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 21
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Judge Brown is a man of marked ability. He is fluent in speech, logical in thought, pleasant in manner. In matters of religion, he favors the largest liberty of conscience. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, and for many years has been a Ruling Elder.
JONATHAN McCALLY BENNETT.
T HIE county of Lewis, the town of Weston, and the State of West Virginia lost a friend and valuable citizen when the Honorable J. M. Bennett died, October 28, 1887. He was born October 4, 1816, on the farm in Lewis county that had be- longed to the family a century, and which he owned at his death. He was the youngest child of William and Rebecca (McCally ) Bennett. The grandfather, Joseph Bennett, came from Scot- land to Augusta county, Virginia, before the Revolutionary war; his son William moved to Lewis county in 1800, where he resided on his valuable tract of land, and died in 1857.
Jonathan M. Bennett married Margaret Elizabeth Jackson, daughter of Captain George W. Jackson, a soldier of 1812; she was a cousin of "Stonewall" Jackson, who was a lifelong inti- mate friend and protege of the subject of this sketch.
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Mr. Bennett was deservedly popular with his people and bore a distinguished reputation throughout the old Commonwealth as well as in the new. Before the State was separated, he was deputy sheriff of Lewis county, 1836-'38, when he was appointed dep- uty clerk of both his county and Circuit Courts, holding the positions several years. In 1843, he was admitted to the Bar, and practiced as partner of Gideon D. Camden until the latter was elevated to the Bench in 1852. Mr. Bennett was the first Commonwealth's Attorney for Gilmer county ; and the first Mayor of Weston, in 1846. After filling various county com- missions, in 1852-3 he was a member of the Virginia General Assembly from Lewis county ; in 1853 was President of the Ex- change Bank of Virginia at Weston; was First Auditor of Virginia from 1857 to 1865 ; he was before the Democratic Con- vention for the Congressional nomination in 1858, but Albert G. Jenkins was nominated on a close vote.
Mr. Bennett went with his State in its secession, and during the war filled important positions at Richmond. When peace came, he resumed his law practice at Weston. He was in the West Virginia Senate from 1872 to 1876, and was chirman of the committee on Finance. He was also one of the three Com- missioners to adjust, with Virginia, the proportions of the State debt due by each State. He filled minor positions for the new State, always with satisfaction and credit. A hard student, a pains-taking official, a business man of strict integrity, a zealous public-spirited citizen, a kind neighbor, a loving husband and father-such acknowledged characteristics are blocks in his monument "more enduring than brass." Mr. Bennett was made an Odd-Fellow in 1850, and in 1857 was Past Grand and Representative to the Grand Lodge in 1855 and 1856.
22
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ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
HIS eminent man was born in Ireland, September 12, 1788. His father, Thomas Campbell, a clergyman in the church of the Covenanters and Seceders, came to America in 1807, and settled on Buffalo Creek, in Washington county, Pennsylvania. The family remained behind, until the son, Alexander, who was a student at the Glasgow University, completed his studies, when they, too, came to the United States, landing in October, 1808. Soon after his arrival in this country, Alexander Camp- bell, at the advice and under the direction of his father, devoted himself to the preparatory studies for the ministry. He aban- doned all other cares, and applied his powerful and well-dis- ciplined mind anew to the methodical study of the Sacred
Scriptures. The father had already advocated the establish- ment of a new religious denomination that would not be hampered by the barriers of creeds and articles of faith made by human hands, and the attainment of some common ground upon which all denominations could stand with harmonious and united action. To effect this object, he proposed that all creeds be discarded, as that Christians could come back to original ground, and take up the work just where the Apostles left it. In this way it was expected and hoped that every religious believer could once again stand on the ground on which the Church stood at the beginning; that nothing should be required as a matter of faith or duty for which position Scripture proof could not be produced, either in expressed terms or approved precedents. The design that he had in view was at first not so much the establishment of a new denomina-
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tion as to put an end to partyism, and reunite the different religious organizations by inducing them to accept the Bible as the only authorized rule of faith and practice, and to desist from controversies about matters of opinion and expediency. Alexander, the son, threw into this movement his energy and zeal and the versatility of his mind, and it thereby received a fresh impetus that soon led to a new organization called Disci- ples or Christians, that now boasts more than two thousand churches and over one hundred thousand members in this country alone.
