Ebenezer Lipscomb

Eben was committed about 1857 (after killing his wife in 1855) to the Western Lunatic Asylum in Staunton, Va. and died there about 1858.

Eben Lipscomb (1805-ca.1858): His name does appear as "Ebenezer" in Morton's 1914 History of Preston County, W. Va., but all other "official" mentions of him (e.g., his father's Rev. War pension record, 1840 census, newspaper coverage of his trial for the 1855 axe murder of his wife Lydia) simply call him Eben (or the misspelled Ebon/Ebin). On the 1925 death record of his daughter Mary Elizabeth (Lipscomb) Rodeheaver, he is noted as "father: Eb Lipscomb").

Children of Eben Lipscomb and Lydia Beavers: In addition to the seven children shown here, there was also a son (name unknown) who was born about 1839 and died young. He is listed as "male, under age 5 years" in Eben's 1840 census enumeration at Preston County. Eben and Lydia likely married there about 1835/36 (nearly all marriage records at Preston were destroyed by the court house fire in 1869 at Kingwood). Lydia's 1855 death record ("cause of death: murdered by husband") survives as a duplicate that was sent to the state capital at Richmond. Eben died about 1858 at the Western Lunatic Asylum in Staunton, Virginia.

3 of Eben & Lydia's children (Mary, Samuel, & Thomas) married children of Samuel & Mary Rodeheaver ( George, Hariett, & Mary)

owned 214 acres nearby (per 1869 deed at Preston Co. which transferred "the land of which Eben Lipscomb died seized")