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 28
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GIDEON MARTIN.
HE REV. GIDEON MARTIN, D.D., was born in Lewis county, Virginia, April 30, 1815, and was educated in the private schools of that period. He was converted in his sixteenth year, was licensed to preach in 1836, and in July, 1837, was ad- mitted into the Pittsburgh Conference of the M. E. Church. For over a half century he has been preaching the Gospel. His record of toil is wonderful. No man in the same length of time has rendered more faithful service. He was three years a Chap- lain in the United States army, and there is scarcely a prominent appointment in his Conference that he has not filled. He was made an honorary D.D. by Mount Union College, Ohio, and three times was elected a delegate to the General Conference of the M. E. Church.
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٦١٠ ٠٠,١٠
JAMES M. LAIDLEY.
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JAMES MADISON LAIDLEY.
T HE subject of this sketch was born in Parkersburg, Vir- ginia, January 9, 1809. As was his father before him, he, too, is a lawyer by profession. He moved to Kanawha county in early life, and engaged in the practice of his profession, which he unceasingly maintained until recent years. He was compelled to relinquish it because of the encroachments of age. He has been a prominent character in politics and business in the Great Kanawha Valley for more than a generation; and has indelibly left his impress upon the times in which he lived.
Mr. Laidley was a delegate from the county of Augusta, Vir- ginia-while a student at General (afterward Judge) Baldwin's law school, at Staunton-to the first Young Men's National Whig Convention, at Baltimore, that nominated Mr. Clay for the Presidency, in 1832; was a delegate from the counties of Kanawha, Mason, Cabell and Logan (now comprising the terri- tory forming ten counties), to the State Whig Convention, at Staunton, that nominated what was called the " double-shotted" electoral ticket (Harrison and White) for the Presidency in 1836, and with E. W. Newton, then of Wheeling, were the only two representatives from west of the Alleghenies; was a member of the Legislature of Virginia in the long session of 1848-9 at Richmond, and the Fauquier White Sulphur Springs, that adopted the Code of 1860; was the Whig candidate for Con- gress from the Eleventh District of Virginia in 1859, in opposi- tion to Albert G. Jenkins, the successful Democratic candidate, who afterwards distinguished himself as a Confederate General. In 1876 he was the candidate of the National Greenback-Labor party for Governor of West Virginia.
While never voluntarily seeking office for himself, there were few more active and successful than he in promoting the lauda- ble aspirations of others-his purse, pen, and services being subject to the command of his friends. Mr. Laidley is one of that loyal class of men who accord to others more credit than he claims for himself, and when allusion is made to his disinter- ested zeal and activity, when engaged in a common cause, he insists that it be associated with the efforts that were put forth with his, as he regards them equally unselfish compeers, such as Hon. A. W. Quarrier, Colonel James Atkinson, E. W. Newton, Major John M. Doddridge (now of Wheeling) and Colonel Joel
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Ruffner-all but one of these men having rested from their labors. The profession of law has been his chief pursuit ; that of salt-manufacturer and its kindred branches of trade, for many years engaged much of his attention.
While taking no active part in the civil war that resulted in the formation of the State of West Virginia, as a State's Rights Whig he deemed his highest allegiance due to the mother State -yet zealously fought against secession, as neither rightful nor expedient, and wholly incompatible with the Federal compact of Union. But as the popular will is the very essence of a Democratic Republic, subordination to that will he held to be an imperative duty incumbent upon the citizen. Mr. Laidley takes the position that the most material and important change wrought in our political system by our late civil war is in the entire withdrawal of all control over the finances of the people from the several State governments, and in rightfully asserting exclusive jurisdiction where the Federal Constitution has lodged it-in Congress ; and since 1871, has devoted most of his leisure moments in maintaining the superiority of the Govern- ment Treasury notes as the most perfect symbol of paper money that human ingenuity can devise-maintaining that the real independence of the people cannot otherwise be sustained. That the stupendous system of individual and corporate credit, and its counterpart-debt-can never be abolished nor dimin- ished under the existing monetary system; that the debts of the human race, throughout the commercial world, which have increased during the last quarter of a century in a ratio almost ten-fold greater than the earth's yield of the precious metals, must continue to be augmented with increasing population and wealth, so long as that system obtains; that, as a " Model Re- public," the enlightened world is now looking to us for a remedy commensurate with the evil, and which Mr. Laidley has persistently maintained, can most efficiently be found in the annual issue of full legal tender Treasury notes, ample for all home expenditures of the Government, to be indefinitely continued as long as the necessities and convenience of the people may require.