Alexander Campbell was soon recognized as a minister of force and power, and the people accordingly thronged the churches to hear him preach. Feeling the need of educated men for his work, he in 1819, established the famous Buffalo Academy, in Brooke county ; and a little later (August 23, 1823), he began the publication of a newspaper called The Christian Baptist. In the meantime he had, in 1820, a debate with the Rev. Mr. Walker, and in the spring of 1823 another with the Rev. Mr. McCalla-both of whom were Presbyterians -on the subject of baptism. All of these things served to in- tensify his studies and enlarge the area of his reputation. He realized his power, and the supposed impenetrability of his Scripture armor, and it was not long before all men competent to poise a lance were freely invited into the arena. They came -all denominations-and unless a man was a skilled debater, he could not stand an hour before the pungent, powerful blows of this world-famed intellectual platform giant. Many wise men, competent to pass judgment upon such a question, to this day declare, that Alexander Campbell was the greatest, the most powerful debater that ever lived. Those who have read the published debates to which he was a party, say unqualified- ly that he swept down his adversary in every engagement. The two pitched battles he had with Robert Owen (1829) and Arch- bishop Purcell (1837), the writer has read, and he is clearly of opinion that neither of these men were even half way equal to Bishop Campbell, in either style or argument.
In 1840, he began the great and crowning work of his life- the founding and endowing of Bethany College, in Brooke county, Virginia. He did not wait to raise the means from others, but with a sublime confidence in the merits of the en-
-
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terprise, which was his strong characteristic in all that he undertook, he put into it about $15,000 of his own means, and at once contracted for the erection of the college buildings. All the energies of his great mind were thrown into the work, and by the autumn of 1841, the college was regularly chartered, and with a board of trustees, a faculty, and about one hundred students, from ten different States, work was begun in earnest. He took upon himself the duties of its President, and also gave daily lectures on the study of the Bible. He considered the Bible the only authority of the Church in all matters of faith and practice, and the only infallible source of a perfect morality, ' therefore, he decided that it should form the basis of all Christian education, and be made a leading text-book in every college. This great thought he ever cherished as the ruling principle of his college labors. To magnify the value of this Book of Books-to enforce its claims to authority over the hearts and consciences of men, to expound its great and eternal principles of righteousness and truth, and make men feel that it is the Word of the living God, the divine standard of truth in religion, and of virtue in morality-these were ever promin- ent among the earnest and benevolent aims of his great and devoted life. To raise up men that would sympathise with him in these sublime aims, was the leading notion that prompted him to superadd to his already oppressive labors the additional responsibilities of Bethany College. Bethany at once became the educational center of the Disciples denomination, and the college very soon grew to large dimensions and took rank among the leading educational institutions of the country. It is still flourishing, though its founder has long since gone to his reward. Every year it turns out a fresh corps of graduates to carry forward the work that was so grandly planned by its illustrious originator. Its buildings are among the finest of the kind in the country, and are of a very permanent character, while its endowment insures its perpetuity as an educational center for generations to come.
In height, President Campbell was full six feet, and from the first foot to the sixth, there was not one defective bone or mus- cle. Not a pound of flesh too much, not a pound too little. Toughness of fibre was peculiar to his physical organism. He was largely endowed with the true activities of life. His walk,
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his talk, his look, his laugh were fervent with them. These kept him from acquiring the courtly, studied manner, too often and always unwisely, assumed by the great. A slow, measured bow he could not make. Life rushed on too fast for that. He shook one's hand in passing, looked back and made his lasting remark, and then dashed on as if some grand inexorable cur- rent had borne him away.
In addition to his ministerial labors, which required him to travel over nearly every State of the Union, and his regular work as President of Bethany College, he was the author of sixty different volumes of publications. But few men lived to turn out an equal amount of enduring work.
