History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 133

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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

tions, but his only elective office was in his school district. He was a Presbyterian. He survived his wife eleven years, and their children were: Bettie E., the wife of Stewart Zeiler, of Romney; Rebacca, wife of Charles Howard, liv- ing near Martinsburg; and Thomas Edwin.

Thomas Edwin Pownall spent the first twenty-one years of his life on the old farm, attended country schools, the Normal School at Basic City, Virginia, and at Fairmont, West Virginia, and for six years he taught school during the winter months in Hampshire County. Mr. Pownall is a lawyer by profession, having graduated from the law school of the West Virginia University in 1900. He carried on an active law practice at Romney. for five years, until he was appointed postmaster, under the administration of President Roosevelt. He was reappointed by President Taft, and finally, after nine years, retired early in the ad- ministration of President Wilson. During this period the business of the Romney Post Office more than doubled. When he left the office there were five routes radiating from Romney, one to Moorefield, one to Glebe, one to Higgins- ville, one to Capon Bridge and one to Rio, so that Romney has been an important distributing center for mail. When he entered the post office all this mail from the outside of- ices was brought in by horseback, but the method of trans- portation now is entirely by auto. Since his administration of the post office Mr. Pownall has been engaged in the re- :ail meat business at Romney. He has been active in other business interests, and was one of the original stockholders and is a director of the First National Bank.

Mr. Pownall did not follow his father's example in the choice of a political party, and has been a republican since casting his first vote for Major Mckinley for president. He has attended local and congressional conventions, and helped nominate George Sturgiss for Congress. He has been chairman and is the present secretary of the Hampshire County Republican Committee. Fraternally he is a past noble grand of Romney Lodge of Odd Fellows, and a past district deputy grand, and Mrs. Pownall and their oldest laughter are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

At Romney, June 29, 1904, Mr. Pownall married Miss Grace Virginia Parker, daughter of William C. and Fannie (Mytinger) Parker. Her father, a native son of Hamp- shire County, was successively a railroad man, in the livery business and finally a farmer. Mrs. Pownall was born at Romney, January 14, 1881, was educated in the local pub- ic schools and for six years taught school in Romney. She s one of a family of four daughters and one son, the others being Mrs. Belle Griffin, Mrs. Maude Frye Miss Frances ind William Earl. Her brother is an ex-service man, went overseas with the Sixth Division and was in the fighting in he Argonne Forest. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Pow- all are: Virginia Hopkins, a student in the Romney High School, Marion Parker, Thomas E., Jr., and William "Fran- :is-Bill" Frank.

FRANK C. BURDETTE. The public profession of the law has been a matter of practice as well as a theoretical deal with Frank C. Burdette. He has been a member of he Charleston bar nearly thirty years, and whether in office or in private practice he has seriously conformed lis efforts and influence in line with the principle that le was the servant of a great and noble profession, and not nerely engaged in a vocation to earn a livelihood.

Mr. Burdette, who is the present prosecuting attorney of Kanawha County, was born on a farm in Lawrence County, Ohio, October 19, 1870. Shortly after his birth his parents, S. C. and Mollie (Taylor) Burdette, moved to Charleston, West Virginia. His mother was a native of Louisiana. S. C. Burdette was a first cousin of the famous humorist, the ate Bob Burdette. S. C. Burdette was a sign painter by rade, but 'after removing to Charleston, read law, was admitted to the bar, and gained a high place in the profes- sion. He served as prosecuting attorney, and for eight years was judge of the Circuit Court, retiring from the bench in 1914. He is now about seventy-six years of age, and in the past has been an active campaigner for the republican party.

Frank C. Burdette attended high school at Charleston, did some post-graduate work, and studied law in the office of his father and also in the office of George C. Sturgis, then United States district attorney. S. C. Burdette was assist- ant to Mr. Sturgis at the same time. Admitted to the bar in 1893, Frank C. Burdette entered at once into the work of his profession and also into republican politics. In 1894 he organized a republican club, with a membership of over 1,000. He was first elected to the office of prosecuting attorney in 1896, and served four years, after which he resumed private practice. Later he was called as assistant prosecutor to S. B. Avis and his successor, T. C. Townsend, for four years, and continued as assistant prosecuting attor- ney under B. Kemp Littlepage for four years. Mr. Little- page was a democrat, while Mr. Burdette is a republican. In 1920 he was accorded the republican nomination for presecuting attorney, and he carried the county by 6,200 majority, running 2,000 votes ahead of his ticket. He entered upon the office January 1, 1921. Mr. Burdette organized and is president of the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of the State.

