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 65
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PROMINENT MEN OF
taught School for two years, read law, followed surveying, and also engaged in merchandising, dealing in grain, feed and flour. He served also in 1887 as Justice of the Peace. He represented an intelligent constituency, as a member of the House of Dele- gates, sessions of 1881 and 1883, serving with fidelity upon several committees. His home is Wellsburg, Brooke county.
ISAAC LAFAYETTE ENOCH.
'HE subject of this sketch has filled every office in his county from Road Overseer to Legislator, and filled all creditably and satisfactorily, and has held office continually since he was twenty-one-a proof of the high estimation his fellow citizens have entertained of him as trustworthy and capable. He was born, in Virginia, September 20, 1831, in what was then Wood, but now Wirt county, and has always resided there, so popular in boyhood as he has been through his grown life, al- ways having warm friends of all political parties ; and they elected him successively County Assessor four terms, Justice of the Peace, Mayor of Elizabeth, the county seat, Councilman of the town, member and President of his district School Board, mem- ber of the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1872, again in 1875. He was a Notary Public for some years; was also ap- pointed to re-value the real estate of Wirt county at the last census.
It would seem his entire life has been spent in serving his fel- low-citizens in one capacity or another. Few men can boast a half century of universal popularity such as he has enjoyed. That he deserved it is evidenced by its continuance, and that, too, not among men of his own political creed, but everybody, of every class or party, liked the man. Amid all his public service, he has always conducted his farming operations successfully. And now, in the evening of his days, as age approaches he can look back upon a well spent life, utilized in the service of his State for the good of his people. Such men honor the com- monwealth, and West Virginia can point with pride to her many such sons. He is, withal, so very modest that it was dif- ficult to get from him date sufficient to make a sketch worthy the man. Friends and records, however, preserved his deeds, and to them we are indebted.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
S. H. CAMPBELL.
H. CAMPBELL was born, January 26, 1846, in Monroe , county, Virginia, but lived with his father on a farm in Mercer county, attending Winter school, until 1858, when his father's family returned to Monroe, when the lad continued his Winter school studies until the death of both his parents in 1861. In March, 1862, he went into the Confederate Eighth Virginia Regiment Cavalry, Company D, which company was soon after- wards transferred to the 17th Virginia Regiment. In 1864, at New Creek, his brother was mortally wounded, and while at- tending him both were taken prisoners; in a few days the brother died and our subject was taken to Camp Chase; was ex- changed in March, '65, and went home on a furlough. The sur- render of Lee closed the war, but left Campbell without means to further educate himself. He followed different avocations for a livelihood, moved to Boone county in 1866, farmed, taught school, and married there February 21, 1878. He was Justice of the Peace, and in '78 was elected from Boone county to the House of Delegates. Since 1882 he has made his home in Ka- nawha, with the Winifrede Coal Company.
JOHN WILLIAM ARBUCKLE.
ROM the Senatorial district of which Greenbrier county forms a part, was sent to the Legislature of 1889 the above named representative of a Democratic constituency. He was born on a farm two and one-half miles from historic Lewisburg, Virginia, April 26, 1850. His ancestors were Scotch-Irish. He remained on the farm with only the benefits of a common school education, until May, 1871. Then went to read law with Hon. W. Harris, at Lewisburg, and taught school during the winter a few years. He was licensed as an attorney in 1875, and still continues to practice at Lewisburg. Was elected Mayor of Lewisburg in April, 1874, and was continued in that office for eleven years. In 1888 he was elected to the State Senate. In the present session of his four years term, he is upon the Com- mittees of the Judiciary, Public Buildings and Humane Insti- tutions, Forfeited, Delinquent and Unappropriated Lands, and Public Library, and Roads and Navigation.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
J. W. GOSHORN.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
JAMES WILLIAM GOSHORN.
