USA > West Virginia > Tucker County > History of Tucker County, West Virginia, from the earliest explorations and settlements to the present time; > Part 31
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
A. J. LOUGHRY, born 1831, married 1853 ; he is a farmer of 35 acres, with 20 acres improved, 11 miles below St. George. Children : William H., Mary C., John W., Nancy S., Mel- vina, Charles, Cora, May, Berta Fay.
437
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES.
GEORGE LONG, father of Abel Long, born 1796 in Pendle- ton County; he was raised in the town of Franklin, and his origin is Irish and French; married Winnie Nelson, who died 1844, or near that time. Their children are Abel, Ab- salom, William, Elizabeth and Martha. His father came to America with Lafayette, and was with him five years and seven months. George Long was in the war of 1812.
HIRAM T. LOUGHRY was born in 1830 in Harrison County, of Irish and German descent; he is a son of Aaron Loughry.
JOHN W. LUZIER was born in 1864, in Pennsylvania, and is of English descent; his occupation is farming and lum- bering.
C. C. LAMBERT, son of James H. Lambert, was born in 1856; he lives on Dry Fork, 23 miles from St. George, and is a partner in the store of James H. Lambert & Co.
N. A. W. LOUGHRY, son of Aaron Loughry, was born in 1844. In 1867 he married Catharine, daughter of David Miller. His farm of 100 acres, 6 miles from St. George, has 16 acres of cleared land on it. He spent seven months in the Union army the last year of the war. Children : Nancy Ellen, Aaron D., Thomas A. and Charles R.
A. W. LOVE was born in 1839, in Upshur County. Mar- ried in 1866 to Saralı V. Bailes. Children : Cordona, Lunda and Dorsey. He is a farmer, living on the Mason Farm, five miles from St. George, on Location. He was formerly a minister of the M. P. Church, and spent one year on the St. George circuit. His farm contains 104 acres with 60 acres improved.
CHARLES E. LUZIER, son of A. B. Luzier, was born in 1856; married Anna B., daughter of C. R. Macomber, in
438
HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
1880. Children : Agnes L., Ella B. and E. Burton. His farm of 240 acres is on Mill Run, 6 miles from St. George, with 40 acres improved.
GEORGE A. LONG, son of Abel Long, lives on Dry Fork, 18 miles from St. George; was born in 1849, and married in 1871, to Mary C. Cunningham, of Randolph County. Chil- dren : Cora, Rebice A., Thomas J. and Salie. He is a farmer.
JACOB S. LAMBERT, son of M. G. Lambert, was born in 1863 ; married Margaret E., daughter of Daniel L. Dumire, of Horse Shoe Run, in 1884. He is a farmer and lives on Maxwell's Run, six miles from St. George.
WILLIAM D. LOSH, son of William D. Losh, was born in 1840; married 1863, to Sarah C., daughter of Levi Hopkins. Children : John L., George S., Mary E., David W., Cora A., Dolly M. and M. Jennie. He is a farmer, owning 80 acres, 40 acres of which he cultivates, on Horse Shoe Run, 6 miles from St. George. He joined the Confederate army, and was at the second battle of Bull Run, where he was taken pris- oner and carried to New York. In a few days he crawled by the guards and escaped to Philadelphia, where he worked a month, and then went to Pittsburgh; thence to Wheeling and home. In a little while he was taken by Kelly, and was carried to Grafton and kept there three weeks. A second time he escaped and came home. He is a brother to John Losh, the great hunter, and has himself killed a score of bears. He has made several journeys to the West.