Mr. Laidley's dignified contributions to the literature of financial economy betray a mind highly cultivated and gifted. His articles, innumerable of which have appeared in the
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journals throughout the country, are of that elevated and classic style which never fails to attract the attention of the learned and critical searchers after truth. A great many people believe with him, that the views of Mr. Laidley will become the accepted doctrine of governmental finance before many years.
He was one of the thirteen promoters of the Industrial Union, (representing the States of Virginia, Maryland and West Vir- ginia), resulting in the convention at Cincinnati on the twenty- second of February, 1887, and in the organization of the " Union Labor Party." Attaching the highest importance in its legislative aspect, that Mr. Laidley does to the money pro- blem, it is not surprising that the fiscal plank in the platform of the new party does not go as far as he deems the exigencies of high civilization demands. He attributes to scarcity of money alone, not only the prevailing labor troubles, but the rapid growth of monopoly, anarchy, pauperism and crime.
He holds, that if the perpetuity of the American Republic is dependent upon the enlightened state of popular sentiment, faith in the soundness of the Greenback theory of money is in like manner dependent upon the same enlightened sentiment, particularly when it is universally conceded that paper money is an absolute necessity of the commercial world-for ultimate- ly the choice must be made between the issue of the Govern- ment and the issues of banks-the latter resting upon individual responsibility or upon impossible gold and silver.
JAMES MORROW, JR.
EW citizens of the State have made more impress upon the community in which Providence placed them than the subject of this brief sketch. He was born in Brooke county, Virginia, May 26, 1837. His boyhood was passed upon his father's farm, and in the neighborhood schools. Ohio and Pennsylvania both contributed to the classic education of later years, and he studied law as opportunity occurred for several years, and in 1862 was admitted to the Bar of Illinois. In 1865 he began practice in Fairmont, West Virginia. Marion county electors chose him to represent their interests in the Legislature in 1871, and again in 1881. In the House he was popular and
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influential in shaping the legislation of those years, serving on the important Committee of the Judiciary. He was one of the Special Court in the contest case of Harrison against Lewis for Judge of the Second Circuit, and voiced the opinion of a majority of the Court; and was counsel for Auditor Bennett and Treasurer Burdett in their attempted impeachment before the West Virginia Senate in 1875-6. Urbane in manners, strict in integrity, Democratic, but conservative, in politics, and properly ambitions for exalted responsibilities, however diffi- cult or laborious, yet modest in urging his own preferment, he was peculiarly sensitive of unfair criticism and neglect. At the State Convention of his party at Huntington, in 1888, he was a formidable candidate for the Gubernatorial nomination. He held many appointments from the Governor upon State Boards, and was elected to numerous county positions of trust.
After severe mental affliction, November 19th, 1888, he passed away into the Great Beyond.
SPICER PATRICK.
NE of the most prominent medical landmarks of the Kanawha region was the venerable Dr. Patrick, who died at his farm residence, near Charleston, October 20, 1884. He was born in Oneida county, New York, January 28, 1791. His education was mainly acquired unaided. His medical course was in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. He moved to Kanawha county, Virginia, about the year 1816. In politics he was a Whig, Union man, and Conservative Dem- ocrat; in religious faith, an Episcopalian, and one of the vestry of St. John's Church, in Charleston. During the war he was an ardent Unionist, and used his influence against the Virginia secession ordinance of 1861. He represented Kanawha county in the House of Delegates in 1863, and was the impartial Speaker of that important session. In 1870-1 he was sent to the State Senate and shaped influentially the legislation of those embarrassing years. His descendants are among the most re- sponsible and esteemed citizens of the Kanawha Valley. His amiable widow resides upon the beautiful home estate west of the Elk river.
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JOHN A. HUTCHINSON.
