My Genealogy Hound

Joseph W. Young, mayor and postmaster of Huntington, was born in Pickens County, S. C., in 1853, and is a son of Archibald M. and Margaret E. (Sewright) Young, natives of South Carolina, born in 1826 and 1824, respectively. The father served during the entire Civil War as a blacksmith in Ferguson’s Fying Artillery, having charge of the battery. He was captured at Missionary Rige, and died a prisoner at Nashville March 2, 1864. The grandfather, Joseph Young, was of English descent, and born in Kentucky in 1785. He passed his entire life, after becoming seventeen years of age, in South Carolina, and served many years as justice of the peace and postmaster at Branch Island. He died in 1870. His father, Levi Young, was born in Pennsylvania in 1750, and after serving in the Revolution settled in Kentucky. He died in South Carolina in 1845. He was quite a writer, having written many poems besides a history of his life. Our subject is the eldest of a family of four sons and one daughter, and consequently, his help being needed at home, he attended school but five months during his youth. He was but eleven when he lost his father, and notwithstanding the many difficulties which beset his way, he became a well-informed man by persistent application when the opportunities afforded. In 1874 he married Mrs. Martha M. Looper, daughter of Robert and Jane McWhorter, of South Carolina where Mrs. Young was born. Her paternal grandfather was a native of Ireland. In 1882 Mr. Young sold goods at Excelsior, and in 1883 bought a farm in Center Township, and remained on the farm till October, 1886. He then went into the drug and grocery business at Witcherville, and remained at Witcherville till January, 1888, when he came to Huntington. His grocery stock is valued at $1,800, and he has a well-improved farm of 280 acres in Center Township, stocked with several head of horses, mules and cattle, and besides this owns a lot on Broadway, in Huntington, besides a two-story frame house. All this is the result of his own industry and good management. He is a public spirited man, and in April, 1888, was elected mayor of Huntington, and the following September made postmaster. Mr. and Mrs. Young belong to the Missionary Baptist Church. Mr. Young has a family of seven sons and three step-sons. In politics he is a Democrat, and has been a member of the Masonic fraternity four years. Since December, 1887, he has been the Worshipful Master of Pulliam Lodge No. 133, at Witcherville. He is also a K. of L.