West Virginia Statewide Files  WV-Footsteps Mailing List
WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest				Volume 99 : Issue 106

Today's Topics:
  #1 BIO: HON. JOHN S. WITHERS, Barbour   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]
  #2 Bio of John Griffith Bair, Berkele   [Elizabeth Burns <burns@asu.edu> (b]
  #3 BIO: ODIE C. WILLIAMS, Barbour Cou   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]
  #4 BIO: ARTHUR B. SPENCER, Barbour Co   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]
  #5 BIO: JAMES E. AUVIL, Barbour Count   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]

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______________________________X-Message: #1
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 19:52:20 -0500
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19991110195220.00b48be0@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: HON. JOHN S. WITHERS, Barbour County, 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. 301-302
Barbour

HON. JOHN S. WITHERS. In Old and West Virginia and
throughout the South the name Withers has been one of
distinction since Colonial times. There have been soldiers of
the name in all the important wars of the nation. Many of
them have been eminent lawyers, and many public and pri-
vate libraries in West Virginia contain a volume known as
"Withers' Chronicles of Border Warfare," containing vivid
narratives and descriptions of fights between the first white
settlers and the Indians during the progress of civilization
over the Alleghanies, accounts that have made this one of the
important source books for the history of what is now West
Virginia. The author of this work was the grandfather
of the Hon. John S. Withers, banker, lawyer and prominent
business man of Buckhannon.

The Withers family came from Lancashire, England, and
joined the Virginia Colony in the seventeenth century. The
great-grandfather of John 8. Withers was Enoch K. With-
ers, who was born in 1760 and lived in Fauquier County,
Virginia. He served as a sergeant in Peter Grant's Com-
pany, Col. William Drake's Regiment, during the Revolu-
tion, enlisting May 28, 1777, for three years. He was com-
missioned ensign in November, 1777. He died in Fauquier
County in 1813. His wife, May Chinn, was a daughter of
Janet Scott, a first cousin to Sir Walter Scott.

The author of the Chronicles of Border Warfare was Alex-
ander Scott Withers, who was born in Fauquier County,
Virginia, October 12, 1792. He was educated as a lawyer
and wrote the Chronicles in 1831. In later years his time
and energies were devoted to farming. He was a whig in
politics, and during the Civil war was a stanch Union man.
He died at Parkersburg January 23, 1865. His home for
many years was in Harrison County, and it was while there
that he wrote the Chronicles. He was a graduate of William
and Mary College and was a Mason and a member of the
Episcopal Church. In 1815 he married Malinda Fisher.
Their oldest child, Janet S., married Cabel Tavenner.

Henry Howard Withers, son of Alexander S. Withers, was
born in Fauquier County in 1824, but was reared at Weston,
Virginia, now West Virginia, and was a merchant there and
later a farmer. He served almost four years in the Union
Army, and assisted with Col. T. M. Harris, and Lieutenant
Colonel Hall in organizing the Tenth West Virginia Infan-
try, of which he was major. While serving in the war he
was captured at Frostburg, in the Valley of Virginia and
imprisoned in Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, where he
served six months. About 1845 he acquired 1,000 acres of
land at the head of Sinks Creek, but later sold this and
bought a farm near Troy in Gilmer County. In the fall
of 1869 he was elected sheriff of Gilmer County, and died
while holding that office, in 1873. He was a member of the
Masonic fraternity. In 1844 Major Withers married Dorcas
D. Lorentz, who was born at Weston in 1827. Of the seven
children of Major Withers three are still living: John S.;
Miss Emma, of Webster Springs; and Herbert H., of Glen-
ville.

