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 36
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WEST VIRGINIA.
JAMES M. PIPES.
C APT. J. M. PIPES is heavier by just one bullet yet in his body, and one arm less than when he entered, as a private, the Union army in 1862, Company A, One Hundred and For- tieth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, in which he was after- wards promoted to First Sergeant, in 1863 to Second Lieuten- ant, and in 1864 to Captain; was wounded at Gettysburg, that being the ball he still carries in his body; wounded at Spott- sylvania, but never left the field; and also wounded at Kearn's Station, August, 1864; had a ball extracted from his body and his right arm amputated at the shoulder. Except when recov- ering from wounds, he never lost an hour from duty; was in all the principal battles in which his (Second) Army Corps partici- pated, from Fredricksburg to near the close of the struggle; and commanded his regiment in several battles so as to earn com- pliments for bravery from Generals Miles and Hancock.
Honorably discharged from the service, February, 1865, he settled in Marshall county, West Virginia, where he continues to reside, except when in Government service at Washington. He was elected Treasurer of that county in 1866, and Secretary of the State in 1868, for which latter position he was unanimously re-nominated the year (1870) the Democrats carried West Vir- ginia. He was a member of the Convention that framed the State's present Constitution. He was engaged in real estate business, and farming at home, until, in 1879, he was appointed to a small position in the Pension Bureau at Washington, from which, in a few months, he was promoted into the Quartermaster General's office ; was again promoted in the same office, and in August, 1886, was appointed, under the Sergeant-at-Arms, a Messenger in the United States Senate, where he is now em- ployed.
The Captain has always been a zealous and hard-working Re- publican of influence and force for his party wherever known. He was born in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, in September, 1840, reared on his father's farm, attended winter schools, and, just as he was entering upon a regular course of studies, the war prevent- ed, so that his after education has been self-secured. The Cap- tain is a young man in feeling and vigor yet, if he has almost reached the half century mile-post, and is still able and willing to fight as hard for party as he did for patriotism, deeming them
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synonymous terms. He says Republicanism is true patri- otism. He is a man of unblemished character, and is held in high respect by all who know him.
WILLIAM H. HOGEMAN.
OL. W. H. HOGEMAN was born in the city of New York, December 20, 1845, and after receiving a liberal English education, studied law and was admitted to the Bar by the New York Supreme Court, December 16, 1867, soon after attaining his majority. A short time previous to his admission to the Bar he made a business trip to the Kanawha Valley of West Vir- ginia, and being pleased with the people and country, settled in Charleston, and began the practice of law. He was eminently successful, and soon acquired a State reputation as a lawyer and a man of general business ability. He took an active interest in all the political movements in the State, though never holding, and never seeking political office. Governor John J. Jacob made him one of his aids with the rank of Colonel, which honor was continued by Governors Mathews and Jackson.
In 1870, Col. Hogeman was appointed counsel for the Chesa- peake and Ohio Railroad Company, and was so continued until his death, which occurred at his home in Charleston, after a short illness, on the 5th day of January, 1885. The fatal illness, it was supposed, was superinduced by his labors and exposure by travel in necessary railroad duties. He was small of stature but compactly built, giving promise of a long and useful life. He was not only a sound and thoroughly equipped lawyer in the science of pleading, but an accomplished and successful advocate. In social life it was remarked of him that few men coming from a distant and distinctly different State, more thoroughly and quickly became identified with a new people in their sympathies and interests than he did.
Col. Hogeman married Miss Anastein Ruffner, of Charleston, daughter of the late Col. James Ruffner, and sister of Andrew and Meredith Ruffner, distinguished merchants of that city. She with two children were left to mourn their bereavement. But few men in West Virginia achieved a more distinguished legal reputation than did Col. Wm. H. Hogeman.
HON. W. G. BENNETT.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
WILLIAM GEORGE BENNETT.
