West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 7

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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This is an old New England family, and is represented in

STILES West Virginia by Hon. Maynard F. Stiles, of Charleston. Kanawha county, where he has resided about eighteen years. The following sketch treats of the genealogy and biography of his imme- diate family.

(I) William Stiles, the great-grandfather, was of Massachusetts stock and an early resident of Vermont, in which state he probably died. But little is now known of his career, other than that he married and had a son, named Asahel, and other children.

(II) Asahel, son of William Stiles, was born in Tunbridge, Vermont, where the active years of his life were spent, he dying at the age of forty- five years. November 8, 1812, he married Nancy Bradford, a native of Vermont, and descendant of old Governor Bradford of the Plymouth Col- ony. She was born 1788, and died in her native state, aged seventy-two years. Her parents were Timothy and Edith (Howe) Bradford, the mother being a descendant of a brother of Lord William Howe, and daughter of William and Edith (Livingstone) Howe. Generally, the Stiles family were agriculturists, with now and then a professional man and a tradesman. They were usually large robust men and women, which was also true of the Bradfords, and to this is doubtless due the fact that Maynard F. Stiles has attained the height of six feet and four inches, and weighs two hundred and thirty pounds. Asahel Stiles and wife had chil- dren as follows: 1. Clarissa A., married a Mr. Fairchild. 2. Clarinda M., married J. F. Sanders. 3. Asahel B., of whom further. 4. Nancy B., married Riley F. Cudworth. 5. David L., married Augusta French, an aunt of Associate Justice Harlan's wife; and lived in Rochester, New York. 6. John M., went to Chicago, and was a merchant tailor many years, dying at an advanced age; he married and left children. 7. Wil- liam L., resided in Springfield, Vermont, where he died an old man ; mar- ried and his son, Frank Stiles, is now editor and publisher of the Springfield Reporter. 8. Baxter Bradford Stiles, settled in Denver, Colo- rado, in 1859, and became a prominent citizen and business factor, as well as an eminent lawyer ; he was three times elected mayor of Denver, he married, but had no issue. 9. Malvina, died in infancy. 10. Maynard F., died, single, aged less than fifty years; he practiced law in Iowa and at Memphis, Tennessee, and later was a cotton planter in Arkansas; He was also elected judge of Hardin county, Iowa.

(III) Asahel Bradford Stiles, was born in Tunbridge, Vermont, May 24, 1817. His life was largely spent in his native state as a thrifty New England farmer, but for a few years he was engaged in mercantile pur- suits, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. His early life was devoted to hard work, for when only sixteen years of age his father died, and the care of supporting the family fell to his lot. He succeeded, however, in fairly educating the other children of the family, at the same time spar- ing odd moments in which to study himself ; thus, when fully grown to manhood, he was well informed for his day and generation. Politically he was a Democrat, and a good speaker, and made his influence felt on the stump, in various campaigns, and during the stirring times of the civil war. Before 1861 he was in full accord with the "Douglas Demo- crats," and worked for the election of Stephen A. Douglas for president, when a candidate against Mr. Lincoln. In his religion he was liberal, as will be understood when it is said that he was a Universalist and a work- er in both the church and Sunday-school of that denomination. He also led the choir. He married, April 5, 1843, in Brookfield, Vermont, Abigail Lov- ett Adams, born November, 1822, in Brookfield, died November, 1884. Her parents were Captain Thomas and Mary (Warner) Adams. The former, born August 19, 1788, died at Brookfield, Vermont, September 20, 1843 :

