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 44
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After the expiration of his term he returned to Wellsburg, toward the close of 1864, and moved to his farm near the town in the spring of 1865. His subsequent years were uneventful and the details would not be of much interest to the general reader. They were passed largely in the closing up of his busi- ness affairs at home and in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa, where he had some years previously invested considerable money. He interested himself in the establishment of the town of Sabetha, in Nemaha county, Kansas, of which he was a large proprietor ; but owing to unfortunate railroad changes, the venture was not so successful at the time as was anticipated. The two years preceding his death, which occurred December 22, 1879, at Sabetha, were passed mostly in Kansas. He died of a liver dis- ease. He was attended by his son Hammond and family and by his daughter, Mrs. Allin, of Missouri. His remains were brought home to Wellsburg for interment in Brooke Cemetery, reaching here on Christmas day, 1879.
Mr. Tarr was thrice married : January 24, 1848, to Mary, eldest daughter of Talbot Hammond, a prominent farmer of Brooke county, and May 25, 1851, to Nancy, her sister-Mary having died on the 25th of May, 1849. His second wife, Nancy, died on the 6th of January, 1863. In 1864, during his sojourn at Wheeling, he became acquainted with Mrs. Mary Beninghaus, widow of Hiram Beninghaus, of Ohio, and married her. She still survives him. He left by his first wife, Mary, one daughter -Belle, now Mrs. Edwin Allin, of Brunswick, Missouri ; by his second wife, Nancy, a son-Hammond, now of Sabetha, Kansas, and two daughters-Elizabeth (Mrs. Oliver Marshal, of New Cumberland, West Virginia), who died January 22, 1887, and Fannie H., wife of Hon. C. L. Brown, of Ravenswood, West Virginia. And by his last wife one daughter-May Louise, now residing with her mother in the East.
Mr. Tarr was a man of kind and generous impulses, of a fine and highly strung nervous organization that rebelled instinct- ively against all coarseness of manner and demeanor; was cour- teous and polished in his manners, considerate of the feelings of others, genial and companionable with all with whom he came in contact. With some eccentricities, he was endowed with a mind quick and penetrating, that intuitively arrived at conclu- sions which other men reached by the slower process of reason-
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ing. Nor did he lack in width of comprehension, as his busi- ness ventures indicate. He was the soul of honor in his business engagements, and during his long and eventful life he lived honored and respected to the last.
ALEXANDER ROGERS CAMPBELL.
N the Republican side of the State Senate of 1889 was the busy Senator from the Fifth District (Mason, Jackson and Roane counties), watchful, cool in debate, aggressive when necessary, always alert, and a constant wonder to the old legislators that in this, his first appearance in such a body, he should be relied upon so greatly by his party in the heated de- bates and parliamentary tactics of that memorable session. He had, however, more experience than many of his compeers, hav- ing been a page in the three first conventions held in the State, as also in the first Senates of the Reorganized Government held in Wheeling, and in the West Virginia State Senate of 1863 and of 1864, and there watched the proceedings, heard the speeches and noted the tactics of the older and wisest legislators of the new State while forming and launching the new Virginia.
Alexander Rogers Campbell, son of John R. (born in Wheel- ing, 1813,) and Margaret (Cassidy) Campbell-the latter a native of Winchester, Virginia-was born in Burlington, Iowa, August 29, 1848, but returned with his parents to Wheeling when two years old, and was there educated. He was in a drug store from 1863 to 1872, when he became a member of the wholesale drug- gist firm of Laughlin Bros. & Co., of Wheeling. In 1883 he re- moved to Ravenswood, Jackson county, and engaged in mer- chandising until 1885, when he went into the general insurance business, became State agent of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, and has headquarters at Wheeling, while still retaining his residence at Ravenswood.
In 1884, Mr. Campbell became Secretary of the Jackson county Republican Committee and conducted the campaign in such manner as to bring him prominently before his party and people. In 1888 he was elected to the State Senate of 1889, in which body he was Chairman of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, and also a member of five other committees : Judiciary, Education, Public Buildings, Mines and Mining, and Rules.
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During the memorable Gubernatorial contest in that session, Senator Campbell prepared and offered the celebrated "Senate Joint Resolution No. 7," the preamble of which stated : * it seems that the time has come for the better class of all parties to rise above partisan spirit and guarantee each to the others full protection in the future in all matters pertaining to the subjects in controversy. The Republicans pledging to throw no obstacles in the way of the speedy ending of the controversy between Judge A. B. Fleming and General Nathan Goff; the Democrats agreeing that the canvassing of the returns and dec- laration of the result shall proceed at once in accordance with the precedent of the Joint Rules of 1877, '81 and '85, etc."
