West Virginia Statewide Files WV-Footsteps Mailing List WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 67 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: Mathew A. JACKSON, Greenbrier [SSpradling@aol.com] #2 BIO: Capt. Samuel F. TYREE, Greenb [SSpradling@aol.com] #3 BIO: James LAING, Greenbrier Count [SSpradling@aol.com] #4 BIO: Richard JASPER, Greenbrier Co [SSpradling@aol.com] #5 BIO: Homer A. HOLT, Greenbrier Cou [SSpradling@aol.com] #6 BIO: Russell W. MONTAGUE, Greenbri [SSpradling@aol.com] Administrivia: To unsubscribe from WV-FOOTSTEPS-D, send a message to WV-FOOTSTEPS-D-request@rootsweb.com that contains in the body of the message the command unsubscribe and no other text. No subject line is necessary, but if your software requires one, just use unsubscribe in the subject, too. To contact the WV-FOOTSTEPS-D list administrator, send mail to WV-FOOTSTEPS-admin@rootsweb.com. ______________________________X-Message: #1 Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 03:15:22 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <25d3adff.25270b0a@aol.com> Subject: BIO: Mathew A. JACKSON, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 128-129 MATHEW A. JACKSON. In the year 1820, Alexander Jackson and five brothers set sail from the shores of Ireland for America. The grandfather of the subject of this sketch was the only one of them who located finally in Greenbrier county. After a few years he moved to Monroe county. His wife was a Miss Robinson. She died during the Civil war. He died in 1867. Three sons were born to this union, of which James W. was the oldest. He was born February 11, 1829 and died four or five years ago in a hospital. He married Margaret M. Hogshead, a daughter of John and Mary Hogshead, both of Monroe county, Virginia. John Hogshead was born in Augusta county, Virginia, July 20, i806. His wife was born there also, December 7, 1807. They came to Monroe county in 1822 and 1829, respectively. He died July 7, 1857. His wife died somewhere in the eighties. Robert L. and William were the two grandsons of Alexander Jackson. William married and died the same day. Six children were born to James W. and Margaret M (Hogshead) Jackson: Mathew A., April 29, 1853; Mary Jane, March i6, 1856; Joanna M., May 30, 1859; Robert L., June 25, 1863; Anna W., May 10, 1871. Joanna became one of the successful teachers of Greenbrier county. James W. Jackson owned a farm adjoining the one now owned by his son, Mathew A. He was one of those thoroughgoing business farmers and was deputy sheriff of Greenbrier county at one time. The farm was covered with plenty of timber during the earlier years of his married life, giving plenty of hard work for the whole family all their lives, and they all had to work very hard until the wilderness was subdued and a homestead was made. On January 25, 1882, M. A. Jackson married Anna M. Atkeson, daughter of Thomas Atkeson, second cousin to Governor Atkinson, of West Virginia. She was born May 8, 1858, and died October 5, 1911. Mrs. Jackson was a most estimable, Christian lady, well known as a very active as well as a most worthy member of the Methodist church. Six children, four girls and two boys, were horn to this union: Nettie A., Margaret J., Joanna V., Mary W., Clarence A., William A., and Nina D., who died March 29, 1915, at the age of twenty-three. She was in attendance at the time of her death in the training school at Richmond, Va., and about ready to graduate from that institution. The daughters are all graduates of the Lewisburg Seminary. Clarence A. attended the state university at Morgantown four years. William A., the youngest, is seventeen years old. Mathew Jackson has a beautiful farm. It is fine grazing land, consisting of some 800 acres. He thoroughly mastered the busi-ness part of a framer's life when a young man. His farm is well situated and all its natural advantages have been utilized under an intelligent supervision. Mr. Jackson was at one time postmaster of Lewisburg. He was appointed by Roosevelt to that position and held the office eight years. He has been a very active man in his day and has raised a very intelligent family of children. Sandy Spradling SSpradling@AOL.com State Contact for WV GenExchange http://www.genexchange.com/wv/index.cfm ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 03:20:09 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <476d1601.25270c29@aol.com> Subject: BIO: Capt. Samuel F. TYREE, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 129-130 CAPT. SAMUEL F. TYREE. Frank Tyree, of Mountain Cove, Fayette county, West Virginia, and a brother of William M. Tyree, well known there, was the father of the subject of this sketch. Capt. Samuel Tyree was born in Fayette county in 1840, and died January 14, 1912. A good portion of his early life was spent in Fayette county, where he was reared on a farm and obtained his education. He then came to Greenbrier county. Upon the breaking out of the war between the States in 1861, he volunteered as a soldier in Company E. commanded by his uncle, William Tyree, and was attached to the Twenty-second regiment. Later he organized a company of independent rangers to take part in that great struggle, and of which he was chosen captain, and with this company he did some very effective service for the Confederacy. On September 12, 1865, Captain