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 34
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memory sufficiently to come to my funeral without being hauled there in hired carriages." The pledges were given, and he was not buried in a gilded casket, but in a nice, black walnut coffin, and no carriages were furnished except for the family. In his obituary notice it was said: "Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather there was an immense concourse of citizens of all classes, professional, business and working men." When Mr. Stephenson died "the poor wept," for he was their friend and benefactor. Those who had been his slaves wept, for he had been their friend, and they loved him. In early life he was a Methodist class-leader. He became more liberal in his religious views, but never lost sight of the cardinal doctrine of Christian- ity, " Salvation through faith and Jesus Christ." This doctrine he believed and accepted, and it comforted his heart in life and was his solace in death.
James M. Stephenson was a learned man. He was a man of wealth, yet had no money wrung unjustly from any one. He was a public spirited man, doing much for the public good. He was a benevolent man, giving thousands of dollars for the good of mankind. His gifts were unostentatious ; he did not make a boast of his benevolence. He was a kind husband and father. He was a good man and a Christian ; "his life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, this was a man." He died on the 12th of April, 1877, in his eighty-first year.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
FOLGER FLAL
HON. OKEY JOHNSON, A. M.
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OKEY JOHNSON.
KEY JOHNSON, son of William and Elizabeth Johnson, was born in Tyler county, Virginia, March 24, 1834, one of a family of fifteen, who grew to manhood and womanhood. He worked on the farm in summer and went to school in winter, until he grew to manhood; graduated at Marietta High School in 1856; studied law in Harvard University and graduated with the degree of LL. B. in 1858; located at Parkersburg, Virginia, to practice law, in 1862; was a Democrat, and opposed proscrip- tion of returned Confederates. He was a candidate for the Legislature from Wood county. In 1864 he was an elector on the McClellan ticket; a candidate for the State Senate in 1870 from the Fifth District, which had at the previous election given a Republican majority of six hundred and fifty ; made such a can- vass that he carried every county in his district, and was elected by seven hundred and fifty majority ; was in his seat in the Sen- ate for two weeks and succeeded in having there passed the "Flick amendment" for the relief of the disfranchised, by a unanimous vote; was sick all the time while in his seat; went home and came near dying with typhoid pneumonia; re- signd his seat that the bill calling the Constitutional Convention might pass ; was elected a member of the Constitutional Conven- tion from the Fifth Senatorial District by over two thousand majority, and took a prominent part in framing the present State Constitution ; was elector-at-large on the Democratic National ticket in 1872 ; was earnestly engaged as a worker in behalf of the Democratic party from 1864 to 1876.
He has been a member of the Baptist Church for forty years ; presided as Moderator of the Parkersburg Baptist Association continuously for ten years, embracing the period of the war; has been President of the Baptist State Convention; received the honorary degree of A.M. from Marietta College in 1871. In 1863 he married the eldest daughter of Hon. James M. Stephen- son, of Parkersburg, and has five children, most of whom are now grown.
In 1876 he was nominated, without electioneering, for the high position on the Democratic ticket for Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, and was elected by about seventeen thousand majority. For the term of twelve yeers he devoted all his en- ergies to the duties of his exalted office. His opinions will be
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found in the West Virginia reports from the Tenth to the Thir- ty-first Volume, inclusive. He helped in no small degree to build up a system of jurisprudence in West Virginia, and has seen the West Virginia Supreme Court brought into prominence in the Text books, and by the Courts of last resort in our sister States. He set his face against fraud, and wrote the opinions on the two leading cases on that subject, Lockhart and Ireland vs, Beckley and Hunter vs. Hunter, in the Tenth West Virginia. He wrote the opinions in the celebrated war-trespass cases, in the Nineteenth West Virginia, Peerce vs. Fitzmiller and White vs. Crum and others, the principles decided in which were re- cently approved and affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States, in Freeland vs. Williams, 130 U. S. He wrote the opinion in Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company vs. the Auditor, Nineteenth West Virginia, which compelled that great Company to pay taxes to the State, holding unconstitutional a statute which exempted it, which decree was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States, 114 U. S., 176. He wrote the opinion of the Court in State vs. Frew & Hart, Twenty-fourth West Virginia, settling the power of the Courts in cases of con- tempts, where libel has been published by a newspaper on the Court, having an important case before it at the time to which the libel referred. The newspapers criticised the opinion severe- ly, but its effect was salutary. He wrote the greater number of the opinions in criminal cases while on the Bench. He wrote the opinion on the Pittsburgh, Wheeling and Kentucky R. R. Co. vs. Benwood Iron Works, Thirty-first West Virginia, which clearly defines what is a "public use," for which private property may be condemned, and holding that a railroad switch to a steel mill is not for " public use." His opinions took the widest range on the most important questions, and reflect credit on the Court of which he was a member, and by the choice of his brethren its President for seven and one-half years.