But the beneficent compromise could not be passed.
In 1876, Mr. Campbell married Miss Mary H. Rearick, a na- tive of Hagerstown, Maryland, by whom he has five children- four sons and a daughter.
MATTHEW GAY HOLMES.
M G. HOLMES, the Consul of the United States at Chee- , foo, China, under the Grant administration, was the Republican elector who now serves the people of Harrison county as Sheriff. He was born November 20, 1838, in Preston county, Virginia. He was educated in the common schools and afterwards engaged in teaching. In August, 1859, he went to Shanghai, China, and there engaged in private business for the nine succeeding years. In 1870 he was designated as Consul to the Celestial Empire. In 1872 he returned to the United States, and afterwards located at Clarksburg, Harrison county, and engaged in merchandising. He has been Mayor and several years member of the Council of that town. Twice has he cir- cumnavigated the globe, once from Boston east, and again from San Francisco west. He was elected to the House of Delegates and served in the session of 1887 on Committees on Mines and Mining, Forfeited and Unappropriated Lands and Printing and Contingent Expenses. In the year 1888 he was elected Sheriff for four years from January 1, 1889.
WEST VIRGINIA.
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A.LITTLE.
HON. M. G. HOLMES.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
SAMUEL S. SPENCER.
UR sturdy yeomanry in the field of agriculture has fur- nished much of the thoughtful practical legislation of this new State. From these ranks we call S. S. Spencer, although he says he is "only a farmer," not worthy a place among " Prom- inent Men." He was born in Wood county, Virginia, January 13, 1822; received a good education, but has confined himself to agricultural pursuits. He was never prominent in politics until the civil war commenced; then he developed into an ear- nest, ardent Union citizen and a Republican in politics. He was a staunch friend to and advocate for the new State of West Virginia, and a zealous contender for free schools at all times when these two projects needed friends. He was a member of the mass Convention of May, 1861-after Virginia passed the secession ordinance-that called the June Convention which restored the State to the Union. Mr. Spencer represented Wood county in the West Virginia House of Delegates in the sessions of 1866, '67 and '75. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and his counsel is still sought after in church as well as State affairs.
WILLIAM SYDNEY LAIDLEY.
THEN the laws were in process of adaptation to the revised Constitution of 1872, one of the faithful members of the Legislature from Kanawha county was Wm. Sydney Laidley. He was born June 27, 1839, in Cabell county, Virginia. His paternal ancestors, who originally spelled the name "Laidlaw," emigrated from Scotland to America in the year 1774, almost in the dawn of the Revolution. He was educated in Marshall College, at Huntington, and in September, 1863, moved to Charleston, Kanawha county, and read law with the very able George W. Summers, and at the death of his judicial instructor, in 1868, was his partner in legal practice. Then he formed a professional partnership with the late Col. Wm. H. Hogeman, and continued the business relation until the latter's demise, in January, 1885. He was a valuable working member of the House of Delegates in 1872-3; has been for the past fifteen years connected with the municipal government of Charleston, as Councilman and City Solicitor, and has done much toward the prosperity and adornment of the Capital of the State.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
THOMAS LEE BROUN.
MONG the foremost of West Virginia's land lawyers has been classed the subject of this sketch, he having made that his principal, but not exclusive line of study and investiga- tion, from choice as well as interest, being a large owner of mining and timber lands on Coal river, in company with a syn- dicate of non-resident capitalists.
Thomas L. Broun was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, and has been a resident of what became West Virginia since Sep- tember 15, 1850, except his time served in the rebellion war, and four years after its close spent in study and practice of law in New York City-when the test oath prevented him from prac- ticing in this State. He was educated in the University of Vir- ginia, of which he is a graduate. He studied law in Charleston under Hon. George W. Summers and with Albert G. Jenkins, 1850-'51; was admitted to the Kanawha Bar, January, 1852, and has since practiced there and in Boone county; also in the State Supreme Court of Appeals and in the United States Court at Charleston. He practiced with George S. Patton under the firm name of Broun & Patton. In 1857 he was appointed attor- ney for and elected President of the Coal River Navigation Company, to succeed General W. S. Rosecrans. He was an active Democrat and one of the editors of the Kanawha Valley Star, a red-hot Democratic journal at Charleston prior to the war.