J
UDGE W. G. BENNETT, the present Judge of the Eleventh Circuit, is prominent not only in a judicial line, but in Ma- sonic circles, and active in railroad enterprises for West Virginia. He was born at Weston, Lewis county, Virginia. His father, Hon. J. M. Bennett, was one of the most popular Auditors of the Old Dominion, and a State Senator for West Virginia. His mother was a daughter of Captain George W. Jackson. He received a fair early education. At the age of fifteen, he entered the Virginia Military Institute, and shortly afterwards, with the other boys at that school, participated in the battle of New Market. He graduated when only nineteen. The pro- fession of law was attractive, and to this he bent his energies, and upon admission to the Bar, began practice in his native town, and soon secured a large and lucrative clientage. He was very successful in all branches of the law in gaining the cases in which he was employed. Criminal practice was not, however, congenial to him, yet for years before his elevation to the Judiciary he was engaged in a large majority of all criminal cases docketed in the counties in which he practiced, and only lost one felony case in which he was employed. He is largely interested in raising blooded horses, and was the prime mover and organizer of the Lewis County Fair. He was energetic in the first Building Association ever formed in Lewis county ; be- lieves in better transportation facilities for his section, and was an active promoter of the Narrow Gauge Railroad from Clarks- burg to Weston, contributing of his time and means toward its completion, and has been a Director in the company since its organization. He has twice been appointed a Director in the State Hospital for the Insane, and served six years in that capacity. In 1876 he was one of the Commissioners appointed by the Board of Public Works to assess for the purpose of tax- ation, the railroad property in the State. In this he was useful and fair to the tax-payer and the people. He is a bright and enthusiastic member of the Masonic Fraternity, and has been honored with the highest position possible in the grand bodies of West Virginia. He has been elected to and served in the position of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter, and Grand Commander of the Grand Com- 35
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mandery of Knights Templar. In November, 1888, he was elected Judge of the Circuit composed of the counties of Upshur, Lewis, Braxton, Nicholas and Webster, by a majority considerably larger than that of the National and State tickets of his party. His Judicial term will not expire till December 31, 1896.
ROGER PRESTON CHEW.
OL. R. P. CHEW was the youngest looking delegate for his years in the House of Delegates, session of 1889-being forty-six years old, but as erect, muscular and vigorous as when he led his celebrated battery, twenty odd years ago, with hair as black and eye as flashing. He was one of the influential men in that body, and, as the writer witnessed, never failed to com- mand attention when, in his lucid manner, with clear ringing voice, he addressed his compeers. When he spoke, on any sub- ject, it was evident he had studied it carefully and thoroughly ; hence the weight his words had; and the writer learns this was none the less true in the committee room. As chairman of the most important committee in the House, that on Finance, his associates of both parties bore testimony to the soundness of his judgment and the military quickness of his apprehension. The great trust reposed in the Colonel by one of the greatest Generals in the late war, was sufficient reason that he was also placed second on the Committee on Military Affairs, in the session of 1889.
Col. Chew was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, April 9, 1843, but has lived in Jefferson county since 1847. He gradu- ated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1860. When his State called her sons to her defense he entered the Confederate army as Captain of Chew's celebrated battery. He was after- wards promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of Artillery and made chief of the horse artillery of the army of Northern Virginia. When peace was declared, he engaged in farming and manufac- turing in his adopted county, and is still so engaged. His con- stituents sent him to the Legislature three consecutive terms- 1885, 1887, 1889-the last time expressing their appreciation of his services by giving him 1,200 majority in the popular vote.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
WILLIAM M. O. DAWSON.
H ON. W. M. O. DAWSON is the publisher and proprietor .of The Preston County Journal, a Republican newspaper printed at Kingwood, Preston county. He was born at Bloom- ington, Maryland, May 21, 1853, and removed to Preston county, West Virginia, with his father, Francis R. Dawson, in 1858, and has remained there to the present time. He was educated in the common schools of his adopted county, and spent five years in a cooper shop at hard labor, and seven years as a book-keeper in a mercantile establishment. He became editor of The Pres- ton County Journal in 1873, and two years later purchased the establishment, which he still owns. In 1880 he was elected to the State Senate, and was the nominee of his party for President of that body in 1883. He was an unusually efficient member of the Senate, and took a leading part in the legislation that was enacted during his four years tenure of office. He is a Repub- lican in politics and is active and influential in his party's coun- cils. He has one of the largest and best equipped general print- ing offices in West Virginia. The name of Senator Dawson has frequently been mentioned in connection with Gubernatorial honors.
WILLIAM CLARK MCGREW.
N the State Senate of the West Virginia Legislature from I January, 1879 to 1885, was Hon. William Clark McGrew, son of Ex-Congressman James C. McGrew. He is a superior parliamentarian, as well as successful business man. Major McGrew, as he was familiarly known during the session of 1885, was Chairman on the part of the Senate of the Joint Com- mittee on Enrolled Bills. In the sessions of 1881 and 1882 he was a member of the Joint Committee to apportion representa- tion in the Legislature, and to rearrange the Congressional Dis tricts ; also the one to investigate certain alleged abuses in the Insane Hospital. He was born in Kingwood, Preston county, April 12, 1842, and received an academic education. In 1864 he wedded Miss Julia E., daughter of United States Senator Waitman T. Willey. In 1870 he removed to Morgantown, where he now resides. He presided over the destinies of that city in 1876 and 1877, as Mayor.