John Scott Withers was born at Weston July 29, 1847,
and daring the greater part of his youth lived on a farm
in Gilmer County. He attended the public schools, and
during the Civil war was a pupil in the Monongahela Acad-
emy at Morgantown. In 1870 he was appointed deputy
under his father, then sheriff of Gilmer County, and in 1872
was elected superintendent of public schools of Gilmer
County. For two years he was in the mercantile business
at Glenville, and then studied law in the office of Robert
G. Linn and was admitted to the bar in 1879. For twenty
years he practiced law at Glenville with Mr. Linn, under the
firm name of Linn & Withers, and during that time he was
elected and served twelve years as prosecuting attorney of
Gilmer County, being first elected in 1880. As a lawyer
Mr. Withers became known over a number of West Virginia
counties, but he finally abandoned the profession because
of its confining nature and engaged in the timber and lum-
ber business, forming a partnership with C. E. Vandevender
in 1898. The firm of Withers & Vandevender have its chief
offices at Parkersburg, and they also handle real estate and
coal properties. Both partners spend their winters at St.
Petersburg, Florida, where they own winter homes. Mr.
Withers removed his family to Buckhannon some thirty
years ago to secure the educational advantages of that city
for his children. For many years he has been a stock-
holder in the Buckhannon Bank, and has been both vice
president and president of that institution. He is also
a director in the Kanawha Union Bank at Glenville.
Mr. Withers is active in Masonry. He is a member of
the Official Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a
teacher of the Bible Class and a member of the Board of
Trustees of the West Virginia Wesleyan College for over
thirty years, that institution having conferred on him the
degree of Doctor of Laws.

At Glenville September 29, 1875, he married Miss Sabina
Holt, who was born at Glenville October 25, 1856, daughter
of John F. W. and Elizabeth (McKisic) Holt.   Mrs.
Withers graduated as a member of the first class in the
Glenville State Normal School.  Mr. and Mrs. Withers
have five children: Olita, born in 1877, graduated from the
Conservatory of Music at Granville, Ohio, and from Wes-
leyan College at Buckhannon, and is the wife of Nelson
M. Hooker. Horace Holt Withers, born July 9, 1881, is
a graduate of Wesleyan College of Buckhannon, and the
law school of West Virginia University, and married Virgie
Phillips. Irma, born in 1883, was educated in Wesleyan
College and is the wife of Frank R. Ast. Janet Withers,
born in 1885, is a graduate of Wesleyan College, and is
the wife of Richard H. Packer, of Scottsdale, Pennsylvania.
John Henry Withers, the youngest child, was born February
8, 1893, attended the Kentucky Military Institute, Havre
Military School at Lima, Indiana, and the West Virginia
Wesleyan College. He married Gladys Burkhart, of Cum-
berland, Maryland.  During the World war he was a
sergeant and drill master.

______________________________X-Message: #2
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 19:37:35 -0500
From: Elizabeth Burns <burns@asu.edu> (by way of Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>)
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19991110193735.00b45580@trellis.net>
Subject: Bio of John Griffith Bair, Berkeley County, WV
Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii"

<x-rich>History of Montana, Helen F. Sanders, Vol. 3, page 1438, 1913


John Griffith Bair


John Griffith Bair was born December 4, 1858 at Gerrardstown in Berkeley
County West Virginia. He belongs to a family which has been in America
since the early times of colonial settlement and while so far as known
none of its members attained to conspicuous prominence in public life, it
is also possible to assert that none were without the qualifications of
honest character and excellent industry, so that they led careers quiet
but worthy and were people of usefulness intheir community and highly
respected by all who knew them.


The founder of the family in America was John Bair who came from Germany
about 1760, living in the colony of Pennsylvania. When the Revolutionary
War came on he engaged on the side of the colonists in their struggle for
independence. The parents of Mr. Bair were William and Eleanor Virginia
(Griffith) Bair. The father was born at New Bloomfield, in Perry County
Pennsylvania, whence he moved into Berkeley County Virginia about 1855.
His occupation was that of blacksmith. He was a member of the Lutheran
Church and his death occurred at Bedford, in Lawrence County Indiana in
1881. The mother, who was born in Berkeley County, West Virginia, a
descendant of the old family Griffiths on her father's side and that of
Seiberts on her mother's side, is now living in Bedford Indiana.


John Griffith Bair engaged in teaching school for a number of years in
Indiana, then in 1889 came out to Montana in what is now Teton County
where he has been involved in the practice of law in the town of Choteau.
On the first day of September 1886 at Heltonville Indiana, Mr. Bair
married Miss Mary Ramsey. They have no children of their own but have in
their home their nephew and adopted child, the son of Mrs. Bair's brother
Arthur Bailey Ramsey who was born in Walla Walla Washington in April
1905.

