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 48
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Monsignor Sullivan's life has been one of arduous labor and great responsibility. Though never of robust health, and now in the prime of mental and physical vigor, he bids fair to labor for many years yet to come. The two and thirty years of his energetic and faithful ministry seem to rest lightly upon him. His long and intimate association with the first and second Bish- ops of the diocese of Wheeling, added to his naturally calm and deliberate judgment, render him a clergyman of much more than ordinary experience in church matters, and one whom his parishioners, and the public generally, regard as a wise and ju- dicious counselor and minister of the Word.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
SYLVESTER CHAPMAN.
H ON. SYLVESTER CHAPMAN was born in Giles county NHI Virginia, January 1, 1832, son of Dr. David J. Chapman a native of the same county. Sylvester received his primary tom education in one of the old field schools and finished at the bite re Ju pta Academy of Christiansburg, Montgomery county, Virginia When twenty years old he took charge of his father's large farm managing it until 1856, when he went to Charleston, read law was admitted in 1860 and has since practiced there. During his legal studies he taught school. October 29, 1860, he married 1, Bath sfe Mary, daughter of Milton Hansford, whose wife was Mary Parke, daughter of Col. Andrew Parke, of Fairfax county, Vir- ginia, a descendant and heir of George Washington. Children blessed Mr. and Mrs. Chapman, as follows: John Parke, Char lotte Hall, Walter Cole, David Johnson, Lucy Elmira, Elizabeth and William Mosser. He served in the Confederate army afterwards taught school; was Kanawha county Surveyor from 1872 to 1885, except one term; was elected to the Legislature of 1876 from Kanawha county; elected Prosecuting Attorney of same county in November, 1888 and is still serving in that office creditably to himself and satisfactorily to Bench, Bar and people. A 00 ot fo T D
BENJAMIN PORTER GOOCH.
T HIS physician and legislator was born July 4, 1842, at Char- lottesville, Virginia. He entered Allegheny College in 1859 but left student life in April, 1861, to enter Company I, Fifty seventh Virginia Regiment of the Confederate service. In Sep- tember, 1862, he was made Sergeant Major of the Seventeenth Regiment Virginia Cavalry, and in August, 1864, was promoted to Adjutant, was captured and confined in Camp Chase until March, 1865. After the war he returned to Mercer county, West Virginia, and worked on the farm. In the fall of 1865 he began medical studies under Dr. Bee, at Princeton. In 1868 he at- tended lectures at the Medical College of Virginia, whence he was graduated March 3, 1870. In May of that year he located in Hinton, where he still practices his chosen profession of med- icine and surgery. He was a member of the House of Delegates, sessions of 1877-'9, and urged the location of the Capitol at Charleston.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
CHRISTIAN STREIT WHITE.
HRISTIAN S. WHITE was born in Romney, Hampshire county, Virginia, March 10, 1840, and was educated at the otomac Seminary, of his native town. He is a son of John B. White, who was for many years a prominent citizen of Hamp- hire county, and an officer in the war of 1812, and a grandson Judge Robert White, a Major in the Revolutionary War. aptain White, inspired with the same spirit and motives which ad led them into the military service of their State, April 19, 861, entered the Army of Virginia as a private in the Thir- enth Virginia Infantry. He served with that regiment in the onfederate army for more than a year, until disabled and dis- harged, being promoted by successive steps to Sergeant-Major nd Acting Adjutant. During the winter of 1862-'3 he was rst a clerk and then head of a Bureau in the Confederate Treas- ry. In the spring of 1863, having become able for cavalry, though ot for infantry, service, he resigned his position in the Treas- ry Department, and, under a commission from President Davis, aised within the Federal lines a company of 200 mounted men or special service. Declining promotion, he remained with his ompany till the close of the war, receiving one severe and two ight wounds, in the campaigns of 1863-'4-'5.
Upon his return home, being debarred by the then existing uws of his State from practicing the profession of law, for which e had been educated, he rented a farm and engaged in agricul- are. In 1872, his legal disabilities being removed, he was elected flerk of the County Court of Hampshire, and has, by successive -election, held this position ever since. He was for a term flerk of the Circuit Court also, but declined a re- election to that ffice.
In 1876, being made Chairman of the County Democratic Ex- cutive Committee, he organized and carried out the campaign his county which resulted in swelling the Democratic major- y of from 300 to 400 to 1,369.
In 1877 he was appointed Fish Commissioner for the State f West Virginia; has been re-appointed by each succeeding Governor, and is now President of said Commission.
In a Senatorial Convention at Moorefield, in August, 1886, he roposed and advocated, and, after strong opposition on grounds f expediency, the Convention adopted, the first straight tariff eform and anti-monopoly resolutions ever passed by a Demo-
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cratic Convention of West Virginia, covering fully the position of the National Democratic platform of 1888.
Captain White has always been a consistent, but liberal Dem- ocrat, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
THOMAS ECKSTEIN ROGERS.
NE of the representatives of Kanawha county in the State Legislature of 1872-'3 bore the above name, and is now Chief of the Redemption Division of National Bank Notes in the United States Treasury at Washington. He was born Feb- ruary 24, 1848, at White Horse, now Kirkwood, Camden county, New Jersey. His education was received at Bolmar's Academy, West Chester ; the Academy of Lock Haven, and in Dickinson College, Carlile, Pennsylvania. From 1870 to 1873 he was en- gaged in mercantile and manufacturing pursuits at Charleston, West Virginia. During this period he was elected upon the Republican ticket as a member of the House of Delegates from Kanawha county. He served his constituency faithfully and well. In 1874 he was employed as Phonographic Reporter in Washington, D. C. In 1875 he received appointment in the U. S. Treasurer's office, where, step by step, he has served and received promotion for merit, to his present position at the head of a re- sponsible division in the financial department of the Nation.
JACOB H. BRISTOR.
M AJOR J. H. BRISTOR was born in Pennsylvania. In 1857 he came to West Virginia, and engaged in school teach- ing. For three years he was Principal of Grafton Institute. Dur- ing the late war he served three years in the Union army as an offi- cer in the Twefth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry. This reg- iment participated in about twenty battles and skirmishes, and Major Bristor performed a soldier's duty on all these occasions. He served one year, 1866-'67, as a member of the West Virginia Legislature, representing Taylor county. He declined a re-nom- ination, but was elected and served as Treasurer of the State of West Virginia for a term of two years. In 1869 Major Bristor cast his future fortunes with the people of Berkeley county, and is established in Martinsburg, where he is engaged in business as a real estate and insurance agent, and is also a special agent of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company.
WEST VIRGINIA.
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ALITTLE
HON. J. H. BRISTOR.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
BELVARD JONES PRICHARD.
B ELVARD J. PRICHARD was born June 10, 1856, in Carter (now Boyd) county, Kentucky. He was educated in the East Kentucky Normal School at Catlettsburg, and in the Academy at Ashland. He attended Centre College, Dan- ville, from 1873 to 1876, the National Normal School at Leba- non, Ohio, in 1876-7; studied law with J. M. Elliott and K. F. Prichard, at Catlettsburg, the former being the late Chief Justice of Kentucky, who was killed by Tom Buford, March, 1879. He entered the senior class of the law department of the Uni- versity of Louisville, September, 1878, and graduated as B.L. from that institution in February, 1879; located at Greencastle, Indiana, for the practice of law in the office with Col. C. C. Matson, late Democratic candidate for Governor of that State; founded and edited the Hancock Democrat at that place during the Presidential campaign of 1880. He returned from Indiana and located at Wayne C. H., West Virginia, December, 1881. Here he edited the Wayne Advocate during the year 1882: en- tered on the active practice of his profession and is yet so en- gaged; was elected in 1888 a member of the State Senate from the Sixth Senatorial District. Nominated without opposition in his own party and elected by more than 1,000 majority over J. K. P. Workman, being the largest majority ever given for any Democrat for that position in the district by about 400. In the pending Legislature he is a member of the Committees of Privileges and Elections, and Education, and Chairman of that on Public Printing.
JACOB STEPHEN HYER.
OR a man who when thirteen years old started in the world on his own resources, leaving home with his parents' con- sent, nothing ever given him, never, in an extensive business career, having a bank protest, never sued on his individual lia- bility, never made a business failure, and at the age of forty have a cool $50,000 cash account in bank and property-all made honestly by his own hands-is not a poor record. Such is the record of Mr. J. S. Hyer, and entitles him to prominence in the State. He has been a merchant twenty years, dealing largely in ginseng, furs, wool and other native products, and has been
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a real estate broker since 1881. He was Chairman of the County Republican Executive Committee from 1884 to 1888, candidate for House of Delegates in 1882, and defeated by a small Demo- cratic majority. He was Mayor of Sutton in 1885-6; President of the Board of Education of the Sutton Independent District ten years, and was Sheriff of Braxton county. He was born near Braxton C. H., January 10, 1849. He is one of the leading business men of West Virginia.
JOHN WILLIAM CARTER.
NE of the most scholarly and gifted ministers of the Bap- tist denomination of the country, who stands at the head of the clergy of that religious faith in West Virginia, was the reverend gentleman named above, whose present home and pastoral charge is Raleigh, North Carolina. He was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, December 31, 1836. When only seven years of age his parents moved to Upshur county, within the present limits of this State, where he grew up to manhood. He was educated in the common schools and at Allegheny Col- lege, in Greenbrier county. He was converted and baptised in 1858, and ordained to the ministry in 1860. From his entry into the ministry he preached with animation and favor among the country churches of Lewis and Upshur counties. In 1864 he was invited to take charge of the church in Parkersburg, the leading one in West Virginia, in intelligence, wealth and numbers. During his long continued pastorate a fine edifice of worship was erected, and the congregation prospered in other ways. October 25, 1869, he married Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of Wm. Johnson, a sister of Judge Okey Johnson, late of the Supreme Court, and of Hon. Dan. D. Johnson, of Tyler county. He severed his connection with the Wood county church, and, January 1, 1889, accepted an invitation to the pulpit of Raleigh, and accordingly removed from West Virginia. No minister could be more missed than he by the members of his church, and friends in every denomination throughout the State. In 1883 the West Virginia University voted him the degree of D.D., which he richly deserves and will always honor.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
JOHN W. KEYS.
HIS member of the House of Delegates from Mineral county, in 1871-2, was born at Martinsburg, Virginia, February 20, 1829. His parents were poor and he was com- pelled to work his own way through life, hence his education was limited to a few months of common school attendance. He learned the plasterer's trade, and in 1852 removed to Piedmont, where he continued the occupation, until the opening of the war, when he became a conductor upon the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. In this pursuit he remained until peace was restored, when he again took up his early choice, plastering. In 1870 he was elected, as a Democrat, to represent the county of Mineral in the Legislature. At that time the Republican party was in the majority, but his personal popularity made him successful at the polls, and as a delegate he served his constituency with credit. In 1872 he removed to Keyser, where he built and now manages a hotel, known as the Keys House.
GRANVILLE D. HALL.
G RANVILLE D. HALL was born in Harrison county, Vir- ginia, September 17, 1837, and as a lad received only such meager education as the subscription school of a small village afforded. In 1859 he entered the employ of the Wheeling In- telligencer printing office, but remained only a few months. He was one of the Virginia State electors on the Lincoln and Ham- lin ticket in 1860. In February, 1861, he was again in the employ of the Wheeling Intelligencer. He was elected clerk of the first House of Delegates of West Virginia, on the organiza- tion of the State, June 20, 1863. The Republican party nomi- nated him for Secretary of State in 1864, and elected him. The following winter he was with Governor Boreman in the capacity of private secretary, and on the following March, 1865, he be- · gan and served his one term, two years, as Secretary of State. He declined a renomination to the same office, having in con- nection with W. P. Hubbard, bought a half-interest in the Wheeling Intelligencer, and was chief editor thereof the five years ending September, 1873, when he removed to Chicago, Ill., where he engaged in business, and where he now resides.
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Engª by H.& C. Koevoets New York
Archibald J. Todd.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
ARCHIBALD STEVENS TODD.
D R. A. S. TODD, the subject of this biography, was, at his death, one of Wheeling's oldest and most honored citizens. His ancestry were Scotch-Irish, of whom but meager details are known. His grand parents came to this country in 1740. Their son, John Todd, born April 18, 1756, in Washington county, New Jersey, was a prominent farmer, and married Jane Cald- well, born July 19, 1761, in the same county. In their advanced years they moved to Beaver county, Pa., where he died, at Greensburg, aged 74 years. His wife died at Smithfield, Pa., at the home of her son, Dr. S. P. Todd, September 7, 1831. Seven sons and three daughters issued from them. Of these five were regular physicians, one a mechanic, Stephen, and Hiram, the youngest, died in early manhood. Dr. M. L. Todd, with whom Dr. A. S. Todd was long associated in the practice of their profession in Wheeling, died in Bellaire in 1866, aged 84 years, Stephen died in Cleveland a little later, aged 86 years. The other brothers and sisters died in advanced life-but all are gone, leaving behind them the fragrance of honorable and dis- tinguished lives. But two representatives of the old stock sur- vive, numerous as it was. Just over there, almost in sight of a newly made grave in the Peninsular Cemetery at Wheeling, sits one sorrowing in the shadow of her sore bereavement and lone- liness, listening for the tottering footsteps that never will return, while yet she talks of how pleasantly down from the mountain tops of earthly mutual enjoyments they watched and walked together to the foot. With a devotion singularly constant and self-sacrificing the old doctor's wife sustained and soothed him till the golden bowl was broken, the silver cord was loosed and the spirit of the old patriarch passed triumphantly to the green fields beyond the river, leaving her strong in faith, while wait- ing, only waiting, to join the loved ones over there.
Dr. A. S. Todd, born April 10, 1798, came West in May, 1820, stopping for three years at his brother's, Dr. S. P. Todd, at Robstown, now West Newton, Pa., meanwhile assiduously ap- plying himself to the study of medicine. He then taught school one winter, and came on to Wheeling, Virginia, and prosecuted his studies still further with his brother, Dr. M. L. Todd, who had preceded him in practice twelve years. Thence he went to Transylvania University, at Louisville, Ky., where he graduated
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PROMINENT MEN OF
M.D., and immediately returned to Wheeling and engaged with his brother in active professional work. February 19, 1828, he married Mary Ann E. Woods, who died October 24, 1829. June 2, 1831, Dr. Todd was again married to his now surviv- ing widow, Mary E. Jarrett. To them were born six chil- dren. One son, Rev. Martin Luther, who died August 14, 1870, and five daughters, two only of whom survive, viz: Carrie, wife of Dr. J. C. Hupp, and Mary Ellen, a younger sister. Thus it will be seen he left no one of his family to perpetuate his name.
For more than half a century Dr. Todd was identified with all that concerned the good name and prosperity of the city of Wheeling. Up to the hour of his death he by his counsel and material aid helped her onward and upward to her present high degree of prosperity and honor. In all that pertained to his profession especially was he a diligent student, and though practically retired from its active work for years, still, he by close application and extensive critical research, kept abreast of the times. It may be doubted if West Virginia had his equal as a mineralogist and botanist. He was a careful reader, a sound reasoner, a man of keenest perceptions and calm discrim- inating judgment. His counsels were always regarded most favorably and were the more appreciated by those that best knew their worth.
In 1870 he was a delegate from the Medical Society of West Virginia to the American Medical Association that met in Wash- ington City and in which he became a prominent member. He was one of the founders of every medical society ever organized in the city of Wheeling or in the State of West Virginia. He was one of the attending physicians to "The City Dispensary and Vaccine Institute," Wheeling, which was in successful op- eration as far back as December 10, 1845, and which was estab- lished by a city ordinance. He was also surgeon, in 1835, of a regiment of State troops, commanded by Colonel, since Major General B. F. Kelley.
He was an affiliating member of the Ancient Order of Free and Accepted Masons. He was also the originator and long the proprietor of that household pill known everywhere as Todd's, and which yielded him a handsome revenue. He was prominently associated with many of the popular enterprises of
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Wheeling, including the Ohio river bridge, gas, street railroads, banking and other companies, and was at his death, a director of the National Bank of West Virginia, at Wheeling. All these and other interests engaged his prompt attention, bringing him profitable returns.
Dr. Todd was a man of strong religious convictions. He loved his Church, the Presbyterian, because he believed it to be a fair exponent of the truths of the Bible, and he loved and studied his Bible because he knew that in it he had the words of " eternal life." The Church was to him the hope of the world, and in the ministrations of the Church was strengthened within him the hope of immortality, in the bright anticipation of which he died. He was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church for many years, and remained steadfast to the end.
This is but a brief sketch of the life of one whose works will follow him. One of the links, of the very few, that bind the people of Wheeling to the long, long ago has been broken, and the old familiar beacon light that for upwards of sixty years has gone before the younger people of the enterprising city of his adoption has disappeared from earth forever, to shine with in- creased brightness in the streets of the New Jerusalem, leaving others in the great battle of life, to take their places at the head of the great caravan that moves to take its chambers in the silent halls of death.
Dr. Todd, in all the relations of life, was eminently consider- ate. As a husband, he was most affectionate, seeking to divide fully all the pleasures incident to life. As a father he was tender as a maiden. As a friend consistant and unswerving. To the poor he was a benefactor in and out of his profession. To all he was courteous. To the world he was an honorable man. What more ?
He died at his home in Wheeling, in the bosom of relatives and friends, May 1, 1883. For sixty-three years he had adorned the State of his adoption by an exemplary life.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
BRAXTON DAVENPORT GIBSON.
B RAXTON D. GIBSON, of Jefferson county, was born near Charlestown, Virginia, August 13, 1856. The war deprived him of schools in early years, the camps of both armies around his grandfather's home furnishing the attractions and delights of his childhood. He was educated at Shepherdstown and Charlestown Academies and in the University of Virginia, and was assistant teacher in the Charlestown Academy, 1880-1. In the service of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad Company, 1882-3; he entered upon the practice of law at Charlestown, July, 1884, which is his profession. He was elected as a Dem- ocrat to the House of Delegates of 1889, and is untiring in the interests of his constituency. He was a hard worker on the Committees of Elections and Privileges, Judiciary, Education, Counties, Districts and Municipal Corporations, Roads and In- ternal Navigation, Printing, and Contingent Expenses, and the Special Committee on Alleged Bribery. He is a bright, enthu- siastic Mason, in Blue Lodge, Chapter, Commandery and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine.
ANTHONY RADER.
D R. ANTHONY RADER, was born near Summersville, Nicholas county, Virginia, November 23, 1810. His boy- hood was passed upon a farm in a sparsely settled section, where educational advantages were limited, and the principal vocation and amusement was hunting. Until 1842 he was a black- smith and farmer. Then he began the study and practice of medicine, which profession he has continued to the present time, and in which he achieved reputation and success. He was a State Senator from 1865 to 1868; also in the sessions of 1871-2; and was a member of the House of Delegates in 1870 and 1872-3. His constituency sent him five times to legislate in their inter- ests. In every duty he has been faithful and efficient. For over a half century he has been a consistent member of the M. E. Church; and no man in Nicholas county is more influential and more highly respected.
John b Hupf. M.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
JOHN C. HUPP.
C HE subject of this sketch is a grandson of John Hupp, a pi- oneer, who was killed while defending Miller's block-house, on Buffalo creek, from the Indians. He was born in Donegal township, Washington county, Pennsylvania, November 24, 1819, and was educated at West Alexander Academy and at Wash- ington College, from which he graduated in 1844; subsequently, in 1848, taking the degree of A.M .; studied medicine under Dr. F. Julius LeMoyne, and at the Jefferson Medical College, whence he graduated in 1847, settling in Wheeling in general practice. He was one of the founders of the Medical Society of the State of West Virginia, having introduced in the Convention (called to form that Society) the resolution "to establish and organize " it; brought chloral hydrate to the notice of the profession of Wheeling, February 21, 1870; made in 1873 a successful effort before the Board of Education to extend to the colored children of Wheeling a free school education. In 1873, before the same body, he was successful in establishing evening free schools, and a like effort before the same body in 1875, to make German a regular branch of study in the public schools of Wheeling. Also, in 1877, as Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Regula- tions, he was successful in recommending and securing the adop- tion of a resolution by the same Board, making industrial draw- ing a regular branch of study in the public school course of the city of Wheeling; was appointed in 1875 a delegate of the American Medical Association to the European Medical Asso- ciation; was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Centennial Medical Commission to the International Medical Congress that convened at Philadelphia, September 4, 1876 ; and witnessed the cremation of Baron de Palm, at Washington, Pennsylvania, December 6, 1876.
One of his notable cases is reported in the Transactions of the State Medical Society for 1874. In 1858 he was received at Wash- ington, D. C., as a member, by invitation, of the American Med- ical Association, in which he was a member of the Committee on Nominations, in 1863, and Secretary of the Section on the practice of medicine and obstetrics, in 1869, and of the Commit- tee on Nominations in 1875-'76-'78. For many years he was Chairman of the Committee of the American Medical Associa- tion for this State on American Medical Necrology. His mem- oranda of the eminent medical dead of the State have been pub-
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