DANIEL PENDLETON is a prominent lawyer of Spencer, also publisher and proprietor of the Roane County Reporter, and bears a name that has had honorable associations in the bar of Roane County forty years.

His father was the late Hon. Walter Pendleton, who earned distinction in law and politics and worthily upheld the traditions of one of the oldest and most prominent families in the South. Walter Pendleton was a descendant of the English family of that name, the line of which is traced back into the Plantagenet era of early English history. The Pendletons were established in Virginia about 1674, and since then the family has produced many leaders in public affairs, and in every war of the nation there has been a Pendleton of high official rank engaged, including even the World war.

Walter Pendleton was born at Buchanan, in Botetourt County, Virginia, March 7, 1856, a son of Dr. Micajah Pendleton, a prominent physician of that state and a descendant of Edmund Pendleton, president of the Continental Congress that framed the Declaration of Independence and the first president of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. Walter Pendleton was reared and educated in old Virginia. He was admitted to the bar in that state in 1876, and practiced his profession at Hillsville in Carroll County until his removal to Spencer in 1882. He was a prominent leader in the democratic party in West Virginia and was democratic nominee for Congress in 1896, participating in a campaign in a republican district and when the strength of the republican party was at its high tide. He was defeated by only a small majority. In 1908 he was nominated by his party for judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, and again was defeated, though running thousands of votes ahead of his ticket. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was affiliated with Moriah Lodge No. 38, F. and A. M., Spencer Chapter No. 42, Royal Arch Masons, and Parkersburg Lodge No. 198, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Walter Pendleton died at Havana, Cuba, March 16, 1921. His death brought profound sorrow to his many old friends and associates in Roane County, where he had practiced law almost forty years. He began his professional career in West Virginia practically among strangers, went through a period of considerable hardship while struggling for recognition, but for a number of years before his death was regarded as the foremost representative of the local bar. A professional friend characterized his career as follows: "Walter Pendleton was a lawyer of the old school. The strongest advocate found in him a worthy opponent and one who always played the game fairly. His manner was courteous, his logic convincing, his sincerity was apparent. He believed that his client was entitled to the best that was in him and he rendered it without stint or measure, but he did not seek undue advantage or stoop to the plane of a shyster at any time. Coming as he did from the old State of Virginia and with a family whose name adorns the pages of her history, a fact of which he was always proud, he ever exhibited the traits of the 'Virginia gentleman' but not with haughtiness or seclusion. He understood the struggle of the young and inexperienced practitioner at the bar because he himself had passed through the same, and he deemed it a pleasure to extend to such a one the glad hand of assistance. He reached a ripe age, yet he never permitted his spirit to grow old. He was happiest when he was surrounded with his younger companions, which we believe was the secret of his heart staying young." The first wife of Walter Pendleton was Nellie McMath, a native of Foster, Kentucky, who died at Spencer in 1892, survived by two sons, Daniel and Dudley. Walter Pendle-
[a line of text missing here]
not afterward married Miss Pearl Monroe, a native of Parkersburg, who died at Spencer in 1911. Her father was the late Dr. W. W. Monroe, one of the prominent dentists of Parkersburg.

Daniel Pendleton was born at Spencer, April 6, 1887, and was liberally educated, beginning in the public schools of Spencer, later graduating from the Parkersburg High School and receiving his law degree from the University of West Virginia at Morgantown. He practiced law at Spencer until 1910, and for the following five years was an active member of the Oklahoma bar at Ada. In 1915 he returned to Spencer, and was associated with his father until the latter's death. Among other interests represented by him he is attorney for the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company.

Mr. Pendleton in 1918 acquired the ownership of the Roane County Reporter, the official democratic paper of this section of West Virginia, and . a journal of great influence and prestige. This paper was established in 1878 as The Bulletin, was later sold to a stock company and finally became the Roane County Reporter in 1911. Mr. Pendleton is chairman of the Democratic County Committee of Roane County. He is president of the Spencer Independent District Board of Education. He is a Rotarian and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Moriah Lodge No. 38, A. F. and A. M., Spencer Chapter No. 42, R. A. M., West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling, Nemesis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Parkersburg, Spencer Lodge No. 55, Knights of Pythias, and Parkersburg Lodge No. 198, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Pendleton is a stockholder in the Roane County Bank and in the Spencer Water & Ice Company, and has a considerable amount of property, including his home, one of the best residences in the city, his office building on Church Street, the Telephone Exchange Building, and he owns a farm near Ada, Oklahoma, and coal lands in Illinois. During the war Mr. Pendleton was active in all war work in Roane County, and especially exerted himself in publicity work during the various Liberty Loan campaigns.

In 1915, at Parkersburg, Mr. Pendleton married Miss Edna Morford, who was born at Morford in Greene County, Pennsylvania, and finished her education in the Wheeling High School. Her father, George L. Morford, was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, in 1863, was a teacher there during his early life, and in 1895 established a home and business at Spencer. In 1897 he removed to Parkersburg, and since 1908 has been active in business at Wheeling. He is a democrat and a Baptist. The mother of Mrs. Pendleton was Minnie Miller, a native of Greene County, Pennsylvania.

Source: The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 457
Submitter: Valerie & Tommy Crook, July 5, 2000