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 61
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LEMUEL EDWIN DAVIDSON.
EMUEL E. DAVIDSON was born, October 26, 1822, at Pruntytown, Virginia, upon a farm. Until the age of 18 he attended school about three months, each winter, in the log- cabin school houses of the period, then finished his education by nine months attendance at Rector College. He taught school for two winters and then at the age of 23 worked at the trade of carpenter. Not relishing either pursuit he returned to the farm as his life occupation. In the spring of 1861 he was nominated
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as a candidate for the General Assembly, and elected, but de- clined to sit in the Richmond Convention. By virtue of such election he became a member of the June, Wheeling Convention and assisted in the restoration of government in the Western counties. In 1862 he was a member of the House of Delegates. He was also elected to and served in the first Legislature of the new State. The county of Taylor sent him to the House of Delegates, session of 1879.
ROBERT SKILES GARDNER.
T HE necessities of war brought into service some of the best business talent and integrity in the Union. When vast forces were to be moved, or supplied with food or clothed, it re- quired rare ability to accomplish it promptly and with the least friction. To many the face fronting this sketch will be familiar as of the U. S. Quarter-Master's Department. R. S. Gardner was born in Bellfontaine, Ohio, January 18, 1839. His father, Isaac S., was a native of Pendleton county, and his Grandfather, Andrew, of Front Royal, Virginia. His education was in com- mon schools, Geneva Hall and Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware. He graduated at Cincinnati Law school, April, 1860. June 6, 1861, he joined the Twenty-third Ohio Regi- ment, was promoted to Quarter-Master Sergeant, then Regi- mental Quarter-Master, then Captain and Assistant Quarter- Master of Volunteers on Pope's staff ; Depot Quarter-Master at Clarksburg from January, '63, to February, '64, and at Harper's Ferry from March to November, '64; then Assistant Chief Quarter-Master Depot of West Virginia, with rank of Major, to June, 1865 ; Depot Quarter-Master at Wheeling to March 12, 1868, when he was mustered out of service. Major Gardner was also in mercantile business at Clarksburg to April, 1879, when he was made Special Agent in the United States Indian Service April 19th, 1879, to June 30, 1880, then Indian Inspector, and served to June 30, 1888, and reappointed Special United States Indian Agent March 16, 1889. He crossed the Continent thir- teen times, and inspected and visited every agency of Indians from two to six times. He possesses superior business qualifi- cations, and in all public stations rendered faithful and efficient service.
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MAJ. ROBT. S. GARDNER.
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JOSEPH COLEMAN ALDERSON.
M AJOR J. C. ALDERSON is one of the finest specimens ot physical manhood in West Virginia, or any other State. He is tall, well proportioned, and for one of his large stature, is active and supple. He is a native of Amherst county, Vir- ginia, having first seen the light at Locust Grove, October 19, 1839. At the death of his grandfather, Esquire Joseph Alder- son, in 1845, his father, the late Rev. L. A. Alderson, moved into the old stone mansion, now over one hundred years old, at Alderson's Ferry on Greenbrier river, immediately opposite the town of Alderson. Here J. C. Alderson was taught by private instructors until he was seventeen years old. He then attended an Academy in Lewisburg, Greenbrier county, and from there he went to Allegheny College at the Blue Sulphur Springs, in the same county, from which institution he graduated in April, 1861. This was a flourishing Baptist educational institution for many years, and was the alma mater of a large number of young men, who resided in that section of the State. Its buildings were destroyed by fire during the late civil war, and the school consequently went down. It was situated in a beautiful vale about one hundred yards from the spring, which possesses re- markable medical properties, and was prior to the war a great health resort. The large brick hotel was burned by General Hunter's troops, which, returning from what was termed "Hun- ter's Lynchburg Raid," and owing to some imperfection in the title to the property, it has never been rebuilt.
