USA > West Virginia > Upshur County > The history of Upshur county, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time > Part 60
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L. D. KITTLE, son of Arthur Kittle and grandson of Hezekiah Kittle. His mother was the daughter of Joseph Shelton of Augusta County, Va., and his wife, whose maiden name was Matilda Brooks.
The subject of this sketch was born August 20, 1851, in Randolph County, on a farm where he was raised. He became attached to the occupation of his father and has followed farming ever since. He owns 58 acres of land on Middle Fork River, near Queens, where he lives.
October 5, 1876, he married Louisa Moore, daughter of W. R. Moore and Lucinda Kelley of Barbour County. W. R. Moore's father was Samuel. Child- ren ; S. J., born July 8, 1877 ; W. R., born June 27, 1879; Annie G., born August 17, 1881 ; Jessie L., born May 30, 1886; Warner M., born April 12, 1888; Lucinda May, born September 8. 1893; Charles C., born January 8, 1896; Clemmie A., born May 5, 1898.
Three of the ab we are married, namely ; W. R., who married Mollie Reed ; Annie G., wife of James Debarr and S. J., who married Pearle Beer.
JOSEPH SAMPLE KNABENSHUE, was born April 5, 1837, in Hardy County, Va. He is now a resident of Lewis County, having moved there soon after the Civil War. Has been twice married. His first wife was Charlotte Queen, daughter of James M. and Sarah (Bennett) Queen.
Children : Addie, Gideon, Victoria, Martha Dell, Mary, Ella, Columbia Dell, His second wife was Malissa Shirk of Ohio.
Children : Charles C., Clarence, Fanny, and A. M.
His father John Knabenshue was one of the foremost farmers in Hardy County as well as in Lewis County. The son inherited the industtry and energy of the father as well as the inclination to pursue farming with a determination to succeed.
JAMES K. P. KOON, was born in the year 1847. His parents were poor, his opportunities for education were few, but he was brave and courageous and his patriotism knew no bounds, so when the cloud of war came over the country in '61, he was among the first, desirous of taking up arms to perpetuate the Union and keep it indissoluable. His small size and tender age were against his enlistment, but somehow or other a way was provided for his heart's content and at the next opportunity he passed the examination and his name was placed on the roll of his company, where it remained and daily received the answer present until a cannon ball took off his arm and he lay down the weapons of war to return to the pursuits of peace.
After the close of the war he became intensely interested in education and in order to provide himself the chance for the pursuit and possession of knowledge was one of the charter members of the French Creek Institute, a school which disseminated more knowledge and culture throughout Upshur and adjoining counties than any other school of its size in West Virginia.
His school days were not idly spent ; they were improved and he achieved much, which became helpful to him in his after life. He left school and went into the sewing machine business, which he followed for many years with success. Upon resigning his position with the sewing machine company he went into the lumber business and was active and successful in that. The money which he had made and saved by hard labor and out of his pension stipend, he invested from time to time in timber land on the waters of Middle Fork River, until at the time of his death in 1906, he was the owner of 13 hundred acres of farm and timber
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land, was a friend to the poor and helpless whereever he found them, strong supporter of church and school and an earnest advocate of right and justice. He was a Republican in politics.
ASBURY LANCE, born March 31, 1863, is a native of Barbour County and son of Isaac and Rebecca Ann Lance. His mother was a daughter of Samuel Lance, and his father was a son of Henry Lance and Bettie Lance.
He was raised on a farm. He married Sarah C. Zinn, daughter of Cor- nelius Zinn and Mary Ann Rogers.
Mr. Lance is a mechanic and came to Buckhannon in 1891, to pursue that trade. 1905, he was chosen Chief Police of Buckhannon and was re-elected in 1906 and again in 1907. He is a Republican in politics.
WASHINGTON LANCE, a farmer of Warren District, born December 12, 1855, son of George Lance and Loverna Cooper. He owns a hundred and nine acres of valuable grass land. Owing to the accidental death of his father by a wagon and team capsizing near Hall's Mill, he was early obliged to maintain the family.
