USA > West Virginia > West Virginia and its people, Volume II > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93
Mr. Walker married, 1868, Emma, born in Wetzel county, West Vir- ginia, March 24, 1848, daughter of George W. and Elizabeth (Horn- brooke) Bier. Children : 1. Emma E., born in Charleston, West Virginia, August 6, 1871 : married H. L. Prichard, of Charleston. 2. Philip George, of whom further.
(III) Lieutenant Philip George Walker, only son and youngest child of Henry Streit and Emma ( Bier ) Walker, was born in Charleston, West Virginia, September 8, 1872. His college preparatory education was ac- quired at the Pantops Academy, near Charlottesville, Virginia, after which he became a student at Princeton University and was graduated from the academic department in 1895. Taking up the study of law at
Henry Attacker
107
WEST VIRGINIA
the University of Virginia, he was admitted to the bar in 1897, and be- gan the practice of law in Charleston, West Virginia, in which he has con- tinued up to the present time. He is the owner of a fine farm in the Shenandoah Valley, and he and his mother have been very successful in its cultivation. During the Spanish-American war Mr. Walker enlisted as a private in Company B, First West Virginia Volunteer Infantry ; was assigned to Company E and commissioned second lieutenant, May 16, 1898, and advanced to a first lieutenancy, January 10, 1899. He also served as aide to Brigadier-General Jolin A. Wiley, commanding the Second Division, First Army Corps. Mr. Walker is a stanch supporter of the Democratic party, and his religious affiliations are with the Pres- byterian church. He is a member of Beta Theta Phi fraternity of the University of Virginia, and of the Edgewood Country Club.
(The Schley Line).
Mrs. Walker is descended from the Schley family as follows : (I) Nicholas Schley, married Eve Bregetta.
(II) John Thomas, son of Nicholas and Eve ( Bregetta) Schley, was the founder of the Schley family in America, and established the First Evangelical Reformed Church, in the colony of Monocacy, prior to 1745. In 1745 he surveyed and laid out the town of Frederick, Maryland, the compass used by him being still in the possession of the Schley family in that town, built the first house, and in it was born his daughter, Eve Catherine, being the first child born in the town. He was the first teach- er in the Evangelical Reformed church in Frederick, and for forty-five years was its mainstay. Of good education and keen discernment, he was a well known figure in the political, military and ecclesiastical his- tory of the state of Maryland. The large and influential family of Schleys in this country is descended from him. This family furnished guns for the revolution from private funds and also two hundred pounds of lawful currency to relieve the necessities of Boston. The following extracts are of historical interest : "At a meeting of the citizens of Fred- erick County this 20th day of June, 1774, John Thomas Schley (with these) were appointed a committee to receive and answer letters and in any emergency to call a meeting ;" Schaff's History, Vol. II. "Nov. 18th, 1774, he was appointed a member of the Committee to represent Freder- ick County and to carry into execution the resolutions agreed on by the American Continental Congress ;" ibid, page 164. "On January 24th, 1775, he was appointed a member of the Committee of Observation with full powers to prevent any infraction of the American Congress, and carry into effect the resolutions of that body." These committees were known as the committee of correspondence and the committee or coun- cils of safety : ibid, page 174. John Thomas Schley married Margaret von Wintz.
(III) Eve Catherine, daughter of John Thomas and Margaret (von Wintz) Schley, married Philip Bier.
(IV) Philip, son of Philip and Eve Catherine (Schley) Bier, mar- ried Patience Elliott.
(V) George W., son of Philip and Patience (Elliott) Bier, married Elizabeth Hornbrooke, and had children : 1. Emma, who married Henry Streit Walker, as mentioned above. 2. Philip George, born at Wheeling, West Virginia, November 21, 1841 ; enlisted as a private in Company D. Twelfth Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, and was killed at the battle of Cedar Creek. 1864, at which time he was captain in the United States Volunteers and acting as assistant-adjutant-general on the staff of Major-General Crook. He had also held the same rank on the staffs of Major-Generals Sigel and Hunter. The "Contemporary Biog-
108
WEST VIRGINIA
raphy of West Virginia" says: "While endeavoring to rally the retreat- ing Union troops near Middletown, about thirteen miles from Winchester, October 19, 1864, he was mortally wounded and died from the effects of the wound the same day."
