West Virginia Statewide Files WV-Footsteps Mailing List WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 69 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: Henry H. GEORGE, Greenbrier C [SSpradling@aol.com] #2 BIO: Samuel Windfield HINKLE, Gree [SSpradling@aol.com] #3 BIO: John GEORGE, Greenbrier Count [SSpradling@aol.com] #4 Della Moats-obit [Bridgette Osz ] #5 Mrs. Harry Nestor [Bridgette Osz ] #6 BIO: Conrad SYME, Greenbrier Count [SSpradling@aol.com] #7 BIO: Johnston Ewing BELL, 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 13:14:59 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.32e5546a.25279793@aol.com> Subject: BIO: Henry H. GEORGE, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 161-163 HENRY H. GEORGE. Thomas George, the ancestor of the George family, was of Welch descent. He was born October 24, 1767, in Augusta county, Virginia. His father died when he was a small boy. He was brought to Greenbrier county by a married sister and grew to manhood on the farm afterward known as the Huffman farm, on Muddy creek. His wife was Katherine McCoy George, a daughter of William McCoy. She was born July 11, 1765, and died November 11, 1853. Thomas George, her husband, died January 4, 1844. This pioneer couple was among the first settlers in Greenbrier county. Before they were married, Katherine McCoy was with her father's family, William McCoy, in Ft. Donnally when besieged by Indians. She moulded bullets all day for the men to shoot. Thomas George was one of the men that caine to the rescue of Ft. Donnally under Col. John Stewart. (See Border War fare). The fort stood where Bub Rader now lives in Rader's Valley. The fort was a log structure, where the neighbors gathered to fight off the Indians. There were seventeen Indians killed around the fort. Subsequently Thomas George and his wife moved to a farm in Grassy Meadows, known by that name today, but then it was a wilderness. They cleared land and made a home, and had plenty of bear and deer meat diet. They also had wild turkey and smaller game. Mr. George reared a family of eleven children, three sons and eight daughters. All grew to be men and women. They all married and reared large families and never had a doctoi to see or treat any of the family. Doctors were few and far between in those times. Castor oil, turpentine and catnip tea filled the bill. The names of his three sons are: Col. William, born August 18, 1801, died in his seventy-sixth year. His wife was Ruth Conner George, daughter of John Conner. She was horn May 3, 1803, and was of Scotch-Irish descent. She died at the age of ninety-two years. She was married October 5, 1831. To this union were born five boys and one daughter. John George also lived in Grassy Meadows. He was killed by a horse at the age of sixty-five years. He died in the sixties. His wife was Margaret Miller, of Summers county. To this union three boys and six daughters were born, but only two of this family are now living. Thoms Lewis George lived his lifetime in Grassy Meadows. He died at the age of eighty-five years. His wife was Sarah Vinceht, also of Greenbrier county. To this union were horn two boys and three daughters. Two of this family are still liv-ing, John F. George, of Huntington, W. Va., and Mrs. James Alderson, of near Hinton, Summers county. West Virginia. The daughters: Jane, wife of Enos Huffman. They reared a family of six boys and three daughters and one of this familv onlv still living, Mrs. Fannie Hunt. Sally married John Gwinn. To this union were born ten children. They lived in Summers county, West Virginia. Malinda, wife of Andrew Boggess, of Fayette county, West Virginia, reared a large family. Betsie Frazier, wife of Joseph Frazier, lived in Ohio. Polly, wife of Peter Shaver, lived in Ohio. Catherine Sumner lived in Calhoun county. in the northern part of West Virginia. She reared one daughter. She married John Mann and lived in Missouri. There was one other daughter also. Henry Hunter George, son of Col. William George, born March 21, 1848, married Margaret Victoria Jarrett, April 2, 1870. She was the daughter of James Jarrett IV, high sheriff for two terms of Greenbrier county, of French Hugenot stock. (See sketch of the Jarretts). To this union were born: Elizabeth Ruth George, February 9, 1872, and now the wife of Rev. H. A. Murrill. (See sketch). James Aaron, born October 2, 1873, married Lucy A. Handley in 1895 and lives in Raders Valley. They have seven children. Henry Ernest George, born March 12, i880. On June 1, 1916, he married Miss June Livesay. Margaret Jarrett George, wife of Jesse Hutchinson, born August 9, 1890, married November 28, 1911, and lives near Lewisburg on a part of the old George home. They have two children. Henry Hunter George is known as having been a successful farmer and stock raiser during all the years of his active life. For thirty years he lived on the large farm now operated by Rev. H. A. Murrill and others, having moved to his present place in 1910. This house was built 107 years ago by his grandfather on his mother's side. Mr. and Mrs. George still have the houyancy of youth and are highly regarded as very useful citizens of the community in which they live. 