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CHARLES WILLIAM WADE
Charles William Wade,
the subject of this sketch, was born in Roanoke County,
Virginia, August 6th, 1860, and was one of nine children born
to Thomas Isaac and Fannie Catherine (Chaffin) Wade. His
grandfather, A. Jackson Wade, settled in Roanoke
County in
the foot-hills of the mountains west of Cave Spring, several
years before the Civil War.
When the war broke out
he enlisted in Company E, Thirty-Sixth Virginia Volunteer
Infantry. He was wounded during the war and afterwards died at
Pearisburg, Virginia. His son, John
Wade, an uncle of the subject of this sketch, was also killed
while fighting for the Confederate cause. He was a member of
Company E, Forty-Second Virginia Regiment, known as the "Dixie
Grays." James N. Wade, another uncle served throughout the
war, and returned to Roanoke County. He enlisted at
the age of sixteen years, and now resides at Norfolk, Virginia.
In his boyhood the
parents of Charles William Wade removed to Rockbridge County and later to Lynchburg. After attending
the public schools he was employed by John P. Pettyjohn, a
general contractor with whom he learned his trade. With the
completion of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, he came to
Roanoke and assisted in the
building of the first fifty houses, constructed by the Roanoke
Land & Improvement Company.
He made the straight
edges used by the stone masons in laying the foundations for
the Roanoke Machine Works. For a period of seventeen years he
was with the Norfolk & Western Railway as hotel carpenter
and inspector. In 1905 he resigned his position with the
railroad and began general contracting. A year later he formed
a co-partnership with Levi C. Rhodes and has since done a
general contracting and building business, under the firm name
of Rhodes & Wade.
Since that time Mr. Wade
has superintended the construction of the new passenger depot
at Bedford City, the West End
Offices of the Norfolk & Western Railway, the fine
residences of A. G. Crosby, H. M. Darnall, W. H. Hayes, E. G.
Orell, and others.
On March 26th, 1884, he married Sallie V. Eubank,
daughter of George H. and Catherine Virginia Eubank of
Lynchburg,
Virginia. To this
union three children were born; namely, Julia Edna, married to
R. C. Elliott; Clyde Preston; and Annie Bryan, married to
George H. Davies.
Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of
Pythias, and religiously a communicant of Greene
Memorial
Methodist
Church.
The parents of Charles William Wade died in Lynchburg, Virginia, and both were
buried in the same grave on Christmas Day, December 25th,
1885.
[History of
Roanoke County by George S. Jack, Edward Boyle
Jacobs; published 1915; Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski
Pack.]
ROSCOE CONKLIN
WERTZ
Roscoe
Conklin Wertz, the eldest son of Kyle’s Griffin and Lutie J.
(Poage) Wertz, was born June 7th, 1880 near Poages Mill, in
Roanoke County. When a boy, he attended the country schools
and the Botetourt Normal College, at Daleville, Virginia; also
taking a training course at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute
in Crop Pest Commission Work, after which he was appointed
State Inspector of Virginia, since which time he has been
looking after the orchards and nursery work of the Stat e,
appointing inspectors and doing all in his power to rid the
valuable orchards o f Virginia of the various pests with which
they have been afflicted for
many years.
Besides
his work as a state officer, he has had charge of the Wertz
plantation and apple orchards for eighteen years, or since the
death of his father in 1893. On this plantation are 1.800
apple trees composed largely of pippins and other leading
commercial varieties. A few of these trees were planted before
the marriage of Kyle’s Griffin Wertz, his father, and the
orchard has grown from a few trees planted prior to 1879, when
he was married, to one of the largest producing commercial
orchards in the county. He kept up the planting of trees every
year until his death. This is one of the oldest orchards on
Back Creek, and on the plantation and situated near the family
residence are a number of trees over one hundred years old,
having been planted by Levi Hays, one of the first settlers of
the Back
Creek Section.
The Wertz
family originally came from Pennsylvania. Kyle’s Griffin
Wertz, a son of John Wertz, was born July 19th, 1846, and died
November 9th, 1903. His life was practically spent on the farm
on which he was born
and reared.