To the fraternity of traveling salesmen traversing THORNBURG this district, Edgar Horace Thornburg is well known, not only by his long service in that occupa- tion, but as one of the heads of their order, in a territory covering four states. He is also distinguished as a live business man. Mr. Thornburg is of old West Virginia stock. His paternal grandfather was Thomas Thornburg, a farmer of Berkeley county, West Virginia, who died there at seventy years of age. His maternal grandfather, Henry H. Miller, was a West Virginian, who was eighty years old at his death ; he was very active, and was a river man and merchant, long resident at Guyandotte, and so partisan a Confederate in civil war times that the Yankees burnt his storehouse and all his effects. He passed away at Cincinnati, where he had long been engaged in the commission line.
(II) Collins Unseld, son of Thomas Thornburg, was a native of Berkeley county. He was a school teacher in public schools for the most part, and for a time, assistant at Marshall College. His wife, Mr. Thorn- burg's mother, was Lenore Chapman Miller, a native of Missouri; her parents located, nearly seventy years ago, at Guyandotte (now Hunting- ton), and here she has remained ever since. She is now in her seventieth year. Children of Collins U. and Lenore C. ( Miller ) Thornburg, all liv- ing, are: Harry Collins, of Huntington: Charles Miller, of the same place : Lida Marie, unmarried, of the same place: Edgar Horace, of whom further ; Frances Belle ; and Frank Bruner, who are twins; and Lenore Chapman, now Mrs. A. H. Yarbrough, of Atlanta, Georgia.
(III) Edgar Horace, son of Collins Unseld Thornburg, was born in Berkeley county, West Virginia, on the old Thornburg homestead, his father's farm, September 2, 1872. His early education was obtained in the local schools, and later in those in and near Huntington. He re- mained on the farm assisting his father until he was of age. Then he began his business career in the C. & O. shops. Then, after studying shorthand, he went with the Emmons Hawkins Hardware Company of Huntington, West Virginia, in 1893, and remained in that capacity about ten years, for a time in office work, and later on the road. He was a salesman with the concern for seven years. He then became associated with the Standard Oil Company for four years. Then, in 1906, he or- ganized the Huntington Hardware Company, which was consolidated three years later with the Foster. Mead Hardware Company, a corpora- tion of Huntington. He had been secretary of the Huntington company, and began in the same position with the new concern, after consolidation. Later on he became general manager of the corporation and still holds that office. He is also a director of the Union Transfer Company, of Huntington.
Mr. Thornburg is a Democrat in politics ; a member of the Southern Methodist church ; and a Free Mason. He is grand councillor of the Commercial Travelers' Association, for the district embracing the two Virginias, Kentucky and Maryland. He married in Huntington. April 21, 1899. Bertha M. McGlatbery, born in Altoona. Pennsylvania, in March, 1876. Her father, Lewis S. McGlathery still survives and re- sides with Mr. Thornburg. Her mother. Katherine McGlathery, died July 3, 1911. Two children were born of this union: Paul Lewis, born
100
WEST VIRGINIA
June 15, 1900, now attending public school here ; and Catherine Lenore. born January 7, 1909.
WYATT Charles Russell Wyatt is of old Virginia stock on both
sides of the family. His grandfather on the paternal side, William R. B. Wyatt, was born in Gloucester county, Vir- ginia, and died there at the age of seventy-five. He was a farmer.
(II) Richard Wyatt, son of William R. B. Wyatt. was born in Caro- line county, Virginia, in 1832. His life was brief compared with those of his immediate forbears ; he died April 30, 1881, at the age of forty-nine. His life, however, had not been uneventful. Before the war he lived and worked in Richmond, Virginia, employed there in a clerical capacity. During the war he served with the famous Richmond Howitzers, a crack corps of the southern capital, which saw no little serious fighting and earned a martial name and fame. After the war he went to farming in his native state.
His wife was Mary Eubank, daughter of Joseph C. Eubank, who lived and died in Middlesex county, in the old Dominion state and was seventy when he passed away. He, too, was in the agricultural line. Mrs. Richard Wyatt was born in Essex county, Virginia, in 1837, died in April, 1895, at the age of fifty-eight. Children : Charles Russell, mentioned be- low ; Belle L., now resident in Richmond, Virginia, and the wife of Jo- seph E. Willard, of that city.
(III) Charles Russell Wyatt, son of Richard Wyatt, was born in Caroline county, Virginia, December 5, 1867. He was named after the distinguished Charles W. Russell. The family made its home in Middle- sex county, when he was but two years old, and there he was brought up and received the elements of education in the common schools. Later, in his younger manhood, he studied law at the University of Virginia, and received his degree and license to practice in 1892. He had helped his father on the farm until his twentieth year. In 1887, he came to Huntington, and found employment with the Adams Express Com- pany. It was in 1891 that he took up his law studies; that year he was enabled to take a course at the University of Virginia.
