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BARBOUR COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
November 10, 1999
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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.
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