Greenbrier County, West Virginia Biography of JOSEPH SAMUEL THURMOND. 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. 150-155 JOSEPH SAMUEL THURMOND. Joseph Samuel Thurmond was born May 9, 1855, in Fayette county, Virginia (now West Virginia). His father, W. D. Thurmond, was a native of Amherst county, Virginia, as was also his mother, both of whom were of English descent. His mother, who was the daughter of Charles Bibb, moved with her father to Fayette county, in 1834, settling at Bowyer's Ferry (now Sewell). where for several years he kept the ferry. He later bought a tract of land in what is known now as the Gatewood neighborhood, and having built a house and cleared out a farm, resided there the greater part of his life. In the year 1845 Philip Thurmond, the father of W. D. Thurmond, moved from Amherst county and settled in Fayette county, where he spent the remainder of his life. A few years later W. D. Thurmond also caine across the Alleghanies and made his residence with his father. He engaged in farming, and while plowing corn accidentally discovered the famous New River coal, and digging some of it, he took it to a blacksmith, who used it for fuel in his shop. This, it is said, was the first discovery of the now world-famed coal and the first purpose for which it was used. Today the largest coal operation in the New River field is located on the same property upon which it was first discovered. In February, 1852, W. D. Thurmond married Miss Sarah J., daughter of Charles Bibb, above mentioned, and having already purchased a farm at 50 cents per acre, and paid for it by laboring in the salt works on the Great Kanawha river at 50 cents per day, he settled down to farming and at odd times surveying. To this union six children were born, viz.: James W., Mary E., Joseph S., Charles T., Lucy A. and Sarah F., the last named dying at two years of age. At that time educational facilities were poor and the Civil war coming on about the time the older children were of school age, they were deprived of several years which should have been spent in school. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil war, Mr. Thurmond organized a company of soldiers and became its captain. This company was composed, principally, of men from Monroe, Fayette, Raleigh and Greenbrier counties, Summers county not having been organized at that time. Acting as an independent company, but subject to orders from Gen. John F. Echols, its operations were confined mainly along the border between the two contending armies and might be termed a border patrol. Early in the war, for some unknown reason, the commander of the Union army stationed at Fayetteville sent a squad of soldiers to Captain Thurmond's house, and forcibly ejecting Mrs. Thurmond and her six small children from the building, and throwing a few articles of furniture out, applied the torch, and in a few minutes the house was reduced to ashes. The family was removed temporarily to the home of Mrs. Thurmond's father and later to Monroe county, where they remained throughout the war and until the fall of 1870, when they returned to their old home in Fayette county. At the close of the war Captain Thurmond was homeless and penniless, but not friendless. and he often said that had it not been for his friends his family would have suffered for the necessaries of life; but with credit extended to him and a determination to succeed, he managed to take care of his family and in his latter days to earn a competency. He died at Minden, Fayette county, May 14, 1910, in his ninetieth year. At the age of eleven the subject of this sketch entered the public schools, which consisted of four months a year, and in which nothing but the elementary branches of study were taught. During the summer he wore homespun linen clothes, made by his mother's own hands, went barefoot and hoed com. At the age of twenty-one he entered Shelton College, at St. Albans, and had for his instructor the late Dr. P. B. Reynolds (let it be said right here that this State has never had a more profound thinker nor a better instructor than he), and for fellow students Dr. George B. Foster, of the Chicago University; Rev. John R. McCutcheon; Senator W. E. Chilton; Prof. E. C. Haworth, now of Marshall College, and Hon. James H. Stewart, now commissioner of agriculture of this State, and many others, some of whom have crossed the "Great Divide", and others who have been swallowed up in this big business world and lost from his sight; but upon the whole, a majority of them have made good. Mr. Thurmond, having very limited means, spent but two years at Shelton, after which he returned home and engaged in farming during the summer and teaching school in the winter. Still, the school term was hut four months a year and the salary of a grade one teacher but $25 per month. He followed teaching for three years, one of which he served as a member of the board of examiners. He then began the study of surveying and engineering and for several years spent all his time surveying. About this time the development of the Fayete county coal lands began to attract attention and a scramble for wild lands, which, hitherto, had been considered worthless, began. The docket of the court was crowded with suits to determine the title of lands and a great demand for surveyors followed. Mr. Thurmond had, perhaps, as much to do in establishing the lines and corners of the old surveys as any other man in the county, and often served as a witness in court in land