USA > West Virginia > Summers County > History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 57
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DR. SAMUEL WILLIAMS.
This most remarkable man is deserving of more than a passing notice in a true history of Summers County, by reason of his pe- culiarities, his great size, his great mind and wonderful and thor- ough education and information, and his early friendship to the people, especially to the youth and young men of the region around about where he lived.
He emigrated into the Lick Creek settlement in the early part of the war, from Putnam County. Virginia, now West Virginia. on the Kanawha River, having made his headquarters at John Garrett's, and practiced medicine in Putnam County. His loca- tions prior to that are unknown. He was possibly a native of Hanover County, Virginia, as he sometimes mentioned that county as if having lived and hunted there. He was an active man ; very fond of hunting and a fine shot on the wing, although he weighed 350 pounds, and was not over four and a half feet in height. So large was he and so ponderous was his stomach that he could not fasten his shoes or his clothes. Soon after he located at Lick Creek he met and married Miss Margaret Miller, a daughter of Irving Benson Miller, son of John, Sr., and a sister of John A. Miller, of Asbury, in Greenbrier County: James W. Mil- ler, the hotel proprietor in Hinton, and the late Olen B. Miller, of Alderson. He continued to practice his profession in the Lick
FATHER DAVID WALSIT. Founder of Catholicism in this Region.
HON. ED. L. DUNN, Republican Politician and Capitalist.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
Creek country, locating at Green Sulphur Springs until the rail- road was under construction, about 1872, when he removed to New Richmond, at which place he resided until his death from heart disease, very suddenly, about 1885, practicing in all that and the Lick Creek section. With all his size, he would ride and travel all over the Chestnut and Hump Mountain and the Irish Mountain in Raleigh to visit the sick until his death, for some time being the surgeon for the C. & O. Railroad Company. His charges were most moderate if he charged at all, and seldom if ever compelled payment, and was not very particular about paying himself. He, with Dr. N. W. Noel, a physician at Green Sul- phur, opened and conducted the first drug store in the county, which was at New Richmond, during the construction of the rail- road. His education was complete, having graduated at the two great universities, that of the University of Virginia, at Char- lottesville, Virginia, and of the University of South Carolina, at Chapel Hill. He could read, as well as the ordinarily educated man in the English could his language, a great number (13) differ- ent languages. He was a thoroughly read and informed man on all subjects; could carry on intelligent conversation with his vis- itors, and while doing so read a book or newspaper. He would frequently, in the midst of an animated conversation, fall asleep, and on waking proceed with the conversation where he left off.
Directly after the war he, without charge, offered free lectures to the young men of Lick Creek, which were conducted at night at the Baptist Church. In its connection he organized a debating society among the young men, frequently preparing speeches for those participating on both sides of the question, when they did not feel competent to do it themselves. His teachings were only lectures delivered to his audience on grammar, etc., questioning to ascertain their progress and attention, for all of which no com- pensation was desired or received. Many of the young men of the locality had been in the war. The schools for five years had en- tirely suspended, and he thus secured, to all who desired, an op- portunity to secure knowledge of which they were deficient. The young people for miles around attended these free lectures, for it was "sitting at the feet of Gamaliel." He accumulated no property, and desired none.
When he died he left surviving him a widow, who still lives; two sons, Bion, now dead, and William A., now residing in Rich- mond, Va., and Samuel Tilden, a cigar-maker, and Miss Susie, a trained nurse, in Durham, N. C. From whence he came or who
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
his relations were, no one knows. He never mentioned them, ex- cept he would sometimes talk of his mother. He was a man of a great and generous, good heart, as big as his body. At his death he was supposed to be about sixty years old, and he was buried in the old Miller burying-ground on Lick Creek.
LANE.
There has been but one family of this name in the county. It consisted of Moses Lane, who settled on Brush Creek,. in Monroe County, then moved to Crump's Bottom, in this county, and then emigrated to Field's Creek, on the Kanawha River. The sons of Moses Lane who continued to live in the county were Franklin, who settled in the Ellison country and still lives there, being now seventy-six years old: Chiarles and John, who were twin brothers and lived near the mouth of Little Bluestone, and emigrated to Indiana during the war. Charles lived all his life on Pipestem Creek. William also emigrated to Indiana in his youth, and died there in early manhood, unmarried. John also settled and died in Indiana. James, the next son, settled near the Captain Ryan place, and later moved to Pennsylvania, where he resides. Marion, the youngest son, now fifty-two years old, re- sides on his farm on Madam's Creek. He married Miss Elizabeth Lilly, daughter of Samuel Lilly. They have eight children living and three dead. He is one of our intelligent citizens.
