Obituary:
Rodney Lee Matheny
Rodney Lee Matheny, 65, of Clarksburg passed away peacefully on Thursday September 27, 2018
from an extended illness.
He was born August 6, 1953 at Clarksburg, WV, a son of John C. Matheny and Marion
Tichenor Matheny.
Rodney is survived by his brother David Matheny and wife Ivy; Sister Susan Matheny
Crimm and husband Roger of
Tennessee; many nieces and nephews.
Rodney enjoyed fishing and was outgoing with a fun loving personality to everyone he met.
Friends and Family will be received from 10 — 11 a.m. on Monday October 1, 2018.
The funeral service will following at 11 a.m., with Pastor Harry Holbert officiating.
Online memories and condolences maybe shared at Harmerfuneralhome.com
A service of Harmer Funeral Home, Shinnston.
Staff Writer Jonathan Weaver can be reached at (304) 626-1446 or jweaver@@theet.com.
Follow me on Twitter @@jweaver_theet
Col. Elam F. Pigott
Soldier, Farmer, Public Servant
By Jack Sandy Anderson
During the Civil War many men from the Bingamon area of Harrison County went forth from
their homes to fight to save the Union that they loved. One of these brave and patriotic men was Col.
Elam Flavel Pigott, who lived on Cunningham Run.
For a short time he served in the Home Guards and then enlisted as a private in the Union Army.
His bravery and ability were recognized by his superiors, and he was rewarded by promotions that made
him a captain by the time he received his discharge on June 16, 1865. In 1866 he was commissioned a
colonel in the state militia.
As a Civil War soldier he fought in numerous skirmishes, engagements, and battles in the Valley
of Virginia and was wounded at Winchester. He met Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, whom he greatly admired,
and witnessed the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appamattox (sic) Courthouse, Virginia, in April,
1865. Although saddened by the war’s devastation and terrible loss of life, he believed—as did the
majority of his contemporaries –that the war was necessary to preserve the American nation and to end
the abomination of slavery.
When the war ended, he returned to Cunningham Run and focused his attention on farming.
There he developed a large and prosperous farm noted for its fine cattle that were sold locally and at
faraway markets. Also raised on his farm were horses, sheep, hogs, and geese. These, too, were sold and
contributed toward making Col. Pigott a well-to-do man for his time. In the long-ago, geese were favored
for Christmas dinner; and his fattened geese in December were sold to local customers and to stores in
Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
In 1866 Col. Pigott married Amanda Henrietta Boggess, daughter of John W. and Sarah E.
(Robinson) Boggess. She descended from three Revolutionary War soldiers: Col. Benjamin Robinson,
Samuel Boggess, and David Wamsley. It was Col. Robinson’s land upon which Lumberport was
developed. A courageous and versatile pioneer, he was prominent in Harrison County’s early years and
served as a military officer, sheriff, and “gentleman justice”.
Col. Pigott’s paternal grandfather, Jesse Pigott I, was an early settler in the Shinnston area. He
settled on a tributary of Robinson Run which was named Pigott’s Run for him and his family. His wife,
Ann Heldreth, was a child of Frazier and Rebecca (Jacquet) Heldreth, who were also early settlers in the
Shinnston area.
Among the Pigott children was Jesse II, who established his home on Cunningham Run where he
made a comfortable living by farming and timbering. He married Emma Elizabeth Hall. Col. Pigott,
born in 1839, was one of their several children.
Emma Elizabeth Hall belonged to the widely-known Hall family that lived in what is now part of
Fairmont. Her aunt, Elizabeth Hall (1786-1855), was the second wife of Moses Shinn and lived at Pine
Bluff, then called Shinn’s Mill. The Halls were devout Presbyterians; and the first religious services in
Pine Bluff were Presbyterian ones held in the Shinn home. The Pigott family attended theses services and
were very close to the Shinns, a closeness which continued between Pigotts and Shinns for generations.
Col. Pigott and his wife enjoyed entertaining relatives and friends in the large Victorian house
they built on Cunningham Run. This now-gone house stood near the intersection of the Cunningham Run
Road and the road leading to Hessville, a road once much traveled but abandoned years ago.
Hessville, where Col. Pigott received his mail, was a busy little hamlet during the last half of the
1800’s. Located a mile or so above Wyatt and on the road linking that village to the upper Bingamon
Creek communities of Oakdale, Grangeville, and Joetown, its stores, mills, and post office were important
to many people. This hamlet faded away many years ago, and today few people are aware that it ever
existed.
For several years Col. Pigott served Harrison County as a justice of the peace in Eagle District.
As such he was noted for his legal knowledge and impartiality. He was often called upon for legal advice
and for help in settling estates. He was active in county politics, and his guidance and support were
solicited by men aspiring to elected offices. He was active, too, in efforts promoting the welfare of Union
Army veterans, many of whom visited him for advice and to talk about their military experiences.
He and his wife were grateful for their prosperity and were well-known for their generosity.
From them, those in need received gifts of food, clothing, and money. Men and older boys of less
fortunate families were hired to work on the farm and to cut timber from the hundreds of wooded acres
Col. Pigott owned. Women and older girls were hired to assist Mrs. Pigott with household chores and
such projects as sewing, quilting, canning, and preparing meat at butchering time.
Col. Pigott and his wife often came to Pine Bluff to visit her brother, Robert Bruce Boggess, and
his wife, the former Sabina Florence Shinn. They lived on a farm once part of the extensive acreage that
had belonged to Moses Shinn. Col. Pigott was fond of his brother-in-law and gave him advice on how to
make the farm productive and profitable. He selected fruit trees for the orchard Mr. Boggess planted. His selections were excellent, for some of the trees were still bearing fruit in the 1950’s. He also advised Mr.Boggess on the selection of farm animals, particularly horses, cows, and hogs.
The only Boggess child, Mabel Grace, who married Howard L. Cunningham, was close to her
uncle and aunt and their children. She frequently visited them in their Cunningham Run home where, so she told me, she spent some of the happiest hours of her childhood.
Col. Elam Flavel Pigott was stricken with a fatal kidney disease and died in 1886 while yet a
comparatively young man. His wife, who was born in 1842, died in 1917. They are buried in the Wyatt
I.O.O.F. Cemetery.
They were the parents of six children: Laura May, Chester Livingston, Ernest Llewellyn, Jesse
Wilbur, Effie Leonora, and Luther Wesley. Much of the information in this article I obtained from Ernest
Llewellyn (1870-1964), known as Ernest. Like his father, he was active in county politics and served
Harrison County as assessor and deputy clerk of its county court. For years he and his wife, the former
Bertha Hardesty (1873-1957), were among Shinnston’s best-known and most highly respected citizens.
Their large yellow brick house on the south side of upper Main Street is now one of the town’s finest
houses dating from the early 1900’s.