History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 124

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(PT. WILLIAM THOMAS LOVINS is a lawyer. He haa cord of service as an American officer during the cd war.

Captain Levins was born on a mountain farm in the south part of Wayne County. August 27. 1887, son of James H. and Josephine Lovins, the farmer a native of Russell County, Virginia, and now seventy-three years of age, and the latter a native of Franklin County, Virginia, agr sixty-three years. James II. Lovins moved to Wayne County about 1850, for several years lived in Lawrence County. Kentucky, and early in the Civil war joined the Union Army in the Forty-fifth Kentucky Mounted Infantry. Later he was transferred to the Fifty-third Infantry. He participated in the battles of Perryville, Cynthiana and in other battles in the south and west. After the war he enlisted and served three years in the regular army. being on duty at several western military posts. and on his return to West Virginia he married and settled down in Wayne County. He and his wife for the past twenty years have had their home in Kenova. He is a republican in polities.

William Thomas Lovins, second of four children. ar- quired his early education in the public schools of Wayne County. and attended the Coredo High School. On ar- count of laek of funds he had to leave the public schools. His first regular employment was as a eall hoy for the Norfolk and Western Railroad, and subsequently was a machinist's helper. yard clerk, laborer and brakeman. In the intervals of this employment on the railroad, he car- ried a volume of classic literature in his pocket and im- proved his leisure hours. With the money earned at rail- roading he entered, in 1912. Washington and Lee University. He graduated June 17. 1914. A short time after gradua- tion he was in California. but then returned to Kenova, beginning the practice of law.

On May 12. 1917. he left his law practice to join the First Officers' Training Camp at Fart Benjamin Harrison. Indiana. He was commissioned second lieutenant August 15. 1917. He received his honorable discharge as captain Dreember 22, 1919. at Camp Sherman, Ohio. Since leav- ing the army Captain Lovins has resumed his law practice at Kenova. He is unmarried.

Captain Lovins is a past master of the Masonic Lodge at Kenova. a member of the Wayne Roval Arch Chapter, Wherling Consistory and Charleston Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is also an Elk and is a member of the Amer- ican Legion, Post No. 16.

PENN EYSTER DICKINSON. There are several reasons why Penn Erster Dickinson. proprietor of the well-known retail furniture establishment of Dickinson Brothers at Huntington, has succeeded in life-energy. system and prae- tical knowledge all having contributed to this gratifying result. The range of his activities is now extensive, but from the beginning of his career Mr. Dickinson has sought to work steadily and well for ultimate accomplishments. and has never been content to labor merely for the present.

Mr. Dickinson was born at Louisa, Lenisa County, Vir- ginia, December 25. 1879. and is a son of Eugene and Kate (Sanders) Dickinson, and a member of a family which originated in England and was transplanted to America during Colonial times, when the first immigrant of the name settled in Virginia. Thaddeus C. Dickinson. the grandfather of Penn E. Dickinson, was born in 1826 in Lonisa County, and spent his entire life there as an extensive planter. He was a slaveholder up to the time of the war between the states, in which struggle he served as a soldier of the Confederacy. He died at Louisa in 1904. His wife, who also spent her entire life in her native Louisa County, was a Miss Fox prior to her marriage.

Eugene Dickinson was born in 1855 in Louisa County. and there passed his entire career. In young manhond he became a merchant, but later turned his attention to planting and for many vears was an extensive raiser of tohacen. He died in 1909. Mr. Dickinson was a democrat in politics and at one time served as assessor of Louisa County. With his family he belonged to the Baptist Church. He married Miss Kate Sanders, a native of Flnvanna County, Virginia, who survives him and resides on the nld homestead in Louisa County. at the age of sixty-three years. They were the parents of the following children:

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Penn Eyster, of this record; Aubrey, a locomotive engineer for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, residing at Cov- ington, Kentucky; Roy C., a bookkeeper of Richmond, Virginia, who died aged twenty-two years at the old home in Louisa County; Eugenia, the wife of John S. Moore, who is engaged in the real estate business at Richmond; Ryland, an extensive farmer of Louisa County; Albert, connected with the Hutchinson Lumber Company at Ora- ville, California, where he makes his home, and also in partnership with his brother in the firm of Dickinson Brothers; Maurice, assistant manager in the chemical de partment of a large extract concern of Richmond, and a veteran of the World war, who spent one year on the firing line in France in the hospital and ambulance serv- ice; Fritz, connected with the firm of Dickinson Brothers at Huntington; Fred, twin of Fritz, a general merchant of Louisa; Kathleen, a teacher in the public schools, who is unmarried and makes her home with her mother in Louisa County; and Bessie May, also unmarried, a teacher in the public school at Ashland, Virginia.