______________________________</x-rich>
X-Message: #3
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 20:07:30 -0500
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19991110200730.00bdb890@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: ODIE C. WILLIAMS, Barbour County, 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. 303
Barbour

ODIE C. WILLIAMS has made a good accounting of the
forty years of his life. He began work early, did farm-
ing and public work, but for a number of years his chief
business interest has been a thriving general mercantile
business at Junior in Barbour County, in the same locality
where he grew to manhood.

He was born in Valley District of Barbour County, July
4, 1882. His father, Andrew J. Williams, was born in old
Virginia, but spent his active life on a farm in Barbour
County, where he died in 1901, at the age of seventy. He
married in Barbour County, Miss Julia Row, a native of
West Virginia and daughter of Benjamin Row. She died
before her husband, the mother of ten children: Mollie,
wife of Samuel Elbon, of Junior; Grant, who died in Bar-
bour County, leaving a family; James, who was a farmer
and died near Junior; Miss Laura V., deceased; Bird, who
married Warren Corley and died near Junior; Dow, de-
ceased; Dora, wife of Samuel Ball and living at Kings-
ville, West Virginia; W. J., a farmer above Junior; Hen-
rietta, who died in Barbour County, wife of Peter P. Ware;
and Odie Charles.

Odie Charles Williams grew up on a farm, gained his
education in the country schools, and learned farming as
a practical career while at home. He earned his first dol-
lar following the plow, and after his marriage he estab-
lished himself on a farm and was a grain and stock raiser,
and in the intervals was employed on public works. He
finally exchanged his farm for the mercantile business of
E. E. Swick in Junior, and has since supplied the retail
trade of this community from his stock of general mer-
chandise.

Mr. Williams is a member of the County Court, elected
in 1918 as the successor of E. A. Wall. He was chairman
of the court in 1920. His associates on the board are Ish-
mael Haddix and Delbert Boyles. Since he became a mem-
ber the court has in addition to its routine business accom-
plished a great deal of permanent road work.  It has
handled the construction of about nine miles of class A
road and six miles of class B, and has constructed a num-
ber of concrete bridges in the several districts of the
county. Mr. Williams is a republican, having east his first
vote for Colonel Roosevelt. He is a member of the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows.

In Barbour County, December 25, 1899, he married Miss
Rosa J. Hymes. They grew up together as children in the
Junior community.   Her parents, John C. and Phoebe
(Edmond) Hymes, had the following children:  Mayor
Matthew E., of Buckhannon; Mrs. Williams, who was born
February 28, 1880; Monroe, who was accidentally killed
when a young man while cutting timber; Henry C. and
Sherman G., miners at Junior; Lloyd, who died, leaving a
son; and James B., of Junior.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Williams are Hazel, Bus-
sell C., Buna E., Max Odie and Maxine. The daughter
Hazel is the wife of Fred Simmons, of Junior, and they
have three children, Mabel, Arlene and Russell.

______________________________X-Message: #4
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 20:07:52 -0500
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19991110200752.00bdcbc0@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: ARTHUR B. SPENCER, Barbour County 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. 303-304
Barbour

ARTHUR B. SPENCER went into a coal mine at the age
of fourteen. He had an ambition for something better
than the routine of a miner's life, and in the intervals of
his toil he studied the science and technic of the coal min-
ing industry, testing each fresh instalment of theory in
the practical environment of his work. For a number of
years he has been one of the responsible executives of the
coal business in West Virginia, and at present is superin-
tendent of the Gage Coal & Coke Company at Junior, Bar-
bour County.

