the good county of Monroc.
In 1870 he was united in marriage with Miss Mattie J. Baber, a daughter of Rev. Powhattan B. Baber, the distinguished Chris- tian minister who resided in the Red Sulphur Springs neighbor- hood, and grandfather of the Rev. P. B. Baber, Jr., minister also of the same church, and who is making his mark as one of the rising men of his church, who is not afraid to work with his gloves off.
E. L. Dunn has for a large part of his life since his majority been engaged in the mercantile business at Indian Mills, where he made of the business a success. In 1880 he was elected for a term of four years justice of the peace in a Democratic district. In 1888 he was re-elected to succeed himself for a second term of four years. In 1898 he was appointed deputy sheriff under M. V. Calloway. In 1900 he was appointed by President William Mc- Kinley supervisor of the census for the Southern West Virginia District. In 1901 he was appointed by Governor A. B. White as a member of the Band of Regents of the State Normal Schools
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
of West Virginia, which position he held for four years, and was reappointed by Governor Dawson in 1904, and is at present hold- ing that honorable and respectable position. He was the active promoter in organizing the Greenbrier Springs Company and se- curing for it the property now owned, and was the first and the only general manager of the company.
Mr. Dunn is a straight-out-from-the-shoulder Republican, al- ways adhering to the principles of the party and voting its ticket. He with his wife now reside at the Greenbrier Springs, where he owns a cottage. His son, Mr. George Dunn, resides at Talcott, and is one of the leading merchants of that section, having mar- ried Miss Laura McNeer, a daughter of John Wesley McNeer, of Greenville, in Monroe County. He, like his father, takes an active part in politics, both being identified with the controlling faction of the party in the county. "Squire" (E. L.) Dunn. as he is universally known, is a man of integrity, honor and reliability, and one of the substantial men of the county.
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