USA > West Virginia > Summers County > History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 69
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7 .
LEVI M. NEELY, JR., Assessor of Summers County.
LEVI M. NEELY, SR., Ancient Miller.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
AST CK, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
trict. G. Ben Neely married a daughter of Hon. B. P. Shumate, resides in Ohio and is engaged as piano and musical machine agent.
The Neelys are among the best citizens of the county. Levi M. Neely, the senior, has a reputation throughout all the country as the keeper of the old Bluestone Mill. His honesty and kind- ness of heart are matters of notoriety through all the region. He was at one time candidate for assessor, twenty-odd years ago; was a deputy sheriff under James H. George for four years, and he and his wife, Rebecca, have been the keepers of the poor by contract for a number of years. Much trouble has been given to the county court by reason of the failure of persons contracting for the keep- ing of the paupers, as the county has no poor farm, until the con- tract was taken by these old citizens, since which time the poor have been properly and faithfully attended to and maintained, and all contracts made with the county faithfully kept. Mr. Neely is now an old man, highly respected, as is his wife, commonly known throughout the county as "Aunt Becca." The descendants of an- other branch of the family live in Pipestem District, Evan B. Neely residing near Pipestem. It was he and Jehu J. Vest who had the "scrap" at the convention in 1902 over the nomination for prose- cuting attorney. Mr. Neely was a partisan of one of the candi- dates, and Mr. Vest a partisan of another at the time. Great excitement prevailed, and they got into an altercation, but were separated without serious injury, Mr. Neely losing a part of his beard in the fracas, Vest getting his fingers mixed up in it. He has occupied a number of positions of trust in the dis- trict, being a member of the Board of Education and overseer of the poor. He is a staunch Democrat, taking a great interest in party and county affairs. He was a brave Confederate soldier during the Civil War. We are unfortunate in not being able to give a more definite history of this ancient family which settled in the Pipestem country when that part of the county was still a part of Giles, and the descendants of the ancient settlers are scattered throughout the country.
The Jehu J. Vest above referred to is a descendant of the old settlers of that name, but the identity of the descendants has not been obtained. There was an old citizen by the name of Anderson Vest, who lived for a great many years at the foot of the White Oak Mountain, and died there. Jehu J. Vest has a son, Charles, and another son, Joseph, who lives in Pipestem. Jehu J. married a Keaton, who was a daughter of the first surveyor of Summers County, Joseph Keaton. They are intelligent, respectable citizens.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
THE BOUDE FAMILY.
The Boude family was of French origin. It is first found in County Essex, England, as early as the time of Henry IV. Adlord Boude, Esq., married Henrietta, the daughter of Sir Edward Grimston. The Grimston or Grimstone family came over from Normandy with William the Conquerer. One of the family was standard bearer to William at the battle of Hastings, and one, Sir Harbottle Grimstone, was Speaker of the House of Commons at the Restoration, and Master of the Rolls.
John Boude, son of Adlord and Henrietta Grimstone Boude, was the father of Adlord and Grimston Boude, who came to America near the close of the seventeenth century, and settled at Perth Amboy, as agents of the New Jersey proprietors. In "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New Jersey," Vol. III., there is mention of a deposition of "Grimstone Boude, merchant, aged thirty-eight, or thereabouts." The document is dated May 10, 1699, The name in the opening sentence is without the final "e." but the signature has it.
Grimstone Boude afterward moved to Philadelphia. where he died April 1, 1716. In his will, dated February 3, 1715, he leaves a considerable estate, including a negro woman, Joan, to his wife, Mary Boude, and their five children. Joseph Boude. Samuel Boude, John Boude, Thomas Boude and Henrietta Boude.
