USA > West Virginia > Randolph County > The history of Randolph County, West Virginia. From its earliest settlement to the present, embracing records of all the leading families, reminiscences and traditions > Part 45
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REV. WILLIAM PERRY DANIELS, born 1843, son of Madison Daniels; French descent; was married 1869 to Minerva, daughter of Hoy and Eliza- beth L. McLean; children, Hody Wilbur, Floyd Arlington, Dorsey Mick, Byron Haskett, Willie Ursula; minister of the M. E. Church; owns 250 acres, half improved.
PAGE CAMERON DANIELS, son of Solomon W. Daniels, born 1856; mother's maiden name Mary J. Gum; English ancestry; married Annie G., daughter of Fountain Butcher; maiden name of wife's mother, Miss Ham- ilton; children, Harvard L., Ulah, Mabel, Ethel and Hallie B.
H. WILBUR DANIELS, M. D., born near Beverly, 1872, son of William P. and Minnie (McLean) Daniels; English parentage; married in 1895 to Lizzie E., Daughter of Randolph M. and Ida (Caplinger) Harper; children, Harper and Delaine. Dr. Daniels was educated in the common schools of Randolph, and in the Conference Seminary at Buckhannon. From there
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he went to the Baltimore Medical College and graduated in 1894. The same year he began the practice of his profession at Womelsdorff, remaining fif- teen months, then locating at Elkins, where he has since remained. He was elected president of the Elkins Board of Health in 1897; was the first recorder of Womelsdorff. The Daniels family came from England to Vir- ginia. . John W. Daniels of that State is of the same family as those of that name in West Virginia.
ELAM BOSWORTH DANIELS, son of Jonathan Daniels, born 1833; mar- ried Louise, daughter of Eli Wilmoth; children, Emily, Isbern, Eli, Hervey, Ceba, Elet, Lloyd, Ida, Cora M., Maudie, Dolly and Daisy.
ALLISON DANIELS, son of William Daniels, born 1811, died 1893; mother's maiden name Katie Stalnaker; married 1838 to Jerusha Cheno- weth; children, John I., Elmore, William, Elijah C., George W., Harriet, Mary, Nancy C., David H. and Laphaat.
JONATHAN DANIELS, son of William D., born 1790; mother's maiden name was Stalnaker; married Catherine Wees; children, William, Jacob, Alpheus, Elam, Squire, Catherine, Maria, Martha and Hamilton.
ELIJAH C. DANIELS, son of Allison Daniels, born 1847; married Lucy Ann Wees; children, Priscilla M., Allison, Henry H., Kent, Leonard, Blaine, Florence, Olla, Arthur, Eva and Ernest.
HERVEY DANIELS, born 1863, son of E. B. Daniels; married Elizabeth, daughter of John Wees; children, Clinton, Agnes and Pearl.
ALLISON DANIELS, son of E. C. Daniels, born 1874; married Lizzie Chamberlain. Children, Wm. Roy and Baby.
FLOYD ARLINGTON DANIELS, born 1874, son of Rev. W. P. Daniels; graduate of the Buckhannon Seminary.
JACOB DANIELS, son of John, born 1828; was married in 1855 to Cathe- rine Phillips. Children, Granville, Anzina, Albert, Ulysses G., Verna M., Minnie C.
O. C. DANIELS, son of G. Harrison, born 1872, married, 1898, to Loved, daughter of J. H. and Sidney (Wees) Schoonover.
J. W. DAFF, born 1858, married Melvina Hamrick. Children, Mary, Ali, Hannah, Cornelia, Minerva, Jennie, Wilburn, William. Lives near Mingo.
R. L. DAFT, son of Jacob, married Elizabeth Pritt, 1873. Children, Emma, Loretta, Evaline, Plummer B., Esther, Tippie, Maggie, Jacob L.