There were nine daughters in the family of Moses Lane, mak- ing a family of sixteen children, all of whom grew to the age of maturity except one child. Moses Lane married Miss Cynthia Lawrence, of Monroe County. Her father was a native of Ire- land. The Lane ancestors were also from beyond the sea, were Union men, opposed to secession of the States.
JAMES T. M'CREERY.
Mr. McCreery is of Irish descent; and was born in Union, Monroe County, on the 1st of January, 1845. His father was William McCreery, who was a native of Ireland, and who emi- grated after the Civil War and located on a large boundary of land three miles north of Beckley, in Raleigh County, where he resided until the date of his death, leaving surviving him Hon. John W. McCreery, one of the prominent citizens of that county,
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
and one of those largely responsible for the development of that now prosperous region.
He is a prominent attorney of that county, and has been a member of the State Senate from his district and president of that body. He has also been elected prosecuting attorney of his county, and has held other positions of honor and trust. He is also presi- dent of the Bank of Raleigh, Beckley Electric Light & Water Co., and is the owner of large landed properties in connection with his brother, Jas. T. He is one of the wealthiest men of the State, and highly esteemed at home and abroad; and Jas. T., the subject of this history, with his brother, Senator John W. McCreery, with business foresight, began early in the development of the coal regions of the State to acquire a large acreage of real estate in the early days, which has appreciated as developments came, and to-day he is one of the wealthiest men of the country.
Jas. T. is the president of the New River & Southwestern R. R. Co., a proposed railroad to connect the C. & O. at Hinton . with the N. & W. at the mouth of East River, following the course of New River on a route once only a trail for the Indian, and later the path of the pioneer hunter, discoverer and settler, and still later a country settled and inhabited by intelligent, prosperous and law-abiding citizens. He is president of the Hinton Hotel Co., and one of the principal promoters of that enterprise now being encouraged for the upbuilding and development of the city of Hinton.
Recently he has been selected as the president of the National Bank of Summers, on its reorganization into a National bank, and on the resignation of Mr. Harrison Gwinn, the enterprising and excellent first president, on account of advancing years. and his long distant residence from the location of the bank. Mr. McCreery, is pre-eminently a business man, and has devoted his entire time to business enterprises and occupations, never hav- ing engaged in political ventures or taken an interest therein except to vote in the interest of good government, he, as well as his brother, Senator John W. McCreery, being, as their father before them, followers after and believers in the doctrines of Jef- ferson and Bryan, except he (Jas. T.) was not in sympathy with the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, as proclaimed by the Democratic platform of 1896.
Mr. McCreery spent a large part of his earlier life in the county of Raleigh, having moved to that county with his father in the
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
year 1855, and was engaged for a number of years in the hotel business in Beckley, when he removed to the mouth of Piney, where he constructed a handsome residence at one of the most picturesque locations for a country seat in the State. Here he resided until 1897, when he purchased a handsome brick residence in the city of Hinton, in which he has since resided, and where he expects to reside the remainder of his days. In the meantime he was actively engaged in the land business, having promoted the Piney River Railway, which was afterwards ab- sorbed by the C. & O., and is now built, and is in operation as a branch of that great trunk line.
He with others promoted the turnpike leading from the mouth of Piney to Beckley, building a toll bridge across Piney at its mouth, which is a covered structure, built of wood, and is still well preserved. The station at the mouth of Piney is named for him, and is called "McCreery." He organized the first bridge company to construct a bridge across New River at Hinton, but never completed the arrangements.
He married Miss M. E. Prince, who was for many years an invalid. She was a daughter of the late Edwin Prince, a wealthy capitalist of Beckley. She died at Hinton since the removal of the family here.
Mr. McCreery's family at present consists of three sons and three daughters, Mrs. Josie Sawyers, Mrs. Annie Gray and Mrs. Ben Perkins, of Parkersburg, W. Va.