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COL. G. A. PORTERFIELD.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
GEORGE A. PORTERFIELD.
OL. G. A. PORTERFIELD was descended from a family of Scotch origin, who were among the first settlers in the northern part of the Valley of Virginia, prior to the Revolution of 1776, in which war some of its members took a conspicuous part. He was educated at the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington, where he graduated in 1844. Being in Richmond in May, 1846, he assisted in raising in that city the first company formed in Virginia for service in the Mexican war, of which Edward C. Carrington was elected captain; George A. Porter- field, first lieutenant, and Carlton R. Munford, second lieutenant. These officers had been class-mates at Lexington. Soon after his arrival in Mexico, he was made adjutant of the Virginia regiment. A few months afterward he was appointed to act as assistant adjutant general to the division stationed at and near Buena Vista, in which position he continued until the end of the war, in 1848.
He was living upon his farm in Jefferson county in 1861, when our civil war began. In May of that year he was appointed Colonel of Volunteers, and sent to Grafton, with orders from General Lee to receive into the service of the State from the northwestern counties such volunteers as might offer their ser- vices for the defence of that section. He reached Grafton on the 14th of May. Finding the sentiment of a large majority of the people of northwestern Virginia opposed to secession, and but few willing to engage in a war against the Union, he promptly informed the Richmond authorities of that fact, and that it would be necessary to send a force there at once, if they expected to hold that part of the State. The authorities were then un- willing to send troops from the East, and seemed to entertain the belief that there was a sufficient number of loyal citizens in that region for its defence at that time. In the meantime nu- merous Union regiments had been formed in Ohio and Indiana and were ready to be thrown into that region, and his position at Grafton being untenable by the few badly equipped companies under his command, he withdrew to Philippi, in Barbour county. At this place, about daybreak on the morning of the 3d of June, he was surprised by a largely superior force of Federal troops. The proceedings of a Court of Inquiry called to investigate this affair are published in the second volume of the "Official Rec-
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ords of the War of the Rebellion." For this reverse he shared the usual fate of unsuccessful officers, and was censured, prin- cipally by those unacquainted with the circumstances; but it was not long before some of those who were readiest to blame him, participated in a more disastrous defeat. He was relieved of his command, June 14th, by General R. S. Garnett, and on the 11th of July, General Rosecrans, by defeating a detachment of three hundred and fifty men on the top of Rich Mountain, defeated Garnett's entire army of about five thousand men, causing the loss of nearly one thousand prisoners, and a large amount of valuable property. He served afterward on the staff of General W. W. Loring, and later in command of a brigade under General Edward Johnson, until the reorganization of the army in May, 1862, when he retired from the service. In June, 1862, he was arrested and paroled by order of General Banks.
In 1871 he became one of the corporators and founders of the Bank of Charlestown, Jefferson county, West Virginia, where he still resides.
THOMAS H. TRAINER.
MONG the framers of the first Constitution for the State, as the member from Marshall county, was the Reverend Thomas H. Trainer, whose name begins this sketch. He was born in January, 1820, in Augusta county, Virginia. After re- ceiving the ordinary common school education of the day, he engaged in the occupation of a tailor, and pursued it conscien- tiously till in 1853, when he entered the Western Virginia Con- ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has ever since retained connection with that vigorous and esteemed denomina- tion. In the convention to form an organic law for the new State, which met in Wheeling, November 26, 1861, he was a willing and useful member. During the war he served as Chap- lain of the Twelfth West Virginia Infantry. In the House of Delegates for the years of 1865-6, he represented Marshall county. As a pulpit administrator he possesses unusual power over an audience.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
ALEXANDER MONROE.
H ON. ALEXANDER MONROE, the Jeffersonian Dem- ocrat, who fairly presided over the House of Delegates of West Virginia in the session of 1875, is from Hampshire county, and was born December 29, 1817. At the early age of eighteen he was left an orphan, with four younger brothers and two sis- ters to rear and educate. He taught school in winter and worked the farm in season to accomplish this. He read law with A. P. White, at Romney; was admitted to the Bar in 1858, and was made Prosecuting Attorney of the county the next year. In 1861 he went into the Confederate service as colonel of militia, and held the oldest commission in the State. After the Conscript Bill passed, he raised a battalion of cavalry and continued in service till Lee's surrender. He was a member of the General Assembly of Virginia in 1849-'50, and from 1862 to 1865, serving in each ses- sion during the war, but returning, after the Assembly adjourned, to military duty. He was elected in 1872 to the Convention to revise the State Constitution of West Virginia, and in 1875 be- came a member of the House of Delegates from Hampshire coun- ty, and therein elected Speaker. He was also a member in 1879- '81-'82, serving upon the Revisory Committee to amend the Statutes, in 1881.
