West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 11

Author: Miller, Thomas Condit, 1848-; Maxwell, Hu, joint author
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: New York, Lewis Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 866

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a large concourse of Confederate veterans, at Camp Patton's request, on their Memorial Day, June 6, 1888. It was to Major Broun that Gen- eral Lee was indebted for his famous war horse, "Traveller." This horse was raised by Mr. Johnson, near the Blue Sulphur Springs, in Greenbrier county, Virginia, now West Virginia, and was sold to Ma- jor Broun. As a colt he took the first premium at the Lewisburg fair in 1859 and 1860, under the name of "Jeff Davis," and was four years old in 1861. General Lee seeing him first in West Virginia and then in South Carolina, was greatly pleased with his appearance and, though refusing to accept him as a gift, purchased him from Major Broun at a nominal price. Changing his name to "Traveller," the General rode him throughout the remainder of the war, and often in Lexington after- wards, and was followed to the grave by the faithful steed.

In June, 1866, Major Broun married, in Richmond, Virginia, Mary Morris, daughter of Colonel Edmund Fontaine, the first president of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company ( see Fontaine III). He imme- diately afterward removed to New York City, where he resided for four years practicing his profession, the test oath at the close of the war preventing him from doing this in his own state. After this he renewed his residence permanently in Charleston, devoting his atten- tion to land law and his own landed interests. Major Broun and his wife were the parents of three children : I. Louisa Fontaine, married Malcolm Jackson, and had two children: Thomas Broun and Anna Arbuthnot. 2. Edmund Fontaine, married Sue Peyton Kent, of Wythe county, Virginia ; they have two children: Edmund Fontaine, Jr., and Virginia Peyton. 3. Ann Conway, married Philip Sidney Powers, and had three children : Thomas Broun, Louisa Fontaine and Ann Conway.

(The Fontaine Line. )

Doubtless there is no family in Virginia around which clusters so much of romance and historic interest as that of Fontaine, which sprang from the martyred Huguenot, Jean de la Fontaine, who was born in the province of Maine, France, near the borders of Normandy, in the year 1500. Coming to Virginia early in the eighteenth century and inter- marrying with such prominent families as Spotswood, Maury, Wins- ton, Claiborn and others, their history is intimately woven with the ex- citing events of the period just previous to the revolution. The original name "Fountain" was evidently one of location, that is, John of the Fountain or Jean de la Fountain, the "de la" being a sign of nobility. So we find him in the king's service during the reigns of Francis I .. Henry II. and Francis II., until Charles IX .. when he resigned. The "de la" however, was retained until about 1633. when it was dropped by his grandson, James (2). under the persecution. Jean de la Fontaine had two sons, James ( I) and Abraham. The eldest son, James ( I), died in 1633. leaving a son James (2), born in 1628, who also left a son James (3). born in 1658, and lived at Jenonville, France. This James (3) became a Protestant preacher, and being persecuted for his faith, escaped from France, landing in England in 1685. He married, in 1686, Elizabeth Boursiquot, and lived in Bridgewater, but eventually moved to Dublin, Ireland, where he died. He left the following children : I. James (4), came to Virginia in 1717. 2. Aaron, died in Ireland. 3. Peter, became a minister and settled in Westover parish, on the James river. Virginia ; was a great pacificator during the Indian troubles, and endeavored to keep the colony loyal to the English rule. He had seven children, of whom the eldest daughter married Isaac Winston, the im- migrant of that noted family ; descendants of the others are scattered throughout the state. 4. Moses, settled in London. 5. Francis, became

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a minister and came to Virginia with his wife in 1719. 6. John, came to Massachusetts in 1714. but returned to England. 7. Mary Ann, mar- ried, in 1716, Matthew Maury, of Castle Gascony, France, and came to Virginia with her husband and infant son in 1719. This son became the celebrated Rev. James Maury, first pastor of old Walker's Church, Albemarle, and the progenitor of the Maury family in America. Mat- thew Fontaine Maury, whose brilliant service in the Confederate navy. and whose "Physical Geography of the Sea" have made his name famous. is a lineal descendant of this old Huguenot family. 8. Elizabeth.

