West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 84

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 84

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(IV) Francis N., eldest child of Canada and Elethia (Williams) Smith, was born in what is now Raleigh county, West Virginia, on a farm at the head of Paint creek, July 30, 1844. He was educated in the paid schools of the time, and assisted his father in the work and manage- ment of the home farm until he had reached his legal majority. For five years thereafter he was engaged in teaching school in Raleigh county, and at the expiration of that period he engaged in the mercantile businsss at Beckley, later turning his attention to the saw mill business. Subse- quently he was engaged in farming for three years and then removed to New Richmond, where he engaged in merchandising for three years. He later located at Meadow Creek as a railroad station agent and in the latter place he was likewise interested in a mercantile business. In 1879 he became a resident of Sewell, Fayette county, West Virginia, and for the ensuing fifteen years devoted his attention to mercantile and real

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state enterprises. Since 1894 he has maintained his home at Mount Hope, in the vicinity of which place he is the owner of five hundred and thirty acres of coal and surface lands. He opened up his mines on this tract in that year and since then has dealt extensively in surface and min- eral properties. He is likewise the owner of extensive coal lands in Raleigh county and of a store and three residences. The town of Warn- er was plotted and sold by him. His present fine home is located on Main street in the town of Warner, in the corporate limits of Mount Hope. He is a heavy stockholder in the Charleston Capital City Bank. In his political convictions he is a stalwart Republican. He and his family are devout members of the Christian church.

At Beckley May 25, 1870, Mr. Smith married Sarah J. Warden, born in Raleigh county, West Virginia, February II, 1849, daughter of John Walker Warden. Mr. Warden was born in Pulaski county, Virginia, in 1825, died in 1900; he was a son of Thomas Warden, who came to West Virginia from Pulaski county, Virginia, about 1820. The maiden name of his wife was Marian Hurt; he was a farmer by occupa- tion. There were seven children in the Warden family, of whom six are living, in 1912, namely: Sarah J., now Mrs. Smith; McDowell, Al- fred, Mrs. Mollie Underwood, Mrs. Norah Radford, John W. (See Warden line forward). Children born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith: I. El- bert W., born June II, 1872, died November 14, 1908. 2. William F .. born May 9, 1874; a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he is engaged in the coal business ; married Florence Hudson, a native of Maryland, and they have three children. 3. Walter E., born December 31, 1876; resides at Warner, West Virginia. 4. Ada, died in infancy. 5. Myrtle S., married, November 10, 1906, Phillip E. Robinson.

(The Warden Line).

The surname of Warden, meaning warder or guard, is said to be derived from an Anglo-Saxon word, "wearda," a chief officer, a guar- dian. There is, of course, the possibility that the surname, like that of so many of the other old families, was taken from the name of the place where the early ancestors lived or owned lands. In Kent and Northumberland there are towns called Warden, and in Belgium is a town called Wardin. The Warden coat-of-arms is blazoned by Burke : Argent, a chevron gules, between three pears, leaved vert. Crest: A fleur-de-lis, or. Motto: Industria et spe, meaning by industry and hope. The pears with which the arms are charged are, of course, "War- den pears," whatever they may have been. The sixteenth century dram- atists, Beaumont and Fletcher, in their play "Cupid's Revenge," men- tion the Warden pear, and some quaint monolist of garden lore says : "A wardono, or a poire de wardone," is a pear which may be kept a long time. Another dainty of the old-time larder should have interest for the Wardens. This is the famous Warden pie. Shakespeare says somewhere: "I must have safforn to color the warden pies." In the ancient ballad of "The Friar of Orders Gray" appears :

"Myself with denial I mortify

With a dainty bit of warden pie."

The Wardens have flourished in England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1640 "one of the principal citizens of London" was one Wardin. In Canada also the family has been prominent, while their history has been a notable one in our own country, in New England, Virginia and the west. A distinguished ancestor was Sir Rupert Warden, of Rut- landshire, who held the high office of "Knight of the Shire." There is in the family tradition of a royal lineage.

