U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- McWhorter, J. M. (b. 1822) ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 512-515 DR. J. M. McWHORTER was born of Scotch-Irish extraction on the 22d day of January, 1822. He is the grandson of Henry McWhorter, the first McWhorter who settled in West Virginia, and from whom all the McWhorters in West Virginia are directly descended. He was the tenth child of Walter McWhorter and Margaret Herst McWhorter. He descends from good Revolutionary stock, his grandfather, Henry McWhorter having been a Revolutionary soldier, fighting under Washington at White Plains and elsewhere, and his grandfather Herst, on his mother's side, having served in the Continental Army during almost the entire Revolutionary War. Dr. McWhorter was born and reared in Harrison County where he lived until 1860, when he moved to Upshur County. In 1848 he married Rosetta Marple, daughter of John W. Marple, and to them were born eleven children, eight of whom lived to maturity, seven of whom are still living. When his two youngest children were very small, his wife died, and some years later he married Mrs. Phebe Cunningham, of Ritchie County, who died in 1905. For twenty-five years he was actively engaged in the practice of medicine, his practice soon growing large and extending into several counties in this state. When he became about sixty-five years old he retired from the practice of his profession, spending his spare time in writing, lecturing and preaching. He was ordained a local minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, but later retired therefrom and joined the Universalist Church, whose doctrines he has openly espoused for more than sixty years, and was then ordained a local minister in that Church. Being the pioneer advocate of Universalism in West Virginia, and the first licensed minister of that church in this state, and the people at that time being generally uninformed of the nature and character of that doctrine so that much feeling and opposition were aroused against him, his religious life became an active and strenuous one, and he wrote and delivered many sermons and lectures in vindication of his church doctrines, and in defending them from assaults made upon them by other church adherents. A book of his sermons and lectures was published. His open advocacy of his church doctrine at so early a date unavoidably kept him in almost constant controversy and debate for many years until, through the general diffusion of knowledge and liberality among the people and churches, his defensive warfare practically ceased as opposition subsided. Dr. McWhorter was an extensive farmer, as well as physician, but a few years ago, feeling the weight of approaching age, he disposed of his farming interests and removed to Buckhannon, where he has since lived, and where now, at the ripe age of eighty-five, he is still living in exceptional mental and physical vigor. His has been a most arduous and active life, without the advantage of a college education, he, through his tireless energy and incessant toil and studious application, attained eminence in the medical profession, a number of his articles giving the results of his original investigation and treatment of many diseases having been published and commented upon in various medical journals published throughout the United States. As an illustration of the strenuous life he has led from his youth, it might be of interest to recall the fact that when a boy, only from sixteen to eighteen years old, he carried the mail from Clarksburg through the wilderness and across the Cheat Mountains, both winter and summer, to where the city of Durbin now stands, the place then being called Traveller's Repose, and he also carried the mail from Clarksburg through by way of Weston to the Little Kanawha River, where Glenville now stands, thence by way of Sutton and Burnsville to French Creek in Upshur County, then back to Weston by way of Buckhannon, the entire route being through an almost unbroken wilderness, and Buckhannon at that time being only a small village of a few scattering houses, the postoffice being kept by Henry Westfall at his residence where the Hart property now stands in Buckhannon. At that time, he says, when the mails were open, the postmaster would place the mail for the town in the crown of his hat, then go to the few houses and business places and distribute it. This is the first free delivery of mail Buckhannon ever had — and to this date, 1907, the last. On one of these trips down Leading Creek, near where the Catholic Church now stands, while traveling alone through a dismal forest, early in the morning, a panther attempted to jump on him from the road side. It was so close to him that he says he could have struck it with an ox gad. Although unarmed, he maintained his presence of mind and cowed the beast by looking it sternly in the eye each time it attempted to spring until he got past it. It repeatedly crouched to spring, wringing its tail and throwing out its long, ugly claws, but as it would look up for the spring it would catch his eye and sink back again. There seems to be