GEORGE W. LEATHERMAN, of English and German descent, and son of John Lewis Leatherman, was born in Hamp- shire County, W. Va., in 1835. He is one of three surviving
1
439
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES.
children. A brother and sister live in Missouri. In 1851 his father died, and he, with his brother, was left to take care of the family. They worked hard, but did not prosper as they thought they ought, and they determined to move to the West. One of the boys went ahead to hunt a place and the others followed with wagons loaded with the house- hold plunder. They were aiming for Missouri, and the journey was frought with difficulties. It was in October, and it rained and the roads were nearly impassable. Some of the family took the ague, and the others had an addi- tional amount of work to do. They passed through Ohio, Indiana into Illinois. It had rained nearly all the time; but when they reached Illinois, the weather became clear, and they got along better. Just before they reached the Mississipi River, their horses broke down, and one of them died. With the remaining they could advance but slowly; but finally they reached their destination.
After they reached Missouri, they had much sickness in the family . The subject of this sketch lay an invalid all winter, and nearly all the next summer. So, in the fall he decided to return to W. Va., and sell the home farm; he came back, but failed to sell it. He remained in the vicinity more than a year, and in that time came to the conclusion, since he could not sell the land, that he would get married and buy out the other heirs and live on the old homestead, which, after all, he considered good enough. Thus he did. In 1857 he married Mary S. Whip.
They worked hard and got along well enough. When the war came on, he was drafted for the Confederate army, but it did not suit his inclinations to fight for that side, so he went off in a hurry for Indiana, and his wife followed him. They did not like it in Indiana, and in the spring of 1862
4
440
HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
determined to come back to W. Va., and risk the danger from the Rebels who might be mad at him ; he came back to his farm and was not molested.
His wife died, and left him with six children to take care of ; he kept them together, and continued house-keeping until 1877 when he married Catharine Thrush, and old school-mate of his.
His children are : Warren W., John W., Zedekiah A., Mary Elizabeth, George S. and Emma Margaret.
In 1880 he moved his family to Canaan. He had ex- plored the country some time before, and had bought large land interests. It was the work of nineteen days to cut a road to get his wagons into the country.
Since then he has prospered in his undertakings, and is now near the W. Va. C. & P. R. W. He is a member of the German Baptist Church, and is the ordained minister for his neighborhood.
M.
JOSEPH MARTIN, son of John V. M. Martin, born 1821, in Preston County; married, 1845, Catharine, daughter of John Squires; farmer, renter, but owns 50 acres in Ran- dolph County; lives 7 miles from St. George on Texas Mountain. Children : Mary A., Hiram, Sarah, Margaret C., Jolın T., Asbury, Albert and Samuel.
MICHAEL MITCHELL born 1826, is of English descent, and was married in 1849 to Nancy Shaw. They had seven children to die within three weeks, of diptheria. Their remaining children are Simon S. and Harvey. He is a far- mer owning 250 acres of land, 80 of which is improved ; lives on Texas Mountain, 7 miles from St. George.
SIMON S. MITCHELL, son of Michael M., born 1853, mar- ried in 1883 to Mrs. E. C. Pitzer, daughter of William
441
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES.
Godwin. By occupation he is a farmer, owning 120 acres, 15 being improved; lives 7 miles from St. George, on Texas Mountain.
ROBERT F. MURPHY, son of Jonathan Murphy, was born in Barbour County. In 1879 he married Keturah, daughter of Andrew Pifer. Farmer, owns 40 acres, 15 improved, lives 4 miles from St. George on Texas Mountain. Children : Della, Ray and Boyd.
JOHN MOORE, son of S. P. Moore, of English descent, was born 1847, in Barbour County; married 1876, to Esther C., daughter of William Pitzer; he is a farmer of 22 acres, 6 acres improved, 6 miles from St. George, on Texas Mountain. Children : Daniel B., Riley, Godfrey, Samuel P. and Martha L.
MARTINA MYERS, son of Adam Myers, was born in Ran- dolph County, 1847; married 1868 to Ruhama, daughter of Jolın M. Cross; he is a farmer, 8 miles from St. George, on Clover, and owns 117 acres, with 30 acres improved.