Tyree married Miss Sabina Feamster. She was born March 27, 1844, and died April 26, 1912. She was a sister of Joseph and Col. S. W. N. Feamster, of this county (see sketch of the Feamster family), and to this union were born seven children. Edward, married Mary Lewis Handley, daughter of Austin Handley; Frank, not married. William, married Susie C. Renick, daughter of James H. Renick; Emmette, married Millie L. Cogbill, daughter of D. J. Cogbill; Harry, married Miss Brocions, of Dallas, Texas; John, married Mary Bell Gillian, daughter of C. W. Gillian; Mattie R. at home. Captain Tyree bore an excellent reputation. He was a companionable, whole-souled, generous man, ever ready to do a favor or to help the needy. His acts of kindness are still spoken of and were very many. He had the happy faculty of accommodating himself to surrounding circumstances, which made of him a man among men, and, as it was said, also a "child among children." His death was felt as a personal loss by the community in general. Sandy Spradling SSpradling@AOL.com State Contact for WV GenExchange http://www.genexchange.com/wv/index.cfm ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 03:27:26 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: Subject: BIO: James LAING, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 130-132 JAMES LAING. 1846-1907 James Laing, son of John and Margaret Bowie Laing, was born at Slamanan, near the city of Glasgow, Scotland, January 2, 1846. Mr. Laing's parents, realizing the larger possibilities that the United States offered, emigrated with their family to America in 1866, settling in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, where they engaged in farming and mining. On December 31, 1872, Mr. Laing was married to Susanna Kay, second daughter of Thomas and Janet Kerr Kay. Miss Kay was a Scotch lady, born at Lanark, Scotland, April 29, 1851, and came to America with her parents in 1870. The Kay family settled first in Sharon, Pa., and later in West Virginia. Mr. Laing bought a large tract of coal land in West Virginia and moved with his family of two children to Quinnimont, Fayette county, in 1878. At this time the New River coal fields were just beginning to be developed. Mr. Laing organized the Royal Coal and Coke Company in 1891 and opened up the Royal mine, which was the first mine to be operated in Raleigh county, and was managed by Mr. Laing until 1896, when he organized the Sun Coal and Coke Company and sank the first shaft ever used in the New River coal field, at Sun, which he managed with remarkable effectiveness and success. Mr. Laing continued the management of these mines until 1904, when he retired from active service in mining operations, though he continued his interest in other activities, and until the time of his death was president of the Laing Mining Company, the McKinley Land Company, the Craig-Giles Iron Company and the Mountain Lake Land Company. Mr. Laing had long dreamed of spending his declining years in a quiet country community, and selecting the small but well-known town of Lewisburg, purchased property and built a large and handsome stone house, "Canipsie Glen," into which bc moved his family from Fayette county, in 1904. Mr. Laing was a trustee of the Lewisburg Seminary, from which institution his daughters received their education. This school was dear to his heart and he labored zealously for its development and power. His interest in Christian education was felt over the entire church, and in 1907, shortly before his death, he was appointed a trustee of Hampden-Sidney College, where two of his sons had been educated. He was just realizing the ambition of his boyhood comfort and quietness for himself and his loyal and saintly wife and having a constructive part in the education of the youth of his beloved State and church-when his death occurred, after a brief illness, at his home in Lewisburg, October 31, 1907. Surviving him are his widow and seven children: Janet Kerr, John Bowie, Thomas Kay, Annie Jean, James Kay, Susanna Kay (Mrs. R. L. Speas), and Bessie Belle. Like most of his Scotch countrymen, Mr. Laing was an ardent Presbyterian, devoted to his church and liberal in its support. While at Quinnimont, in 1882, he was ordained a ruling elder in the church, and with a fidelity and fitness realized by few, he served in that sacred capacity wherever he lived. Mr. Laing lived in Lewisburg only three short years, but it was long enough to win an enviable place in the esteem and friendship of the people of the town and community. In politics, he was a Republican, believing firmly in the McKinley principles of protection. As a man and citizen his life and conduct were ever above reproach, modest and unassuming, true to his convictions and firm in his stand for right as he saw it; he held the respect and confidence of those who knew him best and was admired and honored by his many business associates and employes. In his death his family lost one of the truest and best husbands and fathers, the schools of which he was a trustee a wise and trusted counsellor, his town and State a constructive and loyal citizen, and the church, his choicest pride, a most faithful member and officer. Sandy Spradling SSpradling@AOL.com State Contact for WV GenExchange http://www.genexchange.com/wv/index.cfm ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 