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Dr. William Warden was born in Forfarshire in 1777. He studied at the Edinburgh University, at that time one of the most famous schools of medicine in Europe. During the war of 1812 he served in the British army, undoubtedly as surgeon, and received a grant from the Patriotic Fund, while the University of St. Andrew gave him the de- gree of Master of Arts and Doctor of Medicine, "honor is causa." He was the surgeon in attendance on Napoleon during the voyage of the imperial prisoner to St. Helena. He published some notes on the life of the Emperor, which were taken from the letters Dr. Warden wrote from St. Helena to the lady who afterward became his wife. He mar- ried Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Hutt, and sister of Sir William Hutt, and they had one son, George Cockburn Warden, and two daugh- ters. His descendants treasure many relics of Napoleon, which were personal gifts to him from the Emperor, or presented through Marshal Bertrand.

David Baillie Warden was born in Ireland in 1778, died in Paris, where for forty years he was United States consul. He was a distin- guished scientific writer and was a member of the French Academy. It was he who founded the two libraries of American books, one of which now belongs to the New York State Library, and the other to. Harvard University. He wrote in French as well as in English. An- other author of the family, American by birth and not by adoption, as was David Baillie Warden, was Robert Bruce Warden, who was born in Nelson county, Kentucky, in 1824.

A New England forefather was Thomas Warden or Wardin, of Scituate, Massachusetts, About 1690 he married Elizabeth Sargeant, and they left descendants. Thomas Warden, who died at Boston in 1747 may have been the Thomas of Scituate. In the inventory of his estate are mentioned : "two wiggs, one good, one bad ; one good hat and two old ones." Sixteen gallons of rum are offset by "one large Bible and four small ones." He also owned one slave.

Another early colonial ancestor was Samuel Warden, who was mar- ried to Miriam Bell by the Rev. Dr. William Cooper, the celebrated pastor of the Brattle Street Church, Boston. In Dr. Cooper's diary the name of Warden is of frequent occurrence.

Samuel, son of Samuel and Miriam ( Bell) Warden, was born at Boston in 1775. According to the record of him he was "genial, erect, with blue eyes, and a great hand to laugh." His home was in Worces- ter, where the Warden homestead was a landmark for many years. Many generations of Wardens rest in Hope cemetery. He married (first) Tomasin, daughter of Elijah Harrington, and had eight children by this marriage. He married (second) Sally Waters, the original of "Little Sally Waters, sitting in the sun."

Jolin, son of Samuel, and grandson of Samuel and Miriam (Bell) Warden, married Narcissa Davis, whose father, grandfather and two uncles were soldiers in the continental army.

Among those "able to bear arms in New Plymouth, in 1643," was listed Peter Warden, son of "Peter the Elder," as he was called, who left by will "to my only son Peter my whole property."

Judah Warden, born in Rhode Island in 1756, married Abigail, daughter of Jonathan Richardson, of Cheshire, Massachusetts. Mar- riage connections of this branch include the families of Reed, Sears of Boston, Covell, Benedict, Crease, Francisco. Bridge. Perry, Niles and Jenkins. One of the descendants of the Rhode Island Wardens was Elisha Warden, one of the "Green Mountain Boys" of the war of the revolution.

Old Virginia records give the name of Thomas Warden, who came-

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over in the "Anne" in 1623. William Wallace Warden, born in Scot- land, bought land in Augusta county, Virginia, in 1750, and this place was owned by the Wardens for many generations. The survey of this property at the time of its purchase by Mr. Warden was made by George Washington. William Wallace Warden married Elizabeth Williams and they had two sons: James and William. The latter married Sarah Christman, and her family was connected with that of President James Madison ; they had seven sons and four daughters. Another Virginia colonist was Samuel Warden, born in Ireland, who settled in a part of Virginia now included in West Virginia. One of his six children was William Warden, born in 1800.

The Mason family to which Hon. John W. Mason belongs

MASON is descended from a very old English family. His great- grandfather, a Methodist preacher, came to America just before or immediately after the revolutionary war, and settled near Baltimore. His great-grandfather and his grandfather, with three or four brothers, about 1790 moved into what is now Garrett county, Mary- land, and thence across the line into Preston county, Virginia. His father, John McClure Mason, son of John Mason, was born in Preston county, Virginia, near the present site of Terra Alta, September 3, 1815. His grandmother, Sarah Mason, was of Scotch-Irish descent, or perhaps more correctly speaking Protestant-Irish. Her maiden name was Casey, daugh- ter of Nicholas Casey, of Romney. Peter Casey, her grandfather, moved to Moorefield, Virginia, from Philadelphia in 1736. Several of the sons were revolutionary soldiers. Nicholas seems to have been the only one of the sons who remained in that section after the war, and he settled at Romney, where he lived for many years, and raised a large family of sons and daughters, among whom was Sarah Casey, John W. Mason's grandmother. The name Casey is extinct in that vicinity. All the sons moved to other states, but several of the daughters of Nicholas Casey mar- ried in Hardy and Hampshire counties, and among their descendants are the Parsons, Harnesses, Pancakes, Bradys, and Inskips.

