USA > West Virginia > Upshur County > The history of Upshur county, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time > Part 53
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Mr. Eckess owns two farms in Banks District.
JAMES E. EDWARDS lives at Queens, Upshur County, owns one of the best improved farms in that section of the County. Is middle age in life. Married. Has been actively engaged in the lumber business for many years. Is now completing a job of cutting timber for Moore and Keppel, the largest pro- ducers of lumber and the largest owners of forest lands in that whole country. This contract of cutting has already continued through two years and will con- tinue at least two more.
Mr. Edwards is a worker and while he has many hands under him, he asks none of them to do more work than he can and will do himself. He runs a camp and boarding house for his own hands. Has never taken his family to this camp, but keeps them on the farm, to which he pays a weekly visit, looking after his stock and other farm interests.
JOHN ELBON is a farmer and millwright. Lives on the hill east of Sago, has been very active and energetic in building grist mills in Upshur and the surrounding counties and many people in Randolph, Webster, Lewis, Barbour and Upshur know of his ability as a millwright and go out of their way to pat- ronize the mills he builds.
His energetic wife is the farmer of the family, has always lived on the farm and on account of the absence of the husband has had to assume directorship of the farm and the raising and educating of her children. She knows as well as any mother can know what the responsibilities of a farmer and mother com- bined are.
A. JAMES GILLISPIE BLANE ENGLE, son of Peter S. Engle and the grandson of Godfrey Engle, of Pennsylvania. His mother was Adeline Bilby. He was born August 15, 1884, in Greene County, Pennsylvania, and moved with his parents to Upshur in 1884, locating near Sago, on a farm of seventy-one acres. He learned the masons trade, which he has been following since his apprentice- ship. He married Georgia B. Loudin, daughter of John W. Loudin.
CHARLES E. ESKEW is a mechanic and carpenter of Newlon, W. Va. Was born January 7, 1868, at Lorentz. Son of Ellis and Rebecca Ann (Lorentz) Eskew, a daughter of Jasper N. Lorentz, a soldier in the Upshur Battery, by his first wife a Miss Hubbel. His mother is the great granddaughter of Jacob Lorentz and wife, who was Rebecca Stalnaker.
Mr. Eskew's brothers and sisters number twelve, of which ten are living and he the third child.
He married Rebecca Cutlip, a daughter of Benjamin Cutlip of Braxton County.
He owns a good, comfortable home at Newlon, where he lives.
OMER J. ESKEW (same genealogy as Charles E. Eskew), is a farmer in Randolph County, between Newlon and Helvetia. He married Eliza Freda Roth, a native of Switzerland, who came to this country with her parents and to this union have been born two children, Clifford, born August 2, 1902 ; Omer Dane, born November 23, 1905.
IRA L. EURIT of Volga, W. Va., was born July 22, 1854, near Elk City, Barbour County. He is the son of James D. Eurit and Phoebe Burner and the
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grandson of Samuel Eurit, who emigrated from Virginia. Mr. Eurit was raised on a farm and educated in the public schools of his county. He began teaching in 1874, and pursued that profession for ten years, or until his marriage in 1884 to Florence Virginia Teter, daughter of Alva Teter, since which time he has been engaged in farming.
Children : Dennis M., born October 27, 1886, a student at the Business College at Clarbsburg ; Dearing H., born August 28, 1888, at home.
His wife died July 15, 1894. Mr. Eurit has two sisters, Columbia A. and Floretta J., and one brother, Floyd.
BURTON ULYSSES FARNSWORTH, born December 13, 1871, in Los Angeles, Cal. Son of L. S. S. Farnsworth, first resident dentist of Buckhannon, and Catherine Adgett, of Augusta county, Va. He was grandson of Nathaniel son of Daniel, son of Thomas Farnsworth of New York. His father made two trips to California, and had a family of fifteen children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the tenth.
He married Hallie M. Conn, born August 25, 1880, daughter of Jarrett Conn and Lucy Rigs of Monongalia County. His wife's father was a soldier in the Civil War.
Children of B. U. Farnsworth are Jaunita Gail, born April 5, 1898; Wayland Conn, born October 21, 1901.
Mr. Farnsworth is a harp soloist and won the gold medal at the World's Fair at Chicago, 1893, as French Harp Player.
HON. DANIEL D. T. FARNSWORTH was a resident of what is now Buckhannon, Upshur County, since he was two years of age, and to him and his ancestors the county owes more of its development and prosperity than to any other one name.
He was a merchant, Statesman. Publicist and Governor of West Virginia.