The founders of the McCreery family in this country were three brothers, William, John and Thomas. They were natives of Armagh, Ireland. William McCreery came from beyond the seas about 1821. John and Thomas came later. William and John settled in Monroe County, and Thomas went to Illinois, so that the descendants of the McCreerys were Irish. William mar- ried Mary S. Francis, a daughter of an old Monroe family of that name, James, Frances and Susan. William McCreery be- came prominent in affairs soon after his settlement in this coun- try. He merchandised for a number of years at Greenville, in Monroe County ; later located at Fincastle, Virginia, and became cashier of the Fincastle Bank, with William Glasgow, president; which position he occupied for ten years. In 1872 he was a mem- ber of the Constitutional Convention which met in Charleston, with ex-Governor Samuel Price, president, and framed the pres- ent Constitution of the State of West Virginia. In 1879 he was
JAMES T. MCCREERY, President National Bank of Summers.
THENEN PUBLIC LIDMInon
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
elected to the House of Delegates from Raleigh County. He set- tled in Raleigh County before the war, and died about three miles from Beckley, where he owned a large plantation. He was an intelligent, honorable and prominent citizen and thoroughly Ameri- can. He lived at one time in Union, Monroe County, where Sena- tor John W. McCreery was born on July 31, 1845. The only three children of William McCreery were John W., James Thomas and William H. All three of these brothers were soldiers in the Con- federate Army in the Civil War, John W. being a member of Company C, Second Virginia Cavalry. James T. was in the ar- tillery service. William H. died some years ago, and his widow and family still reside in Beckley, Raleigh County. John W. was a member of the Senate two terms, elected in 1884 and 1888 for terms of four years each, and was president of that body during his last term, and made a capable and intelligent official and pre- siding officer. His first wife was Miss Aletha Prince, who died, leaving one daughter, Aletha, who married Hon. Edward Keat- ley, now clerk of the United States Courts at Charleston. His first wife was a sister of the wife of James T. McCreery, who died a few years ago in Hinton ; also a sister of E. O. Prince and Burke Prince, who were among the first settlers of Hinton. His second wife, who is also now dead, was, as above stated, a Miss Lacy, a sister of the lawyer, portrait painter and teacher, A. J., commonly known as "Sandy" Lacy. Jas. T. McCreery was mar- ried the second time in 1907 to Miss Hattie Hatch, of New Jersey.
Senator McCreery settled at Raleigh Court House in 1865, studied law, and began the active practice soon thereafter, and has followed his profession actively to the present day. He for many years practiced his profession actively in our county, and beginning with its creation, and has always been noted for his close and careful attention to the interests of his clients, and is an in- domitable worker. He refused to permit the use of his name as a candidate for the judgeship in 1904.
The McCreerys are Democrats in politics and Presbyterians in religious affiliations, Senator McCreery being actively engaged in church and charitable work, and his influence is always found in aid of morality and the best interests of society.
The great-grandmother on his mother's side was a sister of Senator Allen T. Caperton's, who was an Erskine. W. H. Mc- Creery built one of the first brick houses erected in Hinton, now owned by the estate of Dr. Gooch.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
JOHN W. MCCREERY.
