West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 81

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 81

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(III) John Howard, son of Robert R. and Sarah L. (Holmes) Wells, was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, April 22, 1868. He ac- quired a sound practical education in the public schools of his native city, and then found a position in a nail mill, where he was employed until 1886. At this time he entered the employ of the Natural Gas Company, where his diligence, faithful performance of duty and executive ability enabled him to advance step by step until he was appointed superintend- ent of the company. He held this position until his election in November, 1908. to the position of county clerk and probate judge, which offices he is now holding to the great benefit of the community. Mr. Wells may truly be styled a self-made man, and he is proud of this fact. He has been honored by election to membership in the board of trade, and has also served as a member of the city council. His fraternal affiliations are with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Knights Templar, and the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

Mr. Wells married, November 20, 1907, Birdie, daughter of the Hon. Jacob and Emma ( Horkheimer) Wolf, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and they have one child, Charles Howard, born November 12, 1908.

A fuller history of this distinguished West Virginia fam- JACKSON ily is given elsewhere in this work, the long line boasting many heroes in the country's annals, and many eminent men and women who have left upon the times wherein they lived the im- press of their strong characteristics. The ancestry is Scotch-Irish, reach- ing back to John Jackson, the pioneer and original immigrant, who was born in Londonderry, Ireland, and sailed to this country from London, England, in the same vessel with his future wife, Elizabeth Cummins. The strong mental and physical traits which distinguished this remarka- ble woman have been inherited by various prominent members of the family, and have brought them into conspicuous notice in the history of the country in both military and civil affairs. From the days of Indian warfare, in which their great strength and skill found ample room for achievement, down through the troublous revolutionary period and the subsequent stormy times and perplexing adjustments of the young states, the strong hands of the Jacksons have been felt and their clear voices heard. Eminent alike in the law and in the army, the family includes in its wide circle such men as "Stonewall" Jackson : Jacob B., father of John Jay Jackson ; Governor Jacob B. Jackson, Judge J. Monroe Jackson, Gen- eral John Jay Jackson, and Judge John G. Jackson, many of whom bore equally both military and civil honors.

Charles S. Jackson, only son of Andrew Gardner Jackson, of whom further mention is made elsewhere in this work, was born in Parkers- burg on August 22, 1887. His mother was a Miss Mary S. Shattuck, daughter of Charles and Anna Shattuck, and he has one sister, Jane

John Howard Welle

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Gardner, born in September, 1901. Mr. Jackson attended the schools of Parkersburg and was graduated from the high school in 1902: he then entered the Virginia Military Institute, being at that time in his fifteenth year. Subsequently, although under age, he was appointed to West Point by the president, with special orders, and was graduated from that institution with honor on February 14. 1908, being the youngest on its roll of graduates. He was then assigned to duty in Cuba, where he remained for a year, with headquarters at Havana. For two years he was at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, as second lieutenant of the Eleventh Cavalry; after which he resigned from the army, January 1, 1911. In March, 1911, he organized Company A, of the Second Infantry, West Virginia National Guard, becoming its captain ; and on January 1, 1912, he was transferred to Colonel Morrison's staff as commissary officer of the Second Infantry.

On the 21st of March, 1911, Mr. Jackson went into business in con- nection with the firm of Carney, Jackson & Mullen, undertakers, and dealers in pianos and furniture. He is considered as one of the rising young business men of this city, upholding in business life as well as in military affairs the honor of the distinguished name which he has in- herited from his father and grandfathers.

JACKSON James Madison Jackson, of Parkersburg, is descended from the notable Connecticut and Ohio family of Meigs. Thomas Jonathan Jackson, hardly known by that name, but of highest fame under the designation of "Stonewall" Jackson, was of another branch of this family. He was born in Virginia in 1824. In 1842 he entered the military academy at West Point, and was brevetted second lieutenant in the First Corps of the United States Artillery in 1846. He was attached to Magruder's battery in the Mexican war, and was brevetted captain for his gallant conduct. In 1852 he was Professor of Military Science in Virginia Military Institute. In the civil war he took the Confederate side, and gained the sobriquet of "Stonewall" Jack- son. He died of wounds unintentionally inflicted by his own men at Chancellorsville. 1863.