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 13:20:25 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <381000ed.252798d9@aol.com> Subject: BIO: Samuel Windfield HINKLE, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 163-165 SAMUEL WINDFIELD HINKLE. The first settlement made in this county by the Hinkles was near Frankford. They were from Germany. Samuel Hinkle, the grandfather of S. W. Hinkle, president of the county court, was first to come. He married Mary M. Knight and by her had three children: Andrew A., James K., and Maggie, who married 'Squire John C. Patterson, now living near Frankford. at the age of eighty-two years. He was a member of the county court for eighteen years. They have one child, Mrs. Rose Shirkey. Samuel Hinkle's son, James Hinkle, born February 3, 1832, near Frankford, died at his home at Unus, April 18, 1883, aged fifty-one years. He was reared on a farm, was a member of the Meth-odist Church South and a citizen of the county of recognized ability and worth. He served as a Confederate soldier four years in General Lee's army, being a member of Lieut. S. W. N. Feamster's command. During that time he had several very narrow escapes. The exposure of the war caused lung trouble, from which he suffered greatly and for several long years before he died. On the thirteenth of October, 1853, James Hinkle married Susan M. Anderson, born November 17, 1834, near Lewisburg. She died, December 7, 1915, aged eighty-one years, in this county. Their children were Mrs. David Rader, of Kansas City, Mo.; S. W., W. E., H. W., J. C., and R. E., farmers and stock raisers of Greenbrier county. Peter C., Andrew A., and Rebecca Greene died several years ago. Miss Susan M. Hinkle was a member of the M. E. Church South. She was a devout Christian and a very useful woman. Samuel Windfield was born December 29, 1856. He owns and cultivates a large farm near Unus, which, by incessant labor, was reclaimed from the wilderness and made a beautiful one years ago. He has been a successful agriculturist. He spent four years in Missouri and other parts of the West farming and cattle buying, and with a common school education to commence with, has become a prominent and well-to-do citizen of the county. He was elected a member of the county court in 1912 and made presiding judge by that elected body in 1914. Mr. Hinkle has been married twice. His first wife was Miss Mattie W. Marshall, of Charlottesville, Va. She lived but a short while. In 1892 he then married Bertha M. Shirkey, of Botetourt county, Virginia. One daughter, Mattie Greene Hinkle, born April 16, 1893, was the fruit of this union. The Shirkey family are of Irish descent. They were Protestants, being Presbyterians. Because of persecution, the ancestors of the Greenbrier family emigrated to America in early times and settled on the Samuel McClung farm near Sunlight, now one of the most productive farms in the county. 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 13:25:39 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <10188bec.25279a13@aol.com> Subject: BIO: John GEORGE, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 165-166 DESCENDANTS OF JOHN GEORGE. Powhatan A. George, the well known druggist of Ronceverte, is a son of John A. George and grandson of John George, who was born in the Blue Sulphur district April 19, 1803, and died May 27, 185-, killed by a vicious horse. His wife was Margaret Miller. She was born in Summers county, March 28, 1811. She died May 6, 1862. John A. George was born September 9, 1842, and owned a large farm in the Blue Sulphur district. He married Elizabeth B. Miller, of Sumners county, May 26, 1868, and to them were born eleven children Norma C., April 4, 1869; Maude V., January 10, 1871; Powhatan A., December 14, 1872; Bertha M., December 27, 1874; Clarence T., January 8, 1877; Arthur H., December i8, 1878; John G., August31, i88i; Homer Houston, March 29, 1883; Clarice E., December 31, 1884; Dorothy M., February, 1887; Helen, July 14, 1889. John George served in the war between the States in Company B, Twenty-sixth Virginia battalion, Edgar's bridage, Confederate service. He served from 1862 until the end of the war. He was in the battles of Fayetteville, New Market, Cold Harbor, Thorofare Gap, Winchester, Cedar Creek, and other minor en-gagements. The wife of Mr. George was born in Green Sulphur district, Summers county, January 2, 1850. She was a daughter of A. Alexander and Eliza (Hickman) Miller. Her father was born in Summers county, January 7, 1818, and her mother in Monroe county, May 18, 1821. She died November 9, 1866. Powhatan A. George remained with his parents until twenty-one years old, and he then took a course in pharmacy at Ada, Ohio, receiving his degree of Ph. G. in 1896. In