He married Annie Lewis, daughter of John and Malvina ( Ward) Lewis. Children : Luther, Cosby Grace, Lillie Blanche, Albinas, Cecil Howard, Walter, Sammie Allie, Roscoe Duey and Bernice.
JOHN LANE, is a farmer of Banks District, his postoffice is Arlington. . His birth occurred in the year 1846. He was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Bryan) Lane, natives of Augusta County, Va., who came to Upshur County in 1850. He owns a farm of over one hundred acres of improved land, which he tills and grazes. He has the reputation of raising more potatoes than any farmer in his district. He has been lumbering considerably in addition to looking after his farm.
He married Lucy Jane Jack, daughter of Jonathan and Martha (McClain) Jack, natives of Highland County, Va., and the granddaughter of Jacob and Hester (Siron) Jack, who came to this country from Virginia in an early day. Mr. Lane's wife was born May 1, 1850, and their children are: Waitman W., married Rosetta Miller; Walter L., married Minnie Crawford; Roxie, wife of Harvey Allman; John S., married Gertrude Potts; Osborne G., married Flora Sharps; Perry, single; Charles, married Daisy Helmick; Victoria, wife of Clar- ence Helmick; Harrison, Jonnie and Alverta, who died March 4, 1905.
Republican in politics and a U. B. in religion.
THEODORE BRASHER LANE, farmer, born October 18, 1851, near Hinkleville, son of Samuel S. and Elizabeth (Bryan) Lane. His father was a native of Pennsylvania. Mother a native of Rockingham County, Va. He mar- ried Mary Ellen Williams, daughter of Solomon and Rachel ( Hyer) Williams.
Children: Allie Blanche, Rhoda Ellen, Icy, William Morgan, Erskine, Stephen, Sidney, Flavia Villa.
JARED E. LANDES son of Samuel Landes and Margaret (Shaver) Landes, born in Highland County, Va., March 5, 1858.
Came with his father to Upshur County in 1860, and settled on Bush Run of French Creek. His father's father was John Landes, an imigrant from German. His mother was a daughter of John Shaver and Rachel (Simernon) Shaver, both of German descent.
The subject of this sketch lived with his parents until he was twenty-one years of age. In 1882, he married Sarah C. Abbott, the daughter of John and Ruth (Brady) Abbott. Ruth Brady was the daughter of John and Susanna (Ware) Brady, of Randolph County.
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Children :. Madge V., Jesse M., Annie B., Jay S., Florence D. Harold R., Kent.
Mr. Landes is a farmer of Meade District and independent in politics.
DEXTER LANHAM, son of Jasper and Sarah Lanham of Union District. Is a farmer and wagoner, lives on Gnatty Creek. His wife's maiden name was a daughter of Newton White.
ENOS B. LANHAM, is a native of Upshur County and the son of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Crites) Lanham. The date of his birth is fixed October 18, 1852, and his birth place was on the waters of Middle Fork River, near the postoffice of Queens.
When twenty-one years of age he left the parental roof to paddle his own canoe. Taught school for seven years in the County and until he lost an arm by an unavoidable accident. In 1884, he began his career as office seeker and holder in Upshur County. Was defeated in that year by one vote, in 1888 and 1892 was elected assessor of First District and in 1900 and 1904 was elected to the same position, giving him sixteen years of assessorship of one district in Upshur County.
On February 14, 1880, he married Mary Lee Huffman, daughter of Samson and Polly (Dean) Huffman.
Children : Otha B., Lilly B., Lucinda J., Nathan Goff, Noma M., Elsa E. and Gertrude E.
GRANVILLE LANHAM. Commissioner of the County Court for the past twelve years, has been a farmer all his life, owns 130 acres of land on the waters of the Buckhannon River, in Union District. Has held many offices of trust, given him by the people among which are: Member of the Board of Educa- tion of Union District, Justice of the Peace of the same Magisterial District for 24 years and County Commissioner and President of the Court.
