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 53
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Having a fondness for penmanship and the keeping of public records, he was hired by his father to John P. Byrne, who was then clerk of both courts, and on the first day of May, 1844, came to Kingwood, where he pursued diligently the office of a deputy clerk for three successive years.
On November 16, 1847, he married Mary Catharine Morris, the eldest sister to Mrs. Charles M. Bishop, and daughter of the late Reuben Morris, Esq., of Preston county. He was also en- gaged as the deputy of Mr. Byrne from the 14th of October, 1850, to the 1st of July, 1852, when, pursuant to a previous election, he assumed the duties of Clerk of the County Court of Preston county, a position which he filled with acceptance until July 1, 1863, when he became Clerk of the Circuit Court, and continued as such until the day of his death.
When he commenced his official duties in July, 1852, it was with the full determination to aim at being the best clerk in the State-certainly a most commendable purpose; and we think it but just to say that he achieved his ambition, for it is the judg-
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ment of those who are competent to give opinion, that he was the most efficient court clerk in the State.
He was a most zealous and most consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was a class leader from De- cember, 1844, as long as he lived. He was exceedingly liberal in his gifts to all benevolent purposes. He had great love and reverence for the Bible, which he had read through once, and the Psalms and the New Testament twice, every year since the fall of 1844.
In the year of 1882 he composed two stanzas, which he copied on the fly-leaf of his Bible, that are an appropriate closing of this sketch :
I take the Bible for my guide While traveling to the grave ; It points me to the Savior's side, Who died my soul to save.
With it I'll never, never part, While here on earth I stay ; Its sacred truths shall guide my heart To realms of endless day.
NEIL JUDSON FORTNEY.
N EIL J. FORTNEY, whose grandfather came from France to Maryland, and whose grandmother was of German de- scent, was born near Independence, Preston county, Virginia, November 22, 1849. His father, David H., removed to Indian- ola, Iowa, in 1865, and there Neil Judson, the son, attended Simpson Centenary College. In 1870 he left home and traveled for four years in the west, where he followed various callings, and occasionally corresponded for the press. Returning to Preston County, West Virginia, in 1874, he studied law; then served as Deputy County Clerk, and in 1879 was admitted to the Bar. On the 3d of June of that year, he married Alice Edna, eldest daughter of Captain Joseph H. Godwin, of King- wood. In 1880 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney, and en- tered upon duty January 1, 1881. At the end of his term he was re-elected by an increased majority, and at the expiration of his second term was elected again to the same office by a still greater majority, and is now serving for the third successive term. In this public position he is very successful. He is a Republican, and a lawyer with excellent practice.
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WILLIAM WILSON WATERS GIVENS.
W. W. W. GIVENS was born in the county of Belmont, Ohio, November 29, 1842, and was educated and spent his youth upon a farm. When the war for the Union began, at the age of nineteen, he enlisted for three years, in the First Regiment of Virginia Cavalry, then forming at Camp Carlile, Wheeling. The regiment upon completion, went to the front, and he participated in the engagements at Ball's Bluff, Bloom- er's Gap, Winchester, Jones' Cross Roads, Port Republic, Bon- net's Ford, Rapidan, Rolingsford, Salem, Berryville, Warren- ton Junction, Second Bull Run, and Gettysburg. In the latter, July 3, 1863, he was wounded in the right foot, resulting in amputation, and December, 3, 1863, honorably discharged for disability. In 1867 he located upon a farm in Tyler county, West Virginia, near New Martinsville. In 1880 he was elected Justice of the Peace, serving for four years thereafter. He was sent to the Legislature of 1885, as a member of the House, and served upon the Committees of Roads and Internal Navigation, Immigration, Agriculture, and Railroads. He is now filling a second term as one of the School Commissioners of his district.
GEORGE FRANKLIN EVANS.
G. F. EVANS was born in Berkeley county, Virginia, Feb- ruary 13, 1848, and is descended from an old Virginia fam- ily, and was educated in the common schools. After working as a laborer on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad he entered the company's shops and learned the trade of a machinist, remain- ing seven years. After working one year at Louisville, Ķen- tucky, he went into the tobacco business in Martinsburg in 1871, and has continued in it to the present, having now a large whole- sale and retail tobacco and cigar trade. He was elected to the Legislature in 1881, and re-elected in 1883; was appointed post- master at Martinsburg in February, 1884, and resigned upon the election of Mr. Cleveland. In July, 1884, he was chosen Chair- man of the Republican State Convention at Parkersburg, and had been strongly urged as a candidate for Congress, but would not allow his name to go before the Convention. He is an ac- tive, energetic business man of the Eastern Pan-Handle, who commands a large following of personal friends.