Penn Eyster Dickinson was educated in the public schools of the rural districts of Louisa County, Virginia, and was reared on his father's plantation until nineteen years of age. In 1898 he located at New Martinsville, Virginia, with the Boxley Construction Company, building the West Virginia Short Line, and after four months of this kind of work came, in September of the same year, to Hunt- ington and entered the service of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company, with which line he learned the trade of machinist, a vocation which he followed for eight years. Mr. Dickinson then recognized his opportunity and em- barked in the retail furniture business, with which he has been identified to the present time. In 1915 he organized the firm of Dickinson Brothers in partnership with his brother Albert H. Dickinson, and this enterprise, under the full control and management of Penn E. Dickinson, has been developed into one of the leading retail furni- ture interests in the State of West Virginia, a large, modern and well-arranged stock being carried at all times at the company's place of business, 611-13 Fourth Avenue. A man of marked business capacity, Mr. Dickinson's years of orderly and abundant work have resulted in acquired success and the sane enjoyment of it, and he has at the same time maintained his interest in securing and pre- serving the welfare of his community. He has given a strict attention to his business, conducting it in a thought- ful and intelligent manner that could not help but bring about satisfactory results. Mr. Dickinson keeps himself thoroughly posted on public events and matters of general interest, and is highly esteemed as a forceful, substantial man and excellent citizen. In politics he is a democrat, and his religious connections is with the Christian Church, in which he is an elder. He owns a modern home at No. 611 Sixth Avenue, a modern dwelling in a desirable resi- dence district.

In 1904, at Huntington, Mr. Dickinson was united in marriage with Miss Beulah Hagan, daughter of Joseph aud Barbara (Topp) Hagan, both of whom are now de- ceased, Mr. Hagan having been formerly engaged in the plumbing business at Huntington. Mrs. Dickinson is a graduate of Marshall College. She and her husband have no children.

WILLIAM L. SUTTON. Eight miles west of Morgantown in the Scotts Run community of Cass District is the home of William L. Sutton, located a mile north of Cassville. Mr. Sutton has lived in that community nearly all his life, has been successfully engaged in agriculture, and has taken a public spirited part in matters affecting the welfare and progress of the locality, in particular standing for good roads, good livestock, and better conditions generally.

He was born December 18, 1858, on a farm adjoining the one where he now lives, son of Thomas and Barbara (Barrickman) Sutton, both natives of that locality. His father was born in the same house April 11, 1836, and died in November, 1920, having spent his life usefully as a farmer. His main farm was on Cole Hill. He secured the old home of his father and in turn has passed it on to

the third generation, its present owner being Willian Sutton.

The grandfather of William L. Sutton was Asa Sut who was born on the same Run, son of Joseph Sutton, came from Old Virginia and acquired a tract of : known as the original Sutton farm, where he lived where he was buried. After coming to Monongalia Cou Joseph Sutton married a member of the prominent Sn family. Asa Sutton was born here in 1809, and died 1894, at the age of eighty-five. He was laid to rest on farm now owned by his grandson William L. Asa Su married Abigail Milburn, of Greene County, Pennsylva Their sons were Thomas, Louis and John. Louis remo to Missouri and later to Kansas, where he died in old John removed to Ohio and is still living. It was A intention that his old farm should go to his son, John, he so willed it, but later he changed his mind and wi it direct to his grandson, William L., who had cared him a number of years and worked the farm.

