USA > West Virginia > West Virginia and its people, Volume II > Part 23
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(III) Virgil Lee, son of Jacob and Margaret (Abvert) Hagy, was born June 21, 1865, at Columbus, Ohio. He received his earliest educa- tion in the common schools of his native city, afterward attending Pro- fessor Holbrook's school at Lebanon, Ohio. After completing his course of study he served a four years' apprenticeship as a custom cutter, with George T. Scott, a noted cutter of Newark, Ohio. Upon the expiration of his time Mr. Hagy went to Pittsburgh and there worked at his trade, removing after a short time to Steubenville, Ohio, where he followed his trade for seven years. At the end of that time, in January, 1896, he came to Huntington, becoming cutter and manager of the tailoring depart- ment of the establishment of G. A. Northcott. In 1901 he was admitted to membership in the firm, the present style of which is the Northcott- Tate-Hagy Company. In the sphere of politics Mr. Hagy is identified with the Democratic party. He affiliates with the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks and with several fraternal insurance organizations, including the Royal Arcanum, the Modern Woodmen, the Woodmen of the World, and others. He is a member of the German Reformed church. As a sagacious and honorable business man and a public-spirited citizen. Mr. Hagy is one of those whose presence and work in any community invariably make for its substantial progress and betterment.
Mr. Hagy married, September 5, 1887, in Newark, Ohio, Eliza, born July 17, 1869, in Philadelphia, daughter of William and Rosa Floyd. Mr. Floyd, who was prominently associated with the Newark (Ohio) branch of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, died in 1895 ; his widow passed away in 1906. Mr. and Mrs. Hagy are the parents of one daughter : Zanfry M., born August 3, 1890.
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The Butcher family migrated from England and first BUTCHER settled in or near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the name appears several times in the United States census, 1790, in Lancaster and Montgomery counties.
(I) Samuel Butcher, Sr., migrated from Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania, to near Bloomfield, Cameron parish, in Loudoun county, Virginia, then Prince William, afterwards Fairfax county, long before the revolu- tionary war. His wife's name was Susannah, who died in 1801 in Lou- doun county. His will was probated in Loudoun county, 1778. He owned a large plantation there. He donated land for and built a Baptist church near his home. They had eight children : John, married Susannah Lewis ; Susannah, born 1754. married James Grady ; Mary, married Benjamin Overfield ; Elsa, married John Price; Hannah, married Jenkins Phillips ; Elizabeth, married John Buskin; Samuel, of whom further ; Jane, mar- ried Joseph Hickman.
(II) Samuel (2), son of Samuel (1) Butcher, was born March 28, 1756, and died in Wood county, Virginia (now West Virginia), May 2, 1847. He was a soldier in the revolutionary war and some time after the war, before 1800, moved west from Loudoun county, Virginia, locat- ing first in Randolph county, on the Tygarts Valley river, in the bend, near the new city of Elkins, and erected a mill on the river, near where the State Odd Fellows Home is now situated. He owned a large farm here, which he conveyed July, 1815, to Levi Ward. He had moved his family to Wood county, Virginia, shortly before this, locating across the Little Kanawha river, opposite the mouth of Walkers creek, in Butch- er's Bend, where two of his sons, Thomas and Peyton, had preceded him, and in the neighborhood where his married daughters had located. He married Hannah, born August 16, 1761, died February 2, 1844, in Wood county, Virginia, daughter of Thomas and U'ree (Humphrey) Drake, and niece of Colonel Thomas Humphrey, of Washington's staff. He declined to apply for a pension because the applicant must state that he owned less than $5,000 worth of property. His children were: 1. Eli, of whom further. 2. Uree, born January 27, 1782; married Richard H. Reeder in 1801 in Randolph county, and migrated to Wood county, Vir- ginia, where they lived to a great age and had thirteen children. 3. Thom- as, born April 3, 1784; married Susan Peadro in 1807 in Randolph coun- ty and removed to Wood county, on the Little Kanawha; had ten children, one of whom, Edwin Samuel Butcher, is still living (1912) at the age of ninety-two. 4. Peyton, born June 28, 1786; married Elizabeth Renick in 1810, moving from Ran- dolph county to Wood county. They had eight children. 5. Tasy, born 1787: married ( first ) John Peadro in 1813 in Randolph county, and moved to Wood county ; eight children ; married ( second) Seth Harmer. 6. John Humphrey, born in 1788; married (first) Nancy Overfield, (sec- ond) Mary Glasscock ; he resided in Loudoun county, Virginia ; six chil- dren. 7. Bailiss Grigsby, born in 1790; married (first) Patsy McNeal, (second) Susan Rust; two children by first wife. 8. Susannah, born April 22, 1798; married Atwell D. Vaughn, of Wood county ; eleven children. 9. Anna W., born August 15, 1800; married ( first) Abraham Pribble, of Wood county, ( second) John Vaughn, of Wood county ; five children. 10. Deborah, born January 26, 1804; married Hiram Pribble, of Wood county ; seven children. 11. Hannah, born in 1805: married Daniel Kincheloe, of Wood county : ten children.