He was born on Staten Island, New York, December 23, 1819, died Decem- ber 5. 1892, at rest in Heavner Cemetery, Buckhannon, W. Va., where a hand- some monument is erected to his memory. Son of James S. and Abigail Farns- worth, and grandson of Daniel Farnsworth, who owned the south end of Staten Island. His mother was a Wilcox, from New Brunswick, New Jersey. His grandfather had seven sons, James S., the oldest; and five of these sons were liv- ing when the family came to the town of Buckhannon in June 1821.
James S. was a soldier in the 1812 war, and drew a pension till his death, which occured in his eighty-fifth year. Daniel Farnsworth, the grandfather, was virtually the founder of Buckhannon ; the town had been laid off, it is true, some years before his coming, but not a house was erected before his arrival, his family camped in an orchard (still standing) until he put up a large, two-story log house, still occupied by one of his grand children.
Daniel Farnsworth gave his Staten Island property for 1,500 acres of land, including Buckhannon (except eighteen lots that had been sold) and 2,000 acres in Pocahontas County.
D. D. T. Farnsworth married his first wife, Ann M., daughter of John and Lucinda Gibson of Harrison County, near Clarksburg. Her father was an 1812 soldier, and drew a pension until his death. She was born January 13, 1824, became the wife of Mr. Farnsworth November 30, 1841, and died January 23, 1852. Their children were six: Alice A., now widow of A. B. Jeffers ; Abigail L., now the wife of Jesse Moneypenny ; Louisa A .; George G .; Sarah C. and James S. These four now deceased.
In November 15. 1853, Mary J. Ireland became the wife of D. D. T. Farns-
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worth, she was a daughter of Alexander R. and Sarah (Jackson) Ireland, and was born May 1, 1830. Of her union with Mr. Farnsworth were born Alexander P., now deceased ; Flora L., now widow of Floyd Leonard; Roberta M., now de- ceased ; Clinton I., Columbus, now deceased; Mary Etta, now deceased; Sally J., now deceased ; Duane T., now deceased ; Lottie Laurene, wife of George Frank Lawson and Emerson W. Farnsworth.
His second wife, who was born near Buckhannon survives him. Mrs. Mary J. Farnsworth's mother was Sarah Jackson, the daughter of John Jackson and Elizabeth (Hadden) Jackson. Mrs. Farnsworth's grandfather and' Stonewall Jackson's grandfather were brothers, and her grandmother and Stonewall Jack- son's grandmother were sisters. The two grandfathers names were John and Edward Jackson. The two grandmothers were Elizabeth Hadden and her sister, Mary Hadden.
Mrs. Farnsworth's father was living in Ohio where he was engaged in pro- tecting his father's home from the Indians and assisting him in clearing out the forest, when he met Sarah Jackson, who was visiting relatives in that country and later married her in what is now Upshur County.
The father of Alexander R. Ireland was a Revolutionary soldier and took his son A. R. Ireland at the youthful age of 12, to assist in the war of American Independence.
Mr. Farnsworth, in 1836, engaged in the mercantile business in Buckhannon with his father-in-law, Alexander Ireland, for several years.
He commenced life a poor boy, and died a well-to-do man for the country in which he lived. He was a man of great determination and will power. When once he began a task that he knew was right, he would work with the determina- tion to win or die. An example of his will power was shown in his early days when he became addicted to the use of tobacco, when one day a friend of his made the remark to him, Mr. Farnsworth, it seems to me that you use more tobacco than any man I ever saw. If I were you I would limit myself to the use of tobacco until I could quit it entirely. Mr. Farnsworth, surprised at the re- mark, not realizing that he had been using so much tobacco, threw his tobacco in the fire at the same time saying, "Then I will quit it." "Oh!" said his friend, "I did not mean for you to quit all at once." Mr. Farnsworth then answered, "It is best to quit all at once." And from that day until his death he never touched the weed again.
During the Civil War on one occasion when he was in the town of Buck- hannon some little time after he had made one of, if not the greatest speech of his life, against secession, in Philippi. When with pointed muskets at his head, demanding of him that he stop speaking, or they would riddle him with bullets. And his answer to them was, that his voice would never be silenced while he could speak for his country and his flag, and that to die in its honor and be buried .n its folds, would be his choice rather than the silence of a coward or traitor.
It was but a short time after this occurrence that this same army, that so violently threatened his life, came riding through the streets of Buckhannon, and on seeing the Union flag floating in front of the old court house, they determined it should be torn down. When Mr. Farnsworth hearing their threats to tear down the flag he loved better than his life, locked his store door, whirling the key around his finger, saying, "Gentlemen, if any man touches that flag, he will do it at the peril of his life," and in his agitation he walked back and forth in front of his store. They must have taken it for granted that he knew of some secret body of men in close hiding that could be quickly notified in an emergency, for
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after riding around over the town left without doing the flag any harm, going from there to Philippi.