One of Major Alderson's College friends and class mates at Allegheny relates a circumstance which took place one day at the college that shows how agile our subject was in early life : A countryman came into the campus where perhaps a hundred students were exercising on the beautiful lawn. He rode a horse seventeen hands high, and desired to sell a two-bushel bag of apples that was upon the tall horse's back. Young Alderson, who was a noted athlete, remarked to the countryman, "Will you give me the bag of apples, if I can jump over your horse's back, without touching the bag of apples or the horse?" Mr. Hayseed dismounted, looked at the tall horse, then at the erect and powerful built young man, and replied, "Yes, you may have the entire two bushels of apples, if you can do that." "Good enough," said Mr. Alderson. So he doffed his coat,
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stepped back a few yards, took a vigorous start, and over the horse he leaped with full ten inches between his heels and the horse's back. Mr. Hayseed promptly emptied the apples upon the ground, remarking that "a man who can do that shouldn't pay him a cent for all the apples he can eat for the next six months."
Immediately after leaving college in April, 1861, young Al- derson enlisted in the Confederate army (being the third man who volunteered from Greenbrier county), and remained in the service until June 12, 1864, when he was captured by the Federal forces within five miles of his birth place in Amherst county. He was sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, and remained in that noted bastile for nine months, before he was exchanged, six months of the time on one-third rations, and under retaliation.
The Major's cavalry company was the escort of honor at the burial of "Stonewall" Jackson. He delivered the first order to the troops on the Confederate side that opened the battle of Gettysburg. He was a participant in upwards of one hundred battles and skirmishes during the war, and had, at different times, over half his company killed in battle. He never had but eight days leave of absence from his command during his four years service, except what a piece of shell gave him at the battle of Hagerstown, July 6, 1863, two days after the great battle of Gettysburg.
When hostilities closed he went West, and in 1865 and 1866 had charge of the Middle Division of the Butterfield Overland Express Company, on the Smoky Hill river in Kansas and Colorado, extending two hundred and fifty miles through the Indian and buffalo country, from Fort Ellsworth in Kansas, to Fort Wallace in Colorado. The hostile Indians broke up the express company by killing their employers, burning their property, and stealing their stock. The Major then went to Atchison, Kansas, in 1867, whither his father had gone some years before, and there engaged in farming for two years, near the suburbs of the city. In 1869 he returned to West Virginia and engaged in the Insurance business. Possessed of great energy he was not long building up a large and profitable busi- ness.
For a number of years Major Alderson's has been the leading insurance agency in West Virginia. He handles fire, marine,
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life, accident, and steam-boiler insurance. His agency compa- nies are of the highest standing and resources, and controls a number of the most extensive fire risks in the country. In the last year or two he has added real estate to his extensive insurance business. During the past six months he has bought and sold upwards of $200,000 worth of coal and timber lands along the Norfolk and Western Railroad in the extreme Southern part of the State. He is a man of broad views upon all living questions ; is honest, enterprising, liberal, generous. No man of his means is more charitable and kinder to those that need sympathy and assistance.
He married Miss Mary, a daughter of Ex-Gov. Samuel Price, of Virginia.
Major Alderson is a popular man, but he never had much to do with politics. He has been mentioned in connection with many important official positions, but private business is more in accord with his tastes and wishes, and he has accordingly de- clined everything like political advancement. He was a director of the West Virginia penitentiary during the administration of Governors Matthews and Jackson; and was a West Virginia Commissioner to the Ohio Valley Centennial at Cincinnati in 1888, and at the Centennial celebration of the inauguration of George Washington as the first President of the United States, at New York, April 17, 1889.
BENJAMIN HUDSON BUTCHER.
B ENJAMIN H. BUTCHER, perhaps the youngest member ever in the Legislature of West Virginia, was born at the old Butcher homestead, on the little Kanawha river in Wood county, Virginia, October 23, 1855. His father, Edwin S. Butcher, has served his county for many continuous years in re- sponsible positions of trust by election and otherwise, was the son of Thomas Butcher, of English ancestry, one of the pioneers of his section.
Benjamin Hudson received the benefit of the common schools in his district, attended the State Normal school at Fairmont, then went to Marietta College, Ohio, and in June, 1877, gradu- ated in law from Columbian University, Washington, D. C. Upon graduation he was admitted to the Bar in that city.
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HON. BENJAMIN BUTCHER.
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From September, 1877 to May 1880, he practiced law in Wood county, West Virginia. He was nominated by the Democratic party, and elected a member of the House of Delegates in the legislative session of 1878-9. His Republican opponent was ex- Governor William E. Stevenson, over whom he was elected by a fair majority.
