USA > West Virginia > West Virginia and its people, Volume II > Part 42
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( II) Samuel Stone, son of William Dews, was born in Halifax county, Virginia, in 1835. He was reared to the invigorating discipline of his father's farm and remained at the parental home until he had reached his twenty-fifth year, when he came to West Virginia and located in the vicinity of Ansted, Fayette county. He served as captain of Com- pany C, Twenty-second Virginia Infantry, Confederate army, and saw hard service throughout the entire period of the civil war, participating in many important battles marking the progress of hostilities. He was wounded twice, was prisoner of war for several months and was in the sanguinary Seven Days battle. He married Mollie Moore, likewise a na- tive of Halifax county, Virginia. She is a daughter of William Moore, who was born in Virginia, where he lived until 1860 when he came to West Virginia, here residing until his death, aged eighty-nine years; he was a farmer. Mrs. Dews is living. at the age of seventy-seven years, and she and her husband, who is the same age, are now residents of Mount Hope : he is a retired farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Dews became the parents of eight children : William, deceased : Nannie J., is a popular and successful teacher in the Mount Hope high school: Laura J., deceased ; Brackenridge, deceased ; Robert S., maintains his home at Halifax, Vir- ginia : May, is unmarried and lives at Huntington, West Virginia : Joseph H., mentioned below ; and Mattie, is the wife of B. W. Walker, of Caper- ton. West Virginia.
(III) Joseph H., son of Samuel Stone and Mollie (Moore) Dews, was born in Fayette county, West Virginia, January 21, 1875. He worked on his father's farm until he had reached his seventeenth year and during the winter terms was a pupil in the neighboring district schools. In 1892 he became interested in coal mining and for the ensuing six years devoted his attention to that line of enterprise. At the expiration of that period he went to southwestern Tennessee, where he worked in a general store for three years. He then came to Mount Hope, which city has since repre- sented his home, and here was employed in a general merchandise store for several years. In February, 1908, in company with J. R. Charleton, he established a mercantile business under the firm name of Dews & Charleton. the original stock of goods being stored in a room twenty by thirty feet in lateral dimensions. So rapid has been the progress of this enterprising concern that it now owns one of the largest mercantile es- tablishments in the county and it is calculated that an annual business of forty thousand dollars is controlled. Their low prices and the splendid quality of their goods have built up their trade and have brought them appreciative customers from every section of the county. Messrs. Dews and Charleton are enterprising young business men who are ever on the alert to advance all measures and projects tending to promote the general welfare of their home community. In politics Mr. Dews is an ardent Democrat and in a fraternal way he is a Mason, an Odd Fellow and an Eagle. He and his wife are Methodists in their religious faith and they are popular in connection with the best social affairs of Mount Hope. where their attractive home is renowned for most generous hospitality.
Mr. Dews has been twice married. His first wife was Dora Collins, whom he married in southwestern Tennessee in 1898. By this union there was one son, Samuel Edwin, born October 21, 1899. Mrs. Dews was summoned to eternal rest October 21, 1903. On December 28, 1904. Mr. Dews married (second) Florence Sevy, the ceremony being per- formed at Corliss, West Virginia. Mrs. Dews is a daughter of George Sevy, a farmer and stock raiser in the vicinity of Corliss. Mr. Sevy was a gallant soldier in Company C, Twenty-second Regiment, Confederate army, this being the company commanded by Captain Samuel S. Dews. mentioned above. Mr. Sevy was captured by the Union soldiers and im-
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prisoned for many months and he took part in several important battles. Mrs. Dews' mother, whose maiden name was Rebecca Amick, is a native of Fayette county, West Virginia, and she and her husband are now liv- ing on a farm near Corliss. Three children came of the second mar- riage of Mr. Dews, namely: Kathleen Grey, born November 10, 1905 ; Francis, died November 24, 1911, aged three years and seven months ; and Joe Heber, born August 6, 1910.
This family was founded in America in colonial days.
SNYDER the original progenitor of the name in this country hav- ing come hither from England. One of his descendants, Esquire John Snyder, was born and grew up in Pennsylvania, in which commonwealth he resided until about the year 1800, when he came to Charleston, West Virginia. From that city he later removed to Queen Shoals, where his demise occurred in 1872, at a good old age. He mar- ried a Miss Booker, a Pennsylvanian by birth, and to them were born the following children : David, Milton, Betsey, John, Phillip W., mentioned below, Mary, Daniel, Susan and Catherine.