Among the lawyers who practiced their profession in the county from its very formation to the present from outside of the ter- ritory is Hon. John W. McCreery, of Beckley. He is the son of Hon. William McCreery, who lived for many years in that county, having emigrated thereto from Virginia with his sons. He is now about sixty-four years of age and one of the wealthiest men in this state. He started on the ground floor, but by judicious investment and business foresight he has accumulated a large fortune, esti- mated to be worth now $1,000,000, largely in real estate. His in- vestments were in wild lands in Raleigh County. When the devel- opments came in that region, Mr. McCreery's land appreciated very rapidly in value. He is the president of the Bank of Raleigh and of the Beckley Water Works & Lighting Company, and is iden- tified with many of the leading enterprises of this section, especially in Raleigh County, which he has been largely instrumental in developing. He is attorney for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company ; has represented his district in the Senate of the State for two terms of four years each, and was president of that body. He has been prosecuting attorney of Raleigh County. He is a Democrat in politics and Presbyterian in religion. He takes great interest in those affairs for the betterment of his section. He has had one of the largest and most profitable law practices of any lawyer of this section of the State, which large clientelle is largely due to his careful attention to the interests of his clients, and is considered a faithful and conscientious counsellor. He first mar- ried a Miss Lacy, of Princeton, a stepdaughter of Dr. Isaiah Bee, in 1876. After her death he married a Miss Prince, a daugher of Edmund Prince, of Beckley. His son, Henry Lacy McCreery, also a lawyer of promise, died recently, aged thirty-two. Another son is a pharmacist. His daughter married D. Howe Johnson, a lawyer of Mercer County, a son of Judge David E. Johnson. Another daughter married Mr. Payne, the merchant of Beckley; another, Mr. Patterson, a lawyer and stenographer at Clarksburg. Mr. McCreery's close identification with the people of the county entitles him to some notice in these pages. In addition to those positions mentioned, he has been general receiver of the court of his county for many years, a commissioner of the United States Court, appointed by Judge Jackson and also by Judge Keller. He was very favorably spoken of as the candidate of the Democratic
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
party for judge of the circuit court of this circuit in 1904, but declined to be a candidate. His practice extends throughout Ra- leigh and adjoining counties, in the Supreme Court of the State and in the United States Court. He is a brother of our county man, James T. McCreery.
WYANT.
The first settler of Powley's Creek was Peter Wyant, who settled on the head of the creek. He left three sons, who settled in that region, around the Big Bend Tunnel-John, Elijah and Peter; and William, who was the youngest, and remained on the homestead of the ancestor, as it was the usual custom in the early days for the youngest son to remain at home to take care of his parents and inherit by devise or deed the "home place." William, the son of J. M., the third of the generation, still resides on the Powley's Creek homestead. Peter settled on top of Big Bend Tunnel Mountain, where he resided at his death. He left one daughter, who married Hon. J. Fred Briant, a train dispatcher of Hinton; J. Morris, who owns and lives on the old John Rooch farm on Greenbrier River, below Bacon's Mill; Charles, who re- sides where his father died, and Thomas, who lives on an adjoin- ing farm. Archie Allen also married another daughter. Elijah went through the war as a Confederate soldier. He did not be- lieve in secession, but did believe in obeying the laws of his State, and when the State seceded and demanded his service, he obeyed. He died several years ago, leaving a son, Peter M. Wyant, who lives on the Elk Knob, and married a daughter of C. Wran With- row, and is raising a family of seventeen children, eleven boys and six girls. Another son, John M., who married a daughter of Squire Joseph Grimmett ; a daughter, who married Louis M. Shiry, and another who married John B. Thompson, of Talcott.
The Wyants are a very sturdy, honorable, law-abiding, Chris- tian people, and good citizens, who have retained the faith of their fathers. They are generally Methodists and Democrats, except John M., who has departed from the faith of his fathers to the extent of being an ardent Republican.
One of the oldest settlers in the county was John Rooch, who married a sister of Andrew Gwinn, of Lowell. He owned the river bottom farm adjoining the Bacon Mill property, now owned by J. Morris Wyant. After the death of the original settlers his
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
children, with the exception of the youngest son, John M. Rooch, moved West. John M. still lives on the Keeny's Knob, in Green Sulphur District, and is a farmer.
Peter Wyant, the owner of the farm of that name, was from Rockingham County, Virginia, and a German. He settled on Powley's Creek in 1820, and married Sarah Meadows, a daughter of Elijah Meadows, and they reared five boys and four girls. The boys were Elijah, the oldest, who married Sallie Dick, of Cale's Mountain, a daughter of John Dick; John, who married Mary Meadows, a daughter of James Meadows; Peter, who married Isa- bel, a daughter of Matthew Lowe; William, who married Mary Hedrick, a daughter of Moses Hedrick; Ris, who married Clara Garten, a daughter of Thompson Garten. The daughters were Nancy, who married Archibald Cales; Lucinda, who married James Meadows; Ann, who married Irvin Wilburn, and Sarah, who married John Persinger. Each of these children raised large families. John and James died during the Civil War. James was buried at the old Pisgah Church, and John near his farm. Two sons of Peter Wyant, Jr., still reside in Talcott District-Morris and Charles.
Ben R. Boyd married a daughter of Peter Wyant, as did Hon. J. Fred Bryant, who is now train dispatcher for the C. & O. Ry. at Hinton.
