WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 79 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: HON. SANFORD L. COBUN, Presto [Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000320210805.00914570@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: HON. SANFORD L. COBUN, Preston Co. WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 385-386 Preston HON. SANFORD L. COBUN. In Preston County few fam- ilies have advanced a better claim to being pioneers in this region, forceful factors in its development, and workers at every point of its advancement than the Cobuns. It was in 1770, five years before the beginning of the Revolution, that James Cobun, a son of Jonathan, made settlement at Dorsey's Knob and built his cabin a little south of Masontown. Only three years earlier Zackwell Morgan had established himself in Monongalia County, thus gaining the historical fame of being the first settler of Morgantown. Monongalia County at that time included all of the present Preston County. In 1790 James Cobun patented a thousand acres of land where he settled, and on this estate his descendants have been numerously repre- sented for 130 years. James Cobun was born in Old Vir- ginia, December 17, 1746, and died September 17, 1822. He was a slave holding farmer, a man of means, of in- tegrity and probity of character. His wife was Sarah Troder, and she accompanied her parents to Western Vir- ginia and was a member of the same party as James Cobun. The Indians called her "the pretty squaw." She was born September 10, 1756, and died October 1, 1843. Their children were Catherine, Susanna, James, Arthur, Isaac, John, Jacob and Sabra. The present line of the Cobuns runs through Isaac Cobun, who was born October 30, 1786, and died June 24, 1867. He spent his life as a farmer and on the lands acquired by the pioneer. He married Prudence Davis, who died January 19, 1873. Among their numerous children one was Benjamin F. Cobun, who was born in September, 1831, and lived all his life in the Masontown locality. He was a farmer and merchant, and at his death was president of the Board of Education. He was a stanch republican and a member of the Official Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church many years. Benjamin F. Cobun married Jane Hartley, who was born near Masontown, and was seven years the junior of her husband and outlived him a few years. Her father was Edward Hartley, and this family was likewise connected with the early history of Preston County. Benjamin F. Cobun and wife had the following children: Albert, who was associated with his father as a merchant and died in Preston County; Harriet, who became the wife of Samuel Fields, lived for many years in Illinois, but is now a resident of Masontown; Homer, a farmer near Reedsville; Sanford Lee; Elmer, a farmer near Masontown; Louie, wife of A. J. Stuck, of Masontown; W. G., a merchant of Reedsville; Florence, wife of Edward Wasson, of Fair- view, Illinois; Myra, who married Sherman Snyder, of Keyser, West Virginia; and Allie, who died young. Sanford Lee Cobun was born within a mile of Mason- town September 11, 1860, and his childhood and youth were spent there until he was twenty years of age. After the select and free schools he had an experience for two or three years as clerk in the store with his father and older brother, and then took over the general mercantile business on his own responsibility, and for about thirty- five years was proprietor of the firm of S. L. Cobun. While a merchant he erected a large brick business house, now owned by the Penn-Mary Company. After selling this property and business he erected the large hotel building across the street, and has employed his capital in other development in Masontown. He is now retired from the heavier responsibilities of business, but as an occupation he conducts a modest real estate office. Mr. Cobun was one of the organizers in 1907 of the Bank of Masontown, capitalized at $25.000, and in 1908 he succeeded Mr. E. M. Bartley as president. The Board of Directors comprised fifteen members, the active officers of the bank being Earl Dixon and Mr. Cobun, while the vice presidents are Doctor Post and H. A. Hartley. Other directors are Prentis R. Watson, E. E. Cobun, J. F. Wat- son, S. C. McKinney, J. E. Hartley, L N. Roby, Frank L. Street, S. D. Snyder, Earnest Watson, M. H. Orr and B. T. Gibson. The bank early in 1922 occupied its new home, a modern two-story brick building. Mr. Cobun has an interesting record of public service. He was frequently chosen to the Town Council and served one year as