Judge Johnson retired from the Bench January 1, 1887, and located at the Capital of the State, where he is now engaged in the practice of the law. The benefit of his long and severe train- ing on the Bench is showing itself in the practice he is now re- ceiving. Judge Johnson is known all over the State as a man of high character ; is moral, upright, studious, energetic. He is a good lawyer, and is universally esteemed by all who are acquaint- ed with him.
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JOHN R. DONEHOO.
H ION. JOHN R. DONEHOO was born in Cross Creek village, Washington county, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1834; was educated at the Cross Creek Academy ; studied law under the direction of Hon. Charles W. Russell, at Wheeling, Virginia; was admitted to the Bar in 1855; was partner of Hon. Z. Jacob, Wheeling, for three years ; moved to Washington, Penn- sylvania, and remained there three years practicing law and editing The Examiner; united in marriage with Miss Eleanor McCown, April 26, 1860; during the political campaign of 1863, he established and edited The Courier at Steubenville, Ohio ; located at Fairview, Hancock county, West Virginia, and re- mained a year and a half practicing law; removed to McCon- nellsburg, Pennsylvania, where he edited a newspaper for three years, and practiced his profession. In 1866 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Fulton county; was delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1868; was re-elected Prose- cuting Attorney in 1869, but resigned and removed to Indiana county, Pennsylvania; was editor of The Democrat, in that county, for eighteen months; removed to Morgantown, West Virginia in 1871 and published a newspaper for two years. In 1874 he removed to Fairview, Hancock county, and resumed the practice of law ; served two years as Prosecuting Attorney of Hancock county, from 1875 to 1877. Although a Democrat, and residing in a strong Republican School District, he has thrice been honored with the office of President of his District School Board. In 1880 Mr. Donehoo was elected a member of the State Senate; served as Chairman of the Committee on Education and Finance, and was also a member of the Judici- ary Committee. The Senate journal shows that he was one of the most attentive and influential members in shaping the legis- lation of the two sessions he was a member. He introduced the bill for the appointment of a Commission to revise the as- sessment and taxation of property in the State ; the bill to sup- press prize-fighting, and other important measures that passed into laws. His legal practice, which extends to the Supreme Court, is extensive, and is proof of his high standing in his profession.
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FOLGEN C
HON. JOSEPH T. HOKE, LL. D.
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JOSEPH T HOKE.
J TUDGE JOSEPH T. HOKE is a splendid type of the refined and dignified gentleman of America. Not tall, but well proportioned, with dark eyes and hair, and exquisitely neat in appearance and pleasing in deportment, he would attract atten- tion in any audience as a gentleman of culture and refinement. As a lawyer, judge, legislator, scholar and citizen, he stands at the fore-front in his native State. The following brief sketch of his career shows that he has not only been a busy man, but he has been pre-eminently a successful man. He is a close student, and has allowed none of his precious time to run to waste. He has for many years taken a prominent part in literary and artistic enterprises; has written much for different periodicals in both prose and verse; and the thought and finish revealed in these productions have never failed to command attention. Himself unpretentious and unselfish, Judge Hoke has done much work in a literary line, but always as a side-issue to his professional duties, that he would blush to find turned into fame; and yet, some of the most artistic and pleasing verses I have read for years, were the productions of his fertile brain. His relaxation from professional toil is in literary work, which is always of a kind that goes to make society more cul- tured and beneficient. For this extra toil he asks no distinction or reward; but I may add, and I rejoice because it is true, that the good that men do shall live after them.
