West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 20

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

USA > West Virginia > West Virginia and its people, Volume II > Part 20

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The name Donaldson is said to be equivalent to Mac DONALDSON Donald, not only in meaning. but as being actually the same family's name. The clan MacDonald is one of the oldest and most important in Scotland, its chiefs being de- scended from Somerled, thane of Argyle, sometimes styled "King of the Isles," who flourished in the twelfth century. Donald is a well known personal name. The neighborhood of Newville, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, was settled, in the eighteenth century, by numerous Scotch- Irish families. The following seems a probable line of descent to the Rev. Newton Donaldson, of Huntington, Cabell county, West Virginia.

The name of the father of Andrew and William Donaldson who re- sided in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, is not definitely known. He was from northern Ireland and came to America before the revolutionary war. His son, William was a prosperous farmer and served as a captain in the revolution. He has numerous descendants in Cumberland county by the names of Stewart, Mclaughlin, Myers and Dunlap.

(II) Andrew, son of - Donaldson, was thirteen years old when his father moved to America. He married Isabella Sproat, and her brother married Eve Donaldson, sister of Andrew. The house in which Andrew lived, near Newville, is still preserved. He removed from Cumberland county and settled in Slippery Rock creek, in Butler county. Child : John, of whom further. Andrew had a brother, name unknown, who went west.

(III) John, oldest son of Andrew Donaldson, was born near New- ville, June 17, 1788, died June 26, 1861. He was a farmer, and in 1815 he removed from Slippery Rock creek, to the township of Rockland, Venango county, Pennsylvania, and seven years later to Richland, in the same county. He married, May 31, 1810, Nancy Adams, born April 25, 1787, in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania. Children : Isabella ; Ann, died in infancy ; Ann M. ; Sarah ; William A., of whom further : Andrew ; John ; Samuel, born July 9. 1825, married, February 13. 1850. Sarah E. Myers ; Josiah.

(IV) William A., son of John and Nancy (Adams) Donaldson, was born in Venango county, Pennsylvania, October 20, 1819, and all his life he has been a farmer. He still lives in Venango county, and is in posses- sion of his faculties, despite his great age. He married Sarah, daughter of James Hall, born October 31, 1820, in Venango county, died August 18, 1891. Her father was a farmer of Venango county, who died in the ninetieth year of his age. Children : 1. Cyrus, born May 5, 1843, died in Iowa, September 16, 1879: a physician. 2. Emma, died in infancy. 3. John H., born September 28, 1847, a farmer in Venango county. 4. Juliet, born October 10. 1849, a graduate of Edinboro State Normal, taught several years, now living at home. 5. Heber, a lawyer, born Sep- tember 20, 1851, died March 31. 1909. 6. Newton, of whom further. 7. Elma, born April 1, 1856, a graduate of Edinboro State Normal, a mis- sionary in India. 8. James M., died in infancy.

(V) Rev. Newton Donaldson. D. D., son of William and Sarah (Hall) Donaldson, was born on his father's farm in Venango county, De- cember 13, 1853. He attended the public schools of the county, then went to Corsica academy, and afterward to Washington and Jefferson Col- lege, from which he graduated with the degree of A. B., in 1879. After teaching for a year and a half in Cross Creek academy, Washington coun- ty. Pennsylvania, he entered the Western Theological Seminary, in Pitts- burgh. From this institution he graduated in the spring of 1883. In the summer of the same year. he received the degree of A. M. from Wash- ington and Jefferson College, and this college also conferred upon him the degree of D. D. in 1905.

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The summer of 1882 was passed in home mission work in Iowa. His first regular charge was at Washington, Guernsey county, Ohio, where he remained for four and one-half years. The next six years were passed at Bellevue, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. In 1893 he came to Hunt- ington, Cabell county, West Virginia, and assumed charge of the First Presbyterian Church. During this period its membership has increased from two hundred to six hundred and twenty-five (1913). In 1896 the present building was erected, which is valued at over forty thousand dol- lars ; it has a fine pipe organ and excellent equipments. Preparation is now being made to build an annex for Sunday-school purposes. Dr. Don- aldson, in 1905, was moderator of the synod of Virginia, at Richmond. Since that year he has been a member of the board of directors of the Union Theological Seminary.

Dr. Donaldson married, in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, Septem- ber 25, 1883, Lizzie J., daughter of John and Isabella (Dunn) Martin, who was born in Pittsburgh. Both her parents have been dead for many years. Children : I. Dwight M., born December 16, 1884 ; a graduate of Washington and Jefferson College, has spent three years teaching in In- dia ; at the present time studying at the Western Theological Seminary. 2. William W., born December 25, 1885 ; now a student at Western Re- serve Medical College, Cleveland, Ohio. 3. Mary Lois, now a senior at Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts.

