History of Bethany, (Brooke County) West Virginia United States of America

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Biographies:

Alexander Campbell, theologian, was born in the county Antrim, Ireland, Sept. 12, 1788; son of Thomas and Jane (Corneigle) Campbell. He was educated at the University of Glasgow. In 1809 he came to America and settled in western Pennsylvania, where be joined the Baptist denomination, refusing, however, to subscribe to any creed or articles of faith other than the Bible. A few years later he and his father withdrew from the Baptists, because of ecclesiastical opposition, and with their adherents formed the sect known as "Campbellites." In 1823 Alexander Campbell began to publish The Christian Baptist, a monthly religious magazine, which, in 1830, changed its name to The Millennial Harbinger. In 1829 he was elected to the Virginia constitutional convention, his only political office. In 1840 he founded Bethany college, Virginia, and was president of that institution until his death. He died at Bethany, W. Va., March 4, 1866.

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

William Kimbrough Pendleton, educator, was born in Louisa county, Va., Sept. 3, 1817; son of Edmund and Unity Yancey (Kimbrough) Pendleton, and great-grandson of John Pendleton, who was a brother of Judge Edmund Pendleton . He was graduated in an elective course of classical, scientific and philosophical studies, and from the law department of the University of Virginia, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. In the same year he was married to Lavinia Macgregor; secondly, in 1847, to Clarinda, both daughters of Alexander and Margaret (Brown) Campbell, and thirdly, in 1855, to Catherine Huntington, daughter of Judge Leicester King of Warren, Ohio. In 1840 he removed to Bethany, Va., to take part in the founding of Bethany college, in which institution he was professor and vice-president until 1866, when he succeeded Mr. Campbell as president. From 1846 till its discontinuance in 1870, he was co-editor of the Millennial Harbinger, and from then until his death was on the staff of The Christian Standard. He was senatorial representative in the West Virginia state constitutional convention of 1877, and a member of the committee on finance and education. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1873. He was state superintendent of public schools in 1873, during this term practically framing the school law, which stood without material change for twenty years, and subsequently served in the same office four years. He died at Bethany, W. Va., Sept. 1, 1899.

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