WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest				Volume 00 : Issue 111

Today's Topics:
  #1 BIO: HON. WILLIAM SMITH O'BRIEN, W   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]
  #2 BIO: ULYSSES G. YOUNG, Upshur Coun   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]
  #3 BIO: HARRY E. WEBB, Cabell County    [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]
  #4 BIO: PERRY C. DUNAWAY, Jefferson C   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]



______________________________X-Message: #1
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 18:25:39 -0400
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000413182539.0089fe10@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: HON. WILLIAM SMITH O'BRIEN, Webster 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. 406-407

HON. WILLIAM SMITH O'BRIEN, former circuit judge of
the circuit composed of Webster and Upshur counties, has
been one of the prominent lawyers of Buckhannon for
thirty years. He is an editor and publisher, and at all
times exerts a forceful influence in polities and in com-
munity affairs.

Judge O'Brien was born in Barbour County, West Vir-
ginia, January 8, 1862, and is a son of Emmet J. and
Martha Ann (Hall) O'Brien. The paternal family runs
back into Irish history for many generations, and with
distinguished connections, including the famous Robert
Emmet. The grandfather of Judge O'Brien was Daniel
O'Brien, who was born in County Clare, Ireland, in 1774
and came to America in 1796. In 1804 he moved to West
Virginia from Baltimore, and became a merchant at
Beverly. He died in 1844. In 1815 he married Hannah
Norris, daughter of Capt. John and Mary (Jones) Nor-
ris, of Lewis County. She was a relative of Gen. George
Washington, connected through the Jones and Ball fam-
ilies. She died in Upshur County in 1880. The Norris
and Jones families were from Fauquier County, Virginia,
and were of English descent.

Emmet J. O'Brien, father of Judge O'Brien, was born
at Beverly, and though he had only the advantages of the
common schools he excelled in mathematics, particularly
in geometry and surveying. He learned the trade of stone
cutter and mason, became a bridge building contractor, and
with his brother Daniel they constructed the abutments
of the bridge across the Tygart's Valley at Philippi, West
Virginia. He was a member of the first Constitutional
Convention of West Virginia, and in 1867-68 represented
the Sixth District in the State Senate. Before the War of
the Rebellion he was commissioned a brigadier general of
the militia by Governor Wise of Virginia. He was offered
a commission in the Confederate Army, but refused be-
cause his sympathies were with the Union. He died in.
1888, near Weston. General O'Brien married Martha Ann
Vandervort, widow of Joseph Vandervort.  She was a
daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Reger) Hall, and
was born and reared on Big Skin Creek, Lewis County,
West Virginia. Her great-grandfather, Jacob Reger, was of
German descent, and settled on the Buckhannon River,
near Volga, Barbour County, about 1776. Her paternal
ancestor, Joseph Hall, father of Jonathan Hall, was born
in England, and was a pioneer settler in the Reger settle-
ment. His wife was Ann Hitt, a French Huguenot from
North Carolina, who was married first to a Mr. Martin
and then to William Strange, who was lost in the forest.
His body was afterward found near the head waters of what
is known as Strange Creek, Braxton County, West Vir-
ginia. She next married Joseph Hall.

The other children of General O'Brien and wife were:
Alonzo Lee, who was a graduate of West Point Military
Academy and was a lieutenant in the Regular Army at the
time of his death; Daniel U., who attended West Virginia
University, was prominent in the Cadet Corps at the Uni-
versity, served as captain in the Spanish-American war,
and is now a farmer and stock dealer in Gilmer County;
Mary Lillian, deceased wife of the late William M. Arnold,
of Ravenswood, West Virginia.

William Smith O'Brien was a child when his parents
moved from Barbour County to Weston in Lewis County,
where he was reared on a farm. He did the work of the
farm, was employed in brick yards, attended public schools
and West Virginia University, and taught for about ten
years in Lewis County. While teaching he studied law,
his chief instructor being Judge John Brannon, of Weston,
one of the ablest lawyers of the state. He graduated from
the law department of West Virginia University in 1891,
and the following year began practice at Buckhannon. For
several years he was junior partner with Hon. William D.
Talbot, until his death in 1907.