William L. Sutton for two years conducted a store Cassville, and at the death of his grandfather took pos sion of the farm, buying ont the interests of Asa's wic The farm comprises 100 acres and its substantial build improvements are the result of the present owner's en prise. The farm is very valuable because of its depca of coal, there being four veins underneath the surf The older Sutton homestead a short distance up the is also underlaid with coal, and has four producing wells, running five or six barrels per day. Willy Sutton's sons are interested in this oil production. TI is also a gas well operated under lease. Mr. Sutton ja director in the Morgantown & Wheeling Railroad, wil has offered opportunity to open the coal mines along Scu Run. He is a director in the Commercial Bank of Morg town. Much effective work has been done by him in c munity affairs, including four years of service as jus of the peace, thirty years as a notary public, and he charter member of Cassville Lodge, Knights of the Ma. bees, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church

At the age of thirty-three Mr. Sutton married I Reay. Their four living children are: Asa, who mari Alta Riley; Franklin, who married Mary Smith; Lill wife' of Cole Brewer, living on the Sutton farm; David. Franklin was in service during the war, but reac France only a few days before the signing of the armist

GRAY FAMILY. While the following paragraph conce in the main two characters, John Gray and his son, Ja, William Gray, there is much incidental material reflect the history of the family throughout their American 12 dence and much valuable history of the life and timesf the environment in which they have lived. Berkeley Couy for more than a century has owed much to this fam The Grays have been justly described as quiet, thri industrious people, prepared for service when the emergey came, but seeking no profit or honor in public affairs, devoted to home, family and community.

John Gray was born in South Scotland March 6, 13 son of John Gray of Chryston and his wife, Jean Ward of Braden Hall, Fife, Scotland. The parents belonged? the old, untitled gentry of Scotland. Their seven child all of whom eventually came to America, were David, Jo Margaret, Christian, William, James and Jean.

After the fatal battle of Culloden, Scotland was waste by the English. Fire and sword, fines, imprisonmt and death filled the cup of fury for the unhappy Se and the Grays shared the fortunes of their compatri Notwithstanding these reverses, or perhaps because of necessity created by them, in 1760 John Gray, then at age of fourteen, was a student at St. Andrew's Colle University of Edinburgh. Latin and Greek text books b ing this date, inscribed by his own hand, are still in possession of his descendants. Scotch students of t period from stark necessity rather than from inclinat applied themselves strenuously eighteen or twenty bc out of every twenty-four, when their future depended their efforts, and the habits of close application and tiring industry learned in youth clung to John G

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bughout a long and eventful life. All told, he acquired il en languages, several of them long after be left college. was an enthusiastic student of political economy, eiog a volume of interesting papers on this subject tngly endorsing the political tenets of Thomas Jeffer- By faith he was a Presbyterian.

n the latter part of 1765 David and John Gray joined Ir unele, William Gray, in America. They first came cAlexandria, thence into the Shenandoah Valley, where Aliam Gray had established himself. An original grant, ich dilapidated and mostly illegible, from George the Mond of England, bearing date of 1730, perhaps indicates t time of William Gray's arrival. David Gray settled ur his uncle in what is now Jefferson County, West Vir- ha. He served through the American Revolution with onel Hugh Stephenson's Riflemen. He married Eliza- w) Craighill, of the Charlestown neighborhood, and died [1796, without issue. His widow married a Mr. Willis, whom she had two sons, Rich Willis and William Willis. ohn Gray besides learning languages in University also tlied civil engineering, and outside of his interests as a hled proprietor he performed an immense amount of rk as a civil engineer and surveyor, both before and for the Revolution. He surveyed portions of Virginia, 'o, Tennessee, Kentucky and North and South Carolina, aog out many towns and villages. This was a work k; in the main preceded settlement, and involved ex- kitions into the very heart of the wilderness, risking tvation, dangers from wild animals and red men, and eplete isolation for months at a time from family and ilization. For these services John Gray acquired title cextensive traets of land involving many thousands of o's in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and on the Mononga- u River in what is now West Virginia, besides an estate Berkeley County. Ile owned a number of slaves, though Fe is no record of the purchase or sale of slaves by him by his sons. The first slaves came to him as part of his ; wife's dower after the Revolution. His family home F at Springhill, near the Village of Gerardstown, Berke- County, and was established after the Revolution. All children were born there.

fter the death of his mother, Jean Wardrop, in 1771 Fife, Scotland, the younger brothers and sisters being ha orphans, joined John Gray in America. William and nes settled on his southern lands, which he conveyed to In later in fee simple. Margaret married Thomas Rus- ( in Scotland and died shortly after coming to Virginia, ging an infant son, John Russell. After her death Omas Russell married Margaret Craighill. He built the tie house at Runnymede in Berkeley County where he id until his death. Christian came to America a widow w her small daughter. Jean MacDonald. She married Tomas Cowan and lived a number of years in Berkeley nty, at the Cowan home, Graylands, eventually remov- r, to Tennessee. The youngest sister, Jean, married Comas Moon. She was about thirteen when she came to ginia and she lived the rest of her life in Berkeley nty. She died August 27, 1804. She was the great- mit-grandmother to Attorney General Harry M. Dangh- 1- of Ohio and Washington, D. C.

