History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 74

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Mr. Alt was appointed deputy sheriff by Sheriff Kimble January 1, 1921, and succeeded W. D. Trenton in his | Fera. ent office. Ilis politics have always been republican. If a first presidential ballot was cast in favor of Benjamin Har- rison, in 1992. and he continued his affiliation with the party until 1912, when he supported Colonel Roosevelt for pres'. dent on the progressive party's ticket. With the dis ol tion of that party Mr. Alt resumed his relations wit i lis former political home, the reputdienn party. In nlet in to acting as deputy sheriff Mr. Alt has served Grant fiin triet of Grant County as justice of the peace four years. He is a past master of Petersburg Lodge No Iti, A. F and A. M., and has represented it in the Grand Lodge. He is also a past master of Od Fellowship, and his relig ious connection is with the United Brethren Church.

On April 12, 1994. in Pendleton County, Mr. Alt was united in marriage with Miss Mary E. Kimble, a daughter of Wesley and Fannie (MrDonald) Kimble. Wesley Kim- ble, now eighty-two years of age and an agri ultwrist of Grant County, was a member of the Home Guard during the

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latter part of the war between the states. He is a brother of the father of Sheriff John A. Kimble, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work in the review of Sheriff Kimble's life. The following children of Wesley and Fannie Kimble reached years of maturity: George W .; John W .; ITar- ness, now deceased; Ulysses Grant; Adam; Jasper; Mary E., who is now Mrs. Alt; Edward; Minnie, who died as the wife of Isaac Alt; Rosa, who is now Mrs. C. W. Smith, of Mineral County, West Virginia; Annie, who married H. F. Borror, of Petersburg; and Irving, of Crestmont, Kentucky. To Mr. and Mrs. Alt there have been born the following children: Sadie, who is the wife of M. H. Roby, of Pet- ersburg, and has two children, Frederick and Donald; Theo- dore, an agriculturist operating near Forman, West Vir- ginia, who married Clarice Frye; Raphael H., an agricul- turist of Grant County, who married Glenna Freye, deceased, and has a son, Roswell; and Vernon May, Genevera and Norma, who reside with their parents. Theodore Alt was a soldier during the World war, and received his honorable discharge at Camp Meade, his regiment not having been or- dered overseas.

ELISHA BOYD FAULKNER, who was a resident of Martins- burg, Berkeley County, at the time of his death, honored the State of West Virginia by his distinguished service as a lawyer, jurist, public official and citizen of fine character and high ideals. He was born in the community known as Boydville, near the present city of Martinsburg, West Vir- ginia, on the 24th of July, 1841, and was a son of Charles James Faulkner and Mary W. (Boyd) Faulkner. He re- eeived excellent educational advantages in his youth, in- eluding those of Winchester Academy, Georgetown College and the University of Virginia. While an attache of the American Legation in the City of Paris, France, he there attended lectures on constitutional law, and he became one of the authorities in this phase of law in West Virginia. After serving as a soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war he refused to take the test oath required in West Vir- ginia, and from 1867 to 1872 he was engaged in the prae- tice of law in Kentucky. In the latter year he returned to Martinsburg and resumed the practice of law. In 1876 he was elected to the House of Delegates of the State Legis- lature, and in 1878 to the State Senate, the presidency of which body he declined. He was appointed a member of the committee chosen by the Legislature to revise the laws of the state, and in 1884 he was defeated for nomination for the office of governor of West Virginia at the State Demo- cratie Convention in Wheeling. Under the administration of President Cleveland Judge Faulkner was tendered and declined appointment as consul general at Cairo, Egypt, and also that of minister to Persia. He was appointed to the beneh of the Thirteenth Judicial District of West Vir- ginia, 'he having been at the time attorney for the Balti- more & Ohio and the Cumberland Valley Railroads, as well as other important corporations. By successive re-elections he continued his service on the bench for more than twenty- one years, and then deelined again to become a candidate for re-election. He was a trustee of the Berkeley Springs Corporation, and politically was a stalwart democrat. His initial military service was with the Wise Artillery, later he was a member of the Rockbridge Artillery and thereafter he became a member of the military staff of Governor Letcher of Virginia. When the Civil war came he was ap- pointed a captain in the Provisional Confederate Army, and in June, 1864, he was captured at the battle of Piedmont. For a year thereafter he was held a captive at Jolinson's Island. He took part in many engagements, fought loyally and gallantly in defense of a eause which he believed to be just, and at the first battle of Manassas he received wounds in one of his cars from the fragment of an explod- ing shell.

