History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 30

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John Newton Casey, the younger, attended the public schools of Ironton, Ohio, leaving school in 1903. In the same year he commenced his connection with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company, starting as bill clerk in the offices at Ironton, Ohio. Later he was promoted to the po- sition of cashier, and this was followed by his advancement to the post of assistant agent at Russell, Kentucky. In August, 1913, he was transferred to Huntington, West Vir- ginia, where he acted as ticket agent until July, 1917, and was then promoted to be chief clerk to the chief car dis- tributor. In May, 1918, he was appointed car distributor at St. Albans, West Virginia, and January 1, 1919, was made night chief car distributor at Huntington. On Jan- uary 1, 1921, he was advanced to be chief car distributor at Huntington, the position which he holds at this time. His offices are situated on the third floor of the passenger depot of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, on Seventh Ave- nue, between Ninth and Tenth streets. Mr. Casey is a thorough railroad man, and, having worked his way up through the various departments, has a comprehensive knowledge of details. He has found little time to devote to matters outside of the immediate line of his work, but takes a good citizen's interest in civic affairs and politics, and votes the republican ticket. His religious affiliation is with the Christian Church. Mr. Casey is a thirty-second degree Mason, and a member of Huntington Lodge No. 53, A. F. and A. M., West Virginia Consistory No. 1, of Wheeling, and Beni-Kedem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., at Charleston. He owns a pleasant and comfortable residence at No. 614 Fifth Street, one of Huntington's modern homes.

On September 6, 1916, Mr. Casey was united in marriage at Mobile, Alabama, with Miss Marie Richey, a graduate of Marshall College, Huntington, and a daughter of Will- iam C. and Mollie (Darling) Richey, residents of Hunting- ton, where Mr. Richey is identified with the Varnum Realty

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

Company. Two children have come to Mr. and Mrs. Casey : Mary Eloise, born May 17, 1918; and Anna Maxine, born November 30, 1919.

DRAPER C. HOOVER is, in 1922, serving his third consecu- tive term as a deputy sheriff of Webster County, main- tains his residence at Webster Springs, the county seat, and is the owner of a well improved farm in the county. Mr. Hoover was born on a farm in this county, August 30, 1873, and is a son of William H. and Jerusha (Mc- Elvaine) Hoover, both natives of what is now West Vir- ginia, the father having been born in Braxton County, on the 14th of March, 1845, and the latter havingbeen born in Webster County, in 1842, and here ber death oc- curred in 1909. William H. Hoover was reared on the old home farm of his parents in Braxton County, and gained his youthful education in the subscription schools of the locality and period and by ambitious application to study at home. He read much and with discrimination, gained broad information and was a specially apprecia- tive student of history during the entire course of his life. After their marriage he and his wife lived on a farm in Braxton County about two years, and then came to Web- ster County, where he purchased the excellent farm which continued the stage of his productive enterprise until the close of his life, in 1890. He was a man of mature judg- ment, and thus wielded no little influence in community affairs of public order. His political faith was that of the democratic party, and he was at one time a candidate for the State Senate, his defeat being compassed by the political exigencies implied in the large republican major- ity given normally in the district at that time. He served under Sheriff P. F. Duffy as a deputy sheriff of Webster Couuty and was also a member of the board of education of his district, both he and his wife having been zealous members of the Methodist Protestant Church. Of the thir- teen children two died in infancy and eight are living in 1922.

Draper C. Hoover bas reason to congratulate himself for having received in his boyhood and youth the sturdy discipline of the farm, for he was seventeen years of age at the time of his father's death, and his training had for- tified him for the responsibilities which thus fell upon him in the management of the home farm for his widowed mother, with whom he remained until he had attained to the age of twenty-seven years and who was the object of his deep filial solicitude until her death. He has never severed his allegiance to the great basic industries of ag- riculture and stock-growing, and still maintains a general supervision of his valuable farm near Cowen, Webster County, besides which he is a director of the First Na- tional Bank of Cowen, of which he was formerly vice presi- dent. He is unwavering in support of the principles of the democratic party, and is affiliated with Cowen Lodge No. 176, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is a past noble grand and which he represented in the Grand Lodge of the state in 1898.

