USA > West Virginia > Barbour County > The history of Barbour County, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time > Part 50
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born in the same county in 1812 and was a son of William Wentz, whose father was William and grandfather Warren Wentz, who came to this country from Germany in 1774. He had served seven years in the German army and served seven years in the American army: Lucy Catherine Har- ris was a daughter of David Harris and was born in 1840. The majority of her relatives live in and around Richmond, Virginia. John' Wentz was a pronounced Abolitionist and five of his sons fought for the Union in the Civil War. They were William, Henry, James, David and John. Of these William was killed in battle during the Lynchburg Raid.
WILLIAM WOODFORD, son of General. William Woodford, was the first of the name to settle in what is now Barbour County. He came from Rockingham County, Virginia, in 1804, and his family, some of whom were born before he came, consisted of five children. General Woodford, the father of the subject of this sketch, was an Englishman who married a daughter of SirWilliam, afterwards General Howe. The marriage was opposed by the lady's father, and Colonel Woodford left England with his wife and came to America, and made his home in Shenandoah Valley. He was one of the earliest to take up arms against the British in the cause of inde- pendence, and on December 9, 1776, he defeated the British under Captain Fordyce at Great Bridge. His father-in-law, General William Howe, was commander-in-chief of the British army in America from 1775 to 1778. William Woodford, the pioneer in Barbour, was an only son, but had seven sisters. He married Hannah Moss and settled on Bull Pasture River, now in Highland County, Virginia. He was the ancestor of all the Woodfords in Barbour and adjoining counties, and his descendants, both those by the name of Woodford and those who have intermarried with other families and bear other names, have always been distinguished for industry, perse- verance and business ability. When William Woodford came to Barbour he made his home on Fox Grape Creek, near land owned by William Thomp- son, one of the earliest settlers. When Mr. Woodford came to Barbour, he carried all his household goods on a pack-horse. His children. were, John Howe, Jacob, William, George and Mary.
JOHN HOWE WOODFORD, son of William and Hannah (Moss) Wood- ford, was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, in 1796, and when eight years old. emigrated with his father's family to what is now Barbour County. He was the oldest child, and very early in life he began to trade in cattle, buying calves, cutting brouse in the woods to winter them, sup- plementing it with a little corn, ranging them in the woods the next summer, until they were three or four years old, then selling them at a very low price, often from four to seven dollars per head. He hired him- self for wages, among others to Jacob Lawrence, near Buckhannon, and to Samuel Wilson, on Sand Fork, of the West Fork, in Lewis County. He cleared heavily timbered land for Wilson at four dollars an acre, and made
STUART F. REED,
CHARLES I, ZIRKLE.
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rails at twenty-five cents a hundred. But he did not always find it neces- sary to work for other people, and subsequently he became one of the largest landowners in Barbour County. He was for many years a magis- trate, and was Judge of the county court part of the time, and was two terms Sheriff of the county. He was an old time Whig up to the close of the Civil War, and after that time he voted with the Democrats. He mar ried Nancy Minear, daughter of Adam Minear. Nancy Minear was born in 1801, on the Valley River, near the Minear Ford, in Barbour County, near the Taylor line. The house in which she was born is still standing (1899.) Her grandfather, John Minear, was the pioneer settler of St. George, in Tucker County, and was killed by Indians in Barbour County in 1781. The children of John Howe Woodford numbered fourteen, as follows. Isaac, William, Adam M., John Harvey, Asa Wesley, James R., DeWitt Clinton, Phoebe, Mary, Emily, Elizabeth, Hannah, Cyntha, Phrena. All these chil- dren reached the age of maturity, and seven of them are yet living (1899.)
The children of George, son of William Woodford, were, Frank, Wil- liam, John, Granville and Elmira.
The children of William, son of William Woodford, were, George, Robert, Emmett, Jackson, John Wesley, Mary Ann, Elizabeth and Jose- phine.