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married, May 22, 1814, Mary Warner, born September 25, 1795, died February 22, 1892, in Brookfield, Vermont. An ancestor of hers, Major Ames Walbridge, served gallantly in the revolutionary war. Her cousin, Colonel Seth Warner, was a comrade-in-arms of Colonel Ethan Allen, and second in command of the "Green Mountain Boys" in the contest be- tween Vermont, then called the New Hampshire Grants, and New Hamp- shire and New York which claimed the territory. The struggle was sus- pended when the revolutionary war called all loyalists to operate against England. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. Mary (Warner) Adams was Major Reuben Adams, born October 22, 1761, died August 30, 1833, who married Abigail Lovett, December 4. 1783. She was born March IO, 1761, died October 26, 1841. Asahel Bradford Stiles and wife had children : 1. Darwin Lysander, born in Vermont, April 26, 1844: married in Vermont, Fidelia Lincoln, died in 1910, leaving one child, Winona, who married Herbert Rood. 2. Isabelle C., October, 1846; married Thomas O. Lynch, and resides in Denver, Colorado. They have a son, Edward Asahel, an actor and singer of note, who married Belle Dale, the daughter of a prominent Salt Lake City lawyer. 3. Imogene Olivia, November, 1850, at Tunbridge, Vermont : married Ora H. Goodale, and resides at South Royalton, Vermont. He died in 1908, leaving children : Ernest C., died aged twenty-nine years ; Grace, wife of Dr. H. H. Hay- wood, of Randolph, Vermont ; and Gertrude (a twin sister of Grace), married Clarence I. Cate, of Boston, Massachusetts. 4. Maynard French. of whom further. 5. Fannie Susan, November 15, 1857, died unmarried in 1882.

(IV) Hon. Maynard French Stiles, son of Asahel B. and Abigail Lovett (Adams) Stiles, was born at Tunbridge, Vermont, May 7, 1854. He attended the public schools in his native town until fourteen years of age, then became a pupil at the Green Mountain Institute, at South Woodstock, Vermont, subsequently entering Phillips-Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, graduating after a three years' course, in 1873. During the same year he entered Harvard University, taking an academic course and graduating with the class of 1877. Having decided to become an attorney, he took up the study of law under John Converse, of Boston, Massachusetts; but a few years later caught the western fever, and wended his way to the mining section of Colorado, when the names of Ruby Camp, Irwin, Gothic, Crested Butte, Gunnison and Leadville, all now in geography and mining reports, lured the adventurer to "the West" and to hoped-for fortune. He was attracted with thousands of others to that famous gold and silver mining country, and passed through many in- teresting and not a few trying experiences in that wild, new country. He became a police judge at Irwin, having for his district as much territory as is contained in Massachusetts. His office and court room were known as the "Arsenal." For two years he held the position of city attorney at Crested Butte. Upon leaving Colorado he went to Los Angeles, Califor- nia. In California Mr. Stiles practiced law and in 1888-89 held the office of city auditor and ex-officio clerk of the city council. In the autumn of 1891 he returned to Boston, Massachusetts, where he entered into a law partnership with Samuel W. Clifford. Two years later he went to Charleston, West Virginia, where for sixteen years he was engaged in representing claimants of the great Robert Morris grant, patented to Robert Morris of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the litigation concerning which was known to lawyers as the "Great King Land Case." Since the settlement of those matters, Mr. Stiles has paid special attention to land cases. He is looked upon as one of the prominent lawyers of the state. Politically he is a Democrat and a leader in his party. He and his family attend the Kanawha Presbyterian Church. He married, in Gunnison, Col-

Hagmand Khiles

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orado, in 1884, Ellen S., daughter of Benjamin F. and Eliza A. (Trow- bridge) Field, natives of Wisconsin, but of New England ancestry. Her father was the inventor of many useful manufacturing processes, espec- ially relating to straw-board and paper-making in general. He was of the noted Field family, from which came Cyrus W. Field of Atlantic cable fame, and the merchant prince of this name in this country. Mr. and Mrs. Stiles have no children of their own, but adopted one known as Tomasa Stiles, born in Baltimore, Maryland, December 19, 1890. She was well educated at the schools of Charleston, and is a young lady of re- finement and high culture. Her sister is the wife of T. S. Clark, of the law firm of Chilton, McCorkle & Chilton.

MATHEWS The names Mathews and Matthews, very probably variant spellings of one family name, were already common in Maryland and Virginia, in the earliest col- onial times, and among them those of men of great distinction. The two names are frequently mentioned in the state censuses of Virginia in 1782 to 1785. Two Mathews lines are mentioned in Virginia, one descending from Samuel Mathews, who settled in that colony as early as 1622, and the other from another emigrant ancestor who came to Augusta county about 1737. There is, however, still no direct evidence to connect either of these with the family herein discussed.

(I) Thomas Mathews was living in Queen Anne's county, Maryland, in 1818, when his son, James R., was born. If he was in that county in 1790, he was not then the head of a family, for he is not named in the census. A Thomas Mathews is named in that census, as living in Mont- gomery county ; and there are two more of the name Thomas Matthews, one living in Talbot, the other in Charles county. Children of Thomas Mathews: James Ridgeway, of whom further; John, emigrated to Ohio ; Captain George ; and a daughter.

