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 23
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299
WEST VIRGINIA.
HON. C. P. T. MOORE.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
CHARLES PAGE THOMAS MOORE.
HE Supreme Bench of West Virginia has had upon it few, if any, more gifted and popular wearers of the judicial ermine than the one whose kindly eyes seem to face this bio- graphical sketch. Since the early days of the State's existence, when party lines were sponged out by the overshadowing issue of National preservation, no party candidate, even for judicial honors, has, like Judge Moore, received at the polls the endorse- ment of the voters of both political organizations, thus evidenc- ing, in popular judgment, his fitness for the duties and honors of the highest tribunal known within the State.
He was the youngest of three children from the marriage of Thomas Moore and Augusta Delphia Page, the father being a native of Shenandoah county, and the mother of Staunton, Virginia, a daughter of Major Charles Page who wedded Susan Tapp. His father who previously located in Greenbrier county; west of the mountains, died in Lewisburg, March 27, 1832, and his mother died June 21, 1844. Immediately after the mother's demise, Charles, who was born February 8, 1831, was taken to Mason county, and adopted by his uncle, George Moore, and wife, nee Francis Harness. They took the deepest, almost a parental interest, in his welfare, and educated him liberally. His first instruction was by private tutors; then in Marshall Academy of Cabell county, presided over by Josiah Poague ; then at ven- erable Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, and in Union College, New York. In 1850 he founded, in connection with Dr. Let- terman, the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, whose membership numbers the ablest literary graduates in every State. From Union College he received the graduation degree of Bachelor of Arts, at the hands of Eliphalet Nott, D. D., LL. D., in July, 1853. His law course was taken at the University of Virginia, and he was licensed to practice, after thorough examination by Judges Richard Field, Lucas P. Thompson and George W. Summers. In September, 1856, he was admitted to the Bar of the Circuit Court of Mason county. At the spring election of 1858, he was chosen Commonwealth's Attorney for that county, serving in such capacity until the beginning of the civil war. In the arena of debate and personal influence he took an active part in opposition to the spirit and ordinance of secession.
In the convention of 1866, he withdrew in favor of General
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John H. Oley, and in 1868 he was the nominee for Congress in the Third District by the " Constitutional Union Party," but by operation of the Registration Act in his district he was defeated at the polls.
He wedded, February 9, 1865, Urilla K., daughter of Jacob A. Kline, of Mason county, by whom he is the father of four daughters. She was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, her father being a native of Winchester, Virginia.
In 1870, he was elected upon the Democratic ticket as one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Appeals for twelve years, but by the adoption of the new constitution of 1872, his term was made to expire December 31, 1872. He was re-nominated by his party, and at the polls received the highest endorsement a free people could give-almost the unanimous vote of the electors for another term. In the allotment provided by the Constitution, the Governor drew for him in open court the full and longest term. He was President of the Court, by choice of the other judges, and was so acting when he resigned in 1881, and, in consequence of the death of his adopted parents, sought the more quiet and congenial life of the farm, near El- well, Mason county, West Virginia. Here he takes, though in the prime of life, and solely from preference, the otium cum dignitate of a post graduate in public life, practicing his chosen profession of law in such cases as invite his own rich experience.
WILLIAM H. TRAVERS.
T HE subject of this sketch was born in Dorchester county, Maryland, November 2, 1833, but has been a citizen of this State since 1861. He was educated at St. Mary's College in Baltimore, from which he graduated in 1848. He studied law and was admitted to practice in that city in 1851. He represented Jefferson county in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1856-7 and was Speaker of that body. He was a member of the Con- stitutional Convention at Charleston in 1872; was chairman of the Finance, Education and Corporation Committees. He was an Elector for the State at large in 1876 and also in 1888. He has faithfully served the people of his adopted State. Mr. Tra- vers maintains a high rank as an attorney at law.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
A.LITTLE.
SENATTOR JOHN E. KENNA.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
JOHN EDWARD KENNA.
T the opening of the extra session of the Forty-fifth Con- gress, October 10, 1877, a broad shouldered young man, six feet tall and well proportioned, with a good-humored but resolute countenance and a wide-awake, determined expression on his face, took a seat on the Democratic side of the House of Representatives.