(I) John Jackson, the American founder of this Jackson family, was born in the northern part of Ireland, near Londonderry, about 1719, died at Clarksburg. Virginia, at the home of his son, George. September 25, 1801. With his parents he moved in his boyhood to London, England, where he learned the builders' trade. Thence he came to the American colonies in 1748, making settlement in Calvert county, Maryland. For a time after his marriage he lived on the south branch of the Potomac river, but about the year 1769 they crossed the mountains into northwes- tern Virginia. They moved several times after marriage, but in 1768 John Jackson explored the country near where, in the following year, he made permanent settlement, on the Buckhannon river, at the mouth of Turkey run, just below Jackson's fort and not far from the present Buckhannon. Here he was prominent in Indian warfare. John Jackson married, in Calvert county, Maryland, Elizabeth Cummins, born about 1720, died at Clarksburg. Virginia, in 1825. She also came from Lon- don, and crossed on the same ship as John Jackson. Mrs. Jackson was a woman of strong mind and body, great force of character, and indomi- table courage, and she also rendered valuable service against Indian at tacks. Patents are still in existence by which lands were conveyed to her in her own right. Manual strength, great intellectual power, and uncon- promising honesty have been characteristic traits among the descendants of this notable couple. Children: 1. George, of whom further. 2. Ed-

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ward, married Hadden, and they were the grandparents of "Stone- wall" Jackson. 3. John. 4. Samuel. 5. Henry, married ( first) Mary Hire, (second) Elizabeth Shreve. 6. Elizabeth, married Abram Brake. 7. Mary, married Philip Reger. 8. Sophia, married Josiah Davis.

( II) Colonel George Jackson, son of John and Elizabeth (Cummins) Jackson, was born west of the mountains, in Virginia or Maryland, prob- ably about 1750, and lived to an old age. Not far from the year 1770 he settled on the West Fork river, near Clarksburg. He entered four hundred acres of land in 1773. He was a man strong mentally and phy- sically, courageous, determined, a natural leader, prominent in public af- fairs. Himself deficient in education, he appreciated the advantages which had not been his, and his son had a good education. In the defense of the settlements against Indian raids he was active and dependable in all emergencies. In 1781 he recruited a company to join General Clark's ex- pedition against the British at Detroit. Early in the revolution he was commissioned colonel of a Virginia regiment by General Washington. The first county court for Harrison county was held at his home on the Buckhannon river in 1784. This court gave him permis- sion to build a mill at Clarksburg, on Elk creek, and soon after this he moved thither. Among the civil offices held by him he was a member of the house of burgesses of Virginia, also of the state conven- tion which accepted the constitution of the United States, and he was three times a member of the United States house of representatives. It is said that a speech which he made in congress caused much amusement among the members, and that he announced that he should go home and send his son John to congress and that they would not laugh at him. The records show that his son John immediately succeeded him, the father sitting in the seventh, the son in the eighth congress. In later life he moved to Ohio, where Zanesville now stands ; there he was en- gaged in various business enterprises, and represented his county in the legislature. The name of his wife is not known to us, but he had a son, John George, of whom further.

(III) Hon. John George Jackson, son of Colonel George Jackson, was born near Buckhannon, Virginia, in 1774, died at Clarksburg, March 29, 1825. While he was still small he came with his father to Clarksburg. He received a liberal education for the times, and entered public life at an early age, being a member of the legislature by 1797. He was in 1793 appointed surveyor of government lands west of the Ohio, and was a member of all United States congresses from the eighth to the fourteenth inclusive, except the twelfth. Further he was a brigadier general of militia, and in 1819 he was appointed United States judge for the western district of Virginia, in which office he served until his death. His public career was one of marked ability, and it is said that he was the most remarkable man west of the mountains. In business, too, his interests were of the most varied character : he established many enterprises and developed the re- sources of the country to a degree truly surprising. He married (first). in the Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C., Mary, daughter of John and Mary ( Coles) Payne, who was born about 1781. died February 13, 1808. Her sister was the wife of the president of the United States. the famous Dolly Madison, and this wedding was the first celebrated in the White House. John George Jackson married ( second) Sophia, daugh- ter of Return Jonathan Meigs (see Meigs). By his first marriage there was a daughter, Mary, who married Judge John Allen, of Virginia, and a son, John Jay. of whom further. By the second marriage there was a son, James Madison, of whom further.