His hobby is flowers, and he is a lover of nature in all her phases. For a number of years he has been a student of botany, and has gone into the more obscure relations be- tween beauty as manifested in flowers and other environment and human behavior, particularly as human behavior is perverted into criminal acts under the influence of ugly environment. He has studied all the works of prominent psychologists who have covered this ground, and has had in his own experience as an attorney and public official the opportunity to study at first hand the reactions of abnormal individuals to the influences of color, forms and tone. At his country home at Edgewood, Mr. Burdette finds his recreation and practices his amateur art as a landscape gardener and grower of old fashioned flowers. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias.

Mr. Burdette married Nellie Ault. Her grandfather, Major Ault, was a pioneer of the Cabin Creek District of the Kanawha Valley. Mrs. Burdette was born at Eastbank, West Virginia. They have two children, Mary Frances and Dorothy Perkins.

BERNHARD KAPLAN came to Weston about a quarter of a century ago, bringing here and opening a small stock of goods, and his enterprise as a merchant has enjoyed a con- tinual growth and prosperity until he is now proprietor of the B. Kaplan Store, a complete department store, one of the best patronized in Lewis County.

Mr. Kaplan was born in Russia, November 1, 1870, son of Wolf and Leba (Sherer) Kaplan. His parents spent their lives in Russia, where his father was a business man. The mother died soon after the birth of her son Bernhard, and the latter was reared by his stepmother. He attended school in Russia, and at the age of eighteen, in 1888, came to the United States, landing at New York and going di- rect to Baltimore, where he found employment as a clerk. In 1896 he established a little business of his own as a dry goods merchant at Mount Jackson, Virginia, and the following year moved his stock of goods to Weston. He did business in men's furnishing goods for several years, but in 1911 organized a complete department store, with quarters in the Tierney Building. Later he bought and rebuilt the William L. Dunnington property, and now has a large building used for the various departments of his prosperous business. Mr. Kaplan is a citizen of much financial worth, thorough integrity and public spirit. He is a stockholder in the Bank of Weston, the Monongahela Power & Railroad Company, the Interstate Glass Factory and the Building & Loan Association. He takes part as a member in the Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce, votes as a republican, and is affiliated with Weston Lodge No. 10, A. F. and A. M.

Mr. Kaplan married Miss Celia Silverman of Baltimore. They have two daughters and one son. Leba is a high school graduate and a graduate of Goucher College of Baltimore. Leonard, the only son, graduated from high school and graduated with high honors as ensign, being second man in a class of 541 from the United States Naval

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Academy at Annapolis in 1922. The youngest, Naomi, completed her college course in 1922.

JOHN BRANNON BENNETT is a lawyer by training and profession, practiced a number of years at Weston, but now has the active business management of the old Ben- nett estate at Walkersville, a noted general purpose and stock farm of 1,000 acres, a portion of the original tract of 5,000 acres once owned by his great-grandfather Bennett.