(II) Phillip W., son of John and - ( Booker ) Snyder, was born in West Virginia, in 1805. He was an agriculturist in the vicinity of Queen Shoals during most of his lifetime and at the time of the incep- . tion of the civil war was captain of a company in the Confederate army for several years. He was married three times, his first wife having been Anna Liza Brawley, who was of English descent and who was born on Muddy creek, in Greenbrier county. West Virginia. His second wife was Anna Liza Martin and his third wife, Henrietta Griffith. Chil- dren : John, Jennie, DeWitt Clinton, mentioned below ; Mary Frances, Anna Liza and Josephine.
(III) DeWitt Clinton, son of Phillip W. and Anna Liza ( Brawley ) Snyder, was born in Kanawha county, West Virginia, in 1844, and he is now living in retirement at Barboursville, West Virginia. He was a prominent contractor and builder until his retirement from active par- ticipation in business affairs. At the time of the outbreak of the civil war he enlisted as a soldier in the Twenty-Sixth Virginia Battalion, un- der General Robert E. Lee, having been a member of Company A, com- manded by Captain John A. Swan, under Colonel Edgar. He partici- pated in the following battles: Droop Mountain, New Market. Cold Harbor, Lynchburg. Frederick City. Kernstown, Winchester, Charles- town, Martinsburg, Fishers Hill and the second battle of Winchester, in which last engagement he was captured, September 19, 1864. and held prisoner at Point Lookout for six months. In the battle of Cold Har- bor. or Gaines' Farm, forty-six men in Company A answered roll call and the following morning but three of those gallant fighters were left. DeWitt Clinton Snyder married Rachel Elizabeth McClung, who was born in Greenbrier county. West Virginia, in 1847: she is still living. Her father was Curley John McClung, of Irish descent but a native of Greenbrier county, this state. Children: Annie, is the wife of Jolin W. Warden, of Thacker. West Virginia : Phillip M., mentioned below : Mol- lie E., is the wife of L. L. Stone, of Pikeville, Kentucky : Samuel A., a resident of Huntington, West Virginia, married Kittie Crusan: Wil- liam Arthur, is associated with his brother Samuel A. in the conduct of the Carolina Pine Lumber Company, at Huntington ; Mamie, is the wife of Thomas F. George, of East Bank, West Virginia : Thomas Hubert. mentioned below; Nellie H., is the wife of Latelle Graney, of Mount Hope, West Virginia; Fannie, is unmarried and resides in Barbours-
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ville, with her parents; and Vivian is also unmarried and lives at Bar- boursville.
(IV) Phillip Melancthon, son of DeWitt Clinton and Rachel Eliza- beth (McClung) Snyder, was born on the Crawley farm, near Rupert, in Greenbrier county, West Virginia, December 12, 1869. As a boy he attended the local schools and his first work was carrying water for a railroad gang. While still a youth he learned the carpenter's trade and at the age of twenty years began contracting on his own account at Se- well, in Fayette county, this state. He remained at Sewell until 1892 and then made his headquarters at Thurmond, where he was a contrac- tor until 1894, when the family removed to Mount Hope. Mr. Snyder has lived in this city since that time and it is but just to say that his bus- iness enterprise and energy have done much to build up this place, both materially and in a public way. He is a business man of unusual execu- tive ability and is financially and officially interested in numerous enter- prises of great scope and importance. He is president of the Snyder Construction Company, which was incorporated in 1904 and which has built one-third of the towns in the Kanawha and New River districts, that is, most of the territory covered by Kanawha and Fayette counties. This company employs an average of between sixty and seventy-five men and in the busy season has employed as many as one hundred and seven- ty-five mechanics and carpenters. The Snyder Construction Company has built all but two of the elegant new buildings erected in Mount Hope in recent years and the same includes three schools, one hotel, twenty-five business buildings and twenty residences. This is the best built town of its size in West Virginia.