(IV) General John Jay Jackson, son of Hon. John George Jackson, was, like his father, eminent in both the law and the army. He was born

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in Wood county, Virginia, February 13, 1800. He passed his early life in Parkersburg, becoming identified with its village growth and its later municipal prosperity. His education was begun under Dr. David Creel, . who subsequently resided in Chillicothe, Ohio, and was afterward con- ducted at one of the best schools in Virginia, taught by Dr. Tower at Clarksburg in Harrison county. Young Jackson was a very apt pupil, and at thirteen years of age was admitted to Washington College, Penn- sylvania, where he remained for a year, when he was appointed by Pres- ident James Monroe as a cadet to West Point, which institution he en- tered in 1815, graduating therefront in 1818, in the nineteenth year of his age. He was at once commissioned as second lieutenant in the United States army and attached to the corps of artillery ordered to Norfolk, Virginia, where he performed garrison service until the latter part of the year 1819, being then transferred to the fourth infantry. In 1820 and 1821 he performed active service in Florida in the Seminole war, and while thus engaged was commissioned as adjutant and transferred to regimental headquarters at Montpelier, Alabama. At this place and at Pensacola he was a member of General Andrew Jackson's staff. In 1822 he visited Parkersburg on a six months' furlough, and about January I, 1823, he resigned his commission in the army and turned his attention to law. He completed his preparatory course of study and was licensed to practice law in Virginia April 28, 1823. He soon reached the front ranks in his profession, maintaining his high position to the end of his career. He was in 1826 appointed prosecuting attorney of Wood county, in the county court, and in 1830 he was appointed to the same office in the cir- cuit superior court, holding the position until 1852, when he retired. He was also prosecutor in the circuit supreme court of Ritchie county. For six several terms he served as representative from Wood county to the Vir- ginia house of delegates, and in each of the legislatures to which he was returned he filled a prominent position. In 1842 he was commissioned brigadier-general of the twenty-third brigade of Virginia militia, remain- ing in this post until the outbreak of the civil war. In politics he be- longed to the school of Clay and Webster, believing in the capability of the people for self rule. He was a member of the historic convention at Richmond in 1861 and eloquently upheld the Union, this being about his last public service, though he made various speeches during and after the war in which he advocated forbearance and reconciliation. He was active in every enterprise for the benefit of the community: when the Baltimore & Ohio railway sought right of way from the Potomac to the Ohio, he urged needed legislation, and was one of the earliest and largest contributors to the subscription stock toward the building of the North- western Virginia railroad. In later years his means and time were largely used to promote the improvement of the Little Kanawha river, forming a company which erected locks and dams to make it navigable the year round. He organized and was president of the Second National Bank of Parkersburg, and was at various times member of the municipal coun- cil and mayor of the city. He died January 1, 1877, leaving to posterity the memory of a fame which rested more upon his legal ability than his political successes. Like his cousin, "Stonewall" Jackson, he was a superb horseman ; and like him was also temperate, persevering and purposeful, possessing unusual natural gifts. He was a member of the Episcopal church, and was for over forty years senior warden of Trinity parish. General Jackson married (first) Emma G. Beeson in 1823: she died in 1842 ; married (second) Jane E. B. Gardner in 1843. He was the father of five sons : Hon. Judge John Jay Jackson, United States District Judge James Monroe Jackson, Governor Jacob Beeson Jackson, Henry Clay Jackson and Andrew Gardner, of whom further. Also three daughters

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living at the time of his death : Mrs. William H. Small, Mrs. George W. Thompson, Mrs. William H. Smith.

(V) Andrew Gardner, son of General John Jay Jackson by his sec- ond wife, Jane E. B. ( Gardner ) Jackson, was born at Parkersburg, West Virginia, in March, 1857. He received his education in the public schools and at the University of Ohio, taking a course also at the Eastman Busi- ness College. After the completion of his studies he engaged in wholesale mercantile business in Parkersburg in which he continued for a period of fifteen years ; he then became interested as a producer in the oil indus- try, being very successful and acquiring a position of prominence and in- fluence in the community. He is now general manager, secretary and treasurer of the Parkersburg Builders' Supply and Concrete Company, and has become an extensive owner of real estate. Throughout his career he has devoted his best efforts to the development of the city of Parkersburg and the advancement of the municipal interests, and is now reckoned as one of its leading citizens.

In the year 1888 Mr. Jackson married Mary S., daughter of Charles and Anna Shattuck ; they have one son, Charles S., of whom elsewhere, and one daughter, Jane, born in September, 1901.