He was serene and level headed in everything he undertook. On one occa- sion in Charleston, while a member of the Constitutional Convention, the con- vention hall caught on fire, and Mr. Farnsworth and two other gentlemen, mem- bers of the convention, came near losing their lives in an effort to rescue the flag from a burning building.
It was on April 6, 1872, in the convention, and is in print today in the journal of the convention of 1872, which Mr. Alexander Campbell, seeing the daring bravery of these three men, offered the following resolutions, which, on the motion of Mr. William A. Morgan, was tabled, reads as follows: Resolved, That the thanks of this convention and the people of West Virginia, are due Col. Morgan, Governor D. D. T. Farnsworth and Major George O. Davenport, for their efforts to save the "Old Flag," when the convention hall was in flames, and that each be presented with a gilt edge copy bound in Turkey Morroco, of the . old and glorious song of, "Rally round the flag boys! Rally one and all ! ! ! "
In 1851 the first grand jury was impannelled. It was the first jury that ever sat as a jury of inquest for the body of Upshur County.
Those composing this body were Hon. D. D. T. Farnsworth, Alvin M. Bastable, Tilletson, Jenny, C. G. Miller, George Ambrose, John L. Smith, Elias Bennet, David Bennet, Lewis Karicoff, William E. Basley, John Lewis, Henry Reger, S. Hazeldon, Wilson M. Haymond, Archibald Hinkle and O. B. Loudin. They were sworn, and after hearing the instructions of this Court, retired to consider of their presentments. After some time they returned into the court room and presented six true bills of indictments. He was Justice of the Peace in 1851.
Mr. Farnsworth was president of the Exchange Bank, of Buckhannon, which commenced business on the 6th of September, 1881, and was also director of the same body. He was a man of great liberality ; was fond of his friends, and it was his delight to have them with him and to show his hospitality in his home. On one occassion, while the County Court was in session, after he had moved into his new home on the Island, which was a large and comfortable house and one that he was proud of, he made the remark to his wife, that he might bring some of his friends over to dinner and for her to have dinner prepared for them. During the week of Court, he had entertained at least 30 of his friends, which afforded him great pleasure.
He owned stock and was a director of the railroad between Clarksburg and Buckhannon. He was stockholder in the Buckhannon Bank and was its President. He was elected a Militia Major of the 133d Regiment of Virginia before the Civil War. He was one of the Board of Directors of the West Vir- ginia Hospital for the Insane, for several years. He was one of the earliest Magistrates of the County.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was one of the staunchest defenders of the Union ; his voice ringing from every rostrum against secession. He was elected to the House of Delegates, which convened in Richmond in the spring of 1861, and by virtue of that election, was a member of the Legislature which convened in Wheeling July Ist, 1861.
He was a member of the Wheeling Convention June II, 1861, fot the re- organization of the state government, and offered the first and only resolution looking to the formation of a new State, at the risk of his life. The resolution was tabled, vote 50 to 17, but at the reconvened Convention in August, the ordi-
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nance forming West Virginia was passed and Mr. Farnsworth was chairman of the committee presenting it.
He was a member of the First House of Delegates in West Virginia, and was some seven years member of the Senate, and in the session of 1868-9, he was president of that body.
From February 1869 to March 4, he was Governor of the State to fill the unexpired term of Governor Boreman, elected to the United States Senate. He was one of the committee of twenty that revised the first Code of the State, the Code of 1868, and he was a member of the convention that framed the New Con- stitution in 1872. During the war his life was many times threatened, and at one time in Philippi, while speaking against secession in the face of armed confed- erates, he was told that if he persisted in speaking he would be riddled with bullets.
He continued to speak, declaring "his voice should never be silent while he could speak for his country and its flag, and that to die in its honor and be buried in its folds was his choice rather than the silence of the coward or the traitor." He was a warm advocate of equal rights and the protection of labor, and would have the government issue the only money, whether gold, silver, or paper, making all legal tender, and was opposed to the Perpetuation of the bonded debt with the treasury overflowing with money. His motto was "The greatest good to the greatest number, equal rights to all and exclusive privileges to none."
DANIEL B. FARNSWORTH, of Walker, Wood County, West Virginia, was born December 9, 1844. Son of John M. Farnsworth and the grandson of Daniel Farnsworth, among the first settlers of the town of Buckhannon. His brothers and sisters were: Jane, Catherine C., Louisa A., Ezekiel S., Mary A., John J., Lucy E. and Andrew Clark.
