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Archiver > WVWOOD > 1999-11 > 0942106883


From: Jennifer Johnston <>
Subject: Riverview Cemetery -- Part 1
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 19:21:23 -0500


Hello, list.
With this email (and several more to follow) you'll find a document on
Riverview Cemetery, located in Parkersburg. The cemetery was researched
by landscape architects RJ Ankrom of Vienna, WV. Mr. Ankrom has
graciously allowed it to be posted online for genealogical research. The
research includes some historical information about the people buried
there (first 2 emails) nd then an A-Z tombstone transcription. Like all
transcriptions, there may be errors, but hopefully you'll find it a good
research tool. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

Jennifer
--
Jennifer Johnston

http://www.geocities.com/heartland/flats/9645

******************************************************

Riverview Cemetery

It is not possible, in a short period of time, to gather all the
information necessary to examine in detail the lives of people, buried
in Riverview, who have contributed to the founding and development of
Wood County and the City of Parkersburg. It is likely that many events
and their participants will be missed, but it is the intent of this
study to highlight the contributions of famous citizens and to make as
many references to founding families as could be uncovered during the
current research.

Parkersburg was named for Alexander Parker by William Robinson, Parker's
son-in-law, in 1811. Mr. Parker of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, had purchased
1,400 acres of land, including the Parkersburg town site, from Robert
Thornton, who had laid "tomahawk" claim to 400 acres at the northern
side of the mouth of the Little Kanawha River and added a pre-emptive
claim later to the additional 1,000 acres. After having the land
surveyed by James Neal, Parker obtained a military service patent to it.

Captain Alexander Parker's patent was earned by his services in the
American Revolutionary War. He fought under Anthony Wayne at Fort
Ticonderoga, at Three Rivers near Quebec, and at Mount Independence.
There is no evidence that, before or after his purchase of the land in
1783, Parker ever visited or settled on the land.

Captain Parker died in 1791. In 1800 John Stokely obtained a patent on a
portion of the Parker land and named the little settlement there
Stokelyville. Parker's descendents, however, brought suit to regain the
land Stokely had patented, and won the court battle in 1809. Parker's
daughter Mary and her husband William Robinson administered the land,
donated a public square, and laid out the town of Parkersburg, which was
chartered in 1820.

The sale of lots in Parkersburg by William Robinson began in 1813. The
one-acre public square was recorded by the Wood County Court in 1812. A
search of county records identified several early purchasers who are
buried in Riverview: Elizabeth Pennybacker, George Creel, John Mayberry,
William Tefft, Bennett Cook, Henry Logan, John J. Jackson, David
Chevalier, Tillinghast Cook, Hugh P. Neale, John R. Murdoch, Cincinnatus
J. Neal, and John F. Snodgrass. The record of original sales spans a
period of 30 years.

Mayors of Parkersburg buried in Riverview Cemetery:
M.P. Amiss
O.M. Clemens
James Cook
Jacob B. Jackson
Gen. Samuel D. Karnes
Allen C. Murdoch
W.H. Smith Jr.
J.W. Vanderwort

Clerks of Wood County Court buried in Riverview Cemetery:
Henry H. Dils
G.K. Leonard
William H. Smith
Thomas G. Smith

Sheriffs of Wood County buried in Riveriew:
Henry H. Dils
Bennett Cook
Jonas Beeson

Deacon Lysander Dudley was head of the county Board of Supervisors in
1864. He was a carpenter, builder and designer of many Parkersburg
houses, the First Baptist Church and the St. Xavier Catholic Church.

Justices of the Wood County Court buried in Riveriew Cemetery:
Joseph Cook
Bennett Cook
Richard Neale
Jonas Beeson
Derick Pennybacker (not in Riverview, but his wife Elizabeth Neal is
buried here)
John G. Stringer
Daniel R. Neal

Clerks of the Superior and Circuit Courts buried in Riverview:
James John Neal
Lawrence Perry Neal

Riverview is the final resting place for many doctors, lawyers, judges,
ministers, legislators, military veterans, businessmen, industrialists
and citizens from all walks of life. There are many infants and a few
servants and people who were related to important historical
personalities not buried in Riverview. This narrative will attempt to
inform the reader about several of these people, many of whom are
descendants of Wood County's and Parkersburg's earliest settlers.

Captain James Neal was the area's earliest permanent settler,
establishing Neal's Station (fort) south of the Little Kanawha River's
mouth in 1784-85. He died in 1822 and is buried in the Tavenner
Cemetery. The children of James' second son, John, made their mark on
Parkersburg's history. Cincinnatus J. Neal was an early property owner
and businessman and delegate to the Wheeling Convention of 1861. Daniel
Rowell Neal was in the Virginia Assembly from 1856-1860, and James J.
Neal was a delegate to the Wheeling Convention of 1861. Elizabeth Neal
Pennybacker was married to Derick Pennybacker, John Neal's business
agent and manager, and Lawrence Perry Neal joined his brother Daniel to
establish a grocery-notion-general store located on Market Street above
Court Street. The store also housed the post office.

In 1807, George Neale Sr. settled in Washington Bottom. This family
apparently is not related to Captain James Neal's family. George Neale
Jr. was owner of Blennerhassett Island in 1837 when he married Agnes R.
Beeson, daughter of pioneer settler Jacob Beeson. George Jr. was an
active Parkersburg businessman, director of the old Northwestern Bank
and partner in a store with William Gardner. Richard Neale, in
partnership with Tillinghast Cook, built Wesley Chapel Church.