Mr. Wyatt has led a busy life, not as a lawyer only, but in a business way and in public affairs as well. He has been especially interested in the development of Huntington. He is vice-president of the American National Bank, one of the city's important financial institutions, vice- president of the American Bank & Trust Company, vice-president also of the Pennsylvania Table Company. Politically he is a Democrat, and prominent enough in that party to have been its candidate for prosecut- ing attorney in 1908. He is a member of the Masonic order, and attached to the Presbyterian faith.
Mr. Wyatt married, November 3, 1897, at Richmond, Virginia, Sarah P. Sloan, a native of that city, born July 1, 1869, daughter of Captain John A. Sloan, who was an officer in the Confederate service, and died several years ago. Her mother, Morton W. Sloan, lives with the Wyatt family in Huntington. Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt have three children, all living, namely : Charles R., Jr., born October 8, 1898, now at school ; Morton W., born June 19, 1900; and Joseph W., born May 26, 1902.
Timothy Scanlon, the first member of this family in SCANLON America, was born in county Kerry, Ireland, about 1804, and died in 1860. At the age of forty-four he came with his family to America, and settled at Harrisonburg, Rocking- ham county, Virginia. In America he was a railroad contractor. He
IIO
WEST VIRGINIA
married, in Ireland, Nora Mahoney, who was born in County Kerry, Ireland, about 1819, and died in 1901. Children: P. J., living in Lin- coln county, West Virginia ; Nora, married Charles Dyer, lives at Mont- gomery, West Virginia ; Margaret C., married John Lee, lives at Hunt- ington ; Timothy Samuel, of whom further ; and five deceased.
(II) Timothy Samuel, son of Timothy and Nora ( Mahoney) Scan- lon, was born at Harrisonburg, Virginia, October 15, 1858. While he was an infant, his father removed to Covington, Alleghany county, Virginia. and when he was five years old the family went to Kanawha, West Vir- ginia. Here he attended the public schools, and also earned money to take him to the college at Staunton, Augusta county, Virginia. Then he went into southwestern Kentucky, and worked for a year as weighmas- ter at a coal mine. After this he entered the employment of the Chesa- peake & Ohio railroad, at Hinton, Summers county, West Virginia. First he was clerk at the station, then for fifteen months he was a brakeman, after this he was conductor for two years, then for three years yardmas- ter at Hinton. He next was made trainmaster over the mountains and held this position for two years. In 1881 he settled at Huntington, Ca- bell county, West Virginia, and engaged in the shoe business, as a mem- ber of the firm of T. S. Scanlon & Company. Four years later he owned the store by himself, and he continued in this business until April, 1907. Since that time he has been a general contractor, engaged mostly in municipal work, street-paving and sewer work. He is a stockholder and now (1913) vice-president of the Huntington Chair Company. He helped to organize the Union Savings Bank and Trust Company in 1897, and has been vice-president since its organization. The plan on which the Huntington Chamber of Commerce is based was devised by him, and he was for eight years its secretary. In politics Mr. Scanlon is a Democrat, and an active one, during campaigns, he speaks for the party all over the state, and has a recognized position as a speaker. He has been city treasurer of Huntington, and for two terms a member of the city council, and since the adoption of the commission form of govern- ment for Huntington, Mr. Scanlon was elected one of said board, which is composed of four members. He was once nominated for state senator. Being made president of the West Virginia Colored Orphans' Home and Industrial School, Mr. Scanlon obtained from the legislature an appro- priation of money for teachers' salaries ; in fact, he brought it to its pres- ent position of usefulness and service. Having been himself an orphan from a tender age, he has great pity for orphans, and has cared for and raised twenty-one orphans in his own home. He has also helped many wayward girls to better lives. For fifteen years, he has been a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks ; is also a member of the Knights of Columbus, and state president of the Ancient Order of Hi- bernians. For ten years he was state lecturer of the Modern Woodmen. Mr. Scanlon is a Roman Catholic.
He married, at Huntington, June 15, 1886, Jennie V., daughter of John and Elizabeth Drusilla ( Stewart) White, who was born at Guyan- dotte. Her father is deceased, her mother, now ( 1913) seventy-seven years old, is living with Mr. Scanlon. Children : Nora Drusilla, died in infancy ; Charles Martin, born September 23, 1890, living at home.
