History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 198

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Mr. Rogers was born in 1872 on a farm in Mason County, West Virginia, grew up on the farm, attended common schools, and at the age of eighteen left home and went to Pittsburgh. While there he learned the carpenter's trade, followed it as a journeyman, and while doing the prac- tical work of building he was an carnest student of archi- tecture, for about five years keeping up his courses with the International Correspondence School at Scranton. In that way he made architecture and the drawing of plans and specifications a part of his equipment as a builder and con- tractor.

Mr. Rogers moved to Charleston in 1903. He started here as a building contractor, and being entirely without capital necessarily could handle only small building projects at the beginning. He has demonstrated the ability, the vigor and the reliability that command confidence, patron- age and capital, and his business has grown from year to year until the volume for 1921 approximated $200,000.

A large number of the modern structures of Charleston testify to his work as a contractor. There are residences too numerous to mention, and also. a good share of the business and industrial building. Some of his most recent contracts are the Frankenburg & Boyd business block on Summers Street, a store building on the corner of Summers and Kanawha streets, and the Sarver Apartments on Quar- rier Street, the Shields double apartment building on the South Side, the Baird hardware store at the corner of Charleston and Ohio streets, and a number of others.

Outside of his business Mr. Rogers finds his chief diver- sion and inspiration in his church. He is an active mem- ber of the Sixth Street Methodist Church, being president of the official board, trustee of the church property, district steward and teacher of its Men's Bible Class, which he has made one of the largest organizations of the kind in the city. Some of the best citizens in every line of business and the professions are represented in the class, and it is a class that exerts a strong influence for good not only within the church but within the community. Mr. Rogers married Miss Mamie Puckett, of Gallia County, Ohio, and they have one son, Rudolph Rogers.

A. G. HUGHES, judge of the Circuit Court of the Eight- eenth West Virginia Circuit, has spent all the years of his professional life in Preston County, but prior to that had represented his native county of Jackson in the State Sen- ate.

Judge Hughes was born on a farm near Ravenswood in Jackson County November 2, 1869. His ancestors came from Pennsylvania and old Virginia, and several of these ancestors were Patriot soldiers in the Revolution. An- other member of the family was the well-known Indian fighter Jesse Hughes. Grandfather Hughes spent his life as a farmer in Jackson County, and married Elizabeth Kile, of old American and Revolutionary stock. They had two sons and three daughters, the sons being Lewis H. and James.

Lewis H. Hughes, father of Judge Hughes, was born in 1844, and as a youth during the second year of the Civil war enlisted in the Union Army of Company K, Eleventh West Virginia Infantry. He saw service in his own state and also in old Virginia, and was in the final campaigns of the great war, including Appomattox. He served as a private soldier three and a half years, and was never in hospital and never wounded. When he returned home he became a farmer, and continued that occupation in the locality of his birth until his death in 1890. He was a republican, a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and a Methodist. His wife, Mary A. Lane, was a native of Jackson County and died in 1917. Of their family of three sons and two daughters, Judge Hughes is the oldest son.

Alvaroe Glenn Hughes lived in boyhood on the farm, at- tended country schools, the Wesleyan College at Buckhan- non, and received his A. B. and LL. B. degrees from West Virginia University at Morgantown. He graduated from the law school in 1902, and in January of the following year

located at Kingwood and formed a partnership with Hon. William G. Conley in the firm Hughes & Conley. He tried his first court case before Judge Holt. The firm continued in general practice until Mr. Conley's election as attorney l general and removal to Charleston, and after that Judgeker Hughes practiced alone until he was chosen circuit judge.

He was brought up a republican, casting his first presi- dential vote for Benjamin Harrison, and has voted at every general election since then. He was quite a young manou when his party nominated him for the Senate in Jackson County, for the district including Jackson, Mason and Roane counties. He was elected and began his four year f term in the Senate January 1, 1897. The presidents of thebo Senate during his two sessions were N. P. Whitaker andte Oliver Marshall. Judge Hughes was chairman of the com- mittee on education and of several other committees. Hel voted for N. B. Scott for United States Senator.

Five years after coming to Preston County he was ap-ou pointed prosecuting attorney to fill an unexpired term, and is was then twice elected, serving altogether nine years. ea Among the many criminal cases he tried, the most note- o worthy was the Mattingly prosecution, standing out as ones of the most remarkable in the criminal records in the ar county. Judge Hughes after retiring from the office ofy prosecuting attorney in 1917 devoted himself to general practice. In August, 1920, he received the nomination in ba convention for circuit judge, and was elected in November as the successor of Judge Neil J. Fortney. Prior to goingio on the bench Judge Hughes took an active part in repub- lican party politics, served on local committees, and has many times been a speaker in behalf of good and honesttio government.

