Daniel Ruffner (1779 - 1865)

Born 11 Nov 1779 in Kanawha, Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 31 Jul 1865 at age 85 in Kentucky, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Theresa Shaffer [send private message]

Biography

From Gerald Ratliff's "Ruffner Family" article in the West Virginia Encyclopedia:

Daniel Ruffner, fifth son of Joseph Sr., was a saltmaker who in 1815 built Holly Grove mansion, which is located in the present state capitol complex and is the oldest house in Charleston. Opened in 1826 as a house of public entertainment, Holly Grove included such notables as Henry Clay, Sam Houston, Andrew Jackson, and John J. Audubon among its visitors.

Daniel married 1) Elizabeth Painter who was 10 years his senior. Their children are:

• Catherine, b. 24 Sep 1799; m. David C. Ruffner of Ohio
• Charles, b. 1801; m. 1) Anna Hedrick and 2) Elizabeth V. Wilson; became a Colonel
• Joel, b. 1802; m. Diane S. Mayre; became a Colonel (His house, Rosedale still stands at 1538 Kanawha Boulevard).
• Augustus, b. 1805; m. Mary Elizabeth Rogers (his house still stands at 1506 Kanawha Boulevard, once called Cedar Grove).
• James (twin), b. 1807; m. 1) Martha Morton and 2) Ellen McFarland
• Andrew (twin), b. 1807; never married
• Elizabeth, b. 1810; m. Nathaniel V. Wilson

His wife Elizabeth died in 1841 and, in 1844, Daniel married the widow Elizabeth (Honeyman) Singleton in Cincinnati. They had 5 children:

• Walter, b. 1844
• Daniel Jr., b. 1847
• Joseph, b. 1848; m. Mary A. Jackson
• Virginia, b. 1851; m. J.E.M. Sloughton
• William St. J.E., b. 1854; m. Miss Montague

When his son Walter accidentally drowned in a pond on his farm in Ohio, Daniel returned to Charleston for a time then bought a farm in Kentucky in 1853. He called this farm "Mt. Vernon" and he died there in 1865.

In the distribution of property, Daniel gave Holly Grove Mansion to his twin son James and his wife, Martha Morton. They lived there many years. In about 1859-60, James sold Holly Grove to his cousin Silas R. Ruffner, son of Tobias Ruffner. Silas and his wife, Eliza Hadassah, had no children so Holly Grove then passed to a niece, Mary Ruffner, who later married Augustus McClung of Greenbrier County. Thus ended the name Ruffner as owner of Holly Grove Mansion.

" Was the fifth son of Joseph. He was tall and of great muscular power and physical endurance. No man was better known or more respected throughout the County of Kanawha. Imbued with an extraordinary fund of common sense, which was methodized by much reading and close observation and thorough investigation of all practical subjects, he was emphatically a man of his own head, and what is aptly called a long-headed man in business transactions, rarely erring in his judgment of men and affairs.

Though never a member of any church organization, he was in his personal conduct and bearing, and in his intercourse with his neighbors, uniformly kind and charitable. Always polite and gentlemanly; his rule was that it cost nothing to be polite to everybody. That that quality should be asiduously cultivated; being like proverbial honesty, the best policy. His politeness, however, was natural. Obliging and accommodating to all his neighbors and they esteemed and respected him accordingly. He was firm and stern in his enmities, but considerate and forbearing, and not given to rash resentments.

His chief business in the first forty years of his adult life was cultivating his splendid farm just above Charleston, and on which he resided many years. He planted and beautified his lands with the choicest fruit trees and shrubbery. Cultivated the ground according to the best methods then known, both for beauty and productiveness. He had a great many evergreens on his place, and among them many cedars which all grew in the form of perfect cones without any pruning or other care; so it was often remarked that he might stick a tree anywhere in his grounds, and it would grow up in any way or any shape he wanted it. Nature seemed to aid his good taste in everything connected with his farm and its cultivation.

On the upper part of his farm he built a salt furnace, which he sometimes ran or operated himself, and at other times by lessees. This property brought him considerable revenue. Rarely did he ever make a mistake in business or fail in anything he undertook. But what seems remarkable in a man of his breadth and activity of mind, he had no taste for public employments; nor did his ambition covet public honors. Unsought he received from the Governor of the state the appointment of Justice of the Peace in the year 1809, and was invested by operation of law, with the office of High Sheriff when he held the oldest commission as a Justice.

While he lived on his farm he accumulated a large estate. On the 9th of May, 1841, he lost his wife, who was some ten years his senior. She was a Miss Elizabeth Painter, of Shenandoah County, Virginia. Was born 27 January, 1769. They were married in the year 1799, in his 20th year. And to use his own words, she was a most excellent wife and mother, and a faithful Christian. His children then all grown had left him and were in business for themselves and self supporting.

Being thus alone, he concluded to marry again, and did so in 1844. His second wife was Elizabeth Singleton, a widow, and daughter of Samuel D. Honeyman, one of Charleston's earliest citizens. Of course his children opposed his second marriage at the age of 65. Nevertheless he did no injustice to either of them, but gave his large farm and other lands and some other property, in equal proportions, to them, making them all independent. After his second marriage he lived for a while in Charleston and then removed to Cincinnati, where he purchased considerable real estate with a portion of his fortune that remained to him after giving what he gave to his children as already stated. From Cincinnati he removed to a farm he owned in Fairfield County, Ohio. This was in 1850.

In a pond on this farm a much loved son of the second marriage, named Walter, was accidently drowned. This home became intolerable to him after this sad event, and shortly after it he returned to Kanawha where he purchased for a residence the house lately occupied by the family of the late George Jeffries. on Capitol Street. In 1858 he purchased a farm two miles south of Newport, Kentucky, to which he removed with his family. During the war he found himself so much annoyed by the troubles incident to the hostilities that he removed with his family to his old residence in Cincinnati, where he remained until the end of the contest, when he returned to Kentucky; and died there on July 31, 1865, in the 86th year of his age. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, back of Newport.

By his first wife, Daniel Ruffner had seven children born in the following order, viz: Catherine, 24 September, 1799; Charles, 24 February, 1801; Joel, 11th December, 1802; Augustus, 15 June, 1805; James and Andrew L., (twins) 27 December, 1810."

Sources

• Ratliff, Gerald S. "Ruffner Family." e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 29 October 2010. Web. 12 August 2015.

• Pioneers and their Homes on the Upper Kanawha, by Ruth Woods Dayton, West Virginia Publishing Company, Charleston, West Virginia, 1947

• http://www.miles-shute-kouns-families.com/getperson.php?personID=I2746&tree=Mosby

• http://sites.rootsweb.com/~wvkanawh/Early/ruffner2.html