Joseph T. Hoke was born in Berkeley county, Virginia, Feb- ruary 6, 1835. He attended school at Rock River Seminary, Illinois, at Oberlin College, Ohio, and Hillsdale College, Michi- gan, graduating with the degree of A.B., from the latter in August, 1860. He determined to become a lawyer, and accord- ingly took the course of legal studies in the Michigan Uni- versity, at Ann Arbor, graduating LL. B., in March, 1864. In the summer of that year he commenced practice at Martins- burg, West Virginia. He was commissioned by Governor A. I. Boreman to organize the first loyal civil government of the Union people in Berkeley and Jefferson counties, under which the first election was held in October, 1864, and the first officers for said counties were elected. This early organization of the loyal civil government of West Virginia, within these counties, was a most important agency in securing them to the new State.
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1864. Mr. Hoke was elected Prosecuting Attorney, and was also appointed Clerk of the Board of Supervisors of Berke- ley county, in which positions he served the statutory terms in an efficient and satisfactory manner.
1865. He established the Berkeley Union, a weekly news- paper, at Martinsburg, just before General Lee's surrender. It was the first Republican paper ever printed in that section of the State. In 1876, after his removal to Keyser, Mineral county, he founded the Mountain Echo, a Republican news- paper, which is still published at that place. The Berkeley Union was consolidated in 1870 with the New Era and became the Independent, which is now published as an independent newspaper.
1866. He was elected a State Senator from the Eleventh District, composed of the counties of Jefferson and Berkeley. In that body he found full scope for the exercise of those talents that had been so highly cultivated in his years of study at college. He was painstaking in all that he did, and was re- garded one of the closest and clearest thinkers in the Legislature.
1866. Senator Hoke was a member of the Board of Visitors of the State Agricultural College and assisted in framing the Act that located the same at Morgantown. Also assisted in changing the name to the West Virginia University, and for several years was a member and President of its Board of Regents, and assisted in arranging its first curriculum of study and electing the first faculty.
1866. He secured the first charter for Storer College, at Harper's Ferry, for the education of the colored people of the State, of which he was then and ever has been a Trustee.
1868. He was elected a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago.
1868. He was re-elected to the State Senate, and during that session served as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and was the Senate member of the Joint Committee that framed the Code of 1868. He was also President pro tempore of the Senate in the spring of 1869, and was one of the leading factors in securing the ratification by the Legislature of the XVth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. But for his energetic efforts that amendment most likely would not have been ratified. Many Republican members were opposed
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to it, some of whom Judge Hoke induced to remain out of the Senate and not vote against it. Others he persuaded to vote for it; and withal the Joint Resolution was only adopted by 10 to 8,-there being only three Democrats in the Senate at that time.
1869. Governor W. E. Stevenson appointed him Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, then composed of Mineral, Grant, Hardy and Pendleton counties, for the unexpired term of six years, which position he filled with great acceptability, until the new Constitution, January 1, 1873, legislated him out of office.
1870. Hillsdale College, his alma mater, knowing Judge Hoke's rank as a jurist, and without his knowlege, conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D.
1872. He was again elected a Delegate to the Republican National Convention, at Philadelphia, and was chosen one of the Vice Presidents of that body.
1880. He was the Republican candidate for Congress in the Second District of West Virginia, against Judge John Blair Hoge, Democrat, and Hon. D. D. T. Farnsworth, Green- backer, and made such a satisfactory campaign that the Repub- lican Convention, at Fairmont, in 1882, offered again to make him its candidate, but he declined.
In the same year he was, a third time, elected a Delegate to the Republican National Convention, at Chicago.
1881. The Judge, in November of this year, removed his residence from Keyser, Mineral county, to Kingwood, Preston county, on account of his wife's feeble health, where he has resided. ever since.
1886. He was elected to the House of Delegates of West Virginia, from Preston county, for two years, and was one of the ablest and most influential members of that body.
1888. He was given the nomination for Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit by the Judicial Convention, which was held at Grafton, and was elected by 1,204 of a majority over his com- petitor, Judge W. T. Ice, a popular Independent Democrat, and the former incumbent of the office.