He was a soldier in the Civil War, being a private in Company M, 3d West Virginia Cavalry for about two years under Captains J. L. Hurst and J. W. Heavner. Was in the battles at Lynchburg and Shenandoah.
He was born August 18, 1847, unto George B. and Nancy (Orton) Lanham, the former a native of Clark County, Va., the latter a native of Loudon County, Va. His grandparents were Jeremiah and Barbara (Bence) Lanham, both natives of Virginia.
He married April 5, 1866, Susan V. Osborne, daughter of Acquilla and Mar- garet (McCauley) Osborne, and granddaughter of Joseph Osborne. Children : Cyrus Columbus, a minister in the the Methodist Episcopal Church, now stationed at Spencer, W. Va., is a graduate from the West Virginia Conference Seminary ; Mandeville Laco, married Ticy Spitzer of Rockingham County, Va., and lives there; Nancy Margaret, wife of J. W. Morral, Ettie M., wife of Adam Kesling; Lunda L., wife of Allen Tenney; she is now dead; Wilson Hall, lumberman ; Goff, Daisy D., who is now attending school in Virginia.
GEORGE BAXTER LANHAM, born April 1, 1880, son of Perry Lanham and Mary Jane Harris, the daughter of Thompson Harris, who emigrated from Virginia. His grandfather was George B. Lanham, a school teacher, and his grandmother was Miss Nancy Ertin, also a native of Virginia. He was raised on a farm near Swamp Run, and received his education in the rural schools and summer normals in Upshur and Barbour Counties. His parents being poor, and having ten children, the subject of this sketch realized early that he must be the architect of his own character. He began teaching school in 1898, which profession he has followed since. He attended the Morse School of Telegraphy
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and Commercial College of Cincinnati, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1904. At Oakland, Maryland, October 19, 1904, he was united in the holy bonds of wedlock to Iva Maud Radabangh, daughter of Adam Radabaugh and Ellen Wagoner, granddaughter of George Radabaugh, Child, Alston Gordon, born 1905. Owner of 251/2 acres of land in Union District, Upshur County, and some real estate in city of Elkins, Randolph County.
OTHA B. LANHAM, is the eldest son of Enos B. Lanham and Mary Lee Huffman, and the grandson of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Crites) Lanham. He is a young man of industry and energy, has spent practically all his life at the lum- bering business and knows it from the woods to the market, from the sawing of the timber to the planing of the plank.
GEORGE ROBERT LATHAM, born March 9, 1832, in Prince William County, Va. The son of John Latham and Juliet A. Newman, he is the third of ten children, eight of whom grew to manhood and womanhood. At the breaking out of the Civil War, four of the five brothers entered the Union army.
His father was a farmer and he was reared on the farm. In 1849, his father moved with his family to Taylor County, in Western Virginia. The son came with the father and being very studious and having a good memory, he availed himself and made most out of the limited means of acquiring an education then extant. In 1850 he took down with pleurisy and was totally disabled for farm work for three years. In 1852, he began teaching in Taylor and Barbour Counties and taught until the winter of 1859. December 24, 1857, he married Miss Caroline A. Thayer, a daughter of Franklin and Mary Thayer, then of Monongalia County, then Virginia. While teaching he had been studying law and in 1859, passed the examinations, was admitted to the Bar, and opened the first law office in Grafton. In 1860, he published the Western Virginian in the interest of the Presidential ticket, Bell and Everett. At the outbreak of the war he hoisted a United States flag over his law office and turned it into a re- cruiting station and by May the 20th, he had a full company enrolled, which after- wards became Company B., 2d Virginia Infantry, and was the first Union com- pany recruited in the interior of the State. This company, under Mr. Latham, remained in Grafton to vote on the ordinance of secession, May 23d, after which he took his company, marched around the Confederates at Feterman and struck the 3 a. m train the next morning for Wheeling. This company was ordered back to Grafton and from there sent to Philippi and took part in the three months' campaign to Carricks Ford, where the Confederate, General Garnett, was killed. In the fall of 1864, Col. Latham was elected a member of the Thirty-ninth Con- gress for the Second District of West Virginia, from March 4. 