MICHAEL MYERS, of German descent, son of Josiah Myers, was born 1838; married 1872 to Amelia, daughter of John Auvil. Children : Jehu W. and Annetta. His farm contains 900 acres, of which 100 is under cultivation ; he lives three miles from St. George on Clover, and is road surveyor; he served three years in the Confederate army under Imboden, Wharton, Breckenridge and Early; he belonged to the 62d Va. Inf., but was mounted most of the time; he fought twice at Winchester, and was in the battles of Cold Harbor, New Market and others; he served principally in the Valley of Virginia, but was at Richmond. In the war his fortunes were varied, he being one of the soldiers that fought through the war, and shared in defeats and victories; he suffered de-
442
HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
feat at Winchester, September 19, and shared a victory at New Market. At Gettysburg he was under Early, and he considers the battle of Williamsport, Md., a harder engage- ment in proportion to the number engaged than that of Gettysburg. There were only four men in his company (E), that were unhurt, and he was one of them, although he was in skirmishes almost every day. When he came home on a furlough he was betrayed into the hands of Gallion, and was sent to Camp Chase, where he suffered as every one suffered who got into that prison. Four months were spent there and he got his liberty only at the close of the war. He is a model citizen, and a man of influence in his neigh- borhood.
ENOCH MINEAR, son of David Minear, was born January 9, 1799, in St. George ; he has been one of the prominent men of the county since its first organization and a score of years before. He, like his sons, has been an extensive traveler, having visited California several times, been through Idaho, Oregon, Mexico, Central America, and through several eastern states. He went there after he was captured by Imboden, to escape the war, as did A. C. Minear, also. He was there in 1859, 1861, 1864 and 1874 .*
ABSALOM MICK was born in 1849 in Pendleton, married in 1868 to Jane Wyatt. Children : Martha E., Joseph, Mary J., Mahulda, Albert and Enoch ; he is a farmer and has been in Tucker since 1880; his farm contains 71 acres, with 15 acres improved, on Dry Fork, 20 miles from St. George. He belonged to the Home Guards during the war.
DANIEL MILLER was born in 1856. In 1883 he married
* A full history of Enoch Minear and the family is given in another chapter of this book, and, for that reason, nothing more is given here.
443
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES.
Nancy A., daughter of William Arnold, of Maryland. Their child's name is Icy R .; he is a laborer at Thomas.
ELIAS METZ, of German descent, son of Peter Metz, of Monongalia County, was born 1826 and married 1848 to Minerva J., daughter of John Brookhover. Children : Wil- liam H., George L., Mary Jane, Lethia Ann, Jefferson D., Simon P., Acha Alice, Harriet, John, Leonora, and James Ezra. A farm of 294 acres, 150 improved, one and one-half miles below St. George, belongs to him. This is the old Marsh property, and is the farm owned by Jonathan Minear at the time he was killed by the Indians. Metz was in the Union service during the war, and has been in Tucker since 1880.
J. W. MYERS, son of Solomon Myers, born 1862, married 1884 to Loretta, daughter of Salathiel Phillips, lives 8 miles from St. George, on Clover, and is a farmer of 40 acres, with 8 acres improved.
DAVID S. MINEAR, son of Enoch Minear, of German de- scent, was born in St. George 1840, and has lived there all his life. All the others of the family manifested a strong passion for traveling and speculation; but he remained steadily at his work at home. In his life we have no stirring stories of adventure, or no narrow escapes from foes and storms and floods, as we have in the history of his brothers. But, as a citizen, he has done his share for the good of his county and State. His life has been that of a farmer, ex- cept seven years spent in the merchandise business at St. George. He has been an officer frequently. During the war he was clerk of the county court. In 1867 he married Mary Jane, daughter of William R. Parsons. Their children are : Creed W., Joseph P., John W., C. Bruce and Mary Catha-
444
HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
rine. He owns a large and valuable farm at St. George, commencing at the town and extending down the river more than a mile. It is the land on which stood the fort at St. . George in 1776, and with the exception of S. E. Parsons' farm, is the oldest improvement in the county, and is the ? site of the first permanent settlement in the county. Mi- - near was not in the regular army during the war, but had ! experience in the fortunes of hostilities, having been taken ! prisoner by the Rebels, and escaped, after being shot at sev- . eral times. The surroundings of his dwelling are among ; the most desirable in the county. A fine grove of fruit trees and arbors of grapevines surround his house on every side, , making it in summer a scene of quietness and beauty, that has all the advantages of town and the secludedness of the country.