In April, 1861, he entered the Confederate States army as a private in the Kanawha Riflemen-Captain George S. Patton's company. He was afterwards Major of the Third Regiment Infantry in Wise's Legion. In 1862 was transferred to Dublin depot as Quartermaster and commandant of that post; was badly wounded at the battle of Cloyd Mountain, May 9th, 1864, but continued in service throughout the war. Ever since the ter- mination of that struggle he has kept himself identified with his surviving comrades, although as a good citizen accepting the arbitrament of the sword. Accepting the invitation of Camp Patton, No. 1, Confederate Veterans, he delivered a patri- otic address to them and a large concourse at Charleston on their Memorial Day, June 6, 1888.
In June, 1866, Major Broun was married in Richmond, Vir- ginia, to Miss Mary M., daughter of Col. Edmund Fontaine, first
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President of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company, and immediately moved to New York City, remaining four years for the cause above specified. He resumed his practice at Charles- ton in November, 1870, where he still has his office. He devotes much of his time to lands and land titles of West Virginia, espe- cially those in the Coal river section, where his interests lie.
HENRY CLAY MCWHORTER.
C APT. H. C. MCWHORTER, the subject of this sketch and accompanying portrait, has been a resident of what is now West Virginia since 1841; has been, since 1865, and still is, an active, practicing lawyer in Charleston. In 1869-'70 he was Prosecuting Attorney for Kanawha county; and in his profes- sion has been successful and attained eminence. He was a member of the Legislature from Roane county in 1865, and from Kanawha in 1866-'67-'68, of which latter session he was Speaker, fulfilling its onerous and intricate duties in a parliamentary and highly satisfactory manner. Again, in 1885-'87, he was a mem- ber of the House of Delegates from Kanawha county, elected on the Republican ticket. On the same ticket, in the fall of 1888, he was the candidate for Judge of the Supreme Court of Ap- peals of West Virginia. He was the first President of the Board of Education in the Independent District of Charleston.
Captain Mc Whorter is the son of Fields and Margaret M. (Kester) Mc Whorter, and was born February 20, 1836, in Ash- ley, Marion county, Ohio. He lived on the farm until he was eighteen years old; then was clerk in a drug store, and after- wards Deputy Clerk in Roane county Courts until 1861. His father, brother and himself served in the Federal army-Henry C. in the Ninth West Virginia Infantry, first as private, then Lieutenant, then Captain, and resigned in 1863 on account of severe wounds, but remained in the Provost Marshal's Depart- ment until the close of the war. Captain Mc Whorter is one of the best known and most highly respected citizens of West Virginia.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
CAPT. HENRY C. M'WHORTER.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
SAMUEL R. HANEN.
H ON. S. R. HANEN, son of Samuel and Lucretia (Linville) Hanen, was born in Sciota county, Ohio, October 24, 1839 ; was educated at Middletown, Washington county, Pennsylva- nia; went to Marshall county, Virginia, in 1859, and taught school until 1861. In June of the latter year he entered Com- pany I, Third Regiment of Virginia Volunteers; in 1863 was transferred to the Second West Virginia Cavalry as Second, af- terwards First Lieutenant; was wounded at Ashby's Gap in 1861; was Brigade Provost Marshal at Keyser from December, 1864, to February, 1865. He had charge of the guard at Wash- ington during the trial of Mrs. Surratt, in the celebrated Lin- coln-assassination trial in 1865, after which he went West with his command; on account of ill-health he resigned in July, 1865, and returned to Marshall county and taught school and farmed. He published the Reporter newspaper at Moundsville in 1871-2-3. From 1872 to '76 was County Superintendent of Public Schools; was a member of the City Council; in 1876 was in the West Virginia Agricultural Works at Moundsville, and was elected a Director and then President; was the Republican candidate for State Senate in 1884; and was elected to the House of Delegates in 1889, serving on the Committee on Elections, and on Coun- ties, Districts and Municipal Corporations.
JOHN S. WILKINSON.
J JOHN S. WILKINSON is a native of Harrison county, West Virginia; moved to Mud river, Cabell county, in 1850; was a Justice of the Peace for four years, and a Deputy Sheriff for the same length of time. In 1860 he was elected Sheriff. In 1869 he was elected a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates; in 1870 was appointed a Regent of the West Vir- ginia University and served two years; was three years a mem- ber of the Commission to assess railroad property ; was again elected a member of the House of Delegates in 1876 ; has filled several responsible offices in his county in addition to the above. Mr. Wilkinson has been twice married; is the father of four- teen children; is a Democrat in politics, and an active and val- uable member of the M. E. Church, South.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
EDWARD W. RYAN.
