West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 78

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

USA > West Virginia > West Virginia and its people, Volume II > Part 78

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MCCONAUGHEY From the same Irish stock as formed the back- bone of many early American communities in Pennsylvania and other colonies, and bore so large a part in the history of the colonial and formative periods, is Mr. W. C. McConaughey, business man and banker of Parkersburg. While his immediate family is of recent American origin, earlier settlers of the same name and the same family were found in America. Among the signatures appended to the so-called Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde- pendence was that of a Lieutenant McConaughey ; he was a relative, but the line of connection is lost. A cousin of the immigrant ancestor of the present line, also named Robert McConaughey, was for several years president of Washington and Jefferson College. Washington, Pennsyl- vania.

(I) Robert McConaughey, the founder of the present line, was born in Belfast, Ireland. Coming to the United States he settled in Western

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Pennsylvania. Here he was a farmer, and he held the office of justice of the peace. In politics he was a Democrat, in religion a Presbyterian. He married, in Belfast, Ireland, Elizabeth Lindsey. Children : David, Eliza- beth. William, of whom further ; James.

(II) William, son of Robert and Elizabeth (Lindsey) McConaughey, was born near Wheeling, Virginia, September 5. 1817, died at Parkers- burg, West Virginia, October 10, 1899. At first he was engaged in mer- cantile business. When oil was discovered in Wirt county, Virginia, he entered into the production of oil. Later he was associated in partner- ship in the oil business with John Jones and Johnson N. Camden, the firm name being McConaughey, Jones & Camden. After being engaged for a number of years in active oil operations, Mr. McConaughey retired from business and he lived retired at Parkersburg the remainder of his life. He was a Democrat, but never sought political office. In the Presbyterian church he was a consistent member, and for many years he was an elder. He married, at West Alexander, Pennsylvania, May 19. 1842, Margaret, born near West Alexander, July 30, 1824, died at Parkersburg. Decem- ber 24, 1904, daughter of Alexander and Charity ( McLain) Templeton. Alexander Templeton was born in New England, yet was of Scotch- Irish extraction : he was a man of profound learning and scholarship, and by liberal endowment was one of the founders of Washington Col- lege, Washington, Pennsylvania. He was a lifelong member and an elder of the Presbyterian church. His wife was of Scotch parentage. Children of William and Margaret (Templeton ) McConaughey : New- ton Templeton, Mary Elizabeth, Samuel McLain, Caroline Virginia, Alexander Milton, Clara Ann, William Chester, of whom further : Mar- garet Augusta.

(III) William Chester, son of William and Margaret (Templeton) McConaughey, was born at Cameron, Marshall county, Virginia, Febru- ary 14, 1862. He obtained his early education in the public schools of Parkersburg and later in the high school, and this was continued without interruption, partly at Parkersburg, partly at Burning Springs, Wirt county, West Virginia, until the fall of 1879. Then he entered Washing- ton and Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, July 12, 1883. Immediately after his graduation he was associated with his brothers in the timber business for about two years. In July, 1885, he engaged in the mercantile and timber business and continued in these lines until July, 1891, at which time he disposed of his interests in Wirt county. Then, having purchased an interest, he assumed the management of the Novelty Mills at Parkersburg and he continued thus until July, 1895. He then disposed of his interest in the mill, and in the following December he purchased an interest in a wholesale grocery at Parkersburg. In Novem- ber, 1902, Mr. McConaughey bought the interest of one of his partners and reincorporated the business under the name of The Star Grocer Company. Under his management, this company has become one of the largest distributors of food products at wholesale in Parkersburg. Not only in his particular business interest has Mr. McConaughey been an ac- tive worker, but he is an earnest believer also in organized effort for the purposes of learning and applying the most approved and economical methods in handling merchandise, securing just and fair legislation for the protection of creditors, obtaining the passage and enforcement of pure food laws, and other lines of endeavor suitable for the grocery bus- mness. He has strongly supported the pure food legislation and its en- forcement. In May, 1904, he was elected president of the West Vir- ginia Wholesale Grocers' Association, an organization composed of the wholesale grocers of the state, and to this position he has been continu-