HE forefathers of J. W. Goshorn were Germans, who settled in Pennsylvania in 1695. His grandfather came to Charles- ton in 1828, where the subject of this sketch was born October 26, 1852. When a boy nine years old he was clerk on the Ka- nawha River steamboat Julia Moffitt when she was burned by the Confederates in 1861. He was the leader of a number of young men who left the Academy in Charleston in 1866, to at- tend the free schools first established after the war closed. Mr. Goshorn was trained for a Clerk, and followed that occupation in a store from 1870 to '78, and from 1878 to '84 on Kanawha
river steamboats. He is the present Clerk of the County Court of Kanawha county, elected for the years 1885 to 1891 inclusive. He has been a member of the Charleston City Council for the past eight years. In 1888 he was chairman of the National and State Excutive Committees of the National Union Labor party. Mr. Goshorn was married in 1866 to Miss Belle Oxley, of Wel- land county, Canada. In the clerical calling Mr. Goshorn stands among the best; in commercial circles he commands the high- est respect; as a citizen and official for his fellow-citizens his record is clear and creditable.
DARWIN MCCLELLAND.
D ARWIN MCCLELLAND, a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, was born February 28, 1852, and has been a resident of Virginia and West Virginia since 1860. He at- tended Mt. Vernon College, Stark county, Ohio, two years, after which he served three years learning the carpenter trade. In the spring of 1874 he associated with Dr. J. M. Cooper in the drug business in Wellsburg, Brooke county, West Virginia. He was elected County Commissioner for that county in 1882 ; and was elected Mayor of Wellsburg in 1885. He was chiefly the instrumentality in securing for Wellsburg its new water works, the most valuable improvement in the town. He has always been a public spirited citizen, always alive to his peoples' interests. He is president of the County Court and Mayor of the City of Wellsburg.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
MATHEW KINCAID HARROW.
HE third family that settled west of Muddy Creek Moun- tain, when all between there and the Ohio was Indian coun- try, was Charles Harrow, whose family with the other two had to spend their summers-when the Indians could travel-in the old Savannah fort, near where Lewisburg now stands, as a protection against their red enemies. Here his son, Charles Harrow, was born, and lived to 60, reared a family and died. He married Catherine Kincaid. Their son, M. K. Harrow, was born on the old homestead, May 26, 1825, educated slightly at the old fashioned log school houses, prepared himself for life's duties, and after becoming of age attended Lewisburg Academy a short while. He served the Union in an independent company as a scout in the New River Valley. After the war he engaged in farming, and in 1867 re-assessed the lands of Fayette county. In the fall of that year he was sent to the Legislature from Fayette county, and was also a member of the session of 1868. He is now keep- ing hotel at Fayette Station on the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail- road.
LEWIS HUGH EWART.
To EWIS H. EWART is a native of Ontario, Canada, hav- ing been born in Hamilton in September, 1842. He has been a resident of West Virginia, since 1861. As a patriotic citizen he served as a Union soldier under Capt. John H. Rossler, in company E, Thirteenth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry. During the terms of four different postmasters in Charleston, since the close of the war, he served as chief deputy. He was City Treasurer two terms, fulfilling the duties of that office- as he has of all public positions he has held-with credit to himself and eminent satisfaction to the people. Under Presi- dent Garfield's administration he was appointed Postmaster at Charleston, serving the full term of four years. In 1884 he was elected Sheriff of Kanawha county by 1,450 majority-the largest majority ever given to a Republican candidate in that county. He is leader of the best drilled band in the State, a fine cornet player, and musical composer. But few men are his equal as a musician.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
HENRY CLAY HYDE.
C T r HE subject of this sketch has spent his life in the place of his nativity, Cranesville, Preston county, Virginia, where he was born January 23, 1856. He attended the common schools of his county, until at the age of twelve he went West and herded cattle for his uncle two years, when he returned to West Virginia and began his apprenticeship as a printer in the Preston County Journal office. Before his term expired he was one of the editors, and at that time the youngest in the State- seventeen years old. In 1874-'75 he attended West Virginia College; in 1876 he was associate editor of the Herald of the same county; in 1877 he purchased that office and began the publication of the West Virginia Argus, which he disposed of in October, 1878, and began the study of law, and after nine months passed the requisite examination under Judges A. F. Haymond, A. B. Fleming and J. D. Armstrong. In 1880 he again became editor of the Argus; then, in 1882-3, edited and published the Piedmont Dispatch. Since November, 1883, he has been practicing law at Kingwood, Preston county, West Virginia. He is a bachelor.
HOLLY G. ARMSTRONG.