In January, 1900, Mr. Hoover wedded Miss Ella Payne, of Webster Springs, in which village she was reared and educated, she having been a popular teacher in the schools of her native county prior to her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Hoover became the parents of four children, of whom the first-born, Fred C., died at the age of five years; Leo F. graduated in the Webster Springs High School and is now a successful teacher in the public schools of this village; Wealthy is attending the home high school and Lillian, the autocrat of the parental home, is three years old.

JAMES W. WHITE. That Mr. White is a citizen of maxi- mum progressiveness and influence in Webster City, judicial center of Webster County, needs no further voucher than the statement that here be is serving as postmaster and is also editor, publisher and active manager of the Webster Republican, a weekly newspaper that is an effective expo- nent of local interests and of the principles of the repub- lican party.

Mr. White was born at Kingwood, Preston County, West

Virginia, on the 2d of December, 1858, and is a son of John N. and Malinda J. (Feather) White, both likewise natives of Preston County, where the respective families were founded in the pioneer days, when that section was on the frontier of the western part of Virginia. John N. White was reared under the influences and conditions of the pi- oneer days, and in his youth learned the carpenter trade, to which he continued to devote his attention at Albright, Pres- ton County, until the Civil war began. His loyalty to the Union was signalized by his prouipt enlistment in 1861 as a member of a regiment of West Virginia volunteer infantry, and he continued in active service, with a record of valor in numerous battles and minor engagements, until he was captured by Confederate forces and incarcerated in historic Andersonville Prison, the hardships of which he endured un- til his death, which there occurred in 1864. His widow sur- vived him many years, both having become earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church long prior to the separation of the bodies of the denomination in the North and the South, incidental to the Civil war. They became the parents of four children: Letitia is the wife of William R. Shaffer, a representative teacher at Morgan- town; James W., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Joseph C. is a prosperous farmer in Upshur; and Mrs. Eliza Forsythe is deceased, as is also her husband.

The schools of his native county afforded to James W. White his youthful education, and there also he served his apprenticeship to the printer's trade, which as a jour- neyman he thereafter followed in various newspaper offices. He became associated with E. M. Heermans as one of the editors and publishers of the Preston County Journal at Kingwood, and after a period of ten years he sold his in- terest in this paper and became editor and publisher of the Preston Leader and New Era. With this paper he contin- ued his active alliance until 1910, when he purchased the plant and business of the Webster Republican, of which he has since been editor and publisher and which has been brought to a high standard under his vigorous and pro- gressive management. While a resident of Kingwood Mr. White there served two years as postmaster, besides which he represented his native county two terms in the Lower House of the State Legislature. He has been a resolute and resourceful advocate and supporter of the principles and policies for which the republican party has ever stood spon- sor in a basic way, and has done much to advance its local interests, both through his newspapers and his activity in its councils and campaign work, At Kingwood he still re- tains affiliation with Preston Lodge No. 90, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The maiden name of Mrs. White was Nettie F. Graham, and she likewise was born and reared in Preston County. They had children: Martha J., a gradu- ate of Shepherd College, is the wife of William B. Snyder, of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and Kathleen, who is deceased. Mrs. White, the mother of these children, died February 1, 1896. On March 5, 1921, Mr. White married Mrs. Helen Purinton Liady, of New York City, but a na- tive of Preston County, West Virginia.

GEORGE W. JACKSON is giving most effective service as clerk of the Circuit Court for Webster County, and is one of the popular citizens of Webster Springs, the county seat. He was born in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, October 18, 1883, and is a son of William A. and Nannie B. (Brant) Jackson, both likewise natives of that county, where the former was born in 1861 and the latter in 1862, each having been reared on a farm and each having re- ceived the advantages of the local schools of the period. They still reside on the farm upon which they established their home at the time of their marriage and which is the stage of successful agricultural and live-stock industry, William A. Jackson being the owner of a valuable landed estate of 320 acres and having become one of the repre- sentative agriculturists and leading stock-growers of his native county. His political allegiance is given to the dem- ocratic party, and both he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church. Of the seven children all are living except one: Henry C. is a graduate of the Dunsmore Business

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

College at Lewisburg, judicial center of Greenbrier County ; Naomi is the wife of W. P. Via; George W., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; Gordon is a successful farmer in his native county; and Jennie and Clowny remain at the parental home.

