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KANAWHA COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: RUFFNER, Gen. Lewis
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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. 303-305
GENERAL LEWIS RUFFNER.
Among all of the noted men born and raised in the Kanawha Valley, none of
them possessed a better intellect than did Lewis Ruffner. He is a man of
unusual breadth of intellect and cultivation of mind, and has been a leading
citizen of Kanawha for over fifty years. He was born October 1, 1793, in a
large log mansion immediately in the rear of the Clendennin fort, in
Charleston. His grandfather, Joseph Ruffner, bought the bottom land from the
mouth of Elk to Wilson's hollow, in 1795, and moved upon it in the fall of
1796. Joseph Ruffner had six sons and one daughter, as follows : David,
Daniel, Tobias, Joseph, Samuel Abram and Eve, who married Nehemiah Woods,
referred to in a former chapter. David Ruffner was the father of the subject
of this sketch; and also of Rev. Henry Ruffner, D. D., LL. D., a
distinguished Presbyterian clergyman, and at one time President of Washington
College, Lexington, Virginia; Mrs. Ann Putney, the wife of the late Dr. R. E.
Putney, and Mrs. Susan Fuqua, wife of Moses Fuqua, late of Hannibal,
Missouri. Daniel Ruffner was the father of Charies, Joel, James, Augustus,
Andrew, the wife of David Ruffner and the wife of N. V. Wilson. Tobias
Ruffner was the father of John, Isaac, Silas, Benjamin F., Jonas, and two
daughters.
The subject of this sketch first attended school in Charleston, taught by
Herbert P. Gaines, and afterwards by Levi Welch and others. In 1808 he
attended a select school, one year, taught by Professor Duvall, on the farm
of Robert Johnson, father of Hon. Richard M. Johnson-at the crossing of Elk
Horn Creek, Scott county, Kentucky. In 1812 he went to Lewisburg, and
entered the high school taught by Rev. John McElhenny, where he remained
until February, 1815, when peace was declared with Great Britain. He then
went to Cincinnati, and entered an academy, where he remained one year,
pursuing his studies. From Cincinnati, in the latter part of 1816, he went
to Lexington, Virginia, and entered Washington College, where lie remained
two years. In 1818 he returned to Charleston, and taught school for one year.
In 1820 he commenced business as a salt manufacturer in a small wood furnace
in the Salines, which business he has kept up, with occasional intermissions,
until the present time.
In 1821, realizing the incompleteness of a kettle furnace, with wood fuel,
Mr. Ruffner built a new one, on the site of his present furnaces and used
coal as a fuel. This was a great improvement, in the saving of time and
expense, and was an important step in the line of improvements which led to
others and still others that proved a blessing to all those engaged in the
manufacture of salt in the Great Kanawba Valley.
In 1823 Mr. Ruffner took charge of his father's property and settled up his
business. In 1825 he was elected to the Legislature of Virginia, and was
returned in 1826 and 1828. November 2, 1826, he was united in marriage with
a daughter of the late Joel Shrewsbury. In 1828 he was appointed a Magistrate
for Kanawha county, which position he held without intermission, until 1845,
when he removed to Louisville, Kentucky, and on leaving the State, tendered
his resignation as a Justice. He remained in Kentucky until 1857, acting as
agent for the sale of Kanawha salt, when he returned to his old home, near
MaIden, and resumed the manufacture of salt.
After serving three terms in the Legislature, Mr. Ruffner, from 1828 to 186o,
ceased to mingle in politics, and gave his time and attention ex-clusively to
business, although solicited to become a candidate for important official
positions. In May, 186o, he was again elected to the Legislature of
Virginia. About that time the war broke out, and Mr. Ruffner, contrary to the
wishes of nearly all of his relafives and friends, took the side of the
Union, and exhibited unusual courage in standing up and boldly defending his
country, and the flag of our nationality. In June of that year he was invited
by leading citizens, from other portions of the State, to meet them at the
city of Wheeling, to take action preliminary to the restoring of Virginia to
the Union, she having passed the ordinance of secession in April preceding.
lie went to Wheeling, and his courage, education and ability enabled him to
take a leading position in that Convention of noble Virginians which restored
the government of Virginia to the Union. In the fall of 186o he was elected
to the Legislature by his loyal fellow-citizens of Kanawlia county, and was
reelected each year consecutively until i865, when he declined to serve
longer. In i863 he was elected as one of the delegates from Kanawha county to
the Convention which framed the Constitution for the new State of West
Virginia, and, as in the Convention of 1860, he took a prominent and leading
rank. In the same year he was appointed by the Legislature to the high
position of Major General of militia, for the State of West Virginia. He was,
about that time, tendered the position of Colonel of a regiment in the
Federal army, if he desired to enter the serviceas a volunteer, but he
declined to accept it, on account of the large business interests which he
represented in the Kanawha Valley.
Too much praise cannot be given to General Ruffner for his devotion to the
Union when the dark storm-cloud of war hung low in our political horizon.
His conduct at that time not only exhibited patriotism and love of country in
a very large degree, but it showed that he posessed an unusual amount of
courage,daring, in the face of an over-whelming armed opposition, to urge his
fellow-citizens, less informed, to stand firmly by their country and their
flag. Scores and hundreds of our citizens heeded the advice given them by
General Ruffner, in that great emergency, and stood by the ship that had
borne them up safely, as a nation and a people, for nearly one hundred years.
Ruffner connected himself with the Presbyterian church in Charleston, in
December, 1844, under the ministry of Rev. Dr. Stuart Robinson, of Kentucky,
and has remained a devoted and consistent member until the present time. His
health is moderately good, and the encroachments of age. do not seem to make
very decided impressions upon him.
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