His mother's maiden name was Susan B. Hutchinson. She was de- scended from an old English family. The Hutchinsons came to America many years before the revolutionary war and settled in Loudoun, Fau- quier, Fairfax, and Prince William counties, Virginia. They were neigh- bors and loyal supporters of General Washington. His mother was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, November 11, 1808, near the village of Cen- terville. Her father, William Hutchinson, was a member of the Virginia Militia at Washington, D. C., at the time of the surrender of that city to the British army in 1814, and at the battle of North Point, near Balti- more, a few days later. Here his grandfather Hutchinson contracted a fever, returned to his home near Fairfax Court House and died. His grandmother married James Hutchinson, a relative of her first husband. and the family moved to Preston county, then to Monongalia county about 1820, finally settling in Monongalia county, at Little Falls, where the old people died after rearing a large family. In an interview with Judge Mason he gave us in substance the following biographical sketch :

"I was born on Joe's Run, in Monongalia county, Virginia, about three miles from Smithtown, January 13, 1842. In the spring of 1846, my father moved into the village. ( Smithtown) and lived there, following his trade, that of a blacksmith for about thirty-five years.

"I attended the neighborhood schools; clerked in my uncle's store (Jeremiah J. Hutchinson, my mother's brother ), taught subscription school in the fall and winter of 1859-60, 1860-1. In August, 1861, I enlisted in the Union army for three 37

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years and served until September 14, 1864, when I returned to my old home and resumed my studies at the old Monongalia Academy at Morgantown. Most of my army service was as sergeant in Battery 'F' First West Virginia, Light Artillery (commonly known as Maulsby's Battery). Much of the time was spent in the Valley of Virginia Campaigns. I remained at the Academy until it was merged into the University, or as it was then known, The Agricultural College, in 1867, teaching country schools and acting as tutor at the Academy to provide the money which added to my small savings in the army paid my school expenses.

"The Academy was formally transferred to the state about March, 1867, and the Board of Regents of the College took charge of the school and continued it during the school year. I was employed in connection with Professor Stephen Reppert to continue the school for the year, and I thus became one of the first teachers of the college, and am entitled to rank as the oldest ex-professor. I have always regarded this as a high honor. In the summer of 1865. I taught a public school at Halleck. This was one of the first, if not indeed the first public school taught in the county. Hon. Geo. C. Sturgiss, then County Superintendent of Free Schools, gave me the certificate to teach. I felt that I was deficient in Geography and asked to be excused from an examination on this branch. The superintendent reminded me that the law required an examination, and that he could not give me a Number One certificate without it. We compromised by his issuing a Number Two. I still have the certificate and find this endorsement on the back of it, 'I accepted a No. 2 certificate rather than be examined in Geography.'

"In the summer of 1866, I taught the public school in Morgantown. This was Morgantown's first public school. I read law in Judge J. M. Hagans' office while teaching at Morgantown, during the year 1867, and was commissioned to practice December 20, 1867, and admitted to the bar at the next term of the court of Monongalia county.

"In February, 1868, I located at Grafton and practiced law there for twenty- one years. In March, 1889, I was appointed Commissioner of Internal Revenue by President Harrison and held that office, residing at Washington, D. C., until April, 1893. I then moved to Fairmont where I have since resided. In 1897 Judge Hagans' health failed and 1 held court for him as Special Judge most of the time until his death. July 1, 1900, I was appointed Judge to fill the vacancy created by the death of Judge Hagans, and was elected at the November election 1900, for the unexpired term. In 1904 I was elected judge for eight years without any opposition, and my term will expire January 1, 1913, when I expect to retire permanently to private life, resuming the practice of law, with my son, at Fair- mont.

"I was twice tendered appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court, and twice practically offered Republican nominations for Governor at times when my election seemed sure, but I very much preferred the position of Circuit Judge among my home people.