village mayor. In 1911 he was elected to the House of Delegates and was re-elected in 1913. During his first term the speaker of the House was Mr. Whetsell, and he was assigned as chairman of the committee on banks and banking and member of several other commit- tees. During his second term he served under Speaker George and was again chairman of the banks and banking committee. In 1916 Mr. Cobun was elected to the State Senate for the Fourteenth District, comprising Preston, Tucker. Mineral, Grant and Hardy counties, and succeeded Bliss McCrum in the Senate. He served under Presidents Goodykuntz and Sinsel, and in both sessions was a member of the finance committee and chairman of the committee on agriculture. He introduced and secured the passage of Senate Bill No. 76, empowering the preparatory school at Keyser to receive Government aid, and also Senate Bill No. 95, permitting a minimum charge of $1.00 for making a loan and interest charge for the use of the money. An- other measure he introduced which became a law was that regulating commercial food products, and another was one granting a soldier from West Virginia the right to vote by mail while on active duty. Another bill which passed provided for the entry or filing of historical documents or writings with the Archives and History Department of the State at Charleston and the issuing of a copy of the manuscript to anyone making application for it. He was also a supporter of some of the measures claiming special precedence in the special sessions. He supported the rati- fication of the national prohibition amendment and the woman's suffrage amendment. While he was in the House of Delegates he took part in the last election of a United States senator, voting for Nathan Goff, the compromise candidate of the party, though his personal choice was David Elkins. Mr. Cobun grew up in a republican household and cast his first presidential vote for James G. Blaine in 1884 and has supported every party nominee at a national election since then. He has been a member of a number of local and congressional conventions. At Reedsville in 1885 Senator Cobun married Miss Mat- tie Loar, who died twelve years later. Her only child was Lucile Cobun, who died within two weeks of graduating from Buckhannon College. In 1903 Mr. Cobun married Rosa Roby, daughter of Albert Roby. She was born in Monongalia County. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 21:08:57 -0500 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000320210857.008c2eb0@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: WILLIAM MARSHALL WOLF, Preston Co. WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 386-387 Preston WILLIAM MARSHALL WOLF is now living retired at Bruce- ton Mills, past the age of fourscore, having accumulated a record of good honest work as a carpenter and mill- wright and later as a successful farmer. He has been attentive to the duties of good citizenship, and his life is one of those that give honor to the name Wolf in Preston County. He was born in Bruceton Village, on the site of the Home Hotel. October 23, 1840, son of Augustine and Sarah (Mosser) Wolf, his mother being a sister of the venerable Daniel Mosser of Clifton Mills. His grandfather, Samuel Wolf, came from Germany and spent his last years in West Virginia. His sons were Michael, John, Peter and Augustine, and he also had a daughter, Mrs. Nancy Wor- man. Augustine Wolf was born in 1811, and in 1844 moved his family to a farm near Rockville. He lived past the age of eighty-six, and his wife, who was nine years his junior, reached the age of nearly eighty-five. They reared the following children: William Marshall; Laodicea, who married R. F. Jenkins; John Allison, a farmer near Rockville; Phoebe, whose first husband was Levi Cale and she is now Mrs. Harvey Walls, living at Albright, West Virginia; and Lehamer, who died in Fayette County, Penn- sylvania, leaving a family. William Marshall Wolf grew up in the vicinity of Rock- ville, and he attended one of the pioneer schoolhouses of that time and section. He sat on a slab bench supported by pegs, wrote on a writing table which was a board lean- ing against the wall, while the room was heated by a fire- place. The schoolhouse itself was of logs and stood on the site or near the Harmony Grove Church. This building has long since decayed. On reaching his majority Mr. Wolf became a journeyman carpenter and cabinet maker, and his honest workmanship could be testified to by numer- ous examples in Grant and Pleasant districts. He built several of the early homes there, among them the Lockard