In the public schools of Greenbrier County George W. Jackson continued his studies until his graduation from the high school at Lewisburg, and thereafter he graduated also from the Dunsmore Business College, besides which he took a course in the Moore School of Telegraphy in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio. Thereafter he served as telegraph opera- tor and relief agent in the employ of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company. He was for nine years with Me- Graw on the narrow-gauge line, was a station agent eight years, and for one year was treasurer of the narrow-gauge railroad. He was appointed postmaster of Webster Springs under the administration of President Wilson, and after retaining this office five years and four months and giving a most satisfactory administration he was, in the autumn of 1920, elected Circuit Court clerk for Webster County, the duties of which office he assumed January 1, 1921. He is the owner of one-half interest in the Webster Echo, a dem- ocratic weekly paper published at Webster Springs, and is a stockholder in the People's Store, a leading mercan- tile concern of this village. Mr. Jackson has wielded much influence in connection with the councils and campaign work of the Webster County contingent of the democratic party. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, of which he is a steward, and he is a past master of Addison Lodge No. 116, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

On the 4th of July, 1906, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jackson and Miss Virgie Cool, and they have two daughters: Helen, born December 22, 1916, and Jean, born November 10, 1920.

JUDGE SAMUEL D. LITTLEPAGE was born at "Greystone," the Littlepage Mansion, west of Charleston, Kanawha Coun- ty, West Virginia, on February 14, 1856. He was the fourth son of Adam B. Littlepage, Sr., and Rebecca Wood Little- page, and one of their seven children. His father, Adam B. Littlepage, Sr., was a native of Virginia, of an old Vir- ginian ancestry, more remotely Scotch-English, and was one of the early settlers in Kanawha County, West Virginia, in the late 30's. He first settled at Malden, Kanawha County, at that time a part of the State of Virginia. Later, in the early 40's, he moved down the Kanawha River to a point west of the Elk River, and there completed a home, known as "Greystone," in which he lived until the outhreak of the Civil war.

Rebecca Wood Littlepage, the mother of Judge Samuel D. Littlepage, was a daughter of the sturdy mountaineer Woods family, part of which family lived near the mouth of Coal River, Kanawha County, West Virginia.

Adam B. Littlepage, Sr., was a type of character peculiar to the southwest mountain section of West Virginia. At the outbreak of the Civil war he and his oldest son, Jolın Littlepage, enlisted in the Confederate army. Adam B. Littlepage was killed in the army early in the war, and John Littlepage served throughout the conflict. At the death of his father another aon, Charles Littlepage, the next oldest, ran away from home to take the place of his father in the Confederate army.

During the war the devastation by both the Federal army and Confederate army left the widow and the seven children of Adam B. Littlepage, Sr., with nothing hnt the land and home acquired by him-reduced from prosperity and plenty to actual want. The family clung together and sought to re-establish their fallen fortunes. The five boys remained on the farm and that, with their several efforta, together with the guiding genius and un- faltering spirit of their mother, provided a livelihood for them all.

Two of the boys, Adam B. Littlepage, Jr., and Samnel D. Littlepage, were inseparable. By dint of their efforts and unfailing courage they acquired enough funda and a country school education with which to enable them to take up the study of their chosen profession, the law.

Judge Samuel D. Littlepage first atudied law under the late Judge James Ferguson at his home at Charleston, West Virginia, and having earned enough money to pay his way he entered Washington and Lee University, and there com- pleted his studies of law. He was admitted to the Charles- ton bar in 1886.

. In 1887 Judge Littlepage and Miss Mary Kemp were married. His wife was a daughter of a Confederate aol- dier, Burrell Thomas Kemp, living at Albany, Georgia, who had served throughout the Civil war. Three children were born to them, a son, Burrell Kemp Littlepage, and two daughters, Mra. Rebecca Littlepage Wood and Mrs. Charlea Littlepage Donnally.

Judge Littlepage was a democrat of the old school. He was defeated on his party ticket for circuit clerk in 1884 in Kanawha County. A few years later he was elected and served a term as assessor of Kanawha Couuty. In 1912 he was elected circuit judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit of West Virginia, composed of the counties of Kanawha and Clay. Between 1910 and 1912 he and his aon were partners in the general practice of law at Charleston. The partnership was dissolved when he went upon the bench.

