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BERKELEY COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
November 8, 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. 295-296
Berkeley
ARTHUR JAMES WOORE, an old and honored resident and
business man of Martinsburg, is a native of England, but
has no recollection of the picturesque and historic shire of
his birth, since he was brought to the United States in in-
fancy and spent most of his early youth and manhood in
the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Mr. Woore was born in Monmouthshire, England. His
father, Oliver Woore, Jr., was born at Llangattock Vibon
Avel in Monmonthshire, July 5, 1839. His grandfather,
Oliver Woore, was born in 1815, and was of pure English
ancestry. Oliver Woore, Jr., married Hannah Prince, who
was born near the village of Husk in Monmonthshire, May
23, 1839, and at an early age was left an orphan and was
reared by her maternal grandfather, a wealthy farmer
named Williams, in Monmouth County. She was married
to Oliver Woore, Jr., May 8, 1862. Three children were
born to them in England: Edith, born May 22, 1863; An-
nie, born December 23, 1865; and Arthur James, born Oc-
tober 31, 1868. In 1869 the family came to America, and
first located near Alton in Madison County, Illinois, where
Oliver Woore, Jr., followed farming for nine years. Leav-
ing Illinois, he came to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
and bought a farm in Frederick County, continuing his oc-
cupation as a farmer until acquiring a competence and there-
after lived retired in Winchester. He was a man of good
education, and continued his intellectual interests all his
life. He and his family were devout members of the Bap-
tist Church. While in Winchester he cultivated a beautiful
little garden during the summer season, but the rest of the
year he devoted to reading in his private library. He died
December 9, 1919. His widow is now eighty-three years of
age and lives with her daughter in Frederick County, Vir-
ginia. The children born after the family came to Amer-
ica were: Edgar, born December 14, 1870, on the farm in
Madison County, Illinois; Lucy, born December 23, 1873,
and died October 20, 1875; William Oliver, born March 21,
1876 Julia, born June 29, 1878, and Frank Lee, who was
born June 26, 1881, the only one of the family a native of
Frederick County, Virginia. The daughter Edith married
John L. Hauptman, a wealthy farmer in Frederick County.
Annie became the wife of Joseph Cooper, a prominent
farmer near Winchester. Edgar is a farmer and orehard-
ist near Winchester. William Oliver is junior partner and
manager of a large furniture store at Covington, Virginia.
Julia married W. K. Alther, general superintendent of the
Masonic Life Insurance Company, with headquarters in
Buffalo, New York. Frank Lee, the youngest child, is a
traveling salesman living at Winchester.
Arthur James Woore had his first conscious recollections
in Southern Illinois, of the farm in Madison County, and
there he first attended school; later he attended school in
Frederick County, Virginia, working on the farm in the
meantime, and began his active career as an extensive
farmer and stock raiser in Clark County, Virginia. For
several years he farmed, then took up contracting and
building and has erected several fine residences and busi-
ness buildings. Since 1912 he has been in business at his
trade in Martinsburg.
December 28, 1893, Mr. Woore married Fredda Milton
Darlington. Her father, Joseph Benton Darlington, was
born on the old homestead at Gainesboro, Virginia, where
his father and grandfather owned three large farms. It
was on one of these farms where the British and Hessian
prisoners taken at Saratoga in 1781, were kept, and one
field on that farm, is to this day, known as the Barracks
Field, being the one on which stood the barracks in which
those prisoners were confined. He was born April 15,
1840, son of Meredith and Rachel Ann (Swartz) Darling-
ton, and a grandson of Gabriel and Margaret (Edwards)
Darlington. Gabriel Darlington was a son of Meredith
and Sarah (Davis) Darlington, and a grandson of William
and Mary Darlington, of Pennsylvania. An extensive
genealogy of the Darlington family was compiled by Gil-
bert Cope and published in 1900. Mrs. Woore's father
entered the Confederate Army, at the beginning of the
war as a member of Imboden's Cavalry, served in Stone-
wall Jackson's Brigade, and at one time was a courier
between General Jackson and Lee. A man of good educa-
tion, he taught school for a time after the war, then
learned the trade of house painter and decorator, and fol-
lowed that business in Martinsburg until his death on
March 9, 1913. Mrs. Woore's mother, Hannah Vincent,
was born in Clark County, Virginia, daughter of John and
Julia (McDonald) Vincent. John Vincent was a native of
Scotland, came to the United States when a young man and
was an American soldier in the War of 1812. He followed
his trade as a miller in Clark County, Virginia, until late
in life, and spent his last days in Iowa. Julia McDonald,
his wife, was a native of Ireland and died in Clark County,
Virginia. Mrs. Woore was one of four children. Her
brother Lagona Vincent married Margaret dark, of Fred-
erick County, Virginia. Her sister Emma May married
Charles H. Coachman, of Martinsburg, West Virginia. Her
brother John Meredith married Cora Roberts, of Martins-
burg, West Virginia.
Mr. and. Mrs. Woore have three children, Emma Hannah,
Arthur Meredith and Frank Randolph. These children are
members of the Baptist Church. Miss Emma is a gifted mu-
sician, a professional singer, a teacher of vocal and instru-
mental music, and has been a lecturer on musical subjects
in city schools. She is a member of the extension depart-
ment of the National Academy of Music, and is a member
of the Wednesday Afternoon Music Club at Martinsburg.
The son Arthur Meredith Woore enlisted as a volunteer
August 15, 1918, and was assigned to duty at the Univer-
sity of West Virginia as a sergeant instructor in the Stu-
dents Army Training Corps. He was honorably discharged
December 15, 1919. He graduated from the Martinsburg
High School in 1919, and is now a student of law in the
University of Virginia.
Frank Randolph Woore received his education in the Mar-
tinsburg grade and high schools, and is now a clerk.
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