U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Sleeth, David Wallis (1796-1851) ------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Ritchie County by Minnie Kendall Lowther Wheeling News Litho. Co., Wheeling W.Va., 1911 Pages 541-545 David W. Sleeth has been styled the founder in this village [Smithville]. He came here, near the year 1844, and erected a building where the Clarke residence now stands, and opened a hotel and a store, and, a little later, started a tannery; and from this time, until his death, on July 5, 1851, his interests were identified with the village, and here, in the cemetery, he lies at rest. He was one of the magistrates that formed the County court at the time of his death, and we here reproduce in the style and the language of that time, the resolutions of respect that were adopted by this honorable body on the occasion of his death fifty-nine years ago: Virginia to-wit:) In the County Court, Tuesday, Ritchie County.) July the 8th, 1851. The Court was opened at 11 o'clock, when J. B., Blair Esq. in a feeling and impressive manner announced the death of David W. Sleeth Esq. one of the Magistrates of this County, who expired at his Residence on Saturday evening last, after a painful and protracted illness. The following Preamble and Resolutions were offered by H. S. Jones Esq. and unanimously adopted: Whereas it has pleased Almighty God to remove from among us David W. Sleeth Esq., a member of this Court to another and a better World and feeling it not only a privilege but a duty to give a public expression of the high estimation in which we hold the memory of our Departed friend Therefore Resolved: That we bow with humble submission to the dispensation of an inscrutable Providence manifested in the death of our friend and fellow-Citizen. We most cheerfully bear testimony to his Industry Intelligence, & firmness as a Magistrate, his humble devotion as a Christian and his honesty as a man. Resolved, That we deeply sympathize, with his bereaved family and friends, and tender to them our sincere and heartfelt Condolence on this occasion. Resolved, That the members of this Court as a token of respect will wear the usual Badge of mourning for 30 days. Resolved, That these proceedings be entered on the minutes of the Court, and Published in the Parkersburg Gazette, and a Copy thereof forwarded by the Clerk to the family of the Deceased. — Ordered that this Court do now adjourn until one o'clock P. M. (Signed) James McKinney C. C. K. David Wallis Sleeth was born, near Clarksburg, in Harrison county, on December 25, 1796; but he had called Pocahontas, Lewis and Gilmer counties his home, before coming to Ritchie. In May 1834, he was married to Miss Nancy Lybrook, of Giles county, Virginia, who died on September 17, 1842, while he was serving as Sheriff of Lewis county, and was laid to rest in the "Stony churchyard," at Jane Lew. Four children were the fruits of this union: Mary Jane died at the age of four years, and sleeps by her mother, at Jane Lew; Chapman and Floyd were laid in the Smithville cemetery in the promise of their young manhood; and Anne Elizabeth became the wife of P. S. Austin, and was the mother of Mrs. J. F. Hartmann, of Burnt House, and the late Mrs. John V. Warner, of this place. These two small families are the only surviving descendants of Mr. Sleeth. In 1845, he "was married, a second time, to Miss Elizabeth Prince — sister of the late John Prince, and half-sister of Jerome Vandiver, of Louisville, Kentucky — who followed him to the grave on December 31, 1855, leaving no issue. The Sleeths are of Scotch descent, and of Revolutionary stock. They came from Scotland and settled in Harrison county, shortly before our struggle for independence. Four brothers. David W, senior, Thomas, John, and Alexander took up arms in defense of their adopted land. David W. Sleeth, senior, married Miss Katherine Carpenter, and was the father of thirteen children: viz., John, Nicholas, David W., junior — the founder of Smithville — Henry, Thomas, and George W. Sleeth, Mary, who became Mrs. Henry Waldeck, Mrs. Margaret (Cornelius) Cain, Mrs. Katherine (Samuel) Brannon, Mrs. Sarah (Henry) Wint, Mrs. Jane (Henry) Stalnaker, all of Gilmer county; and Mrs. Nancy (Allen) Simpson, Weston. (The family removed from Harrison county to near Troy in Gilmer). Nicholas Sleeth married Miss Katherine Collins, and came to this county as early as 1838, and lived and died in the Burnt House community. His two sons Malan, and Ranfeu, and his daughter Nancy, who married Joseph Sylman, of Gilmer county, were the members of his family. The first wife of the late John Frederick was his granddaughter, and J. M. Frederick, her son, of Burnt House, is his only descendant in this county. Others reside in Gilmer and Roane counties. George W. Sleeth married Miss Rulina McWhorter, and lived and died at Smithville, leaving no issue. Alexander Sleeth married Miss Katherine Wolfe, daughter of David Wolfe, of Harrison county, and niece of Peter Wolfe, of Smithville; and came from Lewis county in 1840, and settled on the Malone — now the Kennedy — farm, above the mouth of Lamb's rim, where he died, and where he was buried the following year, June 1841. He leaves a large line of descendants, who principally reside in Gilmer county; but the one family in this county, that are descended from him, is that of Mrs. Nellie Silcott Synder, of Hazelgreen, her late husband E. E. Snyder, being a grandson. His children were: Mrs. Maria McQuain, Mrs. Mary Coke, Mrs. Emily West, Mrs. Elizabeth Stevenson, mother of the late Will Stephenson, of Grantsville: Mrs. Julia Stalnaker, Mrs. Anna Bush, Granville Sleeth, Perry J., and John M., who have all passed on; and Mrs. Penelope Snyder, widow of the late W. H. Snyder, of Glenville, who survives. A Pretty Little Romance is woven about the marriage of Miss Mary Sleeth and Henry Waldeck, which is worthy of a place here: Mr. Waldeck, who was of German birth was a soldier in the Hessian army, and as it was the custom, at that age of the world for one government to sell soldiers to another in times of war, the regiment to which he belonged was sold to the British for service in the American Revolution, and thus fate decreed that he should be brought to America to fight against the land that he learned to love dearest and best; for at the close of the war, he refused to return to the Fatherland, though a fortune awaited him there; and he crossed the mountains to what is now Lewis county and entered land on the river below Weston, where he founded a "Bachelor's hall." David W. Sleeth, senior, seeing the loneliness of his situation, one day broached the subject of matrimony to him, and advised him to get married. Mr. Waldeck assured him that he should like to act upon this advice if he knew where to find a wife. After a little consideration, Mr. Sleeth said: "My daughter, Mary, is only a little girl yet, but she'd make some man a good wife." The worthy bachelor, however, who was then forty years of age, resolved to see this little maiden and learn what she had to say concerning the matter; and though she was but fourteen years of age, she lent an approving ear to the plan, and soon after became his bride. She was the mother of Mrs. Andrew Law, of Auburn. And Mrs. Agnes Rymer, of Harrisville. and Mrs. G. M. Ireland of Pullman, are among her grand-daughters. Mrs. J. F. Ireland of Colorado, is another grand- daughter, and the Rev. H. M. Law of the West Virginia Methodist Episcopal Conference, is a grandson. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Ritchie County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/ritchie/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------