THE VINSONS, con't.: SAMUEL SPERRY, ZACHARY TAYLOR, AND LINDSAY T. Source: Miller, Thomas C. and Maxwell Hugh. History of West Virginia and Its People, Volume 2. Lewis Historical Publishing Co., New York. 1913. Sketch prepared by the late Ella S. Neale. CAPTAIN SAMUEL S. VINSON. . .was born in Wayne county, West Virginia, in the family homestead, April 14, 1833. He was a farmer and lumberman, and followed these lines with ability and success. In the Civil War crisis his sympathies were Southern, and he exemplified them very naturally by enlistment and service in arms on the Confederate side as a captain of the Eighth Virginia Cavalry. In this service, he was wounded, captured and taken to Frankfort, Kentucky, toward the close of the war, and confined two months in a Federal prison of the Blue Grass state. He was also in the battle of Winchester, which has passed into song and story through Buchanan Reid's verses on "Sheridan's Ride," and in all the principal engagements in which his superior, General Jones, engaged. He was a cavalry captain in this service in the old Virginia Eighth. Captain Vinson married Mary Dameron, born in Wayne county, West Virginia, in 1835. She still survives, and lives at the advanced age of seventy-seven at the old homestead of the family in Wayne. Children: Taylor, of whom further. Belle, now Mrs. James A. Hughes, of Huntington; Mary, now Mrs. Donald Clark, who lives in Westmoreland; Josie, married John P. Bromley, of Wayne county, and died in 1885; Boyd, died in 1909; Lindsay T., of whom further. Samuel Dameron, father of Mary Dameron Vinson, was born and raised in Wayne county, Virginia. He was the son of one of the first settlers in that county, Moses Dameron. . . Samuel Dameron was a farmer. He was born in 1812, and died at ninety-four, in 1906. . . TAYLOR VINSON, son of Captain Samuel S. Vinson, was born December 22, 1857. . .He attended the local school as a boy and was then sent to Bethany College, from which he graduated in 1878. From there he went to the Law School of the University of Virginia, and then to the Boston University Law School spending a year in study at each place. In the year 1886 he received his license to practice law in the supreme court of his home state. He located first in his profession at Ceredo, Wayne county, West Virginia, and remained there a year. Then he was drawn to Huntington by the superior opportunities there afforded and established himself in that city in 1887. . .Mr. Vinson began the practice of law there. He met with uncommon success, not alone in his profession, but in a business way as well. His officers are in the Vinson-Thompson building, one of the modern structures of the city. It was built by him, with his partner, William R. Thompson, in 1909, and is one of the architectural ornaments of the place. Mr. Vinson is a stockholder and is active in the First National Bank of Huntington. He is a director and general counsel of the United States Coal & Oil Company, a director in the Kentland Coal & Coke Company, and attorney for the Ohio Valley Electric Railway Company, which runs the street car line of Huntington, and operates thirty-five miles of track between Huntington and Irontown. He has interested himself also in town promotion. With W. J. Williamson he organized the town called after that gentleman, and with J. L. Caldwell the town of Central City. He is a Republican in politics, an Elk, and a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Vinson married, January 18, 1901, Mary, daughter of the late R. B. Chaffin of Richmond, Virginia. Mrs. Vinson is a native of Richmond. Her father, who died in 1905, was in his time the leading real estate man of his city. Her mother, Sarah Harvie Chaffin, is still a resident of Richmond. The Vinsons have two children: Taylor, born February 1, 1904; Blair, born July 3, 1907. DR. LINDSAY T. VINSON, son of Captain Samuel S. Vinson, was born on his father's farm in Lawrence county, Kentucky, August 28, 1874. . . When he was five years old he came with his parents to Wayne county, West Virginia, where he received the first of his education. He attended Marshall College, Huntington, West Virginia, and the University of West Virginia, at Morgantown, Monongalia county, taking the first course of medicine given by this institution. Then he studied in the medical department of the University of Cincinnati and the medical department of the Central University of Kentucky. In 1901 he graduated from the Hospital College of Medicine, after which he spent a year at Parkersburg, Wood county, West Virginia, as an intern in St. Luke's Hospital. For three years he had charge, in the surgical department of the Norfolk & Western railroad (new line construction) for the section west of Williamson. One year was passed in Europe, at the University of London and other European schools. Since 1906 Dr. Vinson has practiced at Huntington, Cabell county, West Virginia. His office is in the Vinson-Thompson building, with Dr. Kessler, and he is connected with the Kessler Hospital. He is local surgeon of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, coroner of Cabell county, also inspector of schools for the board of education for the city of Huntington, West Virginia. Dr. Vinson is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and a Mason. In politics he is a Democrat, in religion a Campbellite. He married, at Huntington, October 23, 1901, Willie May, daughter of William P. and Hallie V. Holderby. Her paternal grandfather was the oldest pioneer of Huntington, and gave the grounds for Marshall College; her father is deceased but his widow is living at Huntington, at the age of sixty. Child of Dr. and Mrs. Vinson, Lindsay, born August 1, 1907. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- USGenWeb Project NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, nor for commercial presentation by any other organization. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than as stated above, must obtain express written permission from the author, or the submitter and from the listed USGenWeb Project archivist.