Hampshire County, West Virginia Biography of JAMES SLOAN KUYKENDALL This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. 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 The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 599 JAMES SLOAN KUYKENDALL. Member of one of the oldest families of Hampshire County, James Sloan Kuyken- dall has earned creditable distinction as a lawyer of the Romney bar, and in his profession and as a private citizen is a type of man whose work and influence are always asso- ciated with the general good. He was born in the Springfield District of Hampshire County, December 9, 1878. His grandfather, James Kuyken- dall, was also a native of Hampshire County, spent his active career as a farmer, and was accidentally killed at South Branch on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. He married Hannah Blue, and their children were: Fannie, who married Isaac Taylor; Susan, who was the wife of William Guthrie; Michael, who married Sallie Johnson; James, who married Ida McGlathery; Isaac, whose wife was Lucy Davis; Thomas, who married Catherine McGill; and William. William Kuykendall was born in Springfield District of Hampshire County in August, 1851, and his business efforts were confined to the farm, but he became well known in the public affairs of the county, serving two terms as a member of the County Court, and for one term was president of the court. He was a democrat, served as a deacon in the Romney Presbyterian Church, and died at the age of forty- eight years. William Kuykendall married Hannah P. Sloan, who died in 1919, at the age of sixty-nine. Her father was James Sloan, a farmer on Patterson's Creek of Welton District, Mineral County, and the Sloan family were early settled in that region, the founder being the father of James Sloan, who came from Scotland. The children of William Kuykendall and wife were James Sloan; Michael Blue, who died while operating the old homestead farm, and left four children by his marriage were Edith P. Pancake; Richard Sloan, a farmer on the South Branch of the Potomac, who married Virginia Pancake, and they have five children. James Sloan Kuykendall for the first twenty years of his life lived on the farm and shared in its activities and duties. He attended the country schools, pursued his higher education in Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia, also in Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Vir- ginia, and took his law course in Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, where he graduated. He received his diploma from Cumberland in 1901, and after a similar course in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill he was examined before the Supreme Court and licensed to practice in the North Carolina courts. His first ex- perience as a practicing lawyer was gained at Greenboro, North Carolina, but after a little more than a year came to West Virginia, and soon established his office and permanent home at Romney. His first case before the Hampshire County Circuit Court was the defense of one Miller charged with petit larceny, and for whom he secured an acquittal, a verdict that did much just at that time to encourage the young attorney. Throughout the steadily growing volume of his criminal practice Mr. Kuykendall has adhered to his rule to take part only on the side of the defense, and he has a merited reputation for skill and ability in that particular field. He has been attorney for the defense in three murder cases, State vs Hetrick, State vs Averell and State vs Gardner. He secured an acquittal in the first two, and in the third case his client received a sentence of prison for life. Mr. Kuyken- dall is the present city attorney of Romney, has served three terms as mayor, and for ten years has been president of the Board of Education, taking a deep interest in the success of schools and public education in general. He is a democrat in politics, casting his first presi- dential vote for William J. Bryan in 1900. He has been chairman of the Executive Committee of the Second Con- gressional District once, three times was chairman of the County Central Committee, and was a delegate to the State Convention at Parkersburg which nominated Gov- ernor Comwell for governor. He is a delegate and chair- man of the Congressional Convention that nominated Junior Brown for Congress, and promoted the cause of that states- man in several subsequent elections. At Romney, April 5, 1905, Mr. Kuykendall married Miss Bertha Williams, who was born in Virginia in August, 1882, daughter of Rev. James P. and Mary S. Williams. At the time of their marriage her father was presiding elder of the Moorfield District of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was a confederate veteran, serving in General Moseby's command during the war. Reverend Mr. Williams and wife had four children: Mary, wife of Rev. C. M. Hesser, of Washington, D. C.; Mrs. Kuykendall; Marvin Williams, of Wisconsin; and Alma, wife of M. T. Strider, an undertaker at Charles Town, West Virginia. Three child- ren constitute the family of Mr. and Mrs. Kuykendall; Alma Elizabeth, born January 6, 1906; James Sloan, Jr., born December 11, 1907; and Mary Ray, born January 15, 1909. During the World war Mr. Kuykendall was a member of the Legal Advisory Board of Hampshire County, and assisted in making out several hundred questionnaires for the prospective soldiers of the county, and also took part in the Liberty Loan drives and cried some Red Cross sales. His family are Presbyterians, and for five years he was superintendent of the Sunday School.