(II) James Ridgeway, son of Thomas Mathews, was born in Queen Anne's county, Maryland, January 29, 1818, died June, 1892. Removing from Maryland he settled in Marshall county, Virginia. Children : Chris- topher Columbus, of whom further; Senator Samuel Wiley ; and Mary Virginia, died in childhood.

(III) Sergeant Christopher Columbus Mathews, son of James Ridgeway Mathews, was born in Marshall county, Virginia, November 15, 1843. In the civil war he saw hard service in many battles, and was promoted first to corporal, afterward to sergeant of Company A, Twelfth Regiment West Virginia Volunteer Infantry. He was with Sheridan in the Shenandoah campaign, including the battles of Berryville. Opequan and Fisher's Hill. From 1893 to 1897 he was sheriff of Marshall county. At Moundsville. Marshall county, West Virginia, where he now lives, he served as a member of the city council for four years. He has been cash- ier of the Marshall County Bank. He is a prominent Republican.

He married. September 14. 1865, Esther Jane, daughter of John and Margaret (Ingram) Scott. Her parents were immigrants from Ireland. having left county Armagh ahout 1833, very shortly after their marriage Mrs. Mathews is an honored member of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic. Children: William Burdette, of whom further ; John Ingram, born January 3, 1869, died November, 1886; Madge Ridgeway, married Frank D. Sigaboose, of Moundsville.

(IV) William Burdette, son of Sergeant Christopher Columbus and Esther Jane (Scott) Mathews, was born in Marshall county, West Vir- ginia, August 27, 1866, on the farm in the Round Bottom, which he now

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owns. The ownership of this farm has been vested in only five men, the first heing George Washington, who was given a patent for the tract, of which this farm is a part, from the state of Virginia in 1784. He sold the land in 1798, for ten dollars an acre, to Colonel Archibald McClean of Alexandria, Virginia, who sold it to his son H. J. McClean, in 1841, for twenty dollars per acre. He in turn sold it to C. C. Mathews in 1877, for eighty dollars per acre, and in 1912 Mr. Mathews sold it to his son, Wil- liam B. Mathews, for one hundred dollars per acre. Thus in one hundred and twenty-eight years, it has only been transferred four times.

William Burdette Mathews attended the local public schools, the Moundsville high school, from which he was graduated in 1883, and Waynesburg College, Waynesburg, Greene county, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1886. In 1890 he entered Columbian, now George Washington University, Washington, D. C., to take a course in law. He there received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1891, and Master of Laws in 1892. For four years he practiced in Washington. Returning then to Moundsville he practiced at that place for a short time. In 1897 he came to Charleston, West Virginia, which is still his place of residence. Here he accepted the chief clerkship in the state auditor's of- fice, and served under auditors LaFollette and Scherr. In 1902 he was appointed assistant attorney-general of West Virginia, under Attorney- General Freer, and this position he held until he was appointed clerk of the supreme court of appeals of the state. This office he holds to the present time ( 1912). He also served four years in the city council of Charleston.

He is a stockholder and director in the Capital City Bank; the Con- solidated Casualty Company ; the United Savings & Annuity Company ; and both the building associations, and three land companies, of Charles- ton. He is a member of several Masonic bodies. He is now trustee of the Local Camp, at Charleston, of the Modern Woodmen of America. Besides these he is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, past captain of the Sons of Veterans, and a member of the Edge- wood Country Club. He is a Republican. When the state league of Re- publican clubs met at Parkersburg, in 1900, he was president, and was a McKinley and Roosevelt elector the same year. Mr. and Mrs. Mathews are Methodists. Mr. Mathews was a delegate to the general conference of the church at Chicago, in May, 1900, and at Los Angeles, in May, 1904; a delegate also to the Fourth Ecumenical Methodist Conference, at Toronto, Canada, in October, 1911. His public spirit is shown by his work as director in the Young Men's Christian Association and the Union Mission Settlement.

William Burdette Mathews married, October 25, 1900, Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Edgar Brown and Sarah Frances (Young) Blundon, of Charleston, who was born in Tyler county. West Virginia. Her father was a major in the federal army, and after the war became a Methodist minister. Mrs. Blundon now resides with Mr. and Mrs. Mathews. Chil- dren : Sarah Esther, born December 29. 1902: Elizabeth, July 18, 1905; John Ingram, and Edgar Blundon, twins, February 24, 1909, both died in infancy.