(IV) James Madison, son of Hon. John George and Sophia ( Meigs) Jackson, was born January 15, 1817, died in 1870. His education was re- ceived at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and in the University of Virginia. from which he was graduated in 1835. He was a lawyer and practiced successfully at Clarksburg until his death. He married Caroline Vir- ginia Moore, born June 5, 1824, died August 7, 1910. Children: I. Meigs, of whom further. 2. Thomas Moore, born June 22, 1852, died February 3, 1912; he was a civil and mining engineer, professor in these subjects at the University of West Virginia from 1888 to 1891; president of the company which built the Short Line railroad between Clarksburg and New Martinsville; interested in other railroad enter- prises, active in coal, oil and gas, and a banking man at Clarksburg ; from 1883 to 1887 he was county surveyor of Harrison county, and he was a member of Governor Fleming's staff from 1889 to 1893 ; he mar- ried, in 1884, Emma Lewis. 3. Florence (twin), born June 22, 1852. died in 1873.

(V) Meigs, son of James Madison and Caroline Virginia (Moore) Jackson, was born at Clarksburg, January 22, 1843, died at Nevada, Mis- souri, March 22, 1876. He graduated from Washington and Lee Uni- versity. After graduation he practiced law in Washington, D. C. After- ward he returned to Clarksburg, where he was for two years engaged in the practice of law and in managing his wife's estate. Then he went to Nevada, Missouri, where he practiced law in partnership with Senator Burton until his death. He married, at Clarksburg, March 28, 1871, Mar- tha, daughter of Stephen and Katharine Bassell. Children: James Mad- ison, of whom further ; Meigs.

(VI) James Madison (2), son of Meigs and Martha (Bassell) Jack- son, was born at Nevada, Missouri, June 26, 1874. His father died there when he was two years old, and his mother then returned to Clarks- burg, where he received a common school education. In 1888 he attended the preparatory school at Morgantown, West Virginia. and in 1890 and 1891 the Episcopal high school at Alexandria, Virginia. At Lehigh Uni- versity, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he took a course in engineering, and he graduated therefrom in 1896. In the following year he was appointed assistant engineer of the Little Kanawha railroad, and in 1898 he held a similar position with the Ohio River Railroad Company. From 1898 to 1900 he was city engineer of Parkersburg, West Virginia. The Parkers- burg, Marietta & Inter-Urban railway was constructed by him,

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from Parkersburg to Marietta, Ohio, in 1900 and 1901. Since that time Mr. Jackson has been more active in business life than in engineering. Yet he was made a member of the American So- ciety of Civil Engineers, June 2, 1901, and he is at the present time (1913) consulting engineer of construction work in Wood coun- ty. He organized, in September, 1901, the J. M. Jackson Lumber Com- pany, wholesale dealers in lumber, with offices in Philadelphia, and he is president of this corporation. On October 20, 1902, he organized the Everglades Cypress Lumber Company, with its chief office at Parkers- burg, and its plant at Loughman, Florida. Of this corporation also he is president. They manufacture fifteen million feet of lumber a year. Mr. Jackson is manager of the Jackson Land and Mining Company, with offices at Parkersburg and principal works at Clarksburg. He is a mem- ber of the Parkersburg Country Club, the Blennerhassett Club and the Automobile Club, both of Parkersburg, and of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks. Mr. Jackson is a Democrat, and a member of the Protestant Episcopal church.

He married, October 6, 1901, Catharine, daughter of George and Theodosia Tebbs. No children.

The Meigs family is one of the most notable in the history of Mari- etta, the first settlement in the Northwest Territory, and in that of the state of Ohio, and also belongs to the history of the country. Jonathan Meigs had a son, Return Jonathan Meigs, born at Middletown, Connecti- cut, December 17, 1734, died on the Cherokee agency in Georgia, January 28, 1823. He served under Benedict Arnold in his expedition to Quebec, and was there taken prisoner. Later he was colonel of a revolutionary regiment raised by himself. For the capture of the British garrison at Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, he received from congress a vote of thanks and a sword. In 1788 he settled in Ohio; from 1801 he was Indian agent for the Cherokees. His son, Return Jonathan Meigs, was born at Middletown, in 1766, died March 29, 1825. In 1788 he went to Marietta. He was chief justice of the supreme court of Ohio in 1802, United States senator 1809-10, governor of Ohio 1810-14, and postmas- ter general of the United States 1814-23. John George Jackson married his only daughter, Sophia.

