WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 153 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: STEPHEN G. JACKSON, Harrison [Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000709103900.00c36100@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: STEPHEN G. JACKSON, Harrison 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. 455 Harrison STEPHEN G. JACKSON. In the midst of a busy career whose substantial achievements promised greater fulfill- ment Stephen G. Jackson died January 3, 1922. His asso- ciates and friends knew and appreciated his keen, logical mind and sound judgment, enthusiasm for the law and a ready capacity for hard work, and recognized in him an able member of the Clarksburg bar, who had built up in thirteen years a professional reputation extending over Harrison County. Thoroughly trained in the highest schools of his calling, he had justified his years of study by success in practice, and he commanded respect as an honorable lawyer of the bar and the public alike. Stephen G. Jackson bore a name well known in American history both in public and military life. The founder of the family in New England in Colonial days was Robert Jackson, who was born in England, of Scotch-Irish an- cestry, and took a prominent part in affairs relating to the early settlements. Stephen G. Jackson was born at Jane- lew, Lewis County, West Virginia, March 6, 1884, a son of John G. and Martha J. (Bassel) Jackson, the former of whom was born in Lewis County, March 7, 1857, a. son of James William Jackson, of Harrison County, Virginia, and Sallie Ann Goodloe, of Albemarle, West Virginia, and a grandson of Stephen Pomeroy Jackson, also born in Harrison County, Virginia. The next direct ancestor, Stephen Jackson, was born in New Jersey, a son of Edward Jackson, also born in New Jersey, and a son of Joseph Jackson, born on Long Island, a son of James Jackson, also born on Long Island, who was a son of John Jackson, of Long Island, son of Robert Jackson, the original set- tler. Of these ancestors both Edward and Stephen Jack- son, father and son, served in the Revolutionary war, and Stephen Jackson served also in the War of 1812. Both served as Indian scouts and both were wounded at the battle of Yorktown. They were pioneer settlers in what is now West Virginia, and the late Stephen G. Jackson owned the land on which they settled immediately after the Revolutionary war and bought in 1792. Stephen Jackson, the military hero, married Elizabeth Pomeroy, a member of one of the old New England fam- ilies that has been notable in its contributions to American citizenship of the highest order, an example of the present day being found in that distinguished statesman, Hon. Elihu Root. John G. Jackson, who is president of a bank at Jane- lew, West Virginia, has been a merchant and banter for many years and prominent in political affairs in Lewis County. At one time he was the democratic nominee for the State Senate and for other important offices. On ac- count of his temperance principles and pioneer advocacy of prohibition at a time when such opinions were new and startling, he was forced into leadership of the prohibition party in his section, and at one time was the prohibition candidate for governor. He married Miss Martha J. Bas- sel, who was born in Harrison County, January 19, 1856, and died March 15, 1908, leaving two sons: James Henry and Stephen G. She was a daughter of Henry Bassel, a brother of the late John Bassel, a prominent lawyer in West Virginia. Stephen G. Jackson, who was in the tenth generation from Robert Jackson, attended the local schools in his native place and prepared for the University of West Vir- ginia at Morgantown Academy. He entered the university in 1903, received his B. S. degree in 1907 and his LL. B. degree in 1908, and the same from Yale College in 1909. He immediately entered into practice at Clarksburg, in association with Edward G. Smith. In 1907 Mr. Jackson married Miss Jessie Moorhead, who is a daughter of William and Alice (John) Moorhead, of Morgantown, West Virginia. Their one daughter, Alice, is yet in school. Mr. Jackson was a member of the Methodist Protestant Church and of the Masonic fraternity, and kept an active interest in Sigma Chi and Phi Alpha Delta college fraternities of Yale and the University of West Virginia. In politics he was active as a democrat, but to the law he gave the fullest efforts and enthusiasm of his all too brief life. ______________________________ X-Message: #2 Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000 11:00:00 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000709103346.00c31650@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: PERRY BRADBURY BUXTON, Mason 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. 