Mr. Snyder has been president of the Bank of Mount Hope since the time of its establishment, March 17, 1902, this substantial institution be- ing the first bank at Mount Hope and the second in the county. The first cashier, F. H. Denning, died in 1905. Otherwise the official corps has remained unchanged since the time of incorporation. The original stock of this bank was twenty-five thousand dollars but since 1906 it has been eighty-five thousand dollars. The present bank building, erected after the fire of 1910, is strictly fire-proof, reinforced concrete and is the best of its kind in Fayette county. Mr. Snyder is also president of the Long Branch Coal Company, of Mount Hope; is president of the Carolina Pine Lumber Company, of Huntington, West Virginia ; is president of the Snyder-Carter Company, which concern operates a line of stores in various towns in Fayette county ; is president of the P. M. Snyder Lum- ber Company, which operates a mill in Fayette county; and is secre- tary and treasurer of the Harrah Coal-Land Company, of Charleston, which owns thirteen thousand acres of land in Buchanan county, Vir- ginia. In politics Mr. Snyder is an uncompromising Democrat. It is worthy of note here that in 1900, without solicitation on his part, he was nominated on the Democratic ticket, for the office of sheriff. He carried his district by three hundred and eighty votes and at the same time the late President Mckinley carried that district, Republican, with two thousand two hundred and ninety-four votes. Fraternally, he is a Ma- son and a member of the Hoo Hoos. He is a Methodist and his wife was reared a Baptist.
At Russellville, West Virginia, Mr. Snyder was united in marriage to Miss Lana C. Walker. The ceremony was performed April 25, 1894. Mrs. Snyder was born at Russellville, October 20, 1872, and she is a daughter of James M. and Frances ( Moore) Walker, both of whom are now living at Russellville, where Mr. Walker is a prominent mer- chant ; he was a soldier in the Confederate ranks during the entire period of the war between the states, was severely wounded and was at one time
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taken prisoner. Mr. and Mrs. Snyder have four children: Ronald, born April 8, 1895, is attending school at Mount Hope; Thelma, born March 13, 1897, is likewise in school, as is also Jannes, born August 20, 1903 ; and Phillip M., Jr., is the baby. Every Snyder family, as far back in the generations as is recorded, has had a "Phillip."
(IV) Thomas Hubert, son of DeWitt Clinton and Rachel Elizabeth (McClung) Snyder, was born at Glencoe, in Greenbrier county, West Virginia, April 18, 1883. As a child he accompanied his parents to Russellville, Fayette county, and there was reared to maturity and edu- cated. In 1897 the family home was established in Mount Hope. Thomas H. Snyder completed his early educational discipline with a com- mercial course in the Mountain State Business College, at Parkersburg, and after leaving that institution entered upon an apprenticeship to learn the trade of carpenter and contractor. The first salary he drew was a dollar a day. In 1902 he was deputy-sheriff under his brother and in 1904 the Snyder Construction Company was incorporated under the laws of the state of West Virginia. Of this concern Phillip M. Snyder is president and Thomas H. Snyder is secretary and manager. The com- pany controls a very extensive and lucrative business in Fayette county and in recent years has grown to large proportions. Mr. Snyder is a di- rector in the Bank of Mount Hope; is vice-president of the Snyder-Car- ter Company, general merchants at Thurmond and Mount Hope; and is a stockholder in the Carolina Pine Lumber Company, at Huntington, West Virginia, this being a wholesale and retail lumber concern. He is a Democrat in his political convictions and in fraternal matters is affili- ated with Beni-Kedem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Charleston. He is likewise connected with the Hoo Hoos. On September 18, 1912, Mr. Snyder married Miss Carrie Ethel Stephenson, a native of Fayette county, West Virginia, where her birth occurred January 30, 1893. She is a daughter of William H. and Nancy (Warren) Stephenson, who live at Kilsyth, in Fayette county, where he is buyer for the McKell Company stores.
MYERS Dr. John D. Myers, of Huntington, who has been for many
years a leader of the medical profession in West Virginia, is a representative of a family which has been resident in the Old Dominion ever since the revolutionary period and has given to the commonwealth many useful and loyal citizens.
(I) John Myers, the first of the line herein recorded, was born July 25, 1779, in Loudoun county, Virginia, died September 30, 1853, in Lou- doun county, having so far as known passed his entire life there. He married, in 1802, Charlotte Miller, a native of Frederick City, Maryland. (II) John H., son of John and Charlotte (Miller) Myers, was born in 1810, in Loudoun county, Virginia, died in Lexington, Virginia, in 1869. He was a student at Georgetown College, District of Columbia. He afterward engaged in mercantile business at Winchester, Lewisburg and Lexington, also devoting time and attention to agriculture. He is en- titled to the distinction of having established at Lexington the first bank of issue, and he was also politically prominent, serving a term as mayor of the city. From 1852 to 1857 he was treasurer of Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, and for over thirty years he was an active member of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Myers married (first) in 1831, Matilda R., daughter of Dr. Archibald Houston, of Rockbridge county, a kinsman of General Samuel Houston, of Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Myers were the parents of one child : Matilda Rowe, born July 19, 1832, died in 1862. In 1834 Mr. Myers married ( second), Martha, daughter
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of the Rev. Daniel Blain, born in 1773. in Abbeyville district, South Caro- lina, and his wife, Martha ( Hanna) Blain, a native of Lexington, Vir- ginia. The Rev. Daniel Blain was a minister of the Presbyterian church, and in 1802 became Professor of Latin in Washington College, filling the chair until his death which occurred March 19, 1814. By his second marriage Mr. Myers became the father of the following children : I. Mary Miller, born October 10, 1837, died January 11, 1863 ; married Rev. Henry M. White, a Presbyterian minister : no children. 2. Louisa Libbey, born November 5, 1839, died August 7, 1859. 3. John D., mentioned be- low. 4. Henry H., born August 1. 1843. died August 14, 1901 ; married Mary E. Nelson. Children : Alexander Nelson ; Harry W., a missionary in Japan ; Martha B., Charles, Franklin, Mildred. 5. Charlotte North. born August 12, 1844, died July 15, 1871. 6. Susan Harrison, born Sep- tember 26, 1847, died May 19, 1904; married Rev. W. H. F. Wallace, of South Carolina : children : Mary Blain, Henry, William Gordon, Su- san. 7. Elizabeth Preston, born March 12, 1850; married Judge John A. Lacey, of Washington, D. C .; children: Rev. John Alexander, of the Presbyterian ministry : Susan Myers, Sallie Carruthers, Elizabeth. 8. Samuel Blain, born October 5, 1852, died in 1853.
(III ) John D., third child and eldest son of John H. and Martha (Blain ) Myers, was born September 4, 1841, in Lewisburg, West Vir- ginia, and was eight years old when his parents moved to Lexington, Vir- ginia, where he received his education at Washington and Lee University, (then Washington College), and at William and Mary College. In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate army as lieutenant and drill-master, subse- quently serving in various capacities. For a time he was a member of the famous "Stonewall brigade," serving with it in Jackson's Valley cam- paign of 1862, and later he participated in the arduous series of engage- ments known in history as the "Seven Days' Battle." During the last two years of the war he was a member of the First Virginia Cavalry, under Fitzhugh Lee and General J. E. B. Stuart. After the close of hostilities Dr. Myers matriculated at the University of Virginia, entering the medi- cal class, and graduating in 1866 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He immediately began the active work of his profession, practising assid- uously for the next three years and at the end of that time going to New York City, where he took a course at Bellevue Hospital, taking a special course in surgery from that institution. Dr. Myers then returned for a time to his native county, afterward removing to Missouri, where he remained some years. In 1883 he turned his face eastward and took up his abode in Fayette county, West Virginia, five years later settling in Hunt- ington, where he has since practiced with signal success. He is ex-vice-pres- dent of the West Virginia State Medical Society and also of the Hunting- ton Medical Society. He is a member of the Central Missouri State Med- ical Society, and was for many years surgeon for the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad. He affiliates with the Masonic order and is a member of the Presbyterian church. Four years of Dr. Myers' early manhood were spent in the camp and on the battlefield, contending for a cause which he believed to be a just one. His life has since been devoted, for more than forty years, to the alleviation of suffering and the advancement of medi- cal science. He has the record of a brave soldier and an able and high- minded physician.
Dr. Myers married, in 1865, Martha Harris, born near Bremo Bluff, Fluvanna county, Virginia, daughter of Dr. George Payne Holman, born in 1810. died in 1891, and his wife, Martha F. (Scruoggs) Holman, born in 1820, died in 1869. Dr. and Mrs. Myers are the parents of the follow- ing children : 1. George Holman, born February 3, 1866, died July 18, 1891 ; married Elizabeth S. Ficklen ; no children. 2. John Henry, born May 26,
Ano. NIllyero .
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1867, died November 7, 1905; married Mrs. Ida B. Harris, née Crush ; children : John Henry and Dorothy. 3. Martha Blain, born January 23, 1869, died April 18, 1872. 4. Mary Louise, born November 25, 1870. 5. William Lacey, born March 13, 1873, died June 30, 1900. 6. Bernard Reynolds, born December 10, 1876; married (first) Catherine Banks, de- ceased ; one child, Glen K. : married (second) Winifred Clark. 7. Char- lotte North, born September 5, 1882, died April 15, 1889. 8. Clara Lib- by, born July 12, 1884 : married Rev. C. E. Butler, a Lutheran minister of Des Moines, Iowa.
POFFENBARGER Judge George Poffenbarger, lawyer and jur- ist, residing at Point Pleasant, Mason county, West Virginia, was born in that county at a point on the south side of the Kanawha river and about opposite the vil- lage of Brighton, November 24, 1861. By close application and hard work in the short periods permitted him in the common schools and utili- zation of odd hours at home, he acquired sufficient learning to enable him to obtain, in 1880, a teacher's certificate and employment as a teacher. For seven years thereafter he divided his time between teaching, attendance at school and study at home. A portion of this time was spent at Rio Grande College, Rio Grande, Ohio. At the close of the last school he taught. in the spring of 1887, he obtained his license to practice law and was admitted in the circuit and supreme courts. His legal knowledge war acquired by study at home under the supervision of Judge John W. Eng lish, whom he succeeded on the bench of the Supreme Court of Appeals January 1, 1901. Being regular nominees of rival political parties for that position in the election of 1900, they were direct competitors for it each polling about the strength of his party, and Judge Poffenbarger pre vailing along with his associates on the ticket.
He had previously obtained prominence in the state by reason of hi: political services and affiliations. After his admission to the bar in 1887 he spent about ten months in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. Re turning in March, 1888, he became the same year the Republican candi- date for sheriff of his county, and was elected by a majority slightly above that given in the county for Benjamin Harrison, the candidate for presi- dent. He thus became at the early age of twenty-six years the incumbent of the highest and most responsible office in his county and the local leader of his party. On the expiration of his term, December 31, 1892, he began the practice of law, but continued to be active and forceful in politics, and thus acquired a wide and influential acquaintance throughout the state, and easily obtained the nomination of his party for judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, and election to that office in 1900. In this position he has acquitted himself so well that his friends found no diffi- culty in affecting his nomination for the same office again and as his own successor in 1912, and he was re-elected by a handsome plurality. His second term began January 1, 1913. and will expire December 31, 1924. Only one other man has ever heen re-elected to a place on that bench after having served a full term. No other man ever held the office of sheriff of Mason county at so early a period in life, and he was, at the time of his election to the bench of the supreme court, younger than any other per- son who had then been so honored.
His judicial record is an enviable one. He has a vigorous, analytical and discriminative mind, and is independent, impartial and fearless in the rendition of decisions and delivery of opinions. Within the period of his service as a member of the court, its procedure and methods of operation have been greatly altered and improved, and in this work of reform and
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progress he has been very potential. In the application of legal principles to concrete cases, he endeavors to convince and conclude, not by precedent and authority alone, but also by reasoning based upon legal principles and philosophy and analogies of law. Accordingly, his opinions are always read with interest and pleasure. One of his most elaborate and carefully prepared opinions is the one delivered in Conley v. Coal & Coke Railway Co., 67 W. Va. 129, of which the Central Law Journal, in its issue of May 27, 1910, says :
"But with greater interest still do we follow the reasoning on this subject in an opinion, which, taken all in all, is one of the ablest judicial expositions of prin- ciples on all subjects it treats it has been our opportunity to read. We especially commend those parts of the opinion which demonstrate, with faultless logic, that a State is not such in the sense of the Eleventh Amendment, when its officers are prohibited by the courts from enforcing an unconstitutional statute and when equity may enjoin the enforcement of a criminal statute. These are examples of the sustained logic of a master, proceeding as easily and naturally on the elevated plane he has placed himself as others of us do in the ordinary walks of life."
Judge Poffenbarger is a member of the Presbyterian church, the Sons of the Revolution, and the I. O. O. F., secret order.
He was united in marriage on May 10, 1894, with Miss Livia Nye Simpson. Their temperaments are so blended as to make theirs a happy union, and call forth the best efforts of each other, and they have been of immeasurable aid in mutual development.
First Generation .- The children of Judge and Mrs. Poffenbarger con- stitute, in this genealogical plan, the first generation, and are: Nathan Simpson Poffenbarger, born August 4, 1898; Perry Simpson Poffen- barger, born Nov. 24, 1899.
Second Generation .- Judge George Poffenbarger, born November 24, :861, son of
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