the year following he located in Ronceverte and at first clerked in the drug store for H. B. Moore. In 1900, he purchased-a half interest in the store with G. A. Miller. Under his own management and chief ownership, he has done an extensive business since that time. Mr. George is also identified with other large interests in Ronceverte. He is vice-president of the First National Bank of Ronceverte and is also a director in the Ronceverte Lumber Company. June 23, 1904, Mr. George married Miss Ethel Nickel, daughter of C. C. Nickel and Rose Bud Nickel, Nickells Mill, Monroe county. One child is the fruit of this union. Charles Alexander George, born February 15, 1911. Sandy Spradling SSpradling@AOL.com State Contact for WV GenExchange http://www.genexchange.com/wv/index.cfm ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 16:37:46 -0400 From: Bridgette Osz To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <37F66D1A.8857BB3B@eohio.net> Subject: Della Moats-obit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Barbour Democrat Thursday February 19, 1920 Page 1 Della Moats-- On Monday evening, February 9th the death Angle visited the home of Arthur Moats in North Philippi and took away his daughter Della Moats. Della was 18 years, 5 months, and 2 days old and was loved by all. The writer has known her for nine years and has always found her a true and faithful girl. Della will be missed by all her neighbors, as she was loved by all and was always willing to help any of them during sickness or in need. She was a member of the eighth grade class of the Public schools, and will be missed by the members of her class and her teacher. Della will be missed by her classmates and friends, but no one but those who have lost a daughter or a sister will know how she is missed at home. Altho her friends and relatives will mourn for her, we should realize that it will be only a short time until we see her smiling face again in the world with our heavenly Father, where there will be so sorrow or tears. A Neighbor ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 16:52:28 -0400 From: Bridgette Osz To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <37F6708C.3D845F06@eohio.net> Subject: Mrs. Harry Nestor Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Barbour Democrat Thursday February 19, 1920 Page 1 Mrs. Harry Nestor-- On every hand sorrow is expressed at the passing of Mrs. Harry Nestor, of this place. She lived but a week after being attacked by influenza which was followed by pneumonia, her death occurring on Sunday night, at the home of her father, Wesley Bennett on Walnut Street. The deceased was 20 years old, and married at the age of 17 years. A short time after the marriage her husband was called to the war and was a member of the 313th Field Artillery doing valiant service in France. After his return, they began house keeping on High Street, and with their little boy formed a most happy family. Mrs. Nestor had scores of friends not only in Philippi but elsewhere. Her patient waiting with her child, for the return of her husband from France had drawn everyone to her. Even in those long dreary days of anxiety, she always had a smile for everyone. She was a real Christian, a member of the U. B. Church and active in Christian work. Her life was short, has been a real blessing to all who knew her. Her husband and little son, her parents and all near relatives, have unreserved sympathy in their trying bereavement. ______________________________X-Message: #6 Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 18:36:02 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: Subject: BIO: Conrad SYME, Greenbrier County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 166-171 CONRAD SYME. Conrad Hunt Syme, the present corporation counsel for the District of Columbia, is a native of Lewisburg, Greenbrier county, West Virginia. He is descended from an ancestry whose intellects enriched the history and helped to shape and control for long years the sentiment and policy of this country. He is a sixth lineal descendant of Col. John Syme and Sarah Winston, his wife, who lived at Studleigh, Hanover county, Virginia. Col. John Syme, of Studleigh, came to Virginia from Scotland. He held a royal commission and was a member of the House of Burgesses in 1722. He died in 1731, leaving his widow, Sarah Winston Syme, and one son, named after his father, and who was afterward known as Col. John Syme the II. Sarah Winston was the daughter of Isaac Winston, of Yorkshire, England. Her sister, Lucy Winston, married William Cole, and was the grandmother of Dorothy Payne Todd, who married President Madison and who is familiarlv known as Dolly Madison. The Winstons, as a family, were noted for their brilliant talents. Sarah Winston had the distinction of having two sons in the House of Burgesses at the same time-Col. John Syme II., the son of her first husband, and Patrick Henry, her son by a later marriage with John Henry. Col. John Syme married Mildred Meriwether, daughter of Nicholas and Mildred Meriwether, of Rocky Mills, Hanover county, Virginia. He was a member of the Virginia Assembly from 1752 to 1755, a member of the Privy Council in 1759, and a delegate to the Pirst Virginia Convention from Hanover county in 1776. He was captured by the British Ceneral Tarlton, at the house of Dr. Walker. He was so unprepossessing in appearance that Tarlton is said to have exclaimed when he saw him, "Angels and ministers of grace, defend us. Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned?" Col. John Syme and Mildred Meriwether had a number of children, one of whom, and the only son, was Nicholas Syme, who marrried Jane Johnson, daughter of Col. William Johnson. Their son, Dr. William Henry Syme, was the first member of the family to live in Greenbrier county. Dr. Syme was botn in Hanover county, Virginia, September 5, 1808. After receiving a thorough training in the primary educational branches he matriculated at William and Mary College, the oldest, and at the same time, the most distinguished school of the State, and graduated with high bonors. He then took up the study of law, attended the celebrated school of Chancellor Tucker, at Winchester, Va., and was admit-ted to the bar. He went to Lewisburg, Va. (now West Virginia), to enter the practice of his profession. Lewisburg, at that time and for many years thereafter, was one of the places at which the Court of Appeals of Virginia held its sessions. Before entering actively into the practice of law he fell in love at first sight with Anne Mays, the beautiful daughter of John Mays, of Greenbrier county. It is related that she consented to marry him upon the condition that he should abandon the practice of law and become a physician. To this condition he assented and they were married on October 4, 1832, and she accompanied him to Lexington, Ky., where he entered the Transylvania University, from which, in due course, he graduated, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He returnd to Lewisburg, where he practiced his profession until his death, January 15, 1875. Ten children were born to them, and all were reared in Lewisburg: Jane Rebecca died in infancy; Willianna died in 1850; Richard Johnson, the eldest son, married Miss Burgess, of Winchester, Va.; Samuel Augustus married Mary Maxwell, daughter of Conrad Hanse Hunt, of Fredericksburg, Va.; William Henry died in 1861; Chapman Johnson married Miss Julia Russell, of Petersburg; John Nesmith married Christian, daughter of Conrad Hanse Hunt, of Fredericksburg, Va.; James Nesmith and Alexander Kossuth Syme never married; Sue C. Syme, another daughter, married Oliver P Sydenstricker, of Lewisburg. Although Dr. Syme devoted himself to the practice of his profession with assiduity and great success and became the leading physician in that part of the country. Yet his training as a lawyer and the bent given to his mind by his academic studies while at college broadened him far beyond the line of his chosen profession. He was not intellectually content in the practice of medicine. He continued his classical studies during the whole of his life. He was as familiar with the works of Plato and Aristotle, and Horace and Virgil in their native tongues, as he was with Bacon and Shakespeare, Dryden and Goldsmith. He was a profound student of history, and Caesar and Tacitus, Hume and Gibbon and Macaulay were his constant intellectual companions. For some time he ed-ited The Statesman, a weekly newspaper published at Lewisburg, whose editorial columns he enriched with classical references and analogy. He was a finished orator and a convincing public speaker, and took active part in public affairs. At the beginning of the Civil war he offered his services to the Governor of Virginia, but being at that time crippled with rheumatic gout, which afterwards confined him to his bed for fifteen years, he was unable to actively participate in the conflict. He was appointed provost marshal, with the rank of captain, Confederate States of America, and performed the duties of this position during the war. He was a man loved, respected and admired by all who knew him, and when he died the citizens of Greenbrier assembled in public meeting at the court house and passed resolutions expressive of their appreciation of his character and their regret at his loss. Samuel Augustus Maverick Syme, the second son of Dr. Wilham Henry Syme, and the father of Conrad Hunt Syme, was born in Lewisburg, W. Va., April 8, 1838. He was educated at the Lewisburg Academy under Custer and other noted teachers, and shortly before the Civil war went to Indiana to attend college. Upon the outbreak of the war he went to Richmond, Va., where he volunteered in the Richmond Blues, commanded by Capt. Jennings Wise, and was with them during the West Virginia campaign in the early days of the war. He afterwards served under Generals Floyd and Early until the close of the war, when he returned to Lewisburg. After serving some time as a civil engineer on the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad, he entered the merchandising business in Lewisburg. He was married to Mary Maxwell Hunt on December 13, 1866, and five children were born to them: Conrad Hunt Syme, Dr. William Henry Syme, Eliza Hunt and Jane Grey, all of Washington, D. C., and Mary Maxwell, who married the Rev. Henry Waddell Pratt, and who now resides at Abbeville, S. C. Samuel A. M. Syme continued in the merchandising business until about 1878, when he went to California and engaged with the California Street Railway System, which had just installed the first cable line in use in the United States. He returned from California in 1886 and accepted a position in the Government service in Washington, where he has since resided. Mary Maxwell Syme, wife of Samuel A. M. Syme, was one of the most respected, admired and beloved women who ever lived in Greenbrier county. Her father, who was one of the most prominent men in Fredericksburg, Va., had given her the advantage of a very liberal education. She was bright and witty in conversation, gifted in repartee, and of the most charitable and benevolent na-ture. The poor and needy and the sick and oppressed found in her a constant and devoted friend. During the war her ardent Southern sympathies kept in constant touch with the leaders of the Confederate army in Missouri, where she then resided, and she worked for the cause of the South with unceasing devotion, and often incurred personal danger. Her whole life was one of un-selfish devotion, not only to her own family, but to many others in the community in which she lived. She died in Washington, D. C., on the fourteenth of March, 1910, where she had made her home since 1883. Conrad Hunt Syme was horn in Lewisburg, W. Va., January 13, 1868. He attended school at the old Lewisburg Academy and at the Lewisburg graded school until the family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1883. He graduated from the Washington High School in 1887 and immediately entered for the law course at Georgetown University. In 1888 he was appointed private secretary to United States Senator Charles J. Faulkner, occupying this position until 1897. He was admitted to the bar in West Virginia in 1893 and in the District of Columbia in 1894. During the time he was private secretary to Senator Faulkner he took an active part in West Virginia politics. He was assistant secretary to the State Democratic Committee in 1892, and also to the Democratic Congressional Committee in 1896. He spoke frequently on the stump in West Virginia and elsewhere in political campaigns from 1890 to 1896. He was appointed delegate from the District of Columbia to the Atlanta Exposition in 1895 and was a delegate to the West Virginia State Convention in 1896. In the campaign of 1912 he was active in behalf of the candidacy of Woodrow Wilson for President, and in 1916 he made a speaking tour, at the request of the Democratic National Committee, in West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware in behalf of his re-election to the Presidency. In 1897 he entered actively into the practice of law in Washington, D. C., and secured a lucrative practice. He has been a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1900. In 1900 he, together with Senator Faulkner, was employed in the contest over the will of Baroness Amoss, and in 1901 he went to Europe and took testimony in this case at Rome, Luzerne, Heidelberg, Hamburg and Berlin, and afterwards visited Paris and London. In 1902 he was employed as one of the counsel for the defendants in the celebrated postoffice fraud cases. In 1905 he was employed to defend the will of Ellen M. Colton, widow of General Colton, of California, one of the builders of the Union Pacific railroad, and this employment carried him to California. In 1913, at the solicitation of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, he became Corporation Counsel of the District of Columbia and Ceneral Counsel of the Public Utilities Commission of the District of Columbia, which position he now occupies and where he has represented the District of Columbia in the most im-portant litigation in all of the courts with much success. This position corresponds with that of the attorney general in the States and carries with it the responsibility for all legal matters pertaining to the capital of the Nation. He is a charter member of the University Club, of Washington, D. C., and a member of the National Press Club, and of the City Club, of New York. In 1896 he was married, at Harrodsburg, Ky., to Lavinia B. Forsythe, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. M. L. Forsythe. 