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MONROE COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: ALDERSON, John
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
SSpradling@aol.com
September 20, 1999
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A History of Monroe County, West Virginia
Oren F. Morton, B. Lit.
Staunton, VA
The McClure Company, Inc.
1916
p. 298-300
JOHN ALDERSON
John (1738-1821), the pioneer of this family in Monroe, was a son of John
(1719-1781) who was a native of England and a son of John, a clergyman of the
Church of England. The second John was about to take a matrimonial choice
which his father disapproved. With the view of breaking the attachment, the
parent gave the son a horse and some pocket money as a means of traveling
around his native country. After he had used up his money, including that
derived from the sale of the horse, he came to America as a redemptioner and
was bought by a Mr. Curtis of New Jersey After his release from service, the
young man married his master's daughter and became a Baptist preacher. A
letter to his father brought a kind response and two volumes on theology,
which books have been passed along from generation to generation. This second
John came to Rockingham in 1755, but died in Botetourt, where he was a
merchant. Other sons were Curtis, James, and Thomas. The last named also
lived here a while but left no posterity in this region.
The third John (Mary Carroll, 1759) was preaching for the Baptist
congregation on Linville Creek in 1775. After two missionary trips to the
Greenbrier he came permanently in 1777, and built his house where now stands
the Alderson Hotel in the town of Alderson. His patent overlapping that of
Samuel Lewis just below, he extended his boundary into the hills south of the
river. His brother-in-law, William Morris, had also a patent of 1200 acres
and it lay across the river. As pastor of Old Green-brier Church, and founder
of the Baptist Church in the Greenbrier valley, the Rev. John Alderson is
spoken of in Chapter XXIII. C: George (1762-1811c) (~Osborne of
Josiah)-Joseph (b. 1771) (Mary Newman, 1789)
-Margaret (1778-1869) (Thomas Smithson)-Jane (b. 1780) (William
McClung)-John (1783-1853) (Jane Walker, 1805, Nancy Robinson Mays)
George moved to Kanawha, where he was a justice. George's Creek was named for
him. John, Jr., lived on the homestead, and Joseph a mile south.
C. of George: John (France's Alderson, 1815)-Levi (Clementina
Al-derson)-James 0. (Abigail M'cClung)-Polly ( McClung). J. 0. was the
father of Rev. James G. and Margaret.
C. of Joseph: George (b. 1789) ( McCreery, Davis)-Sarah (Thomas
Smithson)-Mary (b. 1793) ( Lewis) -Martha (s)-Margaret (William
Feamster)-Newman (s)-Jo'seph K. (a)- Lewis A. (1812-1880) (Lucy B. Miles,
Eliza Coleman). George was a Colonel in Fayette and the father of 23
children. The Rev. L. A., who took the master's degree at the University of
Ohio in 1832 and was ordained the next year, was the first native Baptist
preacher in Virginia who was a college graduate. He was principal of the
Monroe Academy, 1834-6 and 1840-43, meanwhile preaching in the vicinity. In
1858 he went to Kansas, where he was offered the presidency of several
colleges. It has been said of him that "the world might soon become converted
if there were more such noblehearted, self-sacrificing Christian men."
C. of John: Malinda (b. 1805) (James Callison, 1840)-Albert (b. 1807)
(Matilda Hines)-Louisa (Aaron Newman, 1829)-Evaline (Thomas D. Crews,
1834)-John (b. 1812) (Harriet E. Johnson, 1839)-Mary (Andrew Ellis, 1834); by
2d w.-Jane (b. 1824) (Joseph A. Huffman, 1847) Amanda (Samuel Carraway,
1847)-Catharine (A. Jackson Smith, 1843)
-Elizabeth (William Gray)-Lucy (1831-1899) (Joseph P. Hines)-George (b.
1833) (Mary J. Hines, Virginia M. Stevens Boyd).
C. of George of John: Charles 0. (dy)-Emma C-Ida N. By 2d w.
I. Cary-Bernard C. (1870-1905)-George (1875~1907)-Virginia S. (Charles B.
Rowe, 1907). Both George and George, Jr., have representedMonroe in the
legislature. Cary was graduated from Hampden-Sidney College and in law from
the University of Virginia. He practiced at Logan and was president of the
Guyan Valley Bank. Bernard C. was a graduate of West Virginia and Chicago
universities, and for two years instructor in Latin and Greek at the former.
In 1900 he and Emma C. organized the Alderson Baptist Academy, in which the
latter is still a teacher.
C. of Albert of John: Joseph K. (m. in Tex. )-Mary A. (Higgens)-Catharine
(James Bobbitt)-Margaret ( Foster)-Frances ( Keaton)-John W. (
Garstang)-Henry C. (dy)-Amanda (dy)-Susan (Jackson Bledsoe). Most of the
above went to Texas. J. W. returned, built the Alderson Hotel, and it is
still carried on by the widow.
C. of John of John: Elizabeth J. (DeWitt Smith)-Sophronia (Chris-topher
Ballard)-William-David-Ellen-Harriet. John and the four younger of his
family went to Missouri before 1860.
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