1865 to March 4. 1867. He was mustered out of the military service March Ioth. In Con- 1867. He was mustered out of the military service March 10, 1865. and was brevetted a brigadier general of volunteers. In Congress he ac- quitted himself eminently, as shown by his speeches delivered in the House on January 8, and May 28, 1866. He declined to be a can- didate for renomination on account of bad health, but at the request of the Secreatry of State, agreed to accept an appointment as United States Consul at Melbourne, Australia. This service continued three years from 1867 to 1870, and while in the United States service, he collected for his country, two claims. aggregating a hundred and twenty thousand dollars. In 1875, he was elected Superintendent of Public Schools of Upshur County, and in 1880, was appointed by President Hayes as Supervisor of the Census for the First District of West Virginia. He was wounded in the left foot at Lee's Spring, on the Rappahannock
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River in August, 1862. This wound gives him much trouble and pain at times now. Col. Latham has a wife and eight children living, four sons and four daughters, and he is now seventy-five years of age, and he and his wife are in the fiftieth year of their married life.
Robert Latham came from England about the year 1700. He had a son Robert, who also had a son Robert, born 1769, died 1833. He had a son John, the father of Col. George R. Latham.
Richard Thayer came from England before 1640, settling in New England. He had a son Richard, who had a son Nathaniel, who had a son Zachariah, who had a son Abel, who had a son Stephen, who had a son Franklin, who was the father of Mrs. Col. George R. Latham.
The Colonel and his wife have eight children and thirteen grandchildren living, making seven generations of the Latham family and ten generations of the Thayer family, counting the two families, children and grandchildren of the Latham, grafted on the Thayer side.
WILLIS LAWLIS, son of Francis Lawlis of Virginia, born September 1I, 1856, settling in Upshur 1896, is a farmer by occupation and Republican in politics. Married Elizabeth Alestock and to them is given one child, Cora Rebecca, wife of Elsey Beverly.
WILLIAM HENRY LAWMAN, son of Barnard and Parmelia (Campbell) Lawman. Born April 29, 1848, in Lewis County, Va. Is a farmer, following the trade of his paternal ancestors.
Married Olive Malissa Curtis, daughter of Henry L. and Catherine (Perry) Curtis, November 5, 1868. His wife is two years older than her husband, being born January 11, 1846.
Children : Emma Jane, wife of Isaac Allman; Ira F., married Dulcie Mar- ple ; Ida A., wife of Andrew Rinehart; Oke B., married Rosa Myers; Perry S., married Ella Myers; Lee H. married Rosa Davis ; Cyrus W., married Mary Davis ; Daisy M., wife of Harley Rogers; Ella C., at home on Hackers Creek. W. Va.
A. W. C. LEMONS, son of James Lemons and Catherine Jackson of Bath County, Va. He was a farmer of Buckhannon District, living on Glady Fork of Stone Coal. His first wife was Margaret E. Hosaflook, the daughter of Abram Hosaflook, and their children were seven ; Minor C., Warwick, Elsie, Pharis, Amy, Ephriam, and Dennis. His second wife was Sarah Allman, the daughter of Michael Allman and Marcenia Kelley, and their children were. William S., Roscoe C., Mary, Genevieve, Donald C .. Gertrude, Clarence H. and Emerson B.
During his life the subject of this sketch was entrusted with many responsi- bilities and duties of local government, was assessor of personal property, was county commissioner and president of the county court.
He is now dead.
ROSCOE C. LEMONS, is a citizen of Buckhannon Town, he was fortunate in being raised on a farm, on the waters of Brushy Fork, where he was born, May 4, 1876, the son of A. W. C. Lemons and his wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Allman. Before the death of his father, his parents moved to Buckhannon Town, where the subject of this sketch received the finishing touches of his education and set about to take care of himself in life's struggle.
