West Virginia Statewide Files WV-Footsteps Mailing List WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 144 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: MARSHALL, John-Wood Co, WV [PJSTON@aol.com] #3 BIO: The Clark Family ["John \"Bill\" Wheeler" Subject: BIO: MARSHALL, John-Wood Co, WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II pg 100 John Marshall, a busy Parkersburg lawyer, represents the third successive generation of that family in the legal profession, and his ancestry altogether is one that has had a close relationship with the history of the Western Virginia country from earliest pioneer times. His great-great-grandfather, Aaron Marshall, was a soldier under General Washington during the French and Indian war, lived prior to the Revolution in Soutwestern Pennsylvania, and in 1780 moved to Hancock County, Virginia. His son John, who was born in 1782 and died in 1859, spent his entire life in Hancock County. James G. Marshall, grandfather of the Parkersburg lawyer, was born in Hancock county, November 21, 1826, and died October 6, 1902. He was an able attorney and served twenty-four years as prosecuting attorney of Hancock County. He was a republican, and his example in politics has been followed by subsequent generations. He married Lavina Miller, and her two sons, Erastus D. and Oliver S., both became lawyers. Oliver S. Marshall, whose home is at New Cumberland in Hancock County, was born September 24, 1850. He graduated from Bethany College in 1878, and has for many years served as a trustee of that institution. He was a member of the State Senate three times, being president of the Senate in 1899, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1892. Oliver S. Marshall married, September 8, 1880, Elizabeth Tarr, who was born at Wellsburg, this state, daughter of Campbell and Nancy (Hammond) Tarr. Campbell Tarr was one of the historic figures in the formation of the State of West Virginia, and as a delegate from Brooke County withdrew from the secession convention at Richmond. He was a member of the conventions at Wheeling, served as treasurer of the Provisional Government, and was the first state treasurer. John Marshall, only son of Oliver S. and Elizabeth (Tarr) Marshall, was born July 28, 1881, at New Cumberland He finished his literary education at Bethany College, where he graduated A. B. and A. M. in 1902, received his A. B. degree from Yale College in 1903, and graduated in law from the University of West Virginia in 1904. The following year he began his practice at Parkersburg, and has gained prominence both as an able business lawyer and on the public side of his profession. From 1908 to 1912 he was assistant United States attorney of the Northern District of West Virginia. Mr. Marshall was a delegate from West Virginia to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1920. In 1921 he was appointed special assistant to the United States attorney general to try cases involving alien enemy property seized by the Government. Besides his work as a lawyer he has been a director of the Smoot Advertising Company, Ohio Valley Publishing Company, Parkersburg Publishing Company, Parkersburg Ohio Bridge Company, United States Roofing & Tile Company, and a director of the Chamber of Commerce. He has been for several years chairman of the Wood County Chapter of the American Red Cross. He was the organizer and first president of the Rotary Club at Parkersburg, is a member of the college fraternities Beta Theta Pi, Delti Chi, Theta Nu Epsilon, and is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is also a member of the Parkersburg Country Club, Blennerhassett Club, and is a member of the Christian Church. M. Marshall married, January 25, 1906, at Wheeling, Miss Rebecca Cooper Pauli, a native of Wheeling and daughter of Joseph F. and Emma (Senseney) Pauli. Her grandparents were Judge James and Jane Ann (Fry) Pauli. The former was a judge of the Supreme Court of West Virginia. Her grandmother was a daughter of Judge Joseph L. Fry, who was a descendant of Colonel Fry, at one time colonel of the Virginia regiment in which George Washington was lieutenant-colonel. Washington succeeded to the command of the regiment when Colonel Fry was killed in action. Mrs. Marshall's father was a prominent Wheeling manufacturer and financier. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall have two children: John, Jr., born February 22, 1908, and Joseph Pauli, born May 29, 1912. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 21:07:27 -0500 From: "John \"Bill\" Wheeler" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <001501bf4120$ff290320$cedfbec6@wheeler> Subject: BIO: The Clark Family Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume ll., pg. 113 The Clark Family. Benjamine Clark, born in Queen and King County, Virginia, in 1730, settled in Augusta. He was a son of Jonathan, his wife being Elizabeth Wilson. The father was the fourth in decent from John, who came England to James River in 1635. The wife of Benjamine Clark was Elizabeth. Their son Samuel was born in 1764 and died in 1857. He settled near Union, Monroe County, West Virginia, in 1783, was a veteran of the Revolutionary war, and prior to the Revolution he was a soldier for a number of years in the French and Indian wars. Samuel Clark was a near relative of George Rodgers Clark, who was born in Virginia in 1752 and who became a great pioneer and woodsman. He was, like Washington, a surveyor with chain and compass. With an axe and rifle he pushed his way far into the lonely forest of the upper Ohio. He was one of the scouts of Virginia who aided the Governor of Virginia in the expedition against Cornstalk and the one who aided in his defeat at the battle of Point Pleasant at the mouth of the Kanawah River. Later Clark made his way into Kentucky with Daniel Boone. Major Samuel Clark, the revolutionary soldier, was both a courier and scout, a devoted friend of George Washington. On being sent out once as courier to deliver a dispatch for Washington the Indians chased him so closely he was on one hill, the Indians yelling at him on the other. Major Samuel Clark married Margaret Handly, and to them the following children were born: James H., born in 1792, died in 1864 and married Cinderella Davis; William married Nelly Benson in 1808; Alexander married Elizabeth Dickey in 1814; Cynthia married Capt. John Peters in 1813. The children of John Clark who married Elizabeth Johnson in 1814 were: Peggy, who married Thomas Eddie; Mary who married David Pence; Caroline, who married James M. Christie; Thomas who married Eliza Smith; Samuel M. who married Martha Balard. The children of Cynthia Peters Clark, who married James M. Christie, are given under the caption of the "Christie Family." ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 22:11:44 -0500 From: "John \"Bill\" Wheeler" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <000a01bf4129$f8882600$d3dfbec6@wheeler> Subject: BIO: The White Family Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume ll. pg. 113 The White family was of English origin, coming to America in the early days of the Colonies and settling on the James River in Virginia, William White, who married a Miss Workman was the progenitor of the family in Tazewell County, Virginia, and Mercer County, West Virginia. He came to this region from Campbell County, Virginia. Benjamine White, his son, was sheriff of the County of Mercer and represented this County in the general assembly of Virginia before the states were separated and was prominent in the business and political affairs of the county for more than half a century. He married Elizabeth Pearis and enjoyed a long and happy married life, having been married sixty-one years before the death of his wife at the age of eighty-six and his wife at the age of eighty-three. He was a man of very strong mind and sterling character. To them were born the following children: George W., who married Alice Bailey; John H. who married Julia Cunningham; Charles, who was never married; Sarah Louisa, who married Andrew J. Hearn; Elizabeth Pearis, who married Richard C. Christie; and three daughters, Bell, Mary and Minnie, who died at the ages of fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, all within two weeks from diphtheria. ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 07:45:48 EST From: STRICKLY@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.4c742878.257facfc@aol.com> Subject: Unsubscribe Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Jim & Lisa 3903 Stonecliffe Dr. Monroeville, PA 15146 ______________________________X-Message: #6 Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 07:50:22 -0600 From: Tina Hursh To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19991208135022.00700d44@clubnet.isl.net> Subject: BIO: Charles T. Taylor, Cabell county Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II Pg. 70-71 CHARLES TRUEHEART TAYLOR, M.D. For half a century the name Taylor has been prominent in Huntington in connection with the law and medicine. Doctor Taylor is one of the leading surgeons of Huntington, and has practiced medicine and surgery there for over twenty years. He is one of the owners of the Huntington General Hospital and the Kessler-Hatfield Hospital, and is associate surgeon in both these institutions. Doctor Taylor was born at Weldon, North Carolina,August 8, 1872, but his home since early childhood has been at Huntington. His grandfather was born in Old Virginia in 1817, spent the greater part of his life there as a planter and was a slave owner before the Civil war. For a number of years he lived at Oxford, Virginia, and he finally retired to Huntington, West Virginia, where he died in 1897. He married a Miss Harrison, a native of Virginia, who died near Oxford in that state. The Taylors are a Scotch-Irish family who settled in Virginia in Colonial times. Thomas Wallace Taylor, father of Doctor Taylor, was born in Virginia in 1833, was reared and married there, and for four years lived at Weldon, North Carolina, on a farm. He left the university of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during his junior year to enter the Confederate army, and was in active service about a year. He was severely wounded at the battle of