WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 37 Today's Topics: #1 Mrs. Levi Johnson---Obit [Bridgette Osz ] #2 BIO: Ivan Davis, Kingwood, Preston [PTyler107@aol.com] #3 BIO:Thomas D. Craig, Preston Count [PTyler107@aol.com] #4 BIO:Howard M. Martin, Masontown, P [PTyler107@aol.com] ______________________________X-Message: #1 Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 23:16:42 -0500 From: Bridgette Osz To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <38A6302A.2180DBB8@eohio.net> Subject: Mrs. Levi Johnson---Obit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, copied this at Morgantown, Colson Hall, Believe Robert Johnson mentioned is same Robert we connect to.. let me know what you think Thursday May 13, 1920 Philippi Republican Meadowville, WV May 10-- It was a great shock to the people of this community, when on last Saturday morning at 10 o'clock the sad news was flashed over the local telephone lines that Mrs. Helen Angeline Johnson, wife of Levi Johnson, had died very suddenly at her home, Sunnyside two miles east of Meadowville. Saturday morning her husband went on an errand to the house of a neighbor nearby and when he returned she told him she had everything in readiness to make a contemplated visit to their two youngest sons, who moved to Dauphin, Canada, last month, except to have a line placed in the house upon which to hang some clothing during their absence to keep the rats a nd mice from cutting them. Mr. Johnson told her he would place it when he returned from fixing a water gap, which needed his attention. When he returned after being from the house a short time he found her lying upon the door dead from a stroke of apoplexy. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were just concluding all arrangements to spend the summer with their sons in Canada, starting in early June and returning in the fall to Elkins where they expected to make their future home. Mrs. Johnson was the oldest daughter of Emory and Catherine GAINER) POLING and was born on June 5, 1854 on a farm on the waters of Teter's Creek adjoining that upon which she died and therefore 65y 11 months and 3 days old. Her father died when she was 12 years old and it devolved upon her to help her mother in raising her younger brothers and sisters, who were James S. who married Louisa Workman and is a prosperous farmer living at Valley Furnace in Cove District; Salathiel, who lives on the old homestead and is one of the best farmers in this vicinity, married Jeanette Ferguson, of Randolph County; Anzina, married Stewart Wilmoth, who sold his property in Cove District to James S. Poling and bought the Daniels farm near Elkins, where he made extensive improvements and a few years since moved to Dauphin, Canada, where he purchased a large tract of land; Augusta, married Robert F. Johnson, who owns a large tract of land at the foot of Laurel Hill,the property upon which his great grand father Robert Johnson, the first settler of that name in this vicinity located. Solomon T. youngest brother is deceased. Her mother, Mrs. Catherine Poling, now 88 years old survives her. She was married to Levi Johnson March 4, 1873, by Rev. Lambert and shortly after their marriage moved in the old homestead, where Mr. Johnson's grandfather, Levi and his wife Rebecca (Cross) Johnson settled in their early married life and lived until his death entertaining many a weary traveler during the night as they made their way from western counties of Virginia over mountains into eastern counties. The children born to this union were Senator Herman G. Johnson, of Elkins, who married Mary R. Barnes, and is editor of the Inter Mountain. Bernice, who married Charter A. Skidmore, of New Interest District. and now lives in Cumberland, MD; Otie E. who married A. B Vannoy, and now lives in Elkins; Emery and John, twins died in infancy; Lloyd S. who married Ora Parks, daughter of the late Benj. F. Parks; Stuart who married Ethel, youngest daughter of the late James B. Elliott; these two sons and their families live in Dauphin, Canada; Helen, the youngest daughter, married Wesley C. Hedrick, and lives in Frostburg, MD. On last Thanksgiving the sons and daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson gathered with their children at the old homestead- 21 in all-- an unusual gathering, for until that time only two boys above mentioned who died in infancy and a little son of Mr. and Mrs. Hedrick who died in infancy were missing from the family circle. Brief services were held at the family residence after which the body was conveyed to Central Chapel. where funeral services was conducted by the Rev. A. B. Moore, assisted by the pastor the Rev. E. B. Ware. Rev. Moore preached from the wonderful exhortation of Christ to His Disciples "Ye Believe in God, Believe Also in Me" His discourse was full of comfort. He had known the deceased all her life, from earliest childhood, having been born on adjoining farms and being the greater part of his life her nearest neighbor, he could speak of her in the highest terms as a kind Christian wife and mother. The husband and children have the deep sympathy of all their friends as a home is broken up, one of the saddest things in life, but God knows best. Signed W.S. Lang ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 14:28:20 EST From: PTyler107@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: Subject: BIO: Ivan Davis, Kingwood, Preston County, WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 129-130 Ivan Davis is a