In 1912 Judge O'Brien was elected judge of the Twelfth
Judicial Circuit, composed of the counties of Webster and
Upshur. Early in his term what is known as "The West
Virginia Bribery Cases" were removed from the Kanawha
Circuit Court to Webster County for trial. Five members
of the Legislature stood indicted for bartering their votes
for money in the election of a United States senator.
Judge O'Brien presided over the lengthy trials. They were
convicted and sentenced to serve terms in the penitentiary.
The Supreme Court of Appeals refused appeals.

The Upshur-Webster Circuit was heavily republican, but
the campaign was in a sense non-partisan. In 1920 the
state was redistricted, and Randolph and Upshur were
joined. The circuit was republican, and Judge O'Brien
went down in the landslide, but reduced his opponents'
majority very materially. After retiring from the bench.
he formed a partnership with Jerome V. Hall, and under
the firm name of O'Brien and Hall he again entered into
the active practice of the law. He is also editor and man-
ager of the Upshur Record, a democratic weekly newspaper
published in Buckhannon. Judge O'Brien has been active
in business and community affairs. He was one of the
promoters and organizers of the Peoples Bank of West
Virginia, one of the leading banking institutions of the
city, and was one of its directors for many years. He is a
member and trustee of the First Methodist Episcopal
Church of Buckhannon. He was president of the County
Sunday School Association for many years, and teacher
of the "O'Brien" Sunday School Class for nearly twenty-
five years.

He is a past chancellor of Buckhannon Lodge No. 54,
Knights of Pythias; is affiliated with Franklin Lodge No.
7, A. F. and A. M.; Upshur Chapter No. 34, R. A. M.;
and Buckhannon Commandery No. 24, Knights Templar.

He was commissioned captain of Company B, Second
Regiment of the State Guards. During the World war he
served as chairman of the Legal Advisory Board for
Upshur County, and was active in every war movement
as opportunity afforded. In politics he affiliates with the
democratic party.

On October 14, 1896, Judge O'Brien married Miss Emma
White, daughter of Alexander P. and Mary White, of
Camden, Lewis County. Mr. White is a first cousin of
Stonewall Jackson. Mrs. O'Brien was educated in the
common schools and in Broaddus College. Judge and Mrs.
O'Brien have four children: Perry Emmet, born August
2, 1898, a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College;
Daniel Pitt, born August 31, 1900; Mary Martha, born
November 30, 1902, and William Talbot, born August 29,
1904, who are now students in West Virginia Wesleyan
College.

______________________________X-Message: #2
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 18:25:41 -0400
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000413182541.0089f380@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: ULYSSES G. YOUNG, Upshur 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. 407

ULYSSES G. YOUNG has the prestige accruing from thirty
years of able practice as a lawyer in Upshur County, and
in that time he has carried many of the responsibilities
of leadership in his home county and community. He is
also a banker.

Mr. Young, who is senior member of the law firm of
Young & McWhorter at Buckhannon, was born in Har-
rison County, West Virginia, January 22, 1865, son of
Joseph A. and Mary V. (Griffith) Young, the former a
native of Monroe County, West Virginia, and the latter of
Augusta County, Virginia. Joseph A. Young after his mar-
riage settled on a farm in Harrison County, and was one
of the hard working and substantial citizens of that sec-
tion. He and his wife were members of the Presbyterian
Church and he was a republican. There were eight chil-
dren: Maggie, wife of B. H. Paugh; Ida M., wife of
Burget Swisher; Esther, deceased; Ulysses G.; Mary V.,
wife of M. R. Creslip; E. L., of Barbour County; Kate
B., wife of C. E. Creslip; and W. H. Young, a farmer in
Upshur County.

Ulysses G. Young, while growing up on the farm, had
formulated plans for a professional career. His common
school education he supplemented in the National Normal
University at Lebanon, Ohio, from which he graduated
with the degree Bachelor of Science and the law degree
LL. B. He then returned to Buckhannon, took the exam-
ination before three judges and was admitted to the West
Virginia bar, and since then has been steadily engaged
in a general civil and criminal practice in the courts of
this district. Mr. Young is vice president of the Traders
National Bank of Buckhannon and also its attorney.
Among other interests he and a brother own a thousand
acres in Barbour County.