His perfect system in all his business arrangements, and his indefatigable industry and methodical order in everything, greatly facilitated his labors. The machine, though a powerful one, when he reached the three score mile-post began to give out. His memory first failed him, and then his physical strength gradually gave way, and on the 4th of March, 1866, in the bosom of his family and amid sorrowing friends, he breathed his last. His remains were interred in the family cemetery at Bethany, and the grass is ever worn by the feet of the many that visit the spot where peacefully sleeps one of the wonderful men of history.
The only political office Bishop Campbell ever filled was a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of Virginia in 1829-30.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
HON. JACOB B. BLAIR.
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JACOB BEESON BLAIR.
S \OME of the men who did most to establish the new State of West Virginia, and who are still living, have transferred their energies to other promising sections of the National Com- monwealth. Among these is Hon. Jacob B. Blair, once a Rep- resentative of Virginia and of West Virginia in State and Na- tional councils, and for three full terms an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the growing territory of Wyoming.
Jacob B. Blair was born at Parkersburg, Wood county, Vir- ginia, April 11, 1821. He had the benefit of a common school education, studied law, and was admitted to the Bar of that county in 1844. At the time he was admitted to practice, the list of lawyers in that vicinity included a good many prominent attorneys, and it required shrewdness and force, as well as in- dustry and close application in a beginner to establish himself in the profession ; but young Blair had the qualifications which insure success, and pushed his way steadily forward. He ex- tended his acquaintance and reputation in neighboring counties, and at the beginning of the civil war was generally and favora- bly known throughout his Congressional District. He was a Union man, pronounced and positive, and threw his whole weight and influence into the movement to prevent the western section of Virginia from being carried into secession and rebel- lion. When Hon. John S. Carlile resigned his seat in the 37th Congress from that District, Judge Blair was chosen to fill the vacancy, in 1861, and was subsequently re-elected to the 38th Congress, in 1863.
During his service in Congress, the bill to admit West Vir- ginia into the Union was passed by Congress, and it is not giv- ing undue credit to say that no one contributed more efficient aid to its passage than Judge Blair. When, after a hard-fought battle in the two Houses of Congress, the victory was won by the friends of the new State, the fate of the bill in the hands of the President was thought to be threatened with an adverse de- cision, and again Judge Blair brought every power of his earn- est and patriotic nature into active use to dispel from the Execu- tive mind the doubts as to the constitutionality of the bill which some members of the Cabinet would have implanted there. Fortunately for West Virginia, Mr. Lincoln inclined to the views advocated by the friends of the bill, and, on the 1st day
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of January, 1863, he gave Judge Blair the notice of his appro- val of it, as a New Year's gift to the new Commonwealth.
At the close of his Congressional service, Judge Blair was elected a member of the Legislature of West Virginia from Wood county ; and in 1868 was appointed Minister Resident to Costa Rica, remaining in the diplomatic service of the Govern- men until 1872. In that year, he was appointed Associate Jus- tice of the Supreme Court of Wyoming Territory, and, by suc- cessive appointments, he served continuously and acceptably in that position until the change of Administration under Mr. Cleveland.
Judge Blair's present residence is at Laramie City, and, al- though retaining a warm interest in the New Commonwealth he helped to create, he is an enthusiastic admirer of that vigor- ous and prosperous section of the West, with which he is now identified. The portrait which accompanies this sketch, taken from a recent photograph, is an admirable likeness of him. Al- though approaching the three-score-and-ten limit, of physical strength, he still retains his vigor, both of mind and body, and has every prospect of enjoying a useful and honorable old age in his new field of labor.
FRANK HEREFORD.
NITED STATES SENATOR HEREFORD was by na- tivity a Virginian, born in Fauquier county, July 4, 1825. While his public course in adult years has been conservative, and secured him Republican votes enough to elect him to the United States Senate, yet he imbibed something of the spirit of the day we celebrate, and has exhibited a manly independence in all his actions. He graduated from college in 1845, studied law, practiced a brief time, and removed from the historic coun- ty and State of his nativity to the slopes of the Pacific, locating in California. Here he was successful in practice and populari- ty, and was elected District Attorney of Sacramento county, filling the position from October, 1855 to October, 1857. Re- turning East at the expiration of his term, he pitched his per- manent tent and home in Union, Monroe county, Virginia. He was soon on the wave of popular preferment, and was elected upon the Democratic ticket as Representative to the 42d Con-
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gress from the Third West Virginia District, receiving (includ- ing two counties not officially counted, by reason of their re- turns not having been received ) 8,982 votes, against 7,189 for John S. Witcher, the Republican candidate. He was re-elected to the succeeding, 43d, Congress, having as competitor, in Au- gust, John Brisben Walker, Republican, and in October, John S. Swann, Independent, both from the populous county of Ka- nawha. For the third term he was re-elected, to the 44th Con- gress, by 13,524 votes, against 7,745 for John S. Witcher, the Republican candidate-serving in all from March 4, 1871, to January 31, 1877, when, having been elected by the Legislature at Wheeling as United States Senator, in place of Allen Taylor Caperton, deceased, he took his seat in the other wing of the Na- tional capitol. He served in the Senate, with industry, ability and satisfaction to his large constituency, until the expiration of his term, March 3, 1881. Since then, he has been engaged mainly in financial and other similar pursuits at Union. He does not, notwithstanding the more profitable and less exciting pursuits of business life, lose all interest in political contests and campaigns. Without neglecting the former, he finds time and inclination to urge forward the claims of Democracy, in local and State conventions. In the Presidential contest of 1888, he was an Elector from West Virginia, and cast his vote for Grover Cleveland.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
ยท A.LITTLE.
HON. JAMES H. FERGUSON.
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JAMES HARVY FERGUSON.
J AMES H. FERGUSON was born April 14, 1817, in Mont- gomery county, Virginia. In 1835 he removed to Bar- boursville, Cabell county, where he studied law and was admit- ted to the Bar in 1840. In 1845 he removed to the county of Logan, and was elected Prosecuting Attorney of that county, which office he filled until the year 1848, when he was elected a member of the House of Delegates of Virginia from the coun- ties of Logan and Boone. He was re-elected to the same office in each year until 1851, when a new Constitution of the State was adopted. In 1850, while a member of the House of Dele- gates, he was elected a member of the Constitutional Conven- tion of 1850-'51, from the District composed of the counties of Mason, Putnam, Cabell, Wayne, Boone, Wyoming and Logan, and was consequently a member of both bodies at the same time. On his first appearance in the Legislature, he was made a mem- ber of the Judiciary Committee-the most important committee of the body-and at each session thereafter, until the close of his service, he was chairman of that committee. During his service as a member of that Legislature, the country was in a state of great excitement over the question of slavery, and especially over the celebrated " Willmot Proviso," which had been offered to a bill in the Congress of the United States to prohibit slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico by a treaty of peace with that country. A protracted discussion was had in the Legislature over this proviso, in which he participa- ted, taking the Southern view of the question. But his remedy for all such legislation by Congress was nullification, and not secession. He always opposed a dissolution of the Union, and long before the commencement of the late civil war, he gave up the doctrine of nullification, rightfully concluding that a State could not be practically both in and out of the Union at the same time. He supported the great compromise of 1850, of the slavery question in its relation to the territories of the United States, brought forward by Mr. Clay, of Kentucky, and adopted by Congress. Entertaining these views, he regarded it as his duty to support the Government in all its measures to defend, protect and perpetuate the Union of the States, against the mis- guided efforts of those who sought to destroy it, and he did so from the commencement to the end of the war.
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In. 1864 he settled again in the county of Cabell, and in the fall of that year was elected to the House of Delegates of West Virginia and served, by re-elections, through the sessions of 1867, 1868, (and extra session), and 1871. At all these sessions, ex- cept that of 1865, he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and at the sessions of 1868 he was chairman of the Joint Com- mittee on the revision of the code of West Virginia, made by the revisors, which committee was charged with the duty of amending that revision and reporting it to the Legislature for action; and by appointment of the Legislature he prepared and indexed that Code (the Code of 1868) for publication. At the session of 1865 he introduced a bill abolishing slavery in West Virginia, and succeeded, after much opposition in secur- ing its passage, after much opposition, in advance of the adop- tion, by any other State, of the amendment to the Constitution of the United States for that purpose.
