USA > West Virginia > Prominent men of West Virginia: biographical sketches, the growth and advancement of the state, a compendium of returns of every election, a record of every state officer; > Part 13
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Governor Stevenson knew no such sentiment as hate; it was foreign to his nature. In all the long years of our intercourse with
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him, and some of them covered political strifes that were noted for their acrimony and malignity, I never heard him, with a single exception, utter an unkind word against any man. That excep- tion was when he had been attacked in a paper with uncommon severity ; as he read it he exclaimed : " what a villain," but im- mediately checked himself and retracted the words.
The Governor was not a member of any evangelic church, but the religious element in his nature was strong and fervent. He was reared in the Calvinistic faith, his parents being members of the old Scotch Covenanters. He had an encouraging word and an open purse for all denominations, and was an unyielding advocate of the primal tenets of Christianity. He was a Sunday School worker all his life, and for twenty years was Superin- tendent of the Sabbath School in his neighborhood, supporting it with faithful services and liberal donations. No taint ever rested upon his private life ; so pure was it the whisper of scandal was never raised against it. He possessed the confidence, esteem and love of all who knew him, and outside of the influence of political strife I do not believe that Governor Stevenson had an enemy in the world.
Some fifteen months before death he was attacked by a dis- ease that defied the skill of physicians and resisted all treatment. It finally developed into a cancerous affection that terminated his life on Thanksgiving day, November 29th, 1883. His last days were days of great suffering, but no murmur escaped him. His mind was clear, and he arranged the preliminaries of his funeral obsequies with the same calm, methodical system that characterized his life.
Nine days before, November 30, 1883, he commissioned a per- sonal friend to read at his funeral a carefully prepared state- ment of his religious convictions. This synopsis of his Christian faith not only does his intellect and heart credit, but shows the mainspring of his life, so devoted to the uplifting of his fellow men. He left a widow, who since followed him through the impenetrable veil, and a son, Orlando, who was his private sec- retary in Executive days, and who is in mercantile life at Par- kersburg. On his monument, in Riverview Cemetery, where his ashes now repose, might appropriately be inscribed : he loved the masses, and they revere his memory.
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JOHN J. JACOB.
HE first. Democratic Governor of the State, succeeding William E. Stevenson, the latest Repulican Executive, was from the North Branch of the Potomac in Hampshire county, where he was born December 9, 1829.
His father, a Methodist minister, was a native of Maryland, an officer, first Lieutenant, then Captain, in the Sixth regiment of the Maryland Line in the Revolutionary war, probably the best regiment in the service. Reference is made to it and its fine personnel and bright uniforms, in the term "Maccaroni" in the never-to-be-forgotten and unique words of Yankee Doodle, In those days maccaroni meant dandy, or as modern nomencla- ture lisps it, dude. The term was so applied because it was the best equipped and neatest dressed regiment in the army. He afterwards preached in the section in which he lived, although he did not travel around as preachers generally did, nor did he have the position of a pastor with regular salary, but was widely known and esteemed for his intelligence and probity. He was a member of the county court of Hampshire, then-as the old- est magistrate under the old regime by priority-became high- sheriff. He was a candidate for Congress once, but not elected. His first wife was the widow of the famous Captain Cresap. His second, the mother of the distinguished subject of this sketch, was Susan McDavitt, who died in 1880. After the father's death in 1839, the mother removed to Romney, where the youthful John J. went to school at the Academy, then in the Classical Institute, and last was sent to Carlile, Pennsylva- nia, entering Dickinson College, whence he graduated in 1859. He studied law and taught school for a short time in his native county. In the Fall of 1853 he was elected one of the Profes- sors of the University of Missouri, filling the chair until 1860, when the spirit of approaching sectional agitation paralyzed nearly every pursuit and profession in the Border States. For the next four years he contined law studies along with such practice as offered, and returning to his old home in Romney, in the Summer of 1865, resumed law practice in connection with Colonel Robert White, as partner. He was elected to the House of Delegates, session of 1869, as a Democrat, and therein was brought into such general notice and popularity over the State that, in 1870, he was nominated and elected to fill the Executive chair from March 4, 1871, to 3d March, 1873.