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HON. CHARLES E. HOGG.
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CHARLES EDGAR HOGG.
H ON. C. E. HOGG, the second Congressman fromt he Fourth West Virginia District, serving from March, 1887, one term of two years, is the eldest son of James A. and Susan (Knight) Hogg. He was born in Mason county, Virginia, December 21, 1852. He is a lineal descendant of Captain Peter Hogg, who came from Scotland and settled in Virginia in 1745, in Augusta county, where he married Elizabeth Taylor, and of whom a con- cise biographical sketch is found in the first volume of the Din- widdie Papers.
The subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools of his native county. When but fifteen years of age he entered upon the work of a school teacher, and continued in this occupa- tion until he was eighteen years of age, when he became the bookkeeper for the Valley City Salt Company, at Hartford City, West Virginia, where he remained for nearly three years. He attended College one year, and was engaged in the study of higher mathematics and languages.
Upon his return from school he studied law with the late Hon. Henry J. Fisher, at Point Pleasant, Mason county, and was ad- mitted to the Bar, May 28, 1875, and has ever since been en- gaged in the successful practice of his profession. He was ad- mitted as an attorney in the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, February 4, 1889.
Mr. Hogg was Superintendent of Public Schools in his native county from 1875 to 1879, and was a Presidential Elector in 1884 on the Democratic ticket.
In 1886 he was elected to the Fiftieth Congress from the Fourth West Virginia District, receiving 16,434 votes against 15,687 votes for Hon. John A. Hutchinson, Republican, and 558 votes for Mr. W. H. Smith, Prohibitionist.
He is a gentleman of literary tastes, a student of political effects and causes, and has enlarged views upon important and historical measures. In a speech before the American Shipping and Industrial League of Birmingham, Alabama, November 10, 1887, he concluded with these words, defining his position :
"Speaking for the section of the country I represent, I am heartily in favor of speedy Congressional action in behalf of such measures as may result in the early restoration of our once great and glorious merchant marine-the enactment of such laws as
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will insure protection to the American flag while it floats from the masthead of every merchant vessel on the broad ocean; such laws as will operate to carry American trade into every import- ant commercial city of the globe; such laws as will secure the rich returns of commerce to our people and our Government; such laws as will enable American seamen to bid defiance to all rivals as he sails in his majesty above the dangers of the crested waves of the sea."
JOHN B. FLOYD.
T HE Floyd family of Virginia, has always been among its most eminent and honored men and statesmen. The father of the subject of this sketch and portrait, Col. George R. C. Floyd, is a brother of Gen. John B. Floyd-than whom the "mother of statesmen" produced few greater. The present John B. Floyd was born in Logan county, Virginia, November 13, 1855, and has continuously resided there. His education began in the common schools his country home afforded before the war. He spent the years 1876-7 at Rock Hill College, in Maryland, and then went to the University of Virginia and took a course of history and literature, also studying interna- tional and constitutional law at the same term. Subsequent to this, at the same institution, he had taken two summer law courses under Prof. Minor.
As a boy he worked on the farm; afterwards was engaged in the lumber business. He took out license to practice law soon after his return from the University, and has continued in the profession except when serving his people as a legislator. In 1881 Logan county sent him to the House of Delegates and two years afterward to the State Senate. He has been prominently urged by friends for Governor and for Congress.
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HON. JOHN B. FLOYD.