Spencer is one of the older family names in the history
of West Virginia. The family was first established in
Monongalia County, where Arthur B. Spencer's grandfather,
Caleb D. Spencer, was born. His grandfather moved to
Newburg in the Scotch Hill locality about 1860, and was
engaged in farming until the beginning of the Civil war,
when he moved to Taylor County, to a new home nine
miles east of Grafton. He was one of the very success-
ful men in that agricultural community. He was a Union
soldier, was twice wounded in battle, and was rated as one
of the expert rifle shots in his company. He had several
furloughs, and it is believed that he furloughed at the end
of his three years and veteranized for the duration of the
war. He was a private soldier, and after the final surren-
der he returned to the farm and lived at his place near
Thornton until 1900. Thereafter he lived a retired life
in Kingwood, where he died in October, 1915, at the age
of seventy-seven. Caleb D. Spencer was a republican, and
believed in doing a citizen's duty without taking the honors
of responsibilities of politics. He was the most consistent
and active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church from
boyhood. Caleb Dorsey Spencer, known among his friends
as "Doe," married Jane Lewis, of Brandonville, Preston
County, daughter of John Lewis. She was a woman of
unusual ability and character. She was one of the first
women to engage in school work at a time when school
teachers were usually men. Her husband at the time of
their marriage was unable to write his name, and she taught
him writing so that he was able to correspond with her
while he was in the army. She was an ideal companion for
her husband in every other way, and was deeply concerned
in the spiritual welfare of her children. This good woman
died in 1900, at the age of sixty-seven. Her memory is
particularly cherished by her grandson, Arthur Spencer,
who lived with her several years and benefited from her
instruction on literary subjects as well as morals.

The children of Caleb D. Spencer and wife were three
in number: Thomas Bay; Christian Wilbur, who was killed
at the explosion in the Newburg shaft in 1886; and John
Lewis, general superintendent of the Twin City Traction
lines at St. Paul, Minnesota.

Thomas Bay Spencer was born July 7, 1861, was edu-
cated in the common schools and entered the mining indus-
try as a mule driver on Scotch Hill. He married while
there, and a few years later went to Fayette County, Penn-
sylvania, where he followed coal mining three years, and
on returning to his native state resumed mining in the Fair-
mont District. In 1892 he went to Glendale, Marshall
County, for two years was fire boss of the Glendale shaft,
and in 1894 returned to Fairmont and for two years was
assistant foreman with the Newburg Oil, Coal and Coke
Company. About that time he gave up mining to engage
in farming on his father's old place in Taylor County. In
1897 he became a miner for the Davis Coal and Coke Com-
pany at West Virginia Junction, and in 1899 went to Pres-
ton County and was mine foreman of the Irona Coal Com-
pany, was made superintendent of that company in 1901,
and later became general superintendent of the company's
Irona and Atlantic Mines. This service he left in 1911,
and for one year was at Masontown in the employ. of the
Elkins Coal and Coke Company, and since then has been
a resident of Wellsburg, where he is still at work in the
service of the Eagle Glass and Manufacturing Company.
Among other experiences he was for eighteen months in
charge of the pay roll of the Gage Coal and Coke Com-
pany, of which his son is superintendent.

Thomas B. Spencer has been a republican worker in the
various communities where he lived and was a member of
the Preston County Committee at one time. He has proved
himself a friend of education, and has tried to secure bet-
ter advantages for his own children and children of the
same age than he had himself when a boy. By corre-
spondent courses he fitted himself for the duties of foreman
and mine superintendent. He has long been an enthusiastic
worker in Sunday school organizations, and has organized
a number of Sunday schools. He is a past noble grand
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, past chancellor
of the Knights of Pythias and a Master Mason.

In Preston County in December, 1882, Thomas B. Spen-
cer married Isabel Henry, daughter of William and Helen
(McFarland) Henry. Her father was a brother of Law-
rence Henry, the pioneer coal operator of Preston County,
operating the Newburg Oil, Coal and Coke Company. The
Henry Brothers were natives of Scotland, and for many
years lived around Scotch Hill, where they are still rep-
resented by their children. Isabel Henry was one of thir-
teen children, eleven of whom grew to mature years, and
the other survivors are Mrs. Marion Ralston, Mrs. Agnes
Swan, John F. Henry, Lawrence Henry, William Henry,
Mrs. Mary A. Jennings and Frank Henry. Isabel Henry
was born in December, 1861, and she is mother of the fol-
lowing children: Arthur B., subject of sketch; Christian
Wilbur, of Junior; Helen M., wife of G. G. Garner, of
Wellsburg; Jane Lewis, wife of Clarence Noah, of Wells-
burg; and Jessie, wife of Campbell Hall, of Wellsburg.