T HE subject of this sketch was born in Parkersburg in 1840. He studied law in the office of the late James M. Stephen- son, and was admitted to the Bar in 1861. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney for Pleasants county in 1862, and served for nine years. In 1863 he was elected to the same office in Wood county, and served in that capacity until 1870. From 1866 to 1869 he was Prosecuting Attorney of Wood, Wirt, Pleasants and Ritchie counties, by vote of the people. He served Wood and Pleasants counties in the House of Delegates of this State in 1875-6. He was during that term of service one of the Board of Managers on the impeachment of the Auditor and State Treasurer. He has always been a staunch Republican, and in 1876 was nominated for Attorney General on the Republican State ticket, and again in 1884. He was the Republican nominee for Congress in the old First District in 1880. His opponent was Hon. Benjamin Wilson, who, in 1878, had been elected by a majority of 2,200, but Mr. Hutchinson made such a spirited canvass that it took the official count to ascertain the result, Mr. Wilson being elected by about one hundred majority. In 1886 he was the Republican candidate for Congress in the Fourth District, and was defeated by C. E. Hogg, Democrat. He is known as one of the best of West Virginia's many able lawyers, and has for years had the best practice at the Parkersburg Bar.
Mr. Hutchinson is the author of two valuable works on law subjects, viz : "Land Titles in Virginia and West Virginia," and "Official Form Book." These publications added greatly to his reputation as an attorney. He is the chief attorney of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and has been more than ordinarily successful in the litigation which devolved upon him. His forte is trial practice; the examin- ation and cross-examination always being entrusted to him by his associates. He has been engaged in all of the great criminal cases in that portion of the State. He is a man of studious habits, and is possessed of a large fund of general in- formation, to which fact much of his success as a criminal lawyer may be attributed.
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A. LITTIF.
HON. IRA J." M'GINNIS.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
IRA J. MCGINNIS.
H ON. IRA J. MCGINNIS was born in Cabell county, Vir- ginia, July 13th, 1832. His paternal ancestors were Scotch- Irish; his maternal, Welsh. His grandfather, Edmund Mc- Ginnis, was born in Frederick county, Virginia, and moved to Greenbrier county, where Ira J.'s father, Allen A. McGinnis, was born in 1799. The grandfather, Edmund, moved to Cabell county, arriving at Guyandotte, October 6, 1802. Thus the record shows three generations "to the manor born."
Ira J. McGinnis was born and reared on a farm near Guyan- dotte. He had no scholastic advantages above the country " old- field" schools of the day; but a natural love of books and con- siderable ambition, led him to great studiousness, so much so, that without a preceptor, and with borrowed books, he attained a scholarship, at his majority, of which a collegian, of liberal advantages, might well be proud. Of his own choice he studied law, obtained a license to practice, and was admitted to the Bar in 1856. Soon after his admission to practice he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Cabell, his native county, of which his grandfather had been Surveyor, Sheriff and Representative in the General Assembly of Virginia seven sessions, and of which his father had been a Justice many years, also Sheriff, and Representative two sessions in the General Assembly of Vir- ginia. Mr. McGinnis was elected to the State Senate of West Virginia in October, 1874, serving four years, two at Charles- ton and two at Wheeling. He was an acknowledged leader of his party in the Legislature, being a fluent public speaker and a vigorous debater. He was elected as a Democrat to the office of Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit at the October election of 1880, and served the full term of eight years, from January 1, 1881. At the expiration of his term of office he was an Independent candidate for re-election, but was defeated by the regular nominee of the Democratic party.
Judge McGinnis is tall of stature, and has a commanding presence. He is courteous and polite, and is generous to a fault. He is a good' lawyer, and was highly esteemed as a Judge. In 1884, he removed from Guyandotte to the prosper- ous city of Huntington, where he now resides, and is engaged in the successful practice of his profession.
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ROBERT TRIG HARVEY.
c
HIE Harvey family came from Scotland, long prior to the
Revolution, and settled in Virginia. They were the de- scendants of Count DeHarvie, who fought under William the Conqueror. From that time to the present, the family has been one of trusted distinction and unbroken honor.