He had an easy, off-hand way about him that captured the attention of the reporters at first sight, and his youthful appear- ance, in comparison with the grave and reverend seniors who sat around him, at once had the effect of making him an object of interest to the galleries and floor as " Representative Kenna, of West Virginia, the youngest member of the House."
There was a considerable eruption of young men in public life about that time, the adage of old men for counsel and young men for action, having apparently taken hold vigorously on the body politic.
John E. Kenna was born in Kanawha county, Virginia, April 10, 1848. His father, Edward Kenna, came from Ireland to America when fourteen years of age, and was employed at Natchez, Mississippi, by an extensive firm, of which the vener- able Felix La Coste, now of St. Louis county, Missouri, was the chief member, when the great tornado of 1840 swept over the town, almost entirely destroying it, killing several hundred resi- dents and leaving many of its inhabitants to escape barely with their lives. Among the latter was Edward Kenna, who wrote a description of the great hurricane, which has been preserved and republished on several recurring anniversaries of the dread event.
From Natchez, Edward Kenna made his way to Cincinnati, where he took such employment as he could command. He was thus engaged when some providential circumstance brought him in contact with Charles Fox, a respectable lawyer, who kindly tendered him the use of his library and advised him to study law. This advice was readily accepted, and Mr. Kenna began the study of law with Mr. Fox, finding among his associates in his early career at the Cincinnati Bar, George Hoadly, Wm. S. Groesbeck, George H. Pendleton, and others who have since risen to National distinction.
In 1847 Mr. Kenna married Margery, the only daughter of
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John Lewis, of Kanawha county, Virginia, a grandson of Gen- eral Andrew Lewis, and soon afterward settled in that county. Here for eight years he successfully practiced his profession, devoting a large part of his time also to enterprises connected with the development of the Kanawha and Coal river valleys. In 1855, he earned a State reputation by a speech in the Staun- ton Convention, seconding the nomination of Henry A. Wise for Governor. He was absolutely a self-made man and is re- membered as being of indomitable will, extraordinary energy, brilliant mind and public spirit. He was one of the largest and finest specimens of physical manhood the writer ever saw.
This much is here said of him, because it is known that his own struggles, single-handed and alone in life, had inspired him with the hope that he would live to see an only son armed and equipped by his aid and encouragement for a successful career. Among his intimate friends he often gave expression to this deep desire. Little did he then realize that his boy had the same difficulties before him which he himself had confront- ed, and would conquer them as well. In 1856, in the prime and vigor of a splendid manhood, at the age of only thirty- nine years, with so much of life and promise before him, and so much of toil and hardship behind him, he met an untimely death. He left two little girls, aged respectively four and six years, and John Edward Kenna, the subject of this sketch, an orphan boy at eight years of age.
In 1858, Mrs. Kenna, with her three children, removed to Missouri where her brother resided, and where she remained until the breaking out of the war. She had a governess for awhile, under whose tutelage her children were trained in the branches of an English education; but the failure of her hus- band's estate, which largely consisted of unmarketable lands, in the absence of judicious management, to realize funds, took away this advantage and her son began active employment. He contributed his labor to the opening of a new farm, and often Senator Kenna now refers with pride to the fact, that he can look upon one of the finest plantations in Missouri, and remem- ber that he redeemed it from its natural state with a prairie plow and four yoke of oxen, when he was but eleven years of age. While so engaged he became also an expert teamster and did much of the heavy hauling and opening up of new habitations on the then Western prairies.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
The fact that he was an only son led his mother, during her widowhood, to rely greatly upon him, notwithstanding his youth ; and this dependence had a tendency to give self-reliance and fit him, more rapidly than is usual, for the sterner duties of life. A gentleman who was acquainted with him in those days tells me that he was a brave, manly boy, and shirked no responsi- bility in any form. Indeed, this may be said of his entire career.
