WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 148 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: REV. MOORE MCNEILL, Ritchie C [Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000706213048.00c421b0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: REV. MOORE MCNEILL, Ritchie Co. WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 437-438 Ritchie REV. MOORE MCNEILL has been justly called the best loved man in Ritchie County. Gifted with many talents, blessed with long life, he has used both as a constant opportunity for doing good. His good deeds will follow him while the memory of lesser but perhaps more prosperous men fades. He was born in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, No- vember 9, 1830, in early life took up the ministry, and at this writing is in his ninety-second year. He is widely and universally known and respected, and when he lays down the cross to wear the crown of glory no one in the community will be more sadly missed. The McNeills are of a sturdy Scotch-Irish lineage. In Scotland for several generations they were known as "dis- senters." About 1689 some of them removed from Scot- land to Ireland, and one or more of the family was repre- sented in the siege of Derry. Following that a part of the family settled in Wales. Thomas McNeill, the direct ancestor of Rev. Moore McNeill, was born in Wales in 1747, and was a small child when his parents immigrated to the American colonies, settling in Capan Valley of Frederick County, Virginia. There Thomas McNeill mar- ried Mrs. Mary (Hughes) Ireson, and in 1770 he moved from Franklin County to what is now Pocahontas County, West Virginia. He entered three hundred acres of land, which still remains in the possession of his descendants. Thomas McNeill gave service on the side of the Colonists in their struggle for independence. His son Jonathan married Miss Phoebe Moore. Her father, Moses Moore, was a romantic figure in Revolutionary times and in the Indian wars. He was three times captured and carried from his home on Swago across the Ohio River to the vicinity of Chillicothe, Ohio. Once he was compelled to endure the ordeal of running the gauntlet. Another captive preceding him was stabbed, bruised and hacked to pieces before reaching the end of the line. Moses Moore, therefore, decided that death was the least he could expect, and determined to sell his life dearly. He went down the line some distance and when a squaw struck him with a long-handled frying pan he wrenched it from her, knocked her down with his fist, and then striking right and left with the handle of the frying pan, he proved such a terror to his persecutors that many of the squaws ran away. The spectacle altogether pleased the Indians, who permitted this little diversion as an entertainment for their squaws, and they crowded round him praising him with the words "good soldier," and decided to spare his life. Afterwards he made his escape and returned home. The parents of Rev. Moore McNeill were William and Nancy (Griffey) McNeill. Nancy Griffey was a daughter of Jonathan Griffey, whose name in the records of Bath County, Virginia, where he married, is spelled Griffee. Jonathan Griffey was a native of Switzerland, was a fol- lower of Lafayette to the Colonies, a soldier until the close of the Revolution, and thereafter lived in Virginia. Jona- than Griffey was in the last battle of the war, the siege and surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. William McNeill and wife had the following children: Jonathan; James, a Confederate captain; Claibourne; Jane, who became the wife of John E. Adkisson; Elizabeth, who was married to Solomon Cochran; Agnes; and Reverend Moore. Rev. Moore McNeill has been a stanch republican since the organization of the party, and he cast his first vote for the whig candidate Zachary Taylor, though the family were strongly Southern in their sympathies. During the last month of the Civil war Governor Arthur I. Foreman of West Virginia commissioned him captain of a company of state troops to take the place of Captain Haller, who had been killed. Rev. Mr. Moore was licensed to preach in 1859. For ten years he was identified with the Methodist Protestant Church, and then transferred himself to the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which Conference he now belongs. His first appointment was at Kingwood, and other com- munities that recall with affection and gratitude his serv- ices as pastor were Mannington, Harrisville, Spencer and Dallas. Very appropriately one might quote from the words of a former history of Ritchie County: "He is one of the most widely known and beloved citizens of the county, having endeared himself to the hearts of the many by his comforting ministrations in times of sorrow and bereavement. Perhaps no other minister in the history of the county has married or buried a larger number of its citizens." Now, in his ninety-second year, he is spending the evening of his life at his country home "Locust Grove" near Smithville. He still takes a great interest in the affairs of the world and the people with whom his duties have brought him in contact. His singularly long life has been an expression of great devotion and consecration to the ideals of service upheld in the ministry of Christ. In the peaceful scenes of evening as in the laborious hours of life's noontide he has had the devoted companion- ship of his wife. Her maiden name was Jane Eliza Cald- well, a daughter of John and Jane (Poole) Caldwell, who were born in that portion of the old Augusta District of Virginia now Marshall County, West Virginia. The twelve children of Mr. and Mrs. McNeill were: Owen M.; Cloyd Tutt; Ida, wife of George W. Clammer, of Fort Collins, Colorado; E. Augusta, wife of Gus J. Shaffer, of King- wood; Minnie H., wife of Rev. A. L. Ireland, of the West Virginia Conference; Ellen H., Mrs. H. H. Cochran, of Clarksburg; Isa Pierpont, wife of Stanley J. Morrow, of Dallas, Texas; Alfreda, wife of Kenney P. Wright, of Washington D. C.; Burley S., who occupies the old home; William K., a farmer in Ritchie County; Frank C., of Smithville; and Otis, deceased. ______________________________ X-Message: #2 Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 21:35:58 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000706212835.00c42bd0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: CHARLES B. SMITH, McDowell Co. WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 445-446 CHARLES B. SMITH, the resourceful and popular general manager of the Elkhorn Coal & Coke Company and the Pall Run Collieries Company, with headquarters at May- beury, McDowell County, was born at Abbsvalley, Virginia, July 14. 1884. He is a scion of Scotch and Irish ancestry. and both his paternal and maternal forebears settled in Virginia in an early period. Mr. Smith is a son of John Marion and Margaret (Taylor) Smith, both natives of Vir- ginia, the father having been a merchant at Ahbsvalley and later having been for many years established in the whole- sale coal and feed business at Salem, that state. John M. Smith was a gallant young soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, as a member of thp Sixteenth Virginia In- fantry, recruited in Tazewell County. In battle he was shot through the breast, the bullet coming out of his back, but upon his recovery from this remarkable and severe in- jury he returned to his regiment, with which he served un- til the close of the war. The early education of Charles B. Smith was acquired in the public schools of Salem and Graham, Virginia, and in the high school at Graham, that state. He then entered the historic old University of Virginia, in which he was graduated in 1907, with the degree of Civil Engineer, For seven months thereafter he was an engineer on road-con- struction work in Cuba, and upon his return to the United States he entered professional service in the West Vir- ginia coal fields. For three months he was employed as an engineer for the Red Jacket Coal Company, and for eight years thereafter he was mining engineer for the Empire Coal & Coke Company. At the expiration of this period he assumed his present office, that of general manager of the Elkhorn Coal & Coke Company. He is known as an able executive, as a man of exceptional technical ability in his profession, and as the genial, whole-souled and consid- erate personality who gains and retains the high regard of those employed under his supervision. Mr. Smith is a man of fine physical powers, and is fond of out-door sports and recreation. He is a member of the Bluefield Country Club and is affiliated with the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks. His parents were mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and his wife is a member of the Presbyterian Church, in the faith of which she was reared. In 1915, at Glad Springs, Virginia, Mr. Smith wedded Miss Edna Bonham, daughter of Ballard M. and Emma (Crotty) Bonham, her father having been for many years engaged in the hotel business and being now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have two children: Charles B., Jr., and Margaret Taylor. ______________________________ X-Message: #3 Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 21:30:45 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000706213005.00c42590@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: MARSHALL COLLEGE, Cabell C. WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 441 MARSHALL COLLEGE, which is Huntington's largest institu- tion contributing to the reputation of that city as an educational center, is primarily a teachers' college, pre- paring students to teach and supervise, but a great many men and women have received a portion of their general education there in preparation for business or professional careers. The present institution is the outgrowth of Marshall Academy, established in 1837, shortly after the death of Chief Justice John Marshall, of the Supreme Court of the United States, in whose honor the school was named. It was organized as a private institution. In 1856 the work of the Academy was enlarged and reorganized, and the name changed to Marshall College. The Civil war greatly affected the fortunes of the school. So