Dr. Henry B. Harvey, formerly of Botetourt county, Virginia, came west to the Kanawha Valley about the year 1810, and set- tled on about a mile of the valley, immediately below Buffalo. He was a gentleman and genius. Fond of horse racing, he had a track on his farm, and here upon his large estate he received friend and stranger with an open hand, and the gentry came from a great distance to mingle with him in sport, philosophy, gallantry and pleasure.
Here, on the 24th day of June, 1814, his son, Robert Trig Har- vey, was born. Being very sparsely settled, there were for many years but few schools in the country. He had only the advant- ages of acquiring an education from an indulgent mother, with a growing family; but she, having received a classical education at Georgetown, D. C., first taught her son the rudiments of an English education, which, with only six months at school else. where, was all the schooling he obtained. He left home and procured a situation as a store boy when twelve years of age. The father having failed in business, he was thrown upon his own exertions. Soon after arriving at the age of twenty-one, his father died, leaving the mother and six younger brothers and sisters. At the time of his father's death, Robert was liv- ing in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he had accumulated some money. He had to return home to take care of his mother and little brothers and sisters.
Believing that his father did not owe much money, and feel- ing it a duty he owed his memory, the young man assumed the payment of his debts, which took all the money he had made from early boyhood, and left him $1,500 in debt. But with an indomitable will and perseverance he succeeded in a few years in extricating himself from debt, besides educating his younger brothers and sisters. One of his brothers, James C. B. Harvey, graduated at the University of New York, in Medicine, and be- came a very eminent physician and surgeon in New Orleans ; he died in 1862. Another brother died in 1851. The younger
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brother is now living in Brady City, Texas, one of the largest merchants in western Texas.
Robert settled on the old homestead when he returned, and carried on a store in the town of Buffalo. In 1842, when twen- ty-six, he married Miss Anna Hope, one of the most charming ladies, rich with culture and refinement, the Blue Grass district of Kentucky has produced.
Up to 1850 the Democratic party had been defeated in the Ma- son legislative district for years by the Whig party. In the spring of 1850 the Democratic party of the district composed of the counties of Mason, Jackson, and parts of the counties of Putnam and Wirt, held a Convention at Point Pleasant, and, without his consent or knowledge, nominated him unanimously for the Legislature. He was prevailed upon, after a time, to ac- cept the nomination. His competitor, a lawyer, and one of the most popular men in the district, thought he would have an easy victory. But young Harvey went to work and, after one of the most exciting contests ever held, was elected by nearly two hundred majority.
At the next election, under the adoption of the new Constitu- tion of the State of Virginia, Putnam county was entitled to a delegate, being cut off from Mason by the creation of the coun- ty. In 1853 the Democratic party nominated him for the Leg- islature to reclaim that county (a Whig having been elected the preceding year), and he was elected by nearly two hundred ma- jority. In 1856 he was renominated, but owing to private busi- ness declined the nomination.
In the fall of the year 1856, the Clerk of the Circuit and Coun- ty Courts died. The Democratic party nominated and elected him to fill the unexpired term of the deceased Clerk. In 1859 he was re-elected Clerk of both Courts, and held the same until the reorganization of the State in 1861.
From 1837 to 1845, Mr. Harvey rented a farm, and by hard work and economy made a support for his mother's family and his own. In 1845 he commenced selling goods in Buffalo, Put- nam county, in connection with his work on the farm, and soon , got out of debt, and has been accumulating money and property ever since.
In 1873 he went to the city of Huntington, embarked in the mercantile business and pushed things for about six years, when
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he retired from business, after starting two sons in the dry goods business, who are still selling goods, each having established a large trade.
At the first regimental muster in the county of Putnam, in 1851, Mr. Harvey was elected Colonel of the regiment of Vir- ginia militia, which was a high compliment, as he was not an officer at the time.
In 1882 he was nominated for the West Virginia State Sen- ate by the Democratic party. As the new (Sixth) District in- cluded his old county of Putnam, and having always been able to carry that county by from two to six hundred majority (though the county had recently given a large majority against the party), it was thought advisable to put him on the ticket, with a hope of reclaiming that county. The ticket carried the county by about three hundred majority, and he was elected to the Senate without opposition. In that session he was credited with unceasing advocacy, by voice and vote, of all measures look- ing to the advancement of every mining, agricultural and gen- eral interest of his district and State.
