Greenbrier County, West Virginia Biography of HON. GEORGE ALDERSON 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. 317-319 HON. GEORGE ALDERSON. Honorable George Alderson, who was born November 13, 1833, is a grandson of Rev. John Alderson, who settled and built his house where the Alderson Hotel now stands in the town of Alderson, in 1777. He was the youngest child of John Alderson, known as "River Jack," the youngest son of Elder Alderson, which explains the remarkable fact that a grandson of the first preacher who settled and established a charge west of the Alleghanies is yet living, while great grandchildren several times removed have long since passed from this world. George Alderson was born in the same house in which his father first saw the light, the homestead built by Rev. John Alderson. This house was burned with valuable historical documents in 1863. While a lad, he attended the country schools and Rev. James Remley's school, near Lewisburg, and was later sent to Hollins Institute (now Hollins College) at Botetourt Springs; when this school ceased to be co-educational, he attended the Palestine High School, just established by Prof. Oscar Stevens, a graduate of Richmond College and a noted educator. Upon the death of his father in 1853, George Alderson inherited the old farm, a part of which he still owns and resides upon, always having devoted his life to agriculture and stock raising. In the war between the States, he served in the Confederate army, Company A, Thirty-sixth Battalion of Cavalry. He was detailed as orderly, first for General Loeing, then General Williams, and later for General Echols, serving with these most of the war. He was honorably discharged on account of an illness from which he has suffered at times all through his life. Mr. Alderson has been twice married, his first wife beiug Mary J., daughter of Maj. C R. Hines; his second wife, Virginia, daughter of Jeremiah W. P. and Miriam Gwinn Stevens. Three children were born to the first union, and six to the second, all of whom are dead but three; two died in childhood, four in youth and were laid to sleep in the old churchyard of the GId Greenbrier Baptist church. Of the children, Miss Emma C. is principal of the Alderson Baptist Academy; J. C. is president of the Guyan Valley Bank at Logan; Bernard Carroll was professor of Latin and Greek at the West Virginia University and first principal of the A. B. A.; William W. was a physician of much promise practicing in Texas; George Jr., who possessed rare literary talents, represented Monroe county in the Legislature two terms; Virginia married C. W.Rowe; Cabell and Otey died when but a few years of age. For twenty-four years Mr. Alderson served as justice of the peace and represented Monroe county in the Legislature one term; he has been a director of the First National Bank since its organization, and is keenly interested in the affairs of his town and county. Like his ancestors, he is an intelligent, well-informed Baptist, ready to give a reason for his faith. He is senior deacon of the Old Greenbrier Baptist church, which office he has held for fifty-five years. For sixty-five years he has been a member of this church, and for forty years he was superintendent of its Sunday school. On the 13th day of November, 1917 (his eighty-fourth birthday), Mr. and Mrs. Alderson celebrated their golden wedding. Mrs. Virginia Stevens Alderson is proverbial for her rare virtues of mind and heart; in her church, her community, her home, "Aunt Jennie" is quoted as a model friend, wife, mother, Christian. What higher aspiration can fill the heart of woman'? Both Mr. and Mrs. Alderson, though of advanced age and feeble in body, possess great mental activities and retentive memories, which render them very interesting. From extensive reading they are in close touch with the affairs of the world. She orders well her household, while he directs his farm hands, and this year had planted large crops of grain, hoping to help feed the Allies and thereby do his part in the winning of Humanity's War, and in the preservation of the pure principles of Democracy.