In May, 1880, he removed to Colorado, where he still resides, and practices law as partner with Hon. David H. Leonard, and R. Heber Smith-all West Virginians. In his adopted State of Colorado, with rich minerals and grand mountains, he has served as a member of the House of Delegates, as State Senator, and as District Attorney of the Ninth Judicial district.
STARK WILLIAM ARNOLD.
HE above named minister and legislator was born Decem-
ber 20, 1851, in Beverley, Randolph county, Virginia. He entered public service at the age of fourteen as Page in the Interior Department at Washington, D. C., and by successive promotions was finally made Private Secretary under its head, Hon. Columbus Delano. While thus employed he studied law at night school in Columbian College, and graduated in the class of 1872, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He began practice in West Virginia in 1873, and was elected Prosecuting Attorney for Upshur county for four years from 1876, and then declared re-elected. In 1884 he was elected to the State Senate from the Tenth district, serving on various committees. He is author of the West Virginia Election Law as now amended and recorded in the "Revised Code," his amendment being known as the 'Sixty-feet Election Provision."
He entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and joined the West Virginia Conference in 1887, but took a local relation in order that he might fully qualify himself for his work. He accordingly entered Drew Theological Seminary, where he is now in the senior year. He was a good lawyer and his future as a minister of the work is full of promise.
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CHARLES FREDERICK ULRICH.
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R. C. F. ULRICH is a native of Saxony and was born Au- gust 28, 1827. He came to Wheeling, Virginia in 1837. He was graduated B. A. from Bethany College, Virginia, in 1646, and four years later received the Master's degree in cursu. After graduation he engaged in teaching, and from 1860 to 1864, was Adjunct Professor of Languages in the Kentucky Univer- sities, and in the meantime was a student of medicine; took the degree of M. D. from the University of Louisville in 1864. Im- mediately after his graduation he entered the United States Army as an Assistant Surgeon, and remained in the service un- til the close of hostilities. He returned to Louisville and began the practice of his profession, where he remained until 1875, when he removed to Wheeling, West Virginia, and has there con- ducted a remunerative practice ever since.
Dr. Ulrich is a man of unquestioned scholarship both in and outside his profession. Several valuable articles, in the line of his profession, appear in "Transactions of Medical Society of West Virginia." Notably, "Use of Forceps in Midwifery," in which branch of the profession he has acquired great skill. Also an able article on "Rheumatism-Acute Articular." In his calling he has been energetic and painstaking, and has been re- warded with success.
The Doctor has never aspired to public office. He, however, has served his party (Republican) in a number of responsible positions, viz: Member of Wheeling City Council in 1887 and 1888, from which body he resigned January, 1889; President of City Board of Health ; and in 1889 he was the Republican can- didate for Mayor of Wheeling. He was recently appointed Sur- geon of the Marine Hospital of Wheeling.
He is a member of the Medical Society of Wheeling and Ohio county, and has filled the positions of Secretary, Treasurer, and President of the same. He is also a member of the Medical So- ciety of West Virginia, in which he served one term as Vice President.
Dr. Ulrich married, in 1856, Miss Ellen Lacy, a daughter of John Lacy, Esq., of Christian county, Kentucky, by whom he had four children-three daughters and one son. One of the daughters is the wife of R. M. Gilliland, a leading business man of Wheeling; the other daughter is unmarried; the son is Su-
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THOMAS F. SNYDER.
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perintendent and General Engineer of the Irrigating Canal and Reservoir Company of Colorado.
The Doctor left Wheeling, June 15 last and made a tour through Germany, Switzerland and Italy. He took sick at Strasburg and had to relinquish further travel, returning home October 24 of same year.
THOMAS F. SNYDER.
HE State is indebted to the indomitable will, perseverance and professional tact of Major Snyder for one of the finest military schools in the State. He traveled throughout Southern West Virginia, and especially the section known as Kanawha Valley, enthusing the people and parents with the necessity of such an institution, and successfully, September 1, 1880, the Ka- nawha Military Institute opened under favorable auspices, with forty-five cadets enrolled, and began at Charteston what has since been a successful career. Its faculty, from the first, has been composed of Professors drawn from among the finest edu- cators in the country. Being chartered by the State with full University power, the Institute has held itself strictly up to that standard; and, as empowered to grant degrees, will continue to command professional respect. The Institute fits its cadets to take high standing in any first class college, or for practical life at once, having the happy combination of high military and mathematical training, with complete English and classical cul- ture. The literary genius of its cadets is stimulated and devel- oped by a well-governed Society, and expression afforded in its monthly journal, The Cadet.