On what
was termed the "Sixteen Roll Call," he went into the
Confederate Army, serving until the close of the war. On
January 23d, 1879, he married Lutie J. Poage, daughter of
George and Ellen Poage. They picked their first load of pippin
apples from young trees planted by Mr. Wertz in 1880, all of
which were held in a single wagon body. During the past eight
years the Wertz orchards have yielded good crops, not a
failure being recorded during that time, the average being
about one thousand barrels per year. Besides Roscoe Conklin
Wertz, the subject of this sketch, other children born to
Kyle’s Griffin and Lutie J. Wertz were Nora E., married James
L. Richardson; Sylvia; Myrtle, married W. D. Hunt; Oscar; Roy;
Maynard; Beulah; Otho, and Marvin—the last
two deceased.
[Virginia and Virginians:
History of Volume 2; by Robert Alonzo Brock, Virgil Anson
Lewis; publ. 1888; transcribed by Andrea
Stawski Pack]
JEFFERSON H.
WILKINSON
Jefferson H.
Wilkinson, the subject of this sketch, was born in Bedford
County, Virginia, October 27th, 1853. He is a son of Jefferson
H. and America (Noell) Wilkinson, both natives of Bedford
County.
His grandfather, Captain Joseph Wilkinson was born
in Bedford County, Virginia, also, and when the war of 1812
broke out with Great Britain, he commanded a company of
infantry from Virginia. He was a farmer, as was his son,
Jefferson Wilkinson, Sr., the latter dying at his Bedford
County home, at the age of twenty-three years. He was survived
by his widow who died six years later, or in 1859, leaving an
only child, the subject of this sketch, an orphan. He was
reared by a maiden aunt, Fannie G. Wilkinson, who died July
12th, 1895. Captain James Noell, his maternal grandfather was
a soldier in the War of 1812.
When
a boy, he attended the country schools, and a private school
taught by the late William G. Claytor. For five years he was a
country school-teacher, but removed to Roanoke in 1887, where
he successfully conducted a planning mill for several years.
Later he established his present business, that of dealing
extensively in lumber, sash, doors, blinds, and building
material. In addition to a large jobbing trade, which extends
over Southwest Virginia, he carries an immense retail trade in
Roanoke and vicinity.
He married Bettie Noell, of
Christiansburg, in 1877. She died in 1888, and two years
later, on October 30th, 1890, he married Carrie L. Byrd,
daughter of William A. and Clarinda Byrd, of Roanoke. The
following children were born to bless this union: Annie C.,
Frank L., Walter H., Clarinda, and J. H. Wilkinson Jr.,
(deceased).
Mr. Wilkinson ably
represented his ward in the City Council from 1899, for three
consecutive terms. When under the new constitution, the
Bi-cameral Council was instituted in Roanoke, he was elected
from Highland Ward as an Alderman, and served as President of
that body.
He is a member of Greene Memorial Methodist
Church and for many years was a member of the Board of
Stewards.
[History of Roanoke County by George S. Jack,
Edward Boyle Jacobs; published 1915; Submitted to Genealogy
Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]
STEPHEN THOMAS
WOOD
Son of Samuel G. and Amanda (Gish) Wood, of
Roanoke county, was born in that county on April 24, 1847. He
is the grandson of Rev. Stephen Wood, who was a distinguished
citizen of Franklin county, Virginia, where he served for many
years in the offices of magistrate and high sheriff. Although
only eighteen years of age when the war between the States was
ended, the subject of this sketch had then seen one year's
service, in Griffin's battery, Hardaney's battalion, Army of
Northern Virginia. His parents still live in Roanoke County,
his father now 70 years of age. He came to Lynchburg, and was
first engaged as book-keeper for a grocery firm. For the past
twelve years he has been connected with the People's National
Bank, for which he is teller. In Lynchburg, November 20, 1878,
Rev. A. C. Bledsoe officiating, he married Emma, daughter of
Robert and Mariah L. (Thurman) Mays. She was born in
Lynchburg, March 8, 1853. Her father died on October l9, 1884;
her mother is still living in Lynchburg at the age of 70
years. The record of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Wood is:
Stephen Hervey, born October -28,1879; Mariah Louisa, born
February 7,1881, died March 8th following; Robert Gilbert,
born September 30, 1882; Alice Latham, born September
10,1886.
Source: Virginia and Virginians:
History of Volume 2; by Robert Alonzo Brock, Virgil Anson
Lewis; publ. 1888; transcribed by Andrea Stawski
Pack
WOODS, JAMES
PLEASANT
The subject of this
sketch was born in Roanoke County, Virginia, February 4th,
1868. His father was William Woods and his mother, Sarah Jane
(Edington) Woods. He is of Scotch-Irish descent on his
father's side and English on his mother's side. He descended
from Michael Woods, who settled in Albemarle County in 1734.
William Woods was First Lieutenant in a company which
formed a part of the Fifty-fourth Virginia Infantry and served
with distinction throughout the Civil War. James Pleasant
Woods graduated at Roanoke College with first distinction, in
the class of '92, was president of his class, and in 1891 made
the highest average grade in college.
He studied law at
the University of Virginia in 1892 and 1893, and began the
practice in Roanoke, Virginia, with Judge C. B. Moomaw, as
Moomaw & Woods.
In 1903 he became a member of the firm
of Robertson, Hall & Woods, which continued until 1910,
when Mr. Robertson was elevated to the bench. The present firm
of Hall & Woods enjoys a commendatory practice and
represents many of the leading corporations and industrial
enterprises.
In politics, Mr. Woods is a Democrat. A member
of the City Council for several years, mayor of the city from
1897 to 1899, a member of the State Central Committee and was
a member of Governor's Swanson's staff.
In 1904 he was
married to Miss Susie K. Moon, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Brekenridge Moon, of Chatham, Virginia, and they have two
children, Elizabeth and Katherine, age four
years.
Religiously he is a member of Greene Memorial
Methodist Church, South.
[History of Roanoke County by
George S. Jack, Edward Boyle Jacobs; published 1915; Submitted
to Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]
ROBERT F
WYATT
Robert F. Wyatt,
who recently purchased the Berry store property, the Cave
Spring and other properties at Cave Spring in Roanoke County,
and who is now engaged in mercantile pursuits, was born near
Martinsville, Henry County, Virginia, on June 16th, 1861,
being a son of John Walter and Malinda H. (Scott) Wyatt. His
paternal grandfather, Posey Wyatt, lived at Leatherwood, and
his maternal grandfather Samuel Scott, was a native of Bedford
County. Robert F. Wyatt attended the "old field" schools of
Henry County in his boyhood. While he was an infant his father
joined the Confederate Army, being a member of Company A, 24th
Virginia Regiment. He was captured and died in Elmira prison
in 1864. At the age of twenty, Mr. Wyatt located in Roanoke
and was engaged in construction work on the Shenandoah Valley
Railroad. He later assisted in building several branches of
the Norfolk & Western, and was similarly engaged in work
on the Atlantic & Danville and the Georgia, Carolina &
Northern Railroads. In 1892 he returned to Roanoke and engaged
in the construction of the city sewage system. The following
January, he located in Washington, D. C., and was engaged in
the construction of a railroad which failed, ruining him
financially.
In 1894 he went to
Jamaica and assisted in building a railroad from Port Antonio
to Kingston, afterwards spending two years in the West Indies
and South America.
After much
travel he returned to Washington, D. C., in 1896, and engaged
in installing the underground current for the Washington
Street Railway System, and superintended the construction of
the experiment and model tank of the Washington Navy Yard.
On December 25th, 1898 he married
Agnes E. Sandsbury, daughter of John T. and Sarah E. (Brown)
Sandsbury of Prince George County, Maryland. From this union
three children resulted: Violet R., born April 25th, 1900;
Gracie H., born March 20th, 1901; Robert C., born April 8th,
1906.
On September 30th, 1911, Mr. Wyatt
with his interesting family moved to Cave Spring where he is
now engaged in mercantile pursuits. He had just completed a
handsome residence. He will also improve the "Cave Spring,"
the water of which possesses fine medicinal
qualities.
Transcribed by: Peggy Luce |
