Greenbrier County, West Virginia Biography of MAJ. CLAUDIUS BUSTER. This biography was submitted by Sandy Spradling, E-mail address: This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 125-127 MAJ. CLAUDIUS BUSTER. Maj. Claudius Buster, born 1764, descended from one of the earliest Scotch and Irish families of Virginia, according to the Government reports of Revolutionary War pensions, issued in i84i, drew a pension for service with the Colonies. He was one of the most prosperous and most prominent men of his county, and died in 184-. His son, George W. Buster, born 1803, was sheriff of Kanawha county and afterwards became the owner of the once famous resort, the Blue Sulphur Springs, where he died in 1868. These springs are yet in the possession of his descendents. His son, Charles Blackwell Buster, born October 22, 1838, in Charleston, W. Va., moved with his parents to the Blue Sulphur when a child. The Blue Sulphur was his home, although many times, for short periods, in business elsewhere, until elected county clerk of Greenbrier in 1884 necessitated his moving to Lewisburg. He had this office for twenty-four years, having continu-ously been elected to it until he retired from business in 1909, and has lived a quiet retired life in Lewisburg ever since. During the Civil War he served as a second lieutenant, Company B, Wise Legion; was in service six months and was then retired on account of ill health. Mr. Buster's mother was Ann Chilton, born 1809, married in 1833, died in 1884, the daughter of Dr. Samuel and Lucinda Blackweli Chilton. Lucinda Rlackwell was the daughter of Capt. Samuel Blackwell of the Revolution. The Chilton and Blackwell families repeatedly intermarried until they virtually became the same family. Dr. Samuel Chilton was the son of Col. Charles Chilton, of Hereford, born 1741, and his mother was Elizabeth Blackwell. Col. Charles Chilton is likewise the ancestor of the famous Charleston Chilton family, to which belongs the present United States Senator, William E. Chilton. The Chilton family, back to the first settler from England, is given in full detail in McKenzies Colonial families of the United States, in which is also a cut and description of the Chilton coat of arms. The Blackwell family has been written up in the Times Despatch, October 1, 1910, and it gives a long line of ancestors. Mr. Buster married Virginia W. Hamilton, daughter of Jacob and Delilah (Jarrett) Hamilton and the granddaughter of Maj. William Hamilton (his wife was a Miss Clemmons), who was one of the first settlers of Greenbrier, having been a soldier in the Revolution and having come from Augusta and settling near the Blue Sulphur Springs when there were no white men west of that section. Five children were born of this marriage, two of whom are now living, viz: Annie Hamilton Buster, who was married in 1890 to Louis Pitzer Housman, the son of Housman and Fannie Pitzer Housman; they now live in Pueblo, Col., and their children are Virginia Chilton, Robert Louis and Charles McFerrin. Emma Bernard Buster, who was married in 1895 to Henry Arthur Henderson, a civil engineer, of England, the son of Gen. John Henderson, of the English army, and Ellen Lushington Harris (see Burke's Peerage). Of this marriage three children were born; the eldest died in infancy. The two living are Cohn David Henderson and Elcanor Virginia Hamilton Henderson. Mr. Buster married a second time to Mattie W. Cooper, the daughter of the Rev. A. W. Cooper, of the Methodist church, and Martha Gabbert, and from this marriage his children were Blackwell Chilton, born October 28, 1890, married August 27, 1910, to Mary Lillian Livesay; and Mary Evelyn Buster, born January 19, 1898. Charles Blackwell Buster has brothers and sisters as follows: Samuel, died young; Alexis Martin, born July 12, 1836, married Sarah Emma Hamilton, daughter of Maj. William Hamilton; Lucy Ann, born in 1840; Thomas Bernard, born 1845, and died in the service of the Confederacy as a member of Company B, Sixtieth Virginia Infantry, C. S. A. Mr. Buster has always been an enthusiastic citizen of the best type, with a broad horizon of friends and acquaintances. At present he lives quietly, enjoying the remembrance of a long life of local prominence and prestige. The two-volume work, Men of West Virginia, published in 1903, gives a great deal of space and detail of the life and family of Mr. Buster, with an excellent portrait of him.