ELGER CEN
HON. JOHN J. JACOB.
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During his administration a Constitutional Convention was called, a new and in many respects different fundamental law enacted, the entire membership of Circuit and Supreme courts changed, and the party to which he belonged, from its heavy majority and the envious desire of leaders, was threatened with dissensions. The convention of the party in 1872 nominated Hon. Johnson N. Camden for his successor. Many of the prominent leaders deemed that the excellent administration of Governor Jacob entitled him, and the situation demanded for him, a second term, and accordingly an independent movement was put in action, his candidacy announced, his acceptance given and the two Democratic aspirants for leadership were in the field. The Republicans endorsed the Independent one, and in the election he was successful, and March 4, 1873, was inaug- urated for an extended term of four years more. During this term the Capital removal bill was passed, and the seat of Gov- ernment was temporarily transferred for ten years from Charles- ton to Wheeling, and the attendant processes of Injunction were exciting the State. The remainder of his term was passed in Wheeling, and upon its expiration, March 4, 1877, he located there, resuming the practice of law. He was elected to the House of Delegates from Ohio county, session of 1879, and in 1881, Governor Jackson appointed him Judge of the First Cir- cuit, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Hon. Thayer Melvin, and in 1882 he was elected and filled the office to the end of the term, December 31, 1888, when he again re- turned to the practice of law. He is a reliable and successful lawyer, was an able and just jurist, and a firm, faithful State Executive.
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HENRY G. DAVIS.
S 1 OME men make their careers; many are made by them ; but the men are few to whom a career is at once training and achievement. Yet this is success in its full flower, when great- ness grows by what it feeds upon. It is true of such men, be their place what it may, in camp or hall, in business or man- ufacture, enacting the laws or controlling the daily labors of men, that their abilities rise with their achievements; that their career educates them, and the prizes of life become the visible signs of aptitude in the great school where men set their own tasks, and rise as their efforts are equalled by their triumphs. These truisms, written by a friend, so well fit the man of whom I am going to write, that I set them here as a compass by which to guide the course of the lines that are to follow.
Henry G. Davis is pre-eminently a self-made man. He was trained in hard work and economy, under the influence of a Christian mother, who combined strength of character with parental devotion. His career is marked with continuous suc- cesses, and he has won and retained the regard of all who knew him. A man of large means, he avoids display, but is liberal and generous. How could one fail of success, when from the beginning his life-work was adjusted to the following rules, to which he has always strictly adhered :
1. The strictest integrity in everything. His word is his bond. The matter is a sentiment with him, and he is as stubborn in requiring it in others as he is careful to practice the quality himself.
2. Industry ; willingness to work, whether others work or not.
3. Attention to details; a passion with him which is as char- acteristic of him to-day as it was when he was a young man.
4. Economy and keeping out of debt-always paying cash.
5. Being thoroughly alive to opportunities within his obser- vation.
6. Never allowing his physical vigor to be impaired by excesses of any kind.
Mr. Davis began early. His father, Caleb Davis, was a Welshman by descent, who at one time was a prosperous mer- chant in Baltimore, but engaged in railroad building and was not successful. He built the little town of Woodstock, in Ma- ryland. Henry G. Davis, the second of his five children, was
HON. H. G. DAVIS.
ʻ
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born November 16, 1823. A few years later the father died. The mother, whose maiden name was Louisa Brown, was a sister of the mother of Hon. Arthur P. Gorman, United States Senator from Maryland. She was left with the care, support and government of her children. She had the will of her race and gave them an excellent training. Circumstances compelled them to be industrious and economical, and they were trained to the strictest integrity. The necessity for work in the family was greater than the opportunity for study. When a mere boy Henry went to work on the farm of Andrew Dorsey, which formerly belonged to his family, and afterwards on that of ex- Governor Howard at Waverly. Here he managed to add some- thing to the rudiments of his meagre English education. The boy was will g, smart and active, and became a sort of super- intendent n the farm. He made. friends, and when he had reached the age of nineteen, one of these friends, Dr. Woodside, the first superintendent of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, then running from Baltimore to Cumberland, gave him a place as brakeman of a freight train on that road.