Cary Nelson Davis, son of Rev. Dabney Carr Terrell and DAVIS Mary (Anderson) Davis, was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, October 25, 1875. He attended the private schools of that county and the Episcopal High School, near Alexandria, Vir- ginia. After this, he taught school for seven years, mostly at the Epis-
B.M. foster
III
WEST VIRGINIA
copal High School. In June, 1904, he graduated in law from the Uni- versity of Virginia. He has been admitted to the bar, both in Virginia and in West Virginia. Till October, 1905, he practiced at Fayetteville, Fayette county, West Virginia, and then entered the firm of Campbell, Heffley & Davis, which was dissolved in 1909, when the firm of Camp- bell, Brown & Davis was formed. In politics he is a Democrat, and in religious faith, an Episcopalian. He married, at Ocean Springs, Jackson county, Mississippi, in April, 1910. Roberta, daughter of Robert and Matilda (Staples) Lewis, who was born at Ocean Springs. Her father a prominent lumber dealer at that place, died when she was a child : her mother is living at Ocean Springs. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have one child, Ora, born November 18, 1912.
FOSTER Bradley Waters Foster has long been a resident of Hunt- ington (some forty years or more) and he is one of the most substantial business men of the place. He is inter- ested in a great number of its enterprises, and is, in various ways, a leading citizen. On his father's side, he traces back to old New England stock, and on the mother's side, to revolutionary ancestry. His maternal great-grandfather, a Massachusetts man, raised, equipped and held com- mand of a regiment in the war for independence. His grandfather on the father's side, was Joseph Foster, who died at Dixfield, Maine.
(II) Joseph S., son of Joseph Foster, was born in Winslow, Kenne- bec county, in the Pine Tree State, was a farmer, and lived there until his death at eighty-six years of age. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah K. Holman, lived to the age of sixty-five. Her father, Ebenezer Holman, was born in the Old Bay State, but moved to Maine and settled there. There he married and there passed away at the ripe old age of one hundred and two years. Joseph S. Foster had four children, of whom Bradley Waters Foster was the second, being the only son. Of the others, one became Mrs. E. A. Abbott of Mexico, Maine, another be- came Mrs. M. A. Waite, of Dixfield, Maine, and the third, Georgiana, is deceased.
(III) Bradley Waters, son of Joseph S. Foster, was born in Winslow, Kennebec county, Maine, December 2, 1838. His parents moved to Ox- ford county, in the same state, when he was four years old, and there he was brought up and received his early schooling, helping his father on the farm till he reached majority. He then located in the town of Lewis- ton, Maine, and went into business. He started in the grocery and provi- sion line there, in 1859, as one of the firm of Foster & Durgin, and so continued about four years, and then set out on his own account at Co- hoes, Albany county, New York. In 1871 he came to Huntington, and opened a hardware store, which he conducted without a partner. This was the origin of what is now the Foster, Mead Hardware Company, a corporation, the most important concern of the kind in this part of the country, and Mr. Foster is its president. He was one of the organizers and is still on the board of directors of the First National Bank of Hunt- ington, an institution now twenty-eight years old. He assisted in the organization, and is vice-president of the First National Bank of Kenova, Wayne county, West Virginia, and he was also one of the or- ganizers, and is president, of the Huntington Banking & Trust Company. He is also president of the Huntington Land Company, and of the Hunt- ington Kenova Land Company. He is a stockholder in the Newbury Shoe Company, and president of the Huntington Chair Company ; President of the McColm Granite Company, and vice-president of the Huntington Stove and Foundry Company, and stockholder, since its organization, in
I12
WEST VIRGINIA
the street railway company. A man, it will be seen, of many investments, of substance and property, of energy and enterprise, he is one of the first citizens of the place. Mr. Foster is a progressive man, notwithstanding his years, and has built, at the corner of Fifth avenue and Eleventh street in Huntington, a new concrete residence. This is the sort of man that has made Huntington flourish. He served on the board of the Wes- ton and Spencer Insane Hospital, in all about ten years ; and also assisted in founding a private city hospital in Huntington, West Virginia. Mr. Foster holds politically to Republican doctrine. He has been a member of the Huntington city council several times. In a religious way, he gives allegiance to the Presbyterian faith.
Mr. Foster married at Oneonta, New York, in 1868, Mary Leonora Huntington, a niece of the great railroad man, the late Collis P. Hunting- ton, after whom the town of Huntington was named. Her mother, Har- riet S. Huntington died three years ago.
Franklin Tapp Geiger, the first member of this family
GEIGER about whom we have definite information, was born in Pennsylvania, and died during the Mexican war. His life was passed at Staunton, Augusta county, Virginia, where he was a mer- chant. Child, William, of whom further.