This family originally resided in England. There were SHEPHERD three of the name who came together from England, one settling in Virginia, one in North Carolina and one in Texas. The following narrative will treat especially of the generations in this country down to and including Hon. Adam Robert Shepherd, pres- ent judge of the Kanawha county court.

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(I) Robert Shepherd was born just at the close of the war for na- tional independence, and died in the year 1888. He accompanied his par- ents from one of the colonies to what is now West Virginia, they settling at Charleston, Kanawha county. He was a successful farmer and stock raiser, and was the owner of a fine farm in Union district. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was highly esteemed by his neighbors. He married Mary Good, a member of a prominent Vir- ginia family, who survived her husband six years. Children: I. John, of whom further. 2. B. King, born in New Salem ; reared and educated there ; married Louisa Aultz, of Kanawha county, Virginia; resided in Charleston, West Virginia, where he was engaged in farming. 3. James Robert, born in Salem, Virginia ; resided on the old homestead in Union district ; married Eliza, daughter of Robert Young, an early settler of Charleston.

(II) John, eldest child of Robert and Mary (Good) Shepherd, was born in Roanoke county, Virginia, in 1833. died March 17, 1911, in Charleston, West Virginia. He taught school in Roanoke county and Charleston for thirty years, being highly successful in that calling, and acquired a reputation for great knowledge and wisdom. He was also in- terested in the nursery business for a number of years. He resided in South Charleston, and during his leisure time made a special study of the Kanawha valley. During the civil war he served in the capacity of rev- enue collector. He was active in the work of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was a Republican in politics until the last fifteen years of his life, when he transferred his allegiance to the Prohibition party. He married Louisa A., born in Kanawha county, Virginia, about 1841, died April 6, 1907, daughter of Adam and Patsey (Samuels) Aultz. She was educated in the public schools of her native county, and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Adam Aultz was a member of an old and honorable family of Rockbridge county, Virginia. He was a member of the Methodist church, and a Republican, and was known as a man of sterling qualities and very temperate habits. Both he and his wife lived to over eighty years of age, the latter dying in 1890 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Shepherd, in Charleston. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Shep- herd : 1. Clark W., born 1863 : educated in the public schools, at Wesley- an University, Ohio, where he graduated, graduating also from the Medi- cal College of Baltimore, Maryland, in 1888, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine : practiced his profession at Spring Hill : married Lucy Tisdale, of Lunenburg county, Virginia ; had one son, Tisdale. 2. L. Ella, born in Charleston, 1865 ; educated in the public schools ; engaged as teacher in the schools of her native city. 3. Adam Robert, of whom further. 4. Mattie, born 1869; wife of C. L. Pauley, of Raleigh, West Virginia, em- ployed with the Raleigh Coal Company. 5. J. King, born 1872; educated in schools of Charleston; serves as deputy sheriff of Kanawha county ; unmarried.

(III) Hon. Adam Robert Shepherd, son of John and Louisa A. (Aultz) Shepherd, was born in Charleston, West Virginia, April 7. 1868. He was educated in the schools of his native city. In early life he en- gaged in the nursery business with his father, and continued along the same line for twenty years. In 1894 he embarked in the general mer- chandizing business on his own account, at Spring Hill, and has success- fully conducted the same up to the present time ( 1913). He has always evinced a keen interest in politics, and been honored by appointment and election to various important positions of trust by his fellow citizens. He is a staunch adherent of the principles of the Republican party, and has served as delegate to state and county conventions. He served as secre- tary of the Eighth Senatorial District; was appointed postmaster of 4

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Spring Hill, West Virginia, by the late President William McKinley, in the spring of 1897, and ably filled that position until 1900, when he was elected to the office of county assessor for a term of four years; in 1906 he was elected to the legislative branch of the West Virginia general as- sembly, where he served two years: in 1908 he was elected a member of the county court, his term to expire in 1914. He has discharged the dut- ies of these various offices with fidelity and impartiality, and year by year has constantly grown in public estimation. The citizens of Kanawha county will ever be thankful for their wise selection of Judge Shepherd, who, aided by others, has succeeded in putting the county finances on a solid financial footing. He is a member of Washington Lodge, No. 58, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of St. Albans; Spring Hill Lodge, No. 140, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he has been treas- urer also for more than fifteen years ; and the Knights of Pythias.