The Judge is a leading Odd Fellow. He has passed all the Chairs of that Order in Subordinate and Grand Lodges. As Grand Master for West Virginia, he was remarkably efficient
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and popular. At the close of his term in that high office, he was elected a representative to the Grand Lodge of the United States, which position he filled with credit and distinction.
As already stated Judge Hoke has written a large number of poems that possess genuine poetic merit. Since the above sketch of the Judge was written, a friend accidentally picked up an album in which two stanzas were written by Judge Hoke years ago. My attention was called to them. The meter and rhythm are so perfect, and the thought so beautifully expressed, I copy them here as a specimen of his poetic diction :
We write but a line, We leave but a name, We cast but a leaf on the tide ; The line is soon gone, The name is soon blank, The leaf with the current will glide.
Thus ever like leaves, Of the beautiful spring, In youth time we shadow the deep,- But soon, like the leaves Of the autumn, we fall, And float on the billows asleep.
M. C. C. CHURCH.
HEN petroleum production was at its maximum in value and in quantity in the Little Kanawha Valley and adjacent fields, soon after the war, we find the name of M. C. C. Church attached to the superintendency of the largest oil transportation pipe line company in that locality. He was born near Nashville, Tennessee, May 15, 1827. In education he utilized the schools of that State, and with mental vigor and studious inclination improved all opportunities. For fourteen years he was assistant editor of the Nashville Union, the Jackson organ of Tennessee. Owing to failing health, in 1856, he disposed of his interest in the paper and went North, in his travels corresponding for met- ropolitan journals. He was a war Democrat, and correspondent of the New York Tribune during the civil conflict. By virtue of his Unionism he lost his property, and on the return of peace moved to Parkersburg, West Virginia, where, as the represent- ative of distant capitalists, he was the manager of the West Virginia Transportation Company, whose oil tanks are daily
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seen along the tortuous Baltimore and Ohio railroad track from the Ohio river to the Atlantic.
February 1, 1859, he wedded Marian Louise Waters, an estim- able lady of New York. He is literary, philosophic and theo- logical in his readings, taste and inspirations. In religion he is Swedenborgian, in politics Republican, in the path of thought original. He is public spirited, ever ready to promote laudable enterprise, or aid in benevolent movements in city or State. He loves editorial proprietorship, and was the founder of the State Journal of Parkersburg. He is the author of several philosophic pamphlets. For the stimulus to our material prosperity which has come through his agency and efforts there, he deserves this record among the State's representative men.
GEORGE ALEXANDER BLAKEMORE.
H ON. GEORGE A. BLAKEMORE was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, in 1837. He was taken to Augusta county in 1842, and in 1850 to Staunton, where, in 1852, he be- came a clerk in a store, but in the fall of the same year removed to Romney, where he learned printing under Major Harper, publisher of the South Branch Intelligencer, the leading Whig paper in that valley. In the fall of 1855 he entered the Acad- emy of Mossy Creek, then the prominent institution of learning near Staunton, afterwards destroyed by the Federal army. He entered the law office of the late Colonel John B. Baldwin, of Staunton, as a student, and in 1860 was admitted to the Bar. He entered the Confederate army early in the strife, serving as a private soldier; and at the close of the struggle located at Franklin, Pendleton county, where he now resides, engaged in his profession. He was elected to the State Senate and served from 1872 to 1875, and in the House of Delegates from 1875 to 1877 ; was re-elected in 1884 and again in 1888. Few men are better qualified for the duties of legislation than this accomp- lished gentleman ; and no party has a more devoted supporter. In the present House of Delegates he is on the Committees of Elections and Privileges, and the Judiciary.
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A.LITTLE.
HON. B. F. MARTIN, A. M.
A
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN MARTIN.
H ON. B. F. MARTIN was born near Farmington, Marion county, Virginia, October 2, 1828. His father, Jesse B. Martin, was among the early settlers of Buffalo Creek, then in Harrison county, where he devoted himself to the business of farming. The subject of this sketch was brought up as a tiller of the soil, devoting the first twenty-one years of his life to that honest vocation. He had but limited school advantages in his early life, but soon after he reached his majority, he matriculated as a student of Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated, with first honors, as a Bachelor of Arts, in June, 1854. After graduation at college he returned to Marion county, and taught school eighteen months in Fair- mont, during which time he studied law. He was admitted to the Bar and commenced practice in March, 1856, locating the following November at Pruntytown, then the seat of justice of Taylor county, where he remained until a few years ago. When Grafton was made the county seat, he moved his office to Grafton, where he now resides.
