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 50
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THOMAS LANSING DAVIES.
HOMAS L. DAVIES was born February 18, 1860, in Mason county, Virginia. He took the complete course of study provided by the public school system, embracing the High or Grammar School, which, when mastered as it was in his case, affords one a thorough knowledge of the English branches. Young Davies, from early youth, has been an industrious stu- dent. He has wasted no time in idleness. All his leisure hours are spent in study. Naturally gifted in language and speech, he has devoted much of his time to debating societies, in which these talents were greatly developed. He was born humorous and witty, and therefore never fails to attract attention in his public addresses. He chose teaching as his profession, and has spent, already, a number of years in that high calling. In 1888 Mr. Davies was elected on the Republican ticket as a Delegate to the Legislature of the State from Mason county, and is now serving in the session of 1889 upon the Committees of Educa- tion, Counties, Districts and Municipal Corporations, Arts and Sciences, and General Improvements, and the Joint Committee upon Enrolled Bills. He is a ready debater, and is an efficient representative.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
JAMES VANCE BOUGHNER.
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O one, it is said, in Monongalia county, or adjacent ones, knew more individuals by name than did Dr. J. V. Bough- ner, who was born in Clarksburg, Virginia, April 9, 1812. His education was received in the common schools, but his ambi- tious mind led him to grasp eagerly every opportunity for cul- ture. When only sixteen years old he took charge of the Post- office at Greenboro, Pennsylvania. This position deveoped his taste for politics, which was one of the marked traits of his character.
He studied medicine with Dr. Stephenson, attended lectures in the Cincinnati Medical College, and held a diploma given to him by the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. He located at Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, and there practiced medi- cine very successfully for a number of years.
In 1845-'6-'7, he served in the Pennsylvania Legislature from Greene county.
On the 8th of May, 1845, he wedded Miss Louisa J., daughter of Andrew Brown. In 1859 he retired from the practice of medicine and removed to Morgantown, Virginia, where he de- voted himself to farming and his duties as pension agent. His passion for politics now strongly asserted itself, and he contrib- uted frequently to the press on political subjects. Always a flu- ent writer, he became a vigorous one when advocating the prin- ciples of his party. Although an enthusiastic Democrat before the war, he then united with the Union party, and exerted his influence in defence of the National Government.
He was a member of the Wheeling Convention of 1861, and was paymaster in the Union Army from 1864 until the close of the war. In 1865 he was appointed Collector of Internal Reve- nue by President Johnson. He served a term in the House of Delegates in 1868.
During the latter years of his life he was actively engaged in farming and stock raising.
Reared in the tenets of the Presbyterian faith, and guided by the counsels of pious parents, his nature ever retained a simple and unworldly quality. He was the poor man's friend, and many there are who remember his beneficence. He abhorred all shams, was a warm friend, a useful citizen, and a faithful representative in public duties.
He died February 8, 1882, and his remains rest peacefully in Oak Grove Cemetery.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
HON. THOMAS H. LOGAN, A.M., M.D.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
THOMAS H. LOGAN.
D R. THOMAS H. LOGAN is of English ancestry, and was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1828. His father, John Logan, descended from a family that in early times settled in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. His mother, nee Elizabeth Blackmore, descended from an English family that came to the State of Maryland in Colonial times, a branch of which subsequently located in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. The subject of this sketch was educated at Washington College, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with honors in 1846, James G. Blaine being a classmate and personal friend. He studied medicine, entered the Medical De- partment of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, and graduated therefrom in 1850. The following year he located at Wheeling, Virginia, and began the practice of medicine. Some years later he became a wholesale druggist, and up to the day of his death was one of Wheeling's most prominent busi- ness men.
Dr. Logan was a member of the Convention that organized the Restored Government of Virginia in 1861, and was elected to the first Legislature of the same as a delegate from Ohio county. He was chosen a delegate to the West Virginia Legis- lature in 1878. Governor Boreman appointed him one of the first Regents of the West Virginia University, in which capac- ity he served for a number of years as President of the Board. Governor Mathews subsequently conferred upon him the ap- pointment as one of the Regents of the Normal Schools of the State. At the time of his death he was one of the nominees of the Republican party for a seat in the State Legislature.