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CHRISTOPHER BREAM GRAHAM.
e HRISTOPHER B. GRAHAM was born at Charleston, Virginia, May 19, 1850. His father, William Graham, was an American of Scotch-Irish descent, and his mother, Mary A. Peacock, was a native of Durham, England. William Gra- ham was one of the first manufacturers of salt in the Great Kanawha Valley, having begun when a boy with Major Bream, for whom the subject of this sketch was named. He removed to Elk river many years ago and operated a coal mine, which business he continued until the time of his death in 1888. At " Graham's Mines," on Elk river, seven miles from Charleston, C. B. Graham grew up to manhood. After taking a thorough English course of study in the Academic schools of Kanawha county, and Kentucky, he engaged in business with his father in handling coal and in merchandising; also as a school teacher for a considerable time. In all these occupations he was suc- cessful, because he was methodical and reliable. While engaged in teaching, he was made Deputy Superintendent of Public schools for Kanawha county, and Secretary of the Board of Education of Elk Township. His careful training, and his ex- perience as a teacher, made him very efficient in both of these responsible places.
Being impressed with the thought that he should preach the Gospel, he laid aside his business cares, and was admitted into the West Virginia Conference of the M. E. Church in 1879, and became an Itinerant minister. He at once began the study of theology, and for ten years he has been a careful student. His progress has been quite satisfactory both to himself and friends. During the ten years of his ministry, he has received into the church over six hundred communicants, and has built six new churches and parsonages and laid the foundations for others. His superior business training specially qualified him to look after financial affairs of the churches to which he is assigned; and the result is he invariably leaves a charge in better condi- tion than he found it. He is at present stationed at Zane Street Church, Wheeling, where his efforts have been very successful, and where he is highly esteemed by the people for his sterling qualities as a man and minister.
Mr. Graham has occupied some official position in the West Virginia Annual Conference ever since the year he was admit-
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ted, and is at present Statistical Secretary, a position requiring business tact and experience. He has been Secretary of the Conference Missionary Society since 1884. He is painstaking in all that he does, and will therefore always prove efficient in all that he undertakes. He is a man of good parts, and is a successful preacher of the Word.
WILLIAM DINLY ROLLYSON.
N EAR Talcott, Monroe county, Virginia, now Summers county, West Virginia, was born the subject of this sketch, October 3d, 1837. About the year 1844 his father moved into Braxton county. William D. was brought up on a farm near Salt Lick Bridge. He was a member of the General Assembly of Virginia when this State was in process of formation in 1861, and gave the benefit of his council and labors. He became a member of the State Senate of West Virginia and served in 1863-4. Served as Major of the State Militia also in the year 1864. Represented Braxton county in the House of Delegates in the sessions of 1871 and '72, serving as a member of the Fi- nance Committee and chairman of the Committee of Roads and Internal Navigation in 1871 and chairman of the Finance Com- mittee in 1872. He is, and has been for the last twenty-four years, a merchant and now resides at Salt Lick Bridge.
WILLIAM WILEN.
W ILLIAM WILEN, who was a member of the House of Delegates from the county of Berkeley in the session of 1865, was born at Boonsboro, Maryland, October 28, 1819. His education was mainly at home, as even the villiage school had not yet come into existence in the section of his father's resi- dence. For a half century his home has been in Martinsburg, in sight of the grand mountains. His main occupation has been in the manufacture and sale of furniture. He has been a member of the Council of the city, and has served in other local positions. As one of the committee upon water supply he was diligent in securing the Holly System for Martinsburg, even in the face of strong opposition. The voters of his county sent
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him to represent their interests in the Legislature soon after the formation of the new State. He is an honored member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and was the fifth Grand Master for West Virginia.
GEORGE MEADE BOWERS.
G EORGE M. BOWERS, the Republican candidate for State Auditor in 1888, the youngest man upon the ticket of either party, is the son of the late John S. Bowers. He was born September 13, 1863, at Gerardstown, Berkeley county, West Virginia, and was educated in the High School at Martinsburg. He has superior business qualifications, and upon the death of his father, settled up his large estate satisfactorily and promptly, and entered into commercial and manufacturing operations upon his own account. He is the proprietor of the Eureka Flour Mills of Martinsburg, and has a pleasant home upon West King street. He is a director in the National Bank there, and has interest in a number of enterprises. In politics he is an earnest republican, and is a favorite with farmers and labor or- ganizations. In the Grafton Convention of 1884 he was chair- man of the Berkeley delegation. In 1886 he was elected to the Legislature, as a member of the House of Delegates of 1887, by over 400 majority, receiving the largest vote polled by any party candidate for years. In this body he took a prominent position in the party of the minority, and faithfully served upon the Committees of Taxation and Finance; Counties, Districts and Municipal Corporations ; State Boundaries, and Enrolled Bills.