In early life Mr. Kenna exhibited a special liking for field sports-especially hunting. Game was plentiful in Missouri when he resided there, and nearly always, when the weather was unfit for farm work, he was most sure to be in the field with his dog and gun. In this way he acquired great skill in handling the rifle, which has given him a State reputation in West Vir- ginia as an expert marksman, and has afforded him rare oppor- tunities for sport in the mountains adjacent to the Great Kan- awha Valley, where he has for many years resided. Every fall he spends several weeks in the hill country in search of game, and it is well known that he is not excelled in such sports by the old resident hunters in the districts that he so often frequents.
At sixteen years of age Mr. Kenna enlisted in the Confeder- ate army, and followed its fortunes to the end of the war. In an engagement in which he was on detached service from Gen. Shelby's brigade, he was badly wounded in the shoulder and arm, but declined to be retired on account of his wounds, and therefore remained with his comrades in active service in the field. The retreat of General Price from Missouri, in 1864, has gone into history. It was a series of skirmishes and battles with both the main army and its detachments from the Missouri river to the Kansas line. In all this constant and pressing march, though but sixteen years of age, and suffering from his wounds, he never failed of a task that any other soldier per- formed, and never lost a day from active service. From Mis- souri the command to which he belonged retreated into Arkan- sas, enduring hardships that are indescribable. The severe ex- posures of the hurried march caused a serious illness which drove him to the hospital at Washington, Arkansas, where he lay in a dangerous condition for six weeks. Careful nursing, however, brought him through. He rejoined his command, and in June, 1865, was surrendered to the Federal forces at Shreveport, Louisiana; and in August of that year he returned 24
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PROMINENT MEN OF
to his native Kanawha, where his mother, stepfather and sisters then resided, and where he has since remained.
He secured employment at salt-making with the firm of Thayer & Chappell, soon after his return to West Virginia, and remained with them until February, 1866. Realizing the in- completeness of his education, and possessing a strong desire to rise in the world, through the assistance of kind friends, nota- bly the Rt. Rev. Bishop R. V. Whelan, Mr. Kenna entered St. Vincent's Academy, at Wheeling, and there earnestly took up a course of study, running through two and a half years, that gave him such an insight into books as to enable him to success- fully pursue his studies alone at his home. Many young men of Wheeling were his schoolmates at St. Vincent's, who have watched with interest his successful career.
After leaving school in 1868, Mr. Kenna studied law at Charleston, in the office of Miller & Quarrier, and was admitted to the Bar, June 20, 1870. In the practice of the law he seemed to have discovered his calling. From the beginning he rose rapidly in the profession. In 1872, he was nominated by the Democratic party and elected to the office of Prosecuting Attorney of Kanawha county. In that capacity he rendered acceptable and efficient service. In 1874, he came within a few votes of being nominated for Congress. His practice extended into all the counties surrounding Kanawha; and in 1875, in the absence of the Circuit Judge, Mr. Kenna was elected by the members of the Bar to fill the position of Judge of the Circuit, pro tempore. This was a marked compliment to the ability of one of his years, and was made the more so by the acceptable manner in which he discharged the important obligations of the Bench.
In 1876, Mr. Kenna was nominated by the Democrats as their candidate for Congress from the Third District of West Vir- ginia. His competitors were Hon. Frank Hereford, who had represented the district for three successive terms, and Hon. Henry S. Walker, a man of great brilliancy as a writer and public speaker. The only objection urged against Mr. Kenna was his lack of age and experience in public affairs. He had courage, and, though young in years, he had learned much of the world from associations with men. A number of the lead- ing members of his party in his native county issued a circular
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WEST VIRGINIA.
letter in favor of the re-nomination of Major Hereford. While this did not daunt Mr. Kenna, it greatly wounded his pride. He announced a series of public meetings and addressed the people in behalf of his own candidacy. At one of these meet- ings in Charleston, at which a number of the signers of the circular letter were present, Mr. Kenna, in the course of his speech, said : "I have no word of unkindness for these dis- tinguished men [referring to the signers of the circular]. But you will pardon me when I say that if I could exchange places with any one of them ; if I could stand, a matured, successful, established man, in all that the terms imply, and look upon a boy left in orphanage at eight years; if I could watch the pathway of his childhood, with the obstructions confronting it, and witness his struggles, his hardships, his labors and his prayers ; if I could see him marching on through adversity until kinder stars seemed to shine upon him, and he was about to attain through trial and vicissitude a position of honor to himself and of usefulness to his fellow men-before I would sign a paper whose only effect would be to break down and ruin that young man, I would be carried to one of your lonely hillsides and there laid to rest forever." The effect of this speech was seen and felt. A primary election was ordered in Kanawha county, and Mr. Kenna carried the county, on a full Democratic vote, against both of his competitors. This led to his triumphant nomination August 10, 1876. He was elected by a splendid majority, and accordingly took his seat as stated in the beginning paragraph of this brief biography.