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ously re-elected, so that he is serving in it at the present time. In July, 1905, he attended a meeting of wholesale grocers held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which resulted in the formation of The National Wholesale Grocers' Association of the United States. When the organization of this association was completed in June. 1906, he was elected a member of the board of directors; in 1909 he was made fifth vice-president, in 1910 third vice-president, and in 1911 first vice-president, and re-elected in 1913, which position he holds at the present time. In 1908 he was elected one of the vice-presidents of the State Board of Trade of West Virginia, a non-political organization devoted to the advancement and promotion of the financial, economic and industrial interests of the state. In 1909 he was again elected to this office, and in 1910 he was elected president of the same organization. Since January, 1907, Mr. McCon- aughey has been officially connected with the Wood County Bank, of Parkersburg ; he was at that time elected a member of its board of di- rectors, and since 1909 he has been vice-president of this bank. In col- lege he was made a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, of the Knights Templar and of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and a thirty-second degree Mason. He is a member of the Blennerhassett Club, at Parkersburg. Mr. McConaughey has always taken an active in- terest in civic, state and national affairs, and is a Democrat. He was a member of the West Virginia legislature from Wirt county in the ses- sion of 1884-85. Since that time he has not been a candidate for any political office. Mr. McConaughey is a member of the Young Men's Christian Association ; his wife's membership is in the Protestant Epis- copal church.

He married, at Meridian, Mississippi, July 2, 1902, Emma Melville, daughter of George B. and Caroline (McKinley) Neal, who was born at Parkersburg. Her father was a member of the pioneer Neal family of Parkersburg, of which an account is given elsewhere in this work. George B. Neal was a commission merchant at Parkersburg. Children of George B. and Caroline ( Mckinley) Neal : Eva Green, Anna McKin- ley, Bettie Pennybacker, Edward Martin. Georgiana Mildred, Philip Doddridge. Emma Melville, married William Chester McConaughey. Child of William Chester and Emma Melville ( Neal) McConaughey : William Chester, born July 13. 1904, died July 16, 1904.

Although the ancestor of the present American family

TURNER came from Scotland, the family surname is English, not Scotch. The name is the name of an occupation, but its occurrence is out of all proportion to the number of those who work with lathes ; it is one of the most common of family names.

( I) David Turner, the founder of this family, came from Scotland to America in 1851, bringing his wife, Rose (McLarty ) Turner. Child, Duncan, of whom further.

(II) Duncan, son of David and Rose ( McLarty) Turner, was born in Argyleshire, Scotland, March 17, 1834. He came with his parents to America, and settled on a farm near Barlow. Washington county, Ohio. His residence is now in Belpre, Washington county, Ohio. He married Margaret, born in Edinburgh, Scotland. October 8, 1836, daughter of John and Margaret (Fleming) Mckay. Her father and mother left Scotland and settled in Ohio when she was a young girl. They estab- lished their home in Washington county, in that state, near where Dun- can Turner had settled. Duncan Turner and Margaret Mckay married in Washington county, and there remained until 1869, in which year they

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removed to Blennerhassett Island where they resided until January, 1913, when they removed to Belpre as noted above. Children : Duncan Pendle- ton, of whom further ; David Fleming, of whom further.

(III) Dr. Duncan Pendleton Turner, son of Duncan and Margaret ( Mckay) Turner, was born on Blennerhassett Island, August 27, 1869. He attended the common schools of Wood county, West Virginia, and of Washington county, Ohio, and spent a year as a student at Marietta Col- lege. Later he began the study of dentistry, and in the fall of 1894 he entered the Ohio College of Dental Surgery at Cincinnati. Graduating from this institution in 1897, he received the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. In the same year he established an office at Parkersburg, West Virginia, and has practiced there from that time with marked success. He married, in 1901, Dollie, daughter of Major Jordan McKee, of Parkers- burg. One son, Wallace Turner, born September 8, 1902.

(III) David Fleming, son of Duncan and Margaret ( Mckay) Turner, was born on Blennerhassett Island. September 30, 1871. He attended the common schools of Wood county, West Virginia, and of Washington county, Ohio. In 1901 he graduated from Marietta College and in 1905 from the law department of the University of West Virginia. He was admitted the same year to the bar of Wood county, and is now practicing the profession of law in that county, having his office at Parkersburg. Mr. Turner is not married.

SMITH This name has long been, in all probability, the name of most frequent occurrence in the United States. It would not be easy to find any extended part of the country in which it does not surpass all others. The reason for this great fre- quency lies in the origin of the name. As an English word it is the gen- eral designation of a trade, or from the standpoint of present day spec- ialization of a large variety of trades, and in any community not purely agricultural, smiths form a necessary element in the population. Thus the name is of frequent occurrence in England, and has been brought to America by many immigrants not related one to another. Other ele- ments beside have contributed to the prevalence of this name in America and the diversity of families possessing it in common. In earliest col- onial days there were Dutch immigrants named Smit or Smitt, whose descendants are now Smiths. There have also been German immigrants founding American families of the same name, and of this last element the present family affords an illustration.