Railroading was then in its infancy. There were no telegraph lines to aid it, and no means of communicating with the train after it had started for its destination. It was thought impossi- ble to run a train during the night. Delays were frequent and accidents numerous. It took practical skill, nerve and energy to surmount the difficulties which daily confronted the train- men. Young Davis liked his work, and went into it with an honest and ambitious desire to justify the recommendation of his employer and friend, Dr. Woodside. In the first place he attended strictly to business and neglected nothing that would promote the interests of his road, no matter whether it put him to extra trouble or not. This attention, even to small details, and willingness to take trouble, have been marked and leading traits of Mr. Davis all his life.
His willingness to work was what made him a conductor on the road. There had been a wreck; the road had to be cleared up; there was a great deal to do. He rallied the men and went at it with energy and zeal. It was while thus engaged that he was no- ticed by the President of the road, who had come to the scene of the disaster, and who presently remarked to him : " We have use for you in more important work." He was made a freight
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conductor and subsequently a passenger conductor. Each new call found him ready. As his energy and willing disposition became known to the company he was promoted steadily.
Mr. Davis was always strictly temperate in his habits, and he had the kindred virtue of economy both impressed upon him by the excellent training of his mother. He saved all the money he could while assisting to support his mother and her family. At the age of 28 he married his present wife, a daughter of Judge Bantz, of Frederick, Maryland, with whom he has lived in happy wedlock for more than a generation.
From his earliest boyhood Mr. Davis has given evidence of his ability to rise to the requirements of any position to which he might be called. He was always diffident, even backward at times, to a degree that often hampered his advancement; but when an emergency forced him into self-assertion he never failed to respond. He needed just such training as railroad life gave to fit him for the path in life he selected at the parting of the ways. In those early days, when railroads were new and accidents numerous, there were frequent occasions when practical skill, great nerve and indomitable energy were all important factors in surmounting difficulties and avoiding dangers, and he very soon gave ample evidence of the possession of these qualities in a superior degree. Each new duty brought fresh responsibilities and a wider contact with mankind, calling out the latent quali- ties of the man, that were always handicapped by the meagre opportunities of his youth and his retiring disposition. It was not long after his promotion that he became one of the most popular employees of the road. He was regarded as reliable by the corporation he served, as well as by the public, and was carefully attentive to his passengers. The traditions of Captain Davis' service as conductor are still fresh along the line, among the people who traveled on the trains of which he was in charge.
In those days he took little interest in politics, but his conser- vative disposition naturally inclined him to the Whig party, and he cast his first vote for Henry Clay, the same year he made his first material rise in railroading. Afterwards he became ac- quainted with Mr. Clay, General Sam. Houston, and other great national characters who figured in those days. They frequently traveled on his train as far as Cumberland, and then took the stage over the mountains, or left that primitive vehicle for his
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train when going east to Washington. In 1847, so well had he performed the duties assigned him by President Swan of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad company a few years before, that he was made Supervisor, a position that gave him direction of all the trains on the road.
In 1854, at his own request, he was made agent of the Com- pany at Piedmont, Virginia, at a larger salary than was paid to any other officer of the same grade on the line. A few years service in this position gave careful business training to his nat- ural talent for management of affairs.