In Congress, Mr. Kenna rapidly developed peculiar faculties for legislative duties. He was appointed to a conspicuous place on the Committee of Commerce, in which position he served four years, succeeding in a most satisfactory manner in securing appropriations for the improvement and development of the commercial arteries of his District and State, and rendering valuable service to the country at large. December 5th, he delivered his maiden speech in the House of Representatives; and the 29th of January, following, he presented to the House from his Committee, the first bill under his charge. His management of this measure attracted general attention and resulted in its passage. He, therefore, developed at the very threshold of legislative life an aptness for it, and a coolness of
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PROMINENT MEN OF
judgment meriting the testimonials he received from other members, and from many of his constituents. He never spoke except when he had something to say. His splendid physique- standing full six feet-his smooth diction and clear enunciation, and his self-poise, never failed to attract attention and command respect. He was re-elected in 1878, '80 and '82-four times in all. His growth, during the six full years he served in the House of Representatives, was continuous and steady. But few who served contemporaneously with him developed as rapidly. He always represented the progressive, liberal and vigorous elements of his party, and consequently holds the respect of those aggressive, working members of his own party and the esteem of his political opponents in legislative councils.
Mr. Kenna is a natural leader of men. He possesses wonder- ful power over his associates, especially in political campaigns. Because of this fact, he was made Chairman of the Democratic National Congressional Executive Committee in 1886, and was re-elected to the same important position in 1888.
The legislative session of West Virginia in 1883, was the theater of a great conflict in the choosing of a Senator to suc- ceed the Hon. H. G. Davis, who declined a re-election. Mr. Kenna, who had but a few months before been elected a fourth time to the House of Representatives, announced his desire to become a Senator in Congress. The contest was a vigorous one, and although several able members of his party were com- peting with him for this exalted prize in politics, Congressman Kenna, with apparent ease, carried off the caucus nomination, and was thereupon duly elected by the Legislature to that hon- orable position.
He promptly resigned his seat in the House, and, March 4, of that year, took his seat in the highest legislative chamber of the land. His long experience in the lower House qualified him for great efficiency in the Senate, and from the very begin- ning he took a leading rank among the able members of that distinguised tribunal. Ready and forceful in debate, he found no trouble in sustaining himself upon any question he under- took to discuss.
He was re-elected to the Senate in 1889. There was but one of a Democratic majority in the Legislature on joint ballot, and one member, the Hon. C. P. Dorr, announced at the open-
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ing of the session that he would not support Senator Kenna for re-election. This made the contest interesting, especially to Senator Kenna's political opponents; but the well known qualities of leadership which were known to be possessed by the Senator served him in that historic campaign, and after a month's balloting, his friends remaining true to the last, Dele- gate Dorr came to his rescue, and his election was accordingly secured. It was a great triumph, and could only have been won by one who possessed the ability to hold to him, with hooks of steel, his party leaders.
Senator Kenna is six feet tall; weighs one hundred and eighty-five pounds ; is light complected ; naturally social and genial; has a large following of personal friends; is industrious and energetic. In politics' his success is almost phenomenal. He has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Rose A. Quigg, of Wheeling, whom he married September 27, 1870, and his second was Miss Anna Benninghaus, also of Wheel- ing, whom he married November 21, 1876.