Joseph Boude, the eldest son. married Elizabeth Baldwin, and moved to Lancaster County, where his name appears as late as 1759. They had one son, Thomas, who died August, 1769. None of their descendants are now known. Samuel Boude, the second son, married Deborah, daughter of Peter Cox, and lived in Phila- delphia, where he died May 19, 1733. They had two children, John and Henrietta. John died young and unmarried; Henrietta mar- ried Michael Hillegas, who was the first treasurer of the United States. John Boude, the third son, married Gertrude , and lived in Philadeplhia, where he died March 23, 1747. He was
the only one who ever varied the spelling of the name so far as known. He spelled his name "Bood," to conform to the French pronunciation which had been followed up to that time. The pro- nunciation avas afterward anglicised to "Bowd," and ever since the original French spelling. "Boude." and the English pronuncia- tion, "Bowd," have been uniform throughout all the generations of all the different branches of the family so far as I know.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
Thomas Boude, the fourth son, married Sarah Newbold, about the year 1700. They lived in Philadelphia, and had eleven children, six of whom died in infancy. Mary, one of their daughters, mar- ried Matthew Clarkson, who was quite a prominent merchant and citizen of Philadelphia. He was mayor of the city for three terms, and occupied that office during the terrible epidemic of yellow fever there in 1793-94, and greatly distinguished himself by his bravery and discretion throughout that terrible ordeal.
Joseph Boude, the tenth child of Thomas and Sarah Newbold- Boude, was born December 13, 1740. He was a soldier in the Revolution ; taken prisoner, and the last his family heard of him he was confined on board one of the British prison ships in New York harbor. They supposed he died there, but he did not. Whether he escaped or was exchanged, or how he got off the ship no one knows; but he made his way to Baltimore, Maryland, where he married Barbara Black, by whom he had four children, Eliz- abeth, who married Joshua Barlow, and lived and died at Sykesville, Maryland; Sarah, who married Clinton York, and settled at Chilli- cothe, Ohio, from whom the Works of New York are descended ; Charles, who died in Baltimore, unmarried; and Rudolph Thomas Clarkson Boude, who was my father. I do not know where the name "Rudolph" came from, but he was called Thomas after his grandfather, and Clarkson after Matthew Clarkson, who was his uncle by marriage. Rev. Adam Poe Boude, in writing of the Boude ancestors, says :
"My father, R. T. C. Boude, as he was familiarly known, was a remarkable man in several respects. He was born in Baltimore about 1793 or 1794. He was well endowed by nature. He had a fine mind and remarkably well edu- cated for a middle class man of his time. He was the largest man I ever saw, except one traveling on exhibition. He was six feet two and a half inches high without his shoes, and when he held out his arms horizontally, his finger tips were seven feet and five inches apart. I do not know what he weighed, as he would never allow himself to be weighed or photographed after I knew him. But I feel sure that he would have weighed 350 pounds, or more, and yet he was without surplus fat. He had an immense frame, and the flesh he carried seemed almost entirely natural to it. In early life he learned the trade of a shoemaker, and followed it with more or less regularity as long as he lived. For a number of years he was a very successful teacher, and was much sought after in that profession, but after the illness of his wife, which
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
ended in her death, he gave that up, and returned to his trade. He was a very fine workman, and was patronized at high prices by the best people from far and near. He was an ornament to his trade, as he was also to his profession as teacher. At the close of his apprenticeship he entered the army in the war of 1812-14, and served to its close, in the "Baltimore Light Infantry Blues, Thirty-third Regiment, Maryland Volunteers." I quote these last words from my recollection of them on his old knapsack, in which my mother kept her garden seeds as long as she lived. After the close of the war, R. T. C. Boude, accompanied by an army comrade, David DeVoe, I think, set out on foot and traveled nearly all over the then known United States. They traveled nearly three years, visiting many places where there was no public conveyance of any kind, from New England to New Orleans and the backwoods set- tlements of the extreme West, and finally both settled in Fred- erick County, Virginia, where they both married. R. T. C. Boude married Elizabeth Ewing, only daughter of Thomas Ewing and Adah Crawford Ewing, whose grandfather was a Darneille, of Powell's Fort, Virginia. They had eight children, Sarah Maranda, who married Joseph Ludwick, and lived and died in Coshocton County, Ohio; Caroline Laura, who married Rev. Elisha Peer, of the Evangelical Alliance, or Albright Church, and, after a brief itinerant ministry, settled in Holmes County, Ohio, where they died, leaving one son, Rev. Rudolph Peer, in the ministry of that church ; Elizabeth Minerva, who married Philip Bowman and lived at Mount Clifton, Virginia ; Joseph Thomas, who married a Miss Rohr, and died in Columbus, Ohio, leaving two or three children, Samuel