West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 61

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

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SNYDER To America, the land of political and religions liberty, which accepts exiles from other countries and transforms them into excellent citizens of the United States, there came in 1827 a family, Snyder by name, from Saarbruck, Bavaria, Ger- many, who sought refuge under the folds of the American flag. The son had participated in a rebellion against unjust laws, unjust taxation and unjust oppression of political rights, and was forced to flee, taking with him his father and his own family. To this family belongs Harry Lam- bright Snyder, editor and proprietor of the Shepherdstown Register, of Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

(I) Jacob Snyder was born and spent the greater part of his life in Saarbruck, Bavaria, Germany. He emigrated to America in 1827, with his son, and in the following year settled in Shepherdstown, Virginia, now West Virginia, as a weaver. He lived to be ninety years old, and is buried in the Reformed church cemetery in Shepherdstown. His wife died previous to the time he departed from his native land. He was a pions, consistent Christian, and was greatly beloved by his family. Among his children was Theobald, of whom further.

(II) Theobald, son of Jacob Snyder, was born in Saarbruck, Bavaria, Germany. He participated in a rebellion in Bavaria against unjust op- pression and pernicious laws, and fled the country to save his life. He married Louisa Klein, of Saarbruck, who accompanied him. Children : John, of whom further : Peter, Jacob, George.

(III) John, son of Theobald and Louisa (Klein) Snyder, was born February 19, 1823, at Saarbruck, Bavaria, Germany. He came to this country from Bavaria with his parents and grandfather when he was seven years old, and he grew up a thorough American, than which no prouder tribute can be given to any man. In 1828 the family located at Shepherdstown, Virginia, and he became a merchant tailor. At the opening of the civil war he joined Company B, Second Virginia Infantry, of the famous Stonewall Brigade, and did valiant duty for the cause he es- poused. He was a brave and gallant soldier, and after participating in most of the great battles of the war was mortally wounded in the san- guinary battle of the Wilderness, and died in Alexandria, Virginia, June-

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I, 1864. He was a Whig, always supporting and voting with that party. He married, June 26, 1845, at Frederick, Maryland, Rachel Lambright, born August II, 1823, at Frederick, Maryland, daughter of George Lam- bright ( son of Michael Lambrecht, who came from Germany years prev- ious ) and Regina (Sponseller ) Lambright, of Frederick, Maryland. Chil- dren of John and Rachel (Lambright ) Snyder : I. Ella, born August 10, 1846. 2. Rachel Louise, born March 1, 1848. 3. Mary Virginia, born August 18, 1849, deceased. 4. Annie Hammond, born April 20, 1851, de- ceased. 5. George Boteler, born May 17, 1853, deceased. 6. Rose, born July 17, 1856. 7. John William, born August 19, 1858. 8. Harry Lan- bright, of whom further.

(IV) Harry Lambright, son of John and Rachel ( Lambright) Sny- der, was born October 11, 1861, at Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and lost his father when he was not yet three years old. He was educated in the Shepherdstown public school and Shepherd College, West Virginia. He learned the printer's trade in the office of the Shepherdstown Regis- ter, which was in itself a liberal education of a practical sort. He was connected with the United States government printing office at Washing- ton from 1879 to 1882, when he returned to Shepherdstown and became proprietor of the paper on which he had learned his trade. He has been its publisher and editor continuously for thirty-one years, making it one of the best known and most influential journals in the state of West Vir- ginia, its editorials being masterly for logic and lucidity of expression. He is a Democrat ; for eight years he was a member of the state board of regents of the Normal schools. He has, also, been a member of the board of directors of the Second Hospital for the Insane at Spencer, West Virginia. He is a Mason, member of Mt. Nebo Lodge, Shepherds- town, and of the National Geographic Society. He is a scholarly, cul- tured gentleman, with a wide information on all subjects of latter day interest. He and his family are members of St. Peter's Lutheran Church of Shepherdstown.

