U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- McGuffin, John A. (1844-1908) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Men of West Virginia, Volume II Biographical Publishing Company George Richmond, Pres.: C. R. Arnold, Sec'y and Treas. Chicago, Illinois, 1903 Pages 765-767 COL. J. A. McGUFFIN, general manager of the Longdale Coal & Iron Company, at Sewell, West Virginia, and a prominent and influential citizen of Fayette County, was born in Jackson County, Virginia, now West Virginia, May 23, 1844. He is a son of Robert and Elizabeth (McCowan) McGuffin, the former of whom was born in Bath County, Virginia, and the latter in Pennsylvania The McGuffin family was established in Virginia, immediately after the close of the Revolutionary War, by Robert McGuffin, a native of Scotland. His son, James McGuffin, was also born in Scotland, and served in the War of 1812 as a cavalryman. He was a man of wealth and social importance in Bath County, where his whole after life was spent, and where he died during the Civil War. Robert McGuffin, father of our subject was a son of James McGuffin and his wife, Elizabeth Irwin, who was a daughter of Robert Irwin, also a Revolutionary soldier. He removed in young manhood from Bath into Jackson County, this State, where he became a man of public importance and large means. He served as sheriff of Jackson County for two terms prior to 1850, and then moved to Mason County, locating on an estate eight miles above Point Pleasant, on the Kanawha River. His death occurred in 1858. The mother of Colonel McGuffin was a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Stone) McCowan, the former of whom was a son of James McCowan, who served with the rank of captain under General Washington, and was a witness of Braddock's defeat at Beech Bottom. John McCowan, the maternal grandfather of Colonel McGuffin, was a captain in the War of 1812. The family records on both sides show that a military spirit has prevailed and many members have won distinction in that line. Our subject was the eldest of four children born to his parents, his two brothers and sister being as follows: Elizabeth, wife of Walter H. Hogg, now a resident of Mason County; Dr. Richard M., of Bramwell Mercer County; and J. B., a coal operator on Luke Creek. Colonel McGuffin was about six years old when his parents moved to Mason County, and his early education was obtained in the country schools. Later he attended Alleghany College, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in 1861, in both the civil engineering and business courses. He was engaged in making military maps of Virginia for a time, and followed the profession of civil engineering for some ten years, and for a time served on the United States Engineering Corps, on the coast survey service. In 1872 he removed to Fayette County in the interests of the Longdate Coal & Iron Company and did all of the prospecting for that corporation. Colonel McGuffin antedated the building of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway through Fayette County, and was the first shipper of coal over the road, shipping before the lines were completed to the West. At that time the railroad permitted shippers to load their cars with coal on the main lines. The road was opened June 23, 1873, and our subject shipped the first coke from the New River Valley, to the Longdale Coal & Iron Company's furnaces at Longdale, Virginia. The company for which Colonel McGuffin so capably manages, operates a line of thirteen miles of railroad between Sewell and Cliff Top and has seven mines in operation which give employment to 1,000 people, while the main offices are situated at Sewell. Colonel McGuffin is a man of fine administrative ability and is interested in almost all of the leading coal, coke and iron enterprises of the vicinity, and is prominent in other institutions. He is president of the Henry Coal & Coke Company; of the Dunloop Coal & Coke Company; and of the Prudence Coal & Coke Company. He is also vice-president of the Citizens' National Bank at Charleston, West Virginia, and is secretary and treasurer of the Big Kanawha Leasing Company, owning and operating some of the biggest silver mines in Colorado. On June 17, 1873, Colonel McGuffin was married to Maria Hogg, daughter of Col. James Hogg, of Mason County, a veteran of the Mexican War, the family being an old one in Virginia, of Scotch ancestry. The two children born to this union are: Olie, wife of Clarence Kirwin, of Baltimore, Maryland; and Lucy M., wife of John Gibson, of Richmond, Kentucky. His second marriage was to Nettie Sharp, a daughter of William Sharp, who was born at Saratoga, New York, but who is now a well known resident of Ironton, Ohio, aged 84 years. One little daughter of William Sharp, who was this marriage. Col. McGuffin is a Mason of high degree, a Knight Templar, in which he is past commander of Kanawha Commandery, No. 4, of Charleston, and a Shriner, being a member of the Beni-Kedem Temple; he is also a Scottish rite Mason of the 33rd degree. He was honored by being selected as one of the judges at the World's Fair in Chicago, in 1893 and was one of the judges and had charge of the exhibit for the State of West Virginia at the celebration of the Ohio Valley Centennial at Cincinnati, in 1903. ------------------------------------------------------------------- REGISTER OF DEATHS within the district of First Assessment District for the county of Mason in the year ending Dec. 31, 1908 (Page 24, Line no. 4) FULL-NAME: John A. McGuffin DEATH-DATE: February 15, 1908 AGE-AT-DEATH: 65 years DEATH-PLACE: New York City MARITAL-STATUS: Married OCCUPATION: Capitalist ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Mason County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/mason/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------