Wood County, West Virginia Biography of JOHN DANA This file 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 II, pg. 533-534 Wood JOHN DANA. A few miles above Parkersburg is the City of Marietta, the site of the first permanent settlement estab- lished in the Northwest Territory. The Marietta Colony, organized in New England, extended its holdings up and down the river on the Ohio side for a number of miles, including the little town of Belpre, just across the river from Parkers- burg. One of the original members of the Marietta Colony was Captain William Dana, and he chose his land at Belpre. The Dana farm has been in the possession of members of that family for more than a hundred and thirty years, and natur- ally the interests of the Dana family have expanded to Parkersburg, where a number of the family have become prominent in business and civic affairs, including Mr. John Dana, head of the Dana Company, wholesale grocers. He is a great-grandson of Captain William Dana, who in turn was a great-grandson of Richard Dana, a French Huguenot who came from England to Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, in 1640 and was the ancestor of the widespread and distinguished American family of this name. Captain Wil- liam Dana was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and en- listed as a minute man in the Lexington alarm on the day of the battle of Lexington. He became a member of the Ohio Company organized to promote settlement in the Northwest Territory, and he reached Marietta in June, 1788. He erected and burned a kiln of brick that summer, and was thus the first brick maker in the Northwest Territory. As noted above, he chose his land allotment at Belpre, and in November, 1789, arrived with his family to occupy this land. It was covered with a heavy growth of timber, and his first task was clearing away the woods. In the spring of 1795 he set out on his land the first apple orchard of grafted fruit, and the last tree of the orchard stood until the spring of 1905. The Danas for a century or more have been prominent in the horticulture and nursery industry of this section of the Ohio Valley. Captain William Dana married in 1770 Mary Bancroft, of the noted New England family of that name. Of their eleven children the first born after the family came to Ohio was George, whose birth occurred at Belpre March 18, 1790. He spent his entire life on the old farm and in 1816 engaged in the nursery business, a business that greatly stimulated the commercial orchard industry of the Ohio Valley. George Dana died April 6, 1865. His wife was Deborah Ames Fisher. Their son George, Jr., was born at the old homestead December 4, 1821, attended Marietta College and the Ohio University at Athens, and became associated with his father in the nursery business. As a business man he had numerous interests on the Virginia side of the river, and for many years he was a stockholder and director in the First National Bank of Parkersburg. His home was always the old farm at Belpre. He died June 21, 1892. In 1852 he married Lucy Byington. He and his bride made a trip to the Choctaw Nation in old Indian Territory. Her father, Rev. Cyrus Byington, was a New England missionary who went among the Choctaw Indians as early as 1820, and continued his work there for many years, having translated portions of the Bible into the Choctaw language. John Dana, a son of George and Lucy (Byington) Dana, was born February 10, 1856, on the Dana farm at Belpre. He is a graduate of Marietta College, and early in his business career came to Parkersburg. Since August 1, 1910, he has been president of the Dana Company, which is properly considered as the oldest wholesale grocery house at Parkersburg. The business was founded in 1862 by M. Woods & Company at the corner of First and Ann streets. Later the business was conducted by Frank Jenkins, who in 1868 sold out to Thompson & Jackson, comprising George W. Thompson, Henry C. Jackson and General John J. Jackson. This firm moved the location to the corner of Third and Ann streets, and Henry C. Jackson was the lead- ing spirit in the business until it was sold to the Dana Com- pany. While his business is in Parkersburg, John Dana still maintains his residence at Belpre. He has served as mayor of that town, and for many years as a member of its Board of Education. He is a republican and a member of the Con- gregational Church. February 10, 1886, he married Anna Lockwood. She was born at Paden Valley, now Paden City, in Westbrook [sic] County, West Virginia, daughter of Jacob E. and Olivia (Paden) Lockwood. She is a great- granddaughter of a West Virginia pioneer, Obadiah Paden, who prior to 1790 moved out of the Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania into the beautiful region named in his honor as Paden Valley, Virginia, now West Virginia, and which remained in the family until about 1871. He became a farmer, was a Quaker, and never held office, and so far as known none of his family did. He was considered wealthy in those days, and accumulated much land and other prop- erty, all of which was willed to his heirs. His wife was Esther Dunn. One of their sons was James Paden, who married Elizabeth Elson, of a family near Meadville, Penn- sylvania. James Paden was a farmer in Paden Valley and died before the Civil war. He was one of the prosperous and influential citizens of his locality. There was a large family and the following children lived to have families: Olivia, who was married to Jacob E. Lockwood; David, who married Elizabeth Pennington; Elizabeth, who became Mrs. Ephraim Wells; Elson, who married Martha Hayman; and Obadiah, who married Miss Mary Ann Thompson. Jacob E. Lockwood and wife were the parents of five children: Anna Elizabeth, wife of John Dana; Ida M., deceased, who married Herman O. Witte; Charles Edward, who died in infancy; William Clinton and Blanche Paden Lockwood, both of Parkersburg, West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. John Dana became the parents of six chil- dren. The oldest, George R. Dana, who was born June 20, 1887, was a graduate of Marietta College, grew up in his father's business, and was active manager of the Dana Com- pany when he died April 4, 1917. June 28, 1911, he mar- ried Grace Coe, and left one son, George William Dana. The second child of Mr. and Mrs. Dana is Miriam Isabel, who is the wife of Elliott Sargent Stone and lives at Belpre. Lockwood Nye, the third child, was a first class sergeant in the Quartermaster's Department at Camp Sherman during the World war and is now a resident of Parkersburg and one of the officials of the Dana Company. He married Velma Edith Crow, daughter of Captain William and Louise (Somers) Crow, of Ripley, Jackson County, West Virginia. The fourth of the children is Roderick L., a resident of Parkersburg and manager of the old Amherst Company of Belpre, Ohio. He married Mildred Martin and has two children: Martin Lawrence and Richard Bancroft. Jeanette Paden and Edward Byington are at home. Mr. and Mrs. Dana have also reared in their home Florence O. and Marshall E. Witte, who through their mother, Ida M. Lockwood Witte, are descendants of the old Paden stock.