banker at Kingwood, being cashier of the Kingwood National Bank. He acquired his early business training at Morgantown, where he was connected with the glass industry for many years. Mr. Davis succeeded W. A. Schaeffer as cashier of the Kingwood National Bank and is also one of its directors. This bank was organized in 1902 by local capitalists, the moving spirit being James W. Flynn. Other associates were Ira Robinson, of Grafton, Senator Stephen B. Elkins and S. H. White. The capital has always been maintained at $25,000 and the surplus and undivided profits now stand at a similar figure. The officers are: Mr. Flynn, president; C. A. Craig and George A. Herring, vice presidents; Mr. Davis, cashier; and Charles Manown, bookkeeper. Mr. Davis represents one of the older families of West Virginia, both his father and grandfather having been born in the state. His great-grandfather more than 100 years ago came from New Jersey and established his home in Doddridge County, where he lived out his life as a farmer. His son William was a Doddridge County farmer all his life, and the third generation of the family here was represented by William G. Davis, father of the Kingwood banker. William G. Davis was born in 1834, and has now reached venerable years, his active life having been devoted to farming. He was a Confederate soldier and was in the army until the close of the war. He was a private, and though in many battles he escaped wounds or capture. That has been practically his only service outside of his farm and home community. Like most of his ancestors he has been satisfied to vote as a democrat, and he is a member of the Baptist Church. William G. Davis married Miss Martha Hall, who died in June, 1921, at the age of sixty-eight. Her father was Lemuel Hall, of Auburn, in Ritchie County. William G. Davis and wife had seven sons and one daughter: Newton F., Lewis T., William L., Cyrus A., Marshall, Fred, Ivan, and Lydia, the latter the wife of W. Lewis of Doddridge County. All the sons are farmers but William L., who is a Baptist minister, and Ivan. Ivan Davis was born near Salem, Doddridge County, November 7, 1882, and he grew up near the county seat and was a factor on the farm until about eighteen. He then supplemented his common school education by attending Salem College three years, and at the age of twenty-one completed the course of the Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg. With this education and training Mr. Davis became an office man for the Mississippi Glass Company at Morgantown, and was continuously with that corporation for fifteen years, seeing it grow from a plant employing about seventy-five men to and industry with a pay roll of about 300. he was assistant manager of the company when he resigned in July, 1917, to remove to Kingwood and enter upon his duties as cashier of the Kingwood National Bank. Mr. Davis is a member of the minority party in Kingwood, a democrat, and only once has been a candidate for office. He was on the ticket in 1920 for county clerk of Preston County, and made a splendid showing in spite of the inevitable defeat of that year. He is a Methodist, and a member of the Masonic Lodge. Mr. Davis and his wife planned their very attractive home at Kingwood, which is of English style of architecture and was completed in 1921. Mrs. Davis before her marriage was Miss Isa Lynne Bucklew. She was born in Preston County in 1892 and was married at Kingwood, December 25, 1912. Her father, George W. Bucklew, represents one of the pioneer families of West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have two sons: George William and Delroy Richard. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 14:29:40 EST From: PTyler107@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <46.193b0b1.25d86024@aol.com> Subject: BIO:Thomas D. Craig, Preston County, WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 129 Thomas D. Craig. Craig is one of the prominent family names of Preston County, and some space is given on other pages to a formal record of the family, while here particular attention is devoted to one of the individual members, Thomas D. Craig, a native of Preston County, and for many years expressing his service as a teacher, farmer, and merchant. He was born on Morgan's Run, two miles south of Kingwood, March 1, 1870, son of Charles C. Craig, who is one of the surviving members of the Civil war still living in this community. Thomas D. Craig was reared on his father's farm and alternated between its duties and the work of nearby coal mines. He did his first work in coal mines as early as ten years of age. Subsequently he was a mine operator. He acquired the advantages of the country schools, attended the old Normal School at Kingwood, and at the age of twenty-two began teaching in rural districts. Altogether he taught for sixteen years, his last school being Snyder's School in the Kingwood district. While teaching he also operated a coal mine and a farm. About the time the World war began Mr. Craig had to give up business because of a physical breakdown, and, selling his property, he sought renewed health in Florida and Alabama. After a period he was thoroughly recuperated, and then returned and resumed farming, and since December 1, 1921, has conducted a store at Snyder's Crossing. Mr. Craig has done his duty as a citizen as a republican voter, and in 1900 and again in 1910 was one of the census enumerators in Preston County. He was a delegate to the Berkeley Springs Convention when George W. Bowers was nominated for Congress by the Second Congressional District. Mr. Craig has filled various chairs in the Knights of Pythias Lodge and represented the Kingwood Lodge in the Grand Lodge for two years. He and Mrs. Craig are almost life-long members of the Methodist Church, and he has been superintendent of the Sunday school. In Preston County, February 12,1896, he married Miss Cora Savage, daughter of David Harrison Savage. Some account of the Savage family should appropriately be given at this point. They represent an original line of people who established their homes in the United States in Colonial times, and the family was represented in the Revolutionary war. Farming has been with few exceptions the regular vocation of the different generations. More than a hundred years ago the grandfather of David H. Savage, John R. Savage, settled in Garrett County, Maryland, seventeen miles northeast of Oakland, near Friendsville. The Savages and the Friends were among the first settlers in that section of Maryland. John R. Savage was a man of intelligence, capable in business and farming, and spent his life in Garrett County in the development and improvement of his estate. He married into the Friend family, his wife being Miss Caren, as they called her. They had five daughters and one son: Mrs. Lavina Winger, Mrs. Lydia Savage, Mrs. Savilla Friend, Mrs. Elizabeth Friend, while Mary died unmarried. The only son, Thomas Savage, was born in February, 1823, and grew up near Friendsville. He acquired a good common school education and was a prosperous farmer in that community. In 1863 he enlisted in the Third Maryland Infantry, under Captain Ambrose, and was a soldier until the end of the war. He was in the Army of the Potomac, and among other engagements was at the battle of Monocacy. He received his discharge at Baltimore in the spring of 1865, and then resumed the work of the farm where he had left off. He was never in official life, voted as a republican and was a Methodist. Thomas Savage married Elizabeth Evans, a native of Wales, coming to the United States at the age of fourteen with her parents, who first located at Mount Savage, Maryland, and later in the Friend settlement in Garrett County. Mrs. Thomas Savage died on the home farm where she had spent her married life. She was the mother of thirteen children, and those who survived infancy were: David Harrison, of Kingwood, West Virginia; Martha, who married Alfred Jenkins, of Friendsville; George, of Somerfield, Pennsylvania; William and Benton, who died unmarried; Arthur, who became a commercial traveler and died at Pittsburgh; Emily, who died young; Freeman, who owned the old Garrett County homestead, where he reared his family; and Effie, wife of Frank Thomas, of Markersburg, Pennsylvania. David Harrison Savage, whose home for over forty years has been in Preston County, was born in Garrett County, Maryland, October 17,1848, and finished his education in West Virginia University at Morgantown, but left before graduating. For ten years he was a teacher in the public schools of Preston County. He established his home two miles west of Kingwood, and his last teaching was done in the home district there. While still teaching he began cultivating and improving his farm, and was one of the very progressive exponents of agricultural endeavor in this section. he did diversified farming, growing the various cereals, raising livestock, making butter at home, marketing poultry, fat hogs and cattle. His present home is almost against the townsite of Kingwood, where he has lived since November, 1917, and where he still cultivates half of the eighty acres he owns. David H. Savage served as deputy assessor under Assessor Summers. He cast his first presidential vote for General Grant in 1868, and since early manhood has been an active member of the Methodist Church, and has been on the official board. In Preston County in June, 1872, Mr. Savage married Miss Jerusha Cale, a native of the county, and daughter of Amos and Mary (Wishell) Cale. She was one of a family of one son and four daughters, and the others still living are Emory Cale and Mrs. Lucy Burk. Mr. and Mrs. Savage have one son and four daughters: Cora M., wife of Thomas D. Craig; Gertrude, Mrs. William Morris, of Tunnelton; Grace, who died as the wife of Walter Wilson; John M., who is unmarried and a framer near Kingwood; and Lucy, wife of Charles Evick, of Kingwood. The only two grandchildren of Mr. Savage were born to his daughter, Mrs. Gertrude Morris. ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 14:32:45 EST From: PTyler107@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: Subject: BIO:Howard M. Martin, Masontown, Preston County,WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 128 Howard M. Martin. Farming, carpenter work, contracting and school teaching have been the useful, and busy program of activities with which Howard M. Martin has been concerned in his mature years. He is one of the honored residents of Masontown in Preston County. He represents one of the very old American families in this section of West Virginia, and is a descendant of Daniel Martin, who went into the war for American independence as a hostler for his uncle, Col. John Martin. Subsequently he became a soldier in the ranks and served seven years and six months, practically throughout the entire war. Daniel Martin was a native of Germany. He married Elizabeth Wynne. His first settlement was in New Jersey, whence he removed to Pennsylvania, and