Married Sarah E. Cochran, daughter of Alfred and Diadama Cochran, October 15, 1866.
Children : Mary L., born September 29, 1867; Martha J., born August 30, 1869; Edward C., born March 25, 1871; Alfred L., born March 13, 1872; Prudie E., born February 7, 1874; John M., born January 4, 1876; Daniel N., born November 28, 1877; Diadama M., born March 7, 1880; William M., born March 12, 1882; Sarah E., born July 8, 1884: Melissa V., born July 6, 1887.
EDGAR REGER FARNSWORTH of Pittsburg, Pa., born in 1872 on Fink Run, at the old Farnsworth home, near the present fair grounds. His par- ents were W. D. Farnsworth and Columbia Reger. He is a Cobbler by trade, having learned his trade under James A. Davis. He has been twice married. His first wife was Estelle Douglas and his second wife was Margaret Colerider, daughter of Edward and Jemima ( Reger) Colerider.
Children : Clyde W., born July 25, 1893: Hugh Daniel, born June 15, 1895. FLOYD F. FARNSWORTH, M. D. Was born in Buckhannon April 2, 1869. The son of Frank L. Farnsworth, who is in direct line of descent from Daniel Farnsworth who emigrated from Staten Island to Buckhannon in 1821. Dr. Farnsworth was educated in the public schools of the County, passed a teacher's examination and taught in Randolph and Upshur. He graduated from Union College, formerly known as the Normal and Classical Academy at Buck- hannon in 1897. Having taken the course when it was possible for him to spare the money, which he had made in teaching school prior to that time. He was made principal of the Thomas Graded School. Thomas, W. Va .. 1898 and 1899. Was principal of the Parsons Public School. 1899 and 1900, and principal and superintendent of the Buckhannon public and high school from 1900 to 1903.
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Having for many years nursed an ambition to be a practitioner of medicine, he now saw his way clear to take the course required by law and necessary to pass a State Board, giving him certificate to enter upon the profession of his life. He graduated from the Maryland Medical College in 1904, and at once located at French Creek, where he has since lived and where he now enjoys a lucrative practice.
Before attaining to the position and profession he now follows he had been a common laborer, a woodsman, a farmer, a teacher and a salesman, all of which pursuits he followed in order to get sufficient money to reach the goal of his ambition.
He is a Methodist in religion.
Married Lasora Martin, October 26, 1890.
HUGH B. FARNSWORTH, the son of Dr. Thomas G. Farnsworth of Buckhannon. Was born and raised in the town of Buckhannon. Educated in the public schools of the same town. Entered upon a business life early in young manhood and followed many trades and callings until the fall of 1905, when he resigned a lucrative position with the B. & O. R. R. Company to move onto a large farm in Bath County, Virginia, where he now lives.
His wife's maiden name was Mintie Phillips, daughter of Simeon Phillips. Their children are: Hilda, Walter, Nora and an infant.
J. J. FARNSWORTH born May 12, 1841, son of Nathaniel Farnsworth and Susan P. Simon, grandson of Daniel Farnsworth and the great grandson of Thomas Farnsworth. His grandfather was born in April, 1766, and came to Buckhannon in 1821, and founded the town. J. J. Farnsworth lives in the house which Daniel Farnsworth constructed on his arrival with his family to the now County Seat of Upshur, and Daniel Farnsworth's sons who came here with him, were : James S., Nathaniel, John and Thomas.
Nathaniel was born in New York February 22, 1797, and his wife was born in May, 1806. In the year 1850, J. J. went to the gold fields of California and worked there as a blacksmith and store keeper until 1865, when he went to South America. Not liking the southern hemisphere, he returned to Buckhannon and entered into the mercantile business, which he has pursued almost continuously at various points in the county ever since.
He was shipwrecked on his return to New York.
He has been a Free Mason for forty five years, has been an Odd Fellow for twenty-five years, town sargeant and Chief of Police of Buckhannon for six years. He was a Democrat in politics. He married Henrietta Wise Fidler, daughter of William Martin Fidler and Mary Jane Hudson, natives of Fluvana county, Va. His wife was the youngest daughter of a family of ten, born November 1, 1859; married on March 17, 1881, and their children are: Gladys Mabel born May 30. 1882: Mary Parmelia, born August 29, 1884 ; Ernest Spencer and Forrest, born September 15. 1886; James B., born May 20, 1888; George Byron, born May 21, 1800, and Hudson Fidler, born February 2, 1899. Ernest Spencer and James B. are dead.