In September 2, 1897, he married Minnie Snyder, the daughter of John C. Snyder of Warren District. They have no children.
He is now an employe of the Upsur Window Glass Co.
EBENEZER LEONARD, Sr., who emigrated from Bridge Water, Mass., in
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1816, to the waters of the Middle Fork River about a mile south from the post- office at Queens, married Elizabeth Burr, daughter of John Burr, in 1811. Mr. Leonard and wife came here with the Tenneys and the Burrs. The genealogy of the Burr family from the best evidence at hand is at follows :
Reverend Jonathan Burr, was born in the County Suffolk, parish of Redgrave in 1604, and was the son of one Joseph Burr. After his immigration to this country he entered upon the duties of the ministry and for a time shared the church with the Reverend Cotton Mather.
Jonathan Burr emigrated in 1639, and the only information of his immediate family is that about his three sons, Jonathan, John and Simon. John Burr born in 1660, and had a son, John, who was born in 1695. The ancestor of the Vir- ginia family.
Tohn Burr the third moved to Bridgewater, Mass., and there married Silence Howard. To this union was born a son in 1731, whose name was Jonathan. He married Martha Cudworth, daughter of Colonel Cudworth of Siuate, Mass. The Cudworth family having recently emigrated from London.
To Jonathan Burr and Martha Cudworth was given a son, in 1769, whose name was John. He married Mary Copeland of Bridgewater, Mass., and they moved to Virginia in 1816.
Their children were: Julia, wife of Anthony See; Ebenezer, who married Wealthy Gould; Soloman Franklin, who married Lucinda Earl; Mary, wife of Henry Simpson ; Mercy, wife of Hanson Boggess, and Levi, who married Mary Ellen Cooper of Buckhannon in 1850, and whose second wife was Elizabeth Copeland of Harrison County, daughter of David and Olive Copeland. Mary Ellen Cooper, was a daughter of Mary Cooper of Virginia.
The surviving children of Levi Leonard by his two wives are Miss Florence, by the first, and Miss Olive Copeland Leonard by the second, both of whom live in the town of Buckhannon.
EBENEZER LEONARD, the subject of this sketch was born in Mass- achusetts in the year 1813, and when quite a small boy came with his parents to what is now Upshur County, West Virginia, settling first in the Middle Fork River, near Queens ; afterwards on French Creek. He was married to Wealthy Gould (who still survives him), in 1836. There were born to them eight chil- dren, only three of them living to grow to womanhood; Lucinda, married to James Sexton, Amy, married to A. B. Clark, and Melessa, marrier to George C. Carper, the last named the only one now living.
Mr. Leonard by his industry and frugality became before his death one of the weatlhy men of the county, and was widely known for his liberality in supporting the church and other worthy objects. He was for years a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church at French Creek and at Buckhannon. His death occurred March 8, 1892, age 79 years.
Our picture represents his widow, Mrs. Wealthy Leonard, who is still liv- ing at the age of 88 years, and her great grandson, Ralph Clark Hansen, son of W. S. and Lena Clark Hansen, and grand son of A. B. and Amy Leonard Clark.
There are now living repsesenting the family of Mr. and Mrs. Ebenezer Leonard one daughter, five grandchildren, thirteen great grandchildren and four great great grandchildren. These are good representatives of that good old New England Puritanical stock that has wielded quite an influence in the loy- alty, education and political interests of Upshur County.
CECIL CLYDE LEONARD, is a partner of C. H. Bryant, who are retail
MRS. WEALTHY GOULD LEONARD, and great-grandson, Ralph Hanson.
EBENEZER LEONARD
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butchers in the town of Buckhannon. He is the son of S. S. Leonard and a grand- son of Ebenezer Leonard, Sr., who emigrated from Massachusetts in 1810.