"September 6, 1870, I was married to Rebecca E. Wallace at Morgantown. We have one child living, a son, who is a graduate of the West Virginia University and of Yale Law School.

"I am yet and have always been an ardent loyal Republican. Have voted twelve times for Republican candidates for President, commencing with Lincoln in 1864. In 1882, I was the Republican candidate for Congress in the Second Con- gressional district and was defeated by William L. Wilson by ten majority, the normal Democratic majority then being about 2,500. In 1888 I was the Republican candidate for Supreme Judge. I was Chairman of the Republican State Committee from 1872 to 1876 and was a member of the Republican National Committee for West Virginia from 1876 to 1888.

"On the 16th day of July, 1898, President Mckinley commissioned me a Major in the U. S. Quarter Master Department, but I had no liking for Quartermaster service and declined the commission."

A distinguished member of the bar who has been a life long friend of Judge Mason says of him :

"His most important decisions are State vs. Gaughan declaring slot machines to he gambling devices, 55 West Va. Reports. In this case the Supreme Court did him the honor of adopting his opinion as the opinion of the Supreme Court. This is the only time this was ever done by our Supreme Court. This decision put several thousand of these gambling tables out of business. His decision in the case of The South Penn Oil Co. vs. County Court of Monongalia County settled the question of the right to tax oil and gas leases. No effort was ever made to appeal the case. A series of cases decided by him, known as the King Land Cases, the most important of which are reported in the 64th volume West Va. Reports. has practically settled the laws of this state regarding forfeited and waste lands.

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These are by all odds the most important cases ever decided in this state. He spent about two years preparing this series of decisions. They were approved by the Supreme Court of this state and by the U. S. Supreme Court.

"He early took advanced grounds in relation to naturalization, requiring applicants to speak the English language, and produce satisfactory evidence of bona fide citizenship, long before the present Act of Congress was passed requiring these.

"He has always refused to grant divorces until it was satisfactorily proven that there was a guilty and an innocent party.

"He has endeavored to restore in its purity Common Law Pleadings, except where modified by statute. The result is that in his opinion this circuit has more good Common Law pleaders than any other circuit in the state.

"He has always insisted upon the enforcement of laws against illegal sales of intoxicating liquors, and violations of the election laws, and has been reasonably successful whenever sustained by public sentiment, and he has had the loyal support of the officers of the Court."

As a citizen Judge Mason is highly esteemed and respected for his probity, his genial manners, free from ostentation and assumption of superiority. His influence and counsel is always given for the moral and religious uplift of the community where he has resided. As a jurist he has brought to the performance of his duties a sincere desire to ascer- tain the facts in every case before him and then to apply the law to the case in hand without fear, favor or regard to private interests, and con- sequently both client and counsel feel assured that whether rulings or decisions be favorable or adverse to them, he has given their cases care- ful consideration and the result is the best judgment of an honest, able and impartial judge As a churchman he has given of his time and money to advance the cause of Christianity, and while loyal to his own church (Presbyterian) he is dominated by a broad catholicity of spirit that en- ables him to cooperate with Christian workers of all other churches.

LIGHT This name is common in Roanoke county, Virginia, and that family is of English origin. The first known of the present ancestry shows them in the eastern part of what is now West Virginia-in that part which to the present day is distinctively Virginian in life and sentiment. There in early colonial days settled Peter Light, the head of the branch of the family which we are considering, who came from Pennsylvania, where the name is sometimes spelled "Leight." He brought with him as his wife, Elizabeth Friend, of Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania. He settled in the northern end of the county, near the Potomac, where he died, owning a plantation of many hundred acres. Children : I. Jacob Friend, of whom more later. 2. Eliza, died in youth. 3. Mary, unmarried. 4. John, who lived in Maryland, where he is today repre- sented by the children of his daughter, Mary Lemon, of near Hagers- town, Maryland. 5. Nellie, who married a Wilson. Jacob Friend Light was twice married. His first wife was Mary Porterfield, a member of that large Scotch-Irish family which settled in the Cumberland and Shen- andoah valleys in earliest colonial days. Children : 1. Sallie, married Lemon; was mother of eight children, and lived at Williamsport, Maryland. 2. Eli William, died in youth. 3. Samuel Hoge, of whom further, named for Judge Hoge, then prominent. Of the second marriage, to Ruth Sopher, of Loudoun county, Virginia, were born the following children : 1. Mary, who married Oric Cunningham, of near Hedgesville, West Virginia, and was the mother of Mrs. Nannie Payne, now of Darkes- ville, West Virginia. 2. Eliza, married - Gehr; children: Louise, Nannie and Ella (Newcomer). 3. Jane, married - Cunningham ; no children. 4. Elizabeth, married Rev. - Shepherd, of Moorefield, West Virginia ; no children ; died February, 1913, aged ninety years. 5. Kate,

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married -- Ward; mother of Mary Lewis, wife of Dr. Lewis, of Western Maryland College, Westminster, Maryland.