He was many times urged to be a candidate for Congress and for Governor of the State, but he always refused to allow his name to be used for those offices. Though well versed in polit- ical economy, he was not a politician. His nature revolted at the thought of public life. For several years he was a member of the City Council of Wheeling, and for two terms he was President of the Second Branch of the same. He also served as a member of the Board of Public Works and a Trustee of the City Gas Works.
In 1852, the year following his location in Wheeling, he married Miss Eliza N. List, a daughter of the late John List,
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well known as the cashier of the Northwestern Bank of Vir- ginia at Wheeling.
Dr. Logan died at his home in the city of Wheeling, October 1st, 1888. His creed was the duties of life are more than life; and having lived up to that standard by faithfully performing every trust, public and private, he was ready to die as one who had done no deed that dying he would wish to blot. He never held a public or private trust that he did not lay down honor- ably. With absolute unselfishness, his thoughts, the latter years of his life, were of and for others; and when his great heart ceased to beat, it was so calmly and gently that no one near him heard the struggle. It was as though he had fallen asleep to pleasant dreams.
Dr. Logan always resisted calls to public positions. Had he, like many others, sought office, he might have been placed in the highest positions his fellow citizens could have conferred upon him. Unlike the average great man (for he was truly great), he was unpretentious, unassuming, retiring. Yet withal he never shirked a duty or hesitated to meet all just responsibil- ities. No man possessed a stronger will, or greater decision of character. He could always be depended upon for any emer- gency, and his splendid attainments qualified him for any po- sition that might be thrust upon him.
Not eloquent, but thoughtful and exact in expression, he was among the clearest and best public speakers the writer ever knew. A musician of a high order, a poet, a scholar, he saw things with a beautiful imagination, and by means of choice English always expressed himself to the satisfaction of all hear- ers. He was a Christian. Ever faithful in the line of duty, his church, more than any other of its members, misses his con- stant visitations, and his wise counsel. He was a leader, and as such left his impress upon the thousands with whom he associ- ated in his three score years of life.
Dr. Logan was prominent as a Free Mason. He was the first Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of West Virginia, which position he ably filled for seven consecutive years. He was three years Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, and was two years Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of West Virginia. During his lifetime, no Mason in our State swayed a wider influence over the Craft than did Thomas H.
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Logan. He was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church; was twenty-three years a Sunday School Superintend- ent, more than thirty years leader of a church choir, and in 1872 was a Lay Delegate from the West Virginia Conference to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. But few laymen were better known in that entire denomination than Dr. Thomas H. Logan.
JACOB COONROD EDELMAN.
EARS were lately expressed by some citizens, and some statesmen, when the Samoan difficulty was aggravated by Bismarck's interference and a rupture of the relations between the United States and Germany was imminent, that a dangerous proportion of our German-American citizens would side with Faderland. The expression of such a fear proved ignorance of the character of that class of our people. No more patriotic citizens, none more true and loyal to this Government than those who came here from Germany to better their fortunes. Our glorious freedom compared with the cramping restrictions of the government they left made them fall in love with our country and its institutions; and to-day they would step as lively to the music of "Hail Columbia" as to any they knew in their old home across the sea. A fair representative of that class is the Delegate from Boone county in the Legislature of 1889. He was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, May 8, 1835; emigrated in 1847, first to Maryland, thence to North Carolina, and finally settled in Boone county, West Virginia, in 1856, where he engaged in engineering and farming. He had attended the schools of his native land six years; in this country he only had ten months schooling. He was a member of the Boone County Court from 1880 to 1886, two years of which time he was its President-1885-6. He was elected to the Legislature as a Democrat, by 168 majority. In that body he was on the following committees: Military Affairs, Mines and Mining, Roads and Internal Navigation, Executive Offices and Library.
In 1859 Mr. Edelman married Miss Lethe Snodgrass, of Kanawha county, by whom he has three sons and three daughters.
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HON. JOHN S. BURDETT.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
JOHN SINSELL BURDETT.
T HE writer of this sketch knew Captain Burdett in Taylor and Harrison counties during the ante bellum days, and knew him as a stirring, stern, uncompromising friend or enemy. He finds him still the same, now at the other shore of three-score and ten. He doubtless will last many years yet, and the Eng- lish John Bull blood of his father, with the phlegmatic German of his mother, will always cause him to be feared by enemies and revered by friends. His whole history has been the same, whether . on the hustings, in partisan warfare, in party policies or in State councils-always the same blunt, straightforward, bold, de- fiant man-too much so, from a modern standpoint, for political advancement. His public life proves this, for he might have been greater had he been truculent. Our mountains have pro- duced many such, but very few aggressive and persevering enough to stem the tide on to his success. From an humble clerk to legislative halls is no mean record.
Captain Burdett was born in Harrison county, Virginia, De- cember 20, 1818. His boyhood was spent in attending the winter sessions of the pioneer school and clerking in his father's store at Pruntytown-the father having come to the county barefoot, but by industry and integrity amassed a handsome competence. By close observation and night study John fitted himself for the active life of usefulness he has lived. Deeming his section of Harrison entitled to form a county, he surveyed the lines and formulated the petition which resulted in the organization of Taylor county out of a part of Harrison. In 1844, at the age of 26, his fellow-countrymen sent him to represent them in the State Legislature, and his first term was so satisfactory that they re- turned him to the same duty six after sessions. By appointment he was census taker of Taylor county in 1850, and was Public Administrator and Special Commissioner. He succeeded his father and continued a merchant, in connection with other busi- ness, for several years.
When the dark days of the Republic approached, he foresaw the inevitable-war, bloody war, or a disseverance of the States of the Union. While so-called statesmen were shading their eyes to the issue, Captain Burdett leaped at once to the conclu- sion and took a stand in grim determination to hold to the Union or die with it. The old Commonwealth was in painful
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labor, and he strove manfully that she should not bring forth dishonor. Elected a member of the Constitutional Convention at Richmond, in 1860-'61-the same body that passed the ordi- nance separating the State from the Union-he was one of the fifty-six members who voted steadily against every phase of se- cession offered. Hisses, hootings, the rabble yell and the mob's threats were alike unheeded, as he stood unflinchingly by what he considered a patriotic duty to the whole Government.
Returning to his home, he made unceasing and successful re- sistance to the secession ordinance. He took an active part in restoring the government of Virginia under the Federal Union ; also in the formation of the new State of West Virginia. He proved his patriotism by four year's service in the Union Army of the Potomac, ending with Lee's surrender, having been com- missioned by President Lincoln, and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, a Captain and Commissary of Subsist- ence.
After victorious peace had consummated his fondest hopes he returned to his native hills, and his people continued his public service by electing him to the Senate of West Virginia from the district composed of the counties of Monongalia, Preston and Taylor, he receiving the unprecedented majority of 1,200 votes. He was in the National Republican Convention at Philadelphia in 1868 that nominated General Grant.
Captain Burdett moved to Charleston, Kanawha county, in 1868, and was elected by nearly 20,000 majority State Treasurer of West Virginia, serving from March 4, 1871, to 1875, and re- elected for a second term.
In 1888, at the age of seventy, he was made President of the Harrison and Morton Club of Charleston, and at the last meet- ing of the Republican National League, in Baltimore, was ap- pointed the member of its National Executive Committee from West Virginia.
The Captain has been active and influential from 1840 to 1889, and appears good for the campaign of 1892. He says he " ex- pects to die in the harness of 'protection to American indus- tries' and the promotion of the best interests of the grandest country and government ever vouchsafed to man." He says he has witnessed the Presidential inauguration of two Harrisons and hopes to attend the third in 1892.
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Captain Burdett married, in July, 1845, Abby Ann Johnson, daughter of Col. William Johnson, of Bridgeport, Harrison coun- ty, West Virginia, and sister of Ex-United States Senator Waldo P. Johnson, of Missouri.
The father of the subject of this sketch was Frederick Bur- dett, a native of Fauquier county, Virginia. His mother, whose maiden name was Susan Sinsell, was a native of the same coun- ty. The grandfather was from England and the grandmother from Germany, both of whom emigrated to the American colo- nies at an early day, before the Revolutionary War.
WILLIAM TELL BURDETT.
D EATH loves a shining mark," and so robbed our young State of one of its most promising citizen, lawyers and legislators, when the dread Reaper, cut down, in the prime and vigor of early manhood, W. T. Burdett, son of Captain John S. and Susan (Sinsell) Burdett. He was born in Bridgeport, Har- rison county, Virginia, January 21, 1848; received his primary instruction at the common schools of Taylor county; afterwards entered and graduated from Morgantown University, and then, with first honors, graduated in the Law Department of the Uni- versity of Virginia at Charlottesville. At the latter institution he delivered the valedictory, and also received the prize for ora- tory. Among his other mental gifts, he was a natural orator.
Being thoroughly prepared, he was admitted to the Bar in Charleston, and practiced until his death-sickness prostrated him. Hoping for his restoration to health and usefulness, he was taken to White Sulphur Spirngs, nursed and tenderly cared for as only affection insures, and received all the aid that med- ical skill affords. But without avail. He died there, August 15, 1878, his faithful mother weeping at his bedside.
Mr. Burdett was elected to the West Virginia Senate from the Kanawha District in 1875, and served throughout the ses- sion with enviable distinction as one of the marked rising young men of the State. He was re-nominated for the following ses- sion by the Democratic Convention, the news of which he re- ceived while on his death bed, and, to the bereavement of his trusting constituents, he was in the Grand Senate above before election day.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
HON. W. T. BURDETT,
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WEST VIRGINIA.
ALSTON GORDON DAYTON.
c T
HE subject of this sketch is a native of Philippi, Barbour county, West Virginia, where he was born October 18, 1857. At sixteen years of age he entered the West Virginia Univer- sity, from which he graduated Bachelor of Arts, June, 1878; studied law while in college, and October 18, 1878-his twenty- first birthday-he was admitted to the Bar. He gave his undi- vided energies to the practice of his profession, and the result is he is one of the best posted lawyers of his age in any of the States. In 1879 he was appointed by the County Court of Up- shur county to the office of Prosecuting Attorney to fill out the unexpired term of Stark W. Arnold, resigned. He was the Republican candidate for Prosecuting Attorney of Barbour county in 1880, but was defeated. In 1884 he was again a can- didate for the same position and was elected. He filled the office with marked ability. His party friends pressed him for nomination for Circuit Judge in 1888, but he was defeated in the nominating convention. He is a young man of boundless energy, and is highly respected by all who know him.
GEORGE W. HACKWORTH.
G. I.
W. HACKWORTH was born in Boyd county, Kentucky, May 12, 1836. The family is of English descent, but his parents were natives of Bedford county, Virginia. He was ed- ucated at public and private schools, and became a teacher in Cabell and Putnam counties, Virginia, which he followed for a number of years. He married Hettie A. Ball, December 22, 1860, and the following year enlisted as a private soldier in the Confederate Army. In the fall of 1862, he recruited a company of one hundred and twenty men inside the Federal lines, and was chosen Captain. He served a term as a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware. After the war closed, he returned to Cabell county and became a merchant; was elected a member of the West Virginia Legislature in 1880, and served two terms; has satisfactorily filled many important minor offices in his county. He now resides upon a beautiful farm two miles west of Milton, Cabell county, and is President of the County Board of Com- missioners.
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JOHN H. RILEY.
N a farm in Jackson county, near Ripley, Virginia, August 2, 1842, was born the lawyer whose name appears above. With meager educational opportunities, he has won his way to places of trust and responsibility. He studied law and was admit- ted to the Bar in January, 1869. In his county he has filled the po- sitions of Deputy Assessor, Deputy Clerk of the Circuit Court, Treasurer and Prosecuting Attorney. He was enrolled as a member of the House of Delegates in the sessions 1877 and of 1881, and proved to be an excellent representative in the inter- ests of his people. In the National Republican Convention of 1880, which nominated the lamented Garfield, he was a dele- gate-at-large. He is an enthusiastic and bright member of the honorable Fraternity of Masons, and was chosen and installed as Grand Master for West Virginia at the November session of 1881. He held the office up to removal from the State. He is now practicing law and a real estate agent in Marietta, Ohio.
EDWARD LANGLEY WOOD.
€ DWARD L. WOOD, Adjutant General and State Libra- rian, was born on Brown's creek, near the mouth of Coal river, in Kanawha county, Virginia, January 30, 1846. His father, Augustus W. Wood, moved to Ohio in 1848, and died there in 1880. The son was educated in the common schools and at Galia Academy of Gallipolis. In the fall of 1869 he located in Charleston, West Virginia. He read law in the office of Mollohan & Nash, but never applied for admission to the Bar. On January 28th, 1880, he married Nannie T., daugh- ter of Snelling Meredith Smith. He was appointed State Li- brarian, September 1, 1875. In 1876 the Legislature made the incumbent thereof ex-officio Adjutant General, in which two- fold capacity he served until November 1, 1881, when his resig- nation of October 3d, took effect. He was again appointed Adjutant General and ex-officio Librarian for the term begin- ning March 4, 1885, and still holds over, under the administra- tion of Governor Wilson, and pending the contest between General Goff and Judge Fleming.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
JOHN M. HAMILTON.
H ON. JOHN M. HAMILTON, the present Clerk of the House of Delegates, so well versed in parliamentary usage, suc- ceeded Col. J. B. Peyton, who had long experience as a legis- lative clerk. He was born March 16, 1855, in Weston, Lewis county, Virginia. He improved well his few educational oppor- · tunities. From 1871 to 1876 he was clerk in a drug store. He was elected and served as Recorder of the town from May, 1876, to May, 1877, at which later date he removed to Calhoun coun- ty seat, and began the practice of law. He was Assistant Clerk of the State Senate from January, 1881, to January, 1887. The voters of Calhoun made him their representative in the House of Delegates, session of 1887. Speaker Rowan appointed him Chairman of the important Judiciary Committee. He also served as member on the Committees of Executive Offices and Library, State Boundaries, and Rules. In the pending Legislature he is Clerk of the House, his term expiring with the opening of the session of 1891.
EDWARD A. BENNETT.
€ DWARD A. BENNETT, son of John H. Bennett, was born at Kingwood, Preston county, Virginia, April 25, 1841. His mother was a daughter of Gardner Leonard, of Marion county, who, on account of participation in the Irish rebellion of 1798, fled to America. The subject of this sketch received his educa- tion at Kingwood Academy; worked at the trade of a saddler under the direction of his father, and was, for years, salesman in the village store. In July, 1861, he enlisted in the United States army as a volunteer; was First Sergeant, Sergeant Major, Cap- tain and Major, serving in the line during the first two years, and afterwards on the staff of Brigadier General Lightburn, Ma- jor General McMillen and others, and was discharged at the close of the war, June 20, 1865. At Fairmont, he was admitted in 1867 and practiced law until March 4, 1871, when he became State Auditor, to which office he was elected as a Democrat the previous fall. He was re-elected for the term from March 4, 1873, to March 4, 1877, at the close of which he settled in the city of Huntington, where he edited the Advertiser, a Democratic news-
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paper, published by his brother, Emory Gardner Bennett, de- ceased, from September, 1877, to October, 1885. During 1884-'5 he was a member of the Tax Commission, authorized by the Legislature, and responsible for the recommendation to discon- tinue the accumulation of an "Invested School Fund" as unwise and unnecessary, and also, that the State should amend her con- stitution so as to authorize it, and then build a comprehensive system of railroads for the development of the State, both of which ideas are so far in advance of public opinion as to pre- clude their being acted upon for a decade, and illustrate a marked feature in his character-that of having the courage of his conviction and a will that does not hesitate to express them or carry them out.
JOHN WALLACE MCCREERY.
IN the Senate of 1889, in one of the front seats nearest the I President, watching every movement, scanning every bill, boldly espousing the good and as promptly denouncing the dan- gerous or bad, ever there to vote or speak, sat John Wallace McCreery, a fair type of the brawny, brainy legislators, attor- neys and journalists, of which the young Mountain State truth- fully boasts so many. He was born July 31, 1845; educated at the Fincastle, Botetourt county, Male Academy; studied law under Judge Henry L. Gillespie, at Raleigh C. H., West Vir- ginia, where he began practice, and still continues there and in the adjoining counties, as also in the Supreme Court of Appeals, and in the United States District Court, at Charleston, West Virginia. Senator McCreery is also proprietor and editor of the Raleigh County Index, published at Raleigh C. H. He was eight years Prosecuting Attorney of Raleigh county, and is now serv- ing his second term in the State Senate. In the session of 1887 he was Chairman of the Committee on Finance and member of the Judiciary and other committees. In the session of 1889 he was called to the Chairmanship of the Committee on Mines and Mining, and also to serve again on the Judiciary Committee, on that of Banks and Corporations, and others. His two terms in the Senate have made him familiar with the necessities of his State, and at the same time with proper parliamentary practice -the two qualifications, added to quick appreciation and readi- ness to accept or reject measures, so necessary in the make-up of a useful legislator. A brother journalist is glad to be able to
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