Mr. Snyder was born in Charleston, Kanawha county, Vir- ginia, July 11, 1854, son of David H. and Mary Catherine (nee Fife) Snyder. After private school instruction, Thomas ,was sent to the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, and, being already well advanced, entered the third class, graduating July 4, '74. By the usual selection from his class he was appointed Commandant of Cadets at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, and immediately entered upon duty. After two years he re- signed to accept, in 1876, the offer of Commandant and Instruc- tor of Mathematics at Maryland Agricultural College, in Prince George's county, Maryland. He was Professor of Mathematics
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and Commandant of Cadets in the University of West Virginia at Morgantown during the scholastic year of 1878-9, and re- signed to labor for the creation of the Kanawha Military Insti- tute, which he still so successfully commands.
DAVID HALL SNYDER.
D AVID HALL SNYDER was born in Charleston, Kanawha county, Virginia, in February, 1825. His parents were Daniel and Rebecca (nee Christian) Snyder-he coming from Pennsylvania to settle in Kanawha county at an early day. He was postmaster at Charleston ten or twelve years before the war of '61-5 ; served in the Confederate Army on the staff of Gen. H. A. Wise, but on account of ill health resigned. He never recovered his health, and died in Charleston, August 19, 1866. He was a leading Odd Fellow in the State, and a man of extreme but unostentatious charity.
Mr. Snyder married, December 23, 1851, Mary, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca (nee Estil) Fife, who came from Augusta county, Virginia, and settled in Kanawha county, where she was born June 6, 1828. They had two sons-Thomas Fife, born July 11, 1854, and William F., born July 28, 1859. William F. is now a practicing physician at Huttonsville, Randolph county, West Virginia, and Thomas F. is present Commandant of the Kanawha Military Institute at Charleston, whose portrait accom- panies this sketch, as a mark of respect to one of the worthiest educational institutions of the State.
SYLVANUS WILSON HALL.
T HE records of the highest court of West Virginia, for its first twelve years, bear the above signature as that of Clerk. He proved to be a very genial, efficient and popular officer among judges and attorneys. He was born in Monongalia county, Vir- ginia, in that portion now Marion county, West Virginia, June 21, 1838. He began judicial clerical work May 1, 1860, in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court, at Fairmont, and so served until May 1, 1861, when on account of the war agitation nearly all public as well as private business was suspended, or partly disorganized. In December, 1862, under the restored
WEST VIRGINIA.
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S. W. HALL,
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government of Virginia, he was appointed Clerk of the District Court of Appeals, which held its sessions at Fairmont, and re- mained such until the formation of the State of West Virginia. He was assistant clerk of the convention which framed the first Constitution, and also served as assistant one session each of the House of Delegates and of the State Senate. Upon the organi- zation of the Supreme Court of Appeals he was made Clerk of that tribunal, and continued in office till August 1874, when he resigned. Was an alternate delegate to the National Republican Convention held in Chicago in 1880. He still resides in Fair- mont and is in the drug business.
FIELDING H. YOST.
c T T HE subject of this sketch, born August 4th, 1827, in Marion county, Virginia, near the town of Fairview. He was the youngest son of David Yost, whose ancestors came to Monon- galia county from the Shenandoah Valley in 1785. Having had good advantages of subscription schools, he attended Rector College, at Pruntytown, in 1846 and 1847; afterward read med- icine under his brother, and was the third of his family to adopt that profession. He graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, with distinction. He was tendered a pro- fessorship in a Georgia Medical College, but preferring the gen- eral practice at that time, he returned home and continued fore- most in liberal and progressive medicine in that section of the State.
He had always taken a prominent part in local public affairs as a gifted speaker and prominent debater. When the war broke out he served a part of 1861 on the side of Virginia's defense as surgeon in Lee's army and in charge of Confederate hospitals at Monterey, Virginia. In 1862 he returned home and resumed his private practice, then more urgent upon him. He located at Morgantown, where his reputation as a surgeon extended over a large territory. His health failing, he returned, in 1867, to his Marion county home, where he could live a more retired life. But his fame followed him, and he was called far and near in consultation.