something about the human eye, when backed by coolness and nerve, that terrorizes a wild beast, at least it did so in this case. He says that it was a terribly gaunt, hungry looking animal. At another time, while coming through the Allegheny Mountains one dark night, just before daybreak, with the snow up to the saddle girth, a panther screamed right by the roadside. This is one time when, he says, he was actually scared, and expected every minute to feel the animal's claws. At different times on these trips he saw wild bears as well as panthers. When a boy he also walked from Clarksburg across the mountains to Loudoun County, Virginia., Washington, Baltimore at different times driving stock at thirty-three cents per day. On his return trips he was expected to walk a hundred miles every three days on two meals a day, and was paid accordingly. Such, in short, was the arduous life he lived when young, whereby was laid the habits and foundation upon which his later active private and professional life was built. He was always a close, hard student, a broad reader, and of independent mind. He was a strong opponent of the Ordinance of Secession, voting and working against it, but after the war was declared and innocent men who were suspected of being Southern sympathizers were sent from his county to Northern prisons upon frivolous charges, he, at the risk of his life, made several trips to Wheeling and Camp Chase and obtained the freedom of a number of his neighbors and friends, who through personal malice and spite had been sent to these prisons. For his work in this behalf both his life and liberty were threatened. But such threats never swerved him for a moment from his purpose and efforts to relieve his suffering friends and countrymen. On account of his work in this behalf and of his support of General McClellan for President, and of his having made speeches in behalf of McClellan, he was assaulted in the streets of Buckhannon and the soldiers who were then quartered in the town, through the instigation of some private citizens, attempted to egg him. This so exasperated him, considering the fact that he had always been an open advocate of the Union, and had only done what he conceived to be his duty, that he subsequently armed himself and came back to Buckhannon with the confident expectation of being again assaulted and with the intention of his selling out his life as dearly as possible. Fortunately, however, no soldiers were in the town at that time. Subsequently a message was sent to him by the soldiers again quartered in the town that if he did not return to the town and submit to an egging they would go to his home; whereupon he issued a challenge to them to come, which was not accepted. The lives of many innocent men were saved by him through his efforts in their behalf. Dr. McWhorter has written a number of sermons, lectures, speeches and poems which have never been delivered. He was a leader and helper of his people where he lived. His life was given to the public, and sixty years of arduous service has been devoted almost entirely by him to the welfare of his fellow-men. The following lines written by him in his eighty-fifth year, fairly disclosed the unselfish attitude he has always maintained toward others. 1. Where are you going, never mind, But treat your fellow mortals kind; Discharge the duty that nearest lies, For that's the road to Paradise. 2. Let selfish greed and discord die, They mar your pathway to the sky; And let your life and service be, To lift man up and set him free. 3. Let others search for wealth and might, Be mine to treat my brethren right; Are suffering mortals bowed with grief? Be mine to sooth and give relief. CLOSE OF LIFE. J. M. McWhorter. With feeble steps life's labor done, I turn my face to the setting sun, Relying on my Heavenly guide, Fearless I launch on the rolling tide. The stormy scenes of life are o'er, Faith anchors now on the shining shore. The paths of life beset with snares, With toil and pain bedewed with tears. Are past and gone,and now I see, Thy gracious hand has guided me, Altho' I'd murmur and complain, The cross I bore has been my gain. How often have I gone astray, Though taught to know the better way; The spirit voice would gently call "Come back to him who died for all." I thank thee Father, God of Heaven, For light and truth so freely given. That sin and death shall be no more And all shall reach the heavenly shore. And now dear Lord I come to thee; In death thou wilt my anchor be, And gently lead me o'er the wave, For thou alone hast power to save. Farewell to earth with all its cares, Its joys, its sorrows and its tears, To all dear friends, who are left behind, Whose love and care has been so kind. We soon shall meet on the shining shore, Where parting shall be known no more; We then shall see that the toils of earth Where the fathers guide to the heavenly birth. What joy to meet with parted friends, Reunion there will never end. Grieve not for me at the parting shore For I have only gone before. Note — Written on 80th birthday, June 22, 1902, without glasses. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------