History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 105

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2 > Part 105

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).

May 24, 1918, recorded the marriage of Mr. McCulloch and Miss Emma Millet, daughter of Albert Millet, of Bluefield. Mrs. McCulloch is specially active in educa- tional work and is now supervisor of the city schools of Bluefield, besides which she is prominent in the general social and cultural activities of her home city. e is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

ROBERT A. TABOR, who conducts at 85 Bland Street one of the leading retail grocery establishments in the City of Bluefield, Mercer County, was born in Tazewell County, Virginia, September 11, 1888, and is a son of Elgan and Octavia (Tiller) Tabor, who still reside on the

Thewalker

317

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

incold homestead farm in Tazewell County, tho father ei; seventy-five and the mother sixty-eight years of age it je time of this writing, in 1921. Elgan Tabor waa member of the local Home Guards in Tazewell County Imig the later part of the Civil war. Ho has long been neof the representative exponents of farm industry in ha county, and is a citizen who commands high place n opular esteem. His religious faith is that of the feiodist Church and his wife is a member of the Baptist Wch. Of the ten children all are living except one, and the number the subject of this sketch was the sixth n der of birth.

bert A. Tabor was reared to the sturdy discipline of he farm and gained his early education in the public bols of his native county. At the age of seventeen es he entered the employ of the Pocahontas Fuel Com- at, for which he assisted in the building of the power 012 at Boisevain, Virginia. Thereafter he was for a im associated with farm enterprise, and he then became mioyed again by the Pocahontas Fnel Company, at uchback, Virginia, where he was identified with the w ion of dwelling houses for employes of the company. lewas thus engaged nine months and later was employed n. restaurant at Pocahontas, where still later he be- a associated with one of his brothers in opening a a ral store. Three years later he entered the employ Che Elliott-Frazier Company, with which he continued iconnection four years, and with a son of Mr. Elliott, 2 of his employers, he came to Bluefield, West Virginia, n they here opened a grocery store. The business was atucted one year under the firm name of Tabor & Dott, and finally Mr. Tabor purchased his partner's in- ost, since which time he has condneted the enterprise o pendently, with a large and appreciative patronage h marks the establishment as one of the most pros- ous of its kind in the city. The success which Mr. "gor has gained in business is the more pleasing to @ hy reason of the fact that when he initiated his o pendent business career his capital consisted only of nexcellent reputation, with incidental good eredit. He member of the Bluefield Chamber of Commerce, and eind his wife hold membership in the Baptist Church. 1 1908 Mr. Tabor wedded Miss Lailia F. Reynolds, ghter of George and Mahala Reynolds, of Tazewell Anty, Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Tabor have fine children: Mert Harrison, Enla, Lonnie, Edwin and Harry.

UMPHREY G. O'NEIL established his residence in the , of Bluefield, Mercer County, on the 10th of Febru- , 1914, and here he condnets on Bland Street an mertaking establishment with the best of modern eqnip- mit and service. Ile was born on the parental home- td farm in Owen County, Kentucky, August 2, 1879, r is a son of George W. and Susie P. O'Neil, the former ative of Carroll County, Kentucky, and the latter of en Connty. Her father was a fine marksman and gained ial local reputation as such. The original American fresentatives of the O'Neil family came from Cork, Ire- al. George W. O'Neil has long been a anecessful farmer tobacco broker in the old Blue Grass State, and he resides (1921) at Worthville, Carroll Connty, Kentucky, 1.he age of sixty-five years, his wife having died October ( 1913, at the age of fifty-six years. George W. O'Neil is I owner of a large and valnable landed estate in Owen nty, has aerved twenty-five years as a member of the "y Conneil of Worthville, and is one of the honored ' influential citizens of his community. He is a dem- at in politics and is an active member of the Methodist "irch, with which the family has maintained affiliation I previous generations.

