|
GILMER COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
******************************************************************
Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@earthlink.net
July 16, 2000
******************************************************************
The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 513-514
Gilmer
HERBERT H. WITHERS, who is conducting a prosperous
livery business at Glenville, judicial center of Gilmer County,
is a scion of a family that was founded in Virginia in the
Colonial period of our national history. Alexander S.
Withers, grandfather of Herbert H., was born in Virginia
on the 12th of October, 1792, and became a man of fine
intellectual and professional attainments, he having attended
historic old William and Mary College in Virginia and hav-
ing prepared himself for and been admitted to the bar. He
did not long continue in the practice of law, but became
a pioneer settler at Bridgeport, in what is now Harrison
County, West Virginia, where his character and ability
made him a citizen of prominence and influence and where
he did much to advance civic and industrial development.
Herbert H. Withers was born at Weston, Lewis County.
West Virginia, on the 19th of June, 1867, and is a son of
Henry and Dorcas D. (Lawrence) Withers, the latter having
been a daughter of Jacob and Melinda (Fisher) Lawrence.
Henry Withers was reared to manhood in what is now West
Virginia, received the advantages of the common schools of
the period, and he was a young man when he tendered his
services in defense of the Union at the inception of the Civil
war. He became a member of the Tenth West Virginia
Volunteer Infantry, was made major of the same, and con-
tinued as an efficient and popular commanding officer until
the close of the war. With the same spirit of loyalty he
then set himself to winning the victories of peace. He
settled on Fink Creek in Lewis County, and became the
owner of a large landed estate in that locality. Finally he
sold this property and purchased another farm tract, on
Cove Creek in the same county, and later he was elected
sheriff of Lewis County, an office of which he was the in-
cumbent at the time of his death. He was a democrat and
was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, his wife, who
survived him by several years, having been an earnest
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Of the
nine children only three are now living, and of the number
the subject of this sketch is the youngest; John S. is actively
identified with the banking business at Buckhannon, Upshur
County; and Miss Emma resides at Weston, Lewis County.
Herbert H. Withers profited by the advantages of the
public schools and thereafter attended the State Normal
School at Glenville. He was identified actively with farm
enterprise in Gilmer County for a number of years and also
with the general merchandise business. He is now one of the
substantial citizens of Glenville, where he conducts a well
equipped livery. He is unwavering in his allegiance to the
democratic party, and he attends and supports the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, of which his wife is an active
member.
On Christmas day of the year 1894 Mr. Withers was
united in marriage with Miss Estella Whiting, who had been
a popular teacher in the public schools and who had at-
tended the State Normal School at Glenville. Mr. and Mrs.
Withers have two sons: Dr. Herbert F., a graduate of the
State Normal School at Glenville and of the Ohio Dental
College, is now engaged in the practice of dentistry at
Normal School at Glenville, and he remains at the parental
Glenville; Everett W. likewise is a graduate of the State
home.
|