AARON DAY, born 1853, son of William Day; in 1876 he married Emme- line, daughter of Abel and Elizabeth (Wilson) Phares. Children, Gideon Camden, Henry Ulysses, James Blaine, William Randolph. In 1896 his second marriage was with Martha, daughter of Lewis Price. Farmer and railroader at Harding.
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SANFORD LEE DAY, born 1853, in Barbour County, son of William and Sarah (Thorne) Day; was married in Barbour 1879 to Emma J., daughter of Elias W. and Edith (Stalnaker) Phares. Children, Walter B., Leslie Howard, Wayne G., Claude Sullivan, Zona Alice. Farmer and road builder; owns 70 acres, 40 improved, three miles from Elkins; came to Randolph in 1883; was four years a member of the Leadsville Board of Education. His father, Wm. Day, was born in Rockingham County, Va., and moved to Bar- bour County while young. The grandfather, Gideon Camden Day, came from Ireland.
SAMPSON DAY; married, 1894, Sarah A. Summerfield. Child, Sarah M.
JOHN WESLEY DAY, born 1846 in Pendleton County; son of Morgan and Thankful (Rowan) Day; English parentage; was married 1867 on Dry Fork to Sarah Ann, daughter of Thomas and Eliza (Carr) Summerfield; children, Sampson, Clarinda, Jane, Almeda Katherine, Louise Estelline, Martha, Lucinda, Jasper, Mary Elizabeth, Minnie May, James Arthur, Florence Belle, Daisy Dell; farmer, 137 acres, 57 improved.
SOLON DAY, born 1867, son of Aaron H., German descent; married Idella White 1895; Child, Ethel; he is a railroader.
LORENZO DENTON, born 1827, in Rockbridge County, Va .; son of Ben- jamin and Tabitha Denton; English parentage. He married Iantha, daugh- ter of John and Anna Wilmoth; children, Caroline Eugenie, Isabel Jane, Douglas Austin, Cornellia Estelline, Tabitha Anna, Julia Bird, Irving Liv- ingston, Luverna Susan; farmer and carpenter, owning 275 acres, 120 im- proved.
I. L. DENTON, born 1878, son of Lorenzo; married Mattie Chenoweth; child, Ernest B .; he is a farmer.
WILLIAM JACKSON DIGMAN, born 1867 in Barbour County, son of Sam- uel and Fanny Digman; in 1887 he married Angelica, daughter of Andrew Jackson and Rebecca (Cross) Phillips; children, Victoria, Willie Stephen, Beulah Cleo, Harry Roy. Mrs. Digman, whose father was Johnson Lim- bers, was raised in Staunton, Va. Mr. Digman's grandfather was Absalom Digman, and his great-grandfather, George Digman, who was drowned in Hunter's Fork, Barbour County. Mr. Digman has followed farming, mer- chandising and blacksmithing. He lives at Montrose, and has been Town Sergeant, member of the Town Council, and member of the New Interest Board of Education. He belongs to the M. P. Church.
JOHN DIGMAN, born 1869; married Della Wilfong. He lives in New Interest District.
HENSON DOUGLAS, born 1808 in Bath County, Va., son of William and Nancy Jane (Griffin) Douglas; Scotch parentage, was married in 1833 in Bath County, to Martha Ann, daughter of Edward and Sarah Wood. Chil- dren, Henson H., Jilson B., Juliet Ann. He died of heart trouble at the
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age of seventy. His two sons joined the Confederate army and never re- turned. His wife died of dropsy 1886. Their daughter and only living child is now the wife of H. B. Marshall, and presides at the Marshall House, at Mingo, near the place of her birth. Henson Douglas was among the earliest settlers of the southern part of Randolph. He lived on the upper Mingo Flats at an elevation of 3,500 feet above the sea, where health abounded and life was enjoyable.
CARL S. DOUGLAS, son of Franklin, born 1869, married 1892 to Nancy Kelly. Children Louie S., Bessie L.