Iumphrey G. O'Neil, an only child, gained his early cation under the direction of private instructors and attending the public schools. He early became deeply rested in the study of anatomy, and this interest has er waned, the while his studies have been carried to point that gives him an authoritative knowledge of subject, thia knowledge being of special value to him his service as a licensed embalmer. He took a higher

course of study by attending Cincinnati University, and in 1899 he took a special course in the Cincinnati College of Embalming. Subsequently ho did post-graduate work in the clinics of the celebrated Rush Medien! College in the City of Chicago, besides attending the elinies of Cook Connty and the University of Chicago. Thereafter he held for eleven years the position of demonstrator for the Embalmers Supply Company, with headquarters in the City of Louisville, Kentucky. In this connection he ler tured and gave demonstrations in many different state4 of the Union, and after severing his connection with the company mentioned he came to Bluefield, West Virginia, and established his present undertaking business, he hay. ing been the first funeral director in this part of the state to place in commission a motor hearse and motor ambulance. So acenrate is his knowledge of anatomy that Mr. O'Neit is frequently called into court as an expert witness in this line. lle is affitiated with the local Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery of the Masonic fraternity and with the temple of the Mystie Shrine in the City of Charles- ton. He served in 1921 and 1999 as deputy supreme dietator of the Loyal Order of Moose in West Virginia. lle and his wife are active members of Grace Church, Methodist Episcopal, South, and he is a member of the Men's Club of this church.

On May 29, 1914, Mr. O'Neil wedded Miss Clara Iturst. of Harrodsville, Kentucky, and they have one daughter, Vivian. Mr. O'Neil has two daughters by a former mar- riage: Irene Beckham is the wife of Alfred C. Wilder, of Wilmore, Kentucky; and Mary Golden remains at the paternal home.

JOSEPH M. WALKER. During a residence of four dee- ades in Wellsburg Joseph M. Watker has been identified with some of that city 'a most substantial business interests. Some years ago there came a tide in his affairs when he felt justified in retiring and enjoying leisure, but eventualty the call of work became too loud for him to ignore it, and he is again carrying the burdens of business and financial leadership in that community.

His personal career links the present with several prior generations of this noted family in the Upper l'anhandle of West Virginia. His American ancestor was Jacob Walker, who was born of Protestant parents near Londonderry, Ire- land, in 1755, being the youngest of ten children. He learned the weaver's trade, but some trouble with his brothers over the sale of the linen which he wove caused him to run away from home and he sailed as a stowawny for America in 1773. While on the ocean the ship was over- hauled by a British cruiser. That government was then engaged in impresaing single men for military service, and only by a strategy of somewhat romantic nature did Jacob escape, through persuading a young lady aboard to swear that she was his wife. But for the kindly service of this young woman there would have been no history of n pioneer Walker family in Brooke County. Contrary to the course of romance, the young people did not marry when they reached shore. The captain of the vessel did not permit the stowaway to land at Baltimore until he had paid his passage, and Jacob contrived to get word to an uncle living in that city, who agreed to pay the fare in return for six months' work by the nephew. By driving a dray for his unele he paid the debt and saved some money he-ides.

After a few months in Baltimore his self reliant and venturesome apirit called him to the western side of the Alleghenies, and, afoot and alone, with a little money in his pocket, a gun on his shoulder and possessions tied in a handkerchief, he set out, traveling by way of Fort Pitt, and arrived in the Ohio Valley in April, 1774. Ifis first stay was at the farm of Harmon Greathouse, whom he assisted in clearing about three neres where many years Inter the barns of the Tri-State Traction Company were built. He planted corn, raised the crop without horso or plow, and in the fall gathered the corn and stored it in a rail pen. During the summer he also bought of his employer 400 acres at 15 cents an acre. This constitutes the old Walker home- stead in Brooke County, and has never heen out of the family. Another labor of his first summer was the con-

318

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

struction of a log cabin on his land. Then in the fall he returned to Baltimore and married Margaret Guthrie. She accompanied him to the wilderness home in the spring of 1775, riding a horse while he walked alongside. He had to break a path through the weeds which had grown up before the cabin door, and from the fatigue of the journey and the desolation of the situation thus presented she gave way and sat down in the house to cry. It was the temporary weak- ness of woman that afforded no indication of her true en- durance and grit. She was a pioneer who did her part well in succeeding years, reared a family, and lived to see a settled civilization grow up about her. For seven summers they lived at old Fort Decker, which was located on the present Broad Street in Follansbee, and during the winters they stayed on the farm. For several years when he worked his crop he took a soldier to guard him while he plowed. He lived here while the War of the Revolution was waging on the other side of the mountains, and he took part in the local Indian warfare. He was at the battle of Battle Run, near Mingo, when Captain Buskirk was killed, and he helped bury young Decker, who was killed by the Indians on a farm in the neighborhood. In 1778 he built a better log house on his farm, and this structure has been a center of family associations and memories for almost a century and a half. Jacob Walker died May 6, 1845, while his wife passed away September 5, 1819. Their children were three daughters and one son.