While in the Virginia Legislature he was the author of many bills that were adopted; among the number was one that has aided, and will continue to aid, much in the future development of the mineral resources of West Virginia-" The Subterranean Right of Way to Coal Banks;" and many others, all tending to promote the interest of the farmers and the working men.
A friend writes of the old gentleman in the following strain : " Col. Harvey is worth from $75,000 to $100,000, which he has accumulated, notwithstanding his liberality. He has always been a courteous and pleasant gentleman, and has the respect of all who know him. If he had not been embarrassed in early life by the troubles of his father's estate, which resulted in hold- ing him on a farm, there is no telling how high his name would now be in the list of those that have achieved distinction. But the quiet, peaceful and contented life which he lives, now blos- soming with health in his old age, teaches us that it is a better life to lead than the fretful course of a too-much ambitious poli- tician ; that he who throws around his home, happiness, comfort and prosperity, with an ambition set within limits, is a better husband, father, and citizen than the thousands whose ambi- tion for notoriety and wealth make piles of human drift wood along the stream of time."
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JAMES ARCHER FULLERTON.
REV. DR. J. A. FULLERTON was born in County Armagh, Ireland, May 28, 1850; educated principally in the city of Belfast. He has three brothers and one sister-all are in Ire- land, except Joseph L., who is a physician residing in Charles- ton, West Virginia. At the age of seventeen Dr. Fullerton was converted, and commenced preaching immediately there- after. In the fall of 1871 he married Anna J. Barrett, and soon afterward sailed for the United States. Acting on the ad- vice of two Methodist Bishops, he joined the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in March, 1872, and has since filled the following appointments: Evansville, two years: Monongalia, one year; Oakland, two years; Vol- cano, three years ; Moundsville, three years; Charleston, three years, and is at present Presiding Elder of the Parkersburg Dis- trict, where he has already served four years. He is able and popular in his calling, ranking among the very best preachers of his denomination. He received the honorary degree of D.D., from an Eastern college before he was twenty-five years of age. He is of medium stature, wears spectacles, is deliberate in expression, has the appearance of a student, and is of com- manding presence.
CHARLES HEDRICK.
OR the four years from March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1877, inclusive, the Secretary of State in West Virginia, under the administration of Governor John J. Jacob, was the honored lawyer whose name heads this brief sketch. He was born at Fincastle, Botetourt county, Virginia, December 10, 1815. In 1844 he located, for the remainder of life, in Kanawha county ; was educated mainly at Ohio University, Athens, and studied law at Charleston, under Colonel Benjamin H. Smith, whose name is connected with so much of the prosperity and history of that section of the State. A Democrat in political affiliation, and of uncombative nature, he has never struggled for elective office, although he was at one time the candidate of his party for Judge of the Supreme Court of West Virginia.
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ALITTLE.
HON. J. H. ATKINSON.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
JOHN H. ATKINSON.
OR nearly half a century the subject of this sketch has been a leading business man in the Upper Pan Handle of this State. A man of great natural endowments coupled with much acquired learning gave him an influence over his fellows of almost unrestricted power. He acquired a large estate in the manufacture of fire brick in Hancock county, from which business he retired some years ago and took up the practice of law, for which profession he had given many years of careful. study. He resides in a splendid brick mansion at New Cum- berland, and is enjoying the well earned laurels of a busy life.
Mr. Atkinson was President of the first Republican Conven- tion held for Virginia in 1856 in Wheeling, for which action he had a long and bitter fight with pro-slavery men in Louisiana the following winter, having been attacked upon all sides when he went there on business in November of the same year. He however stood fairly and squarely upon the Fremont platform, and although they called him an Abolitionist, they admitted his cause was just, and that if they lived in Western Virginia as he did, they too would be as restive under the operation of the slave code of Virginia as were the Republicans who were mak- ing the fight for the white basis of representation in their State, even if it carried them to the extent of no more slave territory. The result of that discussion ended with the entire confidence of his business friends in Louisiana, and he thereafter retained their custom until the vigilance committees of 1861 carried the State into secession in opposition to the wishes of his customers there-the sugar planters.
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