Arthur Blaine Spencer made good use of his advantages
in the public schools, though the greater part of his edu-
cation has come since he left school and entered the prac-
tical business of life. In 1914 he received his diploma for
completing the coal mining course in the International Cor-
respondence School of Scranton, and he has taken several
courses on mining engineering. When he went to work at
the age of fourteen he was under his father, and his first
important promotion came in 1906; when he was made fore-
man of the Irona Coal Company in Preston County. When
his father was promoted to general superintendent the son
succeeded him as mine superintendent there. He remained
with that company from 1899 until 1907, when he left Irona
and moved to Mount Clair, Harrison County, becoming fire
boss for the Hutchinson Coal Company. A year later he
was transferred to the Meadowbrook Mine of the same com-
pany as chief foreman, and after another year he returned
to Masontown and was made superintendent of Mine No. 6
of the Elkins Coal and Coke Company. He was in that
position eighteen months, and then became mine foreman
for the Pittsvein Coal Company in Taylor County at Flem-
ington. In November, 1915, Mr. Spencer came to Junior
as superintendent for the Gage Coal and Coke Company,
and since November, 1918, has been manager of the com-
pany's affairs in this locality.

Mr. Spencer has been under the sense of an obligation
to do all he could to provide better educational facilities
for the younger generation. He was instrumental in secur-
ing the public school for the Gage community where he
lived for two years. Since coming to Junior he has built
two homes in the little town, was elected a member of the
Council in 1918, and in 1920 was elected mayor.

In polities he has been a republican since casting his first
vote for William Howard Taft. Fraternally he is a mem-
ber of both branches of the Odd Fellows, the Knights of
Pythias, joined the Lodge of Masons at Bridgeport, took
the Chapter degree at Philippi, the Scottish Rite Consis-
tory work at Wheeling and is a member of Osiris Temple
of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling. He is a member of the
United Brethren Church, is president of its Board of Trus-
tees, and endeavors to carry a full share of the activities
of church membership.

At Terra Alta, September 28, 1903, Mr. Spencer married
Mary Belle Bowermaster.  The minister performing the
service was Rev. Mr. Jones. Mrs. Spencer was born at
Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, in October, 1884, daughter
of Even James and Hulda Adaline (Listen) Bowermaster.
Her brothers and sisters are Marshall C.; Mrs. Cora Blanche
Hawkins, who died at Kingwood; Ira Benjamin, of King-
wood; and John L., of Kingwood. Her father was a
cabinet maker and carpenter in early life, later was in the
undertaking and furniture business at Bruceton Mills, and
about 1885 moved to Kingwood and was in the lumber busi-
ness, later a hardware merchant, and subsequently devel-
oped a general mercantile enterprise there, with which he
continued active until 1921, when he retired. He was one
of the early members of the West Virginia Hardware
Dealers Association. Even J. Bowermaster died March 2.
1922, and was buried on March 4th, his sixty-sixth birth-
day. Mr. and Mrs. Spencer became the parents of three
children: Garold Ray, born November 7, 1904, and died
December 7, 1904, Mildred Adeline and John Kenneth.

Some of Mr. Spencer's other activities in the Junior com-
munity should be noted. He was one of the promoters and
first stockholders in the Merchants and Miners Bank of
Junior, and has always felt a personal interest in its suc-
cess. He organized and became the first president of the
Mildred Coal Company, capitalized at $25,000.00, which
developed and operated mines on the west side of the Tygart
Valley River, near Junior. The Junior Concert Band was
organized in March, 1921, and Mr. Spencer has regarded
this as one of his hobbies and has been active in perfect-
ing the organization of the body of musicians, which now
has a membership of thirty, and is regarded as one of the
best amateur bands in the state.

______________________________X-Message: #5
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 20:06:06 -0500
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19991110200606.00bdcec0@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: JAMES E. AUVIL, Barbour County, 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. 302
Barbour

JAMES E. AUVIL. With the sun of life still high and the
vigor of mind and body undimmed, James E. Auvil has
acquired a good competency through the many years of
well bestowed labor and enjoys the comforts of a modern
town home in the City of Philippi. His active years were
devoted to his farm in Barbour County, and he is still one
of the rural property owners in that section.