BENJAMIN MCGINNIS.
ROM Pennsylvania to our State have migrated many of our most energetic and esteemed citizens, some of whom have been selected to fill positions of responsibility in public life. Benjamin McGinnis, whose postoffice address is Ellenboro, Ritchie county, West Virginia, was born April 10, 1835, in Greene county, Pennsylvania, and moved from his birth place into our State in 1852. He was brought up on a farm, and fol- lowed agricultural occupations up to the present time, except three years service in the Union army. He was elected Assessor of the First District in Ritchie county in 1868, and to the House of Delegates of West Virginia for the session of 1871. He served as Commissioner of the county in 1886, and as President of the Court in 1889.
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A.LITTLE
REV. J. H. FLANAGAN.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
JAMES H. FLANAGAN.
HE Rev. J. H. Flanagan, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Grafton, West Virginia, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, September 21, 1832. Being fond of study, he, at the early age of fourteen years, decided to seek a more congenial occupation than working on his father's farm; and, following his inclination, entered the Academy at West Alexan- der, Pennsylvania, then under the care of Rev. John McCluskey, D.D. He graduated at Washington College in the class of 1851, before he was nineteen years of age.
A position as teacher presented itself, which he accepted, and held until the fall of 1854, when he entered the Western Theo- logical Seminary at Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. After the usual course at the Seminary he was licensed to preach the Gos- pel by Redstone Presbytery in 1857. He went to Kingwood, Virginia, expecting to labor there for six months, and then turn his face towards the "setting sun." May 24, 1857, he preached his first sermon there, and has never yet found time to go West. In May, 1862, he accepted a call and was installed Pas- tor of the Presbyterian Church at Fairmont, Virginia. While Pastor there he began preaching occasionally at Grafton, hold- ing services in an old carpenter shop belonging to the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad Company. The people having a will to work, a church was organized of eight members, and in 1868 a neat little brick church was dedicated, free of debt. The church grew in numbers and influence, and in May, 1872, after a pastorate of ten years at Fairmont, he was released from that charge and installed pastor of the Grafton church, where he still labors, with an earnest, faithful and devoted people. The church building has been once enlarged, and is again becoming too straitened for the growing congregation.
May 17, 1864, he was married to Miss Isabella H., youngest daughter of Rev. James Hervey, D.D., of sacred memory. He is the only Minister of the Presbytery of West Virginia now la- boring within its bounds who was present at its organization in 1864.
Thirty-one years ago he became an adopted son of our Moun- tain State, and still clings to her with the affection of a loving child.
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ISAAC SCOTT.
D R. ISAAC SCOTT was born in Beaver county, Pennsylva- nia, February 22, 1822. He studied medicine with Dr. Charles McLane, in Morgantown, Virginia, where he married Emily E., daughter of his preceptor, in May, 1848. He moved to Parkersburg in April, 1865, where he practiced his profes- sion till his death, February 28, 1888. He left a daughter, Mrs. Ella L. Stewart, of Parkersburg, and a son, Charles J. Scott, who studied medicine with his father; graduated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in March, 1881, and now is a practicing physician in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Isaac Scott was Surgeon of the Seventh West Virginia Volunteers, and soon afterwards Surgeon-in-Chief of the First Brigade, Third Divis- ion, Second Army Corps. At the battle of Fredericksburg he was appointed Chief of the Third Division, Second Army Corps, which he held till mustered out. He was United States Pension Examiner at Parkersburg, and President of the Board. He was an old line Whig till 1861, thence afterward a Republi- can; was a member of the City Council several years, and Mayor two terms, and always took an interest in the progress of the city and State; was President and General Manager of the proposed C., P. & N. R. R., and worked earnestly to cause its construction. He was a great physician ; was a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church; one of the first Knights Templar in Parkersburg; one of nature's noblemen gone to the other shore.
THOMAS HUGHES.
