U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Poe, David (b. 1836) ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 533-536 DAVID POE, born September 20, 1836, in what is now Taylor County, near Grafton. Son of James Poe and Jane (Norris) Poe, his father was the son of Stephen and Margaret (Clendening) Poe. Stephen Poe was the father of thirteen children, by Miss Clendening, and ten children by his second wife. He emigrated from Farquier County, Va., about the year 1800, settling near Grafton on the now Joseph Carter farm and his parents were Samuel Poe and Margaret (King) Poe of Farquier County, Va. While only a boy, the father of Stephen joined the Continental Army and served throughout the war. The Poes are of English extraction, the first of this family to come to America was David, who settled near the border line of Delaware and Pennsylvania and he was the paternal ancestor of three sons, all of whom went South to Virginia at an early date, one of these going perhaps later to North Carolina, thence drifting westward, and we here lose trace of the connection of his descendants. The two sons remaining in Virginia are the foreparents of the Poes of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio. In the last named state the Poes are descended from Adam and Andrew Poe of Indian fame, who were also descended from the two Virginia Poes. Margaret Clendening Poe is a direct descendant from Charles or Archibald Clendening, a pioneer settler at the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, then the border of English settlements in Virginia. These settlements had to be protected from the incursions of the Indians, and Clendening was among the first to take up arms and protect his home and the pioneer settlements from the natives of America, as the settlements proceeded westward, the Clendenings followed and were ever defenders and protectors of these border settlements, on the Greenbrier, New and Kanawha rivers and were conspicuous at the battle of Point Pleasant against Cornstalk. The capital of West Virginia, situated on land owned by Charles Clendening, who gave the town its name and his son George was Delegate of Greenbrier County to the Virginia Assembly which ratified the Constitution of the United States. About 1805, another branch of this family settled in what is now Taylor County, George W. Clendening and two sisters, one the wife of Aaron Luzader, and the other the wife of Abraham Johnson, settled near Grafton and they raised large families. Their sister Margaret Clendening Poe, having preceded them a few years. From the Virginia Clendenings can be traced back a line of descent as far as 1150, when William of Glendolin Clendening, son of second Lord Douglas lived. Robert Glendonyn was rewarded for his bravery and courage in the Battle of Large, 1261, by large grants of land in Ayrshire and Simon Clendening was Knighted by King James Second, and invested with almost regal power within his own land of Glendening. In Scotland they espoused the cause of the Stuarts and in 1644 received their downfall for loyalty to this cause. Sir John Clendening, for his conspicuous part in the Montrose Rebellion, had his property confiscated and was compelled to flee to France. The mother of this sketch was the daughter of David Norris and Susanna Lake, and the granddaughter of William and Mollie Asbury Lake, who were married in 1768 and emigrated from Virginia about the year 1800, settling in what is now Taylor County. William Lake, son of Stephen Lake, who came from England with four sons, Richard, Redmond, William and John. Richard and Redmond went back to England and never returned to America. The subject of this sketch was raised on a farm and remained thereon with his parents until twenty-one years of age. In 1858, he went west as far as Indiana and returned after spending one summer there. When Governor Letcher of Virginia, May, 1861, called the volunteer militia of the state to rendezvous at various camps, he responded to that call and went into camp at Fetterman, Taylor County with the Letcher Guards, the name of the local volunteer militia, and was made First Lieutenant of that organization on May 13. On May 22, 1861, he was officer of the day and was nearby when the killing of Bailey Brown by Daniel Knight, a State Militia picket occurred. Bailey Brown and Daniel Wilson were walking down from Grafton on the B. & O. tracks toward the State Militia camp and encountered the picket, who demanded that they halt, Brown and Wilson refused and went on and approaching nearer Knight, Brown drew his pistol and fired at the sentinel, shooting him through the ear, who in turn, discharged his musket into Brown's breast, killing him instantly, and thus he, Brown, was the first enlisted soldier killed in the war, Col. George R. Latham, then a Captain, recruiting a company at Grafton for the United States, having enlisted him on the 20th day of May, two days prior to his death. He served one year as Lieutenant of the Taylor County, Co. Company A of the 25th Volunteer Virginia Infantry, at which time the regiment was reorganized and mustered into the Confederate service, he declined re-election, preferring and obtaining permission to go down into Northwestern Virginia and recruit men for the cavalry service of the Confederate Army with the help of others he succeeded in recruiting and piloting through the line, Companies A and Pi of the 20th Virginia Cavalry, and was elected lieutenant of the former company, and served as such until after General Lee's surrender here. He was here the 25th Virginia in the battle of Philippi and was in command of the company in the Greenbrier River fight and the Allegheny Mountain fight, December 13, 1861. After the organization of the 20th Virginia Cavalry, served in that regiment during the remainder of the war, participating in the battles with General Averill, was with Imbodens Raid through West Virginia, with Jackson's Raid through the Randolph Mountains, Earley's Raid into Maryland and in most of the battles and skirmishes in the Valley of Virginia in which Jackson's brigade was engaged in the years of 1863-4, was in the skirmishes at Little Washington, Liberty Mill and Gordonsville, Dec., 1864, and was with Lomax Div. of Cav. below Lynchburg and near enough to Appomattox to hear the last gun fired before surrender of Lee. Then went with Lomax's division of Cavalry across Va. to the North Carolina line for disbandonment. Some days before their arrival at Staunton, Jackson's brigade was disbanded at Botetourt County and ordered to rendezvous at Staunton before May first, the order was changed and Jackson's brigade rendezvoused at Lexington, Va., May 3, 1865, and was there disbanded forever as soldiers of the Confederacy. On November 21, 1865, he married Susan D. Hays of Albermarle County, Virginia and to that union were born ten children, five daughters and five sons, whose names are: Sarah M., Ella Hutton, Jane Camp, Charles Jonathan, Thomas Jefferson, Florence Burns, Oscar (dead), James Claudius, Solomon Randolph and Yancy Hays, His wife was the daughter of Col. David Hays, Jr., and Elizabeth Yancy Hays, and the granddaughter of David Hays, Sr., and a Miss Buster of Scotch descent. His wife's mother was the daughter of Charles Yancy and Mildred (Field) Yancy. He moved from Amherst County, Virginia to Upshur County, W. Va., in the fall of 1873, settling on the Middle Fork River, near the Woodley Bridge, the land he had purchased was a forest. For several years he taught school in winter, cleared the forest, raised crops and surveyed land, during the summer and fall. On the Presidential election day of 1876, he and forty of his neighbors were served with writs of ejectment issued out of the Federal Court of the United States in behalf of Benjamin Rich and Company, who claimed to have an older and better title to the land occupied and improved by the residents than the present and then owners. The land owners thus involved organized for resistance and he was selected as chairman of the Executive Committee of that organization of farmers and land owners, to fight the Writ and Claim and retain the land for its rightful owners. This case continued in the Federal Court for several years and on account of the decree of the Court claiming that the plea of disclaimer had not been entered up to the day of the trial and the defendants not owning all the land claimed by the plaintiffs (one hundred thousand acres), the cost of this litigatin shall fall on the defendants and the burden of it was borne by the subject of this sketch. It took his farm of five hundred acres of land and other valuable real estate and personality near Buckhannon to pay this cost. On February 28, 1904, Susan D., his wife, departed this life. He is a Democrat in politics, a Baptist in religion. His political offices have been Notary Public, appointed by Governor Matthews and a member of the House of Delegates 1882 and 1883, from Upshur County. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------