Associated with his professional career his life was made con- spicuous by many acts of kindness and virtues, the upbuilding
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of morals and society, and especially extensive work in Sunday Schools, their associations and conventions.
His lamented death occurred in May, 1872, cut down in the prime of life from exposure and overwork in his profession, which resulted in paralysis of the throat and tongue, a charac- teristic disease of the family.
The interment was attended with rites of Masonry and other fraternities. Hundreds mourned the death of one who was their family physician and friend.
The father's mantle has fallen to the son, DeLaniel L. Yost, who, after graduating in the same school, continues the practice as the ninth physician of the family line, at the old home in Marion county.
CHARLES HILL.
HE Legislature of 1889 contains many youthful looking members. Among them, to the House, came from Fayette county, Charles Hill, who was born at Pond Gap, Kanawha county, Virginia, February 17, 1857. His father was Rev. Lo- renzo D. Hill, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his mother Mary E. Currence, of Randolph county. Receiving a common school education, at the age of seventeen entered the junior class of Marshall College, Huntington, and graduated therein with the class of 1876, taking the first honor. Next he taught in the public schools of Kanawha Valley from 1876 to 1882, and then entered the service of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway at Sewell Depot, in which service he still remains. In 1877, while teaching, he studied law under Thomas H. Harvey, now Judge, and was admitted in 1880. In the latter year he married Alice Withrow, of Coalburg. Believes in the principles of the Repub- lican party, and cast his first vote for Garfield. Fayette county voters endorsed him by sending him to the pending House, by a plurality of 800. He serves on the Committees of Elections and Privileges, Mines and Mining, Education, Buildings and Library, and of Forfeited and Unappropriated Lands.
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GUSTAV BROWN.
HON. A. B. PARSONS.
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GUSTAV BROWN.
HE subject of this sketch is one of the naturalized Germans who has made an honorable commercial record, as well as in municipal office in the United States. He was born in Bied- enkopf, Germany, September 1, 1837, but has lived in Charles- town, Jefferson county, twenty-two years, where he has estab- lished one of the largest bakeries and confectionery factories in the State, numbering influential dealers and citizens among his permanent customers from every part of that section. He was a member of the Charlestown City Council six years and also its Mayor. Mr. Brown is quite a prominent Mason, having held high offices in the Grand Lodge-Past Grand High Priest in 1883, Deputy Grand Master in 1888, and Grand Master in 1889. Also Grand Captain General of the Grand Commandery. He has filled every office in the subordinate order of Masonry. Such a record not only evidences high esteem for the best qualities of manhood, but entitles the man to a niche in the temple of history of Prominent Men of West Virginia.
ADONIJAH B. PARSONS.
B. PARSONS, who appears in this sketch, was born, July 6th, 1845, near St. George, in that part of Randolph county, Virginia, which is now Tucker county, West Virginia. The greater part of his education was received after the age of twenty-one years. In early life he was farmer and school teacher and student. In 1870 he began law reading, and was admitted to the Bar in 1872, at St. George, Tucker county, and there formed a professional partnership with T. A. Bradford, of Belmont. In 1876, as a Democrat, he was elected Prosecut- ing Attorney, and served four years. In 1880 he was largely in- strumental in abetting the organization of his party in the county, and in 1882 he was elected to the House of Delegates from the district of Randolph and Tucker, session of 1883, by sixty-eight majority, over three independent Democrats and one influential Republican. In that body he was a member of the committees of Judiciary, Railroad and chairman of that upon Claims and Grievances. He has held several minor and local offices, among which are County Surveyor, and Mayor of the town, discharging the duties with fidelity and satisfaction. He
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takes great interest in stock raising, fine horses, and agricultural pursuits, generally. As a land and criminal lawyer he is suc- cessful before courts and juries, and presents his arguments in the most favorable manner. He is on one side or the other in nearly every case docketed in his own and adja- cent counties. In the well known case of the State vs. Heath he was counsel for defendant and gained the suit, which was taken from Tucker to Taylor county ; also in the case of the State vs. Flanagan, which went up from the Circuit Court of Randolph to the State Supreme Court.
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