DANIEL James Daniel, the first member of this family of whom we have definite information was a planter and slaveholder in Orange county, Virginia. His wife's name is unknown. Among his children was Beverly Ragland, referred to below.

(II) Beverly Ragland, son of James Daniel, was born in Orange county, Virginia, about 1823, and died in 1900, aged seventy- seven years. He was in affluent circumstances and owned a large plan- tation with a quantity of slaves, and served in the Confederate army during the war between the states. He married Mary, daughter of Lewis Andrews of Orange county, born about 1831, and died in 1894, aged sixty-three years. Children : Zachary C., now living in Augusta county, Virginia ; James B., now living in Orange county, Virginia; Elizabeth. died unmarried, aged forty-eight years: Sarah T., married H. C. Eddins of Washington, D. C .; Lewis Andrews, referred to below.

(III) Lewis Andrews, son of Beverly Ragland and Mary (An- drews) Daniel, was born on his father's farm in Orange county, Vir- ginia, May 2, 1860. He received his early education in the public schools and at Green Level Academy in Spottsylvania county, Virginia. He worked upon his father's farm until he was eighteen years of age and then went to Kentucky in the employ of a railroad contractor, being placed in charge of a gang of prisoners ( with the office of warden of the prison ), from the penitentiary who were working upon the railroad. He then entered the hotel business in Hinton, West Virginia, remaining there for some years, and was twice elected mayor of that town. Mr. Daniel came to Huntington in 1894 and has been connected almost con- tinuously in the hotel business since ; he has been president of the L. A. Daniel Hotel Company for seven years, who are the proprietors of the Florentine Hotel, one of the leading American plan hotels of West Vir- ginia. Mr. Daniel is a director of the American National Bank and the American Bank & Trust Company of Huntington. He is a member of the Christian church and a Democrat in politics. He married in Lynch- burg, Virginia, June 3. 1885, Mattie, daughter of Charles W. and Vir- ginia ( Pulliam) McCue, born in Albemarle county. Virginia. Children : Ruth : Mary : Anna Belle : Ouida.

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William Moffatt, the first member of this family of MOFFATT whom we have definite information, was born in Vir- ginia, and died in Tennessee in 1859. He married Han- nah Lacy, born in Bedford county, Tennessee, about 1832, and died in 1889, aged fifty-seven years. Children: Hopkins L., now deceased ; Elizabeth, married Thomas Drane; James Andrew, referred to below.

(II) James Andrew, son of William and Hannah (Lacy) Moffatt, was born in Bedford county, Tennessee. He received his early educa- tion in the public schools and worked on his father's farm until twenty years of age. He then entered the employ of the Bell Telephone Company in Tennessee and Kentucky, remaining with them for two years. He was then employed for one year by the Clifton Coal and Coke Company in Hopkins county, Kentucky, and for four years there- after by the Louisville Coal and Coke Company in Mercer county, West Virginia. For some years after he was a contractor, and in the hotel business in Kentucky and West Virginia, and in December, 1911, became a member of the L. A. Daniel Hotel Company in Huntington, West Vir- ginia, and one of the proprietors of the Florentine Hotel. He is a member of the Christian church and a Democrat in politics, and is a member of the Masons and the Benevolent Protective Order Elks. He married, in McDowell county, West Virginia, November 26, 1893, Sophia E., daugh- ter of Joseph and Mattie ( Hutchinson ) Meek, born in Lawrence county, Kentucky. No children.

TAYLOR It is supposed that all the Taylors are descended from a brave Norman baron named Taillefer, who lost his life at the battle of Hastings in 1066. His death called out an expression of anguish from the Normons, in which William the Con- queror is said to have joined. The modern form of the name is grad- ually approached, and is first found about 1350. There were Taylor settlers in New England, New Jersey, and several parts of the south. The best known, though not the only notable, representative of the family in this country was President Zachary Taylor, who was of Vir- ginian descent. The present family is descended from John Taylor, an early Carolinian. The immediate family has been of much prominence in Granville county, North Carolina.

(I) Robert Taylor, the first member of this family about whom we have definite information, was born in Granville county, North Carolina, and died in 1850. He was a farmer ; was twice married, and became the father of five children : Isabella, Richard T., by first wife : Charles Henry Kennon, of whom further, Archibald, and Leonidas C., by second wife. (II) Charles Henry Kennon, son of Robert Taylor, was born in Granville county in 1817. and died at Huntington, Cabell county, West Virginia, in 1901. He was a farmer and a slaveholder. He served in the North Carolina legislature, both in the senate and in the house. He mar- ried Martha A., daughter of Dr. Thomas A. Reild, who died in 1896, being over sixty years old. Her father, a native of Mecklenburg county, Virginia, practiced medicine in his early life, but was afterward a farmer ; he died just after the war, at the age of seventy. Children : Thomas Wallace, of whom further ; Ella, married James A. Marrow, lives in Granville county ; Martha, married Benjamin Johnson, lives at Huntington ; William Leonidas, living at Memphis, Tennessee ; Charles Wister, now mayor of Marianna. Lee county, Arkansas: Fernando, liv- ing at Alexandria, Virginia: Marietta, died at the age of twenty-two ; Massillon, killed in the war, on the retreat from Gettysburg: Henry, accidentally killed during the war.

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(III) Judge Thomas Wallace Taylor, son of Charles Henry Kennon and Martha A. (Feild) Taylor, was born in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, September 23, 1842. He attended the academies at Oxford, Granville county, North Carolina, and spent five years at J. H. Horner's academy. Going then to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Orange county, he remained till the outbreak of the war, when he joined the Twelfth North Carolina Infantry, Company B. On June 27, 1862, he was wounded in the leg, at the battle of Gaines' Mill, and on account of the resultant disability was discharged from the army. At the close of the war he entered the University of Virginia, from which he graduated in law in June, 1867. He is a member of the Delta Psi college fraternity. In the spring of 1874 he came to Huntington, and at first practiced law alone. Afterward he became a member of the law firm of Hoge, Harvey & Taylor. In 1884 he was elected magistrate, and he served for twelve years as justice of the peace. In 1896 he resumed the practice of law alone. Six years ago he was elected judge of the criminal court of Cabell county, and this position he still holds. The University of North Carolina conferred upon him the honorary degree of Bachelor of Arts, May 30, 1911. Judge Taylor is a Democrat. He is a Presbyterian, and an elder in the Presbyterian church. He married, at Staunton, Augusta county, Virginia, about 1872, Maria L., daughter of Charles Scott and Virginia (Crump) Trueheart, who was born at Pow- hatan, Powhatan county, Virginia, in 1842. Her father, deceased before the marriage, was a farmer, near Richmond ; her mother was a daughter of Dr. William Crump, minister to Chile during the administration of President Tyler. Children: Charles Trueheart, whose sketch follows : Harvey C. : Martha, married R. M. Baker ( see Baker sketch below ) ; and three others, deceased, who were William C., died aged four years; Thomas W., and Powhatan.

TAYLOR Dr. Charles Trueheart Taylor, son of Judge Thomas Wal- lace (q. v.) and Maria L. (Trueheart) Taylor, was born at Weldon, Halifax county, North Carolina, August 8, 1872. In childhood he came to Huntington with his parents, and attended the common schools of Huntington and Marshall College. After this he went to the Central University, Richmond, Madison county, Kentucky, and the Hospital College of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky, graduating from the latter institution in 1897. Returning the next year to Hunting- ton, he was elected city clerk, where he served one term, and then re- turned to Louisville to the Grey Street Infirmary, where he served as in- terne ; and also took a post-graduate course. In 1900 he began practice in Huntington. In January, 1911. he entered the partnership of Hogg. Taylor, Pritchard, and Rader, with offices on the second floor of the Rob- son-Pritchard Building. In 1911, Dr. Taylor with others, took over the Huntington Hospital to what is now known as the Huntington General Hospital. This is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in Huntington. and has been equipped with the latest facilities for the care of its inmates : it amply accommodates forty patients. Dr. Taylor is a member of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce, the West Virginia State Medical So- ciety, and the Cabell County Medical Society, and besides the city clerk- ship in 1898, he has been city physician of Huntington since 1907. Dr. Taylor is a Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine; also of the Knights of Pythias : he is past exalted ruler of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, at Huntington, and head physician for the Modern Woodmen of America of the State of West Virginia ; a member of the Maccabees, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Owls ; also of

This . W. Tay Ron

C. J. Taylor.

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the college fraternity, Phi Delta Theta. He was a member of old Com- pany I, West Virginia National Guards. In politics Dr. Taylor is a Dem- ocrat, and in religion he is a Presbyterian. He married, at Huntington, December 11, 1901, Bernice, daughter of James Stevenson, who was born at Beverly, Washington county, Ohio, in 1878, and died January 27, IgII. Her father was born in county Tyrone, Ireland, in 1832, and died in 1907; he came to America at the age of twelve. Children: Bernice, born January 15, 1903 ; Charles Trueheart, Jr., born August II, 1905.

BAKER Rollins Mahon Baker is of note as a leading member of the

Huntington bar. He hails from the Ohio side of the river, and traces his lineage back to old New England stock. His grandfather, on the paternal side, was Nicholas Baker, born at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, who became a farmer of Athens, Ohio, and mar- ried the daughter of John White, a native of Connecticut, a scout and early settler at Fort Harmer. He died at Athens at the age of sixty-five years.

(II) Colonel George W. Baker, son of Nicholas Baker, was born in Athens, Ohio, in 1839, died there in 1906, aged sixty-seven years. He was a prominent man of the place ; its postmaster, county clerk and coun- ty treasurer, held office, in fact, there nearly all his life. He had a civil war record also, having served with distinction on the Federal side. He was a captain in the Thirty-ninth Ohio Regiment, and later rose to be major and lieutenant colonel. He was at Corinth, the siege of Vicksburg, and at Island No. 10, and was among the first of the troops sent into Mis- souri. He served also at Nashville, and at the siege of Mobile, and was with the Red River expedition of General Banks. He served, indeed, all through the war, and saw not a little hard fighting.

Colonel Baker married Amanda ( Mahon) who survived to a ripe old age. Her death occurred, December 31, 1911, when she was eighty-three years of age. She was a daughter of Daniel Mahon born in Pennsyl- vania, in 1820. He was a contractor doing business on an extensive scale, and was the builder of the first locks and dams on the Kentucky river. Mr. and Mrs. Baker had four children : Anna B., who is unmarried lives in Athens, Ohio ; a daughter who became Mrs. Murtland Reed, lives at Uhrichsville, Ohio; Edward H., died at forty-five years of age ; Rol- lins Mahon Baker, mentioned below.

(III) Rollins Mahon Baker, son of Colonel George W. Baker, was born in Athens, Ohio, May 14, 1871. As a boy he attended the Athens schools, receiving therein the elements of an education. In later youth he took a course at Ohio University, and then began the study of law. This he did in the same office in which he is now a partner. He was ad- mitted to the bar in the spring of 1897, and has been in active practice ever since. In 1908 he entered the well known law firm of Simms, En- slow, Fitzpatrick & Baker, of Huntington ; he is now ( 1913) of Enslow. Fitzpatrick, Alderson & Baker, which has a very profitable practice and most extensive clientele. Mr. Baker, like his father, is a Republican in politics. He has been a referee in bankruptcy for twelve years, a posi- tion of judicial character and great responsibility, which he has filled with credit. He belongs to the Elks, and his religious faith is the Presbyter- ian.

Mr. Baker married at Mecklenberg, Virginia. in 1896. Martha Taylor, a native of that state. She is a daughter of Thomas W. Taylor, judge of the criminal court of Huntington. The children of this union are: Virginia Scott, born in March. 1902: and Thomas Taylor, born March 31, 1908.

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MCCLINTOCK This family is probably of North of Ireland stock. There were Mcclintocks in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, about the middle of the eighteenth century, some of whose descendants have been prominent in Ohio.

(I) Alexander McClintock, the first member of this family about whom we have definite information, was born in Kentucky, and lived for part of his life in Nicholas county, Kentucky. Throughout his life he was a farmer. Children: John T., of whom further; and Joseph B., who was a farmer at Cynthiana, Kentucky, and was a breeder of fine horses and stock.

(II) John T., son of Alexander McClintock, was born about 1836, and died February 18, 1874. In the civil war he was a Confederate soldier, and was wounded at the battle of Cynthiana, Kentucky. He resided at Cynthiana, Harrison county, Kentucky, and was a lawyer at that place. He married Laura Starr, who was born about 1840, and died about 1878. Before her marriage, she lived at Port Huron, Michigan. Children : Elizabeth, born about 1872, married Charles N. Fithian, who is a jeweler, and resides at Paris, Bourbon county, Kentucky; John Thomas, of whom further.

(III) John Thomas, son of John T. and Laura ( Starr ) McClintock, was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, March 19, 1874, a month after his father's death, and his mother died when he was four years old. He was educated at the Central University of Kentucky, which was then at Richmond, Madison county, Kentucky; and it is now united with Center College. Continuing to reside in Richmond, he was for two years a farmer, then entered the saddlery business, in which he was occupied for four years. After this he went to New York, and spent one year in the credit department of Bradstreet's Mercantile Agency. The experience which he thus gained enabled him to open a branch for the Bradstreet company at Charleston, West Virginia. Here he spent one year, and in August, 1906, he removed to Huntington, West Virginia; from that time he has been the credit man of the firm of Watts & Ritter, the leading wholesale dry goods firm in West Virginia. He is also secretary and treasurer of the Peerless Overall Company, of Huntington. Mr. McClin- tock is vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce at Huntington, and has been one of the chief promoters of the five-cent gas movement ; this is expected to do great things for Huntington, and, indeed, to be the greatest step in commercial progress yet made at Huntington. He is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon college fraternity and order of United Commercial Travellers. Mr. McClintock is an active Republican. While he lived at Richmond, Kentucky, he was the county chairman for Madison county. In the election of 1900 he was the Republican nominee for presidential elector, representing the Eighth Congressional District of Kentucky. He is a deacon in the Presbyterian church.

He married, at Little Rock, Arkansas, February 24, 1897, Rose Frank Vickers, who was born at Little Rock. Her father has been dead many years; her mother, formerly of Marietta, Ohio, lives now with Mr. McClintock. Children : Laura Starr, born in 1899, died December 23, 1907; Mary, died, in infancy, in October, 1907: John Thomas, born April 4, 1909.

McWILLIAMS

This name appears to be a double patronymic ; per- haps it is an English or Welsh name. afterward changed to the Scotch form.

(I) John McWilliams, the first member of this family about whom we have definite information, was born in Augusta county, Virginia, about

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1804, and died in 1892. He was a farmer ; he served in the Mexican war. Child : Benjamin Franklin, of whom further.

(II) Benjamin Franklin, son of John McWilliams, was born in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, about 1820-21, and died about 1865. Throughout his business life he was a railroad man. In the civil war he was an assistant quartermaster in the Federal army, and was killed in the war. He married Elizabeth Bailey, who was born in Preston county. Virginia, about 1825, and died in 1865 : her mother was of the Pell fam- ily, and was also granddaughter of a Fairfax. Children : Thomas, died at the age of twenty-three; Mary Agnes, died at the age of fifty ; Benja- min, died in infancy; Hezekiah Bailey, now living at Houston, Texas; Robert White, of whom further ; Samantha, married - Lime, deceased. (III) Robert White, son of Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth (Bailey) McWilliams, was born in Harrison county, Virginia, near Bridgeport, November 18, 1854. In his infancy, the family removed to Grafton, Taylor county. Here he attended the free schools, and thus re- ceived his whole education, so far as this has been acquired from schools, or except by personal study. When he was eighteen years old he entered Davis' general store at Grafton as a clerk, and here he remained two years. For a year he was a clerk for the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, at Piedmont, Mineral county, West Virginia ; then he bought a book store at Grafton, and this business he conducted for one year. After this he spent a year in California, with the Spring Valley Water Company, and then, for another year, was in British Columbia, where he helped to build a new railroad, the first railroad out of Victoria, B. C. Returning to the United States, he had charge in Montana of the construction of ninety miles of the Montana Central railroad, thus he was occupied for another year. It was in 1887 that he came to Huntington, West Virginia, his present home, and for the first two years, was a clerk for his brother, Hezekiah Bailey McWilliams, in the latter's clothing store. Mr. McWil- liams has been active in politics, favoring the Democratic party. In 1895 he was elected city clerk of Huntington, which office he held for one year ; the following year he was elected circuit and criminal clerk of Cabell county, and he is now serving his third term in this office. In 1896 he was the only Democrat who was elected in the county, (the coun- ty is now normally Republican) by a plurality of about three hundred, and in that year President McKinley carried Cabell county by a plurality of seventy-eight. Mr. McWilliams is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a Congregationalist in religion.

He married. at Oakland, Garrett county, Maryland, June 5, 1875, Elma V., daughter of John Locke, who was born in Barbour county, Vir- ginia, on her father's farm. Her father died in 1894, at the age of eighty : her mother had died prior to her husband's death. Children, all living : Lola, married George L. Shore, lives at Covington, Kentucky: Lottie Lee, married Richard O. Hall, lives at Charlottesville, Albemarle county, Virginia : Jessie Gertrude, married Howard R. Sinsel, lives at Hunting- ton ; Robert L., born in 1880; Dei Gratia, married Arthur Peters, de- ceased, and she now lives with her father: Cheston Delawter, born in 1882, lives at Huntington : Walter Buffington, born in 1887, helps his father in the capacity of chief deputy : Clare Locke, born in 1894, living at home.

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West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 20

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