Peter Wyant, the farmer, lives on Elk Knob, one of the highest points in the county, on a farm of rich land on which blue grass grows spontaneously. It consists of 300 acres, and once belonged to Elias Wheeler, and where the last wolves in the county were killed. He is a son of Elijah Wyant and a grandson of the set- tler, and now sixty years old.
All of the Wyants in this section of the country are descend- ants of Peter Wyant, who died at the age of ninety-one years. on his farm on the head of Powley's Creek, which was later owned and lived on by his son William, and then by his grandson, James. and is now owned by Samuel Ballard. The father of Peter Wyant. the settler, was a native of Germany, and settled in the Valley of Virginia, in Rockingham County; was seven years in the Ameri- can Army during the Revolutionary War, and fought for the in- dependence of this country. John M. Wyant, a grandson of Peter Wyant, married a daughter of Joseph Grimmett, and is now re- siding on a portion of the old Joseph Grimmett home place, five miles east of Hinton, on the waters of Greenbrier River.
585
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
ROLLYSON.
John Rollyson was an Englishman, emigrating from beyond the sea in his youth. He settled on Greenbrier River, opposite the west portal of the Big Bend Tunnel, which land he once owned. He left the following sons: James, Charles R., Joseph, John, Martin, Michael, William and Samuel, all of whom removed to Jackson County, West Virginia in their youth, except Charles R., who married a daughter of Charles Mathews, and James mar- ried a sister of Archie Caly, and settled and reared a family on the place of his father. Charles R. married a daughter of David Math- ews, the old settler of the bottom across the river from Talcott, and which came through her to him, and is now known as the Chattin place. He was a large land owner in that region. He died many years ago, leaving two sons, William and Charles S. Wil- liam died twenty years ago, leaving a widow and children, his wife being a daughter of A. J. Miller, a son of Brice Miller, who lived on the west side of Keeney's Knobs, near Lick Creek. Charles S. still resides on his half of the farm on the Big Bend, inherited by him from his father.
Joseph settled in what is now known as Jumping Branch Dis- trict, then Mercer, and his descendants still reside there. James Rollyson left two boys, J. P., who lives on Stony Creek, in Monroe County, near the Summers line, and A. N., who removed to and lives in Fayette County. He also left five daughters-Sarah, who married first Garland Sims, and then after his death, Henry Gib- son; Matilda married Caleb Garten, whose descendants still live in Hungart's Creek country; Amanda married Charles Carson, who lives on Wolf Creek, now an aged man ; Emily married Hugh Meadows, of that numerous family, many of whose descendants live in the county at this day; Elizabeth married Richard M. Woodrum, the Wiggins merchant and son of one of the early settlers, Arm- strong Woodrum, who died in recent years.
HUFFMAN.
Samuel Huffman, of Dutch descent, is a native of Roanoke County, Virginia. He was born the 16th day of August, 1827. He came to Monroe County when seven years of age. His father's name was Samuel. On the 8th of December, 1853, he married Sarah J. Allen, of Monroe County, a daughter of Jacob Allen, of near Greenville, and a sister of Nicholas N. Allen, one of the most
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
substantial and well-to-do citizens of this county, and of J. H. Allen, the merchant. Mr. Huffman was in his younger day a stone- mason, but later devoted himself to farming. He purchased a good tract of land on Little Wolf Creek, where he now resides, having reared his family thereon, which consisted of six children-Giles H., who died some three years ago; Leonidas S., a graduate of Concord Normal School, and a prominent minister of the M. E. Church, now located in Ohio, and who married Miss Lizzie Allen, a daughter of Nicholas N. Allen; John Fletcher, one of the most prosperous farmers in the county, and two daughters, Rosa and Alice S. J., who married Wilber F. Allen and Jacob H. Allen, respectively.
Mr. Huffman is one of the pioneers of Buck on Wolf Creek in this county ; is a Republican, and not in any sense an office seeker. He has the full confidence of his party, and has been its nominee for delegate to the Legislature and for commissioner of the county court, and is a consistent Christian of the M. E. Church and a conscientious and just man. The other son of Samuel Huffman is Gaston Huffman, an enterprising citizen farmer of Wolf Creek, in Greenbrier District.
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