He married, April 29, 1884, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ida Laura Baldwin, born May 29, 1858, at Philadelphia, died July 28, 1907. Her father, William Lindsay Baldwin, married Angelina Titus, of a noted family. He was chief commissioner of highways in Philadelphia. Their one other child, William Baldwin, died in 1869, aged eight years. Chil- dren of Mr. and Mrs. Snyder : I. Louise Anna, born January 8, 1888; was educated in public and private schools of Shepherdstown, at Shep- herd College, and at Goucher College, Baltimore, Maryland, from the latter she graduated in 1908 with distinction, receiving an A. B. degree ; she married, June 14, 1911, Lawrence Moore Lynch, of Chattanooga, Tennessee; one child, Ida Baldwin Lynch, born October 11, 1912. 2. William Baldwin, born November 16, 1890; was educated at public and private schools in Shepherdstown, and graduated from Shepherd College in 1909; he was a student at the far fanied Washington and Lee Uni- versity, Lexington : in 1913 he became business manager and local edi- tor of the Shepherdstown Register, of which his father is editor and pro- prietor. 3. Rose Eleanor, born November 21, 1892; was educated in the public schools of Shepherdstown, and graduated from Shepherd Col- lege in 1911. 4. Rachel, born August 31, 1894 ; was educated at Shep- herdstown graded school, and graduated from Shepherd College in 19II. 5. Harry Lambright Jr., born December 29, 1900; is attending the Shepherdstown graded school.

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MYERS-JOHNS This is an account of the intermarried families of the Myers and Johns, from the vicinity of Gettys- burg, Pennsylvania, and is especially connected with the history of Mrs. Sarah C. Myers, of Harpers Ferry, this state, whose father was a soldier in the civil war. She is the daughter of Gib- son C. Johns.

(I) Thomas Johns, a wagon-maker, spent the greater part of his life at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he died, February 16, 1856. He was politically a Democrat. He married Cathern Children : Jonas, Betsie, William, Jesse, Sally, Howard, Liberty, Peter and Gibson Cornelius. The wife and mother died at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Jan- uary II, 1864, aged seventy-eight years. They were members of the Lutheran church.

(II) Gibson Cornelius, son of Thomas Johns, was born in Adams county, Pennsylvania, near Gettysburg, April 6, 1823, and there attended the public schools. He removed to Harpers Ferry and became an un- dertaker and followed carpentering also. Politically he voted the Demo- cratic ticket. He served three years and one month in the Union army as a member of the Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania Regiment and saw hard service in several battles. He died at Harpers Ferry, December 28, 1897, at the age of seventy-four years. He married Ellen Hoffman, a native of Harpers Ferry, Virginia, daughter of Peter Hoffman, who died at Harpers Ferry. Peter Hoffman's wife was Sarah ( Ridenour) Hoff- man. Gibson C. Johns and wife had three children: Louisa, died in in fancy ; Sarah C., of whom further ; Mary Lizzie, married George Robert Marquette, who died March 1, 1911. The mother died in Toledo, Il- linois, aged seventy-five years. The family were all Lutherans in church faith.

(III ) Sarah C., daughter of Gibson Cornelius and Ellen ( Hoffman) Johns, was born at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, before the state had been divided, June 22, 1849. Her life has been largely spent in the town in which she was born. She attended the public schools of Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry, and later her household duties occupied her atten- tion, as wife and active member of the circle in which she has moved. While she regrets that she has not the right of suffrage, she is in full ac- cord with the principles of the Democratic party. She married, August 4. 1870, Frederick Brown Myers, who died April 10, 1897. He was the son of William C. Myers.

Governor Francis H. Pierpont, who was at the head of PIERPONT the restored government of Virginia from 1861 to 1868, was the son of Francis and Catherine ( Weaver) Pierpont. and was born January 25, 1814, in Monongalia county, Virginia, four miles east of Morgantown. on the farm settled hy his grandfather. John Pierpont, a native of New York, in 1770, then in the "District of Augusta," who erected a dwelling and a block- house for protection against the invasion of the Indians. In the last named year was opened the first land office in Northwestern Virginia. John Pierpont married a daughter of Colonel Zackwell Morgan, the founder of Morgantown, who had emigrated from Eastern Virginia. Joseph Weaver, the maternal grandfather of Governor Pierpont, was a native of Central Pennsylvania, who settled on a farm near Morgantown, Vir- ginia, about 1785. In 1814 Francis Pierpont, the father, moved from the old homestead to land purchased by him, about two miles from Fair- mont, in what is now Marion county, West Virginia. In 1827 he made his residence in Middletown, now Fairmont, where he conducted a tannery,

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in which the son-the to-be governor-worked, in conjunction with la- bors upon the father's farm nearby.