FLORA George Alfred Flora and his progenitors, as far as known, resided in Morgan county, West Virginia. No records have been kept of his grandfather, Absalom Flora, who was a farmer, and died on his plantation somewhere near the present town of Paw Paw. His wife's first name was Barbara, but her family name is unknown. She died at the homestead at Paw Paw, at the age of sixty- eight. She was a Protestant Methodist, but her husband Absalom was an old school Baptist. Children: Morris, referred to below; Archibald, married a Miss Cowgill; Margaret, married Michael Larkins, and had five children.

(II) Morris, son of Absalom Flora, was born in 1819, near Mag- nolia, Morgan county, Virginia, and died at Paw Paw, in 1901, when he had reached four score and one years. An attendant at the public schools, then a farmer, he later sought employment outside of his home, and entered the offices of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, about 1866, where he continued until his death, giving thirty-five years of faithful service. He had no interest in other business, but for eight years held the office of justice of the peace. He was elected as mayor of his town and served for one term.

Morris Flora married Eliza Ann Largent, a resident at the Forks of

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the Cacapon, West Virginia, born there on the farm of her parents, Lewis and Mary (Hull) Largent. Their other children were: Susan, wife of Nimrod Day, and mother of six children, living at the Forks of the Caca- pon : three sons, Jacob, George and Abner. Morris Flora and his wife were Methodists. Mrs. Flora died in Paw Paw when seventy-nine years old. Their family numbered nine children : I. Thomas L., died leaving a widow, Margaret ( Van Horn ) Flora, and six children at Paw Paw. 2. Robert P., died unmarried. 3. and 4. Alcia and Caroline, died in infancy. 5. Joseph S., lives with his wife, Valeria ( Ryan) Flora, and their six children in Brunswick, Maryland. 6. Hannah C., married Christopher C. Booker : six children. 7. George A., referred to below. 8. Morris Bry- son, lives at Paw Paw : unmarried. 9. James W., deceased; left a widow. Emma (Seaman) Flora, and two children in Cumberland, Maryland.

(III) George Alfred, son of Morris Flora, was born in Paw Paw, Morgan county, West Virginia, March 8, 1858. He spent his youth there and found his early education in the public schools of the neigh- borhood. At the early age of fourteen years he entered the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. Three years later he became a laborer for J. B. Hoyt & Company, tanners, then with Fayerweather & LaDew, the name of which was afterward changed to the United Leather Com- pany. When Colonel Roosevelt was the president of the United States, Mr. Flora received an appointment as postmaster at Paw Paw, which he held for eleven years. This is the only position which he has held in which politics may be said to have taken part. In fraternities of which he is a member. Mr. Flora is a popular man, and has attained official rank. He has filled all the chairs in the Knights of Pythias, and has risen in the same manner in the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. He is acting secretary of the Improved Order of Heptasophs. For some years an attendant of the Methodist Church North, he has been for three years its recording secretary.

On October 28, 1879. he married Charlotte C. Robertson, born in Maryland, in 1859, daughter of a Maryland planter, named Samuel Rob- ertson, and her mother, Christiana (Licklider) Robertson, was born at Patterson Creek. West Virginia. Their nine children were: I. Mary, wife of Thomas Robinett ; six children ; resides at Paw Paw, West Vir- ginia. 2. Charlotte C., mentioned above, married George A. Flora. 3. Sarah, married Peter Twigg: resides in Cumberland, Maryland. 4. Savana, married Cecil Alderson : lives with their one child in Davis, West Virginia. 5. William, married Alice Middleton : four children, all living in Paw Paw. 6. Ebberhart, married Bertha Golbronson; lives near Cumberland ; two children. 7. Richard, married Sally Slider; lives in Davis, but has no descendants. 8. Resley, married Margaret Daily : lives in Frostburg, Maryland: one child. 9. Andrew, married Martha Roby : three children : lives near Kifer, Maryland. Christiana (Licklider) Rob- ertson still lives at Green Ridge, Maryland. George A. and Charlotte C. (Robertson) Flora have four children : 1. Myrtle A., still unmarried, liv- ing at home in Paw Paw. 2. Adda F., married Walter C. Robinett : one child. Edna Mea ; lives in Baltimore. 3. Charles E., served three years in the United States army, fourteen months in Cuba, died one year after his return home. 4. Wilber W., died as an infant.

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West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 81

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