ASA WESLEY WOODFORD, son of John Howe Woodford, was born two miles west of Philippi, May 20, 1833. In 1855, near Flemington, Taylor County, he was married to Rebecca, daughter of Rev. Jasper Cather. To them were born six children, Iris Columbia, Phoebe Jane, Flora S. N., Clarkson J., Bruce S. and John Howe. Three of them are now dead. Rebecca Woodford died in 1885, and Colonel Woodford in 1895, married as his second wife, Sabra, daughter of Rev. Flavius J. Cather, a Baptist min- ister, a third cousin of Rebecca Woodford. The subject of this sketch has displayed, in a remarkable degree, the traits so common to the Woodford family-energy, pluck, business ability and stability of character. He began life with small educational advantages, his only schooling being in a log house on Pleasant Creek. He began life for himself by working at thirty-five cents a day, "and no dinner," as the saying was then; for he was in the employ of a cattle drover. In the winter of 1849, when he was seventeen years old, he helped take a drove of cattle to Pniladelphia, walking all the way there and back through snow and mud. The return trip from Philadelphia was made on foot in eleven days. The boy who, at the age of seventeen, was not ashamed to work for thirty-five cents a day, and not afraid to walk to Philadelphia and back, did not need to work long for wages, and in twelve years from that time, and over that same road to Philadelphia, he drove six hundred cattle of his own and sold them to the Government to feed the army. He was the first man who attempted to drive cattle from this part of West Virginia to the eastern market during
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the Civil War. He did a large business in supplying the Government with beef cattle. He was always successful in these transactions; but his fortune changed in 1863 when the great Confederate raid under Jones and Imboden swept across West Virginia. General Jones carried off two hundred and fifty cattle belonging to Colonel Woodford, and they went to gladden the stomachs of Confederate veterans on the march to Gettysburg. Colonel Woodford was paid in Confederate money for his cattle, but the money was worthless. General Jones took the cattle from the James Pickens farm, on Gnatty Creek, Barbour County.
Not discouraged by this heavy loss Colonel Woodford continued to ship cattle, horses and sheep to the eastern markets during the remainder of the war. He was a strong Union man, voted against the Ordinance of Seces- sion, and when the war came he set to work, in Ritchie County, to raise a regiment for the Union army, an2 was to be colonel of the regiment, but he was superceded by Colonel Moses S. Hall, and for the rest of the war he devoted his energies to the cattle business. After the war he voted the Democrat ticket. In 1868 he was elected in Lewis County to the Legisla- ture, and the next year helped to make the first code of West Virginia. He was twice elected Sheriff of Lewis County, and in 1882 received the Demo- cratic nomination for Senator in the Tenth District, but was defeated at the polls by Captain Coburn, of Barbour County. In 1892 he was a candidate before the Democratic Convention for Governor of West Virginia. In April of that year he made a speech in Grafton before the Democratic Mass Convention, William J. Bryan, then a member of Congress, being present and commending the speech very highly. Colonel Woodford was then in advance of his party on the financial question, and the views held by him then were adopted and became the leading plank in the National Democratic platform of 1896.
Colonel Woodford has large land interests in Barbour, owning part of the old homestead where he was raised. His home is in Lewis County, where he owns a magnificent farm of more than one thousand acres, lying on the West Fork River between Janelew and Weston. This farm is stocked with Herford cattle, and he was the first man in West Virginia to ship cattle to the markets of London and Liverpool. He did not find that business profitable because of the sharp competition, and "because of the difficulty of bucking against the English bull and the cattle monopoly in the English trade." His farm in Lewis County is noted for its influence in improving the cattle of the country. A peculiarity of it is that a natural gas fire burns in his field, round which his Herford cattle gather to enjoy the warmth. In addition to other business enterprises to which he has given his attention, he built a large flour mill at Weston several years ago. Mrs. Woodford is an accomplished artist; her work has received the praise
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of competent critics. Colonel Woodford has traveled extensively, for busi- ness and pleasure, visiting all the principal portions of the United States and Europe.
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Scenes on Col. A. W. Woodford's farm, from a painting by his daughter.
BENJAMIN HOLLY WOODFORD, son of Jacob and Mary (Robinson) Woodford, was born in 1843, five miles north of Philippi, where he now resides. On September 13, 1870, he was married at Winchester, Virginia, to Mary Elizabeth Scott Hodgson, daughter of Robert and Sally (Renner) Hodgson. Children, Robinson H., Benjamin Holly Scott, Blanche Maude,
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Tom Brown, Scotia Pearl. Mr. Woodford belongs to the order of A. F. and A. M., and is a Democrat, a farmer and stockdealer, owning 196 acres of highly productive land, largely devoted to graizing. In 1896 he was elected a member of the County Court, and was president of that body one year; and he held the office of member of the Pleasant District Board of Educa- tion sixteen years, and he has also served as statistical correspondent of Barbour County for the Department of Agriculture. Mr. Woodford was in the Confederate army from 1862 till the close of the war. He surrendered at Staunton to General Duval at the close of the war, after taking part in more than thirty battles. He brought home with him many relics and trophies of his campaigns. After the war he entered actively upon the pursuits of civil life, and has met success in all his undertakings. He was four years a merchant at the "Burnt Store" on Taylor's Drain.