(I) Gustavus E. Smith, the founder of this family, was born at Mar- bach, Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1828, died at Parkersburg, West Vir- ginia, October 21, 1903. He received the splendid training even then given in the public schools of Germany, and in his native country also learned the trade of watchmaker and jeweler. Receiving a thorough manual and mechanical training, he became a fine and really competent workman. In many lines, as constant observation shows, the rapidity of our time is at the sacrifice of thoroughness, and too often men of the present do not really learn the trades which they follow. Mr. Smith well represented the workman of the time when to learn a trade was really to gain a special education. Beginning to study this trade at the age of fourteen, he was a master in his field. In accordance with the universal custom of Germany, he served for two years in the army. Having re- ceived an honorable discharge on the expiration of his term of duty, in 1851 he came to the United States, believing that here there would be more adequate opportunity and fuller scope for the exercise of his talent and skill than he could find in his native country. First he came to

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Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and then to Wheeling, Virginia, where he was for a short time employed in the well known jewelry house of J. T. Scott. But his energy and ambition were not satisfied. It was in him to rise by honest dealing and fair business methods to a high place in the world of commerce, with the respect of his associates and the material rewards of merit also. In November, 1852, he came to Park- ersburg, Virginia, and there he found his field. For the remainder of his life he was a resident of this city, prominent in its public and com- mercial affairs. At first he opened a small store. His business steadily increased, and he moved into the room which is now Peyton's barber shop. In 1856 he erected his own building on Third street : this building is now occupied by the Rex Hardware Company. It was here that Mr. Smith established securely that reputation for square dealing which dis- tinguished him and came to be permanently associated with his name and place of business. Nevertheless, this was not to be his permanent place, for the business still grew and in 1889 it had outgrown its quarters, and it was clear that a larger and more commodious home for what had already become the largest business of the kind in Parkersburg must be provided. About this time, therefore, Mr. Smith began the erection of the handsome Smith block, on Market street, and in July, 1890, he moved into the place of business which he thereafter occupied, one of the finest in the city of Parkersburg, or even in the state of West Virginia. Not only was Mr. Smith the founder of the oldest jewelry establishment in the state, but he could point to many proficient jewelers also, whose capa- bility was largely due to their having served apprenticeships under the experienced eye and skilled direction of this master of the trade. For more than fifty years Mr. Smith was active in business and public affairs. He was a stockholder and director of the First National Bank of Park- ersburg, and a stockholder in the Electric Light and Gas Company of the same city, and was extensively interested in real estate. In October, 1891, he took into partnership his two sons, who are energetic and capa- ble business men. The firm name of G. E. Smith & Sons was adopted. Hermann Smith still conducts this business, under the name of G. E. Smith's Son, Incorporated. While not inclined to devote a great deal of time to fraternal associations, he was deeply interested in Masonry, hav- ing joined that organization in 1855 and at the time of his death was one of the oldest members of his lodge. In the time of the civil war, Mr. Smith was a firm upholder of the Union. He was interested also in the . formation of the new state, and was a delegate to the convention held at Wheeling in 1861.

He married. October 11. 1853. Catherine Oelldorf. Nine children were born, of whom eight are living: Frank Siegel, of whom further ; Hermann : six daughters.

( II) Frank Siegel, son of Gustavus E. and Catharine (Oelldorf) Smith, was born at Parkersburg. August 28, 1862. He was educated in the public schools of his native city and the John C. Nash Academy, and also took a course in a German school. In 1879 he entered his father's employment as an apprentice, and later went to Cincinnati, Ohio, to fin- ish learning the trade of jeweler's engraver. Upon his return he entered his father's store. In October, 1801. he was taken into the business as a partner, and he continued in this business until March 1, 1907, when he sold his interest to his brother, Hermann Smith. Frank Siegel Smith is largely interested in real estate and in the development of Parkersburg. He is interested in the Parkersburg Chair Company, and is a director of the First National Bank. In 1910 he was chosen secretary of the board of commerce of Parkersburg, was elected president in 1911 and again in 1912. He is a member of the Elks Club, No. 198, and president of the

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Elks Building Company, which erected the Elks Club House. He is also a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Germania Singing Society. In politics Mr. Smith is a Republican. When Park- ersburg adopted a new form of local government in 1903, he was elected president of the board of affairs. This office he resigned in 1907 to accept the postmastership, and from that time he has been postmaster of Parkersburg, having been reappointed in 1911.