litigation. It was while engaged in surveying the lands of the late Governor Samuel Price that he first met his much esteemed and honored friend, the late John Preston. Spending two weeks together in the rough mountains of Fayette and Raleigh counties, often thirsty and sometimes hungry, resulted in a friendship which lasted thirty-three years, the time of Mr. Preston's demise. When the building of the railroad hridge at Thurmond opened for development the vast coal fields of Loop creek, he acquired some stock in the Star Coal Co. and took the position of mine fore-man and engineer at the mines, holding this position for three years, when he sold his stock, resigned his position, and accepted the position of general manager with the late William P. Rend, of Chicago, in the development of his mines at Minden, in Fayette county. These mines are located on the W. D. Thurmond farm, the land upon which the New River coal was first discovered, and are the largest producers in the New River field, having a capacity of 4,000 tons per day. After three years of arduous and strenuous labor here, and getting the mines in a good state of development, Mr. Thurmond resigned his position and entered upon the unenviable task of catering to the wants of an unthankful public as proprietor of a hotel. It required but a few years to convince him that he was not fitted for hotel work, and, leasing the property, he moved to Greenbrier county, and located in the town of Alderson. He purchased of Mrs. Fannie Lipps a farm lying in the suburbs of the town, known as the "Old John Alderson Place", upon which stood a stone house, one of the oldest in the county, built in the year 1788. Last year this old landmark was torn down and in its stead a modern brick residence was erected. In the year 1880 he married Miss Elizabeth J., the daughter of Rev. A. N. Rippetoe, of Kessler's Cross Lanes, Nicholas county, West Virginia, and by this union ten children were born, six of whom are now living. On October 19, 1900, Mrs. Thurmond died at iMinden, and on March 26, 1902, he was united in marriage to Miss Letha Lee, daughter of J. B. Huddleston, of Fayette county. By this union there are no children. In his religious belief he has always held to the Baptist faith, and at the age of sixteen united with the Bethel Baptist Church, afterward being a charter member of the Oak Hill church, from which he was dismissed by letter to join the Greenbrier church, of which he is now a member. At the meeting of the Greenbrier Association, in the fall of 1914, he was elected moderator of that body, which position he held two years. Politically, he is an uncompromising Democrat and has since his maturity been an active participant in all campaigns. In the election of 1914 he was nominated and elected to the House of Delegates, with A. E. Huddleston, of White Sulphur, as his colleague, and at the following election, in 1916, was re-elected to the same position, with A.B.C. Bray, of Ronceverte, as his colleague. The Democrats at this election succeeded in electing a majority in the House of Delegates, and in the following January, when that body convened, Mr. Thurmond was elected speaker. Mr. Thurmond relates the following reminiscences: Just before the Civil war the newspapers were full of news about the Yankees, and his mother read to him about them so much that he formed the opinion that they were not men, but some kind of animal. Imagine his surprise to find upon seeing them that they were but common human beings. Their first appearance at his father's house was one morning when his father and several of his friends were expecting and watching for them. Great consternation was caused when the advance guard appeared in sight and every man took to his heels as fast as he could run, and the Yankees opened fire on them. To young Thurmond to shoot was to kill, and it was some time after the firing had ceased, and his father and friends were, perhaps, half a mile away and safely hidden in the woods, before he could be convinced that they were not all killed. At one time the Thurmond family lived one mile west of Alderson, on the land of Thomas Johnson, known then as the "Lane Place". Joe and his brother, Jim, had always been anxious to see a hattIe, and one day, when the sound of musketry suddenly burst upon their ears, they soon realized that a fight was on down at the river where the town of Glenary now stands, so they immediately made a dash for the battlefield. They ran down the slope through a woodland as fast as they could go, and as they emerged from the woods into the open field a minnie ball struck the root of a large oak tree within a few feet of them, and others were tearing up the ground all around. Undaunted, they pressed for-ward, but a moment later they saw John T. Myles, now a citizen of Alderson, but then a soldier in Captain Thurmond's company, coming hurriedly towards them. In a loud and angry tone he ordered them to turn and run for their lives, which they did without any argument. It developed that a detachment from Captain Thurmond's company, led by Lieutenant Bibb, had attacked a company of Yankees across the river and were having a hot skirmish with them. Mr. Myles had received a severe wound in the shoulder and was retiring from the field, traveling in a direct line between them and the Yankees, and the balls which fell so close to them had been fired at him. This was near as they came to a battle, but on several occasions were close enough to hear the roar of artillery.