Judge Hughes took his first degrees in Masonry at Terra Alta, is a member of DeMolay Commandery of Knights Templar at Grafton and the Scottish Rite bodies and Shrine at Wheeling. He is a past chancellor of Kingwood Lodge,p Knights of Pythias, and a member of Morgantown Lodgef of Elks.

In Preston County September 1, 1909, he married Miss Nellie Jackson, who was born, reared and educated int Kingwood. She is a daughter of Grove and Virginia (Menear) Jackson. Her mother is still living at King- wood. Mrs. Hughes was one of a family of two daughters! and two sons, and was a popular teacher of Kingwood prior to her marriage. Judge and Mrs. Hughes have one, daughter, Helen Louise, born in 1913. Judge Hughes has been a member of the Official Board of the Methodist Church at Kingwood.

JAMES J. TURNER is a prosperous and enterprising farmer in the Murphy's Creek neighborhood, three miles south- west of Weston. He has given his time and capabilities to the affairs of rural life for many years, and the honor and esteem he enjoys in the county is well shown by the fact that he is now a member of the County Court.

Mr. Turner was born on a farm on Sand Fork, Lewis County, March 9, 1854, son of Jackson and Margaret (Jarvis) Turner. Jackson Turner learned the trade off brick layer from his father, James Turner, but during the Civil war he was engaged in farming near Edmiston, where he died in 1863. His widow survived him until 1906. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Jackson Turner was a republican. Their children were: William H. was a soldier in the Union Army and was killed in service. John E. enlisted in the Union Army early in the war, was with his command until the end of hostilities and is now living at Rosedale, West Virginia. Mary Jane is the wife of H. L. Gaston. Lucy is the de- ceased wife of Levi Lockard, who was a Civil war veteran. Marcellus is a farmer at Edmiston.

James J. Turner grew up on a farm, attended country schools and the Weston public schools, and since school days his tasks and responsibilities have been almost entirely concentrated in the agricultural vocation. On April 2, 1885, he married Ida M. Langford, who was reared on the farm where she lives today. Her father, Rev. H. Langford, was a well known Baptist minister in this section of West Vir- ginia. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Turner settled

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a farm on Polk Creek, where they remained over twenty ars. Selling their property in that vicinity they moved 1906 to Murphy's Creek, where Mr. Turner owns a lendid farm of 140 acres. He and his family are mem- rs of Murphy's Creek Baptist Church, of which he is a ustee. He has always been a republican in politics, and 1918 was elected a member of the County Court and has ought to the questions and problems presented to the urt the benefit of long experience and thorough knowledge : conditions and affairs in Lewis County.

Mr. and Mrs. Turner have three children: Madge, wife : D. Q. Lawson, living on a farm in the Murphy's Creek mmunity; Lois, at home; and James J., Jr., a senior in e Weston High School.

THE WELLSBURG NATIONAL BANK is one of the most sub- antial and important financial institutions of Brooke unty and its judicial center, the City of Wellsburg. This storic old institution dates its foundation back to the ar 1832, when it instituted operations under the cor- rate title of Northwestern Bank of Virginia, or as the ellsburg branch of that pioneer banking corporation, the trent institution being the National Bank of Virginia at heeling. John C. Campbell, an attorney, became the first resident of the Wellsburg bank, and of him mention is ade in the general historical department of this publica- on. In 1863 a reorganization took place, and the institu- on acquired charter as the First National Bank of Wells- rg. Another reorganization, in 1871, resulted in the loption of the present corporate title, the Wellsburg Na- onal Bank. Mr. Campbell, the first president, eventually moved from Wellsburg to Wheeling and became one of e leading members of the bar of that city. Samuel cob, whose son Frank still resides at the old family home- ead, was a director of the bank until his death. W. K. endleton, president of Bethany College, became president 'the bank, and thus served until about 1882, when he be- me president of the college mentioned. John C. Palmer, ho received his personal names in honor of John C. ampbell, the first president of the institution, became pres- ent of the bank, and continued its executive head until s death in 1905, when he was succeeded by his son John , Jr., the present incumbent. J. S. Beall, father of Colo- 1 Beall, was active in the affairs of the bank for many ars, as were also his brother, Wilson Beall, and Adam uhn. Since 1871 the Wellsburg National Bank has based s operations on a capital stock of $100,000. In 1905 its sources were about $300,000, and to-day the resources e in excess of $1,000,000. The bank still occupies the bstantial building that was erected for its use in 1836 id which is now one of the venerable landmarks of Brooke ounty.