February II, 1868, recorded the marriage of Judge Faulkner and Miss Susan Campbell, daughter of John P. Campbell, a leading citizen of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in which locality he had large landed interests and also im- portant financial investments. Mr. Campbell, of Scotch lineage, died at the venerable age of eighty years. The maiden name of his wife was Mary Buekner, and she was

an aunt of Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner. Judge and Mrs. Faulkner became the parents of two daughters, Mary Buck- ner and Nannine Holmes, the latter of whom died in 1883.

GUSTAVUS HITE WILSON has played an active role in the affairs of Preston County as a teacher, a banker, a progres- sive leader in all civic movements, and was a former captain of the National Guard.

This branch of the Wilson family has been in Preston County for more than a century. His great-grandfather came from Seotland and settled in Taylor County, West Vir- ginia, more than 100 years ago. His sons were Jacob, Thomas, Edgar, Ham and Coleman, and his only daughter, Harriet, became the wife of Luke Lewellen. Of these sons, Jacob Wilson, grandfather of the Kingwood banker, was born in Taylor County and married Nancy Meanes. Their children were: Nathan A .; Alonzo; Rebecca, wife of Dr. S. H. Harter; Isaac; William E .; and Belle, who became the wife of Harter Stout, of Bridgeport, West Virginia.

Nathan A. Wilson, father of Captain Wilson, was born near Grafton in Taylor County, was reared and educated in the country and though a boy at the time of the Civil war he was employed as a Government teamster at the close of hostilities, though not enlisted in the army. He spent his active career in business and as an interested participant in public affairs, and was a democrat in politics. He mar- ried Saralı Schaeffer, daughter of Israel Schaeffer and a sister of William M. Schaeffer, former sheriff of Preston County. She died in Preston County in May, 1900, at the age of fifty. Her children were: Israel S., a farmer of the Whetsell community of Preston County; Gustavus Hite; John E., a farmer in Preston County; Scott H., a druggist at Kingwood; Gay E., in the hardware business at King- wood; Troy A., a farmer and railroad man; and Lawrence S., in the hardware business at Kingwood.

Gustavus Hite Wilson was born near Grafton, April 5, 1873, but grew up on the home farm five miles east of Kingwood. IIe acquired a country school education there, and when he left home he began teaching. Ile was active in that profession nineteen years, though during an interval of several years he was connected with banking. For six years he was principal of the Kingwood graded school, and at the same time did duty on the County Examining Board. llis last work as a teacher was done in the Grafton schools.

For three years he was connected with the Kingwood National Bank, and then resumed teaching. Later he en- tered the Farmers and Merchants Bank at Reedsville in Preston County, and for a brief time was assistant bank commissioner of the state. Since then he has been in the service of the First National Bank of Albright, of which he is cashier. The Albright Bank was organized in 1914 by local interests and has a capital of $25,000. E. E. Watson, of Albright, is president; the vice presidents are M. F. Walls and S. D. Albright, and the cashier is Mr. Wilson. This bank has resourees of $200,000, with undivided profits and surplus of $6,000. Its directors are S. A. Gustafson, Marshall Morgan, Mr. Watson, Mr. Walls, S. D. Albright and Mr. Wilson.

In February, 1896, in Preston County, Mr. Wilson mar- ried Miss Maggie L. Calvert, who was born in that county and represents an old family of this section. Her father, Enoeh Calvert, was born in Preston County, on the Jesse Childs farm, was a soldier in the Civil war, but otherwise lived as a private citizen and was a substantial farmer. He died in 1901, at the age of sixty-five. His wife was Mary E. Sypolt, of Irish ancestry, who was born in Preston County and died in 1913. Her father was William H. Sypolt. Enoch Calvert and wife had the following children: William Jasper, of Chicago; Louisa Virginia, wife of I. J. Whetsell, of Preston County; Minmie A., wife of J. D. Wright, of Preston County; Horace S., of Howesville, West Virginia; M. John, of Kingwood; Cecil M., a farmer in the Whetsell eommunity; Nora E., wife of Edgar Jeffreys, of Kingwood; Mrs. Wilson; and Chester A., a farmer in the home com- munity. Mrs. Wilson was born October 13, 1880, and was reared on her father's farm and acquired a public school education. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have a son and a daughter. The son, Raymond, is a student of engineering in West