OLLY G. ARMSTRONG has been a lifelong resident of Jackson county, an influential citizen, occupying responsi- ble State and Federal positions. He was born at Jackson C. H., Virginia, May 12, 1852. He was a page in the Circuit Court at the age of twelve and thirteen. When not attending school, he clerked in his father's general store. After receiving a fair common school training, he attended the Ohio University at Athens, in 1872-3, and is a member of the Ohio Delta Thata College Fraternity. He read law a short time, but abandoned the intention and took up merchandizing. He married in 1875, and the following year began a ten-years service as a commer- cial salesman. He has been Deputy Clerk of Jackson Circuit and County Courts, Postmaster, and in 1885 was appointed Post Trader to the Crow Indians, but declined. Early in President Cleveland's administration he was Chief of the Stamp Division in the Internal Revenue Bureau at Washington, D. C., in which position he remained four years, rendering efficient and satisfac- tory service.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
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ALBERT G. LEONARD.
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907
WEST VIRGINIA.
ALBERT GALLATIN LEONARD.
NE of the oldest present living citizens of Parkersburg- one who has fully done his share in the moral as well as commercial development of that section-is A. G. Leonard, a native of Loudoun county, near Leesburg, Virginia, born Oc- tober 14, 1807, but removed to Parkersburg when quite young, leaving home at the age of sixteen. He first worked at the shoe business in Parkersburg with John Vaughn, then with Henry Logan, senior, for three years; went to Charleston and worked in the Kanawha Salines.
Mr. Leonard was married, October 6, 1831, to Miss Ann Ma- tilda Edelen, daughter of Robert Edelen, Esq., an old and highly respected family on Washington Bottom, Wood county, a few miles below Parkersburg. She died the 31st day of that same month, of congestive fever. His second wife was Miss Eliza- beth Annie Shaw, of New York, to whom he was married May 19, 1841. She too was taken from him by relentless death, March 17, 1886. Mr. Leonard now resides with his married daughter, Mrs. Emma G. Dudley, near Parkersburg.
In 1837 he commenced merchandising in Parkersburg and continued it up to March, 1861. In that year, under Secretary Chase, he was in U. S. Government employ to prevent supplies for the Confederates going from the Ohio river through the lines. In 1862 he was commissioned Assessor of the Second District of Virginia, serving until 1865. At the close of the war he was appointed Assessor of and organized the Third West Virginia District. He was afterwards appointed Assessor of the First District and served until 1869, when he resumed merchandising and continued it until 1883, when he retired from active business to settle up his affairs. He has succeeded satisfactorily in this and has paid up the last of his own and security debts.
Mr. Leonard was among the first to join the Presbyterian Church at Parkersburg at its organization in 1833. To his pious, exemplary life, his Christian labor and zeal, and his official services that denomination owes the successful career of their church and Sunday School. He has been a ruling elder since 1847, and a teacher and superintendent of its school many years, and also attended several meetings of its General Assemblies as delegate and representative.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
WILLIAM FISHER.
W ILLIAM FISHER, represented the district of Hardy and Grant counties in the West Virginia Legislature in 1872, and Hardy county in the sessions of 1872-3, and 1881-2. He was born in Hardy county, Virginia, February 24, 1823, and raised on a farm near Moorefield, his father being a farmer. The boy attended school during the winter sessions only, work- ing on the farm during summer, until the age of twenty-one. In 1858 he was appointed Deputy Sheriff of Hardy, served until January, 1861, and was then elected to the same office, but the war operations in the county allowed but little business, only, as he says, to get into trouble. In 1866 he was again appointed Sheriff of Hardy county, served two years and resigned. He then settled himself on a farm near Moorefield and has since fol- lowed the various pursuits of agriculture.
CHARLES WALKER FERGUSON.
HARLES W. FERGUSON was born in Cabell county, now Wayne, April 25, 1829, and that is still his home. Af- ter attending common school, and at seventeen a while at board- ing school, where he studied surveying, he became deputy sur- veyor of Wayne and for four years assisted in locating most of the vacant lands in the upper end of the county. From 1853 to '58 he followed merchandizing at Wayne C. H., then went to farming exclusively until 1872, when he again became a mer- chant and also engaged in the saw and grist mill business. He was a member of the Constutional Convention of 1872; also represented his county in the Legislature in 1885 and 1887. He is claimed by his friends to be "a Democrat who never kicked."
HENRY A. ALTIZER.