For many years Mr. Martin devoted his undivided energies to the practice of his profession, and as a reward for his toil, became a distinguished lawyer. For a quarter of a century he has been the leading member of the Bar in his adopted county. He is still in active practice, and displays the same energy and faithfulness in his work as he did when many years younger than he now is.
Often solicited to become a candidate for office, Mr. Martin wisely refused until he had established himself as an attorney of prominence and with a reputation fully made. When the Democratic party came into power in West Virginia in 1871, it was decided by them that a new State Constitution should be framed. A convention was accordingly called for that purpose in 1872, and Mr. Martin was chosen a delegate from Taylor county. Being a good lawyer, and a superior debater, he took a high rank in the Convention, and was one of its most active and useful members. The same year (1872) he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention that met in Baltimore. Mr. Martin opposed the nomination of Horace Greeley, but in the campaign that followed, he gave him active and earnest support.
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In the fall of 1872, he was a candidate for Congress for the Second District, on the Democratic ticket. The new Constitu- tion was adopted at a special election, August 22, of that year. Hon. J. M. Hagans was voted for as a member of Congress that day, receiving 3,441 votes. Mr. Martin did not allow himself to be voted for at that time, but appeared as the regular candi- date of his party at the October election, receiving 5,998 votes, On the same day, J. Nelson Wisner, Republican, received 1,698 votes, and D. D. T. Farnsworth, 1,321 votes. Governor Jacob certified to Congress the result of both elections, and a contest followed. Congress admitted Mr. Hagans as the duly elected member, notwithstanding the Committee of Elections reported in favor of Mr. Martin. In 1876 Mr. Martin was again his party's candidate for Congress, and was elected by a majority of 3,843. In 1878 he was re-elected by nearly 8,000 majority. While in Congress, Mr. Martin was attentive to his duties, and was an efficient Representative. He is a conscientious man, and adheres only to that which he believes strictly to be right. No West Virginia Congressman left behind him a more faith- ful or more honorable record.
Mr. Martin, from early manhood to the present, has been a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a lay-delegate to the General Conference of 1876; was President of the Lay-Electoral Conference of that church held at Parkers- burg, October, 1887, and is one of the trustees of the Confer- ence Seminary at Buckhannon, and is Treasurer of the Board of Trustees. He has been active in charitable works for more than a generation, and bears the good will of all who know him. In political campaigns he was always fair and upright, scorning everything dishonorable. As a lawyer no one can truthfully say a word against his integrity, for he enjoys the reputation of being scrupulously honest in the practice of his profession.
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JOHN ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
H ON. JOHN A. CAMPBELL is a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, and is in the forty-seventh year of his age. His father, Alexander Campbell, came to Virginia when the son was but thirteen years of age, and engaged in merchandizing at Fairview, Hancock county. The grandfather of the subject of this sketch located at an early day at New Lisbon, Ohio, and was a coadjutor and friend of the late Bishop Alexander Campbell, and in the reformatory religious movement of the latter, fifty years ago, in Eastern Ohio, accompanied him on his visits to the Western Reserve, and rendered valuable assistance in the estab- lishing of new churches and popularizing the doctrine of the Bishop's particular creed. The Mahoning Baptist Association almost entirely, as a body, accepted the liberal religious teach- ings of Bishop Campbell and became a nucleus for the formida- ble denomination afterwards known as Disciples, or Christians.
When about eighteen years of age, John A. Campbell contem- plated entering Bethany College, but on account of the intense pro slavery sentiment that prevailed in that institution, he was sent to Washington College, Pennsylvania, in 1863, and re- mained there until 1867, when he graduated A.B. The classes at that time were very large, and it was the custom of the Fac- ulty to select a few of the brightest members of the senior class each year to deliver graduating orations. Mr. Campbell was one of the few members of his class who was thus selected to deliver a commencement day address.
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