Kennerly, who married Sarah Nickell and lived and died in Summers County, West Virginia, leaving five children, one of whom, Walter H. Boude, has been for several terms clerk of the Circuit Court of Summers County : John Clinton Work (he threw off the "Work" after he was grown, and always regretted that he had a middle name at all) was a soldier in the Confederate Army from the first drum tap to the battle of Chancellorsville, where he lost a leg, and was afterward enrolling officer and commandant of the post at Lexington until the close of the war. He was elected clerk of the Circuit Court of Rockbridge County, Virginia, and held the office by successive elections for thirty-four years, until death relieved him of it. He married Musadora A. Plunkett. They had no children. Adam Poe entered the itinerant ministry of the Methodist Church in 1857, at the age of twenty-two years, and is still in the effective ministry in the Baltimore Conference of the
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
Methodist Episcopal Church South, being the oldest effective man but two on the conference roll. He is at present stationed at Staunton, Virginia. He married Louisa Lee Plunkett, a sister of Mrs. Captain J. G. Boude. They had one child, Rudolph Thomas Clinton Boude, who died August 22, 1888, at the age of twenty-one and a half years; Mary Jane, the youngest child of R. T. C. and Elizabeth Boude, married B. J. Stanton, and lived and died in Shenandoah County, Virginia. They had six children, four of whom are still living, two of them in the itinerant ministry ; one in the Methodist Church and one in the United Brethren. Rev. Charles S. Stanton is now preacher in charge of the M. E. C. S. at Hinton, 1908.
Elizabeth Boude, my mother, died in 1843, and my father married Margaret Warren, by whom he had two children, Martha, who married George Estep, and lives at Connicsville, Virginia, and Susan, who died in early life.
There are many incidents of the family history that would make interesting reading for persons who care for such things, and perhaps I ought to write some of them for the benefit of any such who may come after us, as I am the last survivor of the family and the only one who knows anything about them. But for the present, I content myself with this outline.
Rev. A. P. Boude, in writing of the Boude family, says: "We know nothing of what became of Adlord Boude, the brother of my great-great-grandfather, who came to this country with him. I have been told he or his descendants went West in the early history of the country, and settled on the Ohio River near Wheel- ing, and that many of his descendants may be found on both sides of the river, from Wheeling to St. Louis. I have heard of a Charles Boude, who was a wholesale merchant in St. Louis, and had a steamboat called by his name that ran on the Mississippi River between St. Louis and New Orleans. But of this I know nothing certainly.
"About thirty-five years ago I had a correspondence with Rev. Henry B. Boude, of Gallatin, Tennessee. He was at that time moderator of the General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church. He wrote a number of letters and exchanged photo- graphs of our families, but the letters and the photographs were lost in a flood in the Shenandoah River in 1870, which swept away my house, with everything in it, and so I lost touch with him. I am told that he is still living at California, Mo., and have thought
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
of renewing the correspondence, but have not done so. About the same time I exchanged a letter or two with a Judge Boude, of Kentucky. I have forgotten his name or where he lived.
"I have never seen but two persons named Boude, besides our own family. I have never seen the name of any other Boude in print, though I have looked for it all my life, except in an article in the American Historical Register, published in Philadelphia, December, 1894. It was written by Emma St. Clair Whitney, a descendant of Samuel Boude through the Michael Hillegas family, and gives the early history of the Boudes of Pennsylvania. I am indebted to that article for several of the facts stated in this.
"On the 31st of January, 1884, I met in the Union Depot, Bal- timore, a man named Boude, who was in the employ of the North- ern Central Railroad as clerk. I had a very short conversation with him while waiting for a train. I learned from some source that I considered reliable that he was killed shortly after I saw him, in a driving accident in the streets of Baltimore. In the spring of 1884 I met, in Washington, D. C .. Dr. John Knox Boude, who was, and had been for many years, an examiner in the pension office. I met him several times, and we had considerable corre- spondence. He was writing a history of the Boude family for publication in book form. He asked me to write up the history of our branch of the family, which I promised to do, and began to gather materials for it, but he afterwards came to Lexington, Vir- ginia, and spent a week with my brother, Captain John C. Boude, and got from him what he wanted, so I let the matter drop. Dr. J. E. Boude died several years ago. I do not know whether his book was ever published or not. 1 should like to know, and, if it was, I should like to get a copy of it.
"Two weeks ago I heard of two Boudes, William and George, in Bedford, Pa. I wrote to William Boude, but have not heard from hin.