The arms of the Fontaine family are: Argent, a fesse embattled be- tween two elephants' heads, erased, with tusks depressed in chief ; in base. three masted ship, with sails and pennant spread. The crest is: An elephant's head, erased, with tusks depressed. Colonel William Fontaine of the revolutionary army had children: 1. William, died unmarried. 2. Charles, died unmarried. 3. John, died unmarried. 4. Alexander Rose, died unmarried. 5. Louisa, died unmarried. 6. Peter, died un- married. 7. James, of "Rock Castle," died 1872: married Juliet Morris. of "Sylvania," and had the following children: a. William Morris. b. James, died young. c. Peter, married Mrs. Lydia Laidley, and had children : James Morris ; Betsy Quarrier, died young ; and Keith Niles. d. Nancy, died young. e. Susan Watson, married Berkeley Minor, and had children: James Fontaine ; Berkeley ; and Charles Landon Carter, died young. f. Jolin Dabney, died young. g. Charles, died unmarried. h. Maury, died unmarried. i. Joseph Morris. j. Sally Rose. 8. Edmund Fontaine, of whom further. 9. Sarah Rose. died in 1863 ; married Alex- ander Fontaine Rose; children: a. Edmund Fontaine, married Betty

Maury, and had children : Alexander. John. Robert and Saralı Fon- taine. b. Louisa Fontaine, married John Potts, of Washington, D. C .. and had children: Rose, Douglas, Morris Templin and Elizabeth Haw- ley. c. Lawrence Berry, married Eliza Welford, and had children : Lawrence and Susan Welford. d. Charles Alexander, married Mary Eliza Rutherford, and had children: Samuel Rutherford; and Charles Alexander, married Logie Childs, and had children : Rutherford, Hugh, and Charles.

( II) Edmund Fontaine, son of Colone! William Fontaine, died in 1869. He was of "Beaver Dam." He married Maria Louisa Shackleford. and had the following children : 1. Betsy Ann : married Thomas H. De- Witt, and had the following children : a. Louisa Fontaine, died young. b. Edmund Fontaine. c. Mary Brown, married William H. Adams, and had children : Helen, Anthony Crece and Fontaine DeWitt. d. Nora Brax- ton, died young. 2. William Morris, died young. 3. Sarah Lousia, died young. 4. Jane Catherine, married Richard Hardway Meade : had chil- dren : a. Edmonia Fontaine, died young. b. Lila, married Benjamin B. Valentine. c. Richard Hardway, married Eleanor Prior Adkins, and had one child. Richard Hardway. d. Louise Fontaine, married Clar- ence Cadot. e. Kate Fontaine. f. Marianne Skelton. 5. Mary Mor- ris, of whom further. 6. Edmund, a Confederate soldier, killed at the battle of Manassas. 7. Lucy, married Chiswell Dabney, and had chil- dren : John Edward, Chiswell, Louisa Fontaine, Lucy, Elizabeth Towles and Edmund Fontaine. 8. John Boursiquot, married Elizabeth Wins- ton Price ; was a soldier in the Confederate army, and killed in battle : left one daughter, Ellen Stuart, who married Albert Sidney Morton and had children : Stuart Fontaine, Ellen Price, D'Arcy Paul. Albert Sid- ney and an infant girl.

(III) Mary Morris, daughter of Edmund Fontaine, married Major Thomas L. Broun, of Charleston, West Virginia. (see Broun III).

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KELLER Henry Keller, the first member of this family of whom we have any definite information, was born in Center county, Pennsylvania, in 1811, died there in 1884, aged seventy-three years. He was a grandson of Jacob Keller, a private soldier in the revolutionary war, who afterwards owned a mill and plan- tation near Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. Henry Keller was a foundryman. He married Margaret Schneck, born in 1813, died in 1890. Among his children were: Sarah J., now living at Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; So- phia C., married Rev. George C. Hall, of Wilmington, Delaware: Benja- min Franklin, of whom further.

