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 64
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Senator Knott is Master of the West Virginia State Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, having been elected in December, 1888, for the term of two years.
886
PROMINENT MEN OF
SAMUEL AUGUSTUS KEPNER.
S. A. KEPNER was born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, . November 19, 1843; was graduated from West Branch High School of Jersey Shore in 1859 ; learned the printer's trade in early life; went to Alabama in 1866, and remained one year ; then came to Wheeling, West Virginia ; worked in both Register and Intelligencer offices, and in May, 1873, became foreman of the former, and is still in that position. He was a soldier in Company "G," Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Regiment during the late war, and was discharged from the service in June, 1864. He was elected by the Democrats and Greenbackers to the Leg- islature of West Virginia in 1880, and labored earnestly therein for the advancement of the cause of labor. He married Oella Porter, daughter of W. S. Buchanan, of Wheeling, by whom he has three children, a son and two daughters. In 1885 he was appointed a Regent of the State Normal Schools, but declined to accept the position.
JOHN O. PENDLETON.
H ON. JOHN O. PENDLETON, son of the late Hon. Joseph H. Pendleton, in his day a most distinguished attorney of the Pan Handle section, was born at Wellsburg, Brooke county, Virginia, July 4, 1851. When but one month old his parents moved with him to Wheeling, where he has ever since resided. His education was principally obtained at Aspen Hill Academy, Louisa county, where he attended from October, 1865, to Octo- ber, 1869, and at Bethany College, where he was a student dur- ing the sessions of 1869 and 1870. He, however, has always been a student, and has devoted much time to reading and study.
Mr. Pendleton studied law in the office of his father in Wheel- ing, and was admitted to practice in the courts of West Virginia in April, 1874, and has maintained an uninterrupted practice ever since. For a number of years he has taken an active part in politics as a Democratic worker and organizer, and is held in high esteem by his party friends and supporters. The first po- sition of prominence to which he was nominated was that of a Senatorial candidate from the First district to the Legislature of West Virginia, in 1886. In this contest he was defeated by the Hon. N. B. Scott, Republican. His next race before the
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WEST VIRGINIA.
people was as the Democratic candidate for Congress from the First West Virginia district in the campaign of 1888. He made an energetic and able canvass, and although the vote was very close, he was awarded the certificate of election by Governor E. W. Wilson, and accordingly held the position as such Repre- sentative until February, 1890, when Congress upon contest, awarded the seat to his Republican competitor.
He is of medium stature, is closely shaven, and is quite young in appearance. He has never married.
SAMUEL ROMULUS DAWSON.
P RESIDENT LINCOLN appointed as Collector of Internal Revenue for the Second West Virginia District, in Novem- ber, 1864, the above named gentleman. He was born June 29, 1824, near Cumberland, Maryland. He left home at sixteen, and entered a dry goods store in Romney, Virginia. After a few years he located in Fairmont, remaining in business there till 1847, when he entered the ministry of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, Pittsburgh Conference. He was pastor of Fourth Street and Chapline Street M. E. Churches of Wheeling and also stationed at Clarksburg, Weston and Parkersburg. He is at present on the non-effective list in the West Virginia Con- · ference. Resided in Ritchie county, at Pennsboro, since 1860. Represented that county in the first and second sessions of the Legislature, serving on the Committee on Education in both, and took a leading part in the establishment of the public school system of West Virginia.
He was Collector of U. S. Internal Revenue until President Johnson's circular was issued. From 1868 to 1875 he was a committee clerk in the U. S. Senate; from 1876 to 1880 Presi- dent of the Ritchie County Court. Under Governor A. I. Boreman he was Private Secretary. In his military record he was commissioned Captain of Militia in 1846 by Governor Wm. Smith of Virginia; member of the famous Legislative Rifle Company under LeRoy Kramer, who went into the Northern Pan-Handle after Morgan's forces; and appointed by Judge Jackson as Commissioner to settle claims of those who suffered by the war of rebellion. Mr. Dawson is at present a real estate dealer and stock raiser.
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888
PROMINENT MEN OF
ALITTLE.
M. A. MANNING.
889
WEST VIRGINIA.
MATTHEW ANDREA MANNING.
N the county of Roscommon, Ireland, was born, May 4th, 1847, the subject of this sketch, now a citizen of Talcott, West Virginia. From the Emerald Isle, in 1852, when but five years old, he came over the deep blue ocean, with his mother, to the shores of America, and settled at Nicholas C. H., Virginia.