Malvern Hill, and incapacitated for further field duty. Subsequently he graduated from the law department of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, and in 1874 established his home at Huntington, West Virginia, where he has since become one of the leading lawyers of the state. He was a judge of the Criminal Court of Cabell County for twelve years, from 1907-1919. He is a democrat and an elder in the Presbyterian Church. Thomas Wallace Taylor, whose home is at 1134 Sixth avenue in Huntington, married Miss Maria Trueheart, who was born at Prince Edward Court House, Virginia, in 1843. Charles Trueheart Taylor is their oldest child. Mattie F., of 1136 Sixth Avenue, Huntington, is the widow of Rollo M. Baker, who was Huntington attorney and general attorney for the Chesepeake & Ohio Railway and a member of the law firm of Enlow, Fitzpatrick & Baker. The third child, Thomas Wallace Taylor, died at the age of seventeen, Powhatan died at the age of fourteen, and William died at the age of four years. Harvey C., the youngest, is in the real estate business at Huntington. Charles Trueheart Taylor attended the grammar and high schools at Huntington, Marshall College in that city through the junior year, and for thre years was a student in Center College at Danville, Kentucky. He pursued his medical studies in the Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville, where he graduated M.D. in 1897, and again did post-graduate work there in 1899 and 1905. In 1897 he was an interne in the Gray Street Infirmanty of Louisville. On returing to Huntington instead of beginning practice Doctor Taylor served a year as city clerk, but since 1899 has devoted himself completely to his growing practice. His offices are in the First National Bank Building. Doctor Taylor is president of the Cabell Coutny Medical Society and a member of the State and America Medical Associations. He is president of the Sovereign Gas Company of Huntington and a director in the Huntington-Oklahoma Oil Company. Besides his modern home at 1665 Fifth Avenue he has an interest in the Beverly apartment building on Sixth Street. Doctor Taylor is a democrat, a member of Huntington Lodge No. 53, F. and A.M., Huntington Chapter No. 6, R.A.M., Huntington Commandery No. 9, K.T., West Virginia Consistory No. 1, Scottish Rite, Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston, and is also a member of the Knights of Phythias, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Modern Woodmen of America, Reese Camp No. 66, Woodmen of the World, and is a past exalted ruler of Huntington Lodge No. 313, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. During the war Doctor Taylor was chief examiner of the Cabell County Draft Board, a very important and burdensome responsibility, and he also gave his active influence to other patriotic causes at the time. In 1900, at Huntington, he married Miss Bernice Stevenson, daughter of Mr. And Mrs. James Stevenson, who were farmers and died at Beverly, Ohio. Mrs. Taylor died at Huntington in 1910, survived by two children: Bernice, a student in the National Cathedral School at Washington, D.C., and Charles Trueheart, Jr., born September 11, 1906, now in the Huntington High School. In 1912, at Newark, New Jersey, Doctor Taylor married Miss Stella Moore, a native of that city. They have a daughter, Jane, born December 11, 1913. ______________________________X-Message: #7 Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 19:47:59 -0500 From: "John \"Bill\" Wheeler" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <001201bf41df$2ba1ce00$30dfbec6@wheeler> Subject: BIO: The Pearis Family Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume ll. pg. 113-114 The Pearis family: According to tradition the city of Paris, France, derived its name from this family. They were descendents of French Royalty, and the ancestors of the family were Huguenots who fled from France, stopping temporarily in Barbados, thence about 1710,to South Carolina, locating on an island about five miles from Port Royal, to which they gave the name "Paris Island." This name is sometimes spelled "pearis" again "Paris" and "Pearis" the modern spelling being Pearis. The settler was Alexander Pearis (Paris), who became quite a distinguished man in the early days of the history of South Carolina. Judge McCardy, in his History of South Carolina under the Proprietary Government, 1670-1719, gives considerable prominence to Col. Alexander Pearis, whom he shows to have been commissioner of free schools, commissioner for building churches, member of House of Commons, of which Col. William Rhett was speaker, as a military officer and one of the judges to try pirates, and as commander of militia in the Revolution of 1719. Col. Alexander Pearis had a son, Alexander, who made some conveyance of property in 1732-26. Alexander Pearis Jr., had a son John Alexander, who likewise had a son, John Alexander, as shown by his probate in August 1752. The last mentioned john Alexander, had a son, Robert, who spelled his name, as did his father, John Alexander , "Pearis." This Robert Pearis died about 1781. He had a