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KANAWHA COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: TOMPKINS, Rachel E.
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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. 305-307
RACHEL E. TOMPKINS
Mrs. R. E. Tompkins, wife of the late William Tompkins, was born in
Pennsylvania in 1804. Her father, Captain Noah Grant, was a soldier in the
Revolutionary war, serving valiantly until its close. He was one of the party
who threw the tea overboard in Boston harbor. He moved to Maysville,
Kentucky, in 1811, where he resided until his death, which took place in
1820. After the death of her father, the subject of this sketch lived with
her brother, the late Peter Grant,who was so well known to all of the old
citizens of Kanawha as the principal man in the salt manufacturing firm of
Armstrong, Grant & Co., which was founded in January, 1827. She made her
first visit to Kanawha in August, 1827, to her niece, Mrs. James Hewitt, a
daughter of Peter Grant. Mr. Hewitt was at that time a resident of Malden,
doing business for the company of Armstrong, Grant & Co., of which he was a
stockholder and director.
In 1831 she was united in marriage with William Tompkins, who was at that
time manufacturing salt at the Burning Springs furnace, ten miles above
Charleston, and had, by industrious application to business, ac cumulated a
handsome estate. Mr. Tompkins was one of the pioneer salt manufacturers of
the Kanawha Valley. He came here in April, 1815, aged twenty-two years,
after having fought his country's battles in the war of 1812-14, and first
obtained employment as a blacksmith, at a small salary. This, however, was
increased annually, enabling him to lay by a sufficiency of means to purchase
a small interest in a salt furnace. He applied himself strictly and
diligently to the business of salt making, until he became able to purchase a
furnace of his own. He not only made a pecuniary success of his business as a
salt manufacturer, but he was the inventor of a number of appurtenances and
improvements in furnaces and salt wells, which are still in use by all salt
manufacturers in the Kanawha Valley. Mr. Tompkins was a man of great
character as well as of great energy. By his scrupulous integrity, and
promptness in all of his business engagements, he won and ever retained the
confidence of all his associates and neighbors.
In 1844, he applied the gas of the burning spring to his furnace, and thereby
reduced the expense of manufacturing salt to a price not exceeding one cent
per bushel. He resided at the Burning Spring furnace, in the house now
occupied by his son, William H. Tompkins, till 1845, when he moved to Cedar
Grove, at the mouth of Kelly's creek, twenty miles above Charleston, where he
died in May, 1857, and where Mrs. Tompkins still resides. Mr. Tompkins never
aspired to or held a public office, yet he often held positions of trust for
the salt companies, such as hipmaster, traveling agent, treasurer, and was
always one of the Board of Directors of the Kanawha Salt Company, which was a
combination of all the salt manufacturers of the valley.
Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Tompkins has continued to reside at the
old Kelly's creek homestead, which by the way, is one of the finest farms on
the Kanawha. In speaking of her experience during the late war, she used
this language: "Living in the country, with armies moving, was not only
annoying, but extremely hazardous; and but for the safeguard furnished me by
General U. S. Grant, which I frequently had occasion to use as a weapon of
defense, I would have suffered even more than I did in pecuniary loss and
anxiety."
Mrs. Tompkins is a lady of unusual good sense, and possesses quite a
business-like turn of mind, as is shown by the following language used in a
recent letter to the author, which is peculiarly her own: "My recollections
of the first days of Kanawha are those fraught with prosperity and happiness
for all whose industry rendered them deserving. Those were days when our
labor was not brought in competition with the pauper prices paid by
foreigners. A healthy tariff then was our protection ; and my observations
have been, that old Kanawha has prospered and bankrupted just as this
Protection has been afforded and denied us."
Mrs. Tompkins is the sister of Mr. Jesse Grant, the father of General Ulysses
S. Grant, the present President of the United States. She is intimately
acquainted with the President, and is very much attached to him. Very
naturally, of course, she is proud of the fact that her nephew has been twice
elected to the highest position in the gift of his countrymen.
Mrs. Tompkins is the mother of eight children, all of whom are living, and
are respected and deserving citizens.
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