ROANE COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA 
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Sandy Spradling
SSpradling@aol.com
November 28, 1999
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CAMPBELL: Of Spencer. John Chambers Campbell, Sr., and his wife, Anna, natives of
Frank­lin County, Virginia, with their family of three sens and three daughters, were the first of
this name resident of Spencer. John C. Campbell and his wife were married and lived for a time
in Franklin County, Vir­ginia. We infer from a statement of a grandson, Mr. Cork, that Rebecca,
his mother, a daughter of John C. Campbell, was born in that county. They, John C. and wife,
came to Clarksburg, West Virginia, where they resided for a time, from there to Glenville, West
Virginia, thence to Spencer, shortly after the "Civil War"-about the year 1868. This date we
infer from a marriage record, a daughter, Annie B. to Henry Depue. John C. Campbell was a
lawyer, but in failing strength of limbs, he acquired the large old frame hotel situate on the
corner of Main and Market Streets, the principal hostelry of the town then, conveyed to the wife
and family by John G. Duval and others, 2nd April, 1869, and carried it on for some years; was
elected and served a term or two as a justice of the peace. They educated one son as a physician
and one as a lawyer. They were Presbyterians in religious sentiments. As the name indicates,
they were of Scotch descent; the men all blonds. The names of the children of John C. Campbell,
Sr., and his wife are as follows: Mary Louise. wife of Milton Norris, Glenville Anna Belle,
married Henry Depue of Spring Creek, September 26, 1872. See name Depue, Chapter VI, this
work. Rebecca Lupton, married James Cork in Clarksburg. See name Cork. After his death, she
married Capt. M. W. Kidd. William C., physician, married Miss Prudentia Lewis (See name,
Lewis), January 10, 1882; they made their home on Long Ridge beyond Walton; reared several
children. John C., Jr., married Miss America Simmons, December 30, 1872. Benjamin W. We
have nothing of his career. Augustus M., as a gay young lawyer, was Roane's first resident
prose­cuting attorney; married first, Miss Annie Wilson, 1882, he about twenty years of age
then; he made a second marriage here, and was parent of some children; on expiration of his
office he went to California. Of the children of John C. and America (Simmons) Campbell, we
re­call the following: Mary, who married J. Claud Bartlett (widower, age 44) on September 4,
1898; her age then 24 years. They made their home in Spencer several years and to them were
born one son and one daughter. Ashby, wedded somewhere in the State of Ohio, a Miss of
Swedish extraction; he acquired the John C., jr. and America's home farm and live here yet,
1926. Rebecca, daughter of John C. Jr., and America, his wife, wedded Wil­lam Wyley
Schwender, at her hQme, on November 2, 1904; her age then given as 24, his 25; they resided
here some years then moved to Ripley. They have several children. 

CANDLER: Of Reedy District. John W. Candler was born near "Three Forks" of Reedy, about
the year 1828, son of William Candler and his wife, Elizabeth Seaman Can­dler, who was a
daughter of David Seaman first of the name among pioneers of Reedy, sister of Silas B. Seaman.
This William Candler, father of John W., was a trader in produce on the Ohio River, and was
accidently drowned in that river on one of his trips about the time of the birth of John W., the
only child of himself and Elizabeth (Seaman), his wife, who also did not live to old age. John
W.'s home was always with or near his uncle, Silas B. Seaman, on Right Reedy. He married
Miss Elizabeth J. Napp, daughter of a family of that name of Mason County, about the year 1850.
They made their home on a tract of five hundred acres of land lying one mile from "Three Forks"
up on Right Fork; attacking the then unbroken forest, they made and maintained a good home,
from whence they went forth into the neighborhood affairs, he always performing a conspicuous
part. He was a large man and convincing talker, a ra~e humorist at times; ever a te­total
abstainer from use of intoxicants, in a time when drinking it, even to excess was popular, even
with his uncle and relatives. He was de­voted to the Methodist Episcopal Church and liberal to
it with his time and earnings. 

Source:
History of Roane County, West Virginia, 1774-1927 William H. Bishop, Esq. p 468-469