Notes for: James Arthur Foley

Doddridge County Death Records indicate that three slaves of James A. Foley's died in West Union in September 1855. They were a 47-year-old female and her one-day-old son, and a three-year-old boy. They were all listed as black slaves. Name of the infant was not given, while the other names were illegible. Cause of death for all was given as "Want of Bread."
http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_view.aspx?Id=5046319&Type=Death

The 1860 Federal Census Slave Schedule for Doddridge County, enumerated on Jun 1 1860, contains the following entry:
Slave owner: Jas. A. Foley
Description of slaves:
1 black female, age 25
1 black female, age 4

BURNING OF THE TOWN OF WEST UNION.
On the night of March 27th, 1858, the fire fiend once more visited West Union, and this time laid the town in ashes. At the time many of the citizens were absent at Clarksburg, attending the United States court, then in session in that city. The fire originated in an upper room of the residence of L.R. Charter. A brisk gale was blowing and the flames spread rapidly to other buildings, the first being the large hotel and store room belonging to James A. Foley. Then followed the residence of Ethelbert Bond and the storehouse of Arthur Ingram. Many other buildings shared the same fate, and the next morning, what the evening before had been the town of West Union, was but a mass of smoldering ruins. But just at the time the Parkersburg and Grafton branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway was completed, and the town, phoenix-like, arose from its own ashes, and in a short time no traces of the holocaust remained behind.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wvpioneers/doddridgecountyhistory.html
Hardesty’s 1883 History of Doddridge County