WILLIAM H. MYERS, son of James Myers, was born in 1856 at Tunnelton; married in 1879 to Belle Dora Price, of Preston County. Children : Bessie Anna, Herbert Clay and Walter Henry ; he is of German descent, and is by trade a blacksmith, and lives at St. George.
BENJAMIN MYERS was born in 1813, in Pennsylvania, lives 1} miles from St. George on Mill Run. He is a far- mer. Children : John, Josiah, Martha, Ellen, Barbara, Andrew, Benjamin, Henry, Hester and Morgan.
JAMES MONTGOMERY, son of Price Montgomery, of Irish and German descent, was born in 1850. In 1878 he married Sarah F., daughter of George Moon of Hampshire County; he is a farmer, and lives 6 miles from St. George, on Lipscomb's Ridge. Children: Maud Elizabeth and George Wade.
C. B. MOORE, born 1851, son of James Moore, lives 10
445
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES.
miles from St. George, on Shafer's Fork, and is of Irish and English descent. His farm contains a certain number of acres of land of which 333 per cent. of } more than one- half is improved, and the unimproved is to 5-12 of the im- proved as ¿ the difference between one-third of the un- improved and { of } of the improved is to 2 1-62 acres.
JOSHUA MESSENGER, born 1832, in Preston County, is of English descent, and was married, in 1857, to Rebecca Lewis, of Preston. Children : Mary J., James E., Sarah E., Nettie M. and Charles Albert; he came to Tucker in 1866, and is farming on Shafer's Fork, 9 miles from St. George, where he owns 319 acres of land, 60 acres improved. He was in the Union army, but was in no battle.
WILLIAM MARQUIS was born in 1839, in Preston, of Irish descent. In 1865 he was married to Sarah Mason, of Sandy Creek, Preston County. Children : Charles, and Zora May. He lives on Location 5 miles from St. George, where he has 281 acres of land, with 75 acres improved ; he has been in Tucker since 1882.
JOHN G. MOORE, son of James Moore, was born in 1841, on Shafer's Fork, is of Irish and English descent ; married, 1873, to Anzina, daughter of George W. Faris, of Randolph County. Children : George Harmon, Larkin, Anna Belle, Arcilla May, R. W. Eastham and Etta Arina. He is a far- mer and stock man, living on Shafer's Fork, 11 miles from St. George, and owns 225 acres of land, with 150 improved.
STEPHEN MURPHY was born 1836, in Marion County, of Irish descent ; married in 1857, to Charity Everit. Children : Cleophas, Harbert J., Jirah, Louisa, Eunice, Ellis and Ran- dolph. He lives 7 miles from St. George.
J. D. METZ, son of Elias Metz, born in 1861, in Monongalia
446
HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
County ; is a farmer, living two miles from St. George, on the farm where the Indians killed Jonathan Minear.
WILLIAM MILLER, son of James Miller, was born in 1854, at Limestone ; married Mary, daughter of Sanford James; is of English descent. He is a farmer, and lives 10 miles from St. George, on Dogwood Flats. Children : Ira Blaine and baby.
ALBERT MILLER, son of Dr. J. M. Miller, was born in 1849, married Martha, daughter of William White. They have six children.
J. T. MASON, son of Thomas Mason, was born 1844. In 1877 he married Catharine Hart, of Pennsylvania. They have one child whose name is Margaret V. He is a farmer of 93 acres, with 40 acres in tillage, on Location, 5 miles from St. George ; he was deputy sheriff under his father, and was several times member of the teachers' board of ex- aminers, and has taught nine terms of school, six of which were at Fairview.