(III) Eli, son of Samuel (2) Butcher, was born August 15, 1779, in Loudoun county, Virginia. He remained in Randolph county, to which his father removed from Loudoun, and thence to Wood, and be- came a prominent merchant at Beverly, the county seat of Randolph.
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Before his father removed from Loudoun, Eli learned the trade of joiner or furniture-maker and was very efficient. One or more pieces of this handiwork made for his own pleasure are still in use. About the time of the formation of Barbour county he became the owner of valuable prop- erty at Booths Ferry, now Philippi, and moved there, but after a few years sold out and returned to Beverly and built a country home on his farm near the town and resided there the remainder of his life. After the Black Hawk Indian war, 1840, he purchased a large tract of land on the Mississippi river, north of Rock Island, and several of his children lo- cated there.
On September 27, 1804, he married (first) Elizabeth Hart, daughter of Edward and Nancy Hart. She was born in New Jersey, March II. 1780, and died October 24, 1823, leaving surviving her, nine children, as follows: 1. Emily, born June 26, 1805; married Adam See, October 3, 1822, and in 1852 removed to California with a large family. 2. Edith A., born October 16, 1806; married, June 27, 1823, Hugh Daily, who died near Cordova, Illinois, August 27, 1840; she died February 20, 1869, near Cordova, Illinois, leaving seven children. 3. Burrell B., born Au- gust 30, 1808; married Julia Ann Rightmire; he died March 8, 1841, near Cordova, Illinois, leaving wife and two children. 4. Thursey, born May 24, 1810; married Jonathan Arnold, February 18, 1827, and died in Randolph county, June 5, 1828, leaving no child surviving. 5. John Hugh, born May 24, 1812, died unmarried, July 6, 1850, of cholera, on the Rocky Mountains, on the way to California. 6. Mariah, born May 26, 1815; married John Ashford, of Kentucky, September 12, 1833; she died in Lyons, Iowa, December, 1893. 7. Theodore, born July 26, 1817; mar- ried Eunice Stalnaker, March 1, 1836, and died in Comanche, Iowa. February 27, 1893, leaving one son, Burns. 8. Rufus, born August 8, 1819, died September 11, 1839, at Cordova, Illinois, unmarried. 9. Ed- ward Grady, born September I, 1822; married (first) Sallie Wilson, at Clinton, Iowa; she died April 12, 1878; he married (second) Susan E. (Booth) Teachore, January 15, 1882, and died January 1I, 1892, at his home in Comanche, Iowa ; three children. Eli Butcher married (second) Margaret, daughter of Daniel Hart, who was son of John Hart, the sing- er, April 18, 1825. She was born September, 1791. and died November 3, 1867, at Beverly. West Virginia. By this marriage he had four children, one of whom died in infancy ; the surviving children were : I. Eli Baxter. of whom further. 2. Fountain, born October 21, 1827; married (first) Lee Ann Hamilton; four children; married (second) Almira Ruder : three children ; died February 1, 1893. 3. Creed W., born February 6, 1834: married Amanda Daniels, and died January 30, 1895, leaving nine children.
(IV) Eli Baxter, son of Eli Butcher, was born February 1, 1826, and died March 25, 1862. He became a merchant and took charge of a store near Huttonsville, when he was fourteen years of age, for his father, and about the time he was married bought out his father and be- came a very prosperous merchant, and a popular man of high standing. being frequently called to serve in public and semi-public positions. The war between the states resulted in the loss of his store and a large amount of property, as well as the destruction by fire, after his death, of his large and valuable buildings, including his dwelling house, store, barns, etc., by order of a Federal officer, setting the widow and her four infant children in the public road.
He married, October 28, 1852, Elizabeth, born at Huttonsville, July 23, 1836, daughter of Moses and Mary (Haigler) Hutton (see Hutton III). The children are as follows: I. Bernard L., of whom further. 2. Florence May, born May 30, 1856, at Huttonsville; married Jared L.
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Wamsley, August 7, 1880, son of Captain Jacob S. and Minerva (Hamil- ton ) Wamsley. 3. Mary Hart, born April 10, 1858, at Huttonsville ; mar- ried, May 13, 1879, E. D. Wamsley, son of Captain Jacob S. and Minerva (Hamilton) Wamsley, at Beverly, West Virginia. 4. Ida Miller, born July 19, 1860, at Huttonsville, West Virginia ; married, October 9, 1888, at Beverly, John C. Arbogast, son of Frank and Mary ( Beard) Arbo- gast ; they have eight children, and reside at Asheville, North Carolina.
(V) The Hon. Bernard L. Butcher, son of Eli Baxter Butcher, was born September 12, 1853, near Huttonsville, Randolph county, West Vir- ginia. He was reared in Randolph county, receiving his early education in the Huttonsville Academy and the public schools; and then attended the Fairmont State Normal School, from which he graduated with the class of 1874. During his continuance in the Normal School and for a year afterward, he studied law with the late Judge Alpheus F. Hay- mond, of Fairmont, and was admitted to the practice of law in Randolph county in the fall of 1875. and has been in active practice since that time. He became owner and editor with V. B. Trimble, of the Randolph Enter- prise in 1875-76.
He was elected prosecuting attorney of Randolph county in the fall of 1876, and served the term of four years acceptably to the people of that county. During this time he was also a member of the board of regents of the State Normal Schools, being appointed in 1877 by Gover- nor Henry M. Mathews. His interest in the public schools and the State Normal Schools brought him to the attention of the educational leaders and others, and he was nominated and elected on the Democratic ticket in 1880 for state superintendent of free schools, at the age of twenty- seven, and served the term of four years, removing from his home at Beverly to Wheeling, then the capital of the state. During his term of office important progress was made in educational development. The Normal Schools were re-established in public favor and the appropria- tions made permanent and greatly increased. He re-established the School Journal; obtained legislation providing for the education of col- ored teachers ; established Arbor Day in the schools of the state in 1882, being the first state east of the Mississippi ; and did many things to make the schools of the state more uniform, and stimulated the efforts to pro- vide better houses and better teachers. His term of office was aptly termed a "revival of education" in the state.
About the close of his term of office, or early in 1886, he was ap- pointed permanent secretary of the Business Men's Development Asso- ciation of the State, presided over by the late United States Senator Johnson N. Camden ; he continued in that position for some time, prepar- ing, printing and distributing literature in relation to the resources of the state and the advantages for investors and those seeking homes in the state. The association was the beginning of the great development, which has since come, of the natural resources of the state of West Vir- ginia ; bringing in large capital for investment and for development, es- pecially in coal, oil, gas, and timber, resulting in extensive railroad build- ing. Mr. Butcher was actively engaged with others for several years during the succeeding period, until about 1893, in the purchase of large boundaries of timber and coal lands, having removed to Beverly from Wheeling in the meantime.
In 1892 he was elected one of the presidential electors, voting for Grover Cleveland for president. The following year, 1893, he was one of the jurors in the Forestry Department of the World's Fair at Chicago, and spent several weeks there, during the fair, assisting in advertising the attractions of the state. He moved about that time to Fairmont. where he has since resided, engaged in the practice of law.
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He has always been actively identified with the advancement of pub- lic education, being one of the directors of the Public Library for many years ; trustee of Davis and Elkins College ; and was for ten years a mem- ber of the board of regents of the State Colored Institute, near Charles- ton, West Virginia, which has grown to be a great industrial and educa- tional institution for the colored race.
In 1901 he was appointed referee in bankruptcy by the late Judge John J. Jackson, judge of the United States district court, and has been reappointed from time to time by his successor, Judge Alston G. Dayton. In 1906 he was nominated by the Democrats of Marion county for judge of the intermediate court, but declined the nomination.
He was active in the organization of the Marion County Law Library and the Marion County Historical Society, having been a member of the State Historical Society for a long time. He has been for many years a member of the Presbyterian church, in which he is an elder : a member of the Masonic fraternity : and a director in the Young Men's Christian Association.
Mr. Butcher has been an active Democrat and taken a prominent part in the councils of his party, both state and local, and has a wide circle of acquaintances and friends.
He married, January 23. 1878, Mary Ellen, born September 7, 1856. in Marion county, West Virginia, daughter of Daniel H. and Hannah (Bunner) Ayers. They were married at her home in Palatine, now Fairmont, Marion county, West Virginia. They had four children, one dying in infancy : I. Willa Hart, born October 8, 1878, at Beverly ; teach- er ; married John L. Lehman, Esq .. of Fairmont, West Virginia, April 23, 1909; died November 11, 1911. 2. Samuel Hutton, born June 12. 1881, in Fairmont ; attorney-at-law ; married Mary Williams, April, 1911. 3. Birch L., born in Wheeling, June 23. 1883 ; civil engineer : unmarried.
( The Hutton Line).
The Hutton family, into which Eli Baxter Butcher married, is of Welsh origin and first settled near Moorefield, on the south branch of the Potomac, Virginia, where they became prominent land-owners, es- pecially Colonel Moses Hutton.
(II) Jonathan, son of Colonel Moses Hutton, and grandfather of Elizabeth (Hutton) Butcher, was born in the South Branch Valley of the Potomac, near Moorefield, June 3, 1769, and married Mary Trout- wine, May, 1790; soon after they moved west to the Tygarts Valley, set- tling at what soon became Huttonsville, in Randolph county. He became a leading man of that county and a large landowner. He had a large family, who intermarried with the leading families of that time in Ran- dolph county, as follows: Elizabeth, married Andrew Crouch ; Moses, of whom further ; Catherine, married Charles C. See; John A., married Dorothy See; Abram, married Ann Wilson; Mary, married Washington J. Long.
(III) Moses (2), son of Jonathan Hutton, was born August 13, 1795, on the South Branch. He married Mary, daughter of Jacob and Christina (Harper) Haigler. They had a large family, who inter-mar- ried with leading families of that region, as follows: Alfred, married Caroline Ward; Mary Ann, married Thomas B. Scott; Elizabeth, mar- ried Eli B. Butcher (see Butcher IV) ; Colonel Elihu, married Sophronia Woodford ; Eugenus, who was a Confederate soldier, killed in battle near Winchester, Virginia, 1864: Virginia, married Lee M. Ward: Mozella, married W. Scott Woodford.
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Charles Mabry Wallace, who has since 1895 ranked as WALLACE one of the leading jewelers of Huntington, is a son of New England who has found a profitable and congenial field for his energies and talents among the mountains of West Virginia, and has identified himself with the leading interests of his home city.
(I) Edmund Wallace, grandfather of Charles Mabry Wallace, was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, where his father had settled on emigrating from his native Scotland. Edmund Wallace was a cooper by trade, and at the time of his death had nearly completed three score and ten years.
(II) George E., son of Edmund Wallace, was born August 16, 1836, in Castine, Maine. He served throughout the civil war in Company A, Twenty-sixth Regiment Maine Volunteer Infantry. At the battle of Irish Bend, Louisiana, he was in the hottest of the fight, sustaining injuries which ultimately caused his death. He married Ellen, daughter of Isaac Deering, a farmer of Waldo county, Maine, and a lay preacher of the Baptist church, who died at the age of seventy-eight. Mr. Wallace, in his latter years, retired from business, making his home in Los Angeles, where he died February 14, 1904. Mrs. Wallace, now seventy-seven years old, resides with her son in Huntington. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Wallace but two lived to maturity : Charles Mabry, men- tioned below ; Mabel, who died February 6, 1909, in Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, aged forty years.
(III) Charles Mabry, son of George E. and Ellen (Deering) Wal- lace, was born July 1, 1864, on his father's farm, in Waldo county, Maine, and was nine years old when his parents moved to Belfast, the county seat. It was there that the boy received his education. After leaving school he studied law for one year, but his natural bent was for mercan- tile life, and his father, perceiving this, left him free to follow his inclina- tion. Accordingly, he served an apprenticeship of two years and five months with a jeweler in Belfast, and at the end of that time, being then twenty-one years old, he set out to seek his fortune. He went first to Richmond, Maine, and then to Littleton, New Hampshire, where he spent three years and a half. He next migrated to Nashua, New Hamp- shire, remaining two years, and then going to Whitefield, in the same state, and living there three years. During all this time he was working as a journeyman, acquiring a store of experience which was to stand him in good stead in after years. On April 1, 1895, Mr. Wallace came to Huntington, and opened the store on Third avenue which he has ever since conducted, carrying as complete a line as can be found in the city. In Huntington Mr. Wallace has found not only the commercial prosper- ity of which he was in quest, but also a geniality and friendliness which long ago assured him that our city rejoiced to welcome this northern stranger who has for many years been numbered among her most esteemed residents. In the sphere of politics Mr. Wallace is identified with the Independent Democrats. He affiliates with the Masonic bodies, including the Knights Templar, the Scottish Rite Masons, and the mem- bers of the Mystic Shrine.
Mr. Wallace married, June 13, 1888, in Belfast, Maine, Mary J., born June 25, 1866, in Waldo county, daughter of Allen J. and Adelaide Sim- mons. Mr. Simmons is a farmer of Waldo county, where he and his wife are now living. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace are the parents of one son : Frank Charles, who was born June 5, 1891, attended the local schools and Mar- shall College, and is now serving an apprenticeship in his father's store.
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Few residents of Huntington are more closely and promi-
FROST nently identified with the city's most vital business interests than is Ellis Porter Frost, and none, it may be safely as- rerted without fear of contradiction. is more devoted to the furtherance of all that tends to promote the welfare of his fellow citizens.
Nathan Frost, grandfather of Ellis Porter Frost, was a native of Scotland, and emigrated to Maryland, where he was the first pioneer of Allegany county. He was the first discoverer of coal within the limits of the county, finding it on his own land. He was one of the leading citi- zens of that region in his day and generation, and the town of Frostburg, now celebrating its hundredth anniversary, was named in his honor.
(II) Mesach, son of Nathan Frost, was born in Frostburg, Maryland, and was for twenty-two years in the service of the Adams Express Com- pany. He married Sidney Snyder, also a native of Frostburg, daughter of John Stoyer, who attained to the unsual age of ninety-two, and grand- daughter, on the maternal side, of John Christian Frederick Heyer, the first American missionary to India. In that land Mr. Heyer spent all the active years of his life, devoting his wealth to the cause of missions and erecting many buildings for missionary purposes. Mr. and Mrs. Frost were the parents of three children : Ellis Porter, mentioned below : Haidee, died in September, 1900, aged twenty-two years ; and Hazel Ann, born April 15, 1884, now of Clarksburg, West Virginia. The mother of the family died in November, 1900, aged thirty-seven, and the father passed away July 6, 1907, at the age of fifty-two.
(III) Ellis Porter, son of Mesach and Sidney Snyder (Stoyer) Frost, was born February 16, 1880, in Lonaconing, Maryland, and at- tended the schools of Baltimore and Huntington, his parents having re- sided in both these cities. They came to Huntington in 1891, and here, when his school days were over, Ellis Porter was employed for five years, in a clerical capacity by the Adams Express Company, afterward serving them four years on the road. He then went to Louisville, Ken- tucky, where for nine months he held the position of assistant agent for the same company, going, at the end of that time, to St. Louis, Missouri, where, for a brief period, he was cashier for the company. In 1902 he returned to Huntington and established his present business on Third avenue, steadily prospering until December 31, 1911, when his building, with its entire equipment, was destroyed by fire.
Among the many enterprises and interests to which Mr. Frost devotes his energies, the real estate business holds a foremost place, and he is an extensive owner of undeveloped property in Huntington. He is treas- urer and director in the Home Building & Savings Company and the Huntington Development & Gas Company, secretary and part owner of the Columbia Gas Stove Company and a stockholder in several other in- dustries, including membership in the firm of Thompson-Thornburg- Watts & Frost, and also in the Hans-Watts Realty Company. In politics Mr. Frost is a Republican. He affiliates with the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Mr. Frost married, November 4, 1902, in Huntington, Bertha Lewis, a native of that city, daughter of the late Charles Robinson, associated with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and Matilda ( McCreerv) Rob- inson. his wife, who is now living with Mr. and Mrs. Frost in Hunting- ton. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Frost consists of three children : Jack Pritchard, born August 16, 1903: Charles Mesach, born February 19. 1905 ; and Hazel Anne, born April 16, 1909.
With the qualities of a progressive and sagacious business man Mr. Frost combines those of a truly public-spirited citizen and by his en- terprising disposition, clear forethought and accurate judgment, has im -
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parted an impetus to the entire commercial and industrial life of Hunt- ington, causing his success to minister not to his personal prosperity and well-being alone, but to advance the progress and hasten the improvement of the city which is his home and the center of his interests.
VINSON No business man of Huntington is better known or more highly esteemed than is William Sampson Vinson, proprie- tor of the Fountain Drug Store. Mr. Vinson is a repre- sentative of a family which, for half a century, has taken a prominent part in the affairs of Cabell county.
(I) William Vinson, grandfather of William Sampson Vinson, was a farmer and large slaveholder in Tennessee, but lost all his property dur- ing the war between the states. The latter years of his life were spent in Missouri and it was there he died.
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