West Virginia Statewide Files WV-Footsteps Mailing List WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 68 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: Joseph Samuel THURMOND, Green [SSpradling@aol.com] #2 BIO: Samuel William Newman FEAMSTE [SSpradling@aol.com] #3 BIO: Joseph BELL, Greenbrier Count [SSpradling@aol.com] #4 BIO: Henry Thomas BELL, Greenbrier [SSpradling@aol.com] #5 BIO: Robert Marion BELL, Greenbrie [SSpradling@aol.com] #6 Lee family of Clay Co/ Welck famil [PROUDNANA4@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 04:29:08 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: Subject: BIO: Joseph Samuel THURMOND, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 150-155 JOSEPH SAMUEL THURMOND. Joseph Samuel Thurmond was born May 9, 1855, in Fayette county, Virginia (now West Virginia). His father, W. D. Thurmond, was a native of Amherst county, Virginia, as was also his mother, both of whom were of English descent. His mother, who was the daughter of Charles Bibb, moved with her father to Fayette county, in 1834, settling at Bowyer's Ferry (now Sewell). where for several years he kept the ferry. He later bought a tract of land in what is known now as the Gatewood neighborhood, and having built a house and cleared out a farm, resided there the greater part of his life. In the year 1845 Philip Thurmond, the father of W. D. Thur-mond, moved from Amherst county and settled in Fayette county, where he spent the remainder of his life. A few years later W. D. Thurmond also caine across the Alleghanies and made his residence with his father. He engaged in farming, and while plowing corn accidentally discovered the famous New River coal, and digging some of it, he took it to a blacksmith, who used it for fuel in his shop. This, it is said, was the first discovery of the now world-famed coal and the first purpose for which it was used. Today the largest coal operation in the New River field is located on the same property upon which it was first discovered. In February, 1852, W. D. Thurmond married Miss Sarah J., daughter of Charles Bibb, above mentioned, and having already purchased a farm at 50 cents per acre, and paid for it by laboring in the salt works on the Great Kanawha river at 50 cents per day, he settled down to farming and at odd times surveying. To this union six children were born, viz.: James W., Mary E., Joseph S., Charles T., Lucy A. and Sarah F., the last named dying at two years of age. At that time educational facilities were poor and the Civil war coming on about the time the older children were of school age, they were deprived of several years which should have been spent in school. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil war, Mr. Thurmond organized a company of soldiers and became its captain. This company was composed, principally, of men from Monroe, Fayette, Raleigh and Greenbrier counties, Summers county not having been organized at that time. Acting as an independent company, but subject to orders from Gen. John F. Echols, its operations were confined mainly along the border between the two contending armies and might be termed a border patrol. Early in the war, for some unknown reason, the commander of the Union army stationed at Fayetteville sent a squad of soldiers to Captain Thurmond's house, and forcibly ejecting Mrs. Thurmond and her six small children from the building, and throwing a few articles of furniture out, applied the torch, and in a few minutes the house was reduced to ashes. The family was removed temporarily to the home of Mrs. Thurmond's father and later to Monroe county, where they remained throughout the war and until the fall of 1870, when they returned to their old home in Fayette county. At the close of the war Captain Thurmond was homeless and penniless, but not friendless. and he often said that had it not been for his friends his family would have suffered for the necessaries of life; but with credit extended to him and a determination to succeed, he managed to take care of his family and in his latter days to earn a competency. He died at Minden, Fayette county, May 14, 1910, in his ninetieth year. At the age of eleven the subject of this sketch entered the public schools, which consisted of four months a year, and in which nothing but the elementary branches of study were taught. During the summer he wore homespun linen clothes, made by his mother's own hands, went barefoot and hoed com. At the age of twenty-one he entered Shelton College, at St. Albans, and had for his instructor the late Dr. P. B. Reynolds (let it be said right here that this State has never had a more profound thinker nor a better instructor than he), and for fellow students Dr. George B. Foster, of the Chicago University; Rev. John R. McCutcheon; Senator W. E. Chilton; Prof. E. C. Haworth, now of Marshall College, and Hon. James H. Stewart, now commissioner of agriculture of this State, and many others, some of whom have crossed the "Great Divide", and others who have been swallowed up in this big business world and lost from his sight; but upon the whole, a