History of Martinsburg, (Berkeley County) West Virginia United States of America

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Biographies:

Charles James Faulkner, representative, was born in Martinsburg, Berkeley county, Va., July 2, 1806; son of Maj. James and Sarah (Mackay) Faulkner. He was graduated from Georgetown university, D.C., in 1822, and was admitted to the bar in 1829. He was a member of the Virginia house of delegates, 1832-33; of the state senate, 1841-42, and was again elected to the house of delegates in 1848, during this term introducing a bill which was passed and sent to congress and which developed into the fugitive slave law of 1850. He was a member of the convention which met to revise the state constitution in 1850, represented his district in the 32d, 33d, 34th and 35th congresses, 1851-59; and was appointed U.S. minister to France by President Buchanan in 1857, accepting the position in 1859. On his return from Paris in August, 1861, after settling his accounts with the government as minister, and being given by Mr. Seward, secretary of state, a pass to his home in Virginia, he was arrested by order of the secretary of war, Simon Cameron, ostensibly to be held as a hostage for Treasurer Henry S. McGraw of Pennsylvania, who had been captured at the first Bull Run fight. He was then confined in Fort LaFayette, New York harbor, and afterward in Fort Warren, Boston, until his exchange for Representative Alfred Ely of New York, on Dec. 9, 1861. He accepted the position of adjutant-general on the staff of "Stonewall" Jackson. While acting in that capacity he wrote twenty of the twenty-two published reports of that distinguished leader. With the death of General Jackson Mr. Faulkner remained at the residence of his son-in-law, the Hon. Thomas S. Bocock, in Appomattox, until the surrender of the army of General Lee. He was a member of the state constitutional convention of West Virginia, 1872, represented his district in the 44th congress, 1875-77, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the nomination for governor of West Virginia and for United States senator. He was married to Mary Wagner, daughter of Gen. Elisha Boyd. He died in Boydville. W. Va., Nov. 1, 1884.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Philip Pendleton Cooke, author, was born at Martinsburg, Va., Oct. 26, 1816; son of John Rogers and Maria (Pendleton) Cooke. He attended the Martinsburg academy and was graduated at the College of New Jersey in 1834. He studied law with his father, "dividing his time between Blackstone, poetry, and the chase." He wrote for the Knickerbocker Magazine, the Southern Literary Messenger, and the Winchester Virginian, contributing essays and poems of unusual merit. He was admitted to the bar in 1836 and was married the next year to Anne Corbin Taylor, daughter of Judge Nelson Burwell. In 1845 he removed to "The Vineyard," an estate of one thousand acres near Ashby's Gap, Va., where he was known as the "Nimrod of the Shenandoah." He published many novels in serial form and a metrical paraphrase of Froissart Ballads (1847). His lyric, Florence Vane, was widely translated and set to music. He died at "The Vineyard," Clark county, Va., Jan. 20, 1850.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Richard McSherry, physician, was born in Martinsburg, Va., Nov. 21, 1817; son of Dr. Richard McSherry, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical school, and a successful practitioner in Virginia for over fifty years. He was educated at Georgetown college, D.C., and the University of Maryland, and was graduated from the Universlty of Pennsylvania, M.D. in 1841. He was appointed assistant surgeon in the medical corps of the U.S. army, Aug. 21, 1838; served under General Taylor in the Seminole war, and resigned his commission, April 30, 1840. He was married in 1842 to a daughter of Robert Wilson, a prominent Baltimore lawyer. He was assistant surgeon in the U.S. navy, 1843-56. He practised in Baltimore, Md., 1856-83; Was professor of materia medica in the University of Maryland, 1862-65; and of the principles and practice of medicine there, 1865-85. He was a member of the medico-chirurgical faculty of Maryland, vice-president of that body in 1870, and president in 1883; one of the founders and first president of the Baltimore Academy of Medicine, and president of the Maryland state board of health. He contributed to the leading medical journals and is the author of: El Puchero, or a Mixed Dish from Mexico (1850); Essays (1869); and Health and How to Promote it (1883). He died in Baltimore, Md., Oct. 7, 1885.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Charles Porterfield Krauth, theologian, was born at Martinsburg, Va., March 17, 1823; son of the Rev. Dr. Charles Philip and Catherine Susan (Heiskell) Krauth. He was graduated from Pennsylvania college, Gettysburg, in 1839 and from the Evangelica Lutheran Theological Seminary in 1841. He was pastor at Baltimore, Md., 1841-47; Shepherds-town, Va., 1847-48; Winchester, Va., 1848-55; Pittsburg, Pa., 1855-59, and St. Mark's church, Philadelphia, Pa., 1859-61. He visited the Danish West Indies in 1852-53, and for a short time preached in the Dutch Reformed church at St. Thomas. He was editor of the Lutheran and Missionary in Philadelphia, Pa., 1861-67; professor of systematic theology in the Lutheran Theological seminary, Philadelphia, 1864-83; of intellectual and moral philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, 1868-83; and was vice-provost of that institution, 1872-83. He was a leader in the controversy of 1866, which led to the division in the general synod of the Lutheran church, and was president of the general council, 1870-80. He was a member of the American Bible Revision committee of the Old Testament company from its organization in 1871 until his death. He went to Europe in 1880 to visit the scenes of the labors of Luther in order to complete a life of the reformer which he left partly finished in manuscript. He received from Pennsylvania college the degree of D.D. in 1856 and that of LL.D. in 1874. He was twice married: first, Nov. 12, 1844, to Susan, daughter of Isaac Reynolds, and secondly, in May, 1855, to Mary Virginia, daughter of Jacob Baker. He is the author of: Fundamental Principles of Faith and Church Polity (1866); Tholuck's Commentary on the Gospel of John, translated (1859); Christian Liberty in Relation to the Usages of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Maintainted and Defended (1860); The Augsburg Confession, translated with historical introduction and notes (1868); The Conservative Reformation and its Theology (1872); Infant Baptism and Infant Salvation in the Calvinistic System, a revision of Dr. Hodge's Systematic Theology (1872); Ulrici's Review of Strauss (1874); Berkeley's Principles, Prolegomena Notes of Ueberweg and Original Annotations (1874); Chronicle of the Augsburg Confession (1878). He also edited with introduction and additions: Fleming's Vocabulary of Philosophy (1860); translated hymns from the Latin and German, and contributed to periodicals. See Memoir by his son in-law, the Rev. Adolph Spaeth, D.D. (1898). He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 2, 1883.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor