USA > West Virginia > West Virginia and its people, Volume II > Part 90
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(II) George William (2). son of George William (1) and (Lockwood) Hensley, was born in Augusta county, Virginia, in 1831, and died in 1892. He was by trade a carpenter. At the age of twenty- four he went into the ministry of the United Brethren, and he continued in the active ministry until 1870. In that year he entered mercantile bus- iness, and ten years later he purchased a farm, on which he lived for the rest of his life. From time to time, while he was engaged in business and in farming, he also did ministerial work. He married Sarah Frances, daughter of Moses B. and Elizabeth (Ball) Hughes, who was born in Nelson county, Virginia, in 1837. Her father was the son of an immi- grant from the north of Ireland, who came, with two brothers, to Vir- ginia about 1770. They purchased thirty thousand acres of land in what was then Albemarle county, Virginia, and all three served in the revolu- tionary war. Moses B. Hughes was an extensive planter and a slavehold- er : his wife was of Albemarle county, Virginia. Child of George Wil- liam (2) and Sarah Frances (Hughes) Hensley: James Madison, of whom further.
(III) James Madison, son of George William (2) and Sarah Frances ( Hughes) Hensley, was born in Nelson county, Virginia. June 26, 1854. He attended the common schools of that county and the free schools of the state of Ohio; he also spent two years at Tupper's Plains Seminary. in Ohio. Farming first occupied his attention commercially ; he has also been a brakeman and fireman on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. For twelve years he was engaged in mining, starting as a mule driver and rising by steps until he was superintendent and one-third owner of a small mine. From 1885 to 1900 he owned from one to three sawmills and made railroad ties and lumber : for the next fifteen years he contin- ued in the same business on a large scale, employing from sixty to seven-
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ty-five men. In 1890 he became interested in prospecting for oil and gas, drilling, and the purchase and sale of oil and gas properties. Since 1900 he has been engaged in the real estate and insurance business, at Hart- ford, Mason county, West Virginia. Here he carries on a large business in oil, gas and coal lands, handling many important transactions in such properties in West Virginia and elsewhere. He has a pleasant home at Hartford, and is active both in fraternal and political affairs. Since 1882 he has been a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; he is a Master Mason, a member of Philaderian Lodge, No. 157, Nelsonville, Ohio; a Royal Arch Mason, having been since 1890 a member of Point Pleasant Chapter, No. 7 : he has been since 1892 a Knight Templar, and is at present a member of Franklin Commandery, No. 17; he has been since 1893 a member of the Mystic Shrine, and was a charter member of Beni Kedem Temple, Charleston, West Virginia, at its organization in 1897. Also, he has been a member of the Knights of Pythias, Banner Lodge, No. 22, since 1894, and is past chancellor in this order. He is a Republican, and has at various times been a member of the Republican executive committee of Mason county. In 1892 he was elected mayor of Hartford, and this office he held for seven terms. In 1894 he was elected state senator of West Virginia, and he served in this office for four terms : during the term of 1897, as president pro tempore, he was the act- ual presiding officer of the senate for the greater part of the time. In 1906 he was elected justice of the peace. He has served for seven years as president of the school board of Hartford.
He married, at Hartford, December 11, 1877, Margaret Ann, born at Hartford. died December 17, 1912, daughter of John and Mary Ann (Holmes ) Hall, whose children were: Barbara, William R., deceased ; John O., Mary Jane, deceased : Richard, deceased ; Margaret Ann, mar- ried James Madison Hensley, of whom above. Mr. and Mrs. Hensley had no children.