D ELEGATE H. A. Altizer was born in Montgomery county, Virginia, December 11, 1852, and has lived in West Vir- ginia ten years. His early educational facilities were limited, but his own zeal and ambition led him to build upon the slen- der base by close observation and study after becoming of age. About nine months in the common schools and a short time at the normal was all he had enjoyed when the war of the rebel-
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WEST VIRGINIA.
lion put an end to his tuition. He was his own tutor after- wards, and acquired besides a practical business education. In 1880 he commenced a general office business, embracing Notary Public and real estate transactions, at Arnoldsburg, and also engaged in agricultural pursuits. All of which he still contin- ues successfully. Appreciating his practical intelligence, his sturdy common sense, his keen discernment and knowledge of the people's wants, and withal his solid honesty and zeal, his fellow-citizens elected him, as a Democrat, to the House of Delegates of 1889, by a majority of 480, in which election he ran 309 votes ahead of his party ticket. In this session he was on the Committee on Claims and Grievances and the Peniten- tiary committee. Mr. Altizer introduced this session House bill 11, increasing the State school levy from ten cents on the hundred dollars to 15 cents. It had been before every Legisla- ture for ten years, and always defeated by the wealthier counties. In a two-column article, the Wheeling Register compliments Mr. Altizer for his " gilt-edged canvass," his generalship in marshal- ing the interior delegates in solid phalanx. After a long and spirited debate, the bill passed.
ULYSSES S. FLEMING.
HE parents of U. S. Fleming lived on a farm and the lad's early years were spent in that work. His father's numer- ous contracts led the son to digging coal, quarrying lime, car- pentering, and stonemasonry. Having received a fair educa- tion, at seventeen he began teaching, and has continued in that profession, except when attending college, or normal and com- mercial colleges, from both of which latter he graduated. After teaching and as principal in various institutions, he was made Superintendent of the Grafton public Schools in 1884, and con- tinues such. He has filled the secretaryship of the State Edu- cational Association and Sabbath School Association and of the West Virginia Methodist Lay Electoral Conference. He has been conductor of Teachers' Institutes in the State since 1878. He was born August 20, 1851, near Fairmont, Marion county, and in October, 1879, married Miss Ella M. Havener, of Beverly, Randolph county, West Virginia.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
GERARD MORGAN BLUME.
PHILIP BLUME, of New Market, Virginia, and Elizabeth (nee Smith Blume, were the parents of G. M. Blume, whose portrait accompanies this sketch. He was born in Woodstock, Shenandoah county, Virginia, December 10, 1828, educated in the common schools, removed to West Virginia in 1848, and has since been one of its energetic public spirited citizens, ever watchful and active in every movement for the development of the untold wealth of the new and growing State. He has been a merchant in Fayette county for many years, meeting with such success that his fellow citizens demanded his abilities for their service. He was appointed Clerk of the Fayette Circuit Court in 1865; appointed Recorder for the same county, July, 1865, and was then elected County Clerk and County Recorder for Fayette, and continued to fill those positions up to 1879. He is now merchandizing at Fayette Station on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, in Fayette county. But his principal occu- pation is his mining interests. He is owner of the land and a partner in the Fayette Coal and Coke Company, whose mines near Fayette Station, are constantly and profitably employed, yielding an output of 250 tons per day. The property is con- sidered one of the most valuable in that rapidly developing section.
PATRICK JOSEPH CROGAN.
P. J. CROGAN was born June 17, 1856, near Newburg, . Preston county, Virginia, where he has continued to re- side. He began the profession of teaching at the age of seven- teen, and taught seven terms of public school, two as principal of Independence, Preston county, school, and one as principal at Newburg, the latter being, in 1879-'80, the best he ever taught. He studied law under Hon. John W. Mason, of Grafton, was admitted to practice in April, 1881, and has followed it since November of that year, at Kingwood, Preston county. He was the Democratic Congressional Elector from the Second District for the Cleveland and Thurman ticket in 1888, and is a valuable member of his party, a successful practitioner, popular with brother lawyers, and enjoys the confidence and trust of his clients and acquaintances generally.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
GERARD M. BLUME.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
LORENZO D. CHAMBERS.