majority of them have made good. Mr. Thurmond, having very limited means, spent but two years at Shelton, after which he returned home and engaged in farming during the summer and teaching school in the winter. Still, the school term was hut four months a year and the salary of a grade one teacher but $25 per month. He followed teaching for three years, one of which he served as a member of the board of examiners. He then began the study of surveying and engineering and for several years spent all his time surveying. About this time the development of the Fayete county coal lands began to attract attention and a scramble for wild lands, which, hitherto, had been considered worthless, began. The docket of the court was crowded with suits to determine the title of lands and a great demand for surveyors followed. Mr. Thurmond had, perhaps, as much to do in establishing the lines and corners of the old surveys as any other man in the county, and often served as a witness in court in land litigation. It was while engaged in surveying the lands of the late Governor Samuel Price that he first met his much esteemed and honored friend, the late John Preston. Spending two weeks together in the rough mountains of Fayette and Raleigh counties, often thirsty and sometimes hungry, resulted in a friendship which lasted thirty-three years, the time of Mr. Preston's demise. When the building of the railroad hridge at Thurmond opened for development the vast coal fields of Loop creek, he acquired some stock in the Star Coal Co. and took the position of mine foreman and engineer at the mines, holding this position for three years, when he sold his stock, resigned his position, and accepted the position of general manager with the late William P. Rend, of Chicago, in the development of his mines at Minden, in Fayette county. These mines are located on the W. D. Thurmond farm, the land upon which the New River coal was first discovered, and are the largest producers in the New River field, having a capacity of 4,000 tons per day. After three years of arduous and strenuous labor here, and getting the mines in a good state of development, Mr. Thurmond re-signed his position and entered upon the unenviable task of catering to the wants of an unthankful public as proprietor of a hotel. It required but a few years to convince him that he was not fitted for hotel work, and, leasing the property, he moved to Greenbrier county, and located in the town of Alderson. He purchased of Mrs. Fannie Lipps a farm lying in the suburbs of the town, known as the "Old John Alderson Place", upon which stood a stone house, one of the oldest in the county, built in the year 1788. Last year this old landmark was torn down and in its stead a modern brick residence was erected. In the year 1880 he married Miss Elizabeth J., the daughter of Rev. A. N. Rippetoe, of Kessler's Cross Lanes, Nicholas county, West Virginia, and by this union ten children were born, six of whom are now living. On October 19, 1900, Mrs. Thurmond died at iMinden, and on March 26, 1902, he was united in marriage to Miss Letha Lee, daughter of J. B. Huddleston, of Fayette county. By this union there are no children. In his religious belief he has always held to the Baptist faith, and at the age of sixteen united with the Bethel Baptist Church, afterward being a charter member of the Oak Hill church, from which he was dismissed by letter to join the Greenbrier church, of which he is now a member. At the meeting of the Greenbrier Association, in the fall of 1914, he was elected moderator of that body, which position he held two years. Politically, he is an uncompromising Democrat and has since his maturity been an active participant in all campaigns. In the election of 1914 he was nominated and elected to the House of Delegates, with A. E. Huddleston, of White Sulphur, as his colleague, and at the following election, in 1916, was re-elected to the same position, with A.B.C. Bray, of Ronceverte, as his colleague. The Democrats at this election succeeded in electing a majority in the House of Delegates, and in the following January, when that body convened, Mr. Thurmond was elected speaker. Mr. Thurmond relates the following reminiscences: Just before the Civil war the newspapers were full of news about the Yankees, and his mother read to him about them so much that he formed the opinion that they were not men, but some kind of animal. Imagine his surprise to find upon seeing them that they were but common human beings. Their first appearance at his father's house was one morning when his father and several of his friends were expecting and watching for them. Great consterna-tion was caused when the advance guard appeared in sight and every man took to his heels as fast as he could run, and the Yankees opened fire on them. To young Thurmond to shoot was to kill, and it was some time after the firing had ceased, and his father and friends were, perhaps, half a mile away and safely hidden in the woods, before he could be convinced that they were not all killed. At one time the Thurmond family lived one mile west of