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ginia University and during the World war was a mem- of the Student Army Training Corps. The daughter, trice, is the wife of John C. Varner, of Kingwood, and y have a soa, John Clair Verner, born April 23, 1921. Ir. Wilson cast his first presidential vote for William J. ran, and has been secretary of the County Democratie cutive Committee and has frequently attended distriet I state conventions. During the World war he was a mber of all the Liberty Loan committees and assistant the county chairman in the Victory Loan drive. He was e president and secretary of a Red Cross organization, Mrs. Wilson labored faithfully as a private in Red ss work.

fr. Wilson was for fourteen years active in the National ard in Company G of the First Infantry. He entered as private and at the end was captain of the company. IIe 3 still in the service when America entered the war with many, and after a Federal examination he was com- sioned major in the Quartermaster's Department, but s not called to active duty though, as noted, he was one the leaders in home war work.

LEROY S. BUCKLEW. In 1812 William Bucklew, a native New Jersey, established his home in Preston County, in Whetsell settlement southeast of Kingwood. A hundred ten years have passed, and in all these years the Buck- family, acknowledging William Bucklew as their pioneer st Virginia ancestor, have been actively and usefully dis- outed in the county, carrying on their work as agricul- ists, in the mechanical trades, some in the professions, 1 maintaining high standards of eivie usefulness and or. One of his descendants is Leroy S. Bucklew of King- od, well known as a substantial business man, and a man exceptional gifts and cultivated tastes, who has used his ans and time for extensive study in scientific research l the collection of data and material that illustrate the tory of the earth and the races of mankind therein.

William Bucklew was of Scotch-Irish origin, and there s a family of the same strain in England who spelled the ne Buccleuch. William Bucklew on leaving New Jersey hat to Selbysport, Maryland, and from there came to Pres- County and bought land from the Butlers. The deed the transaction bears the date of the year in which second war with Great Britain was started. He eleared his land and was an industrious cultivator thereof until death, in 1844. He married Mary A. Michael, at Selbys- t, Maryland. Twelve children were born to this pioneer ple. William, born in 1793, spent his life on the farm the Union Schoolhouse settlement and died in 1885; as, who in a measure filled his father's place as a farmer I lived on Briery Mountain; James, bora in 1800, lived Three Forks in Preston County, where he is buried; lip, who in addition to the family vocation of farming dueted with his sons a grist mill on Elza Run and is ied on Briery Mountain; Sarah, who became the wife of rge Funk, and they lived above Rowlesburg, where she d; Andrew, noted in the succeeding paragraphs; Jona- n, who was a farmer in the Whetsell community; Eliza- h, who became the wife of a Mr. Postlethwaite and lived Wetzel County; Anna, who was married to William ore and lived near her sister Elizabeth; and John, born 1809, lived on Briery Mountain. Sarah lived on the nestead until her mother died.

Andrew Bucklew was born probably in the same year his brother James, in 1800, and spent his life on a farm Union Schoolhouse, where he died in 1845, at the age of ty-five. By his first wife, Martha Hardesty, he had no Idren. His second wife was Susan Jackson, and she was mother of Jonas, born in 1823 and died in 1893; Philip, spent his life in Preston County and died about IS92; Tu H .; Harriet, born in 1830 and died in 1873 as the se of Martin Ridenour.

fehu H. Bucklew, representing the third generation of the lily in Preston County, was born in 1829 and died in .. 8. He acquired a liberal education and had some of the satile faculties that distinguished his son Leroy. He ght school as a young man, and when he settled down he «·ked at his trade as a blacksmith and earpenter. He also

studied medicine, and became very skilled in the concoction of herbal medicines, and applied his remedies with much success. Ile sought an opportunity to serve the I'niun at the time of the Civil war, but was rejected for physical reasons. Ile began voting as a whig, and from that party became a strong republican, and was also an enthusiastic Methodist.

The wife of Jehu HI. Bucklew way Epaline Rulenour, daughter of Martin Ridenour. She died in 1972, the mother of the following children: James B. was born in Ist9, n resident of Kingwood. He married first Rachel Rhode, who died leaving four children: Annie, decensed; Jo. ph T., of Cumberland, Maryland; Elizabeth, deceased; undt Virginia, living on Briery Mountain. Ile married for han second wife, Keturah Guff, of Rowlesburg, and they have children as follows: Charles, Elmer H. and A. C. Sevilla C. married for her first husband David Uppolo, for her second, W. G. Garner, and she is now the wife of James S. Myers. Mary M. married Willinmn M. Wilburn and died in Tucker County. Ilenry C. is a railroad man with home at Whitaker, Pennsylvania. He married Mary Rowley. Leroy S. 1s mentioned below. Letitia became the wife of Grant White- hair and died in Kingwood.