03:32:25 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <9dee4383.25270f09@aol.com> Subject: BIO: Richard JASPER, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 132-134 RICHARD JASPER. Mining operations have engaged the attention of the Jasper family for generations. John Jasper, of Cornwall Parish, mined copper and tin ore most of his lifetime. He died at the age of sixty years, having established a business that has been followed by his son, Richard Jasper, ever since. About the year 1823 John Jasper married Jane Vine, and from that union were born Mary Jane, now deceased; Richard, who was born in Cornwall Parish in 1846; Sophia, who went to Australia and has never since been heard from; Margaret, who married and had two children. She lived and died in Cardiff, Wales. Carrie, the fifth child, who is now the wife of Thomas Appleby, of Wales, a soldier now for his country in the war of the allies against the Turks at Constantinople. In 1867, Richard Jasper came to this country, locating first at Clearfield, Pa., then at a mining point in Mercer county, coming to Fayette county, West Virginia, in 1881. at which time and subsequently he carried on an extensive business with James Laing and others for many years. During all that time his speculations and profits in mining lands, coal fields and timber tracts have netted him a comfortable living. His son, William Jasper, prominent in large coal interests belonging to a company in Charleston, of which he is a member, has also been very successful in mining activities, and in coal and timber lands as well. He began clerking in the company store, then took charge of commercial interests, as manager, and having worked his way to the top, is now among the foremost in the business. He was born August 10, 1867, and in 1890 he married Miss Ida Johnson, and has eight children: Nell, who married Dr. Lee Wray and lives in Charleston, Bess, Grace, Florence, Caroline, Ruth; William, and Thomas. Jennie Jasper, second child, was born in May, 1869, and has nine children. Her first husband was William Averill, and by him had one daughter, Annie, and five sons, Eben, Thomas, Ray, Frank and William. Her second husband is Thomas Dixon, of Willock, Pa. To this union were born two children, Joe and Elizabeth. Mary, the third child, was born November 13, 1872. She married John Burns, who, also, is interested in mining, in Raleigh county, West Virginia. Their children are: Caroline, Elizabeth, Helen, Agnes, Richard, Samuel, William, Fred and James. Samuel, the fourth child, was born July 4, 1875. He married Barbara Wright and lives at Glen Jean, Fayette county, West Virginia, where he is justice of the peace. They have one child, Virginia. Fred Jasper, fifth child, was born in June, 1877. He was married in 1904 to Caroline Calloway and has two children, Marian and Margaret, twins. He is a railroad operator and lives at Glen Jean. Helen, the sixth child, was born November 13,1879. On July 4, 1900, she was married to Frank Wissenger, a hardware merchant of Lewisburg. Their children are Margaret, Richard, Minnie and Frances. Ida, the seventh child, was born August I, i886. She married Houston Moore, August 1, 1912. Two children, Caroline and John, were born to this union. Richard Jasper, when about twenty years of age, married Caroline Nichols. She was the daughter of William Nichols, who was killed in a mine in 1858. Mr. Jasper bought his present residence in 1912. He owns considerable bank stock as wcll as other interests. He is the grandfather of thirty-eight children and has three great-grandchildren. His wife died August 23, 1911. The family worship with the Methodists. Sandy Spradling SSpradling@AOL.com State Contact for WV GenExchange http://www.genexchange.com/wv/index.cfm ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 03:39:41 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: Subject: BIO: Homer A. HOLT, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 147-149 HOMER A. HOLT. HomerA., son of Jonathan and Eliza (Wilson) Holt, was born on April 27, 1831, at Parkersburg, then Virginia. His father, one of the pioneer ministers of the Methodist Episcopal church, located his home at Weston, Lewis county, in 1831, and resided there for a number of years. The Holt family, coming from England in early colonial days, had settled neat Norfolk, and there was born Mr. Holt's grandfather, John Holt, who, in 1794, moved to and settled in the valley of the Monongahela river. Mr. Holt's maternal ancestors came from the northern part of Ireland and from New England and settled at Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh) and, immediately after the Revolutionary war, also below that point on the Ohio river. In his youth, Mr. Holt was privileged to attend the best schools that existed at the time. For three years, under the tutel-age of Dr. Charles Wheeler, a distant kinsman of his mother, he attended Rector College; then he completed his academic work at the University of Virginia during the sessions of I849-'5o and of 1850-51. During the years of 1850 and 1852 he taught school at Weston and studied law with Col. B. W. Byrne, his brother-in-law. Having completed his study of law, he was, in the fall of 1853, examined by Judges Summers, Edminston and Camden and granted license to practice his profession. He located his