DOUGLASS While the Douglas family is found in Pennsylvania at a much earlier date, the first settlement in this branch in Pennsylvania was made by William Douglas, born in Scotland, February 5, 1769. He sprang from the famous Clan Douglas famed in story and song and probably the greatest of all Scottish clans. Volumes have been written concerning the doing of eminent members of the family and a history of Scotland could not be written were the name Douglas omitted. Although traced to the twelfth century, the origin of the heroic race has not been found and what was boasted of them by their historian of two centuries ago is still true: "We do not know them in the fountain, but in the stream: not in the root but in the stem: for we know not who was the first man that did by his virtue raise himself above the Vulgar." Another says: "So many, so good as of Douglas blood have been of one surname, in one Kinguck never yet were seen." "Burke's Heraldry" gives as the paternal arms of the name of Douglas : "Argent a man's heart gules ensigned with an imperial crown proper ; on a chief azure three stars of the first," which translated means upon a field of silver a man's heart red, beneath an imperial crown in its proper col- ors; upon the dividing line upon a blue ground three stars of silver. The original arms of the Douglas were simply three silver stars on a blue field. The origin of this is unknown. The origin and significance of the crowned heart is better known. It was assumed by the family as a memorial of the fate of the Good Sir James of Douglas, who perished in Spain in 1330, while on a journey to the Holy Land with the heart of his sovereign, Robert Bruce. The dying King had bequeathed his heart to the
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good Sir James, who had been his greatest captain, with the request that he would carry it to Jerusalem and there bury it before the High Altar. It has been stated that Sir James died on his way to the Holy Land and that he had the heart with him at the time encased in a silver box, but Hume, the historian of the family, distinctly states that the errand had been accomplished and that Sir James was on his return to Scotland. "He carried with him to Jerusalem the King's heart, embalmed and put in a box of gold which he solemnly buried before the High Altar there; and this is the reason why the Douglas bear the Crowned Heart in their Arms ever since." (History of the Houses of Douglas and Agnus, vol. I, p. 94). The name, originally Douglas, is now spelled in many branches with an additional "'s," Douglass.
(I) The emigrant ancestor of Judge Joseph Pendleton Douglass, of Huntington, West Virginia, was William Douglass, born in Scotland, 1769. He came to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania. He married Ann Anderson, born in 1774, also of Scotch ancestry. They had issue : Joseph, William, Ann, James, Mary and George.
(II) Joseph, son of William Douglass, the emigrant, was born in Pennsylvania, December 17, 1798, died in Preble county, Ohio, January 28, 1858, aged sixty years. He was a farmer, and was one of the early advocates of Abolition, displaying in this the courage of his Highland an- cestors, as it required both courage and nerve to declare in favor of the cause of the oppressed slave at that early day. He married, in 1828, Mary Steele, and had issue : William, James A., Mary J., Jerusha, Han- nah, Joseph.
(III) James A., son of Joseph Douglass, was born in December, 1830. He became a farmer of Preble county, Ohio, and there died January 13, 1893. He married Sarah Jones, born in Hampshire county, Virginia, daughter of Peter Jones, a Virginian, and a farmer of Hampshire coun- ty ; he died at a very old age. He had two sons engaged in the war be- tween the states, one, Henry, a colonel in the Confederate army : the oth- er, James, a captain in the Union army. Mrs. Sarah ( Jones) Douglass died in Camden, Preble county, Ohio, April 29, 1913. Children : Joseph Pendleton, Dora, resides in Ohio; Fletcher, died in infancy.
(IV) Judge Joseph Pendleton Douglass, eldest son of James A. and Sarah (Jones) Douglass, was horn August 2, 1869, in Preble county, Ohio. For several years he lived at the home farm. He attended the public schools, passing through the grammar and high schools, also taking a two years course in the Cincinnati Art School. He possesed unques- tioned talent, which his art study developed, and following his course at the art school he opened a studio and for fifteen years was a portrait painter, well known and fully accorded the rank his work demanded. In 1902 he abandoned his art and began a course of legal study at the McDonald Educational Institute at Cincinnati. He entered the law school of the University of West Virginia in 1905, and was admitted to practice in West Virginia, in 1906. In the fall of that year he began the practice of his profession in Huntington in association with the law firm of McComas & Northcott. Later in the same year he formed a partner- ship with Elliott Northcott, as Northcott & Douglass, continuing in suc- cessful practice until 1909, when the firm dissolved by the appointment of Mr. Northcott to be United States minister to the United States. Since then he has practiced alone. In 1906 he was appointed judge of Cabell county by the governor to fill out an unexpired term, a position he filled with credit and to the satisfaction of the county bar. In 1909 Judge Douglass was appointed United States commissioner for the district in which he resides, an office he most capably fills. He is a Republican in politics : a member of the Masonic Order, the Benevolent and Protective
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Order of Elks, and is a communicant of the First Congregational Church of Huntington.