In 1835 Francis H. Pierpont entered Allegheny College, at Mead- ville, Pennsylvania, from which institution he graduated in September, 1839, as Bachelor of Arts. Until 1841 he followed teaching school, then removed to Mississippi, where he also taught for a time, but the follow- ing year, on account of his father's declining health, he returned. Hav- ing studied law at intervals, with his teaching, he was soon admitted to the bar. From 1848 for about eight years he served as local attorney for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, in Marion and Taylor coun- ties, after which he engaged in coal mining and shipping by rail, and later embarked in the manufacture of fire-bricks. In religious faith he was of the Methodist Episcopal church, and united with that denomination at the age of seventeen years. Politically he was first a Whig and was earnest in his party relations from 1844 to 1860, when he supported Lin- coln. In 1848 he was one of the presidential electors for Taylor. After 1861 the great events of his life occurred. He it was who headed the movement for the restored government of Virginia after the state had gone out of the Union. He died aged eighty-five years and is buried at Woodlawn cemetery, Fairmont, West Virginia, of which state he was the first governor. The state of West Virginia presented congress with a beautiful statue of him and the same was placed in the Hall of Statuary at the National capitol. Its cost was $8,000 and it was made at Florence, Italy. In December, 1854, he married Julia A., daughter of Rev. Sam- uel Robinson, a Presbyterian minister of New York.

OSENTON It is always most gratifying to the biographist and stu- dent of human nature to come in close touch with the history of a man, who, in the face of almost insur- mountable obstacles, has plodded persistently on and eventually, through his determination and energy, made of success not an accident but a logical result. Hon. Charles W. Osenton, who maintains his home at Fayetteville, West Virginia, is strictly a self-made man and as such a perusal of his career offers both lesson and incentive. He has been emi- nently successful as an attorney of recognized ability, has served in vari- ous public offices of trust and responsibility with the utmost efficiency, and has ever manifested a deep and sincere interest in all matters per- taining to the good of the Democratic party, of whose principles he has long been a zealous and active exponent.

Charles W. Osenton was born at Ashland, Boyd county, Kentucky, May 9, 1865. He was educated in the common schools of Carter county, Kentucky, whither he removed with his parents when he was a child eight years of age. He remained on the old homestead farm until his seventeenth year when he turned his attention to railroading, working on a line between Huntington, West Virginia, and Lexington, Kentucky. On reaching his legal majority he entered a wholesale grocery house at Portsmouth, Ohio, but did not long remain there. Coming to West Vir- ginia, his first work was that of hotel clerk at Montgomery, where he studied law during his leisure time. In April, 1893, he was appointed chief of division in the treasury department at Washington by Presi- dent Cleveland. Immediately upon assuming his duties at Washington, he began to study law in Georgetown University, in which ex- cellent institution he was graduated as a member of the clase of 1895 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Resigning his position as chief of division in the treasury department at Washington, he took up the ac- tive practice of law, and in March, 1907, came to Fayetteville. In addi-

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tion to his extensive legal practice he is financially interested in a num- ber of important business enterprises. He is a stockholder in the fol- lowing corporations : The Citizens Trust & Guaranty Company at Park- ersburg, the National Citizens Bank at Charleston, the First National Bank at Logan, the Bank of Gauley, the First National Bank of Winona, the Fayette County National Bank, the Bank of Fayette, the Laura Min- ing Company, and the Nichol Colliery Company.

In politics Mr. Osenton owns a staunch allegiance to the Democratic party. In 1900 he was honored by the citizens of Fayette county with election to the office of prosecuting attorney of this county and he served in that capacity for a period of four years. In 1898 he was elected state senator from the ninth district, which comprised the counties of Fayette, Greenbrier, Pocahontas, Monroe and Summers. In 1904 he was delegate to the National Democratic Convention in St. Louis and in 1908 was delegate at large to the convention held in Denver. Mr. Osenton has devoted himself assiduously to his professional work, and has acquitted himself with honor and distinction in discharging the duties of the public offices to which he has been elected. As a man he is thoroughly con- scientious, of undoubted integrity, affable and courteous in manner, and he has a host of friends and few, if any, enemies.

SHEPHERD The Shepherd family is one of old and notable stand- ing in the states of Maryland and West Virginia. The ancestry is supposedly of English origin but it is not known exactly when the original progenitor of the name in America came hither. Several versions concerning the forefathers of Thomas Shepherd, who died in 1776, are put forth, but none are entirely anthen- ticated. From "Family Correspondence." West Virginia Historical Maga- zine, October, 1902 (page 28), the following extract is here inserted : "Three brothers, Thomas, John and William, came to this country from Shropshire (Wales) and landed at Annapolis, Maryland. Thomas set- tled at Shepherdstown, John in Maryland, in what is now Washington county, and William went to the west."