Piedmont, when Mr. Davis was sent there, was, as it still is, an important place: The centre of the Cumberland bituminous coal region, and the point at which the road begins to ascend the mountains; there were many important duties for the agent to perform. It was a sort of central station on the road; a relay for all the heavy locomotives that run up the mountain, as well as for the light engines that drew freight from the East thus far. He was 31 years of age when he first settled in the little village and assumed his new duties, living in a car until a house could be built for him. The present great coal interests of the section were then practically undeveloped, and he began with the pioneers of that industry. His keen foresight early grasped the advantages of the place for traffic, and he persuaded his brother, William R. Davis, to leave his Maryland home and he established him in business as shipper of coal and lumber for the producers. The town grew rapidly, and the occupations in which the brothers engaged slowly but surely increased. A year passed, when Thomas B. Davis joined his fortunes with his two brothers. In 1858 the little business, started four years before, had done so well that Henry G. resigned his position on the railroad, joined the two brothers, and became the head of the now widely known firm of H. G. Davis & Brother. The same year he resigned from the railroad he added banking to the list of his business cares. He organized the Piedmont Sav- ings Bank, and was elected its president. No single feature of his career illustrates his substantial advancement in all the walks of life more strikingly than the contrast between that small beginning in money dealing, with the present Davis National Bank of Piedmont, with its hundreds of thousands of dollars of business yearly, that has taken its place, and of which Mr. Davis is
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the master spirit. The possessions and interests of the Davis bro- thers were then insignificant indeed, in contrast with their vast belongings of to-day., What was then but a start has grown to the proportions of a great fortune. To-day they count their capital by millions, and their landed estate by more than a hun- dred thousand acres. William R. died in 1879. The two sur- viving brothers, who more than a quarter of a century ago be- gan life together by putting into the little business at Piedmont their energy, toil and the small amount of money they had saved from the fruit of their industry, by close economy, have held everything in common to this day.
The war came on and brought its changes to the Davis bro- thers, as it did to all others living along the border. While it hindered the increase of their business in one direction, it opened up new avenues of trade in another. All three of them voted against the sesession of Virginia, their adopted State, re- mained true to the Union and lived under its authority during all the years of the war. The Confederates once destroyed $60,000 worth of their property. Large investments in coal and timber lands, that rapidly appreciated in value, swelled their profits , and when the war closed they found themselves in position to extend their operations considerably. The Balti- more and Ohio railroad, with which Mr. Davis had retained friendly relations, at the close of the war stood badly in need of repair. Lumber, bridge timber, cross-ties and other supplies were needed, and the need gave employment and opportunity to the Davis brothers. Mr. Davis owned the forest tract at Deer Park, on the summit of the Alleghenies, and the standing trees were converted into railroad supplies by means of portable saw- mills. About this time, also, he entered largely into the busi- ness of coal mining, and several mercantile establishments were added to his list of enterprises. Everything he undertook seemed to prosper, and in 1870 he was rated as a man of large wealth, with a reputation for business sagacity already well es- tablished.
It would be impossible in a work of this character to trace in detail the yearly additions to the enterprises of which Mr. Davis is the head. Certainly, every year something new was created by his industry. There is a phase of his business life that ever seemed to me singular. There has not been a day, for
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years past, when he could not have employed his splendid busi- ness talents and large capital to far greater profit in any of the large cities of the Union than he has done in his own State. Yet he has steadily invested the profits of his business in some new venture which looked to the development of the State where he began when he ceased to tread the winepress of life alone. Perhaps in doing this he has simply heeded the lessons he learned in early boyhood and been content to reap the steady reward of careful industry ; but I have ever set it down as an ambition to so contribute to the material welfare and advancement of West Virginia, that the result of his efforts would stand as a more enduring monument to his memory than any service he could render the State in the arena of politics. Whether this judgment of his motives be correct or not, this will certainly be the verdict of the people who will estimate his character and acts in all the time to come.
At the close of the war Mr. Davis went into politics. His sympathies were with the Republicans, and he might have acted in full accord with that party had it not been that some Repub- lican opponents defeated him for the Legislature by getting his name stricken from the registry lists, and an unregistered voter could not hold office. This incident determined his career as a Democrat. In 1866 he was elected as a Union-Conservative candidate to the lower branch of the West Virginia Legislature. He took a leading part in the deliberations of that body. Two years later he was elected to the State Senate.