The only son was John Walker, who was born in 1783. He married in 1808 Sarah Abrams, and they began their married life on part of the old homestead, but in the spring of 1825 moved over to Ohio. John Walker died September 18, 1871, and his wife, April 2, 1845. They were the parents of five sons and six daughters.

J. J. Walker, one of the sons of the third generation, was born on the Brooke County farm October 23, 1824, and died at the old homestead May 21, 1910, in his eighty-sixth year. He was reared from early infancy in Ohio, where on March 5, 1850, he married Miss Hannah R. McConnell. Three years later he came back to the Brooke County farm, and lived there the rest of his life. His wife died March 15, 1909, after they had celebrated their fifty-ninth wedding anniversary. J. J. Walker was a strong man mentally and physically, of rugged integrity, and in his work and inter- course with men he manifested those fine qualities which we like to associate with the pioneer type. He was a regular attendant of the United Presbyterian Church at Steuben- ville, and in politics was a Jeffersonian democrat and in his later years esteemed Bryan as his ideal political leader. Besides his children he was survived by seventeen grand- children and seven great-grandchildren. His children were Joseph M., James A., William P., John W. and Mrs. Jane R. Carter.

Joseph M. Walker therefore represents the fourth gen- eration of the family in Brooke County. He was born, however, while his parents were living in Jefferson County, Ohio, ou March 4, 1851, and was about two years old when they returned to the old home on the Virginia side of the river. Until he was past thirty his activities were mainly concentrated on farming. On locating at Wellsburg in 1882 Mr. Walker became associated with his father-in-law in the hardware business under the firm name of W. C. Barclay & Company. This in 1893 became J. M. Walker & Company. Its large store building was completed in 1906, and in 1916 the business was incorporated as the J. M. Walker Company, since which time Mr. Walker has been active in the company only as a director. He organized in 1904 the Builders Supply Company of Follansbee, and was active in its man- agement as president for ten years, retiring in 1914. He was also president of the local electric company and the Home Telephone Company, and has been an important source of the public enterprise that has brought pros- erity and growth to his home community. He was one of the organizers of the Wellsburg Banking & Trust Company of Wellsburg, and after several years of vacation from business he resumed active connection with this company as teller and also director and member of the executive committee.

In the line of public service Mr. Walker was a member

of the school board six years, on the water board twelt years, and also on the board of public works and the cea tery board. For thirty years he has been an elder in i Presbyterian Church.

In 1882 he married Miss Alice B. Barclay, daughter William C. and Emily W. Barclay. Three children were bc to their marriage: Emily W., deceased wife of Char F. MeGlumphy and at her death she left one daughter, Al Louise; Miss Hannah R., at home; and Joseph B., who di at the age of twenty-five.

WILLIAM G. FERRELL, county assessor of Mercer Coun maintains his official headquarters in the court house Princeton, but has been a resident of the City of Bh field, this county, since 1897. He was born in Pula County, Virginia, on the old homestead farm of which now owns a part, and the date of his nativity was Augi 7, 1870. He is a son of William Ballard Preston Ferr and Rebecca (Croy) Ferrell, the former a native of Mo gomery County, Virginia, and the latter of Giles Coun. that state. After their marriage the parents continu their residence in Giles County until 1869, when they moved to Bells Springs, Pulaski County, and settled the farm which continued to be their home during t remainder of their lives, the father having been eigh three years of age at the time of his death in 1912, a the mother having passed away in 1907, at the age seventy-two years. William B. P. Ferrell gave his ent active life to the basic industry of agriculture and w one of the successful farmers of the Old Dominion Sta besides which he took much pride in the raising of li stock of high grade. He was a man of sterling charact and both he and his wife were devoted members of ti Missionary Baptist Church, in the Sunday school work which he was specially active for many years. He vot for Abraham Lincoln for President of the United Stat and ever afterward continued his allegiance to the repl lican party. Of the eight children the subject of t sketch was the sixth in order of birth, and all but t of the number survive the honored parents.

