MONROE COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: ALDERSON, John ****************************************************************** Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by: SSpradling@aol.com September 20, 1999 ****************************************************************** A History of Monroe County, West Virginia Oren F. Morton, B. Lit. Staunton, VA The McClure Company, Inc. 1916 p. 298-300 JOHN ALDERSON John (1738-1821), the pioneer of this family in Monroe, was a son of John (1719-1781) who was a native of England and a son of John, a clergyman of the Church of England. The second John was about to take a matrimonial choice which his father disapproved. With the view of breaking the attachment, the parent gave the son a horse and some pocket money as a means of traveling around his native country. After he had used up his money, including that derived from the sale of the horse, he came to America as a redemptioner and was bought by a Mr. Curtis of New Jersey After his release from service, the young man married his master's daughter and became a Baptist preacher. A letter to his father brought a kind response and two volumes on theology, which books have been passed along from generation to generation. This second John came to Rockingham in 1755, but died in Botetourt, where he was a merchant. Other sons were Curtis, James, and Thomas. The last named also lived here a while but left no posterity in this region. The third John (Mary Carroll, 1759) was preaching for the Baptist congregation on Linville Creek in 1775. After two missionary trips to the Greenbrier he came permanently in 1777, and built his house where now stands the Alderson Hotel in the town of Alderson. His patent overlapping that of Samuel Lewis just below, he extended his boundary into the hills south of the river. His brother-in-law, William Morris, had also a patent of 1200 acres and it lay across the river. As pastor of Old Green-brier Church, and founder of the Baptist Church in the Greenbrier valley, the Rev. John Alderson is spoken of in Chapter XXIII. C: George (1762-1811c) (~Osborne of Josiah)-Joseph (b. 1771) (Mary Newman, 1789) -Margaret (1778-1869) (Thomas Smithson)-Jane (b. 1780) (William McClung)-John (1783-1853) (Jane Walker, 1805, Nancy Robinson Mays) George moved to Kanawha, where he was a justice. George's Creek was named for him. John, Jr., lived on the homestead, and Joseph a mile south. C. of George: John (France's Alderson, 1815)-Levi (Clementina Al-derson)-James 0. (Abigail M'cClung)-Polly ( McClung). J. 0. was the father of Rev. James G. and Margaret. C. of Joseph: George (b. 1789) ( McCreery, Davis)-Sarah (Thomas Smithson)-Mary (b. 1793) ( Lewis) -Martha (s)-Margaret (William Feamster)-Newman (s)-Jo'seph K. (a)- Lewis A. (1812-1880) (Lucy B. Miles, Eliza Coleman). George was a Colonel in Fayette and the father of 23 children. The Rev. L. A., who took the master's degree at the University of Ohio in 1832 and was ordained the next year, was the first native Baptist preacher in Virginia who was a college graduate. He was principal of the Monroe Academy, 1834-6 and 1840-43, meanwhile preaching in the vicinity. In 1858 he went to Kansas, where he was offered the presidency of several colleges. It has been said of him that "the world might soon become converted if there were more such noblehearted, self-sacrificing Christian men." C. of John: Malinda (b. 1805) (James Callison, 1840)-Albert (b. 1807) (Matilda Hines)-Louisa (Aaron Newman, 1829)-Evaline (Thomas D. Crews, 1834)-John (b. 1812) (Harriet E. Johnson, 1839)-Mary (Andrew Ellis, 1834); by 2d w.-Jane (b. 1824) (Joseph A. Huffman, 1847) Amanda (Samuel Carraway, 1847)-Catharine (A. Jackson Smith, 1843) -Elizabeth (William Gray)-Lucy (1831-1899) (Joseph P. Hines)-George (b. 1833) (Mary J. Hines, Virginia M. Stevens Boyd). C. of George of John: Charles 0. (dy)-Emma C-Ida N. By 2d w. I. Cary-Bernard C. (1870-1905)-George (1875~1907)-Virginia S. (Charles B. Rowe, 1907). Both George and George, Jr., have representedMonroe in the legislature. Cary was graduated from Hampden-Sidney College and in law from the University of Virginia. He practiced at Logan and was president of the Guyan Valley Bank. Bernard C. was a graduate of West Virginia and Chicago universities, and for two years instructor in Latin and Greek at the former. In 1900 he and Emma C. organized the Alderson Baptist Academy, in which the latter is still a teacher. C. of Albert of John: Joseph K. (m. in Tex. )-Mary A. (Higgens)-Catharine (James Bobbitt)-Margaret ( Foster)-Frances ( Keaton)-John W. ( Garstang)-Henry C. (dy)-Amanda (dy)-Susan (Jackson Bledsoe). Most of the above went to Texas. J. W. returned, built the Alderson Hotel, and it is still carried on by the widow. C. of John of John: Elizabeth J. (DeWitt Smith)-Sophronia (Chris-topher Ballard)-William-David-Ellen-Harriet. John and the four younger of his family went to Missouri before 1860.