PATRICK DURKIN, born 1830 in Ireland, died 1886; son of Thomas and Bridget Durkin; in 1855 in Lewis County he married Margaret, daughter of John and Margaret King. Children, Mary A., John T., William V., Agnes, Margaret, Allyce, Joseph, Teresa G., Edward and Cathrine; farmer, owns 140 acres. Of his children, Edward is practicing law at Parsons, Tucker County, and all the others, except Joseph, Teresa, and Agnes are school teachers, and all are married except Allyce, Joseph and Edward.
- ANDREW D. DURKIN, born in Ireland 1841; married Ellen Joyce, and after her death he married Ida Nay. The first preacher in that vicinity was Father McGerty;
JOHN HENRY DAILEY, son of John Dailey, born 1860. He married Anna C. DeWitt. They have one child, Rush DeWitt. By trade he is a plumber at Elkins.
RALPH DARDEN, born in North Carolina, 1867, son of George T. Dar- den. In 1898, in Hardy County, he married Ada May, daughter of E. O. Harwood. He received a college education in his native State; studied law, but was compelled to abandon it because of failing eyesight. He has been in the insurance, real estate, and mercantile business, and in 1896 was a member of the Elkins Town Council.
JOHN HARRISON DEWITT, born 1844 in Maryland, son of Samuel and Dorcas (Castell) DeWitt; French and Irish parentage, was married 1870 to Martha, daughter of John and Mary (Rennix) Wees. She died 1894 and in 1898 he married Minnie, daughter of Joseph Hinchman. Children, Zuella, Raymond, Anna Grace, James Holland, Mary Alice, Albert S., Stanley Congo, Emma. He was raised from the age of three years by N. Fitzwater of Beverly; was in the Confederate army, was twice wounded, once in shoulder at Martinsburg, again in knee at Beverly during Hill's raid; was taken prisoner and sent to Camp Chase. He returned to Beverly in 1865. He took part in the battles of Berryville, Antietam, Winchester, Williams- port, Droop Mountain, Alleghany, Greenbrier, Fisher Hill, Strasburg and others; was elected Justice of the Peace in Beverly District in 1880, and was twice re-elected, holding office twelve years; moved to Elkins in 1898.
AUSTIN DEARMIT, born in Pennsylvania, 1859; son of J. J. and Louisa
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(McMullin) DeArmit; French and Irish parentage. In 1894 he married Annie, daughter of William and Mary E. (Burgen) Cunningham. He came to West Virginia in 1882, and after engaging in the lumber business in Pocahontas and Randolph Counties he located at Whitmer where he went into the saloon business. His great-grandfather was an early settler in Pennsylvania; was a Revolutionary soldier; was with General Washington at Valley Forge. His son Barnabas, born in 1800, was grandfather of the subject of this sketch.
HENRY CLAY DEAN, the able and somewhat eccentric preacher and politician, and at one time chaplain of the U. S. Senate, formerly lived in Randolph. His farm in Valley Bend District he called "Brimstone Levels."" In 1847 he married Christena M., daughter of Jacob Haigler, and Dean's farm was inherited from her father. There were 216 acres. On October 6, 1849, he sold this land for $1000 to John W. and Perry Haigler, and he moved from the county, went to the West, quit preaching and became a professional politician in the Democratic party.
GOTLIEB DAETWYLER, born 1842, married Lena Wuerzer. Children, Anna, Emma, Lena, Edward, Nellie, Gertrude, Frank, Eugene, William, Powell. Shoemaker.
JOHN DUPOY, son of John, born 1854, married Lucinda M. Wooday. Children, Joseph A., Charles C., Susanna, Wesley, Ida M., Reuben, George D.
LEWIS BENJAMIN DORCAS, born in New York in 1867, of African descent. In 1891, at Harman, he married Mary E. Hedrick, and their chil- dren are Lewis B., Frederick D., Hubert and Hubbert. He came to West Virginia in 1886, locating at Rowlesburg as a barber; was at St. George the next year, where he was the first colored juror to serve in Tucker County. He is highly educated, and one of the finest penmen in the State. He was the first barber to open a shop on Dry Fork, locating at Horton.