JONATHAN MURPHY, was born 1834 in Marion County, of Irish descent, and married Sarah Jane Mitchell in 1854. Their children are: Robert, Alpheus, Isaac, Anzina E., Sa- rah Alice, and Martha Jane. He is a farmer of 100 acres, three-fourths improved, in Clover District, 6 miles from St. George.
GEORGE A. MAYER, one of the leading merchants of Tucker County, was born in Preston (Aurora) 1859, and is a son of C. W. Mayer, of Terra Alta. In 1880 he was married to Virginia Cox, of New Waterford, Ohio. Their child's name is Charles W. He attended the district schools most conve- nient to his home, and had the benefit of a ten-month term at the Piedmont high school. He taught three schools, the
.
447
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES.
first at William Fansler's in Preston, the second at Red Oak, Kingwood District, and the third in Kingwood, assisting Prof. Fike in the normal school. When he quit teaching, he went into the mercantile business in the firm of C. W. Mayer & Son, in 1879, and set up in St. George. In 1884 he dissolved partnership with his father, and went into busi- ness under the firm name of Mayer & Cupp, in which his brother-in-law was his partner. When he came to Tucker there was no mercantile business of note carried on in the county. Prices were high and uncertain, and the trade was very unsteady. He brought the prices down, and revolu- tionized the whole trade. In 1881 he built a large store and ware rooms on Main street. In 1884 he was nominated in the Democratic convention, at St. George, as a candidate for clerk of the circuit court. He is a young man of stir- ring business qualities.
RANDOLPH MYERS, son of Adam Myers, born 1849, was raised by Mathew Wamsley, who lived six miles above Bev- erly, but who was taken to Camp Chase, and there died. Myers was married, in 1873, to Vilena Wilt. He is a far- mer living on the river, one mile from St. George. Chil- dren : Wilson, Eda Catharine, Lucy Ann and Edgar.
D. S. MILLER, son of William Miller, born 1842, married in 1868 to Abigail Wilt. His farm of 53 acres, with 25 im- proved, is 4} miles below St. George. Children, Truman C., Columbia A., Peter, Catharine, Llewella, William, Angeretta and Stella.
ANDREW J. MILLER, brother of D. S. Miller is eight years older, and married four years sooner, and married a sister of his brother's wife, Mary Wilt. He farms 40 acres and has 57 acres of wild land, on the river 4 miles below St.
448
HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
George. Children : Cora B., Wilhelmina C., George C., Agnes May and baby.
M. V. MILLER, born 1845, in Maryland, of German descent, his grand-parents coming from Europe. In 1867 he was married to Sallie A. Griffith. Children : Oliver C., Thomas M., Grace M., Lizzie Pearl, Jennie Gertrude and George Lester. In his early life he was a farmer. When he was sixteen years of age he joined the Union army. Did his first fighting under Milroy and Fremont: he was then under Sherdian in the Valley of Virginia, and was in all the trouble about Harper's Ferry, and got the full benefit of it. He was taken prisoner by Stonewall Jackson, together with a large number of others. As he expressed it afterwards : " Jackson fixed 20,000 bayonets and charged us. It looked like the day of judgment was coming." The next day they were parolled and sent to Annapolis, Md., where they re- mained six months before they were exchanged.
After lie was exchanged, his service was on the B. & O. R. R., and through Virginia. He was in the battle of Frederick Junction, under Lew Wallace, and against Early, when he was raiding Maryland. Late in the day the Fed- erals gave ground and fell back to Baltimore. After this, he was under Sheridan, and had numerous skirmishes. Sin- gular as it may seem, this command captured their captors, who had taken them at Harper's Ferry, in 1862. The sol- diers of the two armies recognized each other.
From Virginia, Miller was removed to Buckhannon, Up- shur County, W. Va., where there was no fighting to do. He remained there till the close of the war, 1865. He then went to Aurora, Preston County, where he lived a year, and came to St. George where he has since lived, following the
449
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES.
work of mechanic, clerk, merchant, hotel keeper and justice of the peace.
