Ohio County, West Virginia - Biography of Martin Luther Connelley

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Submitted by Valerie Crook.

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 539-540
Ohio

MARTIN LUTHER CONNELLEY. In Liberty District, Ohio
County, ten miles northeast of the City of Wheeling is
situated the fine homestead farm of Mr. Connelley, who is
now one of venerable native sons of this county and who
has stood representative of loyal and progressive citizenship
during the course of a long, active and successful career.
He was born in Richland District, this county, September
29, 1842, a son of Elisha and Lorena (Eaton) Connelley.
In the possession of the family is an antique arithmetic,
published in 1816, and having entry of births in the Con-
nelley family.

Elisha Connelley was born in Maryland, near the eastern
coast, November 26, 1812, and he was nine years old when
his father, William Connelley, there died. The widow and
children later removed to Washington County, Pennsylvania,
Elisha having been eighteen years old at the time. Soon
afterward he came to what ia now West Virginia and set-
tled in Ohio County. Ho brought his mother and other
members of the family to the new home, and the mother
passed the closing years of her life with one of her daugh-
ters, at Wheeling, where she died at the venerable age of
ninety-three years.  The son, Eli, became a farmer in
Marshall County, and his death occurred at Moundsville,
when he was eighty-eight years old, one of his sons having
met his death while serving as a soldier in the Civil war.
William, another of the children of the widowed mother,
remained in Wheeling, was a tailor by trade but eventually
engaged in the grocery business at North Wheeling, one of
his sons, John W., being still a resident of Wheeling.

About the year 1834 Elisha Connelley married Lorana
Edmonds, who was born in Pennsylvania, a daughter of
William Edmonds, the date of her birth having been Janu-
ary 26, 1816. Elisha Oonnelley's death occurred April 4,
1898, when he was in his eighty-sixth year, his wife having
preceded him to the life eternal. After his marriage Elisha
Connelley and his wife established their home in a modest
cabin at Greggsville, and he became a teamster for Mr.
Gregg, who was engaged in burning charcoal for the iron
furnaces of this district. Mr. Connelley later engaged in
farming on shares, and from the returns from this line of
enterprise he purchased a small house at Greggsville. With
increasing prosperity he erected buildings in that village
and also became the owner of four farms. He was an
energetic and able business man and became one of the
representative exponents of agricultural and live-stock in-
dustry in this section of the state. He lived virtually re-
tired during the last twenty years of his life, but continued
to give his attention to his live stock and farm interests
in a general way. He was originally a whig and later a
republican in politics, and was one of the few in Richland
District who voted for Abraham Lincoln for president of
the United States in 1860. He lived to see Richland Dis-
trict become a republican stronghold. He and his wife
were converted under the teachings of Alexander Campbell
and became members of the Campbellite or Christian Church
at Wheeling. Of the children the eldest was William, born
at Wheeling, in 1836.  He became a farmer and later
a feed dealer. Benjamin, born in 1838, served through the
Civil war as a member of the Fifteenth United States Reg-
ulars, and he was somewhat more than seventy years of age
at the time of his death. Rachel, born in 1840, is the
widow of George King and resides at Martins Ferry, Ohio.
Martin Luther, of this review, was the next in order of
birth. Eliza Jane, born in 1845, is the widow of Gilbert
Holmes and resides at Garden City, Kansas. Perry, who
was born in 1848, was a mere boy when he enlisted for
service as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war, but his
parents caused his release. At the age of eighteen years
he enlisted in the United States Army and was assigned to
service on the plains of the West. After his discharge
from the army he engaged in mining in the West, and
finally, with a companion, he started for the old home,
nothing further having been heard of him by members of
the family and the supposition being that he and his
companion lost their lives in a blizzard.

Martin L. Connelley was reared and educated in his native
county and has been actively identified with farm enterprise
from the time of his boyhood. He has owned and resided
on his present homestead farm since 1870, the same com-
prising 110 acres, one of the first cabins in this part of
Ohio County having been erected on this farm, and the
fine springs in the vicinity having led Mr. Connelley to
erect his present house near the same. He has made the
best of improvement on his farm and has here specialized
in the raising of sheep. He served fourteen years as a
member of the school board of his district. In 1893 he
lost his left arm, below the elbow, while operating the first
husking machine brought across the Ohio River into West
Virginia. He was associated with A. R. Jacob in organizing
and developing the local Farmers Mutual Insurance Com-
pany, to the upbuilding of which he devoted many years,
in the face of strenuous opposition on the part of old-
established companies, and he. has the satisfaction of know-
ing that this corporation has become one of substantial and
important order and been of great benefit to the fanners
of the locality. The company began operations with $150,-
000 insurance in force, and when the first loss was paid
there was in force $214,000. The business has been remark-
ably prospered, every loss has been adjusted without re-
course to law, for a period of five years no assessments
were made, and the corporation now has in force more than
$5,000,000 of insurance, its field of operations in Ohio and
Marshall counties, West Virginia. Mr. Connelley continued
as secretary and treasurer of the company from the time
of its incorporation until 1920. He has been for fifty
years a zealous member of the United Presbyterian Church
at Roneys Point, the church having recently celebrated the
semi-centennial of its organization. His wife likewise was
an earnest member of this church. Mr. Connelley has been
a supporter of the prohibition party forty years - from
the time that St. John was its nominee for president. Mrs.
Connelley, whose maiden name was Mary E. Giffin, was
born and reared in Ohio County and her death occurred
in 1884. Of the four children the eldest is Lena Jane,
wife of William Holmes, of Garden City, Kansas; Frank
E., who has active charge of his father's farm, married
Mrs. Elizabeth (Thiers) Blotzer, who has two children by
her first marriage - William and Harry; Joseph L. B., who
is associated with the Riverside Tube Works, at Wheeling,
married Emma Summers, and they have one child, Laura
Jean; Laura L., youngest of the children, became the wife
of William Connelley. and was a young woman at the time
of her death.