He received a common school education, and, with true mater- nal wit in after years made the most of his opportunities. In 1862, at the age of fourteen, he enlisted as a private soldier in Com- pany D, Twenty-fifth regiment, army of Northern Virginia. At the battle of Spottsylvania C. H., May 12, 1864, he was cap- tured and confined in the Federal prisons of Point Lookout, Maryland, and Elmira, New York, until the close of the conflict. For the next four years after release he was clerk in the store of Robert Scott, at Birch river, Nicholas county, West Virginia. In 1870 he moved to Monroe, now Summers county, and became partner with the late T. F. Parke in mercantile business. Sub- sequently he purchased the interest of his partner, and continued business in his own name.
August 3d, 1876, he married the daughter of the late C. I. Campbell, of Monroe county.
In 1878 he was appointed Index clerk in the Secretary's of- fice of the United States Senate, that body then being in the control of the Democratic party. In this capacity he served two years. He was then chosen a member of the County Court of Summers, serving six years. He has been Justice of the Peace and Postmaster of Talcott. Governor Wilson, in 1886 appointed him Fish Commissioner for the Third Congressional district, which duty he resigned March 8, 1887, to receive from President Cleveland, the appointment of Chief of the Mail Di- vision in the Bureau of Pensions at Washington. This respon- sible position he efficiently and popularly filled till the 10th of March, 1889, when he resigned, returned to his adopted State and opened out a real estate office, while engaged in a super- vising way in his favorite pursuit of farming.
He has always taken an active part in politics, is Chairman of the Senatorial Executive Committee for the Eighth district and a member of the State Executive Committee of his party ; is affable, warm-hearted, energetic, and one of the most promi- nent public men of his section.
890
PROMINENT MEN OF
WILLIAM MYLES.
T HE strength and security of this Republic is undoubtedly in the hands of those who labor, and so undoubtedly the wage-worker makes the most trusted official and safest legisla- tor. The law is for the masses, and men from the ranks of the masses should make the law. The difficulty too generally is, that few men are found in that class who will, or can fit them- selves for such duties. But there are exceptions-men who utilize their time, and in those hours commonly called "leisure hours" are preparing themselves for honorable useful positions.
William Myles has proven himself one of these determined men of sterling worth, of native talent, selected by his apprecia- tive fellow citizens from among the laboring masses for honor- able trusts, and his public record proves they were not deceived. He was born in County Cork, Ireland, June 10, 1835, and at the age of fifteen, in 1850, came to America. ' He was no excep- tion to the meagre advantages of many poor Irish boys, but he made good use of what advantages he had. Landing at New Orleans in November of that year, he went direct to Wheeling and secured work on the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, then being built; after its completion, in 1852, he went to work on the Central Ohio railroad, and at the age of eighteen was employed in a quarry; and when that work was completed he went to work in the rolling mills of Wheeling-in all but one of which he has been a laborer, either as a puddler or in some other capacity.
His evenings and nights were spent in improving his mind and in learning the Daguerrean business, and later the Art of Photo- graphy, having made Chemistry as far as it pertained to that business a specialty, and in which he became decidedly pro- ficient. In August, 1889, he closed his photographic depart- ment, and was succeeded by his son, John W., a pupil of the celebrated Artist, Fillipo Castaggine, now of Washington, D. C.
In the midst of his busy life Mr. Myles has found time to serve his people as a member of the City Council of Wheeling, in one or the other branch, fourteen years ; on the Board of Commis- sioners for three years, the last year as President ; as Assessor from 1879 to 1881; as a member of the West Virginia Legisla- ture in the session of 1885, and now since February, 1889, as City Collector. In all these positions he has proved himself an efficient and valuable public servant.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
Mr. Myles married in 1854, a Miss Daly, a native also of Ire- land, and to them were born three children, all of whom died except the artist son, John W., who is occupying the old gallery as his studio, devoting his whole time and attention to his, favorite employment-portrait painting-and he is rated as a first class artist, his productions being commended by the most critical judges and connoisseurs of the country.
EDWARD ROBERTSON.
€ DWARD ROBERTSON, a twin brother of Richard Rob- ertson, was born at Hagerstown, Maryland, November 7, 1845. He was educated in the public schools of Wheeling, Vir- ginia-having moved to that city with his father's family in 1849. He learned the printing business in the office of the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer. Before his apprenticeship was completed he enlisted in Company "G," Fifth Illinois Cavalry, but had served as orderly for Captain Harrison, of Iowa, Super- intendent of Corrals, at Johnsonville, Tennessee, for one year before his enlistment. He was on duty with General Custer's command along the Mexican border after the close of the war. He then returned to Wheeling and completed his trade as a printer in the Intelligencer office. For several years he worked as a typographer, and in 1881 opened a job printing office on his own account in the city of Wheeling, which business he continued successfully until he was made Superintendent of the West Virginia Penitentiary in 1887.
Mr. Robertson's first political office was a member of the House of Delegates of West Virginia, to which position he was elected by a combination of Democratic and Labor tickets in Ohio county in the campaign of 1882. In 1885 he was re-elected to the same position as a Democrat. In January, 1887, he was elected a member of the Council of Wheeling; and in April of that year he was appointed Superintendent of the West Virginia Penitentiary at Moundsville. He resigned, after two years ser- vice, to accept the position of State Commissioner of Labor, which office he is now filling satisfactorily and successfully.
He has for years taken a leading and enthusiastic part in labor movements; is a member of the Knights of Labor, and represented the General Assembly at Indianapolis in 1888. His brother Richard, almost identically like him in appearance, is also a printer and publisher, and a leader in labor circles.
892
PROMINENT MEN OF
MARION GWINN.
H [ON. MARION GWINN was born, November 5, 1834, on a farm near Green Sulphur Springs, Virginia. His educa- tion was received in the common schools. He began mercantile life in 1858, and has made that and farming his main employ- ment since. In 1861 he entered the Confederate army and served as a non-commissioned officer to the close of the war. He was clerk of the Board of Supervisors of Summers county for two years, and has held the office of Justice of the Peace, for eighteen years, from 1870 to 1889. In the legislative session of 1872-3 he was a member of the House of Delegates. From the Eighth district, composed of the counties of Pocahontas, Green- brier, Monroe, Summers and Fayette, he served as State Senator in the sessions of 1885-7, and was upon the Committees of Privi- leges and Elections, Counties and Municipal Corporations, Penitentiary, Mines and Mining, Education, Roads and Naviga- tion, and Public Buildings and Humane Institutions.
JOHN ARMSTEAD ROBINSON.
THE special Agent for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, at Patterson's Creek, Mineral county, West Virginia, bears the name above. He was born near Prunty- town, Virginia, then Harrison, now Taylor county, November 18, 1830. His parents were natives of America but of English ancestry. He was educated, after receiving the benefit of common schools, at Rector College, under the principalship of Rev. Dr. Wheeler. His inclination and adaptiveness seemed ever to point into business channels, and yet he has been thrust by elections into public life. From 1852 to 1861 he was en- gaged in merchandizing at Fetterman, and was postmaster the last five years of this period. The excitement and paralytic hand of civil war disturbed his mercantile life, and in May he entered the army of the Confederacy, and served therein till the surrender ended the conflict. During his military career he was made Captain of Company A, Twenty-fifth regiment of Virginia Infantry, and afterwards, for meritorious services, promoted to the Colonelcy of the Regiment. While attached to the military ser- vice he also acted in the Legislative department of his State, and was a member of the General Assembly of Virginia, during the
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WEST VIRGINIA.
sessions of 1863-'4 and '5. The war ended, military and legis- lative duties both ceased, and he located at Patterson's Creek then in Hampshire county, and renewed the vocation of depot agent, farming and merchant. In 1872, the people of Mineral wanted a representative in the Constitutional Convention and he was selected for his integrity, general experience and practical competency to discharge the duties. In that working assembly which met in the old M. E. Church building in Charleston, he served as member of the Committee on Executive Officers, to shape and recommend the sections pertaining to this branch of State Government. That year he was appointed a member of the Board of Regents of the State University, and their Presi- * dent, and since June, 1886, Chairman of the Executive Commit- tee. In these years he has served the cause of education well, evidenced by his retention in executive position. In 1877 he was a member of the House of Delegates, and Chairman of the Committees of Privileges and Elections, and member of that of Military Affairs, and of the Joint Committee to Investigate Charges Against the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, for tariff discrimination.
WINDFIELD SCOTT MEREDITH.