William G. Ferrell gained his early education in 1 public schools at Bells Springs, and after leaving sch he clerked ten months in a general store at Glen L Virginia. Thereafter he was similarly employed in a ste at Cripple Creek in his native county, and finally he turned to Bells Springs, where he remained until he ca to Bluefield, West Virginia, which was then a mere villa At Bluefield he found employment in the mercantile est: lishment of E. S. Pedigo, but a few mouths later he th took a position in the Globe Store, with which he was c nected two years. He then formed a partnership w R. H. Miller, under the title of the Ferrell Mercant Company, and they opened a well equipped dry goods a ladies furnishing store near the corner of Federal Str and Princeton Avenue at Bluefield. Under this title " business was successfully conducted from 1901 to 19 and in 1916 Mr. Ferrell became deputy county assess in which position he served until his election to the of of county assessor in 1920, when he received 86 per e of all votes cast at Bluefield in the primary, the larg vote received by any republican candidate in the coun his majority running above that here accorded to Presid Harding. He has been prominent in the local count of the republican party, and at Bluefield he and his w. hold membership in the Bland Street Methodist Episco Church, South.

In 1899 Mr. Ferrell wedded Miss Maggie Jane Golleh who was born in Bland County, Virginia. They have children.

HAMILTON. The first ancestors of this family were ( tivators of the soil along the James River, west of Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. (I) John M. Han ton was a farmer and one of the early settlers on the O River, about twelve miles back of which is the cow seat of Jackson County, West Virginia.

(IT) James M. Hamilton, son of John M. and Nar (Lowe) Hamilton, was born November 9, 1839. He

60 -

319

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

mmed on his Jackson County farm up to 1885, and in the year became a resident of Charleston, West Virginia, an so continued up to the time of his death, November :11916, at the age of seventy-seven, he being an old dier of the late Civil war. Ile served throughout the vare period of hostilities. lle and his only brother, (arge W., enlisted in 1861 in Company E, Seventh Regi- nat of West Virginia Infantry. His brother, George W., il& soon after the surrender, in 1865. Ilaving charge ufmaterial trains under Col. William Oley, James M. Ifmilton took part in the second Bull Run fight and in my other battles and was twice wounded and was held io some time as a prisoner of war in the famous old Libby L'son. The rigors of bis army service permanently im- pred his health. His affiliation with the Masonic frater- ud gained to him a measure of consideration while he held at Libby Prison. Ile was a republican and was vely affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republie. If wife, who was Miss Malissa Rhodes, is a daughter of A xander and Mahala Rhodes, of Rockbridge County, Vir- La. She now maintains her home in the City of Charles- West Virginia.

IFI) William Wirt, son of James M. and Malissa hodes) Hamilton, was born January 27, 1867, at Ripley, Akson County, West Virginia. He was educated in the plie schools of Jackson and Kanawha counties. He spent youth on his father's farm, and entered business life, aer the completion of his studies, as a farmer. This wupation he pursued, however, for only a brief period. & the age of twenty-two years he engaged in the grocery biness in Charleston, West Virginia, in which he con- ted for two years. At the end of this time he sold @ and associated himself with the wholesale groeery 41 of The de Gruyter Fuller Company. He was with um for several years, and then came to Bramwell, West Vginia, in 1594, as the representative of The Cable Com- my, of Chicago, Illinois. This position be filled with sisfaction for six years. In 1900 he was appointed post- Ester by President MeKinley, on December 20, serving ds until the year 1905. He was re-appointed on January Th- by President Roosevelt, and again re-appointed by bi on February 9, 1909. Mr. Hamilton discharged the dies of this office, in which he served so long and so fthfully, and has beeome one of the best known and st respected citizens of this seetion. On June 4, 1912, was nominated in the primary by a large majority for : office of sheriff of Mereer County, his standing being ceptionally high in the republican party. Immediately Ler his nomination for sheriff he tendered his resignation postmaster at Bramwell, and on September 5th was rieved and on November 5th was elected sheriff and took carge of this office January 1, 1913. He gave a vigorous tministration of four years in the office of sheriff. His i umbency, involved his removal from Bramwell to Prinee- 1, the county seat of Mercer County, West Virginia. Mr. hamilton is also well known and greatly esteemed in Ma- mnie cireles, being a member of Ivanhoe Commandery No. , Knights Templar, in which he was elected eminent mmander on June 8, 1912. He is also a member of amwell Lodge No. 45, and Chapter No. 15; also of the dependent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias d United Commercial Travelers. Mr. Hamilton is the lest in a family of nine children, of whom five are living: hn H. Hamilton, Mrs. Osear Speneer, of Charleston, Mrs. hn W. Cooke, of Huntington, and Miss Ersie Hamilton, Weleh, West Virginia.