daughter. malinda, who married Samuel Pepper, who removed to the New River Valley prior to 1770 and located at the place where, about 1880, he established a ferry, and which place has since been known as Peppers. His two brothers-in-law, George and Robert Alexander Pearis, son of the preceding Robert, came with him, or about the same time. At the date of the coming of Pepper and the Pearises, in fact before that date, there lived in the neighborhood where Pepper located a gentleman by, the name of Joseph Howe, who had some pretty daughters, and it did not take long for these young Huguenots to fall in love with these girls, at least with two of them. An examination of the Pearis Bible discloses that George Pearis was born February 16, 1746 and was married to Eleanor Howe February 26. 1771. Robert Alexander Pearis was probably two years younger than his brother George. He married also a daughter of Joseph Howe, and about 1790 removed with his family to Kentucky and settled in what is now Bourbon County, and from whom it is said the town of Paris in that County is named. He had a son, who in the early history of that state was a member of the legislature. George Pearis remained in the vicinity of Pepper's Ferry until the spring of 1782. Prior to this time he had been made a captain of one of the militia companies of the County of Montgomery. On the advance of the British Army into the Carolina's, in the fall of 1780, there was a Tory uprising in Surry County, North Carolina, of such formidable proportion as to impel Gen. Martin Armstrong, commanding that military district, to call on Maj. Joseph Cloyd with three companies of mounted men, one of which was commanded by Capt. George Pearis, marched to the state of North Carolina, where he was joined by some of the militia of that state, augmenting his forces to about 160 men, with which he, on the 14th day of the month, attacked the Tories at Shallow Ford of the Yadkin, defeating them with a loss of fifteen killed and a number wounded. Major Cloyd had one killed and a few wounded, among them Captain Pearis, severely, through the shoulder. The fight cleared the way for the crossing of General Green's Army at this ford, which the Tories were seeking to obstruct. Captain Pearis returned home wounded and in addition to his suffering from his wound had the misfortune to lose his wife by death in a few days after his return, she dying on November 14th. Captain Pearis' wound disabled him from performing further military service, and having purchased from Capt. William Ingles, about the year 1779, for seventy pounds sterling (about $350.00), the tract of 204 acres of land on New River-- whereon is now situated Pearisburg station on the line of the Norfolk 7 Western Railway, and which land was know for years as the Hale and Charleston tracts---- he, in the spring of 1782 removed thereto, erecting his dwelling house at a point nearly due south of the residence of Mr. Edward C. Hale, and a little to the southeast of where the road from Mr. Hales house unites with the turnpike. Two or three years after Captain Pearis made his location he had a ferry established across the New River, and kept a small stock of goods, and later kept public entertainment. On October 5, 1784, he married Rebecca Clay, daughter of Mitchell Clay. The children of Col. George Pearis and his wife, Rebecca Clay Pearis, were: George N.,Robert Alexander, Samuel Pepper, Charles Lewis; their daughters, Rebecca, Julia, Rhoda, Sallie and Eleanor. Col. George N. Pearis married Elizabeth Howe, daughter of Maj. Daniel Howe; Robert Alexander Pearis married Miss Arbuckle, of Greenbrier County; Samuel Pepper Pearis married Rebecca Chapman, daughter of Isaac and Elian Johnston Chapman; Charles Lewis Pearis married Margaret Peck, daughter of John Brown, they went to Texas about 1836, leaving a son, George Pearis Brown, who lived for a number of years in Mercer County; Julia married Col. Garland Gerald; Rhoda married Col. John B George; Sallie married Baldwin L. Sisson; and Eleanor married Capt. Thomas J. George. The children of Col. George N. Pearis and his wife, Elizabeth Howe Pearis, were: Capt. George W., who never married, and died in 1898, at the age of nearly eighty-nine years; Col. Daniel Howe, who married Louisa A. Johnston; Rebecca, who married George D. Hoge; Nancy, who married Archer Edgar; Ardelia, who married Daniel R. Cecil; and Elizabeth, who married Benjamin White. Robert Alexander Pearis and his wife had no children, and after the death of said Robert Alexander his widow married Colonel McClung. The children of Col. Garland Gerald and Julia Pearis Gerald, his wife were: Sons, Thomas, Robert, Pearis, Garland T.; daughters, Rebecca, who married Dr. Edwin Grant; Louisa, who married James M. Cunningham; Mary who married ---------; Fannie, who married a Mr. Yost; Virginia. who died in Texas, unmarried; and Ophelia, who married-------. The children of Col. John B. George and Rhoda Pearis George were: George Pearis George, who married Sarah A Davidson; Jane, who married Judge Sterling F. Watts. The names of the children of Capt. Thomas J. George and wife are as follows: A.P.G. George, Robert, and