R EV. E. W. RYAN is a native of Fayette county, West Vir- ginia, and is now in the fifty-first year of his age. He was educated in private schools, and at Allegheny College, Virginia ; taught school in West Virginia and Ohio for several years ; was a member of the Convention held at Wheeling in 1861 that es- tablished "the Restored Government of Virginia;" entered the West Virginia Conference of the M. E. Church as an itinerant minister, in March, 1862, and has filled the following stations : Malden, one year; Point Pleasant, one year ; Catlettsburg, Ken- tucky, two years; Hartford City, three years; Charleston, two years ; Chapline Street, Wheeling, two years; Morgantown, three years; Charleston (second term), three years; Grafton, two years; Presiding Elder, Wheeling District, four years. Having filled all of the high grade appointments in the West Virginia Conference, Mr. Ryan was transferred to Detroit, Mich- igan, where he served as pastor of Tabernacle M. E. Church three years. His present station is Bay City, Michigan, where he is now filling his third year. Mr. Ryan is a minister of un- usual force and power. He combines success with popularity, and is, therefore, sought after by the churches.
HENRY CAMDEN FLESHER.
M AJOR H. C. FLESHER, who modestly styles himself "a soldier of fortune without any notable history," was born October 27, 1838, in Weston, Lewis county, Virginia. He re- ceived a fair education in the schools of the period; studied law, was admitted to the Bar, and was at one time Prosecuting At- torney for Ohio county. When the dark shadows of war cast their gloom over the Nation, he enlisted in the Union army, served gallantly through the war, participating in fifteen regular battles and over fifty skirmishes, and upon the return of peace resumed the practice of law, locating in Jackson county. He is a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic, in which he now serves as a leading officer. In political adherence he is a Republican, and represents his Senatorial District upon the State Central Committee. He is a genial companion, and a successful lawyer, with residence at Ripley, the county seat of Jackson.
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GEORGE EDGAR HITE.
HE Rev. Dr. George E. Hite was born September 17, 1851, at Guyandotte, Virginia; was educated in public and pri- vate schools and at Marshall College, Huntington, West Vir- ginia; studied medicine two years; was converted, joined the M. E. Church and began to preach in March, 1872; has filled- always acceptably and successfully-the following circuits and stations : Knottsville and Fetterman, two years; Barboursville, one year; Rowlesburg, one year; Fulton, three years; Zane Street, Wheeling, three years; Chapline Street, Wheeling, two years; Presiding Elder, Wheeling District, four years. He is now serving his second year in Parkersburg station, where he is preaching to full houses. Mr. Hite studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew under a private teacher in Wheeling, and in 1887 was given the degree of Master of Arts, honoris causa, by the Ohio Wesleyan University. He was elected a Delegate to the Gen- eral Conference of his church in 1888, and in June, 1889, the West Virginia University conferred on him the honorary degree of D.D. Although yet young in years, he maintains a leading rank among West Virginia ministers.
HENRY C. SIMMS.
H ENRY C. SIMMS, one of the most reliable and energetic citizens of rapidly growing Huntington, Cabell county, was born in Putnam county, Virginia, June 11, 1849. His father, Robert Marshall Simms, was a farmer and merchant, in moderate circumstances, who gave Henry the benefit of a com- mon school education until sixteen years of age. In 1865-6 he attended Monongalia Academy, at Morgantown. Afterwards he entered Marietta College, Ohio, and studied three years, and then read law two years at Harvard, Massachusetts; was a Del- egate to the Democratic National Convention at St. Louis, in 1876, from the then Third Congressional District of West Vir- ginia, also to the Cincinnati Convention of his party in 1880; is interested in educational affairs and has served as Regent of the State University, and of the Normal Schools. He practices law in the several counties of his section.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
GEORGE WASHINGTON PATTON.