Mr. Woodford is a great grandson of Colonel Woodford who married Miss Howe, and a grandson of William Woodford, the first of the name in Barbour. The children of Jacob Woodford were, Hannah, Elizabeth, Rob- inson, William, James M., John and the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Wood- ford belongs to an old and respectable family of Virginia and Pennsylvania, the Hodgsons, English in origin, and now possessing many members in different States. Her ancestors can be traced in an unbroken line more than two hundred years to Robert Hodgson, an English Quaker who landed at New York in 1665, and who subsequently removed to Pennsylvania. It is believed that he finally lived in Maryland, and died in 1733 at the age of eighty-six, leaving a considerable fortune to his children. The line of des- cent from him to Mrs. Woodford is as follows: Robert had a son Phineas; Phineas had a son Robert, and Robert had a son Robert, who was Mrs. Woodford's father, she thus being of the fifth generation from the founder of the name in America. Through her mother's people she is of German descent, through the Renner family.
JOHN F. WOODFORD, born five miles north of Philippi, son of Isaac C. and James E. (Huffman) Woodford, was married on Pleasant Creek, April 22, 1869, to Eliza E., daughter of Jesse and Elizabeth (Knotts) Cole. Children, Rosaltha, Joseph M., Marie Belle, Elizabeth, Isaac C., John W., and Jessie E. Mr. Woodford is a member of the M. E. Church, an Odd Fellow, a farmer, stockdealer, merchant and manager of a telephone com- pany. He is one of the extensive land-owners of Barbour County. His home farm at Cherry Hill, one of the finest in the county, contains 367 acres. It was formerly the Henson L. Hoff property, and Thomas Hite lived there during the Civil War. The house is of brick, and was built nearly a century ago. The farm is underlaid with valuable viens of coal. Mr. Woodford owns 201 acres three miles south of Philippi, and 141 acres surrounding Elk City, and he owns a general store at that place. He has always taken a lead in agricultural matters, and claims to have been the
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first to introduce Polled Angus cattle into Barbour; also the first to intro- duce the Holstein-Friesian cattle. He also introduced the Clydesdale horses; and in 1870 he began the importation and use of commercial ferti- lizers into Barbour, claiming to be the first to use them.
Mr. Woodford has been identified with the Woodford Telephone Com- pany since in 1897, and has been the moving spirit in that enterprise, being president of the company, which has lines in five counties.
His son, Joseph M. Woodford, born in 1871, began business at the age of eighteen as manager of his father's saw mill and timber interests. He is an Odd Fellow. After five years of profitable connection with saw mills, he turned his attention to buying and inspecting lumber for Eastern firms. In 1898 he moved his business headquarters to Elkins, and now is general manager of and the largest stockholder in the Woodford Telephone Com- pany. Another son, Isaac C. Woodford, born 1878, graduated at Buckhan- non in 1897, and immediately thereafter became a stockholder in the Wood- ford Telephone Company, and was chosen its secretary and electrician. He established a central office at Elkins. Another son, John W. Woodford, born 1881, was formerly treasurer of the telephone company, but early in 1899 he disposed of his interests to his brothers, and entered the West Vir- ginia University as a student.
JAMES MADISON WOODFORD, born within five miles of Philippi, in 1866, son of Isaac and Jane (Huffman) Woodford, was married near Elk City, March 4, 1890, to Anna Lee, daughter of Jesse R. and Louisa (Smith). Green. His second marriage was to Isabel J., daughter of Joseph and Isabel Matlick, in 1895. Children, Walter Lee, Marion L., Ona Rosswell and an infant. He is a member of the M. E. Church, a farmer and mer- chant. He was educated at Flemington in the West Virginia College. His farm of 85 acres is nearly all improved and he handle fine grades of stock.
ISAAC C. WOODFORD, son of Isaac C. and Jane (Huffman) Woodford, was born 1860, and on May 9, 1889, at Philippi, he was married to Mary M., daughter of Elias and Catherine (McGee) Kelley. Children, Lottie, Katie, Harry, Camden, Ora and Ella. He is a member of the M. E. Church, a farmer and stockraiser, living five miles below Philippi. In 1886 he was elected Assessor of the west side of the county. He is a member of the firm of Zinn & Woodford, handling large numbers of sheep and cattle annu- ally. His farm of 319 acres, highly improved, is underlaid with four veins of coal. The old Woodford homestead, known as the Hathaway land, is his property. His life has been an active one and his undertakings have been successful.
