Hardesty's History of Calhoun County, West Virginia

TAYLOR R. STUMP 

     Hon. Taylor R. Stump is descended from two of the oldest and 
best known of the families of this part of the Virginias. His parents 
are Lemuel and Melinda (Huffman) Stump, residents in Gilmer County, 
West Virginia, and in that county he was born May 25, 1847. There his 
wedded life began, January 14, 1866, when Samilda, daughter of Jacob 
J. and Mary (Vannoy) Stump, became his life companion. She was born 
in Gilmer County, March 4, 1845, and her parents still make their 
home in that county. 
     Mr. and Mrs. T. R. Stump took up their residence with the people 
of Calhoun County in 1868, and in their home at Grantsville are their 
nine children, born: Loransan T., December 11, 1866; Pratt, March 2, 
1869; Okey J., December 18, 1870; Roy, September 11, 1872; Franklin, 
April 13, 1874; Hester, March 2, 1876; Wade H., September 6, 1878; 
Robert G., April 27, 1880; Eustice Gibson, October 11, 1882. 
     The paternal great grandfather of Mr. Stump was a colonel of the 
Revolutionary army and fought under Washington. Jacob Stump, 
grandfather of Taylor R., was one of the first settlers in what is 
now Gilmer County, and was the first man to take out a grub in the 
county about eighty-five years ago. He, with his father and a 
brother, killed a buffalo a day or two after the above named event, 
on Steer Creek in Gilmer County. 
     The maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was 
Alexander Huffman, one of the early settlers of what is now Calhoun 
County. He was sheriff of Glmer County when this county belonged to 
Gilmer, was many years justice of the peace, and was a member of the 
legislature from Calhoun County, 1867-8. He died in 1879, and Jacob 
Stump died in 1859. 
     Lemuel Stump was a member of the constitutional convention which 
convened in Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia, in 1870. 
     Taylor R. Stump is a Democrat in politics, and in 1882, at the 
October election received on that ticket a handsome majority for 
member of the legislature over the combined Republican and Greenback 
votes. He is still serving. He has a fine farm lying in Center 
district, and his postoffice address is Grantsville, Calhoun County, 
West Virginia. 

(Linda Fluharty)