John; the daughters, Larissa, who married Jacob A. Peck; Matilda, who married a Mr. Austin, and Rebecca, who married George W. Jarrell. Charles Lewis Pearis and his wife, Margaret Peck Pearis, had but one child, a daughter, Electra, who married Dr. Charles W. Pearis, and they had no children. As already stated, John Brown and family went to Texas prior to 1836. Some of his older sons were soldiers in take Texas Army. He settled in that part of the state that became Collin County. George Pearis Brown, the son of John, remained in Virginia. He married a Miss Mahood, a sister of the late Judge Alexander Mahood, and he and his wife left numerous descendants. The elder Col. George Pearis, the settler, was long a magistrate of Montgomery and Giles Counties, and sat in the courts of both counties, and was for a term the presiding magistrate of the latter county. The first court of the County of Giles was held in a house belonging to him, and the land for the county buildings and town was given by him and the town of Pearisburg took its name from him. he died on November 4, 1810, and his ashes repose in the burying ground on the farm on which he died, on the little hill just southwest of Pearisburg station. His widow married Phillip Peters, and she died April 15,1844. The elder Col. George Pearis' wife Rebecca Clay, who was the daughter of Mitchell Clay, of Clover Bottoms, was a first cousin of Henry Clay of Kentucky, who was one of the greatest and most honored statesman this nation ever produced. ______________________________X-Message: #8 Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 20:48:26 -0500 From: "John \"Bill\" Wheeler" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <001301bf41e7$b7640720$2adfbec6@wheeler> Subject: BIO: Everett A. Leonard Jr. Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume ll. Pg. 114-115 Everett A Leonard Jr., went into business soon after finishing his education, was a merchant for several years in old Virginia, and for the past twenty years he has been a resident of Bluefield and a prominent factor in the growth and development, keeping apace with the city itself, of the Bluefield Hardware Company, of which he is president and manager. Mr. Leonard was born in Russell County, Virginia, August 15, 1876, son of Edward A. and Eliza (Reynolds) Leonard, both natives of Virginia, his father of Washington County and his mother of Russell County. Edward A. Leonard was a Baptist minister and was also a Confederate soldier, all through the war with a Virginia Regiment. The last year he was captured and was confined in a federal prison at Rock Island. Everett A. Leonard Jr., acquired a common school education, finished his high school course in Russell County in 1893, and about that time his parents removed to Greene County, Tennessee. While there he attended Mosheim College, and took a six months commercial course at Lexington, Kentucky. After completing his education Mr. Leonard determined to seek his opportunities in the far west, but after about a year as bookkeeper for the Western Mercantile Company at Weston, Oregon, he changed his mind about the west and returned to Old Virginia, For three years he was employed in the hardware business at Lebanon by Mr. A. Hendricks, and then bought this business and conducted it as proprietor until 1900. On selling out his business at Lebanon Mr. Leonard removed to Bluefield, which was then just coming into prominence as a commercial center of the great industrial district of Southern West Virginia He connected himself with Bluefield Hardware Company as one of its traveling salesmen, and for nearly ten years was on the road. By his personal and faithful efforts he contributed in no small measure to the great volume of that company's business, and the confidence reposed in the corporation by a host of retailers. After about ten years Mr. Leonard was made vice president of the company, and for the past six years has been president and general manager. The Bluefield hardware company is one largest organizations of the kind in the state, has a capital and surplus of $700,000.00. and does an annual business aggregating $2,000,000. In 1898 at Castlewood, Russell County, Virginia, Mr. Leonard married Miss Eleanor Fields, daughter of William and Elizabeth Fields. Her father was a confederate soldier and at the battle of Petersburg was shot through the thigh, a severe wound from which he suffered all the rest of his life. He was by occupation a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Leonard have one daughter, Lucille Alton. Mr. Leonard is a Baptist, while Mrs. Leonard and her daughter are members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Leonard, while he has kept his mind closely on business, is a man of genial qualities and of wholesome companionship and is identified with several social organizations. He is a member of the Fallsmills Fishing Club, Chamber of Commerce, plays golf at the Bluefield Country Club, and is fond of all outdoor sports. He is a Knight Templar and Royal Arch Mason, a Shriner and a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. In Politics he is a democrat.