DAVID RILEY WOODFORD, born 1851, on Shook's Run, son of William and Mary Jane (Thompson) Woodford, was married in Randolph County in 1890 to Lily, daughter of Marshall and Elizabeth (Golden) Mullens. Chil- dren, Maude M., Asia Goodlaw, Baby. He is a member of the Missionary
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Baptist Church, is a Democrat and a farmer, residing on the old Woodford homestead, two miles west of Philippi. He introduced the first full blooded Herford cattle into Barbour County.
MRS. COLUMBIA A. WOODFORD, born at Philippi, 1844, daughter of John R. and Lucinda (Sinsel) Williamson, was married June 9, 1864, at the Williamson homestead, to John Wesley, son of William and Sarah Wood- ford. Children, Charles E., Ira J., Robert T., Austin C., Zora E., Omar A. Mr. Woodford died October 20, 1887. Mrs. Woodford is a Baptist and con- tributed largely to the building of the Mt. Olive Baptist Church. The membership of the church is 55. The sons, Robert, Ira and Charles are married. She owns 100 acres, three-fourths improved, and raises stock. She has lived at the present place 35 years.
GEORGE C. WOODFORD, born 1854 at the old Woodford homestead on the head of Shook's Run, son of William and Mary Jane (Thompson) Wood- ford, was married November 9, 1882, at the David Shaw farm, to Madora, daughter of Santron and Mary (O'Neal) Zinn. Children, Ida Grace, Artie May, William Ray, Melvin Ray, David Wilson Mansfield, Delbert Riley, and two unnamed. He is a Democrat, a Missionary Baptist, a farmer, butcher and stock dealer, living on the headwaters of Shook's Run, where he owns 379 acres of land, mostly improved. He is of English descent, a grandson of John H. Woodford. His father was drafted in the Union army.
LEWIS WILSON, son of William F. Wilson, was born on Bill's Creek, then Randolph, now Barbour County, October 18, 1818. His marriage occurred May 20, 1844, and his wife was Ann M., daughter of Alexander and Rachel (Thompson) Keyes. The names of their children were, Elizabeth, Jane and Thomas Alman. When Mr. Wilson was about three years old he removed with his father's family to Ohio, and remained there two years, then returned to Bill's Creek, in Barbour. When he was twenty-one years of age he set out for the West and went to Wisconsin, which was then a territory, and remained there two years. The principal part taken by him was to cast his vote in a sod shanty for delegates to a convention to form a state constitution, preliminary to admission of Wisconsin into the Union as a State. He returned from Wisconsin in 1841, and two years later became half owner of a flour mill and carding machine at Philippi. This building stood on the site of the present mill owned by him; and in it the court met to organize Barbour County in April 1843. It was a snowy time, and when the weather was not too cold the court held its sessions under an apple tree in the lower end of town, and when a snowstorm threat- - ened the court adjourned to the mill.
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LEWIS WILSON'S MILL.
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BENEUNO
JOHN HOPKINS WOODS.
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When the oil excitement took place in Wirt County, Mr. Wilson went to the region of Burning Spring in company with L. D. Morrall and J. W. Payne, and began boring for oil with every prospect of success. But it was an inauspicious time, for the war was at hand. Soon bands of Confederate guerrillas began to infest the country, and made it very unpleasant for Union sympathizers. They wore white bands round their hats, and would put in their appearance at unexpected places and at times entirely too fre- quent to suit Mr. Wilson. He abandoned his mill and left the country, not even bringing his tools with him. He sent back for them, but they were never recovered.
When he returned to Philippi the Confederate forces which had been stationed there under Colonel Porterfield had retreated; and the State Gov- ernment was being reorganized, Nearly all the officers of the county had gone South, and the offices were vacant, On September 27 of that year, 1861, an election was held to fill the vacancies and Lewis Wilson was chosen County Clerk and filled the position eighteen years; and during a portion of that time was Circuit Clerk, also. He was the second County Surveyor of Barbour, serving ten years, He succeeded his father who was the first County Surveyor and who resigned on account of his age. Mr. Wilson served two terms in the West Virginia Legislature, delegate from Barbour. In 1863 he was appointed Notary Public, and has held the office thirty-six years. While Clerk, Mr. Wilson was also Commissioner in Chan- cery. He is now one of the directors of the Tygart's Valley Bank, and still takes a supervisory interest in his mill and carding machines.