office at Braxton Court House and was taken into partnership by Colonel Byrne. From 1854 to i856 he was deputy surveyor of the coun-ties of Braxton and Nicholas, and thus became thoroughly familiar with that region of the country lying between the Great and Little Kanawba rivers. Arrested in 1862 as a Confederate sympathizer, Mr. Holt was sent to Camp Chase. In January, 1863, he was sent down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to be exchanged at Vicksburg, but before that point was reached the exchange of prisoners was stopped, the steamboats were turned back up the river to St. Louis and the prisoners sent to Camp Douglas at Chicago. In April of the same year Mr. Folt, with many others, was taken east to Baltimore, down Chesapeake Bay and up James river to City Point, at which place he was exchanged. He immediately joined Jenkins' Brigade, then at Salem, Va., and remained with his command until the surrender at Appomattox, when he returned to his home at Braxton Court House. As the Braxton county delegate to the West Virginia Consti-tutional Convention of 1872, Mr. Holt served on the Judiciary Committee and on the Committee on Land Titles, and represented the chairman of the Committee on General Revision. In 1872 he was elected, for a term of eight years, beginning January 1, 1873, judge of the Eighth Judicial circuit, which was comprised of the counties of Greenbrier, Pocohontas, Monroe, Summers, Fayette, Nicholas, Braxton and Clay,-in all, a territory of more than 5,000 square miles, having two terms of court a year in each county. A new circuit having been formed by taking off the counties of Braxton, Nicholas and Clay, Judge Holt was again elected for a terln of eight years, in the circuit composed of the remaining five counties. In 1890, to fill a vacancy, he was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Fleming, and in 1892 he was elected to the same office. On January 27, 1857, Judge Holt married Mary Ann, daughter of John Byrne, Esquire, by whom he had four children: John H. Holt, a lawyer, residing in Huntington, W. Va..; Fannie D., wife of W. 0. Wiatt, also of Huntington; Robert Byrne, of Lewisburg, W. Va.; and Nina, wife of Judge Charles S. Dice, who lives in Lewisburg. Judge Holt retained his position on the Supreme Court bench of West Virginia until within a year of his death, which occurred in January, 1898. He is buried in Lewisburg, Greenbrier county, his home during the latter part of his life. Sandy Spradling SSpradling@AOL.com State Contact for WV GenExchange http://www.genexchange.com/wv/index.cfm ______________________________X-Message: #6 Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 03:47:09 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: Subject: BIO: Russell W. MONTAGUE, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 149-150 RUSSELL W. MONTAGUE. Russell W. Montague was born in Dedham, Mass., a suburb of Boston, and was graduated from Harvard in the class of 1872. His father was a merchant and manufacturer in Boston, and his grandfather, the Rev. William Montague, was the first clergyman of the Episcopal church to preach in England after the Revolu-tion, preaching in St. Paul, London, and Westminster Abbey. After the Revolution' he became rector of the Old North Church in Boston, from the steeple of this church had hung the lights as a signal to Paul Revere. Before entering the ministry he had been a soldier in the Revolution. A tablet erected to his memory in the Old North Church bears, in part, the words: "Juvenis pro patria Senex pro Ecclesia viriliter Militavit" (i. e. As a young man for his Country as an old man for his Church he fought valiantly). After graduating from Harvard, Russell W. Montague stud-ied law and was admitted to the bar of Massachusetts in 1874 and afterwards read law for a time in the Inner Temple in London. In 1876 he moved to Greenbrier, where he has since resided. He married Harriet A. Cary, daughter of Dr. Robert H. Cary. The Carys are a well known family in Boston and the immediate an-cestors of Mrs. Montague lived for nearly 150 years in the Cary house in Chelsea, Mass., built in 1635 and now owned by the Society for the Preservation of Colonial Homes. One of Mrs. Montague's cousins married Louis Agassiz, the naturalist, and was herself dean of Radcliffe for a number of years. Another cousin married Cornelius C. Felton, the president of Harvard College. Of the two children born to Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Montague, the Rev. R. Cary Montague is rector of Grace Church, Elkins, W. Va. He married Margretta McGuire, daughter of the distinguished surgeon, Hunter McGuire, of Richmond, Va. The daughter, Margaret Prescott Montague, has devoted herself to literature and has published the following books: The Poet, Miss Kate and I; The So~ng of Alderson Cree; In Calvert's Valley; Linda; Closed Poors, and numerous short stories and a few poems, principally published in the Atlantic Monthly. Her last story, up to this time, "By Waters and the Spirit," appeared in the Atlantic Monthly for May, 1916. She comes rightly by her literary gift. Her father is a first cousin of Harriet Prescott Spofford and her grandmother was a cousin of William Prescott, the historian. Sandy Spradling SSpradling@AOL.com State Contact for WV GenExchange http://www.genexchange.com/wv/index.cfm