His grandmother was Betsy Burr, born June 10, 1821, the daughter of Noah Burr, who also emigrated from New England in 1810. His father's first wife was Elizabeth F. Wolfenbarger, and their children were: Charles L., James and C. F. His father's second wife was Matilda J. Rohrbough, a daughter of John M. Rohrbough and Matilda Botts, and their children were: Carrie L., Bert R., Nonie V., Frank O., Kitty M., Daisy V., Ebenezer S., and the subject of this sketch.
SIMON MEYER LEVINSTEIN, born May 15, 1873, in Western part of Russia, at Taurogen, near the German border. Son of Lewis Levenstein and Bertha Kline. He was educated in Russia till fifteen years of age, when he immigrated to America, landing at Baltimore in the fall of 1889. He at once came to West Virginia, and with a peddler's pack on his back, travelled through Upshur County on the Western side of the river for five years, selling his goods and wares. In 1895 he opened a store at Hyattsville, Md., and engaged in business there until 1898, when he came to Buckhannon and opened up a general store of gent's furnishings. He now carries a stock valued at thirty thousand dollars.
He married Ida Rappeport, of Baltimore, February 22, 1903, and to this union has been given one child, Morton M. Levinstein, born November 2, 1905. CYRUS BATTELL LEWIS, born March 17, 1860, son of Perry C. Lewis, Sr., the grandson of Andrew Lewis and the great grandson of Joseph Lewis, who emigrated from the South Branch before 1800. He is also the son of Martha Ann Johnson, who was the daughter of John N. Johnson of Albermarle County, Va., she was twenty years of age when she married Mr. Lewis. He was born on Sand Run and raised there until he was thirteen years old, when his parents moved to Buckhannon, and soon he began to work for himself as stone mason, as bricklayer and then as general mechanic. December 10, 1881, he commenced barbering in Buckhannon and has been proprietor of a barber shop ever since.
His wife's maiden name was Annie Nocton, daughter of Patrick Nocton of Randolph County, her mother was a Miss Hennegan, marriage occurred October 20, 1882, and their children are: Charles Garfield, born October 19, 1883; Cyrus Patrick, born March 2, 1885; Maud, born November 17, 1886; Mamie, born Octo- ber 9, 1888; Delia, born May 4, 1891, dead; William Fries, born May 9, 1892; Ethel, born March 16, 1894; Roy and Troy, twins, born October 30, 1890; Mc- Kinley Hobart Thomas, born October 27, 1896; Reta, born February 18, 1900.
LIEUTENANT HENRY H. LEWIS, born on Sand Run, Upshur County, May 5, 1832, son of Andrew and Mary Elizabeth (Forinash) Lewis. His mother was the daughter of John Forinash of German descent. His father was a son of Joseph and Mary (Kesling) Lewis of Rockingham County, Va., and grandson of General Andrew Lewis of English and French descent. It will be remembered that General Andrew Lewis was Commander of the Virginia forces, at the battle of Point Pleasant with the French and Indians under Cornstalk; in this battle Colonel Charles Lewis, nephew of the Commander, was killed and his name is immortalized in the naming of Lewis County.
The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm and educated in a subscrip- tion school. In 1861, he enlisted at Newlon in Company B, 10th West Virginia Infantry, under Captain Morgan. From private soldier he was promoted to orderly seargent and in October, 1861, was made Second Lieutenant in which capacity he served till August, 1862, when he was commissioned a First Lieu-
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tenant, in which office he served till his mustering out at Deep Bottom, Va., De- cember 20, 1864. Holds a captain's commission, but never mustered in as such.
In 1852, he married Martha Ann Harris, a daughter of David H. Harris of Virginia and their eight living children are: John A., married Martha Crites; Andrew D., married Caroline Morgan ; George W., the noted Evangelist, married Mary Waugh ; H. H. Jr., married Mary A. Harlan ; Granville S., married Mary Rice ; Rose E., widow of Rev. John Marteney; Mary E., wife of C. B. Cutright ; Minnie S., wife of J. B. Harris, native of Virginia. His first wife died August 12, 1903.
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