He married, in Preble county, Ohio, on Halloween night, 1900, Jessie Brown, who was born in Indiana, was early orphaned and passed her life before marriage principally in Oregon. She is a daughter of Joshua Brown, who died while she was yet an infant.
This is a common Welsh name, borne by many families
ROBERTS in the United States of America. The English or Scotch name, Robertson, also quite, frequent, is of equivalent meaning. The present family, represented by several persons at Parkers- burg, West Virginia, is of Welsh origin, and its American history com- mences with late colonial days.
( I) Anthony Roberts, the founder of this family, was born in Wales, probably near Holyhead. There he was reared to manhood, and several years before the war of the revolution, he came to the American colonies and settled in Saint Mary's county, Maryland. There he invested his means, which were quite large, in land and other property. He was a Loyalist, sympathizing throughout his life with the British government, but he took no active part in the revolution. He was a man of strong character and a devoted Catholic. The name of his wife is not known, but he had the following children: Peter, of whom further; James, John and one daughter.
( II ) Peter, son of Anthony Roberts, was born in 1788, and died at Suffolk, Virginia, in 1828. His father had determined, early in his life, that one of his sons should be given to the Church, and Peter, being the most robust, was selected by his father, and sent at the age of seven to a renowned Catholic institution in New Orleans. Here he remained, apparently happy and working hard, fitting himself for the priesthood, until he was eighteen years old. During this time he saw but seldom the other members of his family. Like his father, he was of a strong will, but his views were not wholly accordant with those of his father; for example, he was a pronounced supporter of the American government and polity. He chafed for more liberty, and became restless and dissat- isfied. Difference with his father resulted, and this in turn led to other and more serious differences. He notified his father that he should leave the school and abandon his study for the priesthood, and he attempted to carry this out, but his father brought him back to the school and compelled him to remain. At his father's desire. he was more restricted and confined than before. Two and one-half years were spent at the school after his being brought back; then, just before his coming of age, he secretly left the college at night, made his way to the harbor, and, with the help of the sailors, concealed himself on board a large mer- chant ship engaged in foreign trade. His concealment was not discov- ered until the ship was several days out at sea, when he was found and set to work by the captain. The excellent education which he had received included a thorough theoretical knowledge of navigation, and he was in consequence soon relieved of menial work and made useful to the com- mander of the ship. Before the ship returned to an American harbor, however, it was stopped by a British man-of-war and searched on the pretext of looking for deserters; along with several others, he was taken and impressed into the British service. Before he returned to his own country, in 1814. the war of 1812 had been fought. Before coming back to America Peter Roberts visited many parts of Europe. When he set foot again on his country's soil he found that his father and mother were both dead, and that he had been disinherited; and the rest of the family
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did not feel very kindly toward him, because they supposed him to have apostatized. Whether he actually became a member is not certain, but his associations were largely with Methodists. He settled down to teach- ing school with marked success, and gave instruction in the languages, navigation and other higher branches. He married, probably at Suffolk, Virginia, in 1816, Trana, daughter of Captain Aden Holloway. Soon after his marriage, he settled at Suffolk, where he died at the age of forty. Children : James, died at about the age of twelve : Maria, died in young womanhood : David Angelo, of whom further.
