John M. Phelps

John M. Phelps (1821 – August 26, 1884) was a Methodist minister who became politically active in the Republican Party during the American Civil War, and became the first president of the West Virginia Senate (having been elected from Mason County). He later served (as a Democrat) as West Virginia's fifth secretary of state (1871–1873).

Early and family life By 1845, John Phelps was living in Gilmer County in the Kanawha River valley, having married Mary Loudin. They had three children (all born in what was then Virginia): Oliver (born 1845), Cordelia (born 1846), and William (born 1849). Mary died in February or March 1853 in Harrison County, West Virginia.

American Civil War After Virginia voted to secede from the Union in April, 1861 over the opposition of delegates from the state's northwestern corner (among other areas), men gathered in Wheeling to separate themselves from the rest of Virginia, also upset that many votes from their region in the succession election had not been counted. On May 13–15, 1861, John M. Phelps was one of Mason County's unofficial delegates to the First Wheeling Convention; the official delegates being veteran politicians Charles B. Waggoner (who served as one of the Convention's three secretaries beginning on May 13), Lewis Wetzel (who served at all sessions until his death in, and Daniel Polsey).

Phelps then raised an infantry company, and on February 28, 1862, mustered in as captain of Company "E" 9th West Virginia Infantry. After the unit reorganized on May 2, 1862, Rev. Phelps became the chaplain, and held the position for less than a year before resigning on March 18, 1863 "on account of business and family affairs." As the first legislature convened in Wheeling on June 20, 1863, fellow state senators elected Rev. Phelps as their first president, which position he held until the session adjourned six months later on December 11. Thus Phelps served in the Senate from 1863 to 1865, when Rev. D.H.K. Dix of Winfield in Putnam County replaced him during the Fourth, Firth and Sixth legislatures. Rev. Phelps again won election to the Seventh and Eighth legislature, serving from 1869 to 1870, when he was replaced by William A. Alexander of Frazier's Bottom. He was nominated by the Democratic Party for Secretary of State of West Virginia in 1870 and served from 1871 until 1873.

Death and legacy

Phelps died August 26, 1884, at Point Pleasant, Mason County, West Virginia.