U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Fleming, George Mervin (b. 1848) ------------------------------------------------------------------- The History of Upshur County West Virginia From its Earliest Exploration and Settlement to the Present Time by W. B. Cutright Buckhannon, W. Va., July 1, 1907 Pages 451-452 GEORGE MERVIN FLEMING was born on a farm near Fairmont, Marion County, Virginia, January 1, 1848, a son of Benjamin F. and Rhoda Brooks Fleming. His grandfather, William Fleming, came with his parents to Western Virginia from Delaware in the early settlement of this section of country. The Flemings emigrated to Delaware and New Jersey from the North of Ireland, but were Norman descent and came to England from the Continent with William the Conqueror. On his mother's side Mr. Fleming is of unmixed Puritan descent. His grandfather, Rev. Asa Brooks, graduated from Williams College in 1815, and in 1816, came to Western Virginia with the New England colony which settled at French Creek, in what is now Upshur County, and was the Presbyterian pastor there until his death at Clarksburg in 1835, he being the pastor of both churches. Mr. Fleming's maternal grandmother was Mary Everett Sumner, and belonged to the two distinguished Massachusetts families, whose names she bore. Her father was a soldier under Washington in the Revolutionary War. Mr. Fleming graduated from Washington and Jefferson College, with the second honor of his class, in 1871, and holds the degree of A. B. and A. M. from that institution. He taught in the Fairmont Normal School in 1871-1872, and in the West Liberty Normal School in 1872-1873. He graduated from Princeton Seminary in 1876, and studied law at the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor In 1880-1881, immediately after which he was licensed to practice law by Supreme Court Judges, Alpheus F. Haymond, Thomas C. Green and Okey Johnson, and at once entered upon the practice of that profession at Buckhannon. December 10, 1879, Mr. Fleming was united in marriage with Miss Fannie Edmiston, daughter of the late Judge Matthew Edmiston of Weston. She and Hon. Andrew Edmiston are the surviving members of that family. Mr. Fleming is a brother of ex-Governor A. B. Fleming and Judge Robert F. Fleming of Fairmont and of Mrs. Lucie Fleming Stewart, now deceased. He spent some months in Buckhannon in 1875, and returned in 1876, and has resided here continuously since that time. He has been fortunate and successful in the practice of the law. He has at all times had as much business as he could take care of and his clients have been for the most part corporations and people of more or less wealth. He has always discouraged small profitless contentions and has seldom entered into them on either side. He has been identified with various business interests, and as a whole his business investments have proved profitable. He has been a Democrat in politics, but has favored a protective tariff, the gold standard in finance and a strong government, and therefore has not always been an enthusiast for his party candidates. He has never asked for or received office, elective or appointive. He has been a Mason since 1872-1873, is a Past Master, and is devoted to the order. In religion he is an old-fashioned Presbyterian. In the long years of his residence in Upshur County, Mr. Fleming has become identified with its people, and all their interests are his. He has studied people, and is an authority on genealogy and family relationships and characteristics. No native born citizen is more devoted to the County or more proud of its record for intelligence and temperance, and his property interests have anchored him to it for life. ------------------------------------------------------------------- (wife of George M. Fleming) From Death Certificate, Upshur County, WV #11135 FULL-NAME: Fannie Edminst Fleming BIRTH-PLACE: Lew. Co. DEATH-DATE: March 19, 1937 at 82 years of age DEATH-PLACE: Buckhannon, Upshur County, WV MARITAL-STATUS: Widow FATHER: Mathew Edmiston (born in W.Va.) MOTHER: Minerva Beard (born in Va.) CAUSE-OF-DEATH: Fibroid tumor (Inoperable) in womb ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Upshur County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/upshur/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------