Frank Siegel Smith married, October 6, 1885, Lena, daughter of Marcellus and Lucy (Creel) Clark. Children: Lucy, Juliette, married John D. Hoblitzell.

The Hawley family is of English origin, four brothers

HAWLEY of the name emigrating together to America in the early part of the eighteenth century, and landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

(I) Peter Hawley, a descendant of one of these brothers, was a private soldier in the revolutionary army, and received a grant of land for bravery at the battle of Brandywine. He died at the age of one hundred and fifteen years.

(II) William H., son of Peter Hawley, was born in Connecticut near Hartford, and removed to Virginia after the revolutionary war.

(III) Anderson M., son of William H. Hawley, was born in Mont- gomery county, Virginia, and removed to Raleigh county, in 1847, where he resided until his death, aged seventy-two years. He was a school teacher and farmer.

( IV) Addison U., son of Anderson MI. Hawley, was born in Mont- gomery county, Virginia, in 1846. He married Mary E. Calloway, and among their children was William P., referred to below.

(\') William P., son of Addison U. and Mary E. (Calloway) Haw- ley, was born near Beckley, Raleigh county, West Virginia, July 22, 1868. He received his early education in the public schools and gradu- ated from the Concord State Normal School at Athens, Mercer county, West Virginia, in 1889. He then obtained employment in the railroad freight offices at Bluefield, West Virginia, and later became a clerk in a mercantile establishment. In May, 1892, he established the grocery firm of W. P. Hawley & Company with a capital of five hundred dollars, which by his activity and progressive business methods he has developed into one of the largest retail stores in Mercer county under the title of the Hawley Merchandise Company, and of which he is now the president, and which is estimated as carrying a stock valued at forty thousand dol- lars and as doing a business of one hundred thousand dollars annually. Mr. Hawley is also the secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Bluefield Telephone Company, which was organized in 1893 and of which he assumed control in September, 1896. He is a Baptist in religion, and a Republican in politics. He was at one time assessor of the city of Blue- field. and was also recorder, and was superintendent of schools for Mer- cer county from 1893 to 1895. He was sergeant of Bluefield in 1896 and 1897. and deputy sheriff from 1905 to 1909. He was a member of the city council from 1902 to 1910, and a member of the state legislature in 1909, and re-elected in 1912. He is a member of the Chamber of Com- merce and chairman of the committee on insurance and legislation. He is a member of the Masonic order, Improved Order of Red Men, the Eagles and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

He married. June 16, 1890, Harriet Lillian, born at Spanishburg, Mercer county, West Virginia, February 22, 1871, daughter of J. A. and A. E. (Ellison) Karner. Children : Frederick M., born June 16, 1891 ;

Mr. Stanley

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Charles Ray, October 7, 1893 ; James A., February 22, 1895 : William P., September 7, 1898; Annie Lillian, September 22, 1900; Pansy Lucille. February 7, 1908; Dorothy May, July 31, 1911.

BLACKFORD The Blackfords are an ancient Scottish family of Ayrshire. They were Jacobites and like many others of the old loyalist Scottish families they clung to the cause of the Pretender Prince Charles Edward and took part in the ris- ing of the clans in his behalf that terminated in the tragic and fatal bat- tle of Culloden in 1746. In this crushing defeat of the Highland clans who had rallied round "Prince Charley," Benjamin Blackford was taken prisoner and with a large number of other officers was confined for a time in Warwick Castle and then banished, coming to America. While confined to Warwick he cut his name so deeply on the stone walls of his prison that among the many there inscribed his is today the most con- spicuous in the keep.

(II) Martin Anthony, son of Benjamin Blackford, the American progenitor of the family, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1729. He with other members of the family followed his father to America and settled in New Jersey in 1755. He remained loyal to the Crown during the revolution and fled to Nova Scotia, where he died in 1784. He mar- ried Mary De Ant (Amt) of New Jersey, a niece of Major De Amt (or Ant) of the revolutionary army. Their children were: Jacob, Joseph, Susan, Benjamin, of whom further. The descendants of these children settled in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio and Indiana.

(III) Benjamin (2), son of Martin Anthony Blackford, was born October 3, 1767, in New Jersey, died at the residence of his son William in Lynchburg, Virginia, August 15, 1855, at the age of eighty-eight years. He joined Washington's army on its southward march when he was a boy of fourteen or fifteen years old and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781. After the death of his father in 1784, he was adopted by Mr. Thomas Thornburg, of Pennsylvania, a friend of his father's, who was a wealthy iron master. At the age of seventeen he entered the service of Mr. Thornburg as clerk at Pinegrove Furnace, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and became a partner before he was twenty-one. After Mr. Thornburg's death he became the owner of the Iron Works, Frederick county, Maryland, and for twelve years lived in Maryland. In 1812 he purchased and settled upon a large tract of land in Page county, Virginia, upon which the town of Luray now stands, and established the Isabella Iron Works, named after his wife, and also the Caroline Furnace, named after the wife of his son, Dr. Thomas T. Blackford. He amassed a large fortune which was lost late in life by indorsing for a friend and connection, together with the financial crisis of 1837 caused by Jackson's removal of the deposits of the United States Bank. He married Isabella Arthur, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, who was born there October 10, 1765, died in Page county, January 10, 1837. Their children were: Dr. Thomas Thornburg, of whom further; Jane Aege, William Matthews, John Arthur, Mary Martin.

(IV) Dr. Thomas Thornburg Blackford, son of Benjamin (2) and Isabella (Arthur) Blackford, was born February 9, 1794. at Pinegrove Furnace, Pennsylvania, died at Lynchburg. Virginia, February 28, 1863. He was educated at Dickinson College ( Pennsylvania) and graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1816. When a mere lad he served in the war of 1812, and was present at the bombardment of Fort McHenry, and his widow received a pension from the United States until her death in 1888. He practiced his profession for a num-

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ber of years in Luray, Page county, Virginia, and was also a partner with his father in the iron business until the business crisis of 1837 which ruined both his father and he financially. In 1842 he removed to Lynch- burg, Virginia, and successfully resumed the practice of his profession, continuing until his death in 1863. He married Caroline, daughter of William Steenbergen, of Mt. Airy. Shenandoah county. Virginia. Their children were: Mary Isabella, Thomas, Bettie, John Graham, of whom further ; Benjamin, of whom further ; Beale Steenbergen, William Hill, and several others who died in infancy.

(V) John Graham, son of Dr. Thomas Thornburg and Caroline ( Steenbergen) Blackford, was born at MIt. Airy, Virginia, November, 1830. He came to Parkersburg, Virginia, in 1857. He was engaged in Parkersburg in the forwarding business and was a commission merchant. He also had a large wholesale grocery store where Shattuck & Jackson's store is now located on Ann street. He was also in the pork packing business in Parkersburg. He served for a time in the city council. He was a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He married, July 2, 1861. Mary, daughter of Peter G. Van Winkle. Their children were: Godwin Lewis, Benjamin Rathbone, of whom further : Juliette, married H. P. Camden. Mr. Blackford died in September, 1884.

(V) Dr. Benjamin (3) Blackford, son of Dr. Thomas Thornburg and Caroline (Steenbergen) Blackford, was born September 8, 1834. in Luray, Isabella Furnace, Page county, Virginia. His first school work was done at Lynchburg, where also he was prepared for college. He then entered upon the study of medicine at the University of Virginia, and continued it at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, from which institution he was graduated in 1855. after which he was appointed resi- dent physician of the Philadelphia Hospital, Blockley, where he re- mained until the spring of 1857. He then settled in Lynchburg, Virginia, and practiced his profession until the breaking out of the war between the states. In 1861 he was appointed surgeon in the Confederate army and was ordered to Manassas as surgeon of the Eleventh Virginia Regi- ment, the first body of troops ordered to that post. He was detached from his regiment by order of General Beauregard in order to establish the Military Hospital at Culpeper Court House. Afterwards, under the orders of General Joe Jolinston, he established the General Hospital at Front Royal where he remained as surgeon-in-charge until the spring of 1862 when the Army of Northern Virginia removed to the Peninsula to meet Mcclellan's army advancing on Richmond. He was then ordered to establish a general hospital in Liberty, Bedford county, Virginia, where he remained as surgeon-in-charge until General Lee's surrender in 1865. After the war he resumed the practice of his profession in Lynchburg. He was president of the Lynchburg Medical Association, and of the State Medical Society, and was a frequent contributor to the medical journals. In April. 1889. he was elected superintendent of the Western Lunatic Asylum, of the State of Virginia. During his administration he succeeded in having the name changed to the Western State Hospital and in carrying out many other improvements in the institution, increasing the capacity to about nine hundred beds. He married, January 10, 1871, Mrs. Emily Byrd, daughter of the late Robert Neilson, of Baltimore. Their children were : Thomas Atkinson, Benjamin Ogle, Robert Neilson, Charles Minor.

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West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 78

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