serious was the situation at its close that a number of leading citizens in this section of the new state of West Virginia succeeded in having the Legislature take it over as a state normal school; normal in name, but wholly academic in organization and in fact, and such it remained with varying fortune, save a little teaching of pedagogy, school management, etc., until 1897, when a practice school of one grade was organized; but the state refused to sup- port it, and, accordingly, this nucleus was abandoned after two years of unappreciated effort to develop the normal training feature, and the school continued as an academic institution as before. In January, 1902, the department of education was or- ganized, and a model or practice school for teachers was opened. This was the first step toward normal school work in the state, and the school has since then been officially known as Marshall College. The school was established on the site of the present eastern section of College Hall thirty-four years before the founding of the City of Huntington. None of the records of the school during the period of time it was an academy are preserved. During the time of the war they were lost or destroyed, and it has been impossible to bring together any reliable data concerning the early days. All reliable statistics with reference to Marshall College date from the year 1867. The president of Marshall College is Frederic R. Hamil- ton, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. The vice president and professor of literature is C. E. Haworth, a graduate of Colgate University. ______________________________ X-Message: #4 Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 21:32:28 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000706213154.00c3fdd0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: HARRY C. LINTON, Randolph Co. WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 430-431 HARRY C. LINTON, who maintains his residence and ex- ecutive headquarters in the City of Buckhannon, Upshur County, is superintendent of the Moore-Kappel Company, which is engaged in the manufacturing of lumber on Mid- dle Fork at Midvale, Randolph County, this being one of the important industrial concerns of this section of the state. Mr. Linton was born in Randolph County, on the 14th of January, 1883, and is a son of John and Mary (Shaw) Linton, the former of whom was born in the State of Pennsylvania, in 1855, and the latter of whom was born in Marion County, West Virginia, in 1859. John Linton has been consecutively identified with farm enterprise from the time of his marriage and is one of the substantial and honored citizens of Randolph County, his political allegiance being given to the republican party and he and his wife being active members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church. Of the four children the eldest is Hattie, who is the wife of Mond Davis; Floyd is employed in a factory at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Harry C., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; and Daisy is the widow of Robert Wakefield. Harry C. Linton gained his youthful education in the public schools and remained on the home farm until he had attained to his legal majority. He has gained broad and comprehensive knowledge of the lumber industry, and by his ability and effective service has risen to his pres- ent responsible position in connection therewith. He has applied himself vigorously to business, and thus has had neither time nor desire for political activity or public of- fice, though he accords loyal allegiance to the republican party. His wife is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. On the llth of September, 1905, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Linton and Miss Dail Koon, who was born in Upshur County, August 25, 1886, a daughter of J. K. P. and Sarah (Grim) Koon. Her father likewise was born in Upshur County, where his education included a course in a business college. He became one of the progressive exponents of agricultural and live-stock enterprise in his native county, where he owned and operated a large farm, and he was a bank stockholder and had other interests that marked him as one of the substantial men of the county. He was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was a stanch republican, and was one of the honored citizens of Upshur County at the time of his death, which occurred in 1906, his widow being still a resident of this county. They became the parents of eight children: Lela, Blaine, Maude, Dail, Goff, Stacy, Cataline and Harry. Mr. and Mrs. Linton have three children, whose names and respective dates of birth are here recorded: Mabel, November 27, 1912; Pauline, May 6, 1916; and Helen L., December 9, 1919. During the period of his active and constantly advanc- ing business career Mr. Linton has manifested a sense of loyal stewardship in civic affairs, and he takes lively in- terest in all that concerns the well being and progress of his home city and county, the while his fealty to his native state is marked by full appreciation of its mani- fold attractions