* Mr. Wilson belongs to a family which, during several generations, has been influential in business and politics. The family is. Scotch, coming to America through Ireland, the founder of the name in America being Wil- liam Wilson, great grandfather of the subject of this sketch. The father of Lewis Wilson was William F. Wilson, whose long and useful life left its impress upon Barbour County. He married Jane, daughter of Daniel Booth, who is buried near Belington, and lived for a time on Bill's Creek, then at Philippi. Their children were, Isaiah, Asher, Almond, Maria, Lewis, Albert, Daniel, Granger, Alpheus, Sarah Jane, Rezin B. and Euge- nus. Of these children only two are now living, Lewis and Sarah Jane. She first married William M. Simpson, then Henson L. Yoke, and is now · the wife of Sabeus Main. William F. Wilson owned the land on which Philippi was built, and he owned, at different times, property elsewhere. Like so many of the Wilson family, he was a mill owner. It is a fact worthy of note that the Wilsons were the pioneer mill builders in this part of the State. The second mill, within the limits of what is now Randolph County, was built by Colonel Benjamin Wilson, uncle of William F. Wilson. The first mill on Bill's Creek was built by Moses Wilson, and the second, on the same Creek, by William F. Wilson, John, brother of William F.,
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built a mill, to run by horse power, six and a half miles southeast of Phil- ippi. Some years later a mill was built near Belington by William F. The first mill, and also the first carding machine on the site of Philippi, was built about 1818 by William F. Wilson. He also built the first wagon road in what is now Barbour, east of the river. It extended from Philippi to Bill's Creek, and was seven miles long, and was built about 1800 by him for seventy-five cents a rod. It went up and down hills to avoid digging. William F. Wilson died in 1857.
The father of William F. Wilson was William Wilson. He was born in Hampshire, now Hardy County, February 8, 1754, and died January 1, 1851, thus lacking only five weeks of being ninety-seven years old. For many years he was chairman of the Randolph county court, and was the first representative from that county in the Virginia Legislature. He married a sister of Jonas Friend, the old Indian fighter and Revolutionary soldier who lived at the mouth of Leading Creek .*
The father of William Wilson was also William, and he married Eliza- beth, daughter of Archibald Blackburn, about 1746. William Wilson was born in Ireland, November 16, 1722, and his wife was born in the same country, in Ulster Province, February 22, 1725. She came to America be- fore she and Mr. Wilson were married. They took up their residence on a small stream called Trout Run, now in Hardy County, West Virginia, and became the parents of eleven children. He died January 12, 1801, and Elizabeth, his wife, May 2, 1806.
Of these children, John and Benjamin were delegates from Randolph County to the Virginia convention which met at Richmond in March, 1788, to ratify the Constitution of the United States. That was an important body, and twenty delegates were elected from what is now West Virginia · John Wilson was the first County Clerk of Randolph, 1787; first Circuit Clerk, 1809; first Justice of the Peace, 1787; Major of Virginia Militia, 1787; Assessor, 1788; Sheriff in 1798, and was a man of wide influence. Colonel Benjamin Wilson had command of the militia in this part of West Virginia during the Revolutionary War, and had charge of the defense of the frontiers against the Indians, and met them in many an encounter. He was the first Clerk of Harrison County, and held the office nearly forty
*Jonas Friend lived to be very old, and in his last years his mind was very weak, and his memory existed nearly altogether in the past. He faneied that he was still a soldier fighting the British in defense of his country; and with his knapsack on his back and his gun on his shoulder he would go from house to house, halting occasionally, as if on picket duty, when he would raise his gun and go through the aet of tiring, exelaim- ing in exultation that there was one Red Coat less.
Martin Poling married Mary ("Polly") daughter of William Wilson, 1810, and their children were, Phoebe, Absalom, Sarah, Wilson and Harvey. Mrs. Poling was born November 18, 1791. Mr. and Mrs. Poling were married by Simeon Harris. In 1794 Rob- ert Clark was married to Mary Friend and sister of Mrs. William Wilson, and their children were, Elizabeth, Peggy, Sarah and Polly. Mr. and Mrs. Clark were married by Valentine Power.
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years. He was remarkable also for his large family, his children number- ing twenty-nine.
The Wilson family can be traced in Scotland two generations beyond William, the first who came to America. His father was David, and David's father was also David. Of the first David Wilson nothing is known except
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