( II) Benjamin Franklin, son of Henry and Margaret (Schneck ) Keller, was born in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, April 21, 1857. He re- ceived his early education in the public and high schools of his native town, and in the Pennsylvania State College, from which he graduated in 1876. He then taught school in his native county for three years, at the end of which time he took up the study of law at Columbia University at Washington, D. C., graduating in 1882. He then entered the service of the United States government in Washington, being employed on the tenth United States census and in the War Department and the Depart- ment of Labor. In 1891 he removed to Bramwell, West Virginia, an:l entered into the active practice of his profession, in which he continued for ten years, when he was appointed United States District Judge for the Southern District of West Virginia, which office he still holds. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights Templar, and the Mystic Shrine. He is a Republican in politics, and a member of the German Reformed church.

He married, at Danville, Pennsylvania, October 25, 1887, Mercy J. Baldy. No children.

BLUE This surname is derived from Blaauw, the Dutch word for "blue," which in both the full form and often in shortened forms of spelling, is found in the early Dutch church rec- ords. In 1698 for New York City the name is given as "Blau," with a number of later entries. The name Blue has certainly been in New Jersey since early in the eighteenth century, and judging by the names of those with whom members of this family married, they were of Dutch extraction. A similar name is found in the Dutch church records of the region about New Brunswick, New Jersey. Isaac Blue, of the New Jersey family, is found several times recorded on the rolls of revolutionary companies. Two other forms of the name are found in this state, in the Blew family, of Bridgeton, which is of more recent and German origin : while the name Bleu seems to come from France.

Spreading from the place of early emigration into neighboring states, the Pennsylvania archives from 1768 give both Blue and Blew. One very early reference is found in Virginia, the name of one Edward Blew, who came there in 1642. Part of the Dutch stock which had settled in New Jersey, thus one branch spread into Virginia, and a later branch into Pennsylvania. Three brothers came from New Jersey into Vir- ginia .- John, Uriah and Michael Blue. The two latter settled near Shep- herdstown, Jefferson county, and Blue's Gap, in the Shenandoah river region, was perhaps named for some member of that branch of the fam- ily. John Blue settled about five miles north of Romney, and was the founder of the Blue family in Hampshire county. As he may have come as early as 1725. he must have been among the first settlers in that region, this being earlier than the usually accepted date of settlement.

Another John Blue, belonging to the Blue family of North and South

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Carolina, served in the revolution. This line was of Scotch-Irish origin. and Lower, the authority on British surnames, gives Blue as a name found in Scotland, but never met with, so far as he knows, in England. This Carolinian John Blue is the great-grandfather of two distinguished men of the present day : One, Victor Blue, was a naval officer during the Spanish-American war, and won honors in scouting about Santiago de Cuba ; while his brother, Dr. Rupert Blue, has accomplished valuable work in connection with the United States Marine Hospital Service.

The family herein discussed are probably descended from John Blue, who settled at Romney, about 1725, and from whom, as above stated, the Blues of Hampshire county, West Virginia, are the descendants.

(I) Stephen Blue, born in Hampshire county, and died at Prunty- town, Taylor county, West Virginia, in 1850, is the first of this particu- lar branch of the family. He was a school teacher and contractor. He married Ann Burdette. Among his children was George Frederick, of whom further.

(II) George Frederick, son of Stephen and Ann ( Burdette ) Blue, was born in Pruntytown, West Virginia. He is still living in Kansas City, Missouri. At the outbreak of the civil war he enlisted at Webster, West Virginia, in the federal army as a member of the Fourth Virginia Cavalry. He was captured at Snowy Creek, and confined in Libby prison. After exchange of prisoners he re-entered the service, and served until the close of hostilities. He was in the later campaigns in West Virginia, and served under General Sheridan at the battle of Winches- ter, and under General Grant at Appomattox. After the resumption of peaceful occupations, and the mustering out of the army, he was em- ployed in railroad work and has now retired from active business.