JAMES HORNOR DAVIS. A civil engineer by profession, r a number of years an extensive program of business terests has claimed the time and attention of James ornor Davis, whose home is in Clarksburg and who rep- sents an old family of Harrison County.

This branch of the Davis family originated in Wales, id settled in the State of Maryland prior to the Revolu- onary war. Caleb Davis, a grandson of the first Ameri- in settler, was born in Maryland, March 15, 1769, and ed probably in Virginia, April 25, 1834. His wife, Mary, as born November 10, 1774, and died September 2, 1827. hey had two sons and five daughters. Only three of the aughters' names are known, Rebecca, Ann and Minerva. he sons were John, born at Woodstock, Virginia, July 11, 797; and Rezin.

Rezin Davis, born. probably at Woodstock, Virginia, on ebruary 13, 1804, died at Clarksburg in March, 1884. He arried at Clarksburg, June 5, 1828, Miss Ann Pollard ritton, daughter of Forbes and Elizabeth (Pindall) Brit- n. She was born November 10, 1807, and died at Clarks- urg May 19, 1877. Their children, all natives of Clarks- urg, were: Caleb Forbes, born April 27, 1829, married arrie Cox; Mary Elizabeth, born September 11, 1830, arried William L. Hursey, son of John and Margaret Laughlin) Hursey; James Pindall, born January 5, 1832,

married Lovira Owens, daughter of Washington Owens; Margaret Wilson, born December 13, 1833, married Elmore B. Hursey, son of John and Margaret (Laughlin) Hursey; John Alexander, horn May 18, 1836, married Alcinda Jas- per, daughter of William Woodson Jasper; Rezin Pollard, born January 4, 1840, married Bettie A. Gambrill, of Elli- cott Mills, Maryland, and died July 20, 1876; Thomas, born April 24, 1842, died July 3, 1845; Edward, whose record is given in a following paragraph; Catherine, born August 3, 1847, died unmarried January 27, 1901.

Dr. Edward Davis, next to the youngest in the above fam- ily, was born July 3, 1844, and died at Clarksburg March 27, 1872. Though only twenty-eight when he died, he had earned success in his profession as a physician. On Oc- tober 25, 1866, at Clarksburg, he married Almira Louise Hornor, who was born at Lumberport, West Virginia, July 21, 1844, daughter of James Yard Hornor. A complete record of the Hornor family is given in a separate article. After the death of Doctor Davis his widow married Judge Gideon M. Camden, a distinguished citizen of the state, and after his death she became the wife of Judge George Wes- ley Atkinson, who at the time of their marriage was serv- ing as governor of West Virginia. This aged couple are now residing at Charleston. Dr. Edward Davis was the father of two sons: Edward Rezin, born at Clarksburg, West Virginia, February 11, 1868, married Garnet Hornor, daughter of Charles A. and Mary (Rhoades) Hornor, and James Hornor Davis.

James Hornor Davis was born on a farm near Bristol, formerly Cherry Camp, November 13, 1870, and was brought to Clarksburg by his mother shortly after the death of his father. He attended the public schools, gradu- ating from high school in May, 1888, and then spent two years in West Virginia University at Morgantown, where he trained himself for civil engineering. He still regards that as his active profession, though after ten years of practice other affairs began to take up much of his time. For a time after leaving university he was associated with his brother Edward in the hardware business. Mr. Davis was one of the organizers of the West Virginia, Ohio and West- ern Railroad, afterward changed to the West Virginia Short Line Railroad. This road was built from Clarks- burg to New Martinsville, West Virginia, and Mr. Davis was engineer on location. During 1903-04 he was deputy clerk of the County Court of Harrison County under Charles F. Holden, and resigned to engage in the real es- tate and insurance business at Clarksburg. Mr. Davis was appointed postmaster of Clarksburg, serving from 1917 to 1921, under the second administration of President Wood- row Wilson. He has served as a member of the city, county and state democratic executive committees, and is an ardent democrat. He is an active member of the First Presbyte- rian Church at Clarksburg, is a Knight Templar and thirty- second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and is a citizen who has assumed the deepest interest in the civic and business af- fairs of Clarksburg.