Bircher residence, the home on the Jesse Forman farm, now the property of Bert Forman, the Pleasant Valley schoolhouse, and he worked on the Centenary, Harmony Grove and Nebo churches. It was his custom to follow his trade throughout the winter and other seasons of the year. until his time and energies were demanded in the harvest fields. He also did much work as a millwright, and put in the roller processes at Rockville, Bruceton and the Dells- low mills, and a waterwheel on the Muddy Creek Mill. An early injury physically disabled him for the duties of a soldier, so that he did not enlist at the time of the Civil war. However, for a short time he was a teamster with General Meade's army in the Shenandoah Valley, going as far as Winchester and Halltown. After leaving his trade Mr. Wolf applied himself to the practical side of farming, though he still kept his set of tools and worked occasionally both on his own farm and for others. His farm was near Hopewell in Grant District, and he kept up his work there until 1918, when he retired and removed to Bruceton Mills. He was one of the promoters and is a stockholder in the electric light plant of the village. He was a farm friend and financial supporter of the movement to secure a new high school for the village. Mr. Wolf has been rather independent in politics, though in the main he has voted the democratic ticket. His first vote was cast against secession, even before he reached his majority, and he was in favor of William G. Brown, Sr., for Congress. He favored the election of Douglas for president in 1860, but did not vote that year. His father supported Breckenridge for president. Mr. Wolf gave his ballot to General McClelland in 1864 and to Governor Seymour of New York four years later, and has seldom missed voting the democratic national ticket, though occa- sionally he has supported another party man for Congress. Mr. Wolf joined the Baptist Church in 1861, and for more than thirty years was church clerk. In December, 1868, he married Mis [sic] Hester A. Jenkins, daughter of Graham and Louisa (King) Jenkins. She died in 1880, the mother of three children: Dora Ann, wife of O. Y. Shaw, of Bruceton; Oliver, who died unmarried in 1918; and Lucian Marshall, of Morgantown, who married Hazel Morris and has a son, Woodrow Wilson. In 1884 Mr. Wolf married Florence Collins, sister of Walter Col- lins of Bruceton. There were no children by this marriage. On December 1, 1920, he married Miss Ola Martin, mem- ber of a prominent family of Preston County, where she was born, daughter of Milton F. and Lydia (Forman) Martin, farmers in the county. Mrs. Wolf is one of five children and was born October 14, 1875. Her two sur- viving brothers are Ashbel, of Des Moines, Iowa, and Dr. E. T. Martin, of Seattle, Washington. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 21:09:45 -0500 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000320210945.008f85b0@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: THOMAS WINFIELD KING, Preston Co. WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 387 Preston THOMAS WINFIELD KING. King is one of the first family names encountered in the annals of Preston County. The substantial qualities of the family have always been ap- parent in each generation, and the career of Thomas Win- field King, of Bruceton Mills, has been fully in keeping with the high standards of the entire family. Mr. King is a merchant at Bruceton Mills, and for many years fol- lowed his trade as a carpenter and builder. His great-grandfather, James King, came to Preston County from Oldtown, Virginia. Several of his brothers accompanied him, among them John, Valentine and Wil- liam. They all settled on Laurel Run in the vicinity of Laurel Church and Schoolhouse, and on the hill overlook- ing the little valley below James spent his final years. He and his brothers were farmers, although Squire John King owned a mill on the Run, some traces of which pioneer industry are still evident. James King reached Preston County by the beginning of the nineteenth century. His son, Thomas, was born on the Run in 1805. James King married Emma Short. Their children were: Thomas, just mentioned; Alpheus, the other son, who spent his life at the old homestead; Annie, who became the wife of Bayles Shaw and died near Mannington; Bettie, who was the wife of William Herrington and spent her life near Newburg; Eliza, who was the wife of Graham Jenkins and lived on Big Sandy, near Harmony Grove Church; Margaret, who died near Cuzzart, wife of Henry Chidester; and Sophia, who married William Douglass, and both died in Jackson County, Iowa. Thomas King came to manhood through a period in which there were few schools and little oppor- tunity to gain more than the merest fundamentals of knowledge. Nevertheless he became a successful man, and at his marriage established his home on Big Sandy, where he was busy with his farming activities, extended the scope of his land holdings, and at his death left a good estate. He was never a church member, was a republican in poli- tics, and among other accomplishments he was skilled in shoemaking and did much of the community repair work and also made new shoes and boots for his neighbors. Thomas King married Jane Brandon, who was born and reared at Brandonville, daughter of William Brandon, the village taking its name from the family. Jane Brandon was several years younger than her husband and outlived him about as long. Their children were: Albert and Wil- liam, who were taken captives and starved to death in the Confederate prison at Andersonville; George, who was a soldier in the First West Virginia Cavalry and spent his civilian life in the Laurel Run community and about Bruce- ton; Eugeneus B., of Bruceton Mills; Thomas, a farmer in Fayette County, Pennsylvania; Serenia, who became the wife of Ami Jenkins and died in Preston County; Persis, who was married to Isaac Jenkins and lived in Preston County; and Mary, who was the wife of Irvin Christopher and died near Pisgah. Albert King, father of Thomas Winfield, was born at Laurel Eun, and his early life was devoted to hia farm. Early in the War of the Rebellion he enlisted in the Third Maryland Infantry, and served more than three years be- fore he was captured. He and his brother, William, were both taken prisoners while on the march, and they were sent to Andersonville, where both perished as a result of the sufferings entailed by exposure and lack of food. Albert King married Hester Ann Jenkins, daughter of Evan Jenkins. With the help of her older children she carried on the work of the farm during the absence of her soldier husband and after his death. She remained there until late in life, when she left the vicinity in which so many useful and hard working years had been spent, and thereafter lived in comfort at the home of her son in Bruce- ton, where she died in April, 1920, at the venerable age of ninety-seven. Her children were: Alcinius and Mary Armena, twins, the former a resident of Preston County, while the latter died as the wife of Silas Metheny; Thomas Winfield; Jehu, of Bruceton Mills; Hannah, wife of Ben Huggins, of Terra Alta; Evan, who conducts a farm at Laurel Run, in the same vicinity where his pioneer ances- tors lived; and Sarah, who became the wife of Marshall Harnet and died in Preston County. Thomas Winfield King was born on the old farm at Laurel Run, November 3, 1849, and he had the companion- ship and guidance of his father until he was twelve years of age. He assisted his mother on the farm, attended coun- try schools, and early took up the trade of carpenter. For some time he did journeyman work at Connellsville, Penn- sylvania, and then resumed his residence in Preston County. His home has been at Bruceton Mills for thirty-five years, and he has done carpenter work all over this vicinity. About twelve years ago he opened a general merchandise store, and enjoys a large and prosperous trade. In Preston County, April 10, 1871, he married Mary F. Haines, a daughter of Henry Haines, a farmer in the Hazel Run settlement, though he and his wife spent their last years near Connellsville, Pennsylvania. The children of Mr. Haines were: Mrs. Lavina Gribble, of Bruceton Mills; Catherine, wife of Thomas King, of Connellsville; Mrs. Winfield King, who was born at Hazel Run, Novem- ber 9, 1853; John, who died near Connellsville; Edward and Hudson, near Connellsville; Bina and Hattie, both of whom died unmarried. Mr. and Mrs. King had two children. The daughter Cora is the wife of Charles Feather, of Fairmont, and they have four children, May, Freda, Mabel and Hazel. The only son, William, joined the Regular Army, and while stationed in foreign lands died of cholera some seven- teen years ago, his body being brought back to San Fran- cisco and buried. Mr. King has satisfied his interest in politics and pub- lic affairs by easting his vote as a republican, beginning in 1872, when he supported General Grant. He has been one of the substantial upbuilders and upholders of Bruce- ton's prosperity, and owns considerable residence prop- erty in the village. He is an active member of the Baptist Church, though Mrs. King is a Lutheran.