Alderson, on the land of Thomas Johnson, known then as the "Lane Place". Joe and his brother, Jim, had always been anxious to see a hattIe, and one day, when the sound of musketry suddenly burst upon their ears, they soon realized that a fight was on down at the river where the town of Glenary now stands, so they immediately made a dash for the battlefield. They ran down the slope through a woodland as fast as they could go, and as they emerged from the woods into the open field a minnie ball struck the root of a large oak tree within a few feet of them, and others were tearing up the ground all around. Undaunted, they pressed forward, but a moment later they saw John T. Myles, now a citizen of Alderson, but then a soldier in Captain Thurmond's company, coming hurriedly towards them. In a loud and angry tone he ordered them to turn and run for their lives, which they did without any argument. It developed that a detachment from Captain Thurmond's company, led by Lieutenant Bibb, had attacked a company of Yankees across the river and were having a hot skirmish with them. Mr. Myles had received a severe wound in the shoulder and was retiring from the field, traveling in a direct line between them and the Yankees, and the balls which fell so close to them had been fired at him. This was near as they came to a battle, but on several occasions were close enough to hear the roar of artillery. 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 12:52:07 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <9b9b1363.25279237@aol.com> Subject: BIO: Samuel William Newman FEAMSTER, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 155-158 S. W. N. FEAMSTER. The third and youngest son of William Feamster (see previous article) was Samuel William Newman Feamster, who was born at the old home place on Muddy creek on February 21, 1836. He was willed by his father about 700 acres of the old original Feamster plantation, which has been in the family since 1775, and except for service away from home during the Civil War, he has spent his entire life on his home place and at his town house in Alderson. In June, 1877, he married Ann Elizabeth McClung, the daughter of Joseph McClung, Jr., and his wife, Mary Jane Mathews (see the printed work McClung Genealogy for her ancestry). There were born to Lieutenant and Mrs. Feamster eleven children. Lieutenant Feamster died at his town home in Alderson on April 18, 1915, and is buried in the old Baptist cemetery in Alderson. At the time of his death, there was published quite a lengthy article in the Greenbrier Independent, from which the following quotations are excerpts "Greenbrier sent no soldier into the great war between the States braver or more efficient htan Colonel Feamster. He left the county as a lieutenant in the Greenbrier cavalry, the first cavalry company to leave the county. His first service of importance was about Philippi and in Randolph county, where he was particularly active and alert in locating the enemy and keeping our general informed. Capt. Moorman being in bad health, Lieutenant Feamster was generally in command of the company. It was in this campaign that General McClelland is credited with saying of him: 'Newman Feamster can fight like the devil and run like the wind.' "During Early's campaign in the valley in 1864, Lieutenant Feamster was shot through the body and badly wounded, but, supported by one or two of his men, he stuck to his horse, riding about ten miles before he could receive attention. From this wound we believe he fully recovered and was soon at his post. His regiment (the Fourteenth cavalry) having, in March, 1865, been transferred to Beagle's brigade at Petersburg, he was on the retreat from Richmond and at Appomattox April 9, 1865, laid down his sword, and came back to Greenbrier with the proud consciousness of having faithfully done his duty as a soldier of the South, to which he was ever true and loyal. "As a citizen he was exemplary, as a neighbor he followed the example of the Good Samaritan, being ever ready to assist all in need out of recipients of his honesty. In all his dealings he was honest with his fellow man. As a friend he was almost without a peer; loyalty to his friends and helpfulness in bearing their bur-dens being one of his most prominent characteristics. "As a father, he was fond and indulgent and generous almost to a fault. As a husband he manifested the greatest love, respect and admiration. As a Confederate veteran, Camp Creigh had no more ardent or enthusiastic member, and its depleted ranks can ill afford to lose such a comrade. "Eight years ago, when attending that grandest of all Confederate reunions at Richmond, he was a prominent member of Ceneral White's staff, and in the general's stead had command of the West Virginia division. "Lieutenant Feamster was born February 21, 1836, and died April 18, 1915, and was therefore in the eightieth year of his life. He was a son of William and Patsey Alderson Feamster, and was born in the house in which he spent his married life, on his farm on Muddy creek, five miles from Alderson. He died at his