Mr. Shepherd married, June 29, 1899, in Charleston, West Virginia, Elizabeth F., born in Richmond, in 1878, daughter of the late Robert El- lett. Mrs. Shepherd is a member of the First Baptist Church of Rich- mond. They are the parents of one child, Ellett Northcott, born January 7, 190I.

RUDESILL Colonel Ellsworth Rudesill, whose activity in business and politics has made him notable all over the country, comes of an Ohio family, whose lines of ancestry have been traced across the Atlantic, although not given here. Columbus Rudesill, his father, was born in Ohio about 1836, died at Chardon, Ohio. February 1, 1911. He was of German extraction. He was a member of the Republican party, and attended the Presbyterian church. He mar- ried Frank E. Bentley, also born in Ohio, but descended from a family of English ancestry. She is still living. Their only child was Colonel Ells- worth Rudesill.

Colonel Ellsworth Rudesill, son of Columbus and Frank E. ( Bentley ) Rudesill, was born October 10, 1861, near Akron, Ohio, and was named in honor of a young United States army officer who was one of the first to be killed in the civil war. His early education was received in Akron, and he graduated from the Akron high school. He then became his father's partner in the latter's establishment at Gallipolis, Ohio, where he dealt in crockery and queensware. By the time he was twenty-five years old, his father had transferred this business to Charleston. The store was located on Kanawha street from 1888 to 1900, when it was removed to Capitol street, and took the firm name of Rudesill & Mead. From that year until 1907 it continued prosperously, and was incorporated finally in the last mentioned year ; and two years later closed its doors to trade. In 1900 Colonel Rudesill became census supervisor for the third congres- sional district, West Virginia, which included ten counties. His work was highly praised by the Washington officials of the census department, one of whom sent the following testimonial: "I desire at this time to con- gratulate you upon your successful conduct of your duties as superintend- ent of census. They have been performed to the satisfaction of this of- fice and to your own credit. Your work has been arduous and difficult and the results clearly show wisdom of your selection of supervisors." About 1911 he was state agent for West Virginia for the Guarantee, Trust & Banking Company, of Atlanta, Georgia, an investment bonding company, but has since given up his connection with this firm. His pres- ent interests are with the United Savings and Annuity Company, for which he is director of the agency in Charleston. His business experience is very wide and he is well known and successful in the work he under-

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takes. Politically Colonel Rudesill has held many important offices, and has helped make history in the state of West Virginia. He was elected in 1903 to the state legislature by the Republicans, and served one term. In March, 1904, he was elected mayor of Charleston, served one term, and winning high encomiums for his executive ability. At various times he has been made delegate to conventions in county and state. Ex-Governor White appointed him on the state board of asylums, of which he was pres- ident for eight years, and did important work in connection with this body. Colonel E. Rudesill is a charter member of the Charleston Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and has served as exalted ruler for three terms. He is, with his wife and two older children, connected with the Episcopal church in Charleston.

Colonel E. Rudesill married at Gallipolis, Ohio, Alice Cromley, born reared and educated in Gallipolis, daughter of Francis A. and Mary E. (Williams ) Cromley. Francis A. Cromley, born in Pennsylvania, died in Charleston, at the age of seventy-four years. He was attached to the quartermaster's department of the Federal army during the civil war. In politics he was a Democrat : and fraternally, connected with the Ma- sons and Odd Fellows. He married Mary E. Williams, at Ironton, Ohio. Her parents were Welsh, and she was born on shipboard, while they were coming across the Atlantic to America ; her education was received in Kentucky, but after her marriage she lived in Ohio, where she died in her fortieth year.

Mr. and Mrs. Rudesill have the following children: Frank Ells- worth, born in Ohio, graduated from the Charleston high school, now as- sistant manager of the Daily Mail of that city, and successful in business ; Alice M., graduated at the age of seventeen from the Charleston high school ; Donald Bentley, still attending school.

PRESTON The Preston family came originally from England, and in the early days of the colony settled in Bedford county, Virginia, and like all others of that time took up tilling of the soil of that state. The introduction of the cultivation of tobacco by John Rolfe had given a tremendous impetus to agriculture, and the first fortune of a million dollars accumulated in this country was made in the production and shipping of tobacco at Falmouth, Virginia.

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West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 7

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