finally came to Preston County, West Virginia. He lived beyond the century mark, and some declare died at the age of 105. His wife died of cancer about 1837. Their children were: Abigail, who married George Sypolt; Jacob, whose record follows; John, a stone mason who married Sarah Sypolt; Isaac, a cripple, married Susanna Metheny and followed a shoemaking trade throughout his life; and Sarah, who became the wife of John McNair and lived near Valley Point in Preston County. Jacob Martin was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, February 6, 1793. He was a pioneer in the Valley Point district of Preston County, establishing his first home in the woods there. He lived out his life in that section and is buried in the Mount Moriah Cemetery. He married Mrs. Mary (Metheny) Miller, widow of Peter Miller. Her two children by her first husband are Susanna, and John P. Mrs. Miller became Mrs. Jacob Martin, February 7, 1816. By her second marriage she was the mother of James, who became a Baptist minister and school teacher, married Minerva Rogers and died June 14,1896, and Daniel T. Daniel T. Martin, who was born near Valley Point, January 6, 1819, died near Kingwood, June 1,1887. His first wife was Elizabeth Teets and his second Mary M. Kirkpatrick. The children of the first marriage were Simon R., Phoebe (who married Pulaski Messenger), Jasper and Jacob Tucker. The children of the second marriage were Sarah Jane, Sampson, Rachel, Josiah F. and Margaret Virginia, who lived in one of the states west of the Mississippi River. Simon R. Martin, who continues the ancestral record and was the father of Howard M. Martin, was born in the vicinity of Valley Point, December 22,1838, and except for a few years when his parents lived in Wetzel County he remained in his native county all his life. he started with the education that could be acquired in the district schools of the country, and he and two brothers and his father were Union soldiers in the Civil war. He was in Company H of the Third Maryland Infantry in the Army of the Potomac. He was once taken prisoner, but was exchanged and he was in the service almost from the beginning until the close of the war. He was taken captive and held for some time and then exchanged. Simon R. Martin died June 14, 1915. he married Sarah A. Liston, daughter of John and Nancy (Smith) Liston. She died July 3, 1914. Of their children Howard M. is the oldest. Mintie Victoria was first the wife of B. B. Miller and her second husband, Harry Green, lives in Preston County. Anna is the wife of M. H. Taylor, of Masontown. Granville Ross married first Blanche Greathouse and for his second wife married Bessie Broyle, and both are deceased. He married for his third wife Ella Neely, and they live at Masontown. Atlanta Lura is the wife of I. W. Spencer, of Masontown. Howard M. Martin was born at Bruceton Mills, April 16,1862, and when he was about eight years of age his parents moved into the Masontown locality, where he came to manhood. He attended the public schools, took normal courses at Masontown and about the time he reached his majority he began teaching. This profession formed an important part of his life for sixteen years. He was a teacher in the winters and worked in the fields on the farm during the summers. After teaching and farming he took up mechanical work, at the bench as a carpenter and later as a contractor. He did much work of this character in the locality, but eventually surrendered that business to concentrate his time upon his farm. After his marriage he established his home at Masontown for seven years, then lived for two years at Albright, again was for four years at Masontown, and from there went to Colorado to benefit his wife's health. She yielded to the progress of the disease and died a few months later. Mr. Martin then returned to Preston County, and in 1918 bought his present farm, almost against the townsite of Masontown, and continued its cultivation until his own health compelled him to desist. Among other improvements he erected a substantial eight room house on the farm. Mr. Martin cast his first vote for James G. Blaine, and has never failed to vote at national elections in the republican faith. He was a justice of the peace for one term, was the first mayor of Masontown, and also served as recorder and councilman several terms. He has for many years been active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, has served as steward and trustee of the Masontown congregation, was one of the building committee at the erection of the new house of worship and for about ten years was superintendent of the Sunday school. On June 5,1889, Mr. Martin married Anna Fay Jackson, daughter of Richard Philip and Sophia (Heidelberg) Jackson. She was born near Albright, Preston County, March 10,1871, and died February 3,1904. She is survived by her daughter Estella S., wife of Charles Malcolm, of Petersburg, West Virginia, and they have a daughter, Anna Lee. On July 12,1905, in Preston County, Mr. Martin married Mrs. Etta O'Bryon. Her father, Zaccheus G. Smith, married Sue E. Wilhelm, a daughter of John Wilhelm. Mrs. Martin was born in Preston County, January 10,1878, one of a family of twelve children. By her marriage to Charles O'Bryon she had two children, Sarah R., wife of Arthur Pell, and Opal M., wife of Ferris Taylor. Mr. and Mrs. Martin have four children: Glenn F., born April 14, 1906; Simon Harold Gibson, born march 23,1908; Dana Ray, born May 7,1912; and Susan Ruth, born April 7, 1915.