Judge Littlepage was known for his unceasing, untiring, prompt, and fair discharging of his judicial duties on the bench. He had the rare faculty of successfully delving to the bottom of legal controversies submitted to him, and seemed gifted with the ability to arrive at just deci- siou of the merits of the case, even more as a man than as a jurist coldly applying the technical gauges of the law. He gained the love and respect alike of members of the bar practicing before him, litigants submitting their causes to him, and the masses of the people who had placed him in the judgeship, which he held at his death, in a manner seldom, if ever, equaled as a tribute paid to any public man in the State of West Virginia.

He was possessed of a force of will and self-reliance and a courage above the average. In whatsoever undertak- ing he engaged his strong personality was a large factor, and his perseverance brought to him his success in life under conditions that would have discouraged a less sturdy and determined character. He feared no antagonist and was unfaithful to no client or trust. He was of a cheerful and optimistic disposition, and possessed a courtesy and gallantry typical of the old school of Southern gentlemen.

Having spent his childhood and early manhood outdoors in a sparsely settled community at a time and in a section where the use of a gun was treated as a necessary part of an education, it was but natural that his inclination throughout his life should be toward the great outdoors. He was an ardent hunter and fisherman, and gained from Nature a vision in his early years by his communion with her in her visible forms, that was materialized in his after life, not only in a love for his fellow men, but for all living creatures.

He was imbued with a spirit of kindliness that was not the least of the qualities that drew all living things to him as their friend. He was a Mason and a member of the First Presbyterian Church.

His home, the family mansion "Greystone,"' was ac- quired by him in 1898 from the other heirs, after the death of his mother. His never-failing kindnesses and courtesy, his hospitality, and his standing as a man of integrity in his community where he lived brought to his home from all walks of life those who, because of his qualities, held for him a deep and true affection-and they were legion.

Judge Littlepage was an indefatigable worker. He had no set hours for applying himself to the duties of the judgeship, which he held immediately preceding his death. His seemingly untiring efforts in that respect were the immediate cause of his death. His steady application to the duties of his office finally told upon what had been an iron constitution. Possessed of a great physique-he was six feet in height and 200 pounds in weight-he did not realize the limitations placed upon all men, and in 1916, as a result of excessive application to his duties, he suffered a collapse. On August 19, 1917, at Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he had gone seeking relief and reat, he died. He was buried at Charleston, West Virginia, and

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

two years later his wife, Mary Kemp Littlepage, followed him, in death his companion as faithfully as in life. His death was a loss not only to the bar, but to the commu- nity, and his epitaph is written more truly and fittingly in the hearts of his friends and acquaintances than could be recorded upon paper or stone.

BURRELL KEMP LITTLEPAGE, son of the late Judge Samuel D. Littlepage, whose record precedes this, has taken up the same profession that his father followed, and has an ex- tensive practice at Charleston.

He was born in Charleston, West Virginia, June 28, 1888, was educated in the Charleston public schools and in St. John's Manlius Military Institute at Syracuse, New York. He studied law in the University of West Virginia, receiv- ing the LL. B. degree in 1911 and his literary degree in 1910. He was admitted to the bar and began practice in Charleston in 1910, entering practice as a member of the firm Littlepage and Littlepage, the other member being the late Judge Samuel D. Littlepage.

He served as member of the City Council from 1914 to 1916. In 1916 he received the democratic nomination for prosecuting attorney of Kanawha County, and in spite of the fact that the county gave a large normal republican majority he was elected. He served four years, beginning January 1, 1917. He was the youngest prosecuting attorney the county ever had. He administered the office with the heaviest normal routine of duties in the state, and also with the increased burdens imposed by the war period as U. S. Government appeal agent for three boards in the county. Since retiring from office he has been engaged in general practice as a member of the firm Byrne, Littlepage & Linn at Charleston. The thoroughness and efficiency of his work as a lawyer and his fidelity to the interest of his clients have won for him an exceptionally large and valuable practice.

Mr. Littlepage married Miss Madge K. Robins, of Charles- ton, daughter of Dr. J. E. Robins, one of the eminent busi- ness men of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Littlepage and their children reside in "Greystone, " the old stone mansion in the suburbs of Charleston which has been the home of the Littlepage family for four generations.