Mr. Young was elected a member of the State Senate
in 1894, and represented his district in the sessions of
1895 and 1897. He is one of the trustees of the Wesleyan
College at Buckhannon and is treasurer of the permanent
trust fund of the Methodist Conference. He is a past
chancellor of the Knights of Pythias and a member of the
Masonic Order, and belongs to the Official Board of the
Methodist Episcopal Church.

On July 11, 1893, Mr. Young married Lillie C. Pifer.
She graduated from the Buckhannon Academy and spent
one year in the Boston Conservatory of Music. Mr. and
Mrs. Young have four children: Mary E., who is a grad-
uate of Goucher College of Baltimore with the A. B. de-
gree, is the wife of W. S. Jacob; Marjorie C., who grad-
uated A. B. from Wesleyan College at Buckhannon; Ulysses
6., Jr., who is a student in Wesleyan College; and Rich-
ard W., in high school.

______________________________X-Message: #3
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 18:25:44 -0400
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000413182544.0089f100@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: HARRY E. WEBB, Cabell 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. 407

HARRY E. WEBB, of Huntington, is one of the efficient
and popular executives of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad,
his official position being that of superintendent of the
Huntington and the Logan divisions.

Mr. Webb was born in Kanawha County, this state, not
far distant from the City of Charleston, and the date of his
nativity was November 17, 1881. His father, Benjamin H.
Webb, was born in the Virginia County that is now Gilmer
County, West Virginia, in the year 1847, and died in the
City of Charleston, October 27, 1921. Benjamin H. Webb
was reared in Gilmer County, and there continued his resi-
dence until the early '70s, when he removed to a farm near
Charleston and became one of the leading members of
the bar of that city. As an able lawyer he built up a
large and important practice, he was a loyal advocate and
supporter of the cause of the democratic party, served sev-
eral terms as justice of the peace, was a soldier in the
Confederate service during the last year of the Civil war,
was affiliated with the United Confederate Veterans and the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and was an earnest
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as is
also his widow, who still resides at Charleston. Mrs. Webb,
whose maiden name was Almira V. Barbour, was born in
Franklin County, Virginia, in 1857, a daughter of Capt.
William C. Barbour, a member of the Thirty-fourth Volun-
teer Infantry, Company C, Wise's Brigade, Lee's army. He
was killed in action a few days before Lee's surrender.
Of their children the eldest was Della, who became the wife
of John H. Thompson and who died near Charleston at the
age of twenty-five years, Mr. Thompson beng [sic] now a resident
of the City of Chicago; Arian is the wife of Charles W.
Brown, train dispatcher for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Harry E., of this
sketch, was next in order of birth; Naomi is the widow of
Mark O. Jarrett, who died in Kansas, in 1918, and she now
resides with her widowed mother in Charleston; Kathryn
is the wife of Allen T. Peyton, a contractor and builder
at Charleston; Mary is the wife of Cabell Pearse, mine
superintendent for the Carbon Fuel Company, with resi-
dence at Jochin, West Virginia; Louise is the wife of E. C.
Hanna, auditor and treasurer for the Carbon Fuel Company
at Carbon, Kanawha County.

The rural schools of Kanawha County afforded Harry E.
Webb his early education, and in 1900 he graduated from
the Capital City Commercial College at Charleston. For
two years thereafter he held a clerical position with the
Kanawha & Michigan Railroad, and he next was engaged
in clerical work, for eight months, for the Cardiff Coal
Company at Oakley, Kanawha County. On the 10th of
June, 1904, he initiated his clerical service in the Hunting-
ton offices of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and on the
1st of November, 1914, he was advanced to the position of
train master of the Clifton Forge division, with head-
quarters at Clifton Forge, Virginia, where he remained until
November 1, 1916, when he was transferred to Logan, West
Virginia, as train master for the Logan coal district. May
1, 1917, marked his promotion to the position of superin-
tendent of the Logan division, and since March 1, 1919, he
has been superintendent of the Huntington and Logan
divisions, with headquarters in the City of Huntington. He
is a stockholder in the Junior Oil & Gas Company, the
Huntington Development & Gas Company and also the
Scrantoneed Container Corporation of Huntington. He is a
member of the American Association of Railway Superin-
tendents and is a democrat in politics. In addition to his
modern home property at 805 Lincoln Place, Mr. Webb is
the owner of other realty in Huntington, and also at Logan.