On October 13, 1889, Mr. Hamilton married Ella Fauber, native of Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia, ughter of the late William H. and Elizabeth Fauber, of harleston, West Virginia, the former having been an old Idier of the United States Army. Mr. and Mrs. Hamil- n have one daughter, Laura May, born in Charleston, arch 10, 1891, and married June 5, 1912, to J. Claude .abe, of Wytheville, Virginia. Mr. Mabe is a civil engineer charge of a number of mines at Beckley, Raleigh County, est Virginia. They are the parents of three children, follows: May Hamilton, born April 19, 1913; William

Wirt, born July 18, 1916; and James Claude, Jr., born September 6, 1918.

SIMFON STROTHER BUZZERD is one of the influential citi- zens of his native Town of Berkeley Springs, Morgan County, where he was born July 23, 1869. His father, George D. Buzzerd, was born on a farm near Berkeley Springs, October 20, 1835, a son of Ilenry Buzzerd, who was born near Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, January 7, 1799, and who came to Virginia about 1830 nnd settled at Berke- ley Springs, the present judicial center of Morgon County, West Virginia. lIenry Buzzerd was a wheelwright by trade, and ho established a wagon factory at Berkeley Springs, the wagons which he here manufactured, entirely by hand work, having found ready sale throughout this section. He continued his residence at Berkeley Springs until his death in 1881, at the age of eighty.two years. His political allegiance was given first to the whig and later to the republican party. Ilenry Buzzerd married Mary Grove, a representative of an old and honored Vir- ginia family, and she was about eighty years of age at the time of her death, their children having been seven in number.

George D. Buzzerd was reared and educated in what is now Morgan County, and was a sturdy young man when the Civil war began. His loyalty to the Union was shown in his prompt enlistment, in 1861, as a member of Company D, Second Maryland Volunteer Infantry, and at the expiration of his ninety days' term of enlistment he re-enlisted, his active service in the Union ranks having continued until the close of the war. He was once captured, but his eomrades soon effected his release. After the war he was variously employed at Berkeley Springs, where he continued his association with business affairs until his death, October 20, 1892. He married Miss Mary Elizabeth Tritipoe, who was born at Berkeley Springs, a daughter of Thomas Tritipoe, the family name of whose wife was Catlett. Mrs. Buzzerd passed the closing years of lier life at Berkeley Springs.

Simeon S. Buzzerd gained his early education in the publie schools of Berkeley Springs, and at the age of six- teen years he here entered upon an apprenticeship to the printer's trade in the office of the Morgan Mereury. In 1593 he became associated with Lewis J. Frey in estab- lishing the Morgan Messenger, of which he became the sole owner about four years later and of which he has since continued the editor and publisher and which he has made an effective exponent of local interests and of the cause of the republican party. In 1907 Mr. Buzzerd was ap- pointed postmaster of Berkeley Springs, and of this office he continued the incumbent until December 31, 1915. lle is one of the leaders in progressive eivie movements in his native county, and is serving in 1922 as a member of the City Council of Berkeley Springs. Ife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his wife is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

Mr. Buzzerd has served as junior and senior deacon of DeFord Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is affiliated also with Lebanon Chapter No. 2, Royal Areh Masons; Good Intent Lodge No. 52, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and Berkeley Lodge No. 4, Knights of Pytbias.

April 26, 1893, recorded the marriage of Mr. Buzzerd and Miss Addie HI. Hedding, who was born at Warfords burg, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Noah and Prudence 1 .. ( Tabler) Hedding, the former of whom was born in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, and the latter near Martinsburg, Berkeley County, West Virginia. Noah Hedding was for many years a successful merchant at Paw Paw, Morgan County, and his death occurred at Berkeley Springs, June 16, 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Buzzerd have four children: Florence Louise, Lewis Hedding, Lillian Katheryne, and James E. S.

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.

History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 105

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: