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 52
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Coming to Virginia in 1850, Dion Bentley settled in Fauquier county, and there married Miss Mary Randolph. Richard Ran- dolph, the subject of this sketch, was the second of a family of ten children. He was educated at St. John's Academy in Alex- andria, and at Georgetown College, D. C. After his collegiate course he spent some time in Europe, and on his return was as- sociated with his Alma Mater as adjunct Professor of Latin and English, but on account of ill-health he was forced to resign af- ter three years of duty in that capacity.
In 1877 he became a resident of Taylor county, West Virgin- ia. In 1878 he was appointed by Governor Mathews an Hon- orary Commissioner to represent the State at the Paris Exposi- tion, but declined the appointment. He then embraced journal- ism as a profession, and was for ten years a contributor to news- papers, among them the Wheeling Register, writing over the nom-de-plume of " Charles Selby." He also studied law with the late Gen. Thomas I. McKaig, of Cumberland, Maryland, the law partner of the great jurist, John V. L. McMahon. In 1881 he was appointed Law Clerk to the First Comptroller of the Treasury, after passing a brilliant examination. This position he held until July 1, 1885, when he was promoted by President Cleveland to the honorable and responsible position of Deputy Second Comptroller. The duties are the same as those of the Second Comptroller, and in the absence of the latter gentleman he fills his chair. His decisions have been uniformly wise and judicious. He has made numerous important decisions, all im- bued with the spirit of fairness and liberality.
While ardently devoted to law, he has found time to contrib-
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ute largely to the press and periodicals, his contributions show- ing him to be a writer of force and ability, and his writings models of English composition. Personally, he is of distin- guished appearance, his black eyes and white hair making a striking picture of a remarkably handsome man. He enjoys the respect and esteem of every person who has the honor of his acquaintance as an able and upright official, and a gentleman of spotless reputation.
In November, 1881, he wedded Miss Emma Stringfellow Young, daughter of Captain Young, of the United States Army.
JOHN THOMAS COTTON.
HE oldest living practicing physician in the Kanawha Valley is J. T. Cotton, a lineal descendant of that famous Puritan Divine whom Cotton Mather, in his "Magnolia," calls "the Father and Glory of Boston." He is a leading member in the councils of the Episcopal Church of the West Virginia Diocese.
He was born August 4, 1819, at Marietta, Ohio, and has re- sided in what has become West Virginia forty-seven years. He graduated from Marietta College in 1838, as one of the first Alumni of that now venerable institution. In 1839-'40, he taught Latin and Greek in the High School of New Orleans; returned and studied medicine under his father, who, as a phy- sician, stood pre-eminent in his profession. Completing those studies, in 1842 he took a complete course of lectures at the Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati, and then began practice at Ravenswood, Virginia. He married Sarah Ashton Fitz Hugh, a grand-niece of Gen. George Washington, and in 1845 removed to Charleston, where he has continued to reside, devoting his time and energies to his profession, and what leisure he gets he battles valiantly in the Good Cause in the advancement of his Church and the uplifting of humanity.
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LE
JOHN T. COTTON, M. D.
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JOHN J. S. HASSLER.
C APT. JOHN J. S. HASSLER was born in Bristol, Penn- sylvania, December 15, 1841, with a residence in West Virginia since March, 1870, and a record in the war history of the United States of which he need not be ashamed. The records of the Historical Society of New York show he was one of the originators of the first organized movement to raise volunteers after the election of Lincoln foretold coming trouble. He was then (1860) a law student in New York. They formed a volunteer organization, and it was afterwards in the war in different New York regiments that the New York Herald of January 10, 1860, spoke of in connection with Capt. Hassler. He went to the front as Captain of Company A, Thirty-first New York Volunteers; was at Bull Run, Yorktown siege, Wil- liamsburg, Seven Pines, and Fair Oaks. He was highly com- plimented for gallantry, and was commissioned Second Lieuten- ant Fourth Infantry Regular U. S. Army, Feb. 19, 1863, and joined it at the front, remaining with it till peace was declared ; afterwards served with it against the Indians in 1867-'68-'69, and was honorably discharged October 15, 1870. As a Demo- crat he was made Appointment Clerk of the Interior Depart- ment under President Cleveland, which he resigned on a change of National administration. He possesses superior coloquial powers, and is esteemed by all who know him.
ANDREW GIBSON CLARK.
NE of the ablest, most suave, accomplished, and oldest physicians of Parkersburg, and perhaps now living in the State, is Doctor A. G. Clark. He was born in Winchester, Vir- ginia, September 24, 1809, and came West to the line of the Ohio river in October, 1831, and located in Wood county; studied medicine in the Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky, and began practice in 1834. Whether inherent or the influence of Blue Grass atmosphere in student days, he has ever loved a fine horse, noble manhood, literary reading, his profession and the Democratic party. A bachelor, with these four devotions he has loved all, won the deep respect of his fellow men, and enjoyed life in the even run of its peaceful current. He was one of a small literary and political coterie well known in Parkers-
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burg before the war sent its bomb shell into their ranks. Al- ways taking interest in party organization and success, he has, with regard to the dignity of his profession, constantly declined nomination for public office. In advancing age his practice has been voluntarily restricted to a few of the old families of the city. As a representative of those useful to the State, and ere many years to pass into the great unknown, he is fully entitled to a place in our volume.
JOHN P. JONES.
I N Wales, on the 21st of June, 1832, was born the Hon. John P. Jones, at present a distinguished citizen of Preston county, West Virginia. His father, Daniel J. Jones, came with his family to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1839. The mother, whose maiden name was Mary Davis, died in 1875. In 1840 his father removed to Ebensburg, where John P. attended the common schools until fourteen years old. From 1850, for eight years he was in the employ of Ezekiel Hughes as clerk in a store. April 17, 1855, he married Hannah E., daughter of George Rogers, of Ohio. He was next in mercantile life for himself, until the beginning of the war, when he located in Philadelphia in the lumber business. In April, 1863, he re- moved to Preston county, West Virginia, where he has ever since remained. He was a member of the county Board of Supervisors in 1868; elected to the House of Delegates in 1870 and re-chosen in 1872. In 1876 he was elected as a Republican to represent the Tenth District, composed of Preston and Mo- nongalia counties, in the State Senate; and served in the House of Delegates, session of 1887. He was for ten years President of the Board of Education; was a Commissioner of the county in 1880; and that year would have been nominated for State Treasurer upon the ticket of his party, but declined the honor. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church; for over twenty years Sunday School Superintendent, and in May, 1869, was a delegate from the West Virginia Presbytery to the General Assembly in New York.
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A.LITTLE
WM. J. W. COWDEN, A.M.
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WILLIAM JORDAN WAUGH COWDEN.
S EPTEMBER 7, 1871, a young man of medium height and of rather stout build, came from Western Pennsylvania to West Virginia and took up his residence in the city of Wheel- ing. He at once began the study of law in the office of W. P. Hubbard, Esq. Possessing a well disciplined mind and steady habits, he pursued his legal studies with great diligence, and Oc- tober 6th of the following year was admitted to the Bar in his adopted home. Like all young lawyers, for several years he had to struggle to build up a practice the returns of which would yield him a living. He, however, was equal to the task. He toiled on, and was faithful to every trust. When the people be- came acquainted with him, they entrusted business to his care, until by and by he became the possessor of a paying practice, which made him comfortable and independent. Always pains- taking and honest, he won the confidence of both lawyers and people. An attorney like that never wants for clients, or friends. Such a man is W. J. W. Cowden, the subject of this brief sketch.
Mr. Cowden was born May 1, 1846, in Lawrence county, Penn- sylvania, and was educated at Westminster College, in his na- tive State, from which he graduated June 29, 1871. Prior to graduation, he spent several years teaching, most of the time in academies, where he gave instruction in the classics and higher mathematics. The toil of teaching was not congenial, hence he devoted his energies to the profession of law, which has proved much more agreeable and remunerative.
Having a taste for politics, in 1876, he was chosen Secretary of the Republican State Central and Executive Committees, in which positions he continued-rendering satisfactory and effi- cient service-until 1884, when he was elected Chairman of said Committees, and was called upon to manage the exciting cam- paign of that year, and also the one of 1888. He was never an office-seeker. Many times he has refused official position, nota- bly the nomination for Judge of the Circuit Court of the First West Virginia District, when a nomination was equivalent to an election. Without his knowledge or consent he was appointed Postmaster of the city of Wheeling in April, 1889, and in obe- dience to a Federal statute, when he accepted the office of Post- master, he promptly resigned his committee chairmanships. The
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office he now holds does not prevent him from continuing the practice of his profession.
Mr. Cowden is a Calvinist in faith, and for many years has been a Ruling Elder in the United Presbyterian Church in the city of Wheeling, and Superintendent of the Sunday-school. He has been twice married. His present wife is the daughter of the Rev. J. T. MeClure, D.D., for nearly forty years pastor of the church to which Mr. Cowden belongs.
JACOB MORZOLF MEYERS.
J
ACOB M. MEYERS, a Republican member of the 1889 ses- sion of the Legislature, was born in Monroe county, Ohio, September 28, 1831, but has resided in West Virginia thirty years. His father emigrated with his family from Germany to America when thirty-seven years of age; the mother was also a native of Germany, whose maiden name was Marzolf. The son Jacob was brought up on the father's farm, and enjoyed only the winter school privileges accorded the rural districts in Ohio in his boyhood days. But from early childhood those habits of in- dustry and economy peculiar to the German-Americans were instilled into his nature, so that it is not strange that Mr. Mey- ers became a successful farmer and merchant in Wood county, West Virginia, whither he moved in 1858. The sturdy honesty of the man and his self-acquired practical intelligence, led the people of his adopted home to call in his aid in township and other offices, and for twenty-five years he has been their School Trustee; is now a Director of the Park Association, and also in the People's Co-operative Association of Parkersburg. He has raised eight children, three boys and six girls, three of whom are teachers of high grade. Against his wishes, being loth to neglect his business as farmer and merchant, his people elected him to the Legislature of 1889 on the Republican ticket, he re- ceiving a plurality of thirty-seven votes over R. Rector, S. N. Logan and J. E. Carl, in the Tygart district of Wood county. In the Legislature he is a member of the following committees : Private Corporations and Joint Stock Companies, and Peniten- tiary. He presented a bill "To exempt taxpayers with $50 of
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household and kitchen furniture and all stock under one year old on 1st of January, and all the farm products unsold," which bill, owing to the lateness of the session, was not reached on the calendar.
JOSEPH JACOB WOODS.
HE pending session of the Legislature, which began its roll call in January, 1889, and still is subject to an expected re- convening by Executive order, has occasioned vivid interest, as well as adverse criticism, by some, and with others approval over the entire State, and awakened the attention of even the Nation. The election of a Senator for the next six years was unusually exciting, the Democratic party having but one majority upon joint ballot, but the Declaration duty of the joint session upon the vote for Governor in 1888 was the thrilling theme. The center of observation was the Speaker of the House, who, by vir- tue of the position, presided also over the Declaration Assembly. Those who attended at the State House during these exciting hours will recognize his face in the engraving fronting this sketch. He was born December 15, 1852, in Ohio county, Vir- ginia. The incidents of early life were not different from those usual with school boys. He first attended the country schools of the county, then the select ones of Wheeling city ; spent over a year at Washington and Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, then entered Princeton College, New Jersey, from which he gradu- ated with the class of 1872; studied law, and began practice in Wheeling in 1874, where he still continues professional activity in all the courts, Municipal, Circuit, Supreme and Federal. His first appearance in the law enacting department of West Vir- ginia was as a member of the Senate of 1879-'81, from the coun- ties of Ohio, Brooke and Hancock, composing the Third Dis- trict. His course there met with the approval of his Democratic constituents in Ohio county, and he was elected as Delegate to the House in 1883. At the fall election in 1886 he was again sent to represent his county in the House of Delegates, and served upon the Committees of Judiciary, Elections and Priv- ileges, Private Corporations and Joint Stock Companies, For- feited and Unappropriated Lands, and Rules. The voters of Ohio county returned him at the election of 1888, and he was almost without opposition elected to the Speakership for a second term.
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HON. JOS. J. WOODS.
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WILLIAM LAMB McNEEL.
H [ON. W. L. McNEEL was born July 13, 1825, in Pocahontas county, Virginia. He received only a limited education in winter schools, while employed in farm labor. During the war he was Captain in the Nineteenth Regiment Virginia Cavalry, C. S. A. He served two years in the General Assem- bly of the old State as member of the House of Delegates from his native county; was Sheriff for four years term; served as Senator of the new State from the District in the Legislative sessions of, 1881-3. He is a farmer by occupation and resides near Academy.
JOHN BLAIR HOGE.
T HE Hon. John Blair Hoge was born at Richmond, Virginia, February 2, 1825. He was carefully educated for the Bar, and was admitted to practice in April, 1845. He located at Martinsburg, Berkeley county, prior to the war, where he opened a law office. In 1853 he was elected President of the Berkeley bank. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1855 to 1859, and was a delegate to the National Democratic Con- vention which met at Charleston, South Carolina, and Baltimore, Maryland, in 1860. When the war broke out in 1861 he entered the Confederate army, and served in both line and staff duty until paroled in 1865. For a short time after the war, he en- gaged in journalism, and in 1870 resumed the practice of his profession at Martinsburg. He was a member of the Conven- tion at Charleston in 1872 that framed the present Constitution of West Virginia; and was a member of the National Demo- cratic Executive Committee from 1872 to 1876. He was elected Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit of West Virginia, which office he held until August, 1880, when he became a candidate for Congress, and consequently resigned his judicial ,position. He was elected to the Forty-seventh Congress as a Democrat, receiving 17,247 votes, against 14,566 votes for Judge J. T. Hoke, Republican, and 2,156 votes for Hon. D. D. T. Farns- worth, the Greenback candidate.
After serving one term in Congress Judge Hoge resumed the practice of his profession with offices both at Washington, D. C., and Martinsburg, West Virginia. Soon after President Cleve- land's administration was ushered in, Judge Hoge was appointed to the responsible position of United States District Attorney
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for the District of Columbia, which office he still holds, and has from the first filled with marked ability. He is a social, genial gentleman and has from early manhood enjoyed an unusual degree of popularity among his fellow citizens.
URIAH NEWTON ORR.
U RIAH NEWTON ORR was born on Sandridge, Preston county, Virginia, April 24, 1832, and has always resided in the State. He spent his early days on his father's farm. Upon reaching proper age he attended the subscription schools of that day, the meager but only advantages afforded. At the age of twenty-two he was elected Major of the One Hundred and Seventy-Third Regiment of Virginia Militia, and two years later he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. In 1860 he was married to Annie A. Talbott, daughter of Thomas Talbott. In August, 1861, he enlisted in Company I, Sixth Regiment West Virginia Volunteer Infantry as a private; was promoted to First duty Sergeant in 1862; served in the army of West Virginia under Generals B. F. Kelley and Crook; was discharged at Wheeling in November, 1864. While in the army, in April, 1864, he had the misfortune to lose his wife. In January, 1865, he commenced the manufacture of lumber near Newburg, Pres- ton county, and has continued in that business ever since. He married Molly S. Squires in 1866; was elected a member of the Board of Education in 1876, and President of the Board in 1878. In 1881 he was a member of the House of Delegates from Pres- ton county, and was re-elected to that of 1883; served on the committees of Mines and Mining, Arts and Sciences, and Gen- eral Improvements. The same appreciative constituency sent him into the memorable House of 1889, where he was ever ready to do his part of legislation. He has always been the friend of liberal education, a cheerful supporter of the free schools, and, as opportunity offered, aided in whatever was calculated to better, morally and intellectually, the community in which he has resided; has been actively engaged, since 1865, in farming and lumbering, which he regards as the most honorable and enriching pursuit that a people can follow. To this occupation he brings the experience of advanced years, mature business judgement and integrity of character, which properly entitle him to mention among the prominent men of the State.
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A LITTLE
MAJOR U. N. ORR.
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GEORGE EVANS.
G EORGE EVANS was born August 12, 1824, in Plymouth township, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. He is of Welsh, Scotch and English origin. His grandfather, John Ev- ans, came from North Wales as a Captain in the King's service during the French and Indian War in 1754, and died at the age of seventy-nine in 1811, and was buried in Wyoming county, Pennsylvania. His wife was a Scotch woman, who was a Miss Birney. Stephen Evans, the father of our subject, was born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania ; served as a gunner, under Cap- tain Thomas, with the Kingston Volunteers in the war of 1812; he died at the age of fifty-two. His wife, Almira, was the daughter of Wm. Cooper, who came from England while young, and married a Miss Sickles, a near relative of General Sickles.
George Evans is the youngest of nine children, five boys and four girls. His early years were spent in farming; he was edu- cated at Wyoming Seminary, his home being in Wyoming Val- ley ; he commenced teaching school when eighteen, and followed it for a number of years. In 1853 he went to Lee county, Vir- ginia, as a land surveyor, and spent a few years there; then went to Mercer county, Virginia. The war between the States breaking out soon after, he went with Col. R. B. Hayes to the Kanawha Valley, and remained with the Federal army through- out the war, after which he returned to Mercer county. He studied law, and was admitted to practice; has been Clerk of the Circuit Court and Recorder of Mercer county. He was elected to the House of Delegates in 1868 and 1870. In politics he is a Republican, and socially as well as politically is consid- ered an honest man. "Evans never goes back on a friend," is a saying in his vicinity. He is a decided protective tariff man, and favors the education of the masses. He was married when twenty-one to Miss Caroline Culver, of Wyoming Valley, who died early in life; two sons survive her, Wm. H. and Stephen, who are residents of Mercer county. His present wife, to whom he was married a few years ago, in Wyoming Valley, Pennsyl- vania, was Mary Dale Culver, a lady known in the literary world as contributor to various periodicals. Mr. Evans is at present engaged in farming and lumbering. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
JOSEPH B. FEATHER.
J
JOSEPH B. FEATHER was born November 3, 1833, near Kingwood, Preston county, Virginia; was educated in the common schools; was always a hard student; prepared himself for teaching, which he followed for about two years; began to preach the Gospel in 1853, in the Methodist Episcopal Church ; has filled the following circuits and stations: Barbour, 1853; Glenville, 1854; Fork Lick, 1855; Charleston Circuit, 1856; Buffalo, 1857; Monticello, 1858; Winfield, 1859 and 1860; Blacksville, 1861; Monongalia, 1863; Delegate of Christian Commission at Washington, D. C., Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Winchester, Virginia, 1864; Grantsville, Maryland, 1865 and 1866; Brandonville, 1867-'8-'9; Marshall, 1870; Hartford City, 1872 and 1873; Evansville, 1874; Wesley Chapel, Wheel- ing, 1875; Palatine, 1876-'7-'8; Pruntytown, 1879; Marion, 1880; Pleasant Hill, 1881; Rowlesburg, 1882; Dallas, 1883; Morgantown Circuit, 1884-'5-'6; Knottsville, 1887-'8-'9.
April 12, 1857, Mr. Feather was united in wedlock with Miss Mary Atkinson, of Charleston, Kanawha county. They were the parents of several children, all of whom are now men and women. His wife died of cancer January 11, 1881, and October 11, 1884, he married Miss Mary L. Mercer, of Fairmont, Marion county.
Mr. Feather was reared a Lutheran, but at an early age he attended a Methodist revival and was converted. Being an ac- tive Sunday School worker, he was given license to exhort, and soon thereafter was tendered the credentials of a Methodist minister. He is a plain, earnest, faithful Gospel preacher. He is unassuming-bashful. He never sought a good appointment, nor would he allow any one to do anything looking to his ad- vancement, if in his power to prevent. His rule has always been to go wherever sent, accept the situation, and do his best to spread the Truth among the people. Strange as it may seem, yet it is true, because the writer knows the man, he always pre- ferred circuit to station work. He enjoyed the work of moving among the people, and encouraging them to holy and upright lives. His has not been a brilliant life, but like the deep river, his course has been silent, steady, onward.
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ALITTLE
SMITH CRANE.
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SMITH CRANE.
S MITH CRANE, the eldest son of John and Nancy Crane, was born on the "Old Crane farm," near Muddy Creek, Preston county, Virginia, February 21, 1821, and entered into rest August 11, 1888.
John, the father of the subject of this sketch, married Nancy Dunham, March 16, 1820, whose parents had emigrated from Elizabethtown, New Jersey. John, after whom the town of Cranesville, in Preston county, is named, died peacefully, while absent with cattle and horses, in Harford county, Maryland, No- vember 15, 1858, in his fifty-ninth year. His widow fell asleep in Jesus, July 28, 1878, aged nearly eighty years, both having united with the Baptist Church in the Summer of 1832. Their family consisted of eleven children, eight of whom are living.
Smith Crane received a common English education in the country schools of the day, the only one having any special merit (and the last he attended) being that taught by the now sainted Rev. Joseph Uncles, in 1838-'9, in the town of Brandonville, Preston county. It was there, while attending school, in the early part of the year 1839, that he first "turned his feet unto the testimonies of the Lord," was converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
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