The Cook family has the largest number of burials in Riverview Cemetery.
John Cook, 1778-1827, and his wife Margaret, 1783-1864, Tillinghast A.
Cook, 1790-1869, and his wife Elizabeth (Betsey), 1789-1873, Joseph
Cook, Bennett Cook, who married Hannah James, the daughter of John
James, and many other Cook family members have been very influential in
Parkersburg and Wood County history. Tillinghast built the "Cook House"
at 1301 Murdoch Avenue at its intersection with Ann Street in 1825.
James Cook was the first Mayor of Parkersburg and, in one of his first
acts as mayor, was seriously injured during the "Militia Riot" of 1861
while trying to restore order. He was a member of the Virginia
Legislature in 1849-1850, an acting sheriff for many years, president of
Northwestern Virginia Railway from 1851-52, President of Northwestern
Bank of Virginia and President of the Council of Parkersburg. Bennett
was a delegate to the Wheeling Convention of 1861, a member of the
County Court in 1808 and Sheriff of Wood County 1827-1830. Patriarch
Captain Joseph Cook and his wife Elizabeth Barker came to the
Parkersburg area in 1797 and settled on a 216-acre farm. One of the
notable latter-day Cook descendants was Lynn Holmes Cook, who worked on
the Manhattan Project in Oakridge, Tennessee, from 1942-1945. She died
in 1961.

Only two graves in Riverview Cemetery bear the pioneer Beeson name:
Jonas Beeson, 1770-1842, and his wife Rebecca, 1786-1874. Jonas, a
carpenter who helped build the 1809 Court House, was the brother of Col.
Jacob Beeson whose descendants were joined in marriage to some of the
most important families in Parkersburg. Jacob's daughter Emma G. married
Gen. John Jay Jackson in 1823; daughter Agnes R. married George Neale
Jr.; and daughter Ann S. married William S. Gardner, who was very
prosperous in the mercantile business. Jonas was six times elected to
the Virginia Assembly from Wood County and was Sheriff of Wood County in
1833.

When John Jay Jackson arrived in Parkersburg on a furlough from the army
in October 1822, he brought with him a name already distinguished in
state and national politics. His father was John George Jackson of
Harrison County, who at age 20 was a delegate in the Virginia General
Assembly. At the same time, John George's father George was in the
United States House of Representatives. John George married Mary Payne,
sister of First Lady Dolly Madison, in October 1800. The wedding, which
took place at the President's home became known as the first White House
wedding.

John Jay worked for his father as a page in the U.S. House of
Representatives in Washington DC, studied in Washington College at the
age of 13 and received an appointment to West Point from President John
Monroe. He entered West Point at age 15, graduating at age 18. He was a
veteran of the Seminole War and later became Adjutant of the 4th
Infantry Division, from which he resigned to complete his study of law
and enter practice in Parkersburg.

John Jay Jackson became the Prosecuting Attorney of Wood County,
Prosecuting Attorney of the Circuit Superior Court, Prosecuting Attorney
of Ritchie County, a member of the House of Delegates of Virginia in
1825, 1830, 1838, 1839, 1842, and 1844, and was commissioned Brigadier
General of the 23rd Brigade of Virginia Militia, a position he held
until 1861 when the Act of Secession was passed. He was a delegate to
the State Convention of Virginia in 1861,where he took a solid stand
against the Act of Secession.

Gen. John Jay Jackson married Emma G. Beeson as noted above. This union
continued the distinguished family line with John Jay Jackson Jr., James
Monroe Jackson, Eliza Clinch Jackson Dickinson, Jacob Beeson Jackson,
America Jackson Small, and Emma Beeson Jackson Dent.

John Jay Jackson Jr., a lawyer by profession, was Prosecuting Attorney
of Wirt County and Ritchie County, a member of the Legislature of
Virginia, U.S. Judge of the District of Western Virginia. He was married
to Caroline Glime and they had two children, Benjamin and Lily.

James Monroe Jackson was a lawyer educated at Princeton College. He was
Prosecuting Attorney in Wood County, commanded the 113th Wood County
Militia as a Colonel (and was once arrested in Clarksburg on suspicion
of being a Confederate trouble-maker), served in the State Legislature
of West Virginia from 1870-71, served notably in the State
Constitutional Convention of 1872 and became Judge of the 5th Judicial
District of the State in 1872. He was married to Helen Seeley in 1851.
Unfortunately, Helen died in 1861 after the birth of Johnny. James
Monroe married Lucy Kincheloe in 1864.

Jacob Beeson Jackson, also a lawyer, was educated in Parkersburg at the
Parkersburg Institute. He began practice in Pleasants County, becoming
its Prosecuting Attorney in 1852, then moved to Parkersburg in 1864 and
became Wood County Prosecuting Attorney in 1870. He was elected to the
West Virginia Legislature in 1875 serving as Chairman of the Committee
of the Judiciary. He married Maria Willard (first cousin of Thomas
Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson) in 1855. He was Mayor of Parkersburg in
1879. The pinnacle of his political career came when he was elected
sixth Governor of West Virginia as a Democrat, serving in 1881-1885.
During his term, laws were passed assessing tax on personal property.

END OF PART 1

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