CHARLES S. LEWIS.
c T T HIS educator, lawyer and legislator, was born in Clarks- burg, Virginia, February 26, 1821. He received a liberal education in his county, then a preparatory course in the Ohio University, at Athens, and was graduated in 1844, from Augusta College, Kentucky, and admitted to the Bar in Harri- son county, September 15, 1846. He held many influential official positions, and in all discharged the duties well. He was a member of the General Assembly of Virginia from 1849 to 1852, and member of Congress in 1854-5; elected to the House of Delegates of West Virginia, session of 1871; was State Superintendent of Free Schools and ex-officio Adjutant General, from March 4, 1871, to December 31, 1872, when he resigned to enter upon the duties of Judge of the Second Circuit, com- posed of the counties of Wetzel, Marion, Monongalia, Taylor, Doddridge and Harrison. His term of office would have expired December 31, 1880. He died January 22, 1878, esteemed for his upright life, his social qualities, and impartial official career.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
ALITTLE
SENATOR C. J. FAULKNER.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
CHARLES JAMES FAULKNER.
HE name of Faulkner is inseparably interwoven with the history of the two Virginias, from Major James Faulkner, who was prominent as a brave officer in the war of 1812, down to the present generation. The elder Charles James Faulkner, as the able and suave diplomat, representing the United States at the Court of St. Cloud, on the eve of important events, is biographed elsewhere in this volume. The subject of this sketch, the namesake of his distinguished father, now faithfully represents his State in the highest branch of Congress, and gives promise of a brilliant future.
He was born at "Boydville," the home of his ancestors, in Berkeley county, Virginia, September 21, 1847, where, under the beneficient influence of home tuition, his young mind was trained until the age of twelve, when he accompanied his father to the capital of France. While abroad he attended the best schools of Paris and Switzerland. In August, 1861, he returned to the United States, and, after the arrest of his father, went South. At the age of fifteen, in 1862, he entered the Military Institute, at Lexington, Va., and served with the cadets in the battle of New Market; then as Aid to General John C. Breck- enridge, and afterwards to General Henry A. Wise, surrender- ing with him at Appomatox. On his return to "Boydville," he studied law under the direction of his father, until October, 1866, when he entered the law school of the University of Virginia, graduating in 1868, and was admitted to the Bar in September of that year, just after he had attained his majority. He soon took front rank among the able lawyers then compos- ing the Bar of his circuit, and his name appears on the docket in nearly every important case that came before the Court.
In October, 1880, he was elected Judge of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, comprising the counties of Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgan. His record in that important position was excep- tionally successful and acceptable; and few, if any, of his decisions were reversed by the Court of Appeals. He resigned the ermine May 5, 1887, as soon as notified of his election to the United States Senate, at the the extra session of the Legis- nature called to elect a successor to Hon. J. N. Camden. His term of service, by resolution of the Senate, commenced March 4th, 1887, upon the expiration of that of his predecessor, and
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will expire March 3, 1893. Senator Faulkner in his new position has exhibited that soundness of judgment and perse- vering industry that had marked his previous career, and he speedily attained a most honorable rank in the distinguished body of which he is a member.
He is ever faithful to his public duties, not only in urging National Legislation, but in promoting the welfare of his con- stituents and the State at large. His indomitable energy and clear conception of all public measures pointed him out as a fit person to be placed on some of the most important and hard- worked committees of the Senate, such as Claims, Pensions, Mines and Mining, District of Columbia, a Select Committee on Indian Traders, and a joint one on the water supply of the District, and was one of a sub-committee to investigate the work on the Washington aqueduct, on all of which he per- formed splendid service. While thoroughly imbued with the principles of Democracy, Senator Faulkner has never allowed partisan considerations to conflict with the duty he owes to the whole country as a National legislator. At the session of 1888-9, he framed and had passed a bill to prevent food and drug adulterations, the first general law on the subject, which has been put into operation by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Among the bills introduced by him were: "To Equalize the pay of Assistant U. S. Attorneys ;" " To amend the law relative to proof in equity ;" "To provide for holding terms of the District and Circuit Courts of the United States at Martins- burg, W. Va .; " "For the erection of needed public buildings at Martinsburg ;" "To refund to the State of West Virginia money paid to the militia for services rendered during the civil war;" "To recognize and pay certain claims due by West Vir- ginia to citizens thereof for services rendered the United States during the late conflict and properly chargeable to the National Government." He framed and had passed through the District Committee, a bill settling the railroad problem in the District- locating and regulating the entire steam railroad system which centers there.
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