In the great and preliminary convention of Protective Tariff Clubs, which met in New York in 1887, to form a National Lodge for the United States, he was made the member of the Executive Committee for West Virginia, and called the Wheel- ing convention of February, 1888, which resulted in the State organization that accomplished so much benefit to his party in the ensuing campaign.
Believing, with his own annunciation of the tariff platform, the protection to American Industries, was the important ques- tion for West Virginia, the Republican State Convention of Charleston in 1888 nominated Mr. Bowers as its candidate for the office of State Auditor. In the canvass he made a gallant fight, but was defeated by a small majority.
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HON. GEORGE M. BOWERS.
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WILLIAM LYNE WILSON.
H ON. WILLIAM L. WILSON, LL. D., was born in Jeffer- son county, Virginia, May 3, 1843. He was the only child of Benjamin Wilson by his second wife, who was Mary Whiting Lyne. Benjamin Wilson was a native of King and Queen county, Virginia, and Mary Lync, although born in Jefferson, was a resident of that county from carly infancy to the time of her marriage with him. Benjamin Wilson lost his father in childhood but enjoyed the training of one of the fore- most teachers of Virginia at that day, the Rev. Dr. Robert Baylor Semple, at his classical school, Mordington, in King and Queen. His scholarship and character were such that when Dr. Semple was requested by his kinsman William Baylor, of Jefferson, to send him a tutor for his children he selected young Wilson. Benjamin Wilson henceforward made Jefferson county his home, and for some years made teaching his profession. He died before his son William was four years old, leaving the in- junction that he should be thoroughly educated. Mrs. Wilson, who was as marked by shrinking modesty as by devoted piety, gave herself to this duty with a singleness of purpose only equaled by her faith in the future usefulness and distinction of her son. He was first taught by a maiden aunt, Miss Lucy Lyne, who was scarcely less devoted to him than his mother, and then attended the Charlestown Academy, where he was noted for his quick mind and studious habits. By the age of fifteen he had read more Latin, Greek and French than is re- quired of college graduates, although mathematics was his favorite study. He then entered the junior class of Columbian College, D. C., and graduated in 1860 at the age of seventeen, one of his classmates being Colonel Daniel D. Johnson, of Tyler county. He was offered a tutorship in the college, but preferred to go at once to the University of Virginia, expecting to remain there several years. The outbreak of the war thwarted this expectation, and Mr. Wilson left school and entered the Con- federate army as a private in Co. B, Twelfth Virginia Cavalry. He served the last years of the war and was Sergeant-Major of the regiment at the time of the surrender at Appomattox.
In June, 1865, he was offered the place of assistant professor of ancient languages in Columbian College, Washington, D. C., which he accepted, and while teaching there also attended lec-
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tures in the law department. He graduated in law in 1867, but being promoted to the full Chair of Latin continued in his pro- fessorship until 1871, when he resigned and began the practice of law in Charlestown. He soon formed a partnership with his cousin George Baylor, and had, almost from the start, a full practice, being not only prominent as an advocate, but largely entrusted with judicial business.
He took little active part in politics until 1880, when he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention which nom- inated General Hancock for President, and he subsequently made a canvass of his State as candidate for Elector-at-Large on the Hancock ticket, which attracted much attention from his party friends.
In June, 1882, he was chosen by unanimous vote of the Regents, President of the West Virginia University, and rather reluctantly accepted the position, entering on his duties Septem- ber 6, 1882. September 20, of that year, he was nominated by acclamation, as the Democratic candidate for Congress from the Second Congressional District, and the second Tuesday in Octo- ber following, was elected.
At the beginning of his Congressional term, March 4, 1883, he resigned the Presidency of the University, but at the request of the Regents and students, served until the end of the session in June-refusing pay however for this period.
Mr. Wilson has been three times re-nominated for Congress -each time by acclamation-and elected. From his first entry in the House he was recognized as a diligent, hard-working member, and in his second Congress was placed upon the Com- mittee of Appropriations, the second highest committee, and attracted much attention by a speech on the Pension Bill, be- fore the House.