(III) David Angelo, son of Peter and Trana (Holloway) Roberts, was born at Suffolk, January 18. 1824, and died at Burning Springs, Wirt county, West Virginia, in March, 1901. After his father's death his mother moved with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and there he engaged, in early manhood, with abundant success, in the hardware, sheet metal and roofing business. But his yearning was always for the country and the farm, and in the year following his second marriage he moved to Cecil county, Maryland, on the shore of Chesapeake Bay. He bought two farms and engaged himself in working these, raising all sorts of mar- ketable fruits, started a fruit tree nursery, and purchased a line of carry- ing schooners running between that neighborhood and the markets of Philadelphia and Baltimore. Here he was contented, happy and success- ful, and among these pleasant surroundings he would probably have spent the rest of his life had it not been for the fateful strike of the first oil well by Captain Drake, in the latter part of August, 1859, on Oil creek, Penn- sylvania, and the similar discovery, within a very short time thereafter, of the Rathbone well on the Little Kanawha, at Burning Springs, in (West) Virginia. The excitement resulting from these discoveries made him restless to enter into the new business. Accordingly, he formed a partnership with Philadelphia capitalists of his acquaintance to take up some oil property at Burning Springs and other points in the present state of West Virginia. The beginning of the civil war checked operations, and it was not until the spring of 1863 that Mr. Roberts came in person to Virginia and purchased at Burning Springs, a producing oil property. The business was incorporated under the name of the Rathbone & Cam- den Oil Company, of Philadelphia. In addition, he took up a number of oil leases in Wood. Wirt and Pleasants counties. The operations were quite successful and in 1865 he sold his Maryland farms. The family moved to Philadelphia in January, 1868, and he later brought them tem- porarily to Burning Springs, to have them near himself. Depression in the oil business and some bad investments impaired his fortunes and com- pelled him to give up, at least for the time, the hope of going back east to live. He now became actively interested in the welfare of the community and the betterment of its conditions; he assisted largely in the building of the first church at Burning Springs, the Methodist Episcopal, and the procuring of the first resident minister, Dr. Blundin. There were no schools of any worth in the place at that time. Securing the consent of a majority of the residents, he obtained from the legislature a charter for an independent school district, the independent district of Burning Springs. He was made president of the first board of education of this district, and secured the erection of a suitable building; here the Burn- ing Springs graded school was started, which at once became one of the best schools of the state and has furnished many teachers to the surround- ing counties. In political affairs also, he took a prominent part as a Dem- ocrat. He represented his district in the constitutional convention of 1872. A little later, he represented the Parkersburg district in the state senate. Throughout the state he was known and regarded as hionest, sin- cere and dependable. Many other positions of trust were held by him,
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but financially, he did not retrieve his fortunes. In 1900 he moved to Parkersburg. His death, from pneumonia, occurred the next spring, while he was making a visit at Burning Springs.
He married ( first ) in 1848, Fannie Jester, daughter of Oliver Jester, she died in 1851, leaving one son, David A., who died, unmarried, at Burning Springs, in June, 1875. He married ( second) in 1854. Elizabeth, daughter of George and Margaret ( Whealton) Fox, who was born in Philadelphia, June 23. 1836. She is living, in good health, at her home, No. 1509 Spring street, Parkersburg. Mrs. Roberts is a granddaughter of the famous George Fox, a well-known Quaker, who settled early where Philadelphia now stands, and owned much of the land upon which the city has been built. Children: 1. Maria M., born in October, 1856, died in October, 1900: married L. A. Munger, deceased. 2. George Fox, born August 30, 1858; lives at Salama, Pleasants county, West Virginia ; married Kate Cain. 3. Louis Rorer, of whom further. 4. Harriet, born February 8, 1861, married John R. Pell; they live at Parkersburg. 5. James Antietam, born July 11, 1863; lives at Marietta, Ohio; married Anna Rogers. 6. Margaret Fox, born December 25, 1865, died Febru- ary 8, 1913: married James Bailey, deceased. 7. Elizabeth Wirt, born in October, 1868, married U. S. G. Ferrell; he is a physician at Cairo, West Virginia ( see sketch in this work). 8. Catharine Virginia, born February 27, 1870, married Harvey Marsh ; they live at Parkersburg. 9. John Kilpatrick, born July 25. 1872, a dentist at Parkersburg ; married Anna Schaefer. 10. Solomon Perry, born April 14. 1874, a physician ; married Aletha Barnett. 11. Anna Josephine, born October 30, 1876, died in June, 1882.