Mr. Davis is a director of the Union National Bank, the largest in Clarksburg, is president of and a large stock- holder in The Exponent Company, publishers of the Clarks- burg Exponent, and has a number of other business inter- ests in and around Clarksburg. While in West Virginia University he was appointed a Cadet by Peregrin Hays, and had military training throughout his university career. Later he was made second lieutenant of Company K of the First Regiment of the West Virginia National Guard upon its organization about 1893, and some two years later was made captain of the same company.

At Clarksburg, October 19, 1892, Mr. Davis married Edna Holmes, who was born in Fayette County, Pennsyl- vania, March 3, 1870, daughter of Matthew Gay and Eliza- beth Dawson (McCleary) Holmes. Her father was born in Preston County, West Virginia, November 20, 1838, and died at Clarksburg in March, 1907. In August, 1859, at the age of twenty-one, he went to Shanghai, China, and for nine years was in business there. In 1870 President Grant appointed him United States consul at Cheefoo, China. He resigned in 1872 and on returning to West Virginia es- tablished his home at Clarksburg, where for many years

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he was in the shoe business. In 1887 he served as a mem- ber of the House of Delegates, and in 1888 was elected sheriff of Harrison County. His widow, now living with her daughter, Mrs. Davis, is the daughter of William and Katherine McCleary, her father a resident of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Of the four children of M. G. Holmes and wife one died in infancy, a daughter, Minnie, died in early youth, the youngest is Mrs. Edna Davis, and her brother, W. Howard Holmes, lives at Oakland, Cali- fornia.

In their home in Clarksburg six children were born to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Davis: Elizabeth, born Au- gust 27, 1893, died the same day. Ewing McCleary, born September 22, 1894, died June 27, 1897. Catherine Louise, twin sister of Ewing, was married October 4, 1916, to Ed- ward Hart, son of John B. and Isabelle (Willis) Hart, and they now live at Charleston, West Virginia. Virginia Hor- nor, born September 26, 1896, was married September 17, 1919, to the late deceased Henry Walker Ruhl, son of John L. and Julia (Walker) Ruhl. James Edward and John Holmes Davis, the surviving sons, both unmarried and now finishing their educations in Princeton University, were born respectively June 4, 1901, and December 26, 1902.

THOMAS L. WOODSON. One of the leading citizens and progressive business men of Alderson is Thomas L. Wood- son, active vice president, manager and treasurer of the Woodson-Mahler Grocery Company, wholesale dealers. Dur- ing a long and active career he has been the architect of his own fortune in building up a solid structure of success, and of more recent years he has come favorably before the people as a champion of modern improvements, particularly those pertaining to good roads.

Mr. Woodson was born on a farm in Monroe County, West Virginia, September 21, 1863. Zacharia Augustus Woodson, his father was a native of old Virginia, and came to what is now Monroe County, West Virginia, where he engaged in farming and operated a flour mill on Wolf Creek. He was a quiet, unassuming man and unobtrusive, and was what might be termed well-read, having an edu- cation far above the average. He was a Baptist in religion and a democrat in politics, but was not active in a political way. Mr. Woodson married Sarah Alderson, a daughter of Capt. Jack Alderson, who was a son of the old legislator, George Alderson, or "Kanawha George," as he was more familiarly known, and a grandson of Elder John Alderson, the pioneer, whose name is indelibly impressed upon the history of Southeastern West Virginia. Zacharia A. and Sarah ( Alderson) Woodson had a large family of children. The parents are both deceased.

Thomas L. Woodson when a very small lad moved with his parents to a farm in Summers County, on the Greenbrier River. The Town of Talcott is located on a part of this property. Here Thomas L. grew to young manhood, receiv- ing a public school education, and at the age of nineteen years went to Sewell, Fayette County, where he remained for about ten years, first serving as a clerk in the coal commissary of the Longdale Iron Company and later being promoted to the position of buyer of this department. He then became traveling salesman for a Charleston wholesale grocery house, but about two years later resigned and ac- cepted a position as traveling salesman for a wholesale dry goods and furnishing establishment of Baltimore. Some seven years later, in 1910, having married Miss Nadine Worthington Dorsey, of Louisville, Kentucky, he accepted a more remunerative position as manager and buyer for the New River Company, a holding company for several con- cerns in Fayette County, West Virginia, which community continued to be the home of Mr. and Mrs. Woodson for about ten years. In 1910 he organized the Woodson-Mah- ler Grocery Company at Alderson, bought out the old job- bing concern known as the Merchants' Grocery Company and also absorbed, some time later, the Thompson Grocery Company, a wholesale enterprise. This consolidation be- came the Woodson-Mahler Grocery Company, wholesale dealers, with a capitalization of $200,000. July 1, 1922, this concern was recapitalized with a $500,000 capital, under