town home in Alderson, on Sunday afternoon, April 18, 1915, at I :30 o'clock. "After the surrender at Appomattox, in April, 1865, where he was conspicuous to the last, Colonel Feamster returned to his home and engaged in farming and stock raising, and also dealt some in real estate in other parts of the state. "Colonel Feamster's funeral, perhaps, was the largest ever seen in Alderson." Lieutenant Feamster never asked for furlough, and one bit of his Civil war service which showed his valor and well befits him should be told in this article to make the same complete. Once, when he and three other Confederate soldiers were all the troops in Lewisburg, or in fact near it, a regiment or more of Yankee soldiers approached it from the west. Lieutenant Feamster's sister, Sabina, saw the Yankees coming down the hill and, knowing that he was in front of the old hotel, she ran quickly down the street, warning him of their approach, that he might escape towards the east. However, instead of running towards the east, as she and many others present expected, he boldly galloped towards the entire Yankee forces, yelling as he went, "Come on, boys," as though the town was fully garrisoned. The Yankees were taken so by surprise that he captured the advance guard and all the other troops turned and ran. They supposed they were being attacked by a large force, when it was merely one man, followed by three others, that being all the Southern soldiers in the entire country. This feat was witnessed by many of the town people, who have delighted in frequently telling it, and there are some yet living who saw it. 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 12:56:12 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: Subject: BIO: Joseph BELL, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 158 THE BELL FAMILY. The Bells of Greenbrier are of Scotch descent. Joseph Bell, the great-great grandfather of Henry Thomas Bell, came to America about 1735 and settled near where Staunton now stands. He was one of several who laid off the town into thirteen and one-half-acre lots, each man taking a lot at $16.66 2-3. The Augusta National Bank stands on a part of the lot taken by Joseph Bell. William H. Bell, the father of Henry Thomas, was born in Augusta county, Virginia, October 29, 1810. He moved with his father to Goshen in 1820, then called Bells Valley. His wife was Martha Alexander Wilson, born July 13, 1818. They were married, February 14, 1839. Their children were: Estaline, born July 3, 1840; Susan Poague, April 2, 1843; Frances Ann, March 3, 1846; William Mason, September 26, i848; John Robert, April 8, i85o; Henry Thomas, October 21, 1856; Grace Stuart, November 21, 1861. 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 13:03:14 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <5524bc66.252794d2@aol.com> Subject: BIO: Henry Thomas BELL, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 158-160 HENRY THOMAS BELL. Henry Thomas Bell was educated by private teachers and at the high school in Lexington, Va. In 1876 he came to Lewisburg and first clerked for his uncle, Johnston E. Bell. Subsequently, he established the Greenbrier Clothing Store, still continued under the management of R. P. Bell, making an ownership in the family of over thirty years. Henry T. Bell was twice married, first to Miss Louisa Epps Walton, daughter of Dr. R. P. Walton and Mary Jemima Woodson, of Cumberland, Va. The children by this marriage were: Walton Henry, born April 13, 1889; Richard Peyton, September 10, 1890; Martha Alexander, May 27, 1892; Mary Linton, February 6, 1894. Mr. Bell married for his second wife Mrs. Lucy McRae Walton, of Vicksburg, by whom there was no issue. Her father's name was William Allen McRae and her mother's name, Indiana Hawkins Rozell, both of Richmond, Va. Henry Walton Bell married, October i8, 1915, Mary Elizabeth Noel. Her father was John A. Noel and her mother Ohio Montgomery Jackson, of Pocahontas county, West Virginia. Henry T. Bell was a deacon and treasurer of the Old Stone Presbyterian Church for twenty-three years and was a member of the Ancient Order of Free and Accepted Masons, Greenbrier Lodge, No.42. He was a man of very fine character. The following article from the Greenbrier Independent, at the time of his death, best describes the character of the man: "In touching upon such a life one knows hardly where to begin. There are those who would think of him first as husband and father in the home. There was never nobler or truer. His widow, his four children, who survive him, his brother and his sisters, know how truly he lived for others and how overflowingly kind his heart always was. To him there was no place like home, and a happier, more care-free home no man ever made. "There are those who would think of him as the man of affairs -as leading his community, as attending to business, as entering with hearty fellowship into the social groups and gatherings of his generation. He inevitably drew men to him. Perhaps he was never conscious of it, but men leaned upon him for advice and for counsel. He had a gift for