(1\') Louis Rorer, son of David Angelo and Elizabeth (Fox) Rob- erts, was born in Cecil county, Maryland, September 30, 1859. When he was about six years old the family moved to Philadelphia, and three years later they came to Burning Springs. His father's failing fortune and the size of the family made it necessary for him at an early age, to leave school, as also did two of his brothers, and go to work in the oil field to assist in providing for the needs of the family. With his other work, he took up the study of land surveying: in this he soon became proficient, and he built up a large patronage in Wirt and adjoining counties. The financial results of this work were small, but the experience and knowl- edge acquired therein have been of great value in his later activities. In 1886 he was engaged by a Pittsburgh lumber company to look after their extensive interests in this part of West Virginia, and he remained with this company for more than two years. Then he went into the lumber and timber business on his own account, and was for some time engaged in this business with much success. Mr. Roberts had long held the con- viction that a young man should investigate the newer sections of the country before finally settling. Finding it now possible to put this belief into practice, he made an extensive trip through the western states in search of favorable opportunities. California was attractive to him, but he was prevented from making a permanent settlement in that state bv matters which required his return to West Virginia. He soon after this time formed a partnership with his next younger brother, James A. Roberts, as Roberts Brothers. They contracted and drilled oil wells for others, and developed some leases for themselves. As both brothers had practical knowledge of the oil business, the partnership was successful from the first, and this firm has now for some years been one of the most substantial and reliable firms in the state of West Virginia, owning much oil property and other real estate. Beside the production of oil and gas the firm is engaged in the manufacture of gasoline. In 1906. it acquired by purchase, all the holdings of the Rathbone Oil Tract Company, a New
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York corporation. These holdings consist in the main of a tract of land of twelve hundred acres' extent, the whole being an oil producing proper- ty. The village of Burning Springs is built on this property. The prop- erty is noted for having the oldest living oil wells in the world; some of these are more than fifty-three years old, and have been continuously producing throughout all this time. Mr. Roberts has taken an active part in the business, social and political affairs of his community. For some years he served as a member of the Democratic executive committee of Wirt county, and he has received several nominations for office from that party. In recent years his business affairs have precluded activity in politics, but in local matters at least, he may at all times be found upon that side on which, in his judgment, there is the best guarantee of clean government. While he is not a church member, he has shown a liberal spirit in the support of churches, and in other movements tending toward the improvement of social or moral conditions. Since 1902 he has lived at Parkersburg, where in the year 1908. he bought his present home, at the corner of Ann and Eleventh streets. His three boys are attending the Nash school in this city. Yet he has retained a summer home at Burning Springs, and a farm ; here the mother and the boys spend their vacations in pleasant surroundings close to nature.
Mr. Roberts married, at Glenville, Gilmer county, West Virginia, June 2, 1897, Lucy Lillian, daughter of Dr. Charles William and Virginia (Loury) Eagon. Both the Loury and the Eagon families are old Virginia families, formerly settled in the neighborhood of Staunton. Dr. Eagon was a Confederate army surgeon throughout the civil war. The Eagons afterward lived at Glenville. Children of Louis Rorer and Lucy Lillian (Eagon) Roberts : Louis Rorer, born June 12, 1901 : Paul Eagon, born January 25, 1903 : Charles Angelo, born July 2, 1906.
THORNBURG It is said, but there is no proof for the statement. that two brothers named Thornburgh, English Quakers, came with William Penn. According to another writer, the West Virginia Thornburgs are Welsh, but the name seems clearly German. It is natural to suppose that the Virginian and West Virginian Thornburgs and Thornburghs are of the same family, al- though the connection is not known to us, and the Shenandoah valley is largely German in its population. As shown by the records of the Hope- well monthly meeting of the Quakers, there were Thornburghs in Fred- erick county. Virginia, by 1759. Their records from 1735 to 1759 have been destroyed by fire, and the probability is strong that the name would have been found in these records also. At New Garden, Guilford county, North Carolina, there were Quakers of this name about the same time ; the name is found in Tennessee before 1800. Some Thornburghs have re- moved from the south to Indiana and Iowa.
(I) Thomas Thornburg. the first member of this family about whom we have definite information, lived in Jefferson county, Virginia. Child : Solomon, of whom further.
(II) Solomon, son of Thomas Thornburg, was born near Shepherds- town, Jefferson county. Virginia. In the early settlement of Cabell county, Virginia, he removed thither, and settled one mile from Barboursville. He was a blacksmith, one of the first of this trade in Cabell county, but afterward he was a farmer. He was a Democrat politically, and a Meth- odist in religious faith. He married, in 1813, Mary, daughter of Stephen Staley. Children: Elizabeth. Thomas, of whom further : John, James and Mary.
(III) Thomas, son of Solomon and Mary (Staley) Thornburg, was
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