Javid, John, William and James Gray served in the tolution, the last two named in the southern campaigns, Did and John during 1775-76 with Captain Hugh nbenson's Company of Riflemen and the Virginia-Mary- Riflemen from Berkeley County. John was erronenus- reported killed. As a matter of fact he survived to share the vicissitudes of the Continental Army, and had many rnories of the winter at Valley Forge. Stephenson's was & company that "took a bee line" for Boston, 600 miles ant, starting July 15, 1775, and arriving August 10th, fot a man missing." He introduced his company as in "the right bank of the Potomac." They were «lially welcomed by Washington personally, to whom my of them were known. They gave good service.

[ 1787 John Gray laid out the Village of Gerardstown, " lots on land belonging to William Gerard, son of Rev. in Gerard, a Baptist minister, who had settled here with Colony of Baptists in 1754. There had been a previous Vol. II-48

Baptist settlement in 1743 and a still earlier Scotch-Irish settlement. At least two churches were built on tho site in the Baptist graveyard at Gerardstown. The last build- ing was demolished after the Civil war. The original trustees of Gerardstown were William Henshaw, James Haw, Robert Allen, Gilbert MeKown and John Gray.

May 28, 1782, John Gray married Mary Sherrard Cowan. No children were born to this union. After her death he married, on March 21, 1805, Jenn 1Tyndman Gilbert, he being fifty-nine and his bride twenty-two.

Jean Gilbert was born in 1783 in County Antrim, Ireland, of Scotch parentage, daughter of Edward Gilbert and his wife, Jean Sim Rennie, of Covenanter stock from Galloway, Scotland. The Gilberts were in comfortable eireumstances, owned an estate near Belfast, a large bleach green and interests in the Irish linen industry. They immigrated to America in 1785 on a sailing vessel, tho voyage lasting three months. They landed at Philadelphia, where Edward Gilbert died a few years later, leaving his family well pro- vided for. His widow subsequently moved with the Scotch Irish tide through the Path and Cumberland valleys into the Shenandoah Valley, where her children grew to matur- ity. These children were six, four born in County Antrim, William in 1778, John, 1780, Elizabeth, 1781 and Jean, 1783, and two in America, Helene and Edward. Their mother died in 1837. Her sons William and John died without surviving issue in Berkeley County. Elizabeth married David Sherrard, of what is now Morgan County, and she removed to Illinois. Her son David Sherrard was prominent in his locality, president of the Sherrard Bank- ing Company, and of the Sherrard Coke & Coal Company and director in other organizations. Helene married John Sherrard, brother of David. Her descendants are Hon. James W. Stewart of Cleveland, Ohio, Rev. Maitland Vanee Bartlett of New York City, and Laurence Bartlett, M. D., of Buffalo, New York. The Sherrards were Scotch-Irislı from Ulster, and were among the earliest settlers of the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley. Edward Gilbert, Jr., married Elizabeth Patterson and after some years removed with his family, except one daughter, to Indiana.

While John Gray was from Scotland and Jean Gilbert from Ireland, both were Scotch to their finger tips. They had four children that reached maturity, one daughter, Mary, and three sons, James William, John Edward and David Wardrop. Mary, born December 25, 1805, was edu- cated at a young ladies seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. Her descendants are Miss Eloise Nadenbousch of London, England, and the family of Mr. Alexander Parks of Mar- tinsburg. The second son, John Edward Gray, was born in 1814 and died in 1837, unmarried, a studious and ex- emplary young man. The youngest son, David Wardrop Gray, born in 1417, several months after his father's death, had a disposition as gay as that of his brother was quiet and retiring. He read and practiced law with Judge George S. Lee of Batavia, Ohio, and was to have married Judge Lee's daughter, but the war with Mexico intervened. In that war he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the American forees, First Regiment of Virginia Volunteers, going out with a company from Berkeley County under Capt. E. B. Alburtis, but later exchanged into another company. (In the Archives of West Virginia it is stated that officers under captains were non-commissioned officers ; in the roster of Captain Alburtis' Company Lieutenant Gray is listed as second lieutenant. Ilis record from the War Office shows he was commissioned first lieutenant ; also his own letters. He received $65 per month, with an allowance of $16 for his servant. Only commissioned offieers had servants. Also he was received and entertained with the other commissioned officers by the governor of Virginia.) He served throughout the war, was honorably discharged June 30, 1848, and left Mexico with a party of forty men for the United States. As far as known none of that party reached home. They were probably ambushed and murdered by Mexicans or Indians.

