Mr. Withers had no talent for the acquisition of wealth; but he met with marked success in acquiring knowledge. He was an admirer of ancient literature, and to his last days read the Greek classics in the original. A rare scholar, a lover of books, his tastes were eminently domestic; he was, from his nature, much secluded from the busy world around him. Nearly six feet high, rather portly and dignified, as is shown by his portrait, taken when he was about sixty years of age--he was kind and obliging to all, and emphatically a true Virginia gentleman of the old school. His sympathies during the War of Secession, were strongly in favor of the Union cause, the happy termination of which he did not live to witness. His son, Henry W. Withers, served with credit during the war in the Union service in the Twelfth Virginia Regiment. Mr. Withers was blessed with two sons and three daughters--one of the sons has passed away; the other, Major Henry W. Withers, resides in Troy, Gilmer county, West Virginia; Mrs. Tavenner still lives at Parkersburg; Mrs. Mary T. Owen, at Galveston, Texas, and Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Thornhill, in New Orleans. ----- [1] The venerable Mark L. Spotts, an intelligent and long-time resident of Lewisburg, West Virginia, writes, in December, 1890: "I had an old and particular friend, Mr. Thomas Matthews, of this place, who, many years ago, conceived the idea of preparing and publishing a revised edition of Withers's _Border Warfare_, and no doubt had collected many facts looking to such a publication; but the old man's health gave way, he died, and his widow moved away, and what became of his notes, I can not say--perhaps destroyed."--L. C. D. CHRONICLES OF BORDER WARFARE, OR A HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENT BY THE WHITES, OF NORTH-WESTERN VIRGINIA: AND OF THE INDIAN WARS AND MASSACRES, IN THAT SECTION OF THE STATE, WITH REFLECTIONS, ANECDOTES, &c. BY ALEXANDER S. WITHERS. CLARKSBURG, V.A. PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH ISRAEL, 1831 WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA, _to wit_: Be it remembered, That on the twenty-sixth day of January, in the Fifty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, JOSEPH ISRAEL, of the said District, hath deposited in this Office, the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Proprietor, in the words following, To wit: