James McNeil Stephenson (November 4,1796 –April 16,1877) was an American lawyer,businessman and politician who served several terms in the Virginia House of Delegates representing western Virginia counties which in his lifetime became part of the state of West Virginia. His is probably not related to James Stephenson who represented western Virginia counties (now in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia) in the Virginia House of Delegates and U.S. Congress,nor schoolteacher Benjamin L. Stephenson (1826-1871) of Clay County,West Virginia who helped found the new state. [1]
Born in Greene County,Pennsylvania,Stephenson moved across the Ohio River when he was young. When his father died,he apprenticed with a tanner and began reading law. He married Agnes Boreman,the sister of his law partner as well as future governor Arthur I. Boreman (who would become one of the founders of West Virginia during the American Civil War).
In addition to his legal practice,Stephenson became politically active,particularly in promoting internal improvements,including the Staunton-Parkersburg Road,the Northwestern Turnpike,the James River and Kanawha Canal,the North Western Virginia Railroad and the Little Kanawha Navigation Company. Stephenson was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates many times beginning in 1839,although he also lost several races. He first represented Tyler County in 1839 and was re-elected the following year,then was again elected in 1843 and re-elected in 1844,but not in 1845 when Doddridge County was added to the district. In 1839,Stephenson helped found the Northwestern Bank of Virginia (which became Parkersburg Bank and is now part of United Bank) in Parkersburg (the seat of Wood County), [2] where he soon moved. Thus he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates for the final times from the district comprising Wood,Ritchie and Doddridge Counties. [3]
Following Lincoln's election (despite having received only 4% of the vote in northwestern Virginia),on January 1,1861 Stephenson addressed a large meeting in Parkersburg,as did General John Jay Jackson and Arthur Boreman,and that meeting adopted a resolution both pro-Union and pro-Virginia. [4] [5]
By 1860,Stephenson owned about 10,000 acres in Wood County,including about 1000 acres surrounding Oakland,the Greek Revival style mansion he built in 1840 and farmed using about 20 slaves. [6] Union troops encamped on the grounds with Stephenson's permission during the American Civil War (after General John Jay Jackson told them to move off his property on Quincy Hill),although later Union cavalry damaged both this mansion and garden. [7] Stephenson's eldest son,Kenner,enlisted as a private with the 36th Virginia Infantry on April 15,1862, [8] and this Stephenson also put up the $4000 cash bond for the wife of Confederate Captain Marcellus Clark,who was accused of being a horse thief (and who before the war had helped manage the California House in at Claysville). [9]
Stephenson died in Parkersburg in 1877. His mansion,Oakland,was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 (although the surrounding estate shrunk significantly after Stephenson's death) and was donated to the WVU at Parkersburg Foundation in 2015.
Arthur Ingram Boreman was an American lawyer,politician and judge who helped found the U.S. state of West Virginia. Raised in Tyler County,West Virginia,he served as the state's first Governor,and a United States senator,as well as represented Wood County in the Virginia House of Delegates,and served as a circuit judge before and after his federal service.
Joseph Ellis Johnson was a farmer,businessman,and politician who served as United States Representative and became the 32nd Governor of Virginia from 1852 to 1856,the first Virginia governor to be popularly elected as well as the only Virginia governor from west of the Appalachian mountains. During the American Civil War,he sympathized with the Confederacy,but returned to what had become West Virginia for his final years.
William Erskine Stevenson was an American cabinet-maker,farmer,and Republican politician from Parkersburg,West Virginia. He was the third governor of West Virginia from 1869 until 1871.
The U.S. state of West Virginia was formed out of western Virginia and added to the Union as a direct result of the American Civil War,in which it became the only modern state to have declared its independence from the Confederacy. In the summer of 1861,Union troops,which included a number of newly formed Western Virginia regiments,under General George McClellan drove off Confederate troops under General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Philippi in Barbour County. This essentially freed Unionists in the northwestern counties of Virginia to form a functioning government of their own as a result of the Wheeling Convention. Before the admission of West Virginia as a state,the government in Wheeling formally claimed jurisdiction over all of Virginia,although from its creation it was firmly committed to the formation of a separate state.
Peter Godwin Van Winkle was an American lawyer,businessman and politician. For many years a leading officer of the Northwestern Virginia Railroad,he became one of the founders of West Virginia and a United States senator.
Johnson Newlon Camden was a prominent oilman,industrialist,banker,railroad tycoon,and politician who was estimated to be worth $25 million at the time of his unexpected death. Although both of his attempts to become governor of the new state of West Virginia failed,he did become United States Senator,representing West Virginia on two occasions.
The Staunton–Parkersburg Turnpike was built in what is now the U.S. states of Virginia and West Virginia during the second quarter of the 19th century to provide a roadway from Staunton,Virginia and the upper Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River at present-day Parkersburg,West Virginia. Engineered by Claudius Crozet through the mountainous terrain,it was a toll road partially funded by the Virginia Board of Public Works. Control of this road became crucial during the American Civil War. Today,the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike can be largely traversed by following West Virginia Route 47 east from Parkersburg to Linn,then U.S. Route 33 east through Weston and Buckhannon to Elkins,then U.S. Route 250 southeast through Beverly,Huttonsville,crossing the West Virginia/Virginia state line to Staunton,Virginia.
Charles Brooks Smith was a Union Army veteran,businessman and Republican politician who served in the United States House of Representatives for a single term from West Virginia's 4th congressional district.
Philip Doddridge was a Virginia lawyer and sectional leader of western Virginia. He served in the United States House of Representatives representing the Wheeling District in the Upper Ohio River Valley,as well as in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly.
David Michael Staton,better known as Mick Staton was an American banker and politician. He was a Republican congressman from West Virginia,serving one term in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 1983.
The RestoredGovernment of Virginia was the Unionist government of Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) in opposition to the government which had approved Virginia's seceding from the United States and joining the new Confederate States of America. Each state government regarded the other as illegitimate. The Restored Government attempted to assume de facto control of the Commonwealth's northwest with the help of the Union Army but was only partly successful. It raised Union regiments from local volunteers but depended upon recruits from Pennsylvania and Ohio to fulfill its commitments. It administered this territory until,with its approval,the area became part of West Virginia in mid-1863.
Herbert Stephenson Boreman was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
John Jay Jackson Jr. was an American lawyer,Whig politician,United States District Judge and,later,the first judge of the United States District Court for the District of West Virginia. He ended his career as the first judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
"Oakland," also known as the James M. Stephenson House,is a home located in Parkersburg,Wood County,West Virginia. Although a slaveholder and sympathizing with the Confederacy,Stephenson was also married to the sister of Unionist Arthur Boreman,and allowed then Union Army Col. James B. Steedman to use his grove nearby during the American Civil War. However,Union cavalry units occupied this his mansion for a time nonetheless,and damaged furnishings as well as the home and garden.
James Sanders Wheat was the Attorney General of Virginia in Union held territory from 1861 to 1863.
Joseph Hubert Diss Debar was a French-born American artist and government official who designed the official seal and coat-of-arms for the state of West Virginia in 1863. Many of his sketches of early West Virginia figures and scenes survive.
Edwin Maxwell was an American lawyer,judge,and politician in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Maxwell served as Attorney General of West Virginia in 1866 and was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia from 1867 until 1872. He was elected to the West Virginia Senate and the West Virginia House of Delegates.
The 1863 West Virginia gubernatorial election was the first gubernatorial election,held on May 28,1863. The Union ticket headed by the judge of the 19th circuit court of Virginia and former president of the Second Wheeling Convention,Arthur I. Boreman,was elected without significant opposition. The election took place against the backdrop of the American Civil War and the end of slavery in the United States. Residents of 18 counties were unable to cast ballots due to occupation by Confederate military forces.
Daniel Edward Frost was an American journalist,politician and soldier who twice served in the Virginia House of Delegates before the American Civil War. He helped found the state of West Virginia at the Wheeling Convention where he represented Jackson County and served as Speaker of the House of Delegates for the Virginia General Assembly at Wheeling,before he died fighting for the Union while leading the 11th West Virginia Infantry Regiment.
On June 20,1863,the U.S. government created a new state from 50 western counties of Virginia to be named "West Virginia". This was done on behalf of a Unionist government in Wheeling,Virginia,approved by Congress and President Lincoln,though it was done with a low participation of the citizens within the new state. There remained a large number of counties and citizens who still considered themselves as part of Virginia and the Confederacy which,in turn,considered the new state as part of Virginia and the Confederacy. In 1861 the 50 counties contained a population of 355,544 whites,2,782 freemen,18,371 slaves,79,515 voters and 67,721 men of military age. West Virginia was the 6th most contested state during the war,with 632 battles,engagements,actions and skirmishes.