E.
HON. STEPHEN BENTON ELKINS was born in Perry County, Ohio, Sep- tember 26, 1841, but in early childhood removed with the family to Mis- souri, entered the public schools, and applied himself so diligently that not only had he passed through the ordinary courses of education, but at the age of nineteen he had graduated with high honors at the head of his class in the State University. Having chosen the profession of the law, he fitted himself for that work, and in 1863 was admitted to practice. The Civil War was then at its height, and he joined the Union Army and entered upon active service on the Missouri frontier. He rose to the rank of captain. In 1864 Mr. Elkins took up his home in New Mexico, a territory rich in re- sources but poor in developement. Its people were largely Spanish, mixed with adventurers. It was a country of much promise, but full of peril and
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hardships. Mr. Elkins found it necessary, in order to practice his profes- sion and carry on business there successfully, to learn the Spanish lan- guage. This he did within one year.
His success was marked from his first entrance into New Mexico. His law practice became large and lucrative, and his circle of acquaintances widened among men of influence, and within less than two years after he entered the Territory he was elected a member of its legislature, and his work there rapidly increased his popularity among all classes of people. The next year, 1867, he was appointed by President Johnson to the office of Attorney General of New Mexico, and the next year the President ap- pointed him United States District Attorney of the Territory. He was one of the few officials whom General Grant, when he became President, did not remove from office. The position which Mr. Elkins held brought honor and influence with it, but it also carried grave responsibilities and dangers of a serious and unusual kind. The Civil War had abolished negro slavery, but in New Mexico another kind of slavery existed among the Spanish which was worse, if possible. Numbers of ignorant and degraded people of Spanish and mixed breeds were held as slaves, called peons, and while there were some differences between their condition and that of the negro slaves, the results were the same. As soon as Mr. Elkins became United States District Attorney he began the enforcement of the Act of Congress for the prohibition of slavery or involuntary servitude in the Territories. He was the first official in the United States to enforce that law; and it may be imagined that the opposition was fierce among the Mexicans whose wealth and position depended upon the labor of the peons whose miserable position had long been hopeless. It required no small courage to face that opposition, coming as it did from a class which, when exasperated, had no scruples against the employment of the dagger and the revolver to accom- plish or to thwart a purpose. Mr. Elkins was unyielding in his determina- tion that the law should be enforced, and he did enforce it in spite of the opposition of the wealthy and influential, and in the face of threats of per- sonal violence. He was instrumental in giving thousands of peons their freedom.
While performing his public duties with aggressive promptness and vigor, Mr. Elkins did not neglect his private business, which had become large and was rapidly expanding. Carefully investing his earnings in val- uable lands, and in silver mines in Colorado, he was soon possessed of large and profitable interests. In 1869 he had been elected president of the First National Bank of Sante Fe and filled the position thirteen years.
In 1873 Mr. Elkins was nominated for Congress from New Mexico. This gave his enemies, whose hatred he had roused in freeing the peons, an opportunity to join issues with him. They nominated a Mexican as his opponent, but in the election Mr. Elkins overwhelmingly defeated hin,
t
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receiving 4,000 majority. He served in Congress with marked ability and success, but declined to be a candidate for re-election. But, while travel- ing in Europe, news reached him that, in spite of his refusal to be a candi- date, he had been again placed in nomination by the people of New Mexico. He felt that he no longer had a right to decline. He was again elected, and again he took up the work for the Territory. During this second term he was untiring in his efforts to secure the admission of New Mexico into the Union as a State. A speech made by him, setting forth the resources of the Territory, gained for him a wide reputation. The bill passed the House by a two-thirds vote, due largely to the efforts made by Mr. Elkins in its behalf. In the Senate it was amended, and on its return to the House, was defeated for want of time.