"A few days ago I got a letter from my nephew, Walter H. Boude, of Hinton, West Virginia, enclosing a letter he had re- ceived from D. Payne Boude, of Augusta. Kentucky, giving a con- siderable account of the Boudes of that country, which leaves no doubt in my mind that all the Boudes of America are of the same original stock. There are certain names, as John, Samuel, Thomas, Sarah, Elizabeth, that seem to run through the whole family everywhere."
The Boudes of this county consist of one family, that of Samuel
WALTER II. BOUDE. Clerk Circuit Court.
MAYOR BENJAMIN S. THOMPSON, Ex-Postmaster of Hinton.
THE _ PUBLIC LISAER
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONE.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
K. Boude, who removed from the Shenandoah Valley, in 1855, to Anthony's Creek, Greenbrier County, and thence to Forest Hill District, in Monroe County, now Summers, in 1859, and purchased a farm from B. B. Hutchinson, having married Miss Sarah J. Nickells, one of that old and respected family of that name in Monroe County, and was a sister of John Hinchman's wife. Sam- uel K., as are many of the Boude family, was a fine musician and a sweet singer. Another celebrated singer in that family is the Rev. Adam P. Boude, a brilliant minister of the M. E. Church South, now residing in Staunton, Virginia, and his son, Clinton, now deceased. Samuel K. Boude was the father of our present clerk of the circuit court, and who is the only male descendant of the name in the county now living, except his little son, Clinton Ford Boude. Samuel K. Boude was a brave soldier in the Con- federate Army, being a volunteer in Lowry's Battery of King's Battalion along with A. A. Carden, J. M. Carden and others. He was the first justice of Forest Hill District after the formation of the county, and was also appointed a constable in the construction of the county. He held this office four years, and was one of the commissioners appointed by the circuit court to adjust the county line dispute between Monroe and Summers and Greenbrier in that noted controversy. He died, however, before the hearing of the case, and another commissioner had to be appointed in his place. He died on the 15th day of February, 1896, at the age of sixty-five years, leaving surviving him one son, Walter H. Boude, and seven daughters. After the death of his first wife he married the widow of James Scott, a daughter of the late James Boyd, of near the Big Bend Tunnel, and a sister of Ben R. Boyd, her first husband being a son of the late James K. Scott, of Hungart's Creek.
She still survives, with two daughters, Reta and Mona, by her last husband. Walter H. Boude was born on the 23d of Septem- ber, 1860. The late Captain John C. Bonde was for many years clerk of the Circuit Court of Rockbridge County. Virginia, and well known alike as a soldier in the Civil War. Walter H. was raised at Forest Hill, on his father's farm, and, following in his footsteps, is an active Democrat and believes in the religions doc- trines of John Wesley. He was educated in the public schools of this neighborhood, and inherited some of the musical attainments of his father and family. He took an active part in political mat- ters in the county before he arrived at the age of twenty-one, being a firm friend and admirer of the late Elbert Fowler in his political
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
fortunes. On the 25th of October, 1894, he was united in marriage with Miss Alice Ford, a daughter of William Ford and Cynthia Ford, now residents of Lick Creek, Green Sulphur District, on the old William McNeer place. Walter Boude's three children are Daisy Nickell, aged ten years; Clinton Ford, aged six years, and Mary Lee, aged three years. He was a candidate for assessor of internal revenue at the election of 1884, being the nominee of his party, but was defeated by the Rev. William Dobbins, an inde- pendent candidate. In 1888 he again received the nomination of his party for the same office and was successful, being elected over his opponent, J. F. Ellison, by fifty-two majority, and was elected at the election of 1892 over his oppoent, William DeQuasie, by 382 votes, filling the office acceptably to his constituents for two full terms of eight years. In 1896 he made the race for the Democratic nomination for clerk of the circuit court against B. L. Hoge, the incumbent, who held the position for eighteen years by election, and in the race he was again successful, defeating Mr. Hoge for the nomination, and was elected by 168 majority over his Republican opponent. He held this office for the full term of six years, and was again nominated by his party in 1902 without opposition, and was elected by a majority of 392 over L. L. Lilly, the Republican nominee, and is now serving his second term in that position. He is pleasing in personality. good of heart, kind and charitable of disposition. being uniformly courteous to friends and foes. He has opponents, but no enemies. His success has been attained by his own efforts and strong personality, beginning at the lowest rung of fortune's ladder and working upward. He is a stockholder in a number of the principal business enterprises in the county, and believes in taking care of home interests before going abroad for investment. In 1905 he made a tour of the West, taking in some 9,000 miles, including in his travels a visit to the Lewis and Clark Exposition and the Yellowstone National Park. Before his return he wrote a series of articles on his adventures. which were published in the weekly series in the "Summers Re- publican." which were enjoyable reading for the pleasant style of composition, as well as the facts taken from his observations.