451 Mason PERRY BRADBURY BUXTON, now in his second elective term as Circuit Court clerk of Mason County, was for many years identified with the flour milling industry, and his experience has covered many points both in West Virginia and Ohio. He was born at Kygerville, Gallia County, Ohio, July 2, 1857. His father, Darius Verney Buxton, was born at Pomeroy, Ohio, in 1830, was a flour miller, and after 1870 conducted a mill in the Union District of Mason County, West Virginia, until his death in 1889. He served as a lieutenant in the Union army during the Civil war, was an active republican, and a member of the Swedenborgian Church. His wife, Sarah Samantha Bradbury, was born at Kygerville in 1833, and died at Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1914. Their children were: Electa Lodica, of Gallipolis, widow of Frank Miller; Perry Bradbury; Mary Agnes, wife of Ezekiel H. Burdette, a hardware merchant in Mason County; Charles, who was Circuit Court clerk of Mason County when he died July 29, 1913; and Horace Arthur, a farmer and merchant in Arbuckle District. Perry Bradbury Buxton was educated in the public schools of Kygerville and of Mason County. At the age of ten he began working in his father's mill, and before he was sixteen, during his father's illness, he took charge of the mill. Leaving home at the age of twenty-two, he had a long and varied service as a manager or superinten- dent of various mills, spending one year at Wilkesville, Ohio, six months at Gallipolis, one year at Point Pleasant, twenty- seven months at Cottageville in Jackson County and twenty months at Silverton in the same county and six months at Sandyville in Jackson County. Leaving West Virginia, Mr. Buxton had an experience working at the carpenter's trade at Corsicana, Texas, until 1889, when he returned home on the death of his father and took charge of the old mill in Union District, operating it until 1897. He was then in partnership operating a flour mill at Buffalo, West Virginia, seven years, for six months was part owner of a mill at Leon, and in 1905 returned to Point Pleasant and became manager of the mill of the Point Pleasant Grocery Company. He continued in this capacity until he resigned December 31, 1913, but ia still a director of the Point Pleasant Grocery Company. In the meantime, on August 15, 1913, he was sworn in as successor to his deceased brother Charles as Circuit Court clerk, and in November, 1914, was elected for a full term in that office and in 1920 re-elected for a second six-year term. Mr. Buxton is a republican, has served as a member of the Point Pleasant Board of Education, is a past master of Kanawha Valley Lodge No. 36, F. and A. M.,. past grand of Point Pleasant Lodge No. 33, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a member of Fidelity Encampment at Point Pleasant, and Point Pleasant Council No. 146, Junior Order United American Mechanics. In 1888, in Jackson County, West Virginia, he married Miss Bessie E. McGlochlin, daughter of John and Nancy McGlochlin. Mr. and Mrs. Buxton have three children: Frederick H., born April 5, 1889, owner of an automobile repair and sales shop in Point Pleasant, was in the army service nine months as an automobile repair mechanic, being located at Richmond, Virginia, Georgia, Camp Funston, Kansas. Walter S., born October 23, 1891, is bookkeeper in the state tax commissioner's office at Charleston. Helen Virginia, born in 1902, is a graduate of the Point Pleasant High School and assists her father in his official duties. ______________________________ X-Message: #3 Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000 11:00:00 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000709103349.00c3c800@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: CHARLES K. BLACKWOOD, Mason 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. 451-452 Mason CHARLES K. BLACKWOOD, a representative business man and progressive citizen of Point Pleasant, Mason County, is here president and treasurer of the Western Rivers Com- pany and secretary of the Point Pleasant Grocery Company, of which latter corporation adequate record is given in the personal sketch of its president, P. L. Evans, on other pages of this volume. The Western Rivers Company was founded in 1913, the interested principals in the organization thereof having been C. K. Blackwood, Homer Smith, J. S. Spencer, M. T. Epling and C. R. McCulloch. Mr. Blackwood became presi- dent and treasurer of the company and Mr. Epiing, its general manager. The original capital stock of $20,000 has been increased to $100,000. The company instituted opera- tions as a river-dredging concern, and with its dipper dredges did Important channel work for the United States Government. Derrick boats and other modern facilities were later added to the equipment, and the business of the company now includes general contracting in river im- provements, including rip-rap stone work, removing of ob- stacles to navigation, laying of gas mains across rivers, placing intake pipes for water works, erecting filtering cribs, etc. In 1920 the company instituted the conversion of its plant at Point Pleasant into a sand and gravel collect- ing outfit, and this department of the enterprise has since received major attention. On the 1st of January, 1922, J. F. McCullouch became general manager of the company, after purchasing the interest of his predecessor, Mr. Ep- iing. The company gives employment to an average corps of twenty-five men, operates a suction sand-digger of the best modern type, two derrick boats, one steamboat and six barges, all used exclusively in sand and gravel work. The sand and gravel thus removed by the company are utilized largely in the improving of roads and for commercial pur- poses. The company has facilities for the handling of 200,- 000 tons of sand and gravel annually, and the material ex- cavated is derived from virtually illimitable sources, so that its commercial value is certain to be appreciated for gener- ations to come. The material is nearly all granite, with some quartz, results from