NIMROD D. FARNSWORTH, son of Wm. D. and Lucinda (Reger) Farnsworth, born May 21, 1858. Was raised by his grandfather on his mother's side, Nimrod Reger, on the waters of Brushy Fork.
At his majority his generous grandfather gave him a farm of 141 acres, which he still owns, and where he still lives.
He married Mariah E. Liggett, January 12, 1881, and to this union were born, Charles, Ivy, Edna, Ralph, Madge, Mary and Carl.
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THOMAS JEFFERSON FARNSWORTH. A substantial and progres- sive citizen of Buckhannon, West Virginia, is a native of the place. He was born May 17, 1829, being the fourth of eleven children, born to Nathaniel and Susan P. (Simons) Farnsworth. His father (Nathaniel) was born on Staten Island, New York, February 22, 1797. His grandfather, Daniel Farnsworth was born in New Jersey, while his great grandfather, Thomas Farnsworth, was born at or near Bordertown, New Jersey. The brother of Nathaniel Farnsworth, James Farnsworth, was a soldier of the war of 1812-14. The family is descended from English Colonial settlers of America. The maternal grand- father, Leonard Simons, was born in Virginia, and was one of the first to take up his residence on the Buckhannon River, his settlement being in the eighteenth century. He was descended from early German settlers of Pennsylvania.
The wife of Daniel Farnsworth was a Miss Stout, born and reared in New Jersey. He traded land on Staten Island for property on the Buckhannon River, now the site of the town of Buckhannon, and came thither with his family in 1821, and their house, which was erected at that time, is still standing, and is the oldest house in Buckhannon. A farm was opened up from the primeval forest and became a valuable piece of property. Mr. Farnsworth was a Democrat politi- cally and was interested in all things of public character. He died in 1848. Nathaniel Farnsworth came into possession of the property, on which Buck- hannon is now built, when the estate was divided. After the organization of Upshur County, in 1852, Buckhannon became the County Seat, and many lots were sold by Mr. Farnsworth. After a useful and active life he died in 1868, but his widow survived until 1888, and had been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for seventy years, at the time of her death. Thomas Jefferson Farnsworth was educated in the private schools of his native place and remained under the parental roof until he was eighteen years of age. He then served an apprenticeship at the blacksmith trade, and after working at the same in various places, he conducted a shop of his own in Buckhannon for one year. March 8, 1852, he started for California with Dr. William H. Westfall, a cousin, and after reaching Missouri, a party was made up to cross the plains. Upon reaching Mariposa County, California, September 6, 1852, they at once engaged in mining, and in a few months, Mr. Farnsworth had accumulated quite a little sum. He then rented a shop for one year, after which he bought two shops and continued to work at his trade about seven years, doing a large business and employing many hands. In 1857 he came home on a visit, became engaged to be married and re- turned here permanently in 1859. worth about $30,000, the result of seven years' work. He married Mary Carper, the daughter of Adam and Jemima Carper. Adam Carper was the son of Abraham and Millie (Harness) Carper and married Jemima Currence, daughter of William and Mary (Ward) Currence of Huttonsville, Randolph County. Thomas J. Farnsworth purchased much property in and about Buckhannon and engaged in farming and stock-raising on a large scale, and this property has since greatly increased in value. After the war he became active in politics and has held many offices. He was appointed as one of the commissioners to hold the first election under the new State; was elected the first supervisor of the county and became the first president of this Board, and was a trustee to open the first school here. He was elected to the House of Delegates in 1874, served in 1875, was a member of several important committees, and in 1876 was re-elected to this office in a county strongly republican, but at the expiration of his term declined re-election. In 1879 he was the Democratic nominee for the State Senate of the Tenth
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Senatorial District, comprising the counties of Upshur, Randolph, Tucker, Bar- bour, Taylor and Lewis. He was elected without opposition and served in the General Assembly of the State in 1880 and 1881. Upon the re-organization of the Senate in 1883, he was elected president of that body and served as such dur- ing that year and 1884. Since that time he has declined official position. In 1877 he was appointed by Governor Matthews as regent for the State University and was successively appointed by Governors Jackson, Wilson and Fleming, serving in this appointment eighteen years. He was a Mason in California in 1855, but transferred his membership to Franklin Lodge No. 7, Buckhannon and served as master of it for thirteen years. He has been president of the Buck- hannon Bank for some years and continues active in business. He owns several valuable farms, a dozen or so of houses in Buckhannon, and his stock interests are very extensive, his droves of horses, cattle and sheep being very largge.
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