At Griffithsville, West Virginia, August 25, 1915, occurred
the marriage of Mr. Webb and Miss Harriet W. McClung,
daughter of James and Mary (Rosson) McClung, the father
having been a retired employe of the Adams Express Com-
pany at the time of his death, in the City of Huntington,
where his widow still resides. Mrs. Webb graduated from
the Huntington High School and thereafter attended the
University of West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Webb have
three children: Harry E., Jr., born December 9, 1916;
Mollie Rosson, born September 26, 1918; and Barbour
Hays, born October 2, 1920.

______________________________X-Message: #4
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 18:29:48 -0400
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000413182948.008b6d80@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: PERRY C. DUNAWAY, Jefferson 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. 407-408

PERRY C. DUNAWAY, who is successfully engaged in the
furniture and undertaking business at Charles Town, Jef-
ferson County, was born at Stewardsville, Greene County,
Virginia, and he is a scion of a family that was founded
in the historic Old Dominion State in the early Colonial
days, when John and James Dunaway, brothers, came from
England and settled in Virginia. Raleigh Dunaway, Sr.,
grandfather of him whose name introduces this paragraph,
was born and reared in Rappahannock County, Virginia,
and there became the owner of an extensive landed estate,
besides which he inherited a number of slaves, he having
never bought or sold slaves, however. In connection with
the Civil war he met with heavy financial reverses, in which
he lost the most of his real estate and other property, and
he removed with his family to Rockingham County, Vir-
ginia, where he passed the remainder of his life.

Raleigh Dunaway, Jr., father of the subject of this sketch,
was reared on the home farm, or plantation, and as a youth
he found employment in a general store at Elkton. At the
age of twenty-one years he settled on a farm near Stanards-
ville, Greene County, Virginia, and there he continued his
activities as an agriculturist until 1892, when he engaged
in the general merchandise business at Leetown, Jefferson
County, West Virginia. In 1917 he sold his stock and busi-
ness, and he has since lived retired. His wife, whose maiden
name was Fannie Lou Kennedy, was born and reared in
Greene County, Virginia, as was also her father, Chester
Kennedy, who entered the Confederate Army at the incep-
tion of the Civil war and who died while in service, at the
age of thirty-five years, his widow, whose family name was
Mayors, having survived him by many years. Raleigh and
Fannie Lou (Kennedy) Dunaway became the parents of
the following children: Daisy Fritts; Lulu Pearl, who be-
came the wife of Robert W. Clendening and who died in
April, 1918; Raleigh W., who is engaged in the grocery
business at Charles Town; Virginia, who is the wife of
W. R. Licklider; Jessie; Perry C., who is the immediate
subject of this review; and Jndson and Homer.

Perry C. Dunaway gained his early education in the pub-
lic schools, and was a lad of fourteen years when he began
to assist in his father's store. In 1906 he entered the serv-
ice of Moulton Brothers, engaged in the wholesale drygoods
and notions business in the City of Baltimore, Maryland,
and for ten years he was a successful traveling salesman
for this representative concern. For two years thereafter
he was employed in the Westinghouse undertaking estab-
lishment in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in the
meanwhile he attended the J. Henry Zong School of Em-
balming, in which he was graduated in 1911. In 1912 he
went to Mercer, Pennsylvania, where he was employed in an
undertaking establishment for a time, and he then passed
two years in business at Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
He then, in 1915, established his present furniture and un-
dertaking business at Charles Town, where his success has
been the direct result of effective service and fair and hon-
orable dealings. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Dunaway
is affiliated with Malta Lodge No. 80, A. F. and A. M., and
Jefferson Chapter, R. A. M., besides which he holds mem-
bership in Blue Ridge Lodge of the Knights of Pythias.
He and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian
Church in their home city.

The year 1915 recorded the marriage of Mr. Dunaway
and Miss Emma Louise Price, who was born at Pomeroy;
Ohio, a daughter of David and Elizabeth (Eppel) Price.
Mr. and Mrs. Dnnaway have one daughter, Emma Louise.