He occupied even a higher place in the business of the upper house than he had in that of the lower. His contest for a sec- ond election to the State Senate was a memorable one. His opponent was the Hon. W. H. H. Flick, then of Pendleton county, one of the ablest and most popular Republicans in the State. The contest was exciting and close, and Mr. Davis was elected, though the district at that time was largely Republican. This success opened the way to still higher advancement. When the Legislature of 1870 met and inducted into power the party with which he had affiliated, he was made chairman of the Sen- ate Finance Committee, and in other ways was recognized as the leader of his party in that body.
When the duty of electing a United States Senator to succeed Hon. Waitman T. Willey devolved upon the Legislature, Mr.
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Davis was chosen, by an alnost unanimous voice. The repre- sentatives of both parties voted for him, over such distinguished men as Hon. Daniel Lamb and Col. B. H. Smith, who were can- didates. He was also elected a second time, and his twelve years of service in the highest branch of the National Legislature expired March 4, 1883. It has been remarked of him that he has never held a public office except by the votes of opposing political parties, and that this rule has held good throughout his political life.
It is a safe rule to estimate a man by the impression he makes upon his associates. It is an axiom in our system of govern- ment that the popular verdict shall be law. It is but fair to apply this test to Mr. Davis, and I have no doubt that he is will- ing to be judged by it. When he succeeded Mr. Willey, a man of ability and ripe experience, who had cut a large figure in public affairs, he found a seat on the Democratic side of the Senate, and that party in the minority. He took his position and per- formed the duties to which he was assigned with the same be- coming modesty which has been a conspicuous feature of his conduct in every walk of life. Gradually he became known to his colleagues, and it was not long before he occupied a posi- tion among them equal to the best. Although a new member and in a minority party, he was very soon on the best commit- tees of the Senate.
The salient points of the political career of Mr. Davis, down to the time of his retirement from the United States Senate in 1883, have been : his advocacy of the assumption by West Vir- ginia of a fair proportion of the debt of Virginia existing at the time the new State was created, whenever such proportion could be equitably ascertained; his leadership as chairman of the Sen- ate Committee of Appropriations during two of his twelve years' service in the United States Senate; his practical work as a member of the Special Committee on transportation routes to the seaboard. He is what may be termed a " Tariff Democrat," favoring incidental protection. He also favored and urged the resumption of specie payments. His best and by far the most of his work in the Senate was done during the sessions of his committees, where his thorough investigation, sound judgment, discretion and force were readily recognized.
Naturally, the duties and inquiries of the Transportation
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Committee were entirely congenial to him, because it brought him to the practical consideration of a grave national problem with which his active career before he entered upon politics had made him familiar. In the long series of inquiries made by that committee, in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and other cities, he had a leading part, and he impressed the merchants, financiers and railroad men of the nation with the fact that he was entirely aware of the gravity of the subject with which he was dealing. Indeed, by common consent of the members of the committee and the public, he was placed second to none charged with this important investigation, in the efficiency of the service rendered. The report on the files of the Senate shows, in its conclusions, the marks of his work, although he did not write it. The sound judgment and practi- cal knowledge of Mr. Davis had much to do in leading the committee to its conclusions, and it is therefore natural that these are based upon no favoritism to any sectional or especial business interest, but upon the best attainable improvement of the means of transportation for the good of the whole people.
Senator Davis never posed as a public speaker. Possessed of a large amount of common sense, good judgment, wise discre- tion, and a fair English education, he never lacked for words to express his thoughts upon all important questions. He dealt always in practical ideas instead of theoretical principles. The speeches he has made have been valuable for the fund of information they contained, and for their clear statement of the matters at issue. This fact has given him a hearing and gained him an influence that a man who deals with mere words could never have attained.
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