EORGE W. PATTON, who served faithfully as United States Marshal for the District of West Virginia, from January, 1877, to May, 1881, is by nativity a Pennsylvanian, and was born in Mifflin county, June 1, 1843. He moved to West Virginia in 1870, and on account of delicate health, need- ing out-door exercise, engaged in the lumber business. In every effort to develop the resources of his adopted State, he has taken deep interest and aided as opportunity offered. He is of Whig parentage, and believing that our prosperity, in a material way, depended upon a strong protective tariff, he has actively advo- cated such principles and sustained the Republican party, in which he has been a prominent and useful factor. As Marshal, during a four years' commission, he was popular and efficient. After the expiration of his official term he took a summer course of law at the Virginia University, and then was admitted to the Bar in Charleston, Kanawha county. During the U. S. Attor- neyship of Gen. W. H. H. Flick, he was Assistant, with office in the Public Building. Since, he has continued the practice of his profession in all the courts, whether State or Federal, sitting at the Capital City of West Virginia.
BENJAMIN HARNEY OXLEY.
MONG the many promising young legislators our new but prolific State is sending out, prominent mention may be made of Benjamin H. Oxley, the member of the West Virginia State Senate in the sessions of 1887-'89 from the Seventh Dis- trict. He was also a member of the House of Delegates from his county of Lincoln in 1885. He was born in Franklin county, Virginia, June 19, 1853, but has resided in West Virginia since 1869. His parents were Jenkins Madison and Elizabeth (Miles) Oxley. The subject of our sketch attended the common schools and worked on the farm until 1872, when he became a teacher himself in the public schools. While teaching, by industrious application, he fitted himself for the profession of law, and in 1879 was admitted to the Bar at Hamlin, Lincoln county, where he has continued to practice his profession. He married in Charleston, Kanawha county, May 16, 1889, Miss Fannie B., daughter of Edward and Helen Burton, of that city.
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A.LITTLE.
HON. ROBERT S. CARR.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
ROBERT S. CARR.
SON-IN-LAW of one of the oldest families in the Kanawha Valley, and one of the most indefatigable and energetic citizens, is Captain Robert S. Carr, whose portrait accompanies this sketch. To an editor of this book in preparing the sketch he said " cold facts and no flattery," which he has given.
Robert S. Carr was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, Novem- ber 17, 1846; his father's family moved to Kanawha county, Virginia, in 1855. The father, James Carr, came to America from County Down, Ireland, when he was less than seven years old, and settled in Guernsey county, Ohio, grew up as a poor mechanic (plasterer), and reared a family; necessarily his son Robert had very limited educational advantages ; he never went to school an entire year in his life, only to the three months winter sessions; but by after-application and observation, he fitted himself for the active career of usefulness he has lived. Much of that fitness he credits his wife with helping him to gain-he having married in 1870, an estimable, intelligent lady, Miss Julia E. Wilson, daughter of John Wilson (a nephew of old Andrew Donnelly) and his wife, who was Elizabeth Neal, and was born in the fort at Charleston during the days of Indian warfare.
Robert Carr learned the trade of plastering with his father, but has not followed it. In 1861, when seventeen years old, he entered the Confederate army, served one year, was captured and confined fourteen months in the military prison at Wheel- ing. After his release he went to the southwest and steam- boated on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers until 1865, when he joined his father at Charleston, and has continued since to reside there. He at first engaged in various pursuits for a liveli- hood. By and by he drifted again into steamboating, first on the. steamer "John Kenna." He was also owner of a store in Charleston, which he traded for the steamboat "Ella Layman," which boat he still owns and runs in 1889. He afterwards organized the "Ella Layman Towboat Company," of which he was made and still continues, President and Superintendent. The company does an immense business in handling coal and coke, besides freight and passenger traffic, own quite a number of steamboats and barges, and have in their enterprise done as
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much, if not more than any other organization to develop the vast resources of the Kanawha Valley.
Without any unusual inclination thereto, but rather because of his deep interest in all that pertained to the better interests of his State and county, Mr. Carr found himself finally actively involved in the political struggles of Kanawha county. He had affiliated with the Democratic party up to 1876; but in the Peter Cooper campaign he became a zealous Greenback party advocate, and continues such. He was elected County Com- missioner; a member of the County Court, and to the City Council two terms, in which he served on several of the most important committees. In 1887 he was nominated for the West Virginia Senate by the Greenbackers. endorsed by the Republi- cans, and was elected by eighty-seven majority in a Democratic District of a former 600 majority; and that, too, against a strong opponent-W. E. Chilton, Esq., law partner of Senator Kenna, a popular and worthy gentleman. Mr. Carr carried his own county in the District by 1,447 votes-at that time the larg- est majority it ever gave, except the vote he received (1,700) for County Court.
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