He married Mary Martha, daughter of Charles Cameron and Har- riet (Bosworth) See, born near Huttonsville, Randolph county, West Virginia, died in 1880. Her father, Charles Cameron See, was the son of Adam See, a lawyer of the county of Randolph, and a member of the old Virginia assembly, who married Margaret Warwick. Harriet Bos- worth was a daughter of Squire Bosworth. Children of George F. and Mary M. ( See ) Blue : Frederick Omar, of whom further ; Grace, mar- ried Louis Brydon, now living in Grafton, Taylor county, West Virginia ; and three other children, now deceased.

(III) Frederick Omar, son of George Frederick and Mary Martha (See) Blue, was born in Grafton, Taylor county, West Virginia, No- vember 25, 1872. He received his early education in the graded and high schools of his native town, and in 1891 began the study of law in the offices of Dayton & Dayton, in Philippi, West Virginia. He was ad- mitted to the bar in December, 1893. He then formed an association with Alston G. Dayton, and entered upon the active practice of his pro- fession, in which he still continues. On March I, IQII, he was ap- pointed state tax commissioner of West Virginia, and is now living in Charleston, West Virginia. He is a stockholder in and one of the direc- tors of the First National Bank in Philippi. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, and is also a member of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks. He is a Republican in politics, and a Baptist in religion.

He married, in Philippi, West Virginia, November 26, 1895, Mar- garet J., daughter of Judge William T. and Columbia ( Jarvis) Ice, born in Philippi. Children: Frederick William, born June 29, 1897; Thomas Arthur, June 22, 1909.

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MCCLINTIC George W. McClintic, a member of the legal firm of Mollohan, McClintic & Mathews, son of William H. and Mary ( Mathews ) McClintic, was born January 14. 1866, in Pocahontas county, West Virginia, a descendant of an old Scotch family that came to America in colonial times. The emigrant first settled in Pennsylvania, but later members of the family moved to Virginia. One member, Robert McClintic, who was a revolutionary sol- dier, died from the result of a wound received at the battle of Guilford Court House.

(II) William H. McClintic was a native Virginian, son of Moses and Mary ( Daggs ) McClintic, who were also natives of Virginia, re- sided and died in the same familiar neighborhood, and were sturdy sup- porters of the Presbyterian faith. They had five sons and three daugh- ters.

William H. MeClintic, who was born in Bath county, Virginia, in 1825, died January 20, 1892, in West Virginia, was a farmer. He enlisted in defense of the southern confederacy in the civil war, in the Nineteenth Virginia Volunteers, Confederate army, under Colonel W. L. Jackson. and later under Colonel William P. Thompson, of Wheeling, West Vir- ginia. His regiment suffered much in the rigors of the campaign, but Mr. McClintic never received a wound or was captured. He married, in Pocahontas county, Mary, daughter of Sampson (3) Mathews. The Mathews family is one of the oldest in the Virginia valley, and the im- migrant, John Mathews, came over in 1737. His son. Sampson Mathews, also had a son Sampson, whose son Sampson was Mrs. McClintic's father. Intermarriages in this family also give her son descent from Jacob Warwick and Thomas Edgar, noted men of that early day, who also earned celebrity on the battle field. William H. McClintic had sev- eral children: I. Lockhart Mathews, graduated from the University of Virginia, now a lawyer practicing at Marlinton. 2. Edgar D., for a time attending one of the Virginia colleges, now a government employee in the assay office at Seattle, Washington. 3. Hunter H., died when a young man. 4. Withrow, a farmer of Pocahontas county. 5. George W., of whom further.