While in Congress Mr. Elkins married a daughter of Senator Henry G. Davis, a woman of great refinement and social ability.
Mr. Elkins had been brought prominently into the arena of public affairs by his four years' experience and work in Congress. A Republican, he had been from the beginning active, progressive and aggressive. He was a pronounced protectionest to American industries. His advocacy of con- structive measures made him, during his first term in Congress, one of the leaders of his party. In 1875 he was made a member of the Republican National Committee, and as such he served through three Presidential campaigns. In 1884 he was chosen chairman of the Executive Committee. A warm friendship sprang up between him and James G. Blaine, and it was in a large measure due to the influence of Mr. Elkins that Mr. Blaine was nominated for the Presidency in 1884; and he was no less instrumental in the nomination of Benjamin Harrison in 1888 and 1892. On December 17, 1891, he became Secretary of War under President Harrison. He was especially fitted to perform the duties of this office through his large and intimate acquaintance with the affairs of the War Department in the West. His ap- pointment brought into the service of the army a man of intellectual force, an excellent organizer and a courtous gentleman who was invariably cor- dial and obliging to persons engaged in public business. Patient in investi- gation, prompt in decision, and in every way desirous of promoting the welfare of the army, he proved a successful and useful Secretary of War.
In 1878 he became a citizien of West Virginia and from that time de- voted his labor and his wealth to a development of the great resources of his adopted State. He associated himself with Senator Davis and others in building the West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railroad .* He con- tributed in a large share to the success of that enterprise which has de- veloped a portion of West Virginia formerly but little known, and has added millions to the taxable property of the State. His is the rare ability of creating wealth; thereby not taking it from one place to put it in another,
*See the history of this enterprise on page 287.
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but causing it to exist where none existed before. No better example of this, the highest order of industrial economy, can be found than that seen along the West Virginia Central, where flourishing towns, factories, mills, mines, schools, and all that contributes to progressive civilization, are found throughout a region which a few years ago was an almost un- broken wilderness, supposed to have so little value that in former years large tracts were repeatedly sold for taxes, through the neglect of the owners. A rare combination of knowledge, confidence, talent and capital was necessary to redeem the inhospitable region, and thousands of men now find employment where not long ago the hunter and the fisherman alone had penetrated the forest.
His home at the town of Elkins, in the lower end of the beautiful Ty- gart's Valley, is the finest in West Virginia; his residence being four stories with porches and towers, giving it the appearance of an ancient castle. Its elevated position gives it a commanding view of valleys, hills and moun- tains, rolling and blending to form a picture, which in some respects, can- not be equaled. The.main hall in the residence is fifty-eight feet long by twenty-five wide, and the other apartments are planned in proportion. The grounds, originally a series of vales, ravines and oak-grown ridges, on the highest point of which the residence stands, have been improved and beautified by every art known to scenic gardening, but, withal retaining their rustic and wooded character.
In December, 1892, Mr. Elkins received the complimentary vote of the Republicans of the West Virginia Legislature for United States Senator. Two years later he was the recognized leader of the Republicans of West Virginia in one of the most vigorous campaigns in the history of the State; and in the election the State, both in Congressmen and in the Legislature, went Republican, the first time since 1867. As a result of this election, the Legislature chose Mr. Elkins United States Senator in 1895. He at once turned his attention to the affairs of the Nation, and his speeches on mat- ters of national importance have placed him in the foremost rank of Amer- ican statesmen. The first speech he made was on the resolution obliging President Cleveland to sell bonds at public. sale, instead of by private con- tract, as he had done once before and was preparing to do again on a larger scale. He had sold the bonds at $104} when they were bringing in the market $116. The resolution introduced by Mr. Elkins passed the Senate, declaring it the judgment of that body that bonds should be sold at public sale. Russell Sage declared that the resolution saved the Government seven or eight million dollars. In his speech supporting his resolution Mr. Elkins pointed out that it had cost more to float President Cleveland's loan of $62,000,000, in time of peace, than it cost to float all the enormous loans during the Civil War, aggregating $2,500,000,000.