the firm name of Woodson, Prince & Company. This concer has greatly expanded and is beyond question the larges concern of its kind in this entire section, giving employ ment to some thirty or more people and having very larg annual sales. A republican in politics, Mr. Woodson ha taken an active interest in public matters and served on year as mayor of Alderson and several years as chairma of the Republican Executive Committee of Greenbrie County. Few men in Southeastern West Virginia hav sacrificed as much in time and money for public improve ments as has Mr. Woodson, this particularly applying t good roads, a movement which is one of his greatest hob bies. Mr. Woodson is a member of the board of director of the American Wholesale Grocers Association, whos general offices are located at Jacksonville, Florida. Th American Wholesale Grocers Association was formerly th Southern Wholesale Grocers Association.

WILLIAM H. SAWYERS. In the thirtieth consecutive yea of his law practice at Hinton William H. Sawyers ha accumulated achievements not only in his profession bu in business affairs and politics, and is easily one of the most influential men in his section of the state. H. was admitted to the bar at Hinton May 6, 1893, by Judge A. N. Campbell and Homer G. Holt of the Supreme Cour of Appeals and Judge Frank A. Guthrie of the Kanawha Circuit.

The old Norman French way of spelling the name wal Sawtiers. In France they were Catholics, but became con verted to the protestant faith through the reading o: protestant literature, and they suffered exile to England There is record of John Hacker, age seventeen, Willian Sawyers, age eighteen, and Robert Sheppeard, age twenty who ran away from England and came to America in 1608 in Ye Hopewell, T. Babb was Master. These usefu immigrants settled at "James Citty" in the Virginia colony, and it is from William Sawyers that the present branch of the family is descended.

Sampson M. Sawyers, great-grandfather of the Hintor lawyer, served seven years in the American Army during the war for independence. He was under General Wash ington. His half brother, William Sawyers, was a participant in the battle of Point Pleasant on the western side of the Alleghany Mountains in October, 1774. The grandfather of William H. Sawyers was Alexander Sawyers, who was a soldier in the battle of New Orleans under Jackson at the close of the War of 1812.

Joseph A. Sawyers, father of the lawyer, was born ir Alleghany County, Virginia, in 1840, and was a soldier in the Confederate Army in the artillery branch under Gen. George Carter. For a time he was under the command of Stonewall Jackson, and was in General Lee's army at Appomattox. He went through thirty-six major engage- ments and was once slightly wounded. He was a non-com- missioned officer. After the war and for many years he was a prosperous farmer in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, always voted for and supported the democratic ticket, and was a member of the Methodist Church. He died December 11, 1916. Joseph A. Sawyers married Cornelia V. Doss, a native of Franklin County, Virginia, and now living at the old Sawyers homestead in Greenbrier County. She was born in 1846, and all her married life has been spent in Greenbrier County. Her three sons are: William H .; Augustus, a farmer at the old homestead in Greenbrier County; and James L., a traveling salesman for Lewis Hubbard & Company of Charleston, living at Alderson.

These sons finished their education in the home schools and in the Concord Normal School at Athens. William H. Sawyers graduated from the Concord Normal on July 2, 1891. Before he became a lawyer he taught seven terms of school, and at one time was principal of the Hinton High School. He completed his law course in West Virginia University at Morgantown in 1894, and he also attended the Columbian University at Washington during 1899-1900, while employed in the Department of the In- terior. He also was a student a portion of two years in the International School of Law and Diplomacy, whose

W Hoode

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ean was Oliver W. Needham ard whose staff of instructors id lecturers included Associate Justices Harlan, Brewer, ay and John W. Foster.

After his admission to the bar Mr. Sawyers began 'actice at Hinton, and his law business has brought him fore all the courts, including the Local and Circuit ourts of his home state, and the Federal Courts of Rich- ond and Charleston. He has served a number of business terests and corporations as attorney and in other pacities, and has helped organize several banks. He has en secretary and attorney of record for three coal corpora- ons, the Piney Coal & Coke Land Company, the MeCreery entral Pocahontas Coal Land Company, and the James McCreery Company.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 198

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