( III ) George W., son of William H. McClintic, received his degree of Bachelor of Arts from the Roanoke College at the age of seventeen, graduating with the class of 1883. His degree of Bachelor of Laws was bestowed upon him in 1886 when he was graduated with the class of that year from the University of Virginia's department of law. The law prevented his being admitted to the bar for another year, as he was still under age, but in 1887 he received his recognition as a lawyer at the bar of West Virginia. Moving temporarily to Colorado during the year 1887, he practiced law in Pueblo, but soon returned to Charleston. Here he formed a partnership with Mr. Wesley Mollohan under the firm name of Mollohan & McClintic. Later Mr. William Gordon Mathews became a member of the firm of Mollohan, McClintic & Mathews. Mr. Mollohan died September 25. 1911, but the junior members continued to practice under the same firm name. Mr. McClintic has achieved high place in the ranks of Masonry. He is a member of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Kanawha Lodge, No. 20; and past high priest of Chapter No. 13. Royal Arch Masons; past grand master of the Grand Lodge of West Virginia : past commander of Kanawha Commandery. No. 4. Knights Templar ; and past potentate of Beni Kedem Temple. Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He and his wife attend the Presbyterian church. Mr. McClintic married, in 1907, at Charleston, Ethel, daughter of Edward Boardman Knight, of Charleston.

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The Williams family is of Welsh origin and immi- WILLIAMS grated to America in the early part of the eighteenth century. Thomas was among the first settlers of Vir- ginia west of the Alleghanies, and for him the present town of Williams- burg, Greenbrier county, West Virginia, is named. He settled at that place about the middle of the eighteenth century, and was killed by the Indians near the time of Braddock's campaign against Fort Duquesne. His widow, Nancy, and two infant children, David and Nancy, were carried into captivity by the Indians, but were surrendered at the peace treaty made with the Indians by Colonel Bouquet in the year 1764. He left five children: John, familiarly known as "Captain Jack," a great Indian fighter ; Thomas, who was killed in the Battle of Point Pleasant : Richard; David, of whom further; and Nancy. The mother and infant. daughter were separated while with the Indians, for about nine years; and it a familiar family tradition that, when the white prisoners were surrendered, the mother had great difficulty in identifying her daughter, and was enabled to do so only by singing to her a familiar lullaby, this awakened the child's recollections of its mother. Nancy, the child, mar- ried a man by the name of Jones and bore children. Nancy, the widow, married a MIr. Cavendish and had children by him. "Captain Jack," Thomas, and Richard fought in the Battle of Point Pleasant under Cap- tain Robert McClenachan. Richard and "Captain Jack" married and settled in Greenbrier county, and they both left a number of children.

( II ) David, son of Thomas Williams, was married three times. By his first wife, - McCoy, he had a daughter, Sarah, who married a McCoy ; by his second wife, -- McMillion, he had six children : Nancy, who married a McPherson ; Elizabeth, who married a Hughart; Pollie, who married a Jeffries; Elijah; John, of whom further ; and David. By his last wife, Rebecca Knight, he had seven children: Sibbia, Mar- garet, Martha, Malinda, Rebecca ; and two sons, Charles and James. He died in 1836, at the age of about eighty years.

( III ) John, son of David Williams, was born in Greenbrier county, West Virginia, about 1790. He served in the war of 1812, and died in Greenbrier county in 1862, or 1863. He was married three times. By his first wife, - Maze, he left no children ; by his second wife, Vir- ginia Knight, he left eight sons: Simon Bolivar. Albert Gallatin, of whom further ; George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, William Ken- ney, Thomas Marion, John David, and James Harvey : by his third wife, Martha Allen, he left one son, Allen.

(IV) Albert Gallatin, son of John Williams, was born in Green- brier county, now West Virginia, in 1831, and died in that county in 1904. He was a farmer and cattle raiser, and was twice married. His first wife was Nancy Donnally, a descendant of "Captain Jack" Wil- liams ; by her he had three children: James Bryson, who died in 1885, Luther Judson, of whom further, and John Bolivar. After the death of his first wife, in 1862, he married Elizabeth Donnally, widow of John Donnally ; she was the mother of two children by her first marriage : James Allen who died in 1888, and Mary Martha who married Rev. D. C. Hedrick. By the second marriage there were four children: Dora B., who married R. E. Thrasher ; Elizabeth Jane ( Jennie ) : Thomas M., a physician and surgeon, now living in Palo Alto, California ; and How- ard E., who was nominated in 1912 by the Republican party as a candi- date for commissioner of agriculture of West Virginia.