WAITMAN T. TALBOTT, engaged in the successful prac- tice of law at Webster Springs, judicial center of Webster county, not only has standing as one of the able members of the bar of his native state but has also given effective service as a representative of Webster County in the House of Delegates of the State Legislature, in which he made a characteristically loyal and effective record and in which he served during six or more sessions.

Mr. Talbott was born in Barbour County, West Virginia. on the 28th of September, 1868, and is a son of William W. and Sarah (Simons) Talbott, both likewise natives of that county, where the former was born in 1832 and the latter in 1839. The parents passed their entire lives in Barbour County, where the father developed and improved an excel- lent farm near Berryburg, and hecame a leading exponent of agricultural and live-stock industry, as well as a citizen of influence in community affairs of public order. He was a staunch democrat, and both he and his wife were zealous members of the Missionary Baptist Church, in which he served as a deacon. William W. Talbott was a son of Rob- ert Talbott, who was a pioneer farmer in Barbour County and who there served as sheriff prior to the Civil war, four of his brothers having participated in that fratricidal con- flirt as loyal soldiers of the Confederacy. Of the eleven children of William W. and Sarah (Simons) Talbott all except one are living at the time of this writing, in the spring of 1922: Salathiel M. is a farmer in the vicinity of Harriman, Idaho; Dr. L. W. is a successful physician and surgeon at Elkins, West Virginia; Elem D. is engaged in the practice of law at Elkins; Abraham I. is a member of the police department of Kansas City, Missouri; Florence is the widow of Garnett Hudkins; Fitzhugh Lee is in the employ of the Government in the Yellowstone National Park; William F. is a farmer near Berryburg, Barbour County; Waitman T., of this sketch, was next in order of

birth; Virginia is the widow of E. H. Crim and resides at Philippi, Barbour County; and Robert D. is a prosperous farmer in that county.

Waitman T. Talbott passed his childhood and earlier youth on the old home farm which was the place of his birth, and his public-school discipline was fortified by a course in the West Virginia State Normal School at Fair- mont. After leaving that institution he finally entered the law department of the University of West Virginia, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1895 and with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was forth- with admitted to the bar of West Virginia and has since been engaged in the practice of his profession at Webster Springs, as one of the leading members of the bar of Web- ster County. In a fraternal way he maintains affiliation with Addison Lodge No. 86, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

November 21, 1900, recorded the marriage of Mr. Tal- bott and Miss Addie B. Greynolds, of Beverly, Randolph County, and they have three children: William R., Mil- dred and Kathryn, the two older children being members of the class of 1923 in the high school at Webster Springs.

SAMUEL GREENBERRY WILLIAMSON, secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Iaeger Motor Company at Jaeger, McDowell County, was born in Berkeley County, West Virginia, March 28, 1894, and is a son of Samuel Johns and May B. (Ditto) Williamson, the former of whom likewise was born in Berkeley County and the latter of whom was born in Washington County, Maryland.

Samuel Johns Williamson, who died in his native county in 1904, at the age of thirty-five years, gained a liberal edu- cation largely through private study and through the me- dium of correspondence schools and a business college at Louisville, Kentucky. As a youth he became a successful teacher in the rural schools, and thereafter he served eight years as a teacher in the high school at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in which connection he drove daily a distance of seven miles to and from his home farm. At the time of his death he had a contract to teach mathematics in the Concord State Normal School at Athens, West Virginia. His father, Samuel Johns Williamson, was born in Berke- ley County, Virginia (now West Virginia), and there passed his entire life as a farmer, his homestead place having been a part of a tract of land granted to the Johns family in 1753, the patent to the property having been signed by Governor White, then chief executive of the Old Dominion commonwealth or colony. This historic instrument is now in the possession of the subject of this sketch, by whom it is valued as a family heirloom. Samuel J. and May B. (Ditto) Williamson are survived by two sons and two daughters, all of whom are graduates of the Shepherds College State Normal School of Virginia. As descendants on the maternal side of Capt. John Miller the two daughters are members of the Society of the Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution. Mrs. May B. (Ditto) Williamson graduated from Berkeley Female Seminary, and thereafter was for one year a teacher in that institution. The religious faith of the Williamson family for generations was that of the Pres- byterian Church, but Samuel J. and May (Ditto) William- son were active members of the Methodist Protestant Church. He was a republican in political adherency. Mrs. Williamson survived her husband by about fourteen years, and was fifty-one years of age at the time of her death.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 30

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