Too often with ancient colonial families detailed and definite state- ments of ancestry and relations are impossible. It is probable, however, that the present family and the Ronoake county Lights are of one colonial family of English origin.

(I) Samuel Hoge Light, the first member of this family of whom we have definite information, was born June 17, 1814, and died near Beding- ton, Berkeley county, West Virginia, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. John T. Morison, in August, 1889. His life was spent on his plantation in Berkeley county, where he was engaged in farming. He was a Demo- crat. He married Ann White Tabb, who died in Berkeley county, West Virginia, in August, 1881, aged sixty-two years. Children: 1. William Edward, married Frances Duvall; served in the Confederate army, 1861 to 1865, died 1909; three children living. 2. George Tabb, lives at Charles Town, Jefferson county, West Virginia; unmarried. 3. Charles Hamilton, deceased. 4. John Hanson, deceased; married Emma Heyser, of Maryland ; six children, four living. 5. Thomas Friend, of whom further. 6. Mary Porterfield, married John Tabb Morison; they live near Bedington : four children living. 7. Julia, died in youth. 8. Lucy, deceased.

(II) Thomas Friend, son of Samuel Hoge and Ann White (Tabb) Light, was born in the northern end of Berkeley county, Virginia, near the Potomac river, November 29, 1849. He was brought up in Berkeley county and attended Professor White's private school at Martinsburg in that county. He is a farmer and dairyman, having followed this occupa- tion for seven years in Falling Waters district, of Berkeley county, and for twenty-four years at his present home, two miles north of Martins- burg, in Opequon district, on the Williamsport pike. Mr. Light is a Dem- ocrat. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian church at Mar- tinsburg, and he is at the present time an elder in that church. He married Annie May, daughter of Abraham Williamson and Susan Ellen ( Hawh) Porterfield, who was born near Falling Waters, Berkeley county, Vir- ginia, November 22, 1861. Her father was Abraham Williamson Por- terfield, a descendant of William Porterfield, who emigrated to America in the seventeenth century to escape religious persecution in Ireland and Scotland, and settled in Northern Virginia, where his grandchildren helped to build the old Presbyterian church at Falling Waters, about 1740. He was a farmer, and was deputy sheriff of Berkeley county under the state of Virginia : her brother, William Porterfield, is now living at Martins- burg. Children: 1. Williamson Hoge, born November 21, 1882; farmer, living on his father's farm; unmarried. 2. Claude Porterfield, of whom further. 3. Daisy Ellen, born January 20, 1887; living with her parents; unmarried.

(III) Claude Porterfield, son of Thomas Friend and Annie May (Por- terfield) Light, was born in Falling Waters district, Berkeley county, West Virginia, Sunday, September 8, 1884. He was brought up on his father's farm, and attended the Berkeley Military Academy at Martins-1 burg, from which he was graduated in 1903. His collegiate and legal studies were pursued at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Vir- ginia, from which he received in 1906 the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in 1911 the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Before taking the law course Mr. Light taught for three years, 1906 to 1909, in preparatory schools in Virginia and in Georgia. While he was working for his degree ; in laws he was also teaching mathematics in Washington and Lee Uni- versity, from 1909 to 1911. Since December 1, 1911, he has practiced law at Parkersburg, West Virginia. With his excellent education, not

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exclusively technical but properly founded on general studies, Mr. Light is a lawyer of much promise, and a worthy addition to the citizenship of this western section of the state. He is a member of the college fraternity, Alpha Chi Rho. At Parkersburg, he has become a member of two clubs, the Union Club and the Blackstone Fishing Club. Mr. Light is a Demo- crat, and a Presbyterian, being a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Parkersburg. He has not married.

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West Virginia and its people, Volume II, Part 84

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