glacial action, while in the hills are to be found great deposits of the finest type of sand- stone. The rivers of this section produce in the ratio of two parts of gravel and one of sand-the most desirable combination for concrete work. Point Pleasant, at the month of the Kanawha River, which here debouches into the Ohio River, seems to supply the ideal combination for such purposes, localities nearer the head of the Ohio River lacking the requisite proportion of sand. Mr. Blackwood was born in Kanawha County, this state, on the llth of December, 1870. His grandfather, William Blackwood, came from Warren County, Virginia, to what is now Cabell County, West Virginia, in 1854, and here passed the remainder of his life. In that county his son William R. married Miss Henrietta Shelton, and in 1866 the young couple removed to Kanawha County, William R. Blackwood having previously served as a soldier of the Con- federacy in the Civil war and having been captured by the enemy in 1864. at Winchester, was held a prisoner until the close of the war. He became one of the success- ful farmers of Kanawha County, where his old home- stead is now owned by the Government and is the site of the wonderful industrial town of Nitro, there established for industrial production in connection with the nation's participation in the World war. William R. Blackwood died in 1897, and his widow remained on the old homestead un- til her death in 1917, at the age of seventy-five years. Their son Charles K., of this sketch, was born and reared on this old homestead, and his youthful education included a two years' course in a college at Barboursville. As a young man Charles K. Blackwood taught school two years, and for seven years thereafter he was employed in the office of a contracting company. He has been a resi- dent of Mason County for the past twenty-five years, was one of the organizers of the Point Pleasant Grocery Com- pany, of which he is still secretary, and to the affairs of which he gave his effective supervision for a period of ten years. He now centers his activities in his executive serv- ice as president and treasurer of the Western Rivers Com- pany. Mr. Blackwood is a stanch supporter of the principles of the democratic party, and was twice nominated by his party for representative in the House of Delegates of the State Legislature. He was for two terms a member of the Point Pleasant Board of Education, he is actively identi- fied with the Kiwanis Club in his home city, and here he and his wife are zealous communicants of Christ Church, Protestant Episcopal, he being a member of the vestry of this parish. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with the local Blue Lodge and Chapter, of the latter of which he is a past high priest, and at Point Pleas- ant also he is a past commander of Franklin Commandery No. 17, Knights Templars, his Mystic Shrine membership being in Beni-Kedem Temple in the City of Charleston. Mr. Blackwood wedded Miss Margaret L. Neale, daughter of the late E. L. Neale, who was a representative agricul- turist and stock-grower near Ben Lomond, Mason County. The early educational advantages of Mrs. Blackwood in- cluded those of the Lewisburg Female Seminary. Mr. and Mrs. Blackwood have two children: Neale. a member of the class of 1925 in the University of West Virginia, where he is taking an engineering course; and Attarah, who is at- tending the public schools of Point Pleasant. ______________________________ X-Message: #4 Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000 11:00:00 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000709103847.00c4e5e0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: WILLIAM POST, Upshur 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. 453 Upshur WILLIAM POST was born in Upshur County, and several years before reaching his majority was in business on a small scale as a stock shipper. He has had an active association with the agricultural, livestock and business interests of the county for over half a century. Mr. Post, who lives at Buckhannon and is president of the Traders National Bank of that city, was born Decem- ber 30, 1853, son of Isaac and Emily (Carper) Post. Isaac Post was born in Virginia, where his father settled on coming from Holland. After his marriage Isaac Post set- tled on a farm in Upshur County, and became one of the honored and highly respected citizens of that locality. He and his wife were active members Of the Methodist Epis- copal Church. They had four children: Ira C. Post, who lives in Harrison County and for a number of years has been regarded as one of the most progressive farmers and farm leaders in that part of the state; Virginia C., wife of Porter Maxwell; William; and Adam Post, of Upshur County. William Post grew up on a farm and acquired a com- mon school education. At the age of sixteen he made his first ventures as a cattle shipper, and from this early enter- prise he accumulated a capital of about five hundred dol- lars. In all the years since then he has kept in touch with the livestock industry, growing, feeding and shipping to the market, and has progressively increased his land holdings until he pays taxes on several of the good farms of Upshur County. With his growing business interests he became one of the organizers and a stockholder in the Traders National Bank of Buckhannon, and has been active presi- dent of that institution since its