Rev. Adam P. Boude was at one time presiding elder of Green- brier District of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Epis- copal Church South. We are indebted to the pen of Rev. A. P. Boude for the early history of the family.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
THE FARLEY FAMILY.
This very large, well-known family in Pipestem District orig- inated from one man, whose name was Drewry Farley, who came from Albemarle County, Virginia, and settled in what is now Pipe- stem District, where Alexander Farley now lives, only a few hundred yards from Farley Post Office. He was the first settler in Pipestem District, and the many hardships and privations, clear- ing up the forest, fighting wild animals and, what was worse, the savage Indians, will scarcely ever be known.
Drewry Farley was born about the year 1760, was a soldier of the Revolution, early after which (the time is not definitely known). he crossed the Allegheny Mountains from Albemarle County, Vir- ginia, and settled, as above stated, near Farley Post Office. He married a Miss Adkins, who was closely related to the mother of Mr. Parker J. Bennett.
To Drewry Farley and wife were born the following children, viz: Gideon, Andrew, Frank, Archibald, Squire (died in Indiana), Nancy (the first wife of David Cook), Isaac (who is the father of Erastus B. Farley, of near Jumping Branch), Chloe, Rachel (who married Henry Kaylor), Henley (who married a daughter of "Bearwallow Bob" Lilly, and settled on the bench of Bluestone River, in Jumping Branch District, and who is the father of J. A., Rev. Drewry, Robert H. and Pleasant H. Farley and two daugh- ters), and Drewry Farley (who is the father of James I., Alex- ander, Geo. W. Farley, deceased, and four daughters, the oldest of whom married Edmund Lilley, of Mercer County, and a son of Rev. Joseph Lilly). All the sons and daughters of the ancient Drewry Farley have been passed over the river for several years, as well as several of their children. The old gentleman himself died in the year 1851, at the age of ninety-one years.
Drewry Farley had two cousins in this country, whose names were Captain Mat Farley and George Farley. Captain Mat set- tled on New River, on the same farm owned and occupied by James Dickson, in Forest Hill District, of this county. Little is known of his family, as early in life his only son married the only daughter of Samuel Peck, and moved to Indiana, along with the Cook brothers, mention of which was made in the history of the Cooks. The other cousin, George, settled on Gatliffe's Island, now known as Barker's Island. and very little is known of his family, except one son, Beury, who was born on Gatliffe's, now
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
Barker's Island, and when he came of age he went to Logan County, West Virginia, and after a few years returned, and lived for two years with Grandison Landcraft, on New River, in Forest Hill District, of this county. He afterwards went to Giles County, Virginia, where he married, reared a family and died about the year 1898, near Pembroke, Giles County, Virginia, at the advanced age of one hundred and nine years.
The families of the three sons, Gideon, Andrew and Archi- bald, as well as the sister Nancy, who married David Cook, have been mentioned in detail in the history of the Cook family, and reference is made to this history for particulars as to these par- ticular families. Henry Farley has also been mentioned in the history of the Cook family, and reference is made to this history for particulars as to these families. Henley Farley has also been mentioned in the history of the Lilly family, he having married a Lilly, as above stated; and so the Farley, Cook, Lilly and Meador families have so intermarried that their family histories are very closely blended. Inasmuch as this history is a history of Summers County only, the remainder of the Farley family, living as they do, outside of the limits of this county, can not be mentioned on ac- count of space.
Of the family of Gideon Farley, only the following children are living, viz .: Polly (who married Jackson Petrey, and now lives in Kanawha County, West Virginia) : Nelson, John, Frank, William, Nancy (who married Reubin Hopkins) and Malinda (who married Solon Meador). .
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