Bennett is one of the oldest and most distinguished names in the annals of Lewis County, West Virginia. William Bennett, its founder, was born in Pendleton County, Vir- ginia, in 1775, son of Joseph Bennett, a native of Scot- land, who settled in Augusta County, Virginia, before the Revolutionary war. William Bennett in 1797 bought a large tract of land in Lewis County from George Jackson, and he moved to the county in 1798 and throughout the rest of his life bore the reputation of a large land owner and a prominent citizen, serving on the first grand jury in the county. He died in 1857. His wife was Rebecca McCally, a native of Botetourt County, Virginia. They were married October 21, 1796. Her father, Dr. James McCally, resigned as captain in the British Marines to join the American Colonists in the Revolutionary war, and he spent his last years at the home of William Bennett in West Virginia. The grandfather of John Brannon Ben- nett was Jonathan McCally Bennett, who was born in Lewis County, October 4, 1816, and died October 28, 1887. During his youth schools were hardly available, but his active mind led him into a wide field of knowledge and he acquired the equivalent of a liberal education and be- came a very thorough and eminent lawyer. During his youth he was deputy county clerk and deputy sheriff, was admitted to the bar in 1843, was the first prosecuting at- torney of Gilmer County, and practiced law with Judge Gideon D. Camden until the latter was elevated to the bench in 1852. Jonathan M. Bennett was elected the first mayor of Weston in 1846, and in 1852 took the place in the Legislature vacated by Mr. Camden. Not long after- ward he was appointed auditor of public accounts for the State of Virginia by Governor Wise, and filled that post of duty until 1865. As auditor of the state he was at Richmond at the outbreak of the Civil war. He was in- strumental in securing the appointment of Stonewall Jack- son to a cadetship at West Point, and likewise was an in- fluence in securing his appointment as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army. He was elected presi- dent of the Exchange Bank of Weston in 1853. In 1858 he was defeated for nomination for Congress on the demo- cratie ticket by only a small margin. It was largely due to him that Weston was selected as the site for the hos- pital for insane. After the war he resumed his law prac- tice at Weston, was elected a member of the State Sen- ate, and was one of the commissioners appointed to ne- gotiate with Virginia relative to the division of the state debt. His report on that subject was one of the valuable documents that figured in the negotiations closed only a few years ago. He was also president of the Weston & Buckhannon Railroad.

The wife of Jonathan McCally Bennett was Margaret Elizabeth Jackson, a daughter of Capt. George W. Jack- son and granddaughter of George Jackson, who was a member of Congress from Virginia and one of the Virginia Convention which adopted the Federal Constitution. Capt. George W. Jackson was born February 9, 1791, was ap- pointed first lieutenant of the Nineteenth United States Infantry by President James Madison, July 6, 1812, served in the War of 1812, rose to the rank of captain, and was one of the distinguished citizens of Lewis County, where he died in 1876. Jonathan McCally Bennett and wife had four children. The daughter Gertrude became the wife of Dr. Fleming Howell, of Clarksburg. Mary Lee was the wife of William D. Bowie, of Baltimore, son of Governor Bowie. The two sons were William G. Bennett and Louis Bennett. Louis Bennett graduated in law at the University of Virginia in 1871, served for a time as principal of the State Normal School at Glenville, and later enjoyed an immensely successful law practice at Weston and had

many widespread interests as a banker, owner of coal, oi and gas properties, and was speaker of the House o Delegates of West Virginia in 1891.

The late William George Bennett shared with his brothe Louis in many of the best distinctions given to a lawyer business man and public spirited citizen. He was bor at Weston, January 5, 1847, was educated under privat tutors and in private schools at Richmond, Virginia, and as a member of the Virginia Military Institute Cadet participated in the battle of Newmarket and other phase of the closing days of the war. He graduated from th Military Institute in 1866, and received his law degre from the University of Virginia in 1869. He was the firs member and the first presiding officer of the Alpha Tal Omega and an organizer of the Chapter of that fraternity at the University of Virginia. He practiced law at Wes ton twenty years, and was eminent both as a criminal and civil lawyer. He defended a great number of crimina- cases, and only once was a man he defended convicted o: felony. The character and ability that made him an abl lawyer equally distinguished him on the bench. He wa. elected circuit judge as a democrat in a strong republican district in 1889, served a term of eight years and in 1891 was re-elected, retiring from the bench in January, 1905 He was defeated several times by a small margin as can didate for the nomination for governor. In 1892 and 1900 was the democratic nominee for justice of the State Su preme Court of Appeals, receiving 1,000 more votes thai any man on his ticket. He was a delegate to the first Democratic State Convention, and for several years chair man of the State Executive Committee. In the early par of his career he was a member of the State Board of Hos pitals for the Insane, and was appointed commissioner to assess railroads for taxation. He was one of the promoter: and organizers of the Clarksburg and Weston Narrow Gang Railroad, and was a director and attorney for that road and similarly connected with the Weston & Buckhannon Railroad.