organization. Mr. Post and wife now spend their winters in Florida. They are active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Mrs. Post with the Eastern Star. In September, 1891, he married Miss Anna Hurst, who was born in Upshur County in August, 1871, and was educated in the public schools and the seminary. Her father, the late Maj. John L. Hurst, was a Union soldier who for bravery on the field of battle was promoted to major. He was several times wounded. After the war he served as county clerk. Major Hurst died during the influenza epidemic in 1917. Mr. and Mrs. Post have lived in Buckhannon most of the years since their marriage. They have two sons. Isaac H., a graduate of Wesleyan College at Buckhannon, is a student of law at Harvard University. John H., who graduated from Wesleyan College, was a flying instructor at Mather Field in California during the war, and was rated as a very proficient flyer. He is an educated farmer, having taken advanced courses in agriculture at Cornell University, and is a thirty-second degree Mason. ______________________________ X-Message: #5 Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000 11:30:00 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000709102731.00c2e920@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: FRANK CAMPBELL DUNHAM, Berkeley 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. 429-430 FRANK CAMPBELL DUNHAM. One of the valued business men and highly respected citizens of Berkeley Springs, whose energies have resulted in the concentration of an important business at that point and whose name men tioned in connection with an enterprise is sufficient guaranty of its solidity is Frank Campbell Dunham, office manager for the E. F. Millard Sand Works. During his residence at Berkeley Springs he has impressed his personality upon the people of this thriving community and has been identi- fied with a number of movements which have contributed tc> the general progress and welfare. Mr. Dunham was born at Darkesville, Berkeley County, West Virginia, a son of Washington Taylor and Mary Kester (Pine) Dunham. Washington Taylor Dunham was born at Darkesville, and as a young man learned the trade of tailor. This was the period before the day of large factories, and Mr. Dunham's grandfather, Francis Campbell Dunham, established himself in business as a tailor at Darkesville, where the farmers from all over the surrounding country would bring him their homespun cloth, from which he would make the clothes for all the men in the family, including the slaves. Both he and his wife, who bore the maiden name of Henrietta Crout, lived to advanced age and were highly esteemed in their community, where they performed many deeds of kindness. Washington Taylor Dunham assisted his father in his little shop at Darkesville, but was more inclined toward the shoemaker's trade, to which he served an apprenticeship prior to the invention of modern shoemaking machinery. Shoes were then all hand-made, the soles being attached to the upper by the means of wooden pegs, and all shoes, of course, were made to order. Mr. Dunham was a master of his trade, which he followed for many years, and lived to see shoemaking methods revolutionized and the skill of machinery succeed the skill of the old-time artisan, whose occupation, like Hamlet's, is gone. He is still a resident of Darkesville, where everyone holds him in good will and esteem, as they do also his worthy wife, Mary Kester (Pine) Dunham, who was born near Gerrardstown, Berkeley County, a daughter of John Pine. Mr. and Mrs. Dunham reared five children, namely: Daisy, Claude F., Frank Campbell, J. Pine and Virginia M. Frank C. Dunham attended the public schools of Darkes- ville, and upon completing his education began to work in the Crawford Woolen Mills of Martinsburg, remaining in the carding department for a period of nine years. He was then advanced to the post of shipping clerk for the same concern, but after three years resigned to embark in busi- ness on his own account at the Baker Quarry, where he remained in the mercantile trade three years. Coming then to Berkeley Springs, he established a general merchandise store at this place and conducted it successfully for five years, but eventually disposed of his interests therein to accept the post of office manager for the E. F. Millard Sand Works, a position which he still retains. He has con- tinued to contribute materially to the success of this con- cern, and his solid business connections are of such a nature as to materially assist him in the transaction of his every- day affairs. Mr. Dunham was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Millard, who was born in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Edward F. and Sarah J. (Crook) Millard, a sketch of whose careers appears elsewhere in this volume. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Dunham: Everett Millard, Dorothy Virginia, Anna Jane, Frank Taylor and Robert L., of whom Dorothy Virginia died at the age of six years, the others all residing with their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Dunham are members of the United Brethren Church, and Mr. Dunham belongs to Rev. George P. Hott's Bible Class. As a fraternalist he holds member- ship in Washington Lodge No. 1, Knights of Pythias, and as a skilled musician is the leader of the Berkeley Springs Brass Band. His acquaintance is wide and his friendships numerous.