John Gray, father of this family, died July 1, 1816. His widow lived more than half a century after his death and survived all her children. She died in 1869, full of years and good works.

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Hon. James William Gray, the second principal figure in this story, was the oldest son of John Gray and Jean Gilbert and was born at Springhill September 1, 1811. He and his brothers were educated at a private school. Wher- ever the Scotch or Scotch-Irish went it is said they built first a church and then a school. The Presbyterian Church at Tuscarora, two miles south of Martinsburg, is said to be the oldest church west of the Blue Ridge still in use. It is seven miles north of Gerardstown. There is evidence of a Presbyterian Church several miles south of the present

village of Gerardstown. The first Presbyterian Church erected in the village of which there is authentic record was built in 1793. The present church, built on the same site, was erected in 1892. Within the same enclosure was the schoolhouse, known as Stonewall Academy, a structure roughly but substantially built of stone. Ethneational facilities were not lacking in this section, and these schools were very thorough, usually taught by college men, not infrequently by the pastor of the church. The course in- eluded English, Latin, French, mathematics and other branches, with considerable emphasis on mathematics. The students were required to write out rules and work out examples in blank books, and some of the specimens of penmanship are very fine. The school in which James W. Gray and his brothers were educated was of this sort, and it was in the serene atmosphere of school and church and a cheerful home that they grew to manhood. James W. Gray was a country gentleman of the old school, of un- questioned probity, with a breadth of view far beyond that of most of his contemporaries. He was a Free Mason, a Presbyterian and a democrat.

A leader in his party in his section, he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1852. He resigned because of failing health and an infection of the eyes that confined him to a darkened room for several months. He never fully recovered his health, therefore was compelled to decline other nominations tendered him, though he was as active in his party as his circumstances permitted.

During the Brown raid at Harper's Ferry in October, 1859, Captain Gray commanded the Berkeley Rangers, a company of Berkeley men and supported Captain Albertus in the premature attack on the engine house. It failed, but would have succeeded had the attacking party not been fired on by their friends as well as their foes. Later Captain Gray was ordered by Col. Robert Baylor to guard the railroad bridge over the Potomac, left unde- fended by the withdrawal of Rowan's Company. He stood guard there from late afternoon until after the arrival of the Marines from Washington under Col. Robert E. Lee at 10 P. M., when he was relieved by the Hamtramck Guards.

In the period of unrest and apprehension that followed the Brown raid Virginia armed for self-protection. Berke- ley County raised seven companies. Three companies were . stationed at Gerardstown, the Winchester rifles under Capt. William Clarke, the Old Dominion Grays of Darkes- ville under Capt. William Sherrard, and the Berkeley Rangers under Captain Gray. Mr. Gray's diaries cover much of the period from the Brown raid to the Civil war. They reflect faithfully the spirit and aspirations of the time and make interesting reading. Incidentally they show considerable activity on his part. Many names later made famous appear in them. Besides his diaries he has left other documents and some fugitive verses.

In 1861 he raised and equipped but could not fully mount a company of thirty-three men, with which he did scout duty for the Confederates while Johnston's Army re- mained in Berkeley County, first under Colonel Edmondson and then attached to the command of Colonel (afterwards General) J. E. B. Stuart, who was a warm personal friend. Because he could not secure the fifty rank and file of mounted men the Confederate service required this company disbanded after a few weeks. Mr. Gray remained with Stuart until after the first battle of Manassas, when he was discharged for disability. From this time his health failed rapidly. When the war closed and martial law was declared he was made to pay for all the horses pressed by the Confederates in his section, no inconsiderable

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 124

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