conciliation, for initiative, for securing results. He loved his fellows as he lived among them, and the wide circle of his coworkers is the poorer today that he walks among them no more in active participation. "And always there are those who would think of him as a Christian. To the end he was trusting and unafraid. In the las' hours he hore quiet testimony to the faith that had been his through a lifetime of service in his church. As treasurer of his congregation for over twenty years he was unexcelled. Acctirate, courteous, prompt-he met each exacting demand with a full measure of grace and ability. His associates in official responsibility will bear undivided testimony to his worth in every call through years of patient continuance in well doing. And those who knew him best were not surprised when in the last long struggle with death he made a record never surpassed for quiet courage on a battlefield. Seventeen times during the waiting months he bore the surgeon's knife, until that physician was moved to cry in irrepressible admiration, 'Here was the supremest type of courage I have ever known.' To him life was worth living, and there were hundreds who prayed that he might live. And yet against God's will there was never a moment's rebellion in his heart. He strove for life earnestly that by life he might glorify God, but he died una-fraid, for in death God would glorify him with that glory which has been since before the world was. A great heart-a noble man-a faithful servant of his day and generation-an humble follower of his King. All these and more he was. Our hearts are sore for his going, but our lives are made the better for his memory, 'God's noblest gift to men-a man. 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 13:07:13 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: Subject: BIO: Robert Marion BELL, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 160-161 ROBERT MARION BELL. The people of Greenbrier and Monroe counties, West Virginia, and of Pocahontas county, Virginia, are indebted to Robert Marion Bell for the organization and successful operation of 1,000 telephones in the three counties above named, with home offices in Lewisburg. Mr. Bell, the originator of this splendid telephone system, and a son of Robert J. Bell, received his education in the public schools and the Military Academy of Lewisburg. After a clerkship of ten years in the store of Henry Thomas Bell, he went to work, in 1906, for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, obtaining right of way for them in West Virginia and in Georgia. A connection with them of two years' duration led to the formation of the present system here. In January, 1907, he got an option and in May he organized, with H. L. Van Sicler, president; John B. Laing, vice-president; Mason Bell, secretary and treasurer; R. M. Bell, manager. The present officers of the company are E. L. Bell, president; P.. M. Bell, vice-president and general manager; Mason Bell, secretary and treasurer. Mr. Bell was married to Alma Linton Walton, June 21, 1911. She was a granddaughter of Dr. James William Phillips, of Mech-lenburg county, Virginia, her paternal grandfather being Dr. Richard Peyton, of Cumberland county, Virginia, and a daughter of Charles Courtland Walton, of the same county, and Mary Kear-ney Phillips, of Dyersburg, Dyer county, Tennessee. Mr. Bell was mayor of Lewisburg in 1911, '12, '13; was president of the Chautauqua in 1915 and elected for 1916. He is a member of the Old Stone Presbyterian Church; of Greenbrier Lodge, No.42, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; of Ronceverte Chapter Chapter, No.21, Royal Arch Masons; of Greenbrier Commandery, No.15, Knights Templar; of Beni Keden temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Charleston, W. Va. 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 13:12:19 EDT From: PROUDNANA4@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <8b316611.252796f3@aol.com> Subject: Lee family of Clay Co/ Welck family of Kanawah Co Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Spading I first want to tell you that I enjoy the footsteps Immensely and usually read every one of them, I really appreciate your efforts which I am sure is great, and a real treat to others. Keep up the good work. I did somehow during the Hurricane miss two entry's and hope you can be of help, I got a message that there were two entrees that I missed and they are about my family, which will even make them more special, I f you can in your busy schedule please try to send them on to me I would be greatly appreciable. By the way if you feel so inclined in doing so there is a book that is not widely available to the general public. I am sure many would love to see on the net and that was the Bicentennial of Kanawah Co., think it over, I am not sure where to even get a copy, I was just fortunate enough to get a glimpse of Henry Young's in Clendenin, WV. If you wish you may even send them to me on my own address of Proudnana4@aol.com If I can ever be of service to you please let me know. Sincerely yours, Betty Anderson