(II) William, son of Franklin Tapp Geiger, was born at Staunton, November 30, 1845. For twenty years he was a teacher in the institute for the deaf, dumb, and blind, at Staunton. He married Fannie, daugh- ter of John Churchman, who was born in 1843, and died in 1908 (see Churchman line). William Geiger is now living at Huntington, retired. with his son, John Churchman. Children : John Churchman, of whom further ; Henry J., an Episcopalian clergyman, at Hickman, Fulton coun- ty, Kentucky, Nancy T., living at Millborough, Bath county, Virginia ; William, died in the United States service at Manila, Philippine Islands, having been appointed, by President Mckinley, a first lieutenant in the Fourteenth Infantry, regular army ; and four others, all deceased.
(III) Dr. John Churchman Geiger, son of William and Fannie (Churchman) Geiger, was born at Staunton, March 31, 1877. He at- tended the local schools and Roanoke College, and then went to the Uni- versity of Virginia, from which he graduated in medicine in 1901. This was followed by a special course at the Philadelphia Polyclinic, in dis- eases of the eye, ear, nose, and throat. He practiced first for a year at Charleston, West Virginia, then, in 1902, came to Huntington, and is a close specialist in the lines mentioned. Dr. Geiger is a member of the Modern Woodmen, and a Democrat. In religious belief he is an Epis- copalian. He married at Baltimore, Maryland, November 15, 1906, Mar- cella May, daughter of Marcellus and Mary Lorenz, who was born at Baltimore. Her parents were West Virginians ; her father was a travel- ing salesman, and died twelve years ago; her mother is now living at Baltimore, and has reached the age of sixty-nine. Children of Dr. Geiger : Elizabeth, born September 17, 1909; Marcella May, born December 2. I9II.
(The Churchman Line).
The English residence of this family is at Saffron Waldron, Essex county. The first American residence of the family was in Pennsylvania and they have been very prominent, both in Virginia and in West Vir- ginia.
John Churchman came to Darby, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, in 1682. There were also among early immigrants a relative, George Church-
II3
WEST VIRGINIA
man ; and a Susanna Churchman was married in 1690. So far as known, all the American Churchmans are descended from John. He settled at Chester, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, and, in 1704, moved to Notting- ham, Chester county, and died in 1724. He married, in 1696, Hannah, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Cerie, who was born about 1676, and died September 22, 1759. John Churchman had come to this country in the care of Thomas Cerie ; his future wife was then a child of six. Children : George, born July 13, 1697, died April 29, 1767; Dinah, born June 7, 1699, married Messr. Brown ; Susanna, born July 13, 1701, married Wil- liam Brown; John, born August 29, 1703, died September 8, 1703; John, born June 4, 1705, died July 24, 1775, married, November 27, 1729, Mar- garet Brown; Thomas, born November 16, 1707-8, died April 4, 1788; Miriam, born August 25, 1710, married James Brown; Edward, born September 14, 1713, died in December, 1732-3: Sarah, born March 17, 1716, died August 2, 1750, married Joseph Trimble; William, born No- vember 29. 1720, married Abigail Brown.
Several of the carly descendants were noted in various ways. One was a scientist; there were several surveyors ; John (2), the son born in 1705, became a Quaker preacher.
John Churchman, the father of Mrs. William Geiger, was born in Augusta county, Virginia. He was a farmer, and was sheriff of Au- gusta county. During the civil war, he was a southern sympathizer ; and lost heavily by the war. In religious belief he was an Episcopalian.
WILLIAMS Most persons bearing this name are, it is probable, of Welsh descent. The name is very common in Wales, England and the United States. Other Welsh forms of the same name are Gwilym and Gwilliam. It seems well established that the family name of Oliver Cromwell's family was at first, Williams, but was changed in the reign of King Henry the Eighth ; so that, for some time, both surnames were in use for the same persons of this stock. Many Williams families are entitled to coats-of-arms.
(1) Joseph Williams, the first member of this family about whom we have definite information, was born in Pennsylvania, and died in Gal- lia county, Ohio. He was a farmer and merchant. Child: Isaiah S., of whom further.
(II) Isaiah S., son of Joseph Williams, was born in Gallia county, Ohio, about 1838, died in 1898. He was a farmer. He married Mary, daughter of Sylvester McDaniel, born about 1840, died in 1888. Her father was born in Virginia, the family home, and was a farmer. Chil- dren : Roma W., married T. J. Evans, and lives in Gallia county ; Elmer S., living at Loveland, Clermont county, Ohio, a mail agent ; Edwin Earl, of whom further ; Charles, died at the age of seven.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.