D. CHAMBERS was born in Logan county, when it was part of the Old Dominion, December 23, 1827, where he has spent his entire life. His boyhood was spent on the farm with his father, enjoying his leisure time in hunting and fishing He is still a farmer, but also engaged in the lumber business. He was Captain in the late Confederate army, serving through- out the war. He was Justice of the Peace in Logan county in 1876, and by that court made President to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Col. Morgan in 1877. The people elected him President of the County Court in 1880, but the amendment to the State Constitution abolished that office. In 1881 the Judge of the Circuit Court appointed him Commis- sioner of School Lands. In 1881 he was elected by the Demo- crats a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates.
NICHOLAS CASTO.
J ACKSON county was organized from a part of Mason county, but before that occurrence, October 19, 1825, the subject of this sketch was born in that portion of Mason which became Jackson county, and has spent his lifetime there. Raised a poor boy, on a farm in a wild undeveloped country, his educational facilities were necessarily limited; but by dint of persevering application he succeeded in acquiring a fair com- mon education. At the age of sixteen the lad became a mem- ber of the Methodist church, in which he remains and is a local minister. At the age of twenty he married Miss Talitha Casto, and with her he spent the early portion of his manhood as a farmer, at the same time giving interested attention to county and state affairs. In January, 1864, he was elected a member of the Board of Supervisors of Jackson county, and in organ- izing they chose him president, which office he filled until June 20, 1865. He was elected to represent Jackson county in the West Virginia House of Delegates and served in that body during the session of 1865, always using his talents and influ- ence for Union principles and measures. He has since filled various offices in his county, being at one time clerk of the township, at another secretary of the Board of Education, etc., etc. He is at present following agricultural pursuits, but con- tinues his interest in public affairs.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
Mr. Casto is of rather a poetic turn of mind, and has pub- lished some very commendable pieces; among others, in 1865, he published a hymn-book entitled the Social Songster, which became a popular favorite and found ready sale. Most of the hymns it contained were of his own composition. The book ran through two editions. Of course, most of his poetic con- tributions to the pleasure of the literary world have been of a sacred character. He is one of the solid and most respected citizens of Jackson county, having enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his people through a lifetime, in public service and in private life.
ALEXANDER W. HAMILTON.
THE grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Col. Thomas B. Hamilton, came to Fayette county from Bath county, Virginia, in 1830, and was the first circuit court clerk of the county. His son was James B. Hamilton, who died in 1864, and was the father of Alexander B. Hamilton. The boy had only the advantage of a free school to secure his education, but he so utilized that limited opportunity, and added thereto by self endeavor as to fit himself for usefulness as a citizen and as a man. He clerked in a store from 1871 to '77; engaged in farming from 1878 to '80; was coal weigher and shipping clerk from 1881 to '85. He has been the efficient clerk of the Circuit Court of Fayette county since January 1, 1885.
H. C. HENDERSON:
W TEST VIRGINIA farmers living in the requisite localities early recognized the fact that "scrubby stock" was un- profitable; and hence in such favorable sections the grade is high. H. C. Henderson was one of the class alluded to, and brought to his farm a mind cultivated by collegiate training, proving that the better educated the man the better the farmer. H. C. Henderson was born in Wood county, Virginia, Septem- ber 24, 1845, was reared on a farm, attended Marietta College, Ohio, entered Dartmouth College in 1863 and graduated in 1867. He has since been engaged successfully in breeding and raising fine stock and farming, on his plantation in Wood county. He represented Wood and Pleasants counties in the West Vir- ginia House of Delegates in the session of 1876.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
ALF. W. BURNETT,
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WEST VIRGINIA.
ALF. W. BURNETT.
IN 1829 William P. Burnett came to America from county Tyrone, Ireland, settled in Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, and there married Phoebe A. McBride, a native of New Jersey, of Yankee descent. Both are still living at Olathe, Kansas, where they are enjoying a competency amassed by industry and economy. He has the Irish characteristics of dauntless courage and persevering pursuit of chosen objects. His wife is a typical Yankee; and the traits of both people seem to have developed in their son, the subject of this sketch. Their children are James L., Silvia V., Mary Eva, all members, with their parents, of the United Presbyterian Church ; and Alpheus Wick ("Alf") is a member of the M. E. Church. The family's christian life is answer to the ignorant assertion that "detectives must be con- scienceless men." I
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