In 1868 he was elected Judge of the Circuit Court for the Judicial district composed of the counties of Logan, Boone, Lincoln, Wayne and Cabell, for the term of six years, but re- signed after a service of one year and seven months, and returned to his practice at the Bar, in which he is now actively engaged, principally as attorney for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company in West Virginia.
In 1875 he removed to the county of Kanawha, where he now resides. In 1876, he was, together with E. W. Wilson, now Governor of the State, and William A. Quarrier, elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates from Kanawha county ; and in 1880 he was again elected, together with the same gentlemen, to the same office. At the time of their first election, the per- manent location of the seat of Government for the State was the main question in which the county of Kanawha was inter- ested, and they were elected with special reference to that mat- ter. At the request of his distinguished colleagues, he took charge of the contest in reference to that question on behalf of the city of Charleston, prepared all the bills offered on the sub- ject, including that which finally passed the Legislature, and which resulted in making Charleston the permanent seat of Gov- ernment of the State.
Judge Ferguson's wife was formerly Miss Lizzie A. Creel, daughter of George A. and Prudence S. ( nee Spencer ) Cook, of
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Wood county, Virginia. Their home, appropriately called " Grand View," is situated on the crest of the hill south of the Kanawha river which flows at its base, and seems almost to hover over the city of Charleston beneath. From it, the eye looks out upon the magnificent panorama of hills and vales extending away for miles in the distance, as well as upon the limpid stream which pursues its sinuous way along the beautiful valley of the Kanawha. Their property includes the historic "Hale's Branch," where, a century ago, young Hale, on a trip to that spring for a pail of water for the use of his affianced wife, lying sick in the fort on the opposite side of the river, in compliance with a wish expressed by her, was shot and killed by an Indian, from the hill beyond. And now, although a hundred years have flown since the life-blood of this heroic youth crimsoned its waters, the spring, the scene of the tragedy, still flows gently on, reminding us of those beautiful lines :
" Men may come, and men may go, But I flow on forever."
Judge Ferguson, by common consent, is regarded the ablest legislator ever born in Virginia west of the Blue Ridge. His handiwork is seen in almost every line of the legislation of our State. He is also eminent as a lawyer. But few men in both Virginias can be justly ranked as his equal in that learned pro- fession. Although above the allotted "three-score years and ten," he is in good health, and is actively engaged in the prac- tice of his profession.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
BENJAMIN HARRISON SMITH.
B ENJAMIN H. SMITH, who was most conspicuous as the first United States Attorney when the District of West Virginia was created by the throes of war, the will and bravery of her people, and the edicts from Washington, was born in Rocking- ham county, Virginia, October 31, 1797. His father, also named Benjamin, sold his Virginia estate in September, 1810, and moved to a farm in Fairfield county, Ohio, where the son worked in the field, studied in leisure hours, and in 1819 was graduated from the University of Ohio, at Athens. He began law study at Lancaster, under the afterwards distinguished Thomas Ewing, and in 1821 was admitted to the Supreme Court Bar. Loving the hills of his nativity best, he located the next year in Charles- ton, Kanawha county, Virginia, and grew into a prosperous and* remunerative practice.
In 1833, Col. Smith was elected to the State Senate, serving six years. In 1849 President Taylor appointed him United States District Attorney for the District west of the Blue Ridge, which position he held until the close of that Administration. In 1855, he represented Kanawha county in the General Assem- bly, under the Constitution of 1850, in the Convention to frame which he was an active member. He was a, Whig in sentiment, and in 1861, President Lincoln made him District Attorney, in which office he served, under the old and new State, until 1868, when he resigned. He was a member of the Convention to frame a Constitution for West Virginia. He was the Demo-
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