G. T. MOTONY, of French and German descent, was born in 1842, in Pocahontas County. While quite young, he was carried by his parents into Pendleton County, and re- mained there till the commencement of the war. When the hostilities came on, he joined the Union army and fought in a large number of battles, among which were several in West Virginia. He remained in the army up to the close of the war, and was in fifteen pitched battles, be- sides all the hard fighting in front of Petersburg and Rich- mond. He was present when Lee surrendered at Appa- mattox Court House. After the close of the war, he re- turned to Pendleton, and in 1866 married a daughter of A. C. Nelson, of that county. Their children are, Maggie, Robert and Taliaferro. He came to Tucker in 1882, and lives on a farm in Canaan, thirty-two miles from St. George.
RUFUS MAXWELL, son of Levi Maxwell, of Lewis County, was born in October 19, 1828. His ancestors have been in America a long time; but originally were from England and Ireland. His father, Levi Maxwell, left Pennsylvania in 1803, that is, when he was fifteen years old, and settled in Harrison and subsequently removed to Lewis County, where he still resides, being now (1884) in his 97th year. His wife was a daughter of Col. John Haymond, of Braxton County, and grand-daughter of Col. Benjamin Wilson, the Indian fighter. Colonel Wilson was an ancestor of the present Benjamin Wilson, of Harrison County.
Rufus Maxwell worked on the farm in his boyhood, as did his two brothers, John, afterward a Civil Engineer in the location of the B. & O. R. R., and Edwin, now Judge 29
450
HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
Maxwell, of Clarksburg. His early education was in the country schools, which were then rather acquired poor affairs. When he had finished the curriculum of these rural acadmeis, he entered Rector College, and finished the course in 1849, when he was 21 years of age.
While in attendance at Rector College he made the ac- quaintance of Miss Sarah J. Bonnifield, daughter of Dr. Ar- nold Bonnifield, and in 1852, June 1st, they were married. Miss Bonnifield had also completed the high school course, and tras a regular contributor of poetry to the newspapers of that time.
R. Maxwell resided in Lewis County and practiced law until June, 1856. In 1855 he was elected associate justice of the county court of Lewis County. In 1856 he removed to Tucker and assisted in the organization of the county, and the same year was elected prosecuting attorney. In 1860 he was re-elected to the same office and held it until his Southern inclinations and the partisan warfare that was carried on there rendered it impossible for him to perform the duties of the office .*
Rufus Maxwell has not a lengthy record as a soldier. He was in neither army. He sympathized with the South, but staid at home, an advocate of peace, to be gained by arbi- tration, if possible.1. While the war was going on, the mur-
* In June, 1861. Maxwell went to the Court-house to attend what was then called the Quarterly Court. The Clerk, two or three jurymen aud a few other persons having business, waited about the Court-house till late in the afternoon, when the presiding justice, George B. See, rode up into the Court-yard with a gun on his shoulder and followed by a company of armed men, and said that there would be no court that day, and probably there would be no more for a long time. This was a few days after the " Philippi Races," as was called the evacuation of that town, by the Virginla troops, when General Kelly came upon them with his terrible host of " Nine- ty Day Men." The Quarterly Court of Tucker County has not since met, nor was there any court of account in Tucker during the war. It was "between the lines," and both parties seemed willing not to agitate the subject of resuming power. Max- well never resumed the practice of law.
+ Early in the war, before gun powder had been smelt in the county, some patriotic
RUFUS MAXWELL.
451
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES.
der of citizens and the burning of property were of common occurrence in our neighboring counties ; but, in Tucker it was not so, although no county, except Pendleton, had a fiercer guerrilla warfare than we had. So far as can be as- certained, not a drop of citizen blood was shed, or a shingle burned, except in honorable fight. For part of this good result, Maxwell claims the honor. He advocated that the safety of the community depended largely upon the con- duct of the people. Those who disturbed no one were not apt to be disturbed. Yankees and Rebels lived as neighbors and fear and respect kept down the rifle and the fagot.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.