'Miss Forsythe, at the time of her marriage, was one of the belles of the blue grass region and her family was among the first settlers of Kentucky, her ancestors having gone there from Virginia many years before the Revolutionary war. Two sons were born to them-Leander Dunbar Syme, born on January 8, 1898, and Samuel Augustus Syme, born on February 5, 1900. The elder son, having graduated at the Central High School in Washington, D. C., received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, on November 10, 1916, and entered this institution on June 14, 1917, as a cadet. The younger son, having attended three years at the Central High School in Washington, D. C., entered the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington, Va., as a cadet, on September 5, 1917, both boys preparing themselves as rapidly as possible to take part in the existing war with Germany. Sandy Spradling SSpradling@AOL.com State Contact for WV GenExchange http://www.genexchange.com/wv/index.cfm ______________________________X-Message: #7 Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 18:43:02 EDT From: SSpradling@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <9c5920a1.2527e476@aol.com> Subject: BIO: Johnston Ewing 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. 171-173 JOHNSTON EWING BELL. Among those more prominent in commercial life in Lewisburg, mention should be made of J. E. Bell, who did a general business here from 1845 to 1898. He was a man of integrity, highly regarded for his honesty and greatly beloved because of his sterling character. J. E. Bell was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, December 16, 1816. He was a son of Joseph and Mary Nelson Bell, who lived near Goshen. In 1831 he came to Lewisburg in pursuit of an education, attending school in the old academy and boarding with his sister, Mrs. Dickinson, who lived about two miles north of town. His business career was commenced in Mulboro, Virginia, where he kept store. In 1845, he came to Lewisburg and, in company with William H. Montgomery, opened a store where the Lewisburg Drug Store is now, under the name of Bell & Montgomery. In 1858, Mr. Bell erected the store now owned and occupied by his son, E. L. Bell, and continued the business very successfully until death claimed its reward in 1898. John Withrow and Thomas Sydenstricker were members of the firm at one time, and they were succeeded by Bell & Bright. Mr. Bell himself carried on the business fifty-three years. Mr. Bell's record in church life was also a remarkable one. From the time of his marriage in i8~, he was connected with the Presbyterian church of Lewisburg. He was elected deacon first and was treasurer for many years. Following came his election as elder. It was said that Mr. Bell, who loved his family dearly, loved the prosperity of Zion more, if that was possible, and that he often paid the pastor money due on his salary when the treasury was empty. He was superintendent of the Sabbath school very many years, a position that has now been held by E. L. Bell during the past twenty-five years. He was teacher of a Bible class at Ft. Spring a long time. E. L. Bell has given attention to the needs of missionary work in the county jail with marked success during the past three years. Attention to strangers, while visiting Lewisburg, by the elder Bell during his long life of church work never slackened, and that work, too, was attended with some marked results. During the Civil war J. E. Bell was agent of Greenbrier county for the supply of cotton cloth and salt to the Confederate soldiers' families. He long held the title of captain of the Home Guards. In 1844, J. E. Bell married Miss Frances Arbuckle, from which union one son, Frank J. Bell, now living in Richlands, was born. He is a prosperous farmer and also a well known church official. Mr. Bell's second wife was Miss Sarah A. Wayt, daughter of John Wayt, of Augusta county, Virginia. She died in 1869, when E. L. Bell was only four years old. Their children were: (I) Allie, who died in 1884; (2) Janie, who died when nine years old; (3) Mattie, now the wife of John 0. Handley; (4) Edwin L., who was born November 30, 1864. His third wife was Mrs. Lucy Guy, of Staunton, Va. No issue. She died in 1899. E. L. Bell has followed mercantile pursuits all his life. He took charge of the store after his father's death, since which time he has successfully carried on the business, and to the credit of the business communitv. Like it was with his father, so has it been in his case also, first the church, then business as its accessory, and in both relations the man has been duly honored with success in life's work. On December 26, 1895, Edwin L. Bell married Elizabeth Massie, of Albemarle county, Virginia. She was a daughter of Prof. Rodes Massie, secretary to General Lee and professor at one time in the Washington and Lee University, Virginia. To this union were born four children: (1) Edwin Massie, now a student at Washington and Lee University, with intentions of entering missionary work in some foreign field of labor after graduation; (2) Margaret Wayt: (3) Elizabeth Rodes; (4) Johnston Ewing. Sandy Spradling SSpradling@AOL.com State Contact for WV GenExchange http://www.genexchange.com/wv/index.cfm