Further, it is learned that Mrs. Abraham Shepherd, of Shepherds- town, has in her possession a crest engraved upon a piece of ancestral plate, which is very similar in design to the crests used by the Shep- herd families of Kingston and Devonshire, in England. That a scion of a Devonshire house of the name of Shepherd did emigrate to America is determined by the fact that the will of a Thomas Shepherd, of Cecil county, Maryland, which was probated September 1, 1756, contains this item: "To my cousin, Thomas Shepherd, son of John Shepherd, of Columpton, in Devonshire, in the Kingdom of Old England, the sum of 50 pounds." Columpton is in that district of Devonshire where many Shepherd families lived at that period. The arms borne by the Devon- shire family referred to are described: "La a fesse ar .; in chief three pole axes of the second." Crest: "On a mount vert. a stag lodged re- guard ar. vulned. on the shoulder, gu." (Burke's General Armory, Ed. 1878, p. 20 ; also Fairbairn's Crests, plate 51, crest 9). In the crest in the possession of the Virginia family an arrow protrudes from the wounded shoulder, while in the English crest the wound alone is shown.

Various public records held prior to the war of the revolution would seem to indicate that the Maryland and Virginia families of the name of Shepherd are related and the following genealogy is based on that rela- tionship.

In the first inventory book of Prince George's county, Maryland, the initial presence of a Shepherd is revealed. Therein it is stated, that on the

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16th of March, 1698, James Beall was appointed administrator, Thomas Sprigg and Will Offatt, appraisors of the estate of Thomas Shepherd, de- ceased.

(I) Thomas Shepherd, who died in Prince George's county, Mary- land, in 1698, was married and left two sons at the time of his demise, William, mentioned below; John.

(II) William, eldest son of Thomas Shepherd, was born some time prior to 1698, died between 1741 and 1745. He married a woman whose Christian name was Sarah. Children : Thomas, mentioned below ; Wil- liam Jr., of Rock Creek; John, of Frederick county, died 1765.

(III) Thomas (2), eldest son of William and Sarah Shepherd, was born in 1705, died in 1776. About 1730 Thomas Shepherd received a land grant from King George II., the same containing two hundred and twenty-two acres south of the Shenandoah river. Thomas Shepherd was founder of Shepherdstown ( formerly Mecklenberg), West Vir- ginia, where he settled in 1732. October 1, 1765, it was enacted by the governor, council and burgesses of the assembly of Virginia that a ferry be established and constantly kept from the land of Thomas Shepherd, in the town of Mecklenberg, in the county of Frederick, over the Poto- mac river, to his land opposite thereto, in the province of Maryland, toll to be collected for the passage thereon of man, beast and vehicle. (See Hening's Statutes at Large, Va., vol. 8, pp. 146-7). This grant was re- voked by the assembly in November, 1766. In 1733 Thomas Shepherd married Elizabeth Van Metre, born, probably, in New Jersey, in 1715, died at Shepherdstown, West Virginia, about 1792, daughter of John Van Metre, the "Indian Trader." Children: I. David, born January, J734, died in Ohio county, Virginia, February 2, 1795. 2. Sarah, born 1736, died at Shepherdstown, October 18, 1780. 3. Elizabeth, born Oc- tober 3, 1738, died 1788. 4. William, born 1740, passed away at Wheel- ing, Virginia, 1824. 5. Thomas, born 1743, died at Shepherdstown, 1792. 6. John, born 1749, died at Red Oak, Ohio, July 31, 1812. 7 and 8. Mary and Martha (twins) born in 1752; the latter died in Brooke county, Virginia, in 1825. 9. Abraham, mentioned below. 10. Susannah, born September 1, 1758, died at Wheeling, Virginia, April 13, 1835.

(IV) Captain Abraham Shepherd, youngest son of Thomas (2) and Elizabeth (Van Metre) Shepherd, was born at Shepherdstown, No- vember 10, 1754. He was a most valiant soldier in the war of indepen- dence, and at the time of the battle of Kingsbridge, New York, in No- vember, 1776, was lieutenant of a company. The officers in charge were both wounded in that conflict and young Abraham, then but twenty-one years of age, was made captain of a company of Virginia and Maryland riflemen. He went through many thrilling adventures in connection with his military experience and was at one time captured by the British and sent as a prisoner to Long Island. After the close of the war he settled down at Shepherdstown, where he was instrumental in promoting pub- lic progress and improvement. He was an influential and consistent member of the Episcopal church at Shepherdstown, and was a liberal contributor to all measures and enterprises projected for the good of the general welfare. He has been described as a thin-visaged man with prominent features, full of energy, a first-rate farmer, a public-spirited citizen and an unfailing friend of the church. He married, December 27, 1780, Eleanor Strode, whose birth occurred June 27, 1760, daughter of Captain James Strode, an early settler of Frederick county, Virginia. Abraham Shepherd afterward became the owner of the Strode home- stead, and it is claimed that on that estate, in the days of James Strode, Andrew Jackson was born. The following children were born to Abra- ham and Eleanor Shepherd: 1. James Strode, born June 19, 1782, died

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May 5, 1789. 2. Rezin Davis, born August 1, 1784, died November 10, 1865. 3. Abraham Jr., born June 13, 1787, died October 9, 1853. 4. James Hervey, born May 5, 1790, died July 27, 1837. 5. Henry, men- tioned below. 6. Annie, born June 13, 1796, died September 16, 1866. 7. Eliza, born July 26, 1799, died August 25, 1833. 8. Charles Moses, born April 11, 1800, died October 7, 1851. Captain Abraham Shepherd died September 7, 1822, and his cherished and devoted wife died Sep- tember 23, 1853.

(V) Henry, fifth child of Captain Abraham and Eleanor (Strode) Shepherd, was born at Shepherdstown, January 4, 1793. He was reared and educated in Jefferson county, and after reaching years of maturity became a man of prominence and influence at Shepherdstown, where he acquitted himself with all honor and distinction in various public of- fices to which he was elected. He was a stalwart Democrat in his po- litical proclivities, and his religious faith was in harmony with the tenets of the Protestant Episcopal church, in the different departments of whose work he was an active factor. He was an extensive land holder and de- voted most of his attention to caring for his estates. He married, May 7, 1822, Fanny E. Briscoe, daughter of Dr. John and Eleanor ( Mag- ruder) Briscoe, of Piedmont, Jefferson county, West Virginia. Henry Shepherd died October 12, 1870, and his wife, who survived him for eleven years, passed away July 5, 1881. Children: I. Mary Eleanor, born July 18, 1824. died August 18. 1825. 2. Rezin Davis, born July 7, 1826, died November 2, 1862. 3. Ann Elizabeth, born August 25, 1828, died November 30, 1833. 4. Henry, mentioned below. 5. John, born June 9, 1833, died June 20, 1879. 6. Abraham, born March 21, 1836, is still living and now resides at Shepherdstown. 7. James Touro, born August 21. 1838, was a resident of Shepherdstown. West Virginia, died during the civil war.

(VI) Henry (2), son of Henry (1) and Fanny E. ( Briscoe) Shep- herd, was a native of Shepherdstown, Jefferson county, West Virginia, where his birth occurred January 13, 1831. He received his early educa- tional training in the country schools of his native place and later sup- plemented that discipline by a course in St. James College, near Hagers- town, Maryland, in which excellent institution he was graduated. As a young man he went to New Orelans, Louisiana, where he figured prom- inently in the business world as a commission merchant. He passed the closing years of his life in the vicinity of Shepherdstown, where he was the owner of vast estates, the same including the famous "Wild Goose Farm" and "Shepherd Farm," two of the largest and finest farms in the entire county. In all affairs of national import. Mr. Shepherd was an uncom- promising Democrat, but in local matters he maintained an independent at- titude, preferring to give his support to men and measures meeting with the approval of his judgment, rather than to vote along strictly partisan lines.

In the city of New Orleans, June 10, 1858, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Shepherd to Azemia McLean, born in New Orleans, Janu- ary II, 1837. daughter of William James and Sarah (Hagan) McLean, both of Scottish birth. Henry Shepherd died September 30, 1891, and his loss was a cause for universal mourning in Jefferson county, where he was so well known and highly esteemed. Four children were born to Henry and Azemia Shepherd, namely, Rezin Davis, Henry, William James and Augustus Montgomery, all of whom are mentioned below.

(VII) Rezin Davis, son of Henry (2) and Azemia ( McLean) Shep- herd, was born March 7, 1859, his nativity having occurred at New Or- leans, Louisiana. As a youth he attended Washington and Lee College, and matriculated as a student in the University of Virginia, at Charlottes-

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ville, attending that noted institution for a period of one and a half years. After leaving college he assumed charge of the New Orleans real estate holdings of his cousins, Peter C. and Shepherd Brooks. Being unusually talented for theatrical work, however, he gave up his business career and made his debut on the stage at Kingston, New York, October 26, 1886. His stage name is R. D. McLean, maiden name of his mother, and he is well known in many prominent Shakespearean casts. At one time he starred with Madame Modjeska in Macbeth, King John, Merchant of Venice, and Hamlet, and he has also taken leading parts with his first wife, Marie Prescott, and his second wife, Elizabeth Lee Kirkland, ( stage name Odelle Tyler) daughter of General W. Kirkland, of North Carolina.

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West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 61

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