W S. MEREDITH was born in the county where his life has been spent, August 13, 1855, and lived on his father's farm until he was eighteen years of age. After acquiring a good common school education he began as teacher in Harrison county winter schools, and still a student himself during sum- mer. He taught in the Fairmont State Normal in 1878-'79, was principal of Mannington graded schools in 1879-'80 and of Palatine in 1880-'81. Mr. Meredith spent his vacation of 1880 in the West, returning in time to take an active part in the political campaign of that fall, taking "the stump" for the Re- publican ticket. Having duly prepared himself he was admit- ted to the practice of law in 1881, and has since then continued active in the profession. He was elected, as a Republican, Prosecuting Attorney for Marion county in 1882 for an unex- pired term, and re-elected for four years in 1884, serving in all six years. He had attained prominence as an educator of great promise; but prefers to devote his talents to the legal profession, of which he is a rising member.
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894
PROMINENT MEN OF
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MAJOR ALEX. T. LAIDLEY.
895
WEST VIRGINIA.
ALEXANDER THOMAS LAIDLEY.
LEXANDER T. LAIDLEY was born, April 14, 1807, at Morgantown, Virginia. At the age of thirteen, he moved O to Cabell county where he remained until 1824, when he re- moved to Kanawha county and entered the clerk's office as a Deputy under his uncle, the late Alexander W. Quarrier. He remained in the clerk's office for six years, and then entered the mercantile business as a book-keeper in Malden, where he con- tinued for two years. He then went to Wheeling and clerked in a store for a year, and in 1832 he became a Deputy in the Circuit Clerk's office. In 1838 he was appointed Clerk of the Circuit Court of Ohio county, and remained in that position for fourteen years. He returned to Kanawha county in 1854, and , has resided in Charleston to the present time. For many years he held the position of Master Commissioner in Chancery in Kanawha county. In all the positions Mr. Laidley has ever filled, he was efficient, courteous and successful. He was twice married. By his first wife, a Miss Blaine, who was a cousin of the Hon. James G. Blaine, he had one child, the late Cap- tain Richard Q. Laidley, who died in Charleston in Feb- ruary. 1873. His second wife was Miss Rena McFarland, a daughter of the late James C. McFarland, of Kanawha. He had no children by his second wife. Mr. Laidley is esteemed throughout the Kanawha valley as a man of high personal character, and as an intelligent influential citizen. For more than a half century he has been a leading member of the Protes- tant Episcopal Church.
JAMES ELWOOD HUGHES.
T HOUGH yet comparatively a young man, J. E. Hughes is one of the best known and most successful business men of Wheeling. He is the second son of James C. Hughes, and was born in Fulton county, Pennsylvania, in 1845. He came to Wheeling in 1867 and engaged as a collector for the firm of Thomas Hughes & Co., of which he is now the principal partner. After traveling two years as a salesman he was admitted into the firm. Their establishment is by far the largest of its kind in Wheeling. Mr. Hughes has long been an influential member of the M. E. Church, and is active in every movement for the
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PROMINENT MEN OF
advancement of the interests of his adopted city. He is re- garded among all who know him as an honest, upright, consci- entious Christian gentleman.
Mr. Hughes has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Mollie R. Bishop, daughter of the late John Bishop, to whom he was wedded January 9, 1873. She lived but a year after her marriage, leaving one child who died two years subsequently. On February 2, 1876, Mr. Hughes was married to Miss Anna B. Williams, daughter of Samuel Williams, of Rainsburg, Bed- ford county, Pennsylvania, by whom he has had four children, two daughters and two sons.
GEORGE W. IMBODEN.
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N Augusta county, Virginia, June 25th, 1836, was born the above named soldier and legislator. He studied law and was admitted to the Bar in 1857. He wedded Mary F., only daugh- ter of Col. W. Tyree, of Fayette county, December 9, 1859; practiced law in Staunton until the war between the States; en- tered the military service of Virginia on the 17th of April, 1861, as First Sergeant Staunton Artillery ; was elected Junior Second Lieutenant, at Harper's Ferry, May 6 and Second Lieutenant in November, 1861. He left the artillery at the reorganization in May, 1862, and was commissioned Captain Co. A, First Reg- iment Partisan Rangers by the Secretary of War of C. S. A .; was elected Major of the Sixty-second Regiment Virginia In- fantry on the 15th of September, 1862, and Colonel of the Eighteenth Virginia Cavalry on the 15th of December, and commanded the regiment until the close of the war in April, 1865, in the Army of Northern Virginia, under Generals Joseph E. Johnston, "Stonewall" Jackson, and Robert E. Lee. He
was twice wounded in battle; was in 1872 made a member of the Democratic State Executive Committee and also a delegate from the Third Congressional district to the party National Convention held in Baltimore, which nominated Horace Greeley for President. He represented Fayette county in the Legisla- ture of 1877, and was President of the County Court from Jan- uary, 1881, to January, 1885. He resides at Ansted and prac- tices law.