Leroy S. Bucklew waa bern April 23, 1861, on the home farm on Briery Mountain, where he was renred. He had the routine discipline of the schools for a few terms, but his real edueation he has gained by the study of books and nature and has always embarked enthusiastically in the quest of knowledge. He early showed a taste for mechanics, learned the trade of blackamith from his father, and also acquired skill with woodworking tools. Among other gift- his father was a musician, one of the old-time fiddlers. Leroy learned te play his father's violin, and achieved some virtuosity with that instrument. lle played the violin as a source of financial gain, and he taught violin music in Kingwood for some years as a side issue. For many years he was a cornetist in the Kingwood Brass Band, having joined the organization some thirty years ngo, when he first came to the city. As a collector of rare articles of various kinds he has accumulated several violins, one of them a real Stradivarius, which came from Europe and was once the property of the Royse Family, a member of which was the first man buried in the Kingwood Cemetery. That burial occurred in 1814.

On removing to Kingwood Leroy Bucklew for several yenry followed his trade ns a journeyman carpenter. He made a study of the mechanies of building and architecture, anl finally took up contracting, hiring some of the men who in former years had hired him. Mr. Bneklew built the Doctor Rudasill home for Mr. Parks, one of the splendidly tin shed and expensive homes of the town, the Henry Flyth home, the John Ford residence, and the H. T. Lineofn bungales, doing the work on this house with his own hands. These and many other structures in and around Kingwood testify to his skill as a builder. For several years he was also in the business of handling slate roofing, and he did much werk of installing slate blackbeards in schoolrooms.

Mr. Bucklew has never married, though from a safe dis tanee he admires the happiness and perfeet benuty of con- genial matrimony and domestic companionship. This free- dom from home cares has enabled him to follow his strong bent as a nature student. For a number of years it has been his habit to spend his Sunday afternoons strolling over the hills of Preston County, looking for something new to hin- self and gathering specimens for his collections. Sone pro. fessional seientists have been glad to claim acquaintance with Mr. Bueklew, and he is undoubtedly the supren n- thority in his locality on birds, flowers, rocks and the [ ro- eesses of nature in general. His interest is not altogether a - aorbed in geology, botany and orn thology, but in anthro- pology as well, and in his home he has a rare and interesting collection of tools, implements, furniture and useful and ornamental objeets associated with the changing tastes an l habits of mankind. His collection ineludes firearms, ohl furniture, old pieces of art. lle has an old time pinning wheel, copies of old American newspapers running back sev. enty or eighty years, and one copy of a London newspaper of 1788 printed on the fine durable print paper of that time.

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His cabinets contain a rich exhibit of the instruments of warfare, including those used by the aboriginal tribes of America. The stone bludgeon, tomahawk and flint tipped and French steel-pointed arrows; the battle ax of the middle ages in Europe; and also an array of fire arms that prac- tically illustrate all the processes in their development from the introduction of gunpowder from China. These firearms include the Chinese match-lock rifle, then the guns of the flint lock period, including the pill-lock, the fuse-lock and the old Revolutionary flint-lock; variations of the pistol grip and the gun-stock blunderbusses; theu the breech-loading rifles of the Civil war time and, finally, several types of the improved models of army rifles. Hanging from some of these pieces are the accoutrements used in firing and clean- ing them and in making ammunition for them. His collec- tion of pistols ranges from the gaping horse pistol along the line through the pepper box, derringer, pocket pistol, Colt's revolver and the modern army revolver used in the World war. He has two war drums from India, one a wooden and the other a clay drum, both with heads and lacings intact but out of use forever save as an object lesson for those interested in the age-long warfare among the individuals and races of mankind.

Another exhibit illustrates the development of methods of illumination, beginning with the flint, steel and punk, the old tallow candle, the oil lamp fed with hog lard, and finally the kerosene lamp. There is an old "turnkey," an instru- ment used by our forefathers for pulling teeth before for- ceps were invented; also a perfect specimen of the "hackle" upon which the flax was partly prepared for the spinning wheel. He has an old money helt once worn by John Rowley, a Pennsylvania forty-niner California bound. A little sack he wore in his childhood days, made by his mother, is especially treasured by Mr. Bucklew. His geological col- lection contains specimens from all over America and some from afar, and fills several shelves of a cabinet. His collec- tion of coins and money tokens of the world contains some rare pieces of gold and silver money, besides the different denominations of American paper money and some of for- eign countries. Among old books he has a reader and speller used by an earlier generation of American school children, and also a Bible that was one of the early publications of the English translation.