(V) Hon. Luther Judson Williams, son of Albert Gallatin and Nancy (Donnally) Williams, was born in Williamsburg, Greenbrier county. West Virginia, October 18, 1856. He received his early education in the public schools of his native county and at the University of West

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Virginia ; taught school in Greenbrier county for twelve years, and dur- ing the summer vacations worked on his father's farm. After he was married he studied law at the University of Virginia, in 1887-1888; he then obtained license to practice law in Virginia, and was shortly after- ward admitted to practice in West Virginia. He located in Lewisburg in 1888, and has since been practicing his profession. From 1900 to 1902 he served on the "West Virginia Tax Commission ;" was a member of the board of regents of the West Virginia University from 1903 to 1908, and resigned that office upon his election, in 1908, as a judge of the supreme court of appeals of West Virginia, for a term of twelve years, which office he now holds. He is a member of Greenbrier Lodge, No. 42. Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; a Republican in politics and a Methodist in religion. He married three times ; (first ) in 1883. Minnie J. Patterson, who was born in Greenbrier county in 1863, and died in September, 1892; (second) in September, 1894. Mary (Dice) Leonard, widow of William E. Leonard. She died in May, 1906, leaving one child. Alice E., a child of her first marriage. In September, 1900, he married ( third) Harriet Louise Peck, born in Brooklyn, New York. He has two sons: Russell Lowell, and Forrest Gray, children of his first wife.

CLARK The development of the great mineral resources of West Virginia has called into action many talented, energetic men,

who have been drawn hither from almost every state in the Union. Among such real captains of industry is James M. Clark, of New Jersey, whose genealogical and personal history is here briefly out- lined :

(I) Samuel Clark, born in England, settled on Long Island in 1680.

( II) Thomas Clark, son of Samuel Clark, came from England with the father in 1680.

(III) William Clark, son of Thomas Clark, settled in Westfield, New Jersey, some time before 1730.

(IV ) Captain Charles Clark, son of William Clark, spent his entire life in Westfield, New Jersey.

(V) Captain William Clark, son of Captain Charles Clark, was born in 1756; fought in the revolutionary war, was captured by the British and imprisoned in the "Old Sugar House Prison," on Manhat- tan Island, and died September 28, 1853, aged ninety-seven years, three months and eleven days, as shown by the head-stone at his grave. The stone has inscribed near the base "I would not live alway". Dr. Wil- liam A. Clark, of Trenton, New Jersey, has a cane made from the wal- nut timber taken from the old prison in which his great-grandfather was imprisoned. When the building was torn down canes were made from the material and presented to all surviving prisoners, Captain William receiving the one now at Trenton.

(VI) Andrew H., son of Captain William Clark, spent his life in Westfield, New Jersey.

(VII) James Lawrence, son of Andrew H. Clark, was born Janu- ary 22, 1818, in Westfield, New Jersey, where his life was largely spent, dying March 4. 1903. By occupation he was a farmer and builder. also a mason in New York City. Politically he was a Republican, and in church faith a Presbyterian. He married Hannah Margaret Johns- ton, born in New York City, June 20, 1832. She was always an active church worker in the Presbyterian church, of which William Clark (III) was one of the founders in 1730. She died December 12, 1911. The children of James L. and Hannah Margaret (Johnston) Clark were: I. Mary Gray. 2. James M., of whom further. 3. Estelle M., married

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West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 11

Author: Miller, Thomas Condit, 1848-; Maxwell, Hu, joint author Publication date: 1913 Publisher: New York, Lewis Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 866

Author: Miller, Thomas Condit, 1848-; Maxwell, Hu, joint author
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: New York, Lewis Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 866