Mr. Wilson was from the beginning of his public career an advocate of tariff reform; and when President Cleveland by his message to the Fiftieth Congress made that the issue of the coming campaign, Mr. Wilson was placed by the Speaker on the Ways and Means Committee, the highest in the House, and was one of the framers of the "Mills Bill." His speech on the tariff, May 3, 1888, was received with great enthusiasm both in the House and in the country by tariff reformers, and was probably more widely reprinted and circulated than any other speech made in that famous debate.
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In the Presidential campaign of 1888, Mr. Wilson was in great demand on the hustings and spoke in many States. He was one of the speakers selected to open the campaign at the great Cheltenham Beach meeting near Chicago, together with Allen G. Thurman, and subsequently to open the campaign in New York city, at the great business men's ratification, together with Secretary of the Treasury Fairchild. Besides his political prominence, Mr. Wilson has been honored in the field of scholar- ship. He is honorary member of many literary and scientific associations ; has delivered a large number of college addresses, and has received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Columbian University and Hampden Sidney College, Virginia. He was appointed a Regent of the Smithsonian Institute in 1883, and again in 1885, on the part of the House of Representatives, and while holding this position was chosen by the Board of Regents, together with Professor S. F. Baird, Secretary of the Smithsonian, and Professor Asa Gray, of Harvard, to super- vise the publication of the scientific writings of Professor Joseph Henry.
In 1868 Mr. Wilson married Miss Nannie Huntington, daughter of Rev. Dr. Huntington, of Columbian University, and has six children.
In the organization of the Fifty-first Congress, Mr. Wilson was necessarily omitted from the Committee of Ways and Means, as his party being in the minority, was entitled to but five representatives, whom Speaker Reed naturally appointed in the order of their service; but he handsomely recognized Mr. Wilson by assigning him to the Judiciary Committee, always a post of dignity and prominence ; to the Committee on Manufactures, which is temporarily important as dealing with proposed Trust legislation ; and also as one of the two Demo- cratic members of the Special Committee appointed to investigate the ballot-box forgery matter in the Ohio campaign of 1889.
As a lawyer he stands among the first in the State. Not only versed in the principles of the law, he has the ability to present them effectively. As a public representative he joins the wis- dom of the schools to practical experience, and thus far has shown that he has the courage of his convictions. His con- stituency endorse his official course, and have kept him in the halls of Congress continuously from March 4, 1883. His present term expires March 3, 1891.
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As well as a pleasant speaker, he is a classic and fluent writer. His educational addresses, miscellaneous essays, and contribu- tions to political literature are numerous and scholarly. He is the author of a volume entitled, "The National Democratic Party," and of a series of articles for the Baltimore Sun on " Trusts and Monopolies," which will appear in book form.
In personal appearance Congressman Wilson retains a good many youthful characteristics in face and figure. Rather slightly built, he is wiry and muscular in his development and quick and active in his movements, and his whole physical organization indicates ability for sustained effort. He has a good-natured, but resolute face, and his keen grey eyes change readily from searching glances to twinkles of humor. A prominent nose and chin are marked features of his counten- ance, his well-developed head is fairly covered with light brown hair and a moustache of the same color partly conceals the mouth. His lack of stature might enable him to pass unnoticed in a crowd, but a physiognomist would be likely to designate him as the possessor of intellectual force and vigor. In his manner he is modest and unassuming, easily approached, friendly without familiarity, a good conversationalist, with a fund of humor that frequently asserts itself, and a disposition naturally genial, kindly and courteous.
WILLIAM BONNELL CRANE.
W To ILLIAM B. CRANE, who was known 'from his Militia title as Colonel, was the son of Jacob Crane, born near Muddy Creek, Preston county, on a farm, May 5, 1824, and died March 14, 1873, at Terra Alta, where his widow and sur- viving children now reside. He was educated in the common schools; grew up to be robust and portly from work and out- door exercise upon his father's farm, and for twenty years was engaged in mercantile and agricultural pursuits at Cranberry Summit, owning a number of farms in Portland District. When about thirty years old he married Rachel Elliott, with whom he lived happily to the end of his life. They were both members of the Baptist Church. He represented Preston county in the House of 1868, and his district in the Senate of 1870 to 1872. He was a Unionist in the war and a Republican thereafter. He was honest, sympathetic, generous, and unassuming.
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