Mr. Bucklew since youth has given a strong allegiance to the republican party, but office holding is a matter foreign to his taste and his only service that can be regarded in the nature of a public duty has been in his Sunday School. Some years ago Mr. Bucklew learned to appreciate the great truths of Christianity, and has since been one of the enthusiastic Sunday school and church workers. He is identified with the Methodist congregation. He wears a twenty-five year jewel of the Knights of Pythias and is regular in his attendance of this lodge as of his church. He has taken three degrees in Masonry. Mr. Bucklew is a stockholder in the Kingwood National Bank. During the World war he invested in honds and stamps, and he made all the Red Cross boxes in which goods were shipped from Kingwood to France. Throughout that period he busied himself with some useful service that would help the Government to win the war.

SAMUEL DUNLAP BRADY, an influential operator who is one of the prominent representatives of the West Virginia coal mining industry at Fairmont, Marion County, was born at Bradys, Maryland, in 1869, a son of the late John Copsey Brady and Caroline (Seymour) Brady. The father was born at Mountain View, Bradys, Maryland, April 29, 1843, and his death occurred July 10, 1906. He was a son of Samuel Dunlap Brady and Susan Foreman (Parsons) Brady, born respectively April 1, 1798, and March 4, 1809, the death of the former having occurred January 18, 1870. Caroline (Seymour) Brady was born November 17, 1844, and died ¿December 31, 1905. She was a daughter of Felix Renix Sey- mour, born February 1, 1810, and died November 7, 1887, and Elizabeth Ann (Welton) Seymour, born April 17, 1815, and died May 1, 1885. The Seymour family was early established in that part of Hampshire County, Virginia, that now constitutes Mineral County, West Virginia. John C. Brady came to West Virginia in 1888 and established

the family home in Mineral County, where he was engaged in farm enterprise until his death, both he and his wife having been earnest members of the Presbyterian Church.

Following is a succinct record of the business career of Samuel D. Brady of this review: May-October, 1886, rod man with Piedmont & Cumberland Railroad; October, 1886 to June, 1887, and October, 1887, to June, 1888, student of engineering at Allegany County Academy; June to October 1887, rodman and leveler on construction; and June, 1888 to July, 1892, levelman, transitman and assistant engineer on preliminary location and construction, West Virginia Central & Pittsburgh Railroad; July, 1892, to January 1893, chief engineer, Beaver Creek Railroad (seven mile of location and construction work); January to August 1893, assistant engineer on (forty miles location) Baltimore & Cumberland Railroad; August, 1893, to May, 1894, i· practice as civil engineer at Davis, West Virginia; May 1894, to January, 1895, assistant mining engineer Davi Coal & Coke Company; January to July, 1895, mining en gineer; July, 1895, to December, 1897, chief engineeer Davis Coal & Coke Company (developing coal property designed coal tipples, coke ovens, electrical haulage, air and electric mining machines, and constructed and placed sam in operation); November, 1897, to July, 1898, in genera practice as civil and mining engineer (designed and installed large coal plants in West Virginia); July, 1898, to May 1899, lieutenant in Third United States Volunteer Engineer in Spanish-American war, stationed at Cienfluegos, Cuba, hi: work consisting of harbor sounding and assisting in coast and topographical surveys; May, 1899, to November, 1901 member of firm of S. D. Brady & Brother, consulting, civi and mining engineers, Clarksburg, West Virginia (design ing, prospecting and developing coal properties and rail roads, also a member of the staff of West Virginia Geologi cal Survey) ; November, 1901, to March, 1915, chief engineer of Little Kanawha Railroad (seventy miles heavy construe tion and thirty miles maintenance), Zanesville, Marietta & Parkersburg Railroad (sixty-nine miles location and cou struction) Parkersburg Bridge & Terminal Railroad (elever miles location and construction), Marietta, Columbus § Cleveland Railroad (sixty miles location and construction) Burnsville & Eastern Railroad (sixty miles location), Buck hannon & Northern Railroad (eighty miles location and con struction) ; all of above work being branches and extension of the Wabash Railroad System in West Virginia and Ohni known as the Little Kanawha Syndicate. This was part o. the George Gould and Joseph Ramsey scheme of connecting up a coast to coast trans-continental line, on which all con struction work was abandoned in 1903 on account of the lacl of finances.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 74

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