and advantages. He and his wife have a wide circle of friends and are popular in the social activities of their home community. ______________________________ X-Message: #5 Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 21:33:13 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000706213231.00c27260@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: CHARLES E. VANCE, Hardy Co. WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 421-422 CHARLES E. VANCE is one of the prosperous and success- ful business men of Moorefield. He is an official in the Hardy County Bank, has achieved a real constructive triumph in redeeming one of the run down farms of Hardy County, and for many years has been in the service of the Union Tanning Company as woods foreman. He was born at Upper Tract, Pendleton County, West Virginia, August 17, 1876. His grandfather, Robert Vance, came to West Virginia from Mansfield, Illinois, where the Vance family was a large one. He came to West Virginia before the Civil war, and in Pendleton County married a Miss Harman, of a well known family of this state. He spent the rest of his life in Pendleton County. Benjamin C. Vance, father of Charles E., was born in Pendleton County, carefully educated himself, began teaching when a youth, and completed a record of fifty-two terms of school, teaching in Grant, Pendleton and Hardy counties before he retired. He is now living at Fisher in Hardy County at the age of sixty-eight. While living at Petersburg he served as a magistrate, and has been an active member of the United Brethren Church. Benjamin Vance married Susan R. Lough, daughter of Daniel Lough, a carpenter in Pendleton County, whose family came from Germany. Mrs. Susan Vance died at Petersburg in 1918. All her ten chil- dren are living: Charles E.; Myrtle, wife of Calvin C. Bensenhaver; Linnie, Mrs. Will Feaster; Bessie, who mar- ried John Shobe; Kenneth, of Petersburg; Elsie, wife of B. J. Roby, of Petersburg; Harman, who lives in Montana; Mary; Chloe, of Norfolk, Virginia; and Leola, wife of Clarence Emelright, of Winchester, Virginia. When Charles E. Vance was twelve years of age his pa- rents left Pendleton County and settled on a farm near Seymoursville in Grant County. In that locality he grew to manhood, attended school near Seymoursville, and ob- tained a part of his education under the direction of his father. At the age of sixteen he left school and for two years worked as a farm hand in Grant County, and for another two years was employed in the woolen mill at Keyser. He then took up farming for himself at Durgeon in Hardy County, and remained in that locality for nine years. He was farming on the shares, and when the owner of the farm died he had to change locations, and instead of resuming farming he accepted an opportunity to go to work for a tannery concern. His first employment was peeling bark and bossing the bark sheds, but subsequently he was put in charge as woods foreman, and that has been his active business responsibility for sixteen years, since 1906. His individual farming interests are located near Fisher in Hardy County. It is a grain farm, managed both exten- sively and intensively as a food producing proposition. His leading crops are corn and wheat, all of which are con- sumed on the ground, using the corn for feeding hogs for the market. Mr. Vance took possession of this land when it was reduced as a result of years of cropping to a minimum of productiveness. He tiled the land, enriched the soil by many successive crops of clover and manure, and out of the 225 acres he has 135 under cultivation. It is now recognized as one of the most productive tracts of land in the county. Its other equipment and improvements have been greatly added to by Mr. Vance, who has erected two barns, rebuilt the residence, put up a dairy and ice house, smoke house and cellar. Mr. Vance is a director and is vice president of the Hardy County Bank at Moorefield. In politics he is a republican, and at times has been a delegate to county conventions and once was a delegate for the Second District Congressional Convention. His only fraternity is the Modern Woodmen of America. During the great war he assisted in the sale of bonds, in drives for the Red Cross and other auxiliary war funds, and was a member of the County Council of Defense. In Oak Grove Church, near Fisher, Hardy County, October 9, 1898, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Vance and Miss Annie Bensenhaver. She is a daughter of George and Grace (Bobo) Bensenhaver, her father still living. Mrs. Vance was born on the farm where she is now living and where her father was a tenant farmer for a third of a cen- tury. She is the only child of her father, and was well educated in the public schools and holds a state certificate to teach, and spent several years in teaching before her mar- riage. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Vance are: Grace, wife of Alfred Hedrick and mother of a daughter, Juanita; Kenneth Vance, who looked after the farm for his father; while the younger children are Trixie, Robert, Loring, Coker, William and Esther.