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On April 5, 1897, Mr. Elkins made a speech in the Senate which at- tracted wide attention. He advocated the protection and encouragement of American shipping by levying a ten per cent ad valorem duty on all goods imported into the United States in other than American ships. He main- tained that in no other way could prosperity be restored to the American merchant marine; and he arrayed elaborate collections of facts, and sub- mitted statistics collected from all countries of the world to substantiate his claims. The founders of the government levied such a duty, and Amer- can shipping interests prospered and our flag was seen on all the seas; but some time after the War of 1812 the duty was given up, and our shipping declined. In the language of Mr. Elkins: "Our flag is unknown on many seas, and with some nations has become almost a myth." The policy which he advocated was vigorous, strong, patriotic, and calculated to make the United States the leading maritime nation of the world.
In the Senate, on January 28, 1898, Mr. Elkins delivered a speech in opposition to the resolution submitted by Senator Teller of Colorado, de- claring that all bonds of the United States, issued or authorized to be issued, be payable in silver, at the option of the Government. Mr. Elkins main- tained that such a policy would injure, if not ruin, the credit of the Govern- ment, and that of all things, next to liberty and honor, a nation's credit is the most sacred.
On March 2, 1898, he delivered another speech in the Senate which at- tracted wide attention among commercial men and those interested in Amer- ican railroads. He pointed out that the Canadian Pacific Railroad, with 2000 miles of track in the United States, and subsidies from Canada to assist it in its policy of aggression, was injuring the business of American roads, and in so doing it was favored and assisted by the laws of the United States. One of these laws was that permitting the Canadian road to ship goods through the United States, under a consular seal, and in bond. Mr. Elkins advocated a change of policy in that respect, thereby compelling shippers to patronize American roads when sending merchandise into the United States. It was stated that from 500 to 1000 Canadian cars cross the fron- tiers of our country daily.
On May 31, 1898, he spoke in the Senate on a bill for raising revenue for carrying on the Spanish War, and in the speech used the following lan- guage touching the policy of our Government:
"Our present war, only a month old, has wrought wonderful changes in the public mind. We are surrounded with new conditions; new and difficult problems confront us. We have gone farther in some directions in a short month than we had traveled ina hun- dred years before. These conditions lay upon us grave duties and responsibilities which we cannot avoid. We must look now more and more to extending our commerce and finding markets for our products, and to this end we must hold all the territory that . may come to us by the fortunes of war to help sustain these markets. We must have a merchant marine, ships on every sea, We must control the shipping and commerce of the great oceans that wash our shores; and beyond all this, we must have a navy greater and more powerful than now floats. This is our manifest destiny. Necessity drives us,
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our interests oblige us, and we cannot avoid keeping pace with the great powers of the world in finding markets and acquiring at least coaling and cable stations all around the globe. The mighty movement now going on toward combination and consolidation and acquiring territory by the nations of the world, or by war, if necessary, is natural and logical. It has come about by reason of the demands of a better civilization. wider markets and an increasing trade and commerce. We cannot, if we would, remain longer remote, silent and isolated. We cannot resist this great movement, and we should not try to do so, if we are to take the place in the affairs of the world that naturally belongs to us."
ARCHIBALD EARLE, born in Clarke County, Va., 1788, died 1842, son of Isaiah Earle, of Clarke County, Va .; English and German ancestry. He was married in 1812 to Mary, daughter of Peter Buckey. Children, John Bayles, Sally Ann, Lucinda, Maria, Christina, Edith, Elias B., Anzina, Archibald, Jefferson, Mary Elizabeth, Creed Luther. He was an early clerk of Randolph and a man of great popularity and influence.
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