He represents a family that has been in Barbour County
since prior to the Civil war. His grandfather, Daniel Auvil,
a native of Germany, came to the United States when a
young man and lived in Southern Pennsylvania, following
farming. He was twice married, had children by both
unions, and all his sons became identified with agriculture,
while his daughters married farmers.

Elias Auvil, a son of his second marriage, was the founder
of the family in West Virginia. He came from Pennsyl-
vania when a young man and established himself near Val-
ley Furnace in Barbour County. He was a farmer, for some
years was a merchant at Valley Furnace, and he lived in
that community until his death in December, 1892, when
about sixty-eight years of age. He was a minister as well
as business man and farmer, and for many years did much
to sustain the Brethren Church in his community. His only
participation in politics was to vote the democratic ticket.
Elias Auvil married Mary Hershman in Preston County.
She was a daughter of James Hershman and died in May,
1892. Their children were: George W., a farmer in Bar-
bour County, who died near Valley Furnace, leaving several
children: Andrew J., a retired farmer at Tracy; Mar-
garet, now living at Parsons, West Virginia, widow of
William Shaffer, who died at Valley Furnace, where he was
a farmer; Martha J., who died near Valley Furnace, wife
of D. J. Howdershelt; and James Elias.

James Elias Auvil was born near Valley Furnace in Bar-
bour County, June 21, 1861. He attended the common
schools, but even while in school had some share of the
work on the farm. After reaching his majority he located
on a farm in the same community, and he still owns a farm
on the west side of the Tygart Valley River. His chief
farming industry is grazing, and he made his best profits
from handling and dealing in cattle and sheep. He gave
many years of labor and intelligent management to the
development of the old home place, and sold it in the spring
of 1921 and moved to Philippi, where he purchased the
property of E. H. Compton. That is now the home of his
retired years.

During the many years he spent in rural districts he
was a member of the German Baptist or Brethren Church,
and took an intelligent interest in every matter affecting
the locality. Mr. Auvil cast his first presidential vote for
Grover Cleveland in 1884, but has not taken politics
seriously.

December 3, 1883, at Valley Furnace, he married Miss
Florence Belle Campbell, who was born in that community
August 5, 1864, and was educated in the public schools
there. She is a daughter of George E. and Elizabeth
(Bryan) Campbell. Her father, who was born in Mary-
land, was educated in Baltimore, where for a time he was
in business, and prior to the Civil war came to West Vir-
ginia and established a store near Nestorville in Barbour
County. He was a merchant for several years and then
took up farming. He is now living at Clarksburg, enjoy-
ing good health at the great age of ninety-eight. He was
born in 1824. His father, George Campbell, was of Scotch
ancestry, and came to the United States from England and
for many years lived at Baltimore, where he was connected
with the shipping and coast traffic. When he retired he
joined his son in West Virginia, and died near Valley Fur-
nace. Elizabeth Bryan, wife of George E. Campbell, was
a daughter of William Bryan, and she died in 1913, at the
age of eighty-four. She was a member of the Methodist
Protestant Church, was reared and educated in Petersburg,
Virginia, and made use of her education to help in Sunday
School work and also to provide her children with instruc-
tion while they were in school. The children of George E.
Campbell and wife were: George, who was a farmer and
physician near Kasson, Barbour County, where he died
leaving two children; Bedford Campbell, a merchant at
Philippi; Albert, a dairyman at Bainbridge, New York;
Mrs. Auvil; Laura, wife of Alex Nestor, of Preston County;
Littlewood W., of Clarksburg; and Rosa, wife of Albert
Shaffer, of Simpson, West Virginia.

Mr. and Mrs. Auvil have seen their children grow up,
receive their education and become established in homes of
their own, and there are several grandchildren to call them
grandparents. Their oldest child, James Britton, foreman
of a pipeline company in Texas, is married and has three
children, Virgil, Elva and Ray. Rose is the wife of Dorsey
W. Cole, a farmer on Pleasant Creek in Barbour County,
and they have a daughter, Olive Belle. Olive Myrtle, the
second daughter, is a graduate of the West Liberty Normal
School of West Virginia and a popular teacher. The young-
est child, Anna Laura, is the wife of Loren Cornwell, of
Preston County, and has a daughter, Marguerite Fay.