897
WEST VIRGINIA.
LOUIS FREDERICK STIFEL.
Le F. STIFEL, son of C. E. Stifel was born in Wheeling, , Virginia, October 9, 1851. The father, a native of Wur- temberg, Germany, came to this county in early life, and is now, as he has been for years, one of the prominent business men of Wheeling. He married Anna Clara Becht in Wheeling in 1839. She was also a' native of Germany. The son was edu- cated in the Wheeling Public Schools. He attended law lec- tures at the Michigan University, graduating in 1877. In April of that year he was admitted to the Wheeling Bar, and has since practiced his chosen profession without intermission.
Mr. Stifel is a man of untiring industry, and has succeeded in building up a paying clientage. He has been twice elected to the West Virginia Legislature-the first time he was a dele- gate from Ohio county in 1883, serving on the Judiciary Com- mittee, and taking an active part in legislation. Against his wishes he was again elected to the House of Delegates in 1888, and is now serving an adjoining constituency in shaping the laws for their guidance. He has always been an active member of the Democratic party.
November 26, 1878, Mr. Stifel married Miss M. Eliza, daugh- ter of the late John Oesterling, for many years the President and leading spirit in the Central Glass Company, of Wheeling, one of the largest establishments of the kind in the world.
JOHN COLLINS COVELL.
HE late principal of the West Virginia Institution for the c
Deaf, Dumb and Blind in 1884, was Professor J. C. Covell, who was born in Newport, Rhode Island, December 19, 1823. His childhood home was Princess Ann, Maryland, and he re- ceived eight years education in the common schools and an academy in Connecticut; spent three years as clerk in a store, and four years at Trinity College, Hartford, where he was grad- uated in 1847. In September of that year he located at Staunton, Virginia, and became teacher and vice-principal of the Institu- tion for Deaf Mutes and the Blind, serving fifteen years, then promoted to principal and held the position nine years. From thence, in August, 1874, he removed and was afterwards invited to supervision of the similar school in West Virginia. He died June 4, 1887, at Romney, W. Va.
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898
PROMINENT MEN OF
HON. WILLIAM G. WORLEY.
899
WEST VIRGINIA.
WILLIAM GORDON WORLEY.
ACING this sketch is the portrait of Hon. W. G. Worley, the junior State Senator who represents the intelligent people of Monongalia and Preston counties. He is a Republi- can in politics, a Presbyterian in religious faith, and a lawyer by profession. He was born, August 1, 1846, in Greene county, Pennsylvania, graduated at the Waynesburg college in 1872, and afterwards taught school. He emigrated to West Virginia, read law with Berkshire & Sturgiss at Morgantown, the Athens of the State and was admitted to the Bar of Preston county, Sep- tember 7, 1874. In 1876 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Preston and served several years with ability and impartiality. In November, 1888 he was elected to .the dignified chamber of the Law Makers, and will there continue to reflect the views of his constituency, if he lives, through the session of 1889 and 1891. He is appropriately Chairman of the Senate Committee on Immigration and Agriculture, as he is popular among the successful farmers of his section, and is able to advocate their interests in legislation. He is also upon the Committees of Judiciary, Education, Public Buildings and Humane Institu- tions, to examine Clerk's Office, and of the Joint Committee on Enrolled Bills.
Senator Worley is financially interested in the Narrow Gauge Railway which connects Kingwood with the commercial world through the Baltimore and Ohio line. He is public spirited and ever ready to aid and assist in the development of the resources of his county, and of the entire State. He is one of the most ap- proachable members of the Senate, easy in manners, candid and clear in his judgment, and has the promise of an honorable and influential future. During the deadlock in the organization of the Senate, in January last he was prominently voted for to be the President thereof. His residence is at Kingwood.
GEORGE W. McCORD.
EORGE W. McCORD, who is a graduate of the celebrated College at Bethany, was born in Brooke county, Virginia, December 17, 1854. He was raised upon a farm, but enjoyed the advantage of good common schools. He attended the col- lege named above, and was an alumni of the class of 1876;
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