Out of the ample fortune he acquired through his pro fessional and business interests Judge Bennett improved and increased the land holdings of the Bennett family ir Lewis County, and was probably the largest owner of farn lands in the county. He had at one time six farms, com prising over 2,000 acres. Next to his law practice his chier interest was horses. His Riverside farm became widely noted for its blooded cattle and standard bred horses. H. also owned a breeding and training farm in Maryland. H. was a director of the American Association of Trotting Horse Breeders and the American Trotting Register Asso ciation, and for years his horses made creditable perform ances on many tracks throughout the country. In Masonry he was grand master of the Grand Lodge of West Virginia grand high priest of the Royal Arch Chapter, and grand commander of the Grand Commandery. William G. Ben nett Lodge No. 46, at Walkersville was named for him.

Judge William G. Bennett died November 8, 1916. Ir 1872 he married Alice Brannon, daughter of Judge Johr and Amanda (Bland) Brannon. Her great-grandfather Brannon was a native of Ireland, served as an American soldier in the Revolutionary war, and her grandfather, Rob ert Brannon, was a native of Virginia and a soldier in the, War of 1812. Judge John Brannon was a brother of Judge Henry Brannon, of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, whose biography appears elsewhere Judge John Brannon was educated at Winchester, Vir ginia, was admitted to the bar in 1846, and the following year moved to Weston. He was a member of the Legisla ture in both Houses before the war, and served as circuit judge from 1872 to 1881. His wife, Amanda Bland, was born in Harrison County, West Virginia, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Newlon) Bland. Thomas Bland set tled in Lewis County in 1817 and died in 1868. He was several times in the Legislature, a member of the Con stitutional Convention of Virginia, was a soldier under General Harrison in the War of 1812, and was the father of Dr. William J. Bland, who served as superintendent of the Insane Hospital at Weston during the '80s.

Judge and Mrs. W. G. Bennett were the parents of sis

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ildren: William G., Jr., who died in infancy; John annon; Hunter M. Bennett, who was admitted to the r in 1903 and is active in practice; William Bland, who pervised the extensive farming interests of the family til his death; Margaret, who was educated at Winchester, rginia, and at Mrs. Reed's School in New York, and is e wife of Robert Crain, a Baltimore lawyer; and Bertha, 10 finished her education at Washington, District of Co- mbia, and is the wife of Dr. George I. Keener.

John Brannon Bennett was born at Weston, April 15, 75. He attended the Episcopal High School at Alexandria, irginia, Washington and Lee University, Notre Dame niversity, Indiana, and the University of West Virginia, d graduated LL. B. from West Virginia University in 96. He was admitted to the bar the same year, and joyed an extensive practice until he gave up the bar to ke the management of the Bennett Stock Farm of 1,000 res. While much of the reputation of this farm is due its standard bred horses it also has one of the best herds the state of Aberdeen Angus and Holstein dairy cattle. On September 19, 1915, John B. Bennett married Ethel ayhurst, daughter of a former military man. They have ree children: Jonathan M., Margaret Saxton and George rannon Bennett. Mr. Bennett is affiliated with W. G. ennett Lodge of Masons at Walkerville, belongs to the ottish Rite body at Clarksburg, is affiliated with the In- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and follows the family aditions in politics as a democrat.

EDWARD MARSHALL HAWKINS is another of the native ns of West Virginia to be prominently identified with e great coal-mining industry of the state. He is superin- ndent of the Harrison property of the Courtright-Cornog ollieries Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is so interested in the ownership of coal and oil land in itchie County, and has real estate interests in the City Clarksburg, Harrison County, where he maintains his me.

Mr. Hawkins was born on a farm near Clarksburg, Har- son County, November 25, 1878, and is a son of William d Nancy (Nuzum) Hawkins, the former a native of tylor County, this state, and the latter of Harrison Conn- The father became one of the successful teachers the schools of Harrison County and was a gallant soldier the Union in the Civil war, in which he served more an three years, in the command of General Sherman, he Iving been wounded in both legs and also injured by a ber stroke. . After the close of the war he returned to arrison County, and he continued as one of the honored tizens and representative farmers of that county until his lath in 1907, his widow being still a resident of that unty. Mr. Hawkins was an active member of the Methi- 'ist Protestant Church, as is also his widow, was a re- blican in politics, and was affiliated with the Grand my of the Republic. All of the fine family of twelve ildren survive the honored father: Effie, wife of Syl- nus Frum; May, the wife of S. F. Deloe; Edward Mar- all, subject of this review; Anna, wife of Rev. Perry lill; Thomas, a blacksmith at MeMechen, Marshall Conn- 1; Morton, a miner at McMechen; Stella, wife of John lill; Nettie, wife of Albert Duty; Naomi and Miss Mat- t; Everett, a miner in Ohio; and Muriel, wife of Rev. thur Null.

Edward Marshall Hawkins passed his childhood and early juth on the home farm, and supplemented the discipline ( the public schools by attending a normal school. He inained at the parental home until he had attained to his l;al majority, and then became identified with coal-min- iz operations, first as a machine man, later as an elec- tcian, and finally as mine foreman and mine superintend- et in turn. For five years he was manager of the bnongah Glass Company's machine plant, and he is now pominently concerned again with coal mining enterprises, a denoted by the responsible position of which he is the i:umbent. Mr. Hawkins is unwavering in his allegiance t the republican party, is affiliated with St. John's Lodge 1. 24, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Shinnston,

Harrison County, and he and his wife are active members of the Methodist Protestant Church at Clarksburg.

In 1899 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hawkins and Miss Aldie Douglass, and they have had four chil- dren. Carrie, who was born in December, 1902, entered the Fairmont High School when but twelve years of age, graduating at fifteen years of age, and graduated in the State Normal School at Fairmont when she was seventeen years old. Thereafter she graduated in the University of West Virginia, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and she is now a successful and popular teacher in the pub- lic schools of Clarksburg. Leonard, who was born No- vember 28, 1911, remains at the parental home and is still attending school. The deceased children were: Clifford, who died aged three years, and George, who died aged three years and seven months.

HON. ALSTON G. DAYTON, who was judge of the United States District Court of West Virginia in the Northern District from 1905 until his death in 1920, represented an exalted type of "the public profession of law," and a record of his life and service is justly included in any collection of West Virginia biography.

The Dayton family has furnished many conspicuous mem- bers to a public service of the United States. The grand- father of the late Judge Dayton was captain of Patriot troops in the Revolutionary war. Another member of the family was Jonathan Dayton, who also served in the Revo- lution, was elected to Congress from New Jersey, and was speaker of the House of Representatives. Another mem- ber of the New Jersey branch of the family was William L. Dayton, who was a judge of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, a member of the United States Senate, and in 1856 was vice presidential candidate on the first re- publican ticket with John C. Fremont. He was appointed United States minister to France by President Lincoln, and died in France in 1864.

The father of Judge Dayton was Hon. Spencer Day- ton, who was born in Litchfield County, Connecticut, Jan- mary 22, 1820. He acquired his education through his own efforts, became a millwright by trade, and when the panic of 1837 put an end to his work in that line he took up the trade of carpenter and followed it until 1843. In the meantime he had studied Latin and Greek under a private teacher, and in 1843 began the study of law in the office of Nelson Brewster in Litchfield County. He was admitted to the bar there, and practiced one year in the East, bnt in 1847 moved to Western Virginia and located in Bar- bour County. He achieved in subsequent years a high reputation as a lawyer in what is now Central West Vir- ginia. He was a stanch Union man at the time of the Civil war.

Alston Gordon Dayton was born at Philippi, October 18, 1857, son of Spencer and Sarah (Bush) Dayton. He com- pleted his public school work at the age of sixteen, then entered the University of West Virginia, graduated A. B. in 1878 and A. M. in 1880, and was admitted to the bar in 1878. He then formed a partnership with his father, and took high rank among the able attorneys of the Bar- hour County bar, his reputation spreading over adjacent counties. For a quarter of a century he was one of the hard working attorneys and for a number of years mem- ber of the firm Dayton & Dayton, until the death of his father. He was appointed to fill an unexpired term in 1879 as prosecuting attorney of Upshur County. In 1884 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Barbour County, and it is said that the county never had a more able and effi- cient prosecutor. He served until 1888. His ability as a lawyer and his sound views as a republican contributed to his nomination to Congress in 1894. In the campaign that followed he defeated the scholarly William L. Wil- son, author of the Wilson Bill, who had represented the Second District. Judge Dayton was a member of Con- gress for ten years, entering the Fifty-fourth Congress and serving through the Fifty-eighth Congress. He was again re-elected in 1904 to the Fifty-ninth Congress, but re- signed ten days later, after completing a service of ten

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 133

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