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KANAWHA COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: QUARRIER, Alexander Washington
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
SSpradling@aol.com
September 19, 1999
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History of Kanawha County
George W. Atkinson
1876
p. 284-286
ALEXANDER WASHINGTON QUARRIER.
Among the notable men who have lived and died in Kanawha county, none were
better known, or more highly esteemed, than the late Alexander W. Quarrier.
He was born in the city of Richmond, Virginia, on the i6th day of November,
1795, and died in Charleston, Kanawba county, July 26, 1863. He was the
eldest son of Colonel Alexander Quarrier, who was born in Fifeshire,
Scotland, who emigrated to America in 1774, and resided some years in
Philadelphia, where he married, in 1783; removed to Richmond in 1786, and
lived there until 1811, in which year he came to Charleston, Kanawha county,
and there died in 1827. For a number of years previous to his coming, he was
Captain of the Public Guard at Richmond, and was highly regarded by Mr.
Jefferson, Chancellor Wytbe, and others of like distinguished character.
His son, Alexander W., the subject of this sketch, was appointed Clerk of the
County Court of Kanawha county in 1822, and on the organization of the
Circuit Superior Courts of Law and Chancery in 1830, in Virginia, he was made
Clerk also of that Court for the same county. Both these offices beheld
continuously until i86i, when, refusing to take the oath required by an
ordinance of the Wheeling Convention, they were declared vacant, and Mr.
Quarrier was deprived of both offices.
Few men have lived who were more beloved, more entirely trusted, or more
deeply regretted at death, than Mr. Quarrier. The eldest son of a large
family of brothers and sisters, he was always regarded by them and their
numerous descendants as their head and pride. He was always noted for his
buoyant and cheerful spirits, his benevolent heart, useful and active life,
cultivated mind, and refined tastes, which not only made him, in some sense,
the idol of his family, but the most popu-lar and esteemed man in his county.
There was no stint to his open-handed charity; of what he had, he gave
freely; when he had not, he cheered the needy with a true sympathy and an
elevated hope.
In the discharge of his public duties he was honest, faithful, untiring,
capable, exact, and accommodating. To the humble and uninformed he was
always the trusted friend and adviser. To all he was kind and prodigal of
trouble and labor in answering their requests, and supplying their wants from
his office. His ready and accurate knowledge of all his official duties
astonishing memory of records and papers; his methodical and systematic
business habits; his generous spirit of accommodation, and hearty, cheerful
manner, rendered all business with him a pleasure; while his rich fund of
anecdote and humor, and happy reminiscences of men, manners, and things of
by-gone days, endeared him to all as a beloved companion and most agreeable
public officer. Long will the memory of his hearty laugh, good humored and
benevolent face, live among those who knew him.
There is nothing eventful, in the sense ofbiographical literature, in Mr.
Quarrier's life, to record. The only offices ever asked for, or held by him,
were those before mentioned While he was always decided and ardent in his
political opinions, he never sought political honors. His career in life,
although marked by no distinguished event, nor remembered by any particular
incident of public importance, was that of the quiet gentleman; fulfilling
all his duties, giving and bestowing pleasure to all about him whether in the
little gatherings on the streets, in the parlor, or at the hearth-stone in
his office, among the rich and poor, the humble, the cultivated and refined
alike. In fine, he was of those whose memory is always recalled with
pleasant feelings by those who knew him, and lives in tradition among those
who follow after.
The traditions of the counties have preserved the recollections of a class in
Virginia whose virtues will not soon be forgotten, the "Old County Clerks," a
race of true gentlemen, whose refinement and intelligence, high and generous
social qualities, cultivated by their constant association with the most
intellectual and distinguished men of the day, constituted them a most
interesting and influential class in Virginia. Of such, Mr. Quarrier was a
striking example; they are fast passing away, or entirely gone.
Mr. Quarrier, in early life, married Caroline W., daughter of the late Joel
Shrewsbury, Sr., of Kanawha county. Her charities and many vir-tues endeared
her to all the people of Charleston, and made her the beloved wife of so
excellent a husband, whom she still survives, and still mourns. Mr.
Quarrier's children who survived him are two sons, William A., a prominent
lawyer of the Charleston bar, and Joel S., the efficient and accommodating
Clerk of the County Court, and three daughters, all of whom are residents of
Charleston, and are respected by all who know them.
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