T HOMAS HUGHES, who was born in Greene county, Penn- sylvania, January 21, 1789, was the eighth child of James Hughes, the eldest of six children of Felix, the son of Thomas Hughes, who came from Inver, Donegal, Ulster, and settled in Loudoun county, Virginia, in 1739. Thomas Hughes settled in Wheeling, Virginia, in 1815. He died June 20, 1849. He was the first Treasurer of the city of Wheeling, and served as a mem- ber of the City Council for thirty-two years previous to his death, and was for many years its President. At the time of his death he was Director and President of the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company, President of the Wheeling Savings Institu- tion, Director and President of the Wheeling Fire Insurance
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Company, and Director of the Northwestern Bank. His son John Hughes succeeded him in the City Council, and served con. secutively until a year prior to the latter's death in March, 1870.
Thomas Hughes also left a son Thomas, who resided in Bal- timore, and was a member of the firm of Robert Moore & Co., of that city, and of the firm of Thomas Hughes & Co., of Wheel- ing; and a son, Alfred Hughes, M. D., a prominent physician, who died in Baltimore, February 25, 1880. Dr. Hughes active- ly participated in the secession movement in Virginia; was ar- rested, imprisoned, and subsequently sent South with his family. He has a son Thomas practicing law in Baltimore ; one daughter married to W. Peyton Moncure, M. D., of Virginia, a son of Judge Moncure, former President of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and a daughter married to General Frank A. Bond, of Maryland.
Thomas Hughes, of the firm of Thos. Hughes & Co., of Wheel- ing, returned to Wheeling some years ago, and died suddenly of heart disease, March 5, 1886.
BARNA POWELL.
T T HIE lawyer, who in court responds to the aforesaid name, was born February 25, 1834, on Captina Creek, Belmont county, Ohio. He was reared partially upon a farm, clerked in a country store, then taught school and studied law in leisure hours; was admitted to the Bar at Woodsfield, Ohio, October 27, 1859, and began practice with the late Judge B. R. Cowan. At the breaking out of the rebellion, he enlisted April 29, 1861, in Company B, Twenty-fifth Ohio Volunteers; appointed Lieu- tenant and Adjutant of the Third West Virginia Cavalry, June 28, 1862 ; served as Aid on the General's Staff, Department of West Virginia, and with his regiment until January 29, 1864, when he resigned on account of his regiment being scattered in com- panies from the Army of the Potomac to the Ohio river. He removed to Parkersburg, Wood county, W. Va., January 29, 1864, where he has continued to reside and practice law. He never aspired to public office, but nevertheless has taken active interest in politics. He first voted in 1855, in Ohio, for Salmon P. Chase, and has been a Republican ever since. He loves the cause of temperance and advocates it warmly.
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HON. JOSIAH SINCLAIR.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
JOSIAH SINCLAIR.
JOSIAH SINCLAIR was born in Monroe county, Ohio, March 7, 1843. His father, John Sinclair, was an attorney at law, and for a number of years practiced at Woodsfield, Ohio, where the subject of this sketch was educated in the common and High School. In 1861 he was clerk in the office of the County Auditor, and then in the general freight office of the Central Ohio Railroad Company at Columbus. In 1862 he was clerk in a general store at Rosemond, Illinois, but in the spring of 1863, returned and in the following June enlisted in the army. At the organization he was commissioned Second Lieutenant of Company F, One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. August 13, 1863, his regiment left Camp Cleveland for the front, and until March, 1864, he was in active service under General Burnside, Second Brigade, Third Division, Ninth Army Corps, in Kentucky and East Tennessee. He was at the capture of Cumberland Gap, and with his regi- ment in several minor engagements; was detailed to act as Post Commissary, but declined, preferring duty with his com- pany and regiment. He was the youngest of four brothers com- missioned as army officers. His elder brother, Alexander, Lieutenant, commanding Company K, Twenty-fifth Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry, was killed in the battle of Chancellorsville ; his second brother, William, a graduate of West Point, Major Second United States Artillery, during the war Colonel Sixth Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserves, and Assistant Inspector Gen- eral, Thirteenth Army Corps, was promoted for gallant and meritorious services in the siege of Yorktown, and for like services in the battle of Fredericksburg; his third brother, Francis M., Lieutenant, Company C, Twenty-fifth Ohio Volun- teer Infantry, and later a member of the One Hundred and seventy-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, died in the service. After Josiah's term of service in the army, he returned to his home and entered upon the study of the law. At intervals he clerked in the office of his uncle, W. T. Sinclair, Probate Judge, and in the office of the Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas. In September, 1866, he was admitted to practice. In November, of the same year, he